Ok, giant metal death bird, Daniel thought while trying not to take too much pleasure in the death of another human being. Lightning? Metal conducts lightning. Hunter, did you try shooting Rasalia with lightning while you were fighting?

Yes. Didn’t work.

Darn. How are we going to kill that? Rasalia’s zombie accentuated the point by throwing its head back and screeching with a brassy, metallic quality. Whatever process those undead grew smarter by had been working overtime since the fight had started.

Khiat, you’re hurt. Get back to the Spire entrance. Evalyn had paused for a moment, taking her boots out of her bag. I’m taking to the air until I see something that could hit me. Lograve, you’ll want to float up as well.

It will reduce the amount of ice I could use, Lograve cautioned but he didn’t protest. Khiat tried to, but when she stood she almost doubled over in pain. She had dodged the fire ray itself, but her back had been closer than Khare’s vines and suffered far worse burns. Every time the chitinous plates shifted, it aggravated the damaged tissue underneath.

Khiat reluctantly fell back. A healing potion could have returned her to the fight, but they were mostly spent from the encounter with Mark. Daniel had one remaining for emergencies, and this wasn’t enough of one to justify it. Gadriel continued his bout with Bennar. Neither had been injured as both were fighting conservatively.

Ignoring those two and the dome in the center, Daniel felt like he and his friends were trapped in an arena with a bull made out of diamond. Can’t cut her. Can’t electrocute her. Really aren’t any organs for us to damage with explosions. Daniel ticked off ideas in his head, reserving Moment of Clarity for when he absolutely needed it. The mana potion he’d meant to drink had gone to Thomas instead, and the passive regeneration from the first had ended long ago.

Scatter Teleport only affects those who don’t consciously prevent it, I’m afraid. Although I’d hesitate to send her off randomly, even if there’s a good chance she’d end up in the air.

Wait, are you saying we could have ended up in the air last time? Evalyn asked Lograve.

Er, well you see, my understanding is it usually keeps people at about the same altitude.

We’ll talk about you withholding that information later.

Miss, I am two levels your senior, Lograve retorted with mock offense.

We could try throwing her off the Eye, Tak interjected helpfully as he and Hunter continued to play keep away. It was the same as something Daniel had suggested for Claret, but to give the Totem Warrior credit it had a higher chance to work against the zombie.

This is just like a classic party, Daniel thought privately, then looked to Khiat. All we’re missing is a healer. Wait, health potion! He switched back to the group chat. We need to feed Rasalia my health potion! If I’m right, healing will damage her.

Quickly, Lograve removed Khiat from the group and responded, Daniel, you’re basing that off of lore from your world. There’s no guarantee that-

We’ll try it, Evalyn cut him off and Lograve looped Khiat back in with a resigned sigh. It’s less risky than putting Tak and Hunter in direct contact with her while they push. How do we get it into her?

Khare, do you think you can throw it into her mouth? Daniel held up the potion and pinged Called Shot to help the gestalt understand.

Drink.

Gonna take that as a yes. Daniel held the potion, looked at Rasalia who was now rampaging between them, and sighed. I wish I had Item Swap right now.

Evalyn chose that moment to drop out of the sky. “Sounds like you could use a hand,” she said, forgoing telepathy. She winked and gestured for the potion. Daniel almost fumbled it before the handoff and then watched Evalyn leave.

Hope this works. If Rasalia went down without trouble, they should be able to handle Bennar. What worried him was Casia. She was in full sand-cloak mode, but the veil covering the face was watching Bennar. Not Rasalia, who was under her control, but the Council member. Hunter was too preoccupied to help him get through the Shroud barrier, so he didn’t try. Instead, he thought to the group, You all seem like you have it handled. I’m going to try and figure out what Casia’s doing.

Evalyn, having already delivered the potion, assessed the situation and replied, You’re clear for now. Just keep your head up. We’re going to try and lure Rasalia near Khare and if that goes wrong we’ll need you.

Got it. Daniel finished loading his bows, just in case, before engaging the safeties and running to the center of the Eye.

…

Khare still felt the lingering pain of the burns and wondered for a moment if this was how their progenitor had felt when they’d died. Stone Form hadn’t saved them from the dragon’s flame. That power had been passed down to Khare, though they were still too weak to use it.

Even so, it was starting to become clear they wouldn’t need to. Khare understood enough to know their friends were also getting on edge about how the battle was progressing. One of the sand creatures had nearly killed Lograve in an ambush at the very start of this, only for them to now be battling the head of the enemy faction without any sign of those incredibly dangerous foes. Was this all a feint? The rest of the city appeared to be stabilizing, so where else could the threat be?

Although in fairness, the thing that used to be Rasalia was deadly. If it had come at Khare from the start they would have had to run for the side of the Eye and hope Rasalia couldn’t follow as they clung to the underside. That it was still too stupid to realize some couldn’t run from it was the only reason the team had taken injuries and not fatalities. To Khare, it seemed this whole fight should have gone a lot worse.

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They twisted the vines around the potion Evalyn had dropped off, preparing for the throw. Khare didn’t entirely understand why Daniel wanted to use a health potion on the enemy, but they trusted him. If they didn’t, they’d never have bonded. The other gestalt had been amazed when they had told them. Bonds outside of their race were incredibly rare. Perhaps, if they improved it again, Khare would be able to properly thank Daniel for what the human had done for them.

For now, Khare would be a credit to their team by not missing with this damned bottle. A little part of them was annoyed they’d all just assumed they could throw it with no problem. Daggers were easy to throw because they were one solid object and, more importantly, the ones they carried were weighted for someone like them to throw. A bottle was a clunky object with fluid inside that would interfere with the trajectory as it flew. Worse, it would break once it hit something, so they only got one chance. Khare’s standard strategy was quantity over quality, which made it all the more interesting that they were the best chance their team had at landing this throw.

The twin specters of Tak and Hunter haunting Rasalia were coming their way. Through the telepathy, Khare gleamed it would happen soon. If they missed or the potion did nothing, they really would have to bail out over the side or risk being torn in half. Besides lining up the throw, Khare just waited. They already had the appropriate features, Marksman and Improved Topology, ready. Daniel had marked the target and used Called Shot. Evalyn was even playing an appropriate rhythm to make them better overall in battle.

As Khare waited, the point they’d all been worried about was reached. The undead paused for just a second, and the clouded eyes of the transformed avianoid moved as the head turned. It shrieked again, before lowering itself on all four limbs and charging directly at Khare. Some threshold had been reached to make the monster realize chasing the other two was pointless. The wings even flared out in an attempt to gain extra speed, though they weren’t positioned appropriately to provide force that way.

Despite their focus on dexterity, which Khare had advanced to 25 from the recent hunt gains, they were not a supremely mobile fighter. Chimeric Form was their preferred state when not pressured as the humanoid arms provided better control, while the more natural lower half gave better stability and the ability to climb. That, as well as other powers, allowed Khare to manage and fire multiple bows at a time. It also left them exposed.

Khare dismissed Chimeric Form, reverting their upper body to their natural state rather than trying to run away from the charging monster with unfamiliar legs. Even if gestalt could assume a humanoid form without the use of any power, it felt just as unnatural as a dusker fully locking their shell together. To the outer eye, Khare’s mass would appear no different than normal as they prepared to throw and dodge.

There was much the average mortal didn’t appreciate about earth gestalt physiology. Few were aware of the clusters within or their importance. They were analogous to the bones, nerves, and joints of normal creatures, with the rest of the vine mass making up the muscle. Manipulation of these knots was critical to almost everything earth gestalt did. Improved Topology took Khare’s instinctual knowledge of this process and vastly improved it, allowing them to create gaps in themselves to dodge attacks.

This process of creating multiple of these in succession was still difficult, and unlikely to help against an opponent who could make multiple slashing attacks in succession and at odd angles. Rather, Khare gathered most of their cores in the upper portions of their body while putting tension on vines directly connected to them. This too was mostly instinctual, although not a maneuver they could have attempted before awakening the power.

When Rasalia was close enough, Khare released the tension to catapult themselves upwards. It was the same tactic the team had used against the greater skink, and Khare had every reason to suspect it would work based on past hunts. It didn’t. Rasalia leaped up and closed metallic talons around part of Khare’s outer mass. The strength of the hand almost broke them by itself. Khare was slammed to the ground as part of them tore. They could create gaps in themself, but casting off the grabbed section was impossible.

The zombie was currently smart enough to keep Khare grabbed while preparing to use its other hand to rend into them. Just like the ones sourced from duskers, Rasalia provided the improved strength and durability she had in life to her reanimated corpse. Her grip would have crushed any arm, Khare in some way fortunate that the damage wasn’t that severe. They were also fortunate in their friends. Both Tak and Hunter came from behind and held back the zombie’s other arm in an attempt to make it stop.

They succeeded for only a moment before Rasalia managed to throw Tak off. Hunter had wrapped his jaws around the arm providing a better hold. In response, the zombie bit into the flesh around his shoulder. The damage sharing power they’d awakened saved the ringcat from being maimed, and the zombie reoriented its head to make a more critical bite. When it opened its mouth a second time, Khare finally took their chance. The bottle was plucked from their interior space once more and flung without any wind up. A risky throw. Khare never would have gone for it if they didn’t think it was also the last one they’d have.

It seemed the zombie recognized the threat of something coming towards its face as it closed its mouth and dodged the bottle. When it went for Hunter again, Tak came from behind and jammed the bottle down the throat. Khare didn’t know the avianoid had been rushing back from where he was thrown, but they were glad twice over as the glass cracked and healing energies flooded the zombie.

It wasn’t a complete win. First, a snap of a beak took half of Tak’s paw off despite the damage reduction in play. The zombie threw its head back to catch Tak’s as he fell back, and at the same time threw the arm Hunter was biting down. The ringcat’s head hit the stone, the combined head trauma stunning both for a moment.

No longer impeded, the talons rose and came down across Khare’s body. The sharpened metal met little resistance, cutting through a sizable portion of their mass and half of their vine clusters with a single hit. In an instant, Khare was reduced from slightly injured to crippled, in need of prolonged regrowth to return to full health. Their death may have come in the next instant if the healing potion hadn’t started to take effect.

Whatever strange force empowered Rasalia’s corpse wasn’t known to the regular denizens of the Octyrrum or the well-studied, using Lograve as that benchmark. Risen corpses weren’t unheard of, though this was only in the case of malignant fungal growths or parasites which puppeted the host such as the lake monster created by the Illustrious. In this case, there was no distinct entity within Rasalia animating it but a magical force imparted by Casia when she’d killed the Commander and consumed her heart. Daniel’s guess was fortunately correct, as attacking this energy was the easiest way to bring Rasalia down.

The un-life filling Rasalia’s corpse was eaten away by the potion in an equivalent reaction. It had taken some time to take root in the corpse leading to a delay as the healing energies ferreted it out, but once introduced the two would inevitably clash. Compared to other unliving the Octyrrum had seen in its long history, Rasalia’s counted among the weakest if you ignored the carried over advantages of her class. Normal people had been able to kill others affected by this magic, after all. Talent of old could have infused far more of this strange energy, done more with the prime material her body had been. The simplicity of the ritual by which Casia had raised her minion was also its downfall. Before it could strike again, the animating presence in Rasalia’s eyes faded and the body grew still.