“Maybe it wasn’t a trap.” I walked over and held a hand out to Nova. She smiled as she took it and boosted to her feet. “I think that was the only way in here,” I said as I looked at our new surroundings. “And we’re probably going to have to fight our way out.”
Crash shook himself loose and glanced around. “Dude, there’s nothing to fight.”
“There will be,” I said, realizing what we were surrounded by.
This was another cavern, slightly smaller than the one above us with the clockwork knights. The floor we’d landed on was a giant chessboard, and there were pieces scattered all over — not chess pieces, but pistons and gears and hammered metal. Some of them were parts of armor. And propped against the back wall was a massive sword, easily eight feet long.
Enough parts to make one big-ass clockwork knight, including a crown. Which meant this was the King of Knights.
As I started for the sword, just to see if I could grab it and maybe disarm this guy before the fight started, words flashed in front of my eyes. System message: You have initiated a boss battle. The scattered parts started to glow and move, scraping themselves across the floor toward the center square of the board like they were magnetized.
“Shit, we’d better get out of the way!” I called as I moved back. “You guys saw that message, right?”
“Yeah. Looks like it’s boss time,” Crash said as he, Nova and George followed me toward the edge of the board. “Do we have a plan?”
“Basically, kick its ass,” I said. As I watched the boss rapidly assemble itself with sounds like an army of robots, I thought about the sign I’d read back at the beginning of the level with the really bad poem. At least part of it seemed relevant: Should you reach the King, you must take a knee. But I wasn’t sure exactly how that cryptic advice would fit in here.
The King of Knights was gold metal, ten feet tall, and fully armored except for its head, which had a crown instead of a helmet. Once it was fully together, its eyes flared with golden light. It grabbed the massive sword two-handed, planted its feet firmly in the center square, and raised the weapon to slam it down point-first into the ground like a giant hammer.
On impact, the ground trembled hard enough to knock us all down. The stone walls cracked around us, and there was a rumbling sound as loose dirt, stones, and jagged chunks of rock fell from the ceiling. My health dropped five percent with the earthquake. As I tried to get back up, a stone struck my shoulder hard. I snarled in pain and watched another few percentage points drain from my health.
Okay, that shockwave move sucked.
“Seriously?” Crash said as he picked himself up. “I’m already down like fifteen percent, and he hasn’t even touched us yet. Screw this. Spectral Blades!”
The blue-white blades materialized, tornadic winds swirling around them as they flashed out toward the knight. Both of them shattered on contact with the armor. And the boss was raising the sword, drawing back at waist level.
Right then, I figured out what the warning on the sign meant.
“Everybody, kneel!” I shouted. “Get down, now!”
I dropped to my knees, watching to make sure the others complied as George moved closer to me. “Sorry, boss, no can do. Don’t have knees,” he said. “Why are we—”
He cut himself off as the King of Knights swung the huge sword around in a full circle, rotating at the waist to cover the entire board. I felt the rush of air as the blade passed inches over my head. “That’s why,” I said as the knight’s swing completed the circle and raised an arm. “Fire Wall!”
Just as I cast the spell, I heard Nova call, “Weaken Armor!” A beam of dark green light flashed out and hit the boss, sinking into the gleaming armor and drawing a brief whine from the gears as the flames rose up around it. Between her curse and my fire, it looked like we’d actually done a little damage.
“That worked?” Crash said as he got back up. “Why didn’t my Spectral Blades hit? I had the Wind Blade branch on too! This boss is bullshit.”
I was about to try Chaotic River to keep him busy when I realized the knight was raising the sword for another shockwave slam. “Watch out! Find something to grab onto, if you can,” I said as I looked around. Unfortunately, there was nothing but stone walls and debris.
The sword slammed the ground, and the tremors knocked us all flat again. My health drained another five percent, and Crash cried out as a big chunk of rock landed on his arm.
“I’ve got you,” Nova said as she half-crawled toward him, dropping the Weaken Armor curse to cast Heal.
I straightened slightly and looked around. “George, you okay?” I called when I didn’t see him right away. “Anything land on you?”
“Nah, I’m good,” George replied as he hopped around a pile of shattered rock. “I’ll tell you, though, those quakes aren’t doing me any favors.”
“I’m not sure there’s any way to stop them,” I said as I started to get an idea of how this worked. I looked at the King of Knights, who was drawing his sword to the side again. “Stay down, guys! He’s about to swing.”
There was a mechanical grind and a loud whooshing sound as the sword flashed out. The chance to prove my theory was coming up. “Hey, Crash,” I said. “Try Spectral Blades again when he comes around and stops. I think I’m getting the idea here.”
He gave me a strange look, but he watched the knight spin like a deadly roulette wheel, then popped up when it stopped and launched the attack. At the same time, George bounded up and shouted, “Wind Blast!”
The massive gust of air and the blue blades hit the knight at the same time, knocking him back at least a foot. The boss planted his sword in the ground and stopped himself from falling over, but he’d definitely taken damage that time. And now I knew how to beat him.
“Okay, listen. It’s a pattern,” I said as the giant clockwork knight took a single step back to the center square. “He does the shockwave, and then the sword swing, and he’s vulnerable when he comes around. Next time, hit him hard as soon as he stops the swing.”
Crash nodded. “Got it.”
“Watch it, he’s coming down!” Nova said, trying to crouch against the wall and brace herself. “I’ll see if I have something to minimize the damage from—”
The metallic slam of the sword hitting the ground covered her words as the entire room shook and the cracks in the walls split open further. Larger fragments rained down from the ceiling and sprayed from the walls, and I threw my arms over my face just in time to keep a handful of rock fragments out of my eyes. This time, the quake did seven percent damage to my heath.
“If we don’t take him down soon, this is gonna be death by earthquake,” Crash said as he moved to a hunkered position, waiting for the sword strike. “I don’t want to go out like this.”
“Not happening. We know how to take him down now,” I said, ducking as the heavy blade sped past above my head. “Okay, get ready to move!”
When the knight completed the circle, I sprang up and held a hand out. “Star Scream!” I shouted, hearing Crash launch his spectral blades and George blast him with wind at the same time. An explosion of light crashed into the boss, and this time the clockwork knight skidded back and went down to one knee before stopping the fall with his sword.
“Not done with you yet,” Crash muttered as he stepped forward. “Malediction!”
Dark red light flooded from Crash’s outstretched hand and blasted the boss square in the chest, tarnishing the gleaming armor to a dulled bronze. A small crack appeared near the top of the breastplate. But the knight was already standing again, taking a step toward the center square.
Crash stepped back, panting. “Damn, that took a lot of mana,” he said. “That thing better go down soon.”
I was about to cast again when the boss started raising his sword for the shockwave. “Guys, get over here!” Nova called from a crouching position at the edge of the board. “I think I can keep the falling rocks away.”
Crash, George and I
ran over and ducked, and Nova gestured upward with her staff. “Energy Shield!” she called, and white light flooded from the staff to spread out in a circle, forming an opaque shield above us.
The sword slammed down, bringing an even bigger shower of dirt and rock fragments that hit the shield instead of us. But the shockwave itself still took another fifteen points off my health. I was at around fifty percent now, and a quick glance at the team stats showed that Nova and Crash weren’t doing much better.
“What do you think? We’ve got him this time, right?” George said as the sword flashed around the room, narrowly missing the top of Nova’s staff.
I nodded. “Throw the biggest thing you’ve got at this guy when he stops.”
The mechanical whine of the boss’s sword slash attack wound down, and George leapt out with a massive blast of wind. Crash threw Spectral Blades, nearly severing one of the knight’s arms from his body as a few gears flew out and black fluid gushed from the joint.
“Star Scream!” Nova shouted, copying the movements I’d made a few minutes ago. A multicolored blast of light flowed from her staff, and the clockwork knight wavered and groaned, falling to its knees. At the same time, a blue glow surrounded her as she leveled up.
I drew my sword and ran at the crippled boss. “You’re going down,” I said, bringing the weapon back. “Revering Vendetta!”
My sword pulsed with brilliant green light as I leapt into the air and brought it around, plunging it straight into the crack in the armor left by Crash’s Malediction attack. The blade drove deep, and a thick burst of black ichor gushed out around it, spraying up my arms and splattering my face. I kept pushing as the King of Knights fell back, hit the ground hard, and shattered into fragments of metal and gears and springs.
“Level Up!” Elizabeth announced as the white letters danced across my field of vision. “You have reached Level 17.”
I couldn’t help grinning. As the pieces came to rest, a drop materialized in the center square of the chessboard and a gleaming portal appeared at the back wall, where the sword had rested.
When the portal opened, white text flashed across my HUD. System message: Your party has completed the Earth level. You have earned 20 percent EXP. You have been awarded with an Amulet of Oblivion. As the message completed, Crash, Nova, and George glowed with leveling light, and my EXP bar shot up to almost 50 percent toward the next level.
“Yes!” Crash shouted, pumping a fist in the air. “Party bonus for the win. And I guess I’m kinda glad you stuck with the classics, Kahn. Nice finishing move.”
George hopped cautiously toward me, skirting pieces of the fallen enemy. “Told you I’d hit level 12. Also, you look like crap,” he remarked, showing his teeth in a grin. “I hope that black gunk comes off, because I really don’t want to keep looking at your face like that.”
I smirked and swiped a hand across my face, which came away black. “Looks like it does,” I said. “Grab the drops, and let’s get out of here before something else decides to attack.”
We headed for the portal. One element down, three to go.
14
The portal led back to the main chamber of the dungeon, where things were almost the way we’d left them. The bonfire still burned, all the doors were still closed, and Ugly Shiva, the giant four-armed stone statue, still sat behind the altar. But there was one difference — the yellow crystal the statue held was glowing with a steady light. Assuming that yellow was the color for earth, that probably meant the other three crystals would light up when we completed each area.
And something bad would probably happen when all four of them were glowing.
Without discussing it, we all headed for the bonfire and sat around it. I popped up my stats to take a look, since I’d just leveled up again:
* * *
Character: Kahn
Alignment: Neutral
Level: 16
Health: 371
Mana: 307
Synchronization: 90%
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Constitution: 20
Wisdom: 20
Intelligence: 20
* * *
Awesome. I’d gained an extra 28 health and 18 mana.
“Okay, identify monkey,” Crash said with a tired grin. “How about you check out these items? They look pretty sweet, and I totally call the sword. You already have one.”
“Fine, but I’m keeping the Rhuvians, since I bought you dinner back in town,” I said. The boss had dropped 500 Rhuvians, a one-handed longsword with a bronze blade, and a bronze heater shield trimmed with silver. Both the sword and shield were marked with a crown motif. We also each had the Amulet of Oblivion as the system message had said, a gold disk that had spaces for four crystals. One was filled, a glowing yellow stone that matched the earth crystal in the statue’s hand.
“Identify,” I said, casting the spell on the items.
The stats showed up instantly on my HUD:
* * *
Defender’s Sword
Damage (Small Monsters): 15
Damage (Large Monsters): 12
Range: 3
Material: Bronze
Durability: 150
Bonus: 20% damage boost against water opponents
Class bonus (Priest or Paladin): Your Wisdom is added to Strength for physical attacks.
Set bonus: +2 Armor
* * *
Defender’s Shield
Material: Bronze
Durability: 200
Bonus: 20% defense boost from water attacks
Class bonus (Priest or Paladin): If reduced to 10% Health, the next 5 hits against you inflict damage to Mana instead.
Set bonus: +2 Armor
* * *
Amulet of Oblivion
Material: Gold and Crystal
Durability: 200
Bonus: +10 Earth Resistance
Bonus: +10% damage for all Earth element attacks
* * *
“Well, I think you’ll have to take both of them. They’re a set,” I said as I conveyed the stats. “I mean, with those sweet class bonuses, I can’t think of any reason why Crash shouldn’t keep them. Nova, what do you think?”
She looked surprised. “You mean I get a vote?”
“Yeah, of course,” I said. “You’re in this party too, right? We’re all on the same team here.”
“I, uh…” She smiled at me, and then looked away fast. “Sorry. It’s just that I’m used to Terra calling all the shots. She never asks me … I mean, sure. Crash can have them. It would be dumb not to let him take advantage of those class bonuses.”
I was starting to think Nova was a lot stronger than she knew, but she’d never really gotten a chance to try because of her ‘champion’ sister. Maybe she’d figure it out by the time we found Terra. But for now, she was definitely better as support, and Crash was heading into semi-tank territory. He did need a decent weapon.
“Okay, it’s all yours,” I said to Crash. “I’m not sure what’s up with the Amulet other than it’s obviously an overall dungeon reward. Why have an Earth resist item after the earth elemental wing?” I eyed the giant Shiva with the one glowing stone. “Well, actually, I can think of a reason.”
Crash, Nova, and George all followed my gaze and nodded, almost in unison. It was obvious now that I said it. Anyway, even if we were wrong, which I was sure we weren’t, it could turn into a pretty powerful item if it kept growing.
As he grinned and equipped the new gear, Crash’s eyes fuzzed out, probably looking over his HUD. “Well, I had never intended on tanking, but there were some pretty nice tank priest builds back in TG. Kind of like your Reflecting Fog thing, they relied on the Sacred Spiral skill that reflected damage back on things. That meant they were no good for PvP, so I never delved into them, but considering our situation, I might want to shift some things around.”
I nodded as I stretched out. “That’s the spirit, man. Branch out some, test new stuff. This is a whole new
world and a whole new situation than TG.”
“Oh, don’t start,” Crash scoffed. “I’m still going to be using a tried and true, fully min-maxed build. I just have to make adjustments to the battle priest DPS built I was planning out.”
Nova bit her lip. “You sound just like Terra. Are you sure you shouldn’t …” Her voice trailed off before she could finish, and I could see that self-doubt come back as she shook her head. “No, no, forget I said anything.”
“No, you should,” I said as I patted her on the shoulder. “Because you’re right on this one. Crash’ll figure it out eventually, won’t you?”
Crash only mumbled as he half-nodded, his attention purely in number-crunching, min-max mode as he shifted skills around. Well, it wasn’t like he was entirely wrong either. His focus on Spectral Blades had paid off, but still, if he didn’t get out of this rigid thinking soon, we could wind up in big trouble.
And big trouble in Ruul meant we were dead.
Meanwhile, George rose on his hind legs and looked across the fire at Crash. “Keep this up and I won’t be able to call you squishy anymore, priest. I’ll have to think of a different name for you,” he said. “How about Loser?”
“Yeah, keep it up, rabbit,” Crash said. “I’m about to call you lunch. There’s no food stands in the dungeon, you know.” As he stood, he raised his new sword up high and called out, “Sacred Spiral!” A glowing ring of light surrounded him, shards that looked like thorns spiraling around the ring. After a moment, the glow faded, like most long-term buff spells and abilities. “There, ready to kick some ass.”
“I wouldn’t worry about the food too much. I’m sure we’ll be fine,” I said as I looked through my display tabs, just to make sure everything was in order. My stamina was holding at around 85 percent. Besides, being in a virtual world meant we didn’t actually have to eat three meals a day — it didn’t seem to take that much to maintain. It probably just felt like we should eat more often than we had to.
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