World of Eternia: The Complete Collection Read Online Free Page A

defiantly, not at all surprised by the big man’s
anger. The old man is like
Conrad’s daddy or something , the battle mage smirks and
begins to explain his action on the bridge. “Wesley was surrounded
on the narrow bridge. There was no way for him to move across while
the school of piranhas was still alive. I used a relatively low
damage inflicting spell to clear out these critters,” he calmly
explains.
    “What about Wesley,
huh? Is he just collateral damage to you? ” the barbarian spits
out. “You don’t purposely hit your teammates in the crossfire!”
    The mage shakes his
head, and wipes away the spittle on his face with his sleeve. “The
Chain Lightning spell won't inflict enough damage to kill him. Give
the old man more credit than that,” he smirks.
    Diana puts her hand on
top of Conrad's. “Just let him go and help Wesley get off the
bridge,” she suggests softly.
    The barbarian turns his
menacing, ogre-like eyes, and stares at her.
    The priestess stares
back, refusing to yield even an inch.
    After a long moment of
silence, Conrad's eyes finally soften, and he nods in agreement.
Conrad lets go of the errant mage like a piece of filthy trash, and
the barbarian jumps back onto the bridge. Half-running across the
bridge, he makes his way to Wesley, who is still on his hands and
knees. The barbarian takes out his ivory club and knocks the charred
fish back into the water, clearing a path towards his fallen comrade.
    “That was a dangerous
trick you just pulled,” Diana comments frostily as she stands next
to Lucious. She could understand the logic behind his spell, and the
priestess has no doubt that Wesley would agree with it even. Still
the mage needs to communicate his plans with the party, especially a
sensitive guy like Conrad.
    Lucious looks at Diana,
and notes the lack of anger on her face. “There was no other
choice,” he replies softly. “Either we abandon Wesley on the
bridge, or we clear out the piranhas blocking the path AND deal with
whatever else is still in the water. I chose not to abandon him. And
with one mid level offensive spell, I took out one hundred piranhas,
both on the bridge and in the water. The lightning bolt electrified
the moat, and killed off the rest of the piranhas that hadn't joined
the party on the bridge. The experience points we just received
brought us a lot closer to the next level. I firmly believe I made
the right decision,” he crosses his arms across his chest, waiting
for her to argue otherwise.
    Diana gives him a sour
look, and decides to bite back a reply on her lips. She checks her
player journal log, and confirms the hundred kills, giving each party
member a hefty amount of experience points for this encounter.
    Seeing no retort
forthcoming, Lucious continues. “If you ask me though, I think the
game designers are sick puppies. How the heck are players supposed to
hack-and-slash their way across the moat? This encounter with
piranhas guarding the moat is impossible to advance without magic. If
you try to swim through the water, the piranhas will detect your
presence in the water and quickly surround you. If you use the rotted
wood to make a bridge, the bridge won't last long enough for all
party members to cross. Even if you use a spell like water walking,
you still have to contend with the piranhas; once the spell caster is
bitten, he will lose his focus and the spell will be dissipated.”
The mage rubs the day old whiskers on his chin. “I guess you could
try fishing the piranhas out, if you knew they were there in the
first place. But it could take a few days to get them all out of the
water. And that would put the party far behind the others teams
competing to finish the campaign first.” There are player teams
that comprise entirely of non-magic users. Lucious can’t see them
getting across the moat without, say, an engineer pumping all the
water out of the moat and then sweeping all the landlocked fishes
aside to clear a path.
    “Lucious,