by Edward Brody
I reached into my bag, grabbed a health potion, and was about to pop it when I realized that it would be better served if I could get the potion into one of my companion’s hands somehow. As I was putting it back in my unburdening bag, I remembered that I was still carrying my Liar’s Mask. With both Xurrak and Hoshgrim unaware that I was still alive, a little cunning seemed like my best option.
I grabbed the Liar’s Mask and placed it on my face.
Congratulations! You have learned the spell: Liar’s Walk.
I still had more than half my mana left, but with Hoshgrim resistant to fire damage, I knew I needed to get my staff back if I were going to take him down. I peeked around the corner to where my staff was laying, then eyed the nearby rocks where I could hide. There were only two that were large enough to conceal my body from Xurrak’s and Hoshgrim’s view, but the second one was close enough that I could get in decent range and possibly catch Hoshgrim by surprise.
“Get up!” Hoshgrim yelled as he yanked on Rithnar’s arm. “Stand or I’ll rip your arm off of you here and now!”
Rithnar moaned something incomprehensible.
I said a prayer, cast a Liar’s Walk and darted for my staff.
My invisible self didn’t stop as I bent over, grabbed my staff, and continued running for the next closest large rock, and I was pretty certain the spell wore off right before I dove behind it.
“Did you hear that?” Xurrak said.
“I heard something,” Hoshgrim said. “It’s probably that damn ancient beast.”
Xurrak grunted.
I took a deep breath, cast Liar’s Walk again and dashed for the next boulder, closer to them. This time, it almost looked as if Xurrak’s eyes were following me as I pushed myself as hard as I could and slid behind the rock like I was sliding into first base.
“That doesn’t sound like the beast,” Xurrak said. “It sounded like footsteps.”
“Maybe a scavenger lizard has crawled down here,” Hoshgrim said.
Arcane Slash, Arcane Missile, on-cast, I thought to myself as I reviewed my best possible combo for taking out Hoshgrim and figured I could follow up by casting Clumsy on Xurrak. I knew that last flurry of spells would likely wipe out my mana, but I figured if I could get a Clumsy on Xurrak, I might be able to close in and fight him with my staff and buy enough time to get a health potion into Rithnar’s or Mordok’s hands.
I cast another Liar’s Walk, ran out from behind the rock, and headed directly for Hoshgrim.
He was holding a wobbly Rithnar up by the collar of his charred chestpiece and gave him a shove right before I stopped a few meters behind him and swung my staff, releasing an Arcane Slash at his back.
He turned as if he heard or sensed me coming right as I released the spell, but he had no time to react. The Arcane Slash powered into his abdomen, tearing through his robe, ripping his skin, and breaking his staff. He grabbed at his wound and stumbled backwards as I ran forward and released an Arcane Missile from my palm. The missile was perfectly aimed and landed right in his chest, causing him to lose the last of his balance and fall on to his back.
Xurrak’s eyes were wide with confusion as he watched me jump over Hoshgrim and aim the top of my staff down at his face as I passed by. My aim was off, and the energy shard that exited landed in his shoulder, but Hoshgrim’s wail of despair told me it had been effective.
Clumsy, I thought as I turned my attention to Xurrak, who was still standing over a dazed Mordok. I heard a twanging sound in my ears, letting me know the spell had worked.
I swung my staff at Xurrak, who lifted his staff to block the blow, and when I knelt to try to sweep his one standing leg, he remarkably slammed his staff down in time to block, causing my leg to clash against his staff instead.
Mordok seemed to notice me attacking, lifted his arm, and a magical chain ejected from his hand, wrapping around Xurrak’s leg. He flopped his hand on the ground, attaching the chain to the hard rock below.
Seeing Mordok responsive and so close, I quickly reached into my bag, grabbed the health potion, and tried to sneakily slip it to him, but Xurrak lifted his staff and swiped my hand, causing the health potion to fall to the ground.
Mordok lifted his leg and kicked the back of Xurrak’s knee, and Xurrak finally came tumbling down, his leg remaining connected to the chain as he fell back and over Mordok.
I stood up and slammed my staff into Xurrak’s hip, causing him to wail, drop his staff, and reach out awkwardly to block me. I knocked his hand out of the way, and when I slammed my staff down again, this time at his chest, he used his skeletal arm to catch it.
He squeezed my staff tightly and tried to pull it away but seeing that the tip of it pointed right for his heart, I released an on-cast, firing a shard of arcane energy into the center of his chest.
Xurrak let go of my staff, bucked, and howled. I swung my staff at his chest again, which he made a weak attempt at blocking. I hammered the staff down again, hitting the side of his face.
You have reached level 11 in Staves!
He raised his skeletal arm to block my next shot and weakly groaned, “Wait please!”
I ignored him and smashed my staff down into his face again, causing his face to lurch to the side.
“Wait! No! Please!” he yelled.
“Fuck you!” I replied.
“Gold!” Xurrak blurted as he spit blood from his lips. “I’ll give you gold!”
Xurrak’s lack of magic counterattacks made it appear that he was out of mana, and without his staff or magic, he didn’t seem like a particularly dangerous fighter. So, at the mention of gold, I at least wanted to hear his proposition.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Allow me to live, and I’ll give you gold,” he clarified. “Name your price!”
I needed gold. In fact, my guild needed a lot of gold to rebuild our village, but as soon as I put my mind to it, I couldn’t think of a price that would warrant me letting the scumbag live. I lifted my staff and slammed the bottom tip down into Xurrak’s throat.
“Waaaait!” Xurrak gurgled, grabbing the end of my staff and trying to prevent himself from suffocating. “Magic! I’ll give you…. cawwwwk!” He was choking as I pressed as hard as I could.
“Magic?” I questioned. I pulled back, and Xurrak flailed his arm about.
“I’ll teach you magic! I can teach you a new branch of—”
I slammed my staff into his face again. I didn’t need to learn a new branch. I raised my staff up high and when I hammered it down, he held up his skeletal hand to block, causing me to break through his brittle arm.
Xurrak howled, “Noooo!”
I smashed my staff into his face two more times, cutting off his screams and causing him to spit more blood.
“Please…” he said weakly. He held up his hand, halfheartedly blocking my next blow. “A spe… spe… special…” He groaned and spit. “… special spell. My spell!”
“Your spell?” I questioned.
“Unye… Unyielding Sacrifice.” He groaned and turned his head to the side. He licked his lips and swallowed. “I’ve hidden a copy in Morgsgorg… ne…ne…near the throne. I can show it to you, give it to you… Please.”
I swallowed hard. Xurrak was offering me a lot for his life. Gold, magic, and now a copy of his ultimate spell—one that allowed him to immediately heal himself and avoid death by sacrificing half of his stats. It was a pretty good bargain, I had to admit, especially with such a spell on offer. But I just still couldn’t justify letting a guy like that live. And I was a Reborn after all. I didn’t want to ever die by any means, but as a Reborn who would return to life anyway, Unyielding Sacrifice would be almost as garbage a spell as Arduous Swap. I wouldn’t mind having it, but it didn’t seem like something that I’d ever put to use. If I were to ever acquire the spell, I’d probably just sell it or give it to a non-Reborn ally.
“Forget it,” I said. “You die today.”
I tilted the top of my staff
down at Xurrak’s head and released another on-cast ability. I flinched when the shard of magic shot unintendedly straight through the old orc’s eye, which was particularly gruesome to see. Xurrak’s arm fell limp and his mouth went wide, but I hit him in the head with my staff a couple more times to finish him off.
Thwack!
Thwack!
Xurrak’s body suddenly flashed a bright white, and he reached up shockingly fast and grabbed the Liar’s Mask with his one remaining hand. Pressure and flames shot out of his body, causing me to fly back and drop my staff as he ripped the mask from my face.
You have forgotten the spell: Liar’s Walk.
I groaned when I hit the ground, and my head swam. My skin felt like it was sizzling, and I glanced at my health bars to see that they were hovering at 15%.
“Ohhhhh!” Hoshgrim cried out weakly.
Mordok was groaning as well.
“Idiot human!” Xurrak barked as I lay rocking in pain on the ground. “You cannot kill me! You cannot kill the Immortal King!”
“You’ve stung me with your spell!” Hoshgrim cried.
“You’ll live,” Xurrak spat. I heard his foot kick out a couple times. “You think this chain will stop me?!” he continued. I heard a boom and a clang, then a dull thump. Mordok cried out in pain and started coughing again.
I sat up, shook my head, and looked down at my blackened, burned skin, my empty mana pool, and nearly empty health.
Xurrak was free of the chain somehow and had retrieved his staff. All of his wounds had been healed, but his skeletal arm was now a skeletal stump, and hooked onto one of his fingers was my mask. He limped towards me slowly.
“Do you know what you’ve done?” Xurrak said, shaking his head. He dropped my mask on the ground, hobbled forward and placed his foot on it.
My jaw dropped and my heart sank when he leaned his weight onto his foot, and I heard the sound of the mask shatter to pieces.
He twisted his foot before he continued towards me. “You made me use my spell again, so now it’s going to take me even longer to return to my duel with Ergoth!” He pointed his staff towards me. “I will kill you for this!” His chest heaved, and his breath was heavy. “I’ll remove your limbs while you’re still alive, but not just that. I’ll start with your eyeballs and your tongue, or maybe—yes! I’ll cut off your little, human prick.”
I jolted my feet out and started scooting back as Xurrak hobbled closer. With no staff, no weapon, and no mana, I felt completely helpless.
“Just finish him!” Hoshgrim whined, before coughing and hacking. “We need orc parts, not human! Just finish him!”
“No!” Xurrak roared. “I won’t be chopping him to bits for the spell, but I’ll do it for fun.”
I continued to scramble back, further and further away as Xurrak continued forward. I turned and got even more nervous as I noticed I was getting close to the Gilgaroth again.
Xurrak laughed. “I don’t know how you’re still alive, but if you go that way, I’ll make sure he eats you this time.”
I thrust my hand out as I scrambled back more, trying to cast a Fireblast at him, even though I knew I didn’t have enough mana. I thrust my hand out again when the spell failed and tried with an Arcane Missile, then focused on a Fire Curtain, hoping somehow one of the spells would activate.
I looked towards my staff lying near Mordok, who was silent and no longer moving. I wanted to make a run for it, but Xurrak was standing right between us.
The only option I had left was Sora… the one resource left that I really didn’t want to use near the Gilgaroth.
My eyes shifted as I considered summoning her, but when I turned back to the ancient beast, fear of her crossing over at the wrong place worried me again. Was I missing something? Was there any other way?
Arcane Blast, Clumsy, Divine Sight, Firebomb… I went over my spell repertoire, thinking If only I could make a run for it and meditate long enough to use one of the spells effectively. I just needed mana.
Then it hit me… that spell. I actually did have one spell left that I could cast, as it didn’t require a set amount of mana. The trash spell.
Arduous Swap.
The spell that I thought I’d never have much use for, with its 90% mana cost, should’ve still theoretically worked with only a few percentage points of mana left. 90% of almost nothing was still almost nothing, so with my mana virtually tapped out, it was almost a free spell. It was only useful on enemies that were sufficiently lower in level which Xurrak wasn’t a few minutes ago at level 50, but if had used the Unyielding Sacrifice ability, he was now only level 25—a full eight levels lower than me. That sounded ‘sufficiently lower’, but was it low enough that the spell would work?
I glanced behind me again as I continued to scramble. I was closing in on the Gilgaroth, and judging by its piercing eyes, it was already waiting for me to move in range, so it could smash me again and end my life. So, what if I purposely got close enough that the Gilgaroth could kill me, but swapped with Xurrak at the last moment?
The spell only worked within 20 meters, according to Sephora, so I would need to bait Xurrak into getting within that range of the trapped ancient beast.
It all sounded like another one of my awful plans that would end up going wrong somehow, but it was all I had—an awful spell in an awful situation.
“Please…” I fake whined and held my hand out to Xurrak. “Please don’t kill me!”
Xurrak chuckled and continued hobbling towards me. “You’ve lost your chance at salvation, human.”
“No, please,” I whined and glanced behind me. “Don’t push me close to that thing!”
Xurrak laughed again. “If you don’t wish to be eaten, stop moving backwards.”
“Please,” I said again, scooting back at nearly the same speed as Xurrak’s hobble, keeping about five or so meters between us. I knew that once I could judge myself at around fifteen meters or so from the Gilgaroth’s hand was when I’d stand and make a run for it.
The Gilgaroth head shifted against the hard ground, and its claw scratched against the rock as it extended its hand out as far as it could.
“You’re getting closer,” Xurrak warned cockily. “Be careful.”
“Gunnar…” Rithnar groaned. Across the room, he rolled over on his side and groggily tried pushing himself up. “Gunnar, don’t get too close.”
Xurrak turned angrily and looked like he was about to cast a spell.
“I’m going to run!” I yelled, trying to draw Xurrak’s attention back to me.
As expected, he turned back around, making sure I didn’t go anywhere. He grinned. “Are you now?”
I glanced behind me again, scooted a bit more, and felt I was now within 15 meters of the Gilgaroth’s hand. I stopped and shook my head. “No…”
Xurrak hobbled forward. “Yes, there’s no way to run. Now you’re mine.”
I watched as Xurrak grew closer and closer, and when I was undoubtedly less than five meters from him, I scrambled up to my feet, and ran straight for the Gilgaroth.
Xurrak laughed. “Run that way, and you die, stupid human!”
“Will I now?!” I yelled and powered forward in my fastest sprint. My heart thumped as the Gilgaroth watched me running for it, its brow creased, and its mouth pursed in anticipation. Fear of death tugged at me, not knowing the chances of spell failure, but I fought through it, and when I was a couple meters away from the Great Beast’s hand, I jumped into a slight dive and spun around when I was in midair. “I think you will!”
I slammed my hands together when I had a view of Xurrak and focused on casting my Arduous Swap on him. There was a subtle Woppp sound, and I suddenly found myself standing straight, facing away from the Gilgaroth.
I turned to see Xurrak fly forward in my place, dropping his staff as his head pounded into the hard claw of the Gilgaroth. He flailed his arm about in confusion, but that quickly ended when the Gilgaroth hastily raised its hand and plunged it down into Xurrak’s back.
Xurrak screamed as the Gilgaroth dragged its claw against the ground, pulling Xurrak closer to it and leaving a thick streak of blood behind.
The Gilgaroth lifted its claw with an impaled Xurrak still attached and eyed him curiously. The monster smirked, and pressed one of his claws against the other, crushing the orc in the process.
Xurrak gurgled, and blood poured from his mouth before he went silent, and when all movement stopped, the Gilgaroth moved its claw into its mouth and pulled Xurrak off with his teeth and lips. It chewed once, twice, swallowed, and extended its arm back out across the ground. It seemed to smirk, and its eyes homed in on me as if I were its next target.
You have gained 12,400 XP!
“My…my…King…” Hoshgrim whined, causing me to spin and turn my attention to him. He still appeared injured on the ground, but I immediately ran for my staff as I wasn’t taking any chances.
“Now it’s your turn!” I yelled as I grabbed my weapon. I held it out in front of me as I started marching towards him.
“No, don’t!” Rithnar said. “Don’t kill him.”
“Why?” I asked angrily.
“We need him,” he said.
“Need him why?”
Rithnar groggily crawled over to Hoshgrim and wrapped an arm around his neck. Hoshgrim reached up and tried to talk but was unable to speak through the pressure of Rithnar’s arm.
“I’ll handle him,” Rithnar said. “Check on Mordok, please.”
I shuffled over to Mordok, and by initial appearances, he was dead. Part of his robe was blackened, he was immobile, and his face was bruised from shots he had taken from the rocks. I grabbed his arm and shook it. “Mordok! Come on man, get up!” I gave his face a hard slap with my hand. “Don’t die, dude! We can’t rez you! Fuck!”
Mordok’s head shifted slightly, and he slowly cracked open one of his eyes. “Don’t slap me like that, or I’ll kill you, human,” he groaned.
I breathed a sigh of relief, leaned back and sighed.
Clap, Clap, Clap…
I turned at the sudden clapping noise and thought I was hallucinating when Eanos was walking towards me from the direction of the seal’s entrance, slapping his hands together slowly. A portal was swirling right behind him.
