Spiteful Healer

Chapter 155: Obsidian

Aegis lost track of time as he fought with Lina in the Reltrak Forest that afternoon. Though, calling it fighting was being generous - it was primarily just Lina teleporting around Aegis and punching him. Despite the difference in skill, though, his viewership held steady - they were just as invested in watching him improve his PvP skills as he was.

“We’re coming up on hour number 6. Anyone who voted on Aegis catching Lina in under 6 hours is about to lose. Next up are the voters who picked 24 hours. 55% of you voted for that. As for the people voting that he’d take a week,” Hae-won held back a chuckle as she shook her head to herself, standing in her typical red v-neck dress in her broadcasting simulation, with footage of Aegis’ live stream playing behind her. “Let’s hope for Lina’s sake you guys were wrong.”

The moment Aegis couldn’t see Lina anymore, she was already swinging at him from somewhere he wasn’t looking. That much was certain. She was always going to swing at a part of his body furthest from his shield, and his peripheral vision. He watched as Lina shadowstepped away and immediately spun his shield to his back, without bothering to turn his head.

He got his shield there in time and nudged it forward within the small window of time he had, and successfully braced her first attack. The second strike, he knew he would never get his shield to it in time. It was above his head. He bent the finger on his right hand to trigger a guard cast and projected his shield above his head and blocked it.

Next, she’d go opposite, obviously - and down low as opposed to high like the previous strike. He jumped backwards and avoided another punch at his legs, and following that, Lina reappeared in front of him with a smile.

“Whoa, you did it! You predicted all three strikes without even looking at me.” Lina clapped excitedly with a giant smile on her face.

“I’ve noticed, you’re only doing three punches at a time before taking a break. Is there a reason for that?” Aegis asked her.

“Hm, just for warming up, I guess…” Lina replied.

“So in a normal fight, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t just keep attacking?” Aegis confirmed as he readied himself to go again.

“No… Well, sort of. The longer time that thieves spend hitting the same target, the more vulnerable we are to getting grappled or snared. Against targets that can’t do that to us though, it's ideal to take them out as fast as possible by attacking until we’re out of stamina, or they die.” Lina replied.

“Please keep attacking me this time, until I can stop you.” Aegis asked her with determination. “Or, until I lose the duel.”

“Okay.” She nodded back, her face going serious as she bent her knees again. She clenched her fists, then began. Like before, Aegis could predict the first three attacks, then got into a pattern with his shield. But very quickly, Lina became much harder to predict - and the attacks just simply did not stop coming.

Thanks to her using her fists, though, he could easily take a lot of hits from her. Anytime he’d lost track of her, he let a few hits through on purpose and healed himself back up through the damage and reoriented himself. He found it easier to predict her hits when he shut his eyes and stopped trying to follow her movement visually.

He’d seen Lina shadow dance around their enemies hundreds of times, but experiencing what it was like to be the target of her skills was something else entirely. It was suffocatingly intimidating once she began, how easily she moved around and attacked him. But her words rang through his head.

“Tanks are generally the counter to high agility types.”

If he couldn’t even beat classes he was meant to be strong against, what chance did he have against others? How was he going to stand up and protect his party from higher level players on their way to the top, if he couldn’t even beat what he was supposedly strongest against? He thought to himself. His lack of knowledge on PvP was frustrating him to no end. He read the skills, watched videos on PvP strategies and tips and tricks - none of it was actually helping him.

“Focus.” Aegis whispered to himself, trying to calm down. He listened to the light puffing sounds that were made every time Lina shadowstepped. He knew it wasn’t enough to just block, his job was to stop her movement.

With this in mind, he waited out her attack pattern until he could predict a strike coming at his back. This time, he spun around with his right hand instead of his shield. He opened his eyes to see Lina’s fist flying towards him, and caught her fist with his right hand. Once he had, she touched her feet on the ground and her eyes went wide. But, almost by complete reflex, she reacted to Aegis grabbing her fist by doing an upwards spin kick, hitting the top of her foot hard against the bottom of his chin, knocking him back a few centimeters and dazing him, causing him to let go of her fist.

“Ah, sorry!” She apologized anxiously after she’d realized what she’d done. “Sorry, it’s a reflex, when someone grabs me. I reflexively try to break free of the grab really fast. Sorry, sorry.” She apologized to Aegis as he rubbed his chin.

“Nice kick.” He said, shaking it off while she moved in close to see his chin. “It’s okay, just a game, no mark.” He chuckled at her worried look.

“Oh… right.” She giggled awkwardly.

“I caught you, though, right?” Aegis asked proudly, now that she was close up to him, the too locked eyes for a moment.

“You did.” She smiled shyly up at him. This time, Lina made the move. She leaned in and gave him a light kiss on the lips. Proud of Aegis’ progress, she couldn’t help herself. But after pulling back, her face went bright red.

“Can I get one of those every time I catch you?” Aegis asked her as he blushed red as well.

“Okay.” She giggled as she hopped back away from him.

“Nah, no thanks. Nope. None of that.” Darkshot yawned while stretching his arms up, finally awake. “I’ve seen stuff like that before. She’s just gonna start letting you catch her on purpose.” Darkshot shook his head disapprovingly. Both Lina and Aegis stopped what they were doing to turn and look at him and saw that not only he, but Snowflake was also slowly waking up.

“Have a nice nap?” Aegis asked him.

“Yeah, yeah, it wasn't bad.” He said as he stood up and looked around. “What’s for breakfast?” He asked as he eyed Rakkan and Pyri practicing in the distance.

“Fisher kebabs. But I’m out of Fisher meat.” Aegis said while pointing up at a nearby Mushroom with a Fisher curled up in the underside of it. “Let’s restock.” Aegis shouted, so that Pyri and Rakkan heard him. The two gave nods to each other before canceling the duel and walking over. “Snowflake’s probably hungry for some meat too, aren’t you buddy?” Aegis walked over and ruffled the feathers on his head while Snowflake closed his eyes to enjoy the head scratches.

“How was it spending a whole day with Darkshot in the River? He wasn’t mean to you was he?” Aegis asked, and Snowflake screeched back playfully.

“That gryphon owes me its life. Keeping us alive was hell, lemme tell you.” Darkshot said while crossing his arms proudly.

“Oh? You’re ready to tell us what happened?” Aegis asked him excitedly.

“Nope. Nothing happened.” He replied, once again speaking in his deep theatrical voice.

“Oh, hey look!” Pyri pointed at Darkwing as he fluttered to Darkshot’s shoulder. “His wings are glowing a bit.”

“They’re also turning light green.” Rakkan pointed out.

“Yup. He’s kind of a big deal now. He’s finally got his skill. And ooooh boy is it a rare, epic, ultimate one.” Darkshot bragged.

“What is it?” Aegis asked.

“You’ll just have to wait and see.” Darkshot said in his mysterious voice again. Aegis just rolled his eyes back at him.

“Fine. Come on, let’s hunt fishers.” Aegis motioned them over as he began casting bless on everyone.

The party spent the next few hours hunting the Fishers for their meat. Aegis set up a small campfire and cooked most of it using his spices and seasoning from Kordas, along with some of the herbs and mushrooms gathered about Reltrak. This time, knowing how deadly the heat exhaustion debuff was, he made sure to craft and stockpile hundreds of fisher Kebabs, and handed out 50 to each of his party members. He was sure to store a good number of raw Fisher meat chunks as well for Snowflake, once Snowflake had his fill. While Aegis cooked, Darkshot took the time to step out of the Simbox and eat in the real world, and by the time he’d come back, everyone was ready to go.

“Okay.” Aegis stomped out the campfire and looked to the group. “Do you think we’ll be okay if that guy jumps us again?” He asked Lina and Pyri.

“I’m not sure.” Lina replied. “When he attacked Rakkan and me, he was moving really fast. But once he killed us, he slowed down.” Lina explained.

“I noticed that as well.” Pyri added.

“Why would he slow down? You mean on purpose?” Aegis asked them.

“I’m not sure why he did it. He also didn’t take our items. Even if they aren’t as good as his gear, they’d be worth a lot of gold.” Lina continued.

“Seems like he attacked us for ulterior motives.” Darkshot replied.

“Maybe he just wanted to show off on your stream. There's plenty of people like that.” Rakkan suggested.

“Yeah…” Aegis scratched his chin while pondering. “Maybe. The question is, though, if we’ll be able to get past him if he comes at us again.” Aegis thought out loud.

“Only one way to find out.” Pyri shrugged as she walked forward towards the hole leading down into the Red River.

“You’re not scared he’ll kill us again?” Darkshot asked.

“Scared?” Pyri chuckled. “It’s just a game.” She turned to smile at him. “If you ever lose to someone better than you, just look at it as a chance to improve and get stronger. Don’t get rattled, or angry, or sad.” Pyri threw Darkshot a thumbs up. “Get better.” She added a wink before turning back around and continuing forward.

Darkshot paused and glanced between Aegis, Lina and Rakkan who all shrugged back at him.

“My mom knows what she’s talking about.” Aegis replied as he moved to follow after her.

“Easy for you guys to say, you didn’t just spend 24 hours stuck in that magma filled cavern, with angry elite Fire giants, surfing magma elementals, and a tiny cave that was home to an angry little flame-tailed Salamander.” Darkshot grumbled back as he followed behind them.

“Elite Fire Giant?” Aegis turned to look with wide eyes. “Seriously, what the hell happened?” Aegis asked him.

“Nothing happened.” Darkshot crossed his arms and spoke deeply again.

“I’m gonna kidnap your pidgeon if you don’t stop saying that.” Aegis groaned back at him. Darkwing cooed angrily at Aegis after hearing this comment, while Lina, Rakkan and Snowflake followed after them.

The group descended the ramp into the heated hole in Reltrak Forest, then proceeded down the winding tunnel until they arrived at the caved in but partially cleared entrance into the Red River.

The moment they stepped inside, the heat exhaustion debuff overtook them, and they all silently took out their kebabs and ate them for the stamina regeneration buff. Aegis was sure to feed one to Snowflake, while Darkshot fed one to Darkwing. From there, the party repeated their journey from the day prior.

They walked cautiously and silently along the shore, as close to the wall on their left as they headed west. Aegis had been so focused on learning to deal with other potential player threats that he’d all but forgotten how dangerous the enemies down here were as well. His memory was refreshed, though, when the group heard the loud booming footsteps from the southern side of the cavern.

“That’s probably the Fire Giant. He’s down that way.” Darkshot whispered proudly. Aegis knew better than to bother asking him for more details and just gave a weak nod of acknowledgement. The party saw the ripples in the slow flowing magma river that resulted from the Fire Giant’s distant stroll.

Apart from that, though, their journey went by uneventfully. Aside from random, loud bursts of flames from the top of the river, and oversized popping magma bubbles, there were no signs of any creatures. Still, they were all on edge. They knew now that the river was full of camouflaged magma elementals that could pop out at any second.

The obsidian bridge came into view not long after they began walking. This time, once they spotted it, they were not relieved. Rather, the tensions rose as they closed in on it. Aegis could feel everyone on edge, hands close to their weapons and ready for a fight.

Aegis pre-emptively wrapped leather around Snowflake’s feet to protect them from the heat, then rather than climb the broken obsidian block stairs to get on top of the bridge, he hopped on Snowflake’s back and they flapped up top. Once up, Lina was able to find shadows close to the caved in side of the bridge behind Aegis and shadowstepped behind him.

Pyri was able to use her fly spell to get up. Darkshot and Rakkan however had to go up the normal way, climbing up the steep stairs using both hands and feet.

There, at the top, all of them paused and looked across the bridge at the dark tunnel on the other side. Aegis sighed as he began walking forward across the bridge. The group all followed behind him slowly, without a word - though Aegis noticed that Pyri had at some point already casted her cinderbolts and they were roaming around the group defensively.

Once they arrived at the halfway point of the bridge, Aegis was reminded of the terrible heat that rose up from it. The air infront of them was hazy, and it was heavy and hard to breath, but he pressed on and continued forward.

This time, no one came out of the darkness of the tunnel opposite. They kept walking, slowly and cautiously, but once they’d arrived at the other side of the bridge and the intense heat subsided, they could see somewhat into the darkened tunnel leading out of the Red River cavern, and there were no signs of any other players.

Pyri sent her cinderbolts forward into the dark tunnel to help light the way. They saw that the paved obsidian block floor of the bridge continued on into the tunnel, covering the entire width of the tunnels floor as far as they could see.

There were signs of damage due to aging and obsidian rocks falling down on the paved road - some sections of the paved path ahead of them had broken obsidian chunks on it that had fallen from the walls or roof of the cavern. Otherwise, there were plenty of blocks that were chipped, cracked, or had scratch marks in them made from some manner of large clawed creature.

The group continued forward, still on edge and waiting for the other player to jump out at them at any moment, but that didn’t happen. They walked on until the sound of the bubbling magma river behind them faded from their ears, and not long after the tunnel curved and the light from the river too faded from their senses.

They were left with the sound of their own footsteps tapping on the paved obsidian road and the dark glow of Pyri’s cinderbolts circling around them to provide them with light. This continued on for a short while, and as they walked Aegis pulled out the map to see what to expect next.

“According to the map, this road leads to some old ruins… the cavern marked here looks big, but if we can get through the ruins…” Aegis traced along the map with his finger. “There should be a path that continues onto the cavern where the Dark Elf city is.” Aegis finished.

“Don't forget, the Plashrim said that this side of the Red River is under the Dark Elf Tyrant’s control.” Rakkan added.

“Right.” Aegis nodded back.

“Are those your ruins?” Pyri asked as she motioned ahead the moment her cinderbolts had illuminated something other than more tunnel.

In front of them, flanking either side of the paved road on the tunnel floor, stood two gigantic obsidian statues. They were both depicting identical Dark Elves in heavy armor, holding longswords with both hands wrapped around the hilt, the blade pointed downward so that the tip touched the ground at the base of their feet.

Both statues were significantly damaged, missing chunks of stone in various parts and were covered in cracks and worn down sections. Despite this, though, they both looked magnificent, and towered well above Aegis’ and his party at roughly 15 meters.

The statues marked the end of the tunnel, as beyond them, the cavern opened up to the left and right, as well as upwards, despite the paved road continuing on ahead.

Between the statues there were remnants of a broken archway, but most of it lay on the ground in large broken obsidian fragments, scattered about the paved road. It was clearly once an entryway leading into this cavern, but it had long since been abandoned and forgotten.

Aegis took the first steps forward, with Rakkan eagerly following behind him. As Aegis passed beyond the two statues to step into the wide open cavern, Rakkan approached one of the statues and began inspecting it, looking for any writing or ancient runes. He found none on the statues, so went to check the broken chunks of the Archway on the ground while Aegis and the others walked beyond them and looked on into the gigantic cavern in front of them.

“Holy shit…” Darkshot said with an open jaw.

“Wow.” Pyri said in disbelief. What they saw was a cavern at a size beyond their comprehension. It was illuminated intermittently by dark gray trees that grew across the landscape. The trees had no leaves on them and looked withered and decrepit, but seemed to be alive enough to give off a dark gray glow.

The glow wasn’t bright, it simply served as a marker for various locations throughout the cavern ahead of them, giving Aegis and his group a sense for how big the cavern was. It was multilevel - they could tell because some of the glowing trees were up above their eye level, and some were below. All of the trees were planted in what looked to be civilized planters, not unlike what Aegis saw plants growing out of in Kordas - though these were all carved out of dark obsidian blocks.

Some of the trees were large enough that their branches grew into nearby structures, showing walls of dark gray wood, or dark black stone. There were ruined buildings scattered all about the cavern ahead of them near the trees, so Aegis could only imagine that the unlit places were filled with ruined structures as well.

What was most intimidating, though, was that though they had grown accustomed to the sounds of their feet echoing off of nearby walls, as they walked out into this large cavern, the echoing stopped.

“The official name is Belmiure, the Black City… but…” Rakkan said as he’d spotted some ancient writing on the blocks of the broken archway. “Someone carved overtop of that writing crudely, on this block, as a warning, calling it something else.” Rakkan said as he stood up from the ruined blocks and walked forward to join the others.

“Oh yeah? And what’d the warning call it?” Aegis asked him as the group took in the scenery.

“The Obsidian Graveyard.” Rakkan replied.

“Lovely.” Darkshot huffed.