“Seven hells!” he shouts.
Grayson is the next to attack. He runs for the giant with the battleaxe. The giant swings and Grayson moves to the side, narrowly avoiding being cleaved in half. The frost giants are incredibly fast for being so large. While the giant recovers from the missed attack, Grayson connects a punch with the giant’s ribs. It lets out a howl of pain and loses a tenth of its health.
“Nice hit!” shouts the princess. She unleashes a flaming arrow that catches the giant in the eye. It does half the damage of Grayson, even with the fire bonus. I realize I’ve been standing in the same place for too long. I need to join the fight.
“We need to focus on them together!” I yell. “I’m going to try and snare one of them.”
I cast Haunted Earth and dozens of roots erupt from the floor, tangling around the giant’s legs. I immediately follow up with Waterfall. The two-second root of Haunted Earth times out perfectly with the delay on Waterfall. Haunted Earth releases the giant at exactly the same time as Waterfall pours from the sky.
It takes out only a sliver of health.
Tinker casts spells left and right. Stones fall from the ceiling. Electricity erupts from his staff. As soon as one spell leaves, another takes its place. They do very little damage. If we’re going to win, we’ll need to find another way.
The princess continues to fire arrows, slowly wearing down the giant’s health. The giant with the battle axe still has seventy-five percent health. The other has ninety.
Klink casts a spell on herself and her dual warhammers glow bright. She and Ordin rush at the giant with the axe. The princess casts Resilience on Klink just as her warhammers connect and she lands several hits in a fraction of a second. The giant swats her to the side and Klink tumbles into the wall, losing half her health.
Klink is slow to get up as the giant with the club swings down hard. Buzz dives forward, blocking the blow with his shield. He loses ninety percent of his health, but the blow stuns the giant. Buzz’s shield must have some kind of ability.
Grayson grabs the two of them by their clothes and drags them to safety.
The giant with the battleaxe smashes his weapon into the floor. A long, icy tendril creeps along the stone floor, weaving towards us. It bypasses Grayson, Klink, and Buzz and stops at Aleesia’s feet, freezing her to the floor. She struggles to move, rooted in place. Her health ticks down bit by bit, until the ice melts away and she can move again.
If we don’t do something soon, the giants will kill us all. We aren’t doing enough damage to take them down.
“Grayson, Buzz, I need your help. I’m going to snare this bastard. When I do, all three of us need to go in on him. The rest of you, keep the other one distracted.”
“What are you doing, Esil?” asks the princess. “This is suicide.”
“Madness!” says Tinker.
“Trust me,” I tell them. Grayson did almost as much damage as the four of them combined. If we use all three of our miner’s bonus, then we may be able to kill the giant. Assuming it doesn’t kill us first.
I cast Haunted Earth again and snare the giant with the battleaxe. Next, I use Resilience on Grayson and we three move in. I make sure to stay close to Buzz. He has the lowest health of all of us, but we need his strength. If it comes down to it, I can use my shield’s ability to save him.
Grayson’s gauntlets move in a blur. He connects with a flurry of punches, taking out chunks of health with each hit. I equip my shield in one hand and my axe in the other and start swinging. I don’t hit as hard as Grayson, but my attacks do enough. Buzz slashes with his sword, drawing blood.
“Move back!” I order as the snare disappears.
The giant is at fifty percent health. If we can do that two more times, we might be able to kill him.
Klink, Ordin, Tinker, and the princess have lured the other giant down the tunnel. All I can see is the glow of one torch and the occasional flaming arrow. If they can hold on for just a minute, we’ll make it through this.
We retreat, dodging the giant’s powerful swings while Haunted Earth comes off cooldown. I have enough mana for three more abilities and I know just how I want to use them.
I used Haunted Earth again, snaring the giant. We attack. The giant is wounded badly now. Blue blood has stained the stones surrounding him. When we retreat, he is down to twenty-five percent health. Once more should end it.
The giant stumbles around, swinging madly but missing. His legs are a mess of battered meat. The downside of being so tall is that all our attacks are below the waist.
I take a brief peek down the corridor and only see a faint glow. I hope they are okay.
When Haunted Earth comes off cooldown, I use it again. The giant moves so slow he has no hope of dodging it. I use the last of my mana casting Resilience on Grayson. We punch and stab and slash until the monster falls to the floor. My stamina is as low as it can be without disappearing. I am once again thankful for my dwarven boots. They might not keep me at full stamina in a fight like this, but they do enough to keep me alive.
My XP bar shoots up and a metallic green twenty-one twirls across my vision.
“We can loot the body later. We need to help the others!”
Grayson and Buzz hurry down the hall with me. The light glows brighter with each step we take.
We pass a tombstone along the way. Another person died to help me with the quest. It gives me the energy to keep going. I can’t let them down.
A fiery arrow shoots through the air and I see the giant, his head pierced with arrows. He still has half his health.
The princess, Ordin, and Tinker all have less than half their health. The giant smashes his club, narrowly missing Ordin.
“Did you kill it?” he asks, huffing for breath.
“We did. I’m out of mana, though. Can any of you stun him?”
In response, the princess fires a lightning arrow. Tiny bolts fork out as it soars through the air. It hits the giant with a crack of thunder and he freezes in place. We all rush in and attack with a fury only capable by those on the edge of death. Right now, we have two options: kill the giant or die trying. I choose to survive. If we don’t, Glordin and Klink gave their lives and whatever items they lost for nothing. If we make it through, maybe they get them back.
As the giant’s health dips lower, I realize that this one is a woman. They are so ugly that it is hard to tell, but the lack of a beard and large chest indicate that she is female. Were they together? Who put them here? I know frost giants don’t belong in Asgard. They belong on a different Norse world. Someone put them here to stop us from getting in.
The giant has ten percent health. One more round of attacks and we’re through to whatever awaits us next. I can’t imagine what could upstage a frost giant.
She lashes out violently, knowing her end is near. Maybe she hopes to bring down one of us with her, but we stay back, dodging her belabored attacks.
“I’m out of mana,” says Aleesia.
“Spread out then, we’ll have to divert her attention.”
We circle the giant until she can’t turn her head fast enough to see us all. The princess shoots an arrow in her back. It’s not enough to hurt, but it causes the giant to turn. Grayson runs in and punches the giant while she is turned. Buzz and Ordin follow suit. Each time she turns to her new attacker, we attack from her blindside. She lets out a scream full of rage and sadness that sinks into my bones before she falls to the ground.
If this weren’t a game, we’d be monsters.
Chapter 24
“How did Klink die?” I ask. It might not be a real death, but the fact that she sacrificed herself and possibly lost some of her best items means a great deal.
“It was awful,” growls Ordin. Blood seeps from a gash over his right eye. He leans over his warhammer.
“The giant. She ripped her in half. Worst death I’ve ever seen in the game,” says Aleesia. Her scuffed armor is caked with a splattering of blood. She must have been right beside h
im when it happened.
“I owe her big time. And Glordin. I owe you all.”
“What I don’t understand,” says Aleesia, “is how you three took down a giant that was still seventy-five percent health before we even got ours down to fifty?”
Silence fills the corridor. Ordin and Tinker want to know as well, their attention fully on me.
“And how does Grayson hit harder than I do with my fire buff? Way harder. Something doesn’t add up. I remember the first time we met and how you attacked that troll. Are you all running some kind of hack?” Her brow is raised. It hurts that she thinks I might be cheating, but under the circumstances, it makes a lot more sense to an outsider than the fact that a group of us in the mines are just randomly strong.
“Aleesia, you know Pangea can’t be hacked. Your dad is a developer, for heaven’s sake.” Pangea Online proudly boasts that it has the best defenses against hacking and cyber-attack.
“What is it then? How do you do it?”
I wish I could tell her, but it’s more than just my life that would be affected if our secret got out.
I look to Grayson and he shakes his head.
“We don’t know,” says Grayson. The way he says it allows no more questioning.
The princess sighs. “What now then?”
“We heal and let our mana recover. Then we press on.”
We all take what health and mana potions we can. The princess doesn’t have enough mana to use her healing ability. I’m not even sure how effective it would be on so many of us. Over the next thirty minutes, our health returns to normal.
No one really talks as we prepare for what’s next. There is a tension in the air that everyone can sense. They know that Buzz, Grayson, and I are hiding something, they just don’t know what.
I need to say something to them before we leave this hall. We can’t go into our next battle like this. If we do, it’s a recipe for defeat.
“Guys, I wish I could tell you what the deal is, but I can’t. I don’t have that right. It affects more people than just us.” I look each one of them in the eye in turn. I need them to understand. “It’s nothing illegal. We’re not cheating and we don’t know how it works. I promise. I wish there was more I could say, but I can’t. All of you were there when I first found out what I could do. I died over and over. I’m not some mastermind trying to cheat the game. I’m just a guy trying to help his friend’s mom.”
They say nothing for a moment. The princess chuckles, then the others join in. “We know you’re not some mastermind. And I believe you, Esil. Only a true idiot would do some of the things you have done. We like you and we wish you the best, but we’re not going to give the tournament to you. There’s over ninety other players who want the same thing you do. If we ease up for a minute, they’ll take advantage. You do have a little skill, though, so maybe whatever it is you have going for you might keep you alive a little longer.”
“Thanks,” I say. “Are we ready to find out what’s next?”
“Not without me, you won’t!” Glordin’s voice echoes down the hall and then I see him running, his black hair shimmering in torchlight.
“You came back,” I say, clasping his forearm when he returns.
“I was hoping I could get back in time to dish out a little pain.” He smiles. “Plus, I lost my battleaxe when I died. Looks like you handled them just fine without me.”
We’re back up to seven. With a little luck, Klink might return too. Considering how she died, though, I won’t count on it. I think being ripped in half might cause me to log out for a few hours at the very least.
Looking through my inventory, I still have a few mana and health potions. I don’t have anything else that can really give me a buff.
The others loot the frost giant bodies. My prize still awaits and I can’t offer much other than the loot and experience of this quest. I put my stat point from reaching level twenty-one into Vitality. I have a feeling I’m going to need all the extra health I can get soon enough. I stare at my stats for a moment, taking in how far I’ve come.
Level 21:
Strength -14
Agility -2
Vitality -4
Intellect -6
Dexterity -5
Stamina -0
The zero in stamina is an eyesore, but with my dwarven boots, I just don’t see the purpose in adding to it. They are soulbound and I’ll never have to replace them. I can’t imagine finding a better pair of boots that I don’t have to worry about losing. It’s almost like having permanent stat bonuses on my feet.
With the frost giants dead, the ice begins melting from the walls and icicles overhead. Soon, it sounds like rain as water drips down around us. At the end of the hall, two large doors block our entrance.
“I’ve got this,” says Grayson. He leans down in front of the door and begins picking the lock.
“Why do you have a lock-picking skill?” asks Buzz.
“I used to spend a lot of time in dungeons. Thought it was a useful skill to have.”
The lock clicks and the door opens with a groan.
I look at my map and realize the blue dot is in the next room. We made it. Hard to believe there were only two sets of monsters between us and such a great mount. There has to be more to it than this.
Before we cross the threshold into the next room, a notification pops across my screen.
You are about to enter Fenrir’s Lair. Would you like to bind here? Y/N
I focus on yes and step forward.
I gaze into the room, searching for a trap. The circle-shaped room is lit by several torches. Two sets of stairs curl upwards around the wall and meet at a door that undoubtedly leads into the castle. In the middle of the room sits a giant black wolf. I focus on his stats.
Fenrir. Legendary wolf mount. Fenrir is the third child of the trickster god, Loki. He was tricked and imprisoned by Tyr, the God of War, after it was prophesied that Fenrir would devour Odin, King of Asgard, and bring upon Ragnarok, the end of times. Fenrir is a loyal and powerful mount, capable of fighting when his owner is close to death. Ability: Fight for my master. Fenrir is able to attack and fight alongside his owner for one minute. Cooldown: 24 hours.
Everyone watches me once we enter the room. I can feel the eyes of the wolf boring into me even as he lays against the cold stone floor, wrapped in chains.
“Go on,” says Buzz. “He’s yours.”
I approach the wolf cautiously. His observant eyes follow me with every step I take.
I expect him to growl when I reach for the chain that holds him hostage, but instead, he lowers his head to the ground with a sigh. The chain wraps around his legs, body, and snout, making it impossible for him to move or escape. I follow the chain from Fenrir across the floor to where it begins. The chain is pierced by a sword driven deep into the floor. The silver blade shimmers, reflecting my body along its polished edges. Norse runes engrave the pommel and a large red ruby is encrusted in the hilt. The sword itself must be worth a fortune. I’ll need to pull it out in order to free Fenrir.
A blue aura surrounds the sword. It could be a magical spell or enchantment designed to keep intruders from removing it or it could be the reason Fenrir hasn’t escaped. Either way, I came this far and my only option is to try and free him. As long as it doesn’t kill me, I can take whatever happens.
I grab the sword by the hilt and feel an energy flow through my body. It feels like I am being pulled into the sword. I try to release my grip, but my fingers refuse to let go.
Congratulations! You have reached Fenrir, legendary mount. You have two options:
1. Pull the sword from the ground and free Fenrir, binding him to you as your mount.
2. Pull the sword from the ground and kill Fenrir, taking the Sword of Tyr as your soulbound weapon.
Item: Sword of Tyr. Soulbound. Cannot be traded or discarded. +40 strength, 25% armor penetration, 1% bleed every second for five seconds, stacks up to 5 times.
No effing way! The Sword o
f Tyr is one of the strongest weapons I have ever seen. That, combined with my secret stat, means I could kill almost anything. I could even give Ryken a run for his money with a sword like that. Forget the strength and armor penetration, the bleed itself makes it an overpowered weapon. It would certainly give me a leg up in the tournament.
I can find another mount. What are my chances of finding another weapon like this?
When I pull the sword, it comes effortlessly out of the stone floor. It feels light in my hand. I give it a few swings and it practically whistles as it cuts through the air.
Standing over Fenrir, his eyes meet mine. There is both anger and sadness in them. How many people have stood in this exact room and chosen the sword over the mount?
Behind me, my companions look on in wonder. I’m sure each of them would do anything to be in the position I am in. They all came here to help me find a mount. What kind of person would I be to betray that? I think I’m finally beginning to understand what Grayson meant about not being able to win the tournament with strength alone.
I toss the sword to the ground and it disappears in a flash of light. I take the chain in my hands, unwinding it from Fenrir’s legs, body, and finally, his mouth. When I lay the chains down beside him, he stands up and stretches, letting out a small grunt. Afterward, he licks me on the hand. I can’t help but notice the size of his teeth. He’s the biggest wolf I have ever seen. Bigger than the white wolf from the auction. Bigger than the worgs I saw in the Haunted Forest. As big as a horse.
Congratulations! You have chosen wisely. Fenrir will soon be bound to you for life.
Soon? What does that mean?
Congratulations! You have completed the quest ‘Rescue Fenrir.’ Reward: 50 gold.
I also get a good amount of experience from the quest.
“Well, are you going to ride him?” asks Buzz.
I try to focus my thoughts on riding Fenrir. It must work, because he crawls down on all fours and looks at me. I put my weapons into my inventory and climb on.
Pangea Online Book One: Death and Axes: A LitRPG Novel Page 17