Rune Seeker

“Well, that’s got to be the trick,” Hiral said, and Seena gave him an impressive – and expected – half-glare.

“I already threw a lot of solar energy at that armor,” Seena said. “Banner is helping, but don’t expect anything huge from me for a few minutes.”

“At least I got plenty of healing now,” Gran said, even as the Boss towering above them seemed to take note of their presence.

With a body like one of Tomorrow’s Sentinels, though much bigger, and the head of a horned Kindred – Which apparently looks like Amin Thett – the thing was somehow more impressive than when it had been fully encased in armor. And, as one of the huge arms lifted, hand closing into a fist, it was also far more threatening.

“Arena of fun and death!” Seena ordered. “Everybody else, spread out. Don’t give it one target to smoosh.”

Agreeing it wasn’t time to hold back, Hiral activated Double Trouble+ and his Domain of the Sun+, the familiar arena forming out of solid solar energy to encompass the room. This time, though, instead of spreading wide, the phantasmal seating stretched up the tall walls. Spectators roared and cheered, the Banner of Courage getting absorbed by the ability to appear all across the amphitheatre. The two buffs combined were potent, even without the crit-benefits.

Resonanceof Heroes immediately followed. It wouldn’t get absorbed into the arena of fun and death, but any attacks it mimicked couldn’t hurt against the Boss before them. Far above, a pulse of solar energy radiated out from Seeyela, and three portals opened, the artillery versions of her summons making their appearance.

Good choice. The tank spiders would not want to get hit, and the assassin spiders probably rely on critical hits for the most damage.

Yanily transformed as his Aspect took hold, wings sprouting from his back while scales and lightning covered his body. The draconic mouth moved oddly compared to the words that came out of it. “Eloquently Enraged?”

“Not yet,” Seena said. “But let’s use Delicate Balance. Gran, can you handle fifteen percent?”

“Yes,” the vampire said simply, needles and thread already zipping out to connect to the party members closest to her. “Boy, you’re on your own for an amount that small.”

“No problem,” Hiral replied, activating the ability. In the Party Interface, everybody’s health – other than Gran’s – dropped by the fifteen percent agreed upon, then immediately started climbing again. Left had thrown his Waters of Frey alongside Gran’s needles, and even Hiral had been splashed by the regenerative effect. Combined with his own new and improved Runic Regeneration, he’d heal the lost health back in less than thirty seconds.

In exchange, the whole party benefitted from an additional thirty-percent damage. It was a good trade off – if they didn’t get hit.

And, with the closed fist now coming down, not getting hit was their top priority.

“Yan, it’s coming for you!” Hiral shouted, spotting the tell-tale shadow enveloping the spearman. This wasn’t a small shadow, either, easily dozens of feet wide in all directions. Luckily, Yan had a decent movement ability, and a flap of his wings shot him forward, lightning trailing behind him.

He should be able to get out of there no problem, so Hiral…

WHAAAAM, the fist crashed into the balcony deceptively fast, a shockwave rippling outward and tossing the party to hands and knees even though they weren’t standing on the metal. Yanily, the closest, had been far too close, even with the quick usage of his movement ability. The compressed air of the shockwave hit him like a physical thing, scales shredding off him as his body flattened against the concussive force, before getting hurled towards one of the side walls.

In the Party Interface, his health had dropped by half – just from being near the point of impact – and the wall waiting for him at the end of his flight wasn’t going to do him any favors. Luckily, he had a portal user watching out for him, and two sheets of black emerged side by side. One directly in front of Yan saved him from flattening against the durable wall, while the one right next to it spit the man right back out.

With a scarf still connected to the spearman, Hiral did what he could to reduce some of the momentum, but Yanily still skidded and sparked along the brass flooring of the balcony.

“Did I just get smooshed…?” Yanily asked groggily into the party chat.

But, the party didn’t have a chance to answer. The massive fist that’d crashed down onto the balcony suddenly opened, the fingers spreading so long they scraped along the back wall. Upright like that, the hand was a practically impassible obstacle – one that also prevented Gran from hitting Yan with another healing needle.

It got worse.

Grinding echoed as the balcony began to vibrate, the huge hand dragging from one side of the balcony towards the other, and picking up speed.

“Up, up, up!” Seena shouted into the party chat, everybody running up the planes of pink energy like they were stairs. They weren’t going to be nearly fast enough, though, so Hiral reached out again with his scarves and yanked them all up as he Rejected.

Just in time, the party cleared the sweeping hand, deep grooves scarred into the balcony where it passed. Unfortunately, if they thought they were safe in the air like that, they were sorely mistaken. Panels along the front of the Boss’s chest opened, multi-barreled guns like the Scorpinator had on its tail peeking out. At least two dozen of them.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Seena said, the weapons opening fire.

Caught flat-footed like they were – even Hiral from grabbing the others – they all took hits from the opening salvo, health dropping across the board. Only Yanily, on the balcony, and Seeyela above escaped the damage. Of course, just like before, Hiral’s wall of Rejection did nothing to block the blasts that seemed to corrode solar energy, punching right through it to hit the party.

“Doesn’t look like the line of fire can hit the balcony,” Seeyela told them from where she stood. “Get back down.”

With the withering fire filling the air around them, the party wasted no time darting back down. There, they found Yanily up on his feet, one hand on his head like he was trying to stop the room from spinning. Two of Gran’s needles struck him in the shoulders, red energy pulsing along the threads to ease some of his pain.

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“Or, maybe the balcony isn’t the best idea,” Seeyela said, and Hiral spun to see the other fist now crashing down to the opposite side of the balcony. It didn’t take any quick thinking to know what was coming next.

“Down here we get flattened,” Seena said. “Up there, filled with holes. Not great options.”

“I think I can get in there where those guns are,” Seeyela said, a Bamf sounding over the chained fire of the weapons in the Boss’s chest. A flash of purple and red behind the cannons meant she’d made it.

That’d be a good start, but without being able to really use her venoms or critical hits on the spinning guns, it’d be slow going.

“I’ll see if I can help,” Right added, already above the line of fire from where he’d pounded on the mace – and dodged it getting ripped off like a week-old-bandage. Without waiting for a reply, the double sprinted across the air on planes of pink butterflies, his semi-solid-solar-energy gauntlets coming up to block weapons-fire shooting in his direction. Luckily for him, the gauntlets seemed to stand up to the disruptive effect of the shots better than Hiral’s Rejection did.

A second later, and he was through the worst of it, solar energy streaming out of several wounds across his body, and his health down a third in the Party Interface. He was still alive, though, and positioned himself above the spinning barrels of one of the guns furthest from where Seeyela seemed to be. Then, doing something even Hiral thought was reckless – and he was the one with the overpowered Runic Regeneration that had regrown his damn spine – Right reached out to grab the gun.

Sparks flew from where the Auroran Conquerers met the spinning brass, and there was no way they didn’t strain Right’s fingers, or outright break them. Still, despite the obvious pain he had to be in, Right’s hands closed around two of the eight spinning barrels, and the whole weapon ground to a halt. Grinding echoed from within, followed by a series of unhealthy-sounding ker-chunks, before a small explosion burst outward.

Right ripped his hands away – taking half the weapon with him – while black smoke streamed out of the weapon’s cubby. “That’s one,” the double said, grimacing as he forced his fingers to release his hold on the gun.

He had a method for disabling the weapons, but it didn’t come without a cost.

“Aim for the head?” Hiral asked. “We can’t stay down here. Gran, can you heal us as we pass through that?” He pointed at the constant-stream of blasts cutting them off from the top half of the room. Purposely flying into – and through – it really didn’t seem like a good idea. Still, it was better than the crushing hand racing in their direction.

“I’ll get me, Gran, Romin, and Yanily through,” Seena said. “Can you get Wallop and Left?”

“Got it,” Hiral said. “Left, see what you can do about Right’s hands when we get up there.”

“I’m fine,” Right said, already going over to the next spinning barrel and shoving his hands into what amounted to a grinder.

“See what you can do about Right’s hands,” Hiral said again, and his other – more reasonable double – nodded.

“Go,” Seena said, her passengers gathering around her. With them close, she spread her arms, the flames from her hanging mantle billowing out to wrap around the others. Within a second, the small group vanished within the form of a flaming bird, though its shape had changed. Whatever was happening with Seena and her class was affecting all her abilities, it seemed.

While her defensive ability had taken on the form of a budding flower, this movement ability – which normally took the shape of a phoenix – had evolved as well. Instead of two wings, the bird had four, each shaped more like a long, lily’s petal. As odd as it was to think of like that, the bird hadn’t lost any of its sleek, predatory qualities.

And, with one flap of the four wings, the flaming bird shot straight up, leaving a scar of flame in its wake. Rapid-fire bursts from the dozens of weapons blazing non-stop pelted across it as it passed, but they weren’t enough to slow or stop it. None of the party members’ health even dropped at the transit, and the movement ability ended to leave the group standing directly ahead of the Boss’s face.

Hiral didn’t waste any more time than that admiring his girlfriend’s powers, grabbing on to Left and Wallop with his scarves. Even knowing how the rain of weapons’ fire would degrade solar energy, he added balls of Rejection around each of them, reinforced with his Edict. The shields only needed to hold out for a second while they passed. Then he crouched, building Rejection under each of his hands and feet while also using Compression over and over. Just a second – that’s all he could afford with the massive hand now only ten feet away – and he released the building pressure.

Shooting up like the top of a pot boiled too long with no outlet, Hiral and his two passengers blitzed through the gunfire, shots pelting his shields. Thankfully, because of the speed they moved, each of the three took almost no damage, and they stopped beside Seena’s group on their own Paths of Butterflies.

As soon as they arrived, Left darted off to work on Right’s hands – the double was on his third gun – and at least two on the other end had stopped as well. Seeyela was doing her part.

“Now then,” Seena started at the same time the giant head – bigger than all of them put together by far – turned in their direction. Built in the image of one of the Kindred, the mouth opened all the way back to the slightly pointed ears, sharp teeth separating to reveal a cavernous throat of grinding gears. Within the eye sockets, a multitude of lights sparked, like dozens of smaller eyes made up the larger ones.

Then there were the horns, which apparently weren’t just for decoration. Light started at the base of them – where they met the construct’s temples – then rhythmically pulsed, filling up the horns with a dangerous glow. Within a second, a quarter of the horns were full, and Hiral couldn’t imagine anything good from letting them get all the way.

Like they were both thinking the same thing, Hiral and Yanily darted forward, solar energy pooling around them as they readied their abilities.

The spearman changed into a bolt of lightning, activating his Aspect-enhanced Skyfall+ and streaking toward the huge, left eye. Hiral, not to be outdone – in power or speed – hauled the Greatsword of Amin Thett from over his shoulder, the weapon bursting into its fallen-star form. Power rippled around the blade, Hiral pumping more Energy, Separation, Gravity, and Breaking into it. In his wake, he dragged Expansion and Impact, the air warping as he passed. A touch of Empower charged his sword with Yanily’s lightning, and then he was there.

WHAAAM, Yanily and Hiral hit at the same time.

Black, glass-like material filled with small stars of light shredded beneath Hiral’s blade, sharp shards of it falling behind the swing. The orb – bigger than Hiral was – didn’t completely shatter at the blow, but the sword tore a long gash. Then the trail of Expansion, forged into a hammer of runic power, came next, obliterating the entire right half of the eye.

To Hiral’s left, Yanily released his Dragon’s Breath at point blank range – above where his spear stabbed straight into the eye. Like Hiral’s follow-up attack, Yanily’s high-powered ability destroyed whatever it touched, blasting back deeper into the mechanical skull.

Still, though, despite the power of the two attacks, at least half the lights remained on within the eyes, and the power continued to charge in the horns above. They needed to do more! Yanily, on the same page as Hiral, released his Chain Lightning+. Hiral, on the other hand, decided to try something new.

Piercing and Expansion twisted with Breaking and Increase to coat his left hand while he held on to his greatsword – still embedded in the Boss’s eye – with his right. It took a second to wrangle the new power, but once he had it, he straightened his fingers out and thrust his hand forward. His hand, so very small compared to the thing he was striking, likely wouldn’t even tickle – if the thing felt it at all.

At least, that would’ve been the case, if Hiral didn’t release the runic power he’d charged up. Immediately, a spike of Piercing shot fifty feet ahead, and it didn’t end there. As soon as he felt his limit in one direction, he altered his thread of Expansion. From a single, terrible spike, the form of his needle sprouted hundreds of small roots, branching out in all directions to pierce through everything around it.

If this construct had a brain – or something else important – in its head, he was bound to have hit it. The only question was, did it stop the build up of power in the horns?

Looking up from where he perched, he got his answer.

They hadn’t stopped it – and the horns were now three-quarters full.