People walked down the pastoral street of Venswick, going about their business, when suddenly the calm was shattered. The front of a shop exploded as three people were hurled through the glass and timbers into the street.
"Impale!" Evalynn shouted as she leaped from the shattered opening, her spear red with blood and glowing with channeled energy.
[lvl 12 Glaive Knight talent: Impale] Unleash a powerful strike on a prone foe, pinning them to the ground.
She landed on the chest of one of the men, driving the weapon through him as it glowed with fire. She yanked the weapon free as the other man got to his feet and tried in vain to raise his weapon in defense.
"Dance of four strikes!" she shouted and suddenly blurred as she launched into a rapid series of attacks. The man parried the first thrust, but the next three came right through his defenses, punching holes in his chest.
[lvl 21 Glaive knight talent: Dance of four strikes] Step into the dance and unleash four quick thrusts with double your strength bonus in damage. Each strike is successively harder to block or parry.
"Who is this madwoman?"Alexandria cried as she climbed to her feet among the rubble that had once been the storefront. One of her thugs was already dead, the second well on his way to joining him. A woman in plate armor was tearing them to shreds as she raged to protect Jaina. Alexandria quickly took stock of the situation and wisely decided to run while the woman was busy.
People began to gather at a safe distance as Evalynn lifted the man off the ground by the point of her spear.
"What have you done to Roric?" she shouted as the man tried to push himself off the weapon.
"Evalynn!" Jaina called as she ran into the street and pointed to Alexandria. "Stop her!"
The thug screamed as Evalynn used the spear to toss him aside like a bag of trash. Alexandria had a good head start and was about to reach the crowd, but Evalynn was a master of the glaive, the spear, and the bow. She held the weapon mid-shaft and pulled her arm back. The crowd realizing what was about to happen, began to scatter for fear of being caught in the path.
"precision throw!" Evalynn shouted and threw the weapon, leaving a trail of red light.
[lvl 5 Glaive Knight talent: precision throw] A highly accurate throw that doubles your chance to hit at extreme range. Damage is reduced, but critical strike chance is increased.
The weapon sailed through the air as amazed onlookers watched it follow the fleeing woman. With almost perfect accuracy, it struck Alexandria in the back, toppling her to the street. Jaina ran after her as Evalynn followed, her hand stretched out as she yelled, "Recall!"
[lvl 6 Glaive Knight Talent: Recall] Summon any weapon you have just thrown back to your hand.
Alexandria staggered to her feet to see Jaina and the madwoman bearing down on her. She frowned with an angry glare and put a hand as she yelled, "Color storm!"
[lvl 12 deceiver power: Color Storm] Fills the air with a cloud of swirling colors that confuse and disorient. Anyone entering the cloud must check vrs concentration or randomly turn and run out in another direction.
A wall of swirling colors like balls of paint filled the air just ahead of Jaina. She struggled to see through the haze, but the constant swirl made it impossible. She ran into the mass, and suddenly it felt like she was spinning around until she staggered out the side facing down another street.
"What?" she cried and turned around in confusion. She saw Evalynn enter the cloud, and a moment later, she ran out in the opposite direction. She came to a halt and looked around as she realized something had gone wrong.
Jaina tried again, running into the swirling cloud that blocked the street only to come running out into Evalynn's arms.
"Jaina," Evalynn said as they nearly collided. "Who is that woman?"
Jaina came to a frustrated halt as her emotions ran wild. She wanted to strangle Alexandria, but the cloud blocked the street, and by the time they went around, she would be long gone. With tears forming in her eyes, she explained how the woman ran the brothel and wanted Jaina to work for her. She went over all their encounters, from when she tried to buy her from Roric to the conniving efforts to pry her away from him.
"And now she has killed him and tried to kidnap me," Jaina sobbed.
"Hey, calm down," Evalynn said soothingly and pulled into a hug. "I get to be strong for you for a change. Listen, I have died a bunch of times. It happens a lot when you play alone. He will be back in four hours, and until then, I will keep you safe. He didn't lose anything because I have his spear, and you have the bag with all the money. Everything else he was carrying was starting gear, and he will respawn with that."
"I guess that's true," Jaina said and wiped her eyes. "But I hate that they hurt Roric."
"While I have a feeling you're right, we can't be sure they had anything to do with it until we speak to Roric," Evalynn replied. "I wonder if he had my glaive when he died? I spent seven hundred gold on that to have it specially enchanted to give me a bonus against beasts."
"You really don't like beasts," Jaina cried.
"I'm sorry," Evalynn pleaded. "I was angry, and I needed something to take my frustration out on. Please forgive."
Jaina turned in her arms, and Evalynn hugged her firmly for a good long while. She let her go just as the color storm faded, revealing Alexandria was nowhere to be found.
"She likely ran back to her brothel," Evalynn said as she took Jaina's hand. "She will undoubtedly have more thugs and perhaps traps to hamper us. I suggest we recover my weapon and then head to the spawns. I worry they might have people waiting for our master."
"Why is she so determined to get me to work for her?" Jaina asked as they ran off to recover the missing weapon.
"I suspect it has to do with what Roric said," Evalynn replied. "He made twelve hundred gold in one night from just the two of us. Jerrik said he threw a fortune on the stage, and I bet others did the same. That happened because of you and your perfect combination of race and class. She knows how valuable you are and desires to put you to work for her. All she has to do is find a way to separate you from Roric."
"But that's pointless," Jaina grumbled as they ran through the streets. "She needs me to accept her collar willingly. Killing Roric and trying to drag me off isn't going to make me want to serve her."
"She must have had another step to her plan," Evalynn replied. "Something she wasn't counting on me spoiling."
"Thank goodness you were there," Jaina replied and touched her neck. "And I suppose thank goodness the collar came off when it did."
"Yeah, I wasn't doing so hot with my skills limited to level four," Evalynn agreed as they reached the edge of town.
They ran down the road, heading for the rock way out in the ocean of green. An hour down the road, they could see the distant rock, but something bluish-gray lay in the grass just ahead.
"Oh my god! Is that Roric?" Jaina cried.
"The body lingers around until the respawn, and sometimes even after that if you are carrying special items or somebody has done something to preserve it," Evalynn replied. "If it didn't, you couldn't use a resurrection spell on it."
"I still think it's terrible," Jaina groaned as they got closer.
"Bodies used to last a lot longer," Evalynn replied. "forty-eight hours if I remember, but then the visitors did an update, or something changed. Some people think it has something to do with the old necromancers."
They reached the body to discover it was indeed Roric with two deep wounds on his back and a shallow one on his chest.
"He was ambushed," Evalynn said as she turned the body over. "Probably assassin classes. They struck from behind with fatal blow, or backstab."
"They? Are you saying there was more than one?" Jaina asked.
"Two deep wounds indicate two simultaneous attacks," Evalynn said and then pointed to the starting spear the assailants hadn't bothered to take. "He has blood on his weapon, meaning he wounded one of them. My guess is there were three, but he somehow detected one and ruined his stealth before he could land a serious attack."
"Roric is hard to sneak up on because he can smell people," Jaina said as her heart broke to see him this way. She started to sniff and had to wipe her eyes as the pain and frustration got the better of her.
"He will be back soon," Evalynn said and took Jaina into her arms again.
"I thought you weren't very good at people skills?" Jaina sobbed as Evalynn rubbed her back.
"I got better over time, but you two are helping me loosen up," Evalynn sighed. "I also think I really needed the sex."
Jaina laughed through her tears as Evalynn let her go.
"There's plenty of that when you belong to Roric," she said and looked away from his body. "Let's go look for your weapon. I can't bear to keep staring at his body."
Evalynn nodded and took her hand as they waded into the tall grass. The rock was well off the road and judging by the grass, Roric never reached it. Evalynn quickly looked behind the stone and pulled the grass apart to find the shining golden blade of her glaive.
"It's still here," Evalynn said with a sigh of relief. "Now, let's go to the spawns and find our master."
"Shouldn't he respawn in the village?" Jaina asked.
"Did you pay for a home point? Or use the anchor stone?" Evalynn asked.
"There's an anchor stone in the village?" Jaina asked.
"It's just on the east side," Evalynn replied. "The big white stone with the angel carved on the face."
"I don't think Roric even realized there was one," Jaina replied and looked to the distant fields. "He assumed we were too close to spawn to need it."
"Either way works," Evalynn said and put a weapon on each shoulder. "Common, by the time we walk out there, he should have respawned."
They returned to the trail and walked for over an hour before Evalynn pointed out the hills that players spawned on. Even now, a player was walking down the slope, but it didn't appear to be Roric. There were three spawn hills relatively close together, and Evalynn suggested they go to the middle one. Then, if Roric spawned at any of the other points, they would easily see him.
