Liam rushed in and sliced his crude dagger against the inside of its thigh. The dagger easily dug into the flesh releasing some black ichor out of the wound.
Liam could feel the tip collide against something hard before coming out. His guess was it was his bone. His face gave a slight grimace at the thought.
He went to attack again from above with a downward angle but missed as the dagger struck nothing but air.
----------------------------------------
“Miss.”
----------------------------------------
He tried again once more from another angle.
----------------------------------------
“Miss.”
----------------------------------------
A second time.
----------------------------------------
“Miss.”
----------------------------------------
A third time.
----------------------------------------
“Miss.”
----------------------------------------
The fourth strike hit a bump of flesh Liam noticed starting to form. As the blade opened the bump, a puff of foul air hit him in the face. Liam took a step back, coughing and tearing up from the stench. It smelled like a mix between rotten flesh and sewer water.
A notification flashed across Liam’s eyes before disappearing.
----------------------------------------
“You have been hit with Debuff Foul Odor. Disorientation for 5 seconds and 5% chance of vomiting.”
----------------------------------------
“Are you okay?!” Mercer called out.
“Debuff,” Liam coughed as he waved a hand around his face. Once when his coughing fit stopped, he assessed Atlas the Grave Keeper.
----------------------------------------
“Atlas the Grave Keeper. 173/200 HP. 120/120 MP.”
----------------------------------------
It doesn't look like it was a magical type of attack. No MP dropped. Liam thought before calling out, “Watch out for any bumps forming on the body. Try not to attack those spots,”
“Got it!” Artem and Blair responded.
Liam watched Artem strike Atlas with his sword and then jumped back to miss an attack coming down on him.
Blair swung her sword against the arm that hit the ground as Artem stepped and did the same.
Avery let out a smooth side to side motion attack with her rapier. Three strikes successfully hit the outside thigh.
Two violet balls of arcane magic crashed against the shoulders causing bits of dirt debris to sprinkle on Blair and Artem.
Liam pointed his dagger at Atlas’ head and chanted, “Oh, mystic and wonderous Arcana. I employ you to appear before me and shape into a bead of destruction. Fly fast, fly true, shoot forth, Arcane shot!” A small violet colored ball of arcane formed, flew, and slammed against the creature’s chin.
Atlas’ glowing crimson orbs flashed brightly as it let out a loud and deafening roar making everyone stop what they were doing to cover their ears. After it stopped, Liam saw it lift its right arm back.
“Back away from it!” Liam shouted.
Artem and Blair jumped and rushed back as far as they could. Liam started to do the same until he saw Avery still attacking.
What the hell is that girl doing?! Liam thought before yelling, “Avery! Stop attacking and run!”
She ignored him.
Atlas’ arm then swung in a sweeping motion across the ground. Avery kept attack, not letting up even as the creature’s open hand got closer to her.
Right before the palm slammed into her, Avery suddenly jumped up and arched her back as if she was pole vaulting over a bar. However, before she cleared it, the edge of the creature’s hand clipped her feet making her spin midair.
Liam rushed over and went to catch her. As she came down spinning fast, she crashed hard into Liam, causing him to fall backwards to his back. A gust of air rushed out of her mouth as she landed stomach first across Liam’s chest.
“You okay?” Liam asked breathing heavily.
“You didn’t need to do that,” she said sounding irritated.
“Don’t need to do a lot of things,” Liam smiled as he looked at her.
His smile quickly faded as he gripped her shoulders and rolled them both three times away.
Avery’s eyes widened as she saw a muddy foot come down where they had laid. A fist followed close behind the attack in their direction. Before it could crush them, Artem appeared with his shield up. The collision made him slide back a bit, but he held firmly.
“Ok, enough resting you two,” Blair said as she appeared and helped Avery to her feet.
“That plan of yours isn’t working,” Avery stated as Liam stood up.
“Yeah, I noticed,” Liam sarcastically stated as he stared at the creature. “If the legs aren’t a weak spot, then what?” He asked himself quietly.
He kept staring as hard as he could through his goggles. After what felt like forever to Liam, he was finally able to notice something.
Two spots on Atlas faintly glowed. One was a small crack on the side of the skull that zigzagged to the back of Atlas’ head. The second one was makeshift disgusting looking heart.
The back of the head and the heart? Liam thought. It makes sense that those would be weaknesses. The only question now is how to land attacks on them?
Liam tried running through any ideas on how he or anyone on his team could land anything there. The creature stood pretty tall and had its back full of dirt and grass, which basically protected its head. The heart looked like it had its own defense with the bones and those vines. He was completely at a loss at what they could do.
“If you’re done taking in the sights, I could use some help here!” Artem complained as he shielded another powerful blow.
“Quit your bellyaching,” Blair commented as she rushed in and slammed her buckler against the creature’s wrist, making the hand move away.
“We need to strike the back of the skull and where its heart is at,” Liam said. “I think that might do some real damage.”
“How are we going to get to both?” Avery questioned.
“Mercer! You and Aryana try attacking the rib cage! We need to try getting to that heart,” Liam shouted.
Mercer gave him a questionable look, “Alright we’ll try.”
Liam watched as the spells rushed towards the rib cage. As the violet magic sphere was about to collide, vines entwined into a shield blocking the attack.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“What the hell!” Ariyana cursed.
“We’re going to need a way behind that,” Mercer stated with frustration. He then took out a blue vial and knocked it back in one gulp. He then asked with a look of disgust, “What do we do now?”
Avery noticed something and then pointed towards Atlas’ back where something started to rise.
Liam, Mercer, and Ariyana peered and saw something move. The figure came into view as it stood up. It stomped its feet into the dirt planting itself firmly as it placed a hand on one of the gravestones for support.
“Roman?” Avery said perplexed.
A red liquid trickled down the side of Roman’s head. He wore a scowl as he shouted, “How dare you get the drop on me! I’ll show you, whose boss!” He then pulled out his wand, pointed it at the back of Atlas’ skull and chanted, “Gather forth, Oh, vast Arcana. When single is ineffective, dive in with numbers! Release the pent-up anger of the mass. Arcane Swarm!”
A dark violet sphere the size of a coin appeared. With each word from Roman, the coin sized sphere grew larger and larger until it became the size of a beachball. The sphere then started to swirl quickly.
After he finished the chant seven-coin sized spheres appeared around the edge of the swirling dark violet beachball. Lines connected with the smaller spheres before streams of arcane power swiftly shot out in different intervals, colliding against the back of the creature’s skull.
Atlas let out a painful howl as it straighten its back.
Roman gripped the gravestone closest to him with a free hand while digging his feet into the dirt. He gritted his teeth and held firmly while trying to keep his attack going.
“Mercer and Aryana! Shoot another Arcane Shot!” Liam shouted.
“But,” Ariyana started to protest.
“Just do it!” Liam barked.
Mercer and Ariyana did as they were told. As attack started to form, vines took form to protect the beating heart.
“No!” Liam began to think until he saw Blair jumped up and swung her sword down as hard as she could against the vine shield.
The sword dug a quarter of the way through the shield and then started to dig through.
Blair let out a grunt of frustration.
A loud shout suddenly echoed in the air as Artem jumped next to Blair and brought his sword down on top of hers helping it slice through the vines.
The force caused the vines to separate and the rib cage to crack.
As the vines moved out of the way two spheres collided into the cracked ribs causing the bones to burst and leave the heart exposed.
“Damn it!” Mercer swore.
As Artem and Blair land on their feet they heard someone yell, “Shields up!”
Without thinking or hesitating, Artem and Blair lifted their shield above their heads horizontally. They then felt weight push against them. The force pushed the shields away for the two defenders to see Liam and Avery jumping in the air with their weapons out stretched.
As the tip of Avery’s rapier pierced the heart vines shot out and push against the two daredevils. Avery and Liam flew backwards.
Avery felt a dread as the rib cage slowly started to form again. She looked at Liam and was shocked. He had a look of outrage as he was muttering something that sounded a lot like, “Where the hell is the checks and balances with this stupid mother….” She then watched him fling his dagger at the direction of the heart, missed the vines and plunged into the heart.
Avery started to feel hope form, but then noticed the strike wasn’t enough as she hit the ground back first and slid. After she slowed, she witnessed Liam roll into a crouch and charge again. He pulled out another crude dagger and flung it.
----------------------------------------
"Miss."
----------------------------------------
A second flew and snapped one of the vines holding it.
Atlas’s right and left arms fell to its sides.
A third flew.
----------------------------------------
"Miss."
----------------------------------------
A fourth hit and snapped another vine.
It’s dropped to its knee.
A fifth flew and missed as it clattered around inside its stomach.
Avery, confused, stared as Liam threw five more daggers into the hole that was slowly disappearing.
As a sixth dagger flew, the group on the ground held their breath as they watched it enter and miss the rib cage that fully regenerated.
A vine nicked the handle changing its trajectory up a bit.
Everyone’s hearts dropped until the blade turned sideways and sliced the final vine holding the heart firmly.
Atlas let out one final roar before falling to its stomach and let out a brownish green stench cloud.
Panting heavily with strings of hair dangling in front of his face looking like a mad man, Liam lifted a fist up and shouted, “Yeah! Screw your unfair ass!”
Then the gas cloud washed over him causing him to have a coughing fit.
Once when the cloud disappeared, and everyone was able to breath properly they looked at him then at each other and then let out a laugh.
“That was ridiculous,” Ariyana started as she continued to laugh.
“Screw your unfair a…,” Blair tried mocking while mimicking Liam’s pose, but then started coughing again from how hard she was laughing.
Mercer had one hand across his stomach as he slapped a knee with his other hand. “Oh my god!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Laugh it up will ya,” Liam said sheepishly as he took his rubber band out of his disheveled hair and fixed it.
“You looked ridiculous striking that pose while wearing those goggles!” Artem said.
“Guys,” Roman called out. “Can someone help me? I’m kinda stuck.”
“Yeah, I’m coming,” Artem replied as he recomposed himself.
“How the hell did you end up, up there Roman?” Liam asked trying to shift the attention off of him.
As Roman and Artem jumped off of the creature, Roman answered, “When it stood up I fell to my side and hit my head on one of the gravestones. The impact made me disoriented for a while.” He rubbed the spot on the side of his head and then looked at his hand. He then looked at Liam. “I heard you say something about the back of its skull, so I decided to try out a new spell I got. Arcane Swarm.”
“Good job with that,” Artem said.
“Yeah, it was exactly what we needed,” Blair gave a nod with a quick approving smile.
“Hey guys!” Ariyana called out. “I found two portals. I think they might be the exit portal and the next floor portal.”
They all looked at her and saw she was standing next to the hole Atlas the Grave Keeper appeared from. They made their way to it and looked down.
Inside the hole was a flat surface of stone and dirt with two portals. One sat in front of a pair of stairs while the other sat off to the side.
“Before we go, let’s see if we got any level ups and then loot this guy,” Mercer suggested.”
Everyone nodded before turning to their notifications.
----------------------------------------
“Congratulations! Body Attribute Constitution Sub-stat Vitality has reached level 3!”
“Congratulations! Body Attribute Dexterity Sub-stat Agility has reached level 8!”
“Congratulations! Body Attribute Dexterity Sub-stat Fine Motor has reached level 6!”
“Congratulations! Body Attribute Dexterity Sub-stat Reflex has reached level 7!”
“Congratulations! Body Attribute Dexterity Sub-stat Speed has reached level 9!”
“Congratulations! Body Attribute Endurance Sub-stat Body Endurance has reached level 9!”
“Congratulations! Body Attribute Strength Sub-stat Power has reached level 10! +5% to Attack Damage!”
“Congratulations! Mind Attribute Intelligence Sub-stat Perception has reached level 14!”
“Congratulations! Spirit Attribute Luck Sub-stat Lucky Break has reached level 8!”
“Congratulations! Spirit Attribute Will Sub-stat Will Power has reached level 8!”
“Congratulations! Weapon skills – Throwing Weapons has reached level 2!”
“Congratulations! Weapon skills – Throwing Weapons has reached level 3!”
“Congratulations! Weapon skills – Throwing Weapons has reached level 4!”
“Congratulations! You have reached Personal level 3!”
“You have 8 unused points available in Body, Mind, and Spirit!”
----------------------------------------
Finally! Liam thought as he saw his personal level rose. My sub-stats leveling up is great, but if I don’t personally level up then I’ll fall behind. Liam stared at his available points. He then continued to think, I think I’ll save them for later. I still don’t know where I should put them. He then closed out all his notifications and looked at the others.
They each looked away from the ground and then at each other.
“Another good haul?” Liam asked.
“You could say that.” Avery smiled.
“As good as I can know,” Mercer stated. “Without comparing stats with someone I can’t really know if it’s good, average, or bad.”
“That’s true,” Blair agreed.
“I’d say let’s compare, but I think we’d all agree to getting out of here.”
“I could use a shower,” Ariyana frowned as she fanned herself with a hand.
“Same here,” Avery said as she closed her armpits.
“I could go for some food,” Roman added.
“I could too,” Artem said as he placed a hand on his stomach.
“Let’s loot this thing and then go take a bath before grabbing some food then,” Liam suggested as he looked to Mercer.
Mercer nodded as he walked over to the boss and placed a hand on it. After a moment he stared deeply at something.
“What is it?” Liam asked. “Anything good?”
“I think it’s a helmet,” he replied as he turned to them revealing it.
It was a helmet fashioned from the top of a skull without a bottom jaw. It had vines falling from behind giving a braided hair-like look. The top jaw portion had four sharp teeth on the edge of the front of it.
Liam assessed it.
----------------------------------------
“Helm of The Grave Keeper. Item Rarity – Uncommon. Quality – Poor. Armor + 8. + 2.5% Armor against Undead and tree monsters. Ability – Vine Shell. Description – the vines from the back will form a temporary weak shield to block surprise attacks aimed at blind spots. Cooldown 10 mins.”
----------------------------------------
“That’s a good ability,” Liam stated.
“I agree,” Mercer nodded as he and Liam unconsciously looked at Blair.
Mercer handed the item to her as he said, “Artem got a shield. So, you get this, since it seems like it’s more for a Defender related class.”
Blair stared at it for a good moment before asking, “Is it clean?”
Mercer let out a laugh. “It should be. I don’t smell any foul odors nor see anything that says otherwise.”
Blair hesitated before grabbing it and placing it on her head. It covered the entire top part of her head. The edge, where the teeth were, covered her nose, the top part of her cheeks and ears.
It didn’t look like it would protect anything below her nose. It also allowed her mouth to be seen along with some of the bottom portions of her face.
The vines that ran to her shoulders looked like it could have been her real hair. The eye holes of the skull were wide enough for the others to see her eyes.
“Someone looks like a badass,” Aryana complimented.
“Yeah? You think so?” Blair asked sounding a bit conscious.
“Definitely,” Liam agreed. “That ability should help you out as well.”
“Alright,” Mercer started. “There’s a couple of other items, but they aren’t as important as the equipment. We can look them over after we get out of here. What do you guys say about us leaving.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Artem said as he turned for the hole.
“Yeah, I’m pretty exhausted and I’m sure I’m going to be sore after I wake up,” Ariyana stated as she placed her left hand on her right shoulder before rolling her right arm around.
“Let’s get out of here,” Liam agreed.