Mogwai tried his best to tear himself from my grip, but he couldn’t compete with the power amassed by Unity. After waiting for the druid’s Equanimity to end, I dropped ‘Mr. Xiaoguang,’ but now he’d changed his mind and didn’t want to say his goodbyes. He clung to my legs. Mogwai summoned a Celestial Devil, a flying mount that looked like a stingray with monstrous stingers and a long double tail Storm, ascending behind us, obeyed my order to attack Mogwai’s mount. The dragoness and the ray locked together. Storm caught her enemy’s tail in her mouth and used her mighty claws to tear the creature in half like a piece of paper. The Celestial Devil s piercing howl cut ended abruptly.
With a powerful Hammerfist, I punched the druid away. Roaring with fury and terror, he dropped through the air like a stone.
At my command, Storm shot her strongest bolt of lightning, capable of burning anyone to ash, but Mogwai’s mana shield saved him. Then Storm fired again, and that was enough to ensure that the deadly fall damage should hit ‘Mr. Xiaoguang’ full-force, with no defenses left. I worried that he might have some bird form and would transport in flight. Unfortunately for him, it seemed the #1 leading player in the world wasn’t one of those druids. There were many types of them in Dis, just like the other base classes.
I’d also confirmed that the Supreme Legate hadn’t earned Subjugate Mind yet. Maybe he’d get it when he got more reputation with the Nucleus. Or did it just not work on other legates? I had no time to wonder.
Battle raged below. Crash and Iggy were successfully putting down the Legates of the Destroying Plague. Actually, they were killing them a second time—they revived in the stronghold. The respawn point for new undead had to be there. They were using plague energy attacks on my pets as much as they could—without Plague Fury for now—and even without their skills and reservoir leveled up, the damage hurt. Iggy had lost half his health, but the pet took cunning vengeance over and over—he didn’t just kill them, he laid a few larvae in each. The Parasites Inside skill meant they’d be walking around with their health cut down!
I tracked the battle with my pets by their logs and health bars, which were dropping like a stone along with Mogwai’s. Only at the very bottom did I lower my speed and land gracefully on my feet by the corpse of the Supreme Legate, driving my Reapers Scythes into his heart with the words: “I expel you from Disgardium forever!”
Nothing. Mogwai was not a Threat. The druid had revived nearby and saw me land. He laughed.
“You’re an idiot, Scyth! You become a Threat when you violate the balance of Dis. A third faction with its own racial abilities is already part of that balance.”
“I had to tr>%” I said, smiling and setting Crash on him.
“Strange that you’re still a Threat. Must be something to do with the Sleeping Gods…”
Whoomph!— the plague-ridden land beneath the druid’s feet exploded and he fell into a welcoming stomach. Crash’s mouth full of endless rows of teeth snapped shut.
The Diamond Worm chewed Mogwai a while, taking away his Equanimity and mana shield, but only quarter of his health. The druid fired off plague attacks from inside and bored a hole in the worm’s body, breaking out to freedom. I was at the ready, and repeated my unforgettable aerial tour of the skies of the Lakharian Desert for ‘Mr. Xiaoguang.’ The customer was far from happy. Ragged, but still fighting, Storm, Crash and Iggy switched to dealing with the others.
All eight newly-minted Legates of the Destroying Plague died again for the second time that day. We had to press on until we got them a third time, to win time until tomorrow. Otherwise… Call of the Supreme Legate right into a trap, murder, elimination of the Threat.
A raid of marauding PuGs passing the Destroying Plague’s lands helped me while away the wait, and Rita Wood messaged to say she’d left the sandbox and was ‘awaiting further instructions in Darant.’ Instructions? I had no time to answer. The PuG raid’s commander, a little gnome shrouded in a full set of adamantite armor, shouted… or rather, shrieked: “Hey, carrion, come over here, be a man! Why are you hiding over there? You a coward?”
I realized the reason for his suicidal bravado when I flew closer. Baleful grins darkened the players’ faces, dozens of them took out scrolls, and then…
Crack! With a crunch, everything around bent, broke. I began to feel myself twisted as if someone had started to solve an invisible Rubik’s Cube, with Scyth at its center. Ultima? There was absolutely nothing I could do— Ultima, once the strongest spell in the game, stunned me and dealt damage. The numbers flooded in so fast that Resilience even gained a few points. Reflection did its job—everyone who used an Ultima scroll died. My pets dealt with the rest.
By the time the world stopped twisting, ever} last member of the PuG raid was on the way back to the graveyard. It’s a wipe! the squeak} gnome shouted before he died, voicing the obvious. He added something that rang less true: But well have our revenge!
The absurd skirmish with the PuGs filled up my Serendipity supply by twenty thousand and change. Reapers Scythes were a little closer to level seven.
Around half an hour left until the Elites revived.
I answered Rita, told her she had to do something in Darant before we could meet in the Lake District. I chose the spot because it was quiet and had no torches of True Flame on every street corner. Then I sent her a package with all the artifacts from the Treasury of the First Mage that we hadn’t yet identified: Isis’ Blessing, Ebis’ Inspiration, Elemental Concentration and Thunderbearer.
Yet another test of loyalty. It might cost us
