Harbinger (Nova Online #3) - A LitRPG Series

by Alex Knight

  The fire went out after a moment and Kaiden sighed in relief as the hydra hedge stopped growing.

  “Zelda, behind you!” Kaiden shouted as he spotted movement. She spun and brought up her shield in time for something wet to splash into it. Thick, black liquid sizzled and bubbled as it dripped down the face of her shield.

  Zelda looked around to see where the attack had come from and Kaiden did the same, scanning the view provided by the camera drone.

  “I saw movement on the wall,” he said. “But it’s not there anymore.”

  “There!” Zelda fired off an Improved Scatter Shot at a blank part of the wall. Something squealed, then fell to the ground with a heavy thunk. Kaiden saw the dirt puff up from the creature’s landing, but there still wasn’t anything there. As he watched, though, there was a flicker of color and then some sort of chameleon became visible.

  It was frog-like in shape and texture, but with eight legs. It pulled itself up from the ground and its skin wavered and shifted in color, changing from the slate gray of the maze’s walls to a vibrant green. The creature reared up on its hind legs and opened its mouth. A saliva-coated tongue whipped out and lashed toward Zelda. She just managed to sidestep and it hit the hedge behind her where more of the black venom sizzled and burned a small hole through it.

  Dilopoad

  Level: 45

  Quick facts: Native to the jungles of Felucha, dilopoads are infamous for their ambush tactics and impressive climbing abilities. As ambush predators they prefer to attack their prey from afar via their acidic venom.

  “Don’t let the venom hit you,” Kaiden said as Zelda squared up with the creature.

  “Figured that much out already,” Zelda said, glancing down to the face of her shield which was still wavering and sizzling.

  “The venom of the dilopoads is, well,” Odditor chuckled, “let’s just say best not to touch it. Its numerous effects include reducing armor, slowing movement speed, and stifling health regen.”

  The dilopoad reared back to attack again but Zelda beat it to the punch, firing an Improved Burst Arrow. The attack caught the creature in the chest and bowled it over. But not for long. Eight frog-like legs pulled the beast up, then launched it at Zelda, tongue whipping forward.

  Zelda took the attack on her shield, then dove to the side. The dilopoad landed where she’d been standing, its back to the hydra hedge.

  “Crap,” Zelda said, pulling herself to her feet and looking down at her shield. It was off.

  “Overloaded,” Thorne said. “Not good.”

  “Uhm, Zelda?” Kaiden asked. “You seeing what I’m seeing?”

  “A freaky chameleon-spider-frog that’s trying to lick me to death?” she asked as she raised her hammer-gun and took aim.

  “Behind the dilopoad.” Kaiden pointed, before remembering he was in the broadcast room and she was in the labyrinth. “On the hedge.”

  “Oh my god. Kai, you’re brilliant!”

  The dilopoad’s venom had hit the plant earlier and burned through it a bit. And the hydra hedge hadn’t regrown to repair the damage.

  “Odditor said the venom stifles health regen!” Thorne said.

  “You thinking what I’m thinking?” Kaiden asked, but Zelda was already in motion.

  She charged the dilopoad, then fired off an Improved Burst Arrow. She was aiming to miss, though, and the attack hit the ground at the creature’s feet. It hissed and scrambled away, creating just the opening Zelda needed to take its place next to the hedge.

  “Come at me, frog boy,” Zelda taunted.

  The dilopoad seemed happy to oblige. It lashed out with its tongue. Zelda dodged to the side. Not quite enough, though. Some of the venom splashed down on her arm and set her health bar to flashing as it sizzled through her armor. Her health ticked down to fifty-four percent.

  But the move had done its job. Zelda saw the majority of the dilopoad’s attack had hit the hedge. The plant was squirming and seizing as if trying to regrow, but the health regen debuff from the venom was stopping it.

  Zelda fired into the part of the hedge covered by the bubbling venom. The hedge burned back. Enough for her to rush through. She did just that.

  Zelda clambered out of the far side of the hedge then turned to face the dilopoad, which was squealing and pushing through after her.

  “Sorry. Tough luck, frog boy,” she said, then hit the hedge with an Improved Scatter Shot. The other side of the plant had been covered in venom, but this side wasn’t. The attack exploded and the hedge responded, repairing the new damage and surging out toward Zelda. The dilopoad was caught up in the rush and it squealed and hissed as thorns punctured through its body, skewering it inside the hedge.

  Dilopoad assisted kill – 3,000 EXP

  The creature stopped thrashing and there was silence for a long moment as Zelda turned around to face the flag.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  “It’s right there,” Kaiden said, unable to stop himself. “Yours for the taking!” But no. Bad things always happen when you touch the flag.

  It was so close Zelda could have reached out and touched it. But she didn’t. Instead, she crossed her arms and leaned casually to one side, like she was waiting.

  “What’s the hold-up?” Titus asked.

  “Building charge,” Zelda said bluntly.

  “For…?”

  She looked toward the camera, leaning into the drama a bit, and smiled.

  “My grand escape.”

  “Aha! A flair for the dramatic!” Odditor cried, almost laughing as he did. “Why, this little lab rat is after my own, my own heart with lines like that. And look, she’s so close to the flag.” He drew out the moment. “So close to halfway done.”

  Zelda only smirked as Odditor’s words carried out over the labyrinth. She pulled away from the camera drone to study the walls around her. They rose high into the air, just like all the others had.

  “Titus, what’s the timer at?”

  “Twenty-six minutes.”

  “Great. And Kaiden, remind me, when I entered the maze, my shadow was on my left?”

  “Yeah. It was on your left.”

  “Perfect.” She looked down to the ground, then turned until her shadow was on her left again. When it was, she paused for a moment, then turned completely around to face the opposite direction. That done, she raised her gaze to the wall in front of her. She closed one eye and lined up her thumb, pointing roughly straight ahead.

  “Getting to the flag is only half the battle,” she said. “You also have to get back out. But the labyrinth changes its shape and layout frequently, which means trying to remember the route I used to get here is no good. The ‘always turn right’ plan was one idea to solve that, but not my only one.” She smiled at the wall ahead of her, then raised her hammer-gun. “You see, I can’t rely on the labyrinth to give me accurate information. But as sentient as this labyrinth is, and as controlling as Odditor is, there’s one thing here neither of them can control.” She nodded up to the sun, shining down on her and the labyrinth. “The sun.”

  She’d been standing still while delivering her explanation, and now Kaiden realized why.

  Ability: Sniper Mode

  Warden must remain stationary for five seconds to activate or deactivate this mode. While in Sniper Mode, movement is locked and the warden’s hammer-gun extends into a rifle. Range and damage dealt from all attacks are increased by 100%.

  Zelda’s hammer shifted into its rifle orientation as she finished her explanation. At the same time, she began charging an ability.

  “What’s this?” Odditor asked, leaning forward in his seat.

  “It was morning when I entered the labyrinth and my shadow was on my left. Thus, we can assume I was roughly facing north. The labyrinth changes, but the one thing that never moves is the flag. It was straight ahead of me when I entered the labyrinth. Straight north. So, to go back, all we have to do is turn south…” The ability charging on her hammer-gun was just about done. She smiled.
“And make ourselves an exit. You see, I noticed something in that cave. The ceiling broke when I hit it hard enough. Which tells me so will the rest of this labyrinth.” She paused for another moment. “As long as I hit it hard enough.”

  Zelda fired the ability she’d been charging.

  Ability: Inferno Shot

  You fire an explosive, superheated blast that ignores 50% of the target’s armor. Deals 3x base damage to all targets in range (allies included). Takes 7 seconds to charge (must be stationary).

  Except she didn’t just use Inferno Shot. She also activated her hammer-gun’s special ability, Triple Threat. An Inferno Blast fired from the end of the weapon, and then another. And a third.

  The first blast hit the closest wall and, with the damage boost from Sniper Mode, obliterated it. The explosion shook the entirety of the labyrinth and the whole wall came down in a crash of dust and debris.

  The second Inferno Shot burst through the cloud and slammed into another wall which was also reduced to rubble. The camera drone recording it had to zoom out to keep the blast in frame.

  The third Inferno Shot carried on even further, passing through the holes the first two blasts had created. The camera drone was forced to pan to follow the attack. The massive, glowing shot almost disappeared in the ever-thickening clouds of dust from the prior explosions – right up until it too struck a wall, this one almost all the way at the exterior of the labyrinth, and reduced it to dust.

  Zelda was forced to stand still for five more seconds in order to exit Sniper Mode. While she did, silence settled over the labyrinth, broken only by the pieces of wall still crumbling and crashing to the ground.

  Kaiden looked over to find Odditor stunned into silence at the sight. Now there’s a rarity. But even with shock plastered all across his features, the man was smiling.

  “Admiring her handiwork?” Kaiden asked and Odditor turned toward him.

  “She’s a, a special one.”

  “That she is,” Kaiden agreed, then looked back to the wall-sized monitor. It showed Zelda exiting Sniper Mode and regaining the ability to move again. The dust in front of her was settling, or at least most of it had been caught in the wind and whisked away to another part of the labyrinth. With it gone, everyone was free to admire exactly how much damage Zelda had done.

  Three walls had been blown completely away. The gaping path of destruction where the wall had previously stood cut through several different corridors and created an impromptu path that led toward the exterior wall of the labyrinth. That one was still standing, but considering everything he’d seen so far, Kaiden was half convinced Zelda was going to find a way to bring that one down too.

  She turned back toward the flag.

  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, Odditor, it’s been fun, but I think it’s time I headed out.”

  With a calm, smooth gesture, she reached out and wrapped a hand around the billowing red flag. It came free from its stand with the slightest of clicks—

  And all hell broke loose.

  If the labyrinth had any tricks left, it abandoned them in favor of releasing seemingly every mob it had.

  Back in the direction of the cave, the ground erupted as a massive worm burst from below, its body as long as a corridor and its jaws gaping. Teeth that looked too much like stalagmites and stalactites were thrust forward as the worm surged toward Zelda.

  Angler Worm **Gargantuan**

  Level: 60

  Kaiden’s visor began to read out quick facts but he didn’t have time to pay attention as a flood of abyssal weeviles burst up like a geyser in the wake of the Angler Worm. They rushed forward, a screeching swarm of teeth and claws. Those at the top of the swarm burst into flame beneath the glare of direct sunlight, but their numbers were so great those on the bottom were shaded. Every few paces more and more of the weeviles burned up, but still the swarm came.

  And then there were the grachnids. The monitors on Odditor’s wall flicked from view to view as all across the labyrinth every burrow was vacated and every hidden door opened. Grachnids and grachnid punishers charged toward the center of the maze in a stampede of chitin and fury.

  “The labyrinth reacts to your actions,” Kaiden said, recalling Odditor’s warning. “I, uh, don’t think it cared for your grand finale.”

  “What makes you think that?” Zelda asked as her shield flicked back on, returning from being overloaded. At the moment, though, running was the best option by far, and she broke into motion. She sprinted toward the hole she’d created and clambered over the remains of the first wall just as the Angler Worm crushed the flag podium in its haste to follow her.

  The abyssal weeviles caught up to Zelda first and the swarm surged around her, biting and clawing in a suicidal frenzy. Each one that broke from the shade provided by its dying siblings above soon burst into flame itself, but not before getting an attack in on Zelda. She forced her shield over her head but her health plummeted beneath their assault.

  Fifty-percent. Forty-seven. Forty-four. By the time she descended the rubble of the first wall she was down to forty-one percent.

  “Something to remember me by,” she growled, then fired an Improved Warden’s Bolt up into the swarm. Dozens of the weeviles dropped as she sprinted away.

  She reached the remains of the second wall just as the army of grachnids rounded a corner. Zelda climbed frantically, pulling herself over the massive chunks of debris. The first of the grachnids reached the pile right behind her and began scampering up on unsteady footing. Several stopped to slash at her heels, most missing but a few connecting. For each of those that stopped, however, another rushed past it.

  Zelda reached the top of the mountain of rubble and a shadow rose up to tower over her from behind.

  “Jump!” Kaiden shouted through comms and Zelda flung herself forward into a bouncing slide down the rubble pile. Her health took a beating, but it was far less damage than she would have taken had she not jumped. Zelda clambered to her feet, then was thrown off of them again as the shadow behind her – the massive Angler Worm – came crashing down just short of her, crushing a dozen or so of the pursuing grachnids and more than a few abyssal weeviles.

  “Get to the exit!” Thorne shouted, pointing to it on the monitor as if Zelda could see. But even as Zelda staggered to her feet and turned toward the last hole she’d blown through the labyrinth, the Angler Worm cut her off. It heaved its massive bulk forward, surging on countless legs like some sort of gargantuan millipede.

  Zelda was forced to run in the opposite direction, following the corridor she was in instead of using the rest of the exit route she’d created.

  The weeviles were still on her, chipping away at her health – down to thirty-five percent now – but most had finally burned up in the sun. The last of them took one more swipe at her, then collapsed in burning heaps on the ground.

  The grachnids were not so easily lost, though. Those that hadn’t been crushed by the Angler Worm were still hot on Zelda’s tail.

  “Pressure plate!” Kaiden shouted and Zelda spotted it just in time. She darted around it, then fired an Improved Scatter Shot over her shoulder. One of the lasers hit the plate and the front rank of grachnids were impaled as a row of spikes launched up from underground.

  Grachnid assisted kill – 1,000 EXP gained!

  Grachnid assisted kill – 1,000 EXP gained!

  Grachnid assisted kill – 1,000 EXP gained!

  Grachnid assisted kill – 1,000 EXP gained!

  The others were undeterred, though, clambering over the corpses of their brethren and continuing the chase. They were faster than Zelda, what with their advantage of four extra legs. She couldn’t keep ahead of them forever.

  “They’re gaining on you,” Titus said, panic in his voice.

  “Time check!” Zelda shouted back.

  Titus looked perplexed, but glanced over to the timer.

  “Twenty-nine minutes and forty-eight seconds since you entered.”

  “Thought so,” Zelda s
aid, and even from the shaky view of the camera drone Kaiden could see her smile. A moment later the labyrinth began to shake.

  “It’s reconfiguring again,” Kaiden said. The walls sank into the ground, and for a painful few seconds, the whole of the labyrinth was one flat plane. Zelda was running along its edge now, the bottomless trench on her left and the exit just ahead. The Angler Worm was still guarding it. She ran right for it anyway.

  The grachnids were on her, too. The swiftest of them slashed her across the back and her health dropped to twenty-nine percent.

  She responded with a blind shot, blasting off an Improved Scatter Shot that left several grachnids screeching. But there were too many. She couldn’t fight them off and she couldn’t outrun them.

  A moment later, though, Kaiden realized she didn’t need to.

  The labyrinth was finishing its reconfiguration and new walls were rising out of the ground. Zelda turned hard to the one nearest her – tanking several grachnid slashes on the way – and flung herself atop it. The wall carried her up as it rose and the grachnids were left behind, hissing and screeching as they swarmed around its bottom.

  “Yeah!” Kaiden shouted. “That’s what I’m talking about!”

  “You got this!” Titus shouted.

  Even Thorne joined in, cheering as Zelda stood, finding her balance as the wall came to a stop. It was an exterior one. At its base on one side the grachnids swarmed, climbing over each other in a living tower that was actually about halfway up the wall and rising. On the other side, the trench, bottomless and gaping. It was too wide for Zelda to jump across it to safety. No, she only had one option: the exit. The bridge she’d crossed to enter the labyrinth in the first place.