by Seth Ring
“Watch out for assassins.” Thorn’s whisper echoed around the courtyard.
“What do you mean?” Curious, Seven Twisted Leaves glanced at Thorn before looking back at the mysterious looking boss.
“That mask is the symbol of the Devil’s Blood Assassins. They’re the ones who have been trying to free Mayari.”
“Hah, so you know of us?” The figure’s voice was sickly sweet, reminding Thorn of Mayari. “I had not thought that the Devil’s Blood were so famous? Well, since you’re here, we should take some time to get to know each other.”
Lifting her staff, she tapped the bottom on the flagstone beneath her feet and the heavy metal gate closed behind the team. Another tap rang out and Thorn saw some figures along the gate move. The gargoyle statues swung their heads toward the Titan Squad, fixing their glowing red eyes on the players.
“But where are my manners? Since you have arrived here, you must have met Korma’hel the Mad already, so now it is my time to shine. My name is Nellourous Belle, though you may know me by my other name, the Raging Beauty.”
“Sorry, never heard of you.” Thorn’s voice carried clearly, causing Nellourous to choke on the words she was about to say.
“Ehm. Well, you certainly will never forget me after I cut open your stomachs and feed your entrails to my pets. Ahahahaha!”
Still sickly sweet, Nellourous’ voice took on a brutal edge, the gap between her words and the way she delivered them making many of the players shiver.
“Way to go, Thorn. I think you made her mad.” Unaffected by the boss’ words, Mina prodded Thorn with her wand. “Bet you’re first on her list.”
“I’m probably the only one on her list. It would take the gargoyles a week to finish all this.” Thorn remarked flippantly, slapping his stomach.
“Ha, if they even could. I bet Titan tastes terrible.” Mina giggled.
“Enough!” Shouted Nellourous Belle, clearly annoyed by the banter. “Since you have been foolish enough to come here, you should stay. Ahahahaha! Take wing, my minions!”
At her command, the gargoyles spread their wings and shrieked, causing all of the players in the Titan Squad to feel faintly nauseous.
“Uh oh, looks like they have some sort of sonic attack.” Mina muttered. “Leaves, we need to prioritize the gargoyles.”
“Alright, I’ll leave it to you.” Nodding, Leaves began to snap out orders. “Ranged DPS, follow Mina’s target. Control, try to keep the other mobs busy. Heidi, SoulSeeker, I’ll leave the front line to you. All other tanks, protect your healer!”
Lifting his arbalest, Thorn waited for Mina to pick out a target. The desire to charge straight for the boss and pummel her into the ground was burning in his chest, but he forced it down, compressing it into a tiny ball with his will. Ever since the last boss fight, Thorn found his will easier to use. Something had changed in him, or in his perception, allowing him greater control over himself. It was almost as if his will was an independent force that he could move freely within his body.
He was curious whether there had been any changes in his status that would alert him to what was going on, but he had not had time to dig through his logs to see if he could find anything. Setting a reminder for after the battle, Thorn was brought back to the present by Mina’s yell.
“On my mark!”
The Ice Witch thrust her wand at one of the gargoyles that was circling overhead, causing an [Ice Spike] to shoot out at it. Immediately, Thorn shifted his aim and pulled the trigger of his arbalest, the string thrumming as it fired. The arm sized bolt smashed into the gargoyle, ripping a chunk of stone from its chest. At the same time, a storm of other attacks landed, obliterating the monster.
“Talk about overkill.” Mina surveyed the tiny shower of stones that was all that remained of the unfortunate gargoyle. “Everyone on my left is group one, everyone to my right is group two. Alternate firing on my mark, starting with group one. Ready? Let’s go!”
[Ice Spike]
Even though it was only half of the number of attacks, it still broke the gargoyle into pieces, causing another shower of stone.
[Ice Spike]
Seeing the second sliver of ice targeting a gargoyle, Thorn fired his reloaded arbalest at the target that Mina had picked. This time, the gargoyle tried to dodge out of the way, but the attacks from group two were so tightly packed that it did not manage to escape in time. Seeing three of their number fall, the remaining ten gargoyles were furious and began to swoop down, trying to attack the players.
“Yes! Ahahaha! Feast upon them, my minions!” Cackling, Nellourous Belle waved her staff, sending a crimson mist through the air to surround the gargoyles.
Tucking their wings, they fell toward the players, claws outstretched. Yet, instead of the soft, squishy flesh that they imagined feeling, they were met with buffeting wind, freezing cold, vines that rose up to wrap around them, and all sorts of other crowd control abilities. Their movement hindered by all of the different abilities, the gargoyles became easy targets for the ranged DPS, and four more quickly fell.
The six remaining gargoyles managed to break free of the abilities binding them, only to find themselves targeted by the swords and spears of the melee DPS players when they reached the ground. The last gargoyles were soon dealt with, leaving the Titan Squad facing Nellourous Belle again. Despite how quickly the team had dealt with her gargoyles, the boss did not seem worried at all.
Chuckling, she waved her hand and Thorn immediately understood the cause for her lack of concern. Under the player’s gaze the broken remains of the gargoyles rose into the air and shot back to the fence. With a crackle, the rubble reformed and the pillars that had previously been empty were suddenly occupied by gargoyles again.
“Ahahaha! I must say, you did well against my flying pets. I had expected you to fall apart pathetically! But the real test is to come! Let’s see how long you can keep it up?!”
With another scream, the gargoyles launched themselves from the fence again. This time, however, they did not circle over the party. Instead, they dove low to the ground, staying out of the sightlines of the ranged DPS who stood in the center of the group. All except Thorn, that is. Easily able to see over the heads of the tanks who stood on the outside of the formation, Thorn lifted his arbalest and fired, the thick bolt burying itself in one of the gargoyle’s shoulders.
With a crack, the gargoyle lost its arm and a large portion of one wing. Screaming with pain and rage, it tumbled to the ground, skidding to a stop at the feet of one of the team’s tanks. Three swift blows with the player’s hammer, and the first gargoyle had fallen.
“Melee, move out! Ranged, get line of sight, but keep an eye on the sky!” Barking out orders, Seven Twisted Leaves began throwing out [Trapping Vines] to try and tie up the attacking gargoyles.
As Thorn was reloading his arbalest, he felt someone grab onto his armor. Turning his head, he saw Mina climbing up onto his shoulder. From her new vantage point she began flinging attacks at the now-visible gargoyles. With the tanks keeping the gargoyles occupied, the DPS began chipping away at them. As another enemy died, Seven Twisted Leaves frowned.
“Heidi, SoulSeeker, we need to engage the boss. If we don’t these gargoyles are probably just going to keep coming back. I want DPS group one to support Heidi and SoulSeeker. Alabaster, Whisper, you go with them too. Let's see if we can make some progress.”
Acknowledging the order, Heidi and SoulSeeker began to move forward toward Nellourous Belle, DPS group one following behind them. The two assassins were nowhere to be seen, but Thorn knew that they were making their way over toward the boss.
“How cute, you are going to try to attack me? Hah, what a pointless struggle.” Nellourous Belle’s sickly sweet voice called out when she spotted the team approaching. “Let me show you what true despair looks like! Rise my stone minions! Rise and fall on these foolish people!”
*CREAK*
From the flagstone in front of her, six large forms rose from the
ground as she waved the staff, quickly forming into stone golems that stomped forward to attack the two tanks. Each golem was only seven feet tall, but their stone bodies were tougher than most armor and easily shrugged off the ranged attacks that targeted them.
“Melee, rotate to the front, group one ranged, rotate back to group two!”
Seeing the smooth switch happening, Thorn could not help but envy Seven Twisted Leaves’ commanding ability. The Fae Druid managed to keep an eye on the whole battlefield and was quick to react when the situation was not favorable. Even though Thorn had a better view of the battlefield because of his height, he often found himself completely focused on only a single aspect of the fight. Seven Twisted Leaves seemed to be able to avoid this tunnel vision and keep all of the different moving parts of the fight in mind.
Chapter Eleven
The tension in the courtyard rose as the players looked at the stone monsters facing them. While not particularly difficult to take down, the thought that Nellourous Belle was able to simply wave her hand and cause them to reform was quite frustrating. To make matters worse, the stupid boss simply would not shut up. A steady stream of insane laughter and irritating chatter flowed from her throat, setting everyone on edge.
“Ahahaha, you poor fools, you think that you will be able to win here? My stone creations are tireless and unbeatable! Ahahaha! The Devil’s Blood will be brought forth and will consume your pathetic souls! Ahahaha!”
“Thorn, join the tanks and see if you can take down the golems. Focus on stalling them but not killing them to keep them from being remade.”
Slipping his arbalest back into his inventory, Thorn pulled out a large war pick and rushed forward, leaving Mina hanging in the air as she stepped off of his shoulder. Of the many weapons in his inventory, this was one of the largest and was just the thing for going up against a stone enemy.
Thorn skidded to a halt in front of one of the golems before taking a quick step back as the monster swung its fist at him. Jumping forward, he brought the war pick down on the golem’s thigh, sinking the tip of his weapon deep into the golem’s leg. Keeping his hold on the long handle of the war pick, Thorn delivered a heel kick to the golem’s leg while pulling sharply on his weapon.
*CRACK*
With a shearing sound, fractures ran through the golem’s thigh, splintering the stone and causing the monster to slump to the side as its leg came right off. With a roar of anger, the golem stabbed one fist into the ground to keep its tremendous bulk upright and swung its other fist at Thorn, only to find its attack deflected by one of the nearby tanks.
At the same moment, Nellourous Belle sneered, lifting her hand to gesture to the crippled golem. Thick yellowish brown energy started to gather under the golem’s chopped off leg, but before it could heal, she gasped and arched her back in pain as a curved knife slashed across her back.
Behind Nellourous Belle, Alabaster shimmered into focus, his knives cutting the boss’ cloak to shreds. Hissing in anger, the Raging Beauty spun around, her crimson robe swirling and forcing Alabaster to jump back. In front of her eyes, Alabaster shimmered again, this time fading into thin air. Before the robed boss could follow up, a thin wire settled around the top of her staff, jerking it to the side. Unconcerned, Nellourous Belle let go of her weapon and spoke an arcane command.
“Ahahaha! You want my staff? Ha, you can have it! See how that turns out for you! Be careful or it may prove too dangerous to handle!”
Her staff began to float in the air, resisting EphemeralWhisper’s attempts to wrestle it away. Pulsing with yellow flame, a growing ball of energy at the top of the staff began to spin, causing Ephemeral Whisper's skin to prickle. The closer she got, the stronger the sensation became, forcing her to suppress the urge to run away.
Despite EphemeralWhisper’s tugs, the staff remained fixed in the air, completely unmoving, as if it had been pinned to the air. Ignoring the assassin struggling with the staff, the Nellourous Belle withdrew two small maces from her robe, smacking them together with a clang that sent a small shockwave through the air in front of her.
As the sound shook the air, Alabaster was forced out of his invisible state. Stumbling back, he dove to the side as both maces smashed down where he had been standing, crushing the flagstones.
“Ahahahahaha! Don’t run, little mouse! Come and let me crush you!”
Chasing after the constantly retreating assassin, Nellourous Belle proved true to her title as she smashed the ground apart with powerful strikes. Seeing that Alabaster was in trouble, Whisper abandoned her attempts to move the staff that Nellourous Belle had left hanging in midair and launched her wire as she shouted over her shoulder to Seven Twisted Leaves.
“Leaves, keep an eye on this staff!”
Knowing full well that a single hit would spell his death, Alabaster had been doing his best to create space between him and the boss, but no matter where he ran or how he hid, she was always a step behind him, her maces swinging. Just as he jumped sideways to avoid a strike, a thin wire looped around his waist and pulled him away from Nellourous’ follow-up attack.
Giving Whisper a grateful nod, the two of them activated their stealth and vanished into the air to set up their next attack. Unfortunately, the boss was prepared and once again smashed her two maces together, producing that odd resonance that shook them out of their stealthed state. Watching from where he was fighting the golems, Thorn was about to rush forward to engage Nellourous Belle but Seven Twisted Leaves’ voice stopped him in his tracks.
“Thorn, stay on the golems and help Heidi and the second tank team keep the golems locked down! SoulSeeker, take team one and head toward the boss! Let's start the stun rotation. Support, get ready to bubble. I can feel that something is coming.”
A few seconds later, Seven Twisted Leaves’ words were proven to be true as the pulsing energy on the top of the staff that was hanging in the air abruptly split into two distinct balls that shot through the air towards different targets. Bubbles popped into existence around the targeted players, but the energy balls exploded into shards of energy that spread out around the target’s shields, wounding players nearby and leaving craters in the ground around them.
No sooner had the attack hit than the staff began to charge again. Laughing uproariously, Nellourous Belle rushed forward, her two maces swinging wildly as she approached the tanks who were moving past the crippled golems. Trusting that the other tanks had the boss well in hand, Thorn focused his attention on the six large golems that were struggling to move forward. Each of them was missing one or more limbs, severely impacting how fast they could move.
“Let’s get them into a group,” Heidi said to the group two tanks as she lifted her shield to deflect one of the golem’s attacks. “They’ll be easier to control if we can clump them up.”
“A group? You got it.”
Putting away his huge war pick, Thorn dodged one of the golems’ swings and kicked with his boot, sending the monster sliding back. Another of the golems that was missing both legs was pulling itself toward the ranged DPS players, so Thorn rushed over. Lowering his shoulder, he smashed into its chest, knocking it onto its back.
Another golem next to him slammed its fist toward his side so Thorn tucked his arm down to block the blow and borrowed the momentum of the attack to jump to the side. With the attention of three of the golems focused on him, Thorn rushed toward the next one and launched himself into the air, diving over the top of a golem that was reaching up for him. Grabbing its wrist, he rotated his body so he could plant his feet as he came down to the ground. As soon as his feet touched the stone he heaved, spinning the golem around his body and sending it tumbling across the courtyard to smash into the golem he had knocked over.
Completing his turn, Thorn took a quick step to the side to avoid a diving gargoyle and planted his foot in the face of the fifth golem, kicking it aside. A glimmer shone in the dim torchlight as he pulled his huge war pick out of his inventory and sank it into the sixth golem’s
shoulder. Pulling the metal handle of the war pick, he twisted his body and let go, sending both the golem and the war pick flying toward the cluster of golems that had been gathered.
The fifth golem that Thorn had knocked aside was the one with the most mobility, and after landing a stone-cracking punch on its face, Thorn jumped back. The golem lunged after him, its fingers barely missing as it tried to grab his armor. Running back to where Heidi was standing, Thorn jumped behind her as she picked up the golem’s aggro with a neat shield bash.
Seven Twisted Leaves saw that the golems had been grouped up and sent a quick glance at the gargoyles circling overhead before turning his attention back to where SoulSeeker and the rest of the tanks in the first team were battling against Nellourous Belle.
“Mina, once you have the gargoyles handled, split as many people as you can to focus on the boss.”
“Any chance you can spare some tanks? We could really use a couple taunts to tie them down.”
“Sure,” Seven Twisted Leaves called to the second tank team. “Heidi, I’m going to grab a few tanks from you. Gem, Keller, and Z, support Mina. Thorn, take Z’s spot. We need to rotate fast people! Support, get those bubbles ready!”
As the orders flowed from Seven Twisted Leaves’ mouth, Thorn stepped forward to take over the golem’s aggro from ZfiveZnineZhottieZ, one of the tanks in the second team. Z joined two other tanks in hurrying to Mina’s side as the energy above the suspended staff began to split. This time, however, the energy split into four glowing yellow balls that shot out at four different players.
“Incoming!”
One of the balls of energy shot toward Heidi, whose body was instantly covered in a semi-transparent silver bubble by one of the healers. The energy ball splashed against the bubble, causing it to tremble violently. Seeing that one of the drops of destructive force was heading for the golem that he was fighting, Thorn reached for the monster’s arm and, sinking his claws into its stone skin, pulled it out of the way.