That couldn’t happen.
I gritted my teeth and took off, sprinting toward the boss as hard as my hasted legs would carry me. As lightning crackled across the sky, I leapt through the air, gathering power in my scythe and swinging it in one crazy arc.
“Stun Shock!”
System Message: Your skill has failed.
As my scythe smacked harmlessly into the boss, lightning arced down from the sky, shattering my summoned skeletons into pieces, and throwing me backward through the air. My bone armor disintegrated as I fell to the ground, my HUD flashing angrily because I was down to thirty-five percent health.
I tried to get to my feet, but everything was too blurry for me to do more than flop over on my stomach.
“Kahn!” Dark Heart cried out, running toward me as the boss’s laughter filled the horizon. Still, I could already tell she wouldn’t make it to me in time. Mostly because the boss had somehow knocked me the opposite direction from the walls and now stood between us.
As his shadow fell over me and his burning eyes locked onto me, I knew it was over. It was a strange feeling that. Knowing I was going to die.
Honestly, I thought I’d see more, thought maybe my life would flash across my eyes or something, but it didn’t happen. Even as the Ascendant Reaper wrapped his bony hands around the collar of my armor and hauled me into the air, I felt nothing but cold and empty.
I had failed.
My perfect stats hadn’t cut it, and neither had all my planning. The boss would kill me and then my friends would be next.
It was lame.
And man, what kind of tank dropped agro at the start of a fight? I mean, come on?
“Do you have any last words, adventurer?” the Ascendant Reaper said, drawing me so close to his face that I could feel the hot stink of his breath on my face. The smell, like rotten eggs and ham filled my nostrils, and a funny thing happened then.
I realized I didn’t want to die.
I mean, okay, I hadn’t wanted to die before, but this? This was different. I really didn’t want to die. No. I wanted to live. More than anything, I wanted to live.
“Yeah,” I muttered, my pain, my rage, and my frustration filling my voice. Only instead of shoving it down like normal, I embraced it. I let it flow through me. “Skull Shatter.”
Magenta fire covered my scythe as it arced outward. The butt of my scythe slammed into the side of the boss’s skull, knocking the monster sideways and causing it to drop me. I collapsed to the ground as it stumbled around stunned.
The taste of blood filled my mouth as I unequipped my scythe and pulled out my black mithril dagger. Then, without thinking, I leapt onto the boss’s back and drove my dagger into the back of its head as hard as I could.
“Critical hit! Damage has been doubled!” Elizabeth whispered into my ears as I withdrew the dagger and prepared to strike again. Only, before I could, the boss evaporated beneath my attack, and I collapsed to the ground where it’d been.
“Level up! You have reached level fifteen. You have gained one physical damage. You have gained one magical damage. You have gained one magical damage reduction. You have gained twenty-two health and thirteen mana. Your total health is three-hundred-eighteen. Your total mana is two-hundred-seventy-four mana,” Elizabeth said as blue leveling light surrounded me, and what’s more, it’d given me enough experience to bring me eighty percent of the way to level sixteen.
Character: Kahn
Alignment: Neutral
Level: 15
Health: 318
Mana: 274
Synchronization: 90%
Strength: 15 (20)
Dexterity: 15 (20)
Constitution: 15 (20)
Wisdom: 15 (20)
Intelligence: 15 (20)
Ridiculous, insane laughter burbled from my throat as I stared at the items the boss had dropped. Part of me wanted to pick them up and identify them, but most of me was too surprised to believe we’d won.
System Message: Wave six will begin in thirty seconds.
As I stared at the message on my screen, a sense of despair washed over me. Partially because the boss hadn’t counted as a wave, but mostly because who knew how many waves there would be, and now I had to run back to my gate.
There wouldn’t even be time to check on Crash. I’d just have hope Crash was all right. I mean, I was pretty sure he was okay because he was still showing he was alive in my party window, and where the fuck were Sabre and Two’ Manchu?
“You okay?” Dark Heart asked, offering me a hand which I gratefully took. Then she handed me the cloak and scythe the boss had dropped. “Take these. I dunno what they do, but I doubt I can use either.”
“Thanks,” I said putting them into my inventory, and as I did, George tugged at my leg.
“What are you going to do with that?” George asked, pointing at the spot where the Ascendant Reaper’s skeletal steed still stood. Only as I looked at it, I realized its image was being cast by a saddle lying on the floor next to its feet.
“Is that a mount?” I asked, eyes wide as I stared at it and walked forward. I knew I had to hurry because the next wave would begin soon, but damn, mounts had been incredibly rare drops in TG. I’d gotten a couple of the suckier ones after months of grinding since some seriously had a one in a million drop.
“I think it is?” Dark Heart said, her heart sinking as she stared at it. “I want it, but I’ll let you take it if you want.”
“Does it give bonuses?” I asked, approaching the creature, and as I picked up the saddle, I realized it was already identified.
Mount: Skeletal Horse
Health: 250
Mana: 250
Speed: 150%
“It doesn’t seem so,” I said, shrugging. “It’s not even that fast. Only a hundred and fifty percent.” I sighed. That was the slowest of all mounts in the game, which was one of the reasons I’d stopped farming them. Most mounts didn’t give bonuses to anything besides movement speed, so once I’d gotten my one-hundred-eighty speed mount, I’d given up. My time was valuable, after all. Or, at least it had been.
“I actually collected them,” Dark Heart said, batting her eyelashes at me in a way that made me sigh because of course she collected mounts. She was a girl, and I’d yet to meet one who didn’t collect mounts.
“You probably collected companion pets too, huh?” I asked, offering her the saddle which she took with a delighted squeal. “You can have it. I’ll wait for a one-eighty.”
“Of course, I had almost all of them,” she said, only she wasn’t even looking at me because she’d already summoned the skeletal horse and was busy walking around it.
“Alright, don’t die,” I said glancing at the timer. I only had fifteen seconds to make it to my wall.
“Don’t die either,” Dark Heart replied as I took off running toward it with George hot on my heels.
“I can’t believe you gave her the horse and didn’t even get her to show you her tits or something,” George said, shaking his head.
“Dude, that’s misogynistic to the nth degree,” I said as I pulled out the two items I’d gotten as drops and cast the identify spell on them.
“Whatever. Everyone likes tits. Even chicks,” George replied as the item menu for both items appeared on my screen. “Besides, she had your brain pulled out of your skull. Showing you her tits is like the least she could do.”
I was about to respond when my eyes were drawn to the item window and everything became clear.
Reaper’s Scythe
Damage (Small Monsters): 8
Damage (Large Monsters): 8
Range: 2
Material: Bone
Durability: 100
Bonus: 12% increase to spell power.
Reaper’s Cloak
Armor: 6
Magic Resistance: 0%
Material: Cloth
Durability: 1200
Bonus: 12% increase to spell power.
Bonus: 10% stun resistance.
>
My mouth fell open as I realized why my stuns had failed so much. This cloak gave stun resist. Sure it wasn’t that good when it came to defense, but that combined with the spell power increase was nothing to sneeze at.
As I hastily equipped both items because they drastically increased the strength of my magic, I felt a little bad for Crash. He used offensive spells and skills a lot more than I did. Even my Necromancer specs didn’t really have offensive attacks. Still, he hadn’t shown up. I mean, that didn’t mean he wasn’t busy, but still.
Besides, who knew what else would drop? I wasn’t sure, but as the counter hit zero, and I leapt onto the wall and stared down to see the newest wave of skeletons begin to claw their way up from the earth, I decided to cross that bridge later.
You know. Assuming we won.
43
As the tenth wave of monsters fell beneath the combined might of the archers, my golems and abominations, and Reflecting Fog, a smile crossed my lips. Unlike last time, instead of trying to turn the first abomination to my side, I’d used my mana to burn down the monster while keeping his partner stunned since two had spawned at once during the seventh wave.
Then I’d raised him to help me take his friend. It’d worked like a charm, and as I stood there smiling, I couldn’t help but think we might have a shot at victory. Then the ground began to shake and black smoke appeared in the distance.
System Message: Boss: Banshee Queen has been spotted at south gate. Waves will not continue until the Banshee Queen is defeated.
I swallowed hard as I realized what that smoke was because I’m smart enough to read system messages. It was the boss, and it was coming to my gate. I wasn’t sure how Dark Heart and Crash were doing, but I really hoped they showed up soon because the Ascendant Reaper had been really fucking hard. We’d barely survived the attack, and I really didn’t want to try the second level boss by myself.
That is, I wanted their help until she and her envoy of undead approached. Then pure unadulterated rage filled me.
“Hey, Twinkletoes, remember me?” the girl who had stabbed me in the Macabre Skull said as she gave me one of those Queen Elizabeth waves. “Because I remember you. I told you to leave, but apparently you couldn’t get enough of me.”
“Oh, I remember you, and bitch, you’re about to get dropped like the fat girl at prom,” I snarled, my vision growing red as I watched her approach.
“I somehow doubt that,” she replied, running one hand over her ample bosom and causing it to decay as her hair began to writhe around her head like a nest of vipers. “Now, come. Surrender to me, and I won’t send my horde of undead to crush your pitiful walls.” She gestured to the army amassed behind her.
“Yeah, that’s going to be a no,” I said, signaling my archers to open fire.
As a rain of arrows darkened the sky, the Banshee Queen turned her head skyward and screamed. The sound was unlike anything I’d ever heard, and as my ears began to bleed and my bone armor cracked, the sky above her tore asunder, swallowing the hail of arrows in a mighty gulp of the void.
“We won’t be doing that,” she said, smiling brightly at me. “As I said, come face me or perish.”
“Fuck,” I muttered, not sure what to do. I didn’t think I could take her solo, but evidently skewering her wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t sure if she could keep up that defense while we were fighting, but if she did, my archers would be rendered useless. Worse, my two remaining abominations, Luke and Leia, wouldn’t be able to make much of a dent in an army like that.
While the abominations were powerful, they were slow, and the skeletal knights that had started appearing during the last couple waves had been strong and fast enough to kill my other two abominations, Han and Chewie, even with Reflecting Fog.
And this chick had at least twice as many knights with her.
“That’s not in the cards,” the banshee queen said, licking her lips. “You’re a bit too alive for my tastes.”
“What should we do?” I asked the bunny because neither of my friends had shown back up.
“You know what I’d do, right boss?” the bunny said, giving me the evil eye.
“Um… no?” I replied, shaking my head at him. “That’s why I asked you.”
“Well, those are some bad mama jamas with her, right?” He pointed to the skeletal knights. “We might be able to take them all, but I doubt it, so that just leaves one choice.”
“To go down there?” I said, sighing loudly because it was the only way, and even George knew it. I just had to man up and take her on solo. Only, I wasn’t sure if I could win. Actually that wasn’t true. I was absolutely sure I couldn’t win. Still, that thing about trying and winning. And, you know, wanting to live.
“No, you numbskull,” George said smacking me upside the head. “You blow your fucking load all over her face and then you go stabby stabby on whatever’s left.” Then he thrust his hips in her general direction. “Nom sayin’?”
The weird thing was, I did know what he was saying. I knew exactly what he was saying. “George, you’re a fucking genius!” I cried right before I pressed my hand to the ward to my left. Instantly, the entire battlefield was engulfed in flame as every goblin-made explosion erupted in a cacophony of fire and death.
“Attack!” I cried, directing my archers to fire again, and this time their arrows punched through the slowly rising cloud of smoke. I wasn’t sure if there was anything down there, but I was taking no chances. I directed the abominations into the smoky cloud, and as they disappeared into it, their health dropped to nothing. My elation vanished. Something in there was alive.
“No!” the Banshee Queen cried, and at the sound of her voice, the cloud of smoke, along with what remained of Reflecting Fog, vanished into the ether. She stood there, armor blown apart and skin burned away to reveal the charred, blackened bone beneath. Her snake’s nest hair was gone now, but that didn’t matter because the look she gave me caused my bone armor to erupt into flames.
A cry of pain burst from my lips as my bone armor gave up the ghost and shattered while she glared at me.
Still, I had one more move at my disposal. Chaotic River.
As I used the skill and the blackened skeletons tore forth from the void and ran at her, a look of fear actually flashed across her face.
“We don’t have to do this, Kahn!” she cried as their claws and teeth savaged her, and for a moment, I almost felt bad. You know until she shrieked loud enough for my army of demonic skeletons to explode outward in bits and pieces.
As they rained down around us, I turned to George. “Guess I’m going down there. Cover me.”
“Sure thing, boss!” George replied, unleashing frozen death at the Banshee Queen as I jumped down. The boss crossed her arms in front of her, taking the blow on her wrists before swiping outward and throwing the magic off to the side.
“Your resistance is futile!” she cried as my feet touched the ground, and then she was coming toward me. Her fist impacted my jaw so hard stars practically flashed across my eyes.
As my health dropped by six percent from her unarmed blow, I initiated my Sidestep technique. My body passed through her, and as I appeared behind her, I lashed out with my new scythe.
“Skull Shatter!” I cried, causing magenta energy to wrap around my weapon. The butt of the weapon smashed into her face as she turned toward me, shattering her nose in a spray of blood and knocking her off her feet.
“The last time we met, I was a lot weaker than you. I may still be, but then again, I also didn’t stand in the blast zone for two hundred pounds of goblin TNT. Not sure how much damage that was, but I’m guessing a lot. Then you went and killed my golems and abominations in Reflecting Fog. Not smart.” A smile flitted across my lips as I pointed my scythe at her. “Guess, what I’m trying to say is see you in Hell.”
“Star Scream.”
More magic exploded from my weapon, blasting the Banshee Queen as she sat there unable to do more than take it like the bitch she
was.
“Critical hit! Damage has been doubled!” Elizabeth said as the blast tore clean through the Banshee Queen’s face, ripping her head from her shoulders and sending it bouncing across the ground while her body collapsed to the ground in a puddle of good before shattering into a billion shards of color.
My experience bar shot to ninety-nine percent as what remained of her armor fell to the ground at her feet. As I picked it up, a quick identify spell let me know what it did.
Banshee Queen’s Armor
Armor: 12
Magic Resistance: 25%
Material: Steel
Durability: 1500
Bonus: Magic Resistance does not interfere with spells.
Restriction: Can only be worn by female players.
Annoyance at not being able to use the armor filled me because I only knew two female adventurers and neither was me. I’d have to give it up. As I put it into my inventory, another system message flashed across my screen.
System Message: Wave eleven will begin in thirty seconds.
44
System Message: Wave fifteen will begin in thirty seconds.
“Fuck, seriously!” I cried as the last vestiges of Chaotic River’s summoned skeletons disappeared into the ether. Monsters were everywhere, and even with the combined onslaught of my summons, spells, and the archers there were still wave thirteen monsters up. Worse, if these waves were like the other ones, that meant the wave after this would contain a boss. Fuck. There were still so many monsters up.
I took a deep breath and focused my will as I sprinted toward Rotgut and Festerface, my last two abominations, while they attempted to take on a skeletal wyvern. Its icy breath cut a swath through the battlefield while archers struggled to actually damage its flying form because most of their attacks were being knocked away by the wisps hovering around it.
“Ignore the wisps!” I snarled as I flung a Water Wave at the creatures. As the tsunami of water slammed into the wisps, driving them away from the dragon, my abominations pounced on it, grabbing ahold of its bony wings and wrestling it to the floor like an angry bull.
Soulstone: The Skeleton King: A LitRPG Novel (World of Ruul Book 2) Page 28