by Aleron Kong
That stumble gave Richter the opening he needed. He fell on top of the draugh’s back and slammed his Life dagger into the side of its head. It struggled to get up even with a blade in its head, but in its awkward position, he was strong enough to stab it twice more in the head and once at the base of the skull. The dagger went into its brain stem. The draugh fell limp. Richter was about to given the draugh on the bottom of the pile the same treatment. With a loud crash though, the stone coffin opened.
Richter looked up and took in the scene. Sion had fired an imbued arrow at whatever had emerged from the crypt. Daniella was firing at one of the first three draugh they had attacked. One of the others was sprawled at an awkward angle, impact burns all over its body. The third was alive, but missing a leg as it clawed its way toward the sprites. The draugh Sion had hit with Stun Shot lay unmoving. The grease fire had gone out, but not before it had burnt the guard to a crisp. Yoshi was standing over the kneeling body of his opponent. His blade was covered with congealed blood and was immediately to the right of a stump that had been the draugh’s neck. As Richter watched, the head was toppling to the floor.
The most important thing to see of course, was the monster emerging from the sarcophagus. A stream of black necrotic energy shot from her hand impacting Sion’s arrow in midair. It decayed the arrow to ash immediately, and even most of the infused energy seemed to be consumed as it let off a impotent bang, rather than the normal loud boom of an imbued arrow’s impact.
The creature was thin to the point of being emaciated. Its elongated face had an overly large mouth with four large fangs framing a set of sharp teeth. Its arms hung past its knees, and the marfanoid fingers were tipped with sharp red nails. The body was the gross caricature of a woman. The horror of her other features was offset by full high breasts and shining long black hair. No clothing covered her smooth grey skin. Completely naked, she leered as and squeezed one breast while taking in the scene of violence in front of it. Richter Analyzed it.
Crypt Mistress. Lvl 29. Health 1100. Mana 800. Stamina 360. Crypt mistresses are the bastard cousins of succubi. As opposed to seducing the living though, they seduce the dead. Crypt mistresses will invade the halls of the dead and undead and then bend them to their will. Even other demons are disgusted by their perverted pleasures.
“It’s a magic user,” he shouted.
The crypt mistress extended one hand, and with a deepening of her horrid leer, eight streams of inky black fluid shot out from her hand. They curved and contorted through the air. Two rushed directly at Richter. He tried to dodge, but the ribbons reached him before he could move. He wasn’t the target, though. None of the party was struck by the crypt mistress’s spell because it wasn’t an attack.
The ribbons struck the chest of every draugh warrior, even the fallen. As one they roared. Not in pain, but in strength. The bellow came from five throats though, not eight. The two that Yoshi had decapitated didn’t revive. Neither did the draugh that Richter had stabbed in the brain. When the mistress saw that some of her guards were irrevocably destroyed, she hissed in displeasure. Both hands began weaving in a second spell casting. Alarmed, Richter started to get up to attack her, but there was movement underneath him. The draugh on the bottom was lifting both him and the dead draugh in all of their armor! WTF?! How had it gotten so much stronger? Analyze gave the answer. It was level 20 now! Either those oily ribbons had buffed the draugh, or it was an area effect of the crypt mistress. Whatever the reason, these bastards had bulked up.
Richter was going to shout out the new danger, but a quick look around showed that his party had already figured it out. Sion shot another arrow at the crypt mistress disturbing its casting when it was forced to defend itself. He had to drop his bow and draw his sword though, as he fought a defensive battle against two draugh. Yoshi fought the other two, and scored hits, but his blade didn’t cut as deeply as it had only a moment ago. Alma was helping by flying around administering psi blasts, but they seemed to have less effect than before.
While Sion and Yoshi engaged in hand to hand combat, Daniella was firing as quickly as she could at the boss. Initially, each arrow was met by a viscous stream of black liquid. Even though her shots weren’t connecting, her arrows at least served to keep the crypt mistress occupied. That changed when the leering demon cast a spell, and a black circle flared into existence around it. Daniella’s next shot splashed harmlessly the circle of protection. Only a distortion in the air, that soon vanished, showed that her arrow had any effect at all. The crypt mistress started her spell again.
None of this was Richter’s immediate concern, however because the draugh underneath him had gotten one arm free. It reached up and grabbed his left forearm in a punishing grip. He cried out in pain as he felt his bones grind together. If it wasn’t for his bracer they would probably had been snapped in half. That was when his light shield when out. He raised his light dagger to stab the draugh, but then something occurred to him. His Minor Life Aura had a 15 minute time duration. That meant that his Charm spell which had a 10-minute cooldown could be cast again! The problem was the lower level draugh had resisted his spell, so why would it work now? Its broad resistance had probably increased. The only way it would work was if it was distracted, or weakened, or…
*Alma! Brain Drain!*
As fractious as the psi dragonling could be, Richter would never question her loyalty. As quick as an arrow, her hastened body shot towards the draugh that held him. She latched onto the undead’s desiccated head. The draugh released its grip on Richter and immediately reached towards the dragonling’s small body to crush it to jelly. Richter saw it move and he became laser focused on one fact. This thing would not hurt Alma!
Focusing his will on that personal truth he shouted the incantation for Charm invoking the spell. The draugh’s hand froze only an inch from Alma, as the spell struggled to override its will. It worked! The draugh relaxed its hand.
*Alma stop*, he thought desperately. If she continued attacking the draugh, it might break the enchantment, and their new found ally would go back to its old pastime of tearing them apart barehanded.
*Go help Sion*
She unwound from the draugh’s head and flew back to strafing the guards fighting his Companion. Richter looked down into the face of his charmed enemy, “And you, you little shit. Go kill your old friends.”
He rolled off, and the elite guard easily pushed the dead weight of the draugh off of it. It stood, and ran towards the back of one of the guards fighting Yoshi, weapon raised. The sword adept had cut the head off of one of his opponents by the time Richter’s charmed monster joined the fray. Yoshi hadn’t escaped unscathed, though. One arm hung limply at his side. Blood still flowed from the wound in his other shoulder, and also from a cut on his scalp decreasing his left sided peripheral vision.
Despite his injuries, Richter trusted the Warrior to survive. Yoshi was tough as nails. Richter turned to face the crypt mistress. He knew that he had to stop her before her spell was completed!
Richter’s thought happened about half a second before she finished casting.
The demoness ended her incantation with both hands clasped at her breast as if cupping something. Then she flicked both wrists towards the ceiling of the room Richter was standing in. A speckled white globe, whose surface looked like a mushroom top, moved almost lazily away from the horrid creature. After it passed the black portal, it swelled to three times its original size and then exploded, filling the air with millions of tiny white spores. Richter tried to hold his breath, but the spores found their way into his nose anyway. Immediately his throat started swelling and his body was racked with violent coughs. His lungs convulsed trying to expel the foul things, but each cough caused a small involuntary inhale, bringing more of the filth into his lungs. On his third cough, a gobbet of bright red blood made its way into his mouth. He tasted pennies. What was happening? He accessed his combat log.
Crypt Mistress has cast unknown spell.
Richter hit by unknown spell now identified as Cankerous Hell Spores for 230 damage. Damage Type(s): Death (70%)/Earth Magic (30%). Death Magic damage 161. Earth Magic damage 69 reduced by Earth Resistance (20%) to 55.2. Total damage: 216.2
Constitution decreased by 1 every minute for the next 10 minutes. Endurance decreased by 1 every minute for the next 10 minutes. Loss of Health cumulative with initial attack.
He blinked the prompt away. 216 health lost in one AoE spell! To make it worse, he was about to lose another one hundred health over the next ten minutes. They had to end this fight now! He quickly drank the enhanced health potion, and his breathing eased. When he looked back at the hag, she had already started casting another spell. She gave him a wink as she made eye contact.
A cry of panic drew his attention as Sion was clubbed over the head with a mace. His helmet dented from the draugh’s mighty blow, and he fell to the ground unconscious. Richter realized the cry hadn’t come from Sion, it had come from Daniella. As the draugh raised its mace to deliver a coup de grace to his Companion, she drew and released an imbued arrow into its face. She succeeded in driving the draugh away from Sion, but she paid for her heroic act with her own body. The distraction was all the opportunity the draugh she had been dodging needed. With a powerful thrust, it stabbed its sword into her belly. The tip ripped through her and came out of her back. She coughed out blood as tears fell from her eyes, and a wretched groan came from her throat.
A twist of the draugh’s sword caused a second gout of blood to explode from her mouth. The rent in her stomach causing the sanguine fluid to shoot up her esophagus and out on the floor. The wound in her abdomen, coupled with the damage of the spores, rendered her unconscious. The draugh let her slide off of his sword. She hit the floor and a quickly expanding pool of blood formed on the floor under her.
Yoshi leapt towards draugh standing over her. He had finished with his other opponent, half of its face and skull sheared away. Ricther’s charmed draugh joined the battle. Meanwhile, Richter ran at the guard that was once again raising its mace to bash Sion’s skull in. He knew the crypt mistress was still the real threat, but he couldn’t just let his Companion be killed!
*Brain Drain!*
Alma flew in and wrapped her small body around the draugh’s head, while Richter was still two steps away. It stumbled in a daze towards where Yoshi and the charmed draugh had just disarmed their target. Once again, Richter had to watch a freakishly strong creature reach its damn hand towards his familiar. He wouldn’t have made it in time, but then Yoshi’s blue blade struck the draugh’s free hand, scoring deeply and leaving frost in the wound. It gave Richter the time he needed. One step, and he recast Minor Life Aura. With his second step, he was in position behind the draugh. Richter wrapped one hand around its face, and with the other drove his Life dagger up through the base of the skull into the brainstem. With a faint crunch, the blade entered the cerebellum as well. A twist of Richter’s wrist was all that it took for it to collapse to the ground.
Yoshi and the charmed draugh had finished the last of the guards. An icy sword cut had started the process of severing its head, and the charmed guard’s massive strength ripped the head the rest of the way off the body. Once the draugh was decapitated, Richter could hear the sound of congealed blood and flesh falling to the ground. Yoshi drank his enhanced health potion, and his left arm quickly regained some mobility. Before the six seconds required for the full effect of the potion passed though, he pointed at the demon and shouted, “We have to overwhelm her protection! We need to wear down the shield’s HPs befo-”
A black and purple beam of light exploded against Yoshi’s chest. His body immediately arched back to full extension. The adept’s head was thrown back in silent scream and his arms were down and out to his sides, fingers curled against the pain. Muscles bulged, and veins stood stark against his skin. Then it got worse. Purple boils rose and popped over his skin, over and over in quick succession. The adept’s skin looked like bubbles breaking in a glass of milk someone blew air into. A scream finally rose from his body, and he collapsed bonelessly to the ground.
Richter took stock of the situation. All of his sprite allies were down and dying, if not already passed from this world. He stood against a demon who had yet to suffer a simple scratch. His only remaining allies were a small dragonling familiar and a charmed creature that in less than an hour’s time would try to kill him. Richter fixed a defiant grimace on his face. None of that mattered. He was still going to choke this bitch out!
First he had to help his comrades thought. He ordered the draugh to protect him, and then took a step towards his fallen party members to heal them.
“What are you doing, my pet,” a sultry voice asked him.
Richter look at the crypt mistress in shock.
“Yesss, my beautiful boy. I can speak, I can think,” she placed two fingers inside of her sex, “I can feeel. Hehehe,” she giggled.
He recoiled in revulsion.
“Oh, don’t worry,” she said. “I have no interest in you right now, flesh bag. Not while your disgusting little heart still beats. After thoughhhh,” she dragged the last syllable out, giggling once again.
While had been speaking he kept walking. He cast Slow Heal on Yoshi, but didn’t take his eyes from the demoness. From the periphery of his vision, he saw that Sion was awake, and was crawling over to Daniella’s still form.
The crypt mistress’s eyes narrowed, “But I see you’re being naughty.” Somehow she arranged her freak show of a mouth in to a pout. The expression didn’t last long because then she smiled evilly and said, “I’ll have to punish you.” A chant began to ensue from her mouth.
“Kill it,” Richter cried.
The charmed draugh guard picked up a mace, and ran into the room with the demon, slamming heavy blows against the circle of protection. The chanting didn’t cease.
Dreading that he wouldn’t have enough time, he ran after it and threw the Life dagger at the horrible creature. The blade didn’t reach its grey skin, but it did penetrate the shield and stuck there, seeming to hover in midair. Apparently feeling the Life energy in the weapon, the demoness broke of her chant, and shied to the side to avoid being struck. The draugh continued beating at the barrier with its mace, and now faint spider webs of damage could be seen emanating from where the life dagger had caused a break in the circle of protection. Every heavy blow made the cracks slightly larger. When the crypt mistress saw that the blade had weakened, but not completely penetrated her defense, she turned her attention to the draugh. A wave of its hand, and several whispered words, were all that was required to shoot black lightning at the guard. The electrical strike hit the draugh in the chest, it dropped to the ground twitching. The threat now past, the demoness started furiously chanting again. There was no leer on her face now, as she stared at Richter with deadly intensity.
The few seconds the draugh’s life had bought served one major purpose, it disrupted demon’s casting. Knowing this was his only chance, Richter had picked up his bow and nocked an arrow. Before she had looked up at Life dagger hovering in midair, a golden glow had already surrounded his arrow. By the time the crypt mistress figured out that the magic in the Life blade couldn’t reach her, black streaks had appeared. The scant seconds she invested in attacking the charmed draugh, saw the black streaks speeding quickly over the arrow’s gold aura. When she began her spell again, the aura was equal parts shining old gold and ebony black.
Richter had opened up the mana stores of the village. The magic of the village answered the call of its Master as 100, then 250, then more than 400 mana wove into this one strike. He felt like he was holding a severed power line. The arrow seemed to buck and spit in his hands. The arm holding the bow was having trouble bracing enough to keep the string drawn, but he forced through the pain. He knew that if he lost control, all of the power he had invested into the arrow would be unleashed on him instead. The gold aura now only seemed to peak thro
ugh in spots. At that pivotal moment, Richter looked into the eyes of the crypt mistress. Eyes that were brimming with hate as she frantically cast her spell. He released. The arrow crossed the twenty yards in less than a second.
It struck right beneath the web of cracks that stemmed from the Life dagger. The resulting explosion flung the draugh guard’s body through the air, and into the wall, leaving a sizeable dent in the masonry. The weakened circle of protection crumpled under the inexorable force of Richter’s attack, and the demon was thrown to the floor. Expecting the backwash of force when the shield collapsed, Richter had hunched down and braced himself as soon as the arrow was released. While the force of the explosion was strong enough to rock him back, he was on his feet a second later and running towards grey creature.
*Brain Drain!*
Alma swept in and wrapped herself around the mistress’s head. The demoness screamed at the psychic attack, not paying attention to anything except removing the source of her pain. This was probably why Richter was able to pour the entire vial of Basic Life Oil down her throat.
A screech of pure agony came from the crone, and golden light began peeking through her grey skin in spots. She fell back scrabbling. Red tipped claws drew great rents in her flesh as she tried to remove the offending agent, but it was no use. More gold light leaked through the new wounds. As horrible as the agony the demoness was experiencing though, she found no sympathy from Richter.
While she was distracted, he cast Soul Trap. Then with a look of utter contempt on his face, Richter reached down and grabbed the hair on the back of her head with one hand. He yanked back, causing the horrid mouth to fall open farther and exposing the vulnerable soft palate at the roof of her mouth. He spoke softly, “You’re done.”
With that, he rammed his fist into her open mouth, driving the blade of his glass dagger through the roof of her mouth, past the crunching bones of the skull and into her brain. A rainbow of colors exploded from the body, and for the first time in what seemed an eternity, all was quiet.