For a few seconds, she didn't answer.
I frowned.
It was an interesting tactic, but it was not for me. I had no close range skill and when I did fight with sword and shield, I had to be at my best. If needed, Daggers could get away from danger by using her shadow skill, but I didn't have that luxury.
We rested until we were completely recovered.
"Hey, ugly thing, we are ready."
"Good." The king stood up, got behind its throne and got the four shields. They were so big the gabat's wings barely appeared behind it. "One to one. Three persons."
The door behind us opened and Eternal's face and flame appeared, looking curiously inside. Seeing no danger, he entered the room.
"What? No! Two on two!"
"I tired you cheat. Three to three. Fight, leave. You choice."
Shit.
I gave them extra instructions. Eternal should run to the forges and attack from there; his priority was staying alive. Daggers' was to defend me as best as she could. I was the guy with the firepower.
"Fight!" The king yelled and the doors closed behind us.
Jack Thorn
Unbound Deathlord
Legendary Spotter, Hedge Wizard, Pioneer, Dark Archmage
Level 13
Hit Points:320 / 320
Mana Points:620 / 620
Stamina:225 / 225
Attributes:
Strength:8
Agility:8
Dexterity:6
Constitution:9
Intelligence:14
Perception:6 + 10 [Items]
Willpower:10
Charisma:8
Traits:
© Adept Controller:21
© Adept Energizer:13
Adept Mage:11 + 10 [Items]
Diviner:2
Gold Digger:2
Scavenger:2
Scout:2
Antimage:1
Athlete:1
Crafter:1
Healer:1
Meditator:1
Mind Seer:1
Negotiator:1
Nitpicker:1
Shadow:1
Warrior:1
19. Big Bad Wolf
'That story your aunt told you? Be the hunter. Only make sure to be paid for skinning the wolf.'
- Father
They came at us with the fury a thousand suns, or so the saying goes. There wasn't even the pretense of fairness as the three of them beat their wings and got to the air.
I decided it was better not to answer that. It would be rude to a lady to tell her I was not interested.
My jump was higher than it should have been and I felt something solid hit the back of my head.
52 blunt damage received
HP: 268 / 320
Status effect received: Mildly Stunned (level 2)
For 19 seconds, you:
» Cannot see properly
» Cannot move
» Cannot use skills
My body hit the floor in a weird way, and I received two more damage for it. The world was spinning. I tried to get up once, but my hand kept trying to use thin air to get up.
Not being able to use magic was a huge setback.
She obeyed. A sudden kick on my side made my body roll. My vision was coming back, spinning less but still hella blurry, so I didn't see what Daggers did.
I heard the feral growls of the gabats and the whimpering of one of them though. I also heard a big thump on the floor after it stopped crying.
Seven seconds for the stunned effect to go away.
I anxiously awaited the seven seconds to pass, then I got up and ran. The moment Daggers told me it was time, I turned back, raised my shield, and jumped to put as much of my body behind it as I could.
160 (40 x 4) shock damage received
HP: 106 / 320
It was like getting hit by a truck. My body flew like it had no weight and bounced on the floor multiple times while it spun. In the end, I was left in pain with fifty-seven HP left.
As I got up, my shield crumbled into pieces.
Holy shit.
On the bright side, the impact had put me closer to the forges, like I intended. I ran to the nearest one and hid behind it. The king gabat settled to the ground and the queen landed behind it. They retracted their wings and the king put its four shields in front of him, completely covering his body.
"You cheat. I do hard way," the king said and started to walk slowly toward us.
First I healed myself one time, getting close to half HP.
And nothing happened. No damage message, no explosion, nothing.
I just looked at the oversized bats until they were twenty paces away. Then the obvious came to me.
Just for good measure, I threw a fireball at the gabat's shield.
No damage dealt to King Gabat
Figures. When they were near enough, I ran.
We did. The king froze in place and as soon as I got vision, I threw a single fireball at the queen, sure something would go wrong. It did.
The fireball was flying true and was about to connect when a shield hid my vision of it and the spell disappeared.
"Stupid." The kind laughed, which was a weird thing when you had a wolf head.
I recreated the missing morb and smiled at him. "Block this."
Fireballs flew. All my four. As I expected, the king defended the queen.
86 fire damage dealt to King Gabat
The message repeated four times and I got annoyed. The damn helmet, while not blocking normal fire damage, was preventing critical damage.
It was still enough. The king wasn't expecting that and instinctively put his shields back. The queen wasn't expecting that and Daggers got to it. And for once I agreed with Eternal: it was marvelous.
She was full speed and jumped, sticking her two daggers into the queen's breasts through scale armor as if it was nothing. I didn't even know it was possible to pierce scale armor.
Then she shadowed. Ridiculously fast, she climbed the freaking gabat by sticking daggers in it and got to the head. There, she put one dagger through the throat and the other in the eye. Repeatedly.
It brought back memories. I guess big queens are fated to be wrecked this way.
The queen died; surprise attacks were sought after for good reason. Nice timing from Daggers on the skill usage, too.
A dagger flew, thrown by Daggers, and hit me handle first.
"Now, my king. Queens are the most powerful units in chess. Do you know which is arguably the worst?"
"Wait! Treaty! I no attack. You away."
"Sorry, dude. I promised your head to someone."
There was no fun in the rest of the fight.
After having to choose between getting fireballed or stabbed, the king tried to stay in the air. It took some time, but I eventually managed to hit one of his wings and its fell to the ground.
Then, it ran to a wall and tried to defend itself like a turtle. It couldn't defend from every damn angle, though, and after absurd five thousand and seventeen damage, it died.
The moment its body hit the ground, I almost became deaf.
Thousands of gabats on the ceiling howled while thousands more growled as they slowly descended the walls.
I ran to the throne as fast as I could and jumped as high as possible, barely grabbing the spider queen's foot.
The uncountable gabats were halfway to the floor.
Climbing the black scales, I got to the gabats body. Frantically searching its hands, I found no ring on them.
Shit. The queen under the inn also didn't have the ring.
I let go of the body and looked at the ground, but there were no glows of unowned items anywhere. I quickly looked for it in the throne, but it was also empty.
The gabats were almost to the ground.
Goddamnit, I hate this game!
I ran for my life and as I passed by a dead queen gabat, I saw Eternal collecting loot.
He looked around and his eyes popped. He put something in his bag and ran.
Daggers had already left the room with the king's body. All four of its shields and its helmet had fallen from its body. I picked up one of the shields along the way.
It was heavy and slowed me down, but loot is loot.
The only reason I survived the run was that no gabats had climbed down the entrance's wall. By the time I got to the door, that quarter of the room was not covered by the swarm.
Wait, where is Eternal?
I looked back. He had stopped to grab a shield and was dragging it with him.
He ignored me. There was no way we had enough time to grab another heavy shield like that. I looked at the gabats, swore in my mind and ran to the imbecile. I threw a fireball at his hands and the moment he dropped the shield, I pulled him along bodily.
And I kept pulling his body. Only a very narrow corridor to the door remained gabat-free. With a quick look back I saw the shield was already covered by gabats.
He yelled, but ran after me.
The gabats claws were already touching me by the time I made it to the door. When I turned back, I saw Eternal fall.
He grabbed it and I pulled, while Daggers pulled my body. The damn bats were stronger, but I didn't let go. I threw a fireball at a gabat and Eternal got closer to the door.
Yes! It will work!
The throne room was a mass of blackness, the gabats covering it all.
And it closed, cutting my arm off.
50 slashing damage received
HP: 87 / 320
Status effect received: Badly Open Wounds (level 25)
Until you are magically healed, or the wound is cauterized:
» -25 HP per second
I screamed in pain and in my mind I heard Eternal screaming too.
My first try at creating a death morb failed because of the pain. There was a damage threshold for spell disrupting, but I just hoped it didn't apply for status effects.
After multiple tries, I finally healed myself. My arm didn't grow as much as it faded into existence. Daggers was silently looking at me.
"Was he right?" I asked in cold anger. "Was it my fault?"
She shook her head. "No, sir. It might have been mine. I am stronger than you; I could have pulled him faster."
It was strange, hearing her actual voice after mind chatting for so long.
I got up and punched the door. "It's not your fault; he was the one who stayed! For an item!"
"You are right, sir." She said way too quickly, no remorse whatsoever. She and Eternal were one of a kind when it came to camaraderie, it seemed.
For me, it was a little harder to accept. Just like I had fought with Daggers, I had fought with him, too. "What a shitload. To die like this on the way out! What's the damn point?"
"There is no point in either life nor death, sir. Both just are."
"Well, not on my w
atch. Damn this shit. To die because of cheap greed."
"Sir, there is no point in dwelling. The door can open anytime. We have to go."
I looked at her. "You are a cold one, huh?"
"Affirmative. I find it very hard to feel bad because an Earthen body died."
I gritted my teeth. She was right. I had forgotten it myself for a second there. "Whatever. Hold the head this way, let me cut it off." After a few hits, I put it in my backpack. "Good. Let's get its armor and get the hell out of here."
The armor was way too big and heavy for me. So was the shield, as crazy good as it was.
Oversized Steel Kite Shield
Rare
» Damage reduction: 25
» Resistance: 85%
Trying to use it applied a level nine encumbered status effect to me.
"Hey, Daggers, how the hell does this encumbered shit work?"
"All items have a required strength level to be perfectly used, sir. You receive a proportional reduction accordingly to your strength."
"Where do I see the requirements?"
"You cannot, sir. It is hidden. Our masters think it helps with the role-play."
"Boy, I thought I despised them enough, but they sure know how to lower the bar."
Daggers explained it better to me and I concluded that the shield would take around fifty points of strength to use.
Why do you tease me with items I'm nowhere near able to use, game?
A sigh of relief escaped my mouth when we found the cursed ring on a chain around the king's neck. As we walked away, I checked the exclamation points on the edge of my vision.
Quest updated: Help Production Cave 4
F rank
You have killed the King Gabat.
Bring the head to the First Lady to receive your reward.
Interesting enough, the quest difficulty had changed. A problem arose: I had already promised the head to Marbareus. But I didn't want to think about it right now.
Trait received: Strategist
Unbound Deathlord: Challenge Page 35