by Edwin McRae
But he did find something he could use in the meantime. It was tucked into a brass sheath that hung on the back of the Altar of Khorlvah. He unhooked the sheath, took hold of the leather-bound handle and drew the blade. Bright steel gleamed, embellished by a splash of rainbow from the stained glass windows above. The edge was a cruel curve, designed for slashing throats, and the pommel sported a tiny version of the winged woman.
Blood of the Lost
+20% to base dagger damage.
30% chance of inducing internal hemorrhaging in an organic enemy.
+30% accuracy when thrown.
Will return to owner if in line of sight.
“We might be lost yet our blood will always find its way home.” - Ishka the Devout
Arix nodded his satisfaction as he slid the dagger back into its sheath and tucked the sheath into his belt. Then he pulled up his character sheet to see how many more experience points he needed to reach Level 6.
Arix the Damned
Class: Executioner - Level 5
Progress to Level 6 = 475/500
“Fucking hell. Seriously?” Twenty-five pissant little points. Two more tomb Tyrants would do the trick but a quick study of the rafters above confirmed that he was alone. He sighed and went back to his sheet.
Body: 14
Modified Body: 15 (+1 from Dusk Leather Armor)
Mind: 15
Spirit: 11
HP: 75
EP: 55
Skills
Axework (Tier 4)
Horse Riding (Tier 2)
Arbalist (Tier 3)
Acrobatics (Tier 2)
Climbing (Tier 3)
Spells
Buzzard Eyes (Tier 2)
Fox Ears (Tier 2)
Hound Scent (Tier 1)
Chopping Block (Tier 1)
Truelight (Tier 1)
Clean Slate (Tier 2)
Justice Prevails (Tier 2)
There’d been no notification of completion for the “Bloody Devotions” quest so he figured there were a few tomb tyrants still lurking about nearby. Just not in this chamber anymore. It was a blessing in disguise that Karina would also be waiting for that quest completion notification. That meant she wouldn’t be so quick to pull the trigger on him, to strangle him to death for simply taking longer than she expected. It bought him some time, if not space. Karina could use the collar to measure the distance from his location to wherever she was sipping wine and soaking up his XP like a fat, well-manicured leech. But she couldn’t use it to spy on his circumstances. That meant he could explore the temple some more, hopefully find something that might help him. He would have to make sure he didn’t wander too far from the reiver camp or inadvertently kill the last tomb tyrant in the area. At most he had until nightfall before Karina would get suspicious and summarily execute him.
Not for the first time, Arix fantasized about clipping the collar around the inquisitor’s thick neck and giving the order that would leave her blue-faced and gasping. She might even beg for mercy as life drained from her eyes. He was the executioner after all, not her.
He cut the clinging thought free and made a beeline for the closest archway. It was tucked in behind the statue of the winged woman and led into a wide tunnel. The walls were lined with effigies of the same winged woman. Each time she posed in some religiously epic scenario. Sometimes she blessed people, other times she punished them, but every time she had been rendered in an alluring style. Desperately sexy and utterly unattainable. Whoever these priests had been, they certainly loved their romantic soft porn. No, he reminded himself. It’s the Reign of Blood artists who love their romantic soft porn. Don’t start losing yourself in the fiction, Arix.
He stepped into the tunnel and froze as something impacted the floor behind him, so hard that it sent vibrations up his legs, all the way to his knees. Arix unclipped and shouldered his crossbow in one smooth motion. His eyes looked for a target, a vulnerable spot, while his brain tried to comprehend what he was looking at. Slavering fang-filled maw. Check. Stinger-tipped tail, poised to impale him. Check. Armored hide. Check. Heavily-muscled limbs that ended in leathery hands and cruel claws. Check. It had all the makings of a tomb tyrant except it was bigger than all ten of those dead tyrants put together. Judging by the cracked flagstones beneath its hands and feet, the creature had dropped from the vaulted apex of the shadowclad ceiling above.
He wasn’t sure how he’d missed her, especially with his Buzzard Eyes ability. “I love a good game of hide and seek, darling, but you’re s’posed to count to twenny before coming after me. Thems the rules.”
The creature scowled at him then glanced at her dead minions. When her gaze returned to Arix, he could swear he felt the waves of heat emanating from those red-rimmed eyes. The roar that followed buffeted him with a gale of hot, fetid air and thundered through the temple, a storm of pure, feral ferocity. Arix breathed out through his nose, slowly emptying the air from his lungs and the stink from his nostrils as he took a bead on the monster’s left eye.
“Sorry about the kids, mum, but you shoulda taught them better manners.”
He pulled the triggers on his crossbow. Click, click, went the mechanism. The twin bolts streaked through the air and struck flesh with a pair of dull, wet thuds. The monster snarled as she lowered her claws from her face and plucked the bolts from the back of her hand with the delicacy of a nail technician picking dead skin from a cuticle.
“Fucking brilliant that is.” Arix clipped his crossbow onto his shoulder, turned on his heels and sprinted down the tunnel with all the speed his 15 Body points could muster. Winged women blurred past and Arix knew he was moving far faster than his RL meat could ever manage. Sure, he worked out at the gym three times a week and jogged every other day, but in here, in Reign of Blood, he felt like Usain bloody Bolt. Yet it was all he could do to keep ahead of the monstrosity at his heels. One misstep, one hesitation and it was going to be a one-way trip into a new world of gastric acid and shit. Stone shattered behind him as the giant tyrant powered through tight archways and loose rubble like they were bits of sandcastle.
He ran until every breath felt like he was sucking on a car exhaust pipe. Still the monster kept right on his tail. He slid around corner after corner and sprinted down corridors that were all the same size. He would’ve given his left virtual bollock for a single crawlspace or sewer pipe, but the game developers didn’t seem up for the trade. His legs had turned to lead. He was on the verge of stopping in his tracks to embrace a quick death when he rounded one last corner and found salvation from his personal hell.
The warrior was bathed in a blue aura and had a glowing red sword in his hands. Judging by his widely-spaced feet and strong stance, this guy had heard the monster coming and knew a thing or two about sword-fighting. To the warrior’s right stood a red-headed, robed fella and a dark-haired woman. Though she was dressed in garb that reminded him of Karina, she had neither the pallid skin nor the tattoos of a reiver. All three looked at him with alarmed suspicion. Arix couldn’t care less. No, he didn’t know them from Adam but they were human and had ‘adventuring party’ written all over them. To Arix, two out of three was a pretty bloody good result under the circumstances.
“Incoming!” he hollered with the last of his breath as he skidded to a halt, unlimbered his axe and turned to face the marauding monster behind him. He gulped in as much air as he could while the giant monster took stock of the sudden shift in odds.
The red-headed guy didn’t give the creature time to work out any kind of battle plan.
“Quagmire!” he shouted and repeated it twice more in quick succession.
The stones beneath the monster’s bulk melted into a soup of mud and sand. The great beast howled as she sank up to her elbows and knees in the filthy porridge.
Arix and the warrior made eye contact, exchanged a knowing look, and charged. The warrior skidded to a halt at the quagmire’s edge, drawing the creature’s attention with his ember-wreathed sword while Arix ran up
a partially toppled pillar nearby and leaped onto the thing’s armored back.
“Keep it busy,” yelled Arix to the warrior. “I’ll-”
He cut his sentence short as the monster’s stinger descended towards him. Arix rolled inside the stinger’s arc, found his feet and lashed out at the tail with his axe. Metal met scales and the axe blade bounced back with a clang. Such was the shock of vibration that it almost jarred the weapon from his hands.
“Shiiiiiit!” was all he could manage as he windmilled one of his arms like an off-balance surfer about to wipe out. Below, he heard a squelch and a thud as the monster freed one of her hands and swatted the warrior away.
“Sculpt Bone! Mend Flesh!” yelped the dark-haired woman.
Out of the corner of his eye, Arix saw the warrior get up and shake off what should’ve been a rib-cracking blow. He regained his balance and smiled. The woman’s a healer, he thought. Thank fuck for that. Arix looked up to see the long tail rear up, ready to strike again. This time he wasn’t the target. Judging by the angle, the monster was going for a softer target. Carrot-top. Thankfully, the healer saw the danger too.
“Mark! She’s going for Braemar!”
The warrior responded with a shout. “Terrifying Manifestation!”
Beneath him, Arix felt the monster shiver. Her muscles contracted and locked, freezing her in place like a hare caught in headlights. Whatever he’d done, the warrior had bought Arix a moment’s window and he wasn’t about to waste it. With the two-step-leap technique he’d been taught for heading by his grammar school football coach, Arix launched into the air, axe raised above his head. Near the end of his descent he shouted, “Chopping Block!” and brought his axe down upon the vertebrae that linked the creature’s tail to her hindquarters. The resulting crack resounded off the chamber walls as the axe blade severed sinews and snapped bones. The great tail, nerveless and limp, toppled to the floor like a felled tree.
Your Chopping Block ability has increased to Tier 2.
Tier 2 activation cost = 12 EP
Behind him Arix heard the warrior shout, “Get off! We’re going to try something!”
Arix didn’t need to be told twice. When the stinger had fallen, it had jammed between two hefty rocks. As the beast tried to tug it free with its body, Arix used the dead appendage as a makeshift tightrope. With his axe held as a balancer, he ran along the taut tail, reaching the ground just in time to feel a wave of heat burst across his back. Startled, he dove and rolled to put out the fire he imagined was now crawling up his spine. But as he came back up to his feet, Arix was met with a rather impressive sight. Where once there’d been a swamp of sand and soil, now there was a pool of lava that glowed and bubbled.
With three of its limbs caught in the searing gruel, the monster could do nothing but howl in agony as flames spread up her flanks. She tried to haul herself out of the cauldron with her one weakened arm, but the warrior cut off that escape route at the elbow with a swing of his sword. Arix saw that the blade’s fierce radiance perfectly matched that of the lava pool. Somehow, the warrior had used that sword of his to turn Carrot-top’s quagmire into a molten death pit. The monster gave a final, shuddering sigh and collapsed in a steaming heap.
You have slain the Crypt Queen.
XP reward per party member = 100 XP
Please note that your party now consists of five members.
You have completed the Bloody Devotions quest.
XP reward per party member = 30 XP
Un-fucking-believable, Arix cursed inwardly. Karina the Cow just got served a whole bucket-load of free XP for putting this torturous piece of shit around my neck. ‘Justice Prevails’ my ass. That’s just not fair.
Congratulations!
You have reached Level 6 as an Executioner.
Progress to next level = 605/1000
You have been awarded 2 Attribute Points.
You may choose one skill to instantly upgrade by one tier.
The notification made him feel momentarily better until he realized what was about to happen. He rushed over to the three adventurers, the words already tumbling out of his ash-dry mouth.
“Outside there’s a reiver bitch what’s going to choke me to death in about ten seconds! I’m going to resurrect in chains and she’ll spend the evening sipping wine and torturing my ass.” He tapped the collar. “I need solutions, people. Now!”
The warrior nodded and looked to the carrot-top. “Braemar? Does your Sculpt Earth skill extend to forged metal?”
The man’s beard was long enough to waggle a little as he shook his head.
“Vari? Got enough essence left for a Mend Flesh spell?”
The healer smiled. “Plenty.”
The guy’s hazel eyes meet his. “Sorry, mate. This is going to hurt.”
Arix dropped his two attributes into Body and upgraded his Justice Prevails skill to Tier 3. The first boost would give him a health buffer. The skill upgrade would give him some backup should the healer’s spell not work. Then he put on his best ‘I don’t care’ face, an expression he was rather proud of as he’d worked bloody hard on it. From the pursed lips to the fractionally raised right eyebrow, it was almost perfect, capable of hiding even the deepest hurt or inappropriate enthusiasm.
“Just fucking hurry, yeah?”
The warrior nodded, raised his sword and placed the edge to the collar. Patterns of molten metal shifted and swirled along the blade. Arix felt the heat coming off it. It reminded him of the time he woke up with his face half-cooked by the bar heater he’d passed out next to. The collar soaked in the sword’s heat, becoming as hot as a branding iron, burning into his skin and flesh. This was worse than anything Karina had put him through and he would’ve screamed had his vocal cords not been fused together.
Then it was over. The smoking collar rang in defeated indignation as it hit the ground. Arix heard Vari utter the merciful words, “Mend Flesh”. Blissful coolness swept over his cauterized neck, washing away the pain as it molded his flesh back into its natural shape.
“Cheers,” he wheezed with vocal cords now unfused. “Got any water?”
Braemar passed him a flask and Arix gulped down the lukewarm contents like it was champagne at his one-millionth follower party. In fact, Arix thought it tasted a damn sight better. He passed the empty flask back and then performed a goal kick on the sundered collar. He struck it just right with the toe of his boot so the thing got some decent air before plopping into the pool of lava. He then turned and grinned at his new friends.
“The name’s Arix the Damned, and I am so fucking happy to meet you.”
7
[Karina]
Nothing. No red blip in her mind’s eye indicating Arix’s presence. No measure of distance. No comforting leash tethering her to the demon. Not even a scarlet splash to note his death. Just a wall of black nothing. She opened her eyes and gave the sergeant her ‘Don’t say a fucking thing’ look. The sergeant was smart enough to nod and divert the conversation to practical matters.
“Shall we take the altar back to camp, Madam Inquisitor?”
“Yes, and tell your men to be very careful. Any scratches or dents shall be repaid tenfold upon their naked backs.”
“Understood.” The sergeant turned to the gathered company of soldiers. “You heard the lady! Get the altar onto a trolley and haul it back to camp. Drop it and your ass is grass!”
“Poetically put, sergeant.”
“Thank you, madam.”
Karina knelt beside one of the tyrant carcasses while the soldiers got to work. The sergeant joined her, a scowl of distaste on her scarred face.
“Ugly things, aren’t they, madam.”
“Quite the contrary, Maribella. They are creations of sheer imaginative beauty.”
The sergeant looked surprised at that. “Someone made these things?”
Karina nodded. “Most certainly. Creatures like this haven’t simply evolved like jackrabbits and jackals. A good deal of thought and effort has gone i
nto this design.”
“Where are the creators then?”
“Long gone. Taken by the cataclysm that reduced this magnificent city to rubble.” She drew a brass syringe from her physician’s belt, plunged the needle into the tyrant’s stinger and drew up a tubeful of mustard venom. “My research indicates that they attempted something quite ambitious, something that was meant to be a great leap forward in their civilization.”
Maribella eyed the soldiers who were carefully working up the edges of the altar, placing stones underneath to make a gap for the ropes. “The altar’s part of that something?”
“Yes.” Karina pulled up the quest notification and mentally pushed it at the sergeant. “It’s time you saw this.”
Maribella blinked a couple of times as the words materialized in her vision.
You have received the “Altars of the Breaking Dawn” quest.
Three altars were forged by the civilization that once inhabited these barren lands.
The Altar of Korlvah, Goddess of Hope
The Altar of Agrovesh, Goddess of Fury
The Altar of Solmora, Goddess of Despair
“When three altars are blessed by the Waters of Life, all shall witness the Breaking Dawn.”
- Ishka the Devout
“All shall witness the Breaking Dawn? What does that mean?”
