by C. M. Carney
The rune-form’s inexorable push through the wall was nearly complete, and it cast a fiery glow across the entire room. The vibrations increased and the singing of the crystal rose in both volume and intensity, harmonizing like a thousand crystal goblets being rubbed in concert. As Lex said, in other circumstances it would have been beautiful.
“Get ready, he’s almost through,” Vonn said, drawing blue-white mana into his hands. Lex did the same and Gryph knew they both prepped Order Bolt. Ovrym had his bow ready, the barest sparks of mana flowing around the tip of the nocked arrow. Errat’s hands crackled with aetherial energy, ready to throw his shield between them and the monster in the form of a man.
Gryph cast Sticky Mud at the floor, hoping that it would work on the odd crystal. He then powered up his new spell Soul Bolt. A part of him felt giddy that he could deal direct damage with his highest leveled skill. I hope it’s enough.
The harmonics reached their highest pitch and with a final push the rune-form pushed its way through the wall of the tower. The fiery matrix of angles, lines and arcs hung for the merest of moments before disappearing with an underwhelming pop of air and a cascade of shimmering sparks.
In its wake was a perfect, circular hole about ten feet in diameter and five feet in depth. The man with the cane stepped inside on light feet, his tapping cane echoing on the shorn crystal. Tap, tap step. Tap, tap, step. Tap, tap, step. The sound put Gryph on edge, and he clenched his teeth. The man stepped from the hole onto the floor and sunk up to his knees in a morass of crystalline mud.
Lex shared his Analyze window.
THE SCOURGE OF SOULS (Soul Wraith) – Level: 56.
Health
Stamina
Mana
Spirit
2,245
3,456
1,456
2,165
The Scourge is a hybrid entity containing an unknown number of souls that have willingly given themselves over to the service of the High God Aluran. It can draw upon the knowledge, skills, perks and boons available to the souls it contains, but will favor the skill set and powers of the current host. The current host is a peerless swordsman who relies on agility and misdirection.
Strengths
Immunities
Weaknesses
Error.
Error.
Error.
Lex, what the hell is happening with your Analyze?
Not good man. I’m getting so much information from this dude it is overwhelming the interface. He has just about every skill I have ever heard of, but not all of them are currently accessible.
What does that mean? Ovrym asked.
Like the prompt says, this thing is some kinda hybrid. From what I can tell the host is the dominant personality, so its skills and powers are most likely the ones it will use. His Long Blades and Dodge skills are incredible, and he has a Dodge perk called Hyperkinesis that tells me the dude can move like the Flash.
Simple explanations, not obscure pop culture references please.
Sorry. The dude is really fast. That’s how he took out the Vex so easily. Your muck will not hold him long, so I say we use Skill Reduction against his Dodge skill.
You heard the man. All five of them applied the 50% Skill Reduction to Dodge.
The Scourge looked down at his trapped feet in calm curiosity, more annoyed that the cloying floor had interrupted his rhythmic tapping than he was about being trapped. Then he turned his gaze up to Gryph, and the player knew there would be no negotiating, no parlay.
Now, Gryph sent. Searing bolts of energy exploded from several outstretched hands at the same moment as Ovrym let his enhanced arrow fly. Errat’s shimmering Aether Shield expanded behind the volley, creating a wall between the group and the Scourge.
The missile weapons screamed towards the man, whose level of apprehension did not seem to change. The Scourge threw up a hand and Ovrym’s arrow altered course and sped through the hole in the crystal wall of the tower. It impacted a building across the wide square with concussive force, blowing a large hole in the wall.
Gryph’s Soul Bolts arced up and converged down, twining as they dove at their mark. The Scourge shimmered and moved to the left, the thick crystal glop failing to restrain his motion. The Soul Bolts all missed and sunk into the muck where they fizzled with a dull thud.
Shit.
Lex and Vonn’s Order Bolts were as unerring as their description stated, and over a dozen of the shimmering blades of energy pummeled into the Scourge. He grunted and fell to one knee, but his overall health did not drop as much as Gryph hoped.
He’s absorbing the mana from our attacks, Lex said through the link.
How?
No idea. That ability did not show up in my Analyze.
Perhaps it is his suit? Ovrym said.
Gryph triggered his Identify talent but had no time mid-battle for a detailed analysis and just sent its name throughout the link. It’s called the Magebane Aegis, and it definitely absorbs mana.
Looks like its skull smashing time, Lex sent and hefted his hammer, filling it with the glow of Spirit energy. The others drew their own weapons and prepared for battle.
The Scourge got back to his feet, drew his sword casually and peered at Gryph from beneath his wide-brimmed hat. “I do not know who you are, but I have no quarrel with you. I am here for the Maker. Give him to me, and you shall all live.”
57
He’s not here for me, Gryph thought in surprise. After learning the wraith served Aluran, he’d assumed he was the target. He doesn’t know who I am. Relief built inside him and he felt shame and then a twinge of panic.
He doesn’t seem to know who any of us are. Let’s keep it that way. Especially you Lex.
Come on, dude. What kinda idiot do you think I am?
The idiotic kind, Vonn responded.
Gryph looked the Scourge directly in the eye and braced his spear on his buckler. “Now there’s a problem with your request. You see, the Maker is a friend, and where I come from we stick up for our friends. Turn around now and I will let you live.”
“We have struck terror into the very souls of the Pantheon. You are only a minor inconvenience to us. Stand aside and you may continue to live your pathetic lives under the light of the High God.”
“Nah, I think we’ll stay,” Gryph said, readying himself.
The Scourge smiled up at Gryph and then moved. Gryph had never seen anyone move so fast. Sticky Mud did nothing to slow his advance as he surged up the stairs toward them. He slammed into Errat’s Aether Shield and began vibrating. Errat grunted and fed more mana into the shield but the Scourge shimmered, and the shield collapsed. The warborn fell to his knees as a wave of mana surged back over him.
Errat is paralyzed for twenty seconds, the warborn sent as he fell onto his side with a grunt.
Gryph activated his buckler’s spell storage capability and a volley of Flying Stalactites exploded towards the Scourge. The buckler, a gift from the Regent Barrendiel, absorbed a small amount of any incoming damage and converted it to stored mana. That mana then powered whatever spell Gryph had loaded into the buckler.
The piercing shards of stone hurtled towards the Scourge, but as he had with the Soul Bolts he sidestepped the earthen missiles. His sword arm lanced out and clanged against Ovrym’s saber. Both Ovrym and the Scourge gave looks of surprise. Skill Reduction was doing its job.
Blade Ward did not trigger, Ovrym sent. There is something odd about his sword.
A quick glance at his Identify talent showed Gryph that Ovrym was right. It’s made of bone.
What kinda psycho makes a sword from bone? Lex asked.
The Scourge wasted no time and became a blur of motion again. He spun and brought his blade low, slicing at the back of Ovrym’s thighs. Only the xydai’s quick reaction avoided a dual hamstringing, but the blade bit deep into the back of his right knee as he leapt. He tumbled forward, down the stairs, his head crunching against the hard crystal.
Ooh, that looks s
harp, Lex sent.
It is, the xydai sent through the link with a grunt. And I’m fine. Gryph heard the confusion in the tone and suspected the man was concussed.
Vonn spun at the Scourge, dual short blades twirling faster than Gryph’s eyes could follow. The Scourge activated Dodge, but both of Vonn’s blades found their mark, drawing blood from two wounds to the Scourge’s chest and sword arm. Another look of surprise crossed the Scourge’s face, but he wasted no time and twisted up, easing his sword past Vonn’s guard and sliced his left forearm, causing Vonn to lose his grip on one of his blades.
The Scourge turned his wrist and pushed upwards, stabbing the point of his blade through Vonn’s right shoulder. Vonn screamed and lost his grip on his other blade. The Scourge let Vonn fall and turned his attention to Lex and Gryph.
“You sure we can’t sit down, have a beer and some grub and talk this out?” Lex asked, shifting his glowing hammer from hand to hand.
“No,” the Scourge said and launched himself at Lex.
Gryph tried to scream in warning, but the Scourge was just too fast, and his blade sliced towards Lex’s neck. Just as the blade was set to decapitate, and permanently silence the verbose NPC, Lex pulsed and stepped aside faster than even the Scourge could move.
Before the soul wraith had time to react Lex punched up hard with his hammer. He landed a crushing blow to the underside of the Scourge’s chin and all the pent-up Spirit energy exploded into the man. The Scourge flew off his feet and smashed with a crunch into the railing to the left of the stairs.
"God I love Avoidance!" Lex roared.
Gryph quickly checked Lex’s Analyze window.
The Scourge is suffering from Debuffs.
Lex has landed a Crushing Blow against the Scourge. The Scourge now suffers from the following debuffs. -10 to Intelligence, Dexterity and Wisdom for 30 seconds. -20% chance to hit for 20 seconds. The Scourge suffers cannot activate any Perks for 20 seconds.
The Scourge is stunned for 20 seconds.
EDIT: The Scourge’s perk Reduce Debuff has triggered. All debuffs reduced by 80%. -2 to Intelligence, Dexterity and Wisdom for 6 seconds. -4% chance to hit for 20 seconds. The Scourge suffers cannot activate any Perks for 4 seconds.
The Scourge is stunned for 4 seconds.
The debuffs would have been amazing, had the bastard’s Reduce Debuffs perk not automatically triggered. Despite that, Lex’s blow had done 200 points of damage. It wasn’t even 10% of the Scourge’s overall health, but it was more than anyone else had managed. The Scourge’s Reduce Debuff perk was annoying, but Gryph would not waste the opportunity Lex’s blow had given him.
Gryph leapt and poured mana into his spear, spent the 25 charges required to power Yrriel’s Maelstrom, and activated Penetrating Strike and his improved Impale. He came down hard on the Scourge and unleashed hell on the wraith.
The spear tip entered the Scourge’s shoulder and electrical power exploded through the man’s body casting bolts of electrical power in a wide arc. The Scourge screamed in horrid cacophony of multiple voices, but Gryph was far from done. Impale and Penetrating Strike both succeeded, likely because of the Scourge’s Stunned designation. All told, Gryph’s attack did over 500 points of damage and Impale prevented the man from counterattacking.
Gryph pulled his spear free and then punched it back down, activating his Quick Strike perk. The last second of the Scourge’ stun debuff prevented him from moving and Gryph’s second blow did another 200 points of additional damage.
The Scourge’s clumsy counter attack missed and Gryph spun out of range. He prepped Impale again, but this time activated Perk Surety. The nifty Tier Ability was usable once per day, and it guaranteed the success of one of his Stave/Spears Perks. Gryph’s third attack was guaranteed and Gryph’s spear impaled the Scourge through the stomach. He couldn’t use Yrriel’s Maelstrom again for another hour, but he did add another 36 points of electrical damage by triggering Yrriel’s Bite.
All told, Gryph and Lex’s attacks had reduced the Scourge’s health by nearly half, but it wasn’t enough. The soul wraith somehow ignored the stun debuff associated with Impale and wrenched Gryph’s spear from his stomach. He pushed with surprising strength and Gryph flew backwards.
Lex, how the hell did he do that?
Another damn perk. This guy has a shit ton. That one's called Counter Debuff.
Lex swung his hammer again, but without the element of surprise and the ability to power up with his perks, the clumsy swing missed. The Scourge lashed out with a powerful sideways kick and hit Lex in the chest. The NPC flew backwards and toppled over the edge and off the balcony.
“Lex!” Gryph screamed as the Ordonian disappeared. A second later a fleshy thud announced Lex had hit the floor, hard.
Ouch, Lex sent dully through the link. That hurt.
Satisfied that Lex was still alive Gryph returned his attention to the Scourge. He wheezed as the Stamina drain burned into his side. He readied his spear and stared at the Scourge.
The Scourge smoothed out the creases in his suit as if he didn't have a care in the world. That his own blood marred the material didn’t seem to bother him. “It has been an honor,” the Scourge said. “Too bad our mission lies elsewhere, for you would make an admirable addition to the quintessence.” He leaned back into a defensive position, his sword pointed at Gryph. He didn’t stay there long.
Before Gryph could react the Scourge was on him. He ducked under Gryph’s spear and pushed his blade under Gryph’s breastplate and into his side, adding a new wound to compliment the scar left by the Aberrant barely a week earlier. A pulse of energy zipped up the blade and into Gryph. He screamed as his health plummeted.
The Scourge pulled the blade free and the player collapsed to the ground, coughing up a spray of blood. Gryph saw the Scourge’s arm tense and knew a deathblow was coming. With the last of his strength, he rolled out of harm’s way and into a defensive stance.
The Scourge smiled wryly, pointed his blade at Gryph and backed into the Port Circle. A second later he shimmered and disappeared.
Gryph collapsed to the ground as the others shambled up to him. Errat helped him to his feet while Vonn and Ovrym each downed a health potion. Gryph stared at the empty Port Circle and all hope drained from him.
“Well that went well,” Lex said in a pained grumble as he sidled up next to the others, holding his broken left arm.
58
The archon cocked its head to the side as it watched the battle between Gryph’s Adventure Party and the Scourge reach its undesirable, yet inevitable, conclusion. He’d seen the action unfold from multiple angles, studying, extrapolating. Even now, he replayed the action in his head. He was sure that the Scourge’s aim was not aligned with that of the Vex. Had he been mortal this would have come as a relief.
But the archon was not mortal, in fact by the strictest definition of the word he was not even alive. He was a bipedal extension of the tower, created as both guardian and facilitator. Everything he was, the tower was. Everything he saw, the tower saw. For he was the tower, and the tower was he.
The fragment of pure order that powered his sentience simulated the situation a dozen times in the few seconds it took the Scourge to remove his blade from Gryph’s side and step onto the Port Circle. Each iteration returned the same result.
I cannot defeat the Scourge, the archon thought.
He turned and looked at the Order Engine. Inside the sphere the man pretending to be Harlan was moving faster than even his eyes could follow. The archon had turned the temporal acceleration field inside the engine to maximum. The device was draining the tower’s mana reserves at a furious pace and the field would not remain intact for long. What he was about to do would tax them further.
Hurry, the archon thought. There is not much time.
The archon cocked his head to the side and focused on sealing the opening in the tower wall. Had the archon been capable of the expression, he would have scowled. Never in all the millennia of
its existence on Korynn had this tower been breached.
The Vex’s rune-form had done its job well, and while the devotees of chaos were erratic, they were not stupid. More Vex will come. He needed to be ready. He needed to warn the others. With a mental twinge he activated the beacon and transmitted his warning across the veils between realms to the Lords of Order.
Satisfied that he had prepared as well as he could the archon turned his attention to the door. Soon, the Scourge would break through. Then this existence would end and make way for another. He felt the Scourge outside the door and watched as the soul wraith delved deep inside searching its many selves for a way through the door.
The archon prepared itself and waited. Behind him the high-pitched whine of the Order Engine slowed and time inside the sphere returned to normal. He has done it. Without turning his attention from the door, the archon watched the exhausted man stumble from the field.
“Congratulations,” the archon said. “It seems your efforts have garnered a positive outcome.”
“Yeah, I think so." Sean said. He was about to say more when the archon’s hand snapped up, silencing him.
A high-pitched whine rose, and the surface of the door shuddered. The archon examined the phenomena with his enhanced vision and saw that the molecules, the very atoms, of the crystal structure were shifting and moving, singing another tune. Harmonics reached a peak, and the Scourge stepped forward, easing between the atoms of the door and into the room. The noise ceased and the door’s solidity returned. The Scourge looked at the archon, and then past him to the man who wasn’t Harlan.
