I'm still sitting on the tower a little while later, watching waves of monsters pour from the gate. I feel like I've recovered for the most part now. While I've been watching, I've noticed that there are some gaps at the end of each wave. I might be able to slip back into the city during one of the gaps, but it's probably still too dangerous. I don't even know how much longer the event goes for. This tower is clearly the safest place right now. Let's see what's here first, before I try anything stupid.

I stand up, stepping from my little platform to the rest of the stone segments jutting from the side of the otherwise perfectly smooth tower wall. I have to do a little climbing as I circle around, higher and higher, until I make it up to the top. I couldn't really tell from below, but I guess I can get all the way up after all.

I rub a hand against the brilliantly glowing, forest green crystal, then look out across the surrounding landscape. The sun is going down, its bottom edge just beginning to touch the horizon. The whole sky shifting to shades of red, orange, and vermilion purple. “Beautiful...” As I step around the crystal, I push the camera back as far as it will go, sweeping it around for a view I hope is as wondrous as what I'm seeing in person.

After I settle, leaning back against the gem's hard surface, I reel in the camera again. “You know, I'm really loving this game. More than you can imagine.” Here, I just get to be.

Then a message pops up out of nowhere.

The final wave has arrived. Prepare for Oblivion General Xanaad – The Corruptor

Cool, I guess I just had to wait a bit longer, the event should be over soon.

Just as I'm thinking that, all my fur stands on end at once, when the overwhelming presence crashes over me. Like an aura of dread, or a too heavy blanket settling across my entire body. My brain starts screaming fight or flight in a way that's never happened before, even in real life.

Practically on reflex, I twist and roll sideways to hide most of my body behind the tower crystal. Ever so carefully, I peer past just enough to look beyond, toward the portal. To the source of this feeling. Even as I watch, it closes, the spirals of purple and green energy dissipating to leave nothing but the single, terrible enemy, standing briefly as the rest of the wave swarms away into the city. Even from this distance, a full field away, the pure malice dripping off of it is palpable.

It's a large monster, but not huge. Ten feet maybe, wielding a large, broad headed battle axe. The monster's body is covered in layers of dark plate armor and shredded brown cloak. Like three cloaks all stacked up to make up for the holes riddled through the others.

I can't make out much more at this distance, and I don't want to. I don't need to get any closer to know that no number of lives would save me against that thing.

Just as I'm being thankful that the invasion's boss is going off for the high level players to deal with, a new message appears before me.

You have been soul bound to Ranged Tower 47.

You are being relocated.

5

It's a short countdown. Just long enough for me to turn to my camera with an, “Eh?” Then I'm whisked away, the transport leaving me in darkness for no more than a moment, before I'm deposited on the side of another tower. It's in the city this time.

I hear a gasping sound, turning just in time to see someone standing no more than a few feet away, snapping his bow around to aim at me. I can't react at all before the arrow nails me directly in the face.

But it bounces off without doing any damage.

I leap away from the attack on reflex, a small window that reads 'Friendly Fire' appearing between us, before I realize I'm falling.

Right, I just threw myself off the side of that tower. At least thirty or forty feet up. Shit.

I turn, heart jumping into my throat. Vision flying across the surroundings in the few short seconds I have, what I see can only be described as a nightmare. We're in a large plaza, drawn into a cone shape by a line of towers on either side, funneling everything to a point at its center. Their magical fields overlap, dozens piled on top of one another.

There's a literal wall of human bodies toward the wide end end of the cone, each person absolutely massive in size, enough to match the large monsters. Totally decked out in majestic armor, glowing with magic and bright colors.

Behind them, magic users, lighter fighters, and all manner of strange creatures clean up any of the smaller monsters that break through between their feet. Archers and mages stand positioned on every elevated surface, building tops, towers, balconies, any surface they can get their footing. They rain down fire with magic, bows, crossbows, and a whole slew of other ranged weaponry I don't have the time to identify.

Just behind the sea of defenders, at the center point of the funnel, stands an unbelievably massive blue crystal, held upright by a huge ring of metal, mounted to long stakes encircling the crystal. Easily fifty feet tall all on its own, it matches the height of the surrounding towers. And that's with a significant portion buried beneath the ground, where it plunges straight through the stonework.

Like I'm moving in slow motion with the sights pounding in all at once, I pick up everything I can in those moments. Then I turn over in the air, bracing for impact, and come down on my feet, hard. I can hear the snaps, feel the shot of pain through my entire body, thankfully not as intense as it would be for real, but still pretty bad. Everyone on the back line where I landed spins, bearing down on me to finish me off.

It's only one voice that breaks through to stop them after the fastest couple hits bounce off. “Mei!” I hear Lara shouting. She barrels through two mages, their hands extended to cast before Lara slides down to my side. “Mei, what are you doing here?”

“Long story,” is all I get out, before I start coughing uncontrollably, blood spilling from my mouth. I need a healer. As it turns out, Lara is a healer. She presses a hand to my chest lightly and rapidly chants, “May the goddess of creation bring life back into this wounded soul. Emergency Healing.” There's a glow from her hand, warmth pouring in through the point of contact. It washes away the pain, and after a few long moments, the magic fades away, leaving me whole again.

“Wow...” healing magic in this game is incredible.

“Come on, I have to get back,” she pulls me up from the ground, dragging me over to where she must have been standing before. “Talk to me.”

I can't say for sure whether she's actually listening or not, because she keeps chanting and casting healing spells up at the front line of defenders as the battle continues to rage on around us. More than a few nearby players send me wary glances, but besides the occasional attack that bounces off of me, they mostly move on. They have much more important things to deal with right now.

It's really good there's no friendly fire...

I give Lara a very brief recap of getting chased by monsters, finding a tower, and then getting teleported here. Pretty much in that many words.

Between casts, Lara looks across the battle lines. “Alright, stick by me. Just help however you can.” She has to yell over the cacophony of explosions and shouted attack callouts.

“Sure.” I nod strongly. She makes another motion, casting a whole slew of multicolor support buffs on me, then a popup informs me she's inviting me to her party. I immediately give a mental 'yes.' Another swarm of buffs appear and my perception fills in with a few new pieces of information. Mainly, the location of Lara and a number of other people spread throughout the battle, as well as their condition, like their health and mana. It joins the awareness I'm only now realizing lets me know about the other people bound to the same tower as me.

Besides one guy in Lara's party, no one's doing too great. All fighting desperately, the same as Lara. There are even a few waiting to respawn at their tower after being killed. It's a pretty lengthy timer, still a few minutes for each of them.

Why...

I hardly start forming my question on why they're all so desperate, before turning back to look at the enormous crystal waiting just a few hundred feet behind the wall of guardians.

Holy shit that's the city's core, isn't it? If the monsters make it there, it's game over. This is already the last line of defense. Aren't these players supposed to be really strong?

Suddenly much more aware of the gravity of our situation, I look around meaningfully. I know I can't do much at my level, but there is still one thing at least. First up, I take a few steps away from Lara, keeping her in sight.

My cheeks heat up. I'm really about to do this. I clear my throat and work up my willpower for a moment. Then, I bounce up on the balls of my feet. I hop up and down a couple times, shouting, “You can do it, nya!” and pose. I don't have the slightest clue how many people see me, or even if they have to see me for it to work. Or if it's a set area around me.

Doesn't matter. I get the flash of light and surely there are a ton of people in the surrounding crowd getting a buff from that. I catch lots of golden lights flickering into existence, at least. A little embarrassment is worth it. Ok, a lot of embarrassment.

Still worth it.

My stream must be rolling about now. It won't stop flashing with chat notifications I don't have time to read. Up ahead, the front line buckles in a few places, the tanks falling back before a bombardment of magic, healing, and some large summoned metal golems reinforce the ranks. There are a few flashes of light, like faint spirits flying up and returning to the surrounding towers. Those must be players dying and waiting to respawn.

Looking across the line, there are big numbers over their heads, either glowing in green or red. It takes a few moments watching, and noticing zeroes above everyone else, to realize what they're for. This technically being a tower defense game, it's the number of monsters one player is holding aggro over at once. When they hit their limit and their number turns red, any more monsters will ignore them and continue on. That's why the lighter fighters and summons are waiting just behind, to pull anything that makes it through.

I draw my bow, shooting into the crowd of monsters. It's a little difficult from the ground with the tanks in the way, but not too bad. Any misplaced shots just bounce harmlessly off their backs. It doesn't matter much anyway, I'm sure I hardly scratch monsters of this level.

Besides that, I throw some special attacks and spell casts out as well. Nothing too extreme though, I don't have enough stamina or mana for more than a few without wearing myself out. As long as I'm not being directly pressured, it isn't too difficult. I make sure to stay pretty close to Lara as she moves through the crowd, doing her own thing, hurling piles of buffs and healing magic at everyone in sight.

A few times, we end up uncomfortably close to the frontline, whenever one of the tanks takes a significant amount of damage and needs to fall back for healing, and no other healer is closer. I definitely get the impression that touch healing spells are more effective than ranged ones.

Each time, a swarm of light fighters take the pressure off, engaging the hulking beasts long enough for them to be mowed down by concentrated waves of magic and ranged fire, while Lara puts the tank back into the action before we retreat again.

Whenever I notice my golden buff blinking in and out around Lara and the others, I make another silly pose to refresh the duration. She said it was a pretty significant Aura buff, so it's probably by biggest contribution to the battle, to be honest. Hey, I'm literally level one, but I can still contribute. I guess that's why Personal Affinities are considered so powerful...

From time to time, there are bright flashes from the surrounding towers. I can't look too closely in the middle of battle, and just assume the commander is upgrading them to strengthen our forces. I do I feel myself suddenly get stronger a couple times.

Long minutes pass, maybe five or ten, and we're still fighting as darkness falls, the sun slowly dipping beyond the distant city walls. Lights go on all over. Between them and the glow of the towers, we can still see everything clearly.

Dark clouds are rolling in too, like they're coming with the monsters. It's making me nervous. Despite everyone's hard work, and the endless damage falling on the swarm, breaks in the line are becoming more and more common. People are dying more often, the respawn rates not quite able to keep pace. Lara's been chugging mana potions the entire time, rushing around more and more rapidly, it's all I can do to keep up with her by the end of it. We are going to win this, aren't we?

Then we all feel it, even before the call comes out. “Boss sighted!”

“Boss sighted!”

“Boss sighted!” Each call is closer than the last, the message relaying back with each group echoing it so that it reaches us a half-dozen times over. The battle pitches up faster, everyone firing frantically to finish off the monsters before it hits us. That thing I saw earlier, it already fought its way through the entire city to reach this point, and I'm worried it's going to blow a hole straight through our ragged line of defenders.

I immediately fall back, away from the battle with Lara. We approach one man standing all the way at the back. He's standing atop a shallow rise, on the elevated platform holding the city's massive core crystal.

The man is one of our party members, and I'm pretty sure he hasn't moved from this spot the entire time. His mana has been bouncing up and down, so it's not like he isn't helping, I guess he doesn't need to move.

He wears pure white robes, with a funny round hat, and an exquisite magic staff in his hand. The wooden head arches around a perfectly spherical, sky blue gem. The staff is as tall as he is, and he's tall himself, over six feet. Thin, almost too thin. Willowy and frail looking.

“Helios, how are things looking?” Lara asks as soon as we're close enough, and he swipes away his menu.

“Bad.” His voice is high, somewhat androgynous. Then his eyes snap to me warily for a moment when I come in range, before he closes them and takes a calming breath. I finally notice that he has extremely long elf ears under the brim of his hat. “Ollin says the boss is way too strong. He's never seen anything like it. We're doing a full stack combo. You have your sword ready?” he asks, eyes still closed as he rolls his shoulders like he's stretching.

“Oh,” she responds with a small wince. “Yeah, I've got it,” her hand rubbing at the hilt of one of her short swords. The one in the magical silver sheath.

“Our window might be really tight depending on how Heirick's group does,” Helios warns, and Lara nods seriously, giving an affirmative 'Mm.'

There's a short pause, neither speaking. With one more deep breath, Helios finally opens his eyes again, gaze locked ahead, staring into the distance. “Spell Circle,” he says, voice steely. In a flash, glowing white lines appear on the stonework beneath his feet. They emit a bright glow up around him, as he raises his staff from his side, clasping it in both hands, horizontally in front of him. “Mana drive. Empower healing. Support Field. Rain of Light.”

Then, he begins to dance, spinning his staff slowly in his hands, feet sliding slowly over the ground, but staying inside his small circle. His voice raises in a melodic chant.

“Come fire, to warm our chilled hearts in the cradle of your flames. Come earth, so we may grow as hardy as stone, and as nourishing as the fertile grounds of spring. Come wind, may your bracing gusts at our backs blow us ever forward on this path of life. Come ice, to cool us in our endless toil under the blazing sun through the long stretches of day. Come light, bathe us in the glow of your wonder and mark our way ever into the future. Come dark, to lay us down when it is time for our final rest...”

He goes on, one line after another as I stare, dumbfounded. It might have seemed silly, dancing and chanting in flowery prose just to cast a spell in a game, but as the power of his magic builds around him, I can't tear my eyes away, enraptured by swish of his feet, the soft, meticulously practiced movements of his hands as he flourishes his staff in wide swings and twirls, yet never steps beyond the bounds of his magic circle.

Words continue to flow from his lips in perfect harmony with his movements, radiating a strange serenity completely out of place with the raging battle playing out in the plaza below.

I can feel when Helios approaches the end. The air begins to hum, the sounds of battle fading away into the background. His voice comes louder with the final verse.

“All below and all above, please heed my lonely prayer. With your teachings in our hearts, we shall fight to protect this world and the ones we hold so dear.” He pauses, taking a breath, and everything goes still.

When he speaks, it's in a hushed tone, more powerful than any shout. “Prayer of Ephemeral Guidance.”

There's a rush of power. Helios' entire mana pool evaporates, and the sky opens up above. The dark clouds are blown off in an instant, a ring of blazing yellow and white encircling the plaza and surrounding blocks.

This spell, it's hundreds of feet across!

The glow rains down from above, and I can feel the energy pouring into everyone. Wounds are healed in an instant and the entire army of players is swarmed in buffs. They appear endlessly, hundreds, thousands of tiny golden lights suffusing each and every player until they all overlap and combine into a golden glow. People stand up straighter, with more determination and power as they face down the approaching enemies.

I'm no exception. The strength that fills me is unbelievable, washing away all traces of my battle fatigue and every last ache and scrape from running and tumbling through the mad crowd. I feel incomparable to before, Helios' golden aura is beyond what I'd ever imagine a single player's support spell could accomplish. Even the aura of dread choking the plaza isn't quite as overwhelming anymore. With its color, this comes from a Personal Affinity, doesn't it?

The magic comes just in time, because the boss is here. I can hear its crash clear across the plaza when it hits the frontline, a dozen defensive skills going up at once. As strong as they are, with every bit of power they can bring to bear, the boss' giant axe cleaves through the barriers one after another, and smaller mobs start pouring through the gaps.

I see it again, that ten foot monstrosity, with its dark plate armor, bearing down on the core like nothing could possibly stop it. The whole middle of the field turns into a chaotic brawl, dozens of people squaring off against monsters one on one, or taking on more if they can.

The rest wind up entwined with whole platoons of summoned servants.

“Shit, it's here! Helios!” Lara shouts back at the mage. She's standing just ahead, still casting, but with longer range spells now to stay out of the thick of battle. When I glance back at Helios, he's barely standing from the toll that spell took on him. He's already downed a mana potion, but his mana is still empty, slowly ticking upward as the potion takes effect.

“I knew it,” he grimaces, grunting and visibly forcing himself up straight again. “I guess Heirick couldn't delay it at all. Now our timing's all messed up. We have to hold out somehow, Lara. Any way we can.” He grits his teeth and taps rapidly at his menu. When he mentions that name again, I can feel that it's a member of our party. Whoever it is, he's dead right now.

Up ahead, a man shouts loud enough over the commotion to draw my attention back to the battle. “Out of the way, I've got this!” It's giant man, charging straight through the mob and plowing player and monster aside like nothing. When I look closer, he wears pure, shining silver plate armor, and carries a full tower shield on each arm. His name comes up 'Thomas – Shielder'.

He aims straight up the center, heading for the boss. With a shout that booms across the battlefield, yet another powerful skill activates. “Unstoppable Charge!” Despite his enormous size and massive heaps of armor, Thomas flies forward, twin shields flinging all those too slow to dodge into the air. The main line clears just in time, collapsing back into place the moment he passes. Like that, he has a straight shot to the boss.

The dark thing has a couple feet on the massive armored man, crouching at the last moment to deflect his charge aside.

But Thomas clearly won't be stopped, he slams into Xanaad's chest, nearly causing it to topple before it can dig in with its spiked boots. The tattered cloaks are long gone, and the booming metal impact surely doesn't do the dark armor beneath any favors.

Rock and stone pavement spew off to either side as the boss struggles to hold its ground, backsliding for a full twenty or thirty feet before it manages to overpower the single player with brute force.

As soon as it does though, it grabs him with one hand and launches him into the air. A bigger flurry of magic lands against the boss, but it does little more than flinch it momentarily. Then it makes a huge windup, and launches a savage blow at Thomas. He takes the axe on one shield, the whole thing caving and deforming as he's flung back into the defensive line.

His large body crashes through, punching a momentary hole that the tanks quickly work to reform, the smaller bodies behind, human and monster alike, are flung away in all directions from the impact, creating a small open space around the downed tank.

Healers converging through the now open space, but the boss is already following up, its off hand snaking out to launch a ribbon of darkness. The front morphs into the head of a snake, aimed for Thomas while he's down and stunned. Just the angle of his shield says his arm is badly broken.

It slips through the tanks just a moment before they reform a solid line. A woman in lighter gear slides in front of the incoming magic though, shouting something and swinging her shield up to deflect the attack away.

However, just after she parries, the head of the snake whips back around at her. She stumbles a step, slashing at the magic as it redirects repeatedly. She beats it back, short sword and shield blurring as she fights the flailing magical snake. Then one of her swings whiffs, and the snake head bites down on her arm.

She managed to buy enough time, the healers have Thomas up again, and rush to help her. But the remainder of the spell that was trailing behind comes in after the head of the snake, twisting and wrapping around the woman in all directions, constricting until she can't move.

While all of that happened in the space of a few seconds, the boss stopped, hand still outstretched. Probably to control the spell to keep it going. Now, it advances under fire at a steady walk, like it can't even be bothered to pay attention to the army before it. It's almost to the reformed front line of defenders.

“Form up, form up!” the tanks are shouting to keep everyone in place, using the opportunity to get all of their active Skills up before it to hits them. They slam their shields down, huge walls of protective light stretching before them to take the brunt of its assault. The tanks aren't even paying attention to the small fries around them, allowing their armor to shrug them off and the mages' collateral damage wipe them away.

That's when the healers get to the woman still ensnared by the boss's spell, right behind the center of our main line. Just in time for the boss to reach out with its free hand, form it into a fist, and squeeze. The entangling snake spell releases a horrible, cloying shrill, cutting right through the cacophony of battle. Then it collapses, crushing the woman into pulp instantly, in a display so brutal that even the other players around her flinch.

Then her crushed body morphs, warping into a dark purple sludge, and explodes. The disgusting, viscous liquid sprays out everywhere. The nearby healers are blasted, the unsuspecting tanks hit from behind, all soaked in the awful fluid. Suddenly, the dark aura hanging over the battlefield multiplies. A few of the nearby fighters, the ones not already engaged in their own battles, start to look grim, or panicked.

How is this happening? Haven't all these high level players been through battles like this dozens of times before? What's so different now? Why are they saying this boss is so powerful?

As I stare from the back, unable to meaningfully help, I watch the dozen or so players, soaked in dark, probably poisonous muck, turn.

Oh... shit. The hunch in the way they stand, the blank stares over their fellow players - they're under some sort of mind control.

Wasn't the boss called The Corrupter?