by Neven Iliev
“Master, above!” Xera shouted suddenly.
The Mimic immediately turned its gaze upward to see a trio of shadows swooping down from the sky. It didn’t have time to think, as one of them was coming down straight above it, so Boxxy dodged hurriedly to the side as the thing fell to the stone-tiled ground with a loud crash. The others hit with just as much force, the second squashing the last remaining Death Knight and the third landing directly on top of Valeria. Luckily, she was still under the intangibility effect of her Ethereal Body Skill, so she got off with merely a scare and a slightly bruised ego.
Not wasting any time, the Mimic leaped into the dust cloud the impact had kicked up and coiled itself around the closest of the intruders. Though it may have obstructed regular vision, the dust screen was no match for its magical perception abilities. It could see that the thing had wings, and thus would likely lift off unless it was stopped.
The intruders soon revealed themselves to be a trio of animated gargoyle statues, stone golems not too dissimilar from the soldiers in the maze. They were similar in height and humanoid in shape, albeit with much thicker shoulders, torsos and arms, making them look more like gorillas than humans. Four solid, bat-like wings sprouted from each of their hunched backs, and their faces were carved into the likenesses of various beasts. The one that had aimed for Valeria had the face of a troll, while the one that had landed on the Death Knight looked like a snarling tiger. The gargoyle which Boxxy was coiling itself around bore the likeness of a wolf.
Much like the murderous box had assumed, the gargoyles attempted to rise into the air almost immediately. Their goal was most likely to stay out of harm’s way while they positioned themselves for another attack. Boxxy wrapped a number of tentacles around its target’s wings, but that didn’t seem to stop or even slow the gargoyle as it flew into the sky, reaching an altitude of thirty or so metres in an instant. It would appear that the creatures didn’t even need to flap the thin sheets of stone to gain altitude. However, the supernatural currents of air flowing from the appendages made it clear that they were not just there for decoration.
“Get everyone ready,” it commanded telepathically, “I’m bringing them down!”
“Understood, Master!” Xera saluted.
Boxxy wasted no time applying Metal Mimicry to its tentacles, covering them in rows of sharp steel teeth and then moving them up and down the wings of the wolf-faced gargoyle like an improvised chainsaw. The freakish appendages tore ruthlessly through the larger monster’s ‘flesh,’ grinding and chipping away at its rocky hide. Boxxy’s attempts to cut off its wings flooded it with numerous damage notifications that were more distracting than it would’ve liked.
Its victim began to thrash about, rolling in mid-air in a desperate attempt to shake the Mimic off. It would appear that it had only just noticed it had a passenger, but by then it was far too late. The Mimic had firmly ensnared it and chewed through the base of its wings, snapping them off one after the other. The tiger-faced monster tried to aid its comrade as it flew past, attempting to punch the monster off the wolf-head’s back. However, Boxxy countered by biting down on its stone fist with its steel-coated jaws, much to the would-be saviour’s distress. The flying golem tried to pull its arm away, but the Mimic’s powerful lid muscles refused to let go so easily.
Boxxy finished breaking through the third wing, which was finally enough to sabotage whatever Skill gave the gargoyle flight. It plummeted towards the ground, threatening to drag both the Mimic and its own comrade along with it. Boxxy promptly released the crippled creature from its tentacled grasp and hurriedly coiled itself around the tiger-faced gargoyle, subjecting it to much the same treatment. It heard a heavy thud from below, most likely the one it hadn’t yet touched repeating its dive-bomb attack. The sound was followed by a second, slightly softer impact as the mostly-wingless wolf-gargoyle slammed face-first into the ground.
After damaging the tiger-head’s wings sufficiently and hitting it with a blast of corrosive acid for good measure, the Mimic finished gnawing its way through the gargoyle’s arm and fell through the air. A pair of demonic wings sprang from its backside, allowing it to glide in the direction of its last target. The troll-headed statue appeared to have some sort of grudge against the undead, as it was currently positioning itself to attack one of the two remaining Dullahans.
However, it had finally noticed that its two brethren were no longer able to fly. Realising that something must have been responsible, it turned about in mid-air to spot a bizarre spider-legged, demon-winged chest gliding straight towards it. Rather than face the monster head on, it chose instead to increase its altitude even further, putting it well out of the Mimic’s reach. It had deduced that the strange box was incapable of full flight, and likely assumed that avoiding it would be simple.
What it didn’t see, however, was the Invisibility-clad succubus that had flown up to support her master.
“Fireball!”
*FWOOM*
Xera’s Spell hit the last flying gargoyle dead-on, engulfing it completely in an explosion of flames. Her Devouring Flames clung to its craggy skin, but on the whole failed to do much damage. It seemed the flying golems were significantly more resistant to magic than the ground variants. The demonic Pyromancer was also unfortunately incapable of using ice, which was a golem’s Bane. Not only would it do significantly more damage, but would also paralyse the constructs as it disrupted the flow of mana within their bodies. As much as Xera hated to admit it, Valeria was better suited to this type of opponent than she was.
That said, she certainly had no intention of backing down as she channelled her next Spell at the troll-faced statue charging towards her.
“Fireball!”
The Spell hit the gargoyle directly in the face, but it brushed it off easily and kept flying unperturbed, clearly intending to crush her into pulp with a swing of its massive fist. The succubus used Invisibility once more, effortlessly dodging once the monster had lost its target. She repositioned herself and launched another two Fireballs, setting the pace for the aerial cat-and-mouse game.
And Xera was really good at games.
While that was happening above, the rest of the team had their hands full fighting the two grounded gargoyles, with Kora and Fizzy teaming up to take on the wolf-headed one. The fiend had first engaged the living statue in a duel of fists, but things had rapidly devolved into the kind of chaotic brawl one would expect to see in a pub. There was no technique or logic to it, just two meatheads bashing each other over and over and over.
The pint-sized Paladin had initially thrown a couple of Holy Lights at the demon to keep her going, but the more Fizzy healed her wounds the less effective her Berserker Skills got. She judged that a far more effective means of offering support would be to create an opening for Kora to use her Martial Arts. While they didn’t require chanting, the fiend couldn’t just pull one off on a whim. She needed a few moments to prepare and then go through the necessary motions in order to properly activate one of those techniques.
The gnome surged forward between the two pairs of legs, doing her best to avoid being stepped on. Her eyes and weapon both glowed with yellow-green light as she triggered her Divine Wrath Skill and took an enormous, two-handed swing with her solid steel wrench. It initially appeared as though she were aiming at thin air, but then the gargoyle’s leg moved directly into the path of her swing.
Fizzy was a Champion of Chaos. While certainly not as powerful as Bob himself, she was still able to subconsciously read between the lines and measure the variables to calculate the most likely outcome. This seemingly-complex Skill manifested itself in battle as a form of precognition, provided that she was focusing her attention on a single target. Ghostly outlines would dance in her vision, painting a picture that only she could see.
Although at first she’d thought she was going crazy, she had later realised that her enemies would often make the exact same movements as the ‘ghosts’ several moments after she had seen them.
This was merely a prediction, however, and wasn’t foolproof. There were times when multiple possible outcomes branched out before her, and she had to make a snap decision as to which one to follow. But, after some practise and a lot of observation, the gnome had realised that the thickest, most clearly defined shadow was the one denoting the most likely outcome.
In this instance, she had seen that the gargoyle would be knocked just slightly off balance by an extra-heavy hit from Kora. It would wobble a bit and readjust its footing, bringing its leg right into the path of Fizzy’s swing. The heavy tool smashed dead-on into its stone knee with a heavy crack, forcing the stone statue to stumble. Seeing her opportunity, Kora immediately moved forward. She stretched all four of her arms wide, then swung them inwards to smash the stumbling gargoyle’s ill-fitting face.
“Head Crack!”
All four of her fists hit the wolf’s head at once, two from each side. A deep crack spread across it, and a large portion of its head broke off completely to fall to the ground. Fizzy, who was still underfoot, delivered another heavy blow to its damaged knee, this time managing to break it completely in half. She had to roll out of the way to avoid being crushed by the stone statue as it tipped sideways and fell. It stretched out its left arm as if to catch itself, but the limb had already been badly damaged in the brawl. It snapped clean in two under its tremendous upper body weight, letting the golem crash to the ground.
“War Stomp!”
The fiend then put her boot down on its chest for good measure. It withstood the attack far better than the stone soldiers had, but the Art was still enough to break its torso into two large chunks, neither of which showed any signs of movement.
“Yeah!” Kora cheered, throwing her arms triumphantly into the air. “Get some!”
“Wuh- Watch it!” a voice squeaked from below. “Yo- you almost stomped me flat!”
“Oh right, you were there. Sorry squirt, but you’re just way too tiny! Hahahaha!”
Fizzy sighed in exasperation. One of these days… she grumbled inwardly.
Looking around, she spotted that Boxxy, Valeria and the two remaining Dullahans had ganged up on the tiger-faced gargoyle. The hammer-wielding knights were doing an excellent job of keeping the stone creature busy. They skillfully blocked or parried its attacks while counter-attacking at every opportunity. Unfortunately, they seemed to be doing very little actual damage. That was fine, though, as the Mimic appeared to be going full ham. It had transformed the tip of its tongue into a large steel ball with thick, short spikes jutting out of it and was swinging it around like some sort of flail.
As for Valeria, she was completely still, floating with her hands in front of her face as though she were gripping an invisible watermelon. Upon closer inspection, she appeared to be chanting something. After a few seconds, a strange ball of unnaturally bright blue smoke materialised between her palms.
“By the cursed ice, I command thee! Become brittle like glass and shatter!”
She finished her long chant with some ominous words while Boxxy and the two headless knights stepped quickly back. The blue smoke snaked forward as if it had a mind of its own, and, finding no other target, coiled itself around the living statue, seeping into its body and turning its stony skin from dull grey to a pale shade of blue. Boxxy charged as soon as the curse took hold, tongue-flail swinging. It hit the target squarely in the chest, causing the stone creature to explode into pebbles with a single blow.
The Curse of Shattering Valeria had just cast massively amplified the physical damage taken by those affected by it. While powerful, it unfortunately required a much longer chant than most Spells, which was a fairly common trait among invocations derived from the Hexcraft Skill. Plus, it was difficult to boost the effects of a curse through Skills other than Hexcraft or Taboo. Aiming them was exceptionally tricky as well, due to the way they moved erratically rather than a straight line. In fact, it could be said that curses had the nasty habit of disobeying their caster’s wishes and latching onto a completely different target.
These drawbacks were the reason the lich hadn’t dared use a curse against Boxxy during their confrontation. Even if she had managed to conjure a curse, the odds of hitting the agile mimic were practically nil. Yet despite the multitude of ways that a hex could misfire, be interrupted, or just plain fail, successfully landing one would inflict debilitating effects so powerful that the victim was as good as dead.
For instance, of the three other hexes Valeria had access to, the Curse of Silence would prevent the use of Martial Arts, Skills and Spells for up to twenty seconds. Then there was the Curse of Fatigue, which rapidly drained stamina and dulled movement for about three minutes. Lastly – and arguably most horrifying – was the Curse of Solitude. It completely cut off all sensations such as sight or touch, leaving the target’s mind trapped in a world of pure darkness and total silence for as long as thirty seconds. Though they retained full control of their body, they were completely unaware of what was happening around them. Or to them.
Needless to say, being hit with any one of these curses in the middle of a battle was nothing short of a death sentence. Despite the longer casting time and unreliable targeting, Hexcraft could be a source of immeasurable power to those that used it wisely – although such power came at a price.
Curses were a violation of the Taboo of Lunar, the goddess governing matters of wisdom, magic and learning. Her teachings dictated that curses and hexes were to be avoided, lest they pollute the world’s ambient magic with their foul energy. The phenomenon could be plainly seen here, where mystical energy known as mana was thick in the air. The blue smog that permeated the smashed-up gargoyle’s remains was slowly leaking out of them, staining both the air and the ground with the remnants of the curse.
Not that anyone present gave a damn about that sort of thing when they still had one more flying gargoyle to deal with. At least, until the troll-faced statue came crashing to the ground in a blaze of fire, picking itself up from the ground almost immediately after. While all of its wings and its health appeared to still be in good shape, it was no longer able to fly.
Though this was the first time Xera had fought these things, she knew full well that anything which defied the laws of physics by necessity used up MP as compensation. As she herself owned a pair of fully-functioning wings, she had realised almost immediately that her enemy’s flight was clearly impossible without the help of a sustained Skill. She therefore had focused her attention on chipping away at her target’s MP with her Devouring Flame and Mana Burn Skills.
[Devouring Flame]
Overwhelming fire leaves behind naught but ash and cinders.
Requirements: Level 5 Pyromancer, INT 40
Type: Toggled (ON)
Activation Time: Instant
Cost: None
Range: 100 meters
[Effects]
Increases the MP cost of Pyroclasm Spells by 20%.
Pyroclasm Spells will apply Devouring Flame to your target for 5 seconds.
Devouring Flame inflicts damage equal to 10% of the initial hit each second.
Increases the damage of Devouring Flame by 20% per Level of this Skill.
[Mana Burn]
A Pyromancer’s flame can burn away magic itself.
Requirements: Level 10 Pyromancer, Devouring Flame, INT 45, WIS 45
Type: Passive
Range: Self
[Effects]
Devouring Flame effect will reduce the target’s MP by an amount equal to 25% of its HP damage.
Increases the duration of Devouring Flame by 0.5 seconds per Level of this Skill.
While the gargoyle may have had tons of HP, the rule of thumb was that tough-yet-stupid monsters had a tiny MP pool in comparison, just like a certain horny fiend. All Xera had had to do was keep showering the statue with Fireballs until it was no longer able to sustain its magically-induced flight. And now that the creature had been thoroughly grounded, it found itself facing down four beings that were more t
han eager to shatter it to bits.
After finishing off the last gargoyle, Boxxy heard a loud crack and turned to see that a significant portion of the solid black stone that made up the Spire’s exterior had crumbled away. A tall, oval-shaped hole had appeared in the side of the otherwise featureless tower, some fifteen metres from where their party was currently standing.
[The Area Guardians of the Emerald Maze have been slain.]
[To the victor go the spoils.]
[The Black Stairs can now be accessed freely for the next 24 hours.]
It would appear the gargoyles had been some kind of gatekeepers that had to be defeated in order to allow entry into the sealed tower. It would certainly explain why those three had been noticeably tougher than the other golems they’d faced so far, even if they had failed to defeat the invading group. It also made sense that the dungeon would use more powerful monsters to keep outsiders away from its deepest recesses.
However, Boxxy couldn’t help but dwell on how baffling this arrangement was, as it failed to understand the backwards logic involved. What sort of idiot would design a door that opened once the guards were killed? Then again, this was probably just another quirk of the dungeon.
Come to think of it, it did remember encountering something regarding these so-called ‘Area Guardians’ once before. It was during the extremely brief period when it had obtained ownership of the Litigar Dungeon Complex’s stolen core. One of the items in the list of unavailable functions it had seen just before it had realised the core was going into meltdown was labeled ‘Guardian Allocation,’ or something of the sort.