What if I risk it and order the A-class Threat? he thought. But I don’t know anything about that one… All the same, he made his decision.
“Great One, allow me to ask a favor of you. The one that I need most of all was in the Lakharian Desert yesterday, on Latteria. He defeated a certain Sharkon, and that is all I know of him. Although… There are rumors that he can take on the guises of others. He is very strong. He may be the strongest mortal in all Disgardium. But if this knowledge is not enough to seek him out, then I would ask you to find the warrior Crag. He is a dwarf.”
“You will receive what you wish,” Apophis agreed, crawling away into the gloom of the wide den he always emerged from.
It wasn’t clear whom of the named threats the snake would bring, but Yemi immediately started anxiously ordering his clanmates to get ready. He climbed onto the fortress walls — to look around, gather himself and convince himself that nobody would stop the most important event in his life from happening.
With its tall, angular towers, the Yoruba castle looked like an intruder on a flat landscape without a single tree in sight. The sun fell to the horizon, breaking through the orange-pink clouds.
Barat’Uruk was considered a native land of the orcs. This harsh area of central Shad’Erung stretched out in endless steppes from the Sea of Bones in the east to the Ursai Jungle in the west. A guard post bristling with spears could be seen in the distance. It belonged to orcs from the Broken Axe clan — a local faction exalted with Yemi.
After ensuring that all was well, the spellcaster returned to Apophis’ temple. Based on a careful plan, a tight circle surrounded the altar, then another and another — to make sure the Threat had no way at all to escape. The soldiers buffed themselves and hurriedly swallowed strengthening elixirs. The mages, warlocks and shamans prepared their most powerful crowd control spells.
Yemi had something else saved for a rainy day; a legendary one-time use artifact capable of stopping even a global boss.
The wait didn’t last long. The huge snake didn’t crawl out of its hole, but appeared in the air, and Yemi saw that the beast-god was wrapped around someone whose name he couldn’t make out.
Losing his deadly rings, the White Snake freed the prisoner and he fell down in a shapeless heap. The silhouette of a man in a cloak became visible through the clouds of grey smoke, though nobody could make out any details except his eyes gleaming green from the gloom of his hood.
The Yorubas breathed noisily, glancing at their commander impatiently.
“Who is it?” Yemi asked.
“Your wish has come true, priest,” the snake answered. “Know that this creature is under the protection of those who are far mightier than I. He himself is not too dangerous for now, but I feel the strength in him. He is the one that conquered Sharkon. It took a great deal of energy to bring him to you. Now I must rest. For your next such wish, I will demand thrice as much…”
Having said his piece, Apophis disappeared — it seemed to Yemi that he was exhausted. The figure by the altar stirred.
In that same instant, at their leader’s signal, the entire might of the Yoruba clan descended on the Threat. The earth trembled under the smoke-shrouded body, and a destructive column of Hellflame shot up around him. The white lightning of Skythunder struck from the sky with maniacal speed, over and over in the same spot. Those two spells were usually enough to take away half the health of a high-level dungeon boss, but nobody stopped there, of course. A murderous flood swept over the outsider, a flood of darts and crossbow bolts and spears, and that wasn’t counting the avalanche of other magics alongside the careful attacks of meleers, trying to strike without blocking the view for the ranged attackers.
The first two seconds of the battle convinced Yemi that everything was going according to plan. He didn’t bother holding back; he immediately fired off his ultimate ability, Scarab Swarm. A small black cloud appeared above the Threat and began to pour tar-black bugs down on him. He didn’t see what happened next with them in the developing hell, but he already knew; the scarabs would be digging into the Threat’s body, ignoring all defenses, rushing toward his heart and brain. Every second with those little guests inside doubled the tick of the DOT.
Next the caster summoned the ghostly spirit of Apophis and…
In the center of the misty outlines of the enemy, a blinding white point appeared, instantly expanded and covered Yemi’s whole field of view. Breaking through and sweeping away all defensive spells, shields, armor and resists, the evil (dead, the thought suddenly came to the shaman) energy killed all his clanmates with a piercing flow of energy. The raid panel showed a hundred grey portraits with skulls overlaid, and when the light went out, Yemi saw a gloomy, vague silhouette rise from its knees at the foot of the melting granite altar.
The ghostly Cocoon of Reflection that activated when its master was in grave danger exploded into shards. The artifact had not only saved Yemi’s life. It had also saved his chance to fulfil his dream.
Right before his eyes, the unknown player had just neutralized the beast-god’s paralyzing poison, which had never been known to fail, and then destroyed an entire raid of players over level three hundred in one fell swoop.
Yemi knew no spells as powerful as that. This overturned the entire balance of the game, a system of mechanics refined over decades. What was this magic against which even maxed out resists did nothing? Sure, Armageddon existed and was similar in its effect, but it took more time to cast than had passed since the White Snake’s return!
The shaman’s intuition told him that the Threat couldn’t strike so hard again a second time, otherwise Disgardium might as well shut down. The cooldown for such a strong cast had to be days if not weeks!
Confusion was replaced by fear of losing the Threat. Yemi began to approach the immobile figure and launched a destructive stunning combo at it, but unsurprisingly it didn’t work.
No wonder, he thought. If Apophis’ venom didn’t work…
At that moment he saw that the entire raid had revived, and he sighed in relief. Soon they’d be here; it wasn’t far to run from the graveyard to the temple. As long as the Threat didn’t get away…
Although it seemed like he had no plans to do so. He burned Yemi with his gaze, and the caster could have sworn on all his wives and children that he saw a smile form in the smoky gloom beneath the hood.
“Why the hell have you brought me here?” the stranger suddenly asked, his voice vibrating and constantly changing in tone, striking horror into those that heard it. “Was that your pet, or what?”
Glancing at him guardedly, Yemi thought furiously. Was the enemy trying to distract him with smalltalk to wait for some nightmarish talent to cool down? Entirely possible.
“Great Apophis, the White Snake…” the words bubbled forth from his tongue on their own, as if the shaman wanted to confess to this stranger. “He demanded we sacrifice almost ten thousand intelligent creatures to him. Many lost their heads, and rivers of blood flowed into the beast-god’s altar! All so that we could find and bring you here!”
He shouted the last words, preparing to attack. Yemi could already hear the trample of his approaching clanmates and a cruel smile spread across his face. It was time for Astral Mantrap!
The space around the Threat began to tear with a crack. Imperceptibly fine threads began to fire at the Threat from narrow black cuts in the air, piercing his body, growing within and fixing the target fast in place with mojo. The stranger could sense something was wrong, tried to move from his spot, twitched… Yemi’s mocking smile widened further, but then the trap’s threads broke, flew apart into black droplets, and the cuts in the air closed up.
“Take him!” the shaman shouted as he saw his clanmates. Since crowd-control spells didn’t seem to be working on the Threat, then maybe it was time to use brute force. “Tanks, grab him and hold him!”
As soon as he gave the order, it occurred to him that the Threat might be a girl; even the voice didn’t give away any
clues in that regard.
The strongest warriors of the clan began to hesitantly approach the enemy. For some reason, the Threat interlocked his fingers and stretched his arms above his head as if before a workout. Then he walked toward Yemi!
“So, the Yoruba clan has sentenced thousands of sentient creatures to death so that some insane little god could bring me to this hole?” the stranger’s voice rang out. “You’ve been killing innocent NPCs, and I’m the ‘Threat’? Something’s gone wrong in this world…”
The tanks finally got a grip on themselves. Some of them even managed to quickly pick up and equip the armor they dropped when they died. Six of the strongest grabbed the stranger and pulled his arms behind his back. Someone decided to snap a hunting Choke Collar of Dominion on the neck of the Threat hidden in smoke. It was a spiky metal collar for training particularly wild pets.
But through some miracle, the Threat managed to free both his arms and dealt a series of strikes, then, turning in the air, kicked his escort in his helmeted head. The collar cracked and smashed into shards.
“You can’t hold me,” the Threat said happily. “Fight!”
Yemi was covered in a cold sweat. He looked at the raid combat logs and laughed in relief. The damage dealt to his clanmates was pathetically low. A second later, everyone was laughing.
“We didn’t just sacrifice NPCs to Apophis,” Yemi admitted, now calmer. “But that shouldn’t worry you, dead man…”
At the clan leader’s signal, a hail of fire rained down on the stranger. After the first strikes, the stranger’s health indicator, which was already low, dropped down to the minimum, but for some reason it froze there and fell no further.
For the next few minutes, exhausting its reserves of vigor, mana, fury and other class resources, Yoruba tried with all its might to kill the Threat. How else could it be eliminated?
The smoky silhouette shrank into itself, covering its face with its hands and patiently taking all the hits. Now it was Yemi’s turn to worry: how could he deal with this bastard son of evil spirits? Apophis was ignoring his summons, as ill luck would have it.
Trying to imagine what his late Triad father would have done, Yemi snarled and extended a silver blade crafted long ago, with which he’d already put down two threats.
“Hold him!” he ordered.
The crowd pressed around the immortal creature. He didn’t resist, just stood as if wondering what the caster would do next. Approaching, Yemi struck viciously and shouted:
“I banish you from Disgardium forever!”
The blade pierced up to the hilt into the stranger’s chest.
But… nothing happened.
In the grave silence to follow, everyone heard the vibrating voice of the Threat quite clearly.
“Has something gone wrong?” he asked in sympathy. “Seems like none of your plans are working out. What a shame…”
“If we can’t kill you, we’ll eat every part of you!” Yemi spat in fury, and immediately began to fulfil his promise.
Tearing out a black heart that filled the air with the stench of rot, he raised it above his head.
“We will take his power! Yoruba!”
“Yoruba!” the others echoed.
“Idiots,” the smoky silhouette shook its head, though nobody heard him.
The clan members that had just been crowding around the Threat suddenly came alive and moved to the shaman. With the help of Francesca, his deputy and in-game lover in one, he cut up the still-beating heart and handed it out. When everyone had a small piece, they waited for Yemi’s permission and bit into the flesh of the greatest Threat of Disgardium, dripping coal-black blood.
“Well, this is interesting!” the Threat shouted, whose heart was currently being greedily devoured by orcs, sauroks, drows, minotaurs, trolls, ogres, vampires and werewolves.
Yemi realized this was a bad idea when the clanmates began to grab their throats and wheeze. The shaman saw the anthracite lines of darkening veins spreading fast across their faces; their eyes blackened, and their health dropped at a monstrous rate. Then his turn came.
You are infected with Corpse Poison!
Corpse Poison
You drank of the blood of the dead.
-10% health per second.
Duration: 1 minute.
Spasmodically pulling out a flask, Yemi uncorked it and gulped down a lifesaving healing elixir and antidote. His clanmates did the same until the healers got a grip on themselves and began to cast mass healing spells all over the zone.
“What are you?” the shaman hissed.
“Someone who’s going to be back. Someone who will make sure that not a single brick of your castle stays standing, you freak…”
Yemi didn’t hear the last words. A bright white spot appeared in the midst of the smoky figure again. It expanded into a blinding flame and…
You are dead.
Reviving in 10… 9…
I hope he doesn’t figure out that I’m the same as him… the spellcaster thought, counting down the seconds until his revival.
Chapter 21. Nergal’s Summons
I REFLECTIVELY CLOSED my eyes at the Plague Fury explosion, but even then, the afterglow of the flash still burned in my vision for a long time to come. In the absolute silence to follow, fanfares stacked up on top of each other and the notification window covered my field of view.
Your reputation with the Commonwealth faction has increased: +150.
Current reputation: hatred.
Your reputation with the neutral races has increased: +150.
Current reputation: hatred.
Your reputation with the Empire faction has reduced: -600.
Current reputation: hatred.
Unlocked achievement Avenger!
You interrupted an outstanding unavenged kill streak by player Francesca (227 kills against other players without a single death!)
Reward: title Avenger, passive aura Avenger (-1% to damage and defense of all nearby enemies).
Attention! Achievement upgraded to Mighty Avenger!
You interrupted a phenomenal unavenged kill streak by player Babangida (362 kills against other players without a single death!)
Reward: title Mighty Avenger, passive aura Mighty Avenger (-2% to damage and defense of all nearby enemies).
The achievement upgraded a bunch more times, getting flashier and flashier. I got the final upgrade for Yemi:
Attention! Achievement upgraded to Most Magnificent Avenger!
You interrupted the global record unavenged kill streak by player Yemi (6731 kills against other players without a single death!)
Reward: title Most Magnificent Avenger, passive aura Most Magnificent Avenger (-25% to damage and defense of all nearby enemies).
Unlocked achievement First Ever: Most Magnificent Avenger!
Most Magnificent Avenger achievement received for the first time in the history of Disgardium!
Reward: the Magnetism passive skill (loot from enemies you defeat is automatically sent to your inventory, with filtration options available).
Every achievement increased my reputation with the Commonwealth and the neutrals and plunged it into the Nether with the Empire, although the result was the same with all three factions: pure, unadulterated hatred.
Unlocked achievement Punisher!
You eliminated 10 players of an enemy faction at a much higher level than yours.
Reward: +1% to damage against other players.
Attention! Achievement upgraded…
Attention! Achievement upgraded…
…
Attention! Achievement upgraded to Mighty Punisher!
You eliminated 200 players of an enemy faction at a much higher level than yours.
Reward: +10% to damage against other players.
Somewhere in the stream of notifications, including those that offered to publicize my name as a ‘great hero,’ I saw lines about getting a ton of exp and new levels; you got twice as much experience for PvP than for mob
s. Snowstorm decided that to motivate players to fight each other.
You leveled up!...
You leveled up!...
You leveled up!...
…
You leveled up! Current level: 191.
205 free attribute points available!
Unlocked achievement It is a Good Day to Die![8]
You have leveled up to 150 without dying once, and your name will go down in the history of Disgardium!
Reward: passive skill Second Life (some chance after death to revive in the same spot with full health).
The Destroying Plague Page 35