Soulstone: The Skeleton King: A LitRPG Novel (World of Ruul Book 2)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “You mean, in addition to wiping out an entire wave myself with my quick thinking?” George asked as I stood and moved closer to the gate so I’d be closer to the increased regeneration buff.

  “Yeah, I need you to take the rest of our archers to Dark Heart’s gate and kill the fuck out of whoever is left. Then come to the north gate and help me with the Skeleton King.” I smiled at the rabbit. “Can you do that?”

  “I can, but shouldn’t we go help with the boss?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow at me.

  “I’ve got a plan for that. I’ll buy you guys some time. I have a feeling we’ll need everyone to stop him. Besides, if she dies, I die, remember?” As I spoke, George nodded to me before hopping through the gate and glaring up at the assembled archers, human and goblin alike.

  “Come on you fucks, you want to live forever or do you want to kill some fucking monsters?” George cried as he raced into town. “Oorah!”

  With that, the archers came down off the wall and followed him, leaving just Roy and Nantucket beside me.

  “I’m guessing you want me to take him to get patched up and head there myself, eh?” Roy asked, throwing Nantucket’s arm over his shoulder and pulling the wounded guard to his feet.

  “You read me like a book,” I said, and both guards nodded to me.

  “Good luck,” Nantucket wheezed as the two of them made their way into town, leaving me all alone outside.

  “Yeah, we’ll need it,” I said, turning to face the massive pile of rock and raising my hand to it. Then I used all my regenerated mana for one last Raise Undead spell.

  An inhuman roar exploded from beneath the debris as a bone wyvern tore itself free of the rubble like a zombie clawing free of the grave. Sapphire energy zipped around it as the creature glared at me with hate filled eyes.

  “Bow to your leader,” I said walking toward it, and as I spoke, it dropped down in front of me. “That’s a good Sindragosa.” I climbed on its back. “Now fly me to Joe’s!”

  In only a few moments, I realized that flying through the air while clinging to the back of a massive bone wyvern with my bare hands was scary as fuck. As it whipped by me, the wind threatened to tear me off, making my fingers strain painfully as I struggled to keep my grip while I dug my knees in around a large rib bone and tried to hold on as best I could.

  The sounds of battle echoed through the air as I commanded my bone wyvern to land beside the blacksmith’s shop. I knew both of my friends were still alive, but since I couldn’t see their health bars from this distance, for all I knew they were on death’s door.

  My feet had barely touched down on the cobblestones of the street when Joe burst from the shop holding a blade wrapped in dark cloth.

  “It’s finished,” she said, the words exploding out of her in a burst of sound and fury as she pulled the wrappings off the sword and offered it to me hilt first. “You have the Medallion of Courage, right? If so, you’d better put it on. I’m not sure if it will help, but it sure as hell can’t hurt.”

  “Okay,” I said, grabbing the medallion out of my inventory. I’d never thought to actually wear it before, but as I pulled it free, it began to glow with soft green light that beckoned me to put it on.

  Medallion of Courage

  Material: Gold

  Durability: 10

  Effect: Reduces all stats by 5.

  Set Bonus: When used with Ring of Strife and Broach of the Fallen Warrior, protects the user from the debuff: Infinite Sorrow.

  “Hopefully that lets you hold the sword, but I doubt you’ll be able to use it in battle without the other set pieces. Hell, I’m pretty sure even holding it is a bad idea,” Joe said, staring doubtfully at me as I put the Medallion of Courage around my neck.

  “Why’s that?” I said, taking the weapon from her even though the stat bubble next to the medallion didn’t make me believe it’d work without the other two items. Unfortunately, I was right because as I took the weapon from her, unrelenting agony washed over me.

  System Message: You have been affected by the debuff: Infinite Sorrow. Health and mana have been reduced to one. All damage reduction effects have been removed. All health and mana enhancements have been removed.

  My hand tightened around the hilt like an electric spasm as both my health and mana dropped to one. My HUD flashed with red flame as I stared at the still wrapped weapon in shock. Then, before I could do anything, it began to glow with soft green light and an item box appeared in front of me.

  Sword of Infinite Sorrows

  Damage (Small Monsters): 0

  Damage (Large Monsters): 0

  Range: 1

  Material: Steel

  Durability: 1

  Bonus: Can be used to destroy the Skeleton King if he is below 10% health.

  Effect: Casts the Debuff: Infinite Sorrow on wielder.

  “How the hell am I supposed to use this on the Skeleton King if the sword has one durability?” I snapped, putting the blade into my inventory, and as soon as it disappeared from my hand, the debuff vanished and my health began to regenerate. Interesting, and not just because my health was coming back.

  Now I understood how everything worked. The medallion, broach, and ring gave me a buff that counteracted the curse on the sword. That curse reduced my Health and Mana to one.

  While not ideal, it was possible to use the Sword of Infinite Sorrows without the broach, ring, and medallion, you know, assuming you didn’t mind having one health and mana when you did it.

  “Don’t miss?” Joe offered, raising an eyebrow at me. “Because I’ll tell you right now, while I have the Magestone to fix it again, it’ll take way too much time.” I’m not sure how I looked as she spoke, but it must have been pretty distressed because she reached out and touched me on the shoulder. “I believe in you, adventurer. Now go.” She quirked a smile at me before kissing me on the cheek. “I mean, you tamed a bone wyvern. I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

  “That something better involve my friends making it back in time,” I grumbled, trying to ignore how good her lips had felt on my cheek. That was definitely not a train of thought I could pursue now. No. It was time to get to the north gate and stomp a mudhole in the Skeleton King’s ass.

  46

  As I piloted Sindragosa toward the north gate, my heart sank into my toes, and not just because I didn’t see George or Dark Heart. No. it was because the battlefield was absolutely covered in undead.

  The walls Crash had been using as a defense were covered in so many skeletons it was like watching a plague of ants swarm over the sidewalk, which was probably why Crash and his men had backed up into the street and were hurling everything they had at the monsters in an effort to slow their ascent.

  Unfortunately, I could tell it wouldn’t be long before they were overwhelmed. While they might have been keeping the skeletons from getting past the walls, a trio of abominations were ramming into the gate with reckless abandon, and once that gate fell, the Skeletal Knights beyond would rush forward and that would be that.

  Beyond them, I could see the Skeleton King sitting on a massive throne of flame. So far he hadn’t joined the melee, but as flames licked off his armor and skull like he was a medieval Ghost Rider, I knew that the moment he did, we were fucked.

  “We have to stop those abominations. Blast them!” I said, gesturing toward the walls and urging my bone wyvern to attack even as I spotted three more wyverns closing in on us from the skies.

  My wyvern snorted and dropped into a dive like a hawk, its massive bone body hurtling through the air with so much speed, I nearly lost my grip on its back. Its massive maw opened and a bolt of lightning shot from its gullet. The bolt turned the ground to glass as it slammed into the trio and threw them backward in an explosion of light and sound. Then before they could recover, my bone dragon grabbed one in its massive claws and lifted back into the air like a bird of prey.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, confusion filling me as my wyvern tossed it upward into the air
and swallowing it whole, and as it did, its mana surged back to full. My eyes opened wide in shock as it swung around, cutting through the air like a jet. It could regenerate by consuming other monsters. Sweet!

  “Um… we’ve got company,” I muttered, glancing over my shoulder at the three wyverns chasing us. They were way too close for my liking, and worse, I wasn’t sure how we could stop them, even with Sindragosa’s regenerative ability. Still, at least the abominations had stopped assaulting the gate. I wasn’t sure how long that would actually help, but it had to be worth something.

  “What would you have me do, master?” my undead steed “said.” I use the term loosely because its voice echoed in my head like a struck gong, and honestly, it took me a second to realize it was communicating with me. “My friends will not be easily defeated.”

  “Can you lead them away?” I asked as my wyvern dove toward the walls, unleashing more lightning that turned the undead scaling them into ashes. A cry went up from Crash as he shot me a thumbs up and gestured his men forward. Unfortunately, as they ran to reclaim the walls, my breath caught in my throat. There were way less of them than there had been before the assault began.

  “I will do my best,” Sindragosa replied, spinning in midair and beating her huge wings for half a second before taking off in a rush of wind that blew the recovering abominations onto their asses.

  The three wyverns turned to follow us, smoke beginning to pour from their maws as they readied their attack.

  “Incoming,” I cried as a bolt of emerald energy shot from the left wyvern. My own mount tore sideways, zipping to the side and allowing the sizzling bolt to pass by her head at the last second, unfortunately, the other two chose that moment to release their own streams of glowing death.

  While my dragon managed to avoid one of the blasts, the one from the center caught her in the side, sending her into a topsy turvey fall. As the world whirled by in a wash of undistinguishable color, I gripped her bony back with everything I had. My knuckles tightened with effort as my wyvern struggled to right herself, only before she could, the trio descended on us, talons outstretched.

  “Fuck it,” I muttered as the first closed in on us. As its claws dug into my wyvern’s spine, I pointed my scythe at the underside of its chin. “Star Scream!”

  The bolt of energy burst from my scythe, slamming into its jaw and snapping its head backward, causing it to lose its grip and topple backward into the right wyvern.

  The impact threw them both off kilter, and as they fell from the sky, the left one opened its jaws wide to swallow me whole. Only, I had other plans.

  As its jaws came toward me, I leapt from the back of Sindragosa, causing its attack to close over empty air as I landed on its face.

  “Skull Shatter!” I cried, driving my scythe into the spot right between its eyes. As the blow crashed into the wyvern’s skull in a flare of magenta energy and its eyes went vacant, I realized I had a problem.

  We were falling.

  I had a moment to brace myself for impact before the dragon crashed into the battlefield like a falling meteor, throwing me backward. Thankfully, the creature had absorbed all the impact, otherwise I was sure I’d have died from fall damage, but that was a small consolation as I smashed into the dirt a few feet away.

  The dragon lay there unmoving, its eyes still lost in the stun, but I was too dizzy to take advantage. Worse, skeletal knights were closing in on me. I sucked in a deep breath and pushed myself to my feet. My stun would wear off in a second, and I had to finish the wyvern off before that happened.

  Only there wasn’t time.

  But maybe. Maybe luck would be on my side.

  I raised my hand as the first of the skeletal knights approached. “Turn Undead.”

  Golden light shot from my hand, wrapping around the wyvern and tightening. My heart filled with glee as I watched the dragon’s prone form start to explode, only as it did, the Skeleton King rose from his flaming throne and raised his hand, extending skeletal fingers toward the dragon.

  “No,” he said in the voice of death and destruction. Black fog wrapped around my spell, worming over it and shattering it into so much ethereal shards.

  I cursed, my eyes going red with anger as the first skeletal knight swung at me. Without thinking I backpedaled and used the same move I’d used to disarm so many opponents. My scythe came up in an arc that caught the undead knight under the wrist, rending his hand from his wrist, and as the appendage flew through the air, I whirled my scythe around and drove the butt of it into the side of his skull.

  The knight fell backward off his undead steed, and as it crashed to the ground, I threw myself onto the horse. I grabbed its reins and pulled up hard, causing the horse to kick up onto its back legs as it whirled around, fire spraying from its bony nostrils.

  Its hooves came down on its former rider with a sound like cracking thunder, obliterating the knight, but I hardly cared about that. There was too much going on for me to try to clear out this battlefield. Besides, everyone here was a minion, even the stunned wyvern on the ground.

  No, if I wanted to win this, I had to pull an Ender Wiggen, ignore everyone trying to kill me, and blow away the leader. That meant I had one target, and it wasn’t the dragon. Determination filled me as the Skeleton King grinned, revealing a mouth full of fire and brimstone.

  “KAHN!!!” I cried and charged at him from atop my skeletal steed.

  The Skeleton King met my bruising charge with an outstretched hand, shattering my skeletal mount into so much broken bones and throwing me to the ground. As he took a step toward me, flame rippling off his silvery armor, his lips curled into a bemused smile.

  “You cannot defeat me, necromancer!” He raised one hand toward me and flame jumped between his outstretched fingers. “I am the King of the Undead. Even the mighty liches are powerless before my command.”

  “You are only saying that because you’ve got an army,” I snapped, rolling to the side as the Skeleton King’s fireball tore into the ground beside me. “1v1 newb.”

  The boss’s laughter echoed across the battlefield as the wyvern I’d stunned began to rise. Not that it mattered because I was standing before the Skeleton King. I had to end this, only I couldn’t. Not with a sword that would drop my health to one, assuming I could even drop him to ninety percent health.

  “I can see that you do not possess the Ring of Strife or the Broach of the Fallen Warrior. You will not be able to defeat me,” the Skeleton King said, holding his hand high into the air, and as he did, the monsters surrounding us turned on their heels and surged toward my gate. I shot a wistful look toward them as Sindragosa was blown from the sky and her bits and pieces rained down around us. “But if you wish to die facing me one on one, I shall allow you this one small request, adventurer.”

  “Oh, you’ll pay for fucking up my dragon!” I cried, turning back toward the Skeleton King with rage in my heart. I was pissed about Sindragosa because she was awesome, and now she was dead. Mostly though? Mostly, I was just sick of this stupid Skeleton King.

  I wanted him to die, and since Two’ Manchu and Sabre weren’t back with the ring and broach, I couldn’t wield the sword without getting afflicted by the Curse of Infinite Sorrow and having my health and mana drop to one.

  Unfortunately, I also knew we couldn’t hold this gate for long. In a few minutes, Crash would be overrun, and we’d all die. I couldn’t let that happen. Not when there was a chance, no matter how small, of winning.

  “Come and be consumed by the fires of death.” He snorted, unsheathing his burning blade and holding it out in front of him. Fire rippled from its edges as he pointed it at me. “Or are you scared, little necromancer?”

  I pulled myself to my feet and glared at the creature before me, and as I did, an idea sprang to mind. It was stupid and ridiculous and would probably get me killed, but as I watched the two wyverns still in the air turn their eyes upon the town, I knew I didn’t have a choice. After all, a longshot is still a shot right? />
  “Me? Scared?” I sneered as I unequipped my scythe and grabbed ahold of my two daggers. “I’m too stupid to be scared.”

  More laughter burbled from the boss’s skeletal throat as I rushed forward, sprinting toward him as he swung his sword around. The flames wrapped around its edge were so hot, I knew I was in trouble, but I just needed one shot.

  The impact of his attack shattered my bone shield into splinters and sliced deep into me. Biting pain lit up my senses, rippling up and down my body like I’d been sanded raw and dipped in lemon juice. But even as my health dropped by over half, I was way too salty to let that stop me.

  No. It wouldn’t stop me.

  Not now.

  Not ever.

  I Sidestepped through the blow, and as I did, I drove my twin daggers into the Skeleton King’s back. The blow knocked him forward slightly, but I think that was partially from the momentum of his own swing, and as he stumbled, I hit him again, slamming my left dagger into him. Once. Twice. Three times, and as I raised my dagger to attack again. The boss recovered.

  He started to turn, but before he could, I risked it all for one last attack.

  As his sword came around at my head, I drove my dagger into his chest, and it shattered on his breastplate in a flare of color and sound. The shockwave threw me backward on my ass as the sword slipped from the Skeleton King’s hand, and he crashed to the ground dazed and confused.

  System Message: Your Dagger of Chance has exploded. Target: Skeleton King afflicted. Target’s health reduced by ninety-five percent.

  A cry of joy ripped from me. I’d half expected the dagger to not work on the boss, but it had, and now I had my chance to defeat him. Sure, I didn’t have the buff, but if I was quick enough, maybe I could kill him without getting hit.