Weapon [Night Fang] has inflicted [Umbral Snake Venom] on [Shab]
Jason scrambled to escape its legs as one of them rose up, poised to stab him again. He found himself directly underneath the creature, lying on his back. In front of him was the creature’s underbelly, which turned out to be fleshy and unprotected by shell. Jason called up the power within him again, raking the vulnerable underside of the monster with his dagger.
Ability: [Punish] (Sin)
Special attack (melee, curse)
Cost: Low mana.
Cooldown: None.
Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Inflicts necrotic damage and the [Sin] affliction.
[Sin] (affliction, curse, stacking): All necrotic damage taken is increased. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
Blood and other fluids splashed over Jason from the long wound, leaving him spluttering salty fluid as he shimmied on his back to behind the creature. The monster itself went wild at the wound to its underside, breaking its pincers out of Hiram’s grip and flailing about with more high-pitched shrieking.
One of the monster’s legs impaled Jason’s leg by accident as the creature thrashed about. It didn’t seem to notice, yanking its leg back out again. Jason turned himself over and crawled painfully away, still spitting out monster juice.
After getting free of the maddened monster, Jason looked back to see Hiram doing his best to hold the creature’s attention, both arms wrapped around one of the pincers. Without getting up Jason held out a hand towards the creature and chanted out a spell.
“Your fate is to suffer.”
There was no visible effect, but Jason felt the power surge out of him to enact itself upon the creature.
Ability: [Inexorable Doom] (Doom)
Spell (curse)
Cost: Moderate mana.
Cooldown: None.
Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Periodically applies an additional instance of each stacking curse, disease, poison or unholy affliction the target is suffering from. This is a curse effect. This effect cannot be cleansed while any other curse or any disease, poison or unholy affliction is in effect.
Jason forced himself to his feet, ignoring the pain from his stabbed leg and abdomen as he limped farther from the creature.
“Hiram!” Jason yelled past the creature. “Let it go and back off. It’ll die on its own.”
On the long wagon ride through the desert, Jason had spent hours going over his abilities, discussing with the others how to use them. Except Anisa, who refused to help him use his ‘unclean powers.’ The time spent strategising proved its worth now; he knew to withdraw and let the afflictions to do their work. It was obvious when considering things calmly beforehand, but in the heat of the moment he may well have kept attacking, putting himself and Hiram at unnecessary risk.
Jason’s first special attack had inflicted the bleeding affliction. This was effectively a powerful anticoagulant, making blood loss all the worse. The second special attack inflicted a curse called sin that increased any necrotic damage that was suffered. The dagger inflicted a necrotic poison, which was amplified by the curse. Finally, Jason’s spell would continually stack up both the poison and curse, increasing their effect. The result of all this was an exponentially escalating necrosis that would inevitably overcome the creature. All they had to do was wait.
Jason and Hiram backed off while the monster between them thrashed about. Dark fluids started oozing from its joints as it staggered towards Hiram, but soon it collapsed, the dying flesh in its legs unable to hold the creature’s weight. The pincers lifted up weakly in a last gesture of defiance before falling still.
You have defeated [Shab]
Quest: [Waterfall Monster]
Objective complete: Defeat shab 1/1.
50 [Water Quintessence Gems] have been added to your inventory.
Quest complete.
100 [Iron Rank Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.
Jason was happy with how his abilities worked out, although he had one major concern. He was reliant on necrotic damage for his abilities to take full effect and his only current source of that damage was not his abilities, but his magic dagger. The others assured him that he would get such a power, but until then he would be reliant on an external tool.
Hiram and Jason cautiously approached the creature from either side. Jason had two painful wounds and he could see an injury on Hiram’s arm. Hiram stood over the creature, cradling his bleeding arm.
“What did you do to it?” Hiram asked.
The monster was oozing black fluid from under its shell, which gave off a horrifying stench.
“I wasn’t confident about cracking that shell,” Jason said, “so I killed it from the inside out.”
Jason held hand over the creature and chanted a spell.
“As your life was mine to reap, your death is mine to harvest.”
Ability: [Blood Harvest] (Blood)
Spell (drain).
Cost: Low mana.
Cooldown: None.
Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)
Iron: Drain the remnant life force of a recently deceased body, replenishing health, stamina and mana. Only affects targets with blood.
Dark red light rose from within the creature. Jason’s aura sense told him it was the monster’s remnant life force made visible. It siphoned up into Jason’s hand, draining away from the dead monster. As it did, Jason felt the sting of healing flesh as his wounds closed over. His body was reinvigorated as his stamina and mana were replenished. As he consumed the red light, the flesh inside the shell withered, the shell itself growing brittle and crumbling. By the time the red light was fully devoured, the monster was little more than a withered husk.
Hiram had been looking askance at Jason as he recited sinister spells and drained the residual life force from the monster.
“Did you just say you were harvesting death?” Hiram asked.
“It’s just the incantation for a spell,” Jason said.
“You sound like an evil farmer.”
“You didn’t even see my evil trowel.”
Jason pulled a rag and a bottle of water from his inventory, cleaning his dagger before slipping it back into its sheath. He then tapped a finger on the gutted shell of the monster.
Would you like to loot [Shab]?
“You might want to stand back for this,” Jason said. “There’s going to be a smell.”
“Worse than the one that’s there already?” Hiram asked.
“Yeah. It’s worse.”
They backed off and Jason gave his mental assent to loot the body. What was left of the monster rapidly dissolved into rainbow-coloured smoke before vanishing.
Tragically, Jason had forgotten the monster fluids that had splattered onto him while he was underneath it. They too dissolved, the rainbow smoke coming from his nose and mouth where the fluids had splashed into them. He fell to the ground, heaving his breakfast onto the base of the tunnel.
“You alright?” Hiram asked.
Eventually Jason gave a coughing nod.
[Monster Core (Iron Rank)] has been added to your inventory.
[Shell-Skin Potion] has been added to your inventory.
10 [Iron Rank Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.
“Not worth it.”
Jason took a tin of healing unguent from his inventory and handed it over to Hiram.
“You know what that is?” Jason asked.
Hiram pulled the lid off the tin, sniffing at the contents. He nodded and immediately started rubbing ointment into his bloody arm.