Garble spun in the air, shouting, “reach!” finishing his rhyme, his arc of lightning going straight through the warrior’s axe, then the warrior himself.
The muscular man turned back with a half chuckle as the magic composing his body melted away upwards, like the rest of his already-felled party.
The party all breathed a sigh of relief. As expected, any party that could make it this far was a helluva fight, but there was no stopping them, and with a gleam of light the door upward appeared in the middle of the snow, the party heading through.
The next area was simple. A stair upward, and a binding point. The man was nowhere to be seen.
“Oh good.” Smolder plodded over to it, registering her guildchain. “I think I need about two weeks of sleep after that.”
“I dunno if waiting that long is a good idea,” Sandra said, but also registering her guildchain.
“It’s hyperbole,” Smolder groused, stretching. “I don’t even know how long we’ve been in here, but between freezing our tails off and fighting for our lives, I need a nap.”
The party winked back out, one by one.
----------------------------------------
"So…" Spike rocked forward and back as they went along. "This is it."
"This is it," repeated Tabitha, with more conviction. "It's time to end this."
Smolder hiked a thumb across at Sandra. "We got the physical stuff down. I'm not even worried. But there's more to it. You got it worked out?"
"Mostly, I think." Sandra put her palms up on either side of her head, compressing a bit on her temples. "He wants out, and he deserves that option. If he gets out, he wins. The rest? Noise. He thinks it's important noise, but it's still just noise. If he gets out, he wins, and he won't even be upset."
Spike inclined his head. "You're going to try to set everyone in the tower free? That's a lot of people." He could imagine a new army of super powered people flooding out of the tower into town. "That could get messy."
"Not all at once, and not by force." Sandra smiled a bit. "But, like a fair and just employer, they would have a chance to be themselves, and to retire. Both will, in the, uh, end, make for a better tower."
“Hey, eyes on the prize,” Tabitha interrupted. “We got one more floor, and I don’t think the tower’s going easy on us.”
“Right, right,” Sandra said, looking forward.
They all exited the stairway up, walking onto a rounded marble platform, apparently floating in the middle of space, with only the man in the tower standing in the center. “Welcome!” He spread his arms wide.
Spike eyed him. “Don’t we have another floor to get through before we find you.”
“You have another floor before you reach the top.” The man smiled. “But before the top, well, you need a final boss.”
Garble pulled out his sword. “Not that I’m complaining, I wanted to beat the crap outta you for a while now, but we just beat a whole party, and I don’t think you’re anything more special than that.”
“Hangon,” Sandra held out a hand. “But I thought you were gonna be at the top, and not here.”
“Please.” The man raised a hand up. “I have obviously been your antagonist, and who would deny the story a good climax.” And with that, what appeared to be a bolt of magic came down and struck his hand, it pulsing around him into the ground, and he began to grow.
Spike twirled his staff into readiness. "We will fight you. We will win, but we're taking victory our way."
"Ah yeah!" Garble circled towards their enemy, glaring at the man. "I don't always agree with Spike, but he's talking sense right now."
"Pattern 4," advised Tabitha, advancing with shield raised high, mace at the ready. "Focus P." She was telling them to learn the pattern of the boss. There was always a pattern, a trick. It meant don't go in for damage. Assume the first run would be a loss. Learn.
"I'm sorry, did you not understand?" With a snap of his fingers that reminded Spike of his other godling friend, the rules of reality were casually shifted. "You get one chance. One. Really… You had 98 floors to practice. You're done with that."
At this moment he was nearly twice the size of a normal man, and the ground rose up around him and his legs, changing from marbled floor to armored carapace. Tentacled arms with chomping jaws wormed their way out of the sides of the armored form, and floating orbs crackling with magic hovered up above him.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The middle of the armored form cracked open to form its own jaw, and the man, now sitting atop an armored monster full of teeth and claws, roared, and the entire area shook. The pinpoints of light in the dark space began to move and glow different colors.
From the motes floating around the boss, magical blasts flew at the party, who all dodged to the side, the blasts striking the floor and dissipating.
“Great,” Tabitha groused. “One shot, huh?”
“One shot at the manamerge monsters too!” Spike shouted, shooting a slight lance at a magical mote, which wobbled at the strike. “This is the same thing.”
Garble cracked a smile. “Fine by me, I hate having to learn a boss.” A hydra arm snapped at him, blasting straight past him as he rolled out of the way. “This is gonna be this big guy’s loss!” He brought his lighting sword down on the fleshy tentacle arm, causing the maw at the end to roar in pain.
The mis-shapen limb coiled despite the cut, grabbing Garble and flinging him powerfully back, the roar turning into a laugh that echoed queerly with all the others. "Are you looking for that?" asked the belly maw. "I think they are," agreed the one mouth in the right place. "Shame. I expected better."
The man raised his hands, and with a sudden wave of acid pouring free in all directions, the group was forced to scatter, Tabitha wrenched into the sky in the arms of a Twilight-fused Sandra.
"It's time for friendship," spoke Twilight/Sandra, though it was clear which of them had actually chosen those words.
Spike hiked a scaled brow. "Uh, no elements, and I don't think it works like this on this world." He twisted in a dodge of a thrown sharp spine that missed him by inches. "Keep up the enthusiasm!"
The motes produced beams, lancing at Tabitha and Sandra in midair, and Sandra lost grip on Tabitha through her dodging, leaving Tabitha to fall straight down into a waiting tentacle maw. She flipped herself upward, planting her legs on one set of teeth, and her shield into the other, holding it open with one arm, she sliced at its mouth with her other arm.
Sandra/Twilight cursed as she watched the limb flail around with her friend in it, but from ahead of her the motes continued to blast away, and she grit her teeth, and began to shoot stars at it.
Spike's staff glowed a vibrant green, drawing in the hurt of his allies and banishing it in two channels of life energy pulsing along the staff. "It's not fair, to you," he called out despite the battle. "The tower really hasn't been fair, to any of you."
"Focus on the battle," grunted one mouth of many, a hand produced from the mass, reaching for the dragon, but Spike was too quick to easily dodge, twirling around it. "Prove you want the wish."
“But doesn’t that bother you?” Spike pressed while backing himself up, dodging another lunge.
“We got what we asked for,” the same mouth said. “And if you don’t focus, how can you?”
Spike raised his staff back, ready to bring it down on the tentacle, when another blindsided him from the side, sending him sprawling. “Ow,” he moaned, and looked back and forth. His friends were above him, away from him, and he grit his teeth. “This is bad, we’re--”
“--split!” Garble finished his unrelated rhyme, bringing his sword down on another tentacle maw, which did roar but from behind him another tentacle thrust a glancing blow. Garble spun around, lashing out at it, but it went away, him being hit by another blow from the first.
Smolder flapped into the air, the occasional blast of magic being shot at her, trying to contend with one of the heads herself, which lashed out in sweeping blows, hoping to catch her like a whip might.
"Friendship," insisted Twilight mentally despite their shared mouth, though that spoke a moment later, "Together we can do this, which we aren't. This isn't about any--" They dropped almost a foot, allowing a terrific beam of power to fire over their heads. "--magic other than teamwork, which is a kind of magic. A good one I will have you know!"
Tabitha caught a flailing limb against her shield, shoved back several feet but holding her footing. "Pattern… Q! Q!" she shouted to her scattered friend. "Don't forget what we've learned!"
"Q." Spike dove between two lines of crackling electricity, rushing towards the voice. "Q!" Memory, rising from the chaos of the battle. "On it!"
He made it to Tabitha’s back, and quickly scanned for the others. Sandra and Twilight were bobbing and weaving, but had made it back down, and they looked both up to Smolder, wrapped up with a maw snapping at her. The unity nodded and blasted at the tentacle, and Spike turned his attention to Garble, surrounded by assailants, and waited for just the right moment.
He pulled Garble with magic away just as he was trying to guard an attack, and Smolder swopped down.
“What?!” He nearly shouted, as the tentacles began to close in on the group.
“We’re doing Q!” Spike said.
“Great, we’re all here, that ain’t a winning strategy,” Garble spat. A tentacle came for him and he blocked it. “And I don’t really have space to swing.”
“We were split up,” Sandra/Twilight said. “We would not get anything done like that. We must be united.”
“Blah blah, but Q is where we come up with a plan, right? What’s the plan?”
“Well, now that you’re all in one spot, I was thinking of blasting you at once,” A voice resounded, and the party all turned to the man.
His gaping maw had opened, the motes and the tentacles all formed around it, and beams of energy connected in the center, spinning around. “You’re not the only one who is strategizing.”
Tabitha shouted. “Behind me!”
“You better have a plan,” Smolder shouted.
Tabitha raised her shield and sword up high, a column of light being sent straight up in preparation, and the boss’s megabeam blasted out in front of it, a cacophony of blues and green energy swirling around itself, lancing directly at the party.
Tabitha brought her shield and sword down, the pillar of light coming down with it, forming a wedge that parted the blast neatly around the party, the energy lashing out to the right and the left, the pressure of it pushing her back.
“Th-that’s new,” Spike said as the roar of energy subsided. “For how long… did you know that?”
Tabitha grit her teeth into a smirk. “Gotta keep at least a few cards up your sleeve.”
The man panted, his entire form heaving with energy expenditure, a chuckle coming from him.
“We clear up the tentacles and magic bits,” Twilight/Sandra said. “Each is boosting his power, they were even being used during this big attack. Without them he probably can’t do this, he can’t divide us up. Focus fire.”
Garble smirked. “Now you’re talking my language.”
With a rough cry through the team, they lunged to attack as one. Despite the rough start, they had come back together to present a unified cutting edge against the monstrosity that stood in the way of the ending they were set on getting.