NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 81: Nightmare
The party entered through a set of large double doors, conveniently open like the building was welcoming them. Beyond the portal, the space immediately expanded into some kind of massive display area, odd objects and models hanging from the ceiling, sitting within display cases, or beyond roped-off areas.
The places where the ropes had been torn or the glass broken sat noticeably empty.
“Those spots are where the bodies were, huh?” Hiral asked quietly, the sound of the rain muted by the thick stone, the building eerily quiet.
“Some were skeletons, others were stuffed remains, and a few were even specimens that’d been perfectly preserved through magic,” Odi said just as quietly, his blue-flame eyes darting back and forth.
And Hiral couldn’t blame him. All the displays, the twisting paths between them, and the flashes of lightning coming through the windows—not to mention the itching pressure of the fear effect—made every shadow seem full of hungry danger.
This is a dungeon. We can’t forget that. The shadows could literally hold endless monsters. And yet we haven’t seen a single one. Why not? Are they affected by this aura too? That… that would make sense if it’s working on Odi.
“Which way, Odi?” Seena asked quietly, her head swiveling left and right like everybody else’s.
“The research wing is on the far side of this gallery,” Odi said, pointing beyond some kind of metal displays.
“No straight path,” Nivian said.
“You’re so optimistic,” Hiral said.
“Just realistic,” Seena said. “This is the zone-capping dungeon, right? It’s supposed to be a challenge.”
“Trust me, the Hulking Behemoth was plenty of a challenge on its own,” Hiral responded, but he followed the others with his RHCs in hand.
Still, nothing moved around them. Sure, the lightning made the shadows look like they were shifting, and his head twisted in a different direction every time, but nothing jumped out. If anything, the utter calm made the fear aura even worse, the constant prickling building and building with no outlet.
How much longer? Where would it come from? What would it be? How many? Would they even see it coming?
A clangto the side made everybody spin, Hiral’s RHCs coming up with his fingers on the triggers. A heartbeat more and he would’ve fired, putting two searing bolts of Impact right into… Yanily.
The spearman stood sheepishly beside a knocked-over pylon for one of the roped-off areas. “Sorry,” he said. “Got a little too close.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t bury my daggers in your back,” Seeyela said, her armored fingers wrapped tightly around her weapons’ hilts.
“What were you even looking at?” Seena asked, glancing behind the ropes.
Strange metal constructs of some kind filled the entire section. There was a whole display for something that looked oddly like his RHCs—though bulkier—while other things ranged from large carriages to human-shaped monstrosities.
“Relics of an ancient society, lost to the annals of time, even when we were at our prime,” Odi said. “These machines were the only evidence we could find they even existed, and they seemed to use some combination of solar energy and… steam… to operate. We only had minor success activating them, but there was a whole branch in our university dedicated to studying them. Some thought they would help us against the squids…”
“Guessing that didn’t work out,” Wule said.
“You guess correctly,” Odi said.
“We’ll get the tour after we take care of the Urn and the lich,” Seena said, bringing the group’s focus back. “Let’s keep…”
Clop, clop, clop, clop, clop, clop echoed through the room, coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once.
“You all heard that?” Hiral asked, his RHCs up as he rotated.
“Oh, yeah,” Yanily said. “Any idea what it was?”
“Some idiot knocking over a post?” Seeyela asked.
“Must be an idiot if they did that,” Yanily agreed seriously.
Seeyela just shook her head.
“Quiet, you two…” Seena said.
Clop, clop, clop, clop, clop, clop again from the far side of the room, then a flash of orange light from the opposite side.
Hiral stopped in place, one weapon pointing in each direction, while the others formed a circle around Odi.
“Do you think it knows we’re here?” Wule asked.
Dynamic Quest
That which guards the second seal has found you.
Survive and locate the seal.
“That answers that,” Nivian said.
“The wording is different than the last seal guardian,” Hiral said.
“Which means there’s a trick to it,” Seena said.
“What is with you and tricks and monsters?” Odi asked.
“It’s a running theme,” Seena replied evenly, both tomes lifting out of the pouches on her waist to float beside her. Li’l Ur moved from where he floated by her shoulder and levitated an inch above the black book.
“Let the monsters come,” the little lich said, glyphs on the page glowing and then appearing in front of his hands. “Let them taste my power while I bask in their fear.”
“Isn’t he cute?” Seena said, a short but affectionate look directed towards the tiny undead before her focus went back to the darkness all around them.
Another flash of orange light—flickering and billowing before it vanished—and then the same cloppingfrom the other side of the room.
“It’s getting closer,” Hiral said.
“Probably just as lost in these paths as we are,” Yanily pointed out.
Clop, clop, clang—the familiar sound of a post getting knocked over on the other side of the display full of metal machines—and the whole party spun.
Then came a FWOOOSH right behind them, and Hiral whipped around just as the darkness parted in an expanding cone of flame in their direction.
Nivian appeared out of nowhere, his skull and Orbital Shields pairing up to block the wall of flame as it lit the room.
Clop, clop to the side, and Hiral twisted, pulling his triggers to fire into the darkness. Gong, thunk. His shots didn’t seem to hit the Mid-Boss—if that was what it was—and then clop, clop on the other side.
This time it was Yanily who lashed out, Chain Lightning+ sparking through the air to connect with one of the large metal monstrosities. Energy coursed along the metallic frame, jumping from one construct to another, and suddenly all kinds of lights lit up, pistons in their arms and legs pump, pump, pumping. Red glows resembling eyes turned in the party’s direction.
“Yaaaaaaaaan,” Seena said, her voice rising like a coming storm as she scolded the spearman. But just as quickly as the movement started, the lightning faded away, and the constructs stilled.
“You’re lucky…” Wule said, but the shadows beside him exploded with movement as something rushed out.
Flames jetted in one direction, while a dark shape charged in the other. The healer dove to the side to avoid getting barbequed, and then Yanily went flying through the ropes to hit a display full of metal weapons. The whole thing came crashing down on top of him, but the party didn’t have time to worry about their friend. The monster was already right in the middle of them.
Wreathed in shadows and flame, Hiral was probably the only one who recognized the thing for what it was—a horse—but one unlike any he’d ever seen. Flames ran down the back of its neck in place of its mane, its tail likewise a constant, blazing cat o' nine tails. More fires burst with every step of its hooves, and it snorted out gouts of the stuff as it whirled and neighed at the party around it.
Rearing up, it lashed out with its front hooves. Seeyela barely bamf’edout of the way to avoid getting brained, and Hiral’s View ability brought up a name and health bar.
(Mid-Boss – Undead) Nightmare – Unknown Rank
Two shots from his RHCs thunked into its shoulder, denting its blue health bar, but it hardly seemed to notice. It landed its front hooves back on the ground, then spun and kicked out its back legs. The air seemed to snap at the sheer force of the kick, but once again, Nivian was there just in time, his shield taking the blow meant for Seena’s chest.
Orange and red flames gushed out on contact, then got sucked into the open skull-mouth on the front of the shield, and the Nightmare staggered as it landed. A furious neigh, and the thing spun around, fiery hooves lashing out along with gouts of snorted flame.
Nivian’s shield ate them all, and his thorned whip snapped out to drag across the horse’s wide flank. Anger seemed to spark in its blue-flame eyes as the Infuriate debuff took hold, and then scars of red fire splashed across its body as Seena laid into it with Cinder+.
“Mistress, your flames will do nothing to a Nightmare; they are creatures of darkness and fire themselves,” Li’l Ur said.
“Suggestions?” Seena asked in response.
“Witness my power,” Li’l Ur responded, and a circle of glyphs appeared under his floating feet on the pages of the book. Blue light rose around him in a small column, and small sparks of it darted out to whirl around Seena.
The orange flickers of flame on her fingers turned a deep crimson, and her next Cinder+ left a garish wound on the side of the Nightmare’s flank as Left and Right charged in.
“What did you do?” Seena asked the lich.
“A long cooldown to temporarily change your abilities to the blood element,” Li’l Ur said, though he sagged in the air like the spell had really taken it out of him.
“Thanks, buddy,” she said, lashing out with another Cinder+ and then using her gout of flame ability—though this time it looked like a hose of blood. Whatever it was, the Nightmare recoiled in pain, or maybe disgust, and danced sideways… directly into Right.
The double’s hammer-like blow damn near cut the thing in two. Purple flames shot out as the Mid-Boss practically folded around the punch, ribs visibly collapsing before it skidded in the other direction.
Hiral’s shots peppered it the entire time, the Impact portion doing more damage than the Energy part, but still whittling the health bar down. Already it was below half, and Wule launched an orb of cold that shattered against the side of its face. That, more than anything, got a reaction from the undead horse. The monster cowered away from the blow even though it didn’t do nearly as much damage as Right’s punch.
“Don’t let up!” Seena ordered, the party keeping the Nightmare surrounded and off balance as they laid into it from all sides.
Every time it made as if to focus on one person, Nivian was there again with his Infuriating whip, and the Mid-Boss’s attention got pulled back to the tank. Like it was fed up with his interference, the monster reared up, raining blow after blow with its front hooves on Nivian’s shield.
Burst after burst after burst of flame lit up the room with every strike before getting sucked into the shield’s mouth, and then the skull’s eyes began to glow. Nivian allowed one more hoof-kick before he put his gauntleted hand behind his shield arm as if to support it.
What’s he…?
Twin beams of highly concentrated fire speared out of the Aegis of Extinction’s eyes, easily piercing through the Nightmare’s exposed belly and out its back.
Another neigh of pain, and the Mid-Boss stumbled away from the tank, its footing uneven, but Nivian didn’t give chase. In fact, everybody stopped the assault for a split second, and the horse’s head snapped left and right as if looking for the attack it had to know was coming.
It should’ve looked to its own back.
Seeyela appeared above it with a soft bamf, then drove her green-glowing daggers into the sides of its muscular neck as she landed. A swift and brutal jerk of the weapons tore horrific gashes almost all the way down to its shoulders, and the neigh turned to a screech as the venom settled in.
Green spread almost instantly, like veins of toxic intent running up and down the neck. Another bamf got Seeyela off the Nightmare’s back as it toppled to the side, legs kicking feebly at the air, while its health bar sat at almost nothing. Only the blue flames of its eyes seemed to be keeping it alive at that point, its whole body spasming as the next tick of venom ate it away from the inside.
Its head thrashed against the stone of the path between displays, sending cracks out with the impact. One way or another, the monster was dead—barring any strange tricks—but Seeyela suddenly appeared beside it again.
A gout of flame shot from its nostrils, which she deftly sidestepped, her movement accompanied by a soft tune. She dodged a second gout, then a third, and despite looking like she was just casually moving, her right hand snapped out.
Everything stopped all at once, the hilt of her dagger protruding from one of the Nightmare’s eye sockets, and the Mid-Boss’s health bar vanished.
Pulling her dagger back out, she looked down at the dead horse, then shook her head and sheathed her weapons.
Another clang, clang, clang sent the party whipping around to find Yanily pushing his way out from the collapsed display, spear in one hand and… and what looked like a metal hand in the other. “What’d I miss?” he asked.
“Killed the Mid-Boss,” Seena said.
“More like kicked its ass,” Nivian said.
“That was… surprisingly easy,” Hiral agreed quietly, just as an ear-shattering screeeeeech echoed through the building.
Dynamic Quest: Update
You have defeated one of the second seal’s guardians.
Guardians Slain: 1/?
“And there’s the trick,” Seena said.