Chapter 65. Trust

  I came to. I was back in the boss room. My team laid all over the floor, paralyzed. A twenty second timer ticked down on the shackles. Clarity sat on his throne, but he had undergone a wardrobe change. He wore a thick, dark cloak that covered his shoulders and a hood that covered his eyes. He held a staff, upright, with a purple gem at the top of it, held in place by silver prongs. Embossed black leather armor covered his chest, highlighted with silver threads.

  “Warren,” Rowan said, laying on the floor but eyes on me. “You’re back. What happened?”

  “Henry tried to bribe me to betray you,” I said.

  “Did you?” Arthur asked.

  “No,” I said. “I didn’t.”

  “Where’s Clarity?” Rowan asked.

  “Oh his throne,” I said. “He looks powerful. Look, we only have a few seconds before your shackle wears off and the fight begins. I have an idea, but y’all need to protect me.”

  “How do we know we can trust you?” Arthur said. “You turned on us before in the middle of a boss fight.”

  “You’re right,” I said. “I wouldn’t trust me either. Instead, I’m going to trust you.” I got into my inventory and pulled out a number of items. The Glyph of Light rune, the pliers, and the Networked Power Supply.

  The timer had fifteen seconds remaining.

  I laid the items in front of me and began twisting wires together, connecting one half of the networked power supply to the Glyph of Light. I activated both items. I opened a trade window with Cassandra, handing her the enchanted items that I had made.

  “What is this?” she said.

  I couldn’t let Henry hear my plan, so I typed the details to her. This had to work. If it didn’t, we were in a world of hurt.

  I changed my Loadout, removing the Elementalist Job and replacing it with Restorative Mystic.

  “What are you doing?” Arthur asked.

  “Keeping you alive,” I said, linking my Loadout to the raid.

  Job: Restorative Mystic

  Passive 1: Spiritual Embodiment

  Passive 2: Critical Restoration

  Skill 1: Rejuvenate 2

  Skill 2: Healing Rain

  Skill 3: Tempo

  “I don’t have any attack spells,” I said. Then I typed. Whatever happens, keep Cassandra protected.

  The shackles wore off. The raid team leapt to their feet.

  “Spread out!” Arthur yelled.

  Henry raised his staff, and green rain poured from the ceiling in a massive area.

  On the raid interface, I watched as people’s health bars began to drain. In seconds, the entire raid had lost almost 20% of their health.

  Acid rain. Taking 45 damage over 7 seconds.

  I countered the spell with Healing rain, dousing the raid in precipitation. Health bars continued to plummet, but slower. Green numbers popped up over people's heads in droves, twos and threes floating over their heads.

  “Get to the sides!” Arthur yelled.

  People ran for the edges of the room, casting spells as they went, trying to chip away at Henry’s health.

  “Henry’s down to 99%,” Janica called out, already hugging the wall. “Now it’s up to 100%. Clarity is self-healing. Cassandra has to get the debuff onto Clarity and keep it on.”

  Henry slammed his staff to the ground, and three purple prisons emerged from the floor, trapping three members of the raid, including Cassandra. Each of their health bars began to drain, faster than before. They were unable to escape the acid rain. On top of that, they were taking shadow damage.

  I focused my healing on Cassandra, throwing a Rejuvenate 2 on her. The other two who had been trapped in shadow prisons got lower and lower, but there was nothing I could do. I had to keep Cassandra alive. Her health bobbed between 30% and 50%. I casted a second Rejuvenate 2 on her. My mana was already around half. The spell crit, bringing her up to 70% and adding a stack of Restore. She was still trapped. The shadow prison had four seconds left before she could move again. And she was out of stealth.

  I healed myself next. The Rejuvenate 2 spell crit on me, returning some of the mana and returning my health to 50%. With two different HOTs on myself, I had a moment to look around.

  I took out my drum and banged out the opening to “Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa. Tempo activated, increasing everyone’s haste by 10%. A new buff also lit up on everyone’s interfaces, facilitated by my new Attribute.

  Push It Real Good. 5% increase to damage.

  I looked around the room. Not only were the new buffs helping the group, the music itself had gotten in people’s heads. It was crazy how much a good song could change the vibe in a room. The momentum of a fight.

  The other two raid members who had been stuck within prisons were dead, but at least Cassandra was alive. There were only twelve of us remaining.

  “Melee, run around the outside of the circle and get to the boss!” Arthur Commanded.

  Arthur, Rowan, and Janica converged on Henry. As they charged at the boss, Henry teleported to the opposite side of the room. But in doing so, his Acid Rain spell stopped. A momentary reprise. And, in a stroke of luck, he teleported close to Cassandra, who lunged at him with claws, doing massive damage and adding the healing debuff to the boss. The debuff would last for two full minutes.

  Raspberry and Blitzcraig pelted Henry with fire and ice. His health dipped down to 92%.

  Looking around the raid, most of the people still alive were dangerously low on health. Kab and Olivia casted heal after heal from one side of the room, but their mana was getting low.

  Henry twirled in a circle, faster and faster. He became a twister of purple and lightning. He darted across the room. As he did, he knocked Thomas and Olivia into the wall. Yellow numbers floated above their heads.

  They fell to the floor, dazed. Their health bars had dropped by 15%.

  “Get out of the way!” I yelled.

  Henry bounced against a wall and careened across the room again in a straight line, sending our raid flying. Strange. Henry’s health drained as he tornado’d through the room, bouncing from wall-to-wall like a pinball. His health fell at about 2% per second. It was down to 72%.

  “He’s killing himself,” Janica called out. “Without his self-healing, he’s draining his own health.”

  And then I noticed it. A line of blood had formed where Henry had pathed. And not a random line, a pattern. Thick red lines of blood crisscrossed the circular space in a pentagram.

  “He’s drawing something!” I yelled. “The lines of blood. It’s a ritual.”

  If he was willing to sacrifice such a large portion of his health to create this spell, it was bad news.

  “I’m gonna knock him off course!” Thomas yelled. Thomas tracked the boss like a professional football player going for a tackle. He took off, sprinting into the path of the boss, shield raised. Thomas launched himself at Henry like a man throwing himself in front of a train. He ricocheted off, flying into the far wall. Two objects were supposed to have equal, but opposite reactions. But it didn’t look that way. Henry didn’t seem to be affected at all.

  Thomas health took a huge hit when he smashed into the boss, then depleted completely when he smashed into the wall. He was dead. Only eleven of us remained.

  Henry stopped to a lurch in the exact place that he had started. He ripped the purple gem free of his staff and set it, with exactness, at the corner of two red lines of blood. The blood began to boil, then evaporated in a red mist.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  My vision shifted and blurred like I had drunk five shots of Tequila in a row. I had the strongest urge to heal Henry, so I cast a Rejuvenate 2 on him. It crit, putting two HOTs on him. Near me, Janica charged at Arthur, uppercutting him. Rowan threw a spear across the room, impaling Olivia, killing her instantly.

  I looked at my interface.

  Mass Mind Control. All actions dictated by the Puppeteer for 10 seconds.

  Henry laughed. His health rose from 62% to 68%. “Thank you, Warren. I needed that.”

  Kab casted two heals on Henry before his mana ran dry. Arthur ran at Kab, then thrusted his sword through his side. Kab fell to his knees, his health dangerously low.

  Blitzcraig pelted Kab with an ice bolt, finishing him off. He threw another one at Arthur, dropping him to 80%. Cassandra plunged her dagger into Raspberry. She stunned her, then swiped across her throat. I smiled. Everything was going great.

  Raspberry’s health dropped from 10% to 5% to zero.

  “Thank you, Cassandra,” Henry said. “How polite of you to take care of that pest.”

  Janica and Rowan were at blows with each other, dodging, uppercutting, slicing and blocking. Both of their health bars were below 30%.

  Rowan landed a shield slam, knocking Janica down. She jumped into the air, spear pointed down at my companion. Her friend. In an instant, Rowan would kill Janica. And it would be the end of her life. I should be happy about this as Janica had caused Henry way too much trouble. Yet there was a trickle of doubt. A jolt of fear.

  The thrust came down.

  Mind Control ended.

  Rowan moved her hand to the right, changing the course of her spear. It drove into the stone floor, inches from Janica’s throat. She dropped her spear and hugged Janica.

  Only six of us remained.

  “Protect us!” I yelled. I grabbed Cassandra’s hand and ran her to the power core in the center of the room.

  She opened trade with me, handing me back the things that I had given her.

  “You do it,” she said. “I know you think you need to prove your loyalty, but I trust you.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  Arthur, Rowan, Janica, closed around us. Shields went up.

  Blitzcraig ran at the boss, firing ice shards, then casting a frost nova. It failed, but three stacks of Slow appeared over Henry’s portrait, his movement restricted.

  Henry swung his staff at Blitzcraig, dropping him to the floor. Then he came for us, staff twirling above his head.

  Blitzcraig had bought us a few precious seconds.

  I set down the Glyph of Light with the Network Power Supply attached. The wire had disconnected from the node. I fixed it, and the light began to shine. I took the other Network Power supply and pushed it against the generator in the middle of the room. The two power cores that we had helped Henry collect twirled around each other faster than the eye could see.

  The Network Power Supply flashed and melded to the generator. The Glyph of Light glowed brighter and brighter until it was impossible to even look at. I inspected it.

  Glyph of Light

  Charges 999,902/1,000,000

  I put my fists over my eyes. Connected to the generator, it had nearly a million charges. I hadn’t anticipated the generator to be that strong. Like the largest battery the world had ever seen. But as I watched, the charges fell at breakneck speed. A second later, it was down to 900,000.

  “What are you doing?” Henry yelled at us, enraged.

  His Slow effect wore off, and he ran at us, swinging his staff.

  “Hold him off with everything you have!” I yelled.

  The charge was down to 800,000.

  Rowan lifted her shield, blocking a massive blow from Henry. Her health fell to 40%.

  I casted Rejuvenate 2 on her once, twice. The second on crit, adding a stack of Restore. But my mana was gone.

  695,000/1,000,000

  “Shields!” she yelled.

  I hustled up next to her, pulling up my Tribal Buckler. Arthur was on the other side.

  Janica positioned herself next to me.

  “Phalanx,” Rowan called out.

  My shield was guided into the air. It merged with Rowan’s, Arthur’s, and Janica’s shields, becoming a wall. All incoming damage was shared between the four of us.

  And still our health fell. Janica’s was lowest, at 20%. It fell to 10%.

  I looked to my right. “Break off,” I said, desperation in my voice. “You aren’t allowed to die.”

  “No,” she said, gritting her teeth.

  It fell to 5%.

  “Fine,” I said. “You beautiful stubborn Fairy.” I opened my interface and turned off Spiritual Embodiment.

  Janica looked at me for an instant before winking out of existence.

  265,000/1,000,000

  Our health fell faster after that, Henry swinging furiously at our wall, trying to get to the Glyph of Light.

  103,000/1,000,000

  Phalanx ended, and Henry sent me flying to my left with a vicious swipe of his staff.

  72,000/1,000,000

  Henry smashed down on Arthur. His health fell to 15%.

  Arthur made to cast a heal on himself, but Henry stabbed him, sending him careening back into the generator. He missed the Network Power Connector by inches. He fell, dead.

  41,000/1,000,000

  Henry grunted, then knocked Rowan flying to the side. I watched, helpless, as he pulled back to smash the Glyph of Light. Beside him, the outline of an invisible Cassandra threw herself between Henry’s staff and the Glyph.

  He impaled her with his staff. It got stuck within her torso. She looked at me, and smiled.

  Henry raged, trying to remove his staff from Cassandra’s body.

  But the light winked out. The generator exploded, sending glass in every direction.

  Henry looked at me, then at Rowan, his face a well of anger and spite.

  He raised his staff to smash me.

  Right before he did, I saw a prompt.

  World Alert: The University of Edreru Dungeon was destroyed by the guild Impervious. All players inside the dungeon will be teleported out in 30 seconds.

  Henry’s staff came down.

  The world faded.