FVR
Chapter Twenty-Two.
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Turning his back on Gareth filled him with a sense of guilt, but it also made him feel a type of fear and anxiety that trembled his lower lip and ached his heart; a feeling which he had come to know since entering the game. A feeling that spoke of his struggle to not see the game as reality, and of his longing not to return home.
As he ran and followed Theo into the darkness, it became the fifth time that he willingly stepped towards an impending death. Yet, it hadn't become any easier. And like a badly rehearsed mantra, he repeated the word survive over and over. It was likely the only thing that kept him going.
The treacherous darkness of the mine shaft had made him hesitate with every step until he reached the light on the other end. Leaving the chill of the storm and entering the chill of the cavern felt like moving from a hot beach to a hot sauna - the discomfort felt the same, but the feeling it gave differed greatly.
Fuck fuck fuck, he thought as he started panting from the run, his mind went from a raging storm of thought to the single need to slow down. Being out of combat meant his endurance wasn't endless, so it hadn't taken long for him to start breathing heavily. As he pushed himself through desperate breaths, he found it harder and harder to think. He knew that the Uranatalo had to be young and inexperienced, but he couldn't shake the feeling that it seemed far too strong to be defeated by such a rag tag team. An image of the task flashed behind his eyes, Defeat The Uranatalo. But he lingered on that thought. Defeat it? Had his group managed to make it this far, he wondered how a group of twenty newbies could possibly overcome such a wave.
The more he thought about the game, the more mysterious it seemed, and the more he began to believe the developers were just bad at their jobs. I don't even know what happens if I fail this task. The game may end, or there could be a punishment, I've no fucking idea! He wasn't even mad at the game at this point - he just felt mad at himself for not asking such questions when he had the chance.
Joel caught up to Theo in a matter of moments once the darkness gave way to light. "Theo," he called out, "it doesn't have a shield when it's attacking. That's our chance!" Joel glanced up, waiting for a reply, but none came. What's he thinking?
As they passed the point where they found the surviving miner, the noise of battle began to echo distantly along the cavernous walls. They're still fighting! Joel felt a wave of energy run through him. Knowing they were still fighting meant they might actually have a chance. He looked over to Theo and wondered whether he could rely on him. Of course I can! He told himself. But as Joel and Theo turned the final corner, they came face to face with the magnitude of their task.
The chamber floor had transformed into a dense, lifeless forest of spears twisted from the earth. The spears stood jagged at various angles, protruding like the spikes you would see at the bottom of a trap. The walls were wilted, shattered, and upheaved from the barrage of attacks. Cracks in the ceiling spiderwebbed across the mud and gravel, warning of their impending collapse. Light from the tunnel cast shadows that flickered across the fight, like a moving picture book. At the front of the entrance, covered in debris, lay Beatrice. She still tried to protect Damon as he fought, holding out a burnt hand that shook at the weight of its own fading strength as her eyes began to droop closed.
In the darkness of the chamber, with its large, foreboding figure, stood the Uranatalo. Its red wings with their orange hue looked like a raging fire in the depths of the darkness.
Joel watched on as the Uranatalo continued to attack. So many of its strikes were deflected away by Beatrice, but she was clearly at her limit - almost out of mana and on the edge of death. Joel froze for a moment, as if waiting for the room to come down on the Uranatalo and his problems to resolve. But as the dusty air settled, and the strong metallic scent of blood filled his senses, he snapped back to reality.
Sounds from the battle rang with every crash of earth or explosion of wind, and the ground trembled as debris flung across Joel's face, cutting his cheek. Survive, his mantra continued, survive. No matter what. Survive.
In her concentration, Beatrice hadn't noticed Joel or Theo until they were right next to her. Theo, with his back to the Uranatalo, began to shovel the debris off of Beatrice.
"No!" She said weakly, "you both have to escape!" Blood pooled from her mouth and to the bloodied ground beneath her.
The air crackled with the twisting of earth and the crashing of wind.
"We have a plan," Joel bellowed over the noise.
Beatrice's eyes widened slightly as she processed Joel's words. Her disbelief was plain to see, but she didn't have the strength to argue.
Damon - barely able to stand - turned his gaze to Joel and Theo. "Make it quick," he managed to say, his voice strained with pain. He dodged and weaved as attacks focused only on him.
The Uranatalo stood tucked into the corner of the room. Its wings still unfurled and its beady eyes latching onto Damon. Without gestures, the Uranatalo hurtled attack after attack in blind fashion; the occasional one hurtled towards the entrance, which Beatrice deflected up into the ceiling, sending debris crashing back down as Theo used his body to protect her.
A shock of wind slammed into Joel, pushing him back slightly. The metallic tang of blood filled his senses, mingling with the earthy scent of churned soil. His disheveled hair and muddied face were streaked with the blood of others, creating a mask that felt like paint and clay upon his dry skin. His wide eyes darted around, and his itchy feet shifted restlessly as he sought a path to the creature or a way to help put an end to the mayhem.
The chamber had been ravaged by earth and wind attacks, turning the ground into a treacherous landscape. Every step would be a gamble. Almost every square meter looked to be covered in rubble, limiting his one advantage: his dash. But he could see a path: a twisted maze that seemed to unfurl before him like a map. Theo and I can make it, he thought, his heart pounding in his chest.
He sprinted forward.
With the Uranatalo focused on Damon, Joel only had to dodge the occasional attack. He followed a line of spiked earth until he hit a wall formed from the ground up, then veered left and ran toward the edge of the chamber.
The chamber wall vibrated ominously as the earth shifted to form spears above. Joel ducked and dodged, rolling and weaving left and right, pushing closer as the spears continued to form and stab into the ground. The smell of fresh earth overpowered him and each tremor sent vibrations through his itchy legs. Too quickly, the space behind him sealed off, and too quickly, the path ahead became blocked by an imposing wall that could strike at any moment. Shit! There was nowhere to go. He had been guided into a trap.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Damon crash through a wall of dirt, then continue to his right, crashing through the other wall, creating two openings for Joel to escape.
"It's just dirt! Break through it!" Damon yelled, his voice strained and his eyes distracted.
Just dirt that could attack at any moment! Just how insane is this guy!?
Joel ran, just as the wall collapsed behind him. He glanced back, searching for Theo, but in the chaos, the upheaved ground, swirling debris, and choking dust, Joel couldn't see more than a few feet. He was lost in the maze - the path he had seen now completely obscured to him behind walls of earth and dust.
Panting, Joel hid behind a row of spikes, trying to catch his breath, but the spikes shifted in their place and attacked him from behind. "Shit!" He jumped up and ran, looking up to the creature. "There's no way to get close!" He breathed.
Every tremor in the walls or the ground felt like an imminent attack. He continued to run, dodging where he could, relying on Beatrice's mana shield when he couldn't.
Adrenaline coursed through his veins, propelling his aching muscles as he climbed over a wall towards the Uranatalo. Joel held out his buckler firm as a piece of earth thundered from the wall and crashed into him. The enormous weight of the earth as it accelerated forwards felt like deflecting a rolling car. Joel breathed heavily as the spear crashed into the ground and his knees went weak. He looked around to see another spear form in the wall and he jumped backwards to avoid it, slamming his back against the chamber wall.
Shit! Being so close to the wall sent a shiver down his spine as he pictured an attack from any angle. He ran toward to creature again, dodging and parrying any attack that made it through Beatrice's shield.
Attacks continued to rain down around him, each impact reverberating through his body. He pushed closer, coming to a dead end as the Uranatalo shifted the earth up creating a wall in front of him. He looked around, spotting Damon land heavily to his left. This is impossible! I'm getting nowhere!
Damon paused, his leg buckling under his weight. The Uranatalo unleashed a barrage of wind attacks, leveling the area around Damon and kicking up a storm of dust, debris, and blood that obscured Joel's sight. The taste of grit filled Joel’s mouth as he tried to speak. Theo’s voice pierced the chaos in his stead.
"DAMON!" Theo had pulled Beatrice free, her body slumped unconsciously in his arms.
It's now or never! Joel thought. The protection from Beatrice gone. The distraction of Damon gone. He now stood alone against a threat that he had no hope to defeat.
Holding on to the Uranatalo-made wall with one hand and running up the chamber wall with his legs, he leaped over a large hole in the ground and landed just a few meters from the Uranatalo. Unable to dash forwards due to the spikes of earth, he ran to where Damon had been, taking advantage of the now leveled ground and the dust that hid his figure. He took a sharp moment to prepare himself. Then, with no maze in front of him, he dashed forward; his breath ragged and his heart pounding.
He jumped mid-dash - using his momentum to launch himself into the air and towards the Uranatalo - his toes cracking under the strain as he pushed into the sky. With a powerful lunge of his blade as he shot forwards, he drove his sword into the creature's chest.
I made it!
The blade bit deep, the resistance almost jarring Joel loose. The creature's cries echoed through the chamber, a sound of pure agony that reverberated through Joel's bones.
He hung on as the Uranatalo screamed in pain; its thrashing sent waves of dust and debris into the air.
A part of Joel wanted to let go - to fall to the safety of the ground and to run. But he needed another strike - he needed to finish it. He tried to grab hold of its body but the Uranatalo thrashed with too much force back and forth as it slammed into the walls. With a sudden jerk, too forceful to bear, Joel was thrown off and sent hurtling backwards. He fell onto the ground and rolled against the rough ground towards Damon. The two of them knelt, bloodied from head to toe, their skin pale and slick with sweat.
Damon used his sword to keep himself from collapsing. "It's... not... over," he stammered, his voice barely a whisper.
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He hasn't given up? This guy, Joel laughed inwardly, this fucking guy is amazing!
Joel's gaze snapped to the Uranatalo. His sword still lodged deep in its chest, blood oozed from the wound. I need to switch to loadout one! The fear of others seeing a new loadout and the Dozrak'een sword didn't cross his mind. All he knew was that the end could finally be seen, and he had the means to finalize it.
Joel and Damon took a step forward together, steeling themselves for the final blow. But as they advanced, the creature created a mana shield, encapsulating the chamber and hurling Damon backward, slamming him into the wall. Beatrice and Theo were also thrown back as they hurtled up the cavernous tunnel, their bodies skidding across the debris-laden ground. It was the same as when Beatrice forced the Uranatalo back with her own mana shield - but with more much more power. Yet, despite the force of the strike, Joel stood in the center, completely unharmed.
The first strike from an enemy is negated, Joel instinctively knew it had been his passive skill that had protected him. The other strikes from the Uranatalo had all missed or been deflected by his shield or by Beatrice - this had been the first to actually hit so the damage was negated.
This is it! "Loadout one," Joel muttered though his dusty mouth and dry lips.
The sword in the Uranatalo disappeared, revealing a gaping hole that gushed blood, and the Dozrak'een sword materialized in Joel's hand.
Joel immediately felt his strength surge as he tightened his grip. "I'm ending this!"
With a dash forward, he readied his legs to jump again, fighting through the pain of his broken toes, but just as he prepared to strike, the Uranatalo created a second mana shield, sending Joel crashing across the chamber.
Joel's heels hit the ground first as he tried to gain his balance, but the force slammed against him too ferociously, and he was pushed onto his back, then flipped over as the forced lifted him from his feet. The ground scraped the skin from his body as he rolled across the ground, and the spears of earth thumped and bruised every other inch of him as he broke through them. He crashed into the wall with a thud, coughing up blood as he gasped for air. Debris rained down on him from the impact, crashing onto his head and legs, pinning him in place. He cried out in pain, his voice echoing through the chamber. He looked down to see his broken leg bent backward.
Shit, shit, "shit!" He couldn't tell if it were blood or tears that filled his eyes as a stinging pain covered his body, and his mouth filled with blood.
The Uranatalo screeched, and Joel could feel its mana shields dissipate as they moved back through him. It prepared to unleash another large-scale attack, and this time, Joel had no way to avoid it.
A moment of silence filled his mind. He imagined waking up in the capsule, seeing the developers and having a go at them before hugging his parents and wandering home. He saw Simon and Suze, and the three of them making up. He saw his life at college, and the travelling he always promised himself he'd do. His vision had been blissful, and importantly, pain-free. But as the attack began and the ground shook with heavy winds crashing around him, he knew he was heading back to a life of pain - a life he knew he couldn't bear to live.
With a shaking leg and a lot of luck, Joel rose, standing on his one remaining leg as the attacks missed him one by one. Survive, his mantra persisted. Survive. His eyes narrowed, his breathing steadied, and his heart slowed. Survive. An invisible force of wind sliced the blade from his grip and sent it spinning into the debris and out of sight. Shit! As he looked for his sword, leaving himself open to attack, he caught a glimpse of two bodies flashing across the chamber.
Cedric and Zach!?
They zipped through the dust and slashed at both sides of the Uranatalo's neck, decapitating it in a single, coordinated attack. Its body crashed to the ground, impaled by its own spears; the two of them landed on the ground, breathing heavily.
〘Wave Five. Locate The Missing Miners〙
〘Wave Five. Defeat The Uranatalo〙
〘+11,157 Shared Experience Points〙
Just like that, the battle was over. The taste of blood and dust lingered in Joel’s mouth, mixing with the acrid stench of sweat and earth that hung thick in the air. The chamber had gone from a storied roar to a deafening silence, broken only by the ragged breaths of the survivors.
Cedric and Zach glanced over to Joel, then ran to Beatrice and Damon.
Joel, caught in a painful silence, watched their frantic movements without hearing a word. His body ached all over, but a fierce determination burned in his chest. They had somehow managed to win. They had defeated a Tier Four.
As he fell to the ground, waiting for the leveling up to ease his pain, he realized with a bitter chuckle that it wasn’t happening. The pain, persistent and nostalgic, clung to him. I didn't level?
Joel looked up to see Ali run through the entrance and into the chamber. He hesitated for a moment when he saw the Uranatalo, then approached Joel. "You should have run," he said calmly, with a hint of frustration.
"I tried," Joel replied honestly with a waspy voice, his head throbbing and his ears ringing. "There was nowhere else for me to go."
"There's always somewhere else to go, my friend."
Joel sighed at Ali's response. It seemed too hopeful for such a skeptical man. "How are the others?" He asked. His mouth still tinged with blood felt oddly dry.
Ali shook his head and called Callum over. Together, they helped Joel to his one good leg. The cuts on his body and the bruises were painful, but the broken leg screamed with a raw, searing pain that made his old chronic pain seem laughable. Even the slightest twitch felt unbearable as the leg hung loosely - his toes occasionally tapping the ground as Ali and Callum carried him. When they approached the tunnel, Joel saw Cedric, Zach, Theo, and Damon gathered around Beatrice. Her gaunt body looked fragile in the soft light. Burns covered her arms, and cuts lined her body. She was dying, and they all knew it.
"She's done it before," Damon said, almost pleading. "When she was stabbed in the throat - you remember, right!?"
"It's not like before," Cedric said softly, "she's too low on mana to heal her wounds."
"It's fine, it's fine. We'll get her back and..." tears streamed down Damon's eyes as he tried to say the right words.
"Little brother. It's okay." Cedric placed a reassuring hand on his brother's shoulder.
Joel watched the moment unfold. It had been a miracle that only one person had been so injured, but it gnawed at him that the woman who saved his life had to be the one to suffer.
Would... would my healing potion work on her? He had thought about the consequences of revealing his unique skills, his ability to increase his mana capacity, and his old Dozrak'een weapon; but he also didn't know how they'd react to him having a large recovery potion or an invisible inventory space.
If I reveal it, I'm sure they'll have questions for me which I just can't answer... But if I don't...
"Ali," Joel whispered. "Take me over to the creature's body." Ali nodded and gave him support.
Joel's body ached from top to bottom as Ali helped him move to the Uranatalo. He felt as though he could sleep right there, but something harsh kept him awake.
The body of the creature lay sprawled out in the corner of the chamber. Its head several feet away. The ground covered in its sticky blood and damp feathers.
"I think I saw something here..." Joel lied, using Ali to lower himself to the ground.
His broken leg screamed with every movement. Joel bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from crying. He lifted the heavy wing of the Uranatalo. Then, careful to not give himself away, he opened his menu and selected the large healing potion, then let go of the wing and held the potion up to Ali. "This'll help her. Go!"
Ali gave Joel a confused look - one he hadn't shown before - then ran back to the group. Joel changed loadouts, then forced himself up using his sword as a walking stick. His broken leg throbbed with every heartbeat as he slowly returned to the others, in time to see Beatrice open her eyes. The burns on her body remained, but the cuts were gone and life had returned to her face.
"A Zenith Brew!?" Beatrice said with a stunned expression, her voice still hoarse and rough. "How!?" She coughed.
Cedric gestured over to Ali, who pointed at Joel. "Uh, it was under the bird over there," Joel lied badly. He looked away as he sat down, his broken leg becoming numb as his head became light. "What's a Zenith Brew anyway?" He asked, trying to shift the focus away from him.
"An elixir... hmmm," Beatrice tried to reply, but it clearly hurt too much for her to speak, especially so loudly.
Cedric continued on her behalf. "Elixirs were crafted by the first King after The Dawn, with the help of the deity Sophia." He answered.
"Impossible," Ali said, furling his eyebrows, "why was one here!?"
Joel shrugged his shoulders, then collapsed to the floor. When he opened his eyes again, he was being carried by Zach through the mines.
"Huh?"
"You're awake?" Zach asked. Joel looked around to see Beatrice up and walking, and despite his injuries, Damon seemed relatively fine too.
Beatrice whispered something in Cedric's ear as they walked. "You passed out," Cedric echoed her words. "She'll apply some mana to it when she's able..."
"No you don't," Theo interjected, "not with those mana burns!"
Beatrice smiled softly at Theo's care over her. "Her arms will never channel mana again, Theo," Cedric said. "But she's alive..." he shook his head, "to think you'd meet such a creature here..."
"I wonder if this is what the army has to deal with down there," Zach pondered aloud.
The group crossed into the darkness of the initial tunnel, and followed it up to the main entrance, where Gareth sat waiting with Tobias and Jordan. The miner from before hid in the corner of the room, still shaking from either the cold or the lingering feeling of fear. Gareth's body had been bandaged, though he still seemed in a rough state. He welcomed the group back with a heavy wave as the storm raged on behind him. A fresh breeze dried the blood on Joel's face as he welcomed the scent of rain and the relaxing patter of the storm.
Joel finally relaxed. Everyone made it? He laughed inwardly. Even with such a chaotic wave, we still... His thought stopped, then repeated. A chaotic wave? He couldn't recall seeing the usual congratulatory message, or the titles that usually came. He shook his head and glanced to the top of his vision to the wave timer. 00.00.00.
It's still going... The...
"The wave's still going?"
"What's that?" Zach asked.
Joel looked around. His heart began to race as he struggled to free himself from Zach's arms. "It's not over," he said, panic in his voice. "It's..."
The sudden jerking motion of Zach stopping jarred Joel's broken leg, sending a wave of searing pain up his body. "Fuck!" Joel hissed through clenched teeth. He looked up to see a look of sheer horror on Zach's face, his wide eyes frozen in place by the image that loomed before him. Zach's muscles relaxed, and he gently lowered Joel to the ground. Joel's good leg touched the rocky floor, but the jolt sent a fresh stab of agony through his broken leg as it twisted slightly.
Joel forced himself to turn and face the storm.
As the lightning cracked, it illuminated the figure of another Uranatalo; its immense form dwarfing the one they had just killed. It looked twenty times larger, a behemoth of damp feathers and wings - its eyes full of sadness and remorse.
"It's the mother," Cedric stammered, his voice barely a whisper.
Every flap of the creature’s massive wings sent a gust into the mine so powerful it nearly took everyone off their feet. The force felt like a hurricane, tearing through the chamber with unrelenting ferocity. Joel could feel the vibrations through his entire body - it felt like nothing he could ever describe.
The walls of the mine trembled, loose rocks and debris rained down as the creature’s power echoed through the cavern. The rain, which had been a steady downpour, suddenly stopped falling to the ground and started gathering into a massive, roiling ball in front of the creature. The wind howled, whipping the water into a swirling vortex that grew larger with every passing second. The roar of the water and wind were deafening, a relentless cacophony that drowned out all other sounds. It quickly became a maelstrom of elemental fury that would take no prisoners.
The magnitude of the creature’s power felt overwhelming, a force of nature that seemed unstoppable. The creature was a living storm, a hurricane of flesh and magic, and it was bearing down on them with all the wrath of a natural disaster - the mournful attack of a mother, who had just lost her child.
〘Wave Five. Locate The Missing Miners〙
〘Wave Five. Defeat The Uranatalo〙
〘Wave Five. Survive〙
You're fucking with me...
Joel leaned on Zach for support. His feet itched again, but he was too immobile to move. Too broken to run.
He half expected the others to jump into action, but nobody moved. Fear gripped them all, whispering the same fatal prophecy in their ears as they did to his: Death has come.
Joel swallowed a lump of blood, and closed his eyes. The fleeting moment of victory had slipped through his fingers, leaving only the cold realization that their struggle had been futile. He had believed he could stay after the Uranatalo died, but that belief was sucked up into the maelstrom along with any hope he may have had. He realized now that it was tears that stained his cheeks as his eyes filled. The sadness of leaving the game quivered his lower lip.
It's over. He held his breath, and braced himself for what he expected would be a quick death.
Then, silence. An eerie, deafening silence.
A brilliant flash pierced his closed eyelids, and for a moment, Joel wondered if this was what death felt like.
As he tentatively opened his eyes, the sound of rain returned, and the gusts from the creature's wings stopped. The Uranatalo hung motionless in the air; a grotesque, fear-inspiring statue. Time seemed to pause as its head separated from its body, plummeting to the ground with a thunderous crash. The impact sent a shockwave through the chamber, and an explosion of water, wind, and blood; then, another, larger impact followed as the body hit the ground.
Two light footsteps echoed at the mine's entrance. Aurora, perfectly dry amidst the wave of blood ascending from the ground behind her, walked toward the group with an air of calm authority; her golden eyes glistened against the backdrop of crimson red.
"I've come to collect my recruit."