“Berserker’s Last Stand is the ultimate trump card for the Berserker Class. When their health pool falls to a single point, they become invincible and gain increased movement and attack speed to allow them to continue fighting for a duration. But they will still die afterwards if they do not get a kill or an assist while in this maddened state.”— Annwyn Online Player’s Guide

Firestone Mine Dungeon, Territories of Rielle. Day 02.

Slaine ran down Samira, wielding her own massive pickaxe against her. His blows were relentless, forcing the dungeon boss on the defensive as each one was enough to repeatedly stagger her.

Saiph couldn’t let Slaine die before he got his reset from Berserker’s Last Stand. He grabbed one of the dreygur and heaved it into Slaine’s path.

Slaine cleaved one of the dreygur’s arms as his swing came down on Samira at the same time an arrow blew apart its head.

“Fall back, Slaine!” Saiph shouted as Slaine’s spell wore off.

He regained his composure and dropped back to where Gwydion could heal him.

Having seen what that single hit of Samira’s had done to Slaine, Saiph prepared himself for her onslaught.

Each strike of hers was like dynamite exploding against Saiph’s shield. It was only thanks to his Blessed Shield spell, which allowed him to transfer a portion of her damage to his mana pool, that he was able to keep standing.

Brace. Thunk!

Brace. Thunk!

Brace. Thunk!

The cycle continued until it was all Saiph knew, each hit taking away his health, mana, and stamina in near equal parts.

The ground beneath Saiph quaked and a voice, Nix’s voice, broke through the endless cycle of tanking. “Earth elemental behind you! Let it take the next hit!”

Saiph leapt backward, summoning his hammer to his hands and taking the moment of respite.

Arrows from Lueur Rose and Nix exploded off Samira’s body as Nix’s stone triceratops rammed into Samira. She dug her heels in to hold the earth elemental back, but it steadily marched forward on six limbs, driving her back towards the wall it obviously intended to spear her against.

Samira’s health bar was just about half empty and Saiph understood why he’d be given a reprieve. Nix was buying him time to prepare for the attack pattern change they both knew was coming.

And it came.

Samira released her grip from the stone triceratops and rolled to the side. Unbalanced, the earth elemental stumbled forward. Samira came out of her roll holding two massive chunks of firestone and earth. She hurled them at Nix’s summon and they detonated with loud booms!

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The explosions deafened everyone in the room as the cavern filled with a thick cloud of debris. When the dust settled, the stone triceratops had been blown in half. It dragged itself on its two right legs, all three left and its backmost right leg having been completely destroyed.

Samira reached down and pulled two more of the explosive chunks to bear on the rest of the party. Her eyes locked onto where Cassi and Gwydion were standing.

Saiph ran to them and threw his shield into the ground, activating the spell Gates of Eskandar.

A ghostly green tower of bricks rose up in front of the shield as the firestone chunks exploded off it.

“What the fuck kind of attack is that!” Nix shouted over the detonations.

“Absolute bullshit, if you ask me. Using the environment is cheap!” Saiph shouted back.

Both Nix and Rose hurried behind Saiph’s barrier as Samira turned her attention to them.

“Guys, we’re spent on mana, I’m low on arrows, and I don’t think Saiph or Slaine can tank through all—” An explosion off Saiph’s barrier interrupted Rose. “—all that. I think we need to bail.”

Saiph sighed in frustration knowing Rose was right. They’d gotten so far, but they couldn’t keep going against these new attacks by Samira.

“You guys fall back to the safe zone and I’ll cover you. If I die, I’ll use our free respawn and we can fight our way back out of the dungeon.”

“Wait! I have an idea!” Cassi shouted.

Saiph glanced at the Caster as she began pulling firestone from her bag.

“If Samira can use the environment, so can we!” Cassi had two large firestone piles before her. “Saiph, can you hold Samira back long enough for Rose to set off this firestone? The chain explosion could be enough to kill her!”

“And it might bury all of us in here, too!” Nix shouted.

And it would most certainly kill me, Saiph thought. But he couldn’t help but smile at the ingenuity. He would die, but he was likely dead either way. This would just give them the slightest sliver of a chance at victory.

“But it might not,” Saiph replied. “Nix, you and Cassi and Slaine fall back to the safe zone. Gwydion shields the firestone before running after you, and Rose detonates it and runs after you guys. Can Gwydion shield it from far away?”

“I will have to stay near the barrier. I will not survive the blast if it is as strong as you believe it may be,” Gwydion answered.

Saiph winced at the Archdruid’s matter-of-fact tone as he thought back to what Raine had said earlier. Would sacrificing himself go against Gwydion’s moral code? Would he stop answering Nix’s call? “And you’re okay with that?”

Gwydion stood resolute as he answered, “Whether I die from the explosion or at the end of the summoning spell’s duration, I die all the same. It is understood that I throw down my life in service to my summoner. Doing so to clear this cave of its undead infestation is my duty as an Archdruid.”

Nix flashed Saiph a thumbs up, the “thank you” not needing to be said.

Cassi and Slaine finished unloading more firestone before retreating, leaving Saiph, Rose, and Gwydion in the boss lair.

Saiph let the Gates of Eskandar fall and walked forward with his Blessed Shield active, blocking the explosive hits from Samira’s improvised grenades.

Rose called out, letting Saiph know that she and Gwydion were in position.

Saiph dropped his shield as fire enveloped his body. Dragon charge propelled Saiph forward to meet Samira.

The dungeon boss made no attempt to dodge. There was just the briefest flicker of something like emotion on her face. It was there and gone in that half span before the pair connected and the cave exploded all around them.