Grand Game 461: Track and Trace (Patreon)

The eight Riders advanced down the corridor in a tight-knit group, with the mages’ shields touching and the fighters standing shoulder to shoulder. It was a good strategy against an invisible foe but was exactly the wrong approach to use with Ghost.

Ghost has cast explosive manifest. She has 90% mana remaining. 

The pyre wolf emerged in a blaze of glory. 

Where before she had always coalesced gradually out of streaming trails of shadow, this time her manifestation was sudden, quick, and as deadly as a raging bonfire. 

And like a bonfire, she was clothed in flames aplenty. 

Billowing clouds of flame mushroomed out from beneath her, enveloping everything within a five-yard radius.

Ghost has taken the form of a level 215 stygian pyre wolf.

3 of 8 hostile entities have been critically injured. 

5 hostile entities have blocked your familiar’s attack.

The three fighters shrieked as their skin charred, and their armor blackened. The mages flung up their hands, instinctively shielding their eyes even as their shields blocked the incoming fire damage.

Ghost herself was not unaffected.

The flames snapped at her as eagerly as they did at the Riders, but courtesy of her new pyreborn trait, her fire magic resistance was even higher than mine, and she weathered the firestorm mostly untouched.

Ghost has passed a magical resistance check!

Ghost has passed a magical resistance check! 

…

The pyre wolf’s explosive arrival was the opening salvo only, and no sooner had Ghost appeared than she was leaping onto the closest player. 

Ghost has activated draining bite.

Ghost has killed Amagog, a level 170 player.

I did not stand idly by either. 

Sprinting forward, I joined in the melee. A few of the Riders noticed, but they were in too much of a disarray to react effectively. Leaving the fighters to Ghost, I threw myself at the spellcasters.

You have cast whirlwind and piercing strike.

You have backstabbed your target for 10x more damage! 

Sarocyx’s shield has been destroyed!

You have killed Sarocyx, a level 164 player, with a fatal blow!

Killing the mages was almost laughably easy. Shattering their shields with ebonheart, I stole their lives with a follow-up strike from faithful.

Two hits. That was all it took to snuff out each Rider mage. 

Easy.

Ghost fared no differently. After snapping the neck of the first fighter, she leaped onto the second, ripped out his throat, then tore into the third.

You and Ghost have reached level 216!

Your sneaking has reached rank 22, and your chi rank 18.

Ghost’s death magic has increased to level 6.

Ten seconds later, the battle was over, and just like that, eight Riders were dead. But there was still an entire fort of them to deal with. 

“Let’s go,” I said. Sheathing my blades, I turned about and ran down the corridor. 

“Where to?” Ghost asked, bounding after me.

“Don’t know,” I muttered. “But I know we can’t stay here.”

✵ ✵ ✵

You are hell-tracked. Remaining duration: 59 minutes.

It did not take me long to figure out that our best chance of survival was to keep moving. If we stopped, the Riders would overrun us with sheer numbers.

Still, staying ahead of the pursuit was not going to be easy. The Riders had our location, and they knew the fort better than I did. But I still had a few tricks up my sleeves. Step one, though, was getting out of the entrance corridor.

The passage was a death trap. 

It had been purposely designed that way, I suspected. The corridor had no exits on either its left or right walls. Still, the large barn-like doors from which the eight Riders had emerged were within sight, and I didn’t stop my flat-out run until I crossed over the doorway’s threshold.

Skidding to stop, I studied my surroundings. I was in a cavernous hall. There were three other exits, one set in the middle of each of the other walls. Bales of hay and water troughs lined the hall itself, and in the corners were what looked like bits of rancid meat. 

“Eww, there’s that reek again,” Ghost whined.

I nodded absently. This is a feeding chamber, I realized. The hall was presently empty, but from beyond the door directly opposite me—an ordinary sized one—I could hear the hue and cry of gathering players. 

There were noises coming from the left and right entrances too. Animal noises. That’s where the hellbats are stabled. I glanced up. Only twelve feet separated the floor and ceiling, which meant… the hellbats will be at a disadvantage in their pens. 

I hesitated, deliberating over my next course of action. My first instinct was to descend to the lower floors. Thanks to Tyelin’s map, I had a good idea of their layout, and that would make staying one step ahead of the Riders easier. This floor was an enigma. 

But.

The lower levels would be swarming with players. Smart, dangerous players that could track me. On this floor, there were only hellbats—for now anyway—and I already knew they lacked Ghost’s intelligence. They would have a much harder time dealing with me.

Going into the stables might not buy me much time—the Riders would rally fast—but even a few minutes could make all the difference. And once the Riders’ hell-tracked spell lapsed, the game would change completely. 

Then the hunted would become the hunter.

Decided, I cut left across the halls, heading for the south stable wing.

✵ ✵ ✵

You are hell-tracked. Remaining duration: 58 minutes.

The hellbat stables were filthy and stank even worse than the feeding chamber. 

Heaps of rubble—from the broken-down walls and destroyed furnishings—littered the aisles running between the hellbat pens. 

The pens themselves—such as they were—were little more than wire mesh fences anchored by thick metal stakes driven deep into the floor. They were laid out in checkerboard fashion and covered the entire expanse of space before me, which judging from what I had seen of the fort from outside, had to be the entire southern half of the building. 

The pens were full too, each holding a single hellbat that barely had space to move. Why the creatures had to be confined in such a manner I had no idea, but confined they were. 

And that afforded me an opportunity.

“Scout the room,” I ordered Ghost, changing my plans on the fly as I drew to a halt just inside the entrance.

“Yes, Prime,” she replied as she slipped down the stable’s central aisle. Unlike me, Ghost was not invisible, and her passage sparked a furor of angry hisses and calls.

“Anything in particular I should be looking for?” she asked, ignoring the outcry from the trapped hellbats.

“Exits and players,” I replied before turning my focus inward and investing my newly earned attribute points.

Your Dexterity has increased to rank 96. You have 5 Dexterity ability slots remaining.

I smiled. I’d gained enough ability slots to advance another of my Dexterity abilities, but doing so would have to wait. For now, I had something else in mind. Running my fingers along the blue rune on my wristband, I activated its enchantment. 

You have removed 16 trap-making crystals from your trapper’s wristband. Remaining trap-making crystals: 184 of 200.

Working swiftly, I embedded four crystals in the doorframe itself, two on either side.

You have concealed 4 reflect guides.

I peeked out the door, checking how much time I had. The feeding chamber was still empty; the massing players hadn’t arrived yet. They were delaying their entry, I suspected, while they expanded the size of their force.

I smiled grimly. The more the merrier.

Retreating ten feet from the door, I drew up alongside one of the metal posts on the left side of the aisle. The nearby hellbats spat angrily at me from the inside of their pens, but I ignored them as I inserted three trap crystals into the post at waist height.

You have concealed a reflect guide.

You have concealed a motion cone trigger.

You have concealed a lightning element.

Crouching down, I placed myself at eye level with the embedded crystals and measured the angle to the right side of the door. Once the trap activated, the released lightning bolt would bounce back and forth between the reflection guides I’d placed, crisscrossing the aisle and wreaking havoc on the incoming players.

That was the idea, anyway.

Looks good, I thought, completing the final spell-linkage between the four crystals.

You have connected 2 reflect guides and 1 lightning element to a motion cone. A tier 3 trap has been successfully configured! 

Perfect. Skipping across to the opposite side of the aisle, I set another almost-identical trap. Only this time, I used a reflection guide on the left side of the door as its endpoint.

A tier 3 trap has been successfully configured! 

Retreating to the next metal post, I set another two traps, making sure that their motion cones overlapped with the first two.

2 tier 3 traps have been successfully configured! 

Sitting back, I took a moment to consider my handiwork. Each of the reflection guides I’d set on the door had been configured as an endpoint of a different trap. Assuming everything went as planned, the traps would activate near-simultaneously and unleash four lightning bolts that would turn the aisle into a killing field.

That should thin the Riders numbers.

Withdrawing further into the stable, I ran my thumb along my wristband again. The quad-lightning trap was to be my opening gambit only. I intended to place more traps—simpler ones—to slow down my pursuers further. 

You have removed 2 trap-making crystals from your trapper’s wristband. 

The trap crystals fell into my waiting hands, and I set them on the floor.

“Prime, I’ve found something,” Ghost called abruptly.

In the act of configuring the new trap, I paused. “What?”

“People,” she replied and, before I could grow alarmed, added, “I don’t think they’re players.”

I frowned. “Why not?”

“They’re carrying no weapons and wearing no armor.” A pause. “They’re barefoot too.”

Servants, I thought. “Where are they?”

“Hiding in the rearmost pen.”

“Alright, what about exits? Did you find any?”

“There are no other doors beside the one we entered through,” Ghost answered, dashing my hopes.

“Damn,” I muttered. 

“But there is a hole.”

“A hole?” I asked, perplexed. Why would there be a hole on the third floor of the fort? “Where does it go?”

“I don’t know,” Ghost replied, “but it’s in the same pen as the servants.”

“I see. Well, keep an eye on both for now. I’ll be there soon.” Returning my attention to the crystals, I quickly completed their spell-linkage.

 You have connected a poison cloud element to a pressure plate. A tier 3 trap has been successfully configured! 

The voices coming from beyond the doorway grew louder. Cocking my head to the side, I listened intently. The Riders had entered the feeding chamber. They would be here soon. 

But I still had time to place a few more traps. Retreating down the aisle, I set my next trap.