BT - Book 1 - Chapter 96 (Patreon)

“Do you care to explain why we’re doing something this stupid?” Sarah hissed at Micah, her back to a stalagmite as the Decrepit Behemoth milled about in the center of the room.

“Because the game is changing,” he responded, checking his mana levels.  “We should have two years left before the Durgh attack, but at this point, I honestly have no idea.  It could be tomorrow, it could be a month, or it could be a year.”

The behemoth leaned backward, scratching its crumbling, blood-red armor against some of the cave’s stalactites.

“I know that we’ve been fighting larger monsters in the deep mountains for the last month or so,” Drekt eyed the colossal metal-clad centaur up, “but I’m not sure we’re ready for this.  Without the Luoca it will be able to rip all of us apart with those metal spikes it can launch.  Plus, none of us can even get close enough to hit it without the passive damage from its heat aura overwhelming our rings and that Regeneration spell of yours over the course of a couple minutes.”

“Well,” he amended, glancing at Micah, “other than you, but if you’re up there poking it with your spear, you can’t be back here casting that big flashy spell you used to take it down last time.”

“Honestly,” Jo interjected with an easy grin, “I have to say that having our strongest combat caster, healer, and frontline fighter all in the same person was a poor choice.  Given that you’re our party leader, I’d ask that you fix that at the first opportunity Micah.”

“That and the having to poop in a hole in the woods,” her grin disappeared, “it was kind of fun at first, like we were camping or something, but the novelty has worn rather thin.”

Micah frowned as he looked around the rest of their party to notice everyone nodding their head in agreement.  Even Telivern bobbed its head regally, razor sharp antlers catching the dungeon’s dim light as it aped the human motion.

“Even you?” He asked the off white stag accusingly.  It simply looked back at him without any remorse and snorted defiantly.

“Fine,” Micah rolled his eyes.  “If we can stop the invasion, I’ll enchant some sort of magical toilet for you. Well, for all of you but Telivern.  I honestly don’t know the first thing about making a bathroom for a magical stag.”

Telivern clacked its hoof against the rocks of the cavern floor, drawing a flinch form Micah as he glanced back at the Behemoth to make sure it hadn’t heard the deer’s tantrum.

The monster slouched sideways against the cavern wall, its bulk breaking off chunks of rock and sending them tumbling to the ground.

“Everyone ready?”  He turned his attention back to the crowd of people and animals huddled around him, taking in their nods one by one.

“We’ve been practicing this for almost a week now,” Micah continued, checking his mana totals to make sure that all three pools were topped off.  “You know your parts and the rotation.  We start the fight as soon as I summon the sturgeon.  As soon as the front liners start to feel the heat through their resistance rings, they swap out.  Most importantly-”

“Keep moving and stay alive,” Jo rolled her eyes.  “You’ve literally given us the exact same speech something like four times Micah.  We know our roles.  Everyone but Trevor distracts it, and Trevor tries to use the cloth tentacle things to try and restrain it long enough for you to use that big nasty spell of yours to bring it down.”

Drekt put his hand on Micah’s shoulder, squeezing gently.

“It’s all right Micah,” the big man rumbled down at him.  “You’re nervous and repeating yourself.  We understand.  Honestly, it’s fairly touching that you’re fretting this much over our safety and the battle plan, but at this point we’re as ready as we are going to be.  By Ankros’ will.”

He opened his mouth to respond, but Drekt was right.  Micah’s mind was spinning a mile a minute, finding every possible point of failure in their plan and once it ran out of credible problems, it began inventing more.  The chances of encountering a late night raiding party like their own were almost zero in any dungeon, let alone in the Cavern of Rust which was treated more like a burden than an opportunity by the guilds of Basil’s Cove.

That still didn’t stop him from imagining one interrupting them, stepping in and disrupting the delicate dance of teammates distracting the Behemoth and then substituting out as soon as their heat resistance rings began to overload.

“Are you ready then?” Micah replied with a dry, quiet chuckle.

Drekt gave his arm a squeeze before nodding soberly.  From their hiding spots, the rest of the party readied their weapons.  Sarah half knocked her bow, Trevor gripped his spear tightly as he checked the silk ribbons wrapped around both wrists, and Jo held one of the two heavily enchanted throwing daggers he’d made for her.  Both of the knives were unstable, the enchantment would leave the blade dull pitted and unusable after about twenty days, and a single strike would send so much mana through the weapon that it would almost certainly melt into slag.

The payoff should be worth it.  Each throwing dagger packed two stored spells, an intertwining of Sonic Bolt and Paralytic Sting, except with enough mana woven into the weapons that the spells would hit with as much force as a fourth tier spell on impact.

Obviously, there hadn’t been an opportunity to test the fragile weapons out, but from his calculations, they should at least be able to damage the Decrepit Behemoth.  If they worked, the plan was to equip the entirety of their party with single use consumable weapons that could damage high level opponents.  It was wasteful and without the ability to use temporal energy, it would have been financially ruinous, but given the upcoming crisis, it appeared to be their best option.

“Enough woolgathering then,” Micah touched two fingers to the tattoo on his forearm.

Deep inside his consciousness, he felt the mind of the sturgeon as it swam in sedate circles above their campsite, it’s soul sustained by the massive formation.  Gritting his teeth, Micah began to pour mana into it, feeling a slight headache coming on as almost the entirety of his Sun mana pool disappeared within a fraction of a second.

The massive fish shimmered into existence, wriggling its body to soar up into the air as it left a trail of golden energy behind it.

The Behemoth noticed it immediately, lurching away from the cavern wall and emitting a booming shout of alarm and rage.

The sturgeon flipped onto its back and dove as a stream of metal quills flew from the dungeon boss, drilling deep into the roof of the cave and sending an avalanche of fist sized stones tumbling the sixty paces toward Micah’s party below.

He opened his mouth to alert them, but all of them were already aware of the threat.  Jo was using Flight to eliminate her weight entirely, giggling like a child as Ravi carried her in the big cat’s claws.  Drekt avoided the rain of stone with a brief burst of speed that ended in a roll, his armor clanking against the dungeon floor.

Trevor simply cheated, using Flash Step to evaporate some ten paces of distance between him and the Behemoth and removing himself from the affected area in one efficient movement.

Sarah was a bit showier, leaping onto Telivern’s back and somehow maintaining her balance as the stag galloped away from the danger.  As soon as they were free, she knocked an arrow, enchantments glittering up and down the length of her bow, and unleashed it at the Behemoth.

Even with the magic backing it, Micah wasn’t sure that one arrow on its own would be enough to penetrate the Decrepit Behemoth’s armor.  The rusted slabs of iron weren’t anything special, but each one was almost as thick as his waist.  It might not be enchanted, but there was something to be said for the strategy of covering each limb in more armor than any ten warriors.

Then the sturgeon pulled out of its dive, unleashing a crackling bolt of destructive energy from its mouth.  Micah felt the drain as its ability pulled on his mana reserves, a timely reminder that they were on a clock.

As powerful as the sturgeon was, it wasn’t a proper replacement for the Luoca.  Every second the spirit was summoned, it drew mana from an external source, namely him or the gathering circle that Micah had enchanted into their campsite.  He’d gained a handful of levels in the past month, but that was far from enough to get complacent.

Micah began casting Temporal Vortex.  The slow and powerful spell was the only ‘finisher’ their party had against a monster as powerful as the Behemoth.  It likely wouldn’t be able to kill the dungeon boss on its own, but if he landed a good hit, it would hopefully cripple it enough that the second casting would finish it.

In the cavern, Trevor activated Flash Step at the last second to dodge a descending limb, appearing just on the other side of the Behemoth’s leg as it tried to stomp on him.  Ordinarily, his brother would follow that motion up with a spear strike, but against a monster of this caliber, he knew better.

Trevor simply kept running, barely making it away from another leg sweeping through the spot where he had just stood.  Technically, the Decrepit Behemoth was slow for its level, but that hardly mattered to Micah’s party.  Other than him, all of their attributes were so much lower than the beast’s that they simply couldn't count on being physically superior to it.

Drekt watched on helplessly, hands opening and closing as he waited for his chance to move in.  Before too long, the burning aura surrounding the dungeon boss would overwhelm Trevor’s enchantments and he would have to withdraw.  Then, while Trevor’s ring tried to dispose of the excess heat, it would be Drekt’s chance to intervene.

Sarah peppered the creature with arrows, each one scoring a deep line in the massive iron plates covering it, but unable to find the softer flesh beneath.  Then, it reared back, chest puffing as it prepared another barrage of metal spikes.

Ravi and Jo darted in, one of her two throwing daggers sailing through the air and striking it square in the chest with a high pitched squeal.  The knife exploded, taking a dinner plate sized chunk of iron with it.

Whether the Behemoth was surprised at suddenly taking damage, or the empowered Paralytic Sting did its work was immaterial, but for a brief second the creature froze, and that was all that Temporal Vortex needed.

Or it should have been.  The spell sprang into being, and Micah began cursing at himself.  He’d still hit the Behemoth, but the clumsy spell was centered around the upper portion of one of its legs with a small amount of its radius encompassing the dungeon boss’ lower chest.

Vortex did its work, feeding on the boss’s temporal energy in order to create a tempest of time magic that aged and shrunk chunks of its body haphazardly.

It staggered to the side, unable to put weight on its injured limb as its armor and bones crumbled, but Micah could already tell that it wasn’t a fatal wound.

The sturgeon dove in, ripping a chunk of rotting flesh from the beast’s shoulder as it wailed in pain and agony.

Micah began casting Temporal Vortex again.  He only had the mana to cast the spell three times while maintaining the spirit, and although the first attack had landed, it was hardly the crippling surprise strike he’d been counting on.

Then, the Behemoth whipped its head around catching Trevor just after he’d used Flash Step, and unleashed a torrent of metal spikes.  Micah’s mind went blank and time seemed to slow.

The sturgeon, pushed by a primal wave of Micah’s will, dove into the stream of flashing metal.  For a second it glittered, emitting strobes of light like an aurora as the bolts of metal punctured its ephemeral hide.  Each blow stressed its connection with Micah, drawing more mana from him until the invisible tether of energy snapped entirely.

With an audible ‘pop’ the soap bubble body of the spirit disappeared, greatly reducing the strain on Micah’s mana stores, but leaving their entire party exposed.

Still, the brief second it had bought Trevor was enough.  Not for the young man to escape, but for Drekt to intercede and activate the enhancements on his armor.

Only the tail end of the ability hit Drekt, but it was much more than anyone near his level was meant to take.  The first spike froze into a block of ice as the protective ward he’d salvaged from Elaine Clancy activated.  The second shattered the block containing the first.  The third spike deflected off of Drekt’s magically hardened armor with a spray of sparks.  The fourth punched through the exhausted enchantments like they weren’t there, pinning the warrior by his bicep to the cavern floor.

By the fickle mercy of the gods, there wasn’t a fifth.

“Fuck your spear!” Drekt screamed the words, “use the cloth!  Hold it for Micah, NOW!”

Trevor literally threw his weapon to the side, extending both arms and letting the silk streamers extend from him toward the Behemoth.

Micah kept chanting, the words to Temporal Vortex bitter on his tongue.  He only had enough mana for two more castings.  No matter how much Trevor needed him, he couldn’t abandon the spell.  He just had to trust that the rest of his team could handle things.

Before the monster could strike, Ravi swooped in once more and Jo threw her final enchanted dagger directly into the unarmored portion of its twisted and rotting injured leg.

The blade hummed and disintegrated, melting a massive chunk of flesh and exposing shattered bone beneath.  The Behemoth froze.

Trevor’s streamers swept out, grabbing one of the creature’s ankles and pulling just hard enough that the paralyzed and unbalanced monster fell to the dungeon floor.

Temporal Vortex struck it square in the chest, aging and rotting chunks of its lungs while other areas blurred backward in time until they were new and pink, unable to take in enough oxygen to power such a massive beast.

It tried to struggle to its feat, dragging Trevor forward a couple of paces as the ribbons of silk connected to him held fast around its leg.  He yanked once again, pulling the foot out from under the critically injured monster.

Micah didn’t say anything, he just began casting Temporal Vortex for the final time.

Telivern galloped past, Sarah firing one arrow after another into the cracks in its armor at short range.  Given its bulk, the damage was more a hindrance than critical, but every little bit helped.

Jo landed next to Drekt, dropped by Ravi from a pace or so in the air.  Within a second, she was bracing the big man’s shoulder as he pulled the metal rod from his arm with an impossible to suppress grunt of pain.

Vaguely, Micah made out Jo crushing an amulet over Drekt, activating Regeneration.  It wouldn’t heal the warrior immediately, but it would prevent blood loss from doing what the Behemoth’s attacks couldn’t.

Trevor’s skin began to blister, the protection of his fire resistance ring exceeded as he struggled in close proximity with the monster to hold it in place.

Just as Trevor's hair began to smoke, Micah finished the spell.

This time, it struck true, enveloping the Decrepit Behemoth’s head and upper chest.  The monster’s body shuddered and its eyes glazed over, head dropping to the cavern floor at the same time that Micah fell to one knee, spent as the last erg of mana left his body.

Already the temperature in the room was beginning to return to normal as a grim smile wove its way onto his face.

Now to just do that another twenty four times and he’d be ready for the Great Depths once more.