Time ticked by as Fidel regained her mana. We used two mana potions before she stood back on her feet. "I have just enough mana to cast the correct spells in an emergency. Let us commence; the night will arrive soon if we do not continue." She said coldly, earning nods from us in turn.
Agreement from all of us came quick, and we entered again into the depths of the facility we found. I decided in my head that was what it was. What we found, though, was mages deep in thought. The area around us had a tinge of black haze on all the surfaces. We had entered the deepest parts of the Facility or Dungeon. Iona moved forward with Katana, ready for action. Iona's body was prepared for battle. Without much thought, she attacked the First Mage that was deep in research.
--
Retainer of Darkness Researcher 200XP
--
The other researchers heard the sound of the Katana swishing and looked up. They seemed surprised at our intrusion and screamed. Many began running and freaking out. Many tried to run past us, which we cut down ruthlessly. A couple of others ran through a hidden door we didn't see when we first entered. A Chain lightning bolt killed the ones that almost escaped. It was surprising how quickly the researchers died. Many that we killed up to this point were challenging targets that required a lot of effort to kill.
The massacre of ten Researchers was quick when we started to hear voices outcry. The exclamations came through the now open hidden door. From it, eight people came out. My neutral chanting changed, and I started preparing the Illusion needed to confuse the new enemies.
Three of the eight were armored guards, and two seemed to hold bows, and the rest were mages. All three had what appeared to be Corrupted staves with a black haze surrounding them.
Iona reacted first as Gloom started to buff us all. A greenfield covered our bodies. Iona reached the Armored guards swiping her sword at them. On the first hit, she got a lucky hit in deeply cutting into one of their arms. It started to bleed visibly. Still, the guard attacked her back, and Iona started to evade while trying to counter them.
Still, we were overwhelmed instantly. Both archers prepared to shoot at us, pulling back their bows when Viccy's arrow hit one of them in hand. The Archer cried out, temporarily disarmed as he dropped his bow, the arrow flying off in a random direction.
Fidel quickly followed up with a spell of her own as the other archer let an arrow fly, hitting me. I gritted my teeth as the arrow hit me in the stomach. It was painful but not real-life painful as I concentrated on casting the spell instead of the pain. I barely held back the cry of pain as I noticed the Flash of Fidels Chain lightning hitting the dead center of one archer into the mages and back into the other archer. The room filled with cries of pain. Simultaneously, the archer that hit me was stunned Viccy Released another arrow, luckily hitting him in the throat. The First archer fell to the ground as blood rapidly left his body from the fatal hit going through his neck.
Iona was taking hits, though and her armor seemed to have long gashes down areas. Finally, I finished my chant as so many things happened at once. The Illusion was starting to take effect, turning the world into a slightly different version where people were in other spots. I was hit, though, from a Corruption bolt. My mana fueled the illusion but almost lost the flow as I almost died from the hit.
My health almost emptied from the two hits, and Iona used her taunt to gather all the attention. Gloom cast a regeneration spell on me as two spells from the other mages hit where I put the illusion of me; Thus saving myself.
With the pain, I couldn't think properly anymore and just neutrally kept chanting what I needed to. I only changed positions and made my party's reactions more realistic to the enemy's attacks. Viccy took down the other archer while Iona kept the attention of the Armored guards. It was a general shit show as I chanted neutrally. Iona then screamed out her taunt causing all the enemies to focus on her. That turned the head of all the mages as they were about to attack Gloom. This also interrupted the chanting they were just about to finish. Fidel followed up as an arrow joined in with a chain lightning.
The Lightning chained from mage to mage before hitting two of the armored ones. The chain lightning was at a great time as the already bleeding Armored guard was hit. Iona's Katana came down on him. Something the guard could have easily dodged while they fought hit him in the neck severing his artery, and the First armored guard went down. The Arrow Viccy shot nailed a mage back and, with Fidel's spell, killed one of the Corruption mages. With four dead, the pressure lessened, and Iona had spells cast at her from the last two mages.
With Fidel still chanting, another arrow came from Viccy, interrupting one of the spells while the other hit Iona. Iona Cried out as more spells from Gloom noticeably healed her. The marks from the Armored guard's littered her body as she continued to dodge.
With the pressure though being lifted, she took fewer and fewer hits from the guards. Fidel finished her cast with her face starting to pale. The spell hit the two mages killing both, and hit one of the guards that Iona timed her katana to come down just as the lightning struck him. The hit didn't kill, but with only two Armored guards left, and one was heavily Injured, they were both cleaned up quickly.
When the last guard fell bleeding out from Iona's Katana, we all, except for Fidel, let out a cheer. I was pale, though from the close stroke with death. I chimed in, though, putting a bucket of cold water over the happiness. "Ladies, We need to check if any more are coming clean up and get out. That was a close call with failure too." I scolded. Viccy and Iona seemed to be the most startled by my voice. Everyone turned serious, though, and started to clear the room. Gloom looked at me with a serious expression.
"That was close for you. The protection I gave you earlier in the fight stopped the curse from taking effect, but the initial damage almost killed you." She started, looking over me, and chanted out another regeneration spell. The spell came over me, and I sighed, feeling the pain disappear. I stood tall again and nodded.
"You are right; that spell almost killed me after the arrow hit me, which I still need to take out. Please support me." I replied.
After taking the arrow out of my stomach under Glooms watch, we healed up with the area we were in was completely clear. We started to loot, and I heard an alarm ring in my ear. It almost made me jump through the roof. Viccy nodded to me, and we both knew that we needed to sign off soon.
We cleared up the room, and I took a look at the gains. It was much more than I thought we were going to get.
--
Coin Purse x9
Corrupted Wood x15
Corrupted Steel bar x32
Corrupt Liquid x56
Corrupt Coin's x5
Broken Dagger
Corrupted short Sword
Researchers note Part 1/20
Researchers note Part 3/20
Researchers note Part 7/20
Researchers note Part 9/20
Researchers note Part 11/20
Researchers note Part 12/20
Researchers note Part 13/20
Researchers note Part 15/20
--
The Researcher's notes were essential to the quest, I believed. I showed the papers to the ladies, and everyone agreed. Gloom then pointed out all the pollution in the room and that spending too much time here wasn't healthy. I chimed in, saying that we could back up to the cave system, put down another ward and lock the door to protect ourselves, and rejuvenate over the night. This was met with agreement. After a day of fighting, we were all exhausted and couldn't continue.
The conversation on the way back was sobering, though. I told everyone how close I was to death, and Iona piped up. "I know, I couldn't take all the mages at that point. Two times Glooms regeneration saved me from the brink of death. Without your illusion messing with their perception making the Armored guards miss right after your illusion came out, I was a dead woman."
This sobered everyone further, and I sighed. "I think there is only one way around this," I said, grabbing everyone's attention. "Iona either needs a shield to block, or we get another person who can front line with her."
Iona replied after some thought as we reached the cave again and started to set up for the night while I set up another ward for us. "I can't use a shield." Her sudden talking again startled us. We all listened to her, though. "I use evasion to make them miss most of the damage. A shield would slow me down, and I would take too much magic damage. Sheilds are used to resisting physical damage but are bad against magic. Most of the mages, when I am not overwhelmed, miss their spells. I move at the last moment, and they miss. Fidel is one of the rare people it is almost impossible to dodge their spells. It is one of the reasons why lightning is so feared. A shield would slow me down, and I couldn't take on mages anymore." She finished.
Viccy responded first as we set up the camp. "Are their shields that resist the magic?" She asked.
"There are," Iona replied, "But I resist all the damage a spell causes if it misses. Also, I have never heard of gear that resists more than twenty percent of magical damage. That was really rare gear and sold for millions of gold in my home country." She replied as she finished setting up a tent.
The camp became quiet as we were all in thought before Gloom piped in. "I think getting another frontline warrior would be a good idea. I am more suited for healing more than one person at a time with regeneration spells. With two front-liners, we would have more lee-way with taunts and larger groups of enemies. Today if either Elli or Iona went down, all of us would have died. We came really close to the worst-case scenario twice in seconds of each other. We were lucky; Extremely Lucky. Next time we might not be." All of us became silent again.
I thought about it, and I decided. "Okay, When we get back, we will find a warrior to join us. Let us all get some food and water before we sleep." I finished. Nods went around, and Iona engaged with Gloom over who did first watch. Iona eventually won the small debate, and I snuggled with her and Viccy before logging off.