Chapter 204: The Walls of Kordas

Darkshot continued to pursue Quiver through the winding halls of the Kordas Palace. He was unsure of where he was being led, but Quiver walked lackadaisically around while dodging any shot that Darkshot took at him with ease.

Eventually, the pair turned into a wide empty hallway and Darkshot’s frustration got the best of him. The moment he got a clear line of sight on Quiver, he fired a shot that Quiver maneuvered to avoid, but this time Darkshot utilized the large space of this particular hall to redirect the shot repeatedly back at Quiver, who was forced to stop walking away and focus on dodging it.

“Man…” Quiver sighed in annoyance. “Do we really gotta do this? I’m exhausted already.” He said as he turned to face Darkshot. Darkshot didn’t reply, but rather continuously redirected the arrow to swirl around Quiver. Quiver’s eyes were partially closed, slouched shoulders and a stare of disappointment at Darkshot. Still, despite this, he was easily avoiding the constant redirects.

“Why the hell can’t I hit you?” Darkshot finally gave in and asked.

“Don’t feel bad, man. No one can hit me.” Quiver shrugged. “So, can we just skip all this stuff, and you just let me do my business so I can log out and relax for a bit?” Quiver asked.

“Hell no, you’re my enemy. You’re trying to destroy my island.” Darkshot shouted back in frustration.

“Yeah… yeah, I guess… If you look at it like that, we should probably have a fight to sort this out.” Quiver nodded weakly between his sidesteps of Darkshot’s arrow. However, following these words, he turned and started walking away again.

“Oi!” Darkshot yelled as he stomped after him, watching him turn around a corridor leading out of the large hall with sunlight shining into the hall through it. The moment Darkshot lost line of sight, he let his redirected arrow fall to the ground and ran to chase after him.

To Darkshot’s surprise, though, the moment Darkshot passed through the doorway that Quiver had, Quiver was gone - nowhere to be seen. The door led out onto one of the tall palace walls that reached out from the main structure towards the walls that surrounded the palace and its gardens. Darkshot looked down off the side of the wall at the gardens below, across the wall, and towards some of the towers surrounding the walls, but Quiver was nowhere to be seen.

“Aw man, are you kidding me?” Darkshot sighed in frustration. “You’re running away?!” Darkshot yelled as loud as he could, but got no immediate response. It fell silent, save for the shouting in the distance coming from the players and NPCs gathering on the outer walls of Kordas. In the silence, Darkshot found his eyes being drawn to a wave of black mist, barely visible, slowing flowing in the direction of the walls of Kordas. It was an ominous view, watching the abyss approach first hand.

This moment of distraction proved to be incredibly dangerous, though, as suddenly the feint distant shouting was disrupted by the sound of quiet whistling. An arrow, shot from a location Darkshot wasn’t sure of, flew directly at him with incredible speed. Darkshot saw it at the last moment and tried to dodge it, but the moment he moved, the arrow was redirected to follow him and pierced into his right shoulder.

Out of the shot came several dozen vines that penetrated the stonework of the palace wall he stood on, binding Darkshot in place with a pinning shot. Following this, he saw a swarm of arrows flying through the air at him. This time, he saw where they were fired from - a street just outside the palace walls. Quiver had created quite the distance between himself and Darkshot, but knowing Quiver’s location wasn’t going to help him at this time.

Darkshot panicked - unable to move, all of the arrows were likely to hit him from Quiver’s multishot, and kill him. He looked down at the vines binding him in place, and considered trying to cut them to dodge, but he remembered seeing his own opponents do that to him enough times to know that he wouldn’t make it in time.

“Multishot!” Darkshot quickly nocked one of Aegis’ 20 mithral arrows and fired it. It split into 20, matching the 20 arrows flying at him from Quiver. He then focused in, sending one of the multi shot arrows at Quiver while aiming the rest at the arrows flying at him. “Go hide.” Darkshot instructed Darkwing, unsure of whether he’d be able to out maneuver Quiver’s shots.

Like a swarm of bees battling in the air, the two multishots converged on each other. Many of the arrows hit each other without either party putting much effort in changing their trajectories - controlling 20 arrows with redirects at this speed was just impossible for either of them.

Rather, both of them immediately picked out 3 arrows to prioritize and maneuver around the others. Darkshot hoped that by sending one at Quiver, it would break his concentration, but that wasn’t the case as Quiver continued to easily avoid it while controlling three arrows that made it past Darkshot’s multishot

Darkwing flew up away into the sky while Darkshot desperately jerked his body to the side to avoid the three arrows and prevent them from hitting him. To his surprise, as they closed in, they all converged to a point and aimed directly at his head - Quiver was going straight for the kill. The range that Quiver was firing from, and the fact that he was still able to precisely control the arrows from his distance, sent a chill of intimidation down Darkshot’s spine.

In that moment, Darkshot abandoned control of his last arrows in the hopes that with enough focus, he’d be able to dodge the three shots just like Quiver had been doing. He moved his body at the last second to prevent his head from being hit, despite being pinned in place. But the three arrows Quiver had fired immediately redirected and swerved back around at Darkshot from behind, splitting up and coming at him from different directions.

Darkshot had very limited mobility due to the vines, and eventually failed to dodge two of the shots, taking massive damage. Thanks to the new armor from Aegis, he was able to survive, but just barely, and the third arrow was still swerving around him. Darkshot knew, if it landed, he was dead. He drew on all of his martial arts training to keep track of it and continue to avoid it, until finally the pinning shot wore off.

He jumped backwards through the doorway, back into the palace hall, but the arrow continued to pursue him much to his surprise. He ran through the hall, maneuvering around pillars and statues, far out of Quiver’s line of sight, and yet, the arrow was still pursuing him with perfect accuracy.

“What the hell!?” Darkshot shouted angrily. “How is he seeing all of this shit?!” Darkshot began glancing around for signs of Quiver’s bird, but saw none. He felt ridiculous, dueling an arrow, but the arrow was relentless, and if it hit him, he’d die. Darkshot spotted a suit of armor decorating the palace hall as he ran through it, wielding a shield and sword, and quickly yanked the shield off of the armor, then swung it out at the arrow to knock it from the sky. Still, the arrow maneuvered to avoid the shield and swerved around it at Darkshot’s head, forcing him to duck.

“Fine, if it’s like that, forget running and dodging!” Darkshot shouted angrily, throwing the shield to the ground and looking back to the doorway out onto the palace walls. Darkshot then sprinted out onto the wall and jumped off the side, arrow behind him as he landed into a set of bushes in the palace garden.

From there, he bolted through the garden towards the front gates where Joltblade had blasted through the doors, and jumped through the opening. The arrow continued to pursue him despite all of this, and Darkshot was getting progressively more frustrated. Even worse, when he looked down the street in the direction that he’d seen Quiver, Quiver was no longer there.

“Where the hell did you go, and how the hell are you controlling this arrow without seeing it?!” Darkshot yelled, but got no response. Aside from Darkshot, the streets appeared to be empty, and no NPCs or Players were anywhere near him. After a moment of realizing how bad of a situation he was in, he glanced around the surrounding buildings and spotted a pottery shop nearby.

He ran to the door only to find it locked, but the arrow of Quiver was still in hot pursuit, so Darkshot desperately body checked the door open, breaking the lock as he stumbled into the shop, then shut the door behind him. He was expecting to hear the arrow slam into the wood of the door, but instead, it pierced through the glass of a window that sat adjacent to the door, shattering the glass before swerving to aim right back at Darkshot again. Darkshot desperately opened the door and stumbled back out of the building, but lost his footing on the way out and fell down, giving the arrow an easy target to hit.

It swerved right at Darkshot’s head, and he could do nothing but wince in anticipation for the damage. Instead, Darkwing flew down and intercepted the arrow, taking the shot for him. Darkshot opened his eyes a moment later and looked on in disbelief, fearful of losing his bird, but luckily at level 150, Darkwing had just enough hitpoints to survive a single arrow.

“Darkwing, are you crazy?” Darkshot shouted at his bird, but it just cooed back at him as he pulled the arrow out. Typically, when arrows hit a target, they would either fall to the ground to be collected later, or disintegrate and be destroyed.

This arrow, which had been pursuing Darkshot and hit Darkwing, however, did neither of those things. Instead, the arrow suddenly grew a pair of wings, and two tiny tendrils for legs, and jumped up off of the paved streets of Kordas that Darkshot sat on. Then, it flapped its wings and darted off around a corner, out of Darkshot’s line of sight.

Both Darkshot and Darkwing looked at the arrow with complete and utter confusion, but he quickly got back to his senses as he realized he was in the open while sitting in the streets, and he still had no idea where his opponent was.

“Come on!” Darkshot shouted as he stood back up, and Darkwing landed on his shoulder. The pair then quickly scurried off into a nearby alleyway, where Darkshot leaned his back up against the wall and began breathing heavily, catching his breath while trying to comprehend what was happening. “Ok, think.” Darkshot mumbled to himself desperately. “His aim is unrealistically good, that arrow was chasing me well beyond what Quiver should’ve been able to see. And the arrow grew wings. It was like the arrow was alive, but, how?” Darkshot mumbled to himself.

No matter how hard he thought on it though, using his knowledge of Ranger skills, none of it seemed possible or made sense. He’d watched plenty of Ranger livestreams before he’d started playing the game, he loved the class and knew it in and out. He knew what they were good at, and bad at. The only part of Ranger’s that Darkshot hadn’t fully understood or researched, were…

“It’s his pet.” Darkshot concluded as he eyed Darkwing on his shoulder. “There’s no way he has a level 50 hawk as his pet. But yet, still, back in Rene, I saw him use the hawk skill, so, how? Unless…” Darkshot desperately opened up his database and began scanning through the game bestiary, looking up birds as the keyword. In this time, the nearby streets remained silent - but Darkshot had a feeling that if he made too loud of a noise, or revealed himself in any way, he’d get pinning shotted again, so did his best to remain as quiet as possible.

He scrolled through the database list quickly, recognizing nearly every entry, including the Fae Songbird that Darkwing had adapted. Nothing was jumping out at him as a possible pet that Quiver was using, though, and he got progressively more impatient as he continued to flick his finger out at the list floating in front of his peripheral vision, while occasionally glancing down the alley to his left and right to make sure he hadn’t been spotted.

In the end, he reached the bottom of the list, and found nothing. He let out a quiet sigh of frustration as he tapped his head back against the wall of the alley, looking up at the sky above to see the clouds drifting by.

“C’mon, think, Aegis would figure this out. I can do it too. If I can’t understand what he’s doing, I won’t beat him.” Darkshot whispered to Darkwing, who cooed back. This caused Darkshot to look at his pigeon curiously. “You adapted to use the skill of another bird, but, what if…” Darkshot was hit by a realization, and opened up the database bestiary again, this time looking up the keyword ‘shapeshifter’. It didn’t take long before he found what he was looking for.

“Son of a bitch.” Darkshot whispered to himself in disbelief as he gazed upon the entry of Mimic. He still couldn’t believe it, though. “How the hell did you tame a mimic as a bird companion?!” Darkshot shouted as loud as he could out into the streets.

“Ho, you figured that out pretty fast.” Quiver shouted back, his voice coming from far off in the distance. “Pretty easily. Just convinced it to take the form of a bird for a bit, and the game permitted me to tame it while it was in that state.”

“Damnit.” Darkshot whispered to himself - he was happy he was correct, but at the same time terrified at the possibilities Quiver had with a mimic familiar at his disposal.

“The camera doesn’t do this justice.” Samathara declared to her broadcasting audience as she stood at the edge of the Kordas skyport and looked to the south. There, a black wave of thick mist was spreading across the landscape, engulfing the farmlands surrounding the city. As it swallowed up the fields, buildings, and trees, a silence fell across the land.

Standing on the walls of Kordas, shoulder to shoulder and row upon row, were a mix of Kordas guards, players, and White Tree guards.

“Witnessing this dark mist closing in on a city in person, is truly terrifying. Look, I’ve got goosebumps.” Samathara held her hand out to draw attention to to the bumps on her arms, hairs standing on end.

“Hold steady.” Jael shouted as he paced along the top of the walls, standing overtop Kordas’ southern gate.

“NOCK!” Viella shouted, standing not far off and pacing as well. Her command prompted the hundreds of dark elves present to draw out their longbows and pull arrows from their quivers, nocking them and aiming them up at the sky in the direction of the black mist as it closed in on the city.

“Fuck me, this is terrifying.” Keldan mumbled under his breath, standing a few meters away from Viella with Vriflow, Swiftstar, Rocknight and many other players around him.

“Easy there, your profanity filter is still off.” Swiftstar warned him, while Rocknight audibly swallowed his saliva, leaving his mouth dry.

“Relax, we’ll protect you.” Caleb, the elite NPC from the leadership intermediate quest, spoke as he put his hand on Keldan’s shoulder, smirking as he stepped forward to the front line of troops on the walls. Beside him, the other elite leadership quest NPCs stepped forward as well, spinning their spears around in their hands eagerly.

“LOAD!” Another voice shouted, causing Vriflow to turn to look back behind her into the city. There, many variations of catapults had been constructed and were being manned by hundreds of crafting class players.

Many players looked excited, others eager to win the mithral weapons, and others terrified. The black mist gave off no emotions, though. It continued to flow forward over the farm fields towards the city walls with a purpose.

“Steady!” Viella shouted to the nearby troops. From the front of the black mist, the tiny legs of swarming abysslings became visible as it closed in on the city. They were scurrying along with it, like a wave of flowing water. The moment the first few players spotted the abysslings, one crafting player on the wall ran from the front of the wall to the back.

“They’re in range!” He shouted down to the catapult players.

“FIRE!” A leader of the architecture guild ordered. In an instant, all catapults launched their projectiles. Giant boulders and other heavy materials flew out of them, over the heads of the soldiers and players on the walls.

Some projectiles ignited into flames once fired, sending off waves of heat to those below them as they flew overhead. Others exploded with lightning bolts, or various other enchantments - none of the projectiles were fired as standard catapult ammunition.

Keldan and his viewership of 2500 now all watched as the siege weaponry munitions crashed into the farm fields surrounding Kordas, breaking through the encroaching black mist and exploding their enchantments outward in a radius around the impact point.

As the flame projectiles slammed into the ground and erupted within the mist, it cleared out a large section of the black mist nearby momentarily. Thanks to that, everyone on the wall was able to clearly see just how many abysslings were swarming towards them, hiding in the mist. The answer was a staggeringly high amount.

“RELOAD!” The architecture guild leader commanded immediately. “FIRE AT WILL!” he followed up with, seeing that some players were reloading much faster than others. It wasn’t long before a second barrage of siege weaponry was fired.

“GRAND TEMPEST!” Jael shouted, as suddenly his entire body began to emit yellow sparks, and he began to levitate up off the wall. Simultaneously, dark gray clouds began to form in the sky above him and grow outward rapidly, giving off sparks of lightning as they did.

“Steady!” Viella commanded as she watched Jael do this, and briefly glanced back to see the catapults. The Dark Elves remained unwavering, waiting for their order to fire their arrows. Swiftstar got caught up in their momentum and nocked an arrow alongside them, as did several other ranger class players standing on the walls. Keldan, on the other hand, was awestruck by the powerful spell Jael the Archmage was casting.

Within a few moments, the gray clouds had grown outwards over the black mist, and large bolts of lightning began shooting down from the clouds at the incoming swarms of abysslings, frying them to a crisp as each bolt hit the ground and exploded in a large radius around its impact point.

“Glad he’s on our side.” Vriflow commented, getting a nod back from Keldan. Following this, the group went back to staring at the swarm. Despite the efforts of Jael, and the catapults, the dark mist continued to close in on the city. It wasn’t long before they could not only see the abysslings, but could hear their screeching cries.

“LOOSE!” Viella shouted, finally prompting the volley that Swiftstar was eager to join in on. A black wave of arrows was released from the bows of the Dark Elves, and the Kordas guards armed with crossbows joined in, as did the Ranger players present on the wall. Many players utilized their multishot skills to increase the amount of arrows fired further still, so that for a brief moment, the entire sky was blackened by the arrows.

Moments later, they showered down on the front waves of abysslings, killing thousands of them, but yet, the darkness kept coming, as did the swarms.

“Nock, and hold. Reapers!” Viella shouted, pointing upwards towards the sky. Off in the distance, a wave of black wings could be seen flying towards them far above the dark mist.

“Oh man, I forgot about that. They have flying monsters too.” Swiftstar groaned as he pulled another arrow out of his quiver.

“Fear no darkness. Their numbers may seem endless, but they will flee when the light triumphs. It is our duty to protect these walls until then.” Jael shouted out to the troops on the walls.

“Translation: Survive until Aegis kills the Avatar of Jealousy.” Vriflow mumbled nervously to her companions nearby, while fastening her shield to her arm and preparing to defend the walls.