Monica barely managed to roll under the next strike from the Corrupted Metallic Wolf Boss, her movements sluggish compared to its enhanced speed. The beast's claws left deep gouges in the stone floor where she had been a split second before. She tried to counter with a burst of Obsidian Impact, but the corrupted metal coating simply absorbed it with barely a shimmer.
Dammit, its defense went up too much! How am I breaking through the metal?
"Futile resistance," Machina spoke, still holding the unconscious Dotty. "My blessing has made this vessel too strong for you, Avatar. Just die and let me take the girl."
“Never!” Monica shouted back, backflipping and avoiding the elongated metallic claw, jumping in the air to dodge a sweep of the three-bladed tail.
Now that the Golden Flame had healed most of the damage she had received and her eyes laser-focused on the creature, empowered by Mana Sense, she could at the very least, have a chance to dodge.
However, it required her full concentration not to die in an instant, which meant she didn’t have time to formulate a plan.
When she tried again to create distance, one of its blade-tipped tails whipped around impossibly fast, catching her in the side. The Nightshade Battle Wear prevented the worst of the damage, but she felt ribs crack from the impact. The Golden Flame immediately began mending her injuries, but Monica knew she was fighting a losing battle.
I am burning too much Mana. I can’t keep doing this.
As Monica pulled herself away from the snapping maw of the monster, she finally faced the harsh truth - she needed more power. The Phoenix Feathers on her bracers pulsed with potential energy, tempting her with the boost she desperately needed. But her current Vitality wouldn't be enough to sustain burning both.
If only I had invested all my points in Vitality instead of spreading them out, she thought bitterly. The realization hit her hard - she had made a critical error in her attribute distribution that might now cost Dotty her life.
She looked at the two feathers, knowing that burning both would grant her immense power but also guarantee her death afterward. With her current Vitality, she might not even survive long enough to kill the boss before succumbing to the drain. She had been too focused on speed and combat ability and hadn’t considered how she might have needed forgetting that sometimes raw survivability was more important.
The wolf kept up its relentless attacks, its mercury eyes reflecting Machina's ancient malice.
Monica knew she had to make a choice - and fast.
* * *
"Ted, we need to do something," Heidi said, gripping Ted's sleeve.
It had been bad enough when Monica had to face the Boss without dying. Heidi had thought that the chances of her pulling it off were already slim enough. But now the Boss was coated in metal plates and emanated so much Corruption. Not to mention that it was currently fifty levels above Monica.
It was true that Monica was the Avatar of the Twin Phoenix, but this was a monster empowered by no less than an Old God. Before meeting Monica, Heidi had never even thought of meeting one of these terrifying ancient beings. Even the Healer God would have been nervous standing in front of a projection of Machina.
But Monica just fought. She had taken wounds that would have killed anyone else, but her Golden Flame had managed to keep her alive as she fought with all she had against the Corrupted Metallic Wolf Boss.
"What... what do we do?" Ted stammered, not even knowing what to say.
"I don't know," Heidi replied softly. Heidi knew that her Skills would do nothing against the monster if Monica's exploding blows, which she wasn't even clear how the redhead had developed, could do nothing against the armor of the creature.
Ted looked with his eyes fixed upon Monica, his inner thoughts hidden away from Heidi. Ted had been following along for the past few days, feeling like he had contributed nothing, not even moral support, to the group. Monica had taken charge and had led them not only to explore and level up, but she had also made a warrior out of Dotty and a new woman out of Heidi.
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Meanwhile, Ted had uselessly strummed on the Dwarven mandolin. He knew that the Dwarven mandolin belonged to a legendary Bard. And not only that, but it had belonged to a Dwarf. Dwarves were creatures of legend, long extinct, whose tools and weapons were coveted by Blacksmiths and warriors alike. A Dwarven recipe was worth a hundred platinum coins. Yet even with a mandolin forged inside Viscera, the great Dwarven capital, he could do nothing.
His Class provided him with heaps of Attributes, but he had not figured out how to use them. He tried making new songs, playing the ones he knew, but the more he looked onward the more he watched, the greater the despair he felt at not being able to catch up.
At this moment in time, Ted looked at Monica's struggle. And the only thing he wished was that he could help. As Heidi worried about Monica and Dotty, Ted felt as if the metallic claws of the wolf were tearing his heart apart. There was nothing he could do.
He knew that stepping inside the room would mean certain death, that Monica could be resuscitated as many times as she wanted. Even if they lost Dotty, it would be one life. If he and Heidi—or even he alone—stepped into the Boss’s chamber, the death toll would only grow. He felt useless—he could do nothing to change the outcome of this fight.
However, as he focused completely on Monica, he felt something warm spread from his chest to his shoulders, to his elbows, wrists, and reach up to his fingertips. He felt the same sensation rise to his throat starting from the collarbone to his Adam's apple, up to the tip of his tongue.
* * *
I don’t have any other choice, she thought.
She burned one of the two feathers, immediately feeling a big chunk of Vitality leaving her body.
The surge of power was immediate and intoxicating. Her attributes skyrocketed as the feather caught on fire, granting her the strength and speed she sorely needed.
She immediately put it to use, ducking under the wolf's strike, now fast enough to easily dodge and landing a devastating combo of punches enhanced by Obsidian Impact. The corrupted metal actually dented under her enhanced strength, and for the first time, the beast seemed to feel pain.
But even with one Phoenix Feather burned, Monica knew she was running out of time. Each passing second drained more of her Vitality, and she could feel her life force draining away.
The wolf roared so loudly that the entire chamber trembled. Then, its three-bladed tail lashed out simultaneously in different patterns, forcing Monica to go on the defensive to avoid them. Even with her dramatically increased speed and strength, the fight was still lopsided. The Boss was too strong and by the time she managed to inflict any real damage, she would have been left without Vitality.
She waited until her Phoenix Step cooldown finished, then made her move. She activated the skill three times in rapid succession, each step empowered by the Obsidian Flame. The first step took her directly at the wolf's head. As it snapped at her with its metallic jaws, she used Obsidian Impact, empowered by Phoenix Step, and punched it right on its snout, snapping its head back. The second step she used was to jump and land a devastating kick on the same spot, feeling the metal groan and split.
The wolf howled in pain and tried to shake her away, but Monica was already executing her third step. She grabbed the left horn of the creature, using Phoenix Step as soon as she slung herself on its neck, this time using the momentum to somersault and land an axe kick in the same exact spot for the third time in a row.
Shatterpoint, the Special Effect Obsidian Impact, activated, and she felt the added strength behind her kick crumpling metal, flesh, and bone.
However, the creature, empowered by Machina’s Corruption, ignored all the blinding pain coursing through her body with ruthless efficiency and whipped the three-bladed tail at her. Monica was in midair and only managed to dodge two, with the third catching her straight in the abdomen, easily piercing through the Nightshade Battle Wear’s shadowy veil and impaling her from side to side.
Blood sprayed from Monica's mouth as the tail lifted her into the air. The Golden Flame immediately began working to heal the grievous wound, but she could feel her Vitality draining faster now - both from the Phoenix Feather's effect and her devastating injury.
And as the wolf's mercury eyes gleamed triumphantly, Monica realized with growing dread that she might have to burn her second feather after all - even if it meant certain death.
Then, a deep, resonant note cut through the chamber.
Monica, still impaled on the metallic tail, slowly and laboriously turned her head toward the threshold. Ted stood there inside the chambers, his fingers dancing across the Dwarven mandolin's strings.
Each note made the chamber vibrate.
This wasn’t the Ted that had been strumming his instrument without purpose—no. This was a Ted who had clearly discovered a new fire in his heart.
His eyes were closed, but his face showed none of the uncertainty that had plagued him these past days. Instead, his expression was serene and focused, channeling something ancient through his instrument.
The first chord struck like thunder, making even Machina's projection turn to look. The sound reverberated off the walls, but instead of fading, it grew stronger, layering upon itself.
"A puny Bard?" Machina's metallic voice held a note of genuine surprise.
The young man's eyes snapped open, blazing with an inner light. An aura of pure sound manifested around him in visible waves of golden energy.
When he finally began to sing, his voice carried power she had never heard before.
And so, Ted sang at the top of his lungs.