Holy Blood 15

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Chapter 15

I burst out laughing at Lulu’s ridiculous face as she examined Kano. I felt a little warm that she was that worried about me and decided not to keep up the ruse any longer. Though my laughing gave me away anyways.

“What… Well, I hope you got some pleasure from that,” Lulu huffed folding her arms across her chest. 

“Quite a bit actually. Lulu meet Kano,” I said gesturing the to the Fallen. 

“A pleasure,” Lulu said gruffly walking over to her skeleton. 

I shook my head but couldn’t get rid of the smile I wore. To be honest this was the best time of my life, short as it was. During my quest for revenge, I didn’t make any friends. I kept everyone at an arm’s length for both of our safety. Here, I could do whatever I wanted. I was free of any bindings. I felt… I felt like I could finally let the past lie.

“Wait up!” I called as I followed behind her. She paused in her strides, allowing me to catch up. Kano and Mohr right behind me like a pair of bodyguards. It helped they were both nearly a meter taller than me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would upset you so much.”

She sighed and deflated a bit. “We don’t know what is possible in this… game,” she said with downcast eyes. “What if we really can become fallen,” she glanced over to her skeleton, “or undead?” 

I looked over to her skeleton. I had to admit, someone would have to be pretty intense to want to become an undead. “I understand. I shall remember that going forward. Don’t worry. I see you as a friend, I’ll at least attempt to help you if something along those lines happen. Even if it means killing you and sending you to respawn.” 

“I never thought I would be happy about someone telling me they would kill me, but I just was for a moment,” Lulu said shaking her head. “The dangers of immersive diving.”

“Funny isn’t it? How fast the human mind can adapt,” I said moving past her. I hoped to reach the ruins today after a bit of farming of the local monsters. The bears alone gave a pretty penny when it came to experience. 

“Indeed. Funny,” she said nodding slowly. 

The morning started off with a bang. Maybe because we hunted a few too many but the power balance of the forest around us was in upheaval. The shadow bears were roving the woods with a slight red aura around them. Whenever they would pass a shadow treant, it would strike out at it. The bears weren’t to be outdone as they would jerk around as tear the offending limb from the tree. 

Lulu and I jumped into the action. We fell in behind a pair of bears that appeared to be mates. They would nearly tear a treant apart then move on. I wasn’t sure if it was part of the game settings for them not to kill the Treants, but I didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Lulu would launch her magic at it while Kano buried four arrows into the trunk in the time it took Lulu to launch one spell.

That’s how we spent the dawn hours. Our luck ran out around quarter to eight. Either the wind shifted or there was something else, but the pair of bears caught on to us and turn to charge at us. Something was different with this pair as they were much faster. I knew we couldn’t kite them with attracting more monsters to us.

“We’ll have to do a straight up fight. If the minions fall, we retreat. I don’t want to be sent back to respawn,” I told Lulu who nodded. 

Lulu sent her skeleton forward that was using a shield now thanks to a new skill she learned after leveling up. Mohr was close behind with me next to him. I would need to take some damage to be able to deal anything to the brutes.

A roar came from the pair that was strong enough to make the wind push us back in our steps. The male rushed forward while the skeleton met its charge. I knew it was going to end badly but it was already too late. The bear reared back and swung its paw. I took the chance and jumped to push the skeleton out of the way.

The bear hit my wing with enough force to almost tear it from my back. I roared from the pain as I was launched several meters back. I came to a rolling stop almost next to Lulu. I couldn’t help but lay there for a few seconds as I tried to get control of the pain. I checked my health and saw I lost almost seventy-five percent from the blow. 

“Cast as many curses… as you… can,” I said through gritted teeth while trying to stand up. 

I felt the attacks pass over me. She was casting as fast as she could while commanding her skeleton. 

“Duck! Roll! Block now! Roll with it!” She shouted while using her skills. She was cursing the bear while buffing her undead. It was remarkable how the situation was making her use her abilities. 

“Shield of the Caller!” I cast the skill over Mohr. The shield manifested quite dramatically. It was still dome shaped and Mohr was literally right next to the beast. There was a bang sound as the Bear was launched several meters to slam into a tree. In the meantime, I threw a few healing spells on me to get my health back up.

“You alight?” Lulu asked as I got fully back to my feet. I could feel my wings dragging on the ground, but I would deal with that later. 

“For the most part. Damn thing did nearly twice what the other bears have been doing. Miscalculation on my part,” I said still getting twinges of pain.

I checked my astral energy and found I still had enough to throw out a Raining Blood skill. The rest I would have to save for healing. The skill was not what I expected. Spears made from red liquid slammed down in a ten-meter radius around forming small craters. When they hit the bear they impaled themselves nearly half way down the hilt. 

I worriedly looked to the Fallen, but when the spears hit them they shattered into a mist that settled around them. Mohr and Kano continued to attack the beast inflicting more and more wounds. I looked up the small hill and saw the female was keeping a distance for now. That didn’t last long. The male roared out in pain and the female charged down the hill. 

“Incoming,” Lulu said as she started getting her curses ready for the new enemy. 

“Thank you, captain obvious,” I said with a grunt. “Kano! Incoming!”

Kano turned and started firing arrows almost non-stop. Her health was draining quicker than normal, which meant she was using more physical based damage arrows. I made sure to have her premiered for a heal when the need arose. The arrows were very effective. They slammed into the bear’s front and slowed her charge considerably. One of Kano’s arrow impaled its paw and it slammed into the ground coming to a stop a dozen meters from the male. 

“We need to end this soon. I’m almost out of astral energy!” Lulu said with a worried look back the way we came. 

“We’ve done a large amount of damage. Focus on keeping your curses up,” I said while testing my shoulder. I was back to working condition. I spun my staff and moved towards the fight. 

The male roared and slammed Mohr away with a swing of its paw. The skeleton moved into to take his place allowing Kano to focus on firing arrows at the female, keeping her pinned. I ran in just as the skeleton was sent flying, his shield shattering in the process. 

“I’m back!” I said swing my staff down on the beast’s head. Thankfully, this game didn’t restrict its casters from being able to deal melee damage like some games did. If I hit someone with my metal staff over the head its going to deal a decent amount of damage. It did some damage, but it also pissed the beast off even more. 

Having fulfilled my requirement of having to take damage, I dodged the bear’s paw strike. It was a cut above the other bears in the area but was in no way equal to the training I did to be able to take down a mafia gang single handedly. The blow was much too slow in my opinion.

Mohr rushed back in and together we wailed on the bear. I made sure to throw a healing skill on him whenever he was blasted from the bear by a side swipe. After forty seconds, the bears bleed from dozens of wounds and was breathing heavily as it glared at me. 

“Abaddon!” Lulu shouted urgently. I looked up just in time to she the female slam into Mohr from behind. She must have used some type of skill as I didn’t sense her presence at all until I looked up. She was riddled with arrows with some even fading back to the nothingness. Mohr was sent flying and collided with a tree. 

“Shit!” the female stood in front of the male growling angrily. I mean I got it, but I was already too invested in this fight to walk away. They were obviously something other than normal monsters and if they were some type of field boss, we would need whatever reward there was for defeating them.

I didn’t get a chance to debate it long, however, as both Mohr and Kano used a skill of some kind at that moment. A spear sized arrow fired from Kano’s bow and tore a hole through the female’s chest. Mohr threw his spear then broke away to smoke. The spear impacted the male in the neck, nearly decapitating the beast. Almost of que, they both fell to the ground defeated. 

Congratulations! You have defeated the Second (Field) Boss of the Terran server! Continue to bring light back to the Land! Rewards have been deposited in your inventory. 

Server: The Second (Field) boss has been defeated! 

“Wow! That was a boss?! No wonder the damn thing was so strong,” Lulu commented as she moved up next to me.

“I think our impression of the first boss was just too intense. I mean the damn thing could recover from eating its fellow zombies. These two couldn’t recover, and they were wounded from other encounters before us,” I said. The Treants didn’t always miss. 

“Still. A boss! This is awesome! Look what I got!” She held out her hand which had a skull ring on it that wasn’t there earlier. I looked into my inventory and saw a ring as well. 

-Herald’s Band

Level: 30 Class: Epic 

-When worn by a Herald increases both Astral and Health by 1000 points each. 

I couldn’t help but whistle. This was a nice item. One that I would be hard pressed to replace given the current state of the world this game was in. If I had to get all my items from killing bosses, it was going to be a long road ahead. I equipped the ring then bent down to loot the bosses. 

Another item popped into my inventory. It was a rode that didn’t have a gender lock. It was a High class. I still wasn’t sure about the ranking system, but it was likely lower than Epic. 

-Wanderer’s Robe

-Class: High Level: 25 Armor: 15

-A robe suited to the rigors of traveling and as such made to take a beating. Increases Health by 500 points.

Better than my stats less robe I was wearing. I quickly changed clothes. A black golden robe that looked like it could keep everything from rain to the enemies’ arrows out now donned me. Likely a feature of the game, but there were two slits for my wings to go through. I wasn’t going to complain as that would be annoying to deal with every time I got new equipment. 

“Looking good,” Lulu said.

“Does feel better to be wearing something that actually offers bonuses,” I replied.

“You didn’t get any new equipment before we left the city!?” Lulu asked with wide eyes. 

“No,” I said simply. 

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You did have a new gamer look in your eyes when I saw you back at the library. It was part of the reason I decided to ask… I mean, that was a lot experience points huh?” Lulu said changing the subject halfway through. 

“Oh? Did I seem naïve to the experienced scammer?” I asked with a grin.

“Only a little,” Lulu said tapping her fingers together.

I just looked at her then sighed. It was too late now to get mad at her and to be fair, I was naïve about most of this stuff. “Whatever.” I started working on skinning and butchering the bears. 

An hour later, I finally finished the bloody work. There was a lot of meat and I was worried that it might spoil if left too long. I need to find some salt to make jerky. Just another thing to add to the growing list of stuff we would need to get. All in all, the day was off to a wonderful start.