Chapter 25
Ice walls rose higher and higher, the further we descended. The end of the path made a sharp turn into a small glacial crater. We stumbled to a halt as we turned the corner and scrambled back to hide behind the wall.
“Son of Felke!” Arris said.
EHERGM!
A massive beast cleared its throat just before dropping a giant maggot into its gaping maw. The grub reappeared in ripped pieces between the monster’s jagged teeth. The beast pushed around its meal with a thick and sloppy tongue. White ooze and viscous guts drooled out from the gaps between teeth. The mess was simply shoved back into its mouth with fat furry fingers. Lips and tongue slurped at each finger.
“Monster Yeti,” Watt said in a mix of awe, thrill, and respect.
The beast was truly a monster. Wide set eyes were colored with a brittle blue and the monster stared at the ground unblinking. Even squatting as it was, the Monster Yeti was twice as tall as any of us.
It choked on its meal, then gagged and coughed before pounding its chest to clear the debris. It was on its feet a moment later, hacking to clear his throat. His eyes maintained an emotionless stare through the whole ordeal.
Now agitated and up on its feet, it staggered around in circles. Massive human-ish footprints were left pressed in the ice, as though the footprints, and the whole crater itself had been formed from the heat of its body and a few rounds of pacing.
The Yeti was a horror of a beast. White and red fur poofed thickset on almost every centimeter of its monstrous form. Icicles formed in the drool at its chin. Its spine seemed to lag behind his momentum, stuck in a fixed arch. Each hand was as large as its head, and it used them like a young puppy uses its yet unfamiliar paws. The Yeti’s hands moved faster than it could think, and slapped against its body when the monster went to scratch or play with the food in its mouth.
We stayed hidden at the wall and peered around as one, whispering our strategies and concerns for battle. The wind betrayed us, stealing our scent, and bowling down to the crater center where the Yeti squatted.
“Not good, not good,” Lep said.
We watched the fur of the Yeti dance in the arrival of wind. I squinted as though I could make out the currents of air move in to whisper an alarm in the Yeti’s ear. The Yeti’s eyes widened and the skin around his scleras cracked from seeming years of inactivity. It gave a mighty snort, as though it had swallowed a pig had swallowed another pig.
Hounghnk, Hougnk, Houngh, Houngh.
“We’ve gotta act fast guys,” Watt said with an earnest look.
The Monster Yeti sniffed around and followed the lead of its nose. Having to pursue the smells seemed to annoy the massive beast. It grumbled as though pulled out of a deep sleep and began a pattern of sniffing, stepping forward, searching, and then sniffing once more.
Erik kept an eye on the Yeti as we backtracked up the slope.
“Quickly,” I said, urging us backward.
We executed our surprise attack with haste. Watt led us back around the ice walls and up the path until we could climb over frozen ground and arrive at the top of the crater. From on high, the Yeti didn’t seem so terrifying. It had hobbled about and was just making its way up the slope where Erik waited.
It snorted violently, sending boogers and phlegm spewing from both nostrils at once. It sniffed viciously and a wild burst of speed propelled the Yeti forward. It turned the sharp corner where we knew Erik waited. It stomped and slammed its fist upon the glacial ground and shook the world with a throat splitting roar.
ROOOOAAAAAAAR!
A long ephemeral scarf of black shadow streamed back and forth before the Yeti. It moved sporadically as the Yeti’s hands hesitated on identifying where the shadow began and where it ended. Slow, furry grasps only broke the shadow, which evaporated like ink dispersing in water.
The long ribbon-esque shadow bolted between the Yeti’s legs. The monster splayed out his legs and fell to his butt. The glacier terrain shook and the sounds of splintering ice reverberated with sharp bouncing twangs in the crater.
Erik’s shadow evaded the attempt to squash him. He backtracked to the Yeti and the flash of his kris blade sliced across the Yeti’s spine. The monster howled to the sky in agony.
“Go!” Watt said.
I flowed my mana into its ring shape. The bottom left populated with the health bars of my party. The top left of the ring populated with the Yeti’s circular health bar. It was larger than ours and throbbed a blood red.
“Elder Azure Mana Totem!” Arris said, casting his mana bar out wide.
The bespectacled totem erupted from the frozen ground beside us. Even beneath an overcast sky, the totem glittered its azure blue. “Garden Spider!” He cast, and from an inversion of mana manifested the giant arachnid.
Lep flowed his mana bar out and cast Hand of Flames, followed by Fire Spear, and Walking Spitfire. Afterwards he downed a mana potion.
Below us, Erik ran circles around the Yeti, keeping just behind it no matter which way the beast twisted or turned. He struck out when he could, delivering small slashes against a bare foot, or an elbow, or an ankle. The Yeti stomped about, crushing the little Walking Spitfire that had come running towards it.
“I hate waiting!” Watt said, gripping his battle axe with white-knuckled fury. I could hear his teeth grinding from here, and his eyes bulged.
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Lep’s Fire Spear scored the next hit. The molten tip passed into the Yeti’s shoulder and stopped halfway within. For a moment the Yeti stiffened in shock, but as the Fire Spear began to melt through flesh and bone, slowly sagging, the beast howled another wail of pain.
The slowly sailing Hand of Flames arrived and clutched onto the monster’s face. The Yeti fell back, slamming to the crater ground and slapping at the spell until it snuffed out. All that was left of the Hand of Flames were charcoal embers that billowed a dark grey smoke. The Fire Spear still lodged in its shoulder had cooled to obsidian and shattered.
Erik rushed in and the Yeti swept him up in a fist. The Yeti’s muscles bulged as he began to squeeze. Erik’s health bar began to quickly deplete.
“Fire Spear!” Lep said and chucked a spear at the monster. He called his spell a second time and chucked another one.
“Five of Gryf!” I said and cracked my flagstaff down. I cast the spell twice more, saving Erik from a crushing death. His health still hovered dangerously low.
Lep’s two spears struck the Yeti in its side and it dropped Erik. From his pack, the rogue gulped down two health potions and one mana potion.
Furious, the Yeti turned to us on the crater edge. It inhaled a deep breath, creating a vortex of air. It crouched low and leapt toward us. Watt tried to warn us.
“Brace yourselves!”
The monster landed elbows and knees first on the crater wall. All of us were knocked off our feet. The ground trembled and splintered and shattered with thousands of cracks.
The Yeti’s massive furry hand reached up and over the ledge. Next came its head at an angle. An icicle colored eye appeared next without blinking.
Erik shouted from the bottom of the crater.
“Guys! Lookout!”
We scrambled back as fast as we could.
With a rattling roar, the Yeti shot its hand out and grasped the closest of us. Arris’s spider screeched as it was carried off into the air.
We watched on in horror as spider legs thrashed between giant meaty fingers. The Yeti crushed its hand and the Garden Spider crunched.
I flowed my mana bar again. The spider’s health bar was empty. Over it was a bone-ish X.
The Yeti’s other hand that gripped the crater edge started to slip. From the warmth the beast produced, the ice beneath it began to melt. The monster roared as it reached for us again. Spit and globs of its last meal rained through its teeth from the force of his roar.
The Yeti’s hand slipped from its hold and it fell to its back, hurtling down to the crater ground in a massive crash. We scrambled to our feet and raced to the edge, careful not to slip on newly melted ice.
The Yeti stared up at us and groaned long and low. For a few moments it lay incapacitated. Erik’s cloak trailed him as he swept in and delivered free slashes, stabs, and cuts. In my mana ring, the boss’s health was only a few blows from halfway; information I eagerly shared with my companions.
The Yeti was soon stumbling to its feet again and turned its maw towards Erik. The rogue threw up his mana ring and as he ran, a ribbon of shadow trailed behind him. He donned it as a shroud of cover and evaded the Yeti’s swipes, drawing its attention from us.
Lep put another two Fire Spears into the Yeti’s back and steam rose from the pierced holes.
It turned to us and roared once more. It sucked in a vortex of air and pounded its chest.
“Get ready,” Arris said. “That’s its tell! It’s gonna leap at us! Fall back!”
The Yeti launched forward and slammed against the crater wall. A hand and half its head crested the edge. It reached for another victim and found none. The ice melted, loosening his grip and he tumbled down to its back again.
Erik moved in with slashes, cuts, and stabs while the Yeti had the fight knocked out of him.
It’s health depleted down to nearly a quarter. The Yeti regained its senses and stumbled to its feet again. It heaved a few breaths and the light of the world seemed to dim for a moment. Then the beast let out a tremendous roar.
REURGGHHHHH!
It lifted furry arms to the sky with bloodshot eyes. It flexed with all its might. Blood vessels rose on bulging muscles. Veins pulsed all over its exposed skin. Even the fur seemed to throb from the hidden rush of blood.
Most frightening of all was its face. Blood vessels seemed to break at its eyes and corners of its mouth. A blood red color stained his skin and networked his features.
“Healer!” Watt shouted and put himself near the edge of the crater. He flowed his mana out in a large circle. “Warline,” he whispered in a fleeting ribbon of wind. The mana bar deepened in color and turned red as silky threads of mana turned to a wreath of pumping blood vessels. Blood spurted into thin air from open ends, then re-entered through other ends in eternal cycling. The warrior’s health drained halfway. Then Watt shouted, “Depth of Malice!”
I cast both Five of Gryf and Zekaidean’s Anvil. A silver flutter of wings blinked briefly above Watt, healing him 5 points. A ghostly blue winged hammer beat against a ghostly blue anvil. Choral strikes chimed and healed our injured rogue to full health and began recovering the rest of Watt’s health bar.
Lep sent another two Fire Spears that struck the wailing Yeti in its shoulders. It hissed and roared then sucked in another vortex of air.
Before we knew it, it was slamming into the crater wall. The time it took to perform its tells had been reduced by half and its speed was a frantic scramble of fury. It smashed into the glacial wall with a mighty stomach ripping warcry.
Zekaidean’s Anvil continued to ring, healing Watt perpetually.
Only Watt withstood the smashing force and quaking ground. He held his battle axe aside, ready for a swing. The Monster Yeti crested the crater and searched for a target. It received a Hand of Flames to its face and howled in pain.
Watt swung his battle axe in a series of horizontal chops. The echoes of his attacks cut into the Yeti’s arms, shoulders, and face. Fur was torn from the cuts, and singed from the rapidly cooling Hand of Flames.
“Oak Beard!” Arris shouted and charged in. Ensconced in a growing green gel, controlling the extension of exaggerated fists, he beat at the Yeti’s hand that gripped the crater edge.
Zekaidean’s Anvil rang for its fifteenth time.
Blind in one burnt eye now, the Yeti flicked a hand across the glacial ground, knocking Arris off his feet and sending the ancienne tumbling away. Then it raised a hand to block Watt’s attack. Watt’s continuous swings relayed two echoes of strikes, the last of which severed one of the Yeti’s fingers. In a maddening rage, the Yeti howled and brought his fist down to crush Watt.
“Fist of Wind!” I said and slammed the flagstaff down.
I was racing to cast my spell against the Yeti’s descending fist. My spell was forming from a pooling crumple of wind and bending light. The tangle of air was forming into a giant fist that careened toward the enemy. The Yeti’s face was a reddening madness of primal rage and fury. It’s eyes were swarmed with broken veins. Its muscles were bulging beneath wind lashed fur. Blood was gushing from its severed finger, and still, its clenched fist was descending over Watt’s endless attacks. My Fist of Wind was smashing into the Yeti’s face and forcing him back from the crater edge. His bracing hand was losing its grip and groping at empty air. As the monster was falling back to the bottom of the crater, Watt was leaping off the glacial edge with his battle axe raised.
Arris was back on his feet, healed somewhat from Life-steal. I smashed a Pyrrhon’s potion at his feet and his health bar rocketed up. He was a few points shy of full health.
Lep, Arris, and I ran for the edge of the crater.
“Fire Spear! Hand of Flames!”
The two burning spells seared through the air toward the stunned Yeti. The spear raced past Watt and tunneled through the Yeti’s stomach with a melting hole. Watt landed on the face of the monster and heaved his battleaxe deep into its skull.
Its health bar dropped to zero.
“We killed the boss!” I said, alerting my companions that the task was empirically complete.
Watt stepped off of the monster and it slowly disintegrated with parting shreds of flesh and burning cinders of ethereal matter.
Where the Monster Yeti’s heart had been, had beat its last, now gleamed a massive gold and ice-blue chest. Thick bands of curving metal bordered every edge and lip. It glowed as though in dusk’s light.