The problem was that they were really only acting as a distraction for our most powerful warriors. I hated I was thinking of the ogre village as “us” but there it was. While they were distracted, the archers were peppering the weaker bashers and brutes, as well as the outcasts. The only reason that we had lasted this long was that the new shamans were busy healing.

  Archer of Belchor Level: 9

  HP: 190

  The archers looked much easier to take out, but then I looked at the cluster of mages. They were mostly holding back and keeping shields up around the archers. The shields seemed to work one way as their arrows went out fine, but any rocks flung at them did nothing. Worse yet, some of the high mages were level twenty, and a couple were higher.

  High Mage of Belchor Level: 20

  HP: 110

  The only good thing was that their HP were so low that they would fall to most attacks. I had to assume that they relied upon magic to make up for that weakness.

  Behind me, I heard Shemi shout. “If you can distract the mages long enough to break their shields, I have a spell that will scatter their archers.”

  I had known I didn’t want to come back, but oh well. Go big or go home. I looked at the high mages. They were so confident. They weren’t even paying attention to us. Each of them was simply channeling energy into the shield that covered the group of archers.

  All except one, that is. That one was maintaining a shield around the mages in a dome. I could only see the shield as a shimmering distortion in the air. But it was there for sure. Basically, the only weakness that I saw was that they didn’t take us seriously at all.

  And why should they? They were slaughtering us wholesale. Well, arrogance like that left an opening, but it was one that I could only use once. I watched for a minute more and the strength of the shield became obvious. Ogre bashers beat down on it with the force of a stomping elephant, and all that happened was the shield rippled.

  One of the new shamans fired an ice spell at it, and the energy was diffused into the shield itself. So, my most powerful attacks, whether with Frost Rift, Frostburn, or a spear, were unlikely to penetrate the shields. But there also seemed to be a weakness. Or at least I hoped it was a weakness.

  I began casting Flameburst, but I didn’t release it. I held onto it using my Mana Channeling Skill. I even accepted the XP I had, which was enough to push me to level 11, just for the extra mana. But I didn’t spend my free points because I was entirely unsure that I would survive this.

  The spell rumbled and twisted in my hands. The more mana I fed into it, the more it became an uncontrollable beast. Whereas a normal Flameburst took about one second to cast, I had been at this for over a minute. I could feel Shemi’s eyes on me. She was urging me to hurry because it was obvious that the villagers were dying faster than the attackers.

  But I couldn’t rush this. I was barely holding onto this spell by my fingertips. I knew that if I relaxed my control or tried to push it too fast, it would explode in my face. When I was finally done, it felt like perfection.

  It had drained me of just over 900 mana, and my remaining mana was going into stabilizing it. Despite spending fifteen times as much mana on the spell, I was only getting an effect that was five times as powerful. Diminishing returns, I guessed, but I had to hope it would be enough to deal with the low HP of the high mages.

  I targeted my spell and willed it to come into being right in the space between where all the mages were clustered together. They never saw it coming. Sure enough, it exploded. The fireball was twelve feet in diameter. I wondered about that because that didn’t seem like much of an increase, but the damage part is where it shone.

  Each of the high mages took (155) fire damage in an instant. Their own shield kept the intensity of the heat within, and five of them dropped dead in a heartbeat. Their leader, who was too high of a level for me to Assess stumbled backward. He cried out in pain, but some sort of magical contingency was triggered.

  I could have sworn that his flesh was turned into a charred mess. His robes went up in flames. But one moment he was there and the next he was gone. I still got a rush of XP though. I grinned as I gained 4,192 XP. Apparently, even though the battle wasn’t over, because I had dealt with one of the three enemy contingents, I was allowed to gain XP from them. I accepted the XP and felt myself surge up to level 15, but held my free stat points in reserve.

  In the next instant, I saw black flakes of what appeared to be ash raining down on the archers. The spell was broad and covered their entire group. The ogres that had been attacking their shield stepped back rather than pressing their advantage. They must have seen this spell before and didn’t want any part of it getting on them.

  It wasn’t super-fast acting because each of the archers got off at least one more arrow. But every part of their exposed skin where the flakes of ash landed caused black veins to sprout up all over them. They soon dropped their bows and began trying to wipe the grime off, but their efforts only spread it further over their skin.

  The black veins spread and while none of them died yet, they were all in agony.

  After about twenty seconds, the ash stopped falling, but the effects remained. Most of the archers had been too well trained to break ranks and so they had stayed in the area of effect. The few who had run were struck down by a waiting ogre.

  As the ash stopped falling, I waded in. I wanted to get my share of the kills if I could. The men looked diseased and struggled to pull out their long daggers to fight back. It did them little good. The reach of my spear was too great and their health too diminished. It was like spearing fish in a barrel, so to speak. Each thrust of my spear ended another life. Well, except they were only digital constructs. But if I was a digital construct, did that make it the same as a human killing a human? I laughed it off. Moral considerations could wait for after the battle.

  After the killing began, the archers were quickly overwhelmed. Most of the ogre warriors were still engaged with the knights, but half a dozen of them, along with most of the outcasts who by now had leveled to be shamans, were killing the archers in rapid succession. I managed to skewer another dozen of them before things got bad.

  Their knights, while outnumbered, also out-leveled all of our warriors except for the chief and Tulbat. That freed up half a dozen of them to come at us. The fifth level shamans lasted longer than the archers had, but it only required a few sword strokes to take them out. Ogres might have more HP, but we didn’t have any of the heavy armor possessed by the knights.

  As the last archer fell, I felt the XP rush into me. The 812 XP was just enough to push me up to level 16, which I immediately accepted. I figured I could use all the HP I could get. My killing must have been particularly effective, because a pair of knights turned their attention to me.

  Both of them were level 14 and heavily armored. I was sure I could still thrust my spear through their armor, but they also had shields and clearly knew how to work in tandem as they moved to flanking positions around me. It was telling that I didn’t look for any of the other ogres to help me out. As a caster in a player party, if I were surrounded by melee types, I would have expected one of my teammates to be paying attention.

  Of course, that was just it. I wasn’t only a spearman. I had other options. My mana had only regenerated up to 175, but that was enough for a few spells. Their armor didn’t cover every square inch of their skin. There were spots that could be hit most prominently their faces. I quickly shouted “Frostburn” at one of them. My aim was excellent, and the spell struck his face for (145) damage.

  I had channeled an extra thirty mana into the spell, so while it took more than half my regenerated mana, it also was now doing an extra twenty damage per second to the poor knight. He had dropped his weapon as he clutched at his face. The extreme cold was destroying the tissue in his face. The fluid inside his eyes probably froze, and his skin must have felt like it was on fire.

  His shriek of pain was pitiful, but unfortunately, the other knight was too well trained. He didn’t break his own attack because of his friend. Casting the spell cost me dearly as I took a sword thrust to the gut. My Scale Skin spell saved me some damage but his weapon was quality and he clearly had some skill because I still took (32) damage from the attack.

  I felt ogre rage trying to trigger, but I clamped down on it with my will. I couldn’t afford to lose my head in the middle of battle with a more skilled warrior. At that point, though, I almost laughed. It hurt, but I could manage the pain. And mathematically it was gonna take him a great deal of effort to whittle away my health.

  He did manage to deflect my spear thrust with his sword, but that was okay. I had intended that. I leaned into the thrust so that I essentially tackled him. It cost me a sword to the gut, another tenth of my HP, and a bleeding debuff, but I had him pinned to the ground.

  It felt like I was fighting with a little child. He was half my overall size and helplessly weak compared to me. Pinning him was easy enough, and then his sword did nothing for him. I squeezed and heard him groan, but his armor was tough enough that I wouldn’t just be able to crush him in a second. It would take time and I was bleeding away health by the moment. So, I had a simple thought.

  I forced my fat fingers into his mouth. He bit down hard, but my ogre skin was much thicker than human skin. He would not be able to bite my fingers off, no matter how much it hurt. But with my fingers inside his mouth, I cast Flameburst and watched as his head exploded. The gray matter and gore were gruesome, but this was life and death.

  The worst part was that as close as we were, I had gotten some of his exploded head inside my nose. I must have cut quite the image as I stumbled to my feet while trying to farmer blow bloody gray matter out of my nose. I used my remaining mana to cast Regeneration on myself and sighed as the wounds began to close and a few seconds later the bleed debuff was gone.

  Taking stock of the surrounding battle, things seemed to be going pretty well. I checked the quest progress, and it confirmed what my eyes were telling me.

  Goals:

  1) Successfully defend Ghazban Village

  2) Save as many ogres as possible: 108/232 remaining

  3) Save as many buildings as possible 6/7 remaining

  4) Kill as many knights of Belchor as possible: 36/100 remaining

  5) Kill as many archers of Belchor as possible: 0/60 remaining

  6) Kill as many high mages of Belchor as possible 0/6 remaining

  The chief’s hut had been destroyed, but the rest of the buildings were still intact. While more than half the tribe was gone, we still had them outnumbered almost three to one. I saw the remaining shamans line up with a pair of warriors for each of the knights. Even outclassed in level and skill, the combination of improved tactics and healing was allowing the ogres to win.

  Tulbat fell to the Knight-Lieutenant, which was bad. I took stock of my mana, but didn’t have enough to do anything about it. Now, with both the officers fighting the chief, it looked like he was gonna fall. But Shemi must have regained enough mana by that point, because I watched her cast a pair of spells.

  Her spirit wolf had not joined the battle other than to keep her protected from any errant knights who came after her. The spells cast in rapid succession caused the Knight-Captain to start moving more sluggishly. Kerkek didn’t waste the opportunity as he batted aside the man’s shield and dropped his sword down like a tomahawk. The weapon had sparkled for a moment, so I assumed it was a special move. Whatever it was, it spelled the end of the knight’s leader, who’s head was now cleaved wide open.

  His lieutenant had his own worries as blisters were erupting all over his skin. Shemi’s second spell had triggered some type of poison effect, which was eating away at his remaining health. I would have felt bad kill stealing with another player, but as far as I was concerned, Shemi was just another NPC and not even one that I wanted to stick around with. Since I had recovered enough mana, I blasted a Frostburn at the dying knight to finish him.

  We lost a few more ogres, but by the time it was over, there were still 102 ogres left. The village was searched, and a few had to be healed. Of the thirty-two outcasts, including me and Shemi, 18 were left. With the chief and assorted Brawlers and Slashers making up the rest.

  The ogres burst into raucous cheering, but I just waited for the quest to resolve. When it did, I got the notification:

  You have slain or taken part in the slaying of fourteen knights and one knight-lieutenant. XP gained: 378.

  The gain had really gone down because of my increased levels.

  Quest Completed: Repel Those Humans

  Success %: 86. Contribution %: 31

  Bonus: Highest Contribution %. Your actions in taking out the high mages were instrumental in defeating the enemy, even more so than the actions of the village elites. Be forewarned that the enemy is now aware of the properties of your Flameburst spell and will be able to prepare for it in the future.

  Reward: 4,650 XP (10,000 * 31% *150% bonus)

  Sufficient XP gained to reach level 20 or higher. Do you wish to accept and become an ogre elite?

  Interlude 2- Bait?

  The ogre village was a cluster. That was the only polite way that Elgar could think to describe what was going on. The battle had started out exactly as he had expected. The ogres were caught off guard. They lacked organization and despite their tremendous physical prowess; they were being cut down by arrows.

  It got even worse when the knights closed to melee range. Not only did the knights have vastly superior gear, but they were also higher leveled that the ogres. The wizard got a surprise as he assessed the village. It was no big deal that they had some elites. The chief was level twenty-five. The head warrior was level twenty and most impressively, their shamaness was level twenty-one.

  What was surprising was that most of the warriors, or rather slashers and bashers as they were officially called, were level ten, with a few even being as high as level twelve. If Elgar thought that was surprising, though, he was truly shocked when he heard Tauri whisper, “I count at least twenty-five shamans. Besides the elite, they seem to be between levels five and eight.

  Robert whistled under his breath and Elgar couldn’t add anything more salient than that. Maybe there was something odd going on here. But the longer he watched, the less he thought of it. The ogres were simply programmed to be stupid. Their reactions were almost always suboptimal and with low Agility they were rather lumbering brutes.

  Then the atmosphere changed. It wasn’t possible for Elgar to say exactly what happened, but the ogres seemed to become more coordinated. It wasn’t like an Agility buff, but rather that they began working together as a team. Belchor’s high mages had not been doing anything other than shielding. It made sense because battles were by far the fastest way to raise the level of soldiers and there were not that many opportunities for NPC armies.

  Elgar’s head perked up as he suddenly felt a large surge of mana. Someone was channeling or casting a spell beyond any of the shaman here. “Look out, someone is gathering a bunch of mana.”

  Robert raised his shield up and activated a defensive spell. A golden glow surrounded them as his Holy Bulwark appeared. They were cloaked by an invisibility spell while they waited for an opportunity, but the three of them had worked together long enough for the paladin to know that his defensive spell wouldn’t break the invisibility.

  Elgar scanned the battlefield looking for where the energy was coming from, but then he felt it release. It was a rare spell, not one he had ever seen before. Just the way it manifested was unusual. Typically, offensive spells had to follow a path to their target. This one simply manifested.

  Because of that, it bypassed the shield around the high mages. This sort of spell was every wizard’s nightmare. It would require entirely new types of defenses. Normally, Elgar and every other mage had to depend upon magical barriers to make up for his general squishiness. That meant keeping your shields as simple as possible. If there was some new type of spell that could bypass shields, then it was going to change things.

  Worse than that, the explosion of force inside the shield was tremendous. Whoever cast it must have some type of item to augment the power of the spell. No one but maybe an elite monster should have that much mana at this level. The problem with that was magic drops from ogres were super rare and if you got one, it was usually an enchanted melee weapon.

  Then he saw the source. It was an ogre, but he looked different from any ogre he’d seen before. What Assess told him was impossible, though. That was a level 11 ogre shaman, and it had a name, Oogliefrank. Normally, only elites had names. It was trimmer and walked with more grace than the others. Its face even had a slightly less beastial look.

  “We should capture that one. There’s something different about him,” Tauri whispered.

  Robert started to stand up. It was such a comedy that he was playing this holy paladin but was completely wrapped around the finger of this rogue half-elf. They had never even met in person, but the communication and experience in Legends of Selmia were so authentic that it was hard to not feel these relationships were real. It had taken a generation of people used to only communicating online and pushed it to a whole new level.