24: The Ruined Fortress of Roha Vala, Part Nine

The Ruined Fortress of Roha Vala, Part Nine

[Yeah... Fighting's not an option.]

That realization came as Neve went up the stairs past Erin's cage and entered the next floor. Simply put, there were just too many enemies here.

At the back of this floor, overlooking the pool of lava to the left, was an arken holding a crossbow. Pacing back and forth throughout the room were two arkens with serrated knives, and guarding the staircase opposite the one Neve was peeking out from was a slightly larger arken with both its meaty hands wrapped around a giant hammer.

All of which were over level 50, of course.

[What to do, what to do?] Neve asked herself, pressing her head against the warm wall. [I could try luring one of them here... It's so risky, though. The only way it could work is if these guys actually function 100% off video game logic. If they don't, the guy I try to lure could end up just calling its friends and then running after me. Even then, winning a straight-up fight against just one of these guys is going to feel like taking on a boss. A difficult one, at that. And, if I accidentally end up luring more than just one, I'll get chased all the way back to the floating blocks. So, what do I do?]

She thought about it for a while, but a different answer never came.

[I guess if there was a completely viable way to go about this, one that was risk-free, it wouldn't really be a "punishment" kind of dungeon, would it? I'm just gonna have to go with trying to lure them here one by one, fighting them, and hoping for the best.]

Having decided on that option, Neve watched the two patrolling arken as they moved throughout the room.

The two enemies moved almost robotically, coming to a point in the center where both of them were right next to each other, but ending up on opposite sides of the room a little later.

[That's my opening.]

She waited for this to happen and, as one of the arken walked just ahead of her staircase, she fired off an {Iceball} at it.

The spell struck the arken and the creature squealed. The other arken did not notice. And so, it was only the one she struck that ran after her.

[Good. Luck was on my side.]

On that note, she ran down the stairs, hoping luck would remain on her side throughout this upcoming fight.

The part of the tower that provided the most space, so far, had been that area just in front of Erin. So, it was there that Neve chose to fight this creature.

The snake-like lady glanced over at her as she entered the first floor again. She looked slightly confused but watched on as the arken arrived at the same position.

Thus, Neve stood ahead of her enemy.

"Oaaarghhh!" The arken gave a hearty battle cry, its serrated knife outstretched and aimed at its enemy.

[... It's double your level. This is basically a boss fight. Treat it like one,] Neve told herself as her heart beat fast against her chest.

Wrapping her hands tightly against her staff, the fight began with another {Iceball} aimed at the opponent.

The arken took it on the chest, its body covered in a blue mist that highlighted the slowing effect of the spell that just hit it, and the pig ran toward Neve.

[Fundamentals, fundamentals. Kite it!]

"Kiting" referred to the strategy of attempting to put space in between one's self and a melee enemy in between attacks. Doing so simply made things more difficult for the opponent to end up on top of the ranged player.

As the arken reached her position, Neve began strafing to the left, continuing to throw out {Iceballs} at it. Once it seemed like the slowing effect had reached its limit, she swapped spells and began using {Waterball}, recalling the Precision-lowering effect this ability carried.

And yet, despite the slow, the arken reached her quickly regardless. Now that she wasn't trying to guide the enemies to a trap from a somewhat safe distance, she could tell just how fast these enemies actually were.

"Aghk!"

As the arken swung at her with its serrated blade, Neve stepped back. If she had tried to sidestep or lean away from the blow, her guts would likely be decorating the floor right now. Slashing wildly, the arken tried its best to strike her. It had no form, no techniques. It had nothing but an animalistic ferocity that pushed Neve back all the way to the wall next to the staircase.

She remembered what happened the last time she was pinned like this rather vividly. The feeling of being cut open was present in her mind even though she'd fully healed herself. She wasn't about to let it happen again.

Rolling out of the way, the arken's blade caught the wall. As soon as she could, she began firing off more spells.

Guessing that the {Waterball's} effects had reached its cap as well, she started casting {Fireball}, with her mana at 260.

"Aaaaaargh!?"

The arken's body was caught in flames. It dropped its weapon for a second and tried putting the flames out. Neve did not let up.

[Come on, how much health do you have!?]

240, 230, 220, one spell after another brought Neve's mana down further and further.

Until the weakened arken picked up its blade and Neve prepared herself to begin strafing again.

Instead, however, the arken threw the blade at her.

Neve hadn't seen it coming. Her eyes widened and her body froze up.

If the opponent had been aiming for her head, then this would have been the end of her journey right then and there. Or, maybe it had been, but its Precision had simply been lowered by her {Waterball} to the point where it missed its main target.

Regardless of what had saved her, the outcome was that the blade embedded itself in her left shoulder.

Neve cried out. The healer fell back, landing on the ground. The impact had been so strong, it felt like she'd just been punched by a world-class boxer.

With its blade still in her body, the arken began approaching.

Breathing heavily, Neve didn't even stand up.

From where she lay, she started casting {Fireball} at the opponent repeatedly.

"Arghh..." The arken gave a minor groan but continued moving to her, pushing through its own pain.

Neve did the same, trying not to let up.

One after another, her spells continued landing on her opponent until the arken stood over her.

Just as all hope left her, finally, the last {Fireball} she through pushed the arken back and the creature paused.

"... Ehhh," a strange sound escaped its throat and it fell back, just ahead of Neve.

EXP Gained: 220

EXP: 400/270

Level Up!

WS Tokens Gained: 130

WS Tokens: 4380

Instantly, Neve cast Healing Ground under herself. The spell got to work. As her body repaired itself, it pushed the arken's sword out on its own and the blade clattered as it hit the ground next to her.

While Neve waited for the spell to work, Erin said:

"I cannot imagine how someone like you has made it this far."

There was mockery in her voice, but also some awe. Neve chuckled.

"A lot of luck," she said, with a raspy voice. "Let's hope it doesn't run out."

As she lay there, healing, Erin said:

"Your fight reminded me of the wars I participated in. I was a soldier amongst my people, you know?" Erin stated. "Even though I was a princess as well. I may not look like it now that starvation has taken its toll on me, but I was quite strong in my day. Every day, people would gather and watch as I trained, trying to get glimpses of my skills."

"Is that so?" Neve asked, sounding a little tired. Beyond her tone, by now, the only sign of the massive wound she'd taken was the fact that her hair was wet with blood, with some of that crimson tint having stained her sapphire locks.

"Indeed," the woman said, with a great amount of pride in her voice. "Once you get me out of here, I would be happy to teach you a thing or two."

That made Neve pause.

[... Is she a trainer?] She wondered, then.

RPGs often had characters like these. People who could raise one's attributes.

[Is that why she's here?]

Suddenly, she was feeling slightly more compelled to want to get her out of this cage.

Standing up, Neve nodded.

"I'd like that." She turned toward the stairs. "I think I'm ready to get going again."

"Good luck out there," Erin told her. "Stay safe. It would be unfortunate for both of us if you were to get yourself killed."

"I know," Neve reassured her, waving as she walked away. "I know."

After investing her next points into Arcane again, she continued forth.

As she moved up the steps, she figured she would take the same approach that she just had with the previous arken. After all, it had worked once, so why wouldn't it work again?

She shot out an {Iceball} at one of the patrolling arken, trying to get it to notice her without alerting the others.

But, it did.

[Huh?]

The arken saw her and began squealing. This time, unlike the previous one, it pointed at her and made sure to get its allies' attention.

Then, they all started running toward her.

[Crap.]

At this point, Neve had a difficult decision to make.

Where exactly would she go?

The obvious answer of going back the way she came didn't seem viable, as that space was limited. If she went all the way to the floating blocks, she could jump on top of them, sure, but:

1. What would happen if the arken, presumably with higher Precision stats, caught up and just jumped onto the platforms with her?

And:

2. What would happen if she simply got shot in the back by the crossbow-carrying arken as she tried to make her escape?

As she watched them run toward her, Neve came to a simple conclusion. One she didn't like at all, but that felt like the only thing she could do having alerted every single one of her enemies.

[Just do it. You'll die if you don't.]

With those words spurring her to move, she ran *toward* the enemies.

As she got close to them, they swung at her with their blades, but Neve zig-zagged between them and managed to avoid their attacks.

The crossbow user aimed its weapon at her. Knowing her timing had to be on point, Neve waited until the last second, and, just as the bolt shot through the air, she moved to the right, watching the projectile hit the ground where her feet had just been.

The last enemy to avoid here was the hammer-wielding arken.

Neve threw out one {Iceball} at it, trying to have the slow make up for the lack of space since she needed to squeeze past that arken to make it into the staircase.

Thankfully, it seemed this was the slowest type of arken anyway, as it wound up an overhead swing that it did not manage to follow through on before Neve had moved past it.

She had no time to celebrate making it past that floor, however, as she reached the next and found enemies directly in front of her.

They noticed her immediately.

With echoing squeals behind her, Neve did the only thing she could do.

She kept running.

Archers were positioned along a wooden platform to the right, this time. Knowing there was a high chance she'd get hit, she used a lot of her remaining mana to cast Sacred Ground multiple times creating a trail of magical runes that she followed as she moved forward.

Swordsmen swung at her and nearly struck her multiple times, but Neve avoided them all. No thoughts went through her mind. It was as though the world had slowed down around her, knowing that if she made one single mistake, it could all be over.

The next floor had some slugs in it that Neve hadn't seen up until now. These slugs were crawling ahead of the statue Neve had seen from below, in reverence almost. The enemies here didn't notice her at all, but the ones behind her continued to follow after the healer.

One floor after another followed the same pattern. Neve would arrive, new enemies would be alerted, and they'd join the previous enemies in chasing after her, forming a crowd that grew larger, and larger, and larger still as she made her way up the tower.

Until, finally, she arrived at the floor that had the elevator in it.

There had to have been around 20 different enemies behind her, all single-mindedly running after the intruder who had zipped past them.

With salvation in sight in the form of a thin wooden square being held by old ropes, Neve felt a burst of energy surge within her.

[I'm doing it!] She thought. [I'm gonna make it! I'm-]

An arrow hit her back.

All of the wind in her lungs vanished.

Her body froze.

Her legs gave out and she fell forward, hitting the ground face-first.

She couldn't feel her legs. The arrow had struck the center of her spine.

As she laid there, in shock and scared as a cold wind blew over her body, a thought came to her.

[Get up.]

"I can't," she answered back, trying to pull her legs up. "I-"

[You're going to die.]

"I..."

Faced with this situation, an image appeared before her eyes.

It was brief, but it was effective. It was of Thomas, stabbing John in the throat with that rusted iron sword.

Another thought appeared then.

[I have to.]

The despair she felt then, as dozens of enemies made their way up the steps behind her, was converted into something else.

A raw, pure rage.2

Tamira had said it best. A lot of humanity's greatest feats had been fueled by anger. And it was this emotion she relied on now.

Neve put her staff away and, desperately, she clawed forward.

Despite the arrow in her body and the fact that her legs refused to obey her commands to start moving, Neve pushed herself toward that elevator with nothing but the little strength she had.

The enemies reached the floor.

Neve was just a couple of steps away.

"RAAAAGH!" An arken roared behind her, almost as though announcing how happy it was to have caught up to the bitch who led them on this wild chase.

"AGH!" Neve screamed out as she touched the elevator.

There was a button at its center. It was likely intended to be walked on, but from this position, all Neve could do was hammer at it with her forearm.

The button pushed in.

The elevator slowly began to rise.

The arken appeared behind her. One raised its ax high.

Neve turned to the right and the ax stabbed into the button she'd just pressed.

The elevator went up just before the arken could get on it.

And Neve managed to make it through.

Of course, if there were enemies at the end of this ride then she was simply fucked.

But, this was the best she could do.

Casting {Healing Ground} under herself, Neve's body repaired itself as the elevator slowly made its way up. A few arrows hit the wall behind the elevator, falling beside Neve, but soon, they stopped.

Maybe the arken had finally ceased trying to catch up.

Without a word, Neve lay there until the elevator ride stopped.

As she healed up, she could feel her legs again and Neve stood.

She half-expected to get stabbed then and there, but, no. There was no enemy here.

Only a hallway leading to a room that had a message over it.

[Boss,] Neve read. [Minimum: 1 Player Required].

Laughing dryly, Neve waited until she'd fully healed up.

[Here we are,] she thought. [I made it. I might just die here, but... It doesn't matter. I tried. That's all I can really say. Let's see what happens.] 

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