78. Fog of War, pt2

My allies that were trapped inside the manor rallied, and we gave the bandits hell when they tried to retreat outside.  Whether they had realized that I was outside, or they were simply trying to reclaim their spawn points before we shut them all down, I don’t know.

My group of almost twenty managed to claim Bandit Spawn Point 2 after a brief battle against a force of nine bandits, but we lost two.  One of our mages, and a warrior.  Unfortunately, we had only just managed to capture it when my generals informed me that a large force was heading for us.  They were being chased by our allies from inside the manor, but if they targeted me they would likely be able to focus me down even with our two healers doing everything they could to keep me alive.

So we split up again.  Six of my allies stayed behind to try to finish capturing the spawn point, while the rest of us ran off at an angle from the incoming enemies.  They promptly got slaughtered, according to my generals, but they held on long enough to turn the spawn point for our side, forcing the enemies to spend effort reclaiming it.  Skirmishers from my side kept sweeping in from the other two spawn points we had captured and the manor itself, and Bandit Spawn Point 2 became a flash point.  Even after the spawn point reverted to their control, more than thirty of the enemy forces were bunched up in one place defending.  Defending, and not chasing after me.

Another party managed to recapture our forward spawn point that we had lost early in the battle, which surprised me.  But one of our spawn points inside the manor fell.  I thought it would be amusing if we somehow completely swapped all of our spawn points, so that the bandits were stuck spawning inside the manor while my allies were all outside.  But ultimately that part of the battle didn’t matter; I was certain that even if we lost all of our spawn points and ran out of Morale points completely, we could still win the battle simply by hanging on until the bandits ran out of leaders.

I was determined to win.  And I was a little annoyed that the strategy that would hand me that victory was to flee danger while my Traveler friends covered me.  I wanted to fight!

We came across a small party of bandits running to recapture Bandit Spawn Point 4.  There were eight of them.  Including myself, my party numbered eleven.  Despite our superior numbers, the smart move, I knew, would have been to retreat before they realized that they’d stumbled upon their target.  Impulsively, I charged forward, sword bursting aflame as I imbued it.  I screamed a challenge, and the surprised bandits turned to face me just.

“Holy shit, it’s the kid,” one of them exclaimed.

One of the mages on my team hit them with their own [Concussive Sound] spell, and I danced among them, [Slashing] and [Thrusting] with my flaming sword.  I was glowing golden from protective magics that the healers on my team cast on me, and surrounded by lightning as the mages followed up the [Concussive Sound] spell with a series of [Chain Lightning].

The two warriors in my group [Charged] in to join us, and one of them let out a [Battle Shout].  The rogue tried to ambush one of their healers again, but one of their mages managed to [Polymorph] him into a rabbit.  I switched to [Arcane Weapon] and [Dashed] to confront the healer, since my rogue friend was unable to focus him down, but they kept dancing away from me, so I [Swiftcasted] [Befuddle] instead and turned back to the Duelist who was trailing me.

She was skilled, maybe better with a sword than I was, but not by much, and I had two healers propping me up.  We traded blows, her sword unable to pierce through the protective spells that enveloped me, while I whittled her health down bit by bit.  When I failed to catch up with the healer, I had switched to [Imbue Sword: Ice], but when the duelist dropped below thirty percent health, the healer who had avoided me gave her some attention.  A quick heal brought her back to sixty percent health, and a heal over time effect would have stalled out my damage if I hadn’t switched back to [Arcane Weapon] to disrupt it.

We did not fight in isolation.  The warrior on the other team [Charged] me, but I managed to dance away for long enough to hit him with a [Slow], and one of the warriors on my side was able to interpose themselves to keep him from harassing me too much.  Spells from the enemy mages landed on me, including an annoying [Slow], but my duelist friend had also been slowed by one of the mages on my team, so we were still on equal footing.  I wasn’t able to keep the entire fight in focus, however.  Instead, I narrowed my focus on killing the duelist, and trusted my companions to take care of everyone else.

That was a mistake.

I did kill the duelist, in the end.  But one of their rogues had killed one of my healers.  The [Polymorph] on our rogue was broken and he caught the mage who had cast it on him.  My mages managed to focus down their healer and kill him.  But they didn’t outlive him by long.  With one of our healers dead and the other panic healing me, my allies began to die one by one.

We won, but it was a pyrrhic victory.  Two of my three generals fell in battle.  The one who survived, a mage, was greatly annoyed by my impulsiveness, and the only reason she stopped giving me suggestions on how I could realign my anatomy to better match my intelligence was to try to reassert control over the groups which the defeated generals had been coordinating.

Aside from her, my rogue friend had survived, and a warrior, and the healer.  That was it.  I was not proud to realize that my impulsivity in charging the group, thinking that superior numbers would be enough, might cost us the entire battle if we were stumbled upon by another group before we could reinforce ourselves.

“We’ve got to move, quickly,” the rogue said.  “There’s a good chance one of them managed to call out our location before they died.  We need to Gee Tee Eff Oh before backup arrives.  As in full on sprint.”

“Let’s fall back into the manor,” I suggested.  “Now that the Bandits are focused on the forest, maybe we can slip in under their noses and wait them out again.”

We slipped back inside through one of the hidden entrances that led to the very wine cellar that I had plundered hours ago.  And we hid, like cowards.  It rankled on me, but I knew that it was the right tactic.  I pulled up the menu again and examined our situation.

The other instances had been doing well.  The bandits were down to nine leaders.  I wished that I could do more than simply sit there and wait for them to win, that I could give them some sort of aid, encouragement, advice, anything.

Ten minutes passed, and another three bandit leaders were driven off.  My remaining general was shouting over voice chat at all of the ‘idiots and noobs,’ but we had more or less evened out our Morale once more.  The fighting was fierce all over the estate, but as long as I was in hiding, the bandits had no chance of winning.

Two more bandit leaders were driven off in swift order before we were discovered.  We were so close to victory when a small band of bandits burst into the cellar from the rooms above.  There were six of them, but they were also being chased by a small group of my allies.  Caught between my group and their pursuers, we swiftly ejected them from the battleground, but they died shouting out my location over voice chat.  The cellar was no longer safe, but I had gained six more escorts from the pursuing force.

“Let’s fall back to spawn point 3,” one of the new travelers suggested.  “They’ll probably rush us if we stay here, the spawn point is slightly more secure.”

It was a good idea, so we followed her.  Right into an ambush.  I don’t think it was treachery, I think it was just bad luck.  Just as we entered the hall leading to the spawn point, we were surrounded and outnumbered on both sides.  My general began screaming over voice chat calling for backup.  My response was to try to break through the bandits to reach the relative security of the spawn room, but first I peppered the wall of bandits with my flash-bang combo and a slurry of [Slows] and [Befuddles].

It wasn’t enough.  I was getting focused on by both my enemies and the healers on my side.  My health flickered rapidly between full and almost dead.  Without the constant stream of healing, I would have puffed into mist immediately.  I was resigned to my loss, but unwilling to meet it meekly.  I danced through my enemies, sword crackling with lightning, determined to do as much damage as I could before my end.

Reinforcements arrived with not a second to spare, including a familiar face.  Corinth sprinted into the melee, a stupid grin on his face as he interposed himself between me and an archer.  [I’ll Take a Bullet For You] activated, and his blade began faintly glowing red as the damage buff aspect of his boon activated.

There was no time for words.  He covered my back, soaking spells and arrows meant for me while slashing about with his particular style of swordsmanship.  I pushed forward with my own skills, my sword flashing as my active skills ripped through the health of my opponents.  With his boon, Corinth turned the tide even more than the four other allies who joined the battle simply by reducing the damage I was taking and relieving the pressure on our healers.  His boon only worked when the damage wasn’t directed at him.  Perhaps they should have focused him down before turning their attention back to me, but the bandits never seemed to figure that out.

We ripped through one half of the pincer attack, and rather than fleeing into the spawn room, we doubled back to finish off the stragglers.  More Travelers, bandits and allies both, streamed into the hallway.  The air was thick with magic and the metallic taste of ozone that followed active skills.  There were too many bodies to charge through.  Travelers were puffing into mist left and right, but for every one that was ejected from the battleground two more joined them.

I had multiple healers doing nothing but constantly spamming me with spells.  Without their healing and Corinth’s protection, it would have ended there.  The situation was desperate, and I felt certain that this was the end.  And I was right, but for the wrong reason.

Abruptly, all magic failed.  Skills stopped mid-activation.  I was locked in place, and a quick glance showed that so was everyone else.  Just as I was wondering what was happening, a popup from the system answered my unasked question.

Victory!

House Jeoran Wins

Participation and Contribution Rewards Will Be Calculated and Awarded Within 24 Game Hours.

Prepare for Teleportation Back to Your Original Zone.

I blinked in surprise.

I … won.  I looked up at Corinth, who had a smug grin on his face.  For a moment, then he vanished into mist and light.  One by one, every Traveler in the room vanished as the system returned them to wherever they’d been when they’d been waiting to participate in the battleground.  Before long it was my turn, and I felt the brief disorientation I’d come to associate with the Fast Travel system.

It didn’t bring me very far.  When I rematerialized, I was standing outside of the manor.  Not on the doorstep where I’d used the Dungeon Core, but on a small hill some distance away.  I was alone, and the manor was burning.

I’d said earlier that I didn’t care about the mansion, and that it wouldn’t matter to me even if the bandits burned it to the ground.  That was still true, but watching Mooncrest manor burn didn’t feel like a victory to me.  It was depressing, so I decided to leave.  I pulled up my Fast Travel menu, and a moment later I was very far away.