Braided Sky
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PftA Book 4 - Chapter 25 - Boss Battles
🕑 Added 2024-12-24 04:20:47 +0000 UTCA/N: It's a bit of a long chapter. I hope you enjoy it.
I looked down at the gobole’s underground village from my perch halfway up the cavern wall. I’d marked the spot a few months earlier in preparation for just such an assault, but this was my first time using it for more than surveillance.
At a glance, the village looked like a functioning settlement, albeit a poorly kept and rundown one. However, after a bit of observation, its artificial nature became quite apparent.
There were no children, for example, even if some of the goboles had a tendency to mate publicly… among other things.
Another obvious thing that stood out was the complete lack of crafters and other non-warriors in the village.
That part made sense, given the location. Since mobs weren’t supposed to be mistaken for sapient creatures, it was only natural the rift would simply create weapons for the mobs. For that matter, repairing or replacing weapons was probably done much like respawning creatures.
Another oddity – one more significant than the others, I felt, was that there seemed to be very few individuals hunting or gathering edible food for the rest of the group.
What little I did see being dragged back to the village wasn’t close to enough to support the number of creatures present, though there were no signs of malnutrition or even hunger.
The creatures would happily eat anything they could get their hands on, be that beast, enemy, or their fallen brethren. But they didn’t seem to ever need sustenance.
I’d noticed the same things with the other groups as well.
Not that any of that mattered, really. At the end of the day, none of the rift creatures were real in the same way that beings on the outside were. They were just like the beasts in the dungeon.
After watching the goboles for several minutes, I loaded the beads that I had enchanted with Ice-related attacks into my newest Tier Nine munitions launcher and readied myself. My new weapon was capable of shooting several beads at a time, which was important, given the amount of damage I needed to inflict to ensure the creatures died swiftly.
Carefully making note of my timing, I sent three quick volleys toward the village. With the first barrage hitting right about the time the last one was launched, I realized I’d need to increase my speed, or perhaps manipulate Time a bit during the next set of attacks if I wanted the timing to work out right.
The spray of beads was only sufficient to coat about a quarter of the village in ice, but I felt like it was a decent enough start.
Because of how quickly I was able to shoot the beads, none of the goboles had any idea where the attack had originated. They still started bellowing and shrieking in alarm, as was expected.
The first attack managed to kill a couple of creatures – likely those who’d been hit directly by one or more beads. I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell had it not been for the sudden influx of experience.
It was less than I would have expected, given the level difference. But I supposed the higher-tier weapons probably had something to do with the reduced gains.
It was still a lot more than I would get from killing a Tier Eight creature or even one of the weaker Tier Nines. But I somehow expected a bigger boost, given the creatures’ strength and resilience.
With a disappointed sigh, I swapped the munitions from Ice to Fire-based and began casting a bubble of Haste, expanding the area of effect into a tight circle so the launcher would be included in the effect.
Had I not been in an enclosed space, I probably would have lingered to observe the effects of the second set of munitions. However, the risk of getting caught up in the blast seemed far too high, given the setting.
I managed to shoot seven clusters of enchanted beads during the second volley before I needed to quickly teleport to relative safety on the surface.
A dozen or so goboles died over the few minutes it took for the worst of the rumbles to end. By the time things finally settled, the ground was pocked with several sinkholes where some of the tunnels had collapsed.
Eager to finish as many of the injured goboles as I could manage, I reinforced my Time Barrier and teleported as close to my former location as possible. The original ledge I’d used for scouting had been mostly destroyed by the blast, but thankfully, a few new holes had been carved out, giving me a new location from which to observe.
Most of the dilapidated village had collapsed in the blast, with only the largest of the buildings and a couple at the far edge surviving the attack.
Many of the chitin-covered creatures lay injured among the rubble. Some were barely alive, while others were actively trying to dig themselves out to assist their fellows in finding and neutralizing the threat.
In this case, me.
Feeling confident that my secondary weapons would be sufficient to end the already injured goboles, I cast Haste and rushed toward the closest injured enemy. I didn’t mind finishing them off up close since doing so ensured I wouldn’t lose out on the tier disparity bonus as I’d seemed to for the fight thus far.
The creatures had a few obvious weak points, which I targeted as I rushed through the ruined village like a wraith. My mana-covered blades, backed by Time Dilation, cut through joints and stabbed into cracked carapaces.
I would have decapitated all of the injured creatures if I could, but some were positioned in such a way that made such efforts far more difficult. Since I didn’t want to slow down and make a target of myself, I settled with doing as much damage as possible without slowing.
My goal was to kill as many as possible before the boss made an appearance.
As I moved through the fallen mobs, I grabbed and stored several that had already expired. I planned to swing back through and pick up the remains of those still stubbornly holding on to life, but Spatial Sense warned me that my time for such things had run out.
Pushing Haste a little harder, I turned and eyed the large gobole heading my way.
The creature was larger than its weaker fellows by at least twenty-five percent, and I could only assume that its strength and toughness had a similar increase in difficulty.
I felt a chill as the creature made and held eye contact with me. It was immediately obvious that my speed was not going to be enough to win a fight against the gobole boss.
Very few entities, people or otherwise, had the kind of perception required to track me when I was using Haste, especially when I was pushing hard on it. For the gobole boss to do so with apparent ease, especially when goboles were not known for being particularly perceptive…
That was an immediate nope.
I needed far more preparation before I was willing to challenge something that negated my strongest personal offensive ability. I didn’t even bother grabbing another body or attacking another gobole before teleporting back to the safe room.
Some might consider that cowardly. I simply saw it as understanding my own shortcomings.
Even with the less-than-stellar finish to my first real assault on one of the factions, I was happy with my progress. Not only did I gain a good amount of experience, but I also finally managed to observe one of the faction bosses.
In all the years I’d been living inside the rift and stealthily observing the different groups, this was my first time seeing one of the elusive leaders.
I wasn’t happy with the results.
Hopefully, one of the other bosses would make a better target.
= = =
I didn’t rush right into the next conflict. Instead, I took a couple of weeks to make a few new weapons out of my fallen foes.
Many of the defeated goboles had Earth, Metal, and Shadow affinities, making the materials quite useful for several items and weapons.
Further, I almost always needed more Earth and Metal cores, specifically, so I was mostly satisfied with the bounty I’d collected. I would have been happier had I not left several bodies behind, but given the threat, I wasn’t going to get too upset about it.
After giving it some thought, I decided that my next target would be the avemon. In some ways, they were far more difficult than the goboles, even with their weaker bodies. However, that was only if the creatures were able to fight back.
Unfortunately, the feathered harpy creatures were notoriously hard to sneak up on, even with my Arcane Stealth spell. They almost had to have a ridiculous amount of perception, which made surprise attacks a lot more difficult.
Difficult, but not impossible.
Large-scale Time magic was tough, as a general rule, though proper planning certainly helped. Having an exceptionally high affinity also helped, and I was pretty sure my affinity was creeping ever closer to perfect with each passing year.
While a couple of points might not seem like much, they really were. It was why I spent so much time Meditating on Arcane magic. Every little bit helped, making it worth the effort even without the added essence to boost my affinity.
Being a little less rash with this attack, I carefully crept along the edge of the largest floating island, installing small pieces of engraved Crystal at specific locations while keeping myself as hidden as possible.
Twice, I had to teleport away to avoid being attacked. Neither of the avemon scouts had noticed the hidden pieces of Crystal, which was a relief. Though they weren’t sapient, I couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t recognize the formation pieces as something to be wary of.
Because of how careful I had to be, it took me three days to get the formation in place. I took a break the next day to rest and prepare and returned the following night ready to engage my next set of foes.
Like most creatures, avemons were active during the day and typically slept at night. They kept a few roving patrols around the main island, but it was exceedingly rare for any of the others to be awake or away from their roost once darkness fell.
I waited until the darkness had grown heavy and sounds of activity on the island disappeared before activating the formation. The patrolling avemons froze along with those who’d already succumbed to slumber for the evening.
I moved quickly, not wanting to place too much pressure on the formation I’d powered with my own mana.
It was weaker by a tier than the creatures, but I still felt confident it would be fine, even if some of the creatures were inherently resistant to Time magic. Because I’d activated a [Stasis] effect for everything inside at the moment of activation (and smartly stayed outside the formation at the time), resistances didn’t matter all that much.
Stasis was a protective spell effect by nature. Thus, without knowingly and directly resisting the effect – something basically impossible when one was caught unaware – there was really nothing a target could do.
I suspected that was how I’d been taken, though I didn’t put too much thought into the matter. There really wasn’t anything I could do about it while trapped in the rift, and dwelling on my situation tended to leave me in a sour mood.
I slid enchanted beads under the weak points in bodies and into mouths whenever possible. A surprising number of avemons slept open-mouthed, making the latter quite easy to accomplish.
It took more than an hour to trap the time-locked, sleeping creatures, even with a weakly-powered Haste speeding my process along by a decent margin.
As I traipsed through the island village, I never encountered an avemon that looked significantly different from the others, though I did encounter a few blank spots.
Those weren’t entirely unusual, though. There were several areas in the rift, most with some kind of Void plant or mineral, that showed up as gaps to my senses.
I suspected the boss might have been hidden inside one of those areas, but since I needed to focus on trapping as many avemons as possible during the limited time the formation would remain active, I didn’t bother digging too deeply.
When the tedious part of my attack was complete, I teleported a moderate distance away and settled onto a platform of solidified Space mana. It was close enough to interact with the formation and the trapped munitions without being so close that I risked potential injury.
Safety first, and all that.
Though I was excited to test my newest attack method, I forced myself to wait a few moments to regain as much mana as possible while the last moments of the [Stasis] formation ran out. Once it failed, I immediately triggered the munitions.
The reaction was spectacular, though I had little time to enjoy the show since the surge of experience nearly knocked me off my perch.
An angry screech resounded from somewhere deep inside the island, echoed by several quieter calls. I couldn’t see where they came from, but it was obvious that I’d missed several creatures along the way.
They’d probably been hidden in the Void gaps. That meant it was likely they’d have Void abilities, which was a hassle when I was relying on magic to keep myself aloft.
I wouldn’t die if I fell, but it wouldn’t be a pleasant experience, either.
Confident that I would be able to teleport away with my implanted E3 talisman, even inside a Null Field, I moved myself to one of the small mountains on the largest floating island.
I was still somewhat hidden by my Arcane Stealth spell, but I wasn’t going to rely on that to keep me hidden from the perceptive creatures.
When the navy-plumed creature appeared above the center of the island, my suspicion that the boss was Void-attuned was confirmed.
[Avemon Rift Boss – Void – Level 90 – Various Alchemical uses/Edible with minor processing]
I didn’t want to run right away like I had with the gobole boss, not because the avemon boss was weaker or anything, but because I really wanted to test a few attacks against the creature first.
I wasn’t in a confined area, like with the gobole, so I figured it was worth a small risk to at least attempt to kill the creature. If it turned out the avemon had similar perception skills as the gobole (or some of its minions), then I could always run.
Since the boss didn’t appear to see me at the moment, I set the creature as my target and began lobbing as many enchanted beads as I could manage in the creature’s direction.
To my dismay, the clay beads bounced off the creature’s feathers without detonating.
I tried a direct attack, using one of my manatech wands loaded with a [Stone Spike] spell effect. The effect manifested and shot in the creature’s direction, but it quickly lost speed and fell to the ground as if the magical propulsion had been canceled.
That was likely exactly what happened since the [Stone Spike] technically wasn’t a magical effect once the item manifested. Its movement, however, was still controlled by mana.
Or, it had been.
Before I could try another spell, this time coming from above, the boss and its minions rushed in my direction, somehow seeing through my Stealth… probably because the spell effect had been compromised by the Void magic the boss and its surviving minions were releasing.
Knowing that external spell effects were essentially useless, I activated Haste and dodged the strike I sensed coming from behind before jumping away from the diving avians.
Since Null Fields didn’t limit my access to my inventory, I equipped a bone spear I’d crafted out of gobole bones and stabbed toward one of the smaller Void-affinitied avemons that was still in reach, cutting through one of its wings.
It was obvious that the creature wasn’t expecting a physical attack, especially not one coming at it that quickly. The sharpened blade of the spear dug deeply into the creature, bypassing its armored feathers with little difficulty and grounding it.
I pressed the attack, focusing on the injured avemon as the others circled around. Haste allowed me to stay out of reach, and none seemed to be tracking me like the gobole boss had, though they could obviously still see me to some degree.
However, not even the Void-affinitied boss was able to make and maintain eye contact. The small weakness was comforting, if a little strange. Given their obvious fortes, I would have expected the avemon to be better with matters of perception over goboles.
I managed to kill the first Void avemon with little difficulty. I was actually a little surprised at how physically weak the creatures were, though I supposed it made sense, given how easily they were able to negate most magical attacks.
With a growing sense of confidence, I kited the remaining mobs around the island, dodging their attacks and killing the weaker ones until only the boss was left.
I kept Haste active the entire time, unwilling to risk my safety without the added advantage.
Sure, my E3 talisman would probably save me, but I didn’t want to use it unless there was no other choice.
I could feel that my mana reserves were getting a little low, so I ducked under a sturdy tree to give myself time to down a [Mana Restoration] potion. I really wasn’t great with Alchemy, but basic potions like that were easy enough.
As soon as the potion was imbibed, I pivoted and rushed toward the avemon boss.
It was stronger and tougher than its minions by a decent amount, and I quickly found myself increasing the amount of mana I was channeling into Haste to compensate.
Though I was getting close to reaching Peak-Tier Eight, there was still an entire tier difference between me and the creature, making the fight difficult, even if I was moving too quickly for it to really track.
I dodged a swipe of the creature’s claws as the humanoid bird swooped down. Twisting, I stabbed forward with my bone spear, barely clipping the creature’s side as it shifted at the last moment. It was fast, though I could tell it was struggling to keep up with my speed.
Not giving it time to gain distance, I threw the bone spear like a javelin, hitting the boss in the back. The strike obviously damaged something critical, and the boss let out a caw as it struggled to avoid crashing.
Abandoning the spear that was still embedded in the boss’s back, I withdrew a new weapon from my inventory. This one was closer to a glaive, though it, too, was made solely of bone. The difference, however, was that the bone that made this weapon was Metal-aligned, and many of the attributes of Metal carried over to the bladed weapon.
As the boss shifted and flailed in an attempt to dislodge the spear, I danced around the creature and used the new weapon to cut through its wings, grounding it permanently.
The enchantments I’d placed on the weapon weren’t active, but they also weren’t necessarily needed for this fight.
It took far longer than I would have liked to slowly bleed the creature, and even with the [Mana Restoration] potion, I was running on fumes by the time the boss finally fell.
Still, I’d managed to take down one of the bosses – at a full-tier disadvantage.
It was an amazing accomplishment, and I felt almost giddy as I stumbled around the island, collecting what I could of my defeated foes.
If I was right, avemons wouldn’t respawn any longer. It shouldn’t make any of the other creatures more aggressive, but I also couldn’t be certain it wouldn’t.
This was supposed to be some great Assassin challenge, so it kinda made sense that each defeated boss would make the others a little tougher.
I frowned at the thought.
If that was really the case, I might need to find a way to defeat the gobole boss next instead of letting it get any stronger.
Or maybe it would be better to wait until I tiered up. The fight would almost certainly be easier then. It was something I would need to really consider.
Comments
Olof Karlsson
Thanks for the chapter!
Sebastien How
Progress! Only everything else left! Plus whatever bonus/secret areas she can discover
Tanner Lovelace
Woot! One down, several more to go!
