Nova Terra: Liberator - A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure (The Titan Series Book 5)

by Seth Ring

  Chapter Nine

  “Everyone, back! Now!”

  It was equal parts Seven Twisted Leaves’ command and the sound of pure rage that was flowing from Thorn’s throat that made the team move. As if their pants were on fire, the Titan squad turned and began to run, those who were closer to Thorn even using their abilities to move faster. Mina and Heidi were the closest to Thorn, and when his roar ended, they could see his glowing eyes turn toward them.

  “Go, go!” Slapping Heidi on the back, Mina slid in front of Thorn on a trail of ice, hoping to grab his attention.

  For a moment Heidi was frozen in place until she saw Thorn take a step toward Mina. Snapping out of her trance, she gritted her teeth and lifted her shield.

  [Burning Charge]

  Wreathed in flame, Heidi slammed into Thorn’s side.

  “Oof!”

  With a grunt, the air left Heidi’s lungs as she bounced off. Scrambling to her feet, she could feel her shield arm trembling. Just as she was getting her bearings, she was once again tugged off her feet by Mina just in time to avoid an earth splitting stomp from Thorn.

  “We gotta go!” Without pausing, Mina continued on her way, pulling Heidi after her.

  Behind them, Thorn crouched slightly, his eyes fixed on their retreating backs. Just as he was about to leap toward them, a roar behind him caused his head to turn. Still alive, Korma’hel the Mad stomped out of the massive hole Thorn had thrown him through, his teeth bared. What little reason remained in Thorn’s head immediately identified the werewolf boss as an enemy and his leap turned into a dash.

  Leaving a crater where he had been standing, Thorn hurtled toward Korma’hel. From a distance, the players of the Titan Squad watched wide-eyed as Thorn threw himself at the boss. Korma’hel seemed equally surprised, and even slightly fearful as he met the Titan in combat. Throwing a wild strike to try and gain initiative, Korma’hel suddenly lost sight of Thorn. Jerking his body back in surprise, he felt a sudden pressure near his head.

  Acting entirely on instinct, Thorn had ducked and jumped sideways, putting himself outside of Korma’hel’s field of view. Turning his shoulders, Thorn dipped his body down and spun, touching the ground with his palm as he whipped his leg around like a chopping axe.

  *CRACK*

  The power of the kick crushed through the arm that Korma’hel raised to block, driving the boss to the ground. Without waiting, Thorn immediately followed up with a flurry of punches and low kicks, keeping Korma’hel on the ground. Sweeping Korma’hel’s leg to prevent him from getting to his knees, Thorn grabbed the werewolf’s shoulder and began to punch him, smashing his fist down over and over, just as Devon had taught him when he first entered the game.

  Despite being nearly two hundred feet away at the other end of the street, Thorn’s teammates could hear the steady thump, thump, thump, of Thorn’s punches as he hammered Korma’hel into the ground. Already spooked, they looked at each other, fear in their eyes.

  “Uh, Leaves? Um, what do we do now?”

  “Ah. Yes. Well, let's stay over here for now.” The Fae Druid took a deep breath and held it to try and calm himself down. “Hopefully, when he is done, uh, with the boss, we’re outside of his aggro range.”

  “But what if he comes over here?”

  Shrugging, Seven Twisted Leaves looked at Mina.

  “Don’t look at me. I have no idea. Run? I mean, this isn’t the first time he has soloed a boss, but I’m more concerned about how long this rage is going to last.”

  “Was it that magic circle thing that was sucked into him?”

  “I guess. Honestly, I know just as little as you do. But if he was absorbing the rage from all of those werewolves, we might be here for a while.”

  Thorn had gotten on top of Korma’hel at some point and started pounding punches into the werewolf one after another until the monster stopped moving. Despite knowing that the unmoving body beneath him had lost its last breath, the rage boiling through Thorn’s body had not abated in the least. He could feel the urge to rip and tear coursing through him, strengthening his senses and alerting him that there were creatures to destroy close by.

  The red mist that had poured into his body had spread through him, energizing his muscles and pushing him to find a target to attack. It was as if the mist was a living spirit trying to consume him as it drove him into mindless rage. After filling his limbs, Thorn could feel the bloodlust storming into his head, battering away at his mental state. Little by little the red mist ate away at his reason, intent on turning him into the optimal killing machine.

  *click*

  A strange echoing sound rang out in Thorn’s body and abruptly he found himself looking at his body as it straddled Korma’hel. It was as if he had been forced out of his body and was now looking at it from a camera positioned above and behind his head.

  Startled, Thorn blinked and his view shifted again, overlapping the third person view that he was experiencing. This time, Thorn could see a glowing representation of his whole body laid out, as if it were lying on a table. Trying to wrap his head around what was going on, Thorn felt a piercing pain in his mind and saw a thick red mist coiling around his limbs. As he looked closer, the red mist jerked and turned toward him, giving him the impression that he was facing a bloodthirsty snake.

  Recoiling from the red mist, Thorn saw that there were other, smaller snakes of mist trying to worm their way into his head. Each wriggle sent pain shooting through his mind. Surprised by the assault, Thorn did not know how to react, and by the time he began trying to calm himself his mind had already been overrun by tendrils of the red mist. Taking a deep breath, Thorn tried to move his fingers, only to find that the red mist blocked his command from reaching his hand.

  Another piercing pain shot through Thorn’s mind as the large red mist snake smashed into his mind, trying to swallow it whole. Thorn could feel the edges of his mind starting to unravel as the red mist surrounded him and he knew that he had to do something or he would be lost. Taking a deep breath, Thorn reached deep into his core and relaxed his mind, letting the pain brought by the red mist flood in.

  It felt like ages since Thorn had repeated the mantra he had learned to deal with his pain in the real world, but as the red mist invaded his mind and ripped away the trappings it was abruptly halted. At the center of his mind lay an impossibly dense core of pure will, forged through a lifetime of pain.

  ‘I am more than my pain; I am more than my body. My body bends to my will, not I to it.’

  Brought up short by the immovable will in front of it, the red mist hesitated for a moment before renewing its assault. Rampaging through Thorn’s mind, it did its best to breach the wall it had come up against, only to find its attacks simply bouncing away. As it was gearing up for another attack, the dense will suddenly moved, exploding outward and pressing down on the red mist with the weight of a mountain.

  With the red mist occupying his body, controlling his limbs was not an option, so Thorn focused his attention on fighting the mental battle against the overwhelming rage. Thorn’s body had been acting on its own, following the red mist’s direction to battle. Yet, despite the bloodlust that urged his body to action, a sliver of his reason had held on, dispassionately observing the mess he had just made of Korma’hel. As his instinct now tried to drive him toward the Titan Squad, that sliver of reason bloomed into an immovable weight, freezing Thorn where he sat. Having recovered from the surprise brought about by the invading red mist, Thorn split his attention, using his powerful will to lock his body in place while he began to fight back against the corroding influence of the bloodlust.

  Little by little, Thorn used the weight of his mind to trap the bloodlust in place. Starting from the smallest of the red mist snakes, Thorn focused on seizing it to prevent it from escaping and severing it piece by piece. As the slivers of red mist were cut from the main body of rage they would struggle against their restraints before dissipating. Incensed by his counter attack, the red mist that had inva
ded Thorn’s body smashed itself against his will, trying to burn its way into the core of his mind through pure fury. Yet no matter how it fought, Thorn’s mind was focused and unshakable.

  Thorn’s burning eyes suddenly snapped shut and his fists closed. The sliver of reason that had been acting as an impenetrable fortress began to show signs of movement. Despite the pain in his mind, Thorn’s attention never wavered as his will began to flood through his body.

  Slowly at first, but with ever increasing force, that small remnant of clarity began to expand, as if a liquid was pushing back the rage and blocking its attacks. First it grew to fill his head, driving the bloodlust sensation down into his chest and extremities. Once his head was cleared, Thorn began to mentally push down into the rest of his body, slowly forcing the bloodlust to retreat. As the two forces battled inside of him, Thorn’s body shivered. Just as he finished clearing it from his chest, Thorn heard a voice booming out in his mind.

  [NO! NOOO! HOW COULD A MORTAL LIKE YOU RESSISST MY BLOOD?]

  A sense of disgust rose in Thorn’s mind and he redoubled his efforts, clearing his right arm and then his waist and legs. Forcing all of the bloodlust into his left arm, Thorn began to push it down toward his hand. Gritting his teeth, he gave a massive mental push. With a ripping feeling, Thorn felt the bloodlust being forced through his palm, where the remnants of the red mist dissipated into the air. Though it was painful, it was followed by a sense of relief.

  With the bloodlust expelled, a wave of fatigue swept over Thorn, causing his tightly clenched muscles to relax. A groan leaked from his mouth as he slumped over sideways, crashing to the cobblestone street. Too tired to even roll over, Thorn lay on his side, gasping.

  “Thorn!”

  Seeing that Mina was about to rush forward, Seven Twisted Leaves grabbed her shoulder.

  “Hold up there, missy. We need to make sure that the rage monster is gone and that Thorn is back. Healers, see if you can help the boss. Tanks, make sure you are ready to stop him if he starts going wild. Crowd Control, you’ll need to buy us some time if he is going crazy.”

  As frustrated as Mina was, she had to admit that Seven Twisted Leaves was correct. Thorn had just soloed a boss, and even if the boss he killed had less than half its health left, getting close to him while he was enraged was a death sentence.

  “Tanks, move us up. Slowly.”

  Cautiously, the Titan Squad moved forward toward where Thorn lay. On full alert, the tanks maintained a forty foot distance from Thorn, readying themselves to move backwards if he so much as twitched.

  “Let’s go with one heal for now. Blossom, give him something light. The last thing we need is a fully-healed Thorn if he is still juiced up.”

  Nodding, Blossom stepped forward to the tank line, getting herself just in range. She lifted her staff and pointed it toward Thorn, drawing a flower in the air. Crackling with green energy, she blew on the flower, sending it flying through the air to where Thorn lay. The flower expanded until it was larger than his body and settled down. Bands of healing energy wrapped around Thorn’s armor and then vanished into him.

  As the spell wrapped around him, Thorn could feel warmth pulsing through his body. Each pulse delivered a bit of health and eased a sliver of his fatigue. It was a slow process, but Thorn could feel himself improving.

  “What is taking so long?” Frowning, Mina looked at Blossom. “Is it even working?”

  “I can feel that the spell is active, but I think that his endurance pool is so big that most of the energy is getting sucked up trying to restore it,” Blossom replied before deflecting Mina’s attention to Seven Twisted Leaves. “Do you want me to try another cast?”

  “No,” the Fae Druid shook his head. “Let’s just take it slow. No point in risking a wipe because we’re rushing.”

  It took nearly twenty minutes and five casts of Blossom’s healing spell for Thorn’s energy to get back to the point that he could sit up. Groaning, he lifted himself to a sitting position, only to feel the magical healing abruptly cut off. A glance behind him showed that the Titan Squad had backed off again and was watching him from a safe range.

  Waving his hand to indicate that he was alright, Thorn felt his own regeneration kicking in. He had been so exhausted by the mental fight with the red mist that his body had no energy to spare for regenerating his health. Now that Blossom had gotten him back to a normal condition, his health began to regenerate properly.

  “Whoa, Thorn, what on earth was that?”

  *cough cough*

  “Ugh, I’m not sure.”

  Answering Mina, who had blinked next to him, Thorn heaved himself to his feet and turned to face the rest of the Titan Squad. The whole team, with the exception of Delmore, was watching him warily, just in case he decided to go crazy again. The Spirit Guide was studying the ground where the remnants of the red magical symbol lay. The majority of the symbols had vanished, but a rough outline had appeared in the dirt and Delmore was making sure that no one walked on it.

  “Sorry about that.” Thorn said, scratching his head to hide his embarrassment. “I really did not intend to do that.”

  “What are you apologizing for?” Seven Twisted Leaves grinned as he patted Thorn’s arm. “We cleared the boss in record time. But maybe next time let's not just go off on our own. We probably could have dealt with him as a group which would have been a safer, and from the looks of it, a less painful way of beating him.”

  “Yeah. Sorry.” Accepting the rebuke, Thorn smiled apologetically at the rest of the team.

  “Hey, check this out. I found a key.” From the hole in the ground where Korma’hel’s body lay, Mina lifted a rusted key. “It says it is the gate key to the mayor’s manor.”

  “Good, let's head that way. Healers, get Thorn’s health back to full. Scouts, we’re headed toward the center of town. Tanks, move on their command.”

  Chapter Ten

  Thorn’s head was still pounding, but he fell in line with the rest of the tanks and waited for the scouts to give the all clear. While they walked toward the center of the dungeon, Thorn looked over the descriptions of the gear that Mina sent to the chat. His armor was already outstanding so he was not overly interested in any of it.

  After about thirty minutes of walking and another four fights, the Titan Squad had cleared the way to the front gate of the mayor’s mansion. A massive metal fence with ornate gargoyle sculptures set at regular intervals surrounded the building. Through the rusted metal rails, Thorn could see a robed figure standing in the center of the courtyard.

  “Alright team, let's pause here.” Calling for everyone to stop, Seven Twisted Leaves had them gather. “This looks to be our next boss fight. This time, we’re going to plan it a bit better.”

  Coughing into his fist, Thorn looked away as if Leaves’ comment had nothing to do with him.

  “While we made it through the last fight unscathed due to Thorn’s, uh, unique traits, we can’t just throw him at every boss we come across. Our goal is not only to clear the dungeon, but to do it in a repeatable way. That way, the next team that comes in here can clear it as well.”

  “We could just have Thorn bus.” Mina said with a grin, causing the rest of the team to chuckle.

  Smiling along, Thorn secretly sent a message to Corvo.

  “Though that would probably work, it is not going to be very efficient, so let’s focus on doing this in a sustainable way, please.” Ever serious when he was working, Seven Twisted Leaves brought everyone’s attention back. “Thorn, I know I said that we were going to unleash you on the bosses, but you were a bit too effective in the last fight. We are not doing a speed run, so I’m going to have you take a small step back this time. Hang out with the ranged DPS for now. I’ll let you know if I want you to engage in melee.”

  “Got it.”

  “Great. Tanks, we’re going to play this one a bit differently.”

  *ding*

  As Thorn listened to Seven Twisted Leaves give directions, he open
ed up the message that had just arrived from Corvo.

  Sending back a quick thanks, Thorn closed out the message and tuned back in to what Leaves was saying.

  “Alright, anyone with a stun, step out. I’m going to put you in groups, you’ll be responsible to stop the charged spells. Make sure that you are organizing according to the length of your recharge. Shortest in group one, longest recharges in group two, everyone one else, pick a group starting from low to high.”

  “Why did you put them in that order?” Taking the opportunity while the players with stuns were getting themselves organized, Thorn asked Seven Twisted Leaves.

  “The first group will be spamming their stun as much as possible, since it is the easiest. However, it also has the shortest duration or least effect. The faster the recharge, the shorter the stun lasts, especially on a boss. The opposite is true for group two. Longest stun, longest recharge. Stuns tend to make bosses angry, so it is likely that when we block the boss’ first spell, the spell that follows will be much more dangerous.”

  “Got it. It is crazy how intricate all this is.”

  “It has to be.” Seven Twisted Leaves gave a mirthless smile and patted Thorn’s arm. “Most of us are not bosses ourselves, so we have to use what advantages we have.”

  It did not take long for the Titan Squad to get itself organized and set up in front of the gate. Taking the key from Mina, Leaves gave it to EphemeralWhisper who inserted it into the gate and then vanished, reappearing behind Thorn. With a dreadful creak the gate opened up and the tanks led the way into the manor’s courtyard.

  As he walked through the gate, Thorn was able to see the robed figure better. Surprisingly, the robed figure was not a Wolfkin. Human looking hands stretched from the thick folds of the red robe to hold a tall bone staff set with a red gem. The figure had a hood that cast a deep shadow over its face, but when the players had all entered, the figure pulled the hood down, revealing a smooth silver mask with three triangles where the left eye should have been.