To get through the entire operation unscathed had been an unrealistic dream.
The monstrous man punctuated the end of it by obliterating Russ’ head with a dark blast.
One dead and they had barely started.
Deon grit his teeth.
Fire from outside his mana shield had dwindled to nothing.
Hollis’ work.
So, he dropped the spell and cast ethereal chains around the dark gray armored man’s limbs.
They held a moment before he broke them.
Strength on par with Brand then.
As for the man’s level?
More than any one of theirs for sure.
As evidenced by the way he blocked Karna’s stream of white hot fire on his dark shield without it melting instantly.
He charged toward Karna, ignoring the shots landed by both Elandria and Xander.
Karna’s eyes danced with the eternal hunger of the elemental heart contained within her artifact.
She wasn’t about to retreat.
She was about to be trampled.
Deon cast chains around her, tugging her out of the dark armored man’s path.
“Trip him up!”
Saint responded instantly with bloody tendrils snaking across the dusty floor and around his armored legs.
He stopped abruptly, but somehow managed to stay on his feet.
“Hit him!”
Brand came in with a huge leaping punch.
Ironbreaker Gauntlet clanged off the evil man’s helmet.
The sound drowned all others out as it echoed across the massive cavern.
Rather than fall, the man went with the blow and spun. Sword in hand turned into a long-handled axe mid swing, biting deep into Brand’s thick plate.
Brand clamped his mitts around the shaft and refused to let go.
The two superstrong titans refused to budge as they fought over the weapon.
“Nail him!” Brand called out.
“It’s danger close!” Elandria warned. “Get clear—”
“Do it!” Deon snapped.
Brand was bulletproof, durable and tough. He would’ve made a superior tank than Russ had he any Skills.
They bombarded the dark armored man.
The story come to life.
Most of them had heard about the indiscriminate murderer that roamed the middle of the country for several years. Sowing fear and terror wherever he went. Innocent people. Good adventurers. Bad adventurers. Evil cannibals and biker marauders. None had been spared. All came to dread the possibility that a dark armored man astride a demonic horse could one day appear on their trail or at the edge of a campfire.
Until he had seemingly disappeared.
No one knew exactly when, but the sightings had stopped.
Ten years?
Fifteen years ago?
Deon certainly didn’t expect to find him here. Deep underground. Apparently working with the bat monsters.
The eidolon hadn’t mentioned him.
If she had known, but kept it too herself?
There’d be a reckoning.
Russ deserved one.
But, to do that they needed to win here and now.
They needed to continue. To claim Quest rewards, gain levels and grow stronger.
The artifacts showed how far behind the eidolons they were.
The barrage of spells, bullets and arrows consumed the two titans locked in their struggle.
Smoke and debris quickly obscured Deon’s natural vision.
His mage sight was mostly unaffected.
He couldn’t see Brand because his friend lacked magic.
He could partially feel the evil man.
The magic within him was drowning in darkness, shadow and dread.
At least that was how he’d describe it.
Hard to put into words what defied description.
“Fire on mine if you can see it!”
He made his magic missiles brighter and stronger.
All thanks to the burning gem burrowing into his back.
He never had the kind of control to customize his spells on the fly before. Too much drain on his mana. Now? What did drainage matter when his mana pool was now the size of a lake?
“Burn!” Karna cackled.
“We have to stop!” The large eye in the middle of Elandria’s helm implored him with disturbing life. It was like looking into her real ones. “Brand can’t take it anymore.”
She was right.
They had practiced and tested each other over the years to get a good idea on their limits.
“Hold fire!”
Brand staggered out of of the smoke.
Bloodied, burned, but alive.
The dark axe dissolve in his hands, leaving behind a deep cut in his armor through which blood seeped down his side.
As for the evil man?
“Did we get him?” Xander held three arrows nocked on his bow at half pull. The arrowheads glowed with magic.
There was nothing inside the blackened crater.
Just shadows…
“They’re moving!” Elandria caught it a beat before he did.
Those horrid little monsters swept out from the writhing shadows. Like tentacles of some nightmare monster reaching out for them.
He had hoped they had seen an end of the wretched things.
Easy to kill, but fast and vicious.
Karna handled them with a wide blast of flame that washed over them like an angry wave, which allowed the rest of them to cover the other directions.
Practice made one seem prescient when it worked out according to plan.
More assailed them from all sides.
Deon trusted his team to handle it while he saw to Brand.
“Just stop the bleeding and I’ll be fine,” Brand said.
“I’ve seen you worse.” He cast a direct healing spell on the cut in Brand’s side. “Not by much though.”
“Bastard’s strong, but not as strong as me. If I can get a hold of him then we can try that again.”
“Let’s do better next time.”
“Watch out!”
Brand grabbed and cradled him like a baby.
Monsters erupted from the shadows in the middle of their formation.
These ones were armed and armored like old soldiers.
Miniature versions of automatic rifles spat bullets that were just as deadly as the full-sized ones.
“Scatter! Brand, you’re with Elandria!” Deon cast shields over the backs of his teammates, but not in time. Several took hits.
Elandria fell to the floor, blood flowing down the back of her leg.
Xander put on a burst of speed as he sprinted across the floor in world record time, continuing up the rocky cavern wall thanks to his artifact boots.
Brand ran for Elandria.
Deon continued to block the bullets from those that needed him until he caught movement out of the corner of his eye.
More monsters out of the shadow.
This time it was a machine gun team.
“What the fuck?”
They aimed for Saint and Karna, who were relatively close to each other.
The former flinched at the dozens of impacts, but remained relatively safe behind her blood magic armor.
The latter fell with bloody holes in the back of her armor.
“No—”
Deon’s cry was premature.
Fire flowed from the lighter-like artifact in her hand.
Like a living thing it moved to her back only to split and plunge into the bullet holes.
Her body jerked.
Flames shot out from her back like jets.
She stood, turned and burned the machine gun team to ash with a wave of her hand.
“You good?”
Deon really didn’t like the way her eyes burned.
It was a lot stronger than before.
She grinned.
He saw bright flames shining through her teeth.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Only to be snuffed out by the point of a dark gray blade that dimmed the light of her aura for a moment before extinguishing it completely with the twist of an evil man’s powerful wrist.
Deon would never forget the image as the blade ripped up through the middle of his friends face.
Two down.
The fire winked out as the artifact fell from lifeless fingers.
Deon punched the floor. Reacting more than thinking. He had learned more spells in preparation for this Quest, which was falling apart by the second.
Learning earth spells seemed prudent.
The stone floor rippled then buckled as he sent a directed earthquake.
Jagged spikes of stone and earth shot out of the floor.
The evil man leapt.
Sword in hand— Thrown javelin.
Deon snarled, blocking it with a mana shield.
It cracked, draining a good chunk of his supply.
Old him could’ve blocked five, maybe six of those.
New him didn’t even notice.
He wanted blood.
So did Saint.
Red wet tendrils stabbed at the murderer, staking him many feet off the floor.
“Drain him!” Deon snapped. The back of his head started to itch.
Saint’s face was expressionless as she gave a slight nod.
He had taken great pains in the past to curtail her bloodthirstiness.
Blood magic was dangerous in ways other magic was not.
He saw the logical conclusion of her path in a person that only saw other humans as fuel for her spells.
The bloody tendrils stiffened.
They darkened where they pierced through the murderer’s armor.
The darkness spread down the tendrils toward Saint.
“Saint—”
His warning was unnecessary.
Saint’s face twisted as she cut the tendrils off before the darkness could reach her artifact clay jug.
The murderer crashed to floor, vanishing into the writhing shadows as if it was a pool of water.
“Deon! We need lights!” Elandria mowed down a knot of little monsters while Brand used his big, bulletproof body to cover her back.
Deon used a simple, but effective fireball to take out the rest of the little monsters.
“Lights? Got it.” He spammed orbs of light. Dozens.
They stuck to pillars, to the floor or hovered in midair.
The shadows at their feet were banished.
The aegis of his magic light covered several hundred feet in diameter.
Everyone was covered with the exception of Xander, who would be looking for a good spot on the wall or ceiling to snipe from.
“Where do you need me?”
A voice came in over the tiny comms gem in his ear.
Hollis.
“Go to Xander. He’s a target up there.”
“Ah, the old bait tactic.”
Deon’s vision turned dark as the air was forcibly ejected from his lungs. A loud bang registered a split-second after.
When he woke his vision had turned red.
Something beat a rhythmic sound on his helmet.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Liquid dripped into one eye and ran down to his lips.
The iron tang had him spitting in disgust.
He pushed up on the hardened blood.
It was slick.
“Saint! Let me out!”
He heard the sounds of battle.
The back of his head itched.
This was bad.
He punched at the protective barrier.
No consciousness, no light orbs.
He couldn’t wait.
He placed his hands on the stone floor.
Spikes ruptured the barrier, showering him in red wetness.
He sat up, struggling to free his legs.
How long had he been out?
Seconds?
Too long in a fight.
Elandria had her back to a huge stalagmite, shooting at something in the darkness that he couldn’t make out.
A red-tinged explosion brought sudden and fleeting illumination.
He recognized the feel of the spell.
Blood Explosion.
Deon sent a light orb to aid his friends.
The evil man staggered.
Tendrils had pierced his armor and body in multiple locations.
He broke them with every move only for Saint to send new ones.
As her blood splashed across his dark gray plate she set them off.
Brand appeared out of seemingly nowhere, tackling the evil man. He grappled the man’s arms from behind and spun him around to face Saint.
“Do it!”
She didn’t hesitate.
Thin tendrils merged into one thick strand that drenched the evil man’s front like a high-powered water hose.
The subsequent explosion blinded Deon for a moment.
Brand and the evil man went flying.
Elandria fired a steady stream of bullets at the latter.
Not a single one missed as she tracked his arc through the air perfectly.
A sudden rain of arrows fell from on high.
Xander’s work.
The curtain was as thick as any of the thunderstorms Deon had experienced back in his old hometown.
The evil man vanished from view.
“Keep clear!” Elandria called out as she quickly added attachments to her gun.
It went from sleek and streamlined like a sports car to bulky and ugly like a work truck.
She fired one shot.
It burned white hot through the rain of arrows.
Deon caught a glimpse of the evil man, still on his feet, looking like a porcupine before Elandria’s shot exploded in white fire.
Flying dust heralded the shockwave.
It washed over him, knocking him back to the ground just as he had finally freed himself.
Elandria went flat, while Saint formed a massive shield out of her blood.
Brand charged.
The evil man’s plate smoked, parts were melted, though they couldn’t see what lay beneath. It was a dark void of nothingness to them.
Was he even human anymore?”
Classes changed people.
Flesheaters, animal-based shapeshifters, vampires and others existed.
Brand punched.
Ironbreaker Gauntlets clanged off a sudden dark gray shield that appeared out of nowhere.
A wickedly-flanged mace boomed off the side of Brand’s helmet.
Thick steel crumpled.
Brand turned the momentum into a low, sweeping kick. He continued the spin into a rising uppercut that caught the evil man in the side, sending him up into the air.
Bright arrows pierced him from above. They turned into glowing ropes, holding him suspended twenty feet off the ground.
“Hit him with everything!”
Deon blasted him with a bright blue-white beam that turned into rapidly spreading ice.
Saint sent lances of crystallized blood nearly as hard as diamonds.
Elandria had stripped the smoking components of her gun and fired precise bursts that drilled into the supernaturally tough plate with unerring accuracy.
The back of his mind itched.
The ground rumbled.
He placed his hands on the warm stone.
A spike shot out beneath the evil man.
Somehow, he twisted out of the way to turn a direct blow into a glancing one.
He swung on the ropes like a colorful cardboard horse stuffed with candy.
Deon grimaced.
“Drop him!” he called out to the dark ceiling.
Xander heard him.
He cast another spike, but the evil man swung an empty hand toward the ceiling.
A dark whip, impossibly long appeared.
Elandria continued to stitch accurate fire even as the evil man pulled himself up at great speed.
Deon shot a light orb after the evil man.
Xander and Hollis needed the revealing light more than the concealing darkness.
The latter was the domain of the evil man.
He reached Xander, who was standing on the ceiling.
Xander dropped, just barely managing to avoid having his head chopped off by a short, thick blade.
He loosed an arrow as he fell, turning it into a rope to swing across the cavern toward a distant stalactite.
The evil man clung to the rock, hanging from one hand as though he wasn’t clad in heavy plate and suffering from so many wounds.
Wounds that would’ve killed Deon’s entire team once, maybe twice over. Even Brand couldn’t have taken as many and remain alive, let alone still in a condition to fight an eight— six on one battle.
Hollis suddenly appeared behind the evil man with her legs wrapped around his waist.
The green glow on her vampire serpent fang shortsword appeared like a light suddenly switched on.
Her arm was a blur as she plunged it repeatedly into the evil man’s back and neck.
High level Skills and equipment warred.
The fang blade struggled to pierce the plate and chain.
The flesh was less resistant.
Deon hoped that the potent venom would end it, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
The evil man didn’t turn into bloody goo like the mercs and bat monsters back in the tunnel.
In fact, he managed to hit Hollis hard enough to dislodge her.
She vanished from Deon’s sight.
His mind itched.
The ground rumbled.
The evil man landed on his feet, dropping to one knee in a cloud of dust.
Brand rushed in behind a wall of blood spears.
The rumbled hadn’t stopped.
It built, shaking the entire cavern until the ground finally gave way.
The evil man vanished into the earth.
Brand followed. Then Saint.
Deon was too slow for the former, but he hit the latter with a spell to slow her descent.
When the dust cleared a gaping hole much too far for him to jump across remained.
Hollis appeared next to him and Elandria as they peered down into the abyss.
Xander ran around from the other side.
“I can’t see them. There’s no light.”
Deon fired a light orb.
They traced its descent.
“It’s still going,” Hollis said.
“There’s a curve,” Xander said after a long silence. “Like a slide.”
“Deliberate?” Elandria gave voice to what Deon thought.
His mind itched.
Realization struck.
“It’s a spell.”
“Third party. The bat monsters,” Hollis said.
Deon looked to his second.
That large unsettling eye made him look elsewhere.
“Then it’s a trap,” Elandria said.
“What do we do?” Xander said.
There was only one right answer.
Deon began casting.
Xander stopped him when it was his turn.
“I can run faster down the wall. I’ll scout ahead.”
They drifted down following the tiny light orb Deon had placed on Xander’s back.
He was about fifty feet ahead of them.
There was a sound, a rumbling in the earth.
Then the light orb vanished.
Elandria cursed, aiming her gun down.
He fired another orb.
Xander was gone.
There was no sign that he had even been there.
“I don’t see any side tunnels,” Elandria whispered.
“Same.” Hollis’ answer came from next to his right ear.
“The bat monsters can manipulate the earth.”
It was obvious even without the eidolon’s intel.
If one lived underground then it was natural to expect them to have classes and abilities to facilitate a subterranean existence.
“They’ve taken him prisoner. We’ll rescue him later.”
It was Deon’s hope since they couldn’t do anything for Xander.
“We link up with Brand and Saint. Kill the murdering bastard and then get Xander back.”
They heard the sounds of battle before they saw it.
The hole had smoothly transitioned into a narrower tunnel that was angled like a slide. The smooth surface gave them speed, shooting them out into a dark cavern.
If it wasn’t for the fires burning red it would’ve been pitch black.
White-skinned humanoids ran snarling in and out of the fire light.
The evil man held a long, barbed spear high with three of them wiggling on the end like fish. He held a longsword in his other hand, reaping them like wheat with every sweep.
Brand ran and jumped.
He punched and stomped while Saint clung to his back with one hand, holding the artifact clay jug aloft.
“This wasn’t in her intel,” Elandria said as she frantically reconfigured her modular gun into something more suited to what they faced.
“Nope. Nothing about white-skinned people-ish monsters.” Hollis popped up next to Deon.
“We’ll climb out of here. Get away and reassess.”
“How? That slide was smooth as my ass,” Hollis said.
“We’ll climb using my spikes. Can you get Brand and Saint’s attention without attracting the rest?”
Letting the disgusting looking new monsters and the evil man kill each other sounded like a winning idea.
Deon turned back to the slide only to find the opening gone.
“Oh shit,” he muttered.
“What?” Elandria turned just in time to see multiple holes open in the rough surface of the cavern wall. “Oh shit!”