Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

The math said we didn’t have to really be afraid of the cone of flame, as everyone had Fire Protection and Fire Resistance. It should basically have done next to nothing.

Then again, the fact their flames spread poison was important, so I Countered it.

My magic wouldn’t harm Good people, so it just exploded out of me as the Cone of Cold blew out, over and past them, no more than a refreshing breeze and revitalizing inhalation as it hit her breath head-on.

Super-heated gases smashed into heat-devouring chiming stillness, basically canceling one another out and doing a whole lot of nothing to anyone… although the first Ruby Sentinel ended up coated in rime for a hot second, slowing down until heat pulsed up from within it and began melting the ice on its glittering body quickly.

“Lord Mick! Fast Assess! Do these three have the Fire descriptor attached?” I demanded quickly.

Despite having so much fire about them, the earlier olthoi hadn’t had the Fire descriptor any more than normal olthoi had the Acidic trait.

He blinked from over where he was driving Bunita repeatedly into cracks in the segmented chitin, fiery Health Qi exploding harmlessly over he and Clan as he did so. He stared at the red crystalline olthoi he was fighting a bit more intently than normal, and shot back, “Yes!”

A shearing sound as Incantor-grade Fire Vulnerability landed on him punctuated his words.

The Triadspell variant of Arcane Fusion got off the Dispel Magic and Mass Coldphasing at the same time. The Incantator-grade Fire Bolt the Queen spit at the Mick as follow-up could have almost killed him if I hadn’t Dispelled the Vuln, but I was on it, and now all the Bows, Autobows, and Weapons were shifted to equally glittering crystalline blue frost in appearance, leaving behind drifting motes of frozen water vapor as they were swung, which the Brilliance upon them turned into almost blinding starry trails.

Lapis crunched down, and the impact blew darkness into the chest of the Sentinel, distinctly making it cough in surprise as the fires within it rallied back. Diamond-sharp points of cold drilled into the thing, and circles of darkness grew within its crystalline body. Bunita’s plunging point was leaving behind rime on its hide as the Mick plied his Claymore freely, now able to use slashing attacks instead of merely piercing as cold raged across and through its chitin, into its inner core. Even Accent was causing splashes of darkness inside it as Rogar hacked away over his boss.

It was not a Paradox olthoi, and I could debuff it with Life Magic.

Sometimes, I was an idiot.

I was now in a Mana Pool fight with the Olthoi Queen, something I was sure to lose in the long run, so I had to make that run much, much shorter.

I watched the magic of her next Casting flash out, fiery strands of magic looking to unmake the Buffs upon Kopf and render him suddenly and extremely vulnerable to her Sentinel.

Her Caster Level had no chance of trumping mine as far as Prots went, and she’d need an Item Dispel to get rid of his Infused Armor and Weapon Buffs.

Silver Frost Vuln and Imperil flashed over the lead Ruby Sentinel, and the true beatdown commenced as damage suddenly was at x5 or so from what it had been. Darkness spread over its tauroid chest and through its limbs as the fiery Health Qi protecting it evaporated, and then four bolts and arrows impaled its crude head and snuffed the light therein completely.

It collapsed and fell, while the second Sentinel, completely undeterred, literally leapt right over the corpse and slammed into the braced Shields, trying really hard to force them back.

I blew a Casting of Shards into its face, and its Pair into the face of the Queen behind it.

I didn’t go to Rays because I wanted the multiple force hits. Yeah, the Sentinel was big, it was strong, and it was multi-legged.

It was also 26 checks against a Caster Level of +40 not to be smashed back.

It and the Queen were blasted backwards in explosions of Ice and Force, bouncing off the walls and scrambling for footing with stone-spitting legs as they went down in tangles of limbs and chitin. Whatever magic the Queen was trying to let off was lost as she was driven into the wall and floor by the magic and the mass of her own Sentinel.

The missile fire from the Archers didn’t let up, and the dual Imperil/Frost Vuln landed on the Sentinel before it could get back to its feet and lunge ahead at us again.

I could see the massive dark gash in its front where the Mick had gotten off the Archer Stand Thrust on it, too… and he repeated the Stance as it came forward again, not quite as reckless, but still a charge, and he was still considered Braced and waiting.

A crit and an eruption of darkness, thick and heavy, blasted right into its fiery core. The explosion of fire in the Mick’s face was actually intense enough to singe him, but didn’t do anything meaningful other than that. Lapis’ impact turned part of the force of the charge by faux gutting the thing, Kopf’s Axe wielded now in cutting mode since it was all cold damage being inflicted, and the Ruby Sentinel’s forward momentum sagged as the chill took over its front leg sockets for a moment.

Hissing arrows and bolts slammed into its tauroid body, driving needles of ice deep into it before fiery Qi burned them away, staggering it, disrupting attack patterns, creating openings which the Mick and Kopf pounced upon, lashing out and creating more openings for the archers to get clear shots.

The Queen couldn’t Fastcast. I ladled cold and refreshing Healing on the Mick and Kopf, and was still able to oppose her next poison-flame breath with a Cone of Cold, preserving our momentum and rate of attack.

Bunita slashed across and chopped completely through the Sentinel’s front legs, dropping the Ruby Sentinel down awkwardly. The Mick leaned over and down into the cut that extended over in front of Kopf, who pivoted and spun instantly, precisely, and with great speed, Lapis a cold and icy streak as it sheared across in a perfect circle, then Scutum smashed it in the chest as its crude head fell away from its corpse.

Which left us facing the Amarinthine Olthoi Queen.

She had four weapon-limbs and a lashing tail that was scoring the stone where it whipped around furiously. The poisoned fire within it sparked and gouted at every contact, the impaling limbs pulsing with cherry-red heat on top of crystalline, spiked sharpness.

“Eh, fuck me,” the Mick murmured, staring intently at her. “Quarter-mil of Health Qi.”

-You think you can outlast me?- the fingernails-on-blackboards telepathic voice of the queen rasped across our minds, totally alien, and yet, suddenly, feeling totally and completely alone. -You kill all my children, come into my nest, and expect to live?!-

The Mick wasn’t one to take trash-talking. “Well, yer Burning Viciousness, the Paradox Queen be happy to see you gone. Just saving her a spot of work, we are!” he lied without a shred of hesitation.

That actually brought the Queen upright in shock. -She would not dare to kill a fellow Queen! She is as anathemic as I!- she /blurted back in outrage.

“Paradox olthoi fill the Summons throughout the southern half of the hivelands, her spawn marshal them into battle, and there is no intrusion upon her hive,” I added forthrightly. “Can you say the same? You are all alone, Your Majesty, as you know. While it might behoove us to have one force of olthoi to play against another and watch the results, none of us believe you are the slightest threat to the Queen Mother, and you lived only while she was either unaware of you, or her revulsion had not grown great enough to kill you.

“Prepare to die, now.”

Shards and Arcane Fusion spun up. The Amarinthine Queen raced towards us, the ruby spears that were her arms held high, and a shriek that made all the crystals around us quiver and sing back to her shredding the air.

The impact of the Greater Shards against her totally blunted the force of her charge, even braced for the impacts as she was, and silenced her scream with icy stillness. A Silver Imperil and Frost Vuln landed on her, and we got to the grim business of killing her.

Truly she was mystified how she couldn’t just throw our front lines out of the way and charge at the soft and vulnerable Archers and Magos sitting on Disks in the back line. Rogar had to back out of her reach after nearly being spitted like a fish and sent sprawling halfway across the room by a whipping lash of her tail going right over the Mick’s head. I chased him down with Healing Darts and he scrambled back, his Armor sheared right through by the force of her spines. He bent to plying his Bow along with the rest of us, leaving the Mick and Kopf alone up there.

Their Heavyfoot was saving their asses and ours, as the Queen couldn’t pick them up and throw them, bash them aside, beat them back, or wade through or over them at all. Both of them were in Thorned Hedge Stance, and any attempt by her to move over and past them resulted in her nearly collapsing as they hacked into her legs and forced her to stay put.

Trying to Cast in melee like that was nigh-impossible, and just provoked hacking attacks from all directions now, aimed to redirect any offensive magic and make it miss its target. I wasn’t worried, as I could Dispel any Debuff she did get off, and when she blasted out volcanic Rings, trying to drive the two of them back, they just held their positions as I blew cold Healing into them and they kept themselves in place.

Crystal heavyfoot behind a strong Shield was freaking awesome.

That also meant I could get off occasional attacks of my own, which I complemented by slowly Shaping closed the path behind her, shutting her off from any attempt at retreat, recovery, or an ambush.

Pounding her back into the wall behind her was also an efficient way to disrupt her attacks and open her up for more Attacks of Opportunity from our front-line.

I had to Mana Boost Silver and Copper to get back mana, all while I doled out six Neutralize Poisons, multiple Counters to her fire magic, Dispelled what Debuffs she got off, and renewed the Vuln and Imperil on her when they wore out. I even had to drop a Fester on her when it was plain she was draining fire from the crystals in the room and the corpses of her Sentinels to Fast Heal herself.

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The Mick left Bunita where it was, jutting through the underside of the Amarinthine Queen’s head, letting his legs buckle and fall down as she writhed and hissed and pshrieked her hate and fury at them, all the while her carapace was darkening, cracking, and beginning to split from within.

Kopf grabbed his pauldron and dragged him backwards, leaving Lapis buried to the handle in the queen’s fractured abdominal plate, getting them both out of range of her convulsive thrashings before his own huge feet stumbled, and he also sat down abruptly.

“Gor, that were a fight of it,” the Mick hissed, as we all watched the last thrashings of the mutant olthoi queen as she cooled down and broke apart with hot, steaming blood searing the stone to glass at the same time. “Made me remember why I hate fighting these bitches.”