Runeblade

The worst thing about fighting the Tyrant was how frustrating it was. It was like fighting the wind, if said wind somehow had a knife hidden behind its back and a penchant for stabbing.

Planning around its capabilities was nightmarish. It wasn’t just its speed, though it had plenty of that. If all he’d had to manage was the fact that it could out pace any one of them, a few feints, a little positioning, and a well timed trap would have worked fine.

The problem was that on top of being fast, it hit like an ogre, was as tough as an ox, clothed itself in what may as well have been dragon fire, and had four damned arms!

It was skilled too, a pugilist that used its unnatural physique and gangly limbs to the full extent of their reach.

They pressed, it gave ground. While it wasn’t able to escape unscathed, they had landed nothing decisive in the entirety of their battle. Simple flesh wounds: a cratered chest, or bone deep cuts. The kind of thing it incessantly recovered from. They paid for every wound. Every time he dared to draw close enough to attempt to run it through with his blade, a burning hand would be there — hammering his ribs, or simply summoning a gout of flame to boil his flesh.

Not even Rieker and Arc had been able to completely tip the scales.

Kaius warily circled the Tyrant, Porkchop rotating the opposite direction. It kept backing up, refusing to allow one of them behind it.

Rieker was only just starting to rally, and Arc was struggling. Even with his wounds closing under Ianmus’s healing magic, the Tyrant’s essence rampaged within him. The solar magic helped, but it was slow — far slower than it should have been.

Kaius longed to use Fractured Warp; to tear his way through space itself to bury his blade in the back of his enemies twisted head.

Unfortunately, he had no confidence in ending the fight in a single blow, even with a total advantage in positioning and surprise. It was too swift, and he’d already seen the creature react to unseen blows. Far better to save the spell for when they had forced the creature to overcommit.

The fact remained it was more slippery than an oiled and shaved cat.

He had other options. Swift and agile as it was, it couldn’t avoid everything. The rapidly healing wounds that littered its chest from Rieker and Arc’s assault proved that. If they could force it to move, and hit it with an attack it couldn’t avoid, there was a chance they could maim it.

Even as tough, skilled, and strong as it was, without its ability to avoid so many of their attacks it would fall quickly. Starfall could make that happen, especially with VOS.

It wouldn’t be easy. The spell covered a wide area, but it took time for the meteors to fall. If given the opportunity, the Tyrant was fast enough to escape the worst of it. More annoyingly, the size of Starfall meant they’d need to force their target far enough away from them that he wouldn’t capture themselves in the blast zone.

The Tyrant raced in before he could come to a solution, charging right at him. A shock of cold raced down his spine, jolting him into motion. Two chained Stormlashes ripped through the air, forcing it to dodge.

Then a burning fist was racing towards his head.

Kaius kicked back, narrowly avoiding the blow as an arrow slammed into the ground by the Tyrant’s feet. Vines sprouted, yanking the creature back before it could burn them to cinders. It freed itself in moments. Porkchop blurred, Intercede the Weak granting him the speed to lunge in front of the Tyrant. A heavy fist landed on his pauldrons for his efforts.

Three more cracking blows landed on Porkchop in an eyeblink, each one joined by a flare of red fire.

Porkchop roared, The Dominance of Claw washing over the Tyrant in an attempt to force it to face him and him alone.

It lunged in, hissing in fury.

Fully focused on Porkchop, Kaius had an angle — he had to take the shot. Firing a Nail, he lunged into a low stab. His spell was knocked away by a slapping palm, and he only just managed to cut into the meat of its thigh before it dipped away.

Strange, from what he’d seen of the creature, it should have pulled back far sooner. Had they cracked its composure? Perhaps they could use that.

Kaius reached through his bond, hurriedly impressing his half-formed plan to Porkchop.

“Maybe, it could work,” Porkchop said, before he paused for a moment. “We’d need to get it airborne somehow — less chances for it to maneuver.”

It was a good point, though he struggled to see how they could manage that. Although, it had done so before, when it had been the only way to avoid one of Kenva’s empowered arrows. If they could force it to retreat, send it skyward, and then hit it with every mental effect they had…

It might be enough.

“Can Ianmus help us distract it with his new spells? Or Rieker and Arc — I know Rieker mentioned he has a stunning effect.”

He felt Porkchop reach out to the others silently — though his full focus never left the battle in front of him.

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They rebuffed the Tyrant again — though this time Rieker joined them. The guildmaster had recovered from the essence-laced blow he’d suffered earlier, though Kaius could see he was slower than before. Whatever effect the Tyrant’s essence had, it lingered longer than wounds. Regardless, with Rieker’s help, it was far more managable holding the Tyrant off.

They fought in silence as much as they could. Their foe was a thinking one — anything they verbalised could be used against them, though they didn’t always have the time to relay plans through Porkchop’s silent telepathy.

“Ianmus says he’s got enough mana in his Witching Hour keyseal for one Sermon of Iniq. He’s not sure how long it will madden the creature for, though,” Porkchop growled as he lunged forward. The move forced the Tyrant to halt its strike at Rieker.

Bloody thing kept focusing on him — it knew he was vulnerable.

“It’ll work. Even if it’s an area spell, it’s still in the second tier. What of Rieker? And Arc for that matter — we’ll need him,” Kaius replied.

“Rieker’s ready when we are, so’s Kenva. Arc will only be a moment. He’s mostly recovered. Ianmus is helping him flush the essence from his body — something to do with mana and his Authority.”

Kaius had no time to ponder his friend's discoveries. The only thing that mattered was that the pieces were almost in place. They could move soon.

The Tyrant dipped down, sliding under Rieker’s hammer blow before it lunged straight for Kaius. He saw an opening.

Sidestepping, he let a punch fall on his shoulder. Pain erupted as the heat of essence-laced fire punched through his armour, scouring his skin. Kaius ignored it. His Authority swelled unconsciously, beating back the creature’s energy. Still moving, he slipped a hand from his blade and hurled a bolt of lightning.

It bound the creature, frying it from within. He followed it with two more, before he drove his front foot down and pivoted into a heavy cleave — one backed by his HellbladeInvestiture.

Scowling, the Tyrant pulled back, unwilling to meet his blade head on. Catching it on the backfoot, Rieker and Porkchop pincered it.

Their foe refused to be caught. Two of its arms swept out, one covering Porkchop in a jet of fire, the other hurling a bolt of the same flame right at Kaius — all while it slapped away one of Rieker’s hammers.

Kaius’s heart thumped. He felt the moment coming. They had it surrounded, all they needed was one more person and it would be forced to play into their hands.

Cutting the flaming bolt out of the air with his blade, Kaius fired multiple Nails at the Tyrant’s chest. Force detonated behind him, his blade sweeping high as he went for a heavy overhand cleave.

“We need Arc here, now!” he yelled through their bond.

Forced to dodge his nails, the Tyrant’s defense slipped. Rieker’s hammers shone bright. He went low, then high. The Tyrant caught the blow aimed at its hip, but the guildmaster’s second blow slammed home into its shoulder. Light flashed, and Kaius felt a concussive pulse. It rocked the Tyrant’s head back, staggering it.

“That’s Rieker’s stun!” Porkchop said. “Arc’s coming!”

It was an opportunity Kaius refused to miss. Digging deep, he summoned thunder again and again — four Stormlashes curling around the Tyrant’s chest. Individually, each one barely halted the creature, but together they were enough for it to seize up momentarily.

Mana burned on his temples. Kaius reached for Compel Obsession. He urged the Tyrant to focus on its pain and exhaustion, and the clouding haze of its mind.

Porkchop roared again, Dominance hitting it like a physical blow. His Ethereal Phalanx followed, the shield line ramming the Tyrant back. It staggered, barely keeping its feet under it.

At that moment, Kaius felt a surge of lunar mana descend. It was potent — heavy. He could almost hear the sibilant whispers coiling around the Tyrant. Its eyes went wide, shining with a silver hue. Maddened by the Sermon of Iniq, it started to twitch and jibber, lashing at unseen sights as its defence crumbled.

Arc burst past Kaius, cloaked in gleaming energy, his expression focused and furious. Somehow, despite everything, the Tyrant saw him coming. It swept its hand, cloaking flames erupting toward the Gold. Arc ran on, unheeding of the danger. The cone of energy surrounding him detonated — forcing the flames away.

He kicked with everything he had.

Kaius just heard a savage crack. Their enemy shot away, hurled through the air by the force of Arc’s kick. An arrow lanced after it. Bare Thy Heart slammed home into the Tyrant’s stomach, ejecting a column of pulped flesh as it erupted — the force enough to send it tumbling uncontrollably. One of Ianmus’s Preeminent Halo’s trailed after it, aimed at where it would land.

It was everything they had, the confluence of their strongest skills, it had still recovered almost instantly — but it couldn’t dodge mid air.

He had to strike now, before it could recover.

As light burned from between his clenched teeth, VOS came almost easily. Strengthened by his Authority, and the essence welling in his soul, he found focus. The great rune was as unimaginable and all consuming as it always was, but no longer did he find himself utterly adrift in its whorls and currents. It was an unceasing hurricane, but he was a pillar of stone, anchored by chains of Vesryn magic.

Refusing to be consumed in its magnitude, he vanished into its depths — narrowing on a single conceptual corner that he had painstakingly engraved in his mind. There were flavours to the empowerment the greatrune brought him, but he only needed one.

Range and growth were discarded; Starfall covered plenty large of an area all on its own. Power would help, but it was speed that was key — any wasted second was another than the Tyrant could recover and respond.

Drawing on his Authority and Will, Kaius cast.

Light burst in a sudden flash from the glyph on his hand. A yawning dark snapped into existence, centred over the Tyrant. He layered a second cast of the spell, just for good measure. Roaring balls of fire fell to the earth like they had been thrown by a god as dust and stellar fire consumed everything.

A meteor hit it mid air, spiking it down with a concussive roar.

Almost lazily, Ianmus’s Preeminent Halo drifted through the chaos to land gently. An orb of piercing white light swallowed the obscured figure of the Tyrant.

Kaius grinned viciously; he’d like to see the Tyrant avoid that.