"Whoa, what's with the beam of light?" said Kahli as she stared in awe at the beam of light that had just erupted out from the ground a block away from herself and the grungy restauranteers who seemed to not remember her from their brief brush-in near the Pit of Despair.
"I don't know, but it's making me pretty uncomfortable," said Philhip as he scrounged to his singular foot, reaching to Gehaffrey for balance.
"You know, I think I know what it is," said Gehaffrey with a raised eyebrow as he stroked the small goatee sprouting out of his living wood. "This looks like a perforation. I've read about them before, and-"
Gehaffrey stopped talking. The voice from the pit in the basement was talking to him again. It was asking for him to feed it. Asking, of course, felt a lot like demanding it be fed to Gehaffrey. Either way, he was arrested by the mental interference, and wasn't able to say much of anything more. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead, although not everyone noticed this on the onset.
"A preturbation? What's so preturbing about the huge beam of light?" Suddenly, Kahli felt self-conscious. "Um, well, I mean, of course it's preturbing, I guess really I just didn't understand where the value was in explaining that as if it was some specific term instead of just saying it freaked you out. Just seemed like repeating what we all already felt."
Gehaffrey would've corrected her, if he wasn't so busy being extremely preturbed by what the voice was telling him. It was saying to him that it wanted to tear him limb from limb, that if he wanted to survive for another year that he better treat the voice better, that the voice had done so much for Gehaffrey, and so on and so forth on and on and onwards. This wasn't totally out of the ordinary - in fact, when the voice had first introduced itself to Gehaffrey, it had promised him endless wealth, riches, and of course all of the love in the world. The very next day it had threatened to disembowel him, although Gehaffrey still had no idea if the entity behind the voice had any such agency or indeed ability to perform such foul functions. Regardless, and even though it happened at least five times a moon cycle, Gehaffrey was always stricken with nervousness and fear when the voice got in one of its moods. And it was, all in all, a very moody voice.
"By the pincers of Theseosus, what's coming up out of the light beam?" said Brahd as he balanced impeccably on his two footless leg-stumps.
"Wow, you're standing up well," said Kahli.
"Just don't push me over," he added with a small frown that was mostly hidden by his living wood. For better of worse, living wood had this effect, wherein if a facial expression was more subtle than not, it would be somewhat watered down or, in rarer cases, altogether hidden. "Or attack me. Or breath on me funny. Or, be like Philhip, and be born of the foulest detritous emanating from a curmudgeon of sea cucumber."
"What?" said Kahli, with a perplexed expression.
Before Brahd could explain what exactly he was on about, a large, skeletal creature stormed out from the beam of light and towards the unlikely party. It was as tall as five taumans stacked on top of each other, it had an enormous, gaping maw of a jaw, and it had six arms, each of which ended in a nasty claw.
"Oh wow, what is that thing?" said Kahli, feeling more than a little nervous as she summoned up a boulder with her big left foot. Froufrou let loose a nervous, stinky squelch. Then, she focused on the beast.
[Skeletal Berserker]
[Level: 42]
"Sorry, forgot I could just use my system to analyze it there for a second. Still getting used to that. It's a skeletal berserker, if anyone was wondering," said Kahli matter-of-factly. "And... It's got a pretty high level, too. Just saying."
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"It's nothing compared to my inner demons," said Gehaffrey, although he knew nobody around him would understand how ltieral that statement was. "Nothing at all, in fact." With that, Gehaffrey raised both his fists. "You know, what, fuck it! I've got [skills]! I've got [skills] that help pay my bills! Why can't I fight this thing?"
Philhip grabbed Gehaffrey's arm. "Gehaff, that thing is a high level monster from gods know where. Please don't fuck yourself over royally like this. Take the L and get away while you can." Philhip said this last sentence as he, himself, hopped away on his remaining, intact leg.
"I'm not a coward like Philh," said Gehaffrey with a sneer and a snarl as he turned to the towering beast. "Have at ye!" Gehaffrey charged the monster, but as soon as he got within five paces of it, the foul thing raised one of its many huge arms and slapped him away like a fly, sending Gehaffrey screaming and sailing through the air and slamming into an old, run-down discount pornography store.
"I've got a [skill] that could help with this fight," said Brahdley as he raised a hand. "Check this out!" A beam of blue light shot out of his right claw and lassoed around the berserker. It tightened like a vice.
[Skeletal Berserker is taking damage]
"Hah! I'm getting it! Go me, and praise Theseosus!"
Kahli rolled her eyes. Theseosus always said in scripture that her mighty name must not be used for aimless gloating, and this definitely felt like a strong example of just such a thing. She wondered if Brahdley had even read scripture, what with the way he acted sometimes. Then again, it had been awhile since she herself had reviewed the words of the great mantid... Then again, it was a hotly debated topic whether reading the actual words, or embodying the spirit was more important when it came to Theseosism. The main thing was, though, that the pincers had to be praised. Everyone agreed that, at worst, you were on the right track if you praised pincers above all else.
The berserker let loose a horrible, guttural growl that shook the ground beneath them and brought everyone that was actually standing to their knees. Brahdley, on the other hand, ended up face down on cobblestone, and found that his skill had lost its aim, releasing the berserker from its grasp. Immediately, the beast roared again, and a ring of green electricity surrounded it in a spire.
[Skeletal Berseker is healing]
"What?" Kahli gasped. She looked at Brahdley. "It's healing from your attack!"
"Yea, duh," said Brahdley with a groan and a sigh. "I can see that, I have a system you know."
Kahli looked at the ground for a second, feeling a little self-conscious. Still, she needed to contribute to this fight. Surely, the berserker would start attacking them back with more than just a roar, and if she wanted any hope of making it out of this alive, it was best to act as fast as possible. So, she kicked her rock far, far away from the berserker.
"Why'd you kick it so far away? That's pretty bad aim," said Sahdi as she shook her head.
"Don't be an idiot, Sahdi," said Brahdley. "That's how her [skill] works. The rock will come zooming back faster than she kicked it. Weren't you watching her fight the alien and Omar?"
"You saw that?" Kahli suddenly felt very self conscious indeed.
"Yea, duh," said Sahdi with a flip of her long, sleek hair.
"Well why weren't you paying attention?!" said Brahdley angrily as he tried and failed to stand up without feet. "I really miss having my feet. Damn Curr."
"Ow!" cried Philhip in the distance. Apparently, Kahli's kick of the rock had sent it hurling in his direction, and it had smacked into his back and knocked him over before beginning to zoom back towards her big left foot at double, now triple the speed.
Now it was time for the real attack to begin. Kahli waited until that most opportune, cherished moment when the rock was just about to connect with her foot, and she dropped to the ground. Caught in its own pth of speed, the rock zoomed forth towards the berserker and slammed into its chest. However, her rock did not then zoom back to Kahli - instead, it broke into dusty smithereens.
Kahli gasped at the berserker. She hadn't had a lot of fights where her [Rock Summon] had been actually destroyed mid-attack by the target! This berserker must've been very strong indeed. She hoped that Brahdley would end up being more help than he presently had been, because seeing this made Kahli fearful that she might not win the fight, regardless of Froufrou's status as the Harbinger of Doom.
The berserker roared and charged towards them. Kahli stayed still, frozen in fear, as the beast lept towards and started to slam the ground with its huge claws. Each slam of ground sent shockwaves that rocked her and sent her into the air.
[You are taking damage]
Kahli was starting to feel nauseous as she was jostled around by the beast's attacks. There had to be a way out of this!