Kyle stood staring down the first tunnel taken over by the dungeon, the other Serenity members gathered behind him. The destruction they had left behind them the first time they went by was completely gone, the tunnel looked as if nothing had occurred here at all. It pissed him off, as if the dungeon was showing off just how much damage they had actually done.
"This is where it starts" Kyle explained to the rest, having already told them everything he knew about the dungeon as they followed a couple Dwarven miners through the tunnels. This was the last part he had yet to tell them.
Birse studied the tunnel briefly before glancing back "Ch, Woody take care of it."
The two of them stepped ahead of the group "I'll get the roof" Ch told the unicorn man as he walked over to the left wall of the tunnel, placing his right hand on it's surface and closing his eyes.
"Guess I get the floor" Wood mused as he crouched down and placed his open palms on the ground.
Suddenly the tunnel's ceiling exploded with roots growing out, Skeletons struggled to get out of the root's grip as they hung them by the neck. Slowly the ground beneath each hanging skeleton rose as another skeleton was forced out of the ground, their hands and legs bound together by crystal. In total there had been 8 skeletons inside the stone ceiling and one underneath each of them inside the ground, making 16 skeletons used for the failed ambush.
"Let's move" Birse ordered and the whole group moved forward, CH took shots at the hanging skeletons and Woodstauk controlled the crystal up to their backs then making it explode killing the ones on the ground.
As they arrived at the second tunnel they did the same, Ch sending his roots through the walls then up to the roof and Woodstauk channelling his mana into the ground transforming the stone to crystal then controlling it.
Roots exploded out of the ceiling and crystal rose from the ground but no skeletons emerged. Kyle frowned "Something's up, the dungeon is playing cheap" he mused, the previous ambush also had less skeletons than before.
"What does that mean?" Ch asked as he released his hand from the wall leaving the roots to dry out and dissipate.
Birse snorted "It's harassing us now while keeping its main force for later, it switched around its strategy." he began walking forward. "Prepare for constant harassment, save your main abilities. Seren, Kyll, Ch, Wood, Skill and Steph gather up. Soren and Cherry with me front. Jacky and Death cover our backs." Everyone took the formation he gave them, heavy fighters on the front, mages and rangers in the middle and light fighters on the back.
As they moved Jacky began whispering to Kyle "So what's up with the kid?"
Kyle glanced back "He'd kill you if you actually said that to his face."
Jacky snorted "He can try".
Kyle gave a weak smile "From what we can tell, it has nothing to do with this world. Apparently he wasn't human from the start, not fully anyway. Our world, our reality doesn't contain mana therefore anything pertaining to magic doesn't take. Anything or anyone that is too dangerous to keep in world with mana is sent to ours, that is what we've been told anyway.
Sly is a half angel, half fallen angel actually and they use a type of mana called Astral while he began making use of another called Aura. Those two mana types don't go together without becoming volatile and explode, violently."
The others present listened in while still staying wary of their surroundings but Kyle stopped speaking as they neared the stone brick doorway. "Stay alert" Birse stated as they stopped by the doorway, he glanced at Cherry "Take point". Kyle focused to look into the room, he thought of a recent skill he had gained and activated it.
Cherry nodded and pulled his Warhammer from his back, he walked through the large doorway "Vanguard!" suddenly a bright yellow aura shone around him lighting up the whole room as he entered.
"Ambush!" Kyle shouted out and Cherry immediately stepped back, two longswords lunged out from each side of the doorway held by skeletal hands.
Cherry grimaced "Fuck the doorway" clenching his hammer he smashed down on the left wall, the stone shattered under the attack causing the whole wall to burst apart. He switched the hammerhead to his right hand and did the same with the right, the stone collapsed on the skeletons destroying them.
Birse glanced back at Kyle "How'd you know?" he turned fully to stare at his glowing eyes "Kyll your eyes are glowing".
Kyle blinked and the blue light dimmed from his eyes "That was weird…" he stated with a confused expression. "For a moment there I…could see them through the wall…" he explained as the others also turned to look at him.
"X-ray vision?" Woodstauk guessed as he leaned forward to get a look, almost poking Skill's eye out with his horn.
"No more like…I could see something where they stood. Like a blue flame, just like…" his eyes widened in surprise "Just like a soul" his surprise doubled as a notification appeared.
Through the use of a skill [Draconic Perception] effecting the same sense you have perceived the secondary effect of the skill [Soul Detection]
"Huh…I can see souls now…" Kyle noted as he blinked once more, the feeling of something pressuring his eyes mildly bothering him. His irises regained their light blue glow, the pupils morphed and changed into a black runic symbol.
"Now that's just creepy" Steph stated as they all leaned away.
Kyle narrowed his eyes as he stared ahead, dim blue flames barely visible in the distance. He focused on them and suddenly it was as if his eyes locked on and zoomed in, unfocusing allowed him to zoom out. "I'll take point" he told them as he looked at Birse for confirmation.
Birse nodded "Kyll takes point, Skill and Ch cover him." The two rangers nocked their arrows and nodded.
Kyle stepped through the destroyed doorway, his eyes glowed brighter as he scanned through the multiple flames only visible to him that lay ahead. Skill and CH waited a couple moments before following, the rest staying close to the two rangers.
Kyle's eyes moved in quick succession as more souls came into view, remembering the known outline of the dungeon he made a mental map of their locations.
The rest of the way Kyle pointed out the ambushes ahead of time, skeletons falling from the ceiling they stuck to, undead Dwarven gunners waiting in groups of four behind doorways, skeletons hiding under loose pavement and Necrotic skeletons hiding inside the doorways between rooms. In one whole room where multiple skeletons lay underneath its floor too low to be an ambush Kyle also noticed a group of four other things waiting behind the doorway they had to reach, he wasn't able to determine what the soul's owner was only the location.
"Pitfall trap, multiple skeletons in the pit and probably gunners behind the next doorway" he told the others as they studied the room from the connecting corridor.
"The whole floor?" Birse asked as he crouched down to get a closer look.
Kyle noted how spread out the skeletons where "Yes it's five by the walls and four around the middle, none of them are grouped up and their locations aren't random. It's one whole pitfall trap not multiple spread out ones."
Soren sighed in annoyance "What do we do? Can't exactly rush in expecting to get to the other side…"
Birse stood up "Woody give us a bridge" he pulled Soren and Skill aside as CH, Cherry and Kyle also stepped out of the way.
"You mean rainbow" Wood corrected as he stepped forth.
"You're a unicorn not a leprechaun, now give us a damn bridge." Birse replied as he rolled his eyes.
"Fine fine." He chuckled as crystal formed around his hands, clear white that refracted light. Wood crouched down and placed his hands on the ground, the crystal grew further and enveloped the floor around his hands then burst ahead shattering pavement as it went. The whole pavement inside the room fell as the pit was revealed, the crystal continued to form ahead connecting the two doorways.
Suddenly four undead dwarven gunners peeked their rifles through the doorway and began firing, the adventurers took cover by slamming themselves to the walls and out of sight.
"Jacky deal with them" Birse ordered as he glanced at the cloaked assassin.
Jacky closed his eyes "Wraith form!" his form shifted to a black smoke and rushed through the firing squad's projectiles, he appeared behind them and two long curved daggers fell out of his sleeves then into his hands. Immediately stabbing two of them in the back he morphed back to smoke as one turned to bash their rifle's butt into him, the smoke moved back and he reappeared between the remaining two.
With a spin he slashed off the zombified hands that held the rifles by the back, the two weapons fell to the ground as the undead dwarves turned to back away from the assassin. Quickly he threw the two daggers spinning into the air as two more flew out of his sleeves, he threw the new daggers at the dwarves before quickly grabbing the previous two. "Shadow step" he momentarily disappeared into black smoke before reappearing in front of the left undead.
With a crosscut he beheaded the zombie before pulling it close and stabbing a dagger into it's back, he let it fall to the ground "Shadow step" he disappeared again. Reappearing he pulled out the dagger out of the second undead, the throw having landed it in the Dwarf's forehead. He stepped back and kicked it in the chest, making the undead fall back. Just as the others walked through the doorway he crouched down and finished it off by stabbing both daggers into it's chest.
Skill and Ch along with Kyle who had summoned his [Slime Cannon] where killing the skeletons in the pit as the others may their way out, as Kyle killed the last one the three of them walked the rest of the crystal bridge and into the corridor.
Kyle's eyes widened "More up ahead" he stated with a frown "Looks like the main force" he added after moving closer.
As the whole group moved through the corridor everyone prepared their weapons and cast their buffs, some having to cast several times due to the single targeting of their spell.
"How many?" Birse asked as he gazed ahead.
"I count more than 60 not including the large one" Kyle replied "I think larger means stronger, maybe a boss or the dungeon?"
Birse grinned "Check behind us" he then ordered.
Kyle briefly stopped to look behind them and around "Nothing, just those up ahead" he reported.
Birse opened his arms gesturing for them to stop, they had almost reached the doorway. He spoke while staring up ahead "Remember we aren't here to lose ourselves in anger, control yourselves and keep in it. We're not losing anybody else, we're done losing people" silence followed his statement as some slowed their breathing and calmed their heartrate.
He then glanced back and at all of them "We lost a precious member of our family, the fault truly lies with all of us for taking this too lightly. We won't no longer, today will be the last time we walk under the sun and in plain sight. But for one last time we shall charge forth into the enemy, we have no tactic preplanned or solid information on what lies ahead but one thing is for sure. Nothing will stop us. Nothing will stand in our way."
He turned to again look ahead "Many of you remember when we took on those three PK guilds on our own? We lost that day, we were outnumbered but not outmatched. We took down many of them along with us. Today is similar except for one large difference. We aren't fighting for some online glory, we aren't fighting for some digital gain."
The whole group tensed up as they waited for the signal.
"Let loose, for today we will come out of this victorious. We will come out alive and well. For today we fight for a reason, we fight for our fallen friend."
Battle music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9GEPqBssVk
Silently the group followed Birse through the rest of the tunnel and into the next room, the melee fighters stepped forward and lined up in front of the rest as everyone studied their surroundings and the enemy ahead.
Twice as large and high than the first hall this one was circular in shape and had a large part of the ground raised two feet higher for every step through ten steps as you approached the middle, similar to a podium it took over half the floor. In the very middle a pitch black stone tower rose about a dozen meters high, metal spiked railing around the top. Above the tower multiple monsters stood, six undead dwarven gunners and one large cloaked figure.
Kyle immediately inspected the figure.
{Boss} Elder Lich (Reik' Azaghoul) (Arche Necromancer) [Level 152]
Standing six feet tall and completely covered with a pitch black cloak and hood while it's face was entirely covered with a silver mask depicting a horrified screaming face, the Lich was surrounded by swirling shadows as it stared down at the invaders. Held by it's left hand was a long staff of seemingly dead grey wood ending in a jagged green crystal that oozed out the shadows.
The Lich raised it's free hand up towards them and spoke an incomprehensible language, it's voice so hoarse as if nearing death.
Kyle briefly took his eyes off the Lich and studied the many skeletons that surrounded the tower, closer to the tower were a couple squads of undead dwarven gunners. Kyle grimaced at the sight, the skeletons were all Necrotic and wielding a mixed array of weaponry.
Birse began barking out orders "Mages start barraging the gunners! Jacky, Soren and Cherry hold the front! Rangers gun down their skeletons!"
Death closed his eyes and raised his Bo staff horizontally in front of himself, he moved to stand in between Jacky and Soren "Rise from deep below the darkness and envelop them with your light. Devour their flesh and turn their bones to ash! Hellfire! Inferno!" he chanted the two spells after each other and both activated in unison. A wave of fire constantly burst out from his staff devouring the approaching skeletons as balls of black fire shot out from each end, the blazing spheres finding their way to the gunners in the back.
Seren aimed her staff up high with both hands "Holy light of healing bend to my will and turn against these abominations! Wisp's Descent!" a fuzzy stream of white light began flowing out of her staff and into the air above them, a large bright white swirling sphere beginning to form. She swiped down her staff when the stream stopped and the sphere reached a couple meters in size, it shot down at delayed speed with the staff and devastated in a flurry of white one of the four gunner squads.
Wood hid his hands inside his pockets and leaned forward "Incomprehensible surge of chaotic devastation! Devour through their battle lines!" his horn gained a violet glow "Horn Ray!" the violet energy built up at the tip and burst forth in a three feet thick white ray surrounded by violet. As the ray of energy pierced through multiple skeletons another was fired, then another and another.
Just as Steph was about to cast her magic the Lich spoke again, this time it raised its staff high and the shadows surrounding it broke off from the rest and shot into the fallen undead. They rose as their bodies reconstructed themselves, missing limbs flew back in place or completely regrew altogether.
As the skeletons approached Birse barked out more orders "Vanguard hold the skeletons at bay! Mages continue your barrage! Rangers switch target to that Lich!" at his order the heavy melee combatants including him, Soren and Cherry attacked any skeletons that tried to get through while Jacky and Death moved to stop the ones that tried to go around.
Seren, Wood and Steph continued to rain down barrages, blasts and rays of magic on the army as the rangers took aim.
Ch raised his bow and nocked a single vine enveloped arrow "Growth of the deep green rise to the occasion! Vine shot!" the arrow flew true towards the Lich as it raised it's free hand towards it. The Lich spoke and a black sphere of mana formed around the top of it's tower, the arrow hit the barrier and exploded into several vines that latched onto it. Ch continued to fire several more of them.
"Take this you bony ass fucker!" Skill nocked three arrows at once and chanted loudly "Trinity of fire! Trinity of lightning! Trinity of ice! Trinity shot!" he let go of the arrows as each took on a glow of either crimson red, bright violet and dark blue. The arrows each changed course mid-flight and missed the barrier entirely, slowly they stopped and hovered around it forming a triangle.
With a crimson arrow to the left, a violet to the right and a blue up top Skill quickly raised his bow high "Detonate!". The arrows exploded into a blaze of crimson fire, burst of violet lightening and blast of freezing cold air that each enveloped the vine covered barrier from different corners. When the attack subsided cracks that had formed could be clearly seen.
Kyle was already chanting as he aimed his cannon "Pierce through! Tear away and destroy! Demonic Rounds!" the single large black projectile spun rapidly as it shot forward, the vines from Ch's attack moved out of it's way as it collided with the barrier. A loud crack reverberated through the room as the projectile exploded on contact, the barrier shattering at the point of collision as the shrapnel from the attack continued inside.
The Lich screamed in anger as the claws, edged scales and leeching slime barraged it. A couple of the undead dwarven gunners nearest to the breach in the barrier lost most of their bodies from the attack and fell to the ground. The Lich held onto it's staff as it clenched it's face, it's body riddled with holes, patches of red slime and mask destroyed from the shrapnel. Letting go of it's face it was revealed, an almost skeleton dried up Elf with pearly white eyes and no hair to speak of.
Quickly it reconstructed it's barrier and began raising the fallen gunners around it, they then took aim on Kyle and the other gunners but it was too late. Jacky appeared inside the barrier with daggers in hand, stabbing the two resurrected gunners on the way he rushed the Lich with his shadow form.
The Lich reared back and away from the quickly approaching shadow but it was too fast, Jacky appeared behind the Lich and stabbed both his daggers into the Lich's shoulders. The barrier briefly fell as Jacky leaped away from the Lich and off the tower, the daggers in it's shoulders pushed out by it's regenerating body.
Kyle smirked as him, Ch and Skill had already fired. The projectiles shot through the barrier as it reappeared, Ch's arrow the only one that was stopped only for the vines to reach around and inside. Skill's two flaming arrows lodged themselves into the Lich's chest before bursting into a blaze. Kyle's [Demonic Rounds] devoured the Lich's right shoulder before bursting into shrapnel and killing two other gunners behind it. Ch's vines managed to pierce through the blaze and break the Lich's staff in two before the barrier fully formed and separated them from the arrow, they dried up as the barrier fell again.
Death, Birse, Soren and Cherry held the front line as skeletons slowly died to their attacks, Death having to resort to martial arts by bashing their skulls in with his staff as the fire had done next to nothing. Birse's chains grabbed couples of skeletons before the large shadowy arms pulled them in for him to punch and smash to pieces.
Soren smashed his battle axe into the ground making it quake to keep large amounts of skeletons at bay as he hacked down any that came close. Cherry on the other hand swiped his Warhammer at thin air as blasts of bright yellow light shot out from it and crashed into a skeleton, any that came close he'd simply bash into powder.
Seren held up her own barrier stopping the gunners from firing at them, a bright shimmer of blue surrounded the whole group as Steph pushed her palms to Seren's back assisting in the barrier.
Wood casually aimed his horn at approaching skeletons and fired his ray of energy at them.
The brief stalemate caused by the Lich resurrecting the undead broke causing many of it's minions to fall, suddenly it came back into view as it stood up. It's chest was charred beyond recognition of skin, it's right shoulder completely gone and several holes still shown through it's body but it was slowly regenerating. It glanced back just as Jacky appeared to stab it in the back, raising it's remaining hand a black pulse of magic threw him off the tower.
Kyle, Skill and Ch shot several projectiles at the Lich forcing it to form flat barriers to block them, it's regeneration stopping as it used magic.
"We need to break through the skeletons! Get ready to charge!" Birse shouted out as he clawed a gunner he grabbed apart.
Kyle lowered his gun and let it turn back to slime ("Let's try this again!") he thought as he raised both arms up in front of himself "Monsters heart beating inside along my own, empower me! Core Overload! Through the power that courses through my veins, envelop me in your embrace! Slime Armour!" rapidly the florescent blue slime formed around him making him rise a couple feet from it's thickness. It enveloped him less like armour and more like a suit of solid ice that emanated ancient power, having used (Elder Frost) this time around.
"Charge!" Birse shouted as he dissipated the shadowy arms and was about to rush ahead, before a lumbering giant of ice stomped by him and into the waves of skeletons. The whole group briefly stared in awe as Kyle stomped over several skeletons, grabbed then threw some and simply clapped others flat. "Charge!" Birse repeated himself this time actually charging into the skeletons.
Kyle wreaked havoc upon the gunners while Birse, Soren, Death and Cherry with buff support from the mages began clearing the remaining skeletons. Skill and Ch moved forward slowly while continuing to harass the Lich, Jacky appearing from time to time to either assist in defending them from a stray skeleton or also harassing the Lich.
Kyle opened his arms wide as black scales formed all over his slime body, stepping forward he fully hugged the tower "Get!" he pushed with all his strength along with his full control over the slime "the fuck down!". Soren rushed through Birse and Death as they ended the last skeletons while Cherry charged the remaining gunners as Seren and Steph shielded him with their barrier.
Wood dashed ahead and aimed his horn at the top of the tower, barraging it with his mana ray it began to budge. Soren stopped next to Kyle and shouted out as he bashed down the butt of his battle axe into the ground, the quake displacing the ground and shaking the tower itself.
Kyle grinned from ear to ear as he raised the tower off the ground, the Lich stumbled from trying to defend itself from the rangers' barrage and fell off the edge. Quickly spinning around Kyle lowered the tower using its own weight to catch speed and continued to spin. "Batter's up!" Kyle shouted as he hit the Lich mid fall with the tower, after the brief crunching of bones the Lich was sent flying to the side and into the far away wall.
The battle came to a close as the slime giant simply dropped the tower and dissipated leaving Kyle falling to his feet. Everyone stared as the Lich lay still inside the wall in a crater of it's own shape, it's body motionless as it dissipated into mana.