The guards and the rest of the party rushed at each other as James walked forward, ready to parry whatever Nolan would do with his freak of a sword before striking. Nolan held his sword in a reverse grip and fired a stream of air, making him fly forward, before he slashed upwards. James was caught off guard by how fast Nolan moved and only had a second to react. He raised his shield but it was swiftly knocked away by the upwards swing, and Nolan swung down with his sword sped up by the air burst. James dodged back and swung his sword, but Nolan blocked it with the flat of his blade as the cartridge ejected.
“I greatly overestimated you,” The mercenary shouted as he reloaded. “At this point, I could be the hero of Sable.”
Meanwhile, the others ran towards the fake guards. They aimed their spears at the enemy heroes, but Amelia slid under them, swiping at their legs with her sword.
Fake Guards 2, 8, 13
5/30 HP
The guards all scattered pretty quickly, but one of them had the sense to dodge the attack and stab Amelia in the back as she tried to get up, pushing her to the ground.
GlassAngel
75/150 HP
Prone
“Gotcha now!” He shouted, before an energy bolt struck him in the chest.
“You guys are the only people in this dungeon, and I’m still not going to waste my spells on you,” Patrick told them. Enraged, some of the guards ran forward, but Amelia stood up and swung her sword, slicing them in the back.
Fake Guard 5, 9, 15
5/30 HP
----
GlassAngel
Prone status removed.
The guards turned around, now surrounding Amelia. Grey waved their hand and casually shot one of them in the back, making him keel over.
Fake Guard 2
0/30 HP
“You wanna fall back?” They asked Amelia. She smiled and shook her head as she casually parried a guard who tried to stab her.
“Duck!” James shouted. Patrick ducked as the Exhaust Blade went over his head, cutting the top of his pointy hat. Nolan growled when he missed his target and stabbed the sword forward, sending out another air shockwave. James dived under the burst and uppercut Nolan with his shield; the first solid hit either of them had landed on each other.
Nolan Pagen
230/300 HP
Nolan staggered back, ejecting the air cartridge that accidentally hit one of the guards in the back of the head. “Hey, congrats.”
James was already trying to stab Nolan, but he slashed upwards and parried the strike. As he did so, he replaced the cartridge and swung back around with a jet propelled strike. James raised his shield to protect himself, but as he did so the jets on the blade changed the attack's trajectory and pushed Nolan back. He spun around in mid air and slashed James across the chest, cutting through his thick armour. His blood splattered onto the battle that was taking place next to them.
Cieth
250/300 HP
As the blow was struck, Amelia parried another strike from the guards, spinning around and stabbing them through the chest.
Fake Guard 8
Level 3
0/30 HP
Two of them tried to hit her from behind, but they were both taken out by energy bolts from different mages.
Fake Guard 5, 9
0/30 HP
----
Trident743
130/150 Mana
“Shouldn’t you be shooting the ones with higher health?” Grey asked.
“I’ll shoot what I damn well want,” Patrick replied. One of the guards turned to Patrick and ran towards him. However, at that moment Delarius ran forward, screaming, and punched the guard in the face, knocking him down.
Fake Guard 15
0/30 HP
“What..what did I just do?” Delarius shouted in surprise.
“You killed him,” Patrick told him, matter of factly. “Don’t worry, it’s just an NPC.”
Another one of the guards tried to stab Delarius, but Grey pushed the pike away with their staff, before he said to Patrick, “You know Delarius is one too, right?”
“Good point. He can probably respawn though, right? It would be annoying if he could permanently die.”
Before the conversation could continue, Patrick’s cloak was partially torn by an air pressure wave from the Exhaust Blade. James had pushed the blade to the side with his shield to avoid taking one to the face, letting him stab Nolan in the chest.
Nolan kicked James away. Patrick took a potshot at Nolan with a fireball, but Nolan ejected the sword’s cartridge into its path, intercepting the blast.
Trident743
Firebolt
----
Trident743
110/150 Mana
As the dust cleared, Amelia dodged back from a pike stab, breaking free from the blockade of guards and being level with James.
“You are doing no damage to that guy,” Amelia told him.
“And you’d get shredded like paper if you fought him,” James replied. “I can take him just fine.”
“Let me switch partners and I’ll show you how badly you’re doing.”
“Do you guys do nothing but talk?” Nolan shouted as he reloaded yet again. He rushed forward to stab James, but Amelia leapt up and kicked the strike away. James leapt off the table and sliced through the mouth of one of the guards.
Fake Guard 13
0/30 HP
“Hey, no one said you could swap out!” Nolan shouted “This isn’t fair!”
“You were going to ambush us, you hypocrite,” Amelia retorted. She slashed for Nolan’s head but he blocked and swiped at her abdomen. Amelia cartwheeled back before going for another stab. However, Nolan dodge to the side, aimed his sword, and fired an air blast. The impact hit Amelia squarely in the chest, throwing her off the table.
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“Your defence is full of holes!” he taunted her. “The other guy couldn’t hurt me, but at least he could block!”
Amelia staggered to her feet. Grey held out their staff, ready to heal her, but Amelia held up her hand.
“This bastard wants a fair fight,” she scowled. “Then I’m sure as hell going to give one to him.”
“Oh, please,” Nolan smirked. “One more shot from this thing and you’re dead. You can’t possibly survive that long.”
“Watch me.”
Amelia and Nolan’s blade’s clashed as she leapt back onto the table. She pulled her blade back, swung around and slashed skywards. Nolan had to fire a weak air pressure blast to dodge the attack, skidding back. He swung his sword into a reverse grip and fired at the table, blasting himself into the air where he slashed at Amelia.
She blocked in mid air, but Nolan grabbed her arm and fired another air blast, sending them careening towards the wall. However, Amelia managed to grab Nolan by the face and spun around before they landed, slamming the back of his head into the wall.
“They’re flying now?” James asked. “Wish I could do that.”
The fake guards rushed towards the new combatant, but James slammed his sword into the ground, sending out a shockwave.
Cieth
Crash Blade
----
Fake Guard 1, 6-7, 10-12
20/30 HP
Now Targeting Cieth
----
Fake Guard 3
0/30 HP
“It’s kind of annoying we don’t have more AoEs for this fight,” Patrick said. One of the guards rushed up to him, but Patrick casually dodged out of the way and shot an energy bolt through his chest.
Fake Guard 1
0/30 HP
“My daggers don’t do a whole lot of damage,” Patrick continued. “Not enough to down this lot.”
“I only need to do Crash Blade two more times to wipe them all out,” James said. As he said that, a light green glow faded into view around everyone in the party as Grey slammed their staff into the ground
Cleric Skill
Strength
Your magic gives your allies the will to fight.
Apply Brave to all other party members for 30 seconds.
40 second cooldown.
----
GlassAngel, Cieth, Trident743, Delarius Skyshear
----
Status Effect
Brave
STR*1.5
“You could have used this when we fought the Dire Wolf,” James told him as he stabbed another guard in the chest. Grey rushed over and smashed the Guard’s head with their staff, knocking him down.
Fake Guard 6
0/30 HP
“With all due respect, I don’t think we were ever getting out of that one,” Grey told him. “Now don’t hold anything back!”
Meanwhile, Nolan grabbed Amelia’s face and pushed her away, and she managed to land on her feet back on the table, which cracked slightly from the impact. He latched his sword into the wall and replaced the cartridge before pulling a potion out of his pocket and drinking it.
Nolan Pagen
220/300 HP
“Really should have brought more of these,” he growled before blasting off, spinning in the air like a buzz saw. He slashed through the table and crashed into Amelia. She held up her sword to block the attack, but the impact was too much for her to handle. The table cracked under her and she was forced down onto her back.
GlassAngel
25/150 HP
Brave
Nolan raised his sword and smiled, ready to kill her, but he was then promptly hit by a corpse and knocked over.
Nolan Pagen
215/300 HP
----
Fake Guard 7
0/30 HP
“You really enjoy throwing bodies around, huh, James?” Patrick said, chucking another energy bolt.
Fake Guard 10
0/30 HP
----
Trident743
115/150 Mana
“I hope it doesn’t become a habit,” James replied. He pointed his sword at the two remaining guards. “You’re outnumbered and outgunned. You have a chance to run no-”
“You bastards!” Nolan shouted, throwing the corpse off of him. “You dare to dishonour my men like this? Slaughter them and then let them go, like you’re some kind of saint for saving just two of them?”
“Frankly, I just don’t want to fight any more cannon fodder before we all get to rush you down,” Patrick said. Amelia stabbed her sword into the ground and got up. One of the last guards ignored the option to surrender and tried to stab her from behind, but she swung her sword around and swiftly decapitated him.
Fake Guard 11
0/30 HP
“Need some help?” Grey asked her. “This isn’t a one on one anymore.”
Amelia nodded and Grey’s healing energy flooded into her.
Skibabylon
Healing Beam
The last guard turned to fight, but Nolan held up his hand.
“Get the hell out of here,” he said. “I want to go all out against these bastards. You don’t want to be there to see it. Believe it or not…I like the rest of you guys. I’d like to see you live a bit longer.”
“Y-Yes, sir!” The fake guard turned and ran, leaving towards the entrance.
“Stupid kids,” Nolan growled, reloading the sword once more. “You idiots never know when to quit. You heroes go around wrecking everything. You always think you’re right, you never know how to stop, you’re just like...like...” Nolan’s face snapped from anger to a confident smirk. “Well, shall we get this rolling?”
Nolan Pagen
215/300 HP
Awakening.
Nolan spun his sword and flew towards Amelia, preparing to stab her, but James leapt between them, the sword digging into the shield.
Cieth
Shield
----
Cieth
200/300 HP
Brave
Nolan pulled out the sword, yanking James forward, and stabbing him in the chest. James tried to pull the sword out, but he could feel the Exhaust Blade beginning to whirl in his body.
“This is the ultimate power of the Exhaust Blade,” Nolan goaded. “An explosion of pressure that bursts your organs from the inside out. The Zero Sum Discharge. See you, kid. You weren’t half bad.”
The rest of the party only saw a weak blast of air coming out of the back of James’ chest. James felt his insides rupture like a bursting balloon. He spat out blood as Nolan yanked the sword out, letting him collapse to the floor, blood pouring out of his chest.
Cieth
0/300 HP
Available Revive Time: 3 minutes.
The others looked on in shock as they saw their tank getting one shot with zero effort. The Exhaust Blade continued to whirl, like it had been put into overdrive from that one attack. Nolan lifted his sword onto his shoulder.
“Well?” He said. “Who wants to play next?”
James Stats: Level: 3 HP: 0/300 STR: 10 DEF: 15 DEX: 5 SPL: 15 INT: 1
Grey stats: Level: 3 HP: 150/150 STR: 5 DEF: 15 DEX: 5 SPL: 10 INT: 0 Healing Pool:75/200
Amelia Stats: Level: 3 HP: 150/150 STR: 25 DEF: 5 DEX: 10 SPL: 5 INT: 0
Patrick stats: Level: 3 HP: 100/100 STR: 20 DEF: 5 DEX: 15 SPL: 15 INT: 0 Mana: 115/150
