Drew separated the head from the last Skeleton. Hemut was edging away from the purple fog but it would billow and roil over his legs occasionally.
“We got to get you out of here big guy,” Drew said.
Hemut grit his teeth against the pain as the vile fog lapped over his calf again.
“Go,” Hemut grunted.
“Not without you, and I’ll need your help.” Drew said as he put away his knife.
Drew pulled out a health potion from his gathering ring and offered it to the big rancher.
“Drink this. Should get you out of this tunnel,” he said.
I’ve only got two left now. And there’s two minutes left on those debuffs. We’ve got to move before more of those zombies attack.
Hemut refused the potion with another grunt.
“Not happening, you are drinking this and we are getting you out of here.”
The two stared at eachother for a long second until Hemut slumped.
He reluctantly took the potion and drank it. He immediately got some color back to his skin. Drew looked him over.
I don’t need an analysis skill to know he’s nearly dead. He’s got bones sticking out of him! And he can barely sit up. He could go into shock any second.
Drew summoned his mage hand again and tried to help the man up. Hemut tried in vain to find his feet but stumbled immediately.
MP: 23%
Debuff: Stagnate Health. (2:48)
Debuff: Stagnate Mana. (2:50)
Debuff: Stagnate Stamina. (2:51)
I can’t heal him without bottoming out my mana, and he’s too injured to stay up long, even with the health potions.
The clack of bones was the only heads up Drew got before more Skeletons charged them through the fog.
Three Skeletons rushed in with spears outstretched. And just a couple meters behind them, a Wight skittered along the ceiling using the claws on its hands and feet like a cheap horror movie in a B-theater rerun.
“Get behind me!” Drew said and swapped out his flame wand.
I should have burned them up in the first place. This is all my fault.
“You got enough HP to live through an explosion?” Drew asked.
Hemut took one look at the wand in Drew’s claw and then at the Skeletons and smiled.
“Badda Big Boom,” He said.
Drew fired the flame wand as short as possible. Using only 1% of his MP and a whole charge of the flame wand to make a small fire bolt.
It’s a waste of a charge, but even a little spark should be enough.
There’s a low growl as the purple fog caught fire and spread quickly to the Skeletons. The Wight turned to run but the flames caught up and passed him in seconds.
“Big Badda Boom,” Drew said.
The fire raced down the fog back into the cavern, there was a thump that shook the floor. The air in the tunnel was sucked towards the cavern.
Drew and Hemut were pulled backwards for a moment, then the explosion caught up with them and shot them forwards.
-
William kept one eye on the tunnels and the other eye on the three infant goblins the Goblin woman Yandas brought him. They were collared and stashed in the wagon.
One tried to gnaw on another and William raised his voice at them.
“Leave your brother alone! Don’t make me come back there,” he said.
All three infant goblins ducked down cowering and he felt a pang of guilt for his treatment of them, then the tunnels belched fire.
Vaylari, Pegg, and Yandas came tumbling out of the middle tunnel. Drew shot out of the right hand tunnel with Hemut tumbling out a second behind. They were all smoldering in a few places.
The blast was huge, it burst out of the tunnels into the cavern setting the piles of refuse aflame. The highly flammable purple fog was a fantastic fuel for the explosion.
Vaylari picked herself up, some of her hair was singed.
“Well? How’d it go?” William asked optimistically.
“How do you think it went!” She shouted. “Ask your bird friend.”
“William!” Drew squawked. “Come get Hemut, he’s in bad shape.”
Pegg and Vaylari noticed their friend then and they all ran over.
“Don’t mind me, I’ll be fine over here.” Yandas shouted at Pegg as he fretted over his friend.
Pegg looked at her and read the expression on her face.
“You serious? Hemut’s clearly dying!” Pegg said as he helped his friend into a sitting position.
“Yeah but he’s going to be fine right? I can take care of myself.” Yandas growled and stormed over to look at Hemut. “Just seems like you’d appreciate a gal that helped out in a fight. Maybe reciprocate.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We fought for our lives back there.” Yandas said. “ I thought you would have had my back is all.”
“What? We were all there killing Skeletons. We made it out together.”
“No never mind. It’s stupid.”
“I’m not going to carry you.”
“Oh ho! You carry me? That’s rich. Just because you are a big tall bastard?”
“Can you not see the dying man in front of you?” Pegg shouted.
“Yeah I’m done,” Yandas said. “I thought you’d be different.”
She promptly turned and left.
“Hey come on! Don’t be like that,” Pegg cried.
When Yandas passed the cart the three baby goblins peaked their heads out. They were each sporting a collar. The arguing had put them on edge and unanimously they decided to rush to Yandas and hide between her legs.
“No! Forget about you little bastards too! I said I wouldn’t watch you. Get off!” She shouted and took off at a brisk walk.
The three goblin babies followed her despite her yelling at them too.
Drew checked his Debuffs, there was still more than a minute left of the timers.
MP: 8%
Debuff: Stagnate Health. (1:15)
Debuff: Stagnate Mana. (1:17)
Debuff: Stagnate Stamina. (1:19)
“Drew! You have to heal him!” Pegg shouted.
“I can’t yet, going to be a minute and a half,” Drew said. “The Hag Debuffed my mana regen.”
Pegg tugged on one of the bones stuck in Hemut and the big man groaned.
“Wait wait!” Drew cried. “Leave those in, he will get a bleed debuff if you pull them out.”
“He’s dying!” Pegg shouted.
“He’s stable. I gave him one of my last health potions,” Drew said. “If you take those bones out he will die faster. Just wait.”
“That’s not good enough! Look at him!” Pegg shouted again.
Drew had enough of this whole situation.
“You left him to die. So don’t tell me what’s good enough!” Drew shouted, losing his cool.
Pegg stared at him with his mouth open like a logfish.
“I saved him! I nearly died saving him!” Drew said. “You will not jump the gun and make things worse! Now you need to wait half a damn minute for the craziest stupidly overpowered debuff I have ever seen to time out and then I’ll heal him.”
“Alright everybody we need to calm down and regroup. We can’t stay out in the open like this,” Vaylari said. “Pegg shut up. William. Help me pull Hemut back behind the wagon.”
William did most of the heavy lifting, but it took all three of them to drag Hemut behind the wagon. All Drew could do was watch his timers count down to zero.
Debuff Removed: Stagnate Health.
Debuff Removed: Stagnate Mana.
Debuff Removed: Stagnate Stamina.
Drew immediately drank a mana potion and his pool went up to 87%.
“Alright let’s get to work.”
Drew latched onto Hemut and activated both of his healing abilities. The list of debuffs was staggering.
Debuff: Impaled (9/9)
Debuff: Burned (14:28)
Debuff: Broken Bone (5/5)
Debuff: Bleed (4:35)
Debuff: Punctured Lung (1/1)
Debuff: Severe Blood Loss (23:45:05)
“How bad is he?” Pegg asked anxiously.
“He should be dead. I’ve never seen anyone this badly hurt before.”
“You can help him right?” Pegg asked.
“With enough time? Yes.” Drew said.
I wish I could tell what these debuffs did. If I had to guess the broken bones are draining his HP, maybe the impaled debuffs too. Are any of them capping his HP? Do any of them impact his own health regeneration rates? I bet blood loss would. And broken bones might too since that’s where blood is made. Is blood related to vitality?
“I’ll start with the lung and then his broken bones,” Drew said. "Then the priority is the bones stuck in him. I will remove those one at a time and heal him up. Or remove the Bleeds first to keep his HP up?”
“Dont ask me!” Pegg said. “Just get him back on his feet.”
“We’ve got trouble!” William shouted.
He had been keeping watch over the tunnels and was the first to spot the scorched Skeletons sneaking around the entrances to the tunnels. First one and two then ten. Here and there a Wight could be seen standing behind the Skeletons. In a few seconds there were thirty undead grinding their teeth at the party.
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“Drew. We will need some walls first…” Vaylari whispered.
Hemut wheezed and foamy blood spilled from his mouth as the first Skeletons charged forwards.
Vaylari fired off a bolt from her bow and it stuck in a skeleton’s head to little effect.
Drew switched out his earth wand. He spent a charge to put a wall up. It was ten meters long and six meters tall. It nearly reached from one wall to the other. The last meter at the top leaned forwards over the charging undead to prevent any from climbing up and over.
The two fastest skeletons were able to grab on to the wall as it rose up out of the ground. William caught one with his shield and sliced through the other as they jumped down.
“Anyone mind telling me where the Skeletons came from?” William shouted.
“I’ll fill you in later, just take their heads off!” Pegg shouted.
“Cover the sides! I need time to stabilize Hemut.” Drew cried.
Pegg and Vaylari took the left side and William took the right side. Skeletons squeezed through the gap and lunged at the party.
I need to support them. Hemut first, and then I burn them all down again.
Debuff Removed: Punctured Lung exp 550
A Wight jumped up onto the wall, catching the top with its armpit bones. Before it could scramble over the top Drew dropped his Minor Heal spell and summoned a stone bullet with his earth wand.
The Wight did not have time to dodge as the golf ball sized projectile decimated its skull.
Combat Results: Wight lvl 24 exp 1345.
Debuff Removed: Broken Bone (4/5) exp 350.
Drew caught a bit of the conversation Pegg and Vaylari were having as they fought side by side. Pegg was complaining about Yandas. It was his opinion that she was completely unreasonable. Vaylari wasn’t very vocal with her opinion so Pegg assumed she agreed with him and kept complaining.
”So you see what I mean. Women, am I right!” Pegg said anxiously. “Switch!”
The two ranchers traded places so Vaylari could take the front position and Pegg could catch his breath as support.
Another Wight jumped up on top of the wall, this one landed in a crouch and sunk its claws into the hard packed earth.
Drew hit it with a stone bolt and blew half its chest off at the shoulder. It fell backwards off the wall without dying.
Pegg resumed his complaining about Yandas while he supported Vaylari. She parried and blocked the undead as they clawed their way through the gap.
“I guess you never really know someone until you fight alongside them,” He said.
”Switch!” Vaylari called out and she felled another Skeleton.
Pegg jumped forward and cut down another Skeleton as it rounded the wall. He had some shallow scratches on his left arm, the one he wore his buckler on. Vaylari fared a bit better since she was a half step behind Pegg fighting around his flanks.
“Could use some fire over here!” Pegg cried.
The pile of bones at his feet shifted. A ribcage rolled and connected to a skull.
Hemut groaned as his broken bones shifted back into place. Drew swiped away another debuff notification and swapped out his flame wand.
He fired off a normal fire bolt sized spell at the bones before they could reassemble themselves. Drew did the same for the pile of bones that William had accrued too.
MP: 54%
The dungeon quest popped up into his vision. He mentally dismissed it but it came back again and he could not swipe it away.
Hero’s Quest: Save Exylandria: Restore order to her Dungeon. (0:55)
- Recover the dungeon core.
- Kill all the goblins
- Kill the hag.
- Kill the Dwarves.
Less than a minute? How does that happen?
More undead crowded the gaps on either side of the wall. Pegg and Vaylari were doing fine against the pairs of Skeletons that squeezed through the gap. William was in the gap himself and taking on two and three at a time.
There’s no time to heal Hemut and then stop the hag. And these undead are going to keep coming until she’s stopped. Hemut’s life is worth more than a quest.
Debuff Removed: Broken Bone (2/5) exp 350.
William sliced through a pair of Skeletons with a wide horizontal swing. Before he could turn the strike back around, a Wight stepped inside his guard. The undead monster struck his breast plate twice with its claws. They didn’t even leave a mark.
“No chance!” Williams laughed and snapped the Wight’s neck with a quick backhand of his shield.
“Bones are piling up over here again Drew!” He shouted.
Drew could barely see around the quest notification, but he managed to cast a fire bolt to light the bones up.
He took aim and set fire to the bones on the Rancher’s side of the wall too.
MP: 39%
Debuff Removed: Broken Bone (1/5) exp 350.
Hero’s Quest Failed: Save Exylandria: Restore order to her Dungeon. (Failure)
The entire dungeon started to shake and the glowing green and blue crystals that dotted the entire cavern flickered until they turned purple and black.
Purple fog flowed out of the tunnels and crashed against Drew’s wall like a wave.
“What is happening?” Vaylari cried.
“I failed the quest,” Drew shouted.
“What’s that mean?” Pegg shouted.
Drew flew up to look over the wall at the tunnels. More undead were pouring out, and where before there might have been 1 in 10 of them were Wights, it was more like 1 in 6 now.
“Guys! I think the Hag took over the dungeon!” Drew said just before he was snatched out of the air by a giant bat.
-
William swung his sword through three Skeletons, scattering their bones in a wide arch.
Combat Results: Skeleton lvl 18 exp 890.
Combat Results: Skeleton lvl 19 exp 980.
Combat Results: Skeleton lvl 15 exp 750.
William dismissed the notifications with a thought. He had a short moment to tear his eyes away from the charging undead to pinpoint Drew.
The Skurr was completely enclosed in a giant bat’s claw, but he had not given up. His Shirk pierced and slashed the giant bat frantically at the end of his mage hand.
Come on Drew! You can get loose!
Then the next undead were in range of his sword and shield and William had to focus on their spear tips.
He turned the two spears aside with his shield and brought his sword around to hammer the undead.
Combat Results: Skeleton lvl 14 exp 680.
Combat Results: Skeleton lvl 15 exp 750.
At the other end of the wall, Pegg and Vaylari were taking turns as the front line fighter. They switched easily from defense to support as each new pair of Skeletons squeezed through the gap in the wall.
The giant bat screeched as a lightning bolt blasted through one of its wings. It tumbled to the ground on the far side of the wall.
“Drew!” William shouted as he knocked back another Skeleton with his shield.
I need to push forwards and help him! But I can barely hold this gap in the wall.
“Drew is down!” William Shouted. “We need to take the fight to them!”
A Wight pounced on his shield, but William was able to shoulder the weight. He brought his sword up and swept it along his shield. The sword cut through the monster’s ankles and wrists. William kicked a Skeleton backwards and finished off the wounded Wight before it could recover.
Combat Results: Wight lvl 21 exp 1005.
Soul bound Object Upgrade: Melech Plate Armor Set (Soulbound): (17,567/16,000) Yes / No.
The prompt blocked his vision for a moment, a Skeleton’s spear glanced off his plate armor and snapped.
William knocked the Skeleton back into the crowd of undead behind it and considered the prompt.
Yeah. This will make my armor stronger.
Soul bound Object Upgraded: Melech Plate Armor Set (Soulbound) lvl 1
Quest Complete: Armor fit for the King. 20,000 exp
Alright! I completed the Armor quest! And that’s an astounding amount of exp!
New Legendary Quest: An Honorable King - Part 1.
New Arcane Attribute Unlocked: Honor.
New Group Interface Unlocked: King’s Court.
Warning: You are in a contested domain. Gain control of the domain to add it to your Kingdom.
Area Quest: Save Exylandria: Restore order to her Dungeon. Yes / No
A Skeleton smacked William’s helm with a broken spear. He refocused on the undead crowding him.
What is all this nonsense about new attributes? A quest to find a king?
The giant bat exploded on the other side of the wall.
William took down another Skeleton and was surprised to see that the undead were no longer pressing into the gap. Instead they were turning around and running in the other direction.
“Where are they going?” Vaylari asked.
“Guess they had enough of us!” Pegg laughed, then he saw Hemut’s poor state. “Hey! Where’s Drew?”
“A giant bat grabbed him,” William said. “But he blew it up.”
Actually, I haven’t seen him in a while.
William charged around the wall to see a massacre. The undead were tearing chunks of bat apart with their claws and teeth.
Is Drew in there somewhere?
William closed the distance and started hacking through the gruesome feast. Skeletons and Wights were cut down or tossed out of the way as William made his way into the middle of the frenzy.
“Drew! Where are you!” William shouted. “Drew!”
The undead ate with gusto. They barely noticed the armored man as he rushed past them.
A burst of wind sliced through a pair of Skeletons and Drew dragged himself out of the gore. He was covered in blood, and frantically looking around.
William stopped and stared for a moment as a whirlwind coalesced around the Skurr. White blades of compressed air circled faster and faster until they were a blur.
Any undead that came close were decapitated by blades of wind that circled around the Skurr.
“Drew!” William shouted and kicked a Skeleton out of the way.
The Skurr didn’t hear him. Drew brutally tore his way through a Wight.
Did he go berserk?
William sliced his way through three Wights, one after another and got a clear view of his friend. “Drew you are alright!”
“William! Dammit!” Drew shouted. “Find my wing! The giant bat ripped it off!”
-
Debuff: Flightless: Physical requirements not met. Flight skill and Glide skill disabled until wing restored. (0/1)
Debuff: Disarmed. (59:26)
Debuff Removed: Bleed (1/1) 155 exp.
All around him, undead ate everything they could get their claws on. Every part of the giant bat was on the menu.
My wing is somewhere in all this!
He rushed through the guts with a whirlwind circling around him. The wind picked up chunks of meat, bone, and leathery wing in a 2 meter radius around the bird. If any of the undead came too close they were knocked back by a blade of wind.
Drew lunged forwards with mage hand and grabbed a dark chunk out of a Skeleton’s hands.
“You can’t eat that!” He shouted.
The undead monster scrambled to take its prize back and Drew cut it to pieces with blades of wind.
Drew looked down at the chunk of giant bat in his hand and screeched in frustration.
“Dammit! Where is it!”
William sliced through the undead easily as he worked his way towards Drew. Pegg and Vaylari rushed over but stopped in their tracks when they saw the Skeletons climbing all over the giant bat carcass like ants.
“Ooof yuck!” Pegg said. “Why do the undead always go for the guts first?”
A Skeleton on the far side of the mob climbed on top of the giant bat corpse and howled. It had consumed enough meat and started its transformation into a Wight. Soon after, another and another had hit the threshold and started to rank up.
“Take them out before they complete their rank up!” Vaylari shouted and she ran headlong into the massacre.
“And keep your eyes peeled for Drew’s wing!” William shouted.
“His what?” Pegg cried, then he spotted the dismembered Skurr. “Oh shit!”
Where is it where is it!
Drew sliced through another Skeleton as it stood stunned, mid rank up.
I need to find my wing and then burn these monsters to a crisp! I will not be a one winged crow.
Drew climbed up onto what remained of the giant bat’s ribcage. From his vantage point he could see William and Pegg and Vaylari working their way through the mess towards him. Over 50 Skeletons and 12 Wights were crowding the carcass. Bones started to knit themselves back together behind Vaylari as the first Skeletons she chopped through put themselves back together.
Think! Think! My wing cannot be eaten yet! I cannot give up. Where would it be! It could be buried in guts. Or. Or. Where?
Debuff: Disarmed. (54:22)
Calm down, there is time.
Drew took in the scene again.
The bat grabbed me, I was getting crushed by the claw, and I stabbed it. I bit it and slashed, and couldn’t get it to let go. The giant bat grabbed me with both claws. I shot its wing full of holes with a lightning bolt. And it ripped my wing off before we crashed to the ground. Some kind of stupid karma payback. A wing for a wing.
Drew spotted the giant bat’s claw. It was still firmly closed.
The claw!
“Behind you!” Pegg cried.
Vaylari turned to block the Skeleton’s attack, but she wasn’t fast enough. The Skeleton swung its disconnected arm like a club, the elbow made it swing unpredictably around Vaylari’s curved daggers.
Vaylari yelled as the undead claw cut into her side in the gap in her leather armor. It grabbed a fist full of flesh and held on even after she chopped the skeleton in half.
Pegg fought his way over to Vaylari and ripped the claw out of her side.
“Get back!” He yelled, and pulled a bandage out of his pouch for her.
“Damn that hurts!” She shouted and swung her long dagger through the Skeleton’s head. “We need to burn these bastards or they will keep coming back!”
Drew did not notice their exchange as he ran to the giant bat’s claw. He wrestled with it, forcing his beak and claws inside to pry it open.
Please! Please be here!
William met him a moment later and the two worked together to pry open the claw. Inside was a crumpled black lump of feathers.
“I’m sorry Drew…” William said as he looked at the sorry mess.
“Yes! Finally!” Drew cried and pounced on the remains of his wing.
“Can you fix it?” William asked.
“Of course I can fix it!” Drew said quickly. “I have to.”
Drew activated his Healers Blessing ability and mustered up the courage to slam the jumbled mess of wing back into place. He nearly blacked out from the pain of the exposed joints grinding. The wing would not re-attach.
Debuff: Broken bone (1/1)
Debuff: Broken bone (1/1)
Debuff: Broken bone (1/1)
Debuff: Broken bone (1/1)
Debuff: Bleed (1/1)
“It’s in really bad shape.” Drew said with a gasp. “I’ll have to fix the wing before I can reattach it.”
William turned to see three more Skeletons rank up into Wights.
“Better make it fast, I think these monsters are almost done consuming the giant bat.” William said.
“We’ve got more company!” Pegg cried.
He pointed to the tunnels and ten more Skeletons and three Wights charged out to join the battle. The Hag loomed at the back of the group. She watched from the shadows of the middle tunnel.
MP: 34%
HP: 44%
“Head back to the wall!” Drew screeched. “I’ve got my wing! I’m going to burn them all to a crisp!”
Vaylari and Pegg retreated back to their side as the new undead jumped onto the carcass.
They nearly stripped that huge carcass bare. I won’t have another chance with them all grouped up like this.
Drew pulled out his flame wand and focused on a massive fireball.
A flame thrower, Backdraft, a Forrest fire!
But the spell did not take shape. The wand was out of charges.
“Any time Drew!” Pegg shouted as he threw Vaylari’s arm over his shoulder to help her run for the wall.
“The wand is out of charges!” Drew cried.
Several of the Wights stood tall and looked around. There was not enough meat to keep them distracted anymore. They turned and charged along the trail of fresh blood Vaylari had left behind.
“Fall back!” William shouted.
He and Drew sprinted to the gap on the right side of the wall to take up their defensive position.
Drew used the last of his wind spell to cut the legs out from under a group of Wights before they could charge after Vaylari and Pegg.
Drew was the first through the gap, and the heavily armored blacksmith followed closely behind. As soon as William was through the gap he turned on one heel and brought his shield up.
A Wight collided with his shield at a full sprint. It would have caught William in the back in another ten paces if the man hadn’t turned.
William sliced through two Wights, but two more of the undead monsters took their place. He had to step back into the gap to let them wail against his shield.
Pegg was taking point at the other gap in the wall. Vaylari took a few cheap shots around his buckler if the Wights got too close. Her breath was coming sharp and fast.
Debuff Removed: Broken Bone (0/1) 156 exp.
Drew held his broken wing close to his breast with his mage hand and ran to Hemut. The large rancher was unconscious. The wing snapped and popped, shifting as the bones moved back into place.
“Got to attach my wing first then I can get you back on your feet,” he said but the man did not respond.
Drew kept his blessing running on the broken wing and focused on charging his flame wand.
It will take me a few minutes to recharge the wand. All I need is one charge and I can blow them away.
Three Wights hopped up on top of the wall and grinned down at Drew and Hemut with their too wide mouths.
“Incoming!” Drew shouted.
He had to shift his focus from recharging the flame wand to switch to his stone wand. He launched two stone bolts in quick succession. One bolt struck a Wight in the chest, the other missed. The three monsters tumbled off the wall and scrambled towards the closest living creatures.
Vaylari and Pegg were focused on fighting a pair of Wights in front of them and did not turn at Drew’s warning cry.
“Behind you!” Drew screeched.