The Pinnacle Warrior

Astrid hadn’t known what to expect the Leviathan to look like. If someone’d asked her before she saw it, she would have guessed it was a giant snake with fins down the center of its back? Mouth full of teeth, things like that. Her expectations were wildly off.

First, she thought, or, rather, hoped, that Boss would be maybe twenty meters long. As far as she thought, that was huge, but she was far too optimistic about the size difference between them and the monster. Though the monster didn’t fill the entire hundred meter pool in the center of the floor, as it stretched forward, its tentacles needed to bend to keep from coming out of the water on the opposite side of the ring. Now that Astrid actually saw it, the Leviathan was basically a gigantic naiad, if its body was built for violence instead of flitting quickly through the water.

Just like the naiad, the Leviathan was something like a mermaid, though instead of a fish-like lower body, it had a bunch of long, thick tentacles that were twice as thick as Astrid’s torso. Each one was covered in dark green scales, and the previously calm water frothed as each of the tentacles lashed behind it. With a screech of challenge, it lunged forward. Like the naiads, its upper body was somewhat humanoid, but instead of just being a somewhat scaly representation of a human’s body, its face and arms were made for physical combat. Its face had a wide, fang filled mouth that, on a human, would have spread from ear to ear, and as it opened wide, Astrid was fairly certain that Benedict had a fairly good chance of being eaten in a single bite. Above its mouth glowed six golden eyes, three pairs going back its long, sharp face.

Astrid had to stop observing it as its opening attack began. The two arms it had scythed forward, and Astrid was reminded of a praying mantis when she looked at the Leviathan‘s arms. The arms opened and revealed long blades on the bottom of its upper arms, each one serrated to pierce into whatever prey it caught and carry it up towards its mouth.

“It can enhance its attacks!” Astrid reminded everybody as she set her stance and stepped back from taking the attack head-on. The others all avoided it, but they’d long since decided that they wanted to use her to test out its attack’s potency. The actual blade on its arm didn’t quite reach her, but water flowed up the arm and extended the attack by another two meters to slam the blow into Astrid’s raised shield. The mana she’d pushed into the tool was entirely exhausted from that single attack, and despite having spent a fair amount of her stamina on holding herself steady with Indomitability, she was knocked sprawling.

She tumbled back to her feet, sand flying everywhere.

“You good?” Felix asked as the second scything attack drew closer.

“Fine. Stay focused!” Astrid commanded as she hustled forward. She felt a flash of gratitude for her visorless helmet, which kept the sand out of her eyes and mouth, but more than anything, she wondered if they could do anything to this monster. It wasn’t moving so fast that the Wanderers couldn’t react, but it was quick. Benedict leaned into Doubletalk, Silvertongue, and Hasty Rebuke as he stepped further away from the monster's immediate attacks. Its other arm slashed forward, and this time, Astrid and Felix, who stood in the front, leapt over it. A tendril of water lashed up and caught Astrid‘s ankle as she did so, but she managed to avoid taking another tumble in the sand. Instead, with a flash of Alacrity-aligned mana, she rolled with the momentum, did a side flip, and landed on her feet.

Muti said nothing as she stepped into Astrid‘s shadow and disappeared with Shadow Leap before reappearing on the monster's head. The Leviathan tossed its head backward, reminding the party of its massive height as the head carrying Muti went from just a meter or two above their own to at least thirty meters up in the air. No fear greeted the movement on Muti’s part, and instead, the Barbarian on its head took the opportunity to try to bury a blade in one of the Boss’s six eyes. One of Muti’s hands held onto the monster’s pronounced brow ridge, while her other held the blade that filled with a visible quantity of Power-aligned mana. Her short sword fell fast, but the Boss twisted its head before the blade could pierce its eye.

The sword cut through the thick brow ridge of the Leviathan, and it squealed as it took the first hit of the fight. Instead of blinding one of its many eyes, Muti made a wound above them that bled profusely and clouded its vision.

As its roars of pain filled the air, both of its long, cutting forelimbs scythed up at its head. Instead of opening herself up to a counterattack, shadows puffed into existence on the Boss's head, and she reappeared behind Astrid.

“Its defenses aren’t that strong,” Muti reported. “The scales are tough, but its survivability is largely reliant upon its size, not on its scales.”

Astrid was about to respond when the Leviathan made its rage known. Instead of moving forward and attacking, though, it retreated back into the center of the water and ducked down until its entire body was invisible again.

“That’s kind of the opposite of what we wanted it to do,” Benedict said as he shifted nervously from one foot to the other.

“And we didn’t think that it would retreat after getting hit once,” Astrid snapped back. “Be ready.“

The other party members didn’t say anything as they prepared for whatever the Boss had next in store. It didn’t leave them in suspense, jumping over the far side of the inner ring without any apparent issue. As its body sailed through the air, Astrid was reminded of just how immense this enemy was. Then, in the ten meter ring of water between the two rings of sand, it began thrashing before exploding forward. While it rushed forward, its two arms came out of the water and covered most of each of the sandy paths.

“There’s not gonna be anywhere safe to stand,” was all that Felix managed to get out before the Leviathan had circled entirely around to attack. The scythe that came towards the party rippled with lashing blades of water, and Astrid activated Immortal Warrior’s Aura as she called for everybody to gather up on her.

“Skandr, now!”

“Five seconds, not moving,” was all he gave as a response as he stood directly behind her and set his stance. A part of Astrid laughed at how long five seconds was now, with them all talking at speeds that would be unintelligible to even most Iron tiers, to say nothing about the speed their battles were fought at. Incantations flew from his tongue as the force of the mana that he expended in each word filled the air. Beyond that, Astrid felt her stamina reduce as he used Warlock's Constitution to strengthen the spell as everybody else hustled forward.

Only due to Benedict‘s double layering of Hasty Rebuke were they all able to get back to her in time, and Astrid pushed basically all of her mana into her shield and her stamina into Indomitability as she braced herself. When the Leviathan’s attack smashed into her arm, bone crunched in her wrist, elbow, shoulder, and most painfully, her collarbone.

Beyond that, she felt small injuries from blades of water that flew past her and into her party members behind her. Small nicks and injuries appeared on her arms, neck, and legs, but she only noted those idly. Instead, the overwhelming agony of her lungs being punctured by her ribs and her arm falling slack at her side consumed her mind.

Something inside of her broke as well, and Astrid tasted iron as blood filled her mouth, but she used two charges of Body to get herself back into top shape. Then, she stepped forward and pushed as much Power-aligned mana as she could into her arm as she smashed her hammer down into the juncture of the scythe with its arm. Spectre Burst was localized to that joint, and Astrid felt the secondary effect of Body pushing her hammer down harder still.

In a single attack, Astrid severed the Boss's arm with a blunt weapon. Pulped flesh exploded around as Astrid‘s wrist ached from the force of the blow. Even with mana reinforcing herself, she managed to strain her wrist with only a single attack, but she didn’t care. Instead, as the monster reacted to its right arm suddenly losing its primary weapon, she designated a place right beside its body as the location for Gravity Surge. As it was within ten meters of her, three times the pull of gravity hauled the creature into a somewhat upright position.

Its back was twisted, and the Leviathan floundered for a split second as it had to adjust itself from lying down and swimming to instead sitting up. As it did so, it thrashed with a scream as its other scything arm came flying towards the party. Felix stepped forward and activated Tiger’s Pride as Guardian’s Wrath also repositioned him towards the joint of the monster's remaining arm. His axe fell, but the Leviathan pulled its arm back and the frontliner’s attack instead bounced off of the heavily reinforced blade of the Leviathan's sickle arm. The monster continued pulling back, seeming to consider the group for the first time in its totality. Instead of a group of gnats buzzing around in its home, it saw them as threats, and the way it acted changed.

That brief moment of consideration was all that Skandr needed to finish his spell, though, and he laughed out loud as he threw his hands up and unleashed it. The two stages of the spellworking he’d done was something that Astrid couldn’t understand fundamentally. After all, to her, lightning and ice were entirely different things, and the summoned storm cloud flew out and created a whirling vortex over the Boss. Unconcerned for her lack of understanding, a cage of lightning shot down into the water and surrounded the tentacles of the Leviathan. It screeched in pain, but then its inhuman face seemed to twist up in confusion as all of the lightning became thick bands of ice under the water, each wrapped around its tentacles.

Astrid felt her health siphon away into the spell as Warlock’s Constitution strengthened it. She saw as the ice under the monster spread into large icebergs which congealed around each of the monster’s underwater limbs. While the ice grew larger, the monster was forced to float up. It thrashed everywhere, trying to free itself from the icy prison, but to no avail. Skandr growled behind her as he had to exert himself to maintain the trap, but it was enough for the next step of the plan to begin.

Muti, Astrid, and Felix rushed forward and threw themselves at the monster’s torso as Astrid deactivated Immortal Warrior's Aura. All together, they slammed into the floundering creature and forced it to start tumbling backwards. Its tentacles struggled under the water, and ice creaked and cracked as it started to make headway on escaping, but it still tumbled backwards onto the outer ring of sand.

Skandr stayed back there, his feet planted in the ground as he used his boon to strengthen his attack. The others all attacked the torso of the monster as best as they could. Felix‘s axe fell again and again, deep wounds tearing open all along its ribs. Crimson red blood covered its beautiful green scales and mixed into the sand, making a red mud. Muti hurried to the head, where the beast screeched and brought its singular, unharmed arm up to deal with her. She seems to be fine, and Astrid raised her hammer and started smashing into every solid bit of Boss she could reach.

The Leviathan writhed on the ground as Astrid attacked without delay, its bones cracking just as much as the ice that kept it immobile. The party fought desperately, looking to make progress in the eradication of the beast, when suddenly Muti screamed in pain.

Astrid didn’t stop attacking, but spared a glance at the top of the monster. Its sickle was speared deep into Muti’s belly, and it hauled her up towards its mouth. Felix shouted as he rushed forward and used Guardian’s Wrath to interpose himself. The Boss struggled for only the barest moment against the pull of his skill, then resumed pulling her head into its mouth.

Before it could do so, smoke appeared around Muti and Shadow Leap carried her to the opposite side of the battle, beside Skandr.

“Take care of her,” Astrid commanded as she cursed her Skills’ weakness compared to the Boss they fought. Though they had the attributes to find success, their Skills just weren’t enough—Gravity Surge wasn’t enough to do more than hold it still for a single second, and it was too large and tough for Spectre Burst to be an immediate threat. If she’d hit it in the head, maybe that could have done more, but it was too late.

Despite throwing everything she had at it, it was only injured, and it was beginning to free itself from its icy prison. In a fit of desperation, Astrid threw herself up at its head and smashed her hammer into everything she could reach for nearly a full second. Bone crunched, and she felt a moment of reassurance before it threw its head back and roared.

In that second, water surged up from its tentacles, which were freed. Then, as the liquid covered its entire body, the Boss slithered back into the water.

The party gathered back together on the inner ring of sand, and Astrid looked down at where Muti lay on the ground. She groaned, and Benedict looked up at Astrid and Felix.

“She’ll be fine for now,” he said as they all, panting, tried to decide what to do. “I’ll need more time to get her back up to peak.”

“I am not injured,“ she growled in response, and Astrid swatted the stubborn Barbarian’s head in response.

“Our plan to get it grounded and kill it failed. We retreat.”

“We have already come here! It is our duty to hunt it,” Muti protested, but Astrid grabbed the Ambusher by her armor and lifted her up.

“You said you’d follow me, my commands. My command is we retreat.”

The rest of the party looked disappointed with the decision, but nobody else complained as Astrid reached down and grabbed the sickle arm she’d severed and literally carried Muti towards the door.

As soon as they started moving, Muti pushed away and followed of her own volition as Astrid stowed the trophy in her bag. It was just as well, as Astrid replaced her hammer with her sling and stowed her shield away. The raging Leviathan emerged, and instead of rushing into physical combat, it surged out of the water, but the water that rose with it didn’t fall back down to the surface of the lake. Instead, a series of javelins formed of water appeared beside its head. Before they could fly towards the party, Astrid whipped her swing underhand twice, letting it go with a supersonic clap, and sending the windburst ammunition at its head.

The stone hit one of its eyes, and pierced into the soft organ before exploding and sending the monster reeling. The water javelins fell back into the lake, and Astrid sent a second windburst enchantment at the other side of the Boss's face.

“We can retreat,” Skandr spoke, “but I think we’ve got it. Make the decision. If I start now, I can do a similar cage again.”

Astrid‘s knee-jerk stubbornness dictated that she shut it down, but she looked at the rest of the party, ready to follow her commands, but wanting to remain. She gritted her teeth, looked at the monster with wounds covering its body, blood still flowing freely from the many cuts it had sustained on its head and body, and she shook her head.

“Dammit. We kill it in the next minute or we retreat, no matter what.”

The rest of our party didn’t wait to listen to anything else, Skandr once again planting his feet as Muti took several deep breaths and held herself back. Felix stepped forward once again, and the monster shrieked at him in rage as he stepped forward. He threw himself at the monster, but it retreated out of his range and relied on ranged attacks, and while the party looked at it, Astrid scoffed.

“We can’t even hit it now, can we?” She asked, disappointed with herself.

The rest of the party seemed to come to the same conclusion, but Muti struggled forward.

“I will attract its attention—”

“It’s no use,” Astrid denied. “Even if we manage to make it come out, we can’t do enough damage and can’t keep it from escaping. If we get it to commit to battle, it’s more than dangerous, and if someone gets killed on this, we’re going to regret it. Our Skills just scrape off of it. I’m sorry, the finisher can’t finish it off, and we’re done.

Though unwilling, the party all stepped back at that. The Boss began to attack, to do something, but the decision was made and they made their dejected path up the stairs towards the floor before.