Chapter 77
“Look, over there!” Norri called out as Jay turned and could make out a number of walls rising out of the smooth boulevard. They were only five feet high and were unevenly sprinkled around the dungeon. They wouldn't offer a lot of cover from attacks but they'd at least provide something to crouch behind.
A noise like nails on a chalkboard was heard and the entire group shuddered, wincing as they did so. The center skeleton was slowly coming to life.
Yellow Boy was working on the pylon now, turning keys in various patterns while tapping at a display only it could see.
“How does this fight go??” M'redith asked, “Anyone?”
The giant skeleton had completely turned its body to face Jay's group and began to unfold its arms, each movement making a horrible screeching sound.
“Maybe we have to protect Big Yellow?” Angelica yelled.
“Just try to not get hit, I doubt we can do any damage to that thing, it's giant!” Jay half yelled.
The group moved away from the pedestal and the giant skeleton in the center of the room turned to stay facing them.
“It doesn't seem to care about Yellow Boy.” Norri remarked as the giant skeleton continued to unfold itself. It stood, or sat, Jay couldn't be sure as he could only see the skeleton from the chest up. It raised one of its arms and Jay saw a bright red outline form on the floor.
“Run right!!” Jay shouted as everyone ran away from the pedestal in a counterclockwise direction. The giant skeleton's arm fell with a crash as it struck the boulevard. The arm was giant and cut off the boulevard completely while it was stretched out across that side of the dungeon. A few of the walls that had risen were shattered by the impact. They were not replaced.
Norri noticed and called out to the group, “Don't stand near the short walls or he'll crush them and we won't have any when we need them!”
Everyone called out in the affirmative and regrouped as the giant skeleton raised its arm and brought it back to its side.
Jay looked over at the pedestal – they were further away now that they had run off from the giant arm but with the lights on everyone could still plainly see Yellow Boy working at the pedestal still.
The giant skeleton in the center was awake now, its giant red skeleton shining fiercely in the bright lights. The skeleton tipped its head back and appeared to be breathing in.
“Hide! Find cover!” Jay yelled as everyone crouched behind whatever short wall was nearest.
The huge red skeleton's head snapped forward and a cone of fire shot out across the dungeon boulevard and over the crouched forms of the cowering group. When the skeleton had finished it raised one of its arms.
Jay's Fancy Footwork ability triggered and he saw the now familiar outline in red on the ground showing where the skeleton's attack would land. It ran in a narrow band from the skeleton in the center to the outside wall of the dungeon. His group was in the center of the outline. “Run right!” he yelled.
Everyone scattered, only half of them going right. The others went left. Moments later the skeleton's arm hit the ground with a crash narrowly missing Aiden as he hadn't moved quick enough.
“What now??” yelled M'redith as the group was divided, the giant fallen arm blocking them from each other.
“Attack the arm maybe?” Jay yelled.
M'redith ran back over to the arm and hit it with a few strikes that all bounced off. It was like trying to cut steel with a bread-knife – it had no effect.
“I hope someone else has an idea on how to hurt this thing because it just shrugged off my attacks like I was a toddler.” M'redith yelled worriedly.
The giant skeleton raised its arm off of the ground and returned it to its side. The skeleton looked down on them with glowing red eyes. It lifted its hands in front of it and clapped. Then again. Then again.
Three glowing orbs popped in to existence around the group. Each orb was a champagne color and bolts of electricity sparkled across its surface. The orbs were mobile and moved the same speed an adult would jog at. They weren't fast, but if you didn't pay attention they'd catch up to you before you realized it.
The orbs began to chase the group. Wherever the majority of the group was the orbs would follow. If one of them walked away from the group they were ignored. If they all spread out the orbs followed whoever was closest but the minute one of the group stood nearby the other the orbs would all concentrate on them.
The orbs chased the largest group of people it could find.
With the three orbs wandering about the boulevard the group stuck together, drawing the orbs along behind them.
“Wait, I have an idea.” Jay said. “I think I know how to damage the big skeleton!”
“Any time now would be great!” M'redith said as she focused on the giant skeleton, depending on her group to guide her away from any electric orbs.
The skeleton raised one arm and everyone went to move but Jay stopped them. “No, WAIT!”
The arm raised further and the three orbs had almost caught up to them. “NOW!” Jay yelled and everyone scattered apart as the giant skeleton arm came crashing down on to the spot they had all just been standing on.
The spot the orbs had arrived at just as the group had moved.
As the skeleton's arm came down on to the orbs it was visibly electrocuted, its skeleton shaking and vibrating as sparks traveled across its body. The damage lasted a few seconds after which the orbs returned to chasing Jay's group. The shock had clearly damaged the skeleton and although they did not know how close it was to death it was obvious from the way it looked that it was no longer at 100% health.
“It worked!” shouted Aiden. “This should be easy!”
Angelica audibly groaned.
“Thanks a lot Aiden!” M'redith said right as the giant skeleton let out a shrill whistle and the sounds of howling filled the air.
Dodging a giant overhead arm smash wasn't too tough, just don't stand under it. Add in the occasional flame cone attack and it became slightly more difficult but who couldn't hide behind a wall? Sprinkle in some floating electrical orbs and suddenly things become more difficult. The group really did not need an additional mechanic to make things even more difficult but that was what they got anyway.
A pack of three skeleton wolves climbed out of the center pit where the giant skeleton was trapped. The wolves looked about and immediately ran at Jay's group. M'redith kept two busy while Norri handled the third.
The giant skeleton tilted its head back and took a deep breath. “Flame cone! Hide!” Jay yelled.
Everyone tried to hunker down behind a wall while at the same time trying to fight off the skeleton wolves.
Norri had no trouble, already being rather short she just crouched down and continued fighting – it didn't take long and her wolf skeleton was down and dead before she knew it.
M'redith was having a much tougher time and Aiden and Jay had to help her so she could retreat behind one of the half walls dotted about the dungeon.
Angelica was prepared to intervene should things go wrong but otherwise allowed the group to fight as if she wasn't there. She avoided attacks but made no attempt to assist with the fight – that was not her role.
A cone of flame washed over and around the group members. The remaining two dogs were not hidden behind a wall when the fire struck and were reduced to cinders from the attack.
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“That was close,” M'redith remarked. “If we get hit by that fire we're all done for.”
Usually an attack would do low damage in a level one dungeon. There might be a few more difficult monsters sprinkled in that can do a little more damage. The giant skeleton's last attack however had killed both wolves – instant death. That sort of viciously dangerous attack was usually reserved for higher level dungeons.
Or hard modes, of course.
Aiden looked at the giant skeleton, “If Really Big Red hits us at all we're done for!”
Jay laughed, “Really Big Red huh?”
Their conversation was cut short as Really Big Red raised one arm over its head.
“Stand in front of the orbs!” Jay yelled and the group ran to stand between the orbs and the skeleton, moving just fast enough so that the orbs would stay near them without getting close enough to hurt them.
The giant arm began to descend and Jay yelled “SCATTER!” just as the group threw themselves out of the way. The arm hit with a crash as it struck the stone boulevard along with the group of three electrical orbs. The skeleton's giant frame was violently jolted and thrashed about a bit as it took an incredible amount of damage.
Really Big Red's skeleton was now charred in places, smoking in others.
“Its working! We got this as long as we can keep Aiden from talking about how easy it is!” M'redith yelled to her group as the sound of screeching was heard as the giant arm was once again raised and returned to Really Big Red's side.
“Oh come on I'm not that bad!” Aiden complained but he kept one eye glued on the skeleton and the other on the lookout for approaching orbs.
Really Big Red whistled. Twice. Jay grimaced as he saw six wolf skeletons crawl up out of the center pit the giant skeleton was standing or sitting in. The wolves howled at each other as they ran at the group.
Norri took two, killing one instantly. M'redith took two which she played off of each other, striking them so they'd bump in to each other and interfere with each other's attacks. Aiden fought one wolf skeleton and appeared to be doing a good job of it.
Jay took one wolf which he had a bit of trouble with. Jay could handle regular skeletons but the wolves were still too tough for him to defeat alone. Still, he could keep one busy by himself as long as nothing else went wrong.
Really Big Red tilted its head back and began to breath in. M'redith saw it first and shouted, “Take cover!” just as she killed off one of her two skeletons and ran for the nearest wall. Jay was nearest to M'redith and attempted to run to her wall as well but was swept off of his feet at the last minute by a charge from his wolf skeleton, which struck him hard and low. Jay fell to the ground in a heap.
The dog opened its mouth and was about to bite down on Jay's leg when three things happened.
One, M'redith kicked her remaining wolf so hard it flew across the room.
Two, she reached down, grabbed Jay's arm, and with one heavy motion dragged him away from his wolf skeleton's descending jaws and behind the cover of the wall she was hiding behind.
And three, Really Big Red let loose a stream of roiling flames that leapt out from its mouth in a bright red and yellow cone that washed over the group completely.
The group had been behind cover and were fine. The wolf skeleton that had tried attacking Jay was completely destroyed by the flames and left only a pile of ash where it had moments before stood.
“Thanks!” Jay said as she helped pull him to his feet while the others killed off their skeleton dogs.
“We're not done yet!” M'redith said with a grin as everyone regrouped.
Really Big Red wasn't doing all that great and appeared drunk, its movements no longer fluid and precise.
“At least its taking damage.” Angelica remarked with a smile. “Had me worried when M'redith's sword bounced off of it.”
M'redith laughed, “Me too!”
Really Big Red straightened its shoulders and raised its chin as it looked down its nose at the group. For a long moment nothing happened.
“What, are we done?” Aiden asked.
“Shh!” M'redith said with a smile.
The giant skeleton raised its hands and clapped, three times. Three new orbs of electricity popped in to existence about the dungeon and suddenly there were six orbs chasing the group around.
Six orbs made things a lot more difficult. The group had to move carefully so that they would always have somewhere to run to. The orbs tried to encircle them repeatedly and the group was forced to move constantly to prevent that from happening.
That meant they couldn't just hide behind the walls but had to be up and moving. Really Big Red followed up with a number of shrill whistles and suddenly the group was being chased by six orbs of electricity and more wolf skeletons than Jay could count.
The group ran together from spot to spot, M'redith and Norri doing the majority of the fighting. A number of them were suffering from minor wounds by that point and Aiden kept busy going from person to person healing the wounds as they popped up, leaving patches wherever he healed.
The boulevard was now a mess of orbs and wolf skeletons and Really Big Red raised its arm once again.
“Get ready to scatter!” M'redith said and the group instinctively drew closer together to draw as many orbs to their position as possible.
Jay saw a bright red mark appear on the floor where the arm would hit.
Two orbs, three orbs, four – Jay counted how many lined up inside of that mark. A total of four remained behind as Jay yelled “Scatter!” and the group all jumped to the right.
Really Big Red's arm came crashing down on the orbs and the arm momentarily disappeared behind a particularly bright arc of lightning. When the brightness faded Jay could see that the arm had been shattered.
The current continued to travel up the arm, the bones crumbling in to shards as the electricity pulverized the skeleton piece by piece.
The giant skeleton was collapsing, skull first, and its form could be seen falling in pieces in to the pit below.
Jay and his group would have watched but the wolf skeletons did not just stop attacking them when Really Big Red died. If anything they attacked harder than before. Jay's group dealt with them one at a time. They took quite a few minor injuries but nothing that Angelica had to get involved for.
Finally Norri put down the last wolf skeleton and the room was quiet. Jay looked over at Yellow Boy to see him putting the finishing touches on whatever it was he was doing. Yellow Boy turned and waved Jay's group over to him.
Aiden handed out heals to his group until they were almost covered in patches from all the light wounds they had taken. Finally satisfied with his work Aiden nodded and the group returned to Yellow Boy.
The skeleton seemed very pleased with itself and pointed at the golden key, still stuck in the top of the pedestal. It waited a moment then pointed at Jay before pushing him slightly towards the key.
Jay shrugged and stepped closer. He grasped the key and turned it – it turned smoothly before disappearing entirely. Yellow Boy seemed satisfied and walked off to the spot they had originally met it where it sat down, folded its arms, dropped its head to its chest, and went dormant. Jay was going to check on it when his train of thought was interrupted by notifications.
Congratulations! Rewards Matrices are now online. Alternate rewards are now available for purchase. Please visit the Rewards Hall for further information.
Congratulations! You have successfully activated alternate rewards matrices! You and each member of your group have been awarded 500 points!
Congratulations! For completion of Kagan's Dome on Hard Mode you and each member of your group have been awarded 500 points!
Everyone looked at each other. “What the hell are points?” Aiden remarked.
“No idea,” Angelica replied. “I've never seen anything like this. Normally you get a treasure chest at the end of a dungeon. What the heck are we supposed to do with generic points?”
Jay grinned, “I'm pretty sure I know. Lets head out of here and meet up with Orin. I'm guessing he'll be waiting for us.”
“You think he knows what we did?” M'redith asked.
“I'm not even sure I know what we did,” Aiden cracked with an exasperated smile.
Jay laughed, “Oh I'm guessing he has an idea we did something.”
The group gathered up, there was no loot to collect, no bodies to rifle through. Each dead skeleton had disappeared in to motes of light leaving nothing behind. A pop could be heard and Jay saw at the 12 o'clock position a door had opened up, the one they had entered through.
Moments later the wall between the 11 o'clock position and the 12 o'clock position lowered itself in to the ground and disappeared.
“At least we don't have to walk all the way around again to get out of here,” Aiden said happily.
The group trudged tiredly over to the open door covered in patches from Aiden's healing and in moments they were through, the door closing shut behind them.
Glimmerhide Group had just completed their first dungeon.