B5 C29: Cal's Way

Flying through the air and clutching her chest, Cal cursed before slamming into the cloudy ground. On the one hand, the cushiony landing was much appreciated, but on the other, the flecks of red which erupted from her throat were considerably less so.

Preparing to assault her with another thunderous blast, a cloudtender began to close the distance. For the first time in a full month, though, Cal had no need to let it follow through. Scanning her notifications, the warrior spotted exactly the line she’d been waiting for.

Sonic Resistance has reached level 20!

“Hells yeah!” With a triumphant shout, she sank back into Apex Shroud before bursting forth. Before the cloudtender could even grasp what was happening, she was already swinging an empowered strike through its wispy gray form.

You have defeated a Thunderous Cloudtender!

A few more cloudtenders trailed behind the first, but with her long-awaited goal fulfilled, Cal sprinted off until they were lost in the pervasive fog. Free from any further attacks, she flopped to the ground, thoroughly exhausted despite her full stamina.

Congratulations! You have reached the Apprentice rank in Sonic Resistance!

Based on your actions, you have been granted a skill augment for achieving a new skill rank.

Storm-chaser’s Augment

+10 to Sonic Resistance against all thunder-based sonic attacks.

It was an awful augment outside of this region, she knew. How often were sonic attacks from thunder? At the same time, Cal couldn’t bring herself to care. For now, it was perfect.

Plus, let’s be honest. If I got a bad augment and had to train the resistance another ten levels, I’d probably stab myself.

As best she could tell, it had been about a month since she’d tried and failed to rob the monarchs. Since then, Cal had been preparing for her upcoming fight nearly nonstop. Knowing she had no chance of winning without raising her resistances, Cal had let the various cloudtenders wail on her, all day, every day.

Without the need to sleep, she hadn’t even taken rest breaks. Instead, she’d endured blast after bolt after blast of thunder and lightning alike. Lightning Resistance had reached the Apprentice rank the day prior, gaining an augment that increased its effects against elementals and beings made predominantly of lightning.

Even better, it turned out that letting a few cloudtenders attack you for days on end technically counted as a battle. Her class was thrilled with her multi-day fights, rewarding her with a wealth of class points as a result. Unfortunately, it looked like the next ranks of her quests required her to be a more active participant in the fights, but she’d got what she needed for now.

A few points had gone into a basic resistance-enhancement class skill which heightened her resistances depending on how much health she’d spent over the course of a fight. The others got dumped into an upgrade to Empowered Strike.

Aspected Strike

Your Empowered Strike now deals 25% more damage. Additionally, when charging your attacks, you may alter their nature based on which resource you use. Charging your strike with stamina will heavily enhance its physical damage and add armor penetration. Charging your strike with mana will enhance its magic damage and greatly enhance its effects on incorporeal and non-physical entities.

Frankly, she’d been a bit nervous that her bread-and-butter skill, Empowered Strike, wouldn’t do much damage to the king and queen. Despite the massive amounts of mana she sank into each strike, her attacks were still predominantly physical in nature. With Aspected Strike, she was hoping she could level the playing field a bit.

It felt hard to believe after a full month of miserable monotony, but with her class points spent and her resistances both at the Apprentice rank, it was finally time. Today, the voltaic monarchs would fall, freeing her of this miserable region.

Or, that wasn’t quite right. There was still one more thing Cal had to do. 

For once happy to be alone, Cal ventured off to find another essence tree. The others did not need to see what she was about to do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With her head held high, the royal princess of Ftheran stood once more at the gates of the palace, brandishing her feathery blade. She was powerful. Undaunted. Regal. And more than anything else…

She looked absolutely ridiculous.

Unfortunately, despite her Epic class and her Legendary skill, Cal knew the upcoming fight would be an uphill battle. At minimum, each boss was supposed to be tackled by a full team of level 20s. At level 18, Cal was sorely outmatched, which meant she had to grab any advantage she could find.

And she’d found one! Namely, the essence trees. Back when she’d cut the first one down, she’d learned something very valuable about the bizarre plant life. Two things, actually.

First, the sap. It was an incredible insulator. Lightning blasts which should have fried her barely tickled if they struck the sap first.

Second, the essence itself. With its excellent muffling properties, it stopped even the strongest peals of thunder in their tracks.

If Tess were here, Cal had no doubt that she would have done something incredible with those two facts. Maybe she would weave the essence into threads and use her Clothworking to whip up some named item that granted sonic immunity. With her Alchemy, she’d transform the sap into a salve or even a potion that enhanced lightning resistance.

Cal, on the other hand, was not quite as handy.

And so, she’d gone with a simpler route.

Having bathed in the substance, every inch of Cal’s body was covered in voltaic sap. If that wasn’t enough, she’d then rolled around in a pile of cloud essence.

The end result? The proud princess now looked like a soggy sheep. She knew without a doubt that Verin would never let her live this down if she were here, and when Cal inevitably had to tell the others of her grand journey, she vowed to omit this detail.

As protected as she could be from both lightning and thunder, Cal at last reentered the palace, making a beeline for the throne room. 

Hoping to get a solid sneak attack in, she hid under the cloak of Apex Shroud, but it turned out to be unnecessary. When she arrived, neither of the two monarchs were present.

Do I need to challenge them somehow? Reluctantly, Cal dismissed her shroud. Instead of the royals immediately rushing in to smite her, a handful of guards rushed into the room. Expecting a fight, Cal was pleasantly surprised when they beckoned her over rather than attacking.

Huh. An escort. Makes the sneak attack a bit harder, but it saves me the effort of hunting them down. Plus, if she was being honest, it did make her feel a bit fancy, or at least as fancy as a person could feel in her current attire. 

Through the labyrinthine passageways of the palace and up flight after flight of stairs, Cal dutifully followed her minders. Had they gone down, Cal would have wondered if they were trying to trap her in some sort of dungeon, but the truth turned out to be quite the opposite. Their journey only ended when they reached the roof.

Not that she could immediately tell it was the roof, as the cloud-filled sky looked nearly identical to the rest of the palace’s ceilings. Plus, her attention was fully occupied by the rest of the roof and its occupants.

In one sense, her surroundings were distantly familiar. While the decor was different, the actual layout harkened back to her days in the fighting city of Drawgin.

Who puts a coliseum on their roof? It made her question the sanity of the mad monarchs, but there was no mistaking it for anything else. Entering through a tunnel in the wall, Cal was spit out into a circular arena. Penning her in was a high wall, and past that, sloping stadium seating with thousands of cloudling spectators. Lacking actual mouths, the pseudo-elementals were entirely silent, making the experience remarkably uncanny.

Only one section stood out to her, a box seating area that housed two stormy thrones. As to be expected, the thunder queen and lightning king sat therein, facelessly gazing down at her.

“Man, I’m getting a really bad feeling about all this. I came here for a simple boss fight. Please don’t tell me I have to fight in some stupid coliseu-”

Welcome to the Voltaic Coliseum! As you are alone and low-leveled, the voltaic monarchs see no reason to waste their time putting you in your place. Instead, they have reshaped their palace to put on a fitting display. Only should you survive all ten waves of enemies will the king and queen deign to fight you. In the meantime, let your struggles act as suitable entertainment for the audience… and a fitting display of what befalls any who defies the kingdom.

Your first fight begins in one minute.

As her escorts rushed back into the tunnel, the opening in the wall abruptly sealed shut, filled with the palace’s ubiquitous cloud essence. At the same time, lightning began to crackle along the walls, reminding her of the region’s barrier. Evidently, the monarchs didn’t want her running away.

“Are we serious? Ten waves? Give me a break!” Not that Cal wasn’t willing to put in some extra work, but it was the principle of the thing. A boss fight should be just that -- a fight with a boss. In fact, she was of half a mind to test her Apex Shroud against the arena’s electric fence, with only one thing stopping her.

In theory, multiple waves of fighting actually favored her heavily. A normal party might be worn down by the time they reached the final wave, which would make them easy pickings for the bosses. On the flip side, her entire skill set revolved around long, drawn-out fights. As long as the waves didn’t have too much downtime between them, she’d actually end up stronger by the end.

In the end, that was the only thing that stayed her hand in this farce of a boss fight. When her minute elapsed and a new opening formed in the wall, admitting a dozen standard cloudtenders, the only thing Cal could do was grit her teeth and prepare herself.

With her feathery blade in hand, Cal surged forth, ready to dispatch her foes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

You have gained a stack of Rising Tenacity. Stamina recovery enhanced.

You have gained a stack of Wellspring’s Renewal. Mana recovery enhanced.

You have gained a stack of Surging Vitality. Health recovery enhanced.

As Cal rushed forth towards her next target, she could only reflect that the coliseum had proved to be fairly laughable thus far. The first three waves had been pitiful, a combination of plain old cloudtenders and a few palace guards. Cal didn’t even bother to use Apex Shroud, as her puffy armor and resistances were enough on their own.

Plus, she didn’t want to fully avoid taking any damage. With each new point of health she lost, one of her newest class skills slowly strengthened her.

Battle Tempering updated: All resistances multiplied by 1.32.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to rely on her pitiful opponents to charge the skill. Every chance she got, Cal used Omnisource to convert her health to mana and stamina. The lost health further empowered her Battle Tempering, but the going was slow. Theoretically, it could hit a full multiplier of two, doubling all of her resistances, but she was nowhere near there yet.

Nor did she think the current wave could pressure her enough to get her that far. With a sigh, Cal rammed her blade into the last of the guards.

Third wave complete! Prepare yourself for the fourth wave.

This time, she was up against a smattering of what her Identify labeled as Elite Guards. The thunder version looked a bit denser and darker, while the lightning variety contained thicker, more violent bolts. When the first of them managed to hit her, she grinned as it actually managed to tickle her.

Lightning Bolt hits you for 14 damage!

Deciding that this wave would finally be enough for her to charge up her class skills, Cal stopped killing her enemies, content to let them hit her over and over again.

Though it would be a slog, Cal formed the inkling of a plan. Settling in, Cal pretended to struggle with the guards.

Now, let’s see just how long I can keep this up for…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Even with the elite guards peppering her with attacks, it still took Cal a full thirty minutes to get where she wanted to. If this were a real coliseum, filled with human spectators, they likely would have been outraged with her performance. She’d long since drawn the fight out far past the point of it being entertaining to watch. If the cloudlings were disappointed, though, they kept it to themselves.

Glancing at her battle notifications, Cal graced her opponents with a savage grin.

You have reached the maximum stacks of Rising Tenacity. Additional stacks will refresh the duration of the skill.

You have reached the maximum stacks of Wellspring’s Renewal. Additional stacks will refresh the duration of the skill.

You have reached the maximum stacks of Surging Vitality. Additional stacks will refresh the duration of the skill.

Embrace of Exhaustion has reached its maximum bonus: +10 Strength, +10 Intelligence, +50 flat damage on attack.

Battle Tempering has reached its maximum bonus: All resistances multiplied by 2.

With her damage, recovery, and resistances through the roof, Cal was currently stronger than she’d ever been in her life.

And on the one hand, she could use that power to finish up the rest of the ten waves and then challenge the bosses. She could!

The only problem was, she didn’t want to.

Part of that was for a good reason. From what she’d seen, the bosses attached to quests were often more involved than their standard counterparts. Take the fire region’s boss, for example. It had a decent attack, but at the end of the day, it was a simple matter of dodging its attacks and hitting it a bunch of times.

On the flip side, the quest lines in the air region, jungle, forest, and curse region had all allowed for much more complex bosses with complicated tricks to beat them. Cal was pretty sure that the same held true here. Inevitably, she’d be forced to fight some annoying sub-boss at wave ten, and then some sort of bullshit would appear in the arena that would empower the king and queen. 

Worse yet, it might be something she couldn’t deal with. What if the gimmick required a full party of five? What if she needed to hit something with a ranged attack? What if it was something ridiculous like the hydra, where she needed Alchemy and Cooking, or some other strange non-combat skill? Cal was far more incredible than most people, but her toolkit was pretty limited. If possible, she’d rather set the terms of engagement herself.

But yes. If pushed, Cal would admit all that was secondary to the real reason.

Mostly, she just didn’t want to. Finishing out all the remaining waves sounded like a pain.

So, buffed to the gills, Cal went for a different option. One moment, she was lunging towards the nearest guard; the next, she was gone. 

Wrapping herself up in the strongest Apex Shroud she could, Cal rushed towards the barrier caging her in.

Though it was powerful, it was also thin. For a split second, her mana and stamina plummeted as her skill hid her from the fence of lightning, but it hardly mattered. The moment she was through, her prodigious recovery went to work, topping her off once again.

Back when she’d earned Apex Shroud, the skill had absorbed her Soma of the Sylph, an Epic spell that turned her body into gas to hide her from beings that could sense air displacement. Leaning on that aspect of her skill, Cal dispersed into the air and floated upwards, past the arena walls and higher yet until she was at the box housing the royals.

In one sense, her skill was a bit of a let down. Perfectly invisible, she couldn’t even enjoy any shocked expressions as she charged towards the dual thrones.

Then again, it wasn’t like the royals had faces anyway, so she supposed it didn’t matter.

With a quick swipe of her blade against her skin, Cal did her best to coat it with some sap. From there, she threw hundreds upon hundreds of mana into the feather, the feather seeming to grow translucent under the effects of her new Aspected Strike.

And at last, eager to pay the lightning queen back for her vicious attack a month prior, Cal plunged her blade directly into the queen’s chest. 

You have stabbed the Lightning Queen for 438 damage!

Meeting absolutely no resistance, the blade sank through the elemental and into the throne behind her, lodging itself there. Even while the blade was still in motion, the queen tried to stand, only to find that she couldn’t.

Oh thank gods. That had been the riskiest part of this whole plan. If the queen was actually made of lightning and could just zap herself halfway across the region at will, then there was no way this was going to work. She’d been hoping that wasn’t the case, and for good measure, she’d used the sap and her Aspected Strike just in case, and it looked like one of them had worked. With the blade pinning her firmly to the throne behind her, the queen had no means of escape.

Of course, that didn’t mean she was defenseless.

Proximity Shock hits you for 14 damage!

Tribulation Strike hits you for 21 damage!

Lightning Bolt hits you for 11 damage!

Only a split second later, the king joined in. His hand slamming against the drum in his lap, he sent forth wave after wave of sonic blasts, each of them attempting to shred her organs or forcefully shove her away.

Sadly for both of them, it was no use.

With judicious activations of Apex Shroud and her new augment, she avoided or lessened the most severe of the attacks. Whatever got through had to push past her makeshift armor, and if it managed that, it broke upon her heightened resistances. Even past that, her recovery did its best to heal whatever damage she was taking, and when it wasn’t enough, she burned her stamina with Omnisource to supplement it. If the royals thought they could outlast the Indefatigable Onslaught, they had another thing coming.

Latching onto the queen like a tick, Cal transitioned from blade to dagger, keeping her sword lodged into the throne as she switched to her secondary weapons. Spending mana like there was no tomorrow, she charged the weapons with Empowered Strike, sending them forth in a flurried frenzy. Over and over again, she tore into the boss, heedless of the attacks repeatedly striking her.

If she’d still had her old Perception, perhaps she would have felt the great surge of mana that signalled a larger attack. Not that it would have changed anything. But as the queen’s jagged form began to dim as it was riddled with holes, much as they had a month prior, the clouds above sent down their wrath. The world went white as the entire box and much of the coliseum was struck down.

Wrath of the Heavens hits you for 5 damage!

…

Wrath of the Heavens hits you for 7 damage!

Even with all her resistances in play, she was taking an ungodly amount of damage. Cal could say with certainty that this was a foolish way to fight a boss. More than that, she couldn’t imagine anyone else her level being able to win like this. If their health didn’t bottom out first, then their mana or stamina would. Hells, even Tess probably couldn’t weather this storm. Not that the Protagonist wouldn’t have found some other way to win, but she’d have been fried in an instant if she went this route.

No, this was well and truly a strategy only she could pull off.

Lightning Resistance has reached level 21!

Sonic Resistance has reached level 21!

As each new blow fried her nerves, assaulted her vision, and vibrated through her gut, Cal never let up for a second. At some point, she realized she’d started screaming, but her voice was drowned out by the incessant chain of thunderous booms that surrounded her. Even dimming her vision as much as she could with Apex Shroud, Cal felt like she’d glued strobe lights to her eyes as the queen sought to kill her through sheer sensory overload.

At some point, the king switched from his drum to using his hands, trying to claw Cal off, but it was no use. Whenever his hands managed to find purchase on her, he discovered that Cal’s Strength was not to be trifled with. Instead, he was forced to watch as his queen faded from existence right before him.

In one, final, last ditch effort, the lightning queen threw the entirety of her mana pool into a cataclysmic strike. With bolts of lightning so thick and dense, it was hard to know where one ended and the other began, the entire coliseum was smited. Neither the cloud essence comprising the palace nor the cloudlings were spared, as all but the king were reduced to a soot stain.

Shoving her other resources into her mana pool, Cal simply slipped fully into her shroud, letting the strike pass her by. By the time it ended, her job was done. Completely spent, the lightning queen fizzled out.

You have defeated the Lightning Queen!

Or, that wasn’t quite right. Only half of Cal’s job was done.

Retrieving her blade, Cal spun about to find the king. Evidently only partially resistant to his wife’s attacks, he was already looking worse for wear. As if sensing the score, instead of fighting her to the bitter end, he began to retreat.

It was no use. Lacking the queen’s electric speed, he wasn’t the fastest runner, and Cal caught up easily. Ramming into him, she rode his cloudy form to the ground, shoving her sword through his chest to impale him to the ground.

If Cal had been able to survive the two working together, then the lone king certainly wasn’t enough to defeat her. Spared from the lightshow, Cal only had to endure bone-rattling percussive blasts in rapid succession. As her recovery went to work, it quickly outpaced the king’s damage, to the point where Cal was able to lower the mana she was feeding to Apex Shroud, focusing solely on offense. 

It was only when the king was truly on his last legs that Cal realized that might be a mistake. It turned out that, much like the queen, the king, too, had a final attack in store.

As she plunged her mana-fueled daggers into his stormy form for the final time, the king’s body pulled in on itself, condensing. Even with the warning, Cal didn’t realize what she was up against until his entire being exploded with one last thunderous explosion.

She only had time for a single thought before it hit her, and as per usual, it was enlightened and full of the gravitas the situation demanded.

Oh shit.

And then, the king exploded.

The Storm’s Final Roar of Defiance has hit you for 83 damage!

With Cal directly atop the king, there was only one direction to go.

Up.

Even as she received the kill notification for the king, Cal soared higher and higher into the gloomy, fog-filled sky as her body started to undo the damage she’d taken. The entire region stretched out beneath her, essence trees dotting the landscape. In the distance, she spotted the impassable barrier confining her here.

She even got to watch as it dissipated, too.

Quest Completed: A Thunderous Tribute

At last, after a month of constant resistance training, she was free to escape. Or, she would be once she stopped flying upwards. On and on she rose until she hit the clouds, racing through them until she popped out on the other side.

For a brief moment, she reached the apex of her flight, weightless as she came to a stop. With her vision no longer obscured by the cloying cloud cover, Cal took in the surrounding regions arrayed beneath her.

Damn. This is way better than having to climb a mountain. Something told her she wouldn’t be repeating this process any time soon, but she would enjoy it while she could.

There, in the direction she’d come from, was the steam region. To her sides, she spotted three new options, saving her some valuable scouting time.

But it was only past that, in the distance, that truly held Cal’s attention. Because, faint though it was, Cal could see a mountain.

And unlike the mountains by the prairie, this mountain range wasn’t rocky and gray.

No. These mountains were fully white.

Snow.

As Cal began to plummet back to the earth, nothing could erase the goofy grin adorning her face.

I found it. At last, she’d finally located the frost region. Now, it was only a matter of time before she reached it.

Admittedly, she wouldn’t set off immediately.

After all, I have a palace to loot, don’t I? 

Taking in her fried, shredded, sap-covered, and pillowy form, Cal amended herself. And maybe I should take a quick bath, too. There was no reason not to revisit the steam region while she was so close, right?

After that, though? Only one more region before she finally reached her goal.