Rune Seeker

With the Dracolich still circling overhead in case he needed a quick exit, Hiral pulled the trigger once more, then tossed the blunderbuss to float beside him. Out snapped his hands, and he connected to two of his swords. Around him, chaos utterly ruled, with enormous rats and their victims running in all directions. More and more monsters spilled through the portals with every passing second. Workers who’d been nearby to help greet and guide the newcomers now fought back against the horde with nothing but the tools they’d carried with them.

The lucky ones had hammers heavy enough to bash a rat’s skull in, but most had little more than their natural brawn to work with. Those that hadn’t already fallen to the swarm wouldn’t last long.

Which is why we’re here.

Putting the bodies already on the ground out of his mind—despite how the rats continued to gnaw and chew their way through those bodies—Hiral launched himself forward. Rejection powered his step, sending out a shockwave to knock back a nearby pair of rats, and he snapped his right hand out. A twist of his wrist sent Stormstrike spinning like a buzzsaw to cut into the monster directly ahead of him.

The sword’s jagged blade crunched into the rat’s back, severing the spine before releasing small bolts of lightning to seize its muscles. Of course, it wasn’t like that single non-elite could slow the weapon. Blood spiraled out as the sword carved a path thirty feet long through the monsters.

At the same time, under the guidance of the Chord, Hiral streamed solar energy into Death Knell, activating its Sever Life ability. Blue energy coated the edge of the sword, and his next swing cut the unfortunate rats right in front of him cleanly in two.

A few down… out of thousands.

Not letting the numbers get to him, he threw himself into the midst of the battle, aiming to fight his way straight to the portal and cut off the stream of enemies. At his sides, Left and Right waded through the monstrous ranks. Right’s punches pulped anything they hit, while Left had brought out The Pack along with his familiar Dagger of Sath.

A mighty howl echoed from one of the large wolves, and a new notification popped up in front of Hiral’s eyes.

Increases damage inflicted by 10% for 180 seconds.

Similar to Wule’s Nature’s Blade, though with a shorter duration, the buff was straightforward but effective. Best of all, it stacked with Hiral’s other buffs and bonuses. Killing Spree+ was already at its maximum 25 stacks, giving him a whopping +75% to all his stats. Racial Growth had jumped right into level 3, giving him a 10% damage bonus against the Bristle Rats, and the others were far enough away he was benefitting from One-Man Army+ for another 25%.

All that together, with lucky hits from A Violent End and Cleaving Strikes, meant rats were dying in droves in front of them. Every one of their deaths fueled his healing—when he occasionally took a hit—and solar energy regeneration thanks to his various abilities. Dodges either stacked Vengeance up or left a Lost Echo behind to explode in the rats’ faces.

Drawing the weapons back in to his side, Hiral whipped Death Knell around himself in a circle, clearing a swath, while he cocked Stormstrike horizontally to the side. A push of solar energy activated the sword’s Lightning Strike ability, and a bolt of electricity shot to his right, charring rat bodies in a wide path. Not giving the monsters a chance to fill in the gap while other rats swarmed him from the left, he quickly activated the sword’s Stormstep ability.

His whole body turning into lightning and zzzaaaappping through the cleared path, he reformed forty feet away, thrusting his left hand up and down in quick succession. Death Knell followed the motion to pierce the ground right in front of him, a blue column of light rising to the sky immediately. Cutting Field drew thin lines of blood all around, and Hiral let his grip on the weapons go, instead embracing his runes and thrusting his hand straight ahead.

The Runes of Impact and Expansion combined to flatten the rats in front of him with a palm-print as big as Hiral, and he snapped around at his hip. Trailing his heel in a visible crescent wave, the Rune of Expansion this time combined with Separation to reap the lives of dozens of rats in the blink of an eye.

Where did I learn how to…? The training sessions with Seena and the others over the last few months…

The stray, questioning thought almost pulled him out of the Chord of the Primal Echo, but the resounding percussion wouldn’t let him go that easily. Two more lightning-fast, snapping kicks hurled monsters into the air, and a trio of straight punches blew even more back. Ever Changing+ already stacked up, Hiral whipped around for one more sweeping kick, then hauled on the Emperor’s Greatsword from his back.

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Up and over went the blade as he pumped solar energy into it to activate its runes, then slammed the blade straight down in front of him. Sure, the rat he hit directly practically evaporated under the blow, but it wasn’t the only one.

In a cone stretching fifty feet from the point of impact, Gravity and Expansion crashed down like a hammer with the weight of a small moon. A Violent End sent out cascading explosions to both sides, and Hiral strode ahead, weapon swinging with every step.

Really, other than the vast number of enemies, the swarm wasn’t a major threat. Sure, more and more of them poured through the portals, but given enough time…

“Hiral, your friend Catchin is here,” Yanily said over the chat. “She’s hurt, but says Dr. Benza needs us.”

Damn. Where…? Hiral spotted lightning tearing through rats a few hundred feet to the right of him, closer to one edge of the oceanic swarm.

“Where is he?” Seena replied. “And why would he need our help more than the people here?”

A second of silence, like Yanily was asking Catchin the question, and then, “At the Fallen tower near the edge of the island. Went there to look into some odd readings.”

“Sounds like he’s safer there,” Hiral said, another sweep of his sword easily clearing out the rats in front of him. Almost too easily. The rats were C-Rank, like the party, but the advanced classes were truly showing their strength.

“One second,” Yanily said, like he was still talking to Catchin.

While the spearman got more details, Hiral swapped to his RHCs, tossing out a pair of Piercing Shot-enhanced bolts, then leapt straight up into the air. A hundred feet up in the blink of an eye, he reduced his own gravity while pelting blasts down on the rats. The rain of carnage wasn’t his purpose for being up there, though, and his eyes scanned the battlefield.

More of the combat-focused patrol parties had finally arrived and, seeing his group’s success, charged headlong into the rat horde. Except… those parties were only High-D-Rank, and their offensive was almost immediately blunted.

“From what Catchin is saying, there’s a rat abomination,” Yanily said. “It took a pile of rats and went in Dr. Benza’s direction.”

“That’s terrible and everything, but again, why is that more important than getting these portals closed?” Seeyela asked.

“Abomination sounds like a Mid-Boss,” Hiral pointed out.

“Doesn’t answer my question,” Seeyela said.

“Oh,” Yanily said. “Dr. Benza apparently has the Spear of Clouds with him. And… What’s that? What? Really?”

“Yan, what is it?” Seena prompted in time with building-sized explosions of flame and rat parts.

“She says we need the spear to protect the islands from the rain,” Yanily explained. “It’s the key to the whole project.”

“Why would we need…?” Seena started, but the pieces clicked in Hiral’s head.

“It makes sense!” he interrupted. “The spear—according to the legend around it—was the weapon that separated the sky from the clouds! We always believed it was a bit… dramatic. Or maybe exaggerated. But, no, it wasn’t. It’s the reason there’s a hundred miles of clear sky around the islands.

“And it’s what Fitch stole. Fitch stole the Spear of Clouds from the Grandfather.”

“Damn,” Seeyela cursed into the party chat. “So, what do we do? Abandon these people?”

“Boss?” Yanily asked. “Catchin is… She didn’t make it…”

Hiral’s breath caught at the words, and his hold on the Chord slipped out of his grasp. “What? No…”

“She was hurt bad,” Yanily said. “I tried one of the potions, but it didn’t work any better than water. She even pushed it away to tell me about Dr. Benza. She thought it was important.”

“Boss?” Hiral asked, his feet touching down on the ground beyond the front line of rats. Left and Right must’ve sensed his loss of the Chord, as they’d cut their ways back to cover his flanks.

“We’re going after Dr. Benza,” Seena said after a few seconds.

“But these people…” Seeyela started.

“This… is a dungeon,” Seena said, the words coming out forced. “And the PIMP put us in here for a reason.”

Seeyela’s response came in the form of a pair of Gravity Wells appearing in the air above the horde, green venom raining death on the monsters below.

“You’re right,” she said. “We can’t save these people—not really—but we can still save our islands. And we need to learn why the PIMP brought us here for that.”

Dynamic Quest

A key figure and a weapon of legend are in great danger. Without them, there is no future.

Save them. If you can.

“Seems like going after Benza is the right choice,” Yanily said, obviously looking at the same notification window.

Dramatic wording, but Hiral closed the window.

“Hiral, you’re the resident island expert—which way?” Seena asked, her phoenix screeching as it swooped out of the sky to pick her up.

“The closest tower to us is right around where we entered the dungeon,” Hiral said. With tethers of Attraction, Gravity, and Rejection, he leapt into the air—Left and Right in tow—and landed on Drake’s back. “We should start there.”

From his vantage point on the Dracolich, he surveyed the battle below. The party’s presence had blunted the worst of the rat horde’s advance, and already reinforcements were coming from the city in droves. Thousands—no, hundreds of thousands—of people had made it through the portals before the attack had started, but from the looks of things, no more would be following.

We were supposed to have another year…

But, obviously, they didn’t.

For an abomination to come through, the Enemy must’ve been involved. It meant they’d found this hidden-away space.

Almost as if his thoughts were a cue, the sky began to darken. Hiral turned his attention out towards the central area of the dungeon, in the direction of the other islands. There, on the horizon, dark, massive storm clouds loomed, powerful lightning flashing within. And, was that his imagination, or did he hear thunder booming through the portals?

No. No, it wasn’t. They were out of time. The Enemy had arrived.