The Devil In White: An AA Online Novel

The General, either because of Aidan's high reputation level or because of the panic in his voice, ordered the ranged components of the group to continue killing the Fishmen that approached them. Mages and archers continued to pelt the enemies and eventually, the area around them came to a calm. The Residents and Transients with shields moved to face the water, and they all stared warily. Nothing happened. The water remained placid.

"It's a high level." Khiafin insisted, defending his claim that there was something off nearby. "I get about a minute warning on monsters my level or higher, several levels higher is less."

"I don't know." Aidan was beginning to waffle. "I think maybe you jumped the gun."

"Keep an eye on the water." Khiafin snapped. You could tell he was used to dealing with doubtful members by the steel that entered his voice. "Or I will-."

The water's surface tension broke, and something began to swim at them rapidly from the middle of the lake. By the disturbance and its speed, Amelia guessed it was twice again larger than Syrxis. Originally the water broke toward the shore in such a way that it appeared to be a rather large wave, but as it approached a clear shape was emerging from the veneer of water caught up in the rush.

A great toothy maw appeared and it struck. It launched itself on the beach and immediately struck out with spiny hooks, trying to drag those nearby into the water. Thankfully most had still been wary. It was dark, and no one trusted the water. Too many vids of hapless mariners pulled to their doom, Amelia guessed. Maybe just too many shark movies.

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Local Announcement - Terror of the Deep!

This nearly blind apex predator has long since become a central feature for the worship of the Fishermen. It has slumbered for years at a time, only awakening to assuage its massive tri-annual hunger. Legend tells of Fishermen dragged to murky depth until the beast grew so large that it would actually launch itself on land and drag off whole fishing expeditions.

[Terror's Gaze]. The blind eyes of the sightless beast are upon you. While it is obviously blind it's hideous dull gray eyes reflect mercilessness.

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Amelia shivered. She felt those dead eyes glaring at her and immediately noted that those nearest her were trembling. Many shots went wide, and those dealing with the spiny hooks at the front began backing up. From the shouts, she realized that it had some sort of fear effect much like the one Forsythe and Elisha had described when they had fought the snake. Some stood paralyzed as the water washed up in response to its rapid acceleration toward the shore, and it moved toward them with deadly purpose, somehow sensing their location.

Transients almost immediately responded. Electric fields were placed over the creature in the water. Lightning illuminated the cavern, and Amelia even heard Aidan cast his [Mass Manipulation - Fire Field] in an attempt to make visibility better for everyone.

Gabriel was already wading forward, ignoring the fear effect and trying to rally the Shieldman of the Residents around him. "Block those tentacles!" He cried. Some stepped forward with him, but it was a losing battle. There were dozens of scaly appendages that probed the shore for prey, and they seemed ignorant of the blades that stabbed at them.

When they did manage to stab some of the tentacles, the effect was instantaneous. The Terror of the Deep focused on that area and began pummeling it with appendages like long wh.i.p.s. The meaty sound of thumping practically deafened those nearby.

"Healers!" The Resident General called frantically. Abidingly the healing groups stepped forward and began casting on the Shieldmen at the front. Most of the frontline had their shields up practically over their head to protect them from the flailing arms. A few, because of this, were hooked near the ankles and brought down to the ground and actually almost made it to the water before they were helped by allies nearby. The reality of what would happen became clear a moment later when a few Residents were trying to help a Transient shieldman up but had to raise their shields. The Transient yelled helplessly and was dragged under the water. A strange movement near the Terror of the Deep indicated his fate as the water moved up briefly and then stilled once more.

The Terror of the Deep paused as holy magic began barreling down on its prey, healing them, and after a short delay, it began casting small beams of light toward the healers responsible. It struck them in mass, and many of them began backpedaling even as they began to heal each other.

Amelia stood and watched from the middle. Trying to figure out what it was casting. Some sort of arcane spell that sought out people who cast holy magic, she guessed. It was kind of a strange response for a monster in the dark.

"[Shadow - Walk], [Second Release - Momentum]." Khiafin said near her. He was suddenly gone, reminding her immediately of the Visage. He appeared above the water on top of the Terror of the Deep's head. He began stabbing down, shouting out abilities that she couldn't hear or decipher from her position. He incredibly began stabbing at one of the dulled eyes of the creature, earning its immediate enmity. It started slapping at the top of its own head with its long whiplike appendages. He skillfully dodged them and started running down its spine.

While it was distracted the General turned to the group and started shouting. "Ropes! You Craftsmen! Do you have ropes?" He began having his officers collect ropes and chains and other assorted devices from them and quickly had them distributed to the Lancers of the group. "It will try to run! Just like that spider! Don't let it away from land or we'll be fighting it on and off all night!"

A decidedly wise choice. Lancers immediately began tying off their Lances, and several Craftsmen that were trailing the group volunteered as well. They threw Lances and harpooned the Terror of the Deep, setting themselves along the shore. The Residents began shouting encouragement even before the Craftsmen and Lancers began pulling. Slowly the Terror of the Deep was dragged further inland. Each terrible step revealed a more hideous feature.

The Terror of the Deep started to ignore Khiafin and the others that were smacking at its appendages and geared itself for another magical onslaught. This time Amelia decided it was time to try out her new spells.

"[Mass Counter - Arcane]." It was a guess, but not a bad one. As the streaks of light neared the Lancers and Craftsmen they suddenly went wide, striking the shore in a varying display of harsh light and displaced earth. The blowback still struck some of the combatants but was widely dispersed otherwise. Amelia felt a rush of elation and looked at Aidan. He was too busy, or he hadn't noticed, and he continued to cast his electric field over the Terror. She realized he was slowing the creatures reaction and was just casting the same field spell over and over. Her spell hadn't worked perfectly either. It was too non-specific. Worse, she only had half her mana left and hadn't had time to explain to Aidan that she could probably start countering spells. Half her mana after one counter wasn't very efficient. The school spell didn't really describe how much mana she would use for casting the spells as it seemed to be based on the level of her opponent and the specificity of her description.

"Ho, that was pretty good." One person had noticed, however. It was Khiafin! He was still running up and down the top of the head, dodging appendages but he had apparently not missed what happened. That was incredible even without acknowledging where he was fighting from. "I saw something unusual and my eyes flickered up. Light refraction." He was running again and stabbed down. "What was that?"

"Mass Counter," Amelia replied over the party channel. "It only half worked and it wasn't very good. Terror thing used a spell-like ability so there was no boss system message on what it was."

"It's Mass Arcane Manipulation - Barrage," Khiafin replied.

"Know your spells?" Aidan praised over the party channel. He stopped speaking except to tersely inform them that the boss was doing something new.

"There are many magical specializations and a pure Arcane mage had many different mass spells." Khiafin didn't seem bothered by the fact that Aidan wasn't paying attention as he explained.

The Terror of the Deep slowly raised a submerged appendage as if to reward Aidan for his suspicions. Yep, sure enough, the boss was now mostly in sight as the appendage above its head was raised and cast light on itself. The creature itself was revealed as a large fish head with hollow eyes and sharp impractical looking teeth. The thing on top of its head wiggled a bit in front of it looking almost like a carrot on a stick. Though, frankly, it was pretty much an angler fish lure. Come to think of it the gaping maw and the huge spiked teeth and blind eyes also resembled an angler fish. An angler fish with long clawed tentacles like a giant squid. Amelia shivered and wondered if she should look away from the light. Instead, she looked up above the head of the creature, noticing that it had just hit 50% of its life.

Fishermen began appearing all along the shores and marched resolutely forward. The Residents had their hands full blocking the water, and some of the Transients led by Gabriel turned to face one side or another. They needn't have bothered, the Fishermen began swimming out to the boss, and the Terror of the Deep began plucking them as they got close and eating them. 51%. 53%.

"It's stealing health!" Gabriel barked to the group. He rushed forward with several of the Lancers who had given up their spots holding the ropes and chains and pulled other weapons, shortswords or knives. They rushed quickly and tried to cut off and kill the new food supply who wasn't even fighting back, just frantically trying to scramble to the water. Gabriel was just smashing them as far back away from the water as he could with his shield. "[Overshield - Rush]!"

"It's going to wear us out." Amelia said over the party channel.

"I don't feel like I'm going to lose," Khiafin said smugly.

"Ooh. Pinch? You're in a pinch! Get ready Amelia. Watch Aidan." Raven crowed.

Stupid was Amelia's first thought. Aidan would think of something probably, Raven was right, but to watch him do it was stupid. Well, she glanced over anyway and found him, standing stone still. Chaos flew around him, an appendage struck the shore meters from him, and people ran around him back and forth. He was simply observing, glancing to his left, and then his right.

"He hasn't said anything. It must be dire." Forsythe acknowledged. "I bet he does the laugh."

"Don't you have your own fights?" Amelia wanted to know.

"Yeah, yeah." Forsythe and Raven both muttered.

Aidan straightened and jerked his head to the left. He was staring out into the dark, and very gently, so subtly that she almost missed it, he nodded. There was no one there, and he didn't nod several times like people do when they were figuring something out. He seemed to be listening. Then he turned back and started watching the people again, and his eyes met Amelia's. He grinned. "Hahahaha." That laugh. It was everything that Forsythe and Raven seemed to promise.

"What?" Amelia muttered, not sure what she had just witnessed.

"He laughed. I didn't hear him. But he definitely laughed." Forsythe guessed.

"Amelia!" Aidan finally acknowledged them over the party channel. "Do you think Fred will level up after this?"

Before she could figure out how to reply she saw his orange globe zipping past the fighters. He was sending it far past the Transients and Residents, and as it passed many of the Fishermen began to turn and follow it. It was much closer than the Terror's light and they frantically tried to grab and capture it. Amelia knew how effective that was going to be from personal experience.

"What are you people doing? It's just a light." Aidan half-smiled. "It's just a giant stupid fish leading around other stupid fish. Send your Light Globes out."

Ah. The wizards in the group turned toward him, and Amelia was guessing they were all having the same thought she was having. So stupid. Why didn't I think of that? Amelia sent her purple globe spinning and humming past the left side of the shore in the opposite direction of Aidan's, and it spun and dodged as it began to come under attack from Fishermen who suddenly lost interest in the Terror's lure. Amelia had never thought about it, but you could send a Light Globe out as far as you could see in a straight line, regardless of darkness. The distance in this cavern was significant, and before long the Fishermen were racing and chasing it in circles hundreds of meters away. All around her wizards were casting [Light Globe] and sending them spinning off away from the water.

"That looks pretty interesting," Khiafin commented.

"From the kid who is on the head of a Terror of the Deep, dodging it as is it smacks itself while it tries to eat him?" Aidan asked dryly.

"They used to have a holiday where I'm from where all the local businesses would raise up their advertising drones for a festival, and attach lights to them. Then they would fly them around in sequence and do formations with them. This kind of reminds me of watching that. Well except for the frantic, and the stabbing, the monsters, and standing on the big toothy thing." Khiafin admitted.

"That sounds freaking sweet," Raven commented. "What country?"

"New Zealand." Khiafin answered. "Now don't go asking me which town, out of game is out of game you know. Even murderers have mothers who teach them standards."

Aidan just started laughing and didn't bother to stop.

"What you don't believe we have standards?" Khiafin was amused.

"I don't believe you had a mother!" Aidan laughed harder, and after a moment Khiafin joined him.

Amelia tuned them out as they began taunting each other back in forth. Monsters like them were allowed to banter while they did things no one else usually could. Amelia took out her book and began writing about the encounter. Even though it still waged on around her she had already cast [Aura] and it wouldn't be up for another ten minutes. She made a mental note to recast it if the boss wasn't dead by then. She wrote hastily, describing the boss and the floor as well as the Transients and Residents in attendance. When she was done, she left a paragraph for the conclusion of the fight. Details didn't have to be exact. The more you progressed in Chronicler as a job the better the game helped you fill in those miscellaneous details. Sometimes it felt to her like her pen paused on its own and wrote words and phrases she would have never chosen. That was the beauty of the AA system, she supposed, since the Dive gear virtually(literally) insured that each word came from her.

"AMELIA." Hmmm? Amelia looked up and saw that Khiafin had been trying to get her attention over the party channel. The boss was getting ready to cast his spell again.

"Ah. I forgot. [Mass Counter-]." She paused. "Cancel." Then she stretched out her staff, not exactly sure what she was doing since she had never seen the spell. Still, she had a pretty good idea of what was coming. It was a spell that sought out specific targets based on sensory information other than visual. The creature probably, she mused, sensed the mana disturbances around it kind of like echoes on radar and launched seeking lances of energy back in retaliation. It was fascinating. She started to grin and her eyes, shadowed by her hood, showed a vague expectation.

"[Reflect - Mass Arcane Manipulation - Barrage]. The immediate response was her mana, which had recovered to about 70%, fell to 0%. In the game, regeneration began spinning the numbers up slowly if you were at critical resource level. The delayed response happened just as the barrage left the Terror of the Deep. Large black circles appeared in all the areas that barrage was moving toward and quickly turned a flashing silver. Each of the projectiles that the Terror of the Deep had fired was immediately returned and smashed into it with such great force that the air being displaced actually caused a shockwave that first s.u.c.k.e.d in the water around the area and then blew it back out in a cascade over the water and the beach.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Khiafin screamed excitedly as he struggled to find an anchor point on shore to get away from the water shockwave. Amelia wasn't sure but she thought the explosions might have deafened him. The Terror in the Deep slowly began dragging people forward, not because it was escaping, but because it's colossal mass was pulling them forward as it collapsed in on itself.

"Ah. That's pretty cool." The spell had somewhat exceeded her expectation but at the same time the effect that had occurred made sense as well. Since she had understood, mostly, how the attack worked through observation, and because of Khiafin knew the name of the spell, she had probably been considered close to 100% in her understanding of the spell as far as AA was concerned. She could probably find a log of it in her combat recount stats later, so she pushed that thought aside for now. The level difference between her and the boss had caused her to go to 0% mana though, and she frowned since she personally thought that s.u.c.k.e.d. It meant that if something didn't die or turned toward her she would just be staring at it like she always did, Aura or not, after a single spell. Amelia looked down and re-opened her book and finished the chapter portion; and labeled it Terror in the Deep - Floor 3, Brack Kingdom Underground Dungeon.

Cheers of victory erupted around her but she ignored them. She had just leveled her Chronicler of the Heavens again, finally. Sometimes it really felt like it took forever. "Examine."

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Chronicler of the Heavens - Intermediate Level 1 - 54%

New Ability - [Storytelling] - The Chronicler is able to recount tales of completed campaigns verbally and show selected scenes while speaking.

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"Feh. Storytelling." Amelia muttered. Who wanted to listen to people talk when she could show them the video. She reflected after a moment and shrugged. Well, it would have been different if she could have made copies of books to give to people. Some people still liked books, she thought, suddenly feeling defensive. Amelia looked around, free of the level up menu clogging her vision and frowned. People were reaching out and shaking her shoulder in congratulations and smiling at her. A lot of people. There was even a query notice for her to activate asking her if she was being harassed. Did she want to report anyone? Amelia realized that her auto-settings were such that her audio turned off when she was reviewing game menus. Her hearing quickly came back. They were congratulating her on killing the boss, and other things. Too much.

"What was that spell?"

"It went from 24% to dead!"

"Nice kill!"

On and on and on, Amelia held her hands up and shrugged. Before she had a chance to defend herself, the system decided that the battle was well and truly over. The others must have finished the Fishmen, and even Fred reappeared, looking disappointingly the same. She had held out a small hope that he would get experience for the battle. Which was ridiculous because it wasn't a HE, she scolded herself. Still it was pretty adorable. Her gaze softened and she reached out to pet it fondly and it zipped away, immediately earning her ire again.

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Global Announcement -

Prestige Class unlocked - Wizard - Order of the Black (Black Wizard)

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Local Announcement -

The Terror of the Deep floats lifelessly casting it's dead gaze accusingly on the shore. The 4th floor is available and the 2nd floor may now be reset to Hard.

Reputation increased - 250

Fame increased - 50

Level up, level up, level up, level up. Current Level 153.

Your skill in [Spell Mastery] has risen to Expert 9. Bonuses will increase by 6%.

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Amelia gasped, pleasantly surprised by the levels. Not just her personal wizard levels though. She had just jumped 6 levels of [Spell Mastery], from Expert 3 to 9. The reflect must have done it then? She supposed reflecting an unnamed boss ability on a raid scale and killing the creature must have been rewarding. Amelia smiled, chuckling slightly at her stat screen. She was looking through her menus and gradually the clamor around her died down as people realized she had completely forgotten about them already. She was chuckling a little more even, making it somewhat awkward for those standing near her.

"She can't hear you," Aidan told Khiafin. They were watching her stare off into space, performing what Aidan called her creepy laugh. "She comes out of it, but when she's looking up menus she mutes everyone and forgets."

"Wow. That's…" Khiafin was at a loss. On the one hand, he had a better understanding of what happened than most. Khiafin had fought mages. High-level murderers and the good kind alike, and he had never seen a spell reflected or countered. He hadn't thought you could do either. You could block them with physical shields to negate damage or dodge them altogether if you were quick. When he had yelled for her, it had been because he had seen her do something earlier and thought she might be able to do it again. Things were going well but the Residents were looking strained in the water. If she could lower the accuracy of the enemy spell, which is what he had initially thought she was doing, then it could only help.

When he picked her out on the shore, she was writing in a book. People surged around her, appendages slapped the shore, she had been standing very determinedly penning something in what looked like a Chronicler's book. So when he had shouted, it had been because he had seen the cast light on the creature. Khiafin estimated that no more than 6 seconds transpired from the cast light on the creature and the activation of the spell. She had started to cast something, changed her mind, and cast something else in those 6 seconds. Then, to his utter amazement she had watched for a moment, hadn't even nodded in satisfaction, and then went back to writing in her book like it was a matter of course.

"Is she uh, like a savant? Like math? Macaroni paintings of celebrities? Some really strange but incredible talent?" Khiafin was embarrassed to ask aloud so he used the party chat since he was dying to know the answer but couldn't figure it out.

"No, she's just one of our party," Aidan replied. He had said it normally, but moments later they realized he had snickered before he the game audio had faded.

"Total weirdo," Forsythe said, mimicking Amelia.

"Insane." Raven jumped on the mock Amelia train and imitated her as well.

"I remember when I wasn't used to you lunatics, I miss that." Even Elisha had the voice down.

Khiafin was smiling but obviously didn't understand. "Uh huh. Well, this has been fun. I have to log off, I'm watching a show tonight with my niece. She missed the release on Friday and we had time tonight so I promised her. I may be a famous killer in this game but I fear for my life should I break said promise." His pane went dark, and moments later faded from the menu as he went offline. He hadn't even bothered to go with them to wherever the party was going to camp or set anyone on follow. He'd appear here on the shore, alone, with whatever had respawned. Obviously, he wasn't worried about it.

"Future Fighter Girl Jane is on Fridays…" Raven thought aloud.

"You don't think?" Elisha pondered. "No way."

"I bet he watches it for himself. I bet he doesn't even have a niece." Raven said suspiciously.

"I bet he does…" Elisha said carefully.

"I bet he'd watch it with Elisha." Raven was practically reaching her hand across time and space and twirling Elisha's curls.

Hunter sighed.