Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Sixty-One

< < Now Entering > >

< Stage 5 >

< The Forbidden Altar >

< 30-minute Timer >

Adam went through the cutscene of the ‘All-Mother’s Wrath’ necklace saving Belamouranthe from her mother, who then sacrificed herself to open the way to the Forbidden Altar.

As he walked down the stone steps into the bowels of the earth, he saw five familiar people following their own stairwells down. Willow, Lenard, Ilya, Gladwyn, and, to his surprise, Sven.

Why did she pick him? Or is he the replacement for Alexander Nova?

Sven was someone Adam had briefly spoken to ages ago, during his third loop, when he’d been curious about the ‘Slime King’s Crown’ and how it worked.

All of them were staring back at him and it was deeply unnerving to know that the Flayed Lady controlled them all at the same time.

My only hope to have a chance is to be the first to make it to the altar. That way I can force them to come to me.

Based on where Adam’s staircase stood in relation to the others, he knew he’d be directly south of the altar, giving him the theoretically shortest path, but also ensuring he had four players very close to him on the east and west flanks, with one starting far away on the northern stairwell, which seemed to be where Sven was.

Adam reached the bottom of the stairs and was returned control of his body from the cutscene, though as always, an invisible barrier kept him from going any further into the tunnel. Next to him floated the stone orb for the hardmode, and he left it active like with the previous four stages. It would make all of the statues come to life, which should slow down his opponents.

Before doing anything else, Adam slipped on the ‘Queen’s Pendant’.

[You have been afflicted with Curse. Damage taken increased by 10%.]

[You have been afflicted with Scorn. All beneficial effects of Worship removed.]

He took it off and put it into the bag he kept inside his body, returning the hero’s blade pendant to his neck.

Things were bound to get hectic, so he knew he had to ensure that he was scorned now, such that he didn’t have to fumble with the necklace later if he ran out of time.

“The scorn will stay, right?”

[Correct. Negative effects from equipped Relics remain for the duration of a Stage, even when removed later.]

“What do you think my odds are?”

[Since our opponents are in the same dimension as us now, I am able to observe their Relics and Classes. I believe they are formidable, but knowing what you are up against will allow you to prepare appropriately, enabling you to win.]

Our opponents, huh?

[Player Sven Jensen started with the Fool Class and has evolved twice, obtaining Leering Prankster and Giggling Trapper.]

“He picked Fool??”

[Indeed. He, like you, has obtained several Legendary Relics, including the Slime Emperor’s Crown, Goblin King’s Tooth, Nightwing Cloak, Aristocrat’s Porcelain Mask, and he is also wearing the Forlorn Cuirass and Slothling Spring Boots, alongside the two Bear Traps from his second evolution.]

“Damn…”

Adam hadn’t anticipated the Flayed Lady making some of her puppets pick Fool, but he knew it didn’t bode well.

She could easily sacrifice one of her Fool pawns in stage six or seven if they got the Smug Burglar evolution and obtained two wishing coins to summon Voidspawn into the stage, which would make it pretty much impossible to win in the long run if the Voidspawn learn to counter my entire build.

“What about the rest?”

[Player Willow Martin has Chainshooter and Gorgon Slayer as her two Classes. Her only worrisome Relics are the Blood Mage Choker and Tainted Helmet.]

“What does Chainshooter do?”

[It is the final Evolution of Archer, following the Trickster Evolution, which allows arrows to ricochet. Chainshooter makes each ricochet double the arrows.]

So, she fills a corridor with ricocheting arrows that keep multiplying, and if any return to her, she can use the projectile reflect of Gorgon Slayer to send the arrows back down the corridor…

“That sounds scary.”

[Paired with her Tainted Helmet, she will be able to apply many Taint afflictions, and it is likely she also possesses Venom upgrades. I recommend dealing with her first.]

[Player Lenard Schulz has Monster Hunter and Ghost, with the Skittish Skaters and Boomerang Pendant worthy of note.]

“Duplicating crossbow bolts that he can pull back to himself… She’s really employing some nasty builds.”

[Player Ilya Sokolov has Pack Leader and Street Champion. Paired with his Pugilist’s Belt, First Strike Earring, and Blue Trophy, he will be able to deal a lot of damage. Pack Leader is the final Evolution of Beast following the Pack Wolf route, which gives the Wolf Tooth Relic to summon wolves.]

To Adam’s surprise, Parvillo actually shared the relic’s information. Although, when he saw it, he realised that Shitbox had already told him about its effect back during his seventh loop where he’d used Beast.

Still, Parvillo really wants me to win.

< < Relic > >

< Wolf Tooth (Rare) — Summons two Wolves to perform a single attack on a designated target. 1-minute cooldown >

[Pack Leader increases summon count by 2, meaning he will be able to manifest 4 wolves, and they will be difficult to kill because of his True Flame’s Icon crown. He also possesses the Fetish of Sloth, alongside your other opponents, who also have the crown to make the most use of it. Additionally, Ilya possesses the Committed Attack Ring, which will allow him to activate either his Fetish of Sloth or Wolf Tooth twice.]

Shit. Even without the Summoner, that’s a lot of potential summons, all of which will be empowered and impossible to kill because of Last Stand’s Fervour lasting ten seconds after they die…

“So, it’s a powerful melee build that also has empowered summons?”

[Indeed.]

“I feel like he might be the most troublesome one…”

[All of them are dangerous in their own way.]

“What about Gladwyn?”

[Player William Gladwyn has Nimble Prince and Son of Thetis as his two Classes. He uses the Yellow Trophy and Slothling Spring Boots, along with the Sanctuary Defender’s Robes, to gain speed which boosts his Damage thanks to the Spear Dancer Evolution prior to Son of Thetis.]

“A rather simple speed build then,” Adam concluded.

[Yes. However, the movements of Nimble Prince can be rather unorthodox, so do not let him take you by surprise. He also carries the Vigilant Fighter’s Vambrace, so it is possible he will attempt to parry you, thereby creating a weak spot for the other Players to exploit.]

I still remember how Natalia moved, and given the limited space in the tunnels, I should be able to easily counter him. Worst case scenario, I can use my mask on him, though I think using it on Sven will be a better idea.

Then a realisation set in.

Since Sven has the mask and can see my future movements, it means that so can the Flayed Lady, who is controlling all of them simultaneously.

Adam let out a deep sigh.

In a way, I’m lucky she didn’t stack my team full of whatever crazy build Ilya and Willow have, because being overwhelmed by wolves and imps or going through hallways filled with multiplying arrows does sound crazy, but Sven will have to be my main target.

[I have stalled for long enough. Any longer and the Stage may begin on its own.]

“Thank you, Parvillo.”

[You have the power to win this, Adam.]

He grinned. “I know.”

[Begin.]

Adam immediately shot himself down the hallway, his white moth’s wings flapping wildly to propel him forward, its wing-tips barely avoiding the narrow stone walls.

The statue elements came to life as soon as he drew near, but Adam punched his way through them all with a spinning motion of his body and his stone hand extended out in front of him, pulverising the statues on impact.

He flew through all the chambers and tunnels leading to the altar, killing any statue in his way, in order to hopefully deny Sven the ability to use his slime crown to power up with the glass cores the statues possessed. Adam did want to obtain one for himself to gain the power to turn his slime body to stone, but it was at the bottom of his list of things he needed right now.

After passing the statue that would open a false wall to give him the golden map, Adam flew down the final tunnel before the altar.

The sounds of the other players were still distant, and they would have no way of knowing exactly where he was, even though it was an easy bet to predict he’d run for the altar.

Adam strung one of his five spidersilk string ropes across the tunnel just past the final elbow bend, putting it at ankle height and ensuring it didn’t stand out in the light of the yellow glow stones in the ceiling. He had also dragged two statues with him, their bodies not fully destroyed by the attacks that’d killed them, and he placed one of his bear traps under their bodies, after putting them in the middle of the tunnel. He also tied a string to the trap, as well as the other one on his belt, giving him the ability to whip them around at speed if his targets managed to avoid them, not to mention allowing him to quickly pull them back to himself.

With his simple preparations done, Adam stepped onto the altar.

< < Stage Alert > >

< Player Adam has claimed the Altar >

“ADAM!” four voices screamed in unison, morphing together into one as the sound rolled through the tunnel and into the cavern where Adam stood in front of the altar.

Gladwyn was the first to appear at the end of the tunnel, running along the wall like a maniac. As he spotted Adam, he slid down to the ground, passing right over the tripwire, but landing atop the two destroyed statue elementals. He crouched slightly, clearly preparing to use his spring boots, but then Adam pulled on the ten-metre spidersilk string attached to the trap under the statues.

BANG!

The sound was so much more intense thanks to the narrow stone corridor, and the blast obscured Adam’s vision of the tunnel as it formed a cloud of smoke and debris. Gladwyn’s body was part of the cloud as a fine mist of red, and the ceiling was visibly smeared with his remains.

[Trap triggered. 100 Points rewarded. One Player defeated,] Parvillo announced.

Sounds like dozens of pebbles came from down the obscured tunnel, growing louder and more plentiful with every passing second.

Adam knew what was coming, but he was surprised to see three wolves be the first to break out of the cloud, followed by five more close behind them, as well as three imps. All of them were glowing red and riddled with arrows.

Right on their heels came a cascade of bouncing and jumping arrows plinging up and down as they also broke from the obscuring plume of dust.

The altar cavern didn’t have any direct lights, though it was still somehow possible to see what lay within it. Regardless, it fulfilled the requirement for Adam’s nightwing cloak, but he waited for as long as possible before activating it, until the first of the imps was only a metre from reaching him.

When he triggered the nightwing cloak, every imp and wolf, along with the insane cascade of bouncing arrows, passed right through him. Their last stand’s fervour buffs would run out before his cloak’s effect, and based on the fact that there had been eight wolves and three imps, he knew that Ilya had burnt his committed attack ring on the wolf tooth relic, meaning he wouldn’t have any other summons for another three minutes.

Still, he needed the Flayed Lady to think her overwhelming attack had worked, so that Willow would come out of hiding, since otherwise she could just keep up the barrage of duplicating arrows until she ran out of stamina.

So, having no other idea what to do, Adam let out a pained scream and slammed one of the wolves into the ground with about the same force as a collapsing body.

The summons all winked out as their fervour buffs expired, and the arrow barrage subsided a moment after, only to be followed by a bolt that flew right through where Adam stood, surrounded by ghostly copies on either side of it.

They’re all here, down at the end of the tunnel.

Adam pulled the bear trap from his belt and, with a spidersilk string tied from it to his stone hand, he threw it down into the dust cloud that was starting to dissipate, while focusing on a mote of dust in front of him to trigger the pugilist’s belt effect.

As the bear trap struck a target and exploded, Ilya leapt out from the cloud with his gauntleted Beast claws lifted high.

[Two traps triggered. 200 Points rewarded. One Player defeated.]

The trap’s explosion released a new blast of air and created its own cloud, but it also pushed the dust, debris, and aerosolised organic matter out the corridor to wash over Adam and Ilya.

As Ilya’s fist swung towards Adam, the cloak’s effect vanished, but Adam still automatically dodged the attack thanks to his over 100% dodge rating.

Adam grabbed Ilya by the wrist and tossed him towards the altar with as much force and speed as possible.

Ilya’s body struck one of the taller plinths head on, producing a loud crack from his spine and ribcage breaking, before he collapsed onto the altar, somehow still breathing.

< < Stage Alert > >

< Player You Will Regret It has claimed the Altar >

Adam flung one of his traps at Ilya’s crippled body using the spidersilk as a whip, and though the trap wasn’t active, it was still able to strike with a lot of force, hitting his prone body like a wrecking ball.

[Trap triggered. 100 Points rewarded. One Player defeated.]

“That counts?” Adam asked in surprise.

Then he heard the cascade of arrows from the tunnel again, but instead of running away, Adam empowered his right fist with the shapeshifter’s claw and punched the air, releasing a massive blast that pushed the cloud cover away along with several of the ricocheting arrows.

Down at the end of the tunnel, the dust parted to reveal Willow’s gravely injured body slumped next to the bottom half of Lenard. Despite their blood mage choker’s protective barriers, they had taken a lot of damage from Adam’s trap going off, likely because he had a lot of force upgrades to boost armour penetration.

Willow looked at Adam, broken and fragmented bones poking out of her left leg and a big hole in her abdomen. Although the trap’s explosion had caused the damage, it didn’t seem like it had imparted his bleed. It was possible it needed to directly chomp down on its target to apply afflictions, though it was clear that Lenard had been the one who’d been struck, the blast against his blood barrier clearly not counting as a direct attack to make his skittish skaters protect him.

“Adam… please,” Willow said, an arrow half-cocked on her bow. It was her real voice. The Flayed Lady had given her back control of her body, just so she could experience dying.

He teleported to the shadow next to her with the night bracelet, punching down and reducing her to nothingness along with Lenard’s remains.

Their blood washed over the hieroglyph-covered walls of the tunnel’s corner.

Just one more now and it’ll be over, Adam thought, a frown plastered sourly on his face.