The rest of the levels had similar traps to the first, an obvious collection of something like the display cases or treasure chests and breaking in would cause elementals to spawn to protect them. Not every floor was trapped, but it took the group three attempts to figure out what triggered them, and three more battles before they reached the top floor. Sadly, the balcony was unserviceable and was as liked to hold their weight as it was to send them falling to their deaths, but the group did manage to find just what it was that was causing their woe from down below.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The comment was strange to hear on the top floor of a ruined building, but coming from Will, it made the group pause.

Well, the entire group except for Lyna.

“I don’t think we know enough about what this is to do that,” she commented as the wizened man studied the device.

The item in question was about the height of Myles’s leg, as wide as a rain barrel, and made of reflective, copper-like metal. Where the barrel would have opened on top, a large shard of cut crystal erupted from the metal and fitted into place with fixtures of the same material, glowing gently with a soft, silver light. Examining it closer showed that it wasn’t a solid piece of metal. There was a small square near the top where the metal met crystal. A moment later, Myles learned everything he needed to know:

Mana Pylon (Masterwork)

Value: 10,000

Magical Equipment

Condition: Worn

Description: A stationary spell focus used to maintain a single, area-designated spell.

Detail: Designed as smaller-scale versions of the Shards of Heaven, Mana Pylons are designed to focus a pair of spells, a passive detection spell and a triggered result, by using ambient mana to sustain their functions. When the condition of the spell plate is triggered, the spell is cast. Recharge times vary by the plate, materials, and ambient mana supplies.

Do not lick a mana pylon.

“It’s a mana pylon,” Will explained, waving an arm for the [Berserker] to come closer. “We used to maintain them in the smaller towns that didn’t warrant a Shard. Anyone with mana would spend some weekly to charge it to keep the wards going. It was a good way to train focus.”

He moved closer, examining the details as he opened a small panel about halfway up the metal body. Inside were three darkened stones and seven glowing ones all in shades of glimmering silver light. Will ignored them and pressed on a small rectangle plate. The glowing of the large shard of crystal at its top stopped immediately, and a metal plate engraved with shapes and in lain with small gemstones popped out.

Picking it up, he handed it over to Kendra. “Can you still read that?”

“I can try.” Kendra bent down, took off her gauntlets, picked up the plate, and nodded more to herself than to her grandfather as she studied the plate. “My memory isn’t what it used to be without the Traits and Skills, but it’s a Script for sure. I don’t know for what, but I’m going to assume elemental energy or summoning and controlling it.” She handed it off to the only other magic-user who might have an idea what it was. “Do you recognize any forms?”

Tail took it carefully, flipped it over a few times as they ready both sides. “A security script from the symbols, an alert mark, but that’s all I can see. I’m not a [Scripter] or [Enchanter]. Myles?”

Myles took it, focusing on the plate, the strange marks, and the crystals to see if his ability would be of any help.

Spell Plate (Masterwork)

Value: 1,000

Magical Equipment - Spell Plate

Condition: Used

Description: A plate of condensed copper, mana stones, and spell script.

Detail: The spell plate of a mana pylon. The scripts on this plate act as the directions for directing, converting, and using ambient mana.

Material Effect: Unknown

Spell Effect 1: Unknown

Spell Effect 2: Unknown

Mana Battery 1: Unknown

Mana Battery 2: Unknown

He cursed his translation skill again as he handed it back to Kendra. Maybe he could get Silpha to upgrade it somehow? Spoken word was not nearly as useful as the written word was. “It has two effects, two power sources, and a material effect, but I don’t know any of them.”

Taking it again, Kendra made it vanish into her inventory. “Well with that much information, I think we can safely say that should take care of the elementals then?”

“If that’s what it was for,” Will pointed out.

“Considering they only appeared when someone broke locks…”

“I said I was sorry,” Myles said. It had been worth more than one attempt, but if they were going to test for traps or break locks in the future, they were going to need a [Rogue]. He could lock break no problem, but picking them properly was another matter entirely.

“Still, with two effects, we’d have the conditional effect of watching for breaking locks, and the secondary of summoning the elementals to defend the valuables.”

Will considered this then nodded. “Sound logic.”

“I like to think I can still put that much together.”

“Says the [Berserker].”

An unladylike gesture directed towards Will later, the group turned to the obvious implications of the transaction as Lyna grinned widely. “First pick of any weapons we loot!”

The trip back down the guildhall was a simple one, and it loaded the group down with more basic weapons than Lyna could reasonably carry in her storage. Besides a bunch of basic weaponry, the group also managed to loot quite a few pieces of still intact equipment: emberstones, compasses, backpacks they stuffed with as much clothing as they could find before storing them, and water-skins studded with purification stones. Outside of the normal adventurer’s equipment, there were a few pieces of useful loot inside the other cases that Myles easily identified.

Dimensional Door

Value: Unknown

Accessory - Portable Door

Description: A True Silver frame etched with intricate runescript.

Detail: A Dimensional Door is not actually a door between dimensions as its name implies. Instead, the metal framework acts as a one-time focus for dimensional energy and creates a temporary gateway between the surface it is put on and the other side. Sufficient mana density will render the door useless.

Do not use the door on living things.

Primary Effect: Create a temporary hole between the start point and the other side of the surface it is placed on.

Overlord’s Frying Pan

Value: Unknown

Weapon - Mace - Cooking Equipment (Rare)

Description: A frying pan made of cast iron embossed with the symbol of a dungeon guardian, the Bacon Overlord.

Detail: A cast iron frying pan set with a red crystal at the end of the handle. This reinforced frying pan can cook without a fire by pulling in ambient mana to fuel the embedded spell. As a boon from its lord, bacon and other pork cuts will never burn.

Primary Effect - Weapon: Upon striking a foe, pent of fire magic will be released upon the impact point.

Primary Effect - Cooking: by sending mana into the carved emberstone, regulate the temperature of the frying pan to cook your meals.

Secondary Effect - Cooking: Holding this charge with no food present will clear the pan after three minutes.

Those items made sense at least. The temporary hole item was probably kept for adventuring teams or on display because of its rarity. The frying pan was a themed piece of boss loot from a guardian. A guardian made of bacon or pork in general if he believed the description.

Of all the items they’d found, it wasn’t a portable hole or magic frying pan that bothered it. It was the most mundane looking of them.

Crystal Recovery Reagent

Value: Unknown

Item: Unknown

Description: A gleaming crystal unguent in a clear, crystal jar.

Detail: Unknown

Primary Effect: Unknown

Would you like to know?

He hated when his abilities gave him sass, but it wasn’t wrong. The item was a crystal recovery reagent but looked nothing like crystal except for the jar. Opening it did nothing for him either. There was no smell and looked like ground-up pearls. He wanted to touch it but resisted the urge. Past experiences told him to wait all the same. There was also the strange lack of its usual ‘do-not-eat-this-item’ message. He’d have to show it to Silpha later, seeing as she ignored him most of the time when he wasn’t nearby.

Will was given the portable door, and Lyna requested the frying pan. Myles chuckled, but it made sense. It was a mace, and Myles wasn’t looking for a close-range weapon like that. Though she promised to let him cook for them with it in the field, not that they had bacon.

With that, the guildhall was clear and the group returned to the plaza center.

Looking around, they had two more buildings to clear before checking the nearby streets. If any of them held the treasures of the guildhall, maybe being held back to clear the city wasn’t so bad after all?

***

Ten teams.

Over forty Runners.

All dead in the first moments of the encounter.

Lives wasted due to their hubris.

Shardking was not a regular monster, it was a force of nature, and it deserved respect. The teams didn’t even see the open palm coming on the rooftops.

Maybe it was better that way. Better now than when something like this would be truly cruel.

being methodical as the teams came to Sindra’s call to organize, and to their credit, the majority were dealing massive damage to the frame of the creature, setting bombs, crushing the rock with blunt weapons, and climbing to reach weaker points. The more they distracted it, the better their odds were. Unlike a normal golem, pieces knocked off the Broken King vanished into mana like any other dead creature.

The blood of the Runners fell like rain when a coated layer vanished, and soon, those areas were avoided for the sake of practicality. The war continued despite the deaths.

“Felkin, Foxfire, climb!” Sindra ordered as the ground units continued to move to avoid Shardking’s massive steps.

The two Beastkin teams made no callback, instead saving their strength for the task at hand.

“Soil Guards, Try to contain his movement!”

A rush of countless vines and saplings erupted from below the city paves in time with her words. The sound of growing bark and rustling plants was as foreign to this region as the Runners were to the dungeon.

The inhuman eyes of the golem went to its legs as its hands reached for another set of runners climbing its torso.

The plants tensed, growing taunt as Shardking began to move again.

The whipping snaps backfired before the [Druid]s and [Geomancer]s could get them back under control.

In the time it took for them to try again, Shardking had already demolished another tower, adding it to his bulk and undoing the damage the last explosion caused.

Right now, power was something Shardking had over them, a lot more than Sindra first estimated.

“Mists,” Sindra cursed as the golem continued to regenerate. She’d hoped to keep her cooldowns for later, but if she didn’t there might not be a later. The light around her flared as she triggered her first [Strategist] global Skill with a bitter cry. “Command Word: Impact.”

With that single activation, the mana of the dungeon bent to her will. Every weapon in her local raid group began to glow, and Plan Overcome began. One by one, [Priest]s, [Cleric]s, [Paladin]s, and more began to follow suit as enhancement Skills began to trigger in the individual parties. The combined effects overlapped and the darkness lit with blade-born stars.

But it still wasn’t enough.

She’d underestimated things already.

Using her position as mayor and raid leader, Sindra sent out the call to the first ring of reserve fighters. “If you can hear me, we need the second ring! Raid group one, aim for the joins of the leg, nothing else matters! Knock it down! Team two, go for the core! Climb or help team one until Shardking falls!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

With that, the constellations moved and the battle renewed to the sound of breaking stone and metal.

***

The second building had no loot sadly. It was nearly hollowed out from age or magic and only had the first floor intact. The walls were made from sturdy, thick-cut stone mortared into place, but the doors connecting the rooms had long since decayed leaving the floor little better than a gutted maze of rooms and halls. The rest of the building was clearly visible above the maze of rooms until blackness absorbed everything above the circle of windows. Cobwebs and dust glinted in the moonlight as they disturbed ancient piles of debris, but it was simply empty, nothing to be found as they reached the back room untroubled by monsters or minions. All in all, there was nothing out of the ordinary as they turned back to begin the search of the next building.

At least it had been ordinary until they reached the exit of the dilapidated ruin of a building.

“Okay, now I know I’m the first to admit when I wasn’t paying attention but was that there when we came in?” Lyna asked.

“No, no it was not,” Will confirmed as he touched the white, wet threads that crisscrossed the door, forming a net of webs now to cover the entrance to the building they’d been exploring that spread far off into the hollow darkness of the near-hollow building.

Kendra paled.

“Nope, not going to deal with this,” Kendra said, pulling her hammer back. “I’d rather be set on fire.”

Myles acted quickly. “You’ll tell it right where we are!”

“I am not dealing with a giant spider!” Kendra commented an octave below a fevered scream as she slammed her warhammer against the webbing.

That went about as well as could be expected when force is applied to a resilient, fibrous material. That is to say that it to bounced back off the spider silk-like it had been made of rubber and the force of it sent Kendra on a trip for her rear to become better acquainted with the floor. Her armor rang in the building’s quiet as she cursed her luck, the impending monsters, and quite possibly Myles’s common sense. "Sket!”

“A tool for every job,” Lyna commented as she pulled out a pair of knives and went to work as Myles offered Kendra a hand.

She took it under protest, squeezing hard for just a moment before relaxing her grip as she got to her feet and looked around as the web sang distantly above. Myles felt her embarrassment and a growing, but still tepid fear as she looked around, speaking more to herself than to him. “I don’t like spiders.”

“Who does?” Myles offered. “Just remember you’re Kendra, and they’ll be at the bottom of your boot soon enough.”

She shook off the fear with his words as the fire returned to her eyes. “Right.”

Myles kept watch, peering into the darkness as Lyna’s blades made clear cuts in the material. The work was slow going. As soon as Lyna removed the blade to sharpen against her whetstone, the thick material healed itself.

“Not good,” Will commented, focusing his magic on where the cut had been, only to have no effect.

The comment was mimicked by the rest of the group as a faint, tick, tick, tick echoed across the open area.

Myles looked up, trying to find the source of the noise.

The darkness looked back.

Monster Lore Unlocked!

Wyrmscale Spiderling information obtained!

Wyrmscale Spiderling

Dungeon Creature - Spider: Stage 2

Rank D Threat Level

Best trait - Agility, Poison

Preferred Method of Attack - Immobilization, Disable

Special Attack: Silk Shot, Poison Bite, Drain Life

Breeding Groups: Arachnid, Lesser Horror

Special Ability: Fire Immunity, Call of the Matriarch

Known Drops: Spider T4, Lesser Horror T4

Wyrmscale spiders are minor eldritch creatures created when a plated spider is exposed to specific kinds of mana. These creatures, like all spiders, have a four-stage life cycle. Eggs beget spiderlings, Spiderlings grow into spiders, and spiders lay more eggs before dying on a pyre of their own vicious, flammable venom. Spiderlings are the second stage of this growth cycle. They lack the control of the adults and usually kill their prey rather than paralyze them. In some ways, they are worse than the adults, but they lack the thick, scaled hide from which they derive their name. Spiderlings also lack the capacity to use their burning breath and silk, but their bodies are still full of the chemicals used to create the ability.

Kill the Wyrmscale Spiderlings with extreme prejudice to unlock more information.

Ruins Zone Quest Triggered: The Webs We Weave

The Webs We Weave

Multiphase Guardian Quest

Phase One of Three - Fight or Flee?

Phase One: Escape or survive the swarm of wyrmscale spiderlings until they retreat.

Reward Offered Escape/Survival: Wyrmscale Poison Antidote (Amount varies)

Bonus Offered: Kill all of the spiderlings.

Bonus Reward: Class Dependent

Nearly a thousand red, glowing eyes stared back.

Myles did his best not to shiver as he noticed the secondary condition. As loudly as he dared, Myles whispered to Lyna as she continued to cut through the ropes of webbing. “Lyna, Get us out of here.”

She didn’t bother looking up at Myles’s urgency. “I’m working on it!” she hissed loudly.

“Work faster,” Myles replied as quietly as she was loud, arming himself for battle.

At that, the Halfling turned, looked to the sky dotted with red stars, and began to work faster.

The chittering eight-legged forms of terror incarnate grew louder as Lyna quickly made her attempt to sever the lines, switching to her trusted axe before a few strands finally gave way and evaporated into a smoke smelling of sulfur and burnt metal.

But it wasn’t enough.

Words hissed in Myles’s ears as a single voice rose above the din of clicking hisses.

“Feast, my children.”

That didn’t mean the others didn’t catch the meaning behind the noises.

“That hissing doesn’t sound good,” Will said, preparing for the coming storm.

Myles couldn’t agree more, and a decision had to be made.

“Fight or flee?”

“Flee,” Tail said quickly.

“Flee,” Will added.

As Myles was about to make the deciding vote, Kendra lashed out at dangling spiderlings, lobbing off legs and cutting one of them cleanly in two, sending it back to the aether in a wash of fleeting orange and yellow gore. With the strike, the quest updated—

“Mists!”

— and Lyna’s axe bounced off the strand it was moments away from cutting through.

Quest Updated: The Webs We Weave

Multiphase Guardian Quest

Phase One of Three - Fight!

Phase One: Survive the swarm of wyrmscale spiderlings until they retreat.

Reward Offered: Wyrmscale Poison Antidote x5

Bonus Offered: Kill all of the spiderlings - 1/200

Bonus Reward: Class Dependent

“Kendra!” Myles cursed as the spiderlings seemed to take that as the signal to descend into the maze that was the first floor.

“It was too close!”

He wanted to argue, but he couldn’t blame her for attacking an enemy within range. Besides, it didn’t matter anymore as the darkness took shape on the walls. They would have never cut through all the strands in time.

As they became more visible, the spiderlings ranged in size from the size of a fist to the size of a small dog. One or two trying to get into their area were even larger, but trapped by their own mass and the size of the entryways, acting as barriers to stop the party from escaping deeper into the ruins.

They were trapped, but they weren’t like so many flies in their web.

“For the glory of Kess, fight me!” Lyna said, turning around and sending off a wash of red energy into the gathered arachnid forces as chitin and rage turned to face her and her alone.

Then the air was caked in gore as the team went to work.

Tail’s dagger sang through the air as it found homes in the not yet hardened chitin skulls of the young spiderlings, vanishing a moment later back to their hand for another throw as Lyna took the brunt of the force. Her armor was thick, preventing the biting as she struck. Her weapons beat like drums against the bodies until inspiration struck her.

Myles felt the eagerness of the idea as Lyna cackled like a witch and fell to the ground without a second thought. A sickening, wet crunching noise followed. Combining the weight of her armor and weapons, Lyna rolled across the enemy-strewn floor like some kind of road-builder’s roller, compressing the bodies with a horrible screech and leaving behind a wave of ichor and gore, cackling all the while.

Will played defense, keeping the group from getting overwhelmed by the horde. When a new wave would approach before they were ready, Will chanted something too quiet for Myles to hear, and a swarm of the spiderlings would skitter back up the strands they’d come down. It was quickly accompanied by a chittering scream of fear as they tried to release more silk, created too much slack on their already created lines, and slammed into the floor stunned. There, Myles would pick them off one by one with quick strikes of a hardened dough lump slamming into stunned heads.

Kendra screamed, becoming a blur of orange, yellow, black, and red as her blade backhanded and slashed through the rain of increasingly large bodies. At one point, cutting through the door frame and the face waiting beyond with a sickening squelch as air replaced the vacuum of blood within the creature’s carapace.

More and more of the spiderlings fell, fangs unable to find purchase as they were quickly dispatched, only their skittering legs leaving thin red lines across exposed flesh, but they kept coming as the slaughter continued.

***

It wasn’t enough.

Shardking still lived.

They’d only lost a few more Runners in the raid since the first encounter, but things were not going to last. The ring around the ruins was growing, and Shardking was relentlessly smashing and destroying everything it encountered. They’d done visible damage, wiped out layers of defense, but they didn’t have the damage output she’d anticipated as teams held back instead of burning through every cooldown they had as she’d ordered. All of her previous plans had been thoroughly washed out leaving a blood-red smear in her notebook and little to show for her work.

The plan wasn’t a total loss, but she’d underestimated the first floor guardian’s durability. The records of previous runs hadn’t been as honest with its regeneration as she’d hoped, and they were paying for it. There was no backing down though.

If they lost out here, it would only be a matter of time before Shardking made it to Runner’s Plaza, and then everything would be lost.

No, they had to stop him here.

A resounding crack echoed across the noise of battle and a cheer erupted as the glass protecting Shardking’s core shattered and fell in a rain of twinkling starlight as the golem shuttered to a violent stop.

They’d done it.

Sindra was ready to declare victory as her group prepared to crush the golem’s power source until a message flashed in the corner of her vision.

Raid Update

The Broken King

Phase one - Complete

Expose the Core of the Broken king

Phase two has begun.

“Phase two?”

And the world was alive again with screams and the smell of burning flesh wafted on the breeze as easily as the crisp smell of the approaching autumn’s air.

***

Darwin stood on his platform above the chaos, using his advanced perception to observe the battle with a glee he’d not felt since his raid against Shardking. There were quite a few differences from his Run, however. The guardian had quite a few new tricks this Run.

Clicking his tongue gentle, the [Master of Ceremonies] scolded the turn of events.

“Can’t let them have it, can you?” he asked no one in particular as the beam of blue energy swept across the nearby area, leaving a large scar of red hot stone. “As soon as they have a plan, you change the rules on them. That’s not very fair, you know.”

As if to emphasize his words, Darwin pulled a flask from his pocket and took a long draft of a spicy, sweet liqueur. He winced slightly at the Dwarven brew. If he hadn’t been as strong as he was, it would have killed his liver. Thankfully, his body and soul had been reinforced by years of being a hero.

Magic was a wonderful thing.

Still, there was an undeniable element of grace to the destruction, an effortless charm to the chaos that led into the wonderful elegance of terror that was learning on the fly. For all the death it would cause, the energy attack covered quite a few of its weaknesses once the core was exposed while creating an obvious opening if the Runners could keep their heads.

For all the death it would cause, they would be stronger for it, and, Darwin imagined, it would be well worth it.

At least, he thought as much after a third swig.

***

It only took a moment for the group to reassemble, panting and coated in the sickly scent of gore that refused to vanish with the bodies. Lyna was still laughing at the absurdity of what she’d done, and Myles couldn’t blame her for it. He wanted to laugh too, more for his sanity than the fun he was having, but he was still amazed how Rocky was able to stay on her helmet through it all.

He didn’t have much time to think about it.

None of them did as new information filled his vision.

Quest Updated: The Webs We Weave

Multiphase Guardian Quest

Phase One of Three - Fight!

Phase One: Survive the swarm of wyrmscale spiderlings until they retreat.

Completed.

Reward: Wyrmscale Poison Antidote x5

Bonus: Kill all of the spiderlings - 221/200

Bonus Reward: Class Dependent (In-holding)

Phase Two has begun

Phase Two: Kill the Matriarch

Reward Offered: Rare Class Variant Equipment

Bonus: Escape without being poisoned or burned.

Bonus Reward: Class Dependent

A large shadow began to lower itself from the ceiling, easily the size of a farmer’s market in the center of Hazen as its giant, red lantern eyes roiled towards them in a storm of hissing and clicking noises.

Only Myles could hear the anger within them.

“I will feast on your blood!”

Myles liked his blood right where it was and brandished the Twisted Breadstick as his lore Skill triggered once more.

Monster Lore Unlocked!

Eldritch Wyrmscale Spider Matriarch information obtained!

Eldritch Wyrmscale Spider Matriarch

Dungeon Creature - Spider: Stage 4

Rank B Threat Level

Best trait - Magical prowess

Preferred Method of Attack - Ignition

Special Attack: Acidic Silk Shot, Poison Bite, Drain Life, Toxic Breath, Fire Breath

Breeding Groups: Arachnid, Horror

Special Ability: Fire Immunity, Toxic Immunity, Fear Immunity, Harden

Known Drops: Spider Elite T1, Horror Elite T1, Guardian

Commonly referred to as a Nope or eldritch web-spinner, this variant of the Wyrmscale Matriarch has been exposed to a massive amount of void energy, making her stronger than the average adult or any other matriarch of its species. Larger, faster, stronger, and having a vast array of different styles of attack makes this creature more dangerous to even an experienced party without a [Priest], [Paladin], or other mitigating force. Upon death, the Nope has a fifty percent chance to trigger its own destruction sending out a searing wave of toxic smoke for X seconds, where X is equal to the volume of the necrotic poison left in its system.

Kill the Nope with extreme prejudice.

Myles barely had time to register the odd nature of the Monster Lore information before the eldritch web-spinner suddenly dropped onto the floor of the hollowed-out building and shattered the remaining walls with the force of its impact.

The group wavered as the ground shook, nearly sending them to the hard stone floor with the force of the upset. Lyna got her footing back first, having already been rolling around on the floor and was the least affected by the impact. The rest followed as the walls around them crumbled, leaving the building hollow and the rest of the room a treacherous collection of unstable footings and cleared platforms. Webs coated the walls, leaving a few dull windows across the building and showing them the full extent of the nest as glowing stones flared to life to encircle the area.

A moment later, the spider rose to its eight, pointed, scrapping feet and purple markings across its carapace began to glow with an unnatural light as the temperature rose degree by degree as if setting an oven to the perfect cooking temperature.

Something Myles easily put together with the information he had.

Myles shouted the warning and with only moments to spare, the party dropped behind piles of rubble just in time to see the world glow.

Deeply purple fire washed across the world a moment later, heating the air and making it hard to breathe for the moment. Just as quickly as it started, the attack ended and the walls were alight as the webbing kept the flames burning. With the new light, the party looked on at the spider.

It took up a large portion of the room and was as heavily armored as its weight implied. Smoke billowed from its open maw as ichor dripped onto the floor, sizzling for a moment on contact before evaporating. Each leg ended in a curved, almost cutlass-like blade, and nothing about it said there was an easy strike point.

If they went from below, the full weight of the creature could fall upon them, crushing them into a bloody paste.

If they went from above, they’d have to find a way to get there and would be fully exposed to its fire and poison attacks.

At ground level, they’d had the best chance for survival, Myles reasoned. There they had cover and room to move. They didn’t have to go below it and could pick it apart leg by leg while avoiding the fire and everything else it threw at them.

It was the only option.

“Get ready—”

At least, It was the only option until something sparked to life, bringing Myles newfound confidence as a new sound joined the snapping hisses.

Glass rained down from above in a shower of impromptu blades at the same moment that a living meteor came crashing down to impact the scaled monstrosity.

The beast wailed, drowning out the noises of the world, as scales popped free or were twisted inward from the weight of the impact. The blunt force of the attack and the hundreds of tiny daggers broke the carapace into large cracked chunks as a sickly purple ichor pulsed from the impact point like a geyser of gore. The beast stumbled, sizzling as it attempted to regain its footing while the creature atop it began throwing carapace to the side in chunks to create a clear weak point as the monster screamed.

For a long moment, Myles stared at the carnage, feeling the same sense of surprise as his allies, as two, gore-covered metal rabbit ears rose from the carnage.

Then a fist holding a chunk of scales pulled free.

Then a familiar, determined face, looked down at the group of warriors.

“Strike now!”

Ashra Snowpelt had rejoined the battle.