“I owe everyone here a round of beer at the next tavern we hit,” Van said. “No one said a word! You were all perfect!”
“I made Capello log out,” Kylian said. “He set his character to auto-follow and left for the day.”
“Oh…” Van said. “That’s an option?”
“Move over!” Dolly said as she shifted around. Sang gritted her teeth in pain as she felt Dolly’s knees dig into her sides as the girl tried to climb over her.
“Take it easy,” Sang hissed. “If you keep moving, you’ll blow our cover!” The two of them were in a hole by the side of the road. Van had come up with a clever trap to ambush the wagon. Since the supply wagon would most likely be surrounded be enemy players, he felt it would be a good idea to strike quickly.
The ambush was going to be a simple one. They’d dug a large hole in the ground and covered it with foliage and leaves to hide its presence from the wagon. Once the wagon crashed into the hole, Sang and Dolly would leap out of their hiding places and quickly kill as many players as they could from behind while Van and his forces would charge from the front, distracting them. The plan was perfect, with the exception of Dolly, who just couldn’t seem to stay still.
“Dolly, if you keep moving, they might see us,” Sang said.
“Why does the hole have to be so small? I can barely move around,” she fussed.
Sang couldn’t tell how old Dolly was, but by the way she talked, she was assuming that she was in her teen years.
“You know, a real hardened criminal would sit still for hours if it meant slitting some throats,” Sang suggested. That was all Dolly needed to stop writhing around. She stopped moving and stood perfectly still. For some reason, the girl was so overly obsessed with being a criminal that all Sang ever needed to do in order to motivate her was suggest that her actions would be similar to a real criminal. It was a weird and somewhat manipulatory way to motivate the girl, but Sang had to work with what she was given. She had learned this style of leadership from Van, who seemed to always know exactly what to say to get the team moving.
“Ca-caaaaw!” Capello screamed at the top of his lungs, and with the most un-birdlike caw that Sang had ever heard. That was the signal, though. The wagon was close. Sang stood, gripping her blades tightly. They had covered the hole with a bush, so she was unable to see, but she could hear the creaking of the wagon as it rolled steadily along.
“Almost there, boys!” called a voice. It probably belonged to one of the wagon drivers. “We’ll be eating steak tonight!”
Sang grinned as she gripped her daggers. This was going to be the perfect ambush.
“Whhoooooaaaa!” screamed the wagon driver as the sounds of wood shattering and horses whinnying filled the air.
“Charge!” Capello shouted at the top of his lungs, and Sang knew that was the second signal. They had to count down to five and then the fun would begin.
“One… two… three…” Sang whispered, glancing at Dolly and nodding at her. They both turned translucent at the same time, going into Stealth mode. Quietly, they emerged from the pit to see that complete chaos had overtaken the scene. There were fifteen soldiers, clad in Kyrissian outfits, fighting against Capello and Kylian. Bidane was lying on the ground, unconscious and with several arrows sticking out of her, and Van had only 15 hit points left. The wagon had crashed into the hole, but it hadn’t fully dropped into the trap—it appeared that the driver had veered hard to the right, preventing the entire wagon from falling through.
What happened? Sang thought as she rushed forward, short sword drawn. Two archers standing beside the damaged wagon were expertly shooting through the melee, riddling Capello full of arrows. The berserker ignored his wounds, however, as his Class power allowed him to ignore the debilitating effects of damage until the end of a battle. Despite the fact that blood was pouring out of the short warrior’s body, Capello was still hacking away at his foes.
Sang struck the first archer with her blade and the words CRITICAL DAMAGE appeared over the archer’s head as he sank to the ground, dead. Her Stealth mode disengaged immediately after the attack and the second archer spun around to face her. Before he could shoot her, however, Dolly leapt onto his back and sank both of her daggers into the man’s neck. He coughed and wheezed for a moment, then hit the ground with a thump. Sang was a little disturbed at the realism of the way the archer had gurgled, choking on his own blood.
“Come on!” Dolly shouted as she rushed to the back ranks of the soldiers who had surrounded Kylian. Capello was now on the ground unconscious, but Sang could see that his status was Dying. Until he received a medical roll or healing, his health would drop every few minutes until he died.
Sang drew her bow and began to shoot the exposed backs of the Kyrissian soldiers. 100 damage appeared over each soldier as she fired arrow after arrow. Her fingers were beginning to grow tired from the sheer amount of arrows that she was firing at the opposing forces. The soldiers were well armored, and their damage reduction was making it hard to fight them.
“Where’s the wizard?” Sang asked as she took a moment to catch her breath. There were only seven soldiers left, and Kylian was still standing, as well. Bidane was slowly getting to her feet with the help of Van.
“No idea!” Dolly replied as she rushed back to where Sang was. She was covered in blood and her health was extremely low. “These soldiers are packing a real punch, though—I don’t know if we’re going to win this.”
Sang looked over at Van. He waved at her frantically. “Sang! Plan B! Now!”
“You hear that?” Sang asked as she grabbed a bottle from her backpack. She handed it to Dolly. “You know the drill.”
“Damn. Well, we tried,” Dolly said as she vigorously shook the bottle. With a heave, she threw the bottle right into the wagon. Brown liquid splashed all over the wagon, soaking the wooden frame.
Sang snapped off a single arrow at the wagon. The arrow sailed through the air, igniting as it flew. As soon as the fire touched the liquid, the entire wagon burst into flames.
“Crap!” one of the soldiers shouted, abruptly turning his attention to the wagon. “Get the wagon! Get the—” His words were cut off as one of the wagon wheels that had been keeping it suspended above the pit shattered. The wagon made a horrible groaning noise as it slid backwards and flipped, crashing down into the pit. The sound of a thousand glass bottles shattering accompanied the sounds of wood splintering upon impact.
“Perfect!” Sang shouted as she ran as fast as she could toward the mountainous area nearby. A few of the soldiers gave chase, but they weren’t nearly as quick as she was. Dolly had run in a different direction. The orders had been relatively simple. If the attempts to steal the potions failed, just destroy them instead and regroup somewhere else. While she would have preferred that the first plan succeed, she was equally pleased that the back-up plan had worked. When in doubt, set things on fire, right?
Eventually, she made her way back to the rendezvous point, being cautious to make sure that no one else was following her. Once she was clear, she returned to the riverside where Van and the rest of the team were waiting.
“What happened back there?” Sang asked as she grabbed her canteen and began to fill it with water. “Where was Sahara? And Kenwar?”
Van grimaced. “Yeah, well, that sucked. Sahara’s system crashed, and so she was kicked out right as she was casting her Windwall Spell. Those archers made short work of our healer and me. Then Kenwar… well, we had some disagreements and he said he needed to go check something. Ran off in the heat of battle.” Van didn’t say anything else about the matter, but Sang could see that he was worried about Kenwar’s actions. Leaving in the middle of battle was incredibly suspicious. What was he planning?