Neverfall: The Dark Path (Book 2): A Gamelit Lit RPG Series

by C. Wintertide

  “I think it is meant for me,” she answered. “But, Mack…”

  “Yeah, I know. He was so excited about getting a new axe.” Luke sighed.

  Mack joined them at that point. He put his hands on his hips. He scowled at the hammer. “I couldn’t even lift that!”

  “It’s taller than you,” Luke agreed.

  “It really is…” Mack’s shoulders slumped, “orc-sized.”

  Alicia’s eyes slid to Mack. “It would be useful.”

  “Of course, it would be! It will be. It’s yours, Alicia. It’s meant to be yours.” Mack stroked Cutter. “You’re a good little axe. We have a ways to go together yet. But next ancient weapon is mine. After all, Luke, you have Dragon’s Claw, Cassie’s got the Bow of the Huntress, and now Alicia’s got the Reckoning. So I’m next to get a special, magic weapon.”

  Luke grinned at him. “Absolutely.”

  “So what are you waiting for, Alicia? Take your hammer. Reckon the bloody hell out of our enemies!” Mack enthused, and, to his credit, he looked and sounded like he was happy for her.

  Alicia grunted, and reached for the weapon. Luke tensed as he waited for a monster to appear. Alicia’s hand closed on the hammer’s shaft. She pulled it towards herself. The blue sparks disappeared. She hefted the hammer in both hands, and let out a pleased sound. She swung it through the air. It made a whistling sound as it moved.

  “Good God, that’s a mighty hammer!” Mack laughed.

  “Does it have any magical properties? I mean, I’m sure it does!” Luke laughed, too. He was so relieved--but a little surprised, too--that there was no monster to defend it.

  “Lightning,” Alicia said, as she brought up her menu, and investigated the weapon.

  She thrust the hammer at a block of stone on the wall. There was a blinding flash of light before the wall exploded. Showers of stone covered all of them. Mack swiped a hand through the air and coughed.

  “Yep, it’s magic, Luke.” Mack coughed again.

  “Maybe you should play with that outside,” Gloria suggested.

  “I’m all for getting out of here. This place gives me the creeps!” Cassie shuddered, and went back towards the stairs.

  The moment she stepped foot on the stairs though, the torches went out, and there was the grinding sound of the stone trap door closing.

  “Hey!” Cassie lunged towards the door, but it shut with a firm thud.

  “Okay, we should have expected this. Keep calm, everyone,” Luke said.

  “Where’s the beastie we have to fight to get out of here?” Mack asked, his voice floating over to Luke in the complete darkness.

  But that darkness was suddenly not as complete. There was a silvery blue light emanating from the Reckoning. Luke turned towards the light, and watched, as a thin stream of shimmering particles drifted off of the hammer’s dual heads and formed a figure a few feet away.

  The figure was a beautiful high elf woman, clad in silver armor, with a crown surrounding a long mane of blond hair. Her eyes were closed. Her booted feet did not quite touch the ground. She levitated just as the hammer had.

  “What… who is she?” Cassie whispered.

  The high elf’s eyes opened, and they were filled with blue fire. Those eyes narrowed. “My name is Queen Evender. Who dares seek my power?”

  28

  YIELD

  QUEEN EVENDER

  ------

  Monster Type: Ghost

  Level: 12

  Hit Points: 1500

  Habitat: N/A

  Strengths: Immune to all Non-Magical Weapon Damage, Lightning, Fire, Ice, Wind

  Weaknesses: Magical Weapons, Turn Undead

  Special Attack: Wither, Possession

  Experience Points: 2000

  “We need to take the Reckoning to fight a great evil. Just as this hammer was necessary to stop the darkness before, that time has come again, Queen Evender,” Luke answered her. Out of the corner of his mouth, he asked, “Mack, what’s the deal with her?”

  Using the Perception Perk, Mack narrowed his eyes at her and whispered back, “She’s a ghost. No surprise there. She’s Queen Evender like she said. Again, not a surprise. Immune to Cutter, and all non-magical weapons. Oh, don’t bother with magic. That won’t work on her either. She’s got 1500 hit points.” He let out a whistle. “She’s going to be tough.”

  “We should try to convince her of our good intentions then. Luke, explain more of our situation, and she might let us simply take the hammer,” Gloria suggested.

  The queen had not attacked them yet, so maybe he could talk their way out of this. Luke stepped forward. He lowered Dragon’s Claw to show her that he had no intention of attacking her either. She stared at his weapon, and then her gaze locked on his armor. He had the eerie feeling that she recognized what they were, and how they were made.

  “You bear the blood of our people, but there is a stain on your soul,” she said.

  Luke stiffened. His tattoos were burning, and, to his shame, he thought of how much energy he could gain from draining her. But he shoved those feelings down, and swallowed deeply.

  “I’m--I’m trying to aid the people of Neverfall. All of us are.” Luke gestured to his friends. “We may not be perfect. We may be very… imperfect. But our intentions are pure.”

  She regarded him, peering at him, and he shifted uncomfortably. It was like she was looking into his soul. Alicia, suddenly, stepped between them.

  “I am the one who is taking the Reckoning. Look into my intentions, not his,” Alicia said.

  Luke bristled. She didn’t trust him still! After everything! She thought that he was going to fall to his father’s influence! And she believed--probably correctly--that Queen Evender would not let them take the hammer without a fight if she found that weakness in him.

  Queen Evender’s eyes narrowed. “He is your leader, and your friend, though you wish to claim otherwise. More than this, his safety is your duty. So do not try to claim you are separate from him. Giving the Reckoning to you is like giving it to him.” She looked more deeply into Alicia and her forehead cleared. “You made a promise to his father… You will let nothing happen to him.”

  Luke’s eyes widened. He jerked at the realization that Alicia had promised his father at some point—though it had to be before his father was lost in Neverfall, didn’t it?—that she would protect him.

  “He wants to help everyone. He wants to stop the evil from spreading. But his heart is soft towards… towards one it should not be. Not here, not as he is,” Alicia said, not denying the queen’s words.

  The queen’s gaze was again on Luke. “I see you are correct. He is even willing to delve into that dark part of himself to protect others. He will do whatever it takes to do so… except for one thing.”

  Luke started. “What thing? If you think—”

  Those flaming blue eyes locked on his. “Denying the truth does not make it go away. Your father knows this very well.”

  A well of coldness formed in his stomach. Luke’s mouth opened and shut. He wanted to deny her words. But then he remembered what he had felt when his father had inhabited the young dragon. He had been grateful that his father had not remained in control of the dragon when he’d fought it. At the time, he hadn’t thought he could have struck it down with his father inside of it.

  “I have to defeat my father,” Luke told her despite these thoughts.

  “Can you?” The queen tilted her head to the side.

  “I have to,” he repeated.

  “It is good that you have your friends, because you will need all of their strength to accomplish this,” she said.

  “He has it.” Mack clapped Luke’s back. “He’s not alone. We’ve told him this. Now I’m telling you the same thing. We stand with Luke, and we will be there to the bitter end.”

  Cassie stepped forward. “Luke is our friend. We are in this together. I would be nowhere else.”

  Alicia ground her teeth together, but then said, “I made a promi
se. I will keep it.”

  Luke was going to delve into this promise later.

  The queen then looked to Gloria. The rogue Beta gave an uncertain smile. “I’m afraid my loyalty is only temporary. They are aware of this.”

  The queen’s eyes grew cold. “You think you can play both sides, and win. But Neverfall will not let you do this. You will need to choose a side, or you will be destroyed.”

  Gloria’s smile died.

  Then the queen addressed all of them, “In order to leave here with the power of the Reckoning, you must make me yield.”

  “Can’t you just give us the weapon? Why do we have to fight?” Luke felt a bit like Christopher when he asked this.

  She gave him a sad smile. “This battle will test you in ways you cannot know. It is necessary. Trust me on this. I do not wish to harm you. But we must fight.”

  Luke’s heart fell. He already knew that making this powerful queen yield was going to be tough.

  Really tough without Christopher’s healing abilities and shielding. Damnit.

  “Okay, I’m not going to be of any use,” Mack said through gritted teeth.

  “Just help people with potions,” Luke suggested.

  Mack nodded, but he looked miserable. Luke didn’t blame him.

  We’re going to find out just how much we really need our cleric and our dwarf.

  The queen drew out a sword that had been strapped across her back. It was a long three-foot blade that smoked with frost.

  Cold damage. Great.

  “I wish you luck,” the queen said, and then she swung her blade at Luke.

  He brought up Dragon’s Claw to block it. Despite her being a ghost, and the sword being ghostly as well, there was a clang of steel on steel, and the vibration of the strike ran up Luke’s arm. She struck again and again at him. All he could do was block her. She was beating him back foot by foot. He felt his heel hit the wall. He had run out of room.

  She moved like lightning. She was a blur, and so powerful. Sparks flew as their swords hit and broke apart. But as she pressed him farther and farther back, she eventually became too close for him to block her any longer. He missed one of her blows, and her blade slipped through his defenses and sliced along his side. He let out a gasp as the shield that his armor provided him shattered, and his health bar went down by 50 hit points. Pain radiated out from the blow, as well as a creeping cold.

  She struck him again, as he was too shocked by the pain to react. This time she struck his right thigh. The tip of her sword pierced his flesh, and he let out a shout as blood poured down his leg, and an additional 100 hit points was knocked off of his health bar. He’d lost 150 hit points out of 700 with two blows. It would have been more except for his shield. But there would be no other shield on him again, because Christopher wasn’t there. There would be no healing either. They still only had a handful of health potions and they had to be rationed.

  Luke sank down onto one knee as his right leg went numb, and he lost control of it. The queen raised her sword above her head, and was about to bring it down on him, when there was the whistle of the Reckoning through the air. It slammed into the queen’s side. She was sent flying across the room, and a red 100 rose up into the air. Luke staggered to his feet with an assist from Mack.

  “You need a health potion?” Mack asked.

  “No, we have to ration those,” Luke told him.

  I need to use Amplify. She’s too tough not to. Or Alicia just needs to hit her 14 more times and we’ll be good!

  He was hesitating using Amplify, because he knew that the moment he did--and his Special Abilities bar drained--that the hunger would fill him again. He would need to Drain the queen, or if not her, the next monster that they found. He would be in agony until he replaced the energy.

  Let’s see what happens. If I have to use Amplify, I will.

  Luke limped a few steps towards the queen who was blocking Alicia’s sweeping blows with the hammer before his leg started working as normal.

  “The hammer is awesome, but too slow,” Mack observed.

  As if proving his point, before Alicia could send the hammer swinging again, the queen had slashed at Alicia’s throat. Alicia let out a gurgling roar and reached up to her bleeding throat. The queen slashed at her again. She would have gotten in a third blow, but for the arrows that Cassie sent at the queen. The bow was magical, and while Queen Evender was immune to wind damage, the one arrow to hit still hurt her. A red 35 rose up from her form. The queen batted the second arrow away. This distraction though, allowed Alicia to stagger out of range.

  Gloria pulled Alicia behind her and ordered, “You hit her when she’s not looking at you. I’ll distract her. Then you swing away.”

  Alicia nodded, even as she clutched her throat. Blood rolled darkly down the front of her armor.

  Luke joined Gloria as they tried to box the queen into a corner. Gloria had out her magic daggers. She moved like a whirlwind. She stabbed at the queen’s legs, her arms, her torso, switching between all of those places seemingly at random. The daggers though, only took off 5 hit points per strike, for a total of 25 hit points. They had exhausted only 160 hit points of the 1500 hit points the queen had.

  While Gloria was attacking, Luke did the same. The queen blocked many of his blows, but he managed to slash her right leg. There was no blood, as she was a ghost, but she seemed unsteady for a moment. Another 40 hit points were taken.

  Her movements, which had been fast and powerful before, seemed to double, and she knocked back both Luke and Gloria. She was away from the wall and circling the room. Cassie sent another volley of arrows at her. Only one out of four hit for 35 hit points taken off that substantial health bar. As the queen was moving away from them, she opened herself to Alicia. The Reckoning swung through the air. The queen dodged, but the hammer caught her a glancing blow on her shoulder. Fifty hit points was taken from her. So she was down 285 hit points.

  Not terrible. Not awesome. But this will work. We’ll just have to keep whittling her health down.

  With that thought, Luke lunged for the queen. She parried two of his blows. He managed to hit her with the third across her ribs with another 40 floating up. But it was a bad exchange as her blade sliced him at the same time. The bloom of ice along his own side made it hard to breathe. He watched as his own health bar sank another 75 points. The queen drew back her blade, and stabbed him again. Luke let out a gasp, and sank to the ground as her blade sank into his leg. He was now down 325 hit points out of 700.

  Gloria leaped over him, and landed on the queen’s shoulders. She stabbed the daggers into the queen’s back. They sank into her ethereal body up to the hilts. Gloria then backflipped off of the queen to land on her feet. One hundred and fifty hit points were taken. The queen staggered, but she steadied herself, and glared at Gloria. Gloria gave her a grin.

  “Can you do that again? Like a lot of times, Gloria?” Mack asked.

  “In time. I won’t have the strength for several minutes,” she explained.

  “Special Ability,” Luke guessed.

  She just shrugged.

  Suddenly, two arrows flew, one after the other, and hit the queen in the right shoulder. Seventy hit points taken!

  “Go, Cassie!” Luke cried out, but he said nothing more, because his lungs were still tight.

  Alicia brought the Reckoning above her head, and sent it slamming down towards Queen Evender’s head. The queen avoided the direct blow, but the ground shook, and the queen was knocked off of her feet. Luke was out of the range of the blow so he leaped towards the queen while she was still prone on her back.

  Just before he stabbed her through the chest, he yelled out, “Amplify!”

  He felt the extra energy fill his entire body, and slid down his arms. When he thrust Dragon’s Claw into the center of her chest, that power flowed down into the sword, and increased the force of his strike. She let out her first scream as 125 hit points left her. Luke felt a wild joy go through him. The desire to k
ill and feed filled him. He brought the sword down again and again, for another 250 hit points. The purple bar though, also drained. The hunger inside of him bloomed. She was down to a little over 600 hit points left. He did not have enough extra energy to kill her. He growled low in his throat as his tattoos screamed at him to feed. But Drain would only work if she was near death. She was not.

  As he attempted to stab her again, the queen jammed her foot against his chest, and shoved him backwards. Luke lost his position over her, and landed on his ass. She jumped to her feet in a fluid movement, and dashed across the room towards Cassie. Cassie brought up her bow to defend herself, but the queen was too fast. Yet she did not use her sword on Cassie. Instead, she merely touched Cassie’s shoulder.

  Cassie’s eyes rolled back into her head as she dropped down to her knees. For a moment, Luke felt like he was back in the dream with Bonecall taking her soul, but the queen was not after Cassie’s soul, but her energy. Cassie’s health bar dropped to near zero while the queen’s health bar filled up with the same amount. Cassie collapsed.

  “CASSIE!” Luke screamed.

  Cassie moaned. She was still alive. The queen dashed away with her health over two-thirds full again. Luke’s heart fell even further. If she could keep taking their health, this battle could go on forever. Or more likely, until they ran out of health potions and then hit points.

  Damn, Christopher, we could really use you!

  “Wither! That must be her Wither attack!” Mack cried, as he raced towards Cassie. He took a health potion out of his pack and smashed it against her skin. Her health bar slowly rose.

  Alicia swung her hammer once more. The queen ducked beneath the blow, and came up right against Alicia in a parody of an embrace. She pressed both hands against Alicia’s chest, and suddenly, the queen sank into Alicia’s body.

  “SHITE!” Mack cried. “Possession! She can possess people!”

  “You don’t say!” Gloria let out a sharp laugh, as Alicia’s head jerked towards them.

  Instead of her usual black eyes, Alicia’s eyes were now filled with blue flames. The queen was in control. Alicia started to spin the hammer in both hands in front of her.