“Shadow-crap!”
My Runecraft skill was level 35, which was 16 points from the Expert rank. I had to come up with a different method, and fast. The portal had stabilized and was now fully open.
I scanned the design mode for inspiration: known runes, known schemes, enchantment effects, power bar …
That’s it!
The enchantment was powered up with exactly 1,000 MP. Maybe if I overload it …
I started pouring mana into the enchantment as swiftly as I could.
… 130 percent … 160 percent …
An arm appeared from inside the portal. A delicate, yet strong arm.
Come on, come on … I prayed silently, forcing out my mana even faster.
… 190 percent … 220 percent …
The hand pushed through, followed by the rest of the body, revealing a sneering face.
Vatras.
My mind whirled, trying to devise some sort of plan for how to handle this new addition to the game.
… 260 percent …
Vatras had completely passed through the portal now and another arm appeared behind him.
With a final heave, I forced 2,000 MP into the enchantment, bringing it up to 301 percent. I was completely out of mana. Again.
It was getting ridiculous.
The runes on the ground began writhing like snakes, deforming the schema. The portal shuddered and winked out of existence. The arms fell to the ground, severed at the elbows. The runes continued to twist, spewing erratic magical interferences, distorting the air. I could sense the space around us warp, prohibiting the use of any further spatial magic. My own included.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my glorious former boss. I was looking for you.” Vatras smiled unpleasantly. He wore his customary Epic leather armor, adorned with magical charms and trinkets. He took in the sight of the pit walls with obvious disdain. “My, my, how the mighty have fallen. Such a … primitive foundation. Though I guess it matches your current state … Master.” He gave me a mocking bow.
I was in serious trouble. Vatras was a high-level veteran player who had fought and won against powerful monsters. My only chance was to somehow reduce his health below 50 percent, so I could try using the new staff’s Castigation power. I also needed to reduce my own health; somehow that didn’t seem like it was going to be a problem.
But first things first.
Come to me! I projected my thoughts.
Vatras didn’t seem in a hurry to resume fighting. I couldn’t figure out why he was procrastinating, but I didn't care. His evil-guy-monologuing act suited me just fine. He also didn’t seem overly troubled by the Eternal Night’s oppressing debuffs. It was understandable. At level 310, with over 3,200 hit points, a measly minus ten percent to his stats wouldn’t make much difference.
I took out my last level 200 void crystal and drained it, restoring my mana to full, then cast Mana Shield.
“I have underestimated you,” my arch-nemesis continued, heedless of my actions. “You have somehow defeated a hundred players, most of which are higher-level than your own mobs. You even sent two high-level players packing. Those sorry excuses for assistants chose to run instead of risking the death penalties.” He sighed. “Finding good help is so hard these days.”
I grasped my demon staff tighter, the feel of the Epic weapon in my hands somewhat reassuring me. Then I started channeling my mana.
“Speaking of lousy helpers, where’s yours?” He looked around.
I could sense him approaching, but in order for the attack to be effective, I had to come up with some sort of diversion. And quickly. I leveled my staff at Vatras, drawing his gaze to it. “He’s right … over … here!” With a fluid motion, I went all out, launching empowered drilling arrows at him, followed by my dagger, and unleashing the pent-up rage in me in the form of a triple-charged Blood Wrath.
Acting on instinct, Vatras lifted both arms to protect his face, obscuring his vision. The burst of magic missile, blade, and ray of energy struck all at once. Several charms across his armor lit up, and a green sheen of force flared, deflecting the arrows and dagger, but Blood Wrath punched through.
Blood Wrath hits Vatras for 264 damage [(base 132 X 3) - 33% magic resistance]
His health bar dropped slightly, but not nearly enough.
Vic, keep me updated on his HP levels! I shouted mentally.
Vatras dropped his arms, his eyes shooting daggers at me. “Why you little fu–”
That was when the Outrider dropped from the sky, leading with his huge sword aimed straight at my nemesis’s head.
My attack had served its purpose as a distraction, and Vatras was caught too off guard to dodge. But one of his charms flashed again, and the sword that was meant to split his head only cut him instead. It left a large gash all the way down to his chest, inflicting nearly 500 damage and further dropping his health.
The damage was not nearly as high as I hoped it would be. On a lesser foe, even with the magical protection, that hit would have caused twice the damage, but the power gap was too large. Seventy levels of disparity were no joke.
To make matters worse, we’d had the element of surprise on our side in that first attack. With that gone, the Outrider didn’t stand a chance, celestial being or not.
I stepped to the side, putting my minion between me and my enemy while continuing to channel mana for another spell.
“I don’t know where you got this creature from,” Vatras scoffed, “but it will not save you.”
The Outrider put his palms together, sending a wide beam of pale blue light at his opponent. Vatras grunted as the beam hit him, shaving off some more health.
My heart skipped a beat. I can do this!
In response, Vatras produced a knife from his belt and stabbed forward. Though it was barely larger than a letter opener, it was heavily enchanted.
The Outrider, whose HP had regenerated somewhat by now, stopped dead in his tracks. Ribbons of light flowed from the small puncture wound, spreading all over the celestial being. He tried swinging his sword but was fully wrapped up by the energy. Then, he simply fell apart, disintegrating into nothingness before even hitting the ground.
“Alone at last,” Vatras growled. He took a threatening step toward me but stopped when he saw what I’d prepared for him.
Since my drilling arrows and dagger proved ineffective, I had used the brief moment the Outrider bought me to cast a fully empowered direball. When I initially cast it, the spell was raw, not yet part of my repertoire, and without skill level. But thanks to my boss bonuses it was level 6 now and more powerful. Empowering the spell doubled its effects, and the staff enhanced it even further. I pointed the weapon directly at my foe’s chest and unleashed the spell.
A huge sphere of energy the size of a wrecking ball erupted from the tip of my staff and impacted Vatras, fully engulfing his body. Then it exploded.
Direball hits Vatras for 192 damage [base 288 - 33% spell resistance]
Being within the area of effect, I got hit as well. My shield absorbed half the damage, then I was sent hurtling against the pit wall, losing 20 percent of my health.
“Well that looks painful,” Vatras said casually, brushing his ringed fingers over his slightly scorched chestpiece.
The direball had indeed bypassed some of his defenses, but the damage was only enough to bring him down to roughly 60 percent health. I would need to cast the spell again two or three times to bring him below 50 percent, but I doubted Vatras was going to just stand there and let me slowly bombard him to death. I had to come up with another plan.
Then, to my horror, he retrieved a dark red bottle from his inventory and raised it to his lips.
My blood froze in my veins. That was a Master-ranked health potion, one that would restore him completely.
I could
hardly breathe as the moment seem to stretch on and on, but then, to my immense relief, he seemed to think better of it. The Manapulators must have truly hit on hard times if he had to reconsider downing a thousand-gold worth of potion. Then again, he did have over half his health remaining and I had just fired all my big guns.
Vatras put the potion back in his inventory, then turned to address me. “Now if you’re finished playing around, I have an offer for you.”
Screw that. I needed more firepower. Kaedric, how’s the fighting near the temple going?
Rhynorn? I saw him die!
That was good news. I needed a few more people on my side in this fight. If we concentrated our firepower, despite our relatively low levels, we should be able to do enough damage to get his health below half. I only hoped Vatras’s vanity would give us the time to manage that. I was starting to think of my nemesis as a high-level raid boss.
My former lieutenant arched an eyebrow. “You don’t seem to want to listen. Very well, maybe this will get your attention. Remember this little trinket?” He showed me a platinum ring studded with rubies.
I recognized it instantly. It was one of my old rings. An Artifact-ranked one.
“No,” I whispered.
“Yes,” he sneered.
With a deliberate gesture, Vatras activated the ring.
It started raining.
Green droplets of acid washed down on us. The drops bounced harmlessly off my shield, each on its own not strong enough to penetrate the barrier, but together they exacted a serious toll.
As the ring-wielder Vatras was unharmed, but others were not so fortunate. Shouts of pain and surprise came from the distance. It seemed I couldn’t count on the players’ assistance after all.
To make matters worse, the barracks itself started taking damage. The wooden beams and even the stone walls began to melt under the powerful, corrosive rain. I knew the ring’s effect covered a hundred-meter radius, which easily encompassed half of our buildings. The arrogant bastard was slowly reducing my village to rubble.
“Stop it!” I shouted, unleashing everything I had in me.
Another volley of drilling arrows and my dagger went flying toward his face, I even threw one of Guba’s poison grenades and pulled cascading sheets of darkness on top of him.
But once again, all my attacks proved ineffective. A few more charms flickered to life around his neck. The attacks swerved away from him, hitting the ground, and the darkness was held back. The grenade simply disappeared in a puff of smoke.
“Now, now …” Vatras clucked his tongue. “Is this the proper way to address your betters?” Then he backhanded me.
His momentum was not even slowed as his hand struck my shield and broke it apart, catching me on the face. That single, offhand slap sent me flying backward to crash against the pit wall, again. I was reduced to half my health.
With my shield broken, the acid rain hit me and my health plummeted. I coughed and forced myself to ignore the pain as I cast another shield.
“You’re still alive Oren? Good, I was worried I had used too much force for a moment,” Vatras mocked. “Or maybe I should address you as ‘Dread Totem’ now? I heard that’s what you go by these days. Gotten a bit native, haven’t you? Being stuck playing a goblin for two months has taken its toll?”
I bared my teeth at him, ready to launch myself on his neck.
“Hey there,” a voice called from above the pit. We both glanced up, startled.
It was Malkyr.
The large man looked awful. He’d lost all his hair, his armor had half melted from the acid, and his trademark axe was nowhere in sight. He was down to a quarter of his health but was still grinning his boyish grin.
Damn players and their pain immunity, I thought sourly.
Vatras eyed him for a moment. “Beat it,” he finally said, having no doubt concluded the low-level player was no threat. “If you try to intervene I’ll send you for a respawn.”
Malkyr lifted both arms. “Hey, don’t worry about it, I’m not going to do anything stupid, I’m too badly wounded.”
Vatras grunted and turned to face me again.
“Besides,” Malkyr continued brightly, drawing back Vatras’s gaze, “I’m just the distraction.”
Vatras’s eyes widened with realization, just a fraction of a second too late.
Roaring, Rhyno came flying through the air, wielding Malkyr’s Greataxe, whose runes were glowing bright red. The Ogre landed with his axe leading, striking Vatras on the shoulder. The axe glowed, the charged runes delivering additional damage on top of the physical attack, and set him on fire.
Vatras didn’t even budge at the tremendous blow, his armor blocking most of the damage. He also didn’t seem overly perturbed by the flames licking at his body.
Rhyno stared with incomprehension as Vatras snorted in derision and slashed at him so quickly the move barely registered. The hulk dropped to the ground, his health at zero. Somehow, he’d even managed to dispatch Malkyr as well.
Vatras turned to face me again. “Now, if there are no more interruptions …”
The flame flared, burning a small chunk of health before dying out entirely.
No! It’s still not enough! I clenched my teeth. Castigation required the enemy’s health to be below 50 percent. I looked around desperately, trying to figure out a way, any way, to inflict more damage.
My eyes were drawn to a faint tendril of information that was wafting off Rhyno’s cleaved corpse.
The ring! I realized with excitement. The Ogre was not dead yet; the cursed ring’s final charge was keeping his soul from escaping his body.
I poured everything I had into a single spell, concentrating like never before to make it happen. The energy cage was meant to contain an enemy and its offensive magic. I prayed to Nihilator and luck that it would let this one through.
Heal Followers.
Healing waves of magic spread around me, covering most of the pit area. Rhyno’s gruesome wounds quivered, slightly knitting together.
The Ogre remained motionless on the ground. His body was torn and his legs almost severed, but I could sense he was alive. His health in the single digits.
Vatras sneered. “Was that supposed to impress me? Did you really think trying to heal me will make me more sympathetic?”
I leveled my spear-like staff at him, locking my eyes with his. “I wasn’t aiming for you.”
The Ogre’s giant hand wrapped around Vatras’s leg, his sharp claws digging into the flesh and drawing blood.
I sprang into action, thrusting my spear at my hated enemy. But again, he proved his superior strength. His arm shot out, catching the sharpened tip on his armored bracer and stopped it dead. The three spells stored within discharged, and his charms activated once more, deflecting the missiles.
“Nooo!” I cried, a sense of dread spreading over me. I had missed my chance. I was so close!
“Pathetic,” he sneered, easily freeing his leg. “Well, since I can’t make you hold still long enough to listen … recognize this?” He produced a small round item from his belt.
I did and instinctively took a step backward. I tried teleporting away, but my magic fizzled, hampered by the distorted spatial runes.
“Yes, this is another Imprisonment Pearl, though not an Artifact-ranked one like before. For a mere level 40 goblin, a simple Rare-ranked should suffice. I doubt you possess any other Epic items like that Outrider bracelet. So, in short …” He tightened his fist around the pearl, crushing it.
A net of cascading colors spread around me, trapping me inside an energy cage. Escape had become impossible. This prison could contain
up to a level 100 monster, including its abilities and spells. Vatras had me trapped. Again.
I looked at his hateful, smug face and hot waves of rage passed through me. I could almost feel my sense of self taking a step back and my instincts kicking in. I bared my teeth and threw myself against the energy wall, clawing at it with my long, goblin nails. “I’ll kill you!” I flailed, hissing and spitting.
“Calm down!” he barked at me. “I won’t kill you. Yet.”
I somehow reined in the hot rage welling inside me, but I could think clearly again. This energy cage would block all of my normal attacks, but Vatras didn’t know my demon staff was an Epic weapon. It could penetrate the barrier. That meant I still had a chance.
I analyzed Vatras and saw his health was at 1,410. That meant even a successful Castigation with three drilling arrows would not be enough. But if I channel three explosive charges into his body, even if they were of a lower level … I considered the possibility, then started channeling an empowered direball into the staff.
Vatras nodded as he saw me calming down, dismissing my actions derisively. “Good, now listen carefully to my offer because I will not repeat it. I’m offering you a chance at some of your old life. The guild needs your Prime badges. Return with me to Everance and help me manage the Manapulators. The guild operations have taken a hit, and as the person who founded it, you’re best-suited to handle logistics. We will pass you off as some quest reward butler, so no one will suspect you’re actually a player.”
I looked at him in amazement for a moment, the shock of his request nearly breaking my concentration from charging the staff. “You … you want me to come and help you manage the guild?” The very notion was ridiculous, and a chuckle escaped my lips.
Vatras frowned. “You will either do it or suffer the consequences. You can’t log out, can you?”
My alarmed expression was obviously all the answer he required. “That’s what I suspected. Playing as a monster has no doubt carried serious repercussions. Sloppy, Oren, very sloppy. However, I can make sure your imprisonment will be as comfortable as possible. You’ll have food, drink, and safety. Quite generous, don’t you think?”
Life Reset- EvP Page 64