The Titanturtle Heartgolem smashed Siena’s head into the wall and let out a satisfied grunt when that made the moonshade elemental disappear. Turning around, it faced what remained of the party and prepared to go after them as quickly as it could. Both the boss and the group were on their last leg.

Glowing dimly and having lost an arm, the Heartgolem was covered in scratches and other marks. On the other hand, Aclysia was currently missing both arms, Metra was too low on health to risk any manoeuvres before she got either healed or had regenerated naturally, Salamander was currently getting healed, Undine was scraping together the last mana she had and Rave was breathing heavily, trying to not succumb to a series of broken ribs. In that situation, Jack himself had to stand in front, buying time for as long as he could.

The Heartgolem charged at him. Even though he was way slower, the swipe of a single arm was predictable and possible to dodge. The knee strike that followed right thereafter wasn’t. The metal plates under the magical skin bent and shattered. ‘Great, now I’ll have to listen to Scarlett after this is done,’ rushed through his head, while he used his ability to fly to prevent himself from being catapulted across the room. Instead, he flew back only one metre and then assaulted again. The boss was confused for a moment.

“Sally, one move,” he heard Rave groan past her broken ribs.

There was no time to ask if she had enough mana in the air. They just had to trust that it was going to work. Copernicus manifested, jumping away from her wrist, where he had rested as a copper band.

“You got it,” the endflame elemental responded. Energy flickered over from her to the Lightbearer, settling as harmless, grey and gold flames around Rave’s right fist. Salamander’s unleash was a simple but powerful buff. The next attack would have to end it.

The Heartgolem managed to hit Jack in the side with a random flail. This time, there was too much force for him to remain in place. The Gamer’s double was catapulted into a nearby wall, his skin flickering over the broken plates of the Mandala Sphere.

Flickers of mana across the room drifted towards Copernicus.

____________________________________________________________________________

There was a moment of bliss, for John. A feeling of triumph, even if he hadn’t quite won yet. The windows hadn’t rolled in, and distantly, he was aware that Jack was still struggling with the remaining girls against the Heartgolem. For his part, however, it seemed he had won. Something should have hit him if he hadn’t. The purple energy that still hung around him must have done the job. 11’000 mana charging for over fifteen minutes was bound to give some good results.

Yet, the Gamer was paranoid, refusing to sit down until the arcane veil settled and he knew, for sure, that there was nothing threatening around.

With good reason.

Two spider-like limbs cut through the energy fog, closely followed by two massive fangs. The Sicklebrood Matriarch descended on him, ready to finish him off right that second, ending this attempt at that moment. She could have succeeded as well. She would have secured her grip on John with her mantis claws and rammed her fangs into his soft neck. Had it not been for the wire, the last, risky action Lydia had taken, and the thunderstorm elemental who John’s paranoia had forced to remain on alert.

John wasn’t strong enough to escape such a grasp or quick enough to even avoid the incomplete version of it, but a combination of all their strength allowed Sylph to blast in at her top speed and ram into his side. The Matriarch only tasted air and John immediately teleported further away and ran. Sylph tried to back away herself, but couldn’t turn around fast enough. Already hurt, the thunderstorm elemental fell from a slash across her torso.

John would not let her death be in vain. Raising Purgatory, he used his last lifeline, Arcane Ascension, to blast a series of Arc Lances at the boss. He confirmed that three of them hit, one of them in the head, before the repeated impact pushed the body of the boss deeper into the purple veil and hid her from view. Still not relaxed, even as the torrent of blasts came to an end, John was once more confirmed in his paranoia when he heard pained, hateful hissing in the mist. He was now all alone with the Matriarch.

As the arcane mist cleared, it dawned on John that this wasn’t as bad as it first sounded.

The complete destruction of the Arcana Strike finally became visible. The cliffs were clear; if any Sicklemen had survived, they must have been blasted so far away that they wouldn’t be an issue for at least a few minutes. Electricity crackling around dispersed and destroyed feathers were all that was left by the Ravenstorm. As if to underline the confirmation, the thunderclouds above were quickly dissolving.

And the Sicklebrood Matriarch, although she had survived, had not gotten away unharmed. Not by the Arcana Strike and not by the Arc Lances. The former had done much worse damage, predictably. Five of her eight limbs were fully obliterated, ripped out of their sockets or simply burned away. Another one was crippled. Only the two uppermost ones had survived mostly intact, but both were held back by Lydia’s wire. Most of the Arc Lances seemed to have been neutralized by the carapace, but several holes in her abdomen and half of her face missing showed that they had had some effect. Saliva gargled as it sputtered out of her visible throat, as the boss started to crawl towards John.

Even the Gamer could outrun the Sicklebrood Matriarch, now that she had to drag herself over the uneven stone. Turning tail, he made his way as quickly as possible to the side of the crater that rose upwards. He didn’t trust his Physical Stats enough to get into melee range of even a crippled boss. Despite all of his equipment, the risk of getting killed was too large. Much better to stay away, wait for mana to regenerate and then kill her with some more spells. The many kills through Arcana Strike had raised his mana regeneration several times over anyway.

John only realized that he didn’t have that luxury when the ground under his feet began to vibrate. It wasn’t a rumble; it was far too steady for that. A million little quivers, rather than a series of large shakes. Not the steps of giants, but the uncountable skittering of thousands of Broodlings that came pouring out of the cave.

For all his paranoia, John had momentarily forgotten about the one mechanic they hadn’t had to fend with in over a week. The shockwave from the Arcana Strike had reached the inside of the cave, and with the Matriarch still alive, so were all the potential adds stemming from her brood. He had just popped every single egg inside there. If this had been an MMORPG, he was certain that the number of creatures that came rushing towards him would have caused the entire server to lag. A tide of metallic exoskeletons washed over the grey stone. At that mass, the fact that they were only half as strong as they could have been was absolutely irrelevant. The only good thing was that the raw force of the tide made it impossible for the Sicklemen in the crowd to draw and aim their spears.

John no longer had a choice, he had to defeat the Matriarch in melee combat and he had to do it before the skittering wave crashed over him.

____________________________________________________________________________

Jack’s body was broken, bent and lodged inside the wall at a weird angle, forced to helplessly watch the rest of the encounter play out.

Rage reached his mind, strong from Metra, as always, but rivalling her was the absolute disdain Aclysia had for the boss that had dared to break even the copy of her master. Armless but by no means harmless, the weaponized maid, fuelled by her hatred, managed to pick up Tiemarath with her teeth and charge.

It was clumsy, it was mindless but it did buy yet more time. Executing a half decent strike with the heavy sword in her teeth, the weaponized maid scored a hit. It was not a great one, shaving an extra bit off the stump of the Heartgolem’s left arm, but an impressive hit nonetheless. Aclysia was hit by a right hook, the impact forcing her to let go of her cleaver. The Heartgolem continued on the motion until Aclysia slammed into one of the electrified crystal lines above him. Fateweaving kicked in at that moment and the weaponized maid was gone.

Copernicus had finished his meal and grew to his tiger form. A warm golden light emanated from his fur and Rave’s hair.

Metra and Undine both charged in at the same time. Out of mana, the healer could do nothing else but add her durable body as another line of defence. She couldn’t even Unleash anymore, having done so too recently to do it again. Throwing herself between Metra and the descent of the gemstone fist, the abysstide elemental turned into a splatter on the floor.

Swinging her massive axe at the boss’ side, the First of Wrath secured a proper hit. The left blade cut deep into the milky, glowing Heartgolem. Metra went on to aggressively capitalize on the situation, pulling the axe back and going for a second swing. The boss could only block with his forearm. Having seen that coming, Metra let go of the haft and dove down. Undine’s form recovered, creating a wall for the second time to protect the blonde berserker when her hands wrapped around the left-behind Tiemarath. Goo splattered across the room, lightning dancing between the drops as they vanished.

“A solemn reign, to those few that rise up high…” Rave started her chant. No matter how much she wanted to hurry it along, she couldn’t. Those words were power given sound and accelerating them would have meddled with the spell work.

With a roar between anger and satisfaction at finally holding a good weapon again, Metra rammed Tiemarath into the boss’ left leg – horizontally. Then she ripped the weapon sideways, severing that limb. A moment of absolute triumph echoed through the mental connection, then pain and nothing as an unblocked strike from the boss’ elbow finally finished Metra off.

“…and we all fight…”

Copernicus jumped forwards, resolved to create the last few seconds necessary. Facing a vastly weakened boss, the sun tiger went into full aggression, wanting to maximize the chance for his summoner to deliver the final blow. In large part, this was successful. Claws completely ruined the Heartgolem’s face, teeth ripped chunks out of the shoulder and swipes kept the boss off balance.

Now blind and cornered, the boss was simultaneously at its weakest and the most dangerous. The single arm flew around in wild flailing motions. One of the strikes slammed into Copernicus’ side and tossed him across the room. Growling, the sun tiger visibly held himself back from going at the boss again. As much damage as he could have done, Rave would lose her chance to deliver the actual finishing blow if he died there.

“...let our worlds collide!”

The chant ended and Rave jumped forwards. Jumped forwards and, between torment and random chance, right into the path of the flailing arm. Her punch may have been instant, but the path to it was not.

Salamander rammed into the boss’ side, twisting the one-legged boss around. Instead of being in the trajectory of the random flailing, Rave was now presented with the undefended left of the boss. Her fist was suddenly deep inside the boss and the room was consumed by light.

_____________________________________________________________________

John was about to die.

There was no denying it.

In raw desperation, he had run right up to the boss and was now faced by the creature looming over him like an upright millipede. The Talons of the Ravenlord and Purgatory both only scratched the exoskeleton and he didn’t have the time to prepare an Arc Lance that was meaningful. The skittering drew closer, but it didn’t matter. The two remaining limbs of the Sicklebrood Matriarch came down on him, penetrating the space between neck and shoulder on either side. His HP was still maxed out, so this didn’t kill him outright. Whatever she did next would.

The single fanged, half-destroyed face came closer to bite.

“YOU ARE NOT FUCKING THIS UP NOW!” a female voice suddenly screamed from behind John. A black-plated fist rammed into the Matriarch’s exposed throat. Red lines on metal and black lines on red skin, both changed colour to a fiery gold as Salamander poured her endflame into the innards of the boss.

John had no idea what was happening, but he fed his fire spirit with all of the mana he had. Every second, he regenerated over 100 mana and every drop of it was completely at Salamander’s disposal. They doubtlessly went overkill. Fire leaked out of gaps in the carapace, exploded out of the holes in the monster’s abdomen and turned the insides of the weakened creature into coal.

An absolute flood of windows opened as the boss dispersed into ash. The skittering vibrations vanished as they, too, were all transformed into nothing.

Not paying attention to any of the pop-ups, John raised both fists into the air and screamed. It was the nerd scream of the century. As his elemental, Salamander knew what this was about and joined in. It was only the two of them, but it was beyond satisfying. A several day journey and one messy, lucky, skilful attempt, an attempt almost wiping at the figurative 1% HP mark, came to a successful end. When his lungs had no more to give, John collapsed onto a rock. He needed to sit down for a moment. He leaned his head back. He wanted to look at the sky. Instead, he rested the back of his head on her boobs. That was even better.

“Were you talking about the boss or me?” John asked, wondering about Salamander’s scream.