The lich servant ahead of us was not undead but not necessarily alive either. It was covered in dead flesh and wore baggy robes that hid anything that would have told us if it was male or female from sight. We couldn’t even determine what race it was beyond humanoid. It was average height and build . . . I think the build was average anyway, still couldn’t be sure with the thick robes it wore.
Olaf gave everyone a look to see if they had any concerns or questions, but none were forthcoming. With a final nod, he said, “Whenever you’re ready Rose.”
“Charging,” Rose whispered before blurring from view. Her body shot forward, her linked shields leading in front of her. She targeted the lich servant. When she was about a foot from it, a wall of bones shot up from the ground, halting her progress with a loud crunch. Suddenly, the wall shifted, and spikes of bones erupted from the wall, piercing her body in multiple places before she was able to retreat. Unfortunately, the damage was done. Rose’s health had plummeted in that one attack until she had barely 5% left.
“Heal her!” Olaf shouted urgently, shooting both hand-cannons as he ran.
I expected Rose to plow right over the lich servant, not to be repelled and nearly killed in a single move. I leaped in, ‘Embrace of the Goddess’ cast on her as I landed, restoring a lot of her HP and at least buying Arch some time to heal more thoroughly. But no heals were coming.
I looked back toward Arch to see her pinned to the ground by an
“Free Arch!” I shouted, only to see Vision appear from ‘Stealth’ and tackle the lion, effectively freeing Arch.
I would have done it myself but my heal had drawn a lot of aggro from the other undead. I needed to suddenly duck, then flip backward, only to then jump off the air using my ‘Zephyr of the Open Field’ skill as a condor dove on the spot where I would have landed. When I did land, I used ‘Earth Lance’. The earth spikes erupted from the ground all around me, piercing the condor and both wolves that had surrounded me. By sheer luck, I also spiked an undead mountain lion, breaking its ‘Stealth’. I flipped over the group, narrowly avoiding the snapping undead jaws. I landed behind one of the wolves lining up perfectly to use my ‘Arctic Lance’. I unleashed a cone of blistering cold catching all four, slowing them and reducing their attack speed.
“Pwn, AoE,” I shouted, having grouped, and slowed them so perfectly. It was a chance for me to cast my ‘Boar Charge’ as well.
Spell: Boar Charge
Level: 30
Experience: 0.47%
Description: Summon a stampede of spectral boars.
Blessing of the Boar Spirit (Charm Earned): +10-Endurance, +10-Stamina
Spell Damage: -750-950-HP per second
Spell Cast Speed: Channeled
Spell Duration: 5-seconds
Cooldown: 29-minutes
Range: 35-yards
Spell Effect (Active): Spectral boars will charge a targeted area dealing damage and knocking down anyone in the area of effect.
Mana Cost: -800-MP
“Die in a fire,” Pwn shouted as he dropped a black flaming bomb.
It surprised me when my spectral swine also caught fire, not that it stopped them. It just seemed to increase the damage they were dealing, which was a good thing. Seeing my boars squealing in rage as they burned in black flames was . . . disturbing. Very . . . very disturbing. Still it worked, quickly burning, trampling, and goring the undead with each passing second. While it successfully killed the undead, it didn’t leave anything behind for us to turn in to Trinico, just a pile of bones.
“Finish the last lion,” Olaf ordered, aiming toward the sky, and pulling the trigger on his hand-cannons, one then the other.
I didn’t need to be told twice. I leaped across the short distance and stabbed the rotting flesh of the undead mountain lion, scoring a critical hit and nearly finishing it off. That honor went to Micaela’s ax, Sundance. The fiery weapon sent a small ball of fire across the distance and finished it off.
That left the lich servant. It just stood there. It didn’t look angry. It didn’t appear frustrated by the loss of its minions. It just . . . watched as Rose ineffectively shifted closer only to smack the wall of bone with her shields then shift back before the quickly formed spikes could impact her again.
With the wall of bone occupied, I decided to try my luck. I leaped high into the air, just above the treetops. I fell with my spear leading the way. I thought I was going to have a clear shot at the lich servant when a second wall of bone shot up from the ground, forming a dome over the servant’s head. It blocked my attack with ease and just like with Rose, the wall tried to impale me with bone spikes. I was never so glad I could jump off the air. I landed what I thought was a safe distance away and glared at the lich servant, but it didn’t seem to even care.
Rose growled then yelled, “Physical attacks aren’t working, Jack. Try something else.”
I approached again. This time when I was at the end of where I thought the bone shield could reach, I tried my ‘Holy Blast’ spell. Again, the shield sprung up immediately, showing no signs of damage after the spell cast. I tried ‘Storm Lance’, hoping the lightning would flow through the wall and strike the lich servant behind it. The lightning hit then flowed around the sides, completely missing the monster.
“Last one is dead,” Olaf yelled. “Everyone, kill this thing.”
A deluge of spells and skills flew rapidly at the lich servant and just as with my attacks, walls of bone sprung up to block every attack. The only thing that changed was the coughing and hacking intermingled with laughter. It made me think of a sickly old man who’d gone completely insane.
“Yes, attack me, please,” the lich servant said, the skin mask on his face showed a rough smile of darkly yellowed teeth. I swear, his eyes flashed the same sickly yellow if only for a moment. “More . . . give me more,” he said, almost sounding like the damage was giving him pleasure.
I backed away, even as my friends continued to attack. I didn’t understand why the old man was so happy. Wouldn’t we eventually break through his shields? I focused on one of the walls. I tried to figure out what it was . . . tried to see if it had some kind of health bar or durability I could view.
Masochist’s Bone Barrier – This barrier made from the bones of the fallen grows strong when it suffers damage. Current Armor Rating 16,734
And the armor rating was growing with each hit.
“Stop!” I shouted urgently. “Stop attacking, it’s just making them stronger.”
But my friends . . . they didn’t hear me? No, they had a debuff.
Sadistic Pleasure – You have grown to love causing pain. You cannot seem to help yourself. You have found delight in attacking your enemies and cannot be dissuaded.
I cursed angrily. All my party was under his spell. I resisted only thanks to my ‘Mental Armor’ skill.
Skill: Mental Armor
Rank: II
Level: 4
Experience: 71.12%
Description: Protecting the mind from external influences requires you create a Mental Armor to protect your thoughts, building layers over time to increase your defenses.
Skill Effect (Passive): Your mental toughness grants you a 10.40% chance to resist mental effects.
Great for me. Not so great for my party. I really needed to put this into a skill scroll when this was all over. In fact, I needed to make a list of the skills I considered essential and make as many copies of them as I was able and share them with the Order.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Olaf wandering past me, no longer firing. A quick look at his status bars in my UI showed he was nearly empty of SP. I felt more urgency as I put together the problem. He wanted so desperately to damage the lich and his walls that he was going to use his fists. The low SP meant he couldn’t run. It also meant that if he got close, he’d be skewered by the walls he couldn’t get away from.
“If I can’t hurt you,” I mumbled, thinking quickly, and checking the
state of my MP.
MP (Mana Points):
1,942/5,190
It was just enough for what I had in mind.
I moved. I needed to get within arm’s reach of the bone barrier before Olaf did. As it was, Rose’s HP just started dropping rapidly. I jumped, clearing the distance as quickly as I could. When I landed, I didn’t strike with my spear. Instead, I laid a hand on the bone wall and cast ‘Embrace of the Goddess’.
The howl of pain and agony that erupted from the lich servant nearly deafened me. My hand involuntarily went to my ears as my vision blurred for a few seconds, leaving me vulnerable to the wall of bone’s spikes. But none came.
As my wits returned, I leaped back.
“What . . . what was that?” Olaf asked, shaking his head in confusion.
“Mind magic,” I answered, more than a little happy to see the debuff was gone. I was extremely happy when I saw the lich servant twitching on the ground, moaning pitifully. “No, no, I am sorry mistress. Please forgive. Please allow me to suffer. Please, return the pain to me. I beg you,” he pleaded to no one.
Rose snarled and, in her anger, lashed out at the wall in front of her. I was too late to warn her. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to matter. The wall crumbled. The bones turned to dust as they hit the ground, disbursing in a cloud.
I breathed a small sigh of relief.
“Can we just kill him now?” Rose asked, already stomping toward the whimpering old man.
“Please,” Olaf said, leveling his hand-cannon.
“Wait,” I shouted, stopping him in time. “He only weakened when I used a heal on one of the bone barriers. He’s a masochist. His walls got stronger when we damaged them. It might do the same to him.”
“So what? We heal him instead?” Olaf asked.
“I think so,” I answered, reaching into my bag for a canteen with a mana restorative.
Olaf nodded then looking to Arch, he said, “Alright, Arch, you heard him, heal the old freak.”
It was only when I saw Arch cast a heal on the old man directly that I saw his HP bar. It was nearly empty. That one healing spell refilled the red HP bar a little and the old man howled.
“No, no, no more please. No more. Please. I must suffer. I must, I must. You must hurt me. Please cause me pain,” the lich servant pleaded.
“This might just be the most messed up boss monster I’ve ever seen,” Pwn commented. “Maybe more messed up than that Bushy Bunny chick.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. In one sense, he was right. In another . . . so very, very wrong.
“Should I keep healing him?” Arch asked, looking uncomfortable with the prospect.
Giving Arch a sympathetic look, Olaf nodded. “I think you need to.”
“I’ll help. Just need to get some mana back,” I said.
Pwn clicked his tongue in annoyance. “All that, and this was it. One healing spell and it was over. We don’t even get to kill the old man. How disappointing!”
“You would have died if I hadn’t. Olaf was already marching to his doom and Rose was almost dead when I figured it out,” I said. “Stop your whining and be grateful.”
Pwn cursed me out under his breath. Or I’m fairly sure he did. I assumed he did.
With each healing spell Arch cast, the old man pleaded, growing more and more desperate. Begging her to stop. Then begging both of us when I added my own healing spells to the mix. When the old man’s HP bar was completely full a noxious black cloud escaped the body through the mouth, nose, ears and even the eyes. Suddenly the old man’s nameplate changed
“No,” the dark cloud bellowed as a glowing yellow mouth and eyes began forming within it. The nameplate floating above the cloud named it a
“Die in a fire,” Pwn cackled, a manic grin painted on his face as he unleashed black fire at the escaping monster.
The servant fell from the sky as part of its cloud was burned away. “No . . . stop that. You cannot do this to me. I must find another body.”
I grinned a little hearing that, an action I was sure was mimicked by my party. “Oh, I think we can,” I said, unleashing another ‘Storm Lance’, burning away more of the cloud, and happily enjoying the sight of the servant’s HP bar shrinking rapidly downward.
It really didn’t have a lot of HP once it was outside of its host.
“So the servant was basically a mini-lich?” Heath asked once if finally died.
“Sort of,” I said. “It looks like the servant had its soul ripped from its body by the lich and then placed inside of another body. Like some kind of parasite.” It was insidious to say the least.
“You know, Jacko, you really do find the most interesting things to do,” Pwn commented. “But more importantly, where’s the loot?”
Leave it to Pwn to remind us that this was a boss, and it should have some kind of loot.
“Undead Necrodust,” Olaf said, scooping up a small pile of ash in one hand. “And that’s it.”
“What?” Pwn barked. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, storming forward. He poked his staff into the pile of ash and swirled it around only to scoff in irritation when he didn’t find anything. He demanded, “Where is the loot?” Pwn turned to face us, intent on making his displeasure known, he paused, his eyes fixated on something else. “Say,” he started, suddenly sounding nonchalant, or at least trying to sound nonchalant. “That old man. You don’t suppose we can appropriate the stuff he was carrying?”
“You want us to rob a man that was possessed by a lich servant?” Micaela asked, sounding like a disapproving mother.
“Yes, yes I do,” Pwn answered shamelessly, his eyes gleamed with greed as he stared at the unconscious old man.
Before Pwn could move forward, I held out my spear to block his path. “How about we find out who he is and what happened to him and then maybe he’ll reward us for saving him? Sound good?” I asked, hoping to appease the greedy Void Mage.
Pwn rolled his eyes. “Fine, do it your way. Always spoiling my fun, you non-chaotic evil, goody two shoes.”
“And I will happily continue to do so. Lawful Good and all that,” I retorted.
Micaela knelt down next to the old man and looked him over before asking, “Should we at least take off the mask?”
“Yeah,” Olaf said, taking a step away to ensure he wasn’t asked to do it. An action, Heath, Pwn, Rose, and I all mimicked. I had no interest in touching someone else’s face.
Thankfully, Micaela just did it herself.
The Flatland Camp Citizen was an old man. He was mostly bald and what hair he did have was white. His face was wrinkled and dirty from wearing a mask of rotting flesh. His ears were slightly pointed but otherwise looked Human. Maybe he was a half-Elf of some kind. If that was the case, he might have been hundreds of years old . . . or not. I wasn’t sure how half-Elves aged versus Elves. I guess it didn’t really matter.
“He’s coming to,” Arch said, pulling me away from my observations.
“Whe . . . where am I,” a slightly feminine voice asked, blinking several times as he focused in on his surroundings. Suddenly aware of his situation, he scrambled back and rolled backward and came up on his feet. He was rather spry for an old man. “Who are you? What did you do to me?”
Olaf took a tentative step forward with his arms raised. “I’m Olaf Crushhammer and these are my friends. You were possessed by a lich servant soul. We rescued you.”
The man didn’t relax, one hand groping for something at his back but not finding anything. Giving up his search, he backed up further. He guarded himself with both hands in front of his body now closed into fists as if he were prepared to brawl with us. “I warn you, strangers. I am trained in the ancient and noble art of the ‘Many Limbed Tree’. You may have taken my sword but know that I can still kill you with j
ust my fists and feet.”
“We’re not interested in a fight. Did you miss the part where I said you were possessed, and we rescued you?” Olaf asked.
The man snorted. “As if I would believe such a thing.”
Olaf rubbed his eyes in frustration. “Bye-bye, you’re the cool stuff finder. See if you can figure this guy out. My Charisma clearly isn’t high enough.”
“Oi, my Charisma is the highest in the group,” Heath interrupted. “Shouldn’t I be the one to talk to him?”
Everyone gave him a look.
“Right, fair point,” Heath said with a shrug. “Bye-bye, you’re up.”
“Great, no pressure,” I said, stepping forward. I put my arms up with hands open to show I wasn’t armed.
The old man spoke before I could, “And I suppose I am to trust you as we are both half-High Elf?”
“No, but I am a servant of the Goddess Issara. Does that help at all?” I asked.
The old man finally seemed to give pause and relaxed slightly. He asked, “Truly?”
“Truly,” I said.
The old man responded, “Well, why did you not just say so?” He lowered his arms and smiled in a friendly manner.
“That is so overpowered,” Pwn complained. “I hate you, Jacko. So, so much.”
Ignoring Pwn, I put my arms down and stepped forward, returning the friendly smile. I never saw the kick coming. Before I really understood what happened, I was on my back, staring up at the tree canopy above me. I vaguely heard Pwn cackling in the background as I tried to blink away the stars and saw a new Stunned debuff status.
“As if anyone would believe such an obvious lie,” the old man spat. “Now, you will answer my questions honestly, or I will thrash you all and then I will torture the information I require out of you.”
“Can we just kill him and loot the body?” Pwn asked.
World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive Page 42
