Rune Seeker

Hiral burst to the side off a plane of Rejection, dodging the bolts of energy that shot from the Death-Sphere’s cannons. Much like the Glass Cannons they’d fought in the Lost Refuge of the Lost, these bolts erupted with explosive force when they met the wall, gushing smoking energy out that gnawed at Hiral’s sensory domain.

It wasn’t just the explosion that was dangerous, but also the almost-misty fallout as well. Whatever the cannons were firing, it wasn’t pure energy. More like some kind of energy-encased, corrosive payload.

“Don’t get hit by those.” Hiral stated the obvious into the party chat, and he didn’t need his sensory domain to know he was getting flat stares from the others in the room. But, despite the warning, most of the others just weren’t fast enough to completely avoid the opening salvo.

Seeyela’ Bamf’d out of the way of the ones coming at her, while Seena got her defensive ability – petals of flame blooming from the ground – up to protect her and Gran. Wallop and Romin had no such luck, though the big Rune-o turned its body to block the shots aimed at its Bonder. And, Yanily? For the first time, stabbing didn’t work, with the blast exploding as soon as his spear hit it.

Left and Right managed to do a bit better than the spearman – opting to dodge instead of intercept – but some of the caustic fallout caught both of them. The glowing blue energy left nasty burns where it stuck, solar energy leaking off the doubles, but it wasn’t nearly enough to stop them.

Through the Party Interface, Hiral saw Wallop had taken the worst of it – with three direct hits – while Yanily lost almost a quarter of his health to the one shot. Worse, it still seemed to be ticking down, the cloud of energy eating away at him.

The only real saving grace out of the barrage unleashed by the Mid-Boss was that it didn’t seem to be able to do it again right away. There was some kind of cooldown, and the party moved to take advantage of it.

Hiral immediately activated Resonance of Heroes and Domain of the Sun+ – without using Double Trouble+ so it only had the thirty-minute cooldown – while Left shaped his Banner of Courage. The Mid-Boss had earned them at least taking it that seriously, and the glowing amphitheatre sprung to life along the boundaries of the arena.

While Hiral’s ability didn’t do anything to stop the traps – it actually even incorporated them – the other buffs it gave would help tip the scales. Aura of Peace and Circle of Peace quickly followed, giving the group some more defensive options, and lightning exploded from where Yanily had been encompassed by the blue energy.

Gone was the spearman’s regular form, replaced by the draconic Aspect. Energy sizzled on his scales, his wings snapping out and then flexing to launch him forward. So fast it had to be part-movement-ability, Yanily closed the distance in an instant to slam his spear right at one of the Death-Sphere’s cannons.

At, but not into, with another field of blue energy springing up to block the spear mere inches from the cannon’s barrel.

“Shield of some kind,” Yanily said, standing on his Path of Butterflies and unleashing a barrage from his Reed Spear Style. The spear tip slammed into the shield so fast it was impossible to tell the individual weapon apart from the afterimages seemingly left by the attacks. Small waves of energy formed on the shield, like rain drops falling on a puddle, but Yan’s weapon didn’t punch through.

Like he’d quickly had enough of that, Yanily’s spear snapped back, and the dragon-man leaned forward, energy pooling in front of his open maw. Color faded from the room, and then a heartbeat later, Dragon’s Breath was unleashed. At point blank range, the beam slammed into the shield, then seemed to slide along its curved surface, before splitting off in a ‘Y’ shape to smash into the walls beyond.

Energy from the spectral walls of Hiral’s Domain bled off from the impact, though the arena wall beyond was left undamaged. Even after one of the spearman’s most powerful attacks, the shield stood strong, the Death-Sphere inside remaining undamaged.

During the assault from Yanily, the others hadn’t stayed idle, either. One of Hiral’s RHC shots had gotten through before, but that didn’t seem to be an option anymore. He dashed around the room, side to side, high and low – while avoiding the endless stream of poison darts, fire, and traps – and pulled his triggers one after the other. No matter what angle he hit it from, nothing got past the new barrier.

Across from him, Seena laid into the shield with Fireballs and plasma spears, trying both area of effect and concentrated shots. They did about as well as Hiral and Yanily. Even Wallop had stampeded in to slam his Impact-enhanced horn into the shield, and while it flashed under his weight, it didn’t break. On the opposite side of the Rune-o, Right and Left pounded on the shield with fists and daggers. Concussive waves warped the air from every one of Right’s punches, while Left dashed out and then back in to hit with explosive streams from his Daggers of En and Sath. None of it worked.

“Sis,” Seena said. “Can you get inside that shield?”

“No,” Seeyela spat. “The shield is blocking my teleports. What the hell is it? And why can’t we break it?”

“It doesn’t seem to be getting any weaker, either,” Hiral said, stowing his RHCs on his thighs, and forming claws of Separation. A quick slash of his hands hurled the blades at the shield – right then left – but they didn’t do anything more than spark. “There’s got to be a trick to it.”

“We’d better figure it out before… oh shit,” Seena said, seeing the same thing Hiral was. Glowing blue energy formed around the barrels of the cannons – the next salvo was coming.

That was about thirty seconds, was all he had a chance to think before the blasts came.

Caught point blank range – again – Wallop took the worst of it, though Gran’s threads had already snapped out to connect to him. Romin – crouched behind his tanky companion managed to avoid the initial eruption – had to backpedal to escape the dangerous smoke. Yanily, for his part, seemed to take the hit much better on his defensive scales, but the larger size caused him to get hit by two shots instead of just one.

Hiral grabbed Left and Right with Attraction to get them away from being right in front of the cannons, then used wedges of Rejection to shield them from the one blast that hit. The strange, blue smoke ate its way through those barriers, but it gave the doubles enough time to get out of danger.

That just left Seena, Seeyela, and Gran, though they were at the far side of the arena from Hiral. Seena’s defensive wings – petals? – were still on cooldown, but her sister quickly took on the challenge. A sheet of black rolled down in front of the trio, swallowing a pair of the blasts, before a second sheet unfurled next to the Mid-Boss’s shield, spitting the blasts back out.

Blue explosions lit up the entire side of the shield, showing how it covered the Death-Sphere completely, even up and over the lightning-spitting rods. But, as Hiral watched the smoke fall down to the blades, the sparking on the shield faded.

That had to be the weakness!

“There’s no shield under the horizontal blades!” he said into the party chat, lashing his claws of Separation in that direction. They didn’t do much better against the spinning, brass blades than they did against the shield.

“There’s also about a million buzzsaws down there,” Yanily pointed out. “Not to mention the fire and whatever other traps are set for us.”

“All the more reason Hiral has to be right,” Seena said. “I’ll take care of it.”

“How?” Seeyela asked. “This brass – or whatever metal it actually is – is practically impervious to your flames. Wait, are you going to try throwing a boot at it?”

“That’s just your backup plan,” Seena said. “I’ve got something else in mind. Let’s go, Ur.”

With that, Seena watched the strafing bolt of lightning, then dropped down towards the floor. In the fifteen-foot space between arcing electricity from the wall and the spinning blades, numerous saws rose and fell through slits in the floor, like dangerous predators lurking below the surface of the water. Luckily, a few seconds of watching showed exactly where those blades ‘hunted’, and Seena landed in a relative area of safety.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

On the Mid-Boss, a pair of the cannons followed her motion – lining up their next shot – but she had almost twenty seconds before they fired again. And, she obviously planned on making the most of it, solar energy beginning to build in her, while Li’l Ur summoned reinforcing script that etched itself into the floor.

“Yan, how long left on your Aspect?” Hiral asked, still strafing around and lashing out with his claws. Not that they were doing any good.

“Twenty-two seconds,” the spearman said, back to hammering at the shield. He wasn’t doing any better than Hiral.

“It’ll be enough,” Seena said. “Get ready!”

As soon as she finished speaking, solar energy rushed ahead of Seena like a tidal wave, the intensity of it almost visible as the air warped. Except, there was no fire. No plasma. No… nothing?

Just what was she…?

The answer came a second later, hidden by the spinning blades but clear to Hiral’s sensory domain – roots. Spearing Roots, to be precise. Erupting from the floor at the base of the Death-Sphere, the roots bypassed all the dangers of the traps to strike. Against the durability of the strange brass, though?

It was a good thing these weren’t normal roots. The simple presence of them burned at Hiral’s sensory domain – much like the blue smoke from the Mid-Boss’s cannons – and had the same density to them as Seena’s compressed plasma. They weren’t just fire though, either.

No, these were something in between. Something… both. Plasma and root, though the root part was more akin to ancient wood, itself compressed over time to an almost supernatural hardness. The two combined forces melted the nearby floor, seared the air, and drove into the base of the Death-Sphere.

Dozens of the Spearing Roots struck at the same time, many of them still snapping at the absurd strength of the metal, but one got through. Then a second. A third. And they didn’t settle for piercing the brass, continuing to grow from the floor as Seena flooded the ability with solar energy.

In the Party Interface, her reserves were dropping so quickly, Hiral did a double-take to make sure he wasn’t imagining it. Nope, she’s going all in.

Outside of Li’l Ur’s script etched into the floor, plants bloomed from the metal, caught on fire, turned to ash, and then bloomed again, even larger than before. Smoke began to fill the air. No, that wasn’t it. Not smoke… pollen? The booming plants had begun flowering during their rapid cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, and those flowers released bursts of pollen into the air.

Why?

No idea.

But it surrounded Seena, coloring the air yellow while she concentrated.

The party leader lifted her hands from her sides, fingers spread, and palms up. Slowly, like each hand weighed hundreds of pounds, she pulled against some unseen force. Within Hiral’s domain, he felt the roots grinding deeper within the Death-Sphere, but the shield hadn’t fallen yet. She had to be close though. A little more!

Elbows bent, Seena grimaced against the resistance, a snarl escaping her lips as her own sheath flared on her body, the flames burning deeper. The mask of the phoenix over her head glared right along with her, the fires running back to connect to her mantle. Wings of flame separated from the fiery waterfall, but there was something different about them. Instead of the usual, large pair of wings, Hiral was counting two pairs.

The four wings didn’t fully spread, interrupted by Seena screaming and tearing her hands into the air like she’d shattered the chains binding her. Under the Death-Sphere, the three roots tore deeper inside, finally hitting something vulnerable, and the blue shield around the Mid-Boss shattered like shards of broken glass.

Seena dropped to her knees where she was, her breath coming out steaming, while the plants around her ceased their cycles of rebirth. Grass, flowers, and even small trees stood as a stark and vibrant clash of color against the metal around them. And they were spreading. The small patch of greenery grew – ever so slightly – in Hiral’s domain.

But, he didn’t have time to focus on that – the Mid-Boss’s shield was down, and they only had a dozen seconds before the next salvo came. Seena wouldn’t be able to protect herself.

“Go!” Hiral shouted into the party chat, and the group launched itself ahead at the vulnerable Death-Sphere.

Yanily – already right in front of the Mid-Boss – struck first, spear lashing out like a viper. Only to clang into the brass of the Death-Sphere’s shell, right where a cannon had been a heartbeat before. Almost like he didn’t believe his eyes, Yanily’s feet followed the movement of his Primal Chord of the Storm to sidestep, spin, and thrust again.

Clang.

Impossibly fast – even to Hiral’s eyes – the Mid-Boss had retracted its cannon and lowered the metal plating again. All within the time it took for Yanily to thrust. And, even as Yanily’s spear retracted – practically in slow motion to Hiral focusing on it – that same plate slid back up to reveal the cannon emerging again.

Pulling the triggers on his RHCs, Hiral didn’t do any better. The plates slid down – like the thing was somehow watching him despite not having any eyes – while the cannons vanished safely inside.

Ten seconds until the next barrage.

Yanily and Hiral both tried again – no difference. The plates were faster than them. Actually, no, what wasn’t quite right – the plates were starting to close before Hiral or Yanily attacked. The Death-Spherewas keeping track of where they were and anticipating the attacks. Maybe if Hiral could move fast enough…

He smiled as he saw a better way, Seeyela Bamf’ing from one side of the Mid-Boss to the other, her daggers pinging off the tough metal cannon before it could react. Her teleports could confuse the Death-Sphere’s predictions, apparently, but her weapons weren’t well-suited to destroying the cannons.

Good thing Hiral had a few “weapons” that were perfect for the job.

Eight seconds.

“Seeyela,” Hiral instructed. “Rapid Bamf’s. Go hard.”

Not even questioning him, the woman vanished in a burst of Infernal and Entropic flames, only to appear on the opposite side of the sphere, before she vanished again. And again. And again.

Four Bamf’s in the course of a second – seven seconds left until the salvo – and Hiral had the timing down. The next time she appeared, Hiral threaded solar energy into his Rune of Exchange, swapping Seeyela with Right.

The double – thankfully knowing how Hiral thought – was already mid-swing, and his Auroran Conqueror smashed into the barrel of the cannon right in front of him. Metal groaned and bent where fist met brass – the stronger never in doubt – and then there was a terrible tearing deeper inside. Pings and clunks followed, the cannon getting ripped off whatever mooring held it in place.

Five seconds.

Seeyela recovered from the disorientation of appearing a distance from the Death-Sphere, but she caught on immediately. Bamf activated before her feet even touched the floor, and she was once again right beside the Mid-Boss’s exposed cannons.

Another activation of the Rune of Exchange, and Yanily swapped positions with her, spear stabbing straight down the barrel of the cannon. Lightning flared from within, but Seeyela was moving again, and Hiral didn’t have time to enjoy the light show.

As soon as she appeared, another activation of his rune dropped Hiral to hang in the air in front of the metal sphere. Reaching out lightning fast, Hiral grabbed the mouth of the barrel, his fingers barely long enough to cup the edges of it, and threaded energy into his Rune of Separation. With so many individual components making up the Mid-Boss in front of him – and its attention spread between the whole party – it didn’t have time to direct any of its will towards that one small part of itself.

Four seconds.

In quick succession, Seeyela Bamf’d, and Hiral activated both his Runes of Exchange and Separation. Right and Seeyela swapped places, the double smashing another barrel while Seeyela Bamf’d yet again, at the same time the cannon in Hiral’s hand fell in a shower of perfect cubes.

Three seconds, and no time to waste, Hiral swapped Seeyela and Yanily.

Stab, Bamf, Exchange, the cycle continued. Purple and red flames, charged lightning, and cubes of impossibly-strong brass followed the group has Hiral whipped them around the Mid-Boss without anybody actually moving. Faster and faster, the teleport chain went, each party member trusting in the others to play their role in the dance.

Two seconds.

Music that had been building in Hiral’s ears stretched for its crescendo, the three Primal Chords of the Moon, Storm, and Echo working in perfect harmony. Around and around they went, the almost two dozen cannons cut down by half. Then two-thirds. Three-quarters.

One second.

The chords came together, Seeyela Bamf’ingso quickly, she never actually fully formed. It was enough, though, Resonance of Heroes triggering to leave teleporting Seeyelas in the woman’s wake, one after the other. Hiral reached out with his Rune of Dreaming to make those echoes of her last long enough for Exchange. Then, within that blink of an eye, all four of them – Seeyela, Right, Yanily, and Hiral – appeared at the same time in front of the last six cannons, energy swirling around.

Color bled from the room as a ball of energy formed in front of Yanily’s draconic mouth in the last seconds of his Aspect.

Coronas of green, purple, and red surrounded Seeyela’s Fangs of the Lady, her Primal Chord building up the combo of her movements for a dramatic finisher. The images of twin moons appeared as her daggers closed on two of the barrels.

Right hardly needed any fancy effects to signal what he was doing, though red and purple flared from his Meridian Lines, while an artificial sunrise glowed across his bald scalp from his gauntlet’s energy chains. As if in slow motion, his fist created repeating shockwaves like it was a meteor falling from the heavens.

Finally, as for Hiral, the Greatsword of Amin Thett was already mid-swing as he appeared, its fallen-star form radiating destruction. Follow-Up Blow and Empower pulsed through it, igniting the blade with roaring flames as he borrowed a hint of Seena’s power.

Then, as one, the four struck.