“A naturalist? How amusing, my child,” the Earth Mother answers. “In case you haven't noticed, you are firmly in my grasp. If you don't submit to me, my servant will simply hold you until you run of air, and your character dies from asphyxiation. If any party member dies during this campaign, the mission is over. Will you allow your mission to fail, take your party down with you, and hang your head in shame? Or will you kneel before me and continue onward to victory in my name? Choose wisely, my child,” She delivers her ultimatum.
The player checks his mana pool, and confirms that his reserve is 100% full. He has been stalling for time to replenish his mana reserve, and now it is time to bust loose and show Her his strength of will! Lucious closes his avatar's eyes as he answers. “I am a player, first and most, with the right to choose my own destiny. I choose to be a naturalist, and force this elemental to release me.”
“Oh? How will you make my servant release you from captivity?” the Earth Mother asks incredulously.
“By wrestling control from you,” the mage answers and releases his telekinetic bubble at once. His hands now touching the raw earth, the player engages his magical sight. He sees himself as a purple star in a pitch black sky, and wills his light to expand outward to take over the sky.
In his real life ears, Lucious hears the sound of dice rattling loudly inside a bowl. The sound is an indication that the control over the giant earth elemental has essentially shifted over to a game of chance, and whether his Control Elemental spell will be able to overcome the elemental’s magical resistance. This rattling sound is reassuring to the player, as it is a sound that the spell caster has heard often whenever he tries to Polymorph monsters into harmless creatures. Please let me be lucky now; I’m due!
In the player’s visor, he sees the blackness pushes back, seeking to snuff out this tiny star that represents the mage’s will.
The purple light holds firm, regardless of how much pressure is exerted. Pushing back against the resistance, the scene slowly changes from black to purple. The push and pull continually changes the color of this small pocket of virtual world, turning the environment into a rapidly pulsating quasar. In one final burst of willpower, the purple light flashes brilliantly, and totally wipes out the blackness. The purple light pervades all senses for a moment, and then slowly diminishes to a low, purple dim.
Lucious finally opens his eyes, and wills his giant earth elemental to take him back to the surface. The earthen ceiling slowly parts way, allowing brilliant rays of light to shine into his earthen hole. The ground continues to rise, until the naturalist finds himself standing in front of the forest once more.
A golden ray of light suddenly appears before Lucious, and starts to trace the outline of a doorway in thin air. The golden light is moving in a slow, steady clockwise direction. When the outline is completed, a sudden burst of golden light forces the mage to turn aside. Once the blinding flash is gone, Lucious sees a shimmering, golden portal hanging in the air before him.
Tapping his magical staff once on the floor, the naturalist boldly walks through the magical portal.
Chapter 14 – Cemetery
As the rest of her companions enter their respective doorways, Diana suddenly finds herself alone in the so-called Room of Eternia. Looking around the room, she sees that all the television screens have gone dark. The only thing active in the room is the glowing, green colored doorway before her, beckoning the adventurer to enter.
Why am I hesitating, she questions herself silently. As she walks toward the doorway, her knees start to tremble. Let's sit down before I trip and make a fool out of myself before a live, streaming audience, she thinks as she sits down cross-legged on the ground.
“Might as well take out my solo equipment,” the priestess says aloud, trying to demonstrate her calm. She removes her backpack, hidden from view by her magical Cloak of Fire Resistance, and places the bag on the ground before her. Sticking out of the pack's left side pocket is her slingshot, a thick, elastic rubber band tied to a wooden fork with a six inch handle. Inside the right side pocket, accessible from outside, is a dozen stone ammunition for the slingshot.
Diana opens her pack and sets aside the torches, several flasks of holy water, some potions of cure poison especially marked with black stoppers, and a long rope attached to a small, three prongs grappling hook. Digging further into her pack, the priestess slowly unwinds the tightly coiled black leather whip, and wraps the bull whip around her slender waist. Reaching into the bottom of her backpack, she takes out a bolas, with two equal weight metallic balls tethered to a short rope, and sets it aside. She carefully puts back the rest of her belongings, and straps the backpack to her back, under her cloak.
Diana stands up, takes her bolas off the ground, and places the middle of the rope into the left hook in the belt at her waist. “I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be,” she says aloud. Taking a deep breath, she walks through the doorway, and hears the green door slam behind her back. Slam! The noise makes her jump slightly, even though she expected it. The devout priestess walks slowly in the dark passageway, putting her faith in the gods of Eternia to lead her to safety.
Soon enough, an opening appears before her. The priestess continues onward without hesitation, and finds herself in a cemetery! Startled by the unexpected sight, she stares at rows upon rows of graves, some marked with headstones and others without, dotting the field in front of her. There are no trees, no sounds of insects or birds, no signs of life at all. It is as if the field has been embraced in the bosom of the death god. Diana turns around, only to find that the tunnel has disappeared, leaving her behind to face whatever the dungeon designers have in store for her.
A horse cries in the distance, and the ground shake as the horse starts galloping in her direction.
Diana unhooks the bolas from her belt, and starts spinning the weapon in her left hand in slow, steady rhythm, ready to unleash it at the fast approaching horse.
The thundering gallop grows louder and louder as the horse approaches her position on the otherwise silent field. The adventurer narrows her eyes when she sees a black horse in the horizon. The horse is clearly of ill temperament, baring its teeth as it stares at her with its dark red eyes. Her jaws drop when her sight is directed to the rider grasping the reins over this wild horse – a headless man dressed in black and holding a pumpkin in his right hand! The pumpkin has a set of eyes, a nose, and a grinning mouth carved into the head sized pumpkin. The eyes are glowing dark red, with an evil aura emanating from the rider.
Diana bravely stands her ground despite being in the path of the evil creatures. She spins the bolas more rapidly, preparing to send the short-ranged weapon at the wild horse's front legs to entrap them. Suddenly, she sees the headless horseman lift up his right hand, and throw his pumpkin head at her! She instinctively dives out of the way, and the pumpkin explodes on the ground behind her. BBBOOOMM!
The player feels her physical hands sting in shock as feedback from her avatar receiving major damage from the explosion. “Oh crap!” she blurts out as she glances at her health bar, and sees a 25% hit to her health bar. As a spell caster she has half the health of a warrior like Conrad or Wesley. Diana makes her avatar curl into a ball, pulling the cloak of fire resistance around her body and rolling on the floor to extinguish the flames.
The priestess unwraps the cloak off her body, and sees the headless horseman standing ten yards away, facing her direction. The pumpkin head is slowly materializing again in the horseman's right hand. Diana's eyes widen with alert at the prospect of taking another hit from the pumpkin explosion, and quickly pulls out her slingshot. She breathes a sigh of relief when she sees that the cloak has protected the wooden weapon from the explosion. She starts running toward the still stationary enemy.
A few intense, pounding heartbeats later, the pumpkin head is fully materialized, and the horseman flicks on the reins, urging the horse to gallop towards the human. As the distance between the two combatants shorten from ten yards down
to five, four, three . . . the horseman lifts up his right hand, ready to toss the deadly pumpkin head again!
“Oh no you don't!” Diana shouts as she expertly aims the slingshot at the pumpkin head, and releases the rubber band. The half pound stone pellet flies through the air, and punches a hole through the pumpkin head.
The impact causes the pumpkin to explode. KABOOM! The fiery explosion envelops both rider and horse, immolating the duo and quickly reducing both to ashes. The shock wave from the explosion knocks the priestess to the ground. Crack! Diana winches at the sound, knowing that some of the flasks of holy water inside her backpack broke when she landed on her back. I'll sort it out later, she thinks to herself as she slowly gets up.
Sqwik.
The adventurer freezes for a moment when she hears the unexpected sound. Diana turns her head slowly, intently examining her immediate surroundings as she tries to locate the source of the sound.
Sqwik-crit.
The priestess looks down at her feet, and sees the earth slowly shifting, as if something is trying to crawl to the surface. Staring at the spot on the ground, she takes a few steps back, and starts to untie the bull whip from her waist.
Finally, a skeletal hand breaks free from the ground!
“Oh no you don't!” Diana says as she moves forward and starts stomping on the revealed limb, cracking it and breaking the hand. Crack! She stomps on the ground near the hand, hoping to get the rest of the newly resurrected skeleton.
The priestess looks around, and see dozens of undead struggling to break free of the dirt and sand, and rise to the surface. “Are the dungeon designers really that into whack-a-mole?” she complains aloud with disgust. She takes a knee on the ground, and quickly removes her backpack. Sticking her hand in the now soaked pack, she rubs her hand against the holy water and starts to smear her whip with the water. She reaches her hand into the pack, and pulls out an intact flask of holy water. She slowly pours the water along the length of her whip, until the flask is empty.
The priestess takes a glance at the ground, and sees that the skeletons have started to rise from their former resting places. She quickly straps on her backpack, and runs toward the half risen undead. She stomps on an uncovered arm. Seeing an uncovered skull nearby, Diana pulls the entire length of the whip back behind her body. Remembering to aim her thumb at the direction of the skull, she brings the whip forward. Crack! When she sees that the end of the whip has wrapped itself around the skull, she yanks hard on the whip for its retrieval, remembering to cock her left arm back and to the side, away from her body. The whip pulls the skull free from the rest of its skeletal body, and the undead quickly turns to dust.
Diana looks around, and decides to head for the greatest concentration of nearly risen skeletons. Pulling her mace out of its loop at her belt, the priestess goes on a holy rampage, attacking with her whip in her left hand and her mace in her right hand. Bam! She slams her steel ball-on-a-handle melee weapon down on a skull, and the skeleton quickly turns to ash. Crack! She takes aim at another skull with her whip, and yanks to decapitate the skeleton. Thank the Gods of Eternia these appear to be low level skeletons, or else I wouldn't be able to kill them off that easily, she thinks.
Bam-crack! Bam-crack! The holy warrior attacks with a methodical rhythm, not allowing any of the skeletons to lay a hand on her. Her health bar is down by a third, and she does not have the time to spare on a healing prayer right now. The priestess repeatedly swings down with her mace, and as she pulls back her weapon she unleashes a crack of her whip. After doing this one-two sequence almost two dozen times, her mace harmlessly bounces off her target. The player checks her stamina bar, and sees that it is completely empty! "Damn!" she blurts out in frustration at her mistake. I got carried away with my melee attacks, and forgot to keep track of my stamina!
Suddenly, skeletal hands grasp her ankles from the ground, keeping Diana firmly in place!
Seeing no choice but to utilize her holy powers now, the priestess pushes her head down until her chin touches the cross on a necklace around her neck. She starts to chant a prayer to Turn Undead: “May the Gods of Eternia take pity on these lost souls! May the Gods of Eternia return them to their eternal rest!” A powerful, white glow emanates from her body, and instantaneously expand in a blinding flash of light in a ten yard radius. All skeletons touched by the holy light immediately crumble into dust, returning to their eternal rest.
Diana shakes the dirt and ash from her white robe, and breathes a sigh of relief now that the long skirmish is finally over. It has been a long time since she had to fight solo like this. Good thing these guys are low level mobs, she thinks to herself again. The player quickly checks her player log, and sees that she had just knocked out fifty skeletons, along with the much more powerful headless rider.
Suddenly, Diana hears the sound of galloping in the distance, forcing the player to turn her attention back to the field of the dead. “What now?” she groans aloud. “It's almost unfair the way the dungeon designers are stacking enemies one on top of another, without giving me a break to recharge my energy,” she complains. “Time to hide!” she decides, in order to recharge her stamina and mana bars.
Surveying the field, Diana sees a nice, shallow grave with a headstone and jumps into the fresh pit without hesitation. Sitting up, she quickly scoops the dirt, and dumps them over her legs and torso to cover them up. She leans back until her head is inside the grave. The adventurer lifts up her arms, and blindly scoops dirt from her surroundings and spreads it over her head. Finally she folds her arms, and tries her best to shift the dirt on her torso to cover her arms. Then she waits.
Clog-clog-clog. The horse takes a leisurely jog along the path. At the command of its master, the horse stops in the middle of the cemetery, where piles of scattered dust drift as the wind blows softly along the ground. Finally, the rider dismounts, and kneels down to examine the dust more closely. Suddenly, the rider stands up, casting his eyes about his surroundings, as if something is amiss. The mysterious rider slowly walks around the field, as if retracing the path of the conflict on the battlefield that had just ended.
With the senses of a bloodhound, the newcomer continues walking along the cemetery until his tracing takes him to the make-shift grave. Abruptly, the rider reaches his hand into the earth, and pulls out the hidden priestess.
“Wha!” Diana cries out in surprise. Her eyes widen in fear at the sight of her captor – a death knight! Feared heralds of the death god, death knights resemble skeletons in outward appearance. However, they wear knightly armor, with the black circle symbol of death on their chest plate. Powerful warriors in their own right, their most feared ability is the “Finger of Death,” a once-a-day power to expel a living creature's soul from its mortal shell at the mere touch of a fingertip.
“Foolish girl,” a raspy, scratchy voice leaves the death knight's mouth as he stares into her face with his glowing red eyes through a pitch black helmet. A black aura of death surrounds the foul creature. “You dare hope to hide your living soul from me?” the death knight scoffs as he holds the priestess up in the air by the collar of her white robe.
Diana kicks out with both legs against the knight's armored chest, and pushes back, causing her robe to rip as she wrestles free of the enemy's grasp. She quickly backs away from him further as she pulls out her slingshot. Damn it, she swears to herself, I don't have the mana to use another Turn Undead on this enemy. Probably the way the dungeon designers scripted it, she realizes sourly. They made waste my stamina and mana on the low level skeletons, and now they are having fun watching me squirm in the presence of this boss level monster, she fumes.
The death knight laughs when he sees what she is holding in her hands. “You think that pea shooter will do you any good?” he taunts.
“Only one way to find out,” the priestess retorts bravely, showing absolutely no fear of her enemy. She pulls back the thick rubber band, and lets go. Whack!
The half-pound stone pellet punches
a hole through the undead monster's chest armor. “How is this possible?” the fallen knight hollers in pain. His armor is supposed to be top notched, and practically invulnerable against non-magical weapons!
“Easy," Diana quips. "My pellets were gathered as stones from church grounds, polished up into round ball pellets inside a church, cleaned in holy water, and finally blessed by the head priest of my church. They do quite a bit of damage to undead creatures, like yourself,” Diana generously explains the origin of her special pellets. This is why she has been reluctant to use her slingshot in the previous encounters, to save her ammunition for special undead monsters like the death knight. “Round two,” she adds cheerfully as the priestess unleashes another blessed pellet into his chest.
The death knight stifles his cry as another hole is punched into his chest, and tries to rush the human with his hands out. "It's time for you to meet Death, little girl!"
Retaining a firm grip on her slingshot, Diana keeps back tracking away from the death knight. She makes sure to stay beyond well the reach of the dreaded Finger of Death. In the meantime, she snaps pellet after pellet at her fearsome foe. Soon, she reaches into her backpack's side pocket, and finds the pocket empty. “Uh-oh,” she utters.
Seeing that the pesky priestess has run out of those blasted pellets, the death knight charges her with renewed fury. He mentally commands his undead steed to quietly sneak upon the human from behind.
Diana drops her now useless slingshot, and pulls out her steel mace. I can still use this mace to knock his hands away from me, she thinks to herself as she hops backward again.
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