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The moon hung low in the backdrop of a starless night, the pale light casting long shadows in the courtyard of a decrepit castle that rose from the mist like a crumbling colossus. If one were to pay close attention to the swirling mist, one would be able to make out the vague shapes of things moving slowly within. They shifted in an unnatural fashion, jerking with every movement as if they were barely able to hold themselves together.
Pinpricks of malevolent red pierced the fog, marking the area that would be their eyes.
"Okay, are you ready?"
"Yeah."
"I'll throw you on the count of three…One…two…three!"
Like a specter, the form of a human vaulted over the high courtyard walls, landing on the other side with nary a sound. Meliadol quickly shuffled behind some rubble, just barely poking out his head to take a look at his surroundings. The fog shifted and rolled, wavy trails coming off the damp, cool earth. Yet the forms of the undead knights could be seen.
It was their eyes that gave them away.
Quickly he took note of the way they were arranged. Three groups of three and a patrol of two that shuffled between the groups in a fixed pattern. Through the gloom, he could see how their blackened armor, dented and rusted, hung loosely from limbs that had long since given in to decay. Large javelins and swords adorned their backs.
Meliadol tried to steady his breathing, to calm his nerves. Now that he was here, looking at them in such a real fashion, his hands began to shake. They were so lifelike. Deadlike? Whatever. He could smell the scent of rotting flesh wafting across the grounds, mixing with the musty smell of wet earth.
Any moment their gazes could turn to him…
Breath in. Breath out. Inhale. Exhale. As he did so, he tried to remember Bast's words.
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"Darlia is dps. She's the damage dealer of the group. I'm the tank. It's my job to hold their attention. Auri is the healer. It's her job to heal, keep an eye out for changes in the battlefield, and provide buffs or crowd control when needed.
That leaves just you. We could go with a two DPS, one healer tank and spank setup. We'd just pull each group and kill them. But that's boring. So we're going to go with a DPS, tank, healer, and scout puller. It's a lot more dangerous, but its faster. But it's a lot of responsibility for you. Can you handle it?"
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"Can I handle it?" Meliadol repeated under his breath. He had expressed to Bast that he could at the time, but now that he was running the plan through his head and staring the monsters down by himself, he could feel the trickles of doubt run down his spine. Could he actually do this?
This time if he failed, he let down not only himself, but his entire party. The added responsibility fanned the trepidation that burned within his stomach.
Well, as his father used to say, a wrong choice is better than no choice.
"I can do this."
With that, he used action to drive away the doubt, sprinting from his spot toward the first group of undead. With a creak of bone, they turned their heads as one toward the noise of his footfalls. But he had already reached into his pouch, pulling out a fist-full of stones.
Szzzzzzzth! Plink!
He whipped a stone at the first knight he saw, hitting it squarely in the chest. With a moan, the group began to move toward him. Meliadol didn't pause, continuing to run. Three more stones in rapid succession and the entire courtyard retinue was now following him. The shuffling of feet and the rattling of bone on metal could be heard behind him as he ran.
It was getting closer.
Turned out that once the undead picked up speed, they were pretty fast.
Back he went, circling around in a large arc, his feet pounding on the packed mud, sending up clumps of sod with every step. The mist was hard to see through, and for a moment he panicked that maybe he had gotten turned around. That wouldn't be good at all!
He was looking for something…
There!
A rope, little more than a black shadowy line in the darkness, hung against the courtyard wall, the other end vanishing up and over the top. Without breaking stride, he jumped, grabbing the rope. It held fast, the other end evidently firmly anchored. Meliadol didn't bother to count his blessings, his feet scrambling against the wall as he climbed.
The rattling behind him ceased as the undead knights slowed.
Thnkk!
Something hit the stonewall mere inches from his head. Against all better judgement, he looked back. Like sharks around a life raft, he was surrounded by undead knights. They seemed to all be holding something…
The javelins!
The fact that they had ranged attacks slipped his mind.
His vision flashed red as a javelin found its mark. His health bar screamed angrily at him as he scurried up the last remaining portion of the wall. That had done a lot of damage! Must have been a critical hit! Still, he breathed a sigh of relief as he half-landed, half-fell on the other side as a slew of javelins flew by him.
"Judging by your health, I'm guessing we're gonna have guests in a moment?"
The expectant faces of Bast, Auri, and Darlia stared at him from the darkness where they had been waiting. All three pairs of eyes glowed blue. The three had level-synced down to his level, and looked anxious to get started.
With a lick of his lips, Meliadol confirmed the berserker's words. Auri had already stepped forward, her mouth moving, whispering, and a green glow infused Meliadol's body, strengthening him and sending his health rocketing back to full.
With a nod, Bast bit his arm, the greatsword coming into being from the flowing blood. "Well, let's meet our friends, shall we?"
In the open world, if you aggroed a monster, it would follow you a bit, but then would run back to its starting point if you made no aggressive actions or got too far away from its spawn point. But that wasn't the case here. In dungeons, a monster would leash you until you either left the dungeon, killed it, or died. It was a basic MMO mainstay, but the developers had managed to do something fun with this dungeon.
The normal entrance was through the catacombs along the base of the castle, which sat on a cliff. But you were allowed to make other routes, if you were brave. Climbing the walls was normally only available to light armored players; not casters or tanks. So a full party usually couldn't circumvent the walls and would be forced through the catacombs. Unless the person who climbed the wall was brave enough to "pull" the guards in the courtyard and then make it back outside.
Naturally, the guards would open the portcullis to continue their chase…
"Head back over once Bast aggroes the group." Darlia said, drawing a pair of swords out as the rattling got louder.
"No need to tell me, I know." Meliadol had paid close attention to Bast's strategy, playing it over and over again in his head until he knew the general idea by heart.
"Now don't get yourself hurt again! Be more careful!" Auri sent smiley emojis in party chat, making everyone sigh and close out of their HUD. One after the other, their eyes returned to normal.
Meliadol turned toward the courtyard entrance.
It slowly began to rise.
He wouldn't stay here to aid the three in killing the group he pulled. Once Bast got them to focus on him, Meliadol was to go back and begin pulling the patrols within the castle proper. He would lead them outside, hopefully timing it to arrive around the same time that the three finished with this incoming group. There was no need to worry about experience. As long as he was in the group, and had the in-combat status from having initial monster aggro, he'd get his share. The only way to drop combat was to kill all the monsters aggroed onto you.
This constant stream of enemies pulled by a single player to a waiting group was known as a "train" in MMO terms, and Meliadol was the puller, the architect, of it all.
His role was the most important job in this strategy. Too soon and he might introduce too many monsters at once, killing the group. Too late and he'd lose valuable time in this event where time was just as important as amount. And if he died trying to pull…
Meliadol chided himself for the doubts. He wouldn't fail! If he couldn't do something as basic as this, he'd never distinguish himself from the millions of people who played this game. This was just the beginning.
The group of undead knights emerged from the fog. Their eyes shone with hatred, and their weapons hungered for the flesh of the living. The sickly sweet smell of decay and rot followed in their wake.
It was an unnerving sight.
Yet this horde held no sway over Bast, who bounded forward, impacting in the middle of them. The ground, soft as it was, cratered under the force of his leap, sending the ones surrounding him into the air. With a cry, Darlia joined the fray, her swords flashing, and the gentle healing effects of Auri's whispers could already be seen on the berserker and blade dancer.
No one paid him any attention. With one final glance to make sure everything was okay, Meliadol continued on his way, skirting around the fight, through the now open gate, and into the castle itself.
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