Zones of Alacria- The Dragon Gate

by K R Dimmick

  Damir, ever calm, cast a shield between the mice and our party. With a sickening thud and crunch of bones, the first mouse broke its neck as it hit the shield.

  The front party of elves turned as quickly as they could, and the arrows started flying toward the mice. The shield kept those of us behind it safe from friendly fire, so they threw everything they could at the mice.

  One by one, the mice turned back toward the hunters as they managed to get agro back from the King. They squeezed the mice between their metal shields and Damir’s energy shield, preventing them from pouncing on the hunters. A couple of minutes later, they finally killed the last one and our shield came down.

  I was rewarded with a second piece of meat and a couple of vials of blood as I cast another Healing Mist to take care of any minor injuries.

  “Faelyn, I think you need to wait to engage,” Damir turned to the King. “You’ve forgotten how powerful you’ve become.”

  “Indeed, my friend,” the King replied.

  My world became rounds of healing spells, buffs and having half dead elves ported to my feet. However, between them, the subgroups killed over a hundred scorpion mice as we progressed. I’d managed to accumulate another ten pieces of meat, eight more vials of blood and five scorpion mouse hides, as well as various trash items by the time we were done.

  We’d all sat down to rest and recuperate the hunters’ stamina, when a shout went up from behind us. Somehow, we’d passed some snakes without spotting them. I Inspected one quickly.

  Neon Snake - 22

  Three snakes, each easily twice as long as I was tall, were advancing on our rear party of hunters. They were covered in the brightest blue and red stripes I’d ever seen.

  As quickly as they could, five of the elf hunters that had been at the front were pushing their way through the party to help reinforce the back.

  Arrows rained down on the snakes with very little effect.

  The closer they got, the more clearly I could see drops of lime green venom hanging off their fangs. I quickly rebuffed everyone with Minimizer in the hopes of preventing any poison debuffs finishing people off.

  The snakes hissed at us as they got closer.

  Two shields sprung into use, along with a couple of swords. The first elf lunged out and stabbed the closest snake before springing back to the safety of the shield wall. The hit took 10% of the snake’s health. A few more quick strikes, and one of the snakes was down to 40%. The other snakes were weaving back and forth to try and get past the lead one.

  All of a sudden, the first snake lunged at the shields. It managed to get its fangs into one of the elves standing to one side. I watched as his health dropped by 40% and continued to drop another 10% every second. I cast Healing Mist, in an effort to deal with what could only be a poison debuff. Then I cast Wound Seal to recover some of his health. As I was working, a second snake managed to bite another hunter, taking him to 20%. Damir ported the elf to my feet and started pouring an HP potion down his throat since I was still healing the first elf.

  The King surged forward and knelt down to Snipe. He took the first snake completely out with one hit as the other two turned to focus on him.

  The first hunter I’d healed was still fighting the venom, his health going up and down like a yo-yo as my regeneration effects countered the venom. I started work on the second seriously damaged elf, healing him as much as I could. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the second snake lunge at the King. I quickly cast Healing Mist on the area again as the King’s health started to tick downward. Thankfully, he’d only lost 10% health from the initial attack, but the venom was still draining his health by 5% every second. I watched his health seesaw up and down for five seconds, until finally, the debuff wore off.

  I couldn’t imagine trying this dungeon without the Minimizer buff if the venom was that powerful when it was reduced by 23%.

  The elf hunters at the back, aided by the King, finally killed off the second snake. Before the King could do anything further, one of the hunters with a sword pushed the King backward before plunging his sword into the third snake to gain agro. It worked. The snake’s fangs shot toward him, but he managed to get his shield up in time. A resounding gong echoed through the tunnel as the snake disorientated itself by hitting the shield. A quick round of sword thrusts and arrows finished the dazed snake off before it could recover.

  A slightly humbled looking King Faelyn congratulated everyone on the kills as my XP bar trickled up again. It looked like I’d gained just over 5,000 XP so far in this dungeon, putting me at 80% of the way to level 10. All three snakes dropped a vial of venom.

  A while later, with a much more coordinated party and a few level ups for people, including Aliz, we reached the boss room.

  Ahead of us was a set of stone doors with what looked like Medusa’s head carved into them. It was incredible seeing something from the myths I’d spent hours reading as a child. Finding out the lore was something I needed to do more of in this game. Reading ancient history, especially about languages and myths, had been my favorite thing to do. I missed it. Once I managed to get through this, I was going to make sure I discovered some things about my new world.

  Just like the last dungeon I’d been in, the edges of the door to the boss room had various runes running around them. They were there so we could key ourselves to the entrance to avoid getting locked out. Not that anyone except myself could respawn and come back, I thought soberly.

  “I’ve never been in the boss room,” said the King, “So I can’t tell you all what to expect. However, we have improved as a unit getting to this point and I trust you all with my life. The boss should be around the same level as the beasts we’ve been fighting, so listen up for any instructions as you fight. There is bound to be a large attack, so make sure you save your stamina to Dodge when we get this thing down to 75, 50 and 25% health. Otherwise, protect your healer, we are dead without her.”

  I felt everyone in the party turn to look at me as my stomach turned to lead. I really hoped I was up to this. I might be able to respawn, but if they all died, I wouldn’t last more than three more days anyway. So, this was it. Either we succeeded, or I was out of options.

  “Buff up,” the King said, eating some Chicken Mushroom.

  The King had moved us all back into a single main group as we didn’t need front and rear guards anymore. I cast Minimizer on the large group, buffing us all at the same time, which was going to make things easier in the big fight. Lastly, I ate another Star Orange Cupcake and a piece of Chicken Mushroom, getting my +10 Wisdom and +7 Toughness buffs renewed.

  “Touch this rune here before you enter,” the King said, pointing at a single up arrow, “Then, once you’re inside, head immediately to the edge of the room so you don’t start the fight. Aliz, enter last and give us two minutes before you enter to assess the place. You’re the lowest level, so your agro range will be the largest. Damir, you need to keep a shield up on Aliz the entire time because there is no way she will survive otherwise.”

  One by one, the hunters touched the rune and disappeared. Finally, the King, Damir, the guard and Mikael followed, leaving Aliz and me standing outside.

  “Good luck,” I said, “We’ll do this, and the guard will find the box from your mother.”

  She nodded, looking terrified.

  I touched the rune and was sucked into the room.

  42

  Expect the Unexpected

  I ran to the edge of the circular room and looked around, waiting for Aliz to enter.

  The room looked like it had been carved out of stone, with lots of nooks and crannies all over it. There was also a huge, circular black hole at the far end, presumably for the boss to come through.

  Around the edges of the room, almost like a dotted line, were a series of small walls. Each was large enough to hide three people behind it. If Arik was right, and we were indeed fighting a basilisk, I guess we were supposed to hide behind these walls every time it turned to look at us. />
  The idea seemed further borne out by a stone statue of a woman with long hair, holding a small stone snake in each hand. Since she was standing about halfway between the center and the walls, it couldn’t possibly be a decoration. I guess the last party who’d fought in here had had someone in it who’d failed to get behind one of the walls. A little worrying, I thought.

  A small flash of light heralded the arrival of Aliz. Unsurprisingly, that also meant the start of the fight. Damir cast a shield around her to help get her quickly and safely behind one of the little stone walls.

  I could see movement in the huge, dark tunnel. A few seconds later, the biggest snake I’d ever seen slithered out of it. It was easily twice my height, and so long that it could probably circle the entire room and more. It slithered into the center and wound itself up in the middle.

  The snake was actually beautiful to look at, with iridescent blue and green scales fading into white around its head. I Inspected it quickly to see what we were dealing with.

  Elite Basilisk - 25

  So, Arik had been correct. It was a little odd it wasn’t named, but I guess the game designers had gotten a little lazy. I risked a look at its eyes in the hopes that I wouldn’t die, but I figured now was the time to find out, and I was the person to do it. Its eyes were white, with a pink spiral in them. They were hypnotic to look at. I could seriously get lost in them and the way they spiraled down to a single, tiny point in the middle.

  “What are you doing?” Mikael hissed at me.

  He’d grabbed my arm and was shaking me out of my daze. Thank goodness for Mikael.

  “Everyone clear on that?” yelled the King.

  Wait. Clear on what? I thought frantically.

  “On three. One, two, three!”

  Everyone came out from behind the stone walls and started raining arrows down on the basilisk’s head.

  I shook my head to clear the remains of the cobwebs out of my mind and got down to the task of watching everyone’s health bars.

  The snake waved its head between the King on one side of the room and Damir, who was hitting it with his lightning bolts, on the other. Between the two of them, they were doing the most damage, since they were the highest level.

  We’d grouped up as much as the small walls would allow, but since only three people could fully hide behind a single wall, we’d still had to spread out quite a long way.

  Damir and Aliz were positioned furthest to my left. I was in the middle, so I had the least distance to run to cast my heals, and the King was positioned furthest to my right. That way, if one of them got too much agro, the other could hopefully turn the boss around.

  The Basilisk swiped the end of its tail toward one of the sword-wielding hunters, knocking him off his feet and taking away 10% of his health. The snake’s head descended on the prone hunter, who was desperately trying to crawl away. The edge of one of the fangs scratched him as he rolled, and his health started ticking down at 10% a second.

  I ran toward him, since my regeneration buff only worked in an area around me. I rapidly cast Healing Mist from as far away as I could, and then retreated again before casting Wound Seal on the struggling elf.

  A few minutes later, we got the basilisk down to 95% health.

  Suddenly, its eyes turned completely pink.

  “To the walls!” I yelled, throwing myself behind the stone wall beside me.

  A bright pink light flashed out across the whole room. I had no idea if that would have turned us all to stone, but I didn’t want to find out.

  We emerged from behind the walls and everyone started firing on the snake again.

  Since there was no one in need of healing or buffing for the moment, I decided to try casting a Fireball. I pulled the mana into my right hand, forming a ball of fire, and launched it at the snake’s head. It unfurled to look like a phoenix in flight. The fire landed right on one of its eyes and a notification popped up.

  Target is immune to Fire damage.

  Great. I had zero offensive spells that would work during this fight. That was the one position I’d wanted to avoid getting myself into.

  Another elf sword fighter managed to get himself hit and knocked over by the snake. This time, Damir simply ported him away and I ran over to where the elf hunter lay next to Aliz.

  Casting Healing Mist and Wound Seal in quick succession, I brought the elf’s health back close to full. He nodded his thanks and hurried back into the fight.

  At 90% health, the basilisk’s eyes once again turned pink.

  “Walls!” yelled the King.

  Everyone threw themselves behind a wall as a flash of pink light filled the room.

  All of a sudden, one of the elves screamed.

  I looked over in horror to find that he hadn’t quite gotten all of himself behind the wall. His left foot had been in view of the basilisk’s skill and had now turned to stone.

  “Watch the health bars, Damir,” I yelled, casting Minimizer as I ran toward the fallen elf whose health was down to 15%. Hopefully, I could help him.

  I cast Wound Seal on him and watched him become mostly transparent, with a blue grid that overlaid his outline. The lines all seem to end right at the point where his foot had turned to stone. It was like his foot wasn’t part of him anymore and was instead simply a foot-shaped lump of stone. I focused on pushing the lines toward where his foot should be, but nothing happened. So, I tried it from the other direction, and focused on pulling the lines to elongate them over his foot. That worked, but the lines seemed very thin and brittle. I willed the lines to grow and cover his foot, watching them slowly reach the end. As I held them there and focused on joining them under his foot, a pulse of blue energy shot through the lines and they became thicker and solidified. Finally, an electric blue mist extended from my hand and flew toward the grid, enveloping the elf’s foot. I was kicked out of the spell and the elf once again became visible. He was staring at me with his mouth open and eyes as wide as they could go. His foot, however, was no longer made of stone and looked like a normal foot. The health bar above his head was back to reading 100%.

  “What?” I said, probably a touch too harshly, “Haven’t you ever been healed before?”

  “No,” he shook his head, “All of our healers were killed off years ago, and HP potions can’t heal basilisk stone because the area that was turned to stone is no longer part of the body.”

  “Oh,” I said, a little nonplussed and feeling slightly guilty about having a go at him. At least no one had told me that beforehand. All I’d done was think outside the box a little when the skill hadn’t worked. Well, I guess healing skills were pretty interesting, after all. Maybe being a healer was going to be a good thing. “Just remember to Dodge next time if you don’t make it, okay?”

  He nodded, his eyes still as wide as saucers, before turning back to the fight.

  A quick look showed everyone’s health was doing okay and the basilisk was about to hit 85%.

  “Pink light coming up!” I yelled, running back toward my little stone wall.

  I managed to get myself behind a little wall as the basilisk’s pink light skill bathed the room again, this time without any accompanying screams.

  As soon as the light skill ended, I ran in toward the snake and cast Healing Mist on everyone within melee range. The basilisk took one look at me and lunged his head toward me. I Dodged and turned to run. Somehow, it missed me, despite me putting my back to it, which, on reflection, had to have been one the stupidest things I’d done in a fight so far. I guess sometimes luck simply took pity on the naive or stupid.

  The next ten minutes passed with arrows raining down on the basilisk, melee hunters stabbing it and avoiding its tail in return and mad dashes to get behind the walls. I spent my time running around the place, buffing and healing as needed.

  Finally, we reduced it to 75%. The question was, would it have a big attack now, or would that only come at 50%?

  I was contemplating what would come and thinking about what
a shame it was that such a stunningly beautiful creature was so badly misunderstood. Wait, I thought, I don’t think this killing machine is misunderstood. It’s just deadly. I shook my head. Looking around, I suddenly realized that I, and everyone else, except Aliz, who was in the little bubble shield Damir had preemptively cast, were slowly but surely walking toward the basilisk. The snake’s mouth was wide open, simply waiting for us to walk in. Thankfully, my level of Fortitude had allowed me to snap out of it.

  I grabbed the person nearest to me, which turned out to be Mikael. I shook him as hard as I could. It was like I was trying to wake him up from a dream. He kept pushing my hand away. I yelled in his ear, but he couldn’t hear me. In a flash of inspiration, I took my staff and thumped him on the head.

  “Owww!” he turned and yelled at me, giving me his best glare. “What did you do that for?”

  “Everyone’s compelled. Stop them any way you can,” I shouted, running over to the next person. “Quick, or we’re all dead.”

  A look of sheer terror crossed his face, but he turned and grabbed the elf next to him, who was inexorably walking toward the snake’s open mouth.

  I worked my way around the room, hitting people with my staff and stunning them slightly to free them from the basilisk’s compulsion. I reached the King and heard a few sharp intakes of breath as I hit him squarely in the back of the head.

  Mikael had reached Damir and was busy bringing him around, since he’d been a little too enthusiastic and had ended up knocking him completely out. That, of course, had brought with it the problem of Aliz’s shield going down. Just as Damir came to, they both noticed a compelled Aliz walking toward the basilisk. Mikael instantly grabbed her, dragging her back behind the stone wall as Damir cast another shield on her.