by Jeff Sproul
"The dark things with the oily scales aren't ours! They're an enemy, we're your friends!" Riley yelled, even while backstepping from the creature.
"It's true! Didn't you hear us?" Laura called out from nearby, as her core body was still close. "We didn't attack you, those dark creatures did, they're called Golem!"
"I hear you," the dragon spoke, as she clawed at one of Golem's hands, while then firing another ray of energy at a nearby scorpion. But she apparently had no idea what was or wasn't a part of Golem. Or, she just didn't care. "But you are capable of deceit," the dragon continued. "You seek what I possess and you shall not have it!"
"We're not getting through to her!" Riley said to Laura.
Laura shook her head and spoke into her band. "Withdraw from around the dragon, she’ll kill anything she sees, don't get in her way and she might fight Golem with us! Do not attack the dragon, she will kill you!"
Riley was already backing up.
"Thrash's forces are crumbling on his side," Chrono spoke over the band. "My Royals have mixed with The Crimsons, but we're losing ground. Thrash and Taurus are voting to retreat."
"Thrash and Taurus are saying that we need to retreat?" Laura spoke up, talking into her band. "We need to beat Golem back! What if it absorbs the dragon? We can't let that happen! Do you see how strong she is? She’s decimating everything around it and if Golem gets its hands on her, he's going to have that power!"
"Can't you see the sky, Laura?" Chrono replied over the comm band. "We can't fight those! We're not prepared for a major aerial battle!"
Riley glanced over, noticing that Laura had put a bit more distance between herself and the dragon, but space was becoming a precious commodity as Golem's forces pushed in all around them. With a glance at the sky, Riley spotted the jellies looming above. They'd started to descend, mostly on the outskirts of their attack group.
"Laura, ask Chrono if anyone has been seized by Golem yet!" Riley yelled over to her, above the battle sounds.
Laura brought her arm up. "Chrono! Is Golem taking anyone? I've seen a few players go down, but is it focusing on anyone?"
While they waited for a response, Riley threw several volleys of red blasts at nearby Golem soldiers. Every so often, he found himself in a patch of sludge that he had to quickly navigate around.
"Several players have been seized from The Thrashers, The Pale Ones, and The Royals," said Chrono. "The hands are grabbing them and then rolling away. But it's not going after everyone like this.”
The jellies were descending bit by bit. Riley could see in the distance that there were groupings of Golem soldiers that had formed around what he thought had simply been attack groups waiting to move in. But with how the hands were tightened into fists, he could only imagine that they had imprisoned players in their grip.
"We can't let those Jellies eat them!" Riley called out to Laura. "Tell Chrono!"
Laura shook her head, but Riley couldn't tell why. Her voice came over his band. "Riley says we can't let the jellies eat them. That's how they absorb their powers, right? But how are we going to get to them? We're barely holding our own!"
It was true. They were surrounded by soldiers and hands, and while not as many were landing around the area, there were still new impacts coming down from the sky. A large force was surrounding them but also protecting the players it had taken captive.
Chrono's voice came back over the band. "We've lost nearly all our scorpions. The Thrashers are down to almost half their player base. The Pale Ones have lost four. The BBs are at full, The Vigilant have lost three. The Crimsons have lost eight, The Royals are down six. Both Spinner and Jade Arachna are unresponsive and I'm not seeing many Weavers around. Some of our losses are teleport withdraws and not deaths, but we don't know which players Golem has seized for certain. There's too much going on!"
Riley was knocked to the ground by a leaping hand. It started to grab him, but before it could grip him, it burst into particles. Riley glanced up to see Amber's tendrils withdrawing from the air above him. "Stop getting sidetracked, you're constantly looking around and not fighting!" Amber Impaler lectured him.
"That's because you're killing everything for me!" Riley replied as he morphed his amber gel into a blade and cut into one of the nearby Golem soldiers that had gotten in close.
Chrono wasn't forthcoming with any real plan. What plan could there be? They were getting decimated by Golem's superior numbers. Not to mention, the dragon had cut into their forces just as much as Golem's.
A gust of wind buffeted Riley and the others from behind. He turned his head and no longer saw the dragon behind them. He looked around, then up into the air.
The dragon had leapt into the sky. Her wings looked as if they were meant for gliding, but as she spread them, she flapped them intermittently, keeping herself not only aloft, but ascending toward the central behemoth.
Riley found himself staring, thinking that the dragon had to be incredibly light, or strong. Probably both. But for the time being, they no longer had a significant threat assailing the middle of their force. He looked to Laura. "The dragon's away, we have to push on the prisoners!"
"Lead the way, you and Amber, along with Red and Green!" Laura advised on the band. "Glint! Can you blind these things?"
Glint's voice came from the band. "None of these things can be blinded as far as I can tell!"
"Carla, get yourself over here and tear us a path!" Laura commanded. "Brenda, pick off whatever gets too close. We're going to go for the prisoners!"
Riley moved alongside Amber, cutting and blasting into Golem's soldiers as they tried to force back Golem's advance. He could see one of the hands in the distance, immobile and closed, surrounded by a couple dozen soldiers.
Ice shards pelted and destroyed some of the nearest Golem creatures. Riley spared a glance to his left, seeing that Ice Block and the rest of The Vigilant had moved in closer to The Bunker Brawlers.
"Brawlers," Laura spoke over the band. "The Vigilant are pushing with us, but their leader has withdrawn from the fight. Aegis is in charge of them now. They think that Golem took Gem. If Golem thinks it needs Gem's powers, then we need to make sure it doesn't get them!"
All Riley could do was focus on the task at hand. There were too many enemies around and their push into Golem's ranks was allowing Golem to surround them further.
Carla's lotuses exploded and caused significant damage to the Golem creatures, tearing a pathway through Golem's forces.
Riley looked into the sky, wondering where the dragon was. He didn't see her, but noticed that the central behemoth's health had fallen to 32,526. Was the dragon attacking it? Had she died attacking it? There were still plenty of Jellies in the sky and some had gotten within a hundred feet of the hand they were pushing toward.
With The Bunker Brawlers fighting alongside The Vigilant, their concentrated effort allowed them to push forward and destroy the last lines of Golem soldiers. At least, the ones protecting the hand.
With her crossbow, Brenda loosed a series of bolts that smacked into the hand's upper body, while Laura had her copies blast into it with their gloves.
The hand went slack, releasing a sludge from within its grasp as it broke into particles and dissolved.
The sludge pooled on the ground as a figure stood up from it. "I thought I was dead! I could use some healing!" Gem said as he rose from the sludge, trying to pull himself from it. "I couldn't use my powers while I was trapped inside it and covered in that stuff."
One of Chase's spider bots skittered over and fired its healing beam at Gem, gradually building his hitpoints back up. But The Brawlers and The Vigilant had taken some hitpoint losses due to pushing into the midst of Golem's forces.
More strike hands were landing around them but none were falling toward their central location.
A roar came from far above them. Riley looked into the sky and watched as the dragon was flying around the central behemoth now. The behemoth's hitpoints were now down to 28,344. The
dragon's hitpoints were unknown, but on her own, she had taken on the central behemoth and severely reduced its health.
Riley checked the battlefield and found himself quickly engaged with new soldiers that he had to deal with while Amber fought several others. Red and Green were being forced back, as more Golem soldiers were piling in on them. They'd pushed too far into Golem's forces and were now getting surrounded because The Thrashers and The Pale Ones were being forced in and hadn't pushed when they did. The Crimsons and The Royals were still holding their ground, but since they hadn't pushed either, there were now three concentrated masses of Crimson Alliance forces that were equally getting surrounded. In their push to save Gem, they'd given Golem's ground forces more space to assault them.
The Angler Jellies had descended upon at least four different locations. Dozens of them crowded in. It was impossible to tell if any of the jellies had eaten, or were currently trying to eat someone, but there was no way to get to any of them in time. Gem was the only one they could save and even managing that had still cost them.
"The last Weavers have tunneled away," came Chrono's voice, but he wasn't forthcoming with anything else.
A light shimmered from above and Riley looked up into the sky to see the dragon firing her prismatic beam at the 'head' of the middle behemoth. Its health dipped lower and lower, bit by bit. Despite its massive amount of health, the dragon had whittled it down all on her own. The behemoth's health reached zero. A moment later, its enormous form burst into glittering particles and disappeared completely.
Despite this, the two behemoths on either side if it were still dropping new troops into the area, but not as frequently as they had been at the start of the fight.
"The dragon killed one!" Riley shouted.
Nexis soared through the air, firing her beam at the behemoth on the right. But now, Riley could see that the behemoths weren't sitting idly by. Now that he was watching more closely, he could see numerous small black spots streaking toward the dragon. It was hard to tell from the distance, but if he had to guess, either the behemoths had outside defenses on the sides of their body, or they had minions like the eel from the cave that could fire those black spines at the dragon. Whichever it was was irrelevant, because it still meant that the behemoths were probably damaging the dragon just as much as she was surely damaging them.
The dragon flew around, striking the right-most behemoth with more blasts, but all the while, she was putting more and more distance between herself and the Golem sky-bastions. Gradually, she came closer to the ground, until she pounced upon the forces of The Thrashers, The Pale Ones, and Golem's soldiers and hands.
Riley could see the dragon over the tops of everything in the area, but it was impossible to tell if the dragon had actually joined their side, or if she was still attacking indiscriminately.
"We have to get through to her," Laura said from over Riley's shoulder.
He glanced back and spotted Laura there with her shield up and her arm out, firing at the heads of the slower-moving soldiers.
"We tried talking to her, she wants nothing to do with us!" said Riley.
Chrono's voice suddenly emanated from their bands. "Thrash! Get your people to Taurus and The Pale Ones. Taurus is withdrawing his forces from the battle in fifteen seconds!"
Riley shot a glance over to where the dragon was.
"They're withdrawing?" Laura said into her band. "We can't take Golem's additional forces from that side! We're going to get wiped out!"
"We're already getting wiped out!" Chrono replied. "Plus, Taurus isn't giving me a say in the matter. He's withdrawing his forces to prevent taking on the dragon which landed in their midst. They're too few to deal with her power directly and the Golem forces around them."
"And we're going to fare any better when they leave?" Laura yelled.
There was no response from Chrono.
"Brawlers, we're pushing toward the dragon!" Laura said over their bands. "Aegis, I beg you, please back us up!"
"We've got you!" Aegis voice came over Laura's band.
"Brawlers, same positions as before," Laura instructed. "Push toward the dragon but do not attack her, attack the Golems around her!"
The Bunker Brawlers might've been few in number, but they had often fought together, just as The Vigilant had. Paragons at their level would've had a lot more time grouping together than the hellions that arrived in the previous expansion. Even if hellions had previously had a paragon character, the hellion playstyle mostly started out in a nomadic and solitary fashion. From a time standpoint alone, hero-players had more experience working in groups together with other hero-players. The Brawlers hadn't lost a single player and all things considered, The Vigilant hadn't lost many, compared to their hellion counterparts.
The Brawlers forced their way with beams, explosions, energy blasts, and orange tendrils. The Vigilant protected their rear flank with numerous hastily-made traps, precise shots, shields and other utility functions, while also keeping up enough damage to prevent Golem from breaking their group.
As The Brawlers and The Vigilant reached where the dragon was fighting, Laura placed herself at the head of the group. "Chromatic Nine-Tailed Queen, Nexis!" Laura called out, as the battle raged around her. Amber and Riley were fighting head to head with the Golem soldiers still separating them from the dragon. "We are sorry for coming into your presence with our forces! We came to attack an enemy, but you aren't that enemy! Our enemy is Golem, the dark-scaled forces around you! Let us help you fight them! We are weak and can't fight Golem alone! We need your help! We never wanted conflict with you! We want to be your friends!"
The dragon tore into the Golem soldiers around her. Her claws decimated several at a time. She reared her head back and in a slow sideways swipe, she unleashed the prismatic beam at many of the Golem troops around her.
"I don't think she heard you," said Riley.
The dragon cut off her beam and turned toward The Bunker Brawlers, which had cleared out some of the forces surrounding the dragon, but they still kept their distance.
The dragon leapt into the air and landed with a gust of wind against the nearest players, which was the majority of The Bunker Brawlers.Her head loomed above Laura.
Laura stood resolute, but lowered her arms, dispelling her energy shield. The dragon's head tilted and faced her.
Laura did nothing but stand there. The Brawlers slightly encircled the dragon, but only halfway, and only to engage Golem's soldiers.
The dragon stood with her claws resting on the ground. She looked as if she was regarding Laura silently. Then, she spoke.
"Well, at least someone knows how to show some measure of respect," the dragon spoke. "You wish to befriend me? When I am superior to you? What reason do I have to befriend inferior beings such as yourself?
Riley could only hear the two speak as he dedicated himself to fighting the encroaching Golems in order to buy Laura her chance at attempting to negotiate with the dragon.
"Chromatic Nine-Tailed Queen, Nexis," Laura spoke the dragon's name again. "A terrible entity known as Golem has invaded our world. We are doing our best to push it back, but it has already swallowed another world and now seeks to consume our own. We have no desire to deceive or quarrel with you. You have no reason to help us, but we wish to help you! The entity known as Golem is able to gain the powers of anything it absorbs and I believe that it has come to this mountain because of you! Many of us have already been killed in defense of you. We ask for nothing in return. We just don't want you to fall at its hands."
At the end of Laura's speech, Riley had to turn his head to see what the dragon was going to do in response. His gaze lingered for a few moments, watching the dragon just stand there. Riley had to return to fighting. He was tense. This dragon could wipe them all out. She may have been hurt from fighting with the behemoth, but their guild was on the brink of ruin on this battlefield.
"You are weak," the dragon spoke again. "If you wish to serve me in defense against
this great evil, then you must be strong."
With those words, Riley took another glance back at the dragon in time to see her lift her arm and reach out for Laura with her sharp claws.
Laura just stood there. Riley wasn't sure what else she could possibly do. Bringing up her shield would be nearly useless. Attacking the dragon would be suicidal. The only option available was to see what the dragon would actually do.
Nexis placed a single claw upon Laura's forehead.
A bright golden flash enveloped Laura.
It was a flash that Riley knew all too well, because it had happened twice to him in the past.
Hundreds of tiny rays of light speckled Laura's arms, leaving interconnected black dots on both of her forearms.
Above Laura's head, her name disappeared. In its place, the title 'Legioness' now resided.
But as soon as the flash subsided, another burst of brilliant light emanated from Laura's form. It swirled and warped, then dissipated just as quickly as it had arrived.
Riley had never seen anything like it. What had the dragon just done? He could tell that somehow Laura had just attained her Sigil. But how was Nexis able to do that? And what was that subsequent flash?
The dragon's claw lifted away. "And now, a lesser gift for your comrades in arms."
Nexis let out a ferocious roar that bellowed around them and vibrated Riley's body to the bone. He couldn't help but watch as Nexis roared. A moment later, a new buff indicator appeared in his vision. But even as the desire to check it rose in his mind, he could see more of Golem's creatures moving in around him. He turned and threw another burst of red pellets with a punch. Bang. The energy pellets smacked into nearby foot soldiers, but instead of being the usual 7-8 damage per pellet—of which there were eight per punch, he was now hitting for 8-9 damage. Had he gotten a critical hit? A critical should've hit for more than he was seeing. He punched again at a different set of soldiers nearby and dematerialized one of them as most of the pellets hit the creature. The damage was still higher.