Seeds of Discordia

The first thing Liam heard as he slowly regained consciousness was a loud ringing in his ears. His eyes were still shut as he slowly came to. The ringing was sharp, but not painful. It felt like he just got rocked and his head swam. As he slowly opened his eyes all he saw were bright blurry red and orange colors swaying back and forth.

The blurry colors mixed with the ringing in his ears made him feel nauseous as he tried to process what was going on. As he tried to process it he felt a surge of anger warring with him trying to take over his mind again. As he mentally tried to fight back against the randomness he heard a voice. it was clear at first as it repeated a single sentence over and over.

He felt he recognized the voice, but he couldn’t place where he had heard it. As he continued to fight against the oppressive waves of anger the voice started to clear along with his vision. As everything cleared up his eyes widened before him. A massively tall minotaur almost as tall as the Toxo Brood Mother Queen ran about around the grounds. Its entire body was burning bright and hot as a trail of fire was left behind each step it made.

Cries of painful screeches and hisses filled the air as the smaller spider creature burned as the fiery creature ran over or close enough to them. The Toxo Brood Mother Queen stood in the middle of the circular inferno. One of her arms hung as it was burnt to a crisp. That didn’t stop her other arms from trying to slash at the creature that kept it trapped.

His thoughts on what or who that was, was instantly pushed away as Eri shouted in his mind, “Hurry up and drink a damn Health Potion you idiot!”

“Wha…,” Liam said unintelligently. He then noticed his health bar dropping quickly. It had reached fifty and was continuously dropping. With each tick the anger he was fighting against fought back against him harder.

He quickly pulled out a Minor Health Potion and drank it as quickly as he could. His health shot back up as he swallowed each drop of the liquid. As his health raced back up he noticed the angry emotions that tried to overwhelm him start to fade a bit. It was still there, but it wasn’t as domineering as it was when his health was so low.

“What happened?” Liam asked as he tried to get to his feet.

“Oh thank me,” Eri said with some relief. “That Raging Rabies that you’re inflicted with has a side effect that brings you into a Berserker State. Your mind was fighting against that as well as the small bit of my nature that fills you when you accept the Gifts of Chaos. When the Berserker State took hold of your mental state the restraint you had keeping my Chaotic Nature in check loosened enough for you to go into a half Chaotic Meltdown.”

Liam’s eyes widened. “Are you saying I almost…”

 “Yes. Thankfully, it didn’t last long since there was a timer on the Partial Temporary Seal Release. Once that timer hit my Chaotic Nature disappeared. And since you landed a blow that knocked you backwards and unconscious, the Berserker State had disappeared for a short time. If you hadn’t drank that potion you would have fallen back into it…well actually since your health almost bottomed out it wouldn’t have mattered if you fell back into that state since you’d be dead,” Eri informed.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Liam swore. He looked back at the fiery Minotaur and asked, “Is that…Roman?”

“Yes,” Eri answered. She then cut off his next question as she said, “No time to go into details. You need to finish that creature off. The swarm of Toxo Spiders that followed them out swallowed and killed majority of the Demon-kins, so you don’t have to worry about them, however that Toxo Brood Mother Queen still needs to die. If she doesn’t die then there is a high chance you all will die before you can get rid of the Raging Rabies that you all are inflicted with.”

Liam’s body stiffened at that. She was right. He wasn’t the only one who has that Raging Rabies Debuff. All four of them had it. Liam looked at the others Health bars. While they were higher than his they were still slowly ticking down. If they didn’t finish this fight soon they were screwed.

Liam stared at the Toxo Brood Mother Queen.

[Toxo Brood Mother Queen. 2,780/10,590 HP. 922/3,522 MP. Level – 29.]

Her health has dropped a considerable amount and even her mana is almost depleted.  Liam thought. If we could land a decisive blow then we could potentially finish her off…but what could… Two figures made their way over towards Liam. He was able to catch them in the corner of his eye. He readied himself for a fight but relaxed as soon as he recognized the people heading towards him. It was Artem and Blair.

Liam grew a bit worried as he noticed Artem was carrying Blair on his back. She looked exhausted and in pain as Artem ran.

“What happened?!” Liam questioned as they arrived.

“She used a new ability. After it deactivated she was hit with a backlash,” Artem replied while heavily panting.

“Shit. That’s not good, especially while she has the Raging Rabies Debuff,” Liam muttered.

“I agree,” Artem said. “I have a way to completely cure it from all three of us, but I can only use it once.”

“Four of us,” Liam corrected.

Artem’s eyes widened at his statement. He wasn’t out here and believed Liam wouldn’t get inflicted with it. However, he realized that line of thinking was too naïve. There was always a chance something could happen, and it seemed like something happened out here that caused him to get hit with it.

“You said you had a way to clear it right?” Liam asked as he thought about what ability he meant. He looked at Roman and as he stared at the man he realized what he meant. He looked at Artem and asked, “Your Zodiac ability right?”

Artem nodded.

Liam had almost completely forgotten about the ability that had saved his life once during the fight against the Askith Pharoah Mummy Lord. That boss monster had inflicted him with his Mummy Rot. A nasty poison that slowly destroyed the body as it spread throughout his system. If it was that ability then it could work. However, if they used it while the Toxo Brood Mother Queen was still alive then there was a chance they could get inflicted with again and they would be screwed.

“Everyone be ready,” Eri suddenly stated bringing everyone out of their thoughts. “Roman is almost out of stamina and needs to land a blow on the Toxo Brood Mother Queen. After that you will need to get him out of the blast zone and attack her while she is down.”

Liam grimaced as he looked at Artem and Blair. Bliar was suffering from the backlash of her newest spell and looked like she couldn’t move around on her own yet. Since Artem was carrying her on his back he couldn’t run and grab Roman wherever he landed. He would also need to drink a potion to replenish his stamina and the loss of health. Liam knew he was the only one who could do it, but he was starting to feel tired as well.

His thoughts were pushed away as he saw the giant fiery form of his Zodiac ability change course and sprinted right for the giant spider boss. The giant beast let out a thunderous roar right as the Toxo Brood Mother Queen turned and saw him. She raised one of her unburnt arms back and swung it out wide trying to hit him, however, her movements were too slow as her arm didn’t reach him in time before he slammed into her and exploded.

Roman’s giant body disappeared in the explosion revealing his smaller frame being thrown backwards. The Toxo Brood Mother Queen flew backwards as well towards the building in the mountain. Her swinging arm still moved as her body flew backwards. It might not have been fast enough to hit Roman, but as she flew her arms slammed into one of the smaller buildings she was closest to. The roof of the building was ripped right off and was sent flying towards Roman’s direction as he fell backwards.

Artem’s, Blair’s, and Liam’s eyes widened as they noticed the direction that both Roman and the ripped off roof was heading towards them. Liam cursed as he ran forward trying to determine where Roman was going to crash down at while Artem ran out of the way with Blair on his back.

As Liam stared and tried to think he can to the realization that he would need to jump into the mess of broken roof chunks that had started to break away from the main part of the roof and spread out around him. He had the image in his mind on what he needed to do, however he also realized that what he needed to do required a high level of reflexes, agility, and speed. That made him hesitate because he believed he didn’t have the required level to pull off what he needed to do.

He then chided himself for his hesitation and was about to try it anyways but stopped as two shadows suddenly jumped through the falling chunks of building materials. Liam watched as they moved effortlessly from falling piece of rumble to the next until they reached Roman, grabbed him, and looked like they were suddenly yanked away.

Liam followed where they landed then realized he was still in the blast zone of the falling pieces of building material. He looked for Artem who had made it out of the range and sprinted for him. Artem and Blair started shouting, but he couldn’t hear them. he was focused on the distance he was from them. He just needed to take a few more steps and then he could use his ability.

He took the steps he believed was right and focused on Artem. That was when a piece of roofing material fell down on him. Artem and Blair screamed as they watched more pieces land right where Liam was. They tried to see through the dust piles but couldn’t see anything.

They both almost jumped out of their skins as they heard a loud coughing fit right behind them. They swiftly turned to see Liam hunched over coughing. Small black wisps of smoke disappeared as they rolled off his shoulders.

“Holy shit man!” Artem shouted.

Liam straightened his posture as he took in a huge breath of air. He looked at the two and asked, “Give it to me straight. How close was that?”

Blair tried to swipe at him, but missed as Liam easily dodged it. “Too close for comfort.”

“I thought so,” Liam stated with a stern look.

“What about Roman?” Artem quickly asked. “Who were those two that caught him?”

“I don’t know,” Liam stated. He looked in the direction he last saw they being pulled towards and pointed. “They should have landed over there. At the edge of this place and the forest.”

Artem and Blair looked at where he was pointing at. Dust clouds blocked their vision, and they could see what was going on over there. That didn’t stop the three from running over there. It didn’t take them long to get there, however, when they got there they only found Roman leaning against a giant piece of roofing material that was still intact.

“Roman!” Artem shouted as they reached him.

Liam swiftly pulled out a health and Stamina potion. He popped open the cork of the health and brought it to his lips. Some of the liquid escaped his mouth, but after a second he started drinking. Roman opened his eyes and looked at three. He let out a cough after he finished the Health Potion.

After he stopped coughing Liam stated, “Drink this Stamina Potion.” Liam saw the grimace on his face and chuckled slightly. “Hey, I know it tastes disgusting, but you need to drink it.”

“Fine,” Roman croaked as he slowly reached for the potion.

“You guys need to hurry before that Toxo Brood Mother Queen puts out the fire that’s encasing her!” Eri warned.

Liam turned his attention towards the giant spider boss that was thrashing about, screaming bloody murder. Flames ran down her three arms and a couple of her legs. Her hair was curling upwards or falling off due to the small bits of fire in her hair.

Liam looked at her health. It had dropped to six hundred and ninety and slowly dropped. They still needed to do that much damage or whatever else was left after she put out all the fire. As he thought about what they could do he found himself staring at her health. Something nagged at the back of his mind as he stared at the numbers dropping. At first he couldn’t think why the numbers were drawing his attention. It wasn’t like he had anything he could use to instantly kill her when her health reached a certain percentage.

His brows furrowed as he thought about that. That wasn’t true he had a few things he could use that could trigger a situation like that. Like a combination of his Shadow and Lunar spells. He could use them to…he stopped that line of thought as he recognized the familiar dark lines barely rounding the edges of his line of sight. He then heard faint whispers tickling his ears. He shook his head at the idea. He was almost at the limit that would activate the Debuffs Whispers from Beyond and Stellar Affliction from Within.

He really didn’t want to suffer those annoying Debuffs right now since he needed to fight whichever Demon-kins that survived. Since his Zodiac ability Class Fusion had deactivated he wasn’t close to their levels anymore and due to their current conditions the fight would be hard. Not like fighting this level twenty nine boss was any different.

He tried to think again what he had. He knew he had something else. As he stared at the boss monsters health something caught his attention. It was an eerie ghastly green object. He turned his attention towards the object. It was a Soul Orb. As he stared at it he realized there wasn’t just one, but a massive number of them. He needed to harvest them before they floated towards the magic circ…an idea suddenly formed as he thought about the skill. He looked back at the Toxo Brood Mother Queen’s health again. It was starting to slow down since the flames were dying out, but it was still falling. It was close to six hundred now.

He did the math in his head and realized they were close to the amount he needed her health to be. But what could they do to bring it down enough? He turned to look at the others. He stared at Roman and was shifting his focus on the other two, but then stopped as he looked at the thing Roman was leaning against. He then looked at Blair and formed an idea.

“Blair!” Liam shouted.

Artem, Blair, and Roman looked at him.

“What?” she asked, still on Artem’s back.

“Can you cast Gravity Force Push and send that massive piece of the roof Roman is leaning on at the Toxo Brood Mother Queen?” Liam asked.

Blair looked at him then at the piece of rubble he was talking about. As she looked back at him she said, “I think so. I need to be standing and touching it, so I don’t accidentally send Artem flying instead though.”

“Can you stand long enough to do it?” Liam asked.

“I don’t know…Maybe?” Blair replied.

“I can hold you up from behind,” Artem said.

“So can I,” Roman added as he slowly pushed himself up.

“Okay do that please,” Liam said.

Artem and Roman walked around the other side of the roofing rubble. Artem lowered himself enough for Blair to slide off his back. Her legs wobbled a bit as she tried to stand up straight and almost fell down. Artem and Roman quickly hooked an arm under her armpits and steadied her. She gave them both a smile of appreciation before getting herself ready.

She angled herself in the direction of the massive monster before placing both hands on the edge of the broken roof piece. She took in a deep breath and after she released it she chanted, “Hinderances and obstacles blocking my path, weighed down by the law of Gravity. Reverse and move away from me, allowing the way to be clear. By the law of Gravity, I forcibly reject you. Gravity Force Push!”

Liam watched as the massive piece of broken roofing slowly rise up and hover for a moment. A second later the piece flew away like a gun releasing a bullet. He watched as the rubble flew up at an angle. The spot Blair aimed for was her head. Liam was afraid that since the massive creature was still putting out the rest of the fire that she might duck and dodge the object without realizing what was going on. However, that fear proved to be for naught as the Toxo Brood Mother Queen turned her face to look in their direction right as the massive piece of broken roofing slammed into her face, shattering the whole piece.

Liam looked at her health once more and saw that it had dropped to five hundred and thirty five. He clicked his tongue as he saw the numbers. They needed to shave off five more health points to bring her health down to five percent.

He took in a deep breath and knew what he needed to do. He needed to get close enough to her anyways and this was the best way to do it. He just hoped she didn’t move right before he landed on her.

Liam stared at the monster. He then pulled his goggles back over his eyes and chanted, “Hinderances and obstacles blocking my path, weighed down by the law of Gravity. Reverse and move away from me, allowing the way to be clear. By the law of Gravity, I forcibly reject you. Gravity Force Push!”

Using himself as the object to be thrown, Liam felt his body lighten for just a moment as his feet dangled a bit. The others turned their heads to look at him and were about to shout, but their words fell on deaf ears as he felt his body shoot off like a rocket.

Liam’s eyes focused at the part of the body he was aiming for. The angle he shot at wasn’t like Blair’s which was the head. He didn’t want to end up there. He needed to position himself as close as he could, but also deal some damage before he activated his ability. He just hoped he got close enough to the spot he wanted.

Artem watched as Liam’s body suddenly flew away from where they were. He didn’t know what Liam had in mind, but he didn’t like it when he did things like this. Sure the crazy things he did got them out of a sticky or what usually looked like an impossible situation, but there was so much luck a person had before their crazy plans failed miserably.

So when he watched his friend get force pushed towards the massively terrifying creature, Artem bit his lip and believed he knew what he was doing. If…when he succeeded he would need to use his ability and do his part. So for now he watched as the stupid man he called a teammate flew.

The three of them watched and were confused at the angle he was going. At first they thought he was aiming for the creature’s throat. This theory was made when he switched from his daggers to his War Scythe. However, the angle he was flying at brought his slight to the right of the monster. Right where the creature’s stomach and abdomen connected.

They then watched as he approached. Their nerves tensed as he flew past the creature. They were about to shout but stopped as he hooked the scythe around the edge of the creature’s stomach, spun around the stomach creating a massive wound as the blade ran along the stomach and then moved behind the monster. He then dug the scythe into the abdomen and used the anchor to slide along the back until he came to a stop.

The Toxo Brood Mother Queen shriek in pain as she felt the blade dance around her. After he came to a stop, almost at the edge of the abdomen, she turned her upper body and was about to swat him away but stopped as he gripped tightly to the scythe with one hand and grabbed something that materialized on his hip.

He pulled the lantern that glowed an ominous ghastly green and shouted, “Soul Harvest!”

Panic rose within the Toxo Brood Mother Queen as she felt something within her stir to his words. Orbs suddenly filled her visions from underneath her. The swirled under her feet and all around her like a whirlpool. After the wave of Spirit Orbs reached a certain speed, they shot up into the air starting at the middle of the whirlpool and ran right through her.

That strange and terrifying feeling filled her as she felt something being pulled from within her. She fought back as hard as she could to stop whatever was happening, but as more Spirit Orbs ran up through her into the air the more that something moved from within her. As the last Spirit Orb ran through her she felt relieved, the pulling had stopped, and nothing happened.

She looked up into the sky and felt all the eyes she could still see through widen. The stream of Spirit Orbs ran like a river stream above her. It then formed into a thick line as it swam away and curved back around, making its way right for her once more. She tried to move out of the way but couldn’t. Her legs were frozen in place. They trembled and shook showing she still had some feeling in them, but they still wouldn’t obey her command.

Her attention moved from her shaking legs and back towards the rushing stream heading in her direction. Realization filled her as she understood this was the end. Her body went lax as the stream of Soul Orbs crashed through her stomach and out her back before entering the Spectral Lantern Liam was holding. Each Soul Orb crashed against her soul, slowly bringing it out bit by bit until finally it left her body. The massive spirit folded backwards as the las of the Soul Orbs brought it with them into the Lantern.

Liam watched as the glass door of the Spectral Lantern slammed shut after the last Soul Orb flew in. The second it closed he felt the Toxo Brood Mother Queen’s body drop to the ground, lifeless and soulless. He let out a shout as he followed the body down, still holding on tightly to his weapon.

After both he and the corpse stopped, a notification appeared in front of him. A laugh bubbled out from him as a wide grin grew. His laughter grew louder the more he stared at it.

[Congratulations! You have defeated the Dungeon’s Final Wave Boss, Toxo Brood Mother Queen of the Decaying Land Entrance of the Toxo Catacombs!]