Gleam of Darkness

by Elian Tars

  So, as far as I understood, rangers liked to bypass things; hiding in the trees, setting ambushes, choosing detours to avoid enemy groups… However, there were no other rangers in our team except for Berg. We had a very strict time limit, which is why the captain’s straight as an arrow methods seemed to be more effective. We had a greater chance to succeed, but, on the other hand, to be killed as well.

  Luckily, our leader didn’t have to choose between following his subordinate’s suggestion, or to taking the shortest route at all costs.

  Nobody attacked us anymore.

  Those were good news; but, at the same time, that made us uneasy. We definitely couldn’t kill all the monsters in the area in three fights. Why wasn’t the “decayed hive mind” sending at us its creatures anymore? The last fight was pretty hard. If there had been a greater number of the attackers, it would have ended really badly for us. Instead, the attacks stopped altogether…

  We were riding one after another in a line and looking around warily, but we didn’t see anything except for the endless black trees, rotten grass and geysers of acid-green slush.

  I noticed that the captain had taken out the map out of his inventory and was examining it attentively. Suddenly, his forefinger glowed with light, and he pointed it at the map. The glowing faded away at once. Looking at the road, our leader shifted the direction of our line a little to the left and said:

  “We’re almost there. Our goal is apparently behind that hill,” he pointed at the hill a hundred yards away from us. “Prepare yourselves.”

  “Are you able to define the exact location?” knowing full well that it wasn’t a good time, I still risked asking the question. The answer could prove to be very useful for me in future.

  “Yes,” the sorceress answered for the captain. “It was Mr. Elliot who gave Arthur the scroll containing the skill and three skill points needed to learn it.”

  “Dina, stop talking! Everybody, brace yourselves!” the leader commanded sullenly, materializing a sword in his hand and slowing his horse. “Get ready for a fight!”

  “Enemies?” Berg asked from behind.

  “I don’t see exactly who it is,” Arthur replied.

  Having no desire to argue with the commander and doubt his forebodings, everybody held their weapons at the ready. The horses climbed the hill at a snail’s pace. Gritting my teeth from impatience and excitement, I slowly gazed around. The same decayed drab lands and black trees… Wow!

  Standing on top of a hill we looked in amazement at the view. The black-green lowland that reminded of a soup plate had no trees except for a gigantic oak standing alone on a little hill in the center of the decayed clearing. It somehow reminded me of a Christmas tree standing in the middle of a town square, but instead of happy kids, creatures of Decay gathered around the tree. I glanced over some of them. I wasn’t happy with what I saw — their average level was 45.

  The decayed were lying on the rotted grass and lazily looking at us.

  “Arthur,” Lade chuckled. “Are you saying that our goal is this oak?”

  The captain checked his map again and sighed heavily.

  “The hidden cache is definitely either under that tree or somewhere in its trunk.”

  “Heh, why am I not surprised?” the monk shook his head and dismounted. “I’m going to scout. They aren’t attacking us, so… Who knows? Maybe the Crystal’s aura will work even if I come closer? Though I don’t count much on it.”

  Lade came back in a minute. We didn’t need a report — we saw everything. The monk approached the first line of creatures, lying some thirty feet away from him, but they didn’t move a muscle. “Tell me, boys,” the sorceress faltered, glancing at the monsters lying below, “am I the only one who thinks that decayed were trying to protect the hidden treasure this entire time?”

  “You’re not,” Berg answered dryly. “I’m sure, that they will attack us if we try to get closer to the oak. Arthur,” he looked defiantly at the commander, “there are only four of us. We can’t defeat such a group. We have to go back to Ekheim, tell them about what happened and ask for backup.”

  “Hey!” I almost cried out, but decided to act as if I had paid no heed to the ranger’s miscalculations. It wasn’t a good time to puff my chest and prove that I was worth something, too. Besides, my Tranquility of Darkness wouldn’t work on enemies such as these. What did the system say when I tried to cast the skill on the bear? “You don’t have enough power of Darkness to influence this creature of Decay”.

  The captain gritted his teeth and dismounted.

  “How many people would we need to defeat such a crowd?” he asked, staring at the ranger. “Forty? Plus horses? Do you think that the town’s exchequer could fork out eighty thousand gold coins, huh?” The captain’s words made Berg embarrassed and he, making a wry face, looked away. “Not to mention that when we come here next time, there could be even more creatures,” Arthur exhaled and closed his eyes for a moment. Opening them, he firmly said: “Everybody, dismount. We won’t attack first. We’ll move in groups. Lade and I will go ahead, the rest of you will cover us from the distance.”

  Shifting his shield so that it fit in his hand more comfortably, he walked down with resolve in his step. Shrugging and giving the sorceress a wink, the monk trotted after him.

  “Idiot,” Berg muttered, but dismounted.

  The three of us went some twenty yards back, shifting our gazes between our fighters and the lazy decayed creatures. We could have gone even further back, but the radius of our united Crystals’ auras was about thirty yards. The united aura would split if we got too far away from the two; leaving the three of us with a level 45 aura. It wasn’t worth the risk. What if the Crystals’ malfunction was just a glitch that would go away on its own? As that was unlikely to happen there was no point in risking and lowering our defense levels.

  “Don’t say such things, Berg…” Dina whispered. “It will be hard, but we’ll manage. Have no doubt about it.”

  The ranger didn’t answer, just silently observed the fighters. There were some thirty feet left between Arthur and the Mighty Bear Changed by Decay… Now six… A little bit more and it would start! Three… Two… One…

  Despite the distance between us, I could clearly see as the captain looked at the beast with unconcealed astonishment as he passed by it. The bear lazily followed him with its gaze and turned in our direction.

  “The Crystal is working!” Dina cried with sincere joy. “In a different way, though.”

  “Shh! Don’t jinx it!” the ranger shushed her.

  Arthur walked faster and was able to pass by three more monsters. Lade was keeping up the pace with him. We had almost reached the first bear. Honestly speaking, I was afraid that it would attack us after all… But the decayed looked at us with the same lazy gaze and put its head onto its paws, covered with disgusting, acid-green blisters.

  Meanwhile, the captain got to the little hill and started to go round it. After walking a few feet to the left, he stopped and turned around. There was a triumphant smile on his face. He drew an invisible circle in the air with his right hand, touched its center and pointed at the side of the hill that was hidden from our sight.

  “There’s a manhole!” Dina voiced her guess in a whisper. Arthur gestured us to approach.

  “We found it, that’s true. But there’s a problem,” Lade chuckled once we were all back together again.

  The hole was really big and any of us could have crawled through it. However, right before the entrance was a sitting Alpha of Black Wolves Changed by Decay — a huge, level 49 shabby predator.

  It was impossible to get to the hole without disturbing the beast — the task was practically impossible, taking into account that the space between the wolf and the hole was no more than the one between metal bars on a usual fence.

  “I might be able to do it,” Dina said uncertainly, coming closer to the wolf.

  Arthur nodded.

  “If anyone is able to do it, it’s you.
”

  Everyone understood that the creature of Decay could take any physical contact for an attack. Even a properly working Glozeysk Crystal wouldn’t be able to protect its owner in that case, let alone in our unusual and strange situation.

  Coming from the left side, the sorceress approached the monster with little steps. It watched her with indifference, seemingly not caring about who was trying to get behind it.

  Until a certain moment.

  There were no such notions as a “monster’s agro zone” in this game— all of the creatures that I had met so far had behaved like real animals, except maybe for the fact that beasts of one type used the same set of skills. The local decayed creatures were breaking all of the set patterns.

  It was as if the girl’s foot crossed some invisible line. The wolf jumped to its feet, I mean, paws, and howled loudly.

  The “Alpha of the Black Wolves Changed by Decay” used “Leader’s Howl”.

  You cannot move for 15 seconds.

  I moved my gaze and looked at the others — the rest of the group stood stone-still, unable to move. Lade obviously wanted to tell us something before the attack had occurred, and now he was standing with his mouth open, glaring to and fro.

  I looked at the wolf again, being glad that I could at least control my eyes. The thing that I saw was worth observing — the monster stood up on its hind legs, straightened its back and then leaped a couple of meters up into the air. From all around, the other decayed beasts rushed to it and smashed into its body. Their lackluster eyes got even duller, and their bodies started dispersing, changing shape. Soon there was no more “Alpha”. Instead of it, absorbing all of the decayed on the clearing, was an acid-green, ten foot tall giant. It looked like an uncolored plastic toy. What I at first thought to be its “outfit”, reminiscent of an ancient Greek hoplite’s armor without a helmet, was actually a part of its body.

  Warrior of Decay

  Level 130

  HP: 12015/12015

  The giant slowly lowered its head and stared at us. Its eyes didn’t move, but I was sure that it saw everything pretty well. Taking a swing with its muscular arm, the creature of Decay attacked Dina who was closest to him.

  Luckily the Leader’s Howl debuff ended and the girl jumped back deftly, quickly materializing her staff. The giant chased after her, but immediately got hit with a glowing shield. The monster froze and shifted its gaze to the captain, who didn’t even reach the giant’s waist.

  Arthur looked up, spread his arms, puffed his chest provoking the enemy, and shouted:

  “Well?! Come on!”

  The rest of the group didn’t stand idly — a whirl of lilac sand spread around the creature of Decay, acid-green sprays cutting into its body. One after another, arrows hit the giant’s head. Sometimes, the ranger would shoot two or three arrows at once. Some of them were shrouded in a jade-colored haze which left a visible trail in the air.

  “Damn! I can’t control him!” the sorceress cried angrily.

  “Don’t get distracted! Attack however you can! We’ll do it!” Lade answered shortly, being busier than any of us. The monk was running around our tank either hitting the monster’s leg with a fury of blows, or pressing his glowing palms onto Arthur’s armor.

  I made another useful observation — Dina’s spells could not only slow down the enemy and control its body, but also deal the damage. Damn, the girl was quite dangerous. I could only shot bolt after bolt at the enemy. And my ammo supplies were running low, though I tried to retrieve bolts after every fight… Man, it’s good to be a ranger in this game. Watching Berg, I noticed that his arrows would disappear a few seconds after the shot and then reappear in his quiver almost immediately. It was convenient for an archer to have God specialized in archery for a Patron.

  The giant suddenly stopped attacking and leapt up. I noticed that Arthur’s legs were knee-deep in the ground, and that he had less than a half of his HP left. The captain was about to release himself from his captivity, when the giant landed some three feet behind our leader — right into the center of our group formation.

  “BOOM!” There was a thundering knock and the Warrior of Decay’s body splattered in all directions, as if it was made of water, and hit its targets.

  “Warrior of Decay” used “Decayed Spraying”.

  “Effect of Decay” has been blocked by the “Glozeysk Crystal”.

  You have received 443 points of damage.

  I was blown some thirty feet away and hit my back against a boulder. Though the decayed stone crumbled to dust, I lost additional eleven HP. Shit! I almost died from just one attack! I materialized a phial with a health potion and checked how much HP I had left:

  HP: 41/495

  I uncorked the phial and drank the scarlet liquid, which tasted a bit like strawberry jelly, in one gulp. I mentally thanked Arthur who, once we had crossed the territory of Decay, had ordered Dina to cast an hour-long buff on me that added 10% to all my stats. The extra 45 HP came in really handy.

  By the way, Dina hadn’t cast the buff onto the others until now. This game was too hardcore, particularly because of the slow regeneration of the stats. Despite the fact that the regeneration speed increased when you upgraded the skills, it was still impossible to restore your HP back to its max after sitting still for a couple of minutes. And health potions could be used only twice every 24 hours.

  Arthur also drank the red potion. The sorceress immediately raised her hands toward him, lilac whirl swirling above her head and stretching bright rays toward the members of our group. All five of us were buffed now. Dina, as well as Lade, drank a mana potion. The monster had already reconstructed its giant body. Its health bar was half empty.

  The second round.

  “Bale, stay away!” Arthur cried in my direction without looking at me. Leaving a golden trail behind him, he rushed at the beast and hit its knee with his glowing shield.

  The difference in levels didn’t make you a superhero in this game. Three Old Bears Changed by Decay with the average level of twenty five could easily tear to pieces an ordinary, level 50 guard... That didn’t even have to happen on the territory of Decay and under the influence of its debuffs; it could easily happen on the living lands. In a usual MMORPG it would have been the other way round. However, in this specific situation, that feature worked in our favor. Our mixed group was able to defeat a level 130 monster!

  And it didn’t matter if we had to walk a razor’s edge…

  Lade failed to heal Arthur in time and the captain’s HP was dropping faster than the giant’s. Having understood that it was impossible to defeat the monster fighting head-on, the leader blocked the blow of the giant’s arm with his shield and shouted:

  “Plan number three!”

  Without a word Lade wheeled around and ran left, while Arthur slashed the monster’s shin and darted to the right. The beast ran after our leader, getting further and further from our group.

  I missed the moment when the monk materialized an orange phial in his hand. I just saw as it flew through the air and hit the giant’s back, covering it with fire from head to toe.

  The flames were eating away the enemy’s flesh, but it was standing still with its head up and mouth open. It was only then that I realized why the Warrior of Decay was fighting in silence. It had no vocal apparatus, and maybe no lungs either. It screamed in agony, but made no sound.

  The captain and the monk ran around the beast. Once they met, the healer started restoring Arthur’s HP. The rest of the ranged fighters and I were shooting all of the ammo we had. Damn… I’m almost out of bolts.

  While he was still being healed, Arthur put his sword back into his inventory and materialized a black ball. A bomb! It’s just like the one I got from Tael!

  He threw it. There was an explosion.

  Arthur protected himself with the shield, but a few splinters still dealt the armored fighter more than two hundred points of damage. One seemed to have nicked Lade, and a few more fell between the giant’s l
egs, but none got to the three of us. We were lucky. However, the Warrior of Decay was hurt pretty badly. But there was more to come! Arthur took out another bomb…

  The monster had been burning and standing still for ten seconds. During that time, the captain launched three more grenades and if it hadn’t been for the unceasing healer support, he would have been hurt by the splinters. It was quite a dangerous weapon. But, without it, Dina and Berg wouldn’t have been able to defeat the enemy before the fire on the giant’s back had been extinguished. The creature of Decay shuddered and, staring at us, dashed forward…

  But the ranger’s jade haze-covered arrow put an end to the fight. The huge carcass fell limply onto the ground.

  You have defeated the “Warrior of Decay”.

  XP gained: 8945 (20 %)

  You can use the slaying skill on the “Warrior of Decay”.

  “Phew… That was close,” Lade ran his hand over his bald head. “How much government’s money did we spend on that plan?” he glanced at Arthur with a sneering reproach. “You’ll account for it yourself. It was to be used in case of emergency.”

  It was clear why Arthur kept this card up his sleeve till the very last moment. A ten-second stun and an extremely powerful DoT in one phial... From what I could see, the fire had dealt at least four thousand points of damage to the creature at a rate no less than four hundred points per second. None of our team members, even with a full health bar, would be able to stay alive after colliding with the orange bottle. And I bet that that thing cost much more than a Glozeysk Crystal. There was a variety of situations in which it could be used, so it had a greater demand.

  “Of course, I will,” Arthur chuckled, approaching to the defeated monster. “No one but me.”

  The captain’s sword glew gold. Swinging it above his head, our leader cut off the giant’s head, finishing the beast off. Looking up at us, his gaze stopped on the archer: