Monroe

Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-Seven. Lord of Blight.

Bailli smiled as she heard Bob reassure the person closest to them. She'd determined early on that Bob was a good man if badly damaged. She'd already heard about his heroics against the tide, but it wasn't until he'd returned with a bunch of kids in tow that she'd truly come to appreciate just how good of an adventurer he was.

Being an adventurer wasn't just about killing monsters, it was about inspiring the people around you to work together to become better adventurers as well, embodying the often unspoken principles of the adventurer's guild.

She was still going to zap him later for calling her that, though.

She allowed herself to shift into her elemental form, feeling the weight, which was greater on this world, lift as she became the storm. A counter was rising each second as she lashed out with her Lightning Blast. It represented a percentage increase to both the damage of her Lightning Blast, as well as the mana cost.

Bailli knew the percentage would cap at sixty-four percent, but her mana pool and regeneration were high enough that she didn't need to worry about the cost unless she decided to chain cast area of effect spells. Which she might have to, judging by the way Erick and Jessica were casting their Anima Blast spells.

She flinched as a wave of cold blanketed the area. It wasn't a physical drop in temperature, but something else, something deeper. She wanted to say something more sinister, but that was the sort of thing that might hurt Harv's feelings.

The monsters that were hurling themselves at Mike and Jack, driven beyond madness to reach the people behind them, slowed ever so slightly as Harv's spell washed over them. It wasn't just cold, the spell seemed to drain the life from the sunlight itself, casting a blanket of despair over the entrance. She knew that he was using Spell Sculpting to avoid afflicting anyone but the monsters, but she could tell what the spell would have done had he not.

She could hear the roars of summoned monsters from outside the pyramid, proof that her team wasn't slacking off.

Lightning Blast after Lightning Blast poured out of her and into the monsters. Her counter was ticking up, and her damage was rising.

Bailli hadn't been terribly interested in the math behind the damage her spells dealt, at least not until she'd met Bob. After she reincarnated for a second time, she started paying more attention. Four years later, she knew exactly how much damage her spells dealt, and she knew that it wasn't enough to one-shot these enemies. It took three shots to drop one of them. Once her counter had ticked up, it would take two. At that point, she'd start casting chain, which cost over thirty mana each, and would halve the damage, doubling the Lightning Blasts needed from two to four, but would take out eight enemies after the fourth blast.

She just needed her friends to hold on.

Bob grimaced as another one of his Eternal Servants reappeared next to him. He dropped a portal at its feet, sending it back into combat.

Trebor was soaking up the damage while the pack of UtahRaptors drew monsters to him, then tore them apart one by one. 𝚏r𝗲ewe𝚋𝐧𝚘vel.𝚌𝚘m

It was the auras. He suspected there was a limit to the overlap, or Mike and Jack would have been shredded instantly. Still, they were taking harder hits, and with a seemingly endless stream of monsters piling into the entrance, the auras never let up.

Given the close quarters, he'd been forced to dig into what he mentally referred to as 'Thidwell's bag of evil tricks,' as there just wasn't room for Jake.

There was, however, room for a swarm of mosquitoes.

He'd theorized on the usefulness of the Swarm modifier.

Skill Modifier, Swarm.

Summon Creature spells summon a swarm of tiny creatures with Health equal to your spellcasting value. The Swarm has a movement in feet equal to your adjusted Caster Score divided by ten. The swarm stays in a large, cohesive, Semi-Discorporeal mass and attacks those it is directed to touch with a Vicious physical attack equal to your spellcasting value. As the Swarm is damaged, its health and damage potential decrease simultaneously.

Vicious damage was special, in that it bypassed all defenses. Normally, the vicious modifier divided your damage by ten, which meant that it was situationally useful against heavily armored or defensive monsters, but in this instance, it dealt full damage. Of course, the swarm had no way to defend itself and was easily dealt with by any sort of area of effect attack, but Bob didn't particularly care.

He brought out eight swarms by using barrage, and the entrance to the pyramid filled with the high-pitched whine of the most hated insect on Earth.

Bob watched as almost four thousand mosquitoes rushed forward and formed an almost palpable cloud around one of the monsters.

The quill beast was a tougher target for Wayna and Elli, but it had no defense against the tiny bloodsuckers, and it took only two seconds for the monster to shrivel up as its fluids were drained.

"That's not right," Amanda mumbled.

"Wasn't sure I'd ever find a use for the swarm skill, but there it is," Bob replied.

He directed the swarms to another monster, and then a third before dropping the spell. Another Eternal Servant had reappeared, and his swarm had taken enough swipes from the monsters that it needed to be replenished anyway. The spell was definitely putting in the work, not only killing monsters but distracting them as well, eating a hit or two that would have otherwise been directed to Mike and Jack.

"How are we doing Dave?" Bob asked.

"Regretting my life choices," Dave replied, "But I'll have the big boom ready, assuming you leave any of them for me."

Bob checked the quest.

New Quest!

Meluben has been overrun by monsters! The Urlinad have barricaded themselves in their temples, praying to their gods to save them. Unfortunately, their gods are not real, but the monsters are. It falls on you to save them.

Kill the monsters, 320/10,732

Locate the Temples, 10/10

Protect the Urlinad.

"Oh, I suspect there will be a few hundred left for you," Bob said, returning his summons.

Dave had agreed to the plan for two reasons. The first was that the math worked. The second was that he'd never cast his Acid Blast spell as a ritual before, and he kinda wanted to see what would happen.

What he hadn't taken into consideration was just how stressful it was to sit on the floor with a fistful of mana crystals while the rest of his friends fought off the mother of all monster hordes.

Then again, he'd probably have been closer to the unholy swarm that Bob kept summoning.

He shuddered. That shit, if used on anything other than monsters, just had to be a war crime of some sort.

He refocused his thoughts as the mana flowed through him.

The nice thing about this ritual was that it was all being handled by the System. He didn't have to form a pattern or direct mana at all, just activating the skills caused the mana to start flowing out of the crystals and through him.

He blinked, noticing that Bailli had grown even brighter. She appeared to be made out of heavily compressed storm clouds, with an honest-to-goodness crown of lightning wrapped around her brow, which went rather nicely with the pools of lightning that had replaced her eyes.

She had changed her tactics, her Lightning Blasts now chains, with the eye-searing blasts jumping from target to target. She was maxing out the modifier, hitting eight targets at once. Every second, another arc rushed out, leaving an afterimage.

It was beautiful, in a terrifying sort of way, and he could appreciate why Erick called her his Storm Princess.

He continued casting as his friends fought the monsters, until he finally felt the ritual complete.

"Nuke is ready, laying it down in three!" Dave shouted.

"Harv, are you ready to bring it back?" Bob yelled.

"Count it down!" Harv replied.

"Three," Dave began. "Two. One. Now!"

At the count of one, Jack, Mike, Elli, and Wayna had leaped back, allowing the monsters to surge forward.

As he shouted 'now!' he released his ritual, while Harv ended his, the stone block that had blocked the entrance to the temple reappearing.

He felt his ritual erupt as the stone blocked his view.

The six monsters that had made it past the area where the block had reappeared were quickly dealt with by the team.

As combat ended, the only sound was the labored breathing of his friends and the quiet murmuring of the people they'd been tasked to rescue.

Lara was shaking with fear.

There had been some who had quietly whispered that the gods had abandoned them when the blue squares had appeared. She had wondered if perhaps it was a test of their faith.

Sealed away in the temple, she had prayed for deliverance from the monsters that had taken her husband and threatened to take her little Laura, but she knew that the gods seldom answered, and rarely directly. Direct intervention was what she needed, and she'd struggled to remain calm as the monsters slowly scratched their way through the walls.

The figures that had unsealed the temple, rushing in before turning to fight the monsters, had exhibited terrifying powers. The one they had called the Storm Princess was at least something she could understand, but the one who had spoken Uldarian had brought forth monsters of his own, sending them through blueish-black pools of roiling energy, presumably to do battle with the monsters outside, while also summoning clouds of pestilent insects, which drained the monsters dry.

Lara was a devoted adherent of the Queen of Storms, but she knew the other gods. The one who spoke was surely a representative of the Blight Lord.

She trembled as the temple was sealed again, and the sounds of the battle suddenly ceased.

"Just over a minute and a half," the figure said, sounding pleased. "According to the quest, we knocked out an even one thousand of them, which means we're probably looking at thousand of them at each temple, and a couple hundred more around the city as patrols."

The figure turned, looking down at her. Lara angled her body to block its eyes from falling on her precious Laura.

"Hey," it said softly. "My name is Bob, what is yours?"

"L-Lara," she stuttered, dropping her eyes.

"It's nice to meet you, Lara," the figure said. "We've taken care of the monsters that were trying to get into this temple, but it's still not safe to leave. There are nine other temples under siege, and a few hundred monsters running around the city. It's very important that you don't leave the temple until we come back and give you the all-clear, alright?"

"I'm sorry, Avatar of Blight, I beg you to have mercy on me, I have no authority to allow or prevent entrance to the temple," Lara replied, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Avatar of Blight?" the figure sounded both puzzled and exasperated.

Another of the figures said something in their sing-song language, and they tittered together.

"Don't you even think about it," the figure warned his companions. "I should have stamped on that He Who Walks Before nonsense sooner, and I won't be making that mistake again."

It turned back to her. "Lara, I'm not this Avatar of Blight," it said gently. "My name is Bob, and these are my friends, Bailli, Dave, Amanda, Eddi, Harv, Jessica, Erick, Wayna, Elli, Jack, and Mike." It paused for a moment before conjuring a massive feline, the likes of which Lara had never seen. "This is Monroe," the figure offered, gesturing toward the huge cat, which had promptly flopped to the ground and begun cleaning its enormous paw. "You can pet him if you'd like. He loves attention."

Lara had no interest in getting any closer to the giant predator than she already was, which was only a few feet away, and far too near.

Unfortunately, Laura had calmed slightly as the sounds of battle had ended, and Lara was speaking with someone. She'd peaked her head under Lara's arm, and had spotted this 'Monroe.'

Laura loved cats. They had four of them to keep their home and garden clear of rodents, but Laura had often 'borrowed' their neighbors' cats when her own weren't available for brushing and petting. It was not uncommon to find her asleep on a bench with half a dozen unfamiliar cats curled up with her.

Lara didn't realize what was happening until her daughter launched herself at the gargantuan beast with a cry of 'Kitty!'

"Laura, no!" She half shouted as she reached out to stop her. She was positioned poorly and wasn't able to catch Laura, left unable to do anything but watch in horror as her daughter tried, and failed, to wrap her arms around the beast's neck.

The cat gave Laura an exploratory sniff before letting out a chuffing noise and twisted its head to place a fluffy ear, bigger than Laura's head, beneath her hand.

"It's fine," the figure assured her, "He's very gentle. I'm sure she'll have him purring in no time."

Its words were proven true a moment later as a low-pitched rumble filled the hallway as the cat began to purr.

"See?" The figure asked. "He's just a big old love sponge. So, who do I talk to about keeping the pyramid closed up until we get back?"

Lara looked around, but everyone else was curled up or prostate, she paused as she saw figures moving in the distance.

"The High Priestess, she can do what you demand," Lara replied, lowering her eyes. "She's coming now."

Bob watched what he was assuming was a little girl lavish affection on Monroe, who demonstrated his divine nature by accepting her supplication, uncaring of her species.

He knew he was making some very broad assumptions, but he just didn't care. They could work out the specifics of who and what these people were after the monsters were taken care of.

Two more people approached, weaving their way through the people that were huddled on the floor. One of them was clearly an authority figure. No one would wear an outfit that ridiculous and impractical unless it was culturally required for some sort of position of power.

"Hello," Bob greeted them with a wave. "My name is Bob, and this big ball of fluff that Laura is climbing on is Monroe. My friends," he gestured towards the group, "and I just cleared the monsters that were attacking this pyramid. There are still nine more pyramids under attack, though, as well as a couple of hundred monsters roaming Meluben, so we'll need you to keep the pyramid sealed up until we get back."

"Lara, is this true?" The person in the silly costume asked.

"It is," Lara agreed, her head still bowed.

"You have our gratitude," the person clearly in charge of the ministry for funny hats said, making an expansive gesture and bowing, which told Bob that the weird mantle slash hat thing was clearly tied on, as it didn't fall off and it should have.

"I am Gualla, High Priestess of the Queen of Storms. Were you sent by the gods?"

"We were technically sent by the System," Bob replied with a shrug. "Honestly, you needed help, and we're members of the Adventures guild. That's what we do. We fight the monsters to keep everyone safe."

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