by Rick Scott
Argh!
The Wing Eye hits you!
You take 157 damage.
The Wing Eye hits you!
You take 151 damage.
Crap! These little things hit pretty hard!
I immediately think of Gilly and fear for her safety, but she’s already one step ahead me. Soothing warmth washes over me as she casts a Great Heal spell, returning our Health bars to full. Rembrandt’s pistols are going nonstop, and I get XP updates as he picks off the monsters.
You defeated the Wing Eye!
You gain 5900 experience points.
You defeated the Wing Eye!
You gain 5900 experience points.
You defeated the Wing Eye!
You gain 5900 experience points.
You defeated the Wing Eye!
You gain 5900 experience points.
I guess Rembrandt was immune to the flash thanks to his tech-shades. I endure a few more scrapes from the nasty eye-bat creatures until finally, the blindness debuff wears off. My vision returns to see them swarming around us like a tornado. I slash at one of the bulbous creatures as it flies close and kill it in two hits.
You defeated the Wing Eye!
You gain 5900 experience points.
“These things have nothing for hit points!” I yell, slicing into some more.
“Yeah, if you can hit ’em!” Val Helena says, chopping nothing but air with her big axe.
I never gave thought to their defense being just like mine. High Agility and Evasion. With over 150 DEX for accuracy now, I guess I didn’t really notice it was an issue. Val Helena, however, has to resort to whipping her huge weapon in an AOE spin attack to solve her accuracy problem, taking down four more eyes in the process.
Maxis takes them down using jump kicks, picking off one or two at a time. Aiko does much the same as me, slicing them out of the air with precision strikes. Rembrandt does most of the heavy lifting, blasting them out of the sky with impeccable accuracy and in rapid succession. I down a couple more myself, and then the last of them falls, leaving us in a sea of twitching bat wings and busted eyeballs.
“Ew, gross,” Gilly says, making an icky face.
I nearly laugh, until the ground shakes beneath our feet again. “Is this it?”
“Get back-to-back,” Maxis shouts.
We do, just as three enormous crystals punch through the surface of the ground. They’re shaped like the obelisk I saw back in Brookrun, but where that one was only four feet tall, these ones are closer to thirty and thick like tree trunks. Just as Val Helena said, they’re different colors—one red, one blue, and one green.
Arcs of bright white lightning shoot out from between them, forming a triangular arena space about half the size of a football field. No one mentioned that we’d be penned in for this fight. While the area is still fairly large, the idea that we can’t just run away sends a new wave of anxiety coursing through my body.
Lightning shoots from the pillars, right at us! I let out a cry and jump back reflexively, but the lightning lances way above our heads and meets at a focal point in the center of the triangular ring. A dark globe forms at the center, expanding outward.
The corpses of the Eye Wings dissolve, collapsing into a cloud of black nano-dust that swirls and streams magnetically toward the orb.
“This is it,” Val Helena cries. I can hear the anxiety in her voice, and her eyes are wide. “It’s coming!”
My heart jackhammers in my chest as my palms grow slick with sweat. This is it! The reason Val Helena brought me here. I can’t let her down now. I’ve got to beat this thing, no matter how strong it is!
The black orb grows in size, and then bursts apart in a crackle of dark energy.
A horrid wail pierces the air, loud enough for me to cover my ears.
That sound . . . !
A creature the size of a Mountain Troll emerges from the orb—twenty feet tall, but lanky, with a body of dark sinewy smoke and the face of a skull. It unhinges its gaping jaw and wails, its throat a furnace of molten fire.
My heart stops. It can’t be!
My mind comes undone as I face one of the creatures from my nightmare.
It’s one of them . . .
It’s one of them!
Chapter 41: Shadow King
My blood turns to ice as the monstrous being releases another howl and charges at me like a sprinter out of the blocks. The ground shakes with its rapid footfalls, its massive body moving impossibly fast. Its spindly arms, long like telephone poles, swing wildly back and forth, throwing shale into the air as it closes the gap between us. It gets within fifty feet before its stats appear on my HUD.
Shadow King
Level: ???
N/A
Affinity: ???
My mind freezes with panic and incomprehension. How could this thing be here? I told Aiko and Val what those giants looked like. Why didn’t they tell me that the Shadow King was one of them?
“Reece!” Aiko screams at me. “What are you doing? REECE!!!”
Aiko’s shrill cry wakes me from my shock-induced coma, and I react with a scream of my own. I manage to force it into a War Cry, and the monster focuses on me. Its arms are so long that they reach me even from twenty feet away. It takes all my concentration to duck under them. The arms come whipping right back, and suddenly, it feels like I’m fighting against Ullithilli all over again. My new Agility must be compensating something fierce, though, because despite my panic, I’m able to squeeze through each hit.
“Careful of the sword in its right hand,” Val Helena yells as she charges toward the beast. “It can extend like a whip!”
Sword?! What the heck is she talking about? Are these guys seeing the same thing I am? “What sword?” I yell.
Val Helena buries her axe in the creature’s shin, and then shoots me a confused stare. “What?”
Holy crap! Am I hallucinating?
“Shut up and focus,” Maxis yells. He changes stance and begins pounding into the monster’s other leg.
My brother’s right. I don’t know what the heck is going on here, but I don’t have time to ponder it right now. I have to keep us alive.
And tank.
I release a yell as I strike back with full fury, fighting down my fear. The monster keeps me at bay with its long arms, but I strike at them, too, even as they flail at me with lightning-quick speed. It releases another wail, but this time, a concentric ring of fire comes blasting from its chest, radiating across the arena.
THOOM!
Aiko and I lose our shadows, while the rest of the team loses about a third of their HP each. For Gilly and Rembrandt, it’s closer to half.
“Back up, you guys!” I call out to them.
Gilly retreats a bit, out of range of the AOE, and then raises her bow to cast a spell.
Gilly casts Great Heal IV.
You recover 0 HP!
Gilly recovers 376 HP!
Maxis recovers 366 HP!
Val Helena recovers 374 HP!
Rembrandt recovers 355 HP!
Aiko recovers 0 HP!
Aiko recasts her Shadow Copy and performs a Backstab, reducing the monster’s health by about 2%. It flails about, and its right arm extends like an elastic band, whipping at Aiko, who narrowly dodges the attack.
“Put on the ring!” she cries, fending off the flailing arms with her kunai.
I’ve got to make this quick.
I materialize the ring and slip it on, enduring the 50 HP hit to my Health bar. A green light washes over me.
Gilly casts Rejuvenate!
You are slowly regaining HP.
I wait a second to see just how much the spell helps, and note that it cuts the -50 loss to -30. Not bad. I recast Shadow Copy and am amazed to see a mere 4-second recast timer. Wow! This ring was definitely worth the trip to hell and back!
I check the monster’s HP bar and see that it’s only at 95%, despite Val Helena hacking at it constantly, Maxis landing hit after hit, and Rembrandt pepperi
ng it with a stream of bullets. Gilly casts Second Wind on the cyberpunker and a heal on Aiko when she messes up a dodge, losing her shadow and taking a huge hit that wipes out half her Health bar!
“Hurry up!” Aiko screams in a panic.
Crap!
I rush forward and hit it with a Backstab of my own before yelling with War Cry.
“Face me!”
The “Shadow King” spins with an AOE attack that wipes out my shadow. And then it spins back to perform another one. Its clawed hand strikes me hard and bone-numbing pain fills my body.
ARGH!
The Shadow King hits you!
You take 753 damage.
Dang! That was a lot for one hit!
I wince in pain. I can’t afford to take another one like that.
I cast Shadow Copy, and the spell goes off in less than a second, narrowly saving me from another AOE spin attack. I weave through a couple more normal swipes from its claws before I get my shadow up again.
This ring sure is a lifesaver, but it’s killing me, too.
Gilly tops up my health with another heal, and I focus to get some kind of rhythm going. The world slows as I force myself into the zone and forget about what it is I’m facing. It’s just another monster. It has a pattern like everything else. I just need to learn it.
I take another couple claws as I screw up a couple times, losing my shadow and recasting between hits. Gilly is quick to respond, however, and keeps me close to full. I slide and roll across the shale to avoid the long sweeps of its arms, which I realize now, must look like swords to everyone else. I especially need to be wary of the “whip” one. More than a few times, it’s pegged me because I dodged the initial attack, but then got hit when it extended.
I lose track of time.
It’s only when conditions change that I note our progress. We hit the 70% mark on the boss’s HP, and a room-wide message appears.
Shadow King readies Pulse Fire!
Aiko lets out a curse in what I think is elven. She locks eyes with me. “Reece! Pull it to the edge of the arena! Everyone to the opposite side!”
What? We didn’t practice this! “What’s going on?”
“It’s about to do its AOE spam,” Aiko says. “Keep Shadow Copy up as much as you can. Gilly, keep him alive!”
Her words cause my heart to jump into my throat.
What the heck is about to happen?
I perform Retreat to gain some distance, and then lure the massive creature in my direction as the rest of the party runs the opposite way. When I reach the fence line, it does the same AOE move again, sending out a wave of fire from its chest as it releases an ear-shattering wail, only this time, it goes off about once every other second!
HOLY CRAP!
I lose my shadow and freak out! I recast Shadow Copy as soon as I can, but the waves of AOEs keep coming, hitting me like a freight train and singing my skin.
Shadow King uses Pulse Fire!
Your shadow absorbs the attack!
You take 618 damage.
You take 623 damage.
You take 621 damage.
My heart jumps when I see my HP chopped to a sliver, and then stops completely when I see the actual number.
43/1905 HP!
Oh God . . . !
Shadow Copy slips off cool-down, and I recast it just in time before the next wave lands.
Your shadow absorbs the attack!
But then the poison kicks in.
You take -30 poison damage.
13/1905 HP!
NOOO!
Gilly casts Heal V!
You regain +1892 HP!
My knees go weak with relief as I’m topped back up to full, but the slams keep coming.
“Gilly, keep healing!” I scream in panic. “Don’t stop!”
I recast Shadow Copy every moment I can and go from watching my damage to just how close I come to death before Gilly heals me up each time.
14/1905 HP!
23/1905 HP!
27/1905 HP!
17/1905 HP!
The attack finally stops, and the beast turns away from me, as if uninterested.
Holy crap! I can’t believe I survived that.
My heart is pounding like I just ran a marathon. I’m flooded with relief, but it lasts only a second before panic hits. I fear the boss might be going for Gilly! I yell at it with a War Cry, but it continues forward, undeterred.
I call out to her. “Gilly!”
She casts another heal spell on me, topping me up. “I got you!”
Doh! She thought I was calling for another heal! And I did need one, but she’s about to get hit now. A second later, I see I needn’t have worried after all. The Shadow King reaches the middle of the arena and stops before slowly rising into the air.
“The pillar phase!” Val Helena Screams. “Red first!”
I look for the pillar and see that it’s across the arena. I dash for it and Charge Strike the rest of the way, shooting under the Shadow King. It’s encased now in a blue sphere, lightning arcing from each pillar, powering it with energy, as indicated by a red bar that slowly fills underneath it.
It doesn’t take me long to figure out something bad is going to happen when that bar reaches full. I get to the pillar in time to see Val Helena and Maxis already slamming it, attacking with rabid ferocity. Rembrandt shoots it from afar, and Gilly blasts it with Holy Fire. Aiko and I do our part, as well, whittling it down with a flurry of small critical hits.
“How the heck did you survive that AOE without the ring?” I say to Aiko.
She cackles while slashing into the pillar. “I didn’t, remember?”
Man! This is crazy!
The Health bar on the pillar goes black, and the crystal fades to a dark gray. The arc of lightning feeding the creature’s shell disappears. Two left.
“Green!” Val Helena shouts.
We repeat the process, chopping it down just as fast.
“Blue!”
We down the final one, and then Val screams again: “Everyone group up on Gilly. Rebuff!”
We follow her commands and refresh our buffs. I have to admit, it’s a comfort to have Val Helena calling the moves play by play. It reminds me that she’s been a guild leader for a long time now. Seeing her in her true form is awe-inspiring. Above us, the blue shield surrounding the Shadow King shifts to red, glowing as the bar reaches full.
Shadow King readies Ultimate Demise!
“Here it comes!” Val screams.
The sphere explodes, and a wave of red-hot energy engulfs us.
Shadow King uses Ultimate Demise!
Your shadow absorbs the attack!
Aside from me and Aiko, our party’s hit points all go down by the same number, though the bars differ significantly. Gilly goes down by about three quarters, Rem and Maxis by half, and Val Helena’s barely moves at all.
“That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Maxis says.
“Because we destroyed all the pillars,” Val Helena says. “Thanks to you two. Damn, you guys got high DPS.”
“All me, love.” Rembrandt cracks a grin while spinning his pistols.
“Let’s stay focused,” Aiko cuts in, readying her blades in a reverse grip. “The adds are about to spawn.”
Not a second later, the Shadow King hits the arena floor and two smaller demons emerge from the ground in wisps of black smoke. Just as Aiko said, they look like smaller versions of the Shadow King—at least to me, anyway.
I still don’t know what the heck everyone else is seeing.
“I got them!” Maxis says, charging forward.
“Let me take one!” Aiko shouts with a War Cry to pull the second lesser demon toward her.
I nearly get caught up in watching them down the adds when I remember I still have a job to do. I Charge Strike the Shadow King at an angle, drawing its attention, and then Retreat in the opposite direction to make it chase me away from the rest of the group. I add a War Cry and make sure it’s set on me bef
ore I slip into the zone once again.
The adds are tough. I can see their HP bars dropping slowly as Aiko and Maxis work overtime to tank them. Val Helena coordinates their attacks, while she and Rembrandt target the one facing Maxis first. The three of them get it killed in about a minute, and then switch to help Aiko. She has hers down to 80% by the time they join her. Gilly’s working hard, too, healing up Maxis as he takes damage through his blocks and counters.
I focus on keeping myself alive, timing the rapid swings of the Shadow King’s arms, while sneaking in hits here and there. I keep Shadow Copy up and blow Active Dodge every chance I get to give me a break from the mental strain.
I hear Val Helena yelling with an attack buff, and then see her slam her massive axe into the Shadow King’s leg with a Power Attack. Maxis does the same, as does Rembrandt. The combined damage of hits is enough to drop the boss’s HP to 40%, but it also spins it in their direction.
Oh crap!
I use a War Cry to turn it back, but it’s too late!
The Shadow King hits them with an AOE swipe, nearly killing Rembrandt!
“Reece!” Aiko shouts, using a War Cry of her own.
The monster focuses on her, but her Shadow Copy is down. I hear Aiko scream with that same panicked cry I heard when she took over tanking the Witch Spider. She’s coming undone!
“Gilly, heal us up!” Val Helena shouts. “Quick!”
“I am! I am!”
Gilly casts two frantic Great Heal spells and tops them off just before another lightning-quick AOE lands.
My heart skips as I see both Aiko and Rembrandt drop into the red.
