It began slowly stomping towards them, and Aurora looked back over her shoulder at Seth and nodded. He understood her meaning, tapping her on the shoulder and tagged her with the Quick Change Position skill. He jogged towards the giant zombie and activated Charge as soon as he was within range. The muscles in his legs bunched and rocketed him forward toward the towering figure.
The thing was huge but not particularly fast, so Seth’s sword slid into the meat of its leg. Seth withdrew his sword and was about to slash a few times and trade places with Aurora when he saw the message out of the corner of his eye in his log.
Wight Bruiser (Champion) resists Stun!
The wind was driven forcefully from Seth’s lungs, and he found himself sailing through the air before landing in a mess on the stone ground.
Level 34 Wight Bruiser (Champion) hits you for 834 damage.
Seth gasped at the pain, but Dominick was already on it, and his body felt instantly better as the golden magic enveloped him.
Your party member Dominick casts Potent Heal on you, healing you for 834 points of health.
Seth scrambled to his feet and looked up to see Aurora, shield raised, take a hit from the champion. It had no weapons, but thundered its giant fists into her shield. She was visibly pushed backwards and down, and her health even dropped from the strike, regardless of the shield. Seth saw golden light surrounding Aurora to heal her as he ran toward the giant zombie.
The huge hit Seth had taken had given him over fifty fury, so when he reached the zombie, he quickly activated his three-attack combo, scoring some major hits on the champion’s thigh.
You hit Level 34 Wight Bruiser (Champion) with Deliberate Strike for 582 damage.
You hit Level 34 Wight Bruiser (Champion) with Expose Breach for 723 damage.
You hit Level 34 Wight Bruiser (Champion) with Onslaught for 1284 damage.
A furious roar erupted from the monster’s mouth, and he started to turn his bulky frame towards Seth. Seth realized that he must have caught the champion’s attention with all the damage, and looked at his health bar as he started to run away. He couldn’t believe his eyes when the health bar still sat around eighty percent.
Seth just barely cleared the zombie’s reach when his next attack struck, shattering the stone ground like thinning ice on a frozen lake. He rolled away, the tremor knocking him from his feet, and scrambled back up.
Aurora activated her Taunt skill, a reverberating shout issuing from her throat, and the boss returned to thundering heavy blows on her shield. Seth saw cracks begin to form on the shield. They needed to figure something else out.
Seth ran at the giant and tagged the back of its leg with Quick Change Position before sprinting in the opposite direction to the other side of the cavern. When he was almost as far away from the monster as he could get, he activated the skill again and was teleported right in front of Aurora.
The zombie appeared across the room, facing the wrong direction. It stood there confused for a moment before spinning around and lumbering back towards them. Seth said, “Give your shield a rest, and send some magical attacks at him while he runs to us. I can do this again when he gets back.”
Aurora and Dominick both instantly nodded and started firing magical attacks at the monster, Dominick’s Bone Chill making it even slower to run back across the cavern. When it did get back, they’d knocked another ten percent of its health off.
Seth let it thunder more blows on Aurora’s shield for a moment, jogging backwards to get sufficient distance to Charge. When his sword slid into the zombie’s leg this time, it didn’t resist the stun effect and held still for a few moments. Seth activated his three-attack combo again, and Onslaught even knocked the big thing down to its knees. Seth tagged it with Quick Change Position again and headed for the other side of the room as fast as he could sprint.
He heard Aurora’s Taunt skill again and assumed he’d taken the monster's focus again by doing so much damage, and she’d had to reclaim its attention. He switched positions again, and the monster began its slow lumber across the cavern while Aurora and Dominick rained water and ice magic on it.
They repeated that tactic two more times before the zombie’s health hit ten percent. At that point, he reared his head back and howled, and then started to grow. The zombie's roar was strained, reedy, and supremely disconcerting. The whole party panicked, not wanting to see how big the zombie would grow, and all three of them threw attacks at a prodigious rate.
It wasn’t enough. When the zombie’s roar finished, he’d grown to almost twice his previous height, his head hunched under the cave’s ceiling. His health was around three percent. Before anyone knew what was happening, the now even larger zombie rained a single blow down on Aurora’s shield.
The ground trembled, and hunks of rock fell from the roof of the cavern. Aurora’s health plummeted, instantly below ten percent. Dominick was casting a heal as another meaty fist descended on Aurora. Seth froze. Nothing he could do could stop the attack, and he didn’t think Dominick’s heal would finish in time.
Aurora shouted wordless defiance, dropped her shield completely, and golden light bloomed around her just before the blow landed. Golden light emanated from her in rippling waves in all directions, and Seth recognized her Divine Aura skill that made her immune to damage for a short amount of time.
The zombie’s fist struck the top of her skull and simply bounced off like he’d smacked solid metal. Aurora didn’t even flinch. Dominick’s heal landed right after, shooting her health back up to eighty percent. Aurora hacked at the zombie’s leg with her sword, and Seth activated Charge, shooting forward. The champion resisted Charge’s stun effect again.
Aurora’s Divine Aura ran out, and the monster’s fist descended again. Its health was barely a sliver. Dominick held his staff up above his head, parallel to the ground, and a golden translucent dome appeared around the three of them. The zombie’s fist bounced off that too, and Aurora slashed its leg one more time, sending its health to zero.
The huge zombie slumped and fell backward, rapidly losing its gained size, and was only twice as tall as Seth by the time it hit the ground. The party all sat on the ground next to the body, trying to catch their breath. A loud thud sounded, and a previously sealed section of wall was now an open hole to another tunnel, deeper into the caverns.
Seth, when his heart rate had settled, asked Dominick, “What was that dome you made?”
Dominick said, “That’s one of my priest primary, knight secondary skills, Divine Dome. It makes anyone within the circle invulnerable to damage for three seconds, so not as long as Aurora’s Divine Aura. It is still a great skill to cast in a panic, though.” He smiled, but Seth saw a seed of worry in his eyes. The fight had been too close for all of their comfort.
Seth stood and walked over to the zombie’s body. There were actually shabby pockets sewn into the monster’s pants, so Seth rifled through them. In its right pocket was several silver coins, and in its right pocket were three gold rings. He inspected all three.
Enchanted Gold Ring Jewelry + 12 Strength
Enchanted Gold Ring Jewelry + 12 Stamina
Enchanted Gold Ring Jewelry + 12 Wisdom
It was almost like the rings were designed for their party. Seth asked about it as he handed Aurora the ring with stamina, and Dominick the ring with wisdom. He slipped the strength ring onto the middle finger of his left hand and instantly felt much stronger.
He picked up a stone and squeezed it into dust as Aurora responded, “It’s not uncommon for champions to drop desirable objects. There are several theories as to why this happens, but the most prominent one thinks wild spirits gain something from killing humans, so use the allure of magical loot to lure us into their domains. Since we have seen a champion, we’re likely close to the spirit of the Broken Bones’ center of power.”
Seth sighed and looked at the hole that had appeared in the wall. He said, “Guys, that fight was a little too close for comfort. I think maybe I sh
ould go ahead alone.”
Aurora started to reply, but Dominick cut her off, “You’ll be killed for sure without us.”
Aurora said, “I’m with you. For all we know that was the final champion and Pahan’s in the next room. We’ve come too far to leave now.”
Dominick was nodding his head, agreeing with her, but Seth said, “Dominick, I can’t have you coming with me in the dark on this. I have a secret. I’m an adventurer.” Seth watched to see how the young man took the news, nervous.
Dominick looked at him blankly and then said, “Yeah. I know. I was at your trials. What are you talking about?”
Seth grumbled to himself at the unfortunate word choice for the guild’s name, but Aurora answered for him, “No, he means he is one of the adventurer race. He comes back from the dead. I’ve seen it several times already.”
Dominick’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull, and he said, “Are you playing a joke? Right now?”
Seth said, “It’s not a joke, but I think you should know. Because if we walk through that door and are all killed, I’ll come back. The stakes are different for me. That’s why I think I should go on alone. You two shouldn’t risk your lives.”
Dominick sat silent for a moment, just looking at Seth, before finally saying, “I think we should move forward. If there’s a chance we can save your friend and get back up to Slyborn, he can help us defend the place. We’ve made it this far, let's at least look ahead. If we see something too tough, we can cut and run.”
Seth wasn’t sure he quite believed that Dominick’s heart was all in it, but the priest had adopted a stubborn expression and stared at him, as if daring him to disagree. Seth just sighed, and the three of them headed toward the newly opened tunnel entrance.
Chapter 30
The air smelled musty, and Seth wondered how long it had been since fresh air had been able to cycle through the tunnel. His eyes kept flicking to where active effects would show up in the corner of his vision, fearing that he’d see something indicating that the air was poisoned or unsafe to breathe, but it never happened.
They descended for a long time, for at least thirty minutes, without seeing a single shade, zombie, or any other monster. Seth started to get nervous at the lack of enemies, but the tunnel eventually leveled out and opened into a sizable cavern. Several zombies shambled around in the dark. When the light from the torches lit them, they looked in the group’s direction and began their jerky walks toward them.
Aurora stepped up and they dispatched them one after another. As they continued into the cavern, the walls kept getting farther away, and the ceiling kept getting higher. Before long, the walls and ceiling were entirely hidden by the gloom, the torches unable to penetrate so far. After another few hundred feet, a massive stone wall loomed out of the darkness, stretching vertically into oblivion in every direction.
It was disconcerting, and Seth felt less like he was underground and more like he was inside of some strange void world. A huge double door was set into the stone, so naturally, after some conversation, Aurora suggested that Seth should try to open it, immorality and all. Seth struggled not to take the bait and explain that he was only immortal as long as he had levels to lose.
Seth took his time approaching the doors, hand on the pommel of Fearless the whole time, body tense and ready to jump away. He slowly reached his hand out to the improbably large door handle, but didn’t think he’d be able to make the massive door budge anyway.
As soon as Seth’s hand made contact, a rumble issued from the door. Seth let loose a mangled grunt and stumbled back, drawing his weapon, but the door just slowly ground open, dust flying around the base as it scraped against the stone ground. Seth caught the distinct smell of cinnamon as air streamed out of the space behind the door, blowing away the musty smell that had filled the cavern. Why cinnamon?
The party waited for a tense few minutes, wondering if some horror would come charging out of the room, but nothing did. Seth volunteered to go first again, and approached the now open door. A soft red light was emanating from inside, and when he entered and looked to the right, he saw a massive floating crystal, at least as tall as him, hovering above some kind of fountain.
The red light emanated from the crystal, and a tendril of the light was stretched toward a white form lying on the ground. Seth realized with a jolt that it was Pahan, lying on his side, eyes closed. Emotion overtook him, and he recklessly charged forward, heading for his friend, but before he was even halfway there, a shape materialized before him, made of the same red light that was sucking the life out of Pahan.
The shape started as a human outline in glowing blood red mist, but after a moment it snapped into focus, the image of a young woman, otherworldly and beautiful. She looked at Seth curiously for a moment, and when she spoke, it felt like Pahan speaking, directly into his mind, but with a distinctly different voice. He couldn’t pin down the difference, but it was there.
Seth sprinted towards the floating monolith, but before he’d even taken ten steps, he was stopped dead, his body simply refusing to respond. He heard Aurora and Dominick groaning, and figured they were stuck as well. The woman appeared again in front of him, a grin on her face. Her voice again invaded his mind,
He tried to think of a solution, but nothing came. He looked around frantically, but everything except his eyeballs was totally immobilized, and he couldn’t even watch as the monsters crept in on Aurora and Dominick. Couldn’t even look them in the eyes as he led them to their doom. A sob escaped Seth’s lips, half-sorrow and half-rage.
Pahan’s voice was in his head then. He sounded weak and tired, but there. He said,
Your level has been reduced to 29. 1 experience remaining until level 30.
Pahan stood up, looking unsteady on his feet. Massive legs wobbling, struggling to hold his own weight. Another notification appeared.
Your level has been reduced to 28. 1 experience remaining until level 29.
Your level has been reduced to 27. 1 experience remaining until level 28.
Pahan began to glow. The power kept flowing, flooding out of Seth and into his partner. At level twenty-four all of the monsters approaching the party halted simultaneously. At level twenty-one, the spirit turned her back on Seth and advanced toward Pahan, who had started to glow like a miniature sun.
At level fourteen, the magical hold broke entirely, and Seth fell to his knees, essence still ripping out of him and into Pahan. He realized that a raw scream was coming out of his own mouth, but couldn’t stop it.
At level eleven, all monsters in the room except for the blood red woman disappeared simultaneously, turning to red mist, and streaking toward the crystal. At level eight, the woman spirit reached Pahan and clawed a hand at him, he moved out of the way effortlessly, and then struck, closing his jaws around the woman’s outstretched arm, and pulling her closer. She shrieked and swatted at him again, but it didn’t seem to have any effect.
Seth was down to level two, experience draining at a prodigious rate, when Pahan sunk his teeth into the woman’s neck, and a blinding flash of light erupted. When Seth’s eyes recovered from the bright light, he saw Pahan standing alone, chest puffed out, glowing like a supernova. The spirit was gone.
Huge white wings burst from Pahan’s back, and he threw his head back and roared his victory to the world. Tiny stones fell from the roof of the cavern, clattering to the ground around Seth. The crystal still floated behind him, but as Seth watched, the last dregs of red were wiped clean, leaving the crystal the purest white.
Seth turned around and looked at Aurora and Dominick, who both sat on the stone ground. He smiled at them, but it disappeared when he saw his level tick down to one. He couldn’t stop pouring his energy through the bond to Pahan. He tried to say something, anything, to stop it, but was too slow.
Quick Change Volume 1: Slyborn Page 20