MMA: Chapter #19 (Patreon)

“We are bringing enough supplies for five days, though I don’t anticipate that the dungeon will take more than two,” Baor said, patting the heavy pack next to him. “Orogath and I will act as porters, so we don’t burden anyone else. Is everyone okay with that?”

Seeing that Alph had his hand raised, Baor’s forehead furrowed.

“Yes, Alph?”

“What is a porter?”

“Ah, right. Parties can designate specific roles that have advantages and restrictions. Porter lets you carry more, but it makes it so you can’t access a lot of the things you put in your inventory. Only the team leader, who will be Seris, in this case, can access it.”

“How many slots does it take up?”

“You get to keep access to ten, and the rest are used for the party,” Seris said.

“Then I could probably be a porter too,” Alph replied, after a quick count.

Since his potions stacked in his inventory, he had enough slots to spare that he didn’t mind giving up most of them.

“Thanks, I’ll let you know if we need that,” Baor said, nodding. “Is everyone ready? Anything anyone needs to do before we go? It's about half a day from here, and then it will be at least three days of game time. No logouts. I don’t want to hear that your mom is logging you out, okay, Cake?”

Laughing, Cake held up his hands.

“I swear, it won’t happen again. We explained the situation to her this time.”

“You still live with your mom?” Horace asked, giving Cake a speechless look.

“No, she lives with us,” Pan said, sighing. “It's a long story. But we’re good. No forced logouts this time.”

“Good. Then I think we’re ready.”

Heading to the town’s main gate, the team joined the stream of people leaving. Lost in thought, Alph didn’t notice the tattooed elf staring at them from a dark alleyway. Thankfully, Jasper was more alert and she quickly informed the team.

“We have trouble. Myersem was watching the gate.”

“Oh, come on,” Baor growled, his expression going dark. “Look lively folks. He won’t be content to leave us alone.”

Sure enough, they had only gotten about two hundred feet from the town’s gate when a group of players wearing the distinctive red cape of the Red Dragon guild came out of the trees in front of them, forcing them to stop. There were only ten people in front of them, but a moment later, ten more appeared behind them. At the front of the group that came from behind them, Myersem swaggered toward them with his typical mocking smile plastered on his face.

“Well, what do we have here? It looks like you are all geared up to go somewhere, Baor. But that’s strange, because you are not on my list of approved people,” Myersem said, stopping about twenty feet away.

“Leave us alone, Myersem. We don’t want any trouble with your guild, but we won’t be intimidated.”

Letting out a short laugh, the Elven Berserker rested his hands on the two axes at his sides. He was slim, but his skin had a coppery sheen to it and where it was exposed it was covered in swirling blue tattoos. As a berserker, he relied on speed and the natural resistances that his class gave to protect him, as he couldn’t wear armor. Spitting on the ground, he sneered at Baor.

“Intimidation? Do you think that is what I am doing?”

Looking around at his guild members, he shrugged, eliciting a laugh from them.

“Hah, I guess I can’t help it if I’m naturally intimidating. Or maybe you’re just cowardly, Baor. No, that can’t be it, since you had the guts to ignore my kind hearted and generous warning from yesterday. I must admit, I am not sure where you got the guts to ignore me.”

Eyes narrowing, Baor scanned the two groups blocking them. Many of them were armed with shields, but about half of them also carried hooked nets. A sinking feeling appeared in his chest as he thought of a rumor that he had heard. As if noticing where his attention was, Myersem took a step forward and pointed at one of the nets.

“The boss will want to see an example made from your head. Are you going to come quietly, or are we going to drag you back into the city to put you on display?”

“Are you really going to kill us for this?”

“Kill you? Well, maybe you. I’ve got plenty of uses for the rest of them. The half-orc will sell well in the south, and there are always nobles looking for pretty female slaves.”

“You’re involved in the slave trade?” Seris hissed, her eyes going wide.

“Involved? Hah, we run it,” Myersem boasted. “How else do you think we got that fool of a mayor on our side?”

“Can players even be sold as slaves?” Quayly asked nervously.

His expression fierce, Orogath nodded.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“You won’t get away with this,” Baor said, his hand tightening on the handle of his sword.

“What are you talking about, Baor? Get with the times. We’ve already gotten away with it. You might not know this, but once a slave collar goes around your neck, you lose control of your character when you log out. But since you can never create another one, you’ll keep logging in to the same place. And even if you die, you will just respawn in chains. Convenient, isn’t it?”

Waving to his men, Myersem started walking forward slowly, followed by the players with shields and nets. Alph could see the sharp metal hooks on the inside of the nets glinting in the light, but rather than feel fear, a different emotion began to creep into his heart. There was no question in his mind that the Red Dragon guild was made up of terrible people, and the glee on the faces of the approaching enemy seemed to prove it. Alph had always been worried about how he would feel having to fight with other people, but as he listened to the Elven Berserker’s words, something in Alph’s mind shifted, and any concern or nervousness he had felt fled.

The enemy was slowly closing in, forcing the Burning Alliance team to group up. Even though they were outnumbered, Baor and the others were confident in their strength, but after seeing the shields and nets, they realized that the enemy had come prepared for them. The defensive equipment would give the Red Dragon players the ability to wear them down, while they had to avoid getting caught in the nets. Plus, there were still the ranged enemies to worry about. Worse still, if they got caught, they would be subdued and chained, eliminating their freedom.

“Anyone have any thoughts that might be helpful?” Baor asked, speaking in the team channel so none of the enemies could hear.

“I’m not going to be a slave again,” Orogath said, his voice rumbling with barely concealed fury. “I’ll tear my own neck out before that happens.”

“I have some poison, but only enough for one person,” Jasper said.

Looking at the approaching enemies, Cake and Quayly started charging their most powerful spells, while Pan drew an arrow. Beside her, Seris concentrated on pulling nature mana together, hoping her spell would be able to slow the enemy down long enough for them to escape.

“This isn’t good, but we’ve faced worse,” Baor said, his eyes darting back and forth between the enemy.

“Worse than this? Not sure that is possible,” Thebs muttered, holding his spear tightly in front of his body.

Watching their reactions with clear enjoyment, Myersem walked forward slowly, his expression taunting. Slowly unclipping his axes, he lifted them up and banged them together. The sound was jarring, and caused the team to flinch. Laughing, the Elven Berserker took another step forward.

“I have a solution,” Alph said into the team chat, his voice strangely flat.

“This is going to be rough,” Baor said, his voice grim. “Get prepared for a full wipe. We can’t let anyone get captured. Better to die than let them get their hands on you.”

“I can solve this problem,” Alph said again.

“Alph, now is not the… wait, what?”

Turning his head to look at Alph, Baor was not sure that he had heard Alph properly.

“Did you say you can solve this problem?”

“Correct,” Alph nodded seriously. “But, it would be a teensy bit drastic.”

“Drastic? What do you mean drastic?”

“Eh, it’s not a good solution if we want to solve this without violence,” Alph said, being strangely evasive.

“At this point violence is all but guaranteed,” Orogath growled. “Whatever we’re doing, we need to do it now.”

“Oh, if we are being violent, it's probably fine,” Alph said, relieved.

“Baor!”

Hearing Seris’ shout, Baor knew that they were out of time. The Red Dragon guild was starting to move, their shields and nets held ready. Gritting his teeth, he gave out orders.

“Fine! Orogath, we’re breaking through! You and I will lead the charge away from the city. Alph, do your thing!”

With a loud roar, Orogath charged forward, his shields held together at an angle, forming a triangle in front of him as he tried to force his way through the enemy formation. Following his lead, the rest of the team attacked with everything they had, trying to break the defenses of the Red Dragon battle line that was surrounding them. Steel clashed and battlecries rang out as the two sides slammed into each other. Hissing flames and crackling lightning blasted out, as the mages on both sides tried to kill each other.

In the midst of the turmoil, Alph took a deep breath and got a vial out of his inventory. He was at the back of the team, and he could see Myersem and the rest of the Red Dragon guild forces charging at them. An arrow whizzed by his head, aimed at Seris, but he ignored it, focusing on his task. He would only have one chance, and he wanted to make sure it was effective. Popping the cap on the vial, he counted to three and lobbed it at the charging Elven Berserker.

Turning over lazily, the vial spewed smoke, looking for all the world like a weak smoke bomb. The smoke was faintly orange, but as Myersem burst through it, he found that it did nothing to him. Apart from a slightly peppery smell, the smoke simply diffused into the air. Locking on to Alph, the elf brandished his two axes and lunged forward, intending to take one of Alph’s legs.

At the same time, another vial appeared in Alph’s other hand and he swallowed it down with a slurp. The empty vial vanished into his inventory as his eyes danced with flame mana. Mysersem was only a few feet away, his double axes raised, when Alph blew the gout of flame. A concentrated stream of flames hit the Elven Berserker in the chest, splashing off of his tattooed skin, completely nullified by Myersem’s high resistances, but before the gloating elf could rejoice, the flames boiled past him and touched the mist.

With a crackle that sounded like a wrapper being crushed, the orange smoke ignited. Yet it didn’t just ignite. Anywhere it burned, a viscous gel appeared in the air, sticking to everything. Those that were not in the midst of the cloud already ran into the sticky black tar that fell to the ground, tripping and falling into the burning flames. The ones who had it worse were those who had been in the middle of the smoke when the flames hit, as they were completely engulfed by the intense heat.

Myersem had it the worst by far, as he had run straight through the most concentrated part of the smoke. Trace amounts of the smoke were still covering his body and it instantly expanded, turning into a thick layer of black tar that burned at an unbelievable temperature. With a scream, his resistance collapsed as his mana was burned away and a moment later, he had turned into a human shaped piece of charcoal.

His two axes followed a moment later, their handles warping and their blades melting into slag under the intensity of the heat. Behind him, his guild mates began to perish in the sticky flame, their screams dwindling quickly. Even the ground was starting to transform into molten earth as the sticky black tar continued to burn. Apart from Alph, no one else had been looking behind them, but the horror on their opponenet’s faces and the intense heat that scorched their backs alerted them to the fact that something was happening.

Glancing over her shoulder, Seris saw the absolute devastation caused by Alph’s potion and let out a terrified scream. The black tar was continuing to expand, creeping toward the party like an evil ooze that had crawled out of hell. Hearing her scream, the others turned, their faces going pale. The only one who didn’t turn was Orogath, who instead used the opportunity to carve a path through the enemy. Most of the remaining Red Dragon players were so terrified by what they were seeing that they turned and ran, getting as far away as they could.

“Let’s go!”

Rushing away from the scene of the crime, Alph patted his smoldering eyebrows. He had done his best to keep this mixture from exploding, but had still underestimated the heat that it would release. Coughing, he followed the others as they ran into the hills, ignoring the surprised shouts from the city. None of his teammates had any idea what he had done, and after running for ten minutes, they finally began to slow down.

“What was that?” Pan asked, shuddering as she remembered the horror of the creeping black tar.

“Was that your solution?” Baor asked, staring at Alph with wide eyes.

“Ahem. Yes. It was a bit more, uh, effective than I thought it would be.”

“That was a master level potion, at least,” Quayly said, her mouth dry. “Do you have any more of those?”

“Hmm? No, that was my only one,” Alph said, “I--”

“Good,” Baor interrupted. “That is way too dangerous to use except in the most dire circumstances. If your throw hadn’t been perfect, we could have all died.”

“But it was effective,” Jasper said, letting out a low cackle. “I bet they’ll be scarred for years. Can you imagine dying like that?”

“No way, it happened so fast that they probably didn’t even feel it,” Cake replied, looking ill. “But I know I won’t eat for at least a week.”

“Alright, let's keep going,” Baor said, shaking his head. “Alph, thanks for taking care of that situation, and Orogath, thanks for making a path for us. We’ve still got a long and dangerous walk, so keep your wits about you.”

Deciding it would be better not to tell the team about the six improved versions of the Napalm potion he still had in his inventory, Alph fell into line behind Quayly, and the team continued into the mists.