The oversized door hung in front of them, seeming to possess a life of its own. As the five warriors in front of it formed a bind (known as a ‘party,’ Aurida explained) it seemed to withdraw a little from the power in front of it.
They entered. First, Rodin, who was chosen as the leader of the party. “A Mageknight from the other world, sir,” a silent voice whispered to a sleeping force. “Two mages that hold the power of holy magic… Such a master of physical prowess that he uses his body as his own weapon… And an Assassin. Nothing much to say about him, really…”
“Excellent. You have done well. And now that we are armed with knowledge, we shall take the fight to them.”
“Did you hear something?” asked Rodin of the others.
“No, not at all,” said Aurida. “I do so hope you’re not feigning insanity to get out of this.”
“Of course not. Let’s just get started.”
Aurida and Brandy both cast Bless on the party, with Invincible and Magic Guard on themselves.
Random uses his powers to cast Haste, a sort of pseudo-Rage, and a different form of Booster. He punched the air in front of him, causing shockwaves to emanate from the area. “Excellent.”
Grabbersit readied Claw Booster.
Rodin wheeled his sword around in a circle to cast a very… unorthodox spell. He modified the bond between them as to recieve half of all the damage taken by anyone.
“What was that, Rodin?!” Brandy asked, rather accusingly. “I recognize that from somewhere! You’re not going to take the pain for all five of us!”
“Hey, don’t be so worried. You and Aurida both need this.”
“No… we have Magic Guard. That’ll let our magic reserves take the damage for us.”
“And I,” chimed in Random, “came up with a technique that lets me reflect physical force.”
“But what if he uses magical offense, Random? Come on… let’s just come up with a plan.”
“Hm.”
The plan was that Rodin and Random would both attack as necessary on the front lines, Grabbersit and Aurida would launch attacks from the back, and Brandy would heal any injuries anyone received.
Now that everything was ready, Aurida walked slowly up and withdrew the sacrifice from his satchel.
He slammed the glittering jewel onto a pedestal, and ran towards the others.
“Showtime,” thought a hidden voice to itself.
And Zakum rushed up from the ground, like a god ready and willing to punish all that stood in its way. A torrent of the most vile curse words in the world issued from its mouth, but thankfully its insults were in an ancient tongue which no one in the party could understand.
What they did understand, however, was that this was more than they’d prepared for. A colossal rock beast with eight arms was far different than what Rodin was imagining.
“Well?!” Rodin yelled. “Let’s have some fun!” He leapt up and came down with a powerful slash, attacking the main body. It bounced off harmlessly.
Wh-what?!, Rodin thought. I can’t hurt it?!
As if to answer his question, one of the arms came around and threw him into the air with a powerful punch. He landed in a running position and took off, hoping to hurt the arm that has smacked him. He felt the warm glow of Heal around him as he dashed and used his signature attack.
His first attack cut through a portion of the arm, searing it with heat. His second slash froze at the touch and slammed through the stone- and his third attack electrified the arm. Cracks ran through it as Rodin delivered his final blow- his sword charged with Holy force, he lunged it into the arm.
The arm shattered and broke off. He looked back at everyone just for a second to see how they were doing– just in time to see a large icicle jut up from the ground and impale Aurida. He felt the same sharp jab in his chest and bent over in pain. Another arm whacked him to the side.
He felt Heal clothing him in its warmth, and the wounds he’d recieve seal up. “I’m invincible!,” he screamed as he lunged towards Zakum again.
He took off the other physically attacking arm with another Tritoch Buster attack. He looked back once more to see the others adroitly dodging the magic Zakum was sending.
Let’s see, Rodin thought as he attacked another arm. The two he’d broken physically attacked… there was one for ice and lightning, one for fire and poison, two that drained physical and magical stamina, and two that inflicted status effects. There were two Priests that could Dispel status effects and heal the magical damage, so he chose to attack the draining arms first.
He leapt up, and got on top of one before receiving the physical pain associated with scorching fire engulfing someone. He was barely able to jam his sword into the hand as it came up to smack him– and yet he managed to do it, forcing the arm to dissolve into nothingness.
The other Draining arm grabbed him.
“No!!,” he screamed as it sucked out his life force, channeling it into healing energy for its own needs. Once done, the arm tossed Rodin at Random, causing a collision. The pain from the draining, the hurt from him colliding with Random, and half of Random’s injury from being hit by Rodin caused him to black out.
He came to a few minutes later, fully healed through Brandy’s rapid casting of her spell. Aurida and Grabbersit had knocked out the draining arm, along with causing cracks in the fire and poison-casting arm.
Rodin got to his feet and rushed the injured arm, and one attack caused it to fall to pieces. He went after the ice and lightning arm in the same fashion that he’d attacked the first Drain arm– he got on top and waited to strike.
The plan didn’t go well. Rodin first noticed this when a spell froze him inside a block of ice, which was then struck by a thunderbolt. Rodin fell once more, got healed, and got back up.
Slashing at the spell-flinging stone appendage, he was shocked at what he saw below. The two arms that were casting status effects were doing rapid movements with the hands. “It’s a — tandem spell!! Look out!” He struck blows at the arm he was on all the faster because of what was going on.
The arm crumbled beneath him just as he saw a gigantic laser erupt into the sky from in front of him.
What’s it aiming at?, Rodin wondered as the beam streamed into the sky of the cavern.
He began to hack at the remaining arm… since he had no magic power now, he could no longer use his Tritoch Buster and could but watch at what was now happening.
He drove his sword down into the rock. That didn’t fully kill it, so Rodin utilized something he’d learned. He made his sword vibrate and watched as many-colored spotlights shone from the ceiling of the cavern, forming a white circle of light at Brandy’s feet.
“Look out, Brandy!!,” he yelled, but it was too late. A final white beam came down on top of her, causing a massive amount of rubble and dust to fly from the ground and obscure Rodin’s vision.
The arm broke from beneath him, sending him plummeting to the ground. Random broke the opposing arm with a final hit, and he moved on to the main body. Rodin looked on in worry towards where Brandy was, but Aurida was already there, casting Dispel rapidly out of frustration. Rodin couldn’t see Brandy anywhere.
He attacked the main body easily. One heavy thrust of the sword sent cracks through the monster. Rodin withdrew his blade from the monster and struck again, almost shattering Zakum’s main body.
Grabbersit had been looking on, amazed for most of this time. He couldn’t attack because one of the stars might strike either Rodin or Random, but… this MUST be the best battle ever.
Rodin drove his feet into the ground and yanked on his sword. It was quite stuck.
Zakum issued a broken-sounding laugh, and then in all seriousness uttered words which reverberated on the walls of the cavern.
Rodin was knocked back to where Grabbersit was– before he got slammed into the wall behind him. Aurida flew past, seen pulling a bottle out of his satchel and downing it within a fraction of a second. He cast Heal, curing the three of them, and then ran over to Random.
Rodin spotted his sword on the ground- blown out by the force of that magic attack. He ran over to grab it, but a flying creature snatched it first. It looks like Zakum, Rodin thought before latching onto it.
“You will not live!,” Rodin yelled as he withdrew another sword and banished the summoned beast with a single attack. He grabbed his other sword and landed in a kneeling position.
He turned slowly, making sure of his footing…
and his eyes met Zakum’s. Time seemed to slow as he ran towards his foe with swords in both of his hands… he reached it and slammed both into the rock beast, causing it to crumble instantly.
He rested for a moment before exclaiming his joy.
“It is done!!”