Chapter 60 – Rise Again

“It wasn’t pretty, but I can’t argue with the result. Great job everyone!” I say cheerfully as I step out into the room. The place is completely wrecked after the battle, but it doesn’t really matter as this place will be cleaned up in no time by the game system. If only my real-life apartment was this convenient.

“Hah! These weaklings? We hardly broke a sweat.” Cobra guffaws as he waves his severed arm around. I wince at the sight. Ouch.

“Need a health potion for that?”

Cobra takes one look at the bloody stump on his forearm before he nonchalantly shrugs. “Yeah, couldn’t hurt I suppose.”

I fish a potion out of my inventory and immediately hand it over to the nearly dead Lieutenant. He chugs it down like a cheap shot of tequila, and I’m soon witnessing the fascinating animation of a new arm miraculously growing out from his severed stump. That is so trippy! I love how the game just magically heals back your severed limb like that. It doesn’t take more than a minute until Cobra sports a completely new and healthy arm, and he’s already busy cracking his newly formed knuckles.

All jokes aside, I’ve gotta say we had a few close calls during this fight. Only Cobra really came close to dying, but the main problem would be if any of the siblings managed to escape. We’re pretty deep within enemy territory here, and the church up above isn’t exactly lacking when it comes to high-level players either. Setting up that GoD trap paid off, and it only goes to show that preparation is key to success.

It did get kind of chaotic during the end there, and I should probably reprimand myself for panicking and blowing my figurative load by wasting the Doppelganger skill. I didn’t need to use it, and it’s sort of my ace-in-the-hole ability when it comes to escaping tough situations. Who knows when I need it next, and the nineteen minutes cooldown isn’t exactly short. Especially not in the middle of a job.

It’s not optimal, but I can’t really fault myself too bad. Being able to act on instinct in a potentially dangerous situation is obviously good, and if that Bard had any heavy-hitting damage abilities I might not have been alive right now if I had hesitated just a little bit. My reaction is top-notched, but I obviously lack experience fighting this way. I’m sure I’ll do better next time.

What I need to do now though, is gather up all the sweet ass loot!

My underlings are already busy pilfering through the pockets of the three dead halflings. Since time is of the essence, I decide to hurry up and grab whatever loot is inside the coffin. Looking through the booty while still on the job is a recipe for disaster after all.

I’ve already learned my lesson from the hidden compartment in my hideout so I have one of my Cutthroats inspect the lid of the coffin while the rest of us stand at a safe distance. I can’t really imagine why anyone would trap a coffin, but game logic is most often beyond reason when it comes to situations like this. Anything the game developers can do to screw a Villain over, I suppose.

My Cutthroat doesn’t appear to find any hidden traps, however, so I silently gesture for him to lift the lid off. I unconsciously hold my breath as the rogue grabs hold of the wooden lid and gently lifts it off its frame. Seeing that no explosions go off, my Cutthroat callously flips the lid over and it soon hits the ground with a loud thump that echoes between the cobbled stone walls.

Sweet; no traps! I grin as I push my way forward towards the coffin. I make it about halfway across the room when my Cutthroat tries to jump backwards in alarm. I immediately freeze, trying to figure out what sort of fresh hell is about to descend upon us. When nothing immediately explodes, I take a closer look at my Cutthroat who seems to have his arm stuck in the coffin. Now how the hell did he manage to do that?

My question is soon answered when a guttural shriek echoes around the chamber. I swivel my head around, trying to locate the source of the shriek but the echoes make the task difficult. It’s only when Cobra brushes past me I realise the sound came from the coffin. My eyes widen in shock as I watch a sickly gray arm reach out from the coffin, grabbing onto the upper arm of my Cutthroat. What the hell is going on!?

“KILL IT!” I shout, jumping backwards as quickly as I can. My underlings rush forwards, and Cobra has already reached my entrapped Cutthroat, trying to yank him out of the grasp of whatever the hell that creature is. Seeing it not work, Cobra swings his short sword in a downwards arc, intending to cut his companion free. The creature immediately releases my Cutthroat, and another, more powerful shriek, emits from the coffin, and the sheer force from the shriek is enough to push everyone a few steps back.

The creature slowly gets out of the coffin, and I waste no time inspecting it.

[Cursed Ghoul - Fabian Shirebaggin(13). HP: ????/????.]

What in the seven depths of hell is a Ghoul doing here!?

“Kill it! Kill it now!” I shout while I retreat back towards the door. I’m not sure why there’s an undead creature beneath a church of all places, but when a game inserts random elements into a scenario like this, it usually comes with a fairly high level of danger.

My Prowlers immediately loosen their bolts towards the Ghoul who recoils from the damage. Its health bar is dropping slightly, but not enough to make any noticeable difference. Cobra takes charge as he throws himself at the Ghoul, swinging his sword in wide arcs to garner its attention. The rest of my Thugs and Cutthroats circle around it, looking for openings to deal damage.

The Ghoul releases another guttural shriek as dark mana emits from its body, spreading across the room in a wave. I brace for impact as I expect some sort of damage or debuff to kick in, but nothing appears to happen. Blinking my eyes in confusion, I swivel my head around, trying to figure out what the hell that ability did. There is no such thing as a boss monster using magic just for show.

Nothing immediately pops out to me, and my underlings seem to be unaffected from whatever that wave of magic did. Even odder, the Ghoul doesn’t appear to have gained any sudden boost to his power. I don’t trust it, however, and I keep scanning the room like a hawk.

My suspicions are soon confirmed as I watch the corpses of the Knight and mud Mage starting to twitch.

“Shit! He’s a Necromancer!” I shout, trying to distance myself from the corpse of the Mage which is uncomfortably close. “Thugs! Grab one Zombie each. Prowlers and Cutthroats: work together to bring down one zombie at a time in this order: Mage, Bard, Knight.” My underlings immediately spring to action and I use my Rush skill to speed up their rotation. The first rule of fighting groups is always to clear the weakest enemies first. Luckily for us, it seems like neither of the Zombies retained their elite status upon resurrection, making the job of eliminating them without getting wiped out immediately feasible.

The zombie Bard soon appears from the doorway, and I’m pleased to see that the acid from my traps has melted off one of his arms and half his face. While the majority of my underlings are busy systematically wiping out the three Zombies, I refocus my attention on the savage battle between Cobra and the Ghoul. Being left on his own, Cobra is slowly losing ground, but I’m pleased to see he is keeping up better than I expected. He doesn’t get many hits in, but his only job is to buy the rest of my underlings some time.

The battle is progressing slowly, but steadily as everyone’s health bars are slowly diminishing. My underlings are still hurt from the previous engagement, but that doesn’t stop the combined efforts of my damage-dealing underlings to bring down the first Zombie.

[You have slain Zombie - Sylt(13). Gain 20 experience.]

Djeezes, that experience gain is abysmal. I suppose it makes sense though, considering I technically already killed her once today. My underlings quickly rotate towards the zombie Bard before Sylt has properly hit the ground, but I have other things on my mind. The dwarven Thug fighting the Zombie Knight on her lonesome just took a nasty bite to her neck and her health bar is dropping precariously low.

I grit my teeth in annoyance as I’m once again reduced to act as a wandering potion dispenser, but there’s really nothing else I can do. The only semi-offensive ability I have is the Calm spell, and that has proven to be quite useless against enemies who are already aware of our presence. I have one of the freed-up half-orcs grab the attention of the Zombie knight while I force the dwarf to chug her potion.

This goes on for a while, and my underlings slowly whittle down the zombies. The zombie Bard dies only a few minutes later, and my underlings are quickly working on bringing down the Knight. Things are actually going pretty smoothly. Too damn smoothly. Something tells me the boss has another ace up his sleeve. His health bar is still lingering at around ninety-two percent, so I guess I just haven’t progressed far enough in the battle for him to reveal anything more. His high health pool is worrying me though. I’m not sure I have enough health potions in my inventory to be able to sustain a prolonged battle.

Another minute goes by and the last zombie finally dies. I hold my breath expecting whatever nasty surprise is waiting for us, and I sigh in relief as nothing immediately happens. My underlings run towards the boss and just when they reach him, the boss releases another guttural shriek, forcing us to take a step backwards. The skin of the Ghoul starts glowing ominously red. Fuck. He is enraging!

“Fight Smart! Endure it!” I command my underlings, keeping an eye on everyone’s health pool. The Ghoul lashes out with savage swipes, throwing my underlings around like ragdolls. One of the half-orcs fails to dodge in time and I grit my teeth as I watch his health bar drop by nearly a third. Shit, that’s bad.

I don’t dare to step too close to the Ghoul as long as it’s enraged, and I have the half-orc step out of the fight in order for me to heal him. I’m counting the seconds while this is all going on, and I release a breath of relief as the enragement phase ends after only thirty seconds. “Hit it hard, now!” I shout.

My underlings throw themselves into the fray, and the Ghoul takes several wounds across its sickly gray skin. The underlings make good use of their still-active dodge buff and it shows as the Ghoul’s health bar is quickly nearing the eighty percent mark. As soon as it does, it shrieks again and another dark wave of mana washes across the room. Oh, fuck.

I catch some movement in the corner of my eye and a knot ties in my chest as I notice the zombie Mage starting to stir. Shit! He can re-resurrect them? Fuck! We don’t have the health points to turn this into a battle of attrition.

“Cobra! Grab the three Zombies and take them for a stroll. The rest of you, kill that Ghoul as quickly as you can!”

With a growl, Cobra disengages from the Ghoul and jumps away, narrowly avoiding a swipe from the enraged Ghoul’s claw. “Fuck! You heard the boss. Oy! You dead bastards! Over here!” He shouts while picking up a nearby urn which he chucks at the head of the rising Bard. The urn impacts the zombie’s head, breaking into several pieces. With a sneer, all three of the zombies lock their black eyes on Cobra and start shambling towards him. “That’s right, you ugly fuckers. Come get some!”

With all three zombies’ attention locked onto him, Cobra starts jogging in a circle around the room, occasionally throwing urns and whatever else is nearby at the zombies while singing a long string of expletive curses. The zombies angrily shamble towards him, but due to their stubby dead legs, they just can’t seem to catch up with the Lieutenant.

I grin. Thank god that worked. A well-known tactic in roleplaying games during difficult encounters is to have a fast-moving member of the squad grab the attention of either the boss or all the lesser minions and have them chase after you for a long run. This tactic is called kiting and is a good way to dedicate minimal resources to remove a lot of the enemy firepower from a fight during an extended period of time.

The tactic requires a baiter who is fast and technically gifted enough to pull it off, which means Cobra or I am the only ones capable of doing it. And I sure as hell aren’t put myself in such a risky position. It’s a shame this means I won’t be able to utilize Cobra’s high damage output for the rest of the fight, but it allows for the remaining seven of my underlings to fight the Ghoul unencumbered. The Ghoul may be much stronger than us individually, but quantity usually beats quality as long as the numbers are skewed enough.

I have no time to relax though as this battle is far from over. I still have my Fight Dirty skill up my sleeve, and I want to save using it until I know for certain that this fight is manageable. Cobra appears to have successfully gained control of the three zombies, and my underlings relentlessly attack the Ghoul for all they’re worth. They are trying to bring the Ghoul to the ground to pile on top of it, but the elusive creature seems to have some sort of unholy dodge-god on its side, keeping it just out of our grasp.

The point that will make or break this fight is when the boss reaches the sixty percent mark. I’m kind of making a gamble that the boss will act differently if the zombies are kept alive since monsters as well as humans still have certain limitations to their skills. If it pulls off another enragement phase while the zombies are still alive, I might as well just pack up my shit and hightail it out of here.

I steel myself as its health bar is slowly diminishing. Sixty-two percent. Sixty-one. Sixty. I hold my breath as I wait to see what happens. As its health bar ticks down to fifty-nine without anything happening, I release my breath with a sigh. It worked. “Everyone! Finish it! Fight Dirty!” I shout while fishing out a few health potions. This fight will be close, and I’m already organising my Thug’s rotations to maximize their chances of survival.

The Ghoul is quickly dying under the onslaught of my seven underlings, and it eventually dies without activating another ability. Luckily for Cobra, the three Zombies lifelessly fall apart at the same time the Ghoul dies, almost as if their strings suddenly got cut.

I breathe out a breath of relief as the notification signals the end of the fight.

[You have slain Cursed Ghoul - Fabian Shirebaggin(13). Gain 250 experience.]

[Rush has leveled up to Novice 2.]

Nice. That experience gain is better than I expected. A couple more of those, and I’ll be level twenty in no time.

“Ach! What a pile of shit!” Cobra curses as he spits on the ground, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“Huh?”

Cobra grunts once before he once more spits on the ground. “I wanted to fight that pale bastard, and then he goes off and sends his pets at me. What a fucking cunt. Bigger tease than a maiden wench, that one.”

I sigh. Right. I nearly forgot about his obsession with fighting things one-on-one. I sort of respect it, even though it’s terribly counterproductive to my goals. I guess that sort of attitude matches his brutish profession I suppose. It makes for a good show as well. Maybe I should produce some clips and stream them on the internet. It could earn me a couple of euros if I advertise it to the right crowds.

Meh. Too much effort. I’d rather focus on my own escapades. Being an entertainer is thankless work unless you’re hitting it big, and getting there requires a lot of work for almost guaranteed no gain. It’s a nice thought though.

Wait, why am I wasting time thinking about this? I have a fresh corpse to rob!