The two groups of 8 players stood inside the entrance of the dungeon preparing themselves for the raid and talking together when the raid leader, Wulfadin, called out.
“Hey guys, listen up. Before we start, we’ll organize ourselves into two different groups, the melee group and the ranged group. The melee group will consist of myself, the Assassin, Barbarian, both Berserkers and the Monk. Amand and Lyklor, since you guys are a Shaman and Priest respectively, you two will be in my group as well.
Group 2 will be the Wizard, Warlock, both Sorcerers, the Ranger and Magick Archer. Cayden, who is a bard and Priamus, the druid, will be in that group.
Does anyone have any questions so far?” Wulfadin asked the rest of the raid as he looked at everyone.
When no one asked anything, he continued on with his pre-raid speech.
“I’ve gotten a bit of information on the Net about the different boss fights, but for now, let’s proceed through the dungeon carefully. I’ll be the main tank since I’m a Paladin, and we’ll start slow, but then pick up speed once everyone gets comfortable with the raid setup. Does anyone have questions before we start?” he asked.
Glancing around at everyone, Wulfadin didn’t expect any questions, however, most of the people in today’s raid were new members that had just joined his guild, “Alpha Noobs”, so he wanted to make sure. Some of these dungeons could be intense, and from the information he had gathered, this one was off the charts, which made it exciting. But since it was only a 2-group raid dungeon, he didn’t expect it to be that hard since the average level of the raid was 102 and he was the highest level, of course, being level 115.
After waiting for 5 minutes to get both groups reorganized and their stats buffed from the Shaman and Bard, they proceeded into the raid dungeon with the melee group in front.
The dungeon itself was a mixture of both rock and bricks, with rocks forming the floor, and the bricks forming the walls and ceiling. Throughout the walls, glowing dark red veins spread intermittently. They looked almost like flowing lava giving the dungeon a strange, evil vibe. It was almost as if it was an entrance into the infernal plane.
After a few minutes of walking through the dungeon, they ran into their first pack of monsters, three goregorgers which looked like bloated zombies with pieces of their flesh falling off. After he identified the monsters, Wulfadin saw that they were only level 100 and classified as small demons.
Goregorger
Type: Small Demon (Raid)
Level: 100
HP: 2,537,060
Wulfadin rose his shield in front of him and pointed the tip of his holy sword at the pack of goregorgers. He called out a temporary buff, Shield of Light, so that he wouldn’t take as much damage from the undead gorgers and charged into the pack while yelling out his area of effect taunt, Holy Call, causing the pack to attack him.
The rest of the melee group started attacking the first goregorger that was to his left, and the ranged group assisted them by attacking with their arrows and spells. Every 10 seconds, Wulfadin would recast both his Shield of Light and Holy Call. Since he had a good amount of points spent into the passive skill, Shield Block, he didn’t worry about these minor demons as his health barely took a hit.
Just over a minute later, the Goregorger pack was dead and the raid was rewarded a total of 798,087 experience and 9 plat, 976 gold, 102 silver, and 500 copper. Both the experience and the gold were split among all 16 members, so individually, they were rewarded with 49,880 experience and 61g, 6s, 375c each.
Proceeding on, they ran into a few more packs of goregorgers and a few ghans, which looked like giant mixture of a boar and a minotaur type of demon with husks and fur.
Ghan
Type: Large Demon (Raid)
Level: 120
HP: 4,113,024
At first, the ghans gave the raid a bit of an issue due to their level and would cause massive bleeding damage, however, the raid group was successful in killing them.
Following the path that curved downwards, they came across a small cavern. In the middle of the cavern, there was a pretty large pack of goregorgers, 8 in total, and a khunter that were patrolling the perimeter. The khuntor looked like your standard bestial demon type of monster with two large horns on its head, a pig-styled nose that had a gold piercing, and extremely large, and sharp, teeth.
The raid formation entered the cavern and the khuntor immediately looked at them and bellowed out before charging towards them while the goregorgers followed. Wulfadin stepped out and charged forward as well in order to intercept the demon while shouting his aura buffs.
Clashing with the demon with his shield raised, he started attacking while a gold glow surrounded him. He smiled at that, since he was getting his health regenerated by his group’s Priest.
“Hold off on attacking, I’ll make sure that the goregorgers are stacked on me so that we can use AOE attacks. Just keep me my health in the green Lyklor,” he shouted at the raid.
As the goregorgers finally got into range, he shouted out his Holy Call spell, getting both the attention and aggro from the pack of goregorgers. He told everyone to focus on the smaller mobs first.
****
Corthaxul looked up at the ceiling where he and Rana were dissecting a human that had wandered into the dungeon some weeks ago. He currently had the creature hanging from chains with meat hooks piercing through his forearms with its ribcage broken open and its lungs exposed.
“Mm,” he growled. “It seems that there are some unwanted veil-walkers that have broken into our home. Rana, I’ll let the others know to take it easy on them so that they can arrive in the main chamber. I’ll deal with them, but I want you to watch and learn.”
Rana looked up at her father that had raised her since she was little and grinned at him, her eyes betraying her expectations of the slaughter. She didn’t quite remember arriving here that long ago, but she often had dreams of him taking her in and providing her with a home and a family.
She had learned much through these 10 years that she had been living here. However, most of her lessons were quite painful, though she had been getting used to her body getting mutilated weekly. In fact, though she would never admit it, she had started to come to enjoy the lessons.
“Aw, I wanted to go play with Auntie Erkiriul after today’s lessons,” she said while pouting. Frowning, she crossed her arms across her chest.
“Don’t worry, she’ll respawn tomorrow, you can go play with her and your cousins then,” he replied using a cloth covered in black gore to wipe down the carving knife he had been using.
“When will I be able to help getting rid of the pests?” Rana asked, becoming furious that these interlopers would prevent her from having fun with her cousins.
She had also been hoping that she could at least be of somewhat of use to the demons. They never let her have fun with the veil-walkers since she was told that they would instantly kill her and prevent her growth. Instead, she was told to hide and just observe the fights.
Corthaxul turned to face her and looked down at the girl that had been coming along, so far that it had been above his expectations. Truth be told, he had actually come to care for the girl that he took in on a whim.
Not even six months after he took her in, the dungeon he had been charged with managing was cleared by two groups of veil-walkers and he was forced to respawn after 24 hours. When he did so, he found Rana in a corner crying, and while he looked at her curiously, interested as to why she didn’t run away with the veil-walkers, she saw him and ran up to him, hugging his leg.
“You still need to grow your stats much more Rana. You still haven’t even gotten your class yet,” he replied after reminiscing.
While it was quite unusual for dungeon guardians to form groups, in order to help Rana gain levels, he spoke with the other guardians and they formed a group and included Rana. Unfortunately, though, due to the level differences between everyone, she never gained much experience. That was something he did not expect.
“Perhaps it was to prevent something like what he was trying to do, to get someone leveled much quicker than it would take normally,” he mused to himself.
“Yes father, I understand,” Rana said while looking down at the ground that was covered in blood and gore.
“Good, now then, go to the main throne room and go to the observation point. I’ll let the guardians know that I want this group to enter my domain,” he said.
While as the lord of this dungeon he had the ability to teleport anywhere inside of it, he very seldom did so as he didn’t like to leave his domain within the dungeon, and since Rana was set to respawn near the exit where the Water of Life and Death was, he didn’t exactly worry about her safety and let her do as she pleased within the dungeon.
Only once did he have to teleport within the dungeon due to Rana, and that was when she became curious about the outside when she was 8 years old. He explained to her that she would never be accepted outside, and people would hate her for what she was.
He decided to punish her by putting her into a cage and not torturing her for a week even though he did allow her to watch as he gave his attention to others that had roamed into the dungeon looking for treasures though. During that week, amusingly, she cried for almost the entire time and begged to be released from the cage so that she, too, could be tortured.
“At least this part of my plan for her was working as it should. Now then,” he thought to himself.
Opening a psychic channel to Erikiriul, he messaged the queen of spiders.
Erikiriul, I know that you know this, but we have some veil-walkers that have entered our domain.
Corthaxul! How is Rana? She wanted to come over today to play with my children. I was going to have them dissolve her arms and feet before feasting on her insides. Don’t worry though, these two groups of veil-walkers are weak. Can you believe they even had trouble in the first cavern?
No, I want you to let them pass. I’ll inform the other guardians as well. Just don’t let them pass without killing at least half of them.
What? No, they dare enter my domain and I will let my children feast upon their rotting bodies. Why would I let them pass?
Rana is close to level 5. After I kill them off, they will know it’s impossible and leave without becoming a distraction to Rana.
Hmph, so our little Rana is finally going to get her class, is she? Fine then, I’ll play along for now Corthaxul. I’m only doing this for her, she is quite a delicious plaything.
After closing off the communication with Erikiriul, he opened chats with the other guardians. They were often more open to his plans, even without him needing to pull out the “Rana Card”.
****
Wulfadin and the rest of the raid finally got past the cavern, and while they had almost wiped, they ended up with a victory. Wulfadin reflected on the previous battles and really wished they had an illusionist in the raid group with the ability to perform crowd control.
After they managed to clear the first cavern, they continued on, coming across groups of spiders that included a massive spider surrounded by several smaller ones. Luckily, both healers were able to keep him alive through the use of life regeneration spells and healing spells while continuously curing him of the poison status.
They managed to push through, and now, they stood before a large door that looked like it was made from obsidian with gold trimming that resembled a spider’s web in the center. It was the first boss fight for the dungeon.
“Alright people, before we enter the boss room, let’s go over the strategy for this boss. From the intel that I purchased from some information brokers, this boss is named Erikiriul, a large half-human and half-spider demon. At regular intervals, she will retreat and become immune to damage while it summons a horde of 8 to 12 large spiders that are like the ones that we just fought.”
“Wulf, you mentioned information brokers. Aren’t those other players or guilds that accumulate various maps and information about enemies, selling them to players?” Aega, a level 91 Sorcerer, asked.
“Yep, that’s right Aega,” he responded, affirming her information, not minding such as basic question since it was her first raid and the fact that she wasn’t an avid player like he was.
Wulfadin looked around to make sure that everyone was paying attention before continuing, “When it’s not immune to damage, it uses dual swords and will encase random raid members in a spider web. When you see someone in the web, use a fire spell to destroy the web. If the web isn’t destroyed within 30 seconds, then that raid member will get insta-killed.”
He saw both of the healers look nervously at the wizard and both sorcerers since they were the only three that could use fire-based spells. Mentally shrugging, he continued with the strategy for this fight.
“Other than that, it will use an ability called Poisonous Bite to poison the person that currently has its aggro. When you see it, just make sure to cure it. Other than that, it has two different sword skills, Fury and Carve. Fury is a standard multi-attack, while Carve is a frontal AOE.
Once we enter, I’ll engage first and then turn the mob so that it is facing away from everyone. I want the melee group on the right side of the boss mob, ranged people behind it, and the healers should stand in between them. Any questions?” Wulfadin asked after explaining the boss mechanics.
Seeing the anxious faces of the new raiders that he brought along, he smiled.
“Then, if there’s no questions, let’s do this!” he shouted.
After turning around to face the door, he walked forward and opened it.
Everyone looked around the boss room and saw several spider webs that stretched on the corners of where the walls met with the ceiling. On the ground were several pools of green liquid that had greenish haze that floated above them. They were obvious traps, so Wulfadin didn’t think he would need to explain those. Roughly 5 meters in front of the entrance, on the ceiling, was a huge web that looked circular in shape with a dark hole in the middle.
“What do we have here, more playthings for my children?” a feminine voice asked, seemingly from all around them.
Wulfadin looked at the hole in the ceiling that was surrounded by webbing and saw the boss crawling out of it. From what he could see, it had ashen looking skin that was symbolic of the demonic race.
She had long horns that came out of its head, black eyes, and looked disturbingly attractive, if it wasn’t for the fact that its lower body was that of black spider. On the back of the spider was a golden diamond.
Erikiriul
Level: 130
HP: 6,258,304
Erikiriul jumped down from the ceiling and looked at the pests that had disturbed her domain and prevented Rana from playing with her children with disgust. In front of the pests was a wolf-type beastman that was wearing ephemeral armor that had a soft glow and was holding a sword in one hand; a large shield in the other.
Erikiriul summoned her swords and grasped them as they appeared and charged at the beastman who ran towards her. Before getting into range and attacking the one that was running at her, she had time to look over the veil-walkers that entered her domain. Judging by their equipment, they only had two healers and three magic casters that would give her problems.
Erikiriul opened her jaws, showing her fangs that were hidden within her mouth and spit out her webbing at what looked like a Priest, encasing him within her corrosive web and then started to attack the beastman that rushed at her while shouting some nonsense as he tried to get behind her. She turned and faced him so that he wouldn’t be able to attack her from behind.
Normally, she would start with using her corrosive webbing on two or three of them and then summon her children, however, Corthaxul didn’t want her to kill these veil-walkers, however, the look of fear from half of them made it tough. She really wanted to show these intruders despair, however, it wouldn’t do any good for Rana. Getting enraged by her conflicting desires, she went into a fury and started to relentlessly beat on the beastman’s shield instead of trying to bypass his defense.
Irritated that her health had been steadily dropping, she decided to show these insects a hint of despair as she got to her health’s halfway point. Biting the beastman that was in front of her and causing him to become poisoned, she spun around and turned towards the casters that had been damaging her and found the three targets that she wanted.
Spitting her corrosive web and entrapping the ones that could use fire magic, she then began to summon her children while giving the rest of the ones attacking her an evil smile, the hatred for these veil-walkers were evident in her eyes.
Wulfadin knew that the raid was in trouble when the wizard and both sorcerers where trapped in the Corrosive Webbing after getting poisoned by the boss. He saw that Erikiriul crossed its swords in front of it and a metallic green translucent sphere appeared, surrounding her.
“Need a cure,” he called out, trying to get the healers focused as they were both watching the three casters. He knew it was pointless to save them, but he knew healers had a, “thing,” about wanting to keep everyone alive that their pride dictated.
Lyklor, who a bit more experienced than Priamus, turned to him and performed the poison cure chant, “In the name of Pelor, may your body and spirit be free of all that would destroy it, Cure Poison!”
With that, the sickening green aura dissipated from Wulfadin.
“Get ready everyone, it’s summoning the giant spiders,” he said after getting cured.
Not even a second later, loud skittering noises could be heard while a group of eight spiders that were as large as dogs started crawling out of the large toxic puddles that were on the ground.
Large Spider (Child of Erikiriul)
Type: Large Arachnid (Raid)
Level: 100
HP: 3,044,472
The raid members hurried and grouped together in a circle with the melee fighters on the outside and the healers, casters, and two archers in the center. Unfortunately, the healers hadn’t had time to perform the resurrection chants on the three casters that were currently down, but that couldn’t be helped.
“One melee on each spider and each caster assist each other. Healers, keep everyone up. We can do this, guys!” Wulfadin shouted as the spiders drew closer to the raid members.
Wulfadin raised his shield and rushed the spider that was in front of him and stunned it using Stunning Shield of Light which was a skill that he got at level 75. Having 10 points into it, he was able to stun the spider for 7.5 seconds. The damage itself was fairly minuscule, although, that wasn’t the point of this particular skill, or any shield-based skills.
He saw the spider give off two different auras that cycled between them, one green, the other brownish in color. It seemed that the Warlock, Delmouth, was providing his assist, causing the spider to become both poisoned and diseased. In this case, since Warlocks specialized in damage over time and other debuff type of spells, his spider wouldn’t be the last to go down, but that was fine with him.
As the minute mark passed, the raid was getting dangerously low on mana as the Bard, Cayden, weaved his raid-based health regeneration and mana regeneration songs. Each song lasted for 5 seconds, but they each had a 2.5 second recast timer, and Wulfadin was pleased that he was able to keep both songs playing, even though he wasn’t using other damage dealing abilities.
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Luckily, the last spider, his, was now the focus of the entire raid and its health rapidly dropped to 0, causing the spider to die and turn to a black mist that drifted away.
Wulfadin called out, “Everyone, back to your positions!” before running around the raid to get back into position himself.
Before he could get the aggro on the boss though, it spit out another corrosive webbing on Lyklor.
“Damnit to hell,” he said while grinding his teeth.
Erikiriul was having fun! If only for a little bit, she could see both the frustration and the despair on each of the veil-walkers’ faces. It was as if they knew they couldn’t win this fight, which would be typical.
However, it wasn’t meant to be, and she knew that she couldn’t afford to let the other pests die. She was the first of the guardians in this dungeon, so she had to let them think that it was possible that they could get to the end. Mentally sighing, she prepared herself. She really didn’t like needing to respawn and allowing her treasures that she worked so hard to get be taken from her.
She saw that main pest which thought he was so superior than her run back towards her.
“Perhaps I should kill him?” she thought to herself.
It should be fine; she can always still allow them to pass through her domain. Spitting her corrosive webbing at him, he raised his shield to block it, which she anticipated.
She rapidly swung her right sword, then her left sword, both in an arc in order to use her ability, Cleave, twice in order to cause damage to all of the veil-walkers in front of her. She then started attacking the pest while the remaining healer was focused on healing everyone that was still alive.
Slowly, her remaining health dropped to 10%, and while normally she would summon more of her children, she turned her head and spit her corrosive webbing at the remaining healer and used her Fury ability to launch several attacks back to back against the beastman.
Now at 5% health, she finally managed to kill that pest of a beastman insect. He kept healing himself with his Paladin abilities, but in the end, she did manage to kill him, even though it would have been so much easier if she could have just gone all out.
Once her legs finally gave out, she thought to herself that it would be nice if Rana could still come over and play with her children tomorrow. She would be looking forward to it.
****
Rana looked to her upper left where she could see her family members’ health, stamina, and mana bars as well as any buffs or debuffs when she saw her aunt’s health drop to 0 and her name become outlined in red.
“NOOO! AUNTIE!!” she yelled in rage, becoming furious.
She had hidden inside of the illusionary wall as her father wanted, but she could not believe that these maggots, these pests, these… veil-walkers would enter her home and kill her aunt and her cousins. All for a measly reward of only 6 experience. Tightening her hands in a fist and causing her nails to cut into her palms, she released the tension when she felt the sting and released her rage.
“Soon, soon I’ll be able to kill you all. Ah, I can’t wait until I can cut open these invading pests and rip out their organs like father does,” she thought to herself while giving the wall in front of her a malicious smile as she imagined herself in her father’s place as he worked on getting food for everyone.
****
Wulfadin was ecstatic! Even though he died at the very end of the fight, the raid was able to kill the boss mob. It was definitely a tough fight and didn’t go exactly the way he had been told.
Not only was the boss a higher level than what was anticipated, it seemed that some of its timers and abilities where off, or not even used. He smiled as he thought that the random number generator, or the RNG, was on his side for once. However, it was time to get the loot and then continue on.
In the back of the room was another door that led further into the dungeon. To the right of the door, near the corner of the room was a large, exquisite chest that was made from dark red wood with golden metal decorating it.
It seemed to him that this dungeon favored dark colors and gold. To the sides of the chest were skeletons that were thrown around and covered in spider webbing.
Wulfadin walked over to the chest and opened it. The chest had a total of 25 plat, which combined with the gold dropped from Erikiriul, gave the raid a total of 34p, 376g, 32s, and 900 copper which was split evenly between everyone. Other than the plat, there were three pieces of Spider Queen gear, and 4 pieces of standard Fiendish gear.
He pulled out the first item, the Spider Queen’s Carapace Shield which was a large shield that only he and Lyklor could use and displayed the stats to the raid. They had previously agreed to a “Need Before Greed” loot system, so that anyone that could use the equipment would get first rights to it, and if no one needed it, then everyone could roll on the equipment.
Spider Queen’s Carapace Shield
Rarity:
Rare
Level:
130
Price:
8p, 750g, 500s, 0c
Item Stats
Dexterity:
+175
Vitality:
+200
Wisdom:
+150
Item Effect
Gives the user a 10% chance to poison the attacker.
“Ok, since this one is a large shield, Lyklor, did you want to roll on this?” he asked the Priest.
Lyklor looked over the stats of the shield and smiled.
“Yea, that would be a good upgrade for me,” he replied.
Both Wulfadin and Lyklor called out at the same time, “Roll Random 100,” after which, there was a system announcement that could be heard by all nearby players.
* Wulfadin has rolled a 48.
* Lyklor has rolled a 40.
Wulfadin smiled as he equipped the shield and said out loud, in a deep voice, “Come to papa, oh yeaa.”
It was a common, running joke on in the real world that involved a holo-ad of a huge, fat, jug of juice that would run around a kitchen while filling itself up with Arti-sugar and some other powdered substance. The raid laughed at his joke, and he became serious again. Loot was always a serious matter!
“Next up, we have the beauty of a staff, the Spider Queen’s Staff of Corrosion,” he announced while displaying the next item that they were able to loot.
Spider Queen’s Staff of Corrosion
Rarity:
Rare
Level:
130
Price:
12p, 250g, 500s, 0c
Item Stats
Agility:
+125
Vitality:
+125
Wisdom:
+250
Item Effect
When attacking an enemy, there is a 25% chance to release a cloud of corrosion in a 2.5-meter radius of the target.
“It’s a magic staff, so since Felaern is a Wizard, Delmouth, who’s a Warlock, Aega and Holman, you’re both Sorcerers and since Druid’s can also use staves, Priamus. You guys, go ahead and roll,” Wulfadin told the raid members.
* Felaern has rolled a 74.
* Delmouth has rolled a 67.
* Aega has rolled a 46.
* Holman has rolled a 11.
* Priamus has rolled a 37.
“Looks like Felaern wins with a 74, here you go sir, your Staff of Corrosion,” Wulfadin said while opening a trade window with Felaern who accepted the trade and equipped the staff shortly after.
“Last but not least, as far as the good equipment goes, we have the Amulet of Corrosive Resistance. It’s actually a damn nice necklace and everyone can use it. Here’s the stats for it,” he said while showing everyone the stats on the amulet.
Spider Queen’s Amulet of Corrosive Resistance
Rarity:
Rare
Level:
125
Price:
4p, 150g, 750s, 0c
Item Stats
Strength:
+125
Agility:
+150
Dexterity:
+150
Vitality:
+200
Wisdom:
+125
Poison Resist:
+25%
Item Effect
The wearer of this amulet has a 5% chance to spawn a small spider when attacking their target. The summoned spider lasts for 10 seconds and does 25% of the wearer’s weapon damage over time.
Everyone except for Amand (who is a Shaman), Cayden, Priamus and Lyklor rolled on the necklace and Holman ended up winning it when he rolled a 98.
Since the winners got some very nice gear, they ended up giving up the opportunity to roll on the lesser equipment, allowing those that needed it the chance to get something.
Gropleg, the Barbarian that was in Wulfadin’s group won the Fiendish Sword, and Leka, one of the two Berserker’s in the raid, won the pair of Fiendish Chainmail Boots when she rolled a perfect 100.
Cayden won the Fiendish Gauntlets that dropped, even though it was considered as plate-mail and only Wulfadin could use it since he didn’t want them. Finally, their Magick Archer, Orym, won the Fiendish Leather Vest and was actually an upgrade for him.
“We still have three more boss mobs left before we take on the dungeon lord, so does anyone need to take 5 before we start with the next part?” Wulfadin asked the raid after loot had finally been distributed.
****
Corthaxul sat in the throne room waiting for the veil-walkers that would get his Rana to level 5 at long last. She had come a long way from being the creature that kept crying for others like herself. With his teachings, and by allowing her to associate with the generals and other demonic creatures in his assigned dungeon, her soul had grown corrupted beyond repair.
In his own way, he was actually proud of how Rana had “grown,” and how brutal she was becoming. Her rage at the other veil-walkers would make her a very formidable foe for them.
Corthaxul looked to the side of where he was sitting at the illusion that he casted into the wall. It prevented any sounds from coming through and also prevented anyone from seeing past it, however, he was able to perceive what was behind it since it was his illusion.
He could hear her crushing her own fist against the wall as she punched it while growling and muttering the words, “torture”, “murder”, and “kill” over and over, and it made him smile, as malicious as it was.
He could care less about the deaths of his generals, however, it seemed that their deaths caused Rana to become enraged and furious, furthering her hatred of the veil-walkers. In that, he was even happy that they could sacrifice themselves for her growth.
He sometimes found it… curious, that it wasn’t until Rana appeared that he became aware of these… emotions? It strange that this one human, this girl, became a being to protect and nourish.
It wasn’t just him either, it was all of the entities within the dungeon. Perhaps he would speak with his deity, Erebus, about it should he be visited by him.
Regardless, by virtue of his position, he had to stay within this dungeon, however, that rule was not in effect for Rana. In a few years, he would release his creation upon the world to create chaos and despair wherever she walked. It would be a glorious thing to see this once human become the evil that walks upon the realm.
He saw in the group window that both Zoz'gath and Xugminath had both died as planned. If the veil-walkers decided to come straight to him rather than Drenvyra, it would still be a good result, he would just need to let them resurrect a few times during the battle.
In any case, they should be running into the groups of pheliaks and shadow demons that he placed in certain areas leading to the back of the dungeon.
****
Wulfadin and the raid group were ecstatic with their performance so far. However, Wulfadin, who was the most experienced with raiding, started to worry. The bosses were all higher level than he was told, as if somehow, they were evolving.
Perhaps it was a new type of scaling that XGS was experimenting with. This dungeon wasn’t that well known, and it would make sense that they would do a live test with new mechanics here, however, it was causing some of the less experienced raiders to become more reckless, as if they were becoming over-confident in their abilities.
Brushing his worries to the side, they continued on before coming upon an intersection. Protecting both routes was a pack of mobs that included one pheliak demon and three shadow demons. Stopping just outside of their aggro range, Wulfadin inspected the mobs:
Pheliak
Type: Large Demon (Raid)
Level: 120
HP: 4,113,024
Shadow Demon
Type: Minor Demon (Raid)
Level: 118
HP: 4,000,524
The pheliak demon looked like large vulture with overgrown claws that was made from a black liquid that sucked in light and had eyes that were on fire, giving off an orangish-red glow, as it looked for prey while it was flying above the shadow demons.
The shadow demons themselves were also made of the same black liquid, however, they were humanoid in shape with a few exceptions. Their long arms seemed disproportional to their bodies as well as did their fingers which were made to look like claws. Even though they walked beneath the pheliak, they too had large, black wings which protruded from their backs. Where ever the demons moved, they left behind puddles of black liquid which, judging by the hissing sound and sulphuric smell, was corrosive.
“Ok, on three, we’ll take these just like the other mob packs that we’ve fought. Keep an eye out for any debuffs or DOTS and we should be fine,” Wulfadin whispered to the rest of the raid.
When he received nods from everyone, he raised both his sword and shield and then rushed into combat. As he entered the range of the pack of demonic mobs, the pheliak unleashed a wailing screech which caused the shadow demons to aggro as well. He used his ability, Holy Call to gain the aggro of the entire pack.
When the pheliak dived at him to attack, he attacked it with his shield, using his Stunning Shield Bash skill and stunning it for 7.5 seconds, causing it to fall on the ground and twitch uncontrollably. Satisfied, he focused on attacking one of the shadow demons that was also in front of him while the rest of the raid started attacking the others.
Roughly five minutes later, with the pack of mobs now dead, they had a choice to go to the left or right. Wulfadin chose the path to the right and they continued on while keeping an eye out for other mobs that could ambush them.
A few minutes later, they saw another door that was the same fashion as the others that they had come across. This one was a bit different though and seemed more regal, in a demonic sense, than the others were. They found the last room of the dungeon, the dungeon lord’s room.
Even though they were all excited that they had come so far in the couple of hours that they had been raiding this dungeon, the entire raid was wanting to get this over with.
“Okay folks, are you guys ready to get this raid finished up so we can go back to the guild house?” Wulfadin asked while smiling.
If this dungeon did scale like he thought, they should be able to kill the final boss and get some really good loot. He started planning out the fight and shared the intel that he purchased from the information brokers.
****
Corthaxul was getting impatient. He could tell that the veil-walkers were just beyond his door, but he had to wait until they entered and he had to give a speech about some nonsense. Usually, he didn’t mind it, however, he wanted to get Rana to level 5, and these veil-walkers were stalling for time.
Tapping his large claws against the armrest of his throne, he raised his head as the door finally opened. After all of the veil-walkers entered his domain, the door closed automatically. He rose to his feet and walked away from his throne.
When Wulfadin entered the dungeon lord’s room, he noticed the large, demonic presence that was sitting on a throne made from human bones and skulls. It was held together with the same black liquid darkness that he had been seeing throughout the dungeon.
Spreading along the ground from the bottom of this, “throne,” were large, clear veins that held a red substance stretching out through the entire room, giving it a blood red glow. This room extruded malevolence and gave him pause to study the demon that stood up and walked towards them.
It was an extremely large, muscular demon with two large, curved horns wearing a butcher’s outfit with dark splotches and what looked like spray marks. Around his waist was a large belt that held various cleavers, hooks, spikes, and knives.
Corthaxul
Level: 150
HP: 8,915,670
“Veil-walkers, I admire your persistence,” he growled at them, “However, it is here that you will meet your end. Prepare yourselves!” he finished with a shout as he rushed towards the raid.
Wulfadin saw the demon lord rush at the raid as he was informed, however, the fight did not go as he had hoped. He had thought that this dungeon was being scaled to their average levels, however, he knew that he was wrong. The demonic lord was well above their level.
“There’s no way we can win this,” he thought to himself. “Even still, it would be a waste to just retreat.”
“CHARGE!!” Wulfadin yelled as he rushed the Demon Lord Corthaxul.
****
Rana watched as her father proclaimed that these veil-walkers would meet their end, her eyes showing her rage and intent for vengeance against these pests that had killed her family. She wanted to do more than just look upon the massacre that her father was going to create, however, he would be upset if she did so.
At the beginning of the fight, her father unleashed his Chains of Immobility which caused the veil-walker that was in full-plate and rushing towards him to become trapped and unable to move. He then followed up with another skill, Chains of Suspension, which she loved, to suspend both healers in the air by their arms. This made them unable to use their healing magic for the time being.
However, the veil-walkers didn’t quite fall into despair, and they started attacking her father causing her to grow even more upset. How dare these peons attack her father. It was them that killed her family!
“How dare they come into MY home and kill MY family. I’ll kill them, I will kill them all. I will become vengeance, and you will ALL feel my rage!” she began to think to herself while digging her fingernails into her palms.
Corthaxul was able to feel the aura of wrath and vengeance coming from the hole in the wall and he smiled maliciously, looking down upon the mass of veil-walkers that were attacking him.
He took out his serrated cleavers and then rushed into the group of veil-walkers that were using spells and arrows against him. They had failed to separate from the beginning, and he would take advantage of their failure.
After performing a dash into the middle of them, he summoned more demonic chains that wrapped around their legs, rooting them in place. He then unleashed his Aura of Fear, causing them to stop attacking him as they panicked. However, they were unable to move due to the chains, and he began the slaughter.
Wulfadin could do nothing but watch as his raid, his guild, and his friends get slaughtered by this demon. This was nothing like he was told, and nothing like he expected. It was as if this demon was something from his nightmares, and he was unable to stop the outright slaughter of all of his friends. This was something that they could not beat.
He watched as the demon finished killing the entire raid with barely a dent in its HP walk up to him with the serrated cleavers that he had used to decimate everyone.
“Your intrusion upon my domain ends here veil-walker,” the demon lord said to him as he raised one of the cleavers and swung it towards his neck.
As the darkness overcame him, he could have sworn that heard the demon’s voice, that seemed so far away, call out, “It is done Rana, you can come out now.”
Wulfadin then re-spawned at the entrance to the dungeon.
♦♦♦
Rana couldn’t believe her eyes. Not only did her father annihilate the veil-walkers, she finally got the last 30 experience that she needed to reach level 5! She couldn’t wait to finally meet her deity and become something other than just a basic Fighter.
She rushed out to her father after he called out to her and hugged him while looking up into his demonic eyes that glowed with dark red malevolence. Not for the first time, she thought to herself how she wished she was born a demon. Instead, she was cursed in this human form that wasn’t able to reap the vengeance against the veil-walkers that her soul craved. At least, not yet.
“Father, that was so awesome! You completely wiped out those pests. I’m level 5 now!” she excitedly told her dad as she hugged him.
“Good. You will need to make a choice Rana, one that will affect you from here on,” he responded to the over enthusiastic girl as he pulled her away from him.
“It is the choice of what class you will want to become, from now until the end of time. I’ve told you before of the classes, and I trust that you will make a good decision which will further advance the demonic race,” Corthaxul sternly replied to his “daughter” while smiling at her.
Becoming serious, she replied, “Of course father! I will do anything for you and the Demonic race.”
“Good, now come along. It’s getting late, and the deity that will allow you to choose your class will only appear within the dreamworld,” Corthaxul said while turning away to go towards the rooms that were hidden beyond the throne room.
Rana walked into her room that was made of stone. It had the same veins running through it as the throne room did, giving it, at least to her, a comforting glow. As excited as she was, she was getting unnaturally tired and decided to crawl into the bed that her father had crafted for her.
It was a steel box which almost looked like a coffin without a lid, but on the inside of it were steel spikes that would puncture through her body. The bed stood on four pipes which would allow her blood to exit so that she wouldn’t drown and was enchanted with multiple healing runes that would heal her throughout the night, preventing her from dying and needing to re-spawn.
Lying down in it, she felt the exquisite pain of the spikes enter her body. She released a pleasant sigh as she felt the healing aura of her bed regenerate her health as she bled out, slowly closing her eyes and letting sleep take her.
****
Rana opened her eyes and looked around. She was still lying down, however, this wasn’t her bed, nor her room. Standing up, she saw that there was a blood red mist that covered the ground that seemed to go on forever. At first, she was confused until she remembered her father telling her that she would need to meet her deity within the dreamworld.
Not seeing anyone around, she called out, “Hello?”
The red mist evaporated and the world seemed to transition to a battlefield where there was a countless number of corpses scattered about. In the center of the corpses was a man that was hammered into a wall.
A coarse, feminine voice called out, “Rana, welcome to our realm. Judge this man for his crimes against our people and perhaps we will judge you to be worthy of our gifts.”
Rana looked around for the voice, but was unable to see anyone. It was as if the voice was all around her.
“What crimes did he commit?” she asked the voice.
“If you are truly asking that, just look around you! These are our people; these are the ones that he killed! Men, woman, children!”
Rana looked at the man that was impaled on the wall as she remembered her own fury as the veil-walkers took the lives of her family. Unbeknownst to her, Rana’s eyes started glowing red as the fury of vengeance boiled her into a rage.
She swiftly walked towards the man as she imagined an instrument of justice that could be used against him. An instrument that would be worthy of the crimes that he committed. A whip-like weapon that was made from chains appeared in her hand. Each of the chains had razor-sharp metal shards bound together by metallic wire wrapping them.
Remembering her fury, her loss, and her need for vengeance against the crimes against her own family and the family of this voice, she swung the whip against the man’s back, shredding his skin, over and over, for what seemed like hours.
She finally stopped as she saw the piece of mangled meat, that was even now, still impaled upon the wall. Unable to unleash the fury inside of her, she screamed, and the world once again transitioned from the bloody, corpse filled scene to her being in a room that was similar to the throne room her father used.
Breathing heavily, the whip that Rana had used against the criminal disappeared. However, her father was not the one sitting upon the throne. Instead, there was another demon, unlike any other that she had seen before. She had long, black hair and her skin was as white as ash with golden eyes that glowed softly. Above her ears, which were elven in shape, were two obsidian horns that spread outwards.
This being also had wings, which almost all high-ranking demons had, however, hers were made of a dull, rusted metal and decaying, red flesh instead of the liquid darkness that she had come to appreciate.
The demoness also had two humanoid arms which ended in talons, and from behind her, were two other sets of arm-like appendages which ended in something that looked like a mouth with sharp, metal teeth.
Adorning her figure was her crimson and black armor that was segmented, forming plates. It looked like a one-piece armor suit that barely covered her figure, it’s V-line formed so that it only covered her breasts, stomach, and below. She also wore matching boots that went to her mid-thigh, and ended in boots that forced her to walk on her toes.
To Rana’s eyes, she looked both elegant and powerful. Regardless though, she sat upon her father’s throne. As Rana started to become enraged again at the heresy, the being spoke out. It was the same voice that she heard on the field of corpses.
“Calm yourself child, this is not your father’s throne. You are in our dominion, our dreamscape domain.”
Rana took a deep breath, calming herself.
“Who are you, my deity?” she asked.
“Yes child, after witnessing your continued trials throughout your young life, we have claimed you as our own. Your need for vengeance against those that have wronged you and yours has called to us. We are Erinyes, the goddess of vengeance and retribution.
There were several paths that you could have chosen when you judged the criminal that we showed to you. You could have taken his soul to be tortured by the underworld, allowing you to become a Paladin.
You could also have shown him retribution by making him face what he did, punishing him in the same manner that he killed so many others. That choice would have allowed you to become a Dark Knight.
There are two others, the way of the Monk and the way of the Barbarian, yet, you did not choose those either.
No child, you chose to allow your own fury, your own rage, your own vengeance to coincide with our own. You, child, have chosen to become a Berserker,” Erinyes said while walking towards, and then circling around, Rana.
“With this choice, we will grant you our mark, our blessing if you will. Our mark will increase both your strength by 10% as well as the damage you cause by 5%. Now child, go forth, and deliver vengeance upon your enemies!”
The world once again faded into a dark nothingness allowing Rana to sleep.