“Same strategy as with the ice goblins?” Aaheli asked Henk. “Me and Kip can wear that thing down until all its health is gone and we can climb down using Sonia’s rope ladder to get to the Blight Cube. Minimum risk for all of us.”
Henk looked uncertain. “That sounds a little too easy. I don’t think they’d have put this balcony in along with a monster like the Scaler for a quest like this. It’d be a cakewalk and someone else would have completed it long before we made an attempt.”
“Nobody else was aware of the secret passage or even that tunnel that it fed into,” Brier pointed out. “We could be the first guys to find this hack.”
“True enough,” Henk said, though still sounding unconvinced. “I still think we should stick to the original plan and go down on the rope ladders. We’ll wait when the Scaler turns its back to us. You, me, Kip and Aaheli will keep the monster occupied while Sonia and Argo get over to the Blight Cube. Do you guys still want to go with that idea?”
They exchanged looks, and both Kip and Brier shook their heads. A few moments later so did Aaheli. “I think a ranged attack is safer though it’ll take longer. But now that you mentioned it…” She twitched her eyes out of focus, no doubt checking her inventory with her HUD. “Ah, snap. I’m low on arrows.”
“Ranged is better in my book too,” Kip said. “I can bombard it with fireballs. Scalers are really vulnerable to fire attacks, and I’ve got a couple of mana potions to fill my MP back up.”
“I got plenty of shurikens left and some combustible bombs too,” Sonia added. “If the three of us mount an attack from up here, I reckon we could take him down, no problem.”
Henk shot a look at Argo. “What do you say, Arg?”
Caught on the spot, Argo floundered. “I’ll go along with whatever you guys want,” he said quickly.
Henk gave them a brisk nod. “Ranged it is then. Aaheli, you want to start us off again?”
“No problem,” replied the Ranger.
Tension gripped the whole Manticore Crew as she nocked an arrow and waited for the Scaler to come into range. It lumbered to the center of the chamber and paused a second before continuing its patrol. Aaheli chose that moment to fire; the Longshot-powered arrow sent swooping toward the monster’s head.
It hit the Scaler just below its pointed ear and crunched against the thick scales there. Argo grimaced as he reviewed the combat logs:
Aaheli’s Longshot strikes true, but glances off! The Abhorrent Scaler takes 2 blunt damage!
Aaheli’s attack caused a mere 2 points of damage. Worse yet, the attack registered as blunt, meaning that the arrow didn’t even pierce the monster’s thick scales. The Abhorrent Scaler turned slowly around, staring first at the shattered arrow on the ground then up at the adventurers. It let out a vicious snarl and raced towards a pillar behind it.
“What’s it doing?” Kip said with a frown. “Scalers are so dumb it would have run straight towards the balcony, not away from us.”
“Look!” exclaimed Sonia. “There’s a lever set in the wall over there!”
Argo’s eyes widened when he spotted the metal lever. It was barely visible in the shadows. The Scaler grabbed it and yanked it down. There came a heavy clanging sound and the floor of the balcony swung outwards. Argo let out a startled cry as he and the others tumbled to the floor.
Argo takes 8 damage from the fall! Argo is dazed!
Pain lanced through his ribs and shoulders, which absorbed most of the blunt damage. It already hurt this much with the pain settings dialed down to just 10 percent. He didn’t want to even imagine what purists felt like, what with dialing the pain feedback all up to 100% to simulate real life.
Howling in triumph, the Scaler came thundering towards them.
“Everyone! On your feet!” yelled Henk, scrambling to get upright. Argo felt a tingle of something rush through his body, realizing a second later that it was the result of Henk’s Rallying Cry.
Henk shouts his Rallying Cry! Argo recovers from the Dazed status!
The party quickly regained their bearings thanks to their Paladin, who rushed
forward with his sword drawn, Challenging the big monster and drawing threat upon himself.
Brier recovered first and came to join Henk, running up beside him and bellowing his own Challenge at the monster to draw more threat upon the front-liners. Aaheli and Kip followed suit, readying their respective weapons and positioning themselves to provide ranged support.
Sonia grabbed Argo’s arm and yanked him to his feet. “Come on! Remember the plan!”
The Scaler fell upon the others as he and Sonia retreated into the shadows, running toward the altar. The monster let out a terrifying roar, and Argo glanced back to see it bring down its mace with the intent to smash Henk’s skull in. The Paladin dodged the blow and darted away, letting Brier soak up some threat while he pulled out the kite shield he kept in his ghost pack.
The party’s Paladin normally held his longsword in a two-handed stance against most monsters. It was a stable and versatile stance, allowing him to switch between the different guard positions: Ox Guard to thrust down at smaller opponents like the Ice Goblins, Plow Guard to threaten the chests and neck of taller opponents like Humans and Elves, and Fool Guard to quickly counter strikes of faster opponents like Viperlings and Sylvans.
When up against hard-hitting enemies though, a shield goes a long way to reducing damage. This was why Henk bellowed a second Challenge to the Abhorrent Scaler, charging straight into him and activating Shield Bash to further increase his threat.
The monster rounded on him and made a clumsy attack with its mace again. The weapon smashed against Henk’s shield, denting the metal, right before Henk swiped at the Scaler’s legs with his sword. The monster’s scaled legs absorbed much of the damage though, and the Scaler rained blows down on his shield.
Brier let out a savage battle cry and hurled himself at the Scaler, hacking at its scaly hide with his battle-axe. Realizing her regular arrows weren’t cutting it, Aaheli simply grunted in annoyance and pulled out a couple of Bodkin arrows—the high-quality ones in her stock. They ignored 50% of the target’s defenses, allowing her to deal much more damage.
They were pretty pricy, however, made from Darkwood shafts and tempered Dwarven Steel arrowheads. She only stocked five of the precious arrows, reserving them for griefing players with low health hiding behind heavy armor. With the threat of this high-defense boss wiping out her team, however, she simply bit her tongue and loosed with a Longshot to boost their damage output as much as possible.
Kip on the other hand all but cackled while loosing Fireball after Fireball at the Abhorrent Scaler. The boss’ scales turned back blades and arrows, but it didn’t fare as well against magical attacks. And with the native vulnerability of Scalers to both fire and magic, Kip’s presence highlighted the importance of keeping at least one Mage within a party.
Argo didn’t notice too much of all this because he focused his attention solely on running to the altar. He and Sonya came to a halt behind the Blight Cube, examining the glowing defense ward encasing it.
“Okay then,” said Sonia. “It’s time for you to do your job, Bard.”
Argo looked up at the evil artifact and his heart went into his mouth. Beyond it, over at the other end of the hall, the Scaler roared with savage fury. Argo turned around just in time to see a Fireball smash into its chest while Henk and Brier held its attention. A black-shafted arrow sped through the air, punching into the Scaler’s neck to produce a squirt of crimson monster blood.
Argo had no idea how long the four of them could last, so he turned back to the Cube to do his duty. But as he unhooked the Lute of Decimar from his shoulder, his hands began shaking while his shoulders and neck locked up from the tension. Not ideal for a Bard about to play his lute.
Select Song to play…
Medley
All party members recover 1 HP every
5 seconds
Ditty
Increase the party’s accuracy and evasion by 10%
Blightbane’s Song
Lower the wards protecting the Blight Cube (granted by Lute of Decimar)
“Hurry up, Argo,” Sonia hissed.
Argo slung the lute into position, embracing it like a lover, while Sonia held up the music sheet she retrieved from her ghost pack to his face. Argo peered at the sheet and laid his fingers on the strings.
Selected Blightbane’s Song… confirm when ready.
The tune he was about to play was an enchanted melody that would unlock the complicated magical strands that held the defense ward of the Blight cube together. This was the secret Casadraggrio shared to Henk in exchange for a quarter of all of the gold the Manticore Crew would earn adventuring. Once the ward was dissolved, Sonia would hurl a combustible bomb at the Blight Cube, destroying it completely. If they could accomplish that, a magical portal would automatically open that would take them back to the surface and avoid the hazards of the Crystalweb Cavern as they made their escape.
All of this, however, would only happen if Argo played the tune correctly. Even if he had a natural musical talent and could play the guitar in the real world, he was still not confident about playing the lute even though he had practiced the tune intensively. The responsibility was immense, but only players in the Bard class were able to harness the magical qualities of instruments in the game world and Argo was the Crew’s only Bard. He had no choice but to get on with it and hope for the best.
For what seemed like an eternity, he gazed at the icon floating in his HUD. The moment he approved, he would need to pluck and strum according to the notes on the sheet. One wrong move, one misstep, and Blightbane’s Song would fail.
Just for once, he wished this particular game emulated the simpler games of old. No need for a Bard to play the instrument himself, a swordsman to study up on HEMA just to hold his sword properly, an archer to correctly grip her bow and nock the arrows herself. Just press a few buttons and voila—you’re a hero.
But no, the skills in this game just had to be realistic. Even Kip the Mage had to visualize each of his Fireballs, ‘focus’ them into existence with his attention. Lose focus, and you lose hold on the spell. Brier the gnoll Mercenary… well, he’s always pissed off so it’s no wonder that he took to gnollish Rage like a fish to water.
Argo’s gaze blurred as he stared at the icon, the pressure of playing Blightbane’s Song holding him back, but another roar from the Scaler brought him back to the here and now. It was his turn, and he needed to do his part for the team.
Confirmed. Begin playing Blightbane’s Song…
Staring intensely at the music sheet, he started to strum the tune, picking the strings at just the right spots. If he made a single mistake, even just paused, the enchantment would not be worked and the lute would not have enough charges to start again. He only had one shot at this.
Intro—100% accurate; Blightbane’s Song 10% complete…
Pushing the panic into the corners of his mind, he flowed with the music, losing himself in its gentle melody. He found this was the only way to calm down his overactive mind and he went into autopilot, letting the music take control of him.
Verse 1—100% accurate; Blightbane’s Song 40% complete…
As Argo played, the battle with the Scaler slipped into the background and he focused only on the tune. He didn’t notice Henk get blown back by a vicious two-handed swing from the Abhorrent Scaler, nor did he hear Aaheli cuss out loud as she missed with the last of her precious Bodkin arrows.
Chorus—100% accurate; Blightbane’s Song 60% complete…
On the altar, the defense ward began to blur and strands of light drifted away from it like shedding fur from an animal’s hide. Henk was knocked out of the battle with the Scaler, fighting his heart out. He slammed his axe over and over again, desperately trying to keep its threat focused on him and not on the squishy Mage pelting the Scaler with Fireballs.
Argo noticed none of this as he closed his eyes, refusing to lose the rhythm of Blightbane’s Song.
Verse 2—100% accurate; Blightbane’s Song 90% complete…
He bit his lip as he scrunched his eyes, switching over from the steady thrumming of the earlier verses to rapidly plucking the strings one after another—signaling the climax of the song.
Outro—100% accurate; Blightbane’s Song 100% complete… the Blight Cube’s wards have shut down!
“Argo! You did it!” exclaimed Sonia in an excited voice. “You did it! You did it!!”
For a moment, Argo didn’t hear her. He was staring at the unprotected Blight Cube in a trance. He could not believe he had actually succeeded. Sonia shook him by the arm, bringing him back to the present moment.
“Argo! You’ve won us the quest! Well done!”
He blinked and a wide grin spread across his face. “I did it,” he said in a hushed voice. “I did it!” He wanted to jump up and down and shout at the top of his voice. Then he remembered the battle with the Scaler. “Destroy the Cube!” he said to Sonia. “Quickly!”
“I’m right on it,” replied the girl. She retrieved one of her combustible bombs—a fiendish gnomish device that she had learnt how to craft—from her ghost pack and placed it on the altar below the floating Cube. “I’ll set the charge to go off in three seconds. Get back, Argo! You don’t want to get caught in the blast!”
He hurried to obey, retreating to the rear of the chamber. As he went, he spotted a slender figure slip from behind one of the pillars. At first, he thought it was Kip, but the Mage was still engaged in battle with the Scaler. Besides, they were too tall to be Kip but too small to be any of the others in the Crew.
Alarm shot through him. “Sonia! Behind you!”
Sonia was just about to place the combustible bomb on the altar when Argo called out. She looked up in confusion and the figure shot forward. Before Argo could do anything, the blade of a scimitar flashed in the ghostly light and shot forward into the small of Sonia’s back. Her face froze in surprise and a brief surge of mild pain registered in her avatar as her health bar was halved by fifty percent.
Her attacker pulled the larger blade out of her shoulder and drove a slender stiletto knife into her neck. Sonia’s health bar turned green indicated that the weapon was coated with poison—a fast-acting one that paralyzed as well as drained health points. The poison coupled with the critical strike to her neck finished her off.
Party member Sonia has died!
Argo stared helplessly as Sonia’s body flashed with a violet light and disappeared—no doubt respawning back at the manor house.
With Sonia now gone, Argo got a good look at this new enemy as he strode towards the Bard and his blood ran cold when he suddenly recognized him. At first, he had assumed this new threat had been another servant of the Siren Spinner, who had been able to shield himself from Kip’s Detect Life spell. But this was not the case. The slender assassin, who now stood before him with his scimitar pointed at Argo’s chest, was another player.
sys.admin_Duke_Red
Level
null_val
Health
-9999
Stamina
-9999
Mana
-9999
“Duke Red,” he said in a hushed voice. “But that’s not possible!”
“It’s nice to know my reputation precedes me,” Duke Red said in a voice like plush velvet. “Sorry about your friend, but getting rid of her makes things easier, don’t you think?”
Argo’s shock turned to anger, and he glowered at the man called Duke Red. In his long red frock coat and frilly shirt, the other player was dressed more like he was going to attend a banquet rather than embarking on some hard adventuring. His long silver white hair was tied neatly into a pony tail, and the lower par
t of his face, the only part visible beneath the silver filigree half mask he always wore, comprised of a pointed clean shaved chin and elegant almost feminine lips that were a deep scarlet color.
He stood in a relaxed stance and had a casual air about him, seemingly oblivious to the battle with the Scaler that was raging behind him. The jewel-hilted scimitar he carried dipped towards the floor and there was enough space between it and Argo for the latter to make a run for it before Duke Red could strike him.
Argo stayed exactly where he was though, knowing that to try and escape would be a fatal error. He’d be cut down and back at the house with Sonia before he could scream murder.
Spy: Reborn Page 6