New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



Outside the coliseum, Phoenix was trying to lead the party toward Astaroth's last known location. But the undead horde kept pushing them into side streets, with their numbers suddenly increasing in some places, and reducing in others.

Phoenix quickly understood that whatever was controlling them, didn't want them to rejoin Astaroth, and it perplexed her. She had already forgotten which building on her map Astaroth had gone into, and could no longer find her way to him.

As things were currently, she didn't know where they were anymore, and things looked bad. The horde of undead had steadily gone back to its former numbers, and ghouls were already battering them from above again.

The party fought back as hard as they could, but the damage was piling up, as Jeanne's mana pool was dwindling. Phoenix knew she and Violette couldn't channel their full powers again for a good while, and their options kept shrinking.

Looking up, the insect swarm that had been slaughtering the undead birds was slowly dying out, some birds occasionally slipping through their ranks and diving at the party. Things were looking grim.

But as she was looking upward, a sudden flash in the distance to her left caught her attention.

A bright white golden beacon of light rose from somewhere in the city, reaching the sky. And something else came with it.

On the party list, Astaroth's name lit up again. But something was weird about it.

His health bar flashed between green and gold, the numbers under it glitching between their usual, and question marks.

"What the fuck is happening over there?!" Jaxx shouted, noticing the beacon of light.

But as he said that, the beacon disappeared again, Astaroth's name greying out once more.

Phoenix's face steeled.

"I'm not sure, but that is where we need to go! Push through the undead! Use all you got! Let's go!"

Although most of them were already tired, seeing Phoenix suddenly get a burst of renewal made them want to prove they could, too. Even Jaxx, who was regretting every part of joining this excursion, decided he was going to see it through.

"RRAAGGHH!!!!" he shouted out.

His little war cry had no effect on his power levels, but he resolved himself to push above and beyond, at least to redeem some pride for himself.

The party started charging through the undead horde, the damage they took doubling from previously. Jeanne was getting paler by the second, her mana reserves almost empty, when a surge of energy took her.

Looking next to her, she noticed the little fey girl, Twinxie, who had her hand on her back. One of her eyes was now different from the other, shining a bright emerald green, in contrast to the pale blue of the other.

From the party list, Jeanne could see Twinxie's mana bar go down, as her own went up.

'A mana transfer spell? That exists?' Jeanne wondered.

But she wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Her healing magic burst out again, topping everyone one up in health as they charged forward.

Twinxie was using her pixie's abilities to transfer her life force to another person. It was well known in New Eden that pixies stole the life force of lost travellers to feed themselves.

But they could use this in other ways, like this one. But Twinxie knew there was only so much she could do.

She wanted to keep a bit of her mana, to use one last ability, before she was useless for a while.

Taking her hand away from Jeanne's back, after almost filling up the healer's mana bar, she opened up her book. The pages flipped on their own, reaching the one she was envisioning.

A gust of wind erupted from the page now open, and a small tornado picked up around the party.

Phoenix looked at the little girl, impressed. But her pale skin told her this wouldn't last long.

"Move! Move! Move!" Phoenix barked, like a drill sergeant.

The conjured tornado lasted only for thirty seconds, but the effects were plenty. In those thirty seconds, the party reached the face of the large coliseum from which the light beacon had come from.

The undead horde had circled them, the winds too strong for them to reach the players while it lasted. They were now guarding the entrance.

This only reaffirmed Phoenix's thoughts, that this was where they needed to be. She grinned at the undead stacking before the large archway.

"I might not have my full power. But I can clear this obstacle, no problem," she declared.

Raising one hand above her head, Phoenix started pouring all her mana into one fireball, the players around her watching with horror as it ballooned above them. In a matter of seconds, the fireball was like a miniature sun.

The heat under it was quickly becoming unbearable, to the point Violette had to shield them from it with her water magic. The undead tried charging them to interrupt her magic.

But they couldn't make it closer than a few meters away from the front liners. Any step closer, and they instantly caught fire.

Phoenix huffed, her mana reserves almost empty once again.

"Flame Cataclysm; Erupting Star."

After saying those words, the miniature sun above her flared once more, before contracting into a fist-sized ball. Then it blew up.

Violette hastily conjured a water barrier above their heads, pouring an insane amount of mana into it, as it turned to vapour and reformed in a loop.

When the eruption finally died down, no undead remained around them, in a hundred-meter diameter. The steps to the coliseum-looking building were clear of threats.

But things looked dire.

Both Violette and Phoenix had virtually dried up their mana reserves. Twinxie wasn't far from the same state, as was Peaceful Grove, the druid.

Jeanne had about half her mana bar gone and was physically tired from all the running. The front liners weren't too bad, in comparison, aside from some light cuts and tired traits.

But they knew the fight was far from over.