Ivy reached out to support Evelyn, her friend shaking and unsteady after fighting and dying as the lich. Given the amount of charred and decaying body parts scattered throughout she had gotten good value from her [regeneration], though Ivy shuddered as she considered the amount of pain Evelyn must have felt.
“Thank you, Ivy. I believe I was forcibly cast from the lich when it lost sufficient structural integrity.” She sounded nauseous but her voice swifty gained urgency, “More importantly, they seemed to have located the core.”
Sure enough, the pair were staring at the pit filled with a lattice of bone, the greyish purple light of the core peeking from within. Thankfully as the giant formed a sphere of dark flame to begin digging down to it, Timberhollow’s forces burst from the water at the entrance. Ivy had been concerned about the three left to deal with the rat beastkin, and the group had briefly considered regrouping with them first, but now she was deeply thankful they hadn’t delayed.
“You bought enough time, take it easy now.”
Evelyn grimaced, “I fear the giant has more of a focus on mana regeneration than capacity, so tiring her will have done little. Her resilience is also formidable. We may be asking too much of them.”
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Trafin rolled to the right as the blast of flame broke their charge, flinging a knife as he sprang back to his feet. The blade hammered into the giant’s shoulder but failed to sink deep despite the force. Snapping off an [identify] he stumbled, his throat feeling dry. Level 40. Fire and destruction affinities. He hadn’t seen much, but that was more than enough. He’d been worried about Sarge having to deal with his captain and what it would mean for his friend to kill someone he was so close to, but suddenly he was more concerned about his own fight.
He barked out a warning to his companions as Vidan blinded the giant. Balrem took a defensive stance rather than closing to attempt to bully the person not just twice his height, but more than twice his level in melee. Lydia didn’t miss the opportunity, lobbing the glass orb she had carried from the last floor with surprising accuracy to strike the head of the blinking giant. The shattering glass was mostly ignored but as the white powder covered her face she let out an anguished groan and began rubbing her eyes.
As she writhed, she still periodically let out gouts of flame preventing them from safely closing. Bubbles of water from Lydia helped protect them and her water whips caused the powder to fizz where she struck. Trafin scored a narrow gash across her thigh before being forced to leap away. He dodged her blind swing but only barely avoided the following blast of flame with a well timed [air step]. It was a good thing his new class reduced the cost, he’d already be dead several times over otherwise. A glance at the pit showed the bone seemed to be healing very slowly, but the gouge left by the black flame was perilously close to the core. Balrem interposed his shield as a swipe of the giant’s arm almost punished him for that brief distraction, sending Balrem skidding into him despite any [block] skills. They both managed to backpedal before the follow up strike could land, a blast of black flame which left only a crater where it struck. The attacks were getting less wild and more accurate. Sure enough, the giant’s face though puffy and inflamed, had eyes streaming tears but open.
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A huge wave of regular fire had him pulling Balrem to what little cover remained, the pile of shattered bones sizzling and popping in the heat. He felt his skin wanting to shrivel away as the air in their tiny pocket of safety became an instant haze. Some primal part of him demanded he run. He could only hope Lydia and Vidan had gotten clear. Peeking his head up as the flames subsided a beam of light striking the giant’s head confirmed at least one of them was fine, but the giant had turned to look at the pit once more, conjuring another ball of dark flame. The flames had been to make space. Even as he drew another dagger to throw, he knew it wouldn’t be fast enough.
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Evelyn was pleasantly surprised how much Ivy’s quick lime mixture had evened the odds. Taking the giant’s sight while her hearing was already impaired had done much to prevent injury to the group, and its reaction with water was either caustic or hot enough to peel layers of skin from even such a tough target. Which rather explained her agony when hit in the eyes. Unfortunately, it was really only a delaying action, sooner or later the giant’s sight would clear or she would get lucky and hit the group as they seemed unable to inflict serious damage. The reality proved much worse, as with a wave of flame she forced the group to cover, the wizard hiding one of the rangers with a bubble spell that Evelyn could only wish she’d had access to in her own fight. Then the giant turned towards the core.
The orb of destructive flame she was summoning would undoubtedly cut through the last of the slowly restoring bone, despite [undeath parade]’s efforts, and destroy the core beneath. So many choices ran through her mind in that moment. Should she have let Lydia die so the dungeon would have gained her skills and water affinity? At the very beginning if she’d picked something less reviled than undead as the creatures for her dungeon, would the captain have been fighting to defend her instead? Should she have given up on trying to train Timberhollow and just tried to make her dungeon as lethal as possible? As she glanced at a forlorn looking Ivy she knew, if she’d done things differently it wouldn’t have been her dungeon. She may not have always gotten everything right, but with the help of her irreplaceable [guide] she’d made decisions she could live and die with.
Suddenly she was below the giant in the body of a lich once more, fully reconstituted. She didn’t hesitate unleashing a brutal uppercut that slammed a blast of air into the giant’s chin. The blow staggered her just long enough for a whip of water and knife to land, knocking the ball of destruction barely off target. Tapping into a dozen skills, Evelyn prepared to do battle once more. [Untiring legions] gave her a second chance, and she wasn’t about to waste it.