Chapter 231 (Patreon)

Chapter 231

The first to move was one of the bloodstricken sorcerers, who shrieked an unholy cry before their blood lances snapped forward with blinding speed.  The monks countered with golden fires or barriers of their own, and the magics clashed across the gap between ledges in explosive fury.

Gluttony cackled and the great maw’s tendrils collided with the sunchosen in turn, smashing them backwards and dimming the barriers they created to a drastic extent before the maw diverted its attention to easier targets - those down below.

“I am hungry!”

Deep purple and black sin energy that was once directed towards the three leaders now turned on the more numerous and distracted warriors fighting the skinwalkers on the bottom floor, tendrils impaling them from behind one by one or wrapping around the legs and arms of the screaming paladins to drag them back into the abyss.  Snapping down on well over ten of their elites to immediately end their screams within seconds, the visage let out a content groan and fizzled out - its taxing presence on Riven’s soul dying away with it.

Riven winced as the pain in his back seared, his still broken soul had pushed too much through a particular mana channel, but ignored it just like he’d done with most of the fight.  Launching himself across the gap where red and golden lights collided, black lightning encompassed his spear-staff and slammed into the blazing shield of the enemy faction leader.

Sparks flew and the man parried his strike with a countering kick to Riven’s leg, causing Riven to buckle, then capitalized with a headbutt to Riven’s face and a shield bash martial art that knocked Riven over entirely.

What Captain Vros Kinal didn’t see were the threads of black, needle-like nets that’d sprung out of Riven’s hand and wrapped around that same leg he’d kicked the vampire with.

Riven cackled and yanked violently, coming out of his roll and flipping his enemy onto his back before bringing Jackal up in an arcing swing to smash down onto Kinal’s flaming sword.

Blood and shadow bloomed against sunfire, and the weapons continued to spark while Riven pressed down his weight before vanishing backwards through a shadow rift to dodge an incoming swing from another of the sunchosen.  He reappeared twelve yards away and whipped around, only to see his caped pursuer get smashed into the ground by two bloodknights.  The undead legionnaires of the blood god were nothing to scoff at, and five minutes - though technically short - now seemed like an eternity as he watched them carve through the opposition even as reinforcements from what remained of Rippenvire attempted to help.

He winced yet again as pain radiated up his back.

God damn it, why did he have to enter a fight now of all times - while he was still recovering!?

The monks used flaming barriers to block and defend against the blood assassins, who’d already killed two of their number with a quick rush from behind and teleport abilities - while the four blood knights went to work battling the three sunchosen with blurring attacks of sparks and metal while Riven took a breather.  Meanwhile the blood sorcerers had turned their attention at his command to the battle below after killing the small squad of reinforcing vampires, focusing down any of the empire’s soldiers who attempted to jump back up - and otherwise just bombarding the enemy combatants to give the skinwalkers, Azmoth, and Athela some support fire.

The same could be said for Fay, who was still encased in the crimson dome to avoid getting killed while simultaneously casting hallucinations and curse traps that she’d activate whenever an enemy walked over one.

Even now, the multi-ton rat dungeon boss in spiked armor was missing an arm and two of its eyes - with Athela and Azmoth tearing into the creature time after time, only its massive sturdiness keeping the creature alive with the absolute onslaught of the two demons.  It would no doubt have already been over if this had been a more open battlefield too, but Athela was being very careful not to unleash too much power in case she accidentally killed those huddled inside the dome.  It made her slower to work, but she wasn’t wanting to hurt Len, Hakim, or any of the others in there either.

Huffing and pulling himself up to a fighting stance, Riven took in a deep breath to focus in on the primary target.  He only needed-

*SHUNK*

Pain.

He felt pain.

A silver alloy dagger empowered with some kind of martial art sank into Riven’s neck, piercing through the bloodsilk before lighting up with golden flames.  Riven didn’t bother screaming because his voicebox was blown out and flames tore through his mouth - but he instantly activated ‘Launch’ from messenger’s back; causing sin energy to blast the area behind him.

A resultant scream was heard, and Riven dropped to one knee when he crashed into the opposite platform across the chasm - looking left and yanking the dagger out of his throat while struggling to breath through the charred flesh.  A rogue’s corpse lay where he’d been a second ago, unmoving with half its flesh melted off.  No doubt the man had waited this entire time in order to get a clean shot, and a clean shot he’d made.

Riven fucking hated rogues, and god damn did that hurt, but it’d take more than a single attack like that to kill someone like him.

Yanking out a red vial health potion from his spatial sack and downing it, he clamped his eyes shut and shook his head to clear his mind.  The liquid soothed his insides that were battling what was the definition of an anti-vampire attack, using both a Sun martial art and a silver blade that reduced his natural regeneration, and he downed a second one just for good measure before shifting his weight and cracking his neck.  His gasping stopped and became a more normal breathing as the flesh revived itself, and he took in a deep breath of fresh air to expand his lungs to the fullest.

The blood god’s legionnaires had killed four of the monks now, but one of the blood assassins and one of the blood knights were also dead.  Thus it was three blood knights and a blood assassin versus three sunchosen and two monks.  Their actions were all elegant, well trained, and fluidly savage while they all cleaved into one another with blades, miracles, martial arts and magics.  A wave of blood energy tore out of the claymore of one blood knight with a downwards swing that glanced off a golden dome of fire before one of the sunchosen grew wings and rushed the blood knight, taking the two of them off the ledge and down below where they crashed and continued to battle furiously.  The others remaining up top smashed, crashed and roared in blindingly fast strikes, propulsive movement abilities, and bright lights amidst clashing spells.

It looked like the legionnaires were more than enough to give him time, time to free up Athela and Azmoth.

Mentally ordering his blood sorcerers to focus their attention on the huge dual-axe wielding rat creature that could have easily stomped him flat underneath one foot, he began to charge up his own barrage.  Blood lance after blood lance after blood lance was created, shifting and detaching from their arms to hover like two-meter spears all around them.  The air sang with the building mana as Riven reached out with his mind, connecting lances one by one with thick cords of unholy wretched snares, before he electrified them all with a thought.

The resulting display was an enormous electrified net with large red spikes at every interval between cords, spanning an area forty yards in diameter including the lances that his blood sorcerers had created.

“Focus the sunchosen now, I’ll take over these spells from here.”

The blood sorcerers wordlessly acknowledged his command and relinquished their own spells to his control, then began casting crescent waves of blood that started barraging the other platform across the gap where Captain Vros Kinal and his men were still fighting the blood knights.

In turn, Riven concentrated on his telepathic connection to Athela.  It wasn’t often used, and she was the only one of his minions that he had such a connection with, but it did come in handy now.  “Both of you, move.”

He activated snipe with his largest and most powerful blood lance, the epicenter of the entire sparking, writhing net, and time slowed while his vision zoomed in on the dungeon boss’s shrieking open mouth.

It snapped forward just as Athela dove backwards with a call for Azmoth to do the same, and the two demons managed to get out of the way right before Riven’s attack struck.

The bottom floor exploded with power as the primary lancetore into the back of the monster’s throat, and the net coming behind it swung around the creature’s body to entangle the dungeon boss - snapping down onto the gigantic beast with spike after spike using centripetal force to snap down and through the rat’s armor.

The creature croaked a wail, dropping both of its enormous axes to the ground and clawing at the electrifying net with the dozens of blood-lance spikes impaling it all over.  And when Riven’s hand curled into a fist, the infused mana of the net exploded inwards.

Shrapnel from the rat’s armor mixed with highly piercing blood lances, shredding the already wounded monster from dozens of wounds - only for the remaining snares to contract and squeeze - ripping into and through scaled flesh easily now that the punctured armor wasn’t holding.

The enormous rat let out a gasp, stumbled left, and crashed into the ground with a shrill squeak - only for Athela to rip its throat out with two of her enormous blade-like front limbs in her drider form.  Blood stained the stone ground of the dungeon, and Athela let out a scream of victory as her aura boomed out with electrified snow.

Satisfied that the dungeon boss was now not a factor, Riven nodded their way - sending another telepathic communication to Athela.  “Help the skinwalkers finish up those below and get up here!”

He didn’t pause to see if she’d heard him, he knew she had.  And-

*CHINGGGGGGGggggg….*

Metal rang against metal, and another splash of sparks lit up Riven’s armored face when one of the sunchosen - who’d lost an arm to one of his blood knights - tried to impale him.  The flaming metal sent ripples up the flowing blood of Riven’s spear-staff, and Riven pressed back to keep the weapon at bay before leaning to be within inches of the other man’s armored face and glaring eyes.  “I find you wanting.”

Riven’s headbut caught the other man off guard and staggered him, only for Jackal’s Lunge to activate.  The blood-red maw of a canine roared to life in front of his outstretched blade, and in an instant Riven’s body blurred through the sunchosen’s own - armor and all - in a spray of red mist when Jackal’s visage snapped down.

His momentum stopped at the ledge overlooking the bottom floor again, and he stared over at the remaining man.  All the monks were dead now, as were the other two sunchosen and even Riven’s entire blood legionnaire retinue excluding the two sorcerers at his side.  Captain Vros Kinal glared at Riven, golden flames still crackling along his longsword, before he blasted forward with intent.

*BOOM*

*CRACK*

*SMASH*

The blows landed one after the other, pushing Riven back while the blood sorcerers launched waves of red energy at the invader - only for one of them to die a moment later with some kind of thrown bomb that tore the skeleton apart entirely and nearly caused the entire platform to collapse.

The other sorcerer erected a red barrier just in time to block Kinal’s follow up strike, and Riven used that opportunity to feign an attack with his weapon - only to follow with a low kick to the knee.

But Riven’s kick never connected, and Kinal’s body spun in a horizontal arc while jumping over the kick to throw his longsword directly into the sorcerer’s skull.  The blade hit home, piercing the rune along the skeletal mage’s head with an impressive explosion of sunlight that eradicated the undead where it stood.

Despite this, Captain Vros Kinal was obviously injured.  Blood leaked from numerous places along his armor, and a huge gash was carved down the right side of his chest where a red claymore had dug into one lung.  He drew a long dagger at his hip, cape flowing out behind him while he gasped for air, and he stared at Riven not far off with unconcealed contempt.

“Your kind belongs nowhere except a shallow grave.” Captain Vros Kinal stated simply, watching Riven get into the final stance of the fight with grim determination.  He straightened, and pointed his flaming sword in Riven’s direction.  “I have learned much from this fight, but it saddens me that we could not have finished this today.  This is not the end, Riven Thane - it is only the beginning.  The next time we meet, I will be stronger than you.”

His shield flared bright white again, blinding Riven’s eyes as the captain pulled out a small box from a storage compartment.  The lid opened, the man reached inside, and he turned his wrist.  The room immediately flared up around them with an even more intense light just as Athela’ lean humanoid body ripped through the air and sank one clawed hand into the man’s side.

[Captain Vros Kinal, Faction Leader of the Empire of Dying Suns, has used a single-use escape treasure.  Invading factions may only have one escape treasure on hand per invasion, and he will not be able to use another one even should he acquire a second, per Elysium’s rules of engagement.]

The ringing in Riven’s ears and the flash of light in his eyes faded away, leaving only the sound of a single desperate combattant left from the Empire of Dying Suns - a heavy knight that was immediately swarmed by the remaining skinwalkers.  His screams echoed throughout the dungeon with-

*SHUNK*

Pain.

The same pain he’d felt from that other gods damned rogue.

“MOTHERFUCKER!”

*CRACK*

*SNAP*

“AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!”  The rogue’s screams were shrill, pain-ridden, and terrified.

*CRUNCH*

Riven reacted far faster this time, even if the stealthed rogue had managed to shank him for the second time that battle through underhanded means, and this time it’d been a kidney shot between ivory plates rather than in the neck.

He didn’t even give the rogue time to activate the second follow up martial art concerning the flames, and quickly crushed the man’s head between his hands after breaking the rogue’s wrists with a downwards chop of his hand.

He let the dead man drop to the ground in front of him, wincing at the side wound and growling out loud.  “I, fucking, HATE, rogues!  HATE THEM!”

Stomping on the man’s already crushed head for good measure, he grinded his plated boot into the stone floor and spat.  “Athela!  I’ve decided what kind of demon I need for my last slot.  Remind me to get a demon that has detection qualities, I’ll be damned if I’m killed by one of these pussy-ass twinkle toes that run around in the dark shanking people all day long!”

“Hey!”  Athela protested, frowning and folding her arms.  “I’m an assassin too!  You’re not being very nice.”

CONGRATULATIONS

CONGRATULATIONS

CONGRATULATIONS

YOU HAVE WON THIS WORLD QUEST BOSS FIGHT:

TEAM 1: CAPTAIN VROS KINAL OF THE EMPIRE OF DYING SUNS  HAS FLED.  RIPPENVIRE DEATH SQUAD, EMPIRE OF DYING SUNS DEATH SQUAD, AND DUNGEON PETRUS BOSS - SKRAGNUT THE DOOMAXE HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED!

TEAM 2: RIVEN THANE (PANU WORLD BOSS), ARCHDEMON ATHELA (PANU WORLD BOSS, 3 FORMS), SKINWALKER TRIBE, AND OTHER PANU DUNGEON DIVERS HAVE COME OUT VICTORIOUS!

[This fight is now ending its broadcast.]

ELYSIUM HAS UNSEALED YOUR POINT OF EXIT.

[1 Mythic-Grade artifact will now be provided to you.]

[You have gained 3 levels.  Congratulations!  Be sure to visit your status page to apply points.]

[Your minions have received their XP and level ups as well. Congratulations!]

[YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE DUNGEON’S PRIMARY BOSS: SKRAGNUT THE DOOMAXE.  DUNGEON PETRUS HAS LOST, AND AS MASTER OF AZMOTH - WHO WAS THE PRIMARY CONTRIBUTING PARTICIPANT IN KILLING THIS DUNGEON BOSS, YOU ARE THE ONE WHO DECIDES WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.]

[Now that Dungeon Petrus has been defeated, you may choose to either take the dungeon’s bribe - or may choose to destroy its core.  Taking the dungeon’s bribe allows it to offer you treasures otherwise hidden inside the dungeon’s realm.  Taking the bribe allows the dungeon to either relocate entirely, or allows it to enter a hibernation mode where the Elysium Administrator guarantees its protection and gives it time to rebuild.  Choosing to destroy the core will kill the dungeon permanently, preventing monster spawns out of it, but you must find the core first to do so.]

Riven closed his eyes, bringing up another health potion to his lips and gingerly sucking the red liquid down as he felt his wounds slowly start to regenerate again.  It was weird, not healing immediately like so many of his other injuries in the past had.  Those silver weapons and sun affinities were no joke, almost completely negating his passive healing and making him feel rather sick to boot.

His attention was turned to the dungeon floor on the lower level next, where a large platinum chest with glowing blue runes had appeared on top of the dead dungeon boss.  If he had to guess, that was the mythic item Elysium was talking about.  Half of the skinwalkers had also died, leaving only 11 of them still standing, which was certainly unfortunate… he even felt a little bit bad, and would be sure to reward them for their efforts.

Not a moment after the chest had appeared, another smaller figure flashed into existence right beside Riven’s standing position - taking the form of a hooded ratkin man only two feet tall.  It was tan, seemingly made out of clay, but Riven had already seen a dungeon avatar like this before.  His identification only made him more certain of it.

[Avatar of Dungeon Petrus]

Riven’s red eyes narrowed, and the dungeon avatar merely looked up expectantly and rather sheepishly his way.  “I hope you know that, unless you want me to seek out your core and shatter it for the shit you just pulled, you’re going to have to pay up realllllly nice.  And I mean, REALLY - nice.  Got it, rat boy?”

All Dungeon Petrus could do was nod and sigh.