by Edward Brody
Mordok leaned over and placed his hands on his knees as he breathed heavily. “Give me a moment.”
“I’ve got this,” Rithnar said, lifting his axe and swinging it in circles as he approached the struggling gremloyl. When he was in close, he swung it hard, causing a deep chip in the monsters’ shoulders, then hopped back out of the way when the gremloyl tried to strike back.
Rithnar was doing damage, but like before, his axe strikes were wearing down the gremloyl slowly and ineffectively. The creatures were tough against basic weapons and seemed resistant to most of our offensive magic.
One spell however—whatever triangular attack that Mordok had used before—seemed particularly potent against the creatures, albeit slow to cast. I could conclude that it was an arcane spell based on how it looked and Mordok’s other spells, but it seemed that it was the sheer explosive force of the attack that made it so effective against the stone bodies of the gremloyls.
Firebomb, I thought, as I held my hands together in front of me and started to channel a ball of energy. I charged the bomb to the size of volleyball as I watched Rithnar hack and dodge, and when I had a good grip, I yelled, “Out of the way!”
Rithnar turned to my voice and scurried away from the shackled gremloyl before I ran forward and threw the Firebomb. When it landed, it managed to hit the creature right in the back of the neck.
The gremloyl’s head seemed to pop off like a cork shooting out of a wine bottle when my Firebomb exploded, and one of its arms fell off as a huge chunk of its upper back was destroyed, throwing rocks and dust everywhere.
The wings of the gremloyl flapped two more times before the remainder of its body turned rigid and fell to the ground as a stationary, broken statue.
You have gained 2,900 XP!
Mordok stood up straight and looked to both of us, nodding in acknowledgement. “For the Scourge…”
“For the Scourge,” Rithnar said with a smile, lowering his axe.
They both looked to me, and I glanced back and forth between them before raising an eyebrow. “What? I’m not saying it.”
Mordok ignored my snub and looked towards the broken statue on the ground. “There was only one gremlin and one small gremloyl in this room last time, and I’m pretty sure the ones we just killed were stronger than before.”
I turned around, looking toward the last unbroken statue that was in the room. Only three had attacked, but the fourth hadn’t moved an inch. “What’s up with this one? It didn’t come to life.”
“I noticed that they didn’t use their magic on this one for some reason,” Mordok said. He walked up to the statue and looked at the lower half. “Oh… I believe this is why. It’s not finished.”
I joined him by the statue and saw that he was looking at a leathery, dead goblin’s foot sticking out of the area where the statue’s left leg would have been.
“It seems that gremloyls are actually gremlins after all,” Mordok supposed. “They sculpt over their bodies and use some sort of magic or enchantment to turn themselves into stronger stone creatures. How odd.”
“There’s reagents over here,” Rithnar said, pointing towards two stone barrels hidden behind the unfinished statue.
Mordok and I approached the barrels, and one of them was filled with a cement-like substance. The other was filled with flowers, mushrooms, fleshy bits, hair, and other oddities.
“Oh, I can definitely use these,” Mordok said as he started picking out what he wanted and putting it in his bag. He glanced to Rithnar and me. “Unless either you need reagents that is.”
“I could use Sulfer’s Ash if there’s any in there,” I said, thinking about my ability to cast fire elementals.
“None of that in here,” Mordok confirmed.
“Any reagents with names ending in an ‘E’?” I asked.
Mordok glanced to me and creased his brow. “That’s a strange request—ending in ‘E’…”
“It’s regarding a quest,” I explained.
Mordok continued tossing the reagents he picked up from one hand to the other, then placed them in his bag. “Well, we do have a hedgehog needle. That ends in an ‘E’ right?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so… Do you mind if I have it?”
“No, you can take it,” Mordok said, handing me a thick, sharp, brown spike.
You’ve received: Hedgehog Needle. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.1 kg. A reagent with various uses.
I placed the needle in my bag as Mordok finished looting all the other reagents that were in the barrel. There wasn’t much I could do with the needle at the time, but I’d save it for whenever I could meet with Jenzyn again.
“More loot here,” Rithnar said as he knelt near one of the corners of the room.
Sitting with its back against the wall was a headless skeleton wearing rusted chainmail armor and hammer in each hand. Its head rested in its lap, and a metal spear was jutting out of its chest. I approached the skeleton and read out the stats of the hammers and spear.
You’ve Received: Bronze Hammer of Bashing. 10-29 Attack Damage. Requires 15 Strength. Requires 10 Dexterity. Requires 15 Strength. Durability: 7/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Uncommon. Weight: 4.5. 2% chance to disorient an opponent when they block with a shield.
You’ve Received: Unbalanced Heavy Hammer. 2-60 Attack Damage. Requires 35 Strength. Durability: 8/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Uncommon. Weight: 7.8. +10% critical hit chance. -10 Dexterity.
You’ve received: Sharp Hunting Spear. 15-25 Attack Damage. Durability: 9/10. Quality: Great. Rarity: Common. Weight: 2.1
“Interested?” I asked.
Rithnar shook his head. “They’re of no use to me.”
When I turned to Mordok, he shook his head as I expected.
I picked up the two hammers and placed them in my bag. Though they weren’t of use, I figured they were good enough to fetch some value if I were to sell them off.
The skeleton’s leather boots had holes in them, and the chestpiece was shot. Rithnar asked me to read out the stats of its leather gloves which weren’t magic but offered a nice armor bonus, which he quickly equipped himself.
There was almost nothing else of value on any of the gremlins we had killed, but I looted a non-magic dagger that was in good shape from one of them and a few coins.
Mordok looked towards the stained-glass window, sat down, and crossed his legs. “We enter the room where I nearly died next. Rest and meditate. We’ll need to be at full strength for what’s ahead.”
Chapter Forty-Three
2/22/0001
“Last room?” I asked.
Mordok nodded.
“I guess now’s the best time to use this,” I said as I held my staff out in front of me and began channeling a fire elemental. Like each time before, fire swirled from the ground, rose up, and slowly took on a hovering humanoid form. “That was my only Sulfer’s Ash, so don’t expect any more after this.”
“Your magic isn’t bad for a green belt,” Mordok commented. “That creature might not do much damage, but it could serve as a nice distraction.” He slammed his fists together, closed his eyes, and started to twirl one of his hands around in front of him.
A jagged line of electricity rose from the ground, then another, and then a swirl of blue magic appeared under and around where the energy had emerged. Lightning bolts rose from the circle of energy, and more of the blue magic gathered where the lightning bolts struck out. The magic came together and grew taller and taller, forming a thick chest, large bulky arms, fists, and a head with hair of blue flames.
Name: Electrified Arcane Slave
Race: elemental
Level: 35
Health/Mana/Stamina: 250/300/400
Status: friendly
It was a full ten feet tall, and from its wrists, silvery chains hung. It had no feet, but rather hovered over the swirl of magic below that seemed to follow it as it moved. Though the creature was clearly made of arcane magic, electricity spidered ou
t randomly all over its body, and the occasional thick bolt of energy could be seen shooting through its arcane frame. It moved silently but buzzed from the electrical magic consuming it.
Mordok’s elemental dwarfed mine and made it seem insignificant by comparison.
“Whoa,” I said and smiled as I looked up to it. I took a step back to avoid the static-like energy emitting from the being.
“Even this may only be a distraction,” Mordok said once he was finished casting, “but we’ll need all the help we can get.” He stepped towards the final door and gave it a shove.
Unlike the previous door, this one swung open with relative ease, and when we stepped inside, there were no gremlins to greet us.
The room was huge—tall, deep, and wide—and it had been meticulously built, unlike the rest of the cave. The stone walls were smooth and inscribed with runes and glyphs. The center of the room was empty, save for a long rug that ran all the way to the end of the space, where a large, circular mosaic had been carved on the ground.
Atop the round mosaic was a huge grey gremloyl, sitting in a throne larger than Mordok’s elemental. It looked much like the ones we had battled previously, aside from its massive size—four or five times the size of the others—lack of wings, and a golden chain that hung down from one of its ears. At the end of the chain was a shiny, tiny red gem. The gremloyl had stone sandals wrapped around its taloned feet, a stone skirt, and in its hand was a stone spear that rose halfway to the ceiling.
On each side of the throne sat a large grime-covered chest. One of them was overflowing with dusty gold, gems, and items, some of them laying on the ground, sprinkled with a layer of dirt.
Near one of the chests lay a crushed skeleton, flat on its stomach, with a broken hammer lying beside its hand, and by the far wall was another skeleton—this one clearly an orc, judging by its teeth. It had a huge cavity in its ribcage, and its legs were contorted into an odd position. It was holding a warhammer in its hand, but its wooden handle had been burnt to ash.
Mordok swallowed hard as we approached. “It’s exactly as I remember it…” Mordok muttered. “Someone’s cleaned up the damage from last time, but otherwise—"
“Where’s the shard?” Rithnar interrupted.
Mordok squinted and pointed towards an area right beside the chest to the right of the gremloyl, near all the loot that was overflowing from the chest. “There, I believe.”
We walked closer, and when we were just a few meters from the mosaic, I saw a dusty crystal object lying on the ground, right by the wall. Other than its dirty appearance, it looked much like the infinite mana shard Mordok had shown us earlier—the same size, similar shape, and through the dust, roughly the same color.
“Do we even need to fight?” I asked. “Maybe I can snatch it, and we’ll just run the hell out of here.”
Mordok shook his head. “Once you step on the circular pattern on the ground, the gremloyl lord will awaken.”
I reached into my bag and pulled out the Liar’s Mask. “I have this, you know? It can leave a sort of decoy of myself behind me, and I have a spell called Boiling Blood. If my health gets low, I’m fast.”
“That’s not enough,” Mordok explained. “Once the awakening process begins, a slowing effect is applied to everything inside the ring. There’s no avoiding a fight once the awakening process begins. You’ll see, but perhaps we can escape with the stone before it’s defeated. Look for an opportunity to grab it once the gremloyl lord is awake.”
“Enough talking,” Rithnar said, squeezing tightly the handle of his axe. “I’ll take it on. One of you grab the stone.”
Mordok chuckled. “Do what you can, Rithnar, but I’m sure you’ll see this fiend is not to be underestimated. Look for openings, but avoid taking it head on.” He turned to me. “Send your elemental onto the mosaiced area. Hopefully, our summons can absorb some damage while all of us unload on this monstrosity.”
I nodded before turning towards the idle statue. “Over there,” I muttered while mentally ordering the command to my elemental.
Mordok and I both backpedaled slowly as my scorching fire elemental hovered towards the mosaic, charring the rug as it passed over it. Rithnar took a few steps back, but then moved to the far-left flank of the colossal gremloyl.
When the fire elemental entered the mosaic, it took only a second or two before a bright beam of light shot up from the mosaic, all the way to the ceiling, surrounding the statue and everything else in the circle. My fire elemental immediately started moving at one-tenth the speed that it normally would, and when I tried pulling it back, it looked like it was in slow motion.
Odd organ music started playing from an unknown source overhead and bounced off the surrounding walls. It was like an eerie, classical-sounding opera composition that repeated the same thing over and over.
Wahhh—ahhh-ahhh…. Wahhh—ahhh-ahhh …. Wahhh—ahhh-ahhh-ahhh-ahhh-ahhh-ahhh.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. It was the first time I had heard any music playing while encountering an enemy, and I wondered how it was possible. Surely, Dr. Winston wouldn’t have added ‘in-game’ music to the world.
There was a loud boom behind us, and when we turned to the sound, the doors through which we had come slammed shut. I rubbed my eyes as I noticed a visual distortion near the door, but a split second later saw nothing, like the game or maybe my eyes were glitching out again.
“Oh no…” Mordok muttered. “That didn’t close last time.”
“I’ll check it,” I said and ran across the room as fast as I could to reopen the door.
I nearly slid on the rug as I stopped myself in front of the door, grabbed the handle and both pushed and pulled. It was locked tight and didn’t budge an inch. There was no identifiable keyhole either, so there was zero chance we’d be lockpicking it.
“It’s locked shut!” I yelled.
The green of Mordok’s face turned pale and he swallowed hard. “Then I guess this is it. We either defeat this thing or we die here. I’m sorry if I’ve made a miscalculation.”
There was a loud rumble, and the strong sound of stone cracking as the giant gremloyl tore one of its feet from the ground—another boom when its stone arms were ripped from the rests of its throne. The sound of rock crunching against rock overpowered the music playing overhead, and when the gremloyl finally stood upright, tiny stones and dust fell from all its joints.
Its large vacancies for eyes lit up before turning into huge, organic gremlin eyes. The bright light emanating from the mosaic underneath it disappeared, and stone grinded against stone when the gremloyl turned its neck to survey the room. When it spotted us, it smiled.
“Sos its yous agains!” the gremloyls hissed. “I looks forwards to killings yous this times. You wonts gets aways!”
You have failed to inspect your target!
“Engage!” Mordok yelled, and his large electrified arcane slave, which now looked small in comparison to the towering gremloyl, floated towards the giant.
Attack! I thought, once again sending a command to my fire elemental.
As my elemental was right by the gremloyl, it was first to attack, slamming its fiery hands into the monster’s hard, rocky leg—once, twice, and finally performing a spinning backhand to the same location.
The slowly moving gremloyl looked down to my fire elemental, seemingly unaffected by its attacks. It gradually raised its sandaled foot, and I ran forward, commanding my elemental to pull back. I fired both a Fireblast and an Arcane Missile at the monster as a distraction, feeling confident I knew what it was about to do.
Both of my attacks bounced off the monster with no noticeable damage, but my elemental made it out from under the gremloyl—barely—as it stomped its foot hard to the ground, causing the entire room to rattle and dust and debris to fall from the ceiling.
Mordok’s elemental made it into range and raised both its fists together high then hammered them down hard against the side of the gremloyl’s leg. There was
a loud boom, and the gremloyl jerked at the attack, but like everything we had thrown at it thus far, there was no noticeable damage.
“For the Scourge!” Rithnar yelled loudly as he charged the giant monster. When he was nearly upon it, he slid athletically across the ground and positioned himself behind the creature’s foot. As soon as he pulled himself up, he started swinging his battleaxe at the gremloyl’s heel, chipping small shards of stone off each time.
“Ka, ka, ka!” The gremloyl laughed oddly at our assault. When Mordok’s elemental struck it a second time, it slowly reared back its hand—still holding its tall spear—and backhand swiped the elemental with a hard first.
There was an intense electrical sound, like two powerful wires being crossed, as the elemental was knocked back several meters from the attack.
I started charging a Firebomb and looked to Mordok, who had his eyes closed and was channeling the strange triangular magic he had used on the gremloyls in the previous room. I ran forward even closer to the gremloyl, making sure that my attack wouldn’t miss, and hurled a baseball-sized ball of encapsulated magic at the beast.
The Firebomb landed on the gremloyl’s upper thigh, and when it exploded, dust and stone flew everywhere. I squeezed my fist, thinking I had landed a good shot, but when the dust cleared from the explosion, there was only a smallish pit at the attack spot—much less significant than I had expected.
The gremloyl turned its head towards me after the attack and hissed loudly. It lifted its spear and pointed the tip in my direction.
A blast of white energy shot out of the tip like a laser, and I jumped as it sped towards me. I managed to avoid the attack—barely—but the blast left a deep groove in the spot where I was standing and kicked up dust all around me.