I coughed again, speckles of red staining my lips and the asphalt in front of my face. The spasms in my chest sent pangs of pain running up and down my body, giving me an almost sonar-like accounting of the wounds I was dealing with.
Bones, so many broken bones. Ribs, left collar bone, both arms, left leg, all broken. I was almost certain my left foot was shattered as well, but the angle in which I was flesh-piled onto the ground made it impossible for me to see my feet. The pain was there though, I could feel that.
“Fuuuck…” I groaned, doing my best to roll off of my stomach and onto my side. I failed of course, and only got new shooting lances of agony dancing up and down my limbs as reward for the effort.
Come on Adam, get it together.
I couldn’t move my body, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t move my mana. I mentally tapped into the pool of energy and felt it travel through my veins. As my mana reached my wounds, I grabbed hold of my blood, stopping it from leaking out on the street, or inside me in places it shouldn’t.
It was a stop-gap measure, making sure I wouldn’t bleed out. But it wouldn’t mean I’d live from those wounds. My vitality was sky high compared to a normal human, which is certain why I wasn’t a slick goo stain on the street right now, but the stat wasn’t high enough to heal my wounds. I didn’t have a regeneration skill like Barry either.
“Hold on there buddy,” I heard Norton call out from somewhere behind me.
The pounding,
thud, thud, thud,
of his footsteps as his large frame bounded down the road could probably be heard by everyone within a city block, even with the sounds of battle still radiating from random pockets of the city.
“Oh man, you’re freakin pretzeled. Uh, this is gonna hurt for sure,” His face loomed into my vision, still carrying that carefree and amiable grin he always had. The goddamn panda bear of a man, always grinning. It was infuriating, and soothing at the same time.
“Please hurry,” I muttered weakly.
As if in response to my plea, a terrifying loud screech boomed out from behind us, where the corporate facility was, where I had been bitch-slapped straight off of the payroll and on to the street.
“Yep, yep, on it,” Norton said as his hands began glowing a soft green.
He hadn’t been lying, it did hurt. Getting your body un-rubix-cubed was a process that required a lot of shifting bones, and resetting of torn muscles, not to mention the organs, those needed attention too. Worst part was, I could only lay there, mentally vice-gripping my mana to stop my wounds from doing an impression of Old Faithful and gysering all over Norton.
Meanwhile, as I lay in agony, I began getting a view of the fight against the Hynaenid Lord.
Turns out that the boss had decided it didn’t like interior settings either, and it promptly performed the Kool-aid Man technique to bring itself outside. Barry, Huwett, Francis and Vasquez followed a few seconds after.
Immediately, the frantic battle went into full pitch.
Francis began to glow red as he activated his Class ability, Vasquez began to chant in preparation of his spell. Barry was running full speed at the large beast while Huwett began losing arrow after arrow.
The Hynaenid Lord appeared just like one of the lesser raiders. Upright standing Hyena wearing armor, holding a large crude sword. The difference was in size. While the others we had fought were roughly five feet tall each, the Hynaenid Lord was easily fifteen feet, maybe even twenty. Its claw, which had sent me bodily through the bricks, was nearly as tall as my torso.
I wouldn’t dare talk about the length of its feet, or the size of its sword. Needless to say, they were massive.
And despite all this, Barry was holding up his own. The event boss swung down its blade, crashing it against Barry’s shield. The Paladin held firm, the massive blow not budging his stance.
Guess I’m not the only one who was holding back a bit.
I realized as I watched the fight unfold.
An exchange of blocks and slashes continued between a giant Hyena monster, and a platemail clad blonde teenager. Arrows flew in between attacks, clanking off the boss’ armor or sticking into fur and staying there. The Hynaenid Lord seemed not to bother acknowledging the projectiles at all.
Francis came in to assist at that point, the warrior swinging his axe with impressive speed and technique. The wide blade carved into leg and arm, wherever Francis could reach without over extending himself.
The boss kicked out at the warrior with a powerful claw foot, but Barry blocked, taking the hit on his shield.
A streak of fire slammed into the boss’ head, sizzling and burning the fur, but little else.
Oh, right.
[Hynaenid Lord Raider - Lvl 13 - Marked to Die]
The damage output from their attacks suddenly increased, Francis’ axe biting deeper, Huwett’s arrows burrowing further into flesh. Even Vasquez’s flames burned hotter.
“Almost… done…” Norton said between large breaths.
Turned out healing was harder than it looked. The big guy was almost hyperventilating and about to pass out. He was right though, I could feel that my body was almost back to fighting shape, my bones reset and mended, and my limbs now working when I ask them to.
I sat up with a scowl, still focused on the boss fight.
At this point more people had come to join the fight. Other Rift Hunters that had seen the commotion and had come to help. I saw a bolt of lightning come from the left to hit the boss in the back. A spear of ice also flew in, finding a home by burying itself in its shoulder. There was also gunfire from the soldiers, bullets pinging off the metal armor or leaving small holes in its hide.
“Raaaarrgh!” The event boss suddenly roared, a shockwave that buffeted the clothes and hair of everyone on the street erupted from its mouth. Soon after, its eyes changed from a deep black to a glowing red color.
“Phase change!” Huwett yelled.
“No shit!” Vasquez back pedaled, his hands forming his next spell already.
“Graagh!”
The boss swung its blade again, and this time, Barry blocked the blow and was sent tumbling over the ground from the hit. He stood back up right after, but his shield was dented, and skin was torn from the side of his head where he slid on the asphalt.
“You’re done,” Norton finally said, collapsing back on his ass.
“Thanks, stay back, be ready for more injured,” I stood, finding my body indeed back to peak shape. Healing magic really was awesome. Painful. But awesome.
I ran up to Barry’s left, my sword appearing in my hand once again. “Got a plan at all? This thing is pretty powerful.”
Barry shook his head, “Not exactly a plan. But maybe a Hail Mary.”
“I’ll take that,” I said.
“Okay then, but we will probably need everyone.” He looked around the street at the other Rift Hunter groups now too. We saw more melee classes, rangers, mages, all lining up along the periphery of the fight.
They’d help here and there, but unless explicitly invited in, they wouldn’t interfere fully. Right now, our party had implied dibs on the boss, as we were the first to start fighting. It was a gamer code of conduct, and everyone understood that.
“Francis, back,” Barry yelled.
The rage warrior complied, pulling away from the boss as it thrashed about in rage, sword slashing wildly. Huwett stopped her arrows, and Vasquez halted his chant.
“When I hold its full attention, everyone lays into the boss with their best attacks. Everyone,” Barry eyed the other groups then, and he received some nods in return. “Alright then, let’s do this.”
I smiled as Barry settled into a fighting stance again, his longsword beginning to glow in a pale yellow light as mana seemed to gather inside the blade. I knew this to be Barry’s Holy Smite ability from his Legendary Class, but had yet to use it in a fight against a monster.
“Don’t miss,” I joked.
Barry grinned at me, “I won’t.”
He dashed ahead, his footsteps pounding loudly against the street, his glowing sword held aloft. We all watched him, entranced at the idea of this lone young man running headlong into this giant monster.
The Hynaenid Lord’s red eyes focused on Barry, as it stepped forward as well, bringing up its own large sword for a slash.
Barry closed in, and brought his weapon down, an eruption of golden light filling the space between him and the monster. An instant later, the light was gone, Barry’s sword was held down and away, the Hynaenid Lord looking down at him as he looked up back at it.
Then a line of blood showed at the boss leg, then at its shoulder, and quickly connected into his torso, shearing through his metal armor, the pieces falling away as the red line transformed into a spray of crimson.
“Geeeraaah!”
The boss shrieked in pain, taking a single step back and pressing a clawed hand against it’s chest. Blood leaked between its fingers in large droplets onto the ground. Then its eyes flashed red again and grunted angrily, and brought its sword down on Barry’s head.
“Barry!” I yelled out his name without thinking, as if me shouting would help at all. It wouldn’t have. He could already see the attack coming without my warning, and yet he didn’t move at all.
The sword screamed downward through the air towards Barry’s face, and with a sickening
shling!
It rebounded off the protective bubble around his body.
“Now!” Barry yelled out.
Everyone attacked at once, the soldiers with their rifles, the rangers with their bows, and mages with their spells. I, along with the other melee fighters rushed in right afterward not even bothering for the smoke to clear.
The Hynaenid Lord swung down once more, its large blade smashing against Barry’s bubble yet again, this time sending cracks throughout its surface.
Francis’ axe made contact first, cutting in its exposed leg. I thrust my sword up into its stomach, widening the wound Barry had left behind, before leaping back and away. The melee fights piled on when they found an opening, spears, sword, aces, maces, even fists or kicks. Dozens of new wounds opened on the boss, even as it brought its sword down a third time.
The blade struck Barry’s bubble, and the cracks gave way completely, the mana barrier shattering into fragments and falling away. Even the Paladin’s skill wasn’t enough to last more than three blows from the boss.
Yet still, the Hunaenid Lord didn’t die. Blood poured from its cuts and wounds like water from a sieve, but it still stood, huffing loudly, staring down at Barry in utter loathing. The boss moved his weapon again, and still Barry didn’t show any sign of moving.
It was then I saw it, Barry standing, looking up at the boss, with totally glazed of eyes. He wasn’t moving, because he was unconscious! His smite ability must have a large blowback, or he had completely exhausted his mana. Whatever the case, he was asleep on his feet, and he couldn’t defend himself.
I ran forward again, just as the beast finished winding up for another slash. It stepped forward, ready to cleave Barry in two. But I couldn’t let that happen.
[Blood Manipulation - Lvl 3 - Beginner]
My mana slithered out of my body and into the blood that was pooling along the street below the boss. With a mental pull, I controlled the blood itself, not by a lot, barely anything really, but enough to gather the blood together right under the Boss’ foot as it took its single step.
It slipped, its foot losing traction on the small puddle of blood, and causing it to fall onto its back with a loud
thud.
I was at its head in a mere moment, my runicblade poised just right as I drove it into the boss’ ear canal, pushing it past the thin bones inside and into its brain in one strike.
It convulsed, then lay still a second later.
[You have Slain Hynaenid Lord Raider - Lvl 13]
[Ability Activated: Soul Usher (F)...]
[Event Update Notification:
Dungeon Rift Breach Event (Common): Complete!
Rewards: Distributed based on individual performance and feats during the event…
New Title Earned: True Defender, Horde Breaker,
Skill Card Obtained (Epic) ]
“Hey Barry, Barry!” Francis was now standing next to the Paladin, his hand on Barry’s shoulders and trying to shake him awake.
“What? I’m good, what happened?” Barry said, his eyes suddenly refocusing.
“You did it man, we did it! We killed it!”
Barry smiled, his eyes sparkling, “Good, I knew I could trust you all.”
Norton was the next to reach Barry, already beginning to chant a healing spell. Huwett and Vasquez came next. Then the others, the other Rift Hunters from the facility, giving their congratulations.
“What happened? How did you kill that monster? Are you heroes?!” A voice suddenly shouted over the rest. Stumbling out from one of the buildings on the street, came a woman in a pencil straight skirt and blazer. Her name tag had the logo for the City’s biggest news network, and behind her was a man carrying a camera.
“Uh…” Barry said in response.
“Are you the Rift Hunters that have been talked about? Is this what you do, slay monsters and save people?” The woman was right in front of Barry now.
“No, no, we just did what we were supposed to do. That’s what humanity is about, helping each other and doing what is right.” Barry continued. By now, more civilians had begun extracting themselves from the rubble, people who had been caught in the monster breach and unable to escape, who had been hiding the whole time, until now.
“We are Rift Hunters, but we are just people,” Barry raised his voice, now talking to everyone. “We killed the monsters, but so did those soldiers, and so would anyone else with our powers. I’m still myself, even with this new ability.”
“What’s your name?” The woman shoved a microphone into his face.
“Barry, Barry Schilling.”
“Thank you Barry, thank you all. You are true paragons of humanity. To think you were in this city all along—”
“We weren’t, and we aren't," a hand suddenly flashed out, grabbing the microphone from the newswoman. It was the lightning mage I had seen before, the one that was arguing with Barry and the others. “My name is Gerard Davis, and I’m being held against my will inside a government facility in Missouri to be tested like a damn lab rat. We all are!”
“They are holding my children hostage!” One of the others shouted.
“They have my husband!” Another voice.
More and more shouts rose up, and Barry was ignored under the onslaught of complaints that came from my fellow lab-rats.
I looked back at Gerard, the man was steely eyed, as he nodded along with the others. I gave a bare grin at the sudden opportunity he had given me.
This is perfect.
I realized.
1.18 Breaking News