Masters of Strata (Deepest Dungeon #2) - A LitRPG series
Page 13
“Julia.” He met her worried gaze. “It’s fine.”
Jericho’s voice rumbled along the tunnel, and Julia snatched her hand back. “Rat-boy says he is fine, I say we believe him.”
Martin gave them a terse nod, then strode off after Lindsay as fast as he could without looking like he was running. Behind him he could already hear the harsh whispers breaking out. Maybe the Night Ravager would come bounding along and eat them if he wasn’t listening in, but at this point it was preferable to any more of that awkward conversation.
He nearly barged right into Lindsay as she stood by the side of the latest twist in the tunnel, immobile and shimmering on the edge of invisibility, partly in shadow. “Wait,” she said.
He fell in behind her, crouching down. “What is it?”
“Something.”
“A little more specific.”
“Something kind of person-shaped.”
“If I ever go blind, I am never ever asking you for help.”
“I’d just draw dicks on your face when you couldn’t see to wipe them off.”
With a grumble he pushed forward to look for himself, low-light vision penetrating the gloom. Lindsay was right. There was something person-shaped in the corridor ahead. It had the distinct head of a bull with two long curved horns protruding from its face, but from the chest down it looked perfectly human in the dull gray of his vision.
“Minotaur. It isn’t moving.”
Lindsay squinted. “Is it dead?”
“I think we need to go closer to find out.”
They began inching forward when Jericho came growling along the corridor to join them, pausing only long enough to huff, “Women,” before barreling blindly toward the minotaur.
Lindsay and Martin looked to each other with despair, then charged after him.
“Jericho!”
“Look out you damn dirty ape, there’s a…”
They all skidded to a halt.
Martin finished her sentence. “A statue.”
It was most assuredly a statue of a minotaur, the bull’s head and human body clearly and intricately detailed in carved stone the same color as the stuff of the walls. Martin crept forward to examine it, and he was still peering carefully at the lines of the carving when a moist-eyed Julia dashed into sight. “Oh. A statue.”
It was very similar work to the carvings on the walls, detailed and vaguely European in style without getting into any specific sculptor’s niche. Martin was fairly impressed with the realism of the fur on its head, and wondered for a moment if this was meant to represent somebody who had been petrified by some spell or another, then he shook it off. There was an elegant swooping script in some language that he couldn’t read engraved into the stone that a regular flesh-and-blood minotaur probably wouldn’t have sat still for.
“It is.” He let out a little nervous laugh. “It is just a statue.”
That was when the eyes lit up.
It wasn’t the green light of the Night Ravager’s eyes or the reflective eyeshine of the Felidavans. It was a milky pale light that illuminated the whole room, casting long shadows from each of the gathered players across the walls. Martin didn’t wait for anything else to happen. He drew his sword and swung.
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 3 slashing damage]
He barely made a scratch in the stone, but it was enough to knock the stone-minotaur off balance before it could make an attack of its own.
That was plenty of time for Jericho to close the distance and start in on it. Fist hammering into the stone body, working it like a punching bag even as his knuckles split open and bled.
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 4 bludgeoning damage]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 6 bludgeoning damage]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 3 bludgeoning damage]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 2 bludgeoning damage]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 5 bludgeoning damage]
Lindsay took a less direct approach. As the minotaur’s arms rose up, she swung on the closest one like it was a climbing frame, catching the closest horn and hauling herself up on top of the living statue.
“Shadow Slash!”
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 3 slashing damage]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 23 dark damage]
Martin circled around to the side, lighting up his sword with Celestial Strike ready to charge in when suddenly the statue’s head snapped around to face him. He met the glowing eyes and for a moment it was as if everything around him faded to darkness.
[CURSED: Curse of Ages]
He shook his head to clear his vision then closed the distance, slamming his sword between where a living minotaur would have had ribs.
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 0 piercing damage]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 12 light damage]
As the light in the blade dimmed it wedged in the stone. Martin had to put a foot against the side of the statue and strain to haul it out, shrieking all the way.
With its curse dispensed, the statue now turned its attention toward the situation at hand, bringing both arms up and then hammering them down into Jericho.
[Jericho has suffered 14 bludgeoning damage]
The shadows of vengeance gathered around the wolf-man where he was bent over. Jericho was rearing up to deliver them to the statue in an explosion of destructive energy when its knee jerked up into his jaw and sent him sprawling.
[Jericho has suffered 16 bludgeoning damage]
Lindsay swung from the horns as the statue shifted around, still jabbing and stabbing at it when she could, but having no luck penetrating the stone.
Martin staggered back and tried to think. “The eyes! Go for the eyes!”
Lindsay didn’t need told twice. She rose up to her full height on the statue’s shoulders, upraised daggers scraping the ceiling, then hammered them down into the creamy light.
[CRITICAL HIT]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 32 piercing damage]
[CRITICAL HIT]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 34 piercing damage]
The minotaur took one staggering step, and then the light in its eyes died. Lindsay let out a whoop of victory that turned into a yelp as the statue crumbled to pieces as life left it.
Sentinel Statue has died.
Skaife gains 620 experience.
Digging through the rubble turned up no treasure, so the rest of the guild got ready to move on. Martin felt exhausted, and had no idea why. As they were about to set out he caught the hem of Julia’s robes and stopped her. “I’m cursed.”
“You’re what?”
“The statue put the Curse of Ages on me.” With a blink he confirmed his suspicions. “Half of my health pool is gone. Have you got anything to get rid of curses?”
“I didn’t even know that this game had curses. I’ve got spells for diseases and poisons, but not curses. Maybe curses are an Invoker thing?”
“Damn it.”
It wasn’t unworkable, it was just unpleasant. Martin’s health pool had always been smaller than he would have liked for a game like this, and halving it meant that every single combat that he waded into was going to be a life-or-death situation.
Already flinching in anticipation of the outcry, he touched his guild crest. “Change of tactics. I need to hold back until this curse wears off.”
“What is it, you take black cat under umbrella and have seven years bad luck?” Jericho’s voice rumbled back along the corridor. So much for stealth.
“Halved health. The statues can curse.”
Lindsay opened her mouth and let loose a string of expletives that would have made a sailor blush and a clergyman burst into flames, finally ending the ear-ringing outpouring of grotesque audible depravity with, “Hey, I guess I can curse too. Like just now. When I cursed at you, because you got a goddamned curse put on you, and now we all have to baby you until it wears off.”
Julia touched her crest, a smile playing over her lipless mouth. “I hear t
hat curses wear off quicker if you are nice to the person who has been cursed.”
Jericho barked a laugh. “Then the rat-boy will be cursed for five hundred extra years.”
“Martin, you suck! You are the worst! If you were a statue, you’d be a brick. If you were a color, you’d be beige. If you were a drink, you’d be lukewarm water…” The litany of Lindsay’s insults rolled on over the crests.
Even as all the happiness seemed to drain from Julia’s face, Martin shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
As much as the curse was a nuisance, it at least told Martin that they were headed in the right direction. There would have been no point in hitting players with crippling curses if they weren’t heading into another round of combat within the time that the effect lasted. More fighting meant more monsters, and more monsters inevitably marked the path toward the next goal.
At least that was Martin’s abiding theory until they walked directly into a dead end. “Huh.”
They backtracked past the ruined minotaur’s crumbled remains – Martin indulging a little childishness and kicking a lump of it as he passed – then they were back into the sprawling maze where the Night Ravager still waited for them, all too patiently.
Even adjusting for the idea that they had crash landed somewhere in the middle of the deep rather than near the entrance, the layout still confused Martin. Down some tunnels the walls would become more heavily engraved, only for them to fade out to plain stone again by the inevitable dead end. Down others they would remain plain until ending abruptly in a huge carved frieze. None of which were secret doors, according to Lindsay’s Knave skills or Jericho’s violent outbursts.
There was no way that any monster stalking them in the shadows didn’t hear the Wulvan trying to punch his way through the walls of the cave, or Lindsay’s litany of expletives every time they came to a dead end. At least they weren’t being directed at Martin anymore.
The counter for the Curse of Ages was visible when Martin closed his eye, and he’d already made it halfway through its fifteen-minute span. If they just went on being lost for a bit longer then at least one of his problems would go away on its own.
Lindsay’s stealth faded her back into sight as she screeched at the roof. “Come on! We’ve been going around in circles for hours!”
“It’s been seven minutes.”
She glowered at Martin. “Hours.”
“The timer for the Curse of…”
“Hours!”
She shoved him as she passed, but it was half-hearted. Like she was too disheartened to even be properly annoyed. It wasn’t a good sign. Lindsay without her boundless enthusiasm was like Martin without a brain. Or a fish without water.
Left to her own devices, even after almost re-enacting her traumatic dismemberment, she was liable to reset to her usual chipper self, but Martin hadn’t accounted for the emotional impact of Jericho’s little insurrection. Lindsay’s confidence in herself was buoyed by the respect of her peers, and to have lost that at a vital moment could cause a crisis. Martin really needed to get her a win, and fast.
“Hey, boss, I think you were right about Speckles. The team balance is off without him.”
She turned to look at him with no small amount of incredulity. “Yeah, what changed your mind?”
“I miss the little guy.”
“You’re a bad liar.” She patted him on the shoulder. “But thanks anyway.”
They rounded a corner just like every other corner they’d passed, but this time Lindsay froze. Another statue loomed out of the shadows. Goat-headed, with a disturbingly human body that the loincloth carved on as an afterthought did little to hide. The same flowing script coated it as the last. The hooded eyes were still dark beneath the graven furred brow, but this time Martin and the others knew what was coming.
He hit it with Introit before it could even begin to move.
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 42 light damage]
The reverberations rolled out over the chamber, like a call to arms to Martin’s friends. A completely unnecessary one, as it turned out. The one thing Iron Riot had never needed was somebody telling them when it was time to start fighting.
Jericho slammed into the goat-man fists first, and, even as he left bloody prints on its untroubled surface, he just would not stop.
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 3 bludgeoning damage]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 4 bludgeoning damage]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 2 bludgeoning damage]
Julia was in place behind the bulk of Jericho, healing spells already flowing, and Lindsay had slipped out of sight again, ready to sneak attack for maximum damage.
This time, Martin had no intention of getting in the firing line of those cursing eyes. Staying as far back as he dared, he summoned a Javelin of Faith and launched it.
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 21 light damage]
Cracks blossomed across the side of the goat-man’s head where Martin’s Javelin struck, glowing for a moment before fading. The damage may have been good, but it had the unintended consequence of waking the thing up. The same milky white light appeared in the statue’s eyes, and flared as it looked up at Jericho.
“Agh! Curse!”
Martin tried not to smile. Reminding himself that no matter how much Jericho’s behavior was disruptive to his peace of mind, they were both on the same team. Yet he was fairly certain he could see a smile on Julia’s face too. All was not well in paradise.
The goat-man statue rose from its cross-legged pose with a sound like grinding rocks and suddenly loomed over Jericho, horns scraping the ceiling. It slapped Jericho away like he was a rag doll.
[Jericho has suffered 18 bludgeoning damage]
Jericho crashed into Julia and then the far wall in rapid succession.
[Jericho has suffered 12 bludgeoning damage]
[Adriel has suffered 12 bludgeoning damage]
Martin didn’t like to do it while he was still under the Curse of Ages, but he charged in. He couldn’t allow the looming goat-man to get to the others while they were down. Lindsay was clearly reading the situation in exactly the same way. Instead of leaping up and hacking away at the weak eyes of the statue, she made the safer play. She popped back into sight in mid-attack. Both of her daggers jammed into the back of the statue’s leg, then scraped down to the back of its knee. Like nails on a chalkboard.
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 6 piercing damage]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 6 piercing damage]
It slowed the statue’s charge enough that it didn’t run right over Martin. Having the Corvan Knave dangling off the back of its leg even knocked it off balance enough that it staggered forward enough for Martin to swing a Smite up into its face.
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 3 slashing damage]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 21 light damage]
The front of the statue’s face sheared away to fall to the ground. A flat plane of stone was left behind in its place, yet the glow of the eyes remained there upon it. Jericho was back on his feet and charging in when he saw it and skidded to a halt. “This is unsettling.”
Unbothered about losing its face, the statue brought both of its arms up for another brutal attack. Martin ducked down between the goat’s legs, head scraping under the solid stone loincloth, but Jericho had no such option. He lifted his own arms and tried to meet brute force with brute force.
[Jericho has suffered 16 bludgeoning damage]
Jericho’s strength had never failed him before. Even in the face of the Archdukes he had managed to leave some sign of his passing, yet now all of his strength seemed to be for nothing in the face of this stone bully. He was holding the statue’s arms by the wrists, and the blow aimed at his head had halted before it made contact, but the damage he’d done to himself in the attempt was horrific. Both of his arms were twisted out at the elbows at unnatural angles, and even as he roared defiance into the faceless statue they fell limp and useless at his sides.
; When the statue brought its arms up again, it was to deliver a killing blow.
“Not today, goat-boy!”
With the help of Martin’s rebuke, Lindsay flew through the air in a graceful arc, stepping onto the statue’s shoulder for a single weightless moment before spinning both her blades into the glowing eyes.
[CRITICAL HIT]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 34 piercing damage]
[Sentinel Statue has suffered 34 piercing damage]
Sentinel Statue has died.
Skaife gains 620 experience.
That did the trick. The statue leaned dangerously toward Jericho, then crumbled apart, raining debris down into the Heretic’s upturned face.
Jericho made some noises somewhere between grunts of irritation and coughing, but Martin paid him no attention. “Julia!”
She was still lying against the far wall of the chamber, unmoving. Martin skidded to her side on his knees, hand already glowing with his Healing Touch.
[Adriel has recovered 28 Health]
She blinked a few times, then scrambled back to her feet. “What the hell was that?”
Martin cocked his head to one side. “Uh… Jericho hit you.”
“No. No.” She tried to stand, but her feet seemed to be failing her. “I remember that, but what happened after that?”
Martin shrugged. “Guess you hit your head.”
“No! This is a game. I shouldn’t be able to lose time in a game.”
Martin held up his hands to placate her. She was clearly confused. “We all lost time when we were knocked out by the Pit Fiend venom.”
“No. No we didn’t. It went dark, but I was still aware of time passing. I could still close my eyes and see the clock ticking by. I could have logged out. This was… is that what happened to you?”