Several things happened simultaneously as the gigantic head bore down on me. First, though my fate was about to take a drastic and likely deadly turn, my incantation completed. Synaptic Toxin lanced the paltry distance between us, diving deeply into the Naga’s human torso as a palpable wave of energy. The poison penetrated deeply into my target’s central nervous system and began tearing at its delicate brain tissue. While I had my damage notification minimized owing to my reluctance to be distracted at an inopportune time by a System, I was nonetheless aware my spell easily bypassed whatever magical protections the Naga had in place. Though, by the feel of it, I doubted it had any.
In an instant, seventeen hundred health points were ripped away as the initial spike of spell damage burrowed hungrily at the Naga’s health pool. Over the better part of three minutes, the Naga would feel the same level of agony every six seconds. By the time the formidable invocation ended its lengthy duration, more than forty-eight thousand points of damage would have been inflicted. Doubting it would last that long, nor that it mattered given my present situation, the hope the Naga would eventually fall to my spell seemed a paltry consolation.
My surface-level thoughts regarding my opponent's magical defensives, clearly nowhere near as powerful as its physical defenses, slipped from my mind as inconsequential. It seemed as if my foe’s enormous head was moving in slow motion. Or, perhaps panic grappled at the corner of my mind. No matter; I doubted I would be alive long before my spell completed its grisly work in defeating the troublesome fiend. Ignoring the agony starting to rip at its mind, the snake didn’t waiver in its deadly lunge. When I was crushed to death under its snapping maw, nothing I had done so far in the battle would protect me from my fate.
Yet, this fate was not realized.
A moment before the Naga jaws crashed around my body, a familiar black shape flew in from the side. Lowki materialized! Claws and barbed quills slammed into the snake’s tilted head with the force of a wrecking ball. Sadly, while Lowki weighed an impressive quarter ton, the Naga was no pushover and likely outweighed the panther at least four times over. Still, Lowki’s last-ditch effort was enough to save me from the fate I had assumed was avoidable. Instead of the jaws clamping around my midsection, Lowki’s arrival pushed the enormous head slightly off course. The Naga’s bottom jaw slammed forcefully into my midsection.
Courtesy of my upgraded Empowered Aegis, most of the force from the blow dissipated and was not transferred into my body. Even so, I was rocked backward and nearly lost my balance. Unable to clamp around my body as it had intended, the Naga adjusted the angle of attack, pushing the top of its head further forward in an attempt to plunge its fangs into my back. Overwhelming gratitude for my Aegis flooded through me as its piercing fangs failed to bypass its shielding and were ultimately rebuffed. While the bite failed to clamp around me entirely, the snake did have an awkward hold on me.
Still, the off-kilter viper strike eviscerated a significant portion of the mana binding my protective shield together. In an instant, a whopping thousand mana points disappeared! Without Lowki’s intervention or my Aegis holding the Naga’s fangs at bay, the damage could have been much, much higher. I doubted I would survive for any appreciable amount of time if it had been able to pump its potent venom into my seemingly fragile body.
The Naga made a pair of vain attempts to clamp its jaws around me in the next few moments, but the combination of Lowki’s weight pulling its head down and my own struggles to break free meant its hold was precarious at best. Grasped gingerly between its jaws, I nearly gagged as its feted breath washed over me. Unfortunately, my skin-tight protective barrier was ill-equipped to protect me from the foul and putrid breath.
Damn, that’s awful! It was as if the Naga regularly gargled stagnant sewer water.
Though I couldn’t see my feline companion, my mind pictured his claws racking mercilessly as Lowki attempted to force the snake to let go of its intended victim. Feeling like a ragdoll clutched helplessly, my vision tilted sideways as the snake reoriented its head with me still inside. The Naga shook its head side to side to dislodge the stubborn Lowki, but the panther was more than capable of holding fast courtesy of his razor-sharp claws. Thankful, the distraction my friend afforded meant the snake was no longer intent on securing its hold. This allowed me time to plant both feet against the crook of its mouth. With all my strength, I violently kicked out as if I intended to leap over a mighty chasm! Combined with the back-and-forth motion of the snake’s broad head, my lateral lunge kicked me free of its distracted grasp.
The Naga attempted to catch me as I crashed to the ground but thankfully missed the bottom of my boots by mere inches. Hitting hard, I immediately sent myself into roll to gain some distance from my colossal foe. Hoping to avoid further attempts to recapture me, I used my legs and arms to propel me across the ground as fast as I could manage. Several protruding rocks smacked into my back and torso as I rolled, though, with the force reduction from my Aegis, it felt more like I was rolling across pillowed boulders while swaddled in a thick blanket. It didn’t hurt in the slightest, but it did contribute to my mana dropping a few points. In all, I was down about ten percent of my mana meaning the same proportion of force would bypass my Empowered Aegis.
Finally coming to a rest, I discovered my fear had not been warranted as the Naga was too focused on dislodging the tenacious Lowki to pay me any heed. The giant panther clung stubbornly to the bottom of the snake’s head and repeatedly bit down while simultaneously slamming two barbed tentacles into the reptile’s scaled hide. Regaining my feet, I prepared a new casting. Wanting to deal some direct damage against my eyesore of a foe, the words to Lightning Bolt sped from my mouth, sounding as if I was calling down a thunderstorm. Hoping to impart some much-needed lethal damage, I dual cast the spell, both hands a mirror image of the other.
As arcane syllables drifted across the countryside, the Naga pumped furiously to dislodge his attacker, though with little success initially. Then, like a hammer repeatedly crashing into the hard-packed earth, the snake slammed its head down. Lowki’s body was caught between a rock and a hard place. At the same time, the Naga skillfully struck out with its sole remaining blade. The curved instrument was repeatedly sent plummeting into the stubborn panther’s flanks, tearing long furrows into his ebony body.
Moments before my spell completed, Lowki was finally forced to let go or risk either losing a leg or having his back snapped in two. Ever the steadfast combatant, the midnight panther timed his gambit perfectly in an attempt to inflict the most damage possible as he retreated. Right as the Naga’s head reached the height of its upward trajectory, Lowki launched himself free. Using the snake’s momentum against him and with all the strength he could bring to bear with two pairs of hind legs, Lowki blasted skywards. He had not, however, released his vice grip with his front two paws nor his barbed tentacles buried deeply into snakeskin. To devastating effect, scales and oozing green flesh were torn away as Lowki leaped. Blood immediately gushed from the gaping wounds and soon dribbled down the creature’s wide neck. Oh, how the Naga howled! Sounding like the most pleasing long note, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the howl signified a mortal wound.
Perhaps the Naga had been mortally wounded, yet I wasn’t about to risk leaving it to bleed to death slowly. My Lightning Bolt completed and a dazzling energy beam sliced through the air straight for the fraught Naga. Howling high into the night sky, the bolt hit the underside of its broad head and carried a hundred feet up into the air. Scales blackened, charred, and cracked under the ferocity of the magical assault. Its gangly head snapped even higher, nearly causing the Naga to topple over backward. With the weight, its long body afforded the mighty beast, the Naga easily held its human torso upright.
Lowki’s jump did come at a significant risk of injury, however. At my angle, I easily tracked the cat as he cartwheeled through the air. The panther attempted to use its prodigious agility to right itself before he reached the rapidly approaching ground. He would not be successful as disoriented his leap had been.
Even with the tremendous damage my spell inflicted, the Naga ignored me entirely in favor of locating the slippery panther. It was as if the humanoid snake took it as a personal affront for the panther to bite it. Snapping its head to the side, the Naga spied Lowki’s tumbling body before the cat crashed heavily into a burgeoning protrusion of hard-packed earth the size of a minivan. The impact stunned the umbral displacer beast and he slumped to the ground. Dazed as he was, Lowki was utterly defenseless. Panic swelled in my breast as the Naga skittered rapidly across the ground towards the knocked senseless cat.
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Furious from the agony it had suffered from the hands, the giant snake was determined to finish the meddlesome pest. Moaning in pain, Lowki shook his head from side to side, attempting to clear the cobwebs from his head. He was oblivious to the danger fast approaching his position.
“Lowki!” I yelled to my friend in an attempt to catch his attention. My words had little effect and could not reach Lowki’s addled mind. Fear gripped my chest as, unlike me, Lowki had no magical defense to stop the snake’s piercing fangs. Unless I interceded quickly, a deadly dose of abhorrent venom would soon be coursing through the great panther’s veins, spelling a swift and painful demise. While Lowki would revive, given enough time, I wasn’t about to allow it to happen. I needed to grab the snake’s attention!
But what could I do? Any spell I tried casting hardly seemed strong enough to divert the determined Naga as it slithered closer to my downed friend. It basically ignored what could be my most potent direct damage spell, so I had little hope another lightning blast would do anything more a second time around. Still, I had to do something, now! A glimmer of hope sparked in my mind as the thoughts of our recent battle against the spiders flashed through my mind.
It could work, I said to myself. It was the only idea I had come up with. The Naga would be in Lowki’s daze form in less than a few seconds. With little time to spare, I acted, hoping to beat the next round of DoT damage soon coming. I was about to heighten the damage inflicted to a whole new level.
With a mental flex of will, Quintessence Empowerment flooded out of my core and into every corner of my body. Knowing what to expect this time, I tensed as the wave of power rushed through me. Unlike back with the spiders, I could fight through as every muscle in my body attempted to fire simultaneously. Along with the boost to my damage over time effect, every one of my attributes jumped an extra ten percent. I was invigorated both physically and mentally. My spell’s critical strike chance had also received a considerable boost. For the next minute, every DoT, in effect, would see their damage potential swell by seventy-five percent. Along the same lines, every tick now had a greater than fifty percent chance to crit. I could only hope the sudden increase would be enough to stupefy my opponent.
It all depended on when the next round of DoT damage ticked over. Please be in time, I pleaded to myself.
With the Naga mere feet away from his position, Lowki realized almost too late that he was about to be made into a five-hundred-pound chew toy. As the cobra coiled to strike, two identical black shapes emerged from Lowki’s body and dove in opposite directions away from the agitated Naga. To my eyes, the masses seemed mirror images of my panther friend. I knew a split second later exactly where they were. Lowki triggered his illusionary doubles!
Dazed as he was, Lowki still had the sense to try something to avoid the imminent attack. By the look of it, though, Lowki was having a hard time coordinating not only his movements but his illusionary copies as well. The pair seemed to spring away in an almost drunken manner. Both were immediately ignored by the focused Naga. It cared little for distractions with how vulnerable Lowki appeared to be. The giant snake was not about to take its sights off its prey. His eyes never left the vulnerable panther as Lowki continued to sway unevenly. Like a viper, the Naga struck out with all the fury its enormous body could bring to bear.
Unfortunately, I was too late. Or, more precisely, my empowerment hadn’t done anything to deter the giant reptile because the next round of DoT damage was at least another second or more away. In horror, I grimaced as the Naga’s bared fangs crashed into my defenseless friend.
My eyes grew large as the massive head passed through Lowki’s body as if it were nothing more than an apparition. One second, it appeared as if Lowki was done for; the next, the Naga’s fangs smashed harmlessly into the same mound of earth responsible for dazing the struggling panther. Spitting out dirt, the Naga looked panic-stricken as its head wiped side to side, then underneath it as it desperately sought its victim. It withdrew slightly and, upon seeing Lowki’s double once more, struck out with a vengeance to similar results. Its target was nothing more than an illusion.
Fuming in outrage, the Naga’s forked tongue lashed out in an attempt to locate its elusive foe when its visual organs had failed so miserably. I was more thankful than ever that we were fortunate enough to find Lowki’s bracelet before leaving Quarris. Using the enchanted bangle, Lowki could teleport to one of his clones, effectively swapping places with an illusionary double. Pleased by the turn of events, my mischievous grin widened further as my next round of DoT damage, at long last, came.
Keenly aware at least two of my DoTs had just been critically struck, the Naga floundered under the assault as its body quivered in agony. The massive creature toppled to its side as it hissed out bloody murder. Like a pain-riddled animal, the huge snake started coiling around itself, but the defensive measure halted abruptly as a new System message entered my mind.
Note! The secondary effect of ‘Cantankerous Cacophony’ has been triggered. The Invidious Naga Burrower is terrified!
As if possessed, the Naga uncoiled before rushing off toward its lone compatriot as fast as its slithering body could carry it. The rotund snake moved unerringly towards where Ripley and the other Naga still savagely battled with single-minded intent.
“Stell, how much health does my Naga have left?” I hollered while sprinting after the snake’s retreating form. Looking past the Naga, I spied Ripley’s and her foe farther away than I had thought. Apparently, Ripley’s valiant attempts to weather her enemy’s dual blades continuously crashing upon her resulted in her gaining a fair bit of distance from where we had initially been ambushed. Backpedaling, she had more than a fair share of scraps and cuts by the look of it.
“It’s in the red. Two or three ticks should finish it,” she responded promptly from my shoulder.
It was exactly what I was hoping for. It meant my attention could be focused on the mostly uninjured Naga. His buddy, under the terrifying effects of my spell, should die shortly after reaching his comrade and transfer the affliction once contact was made. Then, with only a single foe standing against all of us, we should be able to make quick work of the last remaining combatant. Well, I hoped for as much, anyway.
Tallos must have come to the same conclusion he opted to focus his ire on Ripley’s snake. Magically infused arrows of differing colors began slicing through the evening air. Going mostly unseen in the battle thus far because of the earlier entanglement with constricting snake scales, the warden was determined to leave a lasting mark on the remainder of the fight. As fast as his bowstring could be drawn, arrow after arrow peppered his target. As I ran, I assumed Jax was all right, otherwise the ranger would have called out for some healing.
Judging myself nearly close enough I slowed my pace. I desperately wanted to give Ripley some reprieve against the battering assault she had thus far been successful in resisting. Glancing at my party menu, I saw that her health was below the fifty percent mark. She needed our aid.
Close enough to dash into melee combat if needed, I came to an abrupt halt to not disrupt my upcoming casting. I could, of course, cast on the move, but I was determined not to risk my spell fizzling. In moments, the two snakes would collide with one another. Narrowing my eyes, the words to Lightning Bolt formed in my mind. My fingers moved in precise movements, forming the somatic portion of the growing spell weave as mystical phrases tumbled from my lips. With mana ready to burst forth, I thrust my hands toward the poised Naga and willed the spell to manifest in the real world.
I had opted for a regular bolt of electricity instead of Chained Lightning as I didn’t want to finish off the fear-induced Naga when it was close to reaching its compatriot. That one would die soon enough on its own. The darkening grassland lit up with a brilliant flash of white light as a thick column of energy rocketed toward our foe.
Unfortunately, my plan would not go off without a hitch. Whether sensing its approaching friend or hearing my voice in the throes of spell casting, Ripley’s Naga was not taken unawares. A fraction of a second after my spell lanced through the air, the massive creature flung sideways in a desperate attempt to avoid what was about to happen. While I doubted it knew its fellow Naga was under a fear effect, I couldn’t put it past the monster as it was part human and probably had a modicum of intelligence. The pair of dangerous Nagas had, after all, successfully planned the ambush, nearly costing some of us our lives.
Unfortunately, my eagerness to distract Ripley’s opponent meant I had not considered the full implications of one of my newest spells. Even had the Naga not jumped to the side, my earlier Lightning Bolt should have reminded me the spell effect wouldn’t end there. Not unless I desired it to. My eyes widened in horror as Ripley’s bony form came fully into view. She was in the direct path of the crackling thunderbolt! While the spell would normally allow me to terminate the effect at any point up to the maximum hundred feet distance, I had not thought to do so until it was too late. My mad rush to help Ripley may have cost us more than we could afford.
With no time to will the bolt to dissipate before striking a friend, Lightning Bolt blasted into Ripley’s chest and sent her tumbling backward into the tall grass, where her smoking form was lost from sight.
“Ripley’s stunned for four seconds!” Stella shrieked from my side, clearly despondent from the sudden turn of events.
“No!” I screamed in horror. My lack of foresight and carelessness may have just doomed us all.