*** Kjara has killed Lesser Gib! Your party gains 25xp! ***
*** Kjara has killed Lesser Gib! Your party gains 25xp! ***
*** Collateral damage from a fall has killed a Lesser Gib. Your party gains 25xp! ***
*** Kjara has killed Lesser Gib! Your party gains 25xp! ***
The remaining gibs looked between us and their dead companions and went into some sort of frenzy.
*** Perception check successful! ***
*** Lesser Gibs are affected by Berserk! Berserk grants attack speed and damage bonuses but lowers defense. ***
Frothing at the mouth, the four remaining gibs charged us.
Not wanting any part of that, I backed up and set my spear, skewering one of the charging creatures while Kjara lopped off the head of another.
*** You critically strike Lesser Gib with your bronze spear, inflicting a mortal wound!
*** You have killed Lesser Gib! Your party gains 25xp! ***
*** Kjara has killed Lesser Gib! Your party gains 25xp! ***
Another jumped forward inside the reach of my spear and climbed up my shield to sink its teeth into my face.
Oh gods, it was eating my face, I thought, fighting off panic. I tried to lever it off my shield but could barely concentrate as its claws scratched against my armor and tore several shallow gashes.
*** Lesser Gib bites your face! You have taken a serious wound! ***
*** Lesser Gib claws your shoulder! You have taken a minor wound! ***
*** Lesser Gib claws your upper arm! You have taken a minor wound! ***
*** You take damage from Lesser Gib bite as he bites down! ***
My health dropped to fifteen percent, and with a surge of adrenaline I finally managed to pry the gib off of me and then finish it with a thrust to its throat.
Kjara had already handled the rest and was panting, her stamina almost completely tapped.
*** You have killed Lesser Gib! Your party gains 25xp! ***
*** Kjara has killed Lesser Gib! Your party gains 25xp! ***
I glanced down at the cavern below and saw no sign of the sub-boss who had fled earlier, or reinforcements, so I dropped to a knee and healed myself back to fifty percent health before sitting down to rest.
Kjara began looting the bodies while I regenerated my health and mana. My mana came back a lot faster than hit points, so I used Soothing Touch to keep things balanced, healing Kjara too.
When done on the upper level, we divvied up the loot, which was mostly coins and some beat up weapons that my Weaponsmith skill said were repairable.
I figured I could fix them when we returned to the city and sell them for a bit so we split them between our packs and then moved down the ramp to the cavern floor.
No other gibs had come screaming out of the side passages while we descended, so I was hopeful that we had taken out the majority of the infestation. The sub-chief was still at large, and I hoped it would be the only thing left between us and finishing this quest.
Kjara kept her swords out as we crept down the tunnel after the sub-chief and we both remained on guard. Up ahead I could make out a soft green light filtering down the pathway and as we approached there was a sharp scream.
*** Gib Sub-Boss has been killed! Your party gains 30xp! ***
We turned to each other and I mouthed “What the hell?”
She shrugged and we moved further along, entering another large cavern, this one lined on all sides with scaffolding.
Standing in the center of the room, holding the heart of the Gib Sub-Boss in his hand was another gib, this one wearing what looked like a motley collection of furs and bones that just screamed “Shaman” to me.
Green wisps of energy were flowing out of the corpse of the Sub-Boss and swirling around the shaman, gathering at the heart clenched in his fist.
It glared at us began chanting in its gibbering voice. It brought the glowing heart towards its face and took a deep breath.
The green energy flowed from the heart like smoke and into the shaman’s nose. As the last of the glow left the heart it crumbled to dust.
“We should probably stop whatever he is planning to do,” I said, breaking us out of our stunned state. We darted forward trying to get to the shaman before he completed his... whatever it was he was doing.
As we finally got close enough to do anything, the shaman’s chants reached a crescendo and he slammed his fist into the ground, causing a wave of earth to spread across the room, knocking us both off our feet.
*** Gib Shaman casts Wave of Earth! ***
*** Gib Shaman casts Awaken Earthen Guardian! ***
I pulled myself to my feet and looked over to Kjara who was already standing when the floor began to rumble again.
The Gib Shaman began to cackle as something huge started to pull itself out of the ground between him and us.
Easily eight feet tall and almost as wide, a giant being of dirt and rocks turned towards us, its eyes glowing with the same green glow that the shaman had drawn from his sacrifice.
*** CONGRATULATIONS! You are about to experience your first dungeon boss fight! Enjoy! ***
*** Gib Shaman
*** HP: 100%, MP: 100%, SP: 100% ***
*** Earthen Guardian
*** HP 100% ***
...
Chapter 12
Shooting us an evil grin, the shaman moved to keep the rock monster between us and began chanting.
“Try and take out the Shaman!” Kjara yelled. “Maybe if we take him out rock biter will go back to fantasia!”
The Earthen Guardian turned its attention to Kjara, moving towards her at a slow walk, so I maneuvered to line up a Sunstrike on the shaman and let loose.
The beam of holy fire shot out and ended inches from the shaman’s chest as it hit some kind of invisible shield.
*** You cast Sunstrike at the Gib Shaman! Sunstrike is negated by Elemental Shield! ***
*** Elemental Shield expires. ***
Abandoning whatever he was casting, the Shaman pointed at me and screamed something in its chattering language, likely instructions to the rock man.
The Earthen Guardian slowly turned and refocused its attention on me, raising its fists to smash me hulk style.
I backed away, keeping my distance from the lumbering mass, but while it moved pretty slowly, the length of its stride made it able to keep up. I raised my shield to try and deflect the blow as lashed out with a massive hammerfist.
*** Earthen Guardian smashes you with his fist! You block a portion of the blow and are moderately wounded! ***
The guardian’s blow knocked me back several feet. My shield arm was in agony and my health bar had dropped a full twenty percent from the partial blow. I didn’t even want to imagine what a solid hit would do to me.
I glanced past the guardian and saw Kjara running towards the shaman, both of her blades drawn. She was quickly closing on the gib, but he maintained his resolve and continued casting while backing away slowly.
A split second before Kjara reached him, the Shaman finished his spell and the rock at Kjara’s feet suddenly turned to mud.
The sudden change sent her skidding, but she managed to maintain enough control to land a solid cut to the shaman’s hip, knocking off a third of his health bar. Moments later the mud solidified, rooting in place.
The shaman cackled and turned my way, shooting a bolt of stone from his hands. I sidestepped the bolt while keeping my distance from the guardian and used the shaman’s own tricks against him, maneuvering myself so that the Earthen Guardian was between us.
I lost sight of Kjara behind the rock monster and started to get concerned when I noticed that my stamina pool was getting low.
Keeping ahead of the Guardian’s attacks was quite an aerobic affair. The guardian struck at me again with its fist and this time I managed to better deflect the blow with a mixture of movement and shield positioning, knowledge slowly bleeding from the virtual memory banks into my conscious m
ind.
My hit points dropped by a hair, even as the pain in my arm continued to throb.
*** Earthen Guardian smashes you with his fists! You deflect its attack! ***
*** Congratulations! You have become more proficient in Shield! Shield skill increased to Rank 2! ***
Lesson learned. I wasn’t a tank and didn’t have the strength or abilities to absorb the blows directly, but deflecting them was a viable defense to keep me from being turned into human hamburger.
With my stamina unable to keep pace, I decided to go on the offense and lashed out with a quick series of thrusts when it raised its arm for the next attack.
My spear broke off some small pieces of the guardian’s body, but its health bar barely moved.
*** You strike the Earthen Guardian with your bronze spear, inflicting a minor wound! ***
*** You strike the Earthen Guardian with your bronze spear, doing no damage! ***
*** You strike the Earthen Guardian with your bronze spear, inflicting a minor wound! ***
Ducking under the guardian's latest attack, I heard the shaman’s voice start chanting once again and then suddenly turn into a yelp as the twang of a bowstring rang out.
A second twang sounded and then the shaman moved into my view, arrows standing out of its shoulder and upper arm, its health bar down around twenty five percent.
The gib raised its hands and chanted a short spell, sending a series of rocks to smash into Kjara. My gaze was drawn back to the guardian who was gaining on me yet again.
I still heard the sound of rocks striking meat as my companion’s health dropped down below fifty percent in the party menu and thought we were going to need some luck to pull out a win here.
The gib started chanting again, a different spell this time, but I didn’t want to wait and see what it was. Instead I turned back to face the shaman for a moment and sent another Sunstrike his way. This time the spell made full contact, searing the boss’s flesh.
*** You cast Sunstrike at the Gib Shaman! Gib Shaman is burned by holy fire! ***
The shaman yelped and jumped away, glaring at me as he started chanting again. The next thing I knew I was flying through the air as the guardian used my lack of focus to backhand me. The blow itself hurt just a tiny bit more than that of my impact with the cavern wall.
*** Earthen Guardian smashes you with his fists! You are seriously wounded! ***
*** You are smashed into the wall! You are moderately wounded! ***
*** You are stunned! ***
*** Warning: Health Critical ***
*** Warning: Stamina Critical ***
My health gauge was at four percent and I was helpless to defend myself. I heard the guardian approaching and braced myself for another trip to the afterworld but instead heard the sweet twang of a bow once again and the sound of an arrow sinking into flesh.
*** Kjara has killed the Gib Shaman! Your party gains 300xp! ***
The stun debuff wore off and I focused my attention on the currently immobile Earthen Guardian. With the death of the caster, I expected it to sink back into the ground or something, but it was just standing there, its eyes still glowing with green light…
“Kjara, uh,” I called out. “I don’t think this is over.”
Finally free of the Shaman’s spell, she answered, “What do you-” but was interrupted as a cloud of glowing green energy exploded out of the Shaman’s body and crashed into the Earthen Guardian.
Its eyes began to glow even brighter and its label changed before my eyes from “Earthen Guardian” to “Shamanic Vessel
The new and improved rock monster turned towards Kjara and fired a bolt of green energy from its fists, narrowly missing her lithe form as she rolled out of the way.
I cursed under my breath and downed one of my minor healing potions, bringing my hit points up to twenty percent and gaining a small regen bonus that would help out over time.
Not satisfied with twenty percent, I cast Soothing Touch on myself as well as I regained my feet.
*** You cast Soothing Touch and heal yourself. ***
*** You channel Soothing Touch and heal yourself. ***
*** You channel Soothing Touch and heal yourself. ***
Kjara continued to dodge the boss’s shots, using her superior agility to her advantage. With all that movement, I was surprised to see her stamina bar was still almost half full. I’d have to ask her about that later.
Mentally taking a step back from the fight, I started looking for something to help us survive this. Okay, this is a boss fight, there has to be some mechanic, or weak point, or timing thing, I thought as I searched the boss for some sort of tell, or weak point.
As the boss prepared to fire another bolt at Kjara, I saw it. While it was charging its blast, there were some cracks in its form that became visible due to the glow of its building energy. Cracks should mean a weak point.
“Aim for the cracks when it’s charging! Could be a weak point!” I called out.
I heard a muffled sound of acknowledgement from across the room but, or at least I hoped it was. A glance at the party window showed that even with whatever improvements she’d made to her endurance, the constant dodging and rolling was taking its toll.
“I’m going to try and draw its attention to me, you hit a lot harder so hopefully we can take it down before it turns me into a priest panini!” I yelled.
I timed it out. From start to finish, each of its blasts took about five seconds. The cracks were only visible for the last three seconds, so the timing was going to be tight. As the next attack started, I charged in at the boss’s back and thrust my spear at one of the cracks as hard as I could. Using the momentum of my charge, I dug the spear in deep.
*** Sneak Attack! You critically strike the Shamanic Vessel with your bronze spear from behind, inflicting a serious wound! ***
Acting as quickly as possible, I yanked the spear back and stabbed again at the same crack, this time scoring a much weaker blow.
*** You strike the Shamanic Vessel with your bronze spear, inflicting a moderate wound! ***
The boss whirled and knocked me back, almost causing me to be intimately reacquainted with Ms. Cavern Wall. I regained my balance just in time to avoid that collision and brought my shield into position between me and the boss.
My efforts had dropped the boss’s health to ninety percent. “Ugh,” I grunted. This was going to be tough. My own health had climbed back up to forty percent, the little bit of regeneration from the potion doing some good work, but I had no clue how much those blasts hit for, or if I’d even be able to survive a single shot.
I grabbed another potion but when I tried to pour it into my mouth nothing happened. Instead I got a message stating that I had to wait another thirty four seconds before I could use another potion.
Shock from the failed potion tripped me up a bit when the rock monster raised its hand and started to charge up another shot. I could see the cracks from the front as well, but moving in on the boss while he was about to fry my brains didn’t seem like a healthy life choice.
Instead, I counted down the time to the blast, waiting for my opportunity to get the hell out of the way.
Three… two… one, and jump! I dodged to the side, keeping my shield between me and the boss to intercept any of the blast in case I didn’t move far enough.
The edge of the blast clipped me and burned ten percent of my health away, the shield doing very little to diminish its power. I could feel, and smell my skin burning.
Five… four… three… two… one dodge!
Jumping to the side, I was a bit confused when the creature’s blast failed to erupt, instead I saw Kjara’s face illuminated by a bright flash of the same green light as she struck the creature from behind, dropping its health to seventy five percent, and then quickly to seventy as she followed up with another attack before tumbling away out of range of its retaliatory strike.
It turned to bring its weapons to bear on her, revealin
g a wide gash leaking green light on its back where the moon elf had broken a large chunk off of the rock man’s outer layer.
I dashed in and drove my spear into the gap, knocking off another chunk of its hit points and then caught its return blow on my shield as I backed away.
*** You strike the Shamanic Vessel with your bronze spear, inflicting a serious wound! ***
*** Shamanic Vessel smashes you with his fists! You block a portion of the blow and are minorly wounded! ***
The creature seemed to be losing some of its strength, so my shield was able to absorb most of the force. But that wasn't the best part. When Kjara had hit the boss, another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.
Striking the boss during the power up phase disrupted the attack.
That combined with the seemingly linear programming of the boss’s attack AI gave us a viable path towards victory.
Attacking while the target of the Vessel’s ire was risky, but as long as we interrupted it, we should be okay. At least I hoped that my conclusions were correct, because if they were not then I was not likely to survive this next cycle.
As soon as I landed my last blow to the creatures back I started casting Sunstrike, letting the spell build in my spear.
When the boss turned to face me and began charging up once again, I aimed my spell for one of the glowing cracks and released it at the same time that Kjara struck from behind.
Crimson Sands Page 17
