Raid Slayer 2

by Riley Morrison

  “Do you really want me to have to start hitting you from behind? You won’t be able to defend yourself.”

  “Go to hell, asshole.” She tried to roll over, but he managed to hold her down.

  “Damn it. Just give in. I don’t want to hurt you anymore.” He took in a ragged breath. “Surrender, then I can let you up and you can leave. I don’t care anymore. Find your own way out of the Underworld.”

  He would find someone else who could help them. Maybe they could try to recruit one of the mercenaries that Missy said they’d need for Upper Underworld.

  Anita began to weaken or perhaps she was starting to give in. “I’m not leaving. If I want to get back to the surface, I need you and your harem.”

  “Then start acting like a friend, rather than an enemy.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do.” She again tried to roll over, this time almost succeeding.

  “Stop.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do.”

  Anita managed to get one of her arms out of his grip. She grabbed his thigh and dug her nails into his flesh. “Let me go so I can get up and smash your ugly male face in.”

  -18hp

  Zack tightened his grip on her neck, hating her for making him do this. “It’s over. I won.” He held her tight for a good twenty seconds, then eased up so she could breathe.

  As she gasped in air, he let go and climbed to his feet. The duel wasn’t over, but he was done.

  He would defend himself if she attacked him. But hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that.

  Missy raced over and wiped the blood from his face on her pretty red dress. “My love…”

  He gently eased her away as Anita stood. The orc slowly turned to face him, her face and small clothes covered in blood.

  Both his and hers.

  She stared at him for a long time, her shoulders rising and falling as she gasped in air. Then she laughed. “Good fight, male. You showed me that you aren’t some light-weight simp who will grovel at my feet.” She spat a mouthful of blood over the railing. “I can respect a man like you.”

  Anita surrendered, ending the duel and handing Zack victory.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Black Witch

  This time, the two women came with Zack as he spoke to Malghana in her private study. The dark-skinned witch smiled as they approached. “I hope you have returned with good news.”

  Zack sniffed blood, his nose still aching. “Yes, we all accept the price. Take our XP and tell me where I can find the second half of my cure.”

  He had seventy two hours until death, so wherever the ingredient was, it better be close.

  She pointed a metal rod at them. A pale blue light shone up its length, then Zack noticed his XP bar slowly sinking. It stopped once it reached his base level 12 number.

  “Done. I can now use that stored power for my magics.”

  Anita shifted her weight. Zack expected some form of outburst from her, but she managed to keep her mouth shut. Maybe their fight had mellowed her out a bit.

  He reckoned he’d never met a woman so warped in the head than her.

  The Black Witch grinned. “You’re not going to like this.”

  “Just tell me where to find the ingredient.” It was hard for Zack to be patient when his life was ticking down.

  “I have one more task for you—”

  “What?” Anita finally broke her silence. “Just give him the cure for fuck’s sake.”

  Malghana’s eyes narrowed. “Let me finish, fool.” Her gaze switched to Zack. “This task is of benefit to you. The final part of your cure lies in the Deep.”

  Zack’s heart sank. “You’re kidding me. The only way I know to get down there is filled with unkillable dead miners.”

  “Don’t worry, I have a lift that will take you down there.”

  Missy clung to Zack. “We can’t go down there, the Karzel…”

  “Yes, yes.” Malghana waved dismissively. “That creature is down there, but you will not be going near its lair. Now, listen. When you head down into the Deep, I want you to bring an apprentice of mine with you. She will seek to retrieve an ancient Golden Tome for me.”

  “And my cure?” Zack would go anywhere, even the Deep, if it meant he could cure his disease.

  “My apprentice will take you to where it can be found and will give you the details on what you are after.” She pointed at Zack’s sword. “Keep that at the ready, for the place where your cure can be found is dangerous.”

  “The whole Deep is dangerous,” Missy said. “It’s voices sing of death,`of lurking dread, of ancient evil threatening to sweep over us all.”

  “Yes, it’s a dark and grim place.” Malghana strode over to a shelf of jars. “But I will not send you down there without aid.” She removed a jar and opened the lid and sniffed the contents. Replacing the lid, she nodded in satisfaction. “Take this.” She handed Zack the jar. “When you get down to the Deep, rub the oil into your skin and it will help you blend in and make it harder for the denizens of the dark to detect you.”

  Zack put the jar in his Inventory. “When I have the second half of the cure, what should I do with it? Bring it back to you?”

  “No, it should cure you once you have Lord Gwynn combine it with the Soul Eater’s mummy wrappings.”

  “Who is this apprentice we must bring?”

  “Her name is Holly. She will be waiting for you at the lift.” The witch glanced at Missy. “Oh, and one last thing. Your portal stone won’t work down there. The only way out of the Deep is via my lift or another one of the scattered entrances that lead up to Middle and Lower Underworld.”

  Great.

  Zack turned to leave. “After I’m cured, we will discuss how I reach Upper Underworld.”

  CORE QUEST

  Objective: You must head into the Deep for the second part of your cure. Protect your guide and she will get you to the item you need. Fail to protect her and you will never make it out of there alive.

  Rewards

  +5000xp

  Zack accepted the quest. He turned to Missy and Anita. “You ready?”

  Missy nodded. Anita grunted, “I’m with you.”

  “Welcome to the Deep,” the young black-skinned female Fire Mage apprentice NPC said, sweeping her arm over the dark purple mushroom forest at the edge of their torchlight.

  Zack gazed out at the giant fungus caps, the stalks shrouded in shadow, the silence oppressive, the roof of the cavern lost to the darkness. Already, he was sweating. The air was humid, like the inside of a sauna and thick with the smell of rot.

  Missy was right beside him, her eyes locked on the forest, her hand clasping his. “This place.” She licked her lips. “It has no song, no voice of its own. It only knows the unending silence of night.”

  Anita pulled down her faceguard and gripped her sword. “Yeah, whatever harem girl. Let’s just get out there and find this fucking item. I have better things to do than trounce around down here, sweating like a pig in shit.”

  Zack detected an edge to the orc woman’s voice. No doubt, she was as afraid as he was and had tried to hide it behind her outburst.

  “Have you been here before?” Zack asked Holly, the apprentice.

  The young woman brushed back her long braid over her shoulder. “Only once, and only a little ways beyond the edge of that forest. Malghana makes us all come down here as a test. She hides an item out in that forest and makes us fight our fear and head out there alone to find it.”

  “How many of you die?” Anita’s eyes glittered inside her helmet.

  Holly lowered her face. “Only about half of us make it back to the lift. The others… are never seen again.”

  “I like this place already,” Zack muttered sarcastically under his breath before rubbing himself and then Missy in the oil Malghana had given them.

  Missy held his hand to her breast when he rubbed there. “I miss our lovemaking.”

  Zack forced a smile, thinking of Amy and Betsy and how much he wan
ted to hear their voices again. “I miss it too.”

  After he had finished with Missy, he handed the oil to Anita and she coated her armor in it like he had. That done, Zack started forward. “Holly, lead us to the item that will cure my Cave Blight. The sooner we find it, the sooner we can get out of this stinking, hot hellhole.”

  The young female apprentice led them under the purple mushroom caps and into the darkness.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Deep

  They had been journeying through the thick forest of mushroom stalks for a little over an hour before they heard something moving somewhere to their left. Zack hid the torch behind a root, leaving them with only enough light to see a few dozen feet around them.

  Better reduced visibility, than having whatever was out there see the light and come for them. He had no idea what type of monsters were down here, but judging by what happened to the miners at Bethod Hole, he’d rather not find out.

  The sounds of movement soon grew more distant and eventually disappeared altogether. The four of them waited for several long minutes, then Zack retrieved the torch, his heart still hammering in his chest. “Malghana is a right asshole for sending you apprentices down here alone,” he said, motioning Holly to continue on.

  She chuckled, “She’s worse to the male apprentices. Not only do they have to get higher grades, they also have to satisfy her in other ways.” Holly gave him a knowing look. “I bet she enjoyed you.”

  Zack raised his eyebrows. “If you mean what I think you mean, than you’re wrong. I never did anything like that with her.”

  Holly looked away. “I’m surprised you didn’t take her fancy. You’re rather hot.”

  “Hey, wait.” Zack caught up to her, feeling a little hurt. “Does she do all the men she meets or something?”

  The apprentice shrugged. “I thought so, at least the young ones but I guess she wasn’t interested in you.”

  Missy touched him on the arm. “You have us. You don’t need her.”

  “I know.” Zack wiped off the sweat running down the back of his neck. “It’s just the point of it, I suppose. Maybe it was my disease…”

  Missy shook her head and chuckled. “Likely, she knew you were too good for her.”

  He kissed Missy’s hair. “I have no interest in any woman outside of you, Amy and Betsy anyway, so I’m glad she wasn’t interested in me.”

  Zack and Missy jumped in fright as Anita suddenly kicked a mushroom root out of her way, causing the whole fungus to shake and brown colored moisture to rain down on them.

  “Take it easy,” Holly said, wiping the dirty water from her face. “I heard of one apprentice getting covered in mushroom spores and a few days later, the other students tried to wake him and found he had turned into a mushroom himself.”

  Anita glared at Holly, then Zack, then out into the darkness. “Fuck off, all of you. I’d be better off by myself then with you lot.”

  “Wow, you really are just as whiny as Malghana said you were,” Holly said.

  “Go to hell,” Anita growled back.

  Two hours later, they emerged from the purple mushroom forest and out into a giant cavern, the humid air drying out so that it was simply hot. Scattered around in the cone of light, were ruined buildings and the remains of a guard tower.

  “These ruins are part of a fallen empire.” Holly gave him a grave look. “Dead Ifphoral it is called now. Before it fell, some of its inhabitants fled to the surface, the great sorcerer Izen-eti among them.”

  Zack grimaced. “Ah… we killed that guy. We knew him as the Soul Eater.”

  Holly seemed not to care. She pointed at the ruins. “We will go around this place. I have never been this far into the Deep, but I did read what I could on it before I came down here. The ancient books say that the ruins in this place are haunted and that they should be avoided.”

  “Who lived here?” Zack asked. The citizens of Ifphoral couldn’t have all been evil like the Soul Eater. Then again, this is all fiction… so anything is possible.

  Missy was the one who answered. “An ancient race of humans. Your shield and my guitar once belonged to their kind. Then, a long forgotten enemy descended upon them, and their music disappeared into the forgotten annals of history.”

  “The Bard is correct.” Holly gave the ruins a wide berth. “Except the enemy is known to Malghana, for she was alive when Ifphoral fell into ruin.”

  “Who were the enemies?” Zack scanned the darkness around them for danger, sweat pouring down his face.

  “The Karzel and its Deep Ones.” Holly shuddered. “These dead people’s bodies are still possessed by the Deep Ones. We must be careful, for some may still roam this cavern in search of new hosts for the creatures controlling them.”

  “Great. More webbed indestructible assholes.” Just as he finished thinking that, he caught a glimpse of the same spiderweb like strings strung up between two broken stone pillars that had been in the Bethod Hole mine.

  Malghana had said they were nowhere near the Karzel. Had she lied? More likely, she lied by omission. The Karzel might not be near, but that didn’t mean its minions weren’t hanging around out there.

  Zack tried not to shudder as he remembered the creature in the infected miner’s mouth. It had looked like a giant bug, living inside the man’s throat.

  He scanned the ground around them just to be certain none of the Deep Ones were about. Nothing but rock, and some thick growths of fungus living around small pools of water.

  They silently made their way through the cavern, moving around ruined buildings and towers. Off in the distance to their left, the faint sounds of a waterfall drifted over to them.

  Several tense silent hours later, Holly led them toward a distant line of giant boulders. When they reached them, she glanced around. “I studied the ancient maps of the Deep. This never used to be here, or at least it wasn’t marked on the map.”

  Zack held up the torch and studied the boulders and the broken rock around them. Some looked like parts of stalactites or stalagmites, broken into pieces by the giant boulders. The rock glistened with moisture. It would be difficult to climb over the rockfall without proper climbing equipment.

  He gazed up into the impenetrable darkness above them. “Maybe part of the roof caved in.” Likely, the developers had added the giant rockfall to break up the monotony of the open cave behind them or to funnel them down a path through the barrier.

  There were probably all sorts of interesting things out there to explore, but with only the four of them and a disease timer hanging over his head and his real world life on the line, Zack wasn’t inclined to go looking for excitement.

  Missy strummed a soft note on her guitar. “Shall we find a way around, or diligently march forward into paths unknown?”

  Zack lowered the torch. “I reckon we head a few hundred feet in either direction, then if we don’t find an easier path, we try to climb over the rockfall.

  Anita glanced left then right then shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t care what we do, as long as we start moving.” Her hand had never left her sword. “The sooner we get someplace cooler, the sooner I can strip this damn armor off and cool down.”

  One way looked as good as the other, so Zack led them to the right. After a few hundred feet he stopped, held up the torch to spread the light along the rockfall as far as he could, then shook his head. If anything, the boulders were bigger here and would be more difficult to climb over.

  They returned the way they had come and went the other direction. After a hundred feet they came to the broken entrance of a stone building. By the look of it, the place had once been a temple but the cave in had crushed much of it under countless tons of stone, shattering the marble structure.

  Cautiously, Zack peered through the broken entrance and was surprised to find a large open space inside. Some of the roof had collapsed, filling the room with boulders, but more than enough of the room was clear to make entering the building the best option they had. Th
e rockfall seemed a convenient way to direct players through the temple, which probably meant it contained enemies or something of interest.

  He turned to Holly and Missy. “Either of you know anything about this place? It must have been pretty impressive before the roof fell in on it.”

  Missy glanced inside, then shook her head. “I have sung songs in all manner of holy places, but have never graced this place with my voice.”

  Holly peered in beside her. “I don’t recall reading about a temple in the ancient books. They spoke of settlements, towns and even cities down here. Likely, the gods of this place are long forgotten.” She turned to him, wiping sweat from her face. “Should we enter and see if there is a way to pass through the rockfall?”

  Zack glanced at Anita to see if the orc woman had an opinion. He couldn’t see her face behind her faceguard, but he could tell she was afraid by the way she held her body.

  Nothing wrong with that, he reckoned. He was scared too.

  Anita shrugged. “Beats climbing over these fucking rocks.”

  Sword in hand, Zack led the way inside.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Shattered Temple

  They were through the shattered outer temple and entering the inner sanctum of whatever god it had been built to worship, when a bone chilling howl filled the air. Zack instantly raised his sword, hefting his shield, eyes scanning for movement.

  Breathing hard, Anita stood next to him, Missy on his other side, buffing them with Song of Fury.

  Holly guarded their rear, her finger pointed back the way they had come.

  The howl sounded again, this time closer. It was coming through a set of doors on the other end of the temple. Zack held his breath, waiting for a huge monster to come charging through the door.

  Instead, a lone figure glided into the room, a spectral woman in a huge white dress. She saw them, and her mouth opened, a yawning circle void of darkness in her otherwise luminescent white figure. The specter screamed, the long, drawn out wail of a banshee.