Umbra awoke first early the next morning, around six a.m. in the morning, to be exact. Seeing Eris snuggled up against him made him recall the activities the pair had gotten up to the last night. Reluctant to end the moment, he simply pulled Eris closer, causing her to smile in her sleep, and closed his eyes again, waiting for her to awaken.
She nuzzles against him as she curls up a bit more on the bed, “That was amazing…” She sighs softly before letting out a small yawn.
“You were amazing, love…” Umbra also sighs, feeling a contentment that he’d never really felt before… mostly because he was a virgin up until last night.
She simply smiles before sitting up to stretch. “Yes… A night of wonderful pleasure and a day ahead of us filled with wonderful adventure… And I have you to thank for it.” She giggles as she starts to get out of bed.
Umbra tries to be a gentleman and looks away for a moment, before realizing that he had already seen all the, ahem, intimate parts on Eris’ body already.
“Well, I suppose you do… now then, I think it’s time for a bit of actual adventuring, eh? What d’ya think, love?” Umbra pauses a moment. “Actually, I don’t really think we can go many places without being given a quest first… I guess we better start exploring the town then… I don’t like talking to people much…” The last part, though muttered under his breath, still managed to reach Eris’ ears.
Eris chuckles again before casting a small spell to clean herself and materialize her clothes onto herself. “Then let’s go so this town can have the heroes they want.” She replies with a confident smirk.
“Allons-y!”
After a quick, but filling, breakfast
“Well… who so you wanna talk to first, love?”
“How about that guard-looking guy over there? He’s got a dragon symbol above his head!” Eris points excitedly in a vaguely eastward direction.
Umbra looks over and indeed there was a dragon symbol, a red one containing the visage of a snarling dragon head in a circle, to be exact.
Eris walks up to the guard and flashes him a smile. “Is there anything that two amazing adventurers could help out with?” She bats her eyes a little.
“Ah severely doubt tha’, lass. For y’see, thar be a bit o’ a dragon problem in these here parts. My advise’d be t’ stay inside wiv’ yer fam’ly while th’ town guards handle it.” The man’s voice boomed with a severe Scottish brogue, tinged with a bit of southern redneck, pirate, and a bit of Rubeus Hagrid.
Eris looks over to Umbra, “You know… I think I want to go questing for the Crimson rod of Dragon Mastery…” She suggests. “...So we can deal with the dragons.”
“That actually sounds great. Hold on a mo’, need to do something real quick.”
“No Lollygaggin’.” The guard states, standing in place like a useless NPC.
“...Y’know what, forget it. I was gonna do something funny, but I guess not.” Turning to follow Eris, Umbra starts down the road, taking a few steps before whirling around, “FUS RO DAH!”
“AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa………….”
“Why did you even do that!?” Eris asks as she gives Umbra an incredulous look.
“Don’t worry, he’ll respawn. Look, there he is!” Umbra points to where the Guard was before, where there is now another guard fading into view.
“I said ‘No Lollygaggin’!” Eris rolls her eyes at the guard’s sheer stupidity.
“NPCs, what’re ya gonna do?” Shrugging his shoulders, Umbra leads Eris out the southern gates of Fiore, ready to head out into the adventure laden hills beyond.
Or at least, he would have, had a dragon not attacked that instant.
“YOL TOOR SHUL”
“Oh come on! That’s a Skyrim thing!” Umbra could not resist shouting this, despite using a Fus Ro Dah not a minute earlier.
“Shut up and attack the dragon already!” Eris screams, already hurling spell after spell at the largely unconcerned hunk of flying, reptilian, fire-breathing death. She grumbled to herself as she began to cast a spell that would, hopefully, bring the dragon to the ground.
“Stand back, love, this might get a bit...messy,” Umbra gently pushes Eris out of the way, preparing his own offensive that, hopefully, would end the battle in one move. Eris simply raises an eyebrow curiously.
“Here’s a little thing I learned from another Universe! Kurare! Kisatsu! Giga! Doriru! BREAKEEEEEERRRRR!” Launching from his spot on the ground, Umbra produces a large, shadow drill, approximately the size of a minivan, and proceeds to ram into the dragon as hard as physically possible.
And it, unfortunately, does nothing but cause superficial wounds on the dragon. Umbra stares for a moment before being unceremoniously slammed back into the unforgiving dirt below.
“Augh! Shit that hurts!”
Taking a moment to actually read the dragon’s stats, Umbra immediately pales, before displaying the screen to Eris as well as the proverbial camera. She deadpans at him, “You are such an idiot sometimes…”
Opponent: Frost Dragon
Level: 19
Health: 8999/9001
Abilities:
-Thu’um
-Passive Regeneration
-Aerial Ace
-Dragon Claw
-Frost Touch
Weaknesses:
-Fire (+5 damage)
-Eyes (Attack for Blindness)
-Inner Throat (Attack to Stop Thu’um)
Danger Level: (1-10)
8
EXP given: 3,000
“Oh...Shit…We’re gonna need to go all out for this one...” Umbra groans, not used to exerting himself anymore, not really.
Eris gives him another look. “Ya think?” She snarks before using her staff to launch another fireball at the dragon.
“Fuck… Not used to going all out… Fine. Oh please, please let this do something!” Umbra nearly desperately exclaims, summoning as much of his power as he could, “Shadow… SCALPEL!”
With an unearthly wail of deafening silence, a beam of pure shadow rends the air between Umbra and the dragon, striking it in the chest, doing seemingly nothing… until the beast begins wailing in agony, shadow blades poking from various orifices, natural and otherwise.
-400 Health
“...Oh you’ve gotta be shitting me…” Umbra is enraged at not doing more than that, but then, it hadn’t even really been all his power, now had it?
“Well… Just deal with it…” Eris says as she dashes toward some large rocks for cover, “Focus on the dragon, not your damage, and we’ll get through this just fine…”
“Right. Well… I’ll cover you while you do your spell. Shadowscreen!” Umbra takes the opportunity to blind the dragon, creating a large box of shadow to contain the raging beast.
“C’mon! That’s not going to keep it still for too long!”
Eris’ eyes take on a white glow as she lets another spell loose, electricity arcs from her hand up to the dragon with a cacophony of sound.
-380 Health
“Needle Forest.”
Bursting forth from the ground, Umbra’s attack immediately impales the dragon with thousands upon thousands of hair-thin needles made of shadow, effectively immobilizing it and pinning it to the ground.
-90 Health
“Select Needles. Group. Rotate 90 degrees. Initialize.”
With a sound not unlike that of a blade sliding through flesh, the forest rotates around its central axis, tearing through the dragon, causing even more roars of agony
-511 Health
Eris uses the rock to mud spell in order to have the dragon sink into the ground, and then unleashes the transmute mud to rock spell to trap its arms and legs in place.
Dragon Status: Trapped
Immobilization for 3 Rounds
The dragon immediately begins to struggle, attacking everything around it with all of it’s available weapons.
“FO KRAH DIIN!”
Utilizing it’s thu’um once again, the Dragon attempts to freeze the area around it, specifically its bonds.
“Hmm… its ice attacks are much more powerful than its fire… not surprising, it is a Frost Dragon.” Umbra quietly notes, before taking action once more.
Immediately Eris lets loose a Wall Of Fire spell underneath the dragon to engulf it in flames.
-580 Health
“Subspace Pocket: Open. Withdraw Artifact: Arondight: The Unfading Light of the Lake.”
Withdrawing an immensely beautiful English Longsword from his pocket, Umbra grasps it, now more confident in his abilities to slay the dragon.
“Shadow Launcher Initialize. Cartridge Load. Launch: Arondight. Triple Spin Accel.”
Breaking the sound barrier and hitting Mach 3, the Magical Sword slams into the unruly reptile, parting flesh like butter and impaling it with the full force of the second most popular hero of Arthurian Legend.
-1004 Health
Critical Hit!
Stun!
The Dragon locks up, still in the throes of immense, enraged agony, but now unable to move until the Stun Lock wears off.
“Heh… almost forgot about my trusty pockets… Withdraw! Shining Sword of the Lake! The Sword of Promised Victory! Withdraw! EXCALIBUR!”
Eris takes a deep breath as she readies another spell. “You know… sometimes I really hate our luck…” She mutters.
“Hmph… Me too…” Hefting the brightly glowing, golden, majestic, unearthly, HOLY blade, Umbra smirks, before dashing at the dragon, still in Stun Lock, and striking out, cutting through the dragon just as easily as he had with Arondight. Once the blade penetrated, he released it’s majestic power.
“EX-CALIBAAAAAAAAA!”
And with a burst of radiance that blinded nearly everyone in the vicinity, a massive beam of HOLY Light burst through the Dragon, simultaneously inflicting massive wounds and breaking it out of Stun Lock.
-2020 Health
Dragon is freed!
Dragon Activates Hidden Skill: MADNESS ENHANCEMENT
“Oh… Balls.” Umbra manages to mutter before he is once again slapped aside by the now incredibly pissed off dragon, the beast itself being shrouded in an energy cloak made of darkness, frost, and the nightmares of children everywhere.
MADNESS ENHANCEMENT:
Adds 2000 Health to User
Increases Strength 2X
Decreases Cognitive Function
Danger Level: 8.9
“...Double balls…Ow, my spleen…” Umbra whimpers a little, having broken at least two of his ribs and torn open a dozen lacerations from both the impact and the resulting thirty foot skid.
“Withdraw: Health Potion.”
Health Restored!
“Much better. Eris! Catch! Withdraw: Mana Potion!”
Tossing the potion over, Umbra turns back to the dragon charging directly at them. Time to impact: T-minus 10 seconds.
Eris quickly downs the potion and lets loose another chain lightning spell at the dragon to throw it off course.
-450 Health
Charge Interrupted!
-80 Health
“VEN GAAR NOS!”
The cyclone generated by the dragon’s shout heads directly towards our heroes, tearing up everything in its path. Panicking a bit, Umbra leaps forward with a cry of
“Dark Fortress!”
Immediately, a massive, black, medieval themed wall springs from the ground, blocking the cyclone’s advance, though it still begins to grind through.
“C’mon...c’mon… don’t fail me now…”
The cyclone continues it’s pace, the dragon content to just sit and wait for the blockade to fall. A foot… two feet… five… and about an inch from breaking through, the cyclone dissipates, vanishing back into the air that made it.
“Oh thank god. Now… allow me to reply in turn. Eris! Set up the biggest wind spell you can… I got a plan!”
Umbra slips out three objects from his Pocket: A sword and two amulets, one tentatively shaped like an eye, the other like a five point star. Slamming all three together, Umbra waits for Eris to begin her spell.
With a quick flourish of her hands, Eris lets loose a Cloudkill spell, bringing in a fog to weaken the dragon.
-600 Health
“Heh, thanks love. Sword of the Storms! Star Hanabi! Eye of Dashi! Fire-Lightning-Tornado!”
True to name, a massive, flaming cyclone crackling with pent up lightning blasts its way towards the dragon, which, due to the Madness Enhancement, proceeded to just tank through it, disregarding any and all damage that it took.
-1900 Health
“Now we’re getting somewhere!”
“Yeah! After like… Forever!” Eris replies as she casts Cat’s Grace on Umbra to improve his reflexes.
“Let’s not curse a good thing, love.” Rushing forward to meet the once again charging dragon, Umbra proceeds to draw another sword, this one utterly incomprehensible, unable to be understood by anyone without true Understanding.
“EA: SWORD OF RUPTURE!”
“EA?” Eris questions as she gives Umbra a confused look.
Too far away to hear her question, Umbra leaps, carried high into the air by his cloak, the dragon following and trying to tear him a structurally superfluous new behind with its gnashing maw.
“Need a bit of height to keep the casualties down… Che. GAZE UPON THE GOLDEN SPLENDOR OF EA, YOU WORTHLESS WORM! LOOK UPON ME AND BE THANKFUL THAT I HAVE ALLOWED THEE TO GAZE UPON MY FORM! NOW… KNOW TRUEST DESPAIR AND COWER BENEATH THE MIGHT OF… ENUMA ELISH!”
Following Umbra’s Ham-tastic speech, a massive rent of purest TRUTH split its way across the sky, impacting the dragon and carrying it down into the unforgiving earth below. Impacting the ground, the dragon made one last attempt at a roar, choked off from the pressure and the impact. The attack lasted for another minute, blasting the beast into a massive crater of disintegrating reptilian flesh.
-3000 Health
Dragon defeated!
+3,000 EXP!
Gained:
Dragon bone
Dragon Scale
Dragon soul
63 Gold
Half digested armor
Dragon Blood (dirtied)
Dragon Parts (destroyed)
“Huh… glad...that’s...over… huh… kinda...sleepy now…”
With victory realized, Umbra pitches backwards, falling from the sky and down to the ground below, completely unconscious and magically drained; so much so that not even his cloak could activate.
Eris quickly lets out a feather falling spell on him to keep Umbra from splitting his head open on the ground. With a small smile she whispers, “...You did good…”
Mainline Quest Complete: Defeat the Dragon!