Deserts Of Naroosh

by Bradford Bates

  Together they moved up the stairs but in their normal battle formation. Tim didn’t know what would come next, so he was happy everyone was staying disciplined. It wouldn’t be long now before they were in their next battle. He could feel it like the hairs standing up on the back of his neck.

  The room at the top of the stairs was open to them. There wasn’t a door, and there didn’t need to be. The only thing in the room was a giant sarcophagus. It was so large it would have taken an army to lift it, and even then, it wouldn’t fit down the stairs.

  They’d run into something like this once before, but tombs buried in the mountains weren’t nearly as cool as the ones from ancient Egypt. They needed to get in there and find a way to trigger the fight.

  One night off, and he was itching to kill some shit.

  As soon as Tim’s heels crossed the barrier to Nemset’s burial chamber, there was a low rumbling sound. Pillars of stone rose from the floor, trapping them inside the room. At first, he wondered if it was a boobytrap, but then he realized they were being locked inside for their next encounter.

  “Get ready, Cassie. I have a feeling this will be a wild one.”

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Tim was expecting the sarcophagus to open.

  It didn’t take much imagination to see the lid slide back just enough for a mummified hand to reach out and push it the rest of the way open. He watched the center of the room waiting, almost willing it to happen, but it didn’t. The room was silent except for the sound of their breathing.

  This place was a tomb in every sense of the word.

  Since nothing was happening, Tim looked around for a clue. Maybe there was something they had to do to start the fight. Statues of Anubis lined both sides of the tomb. Only, these were different from any of the ones he’d seen back in the real world. These versions had two sets of arms, one sculpted to look as though they were holding up the roof and the other holding a shield and a sword.

  He wasn’t much of a scholar when it came to decoding messages, but these certainly looked like protectors of some sort. They were holding up the weight of the world and yet ready to attack to protect their master. If you got rid of the creepy “inside an ancient tomb waiting for a boss fight” vibe, the place was kind of beautiful.

  There wasn’t much to look at other than the statues, and the air vents cut into the upper walls. At the far end of the room was a smaller staircase leading to what must be the treasure room.

  “Every time I say this it ends up badly, but maybe nothing is going to happen.” JaKobi walked toward the treasure room.

  Cassie smacked the fire mage on the back of the head. “He knows it ends badly, but he still has to say it anyway.”

  “Typical.” Lorelei snorted. “But to tell the truth, I’m with him. I want something to happen.”

  Tim looked around the empty tomb, kind of feeling the same way. This place was beautiful, and he was enjoying poking around, but that wasn’t what they came here for. Khalid and his men were marching to Naroosh as a diversion for them to get inside this tomb. Now that they were inside, they needed to make it past the bosses and get to the palace. Otherwise, Khalid’s distraction would turn into a rout.

  He didn’t want to be responsible for the death of the resistance.

  “Normally I’d never go for this, but let's head to the treasure room.” Tim walked toward the smaller staircase at the rear of the room. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

  Cassie froze in place. “Did I hear that right? What’s the worst that could happen?” She pointed at JaKobi. “And right after this guy just said, ‘I know it ends badly.’ What are you trying to do to us?”

  “Maybe he’s turning over a new leaf,” ShadowLily replied casually. “A less scared and timid leaf.”

  Tim paused. “Prudence isn’t scared, and I’ve never been very timid.”

  “He’s got big balls.” JaKobi grinned as he made cups out of his hands and moved them up and down between his legs as he walked.

  “For fuck’s sake, this is worse than that Grail stuff.” Lorelei sounded exasperated. “Someone please step into the treasure room so I don’t have to listen to a song about balls.”

  Tim snickered. “It’s not about balls. It’s about big fucking balls.”

  “If it’s Christmas time, they might even be Schweddy Balls.” JaKobi was really busting her balls now.

  They could all see Lorelei smiling although she pretended to be angry. “Then I vote, Cassie goes first.”

  “I’m on team slow and prudent, this time.” Cassie hadn’t moved an inch since she froze to chastise them for being impatient.

  “Not!” She sprinted toward the treasure room.

  Black mist cut off the stairway as Cassie neared. She ran into it at full steam, and it sent her flying back into the tomb. Tim tossed a Healing Orb at her and turned to see what was in store for them. A giant four-armed Anubis was climbing the large staircase leading to the entrance.

  Tim knew it wasn’t the Egyptian god, but the figure looked so much like him it was the easiest way for his mind to process what he was seeing. The four arms were throwing him off, or maybe it was the two swords and two shields. With a sword and a shield on each side, the boss could block and attack multiple fronts simultaneously.

  This was going to be one hell of a fight.

  “I am the guardian of Nemset and will not tolerate thievery.” The stones moved from the floor and ceiling to seal off the stairwell behind the guardian as he entered the tomb.

  Tim was still trying to piece together what they were in store for so he tried to buy them some time. “Would you believe we were taking in the sights and got lost?”

  “The only thing you will see here is your death.” The guardian’s smile revealed rows of sharpened canine teeth. “It has been so long since I’ve enjoyed fresh meat.”

  Tim looked at Cassie. “Guess that was a no-ereno on the sightseeing. Looks like you’re up.”

  “It’s about damn time. Let’s see if dog breath likes getting hit with sticks.” Turning to face the guardian, Cassie shouted, “Hey, Cujo, I’m going to put you down.” She sprinted forward with her bō staff lifted high above her head.

  While it wasn’t the line of the century, it had one up on fucknuts. Tim let a little laugh escape from his lips. Now that the fight was starting, he felt the weight of expectations falling away. It was so much easier to focus on the moment than it was to worry about every little thing and what could go wrong. He spent a lot of time making mountains out of molehills when he should have been looking on the bright side of things.

  The loot side of things.

  He didn’t wait to see how the fight was going to start. The guardian had shields and swords so it seemed pretty self-explanatory. Cassie and ShadowLily should be the only ones at risk for any kind of damage early on. It was the perfect time to start the fight with Behold My Power. He’d never cast the spell to start a battle before. He always started with a heal. Still, there was a first time for everything.

  With the big hitter out of the way, Tim cast Curse of Giving to get the healing ball rolling.

  Before taking a second to look over the room again, Tim hit Cassie with a Healing Orb. He wanted to make sure whatever initial damage she took was swallowed up pretty quickly. The last thing he wanted was for her to take a critical hit from the boss, followed by one from his spell. The feedback from his curse sucked, but the damage was so spectacular he was willing to live with it.

  Cassie and the boss were going toe to toe. Her bō staff was giving her the reach she needed to bat aside the boss’ main attacks easily. This was the one time her being so small was a huge advantage. The boss was wider than normal because of the extra arms, and Cassie was so small he could only attack or block her with one set of arms at a time. You could tell the guardian was frustrated, and he hadn’t met ShadowLily yet.

  Watching the fight from the back of the group was kind of like watching a movie. As Cassie dodged and attacked, he coul
d almost tell what would happen next. She was a little slow coming up out of her roll to the side. The guardian used his shield like a ram and knocked the tank off balance and right toward his other sword.

  ShadowLily made her appearance, and it was super-clutch like so many times in the past. Her daggers knocked a killing blow off track, and while Cassie had been stabbed in the arm, she certainly wasn’t dead.

  Behold My Power hit and restored Cassie to full health in a blink. The guardian looked surprised when her staff smacked him in the back of the head. If nothing else, he probably thought his blow would have kept her out of the fight longer than an instant.

  Maybe he’d underestimated the threat this boss posed. The guardian was already dealing them pretty substantial damage, and they hadn’t made it to a phase change yet.

  Tim had no idea what to expect when the boss hit his first threshold. The only thing he knew was that it wouldn’t be farts, and he was pretty sure the whirlwind attacks were going out of style. Whatever happened next should be new and interesting.

  Lorelei was all business during this fight. Her bow thrummed constantly. The boss’ shields blocked half of her arrows, but for every one he blocked, one of them also got through. Not to mention the distraction from all those arrows caused additional attacks from ShadowLily and JaKobi to land as well.

  Despite his initial fears, they were making fantastic progress on the boss. They had dropped the guardian’s health by twenty-five percent already, and it didn’t look like their pace would slow anytime soon. Whatever they were doing right now was working perfectly and clearly had the Guardian off his game.

  They only needed to keep it going for as long as they could.

  The guardian hit seventy percent health, then sixty. Tim's opinion of the encounter was rapidly flipping from one extreme to the other. He was starting to get worried that this fight was too easy. Maybe Eternia dropped them off at the wrong tomb, or this was the beginner’s version of the fight. Something didn’t feel right, and those tiny inklings went from running to the bathroom right into a total shitstorm in the blink of an eye.

  “Watch for something to happen at fifty percent,” Tim called as he sent out a burst of Healing Storm to make sure everyone was topped off.

  At fifty percent health, the guardian slammed his shields together sending a shockwave through the room. He tossed the shields aside and pulled a pair of matching scepters from his belt. “For thieves, you put up a valiant fight, but your time amongst the living has come to an end.”

  “Just once, it’d be kinda nice if the boss was like, ‘Hey, you know what? This isn’t working out so well for me. Here’s some treasure, now get the fuck out and don’t come back.’” Tim hated being called a thief the way Marty McFly hated being called chicken, so he took things a little personal now.

  Cassie snorted. “Seriously. My favorite part is when they blow up in pretty golden lights. I'd kill him a few times just to watch him explode.” She turned her attention back to the boss. “Less talking. More dying.”

  The guardian of Nemset smiled his wolflike grin while lifting the scepters. Clouds of dark energy formed across the roof of the tomb and flecks of dark energy dropped out of them like the dying leaves of the Ellcrys slowly falling to the ground.

  It wasn’t hard to fathom that getting hit by one of the floating leaves of energy would be a bad thing. Now they would have to move the boss through the room with care or risk taking additional damage. This almost felt like one of those fights that would turn into a healing check.

  Cassie was back on the boss now, but all Tim could do was keep watching the leaves of energy as they slowly fell to the floor. One of the dark energy drops touched the stone, and it created a pillar of dark energy between the ceiling and the floor.

  Oh shit, this isn’t good.

  “Shoot the energy leaves.” Tim sent a blast of Divine Light, eliminating one of the guardian’s magical leaves before it could touch the floor.

  The leaves of darkness fell all around the room, and whenever their group wasn’t fast enough to destroy them before they landed, they created a pillar. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that running into the columns would be bad. Tim hadn’t noticed the hazard for what it was quick enough, and now pillars filled the room, waiting to zap them.

  Once they eliminated the last of the dark energy drops, the columns started moving around the room. As far as Tim could tell there was no pattern to the madness of it. If the pillars hit each other, they changed directions. The same thing happened when they hit a player, except his team also took a considerable amount of damage.

  It was like playing bumper cars of death.

  His entire life now consisted of running and healing. Quick Feet saved his ass once, but then all he could do was cast Who Needs a Shield and pray for the best. The guardian was at twenty-five percent health now, but he was lifting the scepters again. They weren’t going to live through this if they didn’t do something now.

  “Any cooldowns, any special skills, anything you’ve been holding in reserve. Now is the time to drop it.” Tim kept the heals going out. “Ignore everything but the boss. If we don’t kill him now, we won’t survive the next Pillar Phase anyway.”

  The guardian’s diminished health seemed to be slowing him a little, but the magic flowing into his spell hadn’t slowed at all. The leaves fell faster now, almost like snowflakes in a storm. They wouldn’t have long until pillars of dark energy filled the entire room. When that happened, they were dead.

  Tim made sure everyone’s health was topped off and cast Divine Light like it was going out of style. The boss's health was plummeting now. Twenty seconds later, he was at five percent.

  The first of the new pillars snapped to life, then a second and a third. They were happening all over the place. They hadn’t stopped a single bit of the dark energy flakes from landing, and they were paying for it. Maybe he’d picked a shit strategy, and they were all going to die.

  Three percent.

  Two-thirds of the room was full of bouncing pillars of darkness. All of them were getting hit and ricocheted in every direction, and there was nothing they could do about it. Tim stopped trying to DPS. His extra one percent wasn’t going to matter if they were all too dead to talk about how little DPS he did during fights compared to the big three.

  He cast Healing Storm and channeled all his mana into it.

  Two percent.

  “Holy fuck, why does that last percent take so long?” Tim had a pillar pressed against him now, and there wasn’t anywhere else for it to go so it was starting to crush him against another of the dark energy beams. The constant pain in his arm made it hard to concentrate, but he refused to drop the spell.

  Everyone was hurting now, and he was pretty sure Lorelei’s vest was on fire. The guardian was flailing around as he died, but it sure didn’t feel like it was happening fast enough for all of them to come out of this alive. With one final wail of disbelief, the guardian disappeared, and the pillars of darkness winked out of existence with him.

  Tim fell to his knees. The skin on the right side of his body was a shriveled mess. Some of the others were doing even worse, but they were still alive, if barely. They might have looked like the walking dead, but they were still alive.

  Now that the fight was over his mana flooded back into his system.

  Tim wanted to fall over and pass out, but that wasn’t going to work for any of them. He lifted his ruined arm into the sky and cast Healing Storm again. The fat drops of liquid fell onto them, and he could feel his skin knitting back together. The burned skin sloughed off like a cicada shell, and his arm looked fresh and new.

  Magic was so fucking awesome.

  The rest of the group was standing now, looking around the room almost in a daze.

  “That wasn’t very fun.” Cassie had taken the most damage, but she looked better thanks to the continued healing.

  Tim gave her a quick hug, hoping it would shake off any bad mojo she felt. “You know w
hat is fun?” He pointed toward the treasure room. “Loot. Let’s go check it out.”

  “I feel like this is exactly how the last fight started, and I’d really like never to do that fight again.” Cassie walked toward the stairs. The fear of death would never be strong enough to keep her away from the prospect of collecting new shinies.

  Getting burned alive was in Tim’s top three worst ways to die, so having the pillar crushing him and burning him at the same time wasn't exactly the best experience. When they got through all of this, he’d have to sit back and analyze the fight to find out what they could have done better. Then he could apply it to the next battle, or this one if the instance repeated at a higher level.

  He was a big fan of when developers brought low-level dungeons or even bosses back at endgame.

  When Cassie breached the stairs to the treasure room, nothing happened. It looked like they were in the clear.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  There was nothing better than getting to the loot after a close fight.

  Although in this case, Tim wasn’t expecting much. Normally when they got a big quest where the quest-giver was willing to part with something from their hoard, the bosses they fought didn’t drop much. It could have been a figment of his imagination, but when Eternia dangled the carrot, they usually had to work for it.

  Cassie led the way up the stairs and into the treasure room.

  Piles of gold and jewels littered the floor and the walls. They were stacked waist-high in some places. Tim reached out, trying to touch one of the pieces, and found he couldn’t pick it up. It was as if his fingers hit an invisible shield.

  Cassie was trying the same thing in front of him. “Maybe it’s only for looks.”

  It would make sense if the treasure in here was only for looks. Regularly giving the players this kind of money would devalue gold until it was worthless. Tim did spot a single chest in front of them. It was about an eighth of the size they usually saw after battles so he wasn’t expecting much. If anything, Tim was starting to think their quest item would be in there and not a lot else. After their last fight, he was okay with that. All he wanted to do now was get what they needed and move on to the next boss.