Well, that finally did something! I exclaimed mentally, feeling the vibrations suddenly intensify as Splinter began to violently shake in my grip. In a heartbeat, my triumph for damaging the construct was replaced with the desperate need to pull my weapon free of whatever it was caught in, lest I end up with a broken sword. Unfortunately, before I could do anything to pull Splinter free, the Sentinel’s balance finally failed, and it stumbled forward, the movement causing the blade to wrench free of my hand.
“Shit!” I cursed, half in panic at losing my sword and half at the prospect of being crushed, unable to help; only able to instinctively flinch as the golem’s body nearly came crashing down on top of me before it awkwardly caught itself by falling to one knee and planting both of its hands on the ground in front of it.
That was too close! I thought as I stared at the now semi-prone golem before me, its wounded leg stretched straight out behind it with Splinter’s hilt protruding from the side of its knee. Reacting instinctively, I rushed forward to grab my weapon again, intent on pulling it free before it could break. Grabbing hold of the hilt, I looked back up at the prone construct, my brain finally catching up to the moment and sending a spark of a realization through my mind.
We can all finally reach it now! My eyes widened, seeing that the bulk of its body was now easily within melee range, giving everyone a chance to attack the Sentinel without needing to worry about its sword or taking turns striking at its legs.
“Hit it while it’s down!” I shouted out to the group, as I added my free hand onto Splinter’s hilt in an attempt to hold it steady, the grinding noise from the limb increasing in pitch with every second that passed. Hoping to take advantage of the golem’s prone position, I attempted to drain mana from it, but found that there was nothing at all to absorb, likely because I wasn’t in direct contact with the crystal powering it. “Try hitting the crystal in its chest with something heavy!”
Even before the words were fully out of my mouth, I noticed that some of the guild members were already moving to take advantage of the Sentinel’s vulnerability as I caught sight of Myr and Cadmus rushing in behind me, the pair’s attention focused on the golem’s opposite flank. Just as they vanished out of the corner of my eye, a flash of azure fur appeared in front of me as Amaranth suddenly rushed into view on the opposite side of the Sentinel’s leg, his mental voice greeting me a heartbeat afterward.
Feeling a surge of surprise shoot through me as I watched my familiar snap his head to the side, twisting the already weakened metal, until I had a near perfect look at the inner workings of the Sentinel’s knee, noticing that whatever the substance was that covered the outside of the construct, also covered everything inside of it.
That’s why I can’t pull Splinter out! I realized, temporarily dismissing the presence of the grey crud after seeing that I had managed to jam my sword through the center of the Sentinel’s mechanical knee, which had closed from its original open position, trapping the blade in between.
I told Amaranth, just as a burst of magic flared out from the front of the Sentinel, followed by several loud shouts. I had no idea what was going on from my vantage point, but I knew that it was past time that I rejoined the fight.
Not bothering to question my thinking, Amaranth did exactly what I asked of him, the azure-furred cat leaping high into the air off the Sentinel’s leg, before coming down directly on top of the knee, causing it to sag, and by extension forcing the joint to open ever so slightly. With a sharp yank, I managed to pull Splinter out a few inches as the joint opened and before it caught a second time.
Once more, Amaranth leaped into the air and came down heavily onto the Sentinel’s leg, causing it to bend even further than it had before, allowing me to pull Splinter free of its prison.
“Yes!” I exclaimed in relief as the blade came free and I took a staggering step away from the Sentinel, unable to keep myself from checking the sword for any sign of damage. Seeing only the faintest of markings on the Æthertouched weapon, I turned my attention back towards Amaranth, whose voice rang out in my head.
“Damn!” I swore, taking in the sight at a glance and then lunging forward, thrusting Splinter back into the wound that Amaranth had managed to rend open, this time aiming the edge of my weapon at a spot where a metal piston joined to the side of the Sentinel’s knee.
Guiding the Æthertouched blade towards a crud-covered bolt that anchored the piston in place, I felt it bite deep into the weakened metal, prompting me to thrust down at it for a second time with all the force that I could put behind it. Unable to stand up to the assault, the rusted bolt split in two, immediately causing the attached piston to hang loosely.
“I think that’s the best we’re going to do!” I said, seeing Amaranth leap off the leg as the Sentinel pulled it forward as it prepared itself to stand. Motioning at the cat to follow me, I backed away from the moving leg, intent on seeing how the rest of the party was faring, when without warning, a bright surge of azure light erupted from the front of the Sentinel.
“Shit! Look out!” I heard Freya’s voice boom through the air as I shielded my eyes from the sudden brightness, several other panicked shouts echoing out in sympathy. “Constantine, move!”
“Oh, fu—” the rogue started to shout in response, before being cut off with a sudden finality as a thunderclap of magic erupted in front of the golem and Constantine’s presence vanished from Party Sense.
Ending as abruptly as it began, the bright azure light faded, allowing me to pull my hand away from my face just in time to see a scorched and singed Freya tumble out from in between the Sentinel’s legs before landing on the ground directly before me, her armor smoking from whatever attack the construct had just unleashed.
“What the hell just happened?!” I demanded, grabbing Freya by the collar of her armor and yanking her backward as the Sentinel pushed itself up off the ground, its foot coming down right in the spot that she had just been lying in.
“It shot a beam from its chest!” she replied, grabbing onto my arm and pulling herself back onto her feet, immediately motioning for us to get away from the construct. “I don’t know what the hell that crystal is, but it sure as shit isn’t a weak point!”
“Damn,” I grunted as the three of us rushed out of the Sentinel’s range, casting a single glance over my shoulder to see that it had regained its feet, but was visibly favoring its left leg. “I think I managed to break something in its leg at least!”
“I’ll take whatever small victories we can get at this point,” Freya said with a sigh as we reached what we hoped was the edge of the Sentinel’s reach and turned to face the construct
warily, forced to squint our eyes due to the brightness of the two Æther Crystals now almost directly across from us.
Standing at an angle to take the weight off its bad leg, I could see that the Sentinel had taken a fair amount of damage in the brief time it had been within reach. Several new gashes now adorned the metal across its chest and body, including countless more burns and scars marking the spots where spells had landed. But, despite all our efforts, it didn’t seem like anything critical had been hit, leaving me wondering if we would be forced to reduce the Sentinel to scrap in order to kill it.
I guess a certain amount of resilience would be important when designing a security unit, I allowed grimly, watching the Sentinel swing its sword at Cadmus as the lizardman belatedly leaped off the construct and threw himself forward into a desperate roll to avoid the sweeping blade.
“So, any ideas how to handle this now?” I asked Freya, watching the Sentinel plant its foot unsteadily on the ground as its attack just barely missed Cadmus, the leg that I had damaged hindering its movement.
“Hit the other leg?” Freya suggested as the spellcasters finally resumed their onslaught on the golem, their spells flying through the air and splashing across its tarnished metal shell, causing the construct to shift its head in their direction. “Maybe we should try and target the—”
A flash of crimson light caused Freya’s words to die in her throat as the golem’s arm snapped out in one smooth motion, pointing itself in the direction of the ranged attackers and unleashing a searing beam of magic. Almost instantly, the waves of magic pouring out from the ranged attackers stopped as a thunderous explosion echoed through the chamber, causing all of us to flinch in surprise at the Sentinel’s unexpected change in tactics.
“Shit, it’s shooting beams again!” Freya exclaimed, grabbing me by the arm as the Sentinel shifted its arm towards the rest of us scattered around it and unleashed another blast of energy. “We need to get behind cover!”
Spinning on our heels, the three of us turned and sprinted away from the Sentinel as several more explosions erupted around us, filling the large and cavernous room with a deafening echo and causing the ground to shake beneath our feet. Diving behind a large pile of stone, the three of us barely managed to avoid being struck directly by the beam, instead only suffering a punishing hail of stone as countless fragments slammed into us, some even managing to pierce through our armor.
“Ugh!” I growled in pain, grabbing a particularly large shard of stone that had managed to embed itself into my side and yanking it free. “If this thing doesn’t kill us outright, it definitely will when it brings this whole place crashing down on us!”
“No kidding,” Freya replied wearily while holding her hand against the side of her face, blood dripping down from under it.
“Huh?” I grunted at the cat’s statement, my mind shifting off the countless aches and bruises that the flying rocks had inflicted on my body.
Amaranth replied, slowly crawling forward to peer around the stone that we had taken cover behind.
“The Æther Crystals?” I repeated, twisting from my seated position to peer over the stone myself. “What does it want with them?”
Spotting the construct, I saw that the Sentinel had indeed broken away from us after unleashing its barrage of attacks and had taken several long strides towards the two Æther Crystals, having gone as far as to turn its back completely towards us as it moved. Frowning at the sight, I felt a sense of worry bloom in my chest as I considered our options. Given our experiences so far, anything interacting with the Æther Crystals was a cause for concern.
And I was confident that this time would be no exception.
“We need to stop it,” I said, glancing over at Freya as she twisted around to join me, the two of us watching the Sentinel step right in between the two Æther Crystals and drop its sword to the ground before raising its hands to grab each crystal, stopping them both from their spin. “I don’t know what it’s doing, but it can’t be any good for us!”
Pushing myself back up to my feet, I ran out of our hiding spot, keeping my attention focused solely on the Sentinel as the already thick aura of magic that hung around both of the Æther Crystals intensified and became almost painful for me to look at with my True Sight ability active. With every second that passed, I could see the magic before me gradually become more and more substantial as the Sentinel began to somehow draw on the energy stored in two Æther Crystals that it was touching.
“I have a bad feeling about this, Lyr!” Freya exclaimed as the three of us ran forward, seeing an orb of shimmering magic form around the Sentinel and the Æther Crystals. “That looks like a Force Shield!”
“It is!” I confirmed for her, seeing the dome of magic before us solidify in my enhanced vision, making the Sentinel appear to me as a ghostly silhouette within an orb of azure light. “But why does it need—”
A large ball of azure energy burst free from the well of magic that the Sentinel had fashioned around itself, causing my words to die in my throat as Freya, Amaranth and I ground to a halt, surprised by the floating orb.
“What is that?!” Freya exclaimed as a second identical ball of magic emerged from the dome that the Sentinel had cast around itself, followed closely behind by a third, then a fourth. “Uh, Lyrian…”
“I have no idea,” I replied, staring at the four beachball-sized orbs of magic as they all came to a stop for a brief moment, then slowly began to glide towards us, gradually picking up speed as they moved. “But I’m going to guess not good for us!”
Taking a step backward from the advancing orbs, I couldn’t help but notice that another two had emerged from the Sentinel’s dome, making me wonder just what exactly we were supposed to do at this stage in the encounter. This had been by far the most difficult boss fight that we had experienced in Ascend Online, and I couldn’t help but begin to feel overwhelmed at how the fight was playing out.
The kid gloves are clearly off now, Marc, a pessimistic voice in my head said to me as the three of us continued to backpedal away from the orbs of magic, each of them appearing to have fixated themselves on one of us, with me being the odd one out and having attracted the attention of two of the four. This is the part where the game finally tests you to see if you’ve been paying attention the whole time.
“I think we need to split up,” I said quickly, forcing the voice in my head to be quiet while I tried to come up with a plan. “It looks like each of those orbs is going to slowly get faster and faster until they finally catch up to us.”
“I think you’re right,” Freya agreed, before jabbing her spear in the direction of the Sentinel. “But what are we supposed to do now? Just endlessly outrun them? The way that thing is spawning orbs, we’re going to get overrun in no time!”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead, to be honest!” I replied, watching the four newest orbs begin to glide forward, having fixated on one of the other members of the guild elsewhere in the chamber. “My guess is that either we need to survive until the Sentinel drains those crystals dry and runs out of power, or we need to try and attack that shield and bring it down somehow!”
“That’s going to be next to impossible with the way it keeps creating those orbs!” Freya stated while casting a glance at me. “Can’t you do your mana absorbing thing and bypass the shield like you did during that fight with Mozter and his group? Then maybe you can force the Sentinel to stop casting more of them!”
“Shit; that’s a good idea!” I replied, kicking myself for not having thought of the tactic myself, having been more focused on figuring out a way through the mechanics of the encounter, rather than ignoring them completely. “I’ll give it a shot!”
�
��Good luck! I’m going to warn the others!” Freya shouted as both she and Amaranth split up, going off in their own direction away from me, the azure orbs that had targeted them gradually adjusting their course to follow.
It looks like the orbs are slow to change course, I observed, noticing that there was a slight delay from when Freya and Amaranth began moving and their two azure orbs shifting to follow them. That might make it easier to dodge them if they get too close.
Keeping that bit of information in mind, I stopped backpedaling away from the Sentinel’s dome and began to circle around it, breaking into a slow jog as I considered my options. At the moment, there were already a dozen orbs of magic gliding through the air, yet from what I could tell, only two of them had fixated their attention on me.
Which shouldn’t be too hard to avoid, especially since I can Blink Step out of the way if they get too close, I thought, watching them slowly angle themselves to follow me, while all of the other orbs continued onwards to the rest of the party. But if I rush to approach the dome, I need to make sure that I don’t accidentally run into another orb, or get too close to one that just spawned. With my luck, these things might just decide to explode the moment they sense something close to them, even if it isn’t their target.
Checking to see how closely the two orbs were following me, I increased my pace and cut in closer towards the dome, looking to shorten the distance between me and the magical barrier once I finally cleared the path that all the other orbs were following. My plan right now was to see if I could get in close enough to the dome to touch it and see if I could force my way through it while saving Blink Step in case I needed to make a quick escape.
“Here goes nothing!” I exclaimed, taking in a deep breath as I passed by the final cluster of orbs and angled myself directly towards the barrier.
Legacy of the Fallen Page 51