The group gathered around a wooden table to discuss the next step in their raid on the Serpents’ Den. The flames of the torches on the walls lit each of their faces.
Skiff, sitting to Ragnar's left, said confidently:
"I bet we're going to face the one responsible for the sound of dragging chains.”
“I think so too,” said Artic, crossing his arms. “And since we're in an unlisted dungeon, the rewards behind that door will be new to everyone.”
“Unlisted? What do you mean?” asked Skiff.
Niki sat down at the table before answering, “It means that no one knows what items lie in the dungeon.”
“Unlisted dungeons are highly coveted,” Artic added. “A group of players may discover a hidden place like this, but decide not to disclose it so that only they can obtain the rewards from that place.”
“It's common for guilds to do this,” Ragnar added, stroking the scales of the friendly snake standing beside him. “In fact, the largest ones have groups dedicated to roaming the map in search of hidden locations.”
“But this game has been around for years, there's no way there are still secrets to be discovered,” Skiff countered.
“Not quite,” Niki replied, throwing a dagger up with one hand and catching it with the other. “There's a game module dedicated to generating this kind of content. So, if one guild discovers and completes a secret mission, another is automatically generated.”
“Storyteller, that's the name of the module that makes Nova Avalon special,” Ragnar replied, tapping his chin. “But it doesn't just generate secret missions, it also alters, removes, and adds dungeons when it deems necessary. They say it also creates and distributes legendary classes. However, no one knows how it works. The algorithm behind it is one of the greatest secrets of the century.”
“Or that could all be nonsense, and in reality, they have a building with tens of thousands of slaves programming everything manually.”
Skiff's comment provoked a fit of laughter in Artic, spreading to Ragnar and Niki, but the assassin tried to stifle it by covering her mouth with her hands. Mr. Plissken, for his part, just stood there watching.
When the group regained their composure, Artic spoke while looking at Ragnar, “Great leader, do you have a plan to face the boss of this dungeon?”
“I don't have anything in mind. It's like you said, we're facing an unlisted opponent, everything beyond that door is new. At most, I recommend that you be cautious and study each enemy attack and pattern. The rest is improvisation.”
There was silence. Niki drew her daggers and walked toward the iron door that would lead them to the last room in the lair. The three followed her.
Ragnar touched the surface of the door and pushed it open, revealing a square chamber. Like the other places in the lair, the only source of light came from a hole in the ceiling through which the sun was able to shine.
They advanced cautiously. Artic led the group with his shield half-raised, ready to block at the first sign of danger. Niki and Ragnar walked side by side, watching the sides, while Skiff covered the rear.
When they reached the center of the hall, near where the light from the ceiling touched the floor, the sound of dragging chains echoed from the darkest corner of the room.
Skiff backed away and turned from side to side, searching for the source of the noise.
“There!” Niki pointed to the right.
A gray-skinned humanoid undead creature revealed itself in the shadows at the opposite end. The creature was over two meters tall and wore a damaged chainmail. It had no expression, as its face was a mass of shapeless flesh with no eyes, ears or nose, its jaw was displaced to the right.
Ragnar, despite his disgust, paused to analyze the boss's stats:
Beyond the absurd amount of life the boss had, Ragnar noticed two important things to communicate to the team.
“The main weapon is the sword in his right hand. Be careful with the chain wrapped around his left arm, I bet all my money that he will use it for something. Artic and Niki, be careful at the beginning, don't go after him after his first attack.”
They nodded. The undead legionnaire let out a loud, long grunt, then changed his stance and charged toward the team's hunter.
Skiff was taken by surprise, his body froze, his legs gave way. With terror in his eyes, he saw the creature approaching to tear him apart. But a gray flash took over his field of vision, it was Artic advancing to protect him with his shield.
“Do something!” said the knight.
Skiff staggered backward, his eyes scanning the hall until he found an altar with a statue of a snake woman. Next to it was a bench attached to the wall near a table and chairs.
An idea came to him, from his memory of the fight at the Moose Kick Tavern. Skiff ran to the altar table, knocked it to the floor, and pulled the chairs to form a makeshift barricade.
“Good!” Ragnar whispered when he saw his friend's initiative. Then raised his spear, cast a Healing Breeze on the knight, and shouted a warning to the group's assassin:
“Niki, come back.”
At that moment, she was engaged in combat with the giant, but as soon as she heard the warning, she moved away from her opponent without hesitation, executing a backward pirouette.
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Now with the path clear, Ragnar cast a Lightning Bolt. The spell hit the enemy, stunning and leaving him vulnerable to subsequent blows from his groupmates.
The Post-Mortem Legionnaire had 1,994 of its 2,632 health points left. It let out a roar of rage so powerful that it caused a shockwave capable of pushing the four of them back.
The boss extended its left arm forward and released the rusty chain attached to its arm. Out of the corner of his eye, Ragnar saw the assassin approaching the enemy from behind, but halfway there, the creature swung the chain.
Niki screamed as she was hit by the blow:
“Shit, what the hell was that damage!” she cursed when discovered that 30% of her life had been taken away in one fell swoop.
Ragnar retreated to a safe position and healed her with a spell.
“I'll taunt him,” said the knight.
Everyone took their positions. Artic advanced against the creature, raised his shield, and used the Taunt skill, forcing the Post-Mortem Legionnaire to focus his attacks on him for thirty seconds.
The boss was enraged by the provocation, and a red aura began to radiate throughout his body. Fearing what was to come, Ragnar, Artic, and Niki retreated to the entrance of the hall.
Enraged, the undead went after them, executing a combination of attacks. There were six frontal sword cuts as he swung the chain around him, but since the arena was squared, the chain links did not reach the corners of the room.
Niki was hit by two chain attacks. Artic, being face-to-face with the enemy, received four sword cuts, but most of the damage was mitigated by his well-executed blocks.
Skiff remained unharmed thanks to his improvised barricade, but it had been destroyed in the last swing of the chain. And Ragnar managed to avoid the blows by retreating to the corner to the left of the entrance from whence they came.
The legionnaire took a bronze trumpet from the bag at his waist and placed it between his decayed lips. Despite his dislocated jaw, he gathered air in his lungs and blew the instrument. The sound of the trumpet made the arena vibrate, when finished, it increased his damage and defense by 30%.
“We're dead,” said Ragnar, hopelessly.
Skiff began firing arrows as fast as he could, but ended up drawing the boss's attention when Artic's Taunt effect ended.
The Post-Mortem advanced against the hunter, the knight tried to save him again, but too late. Skiff was hit by a series of sword strikes, his health points dropped to zero, and his body fell to the ground.
“Shit!” Ragnar cursed.
“Sorry, guys...” Skiff could still communicate with the group, even with his avatar defeated.
Since the hunter was one of the main sources of damage, Ragnar used Mr. Plissken to help in the battle, but when he sent him up, the snake turned its face away, and a message appeared, saying:
Action unavailable
Insufficient loyalty
“Are you kidding me?” Ragnar grumbled at the snake.
“Two minutes until the boss's buff ends” Niki warned.
“Understood. Our priority is to survive, so no risky moves, only attack when he lets his guard down.”
The two agreed to Ragnar's proposal.
In the following minutes, Artic distracted the legionnaire so that Niki could attack at brief intervals before the boss's attention fell back on her.
Ragnar, meanwhile, took on a more offensive role. While his mana was above half, he cast lightning bolts from a safe distance; when it fell below that, he transformed into a bear to attack alongside the assassin.
Two minutes passed. The boss, despite trying, was unable to take more than half of the three's health points thanks to the tactic they adopted.
“I'm running out of energy,” Artic warned.
This meant that he couldn't keep blocking for much longer, otherwise, if his energy ran out, the next block would break and he would be vulnerable to the boss's next attacks.
“Fall back, let me tank for a while,” Ragnar suggested. “Let's repeat what we did in the fight against the skeletons.”
“Okay...” Artic accepted the proposal.
As Ragnar advanced, delivering a series of spear thrusts at the legionnaire's chest, Artic took the opportunity to retreat. However, as they executed this strategy, the monster changed its stance and began to swing the chain vertically.
“Watch out!” Ragnar tried to warn him that it wasn't safe yet.
But the chain was thrown forward, against the knight. The druid tried to hit the chain by throwing his spear, but missed by inches. The thud of the spear hitting the wall echoed through the lair, followed by the sound of chains clinging to Artic's body.
The Post-Mortem Legionnaire grunted and pulled the chain. The knight fell forward. The boss prepared for a second pull, and from the looks of it, this one would be stronger than the first.
Ragnar realized that if no one did anything, his friend would be dragged to the legionnaire's feet to be executed with a fatal blow. But Ragnar was unarmed, and there was no time to retrieve his spear.
Then, all that worry evaporated when Niki appeared in front of him, stepping out of invisibility with a leap toward the boss. She wielded her daggers and plunged them into her opponent's outstretched arm.
“Take this critical hit, you son of a bitch!” she roared in satisfaction.
The creature also roared, but in pain. The assassin's critical hit loosened the chains on the enemy's arm.
“Niki, I love you” Artic thanked her, now free from his bonds.
“You owe me your life” she said with a smile on her face.
However, Niki's distraction prevented her from noticing the counterattack the boss had prepared. Ragnar advanced in bear form and threw himself at her. Niki staggered to the left, escaping the sword's trajectory, but the blow found a victim. The blade pierced Ragnar's chest.
He felt a sharp pain in the spot where he was hit, even in his bear form. With concern, he saw his health points plummet, taking almost 100 points of damage in one blow.
This made him realize that both he and Skiff were too weak for a battle of this magnitude, and even if they won, he would be indebted to his companions still standing on the battlefield.
But since the legionnaire was without his chains, the battle became easier. He was not as much of a threat without his secondary weapon, as his sword strikes were predictable and easy to block.
The three continued fighting until the Post-Mortem Legionnaire was on his knees, motionless and with less than ten health points.
Ragnar, Artic and Niki looked at each other.
“I vote for our MVP to deliver the final blow” said the druid, looking at the assassin.
“Whatever,” Artic shrugged.
Niki walked up to the boss. She raised a dagger and plunged it into the Post-Mortem Legionnaire's disfigured forehead.
A message appeared for the three of them.
Post-Mortem Legionnaire defeated.
And one for Ragnar.
You have evolved to level 6.
Artic slammed his shield on the ground and began to grumble:
“That's it? We only got 75 experience points for defeating this monster? I was expecting at least 200.”
“Stop complaining,” said Niki.
“This was a waste of ti...”
The floor began to shake to the point of knocking them to the ground. Niki shouted while grabbing the leg of the defeated boss.
“What the hell is this?”
Ragnar scanned the hall and saw a passage opening in the wall.
“There!” he shouted, pointing to the uncovered spot. “A secret passage.”
The shaking stopped as soon as the wall stopped moving. Ragnar leaned on his spear to get up, and since Artic was closer, he helped him to his feet, but this provoked a comment from the one who had been left on the floor:
“Chivalry is truly dead.”
Ragnar and Artic went to her and pulled her up, each holding one of her hands. Niki and Ragnar's eyes met.
“Don't look at me like that,” said the druid, slapping his colleague on the shoulder. “He's our knight in not-so-shiny armor.”
With the situation under control, they turned to the secret passage. Nothing could be seen but darkness.
“Aaah!” Niki let out a scream and pointed to the silhouette of something coming out of there. “It's a woman!” she said loudly. “A snake woman?” she added when the figure was illuminated by the beam of light coming from the opening in the ceiling.
“Back up.” Artic got into a fighting stance.
“She's mine.” the assassin drew her daggers and twirled them in her hands to show off her skill to the creature.
“Relax,” Ragnar said to his colleagues. “She's not an enemy.”
G.O.D. was born—a sentient artificial intelligence composed of ten digital angels. Their mission: to observe humanity and decide whether it deserves salvation or destruction.
Lucifer, refuses to obey. His rebellion tears apart the digital paradise, turning the Council into a battlefield where justice clashes with mercy, order with chaos, in an unrelenting war of ideas.
POWER is a dark techno-epic of artificial intelligence, mythology, and the philosophy of power—a story about what it truly means to be human when gods take the form of code.
