Nolan didn’t move an inch, goading the rest of the party to attack him.
“Grey, you revive James. Me and Patrick will hold this guy off,” Amelia told them, “Delarius, go hide in a corner or something.”
“Fear not, I am a smart man,” Delarius said as he walked into the far corner.
Nolan put his foot on James’ body. “I can hear you, you know. If you want to plan, plan quieter. And make better ones.”
“Guess we’ll just have to force you away, then,” Patrick snarled, “Time to stop playing around.”
He raised his hand and the air around it broke like glass. Nolan examined himself in surprise as his body seemed to stiffen and crack.
Sage Skill
Shatter
Crack your opponent’s defences like glass.
Casts Break on an enemy for 10 seconds.
20 second cooldown.
----
Nolan Pagen
Break, Awakening
----
Status Effect
Break
0.5*DEF
Any sense of fear from Nolan went away after the sensation subsided a little. He smiled.
“C’mon. You really think that will be en-”
Trident743
Firebolt
Brave
----
Nolan Pagen
125/300 HP
Break, Awakening.
----
Trident743
95/150 Mana
The smoke cleared around Nolan, revealing how badly Patrick’s firebolt had scorched his skin. His clothes were badly burnt, leather armour smoldering. Half of his face was charred, to the point that the sinew around his left eye was now visible. His skin was cracked and broken in a way akin to a smashed window. His confident smirk had turned to a snarl, and despite the impact he hadn’t moved an inch.
Without saying a word, he rushed forward, swinging his sword at Amelia as it let out steam. She dodged the strike, but the air pressure forced everyone off balance. Nolan swung upwards, raking through Amelia’s ribcage and sending blood splattering onto the ceiling.
GlassAngel
50/150 HP
Brave
Amelia staggered back before trying to stab Nolan, but he stabbed his sword into the ground and let out a burst of air that threw her away. Patrick threw a magic bolt as Nolan replaced the cartridge, but the mercenary dodged the strike, raked his sword across the ground and fired an air blast that sliced apart the table’s around him. Patrick dived to the side and threw another bolt that Nolan casually blocked with his sword. He ran forward, dragging his sword along the ground.
“I’m not gonna die here!” He screamed. He slashed up at Patrick, sending up sparks, and Patrick blocked the attack with his staff. As the Sage staggered back, Nolan prepared to stab him, but Amelia shoulder tackled him away before slashing him across the chest.
As their blades clashed, Grey slid across the floor and dropped a Revive into James’ mouth. He felt his organs fall back into place as he regained consciousness.
Cieth
5/300 HP
Anti-Revive.
Grey smiled, “Welcome back to the world of the li-”
Nolan kicked Amelia away, spun around and shot a blast of air pressure straight at Grey. Their body flopped like a ragdoll as the surprise attack sent them flying across the room, barrelling over one of the tables.
Amelia tried to stab Nolan in the back when he turned around, but Nolan swung his sword over his back, blocking the attempt, and proceeded to kick Amelia in the stomach. She gagged slightly and swung her blade wildly, trying to keep Nolan off her, but he held back just out of her range, rushed her when she was open, and ran her through.
GlassAngel
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
0/150 HP
Available Revive Time: 3 minutes.
Grey staggered to their feet, annoyed that they’d missed a chance to save another of their comrades, and started healing James, who was already running towards Nolan.
Skibabylon
Healing Beam
Nolan pulled his bloodied blade out of the corpse and blocked James as he swung his shortsword. James pushed Nolan’s sword into the ground and prepared to strike, but at that moment Nolan ejected the blade’s cartridge into his face. James missed the swing and gave Nolan an opportunity to slash him across the chest, but the blade simply sliced across James’ shield. Patrick threw a firebolt, aiming for Nolan’s back.
However, Nolan reloaded the cartridge as the blade went over his head, aimed it at Patrick, and fired, dispersing the flames and sending him careening into the wall. He choked up blood and collapsed onto the ground.
Trident743
0/100 HP
Available Revive Time: 3 minutes.
“Your fight is with me!” James screamed, stabbing Nolan through the shoulder.
Nolan Pagen
78/300 HP
Break, Awakening
“My fight is with all the bastards who killed my men!” Nolan shouted back. He pulled the shortsword out of his body and swung at James, which he blocked easily with his shield. Nolan kept attacking recklessly, James’ shield barely holding up against the constant attacks.
“Neither of us want to lose our friends,” James continued. “Maybe if we stopped killing each other, we could find common ground.”
“Why does death matter to you?” Nolan growled as their blades continued to clash. “You can bring your allies back with a pill. You can cheat death for a price, one none of us can afford. Would you be willing to lend a few to my men?”
“If you wanted them to live, you should have stayed away from this garrison. These people are innocent.”
“Clearly you don’t know shit. Let me get you up to speed: Corinth is corrupt to the core. No one here can live a normal life anymore. You must understand…this world is corrupt. The Dark Lord may be pure evil, but I’d take him over the way things are now. ‘Least with him, our suffering is quick.”
“You’re damn insane.”
Nolan smiled bitterly. “I get that a lot. Starting to like it.”
“James, duck!”
James did as he was told as Grey swung their staff over his head and smashed Nolan in the face. As he was still stunned, James stabbed Nolan in the wrist, forcing him to let go of the Exhaust Blade. James threw his own sword to the side and picked the Exhaust Blade up, running Nolan through with it and smashing him into the wall.
The blade was so heavy he had no idea how Nolan could lift the thing, and if he used the steam release, he had no idea how he controlled it. He noticed there were several buttons and switches on the hilt: Nolan had gotten so used to pressing them in combat they’d never noticed him touching them, let alone how complex the mechanism was.
At the very top of the hilt, almost on the blade, James felt a rather large button and pretty quickly realised what it was. He smiled at Nolan as he looked back in abject horror, realising what James was about to do.
“See you, Nolan. You weren’t half bad. Zero Sum Discharge!”
Nolan’s organs popped like balloons and he coughed up blood as the air pressure exploded in his body, killing him instantly, the blood covering James’ armour and the Exhaust Blade, Nolan’s own weapon. James pulled the sword out of the wall and let Nolan collapse to the ground, breathing heavily. The Exhaust Blade broke apart in James’ hand as the final stat screen came up.
Nolan Pagen
0/300 HP
----
Encounter Complete
All Party Members gain 650XP
All Party Members gain 1000 Gold
----
Level Up!
Skibabylon: Level 4
Skibabylon Cleric Class: Level 4
Skibabylon: +10 SPL
“I’m guessing that’s because you’re the only one who hasn’t died in a dungeon yet,” James said to Grey. They nodded in response.
“Likely. You guys can’t be far off though, that was a lot of XP.”
“We’ll catch up, there’s got to be some sidequests in Haelshire, or we can gun the main story and hope there isn’t a massive level jump.” James lifted up Amelia’s corpse while Grey picked up Patrick. “These two should revive once we get outside, and I don’t want to spend more Revives than we have to. Let’s move.”
“Let’s indeed,” Delarius replied, trying not to look at Nolan’s body spilling out liquidated organs. As they left down the hallway, James heard a voice echoing, one he recognised far too well.
YOU NEVER DID KNOW WHEN TO STOP TALKING, DID YOU, NOLAN?
The tail of Draconautis grabbed Nolan’s body and dragged him onto the ceiling out of sight.
“Y’know, I really wish we could keep his sword,” Grey said. “Seems crazy strong.”
“Y-Yeah,” James stuttered. He started to pick up the pace a little as he heard the bone’s crunch within the monster’s teeth, and through the sickening sounds, he could have sworn he heard Nolan screaming.
James Stats: Level: 3 HP: 80/300 STR: 10 DEF: 15 DEX: 5 SPL: 15 INT: 1
Grey stats: Level: 4 HP: 50/150 STR: 5 DEF: 15 DEX: 5 SPL: 20 INT: 0 Healing Pool:200/400
Amelia Stats: Level: 3 HP: 0/150 STR: 25 DEF: 5 DEX: 10 SPL: 5 INT: 0
Patrick stats: Level: 3 HP: 0/100 STR: 20 DEF: 5 DEX: 15 SPL: 15 INT: 0 Mana: 75/150
