Skylair Online

Episode 6

Ben bit his lip nervously as they ran towards the heart shrine. He pulled the book from his side and opened it, flicking through the pages until he reached the page he wanted.

The heart shrine was another circle of standing stones, except this one was surrounded by a lava field with metal bridges crisscrossing it.

As they stepped onto one of the bridges a piece of orange text appeared at the bottom right of his vision.

‘Obsidian has slain an enemy’

“I got the scout,” Obsidian said in Ben’s ear.

“Brilliant,” Ben replied and followed the giant form of Extreme onto the bridge with Dash right behind him.

The wove their way through the maze of bridges until a sound caught Ben’s attention.

He whirled around but a figure in a red cloak was already behind him, slashing a serrated blade towards his head.

Ben twisted away but the blade still managed to stab into his shoulder.

His vision flashed red and he let out a yelp in shock.

Extreme reacted quickly, smashing the assassin away with his shield but before Dash could loose an arrow the assailant disappeared, returning to being invisible.

Ben regained his composure and opened his book again.

He extended his hand towards the space just behind Dash and let loose a blast of ice that smashed into the invisible person standing behind Dash.

It was then Dash’s turn to jump in surprise as the assassin was revealed in the outline of the ice crystals.

Ben flicked to the next page in his book and clenched his fist.

Out of the ground came two hands made of ice that grabbed onto the legs of the assassin, holding him in place.

The assassin struggled against the restraints but it was in vein and with three well placed arrows in his chest, he shattered into tiny pieces of glass.

‘Dash has slain an enemy’

Dash and Extreme looked at Ben, shocked.

“Nice prediction,” Dash said.

“We got the assassin, the heart shrine is ours,” Ben said and they ran into the heart shrine.

Ten seconds later the red orb above the altar dimmed and the orange text, ‘Increased Health – 3:00’, appeared in the bottom right of their vision.

“Obsidian, did you see anyone else at Sky?” Ben asked.

“No, no one is here, they must be going to clear the monsters.”

“Alright, you get Sky and we’ll head north. Once you’ve got the shrine head south and see if you can stop them taking a dragon.”

“On my way,” Obsidian said and they ran off in opposite directions.

They ran into the desert, keeping an eye out for anything moving.

The desert was more rocky mesa than an actual desert. It had sand over it but it also had rock walls everywhere, turning it into a labyrinth.

Extreme led the charge as they plunged into the darkness of the ravine.

They turned through fork after fork until they came head to head with a scorpion the size of an elephant. The beast turned on them immediately but didn’t attack.

Extreme ran up to it, his shield glowing with magic, he slammed his shield into the monster’s head.

The monster screeched in fury and slashed out with its claws at Extreme but they just raked harmlessly across his shield.

Dash was firing arrows now, littering its carapace with them and Ben unleashed a blast of ice magic towards it, slowing its movement.

Its frenzied assault on Extreme slowed, allowing him to strike back a few times. However, the moment he lowered his shield the scorpion’s tail shot down towards his head. He jerked out of the way but the stinger plunged into his abdomen.

Ben turned to a new page in his book and with a shout, summoned a wall of ice between Extreme and the monster, allowing him to roll away and use a healing ability on himself.

The monster wasn’t put off for long though, it scuttled around the wall and continued to slice into Extreme.

As they battled on, Leo came running around the corner behind them.

“Hey guys, I’m back,” Leo said, drawing his bow and losing arrows at the scorpion as well.

“Perfect,” Ben said.

Leo didn’t have much of a chance to contribute to the fight though. Dash loosed an arrow that transformed into a lightning bolt mid-flight, striking the scorpion in the head and killing it.

The monster shattered into pieces and they all saw ‘3 XP gained’ appear in the corner of their vision.

After healing up Extreme they pushed further into the desert. Now with Leo to guide them they wound their way to the most northern part.

The ground began to rise up as they went north, forming into a mountain in front of them. This wasn’t as big as the central mountain with the Skylair on it, but it was big enough to make climbing it slow. About a third of the way up they came across a large opening, revealing a large cave inside.

At the centre of the cave was a monstrous, brown scaled, four legged dragon.

It flared its wings and roared as they approached.

Extreme went first again, his shield once again glowing with magic as he rammed it into the dragon’s head.

The dragon roared again, and breathed fire on Extreme.

The flames hit the shield head on and spread outward in a plume that surrounded Extreme for a second, but he didn’t drop so Dash and Leo opened fire with their bows.

Dash moved around to the side of the dragon, firing as he went, so that any stray fire breath wouldn’t hit him.

He edged around until he heard a click as foot touched something metal.

The ground at his feet exploded, sending him flying into the air.

Suddenly, four people dressed in red were running into the cave.

Ben yelped in surprise as the enemy team poured in. Their guardian wielding a two handed axe was charging straight at him, his monstrous weapon held aloft, ready to cleave right through him.

Ben summoned another wall of ice between the enemy team and them, sealing them in with the dragon who was still trying its best to kill Extreme.

Dash got to his feet, “Cryo, can you hold them while we finish the dragon?”

“No,” Ben replied nervously.

“When the wall goes down, we run for it,” Extreme said, “and hope the dragon redirects its attention to them.”

Ben nodded, it wasn’t a great plan, but it was all they had right now.

Leo looked about nervously and prepared himself to run.

The ice wall cracked then shattered, the shards disappearing as they hit the floor.

They ran as fast as they could but Leo immediately got hit with an arrow to the chest, then a ball of fire to the head and his vision turned white, his avatar shattering into pieces.

Ben got a little further before the enemy guardian grabbed him and threw him to the floor. He tried flicking to the next page in his book and unleashing another spell but the guardian swung his axe down on his head and he was downed too.

Extreme had actually picked up dash and with shield held over them ran through the enemy. But they had a net thrown over them and extreme tripped.

Extreme threw Dash forward, just as a flurry of arrows shattered Extreme.

Dash scampered forward, running for the bend in the ravine that would shelter him from fire, doing his best to move as erratically as possible.

He reached the bend and threw himself round it, out of sight of the enemy.

He breathed a sigh of relief and kept sprinting away.

“Okay, I’m out,” Dash said.

Then the sky above him darkened, red clouds swirling above him.

“Enemy mage took firestorm,” he managed to say as flaming rocks rained down from the sky, obliterating him and most of the surrounding are.

The four of them sat in the starting point, looking at each other sullenly.

“Could have been worse,” Extreme said.

“He can’t cast firestorm again for another ten minutes, I see this as an absolute win,” Dash said.

Ben rolled his eyes.