A moving mass of concentrated mana in the middle of a spacious dark room. I can already imagine the caves BGM fade out and the boss-fight BGM fading in. 'Inspect!"
** DING **
Torterrene Tail Warden lv 1
Unexpectedly informative. First of all, if there is a tail warden; there is a good chance that there will be a leg warden, a torso warden and various other wardens. Not to mention the presence of a warden means there is something to ward against—which practically means there is something to protect. And it being a mere level 1, like Quagxytes is something I find very suspicious, coincidence? Or a clue that this creature is also a level 1 Torterrene.
Light. Multiple balls of extra bright lights are shot around the center area. Revealing a large space and the mass of ethereal metal; as it unravels upwards to become a 25 meters tall humanoid heavy-armored turtle. Yes, it is partially see-through… Imagine one TMNT but with a longer torso, a much larger shell, shorter limbs, and a beefier build. Oh, and an expressionless flat face. I'm very curious about what important things around here need this much protection.
The warden stands tall, and judging by the way it stands; proudly looking down on my smaller frame. A few moments after its emergence, the teenage mutant turtle wannabe squared its broad shoulders, then slightly moved its arms and fingers as if feeling out its new body. Lastly, it took half a step forward. Which brought to my attention towards a plain pedestal that had been hidden under its massive size. Upon said rock design pedestal floats a crystal—a Core.
"Of course there's a core." I muttered to myself, which caused my voice to echo through the chamber somehow, which in turn caused the Warden to roar. But wait as I may, it remains standing in place.
"Oi, oversized snail! Come get me!! Are your transparent muscles just for show or are they too much of a burden for your lousy brittle bones." I'm not much good with cursing anyone but I do hope Taunt picks up the slack… It roared louder, but still refused to move and any further taunts only brought forth similar results. So, I did what everyone in my current position will do, spend a few—or like 1000—minutes grinding the Skill!
"Even the best cooks can't make your acrid meat taste good!" I fake retched. Not that this one is any better than the previous, but one reason or another, it took another half step forward from this last Taunt. I feel like there have been enough time wasted and proceed to release my prepared Spell.
VLoS, x4! Blink! Slash Smash Stab! Blink! My weapon failed to penetrate its defense, or rather, it did not feel as if my attack connected. My four conjured helpers are doing no better; all Lightning bolts simply flow through it and towards the ground while all icicle bolts shatter upon impact. Only once in a while would the tip cause slight fractures that instantly healed, then its body stopped fracturing all together. Like its host; it has regeneration. And as the creature seems to be immune to physical attacks, so use Spells. Earth is commonly weak to water; Magico Disk! I summoned 10 non-permanent V2 disks for 10 mana each—well, 7 due to my title—and provided every single one with an extra 193 mana; coming to a total of 2000 mana.
"Time to find out what your elemental weakness is exactly!" I said partly to myself with a grin. To begin with, water. One disk tripled in RPM and began collecting water from the ambient air, forming a spinning water elemental disk, no reason not to make it slightly hot. What is left of the Latent mana after all that, I invest into further increasing its diameter… The disks zoomed forth and struck true. It is the size of a tire, just very thin and streamlined. The disk pierced halfway through one semi-ethereal arm before suddenly halting and breaking away into ambient mana. I find the way it stopped so suddenly rather unnatural, and that hot water did absolutely nothing!
Next, fire! A similar disk is formed, this time covered in swirly flames. Only to be stopped before it even pierced the creature… So it also has high resistance to magic? The wind, pure unattuned mana, ice, ice and water, sand, and even stone. All failed to touch the creature, even the previously partly-effective water did nothing—though the sand might influence its effect somehow.
With 3 Disks left, I repeat the first all-water elemental disk made and launch the trio all at the same time. Only for every single one to do no-damn-thing! My 4 conjured VLoS also fades away after running out of mana.
The creature roars loudly with every hit, but still refuses to move away from that Core… Invaseviction! Just one to test things out for now. I send the jaws to lurk near where its head should be, but the moment I had it phase to Trus Space to take a bite, the whole construct breaks and starts unraveling. Starting from the teeth before slowly traveling along the rest of its construct. Is it also immune to magic?
How the heck do you defeat something immune to both physical and magical attacks? Maybe ignore it and go for the core? The only trouble with that line of thought being how it refuses to be more than one step away from it. How tough… I excitedly grin unknowingly.
"How about this!?" I yell at it while jumping high up into the air; Latent Coating! "Have some grease!"
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
From my currently heightened position, I send a 30 meters cube area of grease for a whopping 6300 mana. Which upon impact with the thing, got dispelled! Only the few meters that failed to directly hit it impacts the floor and leaves behind a layer of slippery substance. "tsk!"
I may not be able to damage it, but lets see if the impacts of my attacks can at least push it away from the Core! Blink. Its back wide open before me, I solidify the air below my feet with Ki; Flowing Art, then did a 360 horizontal spin before targetting its upper back with the blade of my Guandao; Slash-Smash!
Crack!
Its stony flesh parted before my weapon—like sashimi to sushi knife, chips of its broken wound litter the floor. Not one to miss my chance, I follow through with another Smash-Stab to deepen the wound. Only for my weapon to effectively bounce off the inner part of its wounds. I stare dumbstruct at the closing cut. Damnit! What in the world is happening here?
Blink, I dodge an incoming fist—that actually wasn't even gonna hit as the thing slipped over the slippery floor—and find myself midair within arms reach of the ceiling. Beam Torrent. 35 mana and an additional 965 invested as fuel, I allow the upside down turret to charge its beam while I Blink to 4 other points around the creature to conjure similar constructs on each position. Creating a circle of turrets surrounding the warden. A few seconds to charge; I blink to each one in the order I conjured them and fired their load! Note to self, add remote control to Beam Torrent.
5 almost simultaneous thin beams of water mixed with a handful of fine sand zips at the enemy, aiming for its shoulders, upper chest and back; the general area near its neck. But still failed to cause any damage, that cannot be right. Even the greased floors no longer affect it… I am assuming that it could switch between physical or magical immunity? This is frustratingly fun, and it's been a while since I met an enemy that can survive more than a few hits.
I'll do both damage types together this time.
Beam Torrent. A turret grows out of my tailbone, quite like a tail. Magico Disk. A total of 500 mana is invested into one massive disk this time; another much larger circular water saw with additional particles of fine sand. I have it orbit around the creature while watching the ghostly turtle keep an eye on the orbiting disk—which suddenly took a 90 degrees turn to fly straight at its torso diagonally. It is wide enough to almost bisect the creature's arms, assuming the Spell is effective. Blink!
Crack!
Slash-Smash! While the Spell failed to cause any damage, my Guandao once again managed to injure the creature… Again! I repeated the attack much faster this time, my second weapon attack managed to barely bite into its outer torso before the weapon was stopped. But the water-sand beam I had been charging worked fine. Yep, "I gotchu now!"
Between my five Parallel Thoughts, one controls my physique for close quarter combat, another charges and releases the Beam Torrent on my lower back. Two others casts, control and launch Magico Disks, while the last prepares Lesser Heal and trigger Blink when necessary. I am sure now that it is capable of being either immune to physical attacks or magical attacks, though which one exactly being something under its control. But never both at the same time. There is also a few seconds of delay between each switch. The Tail Warden is slow enough that I do not need Haste to dodge every single one of its attacks, with Blink, evading is so easy; taking candy from a baby might be harder to accomplish … because they cry, and do puppy eyes.
My newest trouble lies in the way it refuses to die! Is it supposed to die? Eventually, after a few minutes to get used to bombarding the Warden with both types of attack whilst dodging its return hits. And watching it regenerate all that damage like a video on reverse. Maybe the answer to the question of whether or not it can die is a resounding no.
I change target, no longer aiming to kill it through head injury or beheading. Focusing fire on its right leg instead; first a Slash-Stab to trigger its change and cause a slight cut, followed by both Magico Disk, then a Beam of sand-water to keep magical pressure. Lastly, I amputate its leg with Slash-Stab… watching it tilt towards gravity for a fraction of a second to confirm its falling, before Blinking towards the Core between its legs.
Town Hollow Core
Claim: Y / N
The prompt dinged and almost blinded me with its light; yes! I ain't waiting for that thing to regenerate again… With another ding, the Warden dissolved into light and was withdrawn into the Core. Another prompt informed me of a new Territory acquisition and my responsibility of protecting this area—with help from the previous Tail Warden, apparently—in exchange for being allowed to develop the area within this hollow bone. So I did not get the chance to actually hollow a small part of some random bone, but I suppose this is similar enough. Some would even argue this is better.
Suddenly, irregular fluctuations registered on my Mana Sense, drawing my attention. Quagxytes! They have the best timings sometimes, as several hundred are now rushing out of the earthen-flesh walls just outside this hollow and charging in through the entrance. I had not replenished my two Magic disks but still have the Beam Torrent on my back. With subtle sounds of beaming, a rain of multi-elemental sharp beams rained down on the incoming hostiles. Ignoring a System ding, I invest multiple parts of my parallel minds to cast a party of VLoS-es; 5 is successfully summoned. Blink. I massacred the intruders easily, making quick work of all 582 using both magical and physical means. Even remembering to dismiss the 5 turrets on the ceiling and the one on my tailbone.
Intruders detected
Deploy Warden? Y / N
Kinda too late, but yes!
Predictably, the previous turtle manifests, legs and all. What is unpredictable being that this is its attack form and that there is a defense form! I mentally flick the switch. Its form dissolved into a vortex of metallic mana before manifesting as a wider but shorter humanoid turtle, only its upper-torso is formed, approximately 35 meters wide this time, but only ten meters or so tall. Its ethereal body encompasses the Town Core and the area around it like a dome. Not sure how strong its defenses are currently, but if it was anything like the previous form; claiming the Core would've been much more troublesome. But I am glad that was not the case, time to get building!