Marissa

  It didn’t take long before the group was mounted up. NPCs had brought their chosen horses from before and tied them to a waiting post nearby, allowing them to quickly get prepared.

  Once everyone interacted with their individual mounts, they were directed in a single-file line down the city streets by a few of what must have been [Uathach’s] company. The ride wasn’t too fast, as they trotted down a few of the main streets, all of which were practically empty with a few exceptions here and there.

  They rode past the stables where they had picked out their mounts, and eventually turned off the main thoroughfare and into a large park-like area behind the stables. There were a large number of open pastures, complete with grass and plenty of room to maneuver about.

  “These are the stables and pastures for the warhorses, as you’ve no doubt guessed,” one of the riders said. “Take a few moments here to get acquainted with your new friends. If any of them give you trouble, let us know. We can always find you another mount if you’re having trouble.”

  And then the party was let loose in a fenced pasture all for themselves.

  “What is all this? Holy crap.” Evie said, confused, but equally excited.

  Mag Mell already had mounts, of course, but it seemed like these functioned a little differently. Mounts up until now were purely for movement, and didn’t allow the player to attack while riding. In contrast, these new mounts seemed to be all about attacks while mounted.

  Marissa was looking at a new hotbar specifically for use while riding. The attacks included on it weren’t all new - many of her skills were simply moved to the new hotbar, as it seemed like the only skills she could use while mounted.

  In addition, there were a few commands for her mount to take. There was a [Back Kick] option that seemed self explanatory, but also a [Bite] and [Stomp] skill. When she read over the options, it seemed like they were both front facing attacks.

  On a second bar, she found a few speed options. The expected [Walk], [Trot], [Canter], and [Gallop] were all there, but there was also a [Charge] skill, as well as a [Trample] skill. It really all drove home that this horse was built for battle.

  It seemed like everyone was going through their own few minutes of discovery, going over what their mount could do, and Marissa started experimenting, too. She could take aim and fire with her basic attack string as normal, all while moving the horse around.

  The mount’s controls functioned no differently than expected, the same as any other for movement only mounts in the game until that point, which made movement, at least, a quick adjustment.

  Marissa’s skills were changed a bit, though, mostly due to her swapping over to [Keeper]. While she lost access to [Master’s Shot], she gained [Bramble Arrow] in its place. [Bramble Arrow] was a pretty simple ability, all things considered. While it was still functionally a charged shot like [Master’s Shot], it lost the weak point mechanic, and instead added debuffs to the target, based on the level of charge.

  When fully charged, the skill would [Pin], and [Slow] larger targets, while also [Stunning] small targets. It also had an AoE component centered on the target hit. Many of [Keeper’s] skills had small AoE effects like that, due to the nature magic flavor of the [Dedication].

  Marissa took a bit of time to practice landing shots on the training dummies arrayed along the edge of the field, doing her best to adjust to the higher speed of her mount's movement. It took a fair bit of practice to get it right.

  While she was practicing, the rest of the party was doing their best to adjust as well. They chatted while everyone spent a few minutes practicing. Everyone’s mounts had the same basic mount skills, though some were described differently. Mellody and Evie and chosen massive cats - a lion and a panther, respectively - and they had claw attacks instead of kicks, for example.

  Everyone running with magic classes seemed to adjust pretty quickly, as they had the least change for them. Many of their skills were either somewhat auto-targeting, locking on to the target nearest to their targeting reticle, or placing an AoE on the ground. Doing those from horseback didn’t change much for them, although Firo did complain that there was no way he’d be able to land a [Soul Shatter] while mounted with so much movement.

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  The melee players had the most to adjust to. Their basic attack strings were altogether different, with the character swinging on one side or the other of their mount, depending on the attack in the string, and the weapon wielded. Fiona, still bearing her shield on her left arm, only attacked on the right side of her armored horse.

  Nyx also only struck one side, as she basically had to lean off her saddle at a low angle to try to reach enemies that would be on the ground. She eventually gave up and swapped over to [Dirge], which allowed her to wield a [Crossbow] for her main weapon, which functioned much better.

  Aleister seemed to be fine from horseback, as each attack was a sweeping motion with a hand on either side of the mount, with a curl of dark magic following the gesture, striking whatever was nearby.

  Caoimhe also seemed to be having fun, based on Kieran’s excited whoops. With such a massive weapon, Caoimhe’s attacks mostly involved an extended sweep to either side, holding out the blade at a downward angle to drag it through enemies before sweeping it back up and repeating the attack on the opposite side. Watching her ride past a line of ten training dummies and strike them all with ease made Marissa jealous.

  “How’s everyone doing?” Ash eventually asked, as the chatter quieted down naturally.

  “Good.” Kieran sounded immensely happy. “I honestly can’t wait to see how this goes in live combat.”

  “I’ll manage,” Nyx said bitterly. “I understand, of course, that knives make for a terrible mounted weapon. But I wish I had a better option than a crossbow.”

  “I feel that.” Marissa said. “I hate how slow crossbows are. I get that their damage is high to compensate, but their basic attacks are so unsatisfying.”

  “Yeah,” Nyx agreed, “I guess I should just accept it this time. I can always swap to a different path if I need to. Maybe I’ll just go back to Tenebrae.”

  “The magic paths do seem to be at home here.” Firo said. “Adjusting casts for the mounted movement has been pretty easy.”

  “Glad to hear it, because I think we’ll be relying on you a lot.” Nyx sighed.

  “Aleister, I think you’re going to need to be the main tank for this, too.” Evan said. “I’m not sure what I’ll be capable of doing from horseback with my shield and counters.”

  “Why not swap to Tower?” Jazz suggested. “Caoimhe clearly thinks the two-hander attacks are great.”

  “They are.” Kieran confirmed.

  There was a moment of silence, then a flash of particle effects when Fiona’s weapon swapped to a massive two handed [Warhammer]. “I forgor.” Evan said, deliberately mispronouncing the word.

  “Well, now that that’s settled.” Marissa said, as Fiona trotted off to try the [Warhammer] attacks, “Are we ready to continue?”

  “Think so.”

  “But I don’t see a quest marker for continuing, do you?” Evie asked.

  “I’ll go try interacting with the guy that brought us here.” Marissa said, and trotted Hibiscus and her horse over to the rider. She didn’t even get within a few feet of him - and the gate to leave the pasture - when he turned toward her.

  “It looks like the company is forming up. Are you ready?” He asked.

  [Continue Scenario?]

  [Yes] [No]

  “Here we go. Last call for me to wait?” Marissa asked. When she heard no dissent, she hit the [Yes] button.

  The traditional blue circle appeared by the exit of the pasture, prompting everyone to gather up. Once everyone was inside, the game took over movement again, as the group was led from the training pasture toward the center of the city. Not too far from the stables, there was a massive staging ground where [Uathach’s] company was being set up.

  “You’re toward the front.” The rider in the lead said. “Good luck out there.” And then they split away from the group, falling into line somewhere toward the middle.

  The party rode toward the head of the company, which must have been near one hundred NPC riders. [Uathach] was mounted at the front, facing forward, but turned toward them as they approached.

  “Oh good, you’re here.” She said, with a slight incline of her head. “You’ll be riding up front with me. My understanding is that the lot of you are much stronger than my average rider, so I’m putting you where you’ll do the most good. I trust the mounts have been good to you?”

  Right as she asked, there was a flash from in front of the company. A short distance from where they stood, two people were working on a big ritual spell. Marissa recognized [Cu Chulainn] in an instant. The terrifying looking spear hooked to his back was a good indicator.

  The other woman working with him wasn’t an NPC Marissa had seen before, but she had heard [Uathach] mention her mother. [Scathach, The Shadow] didn’t seem to be currently armed, but was still going about her casting as enthusiastically as [Cu] was. She was also too far away from the group for Marissa to get a good look at her model.

  “Damn, I wanted to see how Scathach would look in this game, too.” Kieran muttered.

  “You said she’s Cu’s warfare teacher, right? And a warrior herself?” Marissa asked.

  “Yeah. I expect she’d be really badass if we get to interact with her.”

  “Prepare yourselves for the charge!” Someone called, though Marissa couldn’t tell who. Given the strong feminine voice that was distinct from [Uathach], she guessed it may have been [Scathach]. “The Portal will open in a moment.”

  [Uathach] turned toward the party again. “Take your places and spread out. We want to simply overrun as many of the enemy as we can on the initial charge. Keep your speed up, and the horses will do a lot of the work for you.”

  As the portal began to sputter into existence, the party quickly spread out across the company’s leading line. They defaulted into their spearhead positions, with tanks in the middle, melee DPS beside them, then the healers, then the ranged DPS.

  “Charge!”

  There was a big text box pop-up accompanying the call, as the portal opened, and the whole company surged forward. Marissa hit the [Charge] button, sending her mount flying forward. The speed at which it took off was immensely satisfying, and she glanced to her right, looking at her entire party down the line, as she was on the far left flank.

  As the party flashed through the portal, an upbeat, more frantic battle musical track began to play in the background that seemed to push the party onward, and Marissa immediately found herself bopping along.

  “Has…has there been any battle music to any of the fights so far?” Firo asked.

  “I’m honestly not sure. I don’t think I’ve noticed any yet, actually.” Evie said, confused.

  “Well, they picked a good moment to add one, damn.” Evan said. “Let’s fucking go!”

  Marissa could feel the grin on her face growing as the moment really hit. She inwardly cheered as she charged across the muddy clearing, a whole company at her back. Hibiscus was leaning forward on her bark-covered horse, egging the incredible beast on every time she hit [Charge]. Which she did every five seconds when it came off cooldown.

  “Whoo!” Kieran shouted. The oblong clearing was long enough that the charge would last a good thirty seconds or so before they crashed into the enemy camp, and by the second half of the charge, the whole party was shouting into their mics, giving into the fun of it all.

  As the enemy camp really came into view, Marissa could see the poorly made wooden fence that cordoned off the tents and open furniture. The build looked shoddy, and she was pretty sure that their mounts could quite literally overrun the whole thing.

  “Death!” Kieran shouted, which kicked up another round of cheers as the whole group took up the call as their cavalry charge met the fence - and obliterated it.

  The enemy camp was caught mostly unaware as the cavalry ran amok, though some enemies were still able to get weapons at the ready. Once they passed the tents in the rear of the camp and crossed into the main portion of the camp, all hell broke loose.

  Marissa immediately began picking her shots, taking out as many of the enemies with well placed arrows as she could. She let her second [Bramble Arrow] fly into a tight group of enemies trying to grab weapons from a weapon rack, and watched with satisfaction as the arrow struck the enemy in the middle and exploded out into a tangle of thorny vines, damaging the enemies and trapping them for a few moments.

  Then she laughed aloud as Caoimhe’s beautiful pure white horse streaked by and Caoimhe cleaved the whole group of enemies into pieces with a massive swing of her blade. She heard Kieran cackling in her ear as Caoimhe’s horse flew off toward another group of enemies.

  Marissa turned Bisky toward another group, launching a [Silver Arrow] at one of them, then a [Perfect Shot] at the one next to her first target. She spun back to the left side of her horse, and lined up another attack, only to see Fiona and her fully armored horse drive by and knock the whole group of enemies flying with the massive [Warhammer] she had equipped earlier.

  “Those were mine, Fiona!”

  “As if!” Evan called back, slipping further into the chaos.

  Marissa snickered, picking out another set of targets. She targeted another small group with [Forest’s Ire], getting an effect similar to [Bramble Arrow], but with less of a [Slow] component. The [Pin] effect was still long enough for Firo to blast them with a massive [Arcane Explosion], as he saddled up beside Bisky with his crow-feather covered horse, which truthfully looked more like a black Pegasus.

  She was pretty sure if they could, Firo would’ve offered her a high-five in that moment, but instead she just got a cheer in chat, then he was gone again. Marissa kicked her mount into motion again, sliding through the camp trying to pick out targets she felt comfortable landing shots on while still moving. She was lining up her third [Bramble Arrow] when Nyx and her ghostly, spectral horse slipped by.

  They only blocked her view for a moment, but when they passed, the enemies were just dead on the ground - she didn’t even see what Nyx had done.

  As she spun looking for more targets, she passed by Evie and Mellody cheering on their giant cat mounts as they shredded a group of enemies with their claws and teeth, trapped between the two of them.

  When she finally placed the shot for her third [Bramble Arrow], she burst out laughing when Caoimhe rode by again to take advantage of the [Suppressed] enemies to land a brutal [Punishment], once again cleaving them apart.

  She didn’t see where Aleister was, but she could hear Jazz cackling like a witch over the chat, chanting “Die, die, die!” as everyone laughed.

  Once again, Evan shouted a “Let’s fucking go!” and got the whole group to echo the sentiment with another hearty cheer.

  Marissa didn’t even care if they had to repeat this [Scenario] if they missed something; she was having far too much fun.