Krayli's form darted from around a tree and into their group, but she kept moving past them. The trees blocked line of sight to whatever was chasing her, but a rumbling in the earth told Gi that it wasn't far behind.
"Spread out!" Hillin shouted. Not wanting to be the first target, Gi and Poe sprinted backwards and took cover behind a tree. The werewolves, the last two of the complex races, hopped backwards as well and split from each other. One of them had landed right in front of Gi's tree. Nori and her goblin stepped even further back, but still ended up in front of Hillin.
As soon as everyone had gotten in position, a green blur slithered into the small copse of trees they were in. The creature had the body of a cobra but with long thin arms that stuck out from its hood. It had two mismatched swords in either hand, but what really stuck out was its face. It was ostensibly a cobra's face, but its jaw was strangely articulated and its eyes seemed more like a human stuck in constant agony.
One of the remaining werewolves leapt directly towards the towering monster and its blade cut the werewolf in half. A strangled warcry died on its lips as it crashed to the ground in two different parts. The snake elite shrieked and the other melee members shrunk back away from it.
Hillin wasn’t deterred. He tossed another one of his grenades towards its long body that was snaked around the trees. “Last one!” He shouted just before it exploded and shrapnel was embedded in the snake elite. It shrieked again, and motivated by its pain, it darted directly towards the werewolf in front of Gi.
The werewolf, having seen what had happened to its race twin, flung itself out and left the snakes long sword arcing towards Gi where he peeked out from behind the tree. Wanting to keep behind the werwolf, Gi dodged out away from the tree. Using his shooting form, he attempted to a fire a three shot burst at the snake elite’s arm, but all three missed.
“Damn it,” Gi said. “Poe, try and lock it up!”
Gi kept darting from tree to tree, following after his werewolf companion. Hillin’s hawk and Krayli’s arrows were much more successful at hitting the snake elite, but their attacks didn’t seem able to do anything but scuff its scales. Poe shot out his webs, but they seemed barely to slow the creature before they broke. If they didn’t hit an arm, they did even less than that. Nori and the other goblin didn’t even attempt to approach it.
Once his cooldown was back up, he attempted another dodge and shoot combo, but only one of them nicked the snake elite. However, his [Arcane Bolt] was the first thing that had seemed to damage it at all. Before he could attempt another, the snake elite lengthened its body, giving it some incredible range on its strike. The lunge surprised the werewolf who’d thought itself out range. That surprise died as the werewolf did with a sword through its middle.
How did the snake elite have such skill? Gi had lost his meat shield and was still struggling with the complex movements that he’d practiced with Nori back by the waterfall. An errant shot had hit its main body, but it would take several to beat through it and do enough damage to down it. He had to take out at least one arm first or they were all dead.
“Hit the damn thing!” Krayli yelled and Nori joined in the orc’s cursing.
“I fucking know,” Gi growled, but he was already dodging again. It seemed to understand that he was the only one that could hurt it and it was getting better with each attack. Every slash of its sword came closer and closer to him. It wasn’t that Gi was getting worse either. The snake elite was just getting better more quickly. What could he use to get the drop on the snake elite?
His mind raced as he dodged. The latest attack cut off the whiskers on the left side of his face and was only that half a whisker distance from chopping off his arm ruined by the rampant Eldritch entities. Gi clearly didn’t work the best under pressure, but thankfully, an idea finally came to him.
“Poe! Get on my shoulders!”
He darted behind a tree just long enough to give Poe time to perch behind his neck, facing forward. All his tiny limbs gripping on his shoulders and back. Before the snake could make its way around the tree, he ran away from it giving him a little more distance. Like it had done with the werewolf, it took this opportunity to close the distance between them with its full body lunge.
Gi jumped straight up to avoid the incoming sword point, but it wasn’t enough. “Lift, Poe!” Poe’s tiny legs dug in deeper and yanked Gi right up at the arc of his jump. The distance still wasn’t quite enough and Gi had to do a split in the air as to keep his legs from being impaled. However, now he had an easy shot.
Three bolts of light lanced from his finger and into the snake elite’s arm. The first bolt embedded itself about halfway through its arm before dissipating, the second blasted out a bigger chunk, the third cut all the way through the two craters of blood and scale. The snake elite shrieked again as its dismembered forearm dropped to the ground along with its sword.
“Good work!” Hillin shouted and the group renewed their own attacks on the snake, targeting its eyes or its newly opened wound. It still did little damage but it did distract it. Gi still had about half of his internal energy so they should be able to wear it down. Their victory seemed assured now, but something strange stuck out to Gi. Had the rumbling ground gotten louder?
“Too late!” Krayli yelled over the snake elite’s shrieks. A tree crashed down on top of the snake elite, leaving only its still wailing head free. Gi hopped backwards as dust was thrown in the air, saving him from two more trees that were toppled. As the dust cleared, his mouth dropped open.
A creature about the size of a two story townhouse had burst into their section of forest, turning it into a makeshift clearing. Its body looked like a dozen giant octopi had their legs chopped off and then those legs were all melded together. There didn’t seem to be any central body to writhing mass of tentacles, but every tentacle had suckers, eyes, and gaping maws slapped haphazardly along each of its limbs. The eyes all pulsed either blue, grey, or green like they’d been collected from a dozen different creatures.
The size of this monstrosity had frozen all the members of their team, but a shriek from the trapped snake elite grabbed Gi’s attention and he realized that he’d almost made a grievous error. A three round burst of [Arcane Bolt] to the snake elite’s face silenced the creature for good.
Eldritch Sword Weresnake (Elite) defeated!
1 Body Orb received.
“It’s the Leader,” Hillin said. “I’ve got something for it just keep me safe!” That command was cut short. The tentacled Leader roared with the sound of a thousand furious geese, but it wasn’t a simple yell. Waves of sound blasted against everyone in their party. Trees leaned from the force of the blast and Gi found himself skidding against the ground with one arm trying to cover both of his ears.
Blood leaked out from his left ear as he hadn’t been able to cover it in time. He couldn’t hear a thing on that side and he hoped that was a temporary situation instead of a permanent one. Gi managed to scramble to his feet and ducked behind a nearby tree which seemed dangerous considering the strength of this thing. Hillin and Krayli had gotten back to their feet first and Hillin had a strange looking tube that had been set up on three legs. One end pointed towards the Leader.
Krayli pointed towards their enemy as well. “All the grey eyes have closed! That sonic attack must be linked to those eyes!”
Gi leaned around the tree in enough time to see the other goblin get smacked by one of the tentacles except it didn’t go flying. It had been captured in the sucker of that tentacle and slammed against another where the maw there bit into the tiny monster. The goblin’s yells didn’t last long. Trying to ignore the horrific sight, Gi glanced and confirmed that no grey eyes were open and he could only see both blue and green.
“Flank it! Lure it away from Hillin!” Krayli shouted. Gi leapt into action a second later, moving around the other side. Despite having been relatively passive for the snake elite fight, Nori had parked herself directly in front of Hillin. The tip of a tentacle lanced towards her, but she pivoted, slapping it away and letting it crash into a tree beside her. She struck out at it with several punches, but her damage was low. Blunt damage wasn’t good against the spongy tentacles of the Leader.
Luckily, that wasn’t the only damage they had. Krayli shot an arrow just as Gi released another three shot burst. Its tentacles writhed with the attacks, but despite the damage, it only seemed like a drop in the bucket. If the Weresnake had possessed difficult to pierce armor, the Eldritch Leader had a health pool as deep as the ocean. This was going to be an endurance fight. And a fight it would be.
The tentacles lashed out at all three of them simultaneously. They were as fast as the Weresnake had been, but no matter where he dodged, four of them were always on him. He just wasn’t fast enough to keep up with all of them at once. Gi ducked and hopped to avoid two different strikes, but those gave one enough time to sling itself in low. The mouths on it still released its unearthly wail though without the sonic damage. Gi sprinted towards a tree and launched himself up, flipping himself backwards over the attacking limb.
That proved to be the error though. Forcing himself into the air, he couldn’t dodge the fourth limb as it smacked into him. Thankfully, he hadn’t been hit by either a sucker or its mouth, but he still crunched against the ground. Gi had managed to spin just enough to land on his already useless arm. It crunched, now hanging completely limply inside of his robe. While it didn’t change his ability to fight, shattering your arm was excruciating.
Even as he screamed in pain, Gi scrambled away from the mass of tentacles, trying to get himself some breathing room to recover. Blasting out another burst, he managed to blast out an eye in one of the approaching tentacles. As the one with a burnt out eye retreated, Poe picked him up and carried him the last few feet out of harm’s way.
“I can’t help,” Poe whined, but Gi didn’t have time to console his little friend. He had to be faster.
Use Body Orb?
Yes/No
Choose a stat to increase.
Stats
Agility - E+ -> D
With a groan, Gi popped out from behind the tree. Krayli somehow seemed to be faster than him which told him that her Agility was higher than his somehow or she had a trait that sped her up. Either way, Hillin hadn’t lied when he’d said they had both completed all their Elites. Nori had somehow fended off Hillin as he continued to mess with the tube. Orbs appeared in Hillin’s hand and he dumped them into the tube over and over. Assuming he had the same limit as him, it looked like Hillin was dumping all thirty of his Soul Orbs into the tube.
“Almost there!” Hillin’s shout forced Krayli to hop backwards as well. She hopped backwards and manifested an arrow on her bow. It swelled as she dumped internal energy into it. It seemed that Krayli had some hidden aces up her sleeve as well. Now with a D in Agility, Gi ran back into the tangle of tentacles so he could keep shooting. Instead of doing a burst this time, he slowly shot one at a time to keep his regen up.
If Hillin and Krayli’s attack worked, he wanted to make sure he had energy enough to take the kill himself.