End of an Era (Project Chrysalis Book 2) by John Gold (always you kirsty moseley .TXT) 📗

The girl glances at the group leader before replying.

“We are a squad of Hunters here on a mission from the League to provide humanitarian aid to developing peoples. Theoretically, after the war with the undead, the kobold race could be unlocked for players. The nearest portal is in the elves’ Summer Forest, and we send aid through there to the villages. We’re a recon unit here to figure out why the undead were acting like this. There are three caravans of aid heading this way, and we could use your help.”

Hm, so she told us everything there was to tell.

“Got it. We’re going to kill the undead blocking the road, though we’re going to leave the last raid boss. What might happen when he’s killed is hard to say. We’re not going to help you. Do whatever you want, but stay away from us.”

The men still aren’t relaxing. They expect a catch.

“Why? Why would you leave it if you could kill it?”

“Because what comes next is a god, and we definitely can’t kill one of those.”

The girl glances over at the man again. She’s apparently in charge of negotiations.

“There’s a chance that liches could appear after the raid bosses. If you kill them, the location will be free of undead for a month.”

“We don’t care about that. Okay, goodbye, time for us to get ready.”

They can figure out their own problems. We’re no human aid society. And there’s no guarantee they wouldn’t turn us over to some divinity, or that the dark god wouldn’t come for our souls.

***

Wand Lady Gaia watched the two girls walk back to the old fortress, wondering about them. The shield alone that the golden-haired one had pulled up for the two of them was far stronger than anything even she could do. It was pretty clear that the pair could have taken on her group They’d wiped out a squad of local bosses right in front of her.

“Gaia, what’s the plan? This is a great situation, and they want to give it all up. We could–”

“I know, that’s what we’re going to do. We’ll just happen to be walking by.”

Two sly smiles later, and the Silvana Bog hunters had orders to prepare for battle.

***

A wild roar breaks out from the south followed by a sustained hiss. From the rooftop, we can see the trees moving, the small ones even breaking.

“Sagie, just start shooting. I’ll tell you if you’re off.”

Six minutes later, I’ve launched eight death stars. The first target is the boss’s guards, as they try to take us by sheer numeric superiority. After the fifth star, the snarls die away, though the trees continue moving. It’s coming. Although, it’s…

“Fem, is that a snake?”

“The hissing sure sounds like it.”

The enormous body of an overgrown worm slithers out of the forest. Its mouth opens and a large black fire ball blurts out of it and comes flying at us. Instinctively, I cut loose a meteor and set our shields. Even if the fireball is gigantic, it still flies slowly, though the trees in its path disintegrate.

“Sagie, let’s go. That’s a sun of the dead. It’ll eat our shields and the whole fortress along with them.”

“What if I throw icicles at it? Or stones? Would that help?”

“Come on, it instantly destroys any matter it touches, and it only stops when the energy runs out. Time to go.”

No, too early for that. If I can destroy the sun, I’m going to. Fragments of the wall, chunks of earth, and burnt pieces of wood go flying into it.

Damage received: 4420 (ignored: 1155597)

Debuff: Call of Death

Effect: You sense your impending death.

Duration: As long as you remain within the spell’s effective area.

The black sphere gets smaller and smaller, though it flies closer and closer. I start to feel an aura of death. Fem, however, gets the worst of it, and starts to experience auditory hallucinations.

“Fem, relax, it’s just because of the aura. It isn’t real.”

“I have ghosts flying around, and I hear voices. What is this?”

If she’d boosted her resistances, she wouldn’t be suffering like this. Finally, the sun dies away fifty meters from where we are. It’s a good thing I have my Space Magic and telekinesis so advanced.

Undead, Regis the Absorber, Level 570, raid boss

It’s interesting how raid bosses sometimes have their own nickname. Others don’t even have a regular one.

This boss isn’t a snake, after all; it’s a giant, scaly worm with jaws opening like a four-leaf clover. The very thick skin protects it from physical attacks. Also, it still has ninety percent of its health, though its guards are dead. There are two enormous scorch marks on its hide.

“The strongest attack and the strongest defense. Sagie, I think the liches are probing our strength again. Normal attacks don’t bother the thing, so we need a different approach. Okay, it’s slow and gives out an aura of death. It looks like a black snake to me. What does it look like to you?”

And that’s what boosting your resistance gets you. The aura has to be at least 50000.

“Like an enormous worm. We’re going to have to find a different way to kill it. Hm, can you toss me?” I notice a few weak points in the monster’s segmented body where meteors have torn off the scales. If my resistance weren’t so high, I never would have seen through the film.

Ultimately, the worm slowly slithers toward us, while we come around from the side Fem tossed me to. I climb aboard, stick my staff into it, and start to fry.

“Dragon breath! Maximum!”

The creature is weak against fire, so I use that. Ten minutes later, its health is down to just five percent. Unable to crawl any further, it starts breaking