The completion of new defenses has spurred the Undead to test them. Defend Hurligville or die trying. Eliminate all Undead or hold them off for 45-Minutes
Reward: Experience, Undead Horde Invasion delayed additional 24-hours if all Undead eliminated (5/??)
And she was surprised again. As far as she knew, her group had only taken out three. So why did it say 5 . . . 6 . . . 11 now. It updated as she was looking at it. She should have expected there would be others killing the monsters. Her friends included.
Not to be outdone by her friends, Micaela focused back on the matter at hand. She needed to focus if she wanted to get the highest kill count. With that, Micaela led the two guards on her path around the village. It was actually really easy to deal with the absurdly low-level monsters. A small shove from her and the undead were right back in the moat where they were quickly dissolved. The Undead crossed in small groups of two or three, the moat serving to cut their HP in half or more if their levels were lower.
Micaela also kept count of how many she put to rest. It was about the only way to make the battle interesting, given her level compared to the rather pathetic level the Undead sported.
Surprisingly, she didn’t run into any other adventurers. No sign of her husband or their friends, not even a random low-level player. Part of her wondered if there was some mechanic at play that spawned the undead to attack her specifically if she was getting too close to another player. She even tried to test that theory, by holding one of the monsters to see if anyone would catch up to her from behind. Unfortunately, Rachel and Davrag didn’t agree and killed the Undead before any real time had passed.
When the forty-five-minute mark expired, Micaela checked her quest one more time.
Quest Alert: Undead Retaliation (Recommended Level 8-15)
The completion of new defenses has spurred the Undead to test them. Defend Hurligville or die trying. Eliminate all Undead or hold them off for 45-Minutes (00:00:00.00)
Reward: Experience, Undead Horde Invasion delayed additional 24-hours if all Undead eliminated (72/73)
The timer was flashing to show that time was up and that they were one short of killing them all. Then there was the number of undead, thinking aloud, Micaela mumbled, “That was less than Sergeant Butters estimated.”
“We should report in. The Sergeant will want an update, ma’am,” Guard Rachel said, putting a stop to Micaela’s mumbling.
“Right, we should go,” Micaela said, trying not to sound disappointed that she missed one. That someone missed one. With her limited time and the frequent stops to shove undead into the moat, Micaela had only traversed about a quarter of the circumference of the village, maybe a little less than that. It did give her a better idea of the size of the village and of all the unused land inside the moated off area. If she ever unlocked the city management option, she would need to do something with it.
The screams and shouts from the main gate were not expected, nor the sight of a guard’s body flying through the air to impact against a building wall.
“What is going on?” Micaela wondered aloud and picking up her pace, running to see what was happening. When she got there, she truly wished she hadn’t seen the cause of the disturbance.
It was a monstrosity. An abomination unlike anything she’d ever seen before. The thing stood fifteen feet tall, all decaying flesh with torn and ripped skin, and rotted muscle underneath. And it was made of bodies. Mostly intact husks that were stitched together with thick black threads. And they each appeared to still be alive . . . undead. Their milky eyes looked every which way. The
Ahead of her were her friends and husband, and with them was Sergeant Butters. The Sergeant was acting as the tank, using a sword and shield to keep the monsters attention while the other battered away at the thing. She saw Olaf shoot it, blasting away one of the many husks arms but the things HP didn’t drop even a little.
The rest of the town guards were doing their best to fight as well. Archers in the tower were firing down on it. Guards with spears were jabbing at the thing, trying to keep some distance from it, though their attacks were just as ineffective.
Micaela saw Rose without armor, casting spells of all things, doing little damage. It was better than no damage at all, not that it appeared the monstrosities health was dropping anyway. The little bird woman, Arch was firing the occasional arrow but mostly appeared to be trying to heal the Sergeant. Not far from her and Rose, Pwn was throwing black balls of fire, burning the husks, but just like she saw with Olaf, it wasn’t doing any damage. The only person she didn’t see was Bye-bye. Could he have already died?
Rather than stand there and continue watching, Micaela ran into the fray, letting Sundance unleash fireballs as she ran.
“Hey, Babe, sorry I’m late,” Micaela said as she ran past her husband, Butch howling as she brought the ax down heavily on the monsters arm, cleaving the head off one of the husks, but just like everyone else, her damage seemed meaningless. A party invite appeared, and she quickly accepted, seeing her entire party pop up in her user interface.
“Not like you missed anything,” Olaf said, firing again. “And it’s not like any of us can actually hurt this thing.”
“I noticed,” Micaela complained, leaping back as one of the arms, as in one of the arms of one of the husks, reached out to grab her. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Don’t have one,” Olaf said. “So far, all we’ve been able to do is keep it from getting further than here.”
“I see, and where is the ‘Cool Stuff Finder’?” Micaela asked with a grunt, hacking and slashing with both axes.
“Missing,” Olaf answered. “He was last seen in the temple near his Goddess’s altar before he vanished in a bright light.”
Hacking at an arm that managed to grab her, Micaela complained, “Well, isn’t that just typical?”
“Tell me about it,” Olaf growled, firing both hand-cannons at once.
Micaela felt her husband’s frustration. She felt the entire groups frustration. She was getting frustrated herself. Not with Bye-bye, but with this monster. Nothing they did seemed to be able to hurt it. And why didn’t it get hurt crossing the moat like the other husks? It was then, Micaela had something of a ‘What would Bye-bye do?’ moment.
“How did this thing get over to this side of the moat?” Micaela asked, moving away from the monster.
“Don’t know,” Olaf answered first.
Thankfully, Sergeant Butters had been listening as well. His answer was more helpful. “It jumped the moat.”
“Mover, Shaker, make the moat behind the monster wider,” Micaela addressed her totems, getting a confused look from Olaf. She then added, “Everyone else, just hold on a few minutes. When I say, we need to push that big blighter into the water.”
Sergeant Butters laughed. “Ha-ha, I can do this all day!”
Micaela looked to the Sergeant, despite his level being so much higher than the monstrosity, the World Tree citizen was not faring well. His HP fluctuated up and down rapidly. A quick look at Arch’s bars in her interface showed the Nephilim’s MP was starting to flag.
“We’ve got this,” Olaf shouted, running in, and swinging his maul into the monstrosity’s gut and driving it back a few feet. Unfortunately, the Sergeant didn’t take it as a chance to recover a little, instead the overzealous combat nut pressed the advantage, driving his shoulder into the monster and pushing it back a few more feet until it was teetering on the edge of the moat.
Micaela could see the moat wasn’t quite big enough yet, but if they could do some damage then it was worth it. She activated her ‘Bull Rush’ and changed into the monster, horns first.
Skill: Bull Rush
Rank: I
Level: 2
Experience: 50.00%
Description: An innate skill to the Minotaur Race. You are able to charge rapidly at a target spearing them with your horns and pushing them back.
Dama
ge: +50-60
Range: 15-Yard
Knockback: 1.20-Yards
Stamina Cost: -100-SP
The hit didn’t do any damage, not that she really expected it to, but it served its purpose. The . . . thing slid back into the moat, though the moat only came up to its waistline. The moat bubbled causing the monster to thrash wildly as it tried to escape, it’s health bar suddenly draining rapidly. Sergeant Butters moved in and smacked the beast in the face with his shield, halting any attempt to escape the grasp of the water. Micaela winced when the Sergeant took a particularly powerful hit and his HP dipped, only to raise back up again.
Micaela smiled. They were going to win. All they needed to do was keep the monster in the moat and it would do the work for them. Then the monster peeled apart. The bodies that were stitched together had the stitches snap. The bodies bloomed apart and in the center of what remained of the quickly dissolving bodies was a person, the nameplate simply read,
“Hmm,” the thing hummed, its voice raspy and soft. “I shall need more flesh. Yours will do.”
Chapter 18 - Micaela
Micaela winced as the black band of energy struck her chest, driving her off her feet and into the dirt. The most recent nightmare debuff taking hold immediately.
Decay – Reduce all stats by 13%
That would be her thirteenth stack of the debuff. Every thirty or so seconds, the Fleshmonger unleashed a wave of black energy that reduced everyone by 1%. And it stacked.
“Keep pushing,” Olaf shouted, climbing back to his feet first, firing one hand-cannon and then the other.
Micaela was less eager to rejoin the fight. “At least his health goes down,” she groused as she got back to her feet. In the six or seven minutes they had been fighting the Fleshmonger, they had managed to whittle down 33% of the things health.
“I’m low on mana . . . again,” Arch warned. The Nephilim’s focus had been entirely on healing Sergeant Butters.
“We’re all low on mana,” Pwn complained. “And I’m out of potions. I really hate this!”
“Suck it up, buttercup!” Rose snapped, unleashing another spell, sapping away a tiny blue mist of energy from the Fleshmonger.
“Don’t call me buttercup, if anything, I’m the Spaniard,” Pwn countered.
“Inconceivable,” Rose retorted with a small laugh.
“Focus!” Olaf bellowed. “Stun him if you’ve got one.”
Micaela didn’t have a stun, but she did have a Mover and a Shaker. “Shaker, interrupt.”
Within the spirit realm, the large gorilla pounded his chest and leapt at the Fleshmonger, striking the ground directly in front of the undead, shaking the ground and interrupting whatever the Fleshmonger was going to cast.
The dark robed humanoid was a brutal spellcaster. Other than the Fleshmonger’s area of effect debuff ‘Decay’, he also had a single target dark energy bolt and some kind of drain spell that he liked to use on Arch, Rose, and Pwn to steal their MP. Hence, all three of them were running low on mana. Rose was trying to counter the effect with her ‘Drain Magic’ spell, restoring some of the lost mana, but between that and using ‘Magic Paralysis’ as often as she could to stop the Fleshmonger from casting spells, it was a net loss.
“Where are the other adventurers?” Olaf complained.
Pwn answered snappishly, “Hiding from the big bad level 35 boss monster from some dark cesspit of a demon realm.” He finally started forming another black orb of fire . . . just one, as that was all his mana would allow.
Pwn had a point. This particular monster was probably a bit too much for them to handle at their current levels. They hadn’t even gotten him past the halfway point, and they were struggling. It wouldn’t be long before one of them died, or worse, Sergeant Butters died.
“Well, that’s just great,” Olaf snapped back.
That was when an unexpected shot rang out followed by the Fleshmonger suddenly being silenced.
A moment later a new voice stated, “Steam Whistle.” This was followed by a geyser of hot air suddenly and forcefully billowing up from directly below the Fleshmonger, a deafening whistling included.
Micaela couldn’t stop the grin that started forming on her face as someone finally marched down the road, coming from the direction of the province portal. It was a Dwarf. Short and stocky, he wore heavy armor and oddly enough, he carried a wooden shield and what looked like a short cane. The Dwarf stalked forward, easily hopping across the moat and landing with a clang of metal. He took a few more steps toward the boss, chanting as he went, “Great God Geb, bless the ground I walk upon. Make it fertile and let it grow with your holy powers. Holy Briar!” As the chant finished, glowing white plants grew up from the ground and entwined around the Fleshmonger, the thorns of the plant stabbing into the undead thing and eliciting a wince of pain from it and giving it an ‘Immobilized’ and ‘Bleed Thorns’ debuff at the same time.
Micaela grinned more brightly as she saw the Dwarf’s nameplate,
There was a sudden burst of steam next to Micaela and from the steam, a familiar young man stepped out,
“Well, your timing couldn’t have been better . . . actually, no, that’s not true. You could have showed up a few hours ago. Still, I’m glad to see you,” Olaf said, grinning. “Are the others around?”
“Jay is up there somewhere,” Icyhot answered, pointing a finger skyward. “I’m sure he’s buffing you all as we speak. Duncan is slinking around here somewhere, stealthy bastard,” he said as more of a complaint. “Dawn is probably about to appear next to the boss . . . that is a boss, right? Never mind, doesn’t matter, she’s probably about to appear next to that undead thing and try to bite its throat out.”
As if Dawn was just waiting for Icyhot’s word, the cat . . . bear . . . thing, the shapeshifter appeared from nowhere and leaped upon the Fleshmonger’s back, her claws gaining purchase as she sank her fangs and . . . tusks into the rotted flesh and began to savage it.
“Um, what in the name of all that is unholy is that?” Pwn asked, bluntly asking what everyone else was thinking.
“She’s a chimera shapeshifter,” Icyhot answered. “She takes on different bits of monsters and beasts to become . . . well, that.”
“And what about Kimmie, where is she? She is coming right?” Micaela asked.
Icyhot winced, “Ah, sorry, no. We kind of parted ways last month. She wanted to play solo . . . though with her pets she’s never really solo . . . anyway, we parted on . . . terms.”
“Terms, he says,” Rock scoffed with a grunt of dissatisfaction, blocking a bolt of black energy from the Fleshmonger as he did, causing his shield to flash white as it seemed to absorb the spell. “Uppity girl complained constantly. Thought she could do a better job on her own with just her dumb beasts than with the rest of us. I say, good riddance to bad rubbish. And after all we did for her as well. All the rare beasts we helped her tame even though it cost us experience and crafting materials.” The Dwarf Paladin spat as he hooked his cane around the neck of the Fleshmonger and pulled hard, bringing his shield up at the same time to meet the Fleshmonger’s face with a wooden thud.
Icyhot shrugged. “I said terms, I wasn’t being specific. I suppose, it is more like good terms for the group that she’s moved on.”
“Alright, you can catch us up later,” Olaf barked. “Right now, focus on the boss. Duncan, if you’re around, help out the Sergeant and give Arch a chance to regain some mana.”
Much like Dawn, Duncan appeared as if called. The sandy skinned Dwarf
was already hard at work, bandaging Sergeant Butters, causing his health to climb rapidly. “Fire in the hole,” Duncan said as he finished, tossing something at the feet of the boss and vanishing. A moment later something exploded in a pillar of fire, engulfing part of the Fleshmonger.
Ignoring what just happened, Icyhot asked, “Arch?” He looked around before spotting the Nephilim. “What happened to Baby?”
“Baby is away training,” Rose answered. “Arch is filling in.”
“Enough chit chat,” Olaf growled.
“Right, right,” Icyhot said, waving away Olaf’s complaints. “Dixie, time to make your grand entrance.”
A young woman appeared from ‘Stealth’ and with a southern twang she said, “Righto, boss!” With a pistol in each hand, she charged forward, firing a small ball of fire with each step.
“And who is that?” Micaela asked.
“That’s Dixie, Duncan’s daughter and our Magical Gunslinger Girl,” Icyhot answered. “Crazy high damage but also super squishy, just like me.”
“I am a Spellslinger,” Dixie snapped. “Stop calling me a Magical Gunslinger Girl or I promise, one of my pistols is going to find a place where the sun don’t shine and pull the trigger . . . a lot.”
While the men all winced, Micaela cooed, “Ooh, I like her.” She then sent a ball of fire flying from Sundance.
“Anyway,” Icyhot said, not so subtly changing the subject. “I also can’t help but notice another of yours is missing.”
“Jack kind of got kidnapped by his Goddess,” Rose answered. “We think.”
“Decay incoming,” Heath warned.
World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive Page 30
