Chapter Twenty-Three: Noblesse Oblige
As I activated my skill 10 ghosty versions of fallen draconids rushed to Faerwyn’s side, another wail and another group of ghosts plagued Derzeri, one more wail and the haunting forms of phantasmal killer rabbits were floating through the ranks of the living draconids that had surrounded us.
I didn’t let up as the storm of dark emotions continued to churn inside my chest. I held out my hands and mana poured out of me spreading across the hellscape that had become the camp.
“Don’t just stand there! Kill him!” I heard the prince cry, but it was too late. Across the ridge, the recently deceased started rising as mana continued to drain out of me. Some tried to rush at me and hinder my skill, but it was too late as the echoing cries of their dead friends, both from their bodies and their ghosts, filled the night. As another of my newest skills activated.
Skill: Lich Lord (Regulator)
Skill Rank: F
Investment: 1 / 45
Skill Description: You can now raise any corpse to become a deathsworn minion. They do not count against your total, and can not be bonded. They gain 1% of their previous attributes per 1% mana used to resurrect them. Their bodies can be repaired at an equal cost of mana.
Rank Up Effect: Doubles the effectiveness of resurrection and healing done during mana infusion.
I didn’t use a lot of mana for every corpse, but just enough to get them going and cause mayhem and fear. My plan succeeded as cries of grief and agony from the living met the howls of the dead.
“What fel sorcery is this?” Derzeri cried in horror as the first one I killed, Nerthian, stumbled over to him, others who had been torn in half clawed their way across the ground dragging their intestines behind them as they moved towards their targets. Half-eaten zombies staggered and began attempting to feast on their former friends.
“You wanted to find the Dark Lord. You found him.” I muttered as I reached out my mind once more. My mana was almost gone, but it would recover. Everything I was doing would only buy us time. I needed to buy our group as much time as possible if we wanted to survive.
As I once again activated Dominance of the Alpha and the hive of activity in my brain returned. This time I let the swarms of rabbits return to their dens. They had eaten their fill and did not like the type of battle that was being fought. That was fine as I detected four monsters already closing in. They were large ones too. Although the direction they came from was a surprise. I honed in on their minds and told them which targets to attack.
I felt a sliver of resistance from them for a slight moment and feared I would turn them hostile instead. The resistance ended and the monsters in unison agreed to attack my foes. After all, as long as they killed something they would be happy. These monsters were more than just instincts. They were sentient. I realized, and if I wasn’t connected to their minds I would have shivered in fear.
As it was when the four monsters dropped down from the sky a wave of fear washed through the draconids so potent that the temperature within my eclipse dropped significantly. The shadows intensified as from the sky the hellish monsters soared in, landing just in time to rend apart several draconids before launching into the sky once more to circle around for another attack.
Winged Nuckelavee
Level: 37
Type: Fae Monstrosity
Affinity: Neutral
As they tore through the ranks everyone paused what they were doing to watch the monsters. At first, they looked like large horses caught in an endless inferno as fires blazed from within their skeletal structure. Rotting flesh hung to their bones but never seemed to fall.
Large batlike wings hung from their sides powerful enough to propel them through the air, like a demonic pegasus. On their backs though was an almost man-like creature. Long, and thin, made of muscle and bone. The thing’s face was a dark shadow only illuminated by the fire that burned through its body.
It would have almost been a centaur, if you put the human half on the horse's back, instead of the human part being the human’s head. The arms were twice as long as a normal person’s though, and ended with long sword-length claws that made quick work of any that stood in its way.
Finally! I thought as the draconids were no longer paying any attention to me or my friends. Even Derzeri looked perplexed by this new onslaught. Between the zombies of his friends and the aerial killers, the special unit had finally lost its cohesiveness.
It bought my team desperately needed time. The time I needed to get the dark tide surging inside of my heart back under control. Time for my allies to regroup and think. I rushed to Faerwyn, lifting her still motionless form from the ground. She was fortunately only unconscious and felt light in my arms as I retreated from the center of chaos.
Grenthar had done the same, sheathing his blade when Derzeri turned toward the new threat and fetching Jeloqa sprinting as fast as he was currently able. He had been using more stamina than he was gaining during the fight. That fact was clearly drawn into his fatigued face as he approached our rendezvous point.
“I am sorry, this is really not how I thought things would play out.” My breathing felt ragged and worn. The output of mana throughout this short fight had long since given me a migraine, and I couldn’t do anything to fix it yet, as I began using even more mana immediately as I activated one of my newer spells on my injured friends. Courtesy of the healers I had eaten a few days prior.
Spell: Jilted Fate
Spell Rank: F (upgradable)
Spell Description: Can rewind time for a target at 1% mana per second. Increases damage received by 10% for the same number of seconds rewound.
I didn’t know how long it had been since Jeloqa lost her arm, but my mana recovery stagnated as I was using it up, at the same rate that I rewound her time. Fortunately, it didn’t take long until her arm magically reappeared, and I stopped the spell. Grenthar looked on in amazement, but it was Shialk who spoke next.
“For a dark lord, you are really good at healing people. I would say you missed your calling, but I guess I now know why you went around broadcasting yourself as a physicker.” I chuckled at the imp as I turned my attention to Faerwyn.
Blinking, I activated my Eyes of the Unliving and scanned the succubi’s body to make sure there weren’t any worse injuries before I healed her. Brain trauma could be tricky, and I wanted to know if I needed to rewind time for her injuries or if she would be fine with Vital Exchange. The risk of the latter was while it was faster, if her body required more healing than it could afford to lose in energy she could die all the same.
Fortunately, her injuries weren’t too severe. Activating my skill, the wound on her head quickly healed, along with other bumps and bruises. Energy flooded into me, as she recovered, and the migraine that I had been harboring receded some.
The two women would be in rough shape for a little while, but they would survive for now. Veli appeared by our side a moment later. Too hurried to sign, she spoke.
“Whatever we are planning we need to do it fast. The draconids are dying quickly but two of the monsters have been slain.”
“Shit. Grenthar, is the plan still the same?” The demon shook his head before glancing at Jeloqa and Faerwyn who were still unconscious.
“No. We need to take out the unit before focusing on Derzeri, but we can’t split up this time around. How many of the draconids are left?”
“Less than a third…. eight now” Velixen answered pausing a moment to look out past our temporary hiding spot.
“That’s fine. We each take 2. Moving out from Derzeri’s position, our target groups go to Shialk, Veli, Leo, and then me?” Grenthar commanded, and with a slight nod, we set into motion, Velixen once more disappearing from view as we charged across the battlefield.
As I ran across a hail of arrows flew by so fast they could have been bullets shot by a firing squad rained down on the two draconids closest to their prince. The arrows pierced their scales and black smoke began to eat away at their bodies as they began crying and flailing in pain.
The closest two ran over to try and help their comrades. I saw some healing light begin to shine from them only for purple runes to circle around the group, detonating the area with dark flames as more arrows struck their targets. A moment later a flickering shadow appeared and each of the draconids fell dead.
My group hadn’t seen the slaughter as they were hesitantly watching the skies for the winged nuckelavee. I approached them at a sprint, Abyssal Ruination preparing to strike. Derzeri called out a warning, as he cut his way through the risen dead with an agonized look on his reptilian face, but his warning was meaningless. With one cleave I separated both of their torsos from their hips.
With a thought, I infused some mana into them bringing them back to life, and caught both by the arms and launched the top halves at Grenthar's targets. They latched on and began biting at their comrades just as my friend's blade struck true.
His large sword erupted out of the chest of one before the draconid was kicked off the blade. Without slowing Grenthar used that kick to propel him towards his other target. The draconid turned with only enough time to raise his blade before his head no longer was attached to his neck.
The head spun lazily through the air for a few seconds before landing and rolling near to Derzeri’s feet. He looked down at the head and back up to us. Hatred in his eyes. Taking in his surroundings his camp was in ruins, his friends and comrades all dead, and the target he had been assigned to kill standing before him.
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“You fucking assholes!” Derzeri spat at us, his spit hissing acidicly as it made contact with the ground.
“I am sorry your highness. I do regret that matters came to this. I understand you were only doing your duty, but we adventurers have our own code we stick to.” Grenthar apologized while taking a defensive stance in front of me.
“I don’t give a fuck about your code. Don’t bring duty into this. Adventurers don’t know the first thing about duty. You are nothing but abominations, a blight to this world. You-” He began coughing as a full-powered void bolt hit him in the throat.
“I’m sorry, but can you cut to the fucking chase. We don’t need a last-minute monologue.” I groaned audibly as I began summoning more deathsworn. The others had long since been defeated apart from Talon, and Wuzzy. This time I pictured something that would have better defense against blades and fire.
Around me, 8 large turtle figures appeared. They were bulky monstrosities with thick shells. I smiled at them as a thought passed my mind. If Nintendo saw me using these I would probably get sued. Each one of them was the final evolution of the starting water Pokemon in the first-gen games.
While they wouldn’t use water attacks, their size, and their shells should help them avoid being torn apart by blade or claw. Maybe even prevent some of the fiery attacks from roasting them out of existence. Derzeri looked at them and scoffed as he regained composure. He turned his eyes to me and in the flickering firelight his golden eyes seemed to glow with a rage that echoed in my soul.
There was an expression in his eyes and I don’t know if it was my history with games, lore, or my luck. But I knew what was about to happen before the change. At the worst possible time, I was greeted by another flashback.
“What is that saying, don’t count your chickens before they hatch?” My friend laughed as we fought the boss. I was desperately hitting every button on my keyboard, I didn’t even bother using the mouse for this. We had been fighting a boss in an online computer game. My character, a feral druid, was ripping and tearing at the dragon desperately.
“How was I supposed to know that this boss had a second stage?” I asked as the dragon launched a fire attack in my direction. I activated the sprint ability and ran to the side narrowly avoiding the flames.
“Duh, because it’s a dragon. There’s always a second stage to them, or a third depending on if they have a zombie stage.” His paladin shone with golden light and aggroed the boss back to him. I charged at the dragon's side. Rend!
“Good to know,” I said as I once more opened up my DPS on the scaly bastard.
There is always a second stage to dragons, which was the lesson I had learned in that game. It had bothered me that Derzeri’s level had only been 46 when my friends had said he should easily have been 50.
Before me the dragon’s somewhat humanoid form rippled and grew, mutating into the true monstrosity that he was. Not a dragon with hands that could walk around like a man. But the true beast of legend. His voice became a roar until he spoke into all of our minds.
“You don’t want me to waste words? Fine. Prepare for your doom.”
***
Grenthar rushed forward, releasing a battle cry. As he did his skin shone red, and he launched at the dragon like a rocket colliding with the large beast enough to send him rocking.
The blow was only glancing as Grenthar’s blade barely made a scratch. Unfortunately whatever change Derzeri had undergone had erased the blight from his body. I double-checked to ensure that he still bore my mark and then rushed as well. Activating a skill as I did so.
It was disorienting as it had been the first time I had used it, but I activated Castle of Fealty and swapped places with Grenthar immediately placing me next to Derzeri and within reach of my attack. My blade bit into him and once more I could feel the blights taking effect. They were immeasurably slow on the dragon, but every little bit helped. The dragon roared and with a beat of his wings blew me off of my feet as he propelled into the air.
That’s just not fair. I thought, but Gren was already directing the group.
“Shialk! The wings!” glowing red arrows filled the sky a moment later centering on the dragon's right wing. An alchemic explosion rocked the dragon prince, but he remained aloft.
Derzeri rose another 20 feet in the air with another powerful beat of his wings and I could see his chest shimmer with golden light for a brief moment before fire roiled down towards us. Grenthar cast a shield over himself while I blanketed myself in my tendrils. They burned away but quickly began regenerating once the flames had stopped.
The nuckelavee had fled with the appearance of the dragon and I couldn’t blame them. I would flee too if I were them. I was beginning to wonder how the hell we would get up there when a figure shot through the air straight at the wing that Shialk had bombarded.
Faerwyn! She had woken up. Her trident hummed as she plunged through the wing, tearing a wide hole into it. As she reached the zenith of her flight she nimbly rolled and dove back towards Derzeri, aiming at his other wing. He flapped it which tossed him to the side, barely avoiding having his other wing punctured. Though the damage to the other wing was too severe and the jerking motion opened up his chest for attack.
The demoness’ trident carved a vicious gash as her body and weapon glowed with a golden light. Explosions detonated as her blade cut through the dragon’s flesh. Instead of falling to the ground, she spun her trident in the air like a helicopter and climbed upwards.
A golden halo formed at her feet a moment later which she used as a platform to leap once more at the dragon's other wing. Another round of arrows from our imp flew into the wing detonating and preventing him from dodging again. Faerwyn tore through the wing and began descending to the earth. Instead of crashing the golden light illuminating her body carried her gracefully to the ground before fading.
There was no time to rejoice as Derzeri plummeted from the sky. He still had enough ability to control his descent and was aiming right for Grenthar, once more flames erupted from the dragon’s mouth. A shield formed around the demon, but it wouldn’t last long enough to endure both the flames and the dragon’s landing.
That problem was solved as a dome of earth erupted up and over him. Jeloqa was back in the fight. Derzeri crashed into the dome, sending the earth flying, and breaking the shell. Yet Grenthar was intact as he rolled away. As the dragon hit the ground I commanded my shelled deathsworn to go for the wings. 4 of the large turtles attacked each wing, quickly ripping them to shreds before Derzeri could regain his feet.
When he did rise he quickly swiped at the undead, sending them flying and dismantling two. We had grounded the dragon but we were still in trouble. In this form, he wasn’t as fast, but he was a hell of a lot stronger. This was not a fight any one of us could win.
Feeling the mental fatigue as I did so I summoned three more undead. This time I made one form the Kodrilus and the other 2 took on the shapes of the winged nuckelavee.
I looked at all of my friends standing against this dragon, ready to fight to the death with me. I had always wanted that feeling. Of wanting to have that bond. Despite the bonuses to our attributes continuing to grow, we were wearing ourselves out at a pace we couldn’t match. Against a foe that seemed unbeatable. There was only one thing I could do.
I ran away. I turned myself invisible, activating spectral phase while searching for a place to hide. I needed a place I could be protected. To their credit, my friends didn’t doubt me. Jeloqa charged at Derzeri, earth and flames coating her body as she began to punch the dragon. Ice started to build up on his scales as she hammered away, each punch releasing a sound like a beating gong.
Derzeri knocked her away with a swipe of his tail as he lunged forward attempting to bite Grenthar. Arrows flew into the dragon's mouth and released a green flash as shrubbery and other plants appeared. That’s a new one. I thought in surprise at Shialk’s choice of attack. Until I saw the plants suddenly begin expanding as vines wrapped around the dragon's mouth and began constricting. Their leaves turned black as an acidic ooze started burning at the scales.
Derzeri recoiled his head and began snapping and burning the plants, but it bought time enough for Grenthar to move to the side and hack at the dragon’s neck. Faerwyn came sailing in from overhead plunging her trident deep into Denzari’s shoulder. A burst of flame came spewing out of his mouth as he roared in agony.
A light began coursing across his body, and I watched in horror as the black splotches of my blight began receding, his glistening red scales regaining their luster, as he slowly started healing.
We are running out of time. I need a safe place to hide. I looked around for anywhere my body would be safe while for the remainder of this battle. There! I saw a deep gouge in the earth, either natural or from an explosion it didn’t matter. I dove for it. I tossed a quick glance over my back to see that the dragon had shrugged off everyone with a beat of his recovering wings.
Flames were encircling him now, as he took a step toward Jeloqa about to snap her up in his fanged maw. But as he took a step forward green runes blossomed into brilliance beneath his feet and glowing emerald chains sprung from the runes binding the dragon. The chains turned red as massive thorns grew from them impaling the dragon. Veli! You are wonderful! I truly admired her keen insight into the flow of battle.
The chains didn’t last long against the might of the dragon, as Derzeri snapped them within seconds. However, it brought Jeloqa time to retreat.
Talon swooped down scratching at Derzeri’s eyes flying away just in time to avoid becoming a roast bird. As the dragon shot a wisp of fire in his direction. I was now within the crevice my body out of immediate harm’s reach.
“It’s now or never,” I grumbled as I began activating some using up whatever I had left to ensure victory.
Spell: Life Siphon
Spell Rank: F (upgradable)
Spell Description: Create a siphon between 2 targets allowing one to drain Health, Mana, and Stamina by 1% a second for 10 seconds. When that spell ends half of the siphoned energy gets absorbed by you.
I hadn’t used it this battle yet because the pace of events was too fast for it to matter on the smaller draconids. And while Derzeri was recovering now the effects wouldn’t have made a dent on him earlier. The expenditure to cast the spell wouldn’t have been worth the returns. With what I had planned I was hoping to counteract that. As siphon links sprung up between the dragon and each one of my allies I activated the next skill in my roster.
Skill: Equivalent Exchange
Skill Rank: F (upgradable)
Skill Description: Can temporarily increase the attributes of a target by 100% for 10 seconds. This will leave the target weakened by the same amount for the same duration after.
This was a skill I had managed to pick up from Veipos before leaving Shangrior but hadn’t seen fit to use yet. The risks far outweighed the benefits in protracted battle if I used it too early, and if I didn’t need to use it at all then it wasn’t worth the cost of the downtime.
I used it now though because in ten seconds this fight would be over or we would die. There was no way around that fact. Derzeri was too powerful for us. The difference in our levels had been too great.
My team and I had leveled during the battle as the army of draconids was torn apart, but that alone wasn’t enough to save us from our inevitable fate. We would need more than levels to win. However, the extra levels did give me a small confidence in the only thing I could think to do to save us.
After the fight with the adventurers, I had thought about what skills to put my points in wisely. One of them stood out above the rest. I hadn’t invested as heavily into it at the time only putting in 5 points. Just enough to be on the cusp of upgrading it to Rank E.
It had been a skill that cemented one fact to me. The system truly understood my heart's desire when crafting my classes. It knew the most fundamental aspect of who I was. I don’t want to spend my life alone.
All of my classes had some benefit to others. But of them all Dark Monarch was truly a class that was not meant to be a solo class. What is a ruler without those to rule over?
The skill I had obtained epitomized that fact, and while my team might not have been aware of the whole battle I had been suffering passively from it’s effects. The worst of it had been mitigated by spreading the damage to my deathsworn, but it lingered still.
Now I was prepared to use its active effect, and with more skill points to invest, I hoped it would be enough. This could turn the tide. With this final skill, we would either win, or we would lose. But it was our only shot at winning. I invested another 25 points and activated the skill, giving it all I had.
Skill: Noblesse Oblige (Dark Monarch)
Skill Rank: A
Investment: 30 / 45
Skill Description: Passive Effect - You now receive 32% of the damage that is meant for those you control, you also gain 32% of their total attributes. Active Effect - At the cost of stamina and/or mana you can in increase the passive effect equal to the amount used to infuse this effect for a duration of one minute. Active Effect - For a duration of one minute you can lower your total attribute score by any amount and use it to empower the attributes of those you control by the amount sacrificed.
Rank Up Effect: Doubles the percentage of the passive effect per rank, and doubles the bonuses of the active effects.
All at once I gave everything I possibly could to my allies. I infused all of my mana and stamina into the skill, draining both of them to zero, but not before I lowered all of my attribute bonuses to almost 0. Leaving me as powerful as a newborn human infant. But everything went to my teammates. Empowering them. Hopefully giving them the strength to survive. As everything I knew faded to black, I let out one prayer to the only god that seemed to matter in this world. System, please let them win.