Caius finished equipping his armor and sat down with his back to a tree. Riley was only a few seconds behind him, finally settling down with a morose sigh, his staff clutched in one hand. The two of them would likely have to wait several hours before the others returned, he thought. He hoped Azalea and Oscar managed to get to the Sisters before they were killed. Though he wouldn’t be too surprised to see either of them show up at the edge of the safe zone.
“Can’t believe we fell for that sneak attack,” Riley said. “What an embarrassment.”
Caius nodded, but couldn’t think of an appropriate reply, so he remained silent. Riley seemed interested in keeping the one-sided conversation going, however, and spoke on. “I wonder what happens to the bandits we killed. Do you think they’ll respawn?”
“No clue,” the warrior said shortly. Riley could see how grumpy the man was. His emotions were etched quite clearly on his face. “It makes sense that they would. NPCs respawn, right?”
“Yeah,” Riley admitted, “But the first raid we did hasn’t respawned, and it’s been over a week. Though those were monsters, so I guess it makes sense that they wouldn’t respawn. Bandits are human. Surely they’ll come back to life eventually.”
Caius could only shrug, as he wasn’t really in the mood for idle chatting. Riley seemed to sense this and fell silent, waiting, wondering how the raid was going for the rest of them. It hurt a little, he admitted, that nobody was following them. A small part of him thought that, as soon as he and Caius fell, Azalea was sure to follow quickly. She wasn’t as good at fighting as they were. Oscar, at least, had the ability to sneak away without getting trapped. Or maybe those archers that had shot him and Caius would get both of them.
Not for the first time, he glanced over at the point where he and Caius had respawned. It was only a few feet away from the Retriever, the small dog that had recovered their lost gear - minus the Yemon and skill EXP they’d lost due to the death consequence, of course - and was located on the edge of Silver Village. It surprised him that Silver Village was the nearest safe zone.
After about ten minutes, they heard a faint sizzling sound and looked around to see four new people appearing out of thin air at the respawn point. He rose to his feet in surprise as he recognized Oscar among their number. Caius also rose, a deep frown on his face. They walked quickly over to the respawn beacon.
“What killed you?” Riley asked their guildmate. “All four of you died at the same time?”
Riley nodded, already striding over to the Retriever with a sour sort of glare on his face. “We got into the boss chamber. They had a barrel full of some kind of explosive liquid. We didn’t react in time.”
The dog accepted his payment, turned, and dashed into the low shrubbery nearby, vanishing from sight. The rogue folded his arms, looking rather mundane in his grey tunic and pants. “I’m surprised only four of us died, actually. The others are probably on their way, or they’ll be able to escape.”
After a minute, the dog returned holding a large sack in his mouth. He placed the items on the ground in front of Riley, then barked, clearly pleased with his work. Riley patted the animal on the head before scooping up his possessions, and leading the way back to the tree where Caius and Riley had been waiting.
“So it’s just three of them,” Riley said, counting in his head. “And Azalea.”
“Yep, they’re pretty much doomed,” Oscar grumbled, reaching into the sack to pull out his dark grey shirt and black leather vest. He disappeared between some buildings for a few seconds, then returned, wearing his old clothing once again, the grey fabric of his starter uniform rolled up under one arm. “I’m sure they’ll pop up any second now. They couldn’t have lasted too long after we went down.”
Bubbles found her way over to their group. Unlike Oscar, she hadn’t bothered to change into her preferred clothing just yet, and still wore the simple grey blouse and skirt that came with the female avatars. “Seriously, though. An explosive barrel? Who does that?”
Nobody had an answer for her, which only seemed to irritate the woman further. Her bright red eyes rolled up to the heavens, and she offered nothing new to the conversation for several long minutes, even as the others started going over the battle in detail. It was nearly a quarter of an hour before the next people appeared. Caius jumped to his feet at once, putting his own annoyance away. He’d have to comfort Azalea, he thought, who was bound to be frustrated.
“Damn!” Kyraa cursed. “I thought I might be able to survive that blast, at least.”
“You’re telling me,” Tankbabe commiserated, sighing tiredly as she made her way over to the Retriever. “I mean, I have a tower shield.”
The elven woman looked much thinner than seemed normal without her armor, and she seemed tired in spite of her revival. “Still, Azalea was bound to have wiped out most of those bandits. That was a good idea, even if it did wipe us all out.”
Centrogen nodded. She seemed nearly as tired as Tankbabe. “Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it, it was a good plan. And here I thought we’d get to take the glory with Caius down.”
“I’ll try not to take that as an insult,” Caius retorted. In spite of himself, a slight smile curled across his face. At least he didn’t have to feel the shame of missing out on the end of the raid, he thought, turning left and right. “Wait. Where is Azalea?”
The others looked around in confusion then, trying to spot the red-haired girl. Kyraa frowned. “She was right next to Tankbabe when she blew up those barrels. She should…”
She fell silent, her eyes widening. “No way.”
Azalea leaped over the crumbled wall of crates, narrowly dodging the spell that the bandit mage fired at her. How in the world had that blast not killed her? Everyone else was gone, their items spread like a bulky, misshapen carpet along what once had been a perfectly formed path. Now it was just her, and two enemy bandits. Thankfully, she thought, the chief was dead. He’d had virtually no cover when the barrels had exploded and stood no chance against the damage of that blast.
Another fireball smashed into the crates above her head, splintering apart and nearly covering her with a wave of debris. She dove out of the way in time, cursing in frustration at her minor agility and vitality debuff. The one with the club appeared, clambering less gracefully over the rubble than she had, but still hell-bent on chasing her down.
“You’ll pay for that, bitch!” the man snarled. He looked positively frightening in his rage, and he was so aggressive in his attack that Azalea felt a flicker of fear, and scrambled backward rather than try to defend herself. The club smashed into a pile of wood fragments mere inches away from her feet, and he stumbled forward again, cursing loudly. She forced herself backward, trying - and failing - to stand on the uneven footing of the crates underneath her.
She wondered idly, while trying to stay alive and avoid the bandit rushing her, what the others would think when they respawned and didn’t see her among them. Not that she’d be long in following, she thought because she couldn’t get to her feet long enough to protect against this bandit’s mad rush of attacks. He stumbled slightly on a crushed crate as it slid under his foot, and barely caught himself. She sent a blast of air at him, the fastest spell she had, succeeding in knocking him flat onto his back.
Before she could feel too confident in her victory, however, the mage appeared on the other end of the pile of smashed crates, his staff glowing brightly as he pointed it at her. A crackling bolt of lightning hit her on the shoulder, stunning her for a few seconds. Well, here it was, she thought. She’d only survived a few minutes longer than the others. Soon, she’d be waking up in the nearest safe zone, where she’d have to face Caius and admit that she’d failed.
Then, miraculously, the bandit with the club regained his feet. He didn’t seem to notice what his fellow bandit was doing and dashed forward. His feet finally found some solid ground, and he was able to charge forward confidently, right into the path of the spell that his ally had just fired. The second lightning bolt slammed into his back and he fell forward onto his face with a grunt. He was still alive, but that accident had given her plenty of time to find her feet again. She dove forward desperately, bringing the point of her spear down and slamming it into his back, finishing him off.
Just one bandit left, then, she thought wildly. Was she really about to win? Of course, she still had to contend with the fact that the mage had a clear line of sight on her, and that she had a minor debuff to nearly every one of her stats, while the man had been able to remove his debuffs. He leered at her from nearly twenty feet away, and shot another fireball at her. It was all she could do to dive to the side, right back into the pile of debris, where she couldn’t get a stable footing.
“You can’t run forever!” The bandit mage shouted. “Come out, little girl, and I’ll make your death quick!”
She ignored him, trying her best to crawl, roll, and climb through the pile of wrecked crates. All kinds of items were scattered around her, both from her fallen comrades and from the crates that had once held them. This would be a veritable fortune of loot, she thought, if only she could get out of this situation alive. More spells rippled through the air around her, a few smashing mere centimeters from her face. Several piles of wood were burning from the mage’s fire spells, threatening to roast her alive if she stopped for even a second.
Come on, she grunted, her head as low to the ground as she could keep it, gritting her teeth against the flurry of spells that the enemy mage was launching at her. It was lucky he had such terrible aim, though just one spell had to hit to finish her off. Come on, just give me a little bit of open space!
She came to an undamaged section of the wall of crates that framed the narrow path they’d taken. She blasted the wall out of her way with a wind spell, then scrambled out onto the path, finally regaining her feet again. Her chest heaving, her entire body shaking with exhaustion and the debuffs she was suffering, it was all she could do to stumble forward, her spear still clutched in one hand.
She had no clue how long it had taken her to get to this point, but now that she was on solid, uncluttered ground, she was determined to stay there, no matter what happened. If that mage was going to kill her, he’d have to come here. Almost as if he’d heard the mental challenge, he appeared on the other end of the path, forcing his way out of a damaged section of the wall and coming to a halt mere yards away from her.
“Come on!” She screamed, not sure where this ferocious side of her was coming from. She charged forward, casting a fireball as she ran. The mage ducked under the spell, then fired off a lightning bolt of her own. She jerked to the side, narrowly avoiding it. Just twelve feet to go. She let out a scream, either to intimidate him or to just get it out of her, she wasn’t sure. She was too close to use the weapon as it was intended, but he was out in the open. As he began to charge up another spell to throw at her, she pivoted on the spot, hurling her spear out with all her strength.
Something bright and red-hot hit grazed her, and she stumbled sideways into the crates to her left. Then, too weak to stand, she forced her head up to look at the mage. Finish me if you want, she thought. But I’m going to stare at you while you do. And when I revive, I’m coming back to kill you. But when she finally did locate the mage, she was surprised to see her spear burrowed into his chest. It had slammed him back against the crates behind him, pinning him in place.
Ding. “Azalea, are you alright? You haven’t respawned with the others. Where are you?”
That was Caius’ voice, she thought, as a window appeared in front of her eyes. “Hey, Caius. Sorry, was a little busy, couldn’t send you a message.”
“That’s fine,” he replied. “You’re the only one left alive, you know. You should try to escape the dungeon.”
“Centrogen didn’t tell you the door locked?” she said, turning her body and leaning against a crate. The window of text was still in front of her eyes, and it made her smile. She couldn’t believe it. “Well, not like I need to escape now.”
“How long do you think it will take you to get back? If you let them kill you in an open space, you can get your loot back. We’ll mount a second offense.”
“It’ll take me a few hours.”
“What?” Caius sounded confused. Azalea couldn’t blame him. “Why would it take you so long?”
“Well, I need time to gather up all this loot,” she said, grinning at the window floating in front of her. “Of course, you guys could get over here and lend me a hand if you want. No pressure, though.”
System Message: Raid Complete! Congratulations!
Stealthy_Enigma· Apr 12, 2024
Theirl· Apr 11, 2024
