Chương 59: Chapter 57

Eri the greatsword champion had a lot of small skills and abilities as Wade learned over a brief chat while they jogged out into the sewer. Most of it sounded like mana manipulation that was self-taught according to Selena, and Eri was missing some of the meta items that distinguished a swordsman compared to a novice. But there were a few spells Eri had that clearly weren't standard practice among Selena's knowledge, and more specialized with golem hunting. Like lightning.

Eri had some defensive abilities in terms of illusions and other means to distract golems away, some evasion techniques to move faster or execute a quick reposition, abilities to make himself or his weapon lighter to swing until a more critical moment, but from there it was harder to figure out what the skeleton could actually do since Eri couldn't talk. Eri led the group forward down the sewers, skull looking left and right, as if the sights here were different from what he remembered last time.

Likely same architecture, but far more decayed.

"Far as I know, might have been centuries since you died. Maybe longer?" Wade asked behind the skeleton.

"The elf says there's a lot of mana that condensed in your bones and that's something that only happens over years." A tilt to the left and back to the right. Eri somewhat understood, but only in extrapolating what he knew about mana. Wade got the sense none of the Nathir slaves or rebels had survived long enough to start seeing skeletons rise back up. He also kept giving a look backwards at Selena.

"First time seeing elves?" He asked the skeleton. A headshake-ish, paired with a hand sign. First time physically seeing one, but not the first time hearing about them. He still seemed surprised by something.

"Is it the feathers you're not used to?" This time he got a definite confirmation. So no elves running around with feathers in his day. But there was something more to his movements, like a lack of trust in the elf. Or elf kind. A surprise to see an elf on his side? Wade wasn't sure what the skeleton was trying to signal, and Eri was clearly now more focused on getting the group through. Selena on her end didn't see anything off with Eri, skeletons were a common occurrence.

She just wasn't used to one being so animated and free-thinking. The feral kind was what a skeleton should behave like according to her. And she didn't trust for a second Eri would remain sane for much longer. No time now to test any of that. Hopefully Eri would remain sane long enough to help with the upcoming fights. There were sounds coming from the far end of the sewer. Another line of golems was slowly squeezing in a marching line, according to Eri's hand signals.

Part of Wade half hoped the hyper-weasel would scurry on into range here, chased by the golems, but realistically that bloodthirsty little weasel would be able to fit into a lot of nooks and crannies that humans wouldn't be able to. Escaping the golems would be child's play for that beast. I got my popcorn, my foot massager, and Zinny's getting me a mountain dew float rn. I am so ready for this ٩(◕‿◕)۶"Play wants to let everyone know she's looking forward to watching us either win or die."

Wade dutifully relayed to the team with an eye roll.

"Besides forcing the NEETess into an actual job, any other way to make her miserable as a wet sock?" Illy glared down at the screen over Wade's shoulder.

"She's far too cozy in her basement if you ask me." Nobody asked you (≖､≖╬)"Bore her to tears. No really. She's the god of games and stories, the opposite of that is when nothing happens at all. And it has to be absolutely nothing. Even a boring story is still a story to her. So deprive her of entertainment and she'll probably grow crazy." He's lying, don't listen to him. Wade decided he wasn't going to let his party know the response on his phone for this one.

"Little bit rough to do that with all this madness going on here." Illy said.

"We'll have to workshop that one."

"She is watching us, da? With popcorn and drinks, on couch. Maybe watching us on TV? Ask if she can record somehow." Leon asked, "If we win, I wish to have video of it. Also good to study post-action, see if we doing things better for future runs."

"Don't right know if that's a good idea Leon." Illy said.

"Keeping things secret on earth is gonna be real important sooner than you lot think." Chat quieted down as they jogged to their old ladder. For whatever reason, the top hadn't been resealed by the golem this time. Either Lapushka wanted them to come back, or it hadn't been able to find where the manhole cover went after being golf'd out of the park by Leon's hammer earlier. Wade looked at the inviting entryway.

"Yeah. That's bait." If there's one thing Wade had learned about Lapushka, the giant asshole was smart and loved its little traps.

"Guaranteed trap." Illy said.

"Zero chance that giant would leave the hole wide open like that. It closed it last time." From a golem containment point of view, keeping the sewer tunnel here watched would be the smart thing. Then wait for the sweeper team in the sewer to pin Wade and the group. Either they come out the manhole entrance and get squashed, or they get chased down to the gateway checkpoint without a wardkey to pass it. Both ways, dead. Wade tried getting his mind to think back on their walk earlier.

And realized there was other ladders leading up. Every few blocks there'd be one.

"There was another ladder leading up by the golem we killed. I think I remember it. Can anyone double check that I'm not making things up in my head? Could be our way up without running into Lapushka spawn-camping us." Illy raised her hand.

"I think I remember it too, you passed a flashlight over it for a moment. In the shadows since the top lid was sealed." Fortunately, they had Leon and his knockback trick to pry that open. Wade spoke in Nathir to let Eri know the new plan, and the skeleton dutifully started walking down the way ahead of the group, ready to take on anything that popped out. What actually got his attention was the ruins of the golem that Wade and the others killed earlier.

The skeleton went over, kneeling down to check the cracked open thing. Fingers pinching the rust, then lifting it up. So much of the internals and plating were rusted over, it was a miracle this thing could even walk after them all. But Wade could tell what Eri was really thinking. Back in his time, none of the golems had ever rusted like this. The skull turned back to Wade.

"Yeah, it's been a very long time." Wade said, with a shrug. Eri's head turned back, as if staring at the distance. A finger pointed that direction.

"People you want to check in on?" Yes.

"Sorry, I haven't seen anyone alive down here. It's possible they found a way out and so nobody would be staying down here right? Even to go around burying the dead would be dangerous." The skull gave an affirmative. But they both knew there was a good chance that wardkey was never recovered from any of the tier nine golems walking around. How long could the slaves live down here before dying? What a life they must have led down here, trapped in a failing abandoned city.

There were still growing mushrooms and plant life down here that fed the local wildlife, blackrot might have complicated things but it was possible to survive. The golems just made it more difficult. But it was still technically possible. Maybe the other Players in this city had run into some kind of mini-civilization living in the shadows of the golems moving around here? The ladder was where they'd thought to have spotted it.

In the dim darkness, with only Wade's flashlight to show anything, they followed behind Leon who gave the lid a heavy knock-back powered lovetap. Ancient Nathir Shelter-city - Slave District #7 Lethal Difficulty The outside looked almost identical to the other slave district. A large slightly curving road. The buildings here were completely demolished however, almost all of them broken, as if godzilla himself had a fight around here.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. That might not be too far from the truth. Important thing was that the streets were empty. Nothing at all. The group climbed out and made their way through the ruined district, keeping to the shadows of crumbled buildings. Eri moved with surprising grace for a skeleton, each step deliberate and silent. Soon, the skeleton looked far more on alert, as if sensing danger up ahead.

He crouched and continued stalking through the broken rubble, greatsword perched on his shoulders, occasionally moved on demand, so that the tip wouldn't be spotted above the rubble. The group followed his example. Wade thought it was odd how silent the skeleton was. Maybe this was a spell Eri was using? They edged forward carefully, following the curved road back toward their original entry point. Soon, the System notified them they'd moved districts.

Ancient Nathir Shelter-city - Slave District #8 Lethal Difficulty Then they saw it. Their target. Lapushka. The massive golem hunched right behind a partially collapsed building that just barely covered most of its bulk. Both metal fists were aimed directly above the manhole cover they'd originally escaped through. The golem's head was tilted downward, optics focused intently on that single spot. Spawn-camping dick. From here it was comical, the massive thing clearly couldn't hide for shit.

But from the manhole covers point of view, they'd need to stick their heads out pretty far before they could see any part of the golem hiding itself behind the ruined building.

"Think you mentioned Tom and Jerry." Wade whispered as the group simply stared.

"Still feeling like Tom?" She elbowed him in the side, but turned her attention back to the golem.

"We sure about this strategy?"

"It's either that or we get penned in by the golems." Wade had no illusions after this. That Lapushka would hang around here deliberately planning an ambush meant they were smart. They took their time to find a high vantage point downwards, as the entire plan needed one hell of a jumping attack to pull off. The highest they could go was just about eye to eye with the golem's top orb. They kept hidden otherwise, making sure not to start the fight early.

Eri looked visibly tense, like the skeleton was powered with too much caffeine. Or excited. The empty eye sockets turned to Wade, waiting.

"Before we start doing anything, I got to know. Are you going to follow the plan I have, or try to do your own thing?" Wade could work around a random skeleton running around distracting the golem. Hell, maybe this time around Eri might pull something off. But the level differences here made Wade suspect that wasn't going to be the case. Lapushka could kill them all in one hit, and he wouldn't want to bet a level 44 could survive one of those slaps.

The skull tilted to the right, then one bony finger tapped his own ribcage, along with the Nathir sign for death. We've tried our plans before. We failed. He then pointed at Wade, and gave the hand sign for full trust. Wade understood. This wasn't some ego thing. Eri wanted that thing destroyed, and if that meant following someone else who had a radically different perspective on things, then he'd follow through wholeheartedly. He had his chance to beat it, it was time to follow another.

Whether that was the System influencing the skeleton's loyalty or not was something Wade couldn't be quite sure. But he did know the skeleton wasn't taking charge, and instead was committed to Wade's plan. As ridiculous as it had sounded.

"All right. Then I'll swap things around a bit." Wade said.

"Leon, you're free from having to carry me around, we'll have Eri do that. The skeleton's absurdly strong, I think he could keep me moving." Leon nodded, "Then, I carry Illy. If something happening, we split into two and it thinks only one of us is in the area."

"Never had a ride on someone's back in my whole life," Illy said.

"Sure, sounds like a right laugh." Selena's ears twitched, feathers puffing as she heard the rest of the plan. Wade rolled his eyes at her, "I know what I'm doing, I swear."

"Nothing more we can do but to trust it goes accordingly." Illy shrugged, handing Wade five spare daggers.

"I'll do my best to get these to hit before you do. Leon, you prepared?" The Russian gave a thumbs up, his other hand stuffing the last of Illy's daggers into his pants.

"Hop on." He said, grabbing Illy off the floor and letting her sit down on his shoulders like a parrot. His strength was seriously no joke. Wade checked his backpack one more time, verifying it was full of metal Nathir junk to the absolute brim. The rest of the contents of the bag were on the rooftop here, in a neat little stack. If they survived, they'd come back for those. But more likely they'd bee-line it to the sewer gateway and get the hell out of here.

They all shared one last look, and then got into positions.

The war against Lapushka started innocently. They'd expected to have a hard time with distracting it for a kill shot, but turns out its obsessive fixation on the manhole entrance was all the team needed. The team split into two as planned. Selena, Wade, and Eri were left on the rooftop, while Illy and Leon were on the ground, already approaching the golem. They could see them clearly from up here. Wade held the warhammer in his hand, and a rock on his left.

The moment he triggered the lightning dodge, he had exactly ten seconds to make the hit.

"Feels like a raid boss all right." He muttered. It would either die quickly, or they'd need to kite that thing for a half hour while they slowly burned its health away. Wade was really hoping for the first. Because the golem net out there would probably be closing in on them in ten minutes and that'd be good night for all of them. Heh. Bosses in video games often had time limits, usually called enrage timers. THE GAME really did happen to line things up. Leon crouched down on the alleyways, ready.

Illy flashed him a thumbs up, then held tight on his neck with one hand while she prepared her throwing knife in the other. The pair would sprint at full speed and tag the golem with the dagger debuff right before Wade could hit it. Timing would be critical. Ten seconds. But it was that or die to the golems later. Might as well go down swinging with the heaviest hit they could do. Wade slammed the rock into his leg, triggering the lighting dodge at the last second and dodged the damage.

He moved with the warhammer in hand in an impossible looking roll on the roof, before coming back on his feet. Ten seconds, go. Without a word, he tossed the warhammer backwards to Eri who caught it and both he and the skeleton made a running leap off the rooftop. Here comes the jumping attack. Both of them remained in sync for a moment. The skeleton triggered its featherfall, immediately floating downwards safely, aiming right for Illy and Leon's expected destination to hand off the warhammer.

Wade on the other hand, flew like a brick. Arcing gracefully in the air before he would start to plummet down into the ground. But he wasn't planning on touching the ground anytime soon. At the apex of his jump, just as he would start falling back down, a pair of hands grabbed him from the back and lifted him up with a flare of blue astral wings. Selena held him under his armpits, shield and spear kept stowed behind her.

Skyviper Archer (Uncommon) - Damage dealt by ranged weapons such as crossbows, slings, and bows are empowered with corrosive properties when used in a jumping attack. (Uncommon upgrade) - Consecutive hits within the same jumping attack increase the damage and duration of corrosive debuffs. The description mentioned everything done in the same jumping attack. But what if that jump never really ended? Outside help in keeping him off the ground was a perfectly valid loophole as far as Wade was concerned.

And he'd need it. They had to get right above the golem like a world war two bomber. Selena growled with focus, their trajectory going further upwards, building more height to clear far above the golem by the time they passed over it. The golem turned its attention almost instantly, noticing the pair due to the rather obvious glowing wings. Part two of the plan: The ground team now needed to distract Lapushka until Wade could fly over it. And they weren't distracting it. Panic started going through him.

Wade looked down to see what was going on. Murphy's law waved back at him. New Personal quest: Challenge Gauntlet (3) - An enemy forty levels or higher above you is hunting you down. Evade or defeat your hunter. Reward: One storefront coin if your pursuer is eliminated. It didn't appear just once on his log. A second, identical quest came up. In addition to Lapushka, he was now on three challenge gauntlet quests happening at the same time. Lapushka wasn't alone. It had brought two other golems here.

Level 46 Nathir Checkpoint Guard - 73% Level 46 Nathir Checkpoint Guard - 88%"UNREGISTERED SLAVES DETECTED. FIRETEAM CLEARED TO ELIMINATE." Why the fuck does it need goddamn help?! Where's your sense of pride you stupid metal asshole?! Wade had nothing but ill will in his head as the stupid golem once more ruined his plans.

Of course, he didn't realize that his last bout with Lapushka had damaged the golem more than almost anything it had ever faced in the past, bypassing armor plating in a way that shouldn't be possible. Thus, it was not taking chances. Its honor guards were the same models as the sewer golems, tall giants that had been hiding by curling up in a ball, mechanical knees held tight to their chest. When the ground team raced past them, they sprung into action. Or at least one did.

The other one was on the other side, rapidly rushing to assist the first. At least this part of the plan Lapushka couldn't predict. The honor guard had been positioned to ambush something coming from the manhole. Not the sides.

"Shit, shit shit, SELENA! Drop me!" He called out as he saw Lepushka level that fist, aiming right for them like a turret on a tank. If he was being carried, there was no chance the elf could do defensive actions. She couldn't even get her shield and spear out. She didn't argue with him or ask how he'd survive. She trusted he had a plan and executed it, letting him go while banking hard to the left. The golem saw the two break apart, recalculated, and decided to go after the flying elf.

After all, a falling human from that height was basically a wet bloody puddle waiting to happen. Wade threw his rock early at Lapushka, knowing it was basically futile at this distance, but why not at least try? Illy hadn't been in position to trigger her knife debuff, intercepted as she was by the honor guard. And currently fighting for her life. So his rock wouldn't deal any of the needed damage.

If he threw one of his spare daggers instead, there went the lightning hit from his earlier dodge, dealing damage while the debuff was setup for the next attack dealing damage. Of which would be exactly 0 since nothing Wade had on hand would deal damage. But at least he could force the golem to react defensively and buy Selena a few seconds of time to really start the evasion. It did, with the golem bringing the fist into a palm in order to intercept the rock.

The projectile itself bounced off the metal, without dealing even a scratch of damage. The lightning damage struck through the armor, making its health bar flicker to register the damage. Not even a single percent had gone down. Skyviper archer triggered however. It would have been enough for the plan. Really any amount of damage would work with his plan, stronger initial damage would just make things go faster. But Wade was no longer in position. Instead, he was about to die.

The ground reached up to gently remind him the human body was very squishy while the metal ground here was far more unyielding. One second before splat, Wade returned the gesture with two middle fingers to physics: He dodge rolled the fall damage.