Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Thaden stayed with the rest of the Raid Party as they proceeded down the long hallway inside The Ghost Town dungeon, despite wanting to rush ahead to get a better time than the last time he was there.  The only reason he didn’t sprint toward the opening leading to the old town ahead was the fact that Sadia told him it wouldn’t make much difference.

“The horde won’t appear until every member of the party arrives in the town; so, you could go, but you’d have to wait for them to get there anyway.”

Therefore, he stayed with them for the moment as they marched down the long, dark hallway.  Besides, it gave him a chance to reiterate the plan to Steven and the others.

“Remember what I said?  Just stay on the walls and don’t risk yourselves unnecessarily.  I’ll take care of the horde.”

Thaden could tell that Steven was a bit exasperated at how many times Thaden had reiterated the point.  “Yes, yes; we heard you.  We’ll not venture outside the walls, Raid Leader.”

The Omenic Drifter nodded absently, as he saw the stone doorway approaching.  “Alright, people,” he said loudly, looking at the Raid Party as he walked backwards.  “This is it; stay safe, and I’ll bring us a quick victory.”

He could see the smiles on all their faces; while some may have been annoyed that someone else was doing their fighting for them, they were all now aware of what they would face in the dungeon from what Thaden had shared with them, and they were more than willing to stay away from the danger the horde represented.  Especially since the majority of the new peoples’ Levels were in the 150’s, so they would be far out-Leveled even by the weaker cannon fodder that comprised the majority of the horde.

When he felt the door behind him, he pushed the stone barrier, flooding the hallway with light; a step into the old west town brought him the notification that gave him information about the Horde Siege Challenge.

Unfortunately, he could sense something different about the town as soon as he entered, and the notification reflected that.

Warning!  An undead horde is currently sieging this town!  Quickly deploy your party to shore up the defenses and aid the current defenders, who will be overwhelmed without your help!  The Horde Siege Variation Challenge begins now!

Thaden froze for a second as he read the notification, while at the same time hearing the sound of explosions, screams of pain, and metal striking metal.  Variation?  Oh, crap.

As a reminder, the exit doorway will close within 60 seconds; once it is closed, no one may leave until the Siege has been lifted or all the citizens in the tower have been killed.

Sadia appeared by his side along with his Mirrored Vigil and Incarnation of Protection as Thaden got to work.  He’d prepared for this as soon as he entered the dungeon, but he wasn’t expecting to fight so soon.

“Hurry, everyone!” he yelled, motioning them all forward.  “To the walls!  It’s a variation—”

“Fuck that; I’m out of here!”  That came from one of the Mages in the back, an individual named Boris who had been a pain in Thaden’s butt since they started their journey to the dungeon.  He hadn’t done anything overtly mutinous, but his complaints had been annoying enough the entire trip that the Omenic Drifter was very close to ordering him to go back to the city if he didn’t want to be there.  Unfortunately, there were at least two dozen others, all of them members of the Guild that he was unfamiliar with, that seemed to listen to Boris, and he didn’t necessarily want a quarter of the Raid Party to leave without giving it a try.

“Boris!  This isn’t the time to mess around!” Steven yelled, behind the Mage so quickly that it looked like he teleported.  “Get your ass in there, or so help me, I’ll have Rachel kick you out of the Guild.”

“You don’t have the authority—”

Steven bodily picked up the Mage and pushed through the rest of the Raid Party, depositing the man outside the doorway.  Thaden could see a potential problem brewing as Boris’s friends protested this treatment, all of them looking like they were going to flee before they could be forced inside, but at this point, he didn’t give a damn.  He had more important things to worry about, and Steven could take care of it.

Or not.  As far as he was concerned, it really didn’t matter if he couldn’t get a handle on what was going on with this variation of the Horde Siege Challenge.  He abandoned them to figure out what they wanted to do between them as he raced for the walls.

He wasn’t even halfway to the closest wall when he noticed that they weren’t alone in the defense of the town; he hadn’t really paid too much attention to the details of the notification, but now he knew what it really meant it when it had said “defenders”.

Standing 8 feet tall, lithe figures with pointy ears and long silvery hair were wielding bows, that launched glowing arrows out into the horde of undead that he couldn’t quite see yet, but he could hear just outside the walls.  With the dark green and brown coloring to their light clothing, they looked just like Elven Rangers that had just walked out of a forest.

Why Elves?  What sense is it that they are here in a wild west frontier town defending against the undead?  Are they… fake?  NPCs or some other construct of the System?

Lyn’ar’deia

Aelveen

Level 220 (Perceived Level: 286)

Gen’or’fein

Aelveen

Level 220 (Perceived Level: 286)

He glanced at a few of them, as well as their nametags, and he couldn’t be entirely sure if they were real or not.  All he knew was that their nametags appeared similar to Contenders and the Charee, and not like a monster, but that wasn’t necessarily saying much.  Regardless of whether they were real or not, he could see that these Aelveen would soon be overwhelmed if he didn’t do something quickly to help.  Even as he launched himself onto the wall, a cluster of Skeletal Fighters somehow climbed up the wall and swarmed over one of the defenders, who attempted to fight back with a glowing shortsword, but there were too many; the Aelveen fell under a barrage of blows by rusty iron swords, red blood flying everywhere as they collapsed under the attacks.

A quick Exceptional Full Heal was all it took to stave off death for the defender, Lyn’ar’deia, but Thaden wasn’t done.  Healing spells flew out from him with a vengeance, with Aura of Life accompanying Mass Healing and Mass Regeneration.  While he didn’t have his Wild Health Leach and Absorb Health combination active, as he couldn’t have it on while he had been with his Raid Party, the healing spells still did massive damage to the undead, who practically melted away, while also shoring up the few defenders still standing along the walls nearby. 

It was at the point when the few Skeletal Fighters that had managed to ascend to the top were eliminated that Thaden was able to look out beyond the wall.  As he feared, the land for as far as he could see was blanketed in a sea of the undead, surrounding the town on all sides.  Here and there, amongst the horde and unhelpfully spread out to make it more difficult for him, were Horde Leaders – some of which he recognized, but there were others that were entirely new.  What made it even more different than the time before was that each Horde Leader he saw was a higher Level than he remembered, by 10 Levels at the minimum.  He didn’t see the Horde Chief from his position, but he wasn’t able to see the entire horde, so it was entirely possible it was simply in a spot he couldn’t view, such as on the opposite side of the town.

He was interrupted in his perusal of the horde when a musically lilting voice started saying something nearby, and he looked up to see the Aelveen he’d saved from death speaking to him even as they—she, apparently—continued to launch arrows out into the horde.  He could finally see the result of the glowing projectiles, as when they landed among the Skeletal monsters down below, the arrow would explode in a bright, destructive flash, which wiped out dozens of the monsters at a time.  That normally would’ve been impressive, if there weren’t at least hundreds of thousands of the undead in an endless sea out there; the destruction of even a hundred of the monsters was but a drop in the bucket.

Thaden thought for a moment that the Aelveen was speaking his language and was simply singing it, making it hard to follow, but only a few seconds of listening to it made him change his mind.  When he heard her speak, he didn’t understand a single thing.

He shook his head, pointing to his ear, indicating that he didn’t comprehend what she was saying; either that, or she might think he was deaf.  Either way, she seemed to understand and stopped talking, before pointing at herself and at one of the other defenders approximately 30 feet down the wall; she then briefly moved her hands in a circle that seemed to indicate she was talking about the wall, and then pointed to him and then to the still-wet blood on her clothing. 

Just then, Sadia jumped up next to him, startling Lyn’ar’deia at her appearance.  The Aelveen nearly dropped the arrow she was fitting to her bow, but she managed to catch it with lightning-fast reflexes before it could slip far out of her fingers. 

“She wants you to help heal the other defenders,” the squirrel quickly informed him.

Thaden looked at his companion.  “You can understand their language?”

“No,” she chuckled.  “I just speak pantomime.”

“Ah.  Well, I can definitely heal anyone that needs it, but…”

“You’re going to absolutely tear them apart, aren’t you?” she finished for him.

The Omenic Drifter nodded.  “Of course.  The dungeon thought that this would throw me off with this variation, but I’m more than capable of handling this without having to rely on my Leach combo.  Are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she responded.

“Good.  We’ll make a circuit of the walls first, helping to clear off the undead and heal everyone, and then we’ll start working our way outward.”

With those instructions, Thaden, Sadia, his Mirrored Vigil, and his Incarnation of Protection raced along the wall, spamming Mass Healing and Mass Regeneration whenever the former came off of cooldown, as Mass Regeneration thankfully didn’t have a cooldown.  Because his Celerity was so high, they made a trip around the entire length of the circular walls within 15 seconds, blasting past defenders as they struggled to fend off the incoming horde, which was utilizing themselves as bone-ladders to reach the top, and it was all they could do to hold them back another few seconds.  With their passing, they were able to wipe out thousands of the closest Skeletal Fighters, while also healing the severe wounds that many of the Aelveen had suffered to that point.  The only bright point in their circuit around the walls was the fact that it appeared as though none of the defenders had perished, or at least he didn’t see any bodies.

If he had it his way, there wouldn’t be any dead in the future, either.

Once around the walls, they returned to where they started, and the Skeletal monsters were just barely creeping back up to the walls where they had been pushed back by their healing spells.  Jumping down to the ground and winding around the piles of bones from the slain undead, they began another circuit around the walls along the outside, continuing to wipe out thousands of monsters as they went. 

But it wasn’t fast enough; they were still too many to keep up with.  So, they increased their speed, pushing his Celerity to its limit.  He began spamming the single-target Regeneration spell as quickly as his mental state would allow, hitting everything within range, while Sadia continued using Mass Healing when it came off cooldown every half-second or so, and Mass Regeneration in between.  The reason he went with the single-target spell instead of taking over responsibility for the Mass ones that were wide-area of effect was that he wanted to see how much he could take advantage of the 1% instant death chance when he had essentially unlimited targets.

Needless to say, it was almost frightening how many died instantly instead of having to wait for the Regeneration to tick over.

When they were approximately 400 feet away from the walls, Thaden finally activated his Leach combination with Absorb Health and the horde melted even faster against their onslaught.  Mirrored Vigil started to shine as he sent it off into the thickest parts of the horde, tearing massive swaths through them, while he and Sadia continued to make their rounds, pushing further and further out into the incoming monsters.

They killed the first two Horde Leaders before they even knew they were there, and the carnage continued from there.  Despite them being a higher Level than they were before, which he could detect a slight amount of Level Compression coming from them before their Health was obliterated, they fell beneath his advance like wheat to his scythe, collapsing in waves as he moved.

One after another, the Horde Leaders made an appearance and then died before they could do more than make themselves known, as they were still moving fast enough that any attacks did absolutely nothing.  He was actually starting to tire from maintaining the rapid pace, which was at least three times faster than he had felt comfortable using in the dungeon before, but it was needed to keep the rushing waves of undead at bay.  Unlike his previous visit, the undead didn’t specifically target him and would instead continue unthinkingly marching toward the walls, so any thought of pulling their attention away was lost within the first minute of his counterattack.

A much more powerful Level Compression pushed down at him as approximately 30 minutes went by, obliterating everything within his path, and he stumbled and fell as the abrupt pressure tripped him up.  Fortunately, despite slamming at full speed into piles of sharp bones and impacting the ground with bone-crunching force, his protection were more than enough to mitigate the damage.  When he was able to pick himself up, he looked up to see the Horde Chief approximately 500 feet away, flanked by a half-dozen Horde Leaders, similar to ones he’d seen before.  The biggest difference was that the Chief wasn’t a large Dark Death Knight; instead, there were a pair of Dark Death Knights, a pair of Ancient Liches, and a pair of Screaming Banshees acting as the Chief’s guard detail – and they were all much higher of a Level than anything he’d seen thus far in the dungeon.

Ancient Lich – Horde Leader – Intermediate Minimal

Level 280 (Perceived Level: 364)

Dark Death Knight – Horde Leader – Intermediate Minimal

Level 280 (Perceived Level: 364)

Screaming Banshee – Horde Leader – Intermediate Minimal

Level 280 (Perceived Level: 364)

The Bonemancer – Horde Chief – Intermediate Minimal

Stage 1

Level 300 (Perceived Level: 390)

Level 300?  How is that in any way fair for normal Contenders?  And Bonemancer?  What does that mean?

He found out fairly quickly, as all of the Skeletal cannon fodder they’d just killed suddenly started moving, being sucked toward the Bonemancer, crumbled remains and all.  A massive vortex of swirling bone quickly started to form in front of the Chief, and Thaden could well imagine what it would create when it was done, as it seemed to be forming something enormous.  A titanic bone construct that will attempt to crush me underneath its heel?  Yeah, I don’t want to take a chance that it’ll be invulnerable like the Chief is, so I better move.

The problem was that the Level Compression from the monster that was, at its base, nearly 100 Levels higher than his own Level; it took him a few seconds to really get his feet under him, and while he could move, he felt like he was trying to push through water.  He suddenly realized that it wasn’t just the Chief that was affecting him, but the combined Level Compression of all 7 of the larger monsters assaulting him simultaneously, which was making it difficult to move quickly.

Unfortunately for the Horde Leaders and the Chief, Sadia and his Mirrored Vigil had no such qualms.  As they raced forward, leaving him behind after a quick instruction toward them, they began cutting a path toward the ones assaulting him.  When Sadia was close enough to just barely reach them with her Mass Regeneration spell, she hit them with it and hung back, waiting for it to get to work.

From one second to the next, the pressure abruptly lifted off him, freeing him to move; it wasn’t gone completely, but it was more than enough for him sprint forward, just as the last Horde Leader perished.  The invulnerability around the Bonemancer faded away, and was hit the next second by Thaden’s Vigil, which hadn’t stopped running.  Unfortunately, even as the Chief started morphing into its Stage 2 state, an enormous amalgamation of giant bones came to life, standing 200 feet tall and 150 feet wide, with a dozen long, tentacle like arms extending from its rib-cage shaped body and 6 legs with wide feet as large as a bus.  It took one step before it collapsed, the invulnerability that the Chief enjoyed apparently not extending to its creation.

Needless to say, with the majority of the pressure off of him, the Horde Chief didn’t last long after that.  Stage 2, which didn’t really change much about the Bonemancer other than making it appear to be on fire, lasted for a second before the Final Stage began.  As even more bones and bone dust were pulled into the darkly glowing cocoon that swallowed the Chief, the final form of the Bonemancer – which was actually impressive enough as it formed a giant, 8-armed behemoth wielding bone-constructed weapons a dozen feet long – perished before it could do more than swing toward Thaden, who hopped backwards, avoiding the hit altogether.

And with that, the Horde Siege Variation Challenge, with whichever members of his Raid Party managed to stay inside, was complete.