SU&HM Ch 48

The Boss fight continued as a back-and-forth affair. Every time Gambit left to defend against another wave of birds or attack a Ley Energy Collector, the boss would start casting magical attacks. Sam shifted her position back and forth, trying to catch the boss off guard and dodge attacks, mostly ineffectively.

Rick protected her using a combination of Healing Cloud and Protection, and healing her up with Restore when she dipped to low. They took down the second collector, then pivoted to the third as the boss shouted how powerful the energies from Cleft Rock would be.

Three more waves of birds hit them. Nia and Daniel focused them down, but each time, it left the boss open to cast and the party took damage. It stretched out the attack on Collector Three, and Rick had to scramble to heal the damage.

He had just thrown Protection on Sam when the third collector gave a metallic cough and ceased operations.

“You ignorant fool!” the witch screamed. “What are you attempting? You know the city can last weeks on its reserves, and you know how quickly we can repair these collectors.”

Words welled up and burst from Rick’s mouth without his willing them, a vaguely disconcerting feeling. Was this what it was like to be an NCP? "Certainly, they would fix them quite easily -- if you were still around. But you won't be there to see it."

The foreign will inside him faded, leaving behind a dawning realization. They didn't have to destroy the fourth collector. That wasn't what the fight needed.

"Burn her now!" he yelled to the others.

Nia immediately started dashing to the left to hit the boss from the side where she wasn't shielding. Daniel had picked up on the strategy and was already in motion before Rick shouted, "Flank!"

Gambit was shifting to the side as well. He was clearly trying to force the boss to have to shield on opposite sides, but that was going to make it harder for Nia and Daniel to flank.

"Gambit, hold there!" Rick shouted.

The warrior stopped with just enough space between him and Sam that the shields the boss was summoning in either upper hand were not touching. Nia had to run another dozen yards to the left to get a clear shot past the shield.  By now, the boss was over halfway down. Her health kept dropping, in little ticks as Daniel's arrows streaked in and found their mark, and in big chunks as Nia's ice bolt blasted into her.

The boss's ley-harp started to run short on tendrils of Ley energy. Her shields faltered. Sam and Gambit got several good melee hits in, dropping the boss's health into the red. A moment later, the fourth collector rumbled to life and tendrils of blue trailed across the room. With more magic to work with. the shields sprang back into existence and pushed Sam and Gambit back, leaving them with slivers of health.

"Enough!" the boss screamed. A blast of blue light rippled out from her. It knocked Sam and Gambit away, then raced outward across the platform until it buffeted Nia, Daniel, and finally Rick. The ring of energy washed over the damaged and destroyed machines before fading away.

"You will pay for this one day!" the boss cried.

The boss was crouched, injured and panting with only a sliver of health left. As the ring of blue touched each of the party members, it left a glow about them. Crackling bolts of tiny lightning sizzled between their legs and the ground.

"I can't move!" Gambit called as he struggled against the lightning bonds.

A moment later, it washed across Nia and Daniel, freezing them in place as well. Rick threw one last Healing Cloud before it hit him.

"I swear it! You will pay!" the boss screamed.

The boss turned and dashed across the platform. The static field around each of the players faded. An arrow from Daniel and a crackling beam of blue crossed just behind the boss as she dashed towards the edge. Both missed as the injured boss threw herself off the platform.

As soon as the static cling faded completely, Gambit trotted over to the edge of the platform. Rick glanced quickly around to make sure everything was as expected. Three of the collectors were destroyed and silent. The fourth one seemed to be operating normally. He walked to it and took a closer look.

Rick himself couldn't see anything interesting about the contraption other than that it was humming and glowing merrily. The presence in the back of his mind, however, looked on it with approval, apparently happy with its condition. One collector operating, enough to soft land the city after they finished sabotaging the energy reserves. This whole room would be crushed if the city landed hard in just the way the presence hoped, destroying the final collector when the city landed, grounding it permanently.

Rick pictured how he had seen the city in the future: embedded in the ground, tilted at a slight angle, but still, the city had looked intact. The plan his alter ego had in mind matched up with the reality of the city in the future, but they did not agree with what Slate had learned from other parties in this dungeon. Everyone said the city was destroyed utterly at the end of a normal dungeon run.

"What's next?" Daniel asked as Gambit came jogging back over.

"She's gone," he said. "She had a slow fall or something and was drifting away.”

Rick nodded. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The fight completion announcement popped up: [Fall of Skyrend: Boss 2 defeated]. Rick caught a glow in the corner of his eye and turned along with the others to see a chest appearing, fading into existence.

Nia looked around to the area, frowning. "I guess that counts as a win then.”

"Hey, come check this stuff out," Gambit called.

The others moved over to join him at the chest, and peered inside.

There were four items in the chest. The most notable was the strined instrument that the witch had been holding in her lower arms. The one that had attracted ley energy when she played it. There was also a folded pile of cloth, with a description saying it was a cloak.

The item Rick focused on was an orb, a ball of smooth crystal that the ley witch had held in one of her upper hands. She had been casting spells with that hand, and the orb itself had glowed, so Rick knew it was involved, but was unclear what its function had been. It was definitely a caster item, and none of the other items in the chest interested him, so he reached down and grabbed it.

A message popped up. [The master looter has not yet assigned to this item.]

Gambit smirked at him. "Yeah, I guess that looks like a caster thing. Anybody else interested in it?" He glanced at the others. "Didn't think so[KJ1] ."

The orb drifted into Rick's hand. He held it up and inspected. [Leywitch’s Spell Orb. Common spell focus. This spell focus provides 10% more spell damage and healing, 10% more duration to spell effects. When targeted with a cast, Spell Orb will store one spell. Stored spells have zero cast time to use. Stored spells remain in the focus indefinitely as long as the item is equipped. Do not look at the operational end of spell orb. Do not submerge spell orb in water. Do not taunt spell orb.]

“Sweet," Rick said as he held the orb up.

What spell made the most sense to store in it? Protect had no cast time but if he stored one it would start the cooldown timer, right? Then he would be able to have two protects ready to go at short notice. He would have to think about it more and try different combinations.

First he wanted to just try it out. He thought of the orb as his target and cast Healing Cloud. After the one second cast time, he felt the magic pour into his hand as he completed the cast. The energy all flowed into the orb and vanished, leaving it glowing slightly and warm in his grip. He took a couple of steps back. "Hey guys, I'm going to try something."

"What?" Gambit looked up. His eyes widened when he saw Rick pointing the orb at him. Rick focused on Gambit as his target and mentally triggered the device. The orb buzzed in his hand with a kind of haptic feedback, and he felt the spell shoot out instantly. Everyone was full, so the Healing Cloud did nothing but splash light over them. Gambit frowned. "Everything seems the same. What does it do?"

"Ten percent more to spells, and I can store one inside it and use it whenever."

Gambit made a "huh, that's interesting" expression and shrugged. "Sounds nice." Then he reached inside the chest and pulled out the musical instrument.

"Are you going to use that?" Rick asked curiously.

Gambit held it up and looked it over carefully. "Maybe," he said.

"What does it do?" Nia asked.

Gambit frowned. The device was around four feet long and had three strings attached to a long bar. There was a round echo chamber at the bottom, making it look somewhere between a harp and a cello. He took a few steps away from the other groups and then held the instrument crosswise like a guitar. He gave the strings a strum. There was a tremor in the air as the notes vibrated. They all took steps back as leyline energy began to swirl around the instrument in his hands. Gambit didn’t play any more notes, just stood watching the power flow around him.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Daniel asked.

Slowly, the energy started to fade. Gambit shook his head. "Seems safe enough, but kind of useless."

"What does it do?" Nia asked again.

"It buffs another object that I'm holding." He looked up from his inspection of the instrument and smiled ruefully. "But it is a two-hand item. Kind of useless if you don't have four arms, I guess."

“But you’re going to keep it?”

“I have a few ideas I want to try.” Gambit strokes his chin thoughtfully before storing the instrument in inventory and turning to Rick. “Where to now?”

"Next we're going up. Not up the shaft, but over there," Rick pointed, knowledge supplied by his alien alter ego flowing smoothly through his brain.

At the edge of the platform, a rickety metal staircase went up into a hole in the ceiling right next to one of the large supports that held the platform suspended below the city. It looked no more substantial than a fire escape.

"By now the guards will be coming down the main shaft. This way we can go around them and work our way up to the control room."