Mountain of the Immortals

Name: Shadow Lion (Corrupted)

Type: Beast

Level: 41

Disposition: Aggressive

HP: 411/1008

Physical Attack: 241

Magic Attack: 163

Speed: 158

Attack Range: Melee

XP: 6178

Description: Shadow lions are the fallen siblings of luminous lions, which are commonly found in the lower planes of the seven heavens. The beasts are not evil in nature but were rather transformed to their shadow form when they were ostracized from the heavens because of their undying trust and loyalty to their master. Shadow lions are fierce predators and always hunt in packs. This particular form of corruption differs from other methods of creating undead as it fills the body of the corrupted with immense amounts of life force without healing their injuries.

* * *

The first lion to appear looked like a normal male lion at first glance. The only difference was its mane, which looked like it was made out of the darkness itself. It was such a peculiar thing to see, even in this low-lighting environment. Even though it waved and shook as the beast moved, my eyes still perceived it as an empty point in space where light didn’t shine.

As the lion took a couple steps closer to me, and another two appeared behind it, I started noticing things that were off about it. Its vitals, its reflexes, and its skin looked like that of a beast in its prime, but no normal beast would have its intestines hanging out of its belly, dragging them on the ground as it walked, nor would a normal beast continue advancing toward us despite the arrow protruding from the centre of its forehead, making it look like some gruesome, zombified, lioncorn.

This lion, however, didn’t seem to care one bit. And I saw similar injuries on the other two lions—most notably one of them had one eye hanging from a thin string of tissue and swinging like a pendulum beneath its socket. They were truly a gruesome sight to see, but I guessed it was good that we were here now so we could put them out of their misery.

The beast that had already been damaged by Artemis launched itself at me at the same time as another was struck dead by another of her arrows. It took only a small jab with my spear for the monster to fall lifeless at my feet. But I had no time to turn around and thank Artemis for her well-placed arrows, as at least four more lions were already making their way toward us.

I planted my feet solidly on the ground and took in a deep breath, preparing myself for what might turn out to be a long battle. Artemis was loosing one arrow after the other but it looked like the beasts were far too many for her to be able to keep up with, and judging by the pained roars from the darkness, more and more of them were able to survive more than one hit.

The reason quickly became apparent. As I hooked one of the lions under its chin and threw it against the wall and then hit another with the butt of my spear, I saw that one of the latest lions to appear out of the dark tunnel was so big it made the corrupted bears look like sheep in comparison.

* * *

Name: Shadow Lion (Corrupted - Evolved)

Type: Beast

Level: 51

Disposition: Aggressive

HP: 7038/1470

Physical Attack: 446

Magic Attack: 309

Speed: 136

Attack Range: Melee

XP: 17098

Description: Shadow lions are the fallen siblings of luminous lions, which are commonly found in the lower planes of the seven heavens. The beasts are not evil in nature but were rather transformed to their shadow form when they were ostracized from the heavens because of their undying trust and loyalty to their master. Shadow lions are fierce predators and always hunt in packs. The lion has been feeding off the corruption for long enough that its original form has evolved to a superlative perversion of life, providing it with additional limbs that had been lost in the process of generational evolution, making it slower but significantly stronger. This particular form of corruption differs from other methods of creating undead as it fills the body of the corrupted with immense amounts of life force without healing their injuries.

* * *

Not only was the lion the size of an elephant, but it also had an additional head… sort of. The characteristics of the lion’s beautiful and ferocious face were completely missing, and its eye sockets looked like they had melted and drooped, with no eye balls to fill them. Its whiskers were curled at odd angles and most of its fur was missing. Even its skin had peeled off in places.

But the most terrifying and dangerous part was still there. The huge maw, decorated with multiple lines of rotting but still sharp teeth, snapped shut and opened again with terrifying speed. Despite the additional head not having any other features, it still looked like it was anxiously waiting to tear open my flesh.

I activated my Vandalier aura, further increasing my Critical Damage above what Aphrodite’s buffs were giving me. Since we weren’t planning on running away, I took a second to cast my Thrill of the Fight buff on myself, dropping my running speed by ten percent but raising my attack speed by the same amount.

Aphrodite cast her favorite debuff and pink roots exploded out of the ground, tangling around the charging creature’s legs. But with a loud snap, they exploded into pink dust that fell to the ground and slowly faded away, reflecting the dim light around us.

“Careful!” she shouted, upon seeing her spell fail.

I struck the beast with my spear right in its belly, but it wasn’t enough to stop it. The beast fell on me, and I barely managed to dodge out of the way of the mouth on its main head. I wasn’t so lucky when it came to the random swinging and biting of its second head, which grabbed me by the arm and sunk its fangs into my left bicep.

I gritted my teeth in pain but held my ground as the beast tried to yank me off my feet and into the air. The combination of me pulling back and stabbing it with my spear worked wonders and it released my arm, though it did so with a big chunk of my flesh still in its teeth.

“I’ll make you sorry you did that, you bastard.” I side-stepped, striking one of the smaller lions that were still charging at us despite Artemis’s best attempts to keep them at bay.

Aphrodite’s pink healing light showered over me almost instantly, which made me wonder whether she had access to a quickened healing spell that was specifically suited to battle. But neither thinking about this nor watching my bicep reform before my eyes would help me bring down the gigantic—and by now pretty pissed—two-headed cat.

“Duck!” Artemis shouted, and I instinctively did as she said.

An arrow flew over me and struck the shadow lion in the center of its chest. A throbbing sound echoed out around us and the beast suddenly stopped moving. I noticed one of my favorite debuffs above its head.

* * *

Name: Stunned

Type: Debuff

Level: 22

Effect: Renders the target immobile for 7 seconds

Time Left: 6 seconds

* * *

Artemis’ monstrously enchanted weapon was pretty much a guarantee that her skills and debuffs would always land, and I was nothing but happy that she was on our side. Without wasting any time, I triggered my Maelstrom of Steel attack, running a wide arc with my spear, then swinging it behind my back, striking two lions that were trying to surround me before flinging it forward again to hit the stunned behemoth.

Most of the less powerful corrupted animals died on the spot, and those that still had HP left looked like they were barely holding on. Not wanting to lose any more of the time for which the evolved beast would remain stunned, I activated my Spear of the Thunder God attack skill. I was pretty sure its stunning effect wouldn’t land on the big baddie here, but since it was a powerful attack in its own right and was also able to hit multiple enemies, it seemed like the best option at the time, even if I didn’t want to share all my attack skills with my new guildmates just yet.

I swung my spear again, but this time a bright orb of white light glowed at its end. As the blade struck a monster, the orb expanded and surrounded it like a net before squeezing the creature in its electric grasp and frying it alive. Each of the small beasts affected by the attack fell instantly, which gave Artemis the chance to aim at the only one that was still standing.

The two-headed lion had less than 500 HP when its stunned debuff wore off and it dragged its bleeding, arrow-filled body toward us. All it took was a swift slash across its neck to finish it off. The corrupted monster collapsed to the ground, its two mouths now finally resting closed—hopefully forever—and I deactivated the Vandalier aura to stop it from further draining my MP.

“This must have caused quite a ruckus,” Artemis said. “We should move on quickly.”

“For all we know, the road ahead might be filled with traps. We might even be moving into an ambush,” Aphrodite said. “We need to proceed with caution.”

They both turned to look at me.

“Zeus, what should we do?”, Artemis asked.

Aphrodite was the careful, planning type and I couldn’t help but agree with her thinking. This place looked like a dungeon that was meant to keep people out and the powerful monsters hadn’t held back in their attacks.

On the other hand, I couldn’t help but think that these beasts had been sent to delay us to give whatever stood at the end of the dungeon more time to prepare for our arrival. If that was the case, we needed to be swift and attack while we still had buffs, instead of letting them ready themselves for our assault. After all, there was no way they didn’t know we were here by now.

“We push forward,” I said decisively, “but not at full speed. We need to be aware of our surroundings. And we kill everything we see. Let’s go.”

With that, all three of us started running deeper in the cavern, jumping over the line of bodies that Artemis had created with her arrows. Aphrodite initially seemed unhappy that I’d decided to push forward despite what she’d said about treading carefully, but she quickly fell in line. She knew as well as I that in situations like this, we needed clear direction and conviction in our actions.

“Aphro,” I said in the guild chat, so that Artemis could hear as well. “Did you cast a quickened version of your healing spell back there?”

“First off, don’t call me that,” she said, making it very clear that intonation and feelings translated perfectly well through the guild chat. “My name is beautiful and it represents me. Don’t cut it short. And yes, that was a quickened version meant for battle only, but it’s a remnant of my old class. I haven’t gotten any upgrades for it since I upgraded my class the second time.”

She pushed the healing spell to both of us and I absorbed the information provided by the Dark Energy.

* * *

Name: Instant Heal

Level: 15

Type: Active

HP Consumed: 0

MP Consumed: 78

Power: 301

Range: 600 inches

Precondition: The caster needs to be able to voice the incantation.

Description: A healing spell with very low casting time and cooldown. The high healing capacity per second of this spell makes it perfect for use during combat. The warm light that manifests from the caster’s mana is transferred to the target immediately and restores skin tissue, muscles, and even bones.

* * *

“This looks strong,” Artemis said.

I just shrugged as we turned around a corner only to be met by another long corridor.

“The last time I upgraded it was when I was level thirty-five,” Aphrodite replied.

We started moving slower now, looking more carefully at the walls around us and the ground below for traps.

“The normal healing spell stopped at around the same time,” she added.

“So it heals more but slower?” I asked.

“It has the same healing power, and takes longer to cast but needs less MP,” she replied.

“Speaking of skills, Zeus,” Artemis said, as she ran her fingers along the wall, trying to feel for any holes or grooves that would indicate a trap, “you used two skills back there that I haven’t seen before. Were they Area of Effect damage skills?”