Crimson Sands
Page 38
The Champion began its tirade again, and I scanned him to see if I could figure out what the was going on.
*** Perception check successful! ***
*** Trog Champion is affected by murderous tirade. When under this effect, the champion gains a strong bonus to damage dealt at the price of increased vulnerability to damage itself. ***
Okay… damage the boss, it goes on its tirade and takes more damage during it. The trick was going to be not getting hit. I thought.
I glanced at my shield, thankful that it was magical and wasn’t going to be broken by the giant trog’s weapons. My health was just over fifty percent even after the healing I had managed. My shield arm still ached from the spillover damage from blocking as well, and I was worried another strong attack might break it.
The boss’ tirade was coming to an end, so I tried to capitalize on the last few seconds of it by blasting it with a Sunstrike. The holy fire of the spell burned into its armor and dropped its health by a sliver.
Okay. I can do this, I thought, seventy six percent to go, and all I have to do is, well. Not get hit.
It looked around the room again and had an idea. I held my breath and slowly reached into my pouch. I grabbed a copper coin and tossed it slightly to my left.
The coin hit the ground with a metallic clink and the trog pounced, swiping through the air where my head would have been had I been standing where the coin landed.
Grinning to myself, I dashed in and thrust my spear into the boss’s flank, scoring a critical hit and triggering my combat caster proc. Without a second thought I channeled the surge of magic to cast Cure Wounds on myself and stepped back, raising my shield to intercept any counterattacks.
*** Congratulations! You have gained a better understanding of the Cure Wounds spell! Rank 2 Achieved! ***
I scanned the frog monster again, seeing it was close to another temper tantrum.
*** Trog Champion, Level 9 (Boss) ***
*** HP: 71%, SP:65% ***
It raised its sword for an overhead slash, and I stepped to the side, jamming my spear into its thigh as its sword smashed into the stone floor, sending pieces of rock to plink off of my legs.
My next attack glanced off of its body armor. That second attack turned out to be a bad idea. The trog recovered much faster than I expected, taking a hand off of its sword to slash me across the chest with his claws.
*** You are Bleeding! ***
My health dropped to twenty percent as its claws slashed through my armor, breaking through the bronze rings and opening my flesh in a bleeding wound.
I stumbled to the side, barely keeping my feet.
I could feel the blood from the would trickling down the inside of my armor, and the only reason I survived that moment was because my attack had sent the beast into its blind rage once again and I’d stumbled clear of the danger zone.
I chugged a moderate healing potion and then channeled Soothing Touch until the bleeding stopped and the tirade was almost over.
Sitting at half health, I awaited the end of the boss’s rampage, not wanting to get greedy.
*** Trog Champion, Level 9 (Boss) ***
*** HP: 64%, SP: 50% ***
When the boss began scanning the room once again, I tossed the empty potion vial off to my right, and readied Precision Strike.
As predicted, the trog leapt toward the sound, and I struck deep into its side, right beneath the shoulder joint, landing a critical hit which triggered both the bleed effect and my combat casting bonus.
Acting on instinct, I shunted the surge of energy into a Sunstrike and sent it pulsing down my spear which was still deep in the boss’s flesh.
The fiery spell erupted inside the boss’s flesh, completely destroying the beast’s shoulder joint. I leapt back as the trog stumbled away, its arm hanging from its shoulder in tatters.
*** Trog Champion, Level 9 (Boss) ***
*** HP: 36%, SP: 30% ***
*** Bleeding, Disabled (Right Arm). ***
The trog roared as its blood leaked onto the ground and shook itself free of whatever state it was in. The beast dropped its sword to the ground and began pulsing with a deep red light.
*** Trog Champion enters Blood Frenzy! ***
Shit, as if it wasn’t hard enough, I thought. This must be the next boss phase like in the old school games.
My spell trick had taken quite a chunk out of the boss and dropped it down below fifty percent, probably crossing whatever threshold the creature had built into its logic.
I focused on the blood frenzy effect and quickly scanned through the description. It granted the boss increased speed, strength, and damage while sacrificing damage resistance and accuracy.
It was similar to its tirade, but this time there was no randomness involved.
The boss rushed me from across the room, its remaining claw scraping against my shield while its fang filled maw snapped shut inches from my face.
I was forced to go fully defensive, using my spear to parry its arm while my shield pressed its mouth away from my head.
But my best defense still wasn’t enough to fend off this murder machine. Its claws slipped through my defenses, adding to the painful cuts on my torso.
I stumbled in pain as my health dropped into the red and almost lost my head to its jaws.
Another swipe of its claw knocked my shield wide and caught on my stole, the black cloth coming into my view just as the creature’s jaws were about to close on my head.
A millisecond before having my head bitten off, I triggered the shield of faith ability and sighed as the forcefield appeared between my flesh and the hundreds of needle-like teeth fractions of an inch from my flesh. A counter appeared, starting at thirty seconds and counting down as the boss's frenzied blows connected with the divine armor to no effect.
I tried to stab the enemy with my spear and was surprised when it worked. The steel spearhead sunk thorough the creature’s flesh without any impact on my force shield at all.
I glanced at the ability counter that was down to twenty five seconds, at my health, and the enemy’s health and said, “Fuck it.”
Going all in, I abandoned any semblance of defense and flailed for all was worth against Trog Champion. I stabbed it with my spear and bashed it with my shield in a frenzy, using Precision Strike over and over as quickly as I could without completely depleting my stamina pool.
With three seconds left on the Shield of Faith timer, the Trog Champion was dead.
Laughing hysterically, I plopped down onto the cold stone floor and laughed, reveling in escaping what I thought was sure to be another painful death.
I shook my head and sighed. “Yeah… that’s not going to last,” and immediately began putting together a bug report about the absurd OP ability that was ‘Shield of Faith’. I’d have to send it once I logged off so I could attach a video clip of the fight as well, but complete invulnerability while being able to attack? Super broken.
As my pools regenerated, I wrote up a second report about the channeling of spells inside of enemies via the instant-cast spear proc combat caster combo and submitted that as well in case it wasn’t as designed.
I knelt down and looted to the champion, finding only the crest and some ruined leather armor.
I was a bit miffed at that but then remembered that it had been a boss and began looking for the chest. I headed back into the room where the trog had originally made his home and there it was, half buried in a pile of random broken adventurer’s equipment and rusted weapons.
I popped open the chest and pulled out a strange bronze rod, a potion of dexterity, and a small coin pouch containing fifty gold, forty three silver, and twenty copper pieces.
Looking closer at the rod, I turned it around in my hands and waited until the system provided the details, surprised when it identified as a spear.
*** Sunspear – Wielded by the priests of Amon-Ra in ancient times, Sunspears were a marvel of magical artifice. This magical weapon is able to transform
into three forms at the desire of the wielder: Baton, Short Spear, and Long Spear. Forged by the priest-smiths of Amon-Ra, Sunspears will never lose their edge and grant a small bonus to damage vs creatures aligned with darkness. (Soulbound) ***
I read through the description and started to laugh. Not because of the bonuses or anything else like that; but because my first thought upon reading its abilities was that I would never have to lug around a full sized spear again.
I put my steel spear to the side for the moment and held the Sunspear in its baton form in my hand. It was about a foot and a half long and about as thick as a standard spear shaft.
I willed it to become a short spear and watched as it instantly grew into a seven foot spear. The final foot of the spear was a wickedly sharp blade, stylized to look like the extended ray of a sunburst which was formed by the guard. It felt good in my hands.
I willed it to become a long spear and it shifted again, elongating to nine feet of shaft with the final foot as a narrow piercing blade, reminiscent of a Macedonian pike.
The balance and grip shifted with the weapon, so even changing its form mid battle wouldn’t cause much difficulty. I willed it back into baton form and tucked it into my belt.
I searched through the piles of broken equipment and managed to find some pieces that I thought would be worth salvaging for parts and packed them up into a bundle. Dragging the collection behind me, I grabbed my steel spear and headed out of this room and back towards the main sewer.
I glanced at my quest log and saw that I still needed seven more Trog Crests to complete that quest, so I wasn’t done down here yet. I lugged my sack of salvage over the bridge and into the tunnel that led back to the surface to wait for my eventual return.
Tucking the shortened Sunspear into my belt, I picked up my old weapon and continued down the main passage.
From up ahead there was a metallic clink just loud enough to be heard over the sound of the gurgling sewers. I ducked down and peered into the darkness, moving slowly forward.
At the edge of my vision two trogs came into view crossing over one of the many stone bridges to my side of the tunnel.
The lead trog had a length of chain wrapped around its torso with a pair of wicked looking daggers tucked into the coils. The second trog was armed only with its natural teeth and claws.
*** Trog Warrior, Level 5 ***
***HP:100%, SP:100% ***
*** Trog Scavenger, Level 5 ***
***HP:100%, SP:100% ***
I crept forward until I was within Sunstrike range and cast the spell at closest Trog, the lance of holy fire connecting with its chain wrapped torso, dropping its health to seventy percent and knocking it back into its companion.
The second trog pushed its injured partner away and leaped from the stone bridge to the walkway and charged me.
I launched my steel spear towards its heart and it nimbly twisted to the side, avoiding the projectile. The mundane spear went skittering down the walkway.
Seeing me unarmed, the trog launched itself forward, its claws raised to strike.
I drew the Sunspear from my belt and willed it into short spear form as I thrust it towards the leaping creature.
The bronze rod transformed and its sharpened point met the scavenger in midair, impaling the trog through the heart.
Its corpse slid almost three feet along the shaft before the weight bore the tip to the ground.
The chain-wrapped trog was right behind his now dead companion so I took a step back to give myself some room to maneuver. I raised my shield into a defensive stance and pulled my Sunspear free of the dead creature, costing me valuable seconds.
The dagger-wielding trog charged past my spear and began slashing at me with its twin blades.
With a flurry of blows it drove me backwards. I caught the first dagger on my shield, but the creature was so close that I couldn’t bring my spear to bear and took a painful wound to my shoulder.
My health dropped to eighty percent as I tried to disengage but the trog refused to give up its powerful advantage and dogged me like a paper boy who wanted his two dollars.
I changed tactics. Instead of backing away, I stepped towards the trog, and unable to halt its forward momentum, the frog man crashed into my raised shield and bounced.
Using my brief respite from the constant attacks, I assessed my current status. My armor was covered in slashes and I was bleeding from several shallow wounds where the blades had made it through the leather, but my hit points were still at acceptable levels.
The trog tried to close once again but I wasn’t having it. I choked up on my spear and slashed at the creature as it approached.
My spear tip scraped along the chains, doing no damage, but causing the creature to pause its advance, which was all I needed.
I cast Sunstrike and the fiery ray exploded from my shield, searing through the gaps in the creature's makeshift armor to burn the flesh beneath. The creature's health bar dropped to zero and it dropped to the ground.
I looted the corpses, picking up their crests and ten feet of iron chain from the one corpse. It was heavy, so I took a quick trip back to my salvage stash and added it to the pile.
I shrank my Sunspear back into a rod, tucked it into my belt, and then retrieved my steel spear before moving on.
I followed the main tunnel until it came to a four way intersection. The main sewage channel continued straight, with a smaller tributary flowing in from the pathway to my left. I decided to follow the muck to its source and followed the walkway around to the left.
My vision pierced the darkness ahead and I spotted a small passage leading into the wall on my left, and another leading off to the right further down on the opposite side of the tributary.
Through the left tunnel was a room occupied by a small group of trogs who were in the process of stuffing their fanged faces with some sort of meat.
*** Trog Scavenger, Level 3 ***
***HP:100%, SP:100% ***
*** Trog Scavenger, Level 3 ***
***HP:100%, SP:100% ***
*** Trog Scavenger, Level 4 ***
***HP:100%, SP:100% ***
*** Trog Scavenger, Level 4 ***
***HP:100%, SP:100% ***
*** Trog Shaman, Level 4 ***
***HP:100%, SP:100% ***
*** Trog Apprentice, Level 1 ***
***HP:100%, SP:100% ***
Finishing the group off would give me enough crests to get the hell out of this place so I decided to go for it.
I cast a Flamestrike and launched it at the shaman. This time my aim was true and the flaming javelin embedded itself in the poor creature’s chest.
The apprentice tried to do its master a solid and pull out the flaming missile only to be transformed into crimson mist when the spell reached its culmination a few seconds later.
The shaman died as the spell crit, his upper body completely destroyed by the force of the blast.
The resulting wave of fire enveloped three of the closest scavengers in its radius, leaving two on fire when the spell receded.
The one uninjured trog charged me and I met it in the entryway to the room, readying a Precision Strike. Its claws scraped along my raised shield and I countered with my spear, sinking the blade into its side. Its health dropped by half and the frog man spit out a mouth full of blood onto the floor.
Being twice the creature’s level was having a pretty big impact on my damage.
One of the burning trogs was rolling around on the ground, trying to put out the flames and screeching in pain. The flames on the second had gone out, and it was heading my way with a vengeance
It raised its charred arms and flared its crest in a pale imitation of their now-dead champion and stepped towards me.
I threw the steel spear, stopping it dead in its tracks as the blade bashed through its teeth and emerged from the back of its head.
A sharp pain brought my attention back to the creature in front of me attacked with a quick flurry of its c
laws. My armor was able to absorb most of what got past my shield, but a particularly lucky hit managed to find a gap and rip a painful gash on my inner thigh.
My health dropped around five percent from the combined damage, and then another two percent when I punched the thing in the mouth and managed to cut my hand on its teeth.
The flaming trog let out a piteous gasp and died as the fire consumed the last of his hit points, leaving me with the one remaining, barely alive scavenger.
*** Trog Scavenger, Level 4 ***
***HP:9%, SP:62% ***
Since it was almost dead, I decided to see if I could take advantage of the situation to gain some new skill levels.
I grabbed the Sunspear from my belt and extended it into a short spear and mentally switched on my casting log messages so I could track my progress.
Using both my spear and shield defensively, I began to split my attention between defense and casting the Cure Wounds spell upon myself.
*** You cast Cure Wounds on yourself! Some of your wounds have been healed! ***
I started another cast and the trog leapt at me, its claws slipping past my parry to score a wound on my spear arm.
The spell form began to break apart but I managed to maintain concentration and power through the pain, watching the wound the trog had just inflicted disappear as the healing energy washed over me.
*** Combat Caster check Passed! ***
*** You cast Cure Wounds on yourself! Some of your wounds have been healed! ***
I repeated the process again, allowing the trog to land a glancing blow along my arm, this time losing the spell due to the pain.
*** Combat Caster check unsuccessful! ***
*** Your Cure Wounds spell has been disrupted! ***