Modern Age Online

Kaleb snapped awake almost instantly. The sounds of fighting and shouting penetrated his ears past the overwhelming pain in his face. To be honest, he was surprised that he was alive. The boss monster had slammed him to the ground like a toy. Sitting up and looking around, Kaleb saw he was laying next to the injured angel as his friends were off fighting. The grey angel’s chest still rose and fell softly.

Next to Kaleb was his Quad-gun, and he picked it up as he climbed to his feet. Off in the distance, Clair and Mass were squared up against a seven-foot tall humanoid sludge monster. Its arms and legs were pillars of sludge that shot out in any direction it pointed. Its head was a small dome that sat between its massive shoulders. Fireballs, ice spears, and laser blasts all hit the boss as it swung its giant arms into Mass and Claire.

There were no more adds, the smaller creatures were gone. Now all his group had to contend with was a sludge monster that seemed to tank every one of their hits. Claire and Mass would occasionally slam their fists into the boss, but their hands would come away covered in goop. Even Vivienne's and Jar-lock’s attempts to freeze and burn the thing were stymied. The boss monster was absorbing almost everything they threw at it. A fact that made Kaleb stop before entering the battle.

He winced as his head throbbed, but still he shouted. “How long has it been absorbing shit?!”

“Oh, look who’s awake.”

“Glad you could join us, Professor. Now, shoot the damn thing.”

“It’s been about two minutes since the fight started and it’s been absorbing every third or fourth hit.” Jar-lock answered him.

Kaleb watched the boss absorb another of Vivienne’s ice spears. The long blue spike flew through the air and crashed into the creature’s sludgy chest. The black sludge in that area briefly bulged and then wrapped around the ice. Kaleb raised an eyebrow as basic physics filtered into his head. He tried to wave at his friends to stop, even as his head still pulsed with pain.

“Stop! Everyone, quit shooting!”

Jar-lock immediately ceased throwing fireballs. Vivienne was next followed by Abby, D34d-I, and then Two Gun. They all glared at him as Claire and Mass were still ducking and diving hits. Two Gun threw his arms wide and shouted back.

“What the fuck for? What’s going on, Doc?”

“Conservation of energy!” Kaleb shouted back as he wobbled forward.

Four faces stared back at him in confusion. But Jar-lock’s eyes grew wide as he seemed to come to the same conclusion as Kaleb. The big mage leapt backward and hurriedly called for the others to do the same. But Abby and Two Gun still looked annoyed.

“What the fuck, Professor? What the shit does that mean?”

Kaleb coughed as a smoky scent in the air tickled his nose. “Energy cannot be created or destroyed.”

“Only converted into something else.” Jar-lock finished for him.

Kaleb nodded as the others pieced together what they were saying. As one, it seemed to hit them and they all moved slightly further away from the boss. The movement caught Claire’s eye, and she clearly wanted to ask what was going on. But she had to side-step a wide swing from the boss’s arm. Two Gun shouted to his wife as Kaleb and Jar-lock put their heads together.

“Has it been growing?”

“No. So it’s not converting the energy into mass. But it also hasn’t been throwing the energy back at us.”

Kaleb quirked an eyebrow. “So what the fuck is it doing?”

“It’s whooping Claire’s and Mass’s asses! That’s what it’s doing. We need to get in there!” Abby argued.

Kaleb watched as Mass’s fist slammed into the boss’s sludge arm. The sludge made a wet splat sound, and the arm was pushed off course. But Kaleb saw nothing to indicate the boss was absorbing kinetic energy. Although he didn’t think he’d be able to, either.

“What spells have you tried?”

“Just ice and fire.” Vivienne supplied.

Kaleb nodded and raised his Quad-gun. He set it to electricity mode and pulled the trigger. A yellow bolt of electricity erupted from the end of his gun and shot across the field. The bolt hit the sludge monster and wrapped around the monster. Burning little bits of sludge off the creature. Jar-lock joined in by throwing a wide arcing blade of wind from his hands. Kaleb watched with interest as the green crescent moon-shaped blade of wind streaked across and cut straight through the sludge.

Kaleb and Jar-lock smiled as Two Gun swore loudly. “What the fuck does that mean? Can we shoot it now?”

“No. The boss is only using certain types of damage. But electricity and wind seemed okay.”

*Quack*

“What’s it using the energy for?”

Kaleb shrugged. “I don’t know. But isn’t it better to not feed the damn sludge monster?”

Abby sighed and threw Kaleb his Cybar pistol. Her twin shadow blades sprouted from both of her arms as she ran forward. The boss, sensing a new threat, grew a third arm and started harrying Abby with it. The small woman danced and dodged around as she tried to get closer to the main body. But the wily, sludgy arm was just as flexible as Abby. The three melee fighters were forced to pummel the boss’s arms as they were kept away from the main body. Kaleb noticed another odd aspect of the fight. Jar-lock must’ve read his face, cause the big mage nodded as he threw another wind blade.

“Yeah, it hasn’t moved since it knocked your ass out.”

“It’s like it’s rooted to the ground.”

“It’s just standing there like a damn sludgy advertisement as it smacks our people around.” Two Gun added. “Can I shoot the damn thing yet?”

“Not until we know what it’s doing with the energy.”

“But that’s just a theory of yours, right, prof? You don’t know it’s doing anything with the energy, do you?”

Kaleb grit his teeth and shook his head. The pain flaring up again. Two Gun nodded and drew his pistols again.

“Well then, I’m sorry. But I’m going to help my wife then.”

Kaleb could only sigh as Two Gun and D34d-I started shooting again. Jar-lock tried to stop them for a few seconds, but gave up quickly. Vivienne put a hand on Jar-lock’s shoulder and whispered something. The big man nodded and Vivienne went over to the angel. She started casting a healing spell as the boss monster roared.

Two Gun’s laser pistols fired into the sludge monster as D34d-I unloaded his pistols and rifle into the thing. Kaleb was sure, D34d-I wasn’t doing any damage. But as Two Gun’s energy bolts smacked into the creature two at a time, Kaleb could see every third shot be absorbed. Instead of creating a small puff of smoke as the blast hit, Two Gun’s shot would simply disappear in the boss’s sludgy flesh.

Kaleb and Jar-lock tried to figure the boss out as they added their own attacks to the mix. But nothing came to them. Jar-lock reasoned that they would only know once the boss had absorbed a sufficient amount of energy. Kaleb would rather they didn’t let it get that far, but he had a good idea of what would happen. Phase three of the boss fight.

It was after several minutes of bombarding the boss that something started to happen. Kaleb felt the ground shift beneath his feet slightly, and he looked down. Nothing stuck out to him, but he could see small reverberations throughout the ground. He turned to point it out to Jar-lock, but the boss roared in defiance again, interrupting him. The next thing Kaleb knew, a black net of interconnected sludge appeared below everyone’s feet. The melee fighters barely gave it a glance as D34d-I and Two Gun stared at the net at their feet.

Assuming it meant the boss was going to trap them, both ranged shooters doubled down on attacking. Kaleb noticed a pattern in the black net at their feet and tried to decipher it. Jar-lock simply threw a cone of fire at the ground. The sludge net ate the magical fire and seemed to solidify into a black web that was partially embedded in the ground. Kaleb and Jar-lock stared at the large symbols woven into the black net and grimaced.

“I think I know what it’s using the energy for.” Kaleb said.

“Yeah.”

The two shared a look before they both started shouting for their friends to stop. Abby and Claire jumped away from the creature. But Mass was too slow, the sludge arm the big strongman was fighting spread itself wide and wrapped Mass up completely. Two Gun and D34d-I ignored them and as Kaleb watched, a blue bolt from Two Gun’s pistol smacked into the enormous monster’s head. The blast seemed to pulse for a second on the dome protrusion, and then a black mist shot into the air.

Kaleb found his eyesight obscured as the black mist came from the net at their feet. It encircled all of them, and Kaleb’s instincts were telling him to move. So he did. He dashed out of the mist, finding Jar-lock right at his heels.

“Get out of the mist!” Jar-lock shouted as he veered away from Kaleb.

Kaleb wondered what the big man was doing, but he set it aside as he dove out of the mist. Spinning and raising to his feet, Kaleb saw an enormous dome of black mist raising from the area. Claire and Abby crashed into the ground on Kaleb’s left. The big green woman was carrying Abby as they both stared up at the black dome. Jar-lock and Vivienne came out next, carrying the angel between them. As they exited the mist making up, the dome solidified and an earth-quaking pulse came from its center.

Claire gave a shout of despair and tried to throw herself back in. But the dome was strong and easily repelled the slim woman’s punches. Abby rolled away from the distraught alien and walked over to Kaleb and Jar-lock, looking confused.

“What the fuck is it doing now?!”

“It’s creating a portal.” Jar-lock answered simply.

“What?!” Claire shouted from her spot near the dome.

“The demon is using the sacrifices it has and the energy we gave it to form a portal to the mortal plane.”

“SACRIFICES!?”

Kaleb winced. “Yes, Claire. Two Gun is dead. But don’t worry, he’ll appear at back at the police tent. If they’ve set up a rally point, that is. What we need to worry about is beating this damn demon.”

Claire huffed angrily for a few moments. But then collected herself and nodded. Abby gave the taller woman a comforting hand, and they all put their heads together. Vivienne was still trying to heal the angel, but she was clearly listening as Jar-lock formed a plan.

“Okay, so the demon is going to be weakened after this. Opening a portal takes a huge amount of energy. Even with the three bodies he… used. So my bet is, he is going to go through the portal and try to hide.”

“What the hell kind of boss fight is this?” Abby asked angrily. “Isn’t it standard to stick around and fight the heroes until one side is dead?”

Kaleb shrugged. “I think the demon has its own plans. It wants to get to the mortal plane. We are merely an obstruction to go around.”

“Right, so once the dome is down, we rush the portal and find the demon. Like I said, it should be weakened, so all we need to do is-”

“Pummel the shit out of it?” Claire asked.

“Essentially, yes.”

“Good.”

A black wave of energy shot out from around the dome and Kaleb had to fight not to gag. The scent and the feeling of the magical wave were disgusting. Jar-lock and Vivienne looked to be in worse shape even as the solid black dome began to fall. Vivienne sent another jolt of healing energy into the angel before she stood and tried to place the lanky angel on her shoulder. Kaleb moved to her side and took the angel. At her questioning look, Kaleb smiled.

“I think we are going to need magic to find the demon once we cross. That ain’t my specialty. So you and Jar need to be at the forefront here. I’ll take care of the patient until we cross.”

Vivienne nodded gratefully and turned to the collapsing barrier. A dense black mist was on the other side as the dome fell. But it was quickly being dispersed. Kaleb could feel the magic in the air as something whirled at the heart of the domed area. Kaleb could make out little blue cubes vanishing into the dark sky as Two Gun and the others were killed. Claire roared and rushed forward, but she needn’t have bothered. The portal was pulling them forward again.

This portal was smaller, made for a single demon. But its pull was just as strong as the one made in the mortal plane. Claire was forcefully pulled off her feet as she dashed forward and sent careening into the blue center of the sludge portal. Kaleb noticed the portal shimmer ominously as Claire went through and Jar-lock swore.

“The portal’s unstable! Hurry!”

Kaleb dragged his unconscious passenger along as Jar-lock and Vivienne were picked up and flung toward the portal. Abby was the next closest, so she got thrown forward next. The short, black-haired woman spun in the air and looked back at Kaleb, but he grinned at her as the magic picked him and the angel up. Abby’s worried look vanished as she was thrown backward through the portal. Kaleb tried to think light thoughts as the pull of the portal dragged him and the angel closer. But he saw the edges of the portal fold in on themselves. The center of the blue swirling magic shuddered and Kaleb felt his legs drag on the ground. On reflex, Kaleb tried to shove the angel forward as the portal collapsed. But they both fell to the hard ground as the magic in the portal went out.

Silence reigned in the demonic plane as Kaleb sat in the grey dirt. The angel had landed on their side, so Kaleb carefully turned them to their back. Looking around, Kaleb swore he heard shuffling in the distance. He was trapped in a demonic realm with an unconscious angel, with no way home. Getting to his feet, he heard the shuffling get louder now. Kaleb holstered the Quad-gun and pulled the Cybar.

“Well,” He said tiredly. “Let’s see what happens now.”