Realm part three

Atricus and Gimli stood back to back in Darkness dungeon, surrounded on all sides by goblins and kobolds. They didn't have room to make a break for it, pressed so hard as they were together by the advancing creatures.
"Don't go beserk on me Gimli!" Atricus shouted as his friend drew out his axes and roared at the hoard.
"Start blasting the little buggers with your magic then ELF!" Gimli shouted back, a slightly wild edge to his voice.
Atricus had been busy piling charges into his thought stone when the hoard appeared and the stone was still happily guzzling gems. He looked up anxiously from it again, it's dull glow lighting his pale face. He could feel Gimli waving his axes about menacingly behind him. Finally, as the first of the goblins tried to chance getting in range of Gimli to attack Atricus, the glow of the stone went from hungry red to fully charged blue.
Atricus closed his eyes and dropped into spell trance, losing awareness of the swish and thud of Gimli felling the goblins. His mind filled with an image of a circle of fire rolling out from him, wild, raveging and white hot. He felt the mana leave his body like a dull thud reaching down into his feet, making them throb suddenly.
Screams wrent the air as the fire poured forward, kobolds and goblins fleeing as fast as they could, some catching fire as they failed to outrun the relentless wall of heat. Atricus dragged himself out of the spell trance and caught Gimli by the arm.
"Let's get the heck out of here before they come back with more, That spell dumped most of my mana and a lot of my charges and I've only got a little bit of mana potion left,"
Gimli nodded.
"Gimme your pack then in case you need to cast something behind us when we go, it's pretty heavy with loot," The dwarf said gruffly.
Atricus didn't argue and he hefted the big pack into Gimli's arms. The dwarf already had a bulging pack on his pack and he staggered a little as he adjusted to the new weight.
They set off immediately, Atricus holding his staff high and commanding light from it so they could see their way out.
"If it hadn't been for that damn summoner..." Atricus heard the Dwarf mutter gruffly, as he puffed with the weight of the luggage.
"Well.. the summoner was rich so as long as we get out of here I don't care," Atricus said.
He stopped suddenly, coming to a halt at a crossroads in the dark, cavernous tunnel system of the dungeons upper levels. He looked each way, shining the light from his staff up each and sighed.
"I hate this, " he said softly," there's four different crosroads on this top floor and I can never remember which way to go at each,"
Gimli puffed and looked round at each passage. His face was beginning to redden with exertion.
Atricus heard them first, pattering in the darkness behind them. The sound of hundreds of flat, unshod feet.
"Better start remembering quick!" Gimli sanpped as the sound came to his ears.
But Atricus was already murmuring into his thought stone, and didn't hear the dwarf at all. A wall of flame sprang up behind them then, blocking the passageway.
Atricus shook himself.
"That's not a very strong wall, but it will hold them for a bit," he told his friend. He looked once more in desperation at the choices of passage and bolted down the left hand one, Gimli running after him and groaning a bit.
They heard screeches and yelps as the goblins and kobolds ran into the wall of fire, and that got an extra turn of speed out of Gimli.
They turned a corner then and ran straight into a cul-de-sac.
"Fuck it!" Atricus exclaimed.
"What the hell do we do now Elf?" Gimli snarled.
Atricus looked stricken. Alone he could kill a goblin in one hit from his staff, they were that easy, but with a hoarde the size of the one after them, they would simply be swamped. Gimli would get some hits in with his axes, when they weren't getting in the way and stopping him, and Atricus was just too slow with the staff for that to be an option. He couldn't spell cast if he was being hit either.
"We'll just have to go back and head down one of the other ways," he said.
He was off and moving before Gimli could argue, light on his feet as any elf was. His mind was racing, turning over the possibilites of how he could rescue the situation.
Turning the corner he could see already that the glow from the Wall of Fire was dulling. It would be a matter of less than a minute before the hoard could pass it. Not even enough time to renew the spell once he was in range...
As the thought struck him he realised the risks attached. There had been a serverwide warning about spellcasting while using the stepping between skill, but he was confidant enough in his ability to use the skill to attempt to spellcast.
He ran forward then, coming into range of the snarling hoards and threw himself into the "opening move" of stepping between. Gimli, whose dwarvish eyesight was good in the gloom of the dungeon, yelled as he saw Atricus drop into the mode.
"NO Atricus... You'll crash for christsakes!!!"
But it came too late as Atricus heard the last sylable of Gimli's cry stretch and deepen. Around him the world became syrupy, the dying flames of the Wall of Fire flickered lazily and the Goblins and Kobolds beyond moved with dreamlike slowness.
Gathering his thoughts and forcing away the distracting awe he always felt when stepping between, he gathered his thought stone up in his fingers. Drawing himself into the spellcasting trance, a nagging thought told him this was the most dangerous part. Maintaining concentration on stepping between while in a spelltrance.
He muttered rapidly, envisioning the Wall of Fire springing back up with renewed vigour, but with the soupy slowness of the between world state. He keyed all of his thought to this image, and its strangeness, forcing his brain to accept it.
Slowly, creeping across his face he felt a wave of heat from the Wall of Fire, at the same time, he felt the rush of mana leaving him, with as much punch as the circle he had cast earlier. He felt then the begginings of the headache that always came with abscence of mana.
He drew himself carefully out of the spell trance, feeling already the strength of his step between waning. Then suddenly he felt faint, and could see blackness spinning towards him. The part of his mind that was still working at an accelerated rate realised that this was him heading for a crash. Panic clutched at him, a crash could mean brain damage or death.
Then he felt Gimli's hand fall on his shoulder, still moving in normal time. With all his will he focused on that, fighting back the encroaching darkness with the sensations of the world within Realm.
"Atricus, you fool, come on, you did it, now get yourself back here and let's get away," He heard Gimli. As the dwarf spoke, his voice grew rapidly faster until at the end of the sentance it was normal speed.
Atricus, feeling some control and will coming back to him, roared at the darkness, and forced himself to start moving. he took a step forward, and stumbled a bit, then stopped deliberately. He breathed in gulps of air and then shook himself all over, aware of the darkness fleeing from him finally.
He looked back at the Wall of Fire, seeing it burn with viciously bright radiance. It smarted his eyes and made the dull ache in his head grow.
"Right then," He managed to say, "let's go,"
Gimli lead the way this time, his eyesight better than the elfs in this darkness. Atricus didn't even have enough mana left to create light with the tip of his staff, and he wouldn't be able to regenrate any until he could sit still to meditate. The drop of mana potion that remained in his pack was too precious to waste unless absolutely nessecary.
He stumbled along, groggy still, following the laiden dwarf and straining his ears all the time for sounds of pursuit. It seemed to him almost like an age in the darkness, as the thumppping pain inside his skull grew steadily all the time.
Their flight took on extra pace again as he heard the first sounds of pursuit some minutes after they had left the first crossroads. Still far enough behind that they would escape, but near enough to give them extra speed.
Finally, Gimli gave a shout of triumph, and a few seconds later they both stumbled out into the bright sunshine on the slopes of the Iron Hills. Knowing the goblins wouldn't venture to follow them until darkness, they collapsed onto the ground in relief.
"That was one hell of a risk you took Atricus," Gimli said after a few moments of relieved silence.
"Paid off though didn't it?" the elf replied, feeling the pain in his head recede a little as his mana began to return.
"Your a nutter though..... you could have killed yourself for a sackful of virtual gold!"
Atricus laughed suddenly, realising the insanity of the risk he'd taken.
"You are right.... what the fuck was I thinking?" he replied through his laughter.

Myria walked out into the streets of Thane, her long dark hair streaming behind her as she strode. Her green Darkling eyes flashed in the sunlight, and she felt the usual little thrill as NPC's and newbies tried hard to avoid her gaze. She was a Darkling after all, and to be feared.
Dragon-kin, and proud of it.
And one day very soon, in fact, she'd be a Dragon Mistress, with all of the Realm at her feet on the back of a dragon. The thought of it still thrilled her.
She let her gaze sweep the street one more time, taking in all the faces in the crowd. Something caught her attention. A particuarly tall and blonde Elf in swirling Grand Master Mages clothes was almost charging down the street, with a grim-faced, red-haired dwarf in tow. They were following an Elder down the street and were berating him quite vehemently, a sight that was fairly rare in Realm. She saw quite quickly on the fact that the Elf was Guildlessfrom the lack of sigil on his mages robes, and that the Dwarf was obviously a Beserker, as he wore two axes strapped across his back and a torque of gold round his throat. Beserker's were considered to be the allies of the Darklings in many things. They were a chaos breed of Dwarf, or rather Dwarfs that had decided to leave the strict path of Dwarvish military life and become mercenary.
Despite this, she thought that they both had real gall to verbally assault an Elder in the Village.
At that moment she saw the Elder turn round abruptly and face the Elf, who had spoken last.
He waved his hand high in the air in a summoning motion and Myria, knowing what was about to happen, broke into a run, wanting to aid the Elf and Dwarf against the Elite guard that was about to appear.
She reached the Elfs side as three guards teleported in around the Elder, who already seemed to be preparing magic too.
"I hope you're worth those Grand Master robes, Elf," she said with a smile and took her swords from her back, where they were always strapped across each other.
The Elf, who was quite good to look at, even by the high standard of elves, smiled at her.
"Hmm, and I hope you are worth those Twin Blades, Darkling," he replied.
The Dwarf simply glared across at her and then closed his eyes in true beserker fashion. She reminded herself firmly to stay on this side of the Elf and not to stray too close to the Dwarf and set herself for the fight.
the guards swung their Halberds down and immediatley advanced. Instinctively Myria put herself in front of the Elf, letting him drop back to spellcast, and felt rather than saw her twin blades clash with the Halberd of one of the guards. seconds later she was in melee with two, her blades flashing and blocking like two seperate entities. She smelled burning air and threw herself into a protective roll, a bolt of lightning grazing her shoulder. the pain was brief and she knew she had sustained only a little damage from the Elders spell.
Now she kept rolling until she came up onto her feet, throwing her swords above her head to block the downward swing of one of the guards Halberds. The beserker now had two of the guards, and he was making them work hard. She saw one of them go down injured under his wild melee of blows, and a few seconds later the other tumbled as a huge blast of fire engulfed it.
She dodged sideways and slashed at the onrushing guard, sending him to his knees with a gash in his belly.
She moved back towards the Elf now, knowing full well that the guards would be on their feet again soon, and the Elder was already preparing another spell. This was no easy fight to pick and already the people in the street were keeping well away, many stopped in shop doorways staring at the fight.
The guard that the Elf had struck with the flame didn't get up, leaving them all with slightly better odds. The Beserker was standing still, his eyes still closed, breathing hard. Myria kept her blades ahead of her, warding off any on-coming attack. The Elf stood, head bowed to his Thought Stone, preparing his next spell. He muttered rapidly under his breath, seeming to be utterly unaware of his surroundings. Myria knew then that the elf was very, very good at magic, and felt relief.
The remaining two guards rushed forward without warning, leaving Myria little time to react. She noticed instantly that they had also been tweaked in the interim few seconds - their auto skill-adjust having started to kick in. It only got harder from here on in.
The guard that attacked her seemed to move like lightning with it's hally, and Myria found herself being beat backwards towards the Elf, her arms beginning to really smart from the force in it's blows. She took a deep breath and dropped herself into full war state - the Darkling state of total concentration in combat. It was a skill that was particuarly necessary to Dragon Masters, as it allowed them to slip into direct empathy with their dragon, a dangerous but powerful state.
She actually felt her reactions increase in speed, and saw the way time slowed down around her. But little else was noticiable in that state, even what was actually happening within the fight was hazy. Somewhere in her mind she logged the fact that she'd been injured a few times, and she also noticed when the Elf healed her with his magic, but the fight was hard.
Suddenly she was standing over the Elder with her blades just touching his throat, and the Elf and Dwarf standing either side of her with weapons drawn. The Elder has jsut finished inscribing the sigil of surrender in the air and she could see it sparkling still above his face. She drew back, sheathing the blades on her back again, and the Elder winked out of existance.
"You are some warrior lady Darkling," the Elf said, smiling at her.
The dwarf nodded curtly in agreement with his friend.
"I'm only a short way away from being Dragon Misstress, so I bloody well should be," she replied with a smile of her own.
The Elf whistled between his teeth appreciatively. It was probably the hardest path in the whole realm to follow, except maybe the paths of sorcery.
"So lady, what do you call yourself?" the Elf asked now.
"I'm Myria Darkas of Drake Falls, acolyte of the Dragon path, if you want my full name,"
The Elf laughed lightly at this, and then bowed deeply to her.
"They call me Atricus the Fair, rogue Grand Master Mage of Thane, and my friend is Gimli the Beserker of Vassel Lyn,"
She smiled at him again, and then it occured to her that she was yet to ask how they had provoked the Elder into fighting.
"So, are you going to tell me how you upset that Elder so much?"

Much later, the three of them were sprawled around a table in the White Hart tavern of Thame. They were taking up a shocking amount of space as they regaled each other with tales of adventures they had been on.
Atricus explained in minute detail the escape from Dungeon Darkness and the fact that the Elder had turned up because his trick with casting while between time had set off a whole host of alarm bells at the server end of the game.
"Guess I'm so full of myself today that attacking a Senior Elder in town seemed like a perfectly acceptable idea," he finished.
Myria, impressed by the story, laughed.
"It's not exaclty something you see very often," she told him.
They talked on for quite some time, drawing increasingly dark looks from the NPC barkeepers with their noise and haughty demands for more drink and food.
"It's a rare thing, a rogue GM mage, by the way, what happened there Atricus?" Myria asked just as he returned from buying another round of drinks. Myria could feel the alcohol warming her green dragon blood, even feel it fuzzing her brain a little. For a Darkling, she could drink, but she had already noticed that for every drink she consumed, Gimli swallowed two. And he looked untouched by the ale.
Atricus, on the other hand, looked quite a bit merrier than she felt.
"Ah, " Atricus said as he sat carefully down in his seat, "Now theres a tale to tell, "
He looked distant for a moment, and Myria noticed that Gimli looked away into the flames of the Taverns roaring fire in a way that told her that he had had a part in this tale. A significant part.
"It's not suitable talk for the main tavern though, my Lady Darkling," Atricus said softly, turning his head to stare directly at her.
"Aye, milady," Gimli added,"There's still some about who don't wish to be reminded of it,"
"Where can we go then???" she asked, her curiosity peeked by this sudden swing to secrecy in the conversation.
"I have a house overlooking the gold mines of Vassel Lyn," Gimli said now, seeming eager too share at least his part in the tale to her.
Atricus smiled slowly, and rose too his feet.
"I have a mark Old Man, have you plenty of drink at your humble abode?" There was a wry smile playing across his face, as if this was some sort of in-joke between them.
"Aye, ye daft Elf, of course," the Dwarf replied.
Atricus lifted his Thought Stone up from the chain around his neck and murmered rapidly into it. Myria felt the hairs on the back of her arms stand on end and she looked quickly around her. Atricus was creating a Warp hole that actually took in all three of them as they sat. She'd never seen a warp that big, it was large enough to move about four horseback riders at a time.
Within a few seconds the surroundings of the tavern disapeared, although the table and chairs they sat on remained. Then as if it were a reflection on water returning itself to shape after being disturbed, the surroundings of the Dwarfs home began to appear.
"It's a long story, Myria, it'll take most of the night. You got time to spare for it?" Atricus said, leaning towards her across the table. Something in his eyes sparkled then, almost as if he were inviting her to share something of great intimacy. This made her feel very aware of Gimli's sharp dwarf eyes on her.
"Yes, " she said softly.