“Zoran, we should probably find some place to set up camp before we move forward,” Freya said. “I don’t think we can make one straight trip to whatever this oddity is.”
“True,” I said. I wasn’t sensing anything of the oddity like I’d hoped. If we kept flying now we’d just be guessing a direction and heading that way.
“Shall I try to find a spot to camp?” Acnologia asked.
I doubt anything here is suitable.
“We might as well just sit down somewhere here,” Nyx said. “There isn’t much benefit in moving forward.”
“Very well.” The Dragon descended, gliding down to the surface. The fog quickly parted ways as Acnologia lowered, flapping his wings a few times before his feet touched the ground. He knelt and dropped a wing, letting us use it as a ramp to walk down to the surface.
A chill rose up my boots the moment I stepped onto the surface. This whole place was making me uneasy, even though it was all darkness—an element that I was arguably one of the best users of.
Freya looked around, and then sat down nonchalantly. The fog only rose to her knees, and after seeing that I sat down as well.
“Now,” she said. “What is our plan of action?”
“I haven’t the faintest clue,” I sighed.
“I figured. Do we contact Voora then?”
“She said she doesn’t know where exactly the oddity was, remember? She isn’t going to be any help on this. Actually, no one is going to be any help on this.”
The moon elf was deep in thought, probably figuring out how we were going to get out of this mess. Personally, I wasn’t sure there was a way.
The only two people who had talked to us about the oddity were Voora, and Ijyela. Both of them had no clue where exactly the oddity was within these lands. There didn’t seem to be a third person we could go to at the moment either.
A low growl echoed through the darkness, and the fog moved away. I jerked my head towards the source, but whatever it was, the fog was hiding it from sight. I knew it was nightfall and had my Night Vision skill activated, but such a skill wasn’t supposed to help against a thing like dark haze.
“What was that?” Freya stood up, and slid out her longsword.
“I’m not sure.” I picked myself off the floor as well. From what I could tell, the noise hadn’t come from our immediate vicinity, so at least the creature wasn’t right before us.
“Wait, can it even see us?” Nyx asked.
What do you mean?
“This fog is pretty thick, which is why we can’t see this thing. Are you sure this creature, whatever it is, can see through it?”
The Dragon raised his head high up. “There is nothing ahead of us, Diablo.”
And as if on cue, the growl sounded once again, this time much louder. Whatever this thing was, it’d gotten closer.
Freya turned to me. “Zoran, we should leave.”
“Yeah, I think it would—”
Pairs of yellow eyes glowed through the miasma, and looked right into mine. I pulled out Dawnbreaker, and swung the blade in a nice clean arc.
Freya’s sword immediately went up as well, and we both faced the creatures. At the moment, though, we only saw eyes and nothing else. I stared at the yellow objects and used my Analyze skill.
DING!
Unable to scan subject. Visibility is detrimental.
Of course. Why wouldn’t it be? I gripped the sword hilt tighter.
“Shall I attack, Diablo?” Acnologia asked.
Don’t. We don’t know what these things are. It’s not a good idea to attack first and then find out.
“Understood.”
Another growl sounded and a dark form jumped toward us. I abandoned the thought of using my sword and put my hand up instead. “Oskis!”
A blast of fire surged into the beast and set its body alight.
The creature dropped to the floor, and even though its body was burning and shrouded in flames, I could tell what it was.
DING!
My Analyze skill’s info screen came up.
Race
Night Wolf
Level
691
Health
10790
Mana
9510
Stamina
10370
What the heck? I blinked. It’s this strong?
“It’s still weaker than you,” Nyx said. “I don’t know what you’re complaining about.”
I wasn’t aware creatures this strong existed in other parts of the lands.
“Let’s take these things down first, and then discuss later.”
I nodded and held my sword up, even though my spells were what I was going to attack with.
Freya stood before me, with her gaze stuck to the rest of the yellow pairs of eyes hiding in the darkness. They looked at the burning body of their companion and then at us. The burning wolf itself was still alive, since the attack hadn’t taken off much of its health. However, the creature laid there, writhing on the ground as the flames ate through its skin.
I stared at it, and a frowned curled onto my lips. Shouldn’t I be feeling bad for doing such a thing to a creature?
And yet all I felt was an icy numbness inside me, as if no emotions had risen from seeing the beast’s pain.
I’ve changed.
I turned and focused on the beasts before us. They growled and leapt, with their teeth baring as they reached us.
I put my hand in the air. “Oskis!”
I summoned the spell multiple times after and gave some other wolves their own flaming clothes. They all dropped to the floor, howling in pain. A blast of red fire shot from behind me, incinerating a few more of the wolves before they could touch the ground. I turned around to see smoke coming out of Acnologia’s now-closed mouth.
Freya had already taken down two of the wolves, without switching to her Demon-elf form, which was impressive on all scales. She was only in the high Level 400s from what I remembered, which was more than two hundred levels below what the enemy was.
Nevertheless, I aided her, surging forward and slashing through the remaining wolves. Dawnbreaker cut into all of them, twisting and slicing through their flesh. I went after the burning wolves as well, deciding it was probably better to end this flaming hell I’d put them in.
Hey, it’s not my fault your fur is flammable. I cleaved all heads off with four clean strikes.
Nyx sighed. “You turn more and more savage as the days pass.”
I…know.
The dead quickly piled up on the ground, and soon, the last wolf had fallen.
DING!
Congratulations! You have defeated: Night Wolf Pack (Lv 700)! Reward: Tooth of the Night Wolf (x2). Reward: Hide of the Night Wolf (x3). Reward: Experience 3,000,000 XP. Reward: 1,010,000 Sol.
DING!
Congratulations! Your Fire Arts spell ‘Oskis: Incineration Flame’ has increased to Level 11! There is now a greater chance of inflicting a burn status on the opponent. Mana: 400. Duration: 10 Seconds. Range: 10 Feet. Cast time: N/A. Cooldown: N/A.
I closed the screens, and looked around us. There aren’t any more left, are there?
Didn’t seem like it, but I just wanted to make sure. At the level they had been at they could have dealt dangerous damage to us.
“I think we’re fine.” Freya exhaled, and put her longsword back in its sheath.
I looked at the dead bodies, and an idea struck me. A grin curled on my face. This is going to be fun.
“Also probably completely unnecessary,” Nyx said.
“Hold on,” Acnologia said. “There is some logic here.”
Thank you. I threw my hands out in front, concentrating on my inner energy, and channeling it into my arms. I imagined a stream of it flowing out of my palms and wrapping around the wolves.
“Rise,” I whispered.
The creatures glowed a dull white, and slowly stumbled onto their feet. In a few seconds, the light died down, and eight wolves stood before me, four of them headles
s, which was honestly very, very creepy to look at. The other four had all their body parts on them though.
DING!
Congratulations! You have resurrected: Night Wolf (x8). Your strength is not enough to raise these creatures to their full Level. Thus, the beasts you have summoned will now be capped at Lv. 200.
Oh, I blinked. I forgot about the level cap thing.
“Which is exactly why I said it was silly to resurrect them,” Nyx sighed. “Why do you never listen to me?”
Maybe I would if you were less sassy.
“These might prove useful,” Freya smiled.
“Yes!” I said. See? Someone else gets it.
The elf looked at me, raising an eyebrow, and then just went back to her own thoughts, as she usually did.
All of a sudden, the ground rumbled and tremors struck the surface, rising up into my bones. My body rattled as I got pulled into the vibrations coming from beneath us.
What the heck? I lowered my center of gravity, trying to stabilize myself, but still half-stumbled around.
“What’s going on?” Freya hunched down as well, and held her arms out at her side.
“Diablo,” Acnologia said, and I looked in his direction.
Multiple flashes of white light blinked from miles away. There was no obvious pattern to them, which made it all the more perplexing.
I squinted. What is that?
As if on cue, the last flash expanded out, and turned into a wide beam of light that shot straight up to the sky and disappeared far beyond the clouds. I stepped back, and unease riled me. I knew there would be mysterious things in the Hexel Ruins, but this was just freaky.
And not the good kind.
Thunder rumbled across the sky, and rain quickly poured down onto us. The drops hit my skin and I felt a slimy sensation from them, as if this wasn’t water, but something else.
I looked down onto my hands, and my eyes widened. My fingers trembled at the sight of the red drops coating my skin.
This wasn’t water.
It was blood.
***
CHAPTER NINE
DING!
WARNING! You have been afflicted by ‘Blood Rain’! Health Regeneration has been stopped. Health will drop by 0.1% every minute. Mana Regeneration has dropped by 50%. Stamina Regeneration has dropped by 50%.
“Ikta!” Freya yelled. A hemispherical shield spread out as two layers of translucent white emerged. The drops of blood splattered against their surface, and kept away from us.
I looked at the elf, surprised. “You know that spell too?” I asked.
She shook her hands, getting rid of the blood coating them. “Irmeia is not the only one who can use such things.”
Ugh. I shouldn’t have asked that question.
Nyx sighed. “No, you shouldn’t have.”
The blood-rain came down hard, and turned the shield red in just a few seconds, blocking our vision of the outside. An acidic sensation sunk into my skin and escalated quickly, turning into a sharp burn. I gasped out, and clutched my body. Freya hunched over too, and heaved for air.
I looked at her. “You’ve got the Blood Rain affliction too, don’t you?”
She nodded and ran her fingers through her silky hair as she tried to get the blood out of it. Red coated the strands of black no matter how many times she pulled, as though it were unwilling to leave.
“This is very perplexing,” Acnologia said. He had blood on his body as well but he didn’t try to get it off at the moment. Because then it’d splatter all over us.
I wasn’t bothered about the blood part right now, just the burning sensation stuff, and I was honestly not surprised I was that way. I’d had my clothes soaked in enemy blood so many times now it wasn’t even funny.
Well. It was never funny.
Compared to seeing streams and pools of red, just a few drops falling from the sky was nothing complicated. Of course, the Blood Rain affliction part bothered me, since my health and mana regeneration were quite important things.
A soft sizzling sound came from around me. Vapor was rising from the drops of blood that had hit the ground, and the fumes rose into the air
That can’t be healthy.
“You don’t say,” Nyx said.
Really? Sarcasm even now?
“We must get rid of this weather soon, Diablo,” Acnologia said. “The health drop will not make things easier for us.”
I know. I looked up at the reddened shield.
“Do you have a way of getting rid of this?” Freya asked.
“I might.” I put my hand up and concentrated deep within, focusing on my inner energy and channeling it into my hands. “Eurela!”
A strong gale surged around the shield, and its sheer speed pulled the blood toward it. The blast of air turned red, and surged straight into the sky, tearing through the clouds. A loud boom sounded from beyond the gray, and I held my breath, waiting for something to happen.
But nothing did.
Well, nothing I wanted.
DING!
Warning! Unable to clear the weather status ‘Blood Rain’! This weather condition is persistent and thus cannot be manually cleared.
Damn it. My fists clenched. It was the first time I used a weather clearing spell and nothing had happened.
Freya looked at the still blood-filled skies and then back down to my Ga’em prompt. “It didn’t work?”
I shook my head and closed the screen. “The weather condition is apparently Persistent, so my weather clearing spell won’t work on it.”
“Damn,” she said. “What do we do then?”
“We just…stay in here, I guess?”
She looked at herself. “What about this blood?”
“I have something for that too.”
“Huh?”
“The canteens?” Nyx asked.
Well, I was actually thinking of hitting her with a water spell. But the canteens are a much safer idea.
“You’re an idiot. You know that?”
Two streams of light emerged, and condensed into my outstretched palms. When they died down, there were replaced by two wooden bottles, each filled with about half a gallon of water in it. “Here.” I tossed one to her. “You can use these.”
She stumbled as she caught it, and her fingers gripped the rough wooden surface. She reached for the cap, but didn’t twist it.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I have a few more of these left. So water isn’t an issue.”
She looked at me, and a smile curled onto her face. She took the canteen’s top off and used the water, carefully washing the blood off her hair and her skin. I did the same, taking small palms of the cool liquid and letting it trickle down my hands, washing the red beads off me.
DING!
You are no longer afflicted by ‘Blood Rain’! All regeneration stats have gone back to normal.
I heard a similar notification sound behind me, and turned around to see the elf look up from her screen, with a wide smile on her face.
“Can’t believe we just had to wash it off,” she said. “Seems like such a simple way of getting rid of a dangerous condition.”
“I know,” I chuckled. “But that still doesn’t change the fact that we’re trapped in here though.”
We both looked up, at the still reddened shield. It had been translucent when I’d used my weather clearing spell, but in just a few seconds it’d gone back to sloshy red again.
The smell of blood though no longer infiltrated my nostrils. Probably just feels that because I got used to the scent.
I looked at the red above me.
Should I be worried that I seem so comfortable around blood? I asked.
“Well, that’s for you to decide,” Nyx said. “Do you WANT to be comfortable around blood?”
I scratched my chin. I don’t know.
“Figure that out first.”
“So,” Freya stepped toward me, “what do we do now?”
“What do you mean?”
“We
’re going to have to leave this shield sometime, don’t we?“
“Yeah, but we should first wait for this rain to let off.”
“Are you sure that’ll happen anytime soon? We have to be careful with how much time we spend on things like this. The Dark Lord is probably just getting stronger with every second we spend not finding a Spectral Spirit.”
“Yes, he is getting stronger,” I said. “But even if we get out of here, we still have no clue which way we’re supposed to go. I haven’t sensed a single thing about the oddity so far.”
“Neither have I,” Nyx concurred.
“Well,” she said. “We did see a massive beam of white light fly up into the sky. That might not be the worst place to go visit first.”
“But that’s so random.”
“What’s the alternative?”
She’s got a good point. A lot of randomness was what led us to this situation in the first place. “Okay, fine,” I said. “We can head towards wherever the beam came from, but let’s just stay here for a few more minutes. If this rain lets down, it’ll make our lives so much easier. The moment we leave this shield we’re going to afflicted by Blood Rain once again and when that happens I won’t be able to get the blood off of us—not with the rate it’s pouring down at.”
“Very well,” she said. “Fifteen minutes. No longer.”
I nodded. “That sounds fine.”
And so, the two of us sat down, on the chilling mud beneath us, underneath the acidic blood raining from above. The clouds had not moved in the slightest and the weather stayed as it had been. If anything, the blood was probably pouring down more now than it had before.
I guess it won’t actually let down then, will it?
“Probably not,” Nyx said. “But it’s nice to take a break either way.”
“What do you think this oddity is?” Freya asked. She’d bundled up, her arms around her knees, and her sword-sheath poking out from behind her shoulder.
The Eternal: Infinity - A LitRPG Saga (The World of Ga'em Book 4) Page 8
