The Starry Skies of Darkaan (Realm of Arkon Book 6)

by G. Akella

  Judging from the total hit points, everything seemed right. A raid of twenty level 250 players could take out nine hundred million health in under twenty minutes, assuming the boss and his adds stood in place. But here, there were too many adds. A twenty-player raid had two tanks, maybe three. One would specialize in tanking bosses who dealt physical damage. The other would tank magic users, though both tanks could off-tank for each other if they had to. If the group had a third tank role—assumed by one of the melee fighters, usually—this thank would deal with the adds. That was the classic approach, anyway, drilled into my head by department coworkers and work seminars. Plus, my game memory was virtually flawless. But all that meant we couldn't defeat this boss. This place was for players level 250 and over. The reason we were here meant they were waiting for us. Meaning a trap. The trap that was presently staring me in the face. We could not retreat, but getting past this... Sata was probably right in saying that Vill could show up anywhere and wipe our group without breaking a sweat. But that would also untie the hands of all those who had left their marks on me. Besides, though I was loathe to admit it, I was like a mosquito to him, just annoying enough to swat if I came too close. Certainly not worth getting out of bed to swat. No, he would just fall back asleep, even if it meant I might suck a little blood in the meantime. He had plenty more. Of course, he would simply put out some mosquito candles or something the next day. The problem with that analogy was, we couldn't be neutralized with his Vill's version of insecticide. For every cheating move he made, the principles of fair play kicked in, and the system gave me some way to hit back. Kan, Vaessa, Raena, the rest of my group... My princedom, too. I just had to remember the resources available to me, and use them effectively. Only in theory could we defeat this boss, based on just the hit points. But I did have a certain magic bottle with me...

  I flinched at a sharp screech and slam behind me—the door was shut, and a green glow flashed around its rim. After a moment, the fog poured in, covering the doorway and every hope of retreat.

  "Shift!" I commanded abruptly. "Kan, I'll take the one in the middle, and try to clear the others!"

  "The half-dead goddess' loyal lapdog," scoffed a mocking whisper. "We have been waiting for one of you, and you sure have taken your time."

  Twelve of the masters raised their arms in unison, holding their daggers at eye level. Thick darkness streamed in ribbons from their weapons.

  Despite the black of the night sky, enough light filtered into the hall to take in all of the action in detail. Within five seconds the rising haze had coalesced into an oblong, black crystal just over Kiyaret's head. It was suspiciously like the main accumulator from Cymon's vision. A loud clap rang out, and the crystal broke apart into a cloud of black and rushed into the pommel of the boss' staff. At that moment, the mage faced us, raised his weapon, and shouted some magical gibberish, which set the whole scene in motion.

  A deafening crack of lightning, black as coal, struck Vaessa from above. The spell coursed through the ground, finding each one of its targets. The necromancer's daughter collapsed without a sound, over eighty percent of her health gone. The dragons behind her wheezed from the severity of their wounds. I heard Kan roar furiously as a crimson haze shrouded my vision. Chain lightning. One hundred percent damage to the primary target and twenty-five percent to four additional nearby targets. Wait—that wasn't it. The hideous smell of death filled the air. All of these thoughts flooded my mind as I grabbed Ruination from its sheath and smashed a bottle on my belt. The glass shattered as Greater Healing drove the blood-red fog away. Two black spears struck my shield, and the third hit my side. Damn it! To my right, Kan leaped over the unconscious magus like a cat and dropped to a crouch, taking the spears directed at his woman with his shield. Reece was likewise motionless, but still breathing.

  "Greater Healing on Vaessa and Reece!" I yelled, rushing at the bastards that had moved to join the Cursed God.

  Two hundred feet? Why so freaking far?! The dark mages raised their hands once again, and the crystal above them began filling with darkness. Filling fast. Five, four, three... I always was a fast runner, but I pushed as hard as I could this time. Infernal Rage! Step through Darkness! I flew back into reality a mere two steps from Kiyaret, and gave him a boot to the stomach, then smashed another bottle gifted by Ahriman.

  "Die!"

  A dazzling white flash scythed through the figures around them. The overhead crystal hissed like butter in a hot pan. Then, a deafening crash knocked all the wind out of me! I couldn't hear or see a thing, but I stepped forward and unleashed Ruination at the place the boss had been standing just a second ago. My sword found its target, but the blow to my chest that followed threw me ten feet back. Idiot! At least my visor's clear now. The next moment, my left arm felt the soft bump of a spell flying into my shield. Something sticky hit my side, then, and my whole body began to burn like I was being dipped full into boiling oil. Still, my sight came back, and through fissures of orange I saw, thirty feet away, Kiyaret's staff pointed directly at me. Hart! How the hell? This former rector of Ahn Kulad had thirty million HP left, but Holy Myrt's Tears should only have taken fifty million!

  My confusion nearly cost me my life. Some revolting abomination flew out of the master's staff, and I barely managed to block it with my shield. It took the brunt of the impact, but a thousand hot needles still pierced my legs and face.

  "Bitch!

  I threw a Silence on the boss!

  "Shut it, bastard!"

  The master didn't even notice. A wave of his staff created a translucent field of protection around him, and another caused the floor to swell a half-dozen steps in front of me. A huge bodybuilder of an abomination crawled out. The creature's four arms each wielded curved sickles, and its eyes burned with a crimson fire. Level 250, eighty million hit points.

  Hart! He was low on potions, the crimson fog was returning, and all that after only thirty seconds of battle.

  "Prince! Don't move!"

  Raena's voice sounded in the channel just as her heal reached me. Kan Charged into Kiyaret's side, enraged, and it soon became obvious that the former rector was no match for the warrior. The difference between them was seventy levels, and the bastard had nearly killed the knight-commander's woman. A powerful shield bash knocked the necromancer to the floor. His protection field flickered in the darkness, and then Kiyaret's health began to fall rapidly. A clap sounded to my right, and the necromancer's summoned creature melted into a thousand black flakes, collapsing to the floor. Just then, Vaessa woke.

  "Kan, move!" said the necromancer's daughter, her voice trembling with rage. The dragons lumbered along, flanking their mistress. Vaessa's face was pale and her jaw clenched—clearly the magus had not fully recovered, but at this moment she was more like a high priestess of her goddess than ever before.

  Kan held his sword at arm's length and stepped to the right. As the rector rose, his body was wrapped by the black ribbon flowing from the hand of the necromancer's daughter. Unable to resist, he collapsed to his left knee.

  "Lapdog, you say?" The eyes of the high priestess of Celphata flashed with a magical blue light. "Now you'll have to explain to the mistress how you lost the greatest of her strongholds in all of Karn!"

  Vaessa waved her right hand casually. A disk whipped through the air and decapitated Kiyaret. His body, the body of the former rector of Ahn Kulad, jerked and slumped down on its left side.

  You've earned a unique achievement, Master Kiyaret's Slayer. Master Kiyaret is a unique boss that can only be killed once. You and your allies have been granted a permanent 3% increase to your physical and magic damage.

  Just like in the movies! I sighed and shook my head, plodding over to the boss' corpse. It would appear that the girl had her secrets—for the life for me, I couldn't remember her learning anything like that skill. In theory, any mage worth their salt could dispel a summoned creature before it was done crawling out of the floor. But hurling a disk for eight hundred thousand hi
t points? Well, she is almost one and a half times his level. No, Celphata must have taught her a few tricks. Wait. What had I just pulled off, and how? I knew exactly how much damage the potion gifted by Ahriman was supposed to inflict on the undead... But now wasn't the time for a postmortem. I'd figure all of this out later.

  "Hey, commander, there's a portal here!" Reece stepped out from behind George, leaning against the dragon's side with one hand and waving the other behind him.

  My eyes followed his gesture and focused on the portal hanging opposite the entrance.

  Spectral City of Cathella, the Citadel. Zone level ???

  So, we had finally made it...

  "Take everything and let's get out of here!" I ordered. I approached Kiyaret's corpse and looted him, briefly scanning the bounty, then waved and tossed Raena the potion of Greater Healing he had dropped—really the only valuable item on the body in this situation. Then, I approached the portal.

  The others weren't far behind. In less than a minute, the whole group had left the undead-wrecked university building.

  "Damn it all!" I cursed as soon as I saw the room we ended up in. A stadium. No, an amphitheater. A huge oval shape surrounded by seating. Like all self-respecting amphitheaters, this one had no roof. Cathella was shrouded in night, as before. The massive moon covered a full quarter of the visible sky. For some reason, it wasn't yellow anymore, but light blue. Was that its other side? Or was the dome over the citadel filtering its light? Didn't matter. What did was that it was bright as day, illuminating every detail of the place. The arena floor was, at its widest, three hundred feet across. Every fifty feet or so along the perimeter rested a square stone column, their purpose utterly unclear. The floor was made of some kind of soft yet coarse material, like the treadmills from my past life. There were four other entrances to the four sectors of the floor and a platform for VIP viewers, sheltered by an immense stone dragon spreading its wings. The building was not so out of the ordinary, but under the light of the moon, it seemed to have been pulled straight out of a horror flick. I half expected some unknown director to wave his wand and bring out hundreds of creepily smiling clowns. Or the shadow of some serial killer to appear on the far platform. No, Nerghall was already dead. There were no more murderous villains left.

  The artifact itself sat on a small pedestal across the arena, just under the box reserved for guests of honor. It was a small, perfect pyramid with a bright scarlet glow, with a base four inches across. I could only see it from here by squinting.

  Sometimes I had to wonder whether the devs ever stopped to consider rudimentary logic. What the hell was this here for? Did the local football team like running laps around the tiny pyramid? Did the gladiators fight for its blessing? But arguing with devs and artists was about as fruitful as arguing with priests. I knew that, having been an artist myself. They might have offered a dozen reasons. "This is the best location for accumulating cosmic energy. The stands serve as mirrors to reflect energy into the pyramid, and the spectators would gather here to watch the process." Nonsensical excuses. But what could I have done about it? "There's the portal, right behind you," they would say. "If you don't like the place, you can leave."

  I turned around and made sure everyone was here. Then, I nodded toward the glowing artifact in the distance.

  "How about we finish this?"

  Another loud clapping noise. An elderly man, tall and thin, appeared in the center of the amphitheater. He wore a mantle gray as soot and leaned on his cane with both hands. A slight smile was on his face as he watched us.

  It was R'harg, companion of the Dark God Vill. Level 570. Three and a half billion HP...

  "Shit! Where did that thing come from?" I hurried to assess the situation.

  Even the dragon had said only Nerghall had accompanied Vill to this place! But now, our strategy had to be... No, there was no winning strategy. We could never defeat this divine companion, not in a million tries. And there was nowhere to run, either. The portal was no option, and neither was the five of us attacking the Great Lord of Darkness without any tactical prep. But we had to attack! Vala'ael and Velargass could do the tactical analysis. I could only hope they wouldn't be too late.

  "I've always wanted to ask you, dar, what 'shit' means," Reece asked from just behind me, with burning curiosity. "You've taught me many other interesting things about your tongue, but that remains a complete mystery."

  I looked at him, but just shook my head.

  "You can't even hold your tongue in a jam like this?" Vaessa glowered at the boy.

  "Well, I mean," he nodded at R'harg, then looked back at the magus. "That's not even Nerghall. And since Nerghall didn't manage to cram his tentacles into all our orifices like he wanted, I'm sure this guy won't succeed, either. Besides, how will I ever travel to the Gray Frontier unless I find out what 'shit' means? I bet I'll need that there, so you can just—"

  The arches rattled with the low voice of the monster. "You were a long time coming, demon. The Lord knew the treacheries of the Ancient Paths would fail to stop a slippery reptile like you..."

  I rattled off commands into our channel. "Vaessa! Silence of the Great Darkness, now! Kan, hold him for five minutes! I'll try to slip by and knock that stupid trophy from its pedestal."

  "...and the Lord said I must bring him to you alive. Though he did not say 'unharmed.'"

  R'harg's last words were already spoken in a roar—where the old man had just stood, a massive shaggy gray wolf bared its fangs in a ravenous grin. Its bloodshot eyes gleamed in the moonlight as it stepped toward us.

  "Move!" I carefully drew my sword and stepped out onto the rough stone arena ground. "Kan, you follow me, everyone else fan out. Vaessa, hit that thing with Silence as soon as we're close enough!"

  Little more than fifty feet remained between us and the beast as it threw back its head to howl, but at that moment the gray haze of Vaessa's spell enshrouded it.

  The wolf shook itself in confusion, trying to rid itself of the magical muzzle. I seized the moment and charged.

  The monster's huge paws spread before me, decorated by patches of brown fur and a string of slobber rushing down. Step through Darkness! The beast was behind me now, and I broke into a Sprint.

  "You're a fool to think your pathetic mistress' magic can stop me!"

  I heard steel and rock clash behind me twice, the double clanging sound of a pair of missed sword swings.

  "Pitiful creatures. You shall not pass!"

  I sent a single kick at the twisted pedestal, overturning it as I myself turned back.

  "Bitch!"

  R'harg morphed into a twenty-foot giant, wielding two terrible falchions, reaching for the dodging and dancing Kan. The colossus wore strange rags and a ridiculous turban. Its absurdly wide mouth was full of tiny razor teeth, and in place of nostrils, it sported two flaps. The smoke disappeared completely—evidently his transformation dispelled all negative magic effects. The dragons hovered over the Lord of Darkness, but from all I could tell, he didn't even notice. Raena was healing nonstop, managing to hold both the knight-commander's and Vaessa's dragons' health at safe levels. Vaessa and Reece had distanced themselves and were hitting the boss with the various spells of their schools of magic, but his life bar showed no response. Worst of all, it seemed that my knocking that damned artifact off its pedestal had made no effect. The moon was still blue, meaning the citadel's shield was still up.

  "What the hell is wrong with you?!" I screamed, glaring at the lonely scarlet pyramid at my feet. "What do I do?"

  In frustration, I stomped on the pyramid with my heel, one, two, three times...

  R'harg suddenly leaped up and slammed the ground with a fist. The gladiatorial bedrock shuddered with a deafening crack, causing it to buck and reveal gnarly splinters in all directions, as far as fifty feet away. The knight-commander stood his ground but took a stun debuff. Two monstrous blows struck him just as a healing spell did, and only the quick hands of the magus casting a Shield around Kan sav
ed him from immediate death. He was knocked back, more than four-fifths of his life gone, and was motionless. R'harg roared in triumph and turned, unleashing another flurry of blows. George's icon went out in a matter of seconds, and the incapacitated beast flew towards Lola like a doll chucked aside by a spoiled child. The female dragon tried to rise, but could not. Vaessa cursed in the channel as Raena shouted something...

  "All of this, my Lord has foreseen," said R'harg with a sneer, focusing on me before he turned and cleared the space between himself and Raena in a single, effortless bound. One more punch to the floor threw her back into a column, and she slowly slid and slumped to the floor. The giant lifted both swords over his head—and at that instant, Reece flew in between them.

  "Don't you dare touch her, you bastard!" hissed the mage, hitting R'harg clean in the face with an Ice Spear. The boss' momentary hesitation let the demon recast Ice Shield on himself. But to little avail. The falchion blow sliced through his defenses, and Reece's body spun and fell at the feet of Raena, who still lay there, stunned. Somehow, Lola saved the mage. Oddly, the dragon had grown in size, and now she slammed into the giant's back, preventing him from dealing the final blow. The monster was off balance, and the recovering sorceress seized her only chance. Grabbing Reece's unconscious body, she Jumped a full hundred and fifty feet to the side, and there fell to her knees.

  Shit. Two minutes into the fight, and we're practically wiped.

  My mounting rage tipped me senseless, and it took superhuman effort to restrain myself from rushing at this bastard from the Gray Frontier. I picked up the cursed pyramid and slowly walked towards the giant.