Dragon Helm

Fable stood at the doorway to his cabin, armed with his sword and shield as he gazed at the two intruders that broke in. His library wasn’t too much of a mess because they couldn’t find anything useful. It was obvious that this was just a book stash, but before they could leave, the tall, red Death Knight stood in their way. Both of them eyed him with an air of caution. None of them knew their levels and none of them knew each other’s stats. Any attack was a gamble.

“Think fast!” The bat pony woman said as she drew her sword with one hand, and emitted a beam of shining light with the other. Fable felt the fist of a holy light bash against his black chestplate. He was taken aback, and as this happened, the male unicorn’s purple hair flicked over his shoulder as he swiped his staff forward. The green light from his staff’s orb emitted light.

From below his hooves, vines tangled up over his boots. Fable almost lost his balance as his ankles were rooted to the ground, nullifying any plans to maneuver. The girl named Cinnamon drew her long sword and charged! As her partner, Patagium readied another spell, he knew that he couldn’t take them both without some fancy hoofwork. He hated using his strong attacks out the gate, but this was no time to hold back.

He caught Cinnamon’s sword on his shield and before Patagium could unleash another spell, Fable burst forward with a massive wave of green fire. The area of effect set fire to the floor beneath the two and they found themselves knee deep in flames that did not burn. The necrotic damage was harsh and both of them saw that there was no other way out than the door that Fable blocked.

Patagium was quick to throw down the cleansing water. It shined for a moment as it struck the necromancer flames. Once they were gone, he looked up to see Fable and Cinnamon were locked in combat, their swords and shields working and clashing from left and right. The two swords crossed as the two of them tried their very hardest to gain the upper hand in the duel.

As Patagium readied yet another spell, he was stopped as Cinnamon called out to him. “Hold it! The Death Knight is mine!” She growled as the two of them broke off from the struggle. Their swords clashed once more with a loud clatter and sparks. She ducked under his side slash, and he batted her sword away with his shield as he jabbed. The stabbing motion caught her in the shoulder of her chainmail, cutting the links bad. They jumped back from each other and got back into their stances, ready to charge once again.

“Look, I was just about to log off after dropping off another deposit. I wasn’t expecting two lowlife scavengers busting into the place!” He shouted, directing his anger toward them both.

“Lowlives! Scavengers?! We didn’t know this was your cabin!” Cinnamon shouted back, looking for an opening in his defense. “If you just move out of our way, we’ll get out of your mane, and you can go back to being a happy little bookworm.”

“Yeah, and I can trust the word of a paladin?!” The death knight spat back at her, making her face twist with anger.

“Yes! We happen to be very truthful and honorable, unlike some ponies who bring evil into the world!” She shot back his words full force, then her hands began to glow with a bright yellow light. “Now, get out of my way!”

“Make me, pally girl!” His sword and shield grew a long shadow as both of them increased in size. In a fit of holy lightning bolting through her person, she unleashed the chain and zapped straight at his enlarged shield. The lightning bounced off of his shield, but began to push him back out the door behind him. He strained to keep himself upright. He was giving ground, and no matter how he tried to redirect the clashing, thunderous bolts, he had to keep it steady or risk losing his balance.

Cinnamon kept on him with her attack as she saw her mana was draining faster than she would have liked. Her power exhausted, she ended the charge. Before Fable could use this to his advantage, however, his sword and shield reverted back to their normal size. He cursed, knowing that it was the only remaining mana he had left. Their health bars were in their last quarter and the two of them stood in opposition.

Their breath was harsh as sweat streamed down their faces. He tried not to get the sweat in his eyes, but it was very hard while keeping a very discerning gaze upon the somewhat attractive mare staring back at him. Her eyes were pink and her hair had the same color pink along with violet and blue. Her purple fur stood out from below her chain shirt, and her shield held the symbol of a crescent moon with three stars streaking across it.
“Alright, that’s enough.” Patagium said as he held up his staff as green light radiated from it. That same green light came over both of them and brought about a warming light. Fable could feel the damage dealt to him go away and his hit points were almost filled back up.

“Hey! I said I wanted to take him down! He’s a death knight, it’s my duty to-”

“Oh, come off it, Cinnamon, we’re wasting time here. You said you wanted a new set of armor, right? Well, it’s obviously not here.” Then he turned to Fable, who seemed to be loosening his stance to a more relaxed position. “I’m sorry we broke into your place. We weren’t looking to undermine your archives.”

Fable stood tall at this, though, there was no look of pride on his face. He placed his shield on his back and sheathed his sword as he walked over to the unicorn man. Without missing a beat, their hands clapped together in a shake.

“That’s all I needed to hear.” Fable said as he patted Patagium on the shoulder. “Just be sure it’s an NPC’s home next time.”

He nodded to the red pegasus, then looked over to his grim faced partner. “Don’t give me that look, we’re in the wrong here.”

“But…” She tried to argue but he was already turning and walking away. She groaned with disappointment and started to walk after him. “I never get to have any fun!”

“Well, if you guys are looking for items, I just happen to be questing tomorrow.” This caused both of them to pause in their steps. While Patagium turned his head in curiosity, Cinnamon turned her head in slight annoyance that they hadn’t got away faster.

“No, don’t.” Cinnamon said as she darted her eyes toward the unicorn, who was already nodding his head.

“Sure, send me a scheduled invite when you’re ready to get to it.” Patagium said, causing her to exasperate as she walked away. He followed her and chuckled. “No one said that you had to come along.”

“Shove it, Pat!” She growled, and they continued into the woods.

Fable shrugged, then spent the silvers to fix his door and any other damage their battle did to the cabin. Thankfully, it wasn’t so realistic that his books and wide assortment of scrolls could be damaged as well. They couldn’t be destroyed outside of putting them in your inventory and doing so there.

When he was certain everything was in its place, he looked around and admired his wonderful work. There was the workbench for potions and alchemy, which he dabbled in on occasion. The writing bench, which he could draft up his own scrolls was in the center of the room. In front of it, opposite of the front door was a fireplace that was always lit. Once again, it wasn’t such a realistic game that an ember could catch on a piece of paper and char the entire library. There were small tables, one with a troll skull, another with a lantern and a small potted plant.

He liked his little archive, but knew that if he kept up with all of the books and shelves, he was going to have to upgrade the place to compensate for all of them. He shrugged, it didn’t matter all that much to him. Right now, he was exhausted and needed to sleep. He laid down in a small bed off to the right corner of the room. He turned the fireplace down to a dull flame and logged off.

“Well, that’s a little disconcerting.” Sierra said as she walked out to the tavern the next morning. Her brother was close in tow and joined her in looking for Fable, who was nowhere to be found. In fact, other than one other player buying some supplies, there were only nonplayer characters strolling around.

“We are a bit early.” Ceru said as she started for the door. They walked out to the town, seeing that they were, in fact, earlier than the normal players in their region.

Usually, there was at least one group gathering to go fight the orc encampment, which was the main quest for this low level zone. Right now, there was one guy out in the near woods, fighting wolves to get the pelt quest for the farmer who needed blankets for his family. After ten wolf pelts from all of the players who did his quest, he could probably cover his entire property in them. Sierra knew she shouldn’t think in those terms, but the idea was a bit humorous.

“Come on, we’ll go gear up and if he isn’t here by then, he can catch up.” Sierra said to her brother, who nodded at the logic.

“It’s a good plan.” Fable said as he approached them from the back. “I’m gung ho on this idea.” He had a dull, somewhat condescending tone that Sierra gave him a bit of a stone glare at.

Both stallions chuckled as Fable patted him on the back and they went on to the traders. Ceru was sure to stock up on at least three hundred arrows. Last night’s quest paid for the moderately competent arrows that he was comfortable with using. If he got the expensive ones, he could get no more than fifty and be flat broke for all of the other essentials.

Food, water, beer, ale, wine and whiskey filled one whole pack in Sierra’s inventory. She got a few bandages as well, but felt confident that would be all she needed. Ceru was a semi-competent healer, and Fable had the lowest level life steal spell. Back in the original Dragon Helm game, this would have been more than sufficient a healing spell, but was severely downgraded in the newest expansion.

Speaking of Fable, it seemed he was not buying provisions. He was standing by a mailbox on the other side of the street. He was holding scrolls that he slid through the slot. Then he unrolled one and pulled out a quill that looked like a feather of gold. He began to scratch down on it. Sierra came up behind him and looked over his shoulder. This caused him to stop abruptly. After a heart beat, he drew a glower toward her, causing her to stand back.

“Oh, umm… not a fan of people--”

“Looking over my shoulder? No, not when I write.” Fable said, then scratched down a little bit more to the message and rolled it up. He pulled out a piece of wax wrapped in a leather pouch, and held a small flame from a match to it. He dripped a red dot onto the parchment and pressed the thumb of his gauntlet onto it. After his seal was sufficiently dried, he slide it through the slot. “Just telling a few friends where I’ll be for a bit.” Fable said, then turned and faced the brother and sister who looked very similar.

In fact, he could have sworn that even their blue and pink hair had the same streaks in the same place. Their white fur even had the same hue. Even Spark and Voltage had subtle differences to their appearances, aside from their hair, but Sierra and Ceru almost looked exactly the same. Both their masculine and feminine features aligned; it was almost scary. If it weren’t for the vastly different dress and the very large chest Sierra bared, he didn’t believe he could ever tell them apart.

Fable shook the thought away and motioned for them to follow. “Alright, like I said, I’d feel pretty good about this if we at least got to the Silver Coast by today. Silver Leaf would be better.” They began the trail outside of the town and into the forest.

“I’ve never been to the Silver Coast.” Sierra said, looking to Ceru, who actually started there. “What’s there?”

“Lot’s and lots of trees, way bigger than these.” The ranger said as he looked up toward the trees that couldn’t have been more than thirteen feet tall. “A lot different from Polar Pass.”

“I figured that much, at the very least.” Sierra said as she started looking around at their trail. The trees were thinning, spreading out a bit now as the sun beamed down through the branches. They all recognized this as the orc encampment area. When they said orc encampment, they meant it was more akin to a village of its own with different sections.

There were no groups there this early, so all of the respawns were out and on the lookout. There were scouts and low level soldiers skulking about in the outskirts. The Blood Torch Orcs were the largest threat around these parts. Galantrot’s story pretty much hinged on the story of battles between their forces. Once you reached a certain level, you could go to Thunder Axe where their main base of operations was. Thunder Axe was a castle, but it had so many soldiers and guards that it should have been called a fortress.

This encampment was the second largest region for the orcs, though, and was a favorite among ponies just starting new characters. It was half the reason all three of them had gotten out of their own zones to come to Galantrot.

“Well, with the three of us, we could fight our way through the encampment, that’s if we don’t go up against Retamac, the Duke.” Sierra said, honestly hoping they would choose that option. She hadn’t tried out her claymore on these particular orcs, yet. Part of her really wanted to see if she could kill a few of them in one hit.

Then she spotted an orc scout ambling in the trees near the path. He was very short and bluish green with fangs that stuck out his lower lip to partially cover his upper lip. This brought a grin to her face as she armed herself. “Fire!” She said to her brother, who already nocked an arrow, and sent it at the orc.

To their surprise, one arrow sent his life down to half. This was enough damage to send him running the other way. He barely got two steps before he was hit in the back with a green lightning that zapped his life force and sent him to the ground. Fable grinned at this, his hand still shining the sickening green necrotic energy.

“Did you use a special shot on him?” Sierra asked Ceru, who shook his head and held up his bow.

“It was a normal arrow.” This statement made her blink.

“Wow, have we really grown so many levels?” Sierra tried to think back as they began walking again. “Well, maybe we could just plow through the encampment. Even against the Duke, I think we’ll still make better time than if we swam.”

She hinted toward the very large lake that the encampment sat next to. It was a common path for lower level players to take if they just wanted to go through the zone, unnoticed. Though, unless you were trained in it, swimming was very tedious.

“I think we can go without taking a detour.” Fable said as he readied both his sword and shield. Sierra’s heart fluttered as she readied her long sword with both of her hands. They were nearing the campsite’s outskirts, where there were four guards. All of them were rather close together, but every once in a while, they would trail away to patrol. This was normally when groups would attack one individually.

“Whenever you’re ready, Ceru.” Fable said as he got into his fighting position along with Sierra.

With one arrow, he alerted all four of them. With two arrows, he sent one of them running. With three arrows, he made that one dead. That being done, he brought out his short sword and engaged another in combat. Their swords stabbed and with minimal effort, all of the three remaining were dead.

They didn’t even bother with waiting. Their HP was minimally affected by the battle and they went on into the camp. The larger guards started to charge at them from their posts. All three of them got to moving. They fought off one, healed whoever seemed slightly lower in HP, then took on the next one.

The orcs fell in droves, even the bigger ones known as the Gate Guards were no match for the combinations of swords, arrows and magic. Their life was decreasing along with their mana, but they weren’t worried. After just two more guards, their kill count reached sixteen in one fell swoop. The experience was actually quite good for such low level enemies.

However, as the last two guards were struck down, they noticed that there were four ponies at the other end of the camp. They stood there, grinning as the three adventurers approached. They were gasping a bit, almost out of mana and needing to sit for a while to regain their stats.

Two of them were spellcasters standing on either side of a knight. His armor was obviously higher level loot, giving evidence to a much more advanced main character that got some good starter armor. His sword glowed red at his hip.

The fourth was a bit harder to gage, though it was obvious, he was not as interested in the situation. He was dressed in much finer clothes, with a cape and cowl on his back. His tunic was a deep blue while his pants and boots were black. He could have been a good number of classes, but he looked more like a rogue than anything.

“Nice work, I think you took down the equivalent of a single royal guard.” The overclassed armor knight said, then clapped his hands in the most condescending way he could. “Thankfully, though, I think we can help.”

“Let me guess. Now that they’ve softened us up, you’ll kill us and take an item from each of us?” Sierra said, not surprised when the three out front laughed, more or less confirming her statement. “Let me guess, you’re from the World Turtles.”

“Very perceptive, babe.” One of the casters said. He wore a red robe with a multiple colored necklace of gems and gold.

“Oh, aren’t you the charmers.” Fable said, holding up both shield and sword. “If you think we’re just going to hand over our goods, you’ve got another thing coming!” He growled, looking the front man dead in the eye. At first, he saw a bit of doubt in his face, but then he straightened himself up. He scratched his nose and chuckled.

“You’re outgunned and outmatched all around. What exactly do you have up your sleeve?” The knight named Rain Cloud said. His grin made his muzzle look so punchable. Sierra was just itching to break it into tiny pieces.

“I’ve got backup.” Fable said with a larger grin than Rain’s. This made all of them turn their heads to the sides and notice that a teleport door opened nearby. Out came two figures. One was a black haired girl with green streaks through her long, flowing locks. Her gray fur looked as if it were stitched together with very intricate tattoos. She wore a long, dark gray dress with a short spiderweb cape. In her hand was a staff of bones made of femurs and a claw up top that held an obsidian orb. It glowed purple as the teleportation spell wore off.

“Oooohhh! Rain Cloud!” Jet said from beside Raven Cry. The white furred, blue and white haired pegasus said, wearing a black armor much like Fable’s. It was the Death Knight quest armor. However, she held a very large hammer which she carried with two hands. It was black handled, and had a gravestone head. “Hi, Rain Cloud! I see you’re still doing shady bullshit!”

“Fable told us some villains were about. I didn’t know he meant this lovely lot.” Raven Cry said, the zombie-like pony began to walk toward them with her staff poking the ground as she did. “The World Turtles had already pissed off my former guild. Well, now you’re messing with our guild!”

“Guild?” Sierra asked, making Fable nod.

“What’s the matter, Rain Cloud? You seemed to have lost some of that wonderful blue complexion.” Fable asked, drawing a very annoyed look from him. His compatriots looked equally as flustered, aside from the rogue-like pony, who still didn’t seem all that invested.

“Five on four is better odds for you, but I’m still--” He was interrupted by another voice coming from the pond beside them.

“So, they got started without us.” Patagium said as he got done walking on the water thanks to his spell of Tread Aquatics. Cinnamon swooshed her hair of water and looked at him, rolling her eyes. “And who is this?” He asked, looking toward Rain Cloud.

“Judging by the green and blue turtles on their tabards, I’d say we have a pack of traitorous wretches that are in need of punishment.” Cinnamon said as she glared toward the four of them. “Their deeds are known far and wide as villainous and it seems these claims were not exaggerated.”

That was when the rogue pony off to the side of the other three began to laugh. This drew the attention of everyone as he started to walk away from them.

“Well, Rain, it seems your attempt at being a highwayman was kind of dumb to begin with, now you’ve gotten us into some hot water. Great job, fearless leader. I’m sure our superiors will be thrilled to know you botched yet another mugging.”

“Enough!” Fable shouted, surprising everyone around him. “I’m a Death Knight, I deal in death.” Then his eyes twinkled as his very large, sinister smirk dragged across his muzzle. “And have I got a deal for you!”

In all of the distractions, Fable was able to gain back all of his mana, as did Ceru. With a bolt of green energy through his sword, he struck Rain Cloud before he could set up any kind of defense. Knights were very good for dexterity and armor class, but against magic, they had a severe blindspot. Fable gained back a large chunk of his own life, aided by Ceru, who healed him the rest of the way as he charged.

All fireworks went off at once! As Fable locked horns against Rain Cloud, Ceru let loose an arrow that jabbed into the rogue’s shoulder. The Rogue retaliated with a throwing knife that the ranger swatted away with yet another arrow from his quiver. Sierra howled as she charged for Rain Cloud as well and put the heat on him!

As the mage beside Rain Cloud began to fire up a spell from his hands, Raven Cry, the black cloaked mistress of death fired off three ghosts that snared his movements to a snail’s pace. She cackled as her eyes glowed a very ice cold blue and froze him over completely, the snaring stacking with the ice damage that hit him hard and cancelled out his fireball.

Before the Rogue could attempt his whisper walk to go unseen, he was hit hard with a hammer seemingly out of nowhere. Jet Stream, the beautiful pegasus mare, slammed her hammer deep into his gut. Her eyes turned black as she grasped him by the neck and all of his senses went black as well. He was blinded completely as she used her hammer to smash into his face once again. Ceru plunged another arrow into his side, and the rogue unicorn stallion began to flee.

“Not so fast…” Patagium whispered as his staff glowed a dark green color, and made vines come from the ground and trip him into the dirt. Chating yet another spell, a giant green thorn shot up from the ground and impaled him straight through the chest. His character died, and was shipped to his starting point.

Cinnamon’s sword began to shine a brilliant white light as she resisted yet another magic missile from the green robed wizard who started to panic from all of them being attacked from all sides. He recoiled hard as her sword swiped him across the front of his chest, and he answered with a spell that pulsed into the paladin’s face. Her sight went haywire and suddenly her control became almost impalitable.

An arrow pierced his gut before he could attack the nigh helpless Cinnamon. And using a cure spell, Patagium cleansed her sight once again. As soon as her sight cleared up, her shining sword plunged into his sternum as she gritted her teeth.

“Treacherous welp! You will pay for your crimes against the light!” She shouted as the life was cast from his character.

As both spellcasters fell, Rain Cloud was alone, on his knees and down to ten hit points. Fable had stopped Sierra from delivering the final blow because he was too busy enjoying the spectacle of him squirming and shaking.

“You…” Rain said as he glared toward the Death Knight and cringed, trying to think of some way out of this. “You chea--”

“I swear, if you tell me I cheated by ganging up on your boys, I’m going to hunt you down yet again and kill you without a thought. Next time, I’ll raid your damn guild with my own. If I hear you’ve come anywhere near any of my guildmates, I’ll make sure your guildmaster knows it was you that his entire infestation has to thank for their extermination. This is your final warning. Good sir. Now go forth, and live no more. Sierra, go--”

Before he could even finish the sentence, her claymore was buried into the fake knight’s forehead, causing his character to die and then disappear. She shivered all over as the feeling of killing someone so arrogant and stupid flowed through her body.

“Well, it seems you didn’t need us after all.” Raven Cry said as she sauntered up to Fable and grinned. “However, any chance to take down those pitiful assholes is an opportunity I would jump at in a heartbeat. Thanks for the invite.”

“Hell yes.” Jet smiled at him. The woman who was a real life journalist lavished in her role of the Death Knight, much like Fable did. The two ladies of death giggled as they stood near the black armored pegasus. “You can call me anytime, Fable.”

Cinnamon looked hardly amused as she stoked the fire at the center of the camp they made. They recovered their strength, knowing how long of a journey they still had to go, but also needing to revive some stamina. Four of them had gotten a decent item from the four they had slain just then.

“So, Fable invited all of you to come along with us?” Sierra asked the four newcomers.

“I don’t think he expected us to actually do it.” Patagium admitted, chuckling. The purple haired unicorn threw another stick on the fire, then another. “But yes, he said we could get some items, and that’s kind of what we’re looking for.”

“A little adventuring wouldn’t hurt either.” Cinnamon said as she sat by the fire. “So what’s this ‘quest’ you’re taking us on, Mr. Leader?” The last words she said were spat out with such disdain, it took most of them by surprise.

“And what’s your problem, Miss Paladin?” Jet asked, a bit of sass working its way into her tone as well. “Is that shining light blinding your sense of decency as well as your sense of fashion?” Jet watched as Cinnamon’s eyes flared with a bit of hatred toward her, and the white pegasus leaned against her hammer’s base as she sat on her knees. Her sly grin dared her to make a move.

Cinnamon huffed, but said nothing more, throwing some dead grass into the fire as her stamina kept growing back to its normal state.

“We’re going after the Mage Blade.” Fable said, piquing some interest. “It’s in Ice Blue.”

“Ice Blue?” Raven and Patagium asked in sync, and Fable nodded.

“That’s a ridiculous trek. How good is this blade?” Cinnamon asked as she rose from her place by the fire, having regained her full stats back.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I haven’t looked it up, but it sounds like a cool quest to go on, and I was going to leave Galantrot soon anyway. You’re all welcome to join us, but we’re leaving now. So your decision needs to be quick.”

As if to punctuate his statement, he rose and picked up his shield to slide it onto his back. Sierra and Ceru stood along with him. There was no argument from the rest of them. They stood, along with Raven and Jet who grinned as they stood with Fable.

There were seven of them, and all of them began the journey with no hesitation as they treaded the last few leagues that remained of Galantrot. From there, they passed into the realm of The Silver Coast and the trees seemed to go on forever.

It felt like stepping into a whole different world. Silver Coast was the outskirts and defensive posturing for Silver Leaf, a home for the wildfolk of the woods. Rangers, Druids and some Shamen started there and many come for the quest in destroying the Dire Bears of the northeast end of the forest. There were small rays of sunshine peeking through the tall branches of some of the oldest trees in existence in Starling. That was the only light, everything else was such a deep, saturated color. The brown in the tree trunks were covered with a thick moss and the blades of grass were so tiny, yet so vibrant in nutrition.

“Ahhhh, feels good to be home again.” Ceru took in a breath and the scenery as he gazed all around. “Just got to be careful. There are some nasty wild life in these parts.”

“In such a place, that’s not really surprising. We need to be careful of green zombies, they are hectic in the forested areas.” Raven said as she lit a pipe and smoked as they walked.

“Wait, did you just say green zombies?” Patagium asked, drawing a look from Raven that said she didn’t know what he was talking about. The shaman almost commented, but then thought better of it. The green streaked, black hair of the necromancer was pushed back over her shoulder as she smoked and kept watching their position from all angles.

Fable nearly tripped over another gigantic, oversized root of an ancient tree and cursed. “God forsaken nature!” He spat.

“Careful, Fable, you might anger the big wooden dirt protrusions.” Sierra said, her sword leaned against her shoulder because she got tired of carrying it on her back.

Then they came to a clearing that looked especially strange. The trees were still gigantic all around this clearing, but the ones in the middle of it looked off. They were jagged in their branches and trunks, and all of them stood very crooked. Sierra raised her eyebrows at the sight, but shrugged, undeterred as she kept walking. Fable watched her walk, and shrugged as well, following her.

Ceru’s breath caught. “Whoa! Guys! Wait!” He said, too late though.

Before either of them could even react, the faces in the tree bark opened up to black voids of space and their jagged maws roared as they came forth and attacked!

“Oh, shit!” Fable took a hard hit to his chest, knocking him for a loop. He was dazed hard as he took another hit across the cheek. Before the tree could hit him again, the barbarian mare cleaved her sword into the branch that was its arm. There were nine trees, though, and she was attacked as well as all of them began to surround the two.

“Go!” Cinnamon shouted as she pulled her sword free and started to charge into battle. She needn’t say anymore, though. Patagium summoned the spirits of fire as embers began to trace along one of the tree’s bark and set it aflame before it could do anymore damage to Sierra. He drew its target from her and onto him. As it came after him, Cinnamon slapped her helmet atop her head, and closed the vizor. She now looked battle ready as the helmet adhered to the shape of her head, and the edge of the vizor allowed her eyes to see where she was going.

The seven of them attacked on all fronts. However, their teamwork had not really been worked out all that well, and it showed. It was chaotic. While most of them hacked away, all three of their healers tried to keep up with hit points draining. The trees were not especially low level.

Fable and Sierra came somewhat close to death, but kept fighting harder as they hacked and slashed their way through the trees. The death knight finally lit one with green flames and instead of burning, it began to mold and mildew as its bark began to die.

With a fierce grunt, Jet plunged her hammer deep into the bark and broke the tree completely in half. They stood among the dead trees, sweating and heaving breaths as they tried to calm their nerves. Then Sierra thwapped Ceru upside the head.

“Nice timing on that warning there, bro!” She growled at him. “Why don’t you just wait until they take our damn heads off next time!?”

“Ow! I tried to tell you both!” He said as he ducked and got into his defensive position.

“Anyone need dead bark?” Raven asked, rummaging through the loot. She paused, looking at all of them bandaging their arms and drinking water after such a rough battle. “No one? Alright.” She continued to rummage.

“Hey, where’s Cinnamon?” Fable asked as he looked around. Then he looked to Patagium, who shrugged his shoulders. “Cinnamon?” He called out for her and looked around the clearing, in the trees. Then he noticed a ridge with a trench going down underneath it. The rest of them started looking for her in the trees around the clearing, and Fable went down over the ridge and saw that the trench led to a tunnel underneath.

Ceru climbed up a tree to his left, using one of his foraging abilities to collect apples, this time he used it to get a good vantage point. He gazed off into the distance, but there was just too many damn branches and leaves. Trees were huddled together so close that he couldn’t even tell which trunk went with which limb. He shook his head and looked down to see Raven gazing up at him in awe.

“What? Never seen a ranger climb a tree?” He asked and leaped off of the trunk to land on his feet as if he were made of feathers. She shook her head and giggled.

“No, I’ve never played a ranger. Hell, I barely dabble in anything other than my necromancer. Once I get her up to the top level, maybe I’ll try a ranger.” Raven said this as she eyed him from head to toe.

He chuckled and turned around to try and gaze off into the distance again, still just seeing extremely large, thick trees. Then he felt two hands wrap around his midsection. One of her gray fingertips traced a circle around his naval through his chainmail armor.

“Or…” She said with a changing tone, much like a melody to a song. “I could try some ranger right now.” This brought a shock to his face as Raven gave his ear a little nibble, then giggled.

The tunnel was so small, Fable had to start crawling on his hands and knees to get into it. It was dark, but down farther in, he could see a tiny bit of light. As he crawled, he started hearing the clash of metal and he started crawling a bit faster. As he got closer, he heard Cinnamon cry out as she struck her sword into a small goblin with a dagger in his hand. His body was nearly cleaved in two with a large swing of her sword and he fell dead as she stood by a lantern in a mine shaft. The small, green, long nosed creature disappeared into data as he left behind a small amount of copper bits.

Fable got up as he entered the shaft and saw her turn her gaze over to him.

“What are you doing?” Cinnamon asked as he got to his hooves and looked at her quizzically.

“I’d ask you the same thing. We lost you after that whole battle with the trees.” He said as he saw she was about to walk deeper into the mine. “Shouldn’t we wait for the others?”

She shined with a bit of light as she healed her wounds and scoffed. “I won’t be long. I simply want to see what’s here. There could be a gold vein.”

“You’e a miner?” Fable asked. He had no real interest in mining, because he wasn’t all that interested in blacksmithing. It was a whole lot of work for a bunch of low level items for nearly thirty levels. She nodded to him and continued toward the larger tunnels. “Wait, we should really get the others. There’s no guarantee that they’ll all be as low level as the goblin.”

“Oh, but such a big strong death knight is going to worry about wittle old me?” She attempted a pathetic damsel voice. “How noble.” For once, she didn’t seem to have her normal scorn in her voice.

“Hey, I can be pretty handy with a sword.” He said, but then realized what he’d said and started to think on how to reword it. “I mean--”

“Yes, I think your sword can by quite handy in a pinch. We are in darkness and your sword can be quite useful.” Her voice, once again lacking a hard edge, had something of a playful nature. She stopped for a moment, but didn’t turn to him. They were more or less just shadows in a dark cave. She started to move her arms without walking and he heard the sound of chainmail hitting the floor. “You like to play games with mares. I can tell. Well, this mare is going to defeat you at your own game.”

He felt her hand grab his from the blackness of the cave, and remove his gauntlet in one single movement. He reached out to her and felt something soft. She bent over and he could feel two bare ass cheeks tighten a bit.

“Now comes your true test, death knight. See if you can conquer a warrior of light without using metal.” Using his wrist, she guided her hand down and around her ass to feel a severely wet pair of lips underneath. “And hurry, we need to get back to the others.”

There was a moment of pause as he caressed those two dripping lips. Without warning, his mouth attached to her very wet labia while she bent over as far as she could. She gasped a little bit. The purple mare tried her best to not cry out as his tongue slipped inside her and rubbed against the inside of her tube. All of her tough talk went out the window as he pressed his mouth and tongue harder against her crotch. He began to grind against her sweet cunt, making her shiver with gooseflesh.

“N-no! I’m not going to lose this one!” She whispered in an urgent manner as she switch positions on him. Soon she was on top of him and working his bottoms loose as her sex pressed against his face once again. Cinnamon took in how long and thick his dark red cock was and began to lick the length and girth with a hunger. She took in as much of it with her mouth as she could as she closed her eyes tight. He continued his assault on her nether regions as she sucked ever harder.

“So, this is where you ran off to.” Patagium said, stopping them both as they saw the light from the top of his staff illuminate the two of them on the ground with each other’s sex organs in their mouths. There was a long pause as they both looked toward him.

It took only a few minutes, but soon the gray unicorn’s cock slid into her asshole, while Fable was below her, entering through her pussy lips. She moaned out loud as they began pushing into her at the same time. The chainmail tunic she wore slinked back and forth with her larger breasts as she felt two big hunks of meat grind her insides.

“Ah! So full!” She groaned hard as she tried to keep her wits about her. “You double teaming bastards! Is this how you--ahhh!--obtain your victories, death knight?! You--ooh!--use trickery and unfair advant--ah! Oh! Fuck me! Harder!” She couldn’t keep in character through this. Her fuck holes tightened around both of their dicks as she came hard!

“Yeah, I’ve been known to do this more than once.” Fable admitted as he pushed his hips against her. Her pussy juice leaked all over his shaft and it only made his pushes faster and better lubricated. She began to reach much higher notes then.

“Just roll with it, honey. We can always use the extra help.” Patagium whispered to her with a snicker as his dick entered her ass all the way and forced her into yet another orgasm as his seed splattered all over her back entrance. His cock twitched out loads of seed. With each push, more white milk spouted from her sphincter and she trembled with ecstacy.

“You--unnff!--perverts! Men are such pi--OHH!” More seed poured into her, this time in her vaginal tube. More hot fluids flooded her privates and made her head swim with such delight. “Oooohhh! I love your cocks!” She shouted as their piping spunk was worked deeper into her.

She was left a sweaty, leaking mess as they pulled out of her and let her roll onto her side. She gasped as she tried to move to get her leggings back up, not worrying about cleaning the mess inside of her. Cinnamon loved the feeling entirely too much to let that get by her. With a bit of willpower and a lot of hurry, the stallions helped her get back to her hooves.