Chapter 350: Raiding the Vault
At the furthest end of the boss arena, atop the tallest and brightest mountain of gold, perched a simple wooden chair. It was hardly a throne, more suitable for the type of chair a night guard would find himself sleeping in when he was supposed to be guarding.
But from the sheer regal presence and glamour of the environment, and of the demon sitting upon that chair, it seemed like a humble throne surrounded by the vast hordes of wealth.
Skin of glimmering gold, two large and twisting horns of shimmering silver and eyes that did not just look like, but where actually formed from, ruby’s. That was the form of the demon sitting atop this humble throne, and it was a form that Belladonna recognised.
Beneath the wealth and the gold, lay the powerful and domineering body of an Amodite. The type of demon that had strong, brick-like upper bodies and powerful, digitigrade legs that were primed to pound like a true predator.
It was the form similar to that of the demon who had trained her, by beating her to a miserable pulp for days on end, and the form that many players recognised as belonging to the most horrible, unforgiving guards in any city.
Any player stupid enough to commit crimes in a city that had an Amodite, especially a serious crime like murder or assault, would quickly discover that their status as an Immortal, resurrecting Graceless did not inhibit the Amodite’s preference for fatal punishments. In fact it just made their creative juices flow with even more zeal, as they made the deaths slow, torturous and sometimes even repetitive.
This was Suun’Ma the Incorruptible.
"They enter without knocking or announcing themselves. They bring weapons and pets, yet nothing to offer or trade." Suun’Ma rumbled, his anger bubbling in his throat like a volcano about to erupt.
"And worst of all... They place their filthy boots on my freshly... POLISHED... GOLD!" He roared, gripping the arms of his chair tight enough to shatter the wooden armrests into a hail of splinters.
Belladonna paled as she heard his list. All of them such petty, meaningless crimes. Mostly just accidental breaking of the social rules. Which meant that they were definitely in serious trouble.
"THIEVES! THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE! DIRTY, MANNERLESS THIEVES!" His anger, not just his deafening roars but the sheer, unrestrained anger that was pouring off of him in waves, shook the entire room.
Neatly stacked mountains of gold collapsed or shifted, while the gold beneath their feet rumbled and danced, turning their already unstable foot holds into golden ice rink that caused their feet to start sliding.
Skeletal hands, formed entirely of gold, thrust themselves from the dancing piles of gold, as various skeletons pulled themselves from the pile. They were demon skeletons, undead version of everything they had faced so far, from the little lizards to the horned and winged humanoid demons, and even the cyclopian Wolf-like demons they had briefly fought on the previous floors.
All of them were already wearing the dazzling and impractical ornamental armour that filled the vault and carried with them a variety of similarly glamorous and impractical weapons. But even if they were garish, they were still sharpened steel, and that would hurt no matter how ridiculous their designs were.
"Bell, The Boss!" Saige shouted, as he stumbled slightly and desperately tried to get his footing.
"On it!" Belladonna barked back, bouncing slightly and landing not on the ground, but on a solid platform of air, before she disappeared in a flash of lightning. At the same time, Lilith let out a bellowing war cry as she leapt forwards, slamming her feet down onto the bouncing gold and crushing it flat beneath her, forming a slightly more stable footing as her aura burst outwards.
It swept into the hollow skulls of the chattering golden skeletons, as all of their glittering jewel eyes turned to her.
"Crap! I can’t take root!" Figg shouted, as he tossed handful after handful of seeds at the ground. More kept blossoming from his antlers, but every time he threw them down, the dancing golden ground would simply juggle the seeds in the air until they evaporated into pure mana once again.
"Well you have to do something!" Vestra shouted back, as balls of fire leapt from her wand, striking the golden skeletons in the head and chest, only for the flames to wash helplessly over their undead bodies.
She clicked her tongue and turned her eyes to the boss, who was still sitting and seething on his throne.
Whipping her wand towards him, Vestra made a few circular motions, as if she was wrapping something around him, before flicking it in Suun’Ma’s direction.
The bosses vision turned black, as an illusionary sphere wrapped around his head, bringing with it the deafening, hellish noise of a massive data centre. A sound that had been drilled into Vestra’s mind when she was young,
It was a noise she could never forget, and could even still hear sometimes when she tried to sleep even when there was nothing nearby. It was a sound that could drive anyone mad, and could definitely overwhelm the senses of the boss.
"He’s Blind!" Vestra announced, mostly to their vanguard who was charging forwards like a blur, whilst something heavy crashed down beside her.
A lizard, just like the ones they had ridden here on, charged forwards from beside her. However this one was not made of flesh, bone and scale, but almost entirely of wood. Vines replaced its muscles, thick bark replaced its hide and sap filled its veins.
Figg, in lizard form, swiped a bundle of undead to the side with his tail, before flicking up his new frill and ducking his head, letting all of the arrows and sword strikes clatter against himself as he took on the role of sub-tank.
On footholds of solidified air, Belladonna raced across the boss arena, weaving through mountains of gold and keeping her path unpredictable, just in case Suun’Ma remembered her trajectory before he was blinded.
She bounced around the arena like a pinball, gathering momentum, before launching herself towards the Boss, attacking him from above and behind.
Her muscles bulged under her armour as she charged her limb with mana, before launching it into a devastating punch that rattled the gold her knuckles slammed into. But it was not the gold she had been hoping it would be.