Holy Blood 9

“Thanks for the assist! We woulda died without it!” the big tanker from the other team exclaimed when we got a moment to breath. He had a strong Texan accent.  

“No problem. We need to help each other in this hell hole,” Wizard grinned with a thumbs up.

“I hate to ask but could we assist the group over there? We are actually part of the same team but got separated during the spawn rush,” the tanker asked pointing to a group that was struggling with only about two dozen members still left. 

They had a decent shield wall going, as there were at least four tankers in their group. They weren’t outright struggling, but as we watched I saw one of the tankers swallow a potion. They would probably be running out soon, as even Wizard only managed to get a few dozen for our party. 

“I don’t know, we have a pretty decent set up right here,” Wizard said. 

He wasn’t lying. The group had managed to find a small hill that was only about a meter higher but allowed us to have the high ground. With the addition of the other group’s long-range players, we were able to destroy the undead faster than they could climb the incline. The other team was around the same level and three hits from any combination of attacks usually was fatal to the zombie. 

“I understand that… Still I greatly appreciate it,” the tanker said, throwing a glance to me then looking back to Wizard. 

Wizard smirked. “We do have the only healer in the field. In fact, I think he’s worth his weight in gold,” Wizard said exaggeratedly. 

“What do you want?” the tanker asked with gritted teeth. 

“Why my good sir! Just the promise for one favor down the road. Of course, nothing that is unreasonable,” Wizard said with an evil grin. 

“Alright!” the tanker growled. 

A contract formed in the air between Wizard and him. He reached forward and placed his thumb against it. I moved forward to examine it curiously. It listed the terms for both parties clearly. I was amazed at how intuitive the game was, to be able to do something like this. 

“Alright let’s g…” Wizard started to say before I cut him off.

“Wait! All enemies go to my Goddess and I need you all to pour some blood in here please,” I said to the group at large, “You guys too.” 

The other party grimaced as the looked at the bowl I pulled from my inventory. I figured I might as well make some headway on getting this little baby changed. My teammates all slit their palms and let blood flow into the bowl. I found it curious that it wasn’t even half full this time. The tanker cut his palm in what looked like a show of good faith. Only a moment later, the rest of his party followed suit. 

“Prayer of Blood!” I chanted. 

The blood turned into the smoke and everyone quickly took a breath of it. The other party gasped in surprise at the feeling of getting stronger. The ones that were looking at me earlier like I was a freak also had a change in expression, from disgust to awe in ten seconds. 

“Let’s get going then,” the tanker said with a bit of pressure. 

“Form up! I want a tank in front and on the sides. Front liners assist the tanks, but don’t overextend. Long, turn them to ash!” Wizard ordered and we all moved to our positions. 

I wasn’t sure how, but I ended up in the middle of the group. The group started forward jerkily. We had enough long range to kill zombies four at a time. Even with that much firepower, there was still nearly two hundred zombies to cut through, not to mention the zombies that respawn after some time passed.

We managed to cross half the distance without difficulty. During that time many of the groups out in the fields were massacred. I counted only about seven groups left that were the large groups that had enough members to work in shifts. It helped they were getting over the fear factor as well as learning the patterns of the zombies. 

The only thing that still caused trouble was when some of the zombies went into a rage. The long range made sure to instantly target those and burn them down. It usually resulted in a few wasted spells but at least we didn’t have to risk the zombies rushing the wall. It seemed that their strength was amplified when they were enraged. 

During one of the lulls of the fight I decided to check my status screen since I had leveled a few times since the last time doing so. I personally hoped that I got a new skill or ability. I couldn’t deny that I felt a child-like enjoyment about leveling up. 

Name: Abaddon

Race: 

Angel: As an angel you will be unable to initiate combat with intelligent life. Self-defense is only allowed after a certain threshold. 

Class: 

Priest (The linchpin to any party.)

Skills: 

Holy Light (Damage or Heal dependent on target)

Sanctuary (Area of Effect. Places a barrier around a location that heals or does holy damage to occupants)

Prayer of Strength Blood (Increases the stats of those around the Priest that have given blood to the Goddess Otris. )

Purify Blood Purification (Cleanses debuffs from target and boosts resistance to similar debuffs for a time. 30 second cooldown)

Holy Blood Radiance (Create a cone of light in front of you that deals damage)

Fallen Blood (As your Life points fall the effectiveness of your skills increase.) (Passive)

Level: 15

LP: 2500 AP:2500

Curses: 

Boons: Divinity of Otris

Goddess’s Affection

EXP:4,895/10,000

I was a little disappointed that nothing much had changed. Other than my stats increasing a bit, I really didn’t feel much of a gain. I had a sinking feeling that skills weren’t only locked behind a level wall but also other than the two I got in the beginning, would have to be found out in the world. At least with the lack of priests the skill books would be dirt cheap. 

I quickly threw a heal over the two main tankers. Our group had meshed well with this one. They were a pretty even mix of male and female, with the tanker we spoke to, being the leader. I found out his name was Jason. Of course, we were all criminals back in the old world, so all of these people were probably in it for their own good. In the end, it was as they say, ‘keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.’ 

“Not going to summon another toy?” I asked Lulu when we were shifting the group around. 

Even with me ‘donating’ to Otris, it was to the point that each tribute only gave a few points for each person. I could clearly feel her displeasure growing with each corpse I sent her way. My ear already hurt from the talking to I was going to get next I saw her. Either way, the group took shifts so that no one went empty of their astral energy. 

“I learned my lesson,” Lulu sighed. 

She had tried her summoning spell again earlier on. This time it killed five zombies before it exploded. All this was well within Wizard’s expectations, only it had decided to charge back as the shield line right before it exploded. It knocked Hoop’s LP down by nearly half. 

“I think it will be a good spell once you find out how to control the thing,” I said patting her shoulder. 

“Yay!” she groaned, “back to the library.” 

“Right where I found you. Want me to rebury you while we’re at it?” I asked with a grin.

“Please don’t! I chose this race because it had bonuses to magic. When those books fell on me, I was really worried that I would die from starvation,” Lulu said, her red face in her hands. 

“Speaking of starving. I haven’t eaten in three days, but I don’t feel anything,” I said.

“I heard a tech mention they were giving us a week to adjust before turning on the sustenance matrix,” Wizard chimed in. 

“Is that so,” I said making a mental note. 

I wouldn’t want to be in the middle of an adventurer or stuck in the wild without any food. Even more so, being in the middle of a fight and suddenly get crippled from the game’s ‘hunger’ level being too low. Not only would it be annoying but also a hassle. 

“Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you, but how did you get the angel race? I’ve been racking my brain for the last day or so, but can’t remember it being in the list,” Lulu asked. 

“I…” I started to say before I was interrupted by Wizard. 

“It was in the non-combatant section. You had to ask the voice to specifically pull it up. Pretty awesome buffs to healing, but as with the priest class, you can’t initiate combat,” Wizard explained with a nose in the air. 

“How did you find it then?” I asked, interested in any information about the race I was stuck with. 

“I made sure to ask every and any question to the voice when I was floating in that void. I didn’t want to pass up anything that might help me in the future, you know, since I’ll be here forever.”

“Fair enough,” I said then moved next to him and whispered, “mind telling me later about the buffs I get. I was sort of forced into this setup I have going.” 

Wizard looked at me seriously for a moment then chuckled, “I should have figured. No way would Hunter Hui, choose a setup that wouldn’t allow him to deck anyone that got in his face,” he whispered conspiratorially.

“Well, at least you have my back,” I said slapping his back. 

“Personally, I’m glad you’re a priest. It puts us another level above to the others,” Wizard said. 

“Yes, so that will be a thousand gold for the first month,” I said as if we were finishing up a deal. 

“Can I get that on contract? I have a feeling your toolset will be in very high demand in the future,” Wizard said seriously to my joke. 

“Let’s just finish this up for now.”

While we were talking I would occasional send out a healing spell to the tanker or front-liner that got too in over their head. We were only about ten zombies away from the other group. They seemed to be fighting much more desperately to get to us. They probably ran out of healing potions. 

All the tankers formed up so we could do a full push and group up. I wanted to be helping the long-range members, but they refused making me only use my AP on healing. I understood where they were coming from, but I wanted to be killing the undead too. Especially when Wizard told me that skills had proficiency. It was an unseen mechanic, but it still meant that if I killed monsters will my Holy Light, it would increase the damage eventually. 

“Alright! Charge!” Jason yelled after everyone called ready. 

The tankers ran forward, shields held out. They issued a comical ‘thunk’ when they slammed into the nearest zombies. The back line unleashed their spells downing half of the zombies in an instant. The other party concentrated on holding off the zombies they were dealing with on the other side while letting us deal with the linkup. 

We were close enough that I was able to throw some healing spells their way. It brought my AP down fast but the looks of relief on the other party was pretty obvious. I even saw one tanker manage to throw a thumbs up into the air before she shield-bashed a zombie into the air and back several meters. I just chuckled as I shook my head. 

Thirty seconds later, all the zombies in the immediate area were killed. The spawn rate was still horrendously high, so we were completely surrounded, but we’d planned to farm the undead for a bit anyways.