Trapped in a Game Pt. 04

We were perched atop a balcony very much like the one in the castle where Serra and I had fought earlier, and below was a great courtyard where an enemy party was taking on the master vampire.

"Unseen servant," I chanted softly.

It was a spell which allowed me to send forth an invisible apparition that I could use to as a minor tool of surveillance.

"Two fighters, a rogue, a wizard, and a priest," I whispered as I surveyed the scene through the eyes of my unseen servant, and David nodded at me in acknowledgement:

"Keep an eye on them," he muttered, before turning to the group, "we wait for an opening, then strike. We're not trying to kill anyone, but don't hesitate if you have to."

I momentarily turned my attention to David, when suddenly my unseen servant spell dissipated, and Serra, without warning, leapt onto me:

"What are you-?"

"Shield!" she yelled in a panic, and the yellow protective light formed around us just as something crashed into us hard, and we fell to the floor roughly as the shield shattered along with the stone about us.

I rubbed my head as my vision blurred warping my senses as the floor beneath seem to spin out of control.

"Wall of flame," Kelly chanted from somewhere behind us, and a column of fire went up ahead of us just as two more projectiles collided with the stone wall above us, shattering the stone and showering us with debris.

"What the fuck is that?" Pete asked, as I tried to get a hold of my senses.

"This doesn't make sense. They're outmatched and they know we're here, why would they attack?" Serra muttered with concern.

She seemed to be listening intently while she clung to me, and as I glanced over at Kelly I suddenly became aware that our hands were tightly intertwined.

I was about to pull away when I remembered Caliban's observation about the effect that it had on Serra.

Another projectile collided with the stone balcony in front of us and this time Serra nodded.

"Those are ballista bolts," she noted, and David gave a quick nod.

"Karn, we need to neutralize them," David called, but Serra was already up and readying her hammer to go.

"We'll handle it, just get the wizard and rogue under control."

She gave me a little nod as I cast enchant on my rapier, then with a deep breath, I chanted 'shade,' momentarily throwing the group into total darkness.

"What the fuck are you-?" Pete started, but with Serra's hand in mine and synergy activated, we were off, and without a second thought we darted through Kelly's wall of fire and leapt out over the balcony.

Serra wrapped herself around me, casting feather fall as we descended, and we landed just mere feet away from the fighters who were locked in combat with the vampire.

"What the fuck?" one yelled, and the other quickly lunged at us, swinging his sword wildly as the darkness engulfed him.

Serra danced effortlessly out of the way before swinging her hammer and striking him hard on the shoulder, and the other fighter quickly dropped back, trying to clear the radius of my spell.

"There," she muttered, as she located the ballista, and I nodded quickly taking ahold of her and readying my catapult spell.

How the hell did they keep that thing hidden? I thought to myself, as I launched Serra at superhuman speed in its direction, but the thought was short lived as Serra crashed, hammer first, into the machination, shattering it to pieces in one blow.

The fighter beside me tried to swing at me again, but the master vampire, who was completely unaffected by magical darkness, lunged at him, and he screamed in pain as the creatures wicked fangs sunk deep into his neck from behind.

I struck at him several times as he latched onto the fighter, wounding him, when a dart came flying at me from the left, and I ducked and rolled out of the way as several more projectiles came flying in my direction.

Their mage seemed about to cast something when a grappling hook suddenly landed at her feet, and I looked up as Karn came sliding down the rope with Pete in tow, and the two began to go at the mage as she began to cast protective spells, hoping to avoid their onslaught.

With the fighter down and out, I turned on the vampire, and Serra quickly leapt from the little ledge where the ballista had been, to rejoin me in my assault on the vampire.

"He was almost dead when we attacked," she noted, but as pressed him back with her smite-empowered hammer strikes, I suddenly caught sight of their priest lifting the symbol around his neck up above his head.

"Nightmare," I whispered directly into his mind, and he gave a little shriek as the attack on his mind interrupted his casting.

He seemed about to try again when a sheet of ice suddenly formed beneath him, and he began to struggle, doing a bit of a silly dance as his feet slipped across the smooth slippery surface, and I cast an impressed glance up at Kelly as she shrugged, and shot me a self-satisfied grin.

I returned my attention to Serra who was engaged now with the master vampire and the second fighter.

She caught my eye as I dashed in, and as the fighter swung a sword in her general direction, she smirked as she left herself open, and as I parried the blow from in front of her she swung her hammer down full on his head, and the helmet went flying as the fighter fell to the ground, clutching his head and writhing in agony.

We returned our attention to the master vampire when suddenly a little spark of flame appeared above us, and I dove into Serra, knocking her to the ground and rolling myself over her protectively just as it exploded above us into a ball of flame.

Serra coughed as the darkness around me dissipated, and as she tried to grasp her hammer it slipped from her hands which were now shaking.

"Enough- stop pushing yourself," I muttered, and she glared at me angrily between choked coughs, but the master vampire had fallen, and had already begun to wither away into a heaping pile of ember and ash.

I scanned the balcony above us, until a flash of movement caught my eye, and I spotted another cloaked figure on the lower balcony, across from where Dana and Kelly were supporting us with their spellcasting abilities.

I caught sight of her just as she raised her hands to cast another spell, and I quickly cut it off with my nightmare spell, but a cry came from the left, and I turned in its direction to see the rogue and the second fighter dashing away as David kneeled over an injured Pete.

Serra tugged at my shirt and I noticed that the spellcaster was trying to cast something again, but as I tried to cut her off once more with my nightmare spell, she smirked, and I scowled as the words echoed chillingly instead in my own mind.

She deflected the spell! I thought, and as she raised her hands, a swirling vortex of air seemed to be begin forming about us.

"Shit! Josh, we need to-" Serra began in a panic, but as lightning had begun to crackle about in the vortex, the cyclone suddenly dissipated, and the air itself seemed to still as a strange sensation of lightness took me.

I looked up at the spellcaster on the balcony to see a confused expression on her face, and a clamor began to echo down to us from the corridors that lead away from the grand hall as two robed figures suddenly swooped in from a balcony behind us, darting past us and towards the stairs that led up to the spellcaster in front of us.

Reinforcements? I thought to myself, but as I readied myself to engage them I noticed that one of the robed figures had thrown a dagger at the spellcaster on the balcony, and she quickly disappeared into one of the corridors up there that led away from the great hall.

"Who the hell are they?" I asked, thoroughly perplexed, but as I looked down at Serra I suddenly realized that there was a huge smile on her face.

"Mackenzie!" Serra called, as another robed figure sauntered into the main hall, and she pulled down her hood to reveal a short petite girl with a round face, her brown hair tied tightly into a ponytail, and as she grinned at Serra, waving at her happily, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Kelly landed softly beside me, a worried look on her face, but the reassuring smile I wore seemed to assuage her fears a bit.

"What's going on," she asked uncertainly, and I sighed as a wave of relief coupled with exhaustion washed over me.

"They're friends," I muttered, but as Serra tried to step forward, her legs shook a bit and I reached out to steady her.

Mackenzie whispered some orders to the other scout who had entered the hall behind her, and the man nodded before taking off down the corridor. She also gave a signal to the two who were now on the balcony where the enemy spellcaster had been, and the two nodded before heading further in.

"Who are these people?" Pete asked angrily, but David put a hand on his shoulder as he stepped forward:

"Whoever they are, they just saved our asses," he commented. "That spell; that was meteor storm, wasn't it?" he asked, and Serra nodded at him, a troubled look in her eyes.

"Meteor swarm?" Pete asked, and Kelly walked over to my side as she replied:

"It's an elementalist spell, and the highest level damage spell in the game. The radius is large enough to cover this entire hall. And if they hadn't put up an anti-magic field in time," she gestured at Mackenzie as she said this, "we'd probably be dead."

Pete settled down as David gave a little nod, confirming her observation, and I rubbed my chin thoughtfully as I processed the information.

Elementalists were limited spellcasters in that they specialized in high damage spells of the four elemental types; earth, wind, fire, and water, but while they were limited to only spells of these types, they were able to cast these spells consistently using the maximum amount of spell power available to them for their given level. Thus, while this was their main limitation, it was also what made them most dangerous; after all, a high level elementalist's fireball could easily hit as hard as two or three ordinary ones.

"That's not all that just happened," Serra muttered worriedly, drawing everyone's attention to her, "that was a max level meteor swarm."

"What? That's impossible," Karn cut in, incredulously. "No-one's seen a high tier spell in this game so far. How would you even know what a spell of that level looks like?"

Serra turned on him, haughtily, and I rolled my eyes a bit as I knew that despite her defiant facade she was just barely standing at this point.

"I've cast firestorm, actually; so I know what a high tier spell looks like."

He scoffed at her, disbelievingly.

"Even if you did, firestorm and meteor swarm are apples and oranges. A max level meteor swarm requires a max level character; this game is six months too young for that to be possible," Karn retorted, and Serra glared at him with her typical know-it-all smirk.

"Exactly. Think about that for a second. Did that girl even look like a high level player to you? Do you really think she was high enough level to even cast meteor swarm, much less at max level?"

Karn stared at her thoughtfully, then his eyes went wide as realization dawned on him.

"Shit," he muttered, and Pete looked around in confusion as the expressions around him suddenly shifted to wide eyed looks of fear.

"What? What does that mean?" he asked.

"It means," Kelly offered, "she either has a magic item which increased her magic capacity beyond what she was capable of, or one that allowed her to cast Meteor swarm without magical or materiel cost. Either way, no such item is supposed to exist in this game."

"Why not? There are items which allow us to cast spells even if we aren't spellcasters," he continued, but Karn stepped forward at this.

"Yes, but they all use the magic capacity of the item's user. You have an innate magic pool, whether you're a spell caster or not. That's why a low level character can still only cast low level spells. A low level character, with... whatever it is that girl just used, could have destroyed a mid to high level party in an instant. David, we need to-"

"Relax- my scouts are on it," Mackenzie cut in, and Karn looked to David who gave a little nod before adding:

"We're in no condition to chase, especially if these people can pull another high level spell out of the bag like that."

Karn bent over to pick up a fallen over chair, before taking a seat with a tired groan.

"Well then- does anyone wanna explain how everyone has been finding us today? This place was untouched when we came in. No one was supposed to know about it."

I quickly filled them in on the leak, and on the attacks that had been reported, including the one on us.

"You two killed a master vampire? Alone?" Pete asked incredulously, and Karn rolled his eyes.

"It's not impossible, Pete. Some people just prefer not risking their lives for glory in a death game."

Serra smirked at him before countering:

"Some people just don't suck at games, buttercup."

He was still scowling at Serra when-

"Guys, we need to look for Trevor," Pete cut in, "right Dana?"

Dana jumped at the mention, as if she'd only just been snapped from her thoughts.

"Uh- yeah," she mumbled uncertainly, and I rubbed my chin as I considered her reaction.

Dana and Trevor had been playing together, along with David, since long before this game.

When we met them back on the first day, they'd actually seemed pretty close.

I shot Kelly a curious glance, and a worried expression was plastered on her face as well, but as their group set about planning out how to proceed, Mackenzie cut in with a solution that could benefit everyone.

She led us to a nearby table and after sweeping all of the contents off of it, she pulled out a little stick of charcoal. She made a quick rough sketch of the lair, before pointing to three rooms that from what I could tell were on the upper levels of the subterranean hold.

"There are wards active in these three rooms which block all communication and location based magic within the lair. If we dispel them, we'll be able to communicate across the lair making it much easier to find your friend- and we'll be able to secure this lair without as much risk."

"Alright then," David responded thoughtfully, "let's break up into teams of two."

"Josh and I will-" Serra began, but I cut her off with a stern look:

"You're in no condition to do anything," I quickly countered, "you need to stay here and rest."

I almost put my hands up to cup her face as I spoke, but I caught Kelly's eyes on me and Serra suppressed a scowl as my hands fell back to my sides awkwardly.

"I have to stay here to rendezvous with my team anyway," Mackenzie added, "so it'll be safe for you to set up a tent and get some rest."

"There shouldn't be much risk anyway. That other party looked pretty wiped after the last fight," I added reassuringly.

"Fine- but don't do anything stupid," Serra countered, before reluctantly withdrawing from the planning space.

I left the table as well to prepare a quick meal for Serra, and as I set up her tent while she ate.

I even accompanied her into the tent and I noticed that she seemed quite pleased by the gesture.

"Caliban isn't back yet," she muttered, and I turned back to study her just as I was halfway out of the tent.

"You're worried?" I asked, genuinely surprised, and she rolled her eyes at me.

"Seriously Josh, he's a virtual monster. I'm not hopelessly sentimental like some people around here," she retorted dismissively, but I smiled with the knowledge that she cared a lot more than she was letting on.

Maybe you are human after all, I thought.

"I'll keep an eye out for him then," I called, chuckling to myself as I left the tent and made my way back to the table.

"What's the plan?" I whispered, as I slipped over to Kelly's side.

"I got us paired up," she responded with a little smile, "we're heading for the room close to the center of the upper floor."

As she spoke, she placed a hand on mine and suddenly I noticed that Dana's eyes were scrutinizing us, and I instinctively withdrew from Kelly.

She followed my gaze to where Dana was seated; next to Pete on the far side of the room, and she eyed me curiously before filling me in on the rest of the details.

Dana and Pete were to head for the room down the western corridors, while Karn and David would head for the library chamber to the far eastern side.

If any of us were to encounter enemy players on the way, we were to avoid direct confrontation by all means possible, and instead try to make it back to the main hall where Mackenzie would be able to back us up. However, after neutralizing the wards, communication would be restored inside of the lair, and we would be able to co-ordinate our search for Trevor from there.

So after a quick review of the plan, everyone got restocked with the necessary supplies, and we all headed off to our various targets.

***

"So... what was that about?" Kelly asked, as we walked carefully along a previously untraveled corridor.

I sighed, knowing full well that it had been on her mind since I pulled my hand away from her.

"When we found Dana, I told her I was looking for my sister," I muttered nervously, but the explanation didn't seem to appease her in the slightest.

"So what... are you ashamed of the way you feel about me?" she asked, and I breathed into my hands nervously as we continued along.

"You know that's not it- I just think we need to be careful. Not everyone is as open-minded as Serra."

"Hmn- Serra, huh? Quite the tender moment between you two earlier as well," she noted, and I looked away, embarrassedly.

"Are you jealous?" I asked.

"A little," she admitted, and I studied her, a little surprised.

"Really? The girl who spied on me and played with herself while watching me have sex with my girlfriend?"

She blushed, then leapt at my back just as I turned away.

"Well... even when you were 'getting intimate' with Tracey, I still knew I was the only girl in your heart... but lately its beginning to get a little crowded in here..." she whispered, tracing a finger across the left side of my chest as her warm breath warm washed over my neck. "I'm just a little worried. Are you sure you haven't... fallen for her?"

I shook her off, then studied her, noticing suddenly the subtle look of sadness behind the teasing smile she wore.

"I promise, I haven't," I muttered sincerely, "I mean, I do care about her, but-"

"Oh I know, I know... you always were the sentimental type," she noted, before walking up to me and putting her arms around my neck: "But I always loved that about you."

She pulled me closer, then leaned in to press her lips against mine.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, as I broke the kiss, but she merely shook her head, and she kissed me again.

"Loving someone makes you stronger... it's made you stronger. So don't apologize for having feelings. I keep telling you- I'm not Tracey. I don't need to possess you completely to be happy. So what if I'm a little jealous? You care about Serra, and that's a good thing... besides, I think I know what I wanna do with these jealous feelings," she finished with a wicked smile as we broke apart, and my eyes followed her stupidly as she sauntered ahead with a playful, provocative gait.

"You know, this isn't a safe zone," I chided her as I followed her lead, and she put a finger to her lips in a show of surprise.

"I know right, it's so naughty!"