Everlast Online

Liz followed the map through the forest, not coming across any danger the entire way.

Have the bandits killed all the monsters in the territory? She thought as she made her way through the trees.

Deciding she didn't care, Liz carried on through the forest with her now fully regenerated skeletons warriors, as they also had the [Undead Affinity] that she had. Although she could summon 10 more of them, she saw that the bandit hideout was just a cave, so she doubted all 20 would fit into the cave.

Still as she got closer she decided it would be better to have her full force ready, forgetting the surprise or the size of the force; Liz summoned the rest of her skeletons, resulting in a full 20-man undead platoon, ready to kill some bandits.

Liz made sure her mana was at full before she got to the bandit cave. Soon she could see 2 men standing guard over the entrance to a cave, the bandits.

[Defeat Barview Bandits (15/35) (Extra)]

So there are 18 bandits still inside. Liz assured herself, looking at her extra quest. She had received 2 extra quests and would make sure to complete both of them.

After her first run in with the Barview Bandits she was confident she could beat them, so was more than happy to obtain the extra rewards for doing so.

Her undead were incapable of complex commands so she couldn't just tell them to secretly take down the guards; instead she had to be more creative.

"You five." She said to 5 of her undead, "Walk over there." Pointing to the concealed spot closest to one of the guards, "Attack when one of them dies."

Liz felt her actions were simple and easy even for the skeletons to understand. Thankfully, the skeletons did as she wanted and took position near one of the guards. The 2 guards were casually talking to each other, not on alert at all. Now was the time to strike.

Liz activated [Bone Spear], supercharging it and designating the 3 skeletons closest to her as he scapegoat, before letting the mass of calcium fly.

The spell sped out of the clearing and smashed straight into the man's chest, the other bandit was too shocked to react, so when a group of 2 metre tall undead came rushing out of the bushes he was dead in an instant.

The bone spear had pierced through the bandit, pinning him to the stone wall behind him. It was a gnarly sight with blood gushing from his wound like a waterfall, Liz took the opportunity to summon her skeletons back and regain her mana naturally as, while the spell had imbedded into the stone, the attack had made minimal sound.

"Kill all of the bandits." Liz commanded, her skeletons then charged into the cave as she wished. The sounds of cries and screams echoed out after that, all while Liz reaped the benefit of the experience, she still wasn't sure where the level experience for [Summon: Skeleton Warrior] came from, but she assumed it must be an independent source.

Everything was smooth sailing for a while, Liz rose to level 14 and she could tell the summoning skill would gain a level soon. She was surprised at how easily this was going for her considering the average levels of these bandits, being at least level 15 each. But she was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and was simply thankful that she was making progress like this, especially after her level had stagnated to read that book.

Liz didn't realise at that point that most starting towns had dungeons where most mob's were level 1, while the forgotten tomb dungeon had enemies at level 5 as a minimum. By the time she had finished the book, she was still 1 level above the average crowd in ELO.

During this raid the only time Liz had taken part in the combat was when she used [Bone Spear] to kill her enemies,other than that all she had to do was replace the occasionally dying skeleton. Liz was able to maintain her mana levels as the [Spooky Witch] set boosted her INT so high, and therefore her mana pool and its regeneration, so she was having a really easy time, sitting outside the cave, waiting for the bandits to be dead.

[Defeat Barview Bandits (19/35) (Extra)]

[Defeat Barview Bandits (24/35) (Extra)]

[Defeat Barview Bandits (28/35) (Extra)]

[Defeat Barview Bandits (30/35) (Extra)]

Just as Liz felt this mission was too easy, things changed.

 The rate at which her skeletons were dying was much quicker than before while the number of bandits remained the same.

Yet, she continued until eventually it came down to: (34/35). Liz had taken care of all but one bandit, but no matter how many skeletons she sent in, she received the same exact message not too much time later.

[«WARNING» Subordinate: has been destroyed]

It happened repeatedly so Liz stopped sending her warriors into the cave, eventually all 20 of them stood by her, outside the cave, as they waited for orders on how to proceed. 

Liz was confused, what was so strong that her skeletons were repeatedly dying to it.

What is so special about this one bandit that I can't do anything to it? Liz thought, trying to come up with another strategy to finish off the bandit, It must be the leader of the bandits. The boss they were talking about.

Liz wanted to come up with another strategy, but no opportunity came as a spear came flying from the cave opening, knocking her back and piercing through her shoulder. Again there was no pain, but one Liz watched as the shoulder of one of the skeleton's was blasted into shards, the arm falling off with it.

"Weird." A deep voice laughed from within the cave, "That should have killed a shrimp like you."

From the cave, out of the dark, a large man came waltzing out, oozing confidence as he looked down on the skeletons and Liz who was now getting back on her feet.

This man was ridiculously large; more than 2 metres tall and covered in muscles, his biceps were as thick as a tree branch and his legs even wider. Along his chest was a large tattoo of a skull with a snake coming from its eyes, coiling tightly around it. Growing on his clean-shaven face was a wide toothy grin, Liz found this man to be more monstrous more so than most of the monsters she had faced up until this point. For the first time since meeting the big undead, Liz was intimidated.

He was the one who was killing all her undead; and he didn't even carry a weapon.

"You the boss then?" Liz sneered, full of her typical impulsive confidence. The skeleton warriors began moving slightly, acting to surround the boss. He didn't even care, merely chuckling at what he saw as a feeble attempt to take him down.

Liz decided to take a closer look at the bandit leader and see what the system thought of him.

[Nolan Grimm (25) (Boss)]

What's that 'boss' part mean? Liz thought she had never seen that before, in her mind it simply meant he was strong, or the leader of a group, mostly since both of these things were clearly true about him.

No time to think about these things. I need to act, he's more than 10 levels above me so this isn't going to be easy. Her mind was racing, but she had the stability of mind to launch her attack.

Liz decided it would be best to start small, letting out a [Mana Bolt] to see how he reacted. The man didn't even attempt to dodge, when the attack hit as he lost only a tiny fraction of his health. He scoffed, looking at Liz.

"Attack him, restrain his limbs." Liz could more or less tell this guy's deal, he fought with his hands like a brawler. So, the best way to combat him was to restrain him with her skeletons. At their master's orders, all 20 skeletons jumped into action, leaping forward to attack Nolan.

Slashes of swords and boney grips tried to force themselves onto Nolan's skin, he merely swung his arms to remove them. Swords were deflected and bones shattered under his mighty fists.

The only reason the skeletons were able to do anything was thanks to their numbers, one-on-one they would have been reduced to dust. Nolan laughed as skeletons fell, one after the other, nothing could stop him, he was the mighty Nolan Grimm; the man who would soon become a noble lord. His fists descended on the skeletons who blindly charged at him like an executioner's axe.

Things were not looking good, but Liz knew what to do. At the moment she had 21 stat points saved, if she used them correctly she may be able to win. So, she made ample use of some of them: Increasing her INT to 35, leaving her with 1 extra stat point, with her [Spooky Witch] stat bonuses, Liz had 60 INT; the most of anyone in the game at that moment.

====

Name: [Smokey]

Race: [Abandoned Doll] (Attributes)↓

Class: [Necromancer (14)]

Title:

[Reputation: 1000] [Gold: 10000]

Stats: [STR: 3] [END: 5] [AGI: 20] [INT: 35 (+25)]

Race Skills: [Voodooist (S)]

Class Skills: [Summon: Skeleton Warrior (2) (F)] [Bone Spear (1) (F)]

Other Skills: [Mana Bolt (3) (F)]

[Inventory]↓ [Equipment Menu]↓

[Player Auction]↓ [Currency Conversion]↓

====

Now, the total amount of mana she could draw upon had increased and it was passively increasing at a faster rate. She had no need to worry about taking damage thanks to [Voodooist] and she could keep up with the speed her summons were being destroyed.

By now the skeletons had been replaced at least 1 time each, but something had changed between them: They were coordinating, while before they had simply ran at Nolan trying to keep his hands still, now they occasionally dodged his fists.

They're learning! Both Liz and Nolan had the exact same thought, but different emotions behind them.

Nolan was slowly losing health, like a drop of water scraping away a mountain over time. Nolan decided at that point to end it; it was fun seeing the weak try to fight the strong, a pathetic display like this was occasionally funny, but Nolan was no longer amused when he realised they were getting stronger.

Like hell I'm going to let my enemies improve from me! [Unending Barrage]! Nolan activated his strongest skill, deciding at that point to end the fight.

[Unending Barrage] was a scarily powerful skill, and although he hadn't intended it, the perfect counter to [Voodooist].

Nolan's skill was simple, he designated a target (in this case Liz) and then he began a barrage of attacks that would almost track the target automatically. What made this skill so deadly was that the attack would occur, theoretically, without end; one punch after the other, each gaining more and more strength until it was interrupted. The only way to break the skill was to prevent Nolan from landing an attack, but even that was difficult as the skill also had a chance to cause a stagger effect on the target, meaning Liz would not be able to land an attack. Nolan was sure this would end the fight.

So, with his speed boosted, Nolan charged past the skeleton warriors and his fist struck down, he was slightly shocked by Liz's appearance, but he ignored it. 

As his first attack hit, Liz flew back and one of the skeleton warriors collapsed.

Nolan, although surprised she was still alive, went forward and attacked again. Liz was knocked away again and another skeleton warrior collapsed.

Liz tried to use a spell to prevent this, but she couldn't. She flew through the air, only to see Nolan following close behind her.

"GET HIM!" All she could do was yell, the skeletons trailing behind, unable to match her speed. She couldn't even resummon the scapegoats that were being killed in her place.

Nolan was becoming more and more annoyed that the little girl in front of him looked like she was taking no damage, he had hit more than a thousand points of damage per hit and still she didn't look to feel it at all.

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?" Nolan yelled, pinning Liz to the ground and punching her 3 times in the face.

Crap! Liz was also annoyed, but for a different reason entirely, I'm down to my last five. I need to do something fast.

"AAAARRG!" He slammed both of his fists down simultaneously in an attempt to squash her, a skeletons head behind him turned to dust but he didn't notice, then he made a mistake, "JUST DIE ALREADY!"

He screamed at Liz, but did not attack. And that was all she needed.

A [Mana Bolt] was launched into his face, it did almost nothing, just a bit more damage than usual, but it was more than enough.

Liz didn't know what changed with Nolan, but she could tell he was using a skill as each of his hits did more and more damage. Unfortunately, she didn't know the specifics, but she could guess.

Each attack chains, following one after the other, gaining more power. She had thought while flying through the air, Maybe if I interrupt the chain, it'll stop him.

That was all her desperate attack was, it amounted to nothing but it granted her everything. Nolan smirked, his skill was still in motion and he moved to attack again, but felt himself falling to the side.

4 skeletons were piling on top of him, interrupting his chain of attacks and ending [Unending Barrage]. This was what Liz wanted, as Nolan had become frustrated he pinned Liz down and stopped her moving, this allowed the skeletons to catch up and now Nolan paid for it.

Liz quickly shot to her feet and summoned as many skeletons as she could, having to drink a potion before summoning the rest.

Nolan burst from the pile of skeletons, his skill on cooldown. He was pissed and activated another of his skills.

[Charging Bull]

With this thought, Nolan blasted through the skeletons, knocking them over and damaging the front most warriors in the process until he was once again in front of the girl. He knew she could only use that weak [Mana Bolt] attack, she was pathetic and relied only on these boney freaks. Unfortunately, he knew wrong.

As his skill came to an end, mere metres from Liz, a spear of bone impaled him. Nolan stumbled back, not expecting such a deadly attack, worst still was the amount of blood gushing from the wound. He pulled the spear out and found the weapon was barbed, causing his bleeding to worsen, he was losing health fast.

"*Cough* Where the hell... *Cough* Did this come from?" He spluttered, blood coming from his mouth like a dam. Liz only smiled, beginning the process of using her spell once again.

Nolan watched on in fear as bone began to form as it had just before, he knew in that moment if he didn't stop her, he would die. His 2 best skills were still on cooldown, but he couldn't allow her to continue.

[Wave Fis- Before he could even finish activating his skill, he felt himself under attack from behind.

In his distress he had completely forgotten this little girl was not alone.

How did I forget!? Nolan's mind was in chaos, he was about to die, all because of a mistake.

No enemy had ever made Nolan feel fear, only now was he realising her was simply a big fish in a small pond.

And as a [Bone Spear], 5 times the size of the previous attack flew towards him, Nolan broke free of the skeleton's grasp. But then it was too late, the attack punctured his wound, sending him flying back.

His large body was pierced into a tree, and Liz walked over cockily and stared at the mountain of a man, now vomiting blood from his mouth with a hazy look in his eyes.

"How's it feel?" She asked, as if in a last ditch effort, Nolan punched at Liz. But it was meaningless, Liz had won. Nolan was the loser and Liz was the victor. When Nolan died Liz quickly rose to level 19, her [Bone Spear] to level 2 and [Summon: Skeleton Warrior] to level 3. At first she was happy, she had once again gained an immense power increase, gaining another 10 skeleton warriors and an even stronger attack, but then something happened.

Something good, then something bad. Something that would further impact Elizabeth's time playing ELO.

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