Perla Online, Book Two: Shella (A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure)

by Shawn Wyatt

  [Withered Drowned King, Level 33]

  “Prepare yourselves!” I shouted. “This one isn’t going down as easy as the others.” Its HP hovered around 75%, even after the beating we had given it.

  The Drowned King lunged forward and slammed into the deck of the ship. I staggered as the vessel shuddered under the impact, and a moment later I heard one of its arms carve through a sail.

  Quinn let out a colorful expletive. “That’s my ship you’re wrecking!” The Swashbuckler leapt from the upper level of the deck and plunged a rapier into the thick flesh of the monster.

  The attack had no effect at all. Quinn cursed again and struggled to draw his weapon from the monster. “Let go!”

  The monster rolled its body toward him. Quinn jumped back and let go of his blade. “Stay back,” I said. “I don’t think piercing attacks do anything. Can you provide support?”

  “Aye, just promise me you’ll get my sword back!”

  Bastion strode forward. The monster had turned its attention to Quinn, but an arm remained low. The Prophet lifted his flaming blade and cleaved the limb off.

  The arm flopped to the ground, but the flames turned the goo into a cloud of noxious smoke. Bastion staggered back and gripped his throat. His HP began to plummet. He choked out a healing spell and stabilized himself. He coughed and tears streamed from his eyes. “Fire damage is out, too! Turns that thing into poison.”

  I looked back at the monster. The crew had split into two groups because of where it landed: Evey, Bastion, and I on one side, Rune, Wish, and Quinn on the other. “This isn’t going to be easy.”

  “It never is,” Evey said. She drew back three arrows on her bow, whispered a few words, and fired. The arrows lit up with magical energy and slammed into the creature. Electricity arced through its body, and another 10% of HP vanished. “But I have a plan.”

  A savage swipe by one of its arms interrupted her next words. I rolled underneath the attack and fired two Lightning Shots into the Drowned King. “Care to share before it cleaves us in half?”

  “Aim the projectiles at the thickest part of its body,” she said. “They won’t penetrate through to the other side, which means you don’t have to worry about hitting the rest of the party.”

  “That’s brilliant,” I said. I ducked under another swipe of its remaining arm and had an idea of my own. “Bastion, can you hold your breath and get rid of this other arm?”

  The Prophet sighed. “Yeah, but the poison burns your skin, too. Stay out of the way.”

  The monster had set its sights on me. I leapt back as it slashed toward me again. Bastion darted forward, his sword held aloft, and slid underneath the strike. His blade met no resistance as it sheared off the monster’s arm, but his HP took another heavy blow. I scrambled back, but the smoke caught me. My arms and face felt like I’d dunked them in boiling water, and my skin glowed an angry red.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  Bastion groaned. “Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s hope there are no more of these things out there. I don’t want to experience that again.”

  I looked back to the Drowned King. The monster was not dead, but the loss of both its arms sent it slithering off the ship and back into the waves. It would only take a few more hits. “I agree. Let’s finish this thing.”

  The Drowned King fled under the waves. Wish channeled her Frostfield ability and froze the water. The Drowned King swam away from the ice, but its bulk slowed it.

  The spell froze the monster in place, its horrible cries of fury muted under the surface of the solid water. “Take it now,” Wish said. She frowned as she looked out at the ocean. “It killed my shark. Make it suffer.”

  “I’d settle for making it dead,” I said. I looked at Evey and nodded.

  We both launched another wave of lighting-based attacks at the monster. The electricity arced up through the ice and fried the Drowned King. The goo burned and hissed as the lightning coursed through it. The monster’s HP dropped to zero.

  Light flared around me.

  <<<>>>

  You've reached level 30!

  You unlocked the Duelist ability "Tracer." This Caster Shell lights the target with a supernatural glow, completely eliminating its ability to hide even if invisible. The effect lasts for three minutes.

  <<<>>>

  The same light bloomed around the rest of the team, except for Quinn. Wish had been brought equal with the rest of us. “Good job, everyone,” I said. I looked over to Scarlet’s fleet. It seemed to be intact, and a moment later, the Pirate King herself appeared at the edge of her ship.

  I flashed her a thumbs up, and she nodded in return, her expression solemn.

  She had lost a man at the start of this fight. I returned her nod. We had won, but it had come at a cost.

  “Take a little bit of time and level up,” I said. “We get new abilities at 30, right? Let’s figure out what they do. We’ll catch our breath and keep going.”

  “We’re on a time limit, remember?” Bastion finished casting a healing spell over himself. “Is taking a break such a good idea?”

  “It’s necessary,” I said. “Give Scarlet’s crew time to compose themselves. It will better prepare us for whatever comes next. We can spare ten minutes.”

  Bastion nodded.

  I turned my attention toward my new ability, Tracer.

  It was not what I expected to receive at level 30, but not a completely useless spell, either. I would have preferred to find something with more damage capability, but this would have to do. And it was time to distribute those last stat points.

  I dropped three into Luck to bring it to an even 10, and five into Intelligence. I needed more mana now that I had more spells. Two went into Wisdom, and four into Strength. I put the last point I had into Constitution.

  <<<>>>

  Character: Ren

  Class: Marauder (Subclass Duelist)

  Level 30

  Strength (STR): 20—200 lb. Carry Capacity

  Dexterity (DEX): 50 (+13 Equipment Bonus)—+63% Accuracy

  Constitution (CON): 51 (+10 Equipment Bonus)—610 HP

  Intelligence (INT): 30—300 Mana

  Wisdom (WIS): 15—32.5% Mana Regen

  Luck: 10—Unknown

  <<<>>>

  I had plenty of Caster Shells left. Tracer required a Lightning Shot shell to activate, so I didn’t need to change my loadout. Until we knew what the final boss of this realm would be, I would stick to what I knew.

  In what seemed like no time at all, the ten minutes were up. “Is everyone ready?” I asked.

  I knew the answer. Of course they were. With the time limit ever in our mind, we continued forward.

  Chapter Thirty Six: The Sunken Labyrinth

  The mountain came out of nowhere. It rose out of the sea in front of us, hidden by a fog bank—a jagged, gnarled peak that reached for the sky. The way forward was obvious: a dark, foreboding tunnel through the side of the mountain.

  The black volcanic rock stole what light penetrated the fog. As we sailed into the tunnel, the rock plunged us into darkness.

  No one spoke as Quinn lit the torches around the edge of the ship. Moments later, light flared behind us as Scarlet’s crew did the same. The darkness that surrounded us was as oppressive as the miasma that thickened the air.

  I stood at the bow of the ship and peered out ahead of us. I could make out the edges of the tunnel. It started to narrow and forced the ships into a single-file line. Bastion stood beside me, his sword lending more light. “Something doesn’t feel right, Ren.”

  “I know.” The area felt like a kill zone. The perfect spot for an ambush. If anything attacked, it would be a one-sided fight. “I hope this tunnel ends soon.”

  “You don’t think it’s going to continue like this and force us to fight in a straight line?”

  I shook my head. “No. That would make sense, yeah. It would weaken us. But Evey said something to me about this world: it follows certain rules, even if we can’t qui
te deduce what those rules are. And that doesn’t quite feel like one of the rules.”

  Bastion laughed. The sound echoed off the tunnel walls, giving it an eerie, unsettling noise. “You have more faith in this system than I do.” He hefted his sword in front of him and closed his eyes. Flames roared along the length of the blade and cast light across the entirety of the tunnel ahead of us.

  The volcanic rock reached out like hungry arms, ready to slash any flesh that drew too close and puncture any hull that came within reach. But no creatures laid in wait there. In fact, it seemed as if nothing at all was alive in this tunnel.

  “I’m not sure I’d call it faith in anything at this point,” I said. “But I have to believe that we’ll get out of here. And I have to do whatever it takes to maintain that belief.”

  Bastion nodded. “You’re right. And you keep the rest of us cheerful when it seems like hope is lost. So, to return the favor, I’ll stay up here with you and keep watch. My blade will light the way.”

  "Thanks," I said.

  We continued down the tunnel in silence, but with a friend at my side the darkness didn’t seem quite so oppressive.

  In the total darkness of the tunnel, I couldn’t tell how much time had passed. We moved forward, bit by bit, until a small part of me had begun to wonder whether the tunnel would ever end. Perhaps this was the trap, after all. Maybe we would never emerge from this tunnel. Maybe we would die here, in the darkness deep beneath a mountain in the middle of the sea.

  “Ren.”

  Evey’s voice shattered the silence, and I turned around to meet her gaze. Her face was solemn. I hadn’t eve heard her approach. “What is it?” I asked.

  She handed me a slip of paper. “Message from Scarlet. She passed it along the ships. Seems like her flagship is at the rear of our procession.”

  I looked down at the note and angled it toward the light of the lantern.

  Two hours down.

  I sighed. “Did you read it?”

  Evey shook her head. “No. I figured it was meant for you, and you would tell us if it was important."

  I looked back at the rest of my party. Wish, Rune, and Quinn all stood in silence, but close together—under the light of one of the lanterns. Everyone clung to whatever light they could find to escape the grip of the darkness. “It doesn’t need to be told,” I said. “Because there’s no turning back at this point.”

  Too much time had passed. We couldn’t turn around in here anyway. The only way out was forward—but still, my friends deserved to know. “Two hours have passed since we entered. We’ve got one hour left to destroy the corruption before our time is up.”

  Even in the darkness, I saw the color drain from Evey’s face. She showed no other sign of her fear. “Alright. Let’s keep it between us three, then,” she said. “I don’t want the others to lose hope.”

  “Maybe none of us need to lose hope,” Bastion said. The Prophet peered forward, his eyes narrowed. “Maybe I’m imagining it, but that looks like light at the end of the tunnel.”

  I followed his gaze. There, in the far distance, the darkness faded. “You’re not imagining it,” I said. “There’s light up ahead. But after so long in this darkness, that can only mean one thing: the final encounter.”

  “I would rather face whatever waits at the end of this tunnel than go through another hour of that,” Bastion said.

  I nodded. “Me too.” I looked to Evey and smiled. “Spread the word. Have everyone ready themselves.”

  She turned and walked across the deck, but I saw a spring in her step that hadn’t been there before. The tricks the darkness played on the mind were far worse than any monster that could come our way.

  Even with the light at the end of the tunnel, it took another twenty minutes to reach. We exited the tunnel into a large cove in the center of the mountain. The mountain itself was hollow up to where sunlight streamed through a hole in the ceiling.

  In the center of the cove, washed up on a pile of jagged rocks, lay the largest ship I had ever seen in my life. It dwarfed even Scarlet’s flagship, but one look told me the vessel had been here for ages. Moss and lichen grew wild across its surface, and vines wound their way through the taffrail.

  The name of this ship had been lost to time, but one thing was clear: the corruption was here.

  A massive stalactite jutted from the top of the mountain. A rope hung from it. At the end of that rope was a jar at least three feet in diameter and five feet high. It leaked a thick, black sludge that hissed and bubbled as it fell into the water in the center of the cove.

  And it hung completely out of reach.

  We stood in awe for a moment before Evey spoke. “The Great Turtles said my bow would be necessary to rid this realm of corruption, but I don’t understand how it is supposed to do anything about that.”

  I shook my head. “It’s out of reach. Maybe you have to destroy it.”

  “And spill whatever is still in that jar?”

  “It might be that the jar itself is corrupting whatever is inside of it,” Bastion said. “Destroy the jar, destroy the corruption.”

  As we debated what course of action to take, Scarlet brought her ship alongside ours. “So that’s it, then.” She whistled. “You weren’t kidding when you said you wanted to seek out the corruption. You can feel the evil from that thing.”

  I nodded. “And now we have to destroy it.”

  "And inside that giant ship is the treasure," she said.

  I nodded again.

  “Just one thing,” Scarlet said. “This is too easy. That jar contains a tremendous amount of power, right? Then there should be something here. Something guarding it. There’s no way we can waltz in here and do as we please.”

  The same thought had occurred to me, but I saw no indication anything else lived in this cove. “You may be right,” I said. “But if there is something here, then we should destroy this thing before it realizes what we’re up to. Evey?”

  She nodded. “Step back.” Evey drew her bow and nocked an arrow. She narrowed her eyes and adjusted the angle of her shot. It had to count—this first arrow might be the only one we got.

  Evey pulled back the bow string, lightning crackling over her fingertips, and took a breath. A split-second later, the arrow flew. It pierced the side of the jar and halted, the boom of thunder reverberating throughout the cove.

  Lightning crackled up the side of the ceramic jar and through the rope above it. The rope frayed, separated, and plummeted toward the water.

  And a split second before it reached the waves, a massive form exploded from the cove and swallowed the jar whole.

  A string of surprised shouts answered the entrance of the new foe. The shape appeared out of the waves and vanished just as fast—a blur of motion and speed. All that marked its passage was the churning water of the cove.

  “What…was that?” Evey asked. She had another arrow nocked and ready to fire at the monster.

  “No idea,” I said. “It stole the corrupted jar. Scarlet, looks like you were right.”

  A grunt was my only response. The Pirate King held a blunderbuss in her hands, her finger on the trigger. “Whatever that creature was, it was larger than this ship.”

  Evey fired an arrow at the entrance to the cove. The arrow sank beneath the waves and pulsed electricity across the breadth of the tunnel. “It needs to stay in here,” she said. “We have to destroy it and stop the corruption from spreading. And we have half an hour to do it.”

  “Spread out,” I said. “Let’s move off Betsy and onto the crashed ship.”

  “Is that a good idea?” Quinn asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to maintain mobility?”

  “Not and risk being capsized,” I said. I eyed the black water around us. It moved with a mind of its own. “I would rather find some measure of solid ground.”

  “Agreed,” Evey said. “I want a higher vantage point. The bow of the crashed ship is the perfect spot.” Without waiting for a response, she leapt to the rocks
below.

  I followed her, and a few moments later, the rest of the party joined me. “Stay there,” I told Quinn. “You’re right that having a bit of mobility is a good idea, and you can maneuver the ship. After all, we will need a way out of here once we kill this thing.”

  Evey used the taffrail as a ladder and made her way up the crashed ship. Moss covered its surface and turned every footstep treacherous. The cove remained calm. The creature did not appear again in the ten minutes it took us to traverse the surface.

  The upper area of the ship was flat, and more importantly, dry. Almost as if intended to be a battle platform.

  My party spread out across the platform. Everyone took a position around the area. At three different points along the upper platform, ancient cannons pointed out toward the water. Conveniently, a stack of cannonballs rested beside them. “Rune, think you can man those cannons?”

  “Cannons?” The Berserker’s eyes lit up. “If I can’t beat on something with my axes, sure. I’ll blast it out of the water.”

  “Good.” I nodded. “Bastion can help out, but I want him to focus on healing as necessary.”

  “Are you so sure this thing is coming back?” he asked.

  "Yeah. But it's going to wait until our guard is down. So we don't drop our guard."

  The idea was a good one, formed by the experience we had in this realm. But it was wrong.

  The creature broke the surface of the waves a few seconds later with a roar of pain. It rose into the air, lifted by a powerful, writhing tail. Scintillating scales covered its serpentine body. I felt a jolt of recognition.

  This was the creature I had seen in the distance on that night several weeks before. Scales in a hundred hues of red and blue reflected the dim light of the cove. The creature burned with a light all its own, but something inside it changed. Something was wrong.

  The blues and reds of its body faded, shifting to darker black. Wicked fangs burst from its mouth. Blood poured from its eyes, and the now-empty sockets burned with an evil fire.