by J D Astra
The creature bit down harder, shaking its head like a dog and shredding my shoulder as my flames ate up its life. The spell cut out as my Spirit bar hit empty, but a second later the assaulting creature collapsed onto me, dead.
It was getting harder to hear, and see, and feel. The pressure of the massive monster’s claws inside my body was fading as my compressed chest failed to fill with air. My flashing Health dropped to 9%, and suddenly I felt a fire in my chest, urging me to fight on. I pushed against the Broodling as brilliant red light swirled around my body and a pop-up appeared for Phoenix Rising, my passive ability that restored 20% of my Health as soon as I dropped below 10%.
I slid out from under the huge creature and without a second thought, pulled one of the level-two Health and Spirit combo potions from my inventory. The taste was sweet relief, and I chugged it back. The intestines that had left my body disappeared into thin air as my gut mended.
Otto was twenty feet away, parrying and slashing at the enraged Hundun boss. Otto was at just under 50% Health, whereas the boss was closer to 30%. Still, it wasn’t great odds for Otto if I didn’t get in there fast. I gasped, drinking back one more Health potion to bring me up to full as the black Smokescreen cloud above us evaporated.
It was time to finish this asshole and get the hell out. Otto still wasn’t in range of Hundun, so I popped off Fire Inside, increasing my spell damage by 50% for the next sixty seconds. I targeted the ground under the boss’s feet and dropped Rain of Fire. With Otto out of range, I didn’t have to worry about one of the fireballs causing splash damage on him.
A thousand tiny fireballs shot out of my upraised hands, catching some unsuspecting Broodlings as they swooped in, then shot down onto the Hundun boss like cruise missiles.
The flames bounced off Otto, causing a minor amount of damage as he went into a berserker’s rage. He charged in at Hundun, and the damage from my tiny flaming projectiles increased. The boss’s Health had dropped to 10% by the time my spell ended, and I had just enough time left on Fire Inside for a finishing Inferno Blast.
I charged forward, dodging the reaching claws of the Broodlings as fire washed over Hundun. He swung his arms at Otto like a deranged boxer, raking his huge owl claws across Otto’s breastplate with a sickening screech.
I screamed my defiance as I stood at Hundun’s back, pressing my flames down on his charred nubs for wings. With a howl, and a final swipe of his claws, Hundun collapsed forward, just a burnt husk of the creature he was before.
“Take that!” I spit on the boss’s charred remains, feeling a wave of jubilation in his defeat.
The four remaining Broodlings above screeched like owls, diving at us with powerful jaws open wide. My Spirit was too depleted to do anything, so I pulled my staff forward to block the oncoming assault. I fell to the ground with a huff, Otto shielding me from their reaching claws.
“Did you get it?” he asked as he rolled off me and stabbed his sword up into a swooping Broodling. I snagged the opportunity, pulling a level-two Spirit potion from my inventory and drinking it down.
“I’ve got it!” I gasped as my Spirit shot back up to a third.
I whapped the half-Health Broodling with a fireball, and it dropped to the floor beside us, its Health near empty. I lifted my staff high with a double grip and bashed it into the flailing Broodling’s head. Dark blood splashed across my robes as the creature’s singed skull split open, ending it for good.
When I turned back, Otto had dispatched two of the smaller three Broodlings and had the third pinned to the ground under his heavy greaves. The final creature’s owl screech was cut short as Otto stabbed down into its chest.
It was quiet in the blackened, blood-soaked dungeon, and we basked in the glory of our victory. We had killed the Archive Guardian and gotten the Bindings Book. We hadn’t learned anything about Faction Seals, and it was obvious now that Osmark knew we were seeking it, but we’d at least saved the rebels.
That brief moment of victory was swiftly washed away by the reminder that I had only one of each potion left, and we still needed to escape. The only way out was to climb all the way back up to the top of the archive and fight our way past whatever was going to be thrown at us.
I didn’t feel a swelling of confidence in my gut as I looked on Otto, the strong but impermanent friend I’d grown to like. We were powerful together, and capable, but we had a long way to go and no help to do it.
“Let’s loot this thing and find a way out of here,” I said as I stepped toward the Hundun corpse and opened its inventory.
It wasn’t great, but it was definitely something. New bracers for me, finally, a ring for Otto, fifty gold—
“Rah!” Otto cried out, and I whirled. He dropped to his knees, his hand groping at his right kidney and his Health bar flashing at 75%. There was nothing there, no one. I turned frantically, in search of whatever had hurt him, but it was just Broodling corpses, Hundun, and Otto.
Sharp pain shot up my spine from my side and a slender, black-leathered arm slipped around my neck. “Hello again, Ms. Hollander.”
Backstabbed
I GASPED AS BURNING rippled from the dagger in my back and spread through my chest like a firestorm. My hands pried at the arm around my neck, but she held tight. A tingling started at the puncture wound, like the skin was falling asleep.
“You didn’t think we’d let you get away with stealing from us, did you?” Sandra snarled as she pulled her dagger free, then stabbed me again and again. My Health dropped to 30%, and a debuff popup appeared in my vision.
<<<>>>
Debuff Added
Paralyzing Poison: You are being paralyzed by a Rogue’s poison! Your motor functions can be reduced by up to 85%, increasing over sixty seconds. At 30% you cannot cast spells requiring hand gestures. At 70%, you can no longer cast any spells. Duration, 3 minutes!
<<<>>>
Sorceric Blessing didn’t require hand gestures, just a thought and concentration. Otto was slumped over, face-first on the stone floor thirty feet from me, too far for my cleansing spell to reach him. I could remove my poison debuff, but I didn’t stand a chance against Sandra, not without Blazing Weapon, which was still on a 15-minute cooldown. Even if I cleansed myself and ran to Otto, she’d kill me before I could get close enough to save him. But if I did nothing, we would surely die, and Otto would be gone forever.
In rapid succession I hit myself with Sorceric Blessing, popped off Fire Inside, and turned my hands back to release a gout of Inferno Blast at Sandra’s face. Her arm jerked away from my chest as she moved back with a shriek. I spun on my heel, gasping for air as the pain in my side spiked up to my chest and throbbed in my skull.
Sandra dropped low and rolled out of range, then with a poof of black, disappeared into thin air. What the fu—
The dark-haired monster reappeared directly in front of me as she dove in for a tackle. I fell back as her shoulder slammed into my gut. I smacked my head on the stone floor as I went down, and a Concussed debuff appeared in my vision. My Health flashed a warning at 25%.
Sandra snarled as she stabbed down into my ribs. The Rogue’s Poison debuff appeared, and in my haziness I waved it away. My Health was at 15%, and I could feel Sandra wrapping my hands with something. I tried Inferno Blast and got a negative buzz in my ear as another pop-up appeared.
<<<>>>
Bound Hands
You have been bound with your hands together, and cannot cast spells that require hand gestures or specific positioning. Your instant cast spells that do not require hand gestures are not affected.
<<<>>>
I still had Fire Inside active, and Burning Affliction didn’t require anything but Spirit. I locked eyes with the bitch and slapped her with three debuffs and a Leaching Smolder. She cried out, her hands flying up to her face to stop the flames.
I rolled to my side and brought my hands to my mouth, gnawing at the binds. My Spirit was slowly climbing, but then stopped abruptly. My nose crunched, and my head thr
obbed as something hard and heavy smashed my face.
It was getting hard to see with all the blood in my eyes, but my HUD flashed brilliantly around my nearly depleted Health bar. Phoenix Rising triggered, bringing my Health back up to 25%, but the pain in my body and the numbness in my limbs made it hard to keep going, made it hard to feel like there was a way out of this.
“Stop struggling!” Sandra shouted in my ear as she straddled me. I could feel her hot, angry breath on my cheek. I opened my mouth and leaned up to bite at her, to do something, and I was met with a skull-throbbing headbutt.
Sandra’s hair was burnt back on one side, and her eyes were bloodshot with fury. She popped a Health potion and downed the whole thing in one gulp. Her perfect features returned to normal in a wave that washed over her from bottom to top. I looked drunkenly about the room for Otto, hoping in my heart he had some potion on him, anything that would get that debuff off him. He was still down, unable to right himself from the poison. This was it. I was going to lose everything.
“Otto,” I whimpered.
“Silence,” she whispered. “You’ve made enough of a mess with your actions, the last thing I need is your words. I’m taking you to Osmark now, and there’s no need to drag your NPC with us. I can’t have him trying to rescue you, either, so... you get where I’m going with this.”
I kicked up at her, my frail legs feeling more like noodles than meat and bone. My muscles were weakened from the Rogue’s Poison, only landing gentle bumps of my knees against her back. She batted her eyes and her leer turned feral at my powerlessness.
Sandra stood, gripped a fistful of my hair, and pulled my limp body across the bloodstained floor. This was why we needed to know what the Faction Seal was. This was why we needed to stop Osmark, because there were dozens of people just like Sandra, and worse. All of them had secret dungeons, and all of them were geared to the teeth and armed with Faction Seals.
She dragged me up and leaned me against the smashed base of the altar, positioning my head just right for a view of my friend. He squirmed as he fought the poison, but didn’t manage anything more than a wiggle. My heart jackhammered away as I thought of the Sorceric Blessing spell, willing it to save him.
I was in range, and my paralyzation level was only at 60%. I checked my Spirit bar: 176, just enough for that one spell. Sandra’s eyes were locked firmly on me, but behind her I could see the white sparkling light of my blessing cleansing Otto of her poison. Get up, get up! I pleaded in my mind as my eyes darted between him and Sandra.
“I’m going to make this quick since we don’t have a lot of time before the poison wears off,” she sneered.
Otto quietly gained his feet, vengeance burning in his gaze as he locked onto Sandra.
“Suck eye ass, itch.” I tried to curse, but my lips were losing feeling along with everything else on my body, which was a bit of a godsend for my throbbing face.
My head slumped sideways at my continued attempts to give Sandra a piece of my mind and Otto a few more seconds. Sandra harrumphed in amusement as she pushed my head back upright, then booped me on the nose.
“So much fight.” She pouted her bottom lip, her tone playful. “Your ignorance has been so easy to exploit, Abby. I told you he was going to die,” she said as she gripped my cheeks tightly with one hand, her voice shifting to something fiery, “and now I get to show you how weak you really are.”
I could not wait to watch her stupid head go flying across the room. My poison debuff was down to 1 minute 36 seconds, and I knew Otto could keep her dancing for that long, and I still had one of each potion left. He could cut my binds, and with us both, she wouldn’t stand a chance.
Otto stole forward and reached down for his sword.
Sandra glowered, her eyes narrowed. “You really did a number on my reputation. You’re lucky I don’t use you for target practice before handing you over.”
Scritch.
Sandra’s head swiveled around at the tiny sound Otto’s sword made as he picked it up. He charged, bellowing a war cry to shake the foundations, his arms glowing with blue fire. For a fraction of a second, Sandra hesitated. She blinked, then whipped her daggers from their sheaths and dodged right.
I tried to cast Sorceric Blessing on myself, but got a failure buzz in my ear and a notification that told me I was too paralyzed to cast, and too out of Spirit. That didn’t matter. Otto had the upper hand, the element of surprise, and in another minute I’d be blasting her ass back to Osmark, blackened and crisped.
But Otto kept coming straight at me, his sword aimed at my heart. What? This wasn’t the plan at all! Otto was supposed to go for Sandra, keep her occupied, let my poison timer run down!
My eyes widened and I tried to speak, but nothing came out.
The metal plunged into my chest and I gasped as my Health dropped to 5%—
4%.
3%.
The world was growing fuzzy, but I could see the fear in Otto’s eyes. He knew he was going to die. He knew Sandra was too powerful for us in our sorry state, and his plan was to send me to respawn with the Bindings Book.
2%.
1%.
“Geetee effoh, Abby.” His whisper lingered as my eyes closed and warm blackness enveloped me.
I sat up in the dark and looked at my well-lit hands and legs. There was water below me: thin, just an inch on the ground that seemed to stretch on forever, and to nowhere. There was no horizon, no sky, no source of light, but I could see myself, and I could see the ripples in the water.
I gained my feet, the splish-splash of my soft-soled boots on the water dampened in my ears. I forced my jaw open wide to pop my ears, then said, “Hello?”
My voice echoed over and over. It came back to me even louder than it had left me until it faded and died. I took a step forward, one more, another, and kept stepping forward with my hands out as I sought something, anything. The black was empty.
I dropped my arms and turned, around and around, but every view was the same void. “Where the hell am I?” I whispered, and the word returned to me, a surround sound of just my voice.
“You didn’t think,” Sandra hissed, and I spun, putting my hands out for Inferno Blast, but the spell didn’t activate.
“You didn’t think we’d let you get away with it, did you?” Her questions dripped venom.
“Abby!” Osmark’s voice boomed and everything trembled. The water vibrated, the blackness shook, or maybe that was just my eyes?
“Abby!”
My legs gave out and blood splashed up around me as I collapsed to the floor. The bouncing and reverberating voice of Osmark repeated my name, over and over, turning my gut and bringing the taste of nausea to my mouth. I gritted my teeth, shut my eyes tight, and plugged my ears against the assault.
“Abby!” The voice was inside me, bursting out of me, and there was nothing I could do to escape it.
The blood around me was rising, up past my thighs and all the way to my waist.
I screamed, “Go away!”
Cold hands slapped against my cheeks and forced my eyes open as the blood rose to my chest. Osmark’s intense blue eyes stared into me. I gasped as all sound cut out, the pain of silence almost greater than the barrage of his omnipresent voice.
Osmark pulled my face toward his. I wanted to resist, to punch him in the stomach, to do anything, but my limbs were frozen as if Sandra’s paralyzing poison infected them. He moved his lips to my forehead and planted an icy kiss between my eyebrows as the blood rose to my chin.
“Your betrayal will not be forgotten.”
The hair on Osmark’s head dropped away. His skin stretched over his eyes as his mouth contorted into a long, sharp-toothed maw. The Hundun licked its dog-like chops, leaned back, and opened wide. Just before the jaws descended on my submerged neck, I saw a glimmer of fiery wings, flapping like a bird off in the distance.
I sucked in a breath to scream, but blood filled my lungs instead. I pushed against the monster’s chest, trying to get ou
t of the Osmark-creature’s grasp, but it dug sharp claws into my back, pressing me in closer. A snarl ripped from its curled lips as it dove down at my neck.
“No!” I shrieked as I flew forward in empty darkness.
I pulled in a breath, feeling rough sheets below me as my eyes struggled to adjust to the low light. The Death’s Curse debuff hung in the corner of my vision, along with the quest timer for the Faction Seal. It ticked down to 4 days 9 hours as I watched it. I kept waking up from the death dreams to see that damned timer counting down, like the whole freaking world was taunting me. “Get a move on,” it said.
The pounding in my head throbbed with Osmark’s challenge, the words bouncing around my brain. I covered my face with my hands and lay back against the tiny, lumpy pillow.
Otto!
I jumped from the bed and instantly regretted it as I crumpled to the floor.
“Renzik!” I called to the open dirt tunnel. “Arcona!” I winced as the volume of my voice made my eyes feel like they were going to pop. I crawled closer to the door, sucking in another breath. “Renzik!”
My head dropped to the floor and I breathed in the scent of musky earth. The aches in my muscles and rattling in my head begged me to stay down, just stay down and sleep. Otto was dead, the archive was impenetrable, I’d never find information on the Faction Seal, and Osmark would control the world in just four short days. I had failed.
I beat my fist on the ground and pulled myself another foot closer to the door. “Arcona!”
I heard a distant shout, “This way,” and bared my teeth as I dragged my limp, weak body around the corner of the B5 barracks. I held up a fireball and rolled onto my back, exhausted from the effort. I closed my eyes, but the orange flames still pained me through my thin eyelids.
“There she is!” Another voice replied to the first. The pattering of multiple feet running toward me gave a flash of anxiety, so I opened my eyes and confirmed it was indeed rebels running my way, not Imperials or Hvitalfar. It was a hulking Risi woman, nearly eight feet tall with muscles like a bodybuilder, and a younger Wode girl. They were in sleeping clothes, but the Risi woman carried a thick, one-handed axe.
