The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame (2 page)

Chapter 75: Val & Em

(Saturday, November 13th Game Day /
Friday, April 16th Real Day)

* * *

“What are you munching on there?” asked Emily with her head tilted slightly to the side as she waited for my mana to recover.  

“A biscuit from the pub,” I mumbled in reply. Without taking my manners into consideration, I continued to chew throughout my prior response with little care. It was rather deplorable but Emily wasn’t one to mind. “It’s not as good as the inn’s biscuits, really. The flavour is off.”  

“It looks more like a cracker to me,” answered Emily with a slight smirk. 

“Mm and what of this one?” I asked, as I showed her another type of biscuit that had been stored away in my bum bag. “What would you make of this? Would you call it a cracker too?” 

“No… that’s a cookie,” she lightly laughed out. 

“Oh, is that right… it tastes and feels like a biscuit though,” I replied while pondering the differences between the naming scheme of those from different regions. 

“HEY, you ready yet?!” called out the tank, cutting in and fully interrupting our idle chatter with a certain brash demeanour not entirely unique.

The man was in his mid-to-late twenties by appearance, if I had that right. Unfortunately appearances along with all the other visual cues were still quite new to me. Even after nearly a year of involvement within the Alpha and Beta programme plus the current state of the game, I was still woefully behind in my visual judgement. Though that wasn’t to say that my interactions and experiences with individuals had yet to be developed. I was only blind in real life.  I was neither deaf nor dumb.

And this gentleman, well, he was a rightful arse.

“Yeah yeah, we’re coming,” shot back Emily as she contorted her face in a peculiar manner. She had raised both of her brows with an odd expression while drawing her lips together to one side, with cheeks slightly puffing up as well.

It was a face she had used before, one she said was sort of a facial shrug. I didn’t really understand the point of it but supposedly it was a normal expression people used when they didn’t particularly care about something.

Hehe
, she certainly was an animated individual.

“Yes, coming,” I replied as well.

Though I imagine he was hardly listening.

Dusting off my clothes and standing up, it was time for me to join the party too. My mana bar had fully recovered during the brief respite and we were now ready to continue our forward progress. Ah, but forward progress was relative. Emily and I had been casually running this dungeon every few days for nearly a month’s time. To say we were familiar with the ins and outs was an understatement.

“Hurry it up,” grumbled the tank. “I hate this shitty place.” 

“What’s wrong with it?” I asked, genuinely interested in his take. 

“Are you for real?” he spat out with contempt. “It smells like piss, vomit, and I can only figure actual shit, I can’t see a God damned thing with all this ash, and if it weren’t for this mask I would probably be hacking my lungs out right now. So yeah, I fucking hate it, you got a problem with that?” 

Well the dungeon certainly did have its fair share of issues and one would be hard-pressed to argue otherwise. The stagnant air was bearable though and the lack of lighting wasn’t something I particularly noticed. Sure it was dim but I was used to darkness. The absence of colour and images in general were daily occurrences for me. The fact that I could now see, actually see with my mind’s eye of sorts, was all thanks to the programme.

I had a hard time empathising with his plight.

“Ah what atrocious conditions you’ve been exposed to,” I shot back with a playful voice.  “Just dreadful what you’re being forced to experience, it’s a true shame, really.”

I couldn’t help it.

He wasn’t entirely wrong-minded with his complaints but we were all dealing with it much the same. His incessant whining had put everyone in a sour mood and the atmosphere was dreary enough as is. His behaviour was childish… and so too was my reply. Oh dear, my cheeky nature was being coaxed out of me. 

“
Ahem
, are we ready to get started?” interrupted the frost mage as he stood motionless by the edge of the goblin’s aggression radius. “We’ve only got the boss left and then we can all be on our way.” 

“Yep, we all know our roles!” chimed in Emily as she waltzed toward the front of the group. 

The tank hurried his pace to match Emily’s as he positioned himself in front of the goblins in preparation for the pull. Not bothering to reply to my comment, I was a bit surprised by his restraint. That or he simply didn’t understand my dry sense of humour.

Mm another time perhaps. 

The three casters including me had formed a loose semi-circle around the goblins and had a clear line of sight for the purposes of the fight. Thankfully the aggro radius for the goblins was fairly small so we had plenty of room to manoeuvre. Emily had taken up position on the right side as she planned to off-tank the two [Goblin Guards] while the main-tank held the attention of the [Goblin Chief]. 

It was a simple strategy really, seeing how easy the fight itself was with our party composition. One frost mage heavy in crowd control and sustained damage coupled with a dark mage that doubled as an exceptional control-oriented caster along with my random additions of minor area of effect holy magic meant for a quick fight.

An extremely easy fight, in actuality. 

Though to be honest, it was only easy now that they had lowered the difficulty. The last patch took away the inferior [Minor Goblins] and reduced the boss encounter to a single [Goblin Chief], two [Goblin Guards], and two [Goblin Priests]. Five total goblins instead of the more difficult fourteen. Emily and I had only managed it once before the change, now it was an almost guaranteed kill so long as you could reach the fifth floor.

These poor, small creatures stood absolutely no chance.

I couldn’t even take them seriously. In truth the grimy, greasy beige creatures with their pointy ears and goat-like eyes were almost comical looking compared to the rest of the monsters I had been introduced to. Emily says they’re repulsive, as too do most of the other party members that we’ve come across. It was rather unanimous. 

Strange really, as I can’t seem to see it. 

“Let’s start then, yeah?” stated the dark mage with confidence. 

“Mm. Yeah, let’s.” 

The dark mage led off with his chant as a blackish-purple colour began to swirl around his hands, “With absence, shadows fill the void, disrupt and negate….” The frost mage did the same, raising both hands towards the ceiling as a pale white mist-of-sorts circled about above him. Slightly above the goblins’ heads, a very faint grey and white mist had developed while at the same time a non-distinct blur of undiscernible colour began to pulse outwards from the centre.

As both mages had been chanting and their hands had started to glow their respective colours, I brought my palms together and slowly expanded them as a small ball of golden-white light began to fill the space between. Muttering out my chant, I too was nearly ready to release. “Beyond reason, the radiance emanates throughout, embrace the light.” 

And then it began. 

“Shadow Pulse!” 

“Freezing Rain!”  

“Holy Blast!” 

In the blink of an eye the [Freezing Rain] had materialised and started to fall as my straight-line skill-shot [Holy Blast] flew towards the centre of the pack. At the same time, the [Shadow Pulse] began to rapidly pulse and expand outwards from the targeted position, causing the ground to turn an odd shade of dark purple for a brief instant.

The goblins reacted first to the rain that pelted their skins, doing miniscule amounts of damage until they were startled by the small explosion of holy energy that hit a [Goblin Priest] directly in his chest. With my threat level rising, the goblins turned their attention towards me and began to charge but the third of the three quick pulses that were expanding the shadow’s range to its maximum had finally occurred.

Following the third pulse a sudden collapse of the zone sucked everything in towards the centre as goblins were wretched back and flung towards each other. An audible crash of goblins smashing and colliding was easily heard.

Momentarily stunned from the impact and with bodies tangled together, the damage done was minimal but it afforded more time under the [Freezing Rain] and allowed for another quick round of spells.

Before the goblins could properly recover, I let another [Holy Blast] fly forth at a half chant, impacting the [Goblin Priest] as the dark mage followed up with a [Shadow Burn] that swept across the field. The dark fire fanned out and burned everything in its path as the goblins writhed in pain and began to scream.

As the goblins were distracted by the chaotic flame wave, Emily got within range to land a vicious elbow to the face of a [Goblin Priest], causing its face to cave in and its body to collapse to the floor a bloody mess.

Rotating towards the [Guards], Emily picked them up with ease as she deflected a spear with her iron splinted vambrace and landed a counter strike with her right fist. The heavy blow from the crude iron gauntlet briefly stunned the [Guard] as she jumped back to dodge the second [Guard’s] spear. [Shadow Flares] filled the corner of my vision as they were repeatedly shot off, first towards the remaining [Goblin Priest] and then towards the [Goblin Chief] that was being handled by the tank.

The rain had continued its downpour as the three remaining goblins began to slow down due to the accumulating frost. As I watched the fight unfold, I was attempting to time my heals with the incoming damage done to the tank as he took glancing blows. Then right as he failed to dodge a blow, with the large halberd cutting deep into his shoulder, I began my second three-verse chant.

“Beyond reason, the radiance emanates throughout, embrace the light, Holy Light!”

The tank’s health had dropped nearly forty-percent but was instantaneously brought back up to full as the golden light engulfed him entirely. Chaining my chants was a necessity due to the low skill level of the tank and thus I began chanting immediately after my last cast had finished. Gathering my hands together as golden energy began to condense, I continued to watch the fight unfold before my eyes.

Despite off-tanking two [Guards] Emily was having little trouble dodging and deflecting their spears, continually staying on her toes as she bounced around. With her elbows up and her hands kept high, she deflected spears with her arms and countered with devastating leg kicks that left one [Goblin Guard] with a broken leg. Taking advantage, she continually pressed until she was able to disarm the disabled goblin and finished him with a knee strike to the head.

By the fourth heal on the main tank the [Goblin Chief] succumbed to the combination of dark magic and freezing rain, falling in place and ceasing all of his movements. A slight change in target and the [Guard] fell soon after.

“Ah it’s over,” I mumbled as the last goblin fell to the floor with a light thud, somewhat disappointed in the quick nature of the fight.

“That was quick,” said a beaming Emily as she stood proudly over the corpse of the goblin guard. “I think I’ve got the hang of this tanking thing now, hah!”

“Mm I only had to heal you once too,” I exclaimed with a soft smile. “Though I’m a little reluctant to say this, I think the fight was a tad too easy this time.”

“Yeah huh, ever since they patched the difficulty last week this fight has become a little silly,” she explained. “Once you get the hang of it… it kind of takes the fun out of it. There’s really no challenge left in the encounter.”

Walking over to where Emily was standing, I stopped short of the guard she was hovering over and surveyed the remains of the goblins littering the floor. One priest and one guard had their faces shattered by Emily’s elbow and knee respectively, while the other priest, guard, and chief all died to a combination of magic damage. The tank didn’t land any meaningful blows on the goblin chief at all… a pity.

“Uh, you two girls have been talking about this for a while now,” cut in the frost mage as he walked over to where we had been standing, forming a loose circle around the corpse of the beige goblin. “But, was this fight really that hard before the patch?”

“Oh definitely,” answered Emily immediately with conviction.

“Mm, how should I put it… maybe one-quarter as difficult as before?” I replied with a shrug.

“Serious?” he asked with a strange expression.

“They aren’t kidding bro,” chimed in the dark mage as he joined our circle. “I started running the dungeon like three or four weeks ago and had been stuck on the last boss until now. Bro, it was stupid difficult. There were like fourteen goblins in all. Ridiculous time sink. I was about to give up on the fifth quest chain until I heard about the patch.”

“Damn that’s real,” said the frost mage. “Shit, glad I started late.”

Looking around once more, I noticed that the tank had disappeared and his health bar was no longer visible on my slightly transparent party window. A quick glance at the loot box and the goblin chief told me all I needed to know.