The Devil In White: An AA Online Novel

The trip to the 5th floor proved that it was the final floor. The end of the stairwell had a single door, and it led to a large room reminiscent of the star pond room under the Silf Tree. There was a large pool inside this one as well, and no exit within view. Scattered around the room were more bones. Hundreds, if not thousands of bones littered the room. If nothing else, they could have spent all day counting them and gotten nowhere. Instead of armor and weapons, however, there was only one single object discernable from the bones. It was a long-handled scythe about the size of Fildmenia. A huge, un-wieldable scythe that was cracked and shattered all along it's sharp and deadly obsidian blade.

They filed into the room and stood ready. Everyone expected the bones to form some sort of army, or maybe a large creature that would pick the scythe up. Most of the battle scenarios that had been occurring in the last two floors had been highly predictable, making some of the Transients who were coming along and 'called it' smack their lips as if they'd just had a treat. They didn't have long to wait, and even as the last Residents and Transients locked shields the bones began to swirl and drift toward a central point.

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Local Announcement - Bloodl.u.s.t

An old evil begins to stir, interested with the presence of challengers from the Kingdom of Brack and beyond.

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Amelia started to look up as a figure started to take shape, and up, and up some more. It towered over them and flexed its bony fist as it picked up the scythe. "Examine."

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The Scythe - 215 (Boss)

The creature before you is an amalgamation of souls. It's body comprised of the dead and given new purpose. An evil that formed slowly over the years from the fringe energy released by a force of great darkness.

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"Kinda short for a description," Aidan muttered. "I was expecting a little… I don't know, oomph at the end of this place."

Amelia had to agree with his assessment. It was large, and kind of scary looking, but it just looked like a specialized skeleton to her eyes. A large dangling cloak that moved quietly with the air moving through the hall. It was deathly silent and stood waiting with eyes that suddenly flared red. It didn't even really have a name, just a title. Most of the bosses had some sort of special name. It was still likely to be another challenging battle filled with surprises but, she too, was underwhelmed.

"Well, that was depressing," Aidan said, only about 15 minutes later. They stood around in clumps poking the bones, wondering if they would revive. Amelia doubted it, they had received a victory message and she herself had received a ring. Defeated creatures didn't usually drop loot unless they were, well, defeated. "Examine."

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Citrine Ring of Channeling

This is a simple wizard's ring, made by an unassuming ringmaker in the old north. It has lost much of its power but reacts when magic is channeled by returning 2% of the base cost of a spell to its user.

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Useful at least and Amelia slipped it on. She made a mental note to peruse the town when they were done. She was an incredible level 200 now, and her gear could probably stand an overhaul. She would fuss over whether to trade out her older gear with growth on it then. This was her first piece of jewelry because, frankly, she had never bothered with accessories before. Caster bonuses from items made by Transients were low in the past yet still pretty expensive to those challenging higher level content, but now that there were so many genuine masters and probably grandmasters lurking around it would probably be time to sink some serious money into finding some good stuff.

She considered putting the encounter in her Chronicler's book but decided to do it later. The fight had been as underwhelming as everyone thought. Blockers had blocked single overhead and horizontal strikes and they had weathered well under the blows by working together. It had been a simple matter of attacking the boss between strikes. It had increased in speed as the encounter went on, but there were so many of them that they made short work of The Scythe's health bars. They had swapped the lines a few times to give everyone a chance, but even those who were normally sulking about being the second line looked less than thrilled when their turn came.

"Wow, this water is murky." Aidan was looking in the pool. It was a rather interesting place to put a body of water. It didn't appear to serve any function other than decoration. Amelia joined him and looked down, disappointed to find he was right. There was no star view, just murky dirty water.

"What do you think this is here for? You think it has that thing that all the monsters were supposed to spawn from?" Amelia wondered.

Aidan was stirring the water with the end of his staff looking disgusted. "I don't know but I don't think you could convince me to go swimming and look for it." He paused, and then looked consideringly down. "Maybe I could send Fred down there and see if we can see further?"

He never got the chance, because Khiafin immediately interjected over the party channel even as he was running back to the group. He looked like he had been about ready to leave, but he was shouting for everyone to get ready again. "I got a warning from my skill." He said quickly over the party channel. "Mondo bad is coming. We have less than 20 seconds."

Amelia looked around, wondering what he was talking about. She vaguely remembered he had a sense skill that alerted him to impending danger, but he hadn't mentioned anything at all when Vienne had shown up. Then again, she hadn't been a danger really. She was about to move away from the pool when a tremendous amount of water spun upward behind her in a column. She turned just in time to see a large avian creature spring from the water and onto the ledge of the pool. It c.o.c.ked its head and stared at her, only inches away, a foul golden eye that decisively narrowed. It turned its huge beak toward her and screamed in her face. Unflinching, she stood there stunned as she found herself staring down the gullet of this large predatory bird watching its tongue writhe in its mouth as it screamed in her face. She could also see little dangly parts in the back of its throat undulating as spit and phlegm flew passed her, and in some cases, onto her face. It had short wings with feathers that had already shed the water from its body, long three-fingered feet with talons on the ends, and a body that sort of reminded her of an ostrich with a short neck. The beak though was cruelly hooked and stained a dark red around the mouth line. Amelia stared in fascination, "Exam-."

"Later!" Aidan grabbed her by the cloth behind her neck and yanked her back as that beak snapped inches from her nose. He was dragging her backward even as it hopped down from the ledge and began to take an interest in all the other people that were suddenly stirred into action after their brief stunned surprise. It snapped hastily at her feet as Aidan pulled her away, and then it paused as if giving up on her individually. Aidan continued to pull her, however, passed the first line of people with shields who were literally jumping over her to put a line of defense in between the surprise attacker and the group.

"Examine," Amelia said haughtily, casting a foul look at Aidan as she managed to stand up after he had unceremoniously dropped the remainder of her weight when he had dragged her far enough away.

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Airu - 225(Boss) - The Shrieker

Left hundreds of years ago this predatory water avian swims in vast underground lakes and eats anything it can. When it senses prey in its chamber it hurries back as fast as it can. This predator of legend has been known to kill prey and let it rot. Driven mad by the influence of an old warding artifact, it's insanity causes it to kill far beyond what it can eat and has given it an unnatural lifespan.

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Airu turned his head, staring at them through one eye once more, and after a moment he lowered his head and shrieked at them in a challenge. He charged the group and smashed the shield wall with his large beak and head, twisting sideways and using the momentum from his charge to try to knock men down. The force of the strike caused many of the Transients in the front row to fall over. They had been the first to react to the danger, and the first struck by the energetic and random acting bird. Airu immediately fell upon one and stuck a foot on her. His head lowered and he shrieked in her face as he dragged his talons over her body. The player never had a chance, and as the beak descended a large crunch filled the air.

Amelia felt sick. 5 floors and they hadn't lost anyone, Transient or Resident, and they had just witnessed the first death moments after the battle had been initiated. They hadn't even struck the bird yet. As the shields approached it from either side it pecked at them angrily eliciting great thunderous ringing noises, as if annoyed that they interrupted its meal. Moments later it glared across the room at Aidan, who had just cast his first spell at it. The [Flamestrike - Precise Strike] had seemed to do little more than earn its ire, or so Amelia thought. Staring directly at him through the crowd of people, it took one step forward and vanished into smoke. Moments later it appeared in front of him, traversing instantly and invisibly half the room. Shocked, Aidan started to back up but was immediately knocked to the floor by the beak that turned and was used as an impromptu bludgeoning tool. It started to plant a foot on him but he managed to bat it away with the end of his staff. Amelia could do nothing but stare, stupidly she cast, "[Aura]."

It leaned down and tried to bat the staff away, looking eerily more annoyed at the inconvenience of the Aidan snack than worried about the surroundings. The casualness of its actions made it seem like Aidan was a child resisting against an a.d.u.l.t, showcasing the incredible raw power of which the bird seemed capable.

Seconds later Khiafin appeared in much the same fashion as Airu, stabbing downward with sword and fork from behind. Airu shrieked as if sensing him and then turned to shriek at him directly. The monstrous and deadly avian hopped away, casting a quick look around the room before lowering his head and disappearing once more. Khiafin blinked for a moment, spun around until he saw Airu, and then he too stepped and vanished. "[Shadow - Walk]!"

Shouting and Airu's shrieking was really the only thing Amelia could hear. Small sounds of air moving as Khiafin chased after it, teleporting right along. She didn't know how long he could do it, but his face was in a grim line. The Residents started to form circles with their backs to one another around other Residents and Transients, but this proved immediately ineffective as Airu simply vanished and reappeared above them, scattering people before picking one to knock down and finish off. It was only going for Transients so far, perhaps because they looked different than the mass of Residents who were all wearing roughly the same thing.

Three more people died in a flash, but people were slowly adjusting. Khiafin was a tremendous help on that account. He started appearing above and behind it and tried to use his attack to drive the bird into the ground or off-course from its deadly assault. After a few minutes of this, the healers had adjusted to selecting whoever Airu was on, and the bird howled in frustration. It moved around the room faster, knocking people down, teleporting and reappearing. It even struck at the General once while he was trying to help up some of the people that it had knocked down. It was simply too fast for anyone to truly catch it and try to control it. Stunned, the General fell back and then rolled away as the giant bird hopped eagerly toward him only to be thwarted by Khiafin smashing his shoulder into it at the last moment.

Spells were proving less effective simply because it moved too fast and was small enough to be hidden by allies. Amelia heard Aidan hiss in frustration more than once when he cast mass spells that were immediately useless because Airu simply decided to move to another part of the room to resume his onslaught. Two archers died in rapid succession, one because he was knocked down and Khiafin actually missed Airu, and the second because he had turned his back on the bird trying to escape earning instant death as Airu turned and smashed him against a wall repeatedly. Airu actually kept smashing him against the wall for long moments after he was dead, only stopping when he did because the player corpse dissipated.

People were dying at a steady rate, but they were making progress on Airu's health. It was at about 80% already, and at this rate they would finish him off before any of the Residents came into danger, assuming the pattern stayed true. It was a shame that the dead would resurrect in the small Cathedral dedicated to Ixiol, around 4 kilometers from the castle. They probably wouldn't make it back in time even if they stopped to rent a mount from the nearby stable.

Just when everyone started to get the hang of it, Airu stopped and turned his head to stare at them from the eye it chose to look at them with when he was thinking. His entire body, plumage and all, began trembling in rage. It was a stance that said he couldn't believe they wouldn't just let him eat them. Airu's c.h.e.s.t started expanding as he opened his beak and drew a large seemingly never-ending breath. Waterbirds, Amelia thought suddenly, probably had incredible lung capacity.

In the next moment, it shrieked. A horrid noise that shook Amelia's entire body. It was too loud for her, but before she could do anything about her audio settings all the noise just vanished. Amelia froze, wondering what had happened. She looked around quizzically wondering if she was actually dead and the game just hadn't registered it yet. The bird was pointing it's open beak at them, tongue wiggling from the force of the air being expelled, but she heard nothing. She heard nothing. Nothing. Ah. She was deaf.