World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (52 page)

* * *

The defenders salute
Wesley once he climbs onto the mountain top above the guard station.

Wesley returns the
salute. “You heard Heimdall issuing an alert of Virtuan scout
sighting. No matter what happens, you cannot allow Virtuan fliers to
take over this spot. Your spot and the one across the chasm are the
key points. If Virtuous players secure both positions, then we’re
going to have difficulty protecting the portal,” he warns the five
Eternians.

“We will defend this
post to the death!” Pablova Switchblades proclaims. Normally, the
rogue prefers to hide in shadow, jump on his victim’s back and stab
with his twin daggers. However, since the defenders sorely need
skilled archers to defend the mountain top, he is on loan from the
Thieves Guild to participate in this event.

Wesley nods and quickly
moves on to the next defensive position. The majority of the
defenders up on the mountain top are either spell casters or archers.
If Virtuans somehow manage to land fighters on the mountain, he is to
provide a blade and shield to preoccupy melee fighters while the
other defenders provide support. Of course, Wesley would rather join
Heimdall on the ground below, but the warlord needs wide space to
swing his long pole arm weapon. And Wesley would only be a hindrance
with no room to avoid the halberd in the confined passage way in
front of the gate.

Virgil waits patiently
for the clock to wind down to the two hour mark. He spends the time
staring at the mountain, the passage way carved into the landscape,
the two guard stations next to the passage, and the rows of abatis
fencing the perimeter. Due to intelligence work from his employer,
the leader of Easy Money already knows how the Eternians are setting
up their defenses. His plan of attack is simple: blow up everything
in the front to draw attention, and then sneak in from behind and
above.

Virgil turns to face
his column. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have reached the one minute
countdown. It’s time for everyone to get into position, and do a
final weapons check. At the two hour mark, we begin our attack. It’s
time to make some money! Now go!”

Four members leave his
group, and split into two smaller parties. Each subgroup is running
to stand in front of the guard station.

Virgil starts marching
his remaining ten members to stand closer to the defensive perimeter,
but just out of range of the Eternian archers and their arrows. As
the countdown reaches five seconds to two hour mark, the leader draws
his sword and holds it up in the air. Finally, at the two hour mark,
Virgil drops his sword and points its tip at the defenders. “Attack!”

The players behind him
pull out metallic balls the size of small oranges. They quickly light
up the fuse on each ball, and throw the balls at the archers standing
behind the abatis.

* * *

Richard slams his fist
on the table, jolting the spectators sitting next to him.
We
shouldn’t have bombs in this game. Virtuous Gaming must have snuck
in the file while we were busy integrating their visual designs,
he suddenly realizes. He quickly shoots a glare at Charles.

The rival smirks,
knowing exactly why Richard is angry.

“I tried WoE briefly,
but I don’t recall ever having access to explosives,” Antoinette
remarks. “Is this part of the new Oriental Expansion?” she asks.

The CEO of EDE smiles
at his host. “Yes, since fireworks and gunpowder are part of the
Asian culture, my developers felt it was the appropriate time to
introduce this into the game.”

Charles pantomimes
applause.
So nice of you to heed
your own advice and take ownership of your underling’s foul up,
he gloats silently.

BOOOOOMMM!

The loud explosion
quickly forces everyone to turn back to the screen to find out what
just happened.

* * *

Iorne Straight Shot is
manning the abatis blocking the path. Suddenly, the archer sees a
bunch of metallic objects heading straight for him! The Army veteran
recognizes the threat and immediately warns his fellow defenders.
“INCOMING!” he yells as he dives to his left. The bombs go off a
second later and the overwhelming explosive force pushes Iorne’s
avatar fifty feet away from the blast site.

The avatar’s head is
slammed into the ground, and the player sees “Concussion”
flashing on his view screen. “Damnit!” he curses as the player
starts retreating from the breach. While concussed, Iorne has no way
to see where his character is going. However, the last thing he
should do is to remain where he is, because the enemy is coming. If
the concussion effect dissipates quickly, the player can return to
combat. Until then, he has turn tail and run!

“Is anyone else
alive?” Iorne yells as he runs hopefully towards the direction of
the portal. A five man unit was guarding the passage way. While Iorne
is hopeful that another comrade had heeded his warning, it is quite
possible that he’s the only remaining survivor from his unit.
Unfortunately, while the concussion status is live, the player view
screen does not show the lives counter; thus, Iorne has no way of
knowing if anyone else made it.

Suddenly Iorne feels
something grab his hands, and his avatar’s movement is stopped cold
on the spot.

“I got you. What’s
your status, son?” the unnamed rescuer asks.

“I am concussed. I
can’t see,” Iorne quickly replies. “Several bombs exploded at
the abatis directly blocking the passage way. I have no clue if
anyone else in my assignment survived the blast.”

“This is Heimdall. I
heard the explosion, and ordered troops to reinforce the breach. I’m
halfway there now. I’m ordering you to continue moving down the
passage way and guard the portal. Your avatar is down to a third of
its normal health bar. Unfortunately, I can’t ask our priests to
expend mana to heal you, and a restriction in this tournament has
disabled the use of potions. But as long as you’re alive you can
wait for the concussion status to expire. So you’ll serve as the
final line of defense if invaders somehow get pass me,” he
explains.

Iorne salutes. “Yes
sir! I swear that I will prevent Virtuans from entering the portal,”
he repeats his order.

The warlord slaps the
wounded man on the shoulder. “Good. Let’s have a drink once the
tournament is over,” he offers.

“Yes, let’s do that
sir!” Iorne accepts enthusiastically and continues moving along the
passage way.

Heimdall frowns at his
fighter’s back.
I can’t
believe Virtuans have explosives. One bomb attack took out four brave
men in that unit. I’m feeling the momentum shifting towards the
other side.
The guild master turns back to the opening in
the passage way and sees Virtuans starting to gather. “Time to show
the viewers why I’m the most fearsome fighter in World of Eternia,”
he says aloud as the player’s adrenaline starts to flow through his
veins.

* * *

The explosions can be
heard by all the participants in the event, as every player remaining
in the game is now in the vicinity of the mountain. The assassin
corps uses the ensuing confusion to begin scaling the mountain from
the back. The five specialized rogues are dressed in black, with blue
belts to signify that they belong to the Virtuous faction. With masks
over their heads, the genders of these five are unknown. Special
metallic hooks are bound to their hands and feet to aid in the climb,
which is slow as the surface is fairly smooth; without special
proficiency in climbing walls, normal player classes have no chance
at a successful climb. However, no defender has bothered to look down
beyond the edge of the cliff and the invaders’ presence is
undetected.

* * *

The cloud runners
slither restlessly in the clouds high above. The majestic animals
resemble gigantic snakes, with eight sets of flippers that help
propel movement amongst the clouds. Despite the thickness of these
animals, their bone density is thin like avians. A thick, luscious
mantle of hair lines each animal along the neck. A saddle is strapped
on around the neck of each animal, and the tamer is holding onto the
animal’s hair. When the vibrations from the explosions below reach
these fliers, Carlos Saible finally directs his mount to dive
straight for the guard station on the right! The other four fliers
quickly follow behind with their own dives.

“Hail Wesley!”
Conrad says as the sniper sees his leader approach.

His partner, Laura
Deathmaiden, offers a sloppy salute to the ex-Marine. She has a grin
on her face. “What are your orders, oh fearless leader?” the
necromancer asks.

Wesley just manages to
avoid rolling his eyes. It took a rather hard sell from Conrad to
convince the leader of The Strangers to accept Laura’s condition to
join the tournament.
I hope her
entry into our small group will not lead to an avalanche of requests
from other players to join
, he sighs to himself.
It’s
one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations. And
we really need players with moba experience, and she is known as a
particularly strong player. Time to make her earn her alliance
membership!

“Your assignment is
to provide support and cover the passage way. That’s why you two
are positioned at this spot overlooking the portal. Conrad will try
to one shot any Virtuous player that tries to enter the portal;
meanwhile you will keep him safe and use your death magic to summon
minions as necessary to defend this position. Unfortunately, World of
Eternia does not offer a summoner class, and your necromancer class
is the closest one resembling a summoner,” Wesley explains.

Conrad looks at his
leader skeptically. “Are you sure bringing in an undead summoner is
worth the risk of antagonizing the Church of Eternia? Kassender had
eyed Laura briefly back in the portal room, and I’m sure she
already knows Laura is a necromancer,” he says.

Before Wesley can
reply, he is interrupted by a loud “BOOOOMMMMM!”

The trio takes
advantage of their perch above the portal to stare down the end of
the passage way, and sees the invaders slowly stepping past the
mangled remnants of the abatis.

* * *

Pablova Switchblades
notices the fast moving, dark clouds heading directly over the
mountain. Hints of lightning stir within the clouds. “What the heck
is that?” he asks while pointing at the weird acting clouds.

Jaden Windmaster stares
at the clouds. The air mage switches from normal view to magic screen
view and peers into the clouds. As an air specialist spell caster,
Jaden has the innate ability to find hidden objects within the
clouds. “We have incoming!” he shouts suddenly while pointing at
the clouds. “Get ready!” he yells out to the defenders across the
chasm. He sees salutes from his counterparts in acknowledgement.

“What do you see?”
Pablova asks.

“There are five giant
snakes slithering within the cloud,” Jaden answers, half
disbelieving what he just said.

“What?” the rogue
stares at the spell caster.

“Yeah,” Jaden nods
in agreement. “And the strange part is that each snake has a rider.
I can only assume this is part of the Oriental Expansion for World of
Eternia. Unfortunately, our bows and spells can’t reach them right
now. So you’ll need to run back to alert Lorna. Now go!” he
orders.

* * *

Raynor the Houndmaster
readies his special, magically enchanted arrow. He has just gotten a
warning from the air mage on the other side of the chasm.

Tildan the Spyro
readies his spell components to cast a meteor swarm. While the master
level fire spell will drain two thirds of the fire mage’s mana,
this is the best opportunity to cast the spell since the fliers are
grouped together inside the clouds. Just ten more yards and they will
be within range of the deadly spell.

* * *

Carlos Saible hears the
explosion below him. He turns to face the rest of his squadron.
“There’s our signal to attack. For Easy Money!” he cries out.

“For Easy Money,”
the four followers repeat.

* * *

Phhhheeeeeeeeee!

The trio above the
portal looks around to find the source of the noise. To Wesley it
sounds like a fighter jet making a dive.

Crackle! Crackle! Boom!

Suddenly bolts of
lightning slam into the two guard stations simultaneously, snuffing
out all ten defenders in an instant!

“There!” Conrad
points at the objects moving in the sky above the mountain.

Wesley looks up and
sees a group of gigantic, slithering snakes! They are busy weaving
through the clouds, dodging arrows and spell fire from the defenders
perched above the now burning guard stations. “What the heck?” he
stares at the unfamiliar beasts.
Is
this part of the new expansion?

* * *

“Wow!” Evan
exclaims with excitement. “A bombing to knock out the abatis and
archers blocking the passage way, immediately followed by a group
attack from the flying cloud runners to knock out the guard stations.
The Virtuans now have a clear shot at the portal!”

“The coordinated
attacks just took fourteen more Eternian players off the field,”
Antoinette adds. “And now Eternians have just one man advantage.
Momentum is clearly riding with the Virtuans now. Can the Eternians
withstand the charge?”

“My players have been
knocked down, but they are not out just yet. I see one of our best
melee fighters going in to meet the enemy at the gate now,” Richard
says calmly.

“He’s the only one
either brave or foolish enough to approach Virgil’s team. The
defenders guarding the outer perimeter are either knocked out of the
game, or busy dealing with my fliers. What can one man do to stop the
push towards the portal?” Charles scoffs at his rival.