Raid Slayer 2
Page 16
Zack slammed into them from behind, unleashing everything he had. Criss Cross, Sweeping Arc, Demon Strike, then his shield’s Revenge of the Dead ability.
The Rogue was near dead before he could even spin to face Zack and defend himself. Missy had buffed him with Song of Fury, and her healing spells would be more than enough to heal whatever these rich kids threw out.
As Anita took care of the Dark Priest, Zack slashed open the Rogue’s leather armor with Devastate, then impaled him on the end of his sword.
Inflicted 156 damage
Blood jetted out of the man's mouth and down the front of Zack's armor. “Great,” Zack muttered. “Did you have to make such a mess?”
The man fell to his knees, staring up at Zack, his mouth working but no words coming out.
Zack ripped out his sword, then with the last of his Stamina, smashed the man in the face with Shield Slam to the sickening crunch of bone.
PlsdontNerfme has been vanquished!
+1200xp
The Dark Priest managed to get off one Shadowdrain (an orb that floats in the air and sucks the life out of enemies), before Anita cut him in two, her blade passing through the center of the Priest’s head and out between his legs.
The two halves fell sideways, to a torrent of blood and gushing innards.
The Dark Incarnate has been vanquished!
+1200xp
Covered in blood, body heaving for air, she lifted her faceguard then spat on the corpse. “Lrn2play, noob.”
Zack felt a flutter in his pants. She looked like a gorgeous green-skinned sexy angel of death. Her savagery was kind of a turn on.
Missy backed away as the blood flowed over the rock toward her. “A soul borne on the savage winds of death, her crimson wake, littered with those who defied her.”
“Nice poem,” Anita said then stamped down on the head of the Dark Priest. Both his eyeballs shot out, bouncing off Zack's shield then rolling away.
Zack grimaced. “Damn, you woman. That's such a turnoff. And I was in the mood for some fun too.”
Anita was about to make a verbal comeback when they heard angry voices heading toward them.
Zack noticed they hadn't received a quest complete notification yet. Which meant…
“Six men, incoming,” Anita said, pulling down her faceguard.
Zack went to stand next to her, clanging his sword against his shield as he watched the enemy players rush toward them.
He yelled out to them, trying to match Anita's fiery bloodlust, “Only six of you? You’re going to need a whole army to take us down.”
A DPS Blademaster rushed at them with Rapid Advance, heading straight for Zack.
Before the two of them collided, Zack noticed the enemy had no healers, but they did have a Mage that needed to be dealt with quick.
A bunch of real world rich kids used to being brainless DPS, he reckoned.
With a contemptuous backhand, Zack struck the Blademaster in the side of the face with Shield Slam. The guy shouldered into him, but Zack had been ready for it and barely budged. Falling to the ground, the enemy Blademaster dropped his sword.
With a powerful downward swing, Zack cut the guy's arm off. The man screamed all the way up to the point where Zack cut open his throat and left him to bleed out.
NotChuckNorris has been vanquished!
+1200xp
Then the other players were on them, swinging, hacking, slashing and screaming their incoherent threats.
Zack took several massive hits, then he activated Shield of Stone, absorbing much of the damage.
Missy had to burn her instant heals to keep them up, and still both Anita and Zack had to pop a healing potion while she had to use a mana pot.
The Mage ended up being a mix of Frost, Fire and Brainless idiot for duel specking against all the hardcore number fetishist advice on the forums.
Zack barged his way through the enemy players to reach the Mage but Anita got there first.
The skirt wearing man-child went down fast.
Stopcallingmeavirgin has been vanquished!
+1200xp
Zack burned through his Stamina fast as he used all his AOEs to blast the rest of the enemies down. He impressed himself with his tanky DPS output.
Inflicted 212 damage
Anita went positively nuts on them, though she lacked the area attacks Zack had.
But for single target DPS, Zack was miles behind her.
She hacked down an enemy player and before he'd struck the ground (or was even dead), she was onto the next.
“Die, fuckers, you male scum can't kill me.” She took off a guy's head.”
Yomommaisfat has been vanquished!
+1200xp
An ax struck Zack in the arm, penetrating his armor, digging deep into his flesh. He roared in pain, then stabbed the Barbarian Warrior in the face, the tip of his sword cutting a deep gash along the side of the man’s head.
Inflicted 98 damage
The man cried out, then leapt at Zack, trying to drag him to the ground. Zack backed up against the cave wall, the crusher only a dozen feet to his left.
Another man came with the first, while an enemy Brigand spec’d Rogue (a Rogue who uses bows and arrows) started firing at Missy with Torrent, sending out half a dozen missiles at once. Zack cried out a warning to her to watch out, but she had already seen the danger and used her defensive Cry of Defense, dodging arrow after arrow, though some buried themselves in her flesh.
Companion suffered 144 damage
The effect of Cry of Defense would not last long and Missy would be left near defenseless and suffer far more damage. Bards healers had some low damage attacks but they would be little use against an equal-level DPS player.
Plus, the crushers were right there and if the enemy managed to get hold of Missy…
The ax buried itself into the chamber wall right next to Zack. He slid left to avoid another blow by the dual-wielding Rogue.
The enemy were forcing him toward the crusher. Zack leapt forward, trying to drive them back so he could maneuver around and help Missy. He got the Rogue with Sweeping Arc but the blow missed the Barbarian.
Inflicted 89 damage
Shit. This wasn’t going to go well. By the time he killed these two players, assuming he could even kill them, Missy might be dead.
Stuff it.
Zack did something totally against his nature as a tank. He turned his back to the enemy and raced toward the Brigand attacking Missy. He took the guy from behind, driving his sword into the enemy player’s back with a Demon Strike.
His sword burst out the other side of the man’s chest, blood jetting out onto Missy’s dress.
The man screamed, then spun to attack Zack, almost wrenching his sword from his hand. There wasn’t much the guy could do in melee, being that bows were a ranged weapon.
Zack managed to rip his blade free then on instinct, he dodged right, slamming into the side of the crusher.
A moment after he had moved, the enemy Barbarian’s ax came down, passing through the body of the Brigand, like it wasn’t there.
Even though there wasn’t friendly fire, the momentum of the blow sent the Warrior stumbling forward on top of the Brigand, pinning the man to the ground.
Zack moved forward and went to drive his sword through both men, but the Warrior rolled out of the way and instead, Zack’s sword sank into the Brigand’s forehead, killing him instantly.
IPwnedU has been vanquished!
+1200xp
“No!’ The enemy Warrior started to get to his feet, his eyes burning with rage.
With the Rogue coming up beside him, he leapt to his feet and charged Zack in a blind rage.
Zack sidestepped and the man barreled into the side of the crusher. Moving in, Zack struck him in the side of the head with Shield Slam, dazing him.
Ignoring the Rogue, Zack grabbed the dazed player and threw him onto the conveyor belt. Then he spun and tried to block the Rogue’s attack, but one of the enemy’s
blades buried itself into the side of his neck.
-278 damage
Blood gushed down Zack’s armor as he fell to his knees, his field of view flashing. Missy must have used her Hymn of Survival on him, as his health jumped to 50%. But the Rogue had inflicted a lot of damage, and he would continue to bleed out.
Damn it.
Zack blocked the next attack, then tried to fight back. The Rogue danced away, then stopped and stared.
A second later, Zack heard a sickening crunch from the crusher behind him.
Warriotard has been vanquished!
+1200xp
Suddenly, the Rogue’s legs came out from under him and he fell to the ground, blood gushing out of the severed limbs.
Anita loomed over him, covered in blood, her armor dented. She picked the screaming legless Rogue up, casually carried him over to the conveyor belt. He was far enough away from the crusher it would take him ten second to reach it.
Long enough for him to know he was about to die.
She slammed him down on the conveyorbelt. “Enjoy the ride.”
Anita let go and watched as the enemy player headed toward the crusher. The man begged her not to kill him, then he screamed as he was sucked into the machine, his bones crunching in the machine.
Out the other side came his pulverized remains.
133tDoolweildzingmofo has been vanquished!
+1200xp
QUEST COMPLETE
Objective: You disposed of the trash and made an evil black-clad killer happy for a few, short, blessed moments before his burning hatred for everyone and everything once again overwhelmed him. Now, he will have to find someone else to take out his pain and despair on. Why does everything for him have to be so hard? Why is he speaking in 3rd person? It’s not easy being evil. It really isn’t. It’s not like I wake up every day and think up the next evil I will commit. Well, some days are like that, but not all of them.
I had no one to talk to last Christmas…
Ahem.
Janitor’s note: I don’t know why I just wrote that but if you, the person reading this, share it with anyone, and I mean anyone, I will do horrible things to you and the ones you love.
I know where you live. Just saying.
Rewards
You can plunder the dead men’s corpses for any and all loot.
+6000xp
I will restore one more member of your harem back to normal.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Old Codger
Zack sheathed his sword. “We could have looted some of those guys.” He inclined his head to the bloody, crushed up remains of the dead players who had gone through the crusher. “Not much left on them now I reckon.”
“Plenty more dead fuckers here.” Anita started to loot a dead Warrior. “Ain’t got much good on them, anyhow. Bunch of noobs or something.”
Searching the dead Mage, Zack came away with a new pair of shoes for Amy.
Embroidered Boots
+2 Intellect
+2 Spirit
+10sp
+10hp
Physical damage reduction 4%
Magical damage reduction 4%
Zack imagined Amy’s look of hunger as he handed it to her. Would she be the one to wake now that he had completed the quest?
As much as he wanted to port back to the palace, they could spend a few minutes here looting the corpses and seeing if the dead enemies had a hideout nearby. No point in letting someone or something else stumble over it all.
Next, he searched a dead Rogue and came away with a trinket.
Beguiling Orb
Special Ability: Puff of Smoke
Disappear in a puff of smoke for ten seconds, get behind your target and use Backstab on them for 2x damage
Cooldown: 10 minutes
None of them would find it very useful as Backstab was a Rogue ability, but a good trinket was hard to come by. Who knows, in future he might add a Rogue to his harem and something like this could be useful.
Anita lifted a pair of gauntlets and held it up to the light of a nearby burning torch hanging on the cave wall. “Now, this is something I can use.”
Zack brought up the item’s information and widened his eyes. A legendary.
Legendary Gauntlets of the Undefeated Warrior
Once worn by a warrior from another plane of existence who could never die. Until he did. He just had to die twice in quick succession.
Warrior Elite Class Item
+4 Strength
+2 Dexterity
+2 Endurance
Physical Damage reduction 8%
Magical Damage Reduction 1%
Activates upon death: Second Chance
You will be saved from death automatically and have 20% health restored
Cooldown: One day
Too bad Anita was the only one who could use it, or he might have battled her out in another fist fight for the damn thing.
After searching the other corpses they came away with three cloak upgrades (+1 all stats +4% physical damage reduction) and some silken stockings for Missy.
Silken Stockings
+1 Intellect
+2 Dexterity
+2 Spirit
+10 Inspiration
+10hp
Physical damage reduction 2%
Magical damage reduction 2%
Missy took the item and grinned. “My songs shall grow louder still, bolder and more potent.” She equipped the item, discarding her old one on the ground. Zack gave her one of the cloaks, the others he would keep for Betsy and Amy.
Anita took a cloak too, then held her head up proudly, waiting for Zack to say something. He nodded his approval. “I’d go over there and kiss you if I didn’t have to worry about you punching me in the face.”
Suddenly, she stormed over, grabbed him, then jammed her tongue into his mouth. After a moment, she shoved him away. “Fucking beta. You should have just gone over there and kissed me.”
“What, and be called nasty names?” He waved her away. “I know, I know, I’m a hateful misogynist. Bite me.”
“Trust me, next time I use you as my pleasure toy, I will.”
“Ride on.” He laughed, then set to work plundering the corpses.
Other than the item upgrades, they found 50 meals.
They searched deeper into the mine and finally found where the players had been holed up. Scattered around a campfire at the center of the chamber were sleeping mats and random useless odd and ends. A chest sitting next to the crafting table caught Zack’s eye.
He was about to head toward it when he caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye. Reaching for his weapon, he spun around.
An old man held up a hand. “Wait, I mean no harm.” He looked Zack up and down, his eyes lingering on the blood down the front of his armor.
Anita came up beside Zack, sword ready to cut the old man in two. Zack held up a hand. Swearing under her breath, she lowered it.
“Who are you, old man?” Zack asked. Maybe the old man would be able to tell them who they had just killed.
“My name is Codger. What happened to the men who were holding me prisoner?”
“You don’t look like a prisoner,” Anita said. “I was a prisoner and was locked in a cell.”
Codger stepped back, his eyes fearful. “They kept me here and forced me to make them potions and armor and weapons kits.”
An NPC like Margery then. But this didn’t look like a player house or if it was, the dead players hadn’t set about upgrading much. “They’re all dead.” Zack put his weapon away. “Who were they?”
The old man waited for Anita to lower her weapon before he spoke. “They belonged to a group by the name of the Chosen of Marius.”
Zack glanced at Anita and then Missy to see if either of them recognized the name. Both of them looked as bewildered as he did. “Do you know anything more about them? What did they stand for?”
Codger licked his lips. “If I tell you, will you let me live?”
The old man took a deep breath. “I know this group was only part of the Chosen. There are more of them hidden out there somewhere in the Underworld.”
“Why were they mining here?” Anita asked. “They could get bloody rocks from anywhere down here.”
“There is a special type of stone that comes from this area.” The old man pointed at the chest. “The special stones they found they kept in there but some other Chosen came yesterday and took most of them back with them. There might be some left, though.”
“Tell me about this rock.” Zack headed over to the chest.
“I don’t know much, but I know the rock is important.” He followed Zack over.
After checking to make sure it wasn’t trapped, Zack threw open the metal lid of the chest. Inside, he found ten chunks of a dirty cloudy purple colored stone and under them, 300 meals.
He shoved the meals into his Inventory then held up one of the stones so Missy and Anita could see it. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen this type of stone before.”
Missy strummed her guitar. “I sense power trapped within it.”
Anita shrugged. “Looks like a fucking stone to me.”
“Power. Yes.” The old man studied the rock in Zack’s hand. “I overheard the men talking about the rock having a connection with the Deep.”
Zack stood. “The Deep? We were only recently down there.”
The old man paled. “A grim place it is said to be, dark, hot and haunted by the ghosts of Dead Ifphoral.”
“And the Deep Ones,” Missy added. “We have seen them, battled them, heard their chilling cries.”
“You are lucky to survive then. I think the Chosen are hunting for something down there in the Deep. What it is, I cannot say.” Codger lowered his face. “There is little more that I can tell you, other than the Black Witch might know more about these stones.”