SU&HM Ch 50

Rick yelled, "Daniel, we need more DPS!"

He couldn't see the plinth where Daniel was, but the bar at the top of his interface that showed the lay energy reserves of the city wasn't going down, which had to mean Daniel didn't need to be at the plinth just then.

"Hang on!" Daniel called back. "It's about to be active again!"

The guards, in groups of three, stomped slowly into the room, shifting forward cautiously, like someone sneaking up on a bomb they planned to defuse. The ones with riot shields seemed to be in no hurry to engage Rick's party. But it was the big enforcers that Rick was worried about. These were a head taller than all the others had been and carried an even larger staff, gripped in all four hands. Their staffs crackled with lightning, and they kept them pointed straight up and down.

The last of the first groups went down under Sam and Gambit's flurry of attacks as the new melee guards inched forward. Rick moved forward to a few feet behind Sam.

"Do you know what this is, Sam?" he asked.

She made a grumpf sound and shook her furry bear head. "If I had to guess," her voice coming from a bear's mouth sounded strange, slightly more gruff than her usual, "I would say it's AOE damage."

As if to confirm her words, crackles of lightning started working their way up and down the shafts. Bolts shot up into the air. The large enforcers made no move to point the staffs at the party, but kept them perfectly straight up and down, held with all four hands.

While he was talking to Sam, Rick threw two more spells to top everyone's health off.

"Are we doing this?" Gambit called, bouncing on his toes as he prepared to charge the guards.

Sam reared up on her hind legs and gave a growl. "Use your shout!" She dropped to all fours and charged forward. She hit the guard on the far left, and then started immediately dancing to the right, smacking and clawing and slashing at each of the guards as she moved. Gambit arrived an instant later, shouting and buffing the party.

The room thrummed with a low vibration as the Ley Energy Reserve bar flashed again. A second later, Daniel came trotting out from behind a pillar as the reserves drained lower.

"I activated it again. It'll be another few seconds. Holy crap, what are those?" Daniel raised his bow.

"Stay on the guards!" Sam shouted. Both enforcers thrust their staffs up into the air. The lightning gathering around them increased, and the low, sparking crackle from the bolts of energy turned into a hissing, roaring sound. Bolts started breaking away from the mass of sparks, shooting out to hit a wall or a pillar or the ceiling.

Sam was taking steady damage from the guards, and Rick started a Restore cast. It was almost finished when one of the bolts struck the ice bear, knocking her health down to the yellow.

"Holy crap, those hurt!" Sam yelled.

Another snaked out and struck Gambit, who cried out. Both had been aggro-ed on Sam, which told Rick their targeting was random and there was no need to keep the DPS off them.

"Ok, hit 'em, burn the casters down!" Rick yelled. If the bolts increased in number, he would never be able to keep up with the healing.

Nia's bolt of lightning shot across the room. It caught the left enforcer square in the chest, but did little damage.

"They're resistant to lightning!" she yelled.

Well, crap. "Daniel, Gambit, get on the left one!"

Daniel switched targets instantly, sending his next volley of arrows into the left enforcer, sticking in the Rork’s arms and chest.

Nia was already changing her target to the guards, dashing to the side to get flanking shots past their shields.

Gambit gave a roaring battle cry and dashed from the melee to hit the damaged enforcer. The tall enforcer made no attempt to physically defend itself as Gambit approached, but instead shot Gambit with a lightning bolt as he came in.

Rick was casting Restore on each party member as fast as he could, occasionally mixing in Healing Cloud when two of them were close enough together. He kept one Healing Cloud on Sam so its Heal over Time effect would continue to work on her health while he cast yet another Restore.

The bar at the top of Rick's interface glowed and Daniel called out, "I think the thingy is ready. I need to go activate it."

"Go quick!" Rick yelled. Daniel dashed around the pillar and a moment later the room thrummed again as another large chunk of leyline reserves flowed out of the bar on Rick's interface.

Rick felt relief that they were making progress, but in the time Daniel was gone, two more bolts struck Gambit and Nia and he was still falling behind on healing. He took a chance and threw Protection on Sam and then focused on getting Gambit and Nia back up before the Protection bubble popped.

One of the bolts snaked out and caught Rick in the arm. The pain was excruciating as the electricity flowed through his body, locking up every muscle and making them shriek in agony. A scream was strangled in his throat as his jaw locked tight. It only lasted an instant that stretched for an eternity, and then it was gone. He staggered, caught himself, and took a few steps closer to Sam. When he was close enough for Healing Cloud to hit them both, he cast it on himself. Its initial burst didn’t fill him up completely, but the heal over time continued to work, and it refreshed Sam's own healing timer.

Gambit was still furiously hacking away at the enforcer on the left, whose health bar was now into the yellow. One of the rork’s lower arms hung limp, and Rick realized its latest lightning bolt had done less damage than the others.

"The arms! Go for the casters’ arms!" Rick shouted.

Gambit roared a battle cry. It wasn't the ability, because that was on cooldown, just a normal roar of anger and determination. He shifted to the left to hack at the enforcer's left lower arm. The enforcer cried out as Gambit’s blade sank deep, nearly severing the arm and leaving it bleeding and useless.

The enforcer, which until now had been standing rigidly, aiming its staff, now staggered under the onslaught. It lowered the staff, swinging it at Gambit to try and fend him off, but the Mongolian was relentless, and the enforcer's blows were weak and poorly aimed.

By now, Nia's lightning bolts had killed one of the guards, and the healing situation stabilized. With only half as many lightning bolts and three quarters as much damage hitting Sam in the melee, Rick was able to catch up a little, and everyone was nearly full when the plinth came active again.

Sam unleashed her roar, stunning the melee guards. Then she turned and charged between them to reach the second staff-wielding enforcer, who was still at full health. Rick had a narrow window where the damage coming in decreased. A couple of well-placed Healing Clouds and a Restore cast on Sam brought everyone up to more-or-less full. He took a couple seconds to cast Protection into his spell focus.

Gambit finished off the first enforcer, and then joined Sam on the second, just as the three remaining guards came out of their stun. Nia shot one of them with a lightning bolt, and it started for her with ponderous footsteps. The other two turned toward Sam, who was attacking the enforcer.

Sam immediately turned away from the enforcer and roared. It echoed across the room, and the guard headed for Nia turned sharply and started back toward Sam.

"Nia, change targets!" Rick shouted. Probably she had already known to do that, but Rick wouldn't take any chances in a fight this chaotic.

The [Phase three] announcement arrived.

Damn it, it's too fast! Rick thought. We're not done with phase two yet!

The boss had been rambling out a monologue at the end of the room that everyone was ignoring and Rick could barely hear. Now he turned and stepped down from the dais. He lifted a massive scepter that looked suspiciously like the lightning rods the enforcers had been carrying, but shorter and thicker.

Marcasite held the scepter aloft. "I will take care of you myself! But first, let's put an end to your pathetic little plan."

The boss pointed his scepter across the room. For a moment, Rick thought he was aiming at Daniel. He wished Protection was off cooldown. But the massive lightning bolt that shot out of his scepter passed Daniel and struck behind the pillar beside Rick.

Daniel turned, peering behind the pillar and shouted, "He shot the plinth! It's damaged!"

The bar at the top of Rick's interface appeared again, this time with an angry red color and the bar did not go down. Daniel ducked around the corner.

 Rick shouted, "Wait!"

"Ahhhh!" Daniel cried out in pain and his health bar flashed. Rick moved quickly to get clear line of sight around the pillar. The plinth against the wall was still glowing green, but now it was crackling with sparks. Daniel's hand lay on it; he had activated it. The Ley Energy Reserve bar at the top of Rick's interface dropped as the plinth did its job, but the crackles of electricity were damaging Daniel.

Rick hit him with a quick Healing Cloud and then started a Restore cast. As his health continued to go down, the plinth deactivated and Daniel staggered away. "Damn, that hurt!”

“Don't hit it again unless I'm ready!" Rick called before his Restore cast went off, filling Daniel up completely. Then he turned back to the rest of the fight. The guards had reached Sam and were pounding on her relentlessly. Nia's lightning bolt went off again, hitting one of them and dropping his health significantly. Two of them were now damaged quite a lot, and so was the Enforcer. But Sam's health was deep into the yellow. Rick raced forward to get back within casting range of her. He threw a Healing Cloud and then started a Restore cast, targeting Sam. Crackling bolts of lightning shot out of the boss's scepter, indiscriminately striking around the room. More bolts came from the remaining Enforcer.

Nia and Gambit had both taken hits, and Rick scrambled to try to stabilize everyone's health. The Enforcer's health dropped into the red. It stumbled back, letting go of its staff and falling into the relentless onslaught. Gambit stayed on it, slashing it with his razor, while Sam turned back to the guards.

Meanwhile, the boss came forward. "Sam, pick up the boss!" Rick yelled. He needn't have, as the ice bear turned and charged towards the boss. Marcasite staggered only slightly under her attack, then raised its scepter.

That was really going to hurt. Rick thrust out his spell focus and cast the Protection spell he had stored there. The bubble appeared around Sam just in time as the boss's scepter crashed down on her back. The blow itself was absorbed by Protection, but the crackling lightning around the staff still zapped into Sam, and she roared in pain.

Rick threw Restore after Restore. "Daniel, get over near Nia!" Everyone was still taking lightning damage from the indiscriminate bolts coming off the boss's scepter. Rick needed people to stand close enough so his Healing Cloud would affect more than one. He moved towards Nia himself just as another bolt from the scepter hit him. The searing pain locked up his muscles and nearly made him fall, but he staggered into range of Nia and threw another Healing Cloud. Daniel got there a moment later, and the healing effect washed over all three.

If they could just stay in the right positions, he could handle this, Rick thought as he started another Restore cast on Sam. Gambit took another lightning hit, and Rick's next cast was Healing Cloud targeted on him.

Everyone's health was mid-yellow and dropping as Rick struggled to keep up. The final enforcer was dead, and only one guard was remaining. Gambit took a swing at the guard, but Rick called, "Gambit, stay on the boss! Nia will get the guard!"  His assignments were based on the assumption that the boss would also be resistant to Nia's lightning magic, so it was more efficient for her damage to go to the guard.

The plinth bar flashed, ready for another activation. Rick cast another Restore, bringing Daniel up to the highest health in the group.

"I got it!" Daniel called as he sprinted toward the plinth.

"You won't have your way that easily!" the boss yelled. He threw up his scepter, but instead of another swing for Sam, he shot a bolt of lightning across the room at the plinth.

Protection was not off cooldown, and Rick knew the plinth was going to deal significant damage to Daniel. He was nearly full health, so if the hit was the same as last time, he would be okay. But not with the boss targeting him at the same time.

Rick rushed after Daniel. He managed to throw a Healing Cloud on him just as he rounded behind the pillar. The spell took Daniel's health to nearly full just as he activated the plinth. His scream echoed through the chamber, and his health bar slid down rapidly.

Even as he ran, Rick started his Restore cast, targeting the spell focus in his hand. As he came around the corner and got a clear sight on Daniel, his cast was just finishing, but he couldn't change targets. The Restore went into the orb, and Rick raised it, targeting Daniel with the spell.

Before he could trigger it, a blinding bolt of lightning crossed in front of him. Its proximity was enough to lock up Rick's muscles, and he stumbled as the bolt blasted into Daniel, who screamed as the bolt evaporate the last of his health.

Daniel fell to the ground, smoking and dead.