HP: 71 / 620
The blow was even stronger than I remembered and my arm immediately numbed. At least the liquid darkness that got to me didn't apply any damage.
Bear got behind the deathlord and used the penetrating skill, his sword going through armor as it was nothing and exiting through Shai's stomach. Daggers, still with crippled legs, put her blades through slits into Shai's knees.
The Blademaster opened her arms, and an invisible energy blew us about ten meters away. I took the last icebomb from my purse as I threw a fireball at her. She punched the spell mid-air and kept coming at me.
<Bear, grab her! Daggers, open her helmet!> I raised my shield.
She moved even faster than I remembered. Right before me, she swept her sword across at a weird angle and slapped my shield away. She put her sword in position to chop my head off and swung.
Bear grabbed her arms. It wasn't enough to stop her, but it slowed the swing enough that I managed to dodge. Daggers shadowed, screaming in pain, but before she could even touch Shai, the invisible energy blew us back again.
It didn't free her from Bear's death grip. His teeth sharpened and he bit Shai's armor at the neck.
There was no effect whatsoever. At least his teeth didn't break.
Shai took him by the head and threw the body at me as if it were made of paper. I blocked with my shield but the huge zombie still knocked me down.
Shoving him off me as fast as I could, I got up and leapt as far away from him as possible. He also got up and looked at me. Then at Shai. I noticed that his eyes weren't completely white; he wasn't in Rage mode as I had thought. He ran at the Blademaster.
I saw in slow motion as her sword swung at Bear's head. Daggers shadowed again, and jabbing her daggers through slits in Shai's armor, she climbed the imposing woman's body.
The sword was halfway to Bear's neck when one of the daggers hit Shai's armpit, while Dagger's other hand opened the Blademaster's helmet.
Shai's sword missed Bear by a large margin. The zombie jumped on her and his teeth found her face. The woman screamed before using the invisible energy to make both him and Daggers fly away.
As soon as she did, I ran. One of her hands was on her face and the other was swinging the sword wildly in front of her. I rolled on the ground to dodge it, stood up, and used my thumb to insert the icebomb into her eye socket.
She screamed and broke my hand. I punched her face. Hard.
Critical hit for 2.0x damage!
Attempted fatal injury for 10.0x damage!
3600 ice + 1200 frost + 1200 piercing damage dealt to Blademaster Shai (6000 total)
Small ice spikes pierced her head from the inside, including her other eye. A medium ice spike came out from her mouth, breaking teeth on the way out. She looked like a blowfish.
And still didn't die. Damn monster!
She did kneel and held her head in her hands, in obvious pain, but she was pretty damn alive.
<Let's run away!> Daggers yelled.
<I can't! Status effect holding me here! Just do as much damage as you can and hope she dies before she recovers!>
She obeyed, and after healing myself once just in case, I stuck my sword through Shai's head while throwing fireballs.
Bear joined the fray and used his sword as if Shai's head was a section of log he wanted to cut down for his fireplace. Daggers' daggers ripped through vital organs blindingly fast.
After over nine thousand HP, my archenemy finally died.
<Chop her head off or someone will revive her!>I yelled.
We did. It rolled away without dripping any blood, frozen. Just to be sure, I fireballed it until it became charcoal.
Then I stomped on it until it was reduced to a fine ash.
<Damn, ugly-face. You have some hatred issues.>
After spitting on her for good measure, I noticed a few Blackguards approaching a few hundred meters away. Bear had started stripping his armor. I did the same to mine.
<I do not understand, sir. Why did she not use any offensive skills?>
<She couldn't,> Bear said. <Being a Blademaster means forfeiting almost all skills altogether, for some other advantages. Just like the Blackguards.>
<That sounds dumb!>
<Having a Blademaster in the court is all about status. They're master duelists and lots of petty national politics in Valia is solved by duels.>
<Doesn't sound so bad. Why were you so scared of her, then?> I asked.
<If you didn't notice, she had nine thousand hit points, which should be around sixty points in constitution,> He took the big black sword from the ground. <And from the logs, I can guess her strength was seventy-six. Only two things allowed us to kill her: first, she underestimated and ignored your woman...>
<I'm not his woman.>
<...second, you cheat.>
<What? No, I didn't. Everything I did was within game rules.>
<Keep telling yourself that.>
Dear player,
The Guardian, Valia's anti-cheat AI, has marked you as a possible cheater.
Our analysis of your actions to date was not conclusive.
You are now under strict observation, and we are required by law to inform you that your game related thoughts will become available to us.
Yours,
V-Soft anti-cheat team.
Don't even try, V-Soft assholes. Drop this shit and I won't sue you for the phone call business.
We have revised our anti-cheat policy and concluded that your actions were within game boundaries.
Your game-related thoughts will stop being streamed to our human staff.
We thank you for your cooperation and wish you a good game.
Yours,
V-Soft anti-cheat team.
Jackasses.
<Now, any ideas on how to kill one, two, three... Four Blackguards?>
<Ice spikes in their heads?> Bear was now putting Shai's black armor on, and I was doing the same to General Garcia's armor. Bear was the tank; as much as I'd like the better armor, it made sense to give it to him.
Putting the new armor on gave me a level two encumbered status, but with four Blackguards coming my way, I wouldn't be able to dodge them even if I were naked.
<Sure. Lemme shit some icebombs, and we are done. Any useful ideas?>
I was out of tricks. No zombie clan to use, no trinkets, no- Wait, I had a few toys left.
Taking some of the raw ores from the ginger dwarf, I distributed the smaller ones to Daggers and Bear. Then I got into a throwing position, hoping the Blackguards would confuse the ores with magic crystals.
The blackguards decelerated. Then stopped.
<Holy shit, I'm a damn genius.>
Then they ran at us again.
<Well, worth a try. Good people, it was a pleasure fighting with you.>
<Look, woman, ugly-face is trying to be cool.>
<My name is Daggers.>
<I didn't ask.>
<Sir, can I kill him?>
<Maybe later, we need him for now. Bear, Rage time. Daggers->
<I can't,> Bear interrupted me.
<Huh?> Looking at his stamina, I noticed he had only about a hundred left; the Rage skill cost more than that.
My own stamina was almost depleted; taking hundreds of points of damage had drained our stamina away. While the Blackguards should be in much better shape-
<Wait a second. Daggers, if the Blackguards are immune to divine magic, why did they run away?>
<I do not know, sir. The Ruined Kings called them rogues, though. I heard that going rogue is very unhealthy.>
<Thank goodness. Go kill them; I'll give you ranged support. Bear, stay close to me and try to tank whoever gets close.>
<Sir, I do not have legs.>
<Sure you do; it'll just be a little painful. All that talk about hell training, and you'll give up on a few broken legs?>
Her hood faced me in silence for a long time. Then, screaming in unimaginable pain, she pus
hed herself from the ground and stood up.
<Damn, son!> Bear said.
<I should not have encouraged you to be a good staff sergeant, sir. They suck.>
<Don't lie; you love my manliness. Thankfully, you're the only legit Blackguard around, which means you are the only one with okay stamina. Bear, confirm with your Destiny Spirit if the battle is over. Is it? Good. Now, Daggers, go have fun.>
She went, her legs making weird crackling sounds that made me gulp. That was a tough girl.
My fireballs flew, and I managed to kill one of the rogues before he could get close. They tried to cut my spells midair or to dodge them, but I was too good with my controller trait.
Daggers engaged one, and they fought almost like mirrors, jumping and dodging and parrying. She got hit more than her enemy, and was slightly slow – especially when moving with her legs – but it was only a matter of time before her stamina advantage made her victorious.
A second dude died right before me, after taking multiple fireballs to the face. At the same time, I ran out of MP. Bear engaged the remaining one and I fell back a little from them.
Bear became a punching bag, but an active one. When the Blackguard tried to shadow away from him and come to me, he used the Typhoon skill and knocked the drow off balance enough that he wasted the shadow time.
Daggers and her opponent shadowed together. I saw nothing but a blur and blood pouring. When the shadows stopped, one cloaked person dropped dead, and the other one was left standing.
Daggers HP bar showed about fifty points left. She fell on the ground next, screaming in incomprehensible pain. It was the second time she screamed like that, and it made me wonder.
Did I exaggerate a little with Daggers? Nah, she's okay. I fought rival gangs with a broken arm and lived to tell the tale. She's just acting girly.
Bear's fight went on a while longer. Then, the zombie dropped exhausted; his stamina was gone. It was my turn to fight.
I approached the Rogue, but he turned on his heels and ran like hell.
Following him was a no go. If I became exhausted before him, it would be game over for the three of us.
Sword in hand, I looked around.
There were a few ghouls and even two Challengers left, but they didn't seem interested in fighting. Most of them even took a step back when I looked at them.
Finally, I sat on the ground.
<Well, that was fun. Totally not what I expected, and much less profitable, but definitely fun.>
I had achieved my primary goal: lowering the amount of Challengers. I had also achieved a secondary goal: destroying the Slums. For the remainder of my time in Valia, General Garcia and the White Tree clan would hunt me.
The specters knights' and ghouls' interference had been a surprise, but the sheer power of the Ruined Kings...
They did a lot of killing, but if it weren't for my setup, it wouldn't have been possible. Just like father advised, I had let my enemies kill themselves. By accident, but it still felt damn good.
Now, divine magic... That was the kind of magic I wanted. My next long-term objective was either allying with the Ruined Kings or learning divine magic myself.
I expected lots of training in the jungle in my immediate future, though.
<Fun? Look, woman. Ugly-face likes to be toasted alive, be pierced by ice spikes, fly in hurricanes and almost die to a Blademaster. He's a masochist.>
<My name is Daggers. Call me woman one more time, and I will kill you.>
<Calm down, woman, I-> Daggers screamed in fury and pierced the floor with a dagger. Then with another one. Slowly, she crawled in Bear's direction.
<Holy cow, bro. Where did you find this one?>
That made me smile. <I put an ad on Ter'nodril: 'Looking for a random woman. Pay in broken bones.' She couldn't resist.>
She kept coming.
<Uh... Ugly-face? You're gonna save me from her, right?>
I put my weight on my arms and leaned back a little.
<Sure. Why do you ask?>
<Jack, I'm not joking. Don't let her kill me. Not after all this.>
<Don't worry, pal. I got your back. Hey, Daggers, if I somehow fail to save him, dibs on the armor, alright?>
<Man, this isn't funny!> She was a meter away from him. <Jack!>
I was about to get up when the air suddenly became heavy. I felt as if I was being crushed by an invisible force and Daggers stopped moving, screaming in pain yet again.
"Jack Thorn. Just who I was looking for."
Looking back, I saw a lich in a black and gold robe. The gray flames that were his eyes were burning fiercely.
"Well, hello, Manhart. I have to survive the next two hours. Could you kill me only after that, please?"
"As much as I take pleasure in taking the life away from most beings, you aren't among my current targets. I understand I owe you some quest rewards. And I need your help. The drow betrayed me."
"My help? I'm sure you know more qualified people. What about Tardas?"
"Tardas? Marbareus' slave? What of him?"
"What do you mean? Didn't he call you and make you swear a divine vow?"
He looked at me in silence for a few seconds. "We clearly need to talk. Come, I'll protect you. Unless the Ruined Kings take a special interest in me, no one in a two-hour radius could defeat me."
I sighed deeply, lay on the floor, and closed my eyes, ignoring the blinking exclamation points at the edge of my vision for now.
An NPC was promising to protect me.
The world had just gone full crazy mode.
Jack Thorn
Unbound Deathlord
Legendary Spotter, Hedge Wizard, Pioneer, Dark Archmage
Level 20
Hit Points:71 / 620
Mana Points:4 / 950
Stamina:78 / 305
Attributes:
Strength:19
Agility:17 – 4 [Debuff]
Dexterity:19
Constitution:14
Intelligence:18 + 2 [Items]
Perception:16 + 10 [Items]
Willpower:18
Charisma:8
Traits:
© Adept Controller:22
© Adept Energizer:14
Adept Mage:12 + 10 [Items]
Scout:3
Athlete:2
Diviner:2
Gold Digger:2
Meditator:2
Scavenger:2
Shadow:2
Antimage:1
Crafter:1
Healer:1
Herbalist:1
Mind Seer:1
Negotiator:1
Nitpicker:1
Ranger:1
Strategist:1
Tactician:1
Warrior:1
28. If You Can't Win
'I love you.'
- Aunt
"Before we talk, I need to know one vital thing." An hour and a half after the end of the battle, I sat on a metal chair in a small cave chamber. It only had ten chairs and a table, nothing else. I kept a Fire of Revelation spell going for Bear; he couldn't see in the dark.
I was half-tempted to just kill him for his armor and Deathlord Shai's sword, but that talk could wait. At least the way he looked at me made it clear he understood the implications of taking the loot on Shai's body for himself.
"What is it?" Manhart asked with his raspy voice. He had healed us all – including Daggers, by using life magic – and led us to the cave.
"Duels. How the hell do I refuse them?"
"You can't."
"What? Why? That's bullshit; people can't be allowed just to call others into duels without consequences."
"You are confounding things. I said you can't refuse duels. In Valia, it usually takes a skill to cancel another skill. Unless you unlock the Duels skill-tree, or any other with a status removal skill, you can't refuse duels."
That made sense, I guess.
"However," he continued, "calling individuals into duels without their verbal acceptance is considered u
nlawful aggression in most countries, including Underworld ones. Yet, as you might expect, individuals who are trying to kill you oftentimes don't care about laws which deal with unlawful aggression."
"Hmm... Okay. So, what are my titles?"
"Sorry?"
"You're excused. My titles. What are they?"
"I don't understand the point of your question, Thorn."
"You're Manhart, right? The Manhart I know is supposed to be a truthseer. I did some asking around, and truthseers are the only ones around who can tell people's titles, just like you told people I'm a Hedge Wizard in that first Resistance meeting I attended. Now, tell me the other titles so that I can confirm your identity."
"That doesn't prove I'm me, it just proves I'm either a truthseer or someone well informed."
"Yes. I'll have to chance it being the first option. Then I'll ask you to swear that you are Manhart. Truthseers can't lie when they're swearing. I also confirmed that in my questionings."
"What about a divine vow?" Daggers asked.
"It'd not work. Anyone can swear anything by a god, even if they are swearing falsehoods; it's the one who doubts it who needs to call judgment. If he swears by a god that he's Manhart, and he's telling the truth, I'll suffer the consequences when I wrongly call judgment upon him. I'm not in the mood to risk it."
The lich just looked at me for a few seconds. "So be it. You're Jack Thorn, unbound deathlord, Legendary Spotter, Hedge Wizard, Pioneer..." He looked at my companions. "Do you want me to go on?"
I also looked at them. Both had gone through hell with me, and I'd need them on the days to come. I nodded to the lich.
"And Dark Archmage."
Bear raised an eyebrow, uncertain of what that meant. I couldn't see Daggers face under the hood.
"Ok, now swear you're Manhart."
"I swear my name is Manhart, the leader of the Resistance, the same Manhart you met a little after having killed the Fallen Spider Queen."
I sighed. Now it was time for diplomacy.
He had said he was the strongest being in the Catacombs, not counting the Ruined Kings. And he had kept his word about keeping me safe, at least until now. It wasn't advisable to keep pressuring him.