Rise of the Undead Legion

Dave's group moved along the corridor cautiously, eventually emerging into a room with three doors set in the opposite wall.

In the middle of the room were ranks of clay statues. They were obviously soldiers, each figure had both hands resting on the pommel of a broadsword, point to the ground.

Dave recalled seeing pictures of statues similar to these as a child. He didn't read the article just enjoyed the amazing images. He remembered the article title claimed they were part of a Terracotta Army.

"Now what?" Lone arrow said.

Dave inspected one of the figures:

Ancient Warrior of the Middle Realm

Level 250

Tier: Epic

DN 20,000

MA 5,000

HP 250,000

Skill [None]

A statue frozen in time awaiting to serve its ancient Lord again.

"We take down the stone soldiers, adoor should open up for us when we take down these guys."

Dave ordered the group to move advance on the clay soldiers.

When Stinger entered the aggro range of the first terracotta soldier, all the statues woke and like a mechanical machine they raised their swords and moved toward the dunlord in unison.

'This shouldn't be much of a problem.'

"Two dunlords take out each clay golem," Dave ordered, and the dunlords rushed to do battle.

The first dunlord to approach a stone soldier grabbed it with a stone-crushing pincer and threw it against the nearest wall.

The clay soldier impacted the wall with a cracking sound. Fissures appeared all over the fired clay body but the statue didn't shatter.

[-85,000]

'Whoa! Good damage. They must be really weak to blunt damage.'

"Hammertime everybody! They are weak to blunt damage!"

Using [Immortal Apparition] Dave leaped up and over Stingers head, striking down at the head of one of the stone soldiers with his gauntlet.

A cone of flame erupted from the gauntlet engulfed the clay soldier.

The statue's head cracked but it still counter-attacked with its sword.

Seeing the threat as he landed, Dave parried the sword-attack with a gauntleted forearm, redirecting its force and sliding the sword away from himself. He riposted with a fist, pummeling the soldier's face, exposed from overextending its attack.

Another punch rocked the statue's head and cracked it even more, turning its nose into a puff of clay dust.

Dave began strafing around the soldier, striking it with his gauntlets like a boxer repeatedly jabbing his opponent.

Stinger and another dunlord joined in and the soldier was quickly turned to dust and shards of fired clay.

When one of the stone soldiers fell, the dunlords that defeated it would move on to help their closest ally, this continued until all soldiers were felled.

"Well that wasn't so tough," Dave commented, "But they didn't drop any loot,"

Lone Arrow moved to get a closer look at the three doors.

"Hey Dave, there's no way to open this door," she said.

Dave joined her to take a look.

Made of stone, the door was big enough for a dunlord to pass through with no trouble. But, like Lone said, there were no handles or even a keyhole.

Dave was about to try pushing against it when he heard a rumbling.

A door on the other side of the room had opened by itself, as the same time a stone block fell across the door they had entered through.

"Huhhh, obviously someone, or something, doesn't want us going back that way."

Dave had everyone rest and recover their HP, the paladins healing the dunlords and the casters the undead.

"Okay, form up. Let's go find who or what is so eager to meet us."

The party moved through the open doorway.

"Can you tell how the other Boyz are doing?" asked Lone

Dave checked his interface and saw that the other groups' HP was going up and down.

"Looks like both groups are in battle."

"Do you think we'll meet up with them somewhere ahead?"

"I hope so. If we don't I can just summon them back to the Dead Realm when we are done with the boss," Dave answered.

"Stop!" Lone shouted. "That tile looks strange," Lone indicated a floor-tile that was set slightly higher than the ones around it.

Dave looked around, there were lines of holes in the walls, probably a spear or arrow trap. He called out, "The hall is trapped. Everyone watch your steps!"

Then he ordered one of the undead to stand in front of the tile as a marker until everyone else was past it.

The group moved forward slowly, carefully checking for more traps.

Eventually they heard the sound of running water, and soon a doorway, the end of the hall came into sight.

When they reached the door they were met with a marvelous scene.

They couldn't see the walls or ceiling to this room, but it seemed to contained a rainforest, lush greenery with exotic wildflowers; and even a waterfall feeding a pool and stream.

But what really caught their attention were the two gigantic toads in the middle of the room croaking at each other. The sacs on their throats bloated and deflated in time to their croaking.

One of them was an electric-blue color and the other a pale almost phosphorescent green.

Lightning Toad

Level 420

Tier: Epic

DN 25,000

MA 25,000

HP 350,000

Skills:

[Electro-Shock] sends a burst of electricity outward from its body in all directions, shocking all targets and stunning them for 2 seconds. The skill does 10,000 damage in a 20 meter radius.

[Electric Bubble] encompasses a target in a sphere of electric discharges, stunning and trapping the target for 20 seconds, it does a total of 30,000 damage.

[Lightning Whip] The lightning Toad uses its tongue to attack, doing electric damage and stunning the target for 2 seconds, doing 30% additional base damage.

Bestiary:

The Lightning Toad is a rare creature only born during massive electric storms, it consumes lightning bolts and uses the power of lightning as a weapon.

Poisonous Toad

Level 410

Tier: Epic

DN 25,000

MA 25,000

HP 350,000

Skills:

[Poison Breath] the toad breathes out a cloud of poison that lasts for 20 seconds, doing 3,500 Damage of poison damage each second.

[Poison Bubble] spits a glob of clinging green poison at the target, it lasts for 20 seconds stunning and damaging the target for 3,000 HP/sec

[Sticky Tongue] latches to a target and squeezes, damaging the target for 10,000 HP Flat damage, if target is poisoned, the damage is doubled.

Bestiary:

The Poison Toad is a mutated amphibian that lives in the most poisonous and toxic quagmires.

"Alright Lone, this is going to be a bit tougher than the clay dudes. Here is the plan: You will will lead the dunlords and kill the lightning Toad, once you finish it off come help me take down the Poison toad."

"Why are we splitting our forces up?" asked Lone

"We are going to be fighting with a level difference penalty. The only ones who can do much damage to these guys are the dunlords. The undead are immune to poison but the dunlords aren't. So while the undead and I keep the Poison Toad distracted you and the dunlords kill the Lightning Toad then shift over and start on the Poison Toad."

"Why don't you take half the dunlords to attack the poison one?"

"You'd be doing less damage per second against the Lightning Toad and take longer to kill it. Also, my half of the dunlords would be exposed to poison attacks for longer, increasing the risk of some of them dying.

"The dunlords are our heavy-hitters against the high level mobs in this dungeon."

"Ok Davey, that makes sense, I will do my best to help even though I am so much lower leveled."

"Level doesn't matter. Try to keep that Toad on its toes, blind it or stagger it with your Skills. That will help the dunlords finish it off faster."

"Okay Davey. I'm ready!"

"Alright, dunlords with Lone and Pincher, Boyz With me!" Dave moved first and caught the attention of the croaking Poison Toad.

Dave cast [Spectral Skull] and detonated the glowing skull-bombs right in the Poison Toad's face, knocking the unprepared monster over.

The toad got back up and croaked an angry scream. It opened its mouth even wider and shot its tongue out at Dave like a cannonball on a bungie cord.

Dave sidestepped the tongue-strike and started moving sideways, flanking the Toad.

The undead moved in, attacking the toad whenever they could. But all their damage values were zeroes or measly single points.

"Keep distracting it, Boyz!"

Across the way, the dunlords were making decent progress at bringing the Lightning Toad's HP, it was already down 10% of its max.

Angry croaking from both toads echoed all over the chamber and from time to time Dave heard the snapping pop and muted thunder of the Toad's lightning-strikes.