Battle Avatars
Page 18
“How’s this go?” Lisa leans over to study the wedge cut from the first tree. Her dark pants stretch over her ass, and tighten around her thighs.
Damn.
I hit the side of the closest tree with the double-sided axe. “I cut into the opposite sides of each trunk and they’ll go down in turn. This one’s a bit taller, it might be held up on the side of the monolith.”
Lisa points up. “What about the vines?”
“Weight of all three will be enough to pull them loose, if not the first tree.”
She ponders the tangled foliage before a glance at the circling boss. “You might just hit him after all.”
“Maybe.”
The back cut made to the first tree, I swing a final axe blow and leap away. The trunk twists and splinters, but hangs suspended by its crown, interlaced with vines and the branches of neighbors.
Forestry skill: woodcutting.
Reward: 10 XP
Lisa watches but says nothing. I didn’t get the hinge right, and make sure to amend that on the other trees. If it twists, the next tree won’t fall in the right direction. Measuring two hand widths higher, I chop away the back cut. The wedge grows and Lisa backs further away.
The second tree pulls the first with it and stops at a high angle.
Forestry skill: woodcutting.
Reward: 10 XP
Funny there’s no “lumberjack: fail” popup, but I suppose I’ve succeeded at cutting down the trees. Third may be the charm.
“Keep it up, sweetie, I know you can do it.” Lisa starts laughing. Hard.
“Really?”
“I’m sorry.” She puts her hand to her lips.
I line up the blade. “At least you said ‘sweetie’.” I slam the axe into the back cut before Lisa answers, deepening the wedge until the sharp first crack of snapping wood splits the air. The hinge gives way and the third, tallest of the three trees takes the other two trees with it, and stops. The three giants hang suspended.
Forestry skill: woodcutting.
Reward: 10 XP
“Damn it!” I leap onto the trunk. “You coming?”
Confused, Lisa grimaces. “Up there?”
Lisa is beside me in the time it takes to secure the axe to my back. We climb and walk up the side of the tree.
Crawling through the mass of branches and vines, we reach the tangle suspending the three trees at their awkward angle. I pause to consider my baton.
Lisa grips my wrist. “We don’t want to set the tree on fire around us.”
I squeeze her hand. “Hang on then.”
“Wait!” Lisa points below. “We’re almost over the platform.”
We eye the boss, but he won’t be drawn away from the platform.
Axe in hand, I lop branches away, chop through the tangle of vines, and hang on with my free hand. The tree shudders as vines snap away. Lisa crouches, wedging herself against a fork in between branches.
“Timber!”
Chapter Sixteen
The boss roars as he crashes through the mass of branches, leaves, and vines, sending tremors through the fallen timber. We’ve all taken damage in the fall, Lisa and I perhaps more than the boss, but several tons of timber fell on him. I’ve dropped my axe with no time to recover it, as Lisa and I dash for the entrance to the monolith.
His axe arm freed, the boss triggers his AoE, the axe crashing down, flames erupting, absorbed by the fallen trees between us. His rage is felt as a tremendous bellow and shattering of wood.
The door is dozens of feet away. We dash with half our HP. One attack from the boss will send us back to the portal temple. I’ll jump off this sky island before going through the whole thing again. Force Beechum to come for a visit.
Wings sweep, the fallen crowns swept by a blast of air as the boss takes to the sky.
Eight feet left.
He swings the axe, a crimson arc cascades into the timber and stone ahead of us.
“Keep running David, I’m gonna test out my vortex energy defense.”
Lisa pulls alongside me, aims and fires her baton at the boss. He’s just within range, slows, but unleashes a second wave of energy towards us, it hits Lisa in a flash. Trees at the edge of the platform shudder as the wave emerges fifty feet from us, continuing into the jungle—Vile Vortex works for energy attacks.
The door.
I glance at Lisa, she’s transparent.
Lia HP: 2/10
“Get your ass in there, Greywaters!”
Damn it, what if I teleport out of the monolith once I claim the sedes? Lisa will be lost up here. Or does Lisa’s Vile Vortex factor into leaving?
The door is so close.
Hell’s bells, man.
God and Ghost Exchange.
Ley Bridge.
Gryphon War Beast 25/80
I leech from the boss to feed life into Lisa. The War Beast managed to gain a small amount of rest, recovering HP while I played lumberjack, but he’s below 50%. The problem is, our small HP levels compared to his—Lisa and I will die from one blow. She knows it too, yelling at me like a sailor.
“Even for selfish reasons, I’m not leaving you here.” I’m the only thing holding the boss in place with Ley Bridge.
No longer transparent, Lisa is on her feet running to the doorway. “Run to me once I fire on the boss.” She says and aims her baton.
Chain Vortex.
A frantic charge surges through my body as the boss bellows behind me, that rabid cocktail of fright, excitement and anxiety. It drives me headlong past Lisa, into the green glow within the sanctum of the monolith.
“You know what I just now figured out?”
It’s amazing how you can get winded in this game. I raise my eyebrows to Lisa as a question to her.
“The doorway, archway, whatever, is big enough for the boss to follow us.”
Damned megalithic architecture. The emerald glow draws my attention away from the entrance to this sanctum. All that joking about the Wizard of Oz and there’s a damned emerald glow in here. Lisa follows and we penetrate further within.
We find the source of the light, the sedes my imp tipped me to back in the artificer’s enormous shop. Where is my imp?
“Is your imp with you?”
Lisa frowns. “I’ve not had any reason to speak with my imp. Remember, my imp doesn’t appear in battle.”
“Ex?” He doesn’t appear. We approach a dais, above which, the sedes hovers, a crystal cube with a single, central, green point of light.
The sedes snatched up in my excitement-fueled hands, we realize the quest isn’t complete as the boss barrels into the sanctum. I stare into the glow of the sedes. Wasn’t the point of the quest to retrieve it?
Sedes: 1/9
Heart.
Collect and socket nine sedes to complete a legendary SX/GN baton. Take your first step towards the power of a Battle Avatar and unlock the secrets of the sedes.
Again with the Battle Avatars.
Lisa fires on the boss.
Oh hell, the quest text said to “defeat all challengers”. We avoided the doppelganger posse along the Path of the Fallen, but the doppelgangers are prisoners, the true challenger is the War Beast—their warden.
We have to defeat the warden to complete the quest.
The sedes bristles with energy, glowing in my outstretched hand, almost numbing, cold and bitter like a jolt from an electrical socket, as its power surges into my baton.
Ley Bridge.
Shimmering Blast.
The sanctum fills with intense light from the green flames fired from my baton. A vicious cyclone whirls around the blast, assaulting the War Beast.
You have defeated the Gryphon War Beast.
Rewards:
Red ley crystal +2.
Blazing Axe.
Weapon
Type: Melee.
Name: Blazing Axe
Cost: N/A
Level: 1
Rank: 1
Tier: 2
Affinity: None.
Effects: N/A
Hit: 13
DAM: 4 (+1)
Two handed: 4
PD: +1
ED: 0
Attributes
Blazing Axe-strike. This weapon adds +1 to defense and damage. When bound to this weapon maximum HP increases by 1 for each level attained.
Requirements
Soul bind.
Strength.
Dexterity.
Upgrade: ley crystal +1.
Upgrade: Combine.
Do you wish to equip?
Warning: soul bind on equip.
Y/N
Weapon combinations:
Requires bond. Can be soul binding or prerequisite once a subclass is chosen.
Required to activate functions/magic.
Requires artificer.
“Yes.”
Weakness overcomes me, as Lisa lays her hands to restore my HP. A feeling of incredible warmth fills me and I’m not sure it’s from the power of her healing skill or the sedes. Hazy images begin to flood my mind, but I push them away as Lisa’s healing touch revives my HP. She leans over me, her shirt open to her cleavage, but where Jonesy’s mind dwells in the gutter, mine opens to the possibility of a new life, a balanced one.
Balance. For a moment, my hand stretches out aglow with emerald light, and I’m surrounded by vast walls of silvered crystals, not unlike the Citadel room back in Haven.
“How powerful is a baton with a socketed sedes?” Lisa interrupts my vision, pointing at the sedes.
I shake my head. “You’ve played longer than I have.”
“Well, it doubled your damage from Shimmering Blast and I think it added Tornado Technique. I guess it depends on levels. Everything advances.”
The sedes secured in my armory, a HUD displays and Lisa must see it too, as she focuses on something in front of her.
You have completed the Path of the Fallen.
Rewards:
550 XP.
Sedes.
Assorted treasure, 1200 GP.
XP required for next level: 975.
Do you wish to return to the gateway?
Y/N
“Hell yes!” Lisa turns to me and laughs as light engulfs us.
***
Expecting to appear in the portal temple, we arrive in the ruined temple in the Fell Lands. Eyes adjusted, we make our way through the collapsed structure, crawling back to the ruins. Explosions ring out, echoes from the chaotic ruins causing distortions and the gargantuan megalithic structures obscure our line of sight in all directions.
We reach out to the group by party chat.
Me: We’re back, where are you?”
Jonesy: Woo-hoo! We’re finishing off the boss! Bring up your map, Paul’s updated it.
The broken bodies of beast men litter the ruins along the route to the boss—the chief War Maker. The closer we get the easier it is to locate the battle site. The bellows of the War Beast all too familiar from only minutes ago on the sky island. Smoke chokes the sky and churned mud covers the blackened stones and fallen rubble. Surrounded by crooked granite masonry, we arrive above a large depression in the ground, the remains of an enormous arena. Across the field of battle, the remnants of seating and viewing apartments sit in crumbled ruin.
The chief War Maker is another War Beast behemoth, with tattered wings erupted from its humped back, stomping forward on enormous talons, wielding an enormous War Hammer that must cause Granger to salivate.
Gryphon War Beast 22/80
Remy encases the War Beast in ice as Jonesy and Granger assault the trapped mob. Mal and Kona crouch beside Paul watching the final moments of the gryphon boss.
You have defeated the Gryphon War Beast.
Rewards:
Red ley crystal +2.
War Hammer.
Do you wish to equip?
Warning: soul bind on equip.
Y/N
With whoops and hollers, we dance about and jump around as the stress and exhilaration of the past few hours is released. Granger immediately moves on the hammer to the raucous laughter of all. His eyes glisten like a My Little Pony as his hands wrap around the hilt. Equipped, he brandishes the weapon with exuberance. The rest of us claim and share the rewards equally and fill in each other on parts missed with excited chatter.
Paul points toward the ruined roost of the fallen boss, followed by Jonesy. Entering the crumbled monolith ahead of the rest of us, Jonesy whoops again and laughs hard.
The two emerge as we reach the wide, shattered platform so like the one on the sky island. Held between them is a large shield.
The Bemer Shield, legendary aegis of the Gryphon Demos. Only the greatest heroes of the gryphon people wielded this great weapon in ages past.
You have defeated the War Makers.
Rewards:
500 XP.
Ley crystals +1.
Assorted treasure, 1000 GP.
Assorted Axes.
XP required for next level: 910.
Man, leveling up takes work and it’s hard-earned. It’s going to take a while to reach level two if Julia doesn’t kick me to the curb.
My imp, Ex, is nowhere to be seen. I want to know more about master artificers. To socket the sedes and combine my baton with the double-headed axe, only a dwarven master will do.
Lisa leaps on me in a bear hug, while everyone but Mal claps Remy on the back and jokes with him. Seems like Remy’s become everyone’s best friend, which is par for the course with Jonesy. He collects people like our parents collected action figures.
As it turns out, praise for Remy is a result of his plan—a strategy of stealth won the day, killing the boss through subterfuge.
Jonesy punches my shoulder, cocking his head toward Lisa and winking. As strange as he was behaving since my first log in, he appears back to normal. Who am I to say? Being a workaholic, I wasn’t around him, but Lisa was there and something about what she is saying about Jonesy rings true.
“D! Your pal Remy’s a beast! He has sick kite skills and mad stealth.”
Lisa’s smile confuses me somewhat, whether it’s a smile of embarrassed awkwardness, or approval of my best friend supporting my new one.
Mal interrupts the Remy party parade. “Alright, let’s get this shield back to Jonesy’s cray-cray owl lady.”
***
My breath is heavy under the dense canopy of the jungle beyond the Fell Lands, like inhaling a dank, hot soup, more like drowning. Sounds assault us from all around and our damp clothing clings to us, revealing our muscled and model-like bodies. I pull my eyes away from the translucent white cotton shirt plastered around Lisa’s breasts as Jonesy calls out and hope she hasn’t caught me staring.
“Alright, I think we’ve had enough for today. We’re out of the Fell Lands, so we can Fast Travel if you guys want.”
Murmurs arise before all are agreed that we’d prefer showers and food to a long trek through the oppressive afternoon heat.
Agreed to return to Haven, single file on the jungle trail, we run forward but nothing happens. Jonesy, Granger and Paul jog to a halt, confused. I catch a smile flicker across Mal’s face for the first I’ve noticed since meeting him.
“The red dome.” Lisa throws her hands up. “There’s another battle royale style game instance. David and I saw it from the sky island.”
Jonesy’s eyes widen. “Battle Avatars.”
Hackers, more to the point. But Julia hasn’t appeared to berate me, so maybe this new dome isn’t the same. No PM, nothing from Beechum. Oh, for the day when this is over. My eyes fall on Lisa’s chest. Over, but with a job in the Conglomerate in the beta group with Lisa. Mmm.
“Alright.” Jonesy throws his hand toward the direction of Haven. “We’re walking it.”
Rubbing the back of my neck, I rub my other hand. “Uh, since there’s a new game instance happening. I’d like to go there.”
Jonesy glances at the others.
Remy calls up his UI map. “It’s on the map.�
��
“Show of hands, Haven or game instance?” Jonesy says.
An hour later, we’re deep within the jungle depths. As I turn to offer Lisa some bacon stashed in my bag this morning, Granger and Jonesy are mauled by a pouncing saber-tooth.
Random encounter: Saber-toothed tiger.
Rewards:
450 XP
Ley Crystal +1.
Creature
Name: Saber-toothed tiger
Species: Smilodon.
Level: N/A
Class: N/A
Subclass: N/A
Affinity: None.
HP: 50/50
MP: N/A
AC: 12
Attributes
Strength: 18 (+3)
Dexterity: 40
Movement/Speed: 4
Combat Rate: 1.63
Constitution/Endurance: 18 (+3)
Physical Defense (PD): 3.6
Energy Defense (ED): 3.6
Body: 18
Stun: 36
Recovery: 7.2
Intelligence: 9 (-1)
Mental strength: 12
Senses: Smell. Perception 14 (passive)
Presence/Charisma: 5
Abilities/Skills
Stealth.
Pounce (requires save).
Weapons
Teeth. Claws.
Bite. Melee attack: +6 to hit.
DAM: 10 (piercing)
Claws. Melee attack: +6 to hit.
DAM: 12 (slashing)
Saber-toothed tigers roam the jungles of the Wilds, preying upon all. Cross their path at your peril.
Shadow Fox HP: 3/10
Vi-King HP: 4/10
Is it me, or have things gotten deadlier, more intent on killing us, since I faced the Lemurians? From training to the frying pan.