Stealthcaster Read online

  He pushed off, leaping from the horse, letting it charge ahead, and he held for a moment, releasing his arm in a swift, graceful forward arc, releasing the softly glowing axe. As if left his hand he shot a quick blast of MP into it and watched as it tumbled forward, end-over-end, arcing slightly until it buried itself deep in the collarbone of its target. The Sharak-Ku snarled and fell, the sword dropping from relaxed fingers as the warrior dropped to one knee. Solomon hit the ground, buckled his knees and shot forward into a tight forward roll, reaching out with his mana again and latching onto the axe. With a swift pull of his mind, the weapon ripped free of the Sharak-Ku’s leathery skin and flew through the air, slapping into Solomon’s opened palm.

  “Not too shabby,” he said to himself with a smile, running full tilt, approaching the injured snake warrior who was already clamoring to his feet. Reaching for his weapon, as fast as the Sharak-Ku was, he wasn’t quite fast enough, and Solomon was in on top of him, twisting and activating axe blow, ramming the sharp edge of the weapon hard into the left rib cage of the creature. There was a swift crunch joined by a burst of light and he crumpled over the trike, hissing angrily.

  To his right, Solomon saw Lionel charging on the back of his horse, the broadsword out and ready as three of the enemy converged on him, hissing, spitting and snarling. The large, brown steed plowed headlong into the three warriors, knocking one down and sending the other two sprawling while Lionel shifted his two-handed sword into a striking pose, sliding from the horse’s back and wading into the fray.

  Solomon snapped his attention back to his own battle, the Sharak-Ku recovering, though down to less than fifty percent health after his two axe strikes. A sword swung around, and he stepped back, parrying it with the edge of his platinum axe, metal on metal clanging loudly. Megyn had leaped from Tyson’s back as well, driving another arrow into another enemy warrior before hitting the ground and coming up with her short sword slashing. Kydel was already deep into the group guarding Soracia, her twin blades carving gleaming slashes through the darkness, driving against the Sharak-Ku threat. She cleaved a quarter HP from one of them with a single strike, dodged a counter strike, then buried the second sword into the sternum of the same enemy, nearly reducing it to ten percent health.

  “I’ve gotta check out her stats some day,” Solomon whispered, dodging another strike before arching his axe down and hacking off the hand and forearm of his attacker. He knew when it came to most of these games, the NPC’s generally hovered around the same level and power as the players, but Kydel seemed pretty significantly stronger than anyone in his party. To his left, Tyson bounded and leaped into a pair of snakemen, his jaws clamping tight around the shoulder of one. He thrashed his head left and right, ripping the enemy around like a rag doll, his limbs flailing before the wolf tossed him aside and turned his attention on another. Solomon slipped under another swing of a sword and embedded the axe under the chin of the Sharak-Ku, finally knocking off his scant remaining HP and dropping him dead.

  Another charged toward him, snarling, holding a two-bladed battle axe in both hands, yanking it back, preparing for a beheading strike. A glimmering blue spear shot from Solomon’s right and drove hard into the snake’s face, splitting skin and snapping bone, the sharpened Ice Dagger spell as deadly as a solid steel knife. Toppling to his knees the Sharak-Ku grunted, then snapped his angry head up, glaring at Ella who slammed both palms forward, shooting out an Acid Arrow follow up. The creature scrambled up, trying to back pedal, but took the full force of the green energy to the chest, yowling as the sizzling liquid engulfed him in a scalding, skin-flaying embrace. As the enemy squirmed, Solomon came up behind him, locked in Axe Blow and slammed a Critical Hit to the creature’s neck, separating his head from his body in one swift swing.

  “Two down!” Solomon shouted, suddenly feeling a tiny spark of potential victory in his gut. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, after all?

  Over by the queen, Kydel dodged a spear thrust, then moved forward, hacking the weapon in half with a downward slice, then swinging the second blade in a ragged gash across the creature’s armored torso. The Sharak-Ku spun away, but twirled both halves of the spear gracefully and recovered, lurching forward again, bringing the bunt end down in a quick clubbing blow. It glanced off Kydel’s shoulder and she grunted, falling left, just in time for the spear end to thrust up and around, driving the jagged iron tip hard into her chest. She screamed in pain and Solomon looked over just in time to see a large swath of her hit points explode into the ether, leaving her in the red.

  “Kydel’s in trouble!” he shouted.

  “On it!” replied Megyn, shifting her attention from one of the snakes and charging toward the group.

  “I’ve got your back!” Ella shouted and moved in Megyn’s direction, swiftly gathering together the energy for another Acid Arrow. She launched it, but missed her target, who was moving toward Megyn, trying to take her down now that her back was turned.

  “No!” Ella shouted, frustrated at herself, knowing she had to act quickly. Her frequent casting of Acid Arrow and Ice Dagger had drained her MP to nearly nothing, and it was taking its time replenishing and the Sharak-Ku warrior was just behind her friend, lifting a sword, ready to strike. Desperate, Ella summoned her least powerful spell, the entry level Shimmering Sphere, designed mostly for protection. She thrust it forward and it struck the ground at the Sharak-Ku’s feet, tripping him up. His slash sailed just over Megyn’s head and she darted left, continuing her rapid dash to Kydel’s side. Lionel leaped in from the Sharak-Ku’s blind side with both gloved hands wrapped tight around his sword, and he drove it down hard, the blade carving into the monster’s back. The paladin had turned his attention away from the two villains he was fighting in order to take a good whack at this one, and his two original enemies converged on him, both swinging swords, shining in the moonlight. Solomon called up Axe Throw and let fly, the platinum axe whipping through the air, crashing into a Sharak-Ku’s shoulder. The creature gave a yelp of pain and turned toward him, as Solomon tried to draw the axe back to his extended hand.

  His attempt failed as his mana struggled near its bottom. The only problem with relying so heavily on his skills was that each one drew from his MP reserves, and at level six, he was replenishing way too slowly. Now he was stuck without his axe again and enemies all around him. Whirling to his right, Lionel drove the broadsword at the Sharak-Ku who Solomon had hit, and the long blade punched clean through the creature’s torso, gushing pale green blood from its back. The second Sharak-Ku took advantage of Lionel’s diverted attention and drove his sword down point-first, thrusting it hard and deep into the paladin’s back.

  Lionel shouted and lurched forward, barely catching himself on the grass, a good chunk of his health scattering away.

  Megyn leaped forward, colliding with the Sharak-Ku who hovered over Kydel, driving her knee hard into the creature’s chest. Landing on the snake, she thrust down with her short sword while activating Weak Point practically guaranteeing a critical hit. She got what she wanted and her target lay dead in the grass as she rolled from on top of it, coming up in a battle stance as two others came toward her.

  “Foolish, every one of you!” Soracia yelled from between the two Sharak-Ku who held her fast. “These Sharak-Ku are not push overs!” she screamed. “They’ll kill you if you’re lucky!”

  “We couldn’t just let them take you, my queen!” Kydel barked.

  “Yes you could!” Soracia yelled back. “And you should have! If any of you die in this fool’s errand, I’ll never forgive myself!”

  One of the snake creatures hissed at her and drove the hilt of his sword into her ribs, forcing her down into a kneel.

  “No!” shouted Kydel angrily and she threw herself weakly to her feet, moving toward the two enemies.

  “Kydel, let me heal you!” Ella screamed, darting right and running after her, trying to conserve her magic so she had it available. A snake leaped from her blind spot, and slashed with a curved d
agger, ripping an angry gouge in her shoulder and her cloak. The armored lining of her magical cloak prevented too much health from being torn away, but she still felt it. Whipping the staff from the sheath on her back, she spun toward the snake, the metal pole extending and whirling around in a silvery arc, pummeling the Sharak-Ku in the forehead. Only a handful of HP came away from its health and it smiled, charging forward, striking her and knocking her to the grass.

  “Leave her alone!” shouted Lionel, who started trying to scramble to his feet again, his health blinking at less than half level, but the Sharak-Ku who had already stabbed him once was on top of him again, swinging the sword and ripping at the armor covering his ribs. A glance of bright sparks and a metallic crack echoed in the darkness, sending him tumbling and rolling, groaning in pain. The Sharak-Ku who had knocked Ella over jumped over her prone form and charged at the paladin, knives twirling in his fingers. Lionel started to pick himself up, but the knives lashed out, striking at his torso with three swift blows, his health lowering with each strike. Ella looked over at Kydel, her swords whipping, though looking outmatched against the two guards looking over Soracia. She could heal her if she could make it that far, this she knew, but meanwhile, Lionel was outnumbered as well, and even if she ran, she might not reach Kydel in time.

  “What do I do?” she asked no one in particular, eyes flashing between the two choices. She closed her eyes against Kydel’s battle, forcing it from her mind and turned toward Lionel, rolling on her shoulder and calling forth every ounce of remaining mana she had. Forming one last, large Ice Dagger she let it fly, screaming through the darkness and ramming itself deep in the spine of the Sharak-Ku with the daggers. It ran him completely through, struck a Critical Hit and his HP plummeted to zero as he fell to the ground. Lionel flashed a thumbs up just as the other snake drove his sword hard into his back again and as Ella watched, his HP screamed down to zero, with him slumping forward.

  “Lionel!” she screamed and Solomon’s head whirled around at the shouted name. The paladin caught himself on an elbow, his fingers touching the clasp at his cape.

  “Clasp of the Redeemer—” he groaned with a smile that settled Ella’s nerves.

  The Sharak-Ku took another step forward, his sword streaking. It struck Lionel in the neck and severed his head in one swift sweep and the paladin’s chiseled good looks and smiling face tumbled away in a spray of red, the rest of him dropping to the ground, the ten lone HP punched into nothingness.

  Ella was speechless, her mouth hanging open, tears almost immediately fogging her vision. He’d been right there. The Clasp of the Redeemer had saved his life, restored him to ten hit points just in time for a second strike.

  Now… he was gone. His hard-earned experience expunged, and his body tossed away to wherever he would respawn from. The reality that they might never see him again settled upon her like a heavy weight.

  “Snap out of it!” Solomon shouted, though his face was pale and shaken, even as he extended his hand to pull her to her feet. He yanked her up into a stumbling stance just as the Sharak-Ku who had executed Lionel barreled forward at them, and he whirled just quickly enough to knock aside a sword strike.

  Megyn dodged a Sharak-Ku and thrust with her short sword, knocking a few hit points away, though three others were coming toward her from her blind side. Lucky for her, it was her blind side, and not Tyson’s. The wolf was on top of them in moments, knocking them down to the ground, ripping at one’s throat, clamping jaws around the arm of another, ripping and growling. Megyn narrowly blocked the strike of the one she was battling, the sword glancing off hers, her fingers ringing, then she moved forward and hacked around low and hard, her sword biting into the reptile’s hip.

  A strangled gasp caught her attention and she looked over in time to see Kydel take a sword in the guts, stumbling backward and cursing under her breath. Without even thinking, Megyn turned and raced in her direction, throwing her short sword in a strange, tumbling arc, sending it glancing from the shoulder of an attacking Sharak-Ku, bouncing harmlessly away.

  “Kydel!” she shouted, approaching the Amazon, and Kydel looked back at her, throwing one of her swords to her. Megyn snatched it out of the air and lunged forward, swinging, ripping the blade into the armor of one of the guards. The armor was thicker than leather and the blade sparked and danced away, throwing her off balance. As she stumbled past the guard, one of them brought out a spiked-head mace and drove it down, slamming it between her shoulder blades, lacing pain all through her body, knocking her hard to the ground, sparks dancing in her head.

  As darkness swarmed over her, she heard Tyson barking and charging, racing at the Sharak-Ku, and silently she begged them not to kill him. Unlike them, Tyson was technically an NPC and if he died, there may be no coming back…

  “Megyn!” Ella shouted, running toward where Soracia was being held, Solomon close behind her. He’d halted for a moment to rip his axe free of the fallen Sharak-Ku, but now ran alongside the Druid, trying to close the distance between the remaining Sharak-Ku warriors and themselves.

  He’d had a hard time keeping count, but he was pretty sure there were at least six or seven Sharak-Ku dead, maybe more. Not too shabby an attempt, if he did say so.

  But, of course, that meant there were still seven or eight left, and they’d lost Lionel and Kydel, and quite possibly Megyn, leaving him and Ella alone against the remaining horde.

  Speaking of Ella she shifted right, then swung left, lashing out with her right hand, throwing a handful of weak Acid Arrows in a wide fan in front of them. Two approaching Sharak-Ku yelped in pain, though Solomon could see the attacks had done little actual damage beyond a painful distraction.

  Maybe he could do something similar. Maybe if he pulled on whatever remained of his MP, it had replenished to just over halfway now, maybe he could do something with his Sonic Shockwave attack. Focus the energy on the crystal in the axe and blast it out in a wide arc? Try and knock down as many Sharak-Ku as possible, just carve a path through them to get to Soracia and Megyn? Maybe he could—

  The warrior came from nowhere, hitting him from the left, slamming hard into his shoulder and knocking him stumbling. Ella barely slid away, whirling and unleashing an Ice Dagger all in one fluid motion, but the dagger itself only shaved about thirty HP from the attacking snake. The creature lunged, tackling Ella, who groped for her staff to try and conjure Javelin of Light, but the Sharak-Ku was too quick and knocked it from her hand, pinning her so another could emerge from the trees and hurtle at them both. Picking himself up, Solomon focused every last bit of his mana on the crystal embedded in the axe, tried to flood some kind of power into it, some kind of energy—

  But there was nothing. He knelt there in the silent darkness, looking at the axe in his hands, staring at the gleaming crystal embedded in its pummel, narrowing his eyes, trying to will his power to do something, anything. His head went dizzy as he drained his magic, using every inch of knowledge he had about the Journal, about being a StealthCaster, mentally digging through every single page and every single paragraph of the book.

  Nothing.

  Emptiness.

  The crystal glared back at him with a solitary empty eye.

  Then pain laced up and down the back of his head, a sudden blasting impact, shooting bright light and florescent lightning bolts of agony arcing through his mind.

  For one brief moment, the pain was too much to bear, a sudden and vicious split, threatening to rend his very being in two.

  Darkness finally came, and he welcomed it.

  Chapter 34 - Prisoners of the Serpent Queen

  * * *

  The passage of time was a vague circular recollection of varying shades of darkness, and Solomon desperately tried to crawl from that darkness. His head ached as if pounded repeatedly by a blunt hammer, the dull throb of bruised bone and aching brain resonating through his skull like a smoldering fire. He tried to blink away the darkness and found only a deeper darkness, the world around him co
nsumed in it, drowning in it, almost made from it.

  Stone pressed on his back, hard and jagged, digging between his shoulder blades, scraping his arms, and clawing at the backs of his legs where he sat. Finally, through struggled blinking, his vision began the slow process of clearing, and could start to make out his surroundings.

  Their surroundings. He wasn’t alone in this place, his group was all here with him, everyone in a seated posture, arms tucked tight behind their backs, bound by some unseen rope. Ella lay on her left side, her shoulder moving rhythmically as if breathing from underneath a deep sleep. Megyn was upright, but pressed hard against the uneven rock wall, her chin tucked to her chest. Even Tyson was there, huddled in a corner, curled in a ball, legs brought up tight to his torso, but wrapped together by something. As Solomon watched, the wolf moved slowly, the low metallic clink of chain links signaling how he was being contained.

  “You are awake?” a soft voice echoed from not far away. It hadn’t been Ella or Megyn who had spoken and Solomon followed the direction of the sound.