Rune Seeker

Flames licked within the Ruby Lioness’s maw, but it was the strange energy pooling within the Jade Lioness that had Hiral’s attention. What would it…?

He got his answer a second later as the mouth spread, and his sensory domain screamed a warning. Practically invisible to the naked eye, concentrated bolts of compressed air smashed into the ground where Hiral had just been standing as he darted to the side. And where there was one, there were apparently a dozen.

Steps powered by Rejection, Hiral sprinted out wide and then around the Chimeratron while chained bolts of air smashed into the ground. Like a trail of miniature explosions followed him, stone and dirt leapt for the air in his wake. Then came the red glow, signalling the other lioness was about to add her own flavor to the mix.

Rejection gathered in preparation with the familiar wedge that’d worked last time, but even as the flames began to leave the lioness’s mouth, Hiral smiled. Instead of gushing in his direction to charbroil him, the fire streamed out at a physically impossible angle – and straight into a Fireball spinning above Seena’s hand.

A wink from the party leader, and she hauled the now-huge Fireball down in front of her, then ran her other hand along it horizontally. Pulling the flames with her gauntlet, Seena stretched the Fireball out into some kind of fire spear. The thing had to be as long as she was tall, spiraling like a drill above her hand with a roar that’d make Yanily’s sponsor proud. The weapon ready, Seena cocked back her arm to throw, and then Hiral winked back even as he ran, fingers holding his triggers.

At the same time, a hint of Dreaming intensified the flames through his lingering Connection with Seena, the orange and red within the spear taking on a new level of purity. But, even as Hiral expected the party leader to throw the spear, she hesitated. Concentration etched her face. Her right hand – the one holding the flaming catastrophe waiting to happen – crooked, like her fingers were trying to squeeze something within them.

And squeeze they did. Above her palm, the flames creaked. Condensed. Licks and embers trying to escape got pulled back in. Wrapped tighter around the haft and spearhead. Another creak, along with a pull on his Rune of Dreaming, and Hiral added in his Edict of Increase. Whatever Seena was doing…

CRACK, it came together in her hand, the fiery spear replaced by something that looked like a lance drawn straight from the sun. Solidified plasma left burnt afterimages in Hiral’s eyes before he turned away from it.

Then – and only then – Seena hurled her new attack.

Even without looking at it, Hiral felt it scorch through his sensory domain, literally charring the Rejection he used to feel with. A tunnel of nothingness stretched from Seena’s outstretched hand to connect with the chest of the Chimeratron, and then continued straight through.

And, that wasn’t the end of it, an avatar of flame shimmering into being behind the woman, its spear of flame leveled. Building Resonance held its attack as the Mid-Boss staggered sideways from the initial strike, even though there was no impact. How could there be? The spear had burnt through it before it even had a chance to push.

Now, they just needed to keep it off-balance. Seena’s coming follow-up attack – thanks to Hiral’s buff – would certainly contribute to it, but he’d do his part first. After sprinting around the Chimera to keep ahead of the rapid-fire bolts of compressed air, he’d had fingers on both triggers for almost the full three seconds. Extending ahead of his RHCs, a new, single, shoulder-width barrel practically pulsed with power. Inside it, the individual runic circles from Piercing Shot+ had somehow combined with Dual Power Attack+, and Hiral skidded to a stop to take aim.

Already with a dog-sized hole in its chest, the Chimeratron took a stumbling step to the side – earthen spikes erupting harmlessly in that direction – as Hiral lifted his weapon. A slight adjustment thanks to a combination of his PIM and Primal Chord, and he released his triggers. Practically booming with released power, the two RHC’s simultaneously kicked up in his hands while punting him backwards.

It was worse for the Mid-Boss.

The equivalent of thirty Piercing Shot+-enhanced bolts – modified by an additional forty-five-percent power boost – slammed into the Ebony Lion’s chest about a foot below where Seena had hit it. And, unlike Seena’s attack, this one was almost entirely about the Impact. While the recoil had tossed Hiral back nearly ten feet, the actual hit lifted the Chimeratron off the ground – just a few feet – before finally punching its way through in a shower of blood.

“Nice!” Seena shouted at the same time the Building Resonance let loose its copy of her attack. Like Hiral’s last shot, this one also had an additional forty-five-percent modifier, and the spear caught the giant lion-hybrid midair.

Tearing through it at the waist, the spear sent the Mid-Boss flying in two different directions – and two different halves.

“Get ready to move,” Seena instructed, even as another Chain Lightning+ and Explosive Arrow struck the broken creature. “We need to get… to… ah hell.”

Even as the two pieces of the Chimeratron fell for the ground, thick streamers of blood reached out from each of its separate halves. Meeting in the middle, the tendrils connected and pulled, reuniting the torso and waist so quickly, it looked like they’d never been apart. Citrine and CobaltLioness heads slammed to the ground – releasing blasts of water and earth – while the massive holes in the thing’s chest congealed and refilled right before Hiral’s eyes.

Worse, all the damage they’d done had amounted to almost a mere ten percent of the monster’s health. Not even having the decency to be staggered from the devastating attacks, the Mid-Boss immediately went on the offensive. Out went the Jade Lioness in Seena’s direction, the mouth spreading unnaturally large.

“Seena!” Hiral shouted. “Wings!”

WUFF, the air shuddered around the lioness’s head as dozens of widespread bolts of compressed air shot out all at once, blanketing the area instead of rapid-fire like it’d tried with Hiral. Over and across, Seena swept her arms, wings of flame curling around just in time for the barrage to arrive. All around, the ground shattered and leapt from the impacts, hurling stone shards in every direction, while the shield itself rippled.

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Rippled, but held.

Except the Chimeratron wasn’t finished there – even as the rest of the party rained attacks on it – and it lifted its citron foot up, only to slam it back down. This time, though, instead of a wave of rushing spikes that wouldn’t have gotten through her shield anyway, the earth erupted all around Seena. Around, and over.

Pillars of stone shot up from all angles. More and more, they criss-crossed overtop her defensive wings until she was completely hidden by them. Buried, with no space for her to even crawl out of. The attack wouldn’t hurt her, but it would contain her.

“Sis, you okay in there?” Seeyela asked as she vanished with a bamf to appear on the Mid-Boss’s shoulder.

For all the fear it should’ve had at the terrible poison in her Fangs of the Lady, the thing hardly paid her any heed even as it swept its Ruby Lioness head out in front of it. Why it seemed to ignore Seeyela became readily apparent the next second, dozens of whip-like streamers extending from the shoulder around her.

Daggers flashes as she reacted to cut them apart, even her spider-like limbs emerging from her lower back to fend them off, while Little Shadow’s Cloak did the same. A whirlwind of fang, blood, and chitinous legs, Seeyela seemed to be everywhere at once, shredding the attacks that rose for her. Until one didn’t rise, and instead snaked around her ankle where she stood. One pull stole her balance, and a second tendril got through, wrapping her wrist. A third and fourth quickly joined.

But it wasn’t like the others could easily help.

Billowing flames belched from the Ruby Lioness in a constant stream, forcing Hiral and Yanily – who’d gotten closer – to leap away. Further back, Drahn and Gran tried to help, but another stomp of the Cobalt Lioness erected a tidal wave that combined with the gout of flame to rush across the battlefield in a boiling, steaming mess.

“This thing,” Yanily shouted as he darted towards the back of the wave rushing towards Drahn and Gran. “Is very annoying!” One step, two, and he caught up to the wave, ignoring the steam trying to get through the combined defense of his Hydra-Scale Armor with his electrified scales, and his spear twisting around him as he went. A third step, lunge, Yanily snagged the wave on the tip of his weapon, then continued his rotation, pulling the boiling water around with him.

Which was apparently, exactly what the Mid-Boss was waiting for. Heavy steps pounded on the ground – each one releasing another undirected blast of earth or water – as it charged in the spearman’s direction. Back cocked the Jade Lioness as if it planned to pound Yanily into the ground like a particularly stubborn nail, and then it was above him, shadow stretching long.

“Oh hell,” Yanily said as he looked up, feet planted, and spear still spinning to do whatever he was doing to absorb the water.

With a mouth large enough it would swallow Yanily’s head whole – and probably a good portion of his chest – the fist came down like an avalanche.

To meet Hiral coming up.

Rejection simultaneously launched him skyward and created two planes on either side of him while the Greatsword of Amin Thett came around in its fallen-star form. In so fast the Chimeratron didn’t notice him until he was right in front of it, his sword slipped between the lioness’s spread teeth before the edge of the blade met the hinges of its jaw.

And. Just. Kept. Going.

Tearing up as he rocketed on Rejection, Hiral’s blade split the length of the Jade Lioness’s body – the Chimeratron’s arm – before bursting out of the shoulder thirty feet above. Blood gushed like a fountain into the air, while the two flopping pieces of the arm got pushed wide around Yanily on the planes of Rejection Hiral had set up.

Knowing the wound would heal itself uncomfortably fast, Hiral finished his uppercut-like motion to pivot in the air, ramping up the weight on the greatsword as he went. Ten, twenty, sixty times the weight, and he flung the weapon as he came around. Spinning like a sawblade of glowing death, the massive greatsword smashed through the Cobalt Lioness right where the Chimeratron’s knee would be before stabbing into the ground with an earthquake-like impact.

Hiral wasn’t – couldn’t be – done yet, though. Using the momentum of releasing the sword, he twisted in the air until he was almost upside down. Rejection flowed to his feet, creating a plane for him to ‘land on’, and his knees bent as he met it. At the same time, emerging like a spectre of death, a cloud of black energy wrapped around Hiral, replacing his Death Knell ability from Emperor’s Decree with Blight’s Mercy. That done, he launched back off towards the Mid-Boss, claws of Separation and Unsealing forming along his fingers, black necrotic energy leaving scars in the air as he went.

Targeting the arm just now sprouting tendrils to pull itself back together again, he drove his claws back into the shoulder he’d exited a few seconds before, then ripped his way down in the opposite direction. Five new tears spewed blood as he went, but more important than the damage he was doing, was the power he injected along the limb.

Necrotic energy along with the Rune of Unsealing proved to be a potent combination, robbing the blood of its natural restorative properties while fighting against its ability to pull itself together at the same time. Down and down Hiral went until he flipped in the air to land beside Yanily, their hands slapping as he went.

At the touch, a hint of Unsealing passed through the spearman and into his weapon, just an instant before the man himself turned into a bolt of lightning. Right back through the shredded limb – leaving it as little more than a fine, Jade mist – and Yan hit the ceiling.

Like it was coordinated, the earthen pillars that’d been covering Seena exploded outward at the same time, a bow of roiling plasma in her hands. Glyphs of glowing blue streamed from the little lich on her shoulder, up her arm, and into the bow to fuel the arrow with the power to erase the living.

Sensing the two powerful attacks readying – and with tendrils connecting the two parts of its shredded leg – the Chimeratronstarted to turn. Started, but suddenly noticed both its feet stuck to the ground. No, not stuck, stitched. Red threads pierced through the Cobalt and Citrine Lioness heads in dozens of places, anchoring them firmly in place. And, even as the Ruby Lioness head opened to spit flames – or do anything, really – a sheet of black unfurled directly in front of the mouth. It hadn’t had Seeyela nearly as contained as it had thought, the woman standing again beside Hiral.

In the portal went the flames, swallowed up by the hole like a hungry void. Except it wasn’t the portal consuming them. No, it was Seena’s arrow on the other side of the gate.

With that, the seemingly frozen moment came to an end.

White, red, and blue painted the world as Yanily and Seena’s attacks launched. Like a complete repeat of last time, Seena’s bolt of drilling plasma tore through the Chimeratron’s waist, splitting the monster in half. Except, this time, before it could literally pull itself together, Skyfall+ slammed into its chest, driving the top half to the ground.

Spear plunged through the center of the scorched chest, Yanily stood with both hands on his weapon, then he leaned back and forward in quick succession like he’d taken a deep breath. Wide went his mouth, light fading from the room as all the ambient energy seemed to get sucked towards the ball spiraling into existence in front of him.

Then, facing the Chimeratron head on, Yanily screamed.

No. That wasn’t it.

He roared.