Unbound Deathlord_Obliteration

by Edward Castle

  If I put the ring on, I won't have any issue with mental attacks ever again.

  The thought invaded my mind as if I was thinking it.

  Shut up! I screamed in my thoughts.

  This game was making me crazy.

  As I ran towards the horsemen everyone parted before me like I was Moses and they were the Red Sea. Spells and arrows were still coming my way but considerably fewer than before.

  Looking back, I saw Daggers, with her hood on, surrounded by three close-ranged fighters and being harassed by a single mage. Meanwhile the other six fighters, three mages and both bowmen pursued and sniped at me. Sometimes it really didn't pay to be popular.

  As I neared the horsemen I planned to use as living shields... They also made way for me to pass.

  Jackasses.

  However, that gave me an idea. I turned right and kept running. Everyone continued to step aside but now the horsemen were blocking the line of sight between the ranged attackers and me.

  Grinning, I slowed my speed just enough to start amassing fire morbs.

  Four seconds in, I skidded to a halt, spun around, and shot firebombs at the guys who had just rounded the corner of the path I had created in the middle of the specters.

  The explosions were strong enough to hinder whomever they hit, which allowed me to back-pedal while continuing to amass fire morbs and shoot at them.

  With the deaths there were only fifteen combatants left, meaning this was no longer a large scale battle, — the threshold for which was sixteen — and my mana was being used at the standard rate, rather than the reduced rate I'd become accustomed to. My MP wasn't going to last much longer like this, but I didn't need it to. All I had to do was whittle their life away until it was time to finish them off in close combat.

  Their shields were useless in the face of my Controller trait. One of them, probably with low HP, simply gave up and fell back. The other ten kept coming.

  When my last firebomb flew, I kept moving backwards to prevent myself from being surrounded and prepared for them.

  Daggers' status bar in my vision showed she was still alive, with over seven hundred HP remaining. On my minimap I could see she had managed to break free from the red dots that had surrounded her and was running my way.

  "There are ten of you here, all of you with less HP remaining than me!" I yelled. I couldn't know that, but I was fairly confident it must be true. "And I promise, I'll kill at least two more of you before I die! You've already lost seven people for nothing! Is the bounty on my head really worth the loses you're suffering?"

  One of them slowed down but the leader snickered. "Fewer people means we each get a larger share!"

  The guy who slowed picked the pace again. Damn that leader.

  Daggers' stamina wouldn't last forever, nor would mine; if we continued to fight, we would die sooner or later. Time for a desperate maneuver: I started running again, directly at the Kings' tent.

  As expected, the guards outside barred my way.

  "Hey, you promised me safe passage through your army!" I yelled. "Manhart will hear of this attack!"

  No answer, which meant I was out of options. I kept running, but this time I headed back towards the excavation.

  I said.

 

 

 

 

  She asked.

  I thought for a second.

 

 

 

  I changed directions again.

  Wasting time hiding from these morons would suck, but it was better than dying in the camp.

  No one tried to block my path as I kept going. I was almost to the river when a Blackguard suddenly appeared right in front of me. I slammed into them and fell backward onto the ground as if I'd just tried to tackle a brick wall.

  The Blackguard wasn't Daggers, and wasn't alone. Two other shadows appeared right next to it.

  When the shadow effect went away, I could see that the three of them had their hoods down. They were unremarkable looking for drow, with bluish dark skin, white hair, and black eyes. One of them was a woman.

  The ten people following me didn't take long to catch up and stopped a little distance away. After a moment of silence, the leader took courage to speak.

  "Thank you for your help," he said. "It's an honor to receive help from former Blackguards like you."

  A malicious smile appeared on the face of the male Blackguard in the middle. I tried to stand, to continue running but the other male Blackguard put a hand on my shoulder; a hand holding a dagger that bit through my armor as if it were thin air and drew just the tiniest trickle of blood from my throat.

  "Not only have you attacked a member of my Drow Corps," the man in the middle said, "you also dare to suggest I would debase myself enough to help an insect like you. Leave now and I won't kill you where you stand."

  My eyes widened. What the hell?! They were helping me?

  Holy shit, the world must be ending.

  Silence descended. Daggers approached, still stealthed, stopping between the Blackguards and my pursuers, who were soon joined by the people who had been chasing her.

  I told Daggers.

 

  "There are fourteen of us," the White Tree guy said arrogantly. I noticed the guy who had ran from my firebombs hadn't come back. Smart dude. "And four of you."

  The Blackguard's smile widened. "A Blackguard trainee killed six of you by herself." That wasn't quite a fair assessment; she had only done so because they were focusing on me. As soon as a few of them focused on her, she hadn't killed anyone. "We're three fully trained Blackguards. Only so the Ruined Mage Kings won't say we didn't show them respect, I will give you a last chance to leave. You have ten seconds."

  I tried again to stand up, but the Blackguard holding me was strong.

  "Five," the Blackguard said after some silence.

  The leader of my pursuers let out a furious grunt, turned back, and walked away, soon followed by the others.

  "Consider yourself lucky," I yelled. "If I had some mattresses, you would be done for!"

  Wait, what?! Shit, this situation made me nervous.

  Everyone looked at me as if I had some mental issues. I shrugged.

  The hand on my shoulder finally let go of me. I stood up and opened my helmet.

  "Thanks for the help," I said.

  "Jack Thorn, I presume," the Blackguard said.

  "Yup. Can you escort me to the Drow Corps' leader? I need to find him."

  He crossed his arms and snickered. "I only saved you because I was ordered to do so by our leader. But you want me to escort you? Why should I help the man who's responsible for the war that destroyed my homeland and killed my people?"

  Now, that was a damn good question.

  "Because otherwise I would be attacked again and your leader would order you to save me again." I said. "Much better to just be done with it. You know, lazy is the new efficient."

  He stared at me in silence for a long time as I stared back. Finally, he uncrossed his arms.

  "You're right; I don't want to waste any more time on you," he said. Then, he looked straight at the still invisible Daggers. "Drop your stealth and come with us. And lower your hood too. Hooded Blackguards are killed on sight in the Corps.

  "Ye
s, sir," she said and obeyed.

  We started walking to the end of the excavation site.

  "Why did your leader help me, anyway?" I asked.

  "You're Drow Corps," the female said. "If you haven't noticed, drow aren't exactly welcome here." She nodded to the specters looking at them as if they were food. "If we allow one of ours to die without a fight, it won't be long before we're annihilated."

  "I see," I said. "United by circumstances."

  "Yes. The Corps are lucky to have seven Blackguards among them, else they would all have already been killed by the specters. Eight, now, with the Little One."

  It made sense; the drow were the enemy, after all. I could see why the specters would want to kill them even if they had technically changed sides.

  "Little One?" I asked.

  "She is talking about me, sir," Daggers said out loud, joining the conversation. "It is a rank in the Blackguard."

  "Oh. Sounds childish."

  "It's supposed to," the female explained again. "Until they complete their Blood Mission and become Blooded, the Little Ones remain as children in the eyes of the Blackguard."

  I turned to Daggers. "Did you receive a Blood Mission too?"

  "Yes, sir. As soon as I joined."

  "Well?"

  "'Well,' what, sir?" She asked me with a grin.

  I sighed. "What's your Blood Mission."

  "Well..." She said.

  I rolled my eyes and raised my eyebrow.

  "I told you before, sir, in the Slums."

  No matter how much I tried, I couldn't remember it.

  "Care to refresh my memory?"

  She looked me straight in the eyes. "Sir, my Blood Mission is to kill you."

  I smiled. "Sucks to be you."

  Daggers didn't answer, and we walked on in silence until we got to the excavation site.

  33. Life of a Soldier

  Drow were everywhere. Hundreds of them unceasingly excavating the cave wall.

  The only people who didn't have a pickaxe in their hands were four drow with black cloaks between the workers and the specters. Other than the Blackguards every one of the drow wore plain white robes. And to think that Daggers thought no one would recognize her, as a Blackguard, as long as she had her hood down...

  Two male and one female Blackguard were differentially listening to the fourth, a short haired woman as she was loudly saying something to them I couldn't make out over the cacophony of picks striking stone.

  As we approached, she fell silent, turned her round face towards me and locked her stony gaze on me as she ordered, "Get the deathlord a pick, bring the Little One a better cloak."

  "Sorry," I said. "I'm a mage, I can help-"

  "You can help excavate the wall!" She interrupted me. "This is my Corps and this is not a democracy. I don't care about who, what, or how powerful you think you are. Here, you're my soldier and you will obey."

  Quest completed: Find the Drow Corps

  [Catacombs' Drow Corps]

  Quest: Excavate

  [Catacombs' Drow Corps]

  C rank

  The leader of the Drow Corps has ordered you to excavate the wall to Ter'nodril.

  Condition:

  » Must be completed without dying

  Shit.

  The Quest Series was clear: I had to either obey or suffer the consequences.

  I asked.

  she answered.

  Well, maybe a last try.

  "Respectfully, I just think-" I tried to say but was interrupted again.

  "You have ten seconds to get to the wall and start excavating!" She snapped, I could hear the threat of pain in her voice.

  I sighed. At least I had practice excavating. "Where's the pickaxe?"

  "Here," one of the male Blackguard answered as he held it out to me. I took the tool and went to the wall.

  "Now, your weapons," I heard the leader tell Daggers as I moved on. "You can't defend the Corps with these. Here, these are the daggers I received when I became a Murderer."

  I asked.

  Daggers replied.

  I shook my head. Typical, can't be bothered with me as soon as someone else turns her head with a gift.

  As I excavated under the threat of further suffering, I felt like I was in the real life grunt side of the Army: all mundane work and no money.

  Sometimes I hated Valia's realism.

  * * *

  Eventually, I managed to talk with the leader and asked about my logout time. She allowed me twelve hours of rest each day, which was absurd. Which game forced a player to use a pickaxe for twelve hours straight?

  "You're a wanted unbound deathlord who owes your life to me," the leader had said when she noticed the unhappiness on my face. "You should be grateful, that I don't kill you where you stand."

  She had a point; she was shielding me from death, and I did owe her. I didn't have to like it though.

  Things were less boring than they should be thanks to Valia's boredom dampeners, but twelve hours each day was still too much. At the end of the third day I decided I wouldn't get back to the game until the drow finished opening the path for all of us.

  That's until Alice called me after lunch. "Jack, Laureth says-"

  "Lau-who?" I interrupted.

  "The Drow Corps' leader. She says that if your character doesn't appear today, she'll kill him next time she sees him. I don't think she's kidding."

  "Screw her. I'm not holding a pickaxe anymore."

  "Jack..."

  "Alice. Thanks for the message, but I won't go back." The silence stretched towards awkwardness, so I broke it. "What about you? Did you get nice stuff?"

  "Daggers did," she replied, separating herself from her character. "Awesome cloak, leather armor, and good blades. I think she has more defense than you, now."

  "No shit. How much?"

  "It depends, her head only has the cloak protecting it, so fifty defense there-"

  "Wait a second. Your cloak gives you fifty defense?" I was dumbfounded.

  "It's a High-Quality Devouring Cloak. The leather armor underneath is a Perfect Bruleo Leather Armor, for seventy defense. It's rare, the best I could've earned in the Blackguard, and only after I became a Murderer."

  "Damn. That's awesome."

  Valia's defense system allowed up to three pieces of armor to defend each place, however the second-best piece would have only half its defense active, and the third-best would only defend for one-quarter of its total value.

  Meaning that if she got hit in a place where there was both her cloak and her armor, the armor would nullify seventy damage and the cloak another twenty-five — half of fifty.

  That was ninety-five less damage. Bear, a damn tank, had a hundred points of defense. Damn, Blademaster Shai's black armor only had seventy-five points of defense, almost the same as Daggers' leather armor.

  Remembering Shai's armor, I suddenly felt that something was wrong. She shouldn't have such a shitty armor.

  I mean, it was good, but if leather armor could be as good, something was wrong.

  "Anything else?" I asked just slightly envious.

  "My new daggers deal seventy-five damage each. The old ones dealt fifty," she said in a flat tone.

  "Oh. I see," I said sweetly. "Screw you too."

  "Thanks," Alice retorted.

  "Anything else?" I asked.

  "Other than Laureth finding a way to complete my Blood Quest in the name of the Blackguard, which got me ten points to my Shadow trait, boosting it to Skilled rank... Oh, and I also got eight attribute points from it... No, nothing."

  I didn't even know what to say. So that's what happened when other people played the game? The NPCs actually helped them?

  Only then did I realize that the reason I had been saved wasn't because of some bullshit a
bout the Drow Corps staying united, but because of Daggers.

  Her treatment allowed me to understand the depth of the hatred of unbound deathlords. I knew other players were treated better, but I hadn't realized until now how much easier they had it.

  At least being unbound would be useful when I left the Underworld. Supposedly.

  "You really should get back to the game," she said while I was lost in my thoughts. "I'm pretty sure we'll break through the wall today. Dying for missing a single day of work would be stupid."

  That got me interested. "Today? Are you sure?"

  "I'm not certain, but the specters are mobilizing to fight."

  "But didn't the Ruined Kings say it would take a week?"

  "A week to get into Ter'nodril," she said, "not a week of excavation."

  "Oh, right. Okay, go to my logout point so we can form a party."

  "Sure, see you there."

  "See ya."

  I hung up and logged back in.

  * * *

  As soon as I logged in, I invited Daggers to a party and checked her stats after she was done selecting the attributes to be affected by my Strategist trait.

  Daggers (level 27)

 

  HP: 1850 / 1850

  MP: 200 / 200

  Stamina: 483 / 485

  I said.

  she replied and walked away.

  I looked at the specters and saw that she was right: they were ready for battle. Hundreds of headless horsemen made up the front line, with tanks in full plate in the middle and a row of specter mages flanking them.. I couldn't make out the forces behind them, but I could tell there were thousands of specters there.

  Without a choice, I turned and started excavating.

  Thank goodness, it only took half an hour for all hell to break loose.

  One of the drow was slightly ahead of the rest of us, and with a final blow a small opening appeared. Enraged roars could be heard for just a moment before dozens of spells flew from behind me to strike the wall.

  The explosion was deafening. I was thrown to the ground and scrambled as quickly as I could on hands and knees toward the left wall, which I'd intentionally been working near. I collided with the wall, half blinded by the dust and the flash of the spells and pressed myself flat against it to avoid the horsemen, which were already charging toward the massive three hundred meter wide breech, with the rest of the specters surging forward behind them.