The Undead Guardian
They stepped on the grass.
The six walked into the cavern proper and heard a stone wall slam shut behind them. At the same time, they watched as in the center of the garden, the ground bulged and ripped before a rotting lion’s paw forced its way out.
Fleur stopped a few feet out from the tunnel and readied her bow as the others walked on.
A second lion’s paw tore itself free from the earth and worked alongside the first to pull the rest of the beast’s body free of its grave. It’s massive head, once encircled with a full red mane, was now patchy as its jaw hung somewhat unhinged and lulled side to side. Then, where its large eyes would rest instead were vacant and dried out.
Light Chill and Siren stopped before the stream as they drew their wands. The younger shivered from the sight of the creature.
“It’s...It’s a manticore,” he murmured.
The final three wading through the stream and pulled their weapons of choice as the beast finished crawling out its grave. From its open mouth came a low growl and by command wisps of green aura weaved from the nearby plantlife and into the hideous monster. It was like a weed feasting on this once cherished garden.
Sarge rested a large Iron Warhammer over his shoulder. He had a rusted greataxe as well but it stayed on his back for emergency only. As he eyed the corpse, Gray and Blitz circled around the beast to flank it.
Everyone witnessed the beast in full tainted glory. It was the size of a mammoth and as Chill stated, was once a manticore. But its body had decayed and bloated and its wings were stuck to the sides of its body by some sort of viscous liquid.
Above this monster was its name and five health bars; four of them full and one just shy of half the length.
Former Guardian of Everfree Graves
HP: 2237/2237
The creature’s maw opened further somehow before letting out a deafening roar. It shook bark loose from the colossal trees and for a moment the life essence the plants were giving it faded away.
It stopped roaring. The fight began.
“Dark Blend.” “Grand Strike!”
Gray vanished the same time Sarge wound his hammer back like a baseball bat. From the center of the hammer’s face, a lime green ball of energy formed before Sarge swung, rocketed it forward at blinding speeds before colliding with the Guardian’s chest and exploding.
Before the Guardian accepted his challenge, Blitz rushed in. He delivered a pepper of body blows against the side of the monster, taking to the air as a claw lazily swiped at him. The next moment, Blitz dove back down onto the center of its spine and started driving blow after blow before leaping away from the scorpion tail trying to run him through. Then he did it all over again.
The beast tried shaking his back to get Blitz off as he stared emptily at Sarge. Then, from under it, Gray plunged her dagger so deep into the creature’s abdomen that the blade was no longer visible.
Gray then pulled her initial dagger back and stabbed a second one into its rubbery hide before running out from underneath. Unaware, the monster body checked the ground and forced that dagger further through its gut as Gray was already gone.
The monster groaned as it rose to observe the three warriors preparing for their next wave. However, before it could respond, the monster watched the heavier of the three ponies raise a hoof to the sky.
“FIRE!”
From further back, an arrow plunged deep within a rotting shoulder blade before the field ahead was alight with magical orbs. Before it knew what it was observing, a cluster of light blue and magenta bullets pelted the beast before Chill and Siren began running and flying respectively to better vantage points.
The numbers above the manticore had gone and all the damage the team had inflicted, enough to kill any Cragadile or Timberwolf, was only the start. The smaller health bar was missing as the group began chewing at the first full bar.
Sarge charged forward and focused on avoiding each attack, drawing the monster’s attention as Blitz kept attacking from above. The tail would coil and strike like a viper but Blitz danced around it, getting one or two hits in each time.
Gray tried getting closer for her daggers to matter but she hesitated. Every time a stray claw or tail came into her vision, fear made her back off. The same went for Fleur as well as she struggled to find a clear shot.
Siren and Chill had no such issue. With Siren firing from the sky, she always managed to find a good shot. Meanwhile Chill was constantly making his shots as he ran from one hiding spot to the next.
Back on the first day, Chill repeatedly hit his brother by accident when they fought their first wolves. That, coupled with the library explosion, made him determined to be nothing but helpful. Whenever he would go training at night, it was always target practice.
The Guardian’s attention was spread thin as the party began falling into a groove. It would stare at Siren after her last attack before catching a hammer to the jaw. Then, while its head thrown upwards, Fleur found her shot. Which then opened Chill and Blitz to pelt the monster from both sides of its head.
Forty seconds of trading aggro and Sarge eyed the beast’s health. It’s current HP bar fell down to a third. “Alright. Switch!”
Gray and Sarge ran around the monster the same time that Blitz flew up out of reach. From there, Chill and Siren started laying out covering fire, distracting the Guardian long enough for Gray to stand before the beast.
“Gray,” Blitz called out, taking a passive role for the moment. “What’s the time on Dark Blend?”
“Uh. Tw-Twelve seconds,” Gray fumbled as she cowered away from a rotting claw threatening to take her head off.
“Sarge?” Blitz flew backwards, watching as the tail stretched out at him and went taut.
“Half a minute,” he returned, closing in until the monster gnashed his teeth towards him. An arrow missed its head by inches.
“Use it when you have it,” Blitz commanded. “Gray, Dark Blend on my mark.”
“Yeah,” she spat stiffly. When Gray realized her fears wouldn’t let her close in, she threw a dagger into the Guardian’s shin. Then another for good measure.
Blitz dived towards the creature, ducking past the slow tail and smacking the base of the tail as he glided past.
“Rachelle!” He screamed when he was back in the air. “Glace flèche! Attendez! Oui?!”
“Oui! Attendez!” Rachelle called back from her spot, nocking an ice arrow before she waited.
“Chill? Great job!” Blitz nodded where he saw Chill’s light blue magic coming from.
As if to thank him, another light blue bolt slapped the Guardian’s ankle.
“Gray, tell us whe—Gah!”
Blitz’s command fell short as the tail finally clipped his wing. Blitz went tumbling onto the manticore’s back with a thud.
“Blitz, be caref—” “Ability count!” Blitz interrupted, more frustrated than scared.
He crawled away from another tail attack and hit the back of the Guardian’s head a couple times before gliding off its back and to a safe distance.
“Twenty-three seconds,” Sarge replied.
“Um. Right! Uh, five more,” Gray obliged, refocusing her head at the monster that was trying to bite hers off.
Blitz glanced up at his health. 116/128. A scratch.
Another hit from Chill. Then from Siren followed by Sarge getting another swing from his hammer. Eventually, the health bar came dangerously low to breaking.
“Everyone! Stop,” Sarge instructed. The manticore growled at him and Gray, expecting more attacks to chip away at him. Instead it watched them walk away, forcing the manticore to skulk after them. “Siren! Up!”
Blitz shook his wing before joining Siren in the air high above the monster. At the same time, the Gray made a few feints at the manticore with her daggers, keeping its attention on her as she kept backing away.
“Alright Gray. We’re ready,” Blitz called out.
Gray ducked under a claw and pulled another plain dagger out from under her cloak before taking a few steps back. Her hindlegs began splashing in the creek.
“Here goes,” she muttered shakily. As the Guardian took one last step, Gray flicked her next dagger and watched it carve through the Guardian’s neck and watched as its back arched back unnaturally as the first health bar shattered.
The Guardian’s head raised skyward, releasing a roar loud enough to make the cavern tremor. All the soft grass dried at once, breaking from their own brittle stature. The mushrooms growing from the titanic trees shriveled up and fell like dead jellyfish.
The lack of light made the garden more sinister. With the mushrooms gone, the only thing illuminating the area was this green energy now constantly fueling the undead beast’s strength. It would never stop feeding it either.
Next, peeling from its back with a slimy mucus, were the manticore’s bat wings. They battered the ground with a heavy gale as it focused the now red sunken eyes on the only warrior standing before it; Gray.
She barely managed to cry out “Dark Blend” before the beast lunged at her with a sudden ferocity. The group had no idea where she ended up but they watched as the beast splashed into the stream before flailing its claws in every direction, furious that it missed.
As it splashed, the stream’s clear water turned cloudy and green. Before it could stand back up, Sarge took in a breath to command his team.
“FIRE!”
“Siren’s WaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~!"
The sound of Siren’s ability rumbled the cavern louder than the monster could as her soundwave pinned the monster to the floor.
Fleur then released her ice arrow. A mist of cold trailed behind it before landing somewhere where jaw met skull. A heavy burst of ice covered its face and locked its mouth shut and blinded one of the glowing eyes.
“JOEY, BARRAGE!”
Whether Chill heard his brother over Siren’s screeching didn’t matter. As the creature fought against the sound’s pressure, a gatling gun of light blue magic rained from the darkness and sprayed the beast without mercy. The group watched as the second full HP bar began freefalling.
One. Three. A dozen. Twenty. The number of attacks grew in intensity. Some scraped the ground and others dissipated from Siren’s soundwave but enough hit to bring the health bar down past half.
As Siren’s Wail faded, Blitz and Sarge readied themselves for round two. However, before either could charge, they noticed the monster turned its gaze on Chill.
Too much aggro, Blitz realized. Terrified, he dove at the monster with weapons at the ready, ignoring Sarge’s demand to hold back.
The manticore stood up and shook the ice stuck away from its face as an arrow found a home between its ribs. Simultaneously, its back leg was painted blue with code as Gray faded back into reality, cutting through its ankle for all the damage she could.
All that did was piss it off.
Faster than expected, the scorpion’s tail drove itself through Gray’s spine and out her stomach before throwing her into Blitz. As they collided in midair, Siren moved to the side and watched them sail off into the void, hit points depleted.
When they were gone, Siren moved in to lay in more magic attacks to try getting its attention away from Chill who was too weak to change positions. Although, while a few reached their mark, the Guardian began doing something unexpected. He deflected them.
As though on autopilot, the scorpion’s tail batted away the attacks, redirecting most of them into the ground as the zombie ignored whatever actually struck him. The tail even had time to catch Fleur’s next arrow, trying to hit Siren only to miss by a yard or two.
Chill was about twelve meters away, struggling to pick himself back up. He put everything he had into that barrage and now there were spots in his vision. When he could finally see straight the manticore was already readying itself to pounce.
“Grand Strike!”
As it left the ground, a large orb of lime green clocked the monster in the side of the face. The force of the blow redirected it to the side, missing Chill and making it eat dirt.
Chill forced himself up on his hooves and tried running for the nearest tree but the manticore wasn’t done. A single claw dragged itself across Chill’s back, nails finding purchase in his digital skin. The claws pulled him off his hooves and flung him about a dozen feet away before landing head first on a rock covered in dead moss.
E1ectric_B1itz: 92/128
F1eur_de_7is: 130/130 *
GrayMatt3rsxxx: 106/160
Light_Chill: 47/101 *
Sardinexx: 271/306
Siren_t@le: 133/147
When they saw Chill’s health drop more than half, everyone acted fast. As Fleur ran to a new vantage point, Siren fired consecutive shots of magic to cover Chill as Sarge charged in.
The Guardian attempted to redirect those bolts at Sarge as it stood back up. When that didn’t work, the beast waved a stray claw to batter the man away but he was ready.
Sarge brought his hammer between himself and the claw, blocking most of the hit before maneuvering under it. The monster turned in confusion only to find the hammer slamming into its shoulder.
“Gray,” Sarge bellowed as he leapt backwards so Siren could keep firing. He also saw Chill still laying on the ground. “If you can hear me, get the kid!”
There was no response. Instead, Sarge readied himself to block the rising claw only for it to be a fake out when the tail closed in on him. Sarge watched as it hooked into his ribcage, stopping a few inches deep as the rock armor worked to keep the stinger from going any further.
Sarge used this to his advantage. Dropping his warhammer, he grappled the tail and held on for dear life. “Siren! Fleur! FIRE!”
One. Two. Five bolts slammed into the creature’s back, destroying its next health bar as two more arrows sniped the creature from the darkness. It was already down to less than 1000 HP.
The monster gave up on Chill and was now on the maniac holding its tail. Putting its weight into it, the Guardian leaned away and used the momentum to lift Sarge, rock armor and all, before suplexing him into the dried earth floor. The force made Sarge let go of the tail and freed the creature’s attention on its next target.
When the force made Sarge release, the beast spun in place in a blur before it faced up at the sky. It brought out its leathery wings, slime spilling out around it as Siren got to fire one more bullet of magic.
Immediately, the beast was in the sky, crashing through the bolt with intense speed. Ten meters became zero as Siren could only see teeth and gums before everything went black altogether. All except her hit points which she saw sink from 133 to 62 in a snap.
No one could hear her screaming from inside the monster’s mouth. All they could hear was the wet flapping of the beast’s rotting wings as it flew towards the ceiling.
Sarge picked himself back up, covered in slime, and looked where Chill was. Gray snuck over at some point and was now feeding the dizzy kid a potion.
“Blitz?!” Gray screamed manically. “He went UP!”
“On it!”
Thanks to the green aura tethered into the Guardian, Blitz took flight again and climbed altitude. The rotting monster glanced over its shoulder to show Siren’s magenta hindlegs were the only thing keeping her from being swallowed whole.
Gray started standing Chill back on his own legs and turned to Sarge. Then she furrowed her brow. “Sarge? You’re burning.”
Curious, Sarge checked for himself. The wing’s slime had coated him in a heap and wherever it landed, Sarge's skin glowed with code as smoke wisped off him. He glanced at his hit points.
185/306.
183.
182.
180.
“Acid.” Sarge started swearing as he ran back to pick up the hammer he threw away earlier. While he did, the rusted greataxe that had been on his back suddenly disintegrated into code.
“The stream,” Chill muttered, pointing out at the water that passed them. It was still green from when the manticore fell in it.
“No, the pond.” Gray pointed towards the wall of the cave where the rushing of the waterfall echoed. “Wash it off. Your armor’s covered in it!”
Sarge ran off while Gray stared up at the ceiling. “BLITZ! Watch the mucus!”
“The what?!” Blitz shouted. Already, he and the manticore were too high up to hear the others. That and the mucus landing on his face was getting in his ears.
E1ectric_B1itz: 89/128
F1eur_de_7is: 130/130 *
GrayMatt3rsxxx: 106/160
Light_Chill: 97/101 *
Sardinexx: 177/306
Siren_t@le: 62/147
Blitz ignored it and saw the Guardian finally reach the ceiling. However, when it slowed down, Blitz noticed that beyond the green aura, the monster’s face flared with a magenta color every second or so. Not only that but it’s health bar was flinching to the same rhythm.
At some point, unbeknownst to anyone else, Siren was able to fight through the pain of being eaten alive. Since the manticore had most of her in its unhinged jaw, and her wand was still in her grip, she made the most of it.
Even without much room, she started flicking the wand however she could. It was slow but being inside of its mouth meant there was no way for the manticore to dodge or deflect anything. She just kept firing.
It wasn’t until she felt the teeth force themselves out of her hips that she realized she was no longer being chewed on. Her fierce warcry became screaming again as she started tumbling only to be snatched out of the sky a second time. This time by a friendly.
“Anytime you wanna start flying,” Blitz strained as he made his wings work overtime to account for the sudden weight he was carrying.
Siren shook off her shock before flapping her own wings and kept them from plummeting any further. “Okay. Not doing that again...Are you. Melting?” She asked awkwardly.
“Huh?” Blitz flew backwards for a moment and looked at himself. Multiple parts of his body were sizzling and now glowing with blue data as his hit points ticked down.
“Oh that’s what Gray was say—” “Move!”
Siren tackled Blitz, forcing both of them out of the way as the Guardian fell past like a boulder. Both of them were now left flying far above the battlefield.
“...thanks,” Blitz mumbled. His hit points just dipped below eighty as he shook the globules of mucus off like a wet dog.
Back on the ground, the monster crashed with a heavy rumble. Chill and Gray were nearby but not enough for the slam to matter. Instead, Chill shot two bolts before they both ran the other way.
The monster was already standing by the time Blitz and Siren rejoined their allies. As they got within speaking range they went into a glide to catch their breath.
“Ability count,” Blitz screamed into the cavern.
“Eight,” from Gray.
“Twenty-four,” Siren returned.
“Fourteen!” A distant shout from Sarge who was on his way back from the pond.
“Blitz? Can I use mine now?!” Chill begged. Thanks to the earlier barrage and now running for his life, Chill sounded so tired.
“Not yet,” Blitz discouraged. Behind him, he saw the monster begin bounding after the group. Blitz dropped to the ground and turned around.
“Chill. Siren. You two get set up. It’s almost there.”
“Okay!” “Sure.”
“Fleur!” Blitz screamed out into the cave. “Préparer!”
“Oui!” Was all he heard in return.
“I’m guessing that means I stay here?” Gray turned to redraw Crag Dagger. The beast fell into a jog, the green aura trailing plugged into it. It was still in phase two so they didn’t have to worry about it sprinting. Yet.
From their left, Sarge came into view before pulling out his weapon. He was breathing heavy. “Okay. Running from one side of the cave to the other’s a little too hard in this suit.”
“Better you than me,” Blitz joked as he pulled out the team’s last potion for himself. “Gray? Ability?”
She checked. “Three. Two. O—”
The beast pounced again. Blitz, still drinking his potion, was shoved out of the way as Sarge stood and let the monster sink its fangs into his side. Blue data burst from under his armor as his hit points dropped again, though still above one hundred.
“Gray, now!” “Dark Blend,” she cried, vanishing for a third time.
With its teeth pinning Sarge in place, the beast stared at the Earth pony and growled before his wings tried to catch another gale. It was slow going due to Sarge’s weight but it began lifting off again.
Blitz picked himself back up and unsheathed a shortsword. As the Sarge fought to try pulling the manticore back to solid ground, Blitz flew up and charged from the side.
The tail swung to catch Blitz but he barreled around. When the acidic wing reached the bottom of its flap, Blitz landed on the slimy surface and started striking. One slash after another, he kept cutting at the base of the wing, ignoring all the acid damage burning at his hooves.
By the time Blitz jumped over the tail’s next stab, slicing it for good measure before landing back on the manticore’s wing, Sarge pried a dagger out and stabbed at the manticore’s rubbery jaw every chance he had.
The two kept stabbing and swinging while Gray got underneath the wing opposite of Blitz. She ignored the acid painting her face and jumped high. Despite the wind fighting to push her down, her dagger found a surface and slashed the creature’s bloated stomach open for a spray of pixels.
With so much damage, the monster didn’t care anymore. Pulling its head back, Sarge managed to get one more stab to the chin before he was spat into the filthy stream water.
Blitz didn’t last either. As he sunk the sword into the creature’s spine, the tail punctured him through the waist and tossed him far from sight; the sword left abandoned between its vertebrae.
Gray landed on the ground and drew her last iron dagger when the creature crashed onto the ground. She tried stepping back but it didn’t matter as the creature brought forward a fast moving claw.
All she could do was hold her two daggers, the iron and the Crag, to make the creature feel like it had slapped a sea urchin before Gray was tossed like a skipping stone.
E1ectric_B1itz: 50/128
F1eur_de_7is: 130/130 *
GrayMatt3rsxxx: 47/160
Light_Chill: 97/101 *
Sardinexx: 92/306 *
Siren_t@le: 62/147
When Gray pried her head off the ground she observed the creature. It was glowing more blue than green with how many injuries it sported. All the chops and cuts that went into this shambling corpse. Then Gray noticed she could feel most of her body sizzling from the acid melting away at her hit points.
The creature took a moment to leer at Sarge before turning its back to him and approaching Gray. Its eyes flashed a malevolent red as it strode within maiming range.
Gray tried tossing her last dagger. It did absolutely nothing. She instead watched as it pinned itself to the ground like a lawn dart. When she saw that, her head fell back to the ground.
“Sarge?” Gray groaned.
“Yeah.”
Sarge used his hammer to prop himself back up before flicking his dagger. It struck the base of the monster’s tail, catching its attention for just long enough of a moment for Gray to throw her body into a roll. She was still close enough for the creature to cleave her in bits but far enough away for something else.
“Fleur!” Sarge turned towards the entrance. “FIRE!”
Off somewhere in the shadows, Sarge and Gray heard this high-pitched hissing sound. Then a sharp whistle that caught the Guardian’s attention.
“Amour Maladie!”
The hissing suddenly sounded much closer as a single arrow, glowing deep pink with a lit fuse, sailed past trees and rocks before finding itself shy of landing dead center in the monster’s glowing eye socket.
The arrowhead delved beneath the green skin and the leathery bag with the fuse on the end of it scraped against the manticore’s nose.
And then a bright light.
The explosion that followed was a mixture of red fire and pink aura working to wrap the beast like a straight jacket. Gray went into a fetal position as the heat of the boom threatened to cook her alive with the acid.
The ember cloud didn’t reach Sarge either but he still had to cover his eyes from the flash. When his eyes adjusted he watched as the creature’s health bar blew up along with the arrow. It had one bar left.
It had less than 500 hit points to go. It was in phase three; the final phase.
Within the dust, Sarge saw this field of pink aura struggling to enguld the massive hide of this beast. It spread like a virus but every time it seemed like it was about to surround it, there would be holes. The beast’s face shifted unnaturally between fury and contentment in moments.
After the bomb had faded, a green aura poured from every piece of nature within the cave. Every plant becoming a lifeless husk. The trees that grew into the ceiling suddenly buckled as they cracked open, clouds of dust bursting from them like aged piñatas.
The green aura warred against the pink as the bloated corpse’s emotions flipped between endless infatuation and murderous rage.
Rather than let the scene play out any longer, another arrow flew from the same place as the bomb and struck the monster again. The pink aura, like bubblegum, let out a sharp pap as it failed.
The monster’s expression went lax for what felt like hours before, twitch by twitch, its face contorted into so much malice, so much hatred, that the rotting skin began ripping into a permanent sneer. So sinister it seemed alien.
“Siren, I don’t think he means we dogpile the thing,” Sarge backed Blitz up.
“No,” he confirmed. “We need to bait it. And. We do it with her.” Blitz then pointed across the table at Fleur.
“What?” “Really?” “Ehh?” “Why?”
“Her ability, Amour Maladie,” Blitz explained. “Causes the next target she hits to fall in love with her until they get hit.”
“You think that would work on a boss?” Siren asked incredulously. “My ability only works as intended on weaker enemies. For stronger enemies, it can only push them. I can’t imagine her ability’s different.”
“It doesn’t need to be.” Blitz let himself smirk. “After the ability wears off, or they resist it,” he muttered mockingly. “They drop everything and run straight at her. No self-preservation.”
Sarge paused before he suddenly realized the boy’s plan. “It’ll be running straight into enemy fire.”
Sarge watched as the kid’s face turned demented for a brief instant. Short enough for no one else to notice. Maybe not even Blitz himself. “We put Chill and Siren with her, use their abilities to slow it down, and keep. Firing. Even Joey’s barrage won’t be enough to make it notice.”
“So we are rushing at it.” That was Siren’s takeaway after Blitz finished. Blitz made a so-so reaction.
“Would that do enough damage?” Gray wondered. “What if it reaches them?”
“If they can combine their abilities, it’ll hold the monster back,” Blitz repeated. “Long enough for them to get enough attacks in.”
As the zombie’s jaw unhinged further than any snake, all anyone could hear was the roar shaking them to their cores.
GGGRRRAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRR~
The entire chasm thundered like an earthquake. The waterfall stopped flowing, the stream dried up, bushes curled in on themselves like dying spiders and the titanous trees began shriveling up so fast some of them popped open, letting clouds of dust coat the room.
Gray discarded her fetal position and crawled; her trembling hooves pulling her across the arid earth. She was so close to the roar it deafened her ears. Meanwhile Blitz, who landed too far to ever return to the fight in time, stared at the ceiling. He was catatonic from exactly how much fear he was experiencing.
Finally, as the beast turned to the fool who had desired all of this, Fleur found its crimson eyes somehow settling on her from far away. Despite the distance, she felt its intent.
However, Blitz’s plan, his Hail Mary, hit a snag. In all her terror, Fleur’s magic turned off. Her bow fell lifeless to the ground. She was defenseless. And now the Guardian was running top speed.
Sarge desperately swung his hammer but the creature already gone before the hammerhead even came forward.
“ICE AGE!” Chill cried, running ahead of Fleur and laying into another barrage. One larger than he ever made as each shot, the speed of a bowling ball, barreled towards the monster. With its new speed it could have dodged every one of them but it simply did not care.
Over half of Chill’s thirty plus attacks struck the beast head on but it just kept running. It completely disregard its only health bar crumbling away or that the ice was working to hold it back. it was determined to take Fleur down with it.
“Siren’s Wail.” Siren took a deep, shaking breath as her ability activated and screeched as loud as her voice would allow. Fleur started quaking in place as the new roar dragged her out of her shock before she fell right back into another one.
From where they lay, Gray stopped crawling and ducked for cover as Blitz slowly let himself roll to his side and close his eyes. The acid stopped burning both of them but they were now below forty HP. The monster could do upwards of sixty with one hit. They were no longer of help.
The soundwave, combined with the ice, slowed the monster dramatically but still it marched. By now, Joey was spent and fell to the floor, unconscious from the drain his body had from expending so much magic. The slower bolts kept pelting the monster.
“Grand Strike!”
Muted by the screaming, Sarge pulled back his hammer and swung like he was in the World Series. The tail tried knocking the hit back like a designated hitter but Siren’s Wail made the tail whip around like it was in a wind storm and whiff entirely. Grand Strike slammed into the base of the zombie’s hip and its hit points sunk so low that there was hardly any color left in the HP bar.
It wasn’t dead.
Siren’s voice went raw again and when she tried to keep screaming anyways, the game declined. The soundwave died and Siren was left screaming until she went into a coughing fit and fell down beside Chill.
With the sound gone and the ice blasts finished, the boss had enough power to start shattering the ice away. It regained its speed as it started at the only one left standing.
Fleur hyperventilated as she reached for the sword on her hip. Only she didn’t have one. Blitz took it for the fight and it was now still stuck in the monster’s spine.
So instead, she pulled out a dagger. Everyone had at least one for the fight. So there was that.
She noticed Sarge storming down the field after it but he wasn’t getting here in time. It was only her.
With no choice, she closed her eyes and threw this lone dagger at the Undead Manticore, Former Guardian of Everfree Graves.
It hit.
However.
It still. Wasn’t. Dead.
The monster impacted the ground, all its weight crushing Chill and Siren underneath it, and Fleur was suddenly between an unhinged jaw and pair of massive fangs as it crunched.
E1ectric_B1itz: 36/128
F1eur_de_7is: 54/130
GrayMatt3rsxxx: 31/160
Light_Chill: 46/101
Sardinexx: 92/306
Siren_t@le: 12/147
Blitz watched everyone’s hit points fall at once and forced his eyes shut. Siren stopped screaming and he couldn’t hear anyone anymore. Even with his eyes closed, the numbers were still there.
Gray had more bravery than that. When she saw the hit points fall she forced herself up and walked out to discover what had happened. All she could see was the manticore glowing green and blue like a disco light, Sarge still not close enough to care, and the beast shaking Fleur like a feral dog. Gray took a step forward before standing with vacant hope.
When the manticore finished scaring the teenager, it spiked Fleur on the ground like a football and rose up a claw to pound her into the hard dirt. The girl watched for a moment, eyes fixed in fear as something along the manticore’s back shifted slightly.
The beast gave one last growl, readied its claws...and didn’t move.
Sarge kept screaming, forcing himself further down the trail until finally the manticore and the others were in sight. One of its paws was standing on Chill’s unmoving body and the other paw was poised to tear through Fleur. But the only thing that moved was the pegasus on its back.
Siren, heaving and coughing, kept twisting her shortsword deeper and deeper into the Guardian’s back like a cork remover. Despite her voice going raw, she was still conscious. Even after the manticore stomped on her. When it began shaking Fleur, it stepped off Siren, letting her escape and act.
Siren could have stabbed the creature in the leg rather than waste time flying to its back to the same effect. But she wasn't thinking straight. In her mind, stabbing the leg wouldn't have hit anything important.
So as Siren kept twisting, Fleur kept watching the mountain of rot for as long as it remained. She believed if she blinked, she wouldn’t open her eyes again. But as the green aura shied away from the fleshy statue, it left only the blue code's glow of every injury inflicted.
Eventually, Fleur's eyes forced themselves to blink.
Then, blinking a few more times, she reached into her quiver, drew an arrow, and carefully tapped the beast in the leg.
No response.
No response except for the massive body pixelating into blue before eventually evaporating altogether.
Siren gave out a sudden yelp as she fell through the beast’s incorporeal body and smacked the ground. It wasn’t enough to hurt but by how tired she was, she didn’t bother standing back up.
It wasn’t until one message appeared in front of everyone’s faces that all of them felt the tension leave their bodies.
Champion Defeated
Former Guardian of Everfree GravesTeam Rewards
12,000 XP
Manticore Tail Spear
Grave Guardian’s Totem
512 Bits
Sarge let his hammer drop to the ground. Fleur pulled herself back on four legs and Siren elected to stay face first on the ground.
Blitz slowly opened his eyes and stared at the victory screen in his face. And then the team health bars. Everyone was alive. Better than that, no one’s hit points were going down anymore. They were going up.
E1ectric_B1itz: 38/128
F1eur_de_7is: 56/130
GrayMatt3rsxxx: 33/160
Light_Chill: 48/101
Sardinexx: 94/306
Siren_t@le: 14/147
Among all of them, the rewards were split however the game had deemed fair. Most of them also watched as they received another message saying that their level increased.
Chill was still lying unconscious near Siren and Fleur. He was snoring too. The entire fight left him drained of any life and not even if the others wanted to wake him would he want his eyes open right now.
Gray slowly made her hooves walk over towards the group. No one had any idea where Blitz landed but they imagined he was enjoying their victory just as well.
When Gray finally reached them, Fleur looked among the others who were with her. Every single one of them. The nightmare that accosted her was killed. And since Siren wouldn’t correct her, Fleur believed that she had been the one to do it.
“Nous avons gagné. La victoire,” She spoke.
“Victor-ah?” Sarge mumbled. “Victory. Y-yeah.” He nodded. “But, um...Am I the only one that feels like he needs a nap?”
“no,” Chill muttered, still, definitely, unconscious. And, after a moment, he went back to snoring like he definitely had been doing this whole time.
“We. We could all use one.” Gray stopped walking and let herself fall into a heap next to Chill and Siren. “I don’t even care that we’re in a graveyard anymore.”
Siren’s head pulled itself off the ground for a moment, worried. “Wait. That’s a good point. Aren’t those zombies gonna...?”
“Nuh-uh,” Gray answered. “According to forums, this place becomes a safe house after the boss is dead. We safe,” she concluded coolly.
“For how long?” Sarge blinked.
“Who cares?” The still certainly sleeping Chill dismissed. “Let me sleep. Ple-he-he-hease..."
“Until midnight,” Gray answered anyway. “At midnight, the area resets. Including the safe house.”
“What?!” Chill’s head sprung up. “You mean it comes back?!”
“It’s only past 7 PM,” Sarge assured him. “We’ll rest for four hours then leave. Someone can carry you if you want.”
“Not it,” Siren tossed out, lying her head back down.
“...I’ll go get the other kid.” Sarge stood up. No one stopped him.
After a few minutes, Sarge dragged the weakly smiling Blitz as everyone took a much needed break. Both their minds and bodies were exhausted. Not to mention they still had to take all the treasure from the altar and get home.
But for now, they rested. Because nothing could stop them.
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Epic and bloody awesome!
10631567
For their future endeavors, yes. This won't be their last big fight.
10633605
Thank you so much! Also, that avatar pic is amazing.