Nila had transformed into a house-sized turtle with her bloodline and loaded up Sebastian, Maple and Clover before she took off into the air, swimming through gravity or something Jaime didn't remember.
The abomination leads the way its body moves in disturbing and obscene ways. The air was thick with tension as the convoy walked down a literal death march. Blitz chuckled, shaking his head. “You’re all too tense. This’ll work. If it doesn’t, we improvise. That’s what we do.”
"Incoming one hundred feet out and closing!!" Godric warned as he turned.
Everyone followed his lead.
The Chimera, perhaps sensing that its stealth was blown, erupted from behind the redwoods, its claws expanding into large wind blades. Jaime met its charge with his own. He activated first [Charge] and then [Shield Bash]. He smashed into the front paw, knocking it away and causing the chimera to stumble as it regained its footing.
"[Infernal Armament], [Living Hellgate]," Botut announced his bloodline skills.
It was as much a warning as an announcement.
Jaime found his armour reinforced as a layer of demonic steel coated his body and weapons, making them all look like demon knights.
Meanwhile, a human skull the size of a car spawned directly under the chimera. Its mouth opened, and a demon popped out of the mouth and directly under the chimera. The small imp set the chimera's belly on fire just as Blitz leapt onto the chimera's back, driving his axe into the chimera's side.
The chimera roared in outrage as it twisted about, lashing out with wind blades at both of them. Blitz ducked away from the attack while the demon got cleaved in two. Then the abomination arrived. Its ten-fingered hands pummeled the chimera as two more demons leapt out of the Hellgate.
Jaime leapt in again, his spear shooting out in quick, successive stabs, each one laced with a bloodline skill.
Jaime lept back as one of the demons tried to decapitate him. A massive arrow impacted the demon, taking it out of the fight as Titus did not discriminate between demon and chimera. They only needed one demon for the plane to work.
"[Change of Seasons: Summer]" Clover announced
Almost immediately, the fire from the demons and Blitz roared higher as they got a power boost. Blitz raced in for a quick hit and run against the chimera.
"I got one! Blow the Gate!!" Botut ordered
Clover, Sebastion, Maple and Nila rained down suppressive fire on the chimera. Light and fire spells empowered by the change of season blasted chunks out of the chimera as it spun around, lashing out with wind blades at anything that moved like a wild animal. The living hellgate was smashed to pieces and shut off. Two of the remaining three demons scattered to the wind. The third was a muscle-bound demon that had spent most of the fight launching fireballs. Botut had used another bloodline skill to force that one into submission.
This time, Blitz and Jaime launched themselves at the chimera. Jaime didn't try to overpower the monster. He just needed to inject as much poison into the beast as he could. Even his scorpion tail stabbed into the creature's flank. This time, however, the chimera wasn't nearly as distracted.
A wind blade sliced through Jaime's limbs. The infernal armour and golden chitin barely managed to stop the wounds from being crippling. Instead, his body only felt brutally bruised. Even his bones felt bruised.
Jaime hissed as the monster took his moment of inaction to launch itself at him. Its massive jaw opened wide and snapped closed around the tree next to him. The chimera jerked backwards at the unexpected taste.
Jaime launched himself forward, feeling a healing spell knitting his body back together as the chimera tried to reorient itself from Godric's mental attacks. The abomination took that moment to tackle the chimera again, its blighted hands rotting the chimera's flesh wherever they touched.
The chimera screamed, trying to turn around to attack the abomination even as it was being peppered with spells from five people, mental attacks from Godric and Blitz and Jaime stabbing it in the ass.
The monster didn't care. Lighting arced off its body, sending Jaime tumbling to the ground as it began to savage the abomination, ripping off its limbs as the lighting surrounding its body burned the body. The abomination's body was broken, utterly incapable of fighting back.
"[Immobilized]" Maple activated her skill, freezing the chimera mid-attack.
"[Sacrificial Strike]" Botut drained his abomination for what little hp the abomination had left. When the abomination died, the body released all the blight it had stored up as a final explosion.
Blitz and Jaime had already backed away when the blight was released, leaving only the chimera in the fog of death magic infecting its body and burning away even more of its hp. Then Botut added insult to injury and fired [Sacrificial Strike] directly into its ass.
The chimera was sent ass over end before it could even struggle back to its feet.
"Bombers incoming!!" Sebastion warned.
All six of Nila's brothers flew over at that moment, and on their backs sat every ranged fighter and spell caster they had.
Spells, bullets, arrows, bombs, and even rocks fell from the six turtles like six bomber planes. The chimera was peppered with attacks from over a hundred players as they emptied their resources to bury the chimera under their assault.
"Looks like we got you." Jaime chuckled as the pinned monster hp was whittled away.
Of course, that was the moment the chimera counterattacked. The chimera roared like a dragon, sending out a shockwave that disrupted their attacks.
Nila's siblings panicked, breaking their formation as they tried to escape the monster. The chimera leapt up, leaping off the air as it charged the nearest giant turtle. Its jaws opened wide.
"NO!!" Nila screamed as she activated a movement skill and crashed into the chimera.
Nila, a space turtle the size of a house, slammed into the chimera, knocking it off course and probably breaking some of its bones. The chimera tried to reorient mid-air when it discovered what five G felt like as Nila manipulated the gravity around her with her skill [Domain of Atlas].
The chimera fell out of the sky like a cartoon character crashing into the floor of the redwood forest and right in front of Blitz.
"[Rising Sun]" Nila intoned
All of a sudden, the redwoods were lit up with an intense heat as her body lit up like a second sun. The chimera screamed as its body started to burn. Jaime, on the other hand, felt the light from Nila's skill start to slowly heal his body.
"YES!!! Burn mother fucker!!" Blitz roared as his red flames, his [Flames of Wraith] roared to life as he launched himself at the chimera.
Blitz's flames had two effects that made him so deadly in melee. First, as it was a kind of hellfire, they burned the target's soul as much as the body. The second was that the angrier he got, the stronger he got. And with a [Berserker] class, Blitz had all the fuel he needed for his class.
Blitz wore his flames on his weapons and armour as he launched himself at the chimera. He hacked away at the beast as his flames burned. The chimera screamed as it leapt away from the hellfire, flashing its tail open.
The moment the massive peacock tail sprung open, Jaime was hit with a wave of vertigo, as his mind was assaulted. The chimera blasted him with lightning, sending Jaime, Titus, and Blitz skittering backwards.
Nila had it the worst. The vertigo caused her to lose control of her gravity manipulation, and she came crashing to the ground like the twenty-ton turtle she was. Maple, Sebastion and Clover didn't fare any better as they were sent sprawling off her back and onto the ground.
"Fuck" Blitz groaned as he grabbed his head.
The chimera smiled somehow as it padded towards them unhurried as Jaime tried to rise to his feet. That one skill had devastated nearly every member of their team. Nearly.
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The chimera yowled as Godric teleported onto its back, his sword glowing bright blue as he chopped down on the chimera's tail. The Chimera screamed as it tried to buck him off, and Godric responded by unleashing a wave of fire, setting the monster's tail feathers ablaze, freeing them from the vertigo. The chimera spun around to bite at Godric, only for a rock to fly into its face as Godric telekinetically grabbed loose debris and tossed it at the monster.
The chimera lunged at Godric with murder in its eyes. Godric was able to do little more than retreat against the chimera's onslaught. But he gave them enough to counterattack.
"[Malefic Union]" Botut said.
The Demon that Botut had mentioned earlier, the one that had been dutifully sitting beside the elephant man as the two of them fired spells at the chimera, was absorbed into his being.
Botut swelled as rippling muscles grew across his body, demon horns sprang from his forehead, as two bat wings emerged from his back as he grew to over ten feet tall as a demonic elephant man.
Botut launched himself at the Chimera; his staff wreathed in burning ash. He struck the creature over the head, leaving a trail of blighted and burned skin in its wake. The chimera roared as it turned to face him, and Godric lunged forward, his sword gouging out the monster's eye.
The chimera roared in outrage, lashing out. This time, Godric wasn't as lucky. The monster's jaws snapped around his upper torso, and its front claws cleaved through his legs.
"God dammit, Godric just died!!" Sebastion warned as he fired off a shadow bolt at the chimera's hind legs.
DING!!!
Godric popped back up, a golden glow surrounding his body. The chimera looked pissed as it lunged at him again. But this time, Botut stepped in, grabbing onto the chimera as Godric retreated to give his full attention to destroying the Chimera's mind. Meanwhile, Botut's touch inflicted burning and blight damage in equal damage as the chimera tried to buck him off.
Blitz and Jaime rejoined the melee, crashing into the chimera side as spear and axe went to work.
Titus and Sebastion opened fire on the monster. Spells and poisoned arrows peppered its body as the chimera lashed out at its surroundings with wind blades, leaving deep cuts in Botut's hide.
Clover summoned roots and ripped themselves from the ground, trying to entangle the chimera's limbs as Maple generated small shields between Botut and the Chimera in order to blunt some of its attacks.
"Fuck, this thing won't die to Blitz," Blitz complained as he hacked at the monster's leg before leapt to the side to avoid a claw.
"It's a fucking boss monster," Jaime grunted as he blocked one of the monster's attacks with his shield.
The chimera tried to blast the area with lighting again. But this time, they recognized the signs and leapt back before they could get electrocuted.
The chimera tried to open its tail again, but it screamed as Godric [Blink Stepped] on top of the monster, drilling a spike of dream magic directly into its skull. The chimera bled out of its mouth, its anus, its nose and its one remaining eye as it felt the mental equivalent of getting kicked in the nuts.
"Maple, lock the tail down," Jaime ordered.
"[Heavenly Seal]," Maple said, locking down the chimera's peacock skill.
"[Conjure Constellation: Scorpius]," Nila cast, summoning a scorpion the size of a cow made out of darkness and starlight; fell to the earth, its pincers snapping angrily as it charged the chimera.
Jaime charged in again, his spear and tail stabbing into the monster's side over and over again as he tried to deliver as much poison as possible. He only got a couple of stabs in before the chimera smacked him away with its tail. Botut and the Scorpion kept its attention as the monster ripped up the roots with claws and blasted its enemies with lighting.
Godric kept teleporting in to deliver powerful mental attacks before retreating to avoid taking too much damage.
Botut blasted the monster in the face with a burst of superheated ash as the scorpion was pinned under the chimera's claws. The scorpion tail lashed out, stabbing the chimera in the neck, but the monster bit the tail before ripping it off the freshly summoned monster.
Botut tackled the chimera, letting his body inflict even more damage on the monster as they crashed to the ground, knocking over one of the smaller redwood trees.
"I'm about to time out," Botut warned as he disengaged, backing up from the chimera as he unloaded spell after spell against the boss monsters.
The chimera charged through the spells, using its wind magic to close the distance, only for the scorpion to wrap its pincers around one of its limbs and neck, tripping up the monster as the summoned creature snapped at the chimera.
Just in time, too, as Botut's transformation skill timed out. Botut forcibly drained the demon of its hp, killing it and forcibly removing a potential loose end as he fired another [Sacrificial Strike] into the chimera's belly.
"I'm out," Botut warned as he limped away from the fight and towards the relative safety of Nila's back.
He didn't make it far before the Chimera blasted him with a bolt of lightning, sending the elephant man to the ground dead.
"I got him," Maple called out.
"Titus, it's your turn!" Jaime ordered
"[Lesser Colossus,]" Titus grumbled as he stashed away his weapon.
Titus quickly grew to thirty feet tall. Stooping down, he picked up the trunk of one of the smaller fallen redwood trees. Jaime and Blitz disengaged the chimera, leaving it to the scorpion as Titus raised his new club a bat before he swung for the chimera. His aim wasn't perfect as he hit both the scorpion and the chimera, sending the two monsters crashing through the redwoods.
The scorpion faded into particle effects while the chimera got up.
"[Meteor Shower]," Nila called out just before a chunk of flaming rock crashed into the chimera, exploding on impact and sending dirt and splinters flying.
It wasn't the only meteor; eleven other desk-sized flaming rocks fell from the sky. The meteors blew the area to hell, transforming a chunk of the redwood park into a smoking crater.
Maple got to Botut's location and activated [Sacred Rebirth]. Botut sprang to his feet as he was restored to life.
"Shit," the elephant man swore. "That sucked."
"You want to talk about suck? I'm an archer fighting in melee," Titus complained.
"It's not dead," Godric warned just as the chimera blasted out of the crater with wind magic. "Also, my [Second Stage] timed out. In case you were wondering."
"Botut, HP check!" Jaime demanded as Titus swung his club at the chimera
"It's at 43% hp," Botut warned as the chimera launched itself at Titus, its wind blades extended.
The club cracked on impact with the chimera. The monster was sent crashing into the ground at the same time Titus's club broke in two, and Titus was sent stumbling backwards from a wind blade that managed to cut open his chest.
"[Conjure Constellation: Taurus]" Nila called out.
This time, a minotaur made out of starlight descended on the battlefield. It hefted a great glave as it charged towards the chimera.
The Chimera roared in outrage as it blasted the area with more lighting, launching itself towards giant Titus. Titus swung for the chimera's head again. The chimera spun in mid-air, blunting the attack by blasting a wind blade into the impromptu weapon at point-blank range.
"Ebone Fire" Botut roared.
The chimera burst into infernal flames. It screamed as its magic was disrupted, and it crashed into the ground. Where Jaime, Godric, Blitz and Taurus Minotaur were waiting for it.
The Chimera moved to attack them when Maple made herself known again.
"[Immobilize]," she shouted.
The Chimera froze mid-lung as Jaime, Godric, Blitz, the minotaur and every spell caster in the clearing attacked.
Dream magic, Shadow magic, Infernal magic, Spirit magic, Celestial magic, Nature magic, a poisoned spear, a flaming axe and a polearm made out of starlight crashed into Chimera at once as almost everyone used whatever they had left in the tank.
Jaime activated [Army of One] his spear, replicating itself a dozen times, each one copying his movements as he repeatedly stabbed the monster over and over again. Every time he attacked, he left a dozen wounds on the monster's hide and a dozen new instances of his poison.
Blitz exploded into red flames as his axe crashed into the monster's back leg. The Taurus minotaur's glaive crashed into its front leg. Godric drove another spike of dream magic into the creature's head. All the while, five different flavours of magic shredded the monster's body. Then Titus came in. Spinning his redwood club around, he put his entire weight behind it as he drove it down into the beast, burying the chimera and then the club into the ground. Jaime swore he could hear a crunch as Titus drove the log down. Then the [Immobilized] broke, and the entire area lit up with lighting.
Jaime was flung backwards, his body smouldering as his armour broke from the onslaught. Lighting burns covered his front as he crashed into a tree. The first thing he did was check his resources. Yeah, he was finished. [Army of One] had drained his mana and stamina to just under ten percent while his health sat at a cool twenty percent. If they didn't kill the stupid thing soon, he was going to die.
Getting to his feet, he saw Titus lying on the ground. Apparently, his [Lesser Colossus] skill must have required him to be alive to work because he was back to his half-giant size again.
The chimera, on the other hand, wasn't dead. Its body was covered in blood, its bones showing in places, it was puking up blood, its tail feathers were burnt away, and one of its eyes was gone. But it still lived.
"Fucking boss monster," Jaime cursed as he rose to his feet.
"No, we did it." Botut cut in. "Its body is too damaged. You and Titus have inflicted enough poison to kill no matter what happens. Now we just need to survive until it dies."
"Plan E?" Maple asked, running back to Nila as Botut, Sebastion, and Clover covered her.
"I hate plan E," Jaime grumbled.
Plan E was simple. Nila would take Maple away from the fight while the monster died of poison and whatever else they had done to it. Then, she would return to resurrect whoever died after the fact. No one liked the plan. But without respawns, they had to work with it.
Nila activated her skill [Twin Faces of the Moon], and all of a sudden, there were two giant sea turtles. A black one carrying Maple away from the battle and a white one charging towards the wounded Chimera.
Jaime grimaced that skill cut her resources in half. Oh well.
Getting up, he charged towards the chimera as it lunged at him. He activated [Shield Bash], knocking the monster's maw away, and then he [Kicked] it in the head. But he failed to stop its claws as they pierced his stomach and sent a bolt of lightning through his body.
Jaime jerked back to consciousness, staring up at Maple.
"How was death?" she asked.
"Still weird," Jaime admitted as she helped him back to his feet.
The chimera's frozen corpse sat to one side as his friends looted the body.
"Who won the lottery?" Jaime asked.
He was, of course, asking who died last. He didn't know when they started to play the game or why, but it was fun.
"Botut died after you. He tried to blight the thing. White Nila died next as she was in the tank after you died. Clover used [Fey Wilds] to buy Sebby some more time. But she didn't level it enough, so it timed out too soon, and it got out, and Sebby suicide bombed it."
"So Clover died last?" Jaime asked.
"Nope, she killed it," Maple stated.
"Dammit, Sebastion, I had money on you to die last!!" Jaime called out to the Kitsune wizard.
Sebastion flipped him off.
"So what next?" Sebastion asked.
Jaime looked at his class. He smiled as he upgraded his class from [Sparten] to [Heir to King Leonidus]. Then he turned to his friends.
"Now? Now we go meet up with Tom." Jaime said.
Mini-Character List
Jaime the Scorpion King: a former lanky black kid adopted from Africa by British parents who is enamoured with ancient fighting methods.
Blitz: A half-orc with a fire in his belly and a love of fighting.
Sebastion Sato: A male Kitsune with the [Wizard] class. Nineteen years old but appears older due to his transformation. Harry Potter superfan
Maple Sato: Another Kitsune, Sebastion’s twin sister.
Nila Dhruv: An Indian woman obsessed with outer space turned half-gnome, capable of turning into a giant sea turtle that can travel in space.
Botut the Tombmaker: An elephant man with expertise in necromancy and strategy.
Godric Kimble: A wood elf who loves Star Wars too much and is specialized in mind magic.
Titus Deadeye: A half-giant hunter with a massive dog.
Clover Lux: A half-fey with mastery over her environment.
AN:
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