Hope Engine

by Andrew Lynch

  “That is as good an explanation as any. It does not really matter. Yet.”

  ‘Ahh, don’t worry guys. I just summoned the new familiar, which turns out to be the elite weapon, and he’s in my head.’

  No one seemed particularly fine with the concept, but before anyone could actually question my competence…

  ‘We can deal with that later,’ Bri said, ever the pragmatist. ‘For now we have elites to fight. There’s a village to save, you know, all the reasons we’re doing this.’

  I’d give her that one. I had become a bit side tracked.

  I whirled Dark Thorn around in my hands, and it felt like a piece of me. I knew where it was at all times, and despite being covered in wicked looking thorns, they didn’t bite into my flesh even once.

  “That’s right. You need only think, and I can do.”

  Not at all creepy. It was literally reading my thoughts! I had no idea how. Surely I controlled this game with my eyes and finger impulses. It shouldn’t be able to know what I’m thinking.

  “There is more to this than you think.”

  Okay. Umm… can you please stop responding to my inner dialogue?

  …

  Better.

  I turned to Arthur. ‘All right, boy, let’s do this!’

  Arthur ignored me and scratched at the ground. Bri cleared her throat and Arthur snapped to attention.

  I cracked my knuckles. ‘Charmed by you, right. Do you know what will happen when these two go head to head?’

  ‘Nope,’ Bri said.

  ‘Anyone?’ I asked the surrounding troops.

  No one spoke up.

  I grinned, a sudden surge of excitement running through me at the thrill of battle, of beating The Eastern Shadow, of seeing two elites fight, and of winning.

  Chapter 53: Double Showdown Part 1

  ‘Get out of there!’ I shouted to my Agility troops.

  As they tried to run, the Child of Light gave chase. With no one in range to distract it any more, it began charging up a globule of acidic light spit. There would be no dodging that as my men ran for their lives.

  Arthur stomped into range of the Child of Light, and bellowed a Taunt. The worm beast cancelled its cast and returned its own cry toward the Moonbeast.

  I placed my hand on Arthur’s leg and patted him. ‘It’s all you, buddy. Wreck face!’

  Bri did the same on the other side of him and gave a single command. ‘Kill.’

  Arthur spread his wings, and a beam of light formed around the worm. The same spell that had killed Ixly. His broken feathers began to ripple in the magical wind, and I found myself being pulled toward him. Dust and pebbles began being pulled in as well. I pushed against his leg to stop myself from stumbling. The moonlight spread to encompass the whole of the Child of Light, and Arthur began breathing hard.

  The Child of Light realised what was happening and began to use its defensive ability, Burrow.

  Just as Burrow cast, Arthur pulled his wings back, and finally unleashed the spell. The beam of moonlight thickened from an ethereal glow to a blinding white light, and like a lunar lightning, crashed into the ground.

  Where the Child of Light had been.

  Now the earth rumbled from unseen movement.

  ‘Uhh, Bri. Time for us to get out of here?’

  ‘I concur. Arthur seems to have things under control!’

  We both turned, but before I could take a step towards Thanis, the red warning area appeared no more than a metre in front of us.

  ‘Ambush!’ I shouted, and dived away from the red.

  I managed to get clear before the Child of Light broke the surface, and Bri seemed to avoid it as well with her cat-like reflexes. Arthur, being big as all hell, wasn’t so lucky. He was knocked forward, thrown to the ground. It didn’t do much damage, but it had him stunned.

  The Child of Light had broken through the ground and I could see it was casting the light spit attack again, aimed directly at Arthur.

  Out of instinct I started to place myself between the two elite combatants. I could give Arthur enough time to get back to his feet. He was the powerhouse that could actually save Thanis, not me.

  “Don’t.”

  Dark Thorn’s roots gripped a little harder as I tried to pull it from the ground this time. I stopped myself from going any further. Dark Thorn was right–

  “I always am.”

  I said stop that!

  Thorn was right, there was no point getting myself killed.

  The Child of Light’s body spasmed and its layered mouth opened into sections, while a great glowing yellow liquid was projectile vomited forth. The attack was big enough that it would have washed straight over me and hit Arthur regardless. Good call, Thorn.

  The stream of light smacked into Arthur, who let out a screech of pain. The light splashed to the ground and solidified. I could see Arthur’s Life draining. The light spit was dealing constant damage as if it was an acid, but it had now trapped Arthur in place. I looked helplessly to Bri, who was as lost as I was.

  “Use me.”

  The words held more meaning than they should have. In those two words, there was no confusion about where or how to use Dark Thorn, and I knew exactly what effect I would have. I sprinted to Arthur, held Dark Thorn like a spear, with the gnarled, glowing end ready to strike.

  I was close enough to the acidic light, yet there was no heat, no malice. But I knew if I took one more step, or slipped, I’d lose a limb.

  “There would be no dead wind for you this time.”

  No dead wind? Whatever, I didn’t have time for poorly explained sentences. I thrust Dark Thorn into the light, and the jagged thorns cut the hardened light with ease. The staff sank deep, until the glowing darkness met the light. The hardened light cracked, fracture lines running all over before it exploded apart, jagged chunks flying past my face. Yet Thorn had steered me right, knowing what would happen.

  Bri hadn’t been so lucky. She was fast, agile, and a skilled fighter. But she didn’t manage to dodge a huge chunk that knocked her to the ground, taking off 25% Life.

  ‘Communication, Severo! A bit of warning! Eyes!’

  ‘Sorry!’

  Arthur, enraged by being knocked down, and now realising he was free, flapped and scrambled back to his feet. I narrowly avoided taking a wing to the face as I got myself back out of the line of fire of the two elites.

  Arthur turned on the Child of Light, who I hadn’t been paying enough attention to, and which had almost finished casting another light vomit bolt.

  Arthur flapped his arms, casting a miniature cyclone between the two of them. The wind was fierce and whipped my robes around me. If I hadn’t had Dark Thorn planted firmly in the ground, I would have lost my footing. Everyone in the area gained a debuff, giving them -50% to ranged accuracy.

  The light spit shot into the cyclone and was thrown off course enough that Arthur managed to narrowly avoid it.

  Arthur wasted no time with his next attack. So far I’d only seen him cast spells. They were big spells, with big effects. Same for the Child of Light. But now I saw an elite monster, the size of a house, charge. His talons tore up the brittle earth with every step. He used his wings to give himself a bounce and a speed boost. By the time he’d crossed the ground between the two elites, he was the fastest travelling object I’d seen in Tulgatha.

  Even as big as he was, the Child of Light was taller still, and as Arthur made his final steps, pushing off powerfully to tackle The Eastern Shadow’s most powerful unit, he showed his true physicality. He may have been a creature infused with arcane magic, but the magic didn’t define him. His raw strength did. He slammed into what should have been a wall of powerful hydra muscle. He should have hit, then had to claw and peck to deal damage. But he’d infused his charge and his wings and the air around him with his magic. He was a bird of prey that didn’t need flight to kill something larger than himself.

  Arthur collided with the hydra, and the hydra gave way. Its long neck di
dn’t have the strength to stay upright, and it snapped back from Arthur’s force, taking huge critical damage. In a single hit, Arthur had taken 40% off the Child of Light.

  ‘Yes!’ Bri shouted in triumph.

  I was too stunned at the display of raw power to use words. I started laughing. How do you kill the Child of Light? With an elite that you could only bring to your side because your top minion got annoyed and poisoned one of The Eastern Shadow’s own men! Horace may have started this war, but he’d also given us the ability to finish it.

  Arthur hit the Child of Light so hard, and flattened it with so much force, that he kept going and skidded on his front. The hydra shook off the stun effect of the tackle quickly, and instantly retreated back into its hole.

  The earth that it ruptured as it burrowed to a new position left a clear trail, so we wouldn’t be losing it any time soon. Arthur gave chase to the moving mound, and I ran over to Bri.

  ‘You okay?’

  She held a hand up for me to take, and I pulled her to her feet. ‘I could have dodged that crystallised light. I’ve just never seen magic do that before.’

  ‘Never doubted you.’

  ‘Good. Now, it seems that we are a touch out of our depth.’

  ‘Bri, admitting something is too difficult for her? Oh, I’ll have to remember this. Regale future generations with the once in a lifetime occurrence!’

  She stared at me then jabbed me in the ribs. ‘Shut it. And let’s be honest, we would only get in the way of that fight and end up dead because one of them fell on us. Let’s go rest while we can. Get ready for more.’

  “No. You are needed.”

  ‘No. I need to stay. For some reason.’

  ‘What could you possibly add to this fight?’

  My grip tightened on Dark Thorn.

  ‘Oh. Well, don’t do anything stupid.’ She placed a hand on my forearm, and I caught a flash of sea salt and pearls, of fresh fields and… prison? ‘If that’s possible for you.’

  I turned and watched her go, her druidic robes swaying in a manner all too pleasing. What had I just seen?

  “Her Truth.”

  Truth?

  …

  Thorn? What truth? What do you mean?

  “Watch out.”

  He said it in such a calm voice that I wouldn’t have known how serious the coming attack would be if it hadn’t been for whatever this bizarre mental connection was. Along with the words came another sense. It wasn’t sight, but somehow I knew what Thorn could see.

  I dived to my right just as the splash damage from another light vomit ricocheted past where I had been standing.

  “You are not ready for the light yet. We are not bonded.”

  Well yeah, those light attacks would probably one shot me. And what do you mean “bonded”?

  “We must spill light blood to unlock true power. You must sacrifice life.”

  Oh, nice. Weapon based quests. Like a mastery skill or talent tree?

  …

  How talkative of you.

  I turned to see Arthur gripping the Child of Light in his wings, biting frantically at what counted for a face on the terrifying hydra. The way I saw this fight was that the Child of Light had the edge on physical ranged attacks and magic, while Arthur was a monster up close.

  With Arthur right in the hydra’s eyeless face, stopping it from running away, it began to open its segmented maw. The outer leathery hide opened up to show rows of circulating teeth and deeper mandibles that shot out and dug into Arthur’s shoulder causing him to scream in pain. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen fast. The Child of Light may have been near impossible for my troops and I to deal with, but it was now sitting on 45% health after barely a minute of fighting. But after that latest hit, Arthur was on 40%.

  I gripped Dark Thorn in two hands and jogged towards the two elites.

  “The awakener notices.”

  Thorn really had a thing for cryptic messages, but thanks to the mental link, I saw what he meant. Koif. He had stopped his pretence of a stoic “I had to do it, sorry” visage, and was watching me. A small hand gesture, and his men all rose to their feet. They didn’t move towards me. Yet.

  But for now, I had bigger hydra to fry!

  At the point I was close enough to cast a spell, the Child of Light was thrashing around with enough force to move Arthur with it, and it seemed like Arthur was holding on to keep the range closed to avoid any more light vomit. A good strategy, but he definitely didn’t have the upper hand like I’d thought he had.

  But I already knew my spells were worthless, so what was I going to do here?

  “You have me now.”

  So I did… but by this point they were in the middle of a furious waltz, the Child of Light spinning and twisting, while Arthur was being lifted from his feet with every movement.

  Do you know what to do?

  “Yes.”

  Can you tell me?

  “No.”

  Right. Of course not.

  The Child of Light finally managed to twist Arthur to a point that when the moonbeast came back down to earth, his talons slipped and he fell, bringing up a dust cloud as he skidded out of melee with the hydra.

  This was my chance. I began casting my Soulburn at the same time the Child of Light began his Arthur-crippling Light Bolt. Luckily, mine was only a two second cast. The Child of Light may have been an absolute monster, but it was a slow one.

  The Soulburn shot from my hands. I hardly had to aim, even at this range. It landed centre mass and a little number pinged off the Child of Light’s nameplate. “459”.

  Woah. Dark Thorn had seriously boosted me to let me do that much damage to an elite! But also, 459 had only just knocked off 1% of its Life, leaving it still well above 35%.

  I heard wind rushing past me. No, it was a sigh. What?

  “Think. Use deduction. You won’t achieve the plan this way.”

  Think? I’m pretty sure that using my most powerful attacks on it is the correct option here! What other choice is there? I felt the roots of Dark Thorn creep slowly forward like it was trying to walk. Actually that was exactly what it was doing! Okay, I needed to get closer. I began a cautious run toward the Child of Light.

  As I decided what to do, the Light Bolt cast, scoring a direct hit on Arthur’s face. I heard a wail of animal pain that was cut short and turned into a muffled cry accompanied by flapping wings and legs.

  His Life dropped to 20% left. I kept running, and I gripped my jailor’s chain tightly as I noticed that Arthur’s Life was ticking away. He was suffocating. So far, every tick of a DOT I’d seen in game had happened every three seconds. On the first tick he dropped to nineteen Life. One percent every three seconds, so if the Child of Light didn’t touch him again, I had fifty seven seconds to free him. Which I could only do by killing the Eyes-blasted hydra.

  “Correct.”

  Oh, you’re willing to give answers now. Right, how do I kill it?

  Again, the wind rushed past my ears. Thorn sighing. “When I say think, I mean remember.”

  I kept running and was now only ten metres from getting myself killed by the angry elites. I skidded to a halt and, for some reason completely fucking beyond me, I shouted at the Child of Light.

  ‘Hey! Over here!’

  It ignored me. Thank the Eyes it ignored me. What was I thinking. I needed time to think about what I was doing, not charge in headlong without a plan. Thorn had told me to think.

  ‘Yo! You look like a giant dick!’

  The Child of Light stopped its constant swaying for a split second and turned to view me head on. Arthur had ticked away to 15% Life. I had to make this suicide quick.

  Five second cast time.

  Think.

  No, remember.

  This did all seem kind of familiar, actually. Slightly larger scale. When had I seen this before?

  Oh! The Light Parasite! Yes, of course. I’d been doing next to no damage, slowly ticking away at its life. I obvious
ly didn't have time for that now. But I’d managed to get a critical hit on it. Consistently. I’d shot it in–

  The Child of Light opened its maw directly at me, and I could see a glow at the back of its throat, behind its three layers of circular rotating teeth, past its shooting mandibles, past its trifecta of gruesome, leathery mouth flaps. The Light Bolt grew.

  I began casting Soulburn.

  “Good.”

  The purple ooze gelled into my left hand and bubbled, evaporating into the magical liquid death mist. I raised my right hand, using the glow from the Light Bolt to know I was on target. The mist was pulled by an unstoppable force, mere wisps fraying at first, enshrouding my target hand, using it as an anchor before finally slingshotting forward, leaving trails of purple mist in its wake like a tracer round fired from a gun.

  Too fast to follow, it shot past the leathery mouth guards, the mandibles, the constantly gnashing teeth, and ruined the perfect glow of the light at the back of its mouth. The Light Bolt was interrupted, just like the Light Parasite’s leap attack had been when I critical-hit it. I saw the trail of purple smoke continue out the other side of the Child of Light’s head.

  I had never seen a number so big, not just ding off its nameplate, but crack off, snapping the bar in half. The Child of Light reeled back, letting out its own inhuman screech. It began to fall into its hole. Not snap back quickly but fall in pain.

  “You must kill it. Chase!”

  Before Thorn had finished talking, my feet were moving. I ran toward the falling hydra, and as it sank below the ground, about to escape with only 30% health left, I jumped. I leapt. I fucking dived into its maw.

  Chapter 54: Double Showdown Part 2

  For a brief moment, my world was pincers, mandibles, and teeth. It was the red gore of biological innards. Then it was sharp points, awkward angles, the slick wetness of intimacy, and blackness.

  I felt muscles constrict and begin to crush me. They rippled around me, trying to move me. The bastard was trying to swallow me! I tried to breathe, but a wall of moist, contracting muscle slammed into my face and once again I felt the sensation of my lungs building up with stress and fire as I wasn’t able to breathe. Eyes, why had I done this?