Hero of Lichfrost

by M E Robinson

  As they passed through a narrow section in the rock, a sound from up ahead pricked Eric’s ears, barely audible even in the still air of the cave.

  “What was that?” Mark whispered, halting their advance.

  “It sounded like a cry for help. We should move quickly,” Eric urged, thinking back to the last time he’d opted for the stealthy approach on a quest. Squeezing past Mark, Eric scraped against the rocky walls of the cave as he took the lead, dashing in the direction of the cry.

  Exchanging looks, Griffin and Mark charged after him. As the three sprinted through the cave with reckless abandon, harsh swearing began to fill the previously silent caverns as the trio slammed into the cave walls in the darkness, stubbing toes, noses, and other parts that would remain unnamed into the unyielding rock face.

  As Eric sprinted through the cave, the cries became more and more frequent. Unfortunately, the intensity of the cries was also increasing at a similar pace - clearly, whatever was making the noise was in trouble. Speeding up, Eric pushed his speed to the limits, his stamina dropping quickly as he focused on not slamming into the walls at a speed fast enough to put him into a coma in real life. Even if this wasn’t real life, it was likely that his healthbar would drop by a significant amount if he tripped right now. As he ran, Mark and Griffin began to fall behind, stumbling occasionally as they attempted to follow their friend who was pulling further and further ahead.

  Bursting into a new chamber, Eric’s eyes opened wide. Without even thinking, he brought his hand up, drawing the runes for Wind Dart and firing directly at the enormous cat which was advancing slowly upon a whimpering wolf pup, stuck in a crack in the rock. Behind the cat lay another pair of dead wolves, their blood still fresh as it pooled onto the cave floor. Its sanguine surface reflected in the glow of the dim crystal lighting that illuminated the cave.

  As the Wind Dart coalesced, streaking towards the giant cat, its head whipped up, glaring at Eric as it abandoned the wolf pup. Looking at the oncoming Wind Dart, the cat opened its jaws wide, revealing a mouth full of fangs, each one more than an inch long. With a crunching motion, the cat destroyed the Wind Dart, the mana dissipating harmlessly as the cat’s teeth struck it, destroying the mana structure and turning the spell into harmless motes of light.

  Glaring at Eric, the beast started to advance slowly upon his position, sizing up the half-elf as it paced softly on paws the size of dinner plates.

  [Quest Updated: Red-maned Killer]

  You’ve discovered the killer of the red-maned wolves: an enormous Swordclaw Lynx. A trapped red-maned wolf pup’s fate rests in your hands. Defeat or drive off the Swordclaw Lynx in order to figure out the will of the red-maned wolf.

  Warning: This enemy is beyond your capabilities. It is advised that you engage it in a party of five or more adventurers (Level 20+)

  Reward: The red-maned wolf’s spirit will grant you a reward if you can fulfill its wish. However, be reminded that its wish may not be as simple as merely killing the Swordclaw Lynx.

  Seeing the quest notification, Eric paled. The last time he’d ignored the recommended party size advised by the system, he’d been toyed with by the hobgoblin, Grimarok. While he had no wish to either die or abandon the quest, he had to admit that it definitely did not look good for his party at the moment.

  With a panting sound, Mark burst through the cave entrance into the chamber behind him, followed closely by Griffin. Seeing the Swordclaw Lynx, both their eyes went wide, scrabbling to draw their weapons as they took fighting stances.

  The arrival of the two newcomers made the Swordclaw Lynx pause for a moment, its tail swishing softly against the cave floor. The wolf pup had gone silent, its whimpers no longer resounding throughout the cavern. Now, the only sound was the laboured breathing of Griffin and Mark, fighting to regain their stamina as they tried to take stock of the situation.

  “We’re fucked,” Griffin said simply, staring at the quest notification briefly before bringing up his shield.

  “There’s a good chance of that, yes,” Eric admitted, readying a Wind Dart as he continued to lock eyes with the Swordclaw Lynx.

  “We might be able to do it. But it’s going to be tough. I’m not sure if this cave will work to our benefit or not, but I think it’s pretty clear we’re not gonna be able to run,” said Mark, casting an Arcane Blade as he retreated behind Griffin.

  “Do we want to try and have Griffin hold the cave entrance while we bombard it with spells?” Eric proposed, watching the Swordclaw nervously as it eyed them with interest.

  “No. I don’t think Griffin can hold off against it alone. We’re going to need to fight it inside the cavern itself.”

  “Yeah I can’t hold that thing off solo. We need to kite it between ourselves,” Griffin said grimly as the Swordclaw began to pace forward once more, having clearly finished with its evaluation of the three.

  “Whatever we decide, let’s hurry it up. That thing has the same look in its eyes as Jeyna does when I bring home barbeque chicken, which means that it thinks we’re delivery,” Eric informed them.

  Mark nodded. “Alright. Eric - you and I will take a side each. Griffin, you take the front. We need to surround it and force it to attack one person at a time. Whoever’s being attacked, just focus on defense. Don’t try to play the hero. The other two will attack while it’s distracted. Got it?”

  Whatever response Eric was about to give would have to wait, as the Swordclaw suddenly pounced forward, its enormous paws parting to reveal claws the size of steak knives ready to tear them to pieces.

  Diving to the side, Eric rolled roughly on the stone floor of the cave. Rolling to his feet, he fired the Wind Dart at the Swordclaw, this time landing a solid hit on its pelt. On the other side of the cat, Mark landed his own spell, causing the cat to roar in pain as it whipped its head from side to side, gazing balefully at its two attackers.

  As the closest person to the Swordclaw, Griffin had been unable to dodge to the side, but forced instead to throw himself backwards, barely avoiding the massive paw swipe that followed the pounce. Taking advantage of the distracted Swordclaw, he hauled himself to his feet, clanging his sword against his shield to regain the beast’s aggro as Mark and Eric prepared new spells.

  Baring its fangs, the Swordclaw bit at Griffin, its powerful jaws nearly ripping the shield out of his hands as he desperately hung onto his best defensive item.

  Taking advantage of the Swordclaw’s attack, Mark and Eric launched a new salvo of attacks, Mark landing a spell on its right flank while Eric’s smashed into its left. Drawing his sword, Eric also activated Dashing Cut, slashing his sword diagonally across the Swordclaws side.

  With a painful howl, the Swordclaw abandoned its attempts to rip Griffin’s shield from his arm and turned towards Eric, an enormous paw swinging towards him at an insane speed.

  Still recovering from the momentum of using Dashing Cut, Eric was unable to fully avoid the Swordclaw’s attack. With a small cry, he was sent flying backwards, forming a crater in the stone as he crashed heavily into the wall of the cavern. Falling to the ground below in a crumpled heap, blood began to gush from the deep cuts in his leather armour, forming a pool beneath him as he lay unmoving on the cave floor. Checking his status, Eric was alarmed to see that his health had been decreased by nearly seventy percent with a single blow. He had also been afflicted with a stunned status effect, and there was a minor bleed as well that slowly sapped his health by a few points every second.

  The stun lasted a full three seconds, during which time the Swordclaw wrecked devastation upon Griffin and Mark. Griffin was totally unable to attack, being forced to block repeatedly in order to avoid the Swordclaw doing to him what had just been done to Eric, and his shield was showing the signs of severe use. Enormous gouges marred the once solid wood, and the beautifully polished boss had been reduced to a crumpled nub of metal, protruding pathetically from the center of the shield. A few stray blows had landed upon his armour as well, leaving long scar
s across the surface of his chainmail.

  Mark was comparatively far better off. Having seen what had happened to Eric, he no longer dared to fully commit to an attack, instead casting magic from a position just behind Griffin.

  Watching the stunned effect fade, Eric hauled himself to his feet. Assessing the fight, Eric grimaced, casting a Wind Dart towards the Swordclaw as he activated Dashing Cut, using it to close the gap between him and the beast. Slashing the Swordclaw’s flank once more, Eric was ready this time when it repeated the batting motion with its paw. Throwing himself to the right, Eric narrowly avoided the swipe, a few stray hairs from his head disappearing as the knife-like claws passed overhead. Rolling to his feet, Eric thrust his sword forward, scoring a hit on the Swordclaw’s exposed back legs which rewarded him with a loud roar.

  This time, the Swordclaw did not merely content itself with swiping at the pest that had clawed at it twice with its annoyingly long fang. Instead, it whirled, pouncing backwards and twisting its body in midair as it leapt towards Eric with claws outstretched.

  Paling, Eric threw himself desperately to the side. If even a single one of those claws hit him, it would be game over for him, and likely for Griffin and Mark as well. Skidding across the cave floor, Eric narrowly avoided being impaled by the Swordclaw’s extended claws. Instead, the cat’s claws sunk deeply into the cave floor, leaving gouges several inches deep and more than a foot long in the solid rock floor. Eyes widening, Eric threw himself backwards once more, scrabbling for purchase on the smooth stone as the Swordclaw growled at him, pouncing once more.

  Fortunately for Eric, Griffin and Mark were not simply standing idly by watching this happen. Charging forward, Griffin slammed his shield into the Swordclaw’s rear, using his sword for the first time this fight to stab deeply into its rear leg.

  Mark supported Griffin with a spell, casting a Wind Blade that slammed into the beast’s flank as he dashed alongside, skirting around the Swordclaw to reach Eric’s position. Raising his hands, Mark drew the runes that Maria had used earlier, using his rosary as a wand to cast the spell on Eric. With a golden flash of light, the spell was completed, glowing brightly as it enveloped Eric’s body in a warm radiance. Looking down, Eric could just barely make out flashes of golden light emerging from the cuts on his chest, knitting the torn skin shut and causing his healthbar to soar back above fifty percent.

  “That only heals fifteen percent of your max health?” said Mark with a sense of incredulity in his voice, preparing to cast the spell again.

  “Fate has a lot of developers from Rampage Studios. There’s a good chance that healing is nerfed. Or maybe you just have to level up your healing spell,” Eric suggested, jumping back to his feet and sidestepping a bite from the Swordclaw in one smooth motion.

  “Can we focus on the battle with the giant, vicious, man-eating cat, please?” Griffin begged from behind the Swordclaw, where the beast’s tail was acting like a whip, battering Griffin as he attempted to prevent the monster from tearing Eric and Mark to pieces.

  Abandoning the spell cast, Mark leapt backwards, his mace deflecting the cat’s claws as it took a heavy swipe at his face.

  Taking this opportunity, Eric danced to the side, avoiding the Swordclaw’s follow up swipe as he used his sword to batter at its mostly unwounded right side. While his technique had improved by leaps and bounds since his time training with Firin on Cloudview island, his swordwork was still lacking in grace and refinement, the bladework more resembling a chef with a cleaver than a skilled swordsman.

  Regardless of the flashiness of his technique, its effectiveness was clearly high, as the Swordclaw let out a pained howl, whipping its paw around once more in an effort to send the irritating swordsman back into the wall.

  “Not this time, mate,” Eric swore fiercely, bringing his sword up to meet the Swordclaw’s paw, his blade slamming into the mass of muscles and bone at the base of its leg where it left a deep gash several inches deep, revealing the bone beneath.

  This time the effectiveness was clear to see. Raising its head back, the Swordclaw let out an earth-shaking howl, forcing Mark and Griffin to back away.

  Stumbling backwards from the blow he’d just blocked, Eric felt as if his head was being assaulted from the inside by a thousand angry blacksmiths with hammers. Clapping his hands to his ears, he desperately tried to block out the piercing howl the Swordclaw Lynx was emitting as it stood alone in the center of the cavern.

  The Swordclaw’s howl made it nearly impossible to concentrate. Eric’s status bar was lit up like a christmas tree with various status effects, each blinking furiously to show that he was in trouble. At least one of those effects must have been a silence of some sort, as when Eric attempted to use a spell to stop the howl, the only result had been the spell fizzling, the runes dissipating harmlessly into pale motes of light. Struggling to focus, Eric checked his healthbar and saw to his alarm that it was dropping rapidly, the howl depleting it at a rate of almost five healthpoints per second.

  Staring at the Lynx that showed no sign of ending the howl, Eric quickly realized that if they wanted to win this fight, the howl needed to be stopped, and soon. Gritting his teeth, Eric freed his hands from his ears. On the opposite side of the cavern, Griffin and Mark both seemed to have come to the same realization, gripping their weapons and approaching the Swordclaw.

  Dropping his sword, Eric unslung the bow from his back and nocked an arrow, sighting towards the Swordclaw as it continued that terrible howl. Exhaling slowly, Eric loosed the arrow, watching as it sprang from his bow like a viper, leaping up to bite the howling cat in the side.

  With a short cry, the Swordclaw stopped howling, growling as it whirled towards Eric, still frozen in the shooting motion.

  “Tsk,” Eric spat. He’d been aiming for a headshot, but the howl had clearly affected his aim as well, preventing him from activating Charged Shot or taking proper aim at the beast despite his proximity to the animal.

  Tossing his bow to the side, Eric picked up his sword and ran forward to meet the charging Swordclaw, dropping into a slide as it pounced, allowing him to skid safely beneath it as it sailed harmlessly overhead. Well, maybe not completely harmlessly, Eric thought, wincing as the Swordclaw landed on his bow, causing a loud crack to echo through the cavern as the wood snapped beneath its weight.

  “Glad to have your guys’ help,” Eric said dryly to his two companions as he jumped to his feet.

  “I tried to use a spell, but the skill it used was preventing me,” Mark explained.

  “It took me a second to shake off the confusion effect. By the time I was ready to charge at it so that I could interrupt its skill, you’d shot it,” Griffin said simply.

  Eric nodded. “So, any plans to beat this thing?”

  “It’s still got way too much health. We really need to figure out its attack patterns so that we can get damage without trading,” said Mark, looking towards the snarling Swordclaw as it stared warily towards the three adventurers.

  Checking the Swordclaw’s health, Eric did a double take. There was still more than 60% of the healthbar remaining despite the powerful attacks they’d landed on the beast’s hide.

  “A cat shouldn’t have that much defense, right?” Griffin complained.

  “I’m not sure we can actually beat it. I’ve been trying to heal us intermittently, but I’m starting to run low on mana. And that thing takes out massive portions of your healthbars every time it strikes,” said Mark, imbuing Eric with a healing spell as he did so.

  “There’s got to be a way to defeat it. I don’t think Fate would give us a quest if it was impossible to clear. We’ve just got to figure out a way to hit it hard enough to win,” Eric replied.

  “Well figure something out fast because here it comes!” Griffin yelled, raising his shield and ducking under the Swordclaw’s claws.

  Casting a Wind Dart, Eric wracked his brains for a way to deal with the Swordclaw. While Griffin was doing a fairly good job of tanking the be
ast, dodging the big hits and using his shield to absorb those he couldn’t avoid, it was clear that Mark’s healing output was not high enough to keep up with the Swordclaw’s damage. If they relied on simply tanking and DPSing the beast down, then they were likely to all die before its healthbar hit the twenty percent mark.

  Eric was snapped out of his reverie by the Swordclaw’s massive knifelike claws soaring towards his face. Jumping backwards, Eric narrowly avoided the attack, swinging his sword with his left hand as he did in order to shave off another small portion of the monster’s health.

  With a roar, Griffin activated Taunt and Shield Bash simultaneously, slamming his shield into the cat’s face to regain the beast’s aggro.

  Turning away from Eric, the Swordclaw renewed its attack on Griffin, its claws and fangs tearing fresh holes into his equipment.

  As Griffin blocked yet another attack from the Swordclaw, his shield splintering slightly where the claws skittered across its surface, splinters of wood flying through the air, Griffin was sent stumbling backwards. Seeing this, Eric turned to Mark.

  “I’ve got a plan. But it’s really risky, and if I fail, we die.”

  “If you don’t do anything, we’re going to die anyways. My mana’s down to fifteen percent. Go for it,” Mark replied, moving forward to support Griffin.

  Nodding, Eric jumped to the side, his hands weaving runes in midair as he intensified his focus to its limit. Calling forth his remaining mana, Eric first drew a Dart rune, inscribing the V shaped rune in the air in front of him. Without pausing, he connected the end of the first Dart rune to the beginning of the next, repeating the process two more times. Observing the three shining runes hanging in the air, Eric breathed out slowly. If he succeeded in casting the spell, there was a good chance that the Swordclaw would take enough damage for them to kill it if it wasn’t killed outright.

  But if the spell failed, there was a good chance that the mana would rebound, removing him from the fight and forcing Mark and Griffin to fight the Swordclaw alone. Additionally, he couldn’t use Multi-linked Flame Strike to deal with this situation due to the cavern. Casting a spell as explosive as Multi-linked Flame Strike inside a cave was likely to cause a chain explosion, as the flames devoured the limited air supply within the cavern. While it might allow him to kill the Swordclaw, it was also more than likely that he killed himself and every other living being in the process. While the quest didn’t state that he needed to live after killing the Swordclaw, it was rather likely that the deceased Red-maned Wolf’s last wishes included saving the tiny wolf pup still cowering within the crack in the rock behind him.