by Pavel Kornev
“Watch out, you idiot!” the priestess cried out angrily.
A complex pattern could be seen in the glowing cloud more and more clearly. It was like a heater filament that was burning and heating up the vaulted stone ceiling of the cave, but what the elven priestess was planning remained a mystery to me.
I kicked another scavenger off the staircase, but the agile creature managed to rip open my shin. The one that came after literally impaled itself on my blade and started to convulse in agony, pulling my weapon along with it. The hell it would!
Fearsome Bite!
My teeth easily tore the throat out of the disgusting little beast and then stepped on its dead body with my boot to push it off my flamberge as well as throwing some more scavengers off the stairs. The caustic blood made my mouth burn like fire, but I managed to replenish my health and heal the leg that had been clawed down to the bone.
“Let’s go!” Isabella suddenly shouted and jumped into the hole first, without waiting for me.
I retreated from the stairway and cast a quick glance at the cave ceiling. I almost went blind from the shining brightness of the cloud of magical energy. The stone had become red hot and the stalactites were cracking, breaking off and flying downwards one after another.
As soon as I could, I slipped into the hole, but a grasping paw caught me by one of my boots and tried to pull me back. I had to turn upon my back and try and fight back with my sword. It was pointless! It was extremely uncomfortable to use a flamberge in a narrow rathole and I started being pulled out of it. Isabella came to the rescue. The strong hands of the priestess took me under the arms and pulled me back sharply. Pulled me back so hard that another of the sharp-toothed scavengers was dragged back inside with us!
The scavenger opened its mouth and I drove the point of the blade into the roof of its mouth with full force so that the bloody steel protruded from the back of its head.
“Let’s go!” Isabella shouted into my ear. “Get a move on!”
We really did need to hurry — a natural firestorm had started in the cave. The ghostly cloud exploded in crimson flame and melted granite poured downwards. The long tongue of flame that entered the hole set my torn cloak on fire, but didn’t cause any damage, burning away all of the oxygen instead. While the undead are completely fine without air, Isabella was racked with coughs when she fell out of the rathole. As soon as I emerged after her, there was a dull boom behind my back and the collapsed hole breathed out acrid smoke and intolerable heat. One of the scavengers that was trying to catch us ended up crushed by the collapse and let out deafeningly shrill squeaks as it convulsed and bled.
I got up on my feet, raised my sword and slashed downwards right through its scrawny neck.
Execution! The Grizzled Scavenger has been killed!
Experience: +140 [3 619/4 320]; +140 [3 663/4 320]
Undead: You have gained a level! Rogue: You have gained a level!
Excellent! I’d increased my Perception and Agility and then invested my skill point into Dodge. However, it wasn’t as easy with the profession specific skills, I had to dig deep into their descriptions. I spent a long time dithering, thinking whether it was better to improve Incognito, but in the end I decided against it. I also decided against learning the moves that became available after Sweeping Strike, choosing Power Strike instead. It would be good to sometimes be able to hit an opponent with the full power of my inhuman Strength.
I distracted myself from my character stats to take a look at Isabella, but she was completely outside the game world. She had probably also earned a level raise after burning the scavenger nest and was now thinking about how to distribute the points she received.
I put my flamberge on my shoulder and walked to the fork in the underground passages, but I didn’t spend much time there and returned as I didn’t want to leave the priestess on her own.
Isabella soon came to and got on her feet. Her level did actually rise to 54.
“That wasn’t too much of a powerful spell that you used, was it?” I asked, as if in passing.
“It is powerful, but very slow,” the priestess shook her head. Her face had been cleared of scratches and grazes in some magical way. “In a normal situation, the opponent will attack or run away long before a portal to the infernal plane opens and the rain of fire comes.”
“I see.”
“Are you ready?”
I gave her a reluctant nod and stepped into the corridor. A skeleton on the wall twitched and barked, “Kill me!” right into my ear.
“I’m fed up!” I swore from the unexpected interruption and knocked the skull to the ground with my elbow and then kicked it as hard as I could with my boot. “What’s this all about, anyway?”
“Look under your feet,” Isabella demanded, but then relented and decided to explain. “This is probably the spirit of the dungeon. Someone was imprisoned here so they would watch over the groundwater and prevent collapses.”
“Oh,” I replied in surprise and started to look for traps. However, the ones we came across on the way had all been set off already. From time to time there were the decayed remains of scavengers lying nearby.
We didn’t come across any more side passages and then the corridor inclined again, taking us lower and lower. Whenever another skeleton asked for death from the wall I silently strode past and the dark elven priestess would knock off its skull with her staff.
She definitely got annoyed at those skulls.
A ghostly glow soon appeared up ahead and I slowed down my pace and then even entered stealth mode. Isabella fell behind, giving me a chance to scout ahead, but it turned out that there was no need for this precaution. We found the descent to a lower level in a small and round chamber. That was where the pale deathly bluish light was coming from.
“Everything is a bit too straightforward,” I grumbled, stopping a step away from the stairway.
“Do you also think that there is a trap up ahead?” Isabella asked.
I shook my head.
“That’s not it. It’s just a bit... boring or something?”
The dark elven priestess laughed quietly.
“Believe me, there are more than enough locations in this game that are far more complex as well as really exciting quests. The most interesting thing isn’t the setting, but the interactions with other players. Battles, alliances, intrigues. Everything is like real life, but without moral limitations. Well, almost without.”
I wrinkled my nose.
“I noticed.”
“Are you unhappy with something, Kitten?” Isabella narrowed her eyes, thinking that my grimace was related to her.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said dismissively. “I have no problem with you. This just has nothing...”
“Have you already managed to have a problem with someone?”
“Well, yes,” I frowned, as I had no doubt that Garth Deathblade wouldn’t even think of leaving me alone. I was sure that the stubborn necromancer would show himself yet. Even though I had an immunity to death magic, there were many other ways to reduce the undead to their component parts.
“You have such an exciting undeath, Kitten!” the priestess laughed and pointed at the staircase. “Come on, get going!”
I entered stealth mode and started to carefully descend to the next level, flamberge at the ready. The staircase led to a gallery that ringed a cavernous chamber with a tall, dome-shaped ceiling. The magical crystals fixed to the walls filled everything with a bluish glow, while the shattered bones of the skeletons from the walls were strewn all around the floor. The scavengers had been here as well.
I bent down to come up to the railing and look downwards. The tall gates on the opposite side of the chamber were blocked by a rockfall, but there was a manhole in the center which was covered with a massive metallic lid. Eight dark figures stood frozen around it. They were completely still, but they were not statues. The remains of scavengers that had risked coming too close to the guardians of the dungeon could be se
en well from up above.
I concentrated my eyes and managed to make out enough to see a system message saying “Bone Golem” above the nearest of the figures.
I couldn’t see anything else that was dangerous, which was why I turned off stealth mode and returned to the staircase.
“Isabella!” I called the priestess over and she hurried to join me.
“What do you have there?” the dark elf asked, without calling me “Kitten” for once.
“Bone golems,” I reported. “Eight of the things.”
Isabella placed her back flat against one of the pillars, looked down and cursed.
“Damn. They are wearing black mithril! I’d have no problem crushing two or three of them, but eight is too much! Can you sneak past them?”
“What’s the point? As soon as I start to lift the manhole cover, they’ll notice me!”
“True, that,” Isabella agreed and then smiled suddenly. “Kitten, we are unbelievably lucky!”
“What do you mean?”
“Neutrality! We have neutrality from the subjects of the Tower of Decay!”
I checked their status and it was true — it turned out that the bone golems were not hostile to us.
“So what are we waiting for?” I replied happily and started towards the closest side stairway, but the priestess stopped me.
“Stop!” she hissed angrily. “Who knows what is coming next? We are at the very end of the way!”
“So, what do you propose?”
The priestess rolled her eyes and raised her hands to place a blessing. The air around her flickered, but nothing happened to me at all. Blessings didn’t work on the undead.
Immunity!
“Piece of carrion!” Isabella grumbled and changed into her battle form. Her armor fully enclosed her body, only leaving the head unprotected. The skull on her staff grew sharp spikes and its empty eye sockets burned with crimson fire.
This didn’t seem enough for the priestess, so she appealed to her goddess.
“Mistress of the Crimson Moon, I appeal to thee! Imbue me with thy sacred wrath!”
Nothing happened for a moment, but then a special glow started to come from Isabella and the facial features of the priestess altered to become sharp and predatory.
“Let’s go!” the priestess commanded with an unfamiliar voice, as she created a large floating sphere of flame that she then clutched with her hands to create a much smaller but brighter fireball.”
It started to become... unpleasant to be by Isabella’s side, but I didn’t wait around. I put the flamberge upon my shoulder and descended from the gallery first. The golems made no move when I appeared.
They looked far more imposing up close than they did from above. Their ungainly figures were the height of a man and a half and turned out to be assembled from bones, but unlike the skeletons I had seen in the game they were not made mobile by magic but by black metallic wires that played the part of their sinews. The breastplates that protected their chests, their helms with their closed visors and the leaf-shaped points of their spears were made of the same metal. I could see that the golems were composed of different sets of bones which didn’t always match, but that made these dark creations look even more brutal.
“There’s so much black mithril!” Isabella whistled with surprise.
“Is it expensive?”
“You can’t even imagine!” the priestess nodded and hurried me up again. “On you go!”
She was prudent enough not to be in a hurry to approach the golems herself.
The bone golems stood in an even circle. I stepped inside that ominous ring very slowly and carefully. The slits in their visors immediately started to burn with an orange fire and I heard creaking and rasping sounds, but the golems didn’t react to my invasion in any other way.
Status? Neutral!
I let our a string of curses in relief. I was spared!
“Go!” Isabella hurried me along.
“Should I open it?” I asked as I turned around when I reached the manhole cover in the floor.
“Go for it!” the priestess waved at me and hurried to my side, passing the circle without any problems.
I returned the flamberge to my baldric, gripped the handle and pulled on the massive manhole cover. That was when everything turned into complete chaos!
The neutrality of the dungeon guardians disappeared as if it was never there and the bone golems readied their spears. There was an immediate deafening explosion and shards of bone and mithril flew everywhere!
Isabella started the tally, but I didn’t get any successes to boast of. Once I’d let go of the cover, I activated stealth mode, but the closest monster blindly thrust out its spear before I could make a move and the leaf-shaped point pierced through me to emerge between my shoulder blades.
I immediately lost half of my Health and the serrated blade also held me in place like a fish pierced by a harpoon. There was no getting away!
I understood that I was about to get finished off by one of the other golems, so I grabbed the haft of the spear with both hands and pulled on it with all my strength, drawing my body even further onto it. No one alive would have been able to pull off this trick, but the undead do not feel pain, so I managed to get close enough to the golem to strike at it with my sword, even though that made my health go far into the red.
I pulled my flamberge out from behind my back and swung, using my newly acquired Power Strike ability and activating Sweeping Strike at the last moment as I knew that I would never have the time for a second attack.
My heavy blade swung forward like a blurred line, smashing into the joint of the shoulder guard and slicing diagonally into the black cuirass. The wavy blade reached the middle the golem’s chest and the slits in the enclosed visor immediately went dark as a flame started to burn inside the split breastplate and sparks flew out of the breach.
Scythe of Death combo!
Stamina: -300 (316/616)
Structural damage! The Bone Golem Guardian has been destroyed!
I simply had no time to tear the spear that pierced me from the golem’s bony hands. Something hit the back of my head and my consciousness dove into impenetrable darkness.
4
DARKNESS. COLD STONE. Shards of bone.
I was resurrected in the same stone niche as before, but Isabella was nowhere nearby this time. I doubted that she was still in the dungeon quite a lot...
After turning my neck from side to side, I jumped down onto the floor and followed a familiar path to the hall with the bone golems.
“Kill me!” demanded one of the skeletons and I didn’t hesitate to crush the talkative skull with the hilt of my flamberge. I was in a foul mood.
I reached the gallery in stealth mode and immediately crouched by the railings, but the surviving golems seemed careless about what was going on up above. Four of the guardians remained. They were all rather badly burned and the mithril sinews of one showed signs of melting, so it stood skewed to its right side.
I cursed. I could never expect to get down to the lowest level without Isabella’s support and judging by the drying pool of blood and the hairpins that she must have lost she hadn’t run away but went straight to the resurrection point. Even if the priestess had already been resurrected up above, the blockage would stop her from getting back here!
And I... I was stuck in the dungeon! Most probably forever! I would get reborn over and over in a narrow stone niche on the shards of the bones of others.
This thought burned me hotter than fire. I punched the wall with all my strength and then immediately forced myself to calm down and open up the stat window. Unfortunately, even though I received a thousand experience points for killing the bone golem, it was not enough to reach the next level.
So what if I would have done so? There’s no way I could beat four golems!
I had to pin my hopes on stealth mode.
I quietly descended from the gallery and warily stood still on the last step, but my i
nvisibility held and hid me from the golems so they didn’t notice anything. I approached the spot of dried blood and picked up the pins dropped by the priestess, trying to move slowly and without sudden movements. The guardians remained immobile. However, as soon as I laid a hand on one of the spears they had dropped, with its serrated point, the helms turned towards me in unison. They turned blindly for now, but just a little more and...
I stood stock still and then carefully unclenched my fingers and moved aside. The mechanical guards kept looking at the spear I left behind.
I got away with it...
I sneaked towards the manhole cover, crouched and put both of my palms on the metal handle. If I hesitated, I’d be torn to pieces immediately. My only chance of survival was to pull on the cover as hard as I could and throw myself down the hole before the golems could intervene.
That was exactly what I did. Tore at the cover, jumped and then flew aside with a spear protruding from my side!
“They throw them, too!” was the last thought that flashed through my head a moment before another, more powerful hit sent me to be resurrected.
I TRIED. I tried again and again. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter how many times I’d be killed before I managed to slip downwards, but after my fourth attempt it became obvious that I simply had no chance of success. The dungeon guardians were simply too fast.
Could I kill the golems one by one? I tried that too. A Scythe of Death combo from stealth mode should have split one of my opponents in half, but the difference in levels showed itself. These mechanical monsters always managed to parry my flamberge with a spear or bracer or just dodged out of the way with a grace which was unbelievable for such huge creatures. The most I managed to achieve is to scratch their black armors
A complete waste of time...
DARKNESS. STONE. Grave dust.
I got out of the niche and trudged back to the hall of golems like a man condemned. I can’t even remember which time around it was. “The game never puts you in hopeless situations”, “The game never puts you in hopeless situations”, “the game...” spun around inside my head like a mantra.
