Kieran

  The situation Clan Nettle Tea found themselves in wasn’t exactly great. They were in a time crunch, surrounded, and just generally unprepared for their current predicament.

  Kieran watched on his screen as the enemy cavalry circled their little band of fighters, waiting for their own turn to try to run them down by crossing the circle. A circle that was three rows of riders deep. They could simply run through that many enemies unscathed and hope for the best. Not to mention, if they left a bunch of riders behind, nothing stopped them from simply running them down again.

  They would need to fight their way out of here, and leave enough damage in their wake to stop the riders from chasing after them as they ran into the supposed safety of the city they were sent to fight for.

  As the second group of riders prepared to charge across the center of the encirclement and the AoEs marked their intended paths, the party scrambled out of the way.

  “We have to do the same thing as before.” Ash said, making the snap decision. “Stun them as they pass, or maybe try a knockdown. Then we have to dogpile on them with damage as quickly as possible.”

  “Yup.” Nyx agreed, and everyone immediately moved to enact the plan.

  As soon as the enemy charged, the party attacked. Caoimhe hit [Wild Swing] to see whether the [Knockdown] effect would work, while Bisky and Firo lit up the two other targets with the same ranged stuns they had used previously.

  The party split their attention to the two stunned enemies, taking them down first, as their mounts bucked in place leaving the riders unable to act.

  The target that Caoimhe had hit had been knocked from their mount, and the mount ran off, charging its way through the circle of riders. The abandoned rider was on the ground and at Caoimhe’s mercy as she landed a [Punishment], followed by a [Devastation]. Those hits were enough to put the enemy down.

  “Oh, they’re super squishy without the mount.” Kieran said. “Knockdown dismounted them.”

  “Good to know.” Evan said, a grin audible in his voice. [Tyrants] notably had the most [Knockdown] effects in their skills, as their [Dedication Skill] revolved around that sort of status. The tank [Paths] had the second most.

  Knowing that [Knockdowns] and not [Stuns] were probably the best move going forward, the party’s arrangement changed. Caoimhe, Fiona, Aleister, and Nyx moved to cover the four cardinal directions while the healers and ranged DPS gathered in the middle, ready to attack every viable target.

  When the third charge’s AoEs appeared, everyone moved to claim a target.

  “Nyx, you stay in reserve.” Jazz called. “Keep Trip and Ankle Pick in our back pocket just in case.”

  “Got it. I’ll act as back up then.” Nyx said.

  The third group of charging riders crossed into the middle of the circle and were dismounted easily enough. Caoimhe, Aleister, and Fiona had even waited as long as they could before acting, managing to unseat the riders pretty close to the party in the middle, making the follow-ups that much easier.

  In fact, once the riders were dismounted, their HP pool was so little that the party had overcommitted on attacks, with two skills ready to hit two of the riders that landed near one another simply scorched the already dead enemies and the ground around them instead.

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  “Oops.” Firo said, chuckling.

  “Should we be attacking the ones circling around us, you think?” Marissa asked. Kieran, with only Caoimhe’s sword for reach, hadn’t even considered that. “I’m sitting on a ton of free damage skills right now, but I’m worried about what might happen if we attack the circle.”

  “Same.” Firo said. “If they just collapse on us because we attacked them, we definitely wipe.”

  “We hold back for now, then.” Ash said, as round four of the charges started. They were coming a bit faster. “We have some time before the army reaches us. If they get too close, we’ll start lighting them up.”

  “Got it.”

  The process continued for a bit uninterrupted. Three riders from among the group would charge at the party, get locked down, get dogpiled, and the process would repeat.

  Nyx had to cover as things sped up, as everyone else needed to carefully cycle through their [Knockdowns]. And more than once - especially as the downtime between assaults got shorter - Bisky and Firo needed to step in with [Stuns] just for safety.

  Kieran wasn’t sure, exactly, how many rounds they had gone when he noticed that the encirclement was down to two rows deep instead of three. But they still probably needed to thin out the crowd a bit more before they could make a break for it.

  Unfortunately, they didn’t appear to have the time, even with the assaults coming faster and faster.

  “Even with them speeding up, I don’t think they’re going to thin down fast enough.” Ash said, eyeing the approaching army beyond the encirclement.

  “Definitely not.” Evan agreed. “And if they keep speeding up, we’re going to run out of counters.”

  “Alright. We make a break for the city gate, then.” Jazz said, sounding excited for more action.

  “Be careful. Watch for the line AoEs, because that charge really hurts.” Kieran said.

  “I’ve never had to make a fighting retreat in an MMO outside of PvP before.” Nyx laughed.

  “Really?” Evie asked. “All those times you’ve ran away with your tail tucked with a mob train chasing you to the edge of a zone?”

  “That’s different!” Nyx protested. “Besides, running like a baby isn’t exactly a fighting retreat.”

  “Yeah, that’s fair.”

  “Heads up, guys. Get ready.”

  When the next set of AoEs appeared, Ash shouted, “Now!”

  The whole group made a break toward what Kieran had been thinking of as North together. Fiona led the way, but Kieran hit Caoimhe’s [Sprint] to get a bit out front, and used [Wild Swing].

  “I got this.” He said as Caoimhe leapt forward and bowled over several of the riders, making a decent hole for the party to dash through. The other enemies nearby did quickly move to cover the gap and attack, but Aleister and Fiona deftly interposed themselves and covered the squishier party members as they ran.

  Once the party was clear of the encirclement, things went immediately fell into chaos.

  Red line AoEs appeared, as the remaining riders spread out into a line again, leaving the party nowhere to really maneuver to. They kept running forward, but there was simply no way for them to outrun their mounted opponents.

  “Keep running!” Marissa shouted.

  “Ohh, shit.” Evan said as Fiona and Aleister tried to catch back up with the party.

  “Single file! Single file!” Ash shouted. “Everyone, stack into one line. Rissa, stun the rider for the line we’re in.” He said hastily. “Everyone else, just keep running and hope for the best!”

  Despite the stressful situation, the group reacted well. Everyone lined up, trying to wiggle around in just one of the AoE lines, so they would be safe with a single [Stun]. Theoretically, Kieran was pretty sure the plan should work.

  When the cavalry line charged, once the rider entered Bisky’s range, her attack went out and her aim was true. Like before, the horse bucked in place, the charge ending right there.

  However, they were far from out of danger. The rest of the cavalry line charged past them, able to move much faster than they could on foot. And the line condensed, closing the hole left by the [Stunned] rider, as the whole group circled around for another pass.

  And this time, they were clearly lining up a charge from the side, crossing the party’s path. There was no way to keep their forward momentum toward the city but also line up in a single AoE for safety.

  “Any ideas?” Nyx asked.

  “None that sound appealing.” Ash answered. Kieran muttered under his breath, not wanting to curse with Kaitlyn in the room.

  When the AoE lines appeared, Kieran was surprised to see that there were more behind them than in front. This actually looked surprisingly doable.

  “Movement skills.” He said. “Outrun the AoEs. We can make it.”

  “Fine. Do it.” Ash said, and suddenly the tight formation the party had held for the previous pass fell apart as it was every player for themselves.

  Everyone [Sprinted] to squeeze out every bit of speed they had when it came to regular movement. Then everyone hit whatever skills they had available for movement. For Caoimhe, that meant using [Driver] for the burst of forward movement, followed by [Phantom Leap] and [Pivot Slash].

  [Phantom Leap] was a simple skill that just made Caoimhe leap forward while utilizing invincibility frames to dodge. The dodge didn’t take her far, but it was still faster than running. [Pivot Slash] was used for a similar reason, but it was meant to be a two hit attack that used the weight of Caoimhe’s weapon to throw her body around to cover a decent distance. It actually took her further than [Phantom Leap] did.

  As soon as Caoimhe touched down from [Pivot Slash], the cavalry charge began. Caoimhe crossed out of the red death zone with a bit of time to spare, and Kieran turned the camera around to see how everyone else fared.

  Everyone seemed to be doing alright with two exceptions. Fiona was in the process of layering mitigation abilities to survive the attack, and would probably be fine.

  “Y’all, it’s all or nothing now. Just keep running.” Ash said, as Mellody simply wasn’t able to keep up. With only [Coda Step] for movement, she had no way to get out of the charge in time.

  “Fiona - knockback. Don’t forget the knockback.” Firo shouted.

  “Oh, shit. Shit. Shit.” Evan cried as the charge ran over Fiona and Mellody.

  Mellody’s HP bottomed out immediately, her defense, even with a bit of shielding, simply not enough to take the hit and remain standing.

  “I call bullshit.” Evan shouted angrily as Fiona’s body - still alive - went tumbling to the side as she was trampled. “Dig in is on cooldown, but it didn’t stop the knockback. I hate this game.”

  Kieran chuckled at the familiar mutterings as Fiona stood and continued after the party, admittedly falling a fair bit behind.

  But the city’s gate was noticeably in reach.

  And the gate was opening.

  “I’m not sure if this is a good or bad sign.” Marissa said.

  “Let’s hope good.” Evie said. “Because if it’s bad, we’re just doomed.”

  And then the sound of a war horn blared from the direction of the city. Or at least Kieran thought it was based on his headphones. But when a cavalry appeared to ride out of the city flying the banner of the [Tuatha Dé Danann] that flew all over [Falias], he let out a sigh of relief.

  “Don’t stop running.” Ash said, “You’ve probably got one more charge to deal with.”

  And sure enough, a set of red lines appeared; thankfully parallel with their running from the back again, like the first time. The party was scattered after they made their dashes, but they tried to gather up to minimize [Stun] usage. They managed to get into two groups, with Bisky and Firo able to cover them respectively.

  “Come on.” Firo said as the cavalry charged at them. The two [Stun] attacks went out and thankfully found their marks cleanly, allowing the party safe passage through what was hopefully the last AoE.

  When the enemy cavalry passed them, they quickly broke to the left, and rode off to put distance between them and the [Tuatha dé] cavalry that was riding out to meet the party.

  “Don’t stop running!”

  The dialogue flashed in the center of the screen, with a commanding female voiceover playing alongside it. “We’ll cover your run into the city, but make haste! We have no time out here!”

  The party didn’t think twice as they ran the best they could, with every movement ability they had already used. The circling of friendly riders was enough to cut some of the tension though, as everyone started snickering despite the situation.

  “Is that it? Are we safe?” Jazz asked.

  “Don’t ask that yet.” Nyx and Evie snapped together, which only made the chuckling escalate.

  It wasn’t until the riders pushed the party through the city’s gates that Kieran finally breathed a huge sigh of relief, and laughed incredulously.

  “We did it.” He breathed, and the voice chat erupted into cheers.

  “What’d you do, Dad?” Kat asked from right beside him. Her suddenly appearing next to his elbow made Kieran jump, the excitement spiking all at once.

  He did not scream. Yelp, maybe. But it wasn’t a scream.

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