Polymath Redux – PROJECT: Hellgate (4/7)
Chapter XXVII
Camouflaged naturally by their blackened appearances, several aimless crows flew steeply above the city in an unnatural manner. Far from trying to escape from the chaos below, they seemed almost to be surveying the carnage. In fact that’s exactly what they were doing because these were no ordinary crows but summons from the [archer] skill category known as [Surveillance Spectres]. In game their function was merely to extend the map and track the movements of enemy players and detect invisible foes; however in the transition to this world they acted more like a physical extension of the summoner’s body.
Mordred could see what they were seeing and even the smell, taste, sound and temperature could all be felt vividly. Currently he stood nearby the silver pillar of light where the Baliazoural magician that he had ‘obtained’ was channeling the spell from within. The magician was already dead but was temporarily brought back as an undead using the skill [raise dead]. The magician had lost a lot of his ‘beauty points’ of a living being after being reduced to mostly bones and flayed skin as the undead.
In a trance-like state the magician stood at the center of the silver pillar of light and in his hand was a small white stone. This item was known as a ‘spell stone’, a stone that temporarily stored a single spell to be used by another person, so of course in that specific stone was the fusion skill [Hellgate]. Should the magician and the spell stone be destroyed then the raging within the city would also cease and that was the final goal of the project.
With a miracle Morgana came to deliver their weapons to turn the tides of battle and with Irina spearheading an operation to take down this ‘silver light’ she would gain much more fame. Mordred himself would bear witness to this entire constructed play and so as to make sure nothing goes wrong he stood near the silver light with a watchful eye. Several high level skills were active to hide his presence; [Shadow cloak], [Prevent detection], [vanish aura] and [silent movement].
“Good, it’s a stalemate.”
This was the ideal situation for the city to be in for Mordred; they were still desperate even with those weapons but they did not lose hope. In fact it was Mordred who was rather impressed with their level of competence and tenacity at defending their home. They fared much better than even the players back at [Hellgana]; those players merely ran around like headless chickens awaiting their deaths. Such was not the case with the inhabitants of this world; they knew how to move around in a coordinated and efficient manner, knew their objectives and priorities and did not drop their morale too low.
However since Morgana had delivered the weapons it was time to start the second phase. Following a miracle is despair; it was necessary to break down their spirits a little further so as to show them that they were weak. That even with a miracle they were still powerless and in the midst of that revelation a single adventurer would rise and lead them to victory. That was the stage play that Mordred had outlined and Irina would be playing the leading role.
All of this was necessary to make the inhabitants of this city believe that Irina and Morgana were beings that they desperately needed. That they would do anything to be able to stay under the grace of their protection; to elevate them into sainthood, nay, to turn them into messiahs.
Mordred activated three high ranking [Necromancy] skills. [Summon – Infernal Cerberus], [Summon – Elder Lich] and [Summon – Greater Armored Hydra]. The grounds beneath Mordred shook violently as three massive figures emerged from the soil and tore apart the lands.
The first was a giant dog, burning so intensely that the air around it was being burnt as well creating a suffocating pressure. The second was a tall floating figure draped in a blood red robe. It was unremarkable in terms of appearance, merely a darkened skeleton in a robe but by its mere presence alone it siphoned the life of nearby objects. Flowers, grass and trees were withering each second that the Elder Lich stood. The last was the Greater Armored Hydra, a five headed serpent with extreme regenerative properties, not only that each of its breath carried lethal poison that could melt a fully grown man in seconds. The worst part was that it was its extremely tough external armor scales that were harder than titanium.
It was unlikely that any being existed in that city that was capable of defeating any one of these monsters much less three of them. At best it may have been possible for the Dragon King, Aurendra Sinclair to defeat one of them but he was not here right now. He was at his own domain and would not come in time even if he heard the news.
Yes, the only one capable of slaying these monsters was Irina. He sent the Infernal Cerberus and Elder Lich to cause more chaos in the city while having the Greater Armored Hydra stand guard to act as a ‘final boss’.
…
“FIGHT! STRUGGLE! DEFEND OUR LANDS FROM THESE WRETCHED INVADERS! I, MORGANA DALTRESS SHALL GRANT YOU THE STRENGTH AND POWER TO DO SO!”
Another message was broadcast to the entire city by the use of the [megaphone] along with the activation of a new skill. The ultimate skill of the [bard] class.
[Heaven’s Trumpet]. A skill that temporarily increased by 200% each of the following attributes as long as they were within the target range: all stats, health regeneration, mana regeneration, stamina regeneration, damage reduction and skill potency. Not only that it also dealt light damage and crippled the enemy. That being said since Morgana was a doppelganger it only registered 10% of the power which only gave everyone a 20% boost.
Of course since transitioning into this world the skill had a hard time distinguishing between friend and foe, thus it was much easier to set the enemy to all [Hellgate] spawns and everyone else as an ‘ally’.
Rushing out of the Adventurer guild’s headquarters was a rather stout man in a suit. He was the guild master of the Solaris branch of the adventurer guild, with each nation having a unique branch of their own in the capital city. This man’s name was Edward Crane, a man that was known to be rather whimsical and playful at times but also knew when to get serious.
He had acted as the Solaris Adventurer Guild’s master for over 20 years and managed it perfectly well.
“What is this… I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Edward remarked as he gazed up at the large magic circle in the sky. Weapons were still continuing to descend with a magical glow and now it was amplified with the presence of the effects of [Heaven’s Trumpet]. Even Edward who wasn’t directly partaking in battle could feel the invigoration from the skill. Power coursed through him and making him want to pick up a weapon and start slashing at the monsters.
“Guild master Edward! It’d far too dangerous out here!”
Another man followed through, the vice guild master: Alexander Granate, a tall and skinny man which was a stark contrast to the guild master. They were both surrounded by soldiers who protected them from the incoming monsters and with the effects of the weapon enchantment and [heaven’s trumpet] everything was going smoothly.
Of course it was at times like this when people were starting to get complacent that the situation grew worse. Falling from high up in the sky and landing in a fiery ball of death was a giant dog. Coated in magma-like armor and flames, it breathed fire from its mouth and effortlessly picked off several soldiers in its landing.
“Wha! What is that thing?!”
The vice guild master, Alexander asked in a panic.
“A… giant hellhound of some sort? No, could it be the mythical Cerberus?!”
The guild master exclaimed with as much excitement as fear. Such a potent and strong monster wasn’t an ordinary sight but usually when seeing such monsters it accompanied a lot of death.
“Cerberus? You mean the beast that guards the entrance to hell?!”
Alexander squealed as he started drawing back but the gigantic beast noticed their fear and glanced his way. It drew closer as it drooled fire and magma with eager intents on eating and killing them, in that order.
After a few more seconds the oxygen around them started to get thin as they were all being burnt up by the sheer heat of the beast. More soldiers saw the large explosion as Cerberus fell and tried to join in the fight but when they beheld the magnificent beast they started losing their nerves.
Cerberus started tearing apart soldiers as though they were mere dolls. Not even blood or anything had remained after they were done being torn apart as the fire turned their remains into dust.
“What do we do?! How do we even kill that thing?!”
The soldiers started to panic.
“I got it!”
A loud haughty voice came from a distance and flew straight towards Cerberus’ face. A large explosive dust cloud was produced by the impact and when it cleared the figure of a slender man could be seen struggling on top of the beast’s head. It was a member of the OMEGA ranked adventurer party, Hywel Knight’s Wolf.
It wasn’t particularly that he had natural fire resistant but Rio had applied [elemental resistance] on him thus he was spared from being burnt upon contact with Cerberus. However the beast did not like having Wolf on his face as it tried to violently bite him off.
“Whoops! That was dangerous.”
Wolf remarked as he jumped off with an acrobatic spin.
“Idiot, don’t just jump in the first moment you get. Stay behind me and only attack when you get a chance.”
Joutr arrived on the scene carrying two large shields; one white, one black. They each had a special attribute that they guarded against more proficiently, for example the black shield was great against magic based attacks and white shield was good against physical attacks. When both shields were placed side by side they provided world class defensive traits.
Joutr moved forward to make cover for the rest of his team who had just arrived.
“Uwah… that thing looks super strong.”
Stella let out an unwitting cry. She didn’t want to fight this thing as she knew it would be a long and drawn out fight if they did engage it. However from just a small glance around they were the only ones who were even remotely capable of fighting this thing off.
“We have no choice but to engage. Battle positions everyone! Rio, Stella, can you place temporary enchantments on our weapons?”
Leona shouted out as she drew her sword.
“One sec.”
Leona’s rapier, Wolf’s knucklers and Joutr’s shield started to emit a faint blue glow from the enchantment. Readying up they set to engage the large beast. It growled at them as it registered them as a primary threat.
“Alright puppy, I’ll show you who the real alpha dog is!”
Wolf said with an overconfident grin.
“Wolf! Don’t engage yet, I want to stake out its movement and capabilities before we start.”
Leona shouted out. As an OMEGA ranked adventurer and a royal princess to the realm she was one of the very few people that had the power and obligation to defend the citizens and city. For this reason she needed to be able to overcome this monster and save the powerless citizens.
Cerberus breathed a powerful fire breath at them with Joutr’s shield only barely withstanding the attack.
“Shit.”
Joutr remarked.
“What’s wrong Joutr?”
Leona asked.
“Bad news; it doesn’t seem like my shield will be able to hold out for much longer. I’d say I can defend us 2 or 3 more times before it completely disintegrates.”
Joutr was a monster in his own right when it came to defensive stats, but if even his world class shield was unable to withstand this for too much longer it was just a testament to the strength of Cerberus. Having a look around the soldiers around them was being burnt alive as they didn’t have the protection of Joutr.
“We need to end this quickly!”
Leona told everyone and she was right. If the situation continued it could only get much worse in terms of casualty.
“What do we do?!”
Stella asked in panic.
“We have no choice but to go on the offensive to prevent it from getting a chance to use that flame breath attack. Wolf, can you keep it distracted with your speed and attacks?”
If Wolf could run around it and annoy it then it might be possible to prevent it from using the flame breath. Acknowledging Leona’s idea Wolf nodded with a thumb up.
“Leave it to me.”
Wolf accelerated using his skills and started pummeling the beast all over. Grabbing its attention it started to chase around Wolf in the same manner a puppy would chase around its tail.
“[Mana Arrow]! X30”
Taking the opportunity of its distraction Stella cast offensive magic to strike. Not just one or two but thirty. A flurry of thin missiles formed and struck Cerberus all over. However it proved not powerful enough to get through its magma armor and only served in annoying the beast and pulling its attention off Wolf.
“[Mana Shield]!”
Anticipating an attack Rio cast defensive magic in the area as Joutr Raised his shield. As expected Cerberus retaliated with a powerful flame breath, this time a little more effective than before and even with [mana shield] his physical black shield started to disintegrate in the inferno.
“Dammit… my shield’s destroyed.”
Cerberus drew closer with a face that almost appeared to be laughing at them but as it was about to rip them apart there was a second explosion far off in another sector of the city. Including Cerberus, everyone looked up to see what it was. Off in the distance a small figure draped in a blood red robe float around shooting extremely potent magic. Its face was merely a skull…
“E-e-elder Lich!”
The guild master cried out its name. With Cerberus he was a little excited but this time he was panicking for real. Everyone knew what that monster was; an extremely powerful monster that even dwarfed Cerberus, no perhaps this particular Cerberus may have been a match, but that didn’t change the fact that the Elder Lich was power in its own right.
“What do we do Leona?! Split up to take them both on?!”
Stella asked but Leona shook her head.
“It’s impossible, we won’t be able to! The best course of action is to defeat this beast before we move onto that one.”
Leona had an extremely hard time saying those words as it meant leaving the citizens and soldiers to take on that elder lich. No doubt that they would die and she didn’t like it but what choice did she have?
Cerberus regained its focus and was slowly drew closer in a dramatic manner, drooling an acid like fire as steam was let off after making contact with the ground.
“Everyone go! I’ll hold it off for a moment so scatter!”
Joutr shout out.
“What are you saying?! You’ll die!”
Rio shouted back in distress.
“It’s better than all of us dying!”
There was no time to think about their movements and Joutr grabbed Rio and tossed her across the battlefield into a safe position. Leona and Stella stared back for a brief moment as they honored his wishes with a solemn expression. It was impossible for them all to run, it would just drag the beast’s attention and they would all die. In this split second of decisions one of them had to stay back to sacrifice themselves for a chance for a counter attack.
Joutr had made that decision as he raised his remaining shield. If even a little this shield would increase his resistance. He closed his eyes and waited for the flame breath to strike.
However it never came, instead what came was a large impact and shockwave, followed by an explosive dust cloud.
Joutr and everyone else stared at what had just happened. A red haired woman fell out of the sky and struck the beast with her sword through one of its head. The beast fell in pain and was starting to bleed out. Unlike the Hydra it did not have regenerative properties to outdo the damage it was receiving.
Eventually after a few more seconds Cerberus laid dead and the immolation around it died down.
“Tsk. Weak. You’re all weak.”
The woman spoke as she looked down on all of them, both literally and figuratively.
Rebirth Online World 