The group froze, their breaths hitching as the sinister whisper slithered through the air. Instinct warned the weakest of them, urging them to retreat, but they stood their ground, gripping weapons tighter and glancing around with wary eyes. The dim light from the vines revealed faces strained with tension, eyes scanning every shadow as though the very darkness itself was alive.
The shielder, despite his wavering confidence, took a step forward, the grey of his eyes hardening, his shield raised protectively in front of the group. Beside him, Kitti shifted uneasily, her fists sparking with a low hum of power, ready to ignite at the first sign of danger.
The ruins pulsed with a dark energy, the crumbling walls almost breathing, expanding and contracting with a rhythm that matched their own rapid heartbeats. Shade's voice broke the silence, a steady murmur meant to ground the group. "Keep close."
Their pace slowed, and Kitti's senses sharpened, the hair on the back of her neck prickling. She glanced at the shielder, noticing his distracted gaze. His eyes clouded, distant, as though looking at some intangible thing in the distance.
And then, a pulse. It emanated from the stone underfoot, rippling outwards and shaking the very foundation of the ruins. The air grew heavy, thick with a foreboding that felt almost tangible, and for a brief moment, it was as if the whole ruin had paused, waiting.
Suddenly, a low rumble echoed through the chamber, and a tiny black centipede crawled from cracks in the stone. They skittered around their feet, swirling up antennas that licked at them like the tongues of some starving beast.
"Stay together!" Shade ordered, voice firm even as his eyes darted, analyzing every detail.
Then, the voice returned, closer this time, soft and sickly sweet. "Such fragile little beings, so easily unmade."
The shielder's jaw tightened, his eyes hardening as he growled, raising his shield as though preparing to block the very darkness itself.
"Oh? Do you have some little idea that you can defeat me? No, you are here to be consumed. To become part of me."
Without warning, massive centipedes erupted from the walls and floors, claws of darkness lashing out with brutal speed. The group scattered, instincts honed from years of battle kicking in. Swords clashed with shadowy claws, sparks flying as Bekhan's magic shot out in searing bursts of light, searing through the smaller monsters away with a sizzling hiss.
But the monsters were relentless, reforming and striking with a fervor. Jean swung his sword, only for it to pass through their shadowy forms harmlessly. A cold dread settled in the pit of his stomach.
The voice spoke again, this time filling the room with an almost tangible pressure. "Isn't this fun?" As if on cue, an adventurer wielding a large shield was suddenly yanked into the growing mass of centipedes, his screams echoing for a short moment.
Shade cursed, eyes narrowing as he searched for any break in the monsters ranks, any opening they could exploit.
He found none.
"Ggggllll." A gurgling scream tore from Taro's throat, pierced by a pincered claw as he was yanked back into the thousands of centipedes surrounding them.
"Damnit!" The shielder cursed even as he moved all over the battlefield parrying and outright stopping attacks. However, unlike the cyclops from before, the centipedes were far too numerous.
"We can't have that now. Can we?" The voice echoed around them, sounding slightly amused.
The shielder bashed his shield into the side of a six meter long centipede as it came down on a female mage.
Suddenly a pitch black chain shot out of the darkness. The chain was connected to a silver shackle that instantly clasped on the shielder's right wrist.
|| Cover Move ||
The shielder froze. His instant movement had been blocked.
His gaze followed the chain down to the ground, extending into the darkness.
His gaze returned to the adventurers fighting for their lives behind and he turned to help them, even without his movement skill, he was still quite fast in this new world.
The chain pulled tout, and he was yanked into the darkness.
"Shit! Without him, we're screwed!" Kitti chased after him, running into the darkness.
////
Chrome found himself, unable to resist the chain pulling him through the darkness.
Back in New world online, he had skills that prevented situations like this. Passive skills like || paralysis nullification || Stun resist ||
However, this wasn't the game anymore and intent played a big part of everything. While he was chained, he wasn't paralyzed or incapacitated, hence the skill never activated.
And then of course, chains. Chains were never a good thing in New world online, so Chrome did everything to resist.
Placing his feet firmly in the ground, he pulled at the chains, entering a hectic tug of war with the unknown force that shattered the ground between them.
Black sludge water seeped through the cracks in the ground and the tout chain suddenly changed direction and pulled from within the cracks in the ground.
Chrome attempted to pull against the chain, but with the ground fractured he fell into the water.
The taste of iron flooded his mouth, and he struggled for air, he saw red everywhere he looked, and he couldn't tell up from down, swimming in random directions.
Again the chain went tout and he was pulled out of the pool of sludge and the ichor.
The force behind the pull was such that he flew out of the pool and straight into the ceiling with a large crash, kicking up dust.
"Ugh." He groaned, coughing out sludge from the pool even as he fell back down to the ground with another crash.
"How are you enjoying my hospitality? Humans can be rather fragile." The voice sounded clearer now, and Chrome jumped to his feet, his gaze resting on the figure before him.
"But you're not exactly human, are you?" The shadows and dust cleared, revealing a feminine figure. Wearing a purple kimono that left nothing to the imagination, with black stockings and a loose sash around her waist. Her hair a dark crimson colour reminiscent of blood.
Her left wrist had a silver shackle on it, connected to the chain that made its way to Chrome.
The long chain pooled in circles between them as they stood opposite eachother.
From the corner of his eyes, Chrome studied his surroundings. They were in a large cavern with multiple pools of sludge a few metres apart.
"Well, hanging out with Maple can do that to a person." Chrome smirked, though his eyes betrayed his caution.
Slowly, they circled eachother. Both studying the other, as the silence wore on.
"You smell of death, and the cold." The lady broke the silence. "It's eerily familiar." She grinned an inhumanly wide grin, revealing rows of black jagged teeth.
"Wait, seriously?" Chrome paused, raising his unchained hand to his head. "I don't even know how to respond to that."
The lady's grin faltered as she stared at the shielder.
.
.
.
.
"Die!" She slashed her unchained hand at him, sending four black slashes of light cutting through the ground towards him.
The attack closed the distance on instant aiming to overwhelm the shielder with numbers before slicing him in twain.
Chrome sidestepped the attack.
Booooom
The wall behind him exploded with tremendous force, sending pieces of rock flying everywhere.
Chrome's gaze remained on the lady across from him, even as small pieces of debris passed by his view. His gaze never left hers.
She pulled her left hand grabbing the chain and yanking it.
The chain between them flurried in a serpentine fashion as if alive, swimming through the air.
Chrome was sent crashing into another wall, his body digging a trench through it, as he was pulled by the chain.
With a jerking motion, Chrome righted himself, leaping towards the enemy in a single bound.
Instantly, he was on her, his cleaver slicing through the air, aiming to split her skull.
She flicked her wrist, and Chrome instantly realised that he had his cleaver in his right hand that was shackled.
His cleaver missed, leaving him open to a brutal counter in the form of a clawed hand digging into his armoured gut.
The force of the strike was enough to force air out his lungs, apart from that, there was no damage whatsoever. The distraction however, was enough as the lady unleashed a fury of clawed strikes into his gut.
The strikes were fast, hard, and precise, aiming for weakness in armour, unprotected areas.
She finished her attacks with a spinning kick. Chrome however flipped upside down in an instant, catching the kick with his shield.
The ground beneath them shattered from the impact, creating a three metre diameter crater even as Chrome was sent crashing directly into one of the pool of sludge, a large explosion of black ichor spreading out.
Chrome leaped out of the pool, this time pulling the chain and the lady with it directly into his swinging cleaver.
Bending backwards, she slid under his strike, and he twisted his body, swinging his shield in arc, but she stepped back leaving its immediate radius.
She leaped into a backflip, swinging the chain as she did.
The chain twisted and curled, sweeping Chrome off his feet even as she pulled him towards her.
Grabbing the chain with both hands, she spun, swinging the chain as she did. Chrome went airborne as she continued spinning, with Chrome flying through the air in circles until eventually she smashed him into the wall with a resounding explosion, obliterating the wall.
BOOOOOOMMMMMM
The ceiling fractured, and began collapsing, large chunks of rocks falling off. Giant stalactites piercing through the ground as Chrome weaved through the destruction chasing the lady who moved through the destruction backwards, never letting her gaze leave him.
The lady vanished, and Chrome slid to a stop, his eyes never leaving the chain, searching for the end.
He found it, spotting the lady, who was currently running up the side of a falling stalactite before leaping to the wall behind him, and launching herself at him at insane speed.
She landed with another four slash of black light, and Chrome leaped backwards to dodge the attack.
In a swift motion, Chrome launched himself back into the fray, swinging his cleaver. Once again he forgot to switch his cleaver to his unchained hand and he paid dearly as the lady pulled the chain tout, and stepped on it. Chrome's hand and cleaver was pulled to the floor with the chain and he stumbled.
He immediately caught himself and pulled his hand, but the lady was already moving. With her leg on his chain, her hands were free to strike at him.
He lifted his shield, blocking strikes to his face, midsection, and sides in a flurry of actions.
Letting go of his shield, he grabbed her arm, pulling her into a front kick that sent her flying towards the high ceiling.
Crashing into the ceiling, she immediately righted herself, running on the wall as she rounded a particularly massive stalagmite, rounding the chain around it as she ran.
Eventually she spotted Chrome's armored back, having ran in a big circle. She jumped down her claws poised for a stab.
Chrome however, easily sidestepped her, slamming his shield into her face the next instant, sending her flying through the massive stalagmite with another explosion. The chains now free, pooled on the floor once again between them.
When the smoke and dust cleared, the lady was on one knee, panting. 'What? All that, and he doesn't even look hurt?' She studied the shielder's figure. 'I know my attacks connected. Several times.'
|| Battle Healing || Recover one percent of HP every ten seconds during combat.
|| Life Eater || • Passive • Whenever dealing damage, recover HP equal to one third of damage dealt.
|| Soul Syphon || • Passive • Recover three percent HP when taking damage from an attack.
Chrome as a great shielder had garnered himself a ton of healing skills making him a different breed of hard to kill. However these three skills were the main reasons Todesfüßler's attack amounted to nothing in the end.
With a scream, Todesfüßler lashed out with both hands, sending eight slashes of darkness towards the shielder.
Chrome sidestepped the first two, then swung his cleaver, slicing through the third. With his shield, he weathered the fourth, fifth and sixth slash.
The impact of the sixth strike however, pushed his shield just a little bit higher and the last two slashes slammed into his chest, his feet making trenches in the floor from the force of the strike.
At some point, the chain had vanished during the flurry of slashes, and Chrome immediately took notice. ' I can move to the others now, I should...' he glanced at the lady who was already charging him. 'No... If I return, she'll follow me, the others wouldn't stand a chance. I have to end this here and now.'
His cleaver met her claws in an epic explosion, that shattered the ground around them, even as they kept pushing against eachother, the black pools boiling and rolling.
Chrome brought his face close to the lady. "You made one mistake, bringing me here." He smirked. "You left your army outside, whilst I didn't."
Todesfüßler didn't even have time to consider his words when he spoke.
|| Soul Eater || Rise ||
Am immense grey aura erupts from Chrome rising so high that the ceiling fractured from the pressure.
The ground cracked and centipedes crawled out, except these weren't the ones that Todesfüßler had summoned, these weren't her children. These centipedes were made entirely out of shadows stained with grey, their carapace completely bone white.
From the ceiling, the walls and even some of the pools, the creatures rushed out. Eventually giant cyclops made entirely out of shadows pulled themselves out of the walls as well.
And of course.
RAAAARGH
A single undead Ursagorath.
"Wha..." Todesfüßler was shocked to say the least, and it cost her as she was immediately crushed by the wave of undead.
Chrome took a deep breath and watched as his undead tore into the enemy.
Amidst the chaos and destruction, a tiny voice suddenly called out. "Whaa..."
Chrome froze and slowly turned around, his gaze meeting the scared expression of Kitti, who was just pulling herself out of the sludge pool.
.
.
.
"Yo... you're... You're a necromancer?"