The Last Experience Point

Chapter 115: A Life Disconnected

As the sand muted their footsteps, the world sang with the hum of a delicate breeze that rolled across the beach, creating an atmosphere of tranquility: a softness that could be both heard and felt. Walking side by side with Kalana, Zach listened intently to the ambient noises made by the various mobs all around but also above him, which strangely had the effect of contributing to the overall sense of serenity. Yet more than anything else, it was the soothing melody of the ocean that became most prominent of all. It felt peaceful in a way that few things did, and it reminded him to appreciate every moment he had with Kal.

You never know when it can all be taken away from you, he thought, vividly recalling how he’d been separated from Kalana just when he’d finally confessed to her how he felt.

Briefly, he met her eyes. She met his. Together, they exchanged a smile. Then her smile sank abruptly into a frown, she stopped short, and her expression became sharp and flushed with alarm. And it was here that Zach was reminded of an important distinction between himself and Kalana that he had discovered during their fight with the dragon: namely, that while he relied on studying his enemy’s movements to predict attacks, Kalana, on the other hand, needed only her reflexes. Though Zach’s reflexes were also pretty damn good—and how could they not be, as even without Unleashed Phase, he had 87 points into dexterity—hers were on a whole different level. This, she now clearly demonstrated.

“Get out of the way! Now!”

Zach had no idea what was wrong. He had no clue for what reason she’d shouted these words. But you know what? It really didn’t matter. Because when someone you loved and trusted shouted to get out of the way, it was generally a good idea to listen. And so, lacking even a clue as to the cause of her shout, Zach picked a direction at random and lurched his body towards it as fast as he could. And Gods, was he glad he did so.

With a dull poof followed by a louder hiss, the sand where he’d been standing exploded, and emerging from beneath it was a huge, repugnant monster that looked like a giant worm; multiple fangs the size of an adult male’s forearm along with two jarringly sharp, tusk-like spikes protruded from its eyeless face, which was rounded and lacking in any other distinct facial characteristics. Startled, Zach had to force himself to maintain his composure as the creature oriented itself in Kalana’s direction then made a series of deeply unsettling squishing sounds as it began to writhe in place.

“What in the fuck is that?” he yelled in surprise, his heart pounding in his chest. “Scared the fucking shit out of me. Gods be damned!”

Following these wet sounds, mucus began to drip down over its fangs while a thick, elastic lump formed at the base of its body—or if not the base, then at least the lowest portion of its form that was visible while jutting out of the sand. Already reaching more than eight feet in height, it was impossible to tell if the sand concealed even more of this monster beneath it. If it did, he wasn’t sure he’d even want to know. Shaking his head and forcing himself to snap out of his moment of shock, Zach observed as it continued to writhe, and then the lump began traveling upwards through various segments of this hideous worm-like creature, expanding its brown, greasy flesh while rising higher and higher towards the fang-bearing aperture that Zach supposed passed for this thing’s “mouth.” In many regards, it reminded Zach of a snake eating a meal in reverse, and this time around, it was him, not Kalana, who realized what that likely meant—and what would probably come next.

“Kal, move! Hurry!”

Much as he’d done with her warning, she too now heeded his—and not a moment too soon, either. Kalana recoiled as, from within the creature’s mouth, several gallons of a dark green spew emerged, which thankfully missed her and landed harmlessly onto the sand, causing it to sizzle, smoke, and melt before eventually creating numerous flat, hand-sized shards of glass in front of his very eyes. Zach opened his mouth to say something, but before he had the chance, he spotted another lump forming, and once more, the worm-like creature unleashed another spew of what Zach took to be some kind of acidic vomit, this time targeting him instead of Kal. Having seen it coming well in advance, though, he made sure he was nowhere near the thing by the time it was showering down onto the sand in his direction, causing more small plumes of smoke to rise in the air as another patch of sand was melted down into glass.

“Where in the hell did this thing come from?” Zach asked.

“I dunno,” Kalana said. “I got no idea how we aggroed it.”

“What even is it?”

Zach regarded the creature that’d attacked them, and when he did, he opened his mouth and inhaled sharply out of a sense of equal parts surprise, awe, and alarm.

HP

158,000/158,000

Name

(T2) Megaworm of Battle Beach

Level

45

Gods, he thought. It’s a boss. A boss is attacking us!

Zach took another deep breath to both calm and relax himself. He reminded himself that there was no reason to panic. Sure, this might have been a boss, but it was certainly no Ziragoth. Not only was it merely a T2—which, based on the formula Rian taught him, meant that it was approximately equivalent to a level-65 mob—but if it really turned out to be all that dangerous, they could always just run away in any direction of their choosing. Though Zach had no idea what this thing was, he was still fairly sure it did not urgently need to die and would not suddenly show up in North Bastia a week from now to destroy a city if the two of them decided not to bother with it.

But I still really want to kill it, Zach thought, becoming eager. Even if we don’t have to. We have the time, I think.

At the moment, he and Kal were about a half mile away from a sandy hill due west of them that gradually turned into grassier terrain as the shore gave way to a large field, which was where Kalana claimed she strongly believed their quest resided. Having been keen to head over there as quickly as possible, they hadn’t killed anything since receiving their quest, choosing instead to ignore a whole lot of really fascinating mobs along the beach, many which Kal said she was seeing for the first time. Zach wondered if this was also something she hadn’t seen before.

“Do you recognize this boss?” he asked her.

Kalana bunched up her lips as though she actually had to think about it. “Um, nope, don’t think so. I’ve seen something similar, but definitely not this one. Do you wanna fight it, Zach?”

“Yeah,” he replied as he dodged another spray of acid vomit. “Should I summon my card and my Kralzek’s Beast?”

“I dunno. Those things are both way higher level than the boss, right? They’ll help a lot but they’ll take away a lot of the xp, too.”

“Wait, seriously? War-mounts and cards leech xp?”

“Um, I think so,” she said. “I mean, I know pets and minions count as party members, so it’s just a guess. I’m really not a hundred percent sure, though. But I definitely don’t want you to not summon them if you think you need to. If it gets too tough, you should do it.”

Zach signaled his agreement in the form of a nod, his excitement growing. “Let’s do it, Kal. You and me. We got this.”

“Mhm!”

Zach was proud of the confidence he felt in himself, and no one could fairly say it was unearned. After having survived alone against Ziragoth, he didn’t think it was arrogant to assume he could handle this. He was also reassured by the fact that he had a few tricks up his sleeve if absolutely necessary, and not just his saber-toothed cat and his card, either.

With more than two full days having passed since he’d last used Unleashed Phase, his Phase Level was now down to 1. And since the cooldown on the ability itself was only twenty-four hours, he would not need to reset it to 2 if he had to use it, which would kill him, as level 2 had a Very High exertion cost. No, if it came down to it, he could call upon the ability with a Phase Level of 1, which only had an exertion cost of High. Though he’d likely pass out cold when it came time to pay up, he knew that, if nothing else, he could at least survive that level of debt. But hopefully, with Kal’s help, he wouldn’t have to use it so soon, especially since she had killed level 90 boss adds with ease, and this thing should not have been as powerful as any of those; right now, she looked like she was really fired up and willing to give it her all.

Her daggers drawn, Kalana assumed a highly aggressive stance, placing her left foot a good bit ahead of her right while bending her knees and angling her body forward somewhat as she began to make small, continuous motions by bouncing slightly up and down off her heels. She also had her left arm fully extended with the dagger pointed at the boss while her right arm was folded across her chest; she held her other dagger horizontally in front of her shoulder in a reverse grip. Zach, for his part, opted for something a bit looser in case he needed to move quickly. He kept his legs wider apart but parallel, and he held his sword low, at least for the moment.

Staring ahead, he waited for the creature to make a move—and it did. The lump forming yet again at the base of the visible portion of its body, Zach watched as, with a series of contractions and expansions, the acid climbed up through segment after segment of its torso until at last jetting out of the so-called “Megaworm’s” mouth in the form of more disgusting green spew. This time, however, rather than dodge away from it, he dodged towards it, managing to duck down into a squat so that it flew over his head. Once clear of the hideous, puke-like acid, which sizzled as it melted the sand behind him, Zach charged straight at the worm. Raising his sword high, he drew upon all his strength, and then he released a vicious slice, whirling his blade around at the “Megaworm of Battle Beach.” Unfortunately, he missed it completely. In fact, it wasn’t even there anymore.

You’ve got to be kidding me!

As quickly as the boss had appeared through the sand, it vanished right back down the way it had come up, and thus the only thing Zach cut was the air. “What the…that’s bullshit,” he growled, glancing down and searching for any sign of the boss. As things were, there wasn’t even a hole in the ground where it had disappeared. The sand had simply filled in whatever amount of it had been displaced, and by observation alone, there was no longer any sign at all that it’d ever been disturbed.

Now, there was a moment of quiet, which led to an immediate sense of foreboding as he just knew that the Gods-be-damned thing was swimming around deep beneath him like it was a pool made of sand, waiting to pop up and attack either one of them. Since neither had established solid aggro, there was no predicting which of them it’d come for.

“Shit, where is it?” he asked, darting his head around furiously. He tried to detect any sense of rumbling or movement around him, but there was nothing. He knew it was going to pop right back up. That much was obvious. It was also probably going to startle him again, too. He really, really did not like this boss. Even still, he needed to keep himself calm and slow his breathing. He couldn’t allow some stupid worm to jump-scare him, nor could he allow it to get into his head and affect how he fought. Just imagine how dumb that would be. Seriously. How dumb would that be if he, Zachys Calador, having gone toe to toe with Ziragoth, allowed a stupid worm to rattle him?

“Come back up, ugly!”

As though it were responding to his challenge, it burst up from the sand right in front of him, so close that their faces almost touched. Peeling back his lips in revulsion, Zach ducked down low as it spat out more venom, and then, already having gotten down into a squat, he threw himself backwards and rolled along the sand as the “Megaworm of Battle Beach” heaved forward and tried to bite his face off with its fangs. Shooting straight back up to his feet, Zach growled and dashed forward, ripping his blade from left to right, striking as fast as he possibly could—and yet, somehow, he was still too slow. With a speed that could rival an Elf, the mob slinked back beneath the sand, and once more, it vanished and became untraceable.

“This boss sucks,” he grumbled. “I absolutely hate it.”

“It’s okay, baby, we’ll get him,” Kalana said way too cheerfully. As if to give her a chance to prove her words, the boss burst up from the sand directly behind her while she was faced in the opposite direction and couldn’t possibly see it. Worse, the lump containing acid was rapidly approaching its mouth.

“Behind you!” Zach shouted, pointing.

Confidently, gracefully, and with a determination he couldn’t help but admire, Kalana backflipped over it even as it spat venom at her. Then, landing, she struck out with both daggers at once, her hands flashing across in opposite directions for a speedy, powerful, and impressive attack—that also missed.

“Okay, I don’t like it either,” she said as it escaped back beneath the sand.

Becoming angry, Zach snarled and said, “Now I’m pissed.”

Zach called out to it again, and it once more came at him. He knew it was just a coincidence, however. Having been proven right about Ziragoth, he decided to trust his instincts from then on regarding whether or not something was sentient. Even if it was due to just a feeling or sense that he had, he decided he was sticking with what his gut told him. And his gut told him that this boss was about as sentient as a cactus. But Gods, the thing was pissing him off so much he didn’t mind pretending otherwise. Because what happened next would not have gone any differently even if it had been a sentient boss deliberately trying to upset and humiliate him: its actions would have been exactly the same.

Appearing before him, it spat out more of its searing bile, which Zach easily avoided. Then he extended both his arms and lunged forward with his blade pointed straight ahead. Once again, the Megaworm sank back below the sand, and Zach ended up running right past it. Uttering several vulgar words, he planted his feet, stopped abruptly, ducked beneath more acid, and finally spun around and slashed at the empty air despite the thing literally having been right behind him a second earlier.

After that, the asshole started showing off, and Zach developed a true and sincere hatred for it. Twice more, it popped up around Zach, and each time, he missed. But that actually failed to really put into perspective how frustrating it was, because it didn’t just “appear twice.” It wasn’t as simple as that. The infuriating son of a bitch was surfacing and diving so fast that, upon appearing to Zach’s left, Zach’s sword was still mid-swing as it re-emerged by his right, directly opposite side, causing him to put more energy into his original slash so that he turned it into a full, three-sixty-degree spin, which also missed.

Then it appeared in front of Kalana, and she pounced on it and missed, and then it appeared behind him, and he missed. But what really caused Zach to lose his cool was when it began moving around so fast that it became disorienting and Zach lost sight of it. As the constant spinning and searching caused him a brief bout of dizziness, his situational awareness dropped for just brief moment. But it was in that moment of weakness that it bit off a chunk of his right ass cheek, causing him to howl in pain and torment and begin hopping around in agony while Kalana chased after him and told him to hold still so she could heal him.

Now, healed but humiliated, Zach had a gigantic red stain on the back right side of his trousers from where he’d been gushing blood out of his butt cheek. He was also sweating profusely, both as a result of the extreme heat and the fact that he was currently slamming his sword down against the sand so many times in so many spots that, if not for the worm, he'd honestly look like a little boy throwing a temper tantrum. In truth, he wasn’t far from acting it out for real as his patience dwindled, his temper spiked, and he wore himself out on this one Gods-cursed worm. Yet he refused to give up, and so too did Kal.

For a time long enough to be called shameful, the two of them ran around the beach and tried in vain to hit this fucking thing at least one Gods-dammed time. Kalana even resorted to using increasingly more powerful magic, such as summoning meteors down on top of it. Yet any time either of them even came close, it would dip under the sand too fast for even Kalana to damage. Finally, as Zach began to pant so hard that he was beginning to have trouble just in dodging, he realized he needed to calm down before he put himself into a legitimately perilous position. Even Kalana was showing signs of exhaustion, and if the two of them ended up dying to this fucking thing, they both honestly deserved it, because that would just be pathetic.

One thing was pretty much a certainty, though. The little trick adventurers used to calculate the “effective power” of a boss, while useful, was not as useful as he’d originally thought. Because while it was probably mostly accurate insomuch as this Megaworm likely did have stats similar to a level-65 mob, Zach would be willing to bet just about anything that an ordinary level-65 mob would not be this difficult or anywhere near it. Clearly, the fact that this was a boss mattered.

Having worn himself out to the point he was slowly losing the ability to defend himself, Zach wondered if he should finally give up. Kalana seemed to be at that point, too. “Zach, I don’t like this,” she said. “Let’s just go back to doing the quest. Or at least summon your stuff to kill it. We’ve been chasing this really gross worm for fifteen minutes.”

“Yeah, to hell with this thing,” he said. “You’re right, Kal.” With that, he decided to call upon his war-mount. But he stopped when he saw the Megaworm’s stupid, acid-shooting, fang-covered face, which made him scowl. “The only problem is if we don’t kill it without summoning help, I’ll hate myself later, but on the other hand, right now, we’re just wasting time. We could just walk away, too. I doubt it can follow us if we leave the shore. It probably has to stay in the sand.”

“I think so too,” Kalana said. “There’s no way it can—”

She abruptly stopped speaking and narrowed her eyes, and for a brief instant, her expression turned ultra serious as though she sensed a sudden opportunity: a chance to finally get the damn thing. And to her credit, it had really seemed like she would, too. Zach watched as she turned her whole body slightly downwards and to her left. Then, with cat-like reflexes, she flipped sideways over the Megaworm even as it was only first breaking the surface of the sand and rising upwards. A fraction of a second later, she landed, kicked off her back foot, and sprang forward while swinging her right dagger so fast it made a whistling sound in the air. And yet, somehow, she still missed. It simply vanished once more beneath the sand.

“Okay, let’s leave it,” she said with a sigh. “We don’t have the right abilities for this one. I don’t think your mount thingy and card would make a difference, either, but I guess if you really wanna try, we can, but we might just end up getting stuck here for another fifteen minutes and still be unable to hurt it.”

“I just hate the idea of giving up,” he grumbled.

Backing away from what would’ve probably been a very, very painful bite, Kalana nodded sympathetically at him and said, “Me too, but we can’t hurt it.” More softly, she added, “But if you really wanna keep going, I’m here for you.”

Zach angrily clenched the grip of his weapon. The idea of letting this disgusting, miserable creature off the hook after already putting in so much effort filled him with disappointment. Yet even without waiting for him to respond, he could see Kal lowering her daggers as if to sheathe them. Though she’d said he could continue to try if he wanted, he doubted she really meant that, and it looked like she’d reached the end of her patience, which was not something common for her. At this point, if he didn’t sheathe his own sword and disengage, she’d likely become very upset with him. Clearly, she wanted to leave, having concluded that this was impossible. She was also sweating way more than he usually saw from her.

Even still, despite knowing she was right, it profoundly frustrated Zach to have to either flee from this stupid thing or be forced to summon aid, which in some ways felt worse than fleeing. He wasn’t sure why it bothered him so much, though, especially since his initial inclination right from the start had been to summon his mount and his card. So why did that idea now disturb him? He supposed it was because he had, intentionally or not, laid down a challenge for himself, and summoning meant being forced to admit defeat and acknowledge his failure of that challenge—well, at least in a sense, anyway. But was there really nothing else he could do short of summoning, fleeing, or using his Unleashed Phase too soon, which could jeopardize their ability to complete the quest?

Zach made a show of sheathing his sword, though he did so slowly to stall for time so that he could think. Mentally, he took stock of everything he had and everything he could currently do as he searched for an idea of how to beat this shitty worm. Straight away, he decided to rule out the ring, as he couldn’t imagine it working, and the most likely outcome was that he’d miss and be thrown miles away. But that wasn’t his only item ability, right?

Merely by asking himself this question, the painfully, blindingly obvious answer bopped him over the head like a ten-ton mallet and made him feel ashamed at his own shortsightedness. Immediately, he stopped sheathing his sword, and once more, he raised it at the ready, which earned him an understandable glare from Kalana. Hopefully, she’d find just a little bit more patience within herself, though he couldn’t fault her for wanting to move on and forget this boss. In all honesty, he should’ve realized fourteen minutes ago what he needed to do.

Wow, I’m an idiot, he thought, as it started to fully dawn on him how the answer had been in front of him the entire time.

“What’re you doing?” Kalana asked, the disappointment plain in her voice.

“I want to try one last thing.”

“Zaaaach.”

“Last thing, Kal. Really. This is the last thing.”

Eyeing him skeptically, she said, “Fine, but you promise this is it for real? We’ve only got an hour and twenty left on the quest now and we don’t really know how much work there’s gonna be to do once we get to it.”

“I promise!” he shouted, his voice coming across a tad bit more urgently than intended.

She sighed. “Okay, fine. What are you gonna do?”

Zach, having just evaded another spray of acid vomit, grinned as he said, “The next time it pops up, I’m going to root it.”

It took less than half a second following his words for Kalana’s mouth to fall open; she snapped her fingers. “Ohh, that’s right!” she exclaimed, her eyes lighting up with understanding. “You’ve got a root, baby. I forgot. I totally forgot!”

“Yeah, well, so did I,” he admitted with a laugh. More seriously, he said, “I think it’s the kind that breaks as soon as we do any damage, though.”

“I think that’s like most of them but…” She smiled, though there was once more a fierce determination in her eyes. “All that means is we’re gonna both have to hit it really hard at the same time and hope we kill it.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.” Zach tightened his grip on his blade. “As soon as I see that thing pop up, I’m rooting it. Be ready, Kal.”

“I will.”

As if on cue, the Megaworm of Battle Beach surfaced at the midpoint between him and Kalana, and it was at Zach he chose to vomit up some more of his acid. Jumping backwards, Zach avoided the scorching, foul attack. Now, it was his turn. Truly, Zach found it hard to believe how nervous he was or why it was so important to him. All things considered, this mob—this boss—did not really, actually matter. It was irrelevant. There were probably so many more bosses on this island—so many more ways to get xp and loot. This was just some random thing that’d aggroed him and Kal on their way to something more important. So why did he care so much? He didn’t know. Really, he didn’t.

You do know, he told himself, even as he tried to mentally shut himself up. You want to throw all your attention onto something else so you don’t have to think about all the people you murdered, you sick, disgusting, murderous fuck! You animal. You filth.

Shaking his head to clear his mind of the unwanted thoughts, he focused in on the Megaworm, and with that, he activated Frostbind, the ability of the robes that Fylwen had given him. With a 15:00 minute cooldown timer and a thirty-second duration of effect, if they failed to topple the boss here and now, Zach was not about to wait around for another fifteen minutes just to hurt it again. It would either die in the next half a minute or he and Kal would move on.

Okay, here goes nothing.

Rising up from the sands almost in the same manner as the boss itself, a half-dozen shackles made of pure, solid ice surrounded and then wrapped themselves around the Megaworm, binding it in place even as it continued to fire off more acid. Each of the shackles, as well as their connected chains, gave off a constant, smoke-like trail of vapor as the bright sun shined down on the ice. Zach held his breath, though only for a moment. By appearance alone, it looked to have succeeded, but even more critically, if it hadn’t, the worm would’ve vanished by now. Yet there it remained, immobilized by the icy chains. Realizing this, Zach felt a rush of energy shoot through him.

This is our chance. We’ve got it!

Having been rooted while facing in Zach’s direction, the Megaworm had no choice now but to attack him and only him. Though, given that the root was the first ability of any kind to actually land on the creature thus far, Zach was willing to bet that he’d have fully taken aggro regardless. Either way, he didn’t plan to stay within its range for much longer.

“Are you ready?” Kalana asked him. “Should we attack now?”

“No,” he replied. “Almost!”

Knowing they were going to have to do a whole lot of damage in a single instant, Zach turned around and took off at a sprint, racing across the shore and moving as fast as he possibly could while also ensuring he didn’t create an accidental sandstorm that would obscure his vision. As he ran, he counted the seconds that had elapsed in his head. He needed to make absolutely certain that he did not let the duration of Frostbind run out, which would allow the mob to break free. Given that he’d used it on something that was both a boss and had a much higher effective level than him, he highly doubted it would last for all thirty seconds. In fact, he wasn’t even willing to gamble on it lasting for more than fifteen. Thus, he allowed himself just ten seconds, and in those ten seconds, he gained as much distance as he possibly could, sparing no energy.

Zach sweat with the exertion of moving across the uneven sand, yet he paid no heed to the droplets leaking down the sides of his face, and he focused only on his goal. By the time ten seconds had come and gone, he stopped short, needing to make do with however far he’d gotten so as to not take any unnecessary risks. Yet it was only now, as he prepared to attack, that he realized he’d moved so far away from Kalana that she wouldn’t be able to hear him even if he shouted for her at the top of his lungs, making direct coordination impossible. Nevertheless, he knew he could trust Kal to pick up on his intentions. Even as he began swinging his sword downwards diagonally without uttering a single word to her, he somehow knew she wouldn’t let him down. And indeed, she didn’t.

“Wave Slash!” he shouted.

As the green, patchy energy solidified, changed colors, and transformed itself into a double-bladed, spinning disc, he could tell from Kalana’s posture alone that she understood his plan despite having spoken none of it aloud. She was down on one knee like a track racer in the seconds before taking off, and even from what had to be almost a half mile away, he could clearly see her head turning in tandem with the Wave Slash, which began to pick up speed and soon started leaving behind a trail of smoke in its wake; just before striking the Megaworm, it even broke out into flames, which seemed to serve as a sort of signal for Kalana, who launched herself forward with both her daggers raised the instant the Wave Slash became fiery.

Two events then took place at the exact same moment in time: the first was Zach’s Wave Slash colliding with the Megaworm of Battle Beach, and the second was Kalana unleashing a double-backstabbing attack, which if Zach’s memory served correctly, sometimes did bonus damage to things when the user was wielding a dagger. Having already begun racing back towards her—and in essence, attempting futilely to chase after his own Wave Slash—he moved just close enough to be within earshot as he heard her grunt with exertion as she plunged her weapons into the mob’s back with such ferocity that the worm made a slight roar, the first sound he’d actually heard vocalized from the creature.

No longer caring about causing a sandstorm, Zach blasted off at full speed in the direction of Kal and the Megaworm. As he sprinted along the sand towards where she stood behind the creature, whose shackles began to melt away so fast that they looked poised to turn completely into water before Kalana had even removed both her daggers, Zach sucked air into his lungs then nervously held it there as he observed the result of their double attack.

Thanks to Kalana, the atrocious, acid-spewing worm was punished for 66,811. Seeing this, Zach felt an explosion of optimism, one that only grew as he witnessed his Wave Slash not only hurting the Megaworm, but splitting the creature in half entirely, completely severing the top and bottom parts of its body while causing an ungodly amount of green acid to begin drenching the sand beneath it as though it were blood. Zach, having nearly returned to Kalana’s side, opened his mouth to let out a wild cross between a cheer and a battle-cry, but instead he let out only a shocked, disappointed croak as he saw the number that resulted from his attack: 81,311.

HP

9,878/158,000

Name

(T2) Megaworm of Battle Beach

Level

45

Zach disbelieved his own two eyes. He refused to accept the reality presented to him. Even as Kalana’s expression turned from fierce to conciliatory, Zach began unleashing a chain of obscenities so vulgar he hoped the Gods wouldn’t condemn him to hell for it. Not only had he come so close and failed, but the Megaworm was just a percentage point too high in terms of health for him to at least use his Card Capture. So basically, after expending all this effort, it looked like Zach would be getting nothing after all.

He refused to accept this. No, fuck that! This bastard worm started the fight, and now it was going to finish it! Having run as fast as his legs would carry him, Zach leapt into the air and dove on top of the creature, which had been cut cleanly in half. But even that did not seem to inhibit its ability to escape. Much as it had been doing all along, the worm burrowed back beneath the sand as Zach plopped down on the spot where it’d only just been.

It's not getting away! he shouted in his head. No way!

Zach, in a fit of panic and desperation, acted without thinking. Even knowing that he'd blown their one chance, and even knowing that the best course of action would be for him to pick himself up and go do something else with Kal, he simply could not accept that this gods-be-damned worm had gotten one over on him yet again. And so, in what was honestly more reflex than any contemplated decision, Zach angrily punched his fist into the sand, and with a loud, angry shout, he activated his blasting ring, firing it straight down.

And he regretted nothing.

With 120 points into intelligence—only five less than he’d had when using it against the Cursed Defender of Ziragoth in Phase Level 2—Zach was unsurprised to see he made a really, really big blast. Gods, he sure did.

The moment of activation, there was a flash of red light, and then from that point on, Zach struggled to understand if he was going up or the world was going down. He did not know if he was ascending or descending. All he knew was he could see little aside from a tremendous red beam, and that he was moving very, very fast. And only after several more seconds of this confusion did he finally come to understand that he was rising and moving away from the ground while the ground below him was vanishing, as he’d blasted a hole through it with the width of a tunnel used by industrial DEHV trucks. It was so wide and it ran so deep he couldn't even see the bottom of it. Yet sand being sand, he knew it'd all level out eventually anyway over time.

But none of that mattered, because he saw something else: something he cared about way, way more.

+52400xp

“Yes!” he cried as he continued to ascend. Now, he wondered if there was a way that he could get back down a little faster so he could see whatever loot had dropped. Having been allowed to sit up front with the pilot on the helicopter ride, Zach had learned somewhat to tell ballpark estimates with regards to altitude, which was why he was pretty sure he’d knocked himself about two-thousand feet into the air and was continuing to rise, though much more slowly now. He let out another cheer as he began to fall.

The world was good, or at least this world was good. This was the life he wanted. This, and only this. As far as he was concerned, what he was doing right now was the most important thing going on in the world, because right now, to him, there was no world outside of this island.

It simply didn't exist.

*******

With his face filthy and his uniform covered in an infernal blend of blood, ashes, and maybe even shit, Corporal Jakz Marshing popped open the lid on his canteen and downed the water contained within in four big gulps. Then he threw it over his shoulder and gestured for Private Gillards to shut the fuck up and stop yapping his Gods-be-damned mouth off. Asshole was really starting to get on his nerves. Staff Sergeant Edrax should’ve been back by now. He’d gone to meet with the lieutenant over an hour ago. What was taking him so long?

This don’t feel right to me, he thought. The fuck is going on here?

Having failed to link up with the rest of Siege Company, it wasn’t a stretch to say that not only were they behind on all their objectives, but their objectives might not even be achievable anymore. Or maybe that was just the pessimism talking. Jakz didn’t know. What he did know was that in the span of less than a day, he’d watched his closest friends die in the most horrible of ways while everything seemed to be getting worse by the minute. If the newly formed 3rd battalion didn’t find a way to get here by tomorrow night, they were going to be pushed completely out of the city. That was just the fact of the matter despite no one wanting to admit it.

“Where is that bastard?” he muttered to himself. “He needs to get his ass back here.”

Right now, Jakz was taking cover behind a burned-out bus on 4th Avenue and High Arch that’d been knocked over onto its side during a battle between two leveled fuckers. What had once been a quiet little neighborhood now qualified—at least in Jakz opinion—to legitimately be called “ruins.” To even pretend otherwise was silly. The place had been absolutely demolished. All of 4th avenue, actually, had been destroyed. There was no power or running water. Almost everyone had evacuated, and the rest were dead. Even though this was all the fault of those Guild of Gentlemen bastards, Jakz knew there was a lot of pain in Siege Company over just how many civilians had died. It was a lot. A real lot. He didn’t know the number. No one did yet. Even still, it was clear now that the number of civilian deaths exceeded ten thousand so far. Maybe fifteen. And in just a day, too. That was the worst part of it all. In just a gods-be-damned day.

Temporarily putting down his HC-58 rifle, Jakz tried again to get into contact with Staff Sergeant Edrax. Unable to raise him, he gestured for his squad to be ready to move into cover across the street in a ruined pharmacy next to an equally destroyed travel agency. The streets were covered in blood and broken glass. Every DEHV was destroyed as well, but what really unsettled Jakz was what’d happened to the school on 4th and Hill St. Jakz was afraid to look inside. He didn’t want to know what he’d find. He’d seen a lot of awful shit in his life, but that was one thing he couldn’t handle.

Gods-damned dragon. That’s why all this shit happened.

Everything had gone to hell since late last night when the Guild of Gentlemen had captured a cache of supplies, or “loot” or whatever the hell the fancy leveled people called it from that dragon the guilds had killed. And to say it turned things around in their favor was putting it mildly. Initially, during the first few hours of the invasion, the Royal Roses had held an advantage despite the fact that their most capable, highest-level fighters had been celebrating at some post-raid party. Beginning with the bombing runs from the F14s, everything had gone exactly as planned.

Shadowfall Coast was divided into twenty avenues from north to south and various streets from west to east. And during their first push, Siege Company had managed to advance as far as 9th avenue. But then came the counter attacks from the Guild of Gentlemen.

Even before they’d seized the cache of weapons—or loot, or whatever it was called—they had already had an advantage in numbers due to losing Plains of Mist and pulling completely out of Whispery Woods. But with hundreds of pieces of contraband giving them an even greater edge, things had gone downhill over the course of a single brutal, bloody night. What started as a seemingly successful military operation turned into a nightmare as they’d been pushed all the way back to 4th.

At first, it looked as though they might turn it back around in their favor, as the Royal Roses’ highest-ranking officers had tried their best to get into the battle and reinforce Rose Battalion, of which Siege Company was a part. From what Jakz understood, after falling under attack, they'd retreated north through Whispery Woods and had intended to travel east until returning to Shadowfall Coast. But Sir Alistair Morrison had ordered his garrisons in Tomb of Fire to blockade every road leading into the city, and now, with all their fancy new equipment, they’d been able to drive the Royal Roses back. The only reason that Jakz still held any hope for victory at all was the fact that they were returning with a much larger, much more powerful force.

Right now, it was just past noon, and if word spreading down the chain of command was to be believed, then only moments ago the Defenders of Peace, the Lords of Justice, and the Children of Order had all declared war on the Guild of Gentlemen, and they, along with the Royal Roses’ best warriors and their allies in the People of Virtue, were planning on breaking through with the 3rd battalion and reinforcing their gradually worsening positions.

That was why, right now, their primary objective was no longer to capture the city. They didn’t have a Gods-be-damned chance in hell of doing that. Nah, their mission was to establish a forward operating base and hold as much of Northern Shadowfall coast as they possibly could. If the enemy was able to drive them completely out of the city, it would create devastating consequences for their newly formed coalition.

The sole and only reason that they still had a foothold in the city at all—hell, the only damn reason Jakz or any of them were still breathing—was because of Senior Lieutenant Haisel Ragora and his beautiful armada blasting away the Guild of Gentlemen off the coast. Not only was Sir Ragora’s fleet singularly responsible for preventing a total collapse of Siege Company, but he’d inflicted damage on the Guild of Gentlemen beyond what anyone had even realized was possible. It seemed that the main battery on several of his warships was so powerful it could apparently kill leveled fighters. Not all, mind you, but some of the lower-level ones. The Gods bless that man. Right now, he was all they had.