Chapter 43: Moldark the Unbanished

Whipping his blade upwards and then horizontally across, Zach delivered a slice to the chest of the foe who stood between him and the two people he’d given his life to save. The eight-foot-tall armored man dropped his flail and his shield, fell to his knees, and then plopped forward onto the stone floor with a loud clank. Soon after, he vanished, and Zach panted a bit to catch his breath, earning +1,500xp following this so-called “Gatekeeper’s” demise.

LEVEL UP!

12(11)

Dexterity

+1 (33)

Luck

+1 (30)

Current XP

217

XP Required for Level 13

6000

If not for the urgency of his situation, Zach might’ve really struggled to get through these past two floors, as despite their inhabitants being relatively easy—at least while under the effects of Unleashed Phase—there was something that just felt different about killing human mobs. They looked like, sounded like, moved like, and bled like real people even though they weren’t. Some had actually spoken, too. Twice, he’d been called a “yellow-belly coward” by one of the eye-patch-wearing pirates on the previous floor. That, and a few other choice put-downs that Zach had rolled his eyes at. Honestly, it was one thing for them to look and sound exactly like a human, but was the gore really necessary as well?

Shaking off his blood-soaked blade, he sent a splash of it onto to the brick wall across from him and to the left of the door labeled B9->B10. This was finally it, huh? He had gone through hell and back to get all the way down here, and now, it was all he could do not to think about the end. Questions he’d never really pondered before had begun assailing him as he came closer and closer to the boss. Things such as: what if nothing came after death?

It terrified him. What if this really was the end? What if he closed his eyes, and then it was like…like before he was born. What if there was just nothing and he didn’t exist anymore? The idea both haunted him and made his knees quiver. If by some miracle he survived this, he was never putting himself in a position like this ever again. The next time people were dying and needed someone to save them, it wasn’t going to be him! Hell no. He was done playing the hero. Either because he wouldn’t be around anymore to try, or because he somehow scraped through this and decided to make self-preservation a much bigger focus in his life. Either way, this was the last time he would allow himself to end up in this kind of situation. Seriously.

As he pulled open the door to B10, his hand trembled fearfully, and a sudden burst of emotionally charged pain erupted in his chest: sadness. He realized he didn’t even have enough time to tell Kalana. She was just going to “find out.” Someone was going to call her or send her a message one day out of the blue, and she was going to read it, and it was going to say Zach was dead, and then…

Don’t. Don’t think of this now. Please. I can’t let this be in my head before a fight.

Wiping his eyes with his free hand, he forced his legs to move as he rushed his way down what he hoped would be a short and final flight of stairs that would lead him to where Rian and Lienne were waiting with the boss. As he got closer and the end came nearer, he was ashamed to feel such regret. If he was going to die anyway, he wanted to go down feeling like a hero. Like he’d done the right thing. But that wasn’t how he felt. He was scared. He missed Kalana. He missed his mom of all people, a woman he hadn’t seen since he was a child. He wished he could undo his decision.

Did that make him less of a man? The fact that, now that his impending death became more and more of a reality, he would go back and reverse his decision if he could? All that bravery he’d felt while on the phone with Mr. Oren had begun to evaporate as the dark reality settled in and came ever closer to coming to pass. Yet even still, he pressed onwards, wanting his life to have at least been worth something. Also, he was running low on time.

Unleashed Phase Duration

9:45 Remaining

Quest Expires In

1:33:00

As he bolted down flight after flight of stairs, he decided to forgive himself for his fear and doubt, as he was once again reminded of something Mr. Oren had told him on the day he’d found out the truth about his former science teacher. For all their disagreements, and for all the revulsion Zach felt towards some of his views, there had been one thing the man had said that had been so true to such an extent that Zach wondered if he should request to have it inscribed onto his tombstone.

“What makes you a man is whether or not you follow through on your actions. Not whether or not you escape with your underwear clean.”

He couldn’t control the way he felt. The sadness, the terror, and the longing for a life with Kalana. These were part of him. He couldn’t just shed them because they were inconvenient at the moment. Rather than resent himself because of how scared he was of dying, all he really needed to do was follow through on his actions just like Mr. Oren had said. That was the difference that mattered. It was the only difference that mattered. Was it smart of him to do this? Of course not. Had he acted off emotion and a desire to see his friends live? Obviously. But did any of that matter now? No. His choice was made. He had to follow through on it.

And so, preparing himself for what was likely going to be the most important—and final—moment of his existence, he paused once he arrived at the metal door at the bottom of the stairwell labeled B10 and he took a few seconds to make some necessary changes to what he believed was called an “interface.” There was information he needed to have at all times during this upcoming fight, but he also needed to be able to see clearly and have as little of his vision obstructed as possible.

Right off the bat, he dismissed the quest timer, as that was no longer relevant, as well as his compass. The experience bar was down by his knees and would not cause an issue, so he left it alone. What he did need, however, was some more information. Thus, he tried to form clearly and coherently in his mind the information he wanted before him. He needed to see a list of his abilities without their descriptions, showing only their names and the time deductions for each. Was this possible? It seemed it was. It would also be useful to move his remaining duration on Unleashed Phase so that it was on top of this list instead of separate and on its own. There. Just like that.

There we go.

Fidgeting with this new view a bit, he took just a few more precious seconds to make sure everything was where he could see it easily—to the left side of his face—but where it would not ever cause a blind spot to form in his vision. It wouldn’t be good if he had to eat a sword strike to the throat because the information he’d called forward obstructed what he was able to see. Craning his neck around to test his view of the world from every orientation of his head, he nodded in satisfaction. This was exactly what he needed.

The only thing left to do was to see if he could selectively remove abilities that either did not have time deductions or that he could not currently use, such as Unleashed Phase and Phase Reset. Well, technically he could use Phase Reset followed by Unleashed Phase, but at that point, he might as well start calling down dragons, because if there was any hope of him surviving a double-high exertion cost, then tacking on another “Very High” on top of his existing debt…like at that point, he might as well just keep resetting until he went up to Phase Level 6. The only reason he hadn’t already done so was because he believed there had to at least be some chance, no matter how small, he could pull through this.

At any rate, now that he was ready for his very first—and yeah, probably last—boss fight, Zach gave the display one final look over to ensure it had everything he needed before he proceeded and it was too late to change anything in the heat of combat.

Unleashed Phase Duration

9:10 Remaining

Wave Slash

1:15

Boundless

0:10

Phase Blink

0:20

Phase Shield (READY) (25 seconds)

0:45

Phase Rescue

0:35 / 2:15 (if used with Boundless)

Phase Slash

1:10 / 6:10 (if used with ??)

It suddenly occurred to Zach that, no matter how this turned out, he could likely save Rian and Lienne no matter what. Unless the two were hidden out of sight—which, to be fair, was totally possible—then as long as he got his eyes on them, if things looked like they weren’t going to go his way, he could just use Boundless and Phase Rescue to pull them out from wherever it was they happened to be and tell them to run.

Or I could have them fight with me.

Zach dismissed the idea. They’d missed way too many levels. What good would they be? Honestly, Zach doubted they would even be able to hurt the damn boss. As things stood, he wasn’t even sure he would be able to hurt it. He’d never fought a boss before. He had very little idea of what to expect. But he knew it wouldn’t be as easy as fighting a regular mob. Not that it actually mattered anymore, because whether this was difficult, easy, or impossible, it really was all the same. He had already committed himself to it, and as he thought about it, he let out a sad, but genuine laugh as he realized that he wasn’t afraid of the boss killing him: he was afraid of him killing him, which he probably already had.

Well, time to take this bastard with me, I guess.

With one last bittersweet smile at a mental image of Kalana, he shoved all thoughts of her out of his mind and he pushed open the door to B10. The moment it swung open, he felt like he was stepping out of an elevator and into some kind of hotel, as there was a wall just a few feet in front of the door, between which was a narrow hallway covered with incredibly fancy-looking royal red carpets embroidered with golden-stitched patterns of swords, shields, bows, and arrows. As Zach stepped out of the stairwell and into this hallway, the general sameness in the air temperature and quality likely meant he was still on Galterra.

To his left was a dead end, and to his right was a fairly narrow passage that gradually widened until ending abruptly in front of a pair of wide, wooden double-doors with bronze, ring-shaped handles. There was also a smaller door to the left of the double-doors, and it looked oddly out of place, as the wallpaper was a dull orange-grey, and the door was of the dark blue metal type that Zach had grown accustomed to in this dungeon. There were also paintings on both sides of the wall: many were of various mythical animals such as unicorns and even a few dragons, but some looked like oil paintings of Moldark, who Zach recognized by his devilish smile and uniquely decorative armor. Above the double-doors was a sign that read:

Boss Ahead. 5+ Party Advised (Level 12 min, Level 15 recommended)

<------Angelica’s (using this door will set your exit point to B1)

Zach swore, loudly. If he was understanding correctly, this meant that he was supposed to have four other people with him around his level to take down this boss. And if he decided to run into Angelica’s and beg for help, he would be sent back to B1, which was not an option! But wait, couldn’t he just hold the door open? Actually, he could, right? He’d done something like that before.

But what if the Great Ones thought someone might try that and built a mechanism to prevent it? What if there’s something here that’s designed to prevent you from cheating and coming straight back? Maybe as soon as I step through, it’ll just force itself shut or something. Then I’m really screwed.

Zach decided it wasn’t worth the risk. This was something he’d have to do on his own. As much as he wished he could storm this place with an entire army of fellow adventurers and then waltz right back out of it again, alive and well, there was no point in fighting against the facts of the situation. The clock was ticking, he was dying, and so too would his friends if he didn’t hurry the hell up.

There’s no time to stop and think. It’s too late for that now.

Continuing onwards, his feet made a louder-than-expected thud on the soft, fancy carpet as he hurried across the short passage. Then, gripping the bronze rings and pulling open the double-doors, he stepped inside what was clearly some kind of even fancier throne room illuminated by a golden, flame-lit chandelier. Columns that looked more decorative than necessary for support ran the length of both sides of the chamber, and dotted throughout were statues of a woman wearing a golden eagle mask whom Zach recalled from B1 was the image of Yorna. This room also had paintings decorating all four walls, many depicting beautiful landscapes that Zach had never before seen. He could not tell whether they were of Galterra or someplace else.

From where he currently stood, the elegant carpets ran from the hall with the doors into this new, wider room, and then all the way up five small steps to a large, cushioned throne, on top of which sat none other than Moldark the Unbanished. Still clad in his silvery suit of armor, he now wore his feather-topped helm as well as his gauntlets. At his side was the same pure-white, glimmering sword that he’d had with him on B5. Yet it wasn’t his appearance that Zach paid much attention to. No, there were two other things that caught his attention. The first was his name, which for some Gods-damned reason was still green, but that wasn’t even what bothered Zach; more specifically, it was what appeared in front of it: T1.

HP

45,000/45,000

Name

(T1) Moldark the Unbanished

Level

18

It appeared he wasn’t level 8 anymore, and based on the explanation he’d received earlier, Zach knew that if he was level 18 and tier 1, then it was really like he was level 28, which…was kind of unnerving, truth be told. And his HP! Gods, what the fuck? 45k? Not good. Really not good. So yeah, he might have to summon those dragons after all. Son of a b—

Then the second thing caught his attention, and it had caused whatever he’d been about to think to trail off into a void somewhere in the back of his mind. To both the left and right side of the throne, Zach spotted two enclosed cages that kind of resembled those used to confine birds. Only, these were just large enough to fit a human body. Both cages were suspended from the ceiling and hung several feet off the floor. In the one to Moldark’s left, Zach made out the form of Lienne, and imprisoned within the one to his right was a much more tightly fitting Rian. Both were gagged, their faces swollen as though they’d been crying, and they appeared understandably terrified and uncomfortable—especially Rian, whose stomach was practically being squished out of the small, square-shaped gaps in his confinement as his shield and axe were still on his back.

If Zach ever got his hands on whatever sadistic son of a bitch made this dungeon, he was going to cut their head off. What kind of sick, degenerate piece of filth would actually create something like this knowing real people would come here and die? Who would even do such a thing?

Then again, I did enjoy this, didn’t I? he realized. In some ways, I still do. So I don’t even know anymore.

Upon seeing Zach, they began to moan into their gags, loudly, and their eyes bulged to such an extent that Zach worried they’d pop out of their despair-filled faces. He couldn’t tell if they were regarding him with hope, surprise, dread, or any mixture of the above. Actually, it occurred to they weren’t quite looking at him in particular. He traced their eyes with his own, and he realized they were looking at the black smoke mixed with golden embers that came off his hands and feet.

Zach raised his arm and waved at the two of them. “Hey, guys,” he said, adding a shrug. “So like, can we all agree now that it was a bad idea to attack him while his name was green? I’m guessing this settles the argument, right?” Then, with more emotion in his voice, he said, “Gods, I just…I’m just so glad you’re still okay. Look at me, getting all choked up like this in front of Moldark.”

In truth, seeing them alive flooded him with such relief he almost forgot that he was going to die—until he thought that very thing, which reminded him that he was probably going to die, which in turn made him not care as much about the fact that they were alive as he once more was reminded of the fact that he wasn’t going to live. It was funny how that worked. But at least…at least he made it here. He’d actually done it. With over an hour left to spare, he’d trekked down to B10 in one piece and made it. No matter what happened next, even if they all died here together, his friends wouldn’t have to perish feeling abandoned.

Upon taking just two more steps into the room, Zach assumed he’d crossed some kind of invisible threshold or barrier, because within an instant, the double-doors slammed shut with a loud bang, and Moldark’s head popped up as though finally noticing him.

Guess running away isn’t an option for those two, Zach thought, discarding his earlier idea.

“Adventurers!” Moldark said, hopping off his throne and scurrying down the five small steps with his arms wide open as if in an inviting gesture. There was a smile on his lips, and he appeared totally non-threatening. Zach did not dare attack him while his name was still green, else he might end up in a cage right next to Rian and Lienne. Not that it would matter. He could just technically blink out of it. Still, he couldn’t rule out something even worse happening.

So instead, he stared at Moldark in a cautious state of confusion with his sword gripped defensively as the silver-armored man marched along the carpets, the thud from his feet echoing, until he finally came to a stop in the middle of the throne room right below the golden chandelier, which cast an almost angelic light on the portion of his face visible through his feather-topped helm. He regarded Zach as though he were an old friend who’d come to visit, but then, abruptly, the smile fell, and a look of great sadness entered his eyes; his arms, which had been widened as though to embrace Zach in a hug, fell limply to his sides.

“Oh, my dear adventurers,” he said only to Zach despite speaking as though he were addressing multiple people. “I have some very bad news.” For an awkward moment, he gazed directly upon Zach as though expecting him to say something in reply. When Zach didn’t, Moldark simply continued. “I’ll tell you what! My sweet Yorna, she…she has left. With that bastard!”

Again he stared at Zach, his expression almost seeming blank for a moment, his mouth still open as though he had been frozen in place while he was speaking. Then, his face once more became animated, and he peeled back his lips in anger. “That’s right, adventurers! Adamus took her. He betrayed us. He lied to all of us. He deceived the Guild of Gentlemen! He and Yorna have gone back to the old world—to Manhattan. They are trying to stop us from bringing our technology here to Galterra.”

Like before, he stared at Zach, who continued to say nothing. “What do you mean why?” Moldark demanded. “To stop us from assembling a nuclear bomb. The races on this planet, despite being so technologically advanced in so many ways, have not yet figured out how to split the atom. Either that, or they never cared to find out. But don’t you see, adventurers? If we can establish military supremacy, we will secure a future for the entire human race! This isn’t about war or threatening our new world. It’s about protecting our race from aliens with unknown intentions.”

Zach glanced upwards at his remaining duration, which was now down to 8:30. He really didn’t have time for this. How much was this boss going to say before the fight started? Zach was becoming incredibly frustrated and impatient. Especially as this guy started rambling on and on and on about “Adamus” and “nuclear bombs” or whatever the hell that even was. Zach was unfamiliar with the term, and honestly, he didn’t care what it meant, either. He guessed it was some kind of weapon. Wasn’t that guy Maric Ultdern into nuclear science? He’d probably know what it was. Either way, Zach barely cared. It was of no concern to him.

This needs to get a move on. How long is this guy going to talk for?

“Okay, look,” Zach said as his hands and feet continued to release impossibly black smoke. “Can we please hurry this shit along? I don’t care about any of this.”

Spinning around in a circle frantically while grabbing his head, Moldark asked, “You agree with me, adventurers, right? You agree that human weapon technology should be taken with us for the defense and safety of our people.”

“Sure,” Zach said. “I agree. Now let’s fight!”

“You don’t?” Moldark said in outrage, flinching as though Zach had just decked him in the face—which he wouldn’t actually do since the guy was still green. “But, adventurers, how could you say something like that?”

“I didn’t. Let’s go!” Zach moaned. “I’m kind of on the clock here, man.”

Maybe he should just attack after all. At this rate, he would die before Moldark finished his fucking speech. Honestly, who would actually care about any of this? Were there actually adventurers out there who would get all “into this” shit and start yelling out the answers at Moldark? Would anyone be that lame?

No sooner had Zach wondered the question in his mind than his cheeks puffed up, filling with air. Then, in what came as a total surprise even to himself, he burst out laughing. Was he losing his mind? Or forget “losing.” Had he already lost it? Rian and Lienne seemed to think so, as their eyes somehow bulged even more intensely as they watched him guffawing right there in front of Moldark. Zach couldn’t believe how hard he had begun to laugh, almost choking on his own saliva in the process despite every horrible emotion that was swirling around his brain—despite knowing that he might not continue to exist in this world for all that far beyond the next few minutes. And why? It was all because, just then, he realized that there were, indeed, adventurers who would do such a thing. In fact, Zach just-so happened to know one of them very well.

Fluffles, he thought. Fluffles would!

If Zach still had a life to gamble away, he would bet it in a heartbeat that, whenever Fluffles came to dungeons like this one, the cat definitely “participated” in this ridiculous boss performance. Zach was so sure of this that he seriously would bet his life on it. If someone came to him right now, told him he was going to survive, and then offered to take a bet, Zach would slap down the deed to his soul so fast that he wouldn’t even stop to consider it. That was how certain Zach felt in his assertion.

If Fluffles had come through this dungeon—and he very well might have at some point—he would be standing right here on this carpet yelling each and every time Moldark paused for a response. “No!” he would shout. “Stupid human doesn’t get nuclear weapon! But Fluffles still get tuna! Zach say!”

It would almost be worth bringing the cat here just to see how much he would enjoy this. Fluffles would probably answer each and every prompt in the way the audience was “supposed” to answer the question, by disagreeing with the bad guy or whatever. Seriously, this place was made for someone like Fluffles.

I hope I get to see him again, Zach thought sadly, his laughter cutting off.

At some point during the past half a minute, the Moldark guy had become really pissed at him, but Zach wasn’t sure why, as he’d totally zoned out. He wasn’t following the “story” or whatever the hell this was. Why should he? This wasn’t school. Enough with this horseshit already, seriously. It was a miracle he hadn’t taken his phone out to look up random stuff on the internet while this boss prattled on and on and on about Earth, and some guild called “The United States Marine Corps,” and of humans, the war, and the battle for control over Manhattan, and on and on and on. Who gave a shit, seriously?

Fluffles.

Zach again laughed. His cat probably knew all the lore, and in this “room” of his he was always hearing about, he probably had posters of this stupid shit hanging up. Now, as Zach tried to pay attention to what was going on around him, all he could think about was how Fluffles would respond to every one of these questions.

“Adventurers, please! Tell me you aren’t going to betray me too?” He waited and took a step back. “Don’t make me have to do this. Join me. Together, we can make this world a better place for all of humanity.”

“Fine, I’ll join you,” Zach said, knowing his answer wouldn’t make a difference. “Sign me up. I’m in. For real. I’m in.”

“No!” he screamed. “You dare refuse!”

“No, I just said I’ll join you. Seriously. I’m in.” He laughed again. Then he looked over to Rian and Lienne, and he pointed at Moldark. “Think about how many quips you two could be getting in right now if you’d just waited. This could have been you right now making fun of him.”

“I will give you one final chance, adventurers,” Moldark said, quivering with apparent rage. “Will you join me or will you die?”

“I’ll join.”

“Fine, then.” Moldark took several more steps back. Then, at long last, finally, fucking FINALLY, with only 7:15 remaining on Unleashed Phase, Moldark drew his pure-white blade and his name turned from green to red. “Very well, adventurers,” he said. “But I must warn you. My father once told me of a—”

Zach had heard more than enough. Even as Moldark continued to speak, he tightened his grip on his blade and rushed across the throne room, his feet slamming down against the carpet loud enough to create an echo while his weapon was held high. “And that,” Moldark said, “is why I decided to—”

Unwilling to pass up a free hit, Zach launched a strike aimed right at the boss’s face, one in which he put all his strength and power behind the attack. Bringing around his blade, and moving in a right-to-left, upwards direction, he violently ripped his sword across the still-speaking face of Moldark the Unbanished, dealing 710 damage and causing his jaw to snap shut, his eyes to flare with rage, and a stream of dark red blood to fly off into the air before landing and becoming practically invisible amid the equally dark red carpets.

Having never before fought a boss, Zach did not know what would happen next. He did not know what to expect or how he should proceed. Yet the look of hate and rage in the boss’s eyes was enough to make him want to flee. Then there was a shift in Moldark’s stance. It was slight. It was barely noticeable. But Zach could just see the tip of his front, silver-armor-covered foot pivot slightly in Zach’s direction. Then, without saying another word, Moldark launched himself into a blinding, dizzying series of strikes that came in so fast that Zach had to use every last bit of his concentration and acquired skill to defend himself against them.

Practically holding his breath, he tuned out every single other thing in the world around him and focused solely, intently on the rapid, furious combination of sword strikes that were coming his way. One came from his left, and he barely managed to swing his own blade around to block. No sooner had he done so than the same pure-white sword was slicing at him from the exact opposite angle. Zach hurried to counter, groaning against the strain as Moldark’s blade slammed into his with enough force to let Zach know this guy was clearly strong enough to hurt him, even with his inflated stats.

Zach was now so deep in concentration that he no longer even felt fear or alarm. Every ounce of his brainpower and strength was set to surviving this unbelievable flurry of wild, chaotic strikes. Another came from the left—and he guarded. One from above, and he raised his own, stopping it just in time with a loud, metallic clang. Then came a forward thrust, and Zach spun his body in a half-circle to put himself out of the way. Then he blocked another two strikes from his left and right respectively, before successfully returning one of his own, hitting for 511. Finally, he raised his blade to halt yet another downward chop from above, and this time there was a giant shower of sparks as the two of them clashed against one another.

Moldark was strong: really strong. So much so that Zach knew he wouldn’t be able to win the struggle, so he dashed backwards, and Moldark pursued. He ducked, hearing a loud whoosh above his head as the boss’s weapon crossed the area his nose had just been. Moldark followed up with a low slash that was coming in too fast for Zach to block. Exhaling sharply, he threw himself backwards, came into a roll along the carpet, and shot back up to his feet just in time to again cross blades, resulting in another shower of sparks.

This is not going well!

Zach again retreated. Then he dashed to the side as Moldark shouted, “I will kill you, adventurers! This is for stealing my Yorna! This is for siding with Adamus!” With that, he whipped his blade at Zach so viciously he could actually see a ripple in the air as it moved. Having barely gotten out of the way, Moldark the Unbanished instead struck one of the fancy columns, slicing the thing in half. Then, like a machine, he pursued Zach, practically flying across the distance between the two of them. Three more strikes came his way, and three more times Zach deflected. But on the fourth, Zach was struck so hard that his sword flew directly out of his hands, and now, Moldark went in for the kill. He raised his blade high above his head and then swung it down, intent on slicing Zach open right down the middle.

With no time to think, Zach activated Phase Shield. All at once, the entire throne room erupted into a brilliant, bright, and beautiful golden light as a gigantic metal shield twice the size of Zach—both in width and height—burst into existence about two feet ahead and three feet above him. It was large enough that the entire front side of his body other than his knees and feet was safely hidden behind it. Rather than strike him, Moldark’s blade slammed ruthlessly into the shield—twice—which oddly enough, caused a very slight ache to form in Zach’s body each time it was struck. It was more of a tingle than anything, truth be told. This must have been what the ability meant by “overwhelmingly reduces damage.” It seemed that a tiny fraction of the force used against the shield would “hurt” him afterwards. Regardless, almost as quickly as it had arrived, the shield disappeared, and even still, Moldark pursued.

Filling with alarm but oddly not fear, Zach’s adrenaline-filled body shuffled backwards and out of the way of another series of wild strikes. Now, unarmed, he could do nothing but backpedal, duck, and twist his way around the unending assault that Moldark the Unbanished was sending his way. Twice more, he maneuvered around columns, both of which were struck down just as the first had been. Finally, when Zach found himself pressed against the double-doors through which he’d arrived, he clenched his teeth and swore loudly. He knew he was in trouble the moment his back hit the shuttered wooden entrance.

“I will kill you, adventurers!” Moldark shouted. “This is for stealing my Yorna! This is for siding with Adamus!”

As Moldark’s pure-white blade raced down to the top of his scalp, Zach activated Phase Shield—then failed, forgetting it was on a twenty-five-second cooldown. In a panic, he did the only thing he still could: he instead activated Phase Blink. Mere centimeters away from tearing into the top of his head, Zach blinked across the room so quickly that he neither felt nor saw the movement. It was as though the world had simply reconfigured itself around him. Then came the sonic boom.

“Mmmnnnnnn!” both Rian and Lienne screamed into their gags as the explosive boom echoed so loudly in the throne room that even Zach had been startled. It didn’t even matter this time that he’d been expecting it. The sound was horrific. It was as though a hundred firecrackers had all gone off at the same time.

Having moved safely out of harm’s way, Zach now found himself face-to-face with Lienne, who was still gripping her staff as though wanting to join the battle. With his face practically pressed up against the cage, Zach got a good look at her eyes, which widened as they stared off at something behind him. Though she’d screamed, she appeared defiant: the fight was still in her. This much, Zach could tell from the way she bobbed her head and moaned angrily. Suddenly, however, she screamed much more urgently into her gag, and Zach thought he understood the message: it was one of warning.

As the sound of feet pounding down against carpet grew louder and faster behind him, he ducked, and sure enough, a blade passed over his head and thankfully did not strike Lienne. Lacking any weapon, Zach turned around and threw himself down into a pushup position, where he then spun his body around and kicked out with all his strength at Moldark’s back, armored leg, which now bore most of his weight. The moment his right foot made impact, an intense, unbearable pain ignited into his heel bone, which he desperately hoped had not just broken. Yet the agony was not without its reward, as to his amazement, he succeeded at sweeping Moldark off his feet.

The initial kick hit the boss for only 11 damage, but then, as he fell backwards and slammed with a combined thud and a clang onto the carpeted floor, Moldark the Unbanished suffered an additional 200. Yet he was quickly returning to his feet, and Zach needed to hurry.

Racing back across the room to where the battle had first begun, Zach dropped down to the floor, slid along it for several feet, and then grabbed his own blade before pushing himself back upright by slamming his opposite palm down against the carpet. It had been a little “move” he’d learned on his way over here in B6. Immediately upon returning to his feet, he spun around and raised his weapon just in time to guard against another of Moldark’s powerful downward strikes, this one causing another shower of sparks. As Moldark twisted his body as though winding up for his next attack, Zach saw an opportunity, and he seized it. Prioritizing speed over power, he slashed his blade across Moldark’s silver breastplate, dealing 150 damage before hopping backwards and away from a strike that came to within an inch of cutting open his belly.

Becoming desperate, Zach dashed forward and swung at Moldark’s face. To his surprise, the boss was capable of guarding and parrying in a skillful way that Zach had never before seen from a mob. As Zach’s sword whooshed towards the right side of Moldark’s armor-covered head, Moldark swung his own blade at Zach’s, parrying with enough strength that Zach’s weapon almost flew out of his fingers. Caught off guard, Zach gritted his teeth as Moldark then attempted a riposte, which would have connected if Zach hadn’t already been back-rolling along the carpet yet again, once more narrowly evading what might well have ended his life.

“I will kill you, adventurers!” Moldark shouted. “This is for stealing my Yorna! This is for siding with Adamus!”

Gasping for air and perspiring heavily, Zach knew that he might’ve bitten off a bit more than he could reasonably chew. This boss was tough as shit, and as Zach looked at the amount of HP Moldark had lost compared to the amount of stamina Zach had already used, things were beginning to look somewhat dire, as he’d barely made a dent thus far and had yet been brought to the point of breathlessness.

HP

43,418/45,000

Name

(T1) Moldark the Unbanished

Level

18

Even worse, the duration remaining on his Unleashed Phase was also whittling away, with his Phase Shield and Phase Blink having cost him an additional minute and five seconds in addition to the natural flow of time. It occurred to him just then how foolish it had been for him to use the shield. The shield, he now realized, was better used for protecting allies by his side or defending while maintaining an advantageous combat position. Unless there was a good, strategic reason he didn’t want to move from his current spot, then for simply avoiding an attack, he should have just blinked. It would have saved him twenty-five seconds.

Unleashed Phase Duration

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5:35 Remaining

Wave Slash

1:15

Boundless

0:10

Phase Blink

0:20

Phase Shield (READY) (25 seconds)

0:45

Phase Rescue

0:35 / 2:15 (if used with Boundless)

Phase Slash

1:10 / 6:10 (if used with ??)

With only five-and-a-half minutes remaining on his Unleashed Phase, Zach struggled to come up with some idea of what he needed to do here. If he was as screwed as it seemed, then maybe it would be best to just pump up his Phase Level from 1 all the way to 6. After all, he was like 99% likely to die here anyway, right? Or was he? The truth was he was operating off assumptions. He didn’t actually know if his E-debt would kill him. He only thought it would. But surely—surely!—if he added a “Very High” on top of his existing two “high” debts he would, with absolute certainty, end up in a coffin. So, he didn’t want to go that route until it was beyond clear he had no choice.

What else can I do, though? he thought, as even more sweat ran over his eyes and down his cheeks. What else do I have? What can I do?

Well, there was still the tested and proven Wave Slash. It was expensive, though, costing a minute-fifteen. But Zach had to imagine it could do a whole lot of damage. The only problem was distance. At point blank, it wouldn’t be worth the time it cost, and this guy was constantly in his face. Even if he blinked across the room, Moldark would be back on him so quickly that, at the absolute—and still unlikely to be achieved—best, his Wave Slash would only traverse half the room before finding its mark, assuming the boss wasn’t able to dodge it outright, which he very well likely could. For Wave Slash to really be worth it, he’d need the boss to be standing on the complete opposite end of the throne room—and stay there. So no, that was just not going to work in this situation. But then, what about that other ability? The one he hadn’t tried yet: Phase Slash. It was tempting, but Zach decided against it, as he had never used it before and he was skeptical that now was a good time to waste a minute-ten on something he hadn’t yet seen in action.

What am I supposed to do, dammit?

Before he had the chance to think any further on the dilemma, Moldark was upon him, and it was at this point in the fight that the two of them engaged in their most vicious, bloody exchange. First, Moldark tried to bludgeon his right side. Zach raised his sword, blocked, and returned a similar strike of his own, which Moldark twisted his body away from. Then Moldark came back at him with four ruthless slashes, two from the left, one from above, and one from the right. Zach blocked the first two, each one making a louder clang than the previous. Then he leaned to the side and avoided the attack from above. But it was the attack from his right that slipped through his guard and made contact.

Zach howled in pain as Moldark’s blade tore into his right side, slashing through his tunic and sending a splatter of blood spraying onto the carpet. Then he immediately delivered another five blazing-fast strikes, all of which Zach blocked but the fifth, which cut open his left hip, this time even more deeply. This piece of shit! More enraged than afraid, Zach returned with a furious, vengeful counterstrike of his own, bashing the right side of Moldark’s face and managing to cut through the armor of his helm, slicing a piece of his lip off in the process and dealing 702 damage.

Then Moldark erupted into a barrage of left-right combinations of varying height, forcing Zach to go back on the defense. The first six of these he managed to meet, and the seventh, he even parried, delivering a riposte that cut another piece of the boss’s lip off for 605. But it was upon seeing his successful attack that Zach became greedy and erred. He tried to throw a sharp, upward swing and take off the rest of the boss’s bottom lip, but he was too slow, and Moldark was able to parry and counter; once more, his pure-white blade found success and sliced into Zach’s chest. Even with 52 armor and 33 constitution, Moldark still managed to wound him deeply enough that Zach knew he’d bleed out in minutes if left untreated. Maybe even less than that.

One thing was clear: whatever Zach was doing right now was not working. He could not win in this condition. He didn’t need to be a doctor like Kesten to know that the three cuts he’d just sustained were each fatal on their own, and combined, the blood loss would have him falling on his face in around a minute if not well before that point. Yet even knowing this, Zach did not despair, because despite the odds being once more totally against him, he still refused to give up. He had already come too far to turn back now. He just needed to be intelligent and avoid losing his cool. It would all come down to making correct, snap decisions without second-guessing himself. He hadn’t come this far just to let his friends die—even if he had to expose them to a bit of danger in the process of saving them. This, he realized, as a horrifying amount of blood poured out of him in three different places, making it very obvious what he now needed to do.

“Lienne!” he cried. “I’m bringing you to me!”

“Mnnnnnn?” she moaned into her gag.

“Just trust me, Lienne! It’s a new ability I learned. I’m bringing you to my side, because I need a healer to get through this, so be ready immediately!”

Fortunately, she was within two-hundred-fifty feet of him. Actually, this entire throne room was only about a hundred-fifty feet in width and maybe two-hundred feet in length. This meant he would not need to rely on using Boundless and draining even more of his precious time away. And so, even as he raised his guard and groaned with the effort of blocking another three powerful strikes from Moldark, he activated Phase Rescue, targeting his blonde friend.

Instantly, a giant, bright, light-blue orb simply popped into existence around Lienne, causing her to make a tiny little yelp even with her gag on. Almost as soon as it appeared, the orb began to shrink, and Lienne began to shrink with it. Encased inside this light-blue orb, she appeared to collapse in on herself, reducing in size until both she and the orb vanished from existence itself. Then, right beside Zach, the bright blue energy reappeared for just a split second before vanishing once more, only now it left Lienne standing right beside him in its wake—and Gods-be-damned, her eyes looked as though they were alight with the purest of fury. But he didn’t have much time to worry about her, as Moldark had somehow slipped inside Zach’s guard and seemed intent on finally ending him once and for all.

Shit, I don’t know if I can block this!

Now that she was no longer stuck inside of a confinement so tight she could not even raise her arms, Lienne lifted her hand to her mouth, tore off her gag, and then even as Zach called out in warning to her, she confusingly and dangerously stepped in front of him, mumbled something to herself that made her entire body glow orange, and raised her staff horizontally with both hands to block a downward slash that had been about to cut open Zach’s forehead.

The result was that she—and her staff—were thrown at least a dozen feet back, where she rolled several times across the carpet. Something deep within Zach stirred with worry and unease at seeing her so brutally flung down that way. Yet she was back up to her feet in an instant, and now, Zach felt a rush of relief flood into him along with a release of pain as a shimmering, dark green light covered him like an aura only to vanish, reappear, and vanish again—and several more times after that.

“Val En Lor!” she yelled, choosing to roar out her healing spell instead of quietly muttering it in a barely audible whisper as she typically did. “Val En Lor! Val En Lor! Val En Lor!”

“Val En Maxi Flamir!”

To Zach’s amazement, he realized he was now fully, completely healed. What’s more, a pillar of bright orange flames had engulfed Moldark the Unbanished. And though it struck him for only 104 damage, the fact that he continued to attack Zach meant that he continued to stand inside of it, and after about two seconds, he was somehow struck a second time for 104 damage, and then a third! Zach had never seen this before. One attack was now hitting an enemy multiple times. He had no idea that was something that could happen. In total, the boss was hit six times, and Lienne dealt him a total of 624 damage before the pillar of fire dissipated. Now, clearly exhausted, Zach heard her breathing heavily as she sat on the carpet, gasping for air with her staff held in one hand while she gave Zach a thumbs-up in the other.

“Get my brother here,” she said, between breaths. “Hurry!”

Dodging beneath a terrifying slash aimed at his forehead before stepping around and to the side of another forward thrust, Zach replied, “I can’t do that, Lienne. He’ll die immediately!”

“He can tank for us. We can win with him!”

“No, he can’t! My constitution right now is”—Zach dropped to his knees and then rolled out of the way as the boss thrust his blade straight down, piercing the carpet and digging his blade straight into the floorboards—“33 and my armor’s 52. Okay, I guess 57 now,” he corrected himself as dirt and dust covered his body, which indicated Lienne had buffed him. “Either way, you’re both too low to—”

“No, you don’t understand,” she interrupted, her voice urgent. “We’ve been leveling up with you for hours.”

“What?” Zach asked in complete disbelief, wondering if he’d misheard her. “How?” His blade made a high-pitched ring as he deflected a diagonal, downwards swipe from Moldark, who took a lunging step forward and tried to follow it up with an overhead slash that Zach crouched beneath.

“Because you rejoined our party on your way down here.”

“B-but how?” Zach croaked, so shocked that he almost swallowed the point of Moldark’s sword.

“Because you wanted to,” Lienne said. “And because we wanted you to. And we’re in the same dungeon. We all still really wanted to be in a party together, and so we just were.”

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Zach breathed out, twirling his body around and out of the way of a thrust. “But I was getting solo xp.”

“Yeah, so were we. I guess because we were being held captive, it gave all three of us solo xp. I don’t even think it normally works that way. We were well out of xp range. It must be part of some unique mechanic with this boss and these cages. I really don’t know.”

“So wait, are you saying I…?”

“Yes, you power-leveled us.” She spat on the carpet as though the words disgusted her. “But I forgive you because you saved us—well, maybe. And because you’re awesome, and you did all this for us, and…and what is that, anyway? What’s Phase Strike?”

“Huh?” Zach asked, spinning around another thrust so that he and Moldark switched places. He could once again see Lienne where she had sat down as if to recover her stamina.

“That display in front of you. That timer. What is that?”

“You can see that?” Zach asked, flabbergasted.

She nodded. “Uh-huh. That’s not the only weird thing. As soon as you walked in here, we suddenly could see the boss’s HP—or at least I assume Rian can, too. But I’ve never seen…a display like that before.”

“I just can’t believe you can see this. There’s no way.”

Lienne shrugged. “I can, though.”

It must be because we’re in the same party, Zach realized. He highly doubted anyone he wasn’t allied with would be able to view the information he was displaying. He was sure of it.

“How are you doing that?” Lienne asked. “The…the smoke and the timers.”

Zach almost lost his head. Growling, he actually managed to find a hole in Moldark’s defenses, and he punished the boss for another 515 damage before once more having to hop repeatedly backwards and away from the boss until he had returned to Lienne’s side. “I don’t have anywhere near enough time to explain it to you. Since you can see for yourself, I’ll just show you.”

Dancing around as he avoided strike after strike, Zach simply called forth a list of all his abilities and their descriptions, and he sent it off behind him where it wouldn’t get in his way. “I had to sacrifice myself to come down here,” he said, panting with exertion as sweat glided down, over, and off his face and landed on the carpet. The last thing he needed was to explain why he couldn’t let Rian fight, but there was no way Lienne would understand without seeing for herself.

“Do you see my”—he ducked—“Phase Level.”

She said nothing for a moment, likely because she was still reading and did not yet understand the implications of what Zach had done and how his ability worked. But Lienne was a smart chick, and it didn’t take long before Zach heard her make a loud, horrified gasp. “You’re double exerted. High-level, too.”

“Exactly.”

“This ability is…I can’t believe it’s real. And…and you did all this for us?”

He would’ve nodded if he could. Hell, he would’ve offered a verbal reply if he could, too. Instead, all he could give as way of a reply was a howl of pain as, at the cost of another life-threatening gash that cut open his entire left shoulder, his own blade bit into the hip of his foe, dealing 455 damage and causing some blood to leak out of Moldark’s silver armor. Thankfully, however, the pain in his shoulder did not last long as, Lienne, now back on her feet, patched him up with just a single heal. It was obvious she had become stronger even while in the cage.

“Zach, I don’t…I don’t want you to never trust us again. I know we screwed up. And we’re sorry. But please. My brother is never going to forgive himself if he stands there gagged and watches you die trying to save his life. I promise you we can help. I swear it. Let us redeem ourselves. Please. I know you’ll never trust us again, but—”

“I do trust you!” Zach shouted. He didn’t intend for the words to sound so angry, but he was grunting with the exertion of trying to block and attack. The problem, however, was that his own stamina was draining faster than his Unleashed Phase, which itself would run out in just 4:45. Swearing under his breath, Zach said, “I just don’t want him to be—”

“Please,” Lienne begged. “I know we messed up really, really badly. But please just trust me. You won’t win without us. We’ve got two forms of CC now!”

“The fuck does that mean?” Zach asked.

“Crowd Control.”

“The fuck does that mean?” Zach asked again. Then, with a grunt, he added, “You know what? I’ll do it just to prove I still trust you. But if you guys die, then—”

“We’ll all die together,” Lienne said, her voice grim but determined.

Even though the two of them had screwed up so Gods-damned badly, Zach chose to put his faith in them once again. Was it stupid? Maybe. Did it ultimately make a difference to his own personal life? Probably not. Thus, he realized he really had no reason not to do so. It wasn’t like they could get him killed or anything. The worst thing that could happen would be that they went down fighting along with him, which was what it seemed like they wanted anyway. And Zach was losing right now—badly. This was turning into a total loss. He was fighting to the best of his ability, but he could see this would not end well for any of them the way things were going.

And so, activating Phase Rescue a second time, Zach took—and came very close to landing—a swing that nearly sliced into the top of Moldark’s head even as the blue orb began to collapse around his imprisoned friend. Having evaded his attack, Moldark backed away out of range and then again thrust forward.

Zach only just managed to dodge. But he failed to avoid the follow-up blow, which seemed poised to slice open the shoulder that Lienne had only just healed. Except, the blade never managed to make contact. A moment before biting into his flesh, Rian, angrier than anyone Zach had ever before seen with the possible exception of Varsh after being punched through a wall, screamed out a string of obscenities so vulgar it almost made Zach blush.

Crashing into the boss at a run, Rian tackled Moldark, throwing him off balance. Moldark was quick to regain his footing, however, but Rian seemed to have expected this; now, he was bending his knees, and Zach noticed that his shield had begun to glow a dark, bloody red while emitting some kind of bizarre shockwave that caused ripples to form in the air all around it. Abruptly, Moldark seemed to forget Zach existed, and he turned to face Rian instead.

“Did you just taunt him?” Zach asked, filling with panic. “Rian, no! Gods, stop!”

Rather than reply, Rian pulled back his shield-bearing arm, shouted out even more obscenities, and then slammed his glowing shield right into Moldark’s face. The moment the shield made contact, the red glow vanished, but an electric-like force seemed to fire out of the shield and travel directly into Moldark’s body, causing multiple tendrils of blue-colored lightning to travel down the boss’s head, back, and spine. Then, all at once, he completely stopped moving. He just…stopped.

“He’s stunned for six seconds!” Rian shouted. “Attack!”

If Zach had not been so utterly floored by the fact that his ferocious opponent was now standing perfectly still while not moving so much as a finger, he might not have wasted an entire precious second of time as Rian again shouted out, “Attack! Get him, Zach!”

Snapping himself out of his stupor, Zach did not waste another moment. With his enemy frozen before him, he unleashed everything he had onto Moldark. One after the next, Zach whirled his blade around and around with every bit of force he could muster. He sliced Moldark across the face, his chest, his hips, and then his face yet again. Even as his body screamed at him to slow things down and catch his breath, Zach ignored it, attacking again and again and again as blood began to stain both his and Rian’s faces and gear. Rian, too, was attacking, although his axe only managed to punish the boss for around 20 damage. Even still, it all added up.

414

511

341

550

465

With the 150 damage Rian managed to deliver, the two of them combined struck for 2,431 damage before Moldark started to move again. This, just as a missile-shaped flame from Lienne crashed into Moldark’s face, battering him for another 118. Yet even with the combined assault, Moldark was still standing strong, and despite having sustained significant damage, he still had a long way to go.

HP

37,968/45,000

Name

(T1) Moldark the Unbanished

Level

18

Having already burned the various costs into his memory, Zach now dismissed everything except for the timer on his Unleashed Phase, which he believed Rian and Lienne could also both see.

Unleashed Phased Duration

3:50

“All right, here he comes,” Zach said, panting. No longer stunned, Moldark seemed intent on resuming his attack.

“I will kill you, adventurers!” Moldark shouted, running straight for Rian, whom Zach seriously doubted would be able to take even a single hit. “This is for stealing my Yorna! This is for siding with Adamus!”

The boss raised his blade to strike—then immediately stopped, widened his eyes, and then opened his mouth in what could only be called a display of abject terror. Then he made a comically girly shriek and turned around as he began to run away.

“He’s feared,” Rian said. “Twelve seconds!”

Right, Zach thought, remembering the Bully ability Rian had used to chase the Skelly Grunt mobs off the ledge in B4. Only now did Zach both see and understand how unbelievably valuable it was in a boss fight. So that’s what Lienne meant by ‘crowd control.’ By CC.

Chasing after the fleeing boss, who actually shrieked and whimpered as he ran around the throne room, Zach whacked him several times across the back. Gasping, he was now so exhausted he could barely chase and strike at the same time. Yet somehow, he still managed to lay another 1021 damage on him as he ran after the fleeing, silver-armored, white-sword carrying boss of B10. Eventually, Moldark came to a stop, but not before running into a location where, impressively, Lienne had laid down another pillar of flame just two seconds before he stopped, nailing him with perfect timing.

Zach blocked four fast strikes, resulting in four loud clangs as Moldark burned, suffering another, additional 624 damage over the course of several seconds. When the pillar of fire dissipated, Zach could see that the boss’s flesh was now burned and charred in places, and the stench of it was horrific. Still, he had the benefit of being oblivious to his pain, and he struck out at Zach in a very strange sort of attack that Zach had not seen from him before. He stepped forward, moving almost past Zach, and then just sort of “swiped” weakly to the side of him, a half-hearted attack that Zach easily dodged. Only then did it occur to him that what he’d just been hit with was nothing more than a “passing” attack as he ran across the throne room heading straight for Rian, who must have again taunted him.

HP

36,323/45,000

Name

(T1) Moldark the Unbanished

Level

18

Even with all of us together, we’re not laying down enough damage to take this son of a bitch out!

Very close to the point of complete exhaustion, Zach hurried after Moldark, who himself was hurrying after Rian, who Zach noted was tossing his axe to the carpeted floor and was now gripping his shield with two hands instead of one while bending his knees and arching his back. Incredibly, this actually seemed to work, as the moment Moldark began his furious series of powerful, ruthless sword strikes, Zach observed in complete awe as Rian somehow, through some means, withstood each one of them. He grunted each time the sword made contact, resulting in a loud, echoing bang. Yet he did not falter. He held on. He was practically in a sitting position at this point, squatting all the way down to the point his ass was only an inch or two from the floor. But he was holding. He was actually, fucking holding!

“My stun and fear have a minute cooldown each,” he said, his face visibly wincing in pain each time the boss attempted to butcher him. “It’s on you for now!”

Zach, far more coordinated now than he was at the beginning of this dungeon, began hammering away at Moldark’s back while Rian tanked. He knew that Rian wasn’t comfortable with having someone attack from the enemy’s rear flank, but things had changed from the way they’d been when the three of them had first become a party, and now, he would just have to trust Zach.

Lacking the stamina to launch into any more of his wild, high-damaging swings, Zach instead began to stab the boss with thrusting attacks. Had this been a regular human being and not a boss spawn, Moldark surely would have died after the first time Zach plunged the entire length of his blade through his stomach until it came out of the other end reddened and dripping blood.

705

Zach ripped out his blade, which dealt another 107. Then he plunged it a second time before removing it and stabbing a third. Again and again, he gripped his sword, thrust it forward, and repeatedly skewered this son of a bitch, who showed no sign that he felt any pain or even cared. Lienne, too, was hammering away at him with more of her spells. Rian actually had to scoot back an inch or two, as did Zach, as she went in for a third use of her Fire Geyser. She now looked just as exhausted and haggard as Zach. But at least they were finally laying down some damage. Through some miracle, it was all finally starting to come together, and within under a minute of their nonstop assault, they’d gotten the boss down from around 37k to 21.2k hit points. For the briefest moment, Zach began to believe they might actually pull this off—but that was when their luck took a turn for the worse.

Rian, as though finally reaching his limit, lost his grip on his shield, which flew off to the side somewhere while he himself was knocked onto his back. Now, Moldark hovered over him and began to thrust his sword directly downwards to finish Rian off.

Zach, as though finding his second wind, leapt forward into the air, rolled along the floor, and then spun himself around and activated Phase Shield a mere instant before Rian was killed. The resulting golden light was so bright that he had to partially narrow his eyes as Rian propped himself up into a sitting position and began sliding backwards away with a grateful nod. Less than two seconds later, the shield faded, and Moldark continued after Rian like a wolf stalking prey.

Even as Zach slashed away at Moldark’s back, desperate to take his attention off his friend, he could not reestablish aggro. Moldark chased after Rian, who thankfully managed to retrieve his shield just quickly enough so that he could block another powerful strike, and then another one after that.

What the hell are we going to do here? Zach wondered.

At this point, it became clear to him that they were not going to be able to win this battle—at least not with the way things were going currently. Moldark had now been reduced to 20,771HP, but the three of them were beyond exhausted, and the timer on Unleashed Phased was down to 2:20. Sensing an approaching defeat followed by death, Zach was now right about at the point where he was ready to activate Phase Reset. It had been a great effort, but this just wasn’t working.

“Don’t do it!” Lienne begged him.

“Do what?”

“I see that look on your face. Don’t do it. Please!”

Zach frowned. “I don’t have a choice. I’m probably going to die anyway. At least…at least you two don’t have to—”

“Don’t!” she demanded. “You haven’t even tried to use Wave Slash yet.”

Zach’s mouth fell open in confusion at the suggestion. He shook his head. “I need distance for that to work. And this guy can probably just dodge it no matter how fast it’s moving. Unless…” Zach took a sudden, deep inhalation of breath and rushed with excitement as an idea came to him. A last-ditch effort before he was forced to reset and bury himself in even deeper E-debt.

“Rian!” he called. “How long on your fear and your stun?”

“I can Shield Slam in 8 seconds and Bully in 11.”

Zach nodded. “Fear him in 11 seconds and save the stun!”

“Wh-why?” he asked, letting out a very-pained sounding groan as Moldark bashed away at him.

“Just trust me this time. Can you hold?”

“I’ll try!”

Zach once again began slashing away at Moldark’s back, but he had grown exhausted and weak, and now he was basically just delivering love-taps that hit for around 210 damage. Rian, on the other hand, was in really, really bad shape. He was practically lying on his back with his shield still miraculously blocking the strikes beating down against it.

“F-f-five s-seconds,” he groaned. “Ughh.”

“Get ready to run,” Zach said, breathing heavily.

“Who?”

“You.”

“What?”

“I need you to chase him. You have to!”

He nodded, even as he closed his eyes as though he were in too much pain to keep them open. Moldark, shouting out the same threat about “killing them” and “Adamus,” raised his arms and prepared to strike again on the badly winded Rian. But then he stopped, widened his eyes in fear, made a shrill cry, and then turned around to flee. Zach got in one last weak slash against Moldark before he took off, and now his HP stood at 19,967.

“After him, Rian!” Zach called. “Hurry!”

Seeing that he was taking too long, Zach switched his blade to a one-handed grip, bent down, grabbed Rian by his leather brigandine, and then yanked him back up to his feet before shoving him hard enough to send him stumbling in the direction of the boss. Rian seemed too exhausted to complain. “Just…” He gasped. “Just…tell me what…to do.”

Zach turned around and ran as fast as he could to the double-doored entrance from where he’d first come. Then he about-faced and watched as Moldark the Unbanished pranced around the room like a little bitch.

“Stand in front of the steps!” Zach called to Rian, who seemed to already be moving in that direction as though he finally understood Zach’s plan. “When he gets to you, I need—”

“I got it, I got it,” Rian said, bending over forward and opening his mouth as he sucked in more air. Lienne, too, seemed fatigued, but she was now standing by Zach’s side. “I’ll use Fire Geyser while he’s stunned, too.”

Zach nodded. “We might need every bit of damage we can get.”

Running around seemingly at random, Zach began to worry Moldark might not actually move where Zach needed him to be. But his fear turned out to be unwarranted as, halfway before darting back to the middle of the throne room, the boss came to an abrupt halt, turned around, and then ran straight for Rian in his seemingly random flight.

“Now!” Zach screamed.

His shield glowing a dark red, Rian bashed Moldark in the face the moment he came near the steps, sending an electric-like wave directly into him. Now, he was completely still—and would remain so for only six, brief seconds. This was it. This was the last chance Zach had to bring this son of a bitch down. If this failed, it was time for the dragons. There was no other option left.

Raising his blade, he shouted, “Wave Slash!” His body then began to move on its own.

With his stats far, far higher than they had ever before been when using this ability, Zach could scarcely believe the speed at which the green, semi-transparent energy solidified and reforged itself into a shiny, green, double-edged metallic disc, which took off far faster and gained speed far quicker than Zach had observed at any other time when using this ability.

From the moment of its creation, it had already been moving so fast that it seemed like it would cross the entire two-hundred feet of distance from here to Moldark in under two seconds. Usually, it would begin at a tenth of this speed, but this time around, it started off fast—blazingly so. And yet, even this turned out to be nothing compared to how much faster it would soon become.

The moment the disc reached half the distance between the double-doors, where Zach stood side by side with Lienne, and the foot of the five steps leading to the throne, where Moldark remained frozen and momentarily paralyzed across from Rian, the Wave Slash took off with such unfathomable speed that Zach saw a cone-shaped ripple in the air as it burst forward so fast that he could no longer even see it moving. It reminded him of his blink, come to think of it. It was sort of like how, after using his Phase Blink, he would—

Oh, shit! Zach thought with a yelp. It just broke the sound barrier!

Zach dropped his blade and covered his ears as the sonic boom caused the entire throne room to shake violently. It was so much worse than what had resulted from his Phase Blink. It was to the extent that the ceiling began to leak dust and plaster, and Lienne was actually knocked off her feet a moment before she was actually able to cast Fire Geyser. It wasn’t just the boom that disturbed him, either. The disc seemed to rip apart the air itself, leaving behind a trail of orange fire and smoke in its wake as it crossed the remaining distance in the blink of an eye. Zach actually couldn’t even see the collision take place between his Wave Slash and Moldark. But he did see sparks and pieces of green metal littering the carpet leading up to him. This told him that his Wave Slash, though technically lacking in any range requirement, was by no means infinite, as it would likely disintegrate itself beyond a certain point. Even still, he doubted that point had been reached—and indeed, it seemed it hadn’t, as Moldark was now standing before Rian with an entire arm, all of his right shoulder, and the entire lower half of his jaw missing.

12,500

HP

7,467/45,000

Name

(T1) Moldark the Unbanished

Level

18

“How the hell is that still not enough?” Zach screamed in both rage and misery. He was now right on the verge of activating Phase Reset. He didn’t want to do it. He knew it would guarantee the end of him. He knew it would eliminate what little chance remained that he might actually survive his existing E-debt. But what more could be done now? They were all exhausted, and somehow, the boss still lived!

But then something changed. A mere instant from activating Phase Reset and using another Unleashed Phase, Zach noticed something glimmering on the floor, which was now so stained with blood everywhere that it could no longer blend in with the dark red carpet.

Is that what I think it is? Zach wondered.

A beautiful, pure-white object seemed to be lying all on its own unattended just a few feet away from the one-armed boss with part of its face now missing. Zach, only just now realizing that Moldark was completely unarmed, also noticed that Moldark himself seemed to realize this too, as the boss turned towards the sword and began taking a single step towards it.

“Oh, no you don’t!” he shouted, causing both Rian and Lienne to glance at him with confusion evident in their expressions. He ignored them, as there was just no time to explain.

Zach, having dropped his own blade, bolted across the throne room at a sprint. The rush of adrenaline overpowered his fatigue, and through either sheer luck or pure determination, he managed to arrive at the sword first. He dove at it, his body sailing through the air as he wrapped his fingers around the smooth, white, metal hilt of the surprisingly light-weight blade.

It was funny, in a way. He now had only 1:02 remaining before his life ended, and yet all he could think about was how he could deal a little more than 7k damage in that short time. Defenseless, and with a large portion of his body missing while his right eye dangled out of his face, Moldark shouted, “I will kill you, adventurers! This is for stealing my Yorna! This is for siding with Adamus!”

Taking a deep breath, Zach waited a second or two to see if Moldark would try to do something—anything. But it appeared, disarmed, this particular boss had no further attacks to deliver. He was, for all intents and purposes, the same as a disarmed Skelly Grunt. Somehow, Zach doubted all bosses were like this, though. Hell, in the grand scheme of things, this absolute juggernaut of a boss was probably considered one of the easiest ones an adventurer could even fight despite almost killing Zach about fifty times.

“Rian, can you hold him down?” Zach asked. “Please!”

“Why?” Rian replied, still breathing heavily.

“What do you mean, ‘why’? Obviously, so I can stab him over and over in the face.”

His friend laughed. And at the sound of it, Zach finally felt like all of this was worth it. He was starting to really love these guys. “All right. Good reason.”

Dropping his shield, Rian jumped forward and tackled Moldark the Unbanished to the floor. Moldark’s only response was to wiggle while shouting that stupid phrase about “Adamus” back at him. Then Zach walked over, cringed in disgust, and had to force himself not to look away as, in a mere instant, everything turned from a boss fight into a Gods-damned medical procedure.

“This is so disgusting,” Zach said, plunging his sword directly down and into the boss’s skull for 1,211 damage. “Oh, God. That crunch.”

“Dude, you’re getting brain on me,” Rian growled. Lienne wasn’t even contributing anymore. She was looking away—intentionally faced in the opposite direction.

“This is so, so disgusting. I can’t do this. You do it, Rian.”

“I’m the one holding him down!”

“I feel like a Gods-damned psychopath. Like a serial killer.”

“It’s not a real person!”

“It bleeds like one!”

Again and again, Zach turned the thing’s entire face to mush. He even managed to shut it up during its “catch phrase.” With most of its mouth removed, its voice cut off, and its tongue continued to wiggle around as though trying to create speech. Zach had become so soaked in blood that probably looked like he’d jumped into a pool of it. Ultimately, though, it only took about fifteen seconds of constant stabbing to finally put an end to this hideous creature, and when its HP reached zero and it at long last vanished into nothingness, it left behind only the blood that now covered almost the entire throne room where the battle had taken place. Once Moldark had completely disappeared, Zach felt his burden become lighter as the sword in his hands vanished along with it. Then his emotions shifted in a fraction of second as his adrenaline faded.

With the battle over, he whimpered. Then he began to tear up even though he didn’t want to show such an ugly display in front of his friends. He was going to die now, wasn’t he? This was it, right? This was the end? Was it going to hurt really badly? Or would it be quick? How much time did he even have left in this world?

Unleashed Phased Duration

0:50

+8,200xp

LEVEL UP!

13(12)

Strength

+1 (37)

Constitution

+1 (34)

Current XP

2417

XP Required for Level 14

15000

Suddenly drained of all his strength and feeling as though he needed to sit down, Zach backed away and fell to the floor, feeling lightheaded. Or no, wait…he didn’t quite fall. He tripped on all the loot that had come out of the boss, some of it clearly being his, as he distinctly noticed two shining white lights, one green light, and a blue one to go with it. He didn’t even bother looking to see what had dropped, either. After all, what the hell did it matter now?

Rian and Lienne also seemed disinterested, as neither of them even looked at the loot. Instead, Lienne grabbed his right hand and squeezed, and Rian grabbed his chin with tears in his own eyes, his lips quivering as he muttered, “Thank you. I’m so sorry. This is my fault, buddy. Not yours. This is my fault. I fucking love you for this. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I’ll never forgive myself. Zach, I’m so fucking sorry, man. I’m so sorry. We love you, dude. I need you to know that. I’m so, so, sorry. This was all my fault.”

“It’s all right,” Zach whispered as Lienne began to cling to him even more tightly, swearing that she would find some way of saving his life. That Rian would take him to Angelica’s and someone there would be able to save him.

Zach was actually so terrified that he couldn’t even reply. He wasn’t ready for it all to be over. He was so stricken with fear that he almost didn’t notice or feel that something had just plopped straight down on top of his head in the same instant that a display of information popped up before his eyes without him willing or asking for it.

Quest Complete!

The Value of Friendship

Given By

The Catacombs of Yorna

Reward

2x Red Rejuvenation Stone, 1x Purple Rejuvenation stone, 1X Yorna’s Sword of Courage

Confused, a brown satchel fell off his head. Then, he heard another plop as something glowing blue appeared out of thin air and landed somewhere off to his right side. Was it that sword thingy? Zach didn’t care. He’d never be wielding a sword ever again, would he?

“Pretty,” he whispered, his hands shaking fearfully as he saw the two objects in the satchel. One was glowing blue, and one was glowing purple, but both stopped glowing the moment he grabbed it and opened it. In what Zach suspected—but could not be entirely sure—was merely a coincidence, the thing that was glowing purple was actually purple in color, and the one that was glowing blue was red. Both appeared to be stones of some kind the size of marbles. And for a reason Zach did not know, the sight of these three stones elicited a collective gasp from Rian and Lienne.

“ZACH!” Lienne shouted, now with glee and happiness, wrapping her arms around him and shaking him. It left him so confused. Was she actually celebrating his death? After everything he’d done for her? Rian, too, seemed to be in some kind of celebratory mood.

“You didn’t tell us you had a quest,” Rian said. Then he laughed so loudly that Zach was completely taken aback. “But forget the quest. It’s the reward. Gods, Zach. Gods! You got a fucking Purple Rejuv stone!”

“So?”

“S-so?” Rian asked. “Don’t tell me you don’t even know this?” he asked, reaching into the bag and holding it up in front of Zach, who at this point had fewer than thirty seconds left to live.

He merely shrugged, and even that felt like it required too much energy from him. Rian again laughed. “You don’t get it, do you?” Zach winced as Rian painfully ruffled his hair. “You’re not going to die, dude!”

“I’m not?” Zach asked, the faintest, barest glimmer of hope rising within him even though he knew better than to believe otherwise. Rian must have just been talking nonsense. Yet…at the same time, he seemed pretty sure of himself because he shook his head confidently at Zach’s question.

“This,” he explained, “is the second-rarest rejuvenation stone in the world, second only to the light stone. Purple Rejuvenation Stones are specifically for cancer and internal organs.”

Zach narrowed his eyes as another tiny ounce of hope added onto the small, but steadily growing pile of it. “What’re you saying?” he asked.

“What I’m saying,” Rian replied, “is that people have literally killed each other for one of these. Only the adventuring guilds are strong enough to get them, and it’s a big part of the way the guilds make their income. This bad-boy right here?” Rian tossed it in the air, let it flip a few times, and then caught it. “This is going to save your life.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah, man. I don’t know how you did it, but you found yourself an actual, twenty-million gold rejuv stone. Lienne, as soon as he passes out, use it on him, okay?” Zach turned over Rian’s words in his head as he watched his friend hand her the stone.

How much did he just say it was worth? Zach thought.

“Of course!” Lienne said cheerfully. “As soon as Zach starts going into E-debt, I’ll—”

“Wait, wait, everyone time out,” Zach said, suddenly finding all of his energy returning to him in one gigantic rush. “Rian. Let’s just…let’s just back it up a tiny bit. That stone is worth how much, again?”

“About twenty million,” Rian said with a laugh.

Lienne nodded. “And as soon as you pass out, we’re going to—”

“Now hold on a second,” Zach said, throwing out his palms. “Let’s just…let’s all just take a step back now and think about this calmly. Let’s not go just rushing into things just yet.”

“Zach, what are you saying?” Lienne asked, her voice suddenly alarmed and shocked.

“I’m just saying, like, we don’t know I’m going to die, right? We’re not doctors. I mean, who knows? I could pull through, right?”

She frowned. “You’re messing with us.”

Zach greedily snatched the stone out of her hand. “It’s mine!”

He glanced down at the object. Now that he knew it was worth twenty million, it looked ten times more beautiful than it had before. Surely, he could conquer a bit of E-debt, right? It was just exertion. Maybe if he started lying down right now and remained perfectly still, he’d get a head start.

“You’re going to die,” Rian grumbled.

“No way, Rian. I’ll survive for this!” Zach kissed the stone. He literally kissed it. It was worth twenty fucking million gold! He slid backwards on his ass as Lienne tried to grab it back from him. “We don’t know for sure I’ll die,” he insisted, resisting her attempts to take it from him. Then he snickered greedily as he stared at the beautiful, brilliant glimmer of this apparently super-rare item.

“Think of what we could do with twenty-million gold, you guys.” Zach caressed his new rare item. “Think of what we could buy with that kind of money. Now that I know how much this is worth, there’s no way I’ll—WHERE THE HELL AM I?” he shouted with a gasp, rolling off some kind of table and landing with a hard thud onto the floor as what sounded like hundreds of voices erupted into laughter.

He choked, coughed, ripped something that felt like a needle out of his arm, and again he shouted, “Where am I? What just happened? What’s going on?” He darted his head around, his vision blurry and unfocused. This place seemed—and smelled—familiar. But he could barely see. “What happened? Where am I? Who took me here? Where is here? Who am I?”

“Drinks are on me, boys!” a merry voice called, as cheering and laughter arose once more.

His mind was foggy, his vision only first clearing, and his sense of time distorted. Had he just teleported here or something? What was going on? He was mid-sentence in a conversation with Rian and Lienne, and he was trying to explain something about a purple stone to them when…when what? What in the hell had happened? Where was he? How had he gotten here?

“Zach, take it easy,” Rian said to him. “You’re in Angelica’s.”

“Angelica’s?” he asked, repeating the name. “No, no I’m not. I’m with you guys.”

“Yeah. In Angelica’s.”

“No, dammit! Not in Angelica’s. We’re on B10. We’re—”

“Zach, that was four hours ago,” Lienne interrupted.

“What was four hours ago?” Zach asked, lying on his back as his vision slowly came back into focus.

“You passed out from E-debt and were dying. We used the stone on you.”

“Wait, are you sure I was dying? Maybe I was just sleeping. Fuck!”

“Dude,” Rian said, laughing. “Your heart stopped.”

“Wh-what?” Zach asked, suddenly feeling a morbid sense of dread. “It did?”

“For like a second,” Lienne answered. “Now, though, it’s probably in better shape than it was before.”

Groaning, Zach continued to lie on the inn floor, barely able to believe he was here at all. He was sure that he’d just been having a conversation with those two. At what point had he been knocked out? Was this all some kind of trick? His head was still foggy, though it was slowly improving.

“These two saved your life, young’un,” someone said off to his right. He was a tall, bearded man with a massive battle-axe on his back and a shield that seemed to be leaking droplets of water, though none quite landed on the floor, seemingly vanishing a moment before touching solid ground. “Though, I hear you saved their lives first.”

“Why am I here?” Zach asked.

“Rian carried you,” Lienne explained, “And then everyone—and I mean everyone—rushed over to help. As soon as we walked through the door, they put you on that table”—he saw her point from where she stood above him—“and a doctor here put an IV needle in your arm and everything.”

Zach felt around his arms. There was clearly nothing in there now. “Why? I thought the stone saved me?”

“It did, but…” Lienne made an awkward smile. “It turns out the purple stone wasn’t enough to save you. We needed a two-million-gold Yellow Rejuvenation Stone as well, because even though we’d saved your heart and lungs, the blood loss from your fight with Moldark turned out to be too much for you to handle while knocked out. You started to go cold, and your body temperature was really low.”

Zach gulped. “I don’t have two-million gold!”

Lienne helped him back to his feet, then said, “Don’t worry. It was donated. By him, actually,” she said, pointing to the tall, bearded adventurer who had just been speaking to them. “Actually, lots of people came forward to donate stones. Everyone here really sticks together when a fellow adventurer’s dying. It’s kind of cool. There wasn’t a single person who didn’t want to help. Angelica was the first person to help carry you to the table, actually. And that’s when this guy”—she pointed to him—“gave you one of his yellows.”

“Yeah, really cool,” Zach muttered. To the man, he bowed his head. “Thank you. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

“Ye already have,” the man said with a cheerful smile.

“I have?”

He nodded. “Two red stones are worth about the same as a yellow. Your friend paid us back.”

Zach blinked. “He did what now? Wait, I still had two-million-gold worth of shit left? And you…” Zach clenched his hand into a fist and tried to control his temper. “Rian!”

His friend laughed. “I’m sorry, but it was the right thing to do.”

“What about all our other loot.”

“Oh, we got a shit ton. Don’t worry. We’ll divvy it up later. I’ve got it all in storage—along with your old sword, too, but you’ll probably want the new one. But like I said, we can divvy up everything later.”

Zach frowned. “If by ‘divvy it up,’ you mean give all of it to me because I saved your lives at the risk of mine, then yeah.”

“That’s not how being in a party works,” Lienne said, crossing her arms.

“Aye, that indeed is not how it do work,” the bearded guy agreed.

“Yeah, that’s not how it works!” Angelica shouted at him from behind the bar.

“Yeah, kid, it doesn’t work that way,” some woman said to him, giving him a wink and then downing her beer.

“It doesn’t work that way,” someone sang into the mic, changing the words from whatever the lyrics had been of whatever song they had been singing.

Zach waved at all of them. “Okay, yeah, got it. Thanks.”

“Doesn’t work that way,” Angelica said again, pulling up a chair that seemed intended for him and then setting down a giant plate of food. Of all things, she kissed him on his forehead and then patted him on top of his head before hurrying on her way. Then two more adventurers patted him on the shoulder. “Doesn’t work that way,” they said.

“Got it,” Zach grumbled. “Thanks, everyone.”

“For sure, for sure,” someone with a sword the size of a light pole said. “But it’s important ye get it through yer head: that’s not how it works.”

“Exactly. It just doesn’t work that way,” yet another woman said.

“Okay!” Zach shouted at all of them. “I get it, okay? It doesn’t work that—”

“It not work that way, Zach!” Fluffles hissed at him. Wait, why the fuck was Fluffles here? When had this happened? “Zach is a greedy human,” the cat said. “He try not to share loot on raid. Even Fluffles share loot. Zach not follow rules!”

What the hell is going on?

Zach was so confused. But at least he was alive. And apparently, for a brief moment in time, he’d been rich, too. Now he was poor again. He might have just broken the world record for the fastest that anyone had ever gone from rich to poor. Zach moaned. This was so unfair.