“Okay,” Jace said as the armadillion stared at them from a distance, “this is the plan. Esther and Snowy race across the bridge and find a storm shaman. Snowy just fed on one, so the scent should be fresh in her mind, and since they all just died, half a dozen of them should be wandering in the mountains. Enthrall him and bring him back.”
“How do I get him across the bridge?” she asked.
“You need to figure that out,” he said. “Fly if you have to but make it quick.”
The woman nodded and sprinted across the rickety bridge with the wolf at her heels.
“Gromphy!” Jace shouted, and the lid of the chest crept open.
“I’m not coming out!”
“Fine. I need three bombs, healing potions, and arrows that can hurt that thing. Make the bombs fire, fire, and cold. I also need Adam. Can you put him inside the cold bomb?”
The chest spat out the potions and the first two bombs quickly, but the other requests took a while. While they waited, Jace gave Choi, the only conscious member of the escapees, the potions. “Administer these as best you can. Wait until you and your friends are very low to make them last as long as possible. Move into the base of that far tower,” he pointed to position two, “and stay out of sight.”
Jace turned to Draya. “I need you to activate Dragon Spirit and keep it going with your dress. When you use your staff, I need you to increase the difficulty as high as possible without running out of mana.” She flexed her power, and Jace felt the surge of magic within her.
Jace returned to the chest, and Gromphy stuck both arms out with two fists full of silver arrows. “Mithril,” Psycho exclaimed and raced over to grab the items. “I didn’t know you had these.”
“I didn’t,” the goblin confirmed.
“Do you have your crafting table in there?” Jace asked, lifting the lid slightly. Gromphy slammed it back down.
The shaman didn’t have time for games. He glanced over his shoulder at the armadillion and saw it munching trees and watching Esther sprint by on the opposite side of the chasm that isolated their plateau. “I need the last bomb!”
Gromphy lifted the lid slightly and peered out. “What didst thou mean by placing Adam in the final bomb?”
Jace bent down to pick up one of the firebombs. It looked like an enormous bowl of French onion soup, with cheese melting down the sides, but Jace guessed it was some highly flammable concoction. “This is six inches across,” Jace explained. “Adam is only three inches when small. Put his figurine inside the last bomb.”
“But ‘twill end him.”
Jace shook his head. “You said he is immune to cold.”
The gobbling frowned. “Thus I didst.”
“Do it!” Jace shouted as Psycho warned him the monster was coming closer. Gromphy didn’t like it, but he was compelled. If Jace lost the goblin’s toy, it would severely hurt their relationship, but they’d all be dead, so it wouldn’t matter. The last bomb popped out two rounds later, and the lid slammed shut. This device was the same size as the others but frosty blue and released vapor like a bowl of dry ice. Jace had to trust that the golem was in there. He handed all three items to Psycho.
“Get up to that tower,” he instructed, pointing to position one. Tower five had been obliterated when the armadillion had burst into the field. Towers one and four now flanked the monster’s position. “Get its attention and throw each of these bombs into its mouth. The two fire ones first, then the ice.” Psycho nodded, stored his new arrows in his cloak, and carried the bombs as he sprinted toward the fortress entrance.
Jace strategically cast his Damage Sink and Armor totems on the rocky landscape and turned to Draya. “It’s you and me now. We must get that thing over here and keep it distracted until Esther returns.”
Draya nodded. She understood its lava flows shouldn’t hurt, but they could suffocate her. And if they pooled around her legs and cooled, the lava would trap her as the gnome had done earlier, so she needed to be careful. Any hit from its foot or tail would kill her instantly, so she didn’t bother with her mage armor.
“See if your dragon fire can hurt it,” Jace said.
The beast walked toward them and was now within 300 feet, just inside the staff’s range for a single stream of fire. With her natural mana generation boosted by her Dragon Spirit, Draya could spare additional mana to increase her difficulty. The fire roared from her weapon and slammed into the beast’s face. The armadillion didn’t flinch as it saw the attack coming, and Jace guessed its Dodge skill wasn’t significant anyway. Either way, it wasn’t usually scared of fire, but this was something different. The attack hit it square in the face, and it reeled in pain, its health dropping by almost 100. If Jace’s math was correct, it saved against the attack and took half damage, with Damage Reduction eating up about 50 points. Since it was back to full health, it would take 80 of those attacks to kill it, but at least Draya could cause it some pain.
The armadillion increased to a trot, galloping toward them like a charging rhino. Jace moved out to the left side, nearer the fortress, and watched as the beast kept its attention on Draya. He charged, meeting the creature 50 feet before it got to the mage. Diamond Ether was out and cut hard at the armored side, slicing into the top of two rock-hard scales. As predicted, his enchanted sword cut through the stone like butter, and two plates fell and shattered on the ground.
This caused the armadillion to pause in its rush toward Draya. As Jace penetrated the vulnerable area with his weapon, the monster stopped entirely, turning hard toward the offending human. Jace’s attack did far more than 100, as he got three criticals to quadruple the damage. The colossal beast tried to stomp on the shaman, but he avoided the clumsy attack only to be hit by the real threat as the boulder-like tail whipped him in the back and sent him flying toward the keep.
{Eight hundred damage,} Gracie advised as Jace flew through the air. {Because you are a stone shaman, you only take half from thrown rocks or landslides, and its tail qualifies. After your Damage Reduction, your totem absorbed 380. Don’t take too many more of those hits.}
Jace had watched others die from one of those attacks and understood he could take several. He would need to be the punching bag for this creature because Draya wouldn’t be able to survive a blow like that. The monster turned to Jace, marveling that the human’s health hadn’t dropped one point, and rushed him with its horned head low. It took another blast of dragon fire in its ear.
This time it failed the save and took just over 160. The armadillion couldn’t decide which annoying human to pursue and paused. At that moment, a silver arrow flashed through the air, hitting the beast between its eyes. Now it lifted its head and roared at Psycho standing a dozen feet above it. The elf threw the first bomb straight down its throat. The tiny object was hardly enough to choke the creature, but the beast managed to regurgitate it back into its mouth and bit the offending item. It exploded into a 200-damage fireball, but it wasn’t dragon fire.
The armadillion lost no health and looked intrigued by the prospect of fire food. As Jace pulled himself away from the pile of rubble that used to be the fifth guard post, he watched as the beast vomited a wave of lava at Draya to send her sprinting away, then turned back to the elf in the tower expectantly, its mouth slightly ajar. The archer obliged, and the second firebomb found its target. This time the monster swallowed it like a puppy getting a treat, and Jace never saw the explosion deep in its stomach.
The beast cast a look toward Draya and saw the woman still dancing out of the way of the lava stream. Jace kept his distance, not wanting to distract the monster from his plan. The third bomb followed, and the monster swallowed it again without thinking but reacted differently as it failed the saving throw and took 150 cold damage. It lowered its head and rammed the base of the tower.
Only Psycho’s exceptional Dexterity saved him as he jumped onto the creature’s back right before impact. Stone and brick followed the elf as his perch exploded behind him, and the armadillion tried to toss the rubble onto its back to chase off the archer. Psycho slid to the right over the round back and landed on the rapidly cooling lava field. As debris rained down around him, he sprinted away, making a beeline for the bridge, his feet never touching the hot ground long enough to take damage.
It looked like the stampeding monster would catch him, but a stream of dragon fire hit it in the face, distracting it just long enough for Psycho to make it to the bridge and race across without breaking stride. The beast knew it couldn’t follow and turned to Draya, standing directly in front of the fortress next to the chest. With the bridge to her right, a chasm behind her, and the crumbling keep to her left, she had nowhere to run.
The armadillion stalked her slowly, its tail swishing back and forth behind it, ready to swat her if she tried to run past. She released another gout of fire, which only lowered its health by another 100 points. It was 50 feet away when one of the scales on its left side exploded. It looked in that direction in time to see a silver streak fly in and disappear into the bare spot where the armored scale had been. Its health dropped by almost 300. Roaring, the monster turned completely to its left as Draya took the opportunity to sprint into Stormhold’s damaged entrance. The destroyed tower hadn’t wholly blocked the vaulted door.
Psycho stood across the chasm, 350 feet away, Dragonwing in his hands. With that large a target, he couldn’t miss and only had to aim when he needed to thread a hole he had created. Jace ran toward the action and watched as the beast swung its tail into what was left of the fortress entrance, bringing another huge section crumbling down. He winced as he knew Draya had just run in but smiled as she exited through the piles of rubble. He met her and tried to calm her nerves.
“You’re doing great,” Jace said.
“I’m barely scratching him,” she cried in frustration, “and if he so much as touches me, I’m gone.”
“Then don’t let him touch you,” Jace quipped and raced toward the animal. Now that Adam was in the belly of the beast, he had to get back to the chest. He was pretty sure the box was indestructible, but that didn’t mean the armadillion couldn’t cover it with lava or destroy the ground beneath it.
Psycho was still firing arrows at the monster, tempting the clever beast to try and jump after him or possibly spew lava that far when Jace came up behind it. He struck it on the left side, picking off a scale and then filling it with his sword. As the beast reacted and spun in that direction, Jace was through its legs and avoided the swinging tail. It looked for the elusive swordsman but caught a face full of dragon fire instead.
Jace reached the chest and skidded to a stop on the steaming terrain. The box was only half-buried in lava, but he had to clear away several stone blocks piled around the immovable object, screaming for his crafter as he worked. Eventually, Gromphy responded to his calls. The lid cracked open, and the goblin saw the marauding monster only 50 feet away, screamed in terror, and slammed the lid back closed.
“I need you to activate Adam.”
“I can only doth from 20 feet hence,” Grumpy called back, his voice muffled by the closed lid.
“I’ll take you there. Get your leather harness, and you can ride on my back.”
“No good,” the crafter replied, an excuse ready for everything. “Thou art too small. Tis designed for Adam.”
Jace dispelled his human illusion and appeared as an orc again. Not quite as large as the golem, but close enough. “You need to come out. I will keep you safe.”
“Nay one is safe with yond monster present. I’m content in here.”
“Do I need to command you?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Yes!”
Jace did, fearing his bond with the crafter was deteriorating fast. Even with the goblin compelled to obey, the lid opened slowly. Only when Gromphy was reminded how close the enemy was, did he move with hast, climbing on top of the closed chest and strapping himself to Jace’s back. He equipped the storage device into his inventory once he was secure. “Now run!”
Jace obeyed.
“Not toward the monster, thou gleeking gray-skinned dewberry! Away from it.” It was the first time the goblin had insulted Jace since joining the party, further showing that their relationship was on the rocks.
“But that is where Adam is,” Jace explained.
“Then go hence round it, thou cockered weather-bitten odiferous stench.”
“Adam is inside the creature,” he clarified.
“Ahhhh! What? Thou didst lose him! Thou art a rancorous idle-headed twit! I shalt never forgive thee!” Jace ignored the flustered goblin and hoped he wouldn’t leave the party right there. As he avoided the stomping hind leg of the armadillion, he realized the crafter would be dead within seconds if he jumped off his back, so he had him at least until the end of the fight.
They were now directly below the monster’s underbelly as it still couldn’t figure out how to deal with the two powerful ranged attackers flanking it. Psycho and Draya were 300 feet away on either side, and it had no attack that went that far.
“I can feel him! I can feel him!” Gromphy said as Jace crouched to keep his head from scraping against the stony skin.
“Then activate him.”
“And has’t him doth what?”
“Attack. Break things. Turn the monster’s insides to mush. Have him find the creature’s mana core and steal its power to stay active.”
Gromphy didn’t respond verbally, but Jace could feel him nod. A moment later, a shudder went through the armadillion, and Jace feared another lava flow. He scampered out from under the monster, but it wasn’t doing the customary body wriggle. Instead, it had a pained expression as if experiencing gas. Jace watched its health go down slowly. Hasted, Adam could attack three times a round, but the monster had 50 points of Damage Reduction, so the golem could only do 150 per round. Still, it was consistent and unblockable.
Now the armadillion assumed the pose it took when its core was about to go off, but its head bolted up in the middle of the process, and it bellowed in rage. It had tried regenerating, but Adam found the core and stole half of the mana. Only a few of the monster’s scales reformed, and its health only bumped up a few hundred. Jace’s group had gotten it down to around 6000.
“Ouch,” Gromphy explained. “Adam hath found the core and didst steal much of the mana, but at a price. Heavy fire damage. He canst only doth yond a few more times.”
The armadillion was unhappy and confused. It finally decided to turn its back on the painful archer and focus on Jace and Draya. They had the large field to play with, forcing Psycho to either cross back over the bridge or shoot from 600 feet where he wouldn’t do as much damage. He had also run out of mithril arrows. His normal ones couldn’t break off scales, so he was forced to aim at the holes in the armor from 600 feet. Though each was as big as a human’s torso, the game required several criticals to hit them since they were a tiny percentage of the beast’s body. If the armadillion ever got a good enough heal to close all the holes, Psycho would be rendered useless.
Meanwhile, Jace and Draya tried to stay on opposite sides of the beast, the orc attacking close while the mage kept her distance. The shaman was uniquely resistant to the armadillion’s melee attacks, while the mage could handle a little lava. In the close quarters of Mithril Palace, the monster had decimated Brock and Ian’s forces with crushing blows and fire, but these two characters proved much more difficult.
Gromphy screamed on Jace’s back each time he got within striking distance. The shaman got hit several times with the tail and had to turn to catch the attack in the face to spare the goblin. It took two hits to destroy his totem and carry over to his health, but ten rounds usually elapsed before a third attack, allowing him to cast another Damage Sink.
Gromphy started comprehending how much of a punishment Jace was taking to protect him and decided to start helping. He crafted more ice bombs from the ingredients he always kept in his inventory, not needing a crafting table for such a simple process. He had way more crafting skill than needed, turned the rest into mana, and started casting boons on his mount. He raised Jace’s Dexterity and boosted his Dodge skill, making avoiding the lumbering feet and occasional tail strikes even easier. The goblin didn’t have boon spells memorized for all the skills, but he bolstered Jace’s Damage Reduction, Magic Defense, and Melee bonus.
Jace appreciated the help, and as the ice bombs rained down on the monster before him, and his attacks grew in potency while feeling as nimble as Esther or Psycho, he knew this was a combination he would have to try again. As intelligent as Gromphy was, the goblin didn’t realize he was broadcasting how effective he could be in combat situations.
Over the next 20+ rounds, the armadillion had three more mana surges, two of which Adam interrupted, taking more fire damage. Even with the golem’s persistent attacks, they couldn’t bring the monster much below 6000. As Gromphy started to run out of ingredients and Jace’s boons expired, his attacks became less effective, and he had to guard more against retaliation. Jace even got a fatigue warning. With all his running around, Jace understood it would take its toll eventually. That meant Draya must be in worse shape. She wasn’t swinging her weapon and Dodging close attacks, but her Constitution was much lower.
With Jace regrouping, the armadillion felt safe using its next mana wave to belch lava at Draya. This caught her off guard, as it had used the past four surges to heal. The mage didn’t take damage from the attack, but her fatigue started to set in, and she tripped in her retreat. Falling to her hands and knees, she struggled in the thick lava flow and couldn’t make it to safety before the magma cooled around her legs. She was rendered Helpless as the beast closed in on her. Jace sprinted to her defense and tried to parry the tail attack that came in. He failed but intercepted the blow, saving the woman as Gromphy helped a little by dropping another hastily constructed cold bomb at her feet before they sailed into the air.
Since it was from a party member and she was Helpless, Draya didn’t get a chance to save against the bomb, so Gromphy had to reduce the damage to keep from killing her. Since he was low on ingredients, it would have done reduced damage either way. Still, the rapidly cooling magma became brittle, allowing her Dragon Strength a chance to wrestle herself free. It took a few blows from her staff, but she rolled away just before the creature stomped the rocks to powder.
Gromphy took damage as Jace no longer had the Dexterity boons necessary to rotate in the air and land correctly. The orc was down to half health and still had to wait a few rounds before he could cast another Damage Sink. Draya was hurt badly by the cold bomb, but it had been necessary to save her. Psycho hadn’t done any significant damage in a while, and they still couldn’t get this monster below 75% health. They needed help.
{Esther’s back,} Gracie informed him. {She found a storm shaman.}
Jace picked himself up off the ground and looked in the distance toward the far side of the bridge. He saw Esther and Psycho talking and wondered how they would get the man across. A few trees near them suddenly bent over from a ferocious wind, and all three characters and Snowy took to the air and were blown across the span. Nice to have a storm shaman.
Psycho was in range to do damage again but held his fire for a few seconds, not wanting to attract attention to Esther’s arrival. Once she was halfway across the field, running along the edge of the mostly totaled keep, Psycho resumed firing, finding the few bare spots the beast hadn’t healed. It had significant resistance to fire and acid, but the elf found lightning worked well, and his elemental bow fired off the attacks as quickly as he could pull arrows.
The armadillion was again fielding attacks from three sides and couldn’t decide whom to pay attention to. Esther slipped by unnoticed. Jace took off another two scales and sliced deep into the creature as the woman drew near. “Get up into that tower,” he cried, motioning to position four, which stood at the edge of the field. “Tell your thrall we need a lightning storm to generate power, and then you need to be ready to fire at this thing when I tell you. Snowy, go by Psycho.”
They had all been briefed on the defensive abilities of this fortress, and Esther knew what her boss wanted. However, she didn’t feel completely confident giving her new friend instructions and wished he could operate on his own. “Can we invite the shaman into our party?” she asked.
“No!” Jace shouted.
“Why not?” Esther stood just outside the keep next to a hole in the wall, hiding behind rubble as she watched Jace successfully avoid another attack and plunge his sword into the beast.
“Because it will kill me,” he responded under duress. “And don’t let him increase the difficulty.”
Esther didn’t understand the answer, but she had learned to trust her leader and led the storm shaman into the fortress as the clouds that had stayed over the mountains began creeping over their location. The storm blotted out the late morning sun but lit up the sky with flashes of electricity.
The armadillion was vulnerable to lightning but knew enough about this environment to understand that a blast of 600 damage wouldn’t come close to killing it. It could heal quickly and sensed that the golem inside it was running out of health and could only block its regeneration a few more times. Testing that theory, the monster paused to refresh, and Adam stole most of it.
“Yond is all he can doth,” Gromphy reported. “Once more shalt end him, but he can lasteth another 20 rounds hence that final charge.”
“Hopefully, it won’t take that long. Tell your golem to start climbing up out of the creature’s stomach. Adam must reach the armadillion’s mouth in the next few rounds.”
“But then another lava spew shalt kill him.”
Jace just avoided a tail strike and took off a few more scales. “Trust me.”
Over the fortress, lightning started to rain down on an array of crystals in the center of the structure, striking every other round. A few moments later, Esther appeared at the top of tower four. The shaman was winded and a few steps behind her. Under her instruction, the man cast a totem that resembled a gun turret made of blue glass and silver metal. She waved to Jace to let him know she was ready.
“Where’s Adam,” Jace asked, just avoiding a stomping foot as the opposite side of the creature was lit up with dragon fire and lightning arrows.
“Climbing,” was all the goblin said.
Jace backed away and saw the armadillion go through convulsions as an 8-foot-tall adamantium golem climbed up its esophagus. Its body retched as if it were going to summon more lava, but Jace figured it had been too soon after the previous mana surge. But the chaos enchantment that gave its core power responded to the monster’s request, and Jace felt the magic building in its belly.
“Get off!” Jace commanded Gromphy. “Get off and run!”
The goblin didn’t question the command, undid a few buckled on his harness, dropped to the ground, and sprinted toward Snowy and Psycho. The archer was peppering the beast from 150 feet.
“Draya!” Jace cried. “Get to Psycho. Run! Get clear.” He then turned up to Esther. “On my mark. Shoot for the silver target.”
“What target?” she cried, but then she saw it.
The armadillion sensed the power building from the fortress, and while it wasn’t enough to pose much of a threat, it was the biggest danger to it right now. Another pulse of magma was coming, and what better way to clear its clogged throat than by spewing lava at the shaman ready to attack it. The monster opened its mouth wide and pointed it at Esther.
“There!” she cried to her shaman as Adam’s silver head poked up at the back of the monster’s throat.
“Now!” Jace shouted.
Lightning leaped from the tower just as lava rushed over the golem from the other direction, consuming his legs. The electricity was faster.
Adam had been in play for over 40 rounds. Jace had lost count once Esther had arrived. Gracie later told him it had been 48. That meant he would fail any lightning attack with 24 criticals, multiplying any damage he took by 12. The 600 lightning damage ballooned to 7200. Typically, only half would then pass to the armadillion, but since Adam’s perfectly conductive body was touching the creature as he gripped tightly to the back of its tongue, the game treated them as one target. The armadillion only had 5800 HP.
The head of the enormous beast exploded as lava came spewing out of its neck hole. The lightning jumped to the next closest target. Jace had made sure it was him. He stood still next to the beast, his head bowed in prayer to Dexmachi. “I haven’t asked for much recently,” he said as 3600 lightning damage surged into him. “But a good saving roll would be nice here.”
Jace already had excellent Magic Defense. And since the level 15 storm shaman was instructed not to increase the difficulty of the attack and Jace had 100% protection from lightning, he should be okay. But it wasn’t enough to just save against the attack. Half damage would still obliterate him. He needed to save critically. With a roll of 16, he did, and the lightning was reduced to zero and didn’t jump to anyone else. If the shaman had been part of their party, like Ester had wanted, Jace would have failed automatically.
Meanwhile, the lava erupted like a volcano, primarily spraying at the tower but flying in all directions. Esther summoned her dragon shield and weathered a flood of deadly magma. The shaman took half his health in fire damage and collapsed, dying the next round as molten rock flowed over him.
Jace didn’t have a wave to avoid but took extra damage from the occasional drops of lava raining down around him. Draya draped herself over Snowy while Psycho used his superior HP to shield Gromphy. The lava from the volcanic eruption stopped after three rounds, and Jace breathed a sigh of relief. His health hovered around 120, and he carefully avoided stepping on any piles of molten slag. He looked at the tower and saw a wall of igneous rock formed by Esther’s fire immunity shield. He worried she might have still taken damage, but she peaked around the edge of the barrier and smiled at her leader with no significant reduction in health.
“At least one of my plans worked,” he called.
“You were about one for four on this trip,” Draya spoke up from his left, and Jace turned to look at her, happy that she had performed well in her first significant conflict.
“Yeah,” Jace said as he motioned at the dead monster before them, “but it was a significant ONE.”
Gromphy approached the dead armadillion cautiously. It no longer had a head, but he didn’t want to take any chances. Once he was sure, he cast his deconstruction spell to harvest any useful body parts from the monster, scooping up Adam’s figurine once it emerged from the remains. The goblin took damage from the hot metal item but didn’t care and stored it in his pouch. The recovery of his golem and access to this unique monster loot repaired the damage Jace had done to their relationship.
“You do this kind of thing often?” Psycho asked, jogging up to the group. Esther took a shortcut and climbed down the outside of the tower, a ramp of cooled lava making it easier.
“Define often,” Jace requested.
“There was a frost giant,” Esther said. “But it was nothing like this, and I was dying, so I didn’t get to watch.”
“And the lich,” Draya said, “though I felt like I did most of the work that time.”
“It’s not like I didn’t do all the work this time,” Esther argued.
“What are you talking about?” the mage replied. “You weren’t even here most of the time. I was trapped in rock and almost died.”
“Again?” Esther asked. “How many times is that going to happen to you?”
Jace laughed as he moved away from the good-natured fighting and paid attention to a prompt.
[Stormhold is now available. All combat has been resolved. Would you like to take ownership? YES / NO]
Jace looked around at the damaged keep and figured it was still worth it. He selected YES.