Chapter 16 — The ceramic warriors always come to life, duh!
[REPEL!]
I should’ve known they’d have a trick up their sleeve.
A smile spread across my face, eager to see the mighty blade be stopped just as easily as the colossus’s foot had been.
I expected a candle, but was given fireworks.
The blade grinding to a halt was the least interesting part of the spectacle. Not only was it halted, but it was also flung out of the monster’s grasp into the ceiling where it lodged up to the hilt. Its right arm didn’t do much better — the whole limb crumbled and exploded up to the shoulder, sending a hail of earth and brick across the battlefield.
I jumped behind a pillar to dodge a clod of dirt, and my Navigator rumbled.
{Evasion : Level Up! Current Level: 1}
That was a handy one to know about. Some of the skills available to me were buried so many pages down in the skill-tree that I hadn’t gotten round to reading them yet. It was hard to come up with a ‘starter-set’ purely for that reason — I couldn’t find the basic, all-round-useful skills.
A Damage Dealer went down under a large piece of colossus-arm, and a Support member carted them off, out of the room. Members cast healing spells as the pair passed by.
Simultaneously, the Tanks broke form and Michelin Man shouted an order.
“All Tanks, retreat! Give the Damage Dealers space!”
The Tanks scrambled back to safety, allowing the magicians and swordsmen and archers to fight without holding back. The colossus was stunned, but close to steadying itself and resuming its crankiness.
“Tanks, disperse! Prepare for the ceramics!”
The fifteen or so Tanks surrounded us loosely, one or two at roughly each point of the clockface. I had two in front of me, ushering us away from the ceramic warriors. One of my protectors looked young, no older than me, but he was bedecked in shining green armor with pale pink accents. It looked too large for him, but he may have been full of muscle underneath it.
As I had feared, the ceramic warriors came to life.
I don’t know why we didn’t smash them to bits the moment we walked through the door. It was so clear they were going to come alive and be a problem, so why not take out their knees and call it a day?
Oh well. With any luck, I’ll never go through this again.
I pictured Adam and the rest of the GTA crew, flaffing about with their instruments and notebooks and checklists. They got to sit in safety, not seeing a monster all day, while here I was, running for my life while a rampaging rock and his ceramic cronies wreaked havoc around me.
The first thing Adam would be doing when we got back to Haverbark was teaching me how to use those measuring devices.
The warrior nearest us was one of the mace wielders. It stepped down from its pedestal — a pole sticking right up its porcelain ass — and launched into the air, diving at us mace-first. The Tanks weren’t game to receive the hit the same way their leader had, so we all leapt back, avoiding the devastating attack.
The hard floor was obliterated into mush beneath the armor’s weight. It stood at its full fifteen-foot height, remaining still for a moment as though assessing us.
We had the numbers, but we most definitely did not have the height.
Our Damage Dealers shot out their attacks, and the ceramic warrior caught the bulk of them on the tip of his mace, deflecting explosions and lasers off to the side or into the ceiling. Those attacks that made it past the warrior’s parry hit its extremities, taking off chunks of a shoulder, a knee, and an elbow.
I shouted from the sidelines like a sports coach.
“Spread out your damage! It can’t block everything!”
A healer dressed in ivory and gold yelled back at me.
“What do you think they’re trying to do?! How about you try firing [Flame Detonation] accurately?”
Fair enough.
I was yet to achieve any accuracy whatsoever with [Venta], so I took heed of the fiery healer and shut my mouth.
Despite the kick-back on my proposed plan of attack, the next volley did seem a little less center-focused. Our foe really struggled this time around, falling to one knee and blowing ghostly steam from the pit of its helmet.
The other groups were facing down their foes in much the same way. One or two ‘ceramics’ were already defeated, and the responsible teams now flitted around to help the less capable fighters.
It was all going very smoo—
WHOMPHHH!!!
Something passed by only millimeters from my face, and I was blown sideways to the ground in its wake.
Two Damage Dealers screamed out, caught in the clutches of the ceramic warrior. Whether it had aimed for me and missed, I wasn’t sure. I was busy assessing the battlefield when it had almost cleaned me up.
With [Armored Body] at level 1, there was no way I would’ve survived the impact.
The team slowed their efforts to slog the warrior with attacks, cautious of hitting their friends.
Something had to be done, and with Adam’s dagger in my hand, I was the one to do it.
[Blade Throw]
I cast the dagger in an awkward overarm throw that sent it sailing and spinning through the air. If speed was a factor in total damage output — which I imagined it would be — my efforts would do next to no damage. It fell, and I lost sight of the blade through the clutter of spells and weaponry.
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Then, the ceramic warrior jolted upright, releasing the Damage Dealers.
Perched at the top of its head, like a feather on a headdress, was Adam’s dagger.
The Cavern warrior’s barrage came in thick and fast now, though I could already see the warrior crumbling. It started at the feet, and the nearly-caught Damage Dealers noticed it, too. They scurried away, temporarily forgetting to attack until they cleared the fall zone.
The warrior toppled like a house of cards, and in the ensuing dust a silver gleam pierced through, only clattering to the floor once the head finally dissolved.
My dagger.
{Calm Mind : Level Up! Current Level: 2}
{Blade Throw : Level Up! Current Level: 2}
{Blade Throw : Level Up! Current Level: 3}
{Blade Throw : Level Up! Current Level: 4}
{Special Skill : [Headshot] discovered}
{Click here to see more}
I feel a specialty coming on!
I retrieved the dagger from its hiding place. The ceramic warrior had left so much dust that it gathered into mounds on the floor like mini sand dunes.
The last of the ceramics were going down, and Michelin Man and his Tanks were back to engaging the boss, keeping it stunned with their infinite [Repel] abilities and other techniques I wished I knew.
I took advantage of the lull and checked my Navigator.
Blade Throw (4):
{Mastery of [Blade Throw] will make your thrown attacks do more damage and become eligible for debuff multipliers such as Bleeding, Confusion and Slow}
{Thrown weapons do +25% damage}
{[Headshot] : Intermediate Damage Spell : Your blade is occasionally drawn to your enemy’s weak points, inflicting huge damage}
Wow. My first ‘intermediate’ spell, and it seems good.
Adam would probably say that I was copying him, but that’s his fault for letting me borrow his dagger.
I wanted to play around with the [Headshot] ability. If it was a matter of ‘one in every twenty throws’ or something like that, could I not just carry around a box of needles and chuck them at my foes? Most would do nothing, but even a few weakness-seeking needles would be helpful, at least for gathering information.
I could be a bag-of-tricks Support Hunter — running around, telling people where to shoot, when to shoot, who to shoot...
Let’s get back to the matter at hand, shall we?
The raid team had united once again in the center of the room, lazily lobbing their spells and beams and the whole kitchen sink at the boss. The Tanks seemed to have it permanently stunned now, which almost took the fun out of it.
The only thing prolonging the fight was the colossus’s insane health reserves, and soon they were depleted.
I didn’t go for the killshot this time — I was worried that a stray explosion would blast my dagger into some deep dark crevice in the ceiling, and I’d have to explain to Adam that I was busy fighting the boss rather than doing the job he asked me to do.
Speaking of that job, it just became entirely impossible to keep track of. The boss erupted into dust with a final morbid sigh, and everyone rushed in, pocketing anything they could and filling their arms with more than they could carry.
Then I found out why.
The second that the last piece of the boss’s grimy remains settled, the room shook, and the pillars at the rear of the room folded in half like a massive blade had swept into them at a height of about thirty-foot. Moments later, Michelin Man and the other Tanks were forming a roof over the last dregs of loot so that the final members could run in and scavenge their share. I saw amethysts disappear into pockets and spotted rubies being flung into sleeves and shoes and socks.
Michelin Man barked an order right after a clump of pillar larger than me bumped off his shield, then the crowd dispersed, running with their arms over their heads until the whole raid team had evacuated the chamber.
I stood at the front, having been one of the first to leave the room. I’d learnt my lesson, and when people ran, I followed suit.
The guild members took a break and commenced their backslapping and congratulating, so I summed up the courage to address them. My throat was dry, and I croaked through my first words.
“Excuse m— *ahem* — Excuse me! I need to complete an inventory of the loot you all just picked up. Could you all, err, empty your pockets? Please?”
I had hoped Michelin Man would back me up, but he had come in last and was busy checking on the injured man who’d been carried out earlier.
The rest of the guild just stared at me blankly.
I felt embarrassed — so embarrassed — addressing the crowd. I was no public speaker, and I certainly wasn’t powerful enough to command any kind of respect. The weakest member’s pinky finger could probably do more damage than I could.
Then, one of the Damage Dealers that the ceramic warrior had almost crushed stepped forward.
“Aye, come on you lot! This GTA lad saved mine and Erik’s life! Somehow hit a dagger throw right at the top of the ceramic’s damn noggin and took it down. Y’all saw it!”
He pointed to a few members nearby that I vaguely recalled fighting alongside. They nodded and stepped forward, piling valuables in front of me.
Is this what it feels like to be one of the Deities? Except you get piles upon piles of food, rather than valuable gems.
The rest of the team stepped forward, laying down millions of dollars of gems, a mossy blue key, two maces and a jet-black dagger with a cloth-wrapped handle.
I wanted it all, the dagger especially, but this was the closest I’d likely ever get to these riches, so I pulled a notepad and pencil from my back pocket, sat on the grimy floor and did a stocktake.
I guesstimated the size of the gems and noted them down in groups. Whilst peering into a large emerald, my arm shook.
{Appraisal : Level Up! Current Level: 1}
Immediately, the gem I held took on a nearly translucent glow, like the emerald had a beating heart that exuded magic.
This must be why the creatures ate the gems, and why so many Cavern members had jewels studded into their armor.
The glow started off quite dim, but as I forged my way through the hoard, my Navigator continued chirping.
{Appraisal : Level Up! Current Level: 2}
{Appraisal : Level Up! Current Level: 3}
The magical glow from each gem grew and became clearer until I’d become less interested in the size of each gem or whether it was a diamond or topaz, and now I was purely interested in the ‘form’ of that magical light. I subtly turned the page and restarted my list, hoping none of the members realized that I’d wasted their time and was a complete beginner at this.
I noted down the blue key and the weapons, then stood, wiping the grime from my pants.
“Thank you, everyone! You can reclaim the items now.”
The crowd surged forward under the gaze of Michelin Man. I gave him a thumbs up, and he smiled, waving acknowledgement.
I wish all guilds were as respectable as this. I suppose the big guilds are in the public eye a bit more.
The journey back was no issue — the monsters didn’t ‘respawn’ when we weren’t there, so it was just a matter of following the masses of footprints we’d left in the sandy floor.
We rounded the last jagged bend — I could see the top of the swirling Gate in this distance — and before us lay a scene of destruction.
Carts upturned, devices and tools and machinery abandoned, groups of collectors and GTA members cowering against the walls whilst those brave enough desperately tried to fend off a horde of monsters separating them from the safety of the Gate.
At the front, there was a lone fighter taking on the brunt of the enemies.
Adam.
His clothes were ripped, and his face and body were bloodied. His left arm hung limp at his side, and at times, he tugged at it, trying to remedy a dislocated shoulder. He kept up a barrage of dagger-throws and strikes and parries with his free arm, but he was being pressed back to where four wounded-or-worse GTA members lay in the dirt.
[Anaerobic Endurance]
[Calm Mind]
A Cavern member tossed me the jet-black dagger I’d marveled at before.
We leapt forward, sweeping into the fray.