“Well, that looks welcoming,” I said as I moved forward and studied the door. As I got closer, cold and heat radiated off of it in alternating blasts, chilling me one moment and making me sweat the next.
“So, what do we do?” Crash asked, staring at me as I reached up and grabbed the knocker.
“We see if anyone’s home,” I said and slammed it down as hard as I could.
24
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!” A voice that had clearly gargled with barbed wire and cheap whiskey echoed through the dungeon as the door before us lowered into the ground in a puff of crimson smoke. The room beyond was pitch black, and as I stared through the doorway trying to make out the details, scarlet flame erupted from beneath the whole of the ground.
“The floor’s some kind of chain link,” Dark Heart said, moving next to me and peering within. “I’m guessing that’s fire or lava below.” She swallowed hard. “I bet it shoots up from the floor on occasion too.”
“It certainly seems reasonable. It’s like the inside of a blast furnace,” I said as the walls within the chamber burst into sheets of writhing fire giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “the dungeon is on fire and you're on fire and everything is on fire and you're in hell.”
The sudden burst of flame instantly dried the sweat clinging to my body and chapped my lips. It was especially interesting because I had no physical body, just the manifestation of one. Actually, if that was true, then the heat shouldn’t bother me since it wasn’t reducing my health and Elizabeth wasn’t screaming at me. Still as I tried to will myself to believe I wasn’t being slowly cooked, and the temperature continued to rise, I found it a lot harder to ignore than it should have been.
“Holy fuck that’s hot!” George said, wiping his face with one paw. “Are you sure you really wanna go in there boss? I’m starting to think Tubs of Fun had it right. Why go in there when we can bang chicks. I mean, there’s one right there.” He gestured toward Dark Heart. “She’s not fuzzy enough for my tastes, but I bet the two of you—”
“Quiet,” I snapped, trying to wipe away the sweat on my forehead with the back of one hand. To be fair, while I didn’t want to go inside and having a horizontal dance with the hot as fuck chick who’d stabbed me in the neck sounded like a great way to work off some stress, I wasn’t sure it was the best plan at the moment. If the boss was in that room we had to go inside. Only that was the thing, I didn’t see the boss.
“Where’s the boss?” I asked, glancing at Dark Heart. Her eyes were narrowed as she peered into the room. “Shouldn’t he be in there?”
“Yes. He should be in there,” she replied, nodding at me, and for a moment, I could have sworn I saw fear flash through her eyes. “Maybe he spawns once we step inside?”
“Or maybe we go in there and flame shoots through the floor and we all get Kentucky Fried. Either way, I think it’s ladies first. And not because I’m a gentleman. Oh no. This is on account of it being one hundred percent your fault I’m a brain in a box,” Two’ Manchu said, peering over my shoulder into the room.
“I’m sure she had a good reason,” Crash said, his voice crisp and calm as he stared into the room. His forehead was creased in concentration like he was trying to remember something.
“I’ll go in first,” Dark Heart said, not looking at the barbarian. “Because you’re one hundred percent correct. I recruited you. It’s my fault you’re here.”
“Penny for your thoughts, Crash?” I asked, ignoring the two of them. Arguing right now wouldn’t help us get further along. If the barbarian wanted her to go in first, that was fine because I certainly wasn’t going to volunteer for that particular job.
“Well, in TG there is a boss in one of the pop up dungeons called the ghoul lord. He has a room filled with flame similar to this.” He gestured at the room. “Once the party enters inside, the room shuts sealing them in until either the party is dead or the boss is dead. And yeah, fire occasionally shoots through the floor.”
“So that’s probably what’s going on here,” I said, sighing at the priest. I’d never encountered this particular boss before, but it definitely seemed like something Crash would know about. “Do you know how to defeat the ghoul lord?”
“You hit him until he dies. It’s not really complicated. He does fire magic and has a ton of health, but he’s fairly slow and dumb in TG.” Crash smiled weakly. “That doesn’t mean this guy is slow and dumb though. Not everything seems to mirror TG as closely as I’d like.”
“Fair enough,” I said, looking back into the sweltering room and watching heat lines rise from the ground. “I guess we try.” I swallowed hard as I tried to sound confident but it was hard because I really didn’t want to step into a room full of fire. That seemed like a quick way to get dead, and that was absolutely the last thing I wanted to get. Still, what was the alternative? Not go in and die of starvation or whatever? Screw that. I’d rather go out fighting than like that.
“Well, let’s try it,” Dark Heart said, reaching back and unslinging her shield. It was nearly the size of her, and the polished surface glinted in the firelight of the room. With her other hand, she pulled a massive warhammer free from god knows where. I wasn’t sure where she’d got either of those items since they seemed really good, but I wasn’t going to argue about it right now. No. Right now, I was just glad she seemed well equipped.
“I still do not understand how you are using a two-handed weapon in one hand when you are not a barbarian,” Crash said, shaking his head in dismay.
“Because there aren’t classes here. There’s just willpower. I keep trying to tell you that and you don’t listen. All you have to do is believe you can hold a two handed weapon and you can.” Dark Heart sighed loudly and then looked at me. “Let’s go.”
She stepped into the blazing room, and as she crossed the threshold, the floor beneath my feet began to shake and the center of the room erupted into a tornado of swirling orange flame.
“Your party member has initiated an instanced boss fight. The boss will spawn in sixty seconds. Would you like to join the fray?” Elizabeth asked, and a deep, dark, angry part of me rose up, and yes, I’ll admit, I briefly toyed with the idea of leaving her to face the boss by herself because of what she’d done to me. Only I didn’t because not only were our chances at defeating the boss better with her help, that would be a totally dick move. I was better than that.
When I took my revenge, I’d do it face to face, and definitely not in a situation where having her dead could quite possibly make me dead too.
“Yes,” I whispered, and as I said the word, I stepped through the threshold.
The heat hit me like a punch to the face, and as I tried to suck in a breath, my lungs burned like I’d swallowed liquid fire. As George hopped in beside me, a funny thought struck me. He was barefoot, and we were standing on a metal grate over a lake of lava. His feet should have been instantly scorched. Hell, my boots should have turned to slag. Only neither of those things happened because none of this was real, and if none of it was real, none of it could affect me.
I shut my eyes, and instead of focusing on the heat of the room and willing it to leave me alone, which was hard because I could feel the flames practically licking across my skin, I did something else. I concentrated on what that weird bald kid had told Neo in the Matrix.
“It is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself,” I said, snapping my eyes open and focusing on the swirling flames in front of me. “None of this is real. It isn’t hot. I’m a brain in a fucking box.” As I remembered where I was and that I was safe in a fish tank full of goo, the heat burning me up from every possible angle vanished.
“Let’s fucking do this!” George said, glancing at me.
“You got it, pal,” I said, smirking at the bunny. “Let’s make Hell freeze over.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t leave me to die,” Dark Heart said, looking at me and there was a touch of relief in her eyes. She swallowed hard. “I sort o
f expected it. I mean, I’d understand…”
“I wouldn’t do that,” I said, and as I looked at her, I realized she was absolutely terrified. Not of me per se, but of us just straight up killing her. Good. She should be scared. What she’d done was reprehensible. “When I kill you, it’ll be straight forward.” I smiled, baring my teeth. “I will walk up to you and straight up fucking own you on the battlefield. I won’t kill you like this.”
“Why’d you go in there,” Two’ Manchu called from outside as Crash followed us inside. “She’s one of them, Kahn. She’s literally the foot of the man with her boot on our necks.”
“I’m not sure we can beat the boss without her,” I told him, turning back toward the superheated tornado. “Besides, I don’t kill people by leaving them to fight bosses all by themselves. I want them to see me coming and know their end is near.”
“Which is why you play a rogue?” Crash asked, laughing as he clapped me on the back. “Because they’re all about fighting fair.”
“I use my class the way it is meant to be played, and while I know you have a hard time with this, we’re not playing TG.” I pulled out my scythe and held it in front of me. I wasn’t sure what the boss would be like, but at the moment I had lots of room, and call me crazy, but with fire everywhere, I was sort of worried the ghoul lord would be on fire too. My scythe would give me a lot more room to maneuver. There was always the bow, and I might wind up using it, but at the moment, the scythe was my strongest weapon.
“While I may have been distracted by your hotness,” Two’ Manchu said, finally coming inside. He walked straight past Crash and stepped up to Dark Heart before putting a huge hand on her shoulder. “I have not forgiven you. I am not as nice as our friend there.” He gestured at me. “He’s right though. For now, we need to stick together, but there will be a time when you are much more expendable. In that moment, I will be there, and I will end you.” He licked his lips. “You will not see it coming.”
From the way he spoke and looked, I got the impression he was telling the truth. Worse, I did not wish that level of hostility upon anyone. Not even Dark Heart. Something about it made my skin crawl and my blood run cold.
Dark Heart didn’t respond with words. Instead, she turned and stared at the barbarian as the boss timer continued to count down.
“Dude, chill,” Crash said, looking up at the barbarian. “We need to work together.”
“For now.” Two’ Manchu replied, pulling out his Big Ugly Club and holding it with both hands in a way that suggested he was thinking about braining her anyway. “For now.”
For a second, I thought the two of them were going to throw down right there, and to be honest, I’m not quite sure what would have happened if the boss spawn timer hadn’t reached zero just then because the silence that followed those words was unbearable.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to deal with it much longer because I was suddenly much more concerned by the door behind us slamming back into place and sealing us inside with the boss.
I had half a second to focus on the tiny fact that we were locked in a room made of fire when the fiery tornado in the center of the room exploded outward in a weave of heat and flame. I threw my hand up, trying to shield myself from the immense glare as cinders sprayed across my armor.
“I hope ye have abandoned hope,” said towering creature that stepped forth from the inferno. It sort of reminded me of William Birkin from Resident Evil 2 after he’d gone and injected himself full of T-virus stepped forth from the inferno. Flame, raising one hand with four whip-like fingers that ended in glinting spikes. “Because you’ll find none here.” As he spoke, snakelike veins writhed across his skin and the giant milky eyeball in his chest blinked rapidly at us.
“You ready to do this?” I said, glancing at George, and as the bunny nodded to me, I turned my attention back to Birkin. “Pfft, you’re made of ones and zeroes. You’re about as scary as an angry calculator.” I pointed my scythe at him like I was going to use Blade Rush, only that would be a stupid idea because then he’d just slash me open.
“Come then. Let me show you what this calculator can do,” the ghoul lord grinned at me, revealing a mouth full of serrated teeth.
25
Before I could respond to the ghoul lord with a jab of my own, a wordless battle cry erupted from Dark Heart’s lips as blue light wrapped itself around her body. She charged forward, whipping her warhammer around like it weighed as much as a wiffle ball bat.
As her hammer came down in an overhead blow that would have crushed the ghoul lord into paste, the creature calmly stepped to the side, allowing the huge weapon to pass by him at a hair’s breadth. As it crashed into the metal floor with enough force to dent the metal, he backhanded Dark Heart in the face.
Her head snapped back as the sound of flesh smacking against flesh filled the air. The blue light enveloping her body flared brightly as her feet left the ground. She flew backward through the air like a crackling comet and crashed into the flaming wall before sliding to the ground in a heap.
Fire writhed around her, desperately trying to eat through the fast fading light around her body. At first glance, I thought she was dead, but then again, she hadn’t exploded into a flare of brightly colored pixels. Still, if she wasn’t dead now, it wouldn’t be long before those flames ate away at her personal shield, and then, well…
“Holy fuck,” Two’ Manchu said as I spun on my heel and sprinted for Dark Heart. “I thought she was supposed to be awesome.” He shook his head. “Who charges in like that?”
“Now you see what you have wrought, flesh bags.” The ghoul lord smiled, baring his glinting teeth. “I shall kill you all, and once I am done, I will absorb you into my own body to become even stronger. Be thankful, adventurers. In this way, attain immortality.” He smacked his grotesque paunch with one meaty hand. “Now come and try your luck.”
“George, do your thing,” I said as I slid to a stop beside Dark Heart. Her eyes were shut and her breath was shallow. Not good. “Two’ Manchu, use your bow. Crash, blast it.”
“Sure thing, boss!” George replied, fixing his bunny eyes on the monster. “Prepare to face the wrath of unrelenting winter, asshole!”
I wasn’t sure if the others complied or if it was just George because I turned my attention back toward Dark Heart. The fire writhing around her shield was so hot I could barely stand it. I reached in anyway, trying to grab her by the least flaming bit of clothing. As my hand closed around the collar of her chainmail, my health began to drop.
Unrelenting agony shot through me, and I gritted my teeth to staunch the scream as I jerked her away from the wall with all my might. She came away from the wall surprisingly easily. As her body slid away from the wall, the lashing flames receded, leaving her smoking, steaming body alone. A quick glance at her health bar nearly made me shriek. Her health had fallen to six percent. She was practically dead.
Right before my eyes, the blue light surrounding her faded, and as it did, her health dropped by another two percent. Fuck.
“Heal,” I cried, pressing my hand to her forehead as I poured all my focus into the spell. “Come on, Dark Heart. Don’t die.” I tried to smile. “I’m the only one who gets to kill you.” As I spoke, golden light wrapped around her body and she sucked in a hard breath. Her health had risen to eleven percent. Unfortunately, a quick glance at my mana told me a horror story. To bring her back I’d used eighty percent of my mana. Did that mean the spell used mana according to the level of injury instead of at a predefined rate?
I hadn’t noticed before, but if that was true, I couldn’t help her much more. Not if I wanted to stay in this fight. I gritted my teeth as I stared at her. If she woke up, maybe she could heal herself?
A wave of cold air hit me from behind as I decided to try once more.
“Heal,” I whispered, and this time her health surged upward to twenty percent as my mana dropped to zero. That wasn’t nearly enough to take her out of the danger zone, and worse, i
f something happened to me, I wouldn’t be able to heal myself.
“Take this, and this, and this!” George cried as more blasts of cold air hit me. It was a good thing he was attacking. Hopefully the other two were fighting as well.
Dark Heart’s eyes fluttered open, and she stared up at me. “You saved me.” The words were barely a whisper.
“Yeah, next time don’t be an idiot,” I replied, offering her my hand to help her to her feet. “Who charges a boss like that?”
She reached up and took my hand, and as she did, her features darkened.
“Watch out!” she cried, jerking me violently down. My feet went out from under me right as a fleshy fist tore through the spot my head had been occupying a second before.
The wind thrown off by the attack buffeted against me as I hit the grate hard and rolled onto my back as fear stabbed through me. I’d nearly gotten brained, and Dark Heart had saved me. The ghoul lord towered over me. A sheen of frost covered part of its body, but the monster seemed otherwise unscathed.
“It’s nothing personal, bub,” the ghoul lord said as it raised one fleshy foot to stomp me into putty. “But I have a simple rule. Always go for the healer.”
“Power Strike!” Dark Heart cried, coming to her feet as she swung the warhammer in an upward arc that caught the ghoul lord under the chin. The bow rocked the creature, causing it to lose its balance and stagger backward.
A smirk crossed my lips as she stepped forward and bashed the creature with her huge shield, knocking it back another few steps. Not only had she just mixed barbarian and paladin skills, she’d executed a two-handed move with one hand. My eyes widened as I realized just what was truly possible here. I mean, I’d sort of guessed, I could do most things within reason, but after the warning by the AI, I’d been a bit scared.
Soulstone: Awakening: A LitRPG novel (World of Ruul Book 1) Page 17