[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/5b0c9847-92dd-4728-954f-93579b7ef57b/dfp4b37-2263ab56-0119-45a6-902f-b5d1a28c33ac.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzViMGM5ODQ3LTkyZGQtNDcyOC05NTRmLTkzNTc5YjdlZjU3YlwvZGZwNGIzNy0yMjYzYWI1Ni0wMTE5LTQ1YTYtOTAyZi1iNWQxYTI4YzMzYWMucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.p0BsYA2Mn0G24goh6LfQIDOJpTol3cDIL-JEn-kN4yM]
Quill saw how much his experience went up from that one silver elite kill. He’d been practically useless, barely massaged the orc’s skin with his mace. Yet that minuscule amount of damage had given him two whole levels.
He desperately craved more.
This was a huge opportunity. It was easy to see why so many adventurers had rushed to the fight and why everyone was so feverishly fighting now.
All Quill had going for himself right now was a decent amount of stamina. He hit so weakly that his mace might as well be made out of feathers. If he could just get as much XP as possible during this battle, it would make up for how slow he’d been growing.
He ran ahead of Jane as the two plunged into the melee.
She cried out behind him, “Quill, wait up!”
But he only slowed a little, feeling bad but anxious to do some damage while he had the chance. Because at some point, either the orcs would all flee or die, and that precious experience sharing would be gone.
A fire flare lit up his vision to the left. A line of white flew by on the right: an ice arrow. Orcs and humans alike shouted on all sides amidst the clang of steel on steel and the dull thud of steel on flesh.
Movement flashed in the corner of his eye.
Quill ducked, and an orc sword sliced the air just over his head.
The female orc warrior with the sword laughed and clobbered a cleric foolish enough to get close, sending the guy to the ground. “Stupid humans! How weak you’ve become!”
Quill crouched and ran low, swiping with his mace and grazing the orc’s knee as he ran past.
The orc warrior didn’t even acknowledge the blow, raising her sword to block the level-ten human warrior in scale mail coming at her with a double-slash.
Not bothering to stay and try to do more, Quill ran on. He couldn’t cause any damage. He just had to land at least one hit and not get killed. Then stay alive at all costs so he didn’t lose the XP.
Jane hadn’t realized his plan. She shouted from behind. “Quill! Where are you going?”
A human rogue fighting an orc mage leapt over the ankle-cutting swing of an orc sword, calling instructions to a nearby ranger. “Go right! Go right!” Landing on the orc’s arm, the rogue stabbed at the orc’s eyes with double daggers.
The ranger fired a charged water shot
The rogue flipped over the orc’s shoulder to come down behind the enemy. “[Backstab].”
The orc wailed in pain.
Quill took advantage of that distraction and ruthlessly swung up into the orc’s balls. Unfortunately, the swing missed entirely, the mace put him off balance, and he somehow bashed himself in the face, getting stunned. Bloody low dexterity!
The orc kicked him aside before turning on the rogue.
Quill spilled backward and fell onto his backside. His vision spun. He felt a hand on his shoulder and instinctively wanted to jerk away from the possible threat, but his body wouldn’t respond yet.
Jane went down on one knee next to him, worried and breathing hard. “Are you ok?”
He mutely nodded, humiliated that he’d done this to himself and that she’d seen.
Her tone was concerned, “What are you doing running like crazy through everyone?”
“Trying to get as much XP as I can. I can’t do any real damage. I’m just trying to share the kills.”
“Ah. Ok. Well, why are you going alone?” Her expression fell. “Because I have no stamina?”
Honestly, he hadn’t even thought of it. He hadn’t thought of her at all. He felt bad about that, but more than that, he was pushed by the anxious need to get up and keep fighting while he could. Fighting his embarrassment, he stood. “We have to keep fighting.”
An arrow twice as thick as any fired by humans buried itself in the dirt by their feet. They flinched and looked up.
A human mage cast defences to protect the ranger firing next to her from the orc ranger firing at them at the same time, the one whose missile had nearly hit Jane and Quill. “[Rock wall]!” The soil split, and a small, thin wall of rock grew upwards about a meter tall.
The human ranger crouched behind the barrier and fired an arrow at the orc that was targeting them.
Shouting behind Quill and Jane suddenly drew their attention that way. An orc shaman slammed a carved wooden totem into the ground and then threw his hand at them. “Hex of the cockroach]!”
Red light leapt from the totem to Jane and morphed into fist-sized glowing cockroaches that crawled over her body, arms, legs, and neck, sharp legs scratching her bloody.
She screamed. Dropping her staff, she tried to slap at them and pull them off, but her hands passed through the light-made creatures without doing anything.
A monk with spiked gauntlets cried out, “Cover me!” and leapt into the air, repeatedly punching the orc shaman in the face and disrupting whatever spell it had been about to cast next.
Two human mages behind the monk fired on the shaman at the same time.
“[Fountain]!” Water spurted out of the first mage’s hands and coated the shaman.
“[Icicle]!” A shard of ice hit the water on the shaman’s belly and spread, freezing him.
The monk continued his battery, bleeding the shaman of HP.
Jane screamed again. “Get them off!”
The shaman growled and started to break free of the ice.
Quill burst forward and chopped at the totem, splintering it. The spell died. Cockroaches vanished.
Jane dropped to her knees. She shuddered. “Nasty. And painful.”
Quill saw the shaman die and cursed. He hadn’t gotten a chance to land a blow on the orc, only the totem. Apparently, that didn’t count, and he got no XP out of it. Frustrated, he looked around for the next closest target. Seeing an odd-looking orc warrior with its back to him, he ran that way. Free XP. All he had to do was tag it. He needed that hit! The warrior was well-muscled but strangely had one massive right arm and shoulder compared to his left. Quill raised his mace and nailed the warrior in the spine.
The warrior paused bashing in the brains of the dying human in his hands. Disdainfully looking over his shoulder, he saw Quill. With a sneer, he turned and used the adventurer as a club, bringing it down on Quill’s head with a harsh laugh.
Quill took the blow but rolled away with little damage.
Grinning fiercely, the orc raised a fist in a massive, oversized gauntlet, the hand and armour three times bigger than it should be, giving the creature a lop-sided look. “Orc smash!”
Backing up in defence, Quill just avoided the huge fist. It slammed into the earth, sending a spray of grass and soil in all directions, dirt and rocks pelting Quill in the chest and thighs. He jumped forward through it and brought the mace down on the orc’s head.
It nearly missed. But the mace scraped down the orc’s forehead and hit him in the eye. He jerked his head away, eyes closed. “Gah! You diseased dire wolf dung!”
A flicker of fear crawled up Quill’s spine. He was severely outmatched. The orc’s right arm was bigger than Quill’s legs — put together.
Jane came out of nowhere. She poked the orc in the neck with her staff.
Seeing the orc on its knees and blinded, other players piled on.
“[Flame jet].”
“[Fountain].”
Steam boiled forth, reddening the orc’s skin.
Two warriors, one with an axe and the other with a hammer, appeared, whacking the orc with all their might.
The orc fought back, trying to get up, flailing with its huge gauntlet. But the offence overwhelmed it. It died.
Quill watched his XP shoot up and grinned.
[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/5b0c9847-92dd-4728-954f-93579b7ef57b/dfp0tav-461de4c5-f409-40c9-92c9-267c0f8109fa.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzViMGM5ODQ3LTkyZGQtNDcyOC05NTRmLTkzNTc5YjdlZjU3YlwvZGZwMHRhdi00NjFkZTRjNS1mNDA5LTQwYzktOTJjOS0yNjdjMGY4MTA5ZmEuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.DP0NDD391DeNyCwXAeDePaiD7edQG2LFfw77KHTLGMw]
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Jane
Level 6
Quill
Level 4
Her eyes widened. “Congrats!”
He opened his mouth to convey how good that felt.
A half dozen oversized arrows rained down on the area. Both mages died instantly. The warrior with the hammer fell, badly hurt. The other and both Quill and Jane remained unscathed. But they whirled, looking for the attackers.
A single orc smirked from fifty paces away. It was the ranger that had shot at them earlier. The two adventurers trying to take it down were dead, lying amidst the rubble of their rock wall. The orc ranger knocked another missile. “[Multi-shot].” The arrow released into the air — and evolved into three, then six.
Quill tackled Jane at the same time she tried to tackle him. Foreheads painfully cracked together. They both went down in a bruised heap.
The remaining human warrior behind them got hit twice in the chest and died with a scream.
Quill looked up, expecting another barrage.
But a human woman in wicked red samurai gear blazed toward the orc ranger, long black hair flowing from underneath her horned helmet. The armour must have been a fully collected set or purchased, for it was far better than anything Quill had seen on most players. The samurai ran with her sword sheathed, her head down.
The ranger saw her coming and turned — too slowly.
“[Flash draw]!” The samurai’s blade leapt from the sheath and carved a deep red line up the orc’s entire torso, from hip to shoulder. A huge chunk of health disappeared from the orc’s HP bar. Immediately, the samurai sheathed the blade and crouched. Waiting. Waiting. Not moving. As patient as a mountain.
The orc ranger gradually recovered from the nasty strike. Furious eyes focused on the one who’d hurt him. “You…”
The cooldown reset. “[Flash draw]!” The samurai’s blade leapt from the sheath again, and a new line appeared across the orc’s belly.
The orc’s HP dove to nothing. The belly opened, and guts spilled out. The body collapsed.
The samurai wasted no time. She looked left, then right, then sprinted to the next target.
Jane, as enthralled as he was, breathed, “Whoa. That’s so cool.”
“Yeah. Must be level ten and have the best gear you can get.” He tried to ignore a flash of envy, and a burst of anxiousness as more valuable XP disappeared without him getting a piece. He had to get more! He hurriedly got up, pulling Jane with him. “Come on. We need to get back into it.”
She nodded. “I should have gotten a class. I could do way more.”
“Later. Once we win this.”
She smiled. “Yeah.”
“Gratz on level six.”
“Thanks!” He looked around, itching to get his next shot of experience.
The battlefield had changed. Adventurer bodies littered the green, grassy field. Yet already, people could be seen in the distance, running back to the fight after resurrecting. Orcs had died in numbers as well. About half the original participants on both sides had survived, many looking winded, bloody, and much warier than before.
Some had had enough fighting and moved to a safe distance away from the fight just to watch. But some had realized something very important about the battle.
There was loot everywhere. Just lying around.
A mage with arms full of trinkets and with coins spilling from her fingers pawed at an orc corpse. She urged her warrior partner, also looting, “Just grab it! Who cares? Let’s go!”
The warrior tore the very expensive-looking armour off the body lying before him — the human body. It looked like high-level pay-to-win gear for certain. The warrior got the armour off and jumped to his feet.
Fearfully looking over their shoulders, the two players ran for the woods.
Jane’s jaw dropped. “They…”
Quill shook his head. “Aw, man. This is going to get ugly.”
The two looters didn’t make it very far.
From out of the shadows of the old oak trees came a juggernaut. He was over two meters tall, with wide shoulders and arms and legs as thick as the trees around him. Two huge, scarred tusks jutted up from his lower jaw.
Unlike the invaders that had appeared so far, dressed more simply in barbarian-style gear or plain robes, this one large, diamond-shaped plates made of some dark metal hanging over his front and back, attached by thick chains running over his shoulders and down to the heavy metal belt around his hips. The plate on his chest sported the image of a dragon’s skull. He wore heavy bracers, multiple rings pierced his left ear, and his boots were thick, black leather with steel-capped toes.
The name over his head was General ??.
His level was ??.
Next to those question marks was a gold skull: a gold elite.
Quill felt fear and excitement wash through his entire body. “He’s going to be worth a ton of XP.”
Jane swallowed. “He’s gonna drop something amazing for sure.”
The orc general saw the two human looters running his way. He crossed his arms, then swept them out to his sides. A double-bladed axe appeared in each hand, each weapon larger than any normal man could wield. They were entirely matte black but for ruby pommels. Grinning, the general bent his knees, then exploded high into the air.
The looters, more worried about those behind than ahead, finally saw him and skidded to a halt.
The two axes came down.
They split the humans in half. They didn’t even have time to scream.
The general threw back his head and laughed. Then he addressed the field, blood dripping from his axes, his shins splattered with gore. “Puny humans! How weak and pathetic you have become. We came to these shores to study the strength of our foes, the ones who once forced us from these lands and pushed us all the way back to Khalimaria1. But I see no strength here. Only pathetic worms. I will put you all in the ground where you deserve so you can wriggle and crawl with your brethren. Thank me as you die!”
At a grunt and wave, the remaining orcs disengaged from the adventurers that faced them and pulled back. The adventurers let them go. The silver elite orcs faded into the trees of the forest and disappeared. That left only one enemy remaining.
Quill felt a twinge of annoyance. If only they’d been able to kill more orcs, they could have gotten more XP. Watching it leave just hurt.
A swish of grass sounded, and Hale appeared next to Quill. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
“I think the boss just showed up.” The alchemical warrior looked tired and worn, blood on him, though it wasn’t his own.
Quill glanced at the other man. “You think he’s even killable? Can you read his level?”
Hale shook his head. “Nope. And I’m maxed at level ten. I couldn’t take on one of those silver elites on my own. No way I’d have a chance against that guy.”
Jane stared at the enemy, who seemed content to wait for them. “Raid, you think?”
Hale shrugged. “I think the only thing we can do is all charge him at the same time. Try to take him down before he takes us all out.”
Even before the man had finished speaking, someone really brave or stupid took a charged shot with their bow. A fiery arrow streaked through the air, aimed right at the general’s head.
The right axe nonchalantly came up. The arrow harmlessly dinged off the blade. The general crouched and twisted, then spun in a full circle. Like a discus thrower, he launched one of the axes through the air in a terrible display of brute strength. The spinning blade covered the ground impossibly fast.
The tattooed ranger who’d fired the arrow mouthed something and tried to get out of the way. But the axe went right through his body, cutting him in half.
“Whoa!” Hale instinctively backed up a step, shaking his head. “Ok. I guess we’re not going to be able to kite him or hit him at range where it’s safe.”
The general lifted a hand, and the axe appeared in his grip again. He eyed the adventurers. “Cowards! All I see are cowards! Come at me, and meet your doom!”
About thirty or so players stood on the field, still alive. Pretty much everyone was talking to those closest. Some looked excited, others shook their heads in refusal.
Hale raised his hands to his mouth and shouted, “Concentric rings. Melee in front; ranged in back. Surround and overwhelm him!”
The adventurers hesitated. But when Hale started forward, sword in hand, others began walking forward as well. Carefully, people spread out, circling the orc general, who patiently waited for them.
The orc’s eyes became gleeful. “That’s it. Come to me, you weakling fools! Come to your deaths!” He chuckled.
Two rings formed. Well, more like three. The highest-level melee adventurers, the fighters, monks, and rogues, formed the inner-most ring, with people like Hale and other level tens sporting good gear. Then came lower-level Quill, Jane, and others behind them, ready to fill gaps that opened when those ahead fell. Last, keeping their distance, were the clerics, elemental mages, and tattooed rangers.
Some of the warrior types may have been paladins, Quill wasn’t sure. But no one looked like they were visibly druid or artist classes.
He shared a nervous look with Jane. Her knuckles were white from gripping her staff so hard in both hands. He realized he was the same with his mace. He’d levelled up so much. Jane too. This had been a wild experience so far. He shook his head. “Are we really doing this?”
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, not turning her face away from the incredibly deadly enemy in front of them. “You don’t want to?”
“We could die. In fact…we probably will.” He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to lose any of these levels. A strong part of him wanted to stop here and not get greedy.
She seemed uncertain. One shoulder shrugged. She kept her voice low so few of those around them would hear. “You want to back out?”
Quill looked at the general, the orc’s face eager, the warrior’s body spoiling to fight. “He’s gold elite. So high nobody can see his level.”
“Let’s see if we can do any damage first. Look how many people we have. We have to be able to hurt him, right?”
Quill wasn’t so sure. But he’d gain another level if they won, for sure. Maybe more. Get his class. And he’d surely get a chance at whatever dropped. They’d probably find a way to roll for it, so it would be fair to whoever got the items. “All right. Let’s try this.” He broke out into a smile that was half-nerves and half-excited.
She did the same, then nodded.
A mage in green robes shouted, “Melee hold your distance. Let us shoot first. If he throws his axe, charge! If not, give us a second volley, then hit him. Ten seconds, then pull back for the next volley. Then repeat.”
Alchemical fighters, monks, rogues, and those without classes, like Quill and Jane, heard and nodded.
The green-robbed mage raised a hand over his head. “Rangers—“ Before he could give the command, the general’s axe whooshed through the air and lopped off his head. The skull bounced in the grass.
Someone else screamed, “Water and ice rangers! Attack!”
Ice and water arrows poured in from all sides. As their magic connected, it froze the general, encasing him in a coating of blue ice.
The orc instantly quivered. The ice cracked.
“Fire rangers!”
Charged fire arrows blasted in from all sides. The fire and ice mixed and erupted into clouds of steam.
“Ice and water mages! Freeze again!”
Mages had a much shorter range than archers. They ran up to the ring of melee fighters and released their skills.
“[Icicle]!”
“[Fountain]!”
Another freeze surely took place, though it couldn’t be seen through the steam.
“Fire mages!”
They ran forward. “[Fire jet]!”
Another explosion of steam, this time even bigger. It was so thick that Quill couldn’t make out the orc general’s form let alone his health bar. “Did we hurt him?”
They weren’t going to wait to find out.
Hale shouted, “Melee charge!”
And then Quill, Jane, and the rest of the fighters were running forward into steam and danger.
Male
36
QUILL KRAU
Class NONE, Level 4
STR
1
STATUS
DEX
3
Currently hungry for the next level.
HEA
7
SKILLS
INT
2
WIS
17
ITEMS
STA
14
Mace (common)
CHA
11
Female
26
JANE EULA
Class NONE, Level 6
STR
6
STATUS
DEX
11
Currently wondering what the hell they were thinking joining in on this.
HEA
19
SKILLS
INT
18
WIS
18
ITEMS
STA
2
Gilded Armour of the Nature Goddess (unique); knife; staff (common)
CHA
5