Yvvaros: The Clash of Worlds (30 page)

A green, restorative light washed over both of them. Tess stood a few feet away, frowning.

“Nobody has gotten in or out since they showed up.” She walked over to them looking distraught.

“As soon as Kaoru and I get to the world server we’ll be able to break the siege,” said Luke.

“Luke, we don’t have that much food.” Tess stood close to him and dropped her voice to a whisper. “We have the farm here, but there isn’t that much food. If there is no food we can’t keep our stamina up. If this goes on for long enough, players are going to start dying.”

“I won’t let that happen, Tess.” Luke cupped his hand against the back of her head and leaned his forehead against hers. “I promise you. We’ve taken a big risk, but it’s going to pay off.”

If we lose, Tess dies. If we win, we become gods. No pressure.

Luke gathered Kaoru, Tess, and Katrina into the main guild hall. Several leaders from the alliance joined them. He shut the door, the stale, hot, desert air inside the wooden building felt like a metaphor for the siege.

“I know all of you are anxious,” said Luke. “Anyone would be under the circumstances. But we’re going to have to hold tight for a little while longer.”

Kaoru and Tess both nodded, backing him up. Katrina and some of the other guild leaders frowned.

“This isn’t what I signed on for,” said one of them. “I wanted to attack the Arbiters! Not the other way around!”

“Please, just listen to me,” said Luke. “Right now the battle waiting for us isn’t one that we can win! The only way we can overpower the Arbiters is to attack from both in-game and in the real world.”

“Kato, most of my guild has gone all in.” Katrina shook her head. “This isn’t a game! Maybe you think it still is one, but this is life and death, and you-”

“Does it look like I’m having fun?” The rebuke came out of his mouth with more intensity than Luke had intended, but he let it hang on the air before continuing. “We can do this. I can do this. I’m not leading you to the grave. I won’t settle for anything less than total victory.”

The group was silent. Katrina nodded slowly, and the other guild leaders quietly agreed.

Not bad, Kato. Not bad, at all.

A loud crash came from outside, followed by panicked shouting. Luke ran to the door and threw it open. He quickly surveyed the scene.

The main gate was threatening to give way. The Arbiters had been launching their spells at the upper wall for a purpose, to keep anyone from seeing out. They’d moved a contingent in close enough to attack, and it sounded as though they were using a battering ram to force the gate open.

“Quickly!” Luke waved to the guild leaders and all of the nearby players. “Healers, hang back. Ranged attackers, take up position fifty yards from the gate. Knights and Warriors, line up by me!”

Tess called out to him, but Luke didn’t have time to listen or answer back. He rushed toward the gate right as the lock gave way, and the doors crashed open.

CONJURE SWORD 3

MIRROR IMAGE 3

HOLY REGENERATION 2

Luke used his passive combat abilities without restraint, depleting his magicka bar in an instant. Three Arbiters pushed into the compound, standing shoulder to shoulder. Luke shot a sword at each, readying his physical blade as the enforcers bared down on him.

The one in the middle of the group moved into the lead, swinging a halberd at Luke’s head. Luke blocked with his sword and jumped back as the Arbiter pressed him with superhuman speed.

They have us overpowered in number and strength. This is a disaster.

Several more allied fighters moved to cover Luke’s flanks. They were wise enough to attack the same Arbiter that Luke fought. Each of his allies was able to strike while the Arbiter was still focused on Luke. Unfortunately, the blows did only a superficial amount of damage.

From the outside of the compound came a hail of arrows. Luke managed to jump back, just in time to avoid the assault, but one of his allies was not so fortunate. The player took several projectiles in the head. He slumped to the ground, dead.

I can’t let them gain any more ground!

Luke rushed forward again. The mages behind him furiously cast an array of buffs and debuffs at him and the three Arbiters. The opponent closest to Luke was slowed by at least a factor of two which allowed him to land a flurry of blows. It was enough to almost take the Arbiter out.

“Look out!” Kaoru attacked with both of her whips. A shadow silhouette of her appeared behind the Arbiter and began striking with sneak attacks. Luke attacked in a blur of blades, using all his conjured swords and his physical sword to finish the Arbiter off.

LEVEL 22 ATTAINED

CONJURE SWORD 4 OBTAINED

PIERCE ATTACK 4 OBTAINED

Luke ignored the level up icon, instead gathering his swords and moving to face his next opponent. He pushed forward into a lunge, utilizing one of his newly upgraded combat skills.

PIERCE ATTACK 4

Time seemed to slow down as he moved forward. He heard a crack, like thunder as he tore through the air. The force was so great he felt as though he’d leaned his head out of a car window, or rather, a jet. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough.

His blade had only barely made contact with his intended target’s golden armor when another enemy slammed into him from the side. Luke was thrown into the compound wall. He crashed violently against it, losing three quarters of his health.

Immediately a spell landed on him, healing most of the damage. The new threat was still rushing toward him. It was the Head Arbiter, the same one that he’d seen and fought at the guild meeting. Luke tried to use his mirror images to absorb its second attack, but the Head Arbiter acted like it could see right through them.

It took every single one of his swords for Luke to block the Arbiter’s opening strike. All of the conjured blades shattered into ether, and though Luke tried to counter, his physical sword merely glanced off the Head Arbiter’s armor without doing any damage.

“Give up!” yelled the Head Arbiter. “You’ll be allowed to live, but only if you surrender!”

“Force them out!” yelled Luke. “We have to-”

Another blow from the Head Arbiter slammed into him. He was only able to recover by falling into a dive roll. His health was down to a sliver, and a quick scan across the walled battlefield revealed that most of the other players were in a similar situation.

The Head Arbiter pushed forward, focusing on Luke. None of the healers were free to restore his heath, but with his regeneration self-buff in place, Luke was still able to hang on, barely.

He rolled out of range of the next spear thrust, moving toward the destroyed gate. An idea popped into his head, and he put it into action without a second thought.

The Head Arbiter is always focusing its attacks on me. Let’s see if I can use that to our advantage.

Luke ran through the gate and sure enough, the Head Arbiter followed after him. It leapt into the air with inhuman strength, landing in front of Luke outside of the compound.

“Close the door!” Luke yelled back to Tess and Kaoru over his shoulder. “Do it now, craft another gate!”

CONJURE SWORD 4

Luke restored his swords and spun them in a defensive whirlwind around him. In front of him stood the Head Arbiter, behind him a company of subordinates. It was abundantly clear to Luke that his swords weren’t going to do much good. He was going to die.

“Luke!” Tess was yelling from the edge of the compound. “Get inside, hurry!”

There were still two Arbiters left inside of Dunidan’s Rest, and despite being outnumbered, they were putting up a formidable fight. Luke knew that he couldn’t risk leading anymore back in through the still open gate. He shook his head.

“Kaoru, make sure the gate goes up.”

MIRROR IMAGE 3

With the last of his magicka, he brought back up his doppelgangers and dropped into a defensive stance. The Head Arbiter made no move to attack. Instead, he let the rest of his soldiers move into position behind him.

Luke put every ounce of his energy into defending as the Arbiters attacked him. He defended an assault from a two handed sword with two of his swords crossed overhead. Immediately after, he fell flat to avoid the lethal point of a spear aimed at his chest. Next a hammer came down, and only by rolling blindly to the side did he avoid a one-shot.

Luke stood to one knee and tried to block the two handed sword again. He moved a split second too late, and though he was able to deflect most of the blow, the enemy sword made contact, dealing a significant amount of damage.

“Just give up.” The Head Arbiter stood to the side with his arms crossed. He watched Luke’s gallant attempt to defend himself with derision. “This isn’t a fight that you can win. You’re too weak to stand against us.”

Luke caught a glimpse of the compound as he rolled away from a line of approaching Arbiters. The gate was back up. He had no idea what was happening inside, but Katrina and several of her guild members were moving across the top of the wall, watching the action below.

A mace strike slammed into Luke’s thigh before he could move out of the way. He screamed in pain. A hail of arrows began to rain down from the Athena’s Wrath archers. The Arbiters took very little damage but did retreat a few yards.

“Run, Kato!” yelled Katrina.

They’re safe now, but I’ll never make it away. This is the end…

Luke tried to maneuver to keep the Arbiters from surrounding him and bumped into one of his conjured swords. Suddenly, another idea came to him.

“Cover me!” He waved to Katrina and her guild as he sprinted alongside the wall. “Just for a couple of seconds!”

The Arbiters moved to intercept him, but Luke had no intention of trying to maneuver his way across the ground. Instead, he began positioning his conjured swords in formation in front of him.

He jumped into the air and let his foot land on one of the blade flats. It dipped slightly, but held for long enough for him to push off, like a thin tree branch. Luke got enough height from his step to reach the next sword positioned slightly above the first.

One of the Arbiters jumped forward, reaching out a metal gloved hand to grab his leg. A hail of arrows stopped him in his tracks. Luke took another step on his swords, and then another, traveling up the wall as if he was performing a garish magic trick.

He grabbed the edge of the wall as soon as it was within reach. Katrina and Kaoru grabbed his arms and pulled him up, ducking down the other side as soon as he made it over. Several spells shot through the air where their heads had been only a moment earlier.

Luke was still for a couple of seconds, and then let out his breath.

I can’t believe that worked.

“I can’t believe that worked,” said Kaoru. Luke laughed.

CHAPTER 33

Luke, Kaoru, Katrina, and Tess gathered together in the guild hall. Tess cast a healing spell on Luke, though it was a little redundant now that he was back to safety and his self-healing buff had done most of the job.

“Thanks,” he said. Tess smiled at him and rubbed his shoulder.

She knows I’m at full health. She’s just healing me because she can.

“I knew you were going to be okay, Luke,” said Tess. “It’s weird… after everything I’ve seen you do, all the times you’ve pulled yourself and other people out of danger, I just knew.”

Luke shrugged.

“I got lucky,” he said. “Though that new technique worked surprisingly well. I think I’m going to call it ‘sword stepping’.”

“The Arbiters are holding back for now, but it’s only a matter of time before they attack again.” Kaoru stared out the guild hall’s front window with her arms crossed. “Katrina, did you have your guild members reinforce the gate?”

Katrina nodded.

“It’s stronger than before,” she said. “We never seriously considered the possibility that we’d face an attack like this. It should hold better, but that doesn’t mean much against an army of Arbiters.”

“How long would we have?” asked Luke.

“Ten, maybe twenty minutes, depending on how badly they want to get in.” Katrina sighed. “They’re still back in their camp for now, but that doesn’t mean much.”

Luke paced back and forth along the length of the guild hall. Finally, he turned to Tess.

“What’s the situation here in Dunidan’s Rest?” he asked. “How many were injured in the attack? How many are…”

How many are dead? And especially, how many that have gone all in?

“We lost seven out of the 53 players that were gathered from the guild alliance,” said Tess. “One of them was all in.”

Luke nodded, hiding his frustration the best he could.

“Make sure everybody is healed, and if anyone needs weapons, armor, or anything out of the general store, tell the merchant to let them have it for free.”

We can’t stay here. We have to jump forward with the plan.

“I know what you’re going to say.” Kaoru shook her head and held up one of her hands. “We can’t.”

“Why not?” asked Luke. “If we don’t summon Makorin now, we aren’t going to have an army to fight with.”

“It’s too early, it would give away our plan,” said Kaoru. “Besides, the Arbiters aren’t worried about us. That’s the main conclusion that I can draw from the encounter we just had.”

“What?”

“If they wanted us dead, trust me, we would be dead right now.” Kaoru scanned all of the faces in the room. “I have no doubt that they could take this compound and slaughter everyone in it, if they really wanted to.”

“Then why haven’t they?” asked Luke. “It doesn’t make any sense…”

“I don’t know. Maybe they’re waiting for something, or maybe they don’t consider us a threat. After the attack on the meeting at Megwin’s Bay we only have a fraction of the force we should have.

Luke took a deep breath and then forced it from his lungs.

“Katrina, round up the guild leaders here in Dunidan’s rest and have them summon the rest of their members. We’re going to need all the reinforcements that we can get.”