Was it, though? Was it a good idea?

Between the two of us, we had:

- No tank

- No healer

Which, as I stared down the full-health morthoth, the full-health ramthorn, and knew in my mind that Cuby was fighting a full, 3500 Hit Point wyvern—correction, spirefiend—sort of struck me as akin to trying to change a tire on your car, but without the extra tire. Or your car.

With my Psychic Parasite on the morthoth and Evasive Insights to help me double up on evaded attacks, I started casting an Implosive Missile at the ramthorn—only to be knocked to the ground as it lashed out with its hooves a moment later. Rousing Command was on cooldown, so I scrabbled to my feet over the next few seconds, eating a fireball tossed by the Morthoth and watching my Mana Shield break. It closed and began to swing its sword at me while the ramthorn tried to gore me with its horns, but I dodged two sword-swings and took the ramthorn’s attack without taking much damage, bringing me down to 45%.

I still had two Gift of Mercy castings, but instead I threw an Implosive Missile at the ramthorn, then—just as my Psychic Parasite ran out—loosed my Supercharged Unnatural Terror at the morthoth and then jumped into a nearby tree.

I had tried, as I cast the Unnatural Terror, to think of what I expected the morthoth feared the most: angels. I had no indication of whether that was what the spell description meant when it said it would be more effective if I had insights into my target’s fears, or even if angels were the right choice, or even if getting it right would do anything—perhaps I needed to know for sure, to have gotten the information via game mechanics.

But the morthoth let out a ululating howl and covered its head with its shield-arm and it’s fire-arm, then turned and ran away. Without its commander, the ramthorn began to smash its head into my tree as I rained missiles down onto it. I looked over at Cuby: as I watched, she leapt past the spirefiend, out of range of its snapping jaws and wing buffets—and the spirefiend, also absent its demonic commander, responded by throwing itself back into the air, grabbing her with its talons, and flying away.

Back in a bit, Cuby said, having only taken a little damage from being grabbed—a small price to pay to waste so much of the spirefiend’s time.

I sank four shots into the ramthorn—almost 16 seconds—and could see that I only had two shots left to kill it when I heard the enraged shriek of the morthoth and saw it barreling back up the slope toward us. With 8 seconds needed to kill the ramthorn, I cast an un-augmented Unnatural Terror on it instead of going for the kill—again thinking of angels—and watched it turn and flee with all the focus and speed of a prey animal, much faster than the morthoth.

I started casting a Fragmented Hardlight Construct, then flinched as I ate another fireball from the demon, bringing me down to 37%. A moment later it leapt through the air with its Mighty Leap, simply barreling into me where I sat in the tree and pushing me to the ground, its sword coming down to puncture my chest and drop me to 22%—and I brought myself up with Rousing Command, finished my Hardlight Construct before it could strike again with its sword, and put the bastard back in the box.

A handful of seconds before he was out: I began casting a Fragmented Supercharged Implosive Missile, stopping to leap back into a tree as soon as my Mighty Leap cooled down.

Then I finished my casting, watching as the ramthorn came back up the slope and the morthoth shattered its way out of its hardlight prison—and I launched the missile at the ramthorn as it smashed its head into the base of my tree, dropping it dead in an implosion of electricity.

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I felt a stinging blow in my side as the morthoth lashed me with its chain, dropping me to 17%, but I wasn’t particularly worried—as far as I was concerned, the fight was over. I cast an ordinary Unnatural Terror at the demon, and it stumbled away, covering its head as before while I prepared a Fragmented Supercharged Hardlight Construct. The fear broke fast—fast enough that I wasn’t finished with my casting—and the morthoth roared and leapt at me.

I was prepared for this, too, and simply used my Mighty Leap to jump away before it landed, sword-point down in what might have been a killing blow. Then I spun, finished my casting, and rushed forward to meet the charging morthoth, putting him back in the box as he raised his sword.

I stored another Fragmented Supercharged Hardlight Construct before he did the requisite 700 damage to break free, then cast a Moment of Mastery. The demon broke free, shouted again, whipped his chain forward—and I cracked Moment of Mastery to dodge it and just put him back in the box again. This time I cast another Fragmented Supercharged Hardlight Construct, then a Mana Shield—and when the morthoth broke free I was standing next to him. He didn’t get a single attack against my refreshed shield—I just put him back in the box again.

The strategy was working fine, so I cast a Supercharged Haste on myself, then stored another prison for the morthoth—and then cast a Supercharged Implosive Missile, which finished just after it came out of its prison, struck it for 731 damage—almost 20%—before putting him in the box again.

You okay? I asked Cuby. I’m done in less than a minute.

I’m fine! she said. I was vaguely aware of the fact that her spirefiend has set down on the ground further up the slope, and I could hear the frustration in its cries.

My Haste wore off and, having gotten used to the timing, I launched Supercharged Missiles into the demon, alternating with Fragmented Supercharged Hardlight Constructs to keep him contained for all the moments except the ones that I needed to shoot him. It got a few shots against my Mana Shield, almost bringing it to zero, and at one point it broke out fast enough that I had to bail on my missile casting to put it back in the box—but it didn’t break through my Mana Shield before I dealt the final blow and watched it fall to the ground.

Done.

Great! said Cuby. I looked over to see that she was at three-quarters health and the spirefiend was similar—then I looked down at my experience bar and decided not to spend a healing potion.

I cast a Supercharged Mana Shield on Cuby once I reached her, then a Supercharged Haste, then a Supercharged Unnatural Terror on the spirefiend. Cuby jumped on its back as this spell finished, and it was a short combat from there despite the thing’s enormous health bar.

The spirefiend fell to the ground with a mewling cry, and Cuby fluttered down beside me with her Charm of Gliding ability.

What was more:

Congratulations, you are now a level 9 Mage / Psychic!

You have a new Spell Slot. Open your Abilities pane to choose a new Spell.

You have a new Spell Slot. Open your Abilities pane to choose a new Spell.

Your Hit Points have increased by 70 and your Energy has increased by 130.

Human Adaptability increases each of your Strength, Agility, Focus, and Spirit by 2. You gain 2 stat points to distribute.

“Okay,” I said, feeling good with more than 1000 Hit Points. I nodded to myself, trying to work off the exhilaration of the prolonged combat. “So I guess… next time we see a particularly jacked goat, we’ll just assume that if we attack it, a bunch of equally muscular demon friends will show up with all the Hit Points in the Colosseum to fuck us around… and I’ll lay some rune traps, or something.”

“That sounds good,” said Cuby. “I got a bleeding strike that will do almost nothing but reduce my Strike Cooldown.”

“I’ve got cards even if my stuff sucks,” I said. “But also, can’t you cast illusions? Maybe this is good for you?”

I pulled the Immobile Illusion card that I’d gotten in Oromar’s Bastion and passed it to her. “I’d been hoping to find a slot for it myself,” I said. “Since I’ve got the ability to store it and throw it out mid-combat, and since my illusions are harder to see through.”

“This is better than a bleed, definitely,” said Cuby. “Thanks, Alatar.”

“Good,” I said. “Now let’s see what I got.”