by Aaron Oster
It was nearing 10 PM, and their small group was huddled just on the fringes of the open clearing. They’d spent the entire day fighting their way through the Dungeon, only taking minimal breaks. Even so, Sam had only gained a single level more. Barry had caught up with him, while Gordon and Emma were both at 21.
This time when he’d leveled up, Sam hadn’t put anything into Intelligence, sinking the points into Constitution and Luck. His Intelligence was boosted up to an even thousand by his sub-class bonus, and he felt he needed the extra health and luck in this upcoming fight. From the fights, they’d gotten a nice collection of Healing, Mana, and Stamina Herbs, as well as two precious Elixirs.
When he’d first seen the small glowing red vial drop after defeating their second Mini-Boss – another Hound – he’d thought it was another Overlord’s Boon, the item that had given him his sub-class. Instead, he’d found the precious Elixir, which he was planning on taking just before going into battle.
“See anything?” Emma asked, snapping him from his contemplation.
“Not a thing,” he whispered back, squinting into the clearing once again.
The only object in the clearing was a massive, blackened tree, towering high into the sky. It was at least eighty feet across, meaning the diameter must be several hundred feet, which was quite impressive. The tree looked less like a typical tree and more like the intermingling of thousands of roots bound together.
If he concentrated, Sam could make out a hollow at the base of the tree, which he assumed to be the Shtainerzeid’s lair. However, it appeared that the mutated pal-tee wasn’t home at the moment, which was just fine with Sam.
“You smell anything?” he asked Gordon, just to be sure.
“Though the stench is quite rank here, I can only detect the scent of fear radiating out from a single living lifeform. Seeing as the Shtainerzeid is likely undead and has captured a young child, chances are that it is the boy we were sent to rescue.”
Sam let out a long breath, then rose to his full height and marched straight into the clearing.
“Wait! What are you doing?” Emma hissed.
“Have you forgotten every horror forest fantasy trope?” he called back, not even bothering to whisper. “The monster won’t show up until we rescue the kid. We’ll all be looking at him, and he’ll say something like ‘look out, it’s right behind you!’”
Emma hesitated for only a moment more before coming out to join him.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” she muttered, still on edge.
“Tropes are tropes for a reason. This place is creepy as hell, and I want to get out of here. We can’t afford to stay past midnight either, or I’ll be cursed.”
“Huh. Forgot you had to complete that quest today,” Emma said.
In all honesty, he’d completely forgotten about it too, up until he’d checked his status earlier and seen it. It had been a stern reminder of what would happen should he fail to complete the quest by midnight. He’d been hit with some truly nasty curses over the last few weeks, and he didn’t want to find himself being hit by another.
“Why even are the two of you marching so brazenly into enemy territory?” Gordon demanded, bounding up to them.
“You wouldn’t understand,” Sam replied, eyeing the opening in the tree.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“What he means, Gordon, is that the enemy likely won’t show himself until we’re out in the open. And seeing as we need to kill the monster to complete the quest, we have little choice,” Emma explained.
“But the Shtainerzeid is a wandering Boss. It can show up anywhere at any time. What makes you so certain that it will appear?”
“Just a hunch,” Sam replied. “Now come on, I think I can see something inside the tree.”
The roots stretched out to either side, growing taller as they approached and began to climb up toward the entrance.
“Yup, just as creepy as I imagined,” Sam said as they stepped into the hollow.
Bones littered the floor, some bleached white with age while others were still red, with meat clinging to them. Off in the far corner, Sam could see a pile of filthy rags – most likely the monster’s bed – and on the other, was a stake driven deep into the wall. Tied to that stake and sleeping fitfully, was a small pal-tee child.
“Looks like we found our kidnapped stink bomb,” Emma said, walking deeper into the hollow.
Sam whirled in place, staff raised and at the ready, but all he saw were Gordon and Barry, both giving him odd looks. Feeling like a bit of an idiot, Sam coughed to cover his embarrassment, then moved to follow Emma. He’d been trying to catch the monster as it snuck up on them, but it seemed he would have to wait until the rescue was official.
“Hey. Kid, wake up,” Emma said, prodding the small boy with the hilt of her sword.
Apparently, she didn’t want to touch him, and Sam couldn’t blame her.
The kid smelled just as bad as the pal-tee adults did, though he lacked their nasty beards. The child’s eyes flickered open, and he stared at Emma in confusion for a few moments. Then, his eyes widened and he scrambled back, screaming in terror. Sam whirled again but as before, there was no monster sneaking up on them.
“Calm down, you whiney brat!” he yelled, walking over and clamping a hand over his mouth. “Your mother sent us here to save you, so unless you want to be eaten, I suggest you stay quiet. Is that clear?”
The kid’s eyes went comically wide, but he nodded his head vigorously.
“Good,” Emma said, straightening up. “Now, let’s get out of here before…”
Beeeehhhhhh!
And there it was.
Sam whirled in place, seeing something stalking out of the woods and into the clearing.
“Trope, you never cease to amaze,” Sam said sarcastically. “Grab the kid, we need to get outside before the monster gets too close.”
He turned to see everyone frozen in place, fearful expressions plastered on their faces. The pal-tee child seemed to have the worst of it, as witnessed by the dark patch traveling down one of his pant legs.
“Oh, gross!” Sam yelled, jumping back to avoid the puddle of urine.
The last thing he needed was to be peed on by this little skunk.
“I’ll just go out and attack all by myself then,” he said, already backing away. “Feel free to join me when you’re done peeing yourselves.”
He whirled and jogged toward the opening. In all honesty, he was terrified but also oddly glad to get this all over with. They’d spent all day fighting with the knowledge of the monster they would need to face once they reached this point. He couldn’t do anything about it all day, but now the fight was going to happen and he’d be done with this smelly mission.
He skidded to a halt just outside the opening in the tree and finally got his first good look at the Shtainerzeid. As he’d guessed before, the creature was lofty, standing at more than seven feet tall, and his body was all skin and bones. His back was severely hunched over, so he walked with his knuckles dragging across the ground.
A long, filthy, and scraggly beard hung down to the ground, and stringy white hair hung in clumps around his face. His cheeks were sunken, his skin a craggy grayish brown, and his nails were a disgusting greenish-black color. He was completely naked, aside from a filthy loincloth bound around his bony waist and his eyes burned with intense hatred. A cloud of thick green mist hung around him, and Sam had a feeling that this was what had been damaging him when he’d been hiding earlier.
The creature stared up at him, then opened its mouth, revealing a row of rotting teeth, blackened and crawling with maggots. Sam nearly puked at the sight alone, but he found himself getting used to the horrible sight of the pal-tees and their unhygienic ways. It hadn’t even bothered him when he’d touched the child earlier.
“Beeeehhhhhh!” the Shtainerzeid roared, shaking the air with his fury.
“Yeah. That’s not gonna work on me, so you may as well stop,” Sam
said flatly.
The monster cut off, seemingly confused by his failed attack. Then he roared again, even louder this time. Sam plugged his ears to avoid being deafened, though it did little to block out the awful roar. He still wasn’t sure what he was dealing with, so he took the time to inspect the big bad Boss.
BOSS MONSTER
Name: Shtainerzeid
Gender: Male
Level: 26 - HP: 2,100/2,100 - MP: 450/450 - STA: 1,800/1,800
Status: Enraged
Greatest Threat: Cry of the Shtainerzeid
Having consumed the flesh of children, Gimple Paltielson was cursed to forever hunger and never be satisfied. Now he stalks his forest, stealing and devouring the children of those he once called kin.
Oh. Shit. This was not good.
The Shtainerzeid’s roar cut off then, and Sam removed his hands from his ears. Taking a quick peek over his shoulder, he saw that everyone was still frozen.
“Alright,” he said, trying to hype himself up. “First thing’s first. Gotta stop that roar, otherwise I’m toast.”
The monster snuffled a few times, still looking confused by the fact that he wasn’t frozen in terror.
“Well,” Sam muttered to himself, raising his staff. “Go big or go home.”
The next sound from the monster was a scream of pain as he was engulfed by Sam’s Over-Burn.
You deal: -93 Damage to Shtainerzeid (Over-Burn).
Sam’s eyes widened when he saw that notification, and he felt what little hope he had remaining slowly slipping away. He hadn’t landed a Massive Critical, which meant that the Shtainerzeid wasn’t undead. He’d also received no bonuses for attacking first seeing as the monster had been attacking with his cry.
The fire died down, leaving a very angry monster in its wake. If there was any upside, it seemed that the perpetual cloud that hung around it had been burned away. Other than that, all that he’d managed to do was singe its nasty beard. He didn’t have long to ponder on his fate, as the monster let out its roar, then shambled forward, its gaze locked on him.
Grimacing, Sam took aim and fired off his Mage Bolt, hoping to stun the monster and buy himself some time. But while the attack did some damage, it didn’t even slow the Shtainerzeid down. The monster’s hand shot up, glowing a sickly green and a blast of superheated gas shot toward him.
Sam’s Mana Cloak sprang up around him, preventing any damage from the ability, but then the Shtainerzeid was upon him. It slashed at his face with its elongated fingers, and only by using his Speed Boost did he manage to avoid the attack. However, the ability drained Stamina and he didn’t exactly have a lot to spare.
His staff rose and he used his Mana Shot as the monster lunged forward, mouth agape as it tried to take a literal bite out of him.
“Eat that, motherfucker!” Sam yelled as the monster staggered back, making gagging sounds and clutching at its throat.
He used Mana Flare and Mana Burn, further damaging the off-balanced monster, then aimed another Mana Shot at its exposed side. The Shtainerzeid staggered back under the assault, and Sam began to wonder if he might be able to take this thing down himself as its HP dropped below the 80% mark. And that was, of course, where things started to go horribly wrong.
As Sam raised his staff to cast another Mana Burn, the Shtainerzeid’s entire body exploded with green flames that flashed at the ground below. Wherever the fire touched, the ground split open and skeletal hands dripping with rotting flesh emerged. Sam cursed as the monsters he and the others had faced over the last day began pulling themselves from the ground.
“I hate Bosses who can’t fight for themselves! Why do you even exist? The Overlord doesn’t have enough of an imagination to make you tough on your own, so he bitches out and gives you minions?!”
The Shtainerzeid growled at him in the way of a response, his cry effectively muffled by Sam’s earlier attack. Creatures continued pulling themselves from the ground, eyes locking onto him and moving in to attack. Sam’s Mana Burn slammed into one of the undead monsters, taking its HP down by a quarter, but there were still plenty of others.
By the time the flames around the Boss had died down, eight new monsters had graced the battlefield. Sam had no delusions of grandeur, especially seeing as every monster here outranked him. The Shtainerzeid still had nearly 1,700 HP remaining and a slew of minions to do his bidding. Raising his staff, Sam began to cast another ability, knowing that it was an effort in futility. Emma suddenly flashed past him, slamming into one of the monsters and sending it to the ground.
“Just so you know,” she called back as Gordon and Baron Von Tweet joined her. “You’ll be paying for that comment about peeing myself when this is over!”
15
The battle became a chaotic mess from there as the four of them scrambled to push back the approaching horde. The Boss, at least, just hung back and watched, shaking his bony fists whenever one of his minions were killed off. Sam’s MP was also rapidly running out from continually casting his abilities as soon as their cooldown timers reset.
Emma, Gordon, and Barry were all over the place, darting between monsters and pushing them back to give Sam room to use his abilities. Though they could dish out plenty of damage on their own, Sam’s fire spells were what caused the most damage. However, they were outnumbered, and the monsters’ levels were all higher than theirs.
Slowly, they began to be pushed back, taking damage and burning through their Stamina. Sam could see Emma popping the yellow herbs into her mouth like candy but knew their supply wouldn’t last forever.
We need a damn tank!
All of them were damage dealers, and not a single one of them could hold a horde of monsters like this back while the others did damage. He might be able to serve the role for a few seconds with his Mage Shield, but that would be it. Emma had more HP than he did but not by much. She was also heavily focused on damage, and both Gordon and Barry had even less health than he did.
Our party was not very well thought out, Sam lamented as he fired off yet another spell.
A couple of the monsters broke through then and charged him. Seeing as his Mage Shield was still on cooldown and he didn’t have the speed to dodge, Sam tried to knock them back with a Mana Flare.
You Deal: -41 Damage to Haunted Young (Mana Flare).
You Deal: -49 Damage to Possessed Young (Mana Flare).
The two monsters staggered, but the Possessed Young recovered swiftly and slashed at him with its claw-like fingers.
Possessed Young scratches you for -21 Damage.
Possessed Young scratches you for -26 Damage.
Haunted Young bites you for -29 Damage.
Debuff gained! Bleeding: Effect -1 HP per second. Duration: S 7
Sam fought against the overwhelming pain of the two monster’s simultaneous attacks. The Haunted Young still had its teeth latched into his staff arm, so he placed his palm right on its head and cast his Mana Burn.
You Deal: -166 Damage to Haunted Young (Mana Burn +34 Burn Damage)(Massive Critical).
The monster shrieked, effectively releasing his arm, and Sam finished it off with a Mana Shot to the face. Unfortunately, there was still another monster there, and Sam suffered yet another -46 points of damage while he finished it off.
“Damn pest, die!” he yelled, slamming the staff into the monster’s head and using his Mana Burn once again.
Blue fire spouted from its open mouth and eye sockets as the spell ran rampant, then Sam used his Mana Flare to send the creature flying and finally finishing it off. He fell to one knee then, panting hard as he used his Recovery. Unfortunately, he had just a bit over 100 MP remaining and couldn’t heal all the damage.
Reaching for his bag, Sam reluctantly removed one of the Mana Herbs and popped it into his mouth. At least they didn’t taste as bad as the Overlord’s Boon, though they wouldn’t be winning any prizes at the county fair. By this point, there were only a couple of the creatures left, and Emma was just finishing one off.
Her HP was way down by now, and she reached for a healing herb. Unfortunately, Gordon and Barry had finished the last of the minions off at that point and the Shtainerzeid finally attacked. His cry echoed through the clearing and everyone froze once again.
“Damn it! I thought I’d gotten rid of that,” Sam yelled, targeting the Boss and using his Mana Shot.
The cry cut off halfway, and the Shtainerzeid turned to face him, his tiny eyes glittering with malice. Then, his body exploded with green light once again.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” Sam yelled, hitting him in the face with a Mana Burn. “There’s no way I’m letting you summon any more minions. If you want to fight, stop being such a little bitch about it!”
The monster roared, clawing at his face as the ability’s secondary damage over time effect was triggered. Sam darted in, using Mana Flare and sending the creature staggering yet again as the sphere of blue light burst from him. That was when he entirely ran out of MP.
“Shit!”
Sam staggered back, reaching for another Mana Herb, but the Shtainerzeid had recovered and wasn’t going to take the attacks lying down. It closed in with him in under a second, displaying a frightening speed which it had previously lacked. Its eyes gleamed with manic glee as it began tearing into him, slashing with its bony fingers.
Shtainerzeid hits you for -67 Damage (Frenzy).
Shtainerzeid hits you for -69 Damage (Frenzy).
Shtainerzeid hits you for -71 Damage (Frenzy).
Pain flared from the multitude of wounds as his skin was torn open and blood began streaming from the wounds. This seemed to only excite the monster more as it began breathing heavily in a very creepy, ‘I’m a psychotic stalker’ kind of way. Sam wasn’t sure what disturbed him more, the fact that he was being torn to pieces at an astonishing rate or the fact that it was this creep who was the one doing it to him.
