Raid Slayer 2

by Riley Morrison

  Then Amy was there, right in front of him, blasting the men with her Ice Storm AOE. Her little dragon hovered above her shoulder, shooting them with tiny Frostbolts. The two men were taken by surprise. But not for long.

  They went for Amy, but she was too good to die so easily.

  Amy froze them in place, then backed up, heading toward where Betsy and Anita were fighting. The men yelled vile insults at her that only made her laugh. “Oh, please. You’re only insulting yourself with idiotic taunts like that.”

  “I’ll kill you, witch!”

  She held up her hand and blue rings appeared around it. “You want ice with that?” She blasted them with Frostbolts, then Arctic Breath, freezing them in place again. At last, she drank a mana potion and followed that up with a Frost Beam to both their faces.

  Frost Mages. The bane of warriors and Blademasters alike.

  By the end of the frozen torrent, the two men were almost dead.

  Zack staggered to his feet, then stomped forward. He walked up to the DPS Warrior and took the man down with a slash to the neck.

  Fapfapfap has been vanquished!

  The tank Warrior spat at him, still frozen in place. “Fucking pathetic. You needed a woman to save your ass.”

  “At least I have a woman to save me.” Zack beheaded the man, his head bouncing inside one of the tents and knocking out its support. The tent collapsed on the head, as if in a final ‘up yours’ to the dead player.

  Tanker has been vanquished!

  Turning, Zack found Amy had already moved back to help Anita and Betsy. Only two of the enemy players were still alive, backed into a tight corner at the rear of their camp. Anita and Betsy were right onto them, hacking, cutting, slicing open wound after wound.

  Amy danced around, laughing her head off, as ice fell from the air above them all, slowing the enemy players.

  One went down, then the female Rogue started bleating for mercy. “No, please don’t kill me. I’ll tell you what you want—”

  Her words were cut short by Amy’s Frost AOE.

  The woman turned into a block of ice and a second later, shattered to pieces.

  Stabbychick has been vanquished!

  8x enemy players have died

  +8200 XP

  QUEST COMPLETE

  Objective: You killed them! You really killed them! Oh, there is going to be some angry people around the center of the City these next few days!

  Rewards

  You can plunder all the dead corpses for any and all loot

  +7000xp

  I will not terminate your NPC harem, have Anita’s family killed, have her killed or have you killed. Aren’t I nice? Answer: Yes. Sometimes. Just not often.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Phat Lootz

  Betsy snuggled against him as they watched Anita and Amy pick through the remains of the enemy dead for item upgrades. Missy knelt in front of him, playing her healing music. “Your arm is starting to grow back,” she said, eying his stump.

  Zack refused to look at the damn thing. Outside in greater Aralia, one only had to be returned to full health (or die and resurrect) for a limb to be restored. Here in the Underworld, the process was much slower and weird.

  Too weird.

  Rather than being instant, one had to watch as their fingers formed out of the stump then watch as the arm slowly grew to its full length. Assuming it did grow back to its full length. He had no idea what would happen. This was the first time any of them had lost a limb.

  Using his good arm, he held Betsy close. It felt good having all of his harem back.

  They heard a crunching sound. Zack grimaced when he realized what had made it.

  “Why does she do that?” Betsy asked, watching two eyeballs roll past them.

  “Anita is…” How do I even describe her? “She loves killing and violence, especially against men.”

  “Her song is one of fear,” Missy said. “And hearing the unpleasant sounds of her own fear makes the hateful, angry notes come out. Her music is dark, heavy and will not soften until whatever causes her such fear is put to rest.”

  Zack shook his head in awe. Missy’s insights never ceased to amaze him. All the musical nonsense aside, she pretty much had Anita dead on, he reckoned.

  The source of Anita’s fear and loathing of men had to be her father.

  Betsy kissed his blood spattered cheek. “What’s she like in bed?”

  That made Zack raise his eyebrows. “Are you turning into Amy now? She’d ask something like that.”

  Chuckling, Betsy said, “Well, I figured she is one of us now, which means we are going to be sharing you with her.”

  Even with his pain and the creepy arm thing going on, Zack felt his groin flutter at the thought of naked Betsy and Anita next to one another, waiting for him to make love to them. “She doesn’t do well being on the bottom but other than that…” His cheeks burned. This is weird. “Well, I enjoyed her well enough and she enjoyed me.”

  Zack tried not to think what it felt like being inside Anita. If Amy caught wind of him being turned on, the dead corpses, the blood, the guts and his severed arm rotting out there somewhere, wouldn’t stop her from wanting a piece of sexy time action.

  “I was with her once,” Missy said. “Zack pleasured us both to the point of exhaustion. Anita’s music settled and she and I bonded like sisters.”

  “I wish I was there.” Betsy lowered her face.

  Zack kissed her forehead. “You are here now and that is all that matters.”

  Anita and Amy returned. They had placed all the upgrades in Zack’s Inventory along with 500 meals.

  “Holy shit,” Zack said, scanning the list of items. “That’s a lot.”

  Some were only sidegrades, but five were upgrades and they would equip them.

  For himself he took,

  Gold Band

  A heavy golden ring.

  +1 Strength

  +3 Dexterity

  +2 Endurance

  +25hp

  The new ring replaced his cheap +20hp one.

  He also took,

  Well Tailored Cloak

  A well crafted crimson cloak that is good at hiding all the blood from your murderous escapades!

  +1 all stats

  Physical Damage reduction 5%

  Magical Damage reduction 3%

  Betsy got some nice mail armor (that of course looked like a chainmail bikini on her), replacing her leather chest piece.

  Healthy Mail

  +5 Strength

  +2 Dexterity

  +3 Endurance

  +45hp

  Physical Damage reduction 17%

  Magical Damage reduction 7%

  Amy got some sexy black,

  Shiny Latex Leggings

  +1 Strength

  +3 Intellect

  +2 Spirit

  +10sp

  +10hp

  +12 physical damage reduction and

  +15 magical damage reduction

  And lastly, Missy got,

  Gleaming Silver Ring

  +1 Intellect

  +2 Dexterity

  +2 Spirit

  +10 Inspiration

  Zack brought up his stats, minus the health food buff.

  ZACK

  Steadfast Blademaster

  Level 12

  STRENGTH: 21

  DEXTERITY: 30

  INTELLECT: 3

  ENDURANCE: 26

  HP: 620

  STAMINA: 435/435

  ATTACK POWER: 387

  PHYSICAL DAMAGE REDUCTION: 54%

  MAGICAL DAMAGE REDUCTION: 50%

  He’d finally hit the Magical Damage Reduction softcap. Shame about all the diminishing returns on Dexterity, Endurance and damage reductions.

  Zack dismissed his stats. Not long and he’d be level 13 and even more powerful than he felt now.

  He almost leapt out of his skin as a notification popped up in his field of view.

  QUEST

  Objective: There is a wo
man that is in dire need of some killing. There is a man with a harem (I.e.: You) who is in need of some murdering. Go kill this woman. She is the leader in a camp built beside Lake Ithyristria and has made her home in the main building. You have three days to complete this task. If she isn’t dead by then, see the “I will not terminate” you reward below. Replace “I will not” with “I will”.

  Be warned: This woman is dangerous. But you can handle her…

  Rewards

  You can plunder her dead corpse for any and all loot.

  +8000xp

  I will not terminate your NPC harem, have Anita’s family killed, have her killed or have you killed.

  Janitor’s note: Go dispose of the trash.

  “Fuck, me,” Anita hissed. “Does this prick ever let up?”

  Zack would have said worse, but unknowingly, Betsy, Missy or Amy would pass on his message to the Janitor.

  “What’s the problem?” Amy had her wand out. “More killing, means more fun!”

  With no time to mess around, they journeyed straight to their next target without rest.

  One day, fifteen hours later, they neared their destination, having eaten a meal each. Zack dimmed his torch as they entered a huge cavern.

  Stretching before them was a giant lake, almost as large as the one near Malghana’s.

  Lights shone on the far sure, glittering on the surface of the lake. “There’s a whole fucking settlement over there,” Anita snarled, standing a foot from the edge of the black water. “So much for it being only a camp. I was expecting something like last time.”

  Zack almost glanced at his regenerating arm as he went to stand next to her. The longer the limb became, the harder it was to not look at it. Last time he had accidentally looked at it, he felt the standard Aralia feeling of nausea.

  He studied the distant torchlight. It lit a palisade and a wooden gate. Was it a player ran town?

  “This place once belonged to the Thamasian Imperium,” Missy said. “They built it as a frontier camp when they came down here to the Underworld to pillage it for resources.”

  The Thamasian Imperium was an ancient civilization that had once existed on the surface. Strewn throughout parts of the game world were Thamasian ruins, some with the ghosts of ancient fallen soldiers still haunting them.

  Clearly, the developers were expanding on the Thamasian lore. The Imperium had been a powerful force in ancient Aralia but its enemies were just as powerful, the same enemies who would later destroy it. If the Imperium had been a real empire, it would most certainly try to acquire the Underworld.

  Say what you want about dark caves and spiky stalactites, but game logic dictated that caves always contained rich ore nodes ripe for the taking.

  “We need to get closer,” Zack said, putting the torch in his inventory. “See what’s going on.”

  Without the torch, it was damn dark and they would need to be careful.

  From deep under the water came a green-yellow light. The five of them watched as the light moved around. Then it scattered into hundreds of little lights.

  A school of glowing fish.

  “Those are globefish,” Missy said. “I have sat beside the crisp waters of the Silent Lake and sung to them, watching them dart about in the dark water, their swift movements rising and falling to the soft sound of my voice.”

  “Beautiful,” Betsy murmured, the light from the fish glinting off her eyes.

  Zack put his arm around her shoulders. “Maybe one day when everything has settled down, we can go with Missy to the Silent Lake and watch the fish swim around as she sings to them.”

  “They eatable?” Anita shifted her weight, her armor clanking. “Some fresh meat would be good. I’m sick of eating mushrooms and stale bread.”

  Amy nudged Zack’s crotch. “I know what I’d prefer to be eating right now.”

  Laughing under his breath, Zack led the way along the edge of the lake. The path was dimly lit by the bright torches burning on the palisade in the distance.

  The biggest threat would be one of them tripping and falling face-first into a stalagmite. As they passed through a forest of them, Zack’s feet kicked something in the dark and it clattered away. “Shit, what was that?”

  “Put the light on,” Anita said, the sound of her drawing her sword making Zack’s hairs stand on end.

  Walking around almost blind was one of his least favorite things. Call it watching too many B grade horror movies as a kid or call it a perma-death raid zone with monsters and enemy players, but kicking something unexpected in the dark put his nerves on edge.

  Removing the torch, he made sure to keep its light hidden under his cloak. Peering down at the dimly-lit ground, he caught his breath.

  Bones. Lots of bones. Some human, others… who knew what?

  “What the hell?” Anita’s boot crunched down on a human ribcage. “There’s thousands of the damn things here.”

  Just as she finished speaking, they heard giant ripples lap against the lake’s shore. A moment after, something splashed in the water as it moved toward them.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Zack started forward, trying to keep the light covered, while desperately trying to watch where he put his foot.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of glistening egg sacks, nearly as tall as he was. Crap.

  Without knowing it, they had wandered into the lair of an Underworld creature. If they had to fight, the sound would carry all throughout the cavern and alert the settlement to their presence.

  “Amy, if that thing comes out of the water, try to freeze it in place. We can’t stop and fight or we’ll never get anywhere near our target.”

  They didn’t have time to spend a day or more waiting for the people at palisade to forget someone was about. Likely, they’d be extra alert for days afterward.

  It wasn’t like there were many players down here in the Underworld, so the fact that other players had stumbled upon their settlement wouldn’t be something they would take lightly. The people at the settlement had to know the creatures were over here and perhaps kept them there as an early warning system.

  They raced among the egg sacks and through the bones. Behind them, came the sound of something large dragging itself over rock. Directly to their left came the same sound.

  There were more monsters out there. Shit.

  Something huge loomed up in front of Zack. He grabbed Missy with his good arm, then dragged her right. For a moment, he saw a fifteen-foot-long glistening body, then it was gone.

  It had looked like a giant slug, dripping with slime and water.

  The other three women were behind them as they smashed into a wall of stalagmites and broke through. Zack stumbled into a larger one, hitting the rock and bouncing off.

  Missy stabilized him, then they started off again, squeezing between the rising spears of stone, water dripping on their heads. The giant creatures slithered along the edge of the stalagmites, making slurping noises as they moved over the rock.

  They didn’t seem able to follow them into the stalagmite forest.

  Once they were at the edge of the cavern, Zack found a tiny opening among the stalagmites and stopped to let them all catch their breaths and listen to see if any alarm had sounded from the palisade.

  All seemed quiet.

  He held up the light. Amy had lost a few hit points during the ordeal, but he was relieved to find it only a small cut to her arm.

  The four women watched him, their faces dimly lit by his torch. God he loved them. Even Anita. The harem system really broke down a lot of the barriers of the real world when it came to love, even among players or maybe it was spending time together, killing together and sharing the same purpose.

  He and Anita were part of a shitty world ruled by even shittier people.

  They would never have met out in the real world, never have known of each other’s existence. And even if they had, each one of them would have only been yet another downcast wretch living at the edge of the Cit
y, their whole life dependent on the sludge fed to them in tubes that passed as food and water.

  But, here in the Underworld, they were warriors. Strong, proud and willing to fight for one another.

  The five of them had been through a lot together. Hopefully, the worst of it was over.

  Zack turned and picked his way through the stalagmites and headed toward the palisade.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Beta Male

  Zack ducked down as the guard on the wooden palisade in the distance stopped and looked out over the edge of the wall. He held his breath, making sure he hadn’t been seen before turning to the others. “I only see the one guy on the wall.”

  “I doubt he’s the only fucker about.” Anita cocked an ear. “I heard voices a minute ago, coming from somewhere inside.”

  “So did I.” Zack glanced back over the stalagmites between him and the path leading along the edge of the lake. “The path goes around both sides of the settlement. The left side is a no go, unless we swim under the surface until we are near the edge of the palisade. With those slug things out there in the water, I doubt any of us wants to do that.”

  Betsy and Missy both shook their heads. Amy just shrugged. “Slugs, snails and puppy-dog’s tails. I’ll kill them all for XP and loot.”

  Anita rolled her eyes. “Grow a brain, girl. The only experience points worth getting is when it comes from killing men.”

  “Be quiet, both of you,” Zack growled. The two women had gotten on his nerves on the way over here. Both of them reckoned they should all walk up to the palisade and start killing anything that moved.

  Amy covered her mouth as she burst out laughing. When she had gotten control of herself, she said, “That’s the first time you’ve ever snapped at me. It was kind of a turn on.”