B5 C55: The Final Boss

Having fought beside Cal and Verin for years now, I knew their fighting styles almost as well as my own, which meant I knew that Verin wouldn’t be all that hard to take out of the fight.

At least, that’s what I thought. As I dashed forth to deal with her first, an explosion of frost took me by surprise. Shielding my face from the unexpected wave of hail and slush, I had a second shock waiting for me as soon as I dropped my arms.

There, where once Verin had been, was now a familiar glacier. The noble sat smugly within, fixing me with a rare smirk.

Since when has she been able to summon that immediately? It was supposed to take time, growing slowly from her skin. A new class skill? How long had she had that, and more importantly, why didn’t I know about it?

Maybe she finished a class quest in the demonic region? Still, if she’d been hiding the skill from me, that raised some questions. Just how long had Cal and Verin been planning this?

A cast of Glaciate and Clinging Permafrost hit me back to back, chilling me out of my stupor. Doesn’t matter. This made things a bit trickier, but it didn’t really change anything.

Annoyingly enough, Mana Sink only gave me a fraction of the damage I resisted from magical attacks. As Verin’s spells didn’t cause direct damage, they gave me nothing. Still, with what little mana I’d recovered during our conversation, I sent a bit of earth and fire mana to my armor. A dense earthen crust formed over my defenses, heat radiating off of me.

With a single bounding leap, I closed the distance between us, placing a fiery gauntlet against the glacier. A sizzling, sibilant hiss filled the air as the ice protested, but when I drew my hand back…

Nothing.

Damn, I knew she grabbed some extra resistance to fire, but the glacier is really this tough?

Well, no matter. I didn’t have the mana to go supernova, but ice was still ice. Brute force, or finesse? Opting for the latter for now, I summoned a mana chisel, much like I had for my marble hydra. My war hammer was a bit unwieldy to handle one-handed, so a smaller mana hammer appeared in my offhand. Placing this chisel right against the glacier, I lined up the shot, and-

WHAM.

The force was absolutely brutal, but more importantly, it hadn’t come from my hammer.

The chisel went flying from my hand as an absolutely titanic amount of energy crashed into my arm in the form of a feathery sword. Cutting winds accompanied the strike, further biting into my armor. Caught mid-strike, I failed to brace myself in time, and I was sent careening to the side.

Sadly for Cal, that was all she managed.

Damage Blocked!

Mana Sink has absorbed a portion of the attack’s mana.

Truly, she was ridiculously powerful. I’d seen her sword crush through a scorpion’s carapace with ease, and that had been before she’d earned a few levels with her class. This, however, was not the same Cal that had cut into Cezerra. Without a lengthy fight to build up stacks of her class skills, and without any demonic mana racing through her, she just didn’t have the oomph to cut through my defenses.

Full plate armor, reinforced by Arcane Armory, a layer of earth enhancement, and Overload Armor was not so easy to bypass. Add in my level in Heavy Armor and the extra damage negation from Resist Magic, and I was truly a force to be reckoned with. Perhaps Cal hadn’t realized just how tough I was, as it was rare that we’d ever sparred, and she didn’t try to go in for any debilitating strikes when we did. That, or maybe she hadn’t realized how much heavy lifting Cezerra’s mana intrusion was doing.

Regardless, as she pulled away, eyeing her handiwork, I could hear her muffled curses from under her breath. “Seriously? How’s that fair? Arcane Arsenal isn’t even supposed to be a tank class! You put, like, a third of your points into magic gloves and glasses and stuff!”

Not feeling particularly chatty, I only grunted. In fairness, her class wasn’t based around raw offense, either. Most of the stats for the Indefatigable Onslaught went to Endurance and Wisdom, and outside of Empowered Strike, the class focused on staying power and recovery more than anything else. What did she expect?

With one last grumble, she vanished. Emboldened by the knowledge that my defenses would hold, I rushed back towards Verin’s glacier, conjuring another chisel. When I prepared to start carving into the ice, I knew another sneak attack was coming, but this time I was ready.

Heavy Step. Vine Boots. A thick layer of earth weighed me down even as roots grew from the lush prairie soil, encasing my feet. Combined with my first Strength threshold bonuses and all five ranks of Force Dispersal, my Mana Feet variants made me effectively immovable. When the expected attack arrived, I merely tightened my grip on my chisel and powered through.

Damage Blocked!

Mana Sink has absorbed a portion of the attack’s mana.

I forced my face to remain impassive lest Cal realize she was only helping me. Not that she would stop attacking -- she needed to if she wanted her class skills to start empowering her -- but I’d be far worse off if she stopped using her mana.

This time, the next impact was my doing, and where my minor flames hadn’t done much damage, the chisel absolutely had. A spiderweb of cracks formed on the surface of Verin’s glacier, and with a few hurried strikes from my hammer, I smashed off a layer of ice before it could repair itself.

Dismissing my vine boots, I took a single step forward, resummoned them, and continued. My progress wasn’t quite as fast as I would have liked, but the outcome was inevitable. Strike after strike ineffectively bounced off my armor as Cal tried and failed to delay me, but on I slowly advanced.

Despite how little ground I was covering, every inch was hard won. Not needing to fear retaliation and accepting that her attacks weren’t enough to harm me, Cal stopped waiting to fully charge each strike, her blade biting into my armor every second. 

Verin was even worse, as the time I’d spent in her Glacial Zone had cut into my frost resistance. Overpowering the bit of fire I was sending into my armor, Glaciate began to chill both earth and metal alike. Worse, every time I dismissed my Vine Boots, I had to spend more effort to wrest my feet from her permafrost. 

My every breath frosted over as the prairie descended into winter, but even with her new class skill, Verin hadn’t been able to summon her glacier at its maximum size. With only a few strikes, I was already halfway through, and soon thereafter, I was practically face to face with Verin.

Had I been a monster, perhaps I would have seen fear on her noble face, but now, all I could see was a bitter sort of fury. With one more strike, the final layer of ice separating us came crashing down, but even then, Verin didn’t stop activating her skills.

“Man, I really wish this sucked less. Couldn’t you two have been a little less smart?” Ice crept over my armor, my every movement snapping it apart and sending chips to the ground. It would cut into my mana a bit, but for this next part, I channeled a bit more fire into my defenses, not enough to hurt Verin, but just enough to melt the ice encasing me.

From there, I stepped forward, ignoring the tears that started to form on Verin’s face, and I wrapped her in a hug. I was wasting time, I knew, but some things had to be said.

“Sorry. And thank you. I probably don’t say it enough, but I love you guys. I know you didn’t want to spend so long trapped in here, and I know you didn’t want to sunder your class. I hope you get everything you want once you’re out of here. I might not be there for your upcoming birthday, but make it a good one, okay? You deserve it.” 

Hefting her up, I started walking out of the glacier and up to the edge of the portal. Her tears, caught in a bizarre temperature gradient, nearly frosted over as they left her eyes before sizzling as they fell onto my armor. Exactly what emotion they signified, I wasn’t entirely sure anymore, and I wasn’t sure that Verin knew, either.

No sword strikes arrived as I carried Verin, though whether that was out of fear of harming her or respect for my final few moments with her for a while, I couldn’t say.

“Dunno if you’re in the mood to appreciate it. Originally, I was just going to throw it through the portal with a note, actually. But I made you something.” While not the exact scene I’d envisioned, it was the best I was going to get. Summoning the drawing I’d spent so many hours on, I shoved it into the crease in her elbow, practically forcing her to accept it. “It’s not great, but hopefully next time I see you, I’ll be a lot better. I promise I’ll practice everything you taught me.”

Even with her face devolving into a blubbery mess, Verin didn’t stop fighting. An Ice Wall popped up in front of me, but with the open surroundings, I merely went around it. By now, the frost was truly starting to get dangerous, and if I stalled any longer, things might get dicey. 

It was time for Verin to go home.

“Bye, Verin. I promise I’ll see you soon.”

Finally finding her voice, Verin started to shout out a protest, but it was too late. As gently as I could, I tossed her forward. She flailed in midair as if trying to catch herself on something, but my aim had been perfect, sending her sailing straight towards the center of the portal.

One moment she was here; the next she was gone. Passing the threshold of the portal, Verin was swallowed up, and then there was only me and Cal.

“She’s going to take that loss hard, you know.” Reappearing at a distance, Cal stared at the empty space in front of the portal with a frown.

I did know. It was no secret that Verin was always trying to match up to us, but even so, she was better off back home then she was stuck in here. And besides…

“She’ll take it even harder if you don’t show up. Sure you don’t just want to hop in after her?” Trying diplomacy one last time, I did all I could to persuade her. “And remember, I actually want to be here, but I know you got the raw end of the deal here. You got, like, a few months of freedom before Hex snatched you up? And then maybe a week after that before you ended up here? Cal, go home. Party a little. Have a drink that’s not moonshine. You can even tell Verin you fought to the bitter end if you want.”

All at once, Cal deflated, her gaze not straying from the portal. She was considering it, at least.

But, of course, things couldn’t be so easy. Straightening herself out, Cal turned her attention my way.

“Nah. And just so you know, I don’t regret coming here with you. You’re right that I want out, but you’re coming with. And if I can’t shove you into the damned portal, then it’s fine. It’s not like you can catch me if I don’t want you to. Verin will be pissed, but I’ll just rush over to the other collection sites and bust them up, and we’ll be out of here in no time. And that’s that.”

So stubborn. In fairness, it wouldn’t be the worst if Cal stayed behind. She was far less vulnerable than Verin, and if we really wanted to devote ourselves to clearing the dungeon, we wouldn’t even need to worry about food.

Except, I wasn’t planning on sprinting straight to the collection crystals, and somehow, I doubted Cal would appreciate the timeline I was aiming for. And I really meant what I’d said -- she’d been locked away from society for even longer than Verin and I had. She didn’t deserve to be stuck here anymore.

Not bothering with words any longer, I spread my arms wide as if to say “do your worst.”

The lull in the battle concluded, and Verin disappeared once more. We’d said all we needed to say, and now it was time to finish things.

What’s my strategy here? For Verin, it was a simple matter of getting through her defenses and then chucking her through the portal. For Cal, I wasn’t even sure I could find her, let alone grab her.

A few levels back, I might have tried to ferret out her location with my vision variants. Back when she’d had slightly lower mana and stamina, she’d had to ignore certain detection methods when activating Apex Shroud to keep the cost down. Something like Spatial Sight or even a few Sense Minds might have worked wonders.

Unfortunately, that was largely a problem of the past for her, especially in a shorter fight like this. The cost of Apex Shroud was secondary to the Empowered Strikes she was whipping out, and I strongly doubted she’d be skimping on the skill.

As a second option, depending on the environment, it took Cal more or less mana to cloak herself. For example, maintaining thermal invisibility next to a volcano was a lot harder than it was in the prairie. If I flooded my surroundings with heat and wind and water, she’d have to spend much more mana to hide herself. The problem was that I had nowhere near enough mana to devote to such a task, and with Cal’s growing stacks of Wellspring’s Renewal and Rising Tenacity, I doubted it would matter in any case.

Maybe if I run deeper into the prairie and make her go through the tall grass? But no, that would take us too far from the portal, and-

WHAM.

My strategizing session was rudely interrupted by a titanic blow to my leg, a repeat attempt to her very first attack.

Damage blocked!

Mana sink has absorbed a portion of the attack’s mana.

Like all the other times, my armor held firm, but I was sent stumbling, a deep furrow carved into the earth encrusting me. Without the rush of surprising me or defending Verin, Cal had ample time to charge up her attacks, and it was clear her class skills had started to kick in, offering her some extra Strength.

No way she builds up enough power to actually cut through, right?

A weaker followup strike capitalized on my stumble, more of a shove than an actual cut, and I was forced back another step. Still fairly close to the portal from throwing Verin in, I eyed it nervously. Is she trying to herd me into it?

A decent attempt, but ultimately, it was futile. One Spatial Step took me out of the danger zone, and from there, I activated Vine Boots and Heavy Step. If Cal thought she could move me without my permission, she was sorely mistaken.

Judging by the cursing that arrived with her next attack, she was realizing that, too.

With that, however, we arrived at a sort of bitter stalemate. While Cal was exceptional at what she did, her class wasn’t particularly versatile. If she couldn’t move me, all she could do was keep attacking, and that’s exactly what she did. A flurry of cuts came at me from every direction with seemingly no rhyme or reason. As Embrace of Exhaustion ramped up, even the least of them scored shallow scratches, but it wasn’t enough.

With my higher Dexterity, I tried to react to each blow, grabbing her blade or, ideally, her arm. It was no use. Once or twice, I did manage to steal her sword, but much like my own bound weapons, she was free to dismiss and resummon the weapon Tal’Ket had gifted her. As for grabbing her, the one time I thought I had her, she dispersed into the air, my fingers finding no purchase.

Come on. What do I have? Area attacks? No longer needing to heat myself up, I channeled some frost mana into my armor. I wasn’t entirely sure if her Apex Shroud would prevent any of the cold-based slow effects from taking root, but it was worth a shot. Even then, that wouldn’t get her into the portal.

I need something sudden. Something she won’t see coming.

And then it hit me. I didn’t have much, but I had one thing that might work.

There was an issue, though, because I’d really only get one chance. Not only would it drain the remainder of my mana, but it was also something Cal wouldn’t fall for twice. Worst came to worst, if she felt truly threatened, she would run and hide, waiting until the portal closed to trap herself here with me.

The timing is going to be the hard part. In a weird way, it was only because of Cezerra that I even had a chance. Without all the practice she’d forced me through, there was no way I’d consider what I was about to do.

The steady tink, tink, tink of Cal’s repeated cuts slowed, and I could only guess that she’d finally maxed out the stacks for all her class skills. No longer trying to empower herself, she could take her time between blows, charging each one up as much as she could.

That theory was soon proven as an absolutely colossal force chopped into my hip, the wind whistling as feather sliced through earth and steel.

Empowered Strike has hit you for 14 damage!

The strike nearly tore the roots from my feet, and when my brain stopped rattling around in my head, I looked down at my side to find a small trickle of blood trailing down the earth encasing my leg.

Oh. Shit.

Not even bothering to waste the mana on healing myself, I instead switched entirely to earth mana and further overloaded my armor. Sadly, with proof of concept, Cal attacked with a renewed vigor, and as fast as she could charge her blade, I collected a series of new scratches.

Damn. Not enough. For the first time, the mana I got back from Mana Sink wasn’t enough of offset the strength of Overload Armor, and my mana began to slowly sink.

The entire time, I tried to track her attack pattern, searching for even the smallest hint of what direction she’d strike from next. Infuriatingly, I found nothing, her every move feeling completely random.

And then it hit me.

If she won’t give me an opening, I need to make one for myself.

The last piece of the puzzle fit into place, and now all I could do was grit my teeth as I prepared for the end of our fight. Second by second, the portal grew closer to closing, and with my mana dropping, soon, I wouldn’t have enough to enact my plan.

Then again, that wouldn’t be much of a problem after the first part of the plan.

Preemptively wincing, I drastically cut the mana running to my armor.

Cal’s next strike arrived, and without my full defenses to contend with, the thin feather finally won out.

Empowered Strike has hit you for 91 damage!

Despite myself, I gasped as the blade sank deep into my left leg, nearly managing to remove the limb entirely. Thankfully, I’d judged it just right, the feather stopping before it sheared through bone.

I half expected some gleeful shout from Cal, but it seemed the warrior was fully serious, for once.

Come on. You know what to do. I flickered some life mana into my armor, activating and then deactivating my armor in skill in rapid succession. Though she lacked the requisite Perception to spot my mana, I was hoping she would somehow notice the sputtering healing nonetheless. On and off, the cut started to knit itself back together, the rapid gush of blood steadily slowing.

That’s right. I’m out of mana. You win. Just one more good hit.

Hoping that was exactly what she’d think, I wove the rest of my mana into one final spell, holding it within me.

This entire time, I’d never been able to guess where Cal would strike next, but this time, it was fairly obvious.

After all, why try to break through somewhere new? Already, my wound was closing, and at any second, I could dismiss and resummon my armor, repairing the chunk she’d taken out of it. But with just one more good cut…

THWICK.

Along with the brutal sideways chop of Cal’s blade, a novel sensation hit me, and then there was a sense of numbness. Aiming exactly where she had last time, Cal finally completed her grisly task.

But that was exactly what I’d been counting on.

Releasing my spell, I snaked my arm out as if trying to grab Cal one last time. Still too fast even with the location of her attack telegraphed, she managed to evade me. Right as she vanished once more, I could see her start to jump back.

Unfortunately for her, the air behind her was no longer empty.

There, awaiting her, was a tear in space. 

Not the large hole in space from the ritual, but instead, a much smaller, simpler affair. With the last of my mana, I’d managed a single cast of Portal.

At the very last second, it looked like Cal realized what was happening. Reappearing with her mouth curled into a surprised O, she called out.

“Tess! Cancel the-”

Too late. Unable to arrest her momentum, Cal flew through the first portal. Normally, that wouldn’t have done anything to her, but I’d placed its twin just right.

Practically overlapping the ritual gate was the second half of my spell. Displeased with their forced proximity, the two portals wavered, threatening to destabilize at any moment.

Thankfully, a moment was all I needed.

Mid-shout, Cal fell through the first of the portals and out the second. Though she tried valiantly to stop somehow, it was no use. 

The momentum from her backwards leap carried her the last few inches, and the warrior sank through the ritual portal. 

Perhaps my Portal spell hastened the demise of the ritual, or perhaps transporting Cal took the last of its stability, but the moment she was through, it snapped shut. My own spell soon followed, and the entire prairie returned to silence.

Dismissing my armor and Vine Boots, I slumped to the ground, spent.

In fairness, only one half of the vines needed to be dismissed. The other half had already vanished. Taking in the aftermath of Cal’s last blow, I stared at the armor-clad leg lying there.

“Damn.” If Sett couldn’t fix that, it was going to be a long, one-legged journey to Arbor, but somehow I wasn’t all that worried right then. Putting the full extent of my mana regeneration into healing, I let myself lie back, taking it all in.

I did it. They’re back home. It’s just me now.

I let my head go empty for a time, but when I’d finally healed enough that I was certain I wouldn’t bleed out, I lifted myself to my single leg and began to hop back to the house.

After all, I had an entire dungeon to clear.

And oh so much I wanted to accomplish before then.