Seeds of Discordia: New Arrival Mayhem

Liam turned to look at the others.

They waited patiently as he began to think up a possible strategy.

After thinking of many possibilities and adding in unknown factors that could happen, he decided on one.

“Since we don’t know what to expect when we get in there and what its abilities are,” Liam started. “Well start off with Artem tanking it. Blair will cast Gravitational Force Increase to make its movements slow. After you do that then you and Artem will take turns tanking it. Make sure to time and coordinate when you do it.”

Blair and Artem nodded.

“Ariyana and Mercer will cast their buffs,” Liam continued. “Avery, Roman and I will attack from afar. Ariyana and Mercer will join in with long ranged attacks until we can get a feel of how this monster’s abilities and attack patterns are. Once when we understand what we’re up against I will adjust accordingly.”

“Sounds good to me,” Roman said as he cracked his neck.

Everyone else nodded their agreement with the plan.

“Ok,” Mercer said as he turned to Artem. “Our food buffs are almost done, do we have enough to keep up a food buff per EFM and boss?”

“I made enough for that and maybe three more,” Artem nodded as he looked at his inventory.

“Good,” Mercer stated before looking at Liam. “Pass out another round and then let’s do this.”

 

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Liam and the others slowly approached the door. They stopped a few feet away from it as Liam signaled them to stop.

He turned to look at them and asked, “Are you guys ready?”

They all nodded and readied their weapons.

“Alright, on the count of three,” Liam started. “One…two…thre…”

Before Liam could finish, a creepy raspy voice commanded, “I know someone is there. Come out now.”

Everyone’s blood ran cold as their eyes widened.

They hadn’t come across a monster that was able to talk before. Adding the sound of his voice and the ominous aura escaping out the door, this made them reluctant to move forward.

The group turned to Liam who looked back at them.

Ariyana mouthed the words, What do we do?

“I will not ask again,” the voice ordered. “Come out now!”

Liam gulped and nodded them to proceed.

He must be able to talk because he is an intelligent type monster. Liam thought as they slowly entered the room.

He is a lot more dangerous than I thought he would be. Eri started with worry in her tone. Be on guard. This fight is going to be one of your toughest yet.

Liam felt goosebump start to rise as he listened to Eri’s warning. For the amount of time he had spent talking with her, she had never shown this kind of worry.

Artem and Blair walked in slowly and cautiously first. Avery and Roman walked along the outside behind the two defenders with Liam in the middle. Ariyana and Mercer took the rear and stopped closer to the door, in case they needed to retreat.

Each clenched their weapons tightly, ready to start fighting.

The Askith Wight Commander stared at them with a curious look. His face had pale white skin and piercing light blue eyes. He held a long sword with the tip of the blade resting against the floor.

After a minute of silence, the EFM started, “Who are you? What nation do you belong to?”

Liam looked at Mercer and nodded.

He knew Mercer would be the better choice when it came to talking due to his Gift of Gab Focus Point from the Field of the Bard.

“We do not belong to any nation. We are just travelers who had stumbled upon this place by accident,” Mercer started. “Can you tell us who you are and what this place is?”

The Askith Wight Commander stared at him. After a moment he replied back, “This temple is the Askith Temple of Cratus. God of Challenges, Power, and Strength. Tell me travelers, who do you worship?”

Mercer paused to think over his words. After deciding on how to respond, Mercer answered, “We do not worship any god at the moment. We are new to these lands and are still learning the ways.”

The Askith Wight Commander frowned at Mercer’s reply. He looked around the group then looked up to the ceiling.

“You are lying,” the Askith Wight Commander stated with a scowl.

Liam felt a shiver run down his spine as he mentally said, Eri…

“I assure you I am not lying,” Mercer said with a confused look.

“You are,” the Askith Wight Commander snarled back.

Eri…Liam repeated when she didn’t reply. Is he sensing you even though I am not your champion?

He’s sensing our connection. I’m not sure how he’s doing that. It should be impossible, unless… Eri finally replied.

Unless what? Liam asked her.

Unless he has a blessing from a God. Eri stated.

Liam’s eyes widened as he took in her words. He looked at the monster and asked Eri, Can monsters be blessed by the gods?

You view him as a monster which is half right. Eri started. You forget, he was once human and has intelligence.

Since he still has a human side to him due to being Undead he can still receive a blessing? Liam asked.

Yes. Eri answered.

“This keeps getting more complicated the more we dive in,” Liam quietly muttered to himself.

Liam then said with as even of a tone as he could, “None of us worship nor have a blessing from any gods. That is the truth.” Liam paused for a moment before continuing, “However, I must ask. Do you still worship Cratus even after the fall of your nation?”

The Askith Wight Commander focused his attention on Liam. His snarl slowly turned into a predatory grin. “You are quite perceptive. No, we denounced our blessing from that failure of a god and received a much better one from a more powerful deity.”

Liam’s eyes narrowed. “Which god do you serve?”

“I’m afraid you will never know,” The Askith Wight Commander stated before hefting his blade up, pointing it into the air and commanded with a booming voice, “Elite Soldiers, come forth! Intruders have arrived in our sacred temple!”

Two statues from the left and right side suddenly vibrated and came to life. They pulled their swords up from the ground and took a step forward.

Liam assessed the new creatures.

 

“Elite Skeleton Soldiers. 1000/1000 HP. 0/0 MP.”

 

“What’s the plan Liam,” Artem called out.

“Artem, if that EFM steps forward he is your priority,” Liam started. “Everyone else focus on the two to the left.”

“Got it!” everyone shouted.

Liam turned to the two on the right and started to chant, “O Gravity, powerful and dangerous. Condense into a single spot. Pull to you and keep any and everything that tries to escape. Gravity Well!”

A purplish orb grew to the size of a basketball on the tip of his Shadow Blade dagger. He then flicked it in front of the two monsters and watched them get sucked to it.

Liam had learned that once his spells reached level ten, the chant was shortened to make the spell activate faster.

Liam didn’t wait and started chanting again, “O Gravity, powerful and dangerous. Bring the Force down upon my enemy slowing its movements. Gravitational Force Increase!”

Without waiting to see the spell land, Liam turned to see the Askith Wight Commander swing his long sword at Artem.

Artem parried it with his shield, making the Askith Wight Commander lose balance as his sword bounced back. Artem took this opportunity and swung his mace at the EFM, hitting the shoulder of the creature’s armor.

Artem’s eyes widened as he brought his mace back and his shield in front of him. As he blocked two swings of the EFM’s strikes, he shouted out, “My attacks do almost no damage against him. Blunt attacks are going to be useless.”

“Got it!” Liam replied back as he watched the others take on the two Elite Skeleton Soldiers.

They looked to be struggling as Avery and Roman dodged their attacks and ran back to strike a couple of times before moving out of the way again.

Liam thought over what they could do. That armor the Askith Wight Commander was wearing was probably made out of bone materials so certain attacks would hardly do anything, making it much tougher to bring its health down quickly.

He watched Avery as she ran in and attacked the Elite Skeleton Soldier. Her rapier attacked certain points with precision and was doing more damage than Roman’s punches.

After thinking it over Liam shouted, “Avery! Once when you finish off that monster go and help Artem out. See if you can find any weak points.”

Avery spun around the monster she was facing, jumped up and drove her rapier right into the collar bone of the monster, giving it the final blow. She turned to face Liam and nodded before running towards the Askith Wight Commander.

Liam ran over to Mercer who had finished playing one of his buff songs and said as quietly as he could, “If you see an opening, fire an arrow at the Askith Wight Commander. Don’t make it obvious what you’re doing. I’m sure if you do he’ll see it coming and dodge it.”

Mercer nodded as he swapped his violin for his bow.

“Alright, let’s finish this last one and then take down the other two so we can help Artem and Avery.

“Yeah!” the others roared as they focused the last Elite Skeleton Warrior on this side.

Liam watched and analyzed the creature as they attacked it. He noticed their attacks were slowly bring the creatures health down. Not as fast as it would with the other creatures they had previously fought.

Why does it take more effort to kill these things than the others? Liam questioned himself as he stared at the creature. Is it because of their armor?

Their armor has resistance to bludgeoning and piercing attacks. Eri chimed in. I’m not sure what else it has resistance to, but from watching you guys attack it, it has become apparent.

“Ok, if that’s the case then let’s try some magic,” Liam muttered to himself as he lifted his Shadow Blade dagger and chanted, “Shadows coalescing all around. Head my call and come forth.”

The shadows around Liam quivered and raced up his leg towards the blade. “Manifest physically into a circular form of destruction.”

A raven black orb started to form on the tip of the blade. “Release from the forms you’re attached to and shoot forward. Shadow Orb!”

“Front line, move out of the way!” Liam called out as the raven black orb shot out towards the creature.

Blair and Roman jumped back just as the Shadow Orb slammed against the monster.

Liam watched as its health plummeted to half.

“Magic attacks work better than physical attacks,” Liam informed. “Blair, for now you’ll physically attack so you can keep its attention on you.”

Roman jumped back a couple of times and readied a spell. As soon as he, Ariyana and Mercer finished chanting, they released their spells.

After the spells collided, the Elite Skelton Soldier crumpled. Its armor clanking on the ground.

“Ok, let’s see how you guys are doi…,” Liam started to say as he turned to reassess the Askith Wight Commander, but was shocked to see that its health was almost back to full.

Not only did the EFM’s health barely dropped, Artem’s health had dropped to less than half.

“Blair, switch with Artem!” Liam ordered.

“On it!” Blair yelled.

Artem, hearing Liam’s words, jumped back as the Askith Wight Commander’s long sword swung down diagonally.

Blair swung her Great Axe from the opposite direction as she approach to make the weapon violently get hit back, bringing the weapon back over the EFM’s head.

“Artem, heal back up and tank those Elite Skeleton Soldiers,” Liam ordered. He then looked at Avery’s direction and called out, “Avery, back to me.”

Avery jumped in and swiftly struck between the armor under the creature’s armpit, then jumped back to dodge a swing of the creature’s sword.

She then made it back to Liam and asked while panting, “What’s up?”

Liam watched as she pulled out a Stamina Potion and drank it.

“Any weaknesses you could see?” Liam asked.

After finishing the potion, she placed it back in her inventory and answered, “His defenses are solid. Not many holes that we can exploit besides his head. I can get between gaps in his armor, but I can only get in one or two hits before having to get out.”

Liam nodded as he listened to her, keeping his eyes on the EFM.

“There is something strange though,” Avery started back up.

“Oh?” Liam asked with curiosity. “What’s that?”

“It feels like no matter how much damage we do to it, he somehow regains his health back,” Avery replied.

“You’ve noticed that too?” Liam questioned.

“It feels like our attacks aren’t doing much either,” Avery added.

“His armor has a resistance to blunt and piercing attacks,” Liam stated.

Avery looked at him with a frown. She then looked at the ground and said, “That makes sense since Artem’s and my attacks weren’t doing much when we hit his armor.” She looked back at Liam and asked, “So then how do we fight back?”

“If blunt and piercing don’t work, then magic is where we’ll go,” Liam stated. “If we need to maybe I can douse him with some oil and you can cook him alive with a fire spell?”

Avery gave a slight chuckle at the idea. “Let me know if it comes down to that.”

Liam smiled as he replied, “Will do. For now, help the others take down the other two Elite Skeleton Soldiers. They are weak to magic so use any spells you want.”

“Ok,” Avery said before running over to join the others.

Liam looked at the Askith Wight Commander. He lifted his Shadow blade and started chanting, “Shadows coalescing all around. Head my call and come forth. Manifest physically into a circular form of destruction. Release from the forms you’re attached to and shoot forward, Shadow Orb!”

After the raven black orb fully manifested, it shot out and rushed towards the EFM.

Blair, listening to Liam’s chanting, readied herself. As soon as he finished the chant, she kicked the Askith Wight Commander back while over swinging her Great Axe over her head. She used the momentum to pull herself into a backflip, going along with her weapon so she could get out of the way of Liam’s spell.

As the Askith Wight Commander balanced himself back, he took a step forward only to get hit in the chest with The Shadow Orb.

 

“Shadow Orb has successfully hit Askith Wight Commander for 45 damage.”

 

“Okay good. Your armor isn’t resistant to Shadow magic,” Liam muttered to himself. “You’re not impossible to kill, just tough. Now let’s have the real fight start now.”

 

Note from the Author:

A new Tier has been released on Patreon. Field of Lunar and Shadow. You can read up to 8 chapters ahead of Scribblehub by unlocking the Field of Lunar and Shadow Tier on https://www.patreon.com/Trippyland