EFate: An MMO Story Chapter 61: A Sense Of Unease (4)

Checking his status, Eric was alarmed to see that his health had been decreased by nearly seventy percent with a single blow. He had also been afflicted with a stunned status effect, and there was a minor bleed as well that slowly sapped his health by a few points every second.
The stun lasted a full three seconds, during which time the Swordclaw wrecked devastation upon Griffin and Mark. Griffin was totally unable to attack, being forced to block repeatedly in order to avoid the Swordclaw doing to him what had just been done to Eric, and his shield was showing the signs of severe use.
Enormous gouges marred the once solid wood, and the beautifully polished boss had been reduced to a crumpled nub of metal, protruding pathetically from the center of the shield. A few stray blows had landed upon his armour as well, leaving long scars across the surface of his chainmail.
Mark was comparatively far better off, having seen what had happened to Eric. He no longer dared to fully commit to an attack, instead casting magic from a position just behind Griffin.
Watching the stunned effect fade, Eric hauled himself to his feet. a.s.sessing the fight, Eric grimaced, casting a Wind Dart towards the Swordclaw as he activated Dashing Cut, using it to close the gap between him and the beast.
Slashing the Swordclaw's flank once more, Eric was ready this time when it repeated the batting motion with its paw. Throwing himself to the right, Eric narrowly avoided the swipe, a few stray hairs from his head disappearing as the knife-like claws pa.s.sed overhead.
Rolling to his feet, Eric thrust his sword forward, scoring a hit on the Swordclaw's exposed back legs which rewarded him with a loud roar.
This time, the Swordclaw did not merely content itself with swiping at the pest that had clawed at it twice with its annoyingly long fang. Instead, it whirled, pouncing backwards and twisting its body in midair as it leapt towards Eric with claws outstretched.
Paling, Eric threw himself desperately to the side, if even a single one of those claws. .h.i.t him it would be game over for him, and likely for Griffin and Mark as well.
Skidding across the cave floor, Eric narrowly avoided being impaled by the Swordclaw's extended claws. Instead, the cats claws sunk deeply into the cave floor, leaving gouges several inches deep and more than a foot long in the solid rock floor.
Eyes widening, Eric threw himself backwards once more, scrabbling for purchase on the smooth stone as the Swordclaw growled at him, pouncing once more.
Fortunately for Eric, Griffin and Mark were not simply standing idly by watching this happen. Charging forward, Griffin slammed his shield into the Swordclaw's rear, using his sword for the first time this fight to stab deeply into its rear leg.
Mark supported Griffin with a spell, casting a Wind Blade that slammed into the beast's flank as he dashed along side, skirting around the Swordclaw to reach Eric's position. Raising his hands, Mark drew the runes that Maria had used earlier, using his rosary as a wand to cast the spell on Eric.
With a golden flash of light, the spell was completed, glowing brightly as it enveloped Eric's body in a warm radiance. Looking down, Eric could just barely make out flashes of golden light emerging from the cuts on his chest, knitting the torn skin shut and causing his healthbar to soar back above fifty percent.
"That only heals fifteen percent of your max health?" said Mark with a sense of incredulity in his voice, preparing to cast the spell again.
"Fate has a lot of developers from Rampage Studios. There's a good chance that healing is nerfed. Or maybe you just have to level up your healing spell," Eric suggested, jumping back to his feet and sidestepping a bite from the Swordclaw in one smooth motion.
"Can we focus on the battle with the giant, vicious, man-eating cat please?" Griffin begged from behind the Swordclaw, where the beast's tail was acting like a whip, battering Griffin as he attempted to prevent the monster from tearing Eric and Mark to pieces.
Abandoning the spell cast, Mark leapt backwards, his mace deflecting the cats claws as it took a heavy swipe at his face.
Taking this opportunity, Eric danced to the side, avoiding the Swordclaws follow up swipe as he used his sword to batter at its mostly unwounded right side. While his technique had improved by leaps and bounds since his time training with Firin on Cloudview island, his swordwork was still lacking in grace and refinement, the bladework more resembling a chef with a cleaver than a skilled swordsman.
Regardless of the flashiness of his technique, its effectiveness was clearly high, as the Swordclaw let out a pained howl, whipping its paw around once more in an effort to send the irritating swordsman back into the wall.
"Not this time, mate," Eric swore fiercely, bringing his sword up to meet the Swordclaws paw, his blade slamming into the ma.s.s of muscles and bone at the base of its leg where it left a deep gash several inches deep, revealing the bone beneath.
This time the effectiveness was clear to see. Raising its head back, the Swordclaw let out an earthshaking howl, forcing Mark and Griffin to back away.
Stumbling backwards from the blow he'd just blocked, Eric felt as if his head was being a.s.saulted from the inside by a thousand angry blacksmiths with hammers. Clapping his hands to his ears, he desperately tried to block out the piercing howl the Swordclaw Lynx was emitting as it stood alone in the center of the cavern.
The Swordclaws howl made it nearly impossible to concentrate. Eric's status bar was lit up like a christmas tree with various status effects, each blinking furiously to show that he was in trouble. At least one of those effects must have been a silence of some sort. When Eric attempted to use a spell to stop the howl, the only result had been the spell fizzling, the runes dissipating harmlessly into pale motes of light.
Struggling to focus, Eric checked his healthbar and saw to his alarm that it was dropping rapidly, the howl depleting it at a rate of almost five healthpoints per second.
Staring at the Lynx that showed no sign of ending the howl, Eric quickly realized that If they wanted to win this fight, the howl needed to be stopped, and soon.
Gritting his teeth, Eric freed his hands from his ears. On the opposite side of the cavern, Griffin and Mark both seemed to have come to the same realization, gripping their weapons and approaching the Swordclaw.
Dropping his sword, Eric unslung the bow from his back and nocked an arrow, sighting towards the Swordclaw as it continued that terrible howl. Exhaling slowly, Eric loosed the arrow, watching as it sprang from his bow like a viper, leaping up to bite the howling cat in the side.
With a short cry, the Swordclaw stopped howling, growling as it whirled towards Eric, still frozen in the shooting motion.
"Tsk," Eric spat. He'd been aiming for a headshot, but the howl had clearly affected his aim as well, preventing him from activating Charged Shot or taking proper aim at the beast despite his proximity to the animal.
Tossing his bow to the side, Eric picked up his sword and ran forward to meet the charging Swordclaw, dropping into a slide as it pounced, allowing him to skid safely beneath it as it sailed harmlessly overhead.
'Well, maybe not completely harmlessly,' Eric thought, wincing as the Swordclaw landed on his bow, causing a loud crack to echo through the cavern as the wood snapped beneath its weight.
"Glad to have your guys help," Eric said dryly to his two companions as he jumped to his feet.
"I tried to use a spell, but the skill it used was preventing me," Mark explained.
"It took me a second to shake off the confusion effect. By the time I was ready to charge at it so that I could interrupt its skill, you'd shot it," Griffin said simply.
Eric nodded, "So, any plans to beat this thing?"
"It's still got way too much health. We really need to figure out its attack patterns so that we can get damage without trading," said Mark, looking towards the snarling Swordclaw as it stared warily towards the three adventurers.
Checking the Swordclaws health, Eric did a double take. There was still more than 60% of the healthbar remaining, despite the powerful attacks they'd landed on the beasts hide.
"A cat shouldn't have that much defense right?" Griffin complained.
"I'm not sure we can actually beat it. I've been trying to heal us intermittently, but I'm starting to run low on mana. And that thing takes out ma.s.sive portions of your healthbars every time it strikes," said Mark, imbuing Eric with a healing spell as he did so.
"There's got to be a way to defeat it. I don't think Fate would give us a quest if it was impossible to clear. We've just got to figure out a way to hit it hard enough to win," Eric replied.
"Well figure something out fast, because here it comes!" Griffin yelled, raising his shield and ducking under the Swordclaws claws.
Casting a Wind Dart, Eric wracked his brains for a way to deal with the Swordclaw. While Griffin was doing a fairly good job of tanking the beast, dodging the big hits and using his shield to absorb those he couldn't avoid, it was clear that Mark's healing output was not high enough to keep up with the Swordclaws damage. If they relied on simply tanking and dpsing the beast down, then they were likely to all die before its healthbar hit the twenty percent mark.
Eric was snapped out of his reverie by the Swordclaws ma.s.sive knifelike claws soaring towards his face. Jumping backwards, Eric narrowly avoided the attack, swinging his sword with his left hand as he did in order to shave off another small portion of the monsters health.
With a roar, Griffin activated Taunt and Shield Bash simultaneously, slamming his shield into the cats face to regain the beasts aggro.
Turning away from Eric, the Swordclaw renewed its attack on Griffin, its claws and fangs tearing fresh holes into his equipment.
As Griffin blocked yet another attack from the Swordclaw, his shield splintering slightly where the claws skittered across its surface, Eric turned to Mark.
"I've got a plan. But it's really risky, and if I fail, we die."
"If you don't do anything, we're going to die anyways. My mana's down to fifteen percent. Go for it," Mark replied, moving forward to support Griffin.
Nodding, Eric jumped to the side, his hands weaving runes in midair as he intensified his focus to its limit.
Calling forth his remaining mana, Eric first drew a Dart rune, inscribing the V shaped rune in the air in front of him. Without pausing, he connected the end of the first Dart rune to the beginning of the next, repeating the process two more times.
Observing the three shining runes hanging in the air, Eric breathed out slowly. If he succeeded in casting the spell, there was a good chance that the Swordclaw would take enough damage for them to kill it, if it wasn't killed outright.
But if the spell failed, there was a good chance that the mana would rebound, removing him from the fight and forcing Mark and Griffin to fight the Swordclaw alone.
Additionally, he couldn't use the Multi-linked Flame Strike to deal with this situation due to the cavern. Casting a spell as explosive as Multi-linked Flame Strike inside a cave was likely to cause a chain explosion, as the flames devoured the limited air supply within the cavern. While it might allow him to kill the Swordclaw, it was also more than likely that he killed himself and every other living being in the process.
While the quest didn't state that he needed to live after killing the Swordclaw, it was rather likely that the deceased Red-maned Wolf's last wishes included saving the tiny wolf pup still cowering within the crack in the rock behind him.
Gritting his teeth, Eric observed the connected Dart runes once more. Satisfied with their forms, he summoned his mana once more, drawing a wind rune sideways which he used to connect the tops of the Dart runes, creating a seamless magical formation.
Without hesitating, Eric infused his mana into the formation, gritting his teeth as he felt his mana rushing through his mana pathways.
A sudden cry made Eric look up from the rune formation, watching with horror as Griffin failed to block a blow from the Swordclaw.
The Swordclaws ma.s.sive paw slammed into Griffins chest, lifting the half-orc bodily and tossing him backwards like a rag doll. Slamming into Mark who was caught mid-spellcast, the two went tumbling to the ground, low groans emerging from the pile of limbs.