Avilien

Ticking bomb

Nargl attacked Nate with relentless fury, just as he had done with Lance. No one had seen the Necromancer in action before except for Brit. He commanded spawned minions to absorb the puddles of rust, clearing the battlefield, as he parried each one of Nargl's vicious and deadly attacks with a scrawny scythe. Brit, who grinded her teeth from side to side, clenched her firsts and readied herself to fight. As high as her rage bar went, she had no stamina to survive a battle with anything, let alone getting inbetween Nate and Nargl.

Outside of the boss zone, Nate's remaining army of the damned battled the smaller forces and made doubly sure that none interfered. Nate also had created bone sabres to attack Nargl, as it was the only way he could get any offence on the enraged menace.

"Hurry it up! Do I look like a tank?" shouted Nate as a pack of six bone sabres snapped and clawed at Nargl's exposed flesh, inflicting damage in the thousands.

Amilia hurried the transfer of XP to Luke, sending him up by two levels and without Brit knowing, Squeeks had snuck off and started to transfer all of Brit's XP, sending Luke to level fifteen.

"Give me thirty seconds!" shouted Luke to Nate as he now scrolled through his character sheet and started to select the skills, abilities, and attributes he wanted.

"I'm going to delete you!" screamed Brit as she flew into a frantic rage and rushed towards Nate and Nargl. All sensible reason had left her mind.

Lance, noting and watching what Brit was doing, chased after her and then dove on her, throwing the pair of them to the ground.

"Get off me, Prance! Do you want me to delete you?" Brit flailed her arms and legs trying to get Lance off.

"Try it. You're level zero now like me." Lance grabbed Brit's wrists as she tried to punch him in the face. Brit hadn't noticed what Squeeks had done and as she looked towards Luke and her blue little mouse, she felt betrayed.

Game guides could give away their masters' XP at a heavy cost. It broke serious Avilien laws and warranted high-level corrupters to attack. Not that it was a problem, seeing as imminent death loomed nearby.

"Why Squeeks? Are you trying to get Duke deleted?" asked Brit.

"There is no other choice, Miss Brit. We must believe in Master Luke."

"But Nate is also here!"

"I don't like this situation, either, but if we are to make it to Avilien in the next few minutes, then we need his help, too," said Squeeks as he looked at the floor.

"Duke is going to be deleted! Why can't you all see that you're sending him to his death? Duke, don't fight! If Nargl doesn't end you then Nate will; he's a no-good snake."

"A pink flowing dress with printed red Askians on it. An elegant Orichium necklace and a Quantinium jewelled ring," said Luke, making Brit's face drain of colour. "I'll beat Nargl and then see you all on the other side sometime." Luke smiled at Brit and then charged off to fight the invasion boss.

Tears flowed from Brit's eyes and she gave up all will to fight Lance. No one understood what Luke first meant apart from her. With trembling lips, she smiled.

"Dragons wake!" shouted Luke as he jumped over Nate and headed towards Nargl. Like a phasing ability, his body shot through Nargl and appeared on the other side, Nargl set on fire with a giant cut across his torso, inflicting thousands of burning damage and even more damage from the fire itself, as it sliced off all of the metal armour.

"Show me what you can do!" shouted Nate as he kept Nargl busy attacking him. "Show me exactly what Awesome Biscuit is capable of," Nate muttered the last statement as he produced a sickening smile while parrying another deadly blow. Even Luke didn't hear it as he sent a green Triple Wind Slash attack down on Nargl.

Sliced and diced like common veg, the two attacks combined and fused into an even nastier attack, making the flames grow bigger and turn green like Mock's Engulfing Flames ability.

"Is that all a Necromancer is capable of?" Luke landed on the ground as Nargl's health dwindled away at a ridiculous speed. By rights, Luke knew the damage didn't match up. Something was off, but it didn't matter as long as Nargl got deleted.

Knowing full well what Nate had done to Brit, to Islington, and to countless others, Luke prepared to fight him now that he was in a position to do so, unlike back at the school. As far as he was now concerned, Nargl was no longer an issue or a threat. He had seen right though Nate's lie that Nargl had a bomb to blow up the town. It felt like a line straight from a movie. With less than twenty thousand health remaining, the flames around Nargl fizzled out and the monster breathed heavily. Less than two minutes remained until Avilien went live, and now Japanese music had started to play through the GTs—the same soundtrack from the Dance with the Devils raid boss in Forest of Winter.

"I suggest we save our fight for another time," said Nate as he dismissed his weapon and whistled for his sabres to return to him. "Finish the boss and claim your reward." Nate continued as he sat down on the ground with folded legs.

In the very beginning, Luke had never intended to just stall Nargl. When people started to donate their XP, he'd decided then and there he would defeat the Cyclops Gollum. At level eight, he gained the skill Insight and used it to find out more about Nargl, like the fact he was weak to fire attacks. At level ten, Luke took up the ability Dragons Wake instead of Icy Breath, and coupled that with a level-twelve wind element attack Triple Wind Slash. The damage multipliers alone were not enough to cause such damage to Nargl, and it should have taken at least six minutes to whittle him down, not two attacks.

Whatever attack Nate used on the boss before Luke reached him boosted the damage done and had just vanished from Nargl, leaving the boss with twenty health.

"To lose to such pathetic players..." Nargl started to Laugh as Luke sent forward another Triple Wind Slash, causing him to explode into thousands of green XP.

All of the invasion force did the same with their leader defeated. Music played so loud it sounded like it came from a nearby concert, soothing and yet empowering at the same time. In addition to the giant victory sign floating over the entire town, Luke received an item. He didn't so much as get to see the item before his hands and weapon vanished. This was now it. Avilien was going live and they had all made it.

One quick glance back at the group of his friends, and Luke could see most of them smiling at him as they, too, started to fade away. Brit remained staring in shock and awe and Anna could no longer look at anyone. Luke watched them all disappear before him and turn into light heading up towards the red vortex.

"Why did you jump in to save us? There was no bomb, either, was there?" Luke asked as he looked at Nate.

"I'll tell you why I saved you twice if you can continue to put on world class performances within Avilien." Nate smiled at Luke and then vanished. A stream of white light soaring into the heavens. Not long after, Luke and Nebs did the same.

The next message to greet Luke's eyes was this:

"Avilienis now loading"