World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  Black Frostbite (2) – Magic Effect – Your flesh has died in the deep cold. You lose -200-HP per second for 10-Seconds. Movement and attack speed reduced by 20%.

  Okay, that was bad. In 10-seconds I would lose more than a third of my total HP. That was in addition to the damage I took from her weak melee swings. Melee swings that were significantly harder to dodge with the speed reduction. The Witch wasn’t going to one-shot me, but the damage would add up. And I was sure I wasn’t the only one hit by those ice needles. It would undoubtedly stretch Arch’s healing even further. Especially if someone took more than two stacks of the debuff.

  I shifted back and barely dogged a swipe from the Witch’s bony fingers. I leaped the short distance back in, striking with my spear once again, this time hitting a highlighted weak spot near one of her protruding ribs, -2,323-HP. She suddenly froze, and a look of anguish crossed her face unexpectedly. More importantly, the attack also seemed to momentarily stun her as she sunk towards the ground.

  And that one hit gave me the key to defeating her. I stayed patient. I attacked just enough to keep her attention, using ‘Order: Taunt’ whenever necessary, not that I was sure it was working at all. When she started forming another ice shard, I looked for a weak spot. I quickly scanned the undead body when her knee of all places lit up. I struck hard with ‘Divine Lance’. This time, she shrieked in pain as the ice shard exploded. I was only worried for a moment about the damage I would suffer when all the needles went flying back in her face, inflicting even more damage. Suddenly, her HP bar was below half, and I knew the fight was ours.

  “When she starts forming that ice shard, you’ve got to hit her in a weak spot,” I told the others.

  Olaf cheered, “Now we’re talking. You heard him lads and lasses. Let’s put this Witch down.”

  “Olaf,” Micaela snapped. “Don’t call her that. She used to be our friend.”

  “Right, sorry,” Olaf said contritely. “Let’s put our friend to rest then.”

  Pwn groaned in annoyance. “Honestly, you are all way too touchy feely about this whole thing. They are just NPC’s.”

  We all ignored Pwn, choosing instead to focus on the fight. The Witch’s HP dropped to 30%, 25%, 20%, 15%. We kept chopping away at her. I stayed reserved, waiting for her to cast again but it never happened. Her health just kept going down, 10%, 5%, 4%, 3%, 2%. And finally 1%. She was one hit from dead.

  Without any warning or preamble, an angry hate filled shout filled the room, “Mine!”

  The compulsion was instant, we all turned to face the former Mayor. He had turned away from Rose and was rushing through the room, back to the Witch. The Witch who I no longer had any interest in fighting against. I didn’t know why we were fighting her in the first place. Clearly, the Boozer was the bigger threat with his 94% remaining HP bar.

  So I attacked him. Stabbed into his side as he continued to run past me. He picked up the nonthreatening Witch in a bridal carry and moved away from us.

  I was about to give chase when he belched out a thick cloud of black gas to cover his retreat, making him invisible to the eye. So thick was the gas that chasing after him inside it would probably end poorly. Not to mention, the gas was most likely toxic and would leave behind another debuff if we breathed any of it in.

  “As soon as the gas clears, Rose, pick up aggro on Ho- the Boozer,” Olaf said. “All dps focus on getting him dead.”

  It didn’t take long for the cloud to dissipate and when it did, the Boozer was fervently kissing the Witch. It confused me for a moment until I saw the Boozer’s HP dropping steadily and the Witch’s HP increasing. When they were both near the 50% mark, the kiss broke. That was also about the time the cloud completely dissipated.

  “Rotting undead blighters,” Olaf complained loudly. “The Boozer taunted us. Belay my previous order. Focus damage on the Witch. Rose, get the Boozer out of the way.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Rose said flippantly, stalking forward to take her opponent’s attention back.

  The Boozer grinned, his mouth full of yellowed rotting teeth. “You,” he started to rasp only to pause and hiccup drunkenly. “You all fight me,” he said with another hiccup. The Boozer swayed for a second then sucked in a deep breath as if he were going to spew out that gas again. Except no gas was forthcoming.

  “Belay my belay, kill the Boozer,” Olaf ordered.

  As far as I was concerned, that was sound logic. A part of me knew that it was a taunt that was forcing us to fight the Boozer, but I also couldn’t resist the order.

  “You fight me,” Rose taunted, charging across the room, and slamming her shield-wall into the undead drunkard only to surprisingly bounce off, causing the drunk undead to deflate slightly as a mustard yellow gas slowly leaked out of his pores to surround him.

  “That doesn’t look good,” Heath commented. The Bard was standing back from the fight, playing his guitar once again, his fingers plucked quickly in a song that I had heard from him before. I grinned as the ‘Haste’ buff took effect.

  Two black fireballs suddenly flew toward the drunkard followed by Pwn shouting, “Die in a fire!”

  “At least he’s consistent,” Micaela said, casually sending her own fireball from Sundance.

  When Pwn’s fireballs hit the gas, there was no explosion or ignition. In fact, the gas seemed to absorb the magic or rather the fireballs ate through the gas but did no apparent damage to the Boozer. It was only when Micaela’s fireball hit that the Boozer suffered any damage.

  “Let’s try this again,” Rose said, charging once more only to get the same effect.

  “Arch, heal me, I’m going to try something,” I said, leaping to attack the Boozer. I struck with a normal attack, my spear cut through the gas and hit Homer. As I feared, the Boozer expelled even more gas. The gas oozed along my spear toward my hands. I tried to shake it off, but it was no use. It just continued steadily along, first covering one hand then the other. I jumped away from the Boozer, but the gas followed, leaving the undead unharmed.

  “Bye-bye, what is that?” Olaf asked.

  “Don’t know, yet. But I figured out the mechanic,” I said, hoping to share before the gas completely enveloped me. “Use magic to remove the gas, then you can hit him with physical damage. Watch for something similar with magic if you overuse it.”

  “Great,” Olaf said. “But what about you, you crazy idiot?”

  “Mic, once the gas covers me from head to toe, hit me with a fire-” I was cut off by the gas finally covering my mouth.

  Micaela nodded in understanding. “I got it Bye-bye.”

  I was able to watch my friends for another 30-seconds as they started attacking the Boozer again in earnest. Rose would smack him with her shields, then Pwn would burn him with black fireballs. Olaf would shoot him from range and Heath would hit him with that sonic spell of his. Then the Gas covered my eyes, and the world went dark.

  It was strange to have all my senses cutoff. No sight, no sound, and thankfully no smell or taste either. It would have been torture if the gas were . . . flavored. Then there was a flash of red and orange as the gas was suddenly burned away along with half of my HP.

  Of course, in all this, I had forgotten about the Witch. That was, right up until I was stabbed by four black needles and was suddenly losing -800-HP every second for ten seconds.

  I looked to Arch who now appeared to be slightly worried as she rapidly cast spells. “Heal everyone else, I can heal myself,” I said, getting an apologetic look from Arch before she did exactly that.

  As soon as my HP was below 1,000 hit points, I cast ‘Embrace of the Goddess’, restoring my HP to full and nearly emptying my remaining MP at the same time. I quickly pulled out a Mana Potion and drank it, getting a quick burst of +750-MP. Not enough to cast ‘Embrace of the Goddess’ again, but it was enough to cash ‘Holy Heal’ a few times.

  Spell: Holy Heal

  Rank: Beginner

  Level: 24

  Experience: 18.47%

  Descr
iption: Suffuse a target with Holy energy, healing their wounds and restoring their life.

  Spell Healing: +533-670-HP

  Spell Cast Speed: 2-seconds

  Range: 25-yards

  Spell Effect (Active): Heal a single target.

  Mana Cost: -248-MP

  Those three casts saved my life, if just barely. By the time the debuff ended, I was down to 1,223/5,750 HP. And while I saved myself, it appeared Arch couldn’t save everyone else. Heath and Olaf were both down.

  “I’m sorry,” Arch mumbled, struggling to cast another healing spell. Her MP bar in the UI was nearly empty.

  Thankfully, the Boozer was almost dead as well.

  “Jack, get in here and attack,” Rose ordered. She was carrying the load on her own from the melee damage side while Micaela and Pwn both cast their spells, causing damage each time they stripped away the gas with their magic.

  Not needing to be told twice, I jumped in and attacked. I didn’t have enough MP left to do more than a standard attack, but it was enough.

  Seeing the Boozer’s HP trickle steadily down was a relief. Especially when I took a second to check Arch’s MP, which was basically empty. It would fill just a little only to immediately empty again.

  “Finish him,” Rose yelled as the Boozer’s HP dropped to 1%.

  I moved to strike the finishing blow when the Witch cried out, “No!” A wave a panic and fear filled me, as it did with all the others. We ran from the Boozer, unable to stop ourselves as the ‘Terror’ debuff ran its course. When the effect ended, the Boozer and Witch were embracing each other again. This time, it was the Witch giving health back to the Boozer until they both settled in at about 23% of their Health remaining.

  “I hate this fight,” Pwn groused, taking a swig of a mana potion, reminding me to do the same.

  Rose ignored the comment. With a growl of frustration, she attacked.

  “We need to kill them at the same time,” Arch said, looking utterly exhausted as she began to heal Rose again.

  I nodded my agreement. It sounded right. “Okay, Pwn, you focus on the Boozer. I’ll get the Witch,” I said. Thankfully, the compulsion to attack the Boozer instead of the Witch had vanished.

  “That’s fine,” Pwn said, already forming a black ball of fire. With a sneer and grunt of effort, he hurled the fireball across the room and said, “I just hope you can keep up.”

  I smirked. I had regained quite a bit of mana since I cast my healing spells. “Just watch,” I said, leaping in again. With the Witch and Boozer so close together, I was ready to unleash a little hurt on them both. I landed next to Rose and struck the Witch, stabbing into her chest and shifting back immediately. I struck again, this time I used my ‘Arctic Lance’ ability, stabbing into the air but not actually hitting the Witch. A wave of fine ice crystals emerged. They quickly turned into a storm of ice as they overwhelmed both the Boozer and the Witch, dealing -832-HP to the Witch, and wiping away the gas from the Boozer and dealing another -432-HP to him. The subskill did exactly what I wanted it to. They both gained the ‘Chilled’ debuff, reducing their movement and attack speed.

  I attacked the Witch again with a single strike, increasing her vulnerability to magic damage. I shifted to the right. A movement that put the Witch and Boozer in line. I attacked once again. Using the last dregs of my MP, I unleashed ‘Storm Lance’. The lightning shot through the Witch and continued to the Boozer and beyond.

  The Witch screamed in frustration and rage. She started to form a crystal over her head. Though this one was larger and growing much faster than previous. With a sinister cackle, she said, “If we die . . . you all die!”

  I urgently scanned her body for a weak spot but found nothing. I was about to panic I heard a sharp ‘thwock’, and the Witch froze. I was confused until I saw a single arrow lodged in the Witch’s forehead. The Witch shuddered slightly and then the crystal exploded in a rain of black needles, all directed back at her. The Witch was shredded by her own spell. I watched as her HP quickly bottomed and she died. I continued watching as the black needles continued to rain down even after she died. When the needle shower started expanding from where she died, I started running.

  “Everyone, get back,” I shouted as I ran.

  Rose quickly joined me. Pwn and Arch were already at a distance but even they started to run for the exit.

  I chanced a look over my shoulder and saw the Boozer purposely walking through the shower of needles, his HP showing zero remaining. And yet he persisted, walking dedicatedly toward the Witch. A second later we were out the door and hopefully safe from the damage.

  “That . . . was . . . awesome,” Arch panted, trying to catch her breath.

  “Welcome to the Order of Epic Grinders,” Micaela quipped with a bright smile as she sat down next to the little Nephilim.

  Chapter 21

  “Oi!” a familiar voice bellowed down the street alongside heavy footsteps. “Oi!” Olaf’s voice carried down the street again. The large Minotaur was waving one of his meaty fists as he ran with the much smaller human, Heath, running just behind him.

  “Oi, where have you two been?” Micaela demanded as the pair caught up with us. “I know it doesn’t take that long to run from the graveyard back into town.”

  Heath answered, “It does when you need to run to the main gate, then convince them to let you back into town, even though they had no record of you leaving town.”

  “We were forced to wait on the Guards to fetch Sergeant Butters,” Olaf added for clarification.

  Micaela crossed her arms and eyed the pair seriously. Well, as seriously as Micaela could. Cracking a grin she said, “Oh well, I suppose it couldn’t be helped.”

  “Did you retreat?” Olaf asked.

  “Sort of,” Micaela answered. “When the Witch died, she kind of self-destructed.”

  Olaf looked over Micaela’s shoulder at the still intact town hall then back to his wife and said, “I see.”

  Micaela huffed and narrowed her eyes. “Just come inside and see for yourself,” she insisted, leading the way back in.

  Rose pulled on my arm, stopping me from following to let the others go in first. She asked, “Are you really okay?”

  I sighed, pausing to think about how I wanted to answer. Eventually, I said, “I’m coping. How are you doing with everything? This doesn’t just affect me.”

  Rose frowned. “About the same. I really want this to be over soon,” she said. “So, let’s hurry up and save Hurligville.”

  I could only nod in agreement. The sooner Epic was defeated, the sooner he would start turning people back to normal.

  With that, Rose just about dragged me inside. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a field of black needles covering everything inside. In fact, aside from the broken office door, the interior of the building looked mostly intact. The only change was a new statue in the center of the room. Made of black stone or perhaps ice, the statue was undefined and rough, but it was clearly that of two people embracing. Or that was my impression of the lump of rock.

  Micaela’s sniffled rather loudly. “Homer and Margie found each other after all,” she sobbed.

  “Yeah, but what about loot?” Pwn asked, getting several dirty looks from most of us, though he ignored it. Instead, he was looking around for something . . . anything that would have made that fight worth all the effort. While his timing was terrible, he did have a point.

  Eventually Pwn entered the office and shouted back, “Found it!”

  Olaf sighed then said, “We better go see what he found, or he might just take it all for himself.”

  Micaela sniffled one more time and nodded, “Let’s go.”

  The first thing I saw upon entering the office was Heath working his lockpicking tools to open a small black chest that sat on Homer’s desk. It was the same chest I saw when he rewarded me after I completed my first wolf hunt for him.

  “It’s not much of a treasure chest,” Arch commented.

  Heath cursed as another lockp
icking tool snapped and his attempt failed.

  “Because it’s not,” I said. “It’s a reward box. Something the Mayor used to reward players when they completed quests.”

  Heath looked up at me then back at the box and cursed again.

  “Then where is our reward?” Pwn demanded with a huff of irritation. “There is no way we could fight such a difficult boss fight without some kind of reward,” he insisted, stalking back out of the office to look around one more time.

  “I’ll keep an eye on him,” Olaf said, following after Pwn.

  “Pwn has a point though,” Micaela said. “Everyone, look around, see if you can find anything.”

  Ten minutes of searching turned up nothing but an even angrier Pwn.

  “Calm down,” Micaela tried and failed with the Void Mage.

  “Calm down?” Pwn snapped loudly. “You want me to calm down? Fine, I’ll calm down,” he said, forming a black fireball in one hand. “Right after I destroy that damned statue.”

  “No, no, no,” Micaela tried to stop him, but it was too late. The fireball was already set free as Micaela looked on in horror.

  The fireball zipped across the short distance and hit the statue only to seemingly splash harmlessly against it.

  Micaela sagged in relief at seeing no damage, then she glared harshly at the even angrier Pwn.

  Not to be deterred, Pwn rushed the statue brandishing a seldom seen staff.

  Olaf quickly imposed himself between Pwn and the statue, “Alright, that’s quite enough of that.”

  Pwn skidded to a stop and put away his weapon with a sneer. “I’ll be outside,” he said, turning to stalk toward the door.

  Micaela walked over to the statue and lightly patted the rough stone. “It’s alright, we’ll keep you safe,” she said. Then the worst possible thing happened. A spiderweb of cracks started spreading from where Micaela touched. “Oh, no,” she gasped, quickly backing away. Not sure what else to do, she asked, “Arch, can you heal it?”