Once on the fourth floor the groups spread again. Fortunately, this and the next two floors were smaller. Unfortunately, they were much harder than the previous floors. The first room they entered had five demons, these ones each looked like giant praying mantis. The creatures weren't too difficult, two players with shields moved forward to block attacks while the others attacked with spells, arrows, or polearms. The problem came when the first mantis dropped.
The moment the green body hit the floor, the walls on either side of the room exploded out. Humanoid creatures slowly lumbered out from the previously hidden side rooms. The rooms the monsters had been in were covered with pentagrams, vials, blood and a large assortment of torture equipment. The creatures looked like they were once angels, leviathans or holy beasts, except their bodies were twisted and rotting, some even covered in large boils or having had parts of their bodies removed or replaced with weapons. Their eyes were devoid of any emotion and they staggered towards the group, groaning as they went. They weren't fast, but there were at least a dozen of them and the four mantis didn't help the situation any.
“Shield men keep in front!” she yelled before switching her sword back to its longsword form. “Keep attacking them! You two!” She pointed at a dragon and a demon. “Try to keep the left side distracted, I'll take the other!” She charged the creatures. She dove straight between them and they slowly tottered about, turning to face her. She swiped once with her sword, but the swing was shallow and one of them tried to tackle her. Her wings spread out so she could jump up and over the creatures before diving back down to slash at them. She swung low and wide to drive them back, though it did little damage. She was barely managing to keep them focused on her and away from the main group.
Asura held out her hand “Ray burst!” Rather than sending it at the creatures in front of her, she launched it at the mantises. The bursts of light shot through them and finished off another one of the creatures before the group finished off a third. She then landed by the disfigured humanoids and chopped down once, cutting one of their weapons to pieces. She could see the group fighting the last mantis, so she knew she only had to hold out for a little longer.
Asura let out a startled cry when one of the monsters charged her from behind, knocking her forward into the attack range of the others. She shrieked and slashed with her sword, cutting off limbs and making them disappear into sparkles of red, but was quickly finding herself overwhelmed. The creatures grabbed her arms while others cut and slashed at her with their attached weapons making her HP quickly decreased. “Greater h--” She was cut off as some ichor from one of the creatures splashed into her face and mouth. It tasted and smelled like rotten eggs mixed with mud and radioactive sewage. She put both hands together. “Burst!” An explosion shot out from her body and knocked the creatures off her. She then took off into the air, floating above them while she hacked, coughed and scratched at her tongue to try and get the nasty taste off.
She had just about gotten rid of the taste when screams drew her attention back below. With her up in the air, the monsters had charged into the group. The mantis were all dead, but the group's back line was being torn to shreds as the mutated creatures attacked from both sides.
“Healing light!” A ball of light formed in her hands. Asura tossed it straight into the center of the group so the light flowed over them and began to heal the less severe wounds. She charged back into the fray, spitting once more for good measure, and began navigating the menus again as her sword grew back into a great sword.
The fight quickly lost any semblance of organization and turned into an all out brawl, spells and weapons striking left and right in an attempt to kill the monsters before the players died. After a few minutes the monsters were all dead, though three people had been slain. After the resurrections, the group just turned to glare at her while she nervously looked at the ground. “I uhhh, well... ummm... I got ichor sprayed in the middle of casting a spell. Right into my mouth, and errr... I panicked. Sorry. Eh heh heh... I forgot to turn off taste.” She squeaked pathetically before she switched it off. “How long until the death penalties wear off?”
“Ten minutes,” one of the revived said, a fae. Reviving fortunately reduced the penalties from dying, but it still carried the class exp and timed stat penalties, and they had brought spare weapons in the event they broke. Fortunately, they could still accrue exp after they capped a class level, so dying usually wouldn't hurt too bad. Namely it just meant the three who died had to be extra careful so they wouldn't die again and suffer a more severe penalty.
The next two floors took over an hour each as the group made their way through more mutated creatures and large demons. When the groups met up again three more people had to leave, not to mention the death penalties were starting to have an effect as more people fell to the more difficult and more numerous enemies. “Only two more floors to go everyone,” B4hamutt said in an attempt to keep morale high.
“How do we even know they're here? This is probably just a wild goose chase! We're wasting our time,” one of the fae said in annoyance. “We should just head out and farm somewhere. We aren't even getting anything valuable with so many of us fighting.”
“It's only two more floors people. We're almost done, it would be a waste to come this far and just give up!” Asura said, but she could already see the damage starting to spread. After all, it was just a game and no one wanted to waste hours of their time on something that might not even be helpful in the end. Especially considering the penalties they'd risk. As more and more of them fell, the chances of penalties were becoming higher and higher.
“Fine. Everyone!” B4hamutt yelled. “Once we clear this area out, assuming we haven't found them, I will personally pay everyone here ten gold!” That made everyone shut up.
Asura stared at him with wide eyes. “W-what? Ten gold? Can you even afford that much?” she whispered to him.
“Not really, but they don't know that. Besides it's only if it doesn't pay out. Worse comes to worse, I'll just trade one of our captives for Scales and then auction the other one off. That might help some of it.” He looked over the group and yelled out. “Things are going to change around now. The next floor will only need two teams, so we'll split back into my original suggestion.” The crowd quickly voiced their objections. “If you guys want the ten gold each, you'll have to do it this way. Those are my terms.”
The groups soon agreed, though not without constant bickering about team composition. It was hard to get them to agree on who should get which healers and other mundane things she had come to expect when it came to forming a group. This time she headed left and they began clearing the rooms one by one. Things went fine until one of their leviathans were killed by an acid-hurtling monster. Rather than the player's corpse falling or disappearing into red sparkles, the player was turned into a small red jewel.
The person was released from the gemstone quickly, but the damage was done. With his body temporarily trapped, that meant once he was released he had to revive himself at a set point, outside the castle. It also meant he lost all the items he'd acquired and took the full death penalty since he couldn't just be resurrected.
“There's a soul altar near here! How could they, why would they set one of those up?” a dragon yelled out before he turned to head towards the way they came.
“What are you doing? Where are you going?!” Asura yelled to him.
“I'm getting out of here!” he yelled back. “This isn't worth it!”
“What? No! Come back, we need you! It's just one soul altar!” She let out a sigh of relief when he stopped.
“Are you kidding me? They're just softening us up! With no one able to resurrect here and get back with us, they can just slaughter those who do catch up. Then they'll probably make us miss the quests too, just for messing with them. We don't even know if they're here, it's probably a trap. The soul gems are probably at their guild hall or something.”
“It can't be. A soul gem can't be bro
ught into a guild hall for more than an hour a week or it automatically shatters,” Asura said as she tried to maintain calm. “If anything this proves they're here! They're just trying to scare us off. They'll have the same penalties we're having.”
“Except when they got here they could just resurrect if they died. Listen, I understand wanting to help out your guildies, but I'm not in this any more. I'm getting out of here and anyone who's smart should join me,” the dragon yelled before he ran off. The members of the group looked between each other as more of them ran off, quickly trimming their group down to a little over a dozen.
“Fine!” Asura yelled in anger. “Run off like cowards! We don't need you anyway! Come on,” she snapped at the rest of the group before she started walking towards the next room. Room by room they eliminated the monsters, occasionally a person would fall and reduce their numbers by one, but they pressed on. Eventually they met with the second group by the stairs. They had lost a good deal of members as well.
“Only twelve of us in all. But only one more floor left. I think we've got this settled,” B4hamutt said before they walked up the stairs.
“This never would have happened if you just let me lead,” one of the fae said.
“You? Pfft! You couldn't lead your way out of a paper bag! I should be leading, my guild is one of the top PVP guilds in tournaments, we'd have finished this no problem,” a dragon said with a shake of his head.
“Right, because PVP is anything at all like dungeon clearing. Heck, tournaments are so easy to win, only losers play them. No real tactics, just straight brawls with whoever has the most overpowered class. Like dragon,” a holy beast said with a sneer.
“Oh yeah? If they're so easy to win why don't you try taking me on. Anyone you've fought would have to be a total noob to lose to someone like you. I bet-”
“ENOUGH!” Asura yelled. “We've only got one more floor to go. Can't you all just get along for a little longer?” Almost instantly she regretted it when even more of them branched out, but not before yelling a few profanities at her. She sighed and face palmed. “Don't say it Mutt, I know. Don't boss them around when they're being whiny. Ugh.”
“Well, if you don't need me to say it then I won't remind you that you should know better. Like all those times we formed random groups and you would snap and yell at people because they started bad mouthing the healer or the damage dealers or-”
“I get it, I get it, just let it go before I snap you,” she snapped at him before realizing the irony of doing so. “Let's just get this last floor done. Only a couple more rooms and who knows? We might not even have to deal with the final boss.”
The interior stairs ended at the front of the building, and from the vantage point they could see through the narrow windows out into the world below. The lands were just as damaged as the angel lands, with wrecked buildings and abandoned charred siege weapons. The only plant life that could be seen was the spider forest, and it was so far away it was nearly out of sight. It sent shivers down her spine. They held their torches high and examined the room, but the room was empty aside from the windows and exits.
“Well, from here it's completely linear,” Asura said before they walked towards the doors. “One room filled with monstrosities, one room filled with the psychos who created monstrosities, and then the treasure room with its guardian. I swear if that girl lied about this I'm NEVER letting her out of the gem. We'll just find a way to hide it until she quits the game,” she said with bitterness in her voice.
“Relax Asura. Don't lose focus now that the finish line is in sight,” B4hamutt said before he shoved the door open. Inside was filled with 'dead' creatures, ones that had once been angels, leviathans and holy beasts. Most were either piled on top of each other in stacks, or strapped down to metal racks lining the floor. Their bodies had been horribly mutilated and melded with weapons and other items to make them brutal killing machines. Asura would have been more impressed if she hadn't seen so many creatures like them already. She hoped none of them sprayed her again.
Weapons were readied while they walked to the center of the room and, right on cue, the creatures began to grunt and move when the doors slammed shut and locked them in. “Okay everyone! Get ready!” B4hamutt yelled when the creatures charged. Weapons and spells flew through the air when the group slowly fought back the hordes. They were slow, but numerous, crashing against them like a tidal wave. The group fought back their best and managed to keep the damage minimal. By the end of the fight only two of their group was gone, turned to small little gem stones. “What happened?” B4hamutt asked with annoyance after they shattered the gems.
“They got separated from the main group and attacked from all sides. Nothing we could do,” an angel said. “I tried to heal them, but they died too fast. Sorry.”
“Not your fault. Come on. Everyone, light this room up then heal up, only two more rooms to go,” B4hamutt said before he drew out another torch and began throwing them around the room while others joined him. Before long the room had been lit up and the altar was nowhere in sight. “Two more rooms everyone. That's all,” he said before the door was opened once more.
Inside the new room was a massive arcane circle that covered the entire floor from end to end. The demons within, as opposed to the ones they'd met so far, looked like player demons. For a moment Asura even thought they were the demons the group was after, but these demons all had generic names hovering over their heads. 'Demon scientist', 'Demon academic', 'Demon janitor' and it went on. They were built on a variety of different forms, from the normal humans with red skin, to ones with massive horns and tails, to some with spider like heads and even one that seemed to be oozing out green slime from its pores. It wasn't a pretty sight.
After a moment the demons turned to face them. “Intruders!” one of them yelled, “Unleash the juggernauts!” Three large cages, each a little taller than three average sized humans, stood near the back of the wall. One by one their doors lifted up and the creatures within slowly lumbered out.
As opposed to the mutant creatures before, these ones looked almost like their original forms, different from the player versions. An angel, a holy beast and a leviathan. The leviathan was the size of a small house with thick blue scales covering its body and a large extended mouth like a crocodiles. It walked on all fours and slowly opened its mouth to reveal long powerful teeth that looked like they could crush a carriage in one bite. It had a massive tail that stretched out across the floor. Even though it was the shortest of the creatures, it was still twice as tall any of the players.
The holy beast looked like a normal wolf, albeit larger than an elephant, with fur that glimmered like diamonds and an undercoat of gold. Of all of them it was easily the tallest, its head brushing against the cage's roof. It slowly let out a growl and revealed powerful canines that looked like they could grab a rhino and devour it. Bones and all.
The last was the angel. He looked almost human, albeit far taller than one, as he was only a few feet shorter than the holy beast. He was wearing white robes and had massive white wings across his back. He radiated light, his entire body so bright it almost hurt to look at.
However, all the creatures had one thing in common. Red lines were etched across their bodies connecting red gemstones that were surrounded in a dark fog.
Asura let out a soft whistle. It wasn't very often you got to see how the races looked like before the war together, and most were saved for special dungeons like this. Granted, she always felt a bit disappointed when it came to the angel or fae versions. Every other race had multiple types of creatures they looked like, demons had bugs or the many demonic forms, dragons had dozens of different reptiles, holy beasts had lots of animals and leviathans could range from crocodiles to long thin dragons. Fae just looked humanoid with different wings and angels only got the humanoid with the same wings and lots of glow. Then again, as an angel she got to fly, so maybe it wasn't so bad.
The creatures slowly walked towards them. The
ir bodies moved in rapid and jagged motions, moving one leg at a time in a way that seemed as if their bones and muscles were moving independently of each other. She glanced at their faces and let out a soft, annoyed sigh. Their eyes were closed and they lacked any real sign of control. They were corpses. Flesh golems. “Everyone, careful! Focus fire on the demons! Those are flesh golems, even if we cut them up or damage them, they'll just stitch themselves back up! It'll be far faster just to kill their masters!”
The group charged forward, weaving around the slower golems. Fortunately, they were as slow as the experiments, so getting around them was easy. The problem came when they had to fight the other demons. Every time someone moved to strike the demons, they would position themselves to attack together as the golems came up behind and either forced the players to run, or get pincered. In their favor, the fae were able to consistently attack with their bows, but there were only two of them and she could see her group was quickly getting worn down, even with healing.
“Any ideas?” B4hamutt asked before he ran under the holy beast and cut across its belly with his axe. As they expected, the wound began to close.
“I have one, but it's dangerous!” she yelled before she charged forward to slash across one of the scientists, shattering his weapon and lopping of a hand. She continued slashing as fast as she could. “Guiding blade!” The blade seemed to come alive on its own, cutting through the demon lightning fast. Before she could lay the death blow, she was struck in the back by a sword. She let out a cry before taking to the air, though the giant attacking angel took off after her. “This is not part of the plan!” she shrieked before she brought her sword up to parry the angel's. She let out a shocked whine as the enemy angel's blade didn't shatter. In fact, the blow nearly knocked her sword out of her hands. “Oh, this is not fair!” She parried the attacks as best she could, but steadily found herself pushed back by the more powerful creature. Finally, a powerful blow knocked her back into the wall, eliciting a gasp of pain from her. The golem's blade hammered at her own, over and over as she struggled to keep her sword between her and the dangerous creature.
Landasy Reality: Angel's Escape Page 9