Kayete hailed his packmates with a bark as he eyed the Skyshade flapping up into the sky. The initial engagement hadn’t injured it gravely and it was using this time to wait for its Wither to eat at their health. The ability was abrasive, tasting like ash and maggots in the back of Kayetes throat. Despite the discomfort, with the help of a lesser regeneration potion, Kayete wasn’t in any true danger with his high defensive stats.
Takete and Tikah on the other hand were both withered and suffering greatly to the huge damage over time from Wither. Curse wasn’t helping the situation, making the ability nearly deal double damage against the two lower leveled Gnolls. The pair neared, soon followed by Micah who had somehow avoided the huge area burst. Of the Shieldbearer, there was no trace.
“Drink your cleansing potions,” Kayete barked at the two stubborn kids. “That is what they are there for.”
Takete guzzled his down, but Tikah rubbed her mane sheepishly.
“I uh,” she said. “Think I lost mine...should I drink the moderate regeneration potion instead?”
“Fool,” Kayete cuffed the girl over the head, then handed her his cleansing potion. He shouldn’t need it against the Skyshade unless the battle lasted multiple hours. “Save the moderate for only the most dire situation. Ideally, we return them to the pack unused. The Skyshade is stronger than we expected, and it leveled mid fight, but this is your Adaka, what say you? Continue, or retreat?”
“Never retreat,” Tikah and Takete said in unison.
“Continue,” Mikah said. “We have the damage to tame it, and with you tanking Wither when it comes up, we should be able to outlast it.”
“Sixty-seven feet is a very large distance,” Kayete said doubtfully.
“This plateau we are on is nearly one hundred and fifty feet in diameter. As long as you can get it to trigger Wither away from the center, we should all be guaranteed to dodge with our Fashta’s Phase Rush,” Mikah said.
“Yeah, what she said,” Takete said while Tikah nodded along.
“It has zero AD, so all we have to do is lock it down and hit it in melee range,” Micah continued. “With rocks or our bodies if Hinder stops us chaining CC.”
“Sounds good,” Kayete said, turning to the sky. “I know what I said before, but each of you can mess up once with your moderate regeneration potions. I would rather return you home rather than a lifeless bottle. Don’t be so proud as to not drink—.”
“Scatter!” Micah screamed, interrupting Kayete.
The Voidborne Skyshade hurtled from the sky as the Gnolls scattered. Phase Rush turned the Fashta and their riders translucent as the skill launched them to the edges of the plateau. The wave of malevolent purple raced down ahead of the Skyshade and Kayete bared his teeth as it washed over him.
Kayete snarled, almost gagging, but a quick check on his stats showed he was safe. It would take multiple hours for a Wither of this caliber to kill him through his resistances. Even with Curse sapping his resistances.
The Skyshade pulled up, ready to return to the sky and out of range, but Kayete silently kicked his mount to jump. Air Chains flung out in a blink of an eye, and wrapped around the fragile shadow. Its red eyes flashed but it could do nothing as Kayete skillfully spun his Fashta and slammed the creature into the dirt.
The Chains vanished, only to be refreshed as the three other Gnolls raced in to hold the creature down. Together as one, claws and spears arced out, tearing into the fragile membrane that composed the Skyshade.
The fourth Air Chain vanished, but Hinder prevented Kayete from chaining the lockdown. It burst into the sky. The Gnolls booed, but then cheered as they realized their plan was working nearly flawlessly. Twenty minutes passed as the creature circled, waiting for its cooldowns. Kayete suffered stoically as his health pool flickered as Wither fought against the health potion and his regeneration.
Once more the Voidborne Skyshade dove, but as it was flying down, blue mist washed over it.
It leveled again?! Kayete gaped up at the sky, instantly Identifying it as his packmates scattered.
Voidborne Skyshade
Stats Invested: 1925
Talents Invested: 1520
Health[7]: 4055
Regeneration[7]: 482.7/hr
Armor[7]: 229 (Damage reduction: 70%)
Ability Power[8]: 5421
Ruin[1]: 9%
Ability Haste[8]: 71%
Area of Effect[8]: 1205%
Hinder
5m:43s
196 ft radius
Nearby enemies are cursed for 15 minutes and lose ability haste equal to 25% of ability power
Curse
7m:9s
196 ft radius
Nearby enemies are cursed for 15 minutes and lose armor and magic resistance equal to 10% of ability power
Wither
12m:53s
196 ft radius
Nearby enemies are cursed for 1 hour and take 400% of ability power as magic damage over the duration
Mordath
-passive-
Recover health equal to 20% of ability power when a nearby enemy with three or more curses dies.
Kayete barely had time to register the increased Ability Power before the purple wave washed over him and — to his horror — all three of his packmates.
A dull ache settled in his chest. His ability haste and resistances were shredded to a pulp. 22,000 magic damage over an hour. 6 damage per second. With his health and regeneration as they were, he’d survive for a time. But even with his Moderate Regeneration potion, he would succumb. If only he hadn’t given his cleansing potion to that mutt, Tikah.
His Fashta chained the Skyshade, slammed it to the dirt, and the other gnolls sprinted in.
“Plan B!” Kayete vaguely heard Micah scream, but Kayete shook his head. It was pointless to tame it. They would all still die after the fact.
Unless...
Kayete kicked his Fashta and raced away from they battle. The kids were doomed. Adaka failed. That was bad, but there was still a chance he could survive.
He blurred as he raced back to the dungeon entrance. Back to the spot where the human should be waiting so that his Arterial Shieldbearer could assist them against the Skyshade.
Before he had even crested the next peak he spotted the human, casually jogging in his direction as his tame destroyed a pack of Voidlings.
----------------------------------------
“Sedrik!” Cedric startled at the bark, seeing a rather bedraggled Kayete racing at him.
He’d raced towards the site of battle the moment he’d reentered the dungeon. As he ran, an onrush of upgrades had shot out to the Skyshade, simultaneously updating his bearing and warning of the battle to come. He’d been close when another purple wave had exploded out and nearly caught him in the massively increased radius.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“What?” Cedric blinked, trying to keep up the count in his head of when the Skyshade would have its Wither up again.
“What happened, Human? Your Arterial Shieldbearer vanished without any warning mid battle? Were you jumped by Voidlings?”
“I ah, no. There weren’t any Voidlings. I jumped through the portal to save my companion from Wither.”
“No Voidlings?” Kayete spat in disgust. “Your tame is there to help in the fight. It is not some child to be pampered. Our Fashta fought, and so should have your Shieldbearer!”
“Yeah, well your uber-cat looks mighty unfazed by Wither. Almost like its immune to it or something. Guess what asshole, I barely know you and my Shieldbearer would have died if I didn’t jump through the portal. Sorry if I chose to protect my companion over you. I figured four natives to this world would have the situation under control without a Traveler whose barely been here a month!”
“You!” Kayete snarled, then coughed, hocking up some nasty yellow phlegm. His hair was visibly wilted, and his shoulders looked thin as he slumped on his Fashta. He seemed to reconsider for a moment, then shook his head, changing the subject. “Your potion. The gift granted to you by Micah. Hand it over if you will or I shall perish.”
“Wait... what about me? I’m still dying from the last Wither. Don’t you have your own potion you can use?”
“No, I do not,” Kayete said through clenched teeth. He narrowed his eyes. “Fine. Would you be willing to trade, Human? A regeneration potion that will counteract the Wither in exchange for the cleansing potion.”
“Also no,” Cedric shook his head. “Leaving aside the fact you had a potion all this time that would have helped me from the get go, I’m going to need the cleansing potion in case the Skyshade uses another blast. You saw its new area of effect. There is no way I’d be able to outrun it.”
“Then leave this dungeon! Take my offer and leave! Why are you still here. To tame the beast?” Kayete laughed bitterly. “So you are an oathbreaker in addition to being a liar. Fitting I suppose, but no matter. If you will not trade for the potion then I will take it from your cold dead grasp.”
“Wait!” Cedric raised his hands, stepping back. “Hold on for a moment. Hold on! For crying out loud. That Wither looks bad, but you look like you are going to survive for at least another half hour. If not forty-five minutes. We’ve got like...9 more minutes before that thing goes nuclear again. What do you say you move out of the way and let me go and tame it. Even odds I succeed before it blasts us and don’t have to use the cleansing potion. Then I come back, we do the trade and both of us are happy.”
“Oathbreaker,” Kayete spat again, and kicked his mount. Transparent chains shot out, and Cedric squeaked. He stepped behind his Shieldbearer and they wrapped around the one-eyed abomination. The Fashta snarled and it leapt forward. Riposte activated as the Shieldbearer caught the feline’s swipes on its shields.
“Oi!” Cedric shouted indignantly, frantically strafing around his companion to keep it between him and the enraged car-size uber-cat. “Use your words man! What was wrong with my suggestion?!”
“Give me the potion and I will grant you a painless death,” Kayete stabbed forward, getting smacked by a deluge of corrosive blood for his trouble.
“You know? That compromise seems just a tad bit one sided.” Cedric shouted, yanking his companion back as the transparent chains faded. “How about...no!”
The Gnoll was utterly incensed. He’d have to remember later that breaking oaths was a big no-no to Gnolls. It seemed a little silly though. The supposed ‘oath’ he had taken hadn’t been that formal. More like a casual agreement, and Cedric hadn’t even understood the full extent of the agreement when he had taken it.
As far as Cedric was concerned, the whole operation had gone to shit, and the agreement from before didn’t apply. Right now, the goal was to salvage the situation before the Skyshade’s cooldowns came back up. Continuing to talk with the Gnoll was just a waste of time.
“Keep him from following me, then come if you can,” Cedric tapped the Shieldbearer’s shoulder, then sprinted towards the site of the purple detonation.
Kayete roared in impotent rage from behind, but the Shieldbearer vomited a stream of sticky corrosive blood over the Gnoll and his mount. Cedric ignored it, knowing that Gore Creep coupled with Second Wind should allow the Shieldbearer to occupy the Gnoll for a good long while. Especially with Hinder blocking that freaky dash ability the Fashta could use.
Cedric crested the hill and beheld the battlefield. It was...carnage.
Far below, on a rocky outcrop extending off the side of the plateau, a broken Gnoll body lay crumpled. Two more Gnoll bodies lay together in a heap on the sparse grass.
The Skyshade was inexplicably trapped next to the bodies beneath dozens of large rocks. A closer look at the Skyshade revealed its newly elevated stats. 5,000 ability power, coupled with a nearly 200 foot radius was like a military grade bomb when it went off. And the thing could trigger it once every 13 minutes. The worrisome part though, was that the health had spiked massively since last time, and the creature didn’t look all that injured despite the Gnolls’ efforts.
Likely due to Mordath’s healing.
Only one Fashta remained, and it was chewing madly at the Skyshade. Where the other Fashta had gone off to, Cedric didn’t know, but if it didn’t attack him he could leverage its damage to make the tame possible.
Cedric raced down the hill, nearly tripping over his feet once or twice, and arrived before the trapped beast.
“Easy kitty,” Cedric approached hesitantly, deathly aware of the timer ticking down. The Fashta turned on him and snarled, but then resumed ripping at the Skyshade. Grinning, Cedric approached the beast. It buffeted him with its wings, but with zero attack damage they felt more akin to get thwacked by pillows than punches.
He placed a hand on the creature, and triggered tame.
Taming Voidborne Skyshade...120y 6mo 1w 3d 20h 33m 41s
Cedric cursed and punched the creature. The system notification ticked down by a little. He’d need to hit it a lot more though.
“Alright,” Cedric huffed, rolling up his sleeves. Then he started punching. Punch and kick followed by more punching. Each hit reduced the timer on tame by just a little more.
To his surprise, his meager attacks were almost as effective as the Fashta’s vicious claws. The massive claws seemed to glide over the gossamer-thin membrane of inky darkness, barely leaving a scratch. Clearly this creature hadn’t invested much in attack damage.
Taming Voidborne Skyshade...108y 1mo 3w 6d 12h 53m 11s
Cedric gasped, pausing for a second as pain radiated up his wrist. Hitting the velvet membrane felt like punching through drywall. It didn’t drop his health, but it still hurt all the same. They weren’t going fast enough. That much was clear. Maybe it was the massive difference in effective health, but this creature seemed so much harder to tame than either of Cedric’s previous encounters.
He needed more damage. A weapon of some kind. Surely this world’s system implemented the concept of equippables right? Why else would the Gnoll’s use spears?
Cedric raced to one of the fallen spears and grabbed it.
You have equipped a weapon: +93 attack damage, +30 lethality
“Yes!” Cedric raced back to the Skyshade and stabbed it.
Again.
And again.
Each blow left a small rend in the gossamer flesh of the Skyshade. It writhed and batted at him, almost knocking him off his feet several times, but he managed to keep his feet.
Keep stabbing.
Keep taming.
Keep...
You have successfully tamed a Voidborne Skyshade!
The Skyshade wilted like a wet curtain, finally calming its violent thrashing. The Fashta however seemed oblivious to the change in state. It continued ravaging the Skyshade as if determined to get revenge for its master.
“Wait! Wait! Stop!” Cedric frantically waved at the Fashta to back off. The Skyshade was near death, and even if it wasn’t trapped under the rocks it didn’t have the attack damage to scare the cat off.
The Arterial Shieldbearer was likewise indisposed. Whatever was happening with Kayete, it hadn’t yet resolved. He hadn’t gotten a death notification from the system so the worst hadn’t happened, but his companion wasn’t here to deal with the aggressive uber-cat.
Cedric briefly thought of jumping in front of the beast, but quickly dashed the thought from his mind. His health was very low. Nearly single digits. Even a single swipe could kill him, and the action didn’t even have a high probability of succeeding.
“Heel.”
A soft voice barked from behind. Cedric paused, reading the system translation then turning to see Micah watching him with dull eyes. The Fashta instantly responded, stopping its assault and retreating to sit beside its master.
“You’re alive,” Cedric said, surprised. He walked over and kneeled beside her. Unfortunately the other Gnoll beside her was completely unrecognizable. Weeks dead by earth terms.
“Ha!” Mikah coughed, letting her head fall back to the dirt. “Barely. You got it though. Congratulations. That is a beastie among beasties, ehh?”
Like him, her flesh was turning black with necrosis. The air reeked of rot, and her once bright mane was thin and matted with yellow puss.
“Do you have a potion to help with that?” Cedric asked.
“Nah,” she said, her eyes closing. “I just have this thing. Moderate Healing potion if you can believe it. Think the clan can make, like, ten of these a year.”
“Why didn’t you drink it. I’m sure your people would prefer you use it if they gave it to you.”
“Won’t do much,” she shrugged. “It’s strong, but not as strong as your new Voidborne Skyshade. Congrats by the way. Did I say that already? I think I said that already...”
Suddenly, a notification appeared in his vision.
Absorb Enduring Effect Augment? Augmented skill requires an additional cleanse to be removed.
Cedric blinked, not sure what he was looking at. It took him a solid ten seconds to realize he had accidentally touched some of the slime of the dead Gnoll and the system had offered to loot the corpse.
That was...interesting. It meant he should climb down the mountain to collect the fallen Gnoll and loot its body before he left. Maybe he should track down Kayete and see if higher leveled Gnolls granted better augments.
“Hey,” Micah said softly, calling Cedric’s attention back to her. “Do you want the moderate? You could definitely make more use of it than I could.”
Cedric blinked in surprise as the female Gnoll held out a shaky hand clutching a glittering glass vial toward him. He shook thoughts of augments and loot from his mind, and gently accepted the glass vial.
“Thank you Micah,” Cedric smiled. “You are a life saver, you know that?”
Without further ado, Cedric popped the ground glass stopper and threw back the red liquid. It burned like whiskey on the way down, but its effects were far more potent than the lesser regeneration potion coursing through his veins.
You have been afflicted by Moderate Regeneration Potion: +4250 hp/h for 16 hours
“Wait! Don’t drink it now...oh, where’d you get that?”
Cedric ignored the rush of energy through his body and pulled out his purple cleansing potion.
“You gave it to me silly,” Cedric said. He leaned forward, heedless of the rot, and administered the potion to the girl. Like magic, the foul magic destroying her body evaporated, leaving her weak, but very much alive.