Trapped in a Game Pt. 08

"Doesn't mean we might not need them," Serene replied, and Jessie frowned.

"You. Stalker boy. With me," she said, and I shot a quick glance at Serene who shrugged.

"Fine. You're responsible for him, though," she said, and Jessie smirked, before grabbing my hand and pulling me with her toward the trapdoor which opened up to the innards of the ship.

We passed a series of cabins, then headed down another staircase, to a room which looked something like a boiler room.

"Is this just here for the aesthetics too?" I asked, and Jessie grinned.

"More or less. Here, we're taking cannon balls from this storage chest and loading them onto the cannons," she said, indicating to a container, which opened up into a kind of limited inventory.

The cannonballs, however, I noted, could only be sent to the chest inventory, and had to be carried by hand otherwise.

It was an interesting mechanic to say the least.

"There's a rack next to each cannon. Can hold about five to seven cannonballs, depending on whether or not we upgraded 'em."

She showed me how to load one up, then turned to leave.

"Oh, one more thing; turn off the manual fire function, so cap'n can fire them herself when she needs to," she said, and I nodded.

I finished loading up the first cannon, however as I pulled up the canon interface, I didn't immediately see a way to do as Jessie had instructed.

Hmm. Let's see. This says manual fire. Maybe this is it? I thought, but as I hit the button a cannonball burst forth from the weapon, making a thunderous boom as it did, and Jessie poked her head out at me, a stupefied expression on her face.

"Fucking hell, man. Tap on the rack for the fire options, not the goddamn canon," she said, and I rubbed the back of my head, as I chuckled nervously.

We finished loading what appeared to be somewhere between twelve to fifteen canons, and as we got back to the main deck, Serra grinned at me.

"Please tell me that misfire was you, Joshie!" she cried, and as I nodded reluctantly, she leapt at me, poking my face teasingly.

"It was an easier mistake to make than you might think," I said defensively, and she giggled.

"So typical!"

As she teased me, Kelly shot me a quick smile, and I blushed.

Maybe she's coming around? I thought, as she broke away from me, and took another look through her spyglass.

"It looks like we beat those huge waves at least," she said. "Whirlpool didn't follow us either."

Serene nodded, when a call from Ethan drew her attention.

"Cap! You won't believe this! It's Muziris! Dead ahead."

She pulled up her map, then frowned.

"What're you thinking?" I asked.

"That I'm probably going to have to retire if this whole thing was just me overreacting to a map reset," she replied.

"You might wanna put that retirement on hold," Serra said, as she aimed her spyglass in the direction of the port city, up head. "Take a look for yourself."

Serene looked through her own spyglass, then frowned, a disturbed expression on her face.

"What the fuck is seriously going on?"

"What is it?" I asked, as I glanced between the two.

"There's no one on the docks," Serra answered, and I sighed.

Are we in the twilight zone? I thought to myself.

"Do we dock still?" Jessie asked, and Serene nodded.

"Maybe everyone just left? Who knows? If the supplies are still there though, then maybe we can load up some harpoons and food stuff."

She turned to me.

"Can I count on your guys for support?" Serene asked, and I turned to Serra, who quickly nodded.

"Yeah. We'll do what we can."

"Okay. I want two groups. Preferably people who can move quickly. Jessie, you'll lead one, and Watkins will lead the other. Watkins, secure whatever you can for food; take as much as you can find. And Jessie?"

"Yes Captain?"

"Find me some goddamn harpoons," she ordered, and the girl gave her a salute.

"Aye, aye, Cap'n."

"Always with the fucking pirate talk..." Serene muttered under her breath.

"Okay. You're with me, stalker."

"I'll come with too," Serra said, and Jessie studied her carefully, as if sizing her up.

"Ain't you a priest, or whatever? I'm not really sure you can keep up," Jessie said, and as I let out a sudden laugh, she shot me a questioning look.

"I'm sorry. Serra, try not to slow us down, will ya?" I said, and she glared at me.

"Sure thing," she said, withdrawing her hammer, and stroking it in anticipation.

"Aleisha. Are you up for another expedition?" I asked, and the girl sighed.

"I might not be, but it probably beats sitting on my ass," she replied, and I shot her an apologetic glance.

"Okay; we'll split the mages up between the two groups. Aleisha, you'll come with us; Karn, you as well. Diego, you're with them, and David, you can protect Watkins' group with Diego."

Everyone nodded in agreement with their assignments, as I turned to Kelly.

"Do you mind keeping an eye on things from here? If something happens, you can fly over to wherever you're needed in a pinch."

Kelly nodded, and Serra shot me a teasing look.

"What?" I said, as she sauntered over to me.

"Look at you, all giving orders and taking charge. I think I'm falling in love all over again," she whispered, and I chuckled nervously.

"I have a suggestion," Mackenzie offered, seemingly stepping into the group out of nowhere. "I'll take two of my scouts and try to figure out what's going on. We'll sweep the city, then try to get a view of what the world out there looks like beyond Muziris."

"Sounds good," I said, glancing at Serene, who nodded her approval.

She brought the ship's speed down a bit as we entered the harbor, and the rest of her crew made the preparations for docking.

"We've got a few lower level spellcasters on standby, so watch the ship for spells since we won't be able to communicate over long distances. Black means something's happened; and green means whatever it is was resolved. Red means get your asses back here," Serene said, and I nodded.

"Ethan! How are we looking up there?" she called.

"Deader than the dead sea! There's nobody around!"

Serene turned to us, as the ship finally came to a stop.

"Don't fuck around, Jess. Get what we need, and get back here. Same goes for everyone else! Be on your toes!"

A few murmurs of agreement sounded, and then we were off.

"Where are we headed?" I asked, and Jessie pulled up her map.

"Fucking map is just blank. Never mind, I know the way so just follow me."

We moved between the warehouses until we came to the staircase which led from the lower area of the docks, to the upper level, where the shops and stalls wound along the streets.

"Harpoons aren't in the warehouses?" I asked, and she shook her head.

"Those warehouses can't be looted. That's why there're so many, and all full to capacity," she explained.

As we moved past, I noted that the shops weren't closed at all... rather, it seemed as if everything had just been left as it was, and everyone just left.

"Yeah, I see it," Serra said, as I turned to her, and she wrinkled her brow worriedly as she cast a quick glance back at the ship.

As we moved through the streets, Jessie cast a few furtive glances about.

"Are you lost, or what?" I asked, and she frowned.

"Would like to see you find a specific tent in this mess without map pins," she said, until her eyes lit up.

"Found it!"

We followed as she dashed toward a stall which had various weapons and implements on display, and Jessie quickly made her way inside, only to pop her head back out.

"Hey, stalker boy. You good with your hands?" she asked, and I rubbed the back of my head.

"Do you mean my dex stat?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Come help me with something."

Serra smirked at me a little, and I let out a sigh.

"If it's important, you should probably ask the priestess instead," I replied, and Jessie shot me a confused look.

"You're a tempest, right? And her dex is higher than yours?"

I nodded, and she shook her head disbelievingly in response.

"Fucking hell, I'm really starting to doubt your 'legendary' credentials. What about you, bounty hunter?"

Karn shook his head.

"You'll want to see what the priest can do before you go making assumptions about our stats," he replied, and Jessie turned to study Serra.

"Hm. Fine then. Follow me," she ordered, and Serra disappeared into the depths of the tent with Jessie.

"How deep do you think this mess is?" Karn asked, and I frowned.

"No clue. Back when I was stuck in a situation like this with Dana, we couldn't really do much but sit around and wait... only there's nobody out there to swoop in and save us, this time, huh?"

Aleisha rubbed her hands nervously, when suddenly we noted a green glow emanating from the ship.

"Doesn't green mean something was resolved? Did we miss a signal?" Aleisha asked, and I swallowed nervously as I studied the development.

"I don't think our low level spellcasters can cast something like that," I said. "Serra?"

"Give us a sec~!" Jessie called back, but as I studied the green glow, I noticed that the spell looked to be a pentagram encircled by runic symbols, and I immediately realized what was going on.

"Get out here!" I called. "Someone's cast a movement seal on the ship!"

Jessie dashed out of the tent, and as she looked down towards the docks, she shook her head.

"That will never hold a ship," she said.

As she retrieved her spyglass, and looked down there, however, her expression quickly changed.

"Fuck. They really can't move the ship... Serra! How long before you-?"

"Done," she said, as she emerged from the tent.

Jessie shot her a dubious look, before dashing into the tent, and returning with a seriously impressed look on her face.

"Well, we've got ourselves some harpoons. Let's get back to the ship!" Jessie said, but no sooner had she finished talking than a huge, black cloud of smoke went up somewhere off to our right.

"Jesus. Is that the other group?" Aleisha asked, and I glanced back at the ship, for a bit of perspective.

There was still no word from the ship itself, was there?

Did that mean they had it under control?

Or was the situation so bad that they couldn't cast spells either.

"Serra. That movement restriction rune... could anti-magic properties be added to it?" I asked, and she nodded.

"If a player made it, no... but a danger-class monster could definitely pull that off," she replied.

"Where do we head?" I asked, and Serra furrowed her brow, before nodding.

"Let's get back to the ship," she said, and we continued on.

We headed down the path, until we came to the last few rows on the edge of the bazaar, when it happened.

"Grrrawwwhhhhh."

Everyone stopped dead, then glanced between each other, trying to figure out who, or what rather, had made the sound.

Then a bit of dirt cracked somewhere off to my right, and just as it did, the earth around us began to crackle, and crumble, as if something were tunneling beneath the surface.

"Burrowers?" I asked, and Serra shook her head.

"Night of the living dead," she replied, lifting her hammer, and striking the ground.

"Smite!" she chanted, and as the blow struck the ground, a wave of light exploded around us in a twenty-foot radius.

The earth went still, and she nodded at us.

"Let's run, shall we?" she said, and as she took off, Jessie shot me a look.

"You guys weren't fucking around about this priest, huh?"

I snickered at her, but as we ran, I noted that more and more bits of earth were cracking up around us, as undead began to rise up from the ground.

"You know, I was under the impression that the raise dead spell required corpses to function," Karn said, and Serra snickered at him.

"Do you know how Muziris came to be?" she asked, and the man shot her a questioning look.

"Wasn't it designed by the game makers?" he asked, and Serra shook her head.

"This was a monster zone. Hobgoblins, to be exact... but the location was just too convenient. It got farmed to the ground until eventually, they just stopped spawning. People began selling goods here, and ships started ferrying people through here to get to Hanamachi, and across the Eastern Reach. Then, it turned into a safe zone, and officially became a town."

"Christ. Didn't know that was possible," Karn replied, and Serra shot him a look.

"Even after everything else we've seen in this game?" she asked.

"Fair enough."

As we got to the top of the stairway, a few of the hobgoblin undead were out of the ground, and starting to move, so we decided to quickly dispatch the lot of them, but as soon as we were done, Serra shot me a worried look.

"This is where everyone gets through to the ship. We need to make sure they don't bunch up here."

She glanced over at where another group was emerging from the ground, then back at me.

"Take Jessie back to the ship," Serra said. "Find out what's going on. Karn, you and Aleshia with me. Let's try to keep this from spiraling out of control."

Aleisha shot me a pleading look, and I shot her a reassuring smile.

"You'll be fine with Serra. She's like, the best player in this game," I said, patting her shoulder, and she nodded, as I continued, "we'll be back as soon as we figure out what's up. Use a firebolt to signal us, okay?"

Aleisha nodded, and the three headed off to fight as Jessie and I made for the ship.

"Whoa! Don't come near the circle!" Ethan yelled, as soon as we got within range.

"What the fuck is going on?" Jessie yelled back.

"Some kind of magic rune. Restricts movement, anti-magic; and you can get out of it, but you take damage if you try to get back in!"

"Who tested that?" Jessie asked, and he pointed in the direction of the other group.

"Some kid called Gino. He went to get the other wizard. Diego, was it? You should go get them. There was some black smoke a while back."

Jessie swore under her breath.

"You need to tell Cap something's raising zombies out there."

"Did she say zombies?" the captain yelled, from somewhere below deck, and Ethan shouted in reply to her.

"Jess!" the captain yelled, as she appeared on the edge of the deck. "We can't do shit about this circle. Even the wizard might not be able to dispel it. If there's zombies then there's gotta be a necromancer lord, or something. We need to find him and break his concentration, or we're stuck here!"

"Aye, aye, cap!" Jess yelled. "Any ideas?" she asked, turning to me, and I rubbed my chin.

"I've got a long-range detection spell, but I need to be closer to make sure I don't waste it."

"What? Can't cast it twice?" she asked, and I snickered.

"Don't know much about tempests, huh? We don't have much spells outside of some utility/support stuff, and the tempest only ones that we do have drain through our magic faster than Serra cracking that chest."

"Wow. By the way, we need to have a chat about how she did that without any tool proficiencies," she said, and I snickered again.

"Let's try to meet up with your buddies' group first. That might be a better spot for me to scan from," I offered, and she nodded.

As we climbed up the stairs, we ran into Serra, Aleisha and Karn, who had just finished up another group of undead.

"How does it look?" I asked, and Serra frowned.

"They aren't particularly tough, but it's like playing whack-a-mole. We're managing them well enough, but it's a never-ending stream. What's the situation with the ship?"

"Anti-magic, movement restrained; oh, and there's a magical barrier preventing re-entry once you leave."

"Can it be dispelled?"

"Serene thinks it'll be difficult. We're heading to-"

"-find the necromancer lord?" Serra finished, and I nodded, chuckling nervously.

She cast a quick look beyond us, at another wave of shambling dead.

"You. Jessie. Help keep things under control. Josh and I will hunt the necromancer."

"Wha- but I wanted to do it," she whined, and I snickered at her.

"We're only legends when we fight together," I said, and she folded her arms.

"Besides; I'm anti-undead. Would be stupid if I didn't go," Serra added as if it were obvious, and Jessie finally relented.

"Fine, fine," she said, waving us away, but as we dashed off in the direction of the smoke we'd seen earlier, Jessie shot me a longing look.

"What's her deal?" Serra asked, and I snickered.

"I think she just wanted to see what supposed legends looked like in a fight," I answered, shrugging, and Serra rolled her eyes.

"I know I promised I'd make you famous, but this is a bit much," Serra answered, somewhat annoyed, and I chuckled in response.

"It's not my fault you keep making me look good-"

"Watch out!"

I felt myself being swept off of my feet before I knew what was happening, and something whizzed past my face, just narrowly missing me, as Serra and I rolled down a small bit of stairs.

I drew my rapier, and went on alert, as a bone devil glowered at me from the top of the stairs.

It summoned a glowing green javelin, and as it got ready to launch it, Serra leapt towards me, and without thinking twice, I chanted 'Catapult' as I launched her toward the demon.

The foe exploded into a mess of bones as she made impact with a devastating smite, and she shot me a wry look.

"I hate that you recovered so well after I just caught you sleeping," she chided, and I snickered.

"I might not be a pro, but you did teach me well," I replied.

Serra smiled proudly, her eyes momentarily flicking to my lips before she caught herself, and her smile faded as she quickly averted her gaze.

"Let's go," she offered, and I moved to her side, stealing a little glance at her as I did.

Give her time, I thought to myself, as Kelly's warning replayed in my mind.

As we moved past the bazaar and into what appeared to be a little cluster of houses, we noticed a large horde of undead, all headed in a similar direction, and as we got closer, a fireball exploded further down the street, taking a nearby house with it.

I moved instinctively towards the commotion, when Serra stopped me.

"We'll help them, but we need this distraction to get to the necromancer," Serra said, and I nodded. "Here... create some platforms for us to get to the roof."

I created the platforms where she'd indicated using my mold earth spell, and as we climbed to the roof, we spotted the rest of the group, fighting off the horde from the balcony of a nearby house.

We leapt from roof to roof, getting to the house, and as we did, I created an earth barrier, to stop the undead from advancing on them, then helped them up onto the roof.

"What's the situation?" David asked.

I took a quick glance around, and noted, with a bit of worry, that Serene's crew member hadn't made it over here.

"A spell's been cast on the ship; we can't leave until it's broken," I explained.

"Can Diego dispel it?" he asked, and I bit my lip nervously as I responded.

"We're not sure. Serene seems to think it's a pretty strong spell..."

"So, our target is the caster?"

I nodded.

"Probably the same one who's doing this," I replied, gesturing at the waves of undead, as Diego continued to fire little spells at the group, while Watkins shot arrows at them.

"We need a distraction to get to him," Serra said, and David nodded.

"These houses make for good cover to fight from; it's just difficult for Diego to get off his larger radius spells."

"He doesn't have to; just thin the herd and keep moving... when we're ready to leave, we'll just dump some aoe on the lot to clear a path and make a sprint for the ship. If there's a problem, just fire off one of those smoke spells again."