Adam Drake - Blackout

“Vee,” Thorm said, as he took out another surprise attacker. “What’s that over there?” I looked to where he nodded.

Back along the rail line and wedged up against the rocks was a shack.

“Dunno,” I said. “Outhouse?” I switched to my bow and fired into the oncoming crowd. They would be on us soon.

“Or maybe a way into the mines?” Thorm suggested. He pulsed his magical barrier and two people bounced off it. The knight quickly took them out.

He could be right. This was a game after all. If we were supposed to gain entrance to the mine, perhaps the method was nearby.

Thorm glanced at me. “Go!” he said. “Take a quick look. I’ll hold them back.”

There was no time to debate this, but it pained me to leave him here alone against such great odds. Still, I nodded once and moved backwards a few steps, firing several volleys into the approaching mass.

The horde was now streaming from the trees and charging at Thorm in a full run.

“Go!” Thorm shouted. He swung his broadsword, doing his best to keep from being surrounded.

I turned and ran. The second I crossed into the shadows of the looming rock face I switched on my Shadow ability. Hopefully, this would give me several seconds before the crowd noticed me.

The shack door was chained and fastened with a padlock. I barked a laugh, swung my sword at the wood of the door and shattered it. Inside was an array of mining tools; pickaxes, shovels, a wheel-barrel. Nothing obvious that would unseal a magically closed door.

“Oh,” said Phlixx from my shoulder. “Look, candy!” He pointed a stack of crates, one of which was open. In it was an even row of red sticks.

Dynamite.

I scooped up a handful of dynamite and put them in my inventory. When I tried to grab more I stopped. The rest looked rotted through and probably unstable.

“These will have to do,” I said. Outside I looked to Thorm.

The Holy Knight had been forced back several steps and was swinging wildly. He was no longer using his magical barrier. No doubt, he had exhausted its limit and was waiting for it to recharge.

Then the surge overtook him, dozens of people clamoring over him. He was instantly smothered and couldn’t swing his sword.

“Thorm!” I shouted and began in his direction to help.

But before I could take more than a couple of running steps, a bright light exploded from under the mass of people. It grew in intensity, like a sun, and I had to look away and close my eyes. People shrieked, not in rage, but in agony.

After a few moments, the light faded, and I looked.

Thorm stood with his armor glowing brightly. At his feet and all around him were mounds of white ash which were picked up by the wind. The people that attacked him and those within several dozen paces had been completely incinerated.

He had cast a Nova spell.

The town folk beyond the spell’s radius had actually stopped to cover their faces. They now recovered and surged forward at Thorm, raging and screaming.

Thorm saw me and I held up a stick of dynamite. He shouted, “Get it to the door! Now!”

Before I could protest, the people were on him again. The knight swung his sword, fighting with a rabid energy.

I forced down the instinct to join him. He was right, I needed to get the dynamite to the door, so I ran.

The metal of the door was badly mauled by Mudhoof and Feign’s efforts. “I think we got this,” Mudhoof said. Feign tossed another snowball, and the minotaur swung his ax.

The door shattered. Pieces of frozen metal caved inward and fell in a pile on the ground.

I looked at the dynamite in my hand with disappointment. “What do I do with this then?”

There was a commotion behind us. As I turned, I froze in shock.

The trees of the forest were parting and the gigantic form of the Demon King emerged. He did not walk, but floated along the ground. The townsfolk whooped and hollered at his arrival and stopped running. They parted like a living sea for their God to pass through.

Thorm still fought, but once the Demon King appeared he knew the jig was up. With one final swing which cast his attackers aside like rag-dolls, he turned toward us and ran.

But he was too late.

The Demon King paused and lifted his huge wooden staff. He pointed it at the fleeing knight. An arc of black lightning shot from the end of the staff and hit Storm, fully enveloping him.

“Thorm!” I cried out. When I took a step forward Mudhoof grabbed my arm.

“No!” Mudhoof said, with a look of dismay. “We can’t help him now.”

He was right, but I had to try. I summoned an arrow and fired it blindly at the Demon King. But before it crossed half the distance it ricocheted off a magical barrier of some kind.

Thorm twisted and contorted under the intensity of the black lightening. His eyes widened, and he seemed to look in our direction.

I gasped. His flesh was lined with thick black veins.

The townsfolk resumed their assault, only this time they ignored Thorm and surged around him. They raced toward us.

“We have to go,” Feign said. He tossed a snowball out onto the rail line and a patch of ice formed. This only slowed the towns folk’s crazed progress.

“That was my last one,” the ice mage declared, and pulled a dagger out from the folds of his cloak. He was prepared for a hand to hand fight.

“Back up!” Mudhoof said, holding his ax at the ready. We withdrew inside the mine entrance and peered outward.

Thorm’s body began to rapidly contort and bulge. We’d seen this horrifying transformation before.

“There’s nothing we can do for him,” Mudhoof said. “But we can’t hold them back and deal with that Demon twit, too.”

I pulled my eyes off of the thing that had been Thorm as he continued to morph into something unspeakable and looked at the dynamite in my hand.

“I need a light. Some fire!” I looked at Feign.

The ice mage shrugged and snowflakes cascaded from his robe. “Not my expertise,” he said.

“I shall warm your heart, my sweet!” Phlixx said. He held his little crossbow up, and the bolt was aflame.

“That will do,” I said and held the wick of three sticks to it. They sparked and burned down.

“Run!” I said and tossed the dynamite at the inner edge of the mine entrance where people were scrambling in.

As I turned to run into the darkness with the others, I caught one final glance of Thorm. He was huge, and bloated and nothing like he was before.

Then the world exploded.

Darkness enveloped me.

For several long moments my avatar would not respond. My view screen showed all the normal icons along the edges, but black was all I saw.

Then I heard Feign invoke a spell. A blue light appeared, and I blinked at its source.

A icy glowing orb floated over the shoulder of Feign, who was sitting in a heap on the ground. Dust choked the air, and the mage waved a hand at it.

“Is everyone okay?” He asked.

Mudhoof had been knocked flat onto the ground, his ax buried in the rock wall beside him. He shook his head and stood. “I’m fine,” he grumbled. “Never better. You, Vee?”

I had been tossed up against the mine wall but my health indicator showed I’d only taken a few percentage points of damage. Other than that, I was none the worse for wear.

The mine entrance was completely demolished, and the cave-in of rock and rubble looked deep.

“I don’t think they’ll be getting through that anytime soon,” I said and stood. I dusted myself off, then realized something was missing. “Phlixx?” I said and looked around.

Feign pointed at the collapsed entrance. “I believe he is under there.”