Chapter 26: Cannonball

Scott’s arrow multiplied in mid-air, doubling three times and spreading out enough to hit the two lead cutlass wielding zombies. A toxic green shield appeared in front of the two zombies, blocking the arrows.

Heather’s Magic Bolt slammed into the left barrier cracking it. Scott and Heather focused their attacks on the cracked barrier but the rest of the zombies weren’t idle. The third cutlass zombie summoned his own barrier and used it to block for the broken barrier. They moved to charge at Riley and his party in a slow shamble.

The crossbowman weren’t idle either. Riley could feel a surge of mana as the two crossbowman aimed down their sights. He had his shield prepared and Nermit had already summoned a golden barrier in front of Riley.

The crossbowmen fired and Riley’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Instead of two crossbow bolts flying at him Riley saw two cannon balls. With his party behind him Riley couldn’t dodge. He had just enough time to brace himself before he was sent flying.

Riley bowled through a surprised Scott landing in a tangle with him. He coughed up a mouthful of blood before healing energy filled his body. Riley’s shield had been completely destroyed. His chest was a bloody mess. The Rock Armor had been shattered by the attacks and the pieces of stone hadn’t been kind to his internals.

Riley felt Scott disentangle himself but Riley could barely move. He was focused on trying to draw in a breath. Another wave of golden light washed over him and he could feel shards of stone push themselves out of his body. He was finally able to get a lungful of breath and Riley gasped for air, despite the pain it caused him.

Riley pulled himself to his feet and unsummoned his armor. The other stone shards in his body dissolved. Nermit healed Riley a third time and he could feel the open wound start to close. Fortunately Riley’s sword was still intact and didn’t fall into the water. He grabbed it as he charged back towards the battle. A fourth wave of healing brought Riley back to full health though he wasn’t focused on that.

The cutlass zombies had reached the group while he had been incapacitated. The two crossbowman were dead, enough arrows sticking out of them that they looked like a pincushion.

Heather was dueling one of the cutlass zombies, fending off its attacks with a sword in one hand and launching her mana bolts in the other. Since she had upgraded her Mana Bolt spell she no longer needed the pickaxe to deal damage to the zombies. She was fighting as a pseudo-spell blade, her high starting Body stat letting her keep an edge while fighting in melee range with the zombie. But it was still clear that she was out of her depth in regards to stats. The zombie was simply too fast for her. She was bridging the gap with pure skill alone. She was reading the enemy and moving her sword to counter them before the zombie even started to move.

The front half of the zombie Nermit was fighting was completely stripped of flesh, exposing the bone beneath. It’s eyes had melted and the blinded zombie was swinging wildly which Nermit was dodging with ease, keeping the monster focused on him.

Scott and Casey were both fighting the final cutlass zombie and they were a thing of beauty. Their moves were perfectly in sync, their weapons a dance of blades that gave their zombie no quarter. They were picking their zombie to pieces.

Nermit threw another heal on Riley even though he was full health. Riley called out that he was good, and then he was there. Riley Twirled through Heather and her zombie. He appeared on the other side and sent his blade in the zombie’s calf. The leg gave out and the zombie went down. Heather sent a Mana Bolt into the zombie’s head but it only cracked the bone. Riley stomped on its arm to stop it from swinging its sword at her leg and she finished the zombie off with two more Mana Bolts.

They both helped Nermit finish off his zombie while Casey and Scott finished theirs. The largest surprise of the fight had been their opening salvo. The cutlass zombies, in addition to their shield against ranged attacks, also had an ability to reduce the effectiveness of healing. This was also the ability they dropped on death.

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Necrotic Wounds - Imbue your attacks with a necrotic poison that resists being healed.

It was a powerful skill in its own right. Anti-healing skills absolutely shined in player versus player encounters, or where any monsters had the ability to heal, such as a Troll or a Hydra. With the extreme healing ability Tragnar showed after the Omni’s bombardment it was extra important that they grabbed this ability. She didn’t have space for it at the moment but she wanted the ability as a permanent part of her kit.

Scott called dibbs on being the first to tryout the cannon ball skill of the crossbowmen, though he wasn’t willing to give up his poison breath for it.

Riley was on his last Rock Armor. Heather and Nermit were at a quarter of their mana reserves. Both Scott and Casey were fine to continue but the group decided to mostly call it for the day.

Scott had one last idea he wanted his sister to try before they left. He whispered the idea in her ear and she agreed as they high-fived. Neither would say what it was but they escorted the group back to the start of the docks, towards Red.

“This is going to be so awesome,” Scott said smugly.

“Did you bilge rats have an enjoyable time at ‘arr’ Treasure Trove?” Red asked.

“It was a jolly good time, matey,” Riley said, enthusiastically, doing his best impression of a pirate. “Though we didn’t get any of your booty, this time.” Riley winked at the vampire. “We just wanted to watch our friend for a bit before we went home, is that alright?”

“Yarrr,” Red said, taking a cue from Riley and giving his performance a little more spice. Riley flashed him two thumbs up and Red’s ever-present smile grew wider.

Casey summoned the ball of light above her head and Scott lit one of their torches, though neither would explain exactly why.

With their preparations done Casey took off on a sprint across the docks.

“Shot bet that this will work?” Scott asked.

“We don’t even know what we’re betting against,” Heather pointed out.

“Bet,” Nermit called out. He shook Scott’s hand.

Casey quickly passed where they had killed the group of zombies and kept on going. Riley could see at the water was disturbed where she passed and two groups of skeletons appeared out of the water but she was already gone. Her sprint had taken her past the skeletons before they could trap her. She kept on running, summoning a second group of skeletons.

The skeletons followed after her, giving chase as she zigzagged across the docks. When she came to an intersection with another group of zombies she sprinted straight for them. The crossbowmen used their cannonball ability and Casey fell into her shadow, appearing out of Riley’s own shadow from the torch Scott had lit.

The ever present glow of mushrooms didn’t leave enough light to cast shadows on their own. But the Light spell from her helmet and the torch Scott had lit did.

The skeletons and zombies looked around in confusion. Having lost their target they walked their way back to where they crawled out of the water. The groups of skeletons didn’t crawl back into the water, however, instead they stayed on the dock. Perfectly visible.

“I win!” Scott called, fist pumping in the air. He high-fived Casey who was only slightly out of breath from her full sprint.

The group started heading back through the mines. There would still be plenty of daylight left in the day, but their group only had the one try at Treasure Trove a day. As soon as they left the docks they were barred reentry. Despite that no one wanted to take a break over the pitch black waters for their resources to return.

They chatted more on their way up, refining their strategies on how they would tackle the docks the next day. Riley was feeling pretty confident in their chances at completing the docks tomorrow, but Heather threw a bucket of cold water on that idea.

“What if we farmed this location?” She asked. “The enemies reset every day and we know their abilities now. We all need to attune our abilities and these enemies would be perfect for doing that. Our camp by the waterfall is well protected. It might be giving the Omnis a lot of time to prepare. But it’s also giving us time as well, time we need.” She looked around at the group, everyone’s attention was on her.

Riley considered the idea, it made sense. He was tired of being under-leveled. It was gratifying to be able to punch above his weight but filing that gap with skill was a recipe for disaster in the long term. If he hadn’t had his Rock Armor those cannonballs would have killed him outright. The further they got into these mines the more dangerous the enemies they found. He didn’t want to die without knowing what even killed him.

“Plus, if whatever is in those chests is any good we’ll want to farm enough to get each of us a full load out,” Heather added to sweeten an already sweet pot. If anyone wasn’t convinced, she had them now. No gamer could pass up an opportunity to farm good loot.