Enter system, p.30
Enter System, page 30
part #1 of Natural Laws Apocalypse Series
* * *
Chapter Twenty-Two
It had been earlier than he'd thought when they'd started the movie. It ended before the dinner hours at the cafeteria were over. Rather than just go for whatever they had down there, he decided that he'd treat this like a proper date.
“So, what would you like for dinner?” he asked Felicia.
“We can just go down to the cafeteria,” she replied.
“Or we can go to the shop and get whatever we want,” he replied. “While we're there we can even look for a screen like you were talking about. I like the idea of setting the auditorium up for movies. It'll give people some entertainment, although we'll need to decide how to determine what gets shown when.”
“Or we can just find someone else to do that. We just need to make sure they know to show some of everything.”
“And that all depends on whether or not the screen and projector is available,” Marc said. “So let's go get dinner and search the shop?”
“You win,” Felicia said.
“Tell you what, if you aren't tired of my company by the time we're done down there, then you can pick another movie for us to watch. I'm guessing that if there is some sort of projection setup for movies that it will either be fairly expensive, time-consuming to set up, or both.”
She smirked.
“But you told me that your tablet there was fairly cheap, so I could just get one and watch whatever I wanted in my own room.”
“That's why I said if you aren't tired of my company,” Marc said.
“Okay, let's go look. For dinner, I don't know, maybe steak? With potatoes and vegetables.”
“I'm sure they'll have that, Jeff said they had everything and I'm positive that would have to include both steak and bacon, if I know Jeff,” Marc replied.
They headed down to the shop and browsed through it, finding what Felicia wanted, but the projector screen was significantly out of their current reach at twenty gold. Since they'd found it in a business section of the shop, Marc wasn't too surprised.
It's something to keep in mind though because I think it would be a good plan to get that and a library of a couple hundred movies. Give people some other form of entertainment. Hell, I could even set up my MP3 player with the external speaker down here a couple of hours a day and that would probably be good for now.
He made a mental note to do that tomorrow as he and Felicia selected their meals, then headed back for his room. He'd made one additional purchase that he'd managed to keep hidden from her, tucking the bucket of hot buttered popcorn into his inventory and hoping it would stay warm until they started the next movie.
* * *
At breakfast the next morning Marc was accosted by Jeff.
“Where were you all afternoon yesterday? I did what you ordered and I don't know if it was your written orders or what, but I managed to find another group,” Jeff said.
“Great, how many were there?”
“I've got no idea. I couldn't get them back here. They're on the top floor of an apartment building, got a big banner reading 'HELP' hanging off a balcony. It looked like they'd armed themselves with sharpened broomsticks and shit like that for weaponry, but there were these big green dudes going in and out of the ground floor of that apartment building.”
“Where were they?”
“You know that liquor store over on Cherry street?” Jeff asked.
Marc shook his head.
Jeff groaned and thought for a moment.
“Two blocks south of the library on Cherry street?”
“That I can follow.”
“Yeah, it's one of those apartment buildings right there, intersection of Cherry and Pine, but the entry to the building is on Cherry.”
Now Marc could visualize the area he was talking about. He thought he even knew the building Jeff was referring to. They had fairly inexpensive apartments that appealed to the lower middle class and college students, or at least those of them that were single since Jeff recalled all those apartments as being pretty small.
College students. Shit, I bet they have more gamers there and that's why there's a group that survived. We've got to go get them, obviously, but how many of the big green guys are there, and what are they?
“So, big green guys? Like man-sized, larger? Anything else about them?”
Jeff sighed.
“Man-sized. If I had to guess to guess, I'd say orcs, but I couldn't get close enough to Analyze one without being spotted.”
“Any numbers?” Marc asked.
“At least twenty, but probably more,” Jeff replied.
“Okay, so we've got three groups, we come in at around fourteen in numbers ourselves and have some ranged attacks. Did you see weapons on them?”
“Mostly long melee stuff, spears, longer swords, that sort of thing.”
“No bows?”
“Not that I saw, but you know that doesn't mean anything.”
“Well, let's catch the groups as they go through here and give them the option on this. I'd like to take all three groups to do this if they're willing,” Marc said.
An hour later they were headed out, with all three groups. When they'd heard that there was another group of survivors they'd volunteered immediately. There was a light rain as Jeff led them through the streets. Marc turned up the collar on his coat when the drops of rain started trickling down inside. He glanced over at Jack.
The Huntsman had fretted about this task, worried about getting his bow wet during the fight, until Jeff had pointed out that he could take position in the building across the street from the orcs and fire through the door or windows. Then Jack had been eager to go.
Marc had paused just long enough to load Jeff down with some of the better quality weapons they'd looted so far, primarily poor quality short swords and daggers. With the description Jeff had given of the survivor's current weaponry, Marc thought the looted ones might still be an improvement. And getting the survivors better weapons might contribute to the success of his plan.
He had, much to everyone else's chagrin, paused three minutes to write up the plan and pass it around. A very abbreviated description of why he was doing that had silenced the protests and also contributed to everyone actually reading the plan before they headed out.
Now they were taking up position in the building across the street. All but one of them that was. Jeff, in Stealth, was slowly making his way towards the entrance to the apartment building with the orcs. The rest of the group would bombard the visible orcs with their ranged attacks, hopefully dropping some and at the same time, drawing them out of the building.
Once they were out, Jeff would move in and make his way upstairs to the survivors. He'd offer them the weapons if they wanted, then try to lead them downstairs to take any surviving orcs in an attack from the rear.
With the information he'd had, it was the best plan that Marc had been able to think of, and the only add-ons were firing from inside the building across the street to protect the bows from the rain. It also helped that they could make their way into position through the ground level of that building without the orcs seeing them.
Now they were in position. Tanks stood next to the access points the archers and Mages would use to attack from, ready to step in should the orcs make it that far. The Healers were a few feet back from the rest and the Mages were mixed in with the archers, leaving those with bows the best access to the windows since the Mages could cast with line of sight in most cases while the archers needed a bit more room for their attacks.
There was movement in the apartment behind the balcony that the sign hung from. The balcony itself was covered with plastic bags, sloping towards the center portion of it. Several other balconies looked the same and Marc assumed that they were low on water.
The sign itself had gotten wet in the drizzle, the red paint smearing and running down from the letters. In a little while the message wouldn't even be legible any more.
So, it's a good thing Jeff found them when he did, Marc thought.
He'd been keeping rough track of the time and now Jeff should be in position.
“Ready?” he hissed, casting his Arcane Armor as he waited for the replies.
He received a bunch of nods and quiet affirmatives.
He was going to lead off the attack, but there just weren't that many targets at the moment. Evidently the orcs didn't like the rain too much since instead of moving in and out of the building like Jeff had reported they were doing when he saw them, there were two guards posted at the door and they hadn't seen any other orcs even stick their heads out of the building.
“Okay, archers target the one I do, Mages hold off and hit the other one. We need the other one to give an alarm first in order to draw the rest of them out of the building,” Marc said softly.
Then he cast his Mana Dart spell, three lightly glowing bolts leaving tracers behind them as they raced through the rain to strike the orc guard on the right.
The orc yowled briefly, his cry cut off as three arrows struck him as well. The other guard called out some sort of alarm, then started looking around. It didn't take him long to spot the groups in the building across the street, but as soon as he did the remaining mages cast their spells. Doug had two projectiles from his Mana Dart now and Reggie's Water Jet seemed strengthened from the rain. Even so, the second guard didn't drop until Marc had added his own Mana Dart spell to the efforts.
Moments later a torrent of orcs flooded out through the previously guarded doorway. A motion caught Marc's eye and he saw someone step out onto the balcony above, deftly avoiding the water collection efforts. The man stared over the edge and his eyes widened enough to be visible from the street, then he darted back inside.
Hopefully he takes the cue and they start unblocking the stairs, Marc thought. That would sure make Jeff's part easier.
Then he turned his attention back to the orcs spilling out into the road. Some of them had already apparently spotted the groups since there were three of them sprinting across the road. Others were looking around to see if there was anyone else in sight.
Marc tossed off another Mana Dart at the orc in the lead of the three that were sprinting across the road, then he put a Phantom Shield on Rob who was one of the two tanks guarding the door.
Arrows and spells flew from inside the building out towards the orcs. Marc tried to keep his attention on the one he'd just Mana Darted, but when it made it to the entryway Rob stepped out to block it, striking it with a Shield Bash that sent it flying into another one of the sprinters.
Jayden was with Rob in the doorway and the two of them crouched, blocking the door from side to side with their two shields. Evidently Jayden had spent some of his coins at the shop, and been able to find what Marc hadn't before, because he had a spear that was vaguely similar to Rob's pilum, just with more of a leaf-shaped blade on the end instead of the pilum's thinner point. The two of them were mostly playing defense as arrows and spells whizzed past them toward the orcs. Their shields saw most of the action, but occasionally a spear would flick out to strike an orc before being pulled back, ready for another strike.
Marc was standing at a nearby window with one of Ron's tanks on guard in front of him. The man couldn't just stay still like Rob and Jayden were, he kept having to move from side to side to try to prevent the orcs from entering the building.
He couldn't see the encounter on the far side of the door, but from the sounds it was just like the others. The ranged attacks whittling away at the orcs while the tanks simply tried to keep the orcs out of the building.
Finally Marc was low on targets directly in front of him. Orc corpses littered the street in front of the building, but there were still some standing and fighting. One overtopped the other five that remained right out front of the building by a foot or more and there were two standing right in front of the entrance to the apartment building with the survivors. Marc groaned when he saw one of those begin to cast.
“Shit, we have casters across the street,” he hollered.
“I see them,” Jack yelled from his position near the doorway. “Targeting.”
“I'll target them also,” the archer from Ron's group that was right behind Marc said.
“Can't see them, can't target,” Ron yelled from the far side of the attack.
Marc himself had cast Mana Dart after Mana Dart into the attacking orcs and he wasn't sure just how much mana he had left.
Mana, he thought.
Mana: 97/394
Huh, I wonder if the rain will affect my fireball spell at all? Actually, no, they're right in front of the entry to the building and I don't want to set it on fire. So Mana Dart it is. I have got to sit down with Reggie and trade spells. His Water Jet would be perfect here, but he only had enough mana to cast it four times.
Marc hurled out another Mana Dart at the caster who'd just finished his spell. The larger orc right in front of the attackers glowed for a moment, then grew, adding almost another foot onto his height.
With Marc's Mana Dart and two archers focusing on him, the caster began to slump. Until the other orc right next to him began a cast of his own. It was a quick spell and the targeted caster seemed to straighten and heal right in front of Marc's eyes.
Then Marc saw the shimmer behind the casters. He'd researched it and he saw the shimmer when Jeff was in full Stealth. Members of other groups didn't see him at all though, unless he failed his Stealth check. Now Marc felt a little better about things.
He looked back to see the leader and three more orcs still standing in front of the building he was in. Jayden and Rob were tanking the leader and Felicia was hard pressed to keep them healed.
With a cast of Mana Dart at the single orc that had moved in front of his window, he pulled out his pilum and hurled it, striking the orc. The tank in front of Marc took advantage of the orc's reactions to the pain from spell and spear, driving into it, knocking it over, then plunging his machete into its heart.
You have learned the skill Short Spear (thrown weapon) (1). Learning is best done by doing.
“Jeff,” Marc screamed. “Healer, your right.”
Then he stepped out into the street and turned to face the leader of the orcs and the single orc that still stood near the door. His short sword appeared in his hand, summoned from his inventory, as he strode forward, debating whether he should use the last of his mana on a Phantom Shield or save it for Mana Darts.
When the leader kept his attention on Rob and Jayden, Marc decided to save his mana for the moment and advanced on the single orc that accompanied him. Said orc was assisting the leader in attacking the two tanks so Marc's first strike came as a surprise. He chopped with his sword, striking the orc's shoulder with a solid hit.
Now if only this were the Roman Legion, I'd have shield mates on both sides and we'd all be chopping between our shields and protecting each other, he thought, aghast at where his mind had gone in the middle of combat.
He struck again, but now the orc had turned to face him. Which was what he'd been after. If he could take this orc off of Rob and Jayden, then they could team up on the bigger leader type and maybe make some more progress on it.
Feeling almost as though he were cheating, Marc skipped back several steps, transferring his short sword to the hand on his shield. A quick cast and his target orc was struck by three Mana Darts from his spell. It had been chasing him and had not expected a spell attack, so it staggered back when it was struck. Marc took advantage of that, taking his sword back in his free hand and striking again.
The orc slipped on the pavement that was covered with a mixture of rainwater and blood, then Marc's sword followed it down, finishing it off with a stab to the thigh that apparently opened the femoral vein or something else important to the orc's health. He stepped back again as blood sprayed for a moment, but it quickly slowed as the orc died.
He heaved a sigh, still preferring to be casting in combat as opposed to going into melee. He didn't have that much of a choice at the moment though, with only enough mana left for one more Mana Dart, he'd be most effective in hand to hand using the last spell as an ace in the hole.
Thinking of aces in the hole, he glanced across the street. He'd seen a few more spells come by from the orc casters, but none for a few seconds now. The glance told him why. Jeff, and a whole crowd of other people, were now standing in the entry to the other building. The two casters lay on the ground in front of the door, unmoving.
“Let's finish this,” Marc yelled. “My team join in on the leader type. Ron, your team finish off that last orc then join us.”
He moved in towards the large orc, from behind. Stopping at about ten feet away, he cast his last Mana Dart, slamming the Darts into the back of the orc's neck. With a roar, it turned towards Marc, only for Rob and Jayden to attack it from behind.
When the archer that had been at Marc's window with him started firing at an angle into the orc's side, it was pretty much all over, or so Marc thought. He'd relaxed somewhat, sure that the orc's aggro would switch to someone else, but as it raced towards him, he realized his mistake. His shield came up, but it was hit with enough force to knock him off his feet, sending him sliding across the street on the damp asphalt.
That was the orc's last mistake though. Moving out as it did opened it up to fire from all three archers, meanwhile Rob and Jayden were staying close to it from behind as it moved, striking all the while. Before the orc leader reached Marc, it stumbled, then fell into the street, face first.
* * *
The group limped out into the road. The tanks had taken the worst beating, but the archers had taken a few spells from the orc caster before he was killed and by the time they had, the healers were already low on mana. So they spent several minutes simply regenerating mana and healing up.
While they did that, Jeff was talking with the people they'd rescued.
Why Jeff? Marc thought. Pretty much anyone would be better than Jeff to introduce us to a new group of people. Maybe they'll cut him some slack though since he's the one that went up and got them.
