The Curse of Hurlig Ridge_World Tree Online_1st Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  “The Demon Incursion? Why?” I asked.

  “My slip will already cost me so why not, I was ordered to. Ragnarök was not happening fast enough for my master’s liking, so the Demon Incursion was instigated. Anything else before you die?”

  “Just one more question, are you thirsty?” I asked.

  “What?” Hellgrid asked, confused by my question.

  “Have a drink,” I said.

  Heath appeared standing on top of the throne causing Hellgrid to look up. Heath then promptly smashed the entire jar of Moonshine across the werewolf’s face, inevitably forcing some of the toxic liquid into the beast’s mouth and nose.

  Hellgrid coughed and hacked and even tried to vomit the little moonshine that slipped through but to no avail. His immortality was taken away, ‘Vulnerable’ debuff clear as day to us. Now we just had to kill him before he either burned it out of his system or killed us.

  “I can’t believe your crazy plan just worked,” said Rose, wide-eyed.

  “I figured our chances were 50/50 depending on if Heath got caught sneaking up on him,” I said with a shrug.

  “Stop standing around and kill him already,” shouted Heath, flipping away from a wild swing.

  Hellgrid’s black fur bristled with anger. He snarled but winced when he disturbed the fresh cuts on his face.

  “Charging,” shouted Rose, blurring from view only to reappear as her shoulder slammed into the towering monster. She struck with her shield, then shifted back to dodge an overhead attack from Hellgrid. She shifted back in, jabbing at him with her sword, it’s tip finding a spot between the werewolf’s chest piece and shoulder guard. He swung his own counterattack, striking her shield hard. Even with the shield block, she took a healthy bit of damage.

  I was waiting patiently as were Olaf and Micaela. We needed to be sure Rose had aggro before we attacked.

  “Okay, start slowly,” Rose called out, feeling confident in her threat levels.

  Micaela and I started walking forward with a measured pace, her throwing a fireball from Sundance whenever the cooldown expired while I worked on building up stacks of ‘Lesser Holy Fire’.

  When we finally got into melee range we looked to Rose for permission to start heavier DPS. A subtle nod was all she gave us.

  I started with a ‘Hamstring’, both increasing the damage he takes and slowing him down by half. I then added an ‘Impale’ to him. We had agreed before the fight, we would go slow until we made it past the first 10% of his health. I added my third stack of ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ and started to attack him with my spear, base damage only or rather base damage plus ‘Lesser Holy Imbuement’. I also still had the ‘Edda of Light and Dark’ buff so I was adding more slowing effects and increasing my own haste.

  “10% incoming,” called Baby, as she topped all of our health up.

  Hellgrid suddenly spun in a circle knocking all three of us back from him. His powerful legs coiled before he sprung upwards toward the ceiling of the cavern. His large hand grasping one of the stalactites. “You will all die here,” he shouted, his other hand reached for another stalactite and broke it free of the ceiling. His arm reared back to throw.

  “Take cover,” shouted Olaf, figuring out what was coming next.

  The stalactite was launched like a missile right at me. I dived out of the path and was back on my feet. It was a mistake to assume I was safe from just dodging the projectile. I should have expected stone shrapnel from the rock exploding when it hit. It pelted me and tore through me and my armor doing significant damage along the way and leaving behind a very unpleasant bleed effect.

  His next throw was toward Olaf, who had taken cover behind a large rock, one of the many perforating the landscape. The missile hit and exploded but no damage was suffered by the big ogre.

  “Everyone find a rock and take cover behind it,” ordered Rose, finding her own rock along with Baby.

  Heath was invisible somewhere around here doing who knows what and Micaela had already found a rock to hide behind. That left me as the only one not hidden, as well as Hellgrid’s favorite target, even as I ran for cover, I prayed the bleed didn’t kill me before I could heal myself.

  Finally getting to cover, I started healing myself, spamming my ‘Lesser Heal’ for all it was worth until the debuff faded and my health was somewhat restored. I also used one of the Lesser Mana Potion’s Baby had given me. It wouldn’t restore all of my mana, but it did give me some to work with.

  “Is he ever going to run out of these things?” asked Rose loudly, drawing his attention and another missile was thrown her way.

  “I don’t know,” I shouted, drawing a missile back toward me.

  “Why hasn’t he stopped?” shouted Micaela.

  I risked peaking around the rock to see what Hellgrid was doing. He was still moving from stalactite to stalactite, breaking off spears of stone and hurling them at random. I tried to focus in on his health, which was holding steady at 89.5% and the ‘Vulnerable’ debuff hadn’t gone anywhere. I needed to see his stamina, but it wasn’t a visible stat, so I tried instead to focus on his breathing and perspiration, hoping to glean, whether or not, he was sweating more or breathing harder. I wasn’t expecting to see a stamina bar appear under his health bar an instant later. I was half-tempted to look at the flashing exclamation points at the bottom of my view, but I couldn’t afford to lose focus right now. His stamina bar was draining fast.

  “He’ll drop soon, he’s almost out of stamina,” I called to my friends over the sound of exploding rocks.

  “How do you know?” asked Rose loudly.

  “I can see his stamina bar now, I’ll explain later,” I called back. Seeing the stamina dwindling fast.

  Hellgrid swung to grab another stalactite only for his grip to slip and for him to tumble from the ceiling and land with a loud crunch, eating 10% of his health in an instant. I looked at him, he was down with a dazed debuff flashing steadily faster as his stamina began to refill.

  “Attack now, hard as you can while he’s dazed,” I called, charging out to attack the beast.

  I renewed my ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ as I ran toward him. As soon as I got into melee range I started my combination anew. ‘Hamstring’, ‘Impale’, ‘Justice Strike’, ‘Lesser Holy Shock’, ‘Power Thrust’, ‘Power Thrust’ and ‘Power Thrust’. I didn’t pay much attention, as my friends unleashed as much damage as they could manage.

  Heath appeared next to me stabbing into Hellgrid’s back just below the armor then vanished from view only to reappear and repeat the same action. Vanishing and attacking repeatedly, I could only imagine he was getting some impressive critical strikes from doing so.

  I should have paid more attention to the ‘Dazed’ debuff he had suffered when he fell as it vanished suddenly, once 70% of his stamina was restored.

  “I’ll kill you all,” he howled, starting to look worse for wear. His health was hovering just at 62%. But it didn’t seem to deter him as he went back to viciously attacking Rose.

  “Get ready for another transition,” warned Baby loudly.

  “Everyone, get to cover now,” shouted Rose just before his health actually ticked down to the 60% mark.

  I ran quickly to find a rock to take cover behind. When you don’t know exactly what will happen, you have to assume he’ll repeat the same attack he did last time.

  “Oh, god, get him off,” howled Olaf in pain.

  “I looked to see Hellgrid was standing on top of Olaf, mauling him, eating him and regaining health.

  “Charge and stun him,” I shouted to Rose. I used my own ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ as I ran.

  “Baby, big heals, keep Olaf alive,” shouted Rose, even as she slammed into the werewolf, damaging both him and Olaf. “Sorry Olaf,” she said, seeing him hurt too.

  “Just get this guy off of me,” Olaf pleaded.

  I attacked without holding back as did Micaela. I’d never seen her look so furious as she did then, every swing of her axes cleaving into the being wh
o was trying his hardest to take her husband’s life. Then Butch swung forward, the ax actually howled as it moved, and with a meaty hack into the werewolf’s back, I saw 8% of Hellgrid’s health bar vanish.

  I glanced up to see Baby was working feverishly to heal Olaf, while we tried to knock Hellgrid off of him. I was worried slightly about the next transition, which was less than 1% away.

  At 50% health, the beast finally rolled off Olaf looking even more pitiful. I’m not sure it was just the punishment he’d taken from our attacks, but he looked smaller, significantly smaller and his muscle mass looked thinner than before.

  “No,” Hellgrid groaned pitifully. “You will not defeat me here,” he growled as he clawed the ground away from us.

  “Be careful, I smell a trap,” I warned my friends. He was still at 50% health, there was no way was he defeated so easily. Then I saw it, the vulnerable debuff was flashing rapidly, as if it was about to fade. I ran forward as fast as I could, pulling the jar of Moonshine from my bag as I went. I flipped over the werewolf and twisted in the air, so I landed facing Hellgrid. I slammed my jar down on his head, shattering it and dousing him inside and out again with another dose of ‘Vulnerable’ debuff.

  “No!” Hellgrid howled, suddenly springing up, his razor-sharp claws tearing across my face, blinding me in one eye.

  I rolled back in pain, albeit slightly muted thanks to the game but still awful. I couldn’t even focus enough to heal myself. Thank the goddess Baby was there to heal me or I’d never have been able to rejoin the fight.

  I climbed shakily back to my feet, blinking several times to make sure I could see again. I looked at Hellgrid, fighting Rose. His speed increased massively, even from when the fight first began but the damage seemed to have dropped off significantly. It was less damage per hit, but he hit considerably more often, which made it very difficult for Rose to interrupt him with her ‘Shield Slam’ skill.

  I recast ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ as I charged in again, lancing through the back of his leg with my ‘Hamstring’ but instead of pulling my spear back out I twisted the vertical blade of the spear tip and ripped it horizontally out the side of his leg causing a gush of blood to leak from the wound. Hellgrid also didn’t receive a ‘Hamstrung’ debuff, instead, he had a debuff ‘Torn Ligament’.

  If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I just found a new skill, but I’d have to worry about that later.

  “40% incoming,” warned Baby from above us. I was appreciating, even more, the fact she could fly and heal so well.

  “Hide or stay?” asked Olaf.

  “Wait to see what he does,” ordered Rose, not stopping her attack as she whittled away the last little bit of his health before the 40% mark.

  “No, I cannot be defeated here,” Hellgrid growled, jumping back to the water’s edge. “Rise oh servants of Skoll, rise and defend his vessel,” he called out before he began chanting and the water of the reservoir began to steam as the room turned cold, I could see the water turning white and start to freeze over. Within seconds the reservoir was frozen solid. That’s when the ice cracked and cracked again and again until there was a layer of ice shards like broken glass. “Rise and defend,” he ordered again. This time the ice shards rose into the air and began to collect, forming into wolf-like creatures made of jagged edges and sharp, pointy, ice shards.

  “Any suggestions?” asked Rose, not liking the numbers Hellgrid now sported.

  I was patient, watching carefully as the ice wolves were all gathering together behind Hellgrid. They seemed to be gathering as if they intended to attack all at once. When the last wolf joined the others, I couldn’t help but grin a little. “Boar Charge,” I shouted, targeting the area all the wolves had gathered.

  Olaf shouted, “Fire in the hole,” then chucked the bombs he’d had on the bandoleer into the knocked down wolves absolutely decimating them. Only two of the wolves escaped the carnage and Olaf was able to finish them both with a well-placed shot to each causing them to burst in a shower of ice shards.

  Hellgrid didn’t look too good either, his fur lost some of its luster, the skin you could see looked paler too. I wondered if he spent all of his mana on one attack. I wasn’t going to wait to find out, he had only 20% of his HP left and I was going to do everything in my power to kill him before his ‘Dazed’ debuff faded.

  “Attack while he’s drained,” I shouted, already running for him. I saw Rose blur past me, her ‘Charge’ skill was getting a workout.

  Heath appeared a moment later, stabbing and vanishing once again, I would have to ask him about it later but for now, I had to focus on killing Hellgrid. Once in range, I launched my attack combo again, ‘Hamstring’, ‘Impale’, ‘Justice Strike’, ‘Lesser Holy Shock’, ‘Power Thrust’ repeatedly until my ‘Justice Strike’ was nearly off cooldown then I began again.

  We got him all the way to 6% HP when everything went mad. Hellgrid’s skin bubbled and cracked, black smoke began to waft from the wounds in a way I didn’t like the look of.

  “More damage, kill him faster,” I shouted urgently.

  “Hehe,” chuckled Hellgrid at 3%, sounding strained but also as if he had already accepted his death. “I may die here, but I’ll take all of you with me.” His body started ballooning in odd places, more cracks formed, and more black smoke began to pour out of him.

  “Push harder!” Rose shouted, hacking as hard as she could.

  I looked to see even baby had stopped healing and was now focused solely and doing damage, her wand firing bolts of magic as fast as she could.

  1% ticked and more cracks appeared. I was starting to worry we wouldn’t make it in time. ‘Justice Strike’ hit and everything seemed to freeze for a moment. Hellgrid’s eyes rolled back and he fell backward with his mouth wide open, his tongue lolled lifelessly out the side. When he hit the rock-hard ground, smoke began to rush out of his open mouth rapidly deflating his body until a shadow of the werewolf stood atop the body.

  “Free,” the shadow werewolf growled, his body arched back and breathed deeply. “You have freed me,” he said looking at us now.

  “You are Skoll?” I asked, just wanted to be sure.

  “I am,” the Fallen God Skoll answered.

  “Yes, we didn’t die,” cheered Micaela breaking the tension in her usual way.

  “Atmosphere babe, you’ve got to work on reading the atmosphere,” chided Olaf with a shake of his head.

  The Fallen God Skoll only chuckled. “You have all done well. Take what you will from this wretched corpse and his treasure. I will await you in the temple in Hurligville. There is much to be decided.” The smoky form vanished, fading into nothingness, leaving no trace.

  I looked again at the body of Hellgrid which started to desiccate rapidly until the skin flaked away and the bones crumbled until all that remained was a few pieces of equipment and a large sack.

  “Now that was a boss fight,” cheered Heath, appearing next to me to and successfully startling me.

  Once my heart calmed, I couldn’t help but smile. That was one heck of a boss fight.

  “Do you think they will all be so complex?” asked Rose. “Because I sure hope they are.”

  “Me too,” I added.

  “Loot time,” sang Olaf, grinning at the pile just waiting to be divvied up.

  Chapter 37

  There were three pieces of armor remaining, all mail and all of them went to Rose since none of the rest of us could use that level of armor. So, Rose got a new helm, chest armor, and gauntlets, all of which she refused to equip until she had them fully cleaned and checked for curses. The bag was a little more interesting. Once again, a good number of coins. There was also a necklace, a pair of earrings, a ring and a charm.

  “Seeing as I just got three big upgrades, I’m going to pass on the rest of this stuff unless it is something blatantly tanky,” started Rose. “So, I’ll handle passing out the rest of the loot.”

  “So, what have we got?” asked Olaf.

  “Skoll Ba
nd, +20-Dexterity and +1%-Critical Strike,” Rose started, holding up the only ring for us to see.

  “I would happily take it, but I think it will do Olaf and Heath more good,” I said, taking myself out of the bidding.

  “I am happy with both of my rings at the moment,” said Heath, getting a look from each of us, questioning just how good his rings could be. “My rings give me bonuses to my thief skill experience gains. While that ring would be a great upgrade, it will be a long while before I can actually use it. I figure Olaf can use it now.”

  Rose shrugged and flipped the ring toward Olaf who happily caught it in his massive mitt. Despite the ring being normal-size, it magically enlarged to fit his meaty finger. The ring was a silver band with the engraving of a wolf chasing the sun with the moon behind it.

  “Moonlight Choker, bonus to spirit again,” said Rose, holding out the necklace to Micaela.

  Micaela happily accepted it and put it around her neck, the silver band glowing softly.

  “Earrings of the Sun-chaser, +5-Intellect, +5-Wisdom, and +10-Healing, no alignment listed. I believe these should go to Baby,” Rose continued, sorting through the various loot pieces.

  None of us disagreed. Baby took them and remove her necklace before they were clipped to her tiny ears, they were simple stud earring in the shape of a crescent moon, also with a subtle glow.

  “Last up, the charm,” said Rose, studying the small black wolf-shaped object. “Night Wolf Charm, no stats but has a skill or spell ‘Lycanthropy’.”

  “No thanks,” most of us said, myself included, at the same time.

  Heath, however, appeared to be studying the charm and weighing his options. “Anyone know the weakness of a werewolf?” he asked.

  “Silver,” said Olaf.

  “Probably holy magic as well,” I added. “Oh, and don’t forget moonshine.”

  “Strengths?” Heath asked.

  “Regeneration and strength,” said Rose. “I should know after we just fought that monster.”

  “Then I’ll take it,” Heath said.

  I was surprised Heath was so willing to become a werewolf. But then again, it didn’t do him any harm from the little bit of class progression I had discussed with him. In fact, it probably gave him a large number of benefits, as long as it didn’t prevent him from becoming the bard he wanted to be. It seemed to me, he was intent on becoming a jack of all trades.