Guin did a quick count of her own. Four Corrupted Gobo Club Thugs, Four more Corrupted Stick Shooters, three Corrupted Gobo Meat Slicers, and—
“Oh, god dammit!” she cursed. “You idiots pulled a bloody Lore Master!”
BronzePaw’s tail twitched as she eyed them. “I have no idea what that is, but it probably isn’t going to make me happy, is it?”
“They’re magic users,” Guin told them. “Can you use a silence spell yet, Star?”
“No—I can try CCing them with a sleep spell, though.”
Drakov raised his hand and said, “Oh! I have something! Which one is the loremaster?”
“How do you have something I don’t have yet?” Stella pouted, eyeing him with envy. Drakov only chuckled nervously.
“The one with the staff,” Guin pointed out—though she felt he really should have been able to guess that. “Listen, Drakov, after you do whatever it is you plan on doing, I want you to watch our backs.”
“Expecting more company?” BronzePaw asked.
“Not sure,” Guin said honestly. “But I don’t like that mist. Paw, even if Star’s CC works, stay on alert. We cannot have the back ranks running off against and pulling more of these things—pull back if you need to. First, we should take out those smaller guys. The Stick Shooters and the Meat Slicers should be pretty easy to one or two shots, depending. The Club Thugs should be the least of our worries—they have a lot of health points, but they are slow and don’t do a lot of damage. Once all those guys are down, the Lore Master should be pretty easy to handle if we are working together.”
Nodding, BronzePaw chuckled a little. “What happened to the girl who shrinks back in fear every time she sees me in real life? Look at you, giving me orders.”
Guin snorted. She didn’t need the dinosaur woman to tell her about her own personality inconsistencies between real life and game life. This was simply how she had always been—and it would very likely be the way that she would be in the future.
“Hey, why aren’t they attacking?” Drakov asked.
“Let’s not question our luck,” StarShine said, hopping onto her broomstick and taking to the air.
“Ready?” Guin asked them.
“Ready!”
“Yup!”
“R!”
Drawing a magic circle in the air, StarShine called out, “[Sand Sleep]!”
A cloud of what looked like some sort of fairy dust flew out from her circle and settled down into the area of the gobos while Guin heard Drakov start chanting. Though there was no arrow notched in his bow, he pulled his bowstring back. As he continued to chant, a small, ghost-like wyrm appeared, running over his body. Slithering down his arm, it went till it rested on the thumb and fingers holding the bow. Straightening itself out and becoming rigid, it became an arrow, silvery and faded like smoke.
Guin looked over at the gobos, all of whom appeared to be drowsy. The smaller ones, including the Lore Master, had already fallen asleep. Wait a minute... I’m missing something... she thought and opened her mouth as she realized.
“Drak—wait—”
Just as Guin was about to stop him, Drakov whispered, “[White Wyrm: Choke].”
The ghost-like arrow loosed and flew true to its target. The Lore Master awoke with a start, looking around at its sleeping party members in a daze.
“Shit!” Guin cursed and put her spear away. “Everyone, get on the Lore Master—don’t let it wake the others up!” She cast [Fox Form] and became her fox spirit alter-ego, sprinting toward the confused gobo, hoping to catch it before it began casting.
“Wait—the plan...?” she heard Drakov start, followed by a very sheepish sounding, “Oh...”
In her fox form, Guin attacked the Lore Master’s legs with an effective [Trip]. Luckily, though Drakov’s blunder had put them in a bit of a bind, his ability appeared to have worked as the gobo fell down without a cry. The creature eyed her angrily, shouting voiceless words as she went after its throat, holding it down as it writhed around, trying to pull her off. Each time it pulled on her, she sunk her teeth in deeper, the sweet, metallic taste of blood filling her mouth with every rip and tear that was caused by the action.
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BronzePaw then appeared and slammed her mighty fists into the creature's exposed chest, letting off another [Earthquake]. The tremors and force forced Guin to release her prey and jump away—and she started crying inside as the cracks in the ground spread over to where the other gobos had been sleeping, causing them to wake with a grouchy start.
As the confused gobos began to move into action, a [Magic Arrow] hit the Lore Master from above, causing BronzePaw to have to dodge out of the way—which was probably a good thing, as several of Drakov arrows hit moments later in a quick succession of [Rapid Fire].
“Watch it!” BronzePaw snarled.
“You too!” StarShine shouted down. “Inc from your right!”
The dinosaur woman looked over at the reviving gobos. “Oops,” she went. “Was that me?”
“Intercept them, Paw! I’ll heal what damage I can,” Guin shouted, shifting out of fox form. “Drakov, get the Lore Master - it can’t have much health left, and Paw should have the agro! Stella, support Paw!”
“This is fucking crazy!” StarShine shouted as Guin started setting up a magic circle off to the side.
From above, StarShine shouted, “[Magic Missile]!” while Drakov was shouting, “[Flame Arrow]!” several times in quick succession. Ah, Guin went in her mind as she started singing [Hymn of the Light] to heal BronzePaw. I need to get those two to stop relying on the voice-cast system... She was immensely thankful for the fact that these particular creatures were already quite dumb and probably didn’t understand a word they were saying.
Taking on the other gobos, BronzePaw was taking a lot of damage. StarShine was backing her up as much as she could with her [Barrier] spell and her various curses on the enemies. Perhaps most effective, though, was her [Magic Missile] ability that hit three of them all at once.
“Ahh! Guin! This thing isn’t dying—wha!” Drakov staggered back as Guin saw the Lore Master stand up and brush itself off. Oh no...
Even with her magic circle amplifying her healing ability, [Hymn of the Light] was only a low-leveled, healing over time spell, and it was barely managing to keep BronzePaw alive, even with StarShine’s barriers negating half the damage directed toward her. With another [Magic Missile], though, StarShine managed to take out two of the shooters and a Meat Slicer.
BronzePaw, seemed to get increasingly fed up with being poked and let out a loud honking sound as she stomped her powerful clawed foot hard into the ground, setting off another [Earthquake]. As the gobos lost their footing, she picked up one of the remaining shooters with her tail and, like a boa constrictor, wrapped it around its body. Guin watched with a shiver as the tail wrapped tighter and tighter, till the creature’s body snapped with a broken cry. Then, with a quick flick, she threw the body at one of the Meat Slicers, sending both flying.
“Uhh... I think my ability wore off, guys... It’s chanting something!” Drakov shouted. “And it’s not. Fucking. Dying! [Flame Arrow][Flame Arrow][Flame Arrow]! Ah, crap, I got agro—running!”
StarShine spun around on her broom, shouting, “Don’t you fucking run again, you little shit! You’re the one who got us into this mess! [Entangle]!”
With StarShine’s words, all manning of roots and vines sprouted up from the ground and grabbed at anything or anyone within the area - including them. Cursing inwardly, Guin wanted to bash their heads together and yell at them both, but if she stopped singing, BronzePaw would fall, and they would wipe. Guin was far too stubborn to let that happen, even if it meant very little.
As the ground became chaotic, Guin saw BronzePaw and StarShine take down the last of the Stick Shooters, two of the Meat Slicers, and one of the Club Thugs before the roots came up and destroyed her magic circle. With the effect of her [Hymn of the Light] weakened, Guin kept singing, trying to keep BronzePaw’s health wavering between 50% and 75%.
The roots then came up and grabbed her ankles, throwing both her balance and her concentration off, making it increasingly difficult to keep her song up. Luckily, it seemed that the mage-witch team managed to take out the remaining Meat Slicers and another Club Thug before Guin lost sight of them in the dense, growing foliage.
Guin had no choice but to wait for the vines to stop growing, sighing in aggravation and irritation with her own uselessness. After about ten seconds, the roots and vines solidified into a difficult, bramble-like terrain.
“God dammit, Star,” she mumbled, pulling up her video feed. “I can’t bloody see you guys—what the hell is going on?”
“I’m... trapped?” BronzePaw’s confused image came up. “But I think I’m safe for now. There are only two Club thugs left. They are staring at me, but they can’t seem to move any more than I can.”
“That’s... Reassuring, I guess?” Guin went, not yet sure if she should celebrate StarShine’s rash action or condemn her to hell.
“I’ll take out the Club Thugs,” StarShine said, looking quite proud of herself as she came up on the screen. “Then there should only be the Lore Master left, as originally planned before the little boy fucked up.”
Drakov came up last, looking very disgruntled. “Yeah, yeah, I fucked up—what are all these vines? I can’t friggen move!”
StarShine snorted. “Good. Merry Christmas.”
“Seriously, Star—” Drakov started.
“We will discuss it later! Right now, let’s focus on solving the problems we have and not making any more. Star, once those Thugs are down, concentrate all fire on the Lore Master,” Guin commanded. “Paw, sit tight and wait for Star’s spell to run its course. I’ll head over to Drakov’s location and see about dealing with the Lore Master.”
“Roger!” the three of them said and disappeared from Guin’s feed. Transforming herself into her smaller, much more agile fox form, Guin fell back to the ground and looked at her map.
Growling to herself, she muttered, “Oh, good bloody job, Guin,” to herself before running off into the brambles.