The second patrol group didn’t take long to arrive. As expected, they stopped as soon as they saw the discarded weapons and came in for a closer look.
The assassins jumped at them, easily dispatching all three.
The kobolds stood up, grinning. All eight had gained a level, with Shikasha and Rickss two levels away from hitting 30.
Nice job, I complimented them. Get ready, the next group is approaching.
***
Back at the arena, Terdamesh had finally had enough of playing tag. The demonic shaman raised both arms and chanted a spell. His form blurred, giving birth to two spectral apparitions that soared out of him toward me. Wraiths.
I raised my shield and sent a volley of drilling arrows at one of the incorporeal monsters. To my surprise, the hovering specter somehow dodged the spell, then the two were pummeling at my magical barrier, howling as the Expert-ranked spell reflected some of the damage back at them.
Instead of using the momentary distraction to go at me directly, Terdamesh bent down and started drawing lines of power on the ground. Just like last time, he’d turned to Runecraft.
But this time, I was ready. I detonated a single direball on the ground outside of my shield. It blasted both wraiths away and sent ripples across my shield. The high-tiered spell and the subsequent damage to my barrier had drained over 600 MP from my pool, dropping my mana bar to 70 percent, but at least I was clear to counter the shaman’s actions.
I teleported behind him and furiously drew my own runes on the ground. While the shaman was drawing the same inverted confinement enchantment as last time, I drew the normal, improved, version of it around him.
I palmed the center of the schema, pouring in the required 2,700 MP as quickly as I could, just as Terdamesh started powering up his own.
I had drained the lion’s share of my mana, but I beat the annoying shaman to the punch. My rune formation flared up a second before his.
Terdamesh suddenly found himself in the center of two conflicting powers. His enchantment sought to choke and drain the mana from the surrounding environment, while mine established a barrier; a magical prison that prevented anything within it, up to a certain level, from escaping.
I stepped back and grinned as the shaman’s eyes widened in horror. His own enchantment was working against him, forcibly extracting and draining his mana. The draining force was encapsulated within my enchantment, and I was left unharmed.
The old hob fell to his knees, barely maintaining consciousness.
He was mine to toy with.
***
Back at my cloned body, the kobolds attacked the next patrol, but something was wrong. I’d miscalculated, assuming the patrolling hobs were cookie-cutter images of each other. The third soldier, however, was a lieutenant, and as luck had it, was the one targeted by only two assassins, which his health proved just high enough to withstand.
The lieutenant managed to open his mouth and shout once before the kukris’ enchantment kicked in and ate away his remaining health.
“Shadow-crap,” I hissed from two different mouths.
My mana bar had dropped to 25 percent. The remaining 1,500 MP might have sounded like a lot any other time, but I was battling on two different fronts simultaneously. I couldn’t take the risk.
With Terdamesh safely contained, I took the time to pull out two, level 200 void crystals and drained them both. My mana bar instantly shot up to 95 percent.
I turned my cloned body toward the sound of running feet from the corridor as the final patrol group came to investigate. They had to be put down quickly to prevent them from calling for more help.
Disregarding the need to conserve my MP, I froze all three. Luckily, my level – coupled with the 7 percent bonus from my Dread Totem ring – was enough to overwhelm all three. If they were just a few levels higher, I wouldn’t have been able to catch them all.
The kobolds sprang into action without me needing to order them. The frozen hobs were quickly killed and their bodies liquified.
The second floor was clear.
At the arena, Terdamesh howled on the ground as his power was stripped from him by his own enchantment, his demonic visage torn away in flakes of magic while the crowd roared at the spectacle. I took great joy in watching the wretched hob brought to his knees. I still remembered how he had trapped and tormented my clone in his tower. How he had promised to educate me in pain and humiliation. Well, he was getting a taste of his own medicine.
Terdamesh’s demonic form fully regressed as I led my kobolds to the next floor.
The third floor was even more narrow than the second. I made a quick tour around the ring and realized we had finally reached our prize. The floor was guarded by level 30 soldiers, and two of the doors were guarded by level 40, named elites. According to the information I’d gathered, the three commanders were rivals. It made sense for the resident commander to occupy the highest floor while hosting his ‘guests’ on the floors below.
My shadow chuckled maliciously. The commanders’ rivalry only made my job easier.
The patrols on this floor – two groups of three, level 30 soldiers – lazed through the corridor, occasionally stopping to chat. This made timing their arrival harder to predict. They had to be dealt with before we went after the door guards.
With my cloned body leading the way, we snuck across the floor, finding one of the groups leaning against the wall, conveniently out of eyesight of the other guards.
I wanted to take no chances this time. Assassins, divide into two groups and take down a guard on my mark. I will take the one in the middle. GO !
My plan worked flawlessly. I expended roughly a hundred MP to freeze the one in the center, while four kobolds jumped on each of the other two. Kukris flashed in the dim light of the barracks, slitting throats and stabbing vulnerable organs. Each kobold’s base sneak attack easily inflicted more than a hundred points of damage on its own, even before the 300 percent bonus-over-time kicked in. The higher-level guards were instantly slain. Then all eight kobolds turned on the frozen one, reducing him to an oozing pile of darkness.
This was almost too easy.
We continued circling the corridor in stealth, being careful to avoid the elite soldiers guarding the two doors. When we found the other patrol group, I noticed, to my amusement, that one of them had removed his armor and was busily scratching while the three conversed. We repeated the same tactic as before, and all three were quickly dispatched.
Now we only had to deal with the commanders in the two guarded rooms before it was time to ascend to the final floor.
***
Back at the arena, Terdamesh somehow found the energy to push himself off the ground. “You think you’ve won?” he demanded in a crazed voice. Though I hadn’t injured him directly, his nose was bleeding freely.
I shrugged. “No. I’m still not done playing with you.”
“Play?” he roared. “With me? The greatest shaman in all of Akzar?”
Just to get my point across, I launched a volley of drilling arrows at him. The arrows dissipated as soon as they entered the runes. Oh, right – the enchantment is still on.
Terdamesh trembled. His nosebleed worsened and blood oozed from his eyes and ears. To my surprise, he was growing once again, despite the draining effect of my runes.
His health plummeted as he continued to grow, and I realized he was using his boss ‘get out of jail’ ability to make a comeback, burning health for mana.
Terdamesh’s body swelled as his health continued to plummet. He was going all-out in a hope to win this with a last, desperate strike.
I couldn’t allow that.
I sighed with regret. I hadn’t intended for the battle to finish already. I dropped the staff into my inventory to free up my hands. Using the power of my armor set, I cast two spells in tandem, manifesting two volatile balls of energy in each of my palms. I kept the mana flowing, making them grow, then bided my time.
As soon as the desperate shaman mad
e his move, he was going to get two overcharged direballs to the face.
***
It was time to assault the first commander.
The door loomed ahead, guarded by two elite soldiers. They were level 40, each protected by enchanted breastplates. They had 450 HP apiece, and I realized four successful sneak attacks against each might not be enough to drop them.
At this point, completing my dark mission quickly was more important than conserving mana. I would’ve used my Dominate ability to subvert one to my side; unfortunately, as named individuals, the two were immune to that effect.
I realized I should have probably kept one of the ‘normal’ level 30 guards alive. They could have been easily dominated and would have served as a useful distraction at that point. On the other hand, my mind was already burdened by fighting two separate battles at the same time, and my mental reserves were running low.
I considered summoning shadow hounds or supplementing the kobolds’ attacks with one of my own, but all those options carried the downside of making noise and alerting my target on the other side of the door. This part of the corridor was pretty well-lit, so I couldn’t risk coating the door with sound-dampening darkness in case the guards would notice. I decided to play it safe and continue using a proven tactic.
All eight on the right one, I commanded. Go!
The kobolds sprang into action. The guard’s higher level and enchanted armor proved enough of a hindrance to blunt some of the damage, but eight stealth attacks were still eight stealth attacks. The assassins’ curved blades angled through leather straps and gaps in the armor and the collective damage was enough to drop the guard.
I paid a hefty sum of 150 mana to freeze the other hob and watched as my pool drained to 90 percent.
The hob I targeted froze for a second, but to my horror, I felt him fight against my control. I focused my attention on keeping him immobile, but he wasn’t an elite for nothing. The hob managed a single, strangled cry before I could solidify my hold. “Attack!”
The next instant the eight kobolds jumped on his frozen body, their kukris flashing as they stole away his life. But the damage was already done.
The door swung open, and I saw several elite soldiers with weapons drawn standing between us and a hob that was dressed in gilded armor.
We had found the first commander.
I had barely enough time to coat the room’s walls with soundproofing liquid darkness before the soldiers shouted and charged at us.
***
With his giant form easily dwarfing an Ogre, Terdamesh, his health pool down to a third, punched the ground. The heavy strike sent ripples of concussive force, and the ground around him erupted outward, breaking the runic lines that had trapped him.
The shaman was free.
With my attention divided between clone and physical body, I wavered as I launched the two direballs. Despite his grave condition, Terdamesh’s battle form proved uncannily quick, and he dodged the first direball, then the second. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to use the normal form of the spell rather than the condensed one that required hitting the target directly. The two direballs exploded on the ground, one of them close enough to hit the shaman at the edge of its area of effect. Terdamesh’s health dropped to 25 percent as he spun away before fixing his gaze back on me.
Then the giant charged.
I was out of options. I had just cast two spells in parallel and couldn’t cast another for a few more seconds. I tried to dodge, but the shaman’s empowered body was much stronger and faster than mine. A fist the size of my entire torso hit me square on, throwing me high into the air before I unceremoniously crashed down on the uneven ground.
Terdamesh punched you for 235 damage (base 220; armor absorbed 52 damage, +67 fall damage).
I had to peel myself up from the ground. Despite the overwhelming force, my tier 3 boss body could take much more severe abuse, my health bar shrinking by a mere 15 percent.
I was about to retaliate, but the crazed shaman didn’t give me a chance.
Elite hobs charged at shadow me while a gigantic hand grabbed and lifted real me into the air, then another fist came hurtling toward my head, nearly ripping it off.
Terdamesh punched you for 388 damage (base 220 X 2 critical hit; armor absorbed 52 damage).
My health dropped to 65 percent, and fury suffused my body as my Blood Rage ability triggered from the mounting damage. “Enough!” I shouted in both voices and released the rage energy in a burst with the force of a battering ram behind it.
The hulking shaman stumbled back, and the hand that grabbed me opened to let me fall. Simultaneously, my clone also unleashed the same attack, sending hob soldiers flying back into the room.
That was unexpected.
I quickly took advantage of the situation. My health hadn’t dropped enough for me to use the staff’s special Castigation ability, but there was more than enough destructive force stored within to handle the gravely injured giant.
I fished my weapon out of my inventory and put a direball straight up the giant’s face. By this time, the shaman’s MP had refilled somewhat, and he was able to quickly conjure a shimmering force that protected him from the worst of the spell. It still detonated, however, and one of the giant’s arms instinctively rose to protect his face. But I’d expected him to do that. Using his momentarily obstructed vision, I teleported behind him and stabbed up with my weapon, sticking him straight in the ass.
He flailed around with a shriek, his health dropping to 20 percent, then our battle commenced anew.
***
Back in the barracks, we were caught off-kilter. I’d managed to keep the soldiers from charging out the door and to stifle the noises of our battle, but we’d lost the advantage of surprise. The soldiers had spotted the assassins, and under their gaze, the kobolds couldn’t retreat into the shadows.
So I did the only logical thing I could think of. I launched a direball straight into the room and slammed the door shut.
A muffled ‘boom’ sounded through the door, despite the dampening darkness.
Enter stealth! I commanded.
Only two kobolds managed to do that before the door opened again. Six enraged, level 40 hob warriors ran through the opening, but it seemed like my impromptu attack had done its thing. All six were badly injured, some of them within an inch of their lives. Still, they fearlessly charged on.
And they had a good reason not to fear. Despite our enemies’ severe wounds, the unhidden kobolds didn’t stand a chance. The hobs were a dozen levels higher than them and trained in melee combat. The kobolds tried to parry using their smaller weapons, but the larger hobs bashed through their defenses, inflicting heavy wounds.
From behind his guards, I saw the commander raise a hand. All at once, the six warriors roared, and the speed of their attacks increased.
The first kobold succumbed to an over-the-head chop, his lifeless body hitting the floor with a thud.
Carelessly throwing direballs around had severely strained my mana pool. Each spell cost 255 MP, and my mana reserves were low. But it wasn’t the time to be skimpy.
My clone body could only cast a single spell every few seconds, so I froze one of the hobs in the center, his form preventing some of his comrades from moving and attacking the kobolds. Following my orders, all five unhidden kobolds attacked the frozen hob using his rigid form as a buffer against his comrades. The two stealthed assassins attacked from the shadows, dropping two more of the heavily injured soldiers.
Three soldiers and one commander remained.
***
Terdamesh howled and swung another fist at me. But I was done playing.
I was too physically weak to stop his attack, but my magic was strong. I raised my staff, and a bubble of force appeared around me, intercepting the hit.
Terdamesh cried out in pain as my shield reflected some of the damage, breaking two of his fingers in the process. I used his distraction to stab at him again, shaving off another chu
nk of his health, dropping him to 15 percent.
He tried to smash me next and bury me under his immense bulk. But I had saved up my second spell for such an attempt and simply teleported out of his way.
I reappeared behind him and stabbed. Ten percent remaining.
The giant was mine.
***
Finally, with a second of reprieve to think, I realized what I needed to do to win.
Channeling my mana out of my cloned body, I called for the surrounding darkness to build up, drowning the dim light with suffocating darkness. The commander and his three remaining soldiers suddenly found themselves fighting blindly, and the seven remaining kobolds automatically gained stealth.
***
“What’s going on?” the commander cried in alarm as darkness descended. Somehow, despite his shouting, his voice sounded muffled. A weak scream came from the darkness, followed by the muted crunch of metal tearing through metal. “Damn you, Darok, did you set me up?” he shouted, his voice barely a whisper.
10 - It’s a Trap!
“Damn you, Darok, did you set me up?” the commander, a level 60, tier 2 boss, cried as I casually approached him. He was effectively blind and completely at my mercy.
“No,” I said.
The commander jumped as my clone’s hollow voice drifted to him from the darkness.
“I set all three of you up.”
A condensed direball hit the commander’s body a moment later, blowing away a third of his respectable health pool of 1,800. Then the seven remaining assassins fell on him.
Normally, the commander would have been a tough opponent, but he wasn’t meant for full-on combat. Like me, his strength was in leading his troops, empowering their martial prowess. With his entourage gone and effectively blindfolded, it was like shooting fish in a barrel.
Life Reset: Conquest (New Era Online Book 5) Page 17
