The Land: Raiders: A LitRPG Saga (Chaos Seeds Book 6)

by Aleron Kong

  “I will not fail the Hearth Mother! I will kill the caster and destroy the Bloodstone!” Yoshi shouted fiercely. The adept cinched tight the straps that held his swords in place on his back. “You do not have to come!” The storm was getting stronger. Even back in the trees it was getting hard to hear Yoshi from five feet away.

  Richter cursed and looked at Sion. His best friend just looked back grimly. Then he reminded the chaos seed why they were best friends. With a cocky smile on his face, he shouted, “You have to admit the goblin’s spell is pretty impressive! I mean, how did he even learn it? How?”

  The chaos seed sighed. He closed his eyes and hung his head. After a moment, though, he looked up at Sion with a wry and resigned grin of his own. “Well, fuck! Let’s go ask him!”

  CHAPTER 42 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG

  Richter drank one of his remaining potions of luck. He also handed one to both Yoshi and Sion. Then he and Sion both cast Weak Haste on themselves. One of the village aeromancers did the same for Yoshi. Richter also took the time to cast every other buff he could, Weak Barkskin and Weak Life Armor. After that, it was just a matter of hoping that their Potions of Gaseous Form would offer some protection from the attacks. A few seconds later, they were running!

  There was no magical field or transition point to let them know once they had crossed into the AoE of the Druid’s spell. The first indication was a fist-sized stone falling ten yards to Richter’s right. It sunk into the ground; the impact crater five yards across. Green gas came up from each crack that had been created, evidence that the stone was poisoned. Richter gritted his teeth and kept running.

  *Master! What are you doing?* Alma’s voice echoed in his mind. The panic she felt at seeing him run into the maelstrom carried through in her mental tone. It was a conversation Richter hadn’t wanted to have. Despite his joking with his friend and Yoshi, he knew that this would most likely mean his death. The second time he had died had been much more traumatic than the first, and it had taken him longer to come back. He didn’t want to think about what toll his third death would take. He didn’t want to think about what would happen to his familiar if he did not come back at all.

  *I am doing what I have to, my love,* he thought to her tenderly. *Fly back to the trees and stay out of the storm.*

  *Master, I can help you! I am much faster now. If I-*

  *No!* he thought to her fiercely. *Stay out of the storm! As your master, I order you to obey me!* He hated exerting his will over her, but Richter wouldn’t risk her fragile body A bolt of lightning struck the ground only yards in front of him, reaffirming his resolve. The shock transmitted through the ground, but his high Air resistance kept him on his feet. Richter kept running, but guilt ate at him for having spoken to Alma so harshly. With love in his heart, he sent her a final message, *I may not make it through this, love, but I promise, I will come back to you.*

  No response came. He was going to speak to her again, but another falling rock forced him to dive to the side. Richter focused on the task at hand, silently wishing her well, come what may. He, Yoshi and Sion had spread out as they ran, to minimize the chance that one magical attack could take them all out. Before they had started running, Yoshi had given a simple command. “No one stops.” The message was clear. If one of them went down, the others were not to help. They all knew this would most likely be a one-way trip.

  Richter was the first to go down. A bolt of freezing energy shot down from the sky and hit his leg. The chaos seed had experienced many different types of pain since coming to The Land. The elemental attack was nowhere near the worst, but it was horrifying in its own way. He tried to keep running and went down in a tumble. It was only then that he looked down and saw that his entire right leg had been flash frozen. From the thigh down, the limb had adopted the blue-white color of ice. The water crystals sparkled in the light. Richter cried out in disbelief.

  Another firebomb fell from the sky close by. A piece of flame splattered onto his face. The burning pain brought him out of his shock. Richter realized that if this spell acted like his enchantment, then his leg would thaw sometime soon. If it was permanent, then there was nothing he could do. Either way, he needed to survive the next few moments.

  Richter started casting, and a few seconds later, a sphere of green light sprung into place around him. Elemental attacks continued to rain from the sky. A bolt of lightning fell almost directly upon his protective sphere, but thankfully the Air attack was stopped by his shield. Richter could see that the durability of his shell dropped substantially, but he remained protected. The chaos seed just prayed that a rock didn’t fall on his shield. The Earth attack would cut right through his protection like it wasn’t even there.

  After long seconds, his leg did indeed start to thaw. It brought with it a pins and needles type of pain that was almost worse than the freezing, but Richter didn’t complain. He cast Weak Slow Heal to replenish his lost health and got into a sprinter’s stance. A moment later, the Freeze status effect disappeared from his interface. Richter sprung forward. As soon as he touched his own shield, it disappeared, and he was off again.

  Sion and Yoshi had issues of their own. A fire bomb had exploded near Sion, burning his left side. The sprite had immediately dropped and rolled, smothering the flames and gotten back on his feet. He was still moving, but much slower and every step was agony. Yoshi had suffered the misfortune of running through the impact crater of a poisoned stone. Now the adept hacked bloody phlegm while he ran and his health bar had turned purple. Every second, more of his life drained away. Still, none of them stopped. They crossed a hundred yards, then two hundred. All of them were struck glancing blows by the storm, but their luck held, perhaps literally. Until it didn’t.

  Yoshi was struck in the chest by a lightning bolt and went down. The storm had reached the enhanced rank, and a large black scorch mark could be seen between his pecs. Another spot of blackened char was on the bottom of his foot where the electricity had exited his body. The adept went down, and smoke rose from his body in slow dark curls. Richter and Sion gritted their teeth and kept going.

  Sion went down next. A basketball-sized stone fell from the sky and struck his shoulder. His gaseous form removed a third of the damage, but the blow took a horrible toll. A spray of red blood and a sickening crunch were his first indications that he had taken a hit. Then waves of nauseating pain spread through his body and his vision darkened. Sion tried to get back up, but the poison had evolved along with the size of the rocks once the spell reached the enhanced rank. Prompts appeared on the sprite’s interface.

  You have been Mangled. Complete loss of control of your right arm.

  You are Bleeding. You will lose 7 health per second for the next 2 minutes and 18 seconds or until bleeding is stopped.

  You are being actively Poisoned. You will lose 16 points of health per second. Remove yourself from the poisoned area to start the countdown of losing this status.

  You are Weakened. You have lost 60% of your total stamina and will continue to lose 5% every 20 seconds until you lose your Poisoned status.

  It was all Sion could do to roll out of the poisoned impact crater. Even that was an epic struggle as his health drained away at twenty-three points every second. When he was clear, he downed Cure Poison and Restore Health potions from his belt pouch. That was all he could manage before he swooned and knew only blackness.

  Richter’s heart tore in half as he saw his best friend in any world go down, but he kept running. He had come to understand that his life was not his own, and he would be damned if he let his people down. The chaos seed’s eyes were glued to the shiny red beacon floating over the goblin’s head. He ran faster and suddenly, against all odds, he was through!

  The possessed Druid loomed ahead, and the earth continued to shake due to the maelstrom behind him. Richter’s eyes narrowed in hatred at the being that had most likely killed his Companion. With a quick movement, he drew his elementum sword from the sheath on his back.
His one hope was that he could kill the powerful being before it noticed him.

  Both of the goblin’s eyes were closed as he focused upon building the spell. If the chaos seed could just get close enough, Richter could plunge his blade into the caster’s heart and finally end this battle. Fighting back a cry of fury, Richter continued to sprint silently. He was only twenty feet away when the goblin’s red jeweled eyes opened. Then the Druid smiled and Richter’s world dissolved into pain.

  <> It asked. Richter immediately knew he was not being addressed by a flesh and blood creature, but by a far more powerful entity. Its voice was old and deep. The words vibrated the air and seemed to come from many directions at once. Its voice was that of a being that had lived through countless lives and only found joy when they were extinguished. Richter had thought its tone might be mocking, but apparently, he was not important enough to be mocked. No. The Bloodstone was amused.

  The possessed Druid had made no external motion, but its red stone eyes had flashed. Richter didn’t know it, but the stone had used one of its primary powers to link to the blood of nearby beings. The mind-shattering pain he felt was his body reacting to the fact that the flow of blood through his body slowed. Every one of his cells began to die, and Richter experienced simultaneous failure of his organs all at once. His health plummeted. The chaos seed fell to his knees with a strangled cry as the goblin continued to smile.

  <> The Bloodstone closed its eyes once more to focus on pouring mana into its spell. Richter remained in obeisance to a power that was beyond him. Sion struggled to breathe, and Yoshi lay still while deadly power rained around them. Through it all, one small heart beat wildly, filled with hope and fury.

  The storm continued to build. It reached the trees, and those left living retreated back from the now potent rank spell. The elemental attacks were falling so quickly that they struck the ground in a steady rhythm. The sprites had picked up the bodies of the Hearth Mother and the other mages. They shielded them with their own bodies, but despite the tree cover, they all knew death would come soon. All would have been lost, except for the savage love of one small dragonling.

  Silent as a swooping hawk, Alma dove. It had taken her longer than she would have wished to fly around the periphery of the magical storm, but she could still move much faster than her master. When she had seen Richter on his knees and saw his life falling, the dragonling felt a pain in her breast that she had never known before. The expansion of her consciousness was wonderful in so many ways, but of late, she had wondered if it also made her vulnerable. She loved her master more than she would have ever thought possible, and her dependence on him had made her uncomfortable over the past weeks. Alma had never shared her concerns, but they had been occupying her mind more and more. As she flew closer to her target, however, she learned that love was not only a weakness, it was also a strength. The dragonling pushed her body further and faster than ever before. It only took a few more seconds to circle behind the Druid. Then, with clear purpose, she attacked.

  CHAPTER 43 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG

  Alma knew that a frontal assault was useless. Her master had been brave to try, but also foolish. He had a blend of courage and stupidity that she found endearing but also insanely irritating. Once again, it fell to her to save her silly master. So she would.

  The dragonling dove at her top speed, and unleashed her Psi Blast when she was only meters away. In its tightest beam, it bathed the goblin in psychic energy. Her Mental Deep Magic assaulted the Blood Deep Magic of the stone. There was no way that she could match the power of the ancient artifact, but the flesh it inhabited was much weaker.

  The goblin reared back, barely keeping control of the spell. It resisted the secondary effects of Stun and Disorientation, but Alma’s attack weakened the hold the Bloodstone had on the Druid by the slightest amount. Radg-or had not been completely destroyed when the possession began, merely forced into an impossibly dark space.

  When the goblin had actually felt the cold will of the Bloodstone, the Druid had been horrified to his very core. He had delighted in the pain of others in the past, but had never imagined the dispassionate “nothingness” of the stone’s will. Even more horrifying, he had learned its true purpose. Though Radg-or’s mind and spirit were weak as newborn kittens, he began to fight back.

  Before the stone could even react to the goblin’s defiance, Alma carried out the rest of her attack. With all four claws extended, she slammed into the back of the goblin’s neck. Her new psi poison injected into his body. A moment later, she snaked her head around to his throat and bit down hard. An arterial spray of black blood filled her mouth and covered her face. The taste was disgusting, but it was worth it. Her venom entered the vessel that supplied blood to the goblin’s brain, further disrupting the stone’s hold.

  Finally, her venom spent, she firmed her grip on the goblin and attacked with Brain Drain. As her own consciousness was carried away by the mental flood of the goblin’s thoughts and experiences, she sent one last message, *I love you, master.* Then she lost all sense of self while being swept away by the flood of the Druid’s memories… and something more.

  Richter fell forward onto all fours, panting. His blood flow had only been inhibited for a few seconds, but he had lost hundreds of health. The chaos seed might have lost consciousness as soon as the Bloodstone’s power released him, but he heard Alma’s voice and looked up. The goblin’s face was twisted by indignant rage at his familiar’s attack. The chaos seed watched as the possessed Druid reached up for his helpless dragonling and a roar rose out of Richter’s battered form.

  “Nooooo!”

  Richter raised his arm quickly and threw his short sword underhand. The attack was not strong, but the moonstone blade easily pierced the goblin’s robes. The Bloodstone turned its attention back to Richter, intending to halt the flow of his blood again, but Richter was already moving. In one sure motion, he drew his second short sword and stabbed it through the Druid’s heart.

  Between the psychic attacks, the trauma of Richter’s blades and the Radg-or’s renewed consciousness, the Bloodstone lost a modicum of control. That was all it took. As Richter stared into the goblin’s face, their noses only inches apart, the Druid’s eyes became mortal again. As strange as that was, the look of gratitude in the goblin’s eyes was even more shocking. They stared at one another for long moment, bitter enemies now united in purpose. With black blood covering his teeth and lips, Radg-or simply said, “Thank you.”

  Then the Druid used this one chance to die on his own terms. Taking control of the spell, he purposefully triggered a spell backlash. The maelstrom stopped sending down elemental attacks, and the air grew heavy with bottled energy. Every soul in the valley felt the importance of that one moment in time, and knew instinctually that all of their fates were about to be decided.

  The moment ended and the Druid’s head flung back. Both of arms flung out to the sides as the thousands of points of mana in the storm flooded back into his body all at once. Radg-or could not even scream as every neuron in his body was burned out simultaneously. He died before his mind could even register the pain. The energy from the spell could not be contained by the goblin’s ruined body though. The veins in his skin began pulsing with red light, faster and brighter.

  Richter stood there, one hand on the hilt of his elementum short sword still sticking out of the goblin’s corpse. He had been both shocked and relieved when the Druid’s body slumped in death. Seeing the vessels in the goblins body begin to pulse though, his heart started beating wildly with premonition and panic. Alma was slowly opening her eyes as she finished feasting, but not fast enough.

  With a strength fueled by dread, Richter pulled his blades from the goblin’s body and swung clear through Radg-or’s neck. Then, grabbing both the head and the dragonling attached to it like a football, he started sprinting away from the body that was now glowing like a volcano before eruptio
n. He had only made it seven steps before the body exploded with uncontained power. The explosion threw him forward off his feet. Richter had a last view of a rock growing large in his vision, then there was only pain. Then, there was only the black.

  CHAPTER 44 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG

  A rough tongue licked Richter’s face. He blinked in confusion then sat up groaning. His health bar flashed, dangerously low. The chaos seed raised one hand to his head. There was something hard embedded in his skull. When he pulled it out, a small amount of blood started flowing. He looked at what he held in confusion until he realized it was a yellowed, goblin tooth. A golden glow out of his field of view made him look left. Alma was casting a spell, and his meager health bar began to refill. The pain ebbed slightly. The chaos seed dropped the tooth and quickly checked his status page. Thankfully, he wasn’t injured enough to have any debuffs.

  Relieved that he had avoided a skull fracture or something even worse, he sent Alma to check on Sion and Yoshi and offer healing if necessary. After drinking two health potions, Richter stood up slowly and looked around. It seemed like only a short time had passed, and all of his forces remained in the tree line. They were venturing forward now that the maelstrom was fading away, though. The dark clouds were clearing, and blue sky could be seen peeking through. Richter was eager to check on his comrades, but with the allied forces coming forward, he knew that Sion and Yoshi would have magical attention soon. Though the battle was done, there was still danger. He turned his attention to the remains of the Druid, or lack thereof.