Rise of the Crimson Order: A Crematoria Online LitRPG Novel

by Matthew J. Barbeler

  I nodded. "I can do that."

  "All right, let's do it." Ellie raised her shield in front of her and started to advance.

  She opened the battle with a Courageous Shout, buffing our combat abilities. This also got the attention of all three roach hounds, but James was already preparing for that as well. A bright light erupted behind us as he summoned forth a ball of liquid flame.

  I fell into step behind Ellie as she advanced on a roach hound. I used my Expose Weakness ability to reveal its weak spots. Just like the last defender, it had one large vulnerable weak spot on its soft underbelly and smaller weak spots between its joints. The extra damage boost would come in handy to finish this one off quickly.

  The ball of liquid fire hit its target. The other defender went up in flames. It let out a deafening screech as it desperately clawed at the source of the flames. The smaller roach hound, the hunter, looked like it couldn't decide to help its flaming comrade or join the attack. It hesitated, which gave us just the opening we needed.

  Ellie surged forward with her shield held high, and her hammer ready to strike. The roach hound defender slammed into the shield just like the last one had, but Ellie was ready for it this time. Instead of just accepting the hit, Ellie put all her strength into a shield bash, which knocked the defender to the side. It stumbled, then fell.

  We both used the opening to strike. I used my longsword to slash laterally across the roach hound's exposed underbelly. Horrid red gashes appeared in the wake of my sword's passage. Ellie brought her hammer down on the roach hound’s legs as it tried to right itself. Armored plates cracked and broke under the fury of Ellie's savage blows.

  One of my cuts ran deep, and the abominable creature's guts spilled out onto the rancid floor, steaming.

  A notification appeared on the bottom of my view.

  You have struck a grievous wound!

  I didn't quite know what that meant. Was that like a critical hit, but better? I didn't have time to worry about the details in the heat of battle. The smaller roach hound turned towards James, who was currently keeping it at bay with precision sword strikes. The flames on the other Roach Hound Defender were beginning to die down.

  I used my Expose Weakness ability on the smaller roach hound, which revealed a little bit more information about the monster to me.

  Roach Hound Hunter

  Level 5

  This roach hound is tasked with finding and hunting prey to bring back to the hive. Without hunters, a colony of roach hounds would starve.

  Expose Weakness showed two prime targets. The flesh between the head and shoulders, and the joints of the legs. It would be pretty easy to decapitate.

  Shield held in front of her, Ellie ran towards the hunter.

  "Go for the head and neck," I yelled.

  Ellie didn't acknowledge what I had said verbally, but I knew she had heard me when she threw her hammer right at the roach hound's head. It hit with a crack, and the roach hound stumbled to the side. There was now a large oozing crack in the armor on the side of its head. James used the opening to thrust his sword deep into the roach hound's neck.

  Ellie's hammer returned to her hand just as she reached striking distance. She used the momentum of the hammer returning to her to spin on the spot, striking the roach hound with the side of her shield, and then bringing the hammer down onto its neck.

  The crunch that accompanied the attack sounded like someone chomping on the world's crunchiest potato chip. The hunter went limp, just as the flames on the last defender snuffed out.

  The final charred round hound let out a shriek of fury. The patches of fur that once sprouted from the spots in between its armor plating had been burned away. Ellie and James advanced on the last defender, and I took the opportunity to draw my Antique Flintlock Pistol.

  I started loading it. The only way I would be able to continue growing my skills is by using them.

  Ellie had the defender distracted with her shield while James slashed as its underbelly. I ran towards them, pistol at the ready, then put it to the side of the defender's head.

  I pulled the trigger.

  Bits of white and red gore exploded out the other side of the monster's head.

  It fell to the ground, dead.

  Messages appeared at the bottom of my view.

  Roach Hound Pack defeated! You have gained 45 experience points!

  Your Swordsmanship skill has increased!

  Your Flintlock Weaponry skill has increased!

  Your Marksmanship skill has increased!

  I inspected each of the roach hounds for anything I might be able to loot from their corpses, but there was nothing but more of the tainted meat. I left it on their corpses. James burned the bodies, then we continued deeper into the dungeon.

  There was a chamber ahead of us, ominously empty.

  Ellie stepped across the threshold.

  Something fell heavily from the ceiling onto the ground right in front of us.

  Chapter Twenty

  The Stagnant Hive: DisGrundled

  At first, I couldn't quite make sense of what I was looking at. The thing that fell from the ceiling stood up into the shape of a man, but it was sporadically covered in thick black plates of chitin, just like the roach hounds. Those armored plates were interspersed with patches of pale white skin. The monster was wearing a pair of ragged trousers that were torn around the knees, and the places where spiked chitin had worn through.

  "What is that?" I asked.

  "You know how I warned you earlier about the effects of a human eating Bleed-tainted flesh?" James said. "This is exactly what happens. Whoever this man was doesn't matter. There is no cure for this. We need to end this poor creature's suffering."

  I shuddered, and Ellie immediately fell into battle stance. I fetched another paper cartridge from my ammo pouch and started loading the pistol in preparation for battle. I could get one good shot in before going back to the sword.

  "Why is it just standing there?" Ellie asked.

  "It was human once," James said. "Maybe it can recognize the true danger that we pose to it. Most insects run on instinct. They don't actually know what fear feels like. But this guy? I bet he's terrified."

  "He's standing between us and the end of the dungeon," I said. "No matter what, we need to take him down."

  Holding my pistol in one hand and my longsword in the other, I activated Expose Weakness. A monster summary appeared on my screen, along with a message that I had never seen before.

  Geoff Grundle

  Level 6 Abomination

  Ingesting raw flesh afflicted by the Bleed can turn even the smartest man into a beast. Half cockroach, half man, Geoff Grundle knows the worst of both worlds.

  Your Expose Weakness ability's level is too low to use on a boss monster.

  What the hell? I thought as soon as I unlocked my Expose Weakness ability that I would be able to use it on any monster. But it looked as though I wouldn't be able to use it on boss monsters until I had leveled the ability up. Expose Weakness was currently at the starting level; Novice.

  Grundle's transformation had made him more insect than man. His human mouth had been stretched wide around a set of protruding cockroach mouth-parts. His lips had split and cracked - human teeth were pointing out at all manner of strange angles. The roach mandibles were wet with a dripping viscera. He had one remaining human eye, which was offset by an emotionless compound eye.

  One of his arms was still mostly human, except for the sharp pieces of carapace that had torn through the upper layers of his skin. The other was a nightmare of mismatched biology. Shredded skin hung around the shoulder joint where the enormous roach arm had erupted from. The arm was almost the same length as Grundle's body. The arm ended in a hand with three thick clawed fingers. Those fingers dug into the filth-covered ground. His human feet were gone, replaced with clawed insect feet perfect for climbing walls and hanging from ceilings.

  Two limp, useless wings hung from the monster's back.

/>   "I can't see any weak spots. I can't expose the weaknesses of a boss monster until I level the ability up a bit," I said. "I think we're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way."

  Ellie grinned at me. She was having fun.

  "Are you ready?" Ellie asked.

  James and I chimed in our assent, then Ellie hurled her hammer right at Geoff Grundle's face. The hammer only dealt the him a glancing blow. It bounced off the side of his face and looked as though it would almost land at Grundle's feet. Ellie held out her hand towards the hammer, and it flew straight back to her.

  Whatever restraint stopped Geoff Grundle from immediately launching towards us disappeared. He bellowed an inhuman roar at us as he ran straight towards Ellie, and then they were locked together. Grundle grabbed at Ellie's shield and tried to attack around her defenses with his huge insect arm, but she stayed out of its reach.

  I raised my pistol and pulled the trigger. The shot hit Grundle in the shoulder, then bounced off.

  Ineffective.

  "Always aim for the head!" Ellie called. "Even if you can't penetrate the armor, you should go for head shots!"

  "Why do you always aim for the head?" I asked.

  Grundle savagely beat on Ellie's shield as she tried to stand her ground.

  "Any blow to the head has a chance to stun an enemy!" Ellie shouted. "When you surprise them before they're aware of you, the chance at getting a stun is doubled!"

  I noted that little fact for later.

  "A little help over here!" Ellie cried as she took a step backward.

  Grundle was so strong! James and I struck at the fiend, but without any discernible weak points, it was hard to judge whether we were actually causing any major damage. Our swords slashed and cut at the pink man-flesh, but Grundle didn't back off an inch.

  Suddenly the thick claws on his enormous attack hand gripped the side of Ellie's shield and hurled it across the room. The attack hand came down in a savage swing, but Ellie rolled out of the way. She got back to her feet and hurled the hammer at Grundle. It smashed into one of the boss monster's knees, then returned to Ellie's hand.

  I circled around Grundle and tried to attack him from behind. I had absolutely no idea whether it would work, but it was one of the most common rules in any role-playing game. If you stabbed an enemy in the back, you usually got a damage bonus.

  I slashed Grundle with my sword, aiming for its leg joints. Even though I wouldn't score a critical hit as easily, I knew that they were still weak points. If I hacked at the legs hard enough, they would come off. Once Grundle was legless, we'd be able to finish it off with ease.

  I could tell that James wanted to lob a fireball at the boss monster, but he was smarter than that. If he threw a fireball at Grundle while Ellie and I were in close-quarters, there was a chance that we'd get caught in the crossfire. Thankfully, it seemed as though James wanted to keep us alive too.

  James joined me in attacking Grundle's legs from behind. He struck forward with precision strikes with his rapier, which punched holes in the armor covering Grundle's legs. Ellie had retrieved her shield the old-fashioned way and was keeping Grundle at a distance with her hammer. She was throwing it at the monster's head and chest, kiting it around the room, staying just out of reach of its monstrous killing arm.

  "Go for the legs!" I shouted. "Pull it's damned legs off and we can end this quickly!"

  Ellie used her Courageous Shout just as she took a hit from Grundle's savage attack hand. The claws raked across the shoulder of her hammer arm, dislodging part of the plate armor. The wicked tips of those roach fingers sunk into her skin. Her hand opened on reflex, and her hammer fell to the ground.

  "No you don't!" I yelled, then doubled down on my attacks.

  Grundle roared. He wheeled backward with his monstrous arm, attempting to hit me with a backhand strike. I held tight to the fury and desperation coursing through my veins, using it to fuel my tumble out of the way. I regained my footing and slashed backward at the monster.

  The blade of my longsword sunk into the flesh between armor plates, then Grundle stumbled. His leg almost gave out from underneath him, which made him even more furious.

  "Over here, you freak!" Ellie shouted, taunting the monster to focus on her.

  By the time Grundle rounded back on Ellie, she had her hammer back in hand and shield raised. She blocked Grundle's next attack, and countered with another Courageous Shout, renewing our buff and causing Grundle to hesitate, then followed it up with a smashing Shield Bash to the monster's chest.

  I used the opening to focus on removing the monster's mobility entirely. I focused on the already damaged legs. Hack by hack my sword bit deeper and deeper into the meat and sinew that held the monster's foot to its leg. With one final strike, my sword passed through the ankle with a crunch, and Grundle tumbled forwards onto the ground.

  Ellie, James and I took a step back as Grundle lashed out in every direction with every available appendage. Its single human eye turned towards me, wide-eyed with terror. It was afraid. Very afraid.

  "Time to finish this!" James called. He pulled back the sleeves of his coat, revealing those black arcane tattoos and started to summon another fireball.

  The sight of the flames made Grundle shudder, and as quick as lightning, those two wings that we had previously thought limp and useless opened in a horrid display of abominable biology. Then they started to beat. We were buffeted by wind as those great wings lifted Grundle from the ground and into the air.

  "This is going to be bad," I said, then Grundle swooped right towards me. The monster scooped me up using his enormous attack hand, and suddenly I was in the air.

  The oozing viscera coming from Grundle's mouth splattered on my face and chest, then suddenly started to harden. My movement was already constricted, pinned by Grundle's attack arm, but this goo was hardening into some kind of casing.

  Or was it a cocoon?

  Grundle's mandibles clacked and chittered right in my face as it spewed forth more of the ooze. It covered my neck, and I knew I was in real trouble. If it covered my face and started to harden, I would suffocate.

  "A little help!" I yelled, but I couldn't even see Ellie and James. All I could see was the roof of the chamber.

  Then I heard the thrum of Ellie's hammer in the air. It smashed into Grundle, causing him to spin around in the air. My stomach lurched at the sudden movement, and for a second, I thought that I might throw up.

  James wouldn't be able to hurl a fireball up here without risking injury to me. Even Ellie had taken a risk throwing her hammer towards me. I needed to get out of this situation myself.

  If only I had a dagger or a small weapon of some description for these close-quarters fights. Next time we got to civilization – if we ever got back to civilization – I would make sure I picked up a dagger or something to keep on me at all times.

  I only had one hand free. My left hand. My right hand was pinned against my side. I reached down to the holster on my hip and felt the handle of my flintlock pistol. It wasn't loaded, and there was no way I could load it while pinned, but would Grundle know that?

  He had been human once.

  Surely somewhere in that half-man, half-insect mind he would recognize what it was. It was my only play anyway, so I had to try.

  I lifted the flintlock and pointed it right at Grundle's face. He shrieked.

  Grundle let go and suddenly I was falling through the air.

  I slammed into the ground. Hard. My pistol flew out of my hand, and I was suddenly weaponless. I struggled against the hardening manroach spit.

  "Now!" I heard Ellie shout, and the space suddenly erupted with brilliant light.

  A fireball flew right towards Grundle. It hit him square in the back, and his gossamer wings burned up in an instant. The flames caught on his human skin and he tumbled down onto the ground in a broken heap. I found my flintlock and grabbed it, then loaded it as quickly as I could. I crossed the room towards the prone monster.

&nbs
p; Grundle tried to get back up off the ground, but it couldn't. The miserable thing was broken. Defeated. But still living.

  I put a stop to that with a bullet.

  The smell of gunpowder mixed with burned insect flesh rose as I splattered his brains on the filthy ground. Grundle fell still.

  Geoff Grundle defeated! You have gained 215 experience points!

  Hell yes. Defeating a boss monster had given me as much experience as completing a crime scene investigation! I wasn't far away from Level 4 now. Ellie let out a cry of happiness.

  "Did you level up?" I asked.

  "I sure did! Level 6, baby! But that's not what I'm most happy about. My Courageous Shout ability also leveled up from Novice to Apprentice! That's definitely going to help."

  "Nice. I'm not far away from Level 4 myself."

  "Can you guys see that up there?" James asked as though he hadn't heard any of our conversation about game mechanics.

  He pointed up at an impression in the ceiling. It looked like that was where Grundle had been waiting for us. There was a body up there, fixed in place with the same hardened spit that I had just gotten myself free of.

  "It's a person," Ellie said.

  "Do you think they're still alive?" I asked.

  "From this angle, I can see most of their skull. So I'm going to say no," Ellie said.

  "I think I can see something in there we might be able to use," James said. "It all depends on whether or not the monster's spit was corrosive or not."

  "How in the hell are we going to get the body down?" I asked.

  "Stand back," Ellie said. She drew her hammer arm back, as though she was ready to throw it towards the ceiling.

  I backed away. Ellie loosed the hammer and it slammed into the hardened roach spit, which shattered like glass. Shards rained down on us, and I had to dodge to the side to avoid the sword that came tumbling down towards me.