Modern Age Online

“That’s a shit-load of critters.” Two Gun said, firing off both of his pistols into the crowd.

The blue bolts streaked across the gray landscape and fried two sludgy imps rushing their way. D34d-I pulled his own rifle from his back as Jar-lock and Vivienne got their magic ready. Kaleb threw Abby his sun gun and deployed Shocky as he swapped his Quad-gun to lightning. Off in the distance, the Corrosion Demon roared as its army charged closer.

“We ignoring the adds and charging?” Kaleb asked as he sent a bolt of lightning into the oncoming horde.

The bolt bounced between three sludge creatures before it went out. Kaleb tsked as he had expected more.

“You always deal with the adds first, Prof.” Abby said, firing wildly.

“That’s when you're fighting a few dozen. Not a damn army.” Claire complained.

She and Mass were standing back, waiting for the right moment. The army was getting closer, and that’s when the two bruisers would shine. Mass was happily dancing on the spot as he seemed to sight up his first target.

“Mass and Claire can be on the adds. Viv and I will handle the CC so the rest of you can charge the big bad.”

Kaleb shrugged at Jar-lock’s plan. “It’s as good an idea as any.”

“Just in time, cause the sumbitches are here!”

Kaleb swapped his gun to ice and held down the trigger as a wave of sludge monsters threw themselves at him. His friends gave their own shouts, and he heard two loud thumps as Mass and Claire took to the air. Colors flared as Jar-lock and Vivienne started throwing out large AOE spells and Abby disappeared from Kaleb’s view.

Kaleb jumped back as his gun sent sheets of ice into the army of sludge monsters clawing at him. Alongside his own pale blue sheet of fire was Two Gun’s own bright blue laser as they tore through the frozen creatures. D34d-I’s rifle joined in the tumult as more and more monsters were frozen by Kaleb’s gun. But the things were relentless.

They threw themselves over the frozen bodies of their compatriots as Kaleb continued to backpedal. Two Gun and D34d-I joined him in a running fight against the oncoming horde as Claire and Mass slammed into the roiling sea of bodies from above. A rain of fire fell from above as Jar-lock raised his hands to the sky and Vivienne shot bright bolts of mana into anyone who got too close. Abby was helping provide cover for Jar-lock and the two tanks were drawing the larger part of the horde to them. So Kaleb turned to the two men with him.

“I’m making a run for the Blob, y’all in?”

“It’s about time! I was worried we were going to keep doing circles!”

*Quack*

“Hurry!”

D34d-I’s curt command was all Kaleb needed as he turned his gun to the few creatures still crowding them. With a wave of his gun, he froze them in their tracks and charged forward. He put Shocky up and rammed into the frozen statues with his robotic arm and shield. They shattered as he rammed through them as Two Gun and D34d-I provided cover.

It took Kaleb a second to reorient himself on the battlefield. But the large bulbous blob was easy to see from afar. So he pointed himself that way and kept his trigger finger down. The gun was growing colder in his hands, though, and Kaleb really didn’t want to lose another arm to a shoddy weapon. After slamming his way through two more ice statues, Kaleb cut the power to his quad gun and let it rest a second.

Two bolts from Two Gun’s pistols fried a sludge panther that leapt at Kaleb. Meanwhile, D34d-I’s rifle created a large hole in a badger that was about to charge. As the badger reformed, Kaleb swapped barrels to fire and swept his gun across everything. The little beasts went up in flames and Kaleb had to swing wide around the crackling and bubbling pools of melting sludge.

Jar-lock’s magic still rained down from the sky, but it seemed to be avoiding them as they got within shooting distance of the Corrosion demon. It looked like a large black slime from fantasy games. Except more drippy and disgusting. Kaleb kept the throng of creatures back as Two Gun let loose with his own weapons.

A large sludgy cat leapt at Kaleb and he caught it on Shocky. The beast was still on fire and the heat made Kaleb lurch backwards. Two Gun was still firing into the massive blobs side as D34d-I had all four hands shooting weapons at various sludge monsters. Clouds of noxious gas rose in the sky and Kaleb was forced to swap back to ice.

“I’m pissing in a lake here.” Two Gun swore as he started firing at the adds again. “Every one of my shots is eaten by that thing, like they were raspberry gumdrops.”

*Quack*

“You have to be doing some damage!” D34d-I said as he used the butt of his rifle on a sludge monster to minimal effect.

Kaleb froze the bottom of the sludge cat-monster and broke its legs out from under it. As the black slime dripped off his arm, he cleared them some space with his freeze ray and looked at the Corrosion demon. It was still an amorphous blob just sitting there burbling and, occasionally, roaring. Kaleb saw that every now and again, a sludge imp would crawl out of the thing’s side.

“Shit! How long has it been doing that?!” Kaleb asked.

“Since I started shooting at it.”

“We need to tell the others that the boss is an add-spawner. We need to focus damage on it.”

*Quack*

“They have their own problems.”

Kaleb looked down at the duck to see him waving a gun back to where the castle once stood. Jar-lock, Vivienne and Abby were surrounded and killing sludge creatures by the dozens. But Kaleb knew that the two magic users couldn’t keep that up. Meanwhile, Abby was still relying on Kaleb’s guns to kill the sludge monsters. Across from them, their two bruisers were practically buried in a sea of black tar. Green and pink arms were visible under the mass of monsters, but they were fighting a losing battle.

“Fuck! We got to get to Claire and Mass! They are overrun.”

Two Gun was already moving toward his wife as Kaleb finished speaking. The old cowboy’s pistols flared with blue light as his super-fast hands killed everything in his way. Kaleb and D34d-I followed along, freezing and shooting everything. It was a long jog toward the pair of super-strong heroes. But with the way they were still struggling under the mass of sludgy creatures, Kaleb figured they weren’t too late.

Taking aim at the two lumps of black sludge that were his friends, Kaleb froze them both. Two Gun and D34d-I shot off the surrounding monsters as Claire and Mass punched their way out.

“Mass no like!”

“Yes, that was quite disagreeable.”

Bits of their clothes were melting away and Kaleb could see spots on Claire and Mass’s skin that were red and raw from the creature’s caustic effects. Two Gun did a quick scan of his wife before he nodded in satisfaction. D34d-I did the same for Mass, but the big alien’s wounds were already healing even as he swung his massive arm through more sludge creatures.

“I take it things didn’t go as planned?” Claire asked.

“The boss is spawning in creatures. We need to make an end-run at the boss and forego the adds.”

“Well then, let’s gather up the mages and get to it!”

Two Gun started firing again and Kaleb could see the twin barrels of the cowboys guns glowing a faint red. The Ifrit bone barrels should’ve been enough to keep up with the super reflexes of the cowboy. But maybe they were reaching the end of their rope? Kaleb pushed that thought aside as their group rushed toward the center of what would’ve been the old bailey. Jar-lock and Vivienne were still throwing around explosive magic, but they let up as Kaleb and the others approached.

Jar-lock gave them a quizzical look as they fought their way forward. “What’s wrong?”

“The boss is just spawning adds and we don’t have the damage output to make a dent in the damn thing.”

“It’s going to take all of us,” Kaleb added.

Jar-lock was sweating from the exertion of using his magic and Vivienne’s and Abby’s eyes were red from the cloud of smoke that was everywhere. The big mage gave them a nod of acceptance as he focused his arms together and then raised them up high, palms open. A sphere of earth was yanked from the ground and Jar-lock hurled it forward with a push of his arms. The boulder gathered more chunks of ground as it rolled, growing bigger and squashing anything that got in its path.

Claire and Mass followed in the boulders wake, clearing a path for the others. Kaleb followed along as he saw Abby pick up the forgotten angel. The creature was still unconscious and looked to be in terrible shape. Thankfully, its emaciated form seemed to make it easier for Abby to keep up with the rolling boulder. As the large rock grew bigger and their path became more clear, Kaleb rushed forward and swapped his gun back to fire.

“Make a hole!”

Kaleb called as he rushed toward Claire and Mass’s backs. The two were in the front, pushing aside and sludge creatures that got close or survived the boulder. Both of them heeded his warning and cleared a space just as he sent a gout of fire straight into Jar-lock’s boulder. The fire clung to the dirt without burning itself out. Soon the giant boulder was a flaming ball aimed right at the still stationary Demon.

The boulder collided with the Corrosion Demon and the thing ate it with a wet squelch. The flames on the boulder licked at the slimy exterior of the demon and seemed to shrink it slightly. But soon the boulder was absorbed, and the fire was extinguished. Left in its place was a still roiling and bubbling blob of black goo.

The rest of the party broke off to attack the blob as Kaleb sent a wave a fire at the adds that were pushing toward them. Wet thwacks could be heard as Claire and Mass punched the blob and Two Gun and D34d-I opened fire all around. Vivienne drank a blue potion as Jar-lock summoned a wall of fire right on top of the massive blob. But nothing they did seemed to work, at least not at first.

“It’s shrinking!” Jar-lock called over the cacophony.

Claire jumped back and wiped the sludge off her knuckles. “It’s not us, it’s the fire! Turn up the heat!”

She and Mass turned away from the boss and flung themselves back into the adds as Kaleb and Jar-lock sent waves of flame into the massive Demon's sides. It roared and wriggled against the flames. But it was shrinking as they burned more of it off. The others of their party formed a ring around Jar-lock and Kaleb as they blasted the big bad with as much fire as they could muster. Kaleb noted the angel was also in the protective half-circle that his friends had created. He thought he saw the angel’s chest move under its mottled gray toga. But he waved that away as the Demon got smaller.

Soon the Demon was as big as Mass, then it shrunk down to Claire’s size, then shrunk down into an oblong cocoon that turned gray as they burned it. Kaleb’s quad-gun heated up in his hands, so he cut the flame and stood back. His reptilian skin didn’t allow him to sweat, so being this close to flame was making Kaleb uncomfortable and grouchy. But the fact that they were winning helped ease his discomfort.

The gray cocoon wasn’t shrinking anymore and Jar-lock’s flames were sticking to the thing like glue. So the big wizard shut off the tap and looked around. Kaleb joined him as he realized the sounds of the army of Sludge creatures were gone. All around them, the gray earth was full of small puddles of black goo. Kaleb was in time to see several sludge imps melt away in front of his very eyes.

His party panted and wheezed as the gray cloud of sludge irritated their eyes and lungs. Kaleb coughed a bit as he spun around. Still alert for any danger. D34d-I reloaded his guns as Jar-lock drank his own mana potion. Abby threw Kaleb his Sun Gun, and he saw it was already depleted. She held onto his Cybar and Kaleb briefly thought about making a side-arm for everyone. But he didn’t let the thought take hold.

“That’s not it, is it?” Kaleb asked as he rotated his Quad-gun to ice again.

“Fuck no! I’d want my money back if that was the boss fight.” Two Gun complained.

Claire huffed. “YOU weren’t buried in sludge. I’m pretty sure I swallowed some of the stuff.”

“Icky!” Mass shouted in agreement.

“There’s going to be a phase two, for sure.” Jar-lock said. “Did you see that cocoon?”

Kaleb looked at the pillar of fire that was currently covering said cocoon. “You mean the on-fire remnant of the sludge monster? Yeah, we can all see it. But it’s not doing anything.”

He tensed as he watched the fire. Careful not to be caught unaware. But what happened next was too fast for Kaleb to see. All he had time to hear was the sound of a loud crack coming from the pillar of fire. Then a long, black tentacle of sludge shot out and grabbed Kaleb by the head. He heard Two Gun get off two shots before he was slammed headfirst into the ground and everything went black. Phase two had begun.