PART IV - APPROACH TACTICS

It was about two-thirds of the way to the rocks when they ran into the first of the enemy. But, these initial Stone Elementals the team encountered could barely be called that. From Maugra and Pixyl’s descriptions, Callie had expected the magical stone constructs to be roughly the size of a normal-sized person, or about two meters. Instead, what they ran into were barely larger than Pixyl. Quickly dubbed ‘Pebble Elementals’, they seemed to be largely made of gravel, magically held together into something vaguely bipedal, although the legs moved as if the tiny stones flowed over each other rather than actually walking.

This provided a good opportunity for the recruits to each try out their combat skills on a weak enemy, as for many this was the first true fight any of them had faced, save the semi-controlled Demon skirmishes back at camp. Each took turns, although Tazrok wasn’t at full strength due to another post-Inspiration headache. Instead, he served as a towering scout, calling out targets as they approached.

Each of the other Druid trainees used both their Guardian and Striker forms to engage the little pebble monsters, Melga managing to get thumped rather hard while in her Ice Uraxe form and needing a spot of healing from Ambria. On her next opportunity, though, Melga got her revenge, using her Uraxe’s icy breath weapon and freezing a pair of Elementals in place, before pouncing on them, ice-covered gravel scattering in all directions. As Callie had expected, Bratig’s Guardian form, in particular, was absolutely devastating. Between the spiked tail and strong jaw, no animated pebble stood a chance. With his body covered in armor, he didn’t even feel a few of the hits that he purposely allowed, wanting to gauge the effect.

With newly-youthful enthusiasm, Rowani also got into the mix, transforming into her Guardian, which was something vaguely like a huge turtle known as a Tortalis. In addition to claws and bites, she had a Rhino-like horn on her head she could use in an amazingly-fast charge attack, allowing her to impale an enemy with said horn. As another option, she could retract her head on the charge, using her shell as a heavy ramming attack instead. Rowani even explained a tactic she had used in the past where she would retract her head, tail and all her limbs, continuously use her Taunt skill to hold the attention of the enemy while others picked them off, nearly impervious inside her shell. Unfortunately, that tactic wasn’t going to work here, as the Elementals proved immune to the Taunt effect, which had been expected.

For her part, Lhawni used lightning magic to zap the little enemies, fire proving of no use. The lightning would either stun the Elementals for several seconds, allowing someone else to finish them off, or in most cases cause them to simply fall into a heap of inanimate rocks as the glowing stone heart disintegrated. She groused about needing to use her combat spells, though, emphasizing again how much she preferred healing instead, and that she was much better at that duty. Unfortunately, the loud concussive noise of the lightning spells rattled Callie’s head, causing her ears to ring. While she didn’t say anything to her friend, she hoped the need for that magic once the real fight began was minimal.

Juniper made a point of trying out a few types of attacks as well. For example, one-on-one, Loki was able to easily defeat the little Elementals by tackling it in a rush and ripping it savagely apart. Unfortunately, such a tactic was unlikely to work against anything larger, and Olin suggested Loki should be unsummoned for his own protection when they reached the bigger enemies. To make up for that eventual limitation, Juniper conjured a pair of long tentacle-like vines that would lash out like whips, smashing the targets apart, or even in one case, they both picked an Elemental up and worked together to tear it in half. Her Thornblast spell, which appropriately sprayed out a swarm of bullet-like thorns towards the target, proved ineffective, given the substance of the Elementals, and she conceded that attack would unlikely be of much use. Another spell she demonstrated was a defensive shield of thorny brambles she could summon nearly instantly, which she suspected might be strong enough to even stop a boulder attack or two.

Tazrok eventually focused on his caster form for combat once his headache faded, lobbing both Burst Berries, which produced an effect much like Callie’s Burst Shot skill, as well as summoning a thicket of grasping vines to hold the little Elementals in place, which would set the monsters up for someone else to finish them off, if they were not crushed outright. He also used an attack spun from raw mana called Nature Blast, which lanced out towards the target with a bright green beam of energy. It was of mixed effectiveness against the body of the Elementals, simply stunning them like the Shamans lightning attacks, but if he hit the heart, the target simply dropped to the ground. Rowani explained that some of the effect came from reacting with something alive in the target. The spell had been absolutely devastating against Demons, given their Nether magic origin, back at camp.

As she expected, Callie’s bow did minimal damage against the pebble monsters using a normal arrow. On the other hand, if she hit the magical center of the Elementals, they were strong enough to kill them outright, causing the beings to fall apart. But that was a small, difficult target, even with Homing Shot, so wasn’t terribly reliable. Of course, her Explosive Shot combination was absolutely devastating to the little monsters, simply blasting them apart. She was limited to four charges total, with a long thirty-two second cooldown to get Piercing Shot back, so Callie expected she’d need to get creative when the time came.

Finally, for Vanis, most of his directly-damaging spells proved useless against the Elementals, as the targets were immune to curses as well as his Deathbolt. His Netherhold worked, functioning much like Tazrok’s Entangling Roots spell, pinning the targets in place while someone else finished them off cleanly. To make up for the limitations on his damaging spells, Vanis focused on conjuring up five Imps and a Fiend, and they proved surprisingly effective against the small Elementals. Either the quintet of tiny Imps would simply rip it apart using their swarming pack tactics, or the Fiend would easily smash it. An Imp did take a good beating, which was unsurprising given how weak they were, but that was easily remedied by dismissing it and summoning another in its place. Vanis avoided using his Nether Wraith, because the Demon’s Deathbolt ranged attack wouldn’t be effective, and said attack had an area of effect, so was bad in fights where allies were also engaged. For the same reason, he didn’t deploy his Nether Bats, as their acidic spit attack was just as likely to hit a friendly.

When they finally reached the first of the actual full-size Stone Elementals, Bratig smashing it with his tail, Vanis called a brief halt so everyone could rest for a few minutes. Not only did this allow everyone to recharge any mana they may be down, but also reorganize and firm up duties a bit. Ambria and Lhawni were tagged as primary Healers, with Wallir being added as a backup third after losing a round of ‘Rock, Parchment, Dagger’ to Melga. Wallir jokingly blamed Callie for his loss, since she had introduced the game to the recruits over the last month. Rowani did give him permission to go Guardian, as long as he didn’t lose track of his Healing duties as his first priority, and promised to fall back if things got chaotic. Tazrok assumed his Hellhound form, agreeing with Callie that his spider legs might not fare well against boulders, while Bratig and Melga both went Guardian. For the Major, while her sword attacks might be of limited effectiveness, and Taunt would be useless, her ability to distract and harass using her Flashstep would be helpful. Her plan was to focus as much as possible on simply holding the Elementals’ attention so others could take them out.

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“Any questions?” Vanis asked, as Olin and a hovering Pixyl kept a lookout for anything moving their direction, with Cheena also watching from higher in the air.

“I can see where the Rift is,” Callie said, pointing up the hill, her eyes in Darkvision mode. “Do we want to just get to it and then hold the ground, or should we clear around it first?”

“We’ll need to clear the area first. It would be a little dangerous to be too distracted while I’m doing the siphoning,” Maugra said. “I don’t need a lot of focus, but I do need some, and the last thing we want is multiple things sneaking up on us.

“Did you see a way up?” Celeste asked.

Maugra shook her head. “I didn’t have time to look very carefully. One of the fliers may need to find a path once we get closer. If it’s not me, make sure you don’t get hit by something!”

The chaotic experimentation of the initial approach now vaguely organized, the group resumed their focused march forward. There were still Pebble Elementals occasionally, but instead of taking turns, the Guardians focused on nabbing them, dropping each into piles of gravel quickly. The counts on the pebble monsters were decreasing, though, as more and more regular-sized Elementals started to attack, taking their place.

For the first few, Pixyl took the lead, using her pit experience to demonstrate the glowing weakness in them. Callie found it awe-inspiring to see her friend zipping around, either using her Ethereal Blast to simply blow the monsters apart, or swooping in close to put her sword through its chest or back. True to the Pixie’s promise, they did indeed ‘drop like rocks’ as soon as that center stone was pierced. “Eat your heart out, Tony Stark,” Callie mumbled to herself, seeing a real live Iron Man er … Iron Pixie come to life and flying through the air, throwing out blasts of energy.

In a way, these ‘medium-sized’ or normal Elementals actually proved easier for Callie to kill than the tiny ones, as the glowing heart was larger, giving her a bigger target. A single normal arrow had about a fifty-fifty chance to drop the monster with a direct heart hit, otherwise it would be stunned and open to easy dispatch by someone else, or almost assuredly would fall apart if hit a second time. As expected, an Explosive Shot combo did the job every time, scattering the rocks a couple meters in every direction if hit dead-center.

Juniper was the first one to actually get hurt by one of the larger Elementals, getting backhanded by one that had been hiding in the grasses as she tore another apart with her vines. The Dryad had taken a hard blow to her chest, getting four ribs broken and a lot of bruises, and causing her to cough up some blood. While Pixyl dispatched the Elemental that struck her, Vanis was immediately at the Dryad’s side, his minions taking up guarding positions around them, as he called for Healer assistance. Near instantly, both Ambria and Lhawni were on task, Rowani also briefly falling back to offer an assist if needed. Of course, it proved of little worry for the now battle-veteran Recruit Healers, and Lhawni repaired Juniper’s injuries in under two minutes, while Ambria gave the Nymph a short-duration pain block to ease her discomfort, before returning to stand by for whatever might occur next. Once back on her feet, though, the Dryad was absolutely pissed, and soon had multiple sets of twin vine tentacles waving in the air, lashing out and smashing any Elemental with angry effectiveness, or simply ripping them apart.

Vanis was actually embarrassed, apologizing as he realized how much he had instinctively over-reacted in coming to Juniper’s aid. Callie got it and really didn’t blame him. Whatever the nature of their relationship, it was obviously becoming romantic. More importantly, it was something they could all tease the Warlock about when the mission was over and they got back home. It was important to look forward to that, after all.

As Bratig and Tazrok finished off a trio of the enemy, the team finally encountered their first Greater Elemental. They were nearly to the outcropping, starting to give some thought as to how they would scale the jagged formations, when one seemed to wake up, rising and hurling a rock as large as Callie’s head, which bounced off Bratig’s back. Thankfully, he was largely uninjured due to his natural armor, but that immediately put everyone on alert that the threat level had just gone up another notch. Vanis called for a halt, and as a group they backed off about forty or fifty meters to take stock. Back in people form, Bratig did have a solid bruise on his back, in spite of the armor, which Wallir set to work quickly tending.

“We need to locate an easier way up,” Vanis said, cupping a hand over his eyes as he scanned the formation. “Preferably something with space to dodge any incoming attacks, or things we can use as cover.”

Callie scanned using Eagle Eye, but from her low angle, she unfortunately didn’t see a path that looked like a good option. She was dreading the prospect of needing to scale the rocks directly, although they did have rope that a flier could secure for everyone to ascend. With all the archery work over the last month, her muscles were practically bulging, and Callie suspected she’d easily be able to pull herself up if needed. Still, she’d rather just find a way to walk.

“Let me scout quickly and find a path,” Rowani said. “I’m fast enough to dodge anything thrown at me, assuming they even take notice since I’m so small, and if need be I can get pretty high, too. My hawk’s sight is now much better than it used to be.”

“Go,” Vanis said with a sharp nod, and the Druid wibbled into her flight form. With a screech, she took to the air and flew off.

“We need a better way to detect the rock throwers,” Olin said, glancing at Bratig as the Dwarf worked the stiffness out of his back. “If we don’t know where they are, we’ll keep getting surprised.”

“We could run around really fast,” Melga suggested, gesturing to the other Druids. “When they rise up to attack us, the rest of you can take them out from range.”

Maugra quickly shook her head. “Too dangerous. I know your Striker forms are quick, but with all those jagged rocks, you won’t see where you’re going and could stumble into trouble.”

“Wait, would that work, though?” Callie asked. “Someone just running close, that is. Is that enough to make the Elementals wake up?”

“It should be.”

“Why not just use them?” Callie suggested, gesturing to the quintet of Imps, along with the Fiend, that were standing idle in a group. “Just send them ahead to wake up whatever is hiding. If one gets squashed, Vanis can just summon more, right?”

“That should work,” the Warlock said, with a puzzled expression as he thought it through. “I have a range of about one-hundred meters or so to control them, but that should be plenty. They’ll keep doing what I’ve told them if they get out of that command range, unless I close the Nether link to them, in which case they’ll be unsummoned and collapse.”

“Give it a test,” Callie suggested. “Send some up and over the rocks and see if anything wakes up.”

“Let’s see if this works,” the Warlock replied, sounding slightly dubious, but curious as well. He took a half-dozen steps forward before summoning a Ritual Circle into being under him, to give himself a bit of a range boost. With a flick of a finger, three Imps sprang from their group, tearing up the last few meters of prairie grasses in a mad race towards the outcropping. They snarled and hissed and worked their way through cracks between stones, or scrambling madly over the top of them, racing towards a spot Vanis had ordered them to.

Almost like a synchronized ballet, four Greater Stone Elementals seemed to unfold and rise, each turning slightly to track the trio of Demons. Two quickly summoned boulders and threw, missing the Imps, but a third also summoned, managing to hit one of the little Demons. The boulder basically turned it into a gooey green paste that quickly started to turn into purple smoke.

“Eww,” Callie winced. “That had to hurt.”

“It sure didn’t hurt for long, though,” Maugra said with a huffing laugh.