Edited by: KenChi死
I have been sitting close to the stairs meditating, trying to renew as many mana points as possible. My stupid competition with Loki left me pretty much drained. It was stupid of me. Completely childish. As I could tell, without “seeing” my actual mana regeneration rate, it would take be about a day to completely regain my mana from 0 to 100%. This is surly boosted by meditation. The only positive thing in this whole madness was that I tried to hold the bare minimum of mana as a “safety margin”.
* “Zari… more or less, how long will it takes you to prepare yourself?”
I looked at my mana bar. About 40%. Will have to do.
I stood up, stretched myself, moved my joints to the sides causing cracking sounds and took a deep breath.
* “I could use a hour or two more, but what I have now will have to do the trick.”
* “Zari, it’s dangerous to go unpre…”
* “Easy sunshine, I have an ace in the hole. I always do. But now… let’s keep walking. Somehow I feel uneasy about it.”
I said while pointing the stairs with my head.
Loki once again checked his daggers, Mrogul laid his hammer on his shoulder, Marika renewed her spells….
And we walked in. As we moved deeper and deeper the smell hit us like a train. Strong, heavy, almost choking – the smell of decaying flesh. As if you had opened the grave of an almost completely degenerated body. Marika tried her best to cast the smell aside with wind magic, yet her efforts were almost completely futile.
As we reached the ground we noticed that someone was awaiting our arrival. Small. Flying. Angry… Another pixie? Jesus! What the hell is wrong with my luck?
* “Do you have any bloody idea… what you have just FUCKING DONE?!”
Definitely not happy with our visit.
* “Decades of work may be completely screwed because you had to fucking open the door – the only bloody door in the whole bloody dungeon, that was NOT meant to be opened!”
Mrogul leaned to Marika and asked her in cot exactly quiet tone
* “Some relative of yours? Can you deal with her in a peaceful way?”
* “Where the hell do you have eyes!? I am easily 10 times bigger than her!”
* “Midget is midget. Plus she also can’t keep her mouth shout so I thought…”
* “ARE YOU EVEN LISTNEING TO ME FOR FUCK SAKE?! Why for everything created on this damned world… You needed to came here?! That’s actually an intrusion into private property!”
* “Not in our eyes. Now speak your mind. Dungeon pixie rarely comes to great adventurers… even more as you can be sold for quite the price…”
It was not a threat. More like a statement. The question that never was asked: “Why did you risk your life just to scold us?”
* “Oh, tis’ but a courtesy. In the end you have to know why I am not letting you go until you clear this dungeon.”
Speaking that she made a gesture with her hand and the entrance to the stairs behind us were shut down. She turned around and flew slowly as she started her story.
* “This dungeon is called the Lair of Nightmare, lair of the one who brings nightmares, the pit of nightmares… and so on. Your legend says the story about a dragon that lost his mind, or something similar? Bullshit, and yet truth at the very same time. Indeed there is a dragon, but he is not crazy. He barely IS at all.” She turned her head a few times just to checked if we followed
* “Ya see… the truth is that he is dead… which doesn’t stop him from moving, killing and spreading his aura of death and disease. He got cursed. He was denied both: life and death. This dungeon was created by HIM, just a moment before he lost his mind. His body, for centuries, never stopped releasing miasma. And the miasma needed to go somewhere. The dungeon was sucking those energies from the dragon and pushing small portions into the lizards it created. Lizards mutated and started roaming the corridors of the dungeons. And then adventurers would come, kill the beasts helping us greatly. Each time part of the miasma was sucked from the dragon, it would grown weaker. Few more decades and he could finally die. Find his peace. BUT NOOOOO! YOU HAD TO FUCKING CAME! RUINING THIS SUBLTE, ELABORATED PLAN! You see, in the moment you have opened the door he awakened from his painful slumber. In that moment he smelled fresh, not rotten meat… you are the meat… he began to hunger blood. Now you have to fight him. If not he will leave the place and devour the nearby village. Grown stronger, fly away, and start devouring yet again, in a vicious never ending circle. So… you have to die here. The time you would buy will allow us – me and dunny – to seal the entrance and hopefully put him into slumber. You follow?”
* “Can’t we just kill him?” I asked shyly
* “B…bwahahaha! Oh, I see it. Well, you are welcome to try. That would indeed help us greatly, bah it would actually solve our problems… But… I doubt you will. Even as he is brainless, even as via years or agonizing labors we drained lots of his power… he is still a dragon. A high dragon of an old almost ancient bloodline. Yet still, even as a shadow of his old form… he will be more than deadly for such younglings like yourself. I almost feel pity for you kids.”
We moved via a few corridors. The smell became unbearable. And very soon the source of this smell appeared before our eyes.
The room looked like an ancient altar, surrounded by many columns. And in the very middle of this wonderful room he laid. Its eyes were half open, moving from side to side. There was no intelligence within it. Just anger, pain, sorrow, and torment... and hunger.
Slowly, almost as if every move caused pain grater than one can imagine, it raised up showing the body lacking lumps of flesh. It spread its rotten, full of holes wings. Part of its skull was visible.
* “A motherfucking undead dragon…” Loki whispered to himself “… by any chance… if some of you know holy magic… he or she can start bragging about it right now.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Dogwartzh of Voiceless Abyss [High Zombie Dragon] Title[Dungeon Boss]
[Undead]
[Cursed]
[Bane of Mortals]
Level31Hp[1726/2500]Sp[411/1250]Mp[811/1250]SkillsBite [Active] [Level 62]
Scratch [Active] [Level 71]
Chaos Magic [Active] [Level 37]
Black Magic [Active] [Level 28]
Miasma Weaver [Passive] [NA]
Rotten Body [Passive] [NA]
Unholy regeneration [Passive/Active] [NA]
What the fuck. Is this. Shit? 2.5k of max hp? 1.2k of mana?! Those skills levels!?
* “So… as the purpose of this journey was to allow me to gather experience…” I started “… I think it’s the very best time for you to tell me how do you deal with fucker 4 meters tall and 20 long…”
* “If it’s a beast, simply smash and slash until it falls death.”
* “And if it’s a dragon?”
* “Depends if stray or high. If stray you smash and slash until it dies.”
* “And if it’s high?”
* “Depends if young or adult. If young… you smash and slash until it’s no longer moving.”
* “And if it’s adult?”
Now Loki finally looked at me
* “Usually? You fucking run.”
Only Mrogul grinned like a mad man. I inspected him one more time. Scales are almost completely rotten providing no defense at all. If we could land few blows… or few dozens… we could separate a few limbs from body… after immobilizing we could poke him with everything we have got and hope he dies… I could also try burning him. Last time I checked fire was effective against zombies. The problem is that he will be able to easily extinguish my fire. I will have to tire him down. Okay
* “Marika, focus on crowd control, disturb his movements as much as you can, Mrogul, each time you see an opening bash his limbs. But prioritize your own security. You are the only one using heavy weapons here, without you we are doomed… Loki… just… just try not to die. You can perform some weird dance to distract him…”
* “One: why do you think you are in charge, two… what the fuck is wrong with that tactic?!”
* “One: if you have any better strategy – I am listening; two – if you had a weapon that is not a dagger… feel free to use it. You can also try convincing me that daggers are useful against enemy this big that can’t be poisoned and can’t bleed.”
He only waved his head to the sides, and from behind his back he pulled a few shorter bare blades, joined them together and put them into handle, twisted the whole structure making snapping sound. He just made a sword. Have you ever seen a sword that you literally build from pieces? Well, it is surly my first time seeing one.
* “It ain’t my first dungeon ride kid.” He smiled weakly.
* “So try doin’ the same thing as Mrogul… but to not burden you with excessive tasks… you can die. No, honestly. We would still have Mrogul so no need bothering about security.
* “Thanks mate. Appreciate it. And what will YOU do?”
* “See all this miasma around the dragon?” I asked pointing at thick smog around the beast “I will do all my best to prevent you from mutating after you step into it.”
* “Fair enough. So… shall we dance?”
Yet… we made a little mistake. I mean… the hell was I even thinking. That this bloody dragon would sit on his ass and let us talk in peace? Well… not exactly.
* “Zari, I am definitely not the expert when it comes to miasma… but is it supposed to act this way?”
The cloud was gathering in strange pattern as it lifted from the bottom up to the dragon mouth.
* “… find cover.”
The beast roared. The smog turned from its usual dark violet color into deep green for a second before the dragon breath headed right at us.
I could control miasma to some degree. You could manipulate a bit easier the kind you created by yourself, and it got harder and harder the more of it you tried to control.
Well, I didn’t cast this one and the mass was quite frightening.
We hid behind one of the columns as I tried to create the field that would push it away. The room rumbled and columns barely resisted the insane amount of magic that was casted upon it. Green mist was biting into the field drying me out of mana.
After a few seconds, that in my mind lasted years, the tempest of death stopped.
* “Are you all right?” Loki asked after a second.
I only raised my hand. Took a breath and jumped from behind the cover. I casted some fast fire spells and threw them at monsters head, not to do any damage, but mostly to shift his attention to me and to reduce his field of view.
As I ducked behind another column I saw Marika kneeling near the ground chanting quietly. I shifted my gaze at Mrogul and Loki. We only nodded at each other. I repeated my action, this time taking more time standing between columns. In that very moment Mrogul and Loki rushed into two different directions trying to attack the beast from different sides.
Small plants started sprouting behind the dragon, far more fragile and elastic to even dream about restricting the mighty beast. But it’s something. The chant kept being sung.
In that very moment the orc came close enough to perform the first swing. The hammer hit exposed bone that was attaching his left rear leg to the body. But even decayed, dragons bones are no joke. It withstood the impact, yet the whole posture of the beast was shaken.
Loki wasted no time. He performed few X cuts tearing huge chunks of flesh.
I looked at beast hp - not even 100 was deducted.
~You know… not that your… “strategy” is bad… even pretty good for this situation… but you are not going to win. Not like that…
And here is Codex-chan so save a day. If you want to say anything, have some advice, tips… anything. I am here to listen.
~How do you think… you will survive any attack of this monster if it would hit you directly? Claws?
Doubt it
~Bite?
He would break me in half
~Its magic?
A-a. Will be burnt to a crisp by its unholy flame.
~Then… why bother about defensive powers? Why do you bother about your hit points? You can put them to much better use… and you know exactly what to do. Embrace me. Savor your pain. Gouge your anger. Open the book… And at last but not least… do not hide who you are, you can gather so much powers, open so many doors by wearing the right skin. Afraid that your friends would judge you? The other option is death. This time it would not end with the lose of some candies.
… Not that I have any other possibilities, do I? I also doubt that I will be able to overpower the dragon just by some blood magic.
* “Shadows, you who lurk in the darkness,
I am offering blood, feast on my madness,
Devour my flesh, suck on my sins and eat on my mind,
Yet grant me the powers that humans declined,
I am standing still with nothing to lose, but much to gain,
So free my will, erase my strings and shatter my chains…”
Once again, in front of me, the book appeared. It opened itself and from the blank pages roots emerged cutting through my skin entering my veins and sucking my blood.
Marika heard my incantation. Her eyes widened and she yelled
* “STOP HIM!”
* “What’s going on?! You know, we are not… exactly… in the position… to help…. ANYONE!”
* “THAT IDIOT WANTS TO SACRIFICE HIMSELF!”
I am going to do what? No my dear, but it has to be said, that I am walking on the thin rope.
Just a little more…
My body started becoming pale.
More…
My hp bar was already lower than 15%
Still not enough
My vision turned blurry, the only thing that was keeping me conscious was the pure power roaring in my body, demanding to be released.
I am almost there…
[Equilibrium]Spell RankApprenticeSpell [House][[Blood] Chaos]Hp sacrificed[99%]PerksInteligence: +50
Wisdom: +50
Spiritualism: +50
Mana regeneration up: + 500%
Mana max capability: +150%
[Mana fever] status added
I can’t remember what was next.
POV change [Marika]
They said, that when the mind goes to sleep, the devils shall wake up. I had no idea what was happening. I watched Zari’s body is turning pale, as the light slowly vanished from his eyes. As he started to bleed from his nose.
But then it stopped.
Yet I knew that whoever stood in front of me was not Zari. He allowed himself to be possessed? Those sorrowful eyes filled with melancholy and kindness hidden deep within them were gone. What replaced them was cruelty and… tiredness? The creature that took over was annoyed by the very fact of being forced to move.
And then it spoke with strong feminine voice
* “Basstard… Fucking morons… Bloody bastards. They had one fucking task… ONE! To keep the host alive… What now?”
And it looked at the dragon.
* “Really? This thing? Oh come on! How pathetic can one get? This chunk of meat is barely moving! Whatever, I just want to go back to sleep, let’s get this done… slaughter this pile of bones, have quick conversation with my brothers and sisters…. And to the bed… Now…”
She looked at the ring
* “Oh, hell-o my dear ol’ friend you will be sufficient… Now, let’s start the work… Rapier, D’iabel.”
* “Access… Denied.” I heard this ring before. Zari already used it once or twice. “User not detected.”
* “Don’t oppose me silly…”
* “Access denied… User not…” From the hand of Zari’s body a small mist surrounded the ring.
* “Acc.. den… Us… Acc… Den… Access Granted. Welcome Mistress Sloth.”
And then on Zari’s lips the most evil smiled I have ever seen bloomed like the finest flower.