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

by Stephen Roark

  Scattered groups of Diseased Villagers milled about. A group of three lunged at us as we passed a shattered old wagon, but we cut them down in an instant. Anwi swung her massive sword with terrifying precision, as though she was one with her blade. She spoke little, but even with her helmet on, I could see her scouring the city for signs of her lost companion.

  “What do you think happened here?” Sabotenda whispered.

  “Pretty sketchy, huh?” I replied. “Looks like the town was overrun or something.”

  “This wasn’t a player city ever, right?” Curafin asked.

  “I don’t think so.” I shook my head. “Player cities in Carrethen are small. Towns. This is crazy.”

  Lamp posts lined the street on either side of us as we continued on, burning with white flame that cast eerie puddles of light across the already strangely glowing silvery landscape. Despite the fact that the homes were all boarded up, I couldn’t help but feel a strange allure to them, as though they would be a cozy place to seek refuge if I were to spend time in the city.

  The road curved to the left and opened into a small square with a cracked and dry fountain lying in pieces beneath a skeletal tree that hung overhead like the hand of a monstrous corpse. On the steps leading up to the square were two Huntsmen and a pack of Diseased Villagers.

  “We can just go around,” Sabotenda suggested. “I don’t think we’d aggro them.”

  “You need experience,” I replied. “You all do. Anwi, think we should let them take these guys on their own?”

  “As you wish,” she replied simply, placing her sword on the ground before her with both hands on its hilt. I looked at the rest of my group and raised my eyebrows.

  “Seriously?” Sabotenda asked with a smile. “Those Huntsmen are 109. I’m only 83.”

  “Fine, I’ll help you out,” I chuckled. “Curafin, cast Menace on the big guys and I’ll take one of them out. You guys try to handle the others, but I’ll jump in if you need help.”

  “Got it,” Curafin replied, aiming his Cleric’s Staff at the Huntsman farthest from us. I drew back my bow and waited. As the black cage closed around the enormous man, I let loose my arrow and shattered a third of his health.

  With a vicious cry, the group of Diseased Villagers leapt to their feet, snatching up their shovels and pitchforks, as they went aggro on the group. I managed to get my Huntsman down to critical before he reached me, but the other was headed for Curafin as he finished casting Menace and switched to his flaming sword.

  With a roar of anger, the Huntsman brought down his pitchfork. Curafin tried his best to dodge, but the blow landed, dealing an enormous amount of damage.

  “Get him, Curafin!” I laughed, as Sabotenda dealt with the Villagers. Using his halberd to create space, he stabbed out at the perfect time, dealing just enough chip damage to the Villagers as they leapt towards him.

  One raised its shovel and brought it straight down on Sab’s helm, knocking him backwards onto the ground. The rest of the Villagers, seeing their chance, raced towards him. I was about to jump in and helm when Sabotenda quickly used his halberd to cast a portal behind him and in front of him up the stairs to the fountain. He rolled backwards and teleported behind the angry mob and wasted no time driving his halberd into the back of the one closest to him. It went down and I cheered, turning back to Curafin, who wasn’t handling his Huntsman very well. His health was almost at half while the Huntsman was still barely below 75%.

  “Perhaps he requires your assistance,” Anwi suggested from beside me.

  “Give him a second,” I said slowly, watching as Curafin slashed out with his fiery blade. The blow connected and the Huntsman howled, but it just wasn’t enough damage. Maybe Anwi was right, maybe I was being a little unfair pitting him against something 20 levels higher than him.

  I lifted my bow and took aim, but felt Anwi’s hand on my wrist.

  “What?”

  She nodded towards Sabotenda and I looked. He’d finished off his Villagers and was racing towards the Huntsman with his halberd braced in front of him, ready to deliver a devastating attack from behind.

  “Take this!” he shouted as he drove the blade into the Huntsman’s back. The critical hit was huge, dropping him below half health, but more importantly, causing him to spin around, taking his attention off of Curafin.

  “Heal!” I shouted to him, but Curafin was way ahead of me. He swapped to his Cleric’s Staff, healed to full and pulled out his sword. The Huntsman drove his pitchfork into Sabotenda’s chest, but Sab took the blow and swung out again, bringing the hilt of his halberd up and into the Huntsman’s chin.

  The strike staggered him back, straight into Curafin’s flaming sword, which scored another critical hit from behind. The blade did have a massive 600-700 damage, and apparently his self buffs were really working. He followed up with a slash to the legs that brought the Huntsman to his knees, and Sabotenda delivered a crushing thrust straight to the Huntsman’s face that tore away enough health to put him below critical.

  “Finish him off!” I cried out as Curafin raised his sword triumphantly above his head and brought it down with both hands against the Huntsman’s exposed neck. The massive Villager exploded out of existence in a cloud of smoke and flame.

  Ding! Both of them leveled up.

  “Easy!” Curafin cried out triumphantly.

  51

  Fools

  Both of my companions couldn’t stop grinning after their victory over the Huntsman and the Villagers. They’d both gained another level and had a new sense of confidence as we pressed deeper into the city of Jahannan.

  “Did you see that slam to the chin?” Sabotenda asked for the third time, miming the movement he’d used on the Huntsman to stagger him. “That was sick!”

  “We saw it,” I replied, groaning and rolling my eyes. He just smirked back at me.

  “That was nothing compared to my flaming-sword-executioner’s-move!” Curafin retorted.

  “Say, Sabotenda,” I asked. “How come I never see you using any special abilities? Doesn’t halberd have its own skill tree?”

  “Because it’s garbage,” he snapped instantly. Obviously I’d hit a sore spot. “Seriously—garbage.”

  “Really?” I asked. “Honestly, there’s nothing worth using?”

  “Okay, check this out,” he told me, taking a few steps forward from the group. He stood in the middle of the road and activated some kind of ability. His halberd glowed and he drew it back and held it there, as though winding up for a thrust…

  And held it, and held it, and held it, and then finally, drove the blade forward for an attack that rang out with the sound of metal on metal that echoed through the street.

  “So, that was Heavy Thrust,” he said sarcastically. “Does a ton of damage if you can land it, but if is the key word here. The game won’t let you complete the attack until it builds up its charge, which leaves you completely open to attack during that time, and not only that, any attack that hits you during the build up is critical!”

  “Oh,” I replied blankly.

  “Yeah!” he went on. “And check Whirlwind!”

  He activated something else, and a white beam flashed from his body as he began to spin, twirling his halberd like a Bo staff in an obvious AoE attack. It finished quickly and he stared at us. Curafin shrugged.

  “And?”

  “And it’s completely bugged. Does absolutely no damage.”

  “Come on. Really?”

  “Oh, you don’t believe me?” he asked, stepping right up to the group. I saw his eye flicker to his cooldown, checking how much longer was left on the timer. We stood there for another 7 seconds or so until he looked back at us. “Well, see for yourselves!”

  Before I could react, Sabotenda activated Whirlwind. His halberd spun quickly through the group, striking us all over and over, but he was right—it was horrible, dealing 1 to 2 damage each time the blow connected. When the skill was finished, Sabotenda looked at us as if to say, “I tol
d you so.”

  “I’m sorry I doubted you,” I chuckled. “And all of them are that bad?”

  “There’s one called Destruction, which is basically just a heavy blow, but it’s slower than two regular attacks so it’s not even worth using,” he sighed. “I mean—theoretically I could use Heavy Thrust on a boss if he wasn’t paying attention to me and there were no smaller mobs around. But, yeah…”

  “Was it this broken in the original Carrethen?” I asked, puzzled. “Because I knew a guy who used halberd and he never complained about this stuff.”

  “Nope!” Sabotenda cried out. “Just another one of the Dark World’s blessings.”

  I smiled and turned to Curafin, who was staring at me like I’d just caught him trying to hack my computer looking for nudes.

  “What is it, Curafin?” I asked suspiciously. He kept staring, then looked down at his feet and started to chuckle. “What?”

  His soft laugh grew and grew until he was bent over laughing.

  “What is it already?” Sabotenda exclaimed.

  “I—I forgot,” he cackled. “I forgot to learn any of my sword skills!”

  I did the biggest face-palm in my life as Curafin continued to laugh. Behind me, I even heard Anwi make a sound that was almost like laughter.

  “Who am I playing with?” I asked as if speaking to God. “Is this a joke?”

  Curafin managed to get his laughter under control and looked up at me. He was obviously embarrassed.

  “So…what should I learn?” he asked.

  “How the Hell should I know?” I replied. “This skill tree thing is new to me too, and I’m an archer! All I know is that my buddy Jack used sword, and he loved Warrior’s Charge, Execute and Broad Strike. How many can you learn?”

  “Uhm…five it looks like,” he replied. They each take 15 points and I have 84 of them.”

  “Suggestions, Anwi?” I asked, turning to our stoic guide.

  “Warrior’s Charge is useful,” she agreed. “Broad Strike and Cleave. But it is a decision only you can make.”

  “There’s too many,” Curafin said slowly, almost in awe. “What if I gimp my character?”

  “I don’t think you could do any worse than you are now,” I laughed. “Not having a single one of them trained.”

  “That’s true.” He smiled. “Okay, I’ll take Warrior’s Charge,” he said, selecting it. “And…Cleave and Broad Strike…and, oh! Swordmaster’s Fury gives me a 3 second 10% buff to my sword skill. That’s awesome.”

  Curafin finished picking his skills and then looked up at me. I nodded with approval and moved to continue on, but he placed a hand on my arm to stop me. I turned to him and saw another strange look on his face.

  “What, Curafin?” I asked. I was started to get annoyed. We needed to push on and make progress through the city. Every second we wasted was another second my friends were in danger. They could be sinking father and farther into madness, or being hunted down by Rayne and her guild to be cleansed from the world forever.

  “Just wondering, Jane,” he asked slyly. “Did you train your bow talents?”

  If it had been possible to blush in Call of Carrethen I would have been redder than a ripe cherry tomato. The expression on my face must have been priceless, but Curafin was kind enough to stifle his laugh.

  “Uh oh,” Sabotenda chimed in, not bothering with tact. “People in glass houses, Jane…”

  “Shut up, Sab!” I grimaced, opening my character sheet. There were my dagger skills, Mutilate, Eviscerate and the rest of them. I’d learned those, but I still had 22 left, and the bow tree was completely empty. “Wow, you’re right. There are a lot.”

  There were two specific trees under bow: Precision and Battle. It seemed as though Precision was more for sniper style abilities, while Battle was more of a close range combat tree.

  Charged Shot, Explosive Shot, Volley, Trap Shot, Arrow Storm, Knockback Arrow, Scatter Shot, Deadly Shot. I read through them, trying to see which ones fit my needs. I could only train one at the moment, so I chose Scatter Shot.

  Scatter Shot—A charged, fragmenting AoE attack that reflects off hard surfaces.

  “All right,” I grumbled, closing my character sheet. “I may have forgotten, but I could only learn one. That’s not as bad as missing out on four abilities like you!”

  Obviously sick of our banter, Anwi took the lead and started off deeper into the city.

  “Come,” she said fiercely. “Time is precious.”

  52

  Central Jahannan

  The ash falling from above grew thicker as we made our way deeper into the city. It fell like snow, accumulating in corners and sloughing off roofs.

  “Where’s it all come from?” Sabotenda muttered as we found ourselves at a flight of stairs that led down to our left, where I could hear the soft sound of running water.

  “This is our path,” Anwi announced, taking the steps without hesitation.

  “It’s not a water zone or something, is it?” I asked. “Because I hate water zones in games.”

  “Just the Jahannan River,” Anwi assured me as she continued down. The rest of us followed as the steps took us beneath a series of shacks that hung over us like a tunnel, each of them looking ready to collapse at any moment. A Diseased Villager slumped in a dark corner but didn’t stir as we passed.

  The cramped stairwell opened up and we found ourselves on the cobbled shore of a wide dark canal that drifted through the city like a black snake, its surface dotted with clumps of fallen ash. Across the water near the far shore, I thought I saw something moving beneath the waves.

  “Do not go near the edge,” Anwi warned us as she turned right and continued on.

  “Why?” Curafin asked. “Is there something in the water?”

  “What do you think?” I replied, following Anwi.

  A group of three Diseased Villagers stood in our way, and Anwi raised her sword to attack, but I stopped her.

  “Anwi,” I called out softly, drawing back my bow. “Let me try this.”

  I activated Scatter Shot and watched as the tip of my arrow began to glow. I aimed at the group and fired.

  The arrow struck their feet and exploded into countless tiny pieces that ricocheted off them and the walls beside them, dealing enormous damage with each hit, bringing them all down to almost critical health.

  “That’s awesome!” I smiled, taking aim and finishing them off with a normal shot for each of them.

  “I feel like that’s been in an old game somewhere,” Sabotenda pondered.

  “Probably,” I agreed, happy with my new skill. It had worked just as I’d expected it to, which was why I’d chosen it. Jahannan was a cramped city and Scatter Shot would come in useful in its dark alleys and side streets. The sniper skills could wait until we were back out in the open.

  It was strangely still at the canal as we walked. The ash was like snow in winter, muffling the sounds of the rest of the city, causing the canal to feel strangely isolated from the rest of Jahannan’s crazed clutter. The water drifting beside us still gave me an uneasy feeling and I kept close to the wall, but that was when I saw something lurking in the shadows ahead of us.

  “What’s that?” I whispered, coming to a stop. There was a long line of wooden barrels stacked at the open door of what looked like a brewery, and hidden in the darkness, something was moving—something big.

  “A Blood Beast,” Anwi replied. He voice was gentle but filled with strength, as though she feared nothing. “Nasty creatures. Do not let it bite you.”

  “Oh, that should be easy,” Sabotenda said sarcastically.

  “They fear fire,” Anwi went on. “Curafin, we will need your sword.”

  I inspected the creature, still lurking in the shadows, its blood red ears peering out across the canal like a watchdog.

  Blood Beast of Jahannan—Level 107 Elite.

  “Elite,” I said softly. Anwi turned and looked at me, a hint of a smile in her eyes.

  “Jahanna
n is filled with surprises. Its claws are strong, but its bite is lethal. Beware.”

  “Curafin,” I said, drawing back my bow. “Menace.”

  Curafin nodded and aimed his staff at the Blood Beast and cast. The black cage swirled and began to collapse, but before the spell even had a chance to finish, the beast leapt from its hiding place and scrambled towards us.

  I loosed a shot as the sound of the Menace debuff rang out. The arrow found its mark but the damage was poor. This wasn’t going to be a quick fight.

  The beast leapt at us and I saw its massive claws glint in the silvery glow of the city. I rolled back and dodged the first attack, swapped to my daggers and activated Rush. Feeling the extra Quickness flow through me, I sprang into action with Eviscerate. But the Blood Beast was fast, and quickly dodged out of the way and lashed out, clawing me across the abdomen.

  I tripped over myself trying to get away, then collapsed from the pain and watched as my health bar continued to shrink. He’d hit me with a debuff: Bloodied Wound—50 damage a second for 7 seconds.

  “Curafin!” I shouted as Anwi leapt towards the beast, bringing her enormous blade down on its head. Curafin swung towards me and cast a heal spell as I used a charge from my Health Kit. With that kind of debuff I was going to need a lot of healing.

  Anwi’s blow did a fair amount of damage, and I recognized Broad Strike as she followed up with it. The beast was open for another blow, but she leapt back and I quickly understood why.

  The Blood Beast’s jaws expanded and stretched, contorting forward and doubling in size, snapping out at Anwi with a bite that would have almost swallowed her whole. Its teeth were monstrous, each as long as a sword, dripping with sickly saliva.

  Sabotenda saw his opportunity and drove his halberd into the beast’s side, and followed up with a spinning attack that slammed into the side of its massive head. The beast snarled and slashed out at him, but Sabotenda ducked at the last second and rolled out of the way.