Book 3, Chapter 25.

25. The Battles for North Shire Pt. 4

“I don’t suppose one of [Spellblade]’s secret spell is [Invisibility], is it?” Jess asked me as we watched both sides exchanging salvos of magic and missiles in the streets of my largest town.

“I was hoping someone on your team would have that for me,” I admitted.  “Why are they attacking Ebbyvale?”

“It’s how they’re ahead on points,” she explained.  “Or sort of, at least.  It’s a king of the hill thing.  We lose Morale if they hold Ebbyvale, and we don’t get the Morale back when we retake it.  It’s how they’ll beat us if we don’t figure out a way to track down the holdout bandit NPC’s.  Um, sorry.”

“Sorry?” I asked.

“Slipped out.  I meant Natives.”

I turned to look at her, cocking her head slightly.  “Jess, I am a Native Player Character.  And I am proud of that fact.  I do not consider being called an NPC to be an insult.”

She looked surprised, then nodded.  “However you want it, then.  The NPC’s in town are all hiding or barricaded, so they’re safe.  They’ve been attacking the prison to try to do a jailbreak, but we’ve driven them off every time so far because the defenses your boys and girls put up are actually pretty damn good.”

“Randal the Architect designed them,” I bragged.

“But none of that really matters, because as long as the enemy is running around town we’re losing Morale.  We’re calling in reinforcements, but so are they.  And that’s how we’re getting into the temple.  There should be a larger group coming up in a few minutes that we’ll, oh there they are.  Hail, stay at range and pretend to be a mage until we get you inside the Temple of Thedum.  We need that Map,” Jess ordered.

I followed the instructions, our smaller group folding into the larger one and riding deeper through the town.  We were confronted by an equal sized war party before reaching the temple.  The bandits were caught between us and the reinforced constabulary, but they were also blocking our path.

The leaders decided that they must be dealt with.  I tried to maintain my cover as a mage, throwing out [Slow] and [Polymorph] spells, as well as the occasional Flashbang combo.  Unfortunately, those were the exact spells that mages cast to draw attention to themselves in pvp, and I suddenly had two rogues pop out of stealth behind me.  One hit me with a four second stun, the other an [Ambush] which dealt 41% of my health.  Only a timely shield and a power heal by my allies saved my life.

I couldn’t blink away, which would be the mage response.  I could [Dash], but 5ft isn’t actually all that far.  So I turned and drew my [Blade of Eclipse], and I turned to face the both.  They had both a red glow that showed they had been completing quests that gave them negative Reputation with me, and a Red Icon over their heads showing that they had chosen to come into the battle ground on behalf of the Freelancers.

So I would show no mercy.  I hit them both with [Mark of Karmic Balance].  It’s funny, because they’d actually probably thank me for that right now.  The experience and status boon were the same as [Mark of Karma].  But the reputation loss was going to hurt them in the long run.

I skipped using my usual elemental combos.  I fought them as I had once fought as a Worldboss.  I fought with [Holy Weapon], and they both cried out in shock as [Mark of Sin] was applied to them thanks to my [Righteous Brand] ability.  Still not done with them, I grabbed hold of the one on the left and used [Draining Touch].  Her body withered into a skeleton, but I knew that when she respawned, she would have been inflicted with [Reaper’s Embrace].  Whether she considered it a curse or a boon would depend on her perspective, I suppose.  But I doubted she could get it cured at any temple of Thedum.

I got separated from Jess and her party, for a while.  In fact, I was sort of caught ‘Dicking around midfield.’  Most of the enemy mistook me for some sort of paladin, with my [Holy Weapon], and I waded through the battleground, defending myself as necessary.  Mostly, my attention was focused on applying my unique banes to those I thought deserved them, based on the color of their aura or their icons.

A lot of Travelers got [Mark of Karma] and [Mark of Karmic Balance] that day.  And quite a few got [Mark of Sin].

When the enemy realized what was going on, and that I was the source of the ruining that was happening to some of them, they turned on me.  But by that point I had gotten far enough into town to sprint for the barricade at the Temple of Thedum.  The blue Icon over my head announced my allegiance, and the barricade opened up, its healers throwing shields and heals onto me to keep me alive.

The enemies following me were enraged, especially the ones whom I had affected with [Draining Touch].  On top of instantly stealing a large portion of their Health and Mana (or health at least.  I still got mana even if their resource was something other than Mana, as it was for [Rogues] and [Archers]), I had been inflicting them with the dangerous combo of [Through the Valley of the Shadow] and [Reaper’s Embrace].  While the former increased all experience gained to three hundred percent normal, the bane that went with it effectively negated any benefit to the boon.

Specifically, on death, [Reaper’s Embrace] removed 10 times the amount of experience gained by [Through the Valley of the Shadow].  It was a dangerous combo, but the version which I inflicted on Travelers was much more generous than the version that was inflicted on me by my great uncle, Auroras.  That version had the same experience boon, but it would reduce me to level one no matter what.

The Travelers could at least undertake quests to remove their afflictions.  The removal of my curse depended upon the democracy of the gods, or required me to arrange the death of a family member.  If Auroras died, then I would be free of this curse.  I might have been willing to kill Voss in a duel, but I was not willing to kill my family.  Not for any reason.

There was one more method, of course.  But that required triggering it and returning to level one.  Screw that!

The charge that followed after me was ill performed, while the defensive wall that accepted the charge was disciplined and well coordinated.  Many bandits died, few of my allies did, but ultimately the bandits retreated, their objective of killing me abandoned as they instead ran about town causing havoc.

“You’re the kid Gem was talking about,” the leader at the temple said, pulling me aside.  “The NPC kid who can give us a map.”

“Are you talking about Jess?” I asked.

“Jess is a Gem,” he said.  “Can you give us an overwatch map or not?”

I frowned at him, and I shrugged.  “Let’s go find out together, shall we?”

Although it had been incorporated into the battleground, the Temple of Thedum was largely unchanged from before.  It was a place of shelter, and a large number of Natives were hiding inside.  When they saw me, they called out, and to the Traveler’s surprise our Morale suddenly jumped by three hundred points.

“Okay, that’s useful,” the temple commander said.  “I’m going to let the others know that even if we can’t use your map, we can parade you around to the places the locals are hiding and boost Morale.”

I shrugged and made my way over to the map table.  If being paraded around was the role I needed to play to win this war, I was fine with that.  But first, I needed to see if I could give my allies the map they craved.

The map table did nothing when I simply touched it, but responded immediately when I cast [Magical Seal: Personal Crest].  A prompt began flowing above it.

This Map was created with Divine Favor for Hail Jeoran.

Using Objects of Favor within Battlegrounds may be permissible depending on circumstances.

Seeking oversight approval.

Approval Received.

Note: Enemies may claim map functions by claiming this object for themselves.

Grant map functions to allies?

Yes

No

I quickly selected yes, and soon everyone in the room was looking at their system map.

“Okay, that’s a little bit better than I was expecting,” the temple commander commented.  “I’m going to get on the horn and call in some strike teams to the locations.  It seems that allof the instances just got access to the map, not just ours.  We’re going to pull this off after all.”

“Tell them to guard the temple,” I said urgently.  “The enemy gets access to the maps if they get in the temple.”

The commander turned to me, nodded, and began typing twice as urgently into the battlegrounds command chatroom.  “Good job, kid.  We’ll take it from here.”

I nodded at him, and I felt a sort of inward collapse as I realized that the situation was now completely out of my hands.  I had given my allies the one tool that they had lacked to win this fight, and all they needed to do now was claim victory.  I was just one spellblade.  And I had just gotten multiple reminders that while my class was powerful, it was not the only powerful class in the world, and it did not make me invincible.

The only reason I had survived to make it to the temple was due to [Draining Touch].  Without that ability, I would have died in my dash through Ebbyvale several times over.  I had been so reliant upon it during this battleground that I had leveled it all the way from level 2 after my duel with Nathan Voss to level thirteen after the completion of the Battleground.

I tried to remember the past hour in detail, and found that it was a blur.  Much more so than dungeons usually were.  I was a little startled to realize that I hadn’t felt this way since my first dungeon, when I had been overwhelmed in the aftermath of the rest of the party wiping.

After twenty minutes of waiting, I collapsed into my throne to wait out the conclusion of the battle.  And that, depending on how you look at it, was either a mistake, or a stroke of genius.

Victory is within your grasp!

68% of bandit forces have been captured or killed in combat.

Offer terms of surrender to your enemy?

Yes

No

I was confused for a moment, because the victory condition listed at the start of the battle was a 90% limit.  We were gaining ground quickly with the ability of my strike teams to hunt down the stragglers using their updated maps, but they were some ways away from winning yet.

“If Tervin Riley surrenders, and his lieutenants surrender with him,” I said, understanding that the chair was asking me for more than a yes or no answer, but for the terms I would put on the surrender, “Then they will be tried for their crimes of banditry, but I will commute any death penalty into life imprisonment for anyone who does not have the weight of a murder on their soul.  If they participate in the investigation into the corruption of the civil officials of North Shire, I may offer them chances to make restitution for their crimes and earn clemency.”

The yes button highlighted itself blue, and a second later it turned white as Tervin Riley accepted the terms.

Victory!

House Jeoran Wins!

Participation and Contribution Rewards will be Calculated and Awarded within 24 game hours!

Note: The Northridge Freelancers have surrendered and no longer exist as an organization.  All Reputation with this faction is void.

Note: This is an action which will resonate into the Near Future.

Note: This is an action which will not resonate into The Divergence

Title Awarded

Veteran of the Battle for North Shire