New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



Violette started using more of her power to fight back the growing threat of minor demons. At first, her role had been more of a stop-gap, a safety cushion, of sorts.

But at the pace her allies were exhausting their high-tier skills and combat resources, it wouldn't be enough. She had to play a more dynamic part.

But after a while of shooting icicles and high-pressure water jets at anything in her range, she quickly understood even that wouldn't be enough. Even the occasional high-tiered spells, with enormous casualty results, were barely enough.

They had no way to sustain their killing pace against the unending rise of the imps.

And Violette feared this was only the beginning.

As time went on, Jaxx slowly got pushed back, as did the casters and Food Goblin, until they stood at the entrance back into the dungeon. Hope was becoming a scarce resource, and so was their energy.

Violette, standing at the back of the group, was the first one to get pushed out of the portal.

'I can't let them down. I won't let them down!' she told herself.

"Everyone out! I'm sealing it again!" she shouted.

The casters didn't need to be told again, and they rushed out of the portal. But Jaxx wanted to stay behind and acted stubborn.

"I can do this! Please! Let me prove to the guild leader I am a worthy ally!" he shouted back.

As he did, he kept hacking, slashing, and even kicking enemies away. His body was riddled with countless minor cuts, some oozing a green liquid.

His health bar teetered under the twenty percent mark, the passive healing from Peaceful Grove barely enough to sustain him anymore. But he refused to back out.

"If you don't get out right now, I'm sealing you inside! I am not joking!" Violette hollered back.

But Jaxx stood firm.

"Fine! Have it your way!"

Seeing he was being obstinate, Violette no longer had the patience to argue. With a significant chunk of her mana, she iced up the portal entrance, layering sheets of ice over each other, compacting them so much that the ice whined and popped into itself.

Once she was done, a thick blue wall stood at the entrance, clear enough for them to see through, where Jaxx remained under a constant barrage of attacks. But Peaceful Grove's face dropped.

"My magic… It can't reach him through your seal. It's too weak…"

Violette's heart skipped a beat. She hadn't thought about that.

Had she just condemned the player to an assured death? Had she taken away his only chance of surviving?

She was about to lift her hand, and undo the magic, to pull him out, but Chronos grabbed her hand.

"Leave him. His fate is strong, still. He won't die. You promised the leader you would stop the creatures from leaking into this world, and this is how. Let's focus on another problem," he said.

Then he pointed at the door to the room from which they had arrived. And standing in the large archway, Elves.

Dozens of them, with eyes redder than molten metal.

Violette's face hardened.

'So it's out of the frying pan and into the fire, huh?' she thought, dejectedly.

The moment the corrupted Elves saw the players, a loud shriek echoed through the staircase.

The blood-curdling scream echoed, and echoed, getting fainter as it did, but staying loud enough for the players to understand it wasn't simply an echo. It was a reply.

The staircase leading up the tree might very well be filled with corrupted Elves, ready to tear them apart.

Violette realized their only true front liner was locked behind a wall of ice and gulped.

The Elves started running towards them, crossing the short distance rapidly. Spells fused in their direction and Food Goblin jumped into the fray, taking some of them down.

But it wasn't enough. The stairwell kept disgorging swathes of enemies, repeating the same pattern as inside the demon plane.

'I told Phoenix I would hold here. Am I going to fail at keeping my word?' Violette worried.

But a loud, rumbling roar echoed through the open room. And with it, a banging sound of metal on metal.

Turning to see what caused the noise, Violette smiled in relief.

"Alright! Round two, you long-eared maggots!" Meat-Shield yelled, a wide grin on his lips.

He charged into the oncoming wave of corrupted elves, his speed higher than previously, surprising Violette. She also noticed another strange thing about him.

Where the skin of his face wasn't hidden by his bushy Dwarf beard, the skin seemed strange. Almost scaly.

'What happened in there?' she wondered, glancing at the other five of her allies, still holding onto the mage.

But now wasn't the time to be lost in thought. They might have regained a front liner, but they were still extremely exhausted and under-manned.

But something had indeed happened to Meat-Shield, while he was inside the dragon's soul space.

***

"Look over here, you black fart cloud!"

But as the eyes stared at Meat-Shield, his courage almost escaped him through his urethra.

A feral sense of fear took his body, and he fought with every ounce of his will not to fall prey to it. It took him a second to readjust his mind correctly, but already the black mist was wailing on him.

Watching his health almost plummet to zero instantly, Meat-Shield hurriedly activated an invulnerability skill.

He gulped in fear.

Only one such skill was available to him, and it only lasted ten seconds. Once those ten seconds were over, he would die…

In the flurry of attacks that landed on him, regardless of his high resistance, he lost ninety percent of his HP in less than a second.

It was easy to grasp the difference in power between him and the foe striking at him with abandon.

'Did I bite off more than I can chew?' he asked himself.

But there was nothing to do about it anymore. He had come here to help the dragon beat the corruption.

If he died doing so, then so be it. At least it would have helped his allies push through this dungeon.

Five seconds.

'I heard Astaroth, Phoenix, and Violette once defeated a dragon. I wonder if it was stronger than this one?'

Three seconds.

'Maybe it was weaker, and I won't have anything to be ashamed of.'

One second.

'Well, it was a good run. I hope I get Exp even if I die inside the dungeon. Going back empty-handed would suck.'

But as his skill ended, a shock wave blew him back.

*Fwoooom!*

And where once stood the black mist dragonoid, nothing remained.

That's when Meat-Shield finally saw the landscape in its entirety.

Mountains, over mountains, endless in numbers, as far as his eyes could see. And right in front of him, a smoking hole that drilled through hundreds of mountains in a straight line.

"What…The… Fuck…"

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