New Story -- Chapter 40

Chapter 40

Thaden was angry, though the primary target of his ire had already been destroyed in an explosion of necrotic force that nearly killed him as well. He hadn’t expected such a dramatic exit for Lavestina, The Lady Lich, but he probably should have; regardless, she was dead and so were the other pair of Mini Bosses that had proven to be a pain to destroy.

But the reason his anger remained was due to what he had done to nearly get himself killed. He wasn’t sure if he was angry at himself, his party, or even both; regardless of who he was mad at, the fact remained that he had deliberately removed his Major Absorption Field in order to stop the spellcasting Mini Boss from bringing the entire assortment of slain Undead back to “un”life. He hadn’t even thought about what it would cost him to do such a thing, which was what made him angry at himself, because he had just done it – and it probably wouldn’t have even mattered if he had let it happen in the first place.

Because he could’ve simply used Lesser Resurrection on his party again to bring them back after they were slaughtered by the horde of Undead.  However, something in him instinctively reduced his own protections in order to save them from such a fate, even though he could’ve died – and then no one would’ve lived through the battle.

The only thing that saved him was his Major Death Ward that he’d been keeping active on himself, because he didn’t have his Major Absorption Field back up in time, but the excruciating pain followed by a chilling numbness as the necrotic wave formed by the explosion of the Lady Lich was something that he never wanted to experience again. Thankfully, his Death Ward had been able to stop it from killing him outright and even refilled half of his Health, but the actual affliction still needed to be purged from his body with a spam of Major Cure Physical Affliction, which finally got rid of the lingering effects. Healing himself during the excruciating process kept him alive, though he had recast Death Ward almost as soon as he could, so he wasn’t in too much danger of dying at that point.

They almost got me killed, though! Sure, it was his stupid decision to save them when it probably wasn’t absolutely necessary, but if they hadn’t been there in the first place, then he wouldn’t have had to expose himself to potential death on his own part. As much as he wanted to blame them for his near-death experience, he knew it wasn’t completely their fault; it was mostly his fault for wanting answers to questions that he’d been plagued with for months, by dragging them along on this highly dangerous Maximal difficulty dungeon run.

Still, he even though he took most of the blame, he still portioned off some of it on them, as it was their decision to follow him in the first place, which led to the current circumstances. It wasn’t necessarily fair to them to shoulder that blame, but he didn’t care at the moment; the memory of watching and experiencing his flesh suddenly fall off his body as it rapidly decayed was enough to give him nightmares for years. Of course, it still paled in comparison to being eaten by Vogmites, but at least he hadn’t still been fully conscious of his body at that horrific time, which was probably the only reason he wasn’t insane at this point.

Fortunately, everything had worked out and everyone in his party was still alive. He had managed to withstand the pressure that the Level 70 Mini Bosses seemed to exude naturally through his own mental willpower and the liberal use of Lesser Cure Mental Affliction, which barely held off the crushing feeling enough that he could think straight.

Beginning to turn back around to his party while attempting to dredge up a smile to show that he was okay, he was interrupted by another round of even greater pressure than before, followed by the familiar voice of the Monarch of the Dead.

“Insolent mortals! You dare to destroy my loyal retainers? I was only going to have them destroy you, but now I’ve decided that you will serve me for eternity! I will eradicate the souls from your broken bodies, and raise your pathetic forms as the lowliest of my servants!

“Come, face the wrath of your new ruler, as this is my domain! You have no power here, which you will quickly learn!”

“Will you shut up?” Thaden shouted back, even as he forced himself to his feet against the pressure. As time went on, he became more accustomed to it, though he thought it would take a while before he could move freely under its effects. He had barely been able to move around under the harsh ministrations of the Mini Bosses, but the Monarch was on another Level – literally and figuratively. “I don’t know if you normally speak like this or if it’s a product of the System messing with this dungeon, but it’s quite annoying!”

“Fool! You dare—"

“Shove it, you overbearing asshole! Just attack me so I can kill you, and then we can all go home!” His anger was really making his lash out, but fortunately his interrupting outburst had the desired effect.

Without another word, for which Thaden was thankful for, the Monarch of the Dead floated away from where he had been hanging out in the middle of the air near the end of the enormous room, as he headed straight for the Lifewarden waiting for him on the floor. As he got closer, so too did the pressure he experienced increase, which caused Thaden to drop to his knees, but he refused to let himself fall any further.

The spectral tentacles that extended out of the back of the black metal-wearing figure struck at him first, their length sufficient enough to reach him, but they were immediately stopped by his Major Absorption Field. Unlike most magical attacks, the tentacles weren’t absorbed but instead latched onto the Field as if they had suction cups, quickly wrapping completely around him as more came into play. In a matter of seconds, he was entirely enveloped by the ghostly appendages, and they were so thick that he could barely see past them.

He ignored it all, of course, and started his barrage of healing spells like normal, and he saw the Monarch begin to take damage – but almost as soon as the first bits of Health depletion happened, Thaden felt a sudden pull from somewhere in his body. Panicking, he realized that it wasn’t just somewhere in his body that was being affected, but his entire body; it was as if a needle had been plunged into his bloodstream and was siphoning off his blood. In this case, however, what he was feeling being drained from him wasn’t blood… and he suddenly knew what was happening.

The phantasmal tentacles weren’t attacking him, they were simply attaching themselves to his Fields and sucking the life from them, or more accurately, using them as a conduit to indirectly suck the life from Thaden. However, when he checked his Health, it wasn’t dropping at all. In fact, what it felt like it was trying to drain was….

Thaden started laughing, starting as a few chuckles before it blossomed into full-blown guffaws as the reality of what was happening made itself clear to him.

“What is happening? Why aren’t you writhing on the floor in pain as I’m draining away your life energy?”

Nehetmo seemed genuinely confused why his creepy tentacles weren’t doing what they were supposed to – which only caused Thaden to laugh harder. Whether it was the laughter or the confusion that triggered the Undead Monarch, the figure pulled a thick black sword out of seemingly nowhere, its length as tall as his entire body. With a flick of his wrist, the sword slashed through the air in front of him, and a large visible wave of shadowy force shot at the giggling Lifewarden in an arc. The projectile was wide enough that it hit not only him but the floor, which sliced a furrow in it that was 6 inches wide and a few feet deep. Thaden was surprised to see that both of his Fields were necessary to stop it from bisecting him, as it was apparently a construction of both physical and magical force.

Powerful. If I wasn’t able to keep both my protective Fields active, that probably would’ve killed me.

Obviously frustrated that his attacks were doing nothing to Thaden, the Monarch roared some incomprehensible garbage and dove down toward him, with his right hand holding his sword out and his left swelling with some sort of shadowy magical force. As soon as they were close to the Lifewarden, Nehetmo swung the sword with a blindingly fast sweeping strike from the right, while an explosive detonation of foul magic slammed into him from the left in a one-two punch that Thaden withstood without even shifting an inch.

That was when the Monarch must have snapped, because the Undead Boss seemed to shift into overdrive as he flailed at his opponent with his sword in devastating slices, jabs, and chops with such speed that Thaden couldn’t follow it. These were joined by a variety of different spells, ranging from explosive necrotic clouds, to bolts of sickly dark-green energy, and there were even a few constricting bands of shadowy force that would’ve crushed him if he wasn’t so fully protected. What worried him for a moment was when one of the Monarch’s spells seemed to create an army of largely transparent spirits that floated above him for a moment before diving at him with horrific screeches and outstretched claws. Thankfully, they were absorbed just like all the other magical effects that were sent his way, so he didn’t have anything to worry about.

Meanwhile, Thaden continued to chip away at the Monarch’s Health with a combination of all his different spells and Advancements, with Regeneration, Aura of Life, and Afterglow doing continuous damage, and Mass Healing doing – comparatively – small amounts of damage every 5 seconds when he recast it. The Undead Boss became more and more ragged, its armor beginning to chip and flake away, leaving a way to see inside its metal shell; unfortunately, what was inside seemed to be a void of darkness, so it wasn’t that great of a view. At the same time, the Lifewarden felt the drain on his body increase in severity, the phantasmal tentacles still latching on to his Fields and pulling at them with fevered ferocity.

“What is this? What are you doing to me?”

For some reason, the question made Thaden think that the Monarch wasn’t talking about the damage he was doing with his healing spells. A few seconds after he spoke, the Undead Boss abruptly descended to the floor with a cry of outrage, collapsing to his knees with a metallic *thump*. A faint hum could be heard coming from Nehetmo’s armor, which only increased in frequency and intensity as the seconds wore on.

Sudden understanding flooded Thaden’s mind. He smirked and bent forward, the ghostly appendages continuing to surround him, as he looked at the vibrating Monarch that literally shook from the inside.

“You’re something of a vampire, right? You suck the life energy from your victims, which likely heals you simultaneously? Yeah, that doesn’t really work on me.” He dropped his voice so that it was just barely audible over the rising hum. “You see, you’re not pulling life energy from me, but Mana. The more you pull from me, the more it fills you up – and I’m pretty sure that you can’t exactly process it all properly. That leaves it to build up… and up… and up… until your body can’t take it anymore. Do you know what happens then?”

The Monarch seemed to know and he attempted to detach his tentacles from around Thaden, but the Lifewarden reached out and grabbed one of them with both his hands as it uncurled from around him, his Fields allowing him to maintain a grip on it before it could slip away. Nehetmo attempted to move away, which would allow him to free his ghostly appendage from Thaden’s grasp, but it was too late; instead of fleeing, he simply fell over.  The sound of the metal armor vibrating against the floor was almost deafening at this point, but the Lifewarden simply held onto the tentacle and deliberately backed up a few feet.

“That’s right,” Thaden said softly, where he couldn’t even hear himself over the loud whining that filled the entire room, echoing off the distant walls until it was just a cacophony of discordant sounds. “You expl—”

The abrupt detonation of Nehetmo, Monarch of the Dead, caught him off-guard. While the actual explosion didn’t do any damage to him physically, the sound of it somehow managed to get through his protection and ruptured his eardrums. It was also so sudden that he staggered backwards in surprise, falling onto his back as he tripped over his own feet. A quick cast of his Major Mass Healing worked wonders to heal the damage caused to his ears, and when they were restored, he heard the last echoes of the detonation passing through the enormous room.

Gingerly getting to his feet, he looked over at his party, only to find that they were all on the ground, unmoving and seemingly dead. However, he saw from their tags that while all of them were hurt in some way, none of them had perished; they were simply unconscious.

Amazingly, after completing a dungeon for the first time, Thaden wasn’t forced to join them.  Instead, he felt tired and worn out from all the fighting and stressful situations, as well as slightly traumatized from his near-death experience, but he felt that he was alright.

He moved toward his unconscious party members, glad that they had survived, but also contemplating what to do about them in the future. While there were probably thousands of questions that he could think of that they might be able to answer, he needed to decide if those answers were worth it if he was to go through something like this again. He couldn’t protect them as they were right now, as they were comparatively weak; it wasn’t their fault, of course, because they were only Level 2. But if they weren’t at least close to the same Level as he was, then it was likely that he would be forced to put himself in danger to save them.

Because there wouldn’t always be enough time to resurrect them, like if he got separated from them or was in a protracted fight that he couldn’t escape from. Or if their entire body was destroyed, like his own would’ve been if he had been successfully dropped into a volcano; he didn’t think he would be able to resurrect them at that point, because there wouldn’t be a body to even target.

He didn’t have to decide what to do right now, of course, but it wouldn’t be long before they left the dungeon and journeyed back to town. His anger at his loss of PICK had largely subsided, and with the new information he had, there were some things that he wanted to think about in the relatively calm privacy of his room at the Coalition.

Sighing as he realized that making these kinds of decisions wasn’t going to be easy, Thaden cast Major Mass Regeneration and Major Mass Healing on his party members, healing them of any injuries they may have suffered, and then sat down cross-legged near them as he waited for them to wake up.