[Valgraiva, Lord of the Damned, PHASE 2]
HP: 330
WILL: 575
The void of shadows grew colder. Ethan and Theodore watched as the horde of Valgraiva’s minions closed in on them, having already swallowed Tara, Klax, and Fauna. Even now, Ethan could hear their screams in the dark recesses of this place, and the smiling lips of the dark General told him this Boss was enjoying every moment of this torment.
Ethan’s Wing Buffet and Roar were keeping the shadows at bay momentarily while Theodore cut swathes through them, hacking apart their limbs and sending them flying right back into the depths of darkness from whence they came. But for every one cut down, another spawned from behind.
Just like the Nether Lich…Ethan thought, his mind racing. Except he was a vulnerable spellcaster. And this guy – he’s a walking tank.
As if on cue, Valgraiva barreled towards them both, intent on plunging his blade into Ethan’s spider torso. He only just managed to bring up his arms and lock his scimitars with the grisly broadsword of the Undead Lord, feeling his shadow minions scratch at his legs and head from every direction.
HP: -20
-24
-13
-8
He could barely move, only managing to dislodge himself with a lucky Wing-Buffet that repulsed the rampaging Boss. But he knew he’d barely get any respite in this fight. Valgraiva charged his blade and sent another wave of darkness rocketing towards Ethan and his old rat companion. In the sphere of nothingness they were encased it, it was impossible to see the attack before it sliced into them both.
HP: -100
This guy hits HARD.
“Theo!” Ethan shouted. “Listen – I’ll handle the crowd control. You go in for the kill! You’ve got enough speed to break through this fucker’s defenses.”
Theo’s squeak was lost to the void, but Ethan saw him bolt like a lightning-infused arrow straight for the Undead Lord while he kept up his Wing Buffet AOE. Valgraiva might have been able to resist its effects, but his flimsy shadows lacked their master’s strength.
Theo leaped for Valgraiva’s shin, managing to scurry beneath his shield and nick him where it hurt. The Undead Lord fell back and, with a grunt, brought his blade down on the rat’s tail, severing it and leaving a trail of black blood as Theo bounced on the formless ground.
“Theo!”
Theodore the Rat
HP: 80/150
Shit.
Alright you armored bastard. Let’s go!
Ethan pushed his way out of the shadow’s reach and lunged for Valgraiva’s throat, the Boss cackling hoarsely as he brought his shield to bear, absorbing the brunt of Ethan’s attack and thrusting his sword underneath to pierce Rachneros’s exposed abdomen.
Fuck!
HP: 200/550
Ethan felt the strike as keenly as his Host did. He felt his corrupted blood bubble and bleed out from under him, slashing out with his scimitars to try and get a hit on Valgraiva before he brought his shield to bear again. But his scimitars flailed in vain – he was pushed right back into the cabal of waiting shadows.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
This…this feels familiar…
His mind flashed back to his encounter with the Lightborn – how helpless he’d been, back there. He’d been alone. With no control over the flow of the battle – a perfect embodiment of his entire mortal life.
Oh, come on!
Ethan blinked as the claws of the shadow beasts wrapped themselves around him. They held his legs apart, a whole clump of them managing to get their sinuous arms round his scimitars and hold them tight.
…Sys?
This is no time to mope! What was it you told me once before?
There’s no point dwelling on problems.
Work the problem.
Find a solution.
Implement a strategy.
Ethan blinked through Sys’s screaming, surprised to find its voice so desperate for survival, for once.
And he smiled. He smiled even as he saw the grim blade of Valgraiva charge with corrupted energy and cleave through the air towards him.
Because he wasn’t alone, was he? No matter how much his enemies wanted him to be.
When Valgraiva’s blade lodged itself deep in Rachneros’s gut, and Ethan’s Host let out an involuntary spasm of death, he never felt a thing at all.
Mainly, this was because he’d just activated his [Dive] skill.
But not as Rachneros.
Valgraiva and his shadows, too focused on slaying the giant spider, had all but forgotten about the one-eyed hat sitting atop its head. Now, as the acidic blood of the spider spurted from its punctured heart, they suddenly realized the hat was oddly missing from the beast’s cranium.
And without being able to dislodge his blade fast enough, Valgraiva felt the distinct feeling of pressure on his back as a thin, silver knife was pushed into his spine.
Valgraiva, Lord of the Damned
HP: 260
WILL: 400
The Boss of the Twilight Sepulcher turned his head to see the face of the beast that had just impaled him, and bore witness to Theodore the Rat wearing a mean-looking hat upon his head.
Squeak squeak, motherfucker.
Ethan had gambled in the moment – knowing Rachneros was dead. He’d taken the chance and activated [Dive] in the hopes he could make it to Theo’s skull before the undead horde noticed he was gone. He’d also thought, for a torrid second, that the rat might just shrug him of this time – his WILL having risen to stupendous levels since the last time they met.
But he didn’t. Theo accepted him back like a valiant knight accepts an old, discarded blade. Ethan attached himself to his consciousness with more ease than anything he’d ever possessed in this realm.
He propelled Theo up with a Wing Buffet (the rat’s ears flapping like Dumbo to repel the screaming shadows away from their master) and slashed at Valgraiva’s eyes before he could withdraw his blade from the still spasming spider.
Valgraiva WILL: 360
And, as the shadows of death swam to save their Lord, Ethan took his chance.
Now, Theo!
The rat leaped with all his might towards the unarmored head of the Undead master, while the latter’s sword traced the air to cut at the rodent’s bloody paw.
But he wasn’t nearly fast enough to clip the toes of Theodore, Slayer of the Undead.
Ethan dove onto the head of the smarting zombie General and clamped down his hem round his cranium, activating his Possession skill almost as soon as he felt the searing anger of the General rage through his consciousness.
Ethan Hawke Spirit Cores: 425
Valgraiva WILL: 360
This’ll be over quickly, big guy…
Theodore spun to deliver a swift strike across Valgraiva’s pulsing neck as his shadows began to melt away into the darkness they had been spawned from. Already the General was struggling, having discarded his sword in favor of keeping his shield up to avoid the relentless strikes of rat against his armored hide. Meanwhile, Ethan attacked his mind, feeling his brain go number by the second.
And as he began his hostile takeover, he felt the memories of Valgraiva swim through his mindscape – of battles lost and won, of generations of warriors under his command – and he realized why this Boss had a brain.
He still retained some element of his humanity. He wasn’t like Rachneros, born for a purpose alone. He’d had a life before this Delve.
Ethan felt the warrior’s sense of anger at this fact.
Kaedmon’s Law really does suck, huh? Even for you.
And then, like a switch being activated in the depths of the old warrior’s brain, he departed.
The sphere of darkness broke apart into fragments of onyx cloud before dissipating entirely, the shadowed wraiths of Valgraiva dying along with it and revealing three hybrids on the ground of the old warrior’s tomb, each one looking like they had just been washed up on an uncaring shore.
Klax was the first to raise himself up, stumbling, to look upon the sight of the warrior who now stood high above him, offering his dark hand to the wolfman in the newly lit lair.
“You look like you could use a hand, Klaxy,” the thick voice of the possessed knight said – a very out-of-place looking hat sitting atop his silver head.
“By Karfangg…” Klax smiled. “Now, that’s an Archon I’d follow into the depths of hell itself.”
Tara and Fauna, meanwhile, woke to find a tiny rodent sniffing at the frayed fringes of their hair.
“Wh-where the hell were we?”
“The Boss must have used its [Lair Skill] to isolate its most powerful prey,” Fauna replied. “I’d never known it would be so potent…”
Both of them then found Ethan’s hatty form atop Valgraiva’s head, knowing that the Undead Master had fallen.
Because those two silver eyes now shone with the light of their Archon.
“What?” Ethan asked. “Ain’t you ever seen a handsome undead warrior with a dapper hat before?”
Through pained groans and Fauna’s stifled giggles, Tara looked right up at him and then collapsed again.
“…you…you smell like shit,” she said.