Azure: Gunner

Monsters gain Essence and Levels naturally, just like people. They may slowly build strength over years or decades, or slaughter their way to explosive growth. What keeps them from Leveling infinitely, out in the wilds beyond our reach, and then appearing to slaughter us all?

The single most important factor is that monsters are subject to the same restrictions as we are. In order to reach a new Tier, a monster must defeat a strong foe of its current Tier, just like any Fighter, Mage, or Beastmaster. This requirement, coupled with several other natural influences, enforces a soft cap on most monster’s maximum growth.

Consider a mid Tier 2 zone surrounded by lower density mana, occupied by a variety of monsters. I like to call the most powerful monster in a given zone the ‘apex’ monster. There are two primary outcomes. In one, the apex ranges broadly, slaughtering any potential threats before they mature. In this case, it never encounters an upper Tier 2 challenger, and its growth permanently stalls at Level 29.

- Bonnie, Level 41 Beastmaster, Bonnie’s Bestiary

The cave hideout was tight with the full team bunked down for the night, but they were all professionals. Or mostly professionals, anyway. Phyx and Rhyme had spent several hours drinking, which would have enraged Mason if he couldn’t tell from the smell that their alcohol was at best E30. It would take a literal gallon of the stuff to impair either of them, so he ignored their antics to the best of his considerable abilities.

With the entrance sealed by the Earth Mage, there was no sign of their presence for the nocturnal terrordactyls to pick up on. The normal necessities of air circulation were circumvented by Phyx’s Spells, so no noise or smells could escape. At 1000 hours, Medhi removed the barrier and the team moved out into the late morning sun. Mason was thankful that even the two troublemakers had their game faces on. He’d chosen to ignore the way Phyx had set up her bedroll slightly closer to his than even the tight quarters demanded.

Mason retraced his steps from the day before, leading the team down into the valley. They didn’t bother with keeping to a particular formation or sending out a scout – the only thing nearby that could possibly challenge the powerful force was sleeping the day away in its cave, after all. This time they didn’t stop at the clearing, continuing through the valley and starting up the far slope.

They came to a halt three-quarters of a mile from the cave entrance. It was a massive, unmistakable opening into the solid rock. Mason suspected it had originally been much smaller, and as the matriarch grew it had clawed away more and more of the rock to allow its increasing bulk to pass. The two Archers were another few hundred yards back, preparing sniper perches among the trees. Mostly, that meant silently disposing of any current occupants.

<Can I start now? Pleeeaase?>

Mason ignored the way Phyx was pressing provocatively up against him and nodded. With a silent squeal, the red-eyed Mage twirled like a girl excited for her first dance, then assumed an entirely unnecessary pose. Mason felt the caress of mana as she began to cast, then he stalked forwards, followed by Shieldbreaker and Haldred. The dwarf and the infernal had arrived later than anticipated, but still within mission parameters.

He calmly selected a good vantage point to wait, and settled in. A few seconds concentration was all it took to retrieve his new axe from his Inventory. Mason carefully hefted the formidable weapon, eager to see how it performed. He was primarily a swordsman, but sometimes you just needed the unmatched cutting power of a long shaft with all of the weight concentrated at the business end. He’d purchased this axe specifically for this mission.

It had a haft akin to a quarterstaff, easily six feet in length, topped with a fifteen-inch wide blade of Tier 4 steel. Opposite the single cutting edge was a heavy blunt face, like a warhammer’s. Mason had no interest in using that side, but it added considerable mass to the end of the weapon. The total weight was over fifty pounds – forty in the head and ten in the shaft. It was enchanted for durability, cutting performance, and most importantly inertial manipulation.

An application of mana to the inertial enchantments would magically shift the center of mass of the weapon to a point near the base of the haft. That allowed the head to be accelerated to incredible speed. In practice, Mason had easily broken the sound barrier with a strike, relishing the explosive shockwave. Unfortunately, he would need to be patient a bit longer as the multi-layered plan he’d prepared went into action.

As with most plans, it was dictated by the personnel he had available, and it started with the Mages. Phyx’s signature Spells were all about air manipulation, and at her Level the things she could do were terrifying indeed. First, she deployed an advanced one-way Barrier that targeted only oxygen, preventing it from entering the cave but not from leaving. Then, she used another Barrier to sweep up a mass of nitrogen, slowly passing it through the first Barrier and into the cave.

If the terrordactyls noticed anything, it would simply seem like a mild breeze. Eventually, the incoming nitrogen would displace enough oxygen that the weaker specimens would simply never awaken. Medhi’s preparations the day before had ensured that there was minimal airflow from other openings in the cave system. Rhyme’s contribution was equally insidious.

The Bard was responsible for casting a powerful Stillness throughout the cavern. Unlike a conventional Silence Spell, Stillness only muffled sounds above a certain volume. Mason knew from experience that some monsters would awaken the moment you cast Silence on them, their instincts noticing the sudden absence of sound even in their sleep.

Stillness, like nitrogen poisoning, was almost impossible to detect. The slumbering terrordactyls would continue to hear the soft breathing sounds of their brethren until they began to die, yet no alarm could be raised.

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If they were extremely lucky, the matriarch would slip into a quiet death with the entirety of her brood, but Mason hardly expected that. No, the goal of the opening move was to wipe out the lower Tier monsters before the real fight began. A Tier 0 or 1 posed no actual threat to him, but even a Tier 4 couldn’t fight the matriarch effectively if he was buried in hundreds of pounds of thrashing, clawing monsters.

It took nearly twenty minutes before the first terrordactyl emerged from the cave, staggering around as if drunk. It was a high Tier 2 specimen, and it had barely spread its wings before an arrow hissed by Mason’s position and vanished into its chest. The monster collapsed a moment later. It was another several minutes later when Mason felt the ground tremble slightly, and he moved into a ready position, axe held lightly with both hands.

<Sonic protection, now! Espinosa, buffs!> he ordered, and a moment later felt Rhyme’s defensive Spell settle into place around him.

All sound vanished, blocked by the powerful Barrier. It made for a surreal scene as the enormous matriarch burst forth from the cave, her massive size too great even for the wide opening. Boulders were smashed free and tumbled to the ground. Mason could feel the earth shaking under his clawed feet, but he heard none of it. Then energy surged through him as their Healer, hidden carefully away, started buffing the party.

<Go! Go! Go!> he called out over the Comms, and exploded into motion.

As Mason charged forward, a pair of arrows sizzled by overhead, smashing into the matriarch. Barrier shimmering, it shrugged off the attacks, and opened its massive, fanged jaw. Mason didn’t need Identify to tell him the beast had indeed reached Level 40, as the devastating sonic blast hurled debris away from the monster in a wave. He could feel it smashing into Rhyme’s barrier, but the elven Mage’s Spell held.

It helped that Rhyme was only protecting a few small bubbles of space, while the matriarch’s attack was indiscriminately spread over an enormous area. Despite that, Mason wasn’t sure how many more such attacks his protection would withstand. He’d cleared nearly half the distance to the creature now, and arrows were still flashing by overhead, but the monster spread its enormous wings and leapt skyward.

<Phyx!> he yelled as he Lightning Stepped closer, the matriarch already too high to reach without a suicidal leap.

<On it!> the Air Mage’s gleeful voice returned.

Between the second and third beat of the massive wings, Phyx reached out and ripped the air out from underneath its right wing. A monster of this size could fly only with the help of magic, but physics still mattered. The sudden absence of resistance sucked the right wing down, while the Mage pulled the air under the creature and sent it thrusting up on the other side.

The massive pressure imbalance flipped the matriarch over in mid-flight, and a moment later it came down on its back with an impact that rattled the ground yet didn’t reach Mason’s ears. Arrows streaked by, whittling away at the monster’s powerful barrier.

The rumbling of the earth intensified as Medhi fulfilled his most important role in the fight, collapsing the cave mouth behind the matriarch and preventing any of her surviving brood from escaping to join the fight. Mason’s clawed feet and lashing tail easily compensated for the shifting footing as he dashed forward.

Despite Mason’s speed, Haldred was the first to reach the downed creature. The Skirmisher flashed forward, carrying a full-size lance, and his charge left most of the twelve-foot weapon buried deep in the creature’s flank. Then he was darting away, changing direction with the absurd agility his Class was famous for, and Mason followed him in.

The enormous matriarch was back on her feet as he approached, the powerful monster moving with impossible speed for something so large. The bone of her wing’s leading edge was easily thicker than Mason’s torso, and he doubted his ability to cut it even with his hefty new weapon. Instead, he zig-zagged, then dashed to the side as the monster’s head lunged for him. He slipped past the fifteen-foot-tall skull, then he cut, activating multiple Skills.

The Double-Impact empowered fifteen-inch blade of his axe cut a three-foot deep trench into the monster’s chest. His target was the pectoral muscle that powered the mighty wings, but the sheer size of the monster ensured that a single cut couldn’t reach deep enough to cripple it. The matriarch’s roar of pain shattered the remaining protection of Rhyme’s Spell, which held just long enough to withstand the worst of the blast. Suddenly Mason could hear again.

The ground trembled with mighty footsteps as Shieldbreaker charged in behind him. The dwarf had activated the Skill that had gained him significant notoriety among the Guild, More Than a Mouthful, and exploded in size. The Skill always made him just too big for whatever he was fighting to eat in a single bite, and the Berzerker was laughing in delighted battle-lust at the rush of power. Mason guessed he was over twelve feet tall at the moment. While none of them knew exactly how long he could maintain this size, the enormous dwarf was a Wasted excellent distraction as long as it lasted.

Mason ducked under the monstrous wing as the terrordactyl flailed wildly, biting at the huge Berzerker who was dancing around her face. Stone Spikes shattered against her belly scales, and Mason heard the Earth Mage cursing over the Comms as he switched tactics. The stone below the creature suddenly softened, causing the matriarch’s enormous weight to sink her clawed feet into the stone. The creature’s strength was too much for the rock to bear, and it wrenched its feet free.

Rock shards the size of a borghound exploded outward, and one smashed into Mason. His barrier flared as he was hammered backwards, crashing to a stop a solid fifty feet away from where he’d started. The matriarch had bitten down on the ‘club’ Shieldbreaker was wielding – actually an enchanted log as thick as Mason’s thigh. The beast could easily have flung the dwarf away, but it was enraged by its wounds and the Berzerker’s Taunts. Instead of shaking him loose, the creature was staring, comically cross-eyed, at the irritating pest in front of her as she ground down even harder with her massive jaws.

In the instant her head was fixed in place, Haldred struck. The Skirmisher leapt easily fifty feet into the air, a suicidal move in most fights, as few could change their trajectories once airborne. However, if you had the right Skills – like Double Jump – you could pull off incredible mid-air maneuvers. Haldred was carrying another massive lance, and he flipped himself over at the apex of his leap. Then he pushed off empty air as if it was solid ground, hurtling himself downward at tremendous speed.

BOOM!

Mason felt the impact as the matriarch’s head was smashed down into the ground. Haldred had hit with all of his weight, the force of his leap, aided by Espinosa’s buffs and multiple Skills. It had proven to be too much for even the custom-made enchanted lance, which exploded from the sheer force of being slammed into the matriarch’s thick skull. The Skirmisher himself crashed into her head a moment later, hitting hard enough to shatter his own barrier. Then the wounded beast thrashed, and both dwarf and infernal were sent flying.

Cursing, Mason Lightning Stepped in, his axe already raised and pulsing with mana.