Heart of the Void: Sosaku Online - Book 2 Page 6

  I was skeptical about the patch to consolidate all of experience gains into a single message, but not having to look out for threats through a wall of text was nice. Good choice, devs.

  In the distance, a long wailing note rang out, quickly followed by an answering wail behind us.

  I started to prepare for another fight, but Mika shook his head and rushed towards a small alley between two washed out homes, gesturing for us to follow.

  My inner gamer screamed at me for abandoning the skreel corpses without looting, but I told him to shove it. The quest was more important.

  When I arrived at the alley, Mika was kneeling down and pointing to a partially covered trap door in the space between ruined buildings.

  “I just spotted this thing before those fish things arrived. I’m not sure where it leads, but when I saw it, I got a notification for my Escape skill.”

  At our confused looks he continued, “It’s a rogue skill that helps you find a likely escape route from sticky situations. It’s not always completely reliable, but more often than not it’s saved my ass. Judging from those horns, we don’t have time to be picky.”

  As if to underscore the point, another round of horns followed, seeming much closer than last time, and I could almost make out the clicking and trilling of the skreel echoing down the streets.

  I looked to Kjara and she shrugged. “At least it’s a chance?”

  We cleared away the pieces of wood blocking the trap door and opened it, revealing a steep stairway leading downwards. Mika entered stealth and descended first, with me behind and Kjara watching our back.

  When we were clear, she dropped the door into place and there was a loud creaking around us, followed by a loud crash outside and a shifting of the surrounding stonework.

  “The stairs are collapsing,” Kjara yelled, a second before she slammed into my legs, tripping me and causing me to fall back onto her.

  We slid down the stairs, nearly colliding with Mika who barely jumped out of the way as we shot down the stairs like a human toboggan, grinding to a halt about ten feet into a small stone room.

  Kjara groaned and I quickly rolled off of her, using soothing touch to heal the bruises from the fall. When I looked up, the staircase was nothing but a pile of broken rubble.

  “Well, that’s either extremely convenient, or extremely bad,” Mika said, a bit of worry in his voice. “I hope this is one of the times where the skill leads to an actual escape route and not to certain doom.”

  I gave him my best glare, but then hung my head and let out a groan as I noticed something familiar about the surrounding stonework, earning a strange look from our newest party member.

  “What’s that for?” Mika asked, looking between me and Kjara, who looked almost as confused.

  “Sewers.” I said, gesturing at the surrounding walls, “Why does everything in this game have to revolve around mucking through sewers?”

  …

  9

  Luckily for us, the tunnels where we’d ended up were bereft of any of the normal ambiance one would expect to encounter in a major city’s sewer system. Instead, there was a completely different sort of grime… and smell.

  Instead of human waste, dead rats, and garbage, the tunnels were cluttered with seaweed, fish carcasses, and broken pieces of the city’s once thriving docks.

  Mika led the way forward. Light wasn’t an issue for any of our merry band. Both Kjara and I had our boons that allowed us to see in the dark, and Mika had his own racial ability that provided a similar advantage.

  We made our way through the tunnels, moving slowly towards the center of the city while avoiding any of the wandering creatures that seemed equally intent upon avoiding us.

  I was surprised there were no patrols in the tunnels, but the mystery of their absence became perfectly clear when we walked into a scene straight out of a horror movie.

  Maybe two dozen arothrok corpses were scattered around the room, their bodies missing large portions of flesh and covered in massive bite marks. Something big was in the sewers with us.

  There were two additional tunnels feeding into the room, so there was a fifty-fifty chance that we could run into whatever had managed to massacre a group of fishmen that would have easily sent us to respawn.

  Mika and Kjara examined both tunnels with their tracking skills while I kept watch from the middle of the carnage.

  “So,” I whispered. “Which way lies certain death?”

  Mika shrugged. “Well, I can tell you that whatever beastie did this walks on all fours and has a tail, but the tracks are all over both tunnels and my skill isn’t high enough for more than that.”

  Kjara nodded in agreement and pointed down the right-hand tunnel. “The newest set of tracks heads down that direction. It’s a reptile of some sort. Clawed feet, thick massive tail: likely some dev thought it would be fun to put a giant crocodile in the sewers.”

  “A giant sewer croc is probably worth a nice chunk of xp,” Mika said with a gleam in his eyes. “And probably a nice pile of loot too.”

  Kjara paused in consideration, and I was tempted, but in the end logic had to outweigh greed. “Normally I’d be all about tracking down the hungry sewer crocodile that wiped the floor with a dozen fishmen soldiers who may or may not have been higher level than us and risk death for some xp and loot…”

  Mika began to smile, but it quickly faded as I continued, “but our mission is the dungeon, and remember, we don’t exactly have a safe respawn point nearby. Who knows where we would end up if captain crocodile eats us? I’d hope the game would send us to the same place since we’re in a party, but there’s no guarantee. We might end up back at another refugee camp, or some other place swarming with mobs.”

  I looked at the now deflated Mika. “You want to play tag with the fish folk again?” I asked and turned to Kjara. “Or spend more time in a cage?”

  “Point,” Kjara said and looked over at Mika. “Dungeon loot is better anyhow.”

  That seemed to raise his spirits a bit.

  Mika sighed dramatically and headed down the left tunnel away from his dreams of xp and loot. He kept his daggers ready just in case, pausing every so often to check the ground for any additional signs of the creature. I followed a few seconds later, followed by Kjara, her bow knocked and ready.

  Our luck held out for a few minutes as we continued further towards the temple. Conveniently, any side passages leading off of our main route were blocked by fallen rubble, limiting us to a single path. I figured it was either leading us towards our goal, or to certain death.

  At least this place broke the pattern from the previous sewers. That architect had a serious obsession with ninety degree turns in every tunnel, I thought as the tunnel opened up into a large room with daylight spilling in from a hole where the ceiling had collapsed.

  Mika and Kjara moved forward to scout out a path upwards while I watched our backs, hoping we’d be able to take a rain check on fighting giant sewer monsters today.

  Our luck held, and with the aid of my nimbler companions I was able to haul myself out of the sewers and onto the slightly less muck-covered city streets. And just in time too. We’d made it less than fifteen feet from the hole when a low, rumbling growl echoed from below.

  With a shared glance, we booked it, putting as much distance as possible between ourselves and the hole as quickly as we could.

  10

  The sewers had let us out in the nobles’ district surrounding the temple itself. The larger and more opulent structures of the nobility had fared better than the smaller dwellings of the less well-off that we had passed when we first arrived at the city. But they had still suffered a lot of damage.

  Most of the walls that once served to separate the noble estates from the common folk were now in ruins, turning the once labyrinthian roads between the estates into something much easier to navigate.

  Mika led us through the ruined grounds, guiding us from cover to cover to avoid the roving skreel patrols. There w
ere no signs of any of the former inhabitants of the city as we moved, and I hoped that they had managed to evacuate during the attack, or had at least reached some sort of shelter.

  As we dashed between one ruined building and the next, Mika motioned for us to stop and tilted his head as if listening to something. “I can barely hear it, but there’s a fight going on up ahead. We should be even more alert going forward,” he whispered.

  I nodded and refreshed the Jackal’s Tooth buffs on our weapons before we moved on.

  Soon even my human ears were able to make out the sounds of fighting. The clicking and trilling screams of skreel and the other aquatic beasties was answered by the sound of human voices calling out orders and calling on Heru-et for his aid.

  Kjara and Mika led us through the ruined walls towards the battle, somehow navigating the ruins with little effort. We paused at one of the few walls that seemed mostly intact with the sounds of combat raging loudly from the opposite side.

  We followed the wall away from the conflict and found a hole big enough for us all to fit through.

  “I’ll go see what we’re dealing with,” Mika said. “Wait here and I’ll come and get you.”

  Kjara and I nodded our agreement and took up positions around the breach while Mika activated his stealth and disappeared through the crack.

  We didn’t have to wait long. Mika popped back into view less than thirty seconds later and motioned to us to follow him through.

  He tapped my shield and whispered, “There’s a group of warriors with shields like yours with a sunburst on them fighting against a swarm of skreel with a couple arothrok warriors, and three of these ugly blob fish things. They seem to be holding their own for now, but I think there were some townsfolk in there too. I couldn’t get a good enough look to be sure.”

  I frowned. “The sunburst is the symbol of the city guard. Wonder how they ended up out here?”

  Kjara shrugged and knocked an arrow. “So how should we do this? If we take them from behind maybe the city guard can press the advantage? The skreel and marcids should be pretty easy to take out, it’s the arothroks that are higher level. Although the skreel here in the city seem a bit beefier than they were on the walls.”

  Mika glanced between us and asked, “Marcids are the big blubbery ones?”

  “What?” Kjara said. “Oh yeah. They look like someone coated a troll in blubber. If you’ve got fire, hit them with that. They tend to melt.”

  Mika shrugged. “I’ll leave those to Kheph, then. As for the arothroks, I should be able to take out at least one of the big guys if I can get the jump on them.”

  I nodded. “I’ll toss a Flamestrike close to the marcids. If they’re gathered close enough, I can do some solid damage to them all at once. And lighting skreel on fire is always a good time.”

  Kjara chuckled and said, “Alright. Let’s go save some townsfolk,” and led the way towards the fight as Mika dropped into stealth and slipped away.

  I willed my spear into its rod form and tucked it away, freeing up my right hand to cast Flamestrike. The flaming javelin formed in my hand, and I tucked it behind my back to keep the flickering light from giving us away on the approach.

  Ahead I could see the horde of Kchil locked in battle with the disciplined line of the Sehkem city guard. There were a good number of skreel, marcid, and even arothrok corpses splayed before the line of sunburst-embossed shields, but there were at least five dead or soon to be dead guardsmen as well.

  I spotted one of the blobby creatures close to the middle of the pack and activated Analyze as I came into range.

  *** Marcid, Level 8 ***

  *** HP: 92%, SP: 55% ***

  *** Conditions: None ***

  *** Active Spells/Abilities: None. ***

  *** Weakness: Fire. ***

  *** Highest Statistics: Constitution, Strength. ***

  Kjara raised her bow and took aim, and as soon as I heard the twang of her bowstring I launched my flaming javelin towards my intended target. I smiled as the fiery construct sank into the fatty creature’s flesh with a sound like sizzling bacon and it let out a pain filled scream.

  Kjara’s arrow hit her target as well and sank into the thick muscles of one of the arothrok leader’s backs. It stumbled forward, grasping at the arrow with a sliver of health left and barely had a chance to react before her second arrow joined the first and sent it on to whatever afterlife awaited its kind.

  With a loud roar and the marcid’s blubbering scream my Flamestrike detonated, sending gobs of melted fish blubber onto its skreel allies, heavily injuring them and lighting three on fire.

  The remaining marcids backed away from the epicenter of the spell, causing a shift in the lines that gave the city guard the break they needed to reform and press forward.

  The remaining arothrok trilled out something and the enemy forces started to shift. One of the remaining marcids dashed forward and attacked the city guard’s formation with abandon, its rubbery flesh able to absorb most of the force of their attacks while several skreel took advantage of the distraction to strike at the lower limbs of the guards.

  The second remaining marcid and about ten skreel broke off from the line and charged towards Kjara and me while their spiny leader took up position between the two lines of engagement and continued to dole out orders in its native tongue.

  Kjara shot another arrow towards the enemy commander, scoring a nasty cut along its skull. After that it wisely took cover behind some nearby rubble where it would be safe from the moon elf’s ire.

  I drew and extended my Sunspear as the enemy charged, scanning their info as the text popped above their heads.

  *** Skreel, Level 4 ***

  *** HP: 100%, SP: 85% ***

  I smiled as I read through their levels. The skreel were all level four. Tougher than the original waves during the Kchil’s first attack on the city, but not as high level as those in the first patrol we’d encountered on our return.

  The center of the lead skreel’s chest began to glow as I activated Precision Strike and braced for the charge. Maw wide and claws raised, the creature leapt for me and I struck, skewering it through the heart with a critical hit.

  A rush of blueish green blood leaked from its open maw as the light faded from its eyes, and it slumped to the ground. I barely noticed its fate as my attention was drawn to my slightly glowing spear and the new icon that had popped up next to my health gauge.

  *** Sustained Critical—00:00:10 ***

  The countdown timer began to tick downwards as the next two skreel launched themselves at me. I lost sight of Kjara as I raised my shield to catch the overhead slash of my next foe’s claws and took a step back.

  I choked up on my spear and lashed out at the second skreel to join the scrum. The sound of the first’s claws scraping against the metal of my shield set my nerves on edge, and I punched towards it, canceling out the creature’s momentum and doing some damage.

  My next thrust caught the latest arrival in the throat, triggering another critical hit that filled me with a surge of divine energy. Pushing that energy into the spell-form for Sunstrike, I targeted another skreel intent upon attacking me and let it loose, searing a hole through the creature’s chest with the blast of divine fire.

  The skreel I’d shield-checked was back in my face, its claws slipping around my defenses to open a gash in my calf with a reckless strike. I stumbled backwards in pain and my leg threatened to collapse, but I caught myself in time to block the creature’s next attacks. A quick thrust put my spear through its gut, sending its spirit to reminisce with the rest of the dead Kchil littering the ground.

  Kjara was nearby, standing over the corpses of several fallen skreel while she picked apart the lone marcid of the group. The creature was barely holding its own, its blubbery flesh crisscrossed by large gaping wounds where the moon elf’s magically enhanced blades had pierced its defenses.

  Seeing she had things well in hand, I tried to locate Mika to see how he was doing. Hi
s health bar was still full in the party window, and the icon for my aura skill was active so he had to be somewhere close by, hopefully getting into position to practice some of his roguery.

  The city guard was holding their own, but their wounds were beginning to take their toll and several shields were beginning to droop against the combined attacks of the marcid and its skreel allies.

  The arothrok had emerged once Kjara’s bow was no longer in play and was striding towards the moon elf when its health bar suddenly dropped from ninety-five percent all the way to ten with a bleeding icon. The creature whipped around, hissing and flailing at the dýrafólk who had just broken stealth with his attack.

  Mika was standing there with his twin daggers coated in the arothrok’s blueish blood and a wicked grin plastered across his face. He ducked under the spiny creature’s reckless swing and plunged his daggers into the arothrok’s chest before it could do anything more than gasp in surprise at the rogue’s speed. Its health bar emptied completely, and it fell to the ground, joining its fellows in death.

  I whirled as I felt a presence at my back and let out a relieved sigh when I saw it was Kjara, fresh from finishing off her marcid opponent. “Can I get some healing please?” she said with a wince, holding one hand against a nasty looking bite mark on her arm.

  The party window showed she was at eighty percent, which was pretty good considering things, but that twenty percent certainly looked painful. I healed her back to full, receiving a smile in thanks, and then topped off myself as we charged towards the backs of the force still engaged with the city guardsmen.

  When I got close enough to read the health bars for the guardsmen I winced. Most of them were below half health and some were barely hanging on.

  I paused my advance and started to cast as Kjara and Mika cut into the back ranks of the Kchil force. Instead of my preferred pastime of raining holy fire down upon my enemies, I began to heal.

  Using my newly improved Cure Wounds spell, I targeted the most injured of the guardsmen first and progressed from there, spreading the healing love to all of the soldiers, while making sure both Kjara and Mika were in good shape.