Grand Game 471: Wow, Indeed (Patreon)

Bulezu has died.

You and Ghost have reached level 224!

I did not let the minute we had remaining pass idly by. First, I invested my new attribute points.

Your Dexterity has increased to rank 113. Other modifiers: +24 from items.

Then, I retrieved two of the ability tomes from my collection and began to read.

You have upgraded your trap detect ability to superior trap detect.

You have upgraded your trap detect ability to greater trap detect. Greater trap detect reveals and identifies all traps of tier 4 and below. Additionally, it increases your chances of spotting higher-tiered traps. You have 4 of 90 Perception ability slots remaining.

Closing my eyes for a moment, I savored the new knowledge. In hindsight, I realized I should’ve advanced my trap detection ability earlier, but I had precious few Perception slots, and I’d the vague notion of using them for ventro instead.

In my defense, I had not expected to encounter as many Blades in the fort as I had, nor to find them as entrenched as they were. But given my present circumstances, I knew I no longer had a choice. 

Trap detect demanded upgrading. 

And now it’s time to find out just how well the thieves have fortified their chosen battleground. Activating my new ability, I surveyed the room anew.

Energy rushed into my eyes, sharpening my gaze, and from the edges of my vision, glowing dust particles swirled into being. After a second, they coalesced around multiple spots in the room.

You have spotted a trap! This is a dormant tier 4 stunning trap formed of 5 trap elements: 3 x lightning enchantments, 1 x pressure plate trigger, and 1 x remote key.

You have spotted a trap! 

You have spotted a trap! 

…

…

The storeroom was littered with traps, but surprisingly, they were not clustered around the entrances as I half-expected. Instead, they were liberally spread about the chamber. This was not the most curious aspect, though.

The Game had described all the traps as ‘dormant.’ What the Adjudicator meant by this was not hard to divine: the traps hadn’t been enabled yet.

It explained why I myself had not triggered the things when I’d first crossed the room. More intriguing still was the mention of a ‘remote key.’ It was not a trap component I was familiar with.

The key must be how the Blades are keeping their traps inactive.

Why they had to do so was self-evident, but as interesting as I found the traps on the storeroom floor, they were not my main focus of concern. The ones set around the hidden trapdoor were. Craning my neck left, I studied the southwest corner of the chamber.

But, sadly, my upgraded ability was of no help. Even with it, I failed to spot anything amiss. To all intents and purposes, the hidden trapdoor was not trapped. 

I knew that could not be the case, though.

Tyelin would not have left the Blades’ escape route unprotected. I sighed. That meant the traps the envoy had set around the Blades’ secret tunnel were beyond my ability to perceive. 

They’re probably tier five, I thought morosely. Or even six. Using the tunnel was still not an option.

It’s a good thing you have a plan then, isn’t it?

✵ ✵ ✵

The next few seconds passed with me watching the north entrance as avidly as the rest of the Blades. The heavy tread of the Riders’ steel-clad boots was unmissable. They would enter the storeroom any moment now.

But only from the north. 

I glanced at the east doorway again to be sure, but the corridor beyond was silent. It seemed Malikor had not deigned to use the shaft after all, and instead of attacking from two directions had chosen to concentrate his forces. That simplified things and gave me a viable escape route if such became necessary.

A heartbeat passed. 

Then another.

Crouched and shrouded in darkness, I waited. So, too, did the Blades. 

The rogues had scattered while I’d been about my preparations, spreading themselves around the storeroom, some hiding so well, I lost track of their locations. Their tactics reminded me once again that Tyelin was no fool. 

Blythe’s envoy knew better than to try and face the Riders head on. Bunched together in the doorway, his people stood little chance against the heavily armored Riders. But cloaked in darkness and aided by their traps? Dispersed, and forcing the Riders to do so likewise? Well, then, the odds would tilt in the other direction.

A red-garbed figure appeared in the doorway.

A second followed, a third, then two more. The Devils had arrived.

“Now,” Tyelin hissed.

In response, a dozen objects were lobbed across the darkened room. Bombs, I realized watching the small stone-like projectiles arc towards the doorway.

They failed to have the desired impact, though.

A yard from the Riders, the bombs struck an invisible barrier and exploded prematurely.

12 bombs have ignited! 

The targets’ shields have blocked the attacks.

“Again,” Tyelin ordered.

Another volley of bombs were launched, but they were no more effective the second time around than the first. 

“Sergeant!” a voice barked from beyond the five motionless figures in the doorway. “Do you have the enemy in your sights?”

“No sir! They’re hiding.”

Drawn-out silence.

My lips twitched upward in a smile. I got the sense that the Blades’ tactics had confounded Captain Hesh—the one doing the shouting. Would he advance, retreat, or wait for further instructions? 

Malikor had not appeared in my mindsight—his mind was shielded most likely—and I could only guess as to his position in the snaking Rider column in the corridor beyond, but I had no doubt he was somewhere close.

The silence drew out longer.

“Launch again,” Tyelin commanded. 

I rubbed my chin considerately. Either Tyelin was trying to bait the Riders into entering the storeroom or hoping to destroy the shields of the five and do some real damage. My guess was that it was the former. 

The third round of bombs were launched. Then a fourth. A fifth. A sixth. 

A shield wavered. Another dimmed. 

“Vanguard advance!” Hesh yelled, finally giving way to the Blades’ provocation. 

In response, the players under his command swarmed in. But the captain really should have given more thought to his order. 

Some squads took Hesh literally and marched straight down the storeroom. Others interpreted his words as a command to secure the room and broke off to the left and right. Whatever the case, the Rider column lost coherence the moment they crossed the doorway.

Which was just what Tyelin wanted.

“Activate your traps,” the envoy ordered. “And strike at will.”

Auris has activated 20 tier 4 traps. Haiken has activated 35 tier 4 traps. Bern has activated…

A trap has been triggered!

Warux, a level 166 heavy lancer, is stunned (duration: 5 seconds).

A trap has been triggered!

A trap has been triggered!

…

Between one breath and the next the room devolved into chaos as dozens of traps came alive and individual Blades sprang their ambushes. Not moving from my spot in the southeast corner of the room, I watched it all play out. 

Malikor had not entered the room yet. Nor had Tyelin re emerged from hiding, and until the two envoys showed themselves and the battle began in earnest, I had nothing to do but wait.

✵ ✵ ✵

It did not take Malikor long to appear. 

All about the storeroom the Riders’ vanguard were being slaughtered, some one hundred players, each ruthlessly cut down after being isolated and separated from their fellows. 

It is what forced Mammon’s envoy’s hand, I suspected, and instead of entering in a more measured fashion, Malikor and the main body of Riders stormed the chamber in a rush. 

As the sea of red flooded the room, Tyelin’s voice rang out, “Phase two—begin!”

Immediately, the Blades retreated into the shadows. Most did, anyway. Some, too close to a Rider or caught out by a detection spell, were not fortunate enough to escape and were quickly slain.

Malikor himself ignored the chaos. Striding fearlessly to the center of the room, he swiveled his head from left to right. “Tyelin, you worm! Where are you?”

But despite his earlier shouted order, Tyelin’s stealth was too good, and even I couldn’t pinpoint his location. Realizing his foe was not about to show himself on his say-so, Malikor glanced over his shoulder and yelled, “Clear the traps. And get some damn magelights up!”

The mages behind him were already chanting, some invoking light, others casting revealing spells. Having little fear of either, I watched on, curious to see how Tyelin responded. 

By my reckoning, there were already eight hundred Riders in the storeroom, with more pouring in every second. Their numbers were not unending, though. In my mindsight, I spied the tail-end of the column waiting to enter. At a guess, there were about a thousand Riders in total. 

One thousand against seven hundred. Not great odds.

“Now, Auris,” Tyelin whispered just as a string of tiny lights floated up to the ceiling. 

The response was immediate.

Auris has cast winnowing scythes of spell penetration.

From where the Blade elite sat concealed near the north entrance—her stealth was not as good as Tyelin’s—a dozen enormous projectiles took flight. Each was as large as me and formed from two scythes joined together. Rotating about their center, the blades hummed ominously.

The twin-scythes arced upward across the chamber, and at first, I thought they’d been aimed at the magelights, but only a second later, Auris’ projectiles began to sail down—heading straight for Malikor’s honor guard.

Xul, a level 179 hellknight, has been decapitated!

The foremost scythe sawed through the armored player, first slipping through his spelled shield as if it wasn’t there, then cutting through steel and bone without pause. 

The rest of the honor guard reacted quicksilver fast, throwing themselves sideways or raising their weapons up high in a bid to dodge or deflect the trailing missiles.

To no avail. The scythes were not to be denied. 

Amalu, a level 185 paladin, has been decapitated!

Zantis, a level 185 battlemage, has been decapitated!

Each projectile had been individually aimed, I realized. Twelve scythes. Twelve targets. Not just a shield penetrating spell then, but a seeking one too.

Harvin has died.

Bast has died.

Fumansin has died.

None of the scythes had been aimed at Malikor, I noted. Most likely that was because the Sworn’s defenses were beyond Auris’ ability to penetrate. And in the end, it took the envoy himself to end the attack.

Malikor has cast hellwinds of disruption.

A fetid gust of air, reeking of sulfur and heat, surged out of the envoy’s upturned palm. Hitting the projectiles dead on, the conical-shaped storm shredded them into tiny scraps of metal.

6 winnowing scythes have been destroyed.

Despite the premature end of the assault, I judged Auris’ spell a success. She’d killed half of Malikor’s personal guards, all with a single spell. 

And Blythe’s elites were far from done.

“Your turn, Lune,” Tyelin whispered.

Lune has cast pulse of disruption. 

A wavefront of magical energy rippled out from the second Blade elite. It spread fast and far, encompassing not just the storeroom but the corridor beyond. And whenever it encountered a hostile, they were stripped of their magics.

I was not spared either.

Lune is attempting to dispel you!

Your spells, load controller, quick mend, and enhanced reflexes have been disrupted (dispelled and blocked from re-casting for 10 seconds).

Fortified mind has resisted disruption (this ability cannot be dispelled). 

Mimic and fade have resisted disruption (pulse of disruption only affects spells of tier 4 and below).

Between one instant and the next, the Riders’ magelights were quenched, their weapons dulled—stripped of any enhancing magics—and most importantly, their casters’ spell shields vanished.

“That’s a neat trick,” Ghost remarked. 

I nodded in fascinated agreement. Lune had changed the complexion of the forthcoming battle entirely. Not only had the storeroom been plunged into darkness again, the enemy had been shorn of their protections and left largely defenseless. 

And still Blythe’s elites were not done.

“Haiken, Bern, go.”

Bern has trigger-cast trap reconstitution, restoring the enchantment crystals of all spent traps in the vicinity. 

Warning: a tier 4 trap has been reactivated!

Warning: a tier 4 trap has been reactivated!

…

My eyes widened in amazement, as glowing specks of red coalesced in the room again, marking the reappearance of dozens of traps. That was not all, though. Almost unnoticed, multiple Haikens appeared in a ring around Malikor. 

Haiken has cast nine lives.

A moment later, the dagger-wielding elite was joined by three Tyelins, and I realized the envoy had cast a spell of his own this time too. Although, admittedly, it was a bit underwhelming in comparison to his subordinates’ castings.

Those have to be copies, I thought, studying the three identical Tyelins.  They can’t be anything else given how—

Tyelin has cast phantom forces, spawning three duplicate images of every ally in a 100-yard radius. 

In an eyeblink, the three Tyelins became nine, and the nine Haikens became twenty-seven, while all around me, the other Blades similarly triplicated.

“Wow!” Ghost exclaimed in awe.

I nodded slowly, unable to articulate my own thoughts any better. 

Wow, indeed.