Lord of the Flame: A LitRPG novel (Call of Carrethen Book 2)

by Stephen Roark

  The Houndmaster leapt off the remaining stairs and raised his axes over his head.

  “My hounds!” he cried out, his voice deep and filled with rage. “You shall pay dearly!”

  He lunged forward with some kind of special attack that was so fast it caught me off guard. His axe slammed into my shoulder, knocking me back, but not far enough to avoid his follow up attack that hit me straight in the chest.

  I cried out as the pain flooded through me, and threw myself backwards in time to avoid a whirlwind spin attack that was so fast it turned his entire body into a blur. Kodiak leapt into the action as the second hound burst into flames behind him, and drove his dagger into the Houndmaster’s back as his attack finished.

  The boss roared with anger and spun around and drove the blunt end of his axe into Kodiak’s forehead. A deep sound of bass reverberated throughout the hall and Kodiak’s body was suddenly encased in a thin layer of silvery frost.

  A freeze spell! I realized as I jumped forward. The Houndmaster was already midswing before I reached him, and chopped down at Kodiak with two clean strokes that seemed to deal more damage than they should have, perhaps another effect of the stun.

  I activated Ambush and drove my daggers into his back, scoring a critical hit. The Houndmaster spun around, his eyes burning with fury and rage as he slashed out with both of his axes.

  I managed to leap back and avoid the blows, but he was right on top of me. I used Eye Gouge in an attempt to stun him, but he blocked the attack and countered with one of his own. I tried to deflect the axe, but the strike just had too much strength behind it and landed straight on my collar bone.

  I screamed in pain, dropped to my knees and rolled backwards as he slashed out with the second axe. I knew he’d be right on me again, and swung out blindly with one of my daggers to deflect his next attack. Somehow, my steel met his, saving me from a painful follow up.

  The stun effect on Kodiak vanished and he quickly rushed to my aid, striking wildly at the Houndmaster with everything he had. The boss leapt at him with some kind of diving attack. Kodiak’s body fluttered like a glitch in the game animation, and he was suddenly behind the hatchet wielding madman.

  He lashed out with some kind of Backstab skill, and dealt enormous damage, enough that the Houndmaster was approaching half. I dashed forward and activated Mutilate, but before my daggers found their mark, the fearsome boss swung out with both of his arms and let out a deep roar that sent a shockwave shuddering across the room.

  It swept both Kodiak and me off our feet and sent us flying back into the bookshelves. It felt as though my back was about to snap as I landed on the icy cold ground. Fighting through the pain, I looked up at the Houndmaster. Both of his hands were crossed over his chest, his axes wrapped in a sickly purple glow.

  “What’s he doing!?” Kodiak shouted.

  “I don’t know!?”

  “He’s vulnerable!” Gehman screamed, racing forward, his smith’s hammer held high.

  “No, Gehman!” I shouted, but it was too late. Gehman brought his hammer down with all his might.

  The sound of metal against metal rang out across the hall and I watched as half of Gehman’s health vanished instantly and he was thrown back against the wall. His body hit hard and he lay there, stunned by whatever protection spell the boss had cast. And then, I watched with horror as the purple mist swirled around the two fallen hounds as they slowly stirred and got to their feet—resurrected by their master.

  “Oh, no…”

  18

  Teamwork

  “He brought his dogs back!” Kodiak roared, leaping to his feet and racing to my side.

  “Come on!” I shouted, dashing towards the closest one. “DPS this one down before they can attack us!”

  I slid across a pile of books and came up behind the dog as it got to its feet. I quickly initiated Ambush, magnifying my damage, and drove my blades home. The critical hit sounded off and the hideous creature snarled in pain, but before it had time to turn, I used Mutilate and spun like a tornado, my blades true as they slashed across the hound’s chest.

  Quickly, I activated Rush and then Blade Flurry as the undead dog turned to me, snapping its jaws at my chest. The area effect of Blade Flurry chipped away at the second hound’s chest, but Kodiak and I were focused on the first one. If we didn’t get one of them out of the way, it would be easy to get overwhelmed.

  He used his backstab ability again and the hound screeched as its health fell below half. I ducked low to avoid its teeth and struck out, catching it beneath the neck and scoring a critical hit. Rolling, I sliced upwards beneath its abdomen with my second blade and sheared off even more of its health. But as I came up, I found myself staring into the jaws of the second hound.

  He snapped at me, clenching his teeth around my very head and dealing massive damage. My vision blurred as the attack’s effect hit me and as the beast released me, I staggered backwards as a debuff ticked down in the corner of my vision. Whatever it was, it had completely thrown off my ability to move with any sort of control.

  I tried stepping backwards, but lurched forwards instead, directly into a claw attack that tore away a chunk of my health. Trying to focus, I lashed out with my blades but to my utter shock, my hands swung backwards away from me, completely missing the hound.

  “Jane!” Kodiak shouted. “Help!”

  I tried again to turn to him, but it was like my body wasn’t under my control anymore—like someone had a set of strings hooked up to me and was taking delight in making me their own personal puppet. The world blurred as I spun helplessly around, doing my best to just stay on my feet.

  “I—I can’t move!” I stammered, swinging wildly again. I connected with something, but it wasn’t a hound.

  “That’s me!” Kodiak roared.

  “I’m sorry!” I cried back. “I—I’m debuffed or something!”

  The effect began to flash, ready to fade, when I heard something from across the room. It was the Houndmaster.

  The debuff fell off and I turned to look at the boss, who was now back to full health and surrounded by a thick purple mist that wrapped around his body like countless snakes. The blades of his axes rang out as he slapped them together and charged.

  “Jane!” Kodiak shouted in distress. I spun around and saw him battling one of the hounds. Its health was dangerously low. Leaping a fallen bookcase, I struck the beast in the back, slashing away what was left of its health bar. The hound cried out and collapsed.

  I spun around before it burst out of existence, just in time to twist out of the way of the charging boss. His axes just missed me and embedded themselves in a bookcase, splintering the entire thing to bits. The remaining hound leapt at me and slashed at my sides with its claws.

  Slashing down, I caught the sickly animal in its shoulder, then followed up with an Eye Gouge. The stun went off, but there was no time to take advantage of it. The Houndmaster charged again, his axes cutting through the air towards me.

  But just before the attack landed, Kodiak stepped in front of me and blocked the blow with his dagger.

  “Gahhh!” he cried out as he pitted his strength against the boss’, holding his blade above his head, preventing the attack from landing.

  “I got him!” I shouted, leaping forward and activating Rush again.

  A shot of quickness sizzled through me like an adrenaline shot and I sliced furiously at the boss, watching his health bar begin to fall.

  Beside me, the hound awoke from its stun and charged, protecting its master, slamming into my legs and taking them right out from under me. I toppled over and rolled immediately as the Houndmaster broke from Kodiak and came after me.

  His foot planted on the ground next to me and I threw myself clumsily out of the way as his axe cut into the stony floor, sending shards of rock and ice into the air.

  “Look out below!” I heard and looked up to see Gehman, who had somehow managed to get up into the mezzanine, leaping down at us, his smith’s hammer
raised above his head like he was Thor.

  The blow landed on the hound’s head and drove its skull straight into the ground, scoring a massive critical hit and almost killing the beast—again.

  “Haha!” Gehman cried out, drawing back for another swing. But before he could, the Houndmaster spun around and slammed the back of his axe into Gehman’s leg, chopping him down like a tree. He hit hard and I watched his health immediately fall to critical.

  I knew it! I raged inside. He shouldn’t be here!

  Ignoring my attacks, I hurled myself onto the Houndmaster’s back in an attempt to distract him from Gehman. One more blow from anything in the room and he’d be dead.

  “Heal up, Gehman!” I roared as the Houndmaster spun and threw me off his back. The other dog snarled as I landed nimbly on my feet. I watched as it opened its mouth and leapt at Kodiak, but just before its jaws were able to find their mark, Kodiak drove his dagger straight down the beast’s throat. The hound’s health vanished and it exploded into flames before it hit the ground.

  Kodiak swept forward like a dancer, spinning through the ash of his fallen enemy, and brought his dagger down towards the Houndmaster. The boss blocked his attack, but I saw my chance and took his.

  I kicked his leg hard and knocked him to one knee. I knew he’d be expecting an attack, and instead of lashing out with my blades, rolled past him and activated Mutilate. The extra energy spun me around and gave me all the momentum I needed to strike across his chest.

  Kodiak fluttered again and reappeared behind the Houndmaster and carved into his back with a broad strike. His health plummeted as I activated Rush and ran through my cooldowns as quickly as I could, giving him everything I had.

  “Retched invaders!” the Houndmaster roared as he reached critical health. “The Bishop of Chilgrave will punish you!”

  My reply was a dagger to the chest, scoring a critical hit and dropping his health so low it was barely visible.

  “Yeah?” I scoffed as I raised my blade for the final blow. “We’ll see about that!”

  My dagger cut through the air and found its mark, eating up the remaining sliver of health in his bar, and with an enormous blast of blue fire and smoke, Houndmaster Gurrell was defeated.

  Kodiak and Gehman both leveled up.

  “Oooh ho ho!” Gehman cried out as the boss was vanquished. “Did you see that jump from up there!? Man, I came down like a friggin’ superhero! Oh, and I’m level 54 now! This is incredible!”

  “84 here,” Kodiak grinned.

  “Still 126,” I chuckled. The boss fight had definitely been worth a lot of experience, but for me, being such high level, my bar was only about a quarter of the way to 127.

  I knelt down and examined the loot pile.

  “Hey, look at this,” I grinned, picking up a studded leather breastplate and pair of pants. “Armor. Finally!”

  Houndmaster Gurrell’s Studded Leather Breastplate. Armor level 350.

  Gurrell’s Pants. Armor level 310.

  Studded Leather Sleeves. Armor level 270.

  I wasted no time equipping the set, and instantly felt a million times better. Some armor was better than none. It was only marginally better than the first plate set Gehman had reinforced for Jack, but it was studded leather, so that was to be expected. Besides, it was infinitely better than my starter cloth armor I’d been wearing. All I needed now was a helm.

  “Looks good,” Kodiak remarked, healing himself to full with a kit. “You should take the Pareals too so you aren’t broke anymore.”

  “Good call,” I said with a nod as I picked up the stack of money Houndmaster Gurrell had left for us.

  “He didn’t drop his axes,” Gehman remarked with disappointment.

  “What’s it matter to you?” I laughed. “You use hammers anyway.”

  “Maces,” he corrected me. “Hammers are just a subset of maces.”

  I pretended to be annoyed and rolled my eyes. “Okay, okay. You couldn’t have used them, that’s my point.”

  “Yeah, but maybe they were epics or something,” he replied. “Could have sold them and made some sick cash.”

  “Sick cash?” I laughed. “Well you’ve more than doubled your level in like an hour. I’d say we’re doing pretty good. You guys okay to push forward?”

  I turned to Kodiak, who smiled and gave me the thumbs up. I glanced back at Gehman, but already knew what his answer was going to be.

  “All right, boys,” I said, healing myself to full. “Let’s get moving.”

  19

  The Bishop of Chilgrave

  The rest of Chilgrave was like an architectural experiment gone wrong—more of Wintermute’s backup corruption, I suspected. Hallways twisted and folded back on themselves, sometimes leading to nowhere, and balconies hung above us with no apparent way to reach them.

  In some places, the walls seemed to have doubled up, causing spaces so tight that we had to shimmy through them one by one in order to pass. We reached a fork and went right, as it seemed as good a choice as any, and found ourselves facing a massive hole in the floor that seemed to go on forever.

  “Let’s go back,” Gehman suggested. “Left at the fork.”

  “It’s jumpable,” I replied with a smile, putting my bow away.

  “Aw, come on,” he groaned. I grinned and leapt over the gap and landed easily on the other side. Kodiak next and landed beside me.

  “Easy,” he said, turning to Gehman.

  “Ugh, fine,” he grumbled, putting away his hammer. He backed way up and got a running start, then hurled himself gracelessly into the air and landed in a heap at our feet.

  “Gold medal,” I joked, helping him to his feet. We pressed on and came around the corner into a small room lined with low wooden tables. A cauldron boiled over a small fire in a hearth to our left, and three undead lumbered around at the base of a staircase at the far end of the room. I inspected them.

  Undead Kitchen Hand—Level 72.

  “We should be able to take them,” I said, pulling out my crossbow. “I’ll pull one to me and finish it off with my daggers. You two take one of them and just DPS it down as fast as you can. Kodiak, try and draw aggro away from Gehman.”

  “Man, I can’t wait to be as high level as you guys,” Gehman grumbled as he flipped his hammer in his hand. I took aim at the farthest undead and fired.

  My bolt dealt heavy damage, and I quickly switched to my daggers as the thing spun around and raced across the room towards me. It smashed one of the tables out of the way with a dark wooden club and I jumped aside as it swung at me.

  Dodging out of the way, I used Ambush on its back and absolutely destroyed most of its HP with a critical hit. Even without a set of daggers for my level, I was just too high for the thing. I didn’t even bother wasting any of my cooldowns—I didn’t need to. Within seconds, it was dead.

  I turned to Kodiak and Gehman, who were handling their targets well, but the third undead was swinging at Kodiak like he meant business. His club connected, as Kodiak was too distracted to get out of the way. Vaulting over a table, I activated Rush and unleashed on the thing.

  I scored three critical hits on its back before it had time to spin around. It raised its club for a blow, but I easily dodged out of the way and finished it off with Mutilate. I stepped through it as it exploded into dust and raised my daggers to strike the last remaining enemy, but before I could, Kodiak buried his dagger in the creature’s leg, dealing the killing blow.

  “Easy.” He grinned, standing up straight and brandishing his blade in front of him.

  “Let’s not get too cocky,” I chuckled, looting a pile of Pareals from the ground. “We still don’t know what else this place has in store for us.”

  “I’m up for anything,” Gehman said triumphantly. “I’m almost 49!”

  “Did you get much experience from those guys?” I asked.

  “Tons,” he grinned.

  “If the spawns were more reliable, we could just farm this place for a while
,” Kodiak said. “But it seems kind of barren.”

  “Well, let’s hope there’s more in the tower.”

  I moved to the staircase and looked up, but the stairs twisted back on themselves, spiraling up what must have been the tall tower we’d seen from outside. Keeping my daggers drawn, I started up.

  “This must be leading to that light we saw,” Gehman whispered from beneath me.

  “That’s what I’m thinking,” I replied.

  “Another boss maybe?”

  “I’m kind of hoping so,” I said. “Just nothing too insane. Something with some good loot. As much as I appreciate your daggers, Gehman, I need something more my level.”

  “Yeah, I understand,” he replied.

  It felt like we went up forever, but finally the stairwell opened up and we arrived in a long, cramped corridor that led to a closed wooden door.

  “What do you think’s in there!?” Gehman whispered excitedly behind me.

  “Probably the boss,” Kodiak remarked slyly.

  “Okay,” I said quickly. “I’ll go in and check it out. You two stay behind me. If he’s like level 250 or something, we get the Hell out of here. Comprende?”

  “Got it.”

  I stalked forward slowly, keeping an eye out for traps. The deadly ice shards that hung above us in the lower floors of the castle were gone. Everything looked safe, but that was what worried me. I’d played enough games to know that when things felt too good to be true, they usually were.

  But I reached the door without trouble and reached out and grabbed the thick iron handle and pushed. It opened easily and swung inward, revealing a simple room at the top of the tower, with a single bonfire burning gently in the center, a ring of ash around it.

  Other than that, the room was bare. No monsters, no chests, and no furniture except for a small altar by the window with a simple silver candelabra. I hesitated before stepping inside, but everything looked clear and there definitely wasn’t anywhere for a boss to be hiding.

  “Looks…empty,” I called back to my group.