End Online: Volume 3 Read online

  “Are you sure you should be telling me that?”

  I personally wouldn’t tell somebody else that I can only use it once. It leaves room for people to take advantage of that fact when it involves being attacked by another player.

  Mason only shrugs his shoulders.

  “It’s okay, I trust you enough. I will be editing all this out of my video anyway, I don’t want everyone else to see it after all. By the way, some of them survived.”

  Turning my head, I see four of the skeletons slowly standing up. They appear to be incredibly damaged, from missing limbs to bones that crack further from just moving them.

  They are clearly all nearly dead.

  Slipping my hand inside my cloak, I draw a four of the five throwing knives holstered on the outside of my leg. My wrist technique has improved a lot with my practice in throwing the blades. Although, that could just be the system assist. It is incredibly difficult to tell if it was assisting you sometimes, it’s more like it directly affected your mind to correct your moves more so than forcing your avatar to perform the techniques.

  It is great how the attacks feel like you are naturally doing them, even though by some form of compulsion you are forced to complete them once started.

  All four of the daggers quickly fly at the skeletons. Three fatally hit their targets in the head, while the fourth narrowly misses. Clicking my tongue, I draw the last throwing knife and successfully kill the last skeleton.

  My level finally rises by one at the last kill.

  From that point on we walk through nothing but endless corridors that all look the same. Each and every single path is lined with the exact same stone bricks, enough of which I have seen to make my head ache. Every path also has the fog that prevents the eyesight from passing about twenty meters.

  Turning left, turning right, go straight ahead, pick one of five different paths. This is the worst kind of dungeon, a labyrinth.

  I am completely lost.

  Each battle came and went quite quickly, I even gained about ten levels so far. Although, no matter how hard I look, I could not find any stairs down. I doubt I could even find my way back if I tried.

  Fen has gained six levels since we entered, and that is with me holding her back from slaughtering all the enemies before anyone else even gets a chance to fight.

  For a change, the tunnel in front of us does not break off into multiple paths, but a large dome shaped cavern. In the centre of this cavern is what seems like a circular tower fifteen meters in diameter, and thirty high. It is made of the exact same stone bricks as the rest of the labyrinth.

  There are a few windows near the top of the tower. Although, they all seem not only unreachable but also too small to fit through. Not to mention, between us and the tower is swarming with ‘Imprisoned Zombies’ and ‘Murderous Skeletons’.

  “Mason,” I speak in a polite voice, “Can you use that attack again? You know, that magic arrow?”

  “I can,” He let’s out a sigh, “But it will be severely weakened, the space here is simply too large.”

  Huh, what does he mean by the space is too large?

  Nevertheless, he draws his bow and creates another ‘Wind Piercer’ while his bow reflects the clear blue light of the sacred art. Releasing the arrow which shortly disappears into nothingness, only to be replaced by another concussion of wind and sound.

  However, this attack didn’t come anywhere close to tearing a hole through a whole horde of strong monsters like I thought it would. Instead, the wind blade ran wild in every direction. A few zombies are slain, but most remain unharmed as the air blades disperse in the large open area.

  “I see… You’re an archer strong in confined spaces aren’t you?”

  “S-shut up!”

  A small part of me lights up at thinking this guy’s fighting strength is unusually out of balance, just like how I am. He is the opposite of me, who is stronger in large, open spaces.

  “Well anyway, let’s go.” I would be lying if I said I’m not nervous, but I am confident in most of our strengths. The two brothers are the only ones that concern me, even if it appears they are stronger than what they first appeared to be.

  Fen and I take the lead. Her ice bolts rain down from the skies while my blades gouge zombies and skeletons alike.

  A few arrows fly around and I hear Matrix chanting his spells in arduously long phrases. They seem to be holding their own against the enemies, but we are killing them much faster.

  “Come on Fen. We can’t lose!” This is no time to hold her back and get the experience myself. Naturally, I urge her to fight harder.

  “Unn…” She nods her head, eyes lighting up with new life.

  The barrage of Ice intensifies. Not only that, but strange Ice Flowers bloom randomly amongst the enemies, mercilessly tearing them apart.

  I start using my sacred arts more as well. Any enemies that get close to attacking me are taken down by ‘Backstab’. While my sacred arts which multiply the images of my body are useless against such a larger number of opponents, I am currently in my preferred environment with an abundance of space to move around within.

  My afterimages are possibly my greatest weapon. Misleading enemies to attack places where I am not, it also prevents them from reacting to an attack that has not yet seemed to reach them.

  Ten minutes passed by and the number of enemy forces had reduced by three quarters. I was completely out of stamina and everyone else had also been worn down.

  Lost

  Lvl: 68

  Health: 590/904

  Stamina: 13/325

  Companions:

  Fen

  Lvl: 58

  Health: 905/1325

  Magic: 24/489

  Stamina: 312/392

  Out of magic, Fen starts launching high speed attacks, chopping the enemies with her hands like blades.

  I dance through the crowd with afterimages, swinging my blades with a steady rhythm. I have lost a considerable amount of health so far, but that is only from Fen’s careless rain of ice bolts. Not even I can avoid hundreds of small shards of ice attacking everything in a large vicinity, nor can she aim away from me when she can’t actually see me.

  Mason and Matrix appear to have taken a bit of damage. Glancing across the cavern, Matrix is releasing some incredible feats of swordsmanship. I admit I was a little concerned at first as to what he could do with a sword but no shield. However, he is using it to successfully block the incoming attacks from the skeleton’s weapons.

  Killing another zombie and gaining a further level, I stop moving in front of a skeleton. I want to know if I will be able to block an attack with my blades too.

  It swings down a one handed hatchet, the perfect weapon for me to test blocking on.

  The hand axe comes down as my two shortswords cross over my head to catch it. As the hatchet came down on the blades, a sudden force vibrated down my arms. The skeleton drove the weapon straight through my defence and carved a big wound from my shoulder to hip.

  A full three hundred and fifty health points are taken off from the critical hit. The weight of the blow adds to my body as I feel incredibly weary from my lack of health left.

  Making some distance in between me and the remaining enemies, I pull out two vile looking health potions. Losing my confidence to consume the horrid looking things, I put them back in my inventory and instead eat a bunch of green medicinal herbs to start recovering my health.

  As my health begins to recover, I feel the weariness in my body slowly fading.

  In a short few minutes, I am ready to enter the battle again. Except, all the enemies are finally dead.

  Fen and I converge with the brothers, each taking out their own recovery potions. In front of us stands the stone brick tower like a giant pole stuck in the ground. Being directly in front of it, the construct is quite menacing. A faint foreboding emits from it, raising the hairs on the back of my neck.

  I place my hand on the metal plate door. Trying to force the door
open, I release a sigh at discovering it is locked.

  “I don’t suppose anyone has a key by chance? I don’t think we could break this iron door.”

  I look at the others who shake their head.

  “Uh, if you would excuse me for a moment.”

  The person that scantily talk, Matrix, speaks up. A little shocked, I move aside to allow him through.

  Matrix goes down on one knee in front of the door. Pulling out two small metal needles, he places them in the lock.

  A minute of rattling the picks in the lock and a dull click echoes through the metal. With a high pitch screeching, the iron door slowly swings open on rusted hinges.

  Inside the tower is hollow, with a staircase spiralling downwards along the wall into this dungeon’s signature mist. The ceiling is comparatively low, only five meters above me. There is a trapdoor directly above us, but I have no method to get that high without risking falling to my death from the ledge I am currently on.

  With torches lining the walls, we stroll down the staircase in a single file. There is enough room to walk two abreast. However, nobody wishes to walk that close the edge, considering the depth of the drop seems endless.

  Just like in the corridors, the mist also retreats from us the closer we get to it, maintaining its distance. We reach a small platform similar to the one we entered from. From under the ledge we are on, the ground is still obscured beneath an insurmountable amount of fog.

  There is another iron plate door in front of us, also locked. Matrix quietly steps up to it and unlocks it.

  “Hah,” I laugh to myself, “The magic swordsman has magic fingers.”

  Fen doesn’t seem to understand the joke very well, but Mason lets out a chuckle.

  Beyond the door, torches light up a large prison devoid of mist. The room is about twenty meters and four stories tall, with doors made from iron bars locking up individual cells along the walls. Walkways and ramps criss cross in no particular order, allowing navigation around and through the large room.

  Although, the walkways have been placed with no systematic order, resulting in a chaotic scene no less challenging than the labyrinth. There is the option to jump down to a lower path, but it may not be possible to jump back up.

  I am a little curious about the odd zombie or skeleton walking around. They look exactly the same as the ones we previously fought, except these ones aren’t walking around in packs

  “Analyse!”

  Name: Murderous Skeleton

  Level: 157

  Health: 1333

  Magic: 124

  Stamina: 512

  The first inmates of the 'Vexl Prison' have long since perished. With all their flesh gone, only the bones remain. The insanity of the prison seeped into the bones of the criminals, forcing their souls to remain, even after death.

  Murderous Skeletons attack ruthlessly, even sacrificing their bodies in the process. They do not tire, pursuing their target until one of them is dead.

  Name: Imprisoned Zombie

  Level: 139

  Health: 1743

  Magic: 0

  Stamina: 0

  The prisoners were starving. With the lack of food, some turned to cannibalism. Befouling their bodies with human meat, their drive to consume overcame them. With their bodies rotting, they still continue to search for food.

  The rotten flesh on their bodies is incredibly poisonous, any contact with it could potentially be fatal

  My jaw drops and my eyes widen. I have killed enough of the enemies to be able to garner their background information. But what caused my shock, was the fact that they were multitudes stronger than the earlier ones.

  “Fen, Matrix, Mason. Be careful, these enemies may look the same, but they are well over level 100. The earlier zombies and skeletons are much weaker than these ones.”

  A hint of dread came from my voice, causing the others to stare wide eyed at the enemies.

  “At least,” I continued, “They are by themselves, not in groups.”

  “Well, we should try to take them out from a distance, those pathways only appear to be about one and a half meters wide. Not to mention the lack of safety rails. There is no room to properly manoeuvre in close combat, they will have the advantage.”

  He has a fair point, it will be difficult to dodge their attacks when we may risk falling off to the bottom of the room.

  “There appears to be more iron plate doors in here,” I count three in particular, “They probably lead off into other areas of the dungeon. We had best go directly to one and continue on.”

  Following our current path across the room to the far wall, a few zombies come to the edge of their cells, shaking the bars on the doors as they moan at us. Attracted by the sounds, more zombies and skeletons come to the end of their cells.

  ‘If all these doors were to suddenly open, we would without a doubt be overwhelmed.

  I lead everyone around past the enemies, trying to not let them get me on edge. I travel down a sloped ramp only to encounter a skeleton. Rotating its head in my direction, it raises a large curved sword and sprints at me faster than I could believe.

  Without any time to react properly, I instinctively activate ‘Backstab’. Vanishing in the face of its downward sword blow, I appear from behind to counter attack.

  Landing the powerful critical hit across the back of its ribs, one cracks while the skeletons health visibly drops by a third. The skeleton ignores the damage and tries to twist its body to continue attacking me. In the same moment, an oversized spear of ice comes down and cracks open its ribcage while an arrow connects with the side of its skull, displacing its balance and causing the attack to miss.

  A little irritated again thanks to the inconvenience of my skill causing the monster to be under the ‘Aggro’ status, I let loose on attacks as well. I don’t bother trying to be skillful with my attacks. I simply dodge the incoming blade, and swing my shortswords in the skeletons direction.

  It was not my most impressive appearance, but I did bring the skeleton down.

  The moment the skeleton died, seven of the surrounding cells make a cracking sound. Each has their iron door break off from the hinges, falling forwards and allowing the trapped undead out.

  “Ah ****.” I curse at my luck. Not only are the creatures in front and behind us, but some even climbed out of the cells directly in the middle of us.

  No one spoke a word. There is simply not enough time to. there are six enemies in total, three teams of a skeleton and a zombie each.

  I have the pair in front. Meanwhile, Fen turns her attention to the ones in the centre of our formation, leaving Mason and Matrix to deal with the two at the back.

  The sound of cracking ice fills the area as Fen creates stalagmites, launching them at the incoming enemies. I take the opportunity to throw all my easily available throwing knives at a zombie as I approach its skeleton partner.

  The zombie is much slower than the skeleton, allowing me to have a few scant moments to fight it one on one. The speed of the monster is uncanny, releasing attacks faster than every monster I have met before. I can see how most players consider a shield to be much more effective than being fast. There are creatures that no matter how high one might have their agility, they still can’t compete in the terms of speed.

  Well, that is in comparison to standard players.

  Some attacks I could completely dodge, although I managed to ward off most with the weapon only grazing me. Nonetheless, it still did a great deal of damage, my armour is terribly poor for my level.

  Bending my knees and dropping myself down to half my height, I feel the wind from the skeletons horizontal slash. Stabbing the skeleton in the sides of the knees, a sense of foreboding overcomes me.

  The skeleton barely even prepares its next attack, almost immediately swinging the sword directly down on top of me. At barely sixty percent health, it could be a fatal blow. Almost as if by instinct, I push off my left foot and pivot with the opposite. While still crouching, the skel
etons sword stops not far from the floor. The skeleton rotates the blade, only to swing a curved upward strike.

  I activate ‘Perceptual Sight’ for the second time today. Gradually straightening my legs to stand, the blade tracks my every movement. Running out of options to escape, I give a final push and attempt to jump over it.

  An almost feeling of weightlessness overcomes me the moment my feet leave the ground. My body floats through the air, allowing me to bend my back and spin faster. Narrowly, I clear the blade with a technique similar to that used in the sport where you are required to jump over a pole at a certain height.

  I get halfway through the backflip, with my head facing the ground, when the wall starts approaching dangerously quick. I extend my four limbs against the wall to protect myself, landing with a dull thud. Pushing back off the wall, I reverse my trajectory before gravity takes hold. I see the zombie is now joining the fight, along with a second skeleton.

  ‘Damn it! My ‘aggro’ has caused the skeleton Fen was fighting to switch targets to me.’

  Based on my current path, I am going to land in the middle of them. The only chance is to kill these two skeletons as I land, which should be easy considering they both have less than ten percent health left.

  ‘No! Wait! I know what to do.’

  Focusing my mind and ignoring my fall, I create mental images of twin images of me on either side of the enemies. Once the prerequisite is met, ‘Pincer’ activates. The skeletons and zombie attack the falling ‘me’ which turns to smoke in the face of their attacks.

  An image of me attacks the group from either side, but only one of them is a real attack. Only one skeleton attacks the ‘real’ me. Considering the low health of the skeleton, one blow is enough to finish it off. The second skeleton also perishes, and utilizing ‘Backstab’ multiple times, the zombie shortly follows.

  Glancing behind me, I see the other three have long since finished their battles.

  “…Told you… Lost doesn’t like… Interference…”

  Fen states it as a matter of fact way to the other two who looked like they were ready to jump in at any time.