Rune Seeker

With a sword in each hand – one dripping vile, black energy, and the other crackling with lightning – Hiral activated the Stormstep ability. Body condensing into pure electricity, he zapped forward, up and at an angle, then reformed immediately above the Rune-o. Unleashing Intimidating Aura+ to its maximum, tethers of Attraction pulled him down to its plated back, anchoring him there even as the monster bucked to try and smash Right.

Apparently, the double was really annoying it with his purple-fire-enshrouded punches. Hopefully the additional weight of his aura would help give Right some breathing room.

Focusing back on his part of the plan, Hiral looked to where Fate Spinner was still protruding from the Rune-o’s back, then stepped forward and spun Blight’s Mercy in his hand. Flipping the weapon into a downward grip, he fed power into the Rune of Increase in the hilt. Black, necrotic energy surged along the blade, and Hiral picked his spot – six inches from his axe.

Jetting Rejection from the pommel, he thrust down, jamming the sabre into the same seam he’d cut earlier. The razor-sharp point drove almost half the blade deep, and the Wild-Boss beneath him twitched in sudden pain. Too bad for it, Hiral wasn’t done yet – and he twisted the blade with all his strength.

Admittedly, his Str wasn’t particularly impressive, but it was just enough to give the blade a quarter turn. Flesh pulled and tore, the necrotic energy savaging the beast’s natural vitality. More importantly, he forced the split in the armor further open – now almost an inch wide.

“Oh, I see…” Seeyela said with a bamf, “… what you’re…” Bamf, “… doing.” Bamf.

The woman was teleporting almost non-stop to keep herself on the Rune-o’s back while she slashed repeatedly, stacking up her Gravity Venom. Fueled by her Primal Chord of the Moon, she’d be able to keep up the barrage, at least for the short term.

“Just be ready for your opening,” Hiral replied. “Literally.” He still had more work to do, though, and picked his next spot. A further six inches beyond Blight’s Mercyhad opened up just enough. This time, Stormstrike flipped around into a downward grip, and he took hold of the hilt in both hands. Rejection powered his thrust, and the PIM – along with his buffed crit rate – guided the jagged sword so deep into the monster’s back, Hiral went down to one knee.

Another twitch of pain, though to a beast that big, even if Hiral had gone the entire-blade-deep, it wouldn’t have been more than a pin prick. Let’s see what you think about this! Threading solar energy into the sword, Hiral activated its second ability – Lightning Strike. The weapon pulsed with the briefest flash of electricity, before the entire bolt discharged straight into the Rune-o’s back. Another twitch, along with a roar of annoyance, and the Wild-Boss redoubled its bucking effort to throw Hiral and Seeyela from its back.

Too bad for it, the Gravity Venom was noticeably stacking up, and the muddy ground and roots entangling its feet were making each movement sluggish and energy draining. Runes of Rejection gushed beneath its legs to power each buck and kick, which only spread Drahn’s poison further within its body, ticking its health bar down little by little. Still, even with those disadvantages, the thing’s health pool was massive, and it brute-forced its method to try and throw the two party members from its back.

On the ground, things weren’t much better, the melee fighters forced to back away from the rampaging shockwaves as the Wild-Boss stomped around in a circle. At that point, Seeyela had to teleport away for real, and it was all Hiral could do to hunker down and hold on to the sword impaled into the Runeoceros’s back – even with Attraction holding him down.

Why does this feel so familiar…?

The whole tantrum lasted a solid ten seconds, forcing everybody but Hiral to back far away. Seena and Drahn kept up their ranged assault, for what little damage they were able to do, and finally the great beast smashed down with both thick, front feet. A huge shockwave rolled outward, but Left already had it covered, the pink energy from Path of Butterflies letting the party walk into the air – safely above the powerful effect.

Hiral didn’t have time to admire his double’s ingenuity, though, he’d already lost his bonuses from Ever Changing+ and wasn’t finished. Not even close. Keeping hold of Stormstrike with his left hand, Hiral reached out his right and called for Death Knell. The cool hilt of the weapon fell into his palm a second later, and he quickly activated Sever Life.

Vivid, blue light coated the edge of the sword all around, increasing the weapon’s damage against living targets – which the Rune-o definitely qualified as. Before he used it, though, he set his feet and shoved on Stormstrike like a fulcrum, right at the edge of the split. The crack in the plate armor spread even further across the Wild-Boss’s back.

As a whole it’s strong, but when it finally cracks…

Hiral flipped Death Knell around and drove it down almost a foot away from his previous sword – the break in the armor having spread that far. The enchanted blade slipped through the Rune-o’s flesh like a hot knife through butter, burying itself all the way to the hilt in the monster’s back. With the weapon that deep, there wouldn’t be any twisting or yanking to spread the break in the plate armor. Good thing that wasn’t what Hiral wanted with it. No, he was after something else, and he activated the sword’s second ability – the evolved version of Cutting Field.

Bloodletting Field: Drive the sword into the ground to summon a Blood Aura containing a field of small, invisible blades. Blades will bounce within the aura and inflict damage based on user’s Atn.

Note: Blades will do increased damage if Death Knell is left in the ground for the duration.

Note (2): Aura will not hinder movement in or out of its area of effect.

Note (3): Wounds inflicted by the blades will afflict targets with Blood Corruption and Blood Volatility debuffs.

Good thing blade-deep in a Wild-Boss counts as ‘in the ground’.

As soon as the ability activated, a red column of light joined ceiling to floor, forty feet wide, and centered on the sword in the monster’s back. Within that crimson glow, small flickers – like the glint of sunlight off a fish just below the surface of the water – flitted back and forth. To Hiral’s high Atn, or maybe because it was his ability, he saw most of the blades bouncing harmlessly off the Rune-o’s thick plating.

Most.

Some of them found the split he’d forced open – big enough for him to literally reach into in places – to deliver their terrible payload.

Blood Corruption: Reduces resistance to blood-type damage and effects, and increase damage taken from blood-type damage and effects.

Note: Blood Corruption stacks with itself up to five times.

Blood Volatility: Pain and injuries mount as blood vessels explode.

Suffer damage every second blood is infected.

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Having learned from personal experience, the combination of the two debuffs hurt. A lot. Even with it only seeping through occasionally where a lucky blade found the seam in the armor, the Rune-o was in for a bad time.

And the Wild-Boss seemed to realize it as well, at first stopping like it was trying to figure out what was going on, then redoubling – no tripling – its efforts to toss Hiral off and stomp the party. After a few seconds to realize it couldn’t shake the pain on its back, it opted for a new target – Right and the other melee fighters. Runes of Rejection behind it launched it forward like an absolutely massive, loosed arrow, and the party barely managed to scatter in time to avoid.

“Drahn, to the ceiling with me,” Seena said, running on steps of pink butterflies to continue to pelt the monster from above. “Hiral, how much longer?”

“Almost there,” he replied, calling for his final, one-handed sword. The Flame-Bladed Rapier of Eldritch Horror slapped into his hand, and he cut the blade one, two, three, four times in quick succession against the hard plate. Though sharp, the rippled blade wasn’t nearly potent enough to pierce the armor on its own. Good thing that wasn’t what Hiral was aiming for. Instead, lines glowed where the blade had passed, tears in reality that bulged outward and finally split like infected wounds. A single tendril snaked its way out from each gateway, and the eye at the end opened.

Attack the monster beneath you, Hiral mentally commanded them, and beams of furious pink energy erupted from the eyes. Non-stop they strafed their blasts across the length of the Rune-o, and though they didn’t inflict much – if any – damage, it was another distraction.

With that done, Hiral next loosened his tethers of Attraction, and replaced them with Gravity. Now, with the Reinforced Runeoceros itself as his “down”, he darted past his line of weapons. Over the side of the flank – his world flip-flopping so he stood horizontally to the floor – he continued even beyond where Fate Spinnerlay buried.

He’d spread the crack plenty wide on the monster’s back, but only Seeyela would be able to reach it there. Luckly, his crescent of Separation had carved a long line all the way down the beast’s side, and the axe had spread it even more. Not quite enough. Yet.

Picking his spot, he activated Dark Edge of Insanity, and drove the blade in. Not quite as sharp as Death Knell, the weapon only plunged about halfway in, but that was probably for the best, and he took the hilt in both hands and yanked sideways. A crack echoed as fracture lines raced outward from the pivot point, criss-crossing each other as the armor’s integrity-breach cascaded.

Already, the damage he’d done was just about enough, but his high Atn pulled his attention to a triangle of cracks, and the torso-sized piece of plating between. If he could…

“Hiral, look out!” Seena shouted over the party chat, and he looked up from the Wild-Boss’s flank.

To find the wall right there!

The not-so-stupid monster had had enough of his antics, and was bodily slamming itself towards the wall. With the speed it was moving, it had to be employing Runes of Rejection, burning through its solar energy and spreading Drahn’s poison rapidly. Not that any of that would help prevent Hiral from getting squashed. Already, the stone was a bare, few feet from him, and all he could do was push energy into his Runes of Time Contraction and Dilation at the same time he hurled himself into a backflip. It wasn’t going to be enough though, he could already tell. He needed something else, and the Primal Chord gave him an idea.

A strange note called to his instincts, and he flashed solar energy into a rune he never would’ve considered using before – his Rune of Unsealing. Something around him seemed to come undone, and even though the whole world slowed, it wasn’t as much as it usually did when he activated his time runes. Instead, his body moved like greased lightning through the air – between seconds – and he was suddenly in the air hanging above the Wild-Boss. A notification alert flashed in his vision at the same time the Rune-o slammed into the wall hard enough to shatter stone and send massive cracks spreading all the way to the ceiling.

If he’d been caught in that, would even That All You Got? have saved him…?

As he watched the devastation below, his gravity took back hold, the Rune-o stagging away from where it had driven the two weapons on its side in even deeper. And, as the effect of the two time runes fully faded, he felt a strange build-up of energy in his hand.

Glancing at it, he had no idea what it was, but it radiated destructive potential. Like his Rune of Breaking, but more pure. Whatever it was, it already felt wildly unstable and demanding release. Conveniently, Hiral had something to test it on, and as his tethers of Gravitypulled him back to the Rune-o,he came down fist-first on the center of its spine.

Where none of his or Right’s blows had so much as made the Wild-Boss even flinch, this punch hit so hard it drove the monster to its knees. Fractures spider-webbed out from the point of impact as twin shockwaves – one from the punch, and one from the Rune-o hitting the ground – rushed outward in a pair of circles.

Hiral, unfortunately, didn’t come away unscathed either, his fingers, knuckles, hand, wrist, and forearm bones all shattering. The pain – and the surprise – were both sudden and furious, and he reflexively recoiled to grip his arm with his good hand. But, with the monster beneath him clearly stunned, it was his best chance to finish what he’d started.

Triggering the active portion of High-Speed Regeneration+, soothing warmth rushed into his arm. Torn muscle mended, while the bones themselves fused back together.

It only took a pair of seconds for the powerful healing technique to fix him up – though it greatly weakened the passive portion of the ability. Then again, as long as he didn’t take any more damage, he wouldn’t need it. A worry for later.

For now, Hiral called on his Sho-Val of the Valley, but split the weapon as soon as it arrived in his hand. A pair of deft twists removed the central piece from the two-bladed spear, leaving him instead with what almost looked like a pair of curved swords. With the foot-long hafts – and his skill – they could certainly be used like that, but he had a much more important use for them now.

Dashing back the way he’d come – to where he’d almost gotten flattened – he found his rapier buried well past the hilt, dark licks of energy from its ability still triggering deep inside the monster. The axe, as well, had been forced even deeper by the collision, and it’d spread the splits in the armor. Not quite broken, but in bad shape.

With the Rune-o starting to stir again as the rest of the party took advantage of the lull, Hiral found the triangle of fractures, and picked a corner. Then, with the weapons held as close together as possible, he drove them both into split. Unlike his other strike, he didn’t aim to go deep. No, he only stabbed the blades in a few inches, then with all his limited Str, he hauled the ends in opposite directions.

Thanks to all the stress that’d been placed on the armor, it didn’t take much for his impromptu spreader to tear the weakened triangle of plate right off. The torso-sized piece of armor clunked to the ground between the Rune-o and the wall, and that shock of pain was finally enough to fully rouse the Wild-Boss from its stupor.

More than that, it enraged the beast, something in its eyes flashing a deeper red even as its health fell to below fifty percent.

His work there done – and not wanting to be trapped between the wall and the monster again – Hiral cut his tether of Gravity and launched himself out of there on a burst of Rejection. Coat of Ur’Thul flapping as he blasted out, he flipped once in the air, then landed under the rest of the party. With the pink butterflies keeping them in the air to avoid the Rune-o’s shockwave attacks, he had to look up to see them.

“Ready,” he said, at the same moment the Wild-Boss squared itself to face the group. It was time to enter the final phase of the fight. “Eloquently Enraged+. Seeyela, there’s a crack on its back. That’s your target. Yan, you can probably hit it with Skyfall after she’d had her turn. Make it count. The goal isn’t to outright kill it, but to break as much armor off as possible.”

“Got it,” they both said.

“Seena, for you, there’s a huge chunk of missing armor on its right side. Get your most powerful drill in there, and see if you can’t break off some more. Drahn, your poison has done a great job of draining its health. Hit the weak points with anything you can. We’re going to try and burn down its health from here. No more slow and steady.”

“Understood,” the tracker said.

“Left. Right. You’re with me.”

“Always,” they both replied.

Without another word, Hiral activated Double Trouble+ and Eloquently Enraged+.