Heart of the Void: Sosaku Online - Book 2

by J. Arthur Klein

  She shook herself free of the remains of her stone shell and leapt down from her perch, landing between us and the stone door.

  As the sphinx touched down, a pulse of energy traveled through the sand covering the area, sweeping it into six equal sized heaps that then morphed into large cats.

  Standing approximately eight feet tall at the shoulder, she was truly massive, and each one of her kohl darkened eyes was the size of a softball.

  She let out a low churl and the leonine creatures began to pace back and forth, awaiting direction from their mistress.

  The sphinx stretched out on the floor, her true, tawny colored skin now completely free of its earlier casing. She took a deep breath, flexing just enough to shift her usekh and reveal a glimpse beneath, her grin widening even further at my blush.

  She languidly stretched out, arching her back like a house cat and idly kneaded the ground before her, foot-long claws extending from the pads of her very leonine paws to scratch deep gouges into the stone.

  Amenhotep took a step forward and readied himself to absorb whatever attack was coming, but the sphinx just looked at him with her kohl darkened eyes and chuckled. “Oh, do calm down, my dear boy. There will be time for violence soon enough.”

  She ruffled her large, feathered wings and settled them over her back like a cloak as she looked us over. Her grin widened as she looked to me and Kjara. “Oh, one of Anpu’s… strike that. Two of Anpu’s, how delicious.”

  She looked over to Mika next and licked her lips, “Oh, and an appetizer from the far north. Yum.”

  “But rules are rules, as they say,” the sphinx continued. “I am compelled by the terms of my service here to offer you the chance to answer a riddle instead of eating you outright. So, what do you say? Will you answer my riddle?”

  I gulped and tried not to stare as Kjara smirked at me and then stepped forward, “Of course, oh wise sphinx. Give us your riddle.”

  The sphinx chuckled and replied, “Oh, little tasty moon elf, buttering me up won’t do you any good. Now listen closely, you will get only one chance to answer.”

  Kjara stood silent as the sphinx spoke. “What is that which in the morning goeth upon four feet; upon two feet in the afternoon; and in the evening upon three?”

  Mika and I shared a surprised look. They had literally taken the riddle of the sphinx directly from the source material.

  Amenhotep stood silent but Kjara turned back to me and raised an eyebrow and smiled. I bowed and made a flourishing gesture towards the sphinx and Kjara turned back. “A man,” she answered.

  The sphinx seemed to deflate a bit and huffed, “Correct.” She waved her paw and feline forms made of sand fell apart.

  She grinned wickedly and licked her lips. “At least now I won’t have to share,” she said and launched towards Kjara, her mouth wide open and her claws whipping across in an attempt to eviscerate the moon elf.

  Caught by surprise, Kjara tried to dodge but still took a vicious wound from the creature’s attack.

  “What the hell!” she yelled. “We got the answer right you bitch! You said we’d be safe.”

  The sphinx danced backwards, laughing. “Oh no, my little morsel. I said I wouldn’t eat you right away. The terms only say I can’t use the other guardians if you get the riddle right, and while on a good day I might let you by without a fight, but…”

  Her eyes began to glow red as her supple body shriveled into nothing more than skin and bones. Her already prominent fangs grew longer as she growled out, “…I am starving,” and leapt towards us with a flap of her now ragged wings.

  Amenhotep leapt forward and put himself between us and the once beautiful creature, catching a flurry of attacks with his tower shield, each one driving him backwards.

  I turned on my aura and sent a Sunstrike directly into the sphinx’s face, the holy fire of the spell causing her to back off momentarily and guard her eyes from the heat while we recovered from her surprise attack.

  A sharp twang accompanied Mika’s crossbow bolt as it shot across the room and sank into the sphinx’s rear leg.

  She let out a long hiss as she turned on the dýrafólk and opened her mouth wide. A cone of ash and sand erupted from her maw and swept Mika off his feet, burning away some of his flesh before he was able to roll out of the cone.

  I sent a Cure Wounds his way and watched as his health bar climbed back into the green, and then healed Kjara as well.

  Kjara had dropped back to the shoreline and was sending arrow after arrow at the sphinx, whose flanks were starting to look like a porcupine.

  I used Analyze to see exactly what we were dealing with.

  *** Desiccated Sphinx, Level 16 (Boss) ***

  *** HP: 85%, MP: 75%, SP: 80% ***

  *** Conditions: Desiccated, Starving, Oathbound ***

  *** Active Spells/Abilities: None ***

  *** Weakness: Fire ***

  *** Highest Statistics: Presence, Constitution ***

  The creature hissed, “Tender morsels, little meat, soon it will be time to eat” and leapt into the air, her wings whipping up a cloud of sand.

  *** Desiccated Sphinx uses Sandstorm! ***

  *** Sandstorm: Missile weapon and spell range decreased by 50%. Ranged accuracy decreased by 50% ***

  Kjara’s next shot flew into the cloud and was swept away by the raging wind. She cursed and drew her blades, rushing into melee range as the sphinx dove back to the ground and ripped into Amenhotep with a savage bite.

  The guardian’s health bar dropped by almost half and I quickly started pumping Cure Wounds spells into him while I drew my spear and started stabbing at the creature’s limb that was pinning Amenhotep’s shield.

  I had no idea how, but Mika somehow managed to climb onto the sphinx’s back in all the excitement. He raised his blade and brought it down in a nasty slash along the base of one of her wings, causing her to shriek in pain and turn her attention toward him.

  He leapt from her back just as the sphinx released her grip on Amenhotep and batted at him, catching him in midair and sending him sprawling with a nasty gut wound.

  I cast healing at him while he was in midair and then lost sight of the battle as a box popped up in my view with an incoming call on the chat software the company had installed in my pod. The sound of a telephone ringing began playing, apparently audible to everyone.

  Mika yelled, “What the hell is that? You have a phone in here?”

  “Hang up!” Kjara yelled as she leapt over a swipe from the sphinx’s claws.

  Floating in midair before me was a display with the caller ID stating simply “US Navy.”

  I froze up. “I can’t. I think it’s my dad,” I said and hit the accept button.

  The floating picture in front of me shifted to show an office with my father standing there in his Navy uniform. I moved the screen to the side so I could still see the battle, but had a hard time paying attention to the game with my father there before me.

  “Hi, Dad,” I said, and dodged to the side as the sphinx expelled another cone of ash and sand in my direction, missing me and engulfing the camera with no harm to the virtual device.

  “James? What’s going on? Are you okay?” he said, concern on his face as he looked past me to the sight of my companions locked in battle with the shriveled cat lady.

  “I’m doing okay, Dad. Just another day in the pod,” I grinned. “I wasn’t expecting you to be able to call. Radio silence and all that.”

  He shook his head. “Your mother got a message to command about what had happened. So as soon as we reached port, I rushed to the base to get in touch.”

  Kjara went flying through the air behind me and crashed to the ground, blood seeping from a massive gash in her side. “Kheph,” she groaned, “healing please.”

  “One second, Dad,” I said, turning back to the fight and sending bolts of healing into Kjara, taking care of the worst of her wounds.

  “Dad,” I said, “this is Kimiko, well, her character anyhow,” a
nd gestured towards the no longer critically injured moon elf.

  “Kimiko, Dad,” I said, gesturing towards the image of my father.

  She gave a small smile and a wave. “Hi James’s dad, nice to meet you. I’d love to chat sometime but I’m a little busy trying not to be torn in half by a nasty she-beast who wants to eat my liver. Sorry!”

  Kjara leapt back into combat and I turned back to my father, occasionally sending another bolt of healing whenever someone’s health dipped.

  “Well, son. I heard what you did at the convention and I wanted to tell you how proud I am.” My father smiled and my eyes began to tear up.

  He’d never given me cause to believe so, but I was always afraid that he was disappointed in me for not following him into the service, and hearing those words punched me right in the feels.

  The rush of emotion was almost overwhelming. “Thanks, Dad. That really means a lot coming from you. You put your life on the line every day for the rest of us.”

  He smiled warmly. “We contribute what we can, in our own ways, James. Don’t think that I don’t know about the money that you give to your mother, and how you look out for your sister when she needs you. I can do what I do because I know you are there to look after our family.”

  I wiped away the tears from my eyes. “Thanks, Da-”

  Kjara screamed a warning, and I looked back just in time to catch a shriveled paw to the chest. I felt my breath rush out of me as I went airborne, crashing after a few seconds of involuntary flight.

  A short stunned debuff appeared next to my health bar, and the initial hit plus that taken from my face meeting the stone floor left me with twenty percent of my health.

  I could feel blood coursing down my cheek from a gash above my eye where my face had hit the stone.

  As the stunned timer ticked down, my father watched me with a shocked expression. “What the hell is going on? This is what your generation does for fun?”

  The stun wore off, and I pulled myself back to my feet. Amenhotep had regained the creature’s attention while I was stunned, and everyone’s health was steady so I worked on healing myself as I turned back to the video call.

  “What can I say,” I replied with a shrug. “It’s not as bad as it looks. The pain is toned down, at least a bit.”

  My father shook his head and then looked off to the side and nodded as someone spoke off camera. I couldn’t hear what they said but my father’s expression made it easy to guess. “I am sorry, son. We’ve been called back to the ship. I have to go now.”

  Not wanting him to feel guilty for doing his duty, I put on my best smile. “I understand. I won’t be in here forever, so hopefully next time we see each other it’ll be in the flesh.”

  From behind Kjara’s called out, “Kheph! We’re almost to fifty percent! Things are going to get crazy in a second!”

  I glanced over and saw that Kjara was standing on the sphinx’s back where her blades had just cut another deep gash into the creature’s haunch.

  I looked back to my dad who smiled. “I love you, son. We’ll talk again next time I’m in port!”

  “I love you too, Dad. Stay safe!” I said and the call window went dark and was replaced with a blue screen with five empty stars and the text “How would you rate this call?” across it.

  “Really?” I asked and slapped the fifth star which closed out the window, giving me a full view of how the battle was going. Things were not so good.

  Amenhotep:

  HP: [45%], SP: [60%]

  Kjara Mistwalker:

  HP: [23%], SP: [56%]

  Mika Músin:

  HP: [32%], SP: [13%]

  Kheph Sa’tep:

  HP: [53%], MP: [37%], SP: [90%]

  Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I pillaged my mana reserves and sent healing spells streaming through the air towards my companions. When my mana pool was down to the dregs, I popped my best rejuvenation potion and kept going until things were finally under control.

  The sphinx was covered in wounds, her health bar just over fifty percent as she struggled to dislodge her unwanted passenger. Amenhotep was in full on defensive mode with Mika cutting at the creature’s flanks.

  Mika scowled at me. “Have a nice chat?”

  “Hey man. My dad’s an officer in the Navy, so when he gets a chance to call, I’ll be damned if I’m going to miss it.”

  The dýrafólk went silent at that and leapt back onto the sphinx. He sheathed his blades and pulled out something from his pouch, clinging to one wing while he splashed the contents of a small bottle all over her back.

  “I can show you the world,” he sang. “Sloshing, oi-el-ly pleasure, tell me cat-thing, now when did you last feel yourself on fire.”

  The sphinx reared back on her hind legs and snapped at the dýrafólk with her fangs, taking a chunk out of his calf as he leaped out of the way.

  He landed with a loud oomph and gasped. “Hey, Kheph. Hit the oil with your fire spell thingy.”

  Kjara looked over at him with wide eyes and leapt away from the creature as I pointed my spear and sent a Sunstrike right into the wet spot on the sphinx’s back.

  The fiery lance burned into her dry and brittle flesh and dropped her health below half, but that was just the beginning. The fiery nature of the spell ignited the oil that had soaked into her dried out flesh and her back and wings and went up in a blaze.

  The sphinx’s hit point bar started flashing and she once again took to the air, wings ablaze.

  Her feathers were almost completely gone, but that didn’t seem to stop the charred stumps of her once beautiful wings from somehow producing enough lift to keep her airborne.

  She glared down at us, the winds of the Sandstorm still whipping around her body. “You will all pay for your defiance,” she snarled, and her eyes began to glow even brighter as the winds intensified, filling the room with a whirling cloud of sand and dust that cut visibility down to almost zero.

  *** Desiccated Sphinx uses Fury of the Storm! ***

  “Kjara! Mika!” I yelled; my voice muffled by the whirling storm. I could hear my companions calling out from somewhere nearby, but there was no way to determine where with the wind turning me in circles.

  Amenhotep’s voice rang clear in my mind, “Be on your guard.”

  I waded through the storm, using my shield to keep the whipping sand out of my eyes, so I almost missed it when the sphinx swooped down and slashed at me with her claws, I shifted my shield just in time, but the force of the blow was enough to slam me backwards onto my back.

  On the plus side, it did trigger my Combat Caster boon. A rush of divine energy surged through me and into a Cure Wounds spell targeting myself.

  My health shot up to full as the spell took effect, and I climbed to my feet and concentrated on the bond I could vaguely feel with Amenhotep, using it as a compass to lead me towards the guardian.

  I heard a muffled scream filter through the storm and Kjara’s health in the party window dropped down below twenty percent with a bleeding icon next to it. I tried to send healing her way, but the storm prevented me from targeting her.

  I reached Amenhotep just as the sphinx struck again, this time tearing a ragged gash along the guardians back, spraying crimson sand from his wounds into the raging storm.

  I cast Soothing Touch and held my hand against the mummy’s wounds. The soft glow flowed through his body, knit his torn bandages back together, and replaced the crimson sand that was his life’s blood.

  A high-pitched scream broke through the storm and Mika’s health dropped into the red as well.

  The winds began to slow, and the raging sands settled back to the ground, revealing the sphinx in all her horror. The beast’s claws and teeth were drenched in blood, and the grin on her deathly face was something out of a nightmare.

  *** Fury of the Storm expires. ***

  Kjara’s health jumped back up as she quaffed a potion, and I sent a healing spell into Mika to keep him alive as soon as I spotted him
on the other side of the enemy.

  My mana was down to almost nothing again, and I still had about a minute and a half before I could use another potion, so things were about to get a lot more… interesting.

  “Running on mana fumes here,” I said, raising my spear and shield into a defensive position next to Amenhotep.

  Mika pulled himself to his feet with a groan and then faded from view as he entered stealth while out of the view of the enemy.

  Kjara looked over and held up a mana potion and I shook my head. “Potions on cooldown. Need about ninety seconds.”

  She nodded. “Got ya. Operation ‘Don’t get hit’ is now in full effect.”

  The flames on the sphinx’s back had been smothered by the storm, leaving behind large gaps in her flesh where bones were now visible. She gazed down at us and licked the blood from her claws, groaning in pleasure at the taste and stretching to give us all a view guaranteed to give me nightmares.

  I threw up a little in my mouth and averted my eyes from the ruin peeking out from under the sphinx’s usekh. Luckily, our preview of the next Food Network special on the creation of prunes ended as the creature leaped in our direction.

  Amenhotep brought his shield down onto the ground with a crash and hit the leaping sphinx with his Shockwave just as she landed, robbing her of some of her momentum and drawing agro.

  I took up position on his right flank, hoping to take some pressure off of his sword arm so he could begin to be more active with his khopesh, but the sphinx’s attacks were so relentless that he was barely able to keep up even while parrying.

  The creature’s claws were so long and sharp that even successful parries still had consequences as the tips of her claws could wrap around to pierce the guardian’s wrappings.

  My mana was slowly regenerating, but I needed to keep what little I had left for emergency heals. I did, however, have almost eighty percent stamina, so I started fishing for crits.

  I used Precision Strike and scanned the enemy’s feline form, looking for the highlighted weak points. Seconds later one appeared right where I didn’t want to be looking: right between two of the sphinx’s more humanoid ribs at the edge of her usekh.

  My Sunspear pierced the indicated spot and the point sunk deep into the creature’s flesh. Critical Hit! The sphinx’s health dropped by almost five percent, but more importantly, my Combat Caster boon triggered, filling me with a rush of divine energy that I immediately directed into healing for Amenhotep.