An Essence was not a normal boss, just as the scarab swarm had been abnormally large for a dungeon of this level.
These were signs that the boss room had been skipped too many times and the dungeon was nearing the bursting point. He would have recognized it sooner if he hadn’t been fully occupied with survival.
This was going to be very difficult.
Levi immediately put everyone's stat points into Spirit. The centipedes were tanky enough that running out of stamina was their greatest weakness, Skarm was a fast attacker anyway, and Levi wanted to get his own stamina regen up ASAP.
The Essence was coalescing, growing into a mound higher than his waist.
He didn't have much time left.
He checked Skarm's character sheet for options.
Sharpened Claws (0/5)
Increase damage dealt by unarmed attacks.
(1 ability point)
Sneaky (0/5)
Increased stealth, and increased damage from stealth.
(1 ability point)
Gorer (0/5)
Horn obtains barbed protrusions, inflicting more damaging bleeds.
(1 ability point)
Leap (0/5)
Ability to jump is doubled, and attacks landed from the air deal significant additional damage.
(1 ability point)
No time for a deep analysis. Given Skarm's current fighting style of lashing out with his claws, Levi put 2 into Sharpened Claws, and 1 into Leap. It would give him increased mobility and damage potential and make it easier for him to remount Centoo in combat. Compounding the jump bonuses with his upgraded claw swipes could make for a powerful finisher.
The Essence continued to expand until it was close to half again as tall as Levi and equally wide.
The room suddenly felt small, being trapped inside it with something like this.
Level 2++
(Destruction Essence)
Health 100%
Unlike normal dungeon creatures that wouldn’t last long outside their homes, Essences were strong enough to leave their dungeon behind entirely and roam freely across the world for weeks or months without dissolving.
They weren't exactly shapeshifters, but once split from a single unit they could take the form of any of the creatures a dungeon of its type could spawn. Those split pieces would be stronger than regular monsters, but still less dangerous than the Essence itself. A pure Essence could destroy anything in its path.
The ground sizzled as the Essence rushed forward, faster than Levi had expected. It looked like it should be ponderous and sluggish, but it surged forward like a flooded stream in a narrow ravine.
“Spread out! Don't let it corner you!” Levi stabbed into its corrosive body, Beast Bite snapping off a chunk of its bulk, then tossed the glob aside as he ducked and sprinted away.
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Upon being separated from the main Essence, the disconnected lump solidified into an oversized scarab and took off into the air. Its texture was darker than the bright orange glow of the Essence and its body less translucent, as though it were made of solid rust.
Skarm, taking advantage of his newly improved abilities, leaped on the scarab and slashed wildly, tearing its wings off and riding it to the ground.
Level 2+
(Essence Scarab)
Health 58%
Despite the scarab’s advanced size and power, Skarm brought down almost half of its health in that single attack. It got in a few bites of its own in the process, but it was outnumbered. Centoo joined in, stomping on the downed scarab with his many bladed legs as Skarm continued clawing its shell until it stopped twitching.
Levi had no time to congratulate his minions. The main body of the Destruction Essence smoothly shifted direction to follow him.
“Stay clear,” Levi warned, as Cen looked like he might go rushing in. The Destructive nature of the Essence's body meant that only an active manablade would be effective against its base form. “I'll split it up, you guys deal with the pieces.”
He slashed in a diagonal arc, splitting off a gremlin-sized portion which promptly took a gremlin form.
Level 2+
(Essence Gremlin)
Health 100%
The Essence Gremlin immediately charged Levi, horn leading. Between its charge and a surge from the main Essence, Levi would have been trapped if not for Cen's quick intervention. The centipede intercepted the gremlin, but a strike from its horn stabbed through Cen's enhanced plate and dropped his health by 15 in one blow.
Levi was forced to leave the Essence’s main body and focus his attention on the gremlin form, before it could do too much damage to Cen. Skarm leaped into battle a moment later, landing unerringly atop his Essence mirror—which was actually a good bit larger than Skarm. Again, putting his new mobility and damage multipliers to good use, he clawed madly at the other gremlin, then jumped away as Centoo joined the fray and reclaimed his perch out of the line of fire.
Skarm was really coming into his own as a skirmisher/ambusher.
Levi spun away from the ongoing fight between his minions and the Essence gremlin, the main Essence itself still drawing toward him.
The room was too small to keep evading it forever. The Essence was growing more elongated as it moved, taking up more space but growing a bit shorter. Levi sliced off another tiny piece, rushing to stomp on the scarab it formed before it could take to the air. Being sturdier than the average scarab, it slipped out from under his foot instead of being crushed, and he didn’t have time to pursue it.
The main body continued to flow relentlessly after him, forcing him to keep moving. Any time he stopped or slowed, it threatened to engulf him. It could only move in lines or curves, its momentum all that saved him from being crushed or dissolved by it. As long as he kept changing direction and moving, he could stay ahead of it.
A rapid flurry with his shortsword sliced off more of its mass, sending three scarab-size pieces flying, which immediately reconstituted and flew after his team. Cen had just finished off the first when these three joined the fight, but the centipedes had enough legs to fend off a handful of them. As long as they didn't get to insane swarm quantities like the first stage, Levi knew his team could handle them.
With an abrupt reversal, Levi skirted the edge of the Destruction Essence as it surged past and sliced off another piece in the process.
This one was bigger than the scarabs, but smaller than the gremlin, so he glanced back, curious to see what it formed into. It became a gremlin, just a smaller and stunted-looking one. It ran at Centoo, whose rider gleefully jumped down on the tiny Essence gremlin with a flurry of slashing claws.
He found himself wishing Gremlin Two were here. There was still plenty of the Essence left, and while this fight should be doable for a team of four, it would have been easier for a team of five.
Levi spent another minute evading, not trying to strike, buying his team time to finish off the Essence creatures he'd already sent their way before he started slicing off more. He could have chopped the Essence into a hundred pieces in less than a minute, but then they'd be facing a swarm of enhanced scarabs, and he found the slime form easier to control for the moment. It was relentless, but also predictable.
He began to feel again the exhilaration he'd experienced early on, the feeling of running along the edge of a precipice, knowing you wouldn’t fall.
It took all his attention, but even though this was the worst thing a level 2 dungeon could possibly throw at him, he could take it.
They continued chipping away at the Essence, Levi keeping it focused on himself as his minions fought the enhanced creatures that formed from the pieces. He was beginning to worry, now, as the fight drew on.
His mana pool was still smaller than he'd like. Though he'd refrained from using Beast Bite and draining his pool more than necessary, keeping the edge active drained mana steadily, if slowly.
He kept his use of stamina to tiny bursts only when absolutely necessary, but that, too, was running dangerously low. At least it regenerated more quickly now. He no longer ran out and ended up completely helpless for minutes on end—but even fifteen or twenty seconds could be an eternity in close combat.
And the Destruction Essence was getting faster.
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