King Agviðr’s Arena, Round 4/4

No one dared to move a muscle. John was still bent over, his hands on his knees as he tried and failed to catch his breath. Talia stood next to him, her hand nearby the arrow implanted in his back, a worried expression across her face. Both of them looked at King Agviðr, who just… stood there. The other draugr had moved around, either charging into battle or situating themselves around John and Talia. The king, meanwhile, just stood there and looked at them. Breathless, absolutely still, almost like he was a statue rather than an undead warrior.

The king then cocked his head, and John felt like he was being Observed. Granted, he had never experienced his own skill, but for some reason the king’s gaze seemed to penetrate John’s very self and peer deep within him. The king then looked over to Talia, working his jaw a bit. John reached out and grabbed Talia’s hand to give it a comforting squeeze. If the king chose to attack, John would be ready to meet the king, even if that would mean the end of him.

Then, the king did something very surprising. He held up his free hand and slowly traced a new rune in the air, one that John had never seen. It was a very familiar shape, that of an X, but John was not aware that it was a rune.

“Gebo.”

The rune sat in mid air for a moment, before small tendrils of light shot out from its sides. The tendrils moved quickly over to some fallen stone before materializing into 6 different potions. The potions seemed to shimmer for a moment, sporting three different colors: green, red, and blue. The rune then disappeared before John could cast his Runic Observe on it.

"Drik disse, og lad jeres sår være helet,” King Agviðr rumbled out. He then gestured to the wall farthest from him. “Når I er klar, så stil jer derovre." John and Talia looked at him with confused expressions, not knowing what the hell he said. He shook his head and walked over to the potions. “Drik disse.” He made a drinking motion with his free hand. “Og lad jeres sår være helet.” He gestured to himself before flexing. He then walked over to the other side of the room. He pointed to the ground before standing at attention. “Når I er klar, så stil jer derovre.”

John looked to Talia. “I’m guessing we are to drink the potions to heal up… and then go stand over there?”

He looked to King Agviðr who gave a nod before going back to stand in his place. Talia looked back from John to King Agviðr before simply asking, “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why is he giving us potions? It could be poison.”

John shrugged. “I’ll use Observe on them to double check, but I think he just wants a fair fight. Doesn’t want to fight some tired out warriors.” He gave her a small smile. “I’ll choose not to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

“Isn’t observing the potions doing exactly that?”

“Shush.” He gave her hand a small pat before walking over to the potions. Despite being tired, his body felt fine even with the arrow sticking out of his back. John wasn’t quite sure if that was just the power of his Gamer’s Body or if some other effect was in play. He recalled that when he overextended himself casting Surtr: The Flames of Ragnarok he had been in **** pain, but that came from the fact that he was using his lifeforce to activate a rune. This was the first time he had ever taken damage in a more conventional sense, so maybe his body just wouldn’t feel pain.

Then again, he felt some amounts of pain while the draugr hurt him. He decided to pull up his character sheet and double check that nothing screwy was going on.

Well, THAT explained it. He must have not noticed while fighting for his life, but at some point during the fight he had leveled up. In addition, it looked like the level up fully healed him and refilled his mana, which was certainly a nice mechanic to know about. If push came to shove, he could rely on a level up instead of retreating if he needed a heal or mana refill. While Meditation was a fine skill, it was still a bit slow to depend upon for efficient grinding.

This was all beside the main point. The big thing to note was that he had 5 new stat points to spend, and a boss to kill after that. Needless to say, he figured putting any in his Libido would be pointless right now. The same was true about Charisma. While, sure, he would like it if he could just use some stat points to make himself look better, he would also like to be able to keep his head firmly attached to his shoulders.

‘I wonder… if I had used my magic to become a bard or warlock or something, would I be relying on Charisma for my attacks? My current attacks use my Intelligence, ‘cause… reasons, I guess. Honestly, my skill set is more like a cleric and should be Wisdom in that case, but I guess I count as a wizard for- This isn’t the point.’

John rubbed his chin and looked at his stat line. He decided the first thing he would do is round out both his Strength and Endurance to 10. That would boost his HP and damage with his sword, at least while he was using Uruz. While he didn’t have a set skill that upgraded his damage through Strength, he imagined that was because even the strongest man can improperly wield a blade and do nothing with it.

However, what to do with the last two points… John looked over his stats over and over before just plugging them into Intelligence. Sure, maybe it was a bad decision to make himself so lopsided right now, but when his biggest damage dealers came from his Intelligence, he could afford to be a bit of a glass cannon.

Besides, if he was lucky, he would be able to simply one or two shot the boss with some well placed bolts. Speaking of, he really should check his damaging runes in his Glossary, just in case there was some sort of secondary effect he should know about. He quickly popped the two last points into his intelligence before opening his inventory and pulling his Glossary out. He flipped through to the page for Kenaz: Damage first.

Kenaz: Damage Form (K; a Beacon or Torch)
“The average big bad wolf would just blow the house down. This rune lets you burn it, the other two houses, and the rest of the neighborhood to nothing but ham-scented ash.”

A classic nordic rune, with its origins lost to time. Many attribute it to Surtr, but it has been associated with other fire jotun. Summons a small fire that you cannot be harmed by but will catch other things alight. The fire can also be thrown a single time as a small fireball.
Damage= 25% Caster Intelligence

Well, John was glad to know that his fire rune could be used at range, although he was curious to know if he could learn to do what the king did with lighting multiple areas at once with a single cast. Plus, knowing the equations behind his damaging skills was always good. Next, he flipped a few pages ahead to one of the newer runes in his skill set, Thurisaz: Lightning.

Thurisaz: Lightning (TH; Thor or A Giant)
“In order to control the awesome power of electricity, most people need conductive material, chemical reactions, stored energy, and insulators to handle it all safely. You drew some pretty lines in the air and did the same thing. Good job.”

A rune taught to the mortals by Thor himself, this rune is made to harness the power of lightning itself. After writing, the rune must be destroyed in mid-air. This will fully activate the rune and cause lightning to shoot out wherever the caster is pointing. This rune can also be written and destroyed with both hands to deal more damage, and as long as the caster does not move, the rune can be reactivated without needing to be rewritten.
Damage= 33% Caster Intelligence

Well, THAT was quite informative! Firstly, this confirmed that Thurisaz would be his go to damage rune. While the advantage of Kenaz was that it could be used to enchant weapons, along with not needing to be repeatedly cast to do damage over a longer period of time, Thurisaz did more direct damage. Plus there was that clause at the end about being able to reuse the spell. This meant that he could, logically, stand on a vantage point and snipe out enemies as long as he had the mana or health for the rune and without the need to rewrite it.

He would have to keep an internal count of how many times he had cast it, as not to kill himself with too many castings. Or, he could cast it with both hands for a quick fat amount of damage. Or, if he dared, he could reactivate a double casting to deal the most damage he could in the shortest time possible.

He glanced over to King Agviðr, who stared back at him with his glowing eyes. If need be, John might have to resort to that style to kill the king before the king killed him.

He pushed the worry back, needing to stay focused and ready for this boss battle. He walked over to Talia, placing a hand on her shoulder, watching as she looked over one of the green potions. She uncorked it and brought the cork up to her nose, taking a few quick sniffs. “Well… it doesn’t smell like much of anything.”

John picked up the closest potion, a red one, and activated Observe.

Potion of Vigorous Healing
Restores 100 HP

“For what it’s worth, my Observe is saying he may be on the up and up. They are labeled as simply “health potions”. I figure if they had anything nefarious behind them, there would be a modifier to that, or maybe even a question mark to show that it’s not sure.” John looked to Talia, who he could tell was very worried. “I think the king just wants a fair fight. He’s probably been here for over two millennia. The guy might just be really bored.”

Talia sighed, shaking her head before looking over to King Agviðr. “I’m not that worried about the potions. Well, I am a little worried they might have some sort of poison too high of a level for you to detect or that observing one single potion is not enough to call them all good, but that isn’t what I am really worried about.”

She looked down at her hands, and John noticed that they were reddened and raw. “Those draugr were harder than I expected. And they were just the lackeys to this guy.” He looked over to the king, her hands starting to tremble. “I mean, look at him! He is the size of a small mountain, he could probably crush my head like a grape, and he knows runic magic! For all I know he could cast a spell to blow up my knees mid-decapitation while he crushes your torso to a bloody pulp!”

John winced. “What lovely imagery.”

She waved him off. “That’s not the point. Point is that we could DIE, John.”

“We could have died against the other draugr, but we didn’t.”

“Well… yeah. But I didn’t really process that fact at the time. It was more like… like when you’re in class and get some homework. You don’t really think much of it, until you have some trouble with an assignment. Then you see the test is tomorrow and think, “Shit, I might actually fail this class.” Except in this case, failing means ****.”

John sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I… I know. And I am scared too.” He grasped her hands between his own and **** her to look at him. “But… we managed to get this deep into the barrow together. We managed to solve the puzzles of the barrow together. And we managed to take out the draugr warriors together. This challenge is bigger, but we will overcome it together. Just like all the others.”

Talia remained silent for a few moments, before letting out a small sigh and smiling at John. “You’re right. We can do this together. Even if we can’t, we will try together.”

John returned her smile, saying, “If we can’t win, we will find a way out together too. We won’t die here. Not while I have anything to say about it.”

Talia shook her head, but John could see the amusement in her eyes. “Sure, John. Now, let’s think strategy. How do we take this bastard down?”

John looked over to the king, rubbing his chin in thought. “Well… He’s plenty big. That’s gonna make it easy for me to fire my spells at him.”

“Yeah, but you need time to cast the runes. Time he could easily take advantage of by smacking you into Helheim with that sword of his.”

“True. But you… You are a very nimble sword fighter. I saw you dodging and weaving between the warriors. Could you do that with the king over here? At least long enough for me to cast my spells?”

Talia looked over to King Agviðr, her foot tapping nervously as she sized him up. “Probably? I mean, he probably is slow enough with his attacks that I can get a bit of distance between myself and that sword. But I doubt I will be able to attack if I am that busy dodging.”

“Well, if you are taking his attention with dodging, you won't have to be dealing damage. I can just take care of that with my spell casting.”

“That… could work. But it could be a bit risky. That relies a lot on my ability to dodge him.” Talia then gestured to her body. “What if he grabs any of this sexiness?”

John looked Talia over, and while a part of him was wanting to say how much he wanted to grab all of that sexiness, mostly he had to agree with her. If King Agviðr grabbed her, John would not be able to safely cast any of his spells. He would be restricted to his sword, and John did not have any faith in his ability to dodge to the same degree as Talia.

“Well…” John pulled up his inventory, and after a moment or two of browsing, he pulled out the knife he had found earlier in the campsite. “How about you keep this somewhere easy to reach? If he does grab you, you can hack his fingers off. If we are lucky, he still feels pain and will let you go. If we aren’t lucky, you can probably pry yourself free if he has a few lost digits.”

Talia looked her father’s knife over with… Well John wasn’t exactly sure what the emotion was. She didn’t look happy, nor sad, nor angry, nor apathetic. At best, John could say she looked contemplative, but that seemed like he was cutting the emotion short. Just as he was about to say something, maybe offer an alternate solution, she slid the knife into a small hidden sheath on her armor.

“I suppose that will work.”

“You had a knife sheath but no knife?”

“Dad always builds them into his armor pieces. Not sure if he intended in mine or added it out of habit, but I suppose we are in luck.” She rolled her shoulders and took one more look at King Agviðr. “You ready for this John?”

John sighed and cracked his knuckles. He wasn’t sure if he was being honest with himself about being ready, but he had to do it anyway. He grabbed the potions that would have been his, as well as Talia’s half, and stored them in his inventory. “Yeah. Let’s do this.” He reached over and grabbed her hand, slowly tracing Uruz on it. “Just in case you can get in a strike or two. Never hurts to be prepared.”

She gave John a nod, and together, they approached the spot the king told them to stand in. The King watched them carefully, his body as still as a statue but his gaze following them. John could feel the cold sweat start to slide down his body, and he took a moment to squeeze Talia’s hand for comfort. They stood in the designated spot, turned, and faced their opponent. For a few moments, no one moved a single muscle. The king continued to stare them down, his hand resting on his blade, his eyes blazing with undead fire. Talia kept her grip on John’s hand, her other hand resting on her own blade, her body trembling slightly. John’s mind was running at a million miles per hour, trying to think of every strategy, every possible outcome, every spell he could cast and how he could cast it.

Then Talia took a deep breath, let go of John’s hand, and slowly drew her blade.

John took her signal and readied himself, raising his hands in front of himself, ready to cast the first spell.

The king seemed to give a small laugh, raising his own blade and pointing it at John and Talia.

Then, with a single cry, Talia charged at the king. She lowered her sword, letting her run at full speed. John quickly reacted, tracing out the symbol of Thurisaz with both hands while aiming at the king.

The king altered his stance, and right as Talia was about to make her first strike, the king met her blade with his. The **** caused Talia to stagger back, and through sheer luck she managed to stumble back far enough that she was able to dodge the king’s counter strike. Thankfully for Talia, John had just finished drawing his rune, and activated it with both hands. White lightning arched from his hands, striking the side of the King.

22 Dmg!

John kept his spell focused, even as the king turned to look at him before advancing towards John.

22 Dmg!

The king began to charge at John, and John jumped away just in time, and the king slammed into the wall

10 Dmg!

John wanted to laugh for a moment at the king’s mistake, but he was a touch too busy running away to get a giggle in. After he managed to get a few steps between him and the king, he turned to throw another spell or two at Agviðr. However, the king was already digging himself out of the wall and looking at John with unbridled hate in his eyes. He raised his free hand, tracing a symbol out in front of him

“ISA!”

The symbol, which was a simple vertical line, suddenly burst into blue light. The light went straight for John’s legs, and the second it touched him, it materialized into large patches of ice.

-10hp

‘SHIT! NOT AGAIN!’ John screamed internally, quickly casting Kenaz on the ice to try and melt it as quickly as he could. By the time the last of the ice had melted, and John had regained full use of his legs, he realized all too late that King Agviðr had been advancing towards him and now was in easy striking range.

The king raised his sword, ready to take out John in a single blow, when out of nowhere Talia ran in and stabbed him deep in his calf.

29 Dmg!

The King roared in anger, attempting to swipe at Talia with his free hand. Talia easily ducked and dealt another slash to the King’s leg.

25 Dmg!

Agviðr’s attention had been fully removed from John at this point, as he was more focused on trying to take out Talia. He and Talia began an intricate dance of ****, with his slower yet insanely powerful attacks coming in, and Talia dodging around each of them. She was so focused on him that she was unable to try and attack any more, simply electing to keep dodging attack after attack.

John quickly recovered himself at this point, taking a few steps back before casting his Thurisaz spell again.

22 Dmg!

Agviðr shrugged off the first blow, almost hitting Talia with the flat of his blade in a surprise attack.

22 Dmg!

Still, Agviðr ignored him. John grumbled and altered his aim, trying for the harder to hit head rather than the thick torso.

Crit! 44 Dmg!

THAT caught the king’s attention, who quickly turned to John with hatred in his eyes. He pulled a knife that was about the size of Firebite and tossed it straight at John, who jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being impaled. While he was down and tucked away, he accessed his inventory to drink down one of his mana potions.

‘Damn. I have no idea how long I will be able to keep this up. He just keeps coming.’ John went over the last few battles in his head with the other draugr. The fastest of his kills in those battles was probably the guy he decapitated, which seemed not useful.

‘What about the shield guy?’ He thought about it, and realized that when it came to that guy, he was able to get a cheap kill due to targeting his shield and letting his spell run wild on that.

‘What is conductive on the king? I’ve been hitting his armor and he only takes normal damage…’ Just then, John got an idea that was so crazy, it just might work. He quickly stood up, leapt away from his hiding place and charged towards Agviðr and Talia. He yelled “GET SOME DISTANCE!” before drawing Firebite and attempting to stab Agviðr straight in his chest.

He seemed to forget that Agviðr was huge and a battle hardened warrior. He backhanded John the second he was in range, sending him flying into Talia, and they both collapsed a good distance away from the King.

-22 hp!

John groaned, getting off Talia and rubbing his head. Talia followed suit, rubbing her sore neck. “Hey John, what exactly was the plan there, charging the guy who is easily 3 times your size?”

John spat out onto the ground and looked over to the King. “I figured if I could get my sword in his chest, I could use that as a conductor to deal a lot of cheap damage quickly.”

Talia looked at him for a moment or two, before looking at him. “Would my sword work for that too?’

John nodded. Talia returned the nod and stood up. “Alright. Plan is to stab him in the chest and run. You just get ready with that spell, I’ll stab the rotten bastard.” She then charged back into the fray, quickly sidestepping Agviðr’s ice rune attack.

‘Damn. What a woman.’ John raised his blade before taking off after her, keeping a careful eye both on where he stepped but also where Agviðr was aiming. He had enough of being frozen, he was not gonna get hit by another dumb ice spell.

Talia kept running circles around Agviðr, trying to find a moment where Agviðr was distracted enough to give him a much needed stabbing. However, the King kept his defences high and continued to throw spell after spell at the mage and swordswoman, now switching up between his Isa rune and his Kenaz rune.

Then, a single stroke of luck. While Agviðr threw an Isa rune, one that John had to jump out of the way of, Talia took her opportunity to quickly jump up and plant her sword deep into Agviðr’s chest.

However, right as Talia dropped down and began to dash away, Agviðr got his own luck. He reached out, quickly wrapping his fingers around Talia’s long hair and lifting her off the ground. Talia screamed in pain as her fingers grasped at her scalp.

“TALIA!” John screamed out, quickly casting a Kenaz and throwing it at Agviðr’s face. However, Agviðr ignored it, electing instead to slowly raise his blade into position to decapitate John’s girlfriend.

It was then that Talia’s hand chose to move. She let go of her scalp and, instead, grabbed a small hidden handle at her side. Quickly she pulled out her father’s knife, and with a smooth motion she slashed with it right above her head. The knife, despite being so old, cut through her hair like butter, causing her to drop away from Agviðr’s blade and to the ground.

“JOHN! CAST IT NOW!”

John took a deep breath, using both hands to draw the lightning rune he started this battle with, aiming right at the confused King’s chest.

“HEY KING! TIME TO BE DETHRONED!”

With that one liner, John activated his rune, sending arcs of lighting right at Talia’s sword.

26 Dmg!
Conductor Hit! Repeating Damage!
26 Dmg!
Conductor Hit! Repeating Damage!
26 Dmg!
Conductor Hit! Repeating Damage!
26 Dmg!
Conductor Hit! Repeating Damage!

John ignored the damage numbers, instead casting the rune again to add more damage.

26 Dmg!
Conductor Hit! Repeating Damage!
26 Dmg!
Conductor Hit! Repeating Damage!
26 Dmg!
Conductor Hit! Repeating Damage!
26 Dmg!
Conductor Hit! Repeating Damage!
26 Dmg!
Conductor Hit! Repeating Damage!
26 Dmg!
Conductor Hit! Repeating Damage!

Just as John felt his mana reserves tap out, and he knew another cast would dip into his health, the damage numbers stopped. The king stood there, slowly swaying back and forth. His skin was smoking, small arcs of electricity jumping to different points of his body. He began to shake, and was **** to a single knee. He looked up at Talia and John, the lower sections of his body starting to crumble to ash.

“I to er ærbødige modstandere. Jeg er beæret over, at falde til jer es sværd.”

His head finally crumbled into ash, the crown formerly on his head clattering to the ground in front of a tired John and a trembling Talia.