Quest into Hidden Realms (Hidden Realms LitRPG Series Book 1)

by Tom Gallier

  He looked at her. Smiled. "I'm free."

  Dmitry died.

  "Oh my god, I killed him," she said. Then she felt a tingle in her hand, and coldness began spreading up her arm. "Aaaiieee!"

  She flung the yellow crystal across the room and rubbed her left forearm and hand. The aftereffect felt like the blood was cut off for a few minutes.

  "Whatever you do, don't ever touch one of those things," she warned Rand, who nodded with big eyes. "It was trying to subjugate me."

  Rand stood up, looked around, and grinned. "We fight well together, babe. If I reach Lord Kathro first, we might do something else well together tonight."

  "What? Are you – ?" That was all she got out before Rand raced through the door.

  She quickly grabbed the rest of her stuff. The two rings went on her left hand. The sorceress sheathed her twin elven swords across her back, and then took up the Power Sword. Lord Kathro was too powerful to fight with anything less.

  The clash of arms got her running after Rand. "If that little bastard wins this, and chooses me, I swear I'll cut his thing off. Afterwards."

  She found Rand on the stairs to the next level up. Kobolds, hobgoblins, and a gryphon defended the stairs. Stopping behind the dwarf warrior, she paused to admire his bladework. Rand was a master axeman. She'd always admired how effortlessly he wielded that battle-axe. Few could stand before him one-on-one. Yet, there were too many foes in that confined space for him to win through.

  The sorceress called up her HUD, and cringed when she saw her mana was down to 41. She was practically de-powered as a spellcaster. Healing was out of the question now. Her Bind spell was grayed out, so she'd used it too many times. So she drank a Mana Restoring potion, but that would take time since it wasn't one of Lady Evangeline's.

  Asha tried to recall what floor they were on. Third or fourth? Only one way to find out. She absolutely couldn't allow Rand to go up first.

  "Rand, what time is it?"

  "Huh?"

  "Incorrect. It's time for me to jump ahead of you and reach Lord Kathro first," she said. "It's… Boom time!"

  Asha unleashed five thunderbolts into the defenders. The explosions were deafening, but blasted them apart or knocked them down. She then jumped forward, using her Levitate to fly over Rand's head and come down upon the gryphon. The beast screeched like a hawk as it attacked. She defended with the Power Sword, and forced the gryphon back up the stairs, slowly but surely.

  "Rand, I'm winning," Asha called. "And when I reach Lord Kathro first, I'm going to chose… Tiana."

  Congratulations! You've accepted the Wager to Reach and Kill Lord Kathro first. Fight to the death! No quarter given or received! Let the glory be yours in victory with three eager to please men and/or one woman!

  Oops, she thought. What did I do? How do I undo it?

  "What?" he cried.

  The look on his face was priceless. Asha couldn't help it. She laughed. Her face flushed red, knowing Rand would tell the others what she said. Tiana would take it well. She had a good sense of humor. Rand and Fergus though, might tease her about it for a while to come.

  "Give up the ghost, gryphon. We are going to win this challenge," Asha cried, redoubling her efforts. Since she, accidently or not, had officially accepted Rand's wager, now she absolutely had to win. "This castle is conquered already. We're just doing clean up."

  The gryphon lunged at her, eagle-beak snapping loudly inches from her face. The elfmaid whipped the enchanted blade to parry his attack. Only, cold steel didn't parry flesh and blood. It slices. She took the gryphon's head off without thinking about it, and blinked down at it for a second.

  Turning, she helped Rand by attacking the rear of the kobolds and hobgoblins. They quickly fell beneath the pair's blood-gory blades. She paused to grin down at Rand's bloody face. He looked exultant. Then his eyes dropped to her chest. She stepped back, a hand rising to cover out of instinct. The dwarf took her moment of distraction to dart past the elfmaid and up to the next level.

  "I win!" Rand cried. "I reached him first."

  On, woe is you! Rand has won the wager! Pay up. No welchers allowed!

  Does that mean Tiana never accepted the wager? I have to sleep with him? Asha gasped, shocked to her core. The bastard tricked her and won. I should've never helped him.

  She quickly joined Rand. That level was one vast room, at least two stories high. It was a throne room with ancient war banners on the walls and hanging from the rafters. One man stood between them and victory.

  Lord Kathro calmly sat upon an ornate silver throne encrusted with diamonds and rubies. The sight of him took Asha's breath away. Despite being so evil, the drow necromancer was a sight to behold. Why does evil always look so damned beautiful?

  He looked upon them with contempt.

  "I'm going to enjoy wiping that sneer off your ugly face," Rand said.

  The necromancer smiled cruelly. "I'm going to kill you both, and then reanimate you to start rebuilding my undead host." He looked at Asha, and then waved his hand. Invisible bonds wrapped around them both, squeezing with sudden power to force the air out of their lungs. "You, sorceress, will make a beautiful Dread One."

  Chapter 46

  Warlord's Castle looked dark and ominous. There were no Dread Ones to be seen. Well, there were hundreds of dead bodies strewn about, most burned to blackened husks. From above like that, Killum's eyes were drawn to the far side of the castle. There was a walled ghost town there. The town walls looked intact, but the gates were open and streets empty.

  He shook his head. "The people who once lived there must be dead or scattered across the lands."

  It was sad because for the mobs, this was real life. As far as he could tell, the NPCs had the same dreams and desires as real people. Snuffing out their lives was the true end of them, since he couldn't imagine them having souls. They were AI-driven computer graphics.

  Or were they?

  It was getting harder and harder to tell the difference. If it weren't for things like his HUD, the need to level up, and potions that healed or gave mana, Killum wouldn't be able to tell it was a game.

  It's as good as real life, since we can't escape this world, he thought. The wind in my face feels real. Gye feels real and alive beneath me.

  "I see flashes in the upper windows," Gye said. "I can sense great power radiating from the top floor of the castle keep."

  That ended Killum's reverie. His friends were down there. They could be prisoners or worse. Hopefully they were still battling away, working their way closer and closer to Lord Kathro.

  "Can you sense our friends inside?"

  "No. Just Lord Kathro," Gye said, altering course. "Do you want to surprise him through a window?"

  "Can you hover close to the castle?"

  "Does Rand fart in his sleep?"

  That was a yes. It was also why no one wanted to sleep next to him on the trail. Staying with him in the same room or a cave at night was ill-advised as well.

  Killum prepared himself for a fight. It would be the first time he fought with his new Dragon Knight gear. He had to remember the left bracer was a magic shield, while the right shot out bolts of energy. Gye had him test it on the way up. The battle-mage expected a lightning bolt to shoot out, but an intense ball of white hot energy came out instead.

  As the castle loomed before them, Gye heading for a thin arrow slit on the south side, Killum studied the castle's sprawling bailey below. No sign of his friends. They had to be inside.

  "They will be so pissed when I reach Lord Kathro first and kill him," Killum said.

  Gye got a peek inside first, before shifting to the side and moving Killum as close as possible. He grunted when he saw Asha and Rand standing perfectly still, heads back, and arms locked down to their sides. His magical sight spotted glowing red tendrils of magic wrapped around his friends, holding them perfectly still.

  Lord Kathro was striding toward them, a great burning sword in his hands. He was within steps of killing t
he battle-mage's friends. Killum pointed his right fist at the Dark Lord.

  "No! Not today," Killum cried, and sent a cannon ball sized shot into Lord Kathro's chest. "Not ever!"

  Chaos ensued. The magic holding Rand and Asha evaporated. They shouted angrily and charged the evil warlord. By doing so, they blocked Killum's next shot. The first didn't kill the Dark Lord, but he was sure the follow up would. If he'd gotten it out in time.

  "Gye, I need to get inside."

  The dragon turned away from the castle and flew in circles around the keep as he gained altitude. Killum fidgeted in the saddle, eager to join the fight before either Rand or Asha was killed. The fact Tiana and Fergus weren't up there was worrisome, too, but he didn't want to think about that yet.

  After they'd killed Lord Kathro he'd go find his other two friends. So he called out, urging Gye to greater speed. The dragon growled, but beat his wings harder and faster. Once they were a good fifty feet above the keep's battlements, Gye turned inward and spread his wings wide.

  As they drifted down for a landing, Lord Kathro charged up to the roof. For a second Killum thought they'd be shot out of the air by his foe's powerful bolts, but Asha came up behind him a second later, slashing alternately at his legs and face. When Rand reached the roof and joined the fight, the Dark Lord was hard pressed to defend himself.

  "Ha! He's a distance fighter," Killum shouted. "We can take him in a close quarters fight."

  He guided Gye in behind his friends, and yelled, "DUCK!"

  Asha and Rand fell to their bellies. Gye sent a torrent of dragonfire at Lord Kathro. To Killum's surprise, the Dark Lord held out a hand like Darth Vader and split the flames in two. He remained unscathed, which really ticked off Gye.

  "I'll eat him alive and – " Lord Kathro cut his tirade off with a bolt into his chest. The dragon shook it off, but had to veer away with a groan.

  "And shit him down a volcano," Killum finished.

  The battle-mage twisted around in the saddle and shot off a pair of bolts at his foe. Asha and Rand were attacking again. The problem was the Dark Lord was using magic none of them had seen before. Killum wasn't even sure what the spells were, but he just had to wave his hand and his friends would be buffeted to one side or the other, or blasted straight back into the stone battlements.

  "Swoop down and let me jump down there," Killum said. "This fight is going to be settled up close and personal."

  "Anything you say, boss."

  Gye went into a tight loop, and power dived toward the keep. They were almost there when Rand was hit by a blast and flew over the side. Killum just thought, "SAVE HIM" and Gye veered over and under the falling dwarf warrior.

  Rand landed in Killum's lap.

  The dwarf looked at his friend, then at the dragon, and narrowed his eyes. "Don't you dare kiss me!"

  "You're too ugly to kiss," he said. "Gye, drop us off atop the keep."

  The dragon circled the keep as he flew up, up, up, while staying close. Both Rand and Killum leapt off as soon as he topped the battlements. Killum hit the rooftop and rolled. Back on his feet, he located Lord Kathro and Asha exchanging sword blows.

  "Your day is done, you goat licking bastard," Killum shouted.

  Lord Kathro paused to glance at him. Asha darted in and bloodied the tip of one sword. Then she sliced open his thigh with the other sword. He roared in outrage and pain, and pounded a fist into her chest. The sorceress was smashed across the roof to crash into the unyielding stone battlements.

  Gye swooped down and flamed the Dark Lord, but again their foe remained untouched by the fire. Killum followed that with a pair of energy bolts to the chest. That knocked the evil necromancer to his butt. Lord Kathro scowled at them.

  "You realize that even if you defeat me, I'm an Immortal and will respawn," he said. He grinned at them. "And I'll be back for vengeance."

  "Oh man, shut up," Rand said. "You scare me so much I pee-pee my pants. Not."

  Killum started walking toward him, hammering Lord Kathro with shot after shot from his Dragon Knight bracer. The necromancer deflected them, but each one got a little closer.

  "Is he shooting a Roman Candle?" Rand asked.

  "He is a living Roman Candle on steroids," Asha said. "Supercharged."

  "He is," Lord Kathro shouted, jumping to his feet. "Nothing!"

  The Dark Lord clapped his hands together and they were all blasted backwards.

  Chapter 47

  The tapping, scraping sound of the scorpions' feet on the stone floor was worse than nails down a blackboard. Maybe it was the deadly stinger dripping with a viscous yellow poison that upped the creep factor. The fact the monsters were so fast didn't help.

  Tiana gasped, glancing up. "Dammit! The runt won!"

  The scorpions rushed towards them. Tiana turned towards the ranger to run, so he took off.

  Fergus raced toward the stairs. He cursed as he ran. Tiana's turn was a feign, and she went the other direction. So just as he hooked up with her, they were torn apart.

  "Go up the stairs!" she called.

  That was fine by Fergus. He'd seen all of the castle's dungeon that he wanted to see. Far too much, in fact. The scorpion must've understood because it scrambled past him, and blocked the stairs up. The ranger didn't slow or hesitate. He turned down the stairs to descend deeper into bowels of that evil place.

  I'll cross over and follow Tiana up on the other side.

  The sound of pursuit reached his sensitive ears. He wanted to stop and fight, but was afraid the scorpion would be on him too fast, and that foot long stinger would end him. Fergus was pretty sure it wouldn't be a quick death, either. The bug-ugly bastard would probably start eating him before he was dead.

  Fergus found additional speed.

  He hit the next level down. It proved to be the very bottom, with no more stairs down. And it was darker than a necromancer's soul. Fergus cut sharply and took off running for all he was worth, looking back at the closing scorpion.

  "That thing is too – Ooff!"

  Fergus knew he ran into someone smaller. At first he thought it a hobgoblin, but then he heard a familiar voice cursing furiously.

  "Tiana?"

  "You were supposed to go up."

  "So were you," he said, leaping to his feet and turning to face the scorpion. "But my way got blocked."

  Tiana backed up to him, and they faced the threat back-to-back. He'd fought with her like that a thousand times. This had to be the scariest of all their fights. It was dark, with monsters out of nightmares, and it was just the two of them. No help was coming from either of their spellcasters or that fearless runt.

  "Mine, too. The stupid bugs understand what we say."

  The scorpions lowered her "heads" close to the ground, with their massive pinchers spread wide. They lifted her rears high, and the ranger couldn't tear his eyes off that twitching tail. The bulbous stinger looked as big as his head.

  The monster-bugs attacked. It was all he could do to block its pinchers with his sword and kicks, while also fending off the jabbing stinger. The scorpion only backed away when he lucked out and landed a pair of hits on its face. Or at least he thought it was the scorpion's face.

  "How do you kill a scorpion?" Fergus asked. "Their bodies are armored."

  The scorpion's stinger darted at him. He swung to parry, but it was yanked back before contact. It was too dark to see the critters' eyes, but he couldn't help but notice those two giant pinchers. The scorpion darted at him, claws opened wide and tail twitching.

  "Watch out!" Tiana cried.

  He ducked and slanted a look over his shoulder. Her scorpion was trying to sting him in the back. How smart were they? The ranger tossed his sword into his left hand, and swung with all of his might. His parry snapped off the stinger, and his backstroke burst the venom bulb behind it.

  The scorpion actually made a screaming noise and both of them fell back. He told Tiana to use her Ring of Speed to escape.

  "Bring the others down to help
me."

  "I can't. I just checked my HUD, and the ring is grayed out," she said between gasps for breath. "It's got restrictions on how often I can use it."

  "Well that just sucks."

  "Preaching to the choir, sweetheart."

  The scorpions attacked at the same time again. Fergus wondered how they communicated to coordinate. Once again it took all of his concentration and effort to fend off its two claws and stinger.

  "Jesus!" he cried when the scorpions finally relented and fell back. "My bladder is about to burst."

  "Ha. I lost control of mine on the floor above," Tiana said. "Don't tell Rand."

  "Screw that runt."

  "I might have to since he reached Lord Kathro first." She huffed and puffed a moment. "I don't think I can survive another attack."

  Fergus' blood ran cold. If either one of them fell, the two scorpions would make short work of the remaining one. A scene where they were both paralyzed and being eaten filled his mind. Bile scalded his throat at the thought.

  "No choice," he said. "Each of us throws ourself on a scorpion. Kill or be killed."

  "Now!" she shouted.

  Fergus didn't allow himself to think about it. He screamed and charged the scorpion. The giant arachnid caught his left arm in a claw, and his right leg in the other. The tail whipped back, and he knew it was about to plunge into his abdomen. With nothing to lose, he thrust his sword straight into the scorpion's head.

  The tip of his elven sword pierced the hard carapace. The bug jerked, releasing him. The stinger struck, but missed when he dodged aside. Fergus twisted the sword, and then thrust it deeper. The giant scorpion trembled, and then went limp.

  He stared at it a moment, before turning to see Tiana still chopping on her dead foe. The ranger looked back and forth between the two monsters, marveling that they both survived.

  "We're living charmed lives, Tiana."

  "Charmed? Yes. That's exactly how I feel. Charmed as hell."

  Explosions echoed down from above. It sounded like distant thunder.