Unbound Deathlord_Obliteration

by Edward Castle

  60 piercing damage dealt to Bear

  HP: 3185 / 3245

  Grappling had been made almost useless by V-Soft against NPCs after my episode with High Lady Renno, but Bear was a player. Our armor made our flexibility garbage, but I could move enough to counter his movements. I jabbed the dagger into his face again, and again.

  I wasn't subtle or slow about it. I did it as quickly as I could, and soon, I had hit him nine times. I didn't wait for him to even register the fact that he had just received five hundred and forty damage and got off of him.

  The dagger disappeared into my ring when I willed it, and I picked up my shield off the ground.

  Silence had descended upon the Temple.

  "I would have lost if you could use your skills," I said to Bear, but loud enough that all the zombies could hear. "But then again, if I had my magic, I'm not sure about the result." I was sure. I would have destroyed him. But my point had already been made in practice; I could slaughter him like a pig if I wished to.

  My words had only one objective: preventing him from getting mad. If he used his Rage skill — or even worse, the Feral one — shit would go south rather quickly. Just to be sure, I immediately began to create fire morbs.

  Bear remained silent, lying on the ground for a long time. No one said anything. We all knew Bear was a damn animal when he fought, and except for me and maybe Daggers, no one had been expecting me to win.

  she said right after giving me the party leadership back.

  That's when Bear acted. He let out a yell of rage and leapt up. There was a faint red glow surrounding his body.

  I could deal with him using my magic, but that would be too humiliating for him. If Daggers did it, it would be even worse. So, what I did was to cement my grasp on the zombies.

  "Your battle spirit is commendable," I said in an authoritative but low voice, just loud enough for everyone to hear. "Everyone, grab him!" I yelled. "The field of battle is sacred and its rules are the code by which we must live! No one is allowed to desecrate it!"

  It was utter nonsense, but I figured they would love it.

  Bear took his greatsword and tried to run at me but was prevented from doing so by a zombie who got in front of him. From then on, he had no choice; in an Enraged state, he had to attack the closest valid target.

  Other zombies showed up and it didn't take long for them to subdue him.

  And so, the most disappointing duel of my life was concluded, with my adversary contained by four people so he would not kill me.

  I took my helmet off, put it away in my spatial ring, and took my circlet back out.

  As I was about to put it on, however, another entity acted.

  It came at me like an arrow, only much faster. I couldn't even see what it was but it was small and barely visible. The only reason I detected it at all was because I was looking in its general direction.

  I had no time to react. The agility I had been so proud of a moment before was now useless as I saw the object come directly at my now unprotected head.

  Thankfully, Daggers didn't share my limitation. She shadowed and lunged in front of me, hitting the object with her blades. From the sound, the object was metallic.

  It was only pushed back temporarily. It stopped mid-air for a split second and then tried to come at me again.

  This split second was enough for me to see what it was. The spider ring.

  Daggers deflected it again. And again. Before I could even move, she had already sent the ring back five times.

  Jumping back, I finished putting my Circlet of Enlightenment on and started amassing a death morb in case I needed an emergency heal.

  And the ring stopped.

  It just dropped on the ground, lifeless, as if it was just another common piece of metal.

  A quick analysis led me to think of four possibilities.

  First, the ring had given up. I didn't believe that for a second; Daggers would run out of stamina eventually and it would be free to attack me then.

  The mere fact that it had acted so brazenly at all made me quite surprised; from the moment I had picked it up until now, it had been patient and crafty, trying to slowly influence me. So, it didn't make sense for it to decide to attack me only to desist so quickly.

  Second, it was out of gas. Whatever gave it the ability to move had run out. I also didn't think that was so. The ring was a magical item capable of invading my mind and turning people into spiders; clearly, it had more energy to spend than that.

  Third, there was a possibility that whatever plan it had would only work if it caught me off-guard. Since I was now alert, it had no reason to continue. It would be a good theory if I hadn't been off-guard with the ring multiple times before.

  Lastly, and the only conclusion I believed, it wanted to attack when I wasn't wearing the Circlet of Enlightenment.

  I had only taken the Circlet off a few times, and I didn't remember ever doing so while the ring was out of the enchanted bag, except here in the Temple. But now, after winning the battle and with my enemy under control, I had also been off-guard, unlike before when everyone was focusing on me. Theories three and four complemented each other quite well.

  It was surprising. As far as I knew, the Circlet was only useful for increasing my Magic trait and my Perception attribute. For a Legendary item, it was quite subpar; the Ring of Fire, for instance, was far superior though its lore was plain when compared to the Circlet.

  The Circlet's description read: 'A special circlet forged by the dwarves, enchanted by the elves, stolen by the drow, perfected by the sorins, bought by the vampires and conquered by the deathlords.'

  The Ring's description, however, was simply: 'Forged by Deathlord Renno after decades of study with the sole purpose of creating it, this ring is the envy of all fire magic users that know of its existence.'

  Yeah, High Lady Renno was supposed to be a badass in the Underworld, but still the Circlet's lore was much more interesting.

  How, then, was the Ring better than the Circlet?

  Now, the answer was obvious, it had hidden properties that I wasn't privy to.

  Except for Bear, who was still raging, everyone was confused about what had happened. If it was up to me, I would leave the ring there forever. However, since I couldn't trust the zombies to be smart enough not to put the ring on, I took it and put it away in my bag.

  I nodded to Daggers.

  she replied and I winked at her.

  "Alright, fellas!" I yelled. "As soon as Bear is done with sore-loser mode, we're going to leave this place and find ourselves some people to kill!"

  No cheers, no excitement.

  People these days are so hard to please.

  "And then," I continued, "we're going to get rich!"

  They immediately cheered.

  Greedy bastards.

  * * *

  A zombie's Rage mode could only be turned off after five minutes. We waited until Bear did so.

  was the first thing he said. At least he was smart enough not to say it out loud, or I would verbally massacre him.

  I replied. I hadn't cheated, but last time he accused me of doing it — when we killed Deathlord Shai — denying it had done me no good. It was better to just go with it, appear unconcerned about his judgement, and be done with it.

  As expected, he didn't continue complaining and became sullen instead. Because of that, I decided to impart upon him some words of wisdom.

  I crossed my arms.

  He didn't reply to that either and I didn't care.

  I said, y to leave and scout ahead. It's past time we get out of this place.>

  "Defensive formation by the door!" She yelled. "Now!"

  They moved quicker than ever before. No matter how underwhelming my fight with Bear had been, it served its purpose of tightening the leash on the zombies.

  The doors of the place were royal blue, with a water elemental engraved into them. Thankfully, they had handles.

  After organizing the zombies in a semicircle, Daggers activated her stealth and opened the door with utmost care. Nothing blew up, no one died, and she went out.

  Two seconds later, she spoke.

  It was a good opportunity to maybe raise my perception and dexterity attributes.

 

  She had a point. I had a yet unused skill that could make me twenty-four percent transparent, but it was not even close to Daggers' stealth.

  Time passed by. Ten minutes later, she let me know that the traps were disarmed and that she was going to scout ahead.

  I took the chance to do a quick check on real life. The car was still moving and the road we were on was indeed the one to DC.

  Back in the game, I tried to make small talk with Bear, to feel him out after all the stuff we had just gone through.

  "So, the Armed Forces against the citizens, huh?" I chose to speak using my voice instead of the mind chat so this touchy subject wouldn't distract Daggers.

  Bear was beside me and looked at me from the corner or his eye. "Same difference. I saw a tank downtown last week."

  There was no joviality in his voice but at least he had replied.

  I crossed my arms and looked at the door with false interest. "But last week they were just keeping up appearances and reacting to trouble. Now, they are hunting people down in the name of bringing order to the country."

  "They are hunting criminals," Bear insisted. "People who were caught on camera these past three weeks breaking the law. Vandals who took advantage of the chaos for their own personal gain. I don't pity them."

  A conservative, then. I wouldn't have guessed. "But where are we going to put them? There aren't enough cells in the jails for everyone who screwed up in the last few weeks."

  "Just kill the bastards," he said without a hint of remorse.

  Not only a conservative, but one of those who couldn't argue. A pity; I loved to antagonize people over their political views to find their little hypocrisies.

  For instance, many people who advocated for the execution of all offenders regardless of the severity of the crime would be killed if it was applied. I mean, who had never made a call while driving?

  And many who said that 'all criminals deserve a second chance' would be the first people those criminals killed with their second chance. Psychopaths are real, and not all people are deserving of compassion.

  The funniest thing was that people usually put ideology over practicality and refused to see what was right in front of their eyes. It was a tendency which was often abused by those who knew how to do it; like me.

  This whole 'Armed Forces' issue was also a big smokescreen. People had discovered almost all their leaders were corrupt, and had committed crimes in a world with barely any law enforcement. Big surprise.

  Now, as the Armed Forces put on a show of force, suppressing a few here and there, the country was divided into 'good people' who supported the violent restoration of order versus rights activists, while the politicians, all but forgotten, maneuvered to save their own asses.

  Dividing the nation with controversy was a textbook move, but people still fell for it.

  What worried me about Congress' actions was that if they could recover so fast... Could V-Soft also recover? Would I need to hunt their ex-employees down?

  I couldn't do anything about that at the moment, but I could do something about Bear.

  "That's your answer? Kill them all?" I asked him. "What about some feasible suggestions to solve the real problems the country will face?"

  He didn't reply.

  "See, that's your problem in your political views and in your fighting style: you refuse to think outside the box. Tell you what, we'll fight again after we conquer the castle, and if you find a way to defeat me, I'll give you something nice. If I win again, you stop being a sore little bitch and go back to acting like a man with a pair."

  After a few seconds, he answered. "Something nice?"

  "I'll think about it. But it will be worth at least a hundred gold coins. Deal?" I extended my hand.

  "Make it two hundred."

  "Alright."

  He finally turned to face me directly. "Then, we have a deal."

  We shook hands and went back to waiting for Daggers in silence.

  She took a little less than ten minutes to come back, becoming visible right in front of me. I was looking at the minimap this time though, and wasn't spooked. Bear, on the other hand, almost jumped.

  He complained.

  She ignored him.

  I frowned.

  She pointed at the water elemental on the paintings.

  Now, that was intriguing. A teleport hub right next to the castle that Manhart wanted so badly to conquer? This place was so unfathomably valuable.

  I asked.

 

  I hadn't expected that answer.

 

 

 

  What the hell?! Worst of all, I'm not sure she is joking.

  I asked. Coming here had been damn easy but I couldn't detect a way to go back. There were no drawings on the floor of this place.

  Bear said.

  It made me frown. He knew a magical way out of the Temple?

  he said genially.

  Daggers said. she told Bear,

  I supported her.

  Bear smiled and I felt as if a weight had been removed from my shoulders. Losing Bear would have been a huge blow to my team, and I needed all of them for my plans to succeed.

  I said.

 

  It took me a few moments to understand what she meant.

  I focused on my Communication Crystal.

  Call Manhart.

  Trying to contact Manhart...

  Success!

  his voice said in my head.

  So the asshole was waiting for me to call, huh?

  I replied.

  His voice reached the zenith of innocence.

 

  Now he was giving me sarcasm.

 

  He was silent long enough that I thought he wasn't going to answer. ppen to be the Temple of the Water Goddess, would it?> There was... Veneration in his voice?

  As I expected, he knew where I was, and probably how to get the hell out of here.

  he said quickly.

 

 

  I looked at the bite marks at the marble pillars. Did that count as disrespectful?

  I said.

  He was incredulous.

 

  His voice was even more dumbfounded.

 

 

 

  He asked dubiously.

  My eyes widened.

  He hung up.

  Five days to get here wasn't bad. Knowing that he had a way to track me, however, was terrible. And realizing that all my guesses as to why Manhart had sent me to conquer the castle were bullshit was a mighty blow to my ego.

  In all my wildest dreams, I had never considered that he simply... Didn't think the castle existed.

  I had been acting all the time with the assumption that there was a high likelihood of the secret entrance being known by the lich, or of the quest being a trap. But in the end, he had just used me as a simple scout.

  It was my fault, really. I had forgotten the most basic thing about Manhart:

  He was an NPC.

  Artificial intelligence could do many things that humans couldn't. However, unless specifically developed for it, they weren't known for forming shadowy intrigues.