Maintaining my pace towards The Beast as Amaranth cut his sprint to the inside, I tightly gripped Splinter’s hilt and hoped that my next move worked, or at the very least, didn’t end up getting the both of us killed. Adjusting my timing as Amaranth rapidly approached, I glanced up towards The Beast’s head, watching its eyes shift as it tracked my familiar, its body visibly coiling to strike.
Then, just before The Beast could pounce, Amaranth rushed past me, barely a stride’s length separating us as our paths intersected, causing the creature’s eyes to pass right over me and for its entire body to suddenly hesitate. Having been so focused on following my familiar, The Beast had temporarily forgotten about me, at least until I reappeared in the center of its vision and was rushing directly toward it, a tactic that immediately provoked an instinctive response. Fearing that it was under attack, The Beast instantly shifted its attention off Amaranth and onto me, its coiled body shooting forward with its maw opened wide.
Just as I’d hoped it would.
In the split second that The Beast had spotted me, it had hesitated for the briefest of moments between deciding to change targets and finally executing its attack, giving me just enough time to put on one last burst of speed and to drop down into a roll, just barely managing to dive under its snapping jaws. Springing up from my somersault, I forced myself to move as I found myself now directly under The Beast and rushed down the length of its body.
This is probably the best-worst idea that I could have come up with! I thought as I charged Splinter with a Shocking Touch and thrust it upwards into creature’s belly up above me, feeling the sharp tip of the blade pierce through the thinner under scales and sink into the flesh within. But if this doesn’t piss it off and keep its attention focused on us, I don’t know what will!
Discharging my blade into the wound, I felt The Beast’s entire body convulse from the unexpected attack, an enraged howl following it less than a second afterward. Pulling Splinter free as The Beast began to twist in an attempt to get to me, I then rushed towards the creature’s flank, looking to make a quick exit while I still had the chance. But before I could take more than a handful of steps, The Beast howled in pain for a second time and then immediately began to shake its body.
Amaranth shouted back.
Without warning, The Beast’s heavy leg slammed into me, the impact taking me completely off my feet and causing me to fly through the air a short distance before landing heavily on the ground, eventually rolling to a stop. Gasping in pain from the unexpected blow, I instinctively looked back in the direction of the leg, only to see The Beast’s clawed foot descending down right on top of the spot that I was lying in.
“Shit!” I cursed in sudden panic and forced myself past the pain coursing through my back and rolled out of the way of the descending limb, managing to just barely avoid being crushed as the massive paw briefly touched down before springing up again. Glancing upward as The Beast continued to move forward, I saw the rest of its body pass over me just as Amaranth’s voice filled my head.
he warned me, sounding indignant and angry as he spoke.
Glancing up at Amaranth’s words, I saw that The Beast had managed to twist around after putting some space between us, its angry yellow eyes now tiny slits as it snarled with barely contained rage. Up until this very moment, we’d simply been prey to the gargantuan apex predator, barely worthy of notice, save for the effort that it took to catch and devour us. But now that we’d managed to injure it, to dare make it feel pain, we’d been shifted into another category entirely, one that forced it to take us much more seriously.
Taking a deep breath as the three of us readied ourselves to resume our dance, I briefly checked my Raid Sense, hoping to get an idea of just how much longer Amaranth and I had to survive. As the information flowed into me, my heart fell as I learned that a handful of the raid members had somehow died and were now back in Aldford, prompting me to mentally curse Ignis and his group once more. Yet pushing past that discovery, I sensed that several of the groups behind me were starting to make their way towards us.
“Help is on the way,” I said to Amaranth as I took a step forward, sensing him do the same. “We just need to hold out a little bit longer.”
Receiving a raspy croak from my familiar in response, the two of us then charged forward directly towards The Beast, our sudden movement causing it to spring forward to meet us. With the distance separating us rapidly vanishing, I made sure to ready Blink Step, holding the spell in my mind for Amaranth to use when the moment came. Waiting until the last possible moment, I let the gap between us shrink to almost nothing.
In an instant, the two of us vanished from sight and reappeared on either side of The Beast, who to my dismay, was already twisting its body in my direction, having grown wise to my teleporting tactic. Not even having the time to let out a curse, I found myself forced to dodge under a slashing claw and then leap over a sweeping tail as it threatened to take out my feet from under me.
Pressing its advantage without any hesitation, it was all I could do to keep ahead of The Beast as it unleashed its fury on me, its attacks now carrying a level of ferocity that I hadn’t seen earlier. All conscious thought fled from my mind as I desperately tried to stay ahead of The Beast’s reach, finding myself relying more and more on using Blink Step, just to buy a few seconds of relative safety before the creature was upon me again.
The deadly dance seemed to continue for ages as both Amaranth and I scrambled to stay alive, the Beast alternating its attention between the two of us almost seamlessly now that it had realized we weren’t merely prey. Before long, I was panting heavily as my endurance began to falter and I felt myself hard pressed to keep up, just barely managing to dodge a sweeping claw and then immediately being forced to use Blink Step to evade a snapping bite that I hadn’t even seen coming.
Without being able to even form a thought, let alone react in time, the massive paw slammed into me with bone shattering force and slapp
ed me straight off my feet, causing me to bounce and then tumble across the ground a fair distance, two red tinted alerts flashing in the center of my vision.
[The Beast] critically hits you for 548 points of damage!
You are low on health!
Groaning as I came to a stop, it was all that I could do take a breath, the entire left side of my body feeling like it’d been run over by a truck, or more aptly in my case, slapped away like an annoying insect. Managing just the smallest of gasps, I felt a disturbing watery sensation in my chest, which then quickly became a ragged, bloody cough.
I think I have a punctured lung, I thought distantly as I reflexively tried to sit myself up, only to have an incredible wave of agony from my wounded side dissuade me from doing so. Along with a broken everything else.
Statistics:
HP: 232/1056
Stamina: 132/960
Mana: 235/1277
Just one solid hit nearly did me in, I noted through gritted teeth as I brought back the hand that I’d used to check my side, seeing that it was completely covered in blood, specifically, my blood. Staring at the hand with a numb expression for several heartbeats, I slowly realized that The Beast’s paw had also included a particularly sharp set of talons. Talons that I clearly hadn’t been fortunate enough to evade when it had hit me. As I continued to stare at the blood now dripping down my glove, I heard a desperate voice shout out my name, causing me shift back into the moment.
“We’re coming, Lyrian!” a male voice yelled amid the sound of running feet. “Hold on a bit longer!”
Is that Aldwin? I thought, recognizing the voice and trying to push myself up, feeling a wave of lightheadedness come over me as I moved.
Clenching my jaw through the pain as I pushed myself awkwardly up on one side with my good arm, I glanced around the battlefield, seeing that The Beast was now barely a dozen feet away, its hateful glare focused directly on me as it rapidly approached. But before it could close the distance between us, a hail of magic and arrows slammed into it, causing it to shriek loudly in pain and recoil from the sudden assault. As if encouraged by the pained cry, a chorus of triumphant shouting rang out through the air, moments before a horde of Adventurers charged into view, their massed ranks slamming directly into The Beast and forcing it to stagger backward from the sheer weight behind it.
It had taken time, but at long last, the raid had finally arrived.
In an instant, the thunder of magic and shouting voices took over the Twilight Grove, filling the air with near deafening cacophony that was intermixed with the occasional howling cry from The Beast. Caught staring at the sight before me, I missed the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps, only recalling them in hindsight after Veronia’s face came into view before me.
“V-Veronia?” I wheezed in surprise at the woman’s unexpected arrival as she dropped down beside me, her eyes going to the wound in my side. “What are you doing here?”
“Saving your life, it seems,” she replied tersely as she set down her shield and then shifted to get a better look at the damage The Beast’s claws had managed to inflict. “We find ourselves rather short of capable healers, and I happen to have some ability to assist in that area.”
“I d-didn’t know that you could heal,” I said, wincing in pain as she put both of her hands directly on top of my wounded side.
“There is a lot you don’t know about me,” Veronia stated in a harsh tone, glaring at me for several seconds before her expression softened. “Just keep still while I take care of this.”
As soon as she finished speaking, a wave of heat surged into my wounds from Veronia’s hands, causing the pain coursing through me to gradually diminish until it finally vanished, all while a string of identical messages appeared in my combat log.
Veronia heals you with [Lay on Hands] for 81 points of damage!
“There,” the woman announced a few seconds later, taking her now blood-covered hands away from my side. “Good as new, I suppose.”
“Thanks,” I replied, breathing a sigh of relief now that the pain was gone and turning my head towards Veronia. “That spell you used…you’re a Disciple, aren’t you?”
“I am,” she replied curtly as she grabbed her shield and stood up, then paused to offer her hand to help me up. “But this really isn’t the time, nor the place to discuss that.”
“You’re right,” I said accepting her hand and allowing her to pull me back up to my feet as the two of us then launched into a sprint to rejoin the fight.
Scanning the battlefield as I ran, I was happy to see that in the short span that I’d been out of the fight, the newly arriving Adventurers had managed to force The Beast back onto its heels as they continued to swarm it. But despite their success in changing the flow of the battle, The Beast had managed to make them pay for their efforts, and I could see several wounded or dead Adventurers lying on the ground as we ran.
“Of course, he would be right in front, the fool,” Veronia’s hiss reached my ears as we ran, prompting me to glance briefly at her, then back in the direction of The Beast where she was looking.
Only to find Aldwin standing right between Drace and Abaddon, directly in front of The Beast.
“And where else would he be?” I asked, just as I saw Drace catch one of The Beast’s claws on his shield and hold it in place just long enough for Aldwin to deliver a powerful blow with his axe to the limb, all while Abaddon simultaneously stepped up to block the creature’s maw from taking a bite out of the Bann’s vulnerable side.
“Somewhere safe!” Veronia barked with sudden anger as she glared over at me, then immediately shifted her sprint and split away from me.
What the hell was that about just now? I thought with a wide-eyed expression as I saw the woman leave me behind, her reaction completely out of character based on everything I knew about her. Maybe she doesn’t completely hate Aldwin after all?
Shaking my head at the thought, I pushed it to the back of my mind and focused back at the battle before me, catching sight of both Freya and Lazarus on The Beast’s flank and angling my sprint towards them. Charging forward, I inserted myself into a newly formed gap between them, the Adventurer that had been standing there just a moment earlier being flicked away by The Beast’s now flailing tail.
“Lyr! You’re alive!” Freya greeted me with a shout as I stepped in beside her and delivered a two-handed slash into The Beast’s side, adding a new wound to the countless others that now adorned its blood-covered side. “We thought we were too late!”
“It was a close call!” I exclaimed as we were all forced to leap backward in order to evade another swipe from The Beast’s tail as it came for a second pass. “But I’m sure glad that you’re all here now!”
“It was Ignis’s group that caused all the chaos!” Lazarus shouted out as the three of us stepped back into old positions, the tail having moved on to threaten the Adventurers on the other side of the creature. “They started targeting the healers in the raid and managed to take out a handful before we could get things under control!”
“Damn!” I cursed angrily, Veronia’s earlier words suddenly making more sense to me. “Hido tried to take a cheap shot at me as soon as you all left, and Ignis was the one who pulled The Beast early!”
“Why would they do that?” Freya demanded angrily as she viciously thrust her spear into the raid boss’s side, the heavy tip easily piercing through the tough scales and provoking an angry roar from the creature.
“Because they’re working with Carver,” I said, feeling a surge of anger shoot through me as the words left my mouth.
<
br /> “Carver is involved in all this?” Freya snarled, her head snapping over to look at me. “You have to be fucking kidding me!”
“I wish I was!” I replied bitterly. “But that’s not all. Apparently Carver is on his way down here too! He wants to make sure we don’t seal the Ley Line before it blows!”
“So, all of this was just a damn trap to get us out of the way!” Lazarus exclaimed from my right as he carved open a large wound on The Beast’s side.
“Looks like it!” I agreed, once more delivering a powerful thrust with Splinter. “That’s why we need to put an end to this fight as soon as we can!”
“That might be easier said than done! Heads up!” Freya shouted at the same moment The Beast suddenly twisted away from Aldwin and the other warriors keeping it in place.
Turning its attention directly towards us.
“Shit! Aggro!” I exclaimed, scrambling backward as The Beast’s snapping jaws filled the spot that we’d all been standing in, just narrowly missing catching us.
As we continued to rapidly back away from the turning creature, I saw its bright eyes fixate on me, the orbs widening in recognition. Letting loose a primal roar of rage, the creature swiped out with a claw directly at me, forcing all of us to dive in different directions to avoid it.
“Damn! It must really hate you, Lyr!” Lazarus shouted as we all desperately tried to regain our feet before The Beast could press its attack any further.
“No kidding!” I agreed as I pushed myself up off the ground and reflexively looked for another attack, only to see that the Beast had stopped in its tracks, the muscles on the sides of its throat undulating in a way that I’d never seen before.
“What is it doing?!” Freya asked as she climbed to her feet a short distance away from me, having noticed the same thing I had. “Is it trying to throw up?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, seeing a thin spurt of liquid leave The Beast’s mouth as the contractions continued and land on the stone floor, where it then began to sizzle. Confused by what I was seeing, I stared at the dripping substance for several seconds, until the pieces finally snapped together in my mind. “It’s acid!”
Legacy of the Fallen (Ascend Online Book 2) Page 72