Factions Abound: Hades Collective

As soon as Merrick dropped into the dungeon, he gave a few quick orders to Alric and then the Thief disappeared into the darkness. The dungeon was reset and unlocked. The first thing that Merrick wanted his teammate to do was clean up, loot, and gain experience. The dungeon was full of monsters, including named monsters like the Wicked Surgeon. It was the perfect hunting ground for a build like Alric to do a speedrun.

The other thing that Merrick asked Alric to do was to find the target item. The Colosseum Champion's Soul sounded like a tangible item but there was no way to be sure. Alric had found a library of sorts during the second round while Yorin was taunting Desci. Merrick would have preferred to look for the answer himself, but that did not seem possible at this time.

Despite the War Officiant's warning, Merrick knew that Hades Collective would still be coming for him. Much to Alric's dismay, Merrick's plan was to walk directly into that ambush. According to the map that Alric made, there was a straight path from both starting points to a central location.

If there was a boss fight involved in grabbing the final item, that was where that would happen. There were other paths that went around the central room. Hades Collective would use those side paths to get into place along Merrick's main path to get the jump on him. Merrick counted to ten before leaving the starting point. It was enough time to let his opponents get a head start but not enough to let them settle into a proper ambush.

Fortunately, the members of Hades Collective had little in the way of stealth skills. So their ambush was simply them blocking Merrick's path. It happened in a wide corridor with plenty of room for the three to surround Merrick if he gave them the chance.

True to fashion, DeathX stood behind his teammates. The Faction Leader and Sorcerer never seemed like the type to put himself directly in harm's way. It was part of what started to, and continued to, frustrate Merrick about his opponent. DeathX was the opposite of Thom.

Desci and Grunt were front and center. Their weapons were raised and their abilities were primed. Merrick smiled and taunted them, "Death, didn't you say that you weren't going to take this personally?"

"The Curious Glades have no right to be a part of the Top Ten. Without you and that hack of a Faction Leader, you'd be nothing."

Merrick frowned and suddenly felt a lot better about what was about to happen. "Listen, I agree with some of what you said. We don't belong in the Top Ten. However, that is my friend's dream… and that friend is not a hack. So… I'll give you a chance to take that back… before you regret it."

DeathX offered no response. Instead he tapped on Grunt's shoulder and then took a few steps back to start charging up a spell. Grunt charged forward and yelled out the name of the Paladin's most popular ability, "Holy Smite!"

The Paladin's heavy sword started to glow. A low burning edge was applied to the blade. Holy Flame, an offensive buff that granted a weapon the ability to cut through any magical resistance.

Merrick let out a sigh and gave Crudle a silent command. He had been hoping to hold onto this trap card for a bit longer before playing it. His companion, the dust mephit, had been hiding among the stones beneath their feet. As soon as Grunt started his charge, Crudle clenched onto the ground beneath his feet and tore it free. The Paladin lost his footing, his glowing sword swung early and buried itself with Holy Flame into the wall of the dungeon.

With one hand, Merrick started to wind up a spell to deal with DeathX. It was less of an actual spell and more of an energy siphon. It would take a few moments to take effect, but fortunately it looked like DeathX was using his teammates as cannon fodder to slow Merrick down while he charged up an extremely powerful fire spell.

With his other hand, Merrick pulled the slime jar from his satchel and tossed it through the air at Desci. The Druid noticed the jar and remembered the medicine that Alric had thrown at him. It visibly frustrated the Druid. However, unlike the medicine, he should not have shattered the jar that Merrick threw at him.

As soon as the metal tipped staff broke the jar, it released the slime within. The monster wrapped around the staff in the span of a second. It was a syrupy purple and Merrick was honestly surprised with how quickly it worked. He had assumed the slime would be kind of lazy but instead it was… hungry.

Desci tried to drop the staff before the slime reached his hands. Due to the injury from Yorin's arrows, one hand moved slower than the other. The slime reached out like someone falling from a ledge and was able to latch on to the fingertips at the end of Desci's injured arm.

The Druid swore and tried to summon spores to force the slime off his arm. Unfortunately, the slime devoured the spores like they were a treat. It did nothing but speed the slime's growth. Within seconds, Desci was devoured. Hades Collective was down one member in the Faction War.

Now it was two against two. Merrick devoted both hands to crafting the arcane siphon as DeathX neared the end of charging up his fire spell. Crudle rose from within the ground to face off against Grunt as the angered Paladin pulled his sword from the wall.

Crudle hovered on dusty wings with impossibly long claws. Grunt seemed to take it as an insult that Merrick would leave dealing with him to a mere summoned companion. Unfortunately, Grunt underestimated Merrick's companion. He charged with a mere sword strike, intent on taking down the dust mephit, but he had no idea the amount of combat that mephit had been through since Merrick's account had been reset. It was not just Merrick's abilities that had grown, but also his companions.

Grunt made it two steps before the ground at his feet softened. His heavy boots sunk into the suddenly sandy ground. Crudle landed on the Paladin's shoulder like a gargoyle and chuckled before plunging a set of claws into the razor thin gap of armor at the Paladin's neck.

At the same time, the sandy ground swallowed the Paladin whole. Leaving just Crudle, standing on what was now solid stone, looking up at Merrick. It was… a little unsettling and probably more gruesome than needed but it worked. Merrick was not out to make the crowd love him, like Yorin had done. His goal was to make Hades Collective regret their decision to target his Faction.

Now that his teammates were down, DeathX was staring down the wide corridor at his failed ambush. There was a slime growing out of Merrick's control. An impossibly powerful summoned companion who's elemental attribute was the opposite of DeathX's fire. Not to mention the Mage that started all of this, who was weaving arcane energy between his fingers like some kind of human loom.

As a last minute decision, DeathX took all of the energy that he had been gathering into a single target spell. He had been planning on casting an overpowered version of the simple fire spell: Fire Bolt. Instead, he channeled all of that energy into a pure wave of fire and released it down the corridor. He had no way to know that Merrick had already dealt with similar abilities in his very first dungeon.

The fire washed away the slime. That was a blessing; Merrick did not know how he was going to deal with that. Merrick unsummoned Crudle. The dust mephit would have survived the wave but it still would have hurt. Finally, to protect himself, Merrick threw the energy siphon that he had been weaving out in front of him like an arcane net.

It spread like a barrier and greedily absorbed all of the fire that came within five feet of Merrick. As the wall of fire passed by, it was warm but not unbearable. Merrick stood in a five foot square, completely surrounded by fire, but untouched by it.

From DeathX's perspective, however, Merrick simply stood through the fire unscathed. The wall of fire had blocked the Sorcerer's sight so he did not see the energy siphon absorb part of his spell.

Before DeathX could strike again, Merrick grabbed onto the energy that he had captured and immediately turned it back on the original caster. Rather than a wave, Merrick funneled it back into the intended shape: Fire Bolt.

A white-hot lance of fire shot forward. DeathX stepped to the side and mostly dodged the attack. However it caught his right arm, reducing the sleeve of his robe to cinders and turning his underneath into char.

"How-" was all that DeathX was able to get out before Alric emerged from the shadows and planted the Wicked Surgeon's Scalpel into his neck. DeathX went down like the sack of potatoes that he was.

Alric removed the scalpel and flipped it through the air before catching it deftly and tucking it away into his vest. "You were right, the loot was worth it."

Merrick smiled and was about to thank the Thief but Alric continued, "Also, I thought you were some kind of genius… but it looks like you barely managed to take down the three of them. Even with preparing."