World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (55 page)

“It was necessary,”
Richard defends his players. “Since cloud runners are new to the
game, we don’t know if they can somehow be revived by the animal
tamer. Thus, my players instinctively decided to kill off the rider.
It was sound judgment, in my view.”

“Perhaps,” Charles
offers. “Your side still has more men on the field.” The live
counter shows thirty three Eternian players to twenty nine Virtuan
players left in the tournament.

“While the defenders
on the mountain regroup, let’s see what’s going on in the passage
way on the ground,” Evan says. “How will the Virtuans get pass
Heimdall?”

The video technician
takes the cue from the host, and immediately turns the camera back to
the area in question.

Virgil stares at
Heimdall, who meets the stare head on. The two men lock eyes for a
long time. Finally, the leader of Easy Money looks away in
frustration at his inability to weaken his opponent’s resolve.
“Give me buffs!” he orders. “I will challenge Heimdall to a
duel and take him on personally,” Virgil announces to his members.
“I will try to push him to one side for containment purposes, and
make a path for you to squeeze through. Be ready to make a break for
it!”

“Yes sir!” the
remaining alliance members say in unison.

Divine John approaches
Virgil. With one hand on his cross and the other hand on his leader’s
head, the priest starts casting a divine spell. “Oh Great Gods of
Eternia, Hear My Request, Please Give Thy Servant Mastery of Himself!
Amen.”

“Thank you,” Virgil
says. He is pleased to receive the Martial Mastery spell, which
provides double damage on a ten percent increased chance of
successful critical hit, with an additional quarter gain in health.
Unfortunately, the spell drains a quarter of the caster’s mana bar.

Virgil slowly
approaches the Decapitator, and pulls out his twin scimitars. He is a
Ranger class character, with a decreased penalty for using an
off-hand weapon. Further boosts in the Dexterity ability have
decreased the two-hand penalty down to ten percent.
All
I can do is play defense and back Heimdall into a corner,
Virgil reminds himself.
Surely
that will be enough.

The mercenary leader
raises a scimitar and points the edge of his sword at the black
armored fighter. “I challenge you!” he declares aloud for the
camera.

“About time,”
Heimdall replies as he twirls the pole arm behind his back. “I was
falling asleep waiting for someone to step up to the plate.”

“Then I will be happy
to wake you up!” Virgil replies. Without warning, he charges
directly at the fighter!

CLANG! Heimdall sets
his hands wide apart on his weapon, allowing the two blades to fall
on the metallic shaft in between his hands. The wily fighter kicks
out with his left foot, but his opponent quickly hops back to avoid
the crotch kick. The warlord presses onward with a quick jab using
the pointed end of his pole arm.

Virgil uses his
superior speed to sidestep the jab, and counters with his own jab
with a scimitar.

Heimdall moves faster
than one believe possible for a man his size, and knocks the blade to
his right. With the pole arm extended out, Heimdall dips the long
weapon and sweeps it to his left to take out his opponent’s ankles.

Virgil reads the move
and jumps up in the air to avoid the sweep. However, he jumps too
high in the air. Before his feet can land on the ground, Heimdall
sweeps his pole arm to the right side again.

The warlord scores a
hit to his opponent’s back and causes Virgil to stumble forward.
Heimdall seizes the opportunity; he immediately aims his blade at the
disoriented fighter’s neck and swings down with his Called Shot
melee skill.

Virgil blindly throws
his scimitar up, and manages to deflect the blade slightly as it cuts
into his forearm instead of his neck.

“Tch!” Heimdall
clicks his tongue in annoyance.
How
the heck did he stop my Called Shot?
Before the warlord
can make another attempt, his target wisely hops back to regroup.

“In case you’re
wondering how I knew the shot was coming, I studied some video of
your fights once my employer got a confirmation that you will be
joining the tournament,” Virgil reveals in response to his
opponent’s unasked question. “As a professional player, I
evaluate the biggest obstacles to my objective and figure out how to
neutralize such threats. I’m sorry, but you won’t find me an easy
opponent to dispatch.”

The player sees the
“Weakened” status on his right arm due to the cut from the pole
arm, and tries to draw attention away from the hit with his
monologue. Virgil sticks his left scimitar out in front of his body,
while holding the right scimitar closer to his chest. He slowly steps
closer to the warlord again to resume their duel.

“Ah, is that so?”
Heimdall says in amusement. “I guess your employer is getting his
money’s worth from you. But with that useless arm of yours, how do
you expect to defeat me now?” Again moving much faster than one can
believe possible for a man his size, the fighter cuts the distance
between the two and jabs at Virgil’s face.

The ranger knocks the
tip of the pole arm over to his right, and quickly pivots his left
foot. Virgil adroitly spins his body toward his opponent and swings
his right arm out with the scimitar’s blade parallel to the ground.

The blade fails to
reach the target’s neck when Heimdall twists his pole arm
horizontal to the ground and blocks the incoming blow. “Phew!”
the fighter whistles in appreciation at the quick counterattack. He
pushes the blade back and hops back simultaneously to regroup.

Virgil’s eyes light
up as he sees that his opponent has moved toward the left wall,
creating an opening to pass through! “NOW!” he shouts.

“CHARGE!” Divine
John, the second in command, orders. The remaining members of Easy
Money quickly enter the path and bypass the duelists.

Heimdall tries to move
to intercept these Virtuans, but his path is blocked by Virgil. The
warlord redoubles his effort to take out his opponent. “You got
me,” he admits.

“Yeehaaa, we’re
home free!” Quintan Sticky Fingers says in jubilation as he leads
the pack toward the shimmering portal. As a rogue with high Dexterity
value, he is the fastest member of Easy Money. Splat! The runner
suddenly slams into an invisible wall! The collision leaves the
player with Stunned status.

“Stop!” the priest
yells when he sees the fallen thief up ahead. Standing his ground,
Divine John casts a detection spell. “Oh Wise Gods of Eternia, Hear
My Prayer! Please Share Thy Wisdom, and Reveal All! Amen.” With the
aid of the Detect Magic spell, the wall becomes visible with a light
blue hue. The wall covers the entire length of the passage way and
stands three stories tall. It is impossible for them to climb over
without the assistance of the assassins’ corp.

“What should we do?”
Georgina Spellman asks while knocking on the wall. “Should we wait
for the wall to expire? Or do we try to attack the caster magically?”

Divine John glances
back at the duelists, and sees that his leader is only blocking right
now. Nursing an injured right arm, it’ll be a matter of time before
Virgil is defeated. “We can’t afford to wait for the spell to
expire,” he says. The priest points at the group of spell casters
standing next to the portal, a distance away from the wall in front
of him. “Look, there are a number of spell casters here. They can
easily pass mana to the owner of this wall to maintain it until the
end of this tournament. And if Heimdall manages to defeat Virgil, the
rest of us won’t stay a chance against the Decapitator. We need to
disrupt the spell somehow.”

The second in command
looks at the players before him and quickly formulates a plan of
action. “Archers, keep sending Hail of Arrows over the wall, and
make the spell casters waste mana on protection spells. We also need
area of effect spells like Earth Shake, Hailstorm and Firestorm. If
the owner of the wall takes damage, the maintenance link to the wall
could be severed. All we need is to get one lick in. Now let’s go
do it!” Divine John claps his hands once.

Easy Money begins to
carry out John’s orders, sending arrows and spells over the
invisible wall and hitting the Eternian spell casters.

* * *

“What should we do?”
Wyatt the Tinker asks as he sends arrows over the wall along with
Iorne, who is no longer concussed by the bombs thrown earlier at his
former position behind the abatis.

Kassender tries to see
what is going on with Heimdall, but her line of sight is blocked by
the Virtuans at the wall. “Trista, how are you holding up?”

The air mage is seating
cross legged on the ground, leaning against the Divine Loadstone. “I
have just enough mana to maintain the wall until the end of this
tournament,” Trista replies. “Feel free to play with those guys
on the other side.”

The high priestess
looks at the live counter and then back at the enemies across the
invisible wall.
There are too
many Virtuans unaccounted for
. She sees the Eternian spell
casters waiting for her orders. “Save half your mana for now. Use
the rest as you see fit in responding to the enemies in front of us,”
Kassender orders.

“Permission to cast a
Black Hole,” Godo the Black requests.

“If you can ensure
that Heimdall won’t be sucked in, go ahead,” Kassender replies.

“Roger that,” the
mage says as he begins preparation.

* * *

This
is a critical moment
, the acting leader of Easy Money
thinks as the two sides are trading spells and arrows non-stop.
Divine John quietly casts a special divine spell, “Prophecy.” “Oh
Wise Gods of Eternia, Please Grant Me Insight, and Foretell the
Future! Amen.” The spell grants a five second window into future
actions on the field. The priest sees the black hole forming above
his head, and sucking everyone in his group into it. Immediately,
John empties his mana bar to cast “Reflection.” “Oh Merciful
Gods of Eternia, Hear my Plea! Send Treacherous Magic Back to the
Infidels! Amen.”
Please be in
time,
the priest pleas silently.

PING!

The black hole forms as
prophesized, but in a different location-in front of the portal!

“Damn!” Godo the
Black says right before he gets sucked into his creation.

The rest of the
Eternians are quickly sucked into the hole as well. Once Trista is
pulled through, her magical link maintaining the Wall of Air
vanishes.

* * *

“Wow! What a turn of
events!” Evan exclaims for the camera. “The Eternians got wiped
out by their own black hole!”

“Gotta give credit to
that priest for casting a timely Reflection spell,” Antoinette
agrees. “Now there is nothing to prevent the Virtuans from waltzing
into the portal.”

“There are still some
defenders on the mountain,” Richard reminds them. “My players
won’t allow the Virtuans to enter the portal that easily.”

“I didn’t take you
for an optimist,” Charles chuckles. “With Heimdall neutralized,
how will my players be stopped from entering?”

“Let’s find out!”
Evan cuts into, motioning for the video technicians to show the
vicinity of the portal.

As the camera turns
back to the field, Richard turns on his administrator status and
furiously types out an email message to Mark: “Mark, how did the
Virtuan priest know to cast a reflection in time to flip the black
hole back to our players?”

A moment later, the
project manager sends a reply: “According to the game log, Divine
John had cast a ‘Prophecy’ spell and intercepted the black hole
before it took effect.”

“What?” the CEO
types back. “I was not aware we had such a spell in the game.”

“We don’t,” Mark
answers. “It was another item apparently sneaked in by Virtuous
Gaming’s technical staff. I’m sorry sir.”

Richard resists the
urge to type “You’re fired” to his employee. First the cloud
runner creature added to the game unbeknownst to him, and then a new
spell. It is now checkmate unless his players on the mountain can
stop the invaders in the passage way.

“This is it! Let’s
end this now!” Divine John urges his men forward.

“CHARGE!” Suddenly
a group of riders rush through the remnants of the abatis, bypass the
two duelists, and try to go pass the men on the ground!

Divine John turns
around and sees that the scouts belonging to Marcus’ faction are
trying to swipe Easy Money’s hard fought victory! “Stop them!”
he orders as the mana-less priest pulls out his staff from personal
inventory and tries to knock a rider off his mount.

Hugo Everheart ducks
under the blow, but the passenger behind him is knocked off. The
player from The Returned alliance urges his mount onward. Victory is
just a few yards ahead!

Suddenly a Wall of
Bones engulfs the portal, making it impossible for Hugo to enter!

“No!” Hugo cries
out in frustration as his eyes dart back and forth, trying to find
the source of that spell. Finally he notices a spell caster dressed
entirely in black, holding a skeleton hand. “Kill her!” he points
at the necromancer before an arrow punches through his skull,
knocking the scout leader out of the game.

* * *

“Good job!” Wesley
praises Conrad when the leader sees that the live counter for
Virtuans has been reduced by one. After the debacle with the
reflected black hole, the remaining defenders are now on the mountain
top behind the portal, along with Heimdall on the ground. The live
counter now reads eight Eternians to fifteen Virtuans remaining on
the field.