Chapter 338
Chapter 338
[6 Hours have passed, 2 hours remain. 23 of 50 descent teams remain. 8,117 of 10,000 peak E-grade monsters remain.]
Black skies rumbled overhead with the crash of distant battles that echoed over roars from the streets. In front of him, a three-armed, green-skinned mutant man with a multitude of bloodshot eyes covering his body was whipping about another attack in a forward thrust that split the air with a scream of wind.
Caltan, or more formerly known as General Caltan, was at the forefront of their charge as his tower shield barely parried a scathing blow from an oncoming spear that nearly cracked the metal of his armor. He was sent rolling due to the strength of the much higher-leveled mutant warrior, but regained his footing and used the momentum to swing his very large flanged mace in an arcing uppercut. The weapon smashed back the mutant three-armed humanoid, and he pressed the attack with swift sidesteps utilizing his red flash.
[Red Flash (Tier 1 Blood Martial Art): Flash forward in a burst of crimson while dealing additional blast damage upon any physical strike.]
Out of all his abilities to choose, this was the one he’d settled on considering their current predicament. It was easily used in quick succession and made him compete with the much stronger and larger creature’s spear thrusts repetitively in the wreckage of the street while he struggled to plow forward. Not only that, but he was also able to amplify his own blocks, counters, and offensive strikes if he focused the skill into specific parts of his body instead of utilizing the skill as a whole. The exchange left his limbs blurring in repeated red flashes while the mutant, nearly one hundred and sixty levels above him, was being pressed backwards as sparks along their weapons clashed in a storm of metal blows.
Flipping over another spear thrust and spinning over the mutant’s extended green arm, Caltan smashed the flat of his shield into the monster’s body and swept the creature’s left leg with his mace. Even so, levels didn’t count for nothing - and despite Caltan outclassing the mutant in combat in every given way; he was doing little damage with each of his strikes that’d be devastating to anyone his own level.
Caltan sneered as much as he could with a skull for a face, smashing aside another spear thrust and was then sent catapulting backwards into another building across the street in a spray of dust and debris. He clicked his bony jaws together, cracked his neck, and pulled himself out of the collapsing building with sheer brute strength while bringing back dislocated bones in his hip back to their original placements. He could see the floating orb of shimmering white light ahead and behind the roaring beast, the prize behind the curtain, and touching it would have lasting implications for the trial if what they’d seen of the other teams was any indication. Finally, they’d come across an unused bunker zone. Most of them were guarded by the more dangerous of monsters in the event, bringing destruction to many of the teams that tried their hand at accessing them - but those that managed to reach one seemed to be getting various nondescript boosts that allowed them to hold their own or sequester themselves entirely for a time. Thankfully it appeared that this particular mutant wasn’t all that strong despite being designated to guard this place.
Riven had even tried to teleport in to touch the sphere, but the area was quarantined and didn’t allow teleport abilities to function inside a large radius - and Caltan had volunteered to take on the guardian monster alone while the others held off the three rather powerful werewolves that were on their heels. Even now he could hear the werewolves howling amidst the clash of weapons and magic.
Genua and Sanguine were both long gone, having fled the hive mind of wraith oddities that swarmed the city streets in the central district.. Azmoth was banished after death to a cyclops. The Zefima woman had been eaten after her betrayal. Lizard and Fay were in terrible shape, both being carried by other people and sporting deep wounds along multiple spots when they’d run into a lasher monster with serrated whips for limbs. Narg had never been able to hold his own to begin with - having been banished from the plane within minutes of the event starting. All in all it wasn’t going too terribly though, because unlike many of the other teams - they were still alive. Gluttony had played a small part in that to an extent, showing himself only twice to flicker in and out in large snapping motions when saving Retesh and Fish from certain death. In larger part that was also due to Riven’s ability to teleport their group around, but with how frequently this needed to be done - even Riven’s enormous mana pool was becoming exhausted.Caltan’s red eyes gleamed under his horned helmet, and the bloodstricken undead went in for another engagement when a streak of crackling black and red smashed into the mutant spear-wielder’s center-most eye.
The mutant howled and stumbled back, only for Caltan to capitalize upon the larger creature’s pain and surprise with a devastating blow to its neck. A loud CRACK resounded out from the blow, but it still wasn’t enough and he was flung back by the mutant’s third arm only for another two arrows to lodge themselves into the beast’s chest.
“I’ve got your back! The others are almost finished!” Kara yelled from the side-street, and the drow archer notched another arrow Riven had made for her to take aim with her puppy stuffed up to its neck in a backpack. “It’s almost dead! Let’s do this!”
Caltan briefly evaluated the drow archer, snorted, and turned his red gaze upon the beast again. He let the next arrow slam home and took a spear strike sliding off his pauldron before crashing his knee into the mutant’s gut - followed by a flash of blood that sent him backwards to avoid a grappling maneuver. If the howling, enraged mutant managed to get its large hands around Caltan - the fight was over. His skill would mean little when it came down to a sheer contest of strength, and the beast would no doubt have far more of it given their level discrepancy.
Thankfully he was managing to outpace the monster though, and after twelve more arrows and seven more bashes with his mace - the monster eventually fell dead to the ground with its brains splattered along the road.
“Good work, elfling.” His deep, masculine voice projected out from his cracked armor as he started forward. “You are not as useless as the others deem you to be.”
Kara simultaneously blushed in embarrassment, and winced - not knowing whether to take that as a compliment or not. He had no time to explain it to her either, and reached out and grasped the floating orb of shimmering white light. Just as the others rounded a corner of the last building - bloodied and bruised while Athela carried the severed head of two large werewolves, a notification appeared.
[You have accessed a spatially compacted defensive bunker zone. Activating this bunker zone will either grant you 1 hour of complete sanctuary from all harm, or 2 hours of reduced enemy levels down to a flat level 201 for anything that enters the zone. Which do you wish to select?]
He didn’t even need to think twice about which he’d choose either. They were only a little over 5 hours into the event, they needed to reach 8 hours, and their party could easily handle a bunch of level 201’s even if they were still ranked as LEGENDARY. Caltan selected the second option, and the street erupted into a showering of white hot light.
Pillars lurched skywards almost instantly and a dome ceiling of solid metal began forming from the cooling light, settling into a black-and-purple color of shifting hues that radiated the truths of the abyss. Caltan actually saw Riven stumble when an obvious epiphany hit him like a sprinting bull, but the warlock was tugged along towards the bunker zone by Athela shortly thereafter and the trance was broken. There were already more enemies closing in, and despite the obvious frustration on Riven’s face for having probably lost much of the insights into the dao of the deep places of the multiverse - he needed to get into the relatively safe area beyond the pillars and underneath the dark dome ceiling.
“2 hours?” Riven said, panting as he hit the ground with both knees and slid to a stop underneath the bunker zone. “2 hours of level 201’s? We can hold this place. That’s doable, right?” ŗᴀ₦𝐨BƐs̩
He continued panting, his soul core giving off obvious fluctuations of a very strained shadow pillar - producing pockets of black spots that flexed in and out of existence around him in the air.
Caltan lowered his gaze to his new master, and nodded while pointing his mace to a building in the back half of the zone. “We will be able to handle it. The monsters that enter this place will be significantly weakened, and we will have the advantage. Go, you need rest. You’ve been producing rifts to teleport through constantly for almost six hours now. Take the injured into the building and use what potions you have to settle your soul cores.”
Riven glanced over his shoulder at the large flaming turtle and the bone golem lumbering towards their position, before breathlessly using Jackal to push himself to his feet. “I just informed Genua through my minion link that she and Sanguine could find refuge here, but they’re being followed by that wraith swarm.”
“Still?”
“Still. Retesh, create another skeleton cannon from these corpses and set it up.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The tired lich nodded in Riven’s direction, already heading towards the mutant that Kara and Caltan had slain while noting a few other delver bodies on the sidelines. The dead nearby delvers were being picked clean of valuables by Fish and Brute, unceremoniously flinging their spatial rings and amulets into sacks.
Retesh grunted at the two beasts coming towards them on the road. “It’ll take me another few minutes to create the cannon since my last one wasn’t able to be recovered at all, but the construct will certainly amplify my death globes. Please cover me while I work.”
Athela finished shoving a wincing Fay into Riven’s arms and dropped Lizard off like deadweight along the building’s interior, before coming to stand beside Caltan and the others. She stared at the approaching flame-turtle and bone golem with raised eyebrows. “If their levels are reduced inside this place, we’ll be fine. Look.”
She pointed.
Just as she did, and within a thousand feet of the zone they now inhabited, the monsters running their way began to shrink slightly - and their auras were significantly diminished within the blink of an eye. Caltan watched curiously as their enemies began dropping levels by the second, from 381 to 356 to 304 in seconds. The monsters stopped reducing their levels at 201, but didn’t seem to even notice as they continued plowing through the city streets towards them with renewed ferocity the closer they got.
Kara didn’t waste any time, notching one of the arrows that replicated Riven’s critical storm lance and fired twice in a row.
They all watched in muted silence as the streams of red and black hissed through the air, exploding on impact with devastating force that shattered the bone golem entirely and stunned the turtle in one go. Another arrow hit its leg, and then another hit its exposed neck before the beast dropped like a rock into the street.
They all turned to look at Kara, then at each other, as large smiles widened across their faces. Kara seemed mighty pleased, and for good reason. She was easily the weakest one here, even between Fish, Lizard, and Brute - the would-be thralls. Yet she had just taken out not one, but two of the monsters that’d so recently been peak and LEGENDARY-rank E-grades. Even with upgraded arrows, they were being launched from her own bow and her own fingers - so it’d be her stats that influenced the projectiles.
“So on that note, I’m going to go heal Lizard and Fay.” Riven said with a relieved laugh. Wincing and turning around, he began dragging the half-dead succubus along with him to the building where Lizard already lay on the ground groaning. “The potions may take a bit considering their damage, be on the lookout for Genua and Sanguine so you can support them as they dive. They should be here any minute.”
***
The abyssal dome covering their bunker zone was working wonders, and for the first time since the event started - they were able to finally have some breathing room. Despite the monsters not being absolute pushovers, they were still all barely E-grade; and regular level 201’s just couldn’t match the raw power of Riven’s elite group even with Azmoth gone. One for one, any monster that entered the zone was easily matched. But most of the time they didn’t need to be, and were promptly handled with overwhelming force with a systematic battle formation after everyone had been healed.
General Caltan, Lizard the white draconian, and the half-ogre Brute were the front line in Azmoth’s absence. Sanguine would sometimes join them in melee, but usually kept to the sky and utilized his supersonic blood beams to annihilate things from under the dome’s shadow. Brute in particular was a heavy hitter in close combat, using an ability called ‘Sledgehammer’ that literally made enemies explode with force whenever his spiked fists met flesh. Brute was something of a pugilist, though he was also familiar with various melee weapons too when Riven had asked.
Retesh had manually constructed a skeleton cannon that amplified his deathly orbs and was wreaking havoc from the mid-line on an elevated rooftop along with Kara - who shot arrows at whatever the lich didn’t manage to blow up; and Genua who was using her miracle Sanguine Smite to crush things at a slightly closer range than the other two.
Athela and Fay were on overwatch, creating diversions or dealing with the more stealth-oriented adversaries together. They’d been working rather well over the past months coming down the descent, and their teamwork was only getting better as Fay hid Athela’s movements through illusions even more than what Athela was usually able to do on her own - and that was saying something. Simultaneously, Fay would also blind the minds of the incoming monsters with similar projections - making them rather easy prey for the arshakai demoness.
Lastly, Riven was in the backline and looking out a window while holding Iris in his arms; with Fish the yellow-skinned mer-woman standing beside him in a shredded witch’s outfit that was barely there anymore after she’d been mauled so many times. Her wounds were gone at least, but she looked rather ashamed of herself at having been nearly killed. Riven would divert enemy attacks, redirecting them through portals as a support and sometimes managing to decapitate enemies while closing rifts around their heads; and Fish would utilize her draining hex to rapidly slow down and weaken enemies for the front line to finish off whenever they came too close.
Bodies of fallen creatures lay splattered and slain by the hundreds, creating small hills of the mostly large beasts all over the bunker zone, and every other minute a new one - or even several - would show themselves to mindlessly assault their team’s position.
“You have a very cute daughter. Eh, I know I say that a lot.” Fish commented, seemingly infatuated with Iris as the little girl played with a small doll the women had made for her earlier on this floor. “I just want to have a daughter like that someday.”
“Perhaps you will.” Riven replied, smiling and raising his staff to create another portal that opened and snapped around the head of a flying dinosaur-like creature - decapitating it in a spray of blood right after it flew into the bunker zone’s influence. “I didn’t think I’d be a father anytime soon, but that’s what I get for sleeping around.”
Fish raised an eyebrow. “Do you regret it? Having a child with your thrall? I thought vampires looked down on that sort of thing.”
“Absolutely not. I’m glad Iris was born.” Riven replied without hesitation, but his eyes flitted to the image of a familiar, enraged high-elf in the corner of the room that only he could see. The figure of Ethel screamed at him from the beyond, before disappearing the next moment like she’d never been there to begin with. “I sometimes regret how Genua and I started out, but have put a lot of thought into it and think it was for the best. It’s a long and complicated story, that one.”
“She thinks she’s your wife and is infatuated with you. Will I have similar thoughts?”
“Doubtful. The vampiric virus doesn’t necessarily work like that, it just shapes your mind to better serve the vampire who changes you. For Genua in particular, her mind broke under the virus’s influence in order to cover up her lingering resentment after I murdered her husband and eldest daughter. You, however, don’t need to cover up old memories of resentment. It’s highly likely that you’ll retain your entire being, and just see me in a more positive light that influences you to pursue my ambitions.”
He patted Iris’s head and smiled. “Have you given any thought to what kind of husband you’d like? There are mer-people back on Panu, if they suit your fancy. But they’re also at war with Retesh’s faction, so it’s highly likely we’ll be going to war with them too.”
Fish shrugged indifferently, casting a few more hexes in the meantime on some large venomous lizards heading towards Caltan and Brute. “I haven’t thought much about it, but if you’re willing to let me pursue relationships outside my thrall contract - then perhaps I’ll try to find a werewolf to date. The ones that fought us earlier were rather attractive before Athela took their heads, and I wouldn’t mind having one to come home to from time to time should it be my future husband.”
“What would a werewolf and a merperson even produce as offspring?”
“I do know it’s compatible. How do I know? I can’t entirely remember, but I have a very strong feeling that I’ve seen or heard about that particular combination working out from a faint memory of my past life.”
Riven tilted his head to the side, trying to envision what a baby between fish and a large, muscular werewolf would look like. “Hmmm. Werewolves can transition into a human form right?”
Fish held out her hand and twisted it from side to side. “It depends on if the werewolf was originally human or not. If it started out as a human, then yes. If it started out as something else, it reverts to ever that was - but will retain some of the lycan characteristics too. Usually in the form of fur, fangs, a tail, something like that. It just depends on how potent the lycan side of the bloodline is.”
“I see. Kara actually got a token to become either a vampire or a werewolf. She’s deciding now, to my understanding.”
“I know, she showed it to me when I mentioned my recently acquired infatuation with werewolves to her.” Fish chuckled dryly. “Unfortunately she would not give it to me, but that is to be expected. She’s rather insistent on impressing you with the transformation. Do you have a preference in what she chooses?”
Riven shook his head, watching Sanguine and Athela split apart another group of large carnivorous goat-men wielding axes that tried to sneak in off the left side of the zone. “No. I don’t. I’ll be happy either way.”
“I heard you almost ate her once.”
Riven raised an eyebrow, and slowly turned to look at the merwoman. “Who told you that?”
“Kara did.”
“She knows?”
Fish shrugged. “She said it was right before I arrived, and shortly after you unlocked a part of your vampiric bloodline. Ring a bell?”
“... Yes, she’s right. I just didn’t know she knew.”
“Don’t take it to heart, Riven. You didn’t eat her, and she’s firmly indebted to you in more ways than one. She’s anything but angry and just hopes to please.”
The two of them paused and turned their heads in the direction of another descent team racing towards their location, with a trail of enemy monsters chasing them down. Only three of the other team were left, with the third and slowest of them falling into a bloody death when a massive clawed hand crashed through a wall to rip him from this life. They were all tieflings, and the two remaining men were absolutely terrified as they smashed face-first into the bunker zone’s outer perimeter.
Riven winced, as it was obvious the first fleeing tiefling had broken his nose, and utilized mana to emphasize his voice so the two tieflings could hear him. “The bunker zone won’t allow other teams inside. Go find another one.”
“LET US INSIDE!!!” The second tiefling shrieked at the top of his lungs, pounding on an invisible barrier that sealed off Riven’s team from the other. “LET US INSIDE, PLEASE!!!”
Riven projected two rift portals and used the shadows to pull the two tieflings out through another end - narrowly getting them out of harm’s way before the descending monsters pounced. “I would if I could, but I can’t! You two need to run! Now go!”
Retesh, Genua, and Kara had already begun firing on the monsters the tieflings had led into the zone; and Fish was busy slowing them down while the front liners shifted positions to match the two-dozen oncoming enemies.
Athela flashed inside the building behind Riven’s back, quickly killed another stealthed mutant, and vanished again as Riven gave her a mental thumbs up. The room he’d chosen as the backline’s holdout was connected to the rooftop the mid-line was now settled on, but was one floor above them and also had a reinforced back door where Athela’s webs had created a lattice most enemies wouldn’t be able to get through at all. Even if they didn’t, they’d certainly alert the arachnid assassin and the dozens of bodies behind Riven’s position were more than enough of a testament for that fact.
The tieflings continued to scream for entry, begging Riven’s party to adjust the barriers so they could enter, but they stopped ignoring Riven’s warnings and made a run for it shortly after when they realized that the monsters outside the bunker zone were still coming on hard. Despite the small bombardment from Riven’s mid-liners, the furthest-most monsters that hadn’t entered the influence of the bunker zone were still as strong as ever - and it took a lot more to even scratch those bastards than anything that entered the circle of death created by their abyssal dome above.