Chapter 18

  “Trees!”

  Ben shouted at Eve and immediately burst into a sprint. It took a moment for Eve’s brain to catch up with reality.

  Despite directing Eve to head towards the trees, Ben moved forward closer to the army. He activated the intimidation effect of his Red Dragon Mask.

  A gigantic, spectral red dragon head appeared above Ben’s body and looked down on the battlefield with a menacing snarl. It let out an earsplitting roar that made most in the army freeze in place. The roar lasted for only a second before the dragon head disappeared.

  Ben intentionally allowed the army to get closer during his conversation so that he could run forward and intimidate those in the back line.

  Most in the army were too stunned to move. Ben took the time to run towards the forest. He saw that Eve hadn’t started to move.

  “Trees!” Ben shouted again.

  Eve was just as surprised by the roar of the giant dragon head as everyone else, though she wasn’t actually hindered by its effect. It was her first time seeing it and it caught her off guard.

  Eve snapped out of her daze just as many of the Eagle players were shaking off their stupor. She finally started to sprint desperately towards the tree line. She trailed a significant distance behind Ben.

  The Eagle army descended like a swarm. They sent arrows, fireballs, ice shards, and other ranged spells towards the pair. Melee fighters charged forth with cries of fervor.

  Eve barely managed to get out of the way of a hail of arrows. Explosions rattled behind her, which caused her to stumble as she ran. She barely managed to stay on her feet. The bombardment was so intense. It was overwhelming.

  Eve held up her shield towards the direction of the enemies. Several arrows collided with it as she ran. It made the shield look like a pincushion, but at least it held firm.

  Despite blocking the attacks, Eve was nearly knocked off her feet by the force. The impacts raddled her bones. She would have been heavily injured if Ben and his cherubs weren’t absorbing damage for her.

  “This is too much,” she thought.

  Eve was clearly in a panic and she was still far away from the tree line. Before she could get closer, something stopped her.

  Eve looked down to see that vines had risen from the earth and wrapped around her ankles. She was stopped in her tracks.

  Eve saw mages in green robes. They held their staves high and concluded their rooting spell. More projectiles sailed her way. Eve instinctively closed her eyes. Those projectiles never landed.

  Thunk, thunk, thunk.

  Eve snapped her eyes open when she heard several muffled bangs. A cherub warrior hovered in front of her and protected her with its shield. Eve gasped and looked over to Ben.

  He winked at her and continued towards the tree line. Eve smiled and leapt into action. She raised her hand and channeled a spell.

  “Cleanse,” she thought.

  Her body shined white and the tree branches were repelled from her body. She continued running until she got to the forest. The cherub warrior covered her retreat. It was like a mobile shield that watched her back.

  Eve passed Ben as she ran through the brush. She thought he was going to keep running, but he showed no such intention. He did not run further into the forest. It seems he really just wanted to get to the tree line.

  He faced the army as the melee fighters neared. Eve was shocked.

  “Does he really plan to fight?” She thought.

  Eve had a powerful urge to keep running. Maybe if they ran and focused on healing, they could escape. Maybe the enemy would get tired of chasing. She could see that Ben had a different idea.

  He looked forward coldly, his face hardened. He still wore the dragon mask so his expression was hidden, but Eve could tell by his body language what he was thinking. She knew that he planned to stay and fight.

  Eve steeled herself. She was terrified. The army was huge and her pain setting was set to maximum. She knew how much it hurt to be attacked and on the brink of death.

  Also, if they died, their names would be revealed and they would be made enemies of one of the most powerful guilds in America. It would almost make the game unplayable going forward. They would be hunted down.

  In the world of Eternity, there was little repercussions for player killing. It was a world where might made right. The strongest guilds were always battling for power, territory and resources. Players without a guild could only watch by the sidelines. It was as if the game encouraged that kind of strife.

  The villages and cities were safe zones, but outside of that, there were no rules. That means that if a player angered a powerful guild, that guild could basically trap that player in a safe zone permanently because if they tried to leave, they would be killed, which effectively made it impossible to progress.

  Eve knew about players, during the beta, who got on the bad side of powerful guilds. Some streamers even stopped streaming the game because of this. They were barred from progressing because they angered a larger guild.

  In addition, after level 10, every death caused a loss of 1 level. So dying became even more punishing.

  All these thoughts flooded Eve’s mind as the army neared. She wanted so badly to run but something stopped her. Ben.

  She couldn’t abandon him. No matter what, she would stay, she would follow him.

  Resolved, Eve gripped her shield firmly and stood her ground behind Ben. Ben glanced back at her briefly and noted her resolve, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t have time before the first melee fighters had arrived.

  The Eagle guild was exceptionally coordinated. Their heavy-armored front-liners arrived first. They engaged Ben and his cherubs like a wave which crashed against Ben’s front line.

  Ben kept one cherub warrior back to guard Eve, and used the rest to form a semi circle in front of him.

  Three cherub archers flew up into the tree line and began raining arrows down on the back line support of the army. Some of the mages raised elemental shield walls to defend themselves. The white mages either shrouded themselves in a shield of light, or simply used healing spells to heal off the damage they took.

  The cherubs were unable to kill even a single player. When the players got to low health, they even used health potions to heal themselves. If it wasn’t for the fact that the cherubs were level 9, and the players were level 4, then the cherubs wouldn’t have been able to apply any pressure at all. There were just 3 of them.

  The melee battle was furious. The cherub warriors and cherub spear masters worked in tandem together to hold back the line of players. Their coordination was impeccable. The spear masters poked past the shields of the cherub warriors. The pairs engaged in a highly skilled aerial dance.

  The spearman created space with their range, and the cherub warriors helped cover if any enemies got too close.

  Rogue and spearmen of the Eagle guild applied pressure as well, but only so many could occupy so much space.

  The hammer masters flew around and attempted to engage the much squishier targets. They spun like a top and did wide area damage. They acted as a distraction to slow down the advancement of the army.

  Arrows and spells continued to rain down but the trees of the forest provided excellent cover. It didn’t stop all the damage. The area effects of spells like fireball and chain lighting still chipped away at Ben and Eve’s health. Thankfully, most of the damage was absorbed by Ben’s cherubs.

  Absorbing so much damage whittled the cherub’s collective health quickly, so Eve was on heal duty.

  Eve raised her hand to heal but it barely put a dent in the health of the cherubs. It only healed about 25% of their health. The cherubs had a much larger health pool now, since they were level 9.

  “Ah!”

  Ben looked back to see a few players attacking Eve in melee. Two rogues and a few swordsmen stabbed at her. She tried to use her shield to block but she could only block from a single direction.

  Eve tried to heal herself with a potion but that was impossible.

  Potions require time to consume. It took time to manifest it from the inventory, and time to drink it. Being hit interrupted the process. Potions were great when facing monsters, because monsters were typically easy to kill, or not so relentless in attacking. The potions were designed to be a recovery during downtime, or if you could find a way to get a moment of reprieve in combat while your party members held the front line.

  Potions in PVP were much harder to use because players knew the weakness of potions. All you had to do was keep the pressure on and the player would not be able to drink it.

  Instead, Eve had to rely on her healing magic. Now that she had gotten to level 5, she had healing magic that she could cast quickly, under pressure. Ben could see that her healing wasn’t enough.

  The cherub warrior that he left with her did its best to guard her flank, but it too was being overwhelmed.

  It was difficult for him to go back and help her because he was holding the front line. He and his cherubs were fighting most of the enemies.

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  Despite the pressure, Ben was surprisingly calm. He quickly analyzed the situation and decided to change tactics.

  “Drop your shield, heal with your staff!” Ben said.

  Ben broke off from the front line and ran to reinforce Eve. He activated his Spiritual Extension and swept the blade of his halberd through the group of players around Eve.

  The spiritual portion of his blade passed through the surrounding trees like a ghost, but collided solidly with the bodies of the players.

  Some of them fell to the ground and tried to drink potions. Others were pushed back.

  Ben landed a finishing blow in the neck of one rogue before the rogue could drink a potion. The rest were able to heal themselves.

  Eve took a moment for her brain to catch up with Ben’s command. That was only because she initially disagreed with Ben’s advice. Her shield was essential to reducing the amount of damage she took. It made her feel more safe. She didn’t know how to actually defend herself with her staff.

  Ben didn’t repeat the command again. He was too busy fighting off the melee fighters that were once attacking her. Eve shook her head to wipe away her doubts.

  “Just follow him,” she thought.

  Eve’s shield faded into her inventory and was replaced by the two-handed staff that she got from defeating the Dire Bear. Staff of the Faithful. Not only was it a drop from a level 10 regional boss, it was also upgraded in rarity, so it was stronger than usual.

  The problem was that Eve didn’t know how to fight with it. To her, it was just a prop to channel her spells through. It seemed she would have to learn.

  Eve immediately cast two healing spells in quick succession. The first was a heal-over-time spell that gave everyone in the Soul Link passive regeneration. The second spell was an upgraded version of the common healing skill. This one was ranged, which meant that it didn’t require touching the target.

  The ranged portion didn’t matter because of how her Soul Link worked, but what did matter was that it wasn’t so inefficient. It was cast almost instantly, which meant it wouldn’t be interrupted while she was being attacked. It healed for a lot more, and was much more mana-efficient.

  It simply had a 5 second cooldown that restricted its use.

  Eve noticed right away how much more powerful her heals were. The cherubs were almost brought to full health.

  Eve glanced at Ben in admiration.

  “He was right,” she thought.

  There was still the problem of all the players that rushed into the forest in an attempt to surround Ben and Eve.

  Ben would not let that happen. The worst thing that could happen was to be surrounded. Ben landed one more finishing blow on a swordsman before immediately sprinting past Eve.

  She didn’t hesitate this time. She followed closely behind him.

  The pair began to kite the army. Ben would stop only briefly to engage one or two opponents at a time, before sprinting into a retreat. Eve followed behind him, casting heals on cooldown.

  Periodically she would be attacked. She bit into her bottom lip and just took the hit. The attacks hurt, but thankfully Ben and his cherubs absorbed much of the damage.

  Jet showed up while Ben was distracted and ran straight for Eve. He brought his axe down on top of her. She raised her staff just fast enough to block the blow, but she was knocked to the ground by the sheer force.

  She yelped and tried to scramble to her feet, but Jet continued to attack her. She could only raise her staff in defense as Jet attacked her over and over again. Her health began to plummet.

  Ben was forced to drain his mana to resummon his cherubs. In order to do that, he had to temporarily put away his halberd and take out a short sword. This allowed him to use a one-handed weapon, which freed up his other hand for casting.

  He could have cast a spell while holding his halberd in one hand, but a halberd couldn’t effectively be wielded in one hand. Ben knew this well and chose to switch weapons to maximize his effectiveness at every second of the battle.

  Ben parried the blade of one assailant, kicked them away, then ran back to engage Jet. While he ran, he cast his summoning spells to replace a few of his cherubs.

  When the new cherubs arrived, their three health pools were added to the total health pool of those within the Soul Link. So the total health pool increased by the difference between the health of the three new cherubs, and the cherubs that were replaced.

  Jet was in the middle of bringing down another axe blow. He was extremely frustrated.

  “Why won’t you die!” He shouted.

  No matter how many times he hit Eve, she simply wouldn’t die. Her health went down only a fraction. He didn’t notice that Ben and his cherubs were absorbing her damage. He was tunnel-visioned on her.

  He didn’t even notice Ben approaching until Ben landed a deep cut into his hand. Jet growled and stepped back. His body was engulfed in another ray of white light. Jet’s white-mage support was not far away.

  Ben used the last of his mana to cast one more summoning spell. This time he re-summoned his Cherub Hammer Masters. The hammer masters that were on the battlefield disappeared suddenly, and three of them appeared in a flash right by Jet’s white mage partner. All three of them came into existence swinging their hammers.

  The woman was crushed without time to defend herself.

  “Rose!” Jet shouted.

  “Her death is on you. You chose this battle,” Ben said.

  Jet raged and charged towards Ben. Ben stayed where he was until Jet was in the middle of his swing.

  Eve had a brief moment of reprieve enough to finally focus on Ben. Her eyes widened in shock.

  Even though she had minimal combat experience, she could tell immediately how skilled Ben was.

  Eve chugged a Mid-Grade mana potion while watching Jet and Ben fight. The difference between them was like night and day.

  Ben parried Jet’s blow with subtle, efficient movements that sent Jet stumbling off balance. Ben then countered with a quick and decisive strike to the eyes.

  The strike didn’t blind him nor pierce deep, but it was easy to tell that it did serious damage.

  Players had special protection that made it virtually impossible to maim them. The safeguard was built into the system to reduce traumatic experiences, especially since some players turned up the pain-setting to max. However, limbs and senses could still be disabled to a smaller degree, and those hits did extra damage in the form of a critical hit.

  Jet tried to attack again, but the same thing happened. Jet moved his head to make his face harder to hit, so Ben attacked another weakness in Jet’s armor. Instead of slashing at the armor, Ben poked through the gaps to attack flesh.

  If Eve were in the mind to check the damage log, which she wasn’t, she would see that all of Ben’s attacks were critical hits.

  The most amazing thing was how smoothly Ben moved. He was almost twice the level of Jet, but Eve could tell that the fight wasn’t just about the difference in level. Jet was still clearly stronger and faster than Ben because Jet was focused on physical attributes. In fact, most of the melee players were faster than Ben, but that didn’t seem to matter.

  Ben moved as if possessed. He had no wasted movements. He parried perfectly, dodged perfectly, and countered perfectly.

  Ben was a caster, the worst type of caster, a summoner. Summoners had the worst casting scaling, and terrible physical scaling. Ben’s physical attributes were low, but he bridged the gap with skill.

  That is why the fight took as long as it did. Ben did low damage. However, that wouldn’t be the case for long. After parrying a blow that sent Jet clumsily falling to the ground, Ben switched weapons just in time to meet Jet’s reinforcements.

  If anything, Eve became even more in awe. Once Ben switched back to his halberd. With his favored weapon equipped, he became a god of war.

  With the reach of Ben’s halberd, and a few tactical uses of his spiritual extension, the enemy couldn’t even get close to him.

  Over the course of the battle, the cherub archers had found success. With focused and sustained fire, they managed to kill a few key back-line support mages. With less healing, crowd control and other support abilities available, the Eagle players were slowly losing control of the battle.

  With Eve’s continuous healing, the cherubs could more easily hold the front line. A few players trickled past the cherubs to charge towards Ben and Eve. A few more rogues even tried to get to Eve, but Ben now focused on protecting her. It was much easier to do with his halberd.

  Ben devastated everyone that got close.

  A halberd was a perfect defensive weapon. He parried their blows and struck back with deadly precision. Every strike was engulfed by the flaming effect of the halberd, which caused additional damage.

  In addition, the halberd had 20% life steal. It was originally only 10%, but it became 20% when Ben upgraded it to masterwork. That decision was paying dividends.

  The lifesteal healed his cherubs as well. As long as he and Eve took minimal damage, Ben could attack nearby players to sustain the party.

  Now that Eve wasn’t under so much pressure, she could rotate between her healing spells and chugging potions without hindrance.

  Eve had gone through about half her potions when Ben finally spoke to her.

  “Save the rest of your potions. This battle is over,” Ben said.

  Eve was confused for a moment but she obediently put her potion away.

  The reason she was so confused was because there were still at least half of the army left. Without potions, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the damage they were taking.

  As she predicted, their collective health began to dwindle. Even the lifesteal of Ben’s halberd couldn’t keep up.

  Ben changed tactics again. During the fighting, he naturally regenerated almost all his mana. He put his halberd away to cast two summoning spells. He replaced the spearmen and the Hammer masters with more Cherub Warriors.

  Now there were 9 cherub warriors and 3 cherub archers. With that new squad formation, Ben took his halberd back out and charged forward.

  “Stay close,” Ben said.

  Eve nodded and followed closely behind Ben. She watched in amazement as he tore a path through the army.

  Jet was still alive. He had long since retreated to the back of the army to heal himself with potions and watch the fight from a safe distance. He was stricken by the power of Ben. He looked at Ben as if the man was a demon.

  Everyone that engaged Ben in combat was swiftly defeated. It was as if Ben had kicked into overdrive.

  The warrior cherubs focused on defense and Ben focused on offense. He carved through the army as if possessed.

  Eve was in awe.

  It didn’t make any sense. Ben was a summoner. He shouldn’t have been so dominant in melee combat. Yet no one could stand against them. He skillfully cut them down as if they were toddlers wielding weapons, instead of level 4 and level 5 players. The army of players were clumsy in comparison.

  Eve witnessed the difference between a true weapon master, and people that relied on their attributes. What she witnessed opened her mind to a new world of possibilities within Eternity.

  Eternity wasn’t just about stats. Skill was just as important. Of course, skill couldn’t allow a peasant to kill a dragon, but it could bridge small gaps. The higher the skill, the higher the gap it could bridge.

  The scene before her wasn’t like a movie where the enemy tried to engage one at a time. They did their best to attack Ben at once, but Ben, with a combination of perfect footwork, technique, and almost a six sense of opportunity, parried multiple opponents at once. He even made some players stumble over each other and strike their allies with their own weapons.

  At some point, it became almost comical. Eve became more relaxed as time went on.

  Some players began to realize how outmatched they were. They backed away and began to slowly retreat in terror. The battle moved as everyone left the forest and moved closer to the main road. Only about 20% of the players were left. They all gathered near Jet. Jet saw his allies practically shaking with fear.

  “What is he? He is like a demon,” one person said.

  “I couldn’t even land a hit on him. I barely got out with my life,” another man said.

  “This isn’t right. He’s got to be cheating or something,”

  “What level is he? 50?”

  Jet overheard the scared voices of his subordinates. He said nothing. He could only watch in horror as Ben stepped out of the treeline and walked towards them with a menacing aura.

  “Retreat!” Jet shouted.

  The remaining Eagle players scrambled over their allies to run away.

  Ben didn’t pursue. He stuck his halberd in the dirt and surveyed the battlefield. Eve walked next to him and looked out on the field in amazement. The battle was littered with loot and signs of battle. There were no bodies. Players disappeared after they were defeated. Only their loot was left behind. The area was eerily silent now.

  The cherubs went around collecting the loot. Eve looked up to Ben in amazement. He was looking up at the sky with a sense of deep reverence.

  He made the sign of the cross and fell into deep prayer.

  Eve was compelled to do the same. Her body almost moved on its own to follow his lead.

  Ben recited the entire Jesus prayer, a common prayer of the Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It took around 15 minutes. He could hear Eve reciting it right along with him. That surprised him. He didn’t bring it up while they prayed, but he kept a mental note in the back of his mind.

  Ben and Eve concluded their prayer at the same time. They opened their eyes and exchanged reverent glances.

  “You’re Orthodox?” Ben asked.

  Eve nodded.

  That was strange to say the least. Ben and Eve started in the same zone, which means that they lived in the same region of America. There weren’t that many Eastern Orthodox in America, especially compared to Catholics and other Christian denominations.

  Ben decided not to probe further. She wore a mask. Privacy was clearly important to her. Instead, Ben focused on moving forward.

  By now, his cherubs had gathered all the loot and put it in one huge pile in front of them. Ben waved a hand and gathered all the currency, consumables and even a few gear pieces into his inventory.

  Players always drop some amount of loot when they die. Typically a percentage of their currency, consumables, and equipment. Grey-named players dropped an even larger percentage of their items. Which explained the gigantic pile of loot that the cherubs collected.

  Ben turned towards the road and continued on without another word. Eve diligently followed. She took one last look behind her at the battlefield before moving forward together with Ben.