The Legend of Noralon - A Litrpg Apocalypse

Tom stood in front of the raid party as they did their final prep work. Not everyone in the raid group was a friend. In fact, he would say he was only close to three of them. Alex, the wizard with her star-spangled robes, Abaddon the Orc juggernaut with his shield and mace, and Skippy, the elvish assassin who was currently jumping up and down on Abaddon's head.

"Alright, final checks. Everyone has equipped armor with acid-resistant, yes?" Tom asked over the chat.

"Check" came from almost everybody in the group.

"Alex, did you lose your armor again?! Because if you did, we aren't canceling the raid." Tom asked,

"No, no, I got it. I just forgot to equip it." Alex's wizard robes immediately changed from blue to a scaly green as she switched out equipment.

"Alright, Alex here is going to cast [Acid Resistance] on us. Then we are going to activate the following Skills: [War Banner], [Horn of War], [Battle Cry], [Dragons Might], [Strength of the Heavens], [Duty Till Death], [Holy Mantle], and I'm activating [Glory to the Damned]. Once the fighting starts, everyone needs to use their boosting abilities. The Scylla will beat us in a battle of attrition, so now isn't the time to be conservative. Unless there is anything else, everyone drinks your potions and---"

"Alright, chumps, let's do this. Leerooooy Jeeeenkiiins!!" Starkiller called as he pulled out his swords and charged up the staircase and onto the deck of the ship.

"God dammit, Starkiller, wait!!" Tom called out, but it was too late. The moment Starkiller stepped onto the deck, the entire raid party was teleported on deck with him, and the way back downstairs was closed and locked.

Upon arriving on deck, the massive eight-headed Hydra came into view. Technically, it was a Scylla, basically a hydra with flippers instead of legs. Two of its heads were wrapped around the ship's main mast while the other six worked on devouring the crew. Its monstrous heads roared, the sound echoing through Tom's body as he charged the Scylla.

DING!!!

You have entered Scylla's weather effect: [Acid Rain]

Everyone exposed to the rain will take continuous [Acid] damage, with damage doubled for creatures with the [Plant] and [Artificial] types. [Acid], [Lightning], [Water], [Potions], and [Poison] effects will be strengthened, while [Fire], [Nature], [Wood], [Bone], and [Blood] magic will be weakened.

"Dammit. Astrid, activate your skills!!"

But it was too late. All group cohesion was lost as the Scylla sprayed acid over the raiding party. Astrid didn't even respond as one of the raid bosses' heads attacked him.

Tom immediately unleashed a mix of blue holy lightning and infernal red lighting. The magic augmented by the [Acid Rain] shot through the air to slam into the Scylla's face, burning a scar over one of the Scylla's left eyes. The head hissed and lunged at him. Just as the creature was about to bite Tom's head off, Abaddon's shield bashed the monster, interrupting its attack. Using that opportunity, Tom hit the head with a [Holy Smite], his sword arcing with holy lighting as he carved a hole in its eye socket.

With the head effectively unresponsive, Tom and Abaddon wasted no time and unloaded every special attack and spell they could as quickly as they could. Holy lighting, infernal lighting, smite, hammer down. Even as they poured on the damage, the raid boss's massive health bar was barely moving, even with an entire raid group attacking it with everything they had.

That was when Tom cursed as he realized no one was even trying to follow his strategy. Instead, he was simply trying to stay alive in the chaos, and unsuccessful at that. The battle plan he had spent a month planning had gone down the drain with Starkiller's bullshit.

The Scylla's head roared as it pulled out of range, the roar stunning all of them before the Scylla started dosing the entire raid group in acid. Looking around, Tom swore as he glanced at the health and mana bars of everyone present and came to a painful realization.

"We're going to wipe," Tom said defeatedly as Scylla's stun effect faded.

He didn't even bother keeping up the attack. Even if everyone suddenly remembered the strategy, they had already missed their window of opportunity.

"I told you this was going to fucking happen. We're 15 levels below where we needed to be to fight the Scylla." Skippy pointed out. Despite his words, he didn't stop attacking the raid boss. He was the kind of person who would keep playing to the very end rather than admitting defeat and moving on.

"I know, I know, but if we pulled it off, we might have gotten an achievement reward for the expansion," Tom moaned as the Scylla slowly but surely began to slaughter the raid party.

Tom was just tired. He had spent weeks crunching the numbers between classes, optimizing their loadouts, and strategizing, all for it to come to nothing.

"Well, this is a bust," Abbadon said as Skippy and Alex walked up to the two of them.

"What did you fucking expect, you freaken numb skull? I told you guys we needed a healer when Jason quit. I said that we needed to wait until Duncan and Lizard Wizard were done with their midterms. I told you not to bring Starkiller along. But no, It will be fine, Skippy. You worry too much, Skippy. Pikachu knows everything. Well, look who's the short dumb arsehole now, fuck nuts." Skippy ranted at them.

"No one called you short," Alex said.

"Well, I remember hearing it," Skippy protested.

"Sounds like a you problem." Alex pointed out.

"So, who's going to be the healer for the expansion then," Skippy asked. "Because I'm not dealing with this shit again."

There was a momentary silence only broken by the roars of the Scylla.

"""Not it!""" Abbadon, Alex, and Skippy all said simultaneously,

"Not … god dammit," Tom swore as he was a second behind everyone.

"Yes, it's not me!" Skippy cheered. "Not me!! Suck my dick, Tom."

"Ugh, I don't even know where to start. You do realize I was going for a magic swordsman, right?" Tom protested.

"Yeah, you've been a magic swordsman ever since we banned your fat ass from being a wizard. But now you are our healer," Skippy said, giving him an evil grin. "Thank you for taking care of us, sucker."

"Your mom took care of me last night," Tom shot back.

Skippy flipped him off as Abbadon laughed.

"He got you." Abbadon chuckled. "Though if I'm being honest, I'm working on a completely new character for the expansion pack. This fight just proves I need to change my build.”

“What is your current build anyway? I don’t remember.” Alex asked.

“30 lvls in Crusader, 30 in Guardian, and 10 in Alchemist,” Abbadon said.

“Jesus, man, I knew you were making a tank build for this raid, but that's a bit overkill. You can't have more than five offensive skills in your entire build,” Tom pointed out, “You're basically a chew toy for mobs."

“Yeah, I know,” Abbadon admitted. "But Tristan and Andrew are too busy to play anymore, so I figured we needed a tank. I am not going to make this mistake again. My next character is going to be perfect. Minmaxed to perfection, I’m going to have damage and defense coming out of my ass."

"Maybe you should get two girls and a cup to check your ass," Skippy punned.

Tom grimaced. "That was … gross, Skippy, your gross."

"Well, I do this for an audience of one, and I thought it was hilarious," Skippy said as he flipped him off.

“I'm thinking of going for a sexy high elf wizard with massive tits," Alex said, the lewd tone coming over the mic. Nobody spoke for a long minute.

"Alex, you're gross too," Tom said.

"Don't hate the player. Hate the game." Alex shot back.

"First off, you're a girl, so I'm not even sure if that phrase works for you. Second, being bisexual does not excuse being a raging pervert." Tom pointed out. He pointedly ignored the fact that the Scylla was spraying them with acid and just kept talking.

"Ok, just to reconfirm. Abbadon is going for some mystery Tank."

"With alchemy," Abbadon said.

"Yes, Abbadon, we all know you love alchemy. So Abbadon is going to be a tanky alchemist. Alex will be extra lewd but otherwise stick to the standard artillery archmage build."

"Sexy Artillery," Alex cut in, correcting him.

"And Skippy is …" Tom trailed off. "What are you going with this time? I know you normally go for some kind of rogue archetype or agility-based swordsman."

"I want to become an endurance-based sword master," Skippy said. "I was thinking [Sword Master], [Blade Dancer], [Matadoor] kind of thing. Thinking of getting away from being a rouge for a bit."

"And I'm stuck playing the healer," Tom groaned. "I hate you all."

"Don't worry, Tom, I still love you," Alex said sarcastically.

"Come on, Tom, you loved playing the Death General. You just need to do that again but with life magic instead of death." Skippy said.

Tom was just about to argue why that wouldn't work when he realized that was a perfectly viable option. Life and Death magic were mirrors of each other. He idly noticed his health dip into the ten percent range as the acid rain continued to eat away at his HP.

"All right, I'm logging off for the night. We've got that chemistry test first thing tomorrow, and I don't want to be completely out of it." Abbadon groaned.

"Wait, we have a chemistry test tomorrow?!" Tom asked.

"Um, yeah," Abbadon said. "Skippy was supposed to tell you …"

Tom glared at Skippy.

"Well, look at the time. Good night, guys," Skippy said before his avatar disappeared.

"I am going to fucking kill--" Tom was cut off just as the Scylla bit down on his head.

DING!!!

You have Died

Tom sighed as the world around him went dark. Ten seconds later, he respawned in his character's home. His home was a large lighthouse on the east coast of the in-game map. Glancing at the in-game clock. It was 4 in the morning. His mom would go mental if she caught him playing so late on a school night, which was ironic as she generally didn't care about whether or not he was even fed.

DING!!!

Starkiller: Hey, group. Sorry for the party wipe, but Sultan paid me 350$ to ruin the raid. LOL. You have my contact information if you need any mercenary action for the next expansion. ;)

Tom rolled his eyes as he logged out of the game. The familiar logo of the legend of Noralon appeared before him, a snake eating its own tail wrapped around an hourglass. The menu presented six options: New Character, Load Character, Settings, Exit Game, and The Titan Expansion. His eyes were drawn to the enticing option of the Titan Expansion, but it remained inaccessible for another thirteen hours. With a click, he chose to exit the game, and suddenly, the virtual world around him dissolved into darkness.

As the darkness receded, Victor regained control of his physical body. He removed the full immersion helmet, placing it on his desk with a thud. Exhausted, he collapsed onto his bed, drifting into a realm of dreams filled with the adventures and wonders of The Legend of Noralon.

You may skip to the next chapter.

Name: Lance Dov'more

Race: Elf

Type: Humanoid / Demon

LVL: 70

SubRace: Dark elf / Doculfar

Age 18

Health: 9,600

Stamina: 16,800

Mana: 17,600

Health Regen: 128.0 per hour

Stamina Regen: 192.0 per min

Mana Regen: 128.0 per min

Immune

Physical, Elemental, Magic, Crit, Insta-death, Disease, Poison

Resistances

Mind

Weakness

N/A

Bane

Manslayer, Demonslayer

Classes: Disciple of Zax 30 / Hexblade 20 / Paladin 20

Base Attributes

STR: 800

AGIL: 960

DEX: 800

CON: 640

END: 640

PER: 880

INT: 880

WILL: 640

SPIRIT: 640

EGO: 640

CHA: 640

LCK: 640