1.18 Breaking News

Chapter 18

I coughed again, speckles of red staining my lips and the asphalt in front of my face. The spasms in my chest sent pangs of pain running up and down my body, giving me an almost sonar-like accounting of the wounds I was dealing with.

Bones, so many broken bones. Ribs, left collar bone, both arms, left leg, all broken. I was almost certain my left foot was shattered as well, but the angle in which I was flesh-piled onto the ground made it impossible for me to see my feet. The pain was there though, I could feel that.

“Fuuuck…” I groaned, doing my best to roll off of my stomach and onto my side. I failed of course, and only got new shooting lances of agony dancing up and down my limbs as reward for the effort.

Come on Adam, get it together.

I couldn’t move my body, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t move my mana. I mentally tapped into the pool of energy and felt it travel through my veins. As my mana reached my wounds, I grabbed hold of my blood, stopping it from leaking out on the street, or inside me in places it shouldn’t.

It was a stop-gap measure, making sure I wouldn’t bleed out. But it wouldn’t mean I’d live from those wounds. My vitality was sky high compared to a normal human, which is certain why I wasn’t a slick goo stain on the street right now, but the stat wasn’t high enough to heal my wounds. I didn’t have a regeneration skill like Barry either.

“Hold on there buddy,” I heard Norton call out from somewhere behind me.

The pounding, thud, thud, thud, of his footsteps as his large frame bounded down the road could probably be heard by everyone within a city block, even with the sounds of battle still radiating from random pockets of the city.

“Oh man, you’re freakin pretzeled. Uh, this is gonna hurt for sure,” His face loomed into my vision, still carrying that carefree and amiable grin he always had. The goddamn panda bear of a man, always grinning. It was infuriating, and soothing at the same time.

“Please hurry,” I muttered weakly.

As if in response to my plea, a terrifying loud screech boomed out from behind us, where the corporate facility was, where I had been bitch-slapped straight off of the payroll and on to the street.

“Yep, yep, on it,” Norton said as his hands began glowing a soft green.

He hadn’t been lying, it did hurt. Getting your body un-rubix-cubed was a process that required a lot of shifting bones, and resetting of torn muscles, not to mention the organs, those needed attention too. Worst part was, I could only lay there, mentally vice-gripping my mana to stop my wounds from doing an impression of Old Faithful and gysering all over Norton.

Meanwhile, as I lay in agony, I began getting a view of the fight against the Hynaenid Lord.

Turns out that the boss had decided it didn’t like interior settings either, and it promptly performed the Kool-aid Man technique to bring itself outside. Barry, Huwett, Francis and Vasquez followed a few seconds after.

Immediately, the frantic battle went into full pitch.

Francis began to glow red as he activated his Class ability, Vasquez began to chant in preparation of his spell. Barry was running full speed at the large beast while Huwett began losing arrow after arrow.

The Hynaenid Lord appeared just like one of the lesser raiders. Upright standing Hyena wearing armor, holding a large crude sword. The difference was in size. While the others we had fought were roughly five feet tall each, the Hynaenid Lord was easily fifteen feet, maybe even twenty. Its claw, which had sent me bodily through the bricks, was nearly as tall as my torso.

I wouldn’t dare talk about the length of its feet, or the size of its sword. Needless to say, they were massive.

And despite all this, Barry was holding up his own. The event boss swung down its blade, crashing it against Barry’s shield. The Paladin held firm, the massive blow not budging his stance.

Guess I’m not the only one who was holding back a bit. I realized as I watched the fight unfold.

An exchange of blocks and slashes continued between a giant Hyena monster, and a platemail clad blonde teenager. Arrows flew in between attacks, clanking off the boss’ armor or sticking into fur and staying there. The Hynaenid Lord seemed not to bother acknowledging the projectiles at all.

Francis came in to assist at that point, the warrior swinging his axe with impressive speed and technique. The wide blade carved into leg and arm, wherever Francis could reach without over extending himself.

The boss kicked out at the warrior with a powerful claw foot, but Barry blocked, taking the hit on his shield.

A streak of fire slammed into the boss’ head, sizzling and burning the fur, but little else.

Oh, right.

[Hynaenid Lord Raider – Lvl 13 – Marked to Die]

The damage output from their attacks suddenly increased, Francis’ axe biting deeper, Huwett’s arrows burrowing further into flesh. Even Vasquez’s flames burned hotter.

“Almost… done…” Norton said between large breaths.

Turned out healing was harder than it looked. The big guy was almost hyperventilating and about to pass out. He was right though, I could feel that my body was almost back to fighting shape, my bones reset and mended, and my limbs now working when I ask them to.

I sat up with a scowl, still focused on the boss fight.

At this point more people had come to join the fight. Other Rift Hunters that had seen the commotion and had come to help. I saw a bolt of lightning come from the left to hit the boss in the back. A spear of ice also flew in, finding a home by burying itself in its shoulder. There was also gunfire from the soldiers, bullets pinging off the metal armor or leaving small holes in its hide.

“Raaaarrgh!” The event boss suddenly roared, a shockwave that buffeted the clothes and hair of everyone on the street erupted from its mouth. Soon after, its eyes changed from a deep black to a glowing red color.

“Phase change!” Huwett yelled.

“No shit!” Vasquez back pedaled, his hands forming his next spell already.

“Graagh!”

The boss swung its blade again, and this time, Barry blocked the blow and was sent tumbling over the ground from the hit. He stood back up right after, but his shield was dented, and skin was torn from the side of his head where he slid on the asphalt.

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“You’re done,” Norton finally said, collapsing back on his ass.

“Thanks, stay back, be ready for more injured,” I stood, finding my body indeed back to peak shape. Healing magic really was awesome. Painful. But awesome.

I ran up to Barry’s left, my sword appearing in my hand once again. “Got a plan at all? This thing is pretty powerful.”

Barry shook his head, “Not exactly a plan. But maybe a Hail Mary.”

“I’ll take that,” I said.

“Okay then, but we will probably need everyone.” He looked around the street at the other Rift Hunter groups now too. We saw more melee classes, rangers, mages, all lining up along the periphery of the fight.

They’d help here and there, but unless explicitly invited in, they wouldn’t interfere fully. Right now, our party had implied dibs on the boss, as we were the first to start fighting. It was a gamer code of conduct, and everyone understood that.

“Francis, back,” Barry yelled.

The rage warrior complied, pulling away from the boss as it thrashed about in rage, sword slashing wildly. Huwett stopped her arrows, and Vasquez halted his chant.

“When I hold its full attention, everyone lays into the boss with their best attacks. Everyone,” Barry eyed the other groups then, and he received some nods in return. “Alright then, let’s do this.”

I smiled as Barry settled into a fighting stance again, his longsword beginning to glow in a pale yellow light as mana seemed to gather inside the blade. I knew this to be Barry’s Holy Smite ability from his Legendary Class, but had yet to use it in a fight against a monster.