Everlast Online

Nina looked back with concern at Smokey's collapsed body.

After she had told Nina and Gloria to cover her, she had expected Smokey to do something; and she did, but Nina had no idea what it was. Smokey just suddenly collapsed and Ouroboros stopped moving.

The 5 mortals looked around at each other as the attacks came to an abrupt stop, before Gloria ran over to Smokey's body. She seemed desperate to figure out what had happened, but it was completely unclear - even the undead and controlled puppets had stopped moving entirely as though their connection had been cut off. However, Nina could see that Smokey was still logged in as she was shown as active in the party list.

"Should we... Attack?" Nina asked, looking around at the equally confused king and his guards. 

"I shall do it." Ragnar said, cautiously walking up to the now stationary enemy; raising his sword high as he activated one of his skills. However, as though detecting the hostility, Ouroboros sprung to life, defending and counter attacking by pushing Ragnar away. However, the strangeness continued as it did now follow up with any attacks, simply remaining where it was after knocking Ragnar away.

"It's like... It's empty or something..." Barview panted through his exhaustion, having been wounded the worst out of anyone here.

"Kind of like autopilot." Nina responded, getting a quizzical look from the others - with the exception of Gloria who simply didn't care, only focusing on ensuring her master was safe. "Basically it's acting on instinct and nothing else."

With Nina's further explanation the 3 men seemed to understand.

"So then, what do we do?" The king asked, clearly glad to be taking a break from the fighting. His wound had not fully healed and even if it was not as bad as Barview's, it still wasn't pleasant.

"Kill it?" Nina responded, slightly unsure.

"We've tried that." Ragnar shot back, "It just regenerated."

"I know, but chances are this is some kind of opportunity that Smokey got for us with one of her skills." Nina said with an angry glare at the pessimistic Ragnar, "Chances are she's holding him off somewhere and we may not get a chance like this again."

Ragnar lowered his gaze and the king stared solemnly at the monster before them.

"She's right." The king finally said, breaking the silence that permeated through the ballroom, "We need to kill this thing for the good of Vradora, no, the good of the world. The young necromancer has given us this chance and we cannot allow it to pass us by."

Struggling to his feet, the king Geoffrey seemed to give off a radiant aura; his stature exaggerated by the glory of his position and worthiness he had to stand in it. Nina felt invigorated and both Ragnar and Barview felt renewed confidence. This was not a skill, simply the magnitude of power the words of a truly good leader had.

And so, the fighting began again - with the incarnation simply using their blood magic to regenerate from any wound it took. 

The longer they fought, the more it seemed like a lost cause, but no one despaired. Every time they failed, they took a breather and devised a new plan - Gloria had also decided to help after Nina reasoned with her that killing Ouroboros would be the quickest way to bring Smokey to safety.

The group never gave up, but nothing they did worked either - it was a dreadful reminder of their weakness.

However, as Nina was taking her turn to rest a message appeared; the system had sent her word from Smokey. Her eyes widened in shock as she rushed to read the messages, hoping for some kind of understanding as to where she was - what she got instead was an even greater piece of information:

[Smokey: Aim for heart]

[Smokey: heart is weak spot]

Nina was glad to have the info, but honestly some quest was not as important to her as the wellbeing of her friend.

[Nina: were R u]

[Smokey: no time]

[Smokey: safe, just kill boss]

Having some reassurance that Smokey was okay, Nina closed her message window and shouted out:

"It's the heart! The heart is the weak spot!" As she yelled everyone looked over at her.

"How do you know?" Ragnar called back, jumping away from the attack.

"I got word from Smokey, she discovered the weakness of the monster." She responded, feeling invigorated at the chance to end this fight.

Gloria took the words in stride and prepared to focus all of her attacks at the heart, but the other 3 were slightly more reluctant to just rushing in with a new target in mind until they remembered the flow of the fight. After Ouroboros's body had begun to act purely on instinct the fight had shifted to be more in their favour; however, they still couldn't land a decisive blood on the devil. Every attack they did manage to land simply regenerated; but there was one strange thought that not a single one of them remembered landing a hit on its chest.

It repeatedly guarded the chest with such intensity that it had, more than once, sacrificed its head to protect it. That really should have been enough of a clue, but somehow they had missed it.

Their current plan was to simply keep attacking until the regeneration couldn't keep up so there was no harm in following along with the new plan that would still work towards the old one while having the chance to actually finish it off.

"Understood." The king called out, heading forward into the fight.

His subordinates followed quickly behind him, charging head first into the fray behind Nina and Gloria who had fully committed to attacking the heart. But the strategy was not as easy to follow as they believed it would be.

As if the body understood their intentions its ferocity increased exponentially, the attacks becoming more dangerous and desperate - stopping the five from getting close.

Blood swirled like a tornado around the body, pushing the mortals away and shards of crystallised blood cut into them for trying to push forward. They did not even think of giving up though, Ragnar activating his own [Dragon Storm] to offset the hurricane of blood - just barely allowing Nina to pass through and get closer to the boss.

The tornado stopped the moment she passed through, the body changing strategies to attempting to impale the catfolk with powerful tentacles of blood. In an attempt to increase the intensity of the attacks, the body's stomach ripped open as dozens of tentacles sprouted like a dark god manifesting from the abyss.

It was only through [Acrobatics] that Nina was able to avoid fatal injury, the damage sustained becoming limited to her sides and legs. However, right at the end she was faced with an appendage of blood moments away from pushing through her skull; so, in a last ditch effort she brought up her 2 knives and attempted to parry the crystalised blood at the tip of the tentacles.

She mustered just enough strength to push the attack off course, having it cut into her cheek instead of through her brain - but she was not entirely out of danger yet. Her focus on the attack in front of her had resulted in her not noticing the tentacles approaching behind her.

This would have meant her end had it not been for Gloria, charging forward in her enhanced berserk state to prevent any attempt at an attack. The tentacles dispersed momentarily as Gloria swung her axe with all her strength, protecting Nina who then used her ally's back as a springboard to escape the encirclement of blood that was quickly forming.

Gloria grinned as she forced herself free of the danger zone, seeing Nina soaring through the sky once again.

Nina smirked, only to realise that she had in fact put herself into more danger - in the air she was a perfect target for the monster. The tentacles receded, blood now pouring out of its wrists to form giant blood hands. 

With the intention of crushing Nina between them she had to act fast; choosing to summon a clone beneath her feet. In that instant of summoning Nina pushed off of her clone's chest with her foot, getting just beyond the range of the attack as the clone became paste before ceasing to exist.

hadn't thought of using them like that until now. Nina thought to herself as she approached the ground below. I should try to be more creative if I can pull stuff like that off.

Nina landed behind the body, slashing upwards with [Betrayal] of her [Black Dahlia Blades], she already knew the status effect wouldn't take place, but she was right handed and wanted to deal as deep a cut as possible for the finishing move.

With her attack she revealed black pulsating mass of flesh within the body, Nina called out:

"Ragnar! King Geoffrey! Barview!" The trio instantly understood the assignments, repositioning in an instant.

As the wound began to close up, 2 men approached from opposite sides; their swords both aiming for the revealed heart - Ragnar at its back and Geoffrey at its back - and Barivew activated his ultimate skill [Monstrous] to combine a number of beasts into one form, as means to force Ouroboros's position; preventing dodging.. The idea was to make the monster choose who to block, forcing a checkmate as attacks would come from either side.

However, it did not go as planned, the crimson eyes burning red as blood erupted from its body and pushed both away in a final attempt to protect itself. The tsunami of blood knocked all 3 of the men away, draining the incarnation entirely of its blood.

Despite being a mythic devil's incarnation, the body was still mortal and so fell to the ground from blood loss - it was quickly regenerating, but could not heal its wound due to a severe lack of blood. However, there was no one ready to attack it as they were pushed away from harm - or so it thought.

From above Nina had been planning. 

She had expected some kind of last ditch effort attack to preserve its life; and so had ascended to a place she believed safe: Atop the chandelier. It was close, the wave of blood almost reaching her, but she survived.

With no ability to move, let alone block or dodge; Nina flipped from the chandelier, knife first as it soon pierced straight through the black heart of a devil.

It exploded into goo and the fight came to an end.

---

Ethereal Realm:

"How!" Ouroboros screamed, desperate to know how the mortals had learnt of his weakness.

There should have been no way for them to discover his devil heart in time to kill him, the only one who knew being trapped in the ethereal realm with him.

"I have my ways." Liz mocked, once again dodging out of the way. Ouroboros's attacks became easier to predict as his anger took over, it had reached a point where Liz no longer felt any danger from the fight.

The fight was raging below the pair in the real world, Liz watched with pride as Nina executed perfect move after perfect move - finally opening up the devil to a final attack. But a devastating wave of blood put a stop to the attempt.

"Ha! Hahahaha!" He laughed, regaining some confidence, "SEE! Mortals shall never beat a great one such as I- "

His victory speech was cut off as his eyes widened in horror, Nina descending like an angel from the heavens to pierce through the black heart and destroy the devil's incarnation. Ouroboros wasn't even able to let out a sound before both he and Liz were overcome by a sucking force that forced them back into their bodies.

In front of Liz was a system message, but all it said was that she had failed to take control over the desired target with [Soul String]. However, an even better show was coming to life right in front of her.

The incarnation was once again under the control of Ouroboros, but it was too late to save it now.

He screamed as his body began to turn to a tar-like substance, melting and collapsing under its own weight. Everything about him began to change, starting at his lower body as it became nothing but black goo that stained the ballroom floor.

"NO! STOP!" He screamed, not pain in his eyes, but fear instead, "THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!"

His eyes turned to a hurtful glare as they focused in on Liz.

"YOU! I'LL GET YOU! I'LL DESTROY YOU! RIP YOUR SOUL TO PIECES AND FEED IT TO THE PIGS!" His voice echoed, being more warped as his body continued to turn into tar, his clawed finger, pointed right at Liz, began to turn and fell to the floor with a sloppy thud, "THIS ISN'T THE END! I'LL BE SURE TO KILL ALL OF YOU! DO YOU HEAR ME!? I'LL HAVE MY REVENGE!"

His horrifying screams echoed longer than his body remained, the last part to disappear into goo being his macabre grin; a declaration of revenge that was sure to haunt the dreams of all 6 mortals who had dared to defy him.

But the fight was over, truly over. With a system message to congratulate Liz for a job well done:

Liz and Nina looked upon their rewards with glee, though Liz did wonder about why one of the rewards was given a strange designation in her window. Before either of them could even think of looking at what the 2 new titled did, or taking a look at their new item another message appeared in front of them:

Liz was not surprised at getting the announcement, she had just simply forgotten that she would get one; she could be forgiven for this considering she had a couple other things on her mind at the moment.

For now it was time to celebrate and claim all the rewards she deserved from the quest she spent the last month completing.

With a smile, uncharacteristic for the ever serious Smokey, she cheered and called out to the slowly waking soldiers of Vradora:

"The traitor is dead! Long live Vradora!" She laughed, hundreds more soldiers joining in as they chanted.

Soon, through the streets of Vradora, chants of victory could be heard echoing - the fallen were remembered, their deaths not in vain as a new sun would shine upon Vradora, free of an unknown devilish grip.

---

Across Galdrash players saw another message from the infamous Smokey.

Some were surprised she was in a party, others were simply angry at the mention of her name; and again there were others who saw it as a positive.

A man sat upon a ledge, his blade bloodied by a monster that laid dead behind him. He was dressed in strange clothes, at least by the standards of the magica kingdom he was residing in at the moment. He wore what seemed to be a traditional hanfu, a type of clothing from Old Earth China and behind him were a number of similarly dressed people cutting up the monster he had just slayed.

This was the Flame Emperor, along with his guild the Terracotta Army - a guild based in the Chinese Union and made up, mostly, of members for that area. 

Flame Emperor was looking at the system message in front of him, not angry, but not happy either; it would be better to consider him expectant.

I wonder how strong she is... He thought with a smile as a woman approached behind him.

"We have finished harvesting the monster, Sir." She said, kneeling as a sign of respect. Flame Emperor looked back with a smile and spoke.

"Thank you for your hard work Qin Ruyu." He said, rising to his feet along with the Qin Ruyu, "Let's go. There's more to hunt."

WIth everything collected, the Flame Emperor, his vice guild master and the rest of their forces went to find more monsters to kill.

 

In the northern part of Vradora a meeting was interrupted by Smokey's achievement. The room went silent as they each read over what happened, waiting for a reaction from the beautiful lady at the head of the table. Her ashen lips curve upwards in a smile.

"My urge to meet this Smokey increases by the day..." She said quietly, but still heard in the pin-drop silence of the meeting room, "I hope such a time comes soon."

Her soft laughter makes the hearts of all the women present flutter; an effect only her sisters can resist.

"How should we approach her in the future, elder sister?" A 3 eyed woman sitting at the drude's right asked.

"With the intention of becoming friends, even if we can't recruit her it would be best to have her as an ally." The drude, Isla of the Valkyries said with only a moment of hesitation. A chorus of agreement ripples through the meeting before its original purpose is continued.

 

The guild members of Golden Radiance look between their leader and the message that had just appeared in front of them with apprehension. The last time Smokey had been mentioned by one of the lower guild members, their leader had become so irate that he ordered all guild members to keep killing him until his level was back at 1. However, he did not fly into a rage at all - rather he seemed incredibly calm.

"Anyway... Back onto the topic of dungeons-" And so their meeting also continued without any further distraction; the reaction of their leader being completely unnatural, but no one dared question it.

 

Many others reacted of course in different ways and with different methods.

There was a young high elf who felt quite excited that the game was progressing in a way it had not during the beta test; chatting about it with a little creature floating at her side.

In a different area a hobgoblin that was pulling a nearly dead bird monster out of a trap looked at the message with anger, his hatred of the recipient causing him to almost break the bird's neck as he pulled it from the trap.

And finally a man hunting in a jungle, wearing nothing but a loincloth, a few accessories and a tribal mask gave the message a cursory glance before firing a home-made arrow from his crude-looking longbow that flew miles, hitting zero trees before finally landing in the skull of a 3-horned deer.

 

Smokey made waves as usual, but the environment was different and so it was impossible to understand how these waves would ripple across Galdrash - would she be better off, would she make herself an even larger target.

It was impossible to say; but once again Smokey was at the centre of the biggest event in Galdrash.