“Hmmm…” Caille narrowed her eyes, pursed her lips, and glared at the monster ahead of them. “You didn’t mention we’d be fighting a chimera.” She shot Luke an annoyed glance. “I don’t like things that have more than one head.”
Said chimera was about fifty meters away from them, laying on the ground in the middle of a crater. The ground was scorched within the crater, and the thing that created the crater – a large lump of obsidian – was at the epicentre of it.
“My bad, I didn’t know you cared about the number of heads.” Luke smirked. “But then again, I’d think you would be used to it, considering the weird things you summon when fighting.”
Caille glared at him. “Watch it Luke, I might just miss the chimera and drop the slug on you instead.”
The Paladin laughed out loud. “Right, and miss you chance to get all that obsidian.” His mischievous laugh was contagious, even Kyle chuckled. Caille hesitated for a moment, then let out a dramatic sigh. “You’re goo
“Yeah but how in the world do we even carry this thing back?” The thought hadn’t even crossed their minds until Luke asked. Caille opened her mouth with an all-knowing expression, then a look of confusion appeared on her face as she slowly closed her mouth. “Hmm.” Was all she said after a solid minute of thinking. “Well, can’t your slug carry it?” Luke asked again. Caille shook her head. “No, it’s weak to begin with, very slow, and can’t effect the material world for longer than a handful of minutes anyways.” She pursed her lips and pressed her palm against the large chunk of obsidian. “We need something else.” She muttered. While that was obvious, Kyle couldn’t really think of anything that would allow them to carry this. It was simply too heavy! “Harriet isn’t around, is she?” Luke asked suddenly. Caille shook her head. “No, work trip, she’ll be back in two weeks. Besides, I don’t think her gravity altering magic would be strong enough in this case. This th
The obsidian chunk was right where they left it just a short time ago, but now there were about half a dozen people waiting around it. Kyle felt his body tense up – were they players of another guild? “Oi!” Caille called out to them as the three of them approached the crater. “Did anyone come to annoy you?” One of the players nodded. “Yeah, some knight in shiny new armour and a sword way too heavy for him to use properly.” She chuckled. “We made short work of him, but he did scream something about needing the obsidian to kill some guy.” Kyle breathed a sigh of relief. With no matching guild armours or any other markings, he had no way of telling who these people were. He really needed to stop thinking of every player as an enemy. “Well, let’s just ignore him.” Caille muttered, then shot Kyle a quick glance. “Should we give it a try?” Kyle nodded and approached the obsidian. “Come on out.” He softly said. The Jellyfish appeared out of thin air,
The next day, they were once again ready to set off. Before they did, however, Luke pulled Kyle aside, away from Caille and Igna. “A word?” he asked, shooting a quick glance around to make sure no one was listening. Kyle narrowed his eyes. What was this about? “Look, I heard from Caille that you were a solo player normally. Is that true?” Kyle nodded. “Yeah, I don’t have a group I play with.” Also, he was stuck in the game, but there was no need to bring that up now. Luke didn’t need to know that. “I assumed as much. That black knight who killed me before was your summon, right?” Kyle nodded, he was right. “I did some research last night since you seemed to be the strongest of us. Maybe except for Caille and Igna.” He sighed. “Summoners don’t have any healing spells, that’s what I found out. You need to find a summon who can do that for you.” Kyle nodded. “I’m aware, but we haven’t found any enemies that can hea
The cathedral towered before them. The sun had only now started to rise as the tree of them stood before the gigantic building. Made from dark stone blocks, it had an intricate, gothic architecture. The walls were carved and given flowing form. Mural depicted angels reaching for mortals, blessing them with their holy presence. Yet now, most of those angels’ faces were broken. The walls were charred with flames, and ash covered the ground around the cathedral. “This place must have been beautiful once.” Caille muttered as her gaze lingered on the gigantic building. “Still is,” Igna said with a low voice. “It’s also very creepy.” She added, her hand resting on the hilt of her blade. “Let’s get going.” Kyle said. He didn’t want to waste any more time. Whatever monstrosity was going on within these walls, it had to be stopped. These fire worshippers were clearly insane, and nothing good could come out of letting them continue with their sick, twisted rituals.
The cast metal doors towered over them. There was something eerie about them, but Kyle couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He shook his head and decided to ignore the doors and their odd eeriness. “I can summon the Fallen Knight.” He suggested, looking at Igna and Caille. Both women shook their heads. “It’s a boss fight. Let’s see how we fare, and you can decide during the battle.” Igna stretched her arms, then smirked. “Let’s give this a try.” She said with a cheerful voice. Caille nodded, then approached the door and put her hands against the metal. “Here goes nothing!” She said as she pushed the doors open. A loud, ear piercing creak sounded as the doors slowly swung open, revealing the grand hall behind them. At first glance, it looked no different than a usual hall of a usual cathedral. If they ignored the flaming altar, that is. And the unconscious man chained to a pillar off to the side. That had to be the fallen angel Luke had told him about!
The boss stomped the ground with his armoured feet. The ground shook with the strength of his stomp, and Kyle held onto the pillar he was standing next to, to keep his balance. Igna quickly regained her composure. Her face remained pale like ash still, but her shaking legs stood steady once more as she glared at the boss with hate filled eyes. “Let’s give this another try.” She muttered as she pulled a potion out of her pocket, gulped it down, and thew the empty bottle to the ground. A rejuvenating effect appeared around her for a split second. “Thank goodness she’s a hoarder.” Caille mumbled, breathing a sigh of relief. She then pointed at the boss and shot another eldritch blast. “We need to finish this quickly, she doesn’t have many of those.” Kyle nodded, and they continued bombarding the man with their spells. Igna took a deep breath, the dashed towards the boss. He shouted, and raised his blade again, preparing to smash the ground with i
“No!” A powerful voice echoed. Reality seemed to shatter before Kyle as a flaming portal appeared in the air. The Priestess of the Golden Flame stepped out of it, along with the Fallen Knight Aoris. “Sacred Flame’s Protection!” The Priestess spoke. Her voice echoed in the grand hall, it radiated with power and authority. A golden cocoon of flames enveloped Kyle and Caille, as well as his two summons. The Beast’s flames hit the cocoon, and while Kyle felt their heat, the flames themselves didn’t come close to getting though the protection of the Priestess’ spell. “I will deal with it, keep them safe!” The Fallen Knight Aoris exclaimed as she gripped the hilt of her claymore. She dashed forward, out of the cocoon. Her armoured steps echoed in the grand hall as she rushed at the Beast of the Golden Flame. She leapt into the air as the beast raised the sharp blade of its greatsword. She used its bent knee as a steppingstone and propelled herself even higher up. A
Aside from the shallow breathing of the fallen angel, there was no noise in the grand hall. “We ought to save him first.” Kyle mumbled. He approached the unconscious angel and knelt beside him. “Honestly, I expected some beautiful girl when they said, ‘fallen angel’.” Igna mumbled with a sliver of disappointment in her voice. “This guy looks way too normal.” She was right. The man laying unconscious on the floor showed no signs of being an angel. His face wasn’t particularly handsome or angelic, his messy black hair was… well, again, normal. There were no wings on his back, nor was he waring any angelic garbs. “He does look normal.” Kyle mumbled. Was this really the person Luke talked about? He could hardly believe it. Even if he wasn’t an angel, it wouldn’t do to leave him unconscious like this. “Igna, help me get this chain off of him.” The first ranker nodded, she unsheathed her blade, and very carefully cut through the chackle around the a