A clear, pure note rang out from the bell, washing through the room like a breath of fresh air. The shields protecting the mobs all winked out of existence. “NO! The bell must be destroyed,” the Necromancer raged as he leapt at Alburet with a club. Alburet tried to duck away, but the dark wood grazed his head, and darkness descended on him.
“I’m blind,” Alburet told the darkness as he backed away, hoping he wouldn’t be attacked.
“It wears off in ten seconds,” Marysue informed him.
The necromancer grabbed the rope, stopping the bell from ringing again and turned to his minions. “Just a moment, my pretties,” he rasped, casting the mitigation bubble on each of them again. Fluff lunged at him, her fur glowing red as she triggered Rage. Her claws blurred as she viciously slashed at the boss.
“Die,” she roared at him.
Karen left off fighting the Golem and joined her, “Kill the Necromancer first.”
Stacia and both Bobs had shifted to target the Necromancer by the time Alburet regained his sight. “Tiny needs some help,” Bob let him know.
Alburet applied Demonic Vitality, Demonic Haze and Demonic Retribution to Tiny before joining the others in attacking the boss. The DPS, led by Fluff, had forced the Necromancer away from the rope with their attacks. Alburet intercepted him from behind, his axe making a satisfying thud as it cut into the Necromancer’s back.
Screaming, the Necromancer began frothing at the mouth, “No, no, no! I will not be denied! I must break the bell, the Master demands it.” A hard pulse of black energy raced out of the necromancer, knocking everyone in the room back to the walls. The Necromancer floated into the air, a ball of black energy gathering beneath him. Tendrils shot out of the sphere, wrapping around the Golems and dragging them back. “Yes, I hear your will, Master! I will kill them all.” He then broke into another round of crazed laughter while the Golems were being fused together below him. He descended to join the two Blighted Golems in the middle of the room. Another pulse of black energy rushed through the room, momentarily blinding everyone. When their eyes cleared, a ten-foot-tall monstrosity stood in the center of the room. The creature had the head and upper torso of the Necromancer while the Golems formed the lower body, flesh fused together so that the composite creature sported four arms sprouting from a bloated, muscle-bound torso. It towered over them, two thick legs supporting its mass. “Mwhahaha! I will kill you all, then I shall break the cursed bell.”
“Tiny, cover the left side,” Gerald called out as they were suddenly free of the wall. Gerald went to engage the right side, calling out more orders as he went. “Alburet and Stacia, to the side with Tiny. Karen and Fluff with me. Marysue and Bob stay back, in case he has area effect abilities.”
Alburet looked at the name of the new boss and winced, “Mutated Apprentice of Death?”
“We already know Mindblown doesn’t come up with the best names,” Gerald grunted as he blocked attacks from the two arms on his side of the boss. His knees bent under the attack, “Fuck, he hits harder.”
Tiny went to one knee under the first attack at him. With a roar, he surged back to his feet. Alburet cast his buffs on Tiny again and dismissed Bob’s Copy, then Copied Tiny, “Tiny Jr., stay back until you’re really hurt then swap to heal up.”
“Good call,” Gerald said as they laid into the boss, who was still laughing manically.
Tiny switched out after a minute, and the Necromancer stopped laughing. He glared down at them with spittle falling from his lips, “You still flail away at me. Do you not see how the Master has blessed me?”
Gerald huffed, “Joy. A monologuing boss. That’s so original.”
“Now you will see the power the Master has bestowed upon me!” A dark cloud started to gather around the Necromancer as he spoke in a harsh, guttural tongue.
Bob went running across the room with his skipping run and grabbed the bell pull hard, using his whole body to tug on it. The bell rang once as Bob dangled from the rope, “That’s a nope!” Bob laughed as he let go of the rope and dropped to the floor.
“Well done, Bob,” Gerald called out as the energy vanished from around the Necromancer, who began raving furiously.
“How dare you, you filthy little Infernal!” The foot of the Necromancer snapped out, kicking Bob. Bob went flying across the room, impacting the wall in a spray of red mist. “Die! Die! Die!”
Alburet blinked as his minion was instantly killed, “What the fuck?”
“Bob!” Tiny roared, redoubling his attacks on the Necromancer.
The Necromancer seemed to revel in the fact that he’d killed someone, even as his health plummeted under the group’s attacks, “Yes, yes! Death, all must embrace Death.”
Tiny and Gerald were the only ones taking damage from the arms, which they were able to partially mitigate with their shields. Alburet’s healing spell was keeping both Tinys alive, but they weren’t holding up quite as well as Gerald was.
They continued whittling away the health of the boss. Alburet frowned as he watched the life of the mob slowly ebb away under the onslaught. It had a ridiculous amount of health. Exactly one minute from last time, the boss started gathering energy again. Tiny Jr., who had just switched out with his original body, slid over and yanked on the bell rope.
“How dare you, you filthy little Infernal!” The foot of the Necromancer snapped out again, kicking Tiny Jr and sending him flying across the room to crash into the wall with a squishing sound. “Die! Die! Die!”
Tiny was thrown back into the far wall where he was also killed. “Okay, interrupting the spell looks like an instant kill.” Gerald called out as he blocked another attack. “Which means a damage race normally.”
Karen slammed her blades into the fleshy mass before her again and again. “Why is it taking us so long then? Our DPS output is really good for our level.”
“Maybe it’s based on the total health of the group that starts the fight?” Fluff speculated.
“If it takes into account the minions, that would explain why it seems so large,” Marysue added from the far corner.
They lapsed back into silence, focusing on the damaging Necromancer, whittling him down. They got him to 10% life just before the third minute came up and the Necromancer started casting again.
Stacia pulled the bell rope, but this time the spell wasn’t interrupted. Gerald tried a stun to no effect, even as the arms continued to pummel at him and Tiny. Tiny was looking rough, since he didn’t have a Copy to switch out with anymore.
“What the hell? Why didn’t it work?” Karen snarled.
The blackness flooded out from the Necromancer, covering the whole room and their life began to drop by 2% every second. “Burn it, use everything you have,” Gerald called out as he realized the end phase for the boss was a straight burn.
They went all out with, using every ability they had available. Fluff Raged, Karen used her Coup de Grace and Alburet swung his axe into the boss again and again. Their health ticked steadily away, in spite of Marysue’s best efforts to heal them. Tiny went down, the addition of the spell’s damage proving too much. The boss shifted his attacks on that side to Alburet.
“Fuck,” Alburet cried out as half his life vanished to the two pummeling fists and the spell.
Gerald cursed, “This isn’t going to end well, damn it.”
Sure enough, Alburet died after another couple of seconds, causing Stacia to vanish. The Necromancer turned on Karen and Fluff with one set of arms.
A few seconds later the group was at the entrance, having failed at 3% of the boss’s life. “Well, that fucking sucks donkey dick,” Karen snarled.
“I think it’s like the Passionate Constrictor,” Marysue put in. “The minions might count towards its life total.”
“Okay. We go again?” Alburet asked as he stood up. “Go into his room without the minions, then summon them after the fight kicks off?”
“Like we did with the Constrictor,” Gerald nodded.
The tactic wo
rked, and the final phase of the boss fight went off without a hitch. When the loot was distributed, Alburet got a ring with 10 Wisdom to replace his older one, which was getting close to breaking. “Good to know the health pool of the boss is based on the total number of people in the room, including minions.”
“That’s twice we’ve run into that and going in without minions has worked for us,” Karen added. “I wonder if they’ll change up that mechanic with the next patch.”
“I don’t see why they would. It penalizes people who don’t think to try it, but rewards those who do,” Gerald shrugged. “Either way, it’s close to lunch. Let’s grab a bite then go see about the Elven Lands.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Turning in the quests for the Blighted Hills got them each another level. They went back to Stormguard for lunch at Giardino’s, then headed over to the Portal Guild. They went to the receptionist’s desk to find out where to find the portal they wanted.
“Excuse me, miss,” Alburet addressed the young woman behind the desk, “we’re looking for the portal to the Elven lands.”
“A full group of you?” she asked, looking at the others with him. When Alburet assured her that they were, she pointed to a set of stairs behind her desk that led downward. “Take that set of stairs.”
They thanked her and descended one floor to find three archways in the room beyond the stairs, one for each other continent, labeled by capital city. Fluff pointed out the right-hand arch, “Brightgrove.”
“Bunker is the Dwarf one?” Karen asked.
Nodding, Fluff pointed to the last one, “Which leaves Wildwood, the Lunari capital.”
“Well, off to Brightgrove we go, then,” Alburet said, ushering them to the right portal. He checked the cost with pursed lips; fifty gold was not cheap. The guild discount brought the price down to twenty-five gold, which was still a decent amount of money.
Alburet looked around with interest after he stepped through the portal. He looked up, and his jaw dropped. “Wow,” he uttered, staring at the soaring trees above him. The trees were massive, each trunk easily a hundred feet across. Their bark was smooth except for the runes etched into them.
Karen grinned like a maniac, “The whole city is up there?” Her eyes tracked the massive platforms built around each tree, along with the bridges that connected the platforms.
“Beautiful,” Marysue said, her eyes wide. “I want a home here.”
“I will see what we can do,” Gerald said as he looked over at her with a fond smile, before turning his gaze upward like the others.
“There are stairs are to the right, and the elevator is to the left,” Fluff told them. “It costs a gold to ride the elevator.”
“Elevator, please,” Alburet said as he pulled his gaze away from the trees above him. “That’s a lot of steps to climb.”
They followed Fluff to the pair of elevators situated at the base of one of the giant trees. “There are three other elevators scattered around the city,” she told them. “If the city is attacked, the elevators are raised, preventing enemies from reaching the buildings. Four guards are stationed at each elevator.”
“What about the stairs?” Gerald asked curiously.
“No idea, but I’m sure they’re heavily defended,” Fluff replied.
“Kind of like the castle in Stormguard has two walls before the Castle proper,” Alburet nodded. “Plus, the outer walls of Stormguard are high and thick as I recall.”
“It’s a living world,” Gerald nodded.
“Greetings, travelers,” the Elven guard called to them. “Is this your first time visiting Brightgrove?”
“Yes, sir,” Alburet replied with a salute. “Alpha Company, based out of Stormguard.”
The elf eyed Alburet for a moment before nodding slowly, “Don’t make any trouble while you’re in town, Two-souled.”
“We endeavor to never make trouble, sir,” Gerald replied.
Looking at Gerald the guard nodded, “Just keep him in line then,” he nodded toward Alburet, “We’ve never heard anything good about Half-blooded Infernals from Stormguard.”
“We would like to take the lift, sir,” Fluffball said softly.
“Yes, ma’am,” the guard nodded to one of the men behind him, who stepped away from the platform surrounded by a waist high railing. “Stay calm. It goes up a bit. Don’t hang out over the railing. We’ve had a number of Two-souled fall to their deaths that way.”
“Thank ya, sir,” Stacia told the guard, who eyed her red-hued skin suspiciously.
The group walked onto the lift, standing fairly close to the center. Once they were on the platform and had paid their coin, one of the guards blew his horn once and the lift began to rise. Alburet followed the four cables at the corners up to where they disappeared into the tree above them.
As they rose, they got a look at the forest that stretched out under them. The trees didn’t have any lower limbs to block the view. “This is so cool,” Karen breathed out, her eyes shining. “I want to grab a chute and go base-jumping.”
“All of the buildings have emergency parachutes in them,” Fluff told her, “I learned that the last time I was here.”
“So that’s why you’re so calm about how awesome this is,” Karen replied, looking at Fluff with a smile.
“I did my best to see as much as possible during the first wave of the Two-souled that came to this world,” Fluff replied.
After a few minutes, the elevator finally came to a stop well above the ground. Another set of guards stood there. One of them opened the small gate for them. “Welcome to Brightgrove. Can I direct you anywhere?”
“We’re mostly sightseeing,” Gerald replied. “Can you tell us where to go for portals out into the wilds?”
“If one of you will show me your map, I’ll mark the Portal Guild for you,” the guard replied. He tapped Gerald’s map once it was presented to him. “Right, there you go. I wish you good hunting.”
“Thank you,” Gerald replied as he led the group down a walkway bordered with a waist-high railing. They followed Gerald out onto one of the bridges that crossed between the platforms. It was a graceful arch, made of the same wood as the trees the supported the city.
Karen frowned as they walked across the bridge, “Wait, this isn’t a bridge. It’s a branch.”
“Yes,” Fluff told her. “The Elven God and Goddess, Hunter and Magica, formed the city for the Elves before they stopped walking the world. The platforms and bridges are made of the living wood of the trees, formed by the hands of the gods themselves.”
“All Stormguard got was a city set towards the western edge of their continent,” Alburet shook his head. “That seems strangely weak to me.”
“Wildwood was created by Bastet,” Fluff added, “and Bunker was crafted by the Dwarven gods, Forge and Hearth. Only Stormguard was not built by a god. Justice and Peace encouraged the human race to build on their own.”
The group winced a little over the names of the gods, wishing the Devs had done better with that. “I wonder why humans got the shaft like that?” Karen mused.
“It might be in the lore somewhere,” Alburet mused. “We can always ask Ioaniss sometime.”
“The first city of the Empire be named after Justice,” Stacia told them. “The second one be in ruins in the Dead Lands. It be named after Peace. In the war, when the retreat from the Dead Lands ended, a mighty storm raged over the lands. So, the city of Stormguard was built to shelter those who had survived the horrors.”
The group was silent for a bit after the brief history lesson. Eventually they reached the platform they had been aiming for. A large wooden building stood before them, with the Portal Guild emblem emblazoned on it.
“Let’s go see where our next adventure lies,” Alburet said, nodding to Gerald to lead the way into the building.
The walls of the building rose smoothly up from the platform, with no visible seams. Smooth bark covered the walls. It was decorated in a warm green and yellow color
scheme. A receptionist sat behind a desk that grew smoothly up from the wooden floor.
She smiled at their awe-struck expressions, tucking an errant strand of blonde hair behind her elven ear. “Welcome to Brightgrove, travelers. Are you seeking a place to hunt?”
“Yes,” Gerald replied, pulling his eyes to the receptionist. “We’re hoping to hit the lowest zone today. We’ll be working our way through the zones after that in the next few days.”
“Ah, you’re the sixth group of Two-souled to come through here with that intent today.” She smiled at Gerald, “It’s good to see the traditions being upheld. That is an old adventurer’s trick to help them power up faster. Do you have a guild account with the Portal Guild?”
Alpha Company (Alpha World Book 3) Page 31
