by A F Kay
“We still need to get through that shield,” Sift said.
Ruwen faced Talker, who looked confused. The red orb still floated above his head, but it didn’t affect Ruwen at all. If they could get just one stun off, the Wraith wouldn’t be able to dodge, and Ruwen felt confident his boulders could overwhelm the Energy shield.
Ruwen glanced back at Hamma. “Doesn’t your new bracelet cause a Dazzled debuff?”
“Yes, but I think I need to attack or be attacked. Should I move closer?” Hamma asked.
“No, you’re too valuable,” Ruwen said.
“Talker is moving,” Sift yelled.
Ruwen turned his attention back to Talker, who strode toward them. Sift stood relaxed and ready to meet the Wraith. Like always, Sift had put himself in front of danger.
An icy shard went through Ruwen’s mind as thoughts collided: the Dazzled effect from Hamma’s bracelet, along with Sift laying in a pool of his own blood as a bright light filled the early morning sky. The coldness in his head faded as he realized the connection.
Ruwen turned his head enough to shout at Hamma. “Remember how you called for help at the ambush? I bet he can’t dodge that.”
Hamma’s eyes grew wide, and she pointed at Talker with her index finger.
Ruwen ran to the side, so Sift wouldn’t be in the line of fire of his Void Band.
“Hamma is calling for help. Like yesterday at the ambush,” Ruwen yelled.
Sift didn’t turn, but he signaled in Shade Speak, Understand. And then placed the Lemon Lozenge of Lightning in his mouth.
Ruwen closed his eyes, mentally opened his Void Band, and waited. A second later, Hamma’s Summon Order spell filled the room with light. Ruwen paused for half a second and then opened his eyes.
The Mist Wraith stood with hands over its eyes, rubbing them. The food and Prayer Three buffs had increased Ruwen’s Strength and Stamina by eight and seven, which had increased his Energy pool to three hundred seventy-three, an extra hundred Energy. His net Energy Regeneration hovered around twenty per second, but the Prayer Three buff had made it thirty, and he planned to use fifty Energy to throw his boulders. He had seventeen rocks left, and the math said he could shoot seven immediately and one per second after that without killing himself.
With the quickness of thought, seven boulders launched toward the Mist Wraith. The tight spacing made them appear like one long rock. The first four shattered the shield, and the next three destroyed the thorns on the Wraith chest.
Sift leaped forward when the Wraith’s shield collapsed, and Ruwen didn’t send any more rocks, scared he might accidentally hit his friend. Instead, he dashed forward to help Sift.
The sound of chimes filled the room as Hamma tried to trigger the staff’s stun. Ruwen looked at the Wraith’s stats:
Name: Mist Wraith (Level 15 Elite)
Health: 231
Mana: 359
Energy: 0
Spirit: 0
They had depleted the Wraith’s Energy and damaged it for a third of its Health. But it still had three-quarters of its Mana left.
Talker had recovered from the Blind debuff, and a ring of fire erupted around him, causing his Mana to drop by fifty. This didn’t bother Sift, but it made Ruwen slow down. Sift and Talker fought ten feet away, but six feet of flames kept Ruwen away.
The Mist Wraith stopped swinging its sword and hunched forward, flexing. The thorns on its body exploded outward. Three of them struck Ruwen, but between the distance they traveled, and the Clapper armor under his clothes, the thorns only penetrated a few inches. They hurt, and Ruwen’s Health dropped by seventeen, but it wasn’t serious. Sift staggered backward, out of the flames, and Ruwen ran toward him.
Sift fell onto his back, and Ruwen knelt next to him. Sift had dodged to the left, but he’d been too close to the Wraith, and his entire right side was covered in thorns. Blood soaked Sift’s right side, and his Health had dropped by half.
A second later, Sift’s Health rose in chunks as Hamma’s heals arrived. Ruwen faced Talker to see the Wraith approaching, sword raised.
Ruwen didn’t have a weapon, and he didn’t know if he’d survive a direct blow from the Wraith’s sword. So he channeled Leap and jumped from his kneeling position, not up, but directly into the Wraith’s legs.
The move surprised Talker, and he tripped over Ruwen’s body. Talker didn’t fall but was forced to run past Sift as he tried to regain his balance.
“Ouch,” Sift moaned. “These burn.”
The Wraith turned and ran back at them.
Ruwen stood and raised his arm to shoot a distracting shot and buy Sift time to move. But Ruwen wouldn’t be in time. Sift pushed himself up, but his injuries slowed him, and the Wraith had almost reached him.
A thunderclap sounded, and the Wraith froze. Hamma’s stun Fist of Order had landed.
Ruwen sent another granite rock, and it struck the Mist Wraith in the face. The Wraith staggered backward, his Health dropping by sixty-three. Talker pointed at Ruwen, and he thought the Wraith meant to say something. Instead, a bolt shot from the extended finger and struck Ruwen in the chest.
Heat and pain erupted from Ruwen’s chest, and the energy from the bolt knocked him backward onto his butt. His Health dropped another forty-four. With all the buffs, his Health had started at two hundred twenty-five but had already fallen to one hundred sixty-four.
The Wraith pointed at Hamma and shot three bolts at her. None of them penetrated her shield, but she flinched, and the spell she’d been casting, probably a heal for Ruwen, failed. The attack triggered her bracelet, though, and Ruwen looked away as Talker’s head became engulfed in a swirling storm of rainbow-colored light from the Dazzled debuff.
Sift had finished pulling all the spikes from his body, and without hesitation, he attacked the hypnotized Wraith, striking him in the face and doing eleven damage.
They had made progress, but the Wraith’s stats showed he still had plenty of fight left in him.
Name: Mist Wraith (Level 15 Elite)
Health: 157
Mana: 109
Energy: 0
Spirit: 0
Talker recovered and swung his sword at Sift’s head. Sift ducked the blow and struck at Talker’s wrist. A normal swordsman would have dropped their weapon, their hand numbed from Sift’s punch, but Talker’s sword was an extension of his arm, and the strike had no effect.
Sift launched a flurry of punches at the Mist Wraith, but Talker turned his left arm into a shield, and the blows landed with little damage. Ruwen ran behind the Mist Wraith as he channeled Energy to Scrub. A heal from Hamma sent a shiver through his body, and his Health increased by fifty.
Chimes sounded as Hamma attempted to trigger her staff’s stun. Sift seemed oblivious to the fact his punches weren’t doing much damage and continued to hammer the Wraith’s shield.
Even though Sift’s blows did little damage, they forced Talker to focus on him, and Ruwen took advantage of that. When he could see the back of the Mist Wraith, he stopped. Sift and Talker were ten feet in front of Ruwen, and even though Talker seemed busy, Ruwen didn’t want to chance the Mist Wraith would hear his approach.
Instead, he channeled four Energy into Leap, and launched himself forward, hands extended and glowing with Scrub’s twenty Energy per second.
For once, things worked liked Ruwen had planned. He struck the back of the Mist Wraith, and this time there was no shield to repel Ruwen. His hands, vibrating so fast they had gone partially numb, sank into the Wraith’s back.
Talker arched his back and bellowed, twisting around to see his attacker. The action pulled Ruwen’s hands sideways through the Wraith’s body, doing even more damage. Sift struck the exposed neck of Talker, and the Wraith staggered to the side.
With a bellow of pain, Talker whipped around in a circle, his sword stretched outward. The sudden movement jerked Ruwen’s hands out of Talker’s back, and a moment later, the Wraith’s sword struck him on the right side.
Ruwen flew backward, his right side on fire. From the difficulty of his breathing, Ruwen knew some ribs had broken. His entire side felt wet from blood, and his concentration had been shattered, ending his Scrub spell. A green fifty appeared on his Health bar, bringing his Health to seventy-nine. Hamma had cast her instant heal Uru’s Hope on him.
If it wasn’t for Hamma’s Prayer Three buff, and its immunity to debuffs, Ruwen would have died from blood loss. A wound this bad would have certainly been accompanied by a Bleed.
From the group picture, it looked like Hamma had very little Mana left. The bracelet she’d gotten from Sparkle, which halved the Mana cost for heals, had allowed her to cast twice as many heals and made a critical difference in their fight.
It took Ruwen two tries, but he managed to cast Massage on himself, and his breathing eased.
Sift and Talker still fought, and Ruwen looked at the current state of the Wraith.
Health: 61
Mana: 79
Energy: 0
Spirit: 0
Ruwen’s attack had injured the Mist Wraith significantly. He only needed to do that one more time. With great effort, he pushed himself to his feet. He moved to get behind the Wraith, but Talker had learned from the last attack. As Ruwen moved, Talker moved as well, keeping Ruwen in front of him.
Ruwen noticed something else as well. There was no lightning around Sift.
“Why aren’t you doing lightning damage?” Ruwen yelled.
Sift jumped over a low sword swing by Talker and then dodged a strike from the Wraith’s shield.
“It tastes like your face!” Sift yelled. “So I took it out.”
Ruwen ground his teeth and then took a deep breath.
“I almost died, you idiot! Hamma’s out of Mana. Quit screwing around,” Ruwen yelled.
“Fighting should be enjoyable,” Sift replied.
Ruwen thought about launching another rock, not caring which of the two he hit.
Sift glanced at Ruwen, and Ruwen made an effort to relax his face and smile.
Sift’s eyes grew large, and he popped the Lemon Lozenge of Lightning back in his mouth. “Fine, no reason to look so nasty.”
“That was a smile!” Ruwen said.
Sift’s body glowed as lightning covered it. “You should stop doing that.”
The Prayer Three buff started to blink. It would be gone in ten seconds. Without its protection, they would be vulnerable to Talker’s spells, and the Wraith still had enough Mana to cast one or two more. They couldn’t let that happen.
Hamma cast Fist of Order again, but Talker must have resisted the stun since he continued to fight Sift. The lightning damage, added to Sift’s attacks, slowly decreased Talker’s Health, but it wouldn’t kill the Wraith before the Prayer Three buff wore off. The Mist Wraith continued to keep an eye on Ruwen and moved to keep him in sight.
The problem with a frontal attack was Ruwen’s inability to dodge the Mist Wraith’s weapon. Another solid hit like the one before would likely kill him. He ran forward anyway. If they didn’t finish this in the next few moments, they would probably lose regardless.
If they could stun the Mist Wraith one more time, Ruwen could blast him with the diamond dust. That should be enough to kill him. But now that they really needed a stun, they probably wouldn't get it. Ruwen made it within five feet of Sift and Talker, and Ruwen’s skin itched from the lightning surrounding Sift.
There were only five seconds left on the Prayer Three buff. Ruwen wanted to launch something at Talker, but couldn’t risk injuring Sift. Then they’d really be in trouble. But there might be a way to trick Talker into thinking someone had snuck up behind him, and create the distraction Ruwen needed.
Ruwen opened his Void Band two inches and sent five Energy to one of the short rusty spears he’d collected from the Goblins. The much lighter spear didn’t need the Energy the rocks did.
The spear arced over Talker’s head. The Mist Wraith ignored it since it had missed him by ten feet. Ruwen held out his hand and brought the icon for Retrieve into focus.
The spear reversed direction and flew toward Ruwen. The spear’s shaft struck Talker in the back. Ruwen would have preferred to have the end with the sharp metal spike strike the Wraith, but he didn’t have enough control yet to manage that. It didn’t matter, though. Talker, so paranoid of being attacked from behind, whipped around to face this new attacker.
Ruwen jumped forward, aiming his open Void Band at Talker. The Mist Wraith, seeing no attacker, twisted violently back, swinging his shield before him.
The shield smashed into Ruwen and threw him to the ground. Prayer Three saved him from a certain Vertigo or Dazed debuff and then blinked away. They had lost their greatest advantage now, and surviving itself would be a victory.
Talker stood above Ruwen, and the Wraith raised his sword, preparing to jab it down. Ruwen raised his arm and launched the fifty carats of diamond dust into Talker’s crotch.
The diamonds dissolved the Wraith like water on snow. Talker’s body melted from the crotch to almost his neck. Talker’s sword turned back into an arm, and what remained of the Wraith fell forward. An arc of lightning struck the falling body, making it rigid. They had finally gotten the stun. Then Talker’s dead body hit Ruwen and knocked the breath from his lungs.
Chapter 43
Sift pulled Talker’s body off of Ruwen and helped him up. Ruwen raised his arms over his head, trying to get air back in his lungs. Sift spat the lozenge into his hand and held it out.
“Gross,” Ruwen said when he could talk.
“There is a bunch left. We can use it later,” Sift said.
“There wouldn’t be anything left if you’d used it when you were supposed to,” Ruwen said, lowering his arms.
“Shade’s first rule: the past is a home for fools,” Sift said.
“Another rule?” Hamma asked as she joined them.
“Oh, he has plenty, believe me,” Ruwen said and then pointed at the lozenge. “You keep that. I don’t want to touch it.”
Sift shrugged. “Okay.”
Ruwen faced Hamma. “How in Uru’s name did you learn such a powerful spell?”
“A prayer, not a spell,” Hamma said and smiled. “I received the prayers when I completed the first chapel quest. Doing all the last rites on the Goblins earned me enough prayer points to cast one.”
“Well, it was incredible,” Ruwen said.
“You probably saved our lives,” Sift said and then pointed at Ruwen. “His for sure.”
“Thank you. It felt great to make such a difference,” Hamma said.
“What do the other prayers do?” Ruwen asked.
Hamma looked uncomfortable, and Ruwen raised his hands. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”
Hamma shook her head. “That’s okay. The prayers are just new, and I’m still learning them myself. Prayer Three turns every negative effect into a positive one and stops any additional debuffs for a short period.”
Ruwen whistled and then slapped a hand over his mouth and looked at Sift. Sift glared at him.
“What’s left of Talker’s body is still here, so I’m going to do his last rights,” Hamma said.
Hamma removed a larger book than her prayer one and flipped to the back to locate the Mist Wraith’s ceremony. Ruwen, trying to ignore Sift’s glare, walked over to the original rock he’d attempted to launch out of his Void Band and put it back in his Inventory. The stones were too valuable a weapon to just leave. The addition of this one brought his count up to ten.
Still avoiding Sift, Ruwen retrieved the short spear and placed it in his Inventory as well. The diamond dust formed a thin layer over the ground, but most of it lay in the mangled body of Talker. Ruwen decided to leave it.
Sift finally quit glaring at Ruwen, and Hamma finished her prayers over Talker’s body. The Mist Wraith slowly sank into the floor, leaving two bags, a book, and Sift’s usual pile of treasures.
Ruwen walked over, picked up the book, and opened his log to view t
he notification details.
Tring!
The Black Pyramid’s Ink Archivist has reclaimed…
Book Title: The Art of War
Topic: Military Strategy for Non-Harvesters
Author: Sun Wu (Sun Tzu)
Publisher: King Helu of Wu
Book Id: 254936 (Lower Branch)
Quality: Common
Durability: 6 of 10
Weight: 1.8 lbs.
Loan Count: 138 (Overdue!)
Restriction: Black Pyramid mark required.
Description: Thin red book with a rising sun. Sun Tzu provides a unique perspective into the military challenges and solutions for non-Harvesters. A must-read for those wishing victory over their enemies.
Finally, a book from a publisher other than the Black Pyramid. This book looked interesting as well, but almost any book piqued his interest. He dropped it in his Void Band, and it disappeared. He closed his log and opened his library quest.
Don’t Judge a Job by Its Cover (Part 2 – A Fine Mess)
The Black Pyramid has lost its Ink Lord, and its book collection has suffered. Find three creatures who owe the library fines. Collect the overdue books from their dead bodies as an example to future borrowers [COMPLETE]. Reshelve at least forty percent of the library’s collection (any level).
Reward: Ink talisman appropriate for your branch (Black Pyramid).
Reward: Title of Ink Warden.
Reward: 3,000 experience
It looked like he just needed to shelve forty percent of the books in his library, and he could advance to Ink Warden.
Hamma gasped, and Ruwen looked over at her. She had opened her loot and held a necklace in one hand and a ring in the other. The necklace had a silver chain connected to a circle of diamonds that surrounded a blue sapphire the size of a thumbnail. It glittered in the sunlight as Hamma slipped it over her head.
The ring looked like a black dragon with a black stone in its mouth. The dragon’s tail looped around and created a circle. Hamma slid the ring on her finger and placed her free hand over the ring. She closed her eyes in concentration, and a second later, her Mana bar dropped by thirteen. She removed her hand to reveal the gem in the dragon’s mouth had turned from black to white.
