by Drew Cordell
The monster in front of Fen recoiled, probably more in surprise than pain. It screeched again, slamming its blades into the ground with violent reverberations as it tried to find and kill Fen, breaking out of its cyclone move to rampage around. But Fen was just too fast, and even if she wasn’t doing much damage, she was keeping the monster off the rest of us while we chipped away at its armor, trying to find a second weakness to exploit other than the monster’s exposed eye.
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I gritted my teeth, suppressing the AIVO notification and issuing a mental command to block any more of them. I struggled to line up the targeting sight of my blaster with the monster’s exposed eye, mentally preparing myself to hit Fen with a Mana Shield if it looked like she was losing tempo in her rapid cadence.
Fen was dancing around the monster’s hefty blades, effortlessly flipping and gliding through the air and striking out with a fast blow whenever the boss was thrown off balance from overextending. I doubted she could keep it up forever, but for now it was buying us time and enabling the rest of us to do damage. The only problem was that in over a minute of fighting, we barely seemed to scratch the surface of the monster’s armor, and its health bar remained untouched below.
The burning green line on the opposite wall had started to move downward on either side, forming the base of a hard-angled ‘n’ shape as the timer counted down. “We have to clear the boss before that timer finishes!” I called, firing off a well-aimed shot at the monster's eye. The shot connected, spraying burning slime from the wound as the creature shrieked again. This time, a real health bar did appear in the center of the grayed-out armor, and my blaster shot had brought it down 5%.
Fen yelled out in surprise as the center armor of the monster’s chest slid away to either side with a hydraulic slam, revealing a cratering maw with hundreds of circular rows of sharp, razor-like teeth. The engorged mouth expanded from the center of the mech’s chest, reaching and pulsating as it searched for prey.
I hit Fen with a third-rank Mana Shield as she tried to jump away. The monster’s teeth scratched against her, but she managed to break free before the barbed teeth could sink into her and pull her into a gruesome death. The shield had protected her from taking any damage from the glancing blow, and as soon as she was out of range from the monster, I dropped the spell to conserve mana.
As horrifying as it was, this was our chance to do damage and Gwen had already called out the change in strategy—shoot at the monster’s true form while it exposed itself and went berserk.
We focused our fire, blasting away at the exposed monster inside its mech-like shell as Fen ran back toward us as fast as she could. Sizzling plasma bolts sent plumes of black smoke rising from the monster’s maw as our shots connected with the writhing mass of toothed flesh. Brandon’s shotgun sent fragmented teeth, green slime, and viscera spraying from the creature’s cavernous mouth with each brutal shot.
The Metalbound was even faster now, and it retracted back into its mech suit as the armor panels slammed closed again to protect itself, but not before we’d managed to chip away 25% of its health. It shrieked again, crouching and leaping in our direction with surprising speed and a whir of mechanical movement.
Gwen screamed in surprise, and I hit her with a max-rank Mana Shield. She tried to dive out of the way, but the massive monster landed only a few meters away from her. Splintering impact surged through the floor of the arena in its wake. Brandon managed to stay on his feet, but I was knocked to the floor, dazed as my head bounced off the cold stone and the breath exploded from my lungs with a blast of blunt pain, taking away five points of my HP. Blood pounded in my ears, and I fought to reorient myself as the world spun around me in vicious circles. With some effort, I forced myself to my feet.
Surprisingly, my channeled spell held through the stun, but one wild slash from one of the Metalbound’s blades connected with Gwen’s leg, breaking her shield and cutting into her armor. She screamed in pain, but Fen was on top of the monster the next moment, slashing away and pulling the boss’s attention so Gwen could crawl away, leaving a dripping trail of blood behind her as blood spurted from the deep laceration. The hit had dropped her health by nearly 25%, even after the shield had absorbed the brunt of the damage from the cruel bladed weapon. She was lucky she hadn’t lost the leg in its entirety.
I grimaced, hating that I was unable to heal Gwen as I sought out another good shot on the monster's eye. A quick check of my mana reserve showed that I still had 39 out of 55 mana remaining, but I needed to be ready to throw up more shields to protect my friends through the entirety of the fight. It was clear that without my shields, this boss had the potential to one-shot all of us, Brandon excluded, with a solid hit. The name of this game was evasion, and if the boss leaped around more with such targeted precision, that wasn't going to be easy for us. There were a million things going through my head, but I fought to maintain focus, relying on my intuition.
“I’m fine, don't let up!” Gwen yelled, limping away while Fen danced around the Strexian boss. Only I wasn't so sure Gwen was telling the truth. Her bleeding debuff was intensifying, and her health was about to dip below the 60% mark as moving seemed to worsen the blood loss. Throwing a shield on her wouldn’t prevent the bleeding damage, and she was far enough out of range from the boss that I could shield her again if it decided to switch targets and double back on her. The longer I waited before throwing another spell, the better my mana regeneration would be.
Groaning, Gwen injected herself with a health stimpack, repairing the damage and healing up her wound. The stimpack brought her back to full health, but she would only have four more of them to work with for any remaining content if we cleared this first boss. With the bleeding staunched, she began to squeeze off shots with her carbine, trying to land a hit on the monster’s small, centered eye again as it rampaged around.
The height difference alone was too great for Fen, and while she was doing a great job of keeping the boss off the rest of us, she wasn't going to be able to lure the horrible monster in the mech suit out by hitting its eye. Her katana, even with her elegant skills, was only scratching the boss’s impossible armor pool. Her agility and prowess were incredible, and her initiative to take up the primary tanking role for this fight—knowing that even Brandon couldn’t hold up to more than a few hits from this behemoth—spoke magnitudes about her selflessness.
I stole another glance at the burning line on the arena wall, grimacing as it was starting to look more and more like a door, dropping vertically to the point where it was only about a meter off the floor. We were running out of time, and I didn’t want to know what was going to come out of that door if we couldn’t kill the first boss.
I considered our options, studying my friends as I watched my mana creep back up above 40. “Throw everything you have at it next time it opens up its armor!” I called, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice. Twenty-five percent health per berserking phase wasn’t going to cut it if we wanted to take down the boss before the timer on the arena wall finished.
A burst of Gwen’s carbine connected with the boss’s eye, causing an agonized screech and the heavy armor on the mech’s chest to slide open, revealing the mouth. The creature screeched again, a horrible ringing sound that sent sharp pain vibrating through my skull. I fought through it, running to Brandon’s side and firing off my blaster pistol while I did. The boss was rushing him, but he held his ground, pumping round after round into the behemoth’s exposed flesh. We didn’t need to communicate with words—he knew what I was planning.
As the boss rushed toward us, Fen ran alongside it, struggling to keep up and slashing at the monster’s exposed mouth with overextended swings lacking the calculated power I now knew she had. I fully expected the monster to turn on her, but it had already committed to its accelerated charge, swinging its bladed arms in powerful arcs while it thudded across the battlefield toward
me and Brandon.
“Run, run!” Gwen yelled, seemingly terrified that we were going to die, and maybe we were. It was too late to pivot our plan now. If we didn’t follow through, the results would be catastrophic.
I fought against the panic, concentrating the will to channel my Mana Ball spell, then immediately destabilizing the resulting orb of mana with Unstable Power. I held my ground as the boss closed in on us. I waited until what felt like the last possible second then waited a heartbeat longer, lobbing the glowing ball of unstable power into its pulsating mouth, immediately channeling a rank 5 Mana Shield on myself and Brandon. I forced my helmet to materialize on my EVA suit, slamming down the solar shielding with a quick mental command, almost certain that the terrifying monster was going to collide with us at any moment and take us to an early death.
The orb of destabilized mana detonated in a shockwave of energy as the air pressure washed over us, flattening me to the ground and sending me sliding across the arena, without pain this time. The light from the blast was reduced to a small blip of prismatic light through my helmet’s solar shielding, and I watched as the monster’s immense forward momentum was stopped in its tracks, flipping the creature onto its back with metallic shuddering as it flailed its powerful mechanical limbs in all directions, struggling to gain traction and leverage on the slick floor of the arena. I dropped both Mana Shields and removed my helmet, storing it back in my armor with a mental command, thankful it had protected my hearing and vision from the blast.
As the monster’s armored panels slammed shut for the second time, a series of pressurized pops sounded as thick rusted chains shot from both of its arms in three separate locations, clanging against the stone of the arena floor. Each chain was capped with a vicious-looking hook as long as my forearm. Fen retreated away from the monster as it flipped itself off its back and regained its feet with only 20% of its health remaining.
The boss started spinning again, and the newly-deployed hooked chains whirled through the air, expanding the monster’s radius of death. Some of the metal paneling on the creature’s back had fallen off, revealing the vulnerable gears and ancient, sparking electronics beneath. This was our chance to finish the fight, but it was also when the boss would be at its most dangerous. The ancient mechanical monstrosity was moving faster now, frenzied and fueled by its pain and hatred.
“Split up and keep moving!” I yelled, squeezing off several shots as I jogged backward from the monster, trying to inflict damage and stay out of its extended range.
Fen must have known dodging the boss was off the table now that the boss had extended its radius of impact by several meters. Even she wouldn’t be able to maneuver her way through that vortex of ancient steel. Fen was retreating with the rest of us, trying to look for ways that she could be helpful. It was apparent that she didn’t have a ranged ability for her character—at least not yet—but she had already done more than enough to help us for this fight. Now, it was on the rest of us to close it out.
The monster suddenly crouched and leaped mid-rotation, maintaining its powerful angular momentum as it sailed through the air toward Brandon. I cursed, hitting him with a max-rank Mana Shield, but it wouldn’t be enough. He tried to dive away as the boss landed only a few meters away from him. The Metalbound’s blades sent sparks spraying across the black obsidian floor as they chased after him.
Brandon screamed as one of the boss’s hooks caught on his arm, yanking him from the ground and accelerating him into the bladed vortex, chipping away at his shield as he was thrown through the air. With the speed of the boss’s rotations, we’d risk hitting Brandon if we kept shooting while he was trapped. The damage broke his shield first, starting to chip away at his armor pool as the vicious spinning took its toll.
Brandon came loose the next moment, flying across the arena in a high arc. I hit him with another Mana Shield before he hit the ground, protecting him from most of the additional damage as he tumbled and skittered across the hard surface of the arena floor, surprisingly uninjured from the ordeal as I dropped his remaining shield.
With Brandon out of the way, we could shoot again, firing explosive volleys of blaster bolts while Fen kept her distance from the boss’s spin of death. I considered using my Overload ability to increase my damage but didn't want to risk breaking my blaster. I only had 15 mana remaining after opting to protect Brandon when he was caught by one of the hooks, so I needed to make the last of my mana count or drain it and use one of my resource stimpacks to bring it back to full.
The burning line of light on the arena wall was closing in on the bottom now, coming close to completing the rectangle and bringing whatever untold consequences were heralded with it. We didn't let up, blasting away at the boss with everything we had as it desperately sought out a target to kill, failing and slowing as its health plummeted.
The boss screeched again as its health dropped to zero, falling over in a collapsed mechanical heap as it digitized and disappeared into a spray of pixelated dust, glimmering as it faded into nothingness.
I took a moment to catch my breath, happy to see that my mana was climbing back up and had passed 20 again. As far as I knew, we were down some ammo, and Gwen had burned one of her stimpacks. Other than that, we’d made it through the fight with limited cost, and I was pleased with our performance as a group. There was no doubt of Fen’s value now. Her ability to take initiative and evasion tank such a formidable enemy had allowed us to make it through the fight without suffering heavier losses.
The moment of reprieve was short-lived though, and as the timer on the arena wall concluded, the Architect of Ortonan swooped in again from the ceiling of the arena, speaking to us again.
41
“Ra sric ra varth teg. Ortonan Klexla riy grex va. Sric santh ra jin. Ortonan Renvey,” the Architect said as I slid a new charge pack into my blaster. There was no use shooting at the Architect. I was under the impression that it wasn't going to be one of the enemies we faced, at least not until the end of these trials.
“What did he say?” Gwen asked, reloading her blaster carbine and pulling out an extra charge pack from her inventory to attach to her belt.
“Sorry,” I said, forgetting that my friends couldn’t inherently understand the Strexian language. I translated the message: “You have conquered your first trial. The Metalbound of Ortonan wilted before your willpower. But now your second trial begins: the Purveyor of Ortonan.”
“That does not sound good,” Fen mused, drawing her shorter tantō blade and inspecting it while she held her katana in the other hand.
“Stick to the plan. We’ve got this,” Gwen encouraged.
“Stay in the back,” I said, feeling terrified at how closely she had come with death, more so now that the initial rush of adrenaline had a chance to settle into a steady trickle. Until we could find a way to force a change in her character’s respawn point, one death and she would be out of Eternity Online for good—and selfishly, out of my life for good.
The arena came to a grinding halt in its movement as the second door opened, revealing a tall, slender figure emerging from the newly opened passage. This enemy was similar to the first insect-like alien sentinel we’d seen in the first room with two sets of willowy arms, dressed in ornamented robes. Only, this one was alive, and it towered over us, carrying a large, rounded tome of glimmering paper, a polished, weighted scepter that looked to be forged from bronze, and a set of darkened spherical beads bound by cord in its other pair of hands.
We held our fire as the creature emerged from the shadows and into the light. It wore a boxy, ceremonial hat like a capstone for its sharp, angular head. The alien chittered, angling its head to the side as it studied us with three, shadowy black eyes that seemed to suck the light from the room like miniaturized black holes. It said something in a chittering language even older than that of the Strex, caustic green acid dripping from its sharp, red fangs. Everything about its appearance was unnerving.
My Strexian implant didn’t
enable me to interpret whatever language this boss was speaking, but that was okay. The delay in combat allowed my mana to recharge to its full 55 points without the use of a stimpack. So far, we were doing a great job at playing as a team and conserving our resources.
We could overcome this trial too, even if it wouldn’t be easy. The arena started rising and rotating again, and the start of a third door burned to life on the final wall of the arena—the timer for the time we were allocated to kill this next boss without consequence.
I was surprised when an AIVO prompt flashed across my vision but felt resolution set in once it had.
Class Quest Updated: Savant I
Expected Difficulty: Hard
Quest Type: Variable
Known Rewards: Strexian Scrollbind.
Defeat the Purveyor of Ortonan and recover its Strexian Scrollbind.
There was even more at stake now for me. The outcome of this fight would determine my success at continuing with my current class.
The Purveyor of Ortonan raised its first set of hands, the one with my Strexian scrollbind, and chanted something. Brandon started first, running forward and shooting his shotgun while Fen rushed the new boss, trying to flank it from a sharp angle. I prepared to protect both of them with a shield, squeezing off several shots that bounced off a reflective shield the new monster was channeling on itself. A shielded health bar appeared over its head, and it was clear that the shield was regenerating itself as we were doing damage, adding to its total shield pool.
We would need to do more damage than the boss’s shield recharge rate if we wanted to make any progress and break through to its health bar. I had the feeling it would have some tricks up its four sleeves that would try to prevent that.