Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Bombs & Bandits

Chapter 5: Bombs & Bandits

Turns out getting swarmed by enemies was a good thing.

With Roxi there to rescue me if I went out of my depth we’d killed more mobs and gained more experience quicker than I could ever have on my own at this level. 

The shadows were starting to lengthen, causing the light to dance in orange sparks across everything around us. It was really pretty. I didn’t get to see a proper forest out of VR so it felt a little special to me. It seemed like Roxi was also feeling it, because she turned to me.

“So, k—  Aisling… How much experience do you have?” she asked, teasingly?  Her eyes were filled with smouldering expectation as she her gaze met mine.

How much experience? Was she asking about my dating history? If I had reached second or third base? I felt my chest warm from the look she was giving me. Wow, why did this feel so weird. How was she messing with me just by staring?

I mean I liked girls, in the straight way. Not that I had much experience. Not many parents want their daughters hanging out with the five foot six, gangly street kid who looked like they hadn’t needed to shave in their life or had grown any pubic hair yet. I think the puberty fairy had been running late, before then getting lost when I forgot to notify it about my change of address after my parents died.

“I mean, did you level earlier?” she said miming pressing something in her UI. 

“Oh… ahh, I got level two,” I nodded, trying to hide my feelings of whiplash. Of course she didn’t mean it that way, she is just being nice. We’re both girls and she is probably straight, into guys. I— I am a guy, but...

“Oh nice! Already catching up huh?” she winked.

I had been rewarded by the sound of my first level up during the fighting, thinking back on it. After the second wasp incident, a little blinking notification had appeared in the corner of my vision.

Cora was an mmo with built in complexity and choice, unlike the linear or branched MMOs of the past, the game just provided a world and the freedom to make your own fun, to design your own play style, to carve out your own niche or even to utterly change the games geopolitical landscape and create history. Your choices mattered and were rewarded. It was kinda intimidating but I wasn’t planning on being one of those players whose feats resulted in unique achievements or game changing rewards.

Alright… I know… I’m making a huge deal about leveling, but Roxi had been filling my head with stories of some of the more famous players.

“Umm should I click on the level up now? I don’t want to slow us down,” I asked hesitantly, she had already gone far out of her way, inviting me to party with her, sharing the quest and helping me train along the way. I don’t want to be an anchor or killjoy.

Again her head tilted in a contemplative manner, I had come to recognise as her almost saving a thought, “Hmm, it wouldn’t hurt, besides I bet you’re tired from all the fighting and walking. You’re only level two,  your stamina and mana must have taken a beating. Lets stop and take a rest, make sure to eat and drink.” 

She wasn’t wrong, I had started to drag my feet, my throat felt parched and I had the beginnings of a headache. I’d been doing my best not to complain.

With a heavy sigh, Roxi massaged her brow and eyes with the palm of her hand.

“What? You left town without any food or water? Janus back at the Bear and Beekeeper should have given you some advice when you picked up the quest,” she said in a disbelieving tone.

I’m a noob, hopefully I’m more than just the exacerbating kind. I had to be at least somewhat endearing or she wouldn’t be wasting time on me, right?

And it wasn’t entirely my fault, “He wasn’t behind the bar and there was no one else there, I just grabbed a quest from the wall and left,” I replied, drawing lines in the soil with my feet.

“Ah…” her captivating bright blue eyes gleamed with understanding.  “He was probably out back checking inventory or taking a nap. Realistic immersion is pretty cool, but y’know when the npc you need has wandered off or been killed… Well, it can cause some hiccups.”

She reached into a black canvas and leather bag hanging from her hip.

“Here, I can share my water skin with you and I was picking these wildberries as extra food to save money, but you could use them more. They’re really sweet and like, not poisonous. There are a lot of useful and edible plants in the wild, the quickest way to learn would be to watch Luvchiri’s stream.” Again she raised her chin into the air, exposing her slender neck as she recalled the the source of her forestcraft.

Roxi coughed and my cheeks grew warm as I realised I had been staring. Quickly taking the waterskin and berries from her outstretched hands, I mumbled my thanks.

Thick tree roots make pretty uncomfortable seats, but they were better than standing or sitting on the wet earth and leaf litter of the forest floor. We sat in silence, as we ate and rested, to regain our strength. Potions were quicker, but they weren’t economical to use if you could eat, drink and rest instead. 

Popping a red berry that resembled a mulberry into my mouth, I opened my UI and clicked the flashing notification. Time to see what I had to work with!

Okay so, it looked like I had five points to spend in my stats. How should I spend them though? All in one place to maximise a stat or should I be a little more conservative about it? Again I decided to cover my all bases and sink a point into speed and toughness, leaving me with three points for the magical side of things. 

In the long term, the mesmer based build I was planning would require a large selection of complex spells. Meaning I would need to invest in Anamnesis and Intricacy, but in the short term I needed more power, urgency and capacity. 

Next up was abilities, I had gained five more points to invest in new nodes in my spell trees. Spending four of them I bought the nodes [Arcane Explosion], [Mental Direction], [Proximity Detection] and [Directional]. Lets just say I had some incendiary ideas on how to modify some of my existing abilities. 

I hope Roxi likes fireworks.

 

* * *

The sun was slipping below the horizon when we finally found the bandit camp. Our vantage point behind the bushes at the clearing’s edge, gave us front row seats to watch camp and the rowdy band of bandits eating, drinking and carousing around the flickering bonfire. 

“How many?” I hissed, as we knelt behind the bushes, shoulder to shoulder. In contrast to the already cooling evening, Roxi was warm.

“Too many,” she whispered back, her steamy breath tickling my ear and neck.

Roxi was already looking less confident at our ability to take on thirty or so bandits who were unlikely to let us fight them one at a time. Not that we didn’t have advantages of our own. Philly had ‘bandits’ of its own and since I ended up on the streets, I’d had to learn to deal with them. Some I literally dealt with by breaking open stolen and shoplifted tech and taking my share as payment, others I had to steer clear of if I wanted to avoid a mugging or worse.

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Bandits were bullies and opportunistic cowards, not only did they avoid a fair fight by attacking unarmed or weaker opponents, they did it via ambushes using fear and surprise.

Roxi and I were neither unarmed, scared or decidedly weaker than them, and we would be doing the ambushing. 

Well at least that's the plan we’d decided on after much whispering, time to set it in motion.

Like heat haze, a shimmering almost invisible wall  appeared behind the bushes as I summoned my improved barricade to create a fortified position. Roxi and I are both casters and umm, casters are notoriously squishy. Bring a tank or bring cover.

Next summoning my newly modified decoy, I mentally commanded the illusion to calmly walk into the bandit camp, as Roxi and I watched from our hiding place. 

It didn’t take the bandits long to notice the decoy as she emerged from the bushes off to our right and as if stunned by the surreal site of a woman willingly walking into their midst without a care, they paused. Then like an disturbed ant nest, every bandit scrambled for their weapons and surrounded the decoy, ringing my doppelgänger with spears and drawn crossbows.

Overkill much.

With the defenceless girl surrounded, the bandits found their courage and relaxed. Spear tips dipped as the bandits released nervous chuckles and sighs of relief. As tempting as it was to unleash my big surprise there and then, while my target audience were all clustered together like that, I held off seeing movement on the farside.

A figure was pushing his way through the ring of bandits parting them as he approached the decoy in the center. The other bandits seemed wary, even fearful of the newcomer as if he was a snake liable to bite them at a moments notice if they dared draw his attention upon themselves.

“What brings such a lovely little lady into our humble camp? Are you just cold and lost, or are you looking for a little fun? Either way, come on in and let old Zessus here warm you up eh?” he said, performing a low and mocking bow, a dagger appearing in his hand with a flourish.

My decoy stayed silent, she responded to simple mental commands, but the ability to speak was beyond the spells capability. Zessus however took her silence as a frightened invitation to continue and stepped closer making to place his arm around her shoulders.

I guess I was looking for some fun… Wait for it… 

Zessus’s arm passed through the decoy, to his and the other bandit’s shock.

Now!

The decoy exploded in a conflagration of purple arcane energy that enveloped the closest bandits and blasted the rest from their feet.

Roxi and I jumped to our feet and began our ambush. Curses sent by Roxi, wrapped the bandits like chains of black smoke, binding and weakening them, as she launched scythe like arcs of dark energy at our foes through the air. Meanwhile I began shooting bolts of arcing purple energy that zipped past and between Roxi’s soaring black blades. I didn’t really have any other offensive spells left, aside from lobbing the occasional flash into the glade.

Roxi’s face lit up with every arcane bolt I fired, she looked so focussed, so cool under pressure. My heart was dancing with the excitement of the fight.

The bandits didn’t take this sitting down. Those who had been furthest from the decoy were on their feet first and despite the disorientation from the blast and the barrage of spells we were sending their way, they began their counter attack.  Already loaded crossbows sent a flurry of bolts that would have been deadly to some armored adventurers.

The bolts met the hazy arcane barrier I’d laid with another flash, ripples travelling out from each point a bolt had landed. 

 More bandits were getting to their feet and four managed to make it through our attacks, their spears raised overhead to stab down, over the barricade. Then as they came within a single stride’s span of the Shimmer Barricade, it shattered, exploding like a claymore,launching the arcane scorched bandits backwards.

It was like a show of fireworks. A storm of bright and dark spells. Explosions. Flashes of light. Gleaming metal. Coiling black smoke. And just as confusing. 

Someone grabbed me.

Spinning around to face them, I tried to raise my arm to fire off an Arcane Bolt. A hand kept my arm aimed groundwards with a firm, but gentle grip. “It’s over! We won!” she said.

Huh?

It was silent.

The sun had finally set while we had been fighting and the only light remaining was that of the struggling bonfire which had split across the ground when a dying bandit had fallen across it. The clearing was a mess of collapsed tents, torn up earth and the bodies of the fallen bandits.

Oh… We did win. That was… I looked over to Roxi. “Unbelievable! We actually won! We need to loot them quickly, hopefully they will have some upgrades for you. Something warm cause we still need to get back to the village unless you want to sleep here,” she said, gesturing towards the dead bandits.

“Eek! Yuk no! Let's loot and leave! Maybe I can sleep in my bed back in the orphanage, the bed isn't bad,” I replied, almost squealing at the thought of having to sleep surrounded by  the bodies. Gross. Seems my fastidious streak had followed me ingame.

Ok looting is gross. 

Give me loot windows anyday. Ok even disregarding the fact I’m searching corpses for loot, the bandits stink. The fuckers smell like they haven’t washed in a month and then rolled in their own excrement. This is an unwanted level of realism!

Oooh! This one has lots of coins!

“BEHIND YOU! AISLING!” Roxi yelled. What!? Behind me? Turning around, something slammed into my chest, knocking the air out of my lungs. I coughed breathlessly as something wet tried to escape my lungs.

The world seemed the tip away off to the side. Something gritty impacted my arm. My final sight was Zessus laying on his side, propped up on his elbow holding an ammoless crossbow, grinning viciously even as a blade of darkness scythed towards his— 

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