Mageblood

Home > Other > Mageblood > Page 26
Mageblood Page 26

by Christopher Johns


  CRITICAL STRIKE

  4 dmg to Fallen Knight

  It tried to bite down, but the ice was all it could get to at first, though it wouldn’t hold overly long. Large green hands wrapped around my stuck sword changed the position slightly, and then shoved the weapon all the way through the Fallen Knight’s head.

  Lvl 6 Fallen Knight died

  47 EXP

  Lvl 6 Fallen Squire died

  43 EXP

  Level Up!

  Sundar yanked my arm out of the deader creatures’ jaws and passed me my weapon with a stern look of concern on her face. “Call for help sooner, Kyvir, we need to be sure our tank is okay. You’re our damage sponge. We need you healthy so you can get beaten up. So, speak to us the way I used to, okay?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” I grinned at her as she rolled her eyes. “I know, you work for a living, so don’t call you that. Let’s worry about leveling after this fight, too.”

  “Exactly, let’s kill the last two of these boneheads.” She grasped my shoulder and shoved me toward the other coffins. “Teamwork this time. Let’s do something about the bottom of that coffin and try to keep that thing from getting out.”

  I went to work, my frozen fists connecting lightly with the still-fine wood near the bottom up to the middle of the coffin before me. Cold spread from my hands to the wood, yet another point of my Aether gone leaving me with just the one gray left to use, and it would be weaker.

  “Low on Aether,” I called to the others as I would have in another game we played, signaling that I would be tapped soon so we should either hurry or find another way to do things.

  “Conservation mode,” Albarth said in a barking tone, his voice strained. “I’m good so far, but that could go south, soon. We need to get stabbier.”

  We regrouped and turned our sights on an individual and began stabbing it.

  Lvl 6 Fallen Squire died

  43 EXP

  The last one made it completely out of the coffin as the sarcophagus lid thumped and shifted futilely. They didn’t seem to be strong enough to actually shift the stone lids. Good.

  “Pay attention!” Mona roared, almost leonine in her fury. “You have to be present to tank, damnit!”

  “I’m on it, Mo, I’m trying to watch our backs, too!” I rolled my eyes and marched forward, the sword in my hand low. I wanted this to end—now.

  I feinted left with it, and the slowly burning figure reached out toward me with expectant grubby fingers. I brought the blade up in an arc with both hands as if I were swinging a bat, aiming for the wrists. The left hand fell to the ground with a sickening splat, and the blade severed the tendon of the right hand in the lower forearm before the strike lost power. I needed to disengage or get too close.

  The mouth gaped wide, and the only way to avoid it was to throw my left arm up behind the flat of my blade as if it were a thin shield. Teeth grasped my flesh and bit surprisingly hard, the pain glaring and numbing almost instantly.

  12 dmg taken

  Festering Debuff resisted

  A whooshing sound caught my attention, and Monami twisted into view with her chakrams flashing in the firelight.

  8 dmg to Fallen Squire

  8 dmg to Fallen Squire

  “Duck!” My body moved of its own accord while a slight whistle passed my ear, scoring my forearm and puncturing the still-attached zombie through the eye next to the nose.

  30 dmg taken (3 fire dmg)

  CRITICAL STRIKE

  65 dmg to Fallen Squire

  Lvl 6 Fallen Squire died

  43 EXP

  “What the hell, Al!” I grasped at my arm, the singed flesh smarting but not hurting nearly as badly as it could have. I shut my damage notifications off to keep from being dizzied by the numbers flying over my screen.

  “Your reaction times are abysmal.” He raised an eyebrow, his weapon still burning, but the once-bright beacon appeared to have grown a little dull since he first summoned it.

  “Anyone notice a difference in how pain has been working?” The others looked confused but shrugged. “It was really bad earlier to get hurt, and now it feels bad for a moment, then the pain is gone. Is there a place to check patch notes? Gimme a second.”

  “We’re on a bit of a mission here, Kyvir.” Sundar huffed, crossing her arms under her ample chest. “Let’s focus and kill these guys. Now, how does Aether come back, and do you all need to wait?”

  I eyed my Aether bars and frowned. I was still sitting at just one usable bar, so I opted, “Wait, I think. No one really bothered to explain how it worked in combat. And with any new content, the first few have to try and figure it out. You remember that greater demon in B and G? How we had to fight him eight times to get the mechanics down and still wiped because of the tank buster?”

  Sundar grinned despite our situation and nodded. “That sucked. But I get it now.”

  “What’s your Serenity stat?” Albarth stepped over to me, and I checked it for him.

  “Five, why?” He smiled, and a notification popped up in front of my vision, so I read it out loud. “Serenity – The will to calm your mind and the universe around you, understanding deeper truths and how best to approach the world and its aether. This attribute affects your ability to recover your aether and how you can assist others. For every point in this stat, the recovery time for Aether decreases by 0.1 seconds of the total time needed to recover when not in combat (current decrease of 0.5). Aether will not recover in combat without certain abilities. Seems unlocking our Aether made it change, interesting.”

  “So, the explanation evolved?” Monami stood with a hand on her hip. “So, what, we just sit here and time it?”

  “Yeah.” I grunted back at her frustration and sat down. There was a clock interface, and I watched it. Less than a quarter of the way through the rotation, I got one of my Aether bars back. After that, I watched again. This time, it took almost a whole minute for it to come back, flickering into color just before the full mark. “It takes a minute. Even with five points in it. So, I’m guessing that I have fifty-nine-and-a-half seconds out of combat to get it back.”

  “And the ability thing is concerning, but that’s fair, I suppose.” Albarth rubbed his chin. “I’ll need another few moments, then. My recovery is not as good as some of our party’s.”

  “It’s still better than mine,” I said, then sniffed but couldn’t be too upset over his lead. The guy seemed to be made for this game. “But let’s try and do this smarter. The ones in the coffins were affected by fire, and I would like to try and put the rest of these coffins to good use if we can.”

  “We drop burning wood on them and what, shut the lids?” Mona bit her bottom lip uncertainly.

  “Yeah, that could work, but we’d better hurry; that wood won’t last all that long.” Sundar frowned in thought as she took the initiative and began breaking the nearest coffin while the rest of us planned a bit more in-depth.

  Once she finished, we were topped off and ready to begin anew. The plan executed flawlessly on the first sarcophagus. Anything that reached out at us when we pushed the lid far enough back, Monami carved off with her chakrams, then I stabbed it in the chest to hold it down while a coffin’s worth of wood went in. Sure, I would be close to them, but only for a few heartbeats until the act was done.

  Then, Albarth set it alight and stabbed a critical strike into the noble zombie’s head to start things off right. I pulled my blade free of the thrashing zombie, and then we shut the lid and moved on. After that, I turned my notifications back on.

  The damage notifications were a bit much, nowhere near as bad as last time but still crappy, so I ignored them and focused on the task at hand because turning them off was out of the question. The next one was a little rougher, the noble zombie inside bit me, and I resisted the festering debuff again but was still hurting. Not too badly, but the added eight damage I’d taken wasn’t helping either.

  After we took care of that one, the other one went better. Much more smoothl
y than the other two. Like it hadn’t really wanted to attack for some reason.

  “Last one, we ready?” I asked as I rubbed the wounds on my arm. They itched a little, and as we went on, they ached numbly.

  The others nodded in unison before Sundar, and I heaved the lid aside to find nothing in the sarcophagus’ bottom.

  “Wasn’t there a zombie in there?” I asked cautiously before something that seemed off caught my eye. “There’s a hole there!”

  A small figure launched itself over the side of the stone grave and grasped onto my shoulder before I could react in time to defend myself from the assault. Tiny clawed hands grasped and scratched at my face, neck, and arms as I struggled to clear myself of it.

  3 dmg taken

  2 dmg taken

  4 dmg taken

  “Ah!” I snarled, whipping my head left and right as my friends tried to get my attention, but I couldn’t hear them.

  Finally, I got a hand on it and used my Aether in a burst, willing the magic to freeze it.

  The slightly frozen figured slowed down a heartbeat, long enough for me to shove it away and step back as it fell.

  Lvl 4 Sheltered Ghoul – enraged

  Frozen Debuff slightly resisted

  Slow Debuff added

  That had cost me two bars of Aether. Crap. Sudden blue light engulfed us, and Mona went wild, the outline of a Hell Cat settling over her and roaring soundlessly. Her weapons slashed and carved into the snarling ghoul’s exposed back. My face forgotten, it tried to cover its face to protect itself, but it was useless.

  The others fell on it and made short work of the little thing, stabbing and slicing in all the right places.

  Lvl 4 Sheltered Ghoul died

  37 EXP

  “No better time to experiment than now.” Sundar hauled me by my shoulder to a middling ground in the center of all the sarcophagi. Warmth built around us, and I finally noticed her totem in front of me.

  “That buff was something, Sundar!” Mona grinned as she looked over herself. “It raised my striking speed. No damage boost to it, but that’s okay if I hit more often, right?”

  Panicked moans and groans of pain muffled by stone reached my ears, and she smiled. “It does work. Maybe we should use it a little more, then?”

  “Maybe.” I agreed and sat down. “You gonna have to stab some more, Al?”

  “If this doesn’t kill them? Likely.” He seemed in good spirits but also contemplative somehow. As if plotting.

  4 dmg to Fallen Noble

  4 dmg to Fallen Noble

  4 dmg to Fallen Noble

  Lvl 5 Fallen Noble died

  40 EXP

  4 dmg to Fallen Noble

  6 dmg to Fallen Noble

  Dmg multiplied due to exploited weakness

  Lvl 5 Fallen Noble died

  40 EXP

  “That was easy enough.” Mona smiled as she glanced at us. “Al? Sunny? You wanna make a go at the last one while Ky rests and recovers?”

  Sundar shrugged. “Sure, that’d be fun.” The woman stood and shook herself out before glancing at me. “Just chill for a second.”

  I held a thumb up while they went to work, then I decided to check the durability on my sword. It had lost a couple points, leaving me with eight of ten left, which I was happy about. I’d have to see about procuring some of that repair powder that the smiths had.

  I had little to no doubt that if my debacle hadn’t been an issue, we would have. But things happened, and the past wouldn’t change.

  Lvl 5 Fallen Noble died

  40 EXP

  “Great work, guys!” I called to them, pulling up my status screen to see about leveling up. I checked my tree, and it was still grayed out, but I was delighted to see that I had leveled up to level eight, leaving me three points to raise my skills.

  “Level eight!” Monami hissed excitedly. “Is the tree still gray for you all as well?”

  I nodded, and so did the others. “We may want to ask about that, but I’m putting two points into Knowledge and one into Heart.”

  I did so, putting both at nine and twelve, respectively, while the latter point raised my total hit points to one hundred and seventy.

  Monami did her own and stated, “Two for Heart and one for Knowledge.”

  Albarth nodded to Monami. “Same, though it seems a waste.” He seemed sad but looked at Sundar. “You’re a healer; how does your Aether work? How many bars do you have?”

  “I have ten Serenity, so that makes my healing a bit more potent. And even though it’s only one point per second, it’s still a lot since my totem lasts for sixty seconds, and my Aether only takes fifty to return.” She pointed a finger at her status screen and looked to be counting. “I have five bars right now, but mine isn’t like yours. If I seal something, I don’t get that bar back until the seal is broken.”

  She sighed heavily as she tapped her screen three times. “Which is why all three are going into Knowledge.”

  I whistled low, but that would give her an even number of Aether bars, and that would help her a lot.

  “Do you know how you want to seal things?” I asked her in a low whisper as we readied to depart deeper into the dungeon. The ghoul had snagged the key somehow, and other than rotten flesh and bone dust, nothing of value was here.

  “I do, but I haven’t gotten to meet any animals to make it happen yet.” Sundar shrugged noncommittally, and we began toward the door.

  It stood ajar as the key simply vanished five feet from it, the off-white coloration of it marred by scratches on this side of the wall. Maybe the ghoul had been attempting to get to something else? Who knew?

  “Tank gets the lead.” I shouldered my way by the others, a large hand smacked my rump as I did. “I said lead, not groped, Sundar.”

  “Could’ve fooled me, meat shield.” She winked, and the others snorted—good-natured fun.

  The door opened slowly as I pressed my shoulder against it, peering into the darkness. “Maybe we should grab torches?”

  “That’d be a good idea, but we can’t be sure that taking a torch out won’t trigger some sort of trap.” Albarth huffed, looking into the void with me. “We can try it if you’re too afraid to move along?”

  “None of that macho bullshit right now.” Monami groaned. “Let’s get going, I kind of have a little night vision anyway, and I can see that this place isn’t too terrible.”

  She pushed me into the next room and followed me in with the others as we went further.

  “Wait.” Sundar stilled, listening. She released a breath and whispered, “Come to me, please?”

  “Have you lost your mind?” Albarth grumbled as he settled into a low stance, and eyed our surroundings.

  “No.” She looked fierce for a moment, then relaxed. “Hello, little friend.”

  She leaned down and held her hand out for something before standing up. A rat squeaked in her palm, whiskers twitching as it scented the air.

  My eyes bulged, and I instantly moved to Mona, barely clamping my hands around her mouth before she screamed bloody murder. She hated rodents, but rats and mice were particularly bad.

  I took an elbow to the gut for my efforts, luckily not taking any damage, but she looked more than a little frazzled.

  “Relax, he’s harmless.” Sundar smiled and whispered something to him before he climbed up on to her shoulder, and she put a hand over his body there. She closed her eyes in the dim light and inhaled before pressing down. A muted swell of slight gray power washed over her, and the hand came away from her left shoulder. “It worked!”

  She hopped up and down excitedly before her eyes began glowing amber in the dull light. “And now I can see.”

  “Would you be so kind as to explain what in the world is going on?” Albarth hissed as he eyed our surroundings once more.

  “I can seal things, right?” She motioned to herself. “But half of my power comes from animal magic. So, what if I were able to mix the two? Gain power from animals by sealing them
in my skin?”

  “Does that work?” I found myself asking as I stepped closer to look at the marking on her shoulder. It was shaped like the rat, almost perfectly, but it matched the war paint on her body. “Does it kill them?”

  “No, our connection is different, sure.” She patted it affectionately. “But he’s as alive in there as you and I are here. This magic is amazing.”

  “Yes, it is.” Mona shivered. “Can we hurry up now?”

  I grinned at her proudly and muttered, “And here you thought you wouldn’t be able to do it on your own. I would’ve never thought of that, Sunny.” Mona cleared her throat, and I looked to our healer. “You ready?”

  Sundar nodded, and the two of them led us through the darkened corridor we entered. It took ten minutes to walk it, slowly checking for traps or ambushes when we cleared another exit. No longer in just a tomb, but a sort of underground cavern filled with stone burial mounds. Not made of stones, but piles of them over the dead and their remains.

  The place was ripe for an ambush and based on the lines and tension in the bodies around me—my friends expected the same.

  There, glowing in the center of the room on a pedestal of light-colored marble, was a pulsing orb.

  “I’m glad that you could make it through that little test.” A disembodied, heavily modulated voice greeted us from the shadows.

  “Who are you?” I called out wearily, eyeing our surroundings more thoroughly.

  “A friend with little time to waste, so please stop trying to find me and listen,” the voice sounded exasperated, but it could’ve been a ploy. “All of you need to get stronger. I’ve interfered more than I probably should have, but there’s too much at stake to let things go as they are.”

  “And why should we listen to you?” Sundar challenged. “You won’t even face us as you are, mister dungeon boss.”

  “Adorable, kid, but a boss, I am not—stop interrupting.” Some sort of black energy floated from the ground and wrapped around her face. She tried to speak, but nothing came out.

  “You’re an admin,” Albarth blurted.

 

‹ Prev