NOVEL WEB Chapter 25: Raid In The City
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[The Defense Against {The Unending Crimson} Raid of the [Wild Dog Plains (Tier 1)] Dungeon has failed!]
[The Defense against {The Unending Crimson} Raid of the [Blood Bat King’s Cave (Tier 1~2)] Dungeon has failed!]
[The World Event: {Invasion of the Outer Ones} progresses]
[The First of Many, {The Unending Crimson}, has released his flames upon the Realm of Obscuritas.]
[The Village of Elderbridge is under a Dungeon Raid!]
[Defeat the two Boss Monsters to slow down the monster spawn, and then defeat all Monsters from the two Dungeons to seal the Dungeons completely.]
[The more time passes since the Raid started, the more monsters will spawn and the higher the chances for second or third Bosses to appear.]
[Based on the number of kills, Players that participate in the Raid will gain special Raid Points that can be exchanged for prizes in the Raid Shop.]
Paul and Chris were looking at the messages in front of them; they were thinking they could finally take a break and go eat dinner with their respective families, but a crisis had suddenly befallen the entire city of Elderbridge.
A Raid!
Flames and red crystals were rapidly spreading around the entire plaza, and some of the houses around it were already set ablaze. Where the flames burned, red crystals would grow from their ashes.
The flames, however, didn’t move on their own; they were propagated by the monsters coming from the two dungeons. Formerly Tier 1 and Tier 2 Dungeons, the monsters coming out of them were considerably stronger than them.
The Wild Dogs were covered in flames and armor made of red crystals, and so were the Vampiric Bats, who flew around spreading flames much faster with their ability to fly.
There were players fighting, mostly low-level Tier 1 and Tier 2 ones, which made up the majority of players in this city because it was considered a “newbie village” where players would usually start their avatar’s lives and, after reaching Tier 3, they would move out somewhere else.
Therefore, aside from the handful of Tier 3 players, there just weren’t enough strong players to deal with over two hundred blazing monsters, with augmented vitality and strength, and with new fire-breathing magic powers.
The inhabitants had all escaped, and Vlad knew that the Elite of the Hunter Association wouldn’t get here any time soon, as the entire order of defense of this city was screwed. Without an actual monetary incentive, they would rather run away than fight for the city.
The incentive of Raid Points for Players, however, made them all work hard to at least stop some of the monsters, which had helped the propagation of flames slow down, even if for a couple minutes.
Vlad knew very well how fragile and vulnerable the city of Elderbridge was! He had also already discovered that his mother was the city’s actual duchess, something to which he had not paid much attention at first.
“Holy sh*t, everything is burning!” Chris said,, looking around. “Paul, what do we do?! I’m exhausted already!”
“Nothing else than to fight; that’s what we’ll do!” Paul said. “Well, if you want, you can log out; I’ll stay. I need to at least stop these things.”
Vlad quickly stepped forward, leaving Chris behind as his Arcana was below five thousand, his armor had low durability, and his already crippled body was already very tired too.
CLASH!
“Ugh, dammit, this is too much!”
The scream of a player quickly caught his attention, as he saw a group of Tier 1 newbies fighting four Blazing Armored Wild Dogs, as strong as Tier 3 monsters.
“We have to log out; we can’t earn points like this man!”
“This is too unfair!”
“ROAR!”
The wolves roared furiously, attacking them with ferocious claw attacks, which unleashed explosions of flames and sharp crystals, piercing through their armor and skin.
The group was composed of two werewolves, one orc, and a gargoyle, their tank, but the gargoyle girl’s stone skin was full of cracks, bleeding all over.
Her shield was beginning to burn and shatter too!
“Come on!”
They charged forward, the orc swung his axe, and the two werewolves used their swords to pierce the skin of the dog in front of them.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“GRAARR!”
However, the wolf gave a loud, ferocious roar. Although their attack did some damage, it was not enough; a simple roar generated a shockwave of fire, sending the players flying away.
RUMBLE!
“Uaagh!”
“No! My weapon broke!”
“My armor is burning!”
The players quickly started to panic; logging out in the middle of a battle actually had a cooldown of 10 seconds, and although they were doing just that, the dogs were faster, rushing towards them to finish them off.
For players that could revive normally, there were penalties for dying; usually, they would drop things from their inventory, earn some credits, and even lose some of their progress, losing one rank out of ten within their current tier.
This punishment became harsher with each Tier they achieved, so players just committing to achieve something wasn’t a good strategy because of such penalties.
“ROAR!”
The blazing wild dogs reached them, their blazing claws slicing down with rapid attacks, explosions of flames surging constantly; their bodies couldn’t resist much longer.
Yet…
“{Ice Shards}!”
A crimson knight appeared out of nowhere, slamming into the ground right where the dogs were and unleashing three powerful chunks of frost into the monster’s faces.
BOOOM!
The frost rapidly expanded, his hands covered on this same ice as he attacked the beasts with his bare hands, their crystal armor shattering into pieces by his might.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
BAAAM!
“W-Watch out!”
As the knight had taken down three wolves, another two rushed towards him from behind, while a third prepared a giant fireball to greet him from above.
Yet!
FLUOSH!
Suddenly, a phantasmal crimson knight appeared out of the shadow of this man, attacking the two wolves behind him with even more strength than him, shattering their skulls with a mere punch.
Then, jumping over their corpses, the phantasmal warrior broke the mandibles of the wolf and stopped its chanting; the fireball exploded in midair, hurting nobody.
“Good thing the Blood Phantom Clone’s time is still over half an hour; I have this to help me out.” Vlad sighed in relief, looking at the players. “Quickly log out! You can’t handle this! Thanks for your help, though.”
“Holy sh*t, isn’t that the guy from the speedrun?!”
“Woah, he’s him!”
“Vlad, right?!”
“Can you do me a shoutout? I also got a channel.”
“Enough! These are urgent matters; you’re going to die if you stay!” Vlad slammed their heads. The players were acting like children.
“Okay, okay!”
They quickly started logging out, one after another. Vlad was then surrounded by five more dogs and seven Vampiric Bats above him.
“Huh, you’re not making this easy, aren’t you?” he sighed. “Unending Crimson, you tricked me!”
The wolves and the bats then started to laugh.
“Trick you?” one bat laughed.
“There is no such thing as trickery!” the dog beside him said.
“You beat me in that dungeon, right?”
“You simply lacked information about the other two dungeons.”
Vlad didn’t say a word; visibly too pissed to care, he quickly charged against the nearest dog, slamming their heads with a club made of ice by combining Ice Shard with his Magic Wand.
BAAAM!
The dog’s head was caved in by the ice, as the frost was tainted with the red color of their blood, its body dropping down before it could do anything.
“What are you waiting for? Come, all of you at once.”
“ROOAAR!”
“SHYAAH!”
The roars of the beasts reverberated, rushing towards Vlad all at once. Their claws, explosive blazing attacks, and fireballs bombarded him constantly.
Amidst dozens of attacks, he moved, his fists channeling the power of his Blood Power and his Soul Aether, forming an Aura of Gold and Crimson.
“{Soul-Eating Fist Technique}: {Blazing Soul Fist Rain}!”
His hands channeled the flame of his very soul, combined with his blood energy, generating a gold and red-colored fire, which merged with the frost element imbued into his hands, creating azure-colored fire and frost flames.
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
The monster’s souls were torn apart with each punch, and their bodies started freezing. One after another, Vlad started making his way through, even as fireballs bombarded him and powerful jaws tried to bite him.
[“Fool! For how long you have been waiting?! Use my powers and wipe the floor with them!”]
The Heavenly Demon had grown tired of Vlad’s struggles.
“I can’t afford to use it so easily; we’re in a crisis, and that power lasts for a couple of minutes! Two bosses are roaming the city; I need to pinpoint where they are first before I can use the buff!” said Vlad.
[“If you activate the buff, you will be able to easily do it by expanding your powerful Ki Aura!”]
[“Because you can’t use Ki in your current state, detecting enemies is extremely hard for you!]
Vlad remained in silence as he kept frantically fighting, but more and more monsters kept coming, constantly swarming him over!
“D-Dammit!”
His Blood Phantom Clone was fighting fiercely as well; their teamwork was great! However, it was not enough; the numbers were much more overwhelming than in the dungeon.
Crack, crack…!
“At this pace, my armor’s going to break!”
Vlad was trying to make some space for himself, using his Arcana as little as possible and preferring to attach two icicles to his arms. Like this, each of his blows would pierce his foe’s bodies with an ice spear, spreading frost inside their wounds and weakening them, as they were all fire-type monsters.
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
Yet, there were too many; no matter what, he was being thrown around, launched into the ground, and even lunged into the air by all the ferocious beasts.
[“See? What did I say?!”]
“I can handle this. I can.”
Although Vlad was saying this, he was already considering using the Heavenly Demon buff to gain the upper hand.
However.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Three Ice Arrows reached the monsters swarming him; dozens of creatures were covered in explosions of frost, temporarily freezing instantly, their flames weakening.
“That’s…!”
Paul looked into the skies, his eyes widening. He had thought he had logged out. After all, he couldn’t blame him if he wanted to go have dinner instead of playing a game.
Yet he was there anyway!
“Chris!”
The sexy red-haired Incubus was above the skies, wielding his magic bow and imbuing it with his Light, forming another ice arrow, this time one shining like gold.
“Hah, you’re really hopeless without me, aren’t you? Okay, let me give you a hand! Dinner can wait!”
Chris fired a giant Holy Ice Arrow, which hit the surrounding monsters again, dividing in midair into ten smaller arrows. This was without a doubt a Skill!
“Did he learn Archery Techniques?!”
Vlad quickly stepped out of the scene as explosions of light and frost bombarded the monsters, freezing them and then purifying them, tearing them down to pieces.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
[“Well, you got your ass saved by that twink again! He’s definitely bride material! Why haven’t you made any advances on him yet? You should bring him to your bed and do love to him already!”]
“Shut up, horny old man!”
Vlad was not having it today, quickly shutting down the Heavenly Demon as he rushed amidst a swarm of Vampiric Bats in the sky. With his clone above him, the two unleashed a barrage of punches, destroying the monster’s souls and freezing their bodies, making them fall to the ground.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“Clear!”
Chris called, telling Vlad that he had cleared his perimeter.
“Good! This area’s clear; let’s go to the west; there’s more monsters accumulated over there... Shit!”
RUMBLE!
Before Vlad could get closer to Chris, however, a giant silhouette loomed amidst the buildings—a massive wolf of over twenty meters in height.
Covered with red crystals and flames, it was definitely not the same thing that he and the incubus had defeated some days ago.
“AWOOO!”
With a mighty howl, the gigantic blazing wolf unleashed a blazing flare of flames, which was about to hit Chris! Vlad knew that if he were to get hit by that, there wouldn’t even be ashes left.
“Chris!”
He quickly used five hundred Arcana at once, imbuing his legs with as much wind as possible and flying like a bullet towards Chris, grabbing him and rushing down before the beam was to get to him.
BOOOM!
The building right behind them exploded into pieces, flames spreading everywhere and then quickly crystallizing.
“Damn, thanks for the save.” Chris sighed in relief. “But is that…?!”
“Yeah, that’s the first dungeon boss.” muttered Vlad.
The wolf glared down at them.
“GRRHHH…”
The weakest boss in the entire game...
It had become a city-destroying threat!
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