Eden's Gate: The Scourge: A LitRPG Adventure

by Edward Brody

  Mordok huffed, thrust his fingers forward, and the spinning triangle of magic he had channeled rocketed towards the gremloyl.

  The gremloyl didn’t turn its head fast enough, but I could see its eyes shift towards the incoming magic.

  I felt certain that the spell—one of the most powerful that I had seen Mordok cast thus far—would do significant damage to the living statue, but the gremloyl rotated its spear towards the incoming spell. It held the spear vertically, and a round, almost completely see-through shield materialized in front of it.

  Mordok’s magic boomed when it hit the shield, and the blast was powerful enough that the gremloyl lord’s feet slid heavily across the floor several feet, but the shield didn’t break, nor did the attack seem to do any damage.

  The shield disappeared as the smoke cleared, and the gremloyl lord tilted the spear down towards Mordok, firing off another laser-like blast of magic from the tip.

  Mordok jumped to the side, just as the blast was landing, and with all the dust that was thrown into the air, it was hard for me to tell if he had been struck or not.

  My fire elemental continued to thrust its hands out, beating at the gremloyl fruitlessly, and Mordok’s elemental had recovered and was trying various ineffective attacks, from pounding to pulling, and even firing out blasts of what appeared to be Arcane Missiles from its hands.

  Rithnar bent one of his knees and jutted his other leg out behind him before leaping into the air in an impressive spin move, swinging his axe three or four times during the spin before slamming it down with all his might as he landed. His axe penetrated deep into the stone of the gremloyl’s foot, and when he tried to pull the handle back, he was instead pulled back up when the gremloyl lifted its foot.

  Rithnar let go of his axe and rolled away rather than being pulled up any further, and I watched as the gremloyl swatted at Mordok’s elemental, sending it flying all the way across the room and smashing into the wall.

  Holy shit… I thought. Things were not looking good. Thus far, the most effective attack against the monster had been my Firebomb, and that had done very little. Rithnar had chipped quite a bit from the monster’s heel, which hadn’t slowed it down at all, and even Mordok’s powerful elemental and inexplicable triangular attacks had all been ineffective.

  The organ music overhead continued playing the same somber repetition, which only made the situation seem even more dire.

  I swung my staff forward and cast an Arcane Slash, and when the magic thrashed into the monster’s leg, it kicked up a bit of stone and left a shallow mark where it hit, but again, barely seemed to bother the gremloyl.

  There was no use casting Fire Curtain as I knew it would be ineffective, and the on-cast from my staff—a stone projectile—seemed like it would’ve had little-to-no effect as well. A small stone against a giant, hard stone? It didn’t seem like a good choice, but I was going to have to resort to it soon, as I didn’t have unlimited mana.

  As I watched the giant statue rotate its head and look down to Rithnar, I realized there was actually one part of the gremloyl that wasn’t stone—its eyes. Was that the key to defeating it? I wondered. If I was to start firing stones from my staff, I’d have to aim for its face and hope to get a lucky strike.

  As dust started to clear around Mordok, he emerged once more, this time looking a bit different than he had before. His arms were crossed across his chest, and flames of blue arcane magic rose from the top of his hands. Two large magic swords were crossed in front of him, hovering in the air. Each sword was bigger than he was, blue, and semi-transparent. They had thick, wide blades, and hilts that looked like they were meant for a giant’s hands. Light blue flames also rose from the swords.

  Rithnar took a step back and looked in awe at the display.

  The swords followed Mordok as he stepped forward, and the gremloyl grinned when he saw him approaching.

  The giant monster stuck his spear out and shot another round of the laser-like magic at the mage.

  This time, Mordok didn’t try to duck, and instead the two swords shifted, crossing and intercepting the blast. There was a bright blast of light when the energy crashed into the swords, but the swords weren’t damaged, and Mordok didn’t budge.

  The gremloyl lord frowned, turned its body fully, and started walking slowly towards him, booming with each step.

  Mordok uncrossed his arms, and in turn, the swords both uncrossed as well. Mordok ran forward, and the swords roughly followed the motion of his hands, though hovering several feet out in front of him.

  When Mordok was in range, he jumped a bit, and made a motion as if he were lifting the two swords and slicing them down at the gremloyl. The swords followed the motion of his flaming hands yet moved higher and further away. The strikes caused the gremloyl to jerk back, and deep crevices were carved in the area where the swords struck. Dust and pebbles flew off where the monster was hit, but it was far less effective than an attack like that should have been. The gremloyl barely moved.

  Mordok pulled his hands—and thus the swords—to the side, turned and swiped his left hand at the monster, then his right, and finally hammered down both hands again. As the swords followed, each move caused the gremloyl to judder back a bit more and left marks where they landed, but as the gradual onslaught continued, the gremloyl suddenly crouched, held his spear out vertically, and its shield reappeared, blocking Mordok’s strikes.

  Mordok’s swords swiped, thrust, and hammered down at the shield, causing the sound of clashing energy to echo over the music that was still bouncing off the walls. Each time the sword hit the shield, the gremloyl ducked a little lower, as if he were unable to take each attack, but in a sudden flash, its shield disappeared, and large rings of energy ejected from its mouth, rocketing for the mage.

  The large blue swords hammered down its last attack, expecting to hit the shield, but instead smashing into the arm of the gremloyl and missing any chance to block the rings of magic that had shot from the monster’s mouth. The rings smashed into Mordok and carried him all the way across the room, plowing him hard into the wall.

  “Mordok!” Rithnar yelled. He glanced at the gremloyl then ran to help the mage. It was unusual to see an orc stop to help another orc like that, but I had little time to process the peculiarity of the act.

  The gremloyl laughed as it stood up straight. “Todays you cannots gets away!”

  I had been charging another Firebomb while I watched Mordok battle the gremloyl lord—this time a little bigger than before. I ran forward and lobbed it at the monster, trying to divert its attention from the orcs, and this time I connected with its foot.

  The gremloyl lord cried out as the bomb exploded, tearing off at least half of its pinky toe. It raised its foot high and looked down, grimacing, but it was almost immediately distracted by the two elementals that were right below it, pounding away at its ankles. It slammed its foot down right on top of my fire elemental, causing small flames to splash out from under its foot and disappear.

  The status bars of my elemental disappeared immediately, letting me know it was destroyed.

  When the gremloyl turned its attention to Mordok’s electrified arcane slave, I backstepped and ran as quickly as I could to check on the orcs.

  Mordok was in a kneeling position, and Rithnar was standing over him, grabbing him by the shoulder.

  “For the Scourge!” Rithnar yelled, trying to pull him up.

  “Wait,” I said. “He might be hurt.”

  Mordok waved a dismissive hand, tossed an empty healing vial to the ground and pointed towards a large tear in his robe. “He got me good, but I’ll be fine.” He shook his head. “It’s even stronger than last time.”

  “What are we going to do?” I asked.

  Rithnar shook his head. “My axe is stuck in its foot. I can’t do much until I get it back.” His eyes suddenly went wide as he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eyes. “Look out!””

  Mordok raised his hand, and triangles of el
ectrified energy formed a dome around us, just as a laser blast from the monster’s spear blazed towards us. The blast ricocheted off the shield, causing large sparks of magical energy to split in all directions.

  The gremloyl took a step towards us but turned its attention back towards Mordok’s summon as it started hurdling blasts of arcane magic into its back.

  Mordok popped one of his mana potions and sucked it down quickly. “I have one more mana potion left, but nothing’s working,” Mordok said, shaking his head. “I’m afraid we may die here. I’m sorry…”

  “We still have a chance,” I said. “Reserve your mana a bit, and we’ll try to guard you while you meditate.”

  “Guard me?” Mordok laughed. “Even if I meditate, our spells are barely putting a dent in it.”

  I reached into my bag, felt around, and pulled out all the weapons I had looted earlier. “Can you guys use any of…” I paused and looked toward the two hammers I had picked up, then back to the mangled skeletons on the ground. The hammers weren’t great, but if whoever the skeletons were had made it all the way to this room, then they must have been able to get through the smaller gremloyls with them. And then there was Mordok’s story about his friend, who said he was going to hammer the gremloyl lord to pieces. How could I have missed the clues?

  Blunt weapons, I thought. We need to use blunt weapons to bring it down. It was something I should’ve thought of sooner, given my experience with video games back home, but further from my training in the Mages Guild. Every branch of magic could counter every other branch of magic in some way, so there would certainly be some sort of countering system with physical weapons as well. Was every type of physical weapon capable of taking down a stone monster? I wasn’t sure. But the most probable counter to stone was something that did crushing damage, like a hammer or mace.

  I lifted one of the hammers and held it out to Rithnar. “Can you use hammers?”

  “Yes,” he said as he took the mediocre hammer into his hands, “but this one is—”

  “Use it,” I interrupted. “I have a feeling the monster is weak against blunt weapons.”

  “You, Mordok?” I asked, holding the other hammer out to him.

  Mordok huffed and raised his eyebrows as he lifted the item from my hands. “Before I became a mage, I did have a short stint with blunt weapons such as these. My skill level is only level 12 or so, however.”

  “Try it,” I said. “I have no skills at all in blunt weapons, so I’ll just continue using my magic.”

  Mordok stood straight and flipped the weapon over in his hands. “If we’re going to die, we might as well give it our all.”

  “For the Scourge,” Rithnar said.

  “For the Scourge,” Mordok concurred.

  “For Ergoth,” I added.

  The two orcs narrowed their eyes and looked at me in total confusion.

  I smiled shyly and scratched the back of my head. “I guess now isn’t the best time for me to turn into a comedian, huh?” I raised a fist in front of me. “For the greater good!”

  “Argh!” Rithnar grunted with a nod.

  Mordok cracked a smile but said nothing.

  I turned around and watched as the gremloyl lord kneeled and simultaneously slammed its fist on top of Mordok’s elemental, smashing it and causing arcane magic and electricity to splash across the floor and disappear into nothing.

  The gremloyl rose back up to a straight position slowly, and its eyes shifted as it turned around, homing in on us.

  The eyes, I remembered, prompting me to have a look at the sword and dagger I had looted earlier. They weren’t spectacular weapons, judging by their stats, but Eden’s Gate wasn’t always about stats, so much as it was about proper decision making. And even if I was doing my best to use staves from a distance while training as a mage, I was still more skilled with a sword.

  “Another idea,” I muttered, as Mordok removed the shield from around us.

  “What?” he asked.

  “We need to bring it down somehow,” I said.

  “Of course, we do,” Mordok agreed. “We’ve been trying to do that.”

  “I mean we need to get it into a lower position somehow so I can gain access to its head,” I explained. I turned to the mage. “Do you have enough mana to cast the chains you used in the previous room? The ones that held down the smaller gremloyl?”

  “Yes, of course,” Mordok said, “But this one will easily break free.”

  “Don’t try to hold it down,” I said. “Hook on to its ankle, and when it lifts its leg…” I held my hand up straight, then tilted it over to the side, moving my head with it.

  Mordok snarled. “You might be on to something.”

  “I think you should give me that last mana potion,” I said.

  “It’s my last,” Mordok protested.

  I held my hand out. “I’ll need it for what I have planned.”

  Mordok’s stared into my eyes as if he was reading my mind. After a few seconds, he quickly reached into his bag, tossed me the mana potion, and yelled, “Watch out!” as the gremloyl pointed its spear to us and fired yet another beam of magic.

  We all jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding the blast.

  I quickly popped the cork of the mana potion and poured it down my throat. “Go! Go! Go!” I shouted as my mana bar quickly rose, knowing there was no more time for plotting or explaining my plans.

  Rithnar charged for the gremloyl lord, and when he was almost in striking range, he cocked his arm back and tossed the hammer at the monster’s leg. The hammer somersaulted, slammed into the stone of the monster’s leg, and ricocheted back and into the air. Rithnar jumped, catching the spinning hammer by the handle, and when he landed by the monster’s foot, he twirled and smashed the front of the monster’s toe with a backhanded smash.

  Large chunks of dust and debris flew off of the gremloyl with each hit, and when he pulled back and hammered a third time, a crack formed from the top of the gremloyl’s foot to its ankle.

  “Owwwwwws!” the gremloyl lord roared, and kneeled down, its knee shaking the entire room when it crashed against the ground. As it inspected the crack in its foot, Mordok scurried forward and started slamming his hammer against the monster’s leg, crunching and pounding away at the stone with each strike.

  I grabbed my Liar’s Mask from my bag, placed it on my face, and said a quick prayer. I lifted the eroded short sword, turned the point of the blade towards my gut, and gripped it with both hands. My plan was to stab my stomach to bring myself down to a level that I could activate Boiling Blood, but I held the sword there for a second or two and realized that I was unable to—fear of inflicting a grievous wound, fear of death, fear of something. I just froze up before I could harm myself too severely.

  I cursed, sat the sword down, and grabbed the looted ornate dagger. Then, without thinking too much, I jammed it into my shoulder.

  You are bleeding and require medical attention. Bleeding is a damage-over-time effect.

  I winced and groaned in pain but tried my best to hold it in as I pulled back the blade and slammed it into my shoulder again, then again, all in different spots, but in close enough proximity that I knew I’d be able to control the bleeding later with a single bandage.

  Again and again, I stabbed as I watched my health bar dissipate, and only stopped when I was right at around 40% health.

  I dropped the bloody dagger, picked up the sword again, and swung it in front of me a couple times, getting a feel for it. “It’s been a while,” I muttered.

  Rithnar continued to hammer wildly at the gremloyl, deepening and widening the crack in its ankle.

  Seeing that it was now taking noticeable damage from the orcs, the gremloyl swiped his hand at Rithnar, connecting easily and throwing him back and across the ground. When the gremloyl turned to swipe Mordok, the mage ducked and started running behind the monster.

  “Over here!” I yelled as I cast Boiling Blood and fired an Arcane Missile at the monster’s face.
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  The missile ricochet off the gremloyl’s cheek with no noticeable damage, but I seemed to capture the monster’s attention. It lifted its spear towards me, and I immediately cast a Liar’s Walk. By the time it had shot the laser-like magic from the tip of the spear, I was closer and further out to its periphery.

  “Over here!” I yelled from its left flank and started channeling a small Firebomb.

  The gremlin turned its head slowly towards me and jerked back as if it was confused. It swiped its spear at me, but it caught nothing but air. I had cast Liar’s Walk again and dashed in my heated state back towards the front of the fiend.

  As soon as I reappeared from the decoy spell, I threw a gumball-sized Firebomb at the gremloyl, and it seemed so confused by my new location that it didn’t even try to block. It hit it right in the chest, exploding and throwing tiny flakes of stone onto the ground.

  “I’m tireds of your magics!” the gremloyl lord boomed, its voice deeper and more demonic than before. It placed it’s fist on the ground and started to push back to a standing position.

  You are bleeding and require medical attention. Bleeding is a damage-over-time effect.

  By the time the monster rose, I had already cast a Liar’s Walk and dashed closer.

  The monster stopped when my decoy disappeared, turned its head trying to find me, then looked down when it noticed me immediately below. It took a step forward, and raised its foot above me, but when it slammed its heel down, it merely stomped over my effigy. I had moved several meters away and cast another Arcane Missile onto its chin to make sure it could find me quickly this time.

  “Now!” I yelled in Mordok’s direction after the gremloyl’s eyes met mine. “Chains!”

  Mordok dropped his hammer, letting it fall to the ground. He thrust his hands out, and chains sprung from his palms and wrapped around the gremloyl’s ankle and lower leg.

  I started running away from the gremloyl lord, encouraging it to lift its foot with some forward momentum. When the base of its sandal finally lifted off the ground, I cast another Liar’s Walk, just in case our plan didn’t work.