5

As the massive dragon slammed into me, I awaited a fiery, painful death. It didn’t come, not right away at least. The fire sweltered around my armor, blazing around me as the dragon passed through the ground where I was downed on the floor from Richard’s last counterattack. The floorboards beneath me gave out from the combustion, but thankfully my armor didn’t. The Emphyrical gel was also working wonders in protecting me from the heat of the flames, reducing the damage from what should have been certain death to something a lot more manageable and less lethal.

The dragon still hurt a lot, especially on my shoulder where the flames worked their way through the hole in my armor created by the thug. For the time being, the point or two of damage every few seconds wasn’t my biggest concern. In fact, it bought me enough time for Richard’s Silence debuff to fade away, once again allowing my passive Second Wind ability to activate if my health dropped to zero. Suddenly, my health climbed back up, raising from four points to eight. My health then held steady as the remainder of the inferno dragon passed over me, leaving nothing but fire and sooty residue on everything it passed. Gaz had hit me with a Sphere of Light. In addition to the instant heal, it gave a nice heal over time which would restore half my total health over 30 seconds. The pain relief was just as important as the numerical heals themselves. The numbing sensation made it easier to think and breathe.

Richard seemed genuinely amazed I was alive. “Klayor, once more! Let the others taste your flames this time, the warrior is mine,” he barked to the kobold who began twisting the staff once again, chanting and beginning the process of once again collecting the flames that burned freely around us. Richard jumped to attack me, but I saw the attack coming. He tried to pounce while I appeared lodged between a hole in the floorboards. Just before his blades could cut into me, I used my newly regenerated charge of Warp to try to position myself behind him. Unfortunately, after blinking away, I was still in a lying position as I reappeared five feet above him. Gravity did its work, and I fell down, slamming into a surprised Richard who cried out in shock and pain.

I tried to twist my body so my stomach wasn't facing the ceiling, but Richard was already muscling me off, using his broad back to press me off of him and try to free up his arms so he could inflict some damage. I flailed my arms wildly, trying to punch and pummel him, but the orc was just too tough. A wave of vertigo washed over me, and it seemed like everything I had done in the fight was starting to catch up to me. Worse, the Kobold was almost done gathering and shaping the flames into another dragon.

Richard finished pushing me off of him and turned to attack me as I gained my feet. I used my short sword to deflect one of his lunges and lashed out with a Dimensional Strike to deal 240% weapon damage and add a second point of resonance while draining my astral power to five. Richard was surprised by the sudden surge of power, and his dagger slipped to the side as I swung. My sword sliced along his arm, opening up a deep gash in his skin and spilling his blood. He roared in fury and vanished in a puff of smoke. It seemed like an obvious trick, and I tried to spin around to block his strikes, but his knives were already sinking into my back, dropping my health to zero.

Fortunately, Richard’s attack didn’t silence me, and my Second Wind triggered instantly, bringing my health back up to a full 38 points. The excruciating pain I had felt only moments ago evaporated into sweet bliss and clarity.

Richard was still bleeding, but my attack had only maimed him, and he still seemed to have plenty of mana or whatever else was fueling his abilities to imbue his weapons with shadowy fire. He spat and snarled at me, trying to charge again with a new fighting style. He held one of his daggers with a reverse grip, and used a standard grip with the other, pacing forward and slashing with one of his daggers to test me. I batted the weapon away, surprised to see that my weapon came into contact with it. For some reason, I was able to deflect his weapons now, but I didn’t know if he could still bypass my armor. Either way, I didn’t want to find out, and didn’t care to waste any of my five remaining astral power on another Astral Armor which might have been a waste.

Just as Richard was about to kill me, a black knife sliced through the air, sticking into the kobold’s stomach and draining his blood. It was John’s Reaper’s Throw and while it didn’t kill the kobold instantly, the ancient creature was staggering backward and cried out as his creation of flames overhead fell around him and burned, ending his life in an uncontrollable blaze.

Richard screamed in fury as Klayor the kobold died, turning his attention back to John and raising his crossbow from the hook on his belt. I tried to get up, but my nausea and the super dense physics of being in my resonant state left me feeling heavy and sick. Kirsten saw the attack coming and tried to fire a barrage of Sparks, but it went wide as Richard pulled the trigger. John’s health was abysmally low when the bolt hit him in the head. There was nothing we could do as it punched through his skull. John’s character icon was removed from our party. Clarence teleported back with the potions, but it was already too late.

Kirsten screamed in fury, the blue tattoos on her neck and arms igniting into a brilliant blue as she raised her hands and created a bright, diamond-like prism of pure energy. The nova of light was blinding, and I turned my face away from the construct as its intensity skyrocketed and washed out the tavern room in impossible light. Richard and the few surviving goons were screaming something I couldn’t make out. Everything was going fuzzy, and I felt myself re-align with the base dimension of Stratus as I came out of my resonant state. My armor started rattling, slowly at first, then it vibrated intensely, singing out as the metal buzzed like a saw. Everything was in motion, and things were starting to float in the air, like the gravity was switched off.

Suddenly, there was a sonic boom and what sounded like thousands of shards of glass raining down from above. Whiteness. Blackness. Then nothing.