Alastair, Maelstrom, Galoots, and the privateers climbed the mountain. Several of the privateers struggled. Even though they seemed spry aboard the ship, the climb wasn’t the same type of fitness that translated to running around the deck.

  The blind corner before the gate appeared, and once again the Sergeant sent in his two raiders to secure the route. They moved ahead and one came back a few minutes later. The entire team, minus those privateer stragglers, moved silently.

  Captain Ségolène had been reluctant to bring so many extra sailors. But Maelstrom had assured him there would be minimal loss of life, and that even better, this assault would send the message that children were never to be used for such heinous purposes again. Alastair wondered if he could ever get Captain Ségolène’s full story since the Captain seemed adamant that the horror of child necromancy should never again occur.

  Rather than travel together, as they had the last time, the privateers and the sailors split into groups of three. Those coming behind would do likewise. Each group went through at two-minute intervals and was directed to stealth along and subdue anyone. Everyone.

  Galoots had been a voice of reason and suggested they needed some way to identify friends and foes. So every person on the privateers’ team, and hopefully in the Mayor’s procession, had a green rag to pull, if necessary, as identification.

  As he had traveled from West Shilgrave to the Monastery and then up to the Bay, Alastair had wondered aloud if this assault would be enough. Both Galoots and Maelstrom had suggested that it might be overkill, at least unless something went sideways. “Better that than under-prepared, again.”

  But wasn’t that the way it always went? Their assault two days ago had left the team limping away. Now, they had a bigger team, better equipment, and a coordinated assault. Much as Alastair hated to admit it, he had become used to the feature on games to give total strength capabilities to each team. Wandering through Japanese Role Playing Games in his younger years had led him into zones he was utterly unprepared for - he had learned to save early and often. While it was unreasonable to expect to understand a potential enemy’s power level, knowing if a battle would be easy, challenging, or unwinnable was nice.

  In retrospect, two days ago, Alastair now knew it would have been unwinnable. Today, both Galoots and Mal thought they had the upper hand.

  The ingress to the keep was uneventful. Informed that there might already be guards from the Mayor’s house there, the Captain took part of his team to the dungeon to free what children he could. Instead, The players went toward the assembly hall, intending to head up to the Main Hall. The event should have started already, with Flor and her team faking being drugged soon enough.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  They rounded the stairs upward and looked in on the servants’ quarters.

  “Let’s do a quick sweep to prevent being back-attacked,” said Alastair.

  Galoots and Maelstrom both agreed and went into the area to observe.

  They were heading back when Alastair heard a voice. “Who are you? Players? Here? Nonsense. Let’s get them!”

  A moment later, Maelstrom was engaged. She had fortunately turned and thrust out her shield to prevent a back attack but was still fighting two assailants simultaneously. Galoots and Alastair ran to her side, joining the gem combat in support roles.

  Alastair noted something unusual in the combat. Perhaps it had been there before, but a PvP tag hung on the top of the interface. We’re in PvP!? These must be the ghost players Fausta mentioned. Why are they attacking us? Maelstrom, fully powered up with two supporting party members, struck hard at one of the players with her Great Sword. He defended, weakly, but took a hard hit. Alastair and Galoots helped by blocking the other other player’s attack.

  Time stood still while it seemed Maelstrom and her opponent considered their moves.

  Alistair observed their names. Bacon, Brawler 3 and Eggs, Scribe 3. They swapped out their gems and Maelstrom did the same. Maelstrom took a blow from a hammer on her shield while elbowing Bacon in the face.

  How much health do these guys have? If they are like us, they should both start with six. But their equipment is subpar to ours. So between that we should have the three on two advantage.

  Maelstrom combined bones and block gems simultaneously, which allowed her to prepare for a powerful blow, although she’d still need to select it on another turn. Bacon swung his hammer and hit her arm, despite her blocking gems. Fortunately, the full armor absorbed the blow, although it threw her off temporarily.

  Alastair wasn’t sure if she would use the powerful strike, but at this rate, the combat would take several minutes. Minutes they really didn’t have.

  Fortunately, their work together as a team over the past days in the carillon allowed them to support the attacker well. Both Alastair and Galoots anticipated and responded to Mal’s attacks, blocks, and heals. It didn’t seem that Eggs was invested in helping Bacon, although there was an occasional thumbs up.

  Maelstrom used her sword to block a blow from the hammer and then selected the skull and crossbones. Bacon had used the turn to block, which ended up with both players standing there looking at each other for the turn. Then, using her power attack, Maelstrom chopped with the sword, bringing it down on Bacon’s neck. Bacon was midswing of the hammer when the sword sunk deep into his neck. He fell to the ground, nearly decapitated, with a look of horror on his face.

  Eggs swapped out with Bacon, taking the forefront as an attacker. Maelstrom prepared her attack when Eggs put up his hands in a defensive resignation of yielding. Mal let her attack cease, and the gem combat ended. Eggs said, “Please don’t kill me. I’m only in this combat because Bacon is an idiot. He’s my brother and I need to attend to him.”

  “You’re lucky we’re in a hurry. If I see either of you again, I’ll kill you. And I’m going to hope that a guard patrol stumbles upon you and kills you anyway.”

  The trio continued to sweep the servant’s quarters level and then prepared to head into the gala.