Free World of Eternia: The Complete Collection by Antony W. F. Chow

is half-drawn. He looks
back at his party members, and realizes that they are standing too
close to him. He releases his weapon, and it slides back into the
scabbard. “I need some space,” he shoos them away with a motion
of his gauntlet-covered hand.
    “Oops,” Conrad
remarks to his chagrin, as he puts each hand on a spell caster's
shoulder, and gently pulls the two a few steps back away from the
chains and the knight.
    Satisfied with the
additional space he now has to work with, the cavalier frees his
sword from the scabbard with an ease born of long practice with the
player's real life gloves. He winds his sword back like a golf club,
and unleashes a vicious hack at the thick chain.
    Ting! The chain rattles
like rolling dice, but holds firm.
    Wesley furrows his
eyebrows as he looks intently at the spot where his sword had just
hit the link in the chain. Barely a dent, he observes. The cavalier
puts his sword down, leaning it against the wheel. He proceeds to
pull his shield off his left forearm.
    “Whoa, a two hand
job!” the barbarian cat calls as he watches with amusement from a
short distance away. Too bad I
don't have an ax or else I'll join in the fun, he notes
sadly to himself. Maybe I should
offer to take a few hacks with his sword on the chain? I will make
the offer if the old man can’t cut it.
    Wesley ignores the rude
comment, his focus solely on the task of cutting the links. He holds
the sword with a two-hand grip, winds the weapon back again, and
swings repeatedly with all his might.
    Tching! Tching! Tching!
Tchuk! The chain finally breaks, causing the heavy gate to come
crashing down! BOOM! The impact reverberates on the floor, and the
ensuing shock wave nearly knocks the party members to the ground.
    The cavalier is the
first to recover from the shock wave, and pauses for a moment to
admire his handiwork. Before the other members notice his gawking, he
quickly grabs his buckler shield and starts strapping it back to his
left forearm.
    “Maybe we should have
just used the wheel to wind down the gate,” Lucious remarks once he
recovers from the unexpected shock wave.
    “I disagree,”
Conrad replies immediately. “If we left the chain intact, the
undead warriors might have summoned a minion, like a ghost, to wind
up the gate again. We can't afford for these remaining skeletons to
attack us from behind, especially if we're dealing with the next
surprise left by the game designers from the front. We lack the
manpower to defend two fronts like that,” he explains his
rationale.
    “So you prefer the
alternative then,” the young man replies.
    The barbarian raises
his eyebrows, imploring the mage to continue.
    Lucious rolls his eyes. Do I have to spell out
everything for our very own Conan , he thinks to himself.
He sighs and tries to leave his irritation out of his voice. “I
meant the way this gate crashed down is like a knock on the door of
every remaining denizen in this castle or dungeon, telling them that
'We're here,'” he explains, as if he's talking to a child.
    “It doesn't matter if
they know we're here,” Diana jumps in with a rebuttal. “We're not
silent, stealthy thief type of characters, anyway. With the way we
toss those big, flashy spells around during our encounters with
monsters, and knocking down the castle’s front door, we are already
announcing our presence inside this castle or dungeon or whatever
else you wanna call it. The question is how much hospitality we can
expect from our forthcoming encounters. So far, the answer is
'none,'” she shrugs.
    “Guys, we need to put
some distance between us and the gate. There's a slight chance that
the skeletons could work in unison and raise the gate. And
considering the degree of intelligence that these monsters seem to be
possess, I wouldn't put it past them to do exactly that,” Wesley
says. “Even if they can’t, their crossbowmen could shoot at us
through the gates. Follow me!” He turns and walks through the