Intense flames cooked the red spires around Luke when he set foot on the final floor. Yellow crystals popped from the plateau's sides, often intermixing with the red spires. Orange molten spiderwebs crossed both features.
Thicker webs dripped to form a weak ‘ceiling’ to the plateau at the tips of those crystals.
An Interface message came up of its own volition.
[Quest Accepted: Clear Orlan’s Cinder Horde]
Requirements: Slay Asani The Cindered and her brood
Reward: You and your companion receive five fire resistance. Follow-up Quest: Clear Orlan’s Ice Horde
Non-repeatable.
Luke swiped the Interface window away. An orange-red tide of spider beasts popped out the dungeon's crevices. All Luke could hear was the sound of skittering. A swarm of molten spiders began to crawl; larger ones covered the grounds. The colossal ones were as tall as Luke.
One spider stood out, its size and color palette unique. Its exterior was a mix of purple and green. The molten webs that dominated this floor were its creation. Luke already knew who she was but pulled up the Interface for any additional details.
[Asani The Cindered] (Dungeon Boss)
Level: 25
HP: 2900/2900
Broodmother of the cinder spiders that have come to reign over the final floor of Orlan’s Beast Divide. Rules the Cinder Horde.
The dungeon boss spun molten web, covering the majority of the floor. A widespread glob rocketed toward Luke. The Reaver silently cast Essence Bond onto Xera. At the same time, he Infused both blades. Due to the lack of time, he dropped Whispering Edge, which plunged into the smoldering ground.
Luke flowed essence to his eyes and frost essence to his feet and Xera. He sliced with full force. Xera met resistance, then cut through the thin cinder-web entrapment Asani created. The Reaver took in the entire spider brood; the flaming attribute they all represented called to his element; no, their cinders challenged his frost.
The cindering spiders would die a freezing death. Luke felt Sooty through the spiritual link Reaver’s Link forged between them. His bird was entangled currently. In that case, he’d handle this alone. If he were in over his head, Luke would drag it out. Asani was the point of focus here. He’d learn her tendencies and slaughter the pests crawling his way in the meantime.
Luke transformed Xera into her wand form, Essence Bond enchanted her, and the blue swirl around her burst out. Luke picked Whispering Edge back up. Infusion rotated, whirling around both weapons. He pointed Whispering Edge at a titanic spider leading the charge on the ground. Wraith Wail’s clutches put the cinder spider titan in horror. The AOE slow effect did its job well. However, the spiders climbed over and under their paused headliner, reducing the overall synergy of the combination.
Smoldering webbing enabled the army of spiders to come at Luke from all directions, except behind from the entrance up to the third floor. The weakly formed ceiling, the ‘sides’ from the webbing that crisscrossed the crystals or spires, and smothered the plateau floor. Luke handled the floor assault with his previous reaction, but the same couldn’t be said for the other three waves coming his way.
Luke switched the stored ability in Temporal North to Essence Fissure. A conflicting sense of calm and urgency caused him to breathe irregularly. Then he heard a beat, no, a roar from his heart. Frost Essence crept out, beginning to freeze the cindered web. He pointed Whispering Edge and Xera to different dungeon walls.
A fissure of frost essence ripped on one side, floating perpendicular in the air, and a sudden winter began to intrude on the spiderlings covering the flaming wall. Their legs flexed, struggling against the intense knockback to webbing, unable to move further. The first fissure had yet to form before another one, this time with regular essence, opened, mirrored in position pointing to the other side. Ruinous echo rang from the frosted fissure, weakening magic resistance across the plateau.
He attempted to attribute essence fissure twice and failed on the second attempt. Luke could only adjust to the unexpected hitch.
“I’ll need to find an expert on this element thing,” He said.
“In due time, lad, focus,” Wayfinder said.
Luke originally planned to Essence Lance the ceiling, but adjusted, the cinder spiders dealing with the frosted essence fissure looked ready to collapse. With Xera’s assistance, he shot Essence Lance into the frosted fissure. The ice shards grew dense, becoming more deadly than usual. Except for particularly tough members of the spider horde, all spiderlings in the targeted area became riddled with ice shards, shredded into pieces.
“Look at all those iced spider bodies! When can you learn another ice spell, Luke?” Xera said.
Luke shifted over to the devastated side. His right and back directions were essentially safe. He reformed Xera into a sword to help deal with the skittering army from above; he kept Whispering Edge out. The Broodmother began to crawl his way; she often spun cinder web to entangle him. Luke cut through any attempts with only a modest effort. In the fight, his particular element and resistance stats reduced many of the natural advantages this boss possessed.
The Reaver’s luck ended there. The near tsunami of the cindered brood pounced against him from the ceiling. Luke attempted to reproduce the iced arc attacks he’d managed a few times, with occasional success. He whirled his blades; spider bodies were bisected, pierced, and slashed. Their number became an unaddressable advantage. A poisoned bite clamped around Luke’s upper arm. A steadied damage stream fought against his health counter. He took twenty five damage.
Due to his rapid movement, the poison spread, but his constitution felt strong enough to operate at full throttle. With the healing from damage his rings provided and natural regeneration from Coven Lord Pendant, he out-healed the steady stream of poison damage.
Then he got bit by another cinder spider. A single message line pulsed red in his vision.
[You have been envenomed with cinder poison]
Following the message, a line of minus one-hundred began to periodically populate his vision. Luke stepped back and released whirl after frosted whirl; dozens of cindered spiders would be iced or sliced to death each time.
Hundreds came to replace them.
“Fine then,” Luke calmed his movement. “Freeze to death, flaming bugs.”
A loud pump beat once from Luke’s chest. The Reaver breathed out, and white misted air brushed against his face. A spider attempted to bite Luke on the collarbone. Its fangs turned to ice and crumbled to dust.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
The spider tide closest to Luke as he used Frost Fall Reave became living ice sculptures. Their embers and flames were extinguished. A chilly aura overtook the plateau, weakening spiders in the ambient frost range.
Luke ran forward, the spiders that once covered his body dropped to the floor, splitting apart. His blood chilled noticeably; the cinder poison’s continuous damage had lowered to minus seventy per second. The other, more regular poison, experienced the same effect, becoming minus eighteen.
A blizzard followed the Reaver; ambient frost made the cindered web brittle and cooled the heated plateau. His Essence Fissures had closed. Luke kept to the obliterated right side. With his fast movement, paired with the bone-chilling frost around him, spiders from the webbed ceiling couldn’t move quickly enough to chase. The copious ice brought out to the open enabled Luke to slash with multiple iced arcs. His range extended, and he cut into the spider brood.
Asani hissed. She spat another cindered web toward Luke. The speedy projectile slowed enough for him to veer and avoid it. Luke jumped onto a titanic brood guard's back and propelled himself at Asani. He used Polar South subconsciously. Essence bond appeared over the brood mother.
Red venom spilled from the dungeon boss, and it all froze before making contact with Luke’s skin. The Reaver saw the dungeon boss shiver around him. Keeping track of the multiple time-limited effects in play, Luke stabbed Whispering Edge into her maw. Using the blade as an anchor, he hurled himself on Asani’s back.
Luke reared Xera back with both hands on her handle, “Ready?” he said.
“Ready. Let’s gut this spider queen!” Xera said.
He stabbed Xera into Asani’s abdomen. He pulsed frost each time with his repeated pierces. Asani screeched and violently moved in an attempt to get Luke off her body. The spider queen began to climb up the webbed sides.
“I’m not leaving until you die.”
Luke switched Xera to his right hand. Frost became clawed ice around his left hand, he ripped into Asani’s body; fueled by his pure strength, he forcibly created a grip. The Reaver continued to slice with Xera.
An element-infused strike sliced Asani open, which managed to critically strike. A massive [-303] popped up in the Interface. Asani continued to struggle. Her violent screeches drove her brood into a frenzy.
Ambient frost created a nearly impassable mist. A sense Luke had felt before connected to the frost element around him. He could ‘see’ what his frost mist and ice touched. Asani reached her webbed ceiling. The cindered web became solid ice and lost the adhesive properties her body was suited to.
Luke perceived the dungeon boss losing her grip. He flung himself to her sides and sliced off the two nearest legs. He pushed himself up and over her, as she began to fall. Luke held Xera over his head, and extended frost line chopped deeply into Asani.
“Time’s almost up.”
The Reaver tore Xera out as Asani writhed on the floor. Luke re-infused Xera as he readied for another attack. Luke horizontally cleaved through her thorax fused with her head. A critical strike popped, with the area particularly vulnerable, and a highest quality Infusion stack powering it, a [-400] appeared over the boss.
Asani stopped writhing, letting out a final chilled death shudder. Luke ripped Whispering Edge out her maw. He let frost coat both blades. He sprang back toward the spider tide on the ground. Flashes of black and blue ripped through the near-helpless cinder brood.
“Get back to the entrance. If these eight-legged beasties surround you, it’ll be unnecessarily difficult for you,” Wayfinder said.
“Got it.”
The Titanic spider-brood members tried to rally against Luke, only to be sheared through by his two blades in quick order. Luke used the remnant duration of Frost Fall Reave to cut a way back to the entrance. The continual frost made him chilled, his body still unable to comfortably handle an excess amount of Luke’s element.
Two iced blade arcs forced open a path for him to take. He sprinted, the chilled spiders too crippled in their movement to capitalize on Luke showing his back. A few tried to spit poison, but the substance froze or iced in the air, missing the accelerating Reaver.
Once Luke reached near to the cinder-web entrance, he swirled around to face forward against the remaining creatures. He’d glanced at the Interface, and his quest hadn’t completed; a true ‘defeat,’ it would seem, would only be once he wiped the entire brood out.
Frost Fall Reave ended, and Polar South was on its way out. Luke considered having two blades out better in this situation. He had enough strength to cut apart spiders with each weapon. None of their carapaces were tough enough to warrant Xera being used alone.
Luke heard a faint flap, a crow with shadowed claws perched onto his shoulder.
“Was wondering when you’d make it, any later, and I’d have cleaned house all alone, Sooty.”
Sooty responded by casting an Essence Screech toward the skittering spider tide. Their cooled cinder web reverberated from the sonic attack, and large portions unraveled. Making a mess of the webbed lair.
Masses of spiders curled up and died. With the culling, Luke readied his posture. The frost essence within felt chiefly spent.
“Tear up the bigger ones, Sooty. I can one-shot the rest by now,” Luke said.
Sooty pushed off his shoulders and flapped to the nearest over-sized spider. A minority tried to land on her from the ruined webbed ceiling; she summoned her Shadow Wing and assigned it to take care of the nuisance. Its own Essence Screech tore through the plateau, plummeting the spider’s numbers once more.
When Luke reunited with Sooty, the remaining fight became leisurely; his two blades would stop any desperate attempt to attack him. Sooty ripped into any larger specimens with her shadowed claws. By the time they tried to attack her back, she’d blink into the shadows.
Luke kept essence to his eyes, his dynamic vision more critical to keep track of the monsters crawling around him. The ‘sense’ with frost around him was in its infancy, yet it assisted where his eyes could not see.
He rounded up the remnant spider brood, turned Xera into a wand, then Essence Lanced the monsters in one fell swoop, ending the fight. Sooty flew over and landed back in her typical spot on his left shoulder.
“That’s how you end things, with a wand blast! When’s the next one?” Xera said.
“Impatience won’t get us anything, lass. Give the lad a breather,” Wayfinder said.
“It’ll come soon enough, Xera; I got a chain quest for the other side of this dungeon. If it’s anything like this side, they’ll likely have frost resistance, how annoying,” Luke responded.
Luke casually observed the plateau; a floating white portal opened at its very back.
“Guess that’s our ticket out of here.”
Before he went in, Luke paused, deciding to use the momentary privacy here to run through the Interface log.
[Quest Complete: Clear Orlan’s Cinder Horde]
[Awarded 5 permanent fire resistance points to you and your companion]
“Five fire resistance? A bit lackluster compared to the ten from before, but I’ll take it. Makes this place feel cozy, even.”
“Trial rewards are always going to outperform low-end dungeons. I’ll bet me shiny casing the reward is the same amount for the other side of this divide,” Wayfinder said.
“Makes sense. The trial certainly felt more dangerous than this place. And you can clear this ‘boss’ with four other people? I wonder why everyone doesn’t do this,” Luke said.
“You’re practically a three-person party with me around and my ever-changing forms. Oh, I forgot the compass. Is four-item party a better term?” Xera said.
Wayfinder ignored Xera, leaving the argument for another time. Luke had no answer for Xera. Instead, he shrugged and continued to clear out any valuable notices in the Interface log.
His eyes landed on three particular notices, the rest loot or otherwise.
[You have reached level 24. Acquired 2 skill points]
[Your companion, Sooty, has reached level 24. Acquired 1 skill point]
[You have stolen 8 Agility, 34 Intellect, and 326 HP]
Luke's eyes bulged, “I stole how much health? I’m practically a tank now.”
The Reaver felt the differences across his body; the agility stat increase was too slight to articulate accurately, but the Intellect and HP were different stories. Luke’s essence surged, and he felt he could control it with a fraction more of expertise. He noticed he started to have trouble repressing his memories, a troubling worry.
Luke didn’t want to remember more of the vanishing. He instead focused on the other changes; his internals felt relaxed, healthier, and toughened. Environmental strain became less of a factor to him. Although it could also be the fire resistance increase.
A final notice culminated his gains on this side of the Beast Divide.
[You have looted 56 Cinder Sacs, 102 pieces of fine quality cinder web, Asani’s Poison Sac, and Asani’s Cinder Jerkin]
To Luke’s fortune, the items stacked well, only taking up four slots in one of the spatial bags his Inventory fused with. Luke heard five sets of movement climbing up the cinder web entrance behind him.
Unwilling to entangle himself with more people, who likely wouldn’t be pleased he took out the boss already, he briskly entered the white portal exit.