by Jeff Sproul
“Are you sure you even know where we’re going?” asked Shadow Witch. “You said it wasn’t that far inside, and it’s been what? Twenty minutes?”
“We’re almost there, I swear!” said Blue Blaster. “It’s like, one more tunnel.”
“Have you seen anyone else in the tunnels?” asked Warcry.
“I didn’t see anyone in there when I searched around,” said Blue Blaster. “No one went in when I waited at the entrance for everyone.”
BB kept walking as the light from another chamber spilled into the tunnel ahead.
“I think this is it,” whispered Blue as she slowed her pace.
“You think?” asked Glasser, in an equally quiet tone.
“Do glow worms even have ears to hear us?” Shadow Witch asked.
“This one might, or it can sense vibrations,” Blue said back.
“Did it see you earlier?” asked Shadow.
“Umm, I don’t think so? It seemed to be sleeping. It wasn’t moving a whole lot. It was in an alcove in this chamber up ahead, if it’s the right chamber,” said Blue.
They continued on as the green light got brighter. The tunnel eventually led into another large chamber with more of those large green-crystal outcroppings. The ceiling rose for about five stories. The room itself was easily as wide as several apartment buildings put together.
“This it?” Glasser asked as they slowly entered the room, looking all around. There were alcoves in the walls, just about everywhere. There were branching tunnel passageways and even what looked to be a pit.
“Yeah, this is it,” Blue Blaster whispered back. She walked ahead a short ways, her head turned to get a better look into one of the larger alcoves on the far wall. She then froze in place.
“Oh crap,” she said.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Glasser said, hurrying over to her.
Blue looked all around, her eyes darting from place to place. “It’s not there anymore.”
“It moved?” asked Glasser.
“Must’ve!” Blue replied. “It could be anywhere.”
“What if it moved to another chamber?” asked Shadow.
“Well, it was too big for the passageways,” said Blue.
“How big?” asked Shadow Witch. “Could it tunnel?”
“I don’t know, big!” Blue replied, her voice more erratic. “How should I know if it can tunnel? I didn’t code the thing!”
Glasser sighed. “Let’s check around and see if—”
The ground trembled beneath their feet.
Everyone looked down, but there was no time to react. The ground pushed up from below them and then broke as a large glowing maw rose into the chamber. A loud guttural groan emanated from the creature’s mouth. Its hide was a translucent bulging green. Its maw was made up of triangular flaps that opened up to a plethora of tiny green spike-like teeth.
“Spread out!” Glasser yelled.
Shadow and Blue were already moving in separate directions. Radi had been knocked to the ground and was crawling for several moments before Warcry reached down and hoisted him up by the arm. “Up you go!”
“Thanks!” Radi called as he turned and ran so that he could put distance between him and Warcry, if the worm came for either of them. He looked over, noticing the worm’s attention wasn’t on any of them currently. It seemed to be surveying its surroundings. “Glasser! I need the mirror!”
“I know!” Glasser called back from a distance away. “Gotta make sure it doesn’t get broken!”
Radi kept an eye on Glasser’s location as he kept running. He looked to the monster, seeing the name ‘Glownaconda,” above its head. Beneath the creature’s name was a long red health bar that hovered above it at all times. Someone in the group must’ve touched it or hit it, to cause the name to appear. It could’ve still been active from Blue Blaster triggering it when she was in the room earlier.
By now, Blue and Shadow had put enough distance between themselves and the Glownaconda. Blue was the first to turn. She lifted her hands and clenched her fists. She leaned back and pushed her hands forward as she opened them. Triggered by a mere thought, a pair of blue beams shot from her palms.
The size of the worm made it difficult not to hit. The blue beams smashed into the side of the almost gelatinous-looking monster. The beams were a continuous stream of energy that assailed the large worm.
The monster swung its head towards Blue. It reared itself back and then flung its maw out toward Blue. As it did, the flaps of its maw opened up and a burst of vile green liquid poured from its mouth.
Blue cut off her beams and took several steps to the side before diving to dodge the monster’s attack. Despite her quick reactions, the stream of liquid splashed over her lower body. She tumbled a short distance away and her vision flashed red as the slime that had touched her, began to eat away at her own hit points.
“Don’t get this stuff on you!” she called out to the others.
Shadow had already taken position and checked her surroundings. “Warcry!” she called out.
Warcry looked over to Shadow, seeing that she was about to attack. Everyone had gained a good bit of distance between each other. Now was the time to attack, and now it was time for her to do her job.
She set her sights on Shadow and took in a deep breath. When her lungs were filled, she shouted out. “Rahhh!”
It took only a second for Warcry’s power to take effect. A soft red aura appeared around Shadow.
Shadow smirked and wasted no time in attacking the monster, now that Warcry had buffed her with a damage-increasing effect. Her hands whipped around as she focused her attention on the shadows in the chamber. The shadows began to warp and shift and rise up despite the illumination from the green crystals and the creature’s body itself. Her shadows remained as two-dimensional constructs. Some shadows moved along the ground, while others descended from the ceiling. The shadows took on a pointed appearance as they rushed towards the glowing worm. One by one they stabbed into its body while its attention remained on Blue.
The creature’s health had slowly lowered in tiny amounts when Blue shot it with her beams, but now it was taking rapid increments of damage all over.
The worm wailed as it turned and sought out its assailant. His attention now shifting to Shadow. Again, the worm reared up and let loose a horrible torrent of green slime.
Shadow was more prepared and capable to deal with the attack than Blue had been. With a quick gesture of her hands and arms, she pulled the shadows into a protective barrier around herself. The slime splashed over the sphere of darkness encompassing her, but she remained unscathed as the shadows fell around her when the worm’s attack had ended.
“Radi!” Glasser called from the other side of the chamber.
Radiance turned his head and watched as Glasser moved his fingers in mid-air. He couldn’t see it himself, but he knew that Glasser was going through his inventory screen. A moment later, a mirror appeared in his hands. It was several feet high and several feet wide. Glasser set it against the wall and reached out to tap it twice.
As Glasser’s fingers touched the mirror in that second tap, a ray of sunlight streamed out in the direction the mirror was facing. It stopped against the far wall, and didn’t seem to be doing anything special, other than being a ray of sunlight.
“You’re good to go!” Glasser called.
Radi looked from Glasser to Blue.
“Rahhh!” Warcry shouted in his direction, and a white aura appeared around him.
“Thanks!” he called back, but didn’t divert his attention. He reached a hand out towards the sunlight streaming into the chamber from the mirror. With another wave of his hand, a beam of light branched out from the original and streaked across the room to hit Blue.
The red bar of health above Blue’s head had been at about eighty-five percent due to the green slime eating away at her health. But as the ray of sunlight hit her, the slime was seared off of her body and her hit points slowly inched back t
o full.
Blue brought her hands up again and shot out another steady blast of blue energy at the worm. She didn’t have a damage-increasing buff from Warcry yet, but she could still pile on the damage regardless.
As the worm was hit by Blue’s assault, it worked its way further out of the hole it had popped out of. More of its glistening green body became visible until its tail could be seen leaving the tunnel it had burrowed from. Its tail whipped around and swung at Blue.
“Why me again?” Blue shouted as she ran to the side to avoid the first attack, but as the worm brought its tail up and swatted at her again, she was slammed into the ground. The red bar above her slowly lowered about thirty percent.
“We need to get its threat off Blue!” Radiance called out.
“On it!” Glasser shouted. He lifted his hand and made a quick gesture to bring up a screen that displayed all the items in his inventory. He tapped an icon and then tapped it again.
Suddenly, a pile of long wooden stakes appeared at his feet. He reached down and grabbed one. He squeezed his hand and a glass-coating quickly encompassed the stake until it was more like an elongated icicle. He threw it like a spear and as soon as it left his hand, he reached down to grab another and turn it into glass.
The first glass-spear stabbed into the worm’s hide. It didn’t seem as strong as the numerous attacks from Shadow, or Blue.
What it did accomplish, was to draw the worm’s attention to him as he continued to hurl more glass spears.
“Rahhh!” came another shout from Warcry. This time, the resulting effect was aimed at the monster itself. The green glow of the monster’s body was now mingling with a somewhat sickly purple color that seemed to swim around the creature’s form. The worm had been sliding over towards Glasser and when that purple aura was added to its body, its speed seemed to slow dramatically.
“I could’ve used that slow on him earlier!” Blue called out from nearby as another ray of sunlight streaked out from the primary one and healed her lost hit points.
Radi pulled his attention away from Blue for the time being. Now that no one was taking damage and the monster’s attention was on Glasser, he brought his hands up and swiped with them. Each time he waved his arms, a bright focused beam of light would shoot out from the original beam of sunlight coming in from the mirror. Each ray singed and burnt a circular spot on the worm’s hide. The Glownaconda’s health was now creeping under ninety percent.
Blue re-joined the fight and focused her beams back on the giant worm. Shadow assaulted the creature from all sides, while Radi peppered the worm with beams of searing sunlight. Warcry’s ability recharged and she shouted at Glasser to give him a blue aura. She had to wait a short duration between shouts, else the effect wouldn’t be at a hundred percent.
Glasser had run out of stakes to throw, but it didn’t matter. The Glownaconda was already upon him. He smashed his fists together and inch by inch, his fists and arms were encased in thick glass. Using a little concentration, he grew the glass out of his arms into oval shields.
Due to the worm’s debilitation, caused by Warcry’s earlier shout, it had been forced to a slower speed which gave Glasser more time to prepare. When it finally reached Glasser and reared its head back to spew green slime all over him, Glasser was able to crouch down and protect himself from the liquid assault by using his glass-arms as shields.
While the creature was distracted by Glasser, the other four group members continued to pummel it from all sides with their various attacks.
Warcry’s beneficial effects would begin to wear-off, which required her to shout again in order to renew them. She didn’t have much offense capability of her own—unless she wanted to get in closer with the monster, but she was thoroughly increasing the fighting powers of her team, while also debilitating the monster. With another shout, she changed the aura around the worm to match its sickly green pallor, but this time instead of lowering its speed, she lowered its defense attribute, allowing their attacks to hit it even harder.
It didn’t take long before the Glownaconda’s health fell below fifty percent, half of its health bar had now been chipped away.
“We’re getting close, watch out for a phase change!” Radi called out.
The monster continued to attack Glasser, since he had accumulated the effect known as ‘threat’ upon the creature. One of Glasser’s special effects allowed his attacks to cause the creature to focus on him more, despite the fact that his attacks weren’t as strong as those of his companions. Threat was usually increased if a player put a lot of damage on a creature. Sometimes a healer like Radiance would accrue threat by healing someone the monster had attacked. In this instance, since Glasser’s abilities were considered under the ‘tank’ role, his powers caused extra threat despite lower damage.
“It’s under fifty percent,” Radi called a few seconds later. “Not seeing any change yet!”
The Glownaconda cut off its stream of bile that it had been spewing upon Glasser. The worm’s head flailed around, the green glow of its body pulsed, gradually increasing faster and faster.
“I spoke too soon!” he called as he whipped his arms around faster to try and increase his damage output on the worm. They had no idea what the creature was capable of and the worm might have some super powerful attack that could pose a huge problem if they’re caught unaware.
Suddenly, the worm began to wretch, almost as if it was going to spew up more acrid liquid. Its head flung forward several times as its mouth-flaps opened. But instead of liquid, a white object fell out of its mouth.
“What the hell is that?” Warcry called from nearby. The strange pale-white mass had fallen between the distance of her and Radiance.
Radiance’s attacks on the monster had stopped as he watched the expelled mass, waiting for it to explode, or glow, or...something.
The object was covered in translucent green slime, a bit dull compared to what the worm had been spitting up. The monster’s tail had curled in toward itself, but didn’t take any hostile action, its head was lowered in the direction of the thing it had spit up.
The object opened and rose from the ground. The slick ichor obscured some of its features until it rose further and further. A pair of arms broke from a torso. Its head lifted and a pair of dark black eyes opened. Its body appeared chitinous, like an insect, but the white hue made it seem almost like a skeleton. It was humanoid in form, but its appendages were elongated and strangely segmented. Its arms had at least five joints instead of just a wrist, elbow and shoulder.
Its legs were the same and ended on talon-like toes. Its head remained the most human-like feature, except for those black eyes and its larger cranium. It didn’t appear to have any mouth.
Its head swept from right to left and without hesitation its right arm rose and its five fingers extended out from its palm.
The worm’s mouth opened and let out a horrendous roar, unlike anything it had made before.
It was so loud, everyone involuntarily reached to cover their ears just to lessen the intensity. It didn’t hurt, since nothing in the game actually caused a player ‘pain’ but there was this strange irritating pressure along with an uncontrollable need to respond to the vocal attack.
Glasser used whatever thoughts he could muster to activate his powers and create a glass barrier around his ears.
Shadow Witch did the same, pulling in nearby darkness to conform around her ears, but it didn’t seem to be having as strong as an effect as Glasser’s method.
Warcry clutched at her ears and dropped to her knees.
Blue stumbled forward but retained her footing. As the worm roared, its tail uncoiled and whipped out at Blue. She didn’t have any time to react as its heavy meaty tail smacked into her and flung her across the chamber.
“Blue!” Radi groaned, reaching out to force a beam of sunlight in her direction. The insect-like monster that the worm had spit-up, brought its arm up and clenched its fist. The worm’s roar ended as it shifted over and bl
ocked the beam.
The sunlight had only touched Blue Blaster for a couple seconds, which wasn’t long enough to restore more than about five percent of her hit points.
“Damnit! Get out of the way!” Radi yelled. His thoughts became easier to focus now that the worm wasn’t roaring.
The insect monster moved its arms and hands and the worm reacted. Its entire body glowed a brighter green as its head came up like it’d done before when it spewed that green slime around. Its mouth opened, showing a green glow coming up through its body.
Radi watched, prepared to react.
Instead of slime, a large green beam shot forth from its maw. The beam cut into the ground and rushed towards Shadow.
Shadow moved her arms and drew in every bit of darkness that she could. The ray of green light washed over her and tore away at most of the shadows protecting her body, but she appeared mostly unscathed. The green ray moved across the chamber, tearing up rock as it moved towards Glasser.
Glasser pulled his arms up and crouched down. The beam broke against his hardened arms, but as the green ray washed over him, his hit points took a noticeable hit of about twenty percent, even though he’d deflected most of the attack.
“Heal!” he called out the moment the ray passed him over. In his next motion, he accessed his inventory to get more wooden spears.
Radi reached out to grab a ray of light, but the worm’s energy beam was still moving, straight for the mirror. Radi swiped his arm to throw a beam at Glasser to heal him as best he could with what time he had left. Glasser’s hit points rose back up to one-hundred percent just as the worm’s beam washed over the mirror and shattered it, instantly cutting off the ray of sunlight into the room, along with any means of Radiance using his powers.
“My head!,” Warcry groaned as she knelt, cradling her head between her hands with closed eyes. It seemed as though the creature’s roar had affected her worse than the others. Probably due to the fact that her ‘mind’ attribute wasn’t as high as everyone else’s in the group. Warcry hadn’t broken level 100, like the rest of them had.