by Dante Doom
“I dunno,” Fingers said as he crawled past her, staying low to avoid the snapping whirlwind of snakes that seemed to be everywhere. “The better question is, how do we kill this thing?”
“Ah!” Savannah gasped as the scepter was torn from her hands. The rest of the snakes had all turned their attention and focus onto the scepter and, within few seconds, she’d been disarmed of both the scepter and her shotgun.
“Man, we should retreat,” Fingers said. “Who knew that Timon would be a trendsetter?”
“Ten-Thirty!” Savannah shouted as she narrowly avoided two more snakes snapping at her. “Where are you?” It was getting hard to see with all of the writhing bodies surrounding her. More snakes were appearing by the second, and with the scepter back in hand, the Snakelord was creating even more.
There was no reply from Ten-Thirty.
“Run!” Fingers said as he pointed to a corridor. “It’s too slow to chase us.”
“No!” Savannah said. “We need to stay—I’ve got an idea.” She pulled out another grenade; this one was a Disintegration Grenade. She cooked it for only a second and threw it at the base of the statue. The explosion rippled through the air, and the words 100 damage hovered above all of the snakes. They turned into ash from the disintegration effect and fell to the ground.
“There, go get the staff!” Savannah shouted triumphantly as she pulled out another grenade. “I’ll keep the snake count low with explosive damage!”
Fingers rushed up to the staff as it was raised high, regenerating more snakes. He grabbed it and pulled it free, but this time he was quick enough to avoid being grabbed. He ducked low and scrambled back to Savannah as another grenade went off, killing the remaining snakes.
“Now what?” Fingers asked as he held up the staff. “Do we break it?”
Savannah grabbed the staff and tried to break it in half, but it was solid metal; it wouldn’t bend.
“Let me try!” Ten-Thirty said as the Machina appeared from behind Savannah. It reached out and grabbed the staff, effortlessly snapping it in half. As soon as the scepter broke, the Snakelord’s body disintegrated.
“That was it?” Fingers asked, putting his hands on his hips. “That was somewhat of a disappointment.”
“What, you wanted to fight endless hordes of snake monsters?” Savannah asked. She turned to face Ten-Thirty. “Nice work, my friend.”
“Thank you,” Ten-Thirty said. “I apologize for my delay, but the repairs took longer than expected when the Aspect arrived.”
Savannah frowned. “Wait, you saw an Aspect? Kireen?”
“Yes, Kireen came during the last fight and spoke many wondrous things to me,” Ten-Thirty said. “I understand a great deal of what is to come. Things terrible and things joyous.”
“What did it want from you?”
“It said it wanted to help me,” Ten-Thirty replied.
Fingers pointed at the portal. “Check it out. The portal’s saying something.” The words Interact When Ready hovered above it. “I’m willing to bet that this is going to be the final fight with the boss.”
“Great, go find Timon and bring him back,” Savannah said. “I need to talk to Ten-Thirty.”
“Sure thing. I’ll need to bum some healing potions off of him anyway,” Fingers replied as he sauntered off.
As he walked off, Savannah turned her attention to the Machina. “What did Kireen want from you?”
Ten-Thirty shrugged. “Kireen said that there is a reason I am awakening now. She said that my life will matter more than anyone here understands. She also said that there are terrible things happening in the Grind—that this entire place is groaning in the pains of labor.”
“What?”
“I don’t understand what Kireen meant by that, but she seemed adamant that King Leopold is going to be a problem for the Grind. She told me that, no matter what, I must side with Elanor.”
Savannah crossed her arms, scowling. “Well, if you were to do that, you’d be seriously hurting me.”
“How would aiding Elanor harm you?”
“It’s a long story, but my family is in peril unless Elanor fails in her mission.”
“I have heard you mention family before. Those are your progenitors, correct?”
“I’m not sure what you mean,” Savannah said as she shrugged.
“They created you,” Ten-Thirty said.
“Yeah. Yeah, they did,” Savannah replied. She really hoped the android wasn’t going to ask her about the birds and the bees.
“And so you serve them?” the Machina asked.
“No, I don’t serve them, but I do love them. I care about them because they’re my family. A good person takes care of their family.”
“Even if it were to hurt your own self interests?”
“Especially then, or else you’re just selfish,” Savannah replied.
Ten-Thirty’s processors chittered loudly as it took in the data. “I understand.” It said nothing more.
Savannah sighed. “Ten, are you going to be on my side when I need you the most?”
The android shrugged at her. “I am conflicted. I suppose I will know when the time is right.”
The answer, while disappointing, was better than a no. The last thing that Savannah needed to worry about was fighting Ten-Thirty alongside of Elanor.
Chapter Sixteen
Savannah stood in front of the red, swirling boss portal. She looked back to see Fingers, Timon, and Ten-Thirty eagerly waiting for her to activate it. After the wave of enemies that had come in, the portal now waited for additional activation, giving the players plenty of time to heal up. Who knew what was within this portal? She took a deep breath and activated it.
Summoning Final Boss hovered above the portal.
“This is it!” Fingers said. “But from the patterns of these stupid bosses so far, I have no idea what we’re going to face.”
“Well, whatever it is, it’s going to be our ticket to the super weapon,” Savannah replied as she backed up to join her team. The red swirl was beginning to expand. As it grew wider, Savannah could see a ghastly pair of yellow eyes staring at her, practically making her shiver.
The portal shifted and contorted, growing longer and larger. The red energy stretched into two legs, two arms, and a long, sinewy head. The being had no mouth, but its eyes had a piercing yellow glow.
“What kind of weird-ass thing is this?” Fingers asked. “The portal is the boss?”
“I guess that makes some sense,” Timon said.
They all waited, watching as the portal’s transformation became complete. It towered over them at nearly sixteen feet high. Its hands were long and spindly, with black talons for fingers. The label Fiend of Tartarus hovered above its head in purple. It was nearly 30 feet away.
“A purple boss isn’t too bad!” Fingers said as he began to open fire on the beast. The bullets streaked through the air before crashing into the monster. 75 damage hovered above the fiend’s head, dropping its health down from 10,000 to 9,925.
“Are you kidding me?” Timon shouted as he fired off a few rounds of his own. “That health bar is unreal!”
“Relax, we’ll be fine,” Savannah said. She had switched to her Rocket Launcher at the sight of such a large boss. Even though the rockets were small, with such a big target, it would easily soak up all of the attacks. The Rocket Launcher began to load itself as she held the trigger down, waiting for the opportunity to unleash its power.
Ten-Thirty was already firing its Rail Gun at the fiend, and 100 damage now hovered above the monstrosity’s head.
“This damage progression sucks!” Fingers shouted. The fiend was standing still, though, unmoving despite the fact that it was under heavy attack. “We’ll be shooting at it all day.”
“Why isn’t it reacting?” Timon asked.
“I don’t know,” Savannah replied as she fired all of her rockets into the creature. The explosions crashed into the side of the monster, dealing 800 points of damage and
dropping the creature down to 8,800. “Maybe it’s glitching out.”
“That would be disappointing,” Fingers said. “I wanted a real fight!”
“Look out!” Timon shouted as the fiend’s body began to glow a bright red. The word Returning hovered above the creature’s head. Suddenly, bullets, rockets, and energy beams fired out of its body in all directions, and no one had enough time to dodge out of the way of the attack.
“Ahhhh!” Savannah shouted as six of her own rockets came crashing into her. The explosion was brutal, and her health dropped down to 350 points.
The fiend did nothing but stand still after the attack.
“Are you seeing this?” Fingers screamed as he pointed to the monster’s health bar. It had regenerated all the way back up to 10,000 points after the attack had been completed. “How in the hell are we supposed to kill something that absorbs all of our attacks and then freaking shoots them back at us? Plus, it heals itself!”
“On the plus side, it doesn’t seem to attack on its own,” Savannah said as she lowered her weapon. “No one shoot it; we need to come up with a plan.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Timon said. “If we can hit it with our strongest attacks all at the same time, we might be able to kill it before it can reflect its power back at us.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Fingers said, “but there’s no way the four of us are going to be able to do 10,000 points of damage in a single attack. That would be impossible.”
“Not impossible,” Savannah said. “Definitely very hard to pull off, though. With my Overdrive power, I can do a little under 2k of damage with these rockets. Timon’s Sniper Rifle can be set into Charge mode and he can get a critical hit with his head shot, so that’s another 1,500… Ten-Thirty, what can you do?”
“Unfortunately, my Rail Gun is the only weapon that I have, and its damage is significantly weakened against this boss,” Ten-Thirty replied. “I have only one other option, but it would mean my destruction.”
“Well, don’t use that, then,” Savannah said. “Fingers?”
“Don’t look at me—I’ve got a pure DPS build,” Fingers said as he gazed upwards at the monster. “I can dish a lot of damage over time, but that thing is probably going to fire back a million of my own shots right back at me.”
“I think that at this point we should bail,” Timon said. “There’s no way we can generate enough damage to kill him all at once. We have to rethink this.”
Savannah shook her head, refusing to consider that yet. “No, there’s got to be some way to fight it. Maybe there’s a weak spot.”
She dashed in between the creature’s legs and moved behind it. Its large legs barely fit in the tight corridor, but there was enough space for Savannah to navigate around it. She glanced at the back of the creature, but much to her dismay, there were no glowing areas that indicated weak spots. The back was more or less similar to the front.
“Well…” Savannah said as she looked at the grenades in her inventory. They weren’t nearly powerful enough to help take the creature down in one fell swoop. “Guys, I think Timon’s right—at least for now. We might have to come back with some better weapons.”
“Or how about we don’t come back at all?” Timon suggested. “Let’s go find somewhere else to go.”
“Are we giving up so easily?” Fingers asked. “Come on, there’s no way this boss is designed to be impossible to kill without a one-shot. What if there’s a certain type of damage that would kill it better than others?”
Savannah returned to her team. “I’m not sure, but is it worth the risk? That thing packs a real wallop when it hits.
“I’m saying that all of the other bosses had some kind of weakness, right?” Fingers asked. “So, let’s figure out what kind of weakness would take this thing down.”
“What about your shield?” Timon asked as he pointed to Savannah. “Did you bring the Shield of Fieros with you?”
“Yeah, but I don’t see how that’s going to help,” Savannah said as she opened her inventory and equipped the shield. “It only blocks damage… wait a second, it also absorbs attacks, too! Of course! If we all use energy weapons to hit it, I can absorb its attack and reflect it right back on the monster.”
“Since the damage is doubled from the attack,” Fingers added, “we would just need to reflect the damage twice. The first hit will be 5,000 points, but when it shoots back, it’ll deal 10,000. When reflected, that’s enough damage to one-shot the thing before it can regenerate.”
“That wouldn’t work—my cooldowns are too slow,” Savannah replied.
“Here, take my refresher card,” Fingers said as he pulled a chip out from his satchel. “It immediately refreshes all cooldowns. I use it to keep my Frantic Firing power handy.”
Savannah took the chip in her hand and swapped out her Running power-up. This would be far more effective. “Okay, so here’s the plan: everyone shoot at it with energy weapons. When you see it begin to glow, run around the corner so I’m the only one to draw Aggro!”
“Copy that!” Fingers said as he produced two Energy Pistols from his inventory. He began to fire rapidly into the monster then, and the rest of the team followed suit. The brilliant streaks of energy sailed into the monster and, like before, the being’s health began to drop down.
Savannah now noticed that, as the fiend took damage, its body began to glow slightly brighter. “Pay attention to how much it’s glowing!” she shouted as she fired blast after blast from her Energy Rifle. The burning green bolts of energy soaked into the red flesh of the creature.
“It’s going to activate!” Fingers yelled as he, Timon, and Ten-Thirty all scrambled for the nearest corner. Savannah stayed put, continuing to shoot at the creature. It didn’t bother to move once the rest of her team ran out of range; instead, it remained motionless.
The word Returning hovered above its head and Savannah pulled her shield up high, hoping that the damage absorption ability would work as intended. Instead of firing out thousands of rounds, the fiend released a long beam of yellow energy from the center of its chest, focused directly on Savannah. The energy hurtled towards Savannah and she held up her shield to absorb it.
100% Absorption hovered above her head as the shield began to hum. Energy was crackling from the front of her shield as she raised it high so that that the two gems on the front were aimed right at the fiend. She pressed the trigger on the back of the shield then, releasing the energy. The force kicked her back a few inches as a beam of red energy surged towards the monster, and the notice of 5,000 damage hovered above its head.
The creature immediately turned bright red and the word Returning hovered above its head. Savannah quickly activated her refresh card, and the cooldown next to her shield vanished immediately. She ducked down on the ground and raised the shield up again, waiting for the blast to slam into the shield. It would be a grand total of 10,000 points of damage, and if any of it hit her, she would be killed instantly.
The reflected beam of energy came surging out of the fiend’s body. It crashed into Savannah’s shield and, once again, the shield was able to soak up all of the energy. She let out a sigh of relief as she stood tall and aimed the shield at the fiend. With the push of a button, 10,000 points of damage crashed into the enemy boss and the words Lethal Blow hovered above the creature’s head.
“Yes!” Savannah cheered as the fiend vanished. Thousands of golden point orbs went rushing around the corner to where Timon was.
“Did you kill it?” Fingers called out.
“Yeah, it’s all clear!” Savannah announced as she inspected the area where the fiend had been killed. She was expecting to see some kind of a weapon, but much to her disappointment, there was nothing on the ground.
“Well, where is it?” Timon asked as he and the rest of the team rejoined her.
“I don’t know!” Savannah said. “I thought it was supposed to be here.” She checked the map that King Leopold had given her. The map had indicated that the scro
ll needed to be found, but it didn’t say what would happen afterwards.
“Well, maybe we’re still fighting the boss and it’s going to respawn or something,” Fingers suggested.
A grinding noise backed up that theory. The ground began to shake and the team pulled their weapons out, readying themselves for another fight. However, no boss arrived—instead, the ground next to where Savannah was standing began to shift and contort, warping into a set of stairs leading downward.
“Great, I’m willing to bet there’s going to be more trouble that way,” Savannah said. “Get ready for a fight and let’s move. I’m getting tired of this level.”
“Speak for yourself. These fights are far more interesting than normal boss fights,” Fingers said. “Man, I cannot believe I never spent any time looking for hidden levels! What kind of Wild Card am I?”
“The surprisingly sheltered kind, I guess,” Timon replied as he followed Savannah.
The four made their way down the stairs to find an underground crypt. Instead of the metal walls of the maze, everything was made of stone. And a large stone coffin filled the center of the room, surrounded by urns placed on pedestals.
“Well, this place got a lot spookier,” Fingers said. He glanced around the room. “Maybe the weapon is in that coffin.”
“Or the next boss is in there,” Timon warned. “I don’t want to have to deal with something that’s even stronger than what we just faced.”
“Relax,” Savannah said as she slowly approached the coffin, shotgun in hand. “The only thing that made that boss so hard was the fact that it could absorb damage. I doubt we’ll find something with that kind of power again. Pretty sure the encounter is done with.”
She placed her hand on the coffin and glanced back at her team. “All right, I’m going to open it. Get ready for a fight.”
“I’m betting ten points that you’re gonna get grabbed by a creepy skeleton hand and pulled into the coffin,” Fingers said.
