The Secret of the Dark Forest ( (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3) (34 page)

Unlike in Beatwick, right now the raid was functioning like a single organism. Six of the Elementals were being held off by the tanks, and the two remaining were constantly crowd-controlled by the mages. The healers were pouring healings into the Tanks, without sparing any Mana, and the main body of the players were focused on the group of level 350+ mages. Not wanting to be the odd one out, I started to summon Spirits, but all of them had pretty much zero effect. The difference between a 68-level Shaman and such a high-level mob was just too big. All that I could do was summon strengthenings into the tanks and restorations into the healers.

"Minus Undigit! Hell, take the mobs! Priests – resurrect on cool down! Plinto! Switch to the Elementals; try stunning them! Get those mages down already!"

"Mahan," Antsinthepantsa appeared next to me, downing some restorative potion. "It's not the mages who are keeping the shields up around the Elementals!"

"What?"

"The mages aren't the ones keeping up the shields on the Elementals! Someone else is doing that!"

"Plinto, did you hear that?" I didn't doubt the High Shaman's words for a second. When you have twelve players already sent for respawn, while the enemy’s lost only ten mages, doubts can go hang. "Find him!"

"On it!" After putting a 20-second stun on another Elemental, the Rogue stealthed and rushed into the forest at top speed.

"Damn, we're doing something wrong," whispered Antsinthepantsa, wincing at the unpleasant squelching sound as one of the Elementals tore away from Hellfire, flew over to a group of our mages and smashed into them. Four players lost. "Elementals are counterparts of the Spirits, so why are they on the side of the Fallen?"

"The Lieutenant, 300 meters. Dark Priest 400+. I’m gone.”
Plinto's frame went down to zero in less than two seconds and became gray. The Rogue had gone for a 6-hour rest. There were only two Priests in the raid and they could only resurrect one player every five minutes, so given that almost half the raid was already lying dead, Plinto's turn wasn't going to come around any time soon.

"Natalie, what do you know about Elementals? You're supposed to be a Shaman, no? Out with it! Quit dragging your feet, we're running out of time!"

"'Killer, chuck the Elementals, we can't do anything to them. Destroy as many mages as you can!" came the order from Anastaria.

"Nothing special." Antsinthepantsa finally snapped out of it. At this point all four Elementals had surrounded Etamzilat and only twenty-three fighters remained alive. "Elementals are warriors of the elements, while Spirits are the souls of the elements. They're like brothers. At level 100 you will gain the ability to summon an Elemental for a few minutes, depending on your rank. Similar to a Totem, but temporary."

"How do you communicate with them?" A crazy idea popped into my head. If you could talk to Elementals, what if it were possible to strike a deal with these ones?

"Through the Astral Plane," said Antsinthepantsa slowly and suddenly her eyes lit up. "That it! We can subdue them – just give me a minute!" With these words the girl sat in lotus pose and – what surprised me the most – began to rise above the ground. Not very far, but ... looks like Shamans are quite the high flyers, with a special relationship to gravity and all that ... . Strange that when I ended up in the Astral Plane, there was a message from Ehkiller that I’d disappeared. But now this girl simply rose up ... is that because each Shaman has a different way of entering the Astral Plane or did I disappear in the Guardian's Glade because I ended up there by mistake?

"Stacey, bubble over Antsinthepantsa!" I thought it right that the lady Shaman be protected from being interrupted by any mob that might suddenly break loose.

"I can't! I threw it on Hell recently, it's still in cool down! What did you guys think up?" Only after Anastaria's reply did I realize that the bubble lasts merely a few seconds and wouldn't be much help. She may as well throw it on Hellfire in this case. I was being a bit slow on the uptake. ...

"There's a chance of gaining control over the Elementals. Antsinthepantsa is checking it out."

"All right, try using the scrolls that I sent you ..."

"Mahan!" Antsinthepantsa's baffled shout interrupted Anastaria's. "Come with me, I will be your guide, Great One. There will be a ton of penalties, but you have to see this!"

"What do I do?"

"Sit next to me, give me your hand and close your eyes. Open them when I tell you. Nothing else. Let's go!"

"I'll cover you." Slate flew up to me from the heat of battle. Wow! How the heck did I forget about you? If we fail, I can forget about my Attractiveness with the Princess for sure. "No enemy shall get through! Over my dead body!"

Sitting next to the girl and hoping that the only remaining tank, Hellfire, would be able to hold out long enough, I touched the girl's hand and closed my eyes. The noise of the battle and shouts of the players died away, as if a dome had been placed over me, and I heard Antsinthepantsa's voice: "You can open them now, we're here."

There was the familiar gray mist of the Astral Plane, into which I was pulled from the Guardian's glade, and I saw eight Elementals hanging in the air. In contrast to 'reality', in the Astral Plane the Elementals had eyes, which were now looking at us, with pleading gazes ...

The brothers of our Spirits were surrounded by strange entities circling around them, which looked very similar to dark phantoms from old horror movies. Or to those that flew out of the hands of Midial and Geranika. Several phantoms, probably the controllers, floated around the heads of the Elementals, while others circled each body, moving them in different directions. Several more phantoms maintained domes that surrounded each Elemental. So that's where the active defense of those mobs had come from.

"We cannot help you," the thundering voices of the High Spirits of both worlds sounded behind us. "We can only destroy them together with our brothers, so you're on your own. All we can do is to cut the penalty for remaining in our world by half. Act quickly – time is running out!"

"My spirits can't do any harm to these phantoms!" Antsinthepantsa’s words stunned me. "I thought that perhaps you'd think of something, so I brought you here. If we manage to get rid of this Darkness, the Elementals will be set free and we will be able to stop them."

"Mahan, hurry!!! There’s only fifteen of us left!"

I selected one phantom so I could examine its properties and understand what we were dealing with, but found them blocked. It turned out that you weren't allowed to look at the properties of these shady pieces of scum. Then it was like someone flicked a switch in my head: Beatwick and the Sklic ... there was only one instance when a mob's properties wouldn't show – when you were meant to discover what you were up against ... A quest for a Shaman!

"Mahan! Time! Do something!" Now Antsinthepantsa was telling me to hurry. Strange, why does this girl think that I can do something with these beasts? It's not like the Spirits can even touch them ... .

"Draco, I urgently need your help!"

"Coming!"

To make sure of the lady Shaman's words I selected one phantom and tried summoning a Spirit on it. It was only a level one, there was no way I could miss, but ... incomprehensibly the Spirit ricocheted and hit me instead.

"What is that, brother?" my Totem appeared next to me, staring in surprise at the phantoms circling around the Elemental. "They seem familiar, but I just can't remember. What do I do?"

"Try burning them."

"I can't," said Draco, not even trying to attack. "I can't target this ... what
is
the correct name for them? It's at the tip of my tongue, but I just can't find the right word ... . If I simply unleash my flame at them, I'll burn the warrior too. They are good, so I can't ... if only these shadowy things were real ... . But I don't know how to embody them ..."

Embody! Draco is a genius!

"Antsinthepantsa, time to activate Change of Essence! We have to change the phantoms! We'll be able to destroy them after that!"

"I'm on it!" the lady Shaman replied without even asking why I suddenly came to this decision. "We'll start with the closest fire one. I'm on the left. Bussy! Destroy them when you're able." In addition the girl summoned her Panther and started to change the essence of the phantoms.

"I thank you, brothers!" thundered the Elemental a few seconds later, engulfing us in a wave of hot air. Draco and Bussy acted quickly and made a good team. Changing the essence of a phantom turned out to be quite easy – all you had to do was imagine it becoming very solid and then one of our Totems would proceed to wipe it out. "If it wasn't for you we would still have to ..."

"Stop destroying the free citizens and help us with the Fallen mages," I shouted, interrupting the flaming pillar's 'thank you' speech.
"Stacey, one of the flaming ones is on our side. Don't hit him! We're working on the rest!"

"I accept your conditions, elder brother, and my brothers will follow me once you free them," some sort of a greenish aura formed around the Elemental in the Astral Plane and he froze. Let's hope he switched to destroying the mages instead of my raid.

"Natalie, it's working! Let's keep at it! A water one is next!"

+100 to Reputation with the Supreme Spirits of the Higher and Lower Worlds.

Current level: Neutral. You are 890 points away from the status of Friendly.

As soon as we finished with the last Elemental, both Antsinthepantsa and I were kicked out of the Astral Plane – seems we overstayed our welcome. I glanced forlornly at the list of the week-long debuffs: -1 rank of the summoned Spirit, the Totem summoning time had been reduced to 1 hour a day and the strength of the summoned Spirits had been reduced by 20%. And this was barely even half the penalties. In this case, the Supreme ones have really gone into overdrive – increasing my Reputation with them looks to be virtually impossible.

"That's it, we're done." Anastaria sunk to the ground in relief when the last mage was destroyed and the Elementals had frozen like statues. Only the crackling of the fire, the noise of wind and water and the rumbling of the rocking earth indicated that the eight mobs were still alive and ready to spring into action. "Barsa, here, take these resurrection scrolls – get Ehkiller, Etamzilat and Donotpunnik up. I have no Mana and I will only be able to use a potion in three minutes. Guys, up we get, the Lieutenant is three hundred meters away! Mahan, will the Elementals help us?"

"Yes brother, we will grant you our aid in this battle and then return to our world,"
the voice of one of the pillars sounded in my head, so I immediately told the good news to Anastaria and looked at what was left of the raid. Seventeen out of sixty-three. Some weird lottery was happening here ... The survivors included Clutzer, Eric, Leite, Barsina, Antsinthepantsa and me ... . Essentially we could rule out six of our people in the fight with a 400-level Lieutenant, which wouldn’t be good. The twenty 350+ mages that we downed resulted in six new levels for me, +15 levels to my Officers, +4 to Barsina and +2 to Antsinthepantsa. As for the rest, I couldn't remember their initial levels, so couldn't tell if they gained anything. For instance, Anastaria’s definitely didn't go up, remaining at 331 and as for Hellfire – our highest-level player on the continent –, he couldn't get past the 340 threshold.

"I am proud to have the honor of fighting with such warriors." Slate started to walk up to each player and shake their hand. Interestingly, as soon as the blacksmith stepped away from them, the face of each player became a picture of surprise and then his eyes shot in my direction. What now?

"I am proud ... ." When my turn came to shake the hand of the future Prince it all became clear. We’d all got a 'Gratitude of the Imperial Family’ buff, increasing our stats by 20% and doubling the speed of Energy, Mana and Hit Point regeneration. That's it ... now there'd be no escaping questions on what a member of the Imperial Family was doing in these woods.

+50 to Reputation with the Malabar Emperor.

Current level: Respect. You are 3800 points away from the status of Esteem.

"YOU ARE INTERESTING TOYS," the Lieutenant's voice flooded through the Dark Forest, slapping us all with a long list of short-term debuffs, "IT WOULD BE A PITY TO DESTROY YOU STRAIGHT AWAY, BUT SUCH IS MY MASTER'S WILL! DIE!"

"Barsa, me and Leander – twenty paces away from Hellfire," Anastaria immediately took charge, sorting out all the remaining healers. "Etamzilat is backing up Hell. Ants – put strengthening and restoration on everyone. Right now, it's important! Leander, on cool down bring back up two more healers, three of us may not be enough. Small fries – to the back with you! Mobs aren’t like the boss – things are gonna get really hot!"

All the nearby trees had been thoroughly destroyed during the battle with the mages, so now our group was standing on the edge of an improvised fifty-meter clearing. After three or four fitful breaths (there are no heart beats in Barliona), the trees on the opposite side flew apart, bringing the Lieutenant into view. Unlike in Plinto's first video, where he was covered by mist, now we could see this boss and his appearance in all its glory: he was a three-meter tall biped, his race indeterminable, because he was a formed of a combination of human, white-skinned vampire and green orc ... a Frankenstein of the Dark Forest.