Story so Far:
* The Whales return to the dungeons of Teth-Odin, battling a huge contingent of frog-people known as "Mossbellies."
* The party was informed of the existence of a "Rogue Rift" that is located somewhere in the dungeon.
* They come across a "Titan Cage", a containment era for extremely large and powerful monsters.
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S03E08
In The Court of the King Below
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"Now that's just wrong!" Ingrid frowned. "I'm not gonna kill a dinosaur!"
"Says the girl who drives to work in a Shelby Cobra." Philia mirthfully scoffed.
"Hey!" Ingrid said defensively "I put my life on the line saving the Earth, I deserve a real car!"
Zefir and Cecil were snickering.
"A car that chews up dead dinosaurs!" Philia burst out, her laughter echoing through the corridor.
"Well, you're one to talk, we drove here in a Soviet ATV!"
"Yes Ingrid." Philia grinned "But I don't care, I look at that brontosaur on steroids and all I see are dollar signs."
"Fine, I'll go bonk Dino then." Ingrid said. Philia's smile however, quickly faded.
"We're doing this together, Ingrid." she said, her tone now serious. "These aren't your grandpa's dinosaurs. I mean look at it, do you think that thing lives on grass? We're in a dungeon, it's stone for miles around! That thing's gotta be carnivorous, and it looks healthy, considering its size. Thing's eating well, that's for sure."
"Eat what?" Ingrid asked, finding the concept of a carnivorous sauropod ludicrous. "It's got a tiny head and a long neck, what's it eating? A swarm of giant bats? I mean, the only prey this big boy can chase down is a carcass with arthritis!"
Siria spoke up, "It's a Lifebane Titan, it feeds on the life force of nearby living things."
Ingrid's shoulders drooped. "If we take it on we're not going to be in a condition to wrangle the Rogue Rift."
"As you said." Kinu told her "we should focus on earning first, we can deal with the Rift later."
"Alright, I'll bite." Ingrid said. "How do we deal with that menace then? You say it'll drain our life force, how does that work? Is it a magic field around it that just passively sucks up the life of anything that enters its range? Or does it need to shoot a beam that drains the life out of someone?”
"Any time it'll use some kind of magic, it'll always have something to do with draining the life force of nearby living things." Viel explained. "These creatures are interesting because they don't need to kill any prey to grow in size, which means everything around its territory can simply flourish."
Ingrid frowned "Well that's another big 'NO' on the checklist." she muttered, "This guy weeds out the weaker monsters and will stay strong enough to pose a challenge for the big ones that come around here... doesn't sound like a good idea to uproot this guy's office."
"It's also capable of extending its life-draining field on a much larger scale than what you might expect." Selphie chimed in, "I don't know if it's existence at this level has been reported but if angered enough it could breach this dungeon's barriers and seep into Teth-Odin above, it's going to be culled either way."
"Which is why I'm on-board with putting it down." Philia said "this guy's our meal ticket. We take him down, we can take another week off, maybe two, with the gold we get from it."
"Next question then." Ingrid said "considering all the fighting we get here, we're going to draw attention to ourselves..."
"True." Sammy interjected "...we have to prepare for the possibility that there'll be monsters smart enough to figure that they can take us, even if we have that Titan on the backfoot, a fight of that magnitude would make anything think that our team will not be in a position to fight them at full strength."
"Besides me, who has a chance of even hurting this creature?" Ingrid queried, looking around.
"I can help interrupt its life-draining abilities," Viel told her "the good part is that it's rather predictable when it does, it's every time it tries to perform any non-physical attack. The bad news is that in the worst case scenario, I probably won't be in any condition to item box for the rest of the expedition due to how powerful it is."
"Unless we take it down quickly." Philia said "I can charge up my rifle to hit as hard as an Oerlikon cannon. That said, it'll take time between charged shots. I'll need cover."
"I'll help take it down as well." Siria volunteered. "In situations like these it's best we hit it hard and fast to reduce the chances and number of interlopers trying to make an easy meal of us all."
".50 cal anti-material rifle vs flesh?" Cecil turned to Ingrid, smiling. "And we have RPG-7's."
“This one’s a magical creature, Cecil.” Philia reminded him “It’ll probably have a forcefield like Ingrid’s.”
Rather than say anything, Sammy swung her halberd downwards, as she did do, a huge blue arc of light mimicked the blade's movement, leaving a shimmering after image in the air and leaving a deep gouge in the stone floor. The size of the arc dramatically extended Sammy’s reach.
"It'll have a hard time fighting when its legs give out." Sammy smirked.
Kinu and Kvaris shrugged, "We've handled big monsters before." they chorused.
"Ingrid, let us Valkyries focus on its legs and tail to cripple it." Kvaris suggested "the rest of you fighting the beast, take it down as soon as possible."
"I foresee myself working with Viel to counteract its magic while striking it down with my own." Siria said. "The participating gunners should pop in and out of the pillars and shoot it from afar. Meanwhile Ingrid, you'll have to keep it's attention to you."
"Very well," Ingrid nodded "The rest will stay back and defend the Center group. Philia, Siria, and Viel, I want you three together in case you need to defend yourselves against anything else that shows up..."
“Ermmm!!!” Cuddly murmured, stamping his foot, he put his paws together and waved them up and down, prompting Ingrid to pick up and rub noses with the adorable hare.
“Wanna help bring down the mean lizard?” Ingrid asked cutely.
Cuddly responded by licking her nose and made a cute wheeking sound.
“Alright then. Keep your head on your shoulders, Cuddly.” Ingrid let him go and held out her hands to the mice, who waddled over for cheekrubs.
“Stay on guard for party-crashers. Full power scenario guys, use bullets unless you think you can pellet them.” she said. The mice squeaked excitedly.
After petting all the mice, Ingrid stood up and patted Peanut, who also made cute sounds.
“I’ll fight too.” she said. “I can fly around easily and while I may not single-handedly knock it out, I can keep it annoyed.”
“Alright, Peanut.” Ingrid said “But the minute Philia’s in trouble, you…”
“I’ll protect her foremost.” the cute little mushroom said.
“Selphie?”
The dryad scratched her head ashamedly.
“If you’re asking if I can take it out by turning it to a whipcrawler, it’s not possible. A lifebane Titan’s potent aura would simply overwrite the magic needed to hasten the seed’s growth.”
“That’s alright,” the Starchaser ruffled her hair.
___
The sauropod-like creature that was the Lifebane Titan snorted, almost derisively as Ingrid boldly made her way towards it. It was about a hundred feet long and its body rather than "fat-looking" was considerably slimmer and more muscular. A great crest ran from the top of its head all the way to the tip of its tail, and its eyes gleamed with pure mana.
Ingrid flicked her eyes to the left and right, seeing several monsters too feeble to move about, no doubt challengers that tried to prey on the Titan, only to find their own vitality depleted. They all looked big and carnivorous, their slack jaws and lolling tongues revealing rows of sharp teeth. She figured that they were definitely large enough to realistically snack on a creature as big as this and they appeared in sufficient numbers to constitute a pack.
"I'd say I'd give you a free pass for getting rid of all these big guys." Ingrid said loudly and in a casual tone. "But sooner or later you're going to tangle with something that'll force you to go all out... and then, your life-sucking antics would extend out of the dungeon and right up to the fine folks of Teth-Odin above. Sorry buddy, but unless you slink back to where you came from, you and I are going to have to tango."
The creature's neck swelled as if it suddenly had a bad allergic reaction.
The Titan's roar was cut short as Ingrid suddenly rocketed at an upward angle incredibly fast, kicking it in the face really hard and causing its neck to violently whiplash to the side. It was so preoccupied with the human suddenly flying up to kick it in the face, it had failed to the notice the tiny ciltran girl far away, precisely timing a bolt of energy to fly into the sphere of light it generated in front of its mouth and shatter it, preventing the beast from using its life-draining roar.
It did however, feel the searing pain and bruising impact as Ralph, sitting behind and above Cecil, fired an RPG round right onto its broad side. At the same time, Philia quickly peeked out from behind a column. She had finished charging up her gun with her mana and shot it in the hindlegs, causing the Titan to buckle slightly. It didn't appear to notice her however, as it had been distracted by Cecil and Ingrid's flashier attack.
The Titan's tail reared up and glowed, but Siria was prepared, knowing that these huge majestic creatures could channel mana efficiently into its body. Its attempt to shoot Cecil with some kind of ranged attack was thwarted when she cast Flame Strike, causing a pillar of flame to erupt near the base of its tail, redirecting the barrage of energy bolts towards the ceiling as it whipsawed its tail in agony.
Ingrid let the momentum carry her to the ceiling before generating a forcefield at the point of impact. It deflected her violently downwards, towards the saurpod’s head which had swivelled around to meet her high-velocity dive kick with a massive beam.
Or would have. Viel, pointing her staff at the Titan let out another shot of energy, a thin needle of light shooting out from the darkness. It hit the Titan right in the side of the mouth creating an explosive feedback as its attempt to mold mana in the air scrambled the focused energy. The beam was halfway reaching Ingrid when it harmlessly dissipated. She passed through the nebula of sparkling ether in the air, descending even faster, her aura taking on a huge flaming phoenix with outstretched claws.
As the massive bird of pure ether dropkicked the sauropod, it went down to its side with a deafening bellow. Its forelegs scrambling to get itself back up again but an abrupt, searing pain shot through them, causing it to once again stumble to the floor, stirring up a great cloud of dust.
Sammy quickly ran to get some distance between herself and the Titanic beast, using the cloud of dust as cover. Her mana-infused slash collided with the monster's, cushioning most of the slashing force but unable to stop the blunt trauma dealt to its legs. The creature was halfway up again when Kinu swung her flail at its hindlegs, the radiant head of the flail created a nova of light upon impact, striking the hindleg with intense force while the rapidly expanding nova buckled the others. The behemoth was sent sprawling to the ground once more, raising an even larger cloud of dust as it collapsed and obscuring the position of its assailants.
Philia, hiding behind one of the pillars, used this distraction to fire another shot at its soft belly. The creature had a protective aura around it but even that could not fully cushion the impact of her mana-enhanced round. It hit like a giant's fist to its gut, causing it to curl up in pain. Its tail whipped around and blind-fired a volley of shots which were intercepted by Peanut’s own chevrons.
As Philia ducked behind a pillar, and the beast's head still descending to the floor due to its long neck; Ingrid rushed forward, leaping high into the air and unleashing a vicious bicycle kick that sent the Titan's head sailing back into the air. As it did it was suddenly face to face with Cecil, shining his bright floodlights right into its eyes before shooting it with his .50 cal anti-material rifle. Peanut followed up next, flinging a sparkling wedge that cracked painfully against the side of its head.
Meanwhile, one of Titan's wildly flailing forelegs jerked in pain as Kvaris focused her magic into her Frostbane Sword, creating a wall of ice spikes that it painfully kicked into. The wall shattered but the cruel spikes of frost now pincushioned its leg.
Cuddly, quickly running in, wheeked loudly and waved his wand. Fae Harriers pummeled the Titan's fallen head, and tried to snake out and bite them to no avail. Only earning itself another punishing blow as Peanut fired an extra large burst of mana that hammered its head to the ground.
Frustrated, the Titan quickly rolled along the ground, trying to get some distance from its attackers. Cuddly nimbly jumped impossibly high to avoid getting crushed. Kinu was in danger of being squashed, but rather than run away she ran towards the creature, her Garm senses gave her the perfect timing to drop to a slide just as the creature's crest created a safe zone for her to pass under.
Kvaris meanwhile saw its gigantic tail whipping at her as the Titan rolled on its side. Like her sister, she did not retreat but ran towards the colossal appendage and swung down her Meteor Axe. Like Sammy's halberd, the creature's protective aura reduced the blade's cutting power to a shallow gash at most, but the intense blunt trauma was as painful as someone stubbing their toe onto the corner of a cabinet. The tail curled and jerked back in reflex.
The creature puffed itself in rage as it quickly stood back up, its crest glowing brighter and like the sides of a galleon, spears of light arced into the air and began to rain down like a meteor shower.
Just as it did however, a powerful bolt of lightning struck it in the back, staggering the creature, Rage and adrenaline preventing it from collapsing. It puffed up its neck and let out another almighty roar, yet once again the sphere of energy it needed to generate a potent life-draining attack crumbled, and its loud bellowing was cut short when Ralph fired a perfectly-aimed RPG right down its mouth. For a second, it looked like Titan was breathing fire as it rapidly shook its head to extinguish the flames.
All the while, Peanut flew in erratic patterns across the Titan's back landing one painful blow after another as she effortlessly launched wedge-shaped magic missiles onto its back, severely impeding its ability to channel mana through them to launch further ranged strikes at the team.
The Titan's artillery barrage itself was undone as Viel raised her staff and generated a whirlwind of mana which pulled all the projectiles like a blackhole before collapsing onto itself, releasing a harmless shower of gently floating motes of light.
A combination of another Oerlikon-shot by Philia to the legs, and Cuddly's Fae Harriers pummeling another limb caused the sauropod to buckle, a distraction that allowed Ingrid, Kinu, Kvaris, Sammy, and the Apache team to close in.
The beast was panicking, chaotically stomping its feet as it tried to squash the creatures underneath, however, Peanut's constant bombardment on its back and Cecil's gunner Brody and Eli peppering its face with their full powered cartridges forced it to keep its head up and try to take the flying assailants, keeping it distracted. It kicked one of its hindlegs backwards. Sammy was in the path of the colossal leg but she saw it coming and swung her glowing halberd at it, earning her another pained yowl from the Titan as if it had accidentally smashed its ankle against a colossal door-scraper. It’s wildly swishing tail, which would have retaliated with a blast of volatile mana was forced into another excruciating convulsion as Philia’s enhanced Oerlikon shot shattered the glowing sigil that formed at the tip, causing the creature to rapidly retract its appendage as if it had been doused in molten lava.
In a fit of rage, the Titan whipped its head to find the source of the pain only to find Cecil flying in the air. It attempted to shoot down the Dialog Window team with a barrage of huge magic missiles from its mouth. Viel however, countered by creating a protective field right in its face. The combination of its explosive projectiles detonating so close as well as Ralph's dead-on RPG shot covered its head in blinding smoke. It felt a tearing sensation on its back as Peanut let loose another volley that tore up its back-sails.
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Meanwhile down below, Ingrid punched upwards, causing the monster to yowl in pain as the underside of one its wildly stamping feet impacted against the tiny human's fist, akin to someone stepping on a nail. It managed to raise its leg just in time, but as it put that foot down somewhere safer, a dull throbbing pain continued to spread.
Kvaris on the other hand, continued to make a pincushion out of another leg; each stab of her corseca turning the beast's mana against it itself, acting as a catalyst for the inherent spell that discharged an energy spike with each successful strike.
Kinu used the magic in her sword Inferno, slashing away at one leg while letting out a burst of flame, causing the behemoth to rapidly stamp its leg to put it out. The shockwaves it generated as it stomped the ground were quickly jumped over by the team. In the case of Ingrid she quickly phased through one as she closed the gap, storing the kinetic force of the shockwave and adding it to her own retaliatory kick to the shins.
Siria conjured a violent twister, erupting right from the beast's left side, jostling its body. It quickly tried to sidestep before the razor-sharp wind threatened to disembowel it. It barreled towards the fighters, raising itself on its hindlegs to slam the ground and create a firestorm by channeling its mana through it. Viel counteracted by twirling her staff, tracing a circle in the air and causing the affected area to give a tell-tale glow on where the flaming shockwave would go.
The team was quick to dodge out of the way, except for Sammy, who slammed her Standard of Valor onto the ground and channeled her own mana through it. The beast grunted as the shockwave that should've battered and toppled the tiny creatures rebounded to strike the sole of one of its forelegs painfully, leaving it unable to put weight on it. Compounded with the mana-flame now causing harm to even itself, the beast was forced to scramble backwards, putting weight into its injured foreleg and backing into the whirlwind, once again felling the beast.
Its long tail tried to whip out, only for a loud "CRACK" to ring across the air. Ingrid had interposed herself between her team and tail. Her Aegis aura violently redirected and accelerated the force of her tail slamming against herself, it was like tail-slapping a colossal belt-sander.
Not giving up, the Titan's long neck snaked out to try to attack the team, time seemed to slow for it as it once again saw the portal with the slime and the armored mice looking back.
A sharp whip-crack echoed across the dungeon as Cecil's .50 round struck it square in the forehead.
Dazed, the creature's head crashed into the ground far below. A sharp pain registered somewhere on its long neck as Philia fired off another round.
"Watch out!" Siria said urgently over the radio. Viel began to focus as she quietly began chanting.
"It's not done yet!" Ingrid said as the Titanic sauropod's body began to glow. "Everyone get back!"
“We got company!” Zefir warned the team.
“Talk to me, Baseplate.” Ingrid said, creating a forcefield in mid-air for her to rebound herself with in order to deliver another damaging drop kick to the Titan’s side. It quickly scrambled up to its feet, ignoring the pain, confident that one way or another it’ll either find the culprit responsible for counteracting its lifesteal abilities, or find a way to circumvent it and finally heal itself.
“Got some big bugs running in from within this chamber.” Zefir replied.
“189, take them out!” Ingrid ordered, twisting around in mid-flight to add torque power to her kick. Another loud crack splintered the air as she broke another of the sauropod’s ribs, but it remained standing. Its back-sail flared with light despite its injuries and let loose another devastating volley of light-spears. Peanut and Cuddly retaliated by intercepting its shots with their own.
“What about me?” Selphie asked.
“Protect Viel and Iohann along with team Lakota and Kiowa.” Ingrid replied as she clambered up the Titan’s body. Its head whipped around and tried to devour her like an oversized snake, only to get socked in the jaw with her Nemea first. As its neck forcibly unfurled from the blow, it ended up seeing a familiar sight.
“Hi!” Cecil said as Ralph launched another RPG right in its face. A half-second later, Philia's Oerlikon shot caught right on the chin.
___
The mice of the 189 began squeaking ferociously as they sprinted across the vast chamber. A group of bugs the size of pickup trucks were scuttling along.
“Mice, those are Crystoliths! They shoot crystal shards from their tails!” Gwen warned over the radio. "These creatures naturally generate protective crystals over their normally brittle bodies for protection."
"Don't tell me they're trying to get a slice out of Dino here!" Ingrid said as she ping-ponged herself in an erratic pattern in mid-air, once again catching the Lifebane Titan by surprise as she landed another flying kick to the top of its head.
"No, they prey on the leftovers of the Titan," Philia replied, timing her shot on one of the Titan's hind knees and causing the beast to stumble. "They were probably drawn in here since they could feed on those weakened monsters, but make no mistake, they'll go for us too!"
Rather than bring up their shields as the crystoliths shot a volley of shards at the mice, the umbra team sprang forth, drawing their daggers which turned into their greatswords and began to clash with the projectiles; either deflecting them or shattering it, their sword’s add-on forcefield causing the splinters to bounce off of them harmlessly..
Arthur squeaked a command to the mice and rather than use their high-powered bullets, they used the pellet shots of their guns' secondary barrels. The enhanced velocity and striking power of the pellets did decent damage against the huge insects' crystalline armor at best, but the war hammers that manifested on every successful hit dealt the real damage against the insect’s armor; shattering their crystalline shells far more efficiently than bullets did. The high rate of fire and the inherent weakness of brittle materials against dedicated blunt force proved to be a deadly combination against them.
The initial clash on relatively open ground denigrated to a full-blown firefight as more crystoliths scuttled in from the darkness, clambering over the bodies of weakened monsters and shooting at the mice from various directions and elevations. The insects' excited squealing was cut short as the sight of the mice taking refuge behind their shields was abruptly turned into a searing, blinding white.
With another squeak from Arthur, the mice put on their visors as smoke grenades were thrown. The crystoliths they were facing were blinded now by the flashbang grenade but any further adversaries would not, hence the use of a smokescreen. One by one the, crystoliths were hunted down as the mice went utterly silent, using the noise of the other battle as cover to mask the sounds of their pellet guns shooting, which already was much quieter than shooting traditional bullets.
A loud shot rang out as Arthur blasted a few point-blank shotgun rounds into the forehead of one of the feebly-moving T-rexes. He and Sully took refuge inside the now-dead beast’s mouth. Sully stood guard as Arthur whipped out his tablet, looking at the infrared feed from the Aquila drone hovering far above the battlefield.
With quick, quiet squeaks, Arthur began calling out targets for the 189 to take out. The bulky shapes of the crystoliths quickly collapsed to their bellies and stopped moving one-by-one as the swarm mice silently hunted down the giant insects, moving from one giant body after another as cover to conduct ambushes.
Newcomer crystoliths quickly filed in, eager to get rid of these annoying interruptions to their meal, only to find the thick smoke messing up with their eyes and sense of smell. A trio of insects continued to skitter down a fork in the path, noticing that the third now lay unmoving after a quick burst put it down for good.
Sudden movement across the junction between two big carcasses caused another small cluster of smaller crystoliths to skitter down that direction. As they chased the dark shape scuttling on all fours, somewhere in that tangle of insect feet, one of them snagged a tripwire.
___
Frowning, Iohann listened to the series of squeaks in her earpiece but obliged. Chanting a prayer, a shimmering dome appeared at the site where the mice were engaged in guerilla warfare with several giant bugs.
“It is done.” Iohann said.
“Chris, you are cleared for launch.” Cecil said, firing another .50 cal round at the Titan’s back, rupturing another spine from its back-sail.
___
A few squeaks of assent later, Arthur let out a series of chirps, muffled by the gas mask he tightened around his head. Another twenty seconds later, there was a loud “bang!” as the rocket impacted somewhere in their zone of operation.
Peeking over the maze of bodies, Mason of the Umbra fireteam relayed visual confirmation of a lime-green smoke that began to rapidly fill the dome. The shrieks of the giant insects began to fill the air as the deadly chlorine gas began to do its work.
___
“God damn.” Ingrid said, but a grim smile flashed on her face. “I leave you guys for ten seconds and already you’ve gone to World War one!”
She leapt upwards and delivered a hard uppercut to the Titan’s abdomen, knocking the wind out of the creature and causing it to back away and to the side as quickly as it did. It nearly slipped as it tried to put its weight on one hindleg only for Kvaris to quickly bash its knee with her flail, causing it to painfully drop all its weight there, subsequently making the sauropod collapse on its side.
“Valkyrie, watch out!” Ingrid yelled. She did not move however. She stomped the ground and assumed a wide steady stance, her Nemea-clad fists flaring even brighter as they rapidly pummelled the falling creature’s ribs, causing it to flail around in immense pain.
Kvaris was in the way for its tail slap but once again she ran towards the blindly lashing appendage. Kinu on the other hand, ran to follow the creature’s head as it fell to the ground. Both sisters held out their hand, mana quickly coursing through them as they both summoned the same Deregor weapon.
“Tempest Lancer!” The garm girls turned into a high velocity flying drill of wind as the magic lance enhanced their bodies and sped up their full-on charge. Kvaris fractured the Titan’s tail, rendering it useless for good, while Kinu sent the head flying back up in the air from the savage impact.
“Hi!” Cecil said, grinning as Ralph pulled the trigger of his RPG. The rocket slammed the sauropod’s head onto the ground hard, and followed up shot by Cecil’s .50 cal round that hammered it a second time. It didn’t even get a second time to bounce up in the air as Philia’s Oerlikon round snapped its head backwards where Sammy swung her cataclysm hammer at it at full force.
The Titan was in hell. Ingrid was still underneath it, all its weight being pressed down on her brutal barrage of fists. Fae Harriers continued to work away on one of its forelegs, the pain preventing it from using that leg to get up. Its ability to channel mana to fire off ranged shots was ineffectual as Peanut’s relentless assault on its back-sail rendered it too bloody and mangled to deploy any meaningful magic. Huge stalacties of ice, courtesy of Siria, pummeled its other side, before the elf turned her attention back to the chemical warfare raging on at the other side of the room.
___
Huge burning chunks of rock rained down along the perimeter of the dome. Squashing and incinerating the crystoliths. From within the deathly-green cloud cover, the mice used their thermals to see past the cloud of death and shoot at more of the giant insects, angering them and causing more to pile up inside their death zone. With the previous victims of the Lifebane Titan now dead thanks to the gas, the mice were now able to use their bodies as hiding places, ambushing the giant insects as they stampeded into the dome.
The mice constantly popped in and out of the dome, squeaking loudly to gain the attention of more crystoliths and shooting at them before darting back inside.
Iohann’s body glowed as she continued her prayer, expanding the dome further. Chris’s portal flew out again and fired another rocket containing chlorine gas, before flying back to resume guard duty with the center group.
Inside the green dome, a group of staggering crystoliths were beginning to feel the horrifying effects of the chlorine gas. Disoriented, they continued to skitter around, trying to find a direction out. Of the ten that tried to escape, half were blown up as one of their feet crunched on a landmine planted by the mice, three were crushed by one of Siria’s meteors and the last two succumbed to the chlorine that filled their respiratory systems.
Elsewhere, team Umbra threw a grenade over the body of a large hadrosaur creature, insectoid screams from the other side rang out as the explosive took out the tightly packed creatures that were backing away from an onslaught of fire by the Aviz fireteam. They quickly clambered up another big monster’s body, finding another concentration of crystoliths just as Arthur directed. With one quiet squeak, team Umbra rained buckshot over them.
In another section of the war zone, Gerard popped out from one of the bodies, and fired a few rounds at the crystoliths approaching the dome. In anger, the insects fired a volley. The gold mouse quickly ducked back and the let shards of crystal spears spark pandemonium among the insects as they began blindly shooting at each other.
___
The Titan roared, several magic sigils surrounded its body and began to pepper it with bolts of white energy. Rather than cause direct harm however it disrupted the flow of mana, rendering its lifestealing roar into just pointless posturing; an impotent gesture of rage.
Its bellowing was cut short once again as Philia and Cecil timed their shots. Cecil aimed his anti-material rifle at its head, Philia aimed at its legs, while Ralph fired his RPG at its body. Ingrid followed it up with a high-powered brutal flying kick to the pelvis, heading a loud crack as something broke inside the creature’s body. At the same time, Sammy matched Ingrid’s strike with her Cataclysm hammer, aiming for the shins of the opposite hindleg.
The Fae Harriers were taking their toll. Another flail smash by the Enthana Sisters, another swing from Sammy's hammer, and finally, a kick to this massive shins from Ingrid collapsed the Titan one final time. Its hindlegs finally giving out, its tail immobile, its back-sail tattered and unusable for magic. As the creature crashed on its belly, it defiantly opened its mouth, a large, ominous sphere of pure energy began to form, the air around it began to distort. Viel and the creature’s eyes met. It finally knew the source of its misery.
Viel didn't move from her spot, her eyes closed in intense focus as she continued to chant. She knew the creature was burning up its own life force to constantly try again and again to rejuvenate itself by attempting to life-steal. It was now a contest of wills. If Viel broke, all their efforts would be undone.
Her swarm of sigils around the Titan continued to time their shots, disrupting the flow every time it tried to let out an omnidirectional pulse to restore itself. Meanwhile, its head was locked in a struggle with Ingrid as it tried to charge up a massive shot that even Siria was sure would punch through the dungeon's magic that protected the structure.
"It's going to fire from its chest too!" Siria warned Peanut and Cuddly. "Intercept those shots!"
As she said so she conjured a dark cloud to form over the fallen Titan. She needed time in order for the cloud to reach critical mass and rain lightning over it.
Kinu, Kvaris, and Sammy raised their weapons and yelled out their charge. The ominous sigil appeared on its chest and they began to wail away at it.
Despite the pain, the sauropod's forelegs swiped at them.
Sammy let out a warcry and swung her halberd down. The blue arc of mana parrying and swatting the creature's attacking limb away. She quickly leapt to the other side and thrust her halberd, the Guardian Blades materializing and slashing in a painful pincer that caused it to quickly snatch its paw away.
Frustrated, the Titan brought up both forelegs, globes of mana formed and Sammy quickly leapt in to try to disrupt whatever spell it was trying to cast. It was a ruse however, as it quickly disengaged the spell and used the paw that wasn't being attacked by Sammy to crush the Enthana sisters, whose relentless assault at the sigil-barrier was causing it to crack.
Kvaris quickly wheeled around, putting her mana into her corseca and met the crushing hand with powerful thrust, the ensuing energy spike was larger than usual and forced the massive paw to quickly retreat and try again.
Cecil quickly hovered his Dialog Window down, he and Ralph firing at the exposed head with the anti-material rifle and RPG.
“Brody, Eli, full-auto with the pellet guns!” Cecil yelled. The two mice quickly picked up their guns and rained fire. The sheer number of pellets in the drum magazines, combined with the enhancement lens and the Companion Rogue’s shillelagh began to rapidly drain the Titan’s shielding.
The Titan was forced to redirect even more mana that could be used for attacking to defend itself. As a result, the ensuing spread shot from its chest’s sigil-barrier on its chest became manageable, allowing Peanut and Cuddly to intercept them with their own, as well as the Valkyrie squad to jump out of the way.
One stray shot managed to get through Peanut and Cuddly’s interceptors, but Iohann's constant recital of her psalm told them there was no need to look back. Her prayers continued unabated, letting them know her protective field held back the destructive shot.
“Enthanas!” Sammy yelled above the din. “Focus on its heart, I’ll deal with this thing’s paws!”
“I’ll take the other hand, Night Rider.” Philia said, shooting another high-powered round and knocking back the heavily damaged paw of the Titan.
Peanut and Cuddly joined the fray as well, their constant bombardment of chevron shots and Fae Harriers harassing the Titan’s forelegs, compounding the damage that Sammy and Philia were inflicting on them.
The garm girls howled as they made a rapid barrage of corseca strikes, the ensuing spike-burst on every hit as well as the Companion Rogue Shillelagh’s hammer blows tripled the effect of every spear-thrust they made, striking so fast it looked like a wall of spikes attacking the Titan’s shield to its heart.
“Come on! COME ON!” Ingrid said as she continued to punch away. Her fists had become a blur and her aura was beginning to flare so brightly it became visible to the naked eye. Despite its exhausted state and being ganged up on, the Titan’s vitality was nothing short of tremendous. Her attempts to disrupt the incoming beam of destruction were being countered by the Titan stubbornly just pumping more and more of its own mana into it.
As Ralph reloaded his RPG, Cecil took aim and fired, this time, the behemoth’s remaining eye erupted in a shower of gore.
At the same time, Siria's spell was ready.
"Tempest Assault!" Siria cried, a torrent of red lightning rained from the clouds that formed above the Titan.
The Titan’s last-ditch attempt to unleash a destructive spell with its paws was thwarted; it felt something crack in its forelegs as a huge chevron bolt from Peanut and the constant rapid-fire assault from Cuddly rendered them numb, the now-useless limbs crashing to the floor.
“One more time! Attack!” The Enthana sisters and Sammy cried, the garms’ corsecas and orc’s halberd struck in unison, shattering the sigil-barrier to its chest. In a fluid motion and channeling more mana into her body, Sammy changed her weapon to a greatsword and swung down with a strength that would have made the Valiant God proud, leaving behind a golden arc the cut the beast open, even cleaving apart the mighty bones that served as the heart’s last line of defense.
Scarcely before the heart could make one more beat, Kinu and Kvaris plunged their corsecas deep and howled, unleashing a potent blast of pure destruction as they amplified the energy spike.
With one more punch, Ingrid shattered the sphere of light. She redirected the punch so that all the impact was sprayed in the direction of the Titan’s head like a massive shotgun blast.
"Philia!" Ingrid yelled.
The impact of the sphere's explosion sent Ingrid backflipping several feet away. As she landed she began to focus the Ether around her hands. At the same time, Philia skated ahead at breakneck speed, sliding low on the ground and whirling around just in time to aim her gun at the Titan's head.
Ingrid landed behind her, wings of light erupting from her shoulders as she channeled the Ether into Philia's gun.
"Annihilate!" Philia said as she pulled the trigger. Her eyes turned crimson as she did so, letting out a railgun-like blast, punching through the Titan's beam and its head.
The Lifebane Titan finally collapsed onto the ground, blood seeping out into the stone beneath it.
“Mice!” Ingrid yelled, running over to the once-more enlarged dome of green death. Before she could ask Neith or Mission Control their status she saw them running out of the dome, wearing gas masks and chasing out juvenile crystoliths, smacking the dog-sized insects on the butt with the flat of their glaives and squeaking angrily, oddly reminding her of irate storekeepers who caught children trying to shoplift. Everybody must have been thinking it too as the rest of the team burst out laughing as they watched the mice take off their gas masks and continue to squeak angrily, waving their glaives in the air.
It had been a tough fight, the sudden surge of crystoliths trying to take advantage of the situation would have been disastrous if not for the mice's quick thinking and adaptability. In hindsight, how they managed the situation was a stroke of genius. They had angled their approach such that the direction of their fighting made sure that the general direction of either side's shooting at each other were at a parallel rather than a converging angle.
The mice's use of guerilla warfare was also masterful; drawing the crystoliths into the jumble of dead and dying monsters and using their large bodies as a makeshift labyrinth. This not only further reduced chances of friendly-fire, but also gave the mice plenty of cover; the ability to conduct devastating ambushes and booby-traps, as well as create lethal corridors where gunfire could easily mow down multiple opponents.
“When the carcasses squeak…” Ingrid chuckled.
“Huh?” Kinu asked.
Before Ingrid, Cecil, Zefir, or Philia or explain the Vietnam reference, Ingrid was flung backwards.
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INDEX: The Whales Party Sheet