AVARICE ONLINE: KEL'VAN RED HAND

by Titus Nettles

  The monster quickly slammed his sword in an arc into the ground, and gouts of blood spurted into the air. Ellis eyed the party's HP on his D.S. background and saw his brother’s health points fall to the 25% mark.

  "Oh god," he croaked.

  Then the sharp talons on his rock formed hand slammed into the same area. A tearing sound accompanied by screaming commenced as the stone appendage of Kel’Van pulled at whatever the dark smoke was concealing. With a flick of the monster’s wrist, the object pulled from the floor came flying towards the group. It flew over their heads with flecks of blood peppering them and landed south of Bronze.

  Mr. Tower's HP hit zero.

  Ellis and his team didn’t even have time to react as the wave hit them. Steele buckled as he continued to channel his shield underneath their party. The inertia from the earth spell pushed the group into the air but dispersed shortly as they came back down in a heap.

  The fire mage quickly got on his feet, his rage burning coals out of his eyes as he raised both his arms at the creature whose hand was smeared with the blood of his brother. He understood in the back of his mind that this was not real. That his brother's body was now lying comfortably in a dive pod for the next ten or so years. But with the brutality he witnessed, the sheer sight of how his kin was disposed of, brought a heat and anguish that poured out of him in waves.

  Suddenly, the raid boss’s head turned eastward, then floated away from what was left of Mr. Tower.

  "I'VE GOT HIM!" exclaimed Bedrock.

  Ellis grimly turned towards his group. "Let's go, Bedrock's taunt is active, and we only have 6 minutes to nuke this mother fucker! As soon as you have the man in your sights, start healing! Everyone else put as much damage as possible on this thing! MMMOOVVVEEE!"

  As one they all started running behind the herald. The moment he raised his sword, Heal4Me was able to see enough of the tank through the dark mist that he was capable of tossing "Grand Heal" upon him. Ellis cast Heart of the Sun, so many times he lost count, as did the other mage Blueballz. All three paladins took their respective melee weapons and went to town in an effort to pile up the DPS.

  They had 5 minutes until shut down.

  CHAPTER 45

  "This is going to be close..."

  The battle raged on before him as his party continued to watch from their vantage point above. The killing of the raids lightning mage and off-tank brought cheers from his team watching from their view overhead. He was also pleased with himself for using his dark smoke as camouflage, then following it up immediately with the earth spike spell. Kel’Van had teleported his team as fireballs had begun raining down, and he was free of the taunts pull on him. Now his team watched the battle unfold below them without their direct intervention.

  The plan that Kel'van and the dark God came up with relied on the surprise, shock, and attacking them with various assaults until they were whittled down. ( or the shutdown commenced, for which he had no way of conveying, so he didn't mention it.)

  He could not win a straight-up fight with their raid, especially since his team was under level 20 themselves. Dungeon healers though, were usually weak on offense and would typically only put enough points in their health stat so as they wouldn't get one-shotted by a boss monster. Almost all of their ability points went into magic. A surprise attack on their healers done with ruthless efficiency could work. They had only been able to kill only one of their primary healers, and Kel’Van did away with a mage himself. So that only left the raid with two massive magic DPS, one melee dps, one main tank, and the rest were support players. It was still a team capable of defeating him in his Herald form, but he had a way better shot at winning now than he had before.

  The plan had worked out better than he expected since the healer plainly couldn't do its job while he was blinded by fog. But as Kel’Van felt the flow of the fight, he began seeing the bigger picture, and lines of worry began to etch its way across his thoughts. Particularly when viewing the rate of his health bar. It was starting to go down faster than he was taking them out.

  “They are going to have to make another appearance after all,” he thought.

  “ I am not pleased with the turn this battle is taking.”

  Voresh stepped tentatively closer to the cliff, where the god Robahn was floating above the crevice surveying the conflict. When Kel’Van’s transported them back to crevice, the dark lord was floating above the precipice, watching the battle below. They were still rather uncomfortable being in the presence of a god, but the others closed in next to Voresh as he mouthed his reaction.

  “I do not understand your reasoning.”

  The dark god merely cocked his head over his shoulder and fixated on Voresh with a cold stare.

  “Uh, Robahn…Lord Robahn, I mean.”

  The dark being eyes seemed to squint at the abashed orc, then he returned his gaze to the battle underneath him.

  “I am presently viewing my herald’s vitality, and it is diminishing faster than I am comfortable with mortal.

  Belar scrunched up her face at Lord Robahns statement. “I don’t understand your concern, Lord Robahn. The captain has killed two of their number already,” she pointed out. “ We killed one of their healers, and they are no longer attacking as quickly as they were earlier. This fight will be over soon.”

  The dark god shook his head, trying to find a way to voice the problem he was seeing below him. He seemed to be holding back his impatience in order to explain something that should be evident to them all.

  “These players, as my Herald calls them, have now adapted to what he is doing, just as he said they would., he said as calmly as he could. “That last attack he performed did kill one of the shield-bearers, but he was not capable of unleashing the amount of damage as the cloth wearers. They are the primary source of their power, and my Herald has only extinguished one of their number so far. Now they are being protected under a magical shield.

  The dark god pointed in the direction of the mages to emphasize his point. The beings seemed to be all hale of body. A frown began to play on Voresh’s lips as well as the others.

  Lord Robahn continued his observations.

  “Their main shield-bearer is still hale of body, so he can continue to take the brunt of the punishment from my herald and hold his attention, while the other mages are free to attack Kel’Van’s dwindling vitality. Meanwhile, their healer is keeping the shield-bearer upright enough to survive.

  The faces starting looking at each other as to what Lord Robahn was teaching began to sink in. Fer’shad was the first to speak among them.

  “You’re afraid that since his health points are dwindling down faster than this…raid as you call it…then the captain will lose this battle.

  “Yes, it’s a good possibility mortal. Especially if these Terrans do not make any more mistakes.” The god turned his head towards the others behind him. “I have been in and seen many wars mortals. You do not wait for luck to fall your way…you make your own.”

  Lord Robahn floated back towards the cliff, then faced the battle below him once more. His all-too-human eyes blazed crimson as he mentally reached out towards his herald.

  “Herald, can you hear my voice?”

  “Yes lord Robahn, I will have to be quick with my words since I only have a short while before this taunt I’m under it runs it’s course,” answered Kel’Van.

  “Lord Robahn, I would counsel that we should repeat our initial ambush if only to distract the casters who are shielding themselves against my attacks.”

  There was a slight pause as Lord Robahn looked at the orcs behind him while listening to the course of action Kel’Van proposed.

  “The first attack was risky as hell to begin with,” thought Kel’Van. The plan to go against level 30’s was outright madness and only worked because of the element of surprise and the pain restrictors being nullified. This next attack would stack the chance of him losing a team member astronomical, and he was having a hard time squaring that fact wi
thin himself.

  “Yes,” Lord Robahn answered. “ I accept your counsel, I will share the battle-plan with your subordinates, …Be ready Herald.

  “I will be ready, Lord Robahn.” Then the aberrant swordsman quickly communicated his plan, lowered his arm from his face, and eyed the players attacking him.

  Lord Robahns eyes lost their crimson color as his connection with his Herald ended. The four orcs in front of him stood pensive as the being whose bottom half was made of blood and black smoke towered over them.

  “You are going to attack them the same way as before, but with different targets.”

  The dark god quickly explained his plan to the orcs. Voresh smiled impishly at the dangerousness of it while admiring its boldness. Fer’shad and Belar only nodded in grim determination, as did Lan’kar. It was not a plan he relished, but he understood his Heralds concern of not leaving the hope of keeping the players out of Gladys Mountains to chance. He turned around to the fight below him, watching it unfold.

  “ You know your roles,” explained Lord Robahn while keeping watch on the pace of the fight. “ Be ready.”

  3 Minutes…

  Bedrock braced himself with both hands with his shield. Each attack hammering upon him brought quick bouts of pain on both his shoulders and legs. He had already used both of his pain suppressor skills and was relying on his priest's heals to lessen the impact. Four years of football, plus another 10 in the New Jersey police department, made him no stranger to pain and injury. But god, he didn't know how long he could take this...

  Ellis and Blueballz both were now emptying their mana reserves. They had to put all they had into the following volleys. There were less than 3 minutes left, and they had pushed the boss creature down to its last 10% of HP. Suddenly, the creature thrust forth his stone claw, and the familiar fire-tinged smoke enveloped the party.

  "Everyone, to me!" Ellis ordered his party. He continued to fire at Kel’Van until all of the melee DPS had closed in. The three casters were already crowded next to him when Steele raised his shield underneath them. Bluballz continued his volley of attacks as well against its armored shoulder. It was the only thing visible over the miasma that was growing around them.

  "After the earth spell hits the shield, take the fight to him with everything we got," yelled Ellis.

  Steele turned to him, quickly tapping his arm. "What about the-"

  "We don't have time!" he screamed, cutting Steele off. " In two minutes, he either dies, or we fail, now get ready to move!"

  The tell-tale rumbling began pushing its way towards them. Bronze renewed his mana regenerating spell around them while the others bided their time to attack.

  "Steady," whispered Ellis while he continued his barrage upon the end boss.

  A whistle of wind pierced the air.

  Then arcs of blood followed.

  "GYAHHHH!!!" was the first sound uddered from Voresh's Ulgo cleave ability. The attack had come from behind, slicing through the backs of all the casters and Roses arm. Steele raised up on his heels, teeth clenched in ice-cold pain, which broke his concentration on the ward spell. The priest had already collapsed on his knees from the initial attack, when a sword whistled down out of the darkness and chopped at the side of his neck. The attack was so swift that he didn't even have time to register that he was hit twice. Before he even screamed, he was grabbed by an enormous green-skinned hand that covered almost the entirety of his face, and was pulled backward into the dark.

  2 Minutes...

  Ellis continued his assault on the Herald with his Heart of the sun spell on full blast. He was the only one of the casters not struck by Voresh's cleave ability since he was towards the front of the party. He barely glanced behind him to see what was happening. He was quite sure that the boss’s minions had picked this most inopportune time to attack. He also knew he could not spare the time to attack them and Kel’Van. They had less than 2 minutes to plant the flag. It took him a minute to realize Steele was no longer keeping the shield up.

  "Oh shit," was all he had time to say before the earth spike spell hit them.

  Bedrock was the only player who was able to protect himself when the wave hit. He immediately slammed his shield on the ground facedown, then quickly laid on top of it. Two of the earth spikes jolted the shield into the air, the last scraped against his armored leg. When he crashed back down to earth, he only had a slight headache.

  The other players were not so fortunate.

  The stalagmites burst forth from the ground sending dirt into Ellis's eyes while slashing his right arm, leg, and pectoral muscle. He immediately fell backward from the impact, landing on his back. He inhaled dust and dirt, choking on it as he struggled to stand.

  Ellis looked to his left and saw Blueballz impaled body on stalagmites with his left arm sheared almost to the bone. The rocks suddenly crumbled as the wave moved on, while the body plopped on through the dark-colored fog covering the ground. Ellis could barely make out the man in the haze, but what he could see almost turned his face away. Blueballz face, a visage of misery, his hand claw-like as he reached for the gaping hole in his chest.

  Rose crossed her arms in front of her face and tried to make herself a smaller target. When the wave reached her, the spikes thudded against her plate armor, slamming her into the air. She crashed to the ground, the wind knocked out of her lungs and her gut feeling as if it was rammed by a freight train. Gasping for breath, she opened her eyes just in time to see a mammoth size sword cleave Blueballz’s body in half from head to stomach. Visceral pieces of his body splashed her face, covering her body in gore. The sword roughly dislodged itself from the mage's corpse, while Rose visibly shook both in mind and body from the horror she just saw in front of her face.

  A hand grabbed her from behind as she stared in numb shock. A glow began to suffuse her body, taking away her aches and pains while allowing her to breathe once more.

  "Rose...Rose, snap out of it!"

  Before her eyes, the massacred body of Blueballz started to glow and then fade out in black smoke, as did the splotches of gore on her body. That brought her back to earth.

  It's a game, and this is not real. She might feel pain, and the special effects may be good, but Blueballz is in his pod right now waiting for the new patch. She then eyed a worried Bronze standing in front of her face, trying to get her to stand.

  "I'm okay already," she said as she leaned on Bronze's outstretched hands for support. She then was startled by Ellis's flare of light through the fog as he began nuking the monster's chest from somewhere in front of them.

  "Good," he replied. " Steele went to go rescue Healz from whatever snatched him up, so we need to keep hitting this thing and hope they reach us in time."

  Rose nodded her head and strummed forward towards the waking monster. Her heart was still full of naked fear from what happened to Blueballz, but it was coupled with anger and a sense of urgency to end this in their favor.

  1 minute remaining...

  Kel’Van wrenched his sword from the body of the caster and the ground. The blood and offal from its demise disappeared in a burst of darkness. In his herald state, he no longer needed to touch the bodies in order to loot them. He quickly dismissed his new discovery,as his attention was now pulled in the direction of his team now that the fog was beginning to dissipate. The summon spell took three seconds to channel. Casting the spell while the dark fog was present was paramount. He raised his rock-like claw to his face as the center of his hand glowed black and red. What he saw beyond his fist caused him to almost falter the spell.

  Fer'shad was laid out on the ground with his shield crumpled up like tissue confetti. His hand was still enclosed within the mess of his shield, while the arm holding it was bent at an awkward angle. Bone cracked open to the center, poked out of his flesh in two places, while the blood seeped upon the ground. A paladin stood only a few feet away from the young shadow healer, grasping in pain at his own neck. Lan'kar immediately began firing tendrils of darkness
at the injured paladin, siphoning off health to Fer'shad's inert body lying on the ground.

  "Damn it man, they did their job you idiot! Get your ass in gear and do yours, sergeant!"

  Just that second, the fire mage began blasting him from a short distance. The female paladin launched into the air and landed a heavy blow across his shoulder, sending him back a few steps. Though pushed back, it did deter Kel’Van from channeling the spell to send his team to safety. Once again, his new appendage reached his face. A mix of red black commenced in the center of his palm, and the smoke surrounding his enemies coalesced around his party, and they disappeared from the face of battle.

  The four combatants reappeared upon the ledge overlooking the battle below. Lan'kar looked around in a hurry and spotted the injured orc on his back, moaning in pain. He scrambled toward Fer'shad's side, pushing both Voresh and Belar out his way. Blood was continuing to flood out of the orcs biceps and elbow where the broken bones had poked through Fer'shad's flesh.

  "Quickly, grab his arms tightly!" he yelled at Belar. She was almost in a state of shock, watching the blood congeal under the huge orc's body. She quickly grabbed the shoulder and bicep while Voresh grabbed near the elbow.

  "Now make the arm straight as you can," Lan'kar instructed. "This will help me use less mana to heal him."

  Lan’kar laid his hands upon the injured limb while Fer'shad strained to get out of the grip of the others. Then he closed his eyes as the black tendrils began seeping into his body, releasing the hp and vitality it stole from the paladin. The bones slowly retreated into the flesh: and the moaning started to subside as skin stretched over his injuries. The Holmgren slowly opened his eyes as he looked over the orc's body.

  "Is he well?" Belar asked, clutching the limb as if it would run away from her. The orc's eyes were only a heartbeat away from leaking tears over Fer'shad's shoulder and face. "He still seems to be in pain."

  Voresh pointed to the lower end of Fer'shad's body.