Heart of the Void: Sosaku Online - Book 2

by J. Arthur Klein

  “Guys,” I said, my breath coming in ragged gasps. “I don’t think this next wave is going to be any fun at all. If you’ve got any sort of AOE mojo left in you, now is probably the time.”

  Mika shook his head. “The best I could do is set some traps, but that doesn’t help since we’re constantly moving, and I don’t think I could get anything decent set before the next wave is on us.”

  “These things are relentless,” Kjara said, out of breath herself. “I can catch a lot of them in my Flashing Blade skill, but it’s a matter of numbers. I run out of stamina before I run out of enemies, and then it’s just hacking and slashing until there are no more.”

  Amenhotep just looked at me, pure resolve radiating off of his stoic form. “What will be, will be, Adept.”

  The priestess had continued moving forward and was halfway to the next trigger point, so we skipped ahead, took a knee, and chugged some magically delicious water to make the most out of our out of combat regeneration rates before being swarmed by the creepy wolf pack.

  …

  23

  The spectral priestess reached the point where I expected the next assault to begin and knelt in prayer, her voice increasing in volume as she prayed.

  We formed up around the priestess and watched the darkness for the next wave of attackers, but none came. Instead, the priestess’ voice rose to a small crescendo and she started to glow with a soft, golden light. I felt a faint tingle as the effects of her aura took hold.

  *** You have been affected by the Priestess of Asah’s Aura of the Faithful. While within the aura, all regeneration rates are increased by 25%. ***

  With the extra boost it wasn’t long before our pools were almost full. The priestess was the only one who wasn’t affected, and her health sadly stayed put.

  Our reprieve lasted maybe thirty seconds before the silence was shattered by an ear-piercing howl echoing from the darkness behind us. A wave of fear assaulted my senses but was quickly subdued.

  *** You have resisted Upuaut Alpha’s How of Terror! ***

  I glanced at my party window. A new icon had appeared next to both Kjara and Mika’s bars, and a quick scan revealed its meaning.

  Howl of Terror (Fear): Any attacks directed against the source of this ability are penalized by 30%. Coming within 10 feet of the source of this ability has a chance of forcing the affected character to flee.

  Yeah, can’t have that on our melee DPS, I thought, and cast Sehkmet’s Cleansing on Kjara.

  *** Sehkmet’s cleansing has failed to dispel “Howl of Terror” ***

  I tried again with the same result. When it failed again, I sighed and dumped two of my reserve divine points into the spell, bringing it up to five.

  *** You spend 1 skill point and raise your Sehkmet’s Cleansing spell to 4! ***

  *** You spend 1 skill point and raise your Sehkmet’s Cleansing spell to 5! Sehkmet’s Cleansing how has an increased chance to affect higher rank afflictions. ***

  Third time, or maybe the two extra ranks, was the charm.

  *** Howl of Terror has been dispelled! ***

  Before I could do the same for Mika, the source of the howl walked out of the darkness.

  Where the upuaut crunchies had been the size of normal wolves, this creature could give a Clydesdale a run for its money.

  The ravages of time had been much kinder to the alpha’s body than to its lesser kin, and it even had a few tufts of fur left poking through the tightly wound bandages that covered its form.

  Its eyes were filled the crimson glow that seemed to be the trademark of the tomb creatures, and its rotting and bandaged maw was open in a snarl of pure malice.

  I used Analyze as soon as it came into range and toggled on my Aura of the Underworld as we arranged ourselves in front of the still kneeling priestess, mentally berating myself for not having it active during the previous waves.

  *** Upuaut Alpha, Level 14 (Boss) ***

  *** HP: 100%, MP: 100%, SP: 100% ***

  *** Conditions: Pack Leader, Designated Prey ***

  *** Active Spells/Abilities: None ***

  *** Weakness: Fire ***

  *** Highest Statistics: Agility, Constitution ***

  “Okay folks,” I yelled. “Got ourselves a boss fight! Level 14 with Pack Leader, whatever that means, and Designated Prey, which probably means it’s going to go for the priestess. But it’s not Fixated so be ready for anything. Kill it with fire, like everything else in this place.”

  Kjara smiled and whispered something under her breath and her blades began to glow even brighter with holy light. I tucked the nekhakha into my belt and equipped my Sunspear, growing it to its longer form and taking up a defensive position near the priestess.

  Mika was kneeling low to the ground, visibly shivering in fear as the alpha crept towards us.

  “Shit! Sorry, Mika,” I yelled and cast Sehkmet’s Cleansing on him to remove the fear effect.

  The dýrafólk recovered quickly, giving me an annoyed glare before ducking behind Amenhotep’s towering form and fading from view.

  The Upuaut Alpha moved in slowly, its eyes looking past the Temple Guardian to the priestess’ vulnerable form, like a living wolf eyeing a tender lamb among the flock. It circled us, looking for an opening, but found none as we shifted with it, keeping ourselves between it and its desired prey.

  Finally tiring of the game, the alpha darted forward, trying to rush past Amenhotep and getting a shield to the face instead.

  The tank slashed into the creature’s flank with his khopesh, and things fell into a more standard MMO experience as the boss turned his attention to Amenhotep.

  Kjara dashed in and began cutting into its flanks with her glowing Temple Blades, drawing a painful yelp from the alpha as it danced to the side.

  The boss turned from Amenhotep and lunged at Kjara, sinking its long fangs into her thigh. She screamed and slammed the pommels of her weapons onto the beast’s skull, causing it to release her and recoil.

  Amenhotep used his Shockwave ability to regain the alpha’s focus, and I sent healing magic streaming over to Kjara to repair the damage.

  A slight flicker behind the boss drew my attention a second before Mika appeared and thrust his daggers deep into the upuaut’s hindquarters, dropping its health to eighty percent and sending the beast stumbling to the side.

  The alpha regained its balance and leapt backwards, giving itself room to recover. Its eyes began to glow a brighter red as it raised its snout in the air and let out another dreadful howl.

  *** Upuaut Alpha uses Pack Master! ***

  I heard a rushing sound behind me and turned just in time to see the dust of our destroyed enemies flowing together, forming into ten of the lesser creatures who immediately leapt towards the priestess’ prone form and tore at her flesh.

  “Adds!” I yelled, and Kjara dashed over and helped me clear off the priestess whose health was now close to fifteen percent.

  Once the little guys were dust once again, I noticed another swirl of dust off to the side.

  “Another pack forming at three o’clock!” I yelled, casting Flamestrike and planting the javelin in its center. The spell detonated a second after the final beast formed, incinerating them all.

  A grunt from Amenhotep drew my attention back to the main battle where the alpha was back on the offensive, its claws and teeth ripping large furrows through the tank’s armor, dropping his health down to fifty percent.

  Small trails of crimson sand leaked from the guardian’s wounds and evaporated into the ether as he raised his shield to block another series of attacks. The combined fury of the boss’ assault drove him slowly backwards.

  Kjara ran past me towards the latest pack of pups that had just spawned and called out, “I’ll handle the adds. You concentrate on keeping us alive.”

  “Got it!” I replied and hit Amenhotep with a barrage of Cure Wounds spells, bringing his health back up over ninety percent.

  Amenhotep and Mika continued cutting away
at the beast’s health, but with Kjara on adds duty things were going slowly.

  My mana was hovering above half, the increase from the priestess’ buff still having a limited effect even in combat. I figured I could add a little DPS to the mix and still have enough for healing, so the next time the alpha stepped away from Amenhotep I pegged it with a Sunstrike.

  The burning lance of holy fire seared into the creature’s shoulder, creating a small crater in its mummified flesh that continued to smolder even after the spell had run its course.

  The alpha growled and turned its gaze towards me, letting out a ragged bark that spoke directly to my lizard brain, telling it to flee.

  A sense of terror washed over me, but a warm light welled up from my core and bolstered my will, allowing me to stand fast.

  *** You have resisted Upuaut Alpha’s Primal Bark! ***

  Mika took advantage of the creature’s momentary stillness to launch himself onto its back and drive his daggers in deep near its spine.

  The alpha dropped to the ground and rolled, crushing the dýrafólk beneath its still considerable weight. Mika’s health bar dropped far into the red and a series of icons appeared next to his entry in the party window.

  Amenhotep charged forward, his own bulk enough to knock the alpha clear of the rogue and send it skidding across the dust covered stone.

  I rushed over to Mika, casting Cure Wounds on the way and put myself between his crushed form and the alpha. He was still in bad shape, so I knelt down and cast Soothing Touch to take advantage of the more directed healing it provided.

  My First Aid skill kicked in, guiding the spell toward where his ribs had been snapped and one of his lungs pierced. I poured mana into the spell, directing the healing to the most critical areas.

  His ribs snapped back into place with a pained grunt, and his lung knit closed. One by one the icons dropped off and he took a deep breath and started to stir.

  After the worst of his injuries were healed, I switched back to Cure Wounds since it was much higher rank and didn’t require direct contact with the patient, allowing me to get back into the fight.

  Amenhotep was in full defensive mode, using his khopesh to parry the wolf’s claws while his shield blocked its bites.

  Kjara was darting all over the place like a madwoman, slaying the smaller dogs by the score. Whenever one group was destroyed, another immediately spawned to take its place. She looked exhausted and was covered in sweat and caked-on dust from the enemy.

  Mika picked himself off the ground and ducked behind me, somehow using me as cover to drop back into stealth.

  I shrugged and moved up to help Amenhotep, pumping some additional healing into him and grimacing as my mana dropped below fifteen percent. Healing Mika had been very mana intensive.

  I moved up beside the tank and activated Precision Strike. Almost immediately a section at the base of the mummified wolf’s neck lit up, and I attacked.

  My spear pierced the highlighted bandages, its blade sinking almost a foot into the creature’s body before striking something solid.

  Its health dropped from over fifty percent to forty with that single hit, and I felt a rush of magical energy entering my body as my Combat Casting boon triggered.

  I pushed the energy into the glyphs for Cure Wounds and healed Amenhotep with the free spell, watching his health bar refill as I yanked my spear free of the creature, twisting the blade to widen the wound.

  A small trickle of an oil-like blood oozed out of the creature and onto the floor, the closest the mummified creature could come to a bleeding wound, I guessed.

  It leapt towards me, its maw and claws attacking in a frenzy. I blocked its claws with my shield and sidestepped its massive maw but was knocked backwards as its shoulder smashed into me. Its second claw lashed out and tore a painful line down my side.

  I thought I did a pretty good job of rolling with the blow and managed to hold on to both my spear and shield as I tumbled and rolled back to my feet. The Russian judge, however, was a lot more critical and I saw my health drop by twenty percent a millisecond before I felt the pain of broken ribs shoot through my chest.

  Falling to one knee, I pulled a healing potion from my pouch and gulped it down, pushing through the pain until the warm healing energy washed it away.

  I glanced back at the Upuaut Alpha. Its eyes were glowing even brighter, and I could sense some sort of power gathering around it.

  “Kheph!” Kjara said from behind me. I turned to see her standing there, holding one of the smaller hounds in her arms, its mouth and legs tied securely with a length of rope.

  “Wha-” I began but she cut me off.

  “Just take it. You can heal with one hand, right?”

  “Yeah, but-”

  “Good,” she said and handed me the hogtied mummy dog as I put my spear away. “Seems these packs only spawn once you kill them all. So, keep this guy alive and let me murder his daddy, okay?”

  I stood there speechless for a few seconds as she rushed off to bring the pain to the boss. “What?”

  The creature wriggled in my grip, still trying to get at the priestess who was gazing towards the alpha with a fearsome expression in her eyes.

  I split my attention between the boss fight and the priestess as my companions started to cut into the alpha once again. The alpha’s health dropped to forty, then thirty, and finally to twenty-five percent before its next phase kicked in.

  At one point I almost lost my grip on Scooby’s ancestor when I needed to quaff a mana potion to keep up, but managed to recover before Great-grandpa Doo could wriggle away.

  When the creature reached twenty-five percent, it let out a pulse of force that knocked my companions back and raised its maw to howl again.

  The pup in my arms turned to dust and was sucked towards the alpha along with the remains of all of its brothers, sisters, cousins, and other assorted family members.

  The cloud of dust flowed into the open mouth of the alpha, and its wounds began to heal.

  At the same time the priestess began to chant, looking over to me with her hand outstretched.

  It took me a second to realize what she wanted, but when the nekhakha in my belt began to glow and vibrate it finally clicked.

  I took out the flail and placed it into her hand, stepping away as the glowing grew more intense.

  Both the priestess and the flail flashed with a bright light as a wave of force crashed over us all, sending us stumbling but also disrupting the alpha’s dust buffet.

  My timing could have been better, but the priestess’ intervention had cut off the alpha’s cannibalistic huffing before it could restore too much of its health.

  It lowered its head and growled, its eyes focusing on the spectral form of the priestess as it started to emit a dark red aura.

  *** Upuaut Alpha is affected by Shield of Vengeance ***

  The priestess took a step forward and continued her chant. Another bar appeared underneath her health on my screen and began to fill in sync with her chanting.

  “She’s moving again!” I yelled and used Analyze on the alpha to see if anything had changed.

  *** Upuaut Alpha, Level 14 (Boss) ***

  *** HP: 31%, MP: 17%, SP: 23% ***

  *** Conditions: Fixated ***

  *** Active Spells/Abilities: Shield of Vengeance. ***

  *** Weakness: Fire ***

  *** Highest Statistics: Agility, Constitution ***

  I was glad I had. “Boss-wolf now has that Fixated status!” I yelled and rushed to put myself between the priestess and the boss.

  Amenhotep stepped in as well, forming a wall in front of the spirit’s chanting form.

  The wolf started forward and Kjara struck, her blades cutting parallel gashes down the creature’s side and dropping its health by three percent.

  The dark aura flashed, and the wounds disappeared from the alpha and reappeared on Kjara who screamed in pain and fell to the ground, the minor wound to the boss’ health translating into almost
eighty percent of hers.

  “Mika stay back!” I yelled as I poured healing into Kjara while she painfully crawled away from the boss.

  Luckily for the moon elf, the alpha had eyes only for the priestess, and those blocking its way. It dashed forward and crashed into our shield wall, knocking me back a step as I caught the blow on my shield.

  Amenhotep stood firm, and the alpha’s momentum was nullified by the guardian. I stepped forward getting my shield back into position and took an experimental swing with it into the creature’s face.

  The aura flashed and a gash opened up over my eye, blood flowing down my face and partially obscuring my vision until I wiped it away with the back of my wrist.

  The secondary bar beneath the priestess’ health reached one hundred percent and there was a flash of light behind me.

  I looked back to see the priestess striding forward, the nekhakha raised to strike.

  I moved to the side as she stepped up next to Amenhotep and brought the flail around in a massive overhand blow to the alpha’s head.

  *** Priestess of Asah uses Holy Smite on the Upuaut Alpha ***

  *** Shield of Vengeance suppressed for ten seconds ***

  The glowing red aura flickered and disappeared.

  “Quick! Hit it now!” Mika screamed as he leapt in and sank his daggers into the wolf’s ribs, taking four percent off of its health bar without the blow being returned.

  Kjara was too far away to make it in time, but I was able to hit it with a Sunstrike using the last of my mana.

  The aura flared back into being once the timer was up, and the boss resumed its attempts to get to the priestess who had returned to her previous position and was chanting once again.

  The alpha leapt into Amenhotep and knocked him to the side, creating a momentary gap in our defenses that it exploited to lunge towards the priestess. My attempts to intercept failed, and the beast sank its teeth into the priestess’ spectral form, taking a full five percent off of her health bar.

  I thought for sure we were screwed at that point, but instead of pressing the attack the creature leapt backwards, shaking its head back and forth as if in pain.