by Edward Brody
Name: flying darklurker
Race: monster
Level: 16
Health/Mana/Stamina: 100/0/150
Status: aggressive
Ozzy lifted his head and shouted at the wave of monsters flying down from the sky.
Most of the creatures poured down on Ozzy, metal clanking as they smacked into his shield and armor with their talons and beaks. The rest of the monsters ignored Ozzy and headed straight for the rest of the group.
Keysia stepped in front of us, kneeled and raised her hands, sending her area-of-effect lightning attack into as many as she could. Electricity webbed in between them all, and many of the beasts fell to the ground, spasming from the electrocution. Some of them seemed to resist her attack. They flew right for her, scratching and biting with everything they had.
Jax’s attacks seemed most effective. He fired accurately with his new bow, and each arrow that hit knocked one of the darklurkers out of the air. I released an on-cast effect from my staff, and shot a Fireblast, but I found myself ducking as one of the creatures came down on me as well. Donovan was shooting bolts from his gauntlet, until the beasts were in range for him to slash them with his sword.
Jeremy and Sung both seemed helpless until the monsters were right on top of them, but they swung, stabbed, and wrestled them the best they could.
Pain ripped through my body as one of the creatures pecked at my neck with its beak and dug its talons into my arm. I used my staff to thwack it repeatedly, but each hit seemed only to stall it from its attack rather than to dislodge it.
I felt a sudden tackle from behind and fell face-forward on my staff. The sound of hard stabbing pierced my ears, and then I felt the limp body of the creature that was attacking pulled off.
You have gained 400 XP!
When I turned, Sung was getting back up and offered me his hand.
You are bleeding and require medical attention. Bleeding is a damage-over-time effect.
I grabbed Sung’s hand, but as he was pulling me up, several of the winged creatures swooped down on him and started attacking him from behind. He fell over and started flinging his arms around wildly.
Unsure what to do, I panicked and shot and on-cast from my staff, which knocked the creatures away from him, but left Sung groaning and grabbing at his side where he had been hit.
You have gained 400 XP!
There was no time to apologize in the moment, and I turned to see Jeremy and Donovan both standing in front of Rina, swinging their weapons to prevent her from taking hits. Rina was continuously raising her staff, trying to heal everyone, but finding her spells interrupted repeatedly as she ducked the darklurkers.
I wasn’t even sure where Ozzy was, but there was a huge pile of the creatures completely engulfing something not far from where I last saw him.
Keysia had managed to free herself of the monsters that were attacking her, and she was no longer holding her staff, but was instead holding her magically summoned fan.
She held the fan up, turned towards the bulk of the monsters, and swung it as hard as she could.
An intense wave of air flew through the hall, throwing all the creatures that were flying backwards and against the wall. Even some of the ones that were piling on the ground were pushed back from the pressure.
As the creatures regained flight, she again swung her staff, pushing them into a tailspin. Before they could recalibrate, her fan disappeared, and she held out both hands, again releasing a massive wave of lightning.
You have gained 100 XP!
You have gained 100 XP!
I saw a brief opportunity as the bulk of the monsters were concentrated on the pile, which I was now pretty sure had Ozzy underneath, and another pile that was pressed against the wall. I focused on casting a Fire Curtain across as many as I could.
You have gained 100 XP!
You have gained 100 XP!
You have gained 100 XP!
Shrieking noises filled the room as my fire raised, and for a brief moment, I thought we may have turned the tides. But there was a low boom, and the statue in the middle of the room appeared to crumble.
I reflexively threw my arm over my face at the sound, but when I looked up, I could see that the statue had not crumbled altogether but rather a thin, outer layer of stone had dissolved from the statue, leaving a flesh and bones man of the same visage standing in the statue’s place.
The man held his hand out, and a perfect sphere of blue energy rocketed out of his hands, smashing into Keysia’s stomach. The blast was so strong that she was thrown against the wall and fell to the ground like a rag doll.
When I glanced up to my group’s status bars, I knew she was dead.
Sung was still battling a couple of the winged beasts when the man turned in his direction. Again, the man held his hand out, but instead of a sphere, Sung simply started floating up off the ground.
Sung flung his arms around in confusion, as the man pointed his staff in his direction. Several quick, successive globes of white energy flew out of the staff and into Sung’s body, causing him to rattle violently with each strike.
When Sung slumped and went limp in the air, the man released his grip, and my guild mate’s corpse fell to the floor.
My heart pounded as I saw my friends dying in front of me, but my primary thought went to one thing. Protect Rina.
“Protect Rina!” I yelled as I turned to Donovan and Jeremy who were doing their best to fend off a couple of the flying creatures who hadn’t been hit by our fire and lightning attacks.
Seeing the danger we were in, Donovan swung his sword at a nearby flying beast, then turned around. “Fall back!” he yelled as he waved his hand in the direction of the entrance. Jeremy looked up, glanced to me with a horrified look on his face, then turned for the door, waving for Rina to turn as well.
The mage who had appeared from under the statue laughed a single time before holding his hand out towards the three trying to escape. Three blue balls materialized in front of his hand, and small laser-like threads of energy formed in between each one to create a triangle of power.
I wasn’t sure if it was worth it, but I immediately tried casting a Clumsy on the mage. I heard a twang in my ears which made me think it had worked, but then when I followed up with an on-cast from my staff and Arcane Missile from my hand I saw that I was too slow.
You have reached level 15 in Arcane Magic!
The mage thrust his hand out, and the triangulation of three energy balls flew forward and spun at the same time. The spell flew perfectly straight and smashed into Donovan’s back. Donovan was both thrown forward and spun as he lifted off his feet, crashing into both Jeremy and Rina.
The caster flinched and cringed when my attacked hit, but he didn’t seem very harmed. He quickly recovered and turned to me with malice on his face.
He raised his hand to me, and it felt like a strong hand was suddenly squeezing me around my abdomen. My feet slowly started rising off the ground.
When I was a couple inches from the floor, I was suddenly dropped. The man hunched over, spun, and started reaching for an arrow stuck into his back.
“Hey, asshole,” Jax said from the other side of the room. He grabbed another arrow and shot it in the mage’s direction.
The man jolted upright as he saw the projectile coming for him, threw his staff from one hand to the other, then held out his free hand toward the arrow. It looked like the arrow burst into flames mid-air, and it fell to the ground in a pile of small ashes near his feet.
Jax swallowed hard, but then he started to run in a circle as he reached for more arrows.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rina scrambling out the door and Jeremy climbing out from under Donovan’s corpse.
You are bleeding and require medical attention. Bleeding is a damage-over-time effect.
Another flying darklurker stuck its talons in my neck and started pecking viciously at the top of my head.
I flung my arms and tried hitting it with my s
taff, but unsure of what more I could do, and seeing my health bar plunging rapidly, I just started running for the exit. With half our party dead, I knew there was no chance to defeat the mysterious mage and the flying creatures. Even saving Jax seemed impossible at that point.
The only thing I could do was just try to survive.
Chapter Thirty-Six
2/12/0001
I hopped over Donovan’s body as I closed in on the exit, and just as I was about to pull back the leather covering, the winged creature pecking at my head released its grip and flew straight up towards the ceiling.
I stumbled outside, fell, and skid across the ground, stopping just a few inches from falling over the edge. I stared down at the hard floor of the path below me, and sweat dripped from my brow, quickly forming a small pool.
You are bleeding and require medical attention. Bleeding is a damage-over-time effect.
I cringed as the bleeding hit me, and then I felt a cool, calming aura come over me. I turned my head to see Rina sitting on her knees, holding her staff up and Jeremy leaning against the wall, bandaging a wound.
“Holy hell…” I muttered under deep breaths.
“Holy shit, you mean?” Jeremy asked.
I shook my head, unsure how to respond.
I pulled myself up, reached into my bag, and fumbled for a bandage.
“Are you okay, Gunnar?” Rina asked as I sloppily tried applying the bandage to the wounds on my neck.
“No,” I said as I shook my head.
“Do you need help with First Aid?” she asked.
“No,” I said coldly. I kicked my foot out and grimaced. “Keysia’s dead.”
“Yeah, she’s dead alright,” Jeremy said comically. “So is Donovan. So is Sung.” He turned his head to me. “Where is Jax?”
I looked down to the ground and spit as I tied off my bandage. “Fuck,” I cursed, shaking my head.
“He dead too?” Jeremy asked.
“I don’t know. I had to run.”
“If he’s still in there alone, he’s dead by now,” Rina said. “There’s no way he’d survive.”
I scooted back ‘til my back was hard against the wall. I closed my eyes, bit my bottom lip and tried to calm my anger.
“What’s wrong, dude?” Jeremy asked.
I shook my head again. “I’m sorry guys. I fucked up.”
“Fucked up how?” Jeremy asked.
“It was my idea to come here, knowing it was out of our level range. I thought we had a chance, but we didn’t even come close to finding an ancient weapon.”
“Don’t worry, bro,” Jeremy said. “We tried our best. You tried our best. That’s all that matters.”
“Everyone is dead!” I said angrily. I wasn’t mad at Jeremy. Just mad at the fact.
“Whatever the reason,” Rina said, “if there’s five people dead, I’ll need at least an hour and fifteen minutes to resurrect them all. And since there’s a two-hour window to resurrect after death, we don’t have much time to get to them.”
“Yeah…” Jeremy groaned. “I don’t know how we’re going to do that. That fucking mage will kill us the minute we step through the door.”
“Can you resurrect them from outside?” I asked.
“Possibly,” Rina said, “Depending on my line of sight and distance. But the spell takes a moment.”
“Won’t they just get killed as soon as they wake up?” Jeremy asked.
I leaned my head back, placed my palm on my forehead and groaned. “This is such a mess…”
“Meditate, Gunnar,” Rina said.
I turned and raised an eyebrow to her.
“Meditate,” she said again. “Get your mana back up. We’re going to figure this out. I’m not leaving Jax in there.”
I gave her a slight nod. I was really stressing out about the situation, but she was right. I needed to focus. While going back into that room was a terrible, terrible thought, it was something we just had to do. The mage hadn’t made any effort to follow us out of the room, so all we needed to do was get in and out, right? Rez and get out.
Somehow.
I sensed my mana was full and pulled myself back to my feet.
“Plan?” Jeremy asked.
I shook my head. “Fuck if I know. Maybe if I summon my elemental, I can use it to distract that guy.”
“That might work,” Rina said.
“But then there’s the flying creatures.”
“Yeah…” I said. “This is my fault, so I’ll go inside. Maybe you can heal me in between resurrections?”
“I’ll try,” Rina said. “Whatever we’re doing, we need to act now.”
“Right…” I muttered. I glanced to the leather door. “Let me just see where that guy is at, so we have some idea which way to run.”
I walked carefully over to the leather covering, kneeled, and peeked through one of its holes. I saw Donovan’s body near the entrance, and I noticed Ozzy lying on his back—his face covered in blood. Curiously, though, there was no flying beasts anywhere on the ground or near the bodies, and in the center of the room was the statue of the man.
Aside from the bodies of my group and the bodies of the dead flying monsters, everything inside had returned back to the way it was when we had first entered.
“He’s a statue again,” I said. “And no birds… err bats… or whatever those are.”
“Huh?” Jeremy asked. He walked up beside me and peaked through one of the holes as well. “Well, would you look at that.”
“It seems…” I swallowed hard, hoping that I was right. “… that the flying things only come down once you’re in there for a while, and they don’t follow us outside.”
“The mage doesn’t come out either,” Jeremy added.
“And he only appears after a certain time,” I said. “I’m not sure if it happens after you attack the flying things, after a minute or so, or when you get too far into the room.”
It made sense. At least it did to me, and it should have for Jeremy. We were essentially living in an MMO, and weird rooms with foes that attack after certain actions or after a certain timeframe was par for the course. So were surprises—such as things that appear like simple-looking statues turning into enemies that can kick your ass.
“That gives us a better chance,” I said. “If we can bring the bodies out, Rina can resurrect without much worry.”
“Okay, well enough talk,” Rina said. “Time is ticking down.”
“Right,” I said. “Since Donovan is near, I’ll go for him first.”
They both nodded, and I turned to cautiously head through the door.
Everything inside of me was telling me to turn around as I pulled back the leather and crept back into the room. I stared at the mage’s statue, which was in the exact same pose that it was when we had first entered the room, and then I glanced up to the ceiling that looked like it was again covered in soot. Notably, some spots of the ceiling were now the color of the rest of the walls—a testament that we had managed to kill some of them before our defeat.
I reached down and grabbed Donovan’s arm when I was upon him and started dragging him—still face down—across the ground. It seemed a little shameful to treat his body with no dignity like that, but I had no shame about the situation. With him being so close to the door, picking him up would’ve just taken longer and added more risk.
I glanced up again right before I pulled him through the leather entrance, and the black things on the ceiling made some signs of stirring, but none of them came down.
“One…” I said when he was fully outside.
“Good job,” Jeremy said with a light pat on the back. “Do you need help?”
I shook my head. “Not yet… Just keep an eye on Rina while she’s rezzing. I’ll try to get them all out myself.”
“Alright,” Jeremy said.
Donovan’s body was starting to glow from Rina’s magic as I tiptoed back inside.
Keysia’s body was a little further in, and being much
more petite than Donovan, I lifted her slender body over my shoulder and scrambled for the door. When I glanced up, I saw hints of white, but again, nothing came down from above.
I gently sat Keysia’s corpse down outside, and Donovan was already starting to regain his senses.
“What the hell killed me?” He asked. “I felt like I was thrown upside down.”
“Some sort of weird, triangular magic attack,” I said. “I don’t know… I’ve never seen it before. Are you okay?”
“I’ve been better…”
I nodded.
Rina was on the ground meditating and waiting for her resurrection cooldown.
I headed back inside the room, and knowing that Ozzy and Sung were Reborns, I searched for Jax first. He was far from the door—close to Ozzy’s body but hidden a bit by the statue.
I attempted to lift him over my shoulder like I had Keysia, but he was heavier than he looked. Instead, I awkwardly slung his head and arm over my shoulder and then pulled him across the ground like a buddy dragging his friend away after a long night out at a bar.
I moved a lot slower with Jax, and halfway to the door, I saw the creatures on the ceiling stirring. First there were a few specs of white, then many, and when I was nearly towards the door, the beasts erupted into a wave of being awakened. They all flooded down towards me at once.
I pushed my body harder and considered dropping Jax and making a run for it, but I was so close to getting us out. Right as I was pulling Jax past the leather covering, one of the beasts stabbed me in the neck with its claws and pecked me on the skull with its sharp beak. I cried out and fell forward through the door with Jax’s weight on top of me.
