AVARICE ONLINE: KEL'VAN RED HAND

by Titus Nettles

  “Wait…I think I see something ahead now,” yelled Bedrock as he squinted to get a better look. “It's not moving or anything, but its color is in stark contrast to everything else around it. It’s dead ahead, so there is no way we can miss it. We should come across it in about 3 minutes if we hurry.”

  “ Good work Bedrock,” he clapped the armored tank on his back and turned toward the others behind him. “Daylight, cast the speed spell on the raid. You two pallies get your shield wards up around us. We don’t want any surprises before we get there. Lets’ move people!”

  Both the paladin's eyes glowed. Bronze put his hands above his head first, then runic symbols appeared above the group in burning yellow, then spread out and became a yellow dome. Steel followed with the same gestures, and a similar translucent structure appeared and overlapped the first one. Daylight braced himself and cast Haste, and a glowing ball of blue light spread from his enclosed hands and grew to engulf the party.

  “Okay let’s move!” yelled Ellis. The party raced to the shiny object in their path in a blue haze.

  It was a gate.

  The object that they had raced to was a gigantic red metallic doorway. Complete with arches and a statue of a muscled dark male, wearing a crown and sun above it. The bottom half was not pictured on the statue as it was mounted on the face of the gate's entrance.

  “It looks like the pearly gates of heaven…only if the devil ruled here, no?” quipped Daylight.

  Ellis said nothing. The fact that he had a point also meant little to him. 13 minutes remained for them to find who claims this place and end them.

  “Open the gate, Bedrock…slowly,” Ellis ordered.

  The heavily armored tank looked for any handle upon the red monstrosity before them. He didn’t see anything but a seam starting from the bottom of the gate to the top. He nudged the gate slowly with his foot. It swung open noiselessly inward without so much as a touch. Bedrock turned toward Ellis, who only nodded for him to proceed. He pulled his tower shield in front of him and started walking forward. Mr. Tower walked in slowly behind with others trailing them. As the last two paladins walk in, the gate closed shut behind them silently. Only the sound of metal interlocking together could be heard in their wake.

  “If that’s not a sign we are about to fight, I don’t know what is,” Ellis whispered under his breath. “Shields up people and get ready.”

  Steel and Bronze again threw up defensive runes over the team, creating overlapping domes of energy above them. A light from somewhere overhead shown bright on a large humanoid creature standing at the end of a precipice, some distance above them. It stood there watching them, clothed in worn leathers, his face hooded in shadow. The only thing defining about him was a large sword he carried in his right hand as he stared down upon them.

  “That’s…the end boss?” Daylight asked. “C’mon man!”

  Ellis merely looked in Bedrock’s direction. “Can you taunt him from here?

  He simply shook his head as he kept moving forward. “Not yet.” The rest of them followed suit after him, picking up their pace. “But we will get there soon enough, then I’ll pull the monster to the left of the group.”

  Ellis grunted in approval. This was the standard tank-and-spank routine most raids had when fighting an unfamiliar foe. The tank would grab the main monster's attention, turning it from the group, while the mages and other DPS nuked it down. They would find out the strategy, if needed while they played, and learn the mechanics of how it fought. As they drew closer, the figure looked up into the light above it, as if waiting for a sign.

  Kel’Van stared at the light above him, still not quite believing what Lord Robahn had in store for him.

  “You seem pensive herald.”

  “Huh,” he replied. “ No, It’s just a lot to take in, knowing what is about to happen to me.”

  “ A herald is normally prepared months in advance before they perform this part of their duty. but time is something we do not have.”

  Kel’Van nodded in agreement. The enemy was literally at the gates.

  “Hmph,” the god snorted. “It is usually the mortal who has a strong belief in their god. I find it amusing that I have more faith in your resolve than you do in mine. You will succeed, herald. “

  “I don’t have a choice in the matter. I have to.”

  “True indeed,” replied Lord Robahn. “Now bear witness.”

  A dark miasma of smoke with wisps of crimson fire inside of it, bellowed from the light above the monster. The sudden movement stopped Bedrock in his tracks, the others slowed down as well upon seeing the spectacle being played out in front of them.

  “ Heads up everybody,” announced Ellis. “ We got a light show happening above us.”

  The dark and red-tinged smoke began twirling as it descended from above him. Twisting almost into a cyclone before it stopped just under the precipice Kel’Van was standing on.

  “Step over the ledge and claim your badge of office herald.”

  Squaring his shoulders, he took 4 steps then simply walked off the edge of the cliff. As he was falling feet first into the churning darkness below him, Kel’Van only smiled weakly and closed his eyes.

  “How far I have come,” was the last words he said as he fell into the swirling mass of smoke.

  “Wait…did the guy we came to fight just take a header off a cliff?” mouthed Daylight.

  As the form of Kel’Van crashed through a red and black mass of smoke, a sac-like bulge began forming from the bottom end of the colored miasma. It rippled like water packed into a plastic bag that was too heavy for it. The bulge became larger, almost forming a giant teardrop underneath the churning dark-colored smoke above it. As the pregnant sack touched the ground, the tethered portion connecting to the black vortex burst, the smoke dissipated, leaving a creature whose skin at least, was composed of stone.

  The dark-colored miasma above continued spinning as it lowered itself upon the creature it had just spewed out unto the ground.

  The smoke surrounded the kneeling rock-like monster with its head down from top to bottom. Then it swirled around it like a tornado, rising slowly upward over its body. Wherever it passed over the monster's skin, shiny black armor was left in its place. By the time it reached its head, it was fully clad in the glossy rock substance over its entire body.

  Once there, it formed a three-prong crown above it, with an orange and red ball, blazing like a sun rotating just above the crown. In a torrent, the black and red-tinged mist rushed into the nose and mouth of the kneeling monster. It hacked and choked on the invading substance rushing into its insides. Then it became frozen and still as its body turned into a statute that was completely ash black. A crack appeared slowly at its base and spread throughout the body until it fell to pieces from the waist down. Veins of red cracked along the upper torso as it raised its head and stood on the familiar smoke-streaked red underneath it. The face cracked and fell apart, leaving nothing but large human-like eyes tinted red with specks of black where the whites of its eyes should have been.

  “That, is a boss monster worth traveling all the way here for,” murmured Daylight.

  Ellis scanned the creature floating towards him.

  “Holy shit…Did all you scan him?!” he yelled out loud.

  “Yes, and he’s almost in position,” added Bedrock.

  “The rest of y’all do the same, we only got 10 minutes to burn this creature down, so as soon Bedrocks get’s its attention, wait till I fire, then all of the mages will attack as well,” Ellis roared at his teammates.

  The creature floated towards them quickly on the torrent of smoke beneath it. Then it stopped a short distance away from the raid.

  “MORTALS, YOU HAVE A COME QUITE THE DISTANCE FROM YOUR HOME TO BE HERE…AND I INVITE YOU STAY….FOREVER”, the being taunted.

  The herald made flesh, dipped his hand into the miasma that was now it’s lower body, and pulled out an ebony black blade with fire burning at its end. The left-hand fin
gernails slowly grew into black talons.

  “DIE TERRANS!!” it screamed before the miasma underneath it sent tendrils speeding towards the oncoming raid.

  “This…this is power.”

  When Lord Robahn told him he should be the one fighting since he was so familiar with their tactics, he hadn’t envisioned this.

  The spells were at least familiar to him since he has seen them in action against themselves, including the mist that Lord Robahn used to transport them here. The immensity of the strength he now possessed was intoxicating and liberating at the same time. The dark god was right. There wasn’t a single doubt in his mind about the outcome of this any longer. He just needed to commit to action. Now to bring the others here to bare…

  “Sheilds up!”, yelled Ellis, bracing himself as the dark tendrils began speeding towards them at a frantic pace.

  Both Paladins reacted quickly, pushing their hands in the sky as a dome appeared around them with another underneath. The smoke passed through it as if it wasn’t there at all. Whipping around inside the small space of the barrier they created, filling it to the point that they could barely see two feet in front of them. It was followed up with the earth rumbling beneath the their feet.

  “What the hell?” a confused Rose asked as she drew her sword. She kept her weapon just inches away from her face. A rumbling could be felt underneath her. She tried in vain to see what was coming her way, but the fog of darkness surrounding the raid prevented her from seeing anything from her line of sight. It felt like an imminent earthquake was on its way towards her at a good clip.

  “Bedrock, you got a lock on it yet?” Ellis yelled above the mist. He did not like how this Boss started this attack. Nor did he like the sounds below him either, as if the earth was about to split open and swallow them whole. Only seconds in encountering the monster and they have already lost control of the situation. That needed to change not now, but right now.

  Just as the rumbling reached a crescendo, he felt the earth bubble for a split second, then it burst forth as large shards of stone began raking across his chest and shoulder at an awkward angle. The impact pushed his body in a spiral, with him falling on his knees just a short distance from where he was struck.

  The burning sensation was the first thing that struck his mind as he grabbed at his chest. Then the blood seeping all over him was a distant second. Then the pain blew up in his head like a grenade. He hissed between clenched teeth as he tried to stand but collapsed on his knee as he tried moving forward in the dark. The sounds of strikes and battle came from behind him, mirrored with screams only seconds after.

  The two healers had closed the distance between them when the smoke plunged through the shield the paladins had erected around them. They looked at each other in nervous fear as the dark red smoke began curling around and above them. The earth-shaking below them wasn’t a good sign either, and it was getting louder and was almost on top of them.

  “Man, this is getting creepier by th-aaAARRRGHHH!”

  Jagged spikes of rock shot out of the ground, stabbing up at between the two priests. Two jutted through the ground at an angle, piercing the thigh and arm of Daylight. Three sprang up, catching Heal4Me’s hand in a vice grip between two spikes of rock, while the third pushed his leg up 4 feet, gouging flesh from beneath his foot. Blood sprayed the air in front of him as he staggered and fell on his back.

  “What the fuck!!” screamed Bright Eyes as something wet splashed across his face. Then the rumbling near his feet abruptly stopped as a stalagmite pushed up from the ground and sliced across his stomach and chest. He stumbled into the two paladins' front, grabbing them by their chain mail shirts as he fell down in a rictus of agony.

  Steel grabbed the mage before he fell into the smoke obscuring the ground and everything else around them. At the same moment, half of the shielding went down as well. What he could see of Bright Eye’s face was smeared with deep red blood. The game can show realism to indicate a blown being struck, but it was never this detailed, nor would the mage's face be a picture of absolute pain and fear.

  “The shielding-,” yelled Bronze as he maintained his hands to the sky.

  “Means nothing right now!” cried Steel. “ This smoke has already gotten past our shielding. You can’t hear those screams ?! We’re already under attack!” he said while carrying the moaning lightning mage in his arm.

  At that moment, the wave struck the trio, stalagmites raising Bronze into the air with its force. It didn’t pierce all the way through his flesh, but the length of the rock did leave him dangling from its tip, gripping the rock intensely with his hands. Steel dropped the mage as his arm was raked by the emerging sharp stone from the ground.

  “Gahh!!, Fuck that hurt!” was the only cry he made as he fell to his side in agony. Bright Eyes laid next to him, curled up in a ball, muttering to himself in quick gasps.

  In the darkness, Heal4Me began to weep.

  He grabbed his leg as he lay in the midst of the black and crimson fog around them. He could hear screams all around but could only see Daylight mere inches from him, grabbing at the mutilated mess of his arm.

  “Mutilated,” thought Heal4Me. “It really does look like chewed up meat. How the hell was that even possible in this game?” Daylight turned his pained face in his direction, then a large sword appeared on the right of the man.

  A huge green hand had seized the top of Daylight's head with its metal claws digging into his face and mouth. Heal4ME stared in horror as the top finger began digging into the flesh of his partner's face, pierced the eyeball, and spraying the morbid juices across his chest. Daylight was then pulled backward and disappeared into the smoke. Before Heal4Me could scream, a sword plowed between his neck and shoulder blade. He reactively reached for the weapon buried in his body, but a gigantic dark green hand pulled him into the darkness as well. Then the screams began anew…

  “What the hell is going on back there?” Ellis yelled into the blackness. “Are we being ambushed from behind?” Their situation was quickly going from bad to worst. “Rose, what’s going on?!”

  Before the paladin could answer, the Herald of Robahn came crashing through their ranks. An unexpected sword clanged against Bedrok’s shield, pushing him to the side and allowing the monster a lane into the middle of their group. The boss monster swung his right hand into the crowd, slashing Steele across the neck and shoulder while embedding three of his claws into the balled form of Bright Eyes on the ground.

  “FFUUUCCKKK!!” Bright eyes screamed as Kel’Van lifted the impaled Lightning mage to its face. He quickly closed his fist, snapping the spine and crushing his insides into pulp. The scream died in his throat as he threw the pulverized mage back into the earth with a sickening crunch. Meanwhile, in the background unseen, the cries from the priests rang on.

  Bedrock regained his footing after being knocked sideways from the boss monster's initial attack. He vaguely questioned why the impact hurt as much as it did for the briefest of moments before raising his shield and sword. He pointed his weapon at the creature's back; the monster stopped in its tracks as if unsure, then turned its body in the direction Bedrock was standing. It closed its eyes to slits, but the tell-tale sign of red rage glowing in its sockets let Bedrock know his taunt worked. The herald, with it’s lower body of black and crimson smoke, quickly rushed to his position.

  “I got him!” the beleaguered tank screamed. “Down this son of a bitch!”

  Though shocked to the core at what he was witnessing, Ellis turned from the carnage around him and aimed his highest-ranked instant cast spell at the orc.

  In his mind, he yelled “Heart of the sun,” and both of his arms went bright yellow as he raised them at the center of the monster before him. A tight beam of flame and energy rushed from his outstretched hands, then exploded into a ball of fireworks as it crashed against the herald's back. Ellis felt a hand touch his shoulder and immediately turned his glowing arms on whoever was behind him.

  “Ellis, it�
��s me!” cried the paladin. “ I saw your power flare and ran toward it."

  The fire mage canceled the spell he was about to unleash upon his guildmate and grabbed her arm.

  "Can you still cast a light spell?

  "Yes, but not for long. You know I'm not specced in that way," she replied.

  Ellis nodded his understanding. The other two paladins were strong magic users, while Rose was a fighter class that could heal itself when injured. She didn't possess the spells or mana to maintain magic on a vast scale at all.

  "No matter, they cannot be that far from us, use the light spell to find the healers, paladin or otherwise, and get them here!" he said in a hurried tone. "We got a reprieve, but Bedrock nor our alt-tank won't last long without help! I'll stay here and keep attacking so that you'll see where we are...Go Rose!"

  Then the mage began firing fire blasts into the beasts back again. Blueballs, the arcane mage, ran him up behind him in a panicked state and started shooting dark purple orbs of light at the back of the towering monster.

  Rose stared for a few moments before opening a palm in front of her face

  "Illuminate...," she whispered.

  Then she took off into the darkness, palm first looking for the missing members of her raid.

  CHAPTER 44

  "Plans rarely go the way you draw them up in your mind," Kel’Van thought to himself as he witnessed Belar dragging the screaming priest further into the dark. Usually, a couple of things may fall into place, but then something happens nobody saw coming, and you have to adlib or wing it to finish the job. "That's usually how life works, and till this day, it's still undefeated." So far though, it couldn't have gone better. The plan mainly depended on two factors, but one in particular.

  Pain.

  Avarice pain restriction only went up to 35%, and most players outside of PVP or Arena bouts never used them. Dungeon crawlers rarely turned on the feature, and that's whom he was facing. They maybe higher-level characters, but here in Gladys mountains, they will feel every blow, every cut. Everything. He figured a furious sneak attack would shock the players, and they could hurt them just enough for the dark god Robahn to finish them off.