“On it!” George cried, unleashing a blast of concentrated cold that shattered the zombie. Only as its bits rained down to the ground, three more undead stepped through the blaze, and as the fire ate at their bodies, only one exploded into Technicolor shards. Oh, this was going to be bad.
“Drop the spell and run!” I cried, sprinting for the door. Two’ Manchu was already on the other side, while Dark Heart stood next to it, ready to step in and block it as soon as we passed.
“All right! Cover me!” Crash yelled, dropping the spell and making a run for it while I scooped up George and tore ass toward the door.
I reached the threshold at the same time Crash did, and as we burst through it and into the room beyond, Dark Heart took her place just outside the doorway so she could use it as a choke point. She’d switched back to her warhammer and shield, and as the first zombie tried to pass through the doorway, she used her Shield Slam skill to knock it backward into its friends.
For a split second, I actually thought this was going to work.
You know, until more zombies came running at us from the right passageway.
11
“Someone has to block that other door!” Dark Heart screamed as she shield slammed another zombie, throwing it back into the horde desperately trying to get through the door and maul us. “I can’t do both!”
“Come on, Kahn!” Two’ Manchu said as we eyed the zombies rushing out of the other door. So far only three had made it through, but that was only because the door was a natural choke point, and if there were even half as many in that hallway as in the one Dark Heart was defending, we had to stop them from pouring in here.
“Okay! You get the door, George and I will take on these three,” I cried, dropping George to the ground and readying to charge the closest zombie. It would be a gamble to use Charge with my daggers, especially since it required health to use, and I was low on health. Then again, I had no mana, either, so Blade Rush was definitely out.
“Roger!” Two’ Manchu said, sprinting forward as Crash raised one hand and cast Firewall on the far doorway, causing a wall of crackling, super-heated flame to burst from the ground. I knew it wouldn’t hold back the undead for long since they didn’t seem to fear fire, but it was better than nothing.
“Charge!” I cried, initiating the skill and draining my life in the process. Crimson energy whipped around me as I darted forward, dagger and short sword raised. My blades punched into the closest zombie in a shower of sparks, moments before I was flung backward across the room. My head smashed into the wall, eliciting another drop of health and putting me near the point where I’d fall unconscious. Fuck.
System Message: You have encountered a non-damageable creature. Any attempts to damage the creature will result in you receiving all damage dealt. You will maintain agro until you transfer it to another player.
My eyes widened in shock as I stared at the message. Not only could I not hurt them, but doing so would hurt me? That was lame, especially since I had no way of transferring agro to someone else. That meant they could smash me into pieces and I couldn’t even hurt them back. Fuck. Double fuck.
“What the hell?” Two’ Manchu said as he was thrown across the room. “Did you see that message? How can we not hurt them?”
“I can’t seem to hurt them with Firewall either,” Crash called as the zombies passed through his spell like it wasn’t even there. “I’m not sure what to do.”
“Heal me, then!” Dark Heart cried as a zombie crashed into her shield, knocking her back an inch. Only as it did, her warhammer lashed out, crushing its skull into ectoplasm. The zombie shattered into iridescent shards. “I’m taking a lot of damage here.”
“On it,” Crash said, turning toward her and reaching out with one hand. “Heal!”
The rest of his mana vanished as the warm, glowing light of his Heal spell enveloped Dark Heart and caused her health to lurch upward to the sixty percent mark.
I, on the other hand, was screwed. The zombie I’d attacked was lumbering toward me, hands outstretched, and thanks to the mechanics of this particular group of zombies, not only could I not hurt it, doing so would injure me. The only upside was that these ones were a lot slower than the ones from the other hallway, so maybe I could outrun it.
“I can’t hurt ‘em either, boss,” George the bunny called, turning his eyes on Two’ Manchu as the zombies ignored him and came right for me which seemed all sorts of unfair. “I think there’s gotta be some way to defeat them, though. We can’t damage them directly, but maybe there’s a trap we can lead them into or something?”
“Great idea. Do you see any traps?” I asked while scrambling to my feet as I rolled perception to look.
Two’ Manchu lumbered back toward the doorway, the picture of stalwart determination, and as he did, the green light of my roll caused something to catch my eye. The altar. Was it just me, or had it glowed when the green wave of my perception check passed over it?
“I don’t see anything obvious. Maybe my perception check failed?” Crash said, kneeling down on the ground and initiating his Priest’s Meditate skill to regenerate his mana. “But give me a second, and I’ll get us all back to full health.”
“What about the altar?” I asked, veering course so the zombies lumbering toward me would follow. As soon as they turned to chase me, I leapt onto the altar. Only, as soon as I stepped onto it, the zombies in the room all froze in mid-movement.
“What the Hell?” Two’ Manchu said, turning to look at me as the zombies who had been coming through the doorway next to him froze in mid-step. “None of them are moving anymore.”
“Do you guys see that?” I asked, pointing to the floor in front of us. Several of the tiles had lit up with various colors. There were seven in total ranging in color from red to violet, sort of like the rainbow.
“Yeah,” Two’ Manchu replied, moving toward the tile closest to him. The indigo one. “Weird.”
“What do you think we do?” I asked him as Dark Heart’s warhammer dropped another of the aggressive zombies. A quick glance at her health bar told me we had to hurry. She was already down to forty-five percent. Still, if she killed a couple more, I might level up, and then I could take her place in the doorway. You know, assuming that didn’t cause the zombies to move again.
“Not sure,” Two’ Manchu said, licking one finger and touching the tile even though that seemed like a good way to blow yourself up. When nothing happened, I let loose a breath I hadn’t known I was holding.
“Okay, well, what if we try standing on it?” I asked, and as I said the words, a light bulb went off in my head. “Or, what if we make the zombies step on the tiles?”
“It’s worth a try,” Two’ Manchu said as he got slowly to his feet and eyed the closest zombie. “How do you think we move ‘em?”
“Can you carry one?” I offered, and as I said it, Two’ Manchu glared at me so hard, I thought I might explode.
“I guess I can try,” the barbarian grumbled, moving to the closest zombie and grabbing it by the hand. He tugged, but the thing didn’t move. “Fuck. Why couldn’t this be easy?” Then, with those words, Two’ Manchu wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and shook his head. “It’s not real decayed slime, anyway.” He wrapped his arms around the zombie and lifted. The muscles in his legs strained as he hoisted the corpse into the air and began to sort of duck walk toward the violet tile.
“You can do it!” George cried as the barbarian dropped the zombie onto the tile. There was a flash of violet light and the sound of grinding stone filled my ears. As it did, I nearly leapt for joy. Something was happening! Thank God!
“Well, it certainly did something,” Two’ Manchu said, sucking in a heavy breath as he looked down at the muck clinging to his armor. “Let’s try again.”
“Make it quick!” Dark Heart said as she used the last of her mana to shield slam another zombie. “Because I don’t know how much longer we’ve got.”
“I’m goin
g as fast as I can,” the barbarian replied, pushing himself back to his feet and making his way toward the next zombie. Only I was pretty sure he could move faster if he really wanted it. Instead he was too busy trying to fling away the slime on his fingers.
“Heal!” Crash said, sending his newly regenerated mana into Dark Heart and restoring her back to sixty percent once again. Then he turned toward Two’ Manchu. “Let me help.”
“It’s about time you helped!” George snapped as the barbarian nodded. I sort of agreed because Crash wasn’t actually that useful, especially since his encyclopedic knowledge seemed to be wrong just as often as it was right. Together, the two of them began dragging the next zombie toward the yellow tile. Unfortunately, as they placed it, nothing happened.
“What the fuck!?” Two’ Manchu raged, glaring at the yellow tile like it’d insulted his mother.
“Maybe they need to go in order?” Crash said, pointing at the indigo tile a few feet away. “Like the rainbow? You know, violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red?”
“It seems like as good a plan as any,” Two’ Manchu growled, glaring at the zombie on the yellow tile. “Should we take this one or another?”
“Let’s just take this one. I’d hate to drag another one and then have to move this one off.” Crash glanced at me. “What do you think, Kahn?”
“I’d just move it off the tile and leave it there until you get to yellow.” I shrugged. “Want me to come down there and help?”
“I’m worried if you do, they’ll start moving again,” Two’ Manchu said as he dragged the zombie off the yellow tile and left it standing just beside it. “But good call, we’ll leave this one here.”
“Hey, boss, want me to go see if I can help Dark Heart?” George asked as I settled down into a sitting position onto the altar because sitting always increased regeneration in Titan Gate.
“Probably won’t hurt,” I replied as Crash and Two’ Manchu dragged a zombie across the room toward the indigo tile. “Go with bunny god.”
“Dumbass,” George said, shaking his head at me like he couldn’t believe he was stuck with someone as dumb as me. Then he made his way toward Dark Heart and tugged on her leg. “Next time you bash them backward, move and I’ll blast ‘em. You step back in the way when I’m done. Cool?”
“All right,” Dark Heart said, and her voice had a worried edge to it. Part of me expected her to be breathing hard, but then again, she had pretty high integration with the game, so maybe she could ignore feeling tired from moving around since the game mechanics allowed for it. As her mana regenerated enough for her to use Shield Slam again, causing light to encapsulate her shield as she slammed it into the zombies, knocking them back in an explosion of orange sparks.
As soon as she did, she stepped out of the way, and George launched several blasts of ice into the hallway, causing my experience bar to shoot up.
“Level Up!” Elizabeth said as the letters appeared in front of my face in glowing white script and my level increased to eleven. Power surged through me, and even better, my health and mana returned to full.
I practically danced like an idiot while opening my skill window so I could see how much I’d gained in numbers.
Character: Kahn
Alignment: Neutral
Level: 11
Health: 249
Mana: 205
Synchronization: 86%
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Constitution: 20
Wisdom: 20
Intelligence: 20
As I stared at the screen, something occurred to me. Maybe Elizabeth could just tell me how much better I’d gotten from now on? Then I wouldn’t have to look every single time.
“Elizabeth, please indicate how much health and mana I gain when I level up. Including this level,” I said as Crash and Two’ Manchu placed the zombie on the indigo tile, causing it to light up. Guess they were onto something with the whole colors of the rainbow thing.
“As you wish,” Elizabeth said, which struck me as odd because she’d never acknowledged me in that way before. “You have gained twenty-two health and twelve mana. Your total health is now two-hundred-forty-nine, and your total mana is now two-hundred-five.”
“Excellent,” I said, reaching out toward Dark Heart as she smashed another zombie with her warhammer. She was down to about forty-five percent of her two-hundred-forty-three health, which meant I could heal her to full and still have a nice chunk of mana left. Better still, I had more than enough health to use my Body to Soul skill to regenerate mana, and since no one was attacking me, I had nothing but time. “Heal!”
Golden light wrapped around Dark Heart, filling her health back to full, and as she smashed another zombie into twain with her warhammer, she glanced over at me and smiled. “Thanks!”
“No problem,” I replied as Crash and Two’ Manchu dropped zombies on the blue and green tiles. Only three more to go and yellow was still right next to the tile. That was more than enough time to regenerate. A smile crossed my face as I began to use my Body to Soul skill to refill my mana.
By the time I’d finished healing everyone back to full and regaining all my mana, Crash and Two’ Manchu were dragging the red zombie over. It was good too because now even George was out of mana, which was sad because I could tell he was only a couple zombies away from leveling.
As the red zombie fell into place, the entire room shook, and then the zombies on the colored tiles erupted into flames the same color as the tiles. As their bodies turned to ash, stone doors magically appeared in the doorways on either side of the altar, blocking off the remaining zombie horde.
“Well, that worked out,” Dark Heart said, turning toward us as the altar upon which I sat slid sideways, throwing me to the ground and revealing a rickety wooden staircase that led down into the darkness.
12
“Yeah, nothing about a rickety staircase going down beneath an altar is creepy at all,” George said, rolling his eyes as he sniffed at it. I was inclined to agree with the bunny. Going down there seemed like a pretty horrible idea, especially since we’d just gotten owned by zombies.
“There’s no other way to go,” Dark Heart said, resignation filling her voice. “And we’ve all nearly regenerated all our health and mana.” She sighed. “I was hoping we’d be able to kill more zombies while up here, but down there seems just as good, no?”
“Not really,” Crash said, shaking his head. “I need literally one monster to level up.” He stuck his tongue out. “That’s kind of a big deal.”
“Well, either way, we can’t stay here” I said, approaching the stairway that led down into the depths of the dungeon. I definitely didn’t want to go down there, but I knew I had to if I wanted to finish this quest. Still, nothing said I had to go down there in the dark. I held my hand out toward the stairwell. “Light.”
A flare of light exploded from my fingertips and illuminated the entrance leading down. It was narrow and windy, and from the look of things, we couldn’t even go down two at a time and stand next to each other.
“I’ll go first. That way if something jumps us, I can Shield Slam it while you guys retreat,” Dark Heart said, smacking her shield with her warhammer, which elicited a loud clang. Only, as the sound resounded in my ears, a system message appeared in front of me.
System Message: You have received Blessing of Courage. Health has been increased by 10%.
“Woah, when did you learn Blessing of Courage?” Two’ Manchu asked as Dark Heart headed toward the stairs.
“Just now, actually. I honestly had forgotten about the Blessings because no one uses them at high level play.” She waved her hand in front of herself. “But we’re not at high level play and every health point counts, right?” I instantly agreed. While she was right no one used blessings since they were constantly overridden by better buffs, they were crucial at low levels. They’d be especially helpful now because that ten percent could be the difference between victory and d
efeat, and I really didn’t want to get defeated.
“I can’t believe you didn’t think of something like that. I mean, you’re the tank, you need as much health as you can get,” Two’ Manchu replied, shaking his head as a smile creased his lips. “And yeah, you can definitely go first because if more monsters show up, I’m all for you getting beat up.”
“Fair enough,” she replied, nodding at the barbarian as he moved to follow her. “I have more health anyway.”
“You going third?” I asked Crash, who nodded at me and gave me a thankful smile before moving after our friends.
“Thanks,” he said, casting his own light spell before summoning his spectral blades. They blazed in the air in front of him as he watched our party members descend beneath the floor.
“What about me, boss?” George asked, glancing up at me. “You first or me first?”
“I’ll go last,” I replied. “I want to be able to run away the fastest and leave you to defend me in case something happens.”
“Always the hero,” George said, rolling his eyes at me before moving down the stairs one hop at a time.
“Yeah, well, being a hero is a tough job, but someone’s got to do it,” I said entering the stairwell and following them down into the depths of the dungeon.
The first thing I noticed was how goddamned cold it was. My breath came out like fog, and a quick glance at my stasis bar let me know my gear was not doing a very good job of keeping me warm. It was dropping, albeit slowly. If it reached zero, I’d start to lose health, which wasn’t good. Still, that seemed like it’d be a long way off, but at the same time who knew how long we’d be down here?
“Man, it’s pretty cold down here,” Two’ Manchu said, and I could hear his teeth chattering as he spoke. “Say, why isn’t your stasis bar dropping, Dark Heart?”
Soulstone: The Skeleton King: A LitRPG Novel (World of Ruul Book 2) Page 8
