by J. A. Hunter
“I guess there’s only one way to find out,” I said with a shrug. Sticking up like a hitchhiker’s thumb from the side of the slowly rotating platform we were on was a brass lever. I sauntered over and unceremoniously threw the switch to the right. A metal rig overhead creaked to life, slowly descending toward us. When I pulled the lever back to the center, the rig stopped, swaying slightly on its chain, and when I pushed the lever to the left, the lift rose. A crude but effective elevator system of sorts.
“So far, Abby’s right on the money.” I glanced up at the ape, now biding her time by the door. “Okay, Nikko. Can you please fly to that crank wheel over there”—I pointed to one of the heavy brass wheels protruding from the wall nearby—“and give it a spin?”
The ape complied at once, pushing away from the spit of metal she was perched on, gliding along on the hot currents of air rising from the burbling pool of magma and metal below. She touched down on a platform and threw her weight against the wheel. It lurched right with a screech, followed by a thud-bang—the rumbling of long-dormant machinery kicking into gear.
“That sounds promising,” Abby said with an encouraging grin.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was actually enjoying herself. But then, she always did love puzzles. She loved digging up clues and putting the pieces together—probably the reason she ended up as a software engineer, since that’s pretty much what they did all day, every day.
“Or maybe not,” Forge grumbled from behind us. “Look.” He nodded toward a huge pipe, seven feet around, poking out of the wall on the left. A heavy metal plate, which had sealed the pipe off a moment ago, was opening. “We’ve got company,” he roared as a typhoon of humanoid creatures built from solid flame spilled out from the lip of the pipe.
Lessons in Burden
THE TAG [FIRE EFRITE] popped up above the head of the first creature, then quickly vanished as it surged toward me. Each of the beasts was no larger than a Dwarf, but there were a lot of them, and they all floated through the air on wispy tails of flame, unbound by the laws of physics or gravity. A few were unarmed, favoring the black talons adorning their spidery fingers, but most carried cruel char-black scimitars.
My mind whirled a thousand miles an hour as the monsters floated toward us. The crank wheel had done something, just not the right thing... Which meant that one of the wheels probably did unlock the door above, while the rest unleashed monsters or other horrors that we’d have to deal with. That totally fit with what Carl had told us back in the temple—that players were punished for making poor choices during the Judgment.
“Okay,” I yelled. “The wheels are definitely the right answer, but there’s got to be some kind of clue telling us which wheels to turn and which not to. Cutter, you and Vlad work it out. Find the key.” I shot my free hand out, conjuring a pair of portals—one right after the other—dropping Cutter and Vlad off on a swaying platform overhead, well away from the action.
“Carl, you keep us alive. Abby, keep Carl alive—maybe throw a little ranged support if you can. Forge, you and me are on point.” I caught sight of Nikko, perched on a ledge above, waiting for orders. Guard the thief and the alchemist. Help them however you can. Before things really got moving and shaking, I took a moment to conjure Nikko’s smaller troop mates, Kong and Mighty Joe. After one quick, calculating look around, the pair took to the air, disappearing in a flash of violet light then reappearing a moment later in the midst of the approaching Fire Efrite cloud.
Meanwhile, all around me the crew surged into action, following my commands. Carl and Abby darted toward the center of the rotating platform beneath our feet, the Cleric chanting incessantly, hitting Forge with an aggro buff while Abby went to work, casting Fire Eater—giving everyone in the AoE an added 25% resistance to fire—while simultaneously spamming Burning Affliction and Leaching Smolder.
Forge, not missing a beat, charged head-on into the encroaching creatures, his axe carving a path of death through the air, meeting a claw-tipped hand on his blade. He spun, slapping a hand against the gold-and-sapphire disk now riding on his left bracer. An electric blue tower shield burst to life beside him, floating at chest level. The Animated Shield zipped around the tank, slamming into unruly Efrites only to spin away, intercepting a scimitar slash aimed at his back. It was impressively cool, and freed Forge up to do what he did best: jack shit up.
The Risi drove a shoulder into another Efrite’s face—Forge’s health dropping minutely just from touching the monster—forcing the creature back. He twirled, a halo of red surrounding him, and lashed out, carving a deep furrow through the Efrite’s neck, separating its head from its shoulders.
Unfortunately, Forge’s attack didn’t do much lasting damage.
These things were elemental in nature, which meant raw physical damage would be next to useless. They were the exact opposite of the Paper Librarian, which meant only magic would do the trick here. If we had ourselves a Hydromancer or even a Frostlock we’d be in good shape, but as it stood, my Umbra abilities were the best we had to offer. So, instead of drawing my weapon, I pumped both arms, firing Umbra Bolts from each hand, blasting the Efrites in midair as they tried to surround us. I pumped more and more bolts into the mass, firing away like a machine gun on full auto.
The bolts hit with surprising force, carving through the flame, smoke, and ash composing their bodies, taking nasty bites out of their Health. But there were so many of them. My barrage of shadow power pushed the small army back just enough to give us breathing room, but my Spirit gauge was already dipping dangerously low. Working on pure muscle memory, I pulled a Spirit regen potion from my belt, popped the bone cork, and threw back the powerful concoction. Nothing happened. I drained the entire bottle in a few quick glugs, but my Spirit didn’t budge. At least not more than my natural Spirit regen rate would account for.
Which is when I remembered Carl’s warning that potions wouldn’t work while undergoing the Judgment. I felt like a complete moron for forgetting about that, but after what felt like a thousand dungeon dives it was damn hard not to fall into my usual raiding rhythms. I’d have to remember that this wasn’t a typical raid, no matter how it felt.
From here on out, I’d need to adjust and play smarter since I couldn’t rely on just raw brute force spell slinging. I retreated a few paces, opting to cast Shadow Forge—an active aura that increased Critical Hit by 3% and added an extra 50 points of Shadow damage to all attacks for me and my party members. Hopefully that would add a little extra kick, and since the spell lasted a full twenty minutes, it was a good investment of my limited Spirit reserve. I was down now, though, scraping the bottom of the Spirit barrel, so I reluctantly drew my warhammer and waded into the fray.
An Efrite with horns of burning red-gray coal and eyes the color of molten gold met me with a sword crafted from flame and living embers. The creature slashed. I danced back, twirling my hammer, knocking the elemental blade off course, then shooting in and jabbing the spike of my hammer into the Efrite’s vulnerable chest. The spike struck true, the hammer head flaring violet with shadow power, and the creature’s HP plunged by half.
My Spirit had eked up just enough for me to cast Umbra Bolt. But instead of blasting the fiery monster in the face, I channeled the surge of shadow power down the length of my weapon, unleashing the attack directly inside the creature’s chest cavity. Its torso swelled outward, purple light bleeding through, before the Efrite simply exploded in a hail of fire and molten rock, which splattered against my face.
I dropped back, clutching my face as bits of molten metal burned into my eye sockets like white-hot pokers. A debuff notice flashed in the corner of my vision.
<<<>>>
Debuffs Added
Burn: You have been burned! 5 points burn damage; duration, 1 minute.
Flame Trauma: You have sustained a severe burn! All physical attacks do 25% less damage; duration, 1 minute.
Partial Blindness: Vision reduced by 64%; duration, 1 minute.
/> <<<>>>
The pain was incredible—all I wanted to do was fall to the ground and curl into a ball until the agony passed. I couldn’t help but scream.
But a second later the throbbing torture vanished, and cool, delicious relief washed over me like a wave, taking the crippling debuffs with it. Another pulse of healing energy hit me like a giant pillow, and just like that my Spirit was back up at 75%. I glanced over a shoulder. Carl gave me a wink and a nod, then went right back to his chanting, this time laying down a little healing mojo on Forge, who was on the cusp of being overwhelmed by the deadly mobs.
I couldn’t afford to miss another second of the fight. Or, more accurately, Forge couldn’t afford for me to miss another second. He was holding back the press of elemental bodies almost single-handedly; without Kong and Mighty Joe in the mix, he would’ve been overwhelmed in a second.
It was high past time for me to pull my weight.
I thrust my warhammer straight out and called up Night Cyclone. The air shimmered and tore, an enormous twister screaming its way into our reality, sweeping into the Efrites dogpiling onto Forge. Blue-black jags of lightning flashed out, frying the creatures with deadly efficiency. The whipping winds were even more effective. These things were basically flame incarnate—nothing but air, heat, and burning metal—and the whirlwind ripped them apart as though they were made of crepe paper.
I let out a shuddering sigh of relief and looked up, searching for any sign of Cutter and Vlad. I found the pair of them scuttling from one wobbling suspension rig to another, working their way toward a crank wheel a little higher up. Since I couldn’t afford to just shuffle them around with my Void Portals, they had to work the levers, lowering and raising each platform in turn. Nikko circled around them like a vulture waiting for death to come.
“What the hell is taking you so long?” I called.
“It’s bloody complicated,” Cutter called back. “Half of these gods-be-damned wheels are just traps, but I need to be in spitting distance to get a bead on what they do.”
“This is the one,” Vlad said confidently, slapping a metal wheel sticking out from a nearby pipe. “Vlad is nearly positive.” He paused a moment, planting his feet as he gripped the crank. “Based on runes. Maybe seventy-five percent sure.” He shrugged, grasped the wheel with complete confidence, and gave it a turn. It gave out a pained screech as it lurched to the right. The pipes around us creaked and groaned, and something out of sight rattled.
“Oh no,” Vlad muttered a second later. “I take back. Is definitely a trap.”
“What?” I yelled. “What do you mean it’s a trap?”
“Look,” he replied completely straight-faced, waving a hand at a pipe not far from the magma flow below. It was spewing out sickly gray gas. “I know poison. And that? That is poison.”
“Can’t you shut that thing off?”
“Cannot do,” Vlad replied with a noncommittal shrug. “Once opened, is jammed open.”
I felt like pulling my hair out and grinding my teeth down to nubs. “Just find the damned door!” I yelled as the gas rose in great plumes, triggering a combat notice.
<<<>>>
Debuffs Added
Toxic Cloud: Your party is poisoned: 20 points Health damage/10 secs; duration, 2 minutes.
Induced Suffocation: You are being suffocated by Toxic Cloud. You suffer 10 points of Stamina damage each second until you can breathe normally once more. If your Stamina reaches 0, you will die.
Current estimated time of death: 2 minutes 5 seconds.
<<<>>>
“Seriously! Clock’s ticking!” I hollered again as Cutter threw another lever, chains clanking to life, a platform above them listing downward.
1:59...
“Jack,” Abby called, “could use a little help here.”
I pulled my gaze away from Cutter and Vlad. Oh crap. My Night Cyclone had finally died, and instead of killing all the elementals, it had merely incapacitated them for a time. They were pulling themselves back together, but instead of forming up into a legion of smaller Efrites, they were glomming together into one giant Voltron-style uber elemental. Because why wouldn’t they do that?
Mighty Joe dived at the newly formed Mega-Efrite, fangs bared, talons extended—
The giant Efrite moved like lightning, one huge hand flashing out, wrapping around the ape, pulling him from the air with pitiful ease. I expected Mighty Joe to simply Shadow Stride to safety, but the Efrite squeezed its hand too fast, crushing my minion in an instant, purple blood and black raven feathers oozing out from between its oversized fingers. Kong let out a squawk of rage, circled once, then disappeared into the Shadowverse, reappearing within striking distance of the creature. But the Efrite was ready for that too; the thing threw its jaws open wide and spewed out a gout of blistering flame, which charbroiled my second Void Ape on the spot.
When the monster finally ceased its assault, all that remained of Kong was a cloud of ash motes, drifting lazily down toward the magma pit.
“Ain’t no way this is going to work out well,” Forge grumbled, knuckles white on the haft of his axe while his new floating shield darted around him like a hummingbird. He squared his shoulders, triggered a bloodred aura, then began to taunt the creature. “Hey princess! You lookin’ to dance, ’cause I got your number right here, shithead! Come pick on someone your own size.”
The newly formed monstrosity—done dispatching my Void Apes—surged forward, lashing out with a sword as thick as a fence post and longer than I was tall. Abby continued to cast spells, hurling fireballs and bringing down a rain of flame, but her abilities were almost useless in this tussle. But there was nothing else for her to do. Forge threw himself out of the way as the sword slammed into the clockwork platform, rolling back to his feet, then spinning as he came up, sinking his axe into the creature’s overextended arm.
The uber Efrite offered the Risi a smile filled with jagged obsidian teeth and a mouth filled with living flame. With a jerk, the Efrite struck with its free hand. Forge’s floating shield darted in to intercept the hit, but the force of the blow was too much for the magical construct. The creature’s fist kept right on trucking, driving both shield and hand into Forge’s chest, hurling him clear of the platform, sending him careening toward the lava field.
“Forge!” Abby screamed, one hand straining toward him.
I acted fast, opening up a portal directly below the tumbling Risi, who was just a handful of feet from the surface of the churning lava. It was close, but my aim was preternaturally perfect, scooping the warrior up before he could be disintegrated in the murderous fires. I deposited him on a swaying platform ten feet above the Efrite. Damn that had been a close call. Unfortunately, we were no closer to killing the creature than we had been before, and worse, the toxic gray gas was still filling the room. It danced around my ankles, tendrils floating up, scratching at my exposed skin and clawing at my throat.
1:17...
“Any day now, guys,” I yelled, bolting in to draw the Mega-Efrite’s attention before it could turn on Abby or Carl. I ducked beneath a horizontal sword stroke that would’ve taken my head from my shoulders, sidestepped a potentially rib-shattering jab, then unleashed a gout of Umbra Flame into the creature’s open maw. Although this thing was built from fire, my attack dealt 50% Shadow damage, and with the tremendously high DPS rate on the spell, the creature’s life dropped. Not much—certainly not as much as I would’ve like—but some.
“Salvation, it is below, not above!” Vlad barked from above. “We got it! The door, it was how do you say, a red mackerel. Real exit is beneath lava.” There was a deep thunk followed by a mechanical hum; suddenly the molten lava below us dropped, draining out through an enormous vent, which hadn’t been visible before. And there, rising from the pool of rapidly vanishing magma, was a raised escape hatch sticking up from the pool like a water well—though a well with a solid steel cover over the top. It was a trapdoor, which I had no doubt led to the next room. And not a
second too soon.
0:47...
The toxic gas was making it hard to breathe, to think. Tendrils of the stuff dug at my throat, eyes, nose, and lungs. We needed to get the heck out of Dodge, and we needed to do it yesterday.
The elemental Efrite seemed to know the jig was up and didn’t look even a little bit pleased by that fact. It rushed me, its mouth open wide, and I instantly knew what it was doing. It was no longer trying to fight me, it was just going to use its superior bulk to force me from the turning platform.
There was a whoop as Forge hit the Efrite from above, landing on top of the creature, driving his axe into its ashen skull. Nikko immediately appeared beside the Risi, digging her claws into the elemental’s coal-hot flesh, driven by rage at the loss of Kong and Mighty Joe. The creature bellowed in pain and fury, but its screams were quickly joined by Forge’s. I remembered that even touching the smaller Efrites had burned me, and Forge was practically lying on this thing, clinging on for dear life with his axe. Instead of dropping off, he gritted his teeth, planted his knees, and began to chop down over and over again.
Nikko followed suit, clambering down the monster’s face, clawing and biting at its molten eyes—blinding it—even while her HP drop like a stone hurled from the edge of a cliff.
Flames crawled up Forge’s body, his skin boiling, his armor glowing red hot as it heated from the flames and cinders comprising the Efrite’s body.
The creature’s Health was plunging, but both Nikko and Forge were in bad, bad shape. If they could hang on for just a little longer, however, I knew we could get clear of the room, and then Carl would be able to patch them up.