Avalon Rebirth (18 page)

But they weren't the only ones that seemed ready for the fight. Leah looked around at the other teams, hoping to gain a little insight, but there's wasn't much to be seen. They all seemed either focused or bored, standing around and waiting for the announcers to finish their spiel.

She took a glance at Crimson Flame and Golden Ram, both looking fairly confident. Leah was about to look at Iron Titan as well, but then the announcers finished their preliminary speeches.

“Teams, prepare for battle! The match will take place in the ravine stage!”

Leah smiled. “Perfect.”

She saw Darin nod and look over at Erika. “I don't need to tell you what that means, do I?”

“Already on it.”

The ravine stage had several levels, but the players would spawn on the floor of the landform. If they wanted to get higher they needed to climb, and that favored players who had the sky-walk ability.

Raven's Call might not have a destruction mage in their ranks, but with two manipulation magic users this stage suited them perfectly. If they could get together as a unit, or even as pairs they might be able to outmaneuver the enemy and gain the high ground.

She didn't have any more time to think. The timer started to count down, and the arena faded away. Leah inhaled and reached back for her bow, waiting for the stage to materialize around her. Now it was time to find out if her hunch was correct.

* * *

G
ravel crunched
beneath her feet as she walked. Leah kept her eyes peeled, looking for any signs of movement. With so many enemies in the stage the slightest lapse of attention could prove fatal.

Granted, her loss would be far less severe to her team than any of the other archers, but she still provided a valuable service to her team. She was their only healer, for starters, and Leah imagined they'd be taking hits at some point. Even the swiftest and most agile fighters couldn't dodge forever.

“Erika, how close are you?”

“Moving as fast as I can,” she replied. “I think we'll meet up when I come around the next bend.”

Leah looked ahead and saw the ravine curving away to the right. She thought that was what her teammate saw, but she couldn't quite be sure until she reached it. And opening her map was out of the question right now. If someone decided to spring an ambush she'd have no way to spot it com-

She reacted in the blink of an eye, before she even fully realized what was happening. Leah dove to the floor of the ravine and rolled into an indent, hoping it would be enough to shield her. A searing heat passed over her and cut her health bar by a small portion, but she survived with no other ill effects.

As she rose to her feat her opponent nocked another arrow.

“Didn't think I'd get you with that, but I could hope,” the red-haired girl said. “Oh well.”

Leah cast Pre-sight and ran as soon as she could anticipate the trajectory of the arrow. She dove again and rolled, hoping the arrow would miss, but this time she wasn't so fortunate. The shockwave from the Force arrow buffeted her and tossed her about. Leah's health bar plummeted into the red.

She sprang onto her feet and healed her wounds, but now she had no room for error. The next hit or two might be enough to kill her, and there would be no way to recover for a few minutes. And that was if her foe didn't hit her with a Crush arrow…

But she wasn't helpless either, not by a long shot. Leah nocked an arrow and drew back her bowstring, then fired off a shot.

Her enemy dodged aside gracefully, just as expected, but Leah had already nocked another arrow. This time she took better aim and cast Bind on the projectile.

She fired.

Her opponent saw the arrow coming, but her previous dodge had left her off balance. She tried to push off to get away, but the arrow impacted on her shoulder. Ropes snaked out of the arrow and tangled around her, then embedded themselves in the ravine walls and floor.

Leah fired another arrow, then another. If she didn't have destruction spells to kill her enemy then she'd just do it the old fashioned way. Raven's Call would draw first blood, and Iron Titan would end up severely hampered. She couldn't have planned it any better.

Arrow after arrow slammed into the target as her opponent struggled to break free of her bindings. She had a knife, but Leah knew it didn't have the cutting ability of a sword or even a dagger. She wouldn't be able to get away before the arrows did their work.

Leah watched with satisfaction as the archer's health bar dipped into the red. Just a few more shots. She drew back her bow one more time and aimed right for the neck. A hit there would almost certainly finish her off.

She fired.

Blue-green platforms suddenly appeared in the sky above her, and a blur charged up. Leah nocked another arrow and tried to fire off a shot, but the rogue moved far too fast. Iron Titan's archer burst into a cloud of dust, and her arrow clattered uselessly against the ravine wall.

Leah looked up in annoyance as the newcomer stopped and turned to face her. She had silver hair, carried a pair of daggers and wore Crimson Flame's colors.

“Sorry about stealing the kill,” she shrugged, “but we have to do what we need to in order to win.”

Leah responded by firing off her arrow, then drawing another. The loss of a kill and the points that came with it certainly wasn't good, but that was the least of her concerns right now. As it stood she had to fight a rogue one-on-one.

“Hey Erika,” she said over the telepathy link, trying to remain calm, “anytime you can join me would be good.”

“Little busy,” came the reply.

Leah sighed. She had been afraid of that. With Erika embroiled in a fight elsewhere she had little choice but to stand and face her foe. Darin and Taji were too far away to do any good. By the time they closed in the battle would be decided.

The rogue charged down the ravine wall, sliding brazenly and with no fear. Leah felt a momentary stab of fear in her chest. Her foe would be right on top of her in a few seconds. She might have one change to get a shot in, but it probably wasn't going to be enough to stop the charge. She couldn't use Bind or Heal. Pre-sight would wear off in a few seconds. Champion's Call was effectively useless at this point.

There was only one option left: run.

“
D
arin
, Taji, I need help. I'm being chased by Crimson Flame's rogue.”

Darin opened his map and found her position. “Isn't Erika the closest one to you?”

“She's fighting.”

“Then Taji is the closest one to you,” Darin told her. “Do you know where he is?”

“Sorry, but I'm a little too busy to look at the map.”

“OK. Head down the ravine in the direction you're going and take the right fork. Taji, can you head toward that position and join up with her?”

“Got it.”

He closed his menu scroll. “I'll head-”

Darin stopped talking as he saw a pair of enemies heading toward him. A tank and a damage dealer, both from Golden Ram. Were there more somewhere?

“Change of plans,” he said. “Looks like I have company.”

“What do you want me to do?” Taji asked.

“Keep going toward the rendezvous point. I'll try to get there, but it looks like I'm going to have to fight my way out.”

“Understood.”

Darin watched the pair move toward him, pondering what path he should take. He could stand and fight, but the prospects of that weren't good. It meant facing a tank that was capable of taking anything he dealt out without much trouble, and the damager probably wasn't anything to sneeze at either.

He could run as well, but that probably meant drawing them toward his teammates, and it sounded like Leah was in enough trouble as it was. Darin had a feeling he'd pick up more foes, and he didn't want his team to be caught in a situation where they would be outnumbered.

That left only one good choice. He activated Sky Walk and created a series of platforms up the side of the ravine, then leaped atop them. Once he was in the upper levels he'd be safe from everything but rogues and archers. And if anyone tried to follow him up the steps…

Darin turned around as he reached the top, weapon ready to strike, but the others seemed to have caught on to his plan. Neither had followed him up, much to his disappointment. He would have liked to stab one in midair, maybe send them plummeting toward the bottom of the ravine for an easy kill.

No matter. He couldn't stay in one spot, not when there were enemy archers lurking somewhere in the stage. Darin ran along the upper part of the ravine, keeping his head on a constant swivel. He might be relatively safe from close-combat fighters up here, but a canny rogue could set an ambush for him if he wasn't careful.

He went over the situation in his head as he ran. Erika was locked in combat, though no one seemed to know who she was fighting or even how many there might be. Leah was being chased by a single rogue from Crimson Flame. He had just left behind two of Golden Ram's members. That left eight more enemies to account for.

If he could just catch one of them off-guard…

The arrow came streaking in before he could properly react, blowing away a large section of the upper ravine and throwing him off balance. Darin felt the ground give way, and a second later he hurtled toward the bottom.

Where had the archer come from, and which team were they on? Was this a well-laid trap, or was it just a coincidence? First he had to stay alive.

Darin saw several large pieces of earth falling with him and made a quick decision. He activated Flash Step and flipped toward one, using the extra boost of speed to close the distance. His feet kicked off, and he sprang toward the next one, then another, then another. As he neared the floor Darin pushed off the side of the ravine to kill his momentum, then rolled and rose to his feet. His health bar dropped a little, but he was still in one piece.

But he didn't have much time to celebrate. The two Golden Ram members were hot on his tail, and this time he didn't have the ability to use Sky Walk.

“Huh, nice landing,” a familiar voice said.

Darin groaned inwardly and glanced over his shoulder. “So did you plan this all out, Jon?”

His former comrade shrugged. “Honestly, no. I didn't plan on that happening. But apparently we all have the same thought.”

“We all?” Darin asked, just before he spotted three more fighters. One was the damager from Iron Titan, and the other two were from Crimson Flame. They eyed each other nervously.

“Looks like a party,” one of the Flame fighters said, a tank with heavy armor and short auburn hair.

Jon looked over at her, then back at the Golden Rams. “You all had the same thought, I'm guessing?”

“Seems like it.”

“I guess.”

Darin felt a sense of dread come over him. Six-on-one with three tanks. There was no way he was going to be able to get out of this in one piece, not unless he ran for his life. But that also meant he had all three of the opposing tanks here with him, and that might give the rest of his team the freedom to operate freely.

He decided to stall for time.

“And what's this thing you were all planning on?” he asked.

The other Crimson Flame member giggled, a fighter with long, dark blue hair and a spear. “You don't know, huh?”

“Obviously not...”

“You think we're just going to let you do what you want like you did with the other teams?” the Golden Ram's tank asked.

Just as he suspected. Every other team was trying to neutralize him, probably because he had the most dangerous build on the team. Erika could probably give him a run for his money, but then there was the experience factor to account for…

But they wanted him dead, and Darin was pretty sure he couldn't stall them for much longer. Likely the only reason they hadn't attacked yet was because they were trying to determine whether the others would take the opportunity to take some free shots.

And that gave him the chance to seize the initiative, at least for a moment.

“You want to take me down?” Darin asked. He whirled his halberd around in an arc and stopped it in a guard position. “Bring it.”

He activated Wraith and charged toward the Golden Rams, hoping that the others would try to follow him. If he could just break through them he could lead everyone on a chase…

The pair saw him coming and tried to block, but Darin swung his halberd around in a wild arc to force them back. Just a few more feet...

He felt the impact in his ribs and grunted, but his armor held out. Darin watched his health bar drop by a bit, but not by much. And a moment later he was free, or as free as he could hope for now.

The armor seal. That was probably the cause of all this, or at least contributed to why everyone was chasing him. Whoever scored a kill could lay claim to a huge number of points, and in a wild match like this that could prove critical.

Darin wasn't going to complain about that, though. More than likely they would have come after him anyhow, extra points or not. The armor's extra protection had saved him from taking major damage from the last strike, and he had the feeling that wouldn't be the last time it saved him.

And then there was the matter of the points. Darin didn't think the three teams were just going to allow one of their opponents to take them. If only he could find a moment to exploit that…

“Erika, Leah, Taji,” he said over the telepathy link as he ran, “I'm being chased by two members of each team.”

“Do you need help?” Leah asked. “Taji joined up with me, and the rogue's gone.”

“No. You're probably not going to get to me in time, and you have the opportunity to get the jump on some of the others. Go help Erika and then start picking off the others for more points.”

“What about you?” Taji asked.

Darin glanced over his shoulder, seeing the rest of his foes in hot pursuit. “I'm going to keep them chasing me and hold them off for as long as possible. Take the opportunity to get our team ahead.”

“Got it.”

One of his wraiths disappeared in a cloud of smoke, destroyed by a sword slash. The rest would be gone soon enough. Darin didn't think they would serve as anything more than a momentary distraction.

But they had bought him a bit of time. Time for him to run, time for his abilities to recharge, and most importantly, time for the rest of his teammates to go to work picking off the rest of their foes.

His pursuers had made one critical miscalculation, at least. All of them had decided to come after him, and that meant three forces at odds with each other were trying to accomplish the same goal, albeit for their own teams. They weren't just going to let one of the others finish him off and lose the points for their team, and Darin might be able to play off that to prolong the fight even further.

They probably thought they could finish him off quickly with six players, even with the squabbling over who would take the kill. His job was to prevent that from happening for as long as possible. Eventually they might start to break off as their teams suffered more and more losses, but that would give him more openings.

He saw the spear wielder spring forward and leap, coming at him with a jumping thrust. Darin dodged aside, but then another one struck out him. He deflected the first blow, then the second, but the third attacker piled in and landed a trio of hard strikes. Darin gritted his teeth, expecting his health to drop into the yellow.

But the bar only moved a small length. Darin moved into a defensive position and looked back at the six pursuers, a realization dawning on him. He grinned at them.

“Two of you just cast Challenge Call at the same time, didn't you?” he said, trying not to laugh with glee.

A mistake, one made from inexperience, but a critical one at that. Challenge Call reduced the amount of damage a player could inflict if they didn't attack the caster. Normally it only harmed the enemy, but with two of them using it the spell affected everyone present.

He couldn't have planned things better. Darin's own attacks were almost useless, but in the grand scheme of things that didn't matter. He would be too busy defending himself to strike back, and would have to rely on critical hits.

But now the enemy would have to hit him far more times to score a kill, and all the while his powers would be recharging. Challenge Call would wear off eventually, but in that time he could stall them for a long while.

Jon and his comrade knew that as well, because they started to back off.

“Well, you won this round,” Jon told him. “Out of sheer luck, nothing more.”

They backed away and headed toward another part of the ravine, probably hunting for more targets. Smart choice, Darin thought, and Jon probably wasn't responsible for the Challenge Call fiasco. He was far too experienced.

But Darin wasn't about to let them go either. Flash Step's timer disappeared, and he made a quick decision. Darin gripped his halberd in both hands, aimed himself right at the spear-wielder and activated the ability.

Everyone around him passed in a blur as he launched himself forward, putting all his speed and power into one strike. Darin brought his weapon around in a completely horizontal swing, aiming right for the neck. If he could just get a critical hit…

The halberd's shaft vibrated a bit, but Darin felt no bounce-back. The weapon seemed to cleave past his target cleanly. He didn't see the results, but at this point he wasn't expecting a kill. Just dealing out a severe wound would be good enough.

More importantly, his momentum carried him forward and in front of the retreating Iron Titan members. Darin slid to a stop then charged back toward them, aiming for the swordsman. He thought he was out of range of Challenge Call at the moment. Just one hit in the right spot…

Darin's blow connected, but his blade did little damage. He backed off, feeling a twinge of disappointment.

“Had to make me do it,” Jon said unhappily.

Just as he thought, though Darin considered that the best-case scenario. Now that all three tanks had used Challenge Call causing damage would be next to impossible. All he had to do was to stay alive and keep getting in their way.

He saw his team's point total jump up out of the corner of his eye. Good. Now they were neck and neck with Crimson Flame, and the longer this went on the more time the other three members of his team would have to score more kills.

Doubtless the others knew that, but the ravine's terrain made it difficult for them to counter his attempts. None of them had manipulation magic, so they couldn't just run past him or go above him. As far as Darin was concerned he had complete control of the battlefield.

He saw the swordsman glance over at Jon. “What do we do now?”

“Keep fighting and look for an opening.”

That probably meant the last kill was one of their teammates. Good. As much as the other teams posed a danger, Iron Titan remained the greatest threat in his mind. The current situation was proof of that. Inexperience had turned a relatively straightforward fight into a disaster, and handed his own team the advantage.

But he still had to face a six-on-one disadvantage, and Darin was certain they wouldn't make the same mistakes again. He had to stay on his toes if he wanted to make it out of this in one piece.

The other four caught up, approaching warily.

“You're a real pain, you know that,” Crimson Flame's tank told him.

“I try.”

One of the Golden Rams spoke up. “Iron Titan is down to those two. Might be the time to eliminate them for good.”

Jon fixed him with a glare. “Try it, if you want to be eliminated.”

Darin watched the confrontation, hoping it would spill over into something more. If an all-out brawl started he was going to fight for himself, hitting anyone and everyone that got in his way. If they could just score a few more points…

The blast caught him completely by surprise. One moment he had his feet on the ground, and the next he felt his body slam into the ravine wall, dropping his health bar into the red. As Darin got to his feet he saw the others had been hit as well.

The pair of Golden Rams stood up, their damager casting a healing spell. “Good work,” he said, probably over the telepathy link.

That was when Darin remembered he had never accounted for their archer, likely the one that forced him back down here in the first place. If he was up high then the next shot could very well be the end of him…