All that remained were forty-odd players, mostly tanks. Their slow speed had ironically kept them at the back of the charge, allowing them to survive the longest. As the reality of their situation dawned on them, they froze.
How the fuck are we supposed to fight this?
Even if Dawnbreaker stood perfectly still, what could they do? Crush him to death with their shields?
The gravity of their failure hit them all at once. They stopped their advance, shuffling awkwardly and looking at one another. For the first time in their careers, these core members of their respective raid teams felt completely and utterly useless.
There was only one thing to do.
Run.
A silent, mutual agreement passed between them. With a sudden scramble, they broke ranks and bolted for the relative safety of the dense monster packs, hoping to lose Kael in the chaos. Most of them made it. The unlucky few who were too slow became final trophies for Kael’s quiver.
At the resurrection point, the mood was grim. Players stood around in the safe zone, heads hung low, shaking their heads in silence.
A thousand players mobilized. Zero quest contribution.
It was a humiliation of epic proportions. Some of them thought back wistfully to the Blackwind-Starlight server event a few weeks ago; at least then they had managed to kill a few NPCs and low-level players to farm points. This time, they had gotten absolutely nothing. The only silver lining was that, as a system-flagged quest encounter, death came with no weakness debuff.
One player opened a private chat with his Guild Leader.
: Boss, didn’t you say you were bringing 10 bosses to pincer him? Why did we only see three?
: Huh? You guys got ambushed too?
: That bitch, huh? Next time we see her, she’s dead. So, boss, did you guys at least get some quest rewards?
: A pair of exquisite handcuffs? 48-hour duration? What are the stats? Why is the duration so short for a piece of gear?
: Oh. Uh… on second thought, I don’t want them. You… reflect on your actions in there, boss.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
***
Back on the battlefield, the group had reconvened. Orion was boasting, hands on his hips.
“Good thing I was so clever,” he declared. “I used my own body to draw their fire.”
Rena giggled. “You mean Dawnbreaker’s clones did all the work. What did you do?”
Orion swished his robes and lifted his chin haughtily. “You can’t look at it that way. You have no idea how hard those bastards were hitting the chieftain. They were doing ten, twenty thousand damage per hit!”
“Twenty thousand?” Rena and Lila said in unison, turning to look at Kael.
Kael nodded. “They were hitting me hard, too. They must have received a special quest buff that specifically targeted Fenris and me.”
Hazel tilted her head. “But that’s not right. Why didn’t they do much damage to your clones?”
“The buff probably only applies to the primary target, not summoned copies,” Kael speculated.
“Exactly!” Orion interjected triumphantly. “I deliberately acted as a distraction, drawing their attention to me. It was a tactical move to pull aggro off the chieftain.”
Rena covered her mouth, her eyes feigning admiration. “But with so many of them… wasn’t it suicide for a squishy thing like you to provoke them?”
Orion puffed out his chest. “Please. With my flawless positioning, I had them eating out of the palm of my hand.”
Hazel scratched her head again. “That’s not right. Didn’t you just fall on the ground and play dead? It was the chieftain who drew their fire after that. Dawnbreaker’s clones finished them off.”
Pfft… Rena and Lila couldn’t hold back their laughter.
Orion’s face went beet red, caught completely off guard by the little girl’s honesty. “It wasn’t playing dead, it was Corpse Rigor! It’s a tactic! Do you even know what tactics are?”
Hazel looked thoughtful. “Tactics…? Oh, I get it! You wanted to become a ghost to scare them!”
Hahaha! Rena and Lila finally lost it, doubling over with laughter.
Rena walked over to Hazel and patted her on the head. “Orion is very skilled, sweetie. Have you ever seen anyone play dead so convincingly?”
Orion didn’t dare talk back to Rena, and could only mutter under his breath, “It’s not playing dead… it’s Corpse Rigor…”
“Alright, that’s enough,” Kael said with a smile. “Let’s get moving. If we stay here too long, another wave of players might show up.”
“Right!”
The five of them resumed their escort of the third chieftain. This time, there were no further interruptions. Kael took the lead, carving a path through the wilderness toward the mountains.
“Hold up,” Kael said, stopping abruptly as they reached the base of the Shadowcrag range.
The group looked up and immediately saw what was wrong.
Hazel pointed toward the foothills. “I remember there being a path up the mountain here. Where did it go?”
“She’s right,” Rena added. “This is where you met us during the Blackwind defense.”
Lila looked up the slope. “And there used to be a watchtower over there.”
They all turned to Kael, confused. Before he could explain, Fenris, who had been silent for hours, finally spoke.
“The day we marched on Starlight Village, I put a concealment ward over the mountain pass as a precaution.” His voice was low but steady. “Stand back. I will open the way.”
The five of them stepped aside. As the chieftain walked toward the cliff face, the weary slump in his shoulders vanished. He waved a hand, and a slender, ornate staff materialized in his grasp, its tip pierced by several paper glyphs. He stood tall, sweeping the staff through the air in a series of arcane gestures.
Fwoosh.
The glyphs at the staff’s tip ignited, turning to ash in an instant. Fenris closed his eyes and began to mutter a low, guttural chant. A faint, emerald energy began to drift down from the mountain, coalescing before them into a small, swirling vortex.
Gradually, the vortex of verdant power subsided, and where it had been, a stone well now stood.
Fenris opened his eyes, beads of cold sweat on his forehead.
He set up this ward himself, so why is it so draining for him to open it? Kael thought, a flicker of suspicion in his mind.
The chieftain pointed a trembling finger at the well.
“Each of you,” he commanded, his voice strained, “must drink from the water inside.”