New Game Minus: The Complete LitRPG Fantasy Trilogy

by Sarah Lin

  Given the intensity of the heat, he didn't think they could afford to make mistakes. All they had was guesswork, but it had to be excellent guesswork from the beginning. As more bursts of flame splattered off the statue, Bloodwraith glanced over and saw that Gharavi was gathering magic, intensifying an ice spell. She raised an eyebrow at him and he nodded.

  "Good, but wait. Let me pull it away." Bloodwraith ran out of cover, barely dodging another burst of flame. Once he got half-way around the room, he Enraged a burst of force and sent it directly into the elemental's back.

  The flames decreased slightly for a moment, then roared back to life. Flames shooting high enough to blacken the ceiling, the elemental began to stomp toward him, releasing huge sheets of flame with each step. Bloodwraith stayed behind cover, letting it get closer.

  That confirmed that his barbarian skills didn't kindle the elemental as if they were wind spells, but he also didn't think they did very much good. When he tried to look at the elemental via the boxes, it said only:

  [Flame Elemental

  Health: ???/???

  Note: Floor Boss]

  He had no time to press further and see if he could learn something about the elemental's health, because it was getting closer and the sheets of flame were becoming unbearably hot, even blunted by the statue. Bloodwraith didn't dare peek out, he just shouted to the others.

  "Gharavi, attack when ready! Everyone else, get ready to shield her!"

  A large burst of mana exploded as Gharavi released all the power she had been gathering and the temperature of the room dropped substantially. Bloodwraith looked out to see crystals of magically-enhanced frost gathering around the flame elemental. It shuddered and dropped, the flames of its body flickering weakly. The spell was so masterfully done that for a moment he almost hoped that they could end it with one strike.

  But of course they couldn't. The elemental roared back to life, melting the ice crystals. It released a beam of bright blue flame that melted through the statue Gharavi used as cover, but she had already leapt to safety.

  Even as she came back to her feet, Gharavi released another spell, this one a simpler ice shard. It made the elemental roar angrily, but didn't come close to killing it. Gharavi barely dodged the next burst of flame in her direction, so Bloodwraith stepped in to distract it.

  Unfortunately, though his burst of force dealt a little damage, the elemental refused to be distracted, focusing on the largest threat. Gharavi was barely coming back to her feet when it focused on her again, ready to launch another beam of flame.

  Danniah leapt in the way and Bloodwraith feared for her, but she endured the blast. Parts of her armor glowed red-hot and she should have been screaming in pain, yet he saw only determination in her stance. While Gharavi got behind another statue, Danniah actually advanced, blocking each burst of flame with her shield.

  When she got close enough, she pushed her shield forward into the flames. It shouldn't have worked, yet the force her mana carried rippled through the elemental like a shockwave. Seeing that it faltered, she attacked again, focusing on her shield instead of trying a fire-based attack.

  It was a good strategy, but at such close proximity to the elemental, Danniah couldn't see what it was doing. Bloodwraith tried to get into position and Enraged the mana in his sword for an attack, but he wasn't sure he could arrive in time.

  Because the elemental had raised a wall of flame behind Danniah and it was looming higher, planning to come down on her with more heat than even she could handle.

  From her new position Gharavi launched several more ice shards, which hurt the elemental, but it continued trying to eliminate its prey. Bloodwraith rushed out to attack, but Izzy was faster.

  Her thrown dagger into the back of the elemental's leg did nothing, but then she lunged out and bit the flame. A chunk of the fire simply disappeared and the elemental roared out in something that sounded like pain. Izzy tried to bite again, but the elemental's burning leg struck her directly in the face.

  She tumbled backward, fires beginning to light up all over her body. Bloodwraith feared for her safety but knew the best thing he could do was stop the elemental from finishing her off. He finished his rush and swung his sword directly through the elemental's torso with all the Enraged force he could muster.

  The force blew through the flames, cutting the elemental in half. As the two halves hissed angrily, Bloodwraith risked a look at Izzy. She lay on the floor, still burning, but Meara had moved beside her. Somehow she pulled a bucket of water from her cloak and dumped it over Izzy to help put out the fires, but the water itself was hissing with steam as the room heated up.

  Recovering from being trapped amid the flames, Danniah used another Shield Impact to snuff out one of the elemental's legs. Gharavi sent out more frost crystals and Bloodwraith assisted by targeting the remaining flames. The elemental kept trying to return to life, but they didn't let up, hitting it with everything they had until the last flames had been snuffed out.

  There was a moment of silence, then the flame elemental roared back to life anyway. It reemerged with a wall of flame that knocked all of them sprawling. Gharavi seemed to have blunted most of it and Danniah struggled back to her feet mostly unharmed, but Bloodwraith could feel his armor beginning to burn into his skin through his clothes.

  Though he felt rage at the elemental breaking the laws of magic by continuing to exist, he shoved that emotion down because it wasn't useful. As Danniah and Gharavi struggled against it, Bloodwraith instead looked to the chamber.

  Was it possible that the flame symbols on the floor were actually a ritual? He didn't feel any mana from them anymore, but it was possible. If so, this might itself be a puzzle of a sort. Since the battle was not going well, Bloodwraith decided that it was worth a shot and began slashing through the pattern with swings of his sword.

  It broke apart easily enough and the elemental just kept moving about, ignoring him entirely. Bloodwraith felt another surge of anger but held it back, trying to think of another strategy.

  Across the room, he saw that Izzy was struggling to her feet. She looked burned, but he could see that her body was restoring itself. Beside her, Meara also looked concerned. Bloodwraith caught her eye, then pointed toward Gharavi. Understanding quickly, Meara closed her eyes and reached into her cloak.

  While she worked, Bloodwraith joined the others in trying to keep the elemental pinned down. They managed well enough and used the statues to avoid taking too much damage, but he knew they would lose this battle of attrition. The room itself was growing hotter with each passing minute and that would only make the entity more deadly.

  "Gharavi, here!" Meara hurled a potion over the center of the room and Bloodwraith glanced at it in midair, hoping that she had created what he intended.

  [Pure Ice Potion

  Drink to temporarily increase ice damage by 100%, while decreasing lightning and fire damage by 90%.

  Rarity: Rare]

  Excellent, even better than he'd hoped. Gharavi also caught the potion and drank it without even considering it. Their teamwork was paying off, so perhaps with her increased offensive strength...

  The elemental released more bursts of flame and this time one of them struck Meara. Having just entered the battle, she wasn't able to ignore it and she let out a scream as she burst into flame. Someone screamed her name and Bloodwraith wasn't sure if it was him.

  Gharavi struck at the heart of the elemental with a massive spike of ice that should have torn apart the core of its spell. And though it did break, it simply came back together.

  Bloodwraith felt another surge of rage. Their strategy had been perfect and this elemental just kept operating, brute force overriding the normal laws of the world. This was because of the boxes, he was certain, not allowing the creature to die until its "Health" had been depleted. Though he tried to fight back the anger and think, the sight of Meara still burning was too much for him...

  A box appeared in his vision, something about a new
core skill, but he couldn't read it. Though he had a brief moment where he could have resisted and pulled back, he realized that this must be the barbarian rage.

  If strategy hadn't worked, he would try raw power.

  ~ ~ ~

  Danniah always struggled with fulfilling her role effectively when her companions were being hurt, but seeing Meara burst into flame tested her like never before. She wanted to run to her, but what could she do? Trying to keep the elemental pinned down was already the best thing she could do, and others were better suited to helping.

  She rushed to the elemental's leg again and slammed her shield into it, briefly suppressing the flame. It struck back, stomping a leg at her, but she blocked it with her shield. Though it should have been red hot, she didn't feel the heat. Instead the flame seemed to sing within her. Part of her wanted to use her mace to strike at the elemental, but she knew fire would do no good against it.

  Her arm felt heavy, however, and she didn't think she could bash the elemental again. Once she might have tried to push through, but now Danniah suspected that her Mana value was simply low. She hooked her mace on her belt and pulled out one of her potions.

  Yet when she drank it, the liquid was hot. It didn't burn her, but it tasted wrong and she felt no surge of new strength. Had the elemental boiled her potions?

  Then it was roaring in front of her, another burst of flame striking her in the chest. Danniah flew backward, the intense heat searing through her defenses. She struggled to get back up through the pain as she saw it stomp toward her. Shafts of ice speared through its legs, but Gharavi could only slow it down, not stop it.

  That was when she heard a roar of pure rage.

  To her shock, she saw Bloodwraith throw himself at the flame elemental. He wasn't carrying his sword, yet he radiated raw power and his eyes glowed bright red. When he struck the flames, his blow carried some kind of unnatural force and the elemental shuddered.

  Bloodwraith cried out in anger as he struck at it over and over again. Though Danniah managed to get back up, she hesitated. He didn't seem like himself, more like a wild animal. Instead of fighting as carefully as he usually did, he simply attacked savagely without regard for his own safety. Even as it fell to the ground, the elemental kept striking him with flames and she knew he must be horribly burned under his armor, yet he didn't seem to care.

  Though he fought like a force of nature, Danniah realized that he wouldn't win. The elemental still burned with life and it would outlast him. She wanted to help, but felt like there was so little she could do...

  Beside her, she saw that Gharavi had not wasted her time. The sorcerer had gathered another intensely powerful ice spell, so strong that it made her wand shake as if it might break apart. Gharavi grimaced, holding it at a distance, and glanced to Danniah.

  "Get him out of there."

  Danniah nodded and charged, hoping it would be enough. The flame elemental had fallen on its back and Bloodwraith was screaming as he pounded his fists into it over and over, but the creature's hands were glowing in intense blue flames. Soon it would smash them together on him and she worried that he wouldn't be able to survive the blow.

  She leapt over the elemental and collided with Bloodwraith, sending both of them scraping across the chamber floor. He let out a snarl that shocked her and his hands reached up to grasp her helm as if he intended to crush her skull.

  "Bloodwraith, it's me!" She cried out the words desperately, hoping that she could reach him... and she saw the red light begin to fade from his eyes.

  Behind them, winter itself descended on the chamber. A vortex of cold power raged around the elemental, snuffing out its flames. They tried to flicker back to life, but they lacked the intense power of before and the shards of ice kept striking them. Each time the flames tried to return, they were a bit weaker than the last time.

  By the time the vortex had vanished, there was no sign of the elemental. The chamber itself was freezing, leaving Danniah's body in shock at the sudden change. Across the room, she saw Gharavi crumple to the ground.

  Underneath her, Bloodwraith lay limp, the power having left him. Danniah wanted to help, but now that the fight was over, her body refused to cooperate. When she tried to move, she ended up falling off him and landing on her back.

  For a time she wondered if they could die this way, victorious but mortally wounded. She would live, she was fairly certain, but what about Meara? Yet her best efforts to rise to her feet simply weren't enough, her body having been pushed to its limit.

  "Danniah!" Izzy appeared over her, face filled with concern. She bent down next to Danniah's armor and her teeth snapped out in her strange healing ability. Danniah relaxed backward as the young ghoul ate her pain and injury bite by bite.

  When Danniah was finally able to sit up, she saw that Izzy had been busy. She had dragged Meara to the center of the chamber where it was coolest. Currently she was entirely wrapped in her cloak, almost like a corpse, but Danniah had to hope that Izzy had taken care of her. Izzy moved over to Bloodwraith next, snapping up his injuries as best she could around his red hot armor.

  Then they had made it. Danniah wasn't sure how to feel about that, because they were still trapped in this tiny chamber. It looked far worse than before, the floor torn apart and most of the statues melted or broken. Letting her shield drop, Danniah limped toward the center.

  "Meara? You okay?"

  "I'll live." Meara turned away from her, curling up further in her cloak. Was her skin horribly burned by the fire? Danniah was about to pat her on the shoulder but realized that would hurt if she had been burned.

  "Well... tell us if we can help, okay?"

  The cloaked bundle nodded. Since she couldn't do anything, Danniah looked away... and noticed something lying on the floor where the elemental had been standing.

  It was another metal plate. Danniah carefully picked it up and found that it was still hot to the touch, though it couldn't harm her. Despite everything, she smiled. The other two plates lay in the wreckage of the shattered floor, which meant they had all three keys they needed to move on. This wasn't hopeless after all.

  Yet when she looked back to Bloodwraith, she found herself uncertain. They wouldn't have been able to win without his rampage, but she didn't like it. He hadn't seemed like himself then, not at all.

  As everyone else recovered, Bloodwraith and Meara remained lying on the ground. Since Meara wanted to be left alone, Danniah went to sit next to him. Izzy was eating his injuries and Gharavi using a spell to cool his burned skin, but he remained unresponsive.

  "Bloodwraith?" Danniah took his hand, pulling off the gauntlet and gently holding the burned skin underneath. "Please come back to me..."

  ~ ~ ~

  Darkness. He hated the darkness and struggled against it, though it did no good.

  Pain. Pain was irrelevant, he raged through it.

  Box... wait, a box?

  [Victory! You received 188,921 EXP and one Dungeon Key.]

  He hated the box most of all. Yet through the hate and the rage, he remembered that he should be more than this. There had been an identity... yes, he was Bloodwraith, Corrupter of Worlds and Father to the Undead. He refused to lose himself in rage like a simple barbarian.

  Yet he still floated in the shadows, struggling to find his way back. Because he had overextended himself, or because of something else? Just when Bloodwraith was beginning to worry, he heard a soft voice. Though he couldn't understand the words, he knew them in a deep way. Gripping the lifeline they offered, he pulled himself back.

  When he tried to open his eyes, boxes plagued him. Bloodwraith tried to brush them aside, looking past them and managing to get his eyes open. Once he finally did, he found himself staring up at a trio of faces. Danniah, Izzy, Gharavi... it was a relief to see them and the last of the rage drained out of his system, but he was disturbed that Meara wasn't with them. Though he struggled to get up and look, Gharavi held him down.

  "You were severely burned. You ne
ed time to recover."

  "But... Meara...?"

  Gharavi bit her lip and stayed silent. Danniah squeezed his hand, concern obvious in her eyes as she spoke. "She got burned pretty bad. I think she'll live, but... she's not quite right. All that pain must have been a shock to her system."

  "Yeah." Izzy nodded sadly. "I ate up all her injuries but there's something deeper I can't bite."

  Bloodwraith nodded in acceptance of their words. Then they'd made it through, which was a major victory, but he couldn't feel quite satisfied. They let him sit up enough to see Meara and he didn't like the way she lay so still.

  On top of that, he intensely disliked the new skill he had unlocked. If that was his core class ability as a barbarian, he didn't want it. He remembered the fight through a haze of bloodlust, yet he hadn't been himself, hadn't been able to fight strategically, had barely even been present.

  For the most part, he had been willing to accept the powers that the boxes gave him. Physical power might be brutish, but it was effective. His abilities were less flexible than spells, but still potent. But this... this rage...

  Across the room, he heard a mocking laugh.

  Everyone stared over at Meara, who sat up as she laughed. Her hood fell off her head and she appeared unburned, even her hair untouched. Yet more than that, the way she laughed reassured him that she was truly back. That didn't make it less irritating.

  "Just what is so funny?" Bloodwraith asked.

  "Look..." Meara struggled to stifle another laugh. "Look at your new box..."

  Blinking in surprise, Bloodwraith stopped suppressing them. There were messages about the fight and the victory notification still hovering, but he knew that what she meant was none of those. No, it was definitely the box in the center of his vision...

  [New Skill Acquired: Rage of Rage!

  Starting Level: 1

  EXP +100,000]

  "No, surely not... Rage of Rage? Please, anything but that..." His words set off another gale of laughter from Meara. Danniah and Gharavi laughed as well as they caught on, while Izzy grinned to see everyone cheerful again.