Jace made it across the bridge without taking an arrow to the back. He ensured his necklace was loaded with his Critical Protection spell before crossing, just in case, and he waited until he was across the bridge before he unsummoned his two totems. He almost stepped in the lava, though, as his human illusion wore off once he was almost across, and his big orc feet came perilously close to stepping off the narrow path. He chose not to change back into human form and carefully navigated the rest of the bridge. Esther and Snowy were waiting for him on the other side. Alone.
“What happened to the human?” Jace asked.
Esther didn’t want to make eye contact. “He . . . uh . . . kind of went for a swim.”
Jace looked over his shoulder at the lava. “Explain.”
“Well, I heard him talking to his operator, and he was saying how you had just crossed the bridge without taking any damage, and you must know some secret and that he would stay here and keep an eye on us while more people came.”
Jace nodded, his earlier fears confirmed.
“I told him that you said no one else can cross the bridge while you are over there, and he kind of looked surprised that I had understood what he said. So then, out of nowhere, he starts singing. And, I have to admit, he had a great voice. At first, I wanted him to stop, but he kept going, and I imagined I was an angel again, and I could fly, and my wings were strong and bright, and nothing could stop me . . . and then Snowy was biting me, and I saw that I had almost jumped out over the gorge. I turned to find Victron, but he wasn’t there, but Snowy could see him, so I could see him, and he tried to attack me from the shadows, but I dodged, and we wrestled, and of course, I won, and he . . . uh . . . kind of went over the edge.” She peered over the cliff at the lava below.
Jace rolled his eyes through the rambling tale, able to picture most of it.
“But, hey,” she continued, “it’s not a total loss. I got his trench coat. Here,” she handed the cloak to Jace. “It’s not really my style.”
The orc took it, and it instantly grew in size to fit him. He tried it on and checked its stats.
{Ohhh,} Gracie said. {Lots of pockets. These kinds of clothes are nice. It lets you keep gems, potions, scrolls, and small weapons in it, so you don’t have to go into your inventory all the time. Gromphy can make you a bunch of boon potions. And it gives you +5 to stealth, which you will never use.}
Jace came back out of his inventory and glanced down at himself. On Victron, it had looked like a long, black duster. On him, it was a shaman’s cloak with more black fur than smooth leather. “How do I look?”
“Like an orc in a cloak,” Esther said. “I think we should go. More people are coming. What happened with Psycho?”
Jace filled her in as they hurried back through the path to the travel node. Esther wasn’t too keen on Psycho killing himself, but Jace assured her it would work. She also didn’t like the idea of playing a female elf to trick Psycho, but Jace said they didn’t have time to find a real elf.
They were still five minutes from the end of the path when Jace got a notification that three PCs and an NPC had entered the module. He guessed the alert was because they had Psycho in their party. The owner of this module got the warnings, so Jace did too. “We aren’t alone,” he said. “Snowy, scout out ahead, but don’t engage. Let me know what you see.”
The wolf sprinted forward, and Esther fell into the shadows. Jace could still see her but acted like he couldn’t in case the visitors had the ability to look ahead. Make them think he was alone. Snowy reported back in a few minutes.
Esther also got the communication and swore. “I know these people. They ambushed me in the last game we played. I handled them fine, but I think they will be ready for my tricks now.”
“But there are three of us this time,” Jace said. “We’ll be fine.” He went into his inventory and got his tower shield out. He couldn’t hold it and wield Etcher simultaneously, but he didn’t want to take any chances if a ranger with a bow was waiting for them.
Esther stayed in the shadows, and they passed Snowy, who was still hiding behind the last turn, but as Jace stepped past her, he found the players waiting for them. Christine, the cleric, cast a daylight spell, and Esther exited the shadows before she could strike. Snowy stayed out of sight.
For Esther, it had been more than ten hours since she had seen them as Jace had sent her after the dragon and accelerated to dawn. But in reality, only about two hours had passed since the end of the tower defense game, and these players had just recently left the Roasted Troll. Even though they had been on the winning side, all they could talk about was plotting their revenge. Clint had even joined the couple’s party for the time being. When the call came through back channels that there was an unofficial bounty on Jace Thorne and his companions to delay or kill them, Sylvester had notified Junther, and his crew jumped at the chance.
“I smash and bash!” the dwarf bellowed, banging his hammer against his shield. The hellcat sat impatiently next to her master, barely restrained. It wasn’t as good a hunter as Snowy, as it spent most of its time in an extraplanar realm breathing in sulfur and ash, but it sensed a mortal enemy was near.
“What a coincidence,” Junther said, stepping forward armed with his axe and shield. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure,” Jace replied.
“Neither did I,” Junther said, “twice now. It’s time Esther pays up.”
“I owe you nothing,” she replied. “Get out of our way. Psycho is in our group now. Let us through, or you will die.”
Clint, the ranger, looked scared. His bow was out with an arrow knocked, and he was scanning the rocky crags before him. Christine’s light spell did not extend very far.
“I don’t see him,” Junther said.
“You wouldn’t,” Esther replied. “That’s the point. He’s invisible.” She reached up to her hat to demonstrate, but Christine was ready.
“Not this time,” she said and cast a hold spell at Esther. The rogue failed the save and held still. Snowy showed herself now, upset at the attack on her friend. Clint was too distracted to restrain his summoned creature, and the hellcat bolted from his side toward the wolf, and the fight was on.
“Keep her still this time,” Junther shouted, following behind the cat. “I’ll deal with the orc.” As the hellcat rushed past him toward Snowy, and Christine moved wide to circle closer to Esther, Jace prepared for the barbarian charge, the dwarf alongside him, shouting that he was going to smash and bash something.
Jace’s eyes followed the cat briefly, flames licking its skin as it pounced on his familiar. It was significantly smaller than Snowy but faster, and its burning flesh would hurt the wolf every time she touched it. They tumbled out of view behind the rocks, and Jace knew he would have to trust her. His focus was needed elsewhere.
While they had been bantering, Jace had put an Armor totem in a clump of rocks to his left and cast his Damage Sink totem in a different crag further ahead. The ground was rocky enough that he could connect to them to receive his benefit. Now he cast his Athletic boon and met the half-elf’s charge. He held on to his tower shield as long as possible, not wanting the ranger to snipe him, but tossed it to the ground at the last second to draw Diamond Etcher. At first, the two opponents were on the same side, and Jace easily parried their strikes and chose to return damage to the Dwarf primarily. The NPC had fewer shield feats and was easier to hit. Plus, Jace knew harming the barbarian would only make him stronger. He did a few criticals, but the dwarf had excellent Damage Reduction, and both attackers used the Raised Shield action, so he didn’t get any massive hits.
“Flank him, you idiot,” Junther said to his NPC.
“I smash and bash,” was the dwarf’s way of saying, “okay,” and he moved behind the orc.
What had been an impenetrable parrying shield around the shaman now faltered as Jace had to turn sideways to see both attackers and couldn’t manually block attacks from different directions. First, the dwarf hit him, then Junther did. When Jace’s health didn’t go down, the half-elf grew wise. “He has a Damage Sink totem somewhere; find it!”
Christine had just gotten near Esther, adding a little extra mana to extend her Hold spell, but now broke off to cast Detect Magic and look for the totem. Jace was forced to put his fighting on automatic. Low numbers were enough to block the dwarf, but the barbarian occasionally got through. Jace changed tactics, and the next time he got a critical parry success against the NPC, he turned fully to the dwarf, changed his attack to manual, and executed a focused 20 strike. It exposed him to the barbarian, but his soon-to-be dispelled totem took all the damage. Jace picked his stun option, which rarely worked against high-level characters, but he used all three criticals to increase the saving throw. The fighter appeared to have the IQ of pocket lint, so Jace hoped he had low Magic Defense. He was proven correct when the dwarf critically failed the saving throw and stood stock still.
Jace turned back to the barbarian and side-stepped to get away from the dwarf, not knowing if a stunned companion would still offer a flanking bonus. “I didn’t need him anyway,” Junther said and activated his rage ability.
Yes, you did, Jace thought as the attacks came in faster than before, but not fast enough. The orc’s arms flashed about, deflecting every attack and returning the strikes with at least two criticals per hit. When enraged, the barbarian had natural crit protection, and his Damage Resistance was so high that Jace was only getting about 60 damage through once per round, as his second attack didn’t have criticals. Still, Junther’s 600+ HP were disappearing fast.
“I found it,” Christine announced, and Jace assumed she dispelled it. He didn’t notice, as the barbarian hadn’t landed a hit in a while.
“He has some other cheat code going too,” Junther cried, having never faced an opponent his rage attacks couldn’t hit. “Hold him!” he cried desperately.
“I don’t have enough,” Christine replied. Instead, she cast the much cheaper Dispel. Jace felt the magic wash over him, and his Athletic boon, which was almost expired anyway, vanished. Since it was magically dispelled, he couldn’t recast it immediately and would have had to break off his defense to do it anyway. He no longer got critical parries every time, but the barbarian’s rage spell was almost over too, and he would be exhausted when it ended. Jace lasted another round, and then Junther’s attacks slowed considerably. The orc took advantage, doing a devastating triple critical against him that dropped him dangerously low. However, this triggered more of the barbarian’s class abilities, and he fought back with renewed vigor.
Canine cries of pain came to him from behind, and Jace knew Snowy was still dealing with the hellcat. He glanced at Esther, still held, and saw Christine standing with a hand on her shoulder. {She’s draining mana,} Gracie advised. {Soon, she will have enough to cast a hold spell on you.}
Jace had to finish this fight quickly, and with his next attack, he dropped the half-elf to under 100 HP. Junther backpedaled. “Fine, we’ll do this the easy way.”
The orc saw motion behind the barbarian to his right, and the ranger released an arrow. The shaft missed Jace’s body but skewered his new trench coat, and the momentum knocked him backward. The arrow tip sunk into the stony ground and held him tight. He struggled, but without his Athletic boon, he failed the grapple check and was Pinned, Prone, and Helpless. Junther leaped back at him and delivered a devastating blow for just over 200 damage. He had attacked in haste, thinking Jace would have some crafty defensive move, but the barbarian laughed when the shaman just lay there bleeding.
“Out of cheat codes?” he taunted. “I’m not.” He took a round to use several of his abilities to increase damage for the next strike, dropped his shield, and gripped the axe in two hands. “And thus ends the great Jace Thorne,” he said, raising the weapon over his head.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
A streak of white, bloody fur flew over Jace’s prone form, and the half-elf was thrown from his feet. Jace couldn’t get up to see Snowy rip out the barbarian’s throat, but he heard it. He sensed his Helpless condition end as more options opened up to him. The most obvious one was to free himself from the pinning arrow. A failure in that attempt would return him to a Helpless condition for a few rounds, and he couldn’t afford that. Instead, he cast his Athletic boon first and then tried to wrestle the arrow free.
Now, he was successful. He first sheathed his sword, rolled over to reach the tower shield he had dropped, and then stood up. Those were all his three actions for that round, and he didn’t have a fourth to raise his shield against the arrow incoming. Clint had made a Death Shot attempt against Esther in the Torrintank Keep module and had only managed to Daze her. She hadn’t been holding a tower shield or tapping into an Armor totem. Plus, this time, Clint didn’t have time to aim, as he was shifting his target from the bloody wolf that had leaped from the nearby rock to the suddenly vertical orc.
With a roll of 13, Jace saved against the Death Shot attempt without penalty, other than taking the 54 damage of the 72 that had made it past his 18 Damage Reduction. Now Jace raised his shield and stalked toward the archer. He heard several arrows thunk into the barrier and the cackle of flames as they released minor magic, but nothing to the extent of what Psycho had at his disposal and nothing that would prevent Jace from closing the gap with the shield intact.
“Give me updates,” Jace said. He couldn’t see past his shield and instead looked back. Snowy restored her health by feeding on the dead barbarian, while Christine restored her mana by sucking it out of Esther. The cleric would be able to cast another Hold spell soon, and Jace hoped he had the defense for it. Priestly Hold spells differed from Stun in that they lasted longer and didn’t initiate combat, but they were more defensive than offensive. If anyone in a Hold spell took damage, they would be freed suddenly, so Esther wasn’t in immediate danger from Christine, as Jace doubted the woman could generate enough damage to exceed half the vampire’s health. But if Jace didn’t kill this ranger, Clint could stand ten feet away from a held target and end them with one arrow shot.
{He’s dropping his bow,} Gracie said after Jace counted three more arrows thud into his shield. {The daylight spell has ended. He’s drawing a blade and hiding in the shadows.”
“Snowy!” Jace cried, throwing his shield to the ground and pulling his sword. “I need you!”
The wolf looked up from her meal. Right before Junther, she had killed the ranger’s summoned familiar, and the magical signature was still fresh in her mind. As soon as she looked, she saw Clint creeping up behind her master. Jace instantly sensed him and spun to attack. It was similar to the first round of combat he ever had back when he had been level seven, and Snowy had alerted him to a rogue jumping out of the shadows. Now Jace did twice as much damage, catching the ranger flat-footed in his failed Sneak Attack attempt and far exceeding half his HP. Clint missed the Death Save and dropped to the ground, bleeding to death.
Jace spun quickly from the kill, and Snowy followed her master’s attention to the lone enemy remaining. Christine had removed Esther’s hat and tossed it aside, leaving the woman otherwise unmolested. She stepped away from the rogue and smiled at her two opponents even though the rest of her crew was dead or dying. With her fully restored mana, she cast the first spell at Snowy. Everyone knew Jace was a stone shaman, and they naturally resisted electricity, so her Smite spell made more sense against the wolf. The bolt of lightning exploded from the sky and struck Snowy hard. She failed the save, taking extra damage, dropping her below half health. The wolf fell to the ground, also dying.
“No!” Jace cried, charging toward the cleric with thoughts of rage and freedom in his mind, trying to set himself up for a good save against the spell he knew was coming.
Christine cast Hold again, and the orc stopped in his tracks, his sword raised for a devastating attack. The woman laughed. “Oh, but you are powerful,” she said. Esther had decimated their crew in the previous module but used broken grappling and vampire abilities. Jace had used straight-up gaming skills. He and Snowy were a deadly pair indeed.
She walked up to the orc, reached under his tunic to feel his muscled stomach, and started sucking the magic out of him, taking advantage of his huge Mana Generation skill. “You’re probably thinking that I can’t kill you, right?” She came uncomfortably close to his still form, easily fitting her shorter stature under his raised arms. “I can’t generate enough damage to incapacitate you, and if I try, it will just release my Hold spell. But what you don’t know, stupid shaman, is that your mana generation is enough for me to keep both of you frozen indefinitely.” She hummed appreciatively as her hands explored his muscular chest.
“Hmmm, usually orcs are so dirty and smelly. There are many things I can do to you that won’t break my spell.” She pulled away from him suddenly as if remembering something. She cast some of her collected mana toward Esther to extend the spell. It was another advantage the Hold spell had over Stun. You couldn’t Stun someone who was already Stunned. For the Hold spell, the same caster only had to spend twice the normal mana for more time. That would cost 20 mana a round to keep both of them immobile, which was less than Jace’s regeneration skill.
“More players are coming,” she said, returning to Jace and stealing more power from him, but not as sensually as before. She realized she didn’t have time for any of that. “The black-market price for your head is considerable. We just got here first. She looked over at her two dead companions. “I needed to upgrade my party anyway. Junther wasn’t going . . .”
“I Smash and Bash!”
The dwarf interrupted her monologue as he finally broke free from Jace’s Stun spell and resumed his attack on his last target. Jace was in a new location now, but the fighter tracked him down and charged.
“No, you stupid dwarf!” Christine cried when he was only a dozen feet away. “Don’t attack him!”
The NPC obeyed and struck out at Esther instead. Her slashing protection ring did nothing against blunt attacks, and the hammer did just over 120 damage against the Helpless player with another 20 electrical on top. Esther had heard everything said and ignored the dwarf to leap at Christine. The cleric cried out in peril and had no time to react to the suddenly spry woman. The player had a horrible grappling defense, and the vampire quickly subdued her and snapped her neck in one smooth motion. When the woman died, Jace was released from the hold spell, and his raised sword came down on the dwarf instead.
The stupid NPC had been told to ignore Jace, so he had turned his back on him to pursue Esther. His shield gave him no protection against the orc’s attack from behind, and Esther’s location gave Jace a flanking bonus that he didn’t need. The shaman took the rest of his HP in one blow.
Jace didn’t revel in the kill but raced over to his familiar. Snowy still had a few rounds of life remaining, and Jace hastily funneled whatever mana he had left through his ring and into the still form. Because he was Jace’s familiar, Snowy had the same alignment, and the Ordered ring did double healing on her. The wolf was back on her feet shortly, with less than a hundred HP.
Jace got up and looked around. The last few rounds of life were draining out of the ranger, and he realized how close they had come to defeat. He was below half health, and Esther was close too. Snowy was worse, and none of them had any mana left. “You should have sucked her dry first,” Jace said, looking at the dead cleric who hadn’t taken any damage during the fight.
“Then you would still be frozen,” Esther snapped back. “And the dwarf would have hit me with that hammer again. You should have stunned him instead of killing him. Then I could have fed off him.”
Jace nodded, realizing that would have been smarter. As good as they were together, they could still refine their strategies. Either way, they had survived, and if what Christine had said were true, more players were coming. Esther was picking up her hat as the last life drained from the ranger. That marked the end of combat mode, and Jace heard the familiar chime of the level-up notification. Junther and Christine had been level 13, and the ranger had been 14. If he split the experience with Esther, that was still 1.5 million for him when he only needed one to level up. Plus, whatever the dwarf was worth, but killing NPCs didn’t give the same huge benefit. Before Jace even began to think about that, though, they needed to get out of there.
The travel node was 50 feet away, and he took four running steps toward it before stopping short. Three more players arrived. Their clothing identified their class, and the numbers above their heads revealed their level. A level 21 female elf mage stood tall at the head of the group, wearing an exotically tailored robe with a slit high on her hip and a plunging neckline. A fully armored human male fighter at level 18 held a tower shield and a sword. The last was a human male priest at level 19.
The mage was the first to act. She entered the module holding a wand and pointed it at Esther. To Jace, it looked like the same one Pieter had used on him a week ago to lock him in a Control spell. Esther was still adjusting her hat when the magic hit her, not even realizing they weren’t alone.
“Stand there,” the elf commanded, and by the way the rogue stood rigid, Jace knew it likely was the same wand, and the mage had spared no cost to ensure control. The shaman had no strategy to attack these powerful enemies, knowing the priest would easily cast another hold spell on him. So he stood and waited to see if there was any chance of negotiation.
The mage looked at the dead players lying on the ground and scoffed. “Amateurs,” she said. “Probably tried to fight you straight up. Fools! Don’t they know that Jace Thorne cheats? You can only beat him by using his rules against him.”
Jace didn’t know if she was talking to him in the third person or trying to narrate this confrontation for some public audience. {She is broadcasting this,} Gracie said in his head. {She has over a thousand followers. I don’t have any advice for you. They are all way more powerful than you.}
“Everyone saw what you did outside of Olympus,” the elf continued, engaging Jace directly. “How you cheated the system by having your pet suck your levels down? But what if she messed up? What if she took too much?”
Jace knew what was coming and didn’t have a way around it. His second Athletic boon had already expired, and he didn’t have enough mana to cast it again. Without it, he didn’t stand a chance against Esther. Since a level 21 mage was controlling her, she would have the initiative in any encounter they might have.
The elf smiled as she read Jace’s expression. “That’s right.” She turned to Esther. “Feed on him!” she commanded. “Bring him down to nothing.”
Jace realized this was something Esther enjoyed, and the chaotic nature of it played into her alignment. The mage probably had to spend very little, if any, criticals to give the command. Jace didn’t offer resistance nor look at his companion as Esther wrestled him to his knees, rendered him helpless, and bit into his neck. Her mana was at almost nothing, and she restored that first.
Jace never took his eyes off the mage, refusing to blink or flinch, so he saw clearly when the arrow streaked in and split her skull. The elf wore a ring to raise her Magic Defense and a broach in her hair to give her a free critical in her Death Save. Her robe had another critical protection built in for attacks, and her belt gave her a +10 AC bonus against piercing. But Psycho had fired from only 70 feet away in the cover of the rocks as a Sneak Attack, adding his 38 Stealth value to the shot. The elf didn’t have a prayer.
When the mage dropped dead, Esther reacted. She was fully conscious of what she was doing and had followed the command only as far as the spell required. Logically, she should have switched to restoring her health once her mana maxed out, but the elf hadn’t given specific instructions, so the vampire overloaded on magic, waiting for an opportunity. She lifted her face from Jace’s neck once freed from the spell, having only drained him to level 9, and unleashed an All-In Stun attack on the human fighter.
He was shocked into inaction by the sudden attack on his companion and then Stunned into further inaction by the vampire’s spell, his shield still by his side. Psycho’s second shot wasn’t from the shadows, but he didn’t have to overcome all of the mage’s protections this time. The fighter didn’t think he needed them. After all, he had a tower shield. But it didn’t help much as the arrow rammed straight through his chest, piercing his full plate mail like cardboard and dropping him like a sack of potatoes.
The priest predictably cast Piercing Immunity but was left with a predicament. He couldn’t escape through the travel node without turning around and stepping toward it, but his protection spell didn’t allow that kind of movement. The moment he dropped it to escape, Psycho would kill him. The only thing he could hope for was that more players would arrive shortly, and he’d be able to slip away.
First, he had to deal with the two angry players charging toward him. He sent out a mass hold spell, and they froze in place. He was trying to figure out how to neutralize the archer when Psycho’s third arrow came in, this one aimed at Esther’s back. As a woke party member, he could see and understand her character sheet and equipment, so he was careful only to spend three criticals on damage, using the rest to uselessly increase the bow’s range. That was 60 damage. Fifty went into her ring, her DR eliminated four, and only six made it through to her health, but it was enough to free her from the Hold, and she continued running, casting a haste spell to beat any other defenses the priest might cast.
He didn’t have enough mana for another fresh Hold spell, and the agile woman slipped through the Piercing Immunity and latched on to his back. He had enough protection and was a high enough level that she couldn’t snap his neck as easily as Christine, so she fed, filling her health this time, and then overloaded her mana again to cast Enthrall. It took a lot to control a level 19 priest, but she had drained him to level 12 first, stealing over 1,000 mana and reducing his Magic Defense considerably.
Once he was under her control, she ordered the priest to heal Jace completely. This didn’t cost her much, as it was a standard request for a priest, but having him lay on the ground afterward so Snowy could fill her health back up cost the vampire the rest of her control.
Jace didn’t stop the grotesque display, but he did turn away so he didn’t have to watch it. He saw Psycho climbing down from his perch on the nearest rock pile. There was more than one reason this module was called Sniper’s Refuge. Before Jace could thank him, the archer motioned to the wolf feeding on the dying priest and Esther watching, wiping the blood from her own mouth. “You approve?”
Jace shook his head. “No, but I do not wish to change who they are. A script also runs them. I trust they would never kill an innocent person, but against someone who tried to kill us . . . all bets are off.”
Psycho nodded, accepting the answer. He had done worse things to less-deserving characters. “If she had asked me to shoot him while he was enthralled, I wouldn’t have.”
“You shot the fighter she stunned,” Jace challenged.
Psycho smiled. “It’s nuanced.”
“Either way,” Jace said, extending his hand to the elf, “thank you. I look forward to you saving my butt many more times.”
“You better leave now,” Psycho said. “I’m sure more are coming, and this potion is burning a hole in my pocket. I like the cloak, by the way.”
Jace smiled. “It’s yours if you ask for it next time we meet.”
Psycho laughed. “I’ll try to remember that. Now go.”
His vision shifted out of combat mode, letting him know that Snowy was done with her meal and that they should go. Besides the mage, the high-level crew brought little equipment, but Jace collected it all, including the tower shield he had dropped. He had enough Carry skill for it but not enough inventory slots and had to shift some arrows to Esther to make room. Jace led most of his party to the travel node, leaving Psycho behind, and exited the module.