Crystal Shards Online Omnibus 1
Page 67
I’ve got to regain hate! Fast!
I hide with a Charge Attack, and then sling my kunai forward with a Backstab.
You Backstab the Shadow King!
Critical hit!
You hit the Shadow King for 1345(672) damage.
It doesn’t turn. Still not enough!
“Reece!” Aiko cries, hysterical now. “Get it off me! Get it off me!”
“Come on!” I scream, and launch into it with a flurry of attacks. “Turn!”
I land several more critical hits and finally, the monster faces me with a mind-numbing wail.
Shadow King readies Pulse Fire!
“Everyone, run!” Val Helena yells. “Get out of range!”
I barely have time to prepare before the attack goes off.
Shadow King uses Pulse Fire!
Your shadow absorbs the attack!
You take 605 damage.
You take 612 damage.
You take 624 damage.
ARGH!!!
The pain is excruciating, but finally, I get a heal from Gilly.
“Reece!” she cries, sounding as though she’s on the verge of tears. “I’m about to run out!”
Holy crap!
My mind races for what I can do next. I need Gilly’s heals to stay alive!
I cast Decoy Shadow, alternating it between Shadow Copy.
The AOE hits, and I crumple into nano-dust and disappear, only to reappear a second later when the next wave hits. I manage to cut the damage in half for nearly all the attacks until Gilly finally heals me, or I get Shadow Copy up again. My heart is in my throat as I work the spells, kanji runes swirling around me constantly.
WHAM!
Cast!
WHAM!
Cast!
My HP bar yoyo’s dangerously close to zero with each volley, and my TP starts dipping close to empty. Then I hear the words I’ve been dreading.
“I’m out!” Gilly screams. “Reece!”
I keep casting my two spells and watch in terror as the attacks roll in.
Shadow King uses Pulse Fire!
Your shadow absorbs the attack!
You take 636 damage.
1269/1905 HP!
You cast Decoy shadow!
You take 322(644) damage.
947/1905 HP!
You gain the effect of Shadow Cloak!
You take 634 damage.
313/1905 HP!
You are no longer invisible.
No . . .
I wince for the next hit, the one that will be my last!
But it doesn’t come. The Shadow King lumbers away from me, heading for the center of the arena again.
Thank God!
I slump, weak with relief, but then actually feel weak as a wave of sickness courses through me.
You take -50 poison damage.
263/1905 HP
The poison! The regen must have worn off, too!
You take -50 poison damage.
213/1905 HP
“I got you!” Gilly yells.
Gilly uses Life Siphon!
Gilly loses 650 HP!
Gilly gains 1123 TP!
Her HP drops into the red, while her TP bounces to full. She raises her bow and casts a Heal V that soothes my body and brings me back to full health. Geez, that was close . . .
“Recover and move,” Val Helena yells. “Red!”
I snap out of my near-death trauma and join the others as we go through the process again, downing the pillars as fast as we can. My nerves are frazzled, and I notice that, this time around, there’s no witty banter or compliments about DPS. We’re sweating and panting for breath, our Stamina bars in the red. I glance at the Boss’s HP and see that it’s down to 30% now.
Almost there . . .
We down the last pillar and group up around Gilly again, refreshing our buffs as we wait for the room-wide AOE to go off.
“A little shaky at the end there,” Val Helena says, out of breath. “But we’re doing good. We just need to get through the adds phase and DPS it as hard as we can. We can win this!”
I’m all for that. I don’t know if I can handle another round of Pulses Fire again. I’m not sure Gilly can, either.
Shadow King readies Ultimate Demise!
“Here we go!” Val Helena cries as she raises her axe with a buff. “One last time!”
Shadow King uses Ultimate Demise!
The sphere explodes, and Gilly heals us up immediately. I pull the boss with a War Cry and head to the side of the arena just as the adds spawn. Aiko lets out another curse, and I get a sinking feeling that something has gone wrong.
“What happened?” I shout, ducking under a swing. But then I see what she’s cursing about. The adds have spawned, but there are three of them this time!
“Damn it!” Aiko shouts. “I forgot that it gets harder each round!”
“I’ll take one!” Val Helena says as she slams her axe into one of the mini-demons and buffs herself with a blue shield.
This doesn’t look good.
I focus on tanking the monstrous being before me—praying it’ll be the last time. If this battle only gets harder, then we can’t afford to go another round. Gilly throws heals left and right, trying to keep both Maxis and Val Helena topped up as they take big chunks of damage from the adds. Rembrandt concentrates on the one Val Helena is fighting, since she seems to be taking the most damage.
It’s painful and slow to watch, even at a glance, but they finally kill it and move on to the one Maxis is tanking. I keep my focus, counting the attacks, timing each one and utilizing Shadow Copy whenever I can. I can’t screw up. Not even to take one hit. Gilly’s too busy healing the others to focus on me.
I need to Dodge Tank the crap out of this!
And then I see something that makes my heart sink.
Shadow King readies Pulse Fire!
“Crap!” Maxis shouts. “We weren’t fast enough! The last add is still alive!”
“Reece!” Gilly screams. “I’m nearly out again!”
This can’t happen. I can see the result unfolding in my mind already. The last add is still up, Gilly’s TP is drained, and we’re all in range of the AOE.
We’re all about to die!
“Everyone, focus on the boss!” I cry. “Use your 24-hour moves!”
I cross my arms and activate my ultimate ability.
Reece uses Perfect Dodge!
Evade all attacks with unlimited Stamina and TP for the next 30 seconds.
This is it! “Gilly, keep them alive!”
Shadow King uses Pulse Fire!
Reece dodges the attack!
Reece dodges the attack!
Reece dodges the attack!
Reece dodges the attack!
Reece dodges the attack!
“Go, go, go!” Val Helena screams. “Thirty seconds!”
Aiko uses Perfect Dodge!
Val Helena uses Rampage!
Maxis uses 1000 Fists!
Rembrandt uses Ultimate Shot!
Rembrandt backflips out of AOE range and fires a huge burst of energy into the boss, dropping its health to 26%. I go all out, along with Aiko, attacking as rapidly as we can. The add is still on her, but with Perfect Dodge, she ignores it, invincible as I am. Val Helena chops the Shadow King with endless Power Attacks, while Maxis uses his healing fists to keep himself alive while pounding the boss nonstop. Gilly spams heals on Val Helena to keep her in the green, but with Val Helena’s huge hit point pool, Gilly manages to keep pace despite the rapid AOEs.
The Shadow King’s Health bar steadily depletes.
20%
19%
Maxis begins releasing power attacks of his own, further downing the boss.
16%
15%
“I’m going for it!” Aiko cries and quickly turns invisible as she crouches behind the boss.
She reappears a moment later, slamming both kunai into the back of its calf.
Aiko uses Backstab!
Aiko uses Assassinate!
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Aiko fails to Assassinate the Shadow King!
“Damn it!” Aiko curses. She does a healthy dose of damage, dropping it another 2%, but nothing else. “Reece, you try!”
Aiko uses a War Cry to spin it away from me, giving me the opportunity to Backstab it, but the monster doesn’t move.
“No! You’ve got too much hate! I can’t get it to turn!”
Crap! My Perfect Dodge is about to run out, too. I’ve got to activate my Assassinate skill somehow. A crazy idea pops into to my head, but I have no idea if it’ll work. Or if I can even pull it off!
Please, please, please let this work . . .
I cast Decoy Shadow and focus my senses just as my invincibility drops.
You cast Decoy Shadow!
You take 314(628) damage
You gain the effect of Shadow Cloak!
In the split second of my invulnerability, I prep Backstab and stack it with Assassinate. I launch upward with a Charge Strike, sailing through the air, and take a blast of fire in the process, becoming visible again.
You take 641 damage.
I cry out as I come face-to-face with the creature from my nightmares. Its throat rages like a furnace as it releases a wail, blowing my eardrums apart. I shove my kunai blade straight into its gaping maw and endure the searing heat as I cut through its insides.
Reece uses Assassinate!
My blade rips straight through the bone hinge of its jaw and right out the back of its skull.
You successfully Assassinate the Shadow King!
Reece has defeated the Shadow King!
I hit the ground with a roll the same time the massive body of the monster collapses into a heap of nano-dust on the floor behind me.
You defeated the Shadow King!
You gain 975000 experience points.
You gain a Veteran Point!
You gain a Veteran Point!
You gain a Veteran Point!
You gain a Veteran Point!
Gilly gains a Level!
Gilly gains a Level!
A portal appears!
[Congratulations! You have gained access to a new area!]
[You may now access the Labyrinth of Onizoso.]
Holy crap . . . we did it . . .
I collapse to the ground, exhausted, my head swimming. My body aches and throbs. I remove the Witch Spider’s ring so that I don’t accidentally kill myself while trying to recover. Then I roll to my knees to get my breathing under control and force my mind to slow back down to normal reaction times.
But as my thought process reverts back to normal, something worrying comes with it.
What the heck was that thing?
All around me, my teammates cheer in victory, but for me, there’s no elation. Just confusion as my mind struggles for understanding. I don’t know what the heck just happened, but I’m either losing my sanity, or the Shadow King is not what we think it is.
I look to the portal that’s formed where the “Shadow King” died. It’s oval in shape and reminds me of the portals in the Nexus back in the Shards. It’s swirling with multicolored light, but I can’t see through it, and I fear that it might not lead us where we think it will.
“Guys, something’s wrong,” I say, still a bit out of breath.
Val Helena looks to me, concern furrowing her brow. “Reece? Are you okay?”
Everyone rushes to me, then. I stagger to my feet, and my brother helps me up.
“What do you mean, something’s wrong?” Maxis says.
I look at each of them as they stare back at me with worry and fright, fearing perhaps that I‘ve been mortally wounded or something. “What did you guys see?”
“What do you mean?” Gilly asks.
“I mean, what did the Shadow King look like to you?”
Gilly shrugs. “Like a giant samurai in black armor, sorta. Right, guys?”
“Accurate,” Rembrandt says, nodding. “Why? What did you see?”
“I saw the same monsters I saw down in the mines,” I say. “A bit smaller, maybe, but the same. A body like smoke, with a skull face and fire in its throat.”
No one speaks for about a minute, shocked like I am, I presume.
“What does this mean?” Val Helena says, looking about, but no one has an answer.
I shake my head. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m going crazy or something.”
“Or maybe, when you nearly died, you gained some kind of insight,” Aiko says, stepping toward me. “You’re the only one to have seen those things. Maybe it’s given you some kind of ability to see them for what they are.”
I do remember my HUD getting garbled when I was there. But did it give me some kind of special ability? “Maybe . . . I dunno.”
“Guys,” Val Helena says. “I hate to say it, but we don’t have time to worry about this right now.” She points to the swirling blue oval. “The portal is open. We need to move before it closes.”
“Wait!” I say. “Are we sure we want to go in there? If that wasn’t the real Shadow King, then maybe that won’t lead us to wherever Becky is. It might trap us in that hell place I saw.”
A wave of uncertainty courses through us as we look at one another, new doubts and fears shining in our gazes.
“Man, I hate this,” Gilly says. “Nothing is what it seems.”
“Maybe for Reece,” Rembrandt says. “But not for us. I say we go.”
We all look at him. “What?”
“There’s no reason to believe that the Shadow King was a fake,” he says. “The way it looked to us is the same way it looked to you before, yeah? And it had a name. That means the Builder recognizes it somehow.”
“What are you saying?” I ask.
“That maybe you just discovered what the Shadow King really looks like. But it hasn’t changed from what it was before. I’m thinking that that portal will still send us to the same place.”
“I’m with Rembrandt,” Aiko says, folding her arms. “It followed the same fight mechanics, to a tee. If the labyrinth is somehow connected to that hell place, then maybe it always was. Maybe that’s where my sister really is.”
That sends a new wave of possibilities churning through my mind.
“We need to decide soon,” Val Helena says. “Or we’ll have to fight that thing again for another opportunity.”
Val’s right. This mystery, and how it’s all connected, will have to wait. Our opportunity is now. We have to take it. “Okay, let’s do this. We’ll figure it out on the inside.”
“Let me heal us up first,” Gilly says.
She raises her bow. It glows as she casts, returning our Health bars to full.
“Don’t want us to be heading in there weakened,” she says with a grin. “You don’t know what we might—”
Her words cut short as a resounding, wet thud fills the air.
She lets out a little gasp, and I look down to see a meter-long piece of crystal jutting from her chest. My heart stops. Gilly looks back at me, incomprehension and shock in her eyes.
“Gilly?”
Her eyes roll back as she falls to the ground, revealing an equal length of crystal sticking out of her back. Oh my god!
“Gilly!” we cry in unison.
I fall to my knees and shake her, her white witch’s outfit quickly saturating with dark red blood. She doesn’t respond. She doesn’t move. Her HP is at zero. Her green eyes grow fixed and lifeless as a trickle of blood drips from her mouth.
My heart drops through the floor as my mind comes undone.
“GILLY!”
Chapter 42: Guilt
Bruce felt the buzz in his pocket. He reached for his comm device, still sharing a laugh with Gina. He set his mug of herbal tea on the small coffee table in front of the couch and fished in his pocket for the device.
“Excuse me a moment,” he said.
Gina smiled politely and took a sip of her tea, cradling the steaming mug with both hands. They hadn’t really talked much thus far, just small chit-chat really, rememberi
ng some of the old days. But even having the opportunity to open up had lifted the burden from his soul.
Bruce was just about to cancel the message and return the device to his pocket when he noticed that it wasn’t a normal message. It was a relay from his own update device. The same device he had just given to Gina.
Only, this one was monitoring Gilly.
Bruce read the message, and his stomach went into freefall.
* * *
I’m shaking.
Uncontrollably.
I don’t even register what’s going on around me.
I’m only vaguely aware that the rest of my teammates are screaming, but all I can focus on is the light that’s left Gilly’s eyes and the hole it’s left in my soul. She’s dead. Gilly’s dead! My skin goes numb as I cry out in anguish and incomprehension.
How could this happen?
Grief turns to anger as my countenance darkens, and I look for someone to blame.
I glance up to find what attacked her and finally see what my teammates are shouting about. There, halfway between us and the edge of the caldera, stands a line of animals that look sort of like mammoths. They stand together, perhaps a dozen or so. Behind them is a line of giants as tall as the mammoths, and behind them are several ranks of soldiers. It’s an army. A whole army.
That’s not what draws my attention, though.
Atop the mammoths are saddles that resemble platforms with tented roofs, large enough to fit two or three people each. And on the center one, I see a face I know all too well.
“Braxus . . .”
My heart stirs with hate and anger at the sight of him. How the heck is he even here? I think back to when we were escaping. Was this the mission he’d given to the general? To cut across the mountains and wait to ambush us when we arrived at the Vale? Braxus was a war game strategist. A move like that would make total sense. I look at the giants and remember my quest becoming obsolete. It didn’t have anything to do with the wild. Braxus must have killed the leader of the giants and taken the territory over for himself.