Three Fairies floated around our heads as we walked into the tree line to the side of the road. The foliage was dense for the first few steps, then thinned out once the tree canopy hindered excess growth with its shadow. Now out of sight from our enemies, I drew my scythe from my back and grinned at the others, still using the party chat so my words would only be heard by us. “Zex, go ahead with your skills and scout it out. Let me know what we are dealing with exactly and then we can make a plan.”

Archie nodded at me, then faded away from sight as he seemed to melt into the shadows around us using his Wrap in Night skill. I was mildly curious as to how the PvP aspect of this game would work with so many different types of Fairy support available to players. I was actually looking forward to the challenges and surprises that such things represented, as it gave the game a way to completely alter the play style by every player. Kayla and I crept closer to where the players were supposed to be hiding, trying to make as little noise as possible.

Through the party chat, I heard Archie begin his report into my ear as if he was right beside me. “I am seeing twelve players, levels eight to ten. Fairies are all visible, but I can’t tell their types. Rarity are all blue or lower, so don’t need to expect any serious surprises I think. Have four with sword and board, three with various melee damage builds, and five archers. Not a bad group make up for assaulting a NPC group, but we should be able to mop them up easily enough. Layout is typical raid formation three.” To Kayla and I, that last bit made sense. We had made up several preset formations to use in previous games, and formation three had the tanks in front, melee damage split on the sides of the tanks, and ranged set up behind the rest to do their work freely.

I smiled at the familiar situation within a new setting and crept off to my left some to go a little deeper into the woods. “Right, plan time. Typical entrenched assault I should think. Zex, get ready to join in on the archers with me while Serena dives in to tangle up all of the melee. Serena, Keep your heals flowing at the start in case their damage is higher than I am thinking, but with your armor score, you should be fine for the ten seconds we will need to end the archers. Serena, mark the melee dps when you engage them, leave the tanks blank. They will be the last to go down.” The entire time I was speaking, Kayla and I had been moving around to get into position. Finally, I saw the group Archie had described crouched down behind the thick brush lining the road. Just as he had said, the group of players were peeking out from the bushes towards the Fae army a little way down the path.

“Alright guys, go time. Serena, run in and do your thing, Zex stealth in and I will use Temporal Step to pop up at the archers as soon as our tank has their full attention. Zex, don’t jump the gun and wait for Serena to be in the spotlight.” Keeping low, I held my scythe with the blade parallel to the ground in order to not reflect any of the dappled light filtering down and give away my position.

“You got it! Celeste, keep an eye on my back when they surround me and get ready to work your magic muscles with healing.” Kayla gave a feral grin and then circled away from me some before charging headlong towards the pack of players. She made a lot of noise while sprinting and was quickly heard as an alarm was raised. Her right arm lashed out, bashing one of the archers out of her way with her shield as she drove past the back lines to engage with the rest. Right as Kayla was about to hit the tanks and melee dps, she did something new. Her left arm swung her sword into her shield hard, the resulting clang coming out much louder than it seemed that it should in a small shockwave centered on the armored woman. The effect of her hidden skill seemed to have stunned those around her for a moment, giving the tank a chance to hit three of the players with a heavy backswing of her weapon. Nice! She was holding back on us it seemed, or at least never mentioned an AoE stun ability.

Health bars appeared over all twelve heads as my party engaged and I triggered my ability for five seconds of free movement so I could close the distance to the archers. It wasn’t quite enough, and the skill ended when I was still a few paces away. Luckily, Kayla did her job and nobody was looking towards me as I swung my scythe around me rapidly. Speed was my friend, and there was no slash, pause to reset, then another slash from me. Nope, I kept my scythe flowing around me in a continuous motion dealing heavy damage to those within range of my polearm. Archie had built a decent amount of speed as well, and his stealth skill faded away as he joined me in the assault of the archer group.

With rapid strikes, Archie laughed as he targeted the joints of the enemy group with his fists. Every hit dealt a good chunk of damage and most caused a crippled debuff when he struck just the right place. A hit to an elbow or shoulder prevented the players from using the arm for a short time, giving us a chance to deal even more damage to the lightly armored ranged players. A glance at my UI showed Kayla’s health dropping slowly then filling back to full as Celeste topped her up with heals when needed. My own health was still full, as was Archie’s since we were trouncing the archers without them capable of fighting back very well. One tried to pull a backup sword from his belt, but a couple swift blows from my friend dropped him quickly.

It had taken a bit more than ten seconds to get rid of the back line, their HP being a bit higher than I had thought. The group must have run into some hard times if they pumped that many points into Fort to have that much health. Either that or they kitted their gear out with as much HP boosting stats as possible, which if they expected to go against all of those NPCs was understandable. Tearing through a lot of health was our job though, so their preparations were a bit of a waste. With the last of the back lines down, Archie and I turned our attentions on the melee dps, who were each marked with a glowing shape over their head in typical rpg style.

“Calamity, Zex… Grab the X first. He is really chunking me out with his combos…” Serena seemed to be flagging now, her health not remaining full and the heals having slowed down. Her mana must have gotten low and was in desperate need of assistance. Without a word, Archie and I shared a smile and charged at the X who was wielding two swords quite efficiently. The dash turned into a race between my friend and I, but I never play fair… Triggering True Haste for a few seconds, I pulled ahead of Archie and delivered a charging slash to the targets side, then spun a full circle for a second blow to the same location. The two hits took a full quarter of his HP away, another sizeable portion being shaved off when Archie made it to the fight and gave a powerful one-two combo at X’s kidney.

With the mana I had in reserve, I had another eight seconds of True Haste and I intended to use every second of it. The din of battle was almost deafening, metal clanging off armor and shield, shouts of anger and pain, everything I had come to expect and enjoy from game combat. People who have never seen a war scythe in action would be hard pressed to follow the next few seconds, as the weapon became nearly a blur at the ends with my increased speed. Every pass hit two players, not wanting to waste the chance to deal more damage, and X fell quickly from the combined assault of my weapon and Archie’s fists.

Two of the tanks realized what was going on finally, one of them delivering a kick to Serena so they could disengage and then turned on Archie and me. My fellow damage dealer didn’t see what happened, and caught a harsh shield bash to the back of his head, making him stumble and costing him a chunk of HP. It must have been a crit, for he got a short dazed debuff from the blow and it left both of the heavily armored players facing off against me. I was almost out of mana, so I cancelled True Haste to let my mana refill some from regen, then grinned and twirled my scythe around to attack the pair of tanks. Archie would recover shortly, and when he did the two of us would ditch the tanks and work on the other two dps on Serena’s other side.

The sheer number of opponents was beginning to wear on my energy levels, so as soon as the opportunity came I drank an energy potion to bolster myself up some. It wouldn’t last long at the rate of my consumption, but hopefully the battle wouldn’t last that much longer. With my completely offensive style I had taken up, the hits to my health started to come on now with two players singling me out. The damage was fairly low, as these tanks had focused on Fort to max out their HP levels, but after a half dozen hits I had to pull back. I was at 50% HP thanks to my lifesteal, while both tanks were hovering at about the same levels. My weapon was tearing them apart rather quickly, the damage bonuses I had from all of my skills really adding up until suddenly both players flashed with a golden light and had full HP once again. Great, they had Celestial Fairies to back them up… Lovely.

Serena cried out in pain off to the side and I saw one of the other dps players with a broadsword covered in flames. Fire Fairy with him, the last remaining dps looking to have a Water Fairy judging by the ice coating his axe. The other two tanks hadn’t shown the power of their Fairies yet, so I took that to mean they had ones that could boost their defense or maybe even more Celestial healing partners. That was all taken in at a moment’s glance, and then Archie was back with me.

“I am heading to axe man with the square over his head. As soon as I get there, use your Step skill to join me.” Archie vanished, using his stealth skill to fade into the darkness and leave me alone. It wouldn’t be for long, and I altered my strategy so that I was spinning my scythe in front of me like a quarterstaff, blocking and knocking away the flicking blades from the pair of tanks riding me hard. “Alright, good to go!” Hearing Archie through the party chat, I grinned and winked at the two players in front of me, then triggered my Temporal Step skill. All around me, the world froze in place. The detail all remained the same, but now I could weave through the combatants to get in position to strike at ice axe man. As soon as the skill ended, my scythe connected to the back of his neck to score a crit while Archie blasted a powerful right cross to his jaw. The combined massive amount of damage stripped away a solid 40% of his hit points at once, the rest falling away swiftly as the two of us laid into him with everything we had.

A bright arc of pain blasted through my body, the smell of burnt skin and leather assailing my nose from the middle of my back where the broadsword wielding dps got around me and gave me a good cleave. My HP was dangerously low from that surprise attack, the damage having crit me with the flame effect adding even more on top of it. With my HP bar flashing in the red zone at 12%, I triggered my amulet to regen my mana and health by 500 points. It wasn’t instant though, and another solid hit would probably do me in… That left me with few options. Temporal Step was on cooldown still, and True Haste wouldn’t let me move fast enough probably, so I did the next best thing. Diving forward, I tucked myself into a roll with my shoulder impacting the ground hard and making me grunt from the pain. I never was good at tumbling… On the bright side, the blade of the sword missed me by a few inches to spare my life points which were climbing rapidly. Already I was at 20%, the bar filling fast enough that I would be able to get back into the fight as soon as I got my feet under me.

It turned out that I wasn’t needed to deal with him though. Archie flung out one hand and a silver blade of light launched out to take the player with a triangle above his head out at the knees. Damn that was a cool skill… Seeing the blade of moonlight form and sail through the air looked so fucking epic. There wasn’t time to appreciate the attack though, as Archie made short work of the fallen player, leaving us with only the four tanks. They weren’t stupid, and saw that it was now an almost even fight, their side having lost all of the damage dealers on top of it. Three of them grouped up tightly, the one in the middle pulling out a crystal from his inventory. A flash of light surrounded all four players, and when my eyes cleared of the light blindness, they were gone. Bastards gave up and used some kind of teleport item… Oh well, I was nearly out of energy anyway and wouldn’t have been much use in the fight. If all of them had kept up the attack, the remaining players may have been able to take out at least one of us.

Serena dropped down on her ass in the brush, panting heavily as she tried to catch her breath from the fight. Her health was hovering around 40%, and according to my UI she was nearly out of energy too. Damn, that really could have gone badly if those players had pressed on. Archie was still perfectly good, both his HP and energy at around 80%.

“Hey! Where is all of the damn loot they were supposed to drop?” Archie cursed and kicked at a fallen branch in his anger. It was quite justified, really. At death, a player was supposed to drop all of their non-soulbound gear and items. That was the best part of PvP… Getting all of the trophies from your battles with other players made the whole ordeal worthwhile. “This is some serious bullshit! Come on, were they fucking cheating or something?”

Curious about it, I checked my inventory and laughed. Filling the spaces of my window was a nice list of gear and items, my money count also having increased by quite a bit. “Oh calm your ass down Zex. Open your inventory and check to see if there is anything there. I have a skill that automatically loots fallen enemies and mobs, but I am not sure if being in the party with you splits it up automatically or if I need to divvy up the loot in my menu here.” I was leaning towards the fact that the party settings split it all up already. I had a good bit of stuff in my inventory, but not eight players worth. My gold saw a nice increase though… They must have been PKers and prayed upon others to make some coin as I was now sitting at eight and a half gold.

“You are so broken… How the hell did you get that skill?” Kayla apparently beat Archie to the inventory screen, as she laughed and shook her head at me. “It is all here already. Convenient, that. Will make splitting the take easy enough, but at the same time it will be annoying. Some of this stuff would be better used by you guys, while I am sure the opposite is true and you have stuff that should go to me.” She gave me a pointed glare, although her lips were turned up at the corners. “Dammit man, why can’t you just play a game normally?”

Archie gave a laugh at that, then clapped me on the shoulder. “You should know by now that he could never not try to break a game. Hell, even his weapon choice is unorthodox.” He broke off a moment, probably checking his menus, then picked up again. “Damn those buggers were rich. Got a good haul here from them, but it was a lot closer of a fight than you promised us Calamity. Out of practice, eh?”

Aly was actually the one who spoke up in my defense, surprisingly. The little Fairy came down to sit on my shoulder again, and I had the sudden thought of comparing her to a parrot. I decided against it though, as she would probably get back at me somehow later. “To be fair, we haven’t really had any run ins with any other Outlanders so far.” Her pale blue eyes glanced from me to my friends. “Calamity has done the best he could from all I have seen, and has come out on top with everything so far. Here today, he would not have been able to make it without you and your partners. To that, you have my thanks… What? Why are you all looking at me like that?” She got indignant towards the end, and none of us could hold back our laughter.

“Don’t worry, Aly.” I managed to get that out, then broke down chuckling again. After a moment, I was able to take a deep breath and speak again. “They are only picking on me, don’t take it seriously.” Damn, the game AI had taken their words seriously and tried to have the Fairy stand up for me. I supposed that to a new gamer or one of the people who liked the roleplaying aspect more it would have been a good touch, but among us it was a wasted gesture. Aly herself took on a pissed off look at our dismissal of the words she was speaking in all seriousness. We may have hurt her feelings a bit, but it was just too amusing.

“Indeed, little Fairy. This has been a common practice of ours for a long time, we have fought together and against each other countless times over the course of our lives.” Archie stretched his arms over his head, his back making a popping noise as his spine shifted. “For future reference, any time that seems like it should be serious, expect one of us to make a joke or to tease another.” That seemed to mollify Aly for the time being, and even the other two Fairies seemed to take that advice into consideration while they floated in close to their Contracted partners.

“Right then, break time is over.” The whole fight had only taken a few minutes, even if it had felt like it was a lot longer for the ones fighting, and it was time to get back to the Fae to get the force on the march once more. “I don’t think there will be any more, this was about the number I was expecting. Let’s get on the move again and finish the quest.” I turned to go, but paused and checked my inventory once more quickly. “Hey, any of you guys get any good chain armor by chance?” Both of them froze a moment, then shook their heads. “Damn… Tyrith doesn’t have anything above green quality available without me gathering the mats myself. Looks like I am stuck with my leathers for now.”

Caius and the rest were right where we left them, now rested and fresh to travel the rest of the way since they didn’t have to lift a finger to fight off the players. That was all fine by me though, as this way left them no chance of getting killed and making me lose my bonus rewards for getting all of them safely to the Realm Gate. The Commander himself emerged from the mass of Fae to approach my little party. “And they return, alive and well.” He looked us over quickly, a smirk on his face. “I am going to assume that the problem is dealt with?”

Archie pulled the broadsword he had gotten from the fight and looked it over, holding it up for Caius to see with a matching smirk on his face. “Well, it comes down to my favorite saying in the end. To the victor goes the spoils!” He gave a dark chuckle and slipped the weapon back into his inventory to sell in a town or wipe his ass with at a later time. To each his own…

“Well I am glad to see that everything went well. Are you good to move on, or do you need a few minutes to recuperate?” Well, that was nice of the Commander to give us the option of resting. Too bad our bars were all well on their way to full already anyway so it was a wasted gesture.

“No need. Get everyone up, set the perimeter guards, and let’s get a move on. Daylight is burning and we don’t want to be stuck out here forever.” I watched Caius nod, then turn to deal with the Fae under his command. A few shouted words and we were all under way once again. We didn’t bother splitting up to watch the sides and instead stayed at the front of the group traveling with Caius.

Kayla was mumbling to herself as she walked, her eyes flicking back and forth as if reading something until she finally turned to me. “What skill do you have that offers damage reduction? I was just looking over my logs from the battle and things aren’t adding up on my end.” She held up a finger and added in, “Not that I am complaining, mind you… I am just curious.”

Chuckling, I opened my options menu and selected the choice to allow my party members to see my specs again. It included my skills in the list and Archie already saw everything, but Kayla must have not bothered to look while I had it open before. I left her to peruse my info while turning to Caius. “So, now that we are back on track, what are your plans for the future? How often do you come back to this plane?”

The Commander looked over at me and shrugged his shoulders. “We come and go all the time. The Realm Gate changes locations after every other crossing so that we can avoid being tracked and ambushed when we visit this plane again. I doubt we will meet again by chance, Calamity. To that end, I am having something commissioned for you at the moment. My own daughter is actually making it. Call it reparations for her actions towards you thus far. And no, before you ask, I will not tell you what it is until it is finished.”

Damn sneaky bastard. Curiosity was always my biggest weakness and this was going to bug the shit out of me until I find out what he was talking about. I bit back my annoyance though, and instead nodded my head to him in reply. “Alright. I will be looking forward to it so long as she keeps herself civil with me. I do not want to kill her if I don’t have to, but damn me if I won’t should it come down to it.”

“That should not be a problem. Young and impulsive she may be, but I believe I have driven home some sense into the girl during our time here on this plane. As difficult as this foray has been, I think it will be good for her in the long run. It is due time for her to grow up and learn the actual way of the world. I fear her mother and I spoiled her and kept her sheltered for a bit too long.” He sighed and shook his head in regret over what he probably felt was a personal failing.

“Ahhh… Don’t be too hard on her Caius. Despite her attitude, she really is a good warrior. Managed to sneak up on me with Aly watching out for her after all. Can’t say there are many people who could do that. All she really needs is a muzzle!” I grinned at the last bit, the tone of my voice turning up at the end to show I was merely joking. It brought a small chuckle from the Fae, my words striking a true chord. “But enough about that for now. Look in the distance there, I see our destination approaching.” Honestly, I saw on my mini map that the quest marker was just ahead… Semantics.

“So it is! Very good. Looks like we will make it back without any more problems. Forgive me, friends. I need to go and arrange my people for the trip through the Realm Gate. Please, await me by the cave entrance and I will give you your rewards momentarily.” With that, Caius turned and swept into the mass of Fae to do as he said, leaving us to our own devices for the time being. Ahead and off the path a short way was a giant tree easily reaching three hundred feet tall, the trunk roughly twenty feet wide. At the base of the tree a was a hole large enough for two men to walk through at the same time, the darkness within seeming endless as no sunlight penetrated into the opening. Curious about the Realm Gate, I picked up a long stick and tried to poke it through the opening only to find that a shimmering blue barrier stopped the wood before it could pass through the entrance.

In short order, Caius got all of his unit arranged in single file order to make the trip through the Gate. Princess made an appearance, standing on the opposite side of the entrance from me and my friends. She didn’t look our way, instead focusing on the Fae with her hands cupped before her holding something I couldn’t make out. The Commander came to the front of the group and lifted the Gate key in his hand, touching it to the shimmering barrier blocking the opening. With the sound of shattering glass, the light faded away before Caius stepped aside towards me and waved the Fae forward. As each soldier passed, they reached out a hand towards Princess and touched whatever it was she held in her hands before stepping into the tree where they seemed to just vanish into thin air.

While the small army made their journey through the Gate, Caius turned to speak to us. “Now then, as I said before I don’t have a lot to give you at this point, but please accept this from me.” From his waist pouch the Commander pulled three smaller sacks of coin which he gave one to each of us. The bag was full of coins nearly to bursting, and I quickly tossed it into my inventory to see my coin count jump up by three and a half gold! Nice reward for an easy escort quest.

Quest Completed!

You have completed the quest The Way Home (2)

Rewards: 5000 exp, 3 gold 50 silver

Due to you ensuring the survival of all of the remaining Fae, you are eligible to receive a bonus reward. Speak with Commander Caius Sylden to receive your bonus.

Congratulations!

You have gained a level!

Current level: 11

Faction Bonus:

+1 Agi

+1 Polearm Mastery

+1 Advanced Herbalism

You have 5 stat points available to distribute.

Warning! If you die before assigning your points, they will be lost!

Congratulations!

Your skill Polearm Mastery has grown in level!

Skill level: 15 (0%)

Continuous use of polearms has deepened your understanding of their function and versatility.

+15% damage with polearms

+15% attack speed with polearms

+20% extra damage when charging

Increase the skill level for additional bonuses

I whistled softly at the message boxes, and quickly assigned my points into Agi and Fort like Archie told me to do while I heard a simultaneous exclamation of “Ding!” from both of my friends. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had leveled from the quest turn in. Ignoring them for the moment, I turned to Caius and nodded my head at him with a smile. “Thank you, Commander. We appreciate the rewards you have provided us. It will go a long way towards ensuring we remain well geared and ready for greater challenges.” There we go. That seemed diplomatic enough with just the right touch of role playing to make the AI happy hopefully.

Indeed, Caius seemed quite pleased by my answer and smiled broadly at me. “Ahhh, but you, Calamity, are getting some more yet as the one who has done the most to aid my people here. We do not have any blacksmiths in our group, nor the forge to craft anything even if we did, but we were able to collect up a good bit of raw ore that we are gifting to you in order to use as you see fit.” One of the Fae soldiers came up and set a basket of unworked metal at my feet before returning to his position in line to cross the Gate. “I am loathed to admit, it isn’t the rarest quality of metal though… The veins around here are quite basic, but we did manage to find this vein of Dark Iron. Rarer than normal but not particularly superb when compared to the Brightsteel of our armor, I am sure you can find a good smith to forge you something useful from it however.”

“No, this will work nicely. Thank you, Caius.” I reached down and added the ore to my inventory with the hope that the smith in the starting city was advanced enough to work with the metal, otherwise I would have to wait till I got to the next city. I was sure I would be leaving Tyrith soon anyway no matter what the Lord’s decision. The location was only good up to level ten or so and it was time to move on.

The Fae were moving through the gate rather quickly, each one still pausing a moment to reach out towards Princess, and during our conversation the bulk of the Fae forces had moved through the Realm Gate. Only a few remained in line, and they dwindled down to just Caius, Princess, and a few other guards remaining on this plane. “Now then, for the last item I have for you. Katherine, please come forward and present it to our friend here.” Caius kept his tone kind, although the note of warning to his daughter was obvious to those listening as he stressed the word ‘friend’.

“Yes, father.” Princess stepped closer to me while holding something in her palms. She turned her eyes up to meet my own, and I saw a lack of hatred or contempt there with surprise. Maybe the Commander finally talked some sense into the woman. “This berry here has been imbued with a large portion of mana from every surviving Fae soldier whom you have done your best to assist during the last few days. With the power of my people, I have woven an enchantment around this morsel to grant you a boon for the rest of your days.” She held out the little red berry which I accepted and held up to look it over. “Please, eat this berry and you will gain the blessings of the Fae. My father has told me of your desire to become stronger, and I have woven the enchantment to enhance your abilities to those ends. Thank you for your assistance, and I wish you the best for the remainder of your life.” Her speech done and gift given, she turned and walked through the Gate without another word.

I raised a brow at Caius at the actions of Princess, but he just chuckled and shrugged as if to say, ‘That went better than I hoped actually’. With a grin in return, I quickly popped the berry into my mouth to eat it. I was curious as to what I would gain from the power of over seventy Fae all pouring their power into one item, and the system message that popped up answered my question beyond anything I could have imagined.

Congratulations!

You have consumed the legendary item Fae Enchanted Berry which has been imbued with the power of many members of the Fae race in thanks for your services. Only a few members of the race can create one of these items, and at no small cost to themselves as they will lose a portion of their mana permanently upon the creation of the enchantment. Congratulations! You are the first Human to receive such a gift and blessing from the Fae!

Rewards: +150 fame, +10 Str, +10 Agi, +10 Fort, +15 Int

You are now considered an official friend of the Fae and members of the Fae race will be displayed on your map at all times.

Well slap my ass and call me Sally… That was definitely a legendary item! To think that the stuck-up Princess was capable of creating such an item, not even mentioning how much it cost to her own personal mana pool for all of her life. Maybe she really was sorry for her previous actions? Well, there was no way to confirm it now seeing as she had already left to her own plane. Hamming up the RP aspect of the game, I offered a bow to Caius. “Thank you, Commander Sylden, for the gifts you have given me. Should we ever meet again, you can count on me to assist you in any future endeavors of the Fae race.”

Caius patted my shoulder as he stepped up to the entrance of the Gate. “Just rewards for your hard work. And also a gift to repay you for your kindness. I hope that the next time we journey to this plane there will be peace in the land. Only then will my people return in force to this plane that we had called home for so long. Be well, and good luck my friend.” With that, Caius and his guards walked through the Gate. As soon as they vanished, the tree seemed to warp and grow again, the opening becoming covered up by bark to leave it as just a normal – if large – tree.

My UI was flashing its warning that over five hours had passed and it was time to take a break. Looking back to Kayla and Archie, I gave them a smile in thanks for their help. “Alright, let’s take a break and meet up again in an hour or so to head back to Tyrith. If we hurry, we should make it back before dark and will be able to sell off the gear we got from those players. Extra coin would never hurt, and I also want to look into some kind of bank system in the game so we don’t lose all of these riches.”

“Sounds like a plan to me, and yeah it would suck to get all of this gold just to be ganked and have it all taken away.” Archie sat down on one of the large roots from the tree, Fallon settling in beside him. “Alright, logging out. Kayla can make us some food!”