by Taj McCoy El
“I’m only up to half of my mana. So, I’m gonna open a runeagram and you activate and toss as many of those into there as you can. shortest fuse possible.”
“Ready.” He responded.
Vergie let out a warning growl behind her. Mayah didn’t waste the time to look before she opened the runiverse. Grax tossed as many grenades into the space hole as possible while glancing over Mayah’s shoulder. The runiverse closed and Mayah grabbed the crystal. She quickly put it in a delivery parcel and took two grenades from Grax. She looked over her shoulder and saw a golden lizard with arcs of lightning coruscating around it to form nimbus of electricity that seemed to ground out at the tail. When the tail whipped it sent sparks flying off the ground. It was the size of a large crocodile—the kind in horror movies that stood six feet tall at the shoulder. It blindly stumbled forward and slid into the bowl.
“Fluff I’m low on stamina and mana too. Not that I should need stealth anymore.”
“Then let’s take it to his flarfing front door.”
The vuurmlord’s blind eyes turned towards them and it tongue flicked out tasting the air. It zipped towards Mayah like a rocket. Its feet blurred when it ran making Mayah think of the roadrunner until she realized the speeds at which the vuurmlord was running directly towards her.
Not good—not good—not good!!!
It ran to within ten feet of Mayah, planted one hand and its whole body spun quickly in a circle. The tail made of lightning slammed into her legs and knocked her flying, and she spasmed from the electricity.
You have been attacked
Igni Slisko
Level 16
-232 Tail Whip (Electrified)
166/821
You have received a Debuff
Spasms -20% agility
Timer 1:00 Minutes
The Vuurmlord spun like a windmilling break-dancer throwing arcs of electricity in random directions. Mayah, feeling like she was moving through syrup, rolled and dodged the four crescents of electricity that came her way, and the vuurmlord landed spinning on its back holding its back knees to its stomach.
As soon as it let its legs go, Grax leapt into the air to stab it in the stomach. His katanas penetrated the vuurmlord’s flesh by two or three inches causing it to hiss, but barely getting to Igni’s juicy bits. But as soon as Grax’s feet touched its skin, electricity arced, and he was blown away with a lightning blue wave of power and smoking fur.
Mayah stumbled unsteadily to her feet. Grax was down to 20% of his HP. The vuurmlord rolled over and its tongue shot out, again and again, tasting for their locations. it glowed even brighter. Small debris around its feet lifted from the ground.
“AOE!!!!” Mayah yelled turning to run away.
From the tips of her toes to the top of her scalp, Mayah felt a surge of crackling electricity. That was instantaneously followed by a thump of pressure that rocked her forward. Her muscles locked up, and she went rigid. As the attack ended, she stumbled and fell limply down to her hands and knees.
You have received a Debuff
Jelly legs 90% movement reduction
Timer 0:30
Rooted by a rotten reptile…
The vuurmlord tentatively strode forward trying to catch any scent it could to find its prey. Its coruscating effect had lessened, and its tail was visibly shrinking, being half as long as it was before.
Mayah pulled up the guild chat.
Fluff: Grax, Let’s ace this boss and go home.
Fluff: Attack the front legs. We take its mobility and finish it.
Grax: You got it, chief.
A breeze blew across the bowl putting Vergie and Margaret upwind and the vuurmlord shifted. It suddenly locked onto Margaret and scuttled towards her flicking its tongue. Vergie picked up the dazed necromancer and ran away. The big cat agilely juked and cornered, dodging all of the fiery vomit, to shake the lizard off. Margaret’s body swayed and twisted like a rag doll. Igni Slisko charged straight for them ignoring all of the debris and fire. Mayah and Grax were watching the seconds on their timers and Mayah hollered out.
“Vergie, bring it this way!!!” She said to Grax, “Here’s my last tree from the tournament.” She tossed him a parcel. “Aim for the mouth.”
“Duh.”
The vuurmlord staggered blindly after Vergie and Margaret, letting its tongue guide it towards them. Mayah intercepted the vuurmlord while triggering Crushing Blow and Whack-A-Vole. She aimed at the elbow of the front leg on the left. She came in low like a slugger and gave it her all. The blow knocked the leg out to the side and the vuurmlord faltered and slid on to its belly. She dumped her mana into stamina and pivoted like a ballerina using the momentum she lifted Happiness and brought it down in another Crushing Blow directly onto the shoulder and heard a crack.
You have attacked
Igni Slisko
Level 16
-92 Crushing Blow
-213 Crushing Blow (Critical Hit)
Broken leg
379/1946HP
When the Vuurmlord lunged for Mayah, Mayah spun off to get out of range and set up for another pass. Grax used the distraction and sliced at the left front leg with reckless abandon. The leg went limp and froze under the onslaught and the vuurmlord was slowed to a crawl. When the vuurmlord turned to attack Grax held it back with the tips of his katanas. As it struggled, Grax held on as arcs of electricity flashed across his sword and made his hair stand on end. All the while, his katanas kept sinking deeper into the vuurmlord’s flesh. it finally tried to pull away in a squeal of pain Mayah spun like a top knocking its head back towards Grax and deeper onto his sword. Grax switched his grip putting both hands on the hilt, then pushed up on the hilt like a weightlifter doing a clean and jerk. Mayah lined up a golf swing with its chin and with its front legs disabled it tried to roll over to escape. Now, tailless, blind, spread-eagled, and down to two legs, the lizard struggled for all it’s worth.
“Coming up on 10 percent.” Mayah activated the multi-bomb arrow she had taken from Margaret with a 10 second timer. She stabbed the vuurmlord in the side with the arrow and swung at it with happiness driving it into lizards’ side like a nail. The Mob glowed with electricity. Mayah and Grax were already backing off to a safe distance and watched the light show. Spikes of acid colored ice erupted from the vuurmlord. When the ice melted, the vuurmlord had shrunk, looking more like a double sized vuurm than the monster that had started out fighting. It was laying on its side breathing heavily.
“How is this thing still alive?” Mayah panted.
“Ah, well. Finish this up?” Grax asked hands on knees.
“Please, before it regens…” Mayah sighed.
“Okay tree time.” Grax happily rubbed his hands together.
“Really? It’s down to like 4HP?”
He shrugged.
“Well…okay…” she finally agreed, wanting to see what would happen.
Grax kicked the crippled vuurmlord fully over on its back and made a quick slash while it struggled. As it hissed, he threw the delivery parcel into the vuurmlord’s open mouth as hard as he could, aiming for the back of the throat. The vuurmlord reflexively swallowed the package as Grax ran towards Mayah urging her to back up. They turned at the perfect moment to see a tree expand inside the vuurmlord and burst it like an over inflated balloon. Pieces of lizard guts bounced down around them, and they shielded their heads.
Ding!!!
you have defeated Vuurmin Fields
450XP
1183XP till next level
You have received:
Blackfire scale Breastplate
Skaduvuurmlord skin (damaged)
Skaduvuurmlord tail
Skaduvuurmlord claw x3
Skaduvuurmlord scale x21
3 Gold
Ding!!!
You have unlocked the entrance to Shadow’s Sheer Shine City
A ten by twelve section of stone ground it’s way upwards out of the bottom of the bowl near the portal, the sound of stone vibra
ting the ground under their feet. With a snikt, the seamless stone split into two lengthwise and slid open draining the flaming spit and revealing a dark foreboding staircase.
“Holy….” Mayah plopped down on her butt. “That. Was. INTENSE!!!!”
Grax laid a hand on her shoulder. “C’mon let’s check on Mags.
Margaret sat there wobbly even with her legs crossed. She now understood Mayah’s concussed status perfectly as her balance dipped and her vision swam. Even with her eyes barely tracking she still saw the fight—minus the part when Vergie was swinging her around. Grax and Mayah limped up and sat on either side of her.
“Good fight guys,” Margaret said drunkenly.
“What debuff do you have?” Mayah asked.
“Concussion. 17 more minutes.”
“We really need a gang of healing potions,”
“Yeah, Mags needs to experience that for herself,” Grax chuckled.
Margaret almost tipped over and Mayah supported her with an arm until Margaret could correct her own posture.
“You guys had nice teamwork. I thought that Grax had disappeared, but he hid until he could attack.” Then she whispered to Mayah, “It almost makes it worth it to keep him around.”
Mayah sniggered, and then laid back. Margaret and Grax followed suit.
“Somebody has to go loot the boss,” Mayah moaned.
“It should be you,” Grax said. “Without your grenades, we would’ve gotten stuffed.”
“You’re just saying that because you don’t want to get up.”
“I’m so glad you understand me. Now, I’m snubbing you.”
Mayah chuckled
“By the way, Grax, thank you,” Margaret said her voice rising and falling in a drowsy pitch shift.
“For what?” he asked, looking at her suspiciously.
“For helping me understand that no matter how much I torture you it won’t be permanent at all.” She turned her head to look at the cat, it lolled limply. "I mean I can cut off your tail and it will grow back.” She drawled
“A foot…that’ll grow back too. Matter of fact, you should really take care of your whiskers…it would be a shame if something happened to them.” Her eyebrows rose as she said this, and she gave him a pointed look with her eyes going in and out of focus.
“Fluff…” Grax whined. “You’re starting to rub off on her.”
“Maybe it’s just a normal person’s reaction to your cattitude—or your aroma.”
“Aroma my butt—”
“Exactly!” Margaret cut him off by limply rolling her head over and looking at Mayah. “Maybe if I cut his nose off, he won’t smell?”
Mayah laughed. “By the way Mags you didn’t level?”
“Missed it by three points.”
“Probably because you were playing mousy with the big cat,” Grax zinged.
Vergie prowled over and stood above Grax growling down at him.
“Move it kitty. you’re blocking my sun.” Like a monarch that was way too full of himself he motioned with his hand for the Vergax to begone.
Vergie spun to walk over to Mayah and whipped Grax in the head with her tail. Grax’s head whipped to the side.
“Hey!” he exclaimed.
“Good job girl.” Mayah reached up and scratched the vergax on her throat and chin. “He’s just a mean ole lil’ kitty…” Vergie snuggled into the scritches until Mayah finally sat up. “Time to loot what’s left of the vuurmlord.”
She approached the vuurmlord and placed her hand on it and received the Blackfire scale Breastplate and another 12 silver to go along with the three gold. She left all the scales and organs and drew a runeagram to capture the beast.
“Margaret, call your Vuurms down so we can get going.”
The vuurms that hadn’t been smashed by the skaduvuurmlord slid down into the pit on their bellies and waddled over to the portal stone.
While I wait, I might as well see what all our options are.
She placed her hand on the glowing stone and a list of four fast travel options came up.
Fast travel portals
You may travel to any other point from your origin portal:
Specter’s Keep Dungeon entrance
Vuurmin Fields entrance
Shadow’s Sheer Shine City (origin portal)
Specter’s Keep Gatehouse
“Hey, guys we can portal to any of the stones we find. No need to grind all the way through anymore.”
“Sweet” Grax replied while lying on his back. “Now let me rest, plebe.”
Margaret growled, "I can make you rest forever.”
“Creep.”
"I learned it by watching you.” She pointed a concussion loopy finger at the cat.
Mayah just chuckled.
…..
They made their way into the door that opened in the floor of their boss battle and descended the stone cut stairs. The air took on a chill as they fully entered the stairway. No sounds bounced to them off the tightly fit stone walls that wound down into the depths. Nothing made a noise except for the crackle of their torches.
The stairs descended in a spiral for about twenty-five feet and let out onto a landing that stretched twenty feet in front of them and ended in archway. They guardedly approached the opening which was more than wide enough to accommodate all three of them and were met with a view of a walled city surrounded by an abyss. From the arch a wide stone bridge reached across the dark depths connecting their way to the city. It was wide enough for three wagons to ride abreast with ample foot traffic on either side. On the other end of the bridge was a gatehouse
The Barbican was formed by two towers flanking the gate. They were triple the size of the other towers and arrow slits covered their surfaces. Outcroppings were built from the battlements allowing the defenders to drop things onto the attacker’s heads. The gate was recessed back from the bridge’s landing so you would have to stand in between the towers to siege the gate.
The doorway itself was two stories high, the barbican three, and the walls were only half a story shorter than that. Crumbling crenellations spoke to the length of this place’s disuse. One of the lower arrow slits looked to be torn half open, making a bear sized hole in the fortifications. One of the giant doors was hanging off the frame by a single massive hinge, threatening to break free and crush anything underneath it when it came free. The walls spread out from the gate. Their height blocked everything from her vantage.
Grax came up beside her. “See anything moving?”
“Nothing.”
“I’m really not liking this.” He scratched himself on the hip under his right dagger.
“Me either,” Mayah agreed. “But a dungeon needs to get finished so who am I to complain?” She shrugged ambivalently.
Margaret asked, “What’s the plan?”
“Pretty simple actually,” Grax said while pointing at the busted gate. “We go that way and kill things.”
“So, the usual then?”
“Wash rinse repeat for the foreseeable future,” Mayah grumbled.
“Sounds grand, dear. Did you bring the champagne?” Margaret said in a haughty tone.
“What do we need Sham pain for when we should be worried about real pain?” Grax asked.
Mayah groaned loudly, but Margaret ignored the horrible pun and answered in earnest. “Because I like the bubbles,” she snorted.
"I had champagne once.” Mayah’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “Tasted like dehydrating fizzy ick.” She looked at the gate again. A feeling like invisible walls were closing in made her shudder. Okay lizard brain, I hear you. “Something is definitely not right here.”
“Think there’s gonna be something crazy over there?” Grax kicked at the stone walkway and sniffed the air, searching for anything out of the ordinary.
“There’s always something crazy over there—nature of the beast and all. We should go check it out, and then come back and formulate strategies.”
“Sounds good to me,”
They made their way across the walkway sending a few pebbles rolling into the depths. Grax leaned off to one side to practice the age-old rite of boys everywhere—spitting off high places.
Just as the spit was about to fall out of his mouth Margaret gave him a push, and he scrambled to maintain his footing. In a flurry of arms and legs Grax dropped low, rolled to the side, and clawed his way into the center of the walkway on all fours. His fur bristled as he stood up and placed his hands on his knees breathing heavily. He looked at Margaret with death in his eyes. Before he could even say a word Margaret preemptively cut him off.
“What’s the matter? I thought you couldn’t get hurt because it’s just a game.” She put her fists on her hips and smiled smartly.
Grax’s eye twitched. He slowly stood up and pointed a claw at her as if he was repeatedly pressing an invisible button. “That was…pretty good. Glad you’re starting to get it.” He nodded at her grudgingly and turned around to catch up with Fluff but then looked over his shoulder and pointed two claws at his eyes, and then at Margaret. Margaret put on an innocent smile that was more mischievous than innocent and looked out over the abyss and hummed a little ditty.
As they reached the gate Grax angled around to the left, hoping to get a good view of the inside as Mayah approached the opening. Margaret stood back, her arrow drawn, eyes roving from arrow slit to arrow slit while periodically checking the entrance. Vergie brought up their rear in shadowy grace. Grax waved Mayah forward and dove past the door and into Shadow’s Sheer Shine City.
