The fireball grew large, headed straight for his face, filling his vision and scorching his skin. He threw Protection just in time as the burning flames reached him. The bubble popped so quickly he wasn’t sure he had even cast it. The flames scorched across his face and arms, and he felt a scream tear from his lips.

He hammered on Healing Cloud as fast he could. The cooling feel of it washing over him was soothing, but it didn’t heal much of the damage, and his skin still burned like he had been dipped in lava.

Daniel’s health was almost but not quite full, so Rick dashed over and threw the spell again while standing near him. Its effect washed over them both, filling Daniel the last bit of the way up and pushing Rick’s health a little higher.

The boss’s footsteps thudded forward. His hand was up again, and the fireball cast was just starting. Rick’s Protection was nowhere near off cooldown and wouldn’t be ready in time. He thought frantically—there had to be another way, something that would save them.

Clang, clang, clang!

Gambit’s sword rang as he slammed it into the hinge.

Rick yelled. "Everyone, run to the second hinge! Get behind it!"

Nia moved immediately, but Daniel, who had been busy planting another trap, hesitated before chasing after the others. The fireball cast finished, and the boss’s hand came down, shooting the orb of fire in their direction.

Nia and Gambit had lined up behind the hinge along the center line of the room, but the boss had been moving towards them and was off to the right. Just in time, they realized and threw themselves that way. Daniel reached them an instant later, just as the fireball hit the hinge. The orb broke around it, splashing the area with fire and burning all of them for a sizable chunk of their health—around a third each.

Rick’s health ended up much lower because he had not been fully healed since the last time. He threw Healing Cloud once across the party and then adjusted is target and threw it again. It hit Nia and Gambit the first time, as well as himself. When he threw it the second time, it hit Gambit and Daniel. After that, Gambit was almost full, but the others—and especially Rick—were still lower. Rick’s health was only just to half.

The boss lifted his hand to cast again, but it was still striding forward and hit the next of Daniel’s traps. This trap was smaller and did less damage. The boss jerked and yelled and was splashed with only a little bit of tar and a few spikes. Worse, it didn’t interrupt his cast.

"Fools, you won’t stop me-"

Clang! Gambit’s sword came down on the hinge. The fireball had scorched the second arm’s hinge, and most of its health was gone. That swing finished it off.

The boss roared in dismay and let go of the fireball he had been summoning, which puffed out of existence as the casting bar vanished.

Nia had spread back out to the left and was firing blowgun shots again. All this time, she had been shooting the boss, slowly chipping its health down. Daniel had thrown a few arrows but was mostly distracted setting traps. There was one more the boss hadn’t yet stepped on, and a fourth farther down, but that was past the second crystal.

The boss stepped on the third trap as it went to the crystal, which splashed tar and spikes across its legs, but still didn’t stop him.

"You fools will not destroy the forge!" the boss bellowed again, his voice echoing through the chamber.

Sam: Rick, what are you up to?

That message came in just as Rick was about to throw another heal.

He finished his cast targeting Nia, who had been too close to the last blast. Then he quickly hammered out a reply, Rick: Nothing much.

Sam: Everyone in the zone is getting the notifications. And Pratt's been texting me. Are you sure you're doing nothing?

The boss was starting another cast and Rick needed to focus. He managed to send back.

Rick: Pratt?

The boss rushed over and grabbed at the second crystal. Arrows continued to thud into his back as he wrestled with it, trying to get it to align with the forge, with the anvil at the end of the room. When he had wrenched it into place, he stepped back. As before, the crystal's armature snapped from the strain and it pivoted to the side, slamming the fragile levistone into the wall.

The boss roared aloud as pieces of levistone rained to the floor.

"Gambit, the third hinge!" Rick called.

But the Mongolian warrior was already there, swinging his sword.

The ring of metal on metal sounded different.

"It's no good!” Gambit called. “There's no health bar!"

"What?" Nia cried in alarm.

"What does that mean?" Daniel asked, confused.

"Don't stop shooting!" Rick yelled. He thought furiously. If there was no health bar, then the hinge was unattackable. If it was unattackable, and that could only mean a few things.

"We can't stop this one! It's a burn phase! Everyone get on the boss! Everybody get on the boss!"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"What's a burn?" Daniel started to say.

"Just shoot!!" Rick yelled.

Gambit turned away from the hinge, raised his sword, and, with a mighty shout, shot across the space between him and the boss in a blur of movement.

The echo of his battle cry infused the whole team with power.

Charge? Rick thought. Gambit hadn’t mentioned getting a charge ability.

Nia's darts ripped out like machine gun fire.

There was a flash as she cast something, and she fired another volley with no reload time at all.

Apparently, she and Gambit had both been holding back from discussing their latest abilities.

The wall of fire washed over Gambit, taking out half of his health, and then, rolling down the length of the room, it hit Rick, taking him down by around a fifth. A moment later, it reached Nia and Daniel. Their health bars barely twitched. Rick threw a Healing Cloud on Gambit, and his health jumped up and then started ticking upward. Another wave rolled out, and Gambit's health plummeted into deep yellow.

Rick wasn't going to be able to keep up with this. Something about the amount damage they were taking tickled his brain, and he did a rapid estimation on distances and health levels. There were multiple ways mechanics like this could work and Rick got a hunch about this one. He had one chance and if he was wrong, they were all going to die.

"Move up! Stack on Gambit! Get by Gambit!" he yelled. "Run!" And he took off at full speed for the front of the room. He hit Gambit with Healing Cloud as fast as it came off cooldown, but the wall of fire was still knocked Gambit deep into the red. The next hit would kill him. Rick had been saving Protection, with its long cooldown, for an unexpected boss mechanic. He didn't have the luxury of holding back now. He cast it on the Mongolian warrior.

The boss's health was deep into the red now, but it wasn't going down fast enough to save Gambit. The translucent shell snapped into place, and his health started back up as Rick threw two more Healing Clouds. Then he skidded to a halt next to the warrior, just as the next burst of flame rolled out of the boss. He stifled a cry as the burning heat washed across him. Both of their health bars plummeted.

But not as much as before.

The healing mist hit them both, and their health bars leapt up almost to a half. Nia and Daniel arrived a moment later as the next wall of flame lashed out. Their health dropped down, but each by only a quarter of the damage Gambit's had taken from the previous blast. Rick's Healing Cloud washed over three of the four of them. He adjusted his target and cast again as quick as he could.

He felt a surge of triumph as their health bars all climbed upward. With each cast, only one of them was left out. But as he alternated, they all climb upward, closer and closer to full, even with the flames washing over them every few moments.

With a clang, the third levistone dropped into place. The light of the sun streaming in the far side of the room poured through the crystal and then into and through the lenses before splashing across the anvil. Swirling tendrils of energy flowed off the anvil and across the nearby space like lashing tentacles of light. The glowing tendrils swept across the party, and new pain hit Rick as they all to radiant damage. The difference between the burning light and the waves of fire wasn't much, and both hurt like the dickens.

The next flame wave didn't come as the boss's cast channel stopped.

"Now you will see my true power!"

He reached down and hefted his large hammer, raising it high over his head. Just as he was about to slam it down and crush the party, his health bar reached zero.

The boss jerked and staggered back. He dropped his hammer, which bounced off one of his shoulders and fell to the ground with a clatter.

"No! It's impossible!" the huge smith wailed.

The burning light pouring through the levistone crystal still seared the party, and Rick kept up his cast of Healing Cloud over and over, cycling through the party members as he did. Then the boss staggered forward into the beam. The sizzling sound of his flesh burning was overwhelmed by his cry of agony that pierced their ears. The burning body toppled forward into the lenses, smashing them on his way to the ground. The damage stopped as the lense broke. The light still shone through the levistone but unfocused it did not cause the anvil to react.

The boss hit the ground and tumbled down the stairs in front of the dais. The smoking corpse came to a rest at the base of the first levistone arm.

Rick threw one last Healing Cloud, targeting Nia, who was the only one left with damage.

Gambit rested his axe on the floor. His breath came in huge gasps. They all had a fatigued debuff over their heads, for the next thirty seconds.

There was a flash of golden light, and a wooden box bounded by bands of iron appeared next to the charred corpse of Master Smith Ajaz.

"We did it!" Nia wondered aloud. "We actually did it!"

Gambit nodded, still breathing hard.

As the globe faded and the loot box appeared, Sam's messages were pouring into Rick's interface.

Sam: Holy crap, Rick! We all got the notification!

Sam: That was you, wasn’t it? You better run, Rick! Pratt's frothing at the mouth!

Sam: You wouldn't believe how nuts he's going! He and the rest just took off.

Sam: I don't know how long it'll take him to get there, but I wouldn't be there if I were you. Don't forget this is a contestant zone!

A minute later, as Gambit lifted the lid on the loot box, one final message appeared that made Rick grin.

Sam: I don't know what you were thinking, but that was pretty badass. You should have seen the look on his face. It might not have been worth it, but damn!

Gambit was reaching into the loot box and let out a low whistle. He straightened up, holding a pair of metal studded leather pants.

There were five other things in the box. Gambit handed Rick a pair of bracers with +2 Magic Affinity. Nia got a pair of boots, Daniel too a heavy leather apron with a bonus to crafting and +1 dexterity.

The last thing Gambit removed from the box was a small orb. He held it out to Rick. "There it is, the upgrade token."

Rick examined it.

[Caravan Upgrade Token]

[This token allows you to upgrade your caravan five more retinue slots and a campaign table.]

"Whoa!" The tone of his voice brought the others' heads around.

"What is it?"

He read off the benefits that the item gave.

Daniel shook his head. "I don't know what all that means, but it sounds pretty good."

Nia's eyes were wide. "I think it's going to be amazing," she said in awe.

"All right," Rick said. "We have to get out of here. Team Technique's coming, and they're pissed," he said, grinning at the others.

Gambit started for the exit, and the other two turned as well.

Daniel froze and looked back at the anvil.

"Come on, man," Rick urged. "We gotta get out of here."

"Something's sparkling up there."

Rick looked. Sure enough, on the top of the anvil was a box that sparkled, indicating it was lootable.

It looked just like the thing the old hermit had asked them to find. The system called it a [Resonator]

"Do you think we should go get it?" Daniel asked.

"Hell yeah," Rick said, and he was already jogging up the steps.

Daniel came behind. The anvil was tall, and Rick had to have the soldier boost him up with laced fingers. He caught the edge and pulled himself up enough to reach for the item. He slid it off and dropped to the ground with it in one hand. It was lighter than he expected.

"Is that what she asked us to get?"

Rick nodded. "I think so. But now we really have to get out of here."

And they both turned for the exit. Just before they made it to the tunnel an enraged voice echoed through the boss chamber

"Rick!!!!"