The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 26: The 'I' in Team

As Crucis walked towards the woods South of Kruxol, he heard a shout from behind him saying, "Wait! Watch your step!"

He turned around, and saw a male level 40 Mage.

"Greetings, what do you mean?" asked Cael politely.

"There are powerful draugr out there, they're dangerous. You shouldn't go."

"Yes, I also read the announcement." Crucis made as if to leave.

"Look, if you go," the Mage persisted, "then let me accompany you. I can keep us out of harm's way."

"Hmph. Fine," said Crucis.

He invited the Mage to party up, and then walked into the woods without looking back. The Mage followed behind.

"So, what's your name?" asked Crucis nonchalantly.

"JamesShio," answered the Mage, "It's named after the Shio family in a popular anime." Crucis already knew the player's name, since he had seen the nametag, but he pretended not to.

The Mage seemed to be middle-aged, and had a blank face with green eyes. He looked like an Englishman, not Japanese.

"Oh, that's nice, are you from Japan? I hear they still have many old, traditional customs there, do you follow them?" asked Crucis, smiling.

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"Um, no, I am from England. No, I know a bit about the customs but it isn't followed here," replied the Mage in a slightly flustered tone.

Crucis walked on into the woods, veering towards the stream, with the Mage following him. They heard a few loud footsteps from some distance behind them, and both froze. Crucis activated [Stealth Cloak], and silently bent down and picked up a rock, putting it in his pocket before standing back up in place.

"Sorry, I was nervous," he said, trying to pretend that he was reacting to the sound of footsteps when his actual intention was to pick up the rock.

JamesShio nodded and allowed Crucis to walk onwards again. JamesShio was in a Guild named [Architects], and at level 40 Crucis guessed that the Mage would be familiar with Guildmate Assassins frequently using stealth moves at the start of a battle or if danger seems imminent.

Crucis kept walking towards the stream, seeking the same spot as where Cael had fought the draugr with a light sword. The draugr was likely to still be there, since it was staying near its barrow. Fortunately, he heard some other draugr from the direction of the cottage, and this convinced JamesShio that they should keep closer to the stream.

When he saw the familiar draugr by its barrow beside the stream, he continued walking in its direction as if not noticing it. He feigned surprise when JamesShio suddenly grabbed his shoulder and said to stop.

"There is a draugr there," whispered the Mage.

"Oh. Good catch!" said Crucis.

"It's OK, I can keep us safe. Hide behind these trees and keep still. We can wait until it walks elsewhere." The Mage was closing his eyes, uncomfortable with the presence of the draugr.

Crucis smirked. It wouldn't walk elsewhere normally, since its barrow was nearby. However, he was already planning to make it walk away from its barrow. Not in the direction that JamesShio was hoping, however.

Crucis used [Stealth Cloak], then grabbed the rock from his pocket and threw it at the draugr. He then fled to a safe distance, using [Figure Blur] to cover his tracks by reducing his visibility to the others.

He saw the draugr steadily walking in the direction of the rock throw, until it saw the Mage who had slowly started to back away. The draugr caught up with the Mage quickly, and slashed at JamesShio with a light sword, sending his HP down to 65%.

Crucis used this distraction to sneak up to the draugr's barrow and nab a [Cursed Draugr Sword] that was sitting there. Typically, it would be difficult to claim due to the draugr keeping careful watch over its barrow. However, it was willing to go slightly further away for an easy target, especially when under attack.

JamesShio was crying with pain, with a shallow, bleeding slash across his chest. He used [Mana Strike] to shove the draugr away, but Crucis noticed that this Mage's spells weren't as powerful as Cael's. This Mage had seemingly focused more on Constitution, and even Strength, rather than the INT required for spellcasting. His gear also seemed to be hand-me-downs from other classes in his Guild, and wasn't really appropriate for a Mage. Still, Crucis reasoned that a focus on the Constitution stat was a good choice for JamesShio, because he was going to need it now.

The draugr rebounded at JamesShio, who used an Earth elemental spell, [Earth Weapon], to summon a weapon out of the mud and use it to strike his foe. This would only strengthen the draugr. As the draugr raced forwards to attack, the Mage used [Earth Shield] to summon up a shield of mud that blocked the draugr's advance. However, the strengthened draugr shoved this shield aside, then begun to charge again. Out of ideas, JamesShio tried to run, but the draugr charged into him like a bull and sent him careening across the ground. The Mage was now screaming in terror. He had 15% HP left. As the draugr tried to attack him once more, he used [Mana Strike] once more to repel it.

Crucis was quietly creeping closer to the action. The draugr by now recovered quickly from the Mage's spell, and walked up to JamesShio once again. As the draugr prepared to strike, JamesShio used up his remaining MP in a combination of [Earth Shield] and [Mana Push] to keep the draugr's weapon away. This was enough to hold the draugr back, and its weapon hand tried to recover its grip after meeting the shield and being pushed further back.

Crucis used this loosened grip to his advantage, leaping out beside the creature and using [Panoramic Strike] to stab sideways at the fingers of the draugr's weapon hand, forcing it to release its grip on the weapon. He then quickly grabbed the [Black Cursed Draugr Light Sword], and used [Agile Step] to get out of the way of the fight, returning nearer to the draugr's barrow.

The draugr used its arms to lift the [Earth Shield] aside once again, and then grabbed for JamesShio's collar and lifted the screaming Mage into the air. It was slightly stronger again, due to Crucis' strike. The draugr used the broken claws on its spare hand to pummel into the Mage's face and shove him right into the ground. These claws tore into JamesShio's face, causing the Mage to fall to 4% HP and gain the [Bleeding] status, which caused further damage over time. The Mage was also out of MP, and could not heal himself.

Leaving the bleeding Mage for dead on the ground, the draugr turned to a more important threat, the Assassin who had stolen his weapon and was now near his barrow.

Crucis withdrew his dagger, and kept the draugr's sword in his left hand in case he needed to end the fight quickly. He would rather strengthen the draugr first. Bounding up to the draugr, he used [Stealth Cloak] to sneak behind the creature and stab it with [Stunning Dagger] to paralyse it. He then used [Ripper] and [Silent Stab] while the beast was paralysed, before backing off and using [Figure Blur] to cover his tracks. However, the draugr kept intently following him. He led it nearer to a clump of trees by the stream. He crouched down and used [Agile Step], to sneak beside the pursuing creature's side and direct a [Ripper] at its legs to unbalance it. He followed this up with a [Forceful Kick], to try and kick the draugr into the stream and give himself more time. However, the strong creature stubbornly held its ground.

Adapting, Crucis used [Dodge Step] to step quickly backwards as the draugr turned towards him and slammed its fists against the now-empty ground, and then stepped behind its lowered left arm to use a [Silent Stab] on its shoulder. When it turned threateningly towards him with a fierce movement, and held out its arms to strike him, he stepped diagonally towards the stream and was teleported away from the direction of the draugr's blow. He used [Panoramic Strike] before the draugr figured out where he had moved to, and as the draugr prepared another strike Crucis used [Agile Step] to backstep into a tree near the stream. The draugr's fist pounded against the tree, which shielded Crucis from the blow.

Crucis struck with [Stunning Dagger], then dodge-rolled out of the tree and behind the draugr. There was the quiet sound of a shudder on the ground as JamesShio died from the bleeding and lay still. As Crucis used [Ripper] on the slowly-turning draugr, he noticed that its strength was no longer increasing. Activating [Stealth Cloak], he switched weapons to the [Cursed Draugr Sword] he had picked up from the draugr's barrow, and saw that the draugr was looking for him with its arm raised to strike. Stepping quickly towards its side, he struck it in the shoulder with this sword before leaping away. As it turns out, he needn't have leapt away, because the draugr fell to the ground immediately after it was struck, and the sword vanished from Crucis' hand. He inspected his new light sword.

It felt very powerful, and moved swiftly and precisely through the air. However, he had nothing to test its power on here, as the draugr would not take damage from it. Sighing, he made his way back to Kruxol to keep it in Storage, and hoped to withdraw it later. Killing the draugr had raised him to level 43.

With his new weapon acquired, he realised that he only had about 45 minutes to strengthen the draugr around Kruxol. He decided that he should try and find a couple of slightly weaker draugr, and get them to maximum strength for the most effect. Scanning the area around him, he looked for draugr whose barrows were in densely wooded areas, since this would prevent the creatures from swinging their powerful weapons freely. Seeing a slow-moving level 30 draugr, pacing by a barrow surrounded by trees, he used [Stealth Cloak] to approach the creature before slashing its back with [Ripper]. Crucis used [Figure Blur] and darted behind some trees before the draugr could turn around, and the draugr hence stood in place turning its head in puzzlement to find its assailant.

Crucis waited for his [Stealth Cloak] to end cooldown, then used it to close in on the creature again. Striking with [Stunning Dagger], he kept the creature paralysed while using [Forceful Kick] to send it to the ground. There, his [Silent Stab] strengthened the creature further, and he was able to get another basic [Punch] in before the creature begun to rear itself. He backed off, creating some distance between himself and the creature. The draugr stood up and begun to raise its weapon threateningly, but as Crucis predicted the weapon got caught up in a mess of tree branches. The resulting strike was skewed heavily downwards and fell limp by the draugr's feet, allowing Crucis some respite. Seeing that the draugr had missed its attack, Crucis used [Agile Step] to approach the creature and strike it with [Ripper], then skipped away immediately with [Dodge Step] to avoid retaliation.

Crucis used his Agility to weave quickly between the trees, keeping distance between himself and the draugr who was awkwardly plodding around the dense plot of trees. When [Stealth Cloak], [Agile Step], or [Figure Blur] activated, Crucis used them to approach the creature and land a strike, or multiple strikes if he was able to paralyse the draugr with [Stunning Dagger]. Other than that, he kept a reasonable distance between himself and the draugr, as it grew progressively stronger. The thick web of branches and tree bark around the draugr's barrow kept it from attacking easily, and its weapon often got entangled in branches or deflected by a tree bark as it tried to prepare an attack. After about five minutes, the draugr had reached its maximum strength, and Crucis fled quickly towards Kruxol followed distantly by the loud steps of the draugr. As he neared Kruxol, he saw the draugr giving up the chase.

Cautiously walking back into the woods, Crucis searched for any other draugr barrows surrounded by a thickly-wooded area. He found that there were several of these towards the East, where the woods were slightly thicker. Repeating a similar pattern to that which he used against the previous boss, he strengthened five more draugr to maximum. Keeping his distance, then attacking when his stealth abilities became available, was a safe way to do this without much risk due to his relatively high Agility. He took care to avoid any draugr Mages in the area, since their attacks would be harder to avoid. Eventually, he heard an announcement:

[The draugr will invade Kruxol in 10 minutes. Please flee Kruxol if you intend to. Strong Guilds have sent strong players here to protect their weaker members, and have thought carefully about how to defeat the draugr. Please listen to the leaders and officials of these Guilds, who will lead the Kruxol defence.

Due to the set-up of battles like this, players may not enter buildings to hide. We had tried to change this setting, but it was impossible to do so without risking serious errors in the current situation. Good luck.]

As Crucis returned to Kruxol, he saw that players were sitting dejected outside the doorway of stores and other buildings, which they had found were impossible to walk into due to an invisible wall. He also noticed a few more creative players near Kruxol's few ponds and fountains, trying frantically to teleport into the walls of buildings. The game seemingly also counted this as 'entering' a building, so players were unable to hide in these walls. The overall mood of players in Kruxol was grim, and rumours stated that people fleeing to the East had been killed painfully by the Hashin. Many of those preparing to fight the draugr were just doing it because it seemed like a more merciful way to die than the Hashin.