Daniel watched with a heavy heart as the second wave of boulder flew in his direction. He had no skill or ability to stop any of the incoming projectiles. He knew more of the miners would die because of his own lacking skill. He just hoped that Steve would be able to use his magic to save some of the miners. The second wave of boulders impacted around Daniel, and he heard cries of pain come from behind him. Already the elemental’s were preparing their next wave, and Daniel could no longer stand idly by.

He began to sprint as fast as his legs would take him towards the nearest elemental. As he ran the third wave of projectiles were released, but this time not all of them were targeted at the fleeing miners. Two of the elemental’s targeted Daniel. He was forced to dive to the side to avoid the projectile. He landed in a roll and in one smooth motion he came back to his feet and continued to sprint towards his target.

In this moment Daniel was especially thankful that he had taken ‘Heavy Charge’ skill because as soon as he was within its max range he activated it, and appeared before the elemental. It held another stone in its hand ready to throw, but Daniel had appeared too fast for it to react. Daniel brought his maul onto the elemental’s arm that held the boulder with all of the power he could muster. His blow shattered its arm which caused the rock to fall to the ground. Daniel however wasn't done with his assault. Daniel used the remaining momentum of his attack to spin his body around with the aid of ‘Quickened Blow.’ His attack swung around with impressive speed and power and landed right on its shoulder. Daniel blows shatter the creature’s chest, and it crumpled to the ground as just a lifeless pile of stones.

While Daniel had taken out one of the elemental’s the others had not stopped lobbing boulders. This was made painfully clear to Daniel as a rock the size of his head impacted the back of his leg. The surprise and shock of the attack made him cry out in pain. The force of the projectile had made his stuck leg give out and force him to one knee. However a sense of danger made him roll to the side as another head size boulder flew through the air where he had just been kneeling.

Daniel stood to his feet surprised that the boulder that had hit him had not broken his leg. It was probably because of all of the passive skills he had that reinforced his body. That did not mean however that he had gotten out unscathed. His leg was numb, and he could hardly put any weight on it before it threatened to give out. Though with each second that passed his passive feat ‘Troll Regeneration’ was hard at work healing the damage. He just needed time which the elementals were not giving him.

Once he had slain one of the five elementals the other four had now turned to face him. They had stopped throwing stones at the miners, and now all of their attention was on him. It was moments like these that made Daniel regret his past decisions. These elementals seemed to be smarter than the ones in the previous waves because as one the elementals threw their boulders at Daniel in a single coordinated volley.

Daniel had only moments to react before the stones reached him. Daniel decided to fall flat on his back, his feet facing towards the incoming projectiles. He had once read that the best way to survive a grenade being set off near you was to do exactly this. It would apparently limit how much of your was exposed to minimize how much shrapnel could hit you. By some miracle all of the thrown boulders missed Daniel, but now he was lying prone on the ground as the elementals readied their next volley. He was a sitting duck, and that thought filled Daniel with dread. His body would survive the next volley, but what about the one after or the one after that. If he didn't do something fast then he was a goner. Daniel readied himself to try and dodge as many of the next wave as possible, but he didn’t know how successful he would be.

It was in that moment just before the elementals readied their to throw their next volley that something changed. Kota emerged from the shadows behind one of the elementals, and pounced. He tore into the creature with his claws which carved deep gashes into the creature's stone body. At almost the same time Steve, who had retreated up the ramp with the miners, began to rain down spells onto another of the elementals. This left only two of the elementals who were still focused on Daniel. They seemed to hesitate for a second as if unsure who they should target. Kota, Steve or Daniel. By this time Daniel’s was healed enough that he could use it to run, and took full advantage of the elemental's hesitation to fully rise to his feet and begin to once again charge towards them.

The elemental’s hesitation vanished when Daniel began to make his way towards the last two elementals. In unison they threw their boulders at Daniel. He tried to dodge the income projectiles, but at that moment his leg twinged which caused him to stumble. It appeared that his leg wasn't as healed as he thought it was. Even with his unfortunate stumble he managed to avoid one of the boulders, but the other clipped his shoulder. The impact spun him around which caused Daniel to lose his balance and fall to the ground.

He was able to quickly catch himself and reorient towards the elementals. By this time Steve had managed to take out one of the four elementals with his spells. Kota on the other hand seemed to be struggling to take out even after his surprise attack. As Daniel watched Kota take a blow on the side from one of the elemental fists. The blow knocked Kota backwards and sent him rolling. Daniel quickly activated ‘Death’s Embrace’ taking the damage meant for Kota onto himself. With all of his other injuries, what was a little more pain.

Steve had begun to rain down spells onto another elemental, but with Kota having failed to eliminate his target that still left two elementals free to attack Daniel or Kota. By this time ‘Quickened Blow’ had some off cooldown, but ‘Heavy Charge’ was still nowhere near coming off cooldown. He was still over fifty feet away from the closest elemental as they readied another volley. For what felt like the hundredth time Daniel really wished he had a shield.

It was then that Daniel had a desperate idea. He activated the ranged enchantment on ‘Ice Fang’ at one of the elementals. It didn't really expect it to do anything, and only used it as a distraction for what came next. Daniel in rapid succession activated ‘Heavy Blow’ and ‘Quickened Blow.’ He then threw ‘Ice Fang’ at the closest elemental. By some miracle ‘Quickened Blow’ increased the speed at which ‘Ice Fang’ flew through the air, and while Daniel’s aim had been a bit off it wasn't so bad that he missed his target. ‘Ice Fang’ managed to hit on its hip if the creature had been made of flesh and blood.

The elemental’s leg shattered at the hip which caused it to fall over. Daniel was surprised at the damage he had caused, and quickly used ‘Identify’ on the injured elemental.

Race: Elemental

Rock Lobber Tier 3

Core Refinements: 0

Details: Elementals are creatures made of mana given shape by the very element they resemble. At lower tiers these creatures are mostly unintelligent, and follow only their rudimentary instincts unless they are being controlled by another force like a specialized mage.

Rock Lobbers are some of the most feared types of low tier elementals. They are smarter than their lesser kin, and specialize at throwing large projectiles that anything they deem a threat. They can typically be found in large mountain ranges that contain high amounts of earth mana. Their tendency to lob boulders at anything other than an elemental combined with their environment make them difficult adversaries to get close enough to be able to attack.

Highest Attribute: Strength

While Daniel did not have the time to read all of the information ‘Identification’ gave he wished he had used it sooner. The elemental’s first two waves had constitution as their highest attribute; these had strength as their highest attribute.

After Daniel did his hail merry throw one of the elementals still got another throw off at Daniel. He braced himself. Knees bent weight forward on his front leg. His preparations did little as the boulder impacted right on his shoulder. It knocked him backwards and this time Daniel thought he heard a pop in his shoulder as pain radiated from the point of impact. Daniel laid sprawled on the ground he didn't try to get up. Just before he had been hit he had seen Kota jumping at the elemental. Steve should have finished off the second elemental with his spells, and Kota should be able to take out the one that had thrown the Stone at Daniel and the one that was missing a leg.

As he laid on the ground ‘Troll Regeneration’ was working overtime, and about a minute later Daniel’s assumption proved correct. A new one minute timer entered his vision signaling when the next wave would spawn. As soon as the timer appeared the ground started to rumble with a greater intensity than it ever had before. Daniel could almost feel a palpable fury radiating from the center of the quarry. This time however the shaking did not stop after a few seconds. It continued for the entire duration of the timer.

In the meantime while the timer continued to tick down Daniel had forced himself to his feet, and walked to retrieve ‘Ice Fang.’ By the time he did there were only twenty seconds left on the timer, and his shoulder had regained all of its mobility. After this dungeon was all over Daniel wanted some better defensive gear like a shield, and some more active abilities. He would need to look at his skill tree when it was over.

As the last few seconds of the time ticked down Daniel took a look at Kota, and noticed that he was once again releasing a faint blue light. One he finished processing the mana he would be able to evolve again. Then the timer reached zero and the trembling of the ground reached a peak. Loose stones and rocks were shaken loose from the walls of the quarry, and clouds of stone dust rained down.

As the dust filled the bottom of the quarry and restricted Daniel's vision he saw the silhouette of a massive elemental force it way out of the ground leaving a large pit in the center of the quarry. A brilliant light pierced its way through the dust. Daniel could see that the light came from the center of the massive elemental’s chest where a brown faceted crystal was embedded. Daniel had only just recently unlocked the use of his mana, but even he could feel just how much energy that crystal was radiating. A pulse of energy came from the crystal which pushed all of the still settling dust away. It was only then that Daniel got his first real look at what he was facing.

This elemental was eighteen feet tall, its entire body seemed to be made of a single block of stone. Daniel had no idea how it could move its arms and legs with no visible joints, but it somehow managed it. It was humanoid in shape, but massively scaled up. Like he had seen through the dust there was a brown crystal in the center of its chest.

As Daniel watched in awe and horror, the boss monster's massive stone hand melded into the stone floor of the quarry as it was reaching into a pool of water, and ripped out a massive Boulder at least the same size as Daniel's body. It was at that moment that Daniel's brain started working again, and he realized just how much danger he was in. "Split up Kota!" Daniel's body was moving even before the words finished leaving his mouth. Daniel Sprinted to the right as Kota sprinted to the left. As he ran Daniel started to angle his way towards the boss until he was running directly towards it.

With how large the boss was Daniel just hoped it was as slow as the other elementals had been. If it wasn't then this Boulder it was about to throw at him would instantly kill Daniel on impact. As soon as the boss brought its arm forward to throw the boulder Daniel activated ‘Heavy Charge’ he was still too far away for the skill to reach the boss, but Daniel was hoping that his sudden change in position would make the boss miss since it had already started its throw.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Just like he hoped the boulder flew over his head missing him. Daniel quickly closed the rest of the distance to the elemental. As he did he also saw a few of Steve's wind spells land on the boss's head and shoulder from above which carved some deep furrows in the boss’s stone body. The spells seemed to only cause superficial damage, but Daniel did not have the time to examine further.

Seconds later Daniel arrived underneath the boss. It was large enough that he could easily stand between its legs, but it was then that Daniel realized another problem. Because the boss’s height couldn't actually hit anything vital. Just like with the other elementals Daniel assumed that the brown crystal embedded in its chest was its most critical spot, but he had no way to reach it. As Daniel hesitated unsure what he should do the elemental took this opportunity to try and crush him with its feet. Daniel was forced to dodge out of the way, but like he had hoped it movements were slow and laborious which gave him ample time to move out of the way.

The only way Daniel saw that he could actually lower the elemental enough that he could hit its core was to take out one of its legs. So, that's exactly what he did. As the boss continued to try and stomp down on him, Daniel singled out one of its legs and used ‘Heavy Blow.’ His attack landed at where the elemental knee joint should be. Then he used ‘Quicken Blow’ and aimed for roughly the same spot. The two blows had carved out chunks of stone from the boss’s leg, but he was nowhere near breaking through. Daniel continued to run around the bosses legs landing blows whenever he had an opportunity. Steve also continued to fire off spells, but they came irregularly since Steve didn't want to hit Daniel by accident.

Eventually the boss got tired of just using its feet to try and crush Daniel, and started using its fists as well. He had to spend more effort dodging the crushing fists, but eventually Daniel got an opportunity to attack the boss when it suddenly stopped attacking Daniel and reached its hands through the ground and ripped out another massive boulder. The boss raided to its full height and aimed at Steve. With little time to react Daniel rushed forward and brought a hammer strike powered with ‘Heavy Blows’ down onto the boss's weakened knee. At the same time the boss brought its arm forward to throw. The knee gave out under Daniel’s powerful strike. Its buckling knee threw off its aim ever so slightly, and instead of hitting Steve directly with the boulder it instead landed below Steve. Unfortunately, the disaster was not averted. The path Steve was standing on began to crumble away from the impact. The path sheared off the edge of the quarry taking Steve with the falling stones.

Daniel was horrified when he watched Steve fall. Steve seemed to cast some spell as he fell, but Daniel did not have a clear line of sight as his vision was partially black by the boss’s body. He wanted to immediately go to Steve to help his friend, but with the boss alive that was impossible. He would need to kill it before it would be safe to go and try and help his friend.

With the boss down on one knee, Daniel was no longer able to run under and between its legs. However he could now reach the Brown crystal in its chest if he got close enough to land an overhand blow. He still had another problem though. To stand in front of the boss would make him very vulnerable. While its attacks were slow its fists were massive. That would make it very difficult to try and close the distance to get a good strike in. a plan quickly came to his mind. He would attack its remaining arms and legs trying to disable the boss further, and if he ever saw an opening in its attacks to go for the core embedded in the center of its chest he would go for the finishing blow.

Daniel began to run around the element attacking its arms and remaining leg. He would always try and attack as close to the same stop as possible to maximize damage. Eventually cracks began to form in the spots he was hitting, but Daniel was growing impatient. Steve could be injured and dying this very moment, and he was stuck killing the monster that had possibly killed his friend. He needed to finish this fight quickly. After another minute of dodging attacks Daniel thought he saw an opening. The boss’s left fist had slammed into the ground in front of Daniel. The left an opening for him to run under its arm which left the way to chest and core exposed. Without hesitating Daniel rushed into the exposed opening, and set his eyes on the brown crystal in its chest.

This moment of distraction where he was solely focused on his goal instead of his surroundings cost Daniel everything. He missed as the boss’s other fist came across its body. The blow impacted Daniel straight on as he seemed to almost run straight into the approaching stone fist.

The head-on blow sent Daniel flying back fifty feet before rolling for another twenty. Surprisingly as Daniel flew through the air Daniel did not lose hold of ‘Ice Fang’ thanks to his ‘Powerful Grip’ skill, but in this moment as Daniel rolled to a stop he wasn't able to appreciate that fact. The blow had nearly brought him all the way to the edge of the quarry when his momentum was finally brought to a stop.

There was no air left in Daniels lungs and he could have sworn he felt many somethings break inside of his body. Probably most of his ribs. One of the few things left in his body that hadn't been reinforced by any of his skills was his bones, and he could feel that weakness now as he felt the grinding of broken ribs as he struggled to get air back into his lungs. The pain made it hard to think, but with his greatly enhanced mind he was able to push most of the pain away.

As he pushed the pain away his mind seemed to slightly retreat into his mindscape. In this state his mind and body felt separated as if he was just an outside observer. He mentally tried to force his body to get to its feet, but his body refused to work properly and remained on its back facing the boss. He could faintly feel his ‘Troll Regeneration’ working overtime resetting his bones back into place and healing the internal bleeding, but it was just a faint sensation in the back of his mind. With enough time he knew his body would fix itself, but he did not currently have that time.

Daniel watched as the boss started to crawl towards Daniel for about twenty feet. Then for the third time it reached into the ground, and pulled out another hunk of stone to finish him off. There was nothing he could do. He still had one more minute left until ‘Heavy Charge’ was off cooldown, and even if it was he couldn't even get to his feet to use the skill. Daniel wondered if his and Steve’s deaths would be broadcast to the other hero’s as well.

Daniel closed his eyes unwilling to see his death come for him. A second later he heard the sound of the boulder heavily impacting the ground. He was surprised at how little pain there was, even in this slightly separated state of mind and body he thought some of the pain would leak through. The only thing he felt was the distant pain of bones reknitting themselves in his body thanks to ‘Troll Regeneration,’ but that wasn't right he shouldn't still feel pain if he was dead he snapped his eyes open. The boss laid prone on the ground, a boulder larger than it laid on its back crushing it. The stone that it was going to throw to finish off Daniel still in its hand unused. Daniel looked up to see where the rock had come from only to see the miners on one of the ledges above cheering and clapping each other on the backs. It seemed that they had been watching the fight, and used the opportunity of the boss getting closer to the edge of the quarry to help. It seemed that they had sheared off a section of the stone walkway high above and dropped it on the boss.

Daniel had not gotten any healing energy from ‘Death Blows’ from the boss so he knew it was still alive. Daniel didn't know long long what the miners had done would keep the boss out of the fight, but Daniel mentally urged his healing to go faster. About a minute later Daniel sat up since his bones were now in their popper locations. Shakily getting to his feet he was amazed at what the miners had done. In a corner of his mind Daniel almost hoped that the boulder was too heavy and the boss was unable to get out from under it. Of course that was when the boss started to move.

The boss's arms began to slowly move into a push-up-like position and in one motion its body phased through the boulder that was on its back as he went back to his kneeling position. The boss didn't truly have a face or any kind of facial features, but it looked pissed. Daniel made the decision that he was healed enough to fight and began a slow run back towards the boss, agony shooting through his body with each step, but was blocked from reaching his detached mind. As he got closer he could see millions of hairlines fracture all over the massive earth elemental's entire body. He also saw even more cracks in the joints that Daniel had been attacking. The stone the miners had dropped had not killed the boss, but it looked like its structural integrity was greatly compromised. Daniel had a new plan, and this time his impatience to help Steve would not cost him this fight.

The boss did not look towards Daniel, and was instead looking upwards to where the stone that had crushed it had come from. Daniel could still feel the anger coming off of the boss, and as he watched he picked up the stone that had been meant to finish off Daniel and prepared to throw it in retaliation at the miners.

Daniel had other plans. Before the boss managed to throw the chunk of stone Daniel arrived in front of it with the help of ‘Heavy Charge,’ and with all his strength and ‘Heavy Blows’ brought his hammer down on the arm that was holding the boulder. The already weakened arm shattered under his blow, and Daniel quickly retreated out of the reach of its remaining arm. He hoped that with only one arm remaining the boss wouldn't be able to continue throwing the stones. The boss focused on Daniel, but Daniel had already circled around behind the boss. From there he focused on its one remaining good leg. He used ‘Quickened Blow’ on it and while it did not completely shatter two more normal hammer strikes did finish it off. The boss only had one arm left, and it was unable to move fast enough to turn around and face Daniel.

Each second that he delayed gave him more time to heal, and time for his skills to come off cooldown. Once ‘Heavy Blow’ came off cooldown Daniel approached again and repeated the process to the other arm. This one didn't break on the first attack, but with one more use of ‘Quickened Blow.’ The arm shattered and the boss fell onto its chest. The boss was mostly immobilized. Daniel climbed onto its back and began swinging. Its core was in the front of its chest, so Daniel would need to break his way through from the other side. He got to work. Thankfully the process didn't take long. With all of the hairline fractures caused by the miners when they had dropped the stone it greatly sped up the process.

Three more minutes and three more activations of ‘Heavy Blow’ and ‘Quickened Blow’ Daniel broke through from the other side and finally caught sight of the Brown Crystal that was embedded in the elemental’s chest. Even now Daniel could see the boss flailing its limbs in an attempt to kill him no doubt, but all its limbs were either completely missing or too short to reach him. It was still able to slightly rock its body which messed with his footing a bit, but it was nothing he couldn't overcome.

Daniel raised Ice Fang above his head, and one last time brought it down with all of his strength without the aid of his skills. To his surprise the brown crystal didn't shatter, but instead broke away from the boss's body. When separated, all of the force animating the boss vanished and became completely inert. It was as if the boss was a puppet with its strings cut. Daniel reached down and pocketed the stone. At the same time a flood of healing from ‘Death Blows’ as the boss died began to enter his body, and new messages filled his vision. He dismissed them to be read later; he had more important things that he needed to take care of.

Instead of taking the healing energy for himself he held it in reserve. This was something he had never done before, and didn't know how long he could keep this up for. He began to run to where he had seen Steve fall. He used ‘Heavy Charge’ to close the distance faster. He then used the faint injury sense ‘Death Blows’ gave him to try and locate Steve; he hoped the man was still alive.

He ran over to the rock pile at the other end of the quarry from where Steve had fallen. As he approached the location he began to strain against the healing energy; it wanted to be used, and he was preventing that purpose by doing this. The edge of his injury sense range reached the pile of rocks. He saw Kota digging through the pile of rocks, and a second later he felt Steve. As soon as he felt the man he directed the healing energy towards the man, and it eagerly rushed towards him entering his body. Daniel couldn't feel how much it had helped, but he just hoped it had done something.

Kota had managed to partially unbury Steve. His head and chest were exposed, but there was a massive stone on Steve’s legs that the dog had not been able to remove. It had probably been around ten minutes since Steve had fallen and based on his limited knowledge of medicine he knew that Steve’s legs had probably been without any or very little blood circulation this entire time.

When you have no blood flow in a part of your body for extended periods of time tissue in that part of the body can begin to break down. When whatever is causing that blockage is removed it can cause all of that decomposing tissue to be brought back in the bloodstream which can cause the heart to stop or other kinds of damage.

Without knowing what he should do Daniel decided that speed was the best course of action. If he was able to bring Steve back through the portal and into the training hall he would have more options. With the help of Kota he lifted the boulder on one side, and flipped the boulder off of Steve. When he did he noticed the one intact blue vial on Steve’s belt. Daniel cursed he had used his last healing option on one of the miners and didn't have any left.

Without any other options, Daniel picked up Steve and began to leave the quarry. He had a long distance that he would need to cover to leave the quarry since their exit portal had been all the way at the top. “Kota, get my and Steve’s bags one the way out and then follow behind.” Daniel carried Steve cradled in his arms in front of himself. He tried to not jostle the man. He could tell that both of his legs were broken, and did not want to cause even more damage. As he ran Daniel thoughts about all of the mistakes he had made during the fight began to occupy his thoughts. Daniel’s emotions were in turmoil, and he carried Steve’s limp body; he felt almost as helpless as when he had lost his dad.