Grand Game 275: A Team Lead Astray (Patreon)

My first target, of course, was Hosen.

Disregarding the battling players about me, I materialized behind the priest’ cloudy gray shield.

You have teleported 25 yards.

My blades a blur, I struck at him supernaturally fast.

You have cast whirlwind and piercing strike.

Your target’s shield has blocked your attacks.

I failed to get through with my initial assault, but the priest’s shield would give away—eventually. I struck again, bringing ebonheart down in a blow that would’ve cleaved Hosen in two had it connected.

Your target’s shield has blocked your attack.

The priest spun around, hands spread and palms out, but there was no fear in his eyes, only… anger. Cloying tendrils of shadow seeped out of Hosen’s fingers, through the gray shield, and towards me.

My eyes narrowed to slits. Whatever spell the priest had cast, I did not want to feel its touch. The safest course was to retreat out of range, but I was not about to break off my attack. Not yet.

Maintaining the tempo of my assault, I watched the sinewy strands of shadow draw closer. The first reached striking distance.

Evading its touch, I hit the priest’s shield from the left. Another tendril neared.

Bobbing beneath it, I double-tapped the gray bubble protecting Hosen with both my blades. The third sinew inched closer.

Contorting my body out of the way, I swept ebonheart across the face of the priest’s shield again. Then, the fourth tendril was on me.

Still off-balance from my last maneuver, I could not escape. Spelled-shadow bit into my hand, and I jerked back my arm, hissing in pain.

You have failed a magical resistance check!

You are death touched for 10 seconds. Hosen has begun leeching your life at a rate of 1% per second.

More tendrils crowded me—far too many to evade and attack. Time to regroup, I decided. Jumping back, I glowered at the priest while considering my next move.

From the safety of his shield—which looked in no danger of collapsing yet—Hosen smiled in mocking invite.

I wasn’t baited.

Another frontal attack was not going to work. But a rapid-moving assault might. Quick as thought, I mapped a tight corkscrew around the priest. Spinning psi, I began materializing the windslide. Let’s see how he likes it when—

A blur of emotion out of the corner of my eye was my only warning. Without questioning the instinct that prompted it, I dropped to all fours.

A half-giant bulldozed past.

In her wake, she left upturned soil, broken foliage, and scattered leaves. My reflexes had saved me, but not entirely, and her foot brushed me in passing.

Lorita’s charge has grazed you. You have failed a physical resistance check!

Your spellcasting has been interrupted!

You are dazed (reaction time slowed). Duration: 3 seconds.

As fleeting as the impact was, it still sent me flying across the clearing, limbs flailing. But Lorita’s charge also took me out of her and Hosen’s immediate reach.

I hit the ground with a resounding thud, and the air whooshed out of me. Groaning, I sat up. Gotta keep moving.

A shadow fell across me.

Damn, not again. Knowing that attempting to dodge was a bad idea right now, I did the only other thing I could think of: I reached into the mind of the foe looming over me and wrenched.

You have terrified Hurin for 10 seconds.

Slaysight did not let me down; in a heartbeat, mind-numbing fear overtook my foe’s limbs. Scrambling back, I found myself staring at the orc I’d spied at the head of the Marauder column. His face pale and trembling, Hurin was locked motionless with his hammer hanging uselessly above his head.

At my movement, the orc glanced down, and he paled even further. Dropping his hammer, he turned about and fled—

—directly onto the blade of one of the charmed fighters.

Your minion has killed Hurin with a fatal blow.

Well… that was fortuitous.

Hurin’s death was a reminder that I could just as easily die in the clearing from misfortune as from anything else. Which is why I shouldn’t be here.

But it was too late to back out now, and there was still a fight to be won. Lumbering to my feet, I took stock of the battle.

About ten other players remained standing in the clearing, half of whom were bespelled and doing their best to keep the unbewitched Marauders at bay. Lorita and two other warriors had gotten away from my minions, though, and were fast approaching from my right. But they hadn’t closed the distance yet, so I searched for Hosen.

The priest was lowering his staff in my direction.

Time for round two, I thought and dove through the aether just as Lorita cut down Hurin’s killer.

You have teleported into Hosen’s shadow.

I emerged poised to strike and slashed first with ebonheart, then my stygian blade. Both scored direct hits on the priest’s shield.

Hosen whirled around, a spell on his lips.

I didn’t hang around to see what foulness he conjured up this time. Reworking my failed casting from earlier, I laid down a ramp of air and jumped on.

The priest’s face contorted in confusion as I floated around him. Zipping along the windslide, I struck at his shield, first from the right, then from the rear, and finally from the left.

Hosen’s expression changed again, concern displacing befuddlement. Corkscrewing about my foe, I continued my assault.

He tried to track me, of course, but I was moving too fast for him to target, and inevitably, on my third circuit, Hosen’s shield cracked. Not giving the priest time to register that happy fact, I buried ebonheart deep into his torso.

You have killed Hosen with a fatal blow.

I guess round two goes to me.

Somersaulting off the windslide, I landed beside the corpse. Lorita and her two cohorts—human knights—were waiting for me. But I was ready for them, too.

As the trio converged, I slipped under the half-giant’s opening blow, parried away the first knight’s sword, and slashed at the second, forcing him to break off his attack.

Tevin has evaded your attack.

Despite the first exchange ending in a stalemate, the three fighters backed away and exchanged concerned glances. Perhaps, they were stunned by the speed of my counters, or maybe they were reevaluating their strategy.

I didn’t really care.

Not letting the opportunity go abegging, I swept my gaze across the clearing. As far as I could tell, only one other uncharmed Marauder was alive, and he was being mobbed by my remaining five minions. They wouldn’t stay my minions much longer, though.

Maybe, I should—

With a sudden bellow, Lorita dashed forward, and my attention snapped back to her. Realizing she was repeating her earlier charge, I flung myself out of the way.

This time, I managed to sidestep the attack entirely, but the two humans had anticipated me and moved in for the kill.

The first knight chopped down with his broadsword. There was no time to dodge. Crossing my shortswords before me, I blocked the strike—barely—but the force of the blow sent me staggering back.

That’s when the second knight acted.

In a nearly perfectly executed maneuver, he lunged forward, the tip of his glittering sword pointed at my heart. Knowing I couldn’t avoid the onrushing blade, I stepped into the attack.

My unexpected tactic foiled the knight’s aim, and instead of running me through as he intended, his blade bit through my shoulder.

Luri has injured you.

The wound hurt like hell, but I ignored the pain. Dropping my stygian blade, I gripped the hilt of the knight’s broadsword and yanked, driving it deeper into my shoulder.

Luri has critically injured you!

My actions savaged my shoulder further, but more importantly, they brought my foe within arm’s reach.

Luri’s eyes widened as he realized too late what I intended. Smiling a bloody grin, I thrust ebonheart—held low all this time—up and under the knight’s breastplate.

You have killed Luri with a fatal blow.

Footsteps pounded across the ground behind me. Still pinned by the knight’s sword, I couldn’t dodge. But I didn’t need to. Squeezing my eyes, I searched out the nearest mindglow and blinked away.

You have teleported into Tevin’s shadow.

The second knight sensed my presence at his rear and threw himself to the side before I could strike at him. Damnit, I cursed, lamenting the missed opportunity.

I stalked after.

A sun ray has injured you!

Your void armor has reduced the light damage incurred by 5%.

A magic rock has injured you!

Your void armor has reduced the elemental damage incurred by 10%.

Quick mend triggered! Your health is at 45%.

Magic exploded into my shoulder blades, nearly throwing me to the ground. Catching myself in time, I chose a direction at random and ducked into a roll in anticipation of further attacks.

A fireball roared past.

Climbing back to my feet, I spun about in search of my latest attackers. But even as I did, I realized what had happened. My charm spell had lapsed, releasing the spellcasters under my mental control. Sure enough, I spotted all five of my former minions facing me, their faces a rictus of anger and hate.

My foes in the clearing had just gone from two to seven.

Fight or flee? I wondered, feeling a sense of déjà vu as I asked myself the same question again.

One of the five spellcasters had already wrapped himself in a magic shield, and another—incanting words rapidly—appeared about to do the same.

However, in the case of the other three mages, rage seemed to have overcome common sense.

The three had gone straight on the attack without taking the time to see to their defenses. It was the trio who had launched the first salvo of magical projectiles, and even now, they pointed their wands my way, preparing a second assault.

I can’t forgo this opportunity, I thought, convinced by the three to stay in the fight.

If I gave the mages enough time, they would eventually raise their defenses. Five shielded spellcasters would not be easy to defeat. Three unshielded mages, on the other hand…

Drawing psi, I mapped out a convoluted path to my targets—no point making myself an easy target—and cast windborne.

The mages released their second wave of attacks a half-second before I finished my own spell. Jumping onto the windslide, I shot upward and over the incoming projectiles.

You have evaded 3 magical projectiles.

The mages’ heads jerked upward, the same bewildered expression mirrored on all three faces. An amused chuckle escaped me. The abysmal failure of their assault had left my foes confounded—as did my aerial approach.

From the left flank, Lorita and Tevin rushed in to intercept me, but I was moving too fast for them to catch. And besides, the windslide kept me out of the reach of ground-bound foes—temporarily, at least.

Drawing closer to my first target, I readied ebonheart. The mage raised his wands in a warding gesture. It made no difference. As I rushed past, I slashed out with the black blade, slicing clean through the Marauder’s wands and neck.

You have decapitated Xerces.

The windslide curved left, carrying me to my second target. Belatedly, the mage realized he should run, but he, too, failed to escape as I rammed ebonheart hilt-deep in his back.

You have killed Hoffman with a fatal blow.

You are no longer shadow touched.

Sadly, my windslide had come to an end, and I dove off. The third mage had been too far to reach with it. Meanwhile, I spied the two shielded mages lowering their staffs. They were finally shifting from defense to attack.

But I wasn’t planning on hanging around where I was. Weaving psi, I blinked out. And back again. Appearing behind the last unprotected mage, I wrenched back her head and slit her throat.

You have killed Soraya with a fatal blow.

The remaining four Marauders spun around to face me, their faces carved rock and seething hate. But there was an element of fear in their expressions too. I’d slain more than ten of them in less than sixty seconds.

Time to disappear. Waving insolently, I somersaulted backward and wrapped myself in darkness.

You are hidden.