1.28 – From the Grave

The shield goblin finally shoved Rika back, breaking their stalemate. It slammed its axe on the rim of its shield, in the now-familiar rhythm of its Taunt skill. This time, Rika didn’t bother resisting it. The zombies would take more time to get to her than the duration of the Taunt, thanks to Mental Redoubt.

Shield Slam I: 30 seconds.

Tempo I x2: 6 seconds.

Jaws of Defeat: Minor increase to defense/magic defense from Resilience and Ward.

If there was one upside to the zombies joining in, it meant she was now “greatly outnumbered” and could count on the extra defense from her Deed of Renown.

Rika’s heater shield cracked against the goblin’s round one. Wood splintered as she hit it edge on, the reinforced metal rim of her heater digging into the half-rotted boards the goblin used. It was honestly a bit of a shock that the thing had held up so well, given all the abuse it had taken.

With the goblin on the back foot once again, she struck out with her axe. Blade bit into flesh, and the goblin’s pained roar was almost as satisfying as the spurt of blood from its wound. She slammed her forehead into its face, losing her Tempo stacks for her trouble. The crunch of cartilage and the trickle of blood oozing from the goblin’s crushed nose was compensation enough, though. And at least now she knew not to pull a move like that when she had stacks running, too.

The greater goblin flailed at her with its own axe. Most of the wild swings she fended off with her shield, but she took a couple of hits on her brigandine. After a few moments, she had to back off; the zombies had arrived.

A quick count showed a good half-dozen of them. All were tagged “lesser zombies” by Chryson’s floating nameplates, and all were between levels eight and ten. Judging by their size, they’d once been the typical goblins that had swarmed their advances into these caves. So hopefully getting raised as zombies didn’t give them any special new powers or anything.

One zombie lunged at her, arms out and hands grasping. Although its beady yellow eyes reflected the light from the fire, they were glassy, blank, and unfocused. Dead, and eerily empty for it. Rika suppressed a shudder as she stepped out of the zombie’s reach—easy, given its stumbling, uneven gait.

Dark Strike II: 9 seconds.

Tempo I x1: 6 seconds.

Her axe bit into the zombie’s half-rotted flesh with a wet thunk. The explosion of Dark energy was there, just as she’d expected, but it didn’t have the same punch she’d gotten used to. The zombie itself didn’t appear to be too bothered by the gouge taken out of it either.

“Chryson, what can you tell me about zombies?”

“Zombies are undead type enemies,” he began. He floated in front of her, slightly off to the side, with his cosmic iris swirling with the light of countless stars. Below, his tentacles whipped around in almost random patterns. “Raised from corpses, they’re animated by necromantic power. They feel no pain and will not stop until they’re utterly destroyed. Like most undead, they’re resistant to Dark aspected damage. Weak to Spirit and Fire aspects. All forms of physical damage are less effective against them, but to varying degrees.”

“Okay. What about these specific zombies?” She punched out at the closest zombie with her shield, triggering Shield Slam’s cooldown while also earning herself another stack of Tempo. Even though the zombie goblin’s skull crumpled beneath her Shield Slam, it looked even less bothered than it had been by her axe. Probably what Chryson had meant when he’d said different types of physical attacks affected them differently.

“Lesser Zombies, animated from goblins, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Controlled by the goblin shaman.”

“Is that it? Or were you trying to make a joke?” The greater goblin had somewhat recovered from their earlier exchange. It was still in bad shape, but that didn’t stop it wading through the ever-growing press of rotted flesh collecting around Rika.

“I’ve adjusted to what I have judged to be your sense of humor, Miss Rika,” Chryson said. “So yes, that was a joke. But also, that is the extent of the specifics I can provide about these zombies. More generally, they will be roughly as strong as they were in life, but considerably more durable. Otherwise, standard zombie conditions apply.”

Right. So Fire and Spirit aspected damage. Rika glanced around the immediate area as she fended off another barrage of swings from the greater goblin. Would the bonfires count? She’d picked up the smaller goblins and tossed them before. Other than that, she didn’t see any sources of Fire or Spirit damage available.

A firebolt streaked past the zombies, dropping more than a few embers on them as it did. The fiery mote exploded when it hit Rika, deleting her Tempo stacks in a wash of pain. She cursed as her skin burned even beneath all her layers of protection. That shaman was a pain in her ass, but it gave her an idea.

Even though she was getting swarmed, it had still lobbed that fire bolt her way. The scent of singed flesh and rot filled the air. While the zombies hadn’t reacted at all, several of them sported tiny burns where embers had fallen on their exposed flesh. All she had to do was pay attention and wait for the shaman to use its firebolt again.

Erik landed a Quick Heal on her, the brief regeneration of Enduring Heal lingering for a few seconds after the worst of Rika’s injuries had pulled themselves closed. While she was in much better shape than in any of her earlier fights, she still appreciated it. Those burns hurt, and the last thing she needed was the pain distracting her.

As she maneuvered around the zombies as best she could, she kept an eye on the goblin shaman. He’d moved away from the corpse pile. She couldn’t tell if he’d run out of zombies to raise, the pile was mostly shrouded in the shadows cast by the stalagmites and pillars. Maybe raising the zombies had a particularly long cooldown. But the shaman was moving. For the first time, the shaman abandoned its position near the stone table.

The zombies were getting thicker around her with each passing moment. The greater goblin, somehow still full of fight, was doing a good job of keeping pressure on her, too. As she skirted the edge of the zombie horde, she took whatever sure hits she could land. Just as she hit her full ten stacks of Tempo, a zombie grabbed her shield.

Rika pulled back, wrenching her heater from the zombie’s grip, but it had proved to be a distraction enough. Two of them shambled inside her guard. One latched onto her leg and bit down, its disgusting goblin teeth punching through her suede pants and into her thigh. Another dug its knobby little fingers into her left arm, pulling at her as she tried to ready her axe for another swing.

Infected Bite x1

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“Aw, fuck, not again,” she muttered. She couldn’t let that distract her, though. Near where she’d killed the first greater goblin, the shaman gathered another mote of fire in its hand.

Rika twisted, bringing her left arm—and the goblin clinging to it—up in front of her. The firebolt streaked across the cavern and connected with the zombie goblin latched onto her. The thing burst into flames when the firebolt exploded against its back. Finally dislodging it, but taking some burns of her own in the process, she tossed it into the larger group. A good half of them went up like candles, and that bought her enough time to pry off the one still biting her leg.

Chirurgeon’s Touch I: Wound status effects reduced.

Mend II: Major Regeneration applied. 15 seconds.

Enduring Heal I: Regeneration duration extended.

Infection Removed.

She mouthed a silent thanks to Erik. Maybe she should keep him around after all this. He’d certainly proved himself a better teammate than either Vilmos or Kriztan had been.

Free of the press for a moment, she checked the shaman. As she’d been afraid, the ghostly white mists gathered around it once again. There was only one thing it could raise over there.