“Mob spawns like this ARE kind of rare,” Rin remarked. “In the beta testing phase—which we’re technically still in—enemy spawn rates were scaled down because of the influx of refugees.”
“If there’s no rush, I’m on board with staying for a while.” Suri rolled her shoulders. “Getting to Level 33 or 34 would be great.”
“Guess I don’t get a say,” Gar muttered.
Suri glowered at him. “No one’s twisting your arm, mate. If you don’t want to grind, go shop for airship parts or something.”
Gar gestured sharply to the city around us. “You see any hangars around here? The stores here aren’t going to stock the parts I need. Hell, they probably don’t HAVE airships here. I don’t even know if they sell ammunition for my weapons.”
Rin tutted. “Stop being a drama queen. There’ll be at least one Tier-A Alchemist store here. They can sell you the metals we need to make ammunition. All you need is lead, copper, carbon, saltpeter and iron. Get me those, and I can craft bullets.”
“Thanks,” Gar replied sourly. “Guess I’ll go do that with the money I need to repair my damn ship.”
“And while you’re at it, go buy some cheese to go with your whine,” I snapped. “This squad has no room for dead weight. You don’t want to grind? Sit it out, but don’t bitch about it. For the thousandth time, I insured your fucking ship. It’ll be fixed.”
Gar flashed me an odd look. “Fine. Meet you at the wall in ten.”
“Hah. Sorted him out.” Suri grinned mirthlessly after the man slunk off, his hands buried in his duster pockets. “What do you three say to brainstorming some small unit tactics? We can use this as a chance to sharpen up our ability to fight as a team.”
“Sure! Though I’m still not really any good in fights.” Rin winced. “I-I panic sometimes. If I didn’t have my turrets, I’d be really useless.”
“Fighting’s a skill, not a talent. Every time you fight and every time you win, you get better at handling your adrenaline.” I pumped a fist. “Let’s do it. We can set our spawn points at the nearest inn, stock up on potions, meet up with Karalti, and get in some righteous grinding time.”
Chapter 39
“Zacam’’unilag!” Rin shouted, her spellglove flaring with blue light. “Get in there!”
The injured tyrannosaurus bellowed as the spell took hold, wrapping it in a bubble of warped temporal distortion. Its motions slowed to a crawl, limbs struggling through invisible mud. The undead dinosaur was missing one of its arms, and its jaw hung loose from where Karalti had shattered it with a well-placed tail strike.
“Ally-oop!” I called out, dashing behind it. The t-rex smashed its tail down in slow motion, but I was already off the ground and out of range. I flipped into the landing, the Spear blazing, and landed on the back of the huge monster like a black meteor as Karalti and Suri closed in from the sides.
[You deal 3791 Darkness damage! Suri deals 1558 Damage! Karalti deals 988 Damage!]
[You defeated Tyrannosaurus! You gain 1512 EXP! Karalti gains 1512 EXP!]
[You are Level 33! Karalti is Level 18! Rin Lu is Level 30! Garcia is Level 24!]
[You have 6 unspent Ability Points! You have 10 Skill points!]
[You have one new Mark of Matir ability available!]
There was a cheer from the walls as the dinosaur’s legs crumpled and it collapsed forward, head smashing into the ground with earthshaking force. I twisted the Spear out of it and bounced back down, landing lightly beside Karalti as her body flooded with seams of light. Her wing membranes extended further along her tail, and she put on muscle in her legs, shoulders, and flanks. The deep raven-blue of her scales intensified, glinting with thick seams of bright opal that made her ripple with colors as she moved. By the time her level growth was complete, her horns were longer, but less flexible. She could still lift and flatten them, but they were now as hard and black as polished stone.
“Phew.” Suri pulled her helmet off and mopped her forehead. She threw the rag to me, and I did the same as Rin and Gar joined us. “Nice going, guys. We took that thing out a hell of a lot faster than the first one.”
“And I am now Level fuckin’ Thirty-Three,” I said, checking my sheet. We were exhausted, our potion and mana reserves depleted, but after ten hours of hard work split over the previous evening and the following day, we were looking good. Not only had I pumped my Physical stats by nearly ten points—Str, Sta, Dex—our small-group tactical work had increased both Wisdom and Intelligence by modest amounts. I had a stack of Skill Points to assign, and a whole lot of monster parts to sell to the Alchemist in town.
“You all want to wait for another round? Or should we head for the jungle?” Suri asked, tucking her helmet under her arm. “Seems to me like these mobs are getting tougher.”
“Yeah. They’re getting tougher, and we’re getting less EXP for them.” I restlessly checked the Quest the Priest-Queen had given us. “Oop, well... looks like there’s a timer on it now.”
“There is?” Suri checked it as well. “Huh. We’ve got twenty-four hours to solve the problem, at least.”
“A timer? When did that happen?” Rin asked.
“About three hours ago, during the fight with those big ol’ troll-lookin’ things.” Gar had mellowed out a lot over the course of the day—mostly because he’d been able to level like he’d never leveled before.
“I’m tempted to stay, except the city is running out of herbs for potions,” I said. “We should probably count our chickens and go do this quest. Give ourselves plenty of time.”
“Mmm. Chicken.” Karalti paused to preen an itchy spot under her wing, the membranes rustling overhead.
“Yes. If the quest requirements changed, then the circumstances must be evolving.” Rin fidgeted nervously. “The system only does this if we’re competing against someone else. Other players, maybe, or who or whatever is causing the plague to begin with.”
“Well, whoever they are, they’re gonna have to deal with us.” Karalti tossed her head, still hopped up from the fighting. “I can fly us to the edge of the jungle. And now we’re better equipped to take on whoever or whatever’s out there.”
“We sure are. Running low on potion ingredients, but I think we’ll be able to find those in the forest.” I looked to the others. “You guys ready?”
“Yeah. But I’m not going.” Gar looked to the city. “For one thing, it’s not any of my business. For another, I don’t feel right screwing off into the jungle when my crew’s waiting on news from me.”
“Suits me.” I shrugged. “Suri? Karalti? Rin?”
“I’m good. Let’s go.” Suri nodded.
“All aboard!” Karalti stretched a wing down, standing head and shoulders over Ru Waat’s city wall.
“We’re going to have to build a gantry to get up on your back soon,” I teased her, leaping from the ground to the edge of the saddle, then pulling myself up. “Suri has to climb you like a mountain.”
“Kinda like how she does you, huh?” Karalti replied sweetly.
“My little Tidbit is all grown up.” I feigned a sniffle. “You were so innocent, once. So pure.”
“Blow me.” She threw her head back and mimicked a human laugh—albeit much deeper and louder.
When Suri and Rin were up, I helped Rin with her harness. Once they were secure, I took my position between Karalti’s shoulders and looked down to see Gar standing in the gateway of the city, a complex expression on his face. I gave him a flippant salute as Karalti pivoted and stalked toward the road, building up into a fast walk before bunching and launching herself into the air. The downdraft of her wings rocked the palm trees below as we powered over them, gaining altitude at a speed that took my breath away and left a mad grin plastered on my face. There would never be a day in my life when I didn’t get a high from that feeling.
“Oh god.” Suri said in the party chat. “She’s even faster now.”
“Yeah...” Rin craned her head to look back. “Seeing you without t
ie-down straps makes me so nervous, Hector.”
“Why? Never worn one before.” I gripped the handhold on the front of the saddle with one hand, resting my other arm across my knee.
“I guess. Never mind.” Rin sighed and reached up to clutch her harness straps.
Karalti let out a joyous bellow as she built into flight, turning the jungle into a rushing green carpet as she angled for the origin of the plague of maddened and undead animals: Devana’s Dragon Gate. As she flew, I brought up my character sheet, and got to work assigning ability points. At Level 33, I had two new abilities to choose from.
Blink Strike
You attack an enemy from the front with a normal strike, but then teleport through or around them in the blink of an eye to strike them again from behind and inflict an Elemental Darkness strike. You may activate Blink Strike following any successful hit that deals damage to an enemy.
Night Falls
Chained from Jump. You are a master of aerial combat: as you descend from Jump, you deal a powerful Area of Effect strike that knocks down up to five enemies and deals elemental Darkness damage. If you land on an enemy while activating Night Falls, you also deal your Jump damage to that enemy. If you have already dealt damage with Jump before chaining this ability, you only deal the AoE effect damage.
Both these abilities made me wish I had a lot more points, because they were both really fucking awesome.
“Hmm. I wonder if Night Falls has a height limit?” I muttered to myself, cuing Navigail to read it out again. The AoE dealt 500 points of Dark elemental damage, plus my base weapon attack, but there was no mention of a height limit. I would have to play with that a bit... because I was suddenly struck by images of jumping off Karalti and landing on someone from a thousand feet like a human bomb.
I dropped three of my points into Night’s Fall and one into Blink Strike. With Night’s Fall III, I could knock down fifteen enemies and deal 1000 damage to all of them, plus the Spear’s base damage. If those enemies happened to be undead or otherwise weak to Darkness, that went up to 2000—it was a crowd control power bomb. The other two points went into Jump VI and Master of Blades VI. They were two of my biggest power moves.
Jump VI
Spring up to 60ft into the air in any direction and deal x4 damage on landing, with +10% knockdown resistance while in the air.
Master of Blades VI
Chain combo from Jump. Before you hit the ground, leap backwards into the air and manifest a rain of shadow lances onto your foes, dealing massive damage to enemies (1632 per lance, 4 lances per level, maximum 4 lances per enemy).
As I grew into my Path, I was starting to understand how it was really meant to work—especially in synergy with the Nasaku Half-Blood abilities. While it sucked to have to drink blood once a week—pun intended—I couldn’t deny the sheer power of the Shadowlord ability. Shadows weren’t particularly strong, but they allowed me to maximize my crowd control potential. As far as I could tell, Dark Dragoon had two battle modes. Battle mode #1 was a style I’d nicknamed the Team Player, in which I utilized high-damage moves to hit enemies fast and hard, softening them up for Suri and Karalti. Both of them had more armor, defense and HP than I did, but I had half again as much DPS. By relying on her and Suri to soak, as we’d done with the T-rex, I could deploy the nukes at my disposal.
The second mode was the Death from Above school of spear fighting. This was my current solo-build focus: mastering my aerial abilities and enhancing them with the Stealth skill to deal as much damage as possible, as fast as possible. All players benefited from attacks made from concealment. Black Lotus, Jump, Spider Climb, Dancing Fly, and my AoE moves all got a 1.5x bonus from surprise attacks. And you know what made surprises easy? Shadow minions, who could encircle an opponent and distract them to grant me that sweet flanking bonus. With Jump VI, I could tear an undead opponent or anyone weak to Darkness to shreds—2,730 base damage, plus the 1.5x stealth modifier, plus the Darkness bonus meant I dealt upwards of 8000 damage in a single hit, minus the enemy’s armor soak. And Jump wasn’t even the highest damage ability in my arsenal. I sunk six of my Skill points into Stealth, bringing it up to the maximum limit before I needed a trainer to guide me into the Advanced levels. The other four I held onto. When I found a Master Spearfighting trainer, I would need them to advance to the first level of the skill.
Next up was my Mark of Matir ability. On seeing the options, I didn’t even have to think about which one of the two I was going to pick.
Shadow Sight (Life)
This ability conveys the Black God’s blessing on your eyes, allowing you to see in the dark. Under low light conditions, you will be able to see with high clarity. In true darkness, you will gain thermal darkvision.
Ghost Hunter (Entropy)
Any weapon you wield can strike incorporeal enemies, even if unenchanted. You may bless a weapon to only strike incorporeal enemies, dealing 1.5x damage to them on top of any other bonuses, but leaving corporeal entities unharmed. Duration: 1 Hour.
“Darkvision. No regrets.” I selected it without hesitation. While Ghost Hunter wasn’t bad, I already had a bunch of Dark-element combat abilities that worked on shades and other undead.
The Mark of Matir pulsed with cool energy, and my vision blurred for a moment before resettling. The sky was still bright, storm clouds massing over our heads. I wouldn’t be able to test out my vision for a while yet, but I was hopeful.
“Okay, hold on tight for the descent!” Karalti flicked a wing-tip, coasting to the right. “I’m going to have to land in that clearing there, and then we’re gonna have to hoof it to the ruins. This jungle is too dense to permit the full extent of my majesty.”
“Seems like there’s more to love with every level,” I replied, closing my screen. “Assuming the position.”
“Heads down, butts up!” Karalti trilled to everyone. “Don’t worry, Suri: I’ll make it gentle.”
“Thanks. Appreciate it.” Suri mumbled back.
True to her word, Karalti came in slow and smooth, alighting in a clearing formed by an enormous collapsed tree. Rotten wood and fresh ferns crackled under her feet, and nearby trees swayed. Suri and Rin began to unbuckle straight away, while I surveyed our path ahead from Karalti’s back. Massive trees with flat crowns towered over deep, dark, primordial forest. The birds were silent, spooked by the noise we had made, but hoots, howls, and bellows could be heard echoing from the distance. Knee-high mist swirled across the soft ground, and water condensed and dripped from the canopy like warm rain. Beautiful as it was, I half expected to see a squad of powered armor materialize out of camouflage and start raining down fiery hell.
“You alright?” Karalti asked me, dipping down to let her passengers off. “You got nervous all of a sudden.”
“It’s nothing.” There was a pang of sympathetic pain in my shoulder as I slid down my dragon’s wing, then leaped down to the mossy forest floor. “We just need to be on the top of our game here. It’s too easy to get ambushed in terrain like this. And we need to watch out for traps.”
“I think we’ll be okay. Don’t worry, alright?” Once the others were off her back, Karalti shifted down. When the light cleared and diffused, I did a small doubletake at her appearance. While she still looked mostly human, Karalti had kept her crest of seven horns, which swept back from her skull like a crown. Small scales climbed from her feet up to about mid-thigh, with similar scale gloves climbing the pale flesh of her arms. As she turned to show me her back, I saw that she had patterned her scales down along her spine to the top of her butt.
“What do you think?” Karalti struck a pose, looking back over her shoulder at me.
“I like it.” I came close to her, absently sliding my hands up over her back. “Why the change?”
“I’m tired of people thinking I’m just an ordinary human, because I’m not.” Karalti turned in my arms, then reached up to tie her hair back into a long ponytail. “I’m Solonkratsu, and I want to be known for what I am. If
I need to go undercover, I can simulate a more human shape. At some point, I might even figure out how to make vocal chords.”
“You are plenty human shaped.” I was more than happy to hold her while she stretched. Now she was fully mature, the sight and feel of her made my pulse leap. And it wasn’t just the curves: it was her smell. As I leaned in, I caught a hint of a deep, intoxicating scent—a very familiar scent. Every month, once a month, Karalti went into heat. She wasn’t there yet, but it wasn’t long now. A matter of days. “And it’s gonna be that time any day now, isn’t it? Ready for a second round of Extreme Sex Tag: Kalla Sahasi Edition?”
Karalti let out a yarp of laughter, startling Rin. The Mercurion looked over, turned bright blue, then turned back with her face in her hands.
“You better hope we’re back in Kalla Sahasi.” Karalti’s violet eyes smoldered as she equipped her monk fighter’s outfit, then her armored iron gauntlets. “We’ve got a few days yet. Four or five.”
“Duly noted.” I mimed bringing up my HUD. “Let me just mark that on my calendar.”
Karalti giggled. “Suriii. Hector’s flirting with me.”
“You think ratting him out’s gonna get me to help you?” Suri laughed, her voice hollow behind the shield of her greathelm. “Snitches get stitches, Special-K.”
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