The forest before the dark tunnel was destroyed. All of the trees were turned into cinders or ash. The ground was littered with craters and dead bodies and was blackened after a fire.
Loud explosions and bangs echoed through the burned plain, the large red-furred demons pushing forwards, swinging their large burning axes at the dozens of masked players. Colourful explosions kept exploding all over their bodies, tearing away chunks of their flesh with thick black blood stinking of sulphur splashing everywhere.
A tall red-furred demon fell to the ground, dozens of holes littering its body, thick black blood oozing out. Its red eyes dimmed down their red glow vanishing.
Players in black mantles and dragon-shaped masks raised their weapons as they loudly cheered.
“Haha, more XP, give me more!”
“Don’t you have anything more?”
Suddenly a dark shadow towered above them, an axe falling on them. Red flames surged around its black blades as they swished through the air, looking like a blur of red and black.
The axe swished through the players’ party, all jumping in all directions, trying to avoid the incoming death.
“Ohh, shi..”
The axe split their bodies covered in black robes, blood splashing out, and red flames almost instantly enveloped their bodies. The axe continued, and its head impacted the ground. Bright red flames exploded out, a shockwave sending the surviving players flying in all directions, their bodies flying as if they were weightless.
The surviving players stood up from the ground, their robes tattered, revealing their burned skin covered in blisters and red colouration.
“We need a healer here!”
The golden light illuminated the forest. Its warm radiance enveloped the burned players, their skin turning healthy and the holes in their robes patching by themselves.
“I have only mana for one more heal!” A player in a mask with silvery scales patterns was holding a staff high above his head with a shiny golden coin embedded on its tip radiating a golden light.
“Graaa!” suddenly, loud roars came from a distance, a large formation of lesser demons marching forwards, their twisted faces disfigured with giant smiles revealing their long black teeth.
“We can’t defeat them all. There are just too many of them.!” The player in a shiny brass mask stabbed a spear with a single rune on its tip into a red-furred leg of a demon. The black blood flowed out as he pulled out his spear from the leg, its consistency looking like a tart.
The girl in the identical bronze mask standing behind him swung her staff, and a sharp fan-shaped blade of magma shot out, flying towards the demon’s neck, “And we don’t have to, you idiot. Do you remember that we just need to defend this place? The wyrm will eventually come out and defeat the demons.
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon lay sprawled on the stone floor. Puddles of red glowing liquid spread all over the floor. The strong magic radiating out of the liquid was so strong that the air shivered, the heavy atmosphere filling the room.
Yellow glowing magma was pouring out of the dragon’s scales on his head, reheating and cooling down repeatedly, forming layers of black volcanic stone with traces of gold over his head. The runes spread all over his body were brightly glowing, looking like stars in the night sky.
Suddenly a loud explosion shook the whole cave, dust falling from its ceiling and the dragon’s XP bar suddenly jumped by and significant chunk.
‘These demons are really persistent. Luckily my minions should be able to hold them.’
The small elf lay on the bloodstained floor, her chest slowly rising and lowering as she breathed. Her small hand was still tightly gripping the bloodstained spike.
Suddenly the elf stirred as she sat up, looking straight at the dragon, her heterochromatic eyes faintly glowing.
Vesuvius internally shuddered, feeling the gaze on his scales. His whole body was already expecting the pain that would come with his minion waking up.
The minion booming with excitement, jumped up from the ground, “Your Highness, I have restored my mana. I can continue! Your ribs are next.”
The dragon suppressed his nudging to just squish the elf and turn her into a red paste to stop the pain. However, he knew that the pain was an acceptable price for the power boost he would gain. The expectation of his new improvements pushed back any doubts that he had.
‘Better some pain now than getting killed later.’ the dragon grunted his teeth, already knowing the pain that would come.
The small elf stepped forward, her soft steps echoing through the empty burning-hot cave as she held the spike in her hand, slowly walking towards the dragon, her bloodstained blonde ponytails bouncing up and down as she walked. Vesuvius just couldn’t stop comparing her to a maniacal murderer walking towards their victim with a knife in their hands.
POV Minions:
The explosion shook the mountains, a barrage of red orbs exploding all over the cliffs, red lights flashing everywhere. The sun already rose up above the horizon, flooding everything with bright light. However, it posed no obstacle to the demons as they weren’t just some monsters from fairytales.
Loud screeches and squeals ground the ears of the players as the horde of lesser demons formed a large circle around their defensive positions. Their red eyes were dimly glowing under the rising sun.
Corpses of large demons littered the ground, pools of black blood spreading from them, tainting the soil under them.
Dozen of masked players covered behind large rocks, red light orbs streaking all around them and exploding. The players were tired, with sweat running down their faces. Their clothes were dirty and tattered, as if they were fighting for days.
A player with a glowing nametag, Booba crouched behind a large boulder, peaking over its edge at the army of demons. “Dammit, how long?”
// Event Quest
Objective: Defend the entrance into the secret base from the angry demons until the elder wyrm Vesuvius counterattacks
Reward: 100 extra XP per killed demon; 5 gold coins per killed demon; 1 x Bronze Mystery Box
Failure: ???
//
“I am almost out of mana. This is not good.” a young female with pointy ears and with horns poking through her hair looked depressed seeing the unending horde of demons. Her usually shiny bronze mask was seared black with scratches littering its surface.
“Hahaha, finally some challenge.” the fat dwarf peered over the boulder but immediately ducked down as an orb of red light flew narrowly above his head.
“Wonder, why are these demons so angry… you know the mission objectives says they are angry.”
The ranks of demons kept slowly advancing under the cover of barrages of red orbs blasting towards the hiding players.
“I have enough of hiding here. This will accomplish nothing!” suddenly, between two barrages, Booba jumped from behind the rock, the glowing tattoos on the top side of his palm radiating out a pure white light.
The draconic beast, in heavy black amour with magma leaking out of the cracks in it, materialised out of thin air in a flash of light. The bright blue lightning crackled around its horns.
It was a power that bound a rider and a magical beast. It connected both rider and the beast together, linking their souls and allowing the beast to inhabit space in the rider’s soul.
For natives, it was hard to accomplish, requiring a strong emotional bond between them and their beast and also the ability to enter their inner world through meditation. However, for players, it was relatively easy to accomplish as the system supported it to solve lots of issues, like the beast getting killed while a player was offline.
“Draco!” Booba jumped from the ground, landing on the beast’s back.
“Wait, you are reckless!” Lili and the dwarf jumped from behind the stone, jumping on the beast’s back.
“So what? It is just a game!” Booba snickered as the draconic beast spread its wings and bent its knees as it launched into the air. The red orbs passed through their old location, red explosions making a crater in the ground.
The dwarf couldn’t help but look at the demons under them, “So, what is your plan?”
Booba made a stupid expression under his mask, “W-well, none?”
Sitting behind, Lili couldn’t hold and smacked Booba, “I knew it. We are going to die.”
Suddenly the sound of more wings flapping came from behind them. Two large dracodactyls, one crackling with lightning and the second covered in thick-looking black armour with cracks filled with magma, flew behind them, flapping their enormous wings.
Two masked figures sat on them. One wore an eye-catching red robe, while the second one had an equally eye-catching punk haircut poking through his hood.
“Hey, Booba, so what is your plan?!” A shout came from the punk guy, causing Booba to sweat as he realised that maybe he was really reckless.
“Dammit, that pyromaniacal psycho is going to kill us.” the fat dwarf nervously gripped his axe, shooting a glance at the maniac on the fiery beast.
‘That guy is no joke. He gained dracodactyl even though he was solo and competed against parties.’, FathHammer wasn’t stupid as not to fear a skilled player that was insane.