Trapped in a Game Pt. 08

Diego nodded, and we headed off.

"If I was a necromancer lord, where would I be?" Serra asked, as we moved to the roof of a house on the edge of the sector.

"The top of the hill would give him a full view of the city," I offered, and Serra flicked my ear.

"Undead, jackass. I'd say it's safe to assume that he doesn't need sight to do his thing... hell, he might have sunlight sensitivity for all we know. Hnn; let's see. That magic circle has a maximum casting range of eighteen hundred feet, I think."

"What? How? Even with spell sniper, that would be nine hundred max."

"Eldritch master invocation," she said, and I sighed.

"Right. Undead. So where would that take him?"

"That depends... does he think he can outlast us by just throwing hordes of undead at us? If so, then somewhere well out of reach. If not... then, somewhere close by enough to take action when he's needed. Still... if we don't know where to scan from, then we're just stumbling in the dark..."

"Actually, I might be able to do something about that," I said, smirking a little, and Serra's eyes narrowed on me.

"Really now?"

I nodded, then placed my hands to the ground.

"Scan!" I chanted, and as the spell extended to its normal maximum range, I continued to pour my magic into it, until-

"Argh!" I cried out, as a wave of energy flowed into me, and I suddenly felt sick.

My hand went to my mouth as I was suddenly overcome with a fit of coughing, and my eyes began to water as I turned, and retched.

"Greater restoration!" she chanted, and I breathed a sigh of relief, as the affliction quickly faded. "Fucking hell, Josh. Did you see him at least?"

I nodded, wiping at my eyes, and gasping, as my hands came away with blood.

That was some serious magic!

I would have been dead in minutes if Serra wasn't there, would I?

I was about to answer Serra's question when she suddenly threw her arms around me, and held me tightly for a bit, before releasing her hold on me.

"You really need to stop doing things like that," she chided me, and I nodded.

"There's a fort, or something. Along the coast; West of the ship. He's there... with a bunch of high tier skeletal beasts."

"Fuck me," Serra cursed. "That's basically a high-tier lair, with elite minions and a boss whose just sitting there expecting us."

"Beyond the two of us?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Even if we got a team together. We're unprepared, and on the back foot here."

As Serra pondered our options, I took a look around, and spotted Jessie fighting her way through a small group of undead in the distance.

"What about that girl? Jessie. She's a rogue, right? Do you think we could pull of an assassination?"

"She's a swashbuckling rogue. I mean, Mackenzie's a rogue too, but neither of them are assassins, and sneak attack without assassination might not even scratch him much less get him to lose concentration. We need to lure him out and launch me at him from serious distance for a max-smite attack to even have a chance," Serra said.

"Hmm... I just remembered something. That anti-magic field Mackenzie set up back in Karach. Was that a one-use thing?"

"I think she's got enough wards to use it again... wait, are you thinking of surrounding the fort with an anti-magic field?"

"Would it work?" I asked, and she pondered the question.

"It would... but a fort might be too big to create a field around. I mean, maybe it might work inside of his lair, but then we'd have to set that up while fighting skeletons."

"Could we do it in one duration of your suspended animation?"

Serra bit her lip.

"If Mackenzie has a full squad of her people, maybe... but with what we've got, that's a bit of an ask."

As she gave the problem some more thought, her eyes suddenly lit up, and she snapped her fingers.

"I think you've just given me an idea... maybe we don't need to create the field around him."

"Hm. Then where?"

"Around the ship," she answered, and I studied her with an impressed look.

"An anti-anti-magic field?" I asked, and as she nodded, I snickered. "Guess we need to find Mackenzie, then."

"If I know her, she's already somewhere close to that fort, scoping the place out for weaknesses," Serra said.

We took off, heading in that direction, and sure enough, Mackenzie and her two scouts were in the area, and as we signaled to her, she quickly made her way over to us.

"How did you guys find this place so fast?" I asked.

"We found some maps, then we cross referenced some of the more defensible places with the max casting range of that circle," Mackenzie explained, and I nodded appreciatively.

"So, how does it look?"

"Fucking impenetrable," she replied. "But apart from that... there's something weird going on here."

"How so?"

"The boss is in a tower on the northern side, facing the sea. We were trying to plan a route for an assassination attempt; if it came to that," she said, shooting Serra an 'I know, it's impossible' look, before continuing, "so there were two ways out after getting in and making the attack; a single window, and a trapdoor leading to the top of the tower. Now there's two skeletal guards on top of the tower, and the window? He put a fucking barrier-spell on it preventing anyone from leaving the room."

"From leaving the room? Not coming in?"

"No; leaving. Meaning his plan was to murder whoever tried to make the assassination attempt."

"So, he's playing three-dimensional chess here, basically," Serra said. "You know, he also placed a high-level blight spell as a reaction to being magically detected."

"I don't like it. We need to draw him out and I'm drawing a blank here," Mackenzie said.

"I've got a plan, but... maybe we shouldn't talk about it here. Follow us," Serra said, and Mackenzie nodded, signaling to her two companions as she did.

We made our way back to the ship, and as we got there, Kelly and a few other players came down the bridge to meet up with us.

"This is Durin, and Tiki," Kelly said.

"Barbarian," Durin said, offering a hand.

"Warrior," Tiki said, giving a little wave instead.

We decided to send them up to help clear the undead from the top of the stairs, and to send Jessie and Karn back down to help us with the plan.

As everyone gathered together, we relayed the plan to them, then quickly set about putting it into motion.

I used my elemental conversion spell to create a ring of ice around the ship, and everyone gathered in place to activate their respective anti-magic wards.

Kelly shot me a quick look, and after confirming everyone was ready, she shot a lightning bolt into the sky, and everyone simultaneously activated their wards, and to our relief, the spell flickered out, and died, and a blue aura quickly replaced it.

"What is that?"

"The ship has its own magical barrier. The captain said she'll keep it up until we get out of range of the necromancer. See you in a bit," she said, and I nodded, as Kelly's fiery wings sprouted on her back, and she took off.

We quickly made our way up the stairs to help the others keep that area clear, and to my relief, Gino, the other crewmember was already there with the others; but as we wiped out a wave, Serra suddenly called to me, a slightly panicked tone in her voice.

"Josh!" she called, as she darted towards me.

"Josh, he came out!"

I glanced over towards the fort, and spotted the big bad himself, standing atop the tower.

He seemed to be summoning up some kind of energy about himself, and as it began to take shape as a massive arrow, a sickly green cloud wafting all about it, I gulped, as my eyes went to Kelly, who was now raining fire down on the massive horde that stood between David's group and the ship.

"Launch me!" Serra said, and I nodded.

We were pretty far away though, and there was no way I could get a mark on my target at this distance.

I wrinkled my brow with worry, until Serra noticed, and she squeezed my shoulder reassuringly.

"Relax," she said, as I gulped. "You've got this."

As readied myself to throw her, I suddenly pulled her close, and planted a little kiss on her lips, and she blushed a little as we broke apart.

She nodded, and I chanted 'Catapult!' as I hurled her in the direction of the enemy, and as she crashed into him, a blinding explosion of light burst across the landscape, and I spotted Mackenzie and her scouts moving across the battlefield to support Serra with a follow up attack.

"Fucking A! Did you just actually catapult a human being?" Jessie exclaimed, as she moved to my side, and I nodded, chuckling a little at her reaction as we surveyed the scene.

"Is he dead?" she asked.

"I doubt it. We were just trying to stop him from launching an attack. We need to get everyone clear before he does that again though."

"You and me need to try that sometime," Jessie said, as she pulled out a pair of metal knuckles and donned them along with her sword.

"Hand-to-hand?" I asked. "Is that even viable?"

"Monk multi-class," she explained. "The rapier is for stabbing; the knuckles, for getting down and dirty."

She ran through an approaching undead warrior, before a skeletal warrior burst out of the ground, and she punched him, the blow shattering his skull.

Damn, I thought, somewhat enviously. That sneak attack damage was ridiculous!

As we cleared the small group, however, Aleisha yelled something at me, and as I followed where she was indicating, I spotted another staircase leading down to the docks from the far eastern side of town, away from where the action was.

But descending that staircase now, was a horde of undead, bolstered by a host of bone devils and mid-tier skeletal warriors.

"Fuck," I cursed.

If they make it down into the docks, they could cut off our retreat to the ship.

As Jessie pulverized another skeletal warrior, I studied her knuckles, and noticed that they were made of adamantium.

Those things landed auto-crits on structures, didn't they?

"Hey, Jess. Wanna do that launch-attack thing?" I asked, and she smiled.

"Fuck yeah! Launch me at him!"

"Not him. That," I said, pointing at the stairs. "You need to time that attack to land when you connect though, or else you're just gonna take damage and land in the middle of a horde."

"I got it. Launch me!" she yelled.

I bit my lip nervously, casting synergy to improve the timing of her attack, as I grabbed her clothes at her back, and after spinning to get some momentum, I chanted 'Catapult!' and fired her toward the stairs.

She curled into a ball, then swung with full force just as she connected with the stairs, and the structure exploded into a mess of stone, as the staircase crumbled from the point of impact to the base, leaving a gaping space between the middle of the stairs and all the way to the bottom.

I scanned the rubble worriedly, until Jessie burst out from a pile of stone, and shot me a grin, as she gave me a thumbs up.

She quickly began to clear out the remaining undead in that area, as I returned my attention to the battle ahead.

Kelly seemed to have made reasonable headway on clearing a path for the others to join us, but as I checked on Serra, I noted that they were having trouble keeping the necromancer distracted, while fending off the onslaught of his entourage.

She was firing lightning shackles at him, while engaging his guard in melee combat, and Mackenzie was firing the odd arrow at him as well, while trying to draw some of his guards away from Serra and the other two scouts.

But as the necromancer shook off Serra's latest attack, he returned his attention to Kelly, and began to straight up ignore the attacks made on him, as he began to concentrate on summoning up his plague infused energy spell once more.

I took another look at Kelly, who was tearing through the undead waves, but she didn't really seem to be aware of what was being aimed at her.

Would she be able to evade it?

My chest tightened, as my instincts told me no, and as Serra shot me a desperate look, I realized I would have to do something.

But... what?

I could use my swap spell, and take the hit for Kelly... but would I survive?

Given how much effort the necromancer was putting into the spell, it seemed unlikely; and even if I survived the initial damage, the sickness that came after would probably kill me anyway.

I took a deep breath.

I'd always prepared for this, hadn't I? Dying valiantly for the woman I loved?

Except... she never wanted me to do that.

And if I died... what kind of life was I leaving her to live?

Think.

There had to be something else.

Something that I could do.

The swap places spell was obviously the only thing that could help Kelly at this range, but I needed to do something else on top of that.

What would Serra do?

If she was me.

I cast my gaze in her direction, as an intense desire arose in me for her help.

Maybe I could activate synergy?

And then what?

Read her mind?

Find out what she would do?

As I thought about synergy, however, the spell began to activate, and as Serra shot me a questioning look, I realized that she'd sensed the spell's activation.

Focus, I thought, though my chest tightened, as the necromancer's preparations seemed complete, and he began to gesture, as if aiming the attack in Kelly's direction.

Help me! I thought, projecting the thought to Serra, and in that moment, I felt my stomach lurch, as my field of vision suddenly changed, and I found myself staring at... myself?

I took a quick look around, and sure enough, I was standing where Serra had been seconds earlier, except... I was still across the battlefield, at the top of the stairs, and as the Necromancer launched his attack, the other me raised his hands, and chanted 'swap places!' and I gasped, as Kelly appeared where he'd only just stood.

The other me had swapped places with her just as the necromancer's attack fired wickedly across the sky, but just as it was about to collide with me in midair, the other me raised his hands and summoned an astral prison around the projectile in midair, and it exploded inside of the spell's confined space just in front of me, with the noxious cloud that followed also contained within the walls of the spell.

As I fell out of the sky, however, the other me molded the prison to extend under me, and created a kind of slide which allowed me to soar through the air, and down to the floor safely, and as soon as I landed, I gasped, as I once again found myself in my own skin.

What the fuck was that???

I didn't have time to think, however, as David and the others tore towards me, and I quickly joined them in trying to outrun the horde that was hot on our tails.

The other group was clearing some undead ahead of us, and as we drew closer, Aleisha and Kelly aimed a couple of fireballs just behind us, clearing out some of the undead on our tail.

I shot them a thankful look, as we turned and made for the ship, where Serra, Mackenzie and the two other scouts were waiting for us; and we all scrambled aboard.

"Hell of a fucking move, legend!" Jessie exclaimed, slapping me on the back and grinning broadly, and I frowned, as I knew that there was no way that I could have pulled that off.

Serra was studying me with a knowing smile, and I shot her a questioning look.

"Well, look at you... awakening your ascension ability," Serra said, smiling as she shoved me playfully.

"Is that what that was?" I asked.

"Ultimate Synergy," Kelly explained, nodding, and I blushed a little as she smiled proudly at me.

"Hold onto something, gentlefolk!" Serene called, as the ship immediately began to move, but as we picked up speed, I noted with interest that we were heading east, along the coast, away from the necromancer, but also not in the direction of where Hanamachi would be.

"Where are we headed?" I asked, and Serene swallowed uncomfortably, gesturing to the sea.

"We might be out of this mess, but take a look at those waves," she said, and I noted that the wicked swells that had risen out of the sea when we'd encountered that creature before, now seemed to be catching up to us, all the way at this shore.

I cast a glance back at the necromancer, who now had a veritable mob of undead piled and waiting for us at the dock, then in the other direction, where stormy seas lay in wait; and I took a deep breath in, as the realization settled in that our struggle for survival had only just begun.