End of an Era (Project Chrysalis Book 2) by John Gold (popular books to read .TXT) 📕

“Oh, I hate insects!”

A fire storm chars the remains of the raid boss, and that’s the end of our first battle.

We kill the second raid boss pretty quickly, though we sit around waiting for the third for quite a while. After gathering the loot and taking some time to look around, it still hasn’t shown up.

Thirty minutes later, a lich in a bone dragon does end up appearing. It circles the fortress, firing away with its magic. The necromancer hurls spells, while the dragon tries to kill us with transparent flames that do colossal mental damage.

Undead, Claya Oraxis, Level 750, raid boss

How do you kill an opponent flying a bone dragon, especially when they have so much mana and destructive power?

“Lightning! Maximum!”

Dragons have huge resistance, but it certainly isn’t absolute. The lightning smacks into a wing just as this one is doing a pass over the fortress. With a crunch of bone, it crashes into the wall and breaks its other wing.

“Dwarf hammer! Maximum!” Taking a flying leap, I jump onto the remains of the beast. I’m not going to get a second chance. “Dragon breath!”

Bone dragons are the weakest of their kind. They’re vulnerable to fire and strong physical attacks, which is why they always circle above their victims and make sure they have ground troops to cover them.

Fem follows my lead and uses dissection to smash into the dragon. Less than a minute later, it’s a smoldering pile.

“What are you here for, you idiot? You almost lost your shield. Another couple of attacks, and you’d have been a goner!”

“You’re the idiot! Did you forget about the lich? Who’s going to cover you? Look, he’s crawling out of that pool.”

After the lightning strike and the dragon’s tumble, the necromancer falls out. Happily, he lands right in the pond left by the whirlpool of death.

Not bothering to swim out of the pond, the necromancer just sends it steaming away. Soon, the bottom is bare, and everything that was living in it is dead. The nearby trees die and shed their leaves.

Our opponent steps out onto the bank and stares at us.

“Ah, you miserable worms daring to encroach on his territory. You will taste the fires of Hell and the torture of your souls before you die forever!”

Damage received: 3200 (ignored: 1155597)

Debuff: Miridia’s Call of Death

Effect: An otherworldly call draws you toward the road to nothingness.

Duration: As long as you remain within the spell’s effective area.

Right, like that’s supposed to scare me. He is a strong opponent, however, and I’m certainly not anxious to get into a close fight with him. Femida is forced to stick with short attacks and marauder tactics.

“Fem, let’s take him from both sides, jumping in and out together. If he summons anything, you take it. I’ll work on him. Don’t overdo it, get him back to the fortress, and we’ll use the ritual to build our health.”

Wind of ash, astral snakes, spears of darkness, fog of darkness, Izil eye - the lich breaks out his entire arsenal, doing his best to take us out. Fem dashes up a couple times, though his aura of teach just takes out her shields. We’re forced to use the forest to mitigate his attacks and defense.

The lich cuts loose bloodhounds to hunt me down, and then he attacks me while I’m killing them. If it weren’t for Fem, I’d be dead.

For more than an hour, we lead him around the forest, raining meteors down on him and dodging his attacks. And we finally get him when he doesn’t have time to restore his mana and create a shield after a meteor strike. Femida uses dissection to lop off his head.

Level 297 unlocked

Available for distribution: 425 attribute points

There’s a lot that’s confusing. Why were there two raid bosses? And why just one necromancer? Why was there such a long break between attacks?

Global notification: Silvana Swamp, located on Radaam, was cleared of undead. The next invasion there will occur in 30 days.

Relationship with the Silvana kobolds: +10000

Current relationship: Esteem (4000 to exaltation)

Relationship with the kobold race: +1000

Current relationship: Respect (990 to esteem)

That’s strange, too. A whole two hours went by between killing the lich and the message popping up.

“Sagie, it’s a trap!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You see that up on the mountains?” Oh, you bastards! “That rat was filming the whole battle. There was an online feed, and the ratings are sky-high. Everyone from all over the continent is on their way here. They’ve been looking for a place to hunt that fits their level.”

“Let’s get out of here before the people looking for us arrive.”

***

Leon watched the magnificent battle taking place in Radaam. Many of the clan’s leading players had gathered in a virtual room to follow it; everyone there knew full well that victory wasn’t the most important outcome of the battle. The two children nobody had heard from in six months had finally announced their presence. And what an announcement it was! They’d cleared the location, killed the raid bosses, and taken out the lich. A second group of Hunters had killed the third raid boss and another lich. To the untrained eye, it looked like a well-planned mission by the League of Hunters. They were the ones broadcasting the whole thing.

Nate, the clan’s chief of security, brought the news: the battle raged by the group of Hunters had come to a close, which was the point at which the global notification was sent out.

“Leon, we sent warriors in to look for Sagie. In ten minutes, they’ll catch him and grab him.”

“How do you plan on doing that? You’re going to slap a magic negator and handcuffs on him? They’re kids. And what are