by Ryan DeBruyn
I get it! But you can come back to life. So…
He placed a proximity mine in the spot the Shadow Clone had just moved the grenade from and gave his clone a double thumbs up.
His clone vanished from view as he commanded it to attempt to sneak up on Apothis. He gave it the count of ten to get in position. At ten Rocky, from Stealth, unloaded all ten of the MKZ laser turrets out into the open doorway from his bag of holding and dove back around the corner.
He was jerked to a stop before he hit the ground and hovered in the air. A red glow surrounded him, and he heard, “I see you are done examining the battle for your precious citizens! Don’t worry, I will take good care of them once I am done,” Apothis crooned into the red, glowing room.
The MKZ turrets started ionizing and shot a single round each before they were dislodged and rushed to meet their neighbors in a hovering circle above the ground. They screeched and groaned as they bent in on themselves, contorting over each other to tangle and form a ball of component parts.
Rocky slowly floated up and into the doorway just in time to see a second spell that Apothis had hidden behind the throne blast a space beside him. It was so fast Rocky almost missed it, but a shadow ball the size of his entire body whistled forward until it thudded into his Shadow Clone. His clone materialized for a moment with a stunned look on his face before the spinning spell removed it and all of his grenades from existence.
In shocked panic, Rocky strained every muscle in his body to the limit, expecting a shadow ball was coming for him, and he felt like he was pushing against a mountain. He couldn’t budge the invisible restraints an inch as he slowly floated towards the half-decayed and dark-robed figure. Apothis smiled. “You think I wasn’t aware that you were there! Foolish child. I knew you were coming as soon as you dispatched my minions and that fool, Frankie.” The contorted ball of what used to be MKZ Turrets fell to the ground behind Rocky to punctuate Apothis’ point.
Apothis walked down from the throne and went to stand behind the altar. Then continued lovingly, “I just wanted you to see your people and what I was going to do next! I do have to thank you for bringing me such powerful creatures to seduce, though.” He swept his skeletal fingers through Tao and Gamma. Then he closed his eyes.
The mass of Zombies began exiting the caves in the Grotto walls that they hid in. However, they didn’t attack. Instead, they began forming up ominous line after line of undead Zombies. The two golems who were too far away to strike the lines, but they seemed to grow wary as they dropped into deeper ready positions. The military who had been running around burning creatures dropped their torches and retreated to the tent and set up a perimeter at something Gamma shouted but couldn’t be heard by Apothis or himself through the image.
“Was it you that destroyed my last Hulking Abomination?” Apothis glanced at Rocky suspiciously. “I have to admit that I didn’t expect anyone to be able to stop him, let alone to hold back my perfectly planned ambush.” He tipped an imaginary hat towards the frozen Rocky. “I must give you some credit for all you managed, but it ends now!” As he finished the final statement, his body began to glow red, and more of his skin, organs, and blood began to dissolve into the swirling, red mist that flowed through and around him.
Rocky watched in horror as he became even more skeletal and used Analyze again to try to understand what was happening.
Apothis
Level 75
Master Necromonger
Health Points 1,325/9,000
The red mist of his spell shot straight up through the rock, and a moment later, the fifty Necromancers with staffs planted in the ground each seemed to shudder as something flowed through them and then back out towards the hordes of the Dungeon-created undead. In the hologram, the hordes of Zombies began melting and reforming into massive balls of cracking bones, liquid flesh, and innards. Rocky felt his eyebrows try to rise, but even these muscles were locked in place.
Apothis gasped when all the red mist left him and then leaned heavily on his own staff before standing up straight for a moment and grinning triumphantly from his now half skeletal face. “For each Hulking Abomination, I create, I must pay half of my current health pool for seven days, but,” he pointed to the hologram where the creatures Rocky knew too well began to take the shape, “I don’t think your two Knights can hold back my Champions and protect the citizens at–” he cut off and growled as a black blot flew into the image for a split second and left just as quickly.
Both Rocky and Apothis stared at the empty place where one of the fifty Necromancers had stood a moment before. Then something falling from above caught both of their gazes as the same missing Necromancer fell flailing through the hologram to the Grotto floor. The empty glyph spots took on a whole new meaning now, and Azoth’s recent timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The crestfallen and shaken look of Apothis told just how unexpected the resumed attack was as he shouted, “I thought we had killed that stupid flying Lion!”
Rocky couldn’t help the guffaw that escaped his lips when he saw Apothis’ reaction. The sound of his chuckle still on the air, he suddenly felt all the wind get blown out of his mouth as his back struck the wall hard. Apothis was snarling in his direction and had raised a hand. It had all happened too quickly. Rocky hadn’t even had time to close his mouth, so when he struck the wall ten feet behind him with a booming impact, the taste of iron filled his mouth as he bit his tongue nearly in half. His heart sped up from the show of power and his instant recognition of his mortality sneering at him from behind the altar.
“You think you and your foolish pet have won.” Another Necromancer disappeared and appeared a moment later, falling back through the hologram. Apothis’ scream of frustration told the story that while they might not have won, they had outplayed him in this one moment. Tao and Gamma engaged the Abominations, and Rocky felt like he could feel the ground shudder with each blow. The skill the Knights showed was amazing, but every blow that they made was stopped before it reached Abomination.
Rocky instantly understood what the Necromancers were doing. He had seen it before when they stopped the laser fire of the army from striking the Zombies outside of Chalk River. He suddenly was flying through the air again, and he bounced off a table, hearing a massive crack as his shin ricocheted off of the obstruction to his path. Then he crashed headfirst into the opposite wall. His world started to go black on the edges as he floated back towards the altar to see the face of his assailant glaring at him.
He focused on the fight to push back unconsciousness and not look at his twisted legs. From the pain signals his brain was shouting, that last flying face plant had broken his nose and both of his legs. Perhaps his collar bone as well if he was reading his debuff bar correctly. There were an additional two empty spots where Necromancers had stood before his trip, though. He smiled, and Apothis snarled, “It does not matter if you win a battle. I have all the time in the world to convert you and destroy everything you hold dear.” He pulled a Dragon Heartstring off of his staff and held it up admiringly. “With this around your neck, it will only take a single moment of weakness, and you will be the one destroying your friends down there.”
Apothis paused and looked at Rocky, his smile now a look of utter horror as he came to terms with just how utterly screwed he was. He glanced at his health and saw that he was less than half full. He glanced at the now smiling Apothis and felt his heart stutter. Was this the end for everyone? Had all the people who had died for him died for nothing?
It’s tough to win a game when the other team is–
He cut off his depressing thought as his eyes glinted over something on Apothis’ neck. There was a platinum chain dangling from his vertebrae, and the pendant that hung down on to his sternum had a stylized Dragon on it. He thought desperately; there had to be a way to remove that necklace. If he got it off and removed the compulsion for the Dragon before placing the pendant in his bag of holding, he might be able to save his people.
It was pro
bably the biggest Hail Mary he had ever thought of, but a spark of hope kindled in his chest. He knew he wasn’t going to survive the ordeal, but like Joe had for him mere hours before, he could give his life for others! The thought almost seemed to trigger the warning that came next.
Warning! Someone has touched a place of power under your Territory. This has contested your leadership for Algonquin Valley. To cancel the contestation, destroy the force holding the Altar of Michabo. If you fail to destroy this force or offer the altar a worthy sacrifice, the Leadership of the Territory will be transferred in ten minutes!
9 minutes and 59 seconds remaining.
Now that your Territory is under contestation, all Territorial buffs, Territorial effects, and Territorial systems are currently unavailable to your population or you. To remedy this, capture the contested place of power before the enemy.
He dismissed the message quickly without reading it with a sense of impending doom. If he could somehow remove the amulet; if he could somehow free the Dragon; if Tao, Gamma, and Azoth could somehow take down the Hulking Abominations; even if all of those events went his way, he would still lose the Territory, and his people would need to flee. Would they be able to survive without its protection?
All you can do is try. Try to give them a chance. One final fight.
He pushed uselessly once more against his invisible bonds. Then the hologram showed Gamma get broadsided by an Abomination and crash to the ground. The golem skidded, leaving a furrow and almost crashing into the massive Guild Tent before he came to a stop. Rocky used it as an excuse to close his eyes.
A loud cackle sounded when he did. “Don’t want to watch anymore. Don’t want to see the end for your Territory! You will be easier to break then I thought!” Apothis exclaimed.
Rocky clenched his jaw in frustration but entered his meditative state, which seemed to erase the pain in his legs and face. Once he had achieved Trance Meditation, he began checking his Ether Channels. They were clean and normal, but he could feel something oppressive just past his skin—something that was like an itch he couldn’t scratch, no matter how hard he strained he couldn’t reach it.
“You sure you don’t want to see this? They finally found a way to attack your winged friend.” Rocky ignored the taunt and kept trying. “Oh, and down goes the swordsman again!” Apothis continued, unknowingly reminding Rocky of a split-second moment during meditation.
Rocky began creating figure eights with his Ether channels, and once he had the flower shape firmly in his mind, he sent a tendril outside of himself. When the overload of information came, he was ready for it this time. He was actually surprised to realize his Dark Cloak was still active but compressed down to a minuscule layer, mere nanometres from his skin. Holding it there was a spell of woven Ether that seemed to be red in his mind’s eye. He touched it briefly and knew its name—Binding Chaos, a cast spell. The name didn’t help him but knowing it wasn’t a channeled spell did. Where his Ether touched the web, he felt it tremble for just a moment, and he prayed he was right.
He flexed his finger nearest to the place of contact and felt it twitch before the web strand that held it broke in two. Rocky stopped what he was doing and waited. Had Apothis noticed the breach?
A snarl and scream from the desiccated skeletal creature nearly made him open his eyes. Then Apothis hissed, “So, the Knights hid a few skills from me! It makes no difference that they have regrouped and hide behind a dome shield! That gives my Abominations time to–” He screamed in outrage again and snapped, “Will someone kill that damn bird!”
Rocky felt his body relax the strain it was holding. Apothis was still commenting on the fight which meant he hadn’t felt Rocky’s tiny escape attempt. It meant he was right, the Necromonger had no connection to his spell.
Swallowing hard, he began slowly pumping his Ether into the nanometre-thick space around his body. If it wasn’t for Apothis’ spell, he probably wouldn’t have been able to do it. The fact that he just needed to allow Ether to flow into the space and didn’t have to control it helped him immensely.
His personal Ether began to combine with his Dark Cloak, and at first, Rocky almost panicked, thinking that it was going to ruin his plans. Then he saw that wherever the Ether was combining with the cloak, the cloak was latching on to the spell around it with tiny spikes of darkness. Where the darkness touched, the spell wobbled but was held whole by his own Dark Cloak skill, just waiting for his signal.
Warning! Someone has touched a place of power under your Territory. This has contested your leadership for Algonquin Valley. To cancel the contestation, destroy the force holding the Altar of Michabo. If you fail to destroy this force or offer the altar a worthy sacrifice, the Leadership of the Territory will be transferred in five minutes!
4 minutes and 59 seconds remaining.
Now that your Territory is under contestation, all Territorial buffs, Territorial effects, and Territorial systems are currently unavailable to your population or you. To remedy this, capture the contested place of power before the enemy.
Rocky dismissed the message and kept filling the space with Ether. He knew he didn’t have much time, and while he understood the system and its notifications were just following a protocol, he didn’t need the reminder!
With two and a half minutes left, he was ready, and he flashed his eyes open to see Apothis studying the battle intensely. There were thirty-two Necromancers remaining, and Tao sat cross-legged beside the Guild Tent with a dome surrounding himself, the tent, and Gamma.
Thinking fast, he mentally groaned when his brain came up with an insane plan to get close to Apothis. Then he forcefully laughed, which immediately drew Apothis’ angry gaze. Once Rocky had it, he put on a smile, “Looks like you are going to have to wait for that self-proclaimed victory, Apothis!” he stated with false bravado.
Apothis’ eyes widened, and he held up a fist which triggered the spell to bash Rocky’s back into the wall ten feet behind him again. He allowed it to happen, trying to bide his time as he crashed painfully into the wall, biting his almost healed tongue again and coughing up blood. He let the blood dribble out of his mouth, not moving his head, as he floated back and sneered at Apothis, “What, you think because Apep gave you all this power, people are just going to let you win? You didn’t earn that power; you are just a dirty, disgusting leech on your master’s strength.”
What little was left of Apothis’ nostrils flared as Rocky’s broken legs bumped into the altar and began dragging themselves very painfully across the surface. He felt the sharp pain seize his mind, and he felt vomit threaten in his throat as bile rose, but he forced all of it away to look Apothis in the eyes as they came nose to nose.
Warning! Someone has touched a place of power under your Territory. This has contested your leadership for Algonquin Valley. To cancel the contestation, destroy the force holding the Altar of Michabo. If you fail to destroy this force or offer the altar a worthy sacrifice, the Leadership of the Territory will be transferred in two minutes!
1 minutes and 59 seconds remaining.
*I have tried to make it obvious, but you are clearly an imbecile. Place a powerful item on the altar!*
Now that your Territory is under contestation, all Territorial buffs, Territorial effects, and Territorial systems are currently unavailable to your population or you. To remedy this, capture the contested place of power before the enemy.
Rocky finally read the notification and blinked in surprise. Apothis took the blink as his dominance and jabbed a bony finger into his chest as he used his other hand to place a Dragon Heartstring around his neck. Then smiling devilishly, he spat, “In two minutes, you will lose this place, and I will become the new leader. Once that happens and I convert you to the dark, we will hunt your allies until the ends of Gaia and beyond if we must. Not a soul will escape me!” Apothis ended by widening his arms in a classic fighter’s victory pose.
In that moment of prideful arrogance, Rocky broke the spell on his upper body,
and with one hand, he ripped the necklace from Apothis’ neck. He mentally screamed, “Be free,” hoping it would act as a new order for the Dragon. Then he commanded the item to his bag of holding. In the same instance, he had used his other hand to grab the Heartstring from his own neck. Apothis began chanting something as Rocky brought both hands together, one with Heartstring and one with the scale he had swapped the necklace for, over the altar. Then he dropped both, and time seemed to stutter as they slowly fell to its surface.
Once they struck, the altar lit up, and the light was bright enough to occlude the hologram that was still shadowed against the white background. Apothis finished casting his destruction spell, and Rocky felt it strike his chest. His Dark Cloak lit up with sparks on the edges as Apothis began screaming in dark, hot rage. His cloak was fighting the massive, black, spinning ball of the void?
A familiar dinosaur-like roar could distantly be heard through the multiple layers of earth.
Then the momentum of the spells’ fight carried Rocky into his close acquaintance—the wall. He hit the wall hard for the fourth time and felt unconsciousness begin to eclipse his thoughts.
Suck on that! You bleach boned–
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Rocky was surprised when he opened his eyes. Well, at least, he thought he opened his eyes as the sensation occurred, but the world was still dark. Panic was avoided because he could clearly see his de-buffs, Health, and Ether bars. He glanced up to read some of the de-buffs that were hovering in the top left of his vision.
Cracked Skull
Your protection for your brain is compromised and should be given time to heal before you use your head as a battering ram.