Rune Seeker

To Hiral’s Atn, the bolts weren’t fast enough to be much of a threat, even with how many there were. A twist, a jump, and a roll got him cleanly out of the way, dozens of blasts ricochetting off the metal balcony behind him. Left and Right dealt with them in a similar fashion, avoiding – or punching, in Right’s case – the shots that managed to get close to them.

For how many weapons had fired, they actually weren’t terribly accurate. Quantity over quality.

As for the rest of the party, Yanily and Seena had it the easiest. A spinning spear turned aside shots in Yan’s direction, while Seena used her flaming-plant defensive ability to shield herself and Gran. Seeyela simply Bamf’d out of the way to appear higher up, perched on one of the hanging sheets of thick metal.

Only Romin and Wallop really took any hits, though both of them simply tanked through them, their health each dropping between ten and twenty percent in the party interface. All in all, that hadn’t gone nearly as bad as it could’ve. Still, the weapons were already taking aim for a second volley.

“Keep hitting that plate,” Seena ordered through the party chat, her own flaming attacks already striking in violent explosions.

Fingers on his triggers while he dodged, Hiral released a powered-up shot from both barrels of his RHCs. The kick of the shot pushed him back a step, then slammed into the chest plate in front of Wallop. Stressed by the heat and constant attacks, the melted dent in the metal looked deep enough to bury a person in. They hadn’t quite gotten through though.

“More shots,” Hiral warned the others, the Boss’s weapons lined up and spitting their payloads. With Seena’s abilities on cooldown, Gran and the party leader were forced to dodge, each of them taking a few hits in the process. For the rest of the group, it was simply a repeat of last time. “If that’s all it’s going to do, we’ve got this.”

“Again,” Yanily said into the chat. “Why would you say that?”

“I have to agree with Yan on that,” Seeyela said. “Oh shit, something’s happening at the head.”

“What?” Hiral asked, his own eyes snapping up while he avoided another shot. Light poured out of the visor, like there was a sun hidden within the heavy helm. Then, before Hiral could even wonder what was happening, the massive head tilted forward like the Boss was looking at them standing on the balcony.

A deep thrum echoed from within that helmet, and hair Hiral didn’t have stood up all across his body.

“Look out!” he said at the same time Seena, Yanily, Seeyela, Gran, Left, Right, and Romin all did.

As soon as the words were out of their mouths, a thick beam – dozens of feet wide – burst from within the helmet, striking one side of the balcony curved around the Boss’s chest. The instant it struck, the brass glowed red from the heat, energy splashing back to the wall and up it more than twenty feet.

“Why’s it aiming over there…?” Yanily started, only for the helmet to begin to turn, the streaming, constant beam of energy scouring across the balcony.

“Move!” Hiral shouted, his scarves snapping out to grab his friends – and even the big Rune-o. Attraction and Gravity snagged each of them, then he darted to the opposite end of the balcony. Fast as he was, the beam was no slouch either, heat billowing off it as it raced after him.

And it wasn’t like he had a lot of places to go, with the end of the balcony right there.

No way to go but up!

Grabbing his doubles as well, Hiral burst Rejection under his feet and leapt high up the wall – further than the splashing beam seemed to travel. RHCs went to their thigh holsters while he moved, and as soon as his hands and feet touched the wall forty feet up, he Rejected off it and went even higher. If the helmet changes the angle of its blast…I need to keep going.

A second later, he met one of the hanging, brass plates, then rebounded one more time – the party following behind in his scarves – until he reached the wall almost two-hundred feet up.

As he did, the roaring beam passed by below, completely scorching the entirety of the balcony they’d been on. Even though he’d avoided that, he didn’t have a moment’s peace, the dozens of smaller weapons spitting out their own blasts in his direction. With all the turrets firing at the group held in his scarves, there were too many for even him to dodge easily.

Instead, he bolted off the wall one more time to ‘land’ on the backside of one of the hanging plates, Attraction on his hands and feet keeping him in place. Constricting his scarves, he brought the others in close to him, just in time for the blasts to strike like falling rain on the front of the metal.

Under his fingers, the plate vibrated from the dozens of impacts, but held strong against the onslaught. This metal – whatever it is – is really no joke. Meanwhile, below him, the strafing and still-endless beam from the helm began its return journey across the balcony. Either it didn’t notice where they’d gone, or it had a limited line of fire. Either way, they couldn’t go back down there and continue attacking the chest like this.

With the effects of Shatter Armor fading soon, their window of opportunity was closing. What could they…?

“I’ve got an idea,” Seeyela said into the party chat. “Just need to find… ah, that should do it.”

“What do you have in mind, Sis?” Seena asked.

While the woman didn’t answer, Hiral tracked her with his sensory domain as she Bamf’d to another balcony higher up against the wall opposite the Boss. Unlike the one where they’d fought from, this one seemed full of heavy equipment, and Seeyela went to work trying to manipulate it. Even ‘watching’ her like he was, Hiral didn’t have any idea what she was up to either.

Not until one of the hanging plates suddenly dropped thirty feet with a ker-chunk and clang.

“Not that one…” Seeyela mumbled through the party chat, before a second plate fell.

“Uh, Seeyela,” Hiral said, eyes widening. “We’re on one of these plates!”

“Details,” Seeyela said. “Stop distracting me.”

“Distracting her from what?” Seena asked, looking nervously in Hiral’s direction.

“Ah, this one should be it,” Seeyela said. “Probably. Maybe hold on, just in case?”

“Hold on to…?” was all Seena had time to ask before there was another ker-chunk and clang.

Thankfully, it wasn’t the plate Hiral held on to the side of, another one much further up being the one that fell. Fell… directly into the line of sight of the energy-spitting helmet. All at once, the beam scathing the balcony instead billowed off the plate directly in front of the Boss’s face. Splash from the stream struck the helm, horns, and upper chest, but that didn’t seem to deter the Colossus in the least.

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“Seena,” Hiral said. “You need to take the heat from the balcony below us so we can punch through the chest.”

“Got it,” Seena said at the same time Hiral crawled along the plate until he was upside down. As soon as he was, he leapt straight down, Rejection powering his launch, with the party close behind. Streams of pink energy flowed from behind him – Left having activated Path of Butterflies – while Hiral twisted in the air and jetted more Rejection ahead to slow his meteoric descent. Perfectly executed, he stopped a foot above the ground, feet planted on planes of pink energy, most of his party beside him.

Already, the heat was overwhelming, making his throat and lungs burn with every breath, but Seena got to work. A pair of flaming spears formed beside her hands, the air around them swirling as they sucked in heat, growing in power and intensity. Another pulse of solar energy from the woman simultaneously compacted them down into their plasma state.

Those were going to be dangerous – for the Boss – so why not make them a little more dangerous? Hiral reached out with his Rune of Dreaming, making the fire and heat more real, then added in some Increase, Breaking, and even a touch of his new Rune of Piercing. Hey, they were spears after all. That should count.

Even as he did that, Yanily and Wallop got back to work, Right at their side to pound on the chestplate still glowing with heat. A dome of golden energy enveloped the group, the Banner of Courage shaping in Left’s hand. The group wouldn’t get any benefit from the critical hit and damage effects – Stupid constructs – but the attack speed, healing, and shielding were already noticeable, taking the edge of the still-present heat.

Seeyela could always use her aura, but something about the Boss fight had them holding their cooldowns. There was more to it than this.

“Oh, this looks interesting,” Seeyela whispered over the party chat, a hint of terrifying excitement in her voice.

Enough of a hint Hiral’s head snapped up to look in her direction instead of joining the attack on the Boss. The moment he laid eyes on her, he felt her haul on a large lever up on the balcony where she stood. Different from all the others, it couldn’t be one of the controls for raising and lowering the plates. Which meant it had to be for something else. What could it…?

The answer came a second later, a grinding chunk-chunk-chunk echoing even over the party’s bombardment on the Boss, followed by the familiar clang. From directly above. Through his sensory domain, Hiral felt the head of the giant, spiked mace beginning to fall.

Had Seena’s sister just dropped the Boss’s weapon on their heads?

But, no, the mechanism at the hilt still held firm. The mace wasn’t falling – it was swinging like a pendulum. And on an arc straight for the Boss’s chest above where the party focused!

Smart! Hiral silently congratulated Seeyela on her idea.

Then, he got one of his own.

Rejection launched him straight up so fast, he reached the mace just before it reached the forty-five-degree angle of its swing, and latched on with a thread of Attraction. Grabbing on above where head met haft, ropes of solar energy and runic power spread out from him. Piercing, Breaking, and Increase for the spikes. Impact and Gravity went on the head itself, while Hiral layered three Runes of Rejection on the back of the mace to increase its speed.

One more application of that last rune shot him off the swinging mace a second before it collided with the Boss in a titanic crash that shook the room. Tomorrow’s Colossus shuddered at the blow, the spikes of the mace piercing through the thick armor, while the Impact-empowered head of the much-heavier-than-normal mace crumpled the metal to bend it inward.

At the same time he did that, the party below also hurled their own powerful attacks at the weakened armor. Dragon’s Breath and the plasma spears smashed into the chest, parting the melted armor like butter – finally – as the Boss’s health bar lost a huge chunk.

“Right,” Hiral said, activating his Rune of Exchange. He didn’t need to say more than that, as the two swapped positions, leaving Right standing in the air a few dozen feet from the mace. He didn’t stay standing for long.

Infernal and Entropic energies flared along his Meridian Linesand the patches of his coat where Hiral’s pseudo-aspect further empowered him before he charged ahead. Back went his fist – Auroran Conquerer flaring like the sun – and then came forward between the spikes of the mace to drive the weapon deeper into the Boss’s chest. With the structural integrity of the armor compromised by the impact of the mace, each of Right’s heavy blows drove the weapon further and further in like a nail.

And Right was the hammer, his punches falling like rain, and growing both in speed and power with each consecutive hit.

Hiral, back down on the ground with the others, formed the claws of Separation on his hand, then launched a double-attack at the open slot ahead of him. With every attack the party made, the Boss’s health bar dropped lower and lower.

The turrets – which had been firing non-stop – had been greatly thinned through all this, with crimson needles seeking them out one after another. Gran hadn’t been able to do much to the armor of the Colossus, but the smaller, less-heavily-armored guns seemed to be another story entirely.

“Just a little more!” Seena cheered through the party chat, flames racing off her and the new totems she’d summoned – the previous ones having been annihilated by the Boss’s earlier attack.

Fifty percent. Forty percent. Thirty percent. Twenty percent, the Boss’s health dropped under their attacks. They were close. Another strong push would…

Ten percent, and the whole Colossus began to seize, body and arms jerking within the bonds holding it to the wall. Metal groaned, screws bigger than Hiral popped out to shoot across the room and smash into other machinery. The balcony under their feet bucked like a wagon riding out of control – though Path of Butterflies kept them safely above. And safely continuing their race to empty the Boss’s health bar before it did… whatever it was doing.

Five percent, and the Boss’s left arm ripped itself free, broken metal the size of buildings raining down on that side of the balcony. Somehow, the crescent of brass itself didn’t crumple under the falling weight, but the whole Boss twisted as it reached over to the bindings holding its other armor in place. The terrible beam from its helmet had ceased, and the mace in its chest – the one Right continued to pound on – restricted its movement, but it moved with the inevitability of a landslide.

Hiral and the others attacked non-stop while dodging more pieces of falling metal coming from the arm passing above them. The armor the huge Boss was encased in obviously wasn’t finished, massive plates of it falling away as the limb moved, forcing the party to dodge around them as they fought. Luckily, the lighting in the room created large shadows on the ground where the debris would land, allowing them to quick-step over to safer locations.

Safe, for now.

The left hand reached the clamp stubbornly holding the right arm to the wall, then simply ripped it out to free the other limb. More shadowy circles on the balcony, and more dodges to reposition.

Two percent! They were so close.

Above, the Colossus gripped the haft of the mace buried in its chest. One handed, it couldn’t seem to dislodge it – and Right was doing everything he could to pound it in deeper – so the other hand joined it. Big as a damn mountain, Tomorrow’s Colossus ripped the mace – and its own chestplate – away, tossing the entire thing to crash to the side of the balcony.

The whole process had forced the party to retreat, and they each looked up as the two hands went to the helm. Melted and slagged by its own beam attack, the metal was a disfigured mess, drooping rivulets of it blocking the Boss’s vision. Like the chest armor, the Colossus didn’t bother with subtlety or finesse, simply ripping the helm clean off.

Interestingly, the horns weren’t part of the helmet, but instead the Boss’s head itself – starting at the temples – and the face that now glared down at them looked far too much like one of the Kindred to be a coincidence.

“A passable likeness of Amin Thett,” Li’l Ur said through the party chat. “Perhaps she built it in his honor after he died? She was always strange like that.”

“Memorials aren’t our problem right now,” Seena said, the last of the heavy, restrictive armor falling from the Boss. From the sounds of things below the balcony, and the shaking of the room, it wasn’t only the armor up with the party being discarded. The whole Colossus was stripping down. Except, what did that mean?

“Oh hell,” Seeyela said, as Hiral got the answer to his internal question.

Above the Boss’s head, its health bar had completely filled back up, and its name had changed.

(Boss – Construct) Tomorrow’s Unbound Colossus (Unknown Rank)

All that work they’d done, and that’d just been the first phase of the fight.