Travail Online: Transcend: LitRPG Series (Book 3)

by Brian Simons

  >> Buff increased: War Cry. +15% to Strength and Spirit in combat.

  A hand clasped Daniel’s wrist as Healing Grasp appeared overhead. “I brought help,” the girl said.

  “Farah!” Sybil yelled. She threw her arms around her sister. “How do we get that spider off of you?”

  “I don’t know,” Farah said. “But for now, I’m in control.”

  Tawn continued to pump painful pink magic at Daniel while Farah and the dryads repaired what Tawn disintegrated. Daniel’s HP bar bounced up and down as spells hit at different times, burning and soothing, disintegrating and repairing. Then Tawn dropped his wand and shrieked. His HP bar was down to 25%.

  “I will raise a new army!” Tawn yelled, then rose through the trees in a gusty swirl of wind and disappeared.

  Daniel fell to his knees after the ordeal. Not killing Tawn yielded zero XP, but he had survived. His friends helped him to his feet as he called up to the trees. “Thank you!”

  A few drow looked back in shock. Their leader had left them on the battlefield to die. With a single glance toward Daniel, they joined his army and blue chevrons appeared over their heads.

  Daniel and the others had run to the very edge of the battlefield. There had been spiders here before, but now the perimeter was empty. Looking back, he saw why. While Daniel had distracted Tawn, Sivona was able to stop spending her energy on a magic shield. Instead, she was drawing the life force out of every living thing left nearby, even her new “children.” The Aracqueen gorged herself on the bodies of the dead, unmoved by the pained screeches of the spiders Sivona sucked the life from.

  White torrents of energy sprang from the eyes of drow and elf, spider and dwarf. They floated through the air and converged on the hole in Sivona’s armor. As she drew their essence into herself, she began to glow. Her body was the only thing left lighting the battlefield now that the effects of Sybil’s Shadowshatter had worn off.

  Daniel was physically and mentally exhausted, but he finally had the skill points to unlock Nuclear Option, and the MP left to use it. He looked out at the players ensnared by the queen’s magic. He owed it to them to finish this.

  As he thought about it, he wondered how Nuclear Option would play out. Sure, he could summon a fiery comet from the sky that would burn through Sivona and the Aracqueen, but would it be enough to kill them? It would certainly kill some of the NPCs Sivona had trapped, and possibly Farah — Daniel couldn’t be sure whether the game would count her as a player or an NPC, a friend or a foe, now that she was merged with an arackid and ruined souls.

  Even if killing Farah would log her out of the game and effectively dislodge her from the arackid towering overhead, he couldn’t do that to her. In Travail, players lived through their deaths, felt the agony of each HP point that dropped from their tally. It was too traumatic to risk putting Farah through.

  “Change of plans,” Daniel said. “I’m not using Nuclear Option. I’m declaring Martial Law.” He unlocked the skill and ran toward the battle until Sivona’s spell started to snake toward him as well. Then he spent his MP to create a null-magic field that shut it all down. The glade fell into total darkness. Players fell to their knees, weak but alive. The queen was livid.

  “Enough!” Sivona yelled. “I am too close to transcendence for you to ruin this! After ages of suffering, I deserve the power to return to the world the pain it delivered me. You will be my last meal before I achieve godhood!” She drew her dagger, but paused. The ground began to rumble underfoot. “Ah,” she said. “There you are.”

  Players and NPCs scattered as the ground cracked open. A rift split the glade in two, releasing swarms of ruined souls. They jettisoned high in the air, disappearing into the dark sky. Daniel reached into his pouch for the potion Petra had given him in the tunnels. He smashed the vial on the ground and a brilliant flash of green light erupted, bathing everything in a preternatural glow.

  The ruined souls were visible now, outlined in green against the night sky. The trees were covered in a green residue that lit the ground ahead and cast an eerie glow over Sivona’s face and the Aracqueen’s six vicious eyes.

  Coral drew an arrow and aimed it upward, but stopped and then lowered it.

  “Daniel,” Coral said, “no one can attack ruined souls without magic.”

  With Martial Law in effect, they were sitting ducks for those shades. Daniel swallowed hard. “What have I done?”

  44

  Ruined souls fell from the sky like torrential rain, slamming into players, NPCs, and mobs. Some melded with the dryads in the trees, turning them into mangled dryants that creaked and moaned as their bodies morphed into their new form.

  >> Buff reduced: War Cry. +10% to Strength and Spirit in combat.

  Others mutated leshies, elves, and drow into strange mixtures of whatever they came into contact with. Only the elves still loyal to Sivona seemed to avoid the onslaught of mutative shadows. Coral and the others ran, dodging cracks that continued to split the ground under their feet. They charged toward Sivona and the Aracqueen.

  >> Buff reduced: War Cry. +5% to Strength and Spirit in combat.

  Sivona’s soldiers came at them from the sides as they closed the distance between them and their target. Sal whacked them away with his maw maul, sending them toppling through the air. He cleared a path straight to the Aracqueen.

  Sybil sank her scythe into the Aracqueen’s front leg, eliciting a high-pitched howl but not causing much damage. The spider grasped Sybil in her fangs and lifted her off the ground. Blood ran down her legs as those fangs dug into her stomach.

  “She’ll try to merge with you!” Farah warned.

  “Let go of my friend!” Sal yelled. He smashed his mouthy hammer into the spider’s side. Coral couldn’t tell if the weapon’s mouth began to gnaw on the spider’s flesh or if the ethereal green glow of the forest was playing tricks on her. She didn’t have time to inspect it closely. While Sal battled with the Aracqueen, two dwarves with axes in each hand approached her and the others.

  The dwarves and their spider puppet masters approached Coral first. Onik stepped forward and rolled his large golden dice. He Grappled with a dwarf, holding down both of his arms so that neither could easily strike the other. Then he smashed his massive bovine head into the dwarf’s skull and sent the dwarf and his spider master toppling to the ground.

  Blat stood behind the monster, digging in the dirt and ignoring the surrounding combat.

  Not now, Blat!, Coral thought. Then the Aracqueen threw Sybil across the battlefield. She landed hard, losing a chunk of HP and rolling toward the trench that had birthed the ruined souls. As Sybil fell inside, her hands grabbed at the ground around the edge of the ravine. Sal’s hammer came to rest on the Aracqueen’s skull, knocking the spider to the ground. Her legs twitched, but she didn’t stand.

  The ruined souls could not be quelled. One crashed into Sal as he approached the royal spider and his skin got grayer. Another dived into him, melting his body into an ever-blackening puddle. He dropped his maw maul to the ground as his body failed him. Other players called out for help that wouldn’t come as the shadowy fiends molded their avatars into strange and horrific shapes.

  >> Buff removed: War Cry.

  Just like that, the ruined souls had decimated their army.

  “Onik,” Coral yelled, “can you help her?” He nodded. Aid Another appeared over his head and he was off, running toward the Shadowsiren before her arms gave out and she fell into the bowels of their online world.

  Daniel stepped forward to fight the other dwarf while Coral readied her arrows. She shot at Sivona, but each arrow ricocheted off her bone armor.

  Daniel continued to battle with the last dwarven puppet, but his arms were stiff, and he started missing his attacks. The dwarf’s axes both collided with Daniel’s chest and the puppet warrior dragged the blades down Daniel’s front, grating like nails on a chalkboard. He didn’t take much physical damage, but he had trouble reacting. Then ruined souls plunged into
him from behind and finished the job they had set in motion earlier that day. Coral watched in horror as Daniel’s body turned into a solid piece of metal, eyes and all.

  Ruined souls continued to swarm and dart through the battlefield. The few that dived into Coral passed through her with no effect. She thanked her armor for that, the same armor that left her with zero Defense, vulnerable to any weapon she couldn’t Shiftwalk through.

  The dwarf turned on Coral next, slicing through her body with metal blades that never touched her. She was a ghost among ghosts now, impervious to his dual weapons. She nocked an arrow and aimed it directly between his eyes as he slashed in vain. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t shoot this man point blank when his only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She tilted up and aimed at the arackid on his shoulders instead, lodging an arrow deep inside its head. It fell, taking the dwarf down with it.

  “That’s better,” Sivona said as a white ball of magic flickered in her palm. Now that Daniel’s null-magic field had worn off, Sivona thrust a beam of white magic at Coral, but she was immune to it. She Shiftwalked though magic now. She turned again and shot an arrow at Sivona at close range, who tried to block it with her small dagger but failed. The arrow lodged in her forearm.

  >> Sivona takes 209 Damage.

  “Paladin!” Sivona yelled. “Heal me!”

  Farah took a step forward. “You don’t deserve to be healed!” She placed a hand on Coral instead as Healing Grasp again appeared overhead. Nothing happened. Coral’s Shiftwalking prevented even healing magic from affecting her.

  Sivona stepped forward and grabbed Farah’s hand, pressing the girl’s palm against her wound. Farah yanked her hand away. “Ugh, what good are you if you won’t heal me!” Sivona yelled, backhanding Farah with her rotten hand and knocking the girl off balance.

  “You’ve given up even the illusion that you’re halfway decent,” Coral said.

  “What,” Sivona said, stepping down from her throne. “Care for a closer look?” She took one long stride toward Coral and pressed her nose just inches from Coral’s. Sivona’s face was awash in green glow, adding a grim overlay to her sallow, dead skin and drooping eyes. The undead lunatic before her had led hundreds to their death and was responsible for the decay all over Travail. Coral reached back for an arrow.

  “Just a little more life,” Sivona said, “and this dead form will be risen.” She jabbed her brown knife into Coral’s stomach.

  >> You’ve been hit! 966 Damage.

  Coral was confused for a moment. She was a Shiftwalker now. Metal and bone, glass and stone, magic and fey — none of these things should affect her. Then she realized. Sivona’s dagger was not brown with rust or with blood. It was simply made of wood.

  As a mage, Sivona’s Intelligence would grow quickly as she leveled, making her magic attacks increasingly powerful. Her Strength, and by extension her physical attacks, would improve only slowly. Still, at her high level, and with Coral’s complete lack of Defense, even a single hit with a mage’s wooden weapon had left her nearly dead. Coral started to wish she had crafted more of the ravager’s rags. Maybe then she could escape to “another dimension,” or find out whether “death’s ascension” would save her from another touch of Sivona’s dagger.

  Sivona’s body began to glow again as she drew energy from the weakened players around her, in whatever strange shapes they were. As Coral stood there with Sivona’s blade deep in her core, she could see the sad shape of Ze, a goddess as small as beetle-shaped Thanaker but drained of all life. Her pained face pressed against Sivona’s gray skin. Her arms moved weakly below the surface.

  She felt sorry for Ze, but also relieved. She wasn’t dead yet. It wasn’t too late.

  “I have not forgotten you, my Aracqueen,” Sivona said. “I promised to merge you with a power you’ve never known. Perhaps our failed heroine will do. Just think what a tangled web you’ll weave when you’re part Garmenter, spider queen!”

  Ruined souls swirled around the Aracqueen, causing parts of her body to shimmer and fade into translucency. Sivona was preparing her for a transformation. Coral had a transformation of her own in mind.

  She lifted her hand and shoved it into Sivona’s chest. She passed through the bone armor like it was nothing and sank her fingers into the dead skin that surrounded the goddess of life. As she curled her fingertips into that flesh and dug the goddess out, Sivona screamed in pain. Coral’s hand grasped the goddess’s body now and tore her free, along with a fistful of dead, rotten sinew.

  Sivona lifted Coral by the throat and threw her ten feet, but it was too late. Coral had Ze in hand.

  For the first time, the elf queen looked vulnerable, scared. She started to back away. “I can’t contain it,” she said. “Without Ze I cannot hold all the energy. It’s leaking away.” Sivona made to run.

  Coral pulled the wooden knife from her stomach. She was bleeding badly, but she needed to stop Sivona if she could. She had no energy to stand, so she lay on the ground and reached back for an arrow. If she could fire a Hot Shot, maybe she could melt through Sivona’s dwarf-bone armor and scald her to death. Though, one arrow wouldn’t be enough against a boss this strong. She needed something else.

  She had hook shot arrows, plain metal arrows, and a curiosity she had created that morning: a grapple hook arrow. Onik was pretty effective when he Grappled that dwarf, maybe she could stop Sivona from escaping after all. She took aim, nocking the arrow whose head consisted of two fish hooks fused together. She fired, and the arrowhead grabbed onto the rim of Sivona’s bone armor.

  Coral pulled while Sivona protested. She wound the fishing line tighter in her hands in a brutal tug of war. Sivona’s dagger lay at her side. If she pulled her too close, the elf might recover the weapon and finish Coral off. It was a risk she’d have to take. Coral couldn’t let her go, not while Farah was still half spider. She dug her heels into the ground and pulled with what strength she had left.

  Then a small green light lit behind Sivona. It was the same green as Coral’s Ring of Force. Headbutt appeared and the elf queen sailed through the air, crashing into the flickering body of the Aracqueen.

  Blat stood with his hands on his hips and chirped something self-congratulatory. The elf queen and the spider queen thrashed in a bloody, ugly heap until the ruined souls’ shimmer faded away. Sivona stood, but not on small elven legs. Her torso ended at the navel, where a massive spider’s body began. Sivona and the Aracqueen were one now, their forms equally ruined by the dark forces that overran the forest.

  Sivona looked down at herself, aghast. She stumbled to the side as she learned to walk on her new legs. She held out a hand and conjured light in her palm. “Goblin!” she yelled. “I should have killed you when I had the chance!” She threw a ball of white light at Blat, who fell to the ground and hollered in pain.

  “This changes nothing,” Sivona said, scuttling toward Coral. “I will use the energy I have before it leaves me and transcend as high as I can. Even as a mere demi-god I will rain chaos on this world. Feed me!” She extended her hands and sent out wisps of white that entered Coral’s eyes, clawed down her spine, and constricted her lungs. The same magic tendrils reached toward Farah, then Daniel, desperately clamoring for any source of power that Sivona could draw into herself.

  Sivona’s body pulsated with energy. Coral fell to her knees. She was nearly dead, and fighting a losing battle against a woman as powerful and as evil as Sybil made her out to be.

  Suddenly a golden light brighter than the sun ignited the night sky. It swirled in yellows, then oranges and reds as warmth enveloped Coral’s body. She knelt there, arching her back slightly and staring at the burning sky while her wounds healed. Her HP meter filled to the brim.

  Metal melted from Daniel’s body until he was a man again. Sal’s body sprang from the puddle it had become. Coral wasn’t sure where this new life came from, but the ruined souls burned out of the sky and disappeared. Even her ravager’s rags began to flake
away under the warm light.

  Lora, Quinnick, and a small army of elves marched into the glade. “Phoenix Fire,” Lora said. “We’d have come sooner, but it takes a while to cast and when someone threw out a null-magic field we had to start over.”

  Players got to their feet, no longer horrific mutants. Farah ran toward Sybil, who leaned on Onik for support as the chasm closed up.

  “Poor Xane,” Lora said. “The old bird only gets to do that once a century or so. We needed to wait until the time was right, until you had disconnected Ze from Sivona.”

  Sivona’s body lost its white glow, but she laughed and reared up on her hind legs. “You traitorous idiot,” she said. “The time was right indeed. Lora the Light Mage thinks she’s so wise and brave. You worked your whole life to keep that bird from me, but she provided the last charge I needed to push me over the edge. I was still drawing power when the phoenix released hers. I have transcended!”

  >> A new god has joined the pantheon: The Goddess of Ruin.

  >> A new god has joined the pantheon: The God of Fortune.

  “You’re not welcome here, Sivona,” Lora said. “We have a goddess and a temple. Find your own land.”

  “I will never accept you as my sister,” Ze said. As Coral turned back, she saw the goddess of life in all her splendor. She was small, but she flitted on six wings that shimmered with color like a dragonfly’s. Her face was sharp, but beautiful, and her short brown hair shot up from her head as if she flew perpetually into the wind. Her eyes were wide and deep, dark blue.

  “Nor will I,” Onik said.

  “What?” Coral asked.