Marissa

  “Seriously? It’s been, like, 5 minutes.”

  “Yes, seriously. I’ll be right back.”

  Marissa chuckled as Jazz ran off to the bathroom, despite the last break being less than ten minutes ago.

  “Alright, so what’s the plan, guys?” Evan asked. “We clearly need to have a battle plan going into that one.”

  “I don’t know. Other than those big troll enemies that ended up breaking through the gate, we didn’t really learn anything.” Kieran said.

  “I do have one idea,” Evan said. “Aleister ran off to the bathroom, but I was posted up on one of the two big doors. I know Caoimhe didn’t get a prompt to hold the door, but what if it’s role dependent?”

  “Oh, that’s a good idea. One sec.” Ash said, then went quiet.

  “So you’re thinking that we need to have each role do different things?” Nyx asked.

  “I can’t speak to the rest of it, since no one else really found anything to do, but there was definitely room for someone to brace the other door. And it makes sense to me that if I could do it, but Caoimhe can’t -”

  “Aleister said she didn’t go near the gate, so it’s possible.” Ash said. “It’s definitely worth a try.”

  “What else are we thinking?”

  “Bisky, I know we were targeting the enemies with the battering ram down in front, but we may want to take out the mages in the back first.” Firo said.

  “What mages?” Marissa asked.

  “Oh, did you not see them? There was a group of mages lined up a few ranks deep in the enemy army. They were the ones that basically blew up the door.” He added.

  “I see.” Marissa started fiddling with her character sheet, deciding it might be best to swap her weapon out. “Man, what a pain.” She muttered, as she unequipped her beloved [Verdant Longbow] in favor of her back up weapon, the [Sniper’s War Bow]. Conveniently for this particular situation, the [Sniper’s War Bow] had a unique [Invested Effect] that boosted the weapon’s attack range by an extra 25%. While she didn’t love the [War Bow] basic attack string, the range bonus would be worth it here.

  When the weapon displayed on her back swapped over, Kieran whistled. “Bringing out the big guns, huh?” He laughed.

  And he wasn’t joking around, either. [Longbows] were typically almost as tall as the character using them, and they were far from small. But the [War Bow] was enormous. It looked like it was much sturdier than most bows, with the materials used to make it much thicker all the way around. And while it practically dragged on the ground by Hibiscus’ feet, it also extended above her head by almost two feet.

  “I’m not sure my longbow can reach, so here we are.” Marissa said, making sure she had the new weapon [Invested] for the extra range. “Firo, can your spells even reach?”

  “I had to swap weapons, too. Thankfully, I also have a longer range option.” He said, spinning Firo around to show off the new staff he had equipped. Unlike the classic gnarled wooden one from earlier, this one appeared to be metal with an angled plate on the top. “I should be able to reach this time.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Back.” Jazz said once she sat down. “Mello told me the plan for me to go to the gate with Fiona. Any other new plans?”

  “Hibiscus and Firo are going to target the rear guard mages that blew open the door last time, but that’s it so far.” Nyx said.

  “Given we didn’t really find much else to do last time, I think we’re going to have to spend some time searching again.” Evie said.

  “I guess we should just run it back, right?” Evan asked.

  “Yeah.” Marissa said, stretching her arms up toward the ceiling before resituating herself in her chair to be in a more comfortable playing position. She was really embarrassed by her usual posture. “Anyone not ready?”

  No one said anything as Marissa watched all the party members shift around inside the little blue circle that denoted their safe starting zone.

  Marissa shrugged, and just said “Go.”

  Everyone surged forward, and as soon as they broke past the blue barrier, things were in motion. This time, at least, they had a semblance of a plan. Hibiscus and Firo moved quickly toward the stairs to the wall walk, while Aleister and Fiona [Sprinted] straight to the gate.

  “You got -”

  “Yeah, I got it.” Jazz said, interrupting Evan’s question, as both of them slammed their shoulders against the huge gate to brace it against the battering rams that were sure to start.

  While the healers and melee DPS ran around trying to find some way to assist, Hibiscus and Firo were already working on blasting attacks into the enemy army. While Marissa was occasionally trying to throw attacks at the Fomorians closer to the gate, she kept an eye out for enemy mages and archers in the back line.

  “There!”

  “Got it.” She said, when Firo called out one of the enemy spellcasters popping up. They both launched attacks at them, taking the single target out almost immediately.

  “Despite them blowing up the door last time, they don’t have a lot of HP.” Firo said.

  “I get the feeling that we’re individually much stronger than anyone else on the field.” Kieran said, with Caoimhe still running around trying to find some way to contribute. “Generally, anyway. Those troll things still sent us flying.”

  “You know, I don’t see those things out here right now.” Marissa said, scanning the horizon for the huge enemies.

  “Me either.” Firo said. “Maybe they spawned in when we did something wrong.”

  “Or they were summoned?” Marissa said. “Since we didn’t focus the mages last time.”

  “Could be. Fiona, Aleister, how’s the door holding?”

  “Fine, actually.” Evan laughed. “Apparently having the second person here makes it much easier.” Marissa could still hear the button mashing in the background as he spoke, but it wasn’t nearly as frantic as the previous attempt.

  “Oh, so it was harder last time?” Jazz asked.

  “Yeah. Did you really think I’d fail at this?” Evan asked, incredulous.

  “Dunno, maybe.” Jazz joked. “I’ve seen you fail at walking Fiona in a straight line.”

  “I told you that was a misclick!” Evan shouted, as laughter filled the chat. Marissa had been around for the incident in question, where Fiona fell off a tree trunk that was spanning a chasm. All they had to do was walk straight, and everyone except for Fiona had made it perfectly fine.

  “Uh huh.” Jazz goaded.

  “You little -”

  “I found something!” Kieran said, cutting off the teasing. “Nyx, over here. I found a stash of throwable weapons for us to use.”

  “Bro, where the hell is ‘over here’?” Nyx laughed.

  “Oh, sorry. Right of the gate, under the stairs. I’m jumping.” Kieran said.

  “Oh, I see you. On my way.” Nyx said.

  Marissa just focused on keeping her eye out for priority targets beyond the wall. Enemy mages did pop up occasionally, their spellcasting shining like a beacon to draw her fire. Firo, too, was launching all kinds of magical bolts out onto the field, doing his best to hit any target he could reach; even with his extended range [Staff] he couldn’t reach as far as Hibiscus.

  But together, they were managing to keep the enemy’s assault pretty well contained. Aleister and Fiona were managing to hold the gate easily compared to last time, now that nothing was blasting it with magic. The gate was more than strong enough to hold against a battering ram.

  Right as Marissa landed a critical [Master’s Shot] on one of the enemy mages, Caoimhe, Nyx, Evie, and Mellody ran up the stairs, each carrying a large barrel.

  “Yo.” Marissa said, grinning, as they each took up a spot by a crenel and placed their barrels beside each of them.

  “Yo.” Kieran said.

  “We don’t have the range, so let us focus on the closer mobs. You two focus on range only.” Ash said.

  “Aye aye.” Firo said, immediately launching off a big blast of raw magic, letting it explode deep in the enemy lines.

  “So what’d you find, anyway?” Marissa asked, as she continued to launch potshots at the back line.

  “Molotov cocktails.” Nyx purred, as she launched one over the crenel. Whatever it was that she threw shattered against one of the infantry holding up their shield for arrow cover, and fire quickly crawled over their shield and poured down and around them like liquid fire.

  “They’re labeled as Firebombs, for the record.” Ash said. “But, yeah, that looks like a Molotov cocktail to me.” He laughed, as the four of them suddenly started raining fire on the enemies below.

  The sudden attacks started to scatter the enemies a bit, as they were targeting primarily the ones near the ram. The first group of throws took out the shield wall defending the ones actually carrying the ram, and then they targeted the ram bearers directly.

  “Okay, now I’m getting suspicious. This is going too well.” Firo said.

  “Why would you say that?” Evie laughed.

  “What? How is that jinxing us? I just said that it’s going to get worse.” Firo said in defense.

  “It’s close enough, I’m sure.” Evie said.

  “He’s right though.” Marissa said, one-shotting another mage that appeared. She felt like she was playing whack-a-mole. “The scenario is going to just be one note if it continues like this.”

  “How’s that for a complication? Look to the left.” Ash said.

  “What’s going on out there? We can’t see.” Evan asked.

  “They’re bringing ladders, looks like.” Kieran said. “There’s also towers in the distance, but they aren’t coming toward our wall.”

  “Okay, so ladders. How bad can that be?” Jazz chuckled.

  “I guess we’ll see in a second here. They’re making tracks.” Marissa said, launching an arrow at one of the Fomorians carrying a ladder. She hit them, but they didn’t fall.

  “Nyx, you ready to play?” Kieran said, the grin clear in his voice.

  “Oh, yeah,” she said, throwing another bomb. “Bisky, Firo, we’ll try to defend you up here so keep racking up those mage kills.”

  “Will do. Don’t die.” Marissa said.

  “Don’t forget you’re tankless up there. Be careful.” Jazz said.

  “Pretty sure if we walk away now, they’ll knock the door down, so…good luck up there.” Evan added.

  “Right. I’ll take the front then.” Kieran said. “My attacks swing pretty wide, so I can probably keep aggro well enough on the group.”

  “Copy. Everything so far has been fodder tier, so I don’t think we’ll have much trouble.” Nyx said, throwing her last bomb before she drew her [Knives].

  “Famous last words.” Evie said. “Call us if a big boy shows up. We can get one of the tanks up here if we have to.”

  “I volunteer as tribute.” Jazz snickered. “Let Fiona redeem himself down here.”

  “Really?” Evan shot back. “You’re just afraid you couldn’t hack it on your own.”

  “So?” Jazz asked. Evan just snorted in response.

  “Here they come.” Marissa said, as she took out one of the ladder bearers. But at least three others were pushing up their ladders against the wall.

  The metal bars thunked heavily against the wall as they fell into place. The force of contact with the wall knocked what were basically pitons down onto the stone of the wall, fixing the ladders in place. They looked unfortunately sturdy. As a few of the enemies were climbing up and over the wall, Marissa spun to take aim at the new arrivals.

  “Stay focused. We’ve got you.” Kieran said, as Caoimhe leapt forward to engage with [Wild Swing], knocking down a bunch of the attackers. The follow up [Punishment] even took out a few of them.

  “He’s right, we’ll hold the line here. If the mages on the field actually get their spells off, we’re in big trouble.” Nyx said, as she vanished and reappeared behind one of the enemies a ways down the wall. She may have isolated herself, but her focuses attacks were knocking out her individual targets in record speed while Caoimhe kept them facing toward her.

  Marissa turned back toward her view of the field through the crenel. “There’s really going to be no end to them.” She muttered, lining up another shot. “The only way this ends is with some kind of plot development.”

  “Then we just need to hold them until someone comes calling for us.” Ash said, as he and Evie worked on keeping Caoimhe and Nyx healthy.

  “I hope it’s soon.” Evan said. “Because let me tell you guys - I understand someone needs to brace these doors, but I am bored.”

  “I think something is happening.” Firo said, and Marissa immediately started frantically sweeping her camera out over the field of enemies, looking for a disturbance.

  And then she heard the rhythmic war chanting coming from inside the city, moving toward their position.

  “Well, you may just be getting your wish, Fiona. Let’s hope it doesn’t kill us.”