“Hey am I late?” I whisper to Anoobis as I jog into the cave, spotting Squirrel sitting on Thrash’s shoulders already speaking with her squad of almost 50.

“missed a good speech”

“-TRAMPLE THEM WHERE THEY LIE”

“YAAAAH” Her little crowd roars. Wow, she must’ve riled them up a bit as I note a few frothing at the mouth as they berzerkingly charge through the leftmost tunnel. My lord what kind of speech skills has she got?

“So what’s her plan?” I actually have no idea, just let her get on with it…but was hoping Anoobis got a sneak peek.

“No idea” Damn “But seeing as though she’s still here as well as two with picks over yonder…” He points to BC and APEXUS (oh my not a good idea me being here) who are holding picks at the ready by the rightmost tunnel.

As I fidget in the way too small for comfort boots, I hear the increasing sounds of footsteps and Squirrel orders the picks into action.

Ah! That’s pretty smart.

Bursting from that tunnel are the attacking group, the foremost covered in blood, even a goblin hanging off one of Braxel’s horns, sweet.

As what I hope is the last one comes through, the tunnel collapses and the sound of goblins mashing together on the other side is quite disturbing.

The attack team don’t stop though; they immediately head through the adjacent tunnel back towards the goblins.

Smart plan, but how long will the collapsed tunnel last for?

Looking at it right now, it’s already had quite a few rocks pushed loose from the sheer pressure of the goblins…although that’s dying down halleluiah.

“So…where’s your armour?” Anoobis strikes up some conversation, well I guess it’s quite boring having to wait to be bait.

“Left at Tarakiels”

Oddly enough, when Tarakiel took me, my armour was removed…and I had completely forgotten to take it at the time. All that work…gone.

Though she hadn’t taken off my boots, but they dropped when I died…seems like everything still drops when you die…which kind of sucks to be honest.

So I had to borrow some boots off of MrSpeedTurtle which are around the right size, albeit a bit small.

Anoobis shakes his head probably from my stupidity at leaving my armour and possibly from shame at not fully noticing till after the Boss battle.

Oh there are the footsteps.

Once again the group rocket through the corridor, even redder this time and I can see they’re pretty tired already at the front.

“SWITCH” Squirrel yells at them, causing the ones at the back to run faster taking the lead. That is why I like this one!

The tunnel collapses and they make their way through the next while goblins squish on the other side, some from the falling rocks too.

“So Squirrel, you going to do this for every one?”

“No, we’ll get too tired then and their numbers are growing rapidly” She doesn’t look up from a window, probably a message from one of her attack group.

“So what’s with these improvised shenanigans?” Just passing away the time, though I do push a goblin corpse away from my feet; don’t want to get blood all over someone else’s shoes.

“Apparently you need the skill to create something; if you don’t then it’s quite literally useless” He looks rather dejected. Oh don’t tell me he’s the one who made the spears?

“WE DID IT” Zzard rushes into view, covered red and grinning madly, jumping in the air with glee along with quite a few others from the attack group.

What did they do?

“GOOD, SMASH DOWN THE TUNNELS!” Squirrel shouts at them and they spawn picks, hammering away at every tunnel entrance but one, which doesn’t seem to have goblins coming down it yet as far as I can se-oh no wait here they come.

“Squirrel”

Oops she probably didn’t hear that over the cacophony of mining. Just going to take a step or two back now.

“SQUIRREL”

…

..

.

She’s feigning ignorance...ok ok!

“TIKARI”

“YES BOSS?” She turns on me with an innocent smile

I point to the corridor they left alone, and almost perfectly a small drove of goblins burst out.

“RUN” She barks and everyone immediately turns round barging past us in a frenzy to get away from the increasing horde of goblins, already over a hundred large spewing out into the cavern…directly towards us.

I look over to Anoobi-

…

..

.

BASTARD!

Running for my life since I’m the only one still there! The literal horde of goblins chases after me to the side of the cave since I’ve got to give everyone time to get out.

Luckily the system hates me so all the goblins are aggroed onto me…probably something to do with the Raid…

Running round the side of the cave, I come up to the flowing wave of goblins pouring out of the tunnel and jump over them, thanking that they’re only five wide.

But that is still a bit too wide as my boots clip the head of the last one sending me tumbling to the floor and rolling

Up UP UP! Straight for the exit!

Bursting out the cave with around half my health left (they hit me a few times on the way out), Anoobis waves merrily towards me and he begins to run with me.

“WHY’D YOU LEAVE ME THERE”

“Would’ve done more damage than help” He shrugs with a smarmy smile…oh this is revenge for making you bait isn’t it?

Though no time to argue now because there’s THOUSANDS of goblins after us (who are slightly slower than us thank Aiag).

Rocketing past the trees and crunching the long, thick trails of dead leaves I don’t fail to notice the unnatural reflective shimmer which runs in a trail of sorts on the leaves.

Still running with goblins on our trail and I’m not going to bother peeking back in case I trip…because if I do then I’m dead...

But a good question is how big did they make the burn zone?

I honestly can’t see anyone in my peripheral vision, except for Anoobis of course.

Forget about that just run!

“Slow down” Anoobis drops out of my vision and I concur, slowing down to match his pace somewhat.

“Are we getting too far ahead?” Losing their agro would be dangerous, especially if they leave the kill zone.

-10 TOO SLOW!

Speed it up a little bit more because goblins are almost literally on our heels.

Risking a peek back, I literally can only see trees and goblins…well sure enough there’s an absolute ton of them, how many more can there be?!

“JOAT” Someone shouts from in front of me…huh?

Entering my vision decently closeby is Baila who is frantically waving towards me, gesturing for me to go there.

Well this is the end of the kill zone then!

About 300 metres, PJ and PinkyS rush forward towards us, soaking wet (with leather armour on so nothing is visible thank the lord) and carrying a bucket.

…

..

.

Oh you’re kidding me!

150, metres they catch up and both me and Anoobis sprint into a wall of water, drenching me to the bone but that may not be enough.

“NOW” I swear its Baila, shouts and I feel my imminent death.

*WHOOSH*

Fire and screams assail me as the oil and leaves light up, literally turning my vision into an inferno.

-5

-5

-7

-8

-9

-12

AAHHHH I’M MELTING!

DIVE

Hitting the ground I get both water and a material of sorts slapped onto me drenching and beating out the fire as I lie there with less than a quarter health.

I’m alive…somehow with 3hp left…that was way too close for comfort.

Being helped up by a few people, I wince in pain because I’M BURNT in quite a few places.

Looking over towards the inferno, I feel like I’m melting even when I’m outside it.

The goblins have no chance… the few that make it out are already charred black and their corpses are pushed away by a few members, wincing and yelling in pain as they burn themselves in the process.

That does not look like fun.

In the blink of an eye, the whole forest in front of me is ablaze and only the echoes of the screams remain…All of the goblins within hearing range are dead…just like that.

Though it isn’t over, not by far.

Explosions rock the forest, out of my sight but I can almost imagine the carnage happening to the goblins more towards the back, where the fire should be smallest right now…

At least I’m not the only one who’s struck dumb with awe at what literally killed tens of thousands of them…tens of thousands as I notice almost everyone around me watching the fire mesmerizingly.

JOAT, HELP NOW

A message snaps me away from the mesmerizing inferno and I see it’s from B0mber

…

..

.

Oh no I have a baaaaad feeling about this.

…

…

(B0mber’s POV)

“YOU THERE CUT DOWN THAT GOD DAMNED TREE. YOU 5 GRAB MORE WATER FROM THE NORTHEASTERN QUADRANT. YOU 10 GO BACK TO THE VILLAGE AND GET MORE WATER!!!”

Shit shit shit! 3 hours wasn’t enough to create a wide enough gap between the burn zone and the rest of the forest!

The North-Western wind is blowing the embers to the rest of the trees, and we can’t bloody reach the top without helicopters and such.

Damn never should’ve done this! Wind was blowing North-East just a while ago so we’d cut away more over on that quadrant but now that’s no use!

Some idiot cat-beastlady is standing round shying away from the blazing inferno which is quickly spreading to the trees overhead.

“DON’T JUST STAND THERE, GET SOME WATER FOR IT!” I literally shove her to get moving to which she scampers off to go do something…whatever use it may be.

Even as I shout that another row of trees light up like candles, blazing branches falling and almost killing some armourless Rhino-beastman.

Turning towards the inferno, I can feel my jelly-like skin starting to melt.

Well shit.

JOAT, GET EVERYONE TO THE VILLAGE NOW

…

…

(Joat’s POV)

“EVERYONE TO THE VILLAGE”

EVERYONE TO THE VILLAGE NOW

B0mber doesn’t need to explain what’s going on…because it’s happening here too!

The embers are flying off the trees and landing on others outside what was supposed to be the controlled burn zone

…

..

.

Well we just set the forest on fire.

Dodging a burning branch, I quickly follow Baila as she run, pink hair singeing at the bottom.

REALLY NOT A GOOD PLAN IN HINDSIGHT!

We quickly run towards the village, running through a sky of fiery leaves and blazing branches.

“HELP” A petite elf screams as a branch smacks her to the floor, trapping her underneath (they’re big branches mind you).

“HELP HER” I shout, turning back and with the help of 2 others we quickly lift the branch, allowing Baila to pull the elf out of there.

Continuing to sprint, we somehow outrun the forest fire, and soon make it to the western edge of the village where trees are still not on fire.

I spot a large amount of stakes in the ground, a surprisingly good job for 3 hours work, even if quite a few aren’t sharp I do note.

Veering off to the right, we enter through the Southern gate.

Already a good ¾ of the village are there.

“EVERYONE GET WATER FROM THE WELL, CLIMB ONTO HOUSES AND DAMPEN THE THATCH, MAINTAIN A LINE BETWEEN THE WELL AND THE HOUSES AND SOMEBODY KEEP AN EYE ON THE FIRES” B0mber is already shouting orders towards everyone.

Where’s Zzoid? For some reason I immediately think that, since I would believe he should be here helping out with the shouting like Tikari and a few others are.

Joat, there’s a group of us trapped in the North-West part of the burn zone…trapped in fire.

His message comes almost immediately, huh what a coincidence…dammit.

“B0MBER” I stomp towards him. “EVERYONE IN THE NORTH-WEST IS STUCK THERE!”

I don’t want to let Zzoid die, but he’s on the other side of the inferno, so he should be fine as long as he keeps running.

“I NEED 10 VOLUNTEERS WITH HIGH HEALTH” B0mber screams out without a second delay, getting 10 volunteers without another heartbeat passing too. “DOUSE YOURSELVES AND GET TO THE NORTH-WESTERN QUADRANT WITH A BUCKET NOW”

I put a hand on his shoulder “He’ll be fine won’t he, he’s on the right side of the wind right?” I mean since the fire is spreading south and he’s north he should be fine right?

“No, once the fire burns away more of the trees the wind direction should change due to the natural re-configuring of the landscape and it’s obstacles…it’s going to likely change direction, towards him” B0mber blurts out quite knowledgeably…well I guess he’s not an arsonist then?!

11 preciously filled buckets are taken and 11 soaked players charge out towards the forest, which I SEE fire already at the borders of it in the Southern part.

“RIGHT REST OF YOU, PULL UP SOME MORE WATER” Damn having only one well isn’t very good.

Thrash dives into the well and half filled buckets start flying out much quicker than the pulley device.

This quickens it by quite a lot, but one problem half-sorted only brings about another.

“GOBLINS” Someone screams from the northern gates after a short while and everyone who’s not on a roof (about 30 of us) rushes over to the northern gates…to see a large horde of goblins charging our way, mostly out of fear honestly.

I say that because a number of them that charge out are on fire, madly rushing while burning to a crisp.

Wow there’s hundreds of them.

“GOBLINS” Someone shouts from the southern gate

Dammit they’re coming through there too!

I hope someone goes to sort them out, because my hands are tied with a few thousand goblins as well as quite a few burning ones too.

“FOCUS ON THE BURNING ONES”

The burning ones could set the village on fire, so I get everyone to target them first.

Charging out the gates, only 30 of us, we meet a horde of goblins, literally piling into them, multiple dings ringing in my head in the process.

Taking two by the arms I flail them around bashing goblins out of my way as they try to get to me rather than charging past into the village.

The few that do, get killed by a few players who had jumped off the roof to take care of the more prominent problem.

“KILL THAT ONE” I hear the familiar quite pissed of voice of oh god Tarakiel.

Spotting her bursting out the trees, covered in blood and singeing (she used her own goblins in place of water!?) with rage in her eyes and an accusative claw pointed my way, I see that I’m going to die soon.

Immediately the number of goblins attacking me increases, almost killing me then right then and there…

But luckily the other players pile in at that moment pushing the goblins back with their momentum and mowing them down by the dozens.

Although my health is less than half, I continue to push with them, watching the satyrs die within seconds of one another while Gristle is taken down by more than a few dozen jumping on him at once.

Within less than a minute, only goblins and fire fill my view, thankfully no more coming from the blazing inferno that boils me even from such a distance.

Baila falls to my right, PJ follows soon after.

I’m out of there by now; only 4 of us remain from maybe 30 maybe 40 of us…and even now 2 of them die as we disengage.

With still hundreds of goblins running after me and MrSpeedTurtle and while we run through singeing fields, I have a great, last idea.

“TARAKIEL COME KILL ME YOURSELF”

“STOP” Her shout causes the goblins around to slow down, stop charging after me and surround me quickly boxing me in.

Well I’m definitely not going to live through this…

Quickly glancing round…maybe there’s only around 300 goblins left…not a large number considering…but I can still hear the sounds of battle over on the other side.

I hope those guys over there survive at least.

“JOAT” She saunters through her tightly packed goblins, who make much way for her.

“Tarakiel, how lovely of you to come visit…but why did you bring so many of your friends” I note MrSpeedTurtle looking at me funny. Oh yeah different language almost forgot.

“Stop playing around…I’ve come to rip you to shreds after taking my throne” She isn’t playing games, her hair singed as well as some burnt skin and her claws are covered in mostly her minion’s blood.

“It was just a throne” I mean yeah it looked nice, but not worth killing over?

“Just…” She looks like she’s going to throttle me…which in hindsight she probably was going to anyways, but now more so. “It was everything; my entire life’s work!”

“Oops” Don’t know how a throne is her life’s work but sorry for stealing it; it looked pretty.

*choke*

She holds me in the air by the throat with some superb strength, while MrSpeedTurtle just realizes and reacts to her almost appearing in front of him, a tad too late sadly as his throat soaks both me and her in his blood.

“You may have burnt most of my minions, you may have taken my life’s work…but I will kill you here and enjoy every last second of it”

“Tarakiel” I just manage to squeeze out as she herself squeezes.

“Choose your final words carefully”

“I always knew there was a spark between us”

*crash*

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

-82

I’M MELTING

-82

I’VE MELTED

…..

….

…

..

.

Wow that alchemist fire was AMAZING.

Apparently I get to go into spirit form (pretty cool, this is a first) and I watch Tarakiel scream silently in black and white as her flesh literally melts (EUGH), along with a number of goblins which stood too close.

Within barely two seconds, all the goblins are on fire along with a large chunk of grass, the fire spreading thankfully along the plain, alongside but not towards the village.

That whole touch spreads it wasn’t kidding…

The Alchemists fire continues to burn the grass quickly snaking along. All I can do is watch it for a short while in a silent world, not even feeling the heat from the wall of grey fire coming from the trees just a small distance away.

After maybe a few more minutes, the Alchemists fire trail reaches the forest and almost immediately the grey fires turn dark black

…

..

.

Whoops.

CONGRATULATIONS! RAID: Olden Caves, SUCCESSFULLY FINISHED!

You have defeated Tarakiel, Ruler of the Olden Caves along with her goblin horde, completely and utterly wiping out every single one.

Remaining Villagers: 14/14

Remaining Orphans: 6/100

Joat: Dead

Anoobis: Dead

BOSS Tarakiel: DeadFor a perfect number of Villagers Remaining, intimacy +10 for all Raid Participants.

The Remaining Orphans gain 1 permanent Level.

All Raid Participants gain a Raid Badge.

For killing Tarakiel, 1 Stat Point has bee allocated to each Raid Participant

For completely wiping out every goblin in Olden Caves, 1 permanent Level and 2 Stat Points for every Raid Participant.

For setting the Forest on fire, -15 intimacy with VillagersFor an Ingenious way of fighting along with other notable feats ensuring the success of the raid, certain players have received additional rewards:

B0mber has received 'Arsonist' Title,

B0mber has received Unique Racial Skill

Joat and Anoobis have both received 'Sacrifice' Skill

DillyDally, Thrash, B0mber, Tikari, SirStripy, Yinroh, Snorh, Gristle, Jerriah, Joat, Anoobis, Kookle, Kandien, Ragreud, Allie and Migrellik have received 'Goblin Slayer' Title.The player with the most Direct kills: Thrash: 592, +2 Strength, +2 Brutality

The player with the most Indirect kills: B0mber: 98,452, +2 WisdomDue to setting the Forest on fire along with the mixture of Alchemist's fire within the inferno, the area around The Village has permanently changed along with the faun and flora.

Due to such drastic changes, this server will temporarily shut down for 8 Real Life hours (8:00 am GMT 0:00) to compile sudden changes.

Thank you Beta testers for completing this raid.

However you should note that all raids from now on will use the instancing system in conjuncture to the party system...neither of which you have discovered or used as of yet.

Thank you for playing and as a reward you're all being revived for free

-Droneurt

…

..

.

HOLY MOTHER OF AIAG! THAT WAS AN AWESOME END. PLUS I JUST GOT REVIVED WITHOUT HAVING TO REMAKE MY CHARACTER AND I KEPT MY STATS AND EVERYTHING!!!

SO there’s like a feat system? Along with rewards!?!

B0mber got so much too!! At least I got one random skill ‘Sacrifice’…sounds horrifying yet useful?

AND PERMANENT LEVELS!? AND STAT POINTS? RAIDS ARE THE WAY TO GO!

Though apparently we’ve changed the entire climate…whoops!?! THAT’S AWESOME!

PLUS we got a little message from Droneurt, whoever the hell he is telling us we have to be in a party system next time? Maybe this raid was just to test out the functions of the raid itself??? THAT’S PRETTY AWESOME.

MAN THAT ALCHEMISTS FIRE TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Plus B0mber killed almost 100,000 goblins indirectly with his fire plan getting that TITLE TOO!

THAT’S AWESOME!

Like I’m literally freaking out, jaw dropped and drooling over the screen along with the rest of the crowd who all occupy the square…

SYSTEM SHUT DOWN IN 1 MINUTE

…

..

.

Ok, guess I’ll have to explore what this sacrifice skill or title is when I get back on…but first…let’s ignore the Blood Red fire which I can see over the small village palisades and houses…oh my Alchemists fire sure is terrifying…I want it.

Ahem.

“WELL DONE EVERYONE, WE ROCKED IT, SO EVERYONE GIVE BIG THANKS TO YOURSELVES AND THAT DASTARDLY MONSTER CALLED B0MBER!!! HURRAH”

“HURRAH” People shout out of sync, pretty tired but with a grin on their faces.

I mean everyone is happy…even if we’re poor, without weapons and almost all without armour…we beat hell of a raid and get at least 1 PERMANENT level and 3 stat points each…TOTALLY worth it!

The world suddenly goes black and I feel my mostly comfortable bed stuck to my back

…

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Tis over, for now. A chapter or two of epilogue mostly concerning Miss Nameless, Joat and well yep pretty much just them 2 for now. (maybe have a few others RL just cause.

Hope you enjoyed it! so please comment and review!! (i'll get to putting chapter numbers soon...)