When they arrived at the rusted iron gate, they spent a moment to watch for movement beyond. Nothing.
The place seemed deserted.
As he was in a game world, Zack didn’t believe for a moment they would pass through the random gen area without having to fight something. Sometimes, there were puzzles to solve, but those were rare, as most groups were not well coordinated enough (or smart enough) to solve them. Most of the time there were trash mobs and a big boss at the end.
With nothing stirring inside the ruin, they crept in, Zack in front, then Missy and then Anita. Missy kept close to Zack, her fingers poised to start playing her music. Anita gripped her sword, her faceguard open so her visibility wasn’t reduced.
The air inside the walls of the castle was even colder than the caves outside. Silence hung over them like a thick layer of frost. Zack’s heart hammered in his chest, his hands numbed with cold.
Missy stumbled on a rock. Her sudden movement was enough to make him and Anita spin around, weapons raised, searching for something about to leap on them.
Yet, nothing was there.
Zack glanced at Missy as she got to her feet. “Are you hurt?”
Her HP was fine, but he still thought he better make sure.
She nodded. “The music of this place is all wrong. I sense something here, watching us. I hear its dark thoughts, its haunting melody.”
“I don’t hear anything,” Anita said.
Missy shuddered. “The silence is its voice. Our presence here… angers it.”
This was beginning to sound less like randomly generated content and more like a handcrafted adventure.
Zack set off again, eyes scanning the shadows. They passed into the courtyard before the central castle keep. A cold draft gusted from the entrance of the decaying building, as if the place itself was breathing.
Tendrils of mist snaked down its front steps, slithering out of its dark interior.
Zack noticed something standing just at the edge of the gray light inside the entrance. “Anita,” He hissed, raising his shield.
She came up beside him and must have seen it too, as she pulled down her faceguard and held her two-handed sword before her.
The figure moved out into the light.
Zack’s guts clenched at the sight of the creature walking toward them. Wearing the faded, dusty remains of a medieval joker’s outfit, the horrifying figure strode down the stairs.
Its face was pale and glistening with mildew, its mouth like the flayed skin of an animal hung on a wall. Giant, gray teeth gnashed inside its huge tongueless mouth. Long claws grew out of its human-like hands, sinews moving under the cloth of its outfit.
“A Rotting Trickster,” Missy said. “Don’t attack it, or it will kill us all.”
“Don’t attack?” Anita lifted her sword over her shoulder, ready to cut the creature in two.
Zack moved in front of her, never taking his eyes off the approaching monster. If Missy said not to attack, then he would make sure Anita didn’t race in and start something that could get them all killed.
The Rotting Trickster stopped thirty feet from them, is small, black eyes reflecting the gray phosphorescent light. “Ah ha ha. Beating hearts, warm meaty flesh, come to thaw this ancient curse of ice.”
Its keening laughter filled Zack with revulsion. “Riddles you must solve, ha ha, riddles and fiddles or be sliced through the middle.” It pointed at a row of graves near the outer castle wall. “Waiting, six feet under, ready to rise, and eat your thighs.”
Anita’s armor clanked as she came up beside him. “This thing’s bad poetry is starting to piss me off. I’m ready to go kill it when you are.”
As she was a Barbarian Warrior (DPS build), she needed Zack to tank the monster—or it would slaughter her in moments.
“No, wait.” Missy touched Zack on the arm. “It will kill us if we try to attack. Answer its questions, that’s the only way we will get out of here alive.”
Zack held his arm up to stop Anita. The thing didn’t seem to want to fight, at least not yet. They may as well see what it had to say.
Stepping forward, Zack spoke. “What do you want, creature? We are in a hurry and need to pass through this castle.”
“Ha ha, ready to play my game they are. Riddles you must answer, posed to you by this ancient laughing dancer.”
“His rhymes make me want to puke,” Anita muttered. “Hey, laughing man. Your rhymes stink, like my old sink. I will kill you with me sword, because I am getting bored.”
The undead joker cackled with laughter. “Answer me this, warm fleshes. What has four fingers and a thumb, yet not the warmth of the living? The soft, tasty flesh, the pounding heart that ends it beat, when—”
“Gauntlets,” Zack said.
“Right, ha ha, right you are.” The Rotting Trickster’s mouth snapped shut like a giant venus flytrap that had ensnared a victim. “Riddle two, ha ha.” It opened its mouth again. “What comes at the end of a sentence?”
Zack was about to say a period, but then stopped. “Is this a trick question?”
“Trick?” The Rotting Trickster cackled. “Give your answer, fleshy things, or summon my friends I will, to bring about your end!”
“What type of sentence?” Zack glanced at the other two.
Anita just shrugged and Missy didn’t look like she knew what to say.
Zack sighed. “There are multiple answers to that. You could be talking about a court sentence, or a sentence in a book.”
“Pick, fleshy thing, what is it?”
If the riddler was talking about a court sentence, then any number of things could be the answer. Death, life in prison, a week in prison… Logic dictated the answer had to be a period. Maybe the developers had designed the question to confuse players, assuming the devs were the ones who had given the monster its riddles.
This might be another byproduct of their loss of control of the Underworld and things taking on a mind of their own.
After taking a deep breath, Zack gave the answer. “A period comes at the end of a sentence.”
The Rotting Trickster began to dance, his rotting sinews snapping, his ancient bones creaking. “Right, you are, Warrior. One more question you must get right—or be prepared for a fight!”
The monster scraped its claws along the ground. “In my sire’s court, there were knights and ladies. Each knight had half as many brother knights as he did noble ladies. In total, how many knights and ladies were there in my sire’s court?”
“My head is spinning,” Anita said. “Can we go kill him now?”
“Wait.” Zack asked the monster to repeat the question. After listening to it again, he gritted his teeth. Great. I always hated these fucking riddles in video games.
They made him want to pound his head against a brick wall.
Missy watched him, her lower lip trembling. The longer he didn’t answer, the colder it seemed to become, the heavier the weight of dread.
“Ten seconds you have left, or your life shall become bereft.”
“Fuck this,” Anita roared. “Bring it on. I’m done listening to your stupid riddles.”
Zack had no idea what the answer was.
“Ah, the warm fleshy ones failed my riddles, ha ha.” The Rotting Trickster raised its face in the air and made a keening scream.
Rock cracked, the ground shuddered, then an unearthly ravaged moan echoed around them. Missy cried out in terror, her fingers playing tunes, buffing them for battle.
Bursting out of the rock came a huge skeletal giant, fifteen feet high and armed with a giant sword coated in ice. ”I. Live. Again!”
“King Macbeth has risen,” the Trickster cackled. “Once more, shall he bring the taste of treacherous iron to the living.”
Chapter Thirteen
Macbeth
BETRAYER KING MACBETH
HP: 6000/6000
Without pause, the rusted plate wearing undead king came stomping toward them. Zack intercepted him, bashing him with S
hield Slam to draw aggro from his two female companions. He had no idea what the boss’s moves were, so he did the tanking 101 move and turned the boss’s back to his group.
Anita raced up behind Macbeth, going nuts with her abilities. It only took her seconds and she was already getting low on Stamina. Zack kept an eye on the Rotting Trickster and found the undead creature standing just inside the castle door, watching the battle. He’d expected it to attack, not just summon a boss and then slink off to watch.
Zack blocked a massive overhead blow on his shield, the strike bowing his legs, jolting his bones, but not breaking his guard.
-56hp
He sidestepped the next attack and it struck the ground a foot from him with a resounding clang that echoed off the stone castle walls. Missy’s healing magic filled him, slowly restoring his HP.
Zack took another hit on his shield. This one was followed up by a savage kick that took him completely unprepared. Flying back, Zack slammed into the grave Macbeth had emerged from, striking the headstone and shattering it to pieces.
-234hp
“Gah,” he cried, getting his shield up just in time. Macbeth’s two handed sword almost cut him in half as it came arcing down.
Zack rolled to the side, then got to his knees and braced his shield for the follow-up attack, this one a massive sweep that struck his shield with an ear shattering clang. He flew backward, toppling over another headstone and landing flat on his back.
Macbeth was on him in a second, raising his foot in the air to crush Zack’s skull underneath. Zack rolled to the side again, popping his Shield of Stone 75% damage reduction buff. The skeletal foot came down, missing him by less than an inch. The undead king’s bones creaked as he kicked Zack in the belly and flung him toward the castle.
Screaming, Zack flew through the air, catching a glimpse of Anita racing after Macbeth as he pursued Zack toward the castle. Zack landed hard on his side, spinning several time and coming to rest against something cold and wet.
-156hp
The Rotting Trickster.
“Ha ha,” the creature laughed. “What fun, what fun, but I think it’s time to run.” He backed away hurriedly as the undead king charged up the castle stairs.
“Fucking hell.” Zack managed to get to his feet, one of Missy’s ‘oh shit’ heals restoring him to half health. The bosses in the Underworld were nothing like the ones in the above ground. These bosses and their ability to knock a tank around like a toy, made him feel like he had been thrust into another game entirely.
The king barged into Zack’s shield, hurling him back against the wall beside the gate.
-56hp
Without his Shield of Stone buff active, that blow would have killed Zack. Damn, this boss hits hard and its fucking HP has only dropped by 3000. His heart withered like a rotting flower. 3000 more to go…
Zack leapt aside as Macbeth tried to impale him on the end of his sword. It took a moment for the boss to wrench back his blade, so Zack used the opportunity to get a few hits in. First he used Devastate then Shield Slam and followed that up with Demon Strike.
Inflicted 245 damage
He grinned as he used his Shield’s special ability—Revenge of the Dead.
Skeletal arms reached out of his shield, clawing at Macbeth, ripping apart his HP to a delicious degree.
Shield inflicted 181 damage
Shield inflicted 178 damage
What the? Did Macbeth take extra damage from special abilities?
“Oh, dear, ha ha,” The Rotting Trickster said from nearby. “The undead always seek to avenge themselves on those who betrayed them.”
Zack’s shield continued to rip apart Macbeth's health. The boss reared back, his joints clacking, his mouth opening wide, skeletal spectral arms clawing at his ancient armor and bones.
Anita was there, pounding the living shit out of him from behind, her face hidden by her faceguard. With the boss distracted by the spectral arms reaching out of the shield, Zack moved in, slashing one way then the other, using his abilities as his stamina allowed.
Then he heard Missy scream his name.
He spun to face her just as his shield’s special ability wore off. His heart skipped a beat.
“No!” He turned his back to Macbeth and raced at Missy.
A black-cloaked undead hag hung from her back, the creature’s teeth sinking into her neck.
Companion suffered -237 damage.
Zack raced over and smashed the hag in the head with his shield. The rotting crone hissed at him, then leapt off Missy, landing on all fours like a cat, her mouth dripping with Missy’s blood. “Ssss, Macbeth, my husband, come kill this man who would see your beloved wife dead.”
A savage blow struck Zack from behind, his field of view flashing deep red.
By the time sense had returned to him, he found his HP sitting at 54. He got his shield up just in time. Macbeth’s sword struck with a bone-shattering strike that made Zack spin around several times, before falling to his knees, his HP perilously close to nonexistent.
Missy used her Hymn of Survival on Zack, instantly restoring him to 50% health. Then Anita was there, taking the undead hag head on. Macbeth moved to protect his hideous wife, racing at Anita from behind.
Drinking a Restoration Potion, Zack popped Rapid Advance and went after the undead king. The enemy boss only had 1745 HP remaining.
Zack’s two Demon Strikes from behind staggered Macbeth. The king tried to turn and ward Zack off, but Zack struck him in the ribs, breaking through his rusted armor and shattering his ribcage and cracking the spine behind it.
Anita had empowered herself with Rage Storm, the Warrior temporary DPS buff. Her blows came, one after the other, her cries of joy muffled by her helmet.
As his HP neared zero, Macbeth’s skull tilted down to look at himself. Then his bones fell apart and his skull toppled forward and landed on the ground then rolled away.
BETRAYER KING MACBETH HAS BEEN VANQUISHED!!!
+6000xp!
THE BETRAYED RIGHTFUL KING IS NOW AVENGED
“No, my beloved,” the hag raged. “After all our betrayals, to end like this!” Her voice became a spectral wail of anguish. “I shall avenge thee!”
The hag lifted her arms in the air. A green, eerie light shone from two holes in the cavern roof. “Come to me, my tormented souls, my shining deadlights. Help me avenge our fallen king.”
Two orbs floated down out of the holes and sped toward the castle. As they neared, Zack’s blood went cold. Inside each orb was a face, twisted in anguish, writhing in agony.
Damn, the developers and their twisted imaginations.
Glancing at Anita, Zack found her up to the task of tanking the hag. The undead woman’s attacks were slow and Anita was able to dodge most of them.
Racing past Missy, who had just drunk a Restoration potion, Zack intercepted the deadlights before they could attack her. The mouths of the faces opened wide as they bore down on him, as if they meant to swallow him whole.
He cautiously slashed at them, his weapon passing through the orbs, like they weren’t there.
Inflicted 67 damage.
Nice, he could still hurt them.
The orbs tried to fly into Zack, forcing him to dodge out of their way. He had no idea what sort of damage they would do, but whatever it was, it had to be nasty. Perhaps merely touching them would cause damage or perhaps they were like those magical bolts in Archscion Archives that exploded for massive group damage if they managed to reach a player.
Either way, he best avoid contact with them.
He danced around, leaping one way then the other, the faces in the orbs twisted into indescribable horror. Zack tried to focus only avoiding damage, rather than look the faces in the eye. Even as is, he was struggling not to be moved by their torment. If he made eye contact with them it would likely make him freeze for a few seconds, which was more than enough time for one of the deadlights to reach him.
In between dodging the orbs, he managed to
get in a few more hits, this time with Criss Cross and Sweeping Arc, damaging them both.
Soon one of the orbs faded and after that, it died. The other deadlight suddenly grew larger, as if empowered by the death of the other. Inside the deadlight, a second face appeared beside the first, the orb now starting to turn red.
It continued to grow in size, now four feet across. Then it started to flash, and Zack realized it might be about to explode.
Without thinking, he raced toward the gate of the castle. He had to get the orb away from Missy and Anita in case it exploded and killed them all.
When he was at the top of the stairs, he glanced over his shoulder. The deadlight was almost on him.
Racing inside, he saw the Rotting Trickster up ahead. “What are you doing, ha ha,” the undead creature cackled.
Zack sped by him and deeper into the frozen stone castle, entering a large hall filled with broken furniture and scattered bones. The Undead Trickster raced in after him, screaming for him to leave.
The deadlight came up behind the Trickster and flew right into its back.
A blinding flash filled Zack’s vision and a moment later, his field of view went dark.
Chapter Fourteen
Court Joker
Zack woke with a start. He sat up and shook his head to clear it. “Ah, sleeping beauty is finally awake.” Anita stood over him.
Missy was at his side, holding his hand, her guitar on the ground beside her. “My music has healed you.”
He smiled at her, but then let it fade. “Where is the Rotting Trickster and the hag?”
Anita inclined her head toward a mound of ashes. “That was the Trickster, and the hag…” She held something up.
Zack chuckled. Anita held a shrunken mummified hag’s head hung on a silver chain in her hand. Bringing up the neck piece’s information in his mind’s eyes, Zack saw that it was a melee DPS focused item.
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