Dren was still smirking at the group of natives when a voice sounded out from the shadows. “Above!” A moment later an archer appeared within the shadows for just a moment while firing off an arrow that trailed tendrils of darkness in its wake. Instead of dodging Dren hurled another dagger that met the projectile mid air before detonating. Then tsked in annoyance when the Aegis raised their shield above their head and projected another translucent barrier as daggers fell silently on it from above. Each erupted into a flailing forest of darkness covered chains. He had tossed one up into the air right after launching the first barrage. Multiplying this one as well with the hopes of restraining and debuffing as many enemies as he could.
Even as the sea of chains flailed impotently over their heads the others started moving.
‘Aegis, Berserker, Stone Titan, Magic Shotgunner, Holy Light, Shadow Hunter, Inferno, and Blademaster. Some rather uninspired class names in the mix.’ Dren thought this as he drew his daggers. Charging right for one of the robed men that appeared to be a mage. They wore a dark grey robe and bore the class of Stone Titan. Dren expected them to be an earth mage of some sort so wasn’t shocked to see the ground rippling like water around them as they charged in. Though he did think it was odd for a mage to rush to the front lines.
Without warning he vanished with a slight pop as a blast of molten lead and a shadow laced arrow intercepted where he had been. There was an explosion of fire and shadow as they swirled together consuming each other. Dren got a good view of it as he appeared behind the charging mage, his dagger already rushing towards a crimson line on their back. Yet, before his strike could land a surge of earth rushed up causing him to jump back. Expecting the earth to shoot towards him he was surprised when it flowed like water up and over the mage. Within a few heartbeats, the mage was encased in stone, and then they were carried up to take the shape of a seven meter tall stone golem.
Still, looking up he shifted his weight and his dagger flashed to parry a blade so fast it was almost invisible. To his shock and horror, the katana wielded by the Blademaster cut into his enchanted dagger smoothly before coming to a stop a third of the way through his dagger's wide blade. Doing a flip over the blade he tried to twist the sword imbedded in his dagger out of the man’s grasp. Only the man twirled the blade, spinning it in his hand to rotate with him without ever seeming to lose his grip on it. Wrenching his blade free of the sword he vanished as a rolling wave of fire washed over both him and the swordsman. Appearing in the air, slightly smoking, at the back of the stone giant he was surprised to see the Blademaster completely unharmed by the flames. Unable to spare that much thought he slammed his dagger into the back of the giant, aiming for the faintly glowing crimson outline of a person his Profane Gaze marked for him. His dagger sank to the hilt, the stone around his stab starting to decay. Yet, the depth of the stone was too great for his dagger’s short blade to penetrate all the way to the mage within.
Kicking off the mage's back he left his dagger embedded, hoping the decay would continue to spread just as a rapid stream of dark arrows passed behind him and continued to miss him by the tiniest margin as he sailed back through the air. Barely touching down light burned into his eyes seeking to blind him, yet only resulted in a resist message after crashing against the defense that was his staggering intelligence attribute. But it was followed up by a crushing force, the Aegis having projected another giant transparent shield and using it like a fly swatter. Dren was pressed to the ground and pinned by the barrier before vanishing just before a giant stone fist came crashing down on it. The impact drove the barrier into the ground and caused a tremor to stagger the group. He was then forced to teleport away again as another spray of molten lead tried to blast him out of the air.
Reappearing he let out an angry snarl as he pushed out his aura fueled by stamina. A heavy weight rolled over the gathered natives pushing all but the stone titan to their knees. It consumed a sizable chunk of his stamina but reset the momentum of the fight.
“Not bad. But not nearly as good as I thought. She had you talked up as this big bad invader that would crush us easily.” With a laugh the berserker stood back up, seeming unbothered by anything that had happened so far. In fact, of all the natives present he was the only one to make no moves at all yet. A surprising choice of action considering the name of his class. The hulking man’s words made Dren curse the Seer as his mentioning of a she talking about him had to be her. Just more proof he wouldn’t be able to leave that woman alive.
“If this is the best you’ve got. I’m not sure why I even bothered coming.” He held out his arms wide to expose his bare chest, his double bladed axe still on his back. “Here have a free shot, right here in my heart if you want. Hit me with your strongest attack. Then when you see how weak you really are, just lay down and die for us.”
“What are you doing Burt? Don’t be stupid!” The Aegis shouted at the man who now had his eyes closed, his mouth curled up into a confident smile.
Dren wasn’t sure if this man was an idiot who was highly overconfident or had a trick up his sleeve. But it was still an opening. Already the Aegis was rushing towards the berserker and the evolved healer was turning to cast some sort of buff. Not hesitating he teleported down while activating the active portion of his Profane Blade and even Reaper making his dagger grow larger and turn an inky black. He then slammed it into the glowing critical mark on the man’s chest. ‘Trick or not, let them try and take that head on.’ Dren thought even as he wrenched his dagger out of the man’s chest to teleport away in order to avoid the barrage of attacks rushing in on him.
Appearing behind the healer he slammed his dagger down into their back only to be deflected by a barrier of golden light. It still flickered and gave some under the power of his blow, but repelled him. He followed up that attack with a burst of his aura fueled by his own health. Yet golden light shielded each of the natives against his ability. ‘Damn it, had they prepared for that?’ He glared at the Aegis who looked blatantly smug, Dren had used his aura against him during his escape from the Necropolis. It appeared the evolved defender remembered it well.
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Just as he was preparing to teleport away for his next attack. A figure materialized in front of him too quickly for him to react. A heavy blow slammed into his side with enough force that it made the skin tight mana barrier around his body visible as he was sent flying into a tree only to crash through it.
“Ho, not as bad as I supposed. That was far more damage than I thought it would be.” Burt the Berserker barked a laugh as he swung his giant axe with one hand, it turned into a blur that whistled through the air with each chop. “Now, quit lying around. I just swatted you with the flat of the blade. No dying on me until I have some fun first. I’ve never gotten this big of a boost before!” His husky voice was full of laughter and joy as if he wasn't on a battlefield but at a party.
A fleet of silent knives emerged from the forest towards the group. Another translucent shield grew from the Aegis to protect most of them as they detonated not into blasts of force and fire. But huge orbs of darkness. Still, the barrier held them back but one of them was now too large to be protected by it. The towering stone giant moved flailing around as if blind. Dren’s figure appeared as he stabbed into the back of the swaying giant before wrenching his impaled dagger out of the decaying stone with his free hand. He slammed it back in and although the stone had decayed around the previous wound. It didn’t penetrate much more than before.
Kicking off the back of the giant he was forced to teleport to avoid another blast of molten lead as well as a howling fireball. Appearing on the ground he had to twist his body to avoid a cleaving swing of an axe then parry a flashing silvery blade. Continuing his twist he lashed out at the Berserker. Who to his surprise dodged back avoiding his attack instead of just taking it a second time. Flicking a dagger he multiplied into three at his own feet before teleporting away. Under such an intense flurry of attacks, Dren started to feel his confidence falter.
In his wake chains erupted from the knives grasping for both the Blademaster and Berserker. Yet, the swordsman slashed out without hesitation, rapidly cleaving all the chains apart as a dozen attacks flashed in the starlight. With the chains destroyed the knives detonated blasting them with waves of force and turning the severed chains into shrapnel. Small bloody wounds covered both the men and Dren couldn’t help but grin at finally drawing blood on some of them. Then his grin grew bigger while avoiding a coordinated attack from the magic shotgunner and inferno mage that stood near one another. A lance of flames had rushed past him, forcing him to dodge right into a blast from the shotgunner. Molten pellets detonated into a mass of small explosives that pelted his shield even as the lance made a U-turn to race back at him. He managed to teleport away from the returning lance of flames suffering only minor damage from the explosive blast.
He wasn’t happy about having to constantly avoid so many attacks. But the shouts of aggravation from the two men as they cursed the Shadow Hunter who apparently was supposed to have somehow prevented Dren’s teleportation. The same Shadow Hunter who hadn’t launched any attacks for several seconds now. Silently thanking Ren he muttered. “One down. It should be just about time for her to make her move too. Let us see if she really is on my side.”
As if answering his whispered words the towering stone giant suddenly let out a bellowing roar sounding like a crashing avalanche and turned around to smash down at the healer. Before their massive arms could crush the woman, a translucent shield blocked the blow as the Aegis appeared out of thin air to counter the attack. Screaming at the towering giant, the healer and Aegis had all their attention focused on them as they smashed down several more times. Dren was forced to turn his attention away as the Berserker charged forward, the ground exploding under his feet from the strength of his lunge. Down came the axe at incredible speed, yet it was definitely a hair slower than the last time. Quick stepping to avoid the slash he felt the axe blade grazing his armor even as he parried another sword slash. This time the sword blade cut into his dagger deeper until with a metallic twang the blade was snapped free. Pain flared across Dren’s shoulder as the blade cut into him. Yet the swordsman’s face showed shock as the strength of Dren’s enchanted armor and his body's own high toughness reduced the slash to a shallow cut. That moment of shock was the perfect opening but Dren was forced to teleport away instead of taking advantage of it as a lance of flame pierced where he had just been. The flaming projectile was blasted apart as an axe was swung sideways seeking to swat Dren away. The detonation of the lance of flame engulfed the two melee fighters causing them to swear.
Appearing in the air again he was forced to deploy his ring’s barrier as a blast of explosive pellets hit him. Through the detonating flames around his shield, he could see the shotgunner aiming at him again. Then suddenly their gaze shifted towards the healer. A look of raw lust in their eyes and Dren smiled. “She really wasn’t joking when she said, her abilities were actually made for fighting people, not monsters.” During their rapid clearing of the dungeon, Dren praised Meg’s ability to support him in combat. She had taken his compliment with the same apathetic response she had almost everything else. Seeming neither pleased nor angered by his statements. Her only real response was to try and convince him that she would be much better help at killing other natives than monsters. As she insisted her powers were far more effective against people than monsters.
Dren had doubted that, pointing out that her curses were mostly mental debuffs and certainly people had better resistances than dumb monsters to such things. She had gained a bit of that madness in her eyes as she stated plainly, “My curses rely on the dark, selfish emotions in the heart of my targets. No one has more corruption in their hearts than people.”
They had argued a bit more and she had insisted that her curses would be more effective against people. But that using them when she was alone was of little use, once someone turned on their ally because a tiny annoyance had been turned into a raging hatred. Or a small spark of attraction to uncontrolled lust. They would obviously know it was her doing as her class's name would be a dead giveaway. So, willing to take her word for it and as a test for her, their strategy for fighting people had been simple. Dren would engage enemies and hold their attention while doing what he did best, trying to kill them outright while being annoyingly hard to kill back. Ren would stay hidden and do her best to incapacitate enemies, saving them for Dren to use Reaper on if possible or killing them if not. Her role was not to engage the enemy directly but to lean into her growing trapping skills.
Finally, Meg was to wait until a fight was fully engaged to start using her curses to alter the battle in his favor. True the strategy wasn’t meant for dealing with far weaker opponents or even fights against equal numbers. But, they had known from the start that they would be outnumbered in almost any fight when attacking the Necropolis. Dren was almost thankful for this ambush. It was the perfect proving ground for their strategy and would let them properly hone their teamwork.
Watching as the shotgunner charged over to tackle the only female in the group while the Aegis was forced to hold back the maddened giant, Dren felt his face start to hurt as his grin stretched even wider.