Looking down at the ground as if it was something that offended it, the being plunged his hand into the earth. When he pulled it out, like a man pulling his hand out of water, a midnight color sword came with it. On the beings other hand, the mist had disappeared as it formed an armored glove of rock with talons formed on the end of it. The mist finally dissipating, the elemental turned its full attention on the party.
“Another band of adventurers so soon?” the monster’s voice bellowed out.
The voice of it reminded Kel’Van of a villain in an ancient movie labeled Star battles, he believed? The movie's black-armored villain voice was both deep and frightening.
“ No matter, you will fall as they did,” he said as he hefted his sword to his shoulder.
Fer’shad looked back at his captain, who only gave him a nod back. Forcing a grim look upon his visage, Fer’shad began a slow trot, then a full out run.
“THIS IS WHAT WE PLAY FORRRR!!!!” screamed the sprinting orc.
CHAPTER 38
“Come mortals, let us test your resolve…”
Looking at the Boss level monster, Kel’Van noticed something right away. The previous lesser elementals were just poor copies of the creature standing before them. Here, they were dealing with a competent and lucid Elemental, which was an amalgam of them all. Huge, capable of speech, and a complete set of black armor, showed just what kind of fight they were in for. He did a quick scan as Fer’shad rushed in to initiate the battle.
Fer’shad charged at Orko with a relentless fervor. He bashed at the elemental with his shield, then sliced at him with his sword with a backhanded strike. All of which amounted to attacking his lower leg. He was as tall as the Aberrant Elemental that guarded the entrance but wider in girth and muscle mass. The elemental only smiled at his assault and kicked his leg out towards the offending mortal below him.
Fer’shad nimbly skirted away as the foot missed him by inches. He moved around to its side, then roared his taunt ability at it. Orko’s orange eyes grew red with rage as he lifted his sword above his head. The sheild-bearer used Aegis bulwark to bolster his defensive stats, right before the massive sword struck his up-raised shield.
“Attack now!” ordered Kel’Van.
With a running start, the rest of the party ran towards the elemental. Voresh initiated his gap closer as soon as he was 6 feet away from the enemy. Launching himself in the air with Dawning star, he came down sword first on the monster's thigh, sending dust and bits of rubble into the air. Belar likewise performed her variation of the same move with Auger kick, which landed squarely on its mid-night armored leg. Voresh, making room for Belar to attack, skirted sideways while swinging his sword from his left side, delivering a mighty blow that made a clanging sound against the monster's rock armor. Lan’kar’s shadow elemental quickly sent a surge of dark smoke into the leg as well. His attack didn’t stun the elemental like it did the mobs earlier, but it still caused damage nonetheless.
“I’m not surprised though,” Kel’Van mused.
Having the ability to stun a boss-level monster would be just a tad bit over-powered, even for elite monsters such as themselves. He pushed that revelation from his mind quickly. He still hadn’t quite come to terms with that bit of news about himself, and it wasn’t going to help him win this fight. Instead, he concentrated on the hit points the monster was losing from their attacks. Sinse the closes he came to having a gap closer was his fire cone ability, that was what he led with as he sprinted toward the elemental. Kel’Van sprayed flames across both the thigh and leg, then scanned the elementals HP.
The leg attack took 20 while the thigh was 25.
“And there it is,” he said to himself.
Orko turned his body to the right, swinging his weapon with him in an almost swatting motion. Belar quickly dodge rolled to the left of it while Voresh raised his weapon to stifle the impact of the blow now coming in his direction.
Clang!
The blow knocked him back almost into Lan’kar’s lap. The young Holmgren caught him before he crashed into the ground, barely holding himself up in the process. Orko only smiled and began advancing towards the both of them.
“Off your ass, Voresh!” commanded Kel’Van.
The Aberrant Knight rushed past the two orcs pouring flames onto the elemental’s thigh. Once he got within close range, he activated Crimson blade and flame caressed his bone-sword, flowing like water from hilt to tip. He swung his now enflamed weapon across the monster’s armored leg. Then did a spin to his left and struck again behind the same limb with both hands.
Belar suddenly leaped clear over Kel’Van’s head to land with a massive flying kick to the monster's hip. It tried to backhand Belar in retaliation, but she jumped backward before the blow landed, hitting nothing but air. Fer’shad quickly rounded around Orko and activated his rush ability, ramming into the party favored target. Then he stood in front of Orko, shielding both Lan’kar and Voresh.
“BELAR TO ME!” cried Kel’Van.
The Brawler quickly sped to her captain as he backed up behind Fer’shad, who quickly put himself between the others and the boss level monster before them. The sounds of their battle could be heard in the air as Kel’Van gathered his team in a huddle.
“Belar when you can, target your special attack at the weak spots between that monster's rock armor. That would be his thighs and upper parts of his arms that are colored brown and darker. Voresh, you as well. But only when the opening is there. Until then, whale on this monster till it’s down,” ordered Kel’Van
Fer’shad roared his taunting at the Elemental and raised his shield once more.
“Now while he’s attention is on our tank! Go!”
Belar quickly outdistanced the rest of them and at once launched herself with a flying kick towards the monster thigh. She missed and instead hit the area where its knee connected to the dark rock armor. When she landed on the ground, she threw a left with a swipe of her claw and a right cross punch, then a low one, as if she was punching a person in the gut. She twisted her whole body in a turn as she forced energy into her legs to perform her Titan kick and leveled a powerful roundhouse blow with her foot against the Orko’s massive leg.
Voresh had rushed to the opposite side of the limb Belar was attacking. He ran past the leg, dragging his sword across the armored portion of it. Then quickly used his Rising star ability. The Slayer quickly jumped up to swing his sword in an uppercut motion, right under his exposed thigh. As dust rained down upon his head as he landed, he turned the bone sword first right, then quickly spun left for a second strike, scoring multiple strikes against the armored heel of the Elemental.
Kel’Van observed Fer’shad with his raised shield continue to hold the line barely as Orko rained down blow after blow with his weapon. His frenzied attacks from Fer’shad’s taunt left little room for the Sheild-bearer to counter-attack at all. Granted, the large orc did not possess the agility of Belar or even Voresh. But he did have enough to dodged left and right to avoid some of the blows.
“An average tank couldn’t do what he’s doing now…” he mused as he rushed to the large orc’s aid. He aimed his cone fire at the arms of elemental assailing Fer’shad. The moment he was within striking range for his sword, he cast Seared Flesh on his weapon and slashed the armored part of his forelimb. He then scrambled behind the leg and drove his sword into space behind the knee. Debris flew from the area just as the rage of Fer’shads taunt wore off. Orok roared in anger as he stepped back to get a complete look at his attackers.
“Die Invaders..” he growled as he began to swing his weapon in an arc at Belar, who escaped the blow by jumping to her right side. Then he lashed out his unarmed hand at Voresh, who tried to dodge but was late in seeing the unexpected blow. The jagged talons of rock on Okrkos hand ripped flesh and blood from his shoulder and chest. Voresh went skidding across the ground from the strike.
“AAhhh!”
Kel’Van, still positioned behind him, frantically began s
tabbing and slashing at the unprotected part behind the knee to get Orko’s attention on himself. Fer’shad quickly rushed in front of the monster impeding his forward momentum toward Voresh. Lan’kar quickly ran behind Fer’shad and the fallen Slayer and shot a tendril of shadow into the elemental's chest. A similar tendril appeared from the center of Lan’kars hand and shot into the prone body of Voresh, trying in vain to get back on his feet. A red mist poured forth inside the black tether between the Holmgren and the Slayer, then the flesh began to mend on the fallen warrior. Orko swung his sword through the dark miasma connecting him to Lan’kar. It dissipated, only to reform again, reconnected and allowing more energy to be siphoned off from him.
“So eager to meet your end mortal?” rumbled Orko as he turned around to face the Aberrant knight.
Belar had skirted to the opposite side of the elemental, running full speed till she stopped just short of his leg. Then she performed a spinning round-house kick, then spinning in the opposite direction, executed a backhand with her fist. Using the remaining momentum, she then finished with a low kick. Feeling the energy building from the combo, she fired off another punch from her right-hand, increasing the combo count. The energy building a crescendo inside her as she twisted her body for a Titan’s kick. A quick and powerful roundhouse attack that created a sound as if a gun went off on contact with the elemental.
Orko swung his clawed hand at Belar, who quickly rolled to the right of the blow and began closing the distance to renew her strikes again. The elemental then turned his attention back to Kel’Van, reaching out with the same talons that injured Voresh earlier.
Instead of trying to dodge the impending hand, Kel’Van charged toward it. He cast Stone skin upon his body, and as the hand of the monster came across to slash him, he jumped upon its arm. The boss creature's thumb grazed his thigh as he jumped, but Kel’Van merely grimaced at the pain as he used the creature's arm as a springboard for another leap. The Aberrant knight went airborne with both his hands gripping his sword, casting Seared Flesh he came down towards the elementals face.
Orok tried to twist his face away from the incoming attack but only managed to avoid getting his eye gouged out. The sword raked across the cheek and into the elementals open mouth. The Aberrant knight had just about enough time to notice the monster had a black and red looking mound of flesh wriggling around in its maw. It didn’t occur to him as it being what passed as a tongue for the monster until the sword pierced the soft thing at its center.
. (Critical Hit! Bonesword strikes Orko The Black for 90 points)
(Seared Flesh burning effect for 50 points for 10 seconds)
Orok swung its sword hand at the offending thing that injured him. It was more of a punch than an actual sword attack as Kel’Van was sent flying. The sword burning the monster’s tongue while being embedded in it, ripped through half of the strange organ, leaving it a torn mess.
(Critical Hit! Bonesword strikes Orko The Black for 140 points)
(Critical Hit’s! Seared Flesh burning effect for 65 points for 10 seconds burning effect)
Kel’Van crashed on his shoulder, his body rolling on the ground until the momentum stopped him. He slowly turned himself over on his back with a groan, his eyes closed in a rictus of pain.
“Awww Fuuuuckkk.”
He had bruised the bones in his shoulder before. Football is a very heavy contact sport. When you’re at the bottom of 3 or 4 linebackers piled on top of you, body parts tend to get damaged. That was as close he got to how his right shoulder was feeling at the moment. Like shards of glass grinding against his bones. He mentally cast self-heal twice, depleting his mana stores to just over 20%. There would be no more spell casting for him till he was at 60% mana or this creature was destroyed. Whichever came first.
He began to stand, and between catching his breath, he spied that Fer’shad had indeed taunted the elemental back to him. Lan’kar was behind him with tethers of smoke siphoning off health from Orko and giving it Fer’shad through himself. The boy looked back at Kel’Van struggling to get up and stretched an outward hand to him as if to cast a spell. The Aberrant knight waved him off. He stood up to his full height and began the steady march back into the thick of the fight. The Holmgren nodded his head and returned his efforts towards the battle.
Kel’Van did a quick read of his combat log on the lower half side of his D.S. The hit he performed was a critical hit of 140 while still his Seared Flesh effect had was taking 65 points per tick. That was almost double what it usually took off per use. He rather doubted the monster will let anyone get that close to his face again, so they were going to have to wear him down the hard way. He took one last look at the timer before the final patch was supposed to go off. 45 minutes and counting…
“Looking at the time ain’t making this guy go down any quicker.” He thought. He did a quick scan of the monster’s hit points and saw that they had knocked off a third of it the way down. With a grim look, he quickened his pace. By the time he was within sword distance, it was a run. He slammed his sword across the front of its armored leg, determined to put this elemental on its ass.
CHAPTER 39
It had been over 20 minutes of battle for the weary party. The fight took on a routine of sorts. Fer’shad would enrage the elemental to attack him for 15 seconds, giving the rest of the party a window to attack with reckless abandon. Then Orko would turn its attention on them for the 10-second cooldown of Fer’shad’s taunt ability before he could renew his taunt and start all over again. All while Lan’kar struggled to keep all of them alive.
The natural agility of the Ulgo orcs, particularly Belar’s, did minimize some of the incoming damage. Most of the blows she suffered were glancing at best. Voresh took more damage than the rest. He didn’t have the high dexterity of Belar, nor the damage mitigation of Kel’Van’s healing or Fer’shad’s shield and skills. All of which was draining the young Holmgren Lan’kar. His bonded elemental gave him an immense mana pool, but he was still a level 7 trying to heal level 12 Ulgo’s. His heals were basically attacks that siphoned hit points from the enemies to the person he was healing. Which meant the heals were not large to begin with. He had however, managed to keep everyone above the 60% mark for HP.
The effects of their battle still showed though. Deep grooves were carved on the armor of Voresh. A blacken-eye and scars marred his face and shoulder. Fer’shad’s shield, once pristine, now had dents and small rents marring its surface, while his back and body had purple bruises splotching his green skin. Orko had fared no better the last 20 minutes. Where the dark obsidian like armor once shone with its own clear reflections from the light overhead, now was littered with scratches and gouges. Its thighs of brown earth now resembled the cracks of dried mud that has set in the sun too long.
Orko raised his sword to once again strike at Fer’shad, whose taunt was close to being over, when Voresh leaped vertically in the air and triggered Rising star. An uppercut like motion with his sword, right underneath the unarmored portion of his thigh. Debris and rocks showered him as he landed back on the ground. All of a sudden, Orko’s body began to vibrate. His armor began falling off his body in shattered pieces like glass.
“Everyone behind, Fer’shad !! NOW!!” screamed the Aberrant Knight.
Kel’Van was monitoring the monster's HP and recognized they had hit the halfway point. Like the entrance boss they fought earlier, this one had an enrage mechanic when their HP reached that midway number. The problem was this was not an occurrence that should happen in a 5 man dungeon. Only in massive instances that required 10 players or more, usually called a raid in most MMO’S. He quickly filed it away in his “I don’t give a crap now” file in his head and huddled with his party as close as they could behind Fer’shad and his shield.
Orko continued to shake uncontrollably as the broken pieces of its black outer shell began to whirl about him. He raised his arms over his head in anger as the debris spun faster. The air took on an arid desert feel as the winds start
ed to buff against the party. That wind turned into a raging cyclone that first encircled the elemental, then incrementally became larger, engulfing the party crouched behind the tower shield. Fer’shad angled the top half of his shield lower to prevent some of the dirt and rocks from pelting them from above. The four behind him turned their backs outward as they huddled together against the torrent of debris that couldn’t be blocked by his shelter of defense.
11 seconds later, the storm of dirt and rocks began to dissipate. Just as Fer’shad began to peek around the shield, he saw the lumbering elemental raising his foot to stomp his teammates.
“Scatter!!” he screamed
The Aegis-bearer stood behind his shield as the others ran from behind him. He had already mentally called forth his bulwark ability, bolstering his defenses. The monster's foot landed on his shield just a second later. Orko then grabbed his tower shield with his left hand while preparing to strike him down with the sword in his right hand. Voresh , who had stepped to Fer’shad’s right when he screamed for them to move, slashed his sword across the elementals forearm. The force from the attack allowed him to swing his whole body in a turn, then raise his blade in an arc, coming down atop the forearm once more. Orko quickly released the tower shield. His face a visage of unbridled rage at the Slayer.
As Fer’shad renewed his taunt on the elemental, Kel’Van did the same against its left leg. A quick look at the bottom of his D.S. showed that Voresh’s attack and even his own was now taking more hit points from Orko than it did earlier.
AVARICE ONLINE: KEL'VAN RED HAND Page 39