I could see the Drow Archer behind them as he glared at me, teeth gritted. He pulled back on his bow, aiming and releasing in one sure, smooth movement that cut the air between two of his companions, and I dove to the ground, barely in time, sliding to a halt in front of the entire group.
I heard the others closing in, rushing to us to help, but with the limited room, and their relatively low level of skill, our own archers, Miren and Stephanos, didn’t dare fire.
I rolled across the floor, a clang ringing out next to my head, letting me know just how close I’d come to dying of ‘damn, shiny sword to the face’ poisoning.
I came to a stop, then twisted frantically, lashing out with both feet, and taking the furthest left Drow to the floor, which gave Jian and Barrett time to face the remaining two. The Archer stepped forward and drew back on his bow, aiming at me with a wicked grin as the Drow I’d taken down rolled back to his feet and I scrambled backwards.
Just as the arrow left the bow, a second, smaller dagger sprouted from the Drow Archer’s eye, making him scream and jerk back. The blade sunk up to the hilt in the eye, and I felt Bane’s proud grin as I recognized the blade.
I’d had one thrown at me before, and I knew they were both insanely sharp, and coated with a deadly poison, usually.
I twisted, dodging the arrow that clattered off the stone floor next to me, and rolled back flat onto my back, bringing my legs up as high as I could, before thrusting with my hips and bringing my feet down, hard.
I used the momentum to flip myself up to my feet and stabbed out, getting a glancing blow on the nearest Drow’s thigh, before barely parrying a thrust from my left, where the Drow whose legs I’d swept got back into the fight.
The goddamn Drow were too fast; in close combat, without the element of surprise, one-on-one just couldn’t work, not without an equalizer…
I had only one point of mana and couldn’t use my newly learned ‘Mana-Overdrive’...it’d be over before it was useful, and I frantically tried to think while parrying a second and third attack.
Barrett screamed in pain as his opponent dodged his axe; the short spear the Drow wielded lanced forward and sank into his shoulder, punching through the gap between his breastplate and pauldron, making him drop his sword and grab at the wound.
I shoved Barrett back with my shoulder, pushing him back out of the way and off the spear, before lashing out with a quick snap kick at the Drow I’d been fighting. He took the hit, grunting as it connected with his leading knee, and slashed down into my leg as I pulled it back.
I staggered. The links of blackened chainmail in my leg armor crunched and split under the impact, and I backed up, gritting my teeth against the pain.
Oracle screamed in fury, flying forward to distract the Drow and making him swing at her reflexively.
She dodged, and backed up, hovering between us, and hissing at them like a scalded cat as I backed up further.
I could feel blood running down my leg. I knew instinctively I couldn’t put my weight on that leg properly now, and I saw the ‘bleeding’ debuff appear in my vision again, making me grit my teeth and check my mana…two points. It wasn’t enough!
I moved back again as the Drow I’d been facing off against lashed out with his sword, and the spear wielder moved to flank Jian as Lydia appeared, having been on the far side of the cavern when the fight started.
She barreled between Jian and I, screaming in fury as she saw her people being beaten back. The tank in her rose to the surface as she jumped at the spear wielder. Leading with her shield, she smashed her opponent from his feet as she put all of her armored bulk behind it.
The ‘boing’ sound of metal hitting the Drow echoed around the clearing, and Lydia grunted as her target fell to the floor and rolled back. He regained his feet with a growl of fury as he stepped back into the tunnel, fumbling in his pouches.
“Squad UP!” Lydia screamed, stepping forward and taking the sword strike from my opponent on her shield, while striking out at Jian’s target with her mace.
Her sudden arrival turned the tables for Jian drastically, as a raging wall of pissed off tank joined the fight.
The Drow she was facing dodged the mace strike, but couldn’t dodge both of Jian’s attacks, as he used a skill he’d gained from the books Oracle and I had given him.
‘Icewind’s Fury’ coated his blades in a layer of magical ice for a handful of seconds, magical winds speeding up his attacks as he landed a half dozen minor cuts in less than four seconds. His opponent leapt back, cursing as each cut added a ‘chilled’ debuff, reducing his speed by two percent.
I backed up further, gripping my thigh as blood ran from the wound, and saw Bane throw another dagger at the spear wielder. The dark elf ducked, then threw something back that landed just in front of his companions, shouting something that made them disengage immediately.
All three fled down the tunnel away from us as noxious green smoke rose from the shattered vial, and everyone backed up instinctively, Jian swearing up a storm as his ability ran out.
“Stop!” I shouted; gritting my teeth as I spoke through the pain.
“Poison!” Lydia confirmed, as she coughed, and backed up.
“How bad?” I asked and she spat on the floor, backing away further.
“Ten points a second for twenty seconds… almost half my pool.” she muttered, and I looked at her in surprise, realizing that meant she had over four hundred health, considering she was only level twelve, that was impressive.
“Okay, people, everyone stay back, but be ready!”
I
