The throng at the doorway tried to grasp at the bigger one, attempting to tear out chunks for their own hunger. These zombie creatures didn’t discriminate. [Charge] blinked his eyes and backed up.
“Disssgussting,” Viper said with his nose wiggling.
Dusk was already hard at work setting smaller creatures alight. There was one thing that might make this insanely darkened scene feel better. I regripped the blade in one hand and tried to figure out what to do with the ball of fire. My planning went on for too long as [Charge] slowly turned around, half a [Heavenly Body Clone] sat broken in its mouth.
“Leeeeroyy!” I shouted while charging toward the monster’s back.
One giant arm hung onto the walkway as an anchor. Small bits of rock shook from above but nothing major came down. My legs bunched at the last second as I leapt toward the giant’s back. [Charge] reacted instantly and twisted around. His free arm batted into my side deflecting the leap toward a mass of [Heavenly Body Clone]s.
Half fleshed faces and giant limbs reached out for me. My arm pumped wildly throwing the ball of fire into the crowd. Monsters growled and barked in pain. One fell down then was immediately set upon by its former peers. My feet touched down as I fell. Shin bumped against rock and gave me a small wave of pain that I tried to suppress. Limbs grasped at me, desiring my [Dipped in Starlight] body. I quickly looked up and used [Blink] near a wall. Barking noises followed me in the wake of a disorienting spin.
[Charge] walked across the pathway looking like a glowing assed baboon. Chunks of our path crunched under its powerful and over-sized palms. My new position made me victim to gravity and I fell. [Blink] couldn’t trigger again fast enough and I tried to dig into the wall with a large blade. The motion only stalled my fall a little bit as I hung on. [Morrigu’s Gift] was the wrong shape for such an action.
“Sscrew thiss!” Viper shouted. He threw blades toward the boss but they sunk in without doing any damage to the creature’s health bar.
I took a breath and tried to steady myself. [Awareness Heightening] was in effect but it didn’t change cooldowns on my abilities. My fingers tightened their hold and I once again [Blink]ed, this time above the enemy [Charge]. [Morrigu’s Gift] slid across flesh but failed to find purchase. My legs locked around an arm and I spun the blade to hack again. As we tangled I ended upside down banging into its chest with my forehead.
“Throw the bodies over the edge!” I shouted to Viper. “Distract the lesser ones!”
Dusk flew overhead and kept flinging fire around, illuminating enough of the scene. Small spiders clung to a burning web up above. I would have been happy were there time to appreciate the death of so many bugs.
[Charge] went crazy and beat me, the ground, anything within reach. I shifted [Morrigu’s Gift] to one hand while the other anchored into the creature’s broken flesh. Dizziness swept through my head as we banged around.
Viper was tossing legless [Heavenly Body Clone]s over the edge. Barks echoed through the cavern as some of the more complete monsters tried to dive after fresh sources of food. Dusk sent small balls of fire after them. Heat seared through the room as the player hissed.
The walkway was taking a huge beating. Formerly smooth paths were now jagged or outright missing in places. Cracking could be heard from above. Monsters of various shapes all flooded over the edge in their mindless dives.
[Charge] grabbed me with its hands. My free foot struggled but found a solid platform to activate [Power Armor]. Metal banging preceded a sudden expansion of my toga. It hardened under the monster’s grip. Portions slid out in stages as [Charge] tried to squeeze me to death and lift my body toward its face. A final chunk slammed tight over my head just in time.
“Sshit!” Viper hissed in surprise.
[Charge] grunted from the effort of chewing on my head. He was like a giant child gnawing on a jawbreaker a size too big. My vision narrowed down to one small sliver that drool and bad breath could still make it through. The pressure around my chest loosened. Deep barking noises rattled my eardrums. I tried to see a location to [Blink] to but nothing was visible but glowing nasty teeth and bits of white blood from the dead [Heavenly Body Clone]s.
Status effects for [Deafened] and [Dizzy] came up. I swung wildly, unable to fully appreciate the neatness of [Power Armor]. [Awareness Heightening] made each moment with my head in this creature’s mouth feel like an eternity. Seeing anything past this visor while my arms were pinned was impossible. I didn’t even have time to consider where [Wild Bill] had gone.
The monster kept chewing. Viper was saying something. Smaller barks could be heard in the middle of other ones. I shifted [Morrigu’s Gift] to a one-handed short sword and tried to jab at the monster. I couldn’t see its health bar, and all the chewing was starting to make progress even on my [Power Armor].
My other hand stuck out, one foot pressed hard against the monster. Knees ached from trying to push back. Using [Recall] brought [Morrigu’s Echo] into my free hand. I couldn’t tell what shape it had and [Dizzy] screwed up my concentration. Both weapons flailed at the monster and the barks sounded strained.
A solid stream of blue shone through a hole in [Charge]’s cheek. The energy didn’t hit us but did get the walkway.
“Sshit! Android Sseven!” Viper’s loud hiss sounded muffled but close. Had we walked forward? Did [Charge] try to get him while still munching on me? Everything tipped to one side. [Charge] gave up his grasp on me and tried to stay upright.
We were falling off the edge. A second stream of blue came through while I tried to get my bearings. [Dizzy] made my eyes cross. A film of glowing slime made it harder to see. Viper was falling along with the rest of us.
I managed to [Blink] closer to the other player as all of us fell from the ledge. [Morrigu’s Echo] dropped from my hand into the abyss while I tried to get [Morrigu’s Gift] into a pickax type shape.
Viper’s hand was close enough to clasp onto mine. The Traveler had an instant death hold. A message talking about [Constrictive Grip] flashed by but I had no time to read the text. We were falling. Sparks flew as [Morrigu’s Gift] struggled to find purchase. Our path downward slanted enough and I pumped my arm into the wall, hoping that my fledging [Mountain Man] skills from training with Shazam might kick in.
“Hang on!” I strained to keep a hold of [Morrigu’s Gift] and Viper. Dusk clung to a wall chirping as we slid down. He might have been thinking something clever, but it was blocked by [Power Armor].
I almost regretted saving the other Traveler. With just myself I could probably have survived or even made it back to the top. Even neater, I probably could have found Android Seven, [Blink]ed to him and then pulled him from whatever perch he hid at. Still, going back up would have been a death warrant because of all the remaining [Heavenly Body Clone]s.
More energy blasts poured in from above. They were growing increasingly accurate. I tilted my head back and managed to see a body up above, glowing with blue light. That must be where Android Seven was, hanging from the ceiling, trying to kill us and take the boss loot for his own.
We slipped even farther.
“Viper! Will you be okay?!”
I had no idea what he said. The man shook, another bolt of blue came down along with more [Heavenly Body Clone]s. The grip on my free arm vanished. [Morrigu’s Gift] slid again under the sudden change of pressure. [Power Armor] still weighed me down. Dusk’s anxious chirping, undead monsters’ fading barks as they fell, and a hum of energy as we descended were all magnified under [Awareness Heightening].
I let the [Power Armor] go and felt a wash of grossness as my clothes turned back into a gore-drenched toga. Vision tilted down as I tried to get a handle on how far we were from the bottom.
Dusk dove, and let out a fireball lighting up the path. It vanished like a penny down an endless well. It was far, far below. I looked back up and saw a fifth blast of blue.
“Voices above, I hope you’re enjoying yourselves,” I grumbled and tried again to halt my impen
ding decent, but the weapon slipped.
Down I went. [Awareness Heightening] slowed time as I fell. My heartbeat was racing now, no longer a dull thud in the background. Moments like this were what nightmares were made of. Falling, dead bodies around me, death being rained from above. Dusk gave one chirp that was lost. I looked up and saw those two points of frozen starlight growing faint in the distance.
My body jerked and I had a small eternity where I expected pain to radiate from my legs upward. My arm jerked out of its socket and side slammed into a wall. Those parts of my body hurt and numbness shot down one leg as my kneecap jerked into something.
“I’ve got you,” Viper said. He repeated the words a few times as I looked around trying to find some place to [Blink] to safely. Gravity had driven the thought of trying a last minute change of direction out of my head. I ground my teeth and felt like a newbie, despite all that I had been given or trained for.
The ground was close enough to see. I [Blink]ed down and got onto hands and knees for a moment as my heartbeat settled. [Awareness Heightening] faded and the world once again had taken on its normal speed. My belly shook and quivered as I tried to push forward.
One foot at a time. Both legs slowly worked and I stood. My healthbar was under half. Mana barely existed. [Morrigu’s Gift] and [Morrigu’s Echo] clattered on the floor nearby. I stumbled to pick up my weapons and felt better.
“Hermess? Are you ssound?” Viper said. He must have climbed down somehow. His words seemed off to me. I looked around and tried to figure out what had happened.
[Charge] lay there on the bottom floor. One arm reached out awkwardly as it tried to go for a debilitated [Heavenly Body Clone] that had fallen with us. Gouged out chunks of flesh littered its chest and face from my wild stabs. Multiple smaller monsters looked like broken pancakes. I felt only mildly surprised when all these creatures managed to move arms and fingers in twitches. This fight had gone on too long. The boss barked one last time before my weapons gouged through the creature’s eyes.
“Yes. I feel much better now,” I said, satisfied that this fight had gone a much different route from [Barricobbler]. This creature’s death was added proof of my recovery. Xin’s return only served as part of my improvement. My bravery and willingness to leap into combat and save someone, the abilities I had. I had changed. I was better. My eyes closed briefly and I dared to feel just a little bit of happiness.
Session Seventy Six - The Breach
Stabbing creatures was excruciating with one arm barely functional. I tried to use the trick Shazam had taught me to get an arm back into the socket. The failure cost me health each time. Try number three popped up a message as game mechanics resulted in success.
Rearming yourself the wrong way?
Total Health Remaining: 30%
“Nngh.” I grunted while flexing fingers slowly. [Morrigu’s Echo] would be easier to wield now. Shoving a blade into [Charge]’s eyeball with the limb out of joint had hurt intensely.
My monster ending spree didn’t stop with the boss. There were other [Heavenly Body Clone]s that were even now falling down. Some piled up together. Luckily [Undying] was subject to the whims of [Gravity]. Their bodies cast of a small amount of illumination, but most of it came from the now dead [Charge]. [Dipped in Starlight] allowed me to finish them off.
“Well,” Viper said dryly after a glance in my direction. “That’ss that. Now we have to esscape.”
“If you’re full of loot, we need to survive and get back topside,” I said and heaved an exhausted sigh.
There were items, but none of them looked interesting at this point. Continue Online didn’t really operate by a magic scroll dropping system so I couldn’t just dig through endless bodies and come up with a ring of stupidity plus seven. Viper seemed to have some system so I settled for re-deading these undead creatures.
“Hurry up,” I said after making sure two more [Heavenly Body Clone]s stopped moving. They were falling down and creating an ever heightening pile.
Briefly, my eyes trailed a path upward. Could we let them stack up and then walk back off the ledge? No, that would take thousands of monsters, plus risk our loot. The idea was proof of my exhaustion.
I waved at the system menu to pull up a clock. Nearly four AM, sunlight wouldn’t happen this early anyway. Four days in-game was twenty-four hours of awareness. I needed sleep, food, and sunlight.
“Almosst. All thiss is good for uss,” Viper said while gathering loot. “Pluss, now I know ssecretss to thiss dungeon.”
“Reckless disregard for personal safety?” I quipped before feeling flushed. Well-rested Grant would never say such a thing.
“Yess. And moving fasst. I’m ssure other convictss would pay me a hundred pointss at leasst.” He shrugged then moved to the giant pile of bodies that kept increasing.
Selling information about a dungeon wasn’t my style. My life was more about moving from one destination to the next. If Xin’s jailbreak didn’t happen, I could easily do boss runs instead. Maybe. This one would have been impossible to solo. We were lucky Dusk’s pest control served well as a third member.
Pinging the area showed Android Seven far above. Big-O’s group was nowhere near us. There were marks on the wall where the larger creature had clawed. Even this entire pit we sat in looked like it had been widened out at the base.
My foot tapped the ground. This flooring felt far sturdier than the dirt and rock walls. Was there a paneling here or something housed down below? Had [Charge] really liked to dig so much he hit a zone boundary for Continue Online?
[Morrigu’s Gift] stabbed at the hard surface a few times but the floor didn’t even scratch. This might be a mystery for another person with the luxury of time. I turned to Viper and said, “We need to go quickly before other players can respawn and get in our way.”
“I’m full on loot, forty-six cores, the essence stone is getting heavy too. Any more and movement will be difficult.” Viper nodded. I glanced over and saw him holding a little crystal near the dead bodies. Sparks of energy jumped between the deceased and his small item. I really didn’t live the life of a normal adventurer, so cores, essence stones, and dungeon crawling loot was beyond me.
I shook my head. There were boxes waiting for my attention telling me about our boss fight results. Based on battle contribution and the fact that the two of us were still alive, I had gained about two hundred points. The box got waved away.
Dusk crawled down a wall carefully. He snuck over to a crevice nearby. His face poked through and let out a happy murmur of noise before vanishing.
“Watch for Android Seven,” I said to Viper while pressing a hand to my head. [Dipped in Starlight]’s status message flickered while my body felt heated.
Dusk turned and squawked. I faded out briefly while staring at Viper. The man managed to look up while barely tilting his head. Eyes bugged out a little and Viper’s body bowed. Then he shook and returned to a normal posture.
I pretended not to have been staring, in hopes that [Act: Straight Face] might keep me from looking disturbed. The crevice pass way led to a steep ramp up. My ball of fire showed fairly solid walls, but our path was narrow. Dusk was small and wiggly enough to not be thwarted.
One arm felt distorted and kept getting stuck. Viper grumbled a bit. I tried to use [Blink] to get farther up the walkway. The system happily told me no.
Warning!
Self-preservation has disallowed this action. Further attempts to meld your arm with a wall will result in damage.
“So, what are you in prison for?” I asked Viper as we crept our way upward. Each step ached and my fingers were barely responsive.
“Bodyguard. A player bribed me with two hundred gold to let him in for a ssecret meeting. Then killed a persson. Who knew letting NPCss die had conssequencess?” Viper said from behind me. He moved slower than I. “Ended up with a thousand pointss to work off.”
That explained why he was fairly calm working with me. Bodyguards probably had all so
rts of quests to interact with questionable people. It would only be a matter of doing the job and getting paid.
Our path kept going up. My ankles hurt. Knees buckled and my damaged arm failed to prevent a spill. Viper got caught in the slip as we dropped a dozen steps. He hissed at me but said nothing.
“Lucky.” I dusted off while trying to ignore the glowing white to my skin. [Dipped in Starlight] still flashed. Barks from half broken [Heavenly Body Clone]s were echoing far below us.
We traveled another twenty feet before Viper asked, “How many criminal pointss did you get sstuck with?”
“Seven thousand.” We were almost level with [Charge]’s floor. Our path tilted up unceasingly. I lifted the fireball and winced as my weight shifted. Light bounded up the hallway.
Viper hissed a low tone. He settled on saying, “That will take ssome time.”
“Maybe,” I said.
“Ah. It’ss time for my flight. The car iss here,” he said.
My upward climb halted. Turning to look at Viper didn’t reveal much in the way of expression. He never seemed to have much positive or negative tone. Everything felt almost passively ‘obsserved’. Even now he looked barely annoyed at the idea of leaving his character behind.
“I should take a break too. Have a safe flight.” I tried to sound professional and polite but couldn’t feel much of anything.
Continue Online’s reality disappeared as I logged out of the ARC. Dizziness hit as I stood. Lingering sensations from Hermes made walking hard. I inched toward the kitchen while clutching the wall. Everything in my two room home felt too open. Still, I might have claustrophobia by later today. Four mental days in a cave system couldn’t be helpful.
Food went down without thought about taste. Two glasses of water were gulped as I tried to focus. It was too early for coffee. Middle age ruined my ability to pull all night sessions.
Only one goal mattered right now, escaping with Viper and our points. An hour, maybe more of awareness would get me through. Afterward, I could give into the exhaustion threatening to drown my mind in unconsciousness.
Continue Online (Part 4, Crash) Page 17