Siren’s Cry [A LITRPG Adventure]-Ch. 6
A/N: Forgot to post, sorry yall! Enjoy!
This door was different from those in the other rooms. While the others were simply empty archways, this one has a massive set of double doors inlaid with intricate carvings. Two large brass rings act as handles, but there's no need to use them. Touching the door is enough to open it, crusted hinges squealing as the doors swing into the other room. I step inside, doors slamming shut behind me as the large stone casket in the center begins to crack.
The heavy marble slab serving as a lid splinters, chunks crumbling away as a skeletal hand punches through. It grips the edge of the sarcophagus, dragging itself free. I'm not idle myself, already creating the little arrows I've become oh-so-familiar with. Over a dozen now, compared to the previous nine.
Fourteen glowing arrowheads swim through the air around me, looking like a school of luminous minnows. I direct my summons to attack, a swarm of lights blurring as they fire at the skeleton dragging itself free. It raises one hand, joints flexing in unnatural ways to sketch a rune in under a second. The jagged angles burn my eyes as I try to read it, and I barely succeed in using my blessing on it.
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Barrier Rune (Rare): An ancient rune that forms a near-impenetrable barrier.
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The Identify is punctuated by a wall of mana flaring into existence. My constructs slam into it, bursting one by one with a sound like gunfire. Seeing that my minions will be no help as the arrowheads, I decide to go for another form. The runic circle forms over my hands, but a quick change of intent sends the runes shifting and spiraling, settling into another configuration. Feeding a ridiculous amount of mana into it, five much larger constructs coalesce before me.
Each one appears as a random limb, but if I can't make a larger construct then I'll combine many smaller ones into a larger one. A torso hovers into the air, four arms locking into place with quick flashes of light. Directing it forward, it begins to punch the barrier in a cycle, alternating arms to always have one moving. None of the strikes come close to breaking past the shield, but they don't need to. All they need to do is keep it occupied long enough for me to figure this out. Remembering the description of Magebolt, I begin to channel the little mana I have left.
Shaping a small orb above my hand turns out to be fairly simple, but giving it a ‘disrupting’ property is much harder. One of my constructs hands cracks before exploding into glowing shrapnel, and I hurry to figure it out. I try willing it to disrupt, but all that does is destabilize the mana for a moment. Swirling the mana does the opposite, setting all the mana flowing towards the center of the orb. Another arm dissipates, and my mana isn't even close to regenerated enough for another.
Gotta work fast… maybe both will work? I spin the orb while feeding it the intent to disrupt other mana, and something clicks.
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Spell Learned: Magebolt
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Launching the swirling mass at the shield, I watch as it begins to pull the barrier into itself. The rune warps, but holds strong for another few seconds. The next punch from my construct cracks the glass-like mana, and another fractures the entire thing. The instant the barrier falls, the rune fading into nothingness, several large spears of ice pierce my summon. It shatters into glowing motes, and I gulp nervously, nearly choking as I forget about the mask for a moment.
Thoughts of sucking cock while fighting a lich aside, I barely manage to dodge another frozen lance that rockets towards me. Thinking about what I can do, I quickly begin conjuring more constructs to distract the undead. Now free from the coffin and no longer hidden by the barrier, I get a good look at the dungeon boss. Tattered priest robes stained by time and age hang loose over bare bones, a circlet ringing a gleaming white skull. It floats a foot above its resting place, hands outstretched and weaving rune after rune. The same jagged lines form over and over again, and Identify informs me of what it does.
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Ice Rune (Rare): An ancient rune that conjures magical ice.
-==×==-
Noting that my blessing seems like a real cheat, I leap out of the path of another spear. Several hand-shaped constructs fly towards the boss, pushing and punching in a vain attempt to divert attention. The priestly lich simply draws another rune, and a pulse of mana flows across its body. Identify informs me that it is a Disrupt rune, and my eyes widen as a fourth rune is drawn. A massive ball of fire bursts to life above its skeletal palm, a Fire rune searing itself into my mind as the boss throws it. Time seems to slow as I process my options. I can't dodge it, it's moving too fast. I don't think even my blessing and habit will let me come out unscathed from this, and there's not enough time to figure out Ward… Yep, this is going to hurt like a motherfu–
My inner monologue is cut short by searing pain that blots out the stimulation from my armour. I scream as magical flame rolls across my skin, blistering and burning every inch of exposed skin. When it clears a moment later, I sit there panting as charred flesh peels away to reveal raw muscle restoring itself slowly. Ashen feathers fall and cracked scales flake off my wings and tail as I shift slightly.
Shakily standing, I barely move in time to avoid an icicle launching at me once more. Pain fades as divinity-fed regeneration kicks in, and somehow my Fallen Nun’s Habit and mask are entirely undamaged. Conjuring thick panes of pure mana with my skill this time, I stack them between me and the lich. Reaching into my slightly singed spatial storage pouch, I retrieve the Ancient Bone Club.
The boss seems to recognize the threat as it begins to lob fireballs again, significantly smaller this time, but my constructs block all of them. Each one only blocks two fireballs, but with around ten of them I have plenty of protection as I charge forward. Just before the last pane shatters, I reach the coffin. Leaping upward with a flap of my wings, I end up above the lich. It turns to look at me, but I'm slightly faster. Magical femur meets reanimated skull, and femur wins. The skeleton rockets downward, pulverizing the rest of the sarcophagus as fractures spread across its skull. Another barrier flickers to life, and two Magebolts weaken it enough that my next swing almost entirely ignores it. Club hits skull again, and again and again before the notification rings out.
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Runepriest Lich Lvl 15 Slain
Level Up x 3
Forgotten Crypt Dungeon Cleared
Rewards Available
Loot Body?
Y/N
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Selecting ‘yes’, I slump against the rubble of the coffin. Panting into my mask, I watch as the last of my wounds slowly fade away while ignoring the obelisk that lit up in the back of the chamber. Probably the teleport out.
Looking at the lich’s corpse, I see two items resting on the torn robes. Its circlet sits there, a thin band of black metal with a singular red gem in the front. Picking it up first, Identify triggers as the gem glows briefly.
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Runic Circlet (Epic, Accessory): A blacksteel circlet imbued with countless runes. Grants access to two spells: Rite of Ruin and Necrotic Surge.
Rite of Ruin: Ritual spell. Calls forth a massive explosion of hellfire to incinerate your foes.
Necrotic Surge: Send forth a blast of necromantic energy, causing rapid necrosis of affected tissue.
-==×==-
While good, it's not my style. Probably going to sell it when I get the chance. The other item was more interesting to me. A leather tome, similar to the original Grimoire skill. Identifying it made all the pain of that damn fireball worthwhile as I grin in triumph.
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Ch. 6
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