B3 C53: The Second Crack

CRACK. A wide fissure formed across a stygian black door, purple light shining through, and then-

~~~~~~~

White.

One instant, I was staring at the vicious grin on the boss’s face, the next, a total wall of white. It drowned out every inch of my vision, leaving me temporarily blind. If that weren’t jarring enough, my skin prickled with a momentary heat while my ears were assaulted by a deafening blast.

Boom.

And then, with a blink, it was over. I could see again.

The magma still surrounded me. The boss still stood there with a menacing smile. Indeed, the entire scene was unchanged -- save for one notable difference.

High in the sky and already halfway towards the boss was one particularly angry-looking figure. Far from reigning that anger in, she screamed it outwards for all to hear.

“ARE YOU SMILING? ARE YOU SMILING YOU GIANT FUCKER? I’LL KILL YOU!” Nella punctuated her words with another percussive blast, launching her up to the titan’s face at speed.

If Nella was extremely vocal with her swearing, my own cursing was more internal.

Shit, shit, shit. She can’t be doing that! “Nella, come down! We’ll figure something out!” This was the last thing we needed. There was a reason we usually kept Nella hanging back during this fight. Strong as she was, she hadn’t invested much in defense. A single slap from the boss and she’d be swatted from the air like a fly.

As if eager to do just that, the reforged titan raised an arm, Alara completely forgotten in the face of an oncoming target. With a speed far past what its stature would indicate, it moved to violently intercept her, its open hand swinging forth. The generated wind alone was enough to batter Nella, and as the titan’s fingers closed in on her, I nearly shut my eyes, not willing to watch the collision.

Boom.

Effortlessly, almost contemptuously, Nella launched herself over the titan’s hand.

Seemingly affronted by the attempt, her rage only intensified. This time, though, it wasn’t only directed at the boss.

“We’ll figure something out?” she snapped. “Figure out WHAT? He’s dead, Tess! And unless you’re sitting on a priceless resurrection artifact, there’s only one thing to figure out!” A jet of flames burst from her arms, splashing over the titan’s face with vengeance. “HOW. TO. KILL. THIS. FUCKER!”

When the flames let up, the smiling face of the titan remained, still completely coated in its patchwork of rare metals.

I mean, it’s standing in magma. I feel like that was kind of a given.

On seeing that her opening salvo had done so little, though, rather than back off, Nella went one step further.

In a flash, she rocketed around to the reforged monstrosity’s neck, latching onto it like a tick. Any moment, I expected the metal around her landing site to form into some sort of weapon and punish her for the overly aggressive move.

What I didn’t expect was for her to light up so bright, I was forced to activate Light Sight to avoid getting blinded. In a single instant, the dim cavernous space transformed, not a single shadow in sight in the wake of the glow she was putting off.

And miraculously, with Light Sight letting me peer through the glare, I could see it.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

A slow trickle of metal, running down the titan’s back. It dripped into the magma and was swallowed up.

And once again, I felt hope.

Even though it looks like a liquid, she can melt it off! We had a real chance to beat this thing!

Naturally, not everyone was thrilled with this development.

The titan roared, half in rage, half in pain, its infuriating smile finally falling flat as its defenses were breached. It reached back, hoping to crush Nella against its neck as if she were a pesky mosquito -- or perhaps more of a firefly in this case --  but fast as it was otherwise, its massive arms struggled to bend properly. Nella had no issue dodging its clumsy attack, quickly repositioning and continuing her assault.

Another bestial roar sounded out, though this one from a different source -- this entire time, Alara had been trying and failing to grab the titan’s attention, yelling, stomping, scooping up chunks of lava rock and chucking them. Still stuck in place from Immovable Object, however, she didn’t have many options, nor did the boss seem keen on ignoring the more pressing attack to its head.

But that was fine.

Because at last, I saw what I’d been waiting for.

There wasn’t much of it. Not yet at least, but finally, blissfully.

Skin.

Enough metal had finally dripped off that the tiniest section of the titan was uncovered. Unprotected. And that meant I had a job to do.

“Emin! Low on mana. Focus on mana buffs for me, and probably a bunch for Nella too!” Pumping all of that healing into Oachin had cost me, and I had to imagine what Nella was doing was hardly free either.

For a second, the researcher just stood there, glassily staring at the corpse before him. Understandable given everything that had happened, and something I might have been doing if not for Trauma Suppression. Hell, something I probably would be doing once this was all over -- Oachin’s death hadn’t fully registered for me yet, honestly -- but not now. Not now. “Emin, not now!”

He snapped out of it, looking around as though just waking up. Thankfully, though, he was fast on the uptake. Even partially blinded by Nella’s onslaught, he pulled through.

You have been augmented with the blood of a Mana Newt! Mana regeneration increased.

You have been augmented with the bark of a Sage’s Sycamore! Mana regeneration increased.

…

The buffs came rolling in, and I raced off atop the magma, moving back to my previous magma-rock raft to position myself.

I summoned my bow.

I summoned an arrow, already nocked on the string.

And I began to charge it once more.

Just one. Usually I would aim for the arms, hoping to disable them before going in for the kill, but that wasn’t an option here. Just one, right at the base of the neck, and hopefully that’ll be enough. And… hopefully no hitting Nella.

As the death mana began to well up, I felt myself sweating more and more, and for once, I was sure it had nothing to do with the surrounding magma.

The mana started to reach a critical mass, and despite the situation, the stress of the shot, the recent death, a small part of me was overcome with relief. I was almost there. Almost to a full charge. One shot away from ending this hell and getting us out.

But of course, things could never be so easy.

With a roar so loud, I nearly let go of my bow, the titan threw its hands up into the air, seemingly giving up on catching Nella. That didn’t mean it had given up overall, though.

Liquid metal -- the patches still under its control, down by its legs -- pinched itself off from the boss in a now-familiar move. As expected, the metal formed into a blade.

As unexpected, however, there weren’t multiple blades created. There wasn’t one for Alara. Not even one for me this time. No, this time, there was only one target.

Emin.

But he’ll be fine, right? He’s still behind the brambles, and his section held once against the blade, right?

It was then that I noticed the other unusual feature of this attack.

More and more and more metal started to separate from the titan, putting every iota it didn’t need to armor itself into that singular blade. It swelled far over the size of the previous blades, and without a doubt, I knew I’d been wrong.

That’s going to tear through the bramble wall like it’s not even there. And he’s not fast enough to dodge it, either.

I hesitated for a split second, still keeping the intense death mana in my arrow in check, and in that second, the blade shot off.

No. No, no, no, no! Please no. Without another thought, I fired the arrow, barely registering as it went wide, wasting all of my efforts. Instead, I immediately rushed off with Flash Feet and Waterwalking once again. There was only one person across all of us that could maybe survive a blow like that, and it was me. I had to arrive in time. I needed to.

And for all that I needed to, I could tell almost instantly that I wasn’t going to make it.

It was funny, in a way. With how bright it was and how focused Emin was on augmenting me, he didn’t even realize. There wasn’t a shred of fear on his face, even as the blade grew closer and closer and closer, until, at last-

Boom.

A percussive blast filled the room. The all-pervasive light died down. And when I looked to where Emin lay, I found the horrifying sight of the cruel, massive blade biting deep into flesh.

Just not of the party member I’d expected.

Panting heavily and with specks of blood flying from her mouth with each breath, Nella hung in the air, pinned against the wall of brambles by the sword sticking through her gut. Catching on at last, Emin screamed at the sight, scrambling out from behind the barrier and trying to pull the sword out of her much like we had for Oachin.

It didn’t budge an inch.

For all that she was currently impaled, Nella eyed the scene with a hoarse laugh.

“Look at me! The grand heroine. Honestly, pictured that one going a little differently,” she wheezed. “Was going to push you out of the way, Knowledge Boy. Just didn’t make it in time. That’s all right. That’s okay. I’m still pretty awesome, yeah?”

Emin tried to squawk out some sort of response, an apology, but Nella cut him off just as fast. “None of that. In a way, it’s good, actually. You see what the rest of me looks like?”

It was then that I really took in the state of her. The blade and the wealth of blood exiting her demanded the most attention, but everywhere I looked, her skin was charred. I hadn’t even been aware that skin could get burns that bad, with patches so black, it looked as though they’d full-on carbonized. The more I saw, the more I couldn’t believe she was still alive, let alone awake.

I arrived, ready to block any further blades if need be, but with Nella out of commission, the Boss was finally refocusing on Alara. Instead, I started to pump what little mana I had into Nella.

“No. No healing. Don’t bother. Want to know how I’m still kicking? It’s because I’m amazing. Got a skill for it. Pretty good one if you ask me.” Unbidden, she pushed the description to us as if we had all the time in the world to read it.

Sunset

The Rising Star burns brightly and sets slowly. Any fatal damage you receive will instead slowly accumulate over the course of ten minutes. During this time, healing has a reduced effect.

“Had a plan, you know.” She hacked and coughed, more blood staining the foam-like substance beneath us. “Was trying to reign it in. Go hot enough to damage the boss without doing too much damage to myself. Figured maybe I could be patched up afterwards. Was a mistake.” She glanced down to the sword practically bisecting her. “This is… it’s good, probably. Takes that option off the table. Makes this all much… easier. Step back.”

All at once, Nella’s entire body erupted into flames, forcing me and Emin to jump back. Hotter than a furnace, the fire rapidly went to work melting all the metal around her, inside her. The brambles went first, and then even the blade that held her up, all of it melting into a massive puddle. Despite the molten metal dripping from her stomach, she didn’t cry out at all.

From within the flames, she continued to address us.

“Maybe you two don’t get it. How could you? But Oachin… he was better than me. Cleaning up after my messes for his entire life. And such big dreams. He didn’t deserve this. And he was the only one I really trusted, you know? Always there for me.” She let out a dry and raspy laugh. “Although, maybe I was starting to trust all of you a bit too, huh? Funny how that works. Especially you, Knowledge Boy!”

She took a step forward, striking a defiant pose as if suddenly filled to the brim with energy. “You have an all right face, you know that? Maybe you should be glad about this. If I ever took over the Larin house, I’d have snatched you up. We could have had a little fun, don’t you think? Shame about that…” Louder this time, she laughed, almost managing to make it sound natural.

“Now prepare yourselves! You’re all about to see the incredible, mind-numbing powers of the great and fearless Nella’Larin! And let me tell you all something. Maybe Oachin was scared, but I’m not!” She raised her voice, shouting her defiance with as much breath as she could muster. “I’M NOT! I’M NOT SCARED AT ALL! You hear me, you metal freak? I’M NOT SCARED! Not of you or your creepy smile. I’M NOT SCARED!”

And with that, she rocketed off, straight to the titan above. She latched onto it once more, and for a brief second, all was calm.

It was then that I heard it. The words so far and so faint, I struggled to parse them even with all my Perception.

“Ah, fuck,” Nella whispered. “Maybe I am a little scared.”

And then, the room lit up pure white.

Even with my resistance, even with my frost enhancements, the heat pummeled into me, threatening to cook me from afar. Tears flowed down my face as I cried freely, the sting of the hot air against my eyes combining with everything, everything to finally break me down.

And through it all, a hint of Understanding poked through, letting me know just what was happening.

Supernova

Even with its final breath, a star burns brightly.

When at last the flames died out, I shut my eyes. I didn’t need to see what was left of her fall into the magma below. And as I stood there, I sent off a single prayer.

Please be enough. Please.

But of course, life was not so kind.

A cry -- an earth-shattering, soul-sundering, shrieking, piercing cry -- cut through the heat hazed air, and opening my eyes, I saw the reforged titan, still on two legs.

Nearly all of its armor had been stripped away. Its skin was covered in burns, and its neck was a mess of red and black.

But still, it stood.

It spun about as if looking for the human that had dared cause it that much pain. Failing to find her, though, it settled for the nearest substitute. Its fist came hurtling down at Alara who accepted the blow with a grunt.

That should have been the end of it. That should have! Alara had its attention. Its armor was off. All that remained was a well-placed arrow or two to finish it off. And that would have been the case save for two important facts.

Firstly, having missed my last arrow, I was nearly out of mana.

Secondly, and much more pressingly, Alara was not faring nearly as well as she usually did.

Battered and bruised by the titan’s continuous rain of blows, Alara looked far worse than I’d ever seen her during a dungeon run. One of her arms was bent at an unnatural angle, and yet still she limply threw it against the oncoming strike.

Nor had she been spared from Nella’s recent attack. The closest of us to the boss and the least equipped to handle the heat, she was now sporting a nasty set of burns herself. Without Oachin, there was no way to heal her through her innate resistance, either.

And yet, through it all, she wore a savage, manic sort of smile.

“Yes! Cry out, beast! Let me hear your pain!” The titan’s entire arm was pushed to the side as Alara lashed out, only for it to rear back and try again. “You have… hurt people I care about, all while I have been rooted to the spot, unable to assist them. Enjoy the small sliver of pain you currently feel, for it is a fraction of my own!”

Over and over, the titan struck her, yelling nonstop as it did so in both pain and rage. For Alara’s part, she merely laughed. Laughed and laughed and laughed as the strikes rained down.

“Wail! It will do you no good. I will slay you myself if I have to!”

The next punch came, but beaten as she was, Alara failed to deflect it quite as well. While she stopped the blow, the pressure drove her downwards, the solid rock beneath her cracking. Magma bubbled up through the thin fissures, licking at her feet.

As she kept the boss busy, hurriedly, I rifled through Oachin’s bandolier, feeling like a grave robber as I found the vial I knew to be his mana potion. Even as I downed it in one swig and my mana started to climb, I knew I’d been too slow.

She’s not going to last long enough for me to charge an arrow.

And so, with what little recovering mana I had left, I Jet Stepped. I shot off to the titan’s neck much like Nella had before me, if less gracefully.

Spotting my ascent, Alara roared her approval.

“PPG! Good! You will put an end to this. You are doing something? I will hold it down for you.”

I wasn’t sure how she planned to do that, but I didn’t have long to wait. Normally, whenever the titan struck her, Alara would reduce its mass and shove it to the side. The next time it punched out, however, she did the exact opposite.

Crunch. I could hear bones shatter as the punch connected, its mass far greater than what it should have been. Still, Alara laughed.

And when the titan tried to raise its arm back up, it failed. Alara held on with a death grip, weighing the arm down with her class skills. Furious and unthinking, the boss only repeated its earlier action with its other arm. Down it flew, until once again-

Crunch.

I didn’t want to look, but I had to. Alara’s entire body was mangled, and even too heavy to lift, the titan’s arm could still hurt her. It clamped down, trying to squeeze her to death.

Not Alara. Not anyone else. I finally landed on the titan’s neck, right where Nella had been.

I summoned my pickaxe.

And I started to shout.

Bang.

I brought the heavy pick down, overloading it with as much death mana as I could squeeze in.

Bang.

Once again, chipping away at the blackened flesh.

Bang.

I drove every bit of my Strength, every ounce of my own fury into each blow. Again, and again, and again.

The entire time, I screamed, and the titan screamed in response. All while the thoughts I’d been keeping at bay assaulted me.

My fault. I knew how dangerous hidden rooms could be. They didn’t. My fault. I’m probably the reason we got a prestige event in the first place. My fault. My arrow didn’t even do anything. I should have been protecting the others instead. My fault. And I just had to get greedy and make a super expensive weapon with the forge. The entire thing. My fault.

But Alara’s death would not be my fault. Because Alara was not going to die.

Veins of inky black spread outwards from my point of impact, signaling the beginning of the end for the titan. Its roars grew more subdued, pitifully mewling even as it continued to snuff the life from Alara.

On I struck, boring into its thick neck as if I were mining. My mind finally emptied itself, my body almost automatically repeating each strike. My nose was filled with the thick smell of smoke, of ash, of blood and burning flesh. My eyes burned and watered, and yet I continued on.

And eventually, the death mana did its job.

Its limbs grew too weak to support it, and at last the titan fell.

I gripped on with my legs, riding its neck as it toppled down, not stopping my assault for a second. The magma splashed upwards haphazardly, globs of it crashing into me, sizzling at my armor, and still I worked.

With a final shout of rage, I slammed the pickaxe downwards, once more hearing that horrible -- and in this case, beautiful -- sound.

Crunch.

And with its body beginning to sink back into the magma and its neck practically half torn off, at last, the reforged titan went still and silent.

Congratulations! You have cleared-

The notifications barely registered. Everything barely registered. I was almost about to let autopilot take over and hack away at the boss’s neck once more, save for one thought that surfaced to the top.

Alara.

As the neck I was standing on began to sink, I once more activated Flash Feet and Waterwalking, sprinting with abandon towards my friend. The arms that had been smothering her were at last limp, slowly getting dragged off beneath the magma with the rest of the massive corpse. She was free from its grasp.

When I arrived, though, I couldn’t keep back the tears. For all that the titan was dead, Alara hardly looked much better. While she was still on her feet, so many parts of her body were bent in the wrong direction, and she had more burned skin than not. A pool of magma licked at her ankles, and a few splashes had eaten through her. Far too much bone was visible in far too many places.

And yet still, she lived.

“Not… the first dungeon run I had hoped for, PPG.” She chuckled hoarsely, the action seeming to greatly hurt her.

“Shhh, shhh. We’re going to go heal you. Just one second. Just one second, Alara.” I tried to lift her into my arms, but she wouldn’t budge.

Her fucking root skill! I’m not letting her die because of some stupid technicality! “Deactivate it, Alara! It’s been long enough. Just deactivate it.” I tugged and tugged, racking my brain for answers. I’ll rip the ground up beneath her. Fucking hell, I’ll tear her legs off if I need to! Move, god dammit!

And blissfully, miraculously, she listened. The skill deactivated, and Alara immediately passed out.

I hoisted her up and started sprinting for the exit portal, finding that it had formed back near Emin. On the other end of the room was a treasure chest, but I didn’t spare it a second glance.

Perhaps it was the adrenaline, but my body felt far faster than it had only moments ago, and I raced across the magma, scooping up a dull and dead-eyed Emin before he could protest.

Only seconds later we were out. Gone from the cloying smoke. The faint scent of Oachin’s burning body. The oppressive heat.

The dungeon entrance was always bustling, and with how many injuries parties tended to sustain, healers were always kept on site for cases just like these. With Alara’s body rag-dolled in my arms, I screamed bloody murder, barely aware of what was happening save for the fact that someone came and took her. I told them who she was. Told them to call her uncle.

She’d be safe.

She had to be.

With the last of my energy expended, I dumped Emin to the side and collapsed, not caring who might be around to see me.

All I wanted was to pass out, or cry, or maybe both at the same time.

But today was not a forgiving day. Perhaps the gods were conspiring against me. Or perhaps all my bad luck was just coming due at once.

For instead of peacefully relaxing, my body suddenly locked up.

My muscles tightened, unable to move an inch.

My lungs constricted, barely able to draw in a breath.

And the very last notification I wanted to see right now popped up.

You have been affected by the Law’s Embrace!

Footsteps neared until they stopped right beside me, a familiar figure coming into view.

In a rare display of emotion, Warram’Goss grinned.

“Hello there, Miss Astorius. I’m afraid you’ll be coming with me.”