Ring of Promise: A LitRPG novel (Elements of Wrath Online Book 1)

by J. A. Cipriano

  As we had no other options, we dutifully rode up to the south gate and dismounted. Still, nothing appeared, no voices carried on the stale wind that blew across the Shadowyard, and the music track continued the low, mournful dirge that accompanied the entire region along the Rift. I summoned up my shield, the golden glow of the Fragment cutting a small hole through the bleakness, and pushed on the gate. It opened slowly, the hinges unleashing a predictable, ear-biting screech.

  “If someone was waiting for us, they definitely know we’re here now,” Burndall pointed out unhelpfully.

  “Let’s be ready,” I muttered, eyes darting from side to side. “This is so obviously going to go wrong.”

  We all nodded in agreement because it really was blatant at this point. All the same, I still expected a possible swerve. I had been surprised a few times on the road to this point so far; the devs could always do it again. At this point, the round of buffs and preparation was down to a system for us, and despite Crysta’s growing discomfort, she was still an utter professional when it came to the game. After a rapid layer of buffs were thrown down all around, we topped it off with my Elemental Bastion and Crysta’s summoning of Loi.

  The Sacred Sprite’s glow added to the light we were all putting off and the little guy fluttered about, obviously agitated by our creepy environment. He eventually wound up hugging Crysta’s shoulder, half-hiding behind her neck.

  “You’re not the only one that’s nervous, little guy,” Kayla frowned as she summoned up her staff and orb. “I think we’re all ready to go, Shale.”

  I took a deep breath and we plunged in. A bit of a chill that ran down my body the moment we crossed the threshold, but how much of that was merely psychosomatic, I couldn’t say. Though the markers were neatly spaced, there were no walkways or ruts in the rocky earth. It really looked like no one came here unless they absolutely had to. We continued our slow, careful advance until we made our way to the dead center of the perfectly square yard.

  Naturally, that was the other shoe dropped. The open gate slammed shut as a sudden gust of wind whipped blood red dust across the graveyard, loud enough to make Loi and Burndall both start. The momentary shock was over in a minute as we circled the wagons, planting ourselves back-to-back-to-back-to-back.

  “I honestly did not expect that you would talk to my followers,” a familiar voice echoed, seeming to come from everywhere at once. “Not expected, but I did plan for such a contingency. Did you think I wouldn’t always keep an eye on them, especially in the presence of champions such as yourselves?”

  We weren’t in the NPC interface so we could get jumped at any moment. Burndall inscribed runes across his sword as he glanced over his shoulder. “A friend of yours?”

  “You could say that,” Kayla shot back as she threw one of her Thorned Ice Shields on me.

  Loi burrowed even deeper behind Crysta’s neck as I kept looking for the Grand Rider to arrive. The darkness seemed to grow and the chill turned from creepy to icy. It wasn’t psychosomatic, that was for sure.

  “No matter, I am glad you are here.” The earth began to shift beneath our feet as dirt and rock shuddered in front of the graves. “While the Flames haven’t given me the power to tear the souls from the cycle, I can send you back to your masters with the knowledge that you have already lost.” Skeletal hands thrust up through the broken earth, stone bones of Craggar with scraps of leather and metal still hanging on. “Crystalfire Keep is already dominated by the Flames, fortified against assault, and locked down. It’s only a matter of time before our rituals corrupt the central Gem and your protections fall.”

  With an ethereal moan and another surge of cold, the graves of the brave knights that had held the line since the Sundering finished splitting open, unleashing a type of monster that had until now been alien to EO, honest-to-God undead. Black, sickly tendrils of energy clung to the skeletal remains of the Craggar warriors, animating them and holding their bones together. The only light was from pinpricks of guttering flames in their eye sockets.

  Quest ‘In the Shadow of Crystalfire’ updated!

  New objective: Defeat the Grand Rider and his undead minions!

  “Stay focused and watch for the big bad,” I shouted as I drew up my banner for an Entrenching Call to bolster the general group defenses. “Hold fast and stay strong, friends!”

  There were a good dozen skeletons with the red enemy glow so I could only imagine this was a weeny rush before the boss proper. In this situation, my job was to add as much to the defenses of the DPS as possible while they blew shit apart. It’d be almost impossible to hold all the aggro once the AoEs started.

  Speaking of that, the rest of the group swung into action. Despite the new kind of creatures, this was a common mechanic on the surface so we all knew our parts to play. With the seconds we had before the horde was on us, Kayla twirled her orb and chanted up an Ice Shield for Burndall in expectation of the heat he was about to take. As for said heat, Burndall planted his black blade into the red soil and began to chant, the diamond he had added to the pommel starting to glow brightly.

  “Stick with Burndall, Loi,” Crysta commanded as she nocked a Dissolving Cloud arrow. Despite his obvious fear, the Sprite darted to the kid’s side and laid a Primal Aegis on him, adding another layer of resistance to the Dark attacks we were certainly going to see.

  And that was all the time we were afforded. They might have been decayed piles of bones, but they moved with an unnatural speed, hurling themselves at us with reckless abandon. Bulky as I was as Shale, I could only body-block three of them, throwing my multi-Thorned shield in the way. As for the rest, the two Sisters followed my lead, turning our circle into a triangle formation around Burndall.

  Crysta fired her arrow straight up. The vial exploded into acidic mist as the skeletons clawed away at us, their sharp fingerbones trailing black energy.

  Corrupted Bones C hits (blocked)! You take 40 (-40 blocked) Physical and 54 (-6 resisted) Darkness Damage! HP 3262/3420

  Corrupted Bones C impales itself on your Thorns! It takes 1.2% (+0.2% vulnerability) Cold Damage and 4.4% (+2.4% vulnerability) Light Damage. HP 94.4%

  “Big surprise as to their vulnerability,” I grunted through the pain of the nicks and scratches. The damage was minimal but there was a certain numbing cold to Darkness damage that didn’t sit well with me. “You ready to light them up, kid?” Burndall grunted his assent and that was the signal I needed. Slamming my banner into the ground, I shouted, “Just some old bones, Rider? You’ll have to do better than that!”

  My Defiant Display caught the momentary attention of our welcoming committee to let our casters have the freedom to concentrate. Kayla began to weave a fresh spell, her smaller Light Gem flaring up as Crysta took the momentary freedom to drop to one knee, head bowed in prayer.

  As the Bones threw themselves at me from all sides Burndall finished his own spell, twisting his sword in the earth as silver flames roiled down his arms and through the blade.

  A fraction of a second later, the cursed earth sizzled as silver fire burst out from it, forming a sky-chasing ring that started around Burndall and raced outward in a spiraling wildfire.

  Burndall casts Ring of Purity!

  Corrupted Bones A takes 15% (+1% vulnerability) Fire Damage and 62% (+33% vulnerability) Light Damage! HP 19%

  Corrupted Bones B takes 30% (+14% critical, +1% vulnerability) Fire Damage and 62% (+30% critical, +33% vulnerability) Light Damage! It dies!

  I think you can figure the rest for yourself. As the sweeping ring of purifying fire ran through the Corrupted Bones, the darkness itself was torn away while fire scoured the dried bones and remaining bits of armor and cloth. The two abominations Burndall critted were reduced to scorched bone and powder, blasted back to dormancy, and the rest were badly savaged. A Holy Rain from Kayla that came right on the heels of that awe-inspiring wave, washing another one back to the grave from whence it came.

  “Favored of the Elohjin?” the Grand Rider’s e
choing, omnipresent voice growled. I detected a distinct hint of annoyance in his voice now. “So, I have to dirty my hands with you myself, I suppose.”

  I tried to figure where he was going to strike from; you would think we could see and hear that immense Scorch Boar from a mile away. The aggro I had was torn away from me by that massive burst of damage but I wasn’t worried about the Bones as much as I had been. Stepping away from the tangle of MOBs and allies, I focused on finding the real boss.

  The clue came when Crysta finished her prayer. The remaining Bones had torn into Burndall with all their unholy fury but my Entrenching Call, Kayla’s Ice Shield, and Loi’s infusion of healing Light blunted the worst of it. As he fell back swinging his blade the way you would swat at a swarm of bees, the Ranger sprang back to her full height, raising her hands to the heavens above.

  “Oh Primal Light, oh mighty sun above, giver of life and keeper of the Balance, crack the sky and shine your scared rays on us, your champions!” she cried and the sky responded. The clouds and ash lingering above us were rent asunder and a shaft of pure radiance cast down on our group. The radiance was warming, invigorating, soothing wounds and covering us like a protective shield.

  Crysta prays to the Primal Light! Your group gains +28% Light and Darkness Resistance, heals 6% of their maximum Health Points per second, and gains Light Elemental Thorns causing 220-330 Damage for 15 seconds!

  That was impressive enough on its own, and the undead seemed to shrink and cower under the pure solar radiance. What really caught my attention though was the immense shadow I could now see cast upon the ground as if from some large object near the edge of the circle of light, moving rapidly straight for our cluster of casters, with Kayla at the leading edge of its charge.

  I didn’t even think, my body and mind moving by instinct as I raised my hand toward her, my Impose Gem flaring to life even as I started to twist toward the unseen attacker. Before I could blink, I launched through the air, pushing Kayla gently back as I absorbed all her threat. She let out a short cry of surprise that was cut off by the tremendous clang that echoed across the desolate graveyard as an unseen lance drove hard into my shield.

  The Grand Rider’s Shadow Charge hits (blocked)! You take 250 (-250 blocked) Physical Damage and 288 (-400 blocked, -112 resisted) Darkness Damage! HP 2882/3420

  The Grand Rider is impaled on your Thorns! He takes 2% (+1% vulnerability) Light Damage. HP 98%

  Driven back a good two feet myself, I barely managed to hold my ground as the shockwave ran up my arm and the chilling creep of Primal Darkness ran through my body. A glance over my shield showed me that the Rider’s cloak of invisibility was now gone but what was underneath it wasn’t precisely the same as what Kayla and I had encountered in the forest.

  In general size and shape, the Grand Rider was much the same. I could still make out the outline of a cloaked Ember man perched atop an immense Scorch Boar but that was pretty much all I could make out. Where there had been hair, smoke, cloth, metal, and skin, there was now only impenetrable blackness. That alone would have been a bit disconcerting but there was … depth to the darkness, a strangely maddening shifting of anti-light that made my eyes want to pop out. The only features I could make out for certain were the burning eyes of both man and beast, the same black-cored flame as before.

  “Finish off the skelies,” I called behind me. “I’ll keep Shadow Man here busy!”

  The sunbeam from the Prayer to the Light restored my wounds almost immediately as I followed my own orders, looking to keep the boss on me by throwing all my weight into a Shield Slam. My glowing golden shield drove right into the boar’s snout … and sunk in as if I was punching Jell-O.

  Your Shield Slam hits the Grand Rider! He takes .1% (-1.9% resisted) Physical Damage and .1% (-1.9% resisted) Earth Damage! HP 97.8%

  The Rider laughed manically as his shadow boar snorted while an explosion of flames from Burndall’s Exploding Runes combined with one of Kayla’s Flame Columns behind me blasted more of the Corrupted Bones to dust. “You can’t fight the Darkness in so crude a fashion, Warlord,” he chuckled, exceptionally talky for an EO boss, “and you certainly can’t protect your friends!”

  The boar reared back as the Rider reached for what I assumed to be his sparkshooter, barely giving me time to raise my shield and plant my feet. “I might not be able to touch you but I know what hurts you,” I shot back as I activated Walking Wall, just in time to take a shadowy stomp from the immense beast, followed immediately by a tremendous explosion of faintly glowing, translucent energy from the Rider’s indistinct rifle.

  The Grand Rider’s Shadow Hooves hit (blocked)! You take 72 (-72 blocked) Physical Damage and 183 (-366 blocked, -183 resisted) Darkness Damage! HP 2969/3420

  The Grand Rider impales himself on your Thorns! He takes 2% (+1% vulnerability) Light Damage! HP 95.8%

  The Grand Rider’s Ghostly Burst hits (block penetration)! You take 450 (-150 resisted) Darkness Damage! HP 2519/3420

  The Ghostly Burst penetrated the Walking Wall! Kayla takes 450 (-150 resisted) Darkness Damage! Crysta takes 1125 (-375 resisted) Darkness Damage! Burndall takes 150 (-150 resisted) Darkness Damage!

  For something otherwise immaterial, the weight of the boar’s hooves drove me an inch into the rocky soil but it was the spectral ectoplasmic discharge that hurt the most, more because it passed right through my armor, my shield, all the protection I could muster for my friends and hit them just as hard. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought the Rider was trying to aggro me instead of the other way around.

  What made it worse was that as soon as the boar bounced off my shield, the Rider pulled on the reigns to the right. In response, the shadow beast lurched not like a charging boar but a sliding pool of shadows, lurching away with incredible speed.

  “I’ve got these last few skeletons,” Kayla called out over the din of battle. “It’s obvious we need as much Elemental support up on the boss!” Unleashing another burst of holy water cut down the pack of desecrated corpses to three and we still had a good six seconds under the Prayer. I knew she could handle it.

  “Kay’s right, guys,” I agreed as I dropped the Walking Wall, trying to keep up with the snake-like slides of the Rider’s mount. “Be careful, though. I don’t know how long I can keep his aggro like this.” That fact was already getting deep under my skin. I needed to find a way to contribute to this fight beyond my one Light-based defensive cooldown.

  And that’s when it hit me. While I could use Sacred Earth, it was a powerful ability as I’d seen firsthand, after all, it was the wrong ability to use here. I needed something more offensive but I needed time to set it up.

  “Loi, to me,” Crysta commanded as Burndall kept pace beside me, probably figuring the best place to be if he wanted to try to strike with his black blade was by my side. The Sprite rushed to her as she nocked another arrow, this one glowing a brilliant green, and fired it overhead. The arrowhead exploded into a cascade of Healing Rain that patched up the worst of our injuries.

  It also assuredly sucked up the aggro as well, something I could tell from the way the Rider now sped at a full-on tilt toward the Ranger. She was figuring between her Sprite’s protection, her advanced gear, and the last few seconds of the Prayer that she could take the hit better than anyone else. I couldn’t really fault her tactics so I went with it.

  “This sounds crazy but keep everyone alive,” I barked. “I need to change Gems!” The Rider and his mount still had eyes, something the art team made very sure were prominent. While I couldn’t stun him, maybe a Light-based effect could blind him, not to mention the Solar Shield could do a lot more damage and threat than anything I had ready. Frantically, I opened my inventory interface and started the Gem swap sequence.

  Do you want to know what is the most frustrating thing in the world, at least to me? Being deprived of my agency, that’s what. Being forced to sit inactive when you know what has to be done and being unable to act on what I want to do or need to do
. Changing out Gems in the middle of a combat triggers that frustration. I understand the balance feature of making it a forced animation with a set four second ‘casting’ time, I really do, but you might be able to imagine how I felt when I was stuck in that cycle as the Rider bore down on Crysta.

  Kayla dodged back and away from her last few assailants, incinerating them with a sweeping laser beam from the Eye of the Solar Guardian, turning just as Burndall threw a quick-and-very-desperate Hotfoot at the boar, hoping against hope, it would trip up the boar.

  Burndall’s Hotfoot hits the Grand Rider! He takes .1% (-.4% resisted) Fire Damage and resists the Bane! HP 95.7%

  So much for hope. Crysta raised her bow in front of her like a shield as Loi latched on to his mistress’s shoulder and unleashed another Primal Aegis … and then the Rider struck dead on, his shadow lance piercing right through her chest.

  The Grand Rider’s Shadow Charge hits (critical) Crysta! She takes 1544 (+752 critical) Physical Damage and 2120 (+2000 critical, -1880 resisted) Darkness Damage! HP 1941/6730

  Her scream of pain hurt my ears as she slid down the lance, almost falling to her knees. “Stupid channel bar, finish!” I yelled helplessly as Burndall growled and charged. Swinging his sword with his customary grace, the weapon slipped through the immense beast as if it was barely there, cutting away only the smallest bit of shadow stuff. The Explosive Runes slipped off Burndall’s sword as always but before they burst into flames, the Rider yanked on the reins again. The boar’s head and tusks followed its master’s tug, smashing into Burndall’s chest before the tusks cut a bloody swath through.

  The Grand Rider's Shadow Gore hits Burndall! He takes 360 Physical Damage and 340 (-340 resisted) Darkness Damage! HP 460/1310

  “Don’t fear the pain, champions,” the Rider chortled as he switched back to his sparkshooter. “I will end it in a moment.” Nonchalantly, the shadowy bandit charged the ‘shooter and began to take aim at our two ravaged group members.

  Now, one thing about Arena champions: they pay attention to details. Angles of cones, Gem switch timers, attack recharges, everything. Right before the Rider focused his aim, Kayla shouted an arcane phrase, blasting the shadowy monster with another gout of Holy Rain.