The Grand Tournament

by Ivan Kal

  Then the boss stomped the ground and sent a wave of earth rolling around him, sending both Ves and Lucius flying. Morgan saw an opportunity and grabbed one of his grenade orbs—lighting the fuse lightning fast, he threw it in the air. It exploded near the boss’s head, sending chunks of its shoulder and head flying.

  Ves, seeing that it was distracted, smashed her shield on the ground and her ice armor melted, sending water spilling toward the boss and then snapping out as a spear stabbed the boss in the chest. The ice broke against the stone, but it did send cracks over its chest.

  Then Vall and the bear were there. A strike from his hammer drove the boss stumbling forward, and Lucius sent a large wind blade at its ankle, finally managing to get through. Seeing an opening, Morgan sent more roots out of the ground—not attempting any delicate attacks, he just wrapped them around the boss and pulled down. The boss, without both feet for balance, fell to one knee and the bear smashed into it from behind, driving it to the ground. It raised its paw and smashed down on the boss’s back, cracking the mist stone.

  The boss struggled to get up, but there was no chance. Ves had smashed her mace into its sword-wielding hand, breaking it off, and Vall had done the same with its other. And then the bear stomped again and the entire torso split into several pieces, destroying the core, and therefore the boss.

  They moved away from it slowly, catching their breaths.

  “What happened with the plants?” Ves asked after a few minutes.

  Morgan grimaced. “I think that mist stone has some properties that make it hard for others’ energy to influence them, or even influence something near them.”

  “You didn’t have problems with the regular enemies,” Vall said.

  “I wasn’t really controlling the plants all that much in those fights. I just had them tangle them up.”

  “I don’t remember ever hearing anything about mist stone being able to do that,” Lucius said. “But then again, I wasn’t really studying it.”

  “Nothing about it was in the report?” Clara asked.

  “No,” Morgan answered.

  “It could be that they left it out of purpose, or that they didn’t know,” Lucius said. “I mean, mist stone is mostly used in the south, not this far north.”

  “Maybe we could sell the information to the Adventurers Guild, then,” Morgan said, and with that, they gathered up and walked back into the great courtyard, heading toward the last boss.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  They had already cleared the dark-iron group at the base of the stairs, but the large group on the platform was still there. They set up for another ambush—only this time they made it a bit closer to his De-armoring Plant, since it had already been grown. Morgan put just a bit of his energy into it to have it produce more acid, then placed a few more seeds beneath the stone plates nearby. They took their positions in the now standard formation and Lucius went to trigger the terracotta enemies to attack them. A few minutes later, they were running down the stairs while Vall and Ves waited for them to get in range. Vall used his Pillar of Fire ability, sending it at them while they were still on the stairs. The impact sent some tumbling down while the fire burned blue all over the stairway.

  When his attack ended, Morgan could see some dark-iron terracottas melting and lying on the ground. A few were now glowing molten red, while others had only parts of them melted. Then, as they came to the base of the stairs, Morgan’s roots exploded upward to form a wall. He didn’t block off the entire stairs; instead, he left a hole large enough for a single terracotta to pass through. The other terracottas attacked the root wall with their pole-arms, hacking away at it, while others pushed through the opening and rushed Vall and Ves, one by one. They waited for them to reach them and then engaged, working together in unison to take down a single terracotta fast and then move to the next. When more than one would reach them at the same time, Ves’s bear would engage them and buy time.

  The battle continued slowly, Morgan keeping his wall intact, replacing roots to stall the terracottas even though the wall would fall eventually. Lucius was standing behind Vall and Ves using his wind blades and air punches to stagger those who get past the wall enough for them to not be overwhelmed. Clara used her slowing field in the same manner.

  But then the wall was cut open, letting a couple terracottas pass through at the same time.

  Vall and Ves started retreating toward Morgan and his plant. He waited until the first line of the terracottas arrived and then used his vines, tying the terracottas down and felling them. The others stumbled over their allies, creating a jam. Seeing his opportunity, Morgan used his De-armoring Plant to spew acid all over them. The dark-iron terracottas were melting, but there were too many for him to melt fast enough.

  Some managed to avoid their fallen comrades and came at them. Vall and Ves stepped up and met them, while Lucius focused on using his abilities to stem the tide and give Vall and Ves room to maneuver. Clara used her slowing fields whenever there was a large grouping running at them, and Morgan kept focusing on just using his plant to take down as many terracottas as possible.

  The fighting went on for a while, but there were no surprises. They had gotten good at working together, and rarely did their plans go awry nowadays—and when they did, they adapted quickly. Finally, they defeated the last terracotta and they stopped to catch their breaths again, the orb that was watching and recording their progress still floating above them following their every move.

  They took another break, taking a few bites to eat, drinking some water—Gotta stay hydrated!—and regenerating their energy. After they were rested, they continued on, getting up the stairs and the large ornamental doors that were now open. From the reports Morgan knew that the doors would’ve remained closed until the other two bosses were defeated, so they hadn’t even checked. They entered the tall building and started clearing the terracotta guards. It went a bit slower than the other mobs since they couldn’t use his acid plant, as there was no ground here for them to grow out of. This part of the dungeon was built next the rocky mountainside, but above the ground.

  So it was principally up to Ves and Vall to take care of them, with the others acting as support. Like in the other two buildings, they cleared the adjacent rooms as they fought their way through. The atmosphere inside was the same as in the other buildings: walls built out of dark rocks and glowing orbs every now and then to provide light. This building was also built on several levels, so once they reached each set of stairs, they climbed up.

  They cleared another two floors, which took them almost twice as long as it took them to clear the other buildings. Finally, they reached the final boss: a tall and black terracotta boss stood in the center of the roof, the mountains and the sky stretching around him. The boss’s armor was a bit different than the other terracottas, with it having dragons engraved on its surface, but that wasn’t really an issue since its entire body was made from the same piece of dark iron, and the cosmetic difference was just that—cosmetic.

  The boss held a tall guandao in one hand, the ornamental blade made out of dark iron just like the boss was, but the edge of the blade had a silvery sheen to it.

  The roof that the boss was standing on was round, about a hundred meters across if Morgan was to guess. The biggest problem for them was that its location made Morgan’s acid plant unusable. There was no ground, no soil for it to grow in here. He had some plants that could grow in the cracks of the stone, but those would not be useful against this boss as those types of plants weren’t nearly strong enough to keep the boss down even for a second, and his acid plant needed more room than that to grow at all. Unfortunately, he had found no way of actually harvesting the acid to create bombs. It might melt metals incredibly well, but that did not meant that it didn’t do anything for other materials. It might take a bit more time, but it would eat through other things. He had tried putting it in different types of containers, but had failed to make any that didn’t risk it bursting on his waist. He e
ven attempted putting it in his ring of holding, but that had proven to be a disaster. He couldn’t really pull it out effectively. That meant that they were without their greatest weapon against this type of enemy. Still, it would go down like all the other terracottas—if its core could be destroyed.

  They only had to get through to it without dying. No problem, really. This boss was also a bit different, as the last boss in the dungeon was naturally quite a bit harder than the rest. The terracotta guards had all been level 29, the two other bosses level 30, but this one was level 32, and it also had special abilities. It possessed the ground stomp that the other two had, but it also had a sweeping strike that sent a shock-wave arc outward. And then there was its danger mode: once it became sufficiently damaged, the boss would go on a rampage, smashing everything around it blindly.

  Their plan for the fight was to have Ves and her bear tank it, while the others chipped away at it slowly, essentially what they had been doing so far. There wasn’t anything else that they could really do. They didn’t have a real spellcaster in their group—each of them had some alignment-based abilities, and Morgan filled that role somewhat for their team, but they didn’t have a damage dealer who was dedicated to a wide variety of damaging spells that could devastate an opponent. Sure, Morgan’s kit was versatile, and he did have some abilities that were heavy hitters, but he didn’t have the energy to use them many times in a single fight. Morgan was their crowd-control damage dealer, and all around playmaker.

  Lucius was their most powerful damage dealer with his fast-paced combat style. He was best at flying around a battle field and cutting down enemies, but this dungeon was a complete counter to him. His attacks did little damage to the terracotta. Vall was good at dealing with crowds of enemies with his area-of-effect attacks, but he was in the same boat. His fire attacks were mostly useless against enemies like this boss, and he had to rely only on dealing enough blunt damage. Ves was their tank and front-line fighter: she could deal out damage with her eldritch conjurings, but they needed her to remain on her feet and keep the enemy occupied, so spending energy on attack abilities was not advisable. Clara didn’t have any offensive spells other than her earth wave, and that was of limited use here.

  But in Morgan’s opinion they had enough power to take the boss down—it just might take them a bit longer to do so. With a glance to the white floating orb above their heads, he called the group to get ready. They got into their now familiar formation, Clara casting her buffs while Morgan opened up with his standard attack in this dungeon.

  Phase Shot! he yelled out in his head as he let the ball fly.

  The wooden ball hit the dark-iron terracotta boss and shattered against it, but it did dent its chest a tiny bit and sent a single crack spreading up to its shoulder. The boss sprang into motion, charging at them. Ves and her bear met it halfway, the bear jumping to the side and attempting to attack it from the flank while Ves took the front. The boss whirled its guandao, smashing the butt into the bear’s head and sending it tumbling away before then bringing its blade at Ves from the side. She turned her body into the attack and placed her shield to block, meeting the attack, but the force of it forced her back and made her skid across the ground. She attacked with her mace as the boss pulled back, but the boss twirled around the guandao, striking her mace away. Vall attacked from the side, his hammer singing through the air, but the boss blocked the attack and counterattacked, forcing Vall to jump back.

  He wasn’t fast enough, however, and the guandao scored a cut on Vall’s upper arm. Vall winced, but didn’t slow down, the injury was a minor one.

  The bear attacked the boss’s back just as Ves attacked from the front. The boss swiped at the bear, it ducking under the blade to evade the attack, while Ves struck it on the waist. The attack staggered the boss slightly, but not enough—the guandao came back around, forcing Ves to deflect with her shield again. Lucius flew over them as the boss was extended, hitting the shoulder crack with one of his swords as he went over. He might not be able to fly just yet, but his jumps were greatly enhanced with the wind. As his jump carried him over and behind the boss, he sent a wave of air at its back, forcing it forward. Ves struck its knee as it was imbalanced and it gave way.

  Then Vall was there, hitting it in the head and sending it to the side, forcing the boss to catch itself on its hands.

  Morgan raised his crossbow and put his hand over it. Enchanting the loaded bolt with an exploding ward just like he used to do with his arrows, he fired a Piercing Shot into the crack on its shoulder that was now exposed. The bolt struck and got stuck inside, then exploded, widening the crack all the way to its chest.

  Ves’s bear attacked its back, forcing the boss to the ground. Morgan felt like they were close to the win when the ground shook, sending them all tumbling to the ground. The boss rose and steam started rising off of its body, with the dark iron turning red as if it were molten. It moved, faster than before, and struck at Ves, who had only just gotten to her feet. Her eyes widened as she raised her shield and blocked. The strike sent her flying back across the roof, falling and rolling around. Clara immediately dropped a slowing field around the boss and ran toward Ves. Vall, now back on his feet, charged, using an over-the-head attack while engaging his momentum ability. His hammer entered the field and slowed, but with his ability it was still going fast. Striking the boss, he forced it back a few steps.

  Morgan reached to one of his grenades and lit the fuse, throwing it at the boss’s feet as Vall jumped back. The explosion made the boss stagger again, but then Clara’s field ran its course and it began moving fast once more. Lucius was sending bursts of air at it from a distance, but it didn’t seem like it was doing much. On the other side of the roof, Morgan could see that Ves was on her feet. Her bear was with her—she put her hand on it and Morgan could see that she had activated her Eldritch Abomination ability. The bear’s form shifted, changed, and the resultant horror charged at the boss.

  The terracotta noticed it and whirled its guandao, cutting into its shoulder, but it wasn’t enough to stop the abomination. Its front claws racked over the boss’s arm and the tentacles that had grown from its neck grabbed at its legs. The boss lifted his weapon with one hand and used the other to land punches on the abomination—but then Ves was there, taking out her last water barrel and spilling it on the floor. The water flowed and then rose over the terracotta’s legs before they froze, keeping it in place. Vall started attacking its side, and Lucius kept sending his wind blades at its back.

  Morgan fired two exploding bolts, but he could see that it wasn’t going to be enough. The ice around its legs was thawing, steam rising up, and Vall couldn’t break its body, nor could Lucius. Ves was exhausted and was standing back, her bear struggling to hold on, and Morgan was certain that it would be dispelled soon.

  Then Morgan was struck with an idea; it was something that he hadn’t attempted before, and he wasn’t sure that it would work, but they needed to get to the boss’s core quickly. He ran over to Lucius.

  “I need you to use your Aerokinesis to guide me,” Morgan said.

  “To guide you? What are you talking about?” Lucius asked.

  Morgan heard a crack of ice and a whine from the monstrous abomination and he knew that they didn’t have much time. “No time, just aim me at its shoulder, all right?”

  Before Lucius could answer, Morgan ran closer to the boss, making sure to remain behind it at all times and approach as stealthily as possible. For a moment he considered attacking its back, but the boss was moving too quickly, its weapon now free and whirling around. If he missed, it could go bad quickly.

  Instead, he knelt and started using Mass Transfer, putting an enormous amount of mass into his orb that he held in hand but pressed to the ground. He heard the floor below the orb groan as the concentrated weight cracked the stone above the orb, and then Morgan was done. He activated his phasing on his arm and pulled the orb into the air. For a moment he was tempted to throw it—with this much
weight, it would do an insane amount of damage—but he could miss, or worse: do so much damage that the debris could injure his team. He resigned himself to his stupid plan. He activated his Iron Skin ability, and his skin took on a darker sheen to it as it was suddenly covered with a layer of iron. Morgan rarely used the ability, simply because it was defensive in nature, and he rarely got close enough to danger to need it.

  He took a deep breath and then jumped, activating a full body phase as soon as he did so. He was back in the world of no sensation, but he knew that outside he would be moving up into the air, almost like flying. He didn’t want to get far into the air—if he went too far, he could kill himself as he fell. He used his Mass Transfer and pulled mass from the orb, and into himself. The weird sensation assaulted him immediately, and he felt as if his body was crawling, as if he was being filled up from the inside, but he didn’t stop until all that he had put into the orb was now in him. Some he put into the new layer of his skin, but most went directly into his body. When he estimated that he was far enough in the air, he disable his phasing.

  “Now, Lucius!” Morgan screamed as he started to fall. He caught the look of absolute disbelief on Lucius’s face and on the faces of the others as Morgan started falling down toward the ground only a bit off target. But then the wind around him picked up and he moved ever so slightly, getting on target. He saw Lucius’s face turn red from exertion and he dropped to his knees, but he had managed it. Morgan fell on top of the boss as it stabbed its weapon into the abomination. His leg hit the terracotta’s shoulder first, and Morgan felt a sharp pain as his bone cracked. His other leg bent and his knee fell onto the terracotta’s arm. The boss was driven to the ground by the impact and the weight. Morgan raised his arm slowly, the extra weight making it harder for him to move even with his stats. His Energy Blade sprung to life and as the terracotta started to move and try to reach up to him, Morgan stabbed through the crack in its shoulder down toward the heart. He felt his energy leave him in a massive stream as he pushed the blade deeper. Energy Blade could cut through nearly anything, but the harder the thing it was being pushed through the more energy it needed. For a moment Morgan thought that perhaps he had overestimated his own supplies as he nearly reached his limit and the terracotta was still moving, but then he felt something give and the terracotta froze.