Chaos Rising: The Realms Book Six: (An Epic LitRPG Series)

by C. M. Carney

“Huh, that’s probably not a good sign,” Lex muttered and cast a worried glance at Vonn.

  A wrenching metallic squeal rose drawing Lex’s attention back to Rubik. Both metallic boxes were vibrating and the junction connecting them started to buckle. Vonn drew his blade and got into a defensive stance. Lex wanted to talk his friend down, assure him that Rubik meant no harm, when the junction connecting the two halves of the DuoQuodrata collapsed, and what was two became one as if Rubik was the victim of deep ocean pressure.

  The individual plates that comprised Rubik’s cubes bent, and an oil-like ichor leaked through the seams. Rubik opened its mouth and howled as dozens of mismatched teeth pushed from its gums. Rubik’s rubbery arms slurped into its body and its Lex eye twitched and rolled back, exposing nothing but white.

  A second later a horrific tearing sound rose as the eye ripped into ten smaller eyes that danced upwards like droplets of water on a hot oiled pan. The plates of Rubik’s body spasmed again and pulled into a sphere. Red-orange light pulsed through the space between the plates and they morphed into scales of chiton.

  The smaller eyes reached the crown of Rubik's spherical body and exploded upwards on slime lathered stalks like random hairs atop a bald head. At the same time, the other eye moved to the center of the spherical body and expanded, its gaze growing hateful.

  The shaking and the screaming slowed and then stopped. Lex and the gang stared in stunned silence, and the creature that had been Rubik stared back. Lex told himself to move, to draw his hammer, to cast a spell, do anything, but he just stood there, as if paralyzed.

  To the surprise of everyone, it was Bläärt the bläärt who moved to action. The blue man clomped forward on stilts and fired a magma colored Chaos Bolt towards the hovering spherical monstrosity.

  The knife of energy lanced towards the eye-stalked creature, but before it had halved the distance to its target Rubik’s large central eye flared and a cone-shaped wave of pale orange light flowed over the bolt, dissipating it instantly. The wave continued over Lex and the others and a prompt filled his vision.

  Debuff Added: Anti-Magic Field.

  You have been enveloped by an anti-magic field and cannot cast spells for the duration of the effect. In addition, any current spell effects, boons or magical enhancements derived from items will not function for the same duration.

  Cooldown: 5 minutes.

  As if things weren’t horrible enough, each of Rubik’s ten eye stalks stared at a target and began to glow.

  “Bugger!” Lex spat and reached for his hammer.

  27

  Rays of various colored energy flashed from the eyes of the creature formerly known as Rubik. The first to feel its wrath was Bläärt the bläärt. A beam of silver light hit the small blue man in the chest drawing a screech of alarm from him. For a moment, nothing happened, and the stilt walking creature patted the spot with his hands, a small laugh of relief pushing past his lips. Then, the creature screamed and dissolved from the inside out in a haze of energetic particles.

  The other bläärts all scattered, bumping into each other and knocking each other to the deck. A yellow beam of light hit one and stopped it in its tracks. At first, Lex thought the ray had paralyzed or stunned the bläärt, but then its head rolled back, and a deep snore rumbled from its throat.

  Two bläärts ran into the back of Lex’s knees toppling him to the ground. Before his yelp of shock was past his lips, another beam sliced through the spot he’d been standing and hit one of the bläärts in the back. The munchkin slowed amidst the crunch of boots on gravel and its cobalt skin went gray as it turned to stone.

  Lex’s eyes widened, and he rolled just in time to avoid the zing of another beam. He got to his feet and hid behind the mast. His eyes took a snapshot of the scene, a trick Gryph had taught him. Things were not going well, and then they got worse.

  Lex turned his attention to Vonn. As usual, the rogue was a blur of motion. Somehow he’d snuck behind the floating sphere, giving him a perfect attack vector. Lex watched as he tossed a pair of throwing knives towards Rubik. They were Gryph’s new design and featured a modular system giving the knives adaptability to any situation, provided one had the right phials. They were deadly effective in Vonn’s hands.

  The blades hit the thick plates of Rubik’s armor and exploded in a burst of green flames. Lex recognized the effect. Vonn had used phials with the eldritch oil secreted by the Barrow. The emerald flames had wreaked havoc on the gelatinous Oozerious they’d killed in the Barrow. Hopefully, they’d be as effective here. He almost felt bad for Rubik.

  A high-pitched roar of anguish exploded from Rubik’s mouth and one of the eyestalks swiveled and flared icy blue. A beam of frigid cold lanced from the eye, extinguishing the flames. Another stalk fired a beam of near-invisible force towards Vonn, its passage only visible because of the distortion it left in its wake.

  Vonn dodged to his left, but the beam followed, the eyestalk tracking the rogue as he dove for cover behind a deck wall. He almost made it, but the beam enveloped his left boot before he could pull it to safety.

  Vonn jerked to a halt, like a man snagged by a spider’s web. The eyestalk rose and an unseen telekinetic force lifted Vonn from the deck. His eyes met Lex’s and a look of surprise flowed over the half-elf’s face. He hovered above the deck for a long heartbeat, before Rubik flicked the jointed stalk and tossed Vonn across the deck and overboard.

  “No!” Lex roared, jumping to his feet. Without thinking, he sprinted towards the gunwale. He hadn’t taken three steps when a pulse of energy hit him in the side and his pace slowed to a crawl like he was wading through quicksand.

  Debuff Added: Slowed.

  You are Slowed. Your speed is cut in half for the duration of the effect, and all of your offensive, defensive and cognitive skills, perks and abilities are reduced in effectiveness by 50%.

  Cooldown: 1 minute.

  His feet were as heavy as lead and his muscles numb. His mind went dim, forgetful, like a man sinking into the fog of general anesthesia. He forced himself to focus. I need to save Vonn. He stumbled to the edge of the ship and looked down, his vision swimming and unfocused. The mist was so thick that he couldn’t see Vonn anywhere.

  “Vonn,” he yelled, or tried to, but what came out was more of a slow rumble. His heart sank and his stomach became a black-hole pit of roiling acid. “No, no, please, not Vonn too.”

  Simon’s spastic motion drew him back from his nightmare. The lich teen ran to the left and then back to the right, like a pinball smacked by aggressive flippers, narrowly avoiding a pair of eye-stalk rays. The pair of bläärts near him were not as lucky. A beam of liquid fire enveloped the first, lighting the poor creature up like a summer bonfire. It ran around spastically, forcing Simon to dive to the side for fear of joining the bläärt barbecue.

  A green ray strung through with bits of brown hit the other bläärt. Its skin began to roil and pulse and then like a badly drawn cartoon its left arm expanded, quadrupling in size. The sudden increase in weight toppled the bläärt, but then one by one, its other limbs exploded outwards. The hulked out bläärt got back to its feet, its normal-sized head lost amidst its roided up trapezius muscles.

  It turned towards Errat and growled, the sound dopplering from a grunt to a guttural roar as the beast’s head expanded like a hairy balloon to match the rest of its body. The monster barreled into Errat, pummeling a two-fisted Shatner punch down on the warborn. Errat fell to his knees, dropping his axe. The mega-bläärt’s knee launched into the warborn’s face with a sickening crack and a gout of blood sprayed from Errat’s mouth.

  What I wouldn’t give for one of those arbalests the warborn have been using, Lex thought, ignoring the part of his brain suggesting he lacked the strength to wield one.

  The warborn fell onto his back and his foe hammered him with his fists. Lex yelled, but Errat did not need his aid. While the mutated bläärt had incredible strength, its fighting skills were less impressive than an angry toddler. Erra
t blocked each blow and got in a few of his own, before grappling the brute into a chokehold. Even the girth of the bläärt’s non-neck couldn’t save it, and soon the creature went limp, its tongue lolling from its mouth.

  Errat was okay for now. Lex’s relief lasted mere moments before a jagged, yellow beam exploded from Rubik and zapped Seraphine. Her body seized like she’d been tased, and she fell over rigid, her eyes staring at Lex. He breathed easier seeing her eyes roll trying to find focus.

  Some kinda paralyzing ray, Lex realized. He made a split, if rash, decision and ran in a slow-motion lope over to Seraphine. He grabbed her by the scruff of her jerkin and dragged her behind a bulwark, for once happy she wore the lighter body of Furrick. Safe for the moment, he tried to summon mana to his hands to launch a volley of Order Bolts, but the anti-magic effect was still in effect.

  Rubik, noting Lex’s failed attempt at casting, pivoted an eyestalk towards him and took aim. The yellow-stained sclera filled with purple light flecked with spots of black and a moment later another ray exploded forth. Lex cursed and raised his arms up in a pathetic defense.

  Something knocked him to the ground, landing atop him and crushing the air from his lungs. Lex turned to find Simon looking down on him, his teeth gritted as the purple-black energy pulsed through his reanimated body. At first, Lex thought the kid was in pain, but he soon realized he was giggling like a tickled child. This close, Lex could see the decaying flesh of Simon’s face knit together as the Death Magic invigorated him.

  An open gash on Simon’s face was the first to heal as the dry fibers of his skin pulled themselves back together. Then new ears grew, and a fresh burst of hair marked the return of his missing eyebrow. The milky decay in his eyes cleared, replaced by the unhealthy yellow of the undead.

  Simon laughed in joy and lifted his shirt to reveal the hole through the middle of his stomach was knitting shut. From Lex’s close view he could see the individual fibers twining back together, like a high-speed video of maggots eating dead flesh in reverse. Before the hole fully healed Lex saw Rubik floating towards them, all eleven eyes glaring at him with hate.

  “We need to get up,” Lex slurred, his arm moving at half speed to point past Simon to the approaching horror. Simon spun, his increased vibrancy enabling him to process the situation far quicker than Lex. Simon grabbed Lex by the scruff of his robes and slid him along the deck towards the safety of a harpoon cannon emplacement.

  Lex hit the thick wood hard and grunted in pain. He stood and banged his head on the underside of the harpoon cannon. What sounded like a swear mumbled through a mouthful of cottage cheese pushed past Lex’s lips.

  He watched as Rubik approached Simon. The lich lord pulled his daggers from their scabbards and rushed the spherical eye. A beam of crimson light exploded from one eyestalk and punched into Simon’s chest. Lex feared the worst, but Simon just laughed.

  “Death does not scare me, you ugly bastard, I am already dead,” Simon roared and continued his mad rush towards Rubik.

  Another eye, one Lex recognized as the same that had annihilated the very first bläärt began to glow. Whatever undead resistance Simon had to the fear ray, Lex doubted it would defend against disintegration. The gears inside Lex’s mind ground through the rust of the Slow debuff and an idea formed and bubbled up through the confusion.

  His head drooped to the side to see his finger already seeking the harpoon’s trigger mechanism. His moment of joy dimmed on realizing he’d never be able to spin the sharp barbed spear towards Rubik before it turned Simon into a cloud of swirling atoms.

  The eyestalk steadied its aim, but just before it fired, the heavy limp form of the mutated bläärt flew towards Rubik, forcing the spherical tyrant to spin to avoid impact. Lex turned to see Errat just finishing his follow-through, looking like an Olympic hammer tosser coming to rest. Rubik’s beam skewed off target and hit the deck of the ship between Simon’s legs. Simon grinned at the unlikely survival, but then a ten by ten-foot square dissolved into nothingness, dropping him into the lower hold.

  “Ouch,” Simon grunted from below. “I’m okay.”

  Rubik spun like a beach ball caught in a violent surf but soon came to rest, its large eye glaring at Errat. The ten smaller eyes scanned the surroundings and Lex understood it would be near impossible to surprise the beast.

  Another eyestalk took aim on the warborn and light flared. Lex didn’t know which beam of horror Rubik was about to send his friend’s way, but he didn’t plan to wait. He had his shot and with a steady exhale he pulled the trigger. The leg thick projectile launched towards Rubik trailing a length of moldy rope behind it. The motion attracted one of the smaller eyes.

  Rubik fired two beams. A jet of liquid flames seared towards Errat, while the hazy telekinetic beam impacted the harpoon. The harpoon changed trajectory as if bouncing off an invisible shield. The rope snapped, and the harpoon zipped through the swirling red-orange clouds and disappeared.

  A moment later the roar of something large flowed from the direction the harpoon had flown. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and a chill ran through him. Great, more chaos monsters. He pushed the creeping dread away and returned his attention to Errat.

  The warborn was resistant, but not immune to fire damage and he roared in pain as his arm blazed. He collapsed to the deck and rolled back and forth, slapping at the flames. Though his arm and hand were charred black, Errat still had the wherewithal to find shelter behind a group of barrels. He met Lex’s gaze, gave him a pained thumbs up and downed a healing potion.

  Assured that Errat was okay, Lex reloaded the harpoon cannon, taking a moment to detach the rope. He’d found a pattern to Rubik’s beam weapons that suggested the floating aberration had to wait at least a minute between each use.

  Either that or he’s fucking with you, Lex’s asshole subconscious said.

  Lex ignored his inner dickhead and took aim. Before his finger touched the trigger, another roar burst from the surrounding clouds, this one closer than the last. All of Rubik’s eye stalks snapped to starboard as a wave of semi-liquid clouds poured across the deck. A massive draconian snout pushed through the clouds and locked eyes on Rubik. The beast opened its jaws and roared. The rumble and flare of a blast furnace built inside the beast’s throat and a wave of heat poured across the deck.

  Lex activated Analyze, knowing he’d get no more but the monster’s name. But it was better than nothing. Perhaps knowing what it is will curb some of my fear. As the name greater ebony drake filled his vision, Lex realized how foolish that hope was.

  While Lex trembled in fear, Rubik showed none. The lunatic sphere spun, bringing its large eye to bear on the approaching drake and unleashed a pulsing wave of orange light. It flowed across the reptile and down its throat, and in an instant, the flames dissipated to nothingness. It seemed the dragon’s breath was no match for Rubik’s anti-magic attack.

  The scaled beast spun toward Rubik, belly pointed at Lex. The drake’s lips peeled back, revealing a mouthful of jagged teeth. The sound of massive wings snapping presaged the parting of the mists fully revealing the beast.

  It was a hundred feet from snout to barbed tail, with a wingspan likely twice that breadth. It had two thick legs and a scaled black hide that glistened like a king cobra. Protruding from the creature’s shoulder, right below the wing, was Lex’s harpoon.

  Lex grinned, a bit of his cockiness returning on realizing his errant shot had drawn the drake to battle. Maybe, just maybe, it could take Rubik out. Then what? the voice in his head asked. Lex grunted in annoyance.

  The drake spun away from another volley of Rubik’s beams and twisted its serpentine body to face Lex. The NPC’s eyes widened in shock and hope. Perched atop the drake’s head was Vonn, one hand grasped the crown of horns wreathing the beast’s skull, and the other gripping the hilt of his vorpal sword, which sunk hilt deep into the meat atop the drake’s skull.

  Relief unlike any he’d ever felt rushed through Lex simultaneously c
hilling and invigorating him. His friend was alive. And he’d brought help.

  “Holy shit, he’s riding an effing dragon!” Lex roared in triumph.

  28

  The lash of telekinetic force wrapped around Vonn’s ankle. He cursed, knowing his ensnarement resulted from him being a millisecond too slow. He’d been taught, and experience confirmed, that most turns of fate resulted from infinitesimal moments in time and from the smallest of decisions.

  This was why Vonn worked to make every moment count. He had wasted so much of his youth, grifting and stealing, but that had been time well spent compared to the endless days as a starving street urchin trying to ignore the constant fear and hunger pangs. Now he relished the good things in life. He’d studied and learned, traveled and explored and found purpose, both as a Templar of the Source and lately as a warrior against despotism. He’d even found some true friends, friends he would die defending.

  The invisible grip on his ankle was stronger than any vice and it pulled him aloft with a simple tug. He looked to Lex, and he saw desperate fear in his friend’s eyes. He began to smile, to ease his friend's mind, but before his lips obeyed his brain, he was tossed overboard.

  He spun and fell through the thick mist, his clothing and hair growing slick. Within moments he’d lost all sense of direction, of perspective. He sped up and then slowed, was pulled to the left, then to the right, and back up again.

  Each change in direction felt like the pull of a raging river. Without his bearings, he no longer knew if he was falling, drifting or flying. His changes in direction were frequent, as one gravitational field grabbed onto him only to have another counteract the first.

  The mists and clouds thinned, and he fell into a pocket amidst competing storm clusters. Bands of red-orange clouds laced with black swirled all around him. His momentum slowed and then stopped altogether, leaving him hanging in the air like a bit of dandelion fluff sent aloft by the breeze. He scanned the sky, searching for the ship. Every part of him screamed that it was a futile gesture. His equilibrium was so out of whack he had no way of knowing if his up was down, or perhaps sideways, and then vertigo turned his stomach sour.