Tales from the Dead Man Inn

by Daniel Schinhofen

  “Fine, just use it as often as you can,” Solomon said hurriedly, calling for the next group to take Experiment 9 when Elin had run out of mana.

  Alistern grinned over at the other group of non-soldiers, “Holdin’ up over there?”

  Braxton nodded, “Aye, but we could use ye boys to help take some damage iffin ye can spare them next go around.”

  “Depends on how damaged they be, but we shall see. Worried about the fifty percent mark since we had that many adds with the seventy-five percent.” Alistern said, watching the next unit handling the monster. He cast another Fire Blast at Experiment 9 in between talking to keep the damage going. “What do ya think?”

  “Maybe more of the same, but more numbers. Seen tha' a few times in raids, or could be a whole new Ability that comes into play. I just hope it's nay a one-shot.” Braxton said, glancing back at Elin gulping down some tea. “As long as it does nay one-shot me, then Elin will keep me up.”

  Elin grimaced, “Unless the next set of adds takes a big chunk of my mana again.”

  “We are doing well so far. Only the first two groups had any real casualties,” the female Human of Braxton's group said.

  “Aich, Lenora, ye been told nay to say stuff like tha' durin' a raid,” Braxton said, face-palming.

  Not a second later, Experiment 9 used its combo to swarm the group it was on and stunned them. This time though, it didn't pause the stun like it had before. The tank wasn't at full life and the healer was out of position; he had drifted a few steps too close and got caught in the swarm as well.

  “Unit eight, take it! Hurry,” Solomon yelled as he watched the life bars of the unit begin to drop rapidly.

  Group eight picked up Experiment 9 while the others who could spare the time watched the healer of unit five die, followed by a melee who hadn't gotten out of the swarm in time either.

  “Tha' be why,” Braxton sighed as he glanced over his shoulder at Lenora. “It be bad luck to call the attention of misfortune like tha'.”

  Lenora blanched before she faded from view, stealthing. “Sorry,” came the small sounding reply from the now invisible rogue.

  “Group five, add over to group seven,” Commander Solomon ordered his men. “No more fuck ups, people. Focus and do not slack off. That just cost us a few more men.”

  The next part of the fight fell into rhythm after that mistake. Everyone was crisp and sharp on their jobs while they whittled Experiment 9 down toward fifty percent life. They had dealt with the breath attack just a group ago and everyone was as healthy as they could be when the halfway mark was hit.

  Experiment 9 snapped its wings out, flinging back the attackers on it before launching itself into the air. “I grow weary of our time together. It is now time to unleash another of Stein's additions to these lands.” The demon slammed into the ground, vanishing into the sands again.

  “Everyone, brace for the next wave of adds,” Solomon called out from next to group six.

  The ground erupted around all of them as a large mouth swallowed each group. An outsider would have seen the large worms breach the surface to swallow them. Each group found themselves in a long and wet tunnel, the walls pulsing around them and trying to force them deeper.

  “Waltrim, Theoliphius, hold our ground. Everyone else, it seems we have been swallowed by somethin’. Target the spot Almira does and break us through.” Alistern called out quickly as he began to cast.

  Almira took the spot closest to her and used her Divine Blow Ability to carve a good notch out of the wall-throat in front of her. Four Fire Blasts hit the same spot a second later, followed by twin blades widening the wound some to the side.

  Flora watched as their health began to slowly tick down from the monster’s acid, and was trying her best to get heals onto her team. “Alistern, we have a slow acting DoT going on. You’ll need to put your heal on the boys.”

  Stewart grimaced, “Alistern, let's cheat and use our Succubi to Drain the wall. Maybe that will break us through faster.”

  “Aye, but then we wouldn't be able to get the Destroyers healed quickly,” Alistern grunted right after he finished his next spell.

  “Yes, but it doesn't help if we fail here,” Almira added.

  “Fine. Lasses, Drain the walls, but heal the boyos first,” Alistern conceded.

  Lilith and Tabitha healed the Destroyers, then rushed to Almira's sides and touched the damaged section of wall-throat.

  They were suddenly thrown out of the creature as the muscles rippled the other way, throwing them up onto the sand while the worm vanished back into the ground.

  They saw that they were alone except for six other worms nearby. “Should we attack from the outside?” Grimgar asked, looking over at Alistern.

  Alistern went to reply, but Braxton's group was thrown up, that worm also vanishing back into the sand. “Nay, we hold here in case...” He began as Braxton got to his feet. At that moment, the ground in the middle erupted again and Experiment 9 stood there, grinning at them.

  “The Worms of the Sands... one of Stein's improvements to the landscape. Now then, shall we finish this?” Experiment 9 laughed its raspy laugh as it started forward.

  Almira stepped forward, taunting it, “You and me, you foul beast. Once our allies free themselves, we shall vanquish you.”

  Flora got another round of heals onto everyone to get their health topped up, worried about the swarm Ability it used. While she did, the rest of the group fell into their normal positions and resumed the fight while Braxton's group healed up.

  Alistern spotted other groups appearing across the sands from them, and breathed a sigh of relief as Solomon's group reappeared. “We have him, but we will need to be relieved shortly,” Alistern informed the commander.

  “Sir, we can take him,” group four advised, because they had been the first unit after Braxton's to reappear.

  “Good, back into the flow. We have this beast, we know its tricks. Everyone focus on the task in front of you.” Solomon gave a grim smile, “For those who won't be back again.”

  His words dragged the attention of those who could spare it to the five bodies from the first two groups that still lay on the sands. Those five had died the final death. Renewed hatred flowed through the soldiers at seeing their brethren dead before them.

  Experiment 9 breathed its swarm out onto Almira and the Destroyers, then pounded Grimgar into the sands behind with its tail. It swept Grimgar into the swarm before landing its stun and locking them in place.

  Unit four taunted it to them, their eyes gleaming with anger as they attacked it and giving Alistern's group a chance to survive the swarm. A ragged cry came from the tank of unit four, his brother one of those unmoving on the sand. “For my brother, you bastard abomination!”

  Flora was panicked as she waited for the stun to wear off so she could heal Grimgar. Grimgar came rolling out of the swarm while she was still stunned, his health bar perilously close to empty. “Used my Freedom Ability,” he rasped as the stun wore off from the others. Flora immediately threw heals onto him, then onto Almira, as the Succubi rushed to heal the Destroyers.

  “This is getting tricky,” Stewart mumbled. “If he puts Grimgar into a swarm again, I don't know if we can save him.” He reached out to place Demonic Vitality on Tabitha when she retreated to his side, her health low from healing Waltrim.

  “Aye, he seems to get more advanced as the fight goes on,” Alistern nodded.

  “Men, every second group will keep their melee out of the fight. We can't risk you being trapped like the Dwarf was. Melee, we are at an odd number of groups, so your chance will come. Just bide your time.”

  Experiment 9 laughed harshly, “Your pitiful attempts to end me are laughable, mortals. Just lay down and join me in undeath as the master would wish of you.”

  Various responses refuting Experiment 9's suggestion came from all groups. Determined silence came over the battlefield as they focused on their task.

  The fight slowed as alternate group
s had to leave their melee damage dealers out of the fight out of fear of more people dying. Minutes went by as they fell back into rhythm, slowly whittling down the health pool of the boss.

  Solomon called the DPS off, wanting to time the transition phase for shortly after a swarm had been dealt with. The tension mounted as the next swarm Ability came and the mob was pulled to the next group. Once everyone was as healthy as they could be, Solomon gave the go ahead and the damage became fierce.

  A scant few seconds later, Experiment 9 let out a bone shivering roar, locking them all in place. “You dare to struggle against me, the best of Stein's experiments!? Worthless wretches, I will use your dead as ornaments of warning near the ruins. Come, this ends with your deaths!” A black haze rose up out of the sands for as far as the eye could see as Experiment 9 stood stationary, chanting.

  The stun wore off, but the mob still stood there chanting and ignoring them all. Solomon blinked as he noticed a new aura that was draining their lives and feeding it back to the monster. “All damage dealers onto the Experiment. Everyone, get in on it and do everything you can. It’s a race against the aura!”

  All the melee, including the tanks, surged forward to attack as the casters aimed for the monster’s head and shoulders. The healers felt the strain as the overall raid damage was extensive. Everyone was steadily losing health and after a few seconds, it became clear that they would not be able to keep everyone up for long.

  “Burn all your cooldowns,” Solomon ordered his men. “It’s all or nothing from here. Healers, use any mana potions you have to keep going.”

  The scene became a multicolor light show as a variety of spells were unleashed. All the melee burned their highest damage Abilities to help offset the amount of health Experiment 9 was getting back.

  A minute went by, the tension in the air high. The first soldier succumbed to the Death aura when the healers began to run out of mana and had to pause to drink their potions. Solomon was aware of how slowly they were making headway against the amount of health Experiment 9 was passively getting from the aura.

  “We need to cut the numbers down,” Solomon called out, “Tanks, you are hindering us now. I need each of you to die.”

  Almira grimaced, hoping she would stand back up again. “See you all back at the fort,” Almira said calmly.

  Flora bit her lip briefly, wanting to argue but knowing why the commander had issued the order. Even with her mana potions, she was not able to keep up healing the entire group. The fewer people feeding the boss health, the faster they could kill it and the tanks did the least amount of damage. “Just be there when we get back,” Flora said as she stopped her heals on Almira, getting a tight nod in response.

  Stewart and Alistern dismissed their Destroyers, followed quickly by their Succubi after they each did one more Essence Drain touch. “All tanks gone,” Alistern informed Solomon between spells.

  Grimgar saw Braxton go down, swinging to the last, and hoped his fellow Dwarf would stand back up again at the fort. “For our allies!” he shouted, hacking again into the back of the undead demon.

  A roar of agreement met his words as all the DPS did their best to pour on the damage. Solomon was heartened to see his men not giving up. He did some more mental math as Experiment 9’s health began to drop a little faster.

  “Casters, if you use your last mana potion, let the healers know so they can stop healing you.” Solomon informed the men. “You become dead weight to us when you lose the ability to deal damage.”

  Hands tightened on weapons as they all felt the weight of so many possible final deaths rearing above them. Scattered casters called out shortly later and fell not long after, helping to ease the healers’ burdens a little more.

  “Let me go, Flora,” Alistern called out as soon as he used up the last of his mana. When Alistern fell, Vizax disappeared with him, his tie to the plane vanishing with the fall of his master.

  “Dark Lord, damn you,” Stewart gritted out before drinking his next to last potion. He watched as two healers died from not watching their own health bars. He noticed Flora drinking a mana potion, and was glad that she was still standing.

  Experiment 9's life bar dipped to 100,000/1,000,000 finally, which seemed to hearten the survivors seeing the end in sight. As soon its health hit ten percent, the damage from the aura doubled, though the healing that Experiment 9 received didn't increase.

  “This is it,” Solomon yelled, “push for it, men.” He fell over right after, as the healer targeting him hadn’t been fast enough to compensate for the increase in damage.

  Grimgar nodded his thanks to Flora as she put another set of heal-over-time Abilities on him, which was just enough to offset what he was losing.

  Stewart got the next set as he drank down his last mana potion. “This is it for me, Flower. See you at the fort,” he said before casting his next spell.

  “See you th...” Flora started to say before she pitched over dead, having lost focus on her own life because she had healed her friends first.

  Stewart watched his love fall, his face tightening as he kept at his job. “Just us, Grim,” he panted between spells.

  Grimgar gave a brief nod and plunged his blades again and again into the demon's body as others fell around them. “I just hope this git dies.”

  Stewart used the last of his mana to cast one last Fire Blast as his life ticked down. Rushing forward with his staff, he began to melee to help out as his life steadily dropped once both heal spells fell off him.

  Suddenly Experiment 9 staggered, the aura vanishing as it slumped to one knee. A piercing moan came across the sands as the last of its health bar vanished. The undead demon lifted its head to meet the gazes of those who still stood before it. “Thank you... for freeing me...” It collapsed to the sand and a ragged cheer arose from the survivors.

  Grimgar fell to the ground panting, “We made it?”

  Stewart slumped to his knees, “Yes, we did. Now we get to walk back to the fort.”

  Grimgar gave a small laugh, “I can live with tha'.”

  One of the soldiers touched the dead monster, causing it to vanish. Everyone received a pop-up that gave them their loot. As Stewart sat blinking at the item presented to him, Grimgar got a message from Alistern.

  Message from Alistern:

  We just got loot, so it looks like you survived. Want to port back to Stormguard to meet up for the celebration?

  Grimgar looked over at Stewart, who was holding a circlet of strange red metal with a look of shock on his face. “Stew, ye be okay? Al is askin' iffin we want to go back to Stormguard to celebrate tonigh' instead of walkin' back to the fort.”

  “Grim... This is part of the Demon Lord set! I can't wait to show it to the others,” A huge grin creased Stewart’s face as he held it proudly before him. “Yeah, let's go back to Stormguard. I want to celebrate with Flora tonight.”

  Grimgar grinned, “Ah, so ye have made up after all. Glad to hear it. So...” he paused as he glanced around, noting that most of the dead bodies had disappeared as the owners respawned. His eyes widened when he saw Flora’s body, “Oh, gods, no...”

  Stewart's brow furrowed, following Grimgar's eyes to Flora's body, which still lay on the sand a good three minutes after she fell. His mouth opened as he began to shake, “No... oh Dark Lord, not her.”

  The Crown of the Demon Lord fell from his hands as he scrambled over to her. As soon as his hand touched her body, she vanished in a cloud of blue sparkles. Crying, he snatched at them uselessly as his heart broke. “Not her. Why, Dark Lord? Why did you take her from me?”

  Grimgar's face was ashen as he watched his friend break in front of him. Swallowing hard, he sent Alistern a message telling him what had happened. Putting his Mindstone away, Grimgar approached Stewart slowly, kneeling beside his friend.

  “Stew?” Grimgar reached out gently, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder, at a loss of what to say. None of them had seen a comrade actually taken from them. Loved ones had di
ed before from old age, but never had they seen an adventurer actually die the final death before today.

  Stewart just sobbed, holding a small urn with Flora's name on it. Within were the only things guaranteed to be left after a final death. Draped around was the necklace Stewart had given her when they had first decided to date. Even when they had fought, she had never taken it off. Now it lay on her ashes like a memorial of their troubled relationship.

  “Why, Grim? Why was she taken from me? We had finally come to an agreement… we were looking forward to finally moving our relationship on and now... this.” Stewart asked haltingly as his voice broke between sobs.

  “The gods only know, me friend,” Grimgar replied, putting his arm around his friend's shoulder. “They have never explained the whys nor hows of the final death to us. Iffin what the priests say is true, then her soul is now with her goddess until it is reborn again.”