The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

As the so-called Man-Bird lurched towards the group of players, it raised its hands, which had shrivelled to look like melting claws. The wing-like sheet of torn, blood-stained skin beneath the creature's arms rose as well and briefly billowed out, making a soft sound like a sail raised in a slight breeze.

Anticipating an attack, Akshel leapt out hastily and tore across the creature's chest with a descending [Slash]. While this left a slight dent, Akshel was surprised to see that less than 1% of the creature's HP had been deducted by the damage. Frustrated, he used [Lunge] and easily diverted the tip of his blade to stab the creature's mid-section on the left. However, the creature's HP had only reduced by 1%, and it turned its wild eyes towards Akshel.

Crucis heard Akshel angrily mutter, "It's a freak," as the creature's claw-like hands grabbed Akshel by the shoulder and sunk its broken fingernails into his skin. The skill name [Torn Claw Grasp] hovered over the creature's outstretched arm. Akshel cried out quietly, as blood began to seep from his shoulder in irregular wounds. However, as the creature sensed Dionarcy approaching it, it threw Akshel firmly to the ground and turned to face its new assailant. Akshel was on 90% HP already.

"It must be a boss, careful mate," Grisier said to Dionarcy as he saw Akshel grimacing in pain.

During this fight, DicingDevil had begun turning the key until the wooden door was unlocked, and after edging open the door he slipped through.

"Retreat, one by one," DicingDevil told the group, "Grisier and Dionarcy should stay out until everyone else leaves."

Crucis saw Akshel darting towards the door first, and slipping through it as DicingDevil cautiously opened it. Akshel swore as his injured shoulder caught against the edge of the door, but still ducked through to safety.

While Dionarcy had raised his shield to block the Man-Bird, it seemed to ignore him and moved with slow, lunging steps to attack Grisier. Crucis made a long step to the side and caught the creature with a [Slash] from his left before it could reach the Mage, then backstepped quickly as the creature retaliated with a skill named [Claw Flail], wildly swinging its hand towards Crucis' arms. It just about caught Crucis' right arm as he stepped away, leaving a slight scratch. Crucis' strike had only removed 1% HP of the Man-Bird's HP, but it had stopped the creature's attack. Frustrated, the creature used a skill named [Rusty Nail], withdrawing a large, rusty nail from its pocket and scratching itself across the shoulder. This lowered its HP by a small amount, but Crucis could see the creature's stance get firmer as its Strength rose severely.

As Dionarcy approached, the creature used [Claw Flail] again, and, while Dionarcy blocked it with his sword, the shield went flying to the side. Panicking slightly, Dionarcy ran back a few steps, and tried to regroup before the typically slow creature could catch up with him. However, Crucis was surprised to see that, as the Man-Bird lurched heavily towards Grisier, its body suddenly froze in place mid-lurch, as if stuck in the middle of the stepping animation. Despite this, the creature moved quickly towards Dionarcy, even though it wasn't seemingly taking any steps or moving at all. In a couple of seconds, it had moved four metres and caught Dionarcy at the edge of the room.

This movement looked like some kind of bug, or as if the creature was somehow moving faster than its slow, diseased default movement speed could support. Crucis wondered if this meant that the [Rusty Nail] attack had effects other than the obvious Strength boost.

The creature easily pinned Dionarcy to the wall with a [Torn Claw Grip] to the chest. It then used an oddly-named skill named [Wing Flutter] to inelegantly leap at Dionarcy, slashing and beating the warrior's face frantically with its hands while using its strangely curved feet to perch on Dionarcy's legs just above the knees. The creature's leap had been higher than Crucis would have expected the creature to be capable of.

Dionarcy was screaming and trying to flail at the Man-Bird to get it off him, but he could barely cause a dent. Grisier had tried to cast [Breath of Ice] to stop the creature's relentless attack, but the creature kept striking manically in spite of the stiff, paralytic effect of the spell. Grisier gestured at Dionarcy, pointing to the side of the room opposite the door, then used [Mana Strike] to push the Man-Bird in that direction. Dionarcy nodded, and heaved the Man-Bird off him in that direction, where it tried to cling on but skidded away across the floor. Dionarcy was left on just 55% HP.

Crucis had been waiting in case Dionarcy needed further help, since losing a Mage and Tank on a run would make it difficult to clear this dungeon. Further, since DeathGang were used to their stronger members clearing this dungeon, they would be inclined to make Crucis a scapegoat for any such failure. While Crucis didn't plan on joining DeathGang, it seemed best to avoid this and take slight risks to secure the team. However, the warrior was now being healed by Grisier, and standing tall with a shield raised in the Man-Bird's direction. Crucis decided to take this opportunity and backstep towards the door, which DicingDevil was carefully edging open.

However, instead of making a renewed attempt to attack the prepared Dionarcy, the Man-Bird made a surprising decision and stepped towards the retreating Crucis. Again, it became frozen in motion mid-step, and began moving quickly towards Crucis. It just about reached Crucis as he was inching through the door, and used [Torn Claw Grasp] to grab him roughly by the shoulder. He stepped out of the door, trying to keep the creature from reaching it, and DicingDevil closed the door while looking anxiously through.

Although Crucis used a sideways [Dodge Step] to loosen the creature's grip, the Man-Bird used [Swoop Lunge], lunging at Crucis' chest with one hand while leaping towards him. As the creature made blunt contact with his chest, Crucis skidded backwards, and the creature scrambled its way towards him. He felt a small bruise on his chest, and saw that he was down to 89% HP.

However, Crucis used [Stealth Cloak] and quickly sidestepped away from the creature, then used [Slash] from behind to send the creature stooping lower towards the ground. He followed this up with a [Forceful Kick] to the creature's back, sending it falling to the ground. This bought him some time, but did barely any damage to the creature. As he backed up towards the door, Dionarcy and Grisier slowly approached to keep the creature away from Crucis and the door.

As the creature lunged at Crucis again, Grisier tried using [Breath of Ice] again. As soon as Crucis saw the spell being cast, he accelerated into action, with his sword snaking out in a [Lunge] and stabbing the creature low on its neck. This paused the creature's approach, and Dionarcy barged into the creature with a shoulder and sent it barreling into the wall and then falling to the floor. Crucis' [Lunge] had inflicted the [Bleeding] status effect, which was slowly sapping the creature's HP, but it still had 94% of its HP left. From how easily Dionarcy had sent it to ground, it seemed that the effect of the creature's [Rusty Nail] buff was slowly wearing off.

Crucis felt the door creaking open, and squeezed through it until he was in another room. He saw that this room was empty, except for a red banner hung at the top of its white walls. This banner was coloured by white and violet spiralling patterns across it like vines, and seemed to have a couple of lion-like creatures painted on each corner. However, Crucis was still too dazed after the fight, and couldn't make out these paintings clearly. He sat down and tried to glimpse the fight through the door, where DicingDevil was tentatively preparing to let the remaining fighters through.

Dionarcy was leering over the Man-Bird with a shield, but was hesitant to attack and risk leaving himself open. Since most of the Man-Bird's skills included lunges and leaps, it was difficult for him to get past the shield as Dionarcy cautiously back-tracked towards the door. However, the Man-Bird eventually lunged its stooping body forwards and struck Dionarcy's shield out of the way with [Claw Flail]. The warrior had been anticipating this, and immediately brought his sword forwards to block the creature's attack path. As Dionarcy neared the door, the creature began to leap forwards, but flinched back as Dionarcy's swords struck it across a tear in its arms. The creature's enthusiastic leap had caused Dionarcy to lean back for safety, and he almost lost balance as his sword made contact with the creature.

However, Grisier saw the Man-Bird flinch backwards, and used this opportunity to cast a [Mana Strike] that sent the creature falling backwards and skidding further as it hit the ground. This was enough time for Grisier and Dionarcy to smuggle themselves through the door. DicingDevil slammed it shut.

"That was brave. We should give them a clap," Crucis quickly said to DicingDevil.

"Yes, yes," said DicingDevil, and he led Akshel and Crucis in a soft applause.

"Thanks, Crucis, the monster nearly reached me earlier but you stopped it," Grisier smiled, "I'm impressed that you didn't just run for the hills!"

"Yes, thanks a lot," Dionarcy chimed in, "And thanks to all of you."

After he said this, he lay down exhausted on the floor. Grisier walked dizzily to recline against a wall where Akshel was already resting.

"We had to retreat there," said DicingDevil, "It was a bad situation, since we were attacked while unprepared and were on the back foot. Plus, the thing seemed to take almost no damage, and I don't think it's a required boss to clear this dungeon."

"Yeah, what was that thing?" Akshel whined, "The freak took no damage, then it started moving in that weird way. What the hell? How does a level 60 creature take no damage from strikes like that, especially when it's a weak diseased creature that should be really frail?"

"It's a bit like if FGRT got syphilis," commented Crucis.

"How do you mean?" DicingDevil asked.

"Didn't you guys hear about the fight between FGRT and the Hashin? The Hashin were doing basically no damage, it clearly wasn't normal. But it might not be due to the same cause, since FGRT is probably using some GM-only feature. Still weird. Hence, 'FGRT with syphilis.'"

There was scattered laughter among the group.

"Ah, yeah, the people in town were yapping about that before the funeral killing," Akshel said. "They were bigging up FGRT, saying he probably had a great defensive build."

"I caught a bit of that fight, but I had a bad view from behind some buildings," Dionarcy said, "Crucis is right that FGRT was definitely not using any build, I've never seen a non-GM - even tanks - who can shrug off blows like that, and FGRT is a Ranger. I also checked on his HP quantity, it was nothing special, his Constitution isn't that high."

"This boss doesn't rely on high HP either," Akshel noted, fidgeting with his hand towards his left side, "I checked the Info message tab for this fight, and it's saying that my attacks did barely any damage. It's mitigating damage somehow, but to a ridiculous extent. It isn't just a high HP boss."

"Good observation," Crucis said, "and Dionarcy was right, FGRT was clearly not using any normal feature. By the way, I noticed that the monster's name mentioned syphilis. The Queen's note stated that their lover was 'tired' during their night together, and mentioned losing consciousness. Is there some STD angle here?"

"STD? Is that, like, an STI or ITA?"asked Akshel.

"I've read some old texts which say STD, but I guess STI is more common now. They don't like to talk about the subject by now, though. What's ITA?"

"Intercourse-Transmitted Ailment. More modern term for STDs or STIs," Akshel shrugged.

"I see."

"Anyway, that does sound likely," DicingDevil said, "So the Queen was passing STDs around the court, and probably others were as well?"

"Yep. She seems to have attributed it partially to the red gem. I'd guess that the gem has some sort of magical effect, but it sounds like she might have also been covering up the STD effects by attributing things to the gem's magical power."

"Or the gem is associated with STDs. Some sort of STD magic?" said Grisier.

"Should be a sub-class. STDmancy? Sexcromancy?" Crucis quipped.

"Good idea, tell the drunkards in town," DicingDevil replied, "Also, the spread of disease might be a part of why this court is so macabre."

"Definitely, plus the denizens seemed to have a slightly strange, mystical view of the diseases, I wonder if it's related to the battered angels and other iconography we've seen."

"By the way, did anyone think that this 'Man-Bird' actually looked more like a bat?" Akshel asked the group.

"It was colourful," Dionarcy said with a faint smile, "But yeah, it did look bat-like. Its hands were connected to its mostly-black 'wings,' and it had this weird shriek. He should be called Batman."

"I guess Batman and Man-Bat are both taken, he felt like doing something original. He's a maverick, a loose cannon," Crucis replied.

"In fashion sense as well," Grisier added. "By the way, how did an unaligned player like you decide to help DeathGang? Most Kruxol players hate us."

"I was once a normal player, an everyman," Crucis replied, "Then I was stung by a radioactive ant, and I began to crush any squishy insect I saw as a precaution. Eventually I found out that this made me a 'ganker.' I guess that's OK."

"They have radioactive ants here?" Akshel asked. "Maybe I can get one of them to turn me into, like, a Hercules beetle."

"Sadly not, I just made that part up," Crucis said. "Like, if you have a 'villain origin story,' then you're not a villain. You're a Count of Monte Cristo rehash."

"I guess so, just like the best ambush comes out of nowhere. Morality doesn't teach anyone to be evil, but a villain still learns an untaught lesson and uses it to launch a surprise attack on morality from within. Reasons would dilute that. Alright, tell Akshel if you find one of those radioactive ants," DicingDevil said.

"Sure, and if I find a syphilitic ant-man then I'll tell his mother to check it out."

"Excellent. Anyway, let's move on to the next mini-boss. We can skip one of those, the King's room has a trapdoor which unlocks after you kill the King. We can use that to get out, and skip our Man-Bird friend here."

The group slowly got to their feet, and entered a curving, tunnel-like passageway to the left of the room. After a short walk around this arc-like structure, they heard a loud wail coming from a room ahead of them.

"That's the night hag boss," DicingDevil explained, "She was one of the King's concubines. Dionarcy first again, Grisier at the back. She can be a pain due to gravity powers which can make movement sluggish, but we have three quick Assassins here and should be fine. When she uses the [Gravity Sphere] skill, go in and try to tie her down, it will be about 25 seconds until her next use of it."

They entered the room, facing a pale, eyeless woman whose peeling skin looked to be almost melting off. She wore an elegant, white gown. She turned her face towards them, as if glaring with her empty eye-sockets. Her name-tag indicated that she was called [Night Hag Concubine], and she was level 50.

The fight was straightforwards. Dionarcy shielded himself against her half-hearted clawing and banshee-like wails which seemed to do damage. He struck back with fierce blows. In the meantime, the three Assassins made occasional strikes while keeping a safe distance. A white ring would appear around her feet as she cast spells, typically these would warp the air around the room and create gravity-related effects. For instance, [Gravity Field] made each player move more slowly and heavily. Soon, she cast [Gravity Sphere], which cast a sphere around her and caused Dionarcy - who was caught in this sphere - to fall to the ground. As the sphere faded after 5 seconds, the three Assassins leapt into action, surrounding her and allowing Akshel to lock her down with a firm hold from behind.

Crucis made sure to strike at her hands and arms, so that she couldn't try to shove Akshel off. As she kicked her leg backwards, DicingDevil grabbed it and stabbed her in the face to weaken her resistance. Crucis also stabbed across her neck, looking like a large, black reptilian bat as the black [Nightmare] smoke arose. Although the [Gravity Field] made their movements sluggish, they were still faster than the hag and did not allow her to get any counter-attacks off. Soon, she tried casting [Gravity Sphere] again, but as Akshel fell his grip pulled her down as well, and the other Assassins drew daggers and loomed over her on the ground, stabbing fiercely at her neck until she died.

The group congratulated each other.

"Speaking of strange creatures, how come you keep turning into an unholy beast during fights?" Akshel asked casually.

"What doesn't kill you just makes you stra-" Crucis began. "Ahem, sorry, I got too caught up in the adrenaline rush of fighting the bat-man creature back there. But, seriously, there are benefits to strangeness out here. You can't walk up to a whale player and fight them 'normally,' because they have too many advantages in terms of brute force and rare items. You can't just fight the Man-Bird or FGRT like normal enemies. Normal gameplay is already bought and sold, but more obscure stuff still has virtue. The game was sold out to whales, literally another species according to any good encyclopedia, and now it's just weirdness in the form of a game. I guess turning into a faceless reptile means I've been playing it well."