Elan’scathe was far bigger than Kana had expected. The elemental rose up out of the sand pit, and up, and up. Kana was forced to jump off it just to avoid being smashed against the ceiling, but he was hardly in a better position landing in the loose sand that was pouring off the elemental and threatening to sweep him off his feet.

A creature flew past him, something shimmering and blue. Kana got the impression of fins and teeth from the brief glimpse he got before it was out of sight. Whatever it was doing, Elan’scathe did not like it. The elemental let out a ground-shaking roar that made the sand jump into the air and kicked a leg out, whip-fast, to catch the spirit Mae had conjured up.

Kana finally got his balance back and started hacking at the nearest leg, but had to dodge almost immediately when the boss swept a giant pincer claw through the air. There was no doubt in Kana’s mind that if it had hit him, he would have been thrown all the way into the wall. That would probably be a better fate than being caught in the pincer.

Because of all his scrambling and dodging, Kana was finding it hard to land a solid hit on the elemental boss. It just had too many legs it could kick with, pincers to guard the front, and a long, jagged-tipped tail that he hadn’t even seen it use yet. The damage he had managed to inflict was lower than it should have been, and Kana suspected only center mass hits like his initial one would do full damage.

Between the shifting sands underfoot and the boss’s massive size, it was definitely a fight that favored ranged classes. That meant that Mae’s water spirit would probably do the lion’s share of the damage, and he would be most useful as a mobile target to distract Elan’scathe. He would get in what hits he could, but unless the boss shifted its attack patterns to something better suited to his class, he didn’t expect much.

A second spirit had appeared near Mae and was hovering defensively beside her. It had a ghostly, shimmering appearance, human-shaped but not even a meter tall and with its features faded out by the light coming off it. An odd sound, almost musical, came from it, and a moment later everything took on a sparkling glow.

Kana was surprised for just a moment until he realized that he’d gained a barrier buff that would mitigate incoming damage. To an outside observer, he would be standing in an almost-invisible bubble that would shield him from attacks. Kana had seen the spell effect on other players in Aldur, but he’d never been the target of the buff spell himself.

Elan’scathe’s triple HP bar was still half full on the first bar, so it was far too soon to try for an aggressive push to finish it off, but Kana decided to test out the limits of the barrier Mae’s conjuring had given him. He slipped between the boss’s legs, taking a glancing hit in the process that did almost no damage at all, and slashed the tip of Nibelus through the stone core overhead.

That did some real damage, even more than his initial downward lunge. It was awkward to attack something right above him, but he managed to chain a few special attacks. Arc lance did almost no damage at all, which didn’t surprise him in the least, but rising slash was perfectly suited for the angle.

He managed to take off an entire bar of Elan’scathe’s HP before the barrier gave out. A leg caught him and kicked him out the front, where he got a close up of the boss’s rather terrifying looking face. He was bracketed on both sides by its heavy pincer claws, and there was nowhere to doge what he was sure to be a painful bite attack.

Instead, the tail lanced down through the air and stabbed into his stomach. Kana was pinned to the sand and his HP immediately dropped from 930 to 26. Even though he’d been at almost full HP, the attack had nearly one-shotted him. The only saving grace was that Elan’scathe wasn’t a real scorpion, so there was no poison accompanying the tail sting.

That seemed like a moot point though, since no doubt the next attack was already on its way and Kana couldn’t actually free himself from the tail to dodge it. A healing spell washed over him, bringing his HP back up to 312, but it was too little, too late. The scorpion’s left pincer was already reaching down to snip off his arm, or maybe just crush it.

The water spirit flitted between Kana and Elan’scathe and unleashed a blinding burst of multi-colored shimmering bubbles. They clung to the elemental scorpion’s face and blinded it, enough that Kana was able to jerk and twist to dodge the pincer at least. The pressure from the tail holding him down let up just a little, not enough for him to escape, but enough for him to move.

He stabbed Nibelus straight up through the bubble cloud into the boss’s face. There was no finesse to the attack, just a sort of desperate strength behind a movement that was almost a throw instead of a lunge. He was barely holding onto the weapon by the end of its haft, and if Elan’scathe jerked away, it would either take the spear with it or send it flying across its lair.

That was exactly what happened as the boss reared back, freeing Kana and disarming him at the same time. Nibelus tumbled out of the wound and thumped into the sand, where Kana scooped it back up as he scurried away from the business end of the giant scorpion. A second healing spell hit him, bringing his HP back into the yellow, and making him feel marginally better about his chances of survival.

Despite having been literally run through by Elan’scathe’s tail and pinned to the ground, there was no hole in his stomach. The game simply didn’t work that way, and Kana retained his full mobility and reach. His stamina bar was getting dangerously low though, to the point where it was starting to slow him down.

“How long can that water spirit keep the boss occupied?” he asked Mae.

“If it keeps soaking the damage, it’ll die in the next few seconds. It’s not made for taking hits, or even really for dishing out the damage. I’m only using it because the boss is supposed to be weak to that elemental type.”

“Guess I’d better go save it then.”

Kana moved back in to attack, more conservative in his movements, playing defensively to avoid being kicked back into the range of the boss’s deadly tail strikes. Working together, they managed to whittle down most of the boss’s second HP bar before Mae’s water spirit was struck by a pincer and broke apart into floating water globules that splashed across the cave walls before evaporating.

“How long until you can conjure it back up?” Kana asked, desperately dodging now that the boss’s attention was solely focused on him.

“Five minutes. I’ll bring out my flame spirit for now. It’s got the most offensive power, but it won’t last through a solid hit.”

There was no doubt that Mae had built herself to work in a group. She had solid healing and support utility, and against something that wasn’t a living rock, no doubt her fire spirit would bring the hurt, but she was sorely lacking in survivability. Kana had more HP and better damage mitigation, but he relied heavily on quick reflexes and the massive damage output Nibelus afforded him to win.

The next hit he landed procced the artifact-grade weapon’s special ball lightning ability, which did a nice chunk of damage even with its diminished effectiveness. The problem was that it pushed Elan’scathe’s HP down to the last bar, and Kana was not prepared for a sudden shift in the boss’s attack pattern. The scorpion drove its legs down into the sand and started burrowing, blinding Kana with the spray.

By the time the blind debuff wore off a few seconds later, the boss was completely underground, but a low rumbling told him that it hadn’t retreated. A second later, the sand underfoot shifted and exploded upward. Kana had just enough warning to begin to dodge, but not enough to actually get clear. Elan’scathe’s tail clipped him and he spun a full circle from the force of the blow before tumbling to the ground.

The tail disappeared back into the sand and Kana climbed to his feet. He looked around, but there was no convenient part of the boss sticking into the air for him to attack. “This sucks,” he said. The faint rumbling got more intense, and when the sand exploded upwards again, he was ready for it.

Kana leapt aside and spun around to use wind slash on the outstretched tail before it could vanish again. He caught a brief glimpse of the boss’s last HP bar, still over 90% full, before everything went still again. Warily, he glanced around the cave and tried to find some way to gauge when the next strike would come.

Mae’s light spirit glowed brighter for a second, and Kana’s HP went all the way up to full. At almost the exact same time, the rumbling increased. Kana tensed, ready to leap, but Elan’scathe had a different target in mind, and Mae was not nearly as quick as Kana. The tail struck her cleanly, hurling her straight up in the air to bounce off the ceiling of the cave and land heavily on the sand.

Mae’s HP drained completely, emptying out past the red until there was nothing left. Instead of dying though, the light spirit she’d conjured brightened to a blinding white before disappearing. Mae sat back up, her HP solidly in the yellow, and climbed to her feet. “Those tail attacks really hurt,” was all she said before she conjured up her last spirit.

Unlike the other two, it didn’t fly or float in the air. Instead, it looked like a small wolf with reddish-brown fur that came up to Mae’s knees. It was almost too cute with its attempts to be ferocious as it growled and paced around her, and Kana couldn’t help but wonder if it would actually be any use. It looked more like a wolf pup than a fully grown beast.

The rumbling rose in pitch again, but it sounded different from before. Instead of a tail strike, the sand bulged up and rolled forward like a tidal wave. Kana caught a glimpse of Elan’scathe on the other side, but the wall of sand blocked him from actually reaching the boss and attacking.

The wolf pup didn’t seem to consider it an obstacle. Its fur ignited and it rocketed forward, leaping over the rolling wall and lunging straight for the earth elemental behind it. As the sand’s momentum played itself out, the wall got smaller and Kana was able to vault over it himself.

The pup had managed to stop Elan’scathe from submerging below the sand again, or maybe that portion of the boss’s phase transition had just ended. Either way, Kana finally had a target to attack, and he was determined to finish the giant scorpion off before it could unleash any new surprises.

He attacked from the side, threading his way between flailing legs and reaching the vulnerable underbelly, where he poured on the damage with a full combo chain. He got battered by more kicks in the process, but none managed to toss him back out near the scorpion’s head, and its last HP drained away to nothing.

Kana scrambled to get clear as it teetered in place on stony legs that were cracking and falling apart. He made it out just in time to avoid being crushed in a small avalanche of stone when Elan’scathe collapsed. The boss broke apart into a pile of rubble in a matter of seconds, and an XP window popped up awarding him 2200 XP.

“Yes!” Mae yelled. “I got it! It dropped for me!”

Kana hadn’t even looked at his own loot window yet. The whole point of killing the area boss was to pick up an Earthsinger’s Echo, which Mae had just received. He didn’t get one, however. Instead, he got a crafting material called a foundation stone. He wasn’t even sure what it was for, but it had a 5-star rarity, making it artifact grade.

“Did you get anything good?” Mae asked.

“Just some crafting mats,” he said, not wanting to reveal his luck to her.

“That sucks,” she said. “Sorry you went through all the trouble and didn’t get loot.”

“I’m not going to turn my nose up at 2200 XP,” he said. “That’s a lot.”

“2200? I only got 1000. Wait, what level are you?” she demanded.

“Me?” Kana blinked, taken aback by the sudden ferocity in the question. “25. Why?”

“25! How are you even here? I’m level 36! You were just going to solo this thing?”

“Ah. Hah. I guess I didn’t think it through,” Kana said. “It all worked out though, so I can’t really complain.”

“I can’t believe you even got past the bad cactus guarding the entrance,” she said. “Must be that weapon. Worth whatever you paid for it, I guess.”

“Yeah,” he agreed.

“Tell you what though, low level or not, you’re still pretty good.”

A friend request popped up in front of him. “You don’t have to take it,” Mae said, “but if you ever need a healer or some firepower, shoot me a message.”

“Will do,” he said as he hit the accept button. Spiral had complained all week about needing a healer. He wasn’t sure if Mae would fit the bill with her level being so much higher, but it was worth looking into. The worst she could say was that she wasn’t interested in doing quests that were so much lower than her level.

“Were you doing anything else here?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “I just came to see if I could pick up that conjurer’s charm for a friend of a friend.”

“Me too. Want to stick in the party until we get back to town? Ignacious here isn’t great on his own,” she said, petting the wolf pup. The flames that had rolled off its body had all gone back out, and it once again looked like an ordinary animal.

“Sure.”

Kana had done some research into the other classes, just to get a baseline of what his expectations should be of other players and have an idea if anything weird was going on. He knew that conjurers bonded with spirits and fought with them, and that if the spirit was destroyed, there was a recharge time before it could be brought back. He suspected she didn’t want to wait until she could bring them back to start the trip back across the desert.

That was fine though. Kana definitely wouldn’t have beaten that boss on his own, and they were both going the same place. They left the cave together, the wolf pup obediently trailing behind Mae as they walked, and Kana sent a message to Spiral.

The charm didn’t drop. Got something else instead. Met a conjurer there who specializes in support. Added her to my friends list so you can finally stop whining about not having a healer.

All in all, it hadn’t been a bad day.