by Rick Scott
“Understood,” Rembrandt says.
“Does it spawn any adds?” Maxis asks.
“Yes,” Aiko says. “Two miniatures of itself. And they’re fairly tough too. But I can tank them for you.”
“Will it be okay leaving Reece on the boss alone like that?” Val Helena asks.
I shrug. “I’ll have that ring. I should be okay, right?”
“If not I can tank the adds myself,” Maxis says with a flex of his neck.
Aiko grins at him. “Okay Mr. Macho. We’ll see how you do on the first set. But don’t be afraid to call me if you get your panties in a bunch.”
“What should I be doing?” Gilly asks.
“Your main focus should be Reece at all times,” Val Helena says. “But during the add phases you’ll need to keep an eye on the rest of us too.”
“Reece will need some kind of regen on him too,” Aiko says. “That ring he’ll have on will drain his HP fast.”
“How fast?” I ask.
She shrugs. “Put it on and find out.”
I summon the ring from my inventory again and slip it onto my finger. A pulse a sickness courses through me.
You take -50 poison damage.
Whoa! That was a lot. And then two seconds later.
You take -50 poison damage.
I hastily remove the ring. “25 hp a second! That’s going to be rough.” I do some quick math in my head. “I don’t think I’ll be able to last more than a minute with that thing on before I croak.”
“My regen spell should help double that,” Gilly says. “I’ll make sure you stay topped up. Don’t worry.”
Aiko looks at me and frowns. “One more thing. Follow me, pretty boy. Just you.”
Aiko exits the small crevice we’re hiding in and walks around the edge of the cliff face out of view. I glace around at everyone else to get an idea of what’s going on but they look as clueless as I am.
“You coming?” she calls from around the corner.
I share a shrug with Gilly and then follow her. When I round the corner I stop in my tracks. Aiko is standing there wearing nothing but her Elven underwear and a sexy smile.
“Strip,” she commands.
“Huh?”
Gilly: What’s going on! >:(
Me: I dunno! D:
Aiko lets out one of her trademark cackles. “Come on, don’t leave me hanging.”
I get a trade request.
Aiko wishes to trade with you.
Aiko offers you:
Dark Shinobi Mask: +30 Shadow Magic +30 TP
(1) Dark Shinobi Gi: +150 HP +30 Shadow Magic+30 AGL+30 Dodge
(1) Warrior’s Tekko: +75 HP +20 AGL +20 DEX +20 STR +20 VIT
(1) Ninja Hakama: +150 HP +30 Dodge +30 AGL
(1) Dark Shinobi Kyahan: +75 HP +30 Shadow Magic +20 Dodge
My eyes go wide. “Whoa! You’re giving me your gear?”
“I’m loaning it to you,” she clarifies. “I definitely want this stuff back. It’s prestige gear. But since you’re going to main tank, you might as well have the full package. This gear should give you an extra couple hundred HP too.”
Sweet!
I quickly remove my gear and put it in my inventory before loading it up in the trade window. I’m just about to confirm the trade when Gilly steps around the corner. I nearly laugh when I see the daggers that shoot from her eyes straight toward Aiko.
“What going on?” she huffs with a scowl, her hands on her hips.
Both Aiko and I burst out laughing at the same time.
“It’s not what you think, hun,” Aiko says with a wink. “Although a girl can dream, I suppose.”
I blush at that one, especially when Aiko gives me a sultry stare. Gilly turns her daggers toward me. “Reece?”
“We’re just swapping gear,” I say with palms raised and hit the confirm button.
You receive a Dark Shinobi Mask
You receive a Dark Shinobi Gi
You receive a Warrior’s Tekko
You receive a Ninja Hakama
You receive a Dark Shinobi Kyahan
I place the gear on my body and model for her. “See?”
Gilly squints her eyes at me again, but playfully this time. “You just saved yourself a butt whooping, bucko. Nice improvement though.”
I take a look at my awesome new ninja gear and can’t help but agree.
Aiko puts on my old level 65 stuff and looks far less so.
She sighs. “Wish I could say the same.”
Now it’s Gilly and I’s turn to laugh.
The rest of the crew arrives and they share in the brief release of tension. It’s probably needed for what we’re about to face. I take a quick peek at my stats with my new gear on.
Name: Reece
Class: Ninja
Level: 85
Strength: 6+20
Dexterity: 80+100
Agility: 80+160
Intelligence: 4
Mind: 6
Vitality: 31 +20
HP: 1732/1732
Stamina: 357/357 (+50)
TP: 261/261 (+80)
“Wow!” I say amazed. “I have over 200 agility right now.”
“Prestige gear is no joke,” Aiko says. “Which is why I want it back.”
That reminds me of something. “Speaking of giving things back. I think I owe you something too, Val.”
The giantess glances down at me puzzled. “Huh?”
I produce the ring she gave me back when we were in Crystal Shards.
You send a trade request to Val Helena:
You offer: a Black Onyx Ring
Black Onyx Ring
+2% TP regeneration every second.
She laughs and then shifts her gaze to Gilly. “I think it best you wear it, Gilly. With over 1k TP, a 2% a second gain is nothing to sneeze at.”
“You’re right about that one,” Rembrandt says. “Put it on, Gills.”
I cancel the trade and reinitiate it with Gilly.
She chuckles. “Thanks, Val!”
Gilly: I guess I get to keep it this time, huh? ;)
I think back to when Gilly first wore it back in that low-level dungeon. The Murky Swamps, I think it was. Man, that seems a lifetime ago now. We complete the trade and Gilly places the ring on her finger, showing it off like it’s a wedding band or something.
“I guess since we’re all gearing up I might as well optimize too,” Val Helena says. Her eyes light up with her HUD and her gear changes. The red sports bra disappears to be replaced by an ornate blue breast piece with an underlay of tight wrappings. Although not as sexy, it still looks just as impressive.
“What’s that do?” I ask.
“A little less damage but more HP and defense,” she says. “If we’re going to be taking AOE’s I want to have as big a buffer as possible for Gilly to heal me up.”
“Don’t worry,” Gilly says with a grin. “I got you guys!”
“Are we ready then?” Maxis asks shaking lose his shoulders.
We all look at one another and give nods.
“I guess so,” I say. “Let’s go kill us a Shadow King.”
* * *
We descend down toward the center of the caldera. The air is much hotter now and I marvel at the thick forest at the base of the mountain as we cut across the wide pass leading up its slopes. I didn’t think anything would be capable of growing out here, and maybe it can’t in the caldera itself, since the tree line is quite well defined and cuts off sharply at the caldera’s edge, much like the grass did at the edge of the Wild, but whatever is heating the air must also be aiding the growth of the forest.
Your awareness increased by 0.1
A strange feeling creeps up my spine as we place our backs to the mountains and head further into the caldera. I can’t tell what it is exactly. Maybe it’s just my nerves. We are about to face off against a monster ten times tougher than a world boss, after all.
“Maybe we should buff,” I say
when we get about half way down to the center.
“Good call,” Val Helena says and stops. “I can’t remember exactly where it spawns. Wouldn’t want us triggering it unprepared.”
Gilly buffs the entire party with Major Favor of the Goddess and Protection, giving us a decent defense buff and extra HP, Stamina and TP. We then do our individual things, enhancing ourselves for the battle to come. I keep it simple with Shadow Tendrils, Shadow Haste and Shadow Copy. As expected, the Haste spell Gilly casts on everyone, doesn’t stack with my Ninja version. But that’s fine, since I’ll be using the ring anyway. I check my stats in the corner of my HUD on the party list to see what kind of increase the 10% buff from Major Favor just provided.
Reece Level 85 Ninja
HP 1905/1905
STAM: 392/392
TP: 287/287
Wow! Over 1900 HP! Not bad.
“When should I put on the ring, you think?” I ask Aiko as we start down the slope again.
“After we engage the boss,” Aiko says. “I can take it off you for a second so you can put it on in combat. Gilly, that’ll be your cue to give him a regen.”
“Okie dokie.”
I chuckle at her cute response. Sometimes I wonder how Gilly stays so chipper. No matter what the circumstances she always has a smile. She really is the most awesome girl in the world. I reach over and take her hand.
We share a smile and the ground shakes.
Your awareness increased by 0.1
“What the h—?”
My sentence goes unfinished as the ground cracks open beneath our feet. High pitched screeches fill the air as I’m buffeted by a flurry of wind. Something darks shoots up out of the cracks.
“Spread out!” Val Helena yells.
With Gilly’s hand in mine, I jump across the cracks to firm ground and look behind me to figure out what’s going on. Now with some distance, I’m able to see that the blackness spewing from the cracks is actually the wings of bats, hundreds of them!
They pour out of the earth, but when I look closer, I see they’re not bats at all, but giant eyeballs with bat wings! I shudder at the sight of them and focus on one to see what they are.
Wing Eye
Level: 85
N/A
Affinity: ???
“I forgot about these!” Val Helena shouts, pulling her giant axe from her back. “We kill them to make the boss spawn. Don’t let them stun you.”
As soon as she says it one of eye ball monsters flashes like a camera going off. I see stars and the world turns bright white. Gilly cries out next to me and I lose my shadow. I feel bat wings and sharp teeth scraping against my armor, some of them biting through.
Argh!!
The Wing Eye hits you!
You take 157 damage!
The Wing Eye hits you!
You take 151 damage!
Crap! These little things hit pretty hard!
I immediately think of Gilly and fear for her safety, but she’s already one step ahead me. Soothing warmth washes over me as she casts a Great Heal spell, returning our Health bars to full. Rembrandt’s pistols are going non-stop and I get XP updates as he picks off the monsters.
You defeated the Wing Eye!
You gain 5900 experience points.
You defeated the Wing Eye!
You gain 5900 experience points.
You defeated the Wing Eye!
You gain 5900 experience points.
You defeated the Wing Eye!
You gain 5900 experience points.
I guess Rembrandt was probably immune to the flash thanks to his tech shades. I endure a few more scrapes from the nasty eye bat creatures and finally the blindness debuff wears off. My vision returns to see them swarming around us like a tornado. I slash at one of the bulbous creatures as it flies close and kill it in two hits.
You defeated the Wing Eye!
You gain 5900 experience points.
“These things have nothing for hit points!” I yell, slicing into some more.
“Yeah, if you can hit ‘em!” Val Helena says chopping nothing but air with her big axe.
I never gave thought to their defense being just like mine. High agility and evasion. But with over 150 Dex for accuracy now, I guess I didn’t really notice it was an issue. Val Helena however, has to resorts to whipping her huge weapon in an AOE spin attack to solve her accuracy problems, taking down four more eyes in the process.
Maxis takes then down using jump kicks, picking off one and two at a time. Aiko does much the same as me, slicing them out of the air with precision strikes. But Rembrandt does most of the heavy lifting, blasting them out of the sky with impeccable accuracy and in rapid succession. I down a couple more myself and then the last of them falls, leaving us in a sea of twitching batwings and busted eyeballs.
“Ew, Gross,” Gilly says, making an ‘icky’ face.
I nearly laugh but then the ground shakes again. “Is this it?”
“Get back to back,” Maxis shouts.
We do so, just as three enormous crystals punch through the surface of the ground. They’re shaped like the obelisk I saw back in Brookrun, but where that one was only four feet tall, these ones are closer to thirty and thick like tree trunks. Just as Val Helena said, they’re different colors, one red, one blue and one green.
Arcs of bright white lightning shoot out between them, forming a triangular arena space about half the size of a football field. Val didn’t mention we’d be penned in for this fight and while the area is still fairly large, the idea that we can’t just run away sends a new wave of anxiety coursing through my body.
The lightning shoots from the pillars and right at us! I let out a cry and jump back reflexively, but the lightning lances way above our heads and meets at a focal point at the center of the triangular ring. A dark globe forms at the center, expanding outward.
The corpses of the Eye Wings dissolve, collapsing into a cloud of black nano-dust that swirls and streams magnetically towards the orb.
“This is it,” Val Helena cries, and I can hear the anxiety in her voice, her eyes wide. “It’s coming!”
My heart jackhammers in my chest as my palms slick with sweat. This is it! The reason Val Helena brought me here. To face a monster ten times stronger than a World Boss. I can’t let her down now. I’ve got to beat this thing no matter how strong it is!
The black orb grows in size and then bursts apart in a crackle of dark energy.
A horrid wail pierces the air, loud enough for me to cover my ears.
That sound…!
A creature the size of a mountain troll emerges from the orb; twenty feet tall but lanky, with a body of dark sinewy smoke and the face of a skull. It unhinges its gaping jaw and wails again, its throat a furnace of molten fire!
My heart stops. It can’t be!
My mind comes undone as I face one of the creatures from my nightmare.
It’s one of them…
It’s one of them!!
Chapter 41: Shadow King
My blood turns to ice as the monstrous being releases another howl and charges at me like a sprinter out of the blocks. The ground shakes with its rapid footfalls, its massive body moving impossibly fast. Its spindly arms, long like telephone poles, swing wildly back and forth, throwing shale into the air as it closes the gap between us. It gets within fifty feet and its stats appear on my HUD.
Shadow King
Level: ???
N/A
Affinity: ???
My mind freezes with panic and incomprehension. How could this thing be here? I told Aiko and Val what those giants looked like. Why didn’t they tell me that the Shadow King was one of them!
“Reece!” Aiko screams at me. “What are you doing? REECE!!!”
Aiko’s shrill cry wakes me up from my shock induced coma and I react with a scream of my own. I manage to force it into a War Cry and the monster focuses on me. Its arms are so long that they reach me from twenty feet away and it takes all my concentration to d
uck under them. The arms come whipping right back and it feels like I’m fighting against Ullithilli again. My new Agility must be compensative something fierce though, because despite my panic I’m able to squeeze through each hit.
“Careful of the sword in its right hand,” Val Helena yells as she charges toward the beast. “It can extend like a whip!”
Sword?!? What the heck is she talking about? Are these guys seeing the same thing I am? “What sword?” I yell.
Val Helena buries her axe into the creature’s shin and then shoots me a confused stare. “What?”
Holy crap…! Am I hallucinating?
“Shut up and focus,” Maxis yells. He changes stance and begins pounding into the monster’s other leg.
My brother is right. I don’t know what the heck is going on here, but there’s no time to ponder it now. I just have to keep us alive.
And tank.
I release a yell as I strike back with full fury, fighting down my fear. The monster keeps me at bay with its long arms, but I strike at them, even as they flail at me with lightning quick speed. It releases a wail again, but this time a concentric ring of fire comes blasting from its chest, radiating across the arena.
THOOM!
Aiko and I lose our shadows, while the rest of the team loses about a third of their HP each. For Gilly and Rembrandt it’s closer to half.
“Back up you guys!” I call out them.
Gilly retreats a bit, out of the AOE range and then raises her bow to casts a spell.
Gilly casts Great Heal IV
You recover 0 HP!
Gilly recovers 376 HP!
Maxis recovers 366 HP!
Val Helena recovers 374 HP!
Rembrandt recovers 355 HP!
Aiko recovers 0 HP!
Aiko recasts her Shadow Copy and performs a Backstab, reducing the monster’s health by about 2%. It flails about, and its right arm extends like it’s an elastic band, whipping at Aiko, who narrowly dodges the attack.