Focusing on the hostages, I cast REVEAL STATS on several of them. The first was a basic Warrior with no point or skill allocations. They chose the default and didn’t know what to do, so they did nothing.
The important thing was the CHARMED notice on their status line. Most of the time that line was empty. That meant they had a Mentalist, or several of them with a CHARM PERSON spell.
Casting another REVEAL STATS on a hostage as far away as I could, I saw the same thing. CHARMED. The only difference was this one had two skills. WOODWORKING and CARPENTRY. I didn’t know woodworking or carpentry were game skills.
A young woman hostage next him shifted uncomfortably; her eyes vacant but trembling. Hands trying to wring each other over and over, even tho they were zip tied. Her face was slack.
Choosing everyone in the raid, I gave them all map marking privileges.
[William of Brinsford:] [BATTLEGROUND] [They have Mentalists. The hostages are under mind control. Everyone with REVEAL STATS looks for their Mentalists and mark them on the battleground map with a star. Snipers get in place but as far back as you can. Watch for those marks. They’re your first targets.]
Standing there waiting, I watched as a few more latecomers joined the other side. Another six, maybe seven. Great, more of them. All but one had guns, mostly pistols. That meant the one without could be a Mage or Healer type.
Some of the hostages twitched when they arrived…instinctive reactions maybe…but then froze again. One kid couldn’t stop blinking fast, like he was trying to wake himself up.
“Why did they have to spoil a beautiful May afternoon?” I wondered. My mind trying to avoid what I was seeing.
It was warm enough for doing things outside with a pleasant breeze to cool you off after doing something energetic. Why did it have to be something like fighting other people to the death.
That’s when the guy standing behind the center of their line who I thought might be their leader, Granombre, called out to us. “Leave! All of you. Or in one minute, I kill a hostage. I kill one more every minute. Attack us and we kill them all and their children.” The man next to him held up his phone. “You attack and they all die. I’m in control now. We are taking what is ours. This is our town. Get used to it. I control town now.”
Granombre’s voice carried with false confidence, but his jaw clenched hard when he was done. He was a few inches shorter than me, but broad. Thick through the shoulders and chest, the type of boss who enforces things with his fists. The one next to him with the phone was even shorter, and skinny. He had a gray hoodie with his hood up and the rest I couldn’t see below the people in front of him.
[William of Brinsford:] [Urako Sarutobi] [Phone. Get it.]
[Urako Sarutobi:] [William of Brinsford] [on it]
[William of Brinsford:] [BATTLEGROUND] [Shadow’s going for the phone. Once she gets it, then area effect Mage spells BEHIND the people holding the hostages. Healers be ready to heal hostages when you’re in range. Tanks and snipers, go for the Mentalists marked with a star. Bhaarrt takes the boss. All Tanks go after first shots fired. Bard, marching beat now. Sing it]
Gaylord’s drum started the beat, then he started singing. “We will, we will, rock you! Sing it!”
On the next line, we all took a step forward and made a lot of noise. Several people behind the hostages flinched. One man, on an end who looked in mid-thirties, sweat-soaked already, let out a choked sob I could hear from where we were.
Then Gaylord sang the lines, “You got mud on your face, big disgrace. Somebody better put you back into your place, do it!”
As he finished the line with the words ‘do it’…I heard a shout of fear and pain and saw the arm in the air spout blood as the half with his hand and the phone fell behind the people between us. The cry turned shrill and broke off into ragged screams of pain.
Some of their line looked back to see what happened. Two recoiled in shock. One raised his pistol, and immediately dropped it on the ground, his hands were shaking that much.
Then, to my left, behind the other line, I saw one of the Sneak and Peek Squad running away from us with his arm holding the phone in the air. He was dodging to his right and left to get behind some cars.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Yelling, “Fire!” I shot a Level 2 PSYCHIC BOLT at the boss. As I was firing, I saw a sword erupt upwards out of Granombre’s belly and rip downwards, then pull back and disappear.
His eyes went wide. His mouth opened to scream, then he coughed blood and staggered. People around him froze in disbelief.
The area effect spells went off behind the hostages and the people holding them. FIREBALLs, ICEBALLs, WATERBALLs, VINEBALLSs and more all exploded into view. Flames and vines tangled together. Steam hissed. Several of the attackers screamed. Some in pain, most in panic.
The snipers fired almost as one and the shots flung some people we’d marked backwards. Their boss jerked back as well, but he didn’t fall.
Then the tanks charged.
Creating a MANA SHIELD as close to their line and covering as much of it as could, I wondered what it felt like on their side?
The defenders shrieked and staggered. One man fired wildly into the air and dropped his gun as he tried to flee.
The first three to hit their line were an armored knight with sword and shield on our right end. A big green Orc with a huge ax and shield smashed through the left end.
Half a second later, a giant wall of gray and steel with a maul as big as some people’s chests smashed his way through the middle of their line, knocking people down and aside. Bhaarrt hit the point between two hostages to reach Granombre behind them.
His maul hit a few seconds after the sword had left Granombre’s body. There was a crack, a wet one with more blood in the air…and Granombre finally collapsed.
Our Tanks took only two or three seconds to close the half football field gap between us and them.
The tanks had all smashed their way between the hostages to attack the people behind them. I saw a few gang members at the back of their line who’d turned and were still firing at someone in black. That person was dodging and turning until they rolled over the hood of a car and vanished on the other side. Two of the shooters dropped, probably shot by the snipers by the way they jerked when hit.
Two others of their people who had been shooting at someone I thought was Shadow, by her size and clothing, stopped shooting when they were attacked from behind. I couldn’t see much, but it looked like one was a BACKSTAB and the other was someone slitting the shooter’s throat. The second one collapsed with a strangled gasp.
That was when most of them broke and ran. Some dropped their weapons and raised their hands in the air, crying out, “We surrender!” or just screaming wordlessly.
“After them,” I yelled! “Healers to the hostages!” Most of our formation broke apart, but we stopped shooting or casting spells and ran. Most of the people on their side tried to run faster. Some of them did.
A very few stood their ground to shoot at us. Their hands shook. One fired and hit nothing but dirt before he was dropped by two arrows in the chest. No one who had been shooting at us was standing more than a minute later.
Only then, I realized that the first one who reached their line after the tanks was Blackheart, the female city police detective. She wore black and had a machete in each hand. She made good use of them. Someone told me later she’d been a sprinter on her high school and college track teams.
[William of Brinsford:] [BATTLEGROUND] [Capture if you can. If they surrender, let them. If they fight, kill them. Help each other.]
On my way, I saw four of ours on the ground. Each one had a healer. One had two. If they were being healed, they’d live. A Healer was crying while casting another spell. She was whispering, “Come on, come on, not today…” to the unconscious hostage beneath her as I got close to them.
As we ran, I saw gold flashes around some of our people. I had one of my own. We were leveling.
Firing a MANA BOLT into one fool who was standing there trying to reload, didn’t kill him, but he fell backwards to the ground and threw his gun aside, and didn’t get up. He lay there spread eagled, bleeding.
Running is something I can’t do as fast as I could before the accident, or when I was younger. Most of the people on both sides were younger than me. Many were a lot younger. I saw Bhaarrt raise his maul in the air and yell, “Bhaarrt smash!” and he did. That was blood and I’m not sure what else splashing upward, but I’ll bet whoever he hit was very dead after that.
Some people stopped suddenly when PvP BATTLEGROUND OVER flashed on our Character Screens. Followed on our side by WINNER. Some people cheered. Others just collapsed onto the grass, breathing hard, stunned it was over.
Then came the rest of the news across my character interface:
LEVEL 1 PvP BATTLEGROUND EXPERIENCE: WINNING SIDE: 100 pts winning team.
LEVEL 1 PvP BATTLEGROUND EXPERIENCE: DAMAGE DONE: 26. Experience 2.
LEVEL 1 PvP BATTLEGROUND EXPERIENCE: DAMAGE BLOCKED/RESISTED: 32873. Experience 3287.
LEVEL 1 PvP BATTLEGROUND EXPERIENCE: HOSTAGES SAVED: 37. Experience 370.
TOTAL EXPERIENCE 3759.
With my whopping almost a hundred Experience Points I’d earned earlier today; it made a new total for me of almost 4000 points. As the total appeared, it looked like all of us had the gold flash of leveling up at least once or twice. I made a quick check of the Experience Level Chart.
Since I was already Level 6, I had needed 2,500 more Experience Points for Level 7. Now I had more than enough Experience or XP for it. That’s when I noticed one more line just fading out of view as the golden light flashed around me again.
First Title XP Bonus 25%. That meant almost a thousand extra Experience. My new total experience for the fight put me over seven thousand. The golden glow around me said I had the Experience I needed for Level 8 and I was working towards Level 9. Damn. I’ll worry later, much later, about what I would level up or add after I checked on our people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0PVPZ14rVM
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