“Asura, are you okay?” Andremedia asked.
“So... much pain...” she whispered. It was mostly gone now, but she could still almost feel it as if it was echoing through her bones.
“Hold on,” the fae said and leaned in. “Holy ki--”
The angel blushed and her hand shot out to push against Andremedia's forehead. “Whoa there. The holy kiss spell doesn't actually need a kiss.”
“What? I know!” the fae said curtly and her cheeks turned red. “I wasn't going to kiss you, I was just... ugh. Holy kiss.” The two glowed for a moment. “There, better?”
“Yes, thank you,” Asura said before pulling away. She looked to the giant's claw and saw her sword still lodged deep into the scales and bone. “This is going to be interesting. Maybe I should have kept the explosions on instead of the damage. I just didn't think that would hurt it.”
“Probably not, come on!” Andremedia yelled before shooting more arrows at the creature.
The angel charged forward after her sword before opening her hands and aimed them behind her. “Gust!” A burst of air sent her hurtling forward and she closed her wings. The powerful winds from the dragon's wings buffeted her on all sides so she lifted her hands in front of her face to block. She flew at the blade and, when she got close, opened her wings and grabbed the hilt. She kept flying forward, pushing against the blade as it finally slashed through the beast's arm. Its claws fell through the air, before disappearing in a flurry of red sparks. “We did it! We can do this!” she yelled before diving again, narrowly avoiding the dragon's other claws.
Niohoggr let out an ear shattering roar before it twisted its body around to face her. With a powerful flap of its wings, that sent the others tumbling back, it tore off after the angel.
“Ahhhh!” she yelled before turning and flapping her wings as quickly as she could. The dragon didn't care, as it flew after her, the others struggling to keep up with the two. Its head shot out and attempted to bite down on her, but she performed a sharp right turn so the jaws narrowly missed her. The beast's claw shot out at her next, clipping the tip of her wing and sending her spiraling through the air. “Ahhhh ohhhh urrgggggg...” She groaned and held her stomach, struggling to stop the world from spinning around her.
“ASURA!” Andremedia yelled.
The angel looked up, though she was still unable to stop spinning. The dragon's mouth shot down and swallowed her whole. She screamed as wet gooey dragon saliva surrounded her on all sides and she was dragged down the dragon's throat. Nasty liquid shot into her mouth, gagging and choking her as she tried to cough it out, but it kept flowing around her and enveloping her. Unable to see or hear anything as she shot down the dragon's gullet, she stabbed out with her sword. She held onto the hilt with both hands and, despite the slippy liquid enveloping her, cut with all her might.
After a few moments she felt herself pushed out and into the open air. She fell through the sky and struggled to cough all the foul liquid out from her body as bile rose in her throat. After a moment she felt herself sufficiently purged and held out her hands. “Cleansing torrent.” Water enveloped her, allowing her to open her eyes. The dragon was flapping around as it writhed in pain. A large hole was cut into its chest, where she had escaped from.
The others were striking it over and over as B4hamutt went straight for the wings and slashed through them, slowing the beast, but not managing to ground it. The dragon turned to him and opened its mouth as flame began to gather, a moment before Asura saw the most amazing shot she'd ever seen.
Andremedia's arrow shot through the air and jammed right into the hole in the monster's chest, coating the entire area in ice. The flames struggled to escape through the hole, but with the heat blocked she was able to see as the glow of hot flames traveled back into the dragon's body before creating a new hole in the monster's chest.
Skyth brought her mace down on the creature's left wing and ice enveloped it, while B4hamutt shredded the right wing with his claws. Scalios dove down and brought his mace crashing against Niohoggr's skull. Ice coated the dragon as it tumbled through the air. It writhed and twisting about before its massive frame slammed into the ground below.
The creature hit the ground like a meteor, sending out waves of dirt and flowers as the world around it shook. Dust filled the air and blocked the creature from sight as the five watched it from above. “D-did we w-win?” Asura asked before flying over to the others and looking down.
“Maybe,” B4hamutt said as he tried to see through the dirt. “Did you throw up?”
“Yes,” she said softly.
“I didn't think you could do that in game...”
“Not many games you can,” she said as she shook her head. “I'd heard of it, but I really don't think they needed to make it quite this realistic.”
“What caused it?” Andremedia asked.
“Mouth full of dragon saliva,” she said with a shiver as her stomach twitched at the mere thought. She put a hand over her mouth and waited for the nausea to subside. “I can still taste it... ugh. Like rotten eggs mixed with gasoline... I couldn't even spit it out.”
“Ew,” Scalios said and shook his head. “Happy you got out of there before it flamed you. Media, that was an amazing shot. How often do you practice with that bow?”
“Well, it is my primary weapon,” the fae said with a light blush. “I have years of experience with it.”
“Yeah, but you did that while flying,” Asura added quickly. “I've never seen anyone shoot so accurately in the air. The wind their wings gives off tend to throw off the shot.”
“O-oh, well, it's nothing really,” Andremedia said and waved them off. “C-come on, anyone could do it with enough practice. You just need to learn when to time it.”
“Still, that's--” Asura was cut off when a loud roar tore through the air. Below the dust settled and Niohoggr's body lay still on the ground in the middle of a massive crater. Cracks and fissures had spread throughout the entirety of the valley. Slowly the beast's body began to twitch as its head slowly lifted up from its downed position, before letting out another roar. It slowly climbed back onto its claws before aiming its head at them and letting loose a massive blast of flames.
The five scattered, though they soon realized there was no point. Fire spilled out from the dragon's chest, weakening the blast. It died long before it came within reach of touching them. “We've got this!” B4hamutt yelled before clenching his fists. “It's missing a claw and its fire breath is weaker. We just need to watch out for the tail and remaining claw and we can do this. Don't let it corner you!” he yelled before diving down at the beast. The others nodded as they followed after him.
When B4hamutt shot down at Niohoggr, the beast opened its mouth once again. An arrow to the mouth quickly froze it shut before he dove by. A moment later Asura brought her blade crashing down on the dragon's head, slicing deep into its snout before yanking her blade free and diving around the massive, writhing head.
“It can't take much more!” B4hamutt yelled as he tore his claws into the beast. “I have an idea! Let's guarantee this! Our most powerful spells!”
“You mean like rapture?” Asura yelled before she jammed her sword into the beast's neck and tore more scales away. She flew back up into the air as the dragon's tail slapped at her.
“Yes!” he yelled flying back, the red hot flames nearly incinerating him. “Everyone, come on!”
Asura gulped and slammed her sword into the beast's back and let it go. Throwing herself flat on the monster she gripped one of the jagged scales. “Okay!” she screamed as the others dove down around her. The dragon inhaled deeply and turned its head towards her. “RAPTURE!” White light shot through the monster.
Explosions tore through the air around them as five master level spells went off simultaneously. The blast sent her flying back as the sound rocketed through her ears, so loud she thought her teeth would shatter. The continuous force held her pinned against the valley floor as lights and sounds e
nveloped her from all sides. The pain made her scream as she struggled to move against the force. Then, as quickly as it came, the force ended. The entire world turned silent and everything she saw was a blinding white.
The world slowly began to reappear around her and the light slowly disappeared. Dust and dirt filled her vision on all sides. Across the valley she could see the others, some slowly un-burying themselves. The dragon was nowhere to be seen. She looked around as she tried to touch the ground, but she couldn't feel it even though she could, dimly, see her arms moving. Everything was blurry and seen through a weird filter.
“Did we win?” Asura asked, though realized she couldn't hear herself say it. She tried yelling, but no sound came out. She looked around in confusion until suddenly messages began flooding her vision.
Warning: Brightness levels reaching dangerous levels, vision will return momentarily.
Warning: Sound levels reaching dangerous levels, audio will return momentarily.
Warning: Force feedback system experiencing brief malfunction, touch will return momentarily.
There was a sudden whirling sound and the world returned completely to normal, allowing her to see and feel normally again. “Guys? Are you okay?” she yelled, and to her relief she could hear herself.
“Yeah,” B4hamutt yelled out before getting to his feet. He glanced around and sighed. “I think Media's frozen and Skyth disconnected. Scales? Can you hear me?”
The leviathan was crawling from the wreckage, but didn't respond. When he finally got to his feet he waved his hands at them and started talking, though no sound came out. After a few moments his voice finally came out, “REBOOT AND-- Oh. Never mind, it seems to be working out. What in the world was that?”
“I don't know,” Asura yelled before flapping her wings and flew over to them. Skyth's body was completely gray and Andremedia was unmoving. “I think we may have overloaded the game.”
“Maybe,” Scalios said before looking around around. “I guess using five top level spells at once on such a detailed enemy was a bit of overkill. We won though! That's gotta be one for the history books.”
A shrill shriek filled the air, making them cover their ears. After a few more moments it stopped and Andremedia groaned. “I'm back, ow.”
“What was that?” B4hamutt asked as he glared at her.
“Sorry, just an error in my voice module,” she said before getting to her feet and stretching. “Did we win?”
“Seems so,” Asura mumbled and nudged Skyth's body with her foot, though she went right through the leviathan. “Nothing's happening though. I wonder if she'll be able to reconnect.”
Her thoughts were answered a few seconds later when color flooded into Skyth's body. The woman groaned and went limp. “What was that?” she asked before shaking her head. She took Asura's hand and was helped up.
“We think we overloaded something,” Asura told the leviathan before looking around. “Niohoggr is gone though, so I think we won.”
Fireworks suddenly filled the air, illuminating the area in their colorful glows. Blues, reds, golds, purples and greens streaked across the sky as dozens of lights went off throughout the wrecked valley.
“Congratulations!” a loud man's voice called out. “As the first to ever defeat Niohoggr, the king of dragons, please accept this reward!”
Another flash filled their visions and Asura cringed, but after a moment the light disappeared and revealed a small two dimensional treasure chest in front of her. She blinked and tapped it. A message popped up, 'Acquired: Essence of Niohoggr, Skins of the dragon slayer.'
“Anyone know what these are for?” Asura asked and opened her inventory. Neither item was there.
“Not a clue,” B4hamutt said and his fingers moved through the air. “Wait, hold on. The timer for my hell fire penalties is gone. No way,” he said and his mouth fell over. “Holy... the penalties for hell fire are gone! It still has a timer on use, but that's all.”
Asura's mouth fell open and she opened her skills and looked at her own. “Wow... that makes that spell far more... hold on,” She activated her class change. “I wonder if it altered anything else. Maybe...” she said and her body changed to the scaled form. She navigated to her status. “Oh you won't believe this. The caps are off for the same stats my angel has.”
“That's useful at least,” Andremedia said and navigated through the menus as well.
“Guys! Look!” Scalios said and held his hands out. His blue armor began to shift and change. Jagged black scales formed over his armor and molded across his body. The scales spread out, even coating his wings so rather than light blue scales they turned the same black with gray leathery skin, like the dragon's. His helmet changed as it took the form of a much smaller dragon's face, with bared fangs and glowing red eyes. He held out his hands for a moment as his mace formed in his hand, rather than having the face of a lion it was now a long black pole with a golden orb on the end. On top of the orb a black dragon lay, coiled around it as its scales gave the weapon jagged edges. “I think I found what the skins do.”
Asura gaped and went to her own weapons. She found she could change her weapons and armor as well. Her sword hilt changed into the form of a dragon, with the tail as the handle, its wings as the hand guard and the blade shooting out from the dragon's mouth. The blade was gold and covered in rubies down the center. The edge of the blade was shaped with edges that constantly shifted about, as if they were flames.
“It seems to be an option, same as our master weapon appearances,” B4hamutt said softly. “This is amazing.”
“No, not just that,” Asura said and a grin formed on her lips. “What if there are more?”
“More?” the dragon asked before he cut the air a few times with his now black scaled claws.
“Essences. For all the races.” She glanced down at her sword with wide eyes. “We defeated the dragon... what if there's one for the angels, the demons and all the other races?” she asked in awe. “What if we beat them all?”
B4hamutt crossed his arms and nodded. “I imagine we'd have to work quite hard,” he said gently. “There are probably a few legendary monsters like Niohoggr. If we were to slay them all...”
“Exactly,” Asura said with a chuckle. “and I think I know exactly where we can search for the leviathan one.”
“Oh? Where?” the dragon asked. The others moved in closer.
“Well, not exactly where, but I can find it,” she said with a sigh. “Listen, there are five more of these out there, possibly. Let's all choose one to search for and then we can take it down as a team. Five of us, five more essences. What do you say?”
“Shouldn't we tell the Coalition?” Skyth asked as her gaze moved away from them.
“No!” Asura said quickly. “This is a once in a lifetime chance. If word gets out to the legions what we're doing, then they'll try to stop us. It'll be hard enough to do this without having them combing the country side for us.”
“What about the skins?” she mumbled before she held up her own dragon mace. “We can't exactly hide them.”
“We don't have to,” she said with a smile. “We can tell people we got them, and how. We just don't have to tell anyone that we're trying for the others. At least until we slay them. Agreed?” she asked and put her hand out.
B4hamutt sighed and reached out with his hand, placing it on top of hers. “I don't see the problem with it. Agreed.”
“Eh, I'm with you guys,” Scalios said and put his hand on top.
“Fine by me,” Andremedia said with a smile, joining her hand
“Well, I guess we aren't really hiding anything,” Skyth said and her hand joined them at last. “It's not like this gives any real advantage. I'm in. Well, not a big one.”
Asura smiled and nodded. “Thank you. I guess we should get going.”
“Scalios, can you set up a teleporter to the guild hall?” B4hamutt asked. The leviathan nodded and walked off. The dragon then tapped on the air a few times. To Asura
's surprise a small message popped up a second later.
She opened it and blushed when the words filled her screen. “I know what you're trying, Asura. Don't worry, I'll help you every step of the way.”
She looked over towards him and softly mouthed thank you, before turning away. Before long the teleporter was set up and they were off.
------
Asura sat on her bed, her right leg hugged up to her chest. “So, the war efforts, what all did I miss?” she finally asked.
B4hamutt let out a sigh before leaning against the wall opposite her. “Well, both sides are down to their final city. It's kind of stalled a bit. Turns out that, since the war started with us losing our three cities, the game admins ended up setting up special bonuses. You know, to keep it fair. There was a whole interview about it, want me to send you the video?”
“No, just give me the basics,” the angel said with a shake of her head.
“Basically, they wanted each side to have a different feel. That's why we lost so much from the beginning. We had extra NPC bonuses to compensate, as well as hidden bonuses so even if we were penetrated, it was harder to finish us off. Now that we've managed to push them back to their final fortress, the benefits have, for the most part, left. We're still out numbered, but apparently that's compensated automatically by NPCs at the fortresses to give them a fair fight.”
Asura nodded. “So, any idea what happens when one side wins?”
“Nope,” the dragon said and slid down the wall to sit down. “There are rumors, though. Some people think there's a big event planned after this. Depending on which side wins, there will be a tournament or some kind of total destruction event. Basically, wipe out the enemy faction.”
“So, when do we launch an attack? I assume we're going to wipe this fortress out as well, right?”
“Maybe, but it'll be a while before we're able. All forces interested in attacking or defending tend to do so now. Getting back to your own fortress is pretty easy, so neither side has been able to overwhelm the other yet.” B4hamutt glanced up to her and smiled. “If you want, I can see about preparing another large assault. Maybe during a high season, when more players are around? Possibly after we find some of these monsters?”
Landasy Reality: Angel's Escape Page 32