Spiteful Healer

Chapter 186: Into the Fire

Aegis led his party through the glowing moss and mushrooms of Reltrak forest. Snowflake walked beside him, with Rakkan and Lina at his back, then Pyri and Darkshot with Darkwing on his shoulder further back still. The group were each sitting at level 138, up from 135 thanks to the massive experience given by the beholder raid boss.

“You really think all that stuff is true?” Darkshot asked as the group neared the pillar of stones marking the entrance to the red river.

“It explains everything that was going on.” Aegis shrugged back to him.

“Damn…” Darkshot sighed.

“No island has survived an abyssal invasion yet. If things go badly, we might be playing together somewhere else a month from now…” Rakkan said.

“The abyssal invasion isn’t the problem.” Aegis spoke loudly. “I saw first hand the strength of the creatures that invade. The abysslings, reapers, ferrawolves… none of them are particularly high level. And the Juggernauts? They’re big and strong, but slow.”

“If the invasion isn’t the problem, what is?” Darkshot asked.

“Most likely, it’s the players.” Pyri answered on Aegis behalf, and both Lina and Aegis nodded in agreement.

“The black lions attacked the defenders of Arallia, if they hadn’t, the juggernauts would’ve probably been defeated.” Lina said.

“Not only that, the abysslings and reapers were level 30. A properly defended city wall should’ve easily been able to hold that off.” Aegis added.

“So you’re saying, we need to prepare for PvP, and deal with the Vagosh and those bandit players?” Darkshot asked.

“Exactly.” Aegis nodded.

“That should make things interesting…” Pyri grinned. “I’ve been kind of itching to see what real PvP feels like in this game.”

“If everything Aegis said is true, then we’ll probably get our chance sooner than later. They won’t want us getting Mithral, that’ll be game over for them. I'm expecting them to show up and try to gank us.” Rakkan replied.

“We should be ready for anything, at all times. With the stream on, we are easy targets, especially if we’ll be grinding using big pulls like we usually do.” Lina said worriedly.

“That’s exactly what we’re going to do.” Aegis smiled as he stopped near the hole leading down towards the red river, not far from the pillar of stones in the forest. “We’ve got no time to waste. If they’re gonna come try and mess with us, we’ll just have to learn to deal with it.”

“Trial by fire, eh?” Darkshot nervously pulled his lips to the side as he stared back at Aegis.

“Literally.” Pyri added as she leaned over the hole leading downward, and felt the waft of hot air rising up out of it on her face.

“C’mon, let’s get started.” Aegis motioned them forward with a nod, causing Snowflake to squawk back excitedly and be the first to follow him down the ramp into the hole. The others came swiftly after, and once they reached the bottom of the ramp they navigated the heated tunnels until they saw the red glow of the river shining through the narrow opening the group had carved through the cave in at the end of the tunnel.

Just as they reached the threshold to enter the cave containing the river, Aegis stopped and began wrapping strips of high quality basilisk leather around Snowflake's talons and paws to protect them from the heated obsidian floor. Then, the group made their way through the rubble and found themselves standing on the obsidian shores of the slow flowing red magma river.

“Oh, the memories…” Darkshot spoke weakly as the group looked on over the river.

“First thing is first…” Aegis said as he glanced around and spotted some of the strange plants growing near the cavern walls. The first one he spotted, he eagerly rushed towards it. “I’ve been dying to know what the hell these things are…” he said as he inspected one of the strange red plants with tiny balls growing at the center of its large blossoming flower petals.

Using his herbalism skill he was able to scan the details of the plant and find the valuable parts usable in other crafts. He first tried touching the red petals of the flowers on the tall stemmed plants protruding out of cracks in the obsidian floor where it met the cavern walls.

The moment he touched the petals, however, a small burst of flames erupted from the point of contact on his fingertips.

You take 251 Fire damage.

He immediately pulled his hand away and shook off the flames that encased his gloves.

“Ow.” Aegis sighed in annoyance.

“Nice one.” Darkshot chuckled as the others watched him from behind. Aegis just shook his head and rolled his eyes at Darkshot before looking back at the glowing red petals of the flower. He was determined to gather some, so changed his approach. This time, he pulled out a pair of iron shears he’d crafted and carefully clipped one of the petals off at the base.

He then held his hand out to try and catch the falling petal, but when it touched his hand, it still let out a burst of flames and dealt fire damage to him, causing him to pull his hand away and let the petal fall to the ground due to the burning sensation. When the petal fluttered through the hot tunnel air and landed on the obsidian floor of the cavern, it did something Aegis was not expecting, however.

The petal exploded violently, releasing a blastwave of flames that shot out from the point it had landed on as the flames engulfed not only himself, but his party members. It rippled outwards to as far as the river itself, dealing roughly 1000 fire damage to everyone as they threw their arms up to shield themselves, Snowflake covering himself with his wings.

“Aw, c’mon, seriously?” Darkshot groaned.

“What the hell was that?” Rakkan shouted as the flames dispersed and they could all look more clearly forward at the source of the explosion. However, the petal that caused the explosion was already dissolving, and within a second it had disappeared.

“The flower petal exploded…” Aegis explained as he looked at it with disfigured eyebrows.

“Pfft.” Pyri tried to hold back laughing.

“These petals are awesome. I’ve gotta gather some.” Aegis said excitedly as he prepared his shears to cut away more petals.

“Just, don’t let the petals hit the ground, okay?” Pyri replied.

“I got it this time, don’t worry.” Aegis replied with determination. He cut another petal with his shears, caught it in his free hand, then immediately after touching it he added it to his inventory. He still took the fire damage from touching the petal and had to shake his hand to get rid of the flames, but it worked - he successfully added the petal to his inventory. “Easy peasy.”

“Yeah, right.” Darkshot huffed out some air. “What’s it do?”

“Uh…” Aegis fidgeted with his interface to inspect the petal in his inventory. “When added to an elixir properly, it causes the elixir to explode after consumed, dealing fire damage to the drinker.”

“The hell?” Darkshot raised his eyebrow.

“That’s just the basic usage. I’m sure it has other ways to be used that need to be discovered…” LIna said with an apprehensive smile.

“First you make poisons, now you make exploding elixirs. I’m never drinking anything you concoct.” Darkshot shook his head at Aegis.

“Whatever, I’m gathering more.” Aegis ignored him and went back to shearing the rest of the flower petals. Once he’d finished, he was left just with the tiny black balls growing on the center of the flower, and carefully inspected them until finally plucking one off.

It didn’t explode or burn him, much to his relief, and upon inspecting the item card learned that it was called a flame berry.

“It’s a fruit. A fruit was growing in the middle of that fire flower.” Aegis said as he held out the black berry to show to everyone. “Anyone want to try tasting it?”

“Nope.” Darkshot quickly replied.

“Nah, I’m good.” Rakkan shook his head.

“No thanks.” Pyri waved her hands dismissively. This left Aegis to land his eyes on Lina, and Lina saw the intrigue on Aegis face as he held the berry out towards her, hopeful.

“I guess… I’ll try it…” Lina smiled hesitantly as she reached out and took the berry from his hands.

“Rest in peace.” Darkshot whispered while clasping his hands together to imitate praying, lowering his head down and closing his eyes. Lina took a deep breath, closed her eyes and put the berry in her mouth, wincing as she took the first bite as if expecting it to explode in her mouth. It didn’t, however. Instead, it tasted very sweet and delicious, and her face erupted in a big smile as she chewed and swallowed it.

“Wow, it’s really yummy!” Lina said excitedly.

“Knew it.” Aegis replied confidently. “If it’s protected by exploding petals, it’s gotta be good.” He said as he began plucking the rest of the berries off of the flower. Once he’d gathered them all, he tossed a few to Snowflake who excitedly ate them and squawked with joy.

“Wait, hang on. Let me try one.” Darkshot held his hand out for a berry expectantly.

“Nope, you said you didn’t want one.” Aegis shook his head.

“Yeah, but, that’s because I thought they were going to explode.”

“Too late, no berries for you.” Aegis shook his head.

“Aw c’mon, seriously?”

“Seriously. These are for me, Lina, and Snowflake only.” Aegis replied as he put the rest in his inventory.

“Fine, I can just gather some myself.” Darkshot grumbled back as he began scanning the cavern walls until he spotted another one.

“Knock yourself out. Just watch out for the burning, exploding petals.” Aegis commented, which stopped Darkshot from approaching the flower.

“You suck.” Darkshot groaned.

“C’mon, time to hunt some enemies.” Aegis motioned the others towards the edge of the river. “Let’s try the elementals first, then the salamanders…” Aegis said, but as he did there was a suddenly loud thunderous boom that shook the cavern, coming from the eastern side of the river where the magma was flowing from.

The sound was followed by several more that got quieter and quieter with each one, giving the sense of something large stomping away from them.

“And what about the giants?” Darkshot asked as the stomping quieted down and the group saw ripples in the magma river that had been caused by the stomping creature, despite the creature itself not being visible.

“We only really need to kill one for the eternal flame. We’ll worry about that once we’re 150.” Aegis replied. Despite his words, the entire group looked down the eastern side of the Red River tunnel in the direction the ripples came from for a few moments in silence.

“Okay.” Aegis clapped his hands together to snap them out of it and look down at the river in front of him. Staring directly at it, the bright glow was hurting his eyes and the hazy hot air rising up off of it made it feel as though he was drunk with blurry vision. “Any ideas how we can aggro our first Elementals and Salamanders?” Aegis asked.

“The salamanders sleep in the caves.” Darkshot replied as he motioned to several small cave entrances that lined the walls of the cavern on both sides of the river.

“I can try some magic.” Pyri shrugged as she stepped forward.

“Go for it.” Aegis nodded, stepping to the side to make room for Pyri. She pulled out her staff with the voidreaver pincer glowing on the top of it and waved it around, creating a bolt of lighting at the tip of it that shot forth into the river.

The lightning hit the top of the river and dispersed, sending up tiny droplets of magma but otherwise doing nothing.

“Hm, nope, not that one. Okay.” Pyri cracked her neck and waved the staff around a few more times. She sent out ice, fire, water, and poison spells, and none of it worked, until finally she switched to wind magic. She released a slice of air that shot out from the end of her staff as a transparent blade of wind which cut into the river and traveled a few meters deep into it before stopping.

The depth it had traveled was enough for it to have hit something, and a red name appeared below the surface of the magma that began rising up to greet them. [Magma Elemental - Level 142].

“Perfect.” Aegis grinned as he readied his shield on his left arm and began casting bless on everyone without touching them, which surprised Lina and the others.

“You can cast that from a distance now?” Rakkan asked with wide eyes.

“Oh, not just bless. All of my spells.” Aegis replied excitedly as he’d finished blessing them all. As they spoke, Lina drew out her daggers while Rakkan summoned his echoes and armed them, and Darkshot pulled out his bow and nocked an arrow. Snowflake backed up and lowered his head as his talons began to glow with the holy bless energy.

The Magma elemental’s molten form slowly rose up out of the river, protruding out of the surface of the slow flowing magma as it opened its dark mouth and let out a gurgling deep roar that echoed off the cavern walls around them.

“Let’s have a rematch. Last time we fought this thing, it wiped us out.” Aegis declared as he stared up at it, the creature quickly towering above him and his companions by a few meters as it finished rising up out of the river and forming its long, dripping molten arms. “First problem, I can’t challenging roar without risking aggroing a bunch. Don’t want to do that until we know how to deal with it, so…” Aegis thought out loud.

“They can come out of the river. Once they do, they move a lot more slowly.” Darkshot quickly explained.

“Yeah, but they also have that attack.” Rakkan motioned up to the creature's mouth to point out that it was preparing to cast a magma bolt, aiming it down at Pyri.

“That thing hit me for 50,000 damage before. Even though I’ve got more armor and health, it’s better if we avoid those magma bolts. Can you dodge it?” Aegis asked Pyri and she nodded back.

“No problem.” Pyri replied as she backed up and braced her knees to prepare and move. The others cleared away from where Pyri was standing, and a moment later the magma bolt fired out from its mouth at her. She quickly dashed to the side to avoid it, causing the bolt of magma to crash into the obsidian floor of the Red River’s shore. The bolt exploded and released tiny droplets that shot out from the impact point, but two seconds later, the bolt disappeared and Pyri was unscathed.

“Nice.” Darkshot commented after he saw that no one had been hurt. Following the bolt, the elemental began moving forward to the edge of the river, and its droopy, legless molten torso slowly began to slide off of the surface of the river and onto the obsidian shore.

“Looks like the bolt has a recharge time. Once he uses it, he goes into chasing to try and hit us with melee attacks. So if we aggro a bunch of them, we just need to dodge their molten bolts once and then pull them out of the river.

“Like I said, super slow on land, right?” Darkshot motioned to the monster as it attempted to slide its molten body close to Pyri.

“Yeah. Now the next problem…” Aegis said as he moved to stand between Pyri and the monster. “Magma melts through iron, according to Erikson and the other tank players. So… Smite!” Aegis shouted, releasing a blast of holy energy from his hand that shot up at the elemental’s head. It dealt normal damage and worked in pulling threat off of Pyri. Due to Aegis being closer to the elemental than Pyri was, it was within it’s melee attack range and prompted it to pull back its drooping molten fist and swing it out down at Aegis.

“Guard!” Aegis cast in front of his real shield to block the attack as the fist crashed into his shield projection.

You take 23,520 Fire damage.

“That works, sort of. Not bracing it sucks, but better than melting my shield. Dodging will probably be the way to go until my fire resist gets higher.” Aegis shrugged.

“Your fire resist is already really high, though…” Lina commented worriedly.

“Yeah, magma is no joke. That means you all need to make sure not to get hit by anything.” Aegis instructed them and they all nodded back. Aegis quickly began healing himself as the elemental prepared to punch at him again. “Let’s see if staying close to him prevents him from trying to shoot any more magma bolts. Also, Rakkan, test out a melee attack on him and see what happens.” Aegis motioned Rakkan with a head nod, and he answered by marching one of his echoes forward.

Without hesitation, Rakkan ordered his echo wielding a battle axe to swing it down on the elemental. To no ones surprise, the elemental splashed out magma from its molten form outwards from the point of the battle axe’s impact, but none of the splashing droplets hit the echo, therefor it took no damage.

“Looks like you gotta be careful hitting this thing up close. You’ll be sitting out for elemental fights, Snowflake.” Aegis declared once they’d all witnessed the interaction. His words caused Snowflake to let out a disappointed squawk, however. “Okay, start dealing damage carefully, I’ll keep blocking the hits so I can keep his attention with healing threat.” Aegis ordered the group, and with that they all jumped into action.

Rakkan spread his echoes out around the back of the boss so that they, and his real body, could attack without splashing each other. Lina resorted to shooting shadow daggers at it safely from a distance, while Pyri used wind magic on its head, and Darkshot shot obsidian tipped arrows at its head.

The battle went on for a few minutes without any other mechanics from the enemy appearing, until finally it began to bubble and melt down into a small hardened chunk of red stone, and the group got a decent bit of experience for their efforts.

“Looks like after the first bolt, as long as it’s primary threat target stays within it’s attack range, it doesn’t attempt to fire more bolts.” Aegis shared his conclusions with the group as they caught their breath and wiped sweat off of their foreheads. “I forgot how bad the heat in this place is for stamina, though. Everyone, eat kebabs. Aura of Beauty.” Aegis said as he released his aura onto his companions, then walked forward the corpse of the elemental.

The glowing red rock that had dropped was exactly what he had hoped it was - an elemental core that he needed to craft the eternal flame. Without hesitation, he added the core to his inventory, then looked over his companions to see their mana and stamina all still relatively high.

“Okay. Are you guys ready to see how many we can handle at the same time?” Aegis grinned mischievously.

“How many are we talking about?” Darkshot replied skeptically.

“My wind magic AoE isn’t that great, I should warn you…” Pyri answered.

“Ah, it’ll be fine.” Aegis waved this off and turned back towards the river and opened his mouth, preparing to shout, but stopped himself. “Uh, just in case, you oughta wait by the tunnel exit with Darkwing.” Aegis turned to Snowflake and motioned him to the tunnel they’d entered the river from.

“Oh man, I don’t like the sound of that.” Darkshot commented with a worried tone before gesturing Darkwing to flutter onto Snowflake’s saddle, which he did. The two pet NPCs nervously made their way away from the group as Rakkan and Lina glanced at each other with glints of excitement and anticipation in their eyes.

Once Aegis saw that Snowflake and Darkwing were safe, he turned back towards the red river and cleared his throat.

“CHALLENGING ROAR!” Aegis shouted excitedly, and as a result, the river in front of them began to rumble and bubble violently. Within a few seconds, the group saw roughly 10 magma elementals rise up out of the magma and begin to form their molten bodies on the surface of the slow flowing river. “Let’s do this.” Aegis said as he lifted his shield up and bent his knees, preparing for the inevitable barrage of magma bolts.

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