No time to second guess. The door was sealed, no backing out. Nothing to do but fight.

Seven harpies. Two of them pluses. Levi could already feel that this was going to be a close one, that to overreach could mean their deaths. Forget taming a boss, Gordon was right. Coming out of this with anything to show for it would be tough.

It took no more than Levi noticing the enemies' location for his minions to instantly shift their movements, adjusting their trajectories to the target location. Gordon's minions were only a second behind.

As the opening barrage hit the unprepared party from behind, Pierce jumped into action. As Firelord started retaliating with fireballs Pierce twisted himself into a giant-centipede shield arcing around the front of the group, deflecting the bulk of the second wave of attacks.

Cen and Centoo rushed to join in, closing up the gaps to form a slanted centipede shield over the rest of the party. Centoo blocking the widest opening he could cover that Pierce didn't, Cen sparkling up at the harpies in a dazzling display of light. Unfortunately, Cen's stunning power wasn't strong enough to do much against these enemies. One shifted its aim to focus on him, but none froze up.

Levi grabbed his manabow and fired into the group standing on the shelf, hitting twice before they launched themselves into the air and spread out.

A quick glance verified that no one but Firelord was below 90% health yet, but even from those few seconds of unexpected ambush most were closer to 90 than 100. Pierce's health fell slowly, but steadily. If the harpies kept up that level of damage for any sustained amount of time, Levi and his team wouldn't survive, let alone tame anything.

Lash and Iris threw themselves into the air, pushing toward the harpies with the best speed they could manage. To his surprise, Levi saw Stunner hitching a ride on Iris's back, his dragon face set in defiant determination, hooves intertwined with two of Iris's tendrils to maintain his grip.

With Stunner's attacks firmly in the realm of elemental, plus lightning creatures being naturally resistant to their own element, Levi doubted Stunner would be able to make much progress. But he certainly wasn't going to stop him from trying. It's not like he had a better idea of what the eqralne should do.

Frosty ran up the wall, Shadevine perched on her back in his six-legged centipede form, Plus wrapped around her left foreleg like an oversized bangle.

Pierce was absorbing the brunt of the attacks and his health was still at 84% when Frosty globbed the first harpy wing with a wad of sticky webbing, following it up with a second, then a third, all fired at the same target.

For a moment it looked like the harpy would be able to continue hovering regardless, but as Frosty's third web struck its momentum faltered and the harpy squawked in protest. It began to fall, but with its tail flared and its other wing flapping furiously, it avoided dropping into the mass of Levi and Gordon's minions below, crashing back onto the lower ledge above the dungeon entrance.

Of course, 'lower' was relative; it was still a dozen feet in the air. Levi might be able to jump it with a running start, but he wasn't about to waste that much stamina unless he was sure it was necessary.

The other six harpies finally turned their attention away from harassing the minions on the ground, as Lash sliced his way into the group, whipblade tendrils lashing out in all directions, deflecting attacks as well as inflicting retaliatory blows of his own.

Levi had to run from the entrance a ways to get a view of their target. Now was not the time for hesitation, even if it meant he was leaving himself open to attack as he left the relative protection of the centipede wall.

The fallen harpy fired a salvo of feathers up at Frosty with its good wing, dropping her health to 62%, then started pecking aggressively at the webbing to clear it from its other wing.

Frosty didn't even flinch but immediately fired another wad of web, aiming at the harpy's face this time. Since the harpy wasn't paying attention it didn't even try to evade, and the web struck true, sticking over its entire face.

While the harpy clawed at its webbed face with its good wing, Flomper stuck her head up beneath its feet, the stone of the dungeon floor surging up with her like a molehill in fast motion, grabbing the harpy around the ankle like a solid stone shackle.

The moment he had a clear shot, Levi started firing at full speed, Stone Shot after Stone Shot, the mana-charged stone missiles slamming into the blinded and restrained harpy.

Level 9

(Steelfeather Harpy)

Health 71%

Even as their target cleared each section of web, Frosty fired another and another, keeping it locked down, but Levi knew she couldn't keep it up forever.

A fireball burst across the ceiling, sending the flying harpies scattering to get clear of the splash of flames. For a moment, Levi thought he saw Frosty swinging her way into the center of the group, but a quick glance showed her still crouched on the wall. He didn't have time to watch the unfolding battle above, attention returning to his target as he continued to fire.

A few feathers bounced off his armor, a few more found gaps to slice through or cut into less protected sections of his body. Levi ignored the damage. As long as his health was above half, he had more important things to worry about.

Levi kept firing into the restrained harpy, only vaguely aware of where the rest of his minions were. Skarm and Two were doing something by the wall, and Tink was feeling insufferably smug about something, but he had no time to investigate.

Lash's health was dropping fast, and a quick glance showed him battling two harpies in a tendril-to-claw matchup that seemed heavily weighted toward the harpies. The other two continued firing down at Levi and the other minions, focusing mainly on Firelord it seemed. The fragile kobold was already down to 12 health and by the looks of it he wouldn't last much longer. Still, he valiantly continued firing his fireballs up into the harpies right up until the end.

The twin boss harpies had settled on making a concerted effort to bring Pierce down from their high shelf, alternating firing bursts of silver or dark bladed feathers into the massive centipede every few seconds.

Only the fact that their attacks came in predictable bursts with several seconds of a pause between them kept their assault from being entirely devastating; Pierce could regenerate 1% of his health every ten seconds or so. If they could have fired continuously he'd be done for. As it was he still lost more than he regained.

Unlike their standard counterparts, whose wide wing sweeps fired feathers in an arc, the plus harpies fired tight clusters with quick sharp throwing gestures that sent ten to twenty bladed feathers slamming into their targets with uncanny accuracy.

Pierce did his best to deflect, but the sheer speed of the attacks made dodging or blocking all but impossible at his level. By the time the attacking harpy's gesture finished, the missiles had already found their target.

Levi's own mana was running low by now, and the harpy on the ledge had finally freed itself from the last of Frosty's webbing.

Level 9

(Steelfeather Harpy)

Health 24%

Screeching in vengeful rage, their target tugged at its leg, but the stone Flomper had brought up around it held it in place.

Points for the giant gopher.

In lieu of tearing itself free and launching back into the air, the harpy leaned back and fired broad sweeping arcs of feathers... into the backs of the harpies fighting Lash?

Levi paused, ducking aside from a few stray feathers from the other harpies, and squinted up at the battle overhead. Again, that flicker, he thought he saw Frosty swing through the air and land straight on another harpy's face. The harpy on the ledge fired again, only for the image to flicker out as the attack landed on its ally instead.

Tink. So that's why he was feeling so smug. He was playing on the harpy's blinding anger to use it against the others. As physical and electrical creatures, harpies had no particular resistances to mental effects, such as Tink's illusions. The Mirror Sprite may not be able to do much damage in person, but he was far from useless.

Level 9

(Steelfeather Harpy)

Health 21%

"Getting there," Levi called to Gordon. “Be ready.”