Labyrinth to Tartarus: A LitRPG Saga (The Eternal Journey Book 3)

by C. J. Carella

  Hawke only had time for a quick glance at the ceiling, though. All his attention turned to the opposite entrance. A corridor led out of it, much wider than the one they had used to get there, and something big was coming through it. Stomping footsteps accompanied the large shape, loud enough to be heard from well over a hundred feet away.

  “Here we go,” Hawke said.

  His first impulse was to rush to the entrance to keep whatever that was bottled in there, but at the speed the thing was moving, he didn’t think he would make it in time. Instead, he advanced a little further and dropped a Consecrated Ground spell. Blaze followed his cue and cast the same spell, increasing the coverage area to sixty feet in width, more than enough to cover the front line with healing magic that would also hurt the Undead. The Drakofox’s spell was only seventh level versus Hawke’s twentieth, but it would help.

  The charging creature got close enough to be identified just as Hawke heard more stomping sounds; two more were approaching the side entrances. They were dealing with at least three big monsters. The one they could see was eight feet tall and nearly as wide, a massive mound of flesh and bone bounding on two stunted legs and a pair of apelike arms. A second set of limbs ended in three clawed fingers. When it had been a demon, it would have been pretty scary, but something had killed it and made it worse. No. Them. The critter was made out of two different kinds of demons, one big and wide, the other like a bipedal scorpion. They had been killed, blended together, and brought back as Undead-Infernal hybrids. A horned head with four eyes and two mouths was perched over the monster’s wide shoulders. It didn’t look like they had been combined the way the Fae liked to mix animals and humanoid species together. It was more as if someone had hammered the two heads together, breaking pieces off until they fit, then stapled the skinnier demon onto the bigger one. It was a demonic version of the Abominations Greg the Necromancer had liked to create. Hawke remembered that Greg’s second Class had been called Homunculist; the magical version of Doctor Frankenstein. The Revenant had apparently learned a few tricks from him.

  Hawke set aside his thoughts as he prepared to confront the monster.

  Flayer Brute (Infernal Revenant)

  Level 14 Lieutenant (Elite)

  Health 2,800 Mana 2,800 Endurance 2,800

  Saturnyx warned him.

  He welcomed the first hybrid with a dual-cast Celestial Hammer of Light (Major Version), paying 75 Mana for the privilege of inflicting 578 points of Light and 502 points of Celestial damage after the monster’s defenses were accounted for. The Flayer roared, triggering a fear effect that washed over Hawke and the rest of the Party. It didn’t paralyze anybody, thanks to their blessings and other protections, but it made everyone hesitate for a couple of seconds, allowing the monster to close the distance.

  The rushing avalanche of Undead flesh was less than twenty feet from Hawke when the other ranged members of the party fired their own volley, piercing, burning, and cutting the monster for another thousand points of damage. A moment later, Hawke used Twilight Step to teleport right behind the giant monster’s back and double-backstab it. The attacks tore off another four hundred Health, just as Girl and his Living Shadow arrived via Dark Step, using the cloud of darkness Hawke had created as a landing zone. Hawke’s pet barely hurt the monster, striking for fifty-two damage, but Girl nearly beheaded it with a savage slash at its neck. The critical hit was more than enough to finish it off. The giant demon collapsed without getting off a single attack. Good Guys 1, Undead Demons 0.

  Saturnyx announced, ruining Hawke’s good mood.

  Four of the giant monsters were going to be a lot tougher to overcome. With only seconds to think, Hawke came up with a plan on the fly.

  “Girl, you and the second team, take the two coming from the left. I’ll handle the ones on the right with the rest of first. Third team, left side as well. Keep second team alive.”

  You’re with me, Blaze, he told the Drakofox. Keep our team healed while we fight.

  he said, sounding very determined. The little bastard had leveled up again, so he would be healing at an effective level of eight. That might be enough, since he was using the Celestial version of the healing spells, which increased their effects by 50%, and despite the fact he was several levels below the normal requirements. Spirit Fox-Dragon mixes could break all sort of rules, apparently. Just like their adopted father.

  “Go!” he said, moving towards the right side entrance.

  He had time to notice that Gosto had summoned a Dire Spirit, a new summon that was shaped like a ghostly bear, followed by a Nature’s Guardian, providing the left side with three different types of ursine warriors. Hawke had also summoned all his pets, even the puny Animated Shadow, just to keep one of the monsters busy for the few seconds it would take to crush it.

  The first Flayer Brute on Hawke’s side came out shooting. Instead of a roar of fear, slivers of flaming bone came pouring out of its lower mouth, as fast as if fired from a machine gun. The monster swung the continuous stream of missiles like a hose, hitting everybody in Hawke’s group except Blaze, who ducked behind him. Even with his shields and resistances, he lost 175 Health. Of his summoned pets, only the Living Shadow survived the onslaught. The slivers were doing massive amounts of Physical and Chaos damage!

  Hawke hit it with both Hammer of Light and Burning Light, dual-casting for extra damage, while Blaze sent out a Celestial Healing Wave that restored 24 Health on everybody left, for what little that was worth. Hawke used one of his own, healing a more respectable 60 Health, and then used his patented Twilight Step and backstab move. His Living Shadow teleported in a moment later and Digger closed the distance and landed a critical hit with his stinger tail while Hawke evaded a couple of powerful swings from the monster’s double set of arms. He met a third blow with a chopping move with his left sword, slicing off one of the clawed hands. He had to hurry. The other monster was going to arrive at any second, and the first one was still up, with almost a thousand Health to go.

  His Hammer of Light cooldown was over; he threw the energy missile right into the Flayer Brute’s face, scoring another critical as Blaze used his individual heals on everybody, remembering to use only Life Magic on the Living Shadow. Hawke heard the stomping footsteps of the second Infernal Undead and headed off to meet him, trusting Digger and his shadow pet to finish off the first one. Blaze continued to cling to his back, firing off more heals as quickly as he could. Hawke had placed the Party Interface on the upper left corner of his field of vision. Even as he turned towards the second monster, he saw that Grognard’s and Olaf’s Health bars were blinking red, and Gosto’s summoned pets were gone. Nothing he could do about that, but as he fired off Burning Light at the next monster, he felt his Health drop by two hundred points – Tava had gotten hit and the damage had jumped to him.

  A moment later, the second Flayer Brute came into sight and began to fire its ranged attack. Hawke flashed his Dazzling Lights at him, hoping to interrupt it. Unaffected, the monster hit him with a long burst of Chaos bone slivers. Hawke ducked off to one side, so he didn’t eat the full burst, but he still felt dozens of flaming bone bullets tear into him for 349 and 358 damage, respectively. Between that and the two hundred transferred damage, his Health plummeted – and his In Extremis spell kicked in, healing him by 400 Health; that and Blaze’s 120-point Lesser Healing saved him from dying outright. The pain of having several organs torn and ruptured would have crippled him back when he was merely human. As a being of the Realms, he only stumbled for a second; the pain faded away completely as his heal-over-time spells did their job, and he was back on his feet just in time to receive the charge of the giant Undead Infernal. The only good news was that the first monster had been destroyed.

  Hawke rolled under a claw slash, took a kick in the ribs tha
t staggered him but didn’t do enough damage to be noticeable, and cut off one of the creature’s legs with a double swing at its lower joint. The monster stumbled in turn – and fell right on top of Hawke. He thrust both swords into its lower torso as it collapsed on him. His superhuman Strength not only kept the literal ton-and-a-half weight from crushing him, but it drove the swords all the way to their hilts into the Flayer Brute’s body, automatically doing critical hits. Hawke added insult to injury by firing off a dual-cast Hammer of Light (Major and Celestial) at the thrashing body above him, even as he tucked his legs in and used them to kick the monster off of him. The twist and sudden effort made his spine creak alarmingly, but his ongoing healing spells kept him from breaking his back. He’d bench-pressed a three-thousand-pound demon and kicked him away. If things hadn’t been so dire, he would have been impressed.

  The zombie demon was still moving and struggling to its feet, but Digger slammed into it like a runaway train, tearing into it with its pincers and stinger. Blaze placed a Consecrated Ground that reached both Hawke and the monster. The ongoing damage finished it off. Pausing only to down a Rejuvenation Potion, Hawke turned toward the fight on the other side of the chamber. It was over as well. The two monsters on that side were toast, but Olaf and Grognard had been killed. They would respawn, and both of them had managed to hit level nine before dying and losing all their experience, but that still sucked.

  There was a rule of the Realms that mitigated some of the unfairness of losing XP after death: if you leveled up but were killed within five minutes of getting there, you kept the level. The Makers apparently gave people a grace period to level up. If they went for more than five minutes without investing their new Attributes, though, they lost the unclaimed level. The Dungeon crawl had earned the two new Eternals four Identity points, but dying had removed all but one of them.

  For Slaying Your Foes, you have earned 2,304 XP (288 diverted towards Leadership; 288 diverted towards Node Mastery).

  You have found: 16 gold, 1 Major Healing Potion, 1 Major Mana Potion, 2 Major Endurance Potions.

  You have found: Lesser Staff of Spell Focus (Level 15 Masterwork Quality item).

  Congratulations! Your Leadership has increased to Level Ten!

  Current XP/Next Level: 34,659/35,000. Leadership XP/Next Level: 25,033/35,000

  Current Node Mastery XP/Next Level: 9,748/12,000. Current Guild XP/Next Level: 1,388/2,500

  Would they have been better off staying together? Hawke thought as he claimed his rewards. The Lesser Staff of Spell Focus was useless to him, but it wasn’t bad at all; besides decent bonuses to Intelligence and Spirit, it provided a -20% discount to Mana costs and a -20% reduction to the time to cast spells and their cooldown period. Gosto’s current weapon was better, so he would offer the staff to Olaf as a consolation price for getting killed. The new potions were pretty good, too, the first Major potions he had found. They would restore twenty percent of your pool’s maximum value immediately and another thirty percent over the next twenty seconds. Very useful, although only level ten or higher Adventurers could drink them and gain their full effect; lower level scrubs would only get the benefits of a regular potion.

  After the admin stuff had been taken care of, he returned to his original question and shook his head. Bunching up would have been a worse choice. With the monsters’ area-effect bone sliver attacks, they would have been able to hose the entire group with four streams. They would have lost a lot more than two party members. He figured there was a good chance the fight would have ended with a party wipeout.

  The first one didn’t use its ranged attack. Why? To trick us, I bet. Make us thing they didn’t have a ranged attack.

 

  Hawke rejoined the group and helped heal the wounded. Everybody in the other two teams had taken a beating when the second monster had arrived and used its ranged attack on the rear lines. Gosto had only escaped by using a Last-Ditch Amulet, a device that created an ablative shield with 1,000 Health around him. It was a nifty trick, but he could only use it once per day. Using it had probably kept Hawke from dying, since any damage the Druid took would have been delivered by magical express mail to him instead. They would have to do better next time.

  “I’m going to meet Grognard and Olaf,” he told Tava. “You’re in charge until I get back.”

  “We will examine the room and the passageways. And keep a sharp lookout,” the Ranger-Slayer said.

  Hawke nodded and headed off towards the antechamber. The respawning Eternals deserved the chance to let the team leader have a piece of their minds.

  Twenty-Eight

  Olaf and Grognard met him halfway. The Priest looked a bit glum, but neither of them seemed to be mad at Hawke.

  “Shit happens,” was the Battle-Mage’s answer when he asked them how they were doing. “I hit the deck when those things started spitting bone bullets at us, but the bastard still got me. Shoulda tried to block it instead. Old habits.”

  “I didn’t even see the second one coming up,” Olaf said. “Tunnel vision. I was only watching Tava’s Dire Bear, healing him. If I’d been paying attention, I could have deployed my Holy Aegis.”

  The spell created a short-lived energy shield that could block a large amount of damage. It only lasted a few seconds and had a long cooldown, so deciding when to use it wasn’t easy.

  “Fighting in real life is chaotic as hell,” the Priest went on. “Hard to see what’s happening all around you.”

  “The Party Interface shows any known enemies and their position on the map,” Hawke reminded him. “But it takes some getting used to, glancing at it every once in a while. And taking your eyes off the fight to check your screens can also get you killed.” He shook his head. “Nothing about this business is easy.”

  “Got to practice more.”

  “Training makes a huge difference,” Grognard agreed.

  “Yeah. The little bit we did wasn’t enough. Grognard, would you be interested in running a training program for all the Adventurers in town? We’ll start with the Guild members, but leave it open to anybody who is interested. Maybe run it two, three times a week. It would be a paid gig, of course.”

  “Gotta figure out what to teach them first,” the ex-soldier said. “But this run is going to give me a better idea of how things work. And I’ll need input from people with different Classes. But sure, I can pretend to be a drill sergeant. Could be fun.”

  “Just don’t go all Full Metal Jacket, okay?”

  Grognard grinned. “That was a Marine drill instructor. I was Army. We’re a lot gentler to the noobs.”

  “Good,” Hawke said as they walked towards the big room. “You guys really doing okay?” he asked them again.

  “It’s my first time getting killed,” Olaf said. “I mean, I know the Necromancer was draining our lives, but this is the first time I remember getting killed.”

  “Same here. First time I died and knew it, I mean,” Grognard replied. “Never thought I’d be saying that on this side of the pearly gates, but there you go.”

  “Yeah, it’s messed up,” Hawke said. “I’ve died five times, and I still haven’t gotten used to it.”

  “I’ve been wondering about all that stuff,” Olaf said. “Why a limited number of lives? Or any extra lives, for that matter? Or why do some of us get them, but the rest of the Realms’ inhabitants don’t?”

  “No idea. If it’s any consolation, I don’t think the so-called gods of the Realms know the answer, either. Or the Arbiters.”

  “You’d know, wouldn’t you? You’ve talked to them. And not just back at the Dungeon’s entrance, either. A bunch of times.”

  “A few times,” Hawke admitted.

  He hadn’t gone into details about all his encounters with the gods and the Arbiters, but hadn’t ke
pt them strictly secret, either. Word had gotten around; as a result, some Eternals were in awe of him, some were outright envious, and a smaller but significant percentage suspected that he was lying, mentally ill, or both. Hawke sometimes found himself agreeing with the third group.

  “The Makers know, of course,” Olaf went on. “Funny thing, you know the word they use in Vulgate for the Makers, right?”

  “Sure,” Hawke said. He often found himself thinking or dreaming in the mutated Latin that his Hawke persona spoke as his native tongue, instead of English. “Demiurgor. Demiurgo singular.”

  “That term was used by a specific cult back in the early Christian Era,” Olaf said. “They called themselves Gnostics and believed the universe hadn’t been created by God, but by an evil being that made a fake version of reality to ensnare our souls. Guess what that evil being was called.”

  Hawke sighed and took the bait. “Demiurgo?”

  “Demiurge, but yeah, close enough.”

  “Okay. What does that mean?”

  “Not sure, but it can’t be a coincidence. There are other Latin words that mean ‘Maker,’ so why that particular term end up as their title? Maybe it’s just an inside joke for them. Or maybe the Realms are an illusion.”

  “Buddhists believe everything we see is an illusion, don’t they?” Grognard asked. “Used to date a chick that followed that stuff. May-Day or whatever, she called it.”

  “Maya,” Olaf corrected him. “It’s more complicated than that, and it’s not all of reality, not like the Gnostics believed things were.”

  “Above my pay grade,” Grognard said.

  “Sure, for now. But if we keep rising up in levels, maybe not forever,” the Priest mused. “Maybe those nutjobs that thought we live in a simulation were right.”