Rune Seeker

Circle and Aura of Peace settled on Hiral – thanks to Left – as Right vaulted off Wallop’s back. Flipping completely in the air – a path of purple-and-red flames trailing in a circle as he went – Right soared above the Mid-Boss, then came down. Hard.

Entropic and Infernal fire erupted in a column that stretched towards the bottom of the bridge above, while the Scorpinator buckled under the power of the blow. Metal groaned, though it was impossible to tell if it was the bridge or the Mid-Boss, as it slammed down.

On its left side, Hiral dashed in at the same time he felt Yanily do the same through his sensory domain. He’d stowed his RHCs at the sight of the thick plating the Mid-Boss had for armor, and instead went straight to the Greatsword of Amin Thett. Power thrummed through the weapon, and it burst into its fallen-star form, up, over, and down in an arc as Hiral swung. Lightning crackled through the air opposite him, so Hiral snagged a bit of it with his Empower ability, electricity dancing across his sword a heartbeat before it crashed into one of the Mid-Boss’s legs.

That should…

… do just about nothing.

Despite the power of his weapon – and the extra gravity he’d added to his swing – he’d barely dented the thick brass. This close, looking at the leg, there wasn’t even a vulnerable joint he could aim for, with plate after plate overlapping to protect everything. This thing was even more heavily armored than Wallop was!

Even as his eyes – and sensory domain – raked across the Mid-Boss in front of him for a weakness, Hiral felt a shift in the air just above. Lightning-fast, the turret on the Scorpinator’s shoulder pivoted and fired at the same time he shifted his sword in front of himself. Blocking with the flat of the blade, Hiral protected himself from the blast, but it still tossed him backwards into the railing of the bridge. Hard enough it hurt.

“Those cannons pack a punch,” Hiral said. Another turret turned and fired opposite Hiral – probably at Yanily – while two shifted to try and pin Right between them. An acrobatic, one-handed cartwheel backwards got the double between the shots, and arcs of lightning showed the spearman had likely parried the blast.

Amidst all that, scars of flame criss-crossed the claws of the Mid-Boss as Seena hit it with Cinderafter Cinder. Small totems had sprung from the railings – two on each side – to pepper the construct in endless streams of firebolts. Not that they were doing any damage, practically pinging off the thick armor to bounce away to match the room flashing red.

“I’ve got some bad news to add to that,” Seeyela said over the party chat. “There are way more Scorbalests than we planned for.”

“Where?” Hiral asked, flexing his sensory domain. He felt… maybe… a dozen or so on the bridge above, along with the balconies. That shouldn’t be too many for Seeyela to handle.

“Coming up from below,” Seeyela explained. “I can see them climbing the walls. Covering the walls. There have to be hundreds of them.”

“Hundreds?” Seena asked. “That’s… a bit much.”

“They aren’t Elite,” Seeyela said. “At least not the ones I see. Can I make I suggestion?” she asked between Bamf’s, flashes of purple and red bursting around the large room to track her progress.

“Of course,” Seena said.

“You and Yan should use your domains,” Seeyela said. “They might not outright kill all these, but they should weaken them. I’m going to add some TRAPs to the mix. Slow them down to buy you some time to finish off the Mid-Boss.”

“Finish off?” Yanily asked. “She says that like we’ve even started to damage it. Stupid armor.” He grumbled that last part so quietly it would’ve been impossible to hear without the Party Interface.

Seena seemed to think about it for a few seconds – probably weighing using the abilities now versus saving them for the final Boss – then nodded. “Do it Yan. Hiral, keep your arena of fun and death for later.”

“Got it,” Hiral said at the same time solar energy pulsed off Seena and Yanily. The next second, heavy storm clouds appeared out of nowhere, filling the upper section of the room – level with the bridge up there – while thick bolts of lightning began to fall.

“Do you know what happens when a non-Elite construct gets struck by lightning?” Yanily asked into the party chat. “The same thing that…”

“Less talking, more stabbing,” Seena interrupted, her own flaming flowers emerging from every terrain within range. Walls, balconies, the bridge above; all of them sprouted thorned, angry, flaming flowers, with angrier vines thicker than Hiral’s leg. As if the constructs had insulted their mothers, the vines lashed out with extreme prejudice at anything within range. Like Seeyela had said, the vines didn’t outright destroy the Scorbalests with a single strike, but that didn’t stop them from hitting again. And again. And again.

More of the flowers and their vines popped up around the Mid-Boss, but their relative power was all too clear – they didn’t so much as scratch the big construct’s armor. Yanily’s lightning domain didn’t do any better, but it was helping thin the mass of adds, and that was enough.

“What are we going to do about this thing?” Yanily asked, sparks spitting off where he struck with his spear. He hadn’t activated his Aspect yet, but it probably wouldn’t make enough of a difference. Not if the armor was strong enough to stop the Greatsword of Amin Thett.

“Shatter Armor,” Hiral said. “All three of us need to hit it in the same place.”

“I also have an ability that should reduce this thing’s defense,” Romin said, though he had to dive out of the way as the Mid-Boss’s tail gun strafed a line of fire in his direction. While it couldn’t shoot at those closest to it, Seena, Romin, and Gran were still valid targets.

“Great,” Seena said. “We’re hitting the back then. Same place Right punched. Get ready for round two.”

“Ready,” Right said, red-and-purple flames flaring along his Meridian Lines.

“Me, Hiral, Yan,” Seena said. “Skyfall this bastard after we set you up.”

“Got it,” Yanily said, finally activating his Aspect as Seena fired up her Phoenix Sheath. The mantle of waterfalling flames behind her split again into the same four wing-like appendages, and though they couldn’t make her fly, a powerful flap of them lifted her into the air. Fireballs in each hand, she was up thirty feet in an instant, and cocked her arms back to throw.

Except, the Scorpinator’s tail was faster, like it had been waiting for something like this. Heavy bolts of solid energy streamed in the party leader’s direction. The rotating barrels spit dozens of shots per second – though accuracy suffered for the speed – but that hardly mattered as the first shot caught Seena in the shoulder. Almost at the same time, she took more in the gut, thigh, and shin, jerking her body back like a ragdoll.

“Seena!” Hiral shouted as the woman literally got shot out of the air, four more blasts slapping her around before she crashed to the metal bridge. In his Party Interface, Seena’s health dropped almost as fast as she did.

“I’ve got her,” Gran snapped. “Pay attention!”

Pay…? So focused on Seena, Hiral barely registered the Mid-Boss’s shoulder turret turning in his direction again. By the time he figured out what it meant, the blast was already in the air, and he threw his left hand forward to block it with a wall of Rejection. Too bad for him, the construct’s attack chewed through solar energy like the arbalest bolts did, and his protective field shattered like glass.

The next thing he knew, there was a smoking hole in his Coat of Amin Thett – though his chest was in slightly better shape – and he was sitting against the railing while the world spun around him.

“Ouch,” he grumbled, then hurled himself to the side as a second bolt slammed into the railing right where he’d been leaning. Obviously, this wasn’t the time to be sitting around, and he scrambled to his hands and knees, then Rejected ahead to dodge a third bolt.

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Thunder boomed through the room, reverberating off the walls, as Yanily transformed into a bolt of lightning to bounce off the bridge above. Skyfall drove into the construct’s back, bending the legs from the force of the impact, while snakes of lightning lashed across the metal body. Frustratingly, even they couldn’t find a way through the thick armor, though Yanily didn’t seem to be finished.

In his dragonman form, he stood atop the Mid-Boss’s back, wings to the sky as he leaned forward, while a sphere of energy formed in front of his open maw. Color bled from the room as he gathered power for his Dragon’s Breath. One more second…

A bolt from another of the turrets struck him in the side, twisting him around as his breath attack released. The lancing beam strafed across the bridge, up the side of the wall, then through the clouds above before it was finally spent, a wall of energy exploding off where it passed.

And where it barely missed Seeyela.

A Bamf got the woman out of harm’s way, but it also meant she was out of position. Sure, Scorbalest parts rained from where they got caught in the crossfire of Yanily’s errant breath attack, dozens of them killed in an instant. Some had survived though, and those aimed their tails to open fire.

Hiral ducked one, sidestepped a second, and literally slapped a third out of the air – easy enough as long as he didn’t hit the magic-tearing bolthead. Only, he wasn’t the only target. More than a dozen bolts convened towards Gran and Seena, the party leader sitting upright after getting healed by the vampire. Neither of them saw the barrage coming.

Good thing Right and Left did.

The doubles slid into place between the assault and their party members. Right’s Auroran Conquerers flashed as he batted one bolt after another out of the air, going so far as to catch a pair of them, only to throw them back to deflect two more. The man’s movements were so smooth, the idiot-string of energy between the two gauntlets hovering over his head left an afterimage of his movements like sunlight streaming between tall trees.

Opposite him, Left took his Daggers of En and Sath and slammed the two hilts together. Now that he finally had both daggers at his disposal, he could use their true power. As soon as the weapons combined, they extended, forming a two-bladed spear made of flaming liquid. Around and around, he spun, streamers from both blades trailing behind. Unlike before, these streamers didn’t race to catch up with the blades when he struck. No, these continued to just hang in the air, acting as shields that stole momentum from the streaking arbalest bolts.

Though the bolts stole some of the magic from the streams, Left had layered so many in front of each attack, it hardly mattered. One bolt, and then the next, thunked to the floor, their momentum stolen.

That only left one bolt that slipped past the two doubles, streaking straight for Seena’s face even as she turned to finally notice it.

Gran, fast as she was, also got caught flatfooted, and her hand snaked out a second too late, only catching the shaft of the projectile after it struck Seena. Struck… and did nothing, Shield of Peace absorbing all the impact and damage.

Despite Seena surviving the last attack – thanks to Left’s quick actions – the party had definitely come out worse in that exchange. And the Scorpinator wasn’t finished there, its pincers finally snagging one of Wallop’s shoulder horns and his leg. With a scuttling shift of its legs, and an impressive amount of strength, the construct shoved the Rune-o off to the side, the big companion quick-stepping to keep his massive weight upright.

There, finally free of the obstacle in front of it, the Mid-Boss lowered its tail to aim directly at Gran and the seated party leader. With the barrels already spinning, the hail of bolts was unavoidable. The Scorpinator’s whole body leaned forward in anticipation of its attack shredding the puny people in front of it.

The construct’s front legs even danced in anticipation… until after several seconds, it seemed to notice the people weren’t dead. They weren’t even hurt, because not a single one of its shots had reached them, let alone struck them.

Directly in front of its tailguns, a sheet of black hung open, greedily swallowing every shot fired.

“Is one of you going to do something?” Seeyela asked over the party chat. “I can’t deal with the Mid-Boss and the adds!”

Runic Regeneration had taken care of Hiral’s wound by that point – and the Coat of Amin Thett had repaired itself – so he Rejected right back into the fray. Yanily had already hit it with one Shatter Armor, and that was still their best bet. Greatsword of Amin Thett in hand, he darted for the Mid-Boss’s back. Two of the mounted turrets seemed to realize what he was thinking, quickly spinning around to spit blasts in his direction. One, two, he dodged them – much easier when he wasn’t distracted by Seena getting hurt – then three and four, he was in the air.

Rejecting at an angle, he used the Scorpinator’s own tail as cover – the weapons ceasing their shots as it crossed into their line of fire – then reached out his free hand with Attraction. Slingshotting around the tail due to his momentum, Hiral slipped past the next two blasts even as he swung. Up and over, the Greatsword of Amin Thettcrunched down into the weakened armor where Yanily had struck, the metal finally buckling slightly under the blow.

Another application of Attraction on the soles of his feet stopped him from skidding completely off, and though his Shatter Armor was on cooldown, Hiral swung a second time. Between the two applications of the ability – Yan and then him – that should reduce the Mid-Boss’s armor by about thirty percent.

It still wasn’t enough. His sword strikes bashed and bent the plates, but he wasn’t getting through to anything vulnerable. They needed…

“Hiral!” Seena said into the party chat. “Move!”

Trusting in his party leader, Hiral didn’t even look – though he felt Seena back in the air through his sensory domain – and he leapt off the back of the Mid-Boss. Not a second too soon, either, a pair of Fireballs crashing down like meteors on the construct’s back. The first clearly had her application of Shatter Armor, while the second had been condensed into its plasma form.

The one-two of explosions rocked the construct, waves of fire and heat ballooning off it as it staggered.

Feet landing on the nearby railing, Hiral Rejected the blossoming heat while he turned back to see what kind of damage they’d done. The Scorpinator’s back was a blistering red, while the metal around where he and Yanily had struck was warped and deformed.

Cinder after Cinder scarred across that same spot, further reducing the construct’s resistance to the element, while the bright red glow intensified. With the weakening of the armor – and the extreme heat – they were actually making progress!

Except, even as Hiral watched, the metal was warping, but it wasn’t breaking. The fire wouldn’t do it on its own. Good thing Hiral had the perfect tool for the job. A little more heat, with a dash of weight, and a whole lot of Separation.

The Greatsword of Amin Thett thrummed with power in his hand, flames bursting along its blade as he pulled as much of Seena’s element into it with Empower as he could. There was only one small problem with his plan – the absurd amount of heat radiating off the construct’s back. The metal was practically glowing and warping the air all around it. If he got any closer than he was, he’d barbeque himself.

“I think I can punch through the armor now,” Hiral said into the party chat. “I can’t get through all that heat though.”

“I can pull it away,” Seena said right back., hands still flinging fire the entire time. “It’ll start with the air, but it’ll get taken from the armor after that. You’ll need to move fast.”

“Fast I can do,” Hiral said, surrounding himself in a bubble of Dreaming and Decrease with his focus on the temperature around him. He shivered immediately, a chill running across him as his breath frosted in front of his mouth. “Ready!”

“Here we go,” Seena said, one hand hurling a final lance of plasma, at the same time Wallop and Romin launched their own attacks to keep the Mid-Boss’s attention. In her other hand, a ball of flame began rotating, sucking in all the nearby heat to increase its strength.

The big Rune-o crashed back into the Scorpinator’s face – completely ignoring the scalding air –with a solid crunch of metal, while Romin blasted away with his new blunderbuss. A red flash in the construct’s multiple eyes showed Infuriate was working, but the tail-guns never stopped spitting energy-death into the portal. However Seeyela was keeping the gateway open in the face of the solar-energy-dissolving shots, Hiral would have to ask.

After he did his part.

First, though, he waited for Right and Left to dart in with Yanily, distracting three of the four shoulder and back-mounted weapons. Cannon-like blasts roared by behind them, close enough the Mid-Boss had to think it would get them with the next shot, only to come up just short again. As for the fourth cannon, Gran tried hurling a needle to get the monster’s attention, but it seemed to prioritize nearby targets, and the final cannon swiveled in Hiral’s direction.

A thread of solar energy into Separation, Dreaming, and his time runes sent a trio of smoky Hirals in the Mid-Boss’s direction. Pivoting like it didn’t know which target to aim at first, the weapon finally trained itself on the nearest double and fired. By that time, Hiral was already above it, launched on a burst of Rejection – with his sword cocked back in both his hands.

Tethers of Gravity connected the weapon to the center of the glowing red armor, sweat already forming on his skin despite Seena hauling on the heat to power her next attack. Dreaming and Decrease were doing work to lessen the effect, but it was still like what he imagined a volcano would feel like. Half a breath entered his mouth and lungs – burning everything as it went down – before he clamped his mouth shut and forced all his attention on what he needed to do.

Fingers tightened around the hilt as the weight of the weapon pulled his swing around, hauling his whole body with it. More Rejectionburst from his feet and shoved on the blade to ramp up the power of the hit as much as he could. Separation and Breaking coated the edge of the blade, while Expansion and Impact ballooned out around it. Within the pull of shimmering air getting sucked to Seena’s hand where she stood now on steps of pink butterflies, Hiral’s sword looked more like a comically massive hammer than anything else.

One that smashed down on the back of the Scorpinator like an avalanche.