Now though, I realized that as long as I didn’t try to break the game by doing things I shouldn’t be able to, I was good to go. So flying was out, but using other classes skills? That was totally in.
I scrambled to my feet as a blast of ice hit the ghoul lord in the back while it had been staggering backward. The force of the blow snapped the creature’s head forward and nearly took it off its feet.
One of its massive hands shot out, flailing for balance as the tentacles of its other hand seized my ankle. Muscles corded along the length of the monster’s frame as it jerked me off my feet.
I fell, smashing the back of my skull against the superheated grate. My health dropped by twenty percent as my vision went momentarily blurry. Then it started to drag me toward it.
“Sorry, you’re not my type,” I muttered, whipping my scythe out at the tentacles lashed around my leg. The blade sank deep into the creature’s flesh, causing black ichor to spew across the grate that bubbled and popped like grease on a hot pan.
The ghoul lord howled in pain, and as it did, Two’ Manchu came flying through the air and slammed his Big Ugly Club into the back of the creature’s skull. The force of the blow slammed the ghoul lord’s face into the sizzling grate. Then, instead of following up on the move, he leapt to the side in time for spectral blades to tear through the air and converge on the creature like they had minds of their own.
My eyes opened in shock. That was a priest skill, but not only that, I’d seen both Crash and Two’ Manchu utilize that combo in high end play lots of time. A smirk crossed my features as I got to my feet. Guess they finally found their way.
Behind Two’ Manchu, Crash made a fist and the magical swords skewered the ghoul lord, pinning the creature to the ground and spilling more ichor across the grating. Let’s just say that snap, crackle, pop, didn’t quite cover it.
“Divine Hammer!” Dark Heart said, stepping forward as she raised her warhammer high above her head. Blue light surrounded the weapon as she slammed it down upon the boss’s head. An earsplitting crack filled the air as the boss’s skull was once again pounded into the proverbial pavement.
“You think you’ve won?” Horrible guttural laughter echoed from its ruined maw, and the sound hit me like a thousand fire ants. “You’ve never been so wrong!”
Pain erupted all over my body, and my health started to drop bit by bit. I staggered backward as the spectral blades pinning the monster to the ground shattered into crystalline shards of magic that flitted away into oblivion.
Cries of agony tore from the throats of my companions as the ghoul lord got back to its feet. A swarm of biting insects clung to its body, and as he moved, they surged forward, attacking us en masse. It was trying to keep us back, to keep us from ganging up on it by attacking us with a plague of bugs.
It was working.
Fuck!
Normally, a priest would be able to dispel the attack since plague of bugs was a relatively common curse. I’d seen them do it a million times while raiding. Unfortunately, I was willing to bet Crash was in too much pain to try, and of all of us, he was the one most likely to be unable to think outside the box. No, our healer was one hundred percent inside the box, and this time, the box was made of blinding pain.
As the nanoseconds ticked into what felt like hours and the agony became worse, the likelihood that Crash would come to our rescue fell like a stone. The pain was too much. Too furious. Too hot and stabbing.
“Since you seem to regard the female as important, healer, I’ll kill her first. Then as you lay there knowing you’ve failed to keep your tank alive, I’ll kill each and every one of your friends until you are left all alone. Then as you stew upon the depth of your failure, I will cast you into merciful oblivion,” the ghoul lord croaked, lumbering toward Dark Heart. The paladin lay on the ground clawing at her own flesh in a desperate futile attempt to scratch away the bugs assaulting her. “And you will thank me.”
Even though the situation was dire, and my health was dropping before my eyes, I knew it wasn’t real. The pain was all in my head. I focused, shutting my eyes and trying to ignore the insects burrowing beneath my armor and stinging every inch of me.
None of it was real, and what’s more, there were no class limitations. We didn’t need a priest. No. We just needed to believe.
I raised my scythe into the air and focused on driving back the bugs with what mana had regenerated.
“Dispel!” I screamed as loudly as I could, trying to make up for skill with general loudness. I envisioned the spell burning the bugs up in a hailstorm of holy energy like it always did in Titan Gate.
White light exploded from my scythe and filled the room like star fire. The bugs attacking us exploded into flickers of rainbow pixie dust, and like fucking magic, the pain vanished.
“You have learned the skill Dispel. It is now available for use,” Elizabeth told me as the ghoul lord turned toward me in confusion, one foot raised to crush Dark Heart’s skull like a casaba melon.
“Nighty, night, princess,” I said, and initialized Charge, the same skill Two’ Manchu has used earlier. The one that cost health instead of mana like Blade Rush did, and since I was out of mana, it was definitely the way to go. Normally, Charge required being a barbarian and using a blunt two-handed weapon, but those were just nagging little details. I was done with fucking details.
I surged forward, swinging my scythe around in a blaze of crimson energy that caught the creature in the center of the chest. Black ichor sprayed from the wound as it stumbled backward, its big feet practically denting the grating beneath our feet as it fought for balance. I didn’t stop though. As I ignored Elizabeth telling me I’d gained a new spell. Instead, I raised my hand and cast a necromancer spell I remembered. Body to Soul.
Red light exploded across my vision, and all the health I’d regained from the attack on the ghoul lord vanished as my mana gauge surged upward. Elation exploded through me. The spell had worked! Now I had mana again.
“You have learned the skill Body to Soul. It is now available for use,” Elizabeth told me as I slammed my open palm into the ghoul lord’s chest.
“Heal,” I snarled, causing golden light to stream from my fingertips and wrap around the monster.
Normally in Titan Gate, Heal would help players and monsters alike, but this was different. This was a ghoul lord, an undead amalgamation, and as such, heal magic not only wouldn’t heal them, it would hurt them. A lot.
This time was no exception. The golden light of the heal spell, shifted, becoming dark and angry as it crackled around the creature. Magical energy arced across the ghoul lord’s flesh like lightning, and a horrible guttural scream tore from its throat as it tried to bat the offending magic away.
It staggered backward again, and as it did, Dark Heart was there. She slammed her shield into the creature and pushed with all her might, driving it into the flaming wall. Fire crawled over the monster as it tried to throw her off, but before it could get enough leverage, and it couldn’t reach around the shield to do enough damage to her for it to matter.
That’s when Two’ Manchu came up behind Dark Heart. My heart leapt in my throat as I ran toward him while hoping beyond hope that he wouldn’t pick this time to take her down for helping to put his brain in a box!
“I hope you’re feeling lucky!” the barbarian snarled, slamming one hand into the shield and helping her hold the monster against the flames.
Relief shot through me as an idea sprang to mine. Two’ Manchu was helping. I’ll be honest, now that it seemed like we were winning, I’d had my doubts. I’d been in more than a few parties where people started fighting as the boss got closer to death so they would get a larger share of the drops. Still, I was willing to bet that wouldn’t happen here when doing so could get someone killed in real life as well as in the game.
“Pin it there!” I cried, turning toward Crash. He was still on his hands and knees and blood was pouring from his lips. I wasn’t sure if he was okay or not, bu
t he nodded to me.
“I got it,” he wheezed. Agony was plastered across his face as he raised a hand and summoned the spectral blades once again.
“I will not be contained!” the ghoul lord cried, lashing out with all its strength. The sound of meat slapping against metal filled my ears, and I turned my head toward it just in time to see Dark Heart and Two’ Manchu fly backward across the room.
“We’ll see about that!” Crash cried, gesturing at the ghoul lord who seemed to have forgotten all about him. He really shouldn’t have.
The silvery swords surged forward like malevolent angels and skewered the ghoul lord, pinning him to the flames with the unconquerable strength of magic. The monster howled again, and as the bugs started to rise from its flesh, Crash smiled.
“Not again,” he whispered, holding up a gnarled wooden staff. “Dispel.”
This time as the ghoul lord struggled to free itself, the bugs it’d summoned evaporated before they reached us.
“Blast him! Use whatever you have left!” Dark Heart said, coming up next to me and putting a hand on my shoulder. “While he’s still pinned! It’s our only chance. The flames alone won’t do enough damage to kill him before Crash runs out of mana.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice!” I cried, using the last of my newly acquired mana to launch another healing spell at the creature while turning to George. “You heard the lady. Light the mother fucker up!”
“On it, Boss!” George said, letting loose another blast of ice, and as he did, I saw his mana drop to zero. Had he really hit the ghoul lord that many times already? Jesus, how strong was the creature?
Another horrific cry ripped from the monster’s throat as the two spells slammed into it, rocking it backward against the flames and forcing the spectral blades to slice deeper into its flesh.
“You have not seen the last of me!” the ghoul lord cried before exploding into crimson shards.
26
“We did it!” I cried as the ghoul lord dissolved into nothingness, and the blue leveling light surrounded me.
“Level up! You receive one armor. You receive one physical damage reduction. You now have the ability to learn level two spells,” Elizabeth said as my level increased to eight, and my health and mana went to full. It was good because I’d been out of mana, and while I liked that barbarian skills used up health instead, it’d been a bit too precarious for me. Because if I’d missed, I’d have not only lost health from using the skill, but would have likely lost even more health from a counter attack, and when your health reached zero you died. It probably goes without saying, but I did not want to die.
As the leveling light around me faded, I shoved down that horrific thought and took a second to glance at my stat windows. Now that I was level eight, I had a hundred-fifty-eight mana and a hundred-eighty-eight health. Sweet. Even better, I had a host of new skills from the boss fight. In one battle, I’d managed to learn Charge, Dispel, and Body to Soul.
While the first two were cool, the last one was the best. If I leveled both it and Heal up enough, I’d be able to keep myself full mana and health without ever having to stop and regen. It was OP as fuck, and if the resident AI didn’t care, I was gonna exploit the shit out of it.
See, in Titan Gate, only the necromancer class could learn the Body to Soul spell to regenerate mana, and because they couldn’t heal themselves, it meant they had to either have someone else heal them, or they had to regenerate health via items or by waiting. It was pretty useful during raids, since there were always healers around, but for solo use, not so much.
Only, obviously, since I’d already learned Heal, I could use Body to Soul to refill my mana, then spend a little of that mana to heal myself up. It wouldn’t be super-efficient right now, but as both skills increased in strength, it’d make me nigh unstoppable. Well, it’d make me able to throw spells around like crazy at least.
“Did anyone get any Rhuvians for defeating the ghoul lord?” Crash asked, kneeling beside where the corpse had fallen with an annoyed look on his face. “Because I definitely didn’t, and it doesn’t look like he dropped anything.” As he said it, I realized I hadn’t gotten squat. Sigh.
“Cheap skate,” Two’ Manchu said, smirking. “Not that I care because I almost leveled… twice.” He flexed, his huge muscles bulging. “I’m catching up with a fatness.”
“I guess, I should be thankful we all lived through the encounter, but not getting a single drop still sucks,” Crash said, getting to his feet and looking at us with an expression that reminded me of the kid at the candy store who got to pick one piece but had wanted a whole bagful. “I’ve fought the ghoul lord a bunch of times, and he has so much health it’s hard to beat through his regeneration rate to kill him, assuming he just doesn’t paralyze your party and kill you all or fire doesn’t erupt from the ground. I think we’re too low level for those mechanics to work though.” He looked to Dark Heart. “Still, using the fire on the walls against him was smart.”
“The fire wasn’t my idea.” She shook her head and looked away from us. “Someone told me about it. I just stood on the shoulders of a giant.”
As she spoke, I got the distinct impression something was bothering her, and while I had half a mind to ask her about it, to be honest, I didn’t actually care. Look, call me a dick or whatever, but this chick had taken a very hands on approach to putting me in my current position. While it was sort of fun to play this game, my life was on the line. Yeah, I wasn’t going to cry for her. Whatever was making her sad, she deserved it. Probably. I dunno.
“So, how do we get out of here?” Two’ Manchu asked, and as I looked over at him, I realized he was talking to George of all people.
“The fuck should I know?” George replied, raising an eyebrow at him. “My job here is simple. I fuck up bad guys.” He shadow boxed at the air. “You know, give ‘em the old one-two punch.” He threw a haymaker that practically spun him around. “Figuring out how to get out of a boss room? That’s your problem.”
“Figures,” Two’ Manchu said, looking at Crash. “You know?”
“The ghoul lord’s death should have opened a portal out. We just have to find it.” He shrugged as he turned in a slow circle. All the walls were still on fire and the door was still sealed. “Any guesses?”
“Maybe it’s through the fire?” I asked, moving toward the far wall. The heat coming off of it was intense, and while it didn’t bother me in a whole frying the outside of my body way anymore, I still didn’t relish the idea of reaching into it to activate a hidden passageway. That would definitely drop my health, and even with Heal at my disposal, that wasn’t something I wanted to do.
“I’m still getting an error message when I try to use the return to town scrolls,” Dark Heart said, gesturing at me with the rolled up tube. I wasn’t sure how she knew unless she’d tried to use it without saying anything, but I was hoping she hadn’t done that because if she’d been about to jet and leave us here without even asking if we had some, I was going to be pissed.
“You tried to leave us?” the barbarian hollered, turning toward the paladin. “Seriously? I fucking saved you.”
“Correction, you helped us all not die.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s hardly the same thing.” She walked toward him and poked him in the chest with one slender finger. “I remember what you said about killing me.” She narrowed her eyes. “I worked long and hard to get you here, to get you all here.” She raised her eyes to Crash and me. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t kill all of you and find replacements if you betray me.”
The way she said it almost made me think she’d done it before, only how was that possible? Had Ivan put her brain back in her body so she could go to the tournament? I wasn’t sure, but I definitely wanted to know more. I mean, okay, Ivan had said he could put us back together, but I sort of half-expected him to say he couldn’t do it if we managed to finish the game and collect all the treasures.
While dastardly, horrible, and all
around douchey, it wouldn’t surprise me that much because once we won, he’d have no more need for us, and he’d made a point of saying we were expendable. Still, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t try. If there was even a one percent chance Ivan could put me back together again, I was going to take it.
“No one is betraying anyone,” Crash said, putting a hand on both of their shoulders. “Regardless of how we got here,” he glanced at Dark Heart, “we’re a team now. So act like a team or I’ll kill both of you.”
“As if you could kill me. You’re a crappy priest. We both know you don’t have the skill levels to take me on right now,” Two’ Manchu scoffed before reaching out one hand toward Dark Heart. “But if Crash says you’re cool, I’ll accept it. For now. Always for now.”
The way he said it made me believe him. He’d probably help, at least until he got a better opportunity. Hopefully, when that opportunity came, I’d be able to take advantage of it too because while the barbarian was a hothead, I liked him way more than Dark Heart, and so far, Crash wasn’t nearly as awesome as I’d hoped he’d be. For someone who had worked on Titan Gate, he should know exploits and shit to help us, but at the moment, he felt like dead weight.
“Fair enough,” she said and took his hand, gave it one brisk pump, and released it.
“So how do we get out of here?” Dark Heart asked, staring hard at Crash. “You helped designed Titan Gate, so you should know how to escape. I mean, okay, it’s not the same game, but come on, man…”
“This is way different from Titan Gate,” Crash replied, sighing. “I didn’t know it was based on all this.” He gestured at the room. “My job was simple. People gave me a base concept, told me what it had to include, and said make this game. In exchange we’ll give you a lot of money.” He smirked. “I’m a huge fan of money, and the job seemed cool…”
Soulstone: Awakening (World of Ruul Book 1) Page 18
