Only the second boss of the tal area of the citadel remained. After that, there were only the four knights, the path leading up to them, and the king.
The party teleported to the square where they had fought the Jester. The sll of rotting tomatoes was still thick in the air. The crowd that had cheered them remained, clapping and shouting in approval at the defeat of the jokester as if it had happened yesterday. Typical videoga awkwardness.
Following the pattern of the three other segnts, past this gift boss lay the segnt of the Raid that had actual enemies and obstacle courses. True enough, they were almost imdiately greeted by a street filled to the brim with deadly contraptions. Swinging pendulums, slamming walls, spikes that shot out of the floor, the whole nine yards of stereotypical ga design.
John sighed. “I hate these parts,” he grumbled.
“They’re the best part, the greatest part, the funniest fun part!” Sylph hopped excitedly from one foot to the other. Her amber eyes darted between the various swinging parts in front of them. “Uuuh, that looks dangerous! Really sharp! Better not get hit by it!”
“You only love these things because-“ John started, only for the girl he was addressing to suddenly vanish in a streak of green lightning. “…you’re great at them,” he finished his sentence. For a little bit, he followed Sylph, as she bounced and weaved through the obstacle course. Then looked to the rest of his harettes.
His fiancé was taking after Sylph nearly imdiately. Fused with Copernicus, she was the third fastest girl around. Beatrice still overca her, by quite a margin. Undine looked around the obstacle course, then began to flow her way across. What could slice her, she ignored by letting the separated part of herself collapse into water and then regenerate herself at the next safe point. tra went about it with calculated annoyance. Nia just teleported from safe spot to safe spot.
That left John, Aclysia, Momo and Lydia to look across. The queen of steel kept a hand on the handle of her weapon. It wasn’t enough to entirely silence Strimata. Occasionally, the rapier would get a bit of room to sing its glockenspiel song. Testing, the tal mage reached out towards a nearby contraption. The whirling blades ca to an abrupt halt. “Move,” Lydia ordered, voice strained.
The trio lost no ti, quickly making it to the closest safe area. Following them on steady feet, Lydia let go of the deadly blades once she was next to them. “Can you keep doing that?” John asked.
“A matter of patience alone,” Lydia responded.
It was a bit boring to stroll past disabled obstacles, but John preferred it infinitely over running the course. If this hadn’t been the solution, he would have switched out the Ambassador Double for his real body and Magus Stepped his way through. Wherever he could cheese parkours, he did. Sotis he enjoyed doing them, but most of the ti they just reminded him of what he was inadequate in. He did not enjoy that sensation and he was too far down the mage build to fix it.
‘Well, I could use the Creator Puppet,’ he reminded himself. Said golem was currently busy giving Nathalia the pounding she wanted. They had moved quite far out from the mansion so Magoi wouldn’t notice the minor earthquakes.
The quartet eventually arrived at the other side of the divide, eting up with six very bored harettes. “Took you long enough,” tra comnted. “You aren’t that slow, Lydia.”
“I could have made it across on my loneso in a shorter ti. The trap is only disabled if we’re all across, however.” As if to prove the royal right, the deadly contraptions behind them clicked and clunked, as the energy fuelling them was magically removed. Every last one of them was drawn into gaps in the grey walls of the half dieval, half industrial environnt. tal hatches all across slamd shut, closing the contraptions off for good.
The party went on into the wider town.
Unlike the previous area, there were no people here. The streets were vacated, safe for the occasional, proximity activated trap. A sawblade rushed out of a nearby house and whirled its way through Rave’s arm. She only managed to get out of there when it was halfway through the bone. Undine swiftly enveloped the limb, fixing the wound before her bodysuit could.
“Urgh, traps suck,” Rave complained. “If I get injured, at least lem punch sothing in response.” She shook her fully intact arm at the saw blade as it retreated back into the wall.
“You’ll get your wish,” John told her, his and everyone else’s eyes falling on the group of four automata that walked around the corner.
They reminded John a fair bit of the Ohmior Knights. Tall humanoids, their exterior resembling a dieval knight. Where the Ohmior enemies had been radiant and magical, these were built for purpose and more chanical. Between the segnts of their purely efficient, cast iron armour, John saw thick tal joints. There was no light in their eyes, their motions were sudden and artificially straight. Attached to their forearms were mixtures of shield and tonfa.
“Enemies!” John confird, after casting Observe. A single word, and Sylph bombarded them with lightning. The first few zaps sunk into the tallic forms, cascading downwards into the ground, lting part of the surface in the process.
Reacting swiftly, two of the Iron Pawns stepped forward. They brought their arms up in parallel. Teeth on the sides of their armants gripped into each other, forming a flawless wall of tal, shaped like an upside-down shield. The pointy ends, extending from their wrists, pointed towards the sky.
The two behind them had their weapons rush forward on rails. Extending their reach by a full third, they marched behind their comrades, blades sticking out between their shields, like so kind of phalanx. Sylph’s lightning bounced off the armour uselessly.
“Gno, this is your speciality,” John instructed, making everyone back away from the advancing enemies. They walked in lockstep and they walked steadily. It stayed at walking, however, and that gave them ample ti.
“R-roger!” Gno declared, a number of red butterflies scattering out from her. Their leaves shared the colour of her dress, the colour of sumr, of bright flowers and warmth. On petal wings, they fluttered across, either too small to be acknowledged or not registering as a threat.
The butterflies turned into rods of pure elental energy. For one mont, they attempted to draw in dirt. When they found none, they expanded with only the energy within themselves. Thin stone trees sprouted across the bodies of the Iron Pawns. Branches little more than twigs of solid, brown rock weighed down the automata. That was the smallest of the damages the Unleash of the season elental did.
The roots of the trees buried into gaps in the armour with the disgusting, screeching sound of stone prying open shredded tal. Like an excavator dragging across a cliffside, creating sparks all the while, the sound echoed through the environnt. Helts and limbs were grotesquely distorted.
“Go!” John ordered.
tra, Beatrice, Nia and Rave rushed forward. Although tra was the slowest, she was let arrive first. The Astrotium clad berserker babe slamd into the conjoined enemy unit like a bowling ball into pins.
Stone shattered, as the automata slamd on the ground. The roots buried in their joints snapped, leaving pebbles within that were audibly ground into rock dust. Swiftly, the disjointed units rose back up. Superheated hard light claws, a perfectly aid spear, and a sword made of nothing all sliced effortlessly through compromised defences.
The enemy facing Nia lost control over its left arm in response to the magic-interrupting properties of her weapon. In an imdiate retaliation, the enemy stabbed at her with its tonfa. The pariah skipped on her opportunity to dodge, instead letting Aclysia Aid her. A standard manoeuvre, to let the Artificial Guardian move into lee at increased speed.
The point of the tonfa shattered her Glacial Exoskeleton, broke the Oblivium scales below, and even sunk into midriff. Uncaring, the weaponized maid gripped that arm with claws of Black Ice. It soon spread from her fingers, extending its way up the enemy’s arm, while chill winter winds enveloped the two of them. All around frost was setting into the enemy.
It tried to free itself, but Nia delivered several fast swipes. Her sword glided through the automaton as if she was cutting gelatine. There was resistance there, plenty of it, but in the end her anti-magical might was strong enough to separate the magical circuits within and immobilize the enemy limb for limb. From there on out, it was only a question of ti until Aclysia’s freezing presence translated the paralysis into permanent incapacitation.
Gno had arrived in person at Rave’s side. The feline Lightbearer was weaving in and out of the Iron Pawn’s range, always retreating behind Gno. The season elental was slow, compared to most around, but her coordination with Rave was ticulous.
When John’s agile fiancé executed a kick, Gno got between the enemy and her open side. When Rave threatened a punch from behind, Gno made sure to wind up a hit that couldn’t be ignored. When the pink-haired bombshell let loose a scattershot of light, Gno grabbed their enemy by the wrist to make sure they couldn’t dodge. When the enemy decided that Rave was the bigger issue, Gno sank 2000 points worth of Strength straight through the chest plate of the automaton.
tra struggled on her own. Even at level parity, a Raid enemy was a mighty foe and she couldn’t use her rage buff after Gno had struck them all with her opening move. Rex Magnar whirled through the air, each counter strike eting the cast iron tonfa with a loud clank and the musical screams of an indulgent weapon. A weapon that was driven back each ti, then brought into a defensive position.
A strike ca for tra’s head. Sinking her arm into the air, she grabbed the limb of her enemy and Ripped it upwards. The short-lived portal existed only for the purpose of one grip at a ti. It closed, the arm rushed over her head, and blocked the second of the scissor strikes with the head of her halberd.
Silver energy washed over both the First of Wrath and the enemy, closely followed by a second pulse. John had managed to fly over unseen, positioning himself behind the Iron Pawn. In his hand, he was holding an Unstable Arcana. The first pulse had been it, the second pulse ca from the Companion Arcana Perk, and before the sphere itself could pulse again that second, John crushed the silver in his hand, unleashing a much denser wave of the remaining energy.
As the energy travelled, the secondary effect of the Unstable Arcana was set in motion. The air around the Iron Pawn rippled. Stingers of silver mana extended out from the clusters of energy. One for each of the three waves of Unstable Arcana that had washed over the enemy and a fourth because he had hit an enemy with an arcane spell while being within 5 tres. Punishnt Chain shared the 30 second cooldown with Companion Arcana. It was quite the useful, mana saving combo, especially since the Chains of Babylon no longer anchored on his Extension.
The Mana Chains launched with slight delays between them, all four slamming into the enemy and then pulling taut. One leg and one arm were caught, pulled back by John’s arcane might. It wasn’t enough to permanently bind a Raid enemy, but it was certainly enough for tra to grip Rex Magnar with both hands. The weapon grew visibly heavier in her grip, until even she struggled to keep hold of it. Lightning and fire torrented from the spike opposite of the axe blade. A fusion of plasma that made the superheavy weapon move. All tra did was direct the overhead strike at the exposed neck of the monster. Rex Magnar let loose sounds worthy of the Doom soundtrack as it cleaved deep into the tal form of its target.
Many coloured Fireflies landed on Beatrice. The fae had assud their original look, to be less distracting in combat. John guessed that the passive maid appreciated it. Impossible to say since her thoughts were currently dominated by calculations.
Watching the passive maid duel was always a special occasion. Every step had purpose, every mistake was imdiately noted, every use of her abilities made her twist, contort, or simply weave through attacks with an otherworldly grace. It was jagged and fast like lightning, fluid like water. Sunder made Perfect tear open the thick tal exterior of the enemy. Unsteady Limb made her limbs move near instantaneously.
Whenever it looked like Beatrice was about to get hit, she moved with Twist Position or Chronoshift. The swipes and stabs of the Iron Pawn caught only air, the hypermobile duellist always on the move. The one ti it appeared like she would get caught without resources, she turned into a torrent of lightning. Where the chanical gifts ended, the monster girl abilities of the white dragon maid kicked in. As white and blue electricity, she crackled through the Iron Pawn, and consolidated again on the other side.
A rapid backwards kick almost caught her in the back, but Beatrice bolted straight away from her enemy. That last dodge maxed out Endless Step. The white and black spear in her hand glowed with silvery-white light. Beatrice’s electric wings spread as she ran up the air as if it was solid ground. With beats of her wings and stomps of her feet, she gained altitude rapidly. A hundred tres in the air, she gripped Perfect with both hands and thrust down.
Crescendo was maxed out, massively boosting her Agility.
Endless Step was maxed out, giving her five minutes of treating the air itself as her foothold.
Forever Fall was activated, letting her perceive and exploit the enemy’s weakest points.
And with those three conditions fulfilled, Perfect by Design activated.
The distant thrust drilled down on the Iron Pawn’s shoulder. From the initial attack, the entire length of her descent, the tip of her spear Sundered the tal of the armour. By the ti she herself had finally made it all the way down, Perfect sunk into a hole that went all the way through.
Beatrice leapt off the shoulders of the Iron Pawn, just as it began to turn into dust. Elegantly, she landed in front of John. Turning her spear so the tip pointed upwards again, she straightened up just as she hit the bottom of the floor with the bottom of her spear. For just a mont, she stood there all patient, then she showed a smug smile. “Perfect combo,” she humd happily.
“Yes, yes, very impressive,” tra drawled sarcastically. “Congratulations, you outmanoeuvred an enemy slower than you. Want a tal cookie?”
“Statent: you wouldn’t know the difficulty of graceful fighting.”
“I have forgotten more about fighting than you have learned,” tra growled.
“Question: why did you only retain the parts where you brute force everything?”
“Oh, little fucking-“ Rex Magnar revved like a chainsaw, while tra stomped over. Beatrice imdiately pointed her spear at the First of Wrath. They stood across each other, a blonde wolf growling and a white dragon baring her teeth in response.
“And now kiss!” Sylph popped up between them.
“”Quiet, Sylph!”” they cried out in unison.
‘Why are sharp teeth so hot?’ John thought to himself, watching the berserker babe and the passive maid slam their foreheads together. Their rivalry was almost as old as Beatrice herself was. tra was pretty good at banter. Beatrice was better, at least when it ca to dry delivery sass, which was the kryptonite for tra’s quick quips. ‘But seriously, why are sharp teeth so hot?” John asked himself again, watching the two monster girls compete for dominance.
“Just keep a tally of who kills more enemies in solo combat,” Undine suggested.
With a resigned sigh, Momo added, “I’ll count.”
““Enemies…””
““…Now!”” the rivals declared and marched off ahead of the group.
That energy always went sowhere productive.
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