"Lucie Masson?"
Rainier shushed him. "She can probably hear us. Even now. She'll have my head for this." He scrunched his face in a childish manner that really did not fit the muscular vampire. "You killed Redella. Is it possible? Can you really handle Lucie Masson?"
Owin shrugged casually. "Probably."
Rainier raised a single eyebrow. "Do you know the dangers of a vampire lord?" He grabbed Owin's shoulders. "Do you know the danger we're in?"
"Danger? That's my name," Shade said.
"No, it's not. Your name is Shade." Owin handed the skeleton the heavy hammer. "Can you get the charge higher?"
Shade immediately started to wave the hammer back and forth causing the head of the hammer to glow brighter and brighter.
"That will not kill her," Rainier said.
"It can do a lot. Plus, Shade has that," Owin said, pointing to the bloodied stake.
Shade lost his balance and almost fell over as he tried to show off the stake in one hand that also held Isotelus while waving the hammer with the other. "We have all kinds of tricks." He stumbled and dropped all three weapons. When the Thunderstrike Maul hit the ground, it dispelled its charge, sending Isotelus and the stake flying across the room. Both Owin and Rainier stood still, basically unaffected by the sudden blast of energy.
Owin gave the vampire an uncertain look. "It doesn't seem like you're weak. Have you tried fighting her?"
Rainier shook his head quickly. "I would never."
"But you're scared of her."
Shade calmly walked across the room, gathering the stake and Isotelus. He stopped beside the portal, pointed, and tilted his head a little.
"No, Shade. We should fight the boss."
The skeleton sighed. "I knew you would. I was being foolishly hopeful. Imagine an Owin who wants to continue without helping. But alas, you are a kind man with the same benevolent heart as myself."
Owin grabbed the Thunderstrike Maul and more cautiously began charging the hammer. "Where do I find her?"
Rainier quickly stood. "She will be in her study."
"Her study? So, she reads? Is that supposed to scare me?" Shade strode out the door to the corner. "Around here?"
Rainier nodded slowly. "Your familiar is confident."
"Yeah." Owin chuckled at his own loss of words. How could anyone explain Shade? The skeleton disappeared around the corner, so Owin ran after him. "We'll handle it."
By the time Owin reached Shade, the skeleton had already stopped, crouched and stared at a closed door. His crouch brought him to eye level with Owin. Shade pointed with the bloody stake.
"You see that?"
"The door?" Owin asked.
"Yes."
Owin looked where Shade pointed. It was indeed a door. And from what he could see . . . little else. Even Examine brought up nothing, meaning it was really just a simple door. It had a somewhat ornate design, a bit fancier and more finely crafted than the rest of the doors in the manor. But there was a lot more to magic and danger than a fancy design. At least, that seemed to be true. His Darkblade was nearly identical to his old flint knife, and yet it was one of the strongest weapons he had ever used.
"Still thinking about the door?" Shade asked quietly.
"Well, no. What about it?"
Shade jabbed the stake toward it. "It's trapped."
Owin cocked his head, trying to look at the door from a different angle. He even crouched low and tried looking underneath for some sort of mechanism. The thing about traps was that he rarely ever found them himself. First Artivan, then Shade had taken the lead in triggering the traps and protecting Owin from whatever dangers they offered. Without interacting with them much at all, he had no real idea of how to tell what was trapped and what wasn't. The easiest way was often to just see if Shade got blasted with fire or punched in the face.
"Go open it," Owin said.
Shade gave him a look. A blank, skeletal look.
Owin scrunched his face. "Are you—"
"Okay." Shade stood and walked directly to the door. Before he could grab the knob, a ghostly hand appeared and tried to grab him, but passed right through. He stopped moving and turned his head all the way around. "See?"
"That wasn't a trap."
The hand reappeared. After trying to grab the skeleton again, it hovered beside Shade and pointed at Owin.
"Why do I feel like she knows we're here?" Owin asked.
The door opened as soon as he finished the question. Shade waved his arm through the hand until it dissipated.
"I guess we're heading inside."
"This is a trap," Owin said. Did that stop him from following Shade inside? Of course not. He was just doing his best to prepare for an inevitable fight. The Thunderstrike Maul was nearly fully charged, though he was going to avoid holding it at full charge so he didn't accidentally destroy anything like Shade had.
While he did like having the hammer again, Shade's idea of splattering the vampires to bits just didn't seem reasonable. At least the armor could help draw the Incandescent Blade if Owin needed it.
Just inside was a bookshelf that looked like it had barely survived a horrible windstorm. The books were haggard and weather worn, which was odd for books that were inside.
Another ghost hand hovered just beyond the bookshelf. It was the opposite hand, and as Shade seemed to expect, it tried to grab him.
Fortress Mob
Ghastly Appendage
Level 50
"That's a mob?" Owin asked.
Shade's own index opened. "Oh. Would you look at that." He tried stabbing it with the stake.
"They will leave you alone," a calm voice said.
Shade narrowed his eye sockets and stalked forward. Upon reaching the corner, he pressed himself against the wall and looked around the corner.
Owin decided to approach a little slower. He had sprinted into enough bad situations that a slower, more methodical approach wouldn't be bad. A wooden board creaked behind him. His armor flared to life, tossing the specter skin cape aside as crab legs prepared to spear whoever was behind.
Owin turned away before the armor skewered Rainier. "You're coming too?"
He nodded curtly.
Owin turned slowly at first, making sure his armor wouldn't try to attack the vampire. The crab legs slowly pulled back in, fusing with the armor and letting the specter skin cape hang down once again.
Shade was simply standing in the middle of the room, no longer hiding. His eye sockets were lowered, but he looked relaxed. Relaxed to a normal person. Owin immediately spotted the placement of Shade's feet. Just like Suta had taught them.
Owin hurried over and immediately halted upon seeing the woman standing across from Shade. She was dressed in a golden suit with thin white stripes. Blood red hair hung in wide curls.
As much as he recognized it wasn't the best thing to do, Owin couldn't stop himself from scowling upon seeing the vampire's left eye. It was a black pit absolutely covered in maggots.
Fortress Mob
Lucie Masson
Vampire Lord
Level 68
The levels on mobs hardly mattered anymore. They were roughly the same across dungeons on equal floors, as far as he could tell. But the levels shown didn't take shards into account. Reading an opponent's strength was mostly just intuition, or he would just react too slowly and have his head ripped from his body. Or something like that.
"I have been waiting," Lucie said. Her voice was calm and quiet, like she spoke just loud enough for Owin to hear and not even a hair louder. She adjusted the frilled cuffs of her sleeves.
"You knew we were here?" Owin asked.
Lucie looked past Owin as Rainier barely stepped around the corner. "Ah."
Owin looked back and forth between them. Apparently, that was the entire reaction between them. No words. Just a single noise of disappointment.
Shade took a step over to Owin. "Vampire lords are durable."
Lucie's single yellow eye moved back to Shade. "You are an interesting creature." She blurred, immediately appearing directly in front of the skeleton. Her fingers gripped his jaw with enough strength that Owin could hear the bone creak.
In one burst of motion, Shade ignited with a red haze and stabbed with the wooden stake. Lucie shoved his arm aside, forcing him to miss, but Shade shifted his weight and punched with his metal gauntlet, hitting the vampire directly in the chest. Lucie flew backward, crashing against the wall with Shade's jaw still held tightly between two fingers.
Lucie Masson stood from the wreckage of her desk, brushing splinters of wood from her suit. She tossed the jaw back to Shade, who promptly fit it back into place. "An undead berserker and a goblin wizard. What odd creatures."
"I've been called worse," Shade said.
The woman scratched at the skin around her missing eye, accidentally crushing a few maggots in the process. She left red lines raked across her pale skin with bits of maggot juice running down her cheek.
Owin couldn't stop himself from making a face as some of the liquid ran over her lip and disappeared into her mouth.
"Are you ready?" Shade asked.
Owin nodded. With Shade as a berserker, they would be able to stay close and fight until one of them could land a hit that would actually kill her.
Shade shifted his shoulders. As soon as they were set, a pulse of energy rippled off the skeleton. "Oh, this is going to be fun."
Lucie continued scratching at her face. Black blood leaked from underneath her fingernails, but by the time she reached her jaw, the wounds were already healing. That didn't stop her from scratching again, tearing more skin.
It was unnerving. She didn't look particularly threatening compared to other mobs he had fought. And yet, her demeanor terrified him.
As soon as Shade moved, Owin followed. He could still move much faster than the skeleton, but he kept at his side. All Owin needed to do was create an opening for Shade to stab her in the heart.
Lucie Masson didn't flinch when they charged. She stared with her single eye and ripped apart her own face. It was only when Owin started to swing the Thunderstrike Maul that she moved. It was a blur, faster than he could ever hope to follow. She extended her left hand, which bubbled with a red haze. Threads of black blood shot from the gash on her face, spearing Shade. The skeleton was carried across the room and pinned against the far wall by the thin, metal-like threads of black blood.
That left her open as Owin swung the charged Thunderstrike Maul. Her other hand swung down to catch the hammer causing it to release its charge and explode. It should've tossed Lucie back, but her massive, fleshy wings opened and steadied her as all the books in the room clattered off shelves and the debris of her desk bounced wildly off the walls.
Owin abandoned the hammer and drew the Darkblade as he jumped. Electricity flowed through the stone knife as Owin chopped at the black threads. His eyes had only been off Lucie for a heartbeat, but when he landed and turned back to face the vampire lord, all he could see was the glowing head of the Thunderstrike Maul swinging straight at him.
Owin brought his forearms together as the hammer hit. It felt like he traveled the length of the study immediately as he crashed into the wall. Chitin crumbled off his forearms as he shook his arms out.
Shade stood beside him with his index open. "Berserker abilities work better with real weapons. Do you think Bleed will do anything to a vampire lord?"
"I don't think we want her to bleed anymore." Owin grabbed a wand from his belt. He would get that hammer back. It was the first thing he had found with Artivan, and nobody would take it from him.
"Just run," Rainier said. He was already backing away. "Run!"
Lucie blurred again.
Owin pointed already had the wand raised. "Arcane Bolt!" The purple spell quickly formed and launched from the end of the wand. It struck the charging vampire in the shoulder, throwing her off course. Her blur faded as she skidded over the wooden floor and crashed into the wall on Shade's right side. Black blood had formed over her hands, growing down and forming long claws.
Shade immediately tried stabbing her again, but was swatted aside like he posed no threat. As the skeleton stumbled, Lucie caught him by the arm and launched him into a mirror. Instead of shattering the glass, it rippled like water, and Shade vanished inside.
Owin was already sprinting before Lucie stepped into the mirror. The vampire's wings curled in as she dipped her head and passed into the glass. Owin turned slightly as he leapt, ready to stab or slash as soon as he appeared on the other side.
Instead, his helmet crashed into the glass, shattering the mirror.
"Your friend is dead," Rainier said.
"Yeah." Owin brushed glass from his head. "That's nothing new. Where'd they go?"
Rainier seemed a little confused. "You plan to chase her?"
Owin nodded. "Hurry up."
"The gallery."
Owin opened his index to the map. The gallery was only a few turns away. It would take him seconds.
"I—"
Owin flew past Rainier, around both corners, and down the short hallway to the art gallery.
Lucie stood confidently with the wooden stake in her hand. A pile of dust covered the floor in front of her with the Thunderstrike Maul planted firmly in the middle. "You thought this would kill me?"
"Give me my hammer."
Lucie smiled. All the paintings in the room watched Owin closely.
"Take it," she said, gesturing to the weapon.