It was supposed to be a safe task. Farm a bit of gold from the native American ruins to craft her Noble-Phantasm. It was a mid-level area, and one of the most well documented ones, thanks to the abundance of the aforementioned metal, and the players attracted by the valuables. It was also slightly below her safe-margin, and free from any known agro-on-sight bosses.
Of course, none of that accounted for the risk of PK Raiders.
So, Silica could only blame her poor luck for her current predicament. I there was one thing she had already learned, it was to never trust those raiders to let you live, even if you gave everything you had to them.
She had already died to PK once, and a second time because of that stupid idea of trying to tame a Siberian Bear as a mount. Those creatures deserved their reputation, no matter how cuddly they looked at distance.
To make matters worse, she was losing ground on her pursuers, and they had some means of tracking her, because she couldn’t shake them off no matter how much she tried.
She sped through the trees, and made another sharp turn at a large tree, running up its length and jumping at another for higher ground.
It didn’t help.
An arrow grazed her leg, and barely a hundred meters later another struck her arm, followed by a fire spell that made thankfully hurt the wildlife more than her.
But she had her target on sight at last.
She jumped on a lower tree, then on the ground, keeping her body low and her path erratic, which saved her from a couple of arrows and a second blast, before she got into the large walled clearing.
Been training and farming her for the whole week, she already knew the traps of the place like the back of her hand, and much more important on this case, she also knew of a temple at the northern side which housed a still undefeated boss.
She didn’t had any hopes of winning what the front-liners could, much less when she was at the last thirds of her health, but if she was going to die to those PKers for the second time, she was going to do her damned best to make sure they died alongside her.
Hearing one of her pursuers scream as he fell on a trap was reassuring, but she hadn’t any hopes they would turn tail and give up. You couldn’t afford to PK on this game unless you had a good advantage on both numbers and levels, and she was sure the trio had much more on the later than the former.
A couple of steps on the wall instead of the floor, and a deadly drop was avoided, and the small girl took a deep breath and pressed stomped her foot on a slightly noticeable switch on the floor, flooding the corridor section with a poison gas of some sort, without stopping to look back until she was at the boss doorstep.
As much as she wanted them to, they haven’t given up, and were barely hurt. She took a deep breath and pushed the last switch she would in this life.
The wall at her back and the floor under and in front of her smoothed into a steep incline, and the wall closed at those guys back, and the four players were forced into a large underground chamber.
There, a large golden colored feathered dragon stood, ten life bars filling up under his name and title:
Quetzalcoatl, the Unpronounceable.
Ten lifebars. Despite her dire situation, Silica was now sure that her pursuers would die, for they stood in the presence of the highest tier of boss in Throne of Heroes Online: A God.
The woman of the group cursed, and threw her spear at her, and she evaded low, rolling at the back of one of the archways and making herself an even smaller target.
The mage of the group tried to cast something, but the boss reacted to the spell with a sweep of its tail, focusing on the largest group of players and ignoring her for now.
She knew it was a futile effort, but still, she tried her best to stay out of sight and find a way out. Instead, she found the boss’ nest. She had only 2 Levels on the Assassin class, mostly by preparing and disarming traps and sneaking through narrow spaces, and that was hardly enough to stay out of a god’s sight, unless it wasn’t looking for you.
An explosion rocked the underground and she took note that the PK group was already decimated. Three characters probably amounting five times her total level of 8 lasted around a minute and took half a life bar of the monster that was now looking for her.
She was so dead it wasn’t even funny.
‘You cannot give up Silica!’ a bit of quick thinking, and she picked one of the creature’s eggs from the nest, holding it into one arm and her spear at the other.
It stared at her. It roared at her. But it didn’t attack, or spit fire (Dragon’s did that, right?). No, circled to prevent her escape, but it also seemed to understand that hitting her meant hitting its unborn.
The tail came a little too close, and she stabbed it with as much strength as she could, musters with one hand.
The boss answered with a snap of its jaws, each teeth the size of her fingers, but it was slow and reluctant, and she avoided by pressing herself against a wall, and retaliating with another stab.
No matter how certain dead was, she wouldn’t give up. She’d fight to the end!
It came again, the flexible neck coming from odd angles, trying to hit her right side and not her egg-burdened left.
She could do this! She could see where it would strike, even if the how eluded her, because it wouldn’t bite its own child!
This time when its jaws closed, she made sure to aim her spearhead to be inside of them. It tried to rip it from her hands, but she spun and trashed it inside the boss’ mouth until she felt it cut his flesh, and it released the weapon.
It circled again, it struck again, she evaded and struck back, this time without success.
And again,
And again,
And again…
The stalemate lasted for sixteen hours. She was hungry, and tired, and barely on her feet, but she was still alive, and surprisingly enough, with more health than she arrived with.
Another bite, again she evaded. Another swipe in return, and the boss was down to half its total health from a shallow cut on its face.
Someone came.
No, it wasn’t a single player. It was a group. A katana user was at front, her blade drawn from a tiger stripped sheath, a golden colored trail following on her roar and strike.
The second drew her blade too, flanking the opponent before she released a powerful cutting spell at the swipe of her own sword.
Then the boss head was rocked by a powerful explosion. Silica couldn’t tell where it came from, or what kind of strike it was, but she could see it was powerful, and effective.
She didn’t let her opportunity pass. She was tired and hungry, hurt and lacked rest, but she wasn’t dead. And if everything worked out, she wouldn’t be.
No the damned bird-lizard would die.
Placing the dragon’s egg on her backpack, she drew her spear back, and focused as much power as she could on the E-Ranked blade, before she jumped on his hide, testing her own Riding skill and balance against the boss’ erratic movements. The guidelines of footing shifted erratically with its motions, and the hits it took, but she managed to climb to what she guessed were its shoulders, and stabbed right between its wings, putting a last drop of mana in her weapon.
It was the straw that broke the camel’s back, or rather, the last drop needed to break her minor phantasm.
She landed on her front, and felt excruciating pain on her torso, but when her hand clutched, it was on the shaft of another weapon.
The god-tier dragon was on the ground, its wildly trashing for a few moments, moments she used to regain her own bearings.
Her ears were ringing, one her eyes was stinging like it was burned, and she made note that the burning pain on her stomach was due to landing on her almost successful attacker’s spear, which now was hers.
It was called Searing Barb, and it was a D-ranked weapon.
The boss reared its head up, and as bad as her vision was, she noted one of its wings was still on the ground.
“What is she- ?!†one of the newcomers voices rose about the noise, but the dragon was now focused on her and her alone. It cared not about its egg, or the annoying attacks of the other humans that had broken into its lair.
No, it wanted the blood of the accused one who drew others inside, stole his unborn youngling, and ripped its wing.
It roared.
Silica lowered her bag and raised the weapon in response, and for once ignored the assist HUD.
It charged, and so did she.
It bit and she jumped, not fast enough, not high enough. Her legs were trapped by those teeth, her bones where crushed by those jaws. He vision went white with pain. She almost gave up.
Almost.
With her two hands, the spear was pushed into the dragon eyes.
In through one side, out from the other, the barb tipped blade severed the creature’s soft tissue cleanly, and both of them hit the ground with a crash.
[Quetzalcoatl, the Unpronounceable Defeated!]
[You got the last attack!]
[100 000 Exp points bbtained]
[10 Bonus Points acquired.]
[Rider Leveled Up by Two! Assassin Leveled Up by Two!]
[Battle Continuation Skill Unlocked!]
[Dragon Egg acquired!]
[Weapon Leveled Up - Searing Barb is now Rank C, Anti-Dragon Phantasm]
The others, surprisingly enough all girls, ran to her, asking if she could stand, if she was alive and if she could hear them.
“…I’m alive.†She rasped out, as surprised by the fact as them.
The world turned black, but no message came.
