The nearly dozen armored dwarves moved together toward the bodies of the two blacksmiths, carefully watching their surroundings as they did. This was clearly a group who knew what they were doing. With the chaotic environment of downed mushrooms and burning stalks, the scene of devastation could appear to be nothing more than an untimely accident. Only the front two warriors had their weapons drawn, one a silver claymore and the other a long sword. Everyone else had hands resting on hilts, wary eyes looking for any sign of danger.
Their formation stalked right past the hidden Ripley and my undead dwarf. Dwarven eyes passed right over the pair. The pieces of burning material around me protected me from being spotted as I scrutinized the potent dwarven unit. They ranged in levels between twenty-six and twenty-nine with most on the top end of the spectrum. Ten dwarves in all had come. We would be hard-pressed in the upcoming fight, though we had several key advantages. Foremost, we had the element of surprise on our side. Better yet, our greatest advantage was the innate invisibility, at least to the dwarven eyes, from Ripley and my dwarf’s undead nature. Both would be monsters in close-quarters combat.
We didn’t have time to come up with a better plan as the dwarves would soon discover their two smiths were not killed by any explosion. One had a crushed throat and the other a considerable laceration across its shoulder. This was going to be an all-out brawl.
When the enemy force was within five feet of their two blacksmiths, Ripley and my minion followed their earlier instructions, moving quietly towards the rearmost guards. Their orders were simple, try to get as close as possible under stealth, and if they went undetected, then awesome. Still, I made it clear that if at any point they were detected they would drop all pretense of stealth and dash forward with abandon.
Lowki had been at my side when I asked Tallos to retreat up a nearby mushroom cap but had skulked off on his own. I trusted he would find a place that best suited his combat prowess. His quarter-ton body of feline muscle was enhanced by the speed and agility all cats possess.
The ten-strong unit was close enough to their objective, so I enchanted one of my favorite spells. Lesser chained lightning was currently at level six, meaning the bolt of living electricity would strike out at an additional four enemies after the initial target. Going all out, I couldn’t afford to do otherwise, I dual cast the spell for maximum damage. From my vantage point, I had a sliver of a gap to view the enemy force as they stooped low to check on their deceased comrades. They didn’t hear my soft chanting over the ambient noise from the burning forges and exposed magma vents.
Right before completing my incantation, I rose just enough from my concealed position to thrust out my palms, the final somatic component of the spell. A lone dwarf spotted me, his eyes going wide as he shout formed in his throat, but his warning came too late. As if the sun had momentarily displayed in the subterranean cavity, brilliant white light flared out from me as the lightning streaked across the open ground. Closing my eyes at the last moment to protect my vision, the intensity of the bolt in the low light of the cavern still left a short-lived afterimage in my vision, even behind my closed eyelids. A thick beam of energy discharged away from my outstretched hands.
The forearm-thick beam of lightning crossed the distance in an instant, striking with the force of a double kick from a horse. My damage notification was minimized, so I couldn’t be sure how much health was ripped away from my dwarven target, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it exceeded four thousand health. And, that was too a single enemy.
The spell caused more than a single bolt of electricity. True to its name, the spell chained and faster than any elf, dwarf, or undead could register, the spell arced against four more enemies. Finally opening my eyes and blinking away the subtle afterimage, it was obvious which of the five dwarves had been struck. Each had been blown backward from the violence of the spell, crashing off-balance against their friends behind them. None could manage any coordinated movement for several long seconds as the discharge overwhelmed their bodies. Not giving the enemy any break, I immediately started another dual casting, this time my potent fireball. Considering how thoughtful the dwarven brigade was in clumping close together, I thought it wise to reward them with another area-effecting spell.
At the same time, the rest of our team attacked.
Though I couldn’t see the arrows against the soft firelight and red glow in the cavern, the distinct whoosh of feathered arrows in flight was unmistakable. Arrow after arrow was fired by Tallos as quickly as the talented archer was capable of. The elf was a keen shot, but the dwarves each wore impressive silvern plate armor protecting their vital areas. I could only hope more than a few arrowheads were finding the narrow gaps in their remarkable gear.
Lowki made his presence known in a big way. Unseen by everyone, the hunting cat took Tallos’ change to an elevated position to another level. When five hundred pounds of fury slammed like a meteor from above, the unfortunate dwarf under Lowki’s plummet was completely obliterated. Nothing remained behind but unidentifiable mush.
Lowki’s normally powerful pounce was magnified to astonishing heights as his attack started at least seventy feet in the air from atop a mushroom cap. As if standing underneath a falling tractor, the dwarf’s body was brutally broken and his life instantly terminated.
Before the dwarven force could mobilize or respond to the two-prong attack, my lightning blast and Lowki’s superhero landing, Ripley, and my minion closed the final distance to the soldier’s flanks. Ripley, wielding her greatsword, decapitated the warrior closest to her in a single swipe of the bladed weapon. As his head tumbled to the cold stone, his body stood upright for a fraction of a moment before crashing lifelessly beside the still-rolling head.
My dwarf minion was a terror-made manifest. My undead spell, having been specialized when I reached tier three Hunter, meant he retrained every bit of accumulated knowledge, skill, and ability that he had in life. His greatsword moved like a blur and in two swift attacks he dispatched two dwarven lives as easily as if he were scything wheat in a field. In the space of a few seconds, three more dwarves fell, never to rise again.
Panic and chaos erupted from the typically tight-knit dwarven unit. The now multi-prong attacks claimed more warriors than the group had lost in the past four years. Worse, they momentarily lost semblance of order in their ranks and had yet to strike a single blow against their enemy. I didn’t know it, but nothing like this had ever occurred. At least, not in recent memory of the long-lived dwarves.
Still, these talented warriors were no novices to battle. Quickly regaining their composure, the remaining six dwarves attempted to fan out and created separation between each other. They recognized their compact formation was being used against them by the enemy spell caster. The vulnerability was proved beyond a shadow of a doubt when a fist-sized ball of fire detonated in the middle of their loosening formation. The particular dwarf which had been the target of the fireball recognized the danger from the incoming spell early enough to raise a shield to intercept it. Sadly, for him and his friends, the ensuing explosion was far beyond anything they thought possible. The warrior’s shield rocketed backward, crashing heavily into his face, crunching cartilage and momentarily stealing his wits.
Every living dwarf was immolated by the fierce spell, flames finding easy purchase against exposed skin and flammable clothing. The remaining dwarves were thrown to the floor from the concussive blast created by my spell. The once-composed group of veterans devolved into chaos as they rolled, skidded, and slid across the rough ground.
Tallos continued firing off arrow after arrow, sighting a new dwarf with each shot in an attempt to spread out his damage. Lowki, pausing a moment to ensure his crushed victim would not rise again, lashed out at one of the dwarves sprawled on the floor beside him. Lowki had been hit by the blast, small tuffs of fur singed, but his considerable weight allowed him to remain unmoved. Twin barb tentacles slammed down on the dwarf’s neck, eliciting a pained scream as poison probed deep into his unprotected flesh. Spinning a complete circuit, Lowki clamped his massive maw on the flailing dwarf’s neck. With a massive shake of his head, Lowki violently snapped the dwarf’s spinal column.
Unfortunately, Lowki’s aggression cost him. As he was a living breathing being, his midnight black fur did little to shield his body heat from the dwarves. While the great cat was finishing off his latest victim, a hammer-wielding dwarf regained his feet and punished the cat for his hostility. Lowki was normally protected with his beast ability called displacement, meaning he’s body appeared somewhere other than where he actually was. Sadly, the illusion magic did not project body heat elsewhere.
Still, Lowki’s senses were honed to a knife's edge and he sensed the blow coming. Letting go of the dead dwarf, Lowki attempted to dodge away. The attacking dwarf moved with a leap and brought his massive maul down. Had the displacer beast not moved, the blow would have devastated. As it were, the sledgehammer of a weapon slammed down on the cat’s shoulder, crushing bone and pulverizing two of his three legs on that side of his body. Lowki leaped awkwardly away, the dwarf losing sight as he jumped behind a giant mushroom.
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At least temporarily, Lowki was out of the fight.
As soon as Ripley came within striking distance, her area of effect spell called lesser necrotic aura caused black blemishes to appear on the checks, hands, and bodies of the remaining dwarves. The protection of their silvern armor was worthless against the necrotic assault as large swatches of skin withered and decayed. Such was the potency of the spell that the harm stole the last few remaining health points of the struggling dwarf as he vainly attempted to dislodge Lowki’s poison barbs from the side of his neck. Ripley’s aura desiccated the flesh surrounding the wound and, when the suffering warrior pulled the barbs free, he also tore out his jugular vein. In seconds, his life was spent as gouts of blood saturated the cool stone beneath his twitching form.
Ripley sighted on another dwarf, her greatsword whistling in the air as it raced towards his face. Finally fighting off the shock from our ambush, the dwarf raised his shield, deflecting the wicked strike wide. Though he could not see his foe, he knew something invisible was right on top of him. Lashing out with his long sword, and felt a satisfying impact in his sword arm as his blade bit into something solid. Bone chips went flying from Ripley’s hip.
It didn’t dissuade the skeletal Ripley, however. Knowing it would take too long for her to bring her heavy greatsword back around, its momentum thrown upwards from the clever block, she let go of the weapon. It clattered heavily a half dozen feet away. In a fluid motion, Ripley unsheathed her curved sword and reached a hand back for her heater shield. Without a hint of mercy or hesitation, she shield-bashed the offending dwarf, cracking his head as the emblazoned shield connected with his face.
Finding himself momentarily stunned by the unexpected attack, the dwarf squinted his eyes against the shower of sparks overwhelming his vision. He didn’t see Ripley’s backhanded swing as it sheered off half his face.
As Ripley orientated on another dwarf, a flash of golden magic appeared from the middle of the pack. Divine power focused on the dwarf who was about to fall into unconsciousness from Ripley’s devastating attack. In an instant, bone, muscles, and tissue knit itself back together. Ripley, thinking her previous prey had fallen, had been stepping away to engage another combatant when her foe's long sword slammed into the side of her bony face. Now Ripley was the one momentarily stunned, causing her to drop to a knee.
Pushing her shield off the hard ground, she halted her downward plunge and barely had time to raise her sword in time to deflect the follow-up attack. Somehow, miraculously, the foe she thought was defeated began assaulting her with a series of blazing-fast attacks. Bone chips exploded outward like a miner slamming a pick against a stone with each failed parry or block. She would be overwhelmed in moments, such as the furious counteroffensive aimed by a dwarf intent on permanently ending her undead life.
Seeing my friend’s plight, I abandoned my spell and reached my hand to my waist to grab my flintlock pistol. Taking a precious moment to line my shot, I pulled the trigger. A loud crack reverberated in the cavern, causing many on the battlefield to flinch from the sharp sound. A magically enhanced bullet crossed the space to my target in an instant. My aim was perfect. The armor and shield penetrating properties of my flintlock pistol allowed the bullet to pass cleanly through the side of the dwarf’s bearded face.
All strength left the warrior's limbs, and his sword released from lifeless fingers as his body hit the ground.
With the kill, we had four opponents remaining. I hadn’t caught the telltale glow of healing magic moments earlier, so focused my attention on the closest combatant and wound through a powerful damage over time spell. The next flash of magic from within the dwarven formation did catch my attention, however. Thankfully, I kept enough concentration to complete my spell. Lesser boil blood lanced across the intervening space and slammed into an armored figure. He twitched and grunted in pain as the blistering magic coursed through his body as it attempted to vaporize his blood.
When another splash of transcendent magic descended, healing magic landing on the dwarf I had just cast an affliction on, my throat tightened in realization. “They have a healer!” I risked shouting. My position would certainly be given away if it wasn't already, but each member of our group needed to know we had a new primary target. Casters always needed to die first.
Sadly, Ripley and my minion's advantage of being unseen by dwarven eyes had been thwarted by the magic that flared earlier. The dwarf commander, skilled in the healing magic granted by divine blessing, intoned a spell specifically devised to combat undead creatures. The dwarves knew the weakness they had against beings incapable of generating body heat. So, they had long ago designed a counter.
Both the minor and lesser versions of ‘see undead’ were known by every dwarf capable of harnessing magic. For this particular dwarven cleric though, he had perfected an area of effect spell of similar function. As a result, every remaining dwarf now saw Ripley and my undead minion as easily as the rest of us.
With only two melee combatants attempting to fight four veteran warriors, they were immediately hard-pressed. Still, the potshots from the elevated archer stung the living warrior, so one was directed to sprint off to handle the nuisance.
I cast spell after spell as two dwarven warriors turned on my undead minion. The remaining dwarf, who I now recognized as the leader, their cleric, turned to face the fast-approaching Ripley. The cleric seemed unfazed as her towering bulk barreled towards him. To my surprise, the dwarf also showed little concern as my spells wracked his body with necrotic, toxic, fire, and poisonous damage. I had no idea how, but he shrugged off the effects my spells had as they ravaged his body.
As if Ripley was no threat to him, the dwarf casually uttered words of power that sounded like sliding across sandpaper. With a final dismissive flick of his wrist, the dwarf completed his spell, a contemptuous sneer plastered across his face. A flash of luminescence flared from deep within Ripley’s body and overwhelmed the black bands of magic holding her upright. My magic sustaining her vanished and she collapsed to the floor inert.
Whoever the cleric was, he must have used an exceedingly powerful spell to so casually end Ripley’s specialized summoning. My eyes flicked to the party menu at the side of my vision. Surprisingly, Ripley's life bar was mostly full though it was not the vibrant red it normally was. Whatever the caster did, her health bar was now a light shade of gray and she had a debuff icon next to her name. She was temporarily unsummoned. There was no timer causing me to believe she would rise once the dwarf died or, if he was concentrating on a spell, was knocked senseless. Either way, Ripley was incapable of doing anything at the moment.
As I layered the last of my spells onto the cleric’s body, I was able to see the trouble my undead dwarf was having as he faced two dwarven gladiators. Though neither was as talented as my minion, they covered each other’s weaknesses and mistakes. The moment one stumbled, or placed a foot in the wrong spot, the other would distract my minion enough so only superficial damage was sustained by his partner.
My minion realized he wouldn’t be able to survive for much longer, such was his tactical awareness, so made a desperate bid to improve whatever odds we had in this fight. With a dazzling display of sword work, he worked the weapon of one dwarf high before suddenly thrusting his blade to the other. The move cost him greatly. Leaving his back completely exposed, a sword bit deeply into him. Being undead and unable to feel pain, my minion didn’t so much as flinch as a blade slipped under his rib and into his heart.
His gambit had been worth it, however. The dwarf’s magnificent greatsword severed the neck of his target, the head tumbling away in a shower of blood. In an untenable position, my minion didn’t see the follow-up blow that took off his head in reply.
Taking stock of the battlefield, the enemy force was down to three, one being a powerful healer. One of the remaining warriors had charged to where Tallos fired a continuous rain of arrows, though many pinged off harmlessly against silvern armor. The last two dwarves, one a competent healer, trudged toward me with murder in their eyes.
The cleric locked gazes with me and, to my surprise, winked. Not faltering in my spell casting, I could only watch on in amazement as the cleric raised a fist in the air, calling on a platinum band slapped over his wrist. The jewelry was two inches wide and held a single flat gemstone. Archaic rune script traversed the entirety of the band, the symbols etched in black and stood out against the silver background. With his hand above his head, the dwarf uttered an arcane syllable and a halo of magic burst forth from the gem. A golden ring cascaded outward, causing a golden aura to suffice first the cleric’s body and then the warrior beside him.
My eyes opened in surprise as I felt each of my damage over time spells wink out of existence. Whatever powerful magical device the cleric had just triggered, eliminated every one of my spells in an instant. The cleric saw the look of shock in my eyes and grinned malevolently at me. Thinking he just reset the battle in their favor, it was the dwarf’s turn to be staggered when my lesser boil blood’s specialized effect triggered.
The once-cocky dwarf’s features turned to outrage when gouts of boiling blood burst from his skin. Like ruptured dams, blistering liquid showered his compatriot. The blowback was nowhere near lethal, though the impacted dwarf would have said otherwise as he writhed on the rocky ground. He clawed futilely to throw off the sticky substance as his skin melted under its tremendous heat.
With a quick incantation, the healer tossed a spell to the warrior, restoring some of the damage my spell had done to him. Two pairs of glowing red eyes sighted on me, hate attempting to bore a hole in my face. They charged with all the fury and promise of pain they could bring to bear.
My breath caught in my throat at the homicidal look coming from my enemies. I was alone. Ripley was down for who knew how long, and Lowki still hadn’t shown himself after his pitiful retreat from the tremendous blow he suffered earlier. Tallos was in behind me and, from the sound of it, was in trouble of his own. Sounding like a splitting tree, a crack rebounded off the cavern walls signaling another mushroom was being laid low. Unfortunately, for Tallos, it was the one he was taking shelter on. No longer able to sight the target below him, the mushroom cap was too wide for it to even be an option. Tallos could only hold out his arms wide as his mushroom toppled.
Thinking quickly, I mentally targeted Lowki using my party interface. I couldn’t see where the cat was, but I intoned my regen spell on him nonetheless. A part of me screamed out I should instead have cast the spell on myself, but it was too late for any further considerations.
Unfortunately, I had no other time to consider the cat as the two dwarves cast aside the downed mushroom stalk I had been using for cover with a powerful kick of armored boots. I felt the same frantic apprehension Tallos must have been feeling as he crashed to the floor.
“Shit,” was all I could mutter before an oversized silvern weapon raced towards my face.