As I rolled across the dark alley, I thought about the Rwunidar's Might skill that I had just learned. Did I need to do something special to turn on a “stance”? Did I just need to think about the skill or was there a trigger word?
The building behind me exploded.
It wasn’t like it had gotten hit with a fireball, or a bomb had gone off inside of the dwarven building. It was as if a giant wrecking ball had smashed through the thing. Chunks of stone, clouds of dust, and shrapnel shot through the air in all directions.
My UI glowed, and I saw an orange outline of the dwarven warrior flash on my screen. It was a lucky trigger of the ability because a chunk of stone smacked me on the side of my skull when I tried to run. Pain shot through my head, and I stumbled a bit against the wall of the building I was running next to.
I managed not to cry out in pain, but my vision was getting a bit blurry, and I felt warm blood coming down the side of my face. Damn, Zarra’s team had done a really great job on the pain sensations, but I was going to have to tell her to tone it down more. Just like the smells in the game, the pain in my foot and skull were a little too real feeling. I also couldn’t see where my own health was on the UI. I knew that I was hurt, but was it bad? I was still running, and I felt like I could fight, but I definitely didn’t want to get hit in the head again by a chunk of rock or get sizzled by one of the beholder’s rays of death.
I risked another glance over my shoulder and saw that the floating green eye had followed me behind the building. The monster’s mouth was as big as my chest, and it opened the fang-filled maw to let out another scream. It seemed like I had gained a bit of distance on it, but I didn’t think I had enough of a gap to risk running back across the bridge. I was going to need to do something to injure it, or at least slow the floating creature down some before I tried to make my escape.
My bare feet skidded across a slippery part of the stone street, and I gritted my teeth against the pain in my toe, then I dashed behind the next sharp corner of the building and leaned against the wall. The beholder would round the corner in the next five seconds, so I flung my glowing short sword away from me. The blade flew a surprisingly far distance, and it clanged off of the street some hundred yards away.
Then I pulled out my second short sword and my broadsword.
I stood in almost complete darkness now. I could see the distant glow of the blade I had flung and the green glow around the corner from the approaching beholder, but my current weapons weren’t lit with Ember, and I hoped my setup would be enough to surprise the multi-eyed monster.
The beast turned the corner, and I darted under its floating mass before it could spray me with eyeball magic. The beholder hovered about five feet above the ground, and it was six feet in diameter. The thing was big and stinky, and a bit slimy, but its underbelly looked soft. I only had half a second to strike, so I picked a spot on its skin that looked a bit thinner than the rest of its bulk and shoved my short sword up into it as I rose to my feet from underneath.
It was like my sword was trying to dig into one of the stone walls of the city. The blade made a kind of metallic sound, and it didn’t penetrate the creature’s hide for more than half an inch. It had been a strong attack, and even though the below angle wasn’t perfect, I figured that it would have at least pierced through a suit of chainmail. Hell, even plate armor would probably have bent against my attack.
The beholder screamed and twisted downward to try and see me, but I jumped behind the creature as it spun and swung my broadsword at the unprotected back of the thing. This was a perfect attack with the optimal amount of hip rotation combined with arm strength.
The broadsword blade’s top quarter snapped off the instant it connected with the creatures’ green spongy back.
“Shit,” I groaned, but then I saw the dwarven icon flash and disappear from my UI. “Oh fuck!” I groaned again as I jumped away from the beholder. I had forgotten that I wasn’t supposed to speak while I had the stance on. Damn it.
Another ray of energy plowed through the air. This one was purple, and it kind of looked like the strange semi-transparent ghost type stuff I had seen in movies. The beholder had aimed it a bit too far in front of me, but the strange beam of magic sounded like distant screams of agony. It was almost as if that had been some sort of sound magic, but then again, every hair on my body was standing on end, and I felt terror trying to fight against the adrenaline that was powering my muscles. It was probably some sort of fear ray.
I changed direction to avoid the beam, but now I was heading northwest, and even further away from my friends at the gate. I was also running past the edge of this cluster of buildings, and the darkness was becoming deeper the farther I ran from the beholder.
I held my swords behind my back so that their flat metal pressed against my triceps, and I willed them to flare up through Ember as I had earlier with the gnolbold horde. I also closed my eyes for a brief second when I triggered the ability, but even that didn’t seem to matter. It was like I was staring into the sun with my eyes closed, and I still winced at the pain from the exploding light behind me.
But the beholder screamed.
My eyes were tearing, but I managed to get them open and glance behind me. The floating eyeball was spinning angrily, and there was a smoke stack worth of green colored steam rising out of each of its eyes. It almost looked like the monster was melting and as I watched one of the stalks went limp, deadened to a brown color, and then fell off of the creature as if it was a dead leaf.
The monster screeched again, and a shot of fire escaped one of the eyestalks. It lifted into the air of the city, and flames rolled across a hundred square yards of the distant ceiling. Most of the city was illuminated with the blast, and I noticed that there was a temple looking building structure to the north of me. The structure rose on a sixty-foot high climb of stairs, and I guessed that if there was any loot to be had here, it would be up in that building.
I glanced back to the beholder in time to watch another one its eyestalks twist like a dead flower and then fall off of the creature. I didn’t think that the monster would die from my light blast, but it was apparent that it was in a shitload of pain, and it probably couldn’t see me.
Should I risk running up to the temple? Or should I hurry back and join my friends?
We already had the armor, I knew that they had escaped; I could easily make the run while the beholder was distracted, but then I might never be able to come back to this place. We had only searched a tenth of the city, maybe less, and the thought of leaving all this mystery and potential loot behind was really hurting my gamer’s pride. I hated not completing a mission, and it wasn’t as if I could actually die if the beholder managed to follow me. I would just respawn a day later, and then try to find my friends.
I ran toward the north side of the city where I had seen the temple.
Maybe it wasn’t a temple? Maybe it was a palace, and it would be filled with all sorts of dwarven treasure. Axes, hammers, gold, and probably a lot of stuff to brew beer with. I guessed that the reason my swords hadn’t been able to damage the beholder was because they weren’t magical. If there were some weapons I could use inside of the palace, then I could come back and finish the job.
“Leo,” a voice called out to me from the direction I ran toward. It was kind of a whispering sound, and I thought I had imagined the voice at first.
Then I heard it again.
“Leo. Come to me, Leo.”
It felt as if the voice was in my head, but I also sensed that it came from the loot filled palace up the stairs.
I slowed my run when I reached the first step. There was going to be a ton of loot up in this place, I just knew it. I just hoped there were some magical chests or bags or something that I could use to carry all the gold, weapons, and armor. Maybe there would be new abilities up there? Yes. I bet there would be a fricken bookcase filled with cool stories to read about these ancient characters. I would learn hundreds of abilities, and
get so many badass weapons. Then I would be able to get all these relics easily.
Now that I thought about the relics, I realized that there was probably one or two up in this palace. There just had to be. I’d get a huge head start on the quest. Zarra would be really pleased when I told her.
But did I even need to go back? Why would I even want to log out? This game was better than real life. I didn’t want to do anything else but play it. I didn’t even need to sign that damn contract. I would just stay logged in for the rest of my life. I didn’t even need to return with Gratia to her stronghold. I could just stay in the temple forever. There would be plenty of loot for me to look at.
“Hurry, Leo. Before it is all gone,” the voice called out to me.
“I’m coming. Shit. Have some patie--” the words caught in my mouth as if I’d been throat punched. What was I doing? Why was I so hell-bent on getting into that temple? Sure, I guessed there was going to be some loot up there, but I didn’t want to stay in Ohlavar Quest forever. I needed to sign the contract. I needed to tell Zarra about improving the game. I needed to call my friends and wish them well.
I needed to get my parents moved into Arnacript’s hospital so that they could begin their treatment. They would probably be upset about the move, and I needed to be there for them during the transition. Why would I even want to just stay in that palace? I needed to go meet my friends so we could return to Gratia’s stronghold.
And who the fuck was talking to me?
I had sprinted a good three-quarters up the stairs, but now I stood out in the open like an idiot. Both my swords were glowing, and I was sure that the beholder could easily spot me if his eye stopped smoking. How did I know that it was the only monster in this city? There could have been tons of creatures here, and now they knew exactly where I was.
“Leo. Hurry. You need to come in here.” The voice drifted to me from the temple entrance above me. It was about eighty yards away, and now that I was really looking at it, the building seemed all kinds of scary, haunted, and foreboding. Yeah. Nothing good was going to come from me entering there alone.
“I have what you want, Leo. I know where they are. I’ll tell you everything,” it said.
“Uhh. No thanks,” I said as I stepped down some of the stairs.
“No. Don’t leave. I need you to come here. I know where the relics are. I know… Don’t you want to know?”
“Tempting, but creepy. Sorry, whoever you are.” I took a few more steps down and wished that I had just escaped when I had the chance.
“If you won’t come willingly. I’ll just take you,” the voice seethed, and I realized that I couldn’t tell if it was a man’s or woman’s timbre.
“Go ahead and fucking try, assho--” I started to say, but my words cut off as I started to see what had been speaking to me.
A black tentacle wrapped around the archway to the temple. Or at least, at first glance, it seemed like a tentacle. It also seemed as if it was made of some sort of black ink and covered in mouths, teeth, and eyeballs.
The tentacle twisted and tightened on the archway, and more of the creature squeezed through the entrance. There were more wet-ink looking tentacles at the base of the monster. More mouths, teeth, and eyeballs.
“You will obey!” the mouths all screeched, and I felt my entire body numb as if someone had poured ice water over me.
Then the creature emerged from the temple.
It was like a cross between a squid, a tree, and something covered in wet tar. The monster stood some twenty feet tall with roots of twitching tentacles, and branches of the dripping claw. The mouths began babbling all at once, and the eyeballs looked in every direction as if they were insane. The horrific beast took a lurching step down the stairs toward me, and one of its claw covered tar branches seemed to point at me.
Its red health bar was really big. It practically stretched across the entire top of my UI.
“Your mind is ripe with the unknown, Leo Lennox. Earth? Tellllll meeeee mooooore!” As it screeched at me, there was a soft green glow from the sides of the temple. I backed a few more steps away from the tree monster, and then four more beholders rose from the area around the building.
Holy shit I was fucked.
I jumped down the stairs four at a time and tripped on my numbed toe right before I reached the bottom. Fortunately, I was practically falling down the stairs anyway, and I managed to tuck into a well-timed roll that saved my face from getting smashed. Unfortunately, I had to let go of my broken broadsword during the movement, and I didn’t want to bother picking the thing up.
A stream of ice sliced to the left of me, and I rolled away again. Then a burst of fire poured onto the ground some forty-five feet ahead of me. I twisted my body more to the right, so that I was running in the westward direction, leapt up another set of stairs, and then dashed between another set of dwarven made buildings there.
One of those stout buildings exploded behind me, and I raised my short sword and arm over my head to shield myself from any of the debris that might smack into my skull. Only a few shards bounced off of my sword, and nothing cut into my bare skin.
"Shield," I said half a second after I should have, and a three foot in diameter disc of shimmering energy appeared on the outside of my arm where my magical bracelet wrapped.
“Leo. You can’t run. I’ll find you,” the monster-tree-squid called to me through my brain.
I ignored the voice and darted through the space between two close buildings. There was no way that the beholders would be able to follow me through here, but they could probably circumnavigate me if they knew that I was running toward the bridge out of here.
How smart were these things? Would they guess how I got into the city? Was the tree-tentacle monster directing them? Would the gate even be able to hold them if I could get there? The tunnel past the bridge and the archway around the gate were pretty tight, so there was a chance that the beholders wouldn’t be able to squeeze through, but their magical blasts were leveling the buildings around me. I’m sure they could figure out how to expand a tunnel system. I knew Zarra had asked me not to die, but it was looking like I was destined to give her a review of her respawning system.
I grabbed a hand-sized piece of rock from the street and turned to gauge the green glow behind me. My new plan might not work with the boss mob, but hopefully, I could make the beholder’s eyes smoke like I had with the previous ones. I stepped to the nearest corner and then covered my eyes with the magic energy shield and the crook of my left arm. Then I used Ember to make the stone in my hand flare before I chucked it past the side of the building.
There were screeches of agony from the direction of the beholders, but I didn’t peel my arm from my eyes until I’d ducked back behind the side of the dwarven building again. The entire city glowed now, and it seemed as if sunlight was reflecting off of every flat surface in the cavern. I had to squint through the tortuous brightness, but the illumination showed me that I was actually a bit closer to the exit bridge than I had thought. It was only some three hundred yards away, and I wondered if I could sprint there before the beholders recovered.
I sprang from behind the building and raced down the steps to the main avenue of the forgotten city. I half expected to feel a blast of magic from the beholders behind me, but the ground didn’t explode around me, and the only sounds I heard were the screeches of their agony, the pounding of my bare feet on the street, and my breathing.
Sprinting was a great exercise, and Calic made me go full out for a few sets two or three times a week. My fitness trainer would have been proud of me now since it felt like I was sprinting twice as fast as I normally did when I ran full out. I also wasn’t getting as tired as I normally did. In fact, I hit the bridge with plenty of air in my lungs and legs that weren’t screaming in agony.
I pushed harder.
The wind of my run washed out the sound of beholder screams behind me, and I had to skid to a halt when I reached the portcullis. Gratia’s
jack contraption was still holding the gate ajar, and I dove underneath it with a relieved gasp. Then I yanked the jack from under the door, and the metal gate clanged shut with a screech that sounded louder than the beholders. The doorway was much smaller than the beholders, but I didn’t know if this would hold them forever. I needed to catch up with my friends, and then we needed to bust ass so that we got back to the stronghold before they could catch us.
Was I putting Gratia’s dwarven city in danger? Would that crazy tree monster follow me? I didn’t think that it would be able to squeeze through the tunnel, but if the thing had been powerful enough to control all those beholders, I guessed it wouldn’t have a problem with a city gate. Then again, why hadn’t it escaped the city if it wanted to?
My magical disc shield faded from my wrist as I backed away from the gate. I waited for a few more seconds but didn't see any beholders, or the creepy tree monster following me across the bridge.
“Leo…” the voice called softly in my mind as I ran back up the tunnel to where I guessed my friends had pulled the cart. “I have one of your relics. You’ll come back… then your mind and memories will be mine.”
I didn’t bother to answer the creepy monster’s mind message. Allurie shouted my name from up ahead, and I met them in the spot where they had prepared Gratia’s cart earlier.
“Leo, thank the Light you are alive. We heard the screaming and--” Artus began to say.
“We gotta go,” I said as I looked at the bed of the cart. It was filled with crates, armor, and sacks of supplies. “You all need to get in. I’ll pull.”
“Are you sure? It’s hard enough for me to pull this, and you are just a frail human,” Gratia said.
“Did you hear those screams? There are four more beholders and this crazy black thing that looks like a tree squid.”
“A tree squid?” the dwarf woman asked. “What do you mean?”
“It was black and looked wet like it was covered in ink. It had tentacles as roots and weird claw-like branches. It had hundreds of mouths and eyes all over its body and was twenty feet tall.”
Lion's Quest: Undefeated: A LitRPG Saga Page 35