Dreamland

Almost anybody can shoot a shotgun, and it is doing damage. Like any other objects that move through the air, the respective bullets encounter air resistance, also referred to as drag.

However, in Mephistos' world, the air containing magic makes the encountered resistance much stronger. In high magic density areas, it is almost like shooting in water. Not quite there, but close. This is why it is a low-level weapon. It does damage in close range and does not require much skill.

A normal arrow has the same problem, whereas enchanted arrows fly through magic as do supercavitating torpedos 'swim' through the ocean's water. It runs on the same principle: creating a kind of magic-less bubble in front of the arrow.

The problem is that you cannot enchant bullets as you do with arrows. This is because you do not grasp them, you do not see them, you cannot 'feel' them as you do with an arrow, and thus you cannot coat them in magic as a good magic arrow shooter does. It does not work.

Furthermore, a similar resistance appears inside persons; therefore, the damage is further reduced. Inside high-level persons, the magic density is much higher. Once you have magic in your veins, once your body is filled with magic, standard non-enchanted weapons are blunt for you. They cannot penetrate and cut with the same ease, the force needed to do so is exponentially higher.

This is what saved my life now.

But before the bullets reached me, something even more terrible happened: as soon as the cacophony of noise started, White Flower, alias Terri jumped into my arms. The result was that I rolled over my back with the fairy on top of me.

I was so brutally torn from my thoughts about stars, moons, and elves by the cacophony of screams and gunfire, just to be assaulted by a panicked fairy - that instantly merged with my skin, transforming into that goo covering my breast and face. For a moment, I was blind, but luckily she realized her error and moved down from my eyes. As she moved around my skin, I was invaded by all kinds of sensations, from prickles to burnings, which further strained my confused mind.

A giant mastodont charged and almost trampled me over; I only had the time to roll, grab Spartacius and, with a sleight of hand, throw him under cover of a couple of rocks that formed a kind of shelter near our camp.

A mastodont is a beast resembling a mixture between an elephant and a rhinoceros with its three horns, one on top of the head and two below. It is a trained attack beast, capable of drawing the attention away from the raid. It can stab and trample and take a lot of damage.

As I was trying to stand, a second mastodont hit me in the back, throwing me over the fire, one horn skewing my left foot. A second raid? We were being targeted and shot at by two bloody raids!?

As I rolled through the burning charcoal, spells and bullets adding to the firework, the fire scattered around me. I looked for cover behind a too-small boulder.

A firework is lovely, but not when you are in the middle of it. The Lynx rolled over, avoiding another charge of the mastodonts. He looked at me with a questioning face:

“Run?”

I appreciated that he did not run without asking.

The Lynx! Fuck, two low-level raids are after the skin of my mount and would gladly go over my dead body for it. Magic bolts and thunders, meteors, and snowballs were blasting around us in a terrible cacophony of attack screams and beasts' barking punctuated by shotgun shots. There must be at least eighty, maybe up to two hundred players with their mercs and pets and the two battle beasts.

Most of the fire went over our heads, but now and then, a bullet hit its mark. The cover was not big enough, but looking for a better place would expose me even more.

I have high physical and magic resistance, and their bullets and spells were not cutting deep into my skin, but without White Flower, it would be rather sooner than later: death by a thousand cuts.

I healed both of us.

I hesitated. The forest was far, the space open, just rare trees around; not sure if Spartacius would make it alive if we tried to escape, no clue where Alice was. And then what? The raids would still follow us and continue the hunt in the forest. They want the Lynx down. Yes, the woods would be a better fighting ground, but I would have used all my good tricks only to make it there.

On the other side, these are all low-level. Indeed one low-level raid, as these chapter 2 players were, can take it up with almost any, no matter how high level a player is. But I have now an added bonus: I can heal.

“We fight!”