1 Awakening

***

Dark Mountains, Ironbeard's Tomb, inner Sanctum

"Ironbeard's Tomb was an old and forgotten tomb designed by dwarven engineers thirty years ago. Now the tomb lays dormant and decaying, many of the walls now broken by water corrosion. The scent of rusted iron fills the hallways with a red dust always floating around waiting to suffocate those who were not prepared like the many on the floor. Some fresh, many old carcasses of various races lay on the floor, some pinned on the spikes of the walls and so forth. The tomb held a treasure known as the Jackals Eye, a cyan sphere with a dark spot in the center. The treasure was said to provide any who hold it with the strength of thousands of soldiers. However there was a counterpart to the treasure, one that was the reason for the many traps the dwarven race placed in this tomb. For whoever was to crack the eye would unleash a forgotten monster created by one of the dwarven Gods as an experiment of the material and immaterial. A monster that both existed yet will never be, a horror that strikes fear into many mortals. This monster is known as a Shard, and we're about to witness its birth within this world." The oracle would wave her old decaying hand across the archway door keeping the soldiers and the cold outside. 

To her side is a human with a plague doctor's mask and black traveling hat. They wear a general's uniform along with carrying two ornate flintlocks and a sword. Behind them are hundreds of soldiers in ironclad armor with plague doctor masks fixed to their helmets, and four power knights. Each one was a marvel of magic and science, the fine integration of both makes the creation of power knights a rare sight.

"We thank you under agreement of the Huldrax Pact, you may go on your way now. Further interference towards this unit will result in your termination of existence." The general placed their hand on the door, curious of what the Jackals Eye could do under their control. They take a few moments before stepping back as two of the power knights place their mechanical handa against the door.

The pilots of the power knights on the door activate a cylinder which houses a specific spell for unlocking any doors. Around the knight's hands a few sparks flew out before a magical symbol spirals into existence slamming against the door three times before opening allowing the army to march inside.

Once inside several lights emanate from the knights and a few soldiers who were able to cast simple tier I magic. The sight before them was both a beauty and a frightening sight. Part of the tomb fell into a dark abyss on the left side, while most of the right side was left intact only leaving one hallway to go deeper into the tomb. The knights stayed behind to guard the entrance and to prevent further damage to the decaying tomb. The soldiers along with the general marched on into the depths of the tomb. Some traps were easily detected and disabled or circumvented. Others were of a magical nature which cost the lives of several dozen soldiers. Even then they pushed forth knowing the treasure before them was more valuable than a few lives.

After searching the dark hallways of the tomb they walked into an antechamber with Ironbeard's iron sarcophagus situated in the middle and a giant iron door with six runes illuminating the room in an arc of different colors resembling a rainbow effect. Several soldiers placed mana bombs against the iron doors. Meanwhile the general opens up the sarcophagus to see the corpse of a dwarven king lying with his battleaxe intact over his chest. On the upper hand guard of the axe was a bright cyan orb with a dark spot in the center. The general laughs as he starts prying the orb. The iron door erupts in magical explosions causing everyone to go off balance as the whole tomb shakes from the concussive forces created. A metal shard strikes the Jackals Eye while severing the right index figure off the general's hand. The blood seeped into the cracks on the sphere, and for a few moments nothing happened. The general was furious at the outcome of possibly losing their prize, he turned around to yell towards his soldiers until all the magical light faded in the room.

The well lit room became dark as the inside of a grave. Soldiers frantically create tier I spells to light up their areas. As this goes on everyone in the room can hear a heartbeat followed by metal scratching the surfaces of the room. Light after light that's created shows the shadows of jagged metal pieces from the iron door converging towards Ironbeard's sarcophagus. Everyone steps back from the deafening sounds of metal clashing metal as a tornado effect occurs over the dead dwarf shredding his remains into dust. The heartbeat grew steady and nearly silent, the faint noise was well enough to disturb the soldiers in the tomb. But fear struck their hearts the moment the room started to light up in an ominous cyan hue. This hue came from the monster that stood before them, this monster had no form or vital organs. This monster was the combination of thousands of iron shards surrounding a now giant cyan orb as it increases and decreases the intensity of light after each heartbeat.

"Wh~" Before the soldier could finish the word the monster slams itself into their body shredding their armor and flesh, painting the room and other soldiers in blood. More and more soldiers screamed and casted magic or fired off their rifles both with little effect as they died on the spot. The monster splits its form to kill multiple soldiers at a time, however the more veteran soldiers were able to deflect or dodge its attacks. Every life this monster took the more pieces of metal that attach to its form, even the iron in their blood is mixed into the core.

"Fall back, we must regroup with the knights!" The general takes cover as a large piece of shrapnel flies his way. He and several veteran run back through the tomb backtracking to the knights.

The rest of the soldiers were not so lucky, only thirty soldiers remained while twenty three veterans followed the general back. These soldiers fought against this horror with everything they had but ultimately died except for one person who had their back against the wall screaming for help as he furiously attempted to log out.

"Help! God fucking help me pleas~" The soldier was impaled through their stomach forcing them to cough up blood. In front of them was what looked like a secondary orb just a meter away from his face. This orb was blood red, and smelled of iron. Several metal shards slowly converge over the red orb to the point they begin to scratch its surface. At first it was making a lot of noise until the scratches smoothed out craters in the orb and the monster spoke.

"God... help… god…" The soldier gets eviscerated by a torrent of broken blades and shards of metal. The tomb was quiet once again except for the faint footsteps echoing through the hallways. The monster follows the sounds creating a wave of shrapnel flying through the hallways activating many traps which effected nothing on its path. The blood red orb leads the charge as the cyan orb is behind the torrent covered in hundreds of shattered armor pieces.

The general and his veterans end up outside the combat zone generated by the fight. Some veterans log out to save their character progression. Those remaining stood fast at the entrance with the knights having their weapons ready to combat the monster ahead. One knight stood back with its large rifle, another had a large shield at the ready with the other two knights with glowing holy swords on either side of the shield. Everyone waited anxiously for the fight to come, the general casted a tier IV communications spell to send a live feed back to their headquarters. A few seconds after starting the feed the soldiers started firing at the darkness with a red glow in the distance.

"Falkren Order, this is general billygotmad. I am broadcasting this live feed to warn you about a possible regional class monster in the dark mountains territory. This monster has killed off seventy percent of my soldiers, I'm attempting to hold it off at the entrance." The general can hear the screams of his soldiers and the sounds of gunfire and magic going off in tangent before fading away to silence. One knight runs away without its left arm, another close behind falls just behind getting torn into shreds. Before a large blood red orb glows in the darkness getting closer to the general. The orb had more grove marks with metal shards at various angles, some of them start to move.

"God, it's here." At that moment a flood of shards breaks through the plague doctor's mask of the general. Forcing shards of metal down his throat until his body explodes into a bloodied mess.

This scene restarts at the beginning, where the soldiers stand ready at the gates in the cold as the perspective pans outwards the scene is on a shiny blood red shard before it crumbles into iron dust making its path towards the red orb. The shard looks around the outside of the tomb's entrance. The snowy mountains were a sight to see, a slight purplish haze filled the skies as the sun set past a large mountain. Down below lights started to flicker into view under the coming veil of darkness, the shard looks down towards the lights. Some of the sharda vibrate to the frequencies of noise generated from the small town two kilometers down.

"It's coming." The shard flows down the mountainside scratching its surface as it moves about. Several animals got between its wake before it came near a pack of wolves that howled at its sight. Many growled at the monster before them. The shard starts to take form, mimicking the body structure of the wolf with the cyan core protected in the chest area and the one blood red core where the right eye would be. The wolves backed away slowly so as to not provoke the shard. It continues its path down the mountain towards the town.

***

Freedom Valley, Falkren Headquarters, Communications room

The players watching the live feed end had many reactions, some were fearful while others were excited for a challenge. And a few lost their appetite for the rest of the evening. Several of the guild generals watched the feed over and over to get a better look at the monster.

"Looks like they made another update on monster classes, this one is insane!" General TraitorousPickle would comment as he examined the monster from the feed.

"I think it may be a bug in the system, it didn't have a status board over it." General InYu would state as she sat back in her chair eating a popsicle. 

"Whatever it is we need to contact a stronger guild to help us deal with it. There are five player towns around that area that have an influence in some of our trading goods and materials." General BismarcK started to make some tier V calls to get faster communication to other guilds to call out for assistance.

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