Playing For Keeps (Alpha World Book 4)

by Daniel Schinhofen

  “The blade is also fire,” Tiny yelled. He stood up as Gwain swung at him again. “I am immune to fire.” He got his shield just in the way of the oncoming blade, but it was crushed, the metal folding like foil over Tiny’s arm just before he vanished.

  “Tiny!” Bob screamed as he and his double renewed their assault on Gwain.

  Alburet tried to resummon Tiny, but there was a lock-out on the spell. He knew there had to be a downside to letting a minion die in combat. He wouldn’t be able to resummon them until combat ended.

  The tanks had regained their feet and engaged Gwain once more. Gerald took the next blow, his life dropping by over half even though he partially blocked the blow. “Fuck, tanks switch every hit.”

  Jaxton stepped in to take the next blow, also losing over half of his life. “How are we supposed to deal with this?”

  “We have you if you can keep him switching, taunt him if you have to,” Alburet called, watching the healers and focusing on the fight.

  “Round robin it is,” Gerald said as the tanks all formed a half circle in front of Gwain.

  The melee damage dealers swarmed in behind Gwain to get their damage back on the boss. Karen was in there, as was Fluff. Karen was using her new blades, and Fluff the maul she’d gotten from the fight with Ophelia.

  After a solid minute of them trading off, Gwain laughed darkly, “Try this one.” He called out a word the raid didn’t know and spun rapidly in place. The first rotation did some damage to everyone in range, but seemed to be mitigated by the number of people he hit. The second rotation doubled the damage, the third doubled that.

  By that point, those in range of the attack had started to dive away, seeing how that was going to stack up. Jaxton triggered a damage mitigation ability and stood his ground. He was pounded on each rotation, grunting as he hunkered behind his shield. His life bounced like a yo-yo as four of the healers focused on keeping him up while the others healed the damage done to the rest of the raid with area of effect spells.

  As Gwain rotated for the fourth time he staggered as an ice slick bloomed under his metal-shod feet. Rolland frowned. Gwain should have fallen down. The speed of his rotation did diminish, though. Ioaniss launched a blue bolt at Gwain’s legs as well, a thick coating of ice locking one knee in place and slowing the rotation further.

  “Everyone get ready,” Ioaniss called out as he launched the next bolt into the other knee.

  Both knees locked solid, the ground below him frozen, and Gwain came to a slow halt. As soon as he stopped spinning his knees flexed, causing the ice to shatter. Stomping his foot, the ice under him also shattered. “Mere tricks. I’ll not be hindered by such paltry measures.”

  All those who’d dived away from the Whirlwind attack piled back in. Karen landed the first blow, her blades sinking into Gwain’s back. Fluff tried to keep up with her, though her Rage had fallen off minutes ago.

  The fight wore on. Gwain had only the one trick at the moment, the Whirlwind ability which he used every two minutes. Knowing the ability, and how to hinder it, the raid was able to keep pressing on, whittling his life down further and further.

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  As Gwain hit half life he slammed his sword into the ground, knocking everyone off of their feet and causing the dim light to go out. “Why? Why do you do this to me? Is the torment of my god turning against me not enough? I have kept my men bound to this place, so as to not torment the Empire further. But no, you push at me, making me follow his commands. This is on your heads, damn you all.”

  When the dim light returned Gwain was over by the throne, his armor scattered around it. Where a man should stand, an abomination stood instead. Turning back to the raid as they got back to their feet, the thing called Gwain growled. His face was not human, or anything natural. It was a compilation of animal and insectoid parts stitched together. His body, what could be seen now that his armor was off, was a massive swollen, monstrosity, bulging with innumerable muscles that glistened in the dim light.

  “How the fuck did that even fit into the armor?” someone asked in a hushed tone as they looked at Gwain in revulsion.

  “This is what she did to me, after Justice turned his back on me,” Gwain told them in a buzzing voice. “She tormented my soul and changed my flesh to be what you see before you. I’m damned, to never know the joys of Delta World. All because I believed her honeyed lies. I disregarded the warnings of my men and let her lead me into damnation. And now she is gone, because of you. Who will spend eternity with me now?”

  “Can we just attack him?” Karen asked Gerald.

  “The break is letting the healers regain their mana,” Gerald told her. “It behooves us to wait until they’re full or he stops monologuing.”

  Fluff growled, her fur starting to go red again, “He’s regaining health.”

  “Fair point,” he conceded. He slashed down with his sword, “Attack!” Gerald led the charge towards their enemy.

  Gwain didn’t move, hunkering down as they charged toward him. He extended his arms as claws the size of daggers sprouted. “Come. Let my children feast on your bodies.” Gwain breathed out a dark cloud that buzzed in the air.

  The first wave of attackers found themselves under attack by a multitude of stinging, biting insects that burrowed under their armor to attack them. Those afflicted began to scream in pain as the bugs continued their assault. “They have a debuff,” Marysue called out. “Infested, they can’t be healed while the bugs live.”

  “Feast, my pretties, feast. Eat them alive,” Gwain laughed mockingly, lashing out with his claws as those not Infested surrounded him.

  Alburet rushed forward and triggered his area spell, Fire Burst, which could hurt allies. He did 500 damage before mitigating effects to all those who were rolling on the ground trying to crush the bugs. As soon as the fire washed over them the debuff, Infested, disappeared. Gerald grunted as he got to his feet, “Thanks, Al. Never thought I would thank someone for burning me alive.”

  “He’s always ready for a hot time,” Karen deadpanned as she got up. Her face was a mask of hatred, “Let’s go kick Gwain’s ass.”

  The dozen people who had been affected by the debuff agreed with her. They moved toward the fight, frustrated when they realized they couldn’t get close enough to do anything. “Well, balls,” Friendzone sighed as he stood there with the others. “Now what?”

  Alburet moved off to the side as the fight continued, tossing Fire Blasts into the melee when he could. “Violet,” he addressed her through the Raidstone, “move to the other side of the room. If we need to clean more bugs we’ll have better coverage.”

  “On it,” Violet called out as she moved to the other side of the group.

  “He’s taking more damage now,” Gerald pointed out as he watched Gwain’s life yo-yo, the health regeneration returning almost as much life as the raid was piling on him. “Even with that health regen, we’re chipping him down faster than before.”

  About a minute later Gwain turned to the tank that currently had his aggro to breathe out another cloud of insects. Everyone touched by the cloud became Infested, dropping to the floor in pain as insects burrowed into them.

  “Violet, burn that off of them,” Alburet called out. “Gerald, taunt him and pull him this way, so her Fire Burst doesn’t hit the entire raid.”

  “On it,” Gerald replied as he taunted Gwain to him, closer to the side of the room Alburet was on.

  Ioaniss loaded another cylinder into his crossbow, “Few casters have spells that can injure their allies, and most use Abilities to change them so they don’t. This is a rare case where it is helpful to do so.”

  Alburet hadn’t considered that angle before. “I did’t know that, but it’s damn useful right now.”

  After Violet burned the bugs off the second set of people that had been Infested, the healers began the process of getting everyone healed again. “We can do this,” Marysue told the raid. “We’re keeping up with it, just keep going.”r />
  The fight dragged on for another ten minutes as they slowly whittled down Gwain’s health towards the quarter mark. Every minute he breathed another cloud of bugs, but the raid was ready for it now, with Alburet and Violet taking turns clearing the Infested debuff.

  “Get ready, we’re about to transition him to his last phase,” Alburet called out.

  A few seconds later Gwain passed the quarter life mark. A guttural scream reverberated from his throat at that point. “No! No! No!” Gwain leapt into the air, landing with a shockwave that pushed everybody against the walls, pinning them in place.

  Staggering to the middle of the room, a glowing black light bathed his body. “Master, I beseech you, grant me one final boon.”

  A dark laugh rolled through the room, sending shivers down the backs of the raid members. “You fail me time and again. And you wish a boon,” the voice was full of malice. “I will grant you a boon, one that you will hate. Take my final gift to you.”

  Once more the room was plunged into darkness. When it lifted, Gwain stood three times the size he had been. He looked mostly human, except his skin had plates of metal imbedded into it. His hands were missing, replaced with blades that emerged directly from his wrists.

  “If you fail me this time, I won’t even bother raising your pathetic corpse,” the voice intoned.

  “Thank you, master. I will not fail you,” Gwain sobbed, like a broken child. “I cannot fail him. He is all I have left to believe in.”

  The pressure that had been holding the raid to the walls vanished. “He isn’t regenerating health anymore,” Gerald called out over the Raidstone. “Alpha Company, this is it. Let’s finish it.”

  Those words were the signal for the raid to charge at Gwain with renewed fervor. As they closed the distance to Gwain he spoke under his breath. The blades emerging from his arms were suddenly wreathed in dark flames. “This will send you all to your final deaths,” Gwain hissed as he lashed out just as Gerald got into range.

  “Deirdre, Chris, Rolland, Kim, and Jones get out of there! Stay back and do not draw his attention,” Alburet barked over the Raidstone as fear washed through him at Gwain’s words.

  Gerald was able to barely block one of the two blades. They swung at him with a speed he was not prepared for. As the one cut into him, he let out a ragged cry of surprise. Over a quarter of his life vanished with that hit. He also had a new debuff on him, Death’s Wound, which negated light magic healing him for thirty seconds.

  “Gerald, pull out,” Marysue called out. “Jaxton, switch with him. If you get hit switch out with the next tank.”

  Gerald staggered back, but not before a second swing took more of his life away. “Tanks rotate, focus on defending yourselves.”

  Alburet rushed forward, casting Demonic Vitality on Gerald. Gerald started regaining health, slowly. “Deirdre, you can heal those with the debuff. Violet, you too. Focus on healing.”

  Violet, Alburet, and Deirdre did their best to heal the wounded who had the debuff. As the first minute of the last phase came to an end, they knew they wouldn’t be able to sustain it. “Healers, start healing this fucker, you guys are going to need to help us damage him.”

  Gwain started attacking whoever was closest to him with his off hand, while focusing on the tank who had aggro with his main hand. Because of that most of the melee had the debuff, dancing in and out of range as they tried to keep up the damage on Gwain.

  Friendzone pushed his luck, staying too long inside Gwain’s reach. As he died a black wisp floated from his body to Gwain. Greenbeard tried to battle revive Friendzone, but it failed to work.

  “Can’t battle rez if you die right now,” Greenbeard let the raid know. “Melee, keep that in mind, don’t get greedy.” It was good advice, but they didn’t have a lot of other options if they wanted to damage Gwain.

  Alburet noticed that Gwain had a new buff now, Darkness Incarnate. The buff effect mentioned that it stacked to ten, but that was it. “He gets something if ten people die, so for the love of all that is holy, don’t die.”

  Ioaniss sighed, putting his crossbow away once he’d run out of ammo. “Probably should have saved some for this part of the fight.” He tossed a couple of traps at Gwain.

  Kim followed his lead, throwing her own traps into the melee around the boss. Small jets of flame and crackles of lightning surged around Gwain’s legs, doing less damage than they’d hoped for.

  The next person to die was cut down by Gwain’s secondary blade when he just couldn’t get out of the way in time. Gwain’s buff gained another stack as the black wisp was absorbed. Grumbling, Alburet shook his head as he continued to throw his Fire Blasts. He frowned as the spell hit. The damage had dropped. “The buff he’s getting mitigates spell damage,” he warned the raid.

  The damage on Gwain slowed. The melee were afraid to get close with the debuff on and they all seemed to have been hit at least once. The tanks were doing their best to rotate out, trying to let the debuff fall off between swaps.

  Deirdre spoke up, “I be needin’ more mana potions.”

  Casters close to her handed some off, knowing she was the sole healer keeping the tanks going at the moment. She downed the potions as she kept her heals going.

  “You will not defeat me,” Gwain rasped out as he cut down another raid member. “I have the boon of Stein upon me.”

  Ioaniss called out in horror, “Stein? As in Franklin Stein?”

  Gwain cackled. “The master is not the first, but he is of the blood. You will know, once he comes to raise your bodies.”

  Ioaniss staggered back, horror clear on his face, “The King must learn of this.”

  Mocking laughter echoed from Gwain as he hacked into Jaxton. “You will all die here! None shall know of his return.”

  Jaxton used his self-heal to stay in the fight for a few more seconds before he switched out with Violet’s Destroyer. “Deirdre, how are you holding up?”

  “Not well,” Deirdre replied as she drank another mana potion.

  “Alburet, we can’t keep this up,” Violet added as she took her last mana potion.

  Alburet gauged Gwain’s health, doing quick math in his head. “Two minutes, two more minutes and we’ll have him.”

  “No, your end is nearer than that,” Gwain hissed.

  The next minute was worrisome as the raid struggled against the debuff. Gwain was under ten percent of his life when Deirdre called out that she’d run out of mana potions.

  Alburet considered it, then shook his head, “Everyone in. Mob him, do as much as you can before he cuts you down.”

  The raid surged forward, triggering any abilities they had for more damage. Those in melee range were cut down one by one. Karen died, Fluff joining her a couple of seconds later. When Gwain’s buff gained ten stacks he let out a roar that stunned everyone still alive.

  “Fools! You think you can kill me?” Gwain hissed. He picked up Gerald by slamming both blades into the Defender’s chest. “Now I will show you true power.” He ripped Gerald in half as he pulled the blades in opposite directions, laughing the entire time.

  The stun wore off quickly, but Gwain now had a 30% magic damage shield, Dark Shield. “He’s going to be harder for the casters to damage,” Alburet called out.

  Jaxton stepped up to take aggro, as everyone else surged in to renew their attack. Gwain’s health was wearing away, though more and more slowly as people died. “Back up and get ready to kite him,” Jaxton warned as the last melee was cut down.

  The tanks, now the only ones still standing within melee range, were being dispatched with brutal efficiency. “If he targets you, do your best to keep him chasing you,” Alburet called out as Violet’s Destroyer died.

  Gwain focused on Icyhot, whose damage had been the highest from the casters. Icyhot used all the ice magic he had to slow the monstrosity as he backpedaled around the room, trying to give himself as much room as possible.

  Alburet watched Gwain’s health bar drop. “He only has a lit
tle over a hundred thousand left. We can do this, don’t give up!”

  Icyhot was cornered and cut down not long after that. Gwain turned to Alburet with an evil smile. “You’re next, Summoner. Watch your raid fall apart around you.”

  Alburet smiled back grimly, “You should know your limits.” Pulling the maul from his bag, Alburet silently covered the weapon with flame. “After all, Ophelia couldn’t handle me. What makes you think you can?”

  Gwain started forward with a snarl, “YOU made her leave me?” With a roar he came after Alburet, his enlarged form enabling him to close the distance quickly. “I’ll ask him to bring you back as my own personal plaything.”