by Adam Drake
The crystals began to get bigger, and the ones on the ground suddenly began to spread outward, creating a larger mass.
Thorm stumbled backwards, narrowly avoiding stepping on them.
Once Thorm was far enough away, the living carpet of crystals ceased moving. The sound of their cracks and pops settled down.
Thorm frowned. “It appears we have encountered obstacle in our path. Any ideas?”
“I dunno,” I said, sliding off of Smoke. “They're definitely magical, but I'd never heard of any magic effecting a travel gate before. Like ever. Have you?”
“No,” Thorm said. He picked up a large rock and tossed it at the mass of crystals. The moment the rock struck them, the crystals reacted, shifting and popping. The rock settled amongst them then became enveloped with them.
Thorm whistled. “That ain't good. We could get trapped in it if were not careful.”
Uncertain as to what to do next, I said, “Mount up. Let's look around. Maybe we can figure out what's happened here.”
We slowly circled the gate, keeping our distance. The back side was just as covered over as the front. But before we could make a full circle around the gate a thick line of crystals cut us off.
The line, like an icy patch of snow, stretched out from the gate along the ground and vanished into the forest to the east.
“Maybe we should follow this until-.”
From somewhere deep within the trees, a loud thrumming noise could be heard. Like the deep resonance of a gong being hit.
The sound reverberated for a long time and the patch of crystals crackled and shifted as if agitated.
“Paint me intrigued,” I said, once the sound stopped. “Guess we're going to have to check this out.” Suddenly, a quest message appeared.
You have been offered a Quest: 'Crystal Chaos'
Explore the forest and try to discover the source of the strange crystals which block the Travel Gate.
Accept or Decline?
“Looks like the game was reading our minds,” Thorm said with a grin.
“Not sure I like that thought, but okay,” I said and accepted.
Then, a shout came from the forest. Someone was calling for help.
“That's our cue!” I said, and we kicked at our mounts and charged into the thick forest.
CHAPTER TEN
We rode alongside the stretch of crystals, following down the length of it. Like a jagged path of strange ice, it covered everything it encountered. Grass, boulders, bushes and any other foliage.
When it brushed up against trees, the crystals would cover most of the trunk, but would only go so high and stop. I tried to consider that a good sign.
The shouting stopped, and we were left simply riding along the crystal bed for guidance.
Thorm pointed ahead of us. “Somethings there.” Further along the crystal path was a large formation. As we approached, it turned out to some creature had tried to cross over crystal and became encased.
We slowed to a stop a short distance away.
“What is it?” Thorm said.
The creature was really big, larger than either Smoke or Snowflake.
As we trotted by, one end of the crystal formation showed a black furry snout with a mouth with sharp teeth protruding from it.
The mouth opened and roared.
“A cave bear,” I said, recognizing its overall shape. I'd encountered this kind of beast before. Nasty brutes. Part of me was grateful it was trapped and couldn't attack us.
The cave bear couldn't be seen underneath save for a dark tone its fur reflected against the crystals. It roared again, the sound plaintive and scared.
“Is it taking damage, or just immobile?” Thorm said squinting at it.
I tried to pull up the cave bear's stats, which would have shown me its hit points, but for some reason I couldn't. The crystal simply dominated its presence.
“Can't tell, but let's assume that being trapped in that stuff is a bad idea. It looked like it tried to jump over but didn't clear it. Looks like that stuff acts fast.” The cave bear roared again, but the crystals suddenly enveloped its snout, cutting it off.
“Maybe it suffocates you once your encased,” I said.
“A crumby way back to the newbie zone, if you ask me,” Thorm said.
I nodded in agreement.
We continued on, leaving the trapped bear behind. Seeing what that stuff can do to a being was unsettling. And now we were expected to destroy it? Soon the forest trees parted, and we found ourselves in a wide open space. A deep bowl-shaped depression took up most of our view. The crystal trail lead down into the depression to the very middle wear it stopped at a large outcropping of crystals which towered upward like a mutant iceberg from hell.
There were smaller patches of crystals, like rocky plants, which dotted all over the depression.
“Whoa,” Thorm said, eyebrows raised. “What have we here?”
“I dunno. Maybe something crashed here, like some kind of meteorite?” Stranger things can happen in this whacked out game. The developers of Unlimited Fantasy Worlds had long since turned over most of the game content to AI generation. It was the only way to keep up with the voracious demand of billions of active players. As a result, odd quirks crept into some of the quests and locations. Maybe this was one of these content quirks.
Thorm pointed at a large patch of crystals near the center berg. “See that? Looks like someone got too close.” The patch he indicated did look like a humanoid in form, in mid-stride, perhaps trying to run away. It looked like he or she had been trying to reach for a staff which stuck out of the ground next to it.
That's when I noticed something.
“Check out that staff down there. See how it's surrounded by crystals but not touched by them?” The staff poked out of the ground, and around it was a small patch of crystals. But the crystals didn't come within a two foot circumference of it, only bare earth could be seen.
“Maybe we should take a closer-,” I stopped talking the moment a section of the center berg moved.
A chunk of crystals broke away from the main berg and stood up. It was humanoid in shape, but small, maybe three foot tall. The shape shifted about and the arms and legs grew more defined. A head turned this way and that. Then it went completely still.
“What the heck?” Thorm whispered.
As I gazed at the thing, its stats suddenly appeared.
Species: Elemental (Elite)
Subspecies: Crystal
Level: Unknown
Hit Points: Unknown
Mana: Unknown
Armor Class: 35
Attack Rating: 50
Damaging Rating: Unknown
Weapon Type(s): Unknown
Abilities: Crystal Spear, Crystal Aggression, Facetted Might
I whistled. “That's a lot of unknowns to deal with.”
“And deal with it we must,” Thorm said, eyeing the elemental warily. “But how?”
Suddenly, a hissing noise come from behind us.
We whirled around, weapons at the ready.
A man was hiding behind a tree, his eyes wide with fear. A patch of crystals enveloped the tree trunk and also the man's entire body up to his neck. The name Taygo appeared above him.
“Thank the Gods you are here!” Taygo rasped. “I thought no one would come!” Thorm and I approached cautiously. I kept one eye on the crystals encasing him and the other on the Elemental standing dormant in the depression.
“What happened here?” I asked.
The crystals pressed up against his neck and Taygo made an effort to breathe. “Me and my assistant were hunting for crystalline formations. Looking for ones that can be cut into proper forms for magic, like wands or staffs. We sell them at various towns and cities. Make a good living at that. But then we came to this depression and spotted that giant formation you see there in the middle.”
Thorm and I glanced at the crystal berg and its still guardian.
“Lemme guess,” I said. “Y
ou tried to chip away at it and released that Elemental?”
“Oh, no, no,” Taygo said, flustered. “Well, yes. We did release it unintentionally, but we don't chip at crystals. Ruins them.”
“What did you do?” Thorm asked.
“We use Sonic staffs,” he nodded at a staff which was sitting in some tall grass next to the tree.
I picked it up. It was short, no longer than my arm and topped with a round spherical stone which glowed purple.
Item Acquired: Staff of Sonic Vibration, Durability 15/25
Base Damage 1-4, Sonic Damage 10-50
This staff emits a small sonic blast when activated.
“Wow,” I said, impressed with its damage range. “Maybe I should use one of these from now on instead of a sword.”
Taygo tried to shake his head. “No, the sonic vibration that stone emits causes reduced damage to flesh. It's designed for breaking crystals.”
Thorm grinned. “Well, isn't that handy. So why didn't you use it against the Elemental?”
“We did! Or I should say Derrib, my assistant, did. You can see how he faired. He and I aren't warriors, just crafters. We were no match for that thing. The moment we tapped the crystal structure it was upon us! And as you can see, it won.”
I eyed the Elemental with unease. “So why's it got the gate all locked up?”
“Gate?” Taygo said.
“Yeah, there's a Travel Gate a short distance from here.” I motioned at the trail the crystals created along the ground through the trees. “It's completely encased with the stuff.”
“Really? Fascinating!” Taygo said with excitement. He'd completely forgotten his dilemma. “My guess would be that it has somehow discovered a means to tap into the gate and use it as an energy source. Amazing! Oh I must get a sample!”
Thorm held up a hand in frustration. “Why would it do that?”
“Why, to become more powerful, of course!” Taygo said happily. “Before it might have been your old run of the mill Crystal Elemental, but now...”
“Now the thing has become an Elite,” I finished for him, feeling a sinking in my chest. We needed to kill this thing and break its hold on the gate. There was only so much time before those bounty hunters would locate my position.
Thorm said, “So this staff will kill it? What about physical damage, or magic?”
Taygo made a failed attempt at a shrug. “I'm sorry, I don't know. I suspect that the crystals which form the Elemental's body act as a sort of armor against physical attacks. And crystals have been known to reflect spells,” he then noticed our dour expressions, “on occasion.”
Thorm looked to me. “So how do you want to go about this?”
I passed him the sonic staff. “I seriously doubt these things will kill it outright. Let's hit it with all we got and see what happens. If things go south-.”
“When things go south,” Thorm said.
“Then we'll improvise. If need be I'll sneak in and grab that other staff.”
“Please be careful,” Taygo said, sweat beading on his forehead. “It's very quick!”
We sent our mounts a short distance back amongst the trees, just in case we needed to make a fast get away. Then I moved within bow range of the Elemental. The thing didn't react, sunlight glinting of its many facets.
I summoned a magma arrow from my inventory and nocked it.
Thorm tensed, sword and shield at the ready, his own armor shining under the sun. The sonic staff was tucked into his belt.
Aiming carefully, I fired my bow, using Sure Shot for extra effect.
The magma arrow struck the Elemental in its glassy head, but ricocheted away to land burning in the grass.
“Oh, snap,” I said, surprised.
Then the Elemental moved, charging across the ground toward me.
“Let me tank!” Thorm shouted as he shifted over to block the being's path.
The Elemental stopped and raised an arm, using its Crystal Spear ability
.
A long, narrow shard of crystal shot out of its hand and hit Thorm who raised his shield to block. The crystal spear shattered against the kite shield, knocking the Holy Knight back a couple of steps.
“That thing's got kick!” He said.
I fired a rapid volley of regular arrows at the thing, but each simply bounced off its crystal skin with loud tinking sounds.
The Elemental shot more crystal spears at Thorm with wild abandon.
He weathered the onslaught, digging his feet into the ground and leaning his shield forward against the torrent. Shattered crystal rained down around us.
“I'm going to try a sneak attack, keep it-.” Just as I started to circle around the Elemental swung its other arm in my direction, like it was throwing a bowling ball, using its Crystal Aggression ability.
A wide patch of crystals erupted from the ground at its feet and shot forward toward me, ripping up the earth.
“Oh, snap!” The freight train of jagged death was on me before I could even blink. Thankfully, I was already in motion and jumped, somersaulting over the deadly crystals that bloomed beneath me.
I landed and rolled across the grass before spinning up into a stand and fired again.
Acrobatics Skill Increased! Level 3, 27%
With its attention on me and my feeble arrow shots, Thorm used this moment to move in close. When he got within melee range, he swung his large sword at it.
With a loud cracking noise, bits of crystal exploding off the Elemental's body. The being shifted its attention to the knight and beat down on his shield with a fist which sprouted sharp crystal spikes.
It appeared that Thorm was doing some damage, but not enough to repel the thing.
Caught up in the battle and flush with adrenaline, I ran up behind the elemental and switched to my sword to hack at its flank.
You have hit the Crystal Elemental for 15 slashing damage.
You have hit the Crystal Elemental for 15 slashing damage.
Bits of crystal burst from its body with each blow. But to my horror, I saw the gashes I was making were regenerating over.
“It's not making much difference!” Thorm shouted, trading blows with it. “It can regenerate to quickly!”
“Try the staff!” I said, changing my target to the back of its head. The creature was a little taller than my avatar's.
This caused the thing to suddenly whirl around with the sound of crunching glass.
“Oh, oh,” I said stepping back.
The Elemental shot a Crystal Spear at me and I jumped to the side. Then it fired another, and another. Each one I only managed to avoid by the skin of my teeth. I was too close.
Thorm stopped his assault, sheathed his sword and pulled out the Sonic Staff. It was shorter than his sword so he stepped in closer to the Elemental and jabbed at its back with the staff's purple stone.
A loud resonating boom sounded at the impact, like a gong being struck.
Shards of crystal cracked off the Elemental's body, each blackened as if burnt.
It spun around wildly and used its Faceted Might ability.
A massive pillar of crystal fell from the sky, glinting with light.
Thorm shouted in alarm and tried to back away.
The huge pillar speared into the ground kicking up dirt. It was ten feet tall and three feet across.
As Thorm fell back to avoid being crushed the crystal pillar hit the staff in his outstretched hand, breaking it.
Momentarily stunned by this development I didn't see the backhand swing the Elemental aimed at me.
The hit sent me tumbling backward, and I sprawled to the ground.
The Crystal Elemental has hit you for 120 crushing damage.
As the Elemental turned around to face me, I noticed the darkened gash Thorm had made with the staff. It wasn't healing over. The damage was permanent or at least hampered its regeneration.
As the Elemental took a step toward me, I engaged Shadow. The creature paused, momentarily confused by my disapp
earance.
Thorm suddenly appeared behind it, sword in hand. As he hacked at it, the thing turned to engage him.
“The staff is broken!” Thorm shouted, sounding worried. He traded blows with the Elemental, his kite shield now cracked.
Quickly, I looked around for the other Sonic Staff. I spotted it a short distance away sticking out of the ground, next to Taygo's encased assistant.
Careful of the surrounding crystal patches I hopped into the clear circle around the staff and plucked it out of the ground. Curious I touched the purple stone at its end to the nearest crystal. The sound of the gong boomed out and the crystal patch shattered into a fine dust and crumbled to the ground.
