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The news cut through those gathered like a lightning bolt, leaving silence in its wake, then thunder as everyone started speaking at once.
Jane felt a shot of adrenalin hit her, and the urge to rush out there had her on her feet in a flash.
Hale whirled and waved his companions to follow. “Let’s move! There could be prime drops.”
Sita and Kumar weren’t even waiting for their companions. They shot through the door, leaving the other members of their party to follow.
“I’m going ahead!”
“Let’s go! Let’s go!”
The announcement threw many of those making backpacks inside the NPC house into confusion and panic.
Half a dozen would-be crafters instantly abandoned their partially-made creations and rushed out the door, almost knocking Quill aside in their haste, expressions eager and shouting as they went:
“Woo!”
“Group battle!”
“Time to level up!”
Others, especially those who were lower level and poorer, fretted.
“Wh—what do we do with our stuff?”
“Leave it!”
“But, it took all day to get all these pelts. And the thread was expensive.”
That’s the trouble with items not binding to players. If you left things lying around, anyone could pick them up.
“We paid to learn. But we’re not finished yet.”
“Are you guys nuts? There could be a huge battle out there. Tons of money and items dropping.”
“But—“
“I’m outta here. You do what you want.”
“Me, too!”
Jane anxiously shared a look with Quill. She was only partially done with their bags because she’d been helping everyone else out. She cast an empathetic look at the worried folks around her.
But before she could say anything, it was Raúl, the middle-aged mage, who came to the rescue. “I’ll stay here and watch anyone’s stuff who wants to leave it. I’m already at max level. You guys get in there and get some XP.”
One of the teen girls looked at him with wide eyes, hopeful but not entirely trusting. “Really?”
“Go on. Hurry yourselves up. If you’re in close proximity to higher level players when a kill happens and you’ve done at least some damage to the enemy, you still get a share of the XP.”
A woman perked up. “Even if you’re not in their party?”
Raúl nodded. “Sí. If you’ve both done damage, you still get rewarded.”
Jane chimed in. “I’ll be around all day today and tomorrow, too, to help you guys out. I promise. You’ll all be able to finish your bags later.”
More excited shouts sounded outside, and a handful of players sprinted past the door of the house.
Moments later, a super athletic guy with bulging muscles slowly shuffled along behind, sweat pouring off of him. “Fucking low stamina. I hate myself.”
Many of those players remaining finally gave in. Trusting the mage to guard their meagre but important possessions, they hustled out the door to join the event outside.
Quill reluctantly turned away from the temptation. “I’ll stay too.”
But Raúl gave him a look. “You need all the help you can get. Go. I will be fine alone.” He shooed him and Jane towards the exit. “I’ll watch everything. I’ll be here.”
She’d been trying to build up the willpower to stay behind as well, but the man’s insistence had her moving towards the door and pulling Quill with her. “Might as well.” She grinned, fiercely excited to join a real battle.
Quill had been moping and down for a while. He still hadn’t regained the heart that she’d seen in him when they’d first met. She’d just caught the sight of him smiling earlier when he’d been talking with those other players, and it had been a welcome one. He didn’t smile now, but he seemed to be growing excited, too. He nodded.
They ran out the door together.
Ahead, they saw the beefcake of a guy still shuffling and cursing, slowly moving in the same direction as other players much further ahead and still pulling away.
They followed: her with her new staff, Quill with his mace. She was incredibly thankful they’d put the unique item in the bank before this. She couldn’t imagine leaving it behind for someone to take. She would have had to wear it, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for that yet.
They ran out of the hamlet and into the grassy plains and hills.
Jane hadn’t gone much farther past the muscled guy when her own stamina ran out. “Darn it!” She slowed and went from a jog to a walk.
Quill looked back and slowed as well.
She waved him on. “Go ahead. I’ll catch up.” Panting, the pain in her lungs forced her to stop.
Quill glanced ahead, then back at her. He returned to her side. Throwing her arm around his shoulders, he gave her a bit of a lift. “I’ll help. Maybe your stamina will last longer.”
“You—“ She nodded. “Thanks.”
It was awkward, like a three-legged race, and every second she was acutely aware that they were missing out. That others were already at the battle, and she was pessimistic. It would probably be over before they got there, and it would be her fault for being so slow. But she didn’t give up. Giving it her all, she pushed through the pain and moved forward.
Sounds of fighting grew louder and louder: shouting, screams, skill cries, magic going off, and steel crashing against steel. They crested higher ground, and the event site came into view right in front of them. It was chaos.
They had no time to grasp the scope of the scene. A towering orc rose up in front of them. He was dressed in a leather loincloth, had steel pauldrons on his shoulders, and two large tusks jutted upward from his lower jaw. With a war cry, he raised a double-bladed axe in one hand.
Quill shoved her aside, sending her flying.
The axe chopped through the air, cut into the ground where they’d been standing and sunk into the soft earth.
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Jane rolled in the grass and smoothly got back onto her feet. Rising, she lifted her staff, point-first at the enemy.
Quill was already taking a swing at the orc. Only half the size of the giant green warrior, he looked utterly outmatched.
Jane suddenly felt terrified. This is what they were up against? It was freakin’ huge! Fear froze her until she saw the orc shoulder Quill in the face while it pulled the axe up out of the grass and dirt. She rushed forward, thrusting the point of the staff into the orc’s belly.
The orc grunted and backhanded her in the face.
She spun around, head ringing, and fell to her knees. It took several seconds before the pain registered through the shock.
“[Fire jet]!”
Steel clanged.
A bowstring sang.
Dazed, she staggered to her feet and blinked through stars.
Other adventurers had joined the fray. Hale, whom she’d seen at the house, slashed at the orc so hard it drove the warrior back on his heels. A ranger stood not far from Jane and fired another arrow, practically at point-blank range, into the orc’s chest.
The orc grunted.
Quill, doing his best, swung his mace multiple times but barely connected, missing most of the time.
She looked over the orc’s head for his stats. It was level nine. A silver skull next to the numbers indicated a rare elite spawn. So he would be more capable and tougher than regular orcs of the same level.
Hale shouted, “Press him! Don’t let up!” he slashed again and immediately slashed a second time, far too quickly and cleanly for it to be natural: an extra attack skill. Part of his alchemical warrior class. The frost on his blade gave away the element he’d infused his weapon with.
The ice affected the orc, slowing him down. Grunting in frustration, he tried to retaliate and might have beaten Hale down on his own because he was that much bigger, but the archer unloaded another arrow, and a mage came from behind with another jet of flames from her hands.
Jane wasn’t going to just stand around watching. She charged back into the fight. With a cry of her own, she swung the thick end of the staff at the orc’s axe and had just enough power to disrupt the strike so that the blade only clipped Quill’s shoulder instead of killing him outright.
He fell to the ground, silently screaming, then threw himself to the side, crawling away, his HP nearly gone.
The orc suddenly spun around. He ran forward and punched the mage in the face, sending her sprawling. Like a woodcutter, he lifted the axe high and brought it down.
The mage brought her hands up — and died bloody, skull smashed to a pulp.
“You big brute!” Hale chased but missed as the orc dodged to the side.
The ranger knocked an arrow. He held it for one second, two seconds, three. The tip lit up with orange light. He released, and the arrow flew, leaving a trail of light behind.
It hit the orc in the leg. He grunted and went down on one knee.
Hale threw himself at the orc’s back. A double slash drew blood. The orc’s HP finally dropped below half.
Jane dropped to Quill’s side, worried. “You ok?”
Wincing, he nodded, trying to force himself to his feet.
“Don’t push yourself. You’re still hurt.” It would take time for his health to regenerate on its own. She joked, “Maybe one of us should take a healer class, huh?”
He tried to smile through the pain, the ugly wound on his shoulder very slowly closing up. “Go ahead. I’ll heal.”
“You almost died from that hit. You’d better not take another if you’re not full health.”
His tone became annoyed, “I know.” But he immediately apologized. “Sorry.”
She shook her head. “Mm-mm. No prob.” Of course he’d be stressed out while in that kind of pain. Seeing no other threats too nearby, she left him and ran back to the fight.
The ranger fired another charged shot filled with fire magic and hit the orc in the side of the head.
The orc snarled but didn’t go down. With Hale so close, he threw his arms around the man and dragged him down. A huge fist pounded Hale in the face multiple times.
The fight went out of Hale. He bled.
Jane knew that if they didn’t have the warrior, none of them would survive. She circled around the orc and clubbed him over the head, wishing she had a better weapon.
The orc flinched, but it wasn’t until the third clunk on the noggin that he turned, leaving Hale barely breathing, and aggroed on Jane. The orc rose to his feet again with his axe held up like a shield, his eyes boring into Jane. It was three times her size and all of it muscle.
She nervously backed away. “Aw, crap.”
Another arrow hit the orc in the back, chipping away yet more health.
A white blur passed behind the orc, a woman in white robes sprinting at full speed. Without slowing, she sank to her knees and slid across the grass like a pro, coming to a stop at Hale’s side. She shouted, “Give me ten seconds! [Heal]!” Golden light radiated from her hands over the downed warrior at her knees.
The orc swung at Jane, knocking her staff aside. He swung the other way, just barely missing her.
She backpeddled. All she had to do was stay alive long enough for the ranger to whittle down the orc’s HP or for Hale to get back into the fight. She wasn’t used to being a tank, but she had a lot of health. She could do this.
The orc bashed her in the shoulder with the flat of the axe, punched her in the face, and kicked her between the legs.
She may not be a dude, but that still really hurt. Gasping, sharp, intense pain radiating from her bruised girly parts throughout the rest of her body, she could do nothing as the orc grasped her throat with his free hand and lifted her into the air, nails digging into her neck.
He roared in her face, tusks almost touching her skin. Saliva and hot breath hit her.
“Hey! Over here, ugly!” Hale had returned, healed. He sliced the orc in the back of the knees.
The white blur carried on, sprinting off to her next patient. That woman had definitely rolled better strength and stamina than Jane had.
The orc released Jane, letting her crash down into the ground. But though he put up a valiant fight, he didn’t have enough health left to survive both Hale’s icy sword and the ranger’s fiery arrows. Hale’s blade coated the orc in frost, and when the charged fire arrow hit it, an explosion of steam did extra damage.
Hale cut the orc down, killing him. He stood over the body, chest heaving. “Wow. I think that might have been the hardest fight I’ve done yet.”
Jane whimpered and very gingerly got to her feet. She looked around to see if anything else was going to attack her or if she could take a moment to pull her pants back out of where the orc had kicked them. She was pretty sure the fabric was up in her uterus somewhere. Ow!
She saw a forest about thirty meters away. That was probably where the orcs had come out of hiding.
There were maybe thirty or forty of them, with various shades of green skin, somewhat pig-like noses, and all manner of wild hairstyles. Male and female, they were almost all taller than humans and dressed like barbarians in leather loincloths, skirts, and tops. A few wore pieces of plate or mail.
The males had large tusks jutting up from their lower jaws and seemed perfectly adept at using them as weapons. As she watched, one gored a mage in the neck and tossed his body to the side like it weighed nothing.
Females lacked tusks but had pointed ears instead. Under other circumstances, Jane would have called the ears cute, but the female orcs were perhaps even more vicious than the males, with high-pitched wails. One bit the face of the ranger she’d tackled to the ground and worried it like a dog.
The majority of the orcs were warrior types, lustfully roaring as they swung huge axes, swords, and spiked clubs at their foes. But here and there were archers with powerful bows made of bone and wood, as well as mages and shamans casting spells of support and destruction.
It was a hellscape. The human players were faring…sort of ok? There were more humans than orcs, which was the only reason they hadn’t been overrun yet. Bodies had already fallen on both sides, far more human than orc, but things seemed to be at a stalemate thanks to the fact that a bunch of the adventurers here were maxed level and in parties already getting used to working together.
Quill quietly joined her.
“You better?”
“Yeah.” He grinned. “Level three.”
“Two levels? Sweet!” She high-fived him, excited to see him in a good mood again. “Wanna try for four?”
“Hell yes.”
Side-by-side, they ran into the battle.
Male
36
QUILL KRAU
Class NONE, Level 3
STR
1
STATUS
DEX
3
Currently excited.
HEA
7
SKILLS
INT
2
WIS
17
ITEMS
STA
14
Mace (common)
CHA
11
Female
26
JANE EULA
Class NONE, Level 5
STR
6
STATUS
DEX
11
Currently ready to kick some ass.
HEA
19
SKILLS
INT
18
WIS
18
ITEMS
STA
2
Gilded Armour of the Nature Goddess (unique); knife; staff (common)
CHA
5