[Player Sigurd Magnarson has blessed you with Healing Light. You gain +57HP for 5 minutes.]

[You are in Player Liv'Kungsadu's party. 10% extra damage to critical hits]

The first clash that Eniche had against Karisha truly showed both of their power. Eniche ran forward, mace raised to bash the maestril’s head in, but Karisha’s whip caught her in her ankles and she stumbled, giving Karisha room to retreat. Still, the maestril did not back away, instead lashing at Eniche relentlessly in a way that made it obvious that she had some kind of combat skill.

Karisha bent her legs and leapt forward, her whip clashing against Eniche's shield with a loud clang. She turned around, just as quickly to dodge a kick from Liv to her chest. Still, the two of them did their job, leaving an opening for Langa to sprint forward and stab Karisha's thigh. Her legs were the ones with the least amount of armour, and Langa planned to keep attacking the same spot until she could not walk anymore. Even if it would not kill her, they could steadily chip away at her karma if she kept healing herself.

As quickly as he got there, Langa Flash Stepped away when Karisha turned to him after he managed to wound her a little bit. Seeing an open wound, Kindaro quickly sent three death magic-coated knives flying into the wound left by Langa. His death magic must have gotten stronger because the knives drained almost 100HP at once. She screeched, and her whip rounded towards Kindaro, she must have been using the air to control it, while she chased after Langa. Fortunately, Eniche was in her best condition today, so she swung her mace at the maestril, preventing her from chasing after Langa. Ghol took the opportunity to stab the maestril at her back, while she was occupied with Eniche. Of course, she immediately entered stealth and ran away as soon as she was done. Makoto sent three arrows towards the maestril's feet in quick succession, but she dodged backwards.

"Worthless effort! You think that your weak attacks will defeat me just because you are working together?" Karisha asked. "Mortals are all the same, just an endless source of karma for us." She was screaming as her health went down. Black strands floated towards her from the altar behind the stage of the temple and recovered her health. The air around Karisha condensed into multiple small wind pellets, and she launched them at the group at once. Eniche and Liv immediately stepped in front of Kindaro, Sigurd and Makoto, using the shield and buckler to deflect the wind bullets. While it may have seemed shitty of them to leave Ghol and Langa out to dry, it was not a bad decision as they were both fast enough to dodge the attacks.

Liv was front and centre of the next attack, even as Eniche stood in front of the three back-line fighters, her shield protecting them from the wind pellets. Next, Liv punched the maestril in the jaw, and she launched a roundhouse kick straight into his side, which he tanked gracefully, and grabbed her leg. Putting all his weight on his shoulder, Liv slammed hard into her, causing her to stagger. Langa was surprised that she could handle that much strength from Liv and remain standing. Just as she regained her balance, Kindaro used his skill to freeze her, and Liv jumped at the opportunity. He pulled her closer to him, and gathered aura into his fist, punching her hard in the chest, twice, three times, four, before there was a crack in the breastplate, but he could not do more, as the duration of the skill ran out. The wind pellets started to attack more violently than before, filling the air with the sound of heavy wind, and making it impossible for Makoto to send an arrow into the maestril. Since Liv was right in front of her, he took the brunt of the wind pellets, and as strong as his snake-like armour was, taking hundreds of wind pellets hurt him, and he started to bleed.

While Liv stepped back to get healed, Langa moved closer to Karisha and started his assault. They couldn't afford to use Eniche right now, as she was busy protecting the backline fighters from the pellets. It was up to Langa for now. He swept at her legs furiously, a tactic he’d been practising, but her reflexes were good, and she managed to retain her balance. Langa slashed at her, Tonare trying to cut through the leather armour while at the same time trying to dodge the wind bullets. Tired of him, Karisha placed her spiky whip on the ground, forming a circle around her. It was as if she was daring him to come closer.

Langa wasn’t stupid. He did not take the bait.

Wind pellets filled the air consistently as Karisha continued to shoot at them. Just as the pellets were about to hit, Langa dodged to the left and sidestepped the whip that came flying at him. He prepared himself for her to backhand him since he was too close to her, but he got saved at the last second when Karisha cried out in pain. Ghol had backstabbed her, using Langa as a distraction. It was a critical hit to Karisha's neck. Langa had never been more grateful for Ghol's sneaking around than he was at that moment.

Ghol disappeared into stealth once more, probably fleeing again as Karisha sent out more wind bullets. Langa rushed forward avoiding this volley, by using his superior dodge speed that had been trained relentlessly against mana dummies, and Liv. Karisha tried to punch him, but Langa had a clear path ahead of him, Flash Stepping to her back, plunging Tonare deep into her backside, and activating Thunderbird's Stunning Strike. Once again, the backlash sent him reeling back, and he fell to the ground. It was much worse this time since his mana had increased, and so did the damage and the backlash.

[Critical Hit! (Karisha -732HP)

Extra damage! (Karisha -73.2HP)

[Backlash (Langa Zulu) -67HP]

Karisha screamed in agony, blood pouring out of her back, and while she tried to heal herself, she turned to Langa, intending to rip him apart. But none of that mattered to him. "Argh!" he screamed, the searing pain sending him into a frenzy, and he fell once more. He felt someone carry him, and then warmth as Sigurd healed him, and sounds of clashing somewhere, presumably Eniche or Liv were protecting him.

Once he was healed, Langa jumped back into the fight. The wind pellets had stopped, so now, Eniche, Liv and Kindaro ganged up on the maetsril, while Makoto fulfilled his role of refilling Sigurd's mana reluctantly. Ghol also appeared to deal a little damage, then disappeared once more. Just as Makoto nocked an arrow, Kindaro stepped away from the fighting, and said, "I'm running out of mana. I don't wanna use the mana stones if I don't have to. Refill me."

Makoto's face soured. "This is important, kid. Do you think that Sigurd doesn't want to help us fight? But he's conserving all his mana for healing because that's what the team needs. We also need your mana. Do it, trust me, this is the best way to raise your contribution," Langa told him, since the kid looked ready to refuse. He was helping in healing, damage dealing and ranged support, this was sure to get him better rewards at the end of the quest.

Makoto looked reluctant, but he nodded. "If you say so, brother," he said and turned to Kindaro.

To fill the gap left by Kindaro, Langa rushed back up to the front line, and Karisha spotted him immediately.

"You! Did you dare wound me? The master of this dungeon? My karma will not be used up. I can wait until you all tire yourselves out, mortals," she said, and released a gust of wind that propelled her whip towards Langa. The whip was flying towards him, and he brought his spear down a bit low and supported the back of the spear with his left hand. With this stance that he’d spent the past few days practising, the whip struck the body of the spear but Langa remained balanced and stepped back.

"You cannot escape me!" She used the wind to return the whip to her hand and twirled it in a circle, and the air around her sped up, forming a circle of wind all over her body. The wind blew Eniche towards the back of the temple, and when Langa tried to stab into Karisha’s side, the wind tightened around the maestril, a force that Tonare could not cut through. Instead, the wind, like a blade, headed straight for him, but Liv stepped in front of him, and the wind cut deep into his arm. Not missing an opportunity, Karisha stabbed the spiky end of the whip once more into Liv's side, the side that she'd injured before.

She licked her lips, "I can't wait to taste your karma, child of a god," she said hungrily.

"I'm getting fed up with maestrils thirsting after me," Liv said, wincing slightly from the pain. With her long whip digging into his skin, Liv brought his buckler down onto her chest, aiming to break her armour. The impact of the hit was loud, and she staggered back, trying to retain her balance, but Liv was not having any of that. His foot flew into the air, kicking hard into the same area he had just punched. Once more, his fist glowed with aura, and when it came into contact with Karisha’s breastplate, it broke into pieces, offering no resistance. She shouted out in pain as his fist dug into her skin, and she growled, fangs out, and bit him in the neck. Liv was undeterred, though, even as she sunk her teeth into him. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her waist, lifted her, and then threw her down on the floor of the temple violently.

Just like last time, Liv’s precision and technique left nothing to be desired. He was injured, and bleeding, but he did not let pain stop him or slow him down, which was something that Langa could not do. As expected, he was awed. Liv was the perfect candidate to bring stimulation into Langa's life, the person whose strength he could comfortably chase after. His strength, both of body and will was remarkable. He was a cursed being like Langa, yet he lived his life fully, giving it his all, despite his power being sealed. He did not use his curse as an excuse to let life pass him by, instead, he taught himself how to get stronger, despite the limitations that had been put on him. Langa wondered, if he spent more time around Liv, would he stop being so lazy about everything in his life, and start to live actively, too? To live, rather than simply exist? Well, now was not the time to be thinking about this, so he pushed his thoughts aside and concentrated on the battle.

Now that Karisha was down, Makoto sent a multitude of mana arrows into the gap in her armour, and Ghol slashed her ankles with reckless abandon so that it would take her a while to stand again. Langa checked the time left until he could use Thunderbird's Stunning Strike again, and there were still many minutes left, so he prepared himself to use a regular Flash Step attack.

“Stand back!" Liv shouted, as Karisha started to stand up again, his hands glowing a bright gold through his armour. His fist came down on Karisha’s face, and she dodged to the side, but a well-timed hook from Liv hit her square in the jaw, and something cracked as her HP went down. Still, her close combat skills were not to be trifled with as she took the hit in stride, and covered her entire body in a small, swirling layer of violent air. She released a strong gust of wind towards Langa and Liv, but Eniche, who'd made her way back from the last attack, jumped to the front line, putting her shield up. She stood in front of them, her fur thickening, and her claws extending as she tightened her grip on the shield, struggling to maintain her balance against the strong gust of wind pushing against the shield. Kindaro came in clutch at that moment, freezing the maestril again, and disrupting her spell. It seemed to be getting weaker, the longer she held on, until it was just a breeze.

Karisha cried in outrage and cut Eniche hard on the shoulder with her whip, her blood oozing from the wound as she held her ground, keeping the shield up.

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“Switch!” Liv shouted, running ahead of her and kicking Karisha on the side. Eniche stepped back as Sigurd started healing her. To cover the loss of Eniche, a mana arrow flew out from the back, piercing through the maestril’s eye. That one arrow did not come alone either, Makoto began spamming arrows, one after the other, and, as she did not have a shield. In the end, Karisha had no choice but to use her previously unused AOE attack. One moment, the arrows were flying towards her, a true arc, and then the next moment, the maestril emitted a massive blast of wind, scattering the arrows and growing into a swirling whirlwind covering a large area in front of her, stronger than the gust that Eniche just tanked.

The whirlwind had as much power as a storm, and the blast of wind blew both Langa and Liv, who were closest to Karisha, away. Langa flew into the seats in the temple. The seats were made of stone, and he landed violently, and hard on his back and something cracked. A sharp, searing pain tore through his entire back, and Tonare fell out of his hands. It was awful, and Langa let out a painful wail. He could not move his legs. His back was broken.

[WARNING!!! You have been critically injured!

-213HP]

[Your spinal cord has been damaged. Movement speed decreased by 100%]

[WARNING!!! Your health has fallen below 10% of its maximum. Please seek healing immediately!]

If Langa did not know any better, he would have thought that the system was worried about him. He could still move his hands, so he pressed the button on his comcer, opening his inventory. He drank the entirety of his health potion. The pain subsided, but only a little. His HP did rise to more than 30%, but he still could not move. He could hear the battle still going on, and he tried to sit up, and saw that Karisha was taking time to heal herself. Black strands flowed into her body from the altar, and her wounds were starting to close. Eniche was up again, bashing her with her mace, trying to hold her aggro while Kindaro sent his ten knives flying at her, and Ghol kept stabbing and then disappearing.

Sigurd just finished healing Liv and he and Makoto rushed towards Langa, Makoto refilling Sigurd’s mana once again.

"Brother," Makoto's worried face swam in and out of focus. "Can you hear me?" Langa nodded mainly just to reassure him.

He felt hands on him and the pain started to lessen as the light travelled up his back. However, he still could not move. “You okay? Sorry, your injury is gonna take a lot more than that and my healing is on cool-down for a bit. Can you bear with it?” Sigurd said apologetically.

Langa wanted to scream that no he fucking couldn’t, but he nodded, keeping an eye on the battle with a frown. Something wasn’t quite right. Liv was back to fighting against the maestril alongside Eniche, and Langa scanned the creature.

Karisha (Air Maestril Boss)

Level 10

HP:3250/7000

Karma:3754

The proportions were all wrong. Considering the damage that the lot of them had done, Karisha should have lost a lot more health than this. If she was using her karma to heal herself, then there should be less than 1000 karma left at this point. Something was off. From behind the red curtain on the stage of the temple, thin black strands emerged and were absorbed by Karisha. When he checked her again, her health had gone up, but her karma remained unchanged. A thought came into Langa’s head. Considering his side quest before had been about stopping the maestril boss from stealing the abandoned world’s karma from The FireFox Queen’s shrine, could it still be doing the same thing?

A temple had to be more powerful in terms of karma than a shrine. Langa blanched. If this was true, if Karisha was using the world’s karma to heal herself, then they could fight against her all day and never win. They would run out of health and stamina before her. Was that what she was aiming for? In that case, Langa knew what he had to do in such a situation. He had to destroy the crystal that processed the karma as he did at the shrine. At that time, a guard had appeared and he’d had to fight it to complete the mission. Chances were that it would be the same now. He had to let Liv and Kindaro know about his discovery, maybe they might have a decent plan to defeat Karisha after all.

He was still very angry at how he had been tossed around like a rag doll by this damn maestril, and although he could think calmly at the moment, his blood was boiling with a need for retribution. He was going to pay back Karisha the price of his health in blood. He itched to fight again, but since he still needed to heal a bit more before he was ready to throw himself into the fray, he watched his teammates go at it against the maestril.

Liv’s arm curved in a beautiful arc, a glowing orange light piercing the maestril’s abdomen. A flawless strike. Langa did not know how to explain Liv’s brilliant movements and attacks, he seemed to move almost fluidly, like he was gliding through the air like his arm was a snake, slithering towards Karisha with no hesitation, only decisive precision. Kindaro’s death magic-coated blades struck the maestril’s chest and abdomen a second later, and her scream echoed in the chamber.

Langa felt his heartbeat pick up both from the pain and from watching the way Liv and Kindaro fought. Just like the time before, in the battle against Calpu, he could feel his heart speeding faster and faster. Langa’s normally calm and clear mind was full of fog again, and the need to move again, to rejoin the battle gnawed at him, becoming his only coherent thought. He wanted to fight beside Liv and Kindaro again. He also wanted the cool-down for Thunderbird's Stunning Strike to be over. It was close now.

As if in answer to his desperation, Sigurd placed his hands on Langa’s back, and warmth flowed into his body, and he could move again. He could feel the way his bones came back together, and how Sigurd’s skill caused his flesh to knit together again until he was whole.

“Thank the gods. Now you can-“ But Langa did not hear what Makoto was going to say, because as soon as he was healed, he immediately picked up Tonare, and activated Flash Step. He had a battle to win, teammates to fight alongside him, and a quest to clear.

He could feel his pulse going inside him, beat by beat, and it made him focus on what he was going to do even more. He had to rejoin the fight at precisely the most appropriate time for maximum efficiency and for him to coordinate with the two of them well again. He knew how Liv and Kindaro fought, he felt like he was watching them in slow motion, like he could predict that Liv would step to the side a second before Kindaro retrieved his knives, leaving a small gap, of less than a second before Karisha healed that wound. He activated his lightning skill in that split second, thrusting his glaive into that slow-healing wound, taking all of his stamina with it, and all the breath in his lungs. The backlash would have sent him tumbling to the ground, but Liv caught him right on time.

[Critical Hit! : (Karisha) -945HP

Bonus damage: -94.5HP]

[Backlash (Langa Zulu): -127HP]

Oh fuck! He was in pain again, the numbness filling his entire body. His legs felt like jelly, but Liv held him up. His head was ringing loudly as he tried to focus. Once again, too much damage was done, too much backlash was received, and too much of his stamina was gone. Even with a combination of Flash Step and Thunderbird’s Stunning Strike, he should not have lost that much stamina or dealt that much damage. There was something else going on here. It reminded him of his final attack against Calpu, he just had to reach it and know what it was.

Kindaro forced his mouth open and shoved a pill inside it. Langa swallowed it and felt his stamina begin to rise again. The pill would not get it to full, but it would prevent him from getting the stamina debuff.

“I found out why… health not staying…” Langa mumbled, stating what he had observed.

Before the others could ask, “I just fucking healed you!” Sigurd cursed as he came running towards them, placing his hands on him again.

Makoto was now supporting Ghol and Eniche in keeping the maestril occupied while Liv, Kindaro and Langa caught their breath.

Langa’s heartbeat slowed, and the world cleared.

“I don’t care what you say, Langa. What you just did, that was not a skill. You shouldn’t be able to do that much damage at this level. Langa. What the hell kind of attribute do you have?” Kindaro asked him.

“Is that important right now? You said you found out something, tell me quickly, Eniche’s struggling,” Liv asked Langa.

“Karisha is healing herself, but her karma is not decreasing proportionally to the health that she has regenerated. I think there’s something behind the altar supplying her with karma. I need to get back there,” Langa said.

”If that’s really where she’s getting her karma, she won’t let you through that easily,” Kindaro sighed, scratching his hair. “I’ll create a big distraction for you, then. But you guys know, my attribute works best with an already open wound.”

“I'll make sure to keep the wound that Langa created open. You’re the fastest one here, Langa. Once her health gets below 2000, and I tell you, you should go behind the curtain!” Liv instructed, and then he ran back into the battle, where Karisha was once more bombarding everyone with her wind pellets. Ghol and Makoto were both getting injured, and Sigurd had his work cut out for him.

Liv was the perfect distraction for the maestril, managing to wound her again and, true to his word, Kindaro’s mask was glowing again, and the air around him felt eerie as he raised his staff upright.

“Comedenthatos morsthana!” A glowing brown light emerged from his staff, and flew straight in the air, right into Karisha’s broken armour.

Her fur shrivelled up, and her skin turned black, the smell of death and decay emanating from the ever-increasing wound.

This time although his mana did get completely drained, Kindaro was using Makoto's mana stones to fill himself back up. Still, his DOT was very damaging to the maestril, this time it was taking 300HP per second, meaning he had improved his death magic. If that skill hit Langa, he would be dead in less than two seconds. Still, the high damage made Kindaro the prime target.

Liv immediately rushed the maestril, but once again, a large gust of wind erupted from the maestril, knocking both Liv and Eniche away from her. She then rode the wind, straight towards Kindaro who was busy chanting something.

"Shit," Langa cursed, Flash Step was still on cool-down, so he had to run towards the two of them at his regular, but still fast, speed. However, he need not have bothered, because the moment Karisha snapped her chain whip at Kindaro, someone...or something blocked her. The thing was covered in dirt, and surrounded by black smoke. The thing guarding Kindaro had dead black eyes that were unseeing. Langa shuddered when he realised what it was that was protecting Kindaro.

It was Calpu.

Or at least, his body.

Calpu (Decaying Zombie Maestril)

Level 7

HP:965/1500

So this was what death magic could do? Defile the dead? Langa wanted to throw up. In his culture, death was liberation, it was a way for the living to free their souls and to watch over their loved ones as their ancestors, idlozi. For that to happen, the body had to be buried in the dead's hometown graveyard. Their eyes must be closed so that their soul can rest in peace, otherwise, the spirit would wander for eternity, unless a ritual was done to appease the dead. He was not a staunch or practising believer in his mother's Traditional Zulu religion, nor was he a devout believer in the Christian religion that his sister followed devoutly. He had grown up on both religions and practised aspects of both in his daily life, so to him, life was sacred, a dead body was not to be defiled like this, even if it was a maestril. Back when his father was alive, he was fascinated with ancient gods, and Langa had inherited a lot of his books on deities as well. In most of those religions, the desecration of a corpse was frowned upon. He knew that he was in a different world now, and perhaps things like this were commonplace in the Tower, but it still made him uncomfortable.

Langa was not the only one put off by seeing Calpu's reanimated body, because Eniche had a horrified look on her face, and Langa could understand why, seeing as her whole world had been devastated by the undead. Another person who seemed most affected by Zombie Calpu was Karisha. She screamed at Kindaro, lashing out with her whip berserkly.

”My brother!! What have you done to my brother?!” She screamed, and her whirlwind swirled again, this time like a mini tornado, repelling everything that tried to attack her. Everything except for one person. A red glow covered his entire arm, and his purple eye darkened. Liv smashed his fist into Karisha’s back, although the stabbing wind left multiple cuts in his arms.

”Langa! Now!” he shouted, and Langa snapped out of it. He had a job to do. While the others kept Karisha occupied, he would go to the altar, and destroy the crystal that was siphoning the FireFox Queen's karma.