The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen (19 page)

That left the mages, to be our eyes.

"Most of the minor goblins were about dead," said Ethan after some time. "The guards were near full health at the end thanks to the priests though."

"The priests and archers were basically at full health," echoed the frost mage.

Ah, so our Area of Effect strategy wasn't good enough.

Not with the priests still up, but that was expected.

"How about you, Alan?" I questioned sincerely. "See anything?"

"Nope, too busy healing you," he replied.

By the time we made it back to the fifth floor and entered the boss's room, all fourteen goblins were standing pretty in the same position as before. They had been reset and spawned at full health and with full numbers.

Yeah, we wouldn't get the easy way out.

It would be too convenient for the minions not to respawn.

"So, what do we do?" asked Barik as he checked the condition of his shield.

"I don't think freezing rain will work here," I bluntly stated. "May have worked alright for some of the earlier fights, but we need to burn targets here not outlast them."

"Can't kite the boss either, it'll just leash," Barik explained.

"Yeah, we need some changes."

Strategy was almost always left to me, but it was a group discussion and all input was valued. Unfortunately some of the guys weren't very vocal, which kind of hurt the process. Racking my brain trying to think of a way to fix our issues, the only thing that came to mind was having a mage solo the minor goblins or splitting into two groups.

Friendly fire was a real issue.

We needed the priests and archers taken care of before we could worry about the guards or the boss. From there, I wasn't sure what should be focused first. Generally, if the guards could fall quickly you took them out, but if the boss did the most damage, then it needed to go. From our five second sample size, there wasn't enough information to plan around. I was at a loss on what to do.

This sucked.

"Positioning, let's start there," I exclaimed with some confidence.

"Yeah?" asked Ethan curiously.

"Need to ensure the priests die first, then the archers," I started to explain. "I think I can manage the minor goblins with my discharge to buy time for you guys to rotate after, but I can't do much to defend against arrows I can't see."

"Aye, this fucking ash and smoke has me fighting nearly blind," complained Barik, to everyone's surprise. "I can't see shit with my eyes watering, hard enough as it is."

That was the truth.

The environment was terrible, and the lousy conditions only increased the difficulty of the fight… we were already at a serious disadvantage before the fight even began. Toss in the huge number discrepancy and I was starting to wonder at what level were the developers expecting us to clear the damn place.

Ridiculous scenario, is ridiculous.

"Okay, how about this," I said with some enthusiasm as an idea hit me. "Ethan get up on the far right side, so you can easily and quickly flame spike in a straight line. Use flame wave first, of course, focusing on the secondary line. Follow up with a fire blast on the priest, if it happens to still be alive."

Scratching my head, I needed to figure out what to do with our frost mage.

Glancing at the frost mage, I got his attention then decided to explain his role, "do you think you can just fan far out to the left, get an angle on the other priest, and frost bolt nonstop on the priority targets? You're more efficient once you get rolling, right?"

"Yep, I'll get my chaining bonus and it's more mana efficient for a long fight."

As he nodded in agreement, his role was now solidified.

That left Barik and me.

"You're good with the chief," I said as I looked at Barik.

"Right, I can handle him for a bit," he replied with a grin.

"That just leaves me," I mumbled as I tried to think of the best place to tank all the little guys. "You know what, let's get all three of you casters to the right, I'll take the minions and the guards and pull them to the left, and Barik will take the chief where it is. Since the priests and archers won't move, you'll have line of sight, easy."

"Splitting the mobs?" asked Barik, with a tilt of his head.

"Yeah, I can kite with discharge and maybe even get a secondary spell off."

"Right, sounds good," he replied with a nod.

With everything settled, our strategy had changed slightly but not entirely. There weren't any boss mechanics that we were aware of yet, and it seemed likely that the primary difficulty was in the numbers. A technically difficult fight would probably come later in the game, for now it was a matter of overpowering creatures when outnumbered.

My faith in the group hadn't been shaken.

I was still confident we could pull it off.

"Hey, let me have one of those extra shields," I said somewhat randomly before we settled into position. Slinging a [Cracked Aspis] on my back and tightening the straps around my chest, I made sure that it was snugly in place. Keeping my [Old Aspis] attached to my left arm, I was now rocking two shields. With my [Crude Iron Hand Axe] in my right hand, I was now ready to go. My back was defended whether or not I paid any attention to it, my left would be easy to guard, and my right would depend on my ability to deftly parry and deflect.

All in all, it was something I could work with.                                                   

My overall dexterity was impaired and my shoulders and elbows couldn't move quite as freely, but that didn't matter. I wouldn't need full flexibility this fight. Mainly, I needed to survive attacks from all directions.

Especially, the not so wayward arrows… those spelt doom for me.

"Alright, let's get this shit show started," I said with some oomph.

Stretching my arms out and yawning once for good measure, I brought my hands together as I lowered into my stance. Knees bent, legs shoulder-width apart, elbows tucked in, and palms touching as a spark jolted them apart. The ash and smoke that clouded my vision was nothing more than a filtered screen as I began to focus. Eyes watering, the chief was my intended target.

The damp and dank, dimly lit surroundings were somewhat cramped and barely gave us room to maneuver but we would make do. The flames danced as an intense bright white light started to radiate from my hands, drowning out the weak torches that littered the cave walls. The black and gray rock interior clearly visible as lightning had gathered between my fingertips and illuminated everything around me. What came next would be deafening, with the cave walls amplifying the thunder and echoing throughout.

Ears would ring, but mine always rang.

"Through power…" I started to mutter, so only I could hear it.

And then at the peak, with power overwhelming me, I could no longer contain it. Thrusting both arms forward with a yell not vocalized, the silence of my scream masked by the thunderous roar of the chain lightning that pierced through the ranks of the minor goblins, crashing into the largest singular goblin standing at the center. Lightning spread like living tendrils as it arced, jumped, and bounced, connecting four other victims in its web of destruction.

The goblins panicked and shook as the paralysis temporarily took over their bodily functions, and in that moment where wide-eyed minor goblins looked back in confusion, flames washed over them in their entirety, sending them into psychological shock. Goblins burned and in the midst of those flames, I dove into the center of them all and shouted my taunts, commanding all of their manic desires to mutilate me.

I gave them a target to satiate their rage.

They charged, mouths open with spittle dripping and flying free as they cursed their profanities in broken English, completely consumed by their anger and blind to what I had in store. As the first wave crashed into me, I knocked a goblin flat onto its back with a shield bash, breaking its nose with the impact as blood dripped down onto my boot.

Swinging my right arm out and downwards I met another goblin's sword and parried with the hefty weight of my axe driving it back. Swords from every direction came next, three thrusts towards my midsection with two from the top, all easily avoidable as I double stepped backwards.

A simple dodge, I countered with a swing of my axe only to pullback and roll to the side, a feint to scare the minors as one of the guards lunged forth and attempted to impale me. The second guard followed up with a heavy thrust that was out of reach as I continued to sidestep and backtrack. Arrows flew left and right as I watched for a tell-tale sign of healing, that golden light that would envelop and enshroud a goblin, but it never came.

Another two thrusts from the spears, barely dodged as one clipped the side of my armor and sent my insides twitching reactively to the side, squirming to avoid the pain that would have followed. A sigh of relief without the sigh, as there was no time to waste, and then, pain registered in my chest as an arrow had hit just beneath my collarbone.

Gritting my teeth, I continued my retreat, falling back until I heard the thud of the wall behind me hitting the shield strapped to my back. The soft thud barely discernible amidst the sounds of goblins screaming and swords clanging and clashing, but the impact clearly reverberated through my body as it startled me and distracted me.

A sword flashed across my face as my attention was brought back, my cheek stinging from the gash as my mouth felt as if it were split in two. Mouth burning and stinging, I winced as my mask fell to the floor. The ash that had been wafting through the air soon entered my lungs and caused me to nearly choke from the sudden change.

A cough, followed by a blur and a twitch reaction as I threw my shield up, blocking a sword's slash as it bounced harmlessly off. My health was fine, but my stamina was suffering with every hit. Another sword swing came from my left, and I blocked it with ease. Then two more swords from the right, deflected with my axe.

One sword stabbed through my thigh, then two glanced off my chest as I kept my eyes on the spears in front of me. There were too many swords to watch, and I was slowly being overwhelmed. A heavy thrust soon followed and with it, the opportunity to counter arrived. Jumping forward and ducking to the side, I rolled on the ground with my shield arm helping to absorb the impact and creating a small bounce at the same time. In a split-second I had traversed the ground between the goblins and the wall and quickly took a knee behind them.

They turned their eyes first as their heads and bodies began to follow, free arms waving in the air with weapons last. I was ready for them, they were a step slow. Curled up with my arms brought in, electricity formed around me and immediately began to circulate and expand in a field.

I only had half a second to go.

A spear came quickly as I held my ground, believing in my cast time.

As if everything was in slow motion, the spear inched closer millisecond by millisecond as I watched the lightning field expand around me, finally reaching critical mass and exploding in electrically charged brilliance. The instantaneous snap of thunder beat only by the flash of light that accompanied the discharge.

Every goblin in front of me was flung violently back into the rock wall just four feet away. Swords were dropped from the impact and even the guards were shaken beyond a reasonable degree. The momentum of their charge, disrupted and repelled by the expanding force of my lightning, all culminating in the sudden collision with an immovable wall.

Necks had snapped back and forth as heads and bodies collided with the solid wall behind them. Sounds were muffled by the electricity coursing through their veins, as minor goblins fell to the floor, some dead, some stunned. Those that lived, were rendered temporarily immobile.

They stared at me with those wide hourglass eyes, baring their fangs and clutching their heads and spade-like ears. Then two guards stood up, readying their shields and spears once more, with only a slight hesitation showing as they grew weary and wary. Caution had crept into their minds, as their reaction times were dulled by the thought process that second-guessed their every action.

Sticking to instinct and reacting off muscle-memory, I was now faster.

Spears thrust in my direction were slow, as my senses were heightened from adrenaline. Twisting to avoid the trajectory of the spear tip, I retaliated with a fury of my own. Rage had started to consume me as I wanted to inflict as much pain on them as they had done unto me.

I needed to reciprocate the favor that they had shown me.

A single minor goblin stood up first, only to stand without a head as it rolled on by.

Then another jumped up, with a sword swung immediately after… only for the sword to find itself without an owner as a hand fell to the floor. A third goblin was up, the same one with a broken nose and blood dripping across its face. Leaning in with a second shield bash, I sent it into the wall as its head was crushed between the two forces. Stepping back, there was a fourth minor goblin still alive on the floor but a swift kick and hack into the back of its neck ended it right then and there.

A heavy thrust and a lunge came from the guards but I blocked and deflected simultaneously, all the while shifting my feet so as to get an angle on the one-handed goblin clutching and screaming. A quick slash and it reacted, shifting its one hand from its other arm to its neck as blood seeped out. And then just as I had turned my attention back to the two guards that were now left, a bolt of bluish-white frost fluttered on by as frost flakes floated on down to the ground below.