In less time than it took to take a breath, Gorlois was among them. His sword slashed between the four members of the party and their health dropped quickly. Rae blocked a heavy swing with her sword and a warding spell and jumped back.

Z switched in, drawing Gorlois’s aggro while Tripper and Rae started throwing fireballs at him. The knight’s armor absorbed most of their spells and a red glow charged up within his pauldrons and cuirass. The glow was dull and appeared more like the light from a coal or the metal of a blacksmith.

Jag threw down some caltrops and a few small flak bombs at Gorlois’s feet. Z slashed at the massive knight, knocking him back a few steps and causing him to step on the traps. They detonated, with dark chains wrapping around Gorlois’s legs and the flak bombs sending clouds of metal shrapnel directly into the large enemy.

Gorlois was staggered by the combination for a few seconds, so Rae healed the party to bring everyone closer to full health again. A rage came over Gorlois, the red glow in his armor brightened and his body grew in size. His height increased from just over six feet to a towering seven and his body expanded to match. Enlarged, Gorlois’s reach with his sword was increased and he moved faster as well.

The party backed up and Tripper cast [Storm Shatter] again. The electricity flew toward Gorlois at high speed but as it was about to hit him, he vanished. He reappeared in a cloud of smoke in the middle of the party’s clustered position and laid waste to the four players, kicking Z to the ground and swinging his sword, slashing into Rae, Tripper and Jag.

Jag’s health dropped to a dangerous level as he continued to suffer from the degradation effect given to him by the enemy knight’s kick earlier in the fight. Z was the first one back up. He activated a skill that put him into a state of higher damage called [Fervor].

Holy damage ran up and down the edges of Z’s sword and projected forward from the shield on his arm. Z launched himself at Gorlois again to buy time for Jag to recover. Tripper cast [Aegis] while Rae tried to clear the debuff off of Jag and heal him. Each time Z struck against Gorlois, the warrior grew larger and stronger. After a few seconds, Z went from attacking Gorlois to blocking each of the monstrous swings that he dealt out.

Ice spread off of everything the blade touched, freezing joints in armor to prevent movement and lowering the metal’s durability. Tripper cast fire spell after fire spell both to deal damage over time and melt the frost covering his friend.

Low on mana, the party dragged itself back from Gorlois. The large knight paused and raised his hand with his fingers clenched as if a claw. The runes on his sword glowed brighter and black smoke poured from his mouth onto the ground. Skeletal knights rose again from the corpses of his fallen soldiers, a pale frozen glare shown from each of their eyes. Gorlois’s glowing aura faded away and turned into a frost coming off of his armor like steam, the rage skill went on cooldown.

Ice slowly built up around Gorlois’s feet as he lumbered towards the party. He swung his sword into the ground and a wave of icy magic shot out in a crescent shape toward the party. Z tried to block the spell, aided by Tripper’s [Aegis], but the buff on his shield shattered and the wave of frost cut through the four players.

Rae had managed to cure Jag of the debuff effect and heal him back to full HP, but the frost spell sapped the rest of her mana and brought Jag back down to fifty percent. Tripper and Z were a little lower, their natural resistance and Z’s armor protecting them from the worst of the attack. Tripper tried to heal everyone but even his mana was low.

Hurt but refreshed, Jag took lead on the attack against Gorlois and sniped the skeletal warriors that had been resurrected. Z and Tripper downed potions to regen their health and mana, then jumped back into battle. Tripper used a dual-cast and launched two [Pulse] spells at Gorlois.

The spells caught debris, sticks and shattered parts of brick and dragged them into massive clumps before they slammed into the dark warrior. Gorlois was staggered and took a step back. He shook his head and the stagger effect went away. Tripper started to cast another [Pulse] and flung it at Gorlois, but he dipped under it and flung his sword forward.

The enormous blade flew past Tripper and landed in front of Rae, the frost magic of the blade seeped into the ground and flowed over her, trapping her in an icy shell. Jag jumped back to try and free Rae while Tripper and Z attacked Gorlois again.

Gorlois flickered through Z’s sword slash as if made of shadow. Under the ice, Rae’s mana drained to zero and regenerated much more slowly when it started to come back up. Tripper backed off from attacking Gorlois to free Rae.

Z pushed the knight away from his party with a furious attack. He slammed his shield into Gorlois and slashed with his sword. Jag fired from behind him to prevent Gorlois from fighting back by making him block the bolts with his gauntlets. Suddenly, the knight jumped back and raised his right arm.The sword in the ground near Rae lifted out of the earth with a violent shake and twirled through the air back to its owner. The blade sliced through Jag on the way back to Gorlois. The strike took a large chunk away from his health and he collapsed at the pain from the attack. His health continued to drop as he laid on the ground.

Z shouted and Tripper darted forward to back him up. Rae trembled but stood as well, her sword was gripped in her hand like a cane and held her up. In her other hand, she charged up a large orb of arcane energy and muttered under her breath as she prepared the spell.

Tripper and Z rush up to Gorlois. Tripper cast [Aegis] and Z brought his shield up to bear, holy magic rose off of the iron. Rae rushed over to Jag and tried to heal him but her mana had barely regenerated and she could not cast more than a basic spell. His health bar rose a few points, then dropped back down and sunk closer to zero.

Gorlois flickered again and reappeared behind Tripper and Z to attack Rae and Jag. Rae tried to shield Jag and Tripper cast [Aegis] over them. Z leapt onto Gorlois’s back and plunged his sword into the knight’s shoulder and through his chest. Gorlois’s health bar sunk into the red zone, the color darkened as it continued to drop. Tripper threw [Storm Shatter] at Gorlois again and sent electricity through the black-armored warrior.

Gorlois surged forward, Z still hung on by the handle of his sword. He banged his shield against Gorlois’s head while Tripper tried to restrain the enemy with ice magic. The frost spell he cast built up around Gorlois’s feet but he simply stepped forward and shattered the ice.

“He’s not slowing down!” Tripper yelled.

“Rae, get Jag out of here!” said Z.

Z pulled his sword out of Gorlois’s chest and tried to hack at his neck again while Tripper cast a [Fireball] at the knight. The flames caught onto Gorlois but he shrugged and Z was flung off of his back. Gorlois raised the sword up high over is head and marched forward and followed after Rae as she dragged the limp Jag behind her toward another part of the farmland they’d battled on.

Tripper tried to stab at Gorlois with his dagger as he channeled a lightning spell through it but Gorlois kicked him across the farm and into the remains of a house’s brick wall and he crumpled upon impact.

“Run!” Z shouted again, then jumped forward to chase after Gorlois.

Gorlois swung his sword down and it caught on Jag’s leg. Jag jolted out of his stupor and screamed in pain. Rae tried to strike at Gorlois but he slapped her aside and knocked the sword out of her hand. As Rae’s health dropped, Jag fired his crossbow while pinned under the massive warrior.

The bolts stuck out of Gorlois’s body and his health continued to sink but he moved like an unstoppable force. Smoke began to leak out of his armor as he stood over Jag. Tripper and Z dragged themselves forward, Tripper flung another pulse at Gorlois but the debris it did pick up simply fell flat against the knight, his rage passive began to build up again and his form increased in size.

Gorlois’s foot rose and then came down hard on Jag’s chest, the thin armor he wore caved beneath the heavy armored foot and splintered the crossbow he held in his arms and propped against his body. A wheezing breath escaped his mouth as small pieces of wood stabbed him and the weight of Gorlois’s armored form leaned into him.

Z managed to stand up just as Gorlois stepped onto Jag. Rae still lay crumpled where she had landed and Tripper continued to drag himself toward the party across the ground. Z activated [Fervor] again despite his low health and tried to pull Gorlois off of his friend.

As he lunged forward one last time to stab the enemy knight and finish the rest of his health off to save Jag, Jag let out a bitter laugh and threw a dagger into Gorlois’s eye and made him lean back a few inches. Z lurched forward again, his sword was gripped tightly in both of his hands. He plunged the blade into Gorlois, the holy magic of [Fervor] erupted from the knight where the sword went in but he continued to attack.

Gorlois pulled his sword out of Jag’s leg and thrust it back into his arm. A dagger that Jag had held in that hand clattered to the ground and his body shattered into pixels. Z yelled and pulled his sword up, cutting a few more inches out of Gorlois before he collapsed.

Z’s sword hung out of Gorlois’s body and the knight fell to his knees. His body flickered and smoke erupted from the ground, a spectral hand made of shadow grabbed his body. Gorlois screamed, a wail that sounded of exhaustion and regret echoed across the desolate farmland as he was whisked away, defeated.

A small chest rose from the ground where Gorlois had been defeated as the quest log updated.

[Quest Complete: Defeat Gorlois, Revenant Knight I]. Z’s eyes closed as he laid on the ground. He felt a warmth wash over him and looked up to see Rae healing Tripper and himself. While Jag’s body was gone, his crossbows still sat on the ground where he had fallen as well as the dagger that fell from his hand.

Tripper sighed and sat on the balls of his feet.

“Everyone okay?” Tripper asked.

“I think so. Man, that was a tough fight,” Z said.

“I’m hungry,” Rae whispered, then the three of them laughed.

“So who wants to call Jag and see if he’s gonna meet back up with us to finish the quest?” asked Tripper.

“I’ll call him,” said Z, then opened his HUD to contact Jag, “his name isn’t popping up on my list.”

“What? Let me try,” said Rae, confused.

“Anything?” Tripper asked.

“No,” she answered.

“Let me check with some people who were hanging by Tameron before Rae and I went to find you guys,” Z said, then stepped away to make the call.

A minute later, Z came back over, “They haven’t seen him. He’s not there.”

“Let’s give it another minute and then try again,” Tripper said.

The three of them waited, then Tripper opened his HUD to call Jag. Jag’s name was on his list but grayed out.

“Guys, he’s in my list, how about yours?” Tripper said.

“I’ve got him, but he’s grayed out,” said Z.

“Me too,” said Rae, “also, his items are still on the ground. That’s not normal, right? When I respawned before, I still had all of my equipment.”

“Yeah,” Z said, “that’s weird.” He picked up the dagger, then it disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“What the hell?” Z and Tripper both yelled.

A system message popped up on the three players’ HUDs reading [Hidden Quest, Do You Accept?]. All three of them looked at each other to confirm that they’d all gotten the same message, then nodded and accepted the quest. The system updated and changed the questlog. It then read [Quest Active: Enter the Spectral Realm]. No quest information came with it. The crossbows on the ground faded away as smoke.

An icon in their HUD flashed, it indicated loot drops all over the battlefield.

“We’ll need to make sure Jag gets his portion,” Tripper said quietly.

“Yeah, we’ll make sure he does. He’d be pissed if he missed out,” Z said. His voice was distant.

The three remaining party members started picking up the loot from the many enemies they had killed, then checked for any survivors at the other farms in the area. Finding a few, they escorted them back to Flickerton before they went to find Rusty to receive the quest reward at the church.