Azarinth Healer: Book Three - A LitRPG Adventure, page 62
She was brought back to the present by a sloshing sound from behind her. Another of the creatures soon came into view, Ilea’s ash reforming right after she identified it.
[Blood Carrier – lvl ??]
“Come for them?” she asked, taking in the creature through her Sphere. It was bigger than the others, its mass at least five to six times more. It stood over two meters tall, its arms hung in front of it like clubs, and its spine jutted out from its back like a weird shark fin. Instead of sharpened bones acting as arms, this one had thick tree trunk-like limbs, ending in big chunks of bone.
A massive amount of mana suddenly formed around it. Ilea could feel it in the air. She moved her ash a little, preparing to blink. The move was definitely smart as the creature’s speed increased, propelling it forward and forcing her to teleport. Appearing behind where the creature had been, Ilea watched it come to a stop and turn around.
I have a feeling that getting hit by that wouldn’t—
Her thought was interrupted as she blinked again. The thing was slow to start but definitely one of the quickest monsters she’d ever encountered once it got moving.
With all that mass too.
Quickly thinking how to damage the Blood Carrier, Ilea blinked behind it before it could turn toward her again, smashing the sharp ends of her ashen limbs into its massive back. The cuts were shallow but enough to keep her stuck to its back as she punched it with all her buffs and offensive spells.
Ilea focused on the spine that jutted out, doubting the tree trunk-like legs would snap quite as easily as those of the weaker variants. A surge of mana came from the beast, the creature moving backward before it smacked into her. Unable to blink, the impact pushed out all the air in her lungs.
Her bones held, groaning as the force shuddered through her body. The impact sent her flying toward the wall, but Ilea was still unable to blink. The problem was the monster moved as quickly as she flew, faster even. Ash spread behind her as she braced for the impact.
This time her bones gave, shattering and squashing her whole chest and stomach. The wall behind her was crushed, her form stuck within, armor bent inward. It had withstood part of the force, but the hit had been direct, the wall too close for her to do anything about it.
The beast moved away a single meter, mana surging again as Ilea blinked as far away as she could. Storing her broken armor, she sacrificed a thousand points of mana for her third-tier recovery.
She yelped as her bones moved back into the right position, her organs reforming from mush, the muscles around her lungs healing before air reached them again. Spitting on the ground, she added to the sea of blood that was forming in the small hallway, a fresh set of armor appearing on her.
I’d just worn that armor in. Now it’s personal.
Dispersing all the ash around them, she waited for the beast to move. The mana buildup was noticeable, even without a perception skill. Blinking was the only move she had that was quick enough to avoid it.
Ilea waited for the last possible moment, blinking just far enough to hit it once. She messed up the first two tries, too far away to reach it with her fists. On the third try, however, her fist landed with grueling force, further damaging the spine while her ashen limbs delivered their payload, further cutting into the Blood Carrier’s already mangled back.
Blinking right after to avoid another battering ram experience, she put some distance between them. The beast quickly caught on, starting to delay its charges as well as charging closer or farther away.
In the end, it didn’t catch her off guard, its charges too slow and noticeable for her to be fooled by any variation. A single mistake could cost her another thousand or more mana, or even her life if she was unlucky, but now that she knew what the beast could do, it had become just another thing to kill.
It took a long while to crack its spine, the number of her attacks that landed few and far between because of its changing behavior toward the second part of their fight. After that, the thing got slower, weaker, almost sluggish. It was a wonder the monster still stood and moved at all, but Ilea could say the same about herself after being squashed against the wall like a fly. With enough blows exchanged, she did eventually come out on top.
‘ding’ You have defeated [Blood Carrier – lvl 382] – For defeating an enemy one hundred and twenty levels or more above your own, bonus experience is granted.
‘ding’ Azarinth First Hunter has reached lvl 261 – Five stat points awarded
‘ding’ Inheritor of Eternal Ash has reached lvl 254 – Five stat points awarded
She sank to her knees, panting hard as she removed her helmet. Laughter echoed through the hallway, interrupted only when Ilea spat another mouthful of blood onto the ground. She immediately put her ten stat points into Wisdom, and her Meditation picked up.
FIFTY-SEVEN
The Inner Circle
Making her way back to the others, Ilea still didn’t know why the creatures had moved where they did. Perhaps they were trying to get away from the Carrier, or perhaps they were hunting something.
Maybe they were just patrolling. Who knows what the fuck is behind these creatures. Battle of the necromancers… Descent versus Tremor… Fight!
“Come buy tickets now,” Ilea said, smiling to herself as she backtracked through the hallways to the exit. Her new party members were still there, a little higher up but still waiting.
“It’s safe for now!” Ilea called up. “None of the fuckers around now.”
Austin was the first to land next to her. “They didn’t come this way?”
Seath landed beside him before they all moved a couple of steps away to allow Baron to jump down. Ilea looked at his massive form, wondering how he’d take a charge from the Carrier.
“Not exactly,” she said, but she didn’t elaborate. Nobody asked either, and Austin went back to looking at his map as they walked back past the first corpse he’d left behind.
Ilea had to give him props for telling her about the monsters and their weaknesses even while fleeing. She might not have had the confidence to go after them so quickly otherwise. Any delay could have brought the Carrier upon her during her battle with the Pure Blooded. A good thing it hadn’t.
“Where are we headed anyway?” Ilea asked as they walked through the dimly lit corridors, taking a right where Ilea had taken a left earlier. They wouldn’t find what she’d left behind. She didn’t care either way.
Austin looked up and pointed forward. “This… this is the inner circle.”
Ilea had no idea what that meant, but Baron was apparently taken aback.
“What? Austin, are you fucking crazy? We shouldn’t be here. Nobody is supposed to be here.”
The dwarf kept his voice down but took a step toward the human. Austin just put his hands up in a placating gesture.
“Look, you really thought this came without risks? I told you it’d be dangerous.”
“This is suicide! There’s not just Pure Blooded here, you know that. If any of them find us, we’re history, even with her here,” Baron said, pointing at Ilea.
She raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment. Are they talking about the Blood Carrier I literally just killed?
“What are you talking about? I’ve never been here.”
“The fourth layer, the Heroes’ Descent, is a city,” Seath explained while the others stared at each other. “Well, it was at some point. Now creatures like the one Austin killed earlier run around and make it a nightmare to navigate it safely. Compared to the higher layers, you’ll find a lot of potentially valuable things here.
“The problem is, there’s a lot of closed-off sections, with enchantments and traps still in place against anybody who might open them. But we know the layout of the city. There were plenty of maps, and the previous residents were somewhat open about their beliefs and what they were doing here.”
Ilea knew some of this already. “They were still alive?”
“No. Well, if you don’t count whatever these creatures are as alive. But plenty of statues, notice boards, and even books all written in Standard remained. The inner circle is the heart of the Red Church. Nobody has managed to get into it yet, even after all this time.”
“Supposedly,” Baron said. “There wouldn’t be any rumors about the danger without anybody having entered, now would there?”
Ilea nodded, though the information had much less of an impact on her than on Baron. If the Carrier was one of the most dangerous creatures here, then it wasn’t quite comparable to Tremor, where Kingsguards and Soul Rippers roamed. She wasn’t about to share any of that though.
“Well, we’re here now. Where’s the treasure? And what is it?” Ilea asked.
Austin continued down one of the corridors, ignoring her questions.
He doesn’t know, does he? The thought amused her. Rumors and legends, sought by the desperate and hopeful. She just wanted a good fight, and after the one she’d just had, she was in a wonderful mood. More to come, hopefully.
They passed a lot of hallways, Austin occasionally choosing one, but Ilea was soon lost in the maze. The place was pretty big. She’d have found her way out eventually if she’d come down by herself, but finding this group had at least saved her some time.
“That’s not supposed to be here,” Austin murmured when they stood before a closed gate. Ilea could tell there were enchantments in place, feeling the thrum of mana coming from the door. Metal set in stone, the color the same light gray as the rest of the complex.
“Can you crack it?” Baron asked.
“Probably, but I’ll need a while,” the ranger replied.
“Why are we walking so far away?” Baron asked. An hour had passed since they’d reached the closed gate.
Ilea saw Seath smirking as Austin took out a bolt and aimed at the distant door.
“Blast radius,” he said and loosed the projectile. Ilea snorted before an explosion rocked the surroundings, after which the distant screeches of monsters were slightly audible. “We’ll wait for an hour or two until they leave again.”
Ilea ignored that plan and started walking toward the metal door, now entirely mangled. Fires were blazing all around, some of the carpets beyond lit up entirely. She simply walked through the flames, her Heat Resistance and Veil making the exposure trivial. She ignored the sounds of confusion from behind her. None of them actually shouted, likely scared of the monsters that might hear them.
‘ding’ Heat Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 8
The hall beyond the door had dozens of benches lined up and an altar at the center of the far end. On it was a statue of a grotesque monster that looked a little like a dog praying. The head, however, was pretty much unrecognizable, a combination of features Ilea couldn’t quite place.
The room was high-ceilinged, at least ten meters, with no windows. Paintings on the walls depicted different scenes, mostly centered around fighting or killing. The benches were wooden and in a rather good state, likely neither touched nor seen in quite a long time. No magical lights illuminated the room, but burning wreckage from the gate had started setting some of the benches as well as some of the paintings aflame.
Hearing noises from behind her, she spread out ashen spheres around her and activated her buffs as she cracked her neck.
“Welcome,” Ilea stated as she observed the creatures rushing through the flames, briefly shrieking as the fire flickered over their bleeding bodies. She identified them as Pure Blooded, engaging the first one as soon as it entered the hall. Her ash enveloped them, the fire an additional factor to disorient them.
Taking care of them in much the same way as the last group, she found it even easier because the hall gave her much more room to navigate. Of all the monsters above level two fifty she’d encountered, these were certainly the easiest to kill.
There were seven of them, but her ash did the same job as before, and the beasts weren’t smart enough to get distance or even flee when gravely injured. Their bladed arms cut through the ash, but not a single one of them landed a blow on her.
‘ding’ You have defeated [Pure Blooded – lvl 261]
…
‘ding’ You have defeated [Pure Blooded – lvl 302] – For defeating an enemy forty or more levels above your own, bonus experience is granted.
Might want to stay here for a while. Easier levels, but I suppose the fights are more boring too. Decisions, decisions.
Ilea had fought within a sea of Taleen Guardians. While they’d been considerably slower and less powerful, so had she. Plus, they’d six blades each and ranged variants as well. Without a trick up their sleeves, the Pure Blooded wouldn’t pose a massive threat. At least, not without a Carrier or something else fighting alongside them.
There was no level up as most of them had been considerably below level three hundred. Ilea condensed her ash again, moving it into spheres behind her back along the eight limbs constantly hovering there.
She lashed out with one of the limbs, the sharp tip cutting repeatedly into one of the corpses before she finally managed to get through the shoulder joint, severing one of the bladed arms. Taking it, she looked at the bone, blood still dripping from it, before she noticed its glistening, sharp end.
[Pure Blooded Venom – Medium Danger]
Ilea didn’t know exactly what medium entailed, but it couldn’t be too bad. Stashing away a part of her armor, Ilea thrust the blade into her thigh. It penetrated easily, her strength combined with the apparent quality of the bone enough to get through her thick skin.
‘ding’ You have been poisoned by Pure Blooded Venom, -50 health per second for thirty seconds
Reasonable…
Ilea started healing, and the effect quickly wore off. She made her way around the room, the wound in her leg already healed and covered again by armor. She cut off and collected all fourteen of the creatures’ arms and stored them in her necklace for Poison Resistance training later.
Should go back and get the others, Ilea thought. Then again, the bones she had could likely be used several times, and this group would hardly be the last one she’d face. Flicking the statue of the dog-like creature with her index finger, she grinned and looked around.
There were some doors leading farther in, and she chose the one that didn’t lead downward. Austin had the map, but she didn’t really care about that. It had been somewhat vague, mentioning neither monsters nor enchantments, simply stating which corridors to take.
One of the rooms had stairs leading down in a spiral, further than Ilea’s Sphere reached. The other was just a small room. The metal door was locked, but a kick removed it from its hinges, causing it to smash into the opposite wall.
Weak fucking hinges – and locks, Ilea noted as she walked in, happy to find the door hadn’t damaged anything. Not that there was much other than an altar in the middle of the room, a metal slab with cuffs to hold a person or whatever the fuck these people put on it. The floor was clean but worn. Ilea had her theories about that, the most likely one involving a lot of scrubbing of blood.
“Crazy blood magic church?” she murmured to herself, checking out some of the saws, blades, and drill-like tools on the opposite wall.
Austin entered the room as she was playing with one of them. She met his eyes and turned the tool’s handle, making the drill bit twirl.
“This was used on the male genitals,” she said in her most serious voice.
The man gulped, shivering as he composed himself as well as he could and started checking out the room.
“I’m joking. No idea what the fuck this is,” Ilea added, throwing it vaguely in his direction. “There are stairs leading down.”
Ilea left Austin standing in what she assumed to be either a torture chamber or an experimentation room. In the main hall, Baron and Seath looked at her in a new light, gaping at the torn-apart Pure Blooded scattered around the room.
The fire had died down now, leaving behind scorched benches and ruined paintings. Ilea had had her ideas about them when she saw them running from the roaches, but even so, while they were past level two hundred, they didn’t quite seem to be made of the same stuff as members of the Hand.
She remembered them fighting in the outskirts of Ravenhall, each and every one of them battling for hours, hardened and unwavering. The group here wasn’t that. While they were at the same level, except for Seath, her impression was that they were scavengers, treasure hunters, and looters. Not fighters.
Austin returned from the torture room and motioned for them to follow. “It’s the other way.”
The others followed him in silence, their mood a little subdued after having seen the corpses. The mention of the inner circle must have had more of an impact than Ilea had initially thought. Or maybe it was the number of enemies. At least now they knew it would be hard to continue without her there.
The stairwell was long, winding down into the depths of the fourth layer. After a while, Ilea couldn’t sense any other passages. When they finally emerged from the stairway, it was onto a viewing platform overlooking a pit around forty meters down. In the middle of it, prowling, was a Pure Blooded. Bigger than any Ilea had seen so far. It didn’t seem to spot them, or maybe there was magic in place that prevented it.
“Displaying their creation,” Baron commented.
The hall was around twenty meters wide, and there was an exit at the other end, around a hundred meters back. All of it was built from the same light gray stone as the rest of the hallways. Corpses littered the place, both obviously Pure Blooded and skeletons that looked human.
“Here lies the path to salvation. The will necessary to break into the depths beyond,” Baron said, reading from a nearby plaque. Ilea rolled her eyes.
