Chapter Sixty Eight - 068The two Bloodtainted Guardians let out rasping hisses, and Felix felt animosity burn through the air. His Manasight perceived clouds of corrupted Mana steam from the creatures' undulating forms. A croaking yowl sounded from the first Guardian, bronze spikes vibrating unpleasantly. The second answered that call, its glottal thrum a buzzing dissonance that set Felix's teeth on edge.
Then they charged.
Their metallic claws struck sparks from the ground as they loped toward them, and Felix launched himself to the right while Pit ran to the left. In less than a second, the first creature had crossed the intervening distance and slammed its entire body against a hastily erected Force Wall.
Felix tumbled, rolling himself forward onto his feet as the second Guardian peeled off toward him. His leap had taken him quite the distance, so Felix had a moment to inspect the creature before him. The creature was giant, a cross between a serpent and a weasel yet worse than either. They were both, aside from their sheer size and fur patterns, near replicas of the Seven Legged Orit. Sleek muscles rippled beneath their matted, brown and off-white hides, while their faces were gaunt and skeletal, dark pits for eyes and sharp, yellowed teeth longer than his forearm dripped thick drool. The thinning fog revealed a plethora of shattered weapons, swords and blades of all kinds that still remained in its thick hide; all this without even considering the strange bronze spikes through their necks.
But Felix's brief respite was over as the Guardian rushed him.
Reign of Vellus!
Blue light washed forward, lightning crackling up from the ground, but it did little more than flatten the fur on the Guardian's face.
Shit.
Felix shot out a Shadow Whip, securing it against the cobbled flooring before yanking hard. The Guardian leaped into empty space, barely missing his form, while Felix landed in an ungainly roll. His Dexterity and Agility were both high, but he still wasn't as graceful as Evie. The Guardian let out a choking roar, those throat spikes buzzing again.
Felix breathed hard, not tired but more than a little terrified of these creatures. They were nearly thirty levels above him! Felix had dealt with more than a few higher leveled foes, but the last time he'd tangled with someone this high was Grimmar...and that hadn't ended well.
The Guardian twisted, it's long body folding unnaturally as it followed Felix with its dead eyes. Those eyes burned with a crimson illumination, and Felix's Manasight spotted streams of dark vapor gathering between the creature's cadaverous jaws.
Manasight is level 37!
The dark vapor condensed in seconds into a liquid-like ball of crackling energy, dark as night. Felix's instincts screamed at him to get away, and he wasn't stupid enough to ignore them. Jerking a hand upward, Felix raised a stone wall from the floor between them and utilized Reign of Vellus to push himself up and away at an angle. Just in time, as the crackling ball burst into a beam of dark lightning, shearing through the stone wall like a hot knife through butter. It splashed against the massive structure behind him, rebounding off a glittering shield of green-gold light. Felix took note of that.
It has a shield? How do we get in? He ran, pushing his new Body to evade another dark lightning blast. Focus. Kill them first, then the door.
Frost Spears flew past Felix, close enough to feel their bitter energy, as the second Guardian battled against Magda and Pit. Feelings of frustration and increasing aggression poured across the pact, causing Felix to glance over in concern. Magda was getting pummeled on by the beast, the original Force Wall gone, though it hadn't yet gotten through her kite shields. Pit meanwhile circled it and fired off Wingblades and Frost Spears, which it either dodged somehow or were deflected by its hide.
"OOF!"
He paid for his distraction as his opponent surged forward and swiped him with a massive tire-sized paw. Felix sailed through the air before landing in a painful roll on the ground. A flash of bright white light suffused his vision for a moment, the pain blinding before numbing down to tolerable levels.
Pain Resistance is level 34!
Armored Skin is level 28!
"Ugh," Felix pushed himself to his feet, rushing despite several ugly twinges in his legs and lower back. Felix summoned twin streams of acid into his hands and blasted them back at the Guardian.
"KKRRRAAAAAAAAHHH!" It roared in full defiance of his onslaught, bronze spikes rattling with the sound. The acid pattered against the creature, even burned it in many places, but Felix could see those same burns healing over only seconds later.
It's regenerating! What must its stats be to regenerate damage that fast? Or was that a blood beast thing? He considered his own Health, down now by 15% from that hit alone. I didn't even get the claws, either.
However, his magical assault had one good side effect, it made the Guardian wary of him. Despite the healed damage, Felix had still wounded the beast. It prowled in a slow circle around the Nym, and Felix took the breather to assess their situation.
Magda is holding her beast off, though for how long...? He looked around the room, never quite taking his eyes off the Guardian. This room is huge, but there's nothing really to use here. Stone Shaping could make obstacles, but it's so strong, and that bullshit dark lightning spell shattered my wall. He felt a growl in his core, and smiled despite himself. That'd be a good spell to have...
The Guardian paused, tipping its head like a dog with a scent, before dropping low and snarling at Felix. Those bronze spikes, so painful to look at, buzzed again.
What is the deal with those? Felix peered at the bronze spikes, trying to get a bead on them, but Analyze was slippery and only gave back the Guardians' stats. They're part of it, somehow. A weak point? Or something else?
Then his sharp eyes recognized that the plethora of broken blades in the creature's back held something else. A torn and tattered bag, half pierced by a jagged sword. The Guardian dipped it's head, undulating as it moved, and the bag twisted to reveal a lumpy square shape within.
My satchel!
It was beaten up, nearly beyond recognition, torn and strained by the fall and whatever these monsters had done to it. However, Felix could still see the boxy outline of the lockbox Pit had stolen from the Archon. With a flash of recollection, he checked his Active Quest List.
A Light In The Dark!
0 of 4 Remnants Found
The lockbox had one of the blood remnants, and Felix had tucked the other remnant into one of the satchel's pockets. He frowned as he confirmed that, since losing his bag, he was back to 0% on the Light in the Dark quest.
More sounds of frustration from Magda and the other Guardian, and Felix got an idea. Well, two ideas.
"Magda! Use these!" With a burst of Mana, Felix conjured a series of stone spears around Magda, much as he had against the Risi Commander. He saw her fierce grin as she snapped one of the spears from the ground before hurling it forward.
"Stone Break!"
The spear exploded into razor sharp shards, throwing her Guardian to the side and piercing its thick hide.
Felix spun back to his opponent who, as expected, was nearly on top of him.
Influence of the Wisp!
Shadow Whip!
Stone Shape!
A tendril of shadow snapped outward, tangling with the Guardian's legs. Felix flexed his Willpower and split the whip into four tendrils, each of which tangled with the long creature's powerful limbs. The Shadow Whip barely tripped them up, the Guardian tearing through them in moments, but it paused the beast's charge long enough to become subsumed in blue-white fire.
Enthrall Failed. Target Is Immune.
The Enthrall didn't stick, but the new effect of his spell did: the Guardian began to make croaking screams as the fire ate away at its flesh and fur. Still the beast didn't stop, barrelling forward as it's body went up like a torch.
The last spell was for him.
A platform of stone rocketed Felix upward, mere moments before the monster hit him. Felix leaped from this rising pillar, his Strength and Agility more than enough to send him flying over the head of the Guardian and directly onto its back. The pillar shattered into pieces as the monster charged through it, but Felix had already landed on its back and raced forward among the jagged hilts of doomed weapons.
Ah, shit! That's hot! In retrospect, using his new fire spell then jumping on a creature was not a great idea. But beggars couldn't be choosers.
Fire Resistance is level 19!
Heat Resistance is level 21!
Luckily, his aim hadn't been too far off. He was within a few yards of his satchel.
Felix got a hand around one of the tattered straps when something hit him like a freight train. Something pierced through him, a white hot bar of torment, and then he went flying. He flew so fast that he barely had time to tumble, smashing into the wall forty feet away. The wall cracked and shattered, sheets of rock shearing from the surface as his body was driven a foot into the stone.