The guild trekked with labored steps through the violent blizzard. Not a single monster had shown itself but that only served to heightened their worry over what laid ahead for them, and their focus on the constant creeping frostbite. Epic tier frost resistance items were the only things allowing them to survive and even then, the healers drained their mana frequently to heal its effects away, especially for those of lower vitality.
“We need to move faster…” A healer spoke up to Madar through the swirling noise.
“We go at Vin’s pace. No more deaths to these damn traps.”
“Madar.” The pathfinder in question alerted them to a new development, something that boded poorly for them.
A vicious ancient frostblood orc identifiable to all stood sealed in a transparent block of ice, the frozen state of the legendary variant’s menacing appearance doing little to calm their nerves. But even more pressingly than that, was the dilemma it presented that many soon realized.
“It’s a feint. We should destroy it.” One of them urged.
“What if that’s the trap? Let frozen monsters stay frozen.”
“Or they thaw out all at once if we don’t deal with them now.”
“We leave them.” Madar decided, through little more than gut instinct, turning to face the others with serious expression. “Let’s find this boss quickly. Before the frost gets us.”
They moved as quickly as Vin’s detection allowed, finding nothing but more snow and frozen orcs. Had Madar not pushed down the urge he would have cursed out loud as the death of their seer Tithri stung now more than ever in this fruitless search, but dampening the other’s morale further would do them no good.
The monotonous aimless endless journey through the blizzard strained their minds more and more and the minutes passed by, to the point where Madar himself reacted just slightly delayed at the icy glimmer of a giant serpent just barely noticeable. A firebolt melted through the snow towards it and passed straight through like a shadow in the wind, blasting apart the frozen block of ice behind. And snarling roars soon travelled through the raging blizzard.
“Group up!” Madar yelled, gritting his teeth at the insidious trap. Every moment in this hellish dungeon preyed upon their fear and caution to devastating effect.
Just as soon as the snarls erupted, the ancient frostblood orcs all throughout the distance fell silent again, and the guild was left alone with the sound of raging wind. A figure lunged from the cover of snow and Madar severed it in two. A second clawed towards a vulnerable target and was beheaded from a flashy rogue, but a third stole one their members away, his yells and curses lasting only a brief moment.
“Move!” Intelligent and able to see through the snow, Madar assessed in a moment. The longer they remained the worse it would be for them.
The two parties charged blindly through the snow, searching as best they could for the floor boss. Blue skinned orcs pounced at them like natural predators at the slightest opening, straining the focus of those who could react. Another player was snatched and even more gravely wounded by the icy claws of the mauling orcs.
One of their mages fell face first into the snow, their flesh turning icy. “Leave him!” Madar ordered the priest who stopped to heal him and she did so with guilty expression. They barely afford to keep the group alive at the rate things were going. Prolonging the inevitable of those unable to bare the blizzard would only endanger those who stood a chance of making it.
A bolt of frost crashed against the reactive shield of their priest and a second froze a warrior solid, but Madar saw the light at the end of the tunnel. “Rush it! Everything you have!”
He and the flashy rogue burst before all the others and through the frantic search in the snow for what felt like an eternity, their eyes found their reprieve. A muscular blue man with a wisping lower half. The Djinn Mist King scattered apart at the sight of them but a spell from the Pathfinder forced it whole again and Ezen’s strange mana clad daggers ran through the boss in a flash. As it reformed with a nova of frost, a blazing surging of fire melted away everything in its path to claim the elemental’s life fully, and open the door away from the frozen wasteland of death.
None needed to wait for orders as they charged through the icy stairs as Madar held the rear from the frenzied ancient frostblood orcs before following down himself. The 17 of them remaining found themselves in a forest emanating ancient grandeur as if it had been there from the beginning of time. Trees that may have well as reached the sky loomed over exotic plants they had never seen before and the sounds of beasts and birds echoed calmly in the distance.
Ezen slashed a creeping vine at his side and scanned over his surroundings with hostile eyes. “No more holding back! Hit whatever’s here with everything from the start!”
“We won’t have anything left for the boss.”
“We won’t make it to the fucking boss at this rate!” He snapped back at Vin.
“Can’t afford to lose much more…” Madar glanced deep into the forest. “Don’t think about conserving your skills anymore. Fight like every time’s the last!”
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With renewed vigor the guild followed their leader through the giant forest. Creeping vines, snapping plants, and piercing roots assaulted them from all sides, but they repelled every attempt. Spotted flowers spit yellow mist at them but the group bore it without resistance at Vin’s signal, their immunities rendering such legendary tier afflictions harmless.
“Easier than the others.” Ezen spoke disdainfully of the dungeon.
“Don’t drop you guard, hey!” Vin warned him just as one of theirs started to wander off with a glazed expression.
A brown capped archer loosed an arrow through the trees to slay the alraune responsible for the mental manipulation, and their healer dispelled away the man’s confused. A blurred swiped through the formation in their lull, and the healer was gone. Immediately their attention jolted to a longed armed humanoid beast atop the trees, vine growing through its body down from its head. The seeded mylorang crunched the healer within its jaw as it turned an unsettling passive eye to the rest.
A firebolt destroyed the branch it laid on, and the mylorang glanced at them from the other side, hanging by one arm on a new branch, and Ezen claimed its neck. Another within their ranks started to listlessly drift off and Vin disrupted the magic around him immediately, and blinked to the side as the danger she sensed clawed the ground she had just stood on.
“They’re going after the healers!” Ezen yelled as he reaped life of the second beast, their Unnoticeable skill not escaping his focus.
“Burn it down, now!” Madar ordered their Firethrower. “Every group up, stay upwind.”
The mage sent fire down the forest immediately and a second pushed gusts of wind to spread it further. The blaze swept up into an inferno that devoured the forest piece by piece. Immediately a shift in the air fell upon them as the seeded mylorangs bounded towards them from the trees.
One unfortunate soul fell in the fighting but the powerhouses among them could deal with the eerie creatures well enough now that they had ceased their stealthy ways. A sense of victory threatened to sneak into the minds of those remaining and roots skewered several from the ash covered ground.
A forest bloomed anew from beneath the wooden form of the Dryad Forestkeeper, enraged at the desecration of her beloved plants. Wooden spears and tendrils of vines lashed at them in precision as the forest itself also seemed to come alive and attack them as mortal enemies. Madar and Ezen blurred, cutting through the barricade of plants between them and as the dryad raged her trees harder, they leapt away and a surge of flames turned the leader of the forest to char.
The remaining mylorangs spasmed and fell dead to the warm ground with it but the group did not delay, rushing straight through the emerging path down. A grand palace met them filled with natural finery of spiritual splendor but none took any joy or care with the sigh before their eyes, for only 9 of them remained.
Madar’s face was especially grim. 34 they started with, and now they weren’t even a full party. Regardless of their reward, this had been an unbearable disaster. But they couldn’t turn back. They couldn’t let their comrade’s lives go to waste. The only path was forward.
“This makes five… It has to be the last…” Madar spoke but even though it was with reason, he found it hard to be too convincing, given what they had gone through thus far.
“Shit!” Ezen vented his rage and grief. “I’m not dying here! Listen up you bastards! If any of you die without taking something with you, I’ll drop all your families in that fat bastard’s palace!”
Callous threats but no one spoke in response. Vin blinked away as a furred blur rushed past. Ezen lunged at the creatures and it flickered away faster, pausing long enough for them to get a look at it. Like the pelt of a lion it laid there as those it weren’t even alive, but such illusions shattered as it blurred again, cracking a ward one of the mage’s built around them.
A hold stopped it long enough for Ezen to dice it apart, and another appeared within the ward without explanation, and did the same to the mage. The mindless predator paused and lunged straight for Madar, shattered his head as he cleaved it in half. The berserker’s head reformed in an instant but the tension remained.
“To the boss room! Now!”
Vin was the first to move and the rest followed. They fought and survived as best they could but the heartless beasts preyed upon them with ruthless focus. Fight as they might, they battled and battled all throughout the tree trunk palace, but by the time they passed through its doors, only four remained.
The doors slammed shut and a flower bloomed in the center. From it rose a most beautiful blonde maiden, ethereal and grand. Pain and confusion fell upon the four as a bandersnatch appeared in midair to burst around them. In the moment it took to slay the creature, the Silah Tyrant’s mana shield blocked the brunt of a firebolt and a serpentine dragon came into existence.
Ezen slashed the boss in half and she reformed with panicked anger. Many horned wooly bulls called Kajuta, wind humanoid Zephyrs, rampaging Ganesh, spirits appeared as quickly as they fell while the silah herself flew away from the vicious humans inflicting them all with mental attacks.
The Firethrower channelled all his power and exploded the left side of the throne room, his spell the target of nothing and no one. Before he realized why he had acted that way, a bandersnatch claimed his head. Vin blinked into the center, having been the target of the friendly fire and a shenron’s jaw fell upon her. Sixth Sense urged her away but her skill failed with depleted mana, and the jaws tore her to bits.
Ezen blitzed in ruthless stabs, severing the silah once more, but her form crumbled into faerie dust and a small fairy watched as the zephyrs sliced the reaper’s own body apart with razor winds. An enraged Madar severed through the elder shenron and ignored the piercing horns of the kajuta as he raised his greatsword to the small fairy, and she blinked away. His despair barely managed to register as the creations of the silah fell upon him, and the last of the guild fell.
A silence held the now battletorn and gruesome throne room for several moments before Flutter screamed in unbridled frustration. “Nasty humans! Die before you reach me! I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!” The fairy panted in the center of her room, the outburst barely relieved any of her stress. This had been the fifth raid against her and the most dangerous one so far. It wasn’t meant to be like this. She was supposed to be unbeatable deep within her dungeon now.
As Flutter began to calm down, her thoughts turned to the stupid orange she witch and the dead eyed human who constructed things this way. She would give them a piece of her mind when they returned for making her dungeon so bad. A pause held the air again, as the trio of fairy handmaidens drifted out from the safety of the houses within the trees and began cleaning up. Flutter herself turned to the core and reconstructed it exactly as it was before, muttering to herself with a foul mood.
“I hope they meet all the nasty things wherever they are…”