Emma finished typing her extremely long message. They formed a party as the priest had taught Sean. The door turned out to be unlocked – but there were noises of distant scratching and growling coming from the other side. So he put out the candles and stashed them in his belt pouch.
Sean was running final checks before more combat. He explained in a hushed tone, "Okay, I'll go inside and you stay in the doorway. Shoot anything that comes at you – but if they focus on me, then try to support–"
"Fine, but don't shove me around again!" Emma complained.
"What?" he asked, confused.
"Like in the sewers?" she reminded. "Or away from the horse?"
"But I didn't– You wouldn't want to be trampled, right? And the sewer debacle was an accident, okay?" he said, deciding not to argue, but then teased, "Just don't shoot me by mistake again, like yesterday – so we're even, by the way."
"Yeah-yeah, whatever," she remarked and rolled her eyes. "And I'm bailing out if you're in too much trouble." Sean frowned, so she shrugged and added, "What? That's a lot of angry noises in there…"
He looked at the door – she had a point: there was a lot of scratching and some growling or grunting, but it sounded like it was coming from another compartment or maybe down a hallway. He nodded and pleaded, "Sure, but try to cover me as long as you can. And heal too – don't forget you can do that."
Emma fumed for a couple of seconds, then scoffed, "Do you realize how stupid 'healing' is here, medically speaking? You wave your hands and… And what– Should I start–"
"Just play the game," he interrupted. "You can complain to Omega about it, but right now let's focus." A small pause. "Ready?"
She sighed and muttered, "Whatever."
Sean figured this attitude was as good as it would get, so he nodded and turned to the door. Axes in both hands, ready to strike. He took a deep breath and turned the knob… the door opened inward, surprisingly quietly for the run-down area. He scanned the area: the doorway led directly to a large chamber – it might've been some kind of medieval living room once, with furniture now decrepit and broken. Walls dirty, covered in light-brown stains. Air stale, musky.
It seemed clear from that angle, so he stepped inside. The floorboards creaked under his weight… and five pairs of eyes turned to look at him. The Gremlins stopped clawing at another door on the side of the room and charged at him. But together, as a group – not one by one like rats.
Sean panicked and stepped back, then closed the door and held the handle tight. He dropped one axe, but barely managed to hold onto the other in his right hand.
Emma started, "What the–"
"Gremlins – a bunch of them!" he cut in as the monsters assaulted the door from the other side.
"Huh, so much for that plan…" she commented.
"Move back, they're breaking through – but cover me!" Sean instructed.
He struggled to keep the door shut. He looked down: the other axe was lying on the ground, and he would need maybe a second to pick it up… He glanced to the side and Emma was at a safe distance, near where the alley turned. She seemed ready – but was he?
Sean fixed his grip on the axe, took a deep breath, and let go of the handle – then kicked the door with all his strength. It actually gave way and flew off its hinges – everything here was run-down. He bent down and picked up the other axe, then a Gremlin was already jumping through the doorway. He punched it with his right fist, or meant to – the aim was off and he hit it with the butt of the axe. Another came at him without delay, but Sean was ready and Twin Strike struck the creature in the head and shoulder. The crude helmet blocked one axe, but the other grazed the Gremlin's arm.
It shrieked and moved aside. Sean took a step back as two more charged out. He kicked one in the torso and aimed at the other, but a magical projectile hit it from the side. The creature staggered, so Sean focused on the one he had kicked: he just hacked at it while half-panicking. He wanted to use some skills, and it felt almost like Armored Chop activated with his left arm and Blunt Blow with the right. But whatever happened – both hits connected and sheared an arm and a chunk of its torso, respectively. Black ooze gushed all over.
Sean recovered and aimed a kick at the Gremlin Emma had hit – but another beast lurched and gripped his leg, chewing at it and taking stabs at his torso. It was maybe three and a half feet tall, so it could reach his belly – thankfully the chest piece blocked its dull knife. The pain in his leg was sharp, though – he tried to ignore it and hit the creature on the helmet with the handle of the right axe, but it didn't budge. He couldn't take proper aim at this angle, so he pushed against it with his fists around the axe handles. The Gremlin's grip held – the relatively small monster was surprisingly strong.
He barely noticed a magic attack finishing another Gremlin off, but two more were standing in the doorway – possibly having crawled out from underneath the fallen door. He cursed and dropped his axes, then grabbed the head of the beast holding onto his leg. It stabbed his side and the leg pain intensified. Sean pulled the head back with all his strength while the remaining Gremlins charged at him. One staggered… from Emma's magic projectile, then tripped and fell. The other flanked Sean.
The stubborn head finally gave in and went back – no: the beast's neck snapped and twisted in an unnatural way. The body went completely limp, but the flanking Gremlin shrieked and assaulted him next. Sean kicked it without thinking, and that was a mistake. The pain was terrible – he should not have used the injured leg. Red blood spurted from multiple wounds. The creature quickly recovered and jumped at the wounded leg, but Sean punched it in the face.
The Gremlin wobbled, then took one more punch and collapsed. Sean stepped closer – it hurt badly, but he ignored the pain – and stomped on the monster's head with his healthy leg. The helmet caved in – or maybe it was the skull? Probably both.
Sean collected his axes and surveyed the scene, breathing rapidly. One Gremlin was still twitching, and Emma was bashing another with her staff – it seemed the beast had charged at her. He finished the badly wounded creature off, then axed the one he had stomped on… and also the beast with the broken neck. Better safe than sorry. The one split into three was very thoroughly gone.
Emma kept hitting the unmoving Gremlin that went her way, so he commented, "I think it's dead."
She stopped, glanced at him, then at the corpse again and replied, "Shut up! Ugh…" She smashed the dead Gremlin one last time, presumably for good measure.
"Could use some healing over here, if you don't mind?" Sean pleaded and grimaced as the adrenaline was wearing off… His leg hurt pretty badly, still bleeding all over – he tried to put his weight on the other one, but it didn't help much. He remembered what Omega had said: the pain was real. It definitely felt real. Emma just stared at him, so he added, "Any day now?"
She sighed and stepped closer, then concentrated. He could see her mouthing a word… he was no lip-reader, but it looked like 'heal.'
And the leg felt better. Not completely fixed, and the transition was quite surreal – he had never considered what 'healing' in here actually implied. Impromptu medical interventions… with magic… Was this why Emma was so reluctant to do it? But the limb wasn't fully fixed, so he said, "Thanks, but there's a bit more damage to–"
"I'm trying!" she cut in, then shook her head and speculated, "Cooldowns, probably?"
"Right, of course…" Sean said and looked down. It still stung to move the leg. Most of the wounds were healed, but perhaps some internal injuries or other tissue damage… and suddenly the pain was completely gone. He stretched the limb and it felt fine – wet and sticky from all the blood, but he would have to get used to that. And the armor had holes in it. He glanced at Emma, and she was still concentrating. "You can stop now, I think it worked. It's fine."
She relaxed a little but still asked, "Are you sure? It doesn't look 'fine' ."
"Well…" He leaned to the side for a better view. The armor pants were a mess: several holes, red blood and black ooze covering the white fabric all over. He reassured: "It feels better than it looks. But wait, don't you know when you're casting a spell?"
Emma simply stared at him for a moment. "I don't know anymore," she finally admitted.
"Anymore? How did you know before, then?" Sean was confused, but quickly realized: "Ah, I take it the new robe helped! With the mental fog, I mean." She sighed, so he added, "What? I'm just saying, unless you're still–"
"How would it even help?" she cut in.
"Well… like I said before," he reiterated, "the mana cap and regen… now you probably have three times as much regeneration as before – no Earth-clothes debuff halving it, plus a fifty-four percent bonus from the robe." He paused, unsure if he should've mentioned that specific detail… so he promptly changed the topic: "There's a reason why everybody is wearing cosplay, you know."
She complained, "Ugh, you don't have to 'brag' about it."
Sean opened his mouth to protest but realized that it had been a bit of a brag – so he pivoted to a joke instead: "I'm just glad I won't have to wear sexy Healer robes, that's all!" He smiled, trying not to appear too proud of himself, then looked around and commented, "But what a mess – good job, by the way… it was a bit close for comfort a couple of times." He glanced at the broken doorway and suggested, "Should we check inside?"
"You want to go inside after 'this' !" Emma raised her voice. "With all the blood loss?"
"Well…" He looked down. It was a lot of blood – and this time a good portion was his, as opposed to merely the black ooze. He remarked with a smile, "I guess… I feel fine? Must be your amazing 'healing' skills !"
She rolled her eyes and added more calmly, "What about– Didn't that queue-dude warn about getting swarmed inside?"
"Well, the Paladin referred to the warehouse, but…" Sean paused to consider it. He quickly figured that: "I mean, it wasn't so bad here – and maybe there won't be swarms of Gremlins at once? Though the difficulty is clearly in their numbers. But I'm thinking three or four should be fine… we still have the quests to do, remember?" He checked the candles, still intact in his pouch, so he continued, "Also, you can heal me in combat too… when your magic attack is on cooldown. Unless– Wait, was there any mental fog – did it feel like you were out of mana?"
"Whatever," Emma replied. The tapping promptly began… when he looked, she was indeed on her phone.
Sean checked the corpses, but they also had no loot – it seemed like quests were the only source of income in the game, or perhaps Gremlins were simply too low lvl? Either way, there was nothing else to do in the alley with seven mauled corpses and one broken door.
He approached the entrance and peered in: it was actually clear this time. No Gremlin noises or anything charging at him, though when he focused… there was some distant scratching and growling, but coming from above. He remarked, "Looks clear and there might be one or two upstairs – should be easy enough, let's go in!"
"Uh-huh," she muttered but followed him inside.
They walked over the door, and the place was… very messy – like it wasn't the first time monsters rampaged through there. He remembered the Paladin taking that werewolf quest the previous day. It seemed like there was a 'something-outbreak' in the Docks every day – and today it simply happened to be a low-lvl version, hence the crowds and all the queues resulting from it. Lobehelm was supposedly a starter town, after all.
As they explored the interior, it turned out that the building was narrow but elongated – presumably so more tenement houses would fit along the street. They found one more Gremlin downstairs, in the back, but Sean disposed of it quickly. There was another door that led to a courtyard of sorts, but lots of rummaging noises and even footsteps nearby discouraged him from venturing out – no windows or peephole, but there were clearly a lot of monsters outside.
They checked upstairs, and fought four more creatures – including one on the stairs, which was annoying as it kept retreating and throwing sharp debris at Sean. Emma hit it with her magic attack, then he finished it off. He experimented with two single-weapon skills on another enemy and the trick worked: it was much stronger than even Twin Strike , and just one combo incapacitated the Gremlin. He wished he had come up with it sooner.
The stairway to the third floor had completely collapsed, presumably long ago, so that was off-limits without a lot of haphazard climbing – especially in his heavy armor. Sean took a sneak peek out the back window on the second floor: it seemed like they might be able to lure a few monsters near the exit, but he was worried that others might join in on any attack. The Gremlins were clearly coordinating – he couldn't risk getting swarmed by the twenty or so creatures in the small courtyard, maybe way more hiding behind some old junk.
Suddenly he heard voices from downstairs, human but in a foreign language… German maybe? He remarked, "Sounds like we've got company. From abroad."
"Uh-huh," Emma replied, then looked up from her phone and asked, "Wait-what?"