Whipping his blade upwards and then horizontally across, Zach delivered a slice to the chest of the foe who stood between him and the two people he'd given his life to save. The eight-foot-tall armored man dropped his flail and his shield, fell to his knees, and then plopped forward onto the stone floor with a loud clank. Soon after, he vanished, and Zach panted a bit to catch his breath, earning 1,500xp following this so-called "Gatekeeper's" demise.
LEVEL UP!
12(11)
Dexterity
1 (33)
Luck
1 (30)
Current XP
217
XP Required for Level 13
6000
If not for the urgency of his situation, Zach might've really struggled to get through these past two floors, as despite their inhabitants being relatively easy—at least while under the effects of Unleashed Phase—there was sothing that just felt different about killing human mobs. They looked like, sounded like, moved like, and bled like real people even though they weren't. So had actually spoken, too. Twice, he'd been called a "yellow-belly coward" by one of the eye-patch-wearing pirates on the previous floor. That, and a few other choice put-downs that Zach had rolled his eyes at. Honestly, it was one thing for them to look and sound exactly like a human, but was the gore really necessary as well?
Shaking off his blood-soaked blade, he sent a splash of it onto to the brick wall across from him and to the left of the door labeled B9->B10. This was finally it, huh? He had gone through hell and back to get all the way down here, and now, it was all he could do not to think about the end. Questions he'd never really pondered before had begun assailing him as he ca closer and closer to the boss. Things such as: what if nothing ca after death?
It terrified him. What if this really was the end? What if he closed his eyes, and then it was like…like before he was born. What if there was just nothing and he didn't exist anymore? The idea both haunted him and made his knees quiver. If by so miracle he survived this, he was never putting himself in a position like this ever again. The next ti people were dying and needed soone to save them, it wasn't going to be him! Hell no. He was done playing the hero. Either because he wouldn't be around anymore to try, or because he sohow scraped through this and decided to make self-preservation a much bigger focus in his life. Either way, this was the last ti he would allow himself to end up in this kind of situation. Seriously.
As he pulled open the door to B10, his hand trembled fearfully, and a sudden burst of emotionally charged pain erupted in his chest: sadness. He realized he didn't even have enough ti to tell Kalana. She was just going to "find out." Soone was going to call her or send her a ssage one day out of the blue, and she was going to read it, and it was going to say Zach was dead, and then…
Don't. Don't think of this now. Please. I can't let this be in my head before a fight.
Wiping his eyes with his free hand, he forced his legs to move as he rushed his way down what he hoped would be a short and final flight of stairs that would lead him to where Rian and Lienne were waiting with the boss. As he got closer and the end ca nearer, he was ashad to feel such regret. If he was going to die anyway, he wanted to go down feeling like a hero. Like he'd done the right thing. But that wasn't how he felt. He was scared. He missed Kalana. He missed his mom of all people, a woman he hadn't seen since he was a child. He wished he could undo his decision.
Did that make him less of a man? The fact that, now that his impending death beca more and more of a reality, he would go back and reverse his decision if he could? All that bravery he'd felt while on the phone with Mr. Oren had begun to evaporate as the dark reality settled in and ca ever closer to coming to pass. Yet even still, he pressed onwards, wanting his life to have at least been worth sothing. Also, he was running low on ti.
Unleashed Phase Duration
9:45 Remaining
Quest Expires In
1:33:00
As he bolted down flight after flight of stairs, he decided to forgive himself for his fear and doubt, as he was once again reminded of sothing Mr. Oren had told him on the day he'd found out the truth about his forr science teacher. For all their disagreents, and for all the revulsion Zach felt towards so of his views, there had been one thing the man had said that had been so true to such an extent that Zach wondered if he should request to have it inscribed onto his tombstone.
"What makes you a man is whether or not you follow through on your actions. Not whether or not you escape with your underwear clean."
He couldn't control the way he felt. The sadness, the terror, and the longing for a life with Kalana. These were part of him. He couldn't just shed them because they were inconvenient at the mont. Rather than resent himself because of how scared he was of dying, all he really needed to do was follow through on his actions just like Mr. Oren had said. That was the difference that mattered. It was the only difference that mattered. Was it smart of him to do this? Of course not. Had he acted off emotion and a desire to see his friends live? Obviously. But did any of that matter now? No. His choice was made. He had to follow through on it.
And so, preparing himself for what was likely going to be the most important—and final—mont of his existence, he paused once he arrived at the tal door at the bottom of the stairwell labeled B10 and he took a few seconds to make so necessary changes to what he believed was called an "interface." There was information he needed to have at all tis during this upcoming fight, but he also needed to be able to see clearly and have as little of his vision obstructed as possible.
Right off the bat, he dismissed the quest tir, as that was no longer relevant, as well as his compass. The experience bar was down by his knees and would not cause an issue, so he left it alone. What he did need, however, was so more information. Thus, he tried to form clearly and coherently in his mind the information he wanted before him. He needed to see a list of his abilities without their descriptions, showing only their nas and the ti deductions for each. Was this possible? It seed it was. It would also be useful to move his remaining duration on Unleashed Phase so that it was on top of this list instead of separate and on its own. There. Just like that.
There we go.
Fidgeting with this new view a bit, he took just a few more precious seconds to make sure everything was where he could see it easily—to the left side of his face—but where it would not ever cause a blind spot to form in his vision. It wouldn't be good if he had to eat a sword strike to the throat because the information he'd called forward obstructed what he was able to see. Craning his neck around to test his view of the world from every orientation of his head, he nodded in satisfaction. This was exactly what he needed.
The only thing left to do was to see if he could selectively remove abilities that either did not have ti deductions or that he could not currently use, such as Unleashed Phase and Phase Reset. Well, technically he could use Phase Reset followed by Unleashed Phase, but at that point, he might as well start calling down dragons, because if there was any hope of him surviving a double-high exertion cost, then tacking on another "Very High" on top of his existing debt…like at that point, he might as well just keep resetting until he went up to Phase Level 6. The only reason he hadn't already done so was because he believed there had to at least be so chance, no matter how small, he could pull through this.
At any rate, now that he was ready for his very first—and yeah, probably last—boss fight, Zach gave the display one final look over to ensure it had everything he needed before he proceeded and it was too late to change anything in the heat of combat.
Unleashed Phase Duration
9:10 Remaining
Wave Slash
1:15
Boundless
0:10
Phase Blink
0:20
Phase Shield (READY) (25 seconds)
0:45
Phase Rescue
0:35 / 2:15 (if used with Boundless)
Phase Slash
1:10 / 6:10 (if used with ??)
It suddenly occurred to Zach that, no matter how this turned out, he could likely save Rian and Lienne no matter what. Unless the two were hidden out of sight—which, to be fair, was totally possible—then as long as he got his eyes on them, if things looked like they weren't going to go his way, he could just use Boundless and Phase Rescue to pull them out from wherever it was they happened to be and tell them to run.
Or I could have them fight with .
Zach dismissed the idea. They'd missed way too many levels. What good would they be? Honestly, Zach doubted they would even be able to hurt the damn boss. As things stood, he wasn't even sure he would be able to hurt it. He'd never fought a boss before. He had very little idea of what to expect. But he knew it wouldn't be as easy as fighting a regular mob. Not that it actually mattered anymore, because whether this was difficult, easy, or impossible, it really was all the sa. He had already committed himself to it, and as he thought about it, he let out a sad, but genuine laugh as he realized that he wasn't afraid of the boss killing him: he was afraid of him killing him, which he probably already had.
Well, ti to take this bastard with , I guess.
With one last bittersweet smile at a ntal image of Kalana, he shoved all thoughts of her out of his mind and he pushed open the door to B10. The mont it swung open, he felt like he was stepping out of an elevator and into so kind of hotel, as there was a wall just a few feet in front of the door, between which was a narrow hallway covered with incredibly fancy-looking royal red carpets embroidered with golden-stitched patterns of swords, shields, bows, and arrows. As Zach stepped out of the stairwell and into this hallway, the general saness in the air temperature and quality likely ant he was still on Galterra.
To his left was a dead end, and to his right was a fairly narrow passage that gradually widened until ending abruptly in front of a pair of wide, wooden double-doors with bronze, ring-shaped handles. There was also a smaller door to the left of the double-doors, and it looked oddly out of place, as the wallpaper was a dull orange-grey, and the door was of the dark blue tal type that Zach had grown accustod to in this dungeon. There were also paintings on both sides of the wall: many were of various mythical animals such as unicorns and even a few dragons, but so looked like oil paintings of Moldark, who Zach recognized by his devilish smile and uniquely decorative armor. Above the double-doors was a sign that read:
Boss Ahead. 5 Party Advised (Level 12 min, Level 15 recomnded)
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