Crust Walker
As the Crust Walker descended on him, Mark curled up defensively, putting his arms over his face in a vain attempt to protect himself. He heard a crashing noise and flinched as he prepared for the inevitable pain. But it never came. Peeking one eye open to look up, he saw the creature was nearly vertical on top of a dome, mouth trying to bite through the shield.
Lacey was standing nearby, arms extended, shaking with the strain of keeping the barrier up.
"Get...up....and...cast..." Lacey said to him through gritted teeth.
Hopping quickly to his feet, Mark began to prepare his spell again. The Crust walker was flung off of the barrier by Frank's hammer and it crashed to the ground about twenty yards away, flopping around on the ground as its legs tried to find purchase to stand again.
It growled and chomped on the air repeatedly as it thrashed about, finally able to roll over. An explosion hit it in the side, and James whooped with glee. The force of the blast caused it to fall over to the other side, and it began thrashing about again in an attempt to regain its footing.
Power coursed through Mark as he continued his spell's incantation and worked to move the mana from his core. A glyph appeared on the ground in front of him, followed by a magic circle that encompassed the area he stood in. His hand glowed blue with power as he continued to prepare during the long casting time.
Jay appeared over the creature and stabbed a sword down into its head.
"OUCH! Hot, hot, hot!" Jay screamed out as he jumped off of the beast, leaving the sword embedded in its head, waving his hands and dancing around from the burns on his hands and feet.
Another blast hit one of the thrashing legs of the creature and severed it at the top joint below the connection to its body.
"Dammit! Quit moving, you son of a bitch! That was supposed to be a body shot!" James called out as he ran to the side to get a better angle to fire from.
Just as the creature was getting back to its feet, it tried to put weight on the missing leg and stumbled slightly. When this happened, Mark finished the last of his incantation and slammed his hands onto the ground where the magic circle had appeared. A much larger magical emblem, looking similar to the one under his feet, appeared beneath the Crust Walker.
It got up to move but was pinned in place by a magical barrier.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Lacey shouted at the creature, a malicious grin on her face.
A swirl of blue water mixed with the white foam of a surf began to appear around the Crust walker. Its eyes widened in panic, and it tried to surge forward again. Suddenly, the water exploded upward in a cyclone of force that spun the creature back to the ground.
Sizzling and cracking sounded from inside the typhoon force of the waters swirling around it, reaching high into the sky as clouds began to form in the sky, turning the day into a dismal stormy afternoon. Rain began to fall as the power of the spell increased. A light appeared in the middle of the water whirlwind. Magic circles appeared stacking over each other in the sky, separated by about twenty feet beginning at cloud level and appearing one at a time lower and lower until the last appeared fifty feet above the body of the Crust Walker.
In the dark clouds above the aquatic cyclone, a beam appeared from the topmost magic circle. It fired a jet of water blasted out of the light in the first magic circle, expanding through each of the sequential magic circles until a geyser of high-powered water smashed into the top of the Crust Walker like a Mac truck, forcing it to the ground and driving it several feet into the earth.
More hissing, sizzling, and popping sounded as the lava creature's fire tried to heat up as the cool water pounded into its flesh. The magical circle on the ground seemed to absorb all the extra water so that a flood didn't wash the team away as the creature thrashed inside. A horrific screeching and growling sound was emitting from the monster as it tried in vain to break free.
The rest of the team stared in awe at the magical display before them. Continuing the onslaught, the jet of water pummeled the creature continuously as it struggled against the power of the blast. Then, just as quickly as it had begun, the water stopped, the cyclone fell to the ground, and the clouds began to dissipate in the sky. The sun shone through again as the team looked at the devastation.
Lying in an indention in the ground matching the size of the magical circle that had encompassed the beast was a darkened, almost black Crust Walker. It didn't move. Jay used Identify again and saw that it had now lost over eighty percent of its health, bringing it to a mere five percent remaining.
"Get it while it's down! Frank, go!" Jay shouted.
Rushing into action, Frank ran and then leaped into the air from the edge of the crater, raising his maul in the air over his head. He let out a war cry as he brought eh hammer down on the eye of the creature. Cracks ran through its body as it let out one final cry before crumbling into a pile of rubble.
Frank waded back to the edge of the crater and stored his maul in his inventory. He grabbed onto the ledge and pulled himself up, turning to look back down at the remains of the creature.
"I kinda expected there to be bones," James said, peering down as well.
"Sharks don't have bones, you dolt," Susie said.
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"Oh, hey, it's the girl who did nothing again," James said.
"Sorry, my fighting style isn't meant for this type of creature," Susie said, turning up her nose and looking away from James as she crossed her arms.
"That's alright, I'm sure there are some cocktail weenies you can stick with that oversized toothpick you call a weapon and some rich snobs you can serve them to somewhere around here," James shot back.
"Ugh!" Susie grunted as she stormed off.
Suddenly, there was the sound of high-pitched shouting coming from the direction of the Walmart entrance, and the team turned to see what was happening.
"Oh god! The people of Walmart are here!" James cried out.
"Pretty sure those are goblins," Jay replied.
"Can't just let a good joke hang, can ya?" James rolled his eyes.
What looked like about twenty goblins rushed out of one of the open doors and ran toward the team.
"I don't think...I can...help...this time," Mark said as he began to sway on his feet.
He began to fall, and Lacey reached out to catch him as he toppled over.
"Probably mana fatigue. I'll get him a potion; you guys deal with the goblins," Lacey said, reaching into her inventory and producing a can.
"I got this," Susie said, equipping her rapier and flourishing it once before bringing it straight up in front of her face.
"You sure?" Jay asked.
"Yes," Susie said with no emotion as she continued to walk toward the creatures.
"Okay. Show us what you can do," Jay replied.
The goblins were practically in a frenzy when they noticed only one small person was walking calmly toward them. Spittle flew from their mouths as they thought about eating some fresh human meat.
"Aeries, prepare," Susie said softly. "Now, die."
She stared directly at the goblins as they reached her. With a single fluid motion, she exploded from where she was standing. Slashes of light followed her strikes as each goblin froze in place as time seemed to slow for a moment.
Seconds later, she was standing behind the goblins in a superhero pose; her rapier held out to the side. The goblins slowly began to move again, and as they did, blackish blood exploded out of slashes across their chests, backs, necks, and limbs. Each goblin had at least five slashes on its body. They screamed in pain as they fell to the ground, then went silent as they bled out.
"Ho-ly shit," James said, staring at the carnage that happened in an instant.
"Well, she was right. Her fighting style wasn't right for that creature. We should figure out how to get you a piercing skill," Jay said, walking over to Susie.
"I have one. I just need to rank it up some more before it's powerful enough for a monster that big," Susie said, flicking her blade once to get the blood off before storing it back in her inventory.
"Susie, that was awesome! Susie is such a good killer like Frank!" Frank said, running over to Susie, lifting her up on his shoulder, and touting her around.
She giggled at the big man's display as she reveled in the praise. Jay chuckled at the sight. James just gawked at the dead bodies, still trying to comprehend what had happened.
"Mark is doing alright now," Lacey called over from where she had been kneeling next to the mage.
Mark was sitting up now, holding his head with one hand. He swooned a bit, but he seemed to be coming back.
"Alright, team. Great work! It's time to head back to check on the survivors and see how they did," Jay called to everyone.
They walked back, slower than before because Mark was still recovering slightly, but they felt confident in their pace now that the Curst Walker had been dealt with. They chatted about some of their skills on the walk and what had happened in the battle that could have been done differently, but overall, the mood was very positive. No one had been seriously hurt, and they hadn't been put in any situations that left them defenseless, so Jay considered this a complete win.
Jay let James try to begin talking about the strategies but soon had to take over as he went down a rabbit hole about whether sharks had genitals worth shooting. When they reached the gate to the lockup again, two large RVs were running idle, lined up, and ready to hit the road.
"I suspect that light and the clouds were you're doing?" Caleb asked.
"It was. Mark here had a spell that really helped out with that Crust Walker," Jay replied, taking the man's extended hand, and shaking it.
"Excellent! I can't thank you enough for coming to our rescue. We really owe you one," Caleb said.
"Don't worry about it. Just do your best to help out the guild, and we'll be square."
Caleb nodded, then went back to check on the RVs, "We're ready to head out as soon as you are. Can't wait to get away from this fucking place."
Jay chuckled as he motioned to the GS2, "Alright, team. Load up, and let's get on the road!"