The darkness cast by her hat broke all ties with any light spell from the fire, but it only lasted one round. The benefit was that she wasn’t hiding in the shadows yet, so drawing a weapon didn’t cause her to leave them. With her third action for the round, she found a dark patch of ground just behind Junther outside the ring of light and Shadow-Stepped to it, entering the shadows as she did.
Most of the characters around the fire took action. Clint, the archer, had his bow up, and his eyes glowed with a brightness that would let him see into any shadow but not through the barbarian half-elf were Esther crouched. Christine cast a sphere of protection against herself, making her immune to all slashing weapons for the next ten rounds. The dwarf shouted, “I smash and bash!” but did nothing else. Junther drew his axe and raised his shield, a good defensive posture for anything attacking him from the front but not behind.
Esther struck from the shadows, hitting the level 12 barbarian for enough damage to drop him below half his hit points. His class gave him massive abilities to save against dying from a strike like that, and he only fell silently to the ground, unconscious but stable. Christine turned and screamed at the sudden appearance of the deadly woman, marking her for the other active players.
The halfling priestess reacted first, lining Esther in magical flames that did no damage, but would mark her clearly in the darkest shadow she could find. Clint responded second, releasing an arrow at the brightly glowing target. With Junther down on the ground, Esther had no cover, and the shaft hit her hard, yanking her back ten feet into a tree and pinning her tight. The arrow didn’t do any damage but had skewered the side of her armor and now securely pinned her against the trunk. Esther tried to struggle against it but was in a Helpless condition. The critical protection Jace put in her armor hadn’t helped because the pinning shot was considered a touch attack which armor didn’t protect against; thus, the number of criticals Clint got meant it would be a few rounds before she could attempt to free herself.
On the ground before her, Esther watched Christine bend over to heal and restore her boyfriend. Junther woke quickly from the effective spell, not at full strength but alert enough to handle his prey. Christine pointed to the tree, and the barbarian smiled, picking up his axe and leaving the shield on the ground. “I thought we could have had some fun first,” he said as he stalked toward her, “but I was never going to let you leave this clearing alive.” The axe allowed him to wield it with two hands to do extra damage, and he used a barbarian feat to trade Melee skill for free criticals at 7 to 1, ensuring a one-shot kill.
Esther was Helpless against the tree and could do nothing that required an action: no attacking, no dodging, no spells. She couldn’t even enter her inventory to remove the vest that held her tight. She looked down at her punctured armor, realizing that the pinning arrow strike might not have worked if she had been naked. As the killing blow from Junther arched toward her, she got an idea and triggered her Quick Change ability, which did not take an action. Her dress replaced her armor in a flash, and the arrow was now harmlessly secured into the tree beside her.
Esther ducked at the last second, dodging beneath the strike, and spun around her attacker. With his attack skill reduced to do extra damage, he missed with several criticals, and the game rewarded him by having his axe sink deep into the trunk. He was considered flat-footed as he tried to wrestle it free, and since he had left his shield on the ground and wasn’t wearing armor to show off his new physique to Esther, his AC was around 10. The rogue stabbed him in the back, doing several criticals and spending them all on damage. She did over 100, which wasn’t enough to knock him out again, but it undid all the healing Christine had bestowed upon him. Junther cried out in pain, and Esther dropped on instinct, rolling out of the way as another feathered shaft flew in. The arrow pierced Junther’s vest and pinned his body face-first against the tree.
“I smash and bash!”
The dwarf announced his position to Esther, and the woman rolled out of the way as the hammer slammed into the ground. She leaped to her feet, conscious of keeping her head down as she fought the shorter opponent, trying to keep his broad body between her and the archer. She struck at the dwarf and got two hits before he could coordinate himself. She spent one of the criticals to disarm him.
“Thunder and lightning! I dropped my hammer.”
Esther ignored the stupid dwarf and looked for Christine. The woman was panic-stricken, realizing she wasn’t properly prepared for this fight. The latest info on Esther was that she was at 12, so Christine had a Hold spell memorized for a level 12 opponent, but the woman in black was clearly at 13. The cleric had a level 15 spell memorized, but after her protection spell on herself and the restoration spell on Junther, she didn’t have enough mana. She released a Smite spell instead, and lightning coursed through Esther, doing 100 damage, and enraging her even more.
The rogue struck back with her weapons but quickly realized the blades couldn’t hurt the cleric with her defensive spell active, so she snapped the swords into her hilts and grappled the spell caster instead. Esther spun her around just as another arrow came flying in. It hit Christine in the chest, and this one did not have the pinning ability; instead, Clint was done playing and had enacted his Death Shot.
The arrow normally wouldn’t have generated enough damage to exceed Christine’s impressive Death Save, but Esther had grappled her into a Helpless condition, reducing several of her defenses and preventing her from making a save roll. The shot killed her instantly. The rogue dropped the dead woman to the ground and spun as she heard someone about to smash and bash her from behind. The dwarf missed, and Esther drew and struck him twice again with her blades.
“Thunder and lightning! I dropped my hammer.”
Ten feet away, Junther still struggled and was screaming in pain with his face against the tree. He did not have the escape ability Esther had and would be stuck there until someone helped him or he rolled a 20. Esther helped him, sort of. She retrieved a ruby from her gem pouch and tossed it at his feet. The barbarian had been expecting a sexual encounter, and since pain had been a frequent component of his trysts in the past, he had all his settings turned high.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
[Dragon Fire detected.]
Junther screamed in agony and then died.
“I smash and ba-” The Torrintank Keep module didn’t allow unchaperoned NPCs, so the dwarf disappeared when the last member of his party died. Clint was just a hired thug and not technically part of the couple’s party.
Esther turned toward the archer and watched the human track her with his bow, his arrow poised at the ready. He held on to the shot, waiting for her to initiate a trick or defensive routine. The rogue didn’t have anything left but to hide in the shadows again, but her figure was still lined with fire, and the archer’s eyes still shined bright yellow. She hastily switched back to her armor for more protection, signaling the man that she didn’t have anything else. He fired just as Esther released a spell.
Clint had only been firing one arrow a turn, taking the Aim action to add ten points to each attack. He used his Death Shot ability again, and the arrow hit Esther hard in the chest. Her ring absorbed 50 damage, and her vest prevented more, but she needed to make a save against all of it anyway, and she didn’t. Failing by 50 would kill her, but she only missed by 26. The critical protection Jace had put in her armor worked this time, reducing the failure to a single critical and leaving her Dazed instead of Stunned.
Her spell was a Web designed for a one-foot radius. Clint also critically failed and was securely grappled from the neck down. The thick white strands pulsed with magic as they held the victim tight. Esther stumbled toward him, dizzy and in pain. She pulled the arrow from her chest and tossed it aside. “Psycho’s shot would have killed me,” she said and leaped forward to stab him in the chest. Clint was a PC whose pain was turned down, so he barely flinched at the attack. This angered Esther, and she dropped her weapons to grapple onto the tall human’s back. She sucked several levels out of him, restoring her health and overloading her magic. Ultimately, she left him below half, and he entered a death spiral.
Brimming with a tremendous excess of mana, Esther now stalked toward Asandru, who hadn’t moved an inch during the fight. The vampire unleashed an All-In Charm spell at him, with the extra mana going toward difficulty. Even with the protections his halfling priestess had given him, he didn’t have a chance at saving. This gave Esther initiative when she got close, and she grappled him into submission, spending all the criticals from her spell to make sure he didn’t move. As she tensed her hands on his head to snap his neck with her vampire ability, she sensed some resistance to the maneuver and assumed the monk was immune to the Coup de Grace.
“This is what the gods blessed me with,” she whispered into the half-orc’s ear from high on his back. She performed her killing move anyway. Instead of the satisfying CRACK she was used to, Asandru only sighed and collapsed unconscious to the ground.
Esther turned to the halfling, who was backing away in terror. “We never discussed what I get if I win. He would get his honor back. I want the same thing.” She motioned her head toward where Sylvester was last seen and spoke in a hushed tone. “Show him to me.”
The priestess nodded and cast her spell. Esther cast True Strike Range on herself and reached under her skirt to where she had strapped her new knives high on her outer thighs. She pulled one from each leg and brought them up for a throw. The halfling couldn’t target an invisible opponent, so she cast an area spell. Squirrels, birds, and chipmunks in the target zone glowed faintly with a bright light, but Esther focused on the tracker’s fiery outline. He appeared 25 feet away, completely unaware that he was visible. Both knives struck home with a single critical each. Esther spent them to give him two bleeding conditions that would last for 11 rounds.
Sylvester had enough skill to heal himself of the condition and dispel the flames, but they were two separate spells and would take two rounds. He didn’t have the time. Esther closed on him like a panther, and he ran. The flame spell that had been cast on her had expired, and she could shadow step again. He had no chance. Within twelve seconds, she had tackled him to the ground and grappled him into a Helpless condition.
“Jace is not going to be happy,” Esther said from on top of him. “I don’t think he will pay you your second half.”
“Who cares,” the man laughed in her face. “He paid me half, and those two you dispatched paid me in full. No matter what you do, I’ve won here.”
With him Helpless, she rooted through his inventory but was disappointed by what he had. A few rings and a magical belt were all he had brought, and Esther already knew from what Jace had told her that you couldn’t permanently lose your inventory in this “game.” Still, she stacked those items on the ground next to him.
“Take off your clothes,” she ordered.
“What? Why? Is this your idea of petty revenge?”
“I don’t want any more tricks,” she said. “You will take me to the tunnel, and you will do it naked.”
Sylvester continued to resist, and she used her rapier to cut his expensive-looking shirt off. “Okay, okay.” He would get all his items back, but if she destroyed them first, it wouldn’t matter.
Esther released her secured grapple on him, reducing him from a Helpless condition but still keeping him grappled. He removed the rest of his clothes and stored them in his inventory. Esther didn’t allow them to stay there, and soon they were in a pile with the rest of his items.
“You will regret this,” he said through clenched teeth. “I have connections. Drescher isn’t the only one I worked for.”
“I was told it was bad form to take revenge against people for what happened in this game. It would be a pity if someone put a bounty on your head for it.”
Sylvester grunted at her but said nothing. Before she let him stand, she offered an alliance to him again. He declined. “Accept it,” she hissed. “Accept it, or I will slice up the rest of your pretty clothes.” He did so, ensuring that Esther would still see him if he tried hiding in the shadows once the holy fire spell wore off. She would be notified if he canceled the alliance as before and could strike first.
“On your feet,” she said, pulling him up with her impressive strength. Esther held his wrists behind his back. It was a grappling hold that she could elevate if he tried to escape. She pushed him from behind, allowing him to keep some of his dignity, but paraded him before the halfling a few moments later. She was still attending to her sleeping companion. Unconscious players were never considered to be in combat mode unless they were dying, so each round was six minutes. Esther had spent so many criticals to knock him out that he might not wake up before the game was over.
Behind the clearing, down a gully, and into a ravine, she spotted torchlight that marked the tunnel entrance. Two massive trolls stood guard, shoulder to shoulder, not letting anyone slip by. “Well,” she said quietly. “This won’t work. I’m going to need a distraction.”
A few seconds later, a naked man flew through the air and landed twenty feet from the hungry trolls. They left their guard post as they fell upon the tasty morsel. Esther slipped behind them and into the tunnel.