Rune Seeker

Hiral cut through the rain like a razor, his Impact-enhanced fist leading, but the undead archer must’ve sensed something coming for it, as it twisted to the side at the last second. WHAM. It didn’t quite make it out of the way entirely, the glancing blow blasting the falling rain back in a wide sphere that would’ve made Right proud and spinning the monster like a top.

Expecting the collision, Hiral used a few quick and directed bursts of Rejection to flip himself around so he landed feet-first, sliding backwards along the wet roof. His fingers trailed atop the stone as he went, finally coming to a stop at the same time the undead monster righted itself and spun to face him.

(Undead) Wight Blight-Ranger – Mid-D-Rank

The name appeared above the monster’s head, along with the blue health bar reminiscent of the skeletons, though almost twice as long. At least Hiral’s punch had already removed a good chunk of it. The wight’s arm hung loosely below the shoulder he’d hit, broken or at least severely limited, and the undead’s weapon was behind Hiral.

Pity the bow wasn’t its only option. It drew a thin saber from a sheath at its waist using its good hand, then dashed for Hiral.

Not wanting to let it take control of the pace of the fight again, Hiral burst ahead with the help of his Rune of Rejection under his feet, closing the distance even before the monster could complete its swing. Up came his left hand to meet the wight’s forearm, blocking the attack, while his right hand needled in, rabbit-punching the undead one, two, three times with his Rune of Impact. Each blow lifted the monster a little further off the ground until it seemed to hang in the air, at which point Hiral flipped his hand around to grab the wight’s wrist while he pulled and turned.

The smell of rot crawled up Hiral’s nose as he got his shoulder under the arm and twisted at the waist, hauling the monster up and over to slam back-first onto the stone roof in front of him. Metal crunched at the impact, and any living thing would’ve at least been stunned by the maneuver, but the undead hardly seemed to notice.

Instead, showing surprising agility, the thing slipped its rain-slicked arm free of Hiral’s grasp—almost slicing him open with its sword at the same time—then kicked up to its feet. Staying low, the thing spun and thrust, its long Lizardman arms giving it superior reach, though Hiral leaned to the side to avoid it. A twist of the monster’s wrist, and the blade cut across perfectly horizontally, forcing Hiral to drop to his back on the stone roof.

Though Hiral had smoothly evaded the blow, it didn’t look like he had; an image of him hovered above where he’d dropped. At first, his mind told him Left or Right had somehow jumped in front of the sweeping blade, but his eyes immediately spotted the problem with that. The copy was only Hiral from the waist up, smoky and almost insubstantial.

Hiral didn’t even feel the blast, but the surrounding rain—and the wight—couldn’t say the same thing. Like a bubble suddenly appearing, the eruption of solar energy rapidly expanded outward to flatten the wight against it before it popped, hurling the monster backwards with smoking skin.

That must be the Lost Echo ability I got from the last dungeon, Hiral thought as he rolled to his feet and drew his RHCs. The wight, now ten feet back with wisps of steam rising from burned skin, pushed itself back to its feet, weapon still in hand.

Hiral hit it with two solid shots in the chest now that his weapons were off cooldown, then darted ahead and to the right at the same time the wight dashed for its bow. They both raced for the weapon, Hiral blowing off pieces of armor with his first shot and carving a hole straight through the wight’s gut with the second one. Still, the monster charged for the bow like nothing had happened.

Did it have a special technique or ability it would use if it got its hands on the weapon again? Or would it start trying to pick off Hiral’s friends—even with only one good arm? Either way, he couldn’t let it reach the bow, and with his own weapons still on cooldown, he did the only thing he could.

He threw his RHC at the wight.

The sudden tactic seemed to surprise the undead, even though the throw wouldn’t have done any lasting damage to it, and it ducked under as the cannon soared over its head. That small gesture, though, slowed it down the half-step Hiral needed to toss a wave of Rejection at the bow.

Rain and water gushed away from the roof along with the bow a short second before the wight’s stretching fingertips reached it, and it turned its blue eyes in Hiral’s direction. Hiral’s other RHC spat a bolt of searing Impact to slam into the side of its elongated mouth, shattering bone and blowing the top of its jaw off.

That blast erased the last of the wight’s blue health bar, but like the skeletons before, it wasn’t enough to put the undead down for good. Instead, the monster turned to face Hiral, its bottom jaw hanging slack and broken, while the missing top of its face left a clear hole straight to the hanging flicker of blue flame. With the bow now blown completely off the roof, the wight lunged again at Hiral with its rapidly slashing sword.

Just like Nivian had pointed out, the speed of the attacks seemed much faster than before, as if lowering its health bar increased the monster’s attributes. But—he blasted out one of the wight’s knees—it wasn’t enough to overcome—he ducked under a slash—Hiral’s combination of high Atn and Dex. A twist, a punch to the ribs, and Hiral was past, firing under his extended arm. The wight staggered back, hobbled and broken, but still raising its sword. A pull of Attractionyanked its busted leg out from underneath it while Hiral blasted another bolt of Impact into its chest as it fell.

Any other living opponent would be long-since dead, but the creature still started to rise. A wave of Rejection slammed it back to the rooftop, and Hiral took aim and fired one last time. The back of the wight’s head exploded in a shower of bone and blue embers across the wet stone, and then, finally, the monster stopped moving.

Light rain ran across Hiral’s head and down the back of his raincoat as he took a breath after the strange fight. Even at Mid-D-Rank, the monster didn’t seem to be a match for him, but maybe its undying nature was part of the higher rank? Or maybe it just wasn’t as dangerous without its bow. The thought of the wight’s main weapon reminded Hiral about his own RHC, and he reached out with his Rune of Attraction. The connection he’d forged with all his weapons hauled the Runic Hand Cannon through the air to slap into his palm, and he quickly sheathed it again, then went over to inspect the fallen undead.

This was the first real monster outside of a dungeon that’d carried a weapon and worn armor. The Troblins would hardly count, as they barely used anything more than weighted sticks, but the bow and sword both looked well-made. Keeping an eye on the wight to make sure it wasn’t just faking being dead—again—Hiral gently nudged the sabre with his toe.

No reaction, so he ducked down and unwrapped the taut-skin fingers from around the hilt. The digits were stiff and unmoving, and they broke off in his hands before he even had a chance to realize how hard he was pulling.

“Yuck,” he said quietly, dropping the fingers to the roof and picking up the sword. A quick View brought up information on the weapon.

Blightsteel Sabre – D-Rank

Steel corrupted by long exposure to a blighted environment. Inflicts additional necrotic damage.

A blighted environment? That doesn’t sound healthy. All the more reason for us to pass through this zone quickly. Speaking of “us,” I should get back to…

A massive explosion of flame burst out from the windows on the front half of the building, instantly evaporating the falling rain and shooting red halfway across the wide street. Even from the roof across the way, Hiral felt the heat wash over him, and he put his arm in front of his face protectively. For there to be that much power, Seena must’ve used all four fireballs.

“You okay in there?” Hiral asked into the party chat.

“Horde came up the stairs ahead of us,” Seena responded. “We’re falling back.”

“The horde? How many?” Hiral immediately ran over to the edge of the roof and tried to see through the hanging layer of steam.

“All of them!” Seena said. “How are you doing over there?”

“Fought something called a wight,” Hiral said, spotting the first glint of white bone through the windows. Even after the ridiculous blast Seena had unleashed, some of the undead had survived. “We’ll talk about it later. I’ll cover you from here.”

A second of concentration on the Rune of Gravity sucked the Blightsteel Sabre into his Arsenal of Amin Thett, and then Hiral drew his RHCs. Thanks to Seena’s fireballs, his Killing Spree was almost maxed out already, and his Racial Growth was on the cusp of hitting level four. A quick look had new entries for wights and zombies—that must be what the bloated corpses were—and with One-Man Army also active, any headshot would be a guaranteed kill shot.

“Catch up with us a few buildings back; we’re going to set up a defensive line after we’re sure there isn’t another horde coming up behind us,” Seena instructed, and Hiral pulled his triggers.

“You got it,” he said, spotting a Gravity Well taking shape, and another fireball soared down the hallway.

For his part, he didn’t aim so much at individual heads, but more at head-level, each shot tearing through bone to crunch into the wall beyond no matter how many skeletons he hit. But, even with the sisters’ wide-reaching abilities and his shots, more and more skeletons kept coming. Zombies soon joined the horde, the bloated bodies filling the halls even as Hiral’s blasts tore them to pieces.

“There’s so many,” he said into the party chat, jogging along the roof to keep pace with the front ranks of the undead mass. Despite the insane number of casualties they were taking, the monsters trampled across the shattered corpses of their allies to try and reach the party.

There has to be a way to slow them down…

A Rejection-empowered leap got him across a space between two buildings, and his eyes settled on the pedway as the monsters poured across it. The party was already past it, but there had to be hundreds of undead by this point. The thick mass of bodies filled the wide halls all the way back to the café and beyond.

Worse, within the mingled horde of skeletons and zombies, he saw something else weaving its way through. The lithe form might be a wight, which would add an extra level of challenge on top of the horde itself, but something about it made Hiral’s skin crawl. Its flesh wasn’t as desiccated as the wight’s had been, though it was paler, and even the other undead seemed to move aside as it passed. Whatever that thing was, Hiral’s instincts screamed it was dangerous.

And it wasn’t alone.

“We’re going to need to find a different route,” Hiral said into the party chat. “Sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Seena asked, but Hiral didn’t answer the question, instead sheathing his RHC and lifting his right hand above his head.

The Ring of Amin Thett followed the motion, its full runic script practically glowing with power. Then, with the pedway full of undead—and at least two of those pale monsters—he jerked his arm down and unleased the full-power Annihilation of Amin Thett.

The two-foot-wide beam of energy struck the center of the solid stone walkway, but instead of carving through, it instead exploded in a wide sphere like somebody had dropped the noonday sun between the two buildings.

“Whoops,” he said quietly, the wave of energy pulsing out and blowing across him like a gale-force wind.

“What did you… do?” Seena asked through the chat, coughing.

“Death beam,” Yanily said. “I bet you anything it was the death beam.”

“Death beam,” Hiral confirmed. “Doesn’t matter, though. There was something new in the horde, but I bought you some time. The undead are going to have to find another way to…” He trailed off as the horde of undead that hadn’t been caught in the blast streamed out of the cleaved side of the building.

With the pedway completely gone, only empty air awaited the skeletons and zombies, but that didn’t seem to make them hesitate. With barely a sound, they tumbled through the air to fall the seventy feet to the hard, stone street below. Bones shattered and bloated bodies exploded on impact… but some—no, many—of the undead got back up. Broken limbs slowed them down, and more of their allies rained from above, crushing several, but the horde continued forward.

“Correction,” Hiral said. “I didn’t slow them down. Now they’re on the street. Get out of there.”