Azrael stood in mute disbelief. She turned her head up toward the winding shape of the nightmare above them and took in its scope. She tried to remember what the thing's face looked like, some kind of golem from the look of it; artificial with rigid looking eyes. Teyva had described the Tomb Guardian as possessing a humanoid shape. Teyva looked up at the creature as well, rubbing her sword arm thoughtfully. How in the world were they supposed to get anywhere near that thing? She turned her back and leaned against the stone, rubbing her eyes as the anger boiled up again.

“What happened to it?” Azrael asked.

“No idea, but one guess what the source of the Aberration is,” Teyva quipped, stretching her sword arm out and checking the edge. She glanced up at Azrael; “Any ideas about how to kill this thing?”

“You seem awfully eager,” Azrael said, using her thumb to wipe a bit more of the oil off of her face. She spit on the ground as a bit of it got on her lips.

“Hell no,” Teyva said, looking back up at the creature and using her journal again. Level eight? How was that fair? It was like the world itself had built everything up to this moment only to laugh at her as she stared death itself in the face. They heard a shriek somewhere nearby and turned, a pair of Lesser Wightlings rushed down the stairs and into the chamber, their heads whipping around. One of them turned and pointed at Teyva only to be caught up in a flare of pale white light. The gleam left nothing but a patch of frost on the ground.

“Instantly,” Azrael breathed, sitting down, “Nothing left.”

Teyva’s eye twitched and she looked up again at the creature, she rolled her jaw and glanced down to Azrael. She made sure her friend was still far enough inside cover to be safe. She then let out a breath and shoved her arm out into the open

Azrael looked up at Teyva wide-eyed; “What are you doing?” She exclaimed.

“Testing a theory,” Teyva said, closing her eyes and mentally crossing her fingers. This was either about to be the dumbest thing she’d ever done. Or the coolest. She raised her head and shouted into the air; “Come on then, what’s taking you so long? The other one could get his shots off way faster than this!”

“Teyva!” Azrael shouted only to be cut off as a pillar of white light erupted from the face of The Bound One, steam rising from the spot where it hit as the light enveloped Teyva’s arm. A few seconds passed and then the light faded. Teyva looked down at her limb, still there, still whole. She flexed her fingers and was pleased to see that the oil had been burned away by the intense cold. Her smile grew wide, perhaps even a bit manic.

“Don’t move from this spot, got it? Promise me,” she said, taking Nephral off her shoulders and putting the bag full of mockeries down next to her friend. She got to her feet and marched out into the open and turned once again to face the creature. It turned to face her, its massive bulk groaning a little with the change in direction. The vacant face at its core gaped at her almost mournfully before it began to glow. Teyva took a deep breath and crossed her arms.

“Teyva! Are you insane?” Azrael shouted only to be cut off again by yet another flash of white light. Then another. Azrael and Nephral watched from behind the stone, a mixture of horror and confusion on their faces. Soon bolts of white light were raining from above and then a pale white chain erupted from the monstrosities body, reaching down to wrap around Teyva. It gripped tightly only to fizzle out, the chain dissolving into nothingness. After that final attempt, the creature fell still, not moving or attacking. Teyva looked down at her hands and then up at the beast and cracked a wild grin.

“What do you know, that’s pretty interesting,” she boasted, brushing herself off; “You wouldn’t happen to know any tricks that don’t involve death magic, do you?” She called up to the mighty thing hanging above them. She bore her fangs at it again, “Come on!”

The seconds ticked by after her boast, the creature simply staring at her from above. It rotated its head a few times like it was trying to examine Teyva from different angles. After a few more seconds it began to descend, its body stretching further and further until the face was nearly at ground level. It swung its body about, crashing into outcroppings of rock and crushing them into powder. It tried to swing in Teyva’s direction but she backed up several paces only to have it stop just out of reach. It froze there, staring at her until it retracted its body all the way up to the ceiling.

Teyva crossed her arms, a mad smile on her face; “I’m waiting!”

Azrael shifted nearby, looking ready to dart out from behind the rock, Teyva turned to her and bellowed; “Do. Not. Move! I’m immune to death magic, you aren’t!

Azrael fell still, her eyes wide, she mouthed the words Teyva had just spoken before pulling back and pressing herself against the stone. Nephral drew in a bit closer to the center of the rock formation as well. Their lives depended on not being within the monster’s line of sight. From above a horrific sound, like the tree itself was retching and gurgling, drew Teyva’s attention back to the sky. The root was contracting and expanding as it drew closer and closer to the ceiling. Something shone at the end like a silver turd ready to slop down onto the floor. She wrinkled her nose at the disturbing sight only for her expression to fall as she realized what was happening.

With a sickening thwp a small shape was ejected from the tip of the root, hurtling to the ground and striking with tremendous force. Teyva took a few steps back as the dust cleared, squinting to see what she was up against now. She hazarded a glance at the root and saw that it had fallen still before looking back down into the face of her nightmares. Standing before her in the center of the enormous room, its body whole, undamaged, and ready to move and engage, was the Tomb Guardian. Its sheen was silver and its body was not unlike that of an artist’s manikin with obvious ball-shaped joints and flat, doll-like feet and hands. Its body was wrapped in a heavy spiked chain and infused with dark flesh-like webbing which actively restricted its movements. Even so, Teyva wasn’t stupid enough to dismiss this thing as a threat.

It raised one arm and pointed at her, the arm melting and extending out, turning into a blade, not unlike her own. Its eyes flared and frost began to form on the length of the weapon. It swung the tool once, mist trailing behind the implement. Teyva had gained both of her first Aspect Stones from the previous Tomb Guardian. She should have known the creatures were capable of using similar tricks to her own. It had realized that fighting her with death magic was not an option so it had decided to get in close with its own body.

“Azrael!” Teyva shouted.

“What is it?” Azrael called back.

“Have you ever flown a kite before?”

“When I was a little girl, yes, what does that have to do with this?” She asked, looking perplexed from her hiding spot.

“This guy is our kite, we are going to whittle him down and run before he strikes back. You need to stay out of sight as much as you can. Got me? I’ll-” Teyva was cut off when a black knife hurtled through the air and struck the Bound One in the side of the head. It shuddered and turned, eyes flaring white only to find no target. It turned slowly towards Azrael’s hiding spot as the knife disappeared from the ground where it had landed.

“Glad to see your head back in it, Teyva!” Azrael shouted as she ran from her hiding spot, Nephral and Teyva’s sack in tow.

Teyva winced at the name, she wasn’t sure she wanted to keep it anymore after having that wake-up call. She’d grown accustomed to it though, claimed it as her own. Her lip twitched, this wasn’t the time to think about it. This was the time to let her rage do the work, and she had a lot of it. She snarled and charged toward the creature, her arm changing as she used [Simple Shift]. She wasn’t a fool, she doubted the sword arm could do anything about it but she knew for a fact that beating the Tomb Guardian to death with its own arm had worked. Why not a second time?

She drew in close just in time for the creature to turn and face her. She pulled her arm back and slugged it across the face, letting her own chill-touch kick in. The frost didn’t spread this time which was disappointing. The resounding clang of metal on metal rang in her ear while she took a few deft steps back, avoiding the swing of the facsimile’s weapon. It raised its arm again and swung, projecting its attack with almost obvious intent. Was this thing that stupid? What was the trick here? She used her journal.

[The Bound One] - [Corrupted Tomb Guardian] - Hostile - Level 8

HP: 99% MP: 84% SP: 95%

Oh. It was loaded with HP.

She frowned while the black knife hurtled through the air followed by a ribbon of wind. Both crashing into the Bound One simultaneously. It turned, alerted to the new threat in time for Teyva to hurl another fist at its head. It turned back, raising its arm only for Teyva to snap her hand out and grasp onto its wrist. The weapon froze above her head, steam and the acrid stench of burning metal bleeding into the air as she tried to destroy the material with her mechanical hand. Frost began to spread across the limb steadily, instances of [Chilling Weakness] building up.

“So you aren’t immune to your own magic, huh? Good to know!” She taunted it, squeezing tighter. The Bound One stared back at her mutely, its broken mouth looking almost sad. It canted its head to the right as if confused before raising its free arm which turned into a similar weapon to the other. Teyva’s eyes went wide. “Since when can you do that?” She shouted, kicking back and feeling the razor-sharp weapon cut through her chest armor and graze against her flesh beneath. No frost formed but she felt every second of the pain. She gasped and covered the injury, staggering backward a few more steps while the Bound One rounded its full focus on her.

Then it hit her, how did it even use its version of [Simple Shift] if she was in melee range? She knew that [Chilling Weakness] was spreading on the monster. She didn't have time to check her combat log to see what had happened but she came up with a few quick theories. The golem's very nature gave it immunity to silencing effects. Another possibility was that the damn thing was a boss and for all she knew bosses were just immune to effects like that.

Another black blade hurtled through the air and struck the thing's head. This time the mighty thing didn’t even bother to turn toward Azrael, its focus now completely on Teyva. Teyva glanced at her stats. Her health had taken a solid twenty points of damage and her mana had already dipped down to half. She cursed, running through her options. She needed to get clear long enough for [Hungering Cold] to fill her health back up and get back to Nephral, but this terminator analog wasn’t about to let her go anywhere.

“Guess I’m going for broke!” She shouted; “See you in a sec, Azrael!”

Teyva cast [Create Wall] and visualized what she wanted. The method of casting the ability coming as naturally as breathing. She saw a ring of walls tight around the Bound One, keeping it in place while she ran. She felt her mana dip and almost bottom out, her vision going fuzzy only to snap back into focus when a ring of dirt and stone shot up from the ground beneath their feet and encapsulated the guardian. Without waiting to see how long it lasted, she bolted for the stones that ringed the room.

Teyva's legs pumped with all the speed she could manage, her voice rising in pitch as she shouted just one word; "Nephral!”