Seeds of Discordia

“What is it?” Mercer questioned as he looked at Liam.

“These ones are stronger than the mobs that were here when we came in,” Liam stated. “Not only that, but that Skeleton Butcher look like it’s the strongest besides the Mohrg. Also, there’s Shredding Zombies mixed in.”

“How much stronger?” Mercer asked.

“I don’t know how much, but their health is in the three and four hundreds,” Liam responded.

“So, what’s the plan?” Mercer asked as Liam started to think.

What is the best approach? Liam thought to himself as he racked his brain. There’s that small group of Undead that’s weaker. It’ll be good to wipe them out, so we don’t have to worry about them. But then we have to figure out how to keep this new set of monsters occupied.

Liam looked at his Gravity Well and Gravitational Force Increase spells and saw they were still on cooldown. Gravitational Force Increase still had fifteen seconds while Gravity Well still had a little under half a minute left on cooldown.

Those two spells are out for right now. Liam thought. I don’t have any other area of effect slow spells or similar.

Liam thought over his list of utility spells once more. He had a couple single target spells that could blind and paralyze, however, they wouldn’t do much against the Skeleton creatures.

He did have a single binding type spell that could work, but if he used that then he’d need to figure out how to distract the others.

Liam looked at the others who were still fighting off the rest of the group of monsters from the other side of the room. He then looked back at the encroaching group and narrowed his eyes.

“Guess there’s no choice. It’s going to be another round of that statue room,” Liam muttered to himself as he remembered his time in the third challenge on the fourth floor.

He then looked at Mercer and instructed, “Take down the Shredding Zombies and try picking off any Rotted Zombies you see.”

“What are you going to do?” Mercer inquired.

“I’m going to use a spell on the big guy then pull as much aggro as I can,” Liam stated as he pointed his Shadow Blade dagger at the Skeleton Butcher.

He readied himself and then chanted, “Hidden within the dark, I call upon you. Bind my target, stopping their movement.  Snake out and grasp with the tendrils you possess. Remind those in the light why they should fear their own Shadow. Grasp of the Shadows!”

Mercer watched as the shadow underneath the Skeleton Butcher start to wave in a weird manner until several shadowy tendrils shot out from it and wrapped around the legs, arms, and chest of the Skeleton Butcher.

The Skeleton Butcher clacked its teeth vigorously as it struggled to free itself.

Mercer watched the scene unfold before him with a shocked expression. “What the hell are those things?” Mercer whispered.

Indescribable noises brought Mercer’s attention back to what was going on. Trusting in his teammate, Mercer faced the group he was entrusted to take care of.

When Liam determined it wasn’t going to be able to get free, he rushed into the swarm of Undead that came down to the floor from the bone pile.

As Liam approach the first Skeleton Warrior, a Shredding Zombie leaped over and towards Liam and swiped a long bony claw at him.

Before the Shredding Zombie’s attack could land, two arrows plunged into its head, pushing it off to the side.

With a smile, Liam spun around the Skeleton Warrior, nicking it with both blades, before rushing up to the next monster.

Liam ducked down as a Skeleton Warrior swung its rusty sword horizontally at him. After the sword rushed pass his head, Liam uppercut with his Moon Blade. Scrapping the blade up the monster’s chest to the head.

As he landed, his feet slid into a half circle, allowing his upper body to roll, facing away from the creature, under the monster’s blade once more. He then bolted to the next creature.

Mercer was amazed by Liam’s agility to dodge, dip, duck, and dive between the monsters. He ran his blades across their bodies not wasting time to land powerful hits, but enough to get their attention and keep it.

His stamina must be amazing to be able to keep that up. I don’t think I’d be able to handle that kind of intense melee strategy. Mercer thought before letting go an arrow into a Rotted Zombie.

He saw a Shredding Zombie leap from the side of a Rotted Zombie that Liam didn’t see. He had a perfect angle to shoot it. Without thinking his eyes zoomed in on the Shredding Zombie, looking for a spot he wanted to aim for.

He was able to do this thanks to an Archery Weapon Art skill called Eagle Eye. He swiftly loaded an arrow, aimed and released.

Before he Released he muttered, “Double Tap.”

Double Tap was an Archery Weapon Art skill. It creates a second arrow behind the original after it is released.

The single arrow transformed into two as an arrow appeared behind it and soar towards the moving target. Both arrows sunk into the skull of the Shredding Zombie.

Thanks to his bow, Weapon skill in Archery, and Weapon Art, he was able to double crit the creature, killing it.

I can’t let him be the only one who grows. Mercer thought with a smile. I need to keep up with him if I want to be able to reach my goal.

He watched as Liam kept up what he was now calling a dance of spinning, twirling, ducking, dodging, and striking. It was awe inspiring and made him not only respect Liam, but also captivate him.

He shook his head to snap himself back on the field and saw movement come from the other side of the room.

Realizing what was about to happen, Mercer shouted, “Liam, get out of there now!”

Liam used his reflexes to slip behind each creature until he reached the edge of them. He then dove out and rolled to his knees up to Mercer, breathing heavily.

As Liam dove out, Artem had bulldozed right into a couple of Skeleton Warriors, colliding them into each other and a Rotted Zombie. Blair came crashing down into a couple more Skeleton Warriors as she slammed her Great Axe down.

Avery and Roman ran in as fast as they could behind them and started attacking the loose Undead Artem and Blair couldn’t aggro.

Liam slowly got back to his feet as he pulled out a Stamina Potion from his Leg Harness Potion Holster. After draining the contents into his mouth, he placed the empty vial into his inventory.

Mercer watched him as he turned to face the battle going on.

“I’m glad they were able to get there when they did,” Liam stated. “I was almost out of stamina.”

Mercer looked at him confused. The way he moved about through the monsters. His dodging, ducking, and strategical use of attacks. To Mercer there was no sign of Liam running out of stamina.

Liam saw the look on Mercer’s face and asked with a puzzled one of his own, “What?”

“What possessed you to try something like that?” Mercer questioned.

“One of my challenges on the last floor required me to constantly move about, dodging elemental attacks and try to get pass these stone statues that would hit you if you messed up,” Liam started his explanation with a nonchalant expression. “It was a huge pain on my stamina bar and I almost collapsed twice throughout the trial.”

“Are you serious?” Mercer asked, shocked to hear what Liam said.

“Yeah, those trials were supposed to push our limits and help us grow,” Liam grimaced. “Apparently mine was meant to push my stamina time and time again.” Liam shook his head. “I’m digressing. The way they were spread out and the speed of their movements reminded me of it, so I thought I’d do what I learned there.”

“And it definitely worked out,” Mercer commented as he looked at the others finishing off the monsters in front of them.

“I’m not the only one who seems to be using what they learned,” Liam replied as he stretched his arms and cracked his neck. The soreness from coming close to bottoming out his stamina bar fading away. “We need to focus. We’ve got an E.F.M. to defeat.”

As he finished saying this, Liam heard the sound of snapping echoing in the air.

He looked around to see what it was. His eyes finally landed on the Skeleton Butcher he had tied down with his Grasp of the Shadows spell.

The tentacles that were wrapped around it were starting to snap as the creature pulled with all its might.

After the last tentacle snapped and disappeared like a puff of black smoke, the giant Skeleton did something that surprised everyone.

It started to charge.

The direction wasn’t towards Artem or Blair. Nor was it at the other three finishing off the last two monsters.

It was directly at Liam.

“Shit! I still have aggro on it,” Liam cursed as he readied himself for the incoming monster.

The monster took four long steps towards Liam and lifted the swords up into the air.

Liam stood and waited as Mercer got out of the way.

I’ll have to get behind it at the last second and try to kite it back to the oth… Liam was thinking until he watched Blair swing her Great Axe as hard as she could right into the Skeleton Butcher’s side.

The momentum of her weapon caused the creature to lose balance and fall to its side, sliding on the floor.

Liam smiled as he shouted, “Nice hit!”

Blair grinned under her skull helmet as she continued with swinging her great axe around and replied, “Nice distraction.”

After swinging her weapon around twice, she redirected it up into the air while jumping towards the creature and slamming it down on its head.

Blair jumped back as the creature swung one of its swords to counter Blair.

As it stood back up, Artem charged right into it, making it fall back down. He then swung his mace down on its head twice before parrying one of the swords and jumping back to dodge the second one.

Liam watched as both Blair and Artem took care of the creature without letting it get back up.

That’s just not fair. Liam thought as he shook his head.

He then turned his attention towards the Wrathful Mohrg who was standing in the pile of bones staring at them.

With a confused look, Liam mentally questioned, What’s your story? Why aren’t you attack us or leaving that area?

As soon as the Skeleton Butcher was killed, the EFM’s eye sockets glowed.

Liam readied himself as he waited to see what it was going to do. He activated Mana Sight.

The creature lifted its bony hands up as a murky grey color covered its body.

Liam wasn’t sure what this color represented, but he didn’t like the way it looked.

Within the murky grey color, Liam was able to see shapes that represented skulls wailing as they swam inside it.

Liam grimaced as he watched the mana slide into the ground around its feet.

A new group of Skeleton Warriors, Rotted Zombies, and Shredding Zombies rose up around it. A tall Skeleton Butcher stood in the front of the group.

What the… Liam thought as he assessed them.

 

---

“Skeleton Warrior. 350/350 HP. 0/0 MP.”

“Rotted Zombie. 450/450 HP. 0/0 MP.”

“Shredding Zombie. 400/400 HP. 0/0 MP.”

---

 

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Liam groaned with a bit of annoyance.

“What is it?!” Ariyana asked as she turned to look at Liam.

“The health on these newly summoned mobs are higher than the last,” Liam informed.

“What?!” the others yelled out, shocked, and confused.

“How?” Roman questioned.

“Why!?” Artem asked.

“I’m not entirely sure, but that EFM started summoning this new group once when we finished that last group,” Liam started. “I think every time we killed a group, it will summon new ones that are stronger.”

“So, what do we do?” Blair asked as she walked up next to Artem.

“I’m not sure,” Liam stated. “We’ll need to keep those monsters distracted and see if we can take out the EFM…,” Liam said but hesitated.

“But?” Roman asked, dragging the word out.

“But I don’t know what that creature will do once we’re up there,” Liam responded. “I don’t know what abilities it has besides raising these creatures.”

“Does it raise them or summon them?” Avery asked as she turned to look at him.

“Don’t know,” Liam answered. “I think its raising them but I don’t know the difference between summoned and raised here.”

“Fair enough,” Avery said as she watched the group of creatures make it to the floor they were on.

Mercer shot a couple of arrows at the Shredding Zombies. Since they were tougher than the last ones, it took an extra arrow to take them down.

“Mercer replace the defense buffs on our front line. Defenders first,” Liam instructed as he came up with a plan.

“Blair, keep these monsters down here, but do not kill them all,” Liam continued. “Same with you Roman, Ariyana, and Mercer.”

“Avery get up on that platform and see if you can do some damage. I think those organs…,” Liam said and tried not to shiver at the sight of the purple slimy body parts pulsing within the chest cavity of the Wrathful Mohrg. “I think they are its weak points.”

“Got it,” Avery said as she started to cast a spell on her weapon.

“Artem go up there with her and protect her,” Liam ordered.

Artem looked at the creature then back at Liam. “Are you sure? I mean I think Blai…”

“You got this big guy,” Liam interjected.

“Fine,” Artem groaned as he ran up to the stairs leading to the bone piled floor with Avery behind him.

Liam watched as they stepped on the floor level the creature was on.

As they took a step, the Wrathful Mohrg let out a chilling blood curdling scream.

Avery and Artem covered their ears as the sound pierced them.

After the sound died down, Liam looked at the area they were and felt his blood run cold.

All around the Wrathful Mohrg, Skeleton Warriors, Rotted Zombies, and Shredding Zombies rose. In the middle of the group were four Skeleton Butchers.

Shit! You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! Liam thought as he counted three times the amount from before. You can’t kill all the Undead or it will summon more. You can’t get up there or it will summon three times the amount. How the hell are we supposed to do this!?