Dodge Tank Page 4

  Val Helena sucks her teeth with a look of disgust. “Would be just our luck. We finally get an LM spawn all to ourselves and this happens. I bet they start showing up in two minutes and start camping on top of us. The pricks.”

  LM claims? Camping on top of us? I got no clue what these guys are talking about.

  “Maybe they’re just here to get the TOD,” a new person who’s just joined us says. It’s the mage who cast the lightning storm magic—Thanus, I remember Val Helena calling him. He’s like the exact opposite of her though; a male Halfling who’s barely four feet tall and dressed in dark robes with funky magic symbols all over them. “I know I used to do that when I was low level. Used to sell it to the high-end guilds for like 10k a pop.”

  “What’s a TOD?” Gilly says.

  Van Helena regards us both quizzically. “Maybe these guys really are just noobs.”

  I ignore her statement, since it’s probably accurate and look to Thanus. “What was that about 10k a pop?”

  Whatever the heck it was, if I could leave here with it and trade it for 10k, I would have hit the jackpot.

  The Halfling, who looks like an old man just laughs at me. “Go look it up yourself, you lazy noob.”

  “On it,” Gilly says through the party chat and then her eyes glaze over.

  “Anyway…” Val Helena gives us an eye roll. “You two better clear out of here. An LM is about to spawn and it’s got a massive AOE attack. If you’re not clear of here you’re both going to die real quick.”

  I at least know what AOE means. Area of Effect. Kind of like that lightning storm thing Thanus used.

  Val Helena turns on her low-heeled boot and begins to stride away, giving me a mesmerizing view of her armor clad hips as they rock from side to side. Zeke and Thanus leave with her and she begins issuing them orders like a battlefield commander.

  “Zeke, take your party and clear out the adds as they respawn. Top up your rage meters and save them for when the LM pops.”

  “Will do.”

  “Thanus, make sure your guys all use some kind of TP regen food. Especially the healers. This thing hits like a truck. I’m going to need to be kept topped up at all times.”

  “Got it.”

  “But don’t over heal either. Remember this is a marathon. Conserve where you can. And tell them not to spam heals. Get them to set up a healing order and alternate the heals between themselves. This thing’s got a rock throw that will one shot the entire back row if they pull hate off me, even for a second.”

  I find myself listening in on their conversation as they further depart. I’ve still got no clue what she’s talking about, but Val Helena really seems to know her stuff and by the way her guys respond to her, it makes me want to respect her even more. You had to respect someone who’s reached that level and has that kind of gear, but even more so when they know in-depth game mechanics and can lead a raiding party.

  I’m so enthralled with their conversation that I don’t even notice the huge shadow that falls over me. It’s only when yells from the rest of Val Helena’s party, who is waiting by the cavern entrance, hits me, that I get the hint that something is wrong.

  “Pop!” they keep shouting. “Pop! Pop!”

  Val Helena stops dead in her tracks and looks over her pauldron clad shoulder. I follow her gaze to see a mountain troll standing right behind me! But it’s no ordinary troll. It’s about twice the size of a normal one, and wears a crown that looks made from dragon’s teeth. In its hands is the thick iron shaft of a massive hammer, the head of which looks as a big as a car!

  I hear Val Helena’s voice yell out “Run!” and I do so without thinking.

  It’s only when I deplete about half my stamina bar that I realize Gilly is not with me. I look back to see her still standing there, multitasking, caught in her trance. The massive troll faces her and raises its hammer to strike.

  “No!” I cry. “Gilly!”

  I dash back toward her and reach Gilly just in time to shove her toward the cavern wall. The massive hammer slams on top of me with a sickening crunch of bone and the world goes black once again.

  Chapter 6 Dodge Tank

  Congratulations! You have learned a new ability “Rescue”

  Sacrifice yourself to absorb an attack for another player.

  Your Valor increases by 0.5

  You are defeated.

  Ah well, at least I got something out of it. In my state of death I finally have a chance to check the monster that destroyed me.

  Gruzug

  Legendary Monster

  Level: ???

  Gruzug the King of the Mountain Trolls is rumored to have slain the great sandworm Torrumott to create his legendary crown of teeth. His great hammer is said to have been forged in the heart of a mountain and is a gift from the dark Earth Goddess Tarrena.

  Affinity: Earth

  Guess I was wrong about the dragon teeth. I didn’t even know worms had teeth! But at least I know what LM stands for now. I check my combat log and see that it hit me for 1342 damage. Ouch! I pan my vision above my flattened corpse so I can see the massive battle now taking place.

  Val Helena is at the forefront going toe-to-toe with the massive creature and against it even her massive form looks diminutive. She activates a bunch of abilities, which I presume are defensive as they all involve some kind of blue or green geometric shape briefly forming over her body as the ability goes off.

  Gruzug bashes Val Helena with its hammer and her health bar goes down by about a quarter. She responds with a bash of her own, from her shield, and a double slice with her sword. The big monster’s health bar doesn’t move. Before it can attack again though, a burst of white light glows around Val Helena, a spell cast from one of the healing mages and her health bar is topped up just in time for Gruzug to take it back down by a quarter.

  I then take in what the other members of her team are doing, which, now that I check them, all seem to be in the 40 to 50 level range. The party led by Zeke has a couple of warriors and a thief…all damage dealers. They stay mostly behind Gruzug, slashing away at its legs while Val Helena keeps its attention focused on her. They perform abilities as well, which I assume are special attacks for more damage. Every so often a normal Troll will spawn and the damage dealers would leave Gruzug to chop it down in a few seconds and then come back and unleash a flurry of special attacks that remove a noticeable sliver from the big troll’s health.

  But the really big damage comes when a massive ball of lighting from shoots across the cavern and slams Gruzug for a good chunk of its health. I check the combat log to see how much.

  Thanus casts Thunderball!

  The Thunderball hits Gruzug for 10513(8940) damage.

  Holy cow! How many hitpoints did this thing have?

  I’m not entirely sure why there are two numbers with one in brackets, but I guess it’s some kind of damage mitigation from the troll’s armor. Or maybe the number is the brackets is the real damage and the higher number it’s actually some kind of bonus damage for being lightning or something. I remember the trolls having Earth affinity. With lightning being strong against earth, it did kind of make sense.

  The cycle keeps going on like this. Val Helena tanking the big slow hits and the occasional double attack, the celestial mages healing her back up, while the melee go all out and the elemental mages make step changes to the LM’s health bar with massive damage spells. It’s all quite impressive to watch and entertaining despite me being dead for over 5 minutes.

  And then a room wide message appears.

  Gruzug readies Mountain Buster!

  “Here it comes!” Val Helena shouts.

  The double-sized Troll faces his hammer head down, holding it like a sword he’s about to plunge into the ground. I get the idea pretty quick about what’s about to happen next. The mages back up an extra step or two and the damage dealers start to use what look like defensive abilities of their own, as does Val Helena who encircles herself with another thick shield of b
lue polygons.

  “Hit me with a Heal IV as soon as it lands,” she says. “And then heal up the melee party as quick as you can afterwards!” Her eyes then shoot in my direction. “Why hasn’t that dumb girl moved yet?”

  I pan behind me to see poor Gilly still standing there!

  Gruzug slams the hammer down with a massive boom that sends a shockwave radiating across the cavern floor. Val Helena’s health bar drops to a third, the melee partly is almost killed, surviving the blast with about 10% health left. The mages are out of range and go untouched. But poor Gilly gasps in a death cry and quickly joins me on the floor.

  Val Helena then takes an unfortunate double attack by the huge hammer and is knocked down to 2% health! My heart jumps.

  “Heal me up!” she yells panicked. “Heal me up!”

  The hammer is about to slam down on her again when a heal finally lands, bumping Val Helena back up to 40% before being knocked back down to 10% again. Then a flurry of heals wash over her, including one she remarkably casts herself, quickly topping her up to full health.

  My heart is still pumping. Man, that was close!

  “Nice work,” Val Helena says recovering. “Get the melee healed up.”

  I then get an in party message: “Hey! We’re dead! What happened?”

  “Gruzug happened.”

  “Ah, so that’s what they came for,” Gilly says, and it’s kind of funny to hear her voice coming from her body that’s face down on the floor. “No problem though, we should still be able to get the TOD even if we’re dead.”

  “What is that?”

  “Time of death.”

  “That sounds morbid.”

  “All Legendary monsters spawn on a set timer that starts from the last time it was killed. So if you know the TOD you’ll know when it will spawn again. And if you’re the only one who knows it, it means there will be no one else to compete with you for the claim.”

  “Yeah what’s that claim thing all about?”

  “You see how the Gruzug’s name looks gray to us right now?”

  I didn’t really notice before, but when I focus on the LM again, I do see its name is in gray text. “Yeah…”

  “That means it’s claimed by another party. If we were fighting it, it would be red. We can’t engage it in combat unless we’re in the same party. Once it’s claimed, that party gets to fight it, kill it and loot it. No one else.”

  “I see.”

  “When it spawns, the name is white, meaning it’s unclaimed. So whoever can engage it first essentially wins.”

  “Ah…” I get it now. “So Val Helena thought we were here with a rival guild, trying to steal the claim first.”

  “Val who?”

  “Val Helena. The half giant lady?”

  “Oh. Her…”

  I can hear the eye roll in her voice. “What?”

  “Well you pretty much couldn’t keep your eyes off her. Could you?”

  “What?” I say again indignantly. “She’s the first level 85 character I’ve seen. Plus she is kind of awesome, you have to admit.”

  “Awesome you say?” Gilly huffs. “I can think of something else she is that begins with an ‘a’.”

  I laugh.

  “Here, I’ll prove it to you.”

  Gilly then does a yell command, which sends a message to the entire room, even if you’re dead. A last ditch way to beg for help if you die.

  ***Gilly: Hey giant lady. Are you just going to leave us here lying dead on the ground?

  Val Helena looks annoyed by the distraction. They have Gruzug down to 20% now and it seems to be fighting back more aggressively than before. “That’s why I warned you guys to clear out of here. Idiots.”

  ***Gilly: So is that a yes then?

  “I can get them, Val,” one of the mages, an elven girl shouts from across the cavern.

  “No, I’ll get them,” Val Helena says. Although she mutters a bit after she says it. And then in a feat that looks as miraculous as the spell itself, she times her casting of Raise I in between taking hits from the giants hammer and slamming Gruzug with a shield bash.

  A bright light engulfs my corpse and a message pops up.

  Val Helena has offered to raise you. Do you accept? (Y/N)

  I hit yes and Val Helena suddenly cries. “No! Wait!”

  The spell completes and my body slowly starts to rise off the ground as the words appear.

  Gruzug readies Mountain Buster!

  I land on my feet my, hit points refilling to a paltry 10% of max when the mountain buster goes off. I see red again of my character hits the floor with a massive Level Down message appearing across my vision accompanied by an ego deflating sound effect.

  What? I didn’t even know that was possible! “Man dying sucks in this game! It’s no wonder I don’t play combat classes.”

  A bunch of laughs and comments float in from Val Helena’s crew.

  “Oh snap! He leveled down! LoL!”

  “LMAO!!”

  “LOL!”

  “Poor noob!”

  “Shame on your for raising him, just to let him get killed again, Val! xD”

  Apparently, seeing someone level down is one of the most amusing things in all of Crystal Shards Online. For me it’s one of the most humiliating. I’m never getting in combat ever again!

  “Ack,” Gilly says. “Sorry about that, Reece.”

  “Don’t worry. It’s not your fault. I just didn’t expect that to happen.”

  “I’ll get them this time, Val,” the same elven mage as before says. “I’ll use mass resurrection.”

  Val Helena’s eyes go wide and she looks over her shoulder at the mage. “NO DON’T!”

  But the spell goes off and instantly Gilly and I are surrounded by swirling white light.

  Gruzug immediately loses all interest in Val Helena and focuses on the mage who just raised us. A huge boulder appears in Gruzug’s hand and it hurls it at the elf girl. The thing explodes on impact and the entire mage party falls down dead, health bars depleted to zero.

  “No! Dammit!” Val Helena curses.

  Mass confusion ensues.

  “What happened?”

  “Silvi pulled hate by raising those noobs.”

  “I didn’t mean to!”

  “We’re gonna wipe!”

  “I can’t believe this man! 15% left!”

  A battle of desperate attrition begins. Val Helena continues to fight on, healing herself between each hit. But there is no way she can keep up. She’s down to twenty percent heath when the dreaded words finally reappear.

  Gruzug readies Mountain Buster!

  And then it’s all over.

  Val Helena along with Zeke and the warrior party flatline, leaving Gruzug the ultimate champion. I see its name change from gray to white and slowly its health bar starts to go up again.

  “It’s gone unclaimed!” Gilly says. “It’s going to reset and heal back up to max health.”

  Oh man.

  *** Val Helena: One of you mages respawn and run back down here to raise us back up. It we’re fast enough we can reclaim it before it heals back to 50%.

  *** Silvi: I’m on it!

  Silvi’s corpse disappears and is replaced by a tombstone.

  A couple minutes go by and Silvi returns dressed in only elven lingerie. She recovers her gear from her tombstone and immediately begins casting mass resurrection, first on the other mage who then help raise the rest of the team.

  I notice the spell Silvi cast on us earlier is still in effect so I raise as well, along with Gilly. We both make a beeline for the mages as soon as we’re up, as do most people, clearing their distance from the LM who now stands the center of the cavern.

  Val Helena gets a raise and stalks towards the remnants of her team looking like she wants to murder someone. She stops next to Gilly and I and regards us with a scowl.

  “Damn noobs. We wiped out there thanks to you.”

  Gilly’s green eyes go fierce and I can tell she wants to
say something smart back to Val Helena as she meets the big woman’s stare, but the guilt of what she did to egg her on must be weighing on her conscience because she holds back. She instead just looks to me. “Let’s get out of here, Reece.”

  I find myself torn to leave. Although I know we’ve probably outstayed our welcome after what went down. I check Gruzug and see he’s already back up to 30%. Part of me feels responsible for that and I try to make amends.

  “Can’t you just get back in there? It’s only at 30%.”

  “Can’t yet,” Val Helena says. “We’re all weakened. Need to wait five minutes for it to wear off.”

  I then notice that there is a small buff that looks like a skull on my status bar and my max HP, TP and STAM are all reduced by half.

  “It happens when you get a raise instead of just respawning. It’ll be back to half by the time we’re ready to go again.”

  “Well… sorry about all this,” I say.

  Gilly shoots me a dirty look and messages me through the party chat. “What are you apologizing for? You don’t have to suck up to her!”

  “I dunno,” I say back sheepishly. “I just feel bad.”

  I see a shadow dash between Val Helena and ourselves and for a second I think it’s some kind of glitch in my rig. But then I see Val Helena and Gilly react to it as well.

  “What was that?” I say.

  A loud wail then explodes throughout the cavern and we all turn to see Gruzug keeling over in pain. Its name has turned gray again and it’s heath bar is back down to 25%. Holy cow! What could have just taken off 5% off its health like that?

  I see the answer emerge in the form of a slender elf woman in black leather gear, with twin katana’s in her hands. The blades are moving so fast I can barely see them. Only the multiple grunts that Gruzug makes with each hit, keeps track of just how rapidly the woman is attacking the LM. Gruzug swings and instead of getting hit the woman simply ducks under it taking no damage at all!