Holy War

by Sugralinov Daniel

  Once inside the instance, I heard teeth chattering. The shivering first priest, dressed in low-level plate, raised his helmet visor and rubbed his reddened nose. Barely in control of his tongue, he muttered: “I think its time this world invented fur coats and hats.” He cast a worried glance at Irita. “Don’t even think about licking your helmet! Your tongue will get stuck!”

  “I wasn’t planning on it,” the girl answered from beneath her visor, her teeth chattering. “But tell me, whose bright idea was it to go to the South Pole in armor instead of warm clothes?”

  “This’ll warm you up.” Bomber offered them two flasks of hot tea. “Take it!”

  Patrick and Irita’s health indicators blinked orange: another tick or two of the frost debuff and both would have died. Stephanie’s tea restored their health, and the debuffs ended as soon as they were in the dungeon. And Infect sang a stirring song, giving everyone vigor.

  “This is the first time in my life I’ve seen real snow,” Gyula shared. “Well… I mean, only sort of real, but still… Brrr… I can’t imagine how people live in places where it’s cold all the time. Crazy!”

  “You’re undead!” Patrick said skeptically. “You don’t feel a thing!”

  “I forgot to switch off my thermoreceptors.” The builder shrugged and rubbed his hands. “If I were in power, I d outlaw snow!”

  In an instance for the first time, Gvula’s head span with interest. After the jump to Holdest, he seemed to leave behind all the bad and began to show interest in life. Now the builder, who had mysteriously become a Demon Hunter, looked with a warrior’s eye at the enemies in the dark tunnels and held his crossbow at the ready.

  Essentially, the most difficult part was done. The instances were designed for levels ten and fifteen, and the first one, Kar’sanmai Lair, took us a quarter of an hour. We would have been faster, but we stopped to pick up some resources we found: Polar Honey and Snow Lichen.

  The kar’sanmai were a race of semi-intelligent spiders with glass bodies. We cleared the two-foot long spiders out of a few caves connected by sloping passageways. The sound of breaking glass echoed ceaselessly off the walls. Then we ran through an invisible web that tore our flesh as if woven from single-molecule diamond threads, and reached the boss—the Kar’sanmai Spider Queen, twice as big as the mobs in the instance. It would have been an impassable obstacle for the newcomers.

  As soon as the battle started, an Icy Web descended on each of us from the cave ceiling, slowing our movement. We couldn’t get rid of it while the boss lived, and the web nets tightened, digging in and beginning to cut our bodies into segments.

  We didn’t wait to see wiiat else the boss could do. Bomber used Charge and drove the Queen into a wall. The sound of broken crockery rang out—the boss split into shards of ice, and a spot of silver lymph splattered across the wall.

  Nobody got experience, but the Queen dropped an interesting sword with a freezing effect. We decided to give it to Patrick.

  The Kar’sanmai Queen is dead.

  Unlocked achievement First Kill: Kar’sanmai Queen!

  You are the first in the world to kill the final boss of Kar’sanmai

  Lair—the Kar’sanmai Queen!

  The Kar’sanmai Queen is dead, but before death, she inadvertently transferred a modicum of her power to you.

  Reward: Snow Wanderer (you deal 10% more damage to Holdest residents).

  Attention! The achievement T Came, I Saw, I Conquered Again’ has been upgraded to T Came, I Saw, I Conquered Forever!’

  You have received another achievement in the First Kill category in a dungeon on your first attempt! The gods of Disgardium call on you to stop: this reward will be the last!

  Reward: Dungeon Hero title, Dungeon Hero perk (+25% damage and movement speed in instances).

  I wasn’t the first in Dis to earn the achievement T Came, I Saw, I Conquered Forever!’ but all the same, it was nice to finish it off.

  We declined All hail the heroes! to avoid revealing our location. It wasn’t worth enough reputation and fame to risk it anyway.

  We left the instance without delay, to jump straight to the entrance to the second one the boys had found. We quickly w^ent in. This time, enriched with experience, Irita and Patrick even managed to avoid getting too cold.

  “Nothing special inside. Usual assortment of mutated monsters,” Crawler said.

  “Which exactly?” Patrick asked with curiosity. I couldn’t recognize the former drunkard. No sign remained of his usual depression and gloomy sarcasm. He made a few thrusts with his new sword and smiled a bloodthirsty grin—he couldn’t wait to use the weapon in action.”

  “Nether knows,” the undead gnome shook his shoulders. “We didn’t go far in.”

  “Walruses,” Bomber the undead titan said with authority.

  “Where have you seen walruses with legs?” Infect asked him, laughing. “But they do have walrus tusks, it’s true…”

  The tusks were no help to the mutant walruses. This dungeon was in the mountains, and was higher in level than the Kar’sanmai Lair, but it gave us no trouble.

  I allowed Gyula, Patrick and Irita to fight for themselves, and to be honest, they did a great job even without our help. Of course, Gyula the demon hunter was above level one hundred and could one-shot the mobs, but even Patrick and Irita only needed a few hits to take one down. The girl fought with a blue morningstar, a kind of club tipped with a spiky metal ball. She skillfully blocked enemy attacks with her round shield. Her equipment might have been great in the sandbox, but we needed to replace it now.

  I liked how Patrick conducted himself. The old soldier was as if reborn. He showed no fear, no emotion, and fought coldbloodedly. Everyone noticed how masterfully he controlled his blade, how skillfully he dodged strikes from mutants and counterattacked. Whoever he was in his past life, his veteran backstory in Snowstorm’s game had been reinforced by the relevant skills.

  Bones broke, mobs howied, Infect played his guitar to invigorate the group. Patrick, Irita and Bomber fired jokes back and forth. The dungeon took us half an hour. We took out two of the bosses in passing, a huge Altered Walrus and a chimeric mutant reminiscent of a huge fish with six fins.

  The final boss in the dungeon—Bonechewer, a two-headed white bear with a scorpion tail—fell to a fireball from Crawler.

  Bonechewer is dead.

  Unlocked achievement First Kill: Bonechewer!

  You are the fij’st in the world to kill the final boss of Snowy Mutant Cavern—Bonechewer! The corrupt influence of the Nether gave rise to a cross between a polar bear and a giant scorpion. The beast terrorized the inhabitants ofHoldest until it ran into you.

  Bonechewer is dead, but before death, he inadvertently transferred a modicum of his power to you.

  Reward: Polar Explorer perk (you take 10% less damage from inhabitants ofHoldest).

  After that, Irita was surrounded with a column of light—she’d leveled up for the second time today.

  Patrick, all ready to rush into the fight, angrily thrust his sword back into its scabbard.

  “You kids sure know how to min my fun!”

  “You didn’t see these boys in the Lakharian Desert, buddy,” Gyula told him. “I couldn’t even shoot before the poor critter I was aiming at fell down dead.”

  “Next time I’ll bring along a folding chair and the latest newspaper,” Patrick said thoughtfully. “By the way, I don’t suppose Disgardium has any non-alcoholic beer, does it?”

  “There’s cream beer,” Irita answered. “And ginger beer and root beer. I’ll order a few barrels just for you, Uncle Patrick.”

  The veteran put a hand on his heart. “Thanks, kiddo.” He turned to Gyula. “This girl has a heart of gold. Not like these stinky dead guys. You don’t seem to need air either, Gyula, but at least you’re not a pain in the ass.”

  That last part referred to me and the boys, but I just smiled. Uncle Nick used to say: the less happy a man is, the more angry he gets. And we really did
smell of decaying flesh. The stink was so strong that even Irita tried to keep her distance from me and the boys, which wasn’t so easy in the dungeon’s narrow corridors. Patrick’s annoyance was perfectly understandable.

  Three rare pieces of gear dropped from the bosses—a shield, boots and a ring—and got divided between Patrick and Irita. Once again, I felt the joy I’d first experienced in the sandbox when an item dropped that boosted my character, but now the joy was for my friends. The achievements for the First Kills were disappointing, but considering how easy they were to get, nobody complained. You can never have too many bonuses in Dis.

  We returned from Holdest to the clan fort. I left my friends to sort through the spoils, then flew to northwest Kharinza, where the Reaper Chilis were in the beta version. I hoped I could repeat the Hellish Sea Soup With Bunting Reaper Chili, which gave useful buffs. Unfortunately, the perfectly round glade I’d found in the beta version didn’t exist in the real Dis.

  From there, I went to the reptiloid island where I’d found an instance while I was stuck in the Nether. The route was stored in vague memories of a distant dream, but Scyth-2 has gone there so many times that I managed to get my bearings. First I found the bay with the Rock Grabbers. They were no higher than level sixty here.

  Taking off again, I quickly reached a small spit of land near Kharinza, and from there I saw the island I needed.

  Attention! Achievement upgraded to Fearless Explorer!

  Discover 10 zones whei’e no other player has ever been.

  Reward: Strong Back (+50% carrying capacity).

  Scyth, you have the right to name this new zone!

  You can keep the old name (Mengoza) or come up with your own.

  Hesitating a moment—I wanted to rename it to Reptiloid Island—I left the previous name, and, as it turned out, this showed respect to the Departed again; I got a hundred and fifty reputation points with the mysterious faction.

  Mengoza showed the differences between today’s Dis and the world that the Nether had turned into after ten thousand years; I found no sentient reptiloids, just komodo dragons and geckos at level three hundred. Where in the Nether I had found the lizardfolk settlement, here I saw only Ruins of the Departed. It might be worth our archeologist digging around here. There were no traces of the instance with the phase spiders that I’d planned to take vengeance against. The only useful thing I saw was signs of ore deposits. Deciding to return with Manny and Infect in a calmer time, I jumped to Kharinza.

  We grouped up again and headed for Klondike, to the mine where there was once a portal to the lair of the Nucleus. Now, according to Behemoth, it was an instance with a Plague Vector, from which the disease came, spreading until the liches of the Destroying Plague broke through here from Holdest.

  I entered first to check it out. The dungeon was home to mobs at level two hundred, very similar to those that made up Shazz’s army. I doubted we’d have trouble clearing them until I realized that they were all friendly to me. Undead couldn’t kill undead—the rule of the Destroying Plague was in effect here too. I ran through the dungeon from start to finish, saw all the bosses. They protected each stage of the instance, which consisted of five caves connected by narrow winding tunnels. They were advanced versions of queases and rotters, a skeletal wyvern and a huge undead butterfly with a humanoid body. At the very end, in a large cave, I found a miniature version of the plague reservoir in the Nucleus’s lair: the Plague Vector. The lich Uros stood watch there, the final boss.

  “Life is death, Legate!” he greeted me.

  “But there is no death in service to the Destroying Plague. What are you doing?”

  “I am obeying the order of Supreme Legate Shazz: protecting the vector,” Uros reported. “But I no longer feel the presence of the Nucleus. The energy stream has stopped. I cannot continue my work. The vector is drying out. In order to reduce the plague energy needed, I was forced to disincarnate some of my minions.”

  “Condolences, lich. I can’t share mine. But wait here.”

  Nodding to the lich, I quickly left his dim cave and headed for the exit.

  “Do you have new orders for me, Legate?” I heard from behind.

  * * *

  After finishing a couple of instances and getting two First Kills right away, we saddled up our mounts to move out on a new hunt. Then we found out that Rita had no mount, and she didn’t meet the level requirements for one yet.

  I jumped off my mechostrich, feeling my face redden—not here, but in real life. I’d completely forgotten that since Rita had left for big Dis today, that meant it was her birthday! I’d forgotten Eve’s birthday the year before, and now I’d made the same mistake! Angry at myself for not remembering right away and congratulating her as soon as I saw her, I decided to fix it.

  “Happy birthday, Rita Wood!” I said, giving her a gift from the whole clan. “A Ghost Wolf Summoning Scrolll You remember Crusher the wolf in Gloomwood? This dropped from him. To be honest, I completely forgot about it, so I’ve never used it myself… By the way, don’t worry about the level forty requirement, I’m sure you’ll reach that today.”

  The boys exchanged glances, climbed off their clanking mechostriches and surrounded us.

  “Ha-a-appy bi-i-irrthday to yo-o-ou! Ha-a-appy bi-i-irrthday to yo-o-ou!” Infect sang, playing the guitar. We all got involved.

  The girl stood with her eyes wide, smiling and unsure where to put her hands. Once we were done singing our congratulations, she hugged each of us, including Patrick while he struck a proud pose, and smiling Gyula. I got a slightly more passionate embrace and a kiss on the cheek.

  “Sorry’, girl, well have to celebrate properly later,” I said, pointing at an imaginary watch on my wrist. “Now it’s time to get to work!”

  We had high hopes for the Montosaums; killing the beast god surely meant a special reward, both for the achievement and just from the loot. And, of course, an ocean of experience—the Montosaurus’s level was too high even for me to see. Irita and Patrick should get over level one hundred at least. But while the girl was lower-level than everyone else, she had to perform a special role for which I gave her the Balancer.

  We’d decided to catch the beast god with live bait. The troggs just so happened to have determined the next two unlucky ones that had lost the daily tournament, to be offered as sacrifice.

  “We play our drums and the Great Reptile comes,” Movarak said, explaining the mechanism of their sacrifice. “Those wiio are to become a part of the Great One wait for him at the Place of the Final Path.

  Part of the Great One… Wow, I thought. More like fertilizer for Trixie and Ryg’har. They’ll find the pile and celebrate: “Woah! This is good shit!” The gardener and kobold shaman had become fast friends, and they had a field day when the Montosaurus returned—divine fertilizer made plants grow as if on steroids.

  “It is time for the Great One’s dinner,” I said authoritatively.

  “But he’s already eaten!” Movarak gasped. “I don’t have anyone else to offer him today! Those declared as sacrifice need time to say goodbye to their families and spend the night with their wives. That is their sacred right!”

  “We have something to offer the Montosaurus, chief,” Bomber inteijected. “Your task is to play your drums. The chosen one of the Sleeping Gods will handle the Great Reptile after that.”

  The trogg looked at each of us, sighed and nodded.

  “What do you plan to do?”

  “We’re going to smack the reptiles ass and see how it sounds with your drums,” I answered. “None can hurt the followers of the Sleepers. The terrible Behemoth is angry. Vengeance is close.”

  It took a lot of effort to hold back my smile while I rattled off all that pretentious crap, but it did the job. The trogg’s face lit up and Patrick clapped him on the shoulder.

  “Come on, do what the boss says.”

  “Boss?” Movarak asked, confused.

  “Yeah, that’s another of the great Scyth’s titles.
”

  I heard Crawler and Infect tlying to mute their laughter from somewhere behind me, a safe distance away…

  The Montosaurus didn’t react at all to the low thrum of the bongo drums echoing through the jungle. I anxiously watched the clock—a little over seven hours until Mogwai respawned. Yemi had messaged me not long ago to say that the White Snake was willing to meet with me, and just as I decided that we’d have to cancel our rendezvous with the dinosaur, I heard the crash of the monstrous beast’s distant footsteps. The earth shivered, vibrating through my legs.

  “He’s coming! He’s coming!” Movarak shouted in ecstasy.

  “Hide!” I ordered, preparing for battle.

  Ten seconds later, I was alone. My group and the troggs hid in a rock crevice. I wasn’t worried about my clanmates—they could always revive—but the NPCs were dear to me.

  I formed a strategy based on the skirmish I’d had with the Montosaurus when I needed to use Inscription to write Plague Fury scrolls. Let him chew on me to make Reflection kick in, create some scrolls for the future, and then, when the beast’s health dropped and he decided to run, Irita would hit him with the Balancer. At that stage, the whole team would get involved. Each had to deal at least a single point of damage. The reptile wouldn’t last five seconds against our group fire at Irita’s level twenty.

  The plan was good, but it went wrong right from the start. The thick-headed reptile wasn’t as dumb as we thought. Emerging into the meadow which the troggs called the Place of the Final Path, the Montosaurus cocked its head like a bird, saw me and froze. Hesitating a moment, it roared, turned around and ran away!

  “Plan B!” I shouted to my friends, turning and flying after the dinosaur.

  I caught up to him, grabbed onto the back of his neck and attacked with a series of strikes, tearing into him with Reaper’s weapon. The Scythes pierced an artery, releasing a fountain of divine blood. Trees splattered with it greedily stretched their branches to the puddles, drawing in the blood and growing at a rapid pace.

  The Montosaurus roared, turning its head this way and that, trying to reach me with its front legs and throw me off, but I held on fast, thrusting my left arm up to the shoulder into the creature’s back and gripping onto its spine. With my right hand, I kept dropping Hammerfists.