Breakroom, Liggit Mine

When I log in, Windy and Angelus are already up, chatting to one another about their experiences as a tank and healer.

"-mean I know that you need to still keep up your dps and all, but dumping all your casting speed and strength cooldowns on it when the raidlead has been repeatedly reminding you that the boss is about to enter an enrage phase and beat the shit out of me is like...what?" Windy laughs, "I realise that she was just filling in for my usual healer buddy, but you've been told repeatedly not to do it, girl, you don't have an excuse."

"I'd like to say I'd never do something like that, but...that was me a few years ago," Angelus admits, glancing off to the side guiltily, "Oh, hello. Who are you?"

"Huh?" I tilt my head in confusion.

Windy giggles, "Did you not check that forum thread this morning? You're a meme now, congrats."

Jade logs in, groaning, "Hello treacle body, ew. What's this about a meme?"

"That jackass who tried to threaten us by the gate the other day tried calling Silver out on the official forum," Windy explains.

"Oh, that guy?" Recognition flashes in my mind, "The one with the crappy hammer?"

Angelus' head drops, "You actually forgot?"

"Why waste memory space on every faceless thug that steps up to posture at me for his idiot fraternity?" I frown, my confusion pretty genuine. I already have trouble remembering people I've met in passing as is, why the hell would I put in the effort for these walking gangster cliches?

The healer and tank duo howl with laughter. Windy tries to suppress it with a hand to her lips, "Wow, that actually makes it so much better?"

"I...don't really know how to respond to that," Angelus mutters, "If Bloody Smile was pissed before, he's going to be livid now."

"Send me a link to the good ones later, Win?" Jade asks, nervously.

"Mm. I'll start a group chat," She nods, standing up, "So, we going back in or heading out?"

I get to my feet as well, "Much as I'd like to farm some more gear and Terrorstone while the heat on us from the Infamous players outside dies down, we can't afford to spend any more time here. We're too low on supplies to do more than a few runs, and I have just about everything we set out to get from here. Time to go back to the city."

"Odds are there's an ambush waiting for us outside," Angelus points out, "Is there a side tunnel leading to another exit, perhaps?"

I shake my head, "Not that I know of, but I've not mapped this place out. If there is, odds are we'd have to fight our way through the 'real' dungeon, at least in part."

Angelus looks crestfallen, "Fighting our way through a small army of PKers it is, then."

"Mhm. We could try one final run and hope that the weapon I'm after drops, but I don't think Jade has more than fifty-ish arrows left," I look over to our archer, who shakes her head.

"Try 39, sorry," Jade demurs.

Windy winces, "How bad do you think it'll be out there?"

"There was close to twenty before, and we don't have a height advantage, so at least that much," I estimate.

"Should we try hiding our stuff here, running out naked and coming back later?" Jade proposes.

The tactic doesn't sit right with me, "No. I'd rather take my chances at breaking through, show them we aren't fish in a barrel."

"While I don't relish it, I don't wish to lose my new gear to those bastard PKers," Angelus concurs, "We will still need a plan, however."

"The best I can come up with, given our limited options tactically, is that we use the mine's entrance as a chokepoint and hold the line there until their frontlines are dealt with. Otherwise, we'll have to fight in the open, with any ranged fighters given the premium conditions to take potshots at us - at least once we aren't tangled up in a melee we have a chance of dodging or blocking some of their shots," I surmise, "When we're on the ascent, Windy can cover you while you heal us, while me and Jade use our higher than average Agility to avoid being made into pincushions."

The party thinks it through individually for a minute or two.

"What if they've mages and shit down in the pit as well?" Jade speculates, "I can probably deal with one or two, but if they've got a real formation going down there, we'll be incinerated before me and Angelus can do anything about it."

"Yeah, that'd be an issue," Windy mumbles, "I don't think it'll be that bad though? They're not the most strategically-minded bunch from what we saw, and at this point, it'd only be conjecture that we're even down here."

I rub my chin, "It's kind of a pain not knowing what exactly we're dealing with."

Jade huffs, "Well, maybe if someone had helped me find the Scout Mentor, I'd have Camouflage."

Wincing, I realise that indeed, I am quite at fault there, "No point crying over spilt milk. I'll do it once we're back in the city after forging my and Windy's new gear."

Angelus looks at Jade, "You should be quite swift right now. Are you certain you can't try and take a look?"

Not saying anything, she just points at the mindlessly patrolling Shard of Terror in the tunnel outside the room.

"Ah. Right, I'd forgotten about that," He coughs, "But once they're dealt with?"

"Iunno, man. Depends how closely they're watching the entrance, so y'all better be ready for me to have a bunch of fuckboys running after me," Jade huffs, "I can definitely give it a go if you really want me to."

First, she glances at Windy before remembering that I'm the party leader and turning her head to look at me. Without any better suggestions to offer of my own, I nod, "Pack up our bedrolls and the like. We're moving out."

I can hardly call myself a Blade of Lady Jannis if I back down from a challenge, can I?

---

 

Mineshaft Entrance, Liggit Mine

As expected, the mine is as before, still being occupied by stubborn Infamous PKers who just refuse to take the hint. Part of me actually wants to try claiming Liggit Mine, not for The Pool of Desire, but just to spite these persistent cockroaches.

According to the quick glimpse Jade got before running back, we have a group of people mining the Copper nodes, and a dozen guards - essentially the same group we killed to get in. The difficult part is that she spotted a few people standing guard on the ramp and an archer sat with her feet hanging over the edge at the very top, directly opposite the mineshaft.

In short, they've learned that giving up the high ground entirely is really, really dumb.

Only took them being slaughtered twice. Progress.

On my signal, the group starts to move forward, me and Windy up front, Jade and Angelus following a little further back. It's not long before our approach is noticed by a longsword wielding Fighter, "Wait...is that...GUYS IT'S THEM AGAIN! THEY'RE IN THE DEATH TUNNEL!"

In a sort of staggered, almost reluctant fashion, the collective of Infamous pull their weapons out and start jogging at us. None of them look particularly enthusiastic about fighting us, likely remembering how badly we beat them the last time, but here they come anyway.

Windy surges forward, engaging the first of them to arrive, but remains far enough into the tunnel to deny the archer an easy sightline from her perch. The woman brandishes her pickaxe with a war cry that's cut tragically short by Windy's shield slamming into her, the clear winner of the collision through the Strength and momentum difference.

"Out of the way!" Windy yells, stabbing the throat of the second aggressive miner. I join in to cleave through the third, and finish off the floored victim of her charge once some space is created, meeting no resistance or attempt to prevent her demise, resignation clear on her face.

Hm. Getting the impression that they'd rather run, but think that the alternative to being killed by us is somehow worse. Wonder what has them feeling like their backs are against the wall? If they fail, there's little stopping them from coming back here after they respawn.

It's a slaughter, once again. More than a little pathetic, actually - they were barely even trying as they all but ran straight into my sword face first just to get it over with. Suspicious, I note that a few of them weren't even Infamous anymore, which would mean that I'd be accumulating Infamy instead if it weren't for them actively attacking me first.

When Windy leaves the tunnel, shield held high to cover her face, she turns back "The archer's gone!"

I frown. She must've run away to inform their superiors, "Everyone, get to the top quickly, reinforcements are likely on the way and I don't want to be stuck down here."

Breaking into a run, we make our way to the first ramp when a large group of archers appear at the top of the ridge maybe 8 of them, "Archers! Windy, cover Angelus!"

Skidding to a halt, Windy shoves the healer abruptly down and places herself between him and the incoming arrows while me and Jade use our high Agility to keep moving. She does a far better job of predicting and dodging the arrows than expected, managing to fire off a few shots as she runs, but unfortunately not reducing the firing line any through a combination of her own lacking archery skill, the difficulty of the shot and the stress of staying alive.

Though I am slightly faster than her in a straight run, rather than putting too much effort into dodging and retaliating, I try my best to keep moving, making the occasional arrow fired my way either miss the mark from poor prediction, or deal negligible chip damage due to the difference in equipment quality - Beginner's Bronze is more a tank oriented set after all, and the additional Resilience on top of the armour is a godsend. I am, nonetheless, pelted with more projectiles than I'm really comfortable with, and I've lost half my HP by the time I round the pathway upwards to meet up with the far slower Angelus and Windy.

"Angelus, can I get a heal?!" I call down to them, an arrow bouncing off the flat of my blade as I use it as a makeshift shield for my face.

"Sure!" His lips move rapidly through the chant for Minor Succor, an icy cool wave of magic washes over me, then again, before he turns his attention to the immobile Windy.

+68

+67

"Hang in there, I'll be up top in less than a minute!" I shout encouragement as I get back to running. Jade, catching up to me, woops as one of her arrows just barely finds it's mark, the unfortunate soul's leg buckling and sending them over the edge. They don't bounce.

Nearing the top, a contingent of Fighters appears from out of the line of sight, moving to block the path, some activating Rush to make better time. Not to be outdone, I also activate Rush, standing atop the beginning of the winding path down a fair bit worse for wear, but ready to fight in spite of it all. The first pair of fighters arrive the moment I move into my stance, with four more behind them, closing in quickly.

The left man wields a spear clumsily, thrusting at my stomach with half of the stability he should have, but all of the forward momentum necessary to skewer me. The second goes for a hasty overhead swing about a second after arriving with a lumber axe, taking a page out of my book, it seems.

Moving my sword down, the spear harmlessly slides around me, and put thusly off balance I shove my crossguard through the axeman's eye socket, as I slide into his territory, denying the full swing of his axe as a possibility and shoulderbashing him down. The tip of my blade finds a new home in the spearman's side with the new angle as a fresh arrow stings my back and falls to the ground.

Unfortunately, neither man is dead, so although they stagger to the ground, the arrival of the next group of assholes paints a bleak picture. Game-ified combat works both ways as far as damage dealt and taken, for better or worse, so even with the Level difference, I can't expect to kill everything in a single blow. I dearly wish to be able to spare a glance behind me to ascertain how far behind my party is, but I can't afford to look away from the incoming attacks.

Compared to the feckless idiots in the pit, these people are definitely of a slightly higher calibre - not a match for me in a one on one duel even at my worst, but with all of the fuckwits working at least nominally together; tricky to manage without the benefits of Class Skills through swordplay alone. No thanks to the godsforsaken delay in movement.

In the ensuing brawl, my priority is placed on denying any chance for them to flank and surround me, happily ceding ground and stepping back down the ramp to keep the mob of thugs within my territory, punishing the hasty ones that try to take advantage of my blade's preoccupation with another with kicks, punches and shoulder bashes. Two find themselves taking the quick way down to the bottom.

The benefits of a two-handed sword make themselves apparent in situations like this - the long reach especially. Windy, competent as she is, would have a much harder time denying flankers.

My efforts to deny those in front of me, however, do not account for the appearance of an Assassin jumping down behind me from the ridge, a fact I can hear but not address or see. Before I can turn, I hear them scream in pain after a buzzing noise denoting the arrival of an arrow in flight. Then a second arrow, and the assassin crumples.

Shocked by the sight of their trump card dying, one of the more aggressive ones fails to control the lunging distance of his longsword and overextends, losing their head for the mistake, Swift Strike allowing me to brutally capitalise on the opening as they bend over and expose their neck.

"OUT OF MY WAY!" I roar, pressing the advantage on the remaining few, their morale flagging, "I will not fall to bloodless children!"

Adrenaline pumping, a second falls as they cower away from my declaration, and a third is finished by Jade, now taking regular shots into the crowd of dead men walking. In the back of my head, a small part of me realises that I'm no longer being pelted with arrows.

Laying into them, Jade's assistance helps rally my spirit, and soon it becomes a rout, a few of those near the back fleeing to preserve their levels and copper-tier garbage. My HP still slowly goes down, however, the last few throwing all caution to the wind and giving over to wild instinct, swinging with abandon heedless of my blocks and parries.

"<Rush>!"

Aid arrives as my HP dips down to 36, right when I'm on my last legs. Windy crashes into the frenzied crowd, a human battering ram with her shield extended.

+66

A Minor Succor comes in just a few short seconds later, pulling me out of immediate danger. Grinning, I join Windy in cleaning up the stragglers as Angelus takes potshots with his new wand, Jade cheering us on - out of ammo presumably.

When the last enemy falls, I take a deep breath. We're not fish in a barrel, we're sharks.