Wrath, page 48
The two parties charged each other, and Tira-3 pulled her attention back to Servok. The dragon was flying again, and had one of the Nych mages in his jaw. With a toss of his head, he swallowed the nych whole. While she was distracted by the group, two of the nych’s had fallen. Now the remaining two mages were on Amarga’s back, taking shelter near the boss’s spines. The Fiendish Carnotaurus had a vicious wound along its flank.
“I cannot!” Chot shouted, charging across the room ahead of a roaring spout of dragonflame. The instant it caught his tail, he hissed in pain, but broke through into the Archive. Books went flying as the Irritator skidded to a stop, over a ton of dinosaur slamming into the shelves. He switched to telepathy without hesitation.
“Gone? What do you mean-”
Pierre shook his head. “I have no idea. That’s...it’s impossible.”
“Well...if something happened, she should have rejoined you, so I suppose it should be possible-”
Pierre grimaced, but did as she’d said. It had to be enough for now.
Tira-3 pulled inward, shunting part of her personality into the empty part of the core that had held Tira-4. A sure sign that she hadn’t snapped back - that part of Tira’s core was empty.
Shockingly, the moment Tira-3 split herself, the new Tira emerged. For a moment, both of them shuddered at the conflict of having two identical instances of herself in the same space, then Tira-5’s personality pulled away to the group battling near the portal.
Just in time. The dragon dove towards the Carnotaurus, and only a quick Magma orb from Tira interrupted its flight before it could slash open the dinosaur. The Fiendish Carnotaurus released its curse beam directly into the dragon’s chest. The dragon roared and took back to the air, where the pteranodons waited. The curse was abating quickly, but still seemed to hurt the dragon.
Tira-3 could only hope the other Tiras were doing better than she was. But she’d seen something flash across her vision during the blinding pain. Mutation alerts - that was something for Tira-2 to use. But what about the other notification?
Mob Combination Complete.
Tira-3 remembered the irritators she’d sent away at the beginning of the fight, and why she’d chosen the fiendish carnotaurus room. Tira-3 whipped her attention to the Creature Laboratory, directly behind that room, and saw the new mob step forth, a thrill running through her. This? This was something she could use against the dragon.
Chapter 66
Tira-2 could feel an immense weight settling into the top of the dungeon. The ceiling held, but buckled a bit under the weight. Whatever was pushing down was almost too much for even mana-reinforced dungeon structures. If she hadn’t gotten the reinforced feature when she levelled...Tira-2 made a mental note that those upgrades were more important than she had thought.
Zeke looked around. “It’s coming,” he growled.
For any other mob, that constriction would have been a lethal attack. But this was Thago. The boss flexed its back spines like it had against Moa, and the two shoulder blades dug into the Archevore’s skin. The hypermagic drake screamed, a sound somewhere between a damned wail and a roar, but pulled away from Thago and lashed out towards the nearest Microraptor, catching the small dinosaur in its mandibles.
“Go!” Zeke shouted at the group.
Glek had been knocked from Thago’s back in the attack. Tira had nearly missed it. The imp darted across the room and leapt onto Fosor’s back. “They have this!”
Fosor stared at the hypermagic drake for a moment. The microraptor was crushed between the mandibles, and the drake threw its head back, swallowing the bite-sized morsel whole. “I really don’t think they do.”
Glek growled. “Look, buddy, dinosaurs are going to fight one thing, humans are going to fight another. Your choice. The other group or that?”
Fosor swallowed and nodded. “Let’s go,” he said to the group.
Sara cast a quick look over her shoulder at Zeke. “Good luck.”
Zeke responded by lowering his head and shrieking at Archevore. He charged, his claws spread wide, and the rest of the raptors joined him.
The group vanished into the tunnel as the raptors leapt at their prey. One of them landed on the drake’s back, sinking in its talons while flapping its arms for stability. Archevore twisted in a single fluid motion, rolling along the ground to shake the raptor loose. Instead, it crushed the raptor under its weight. Zeke leapt in to land on the drake’s belly, a quick spray of sparks striking the creature in the eyes. The drake screeched in pain and lashed out with its oddly deformed talons, but Zeke was already leaping away. The next raptor darted in, sinking its teeth into the drake’s arm, and Archevore thrashed to try and throw the drake loose.
All four arcos and both brachyceratops charged in unison, their feet thudding against the floor. The attacks came from all directions, acro skulls slamming into the side of the drake and making it twist to face the new target, only to have another slam into its back as it lashed for the first. The brachyceratops took longer to reach their max speed, but their horns sunk into Archevore’s flanks from both directions.
Moving again with impossible speed - far faster than it had against the raptors, which made Tira-2 suspect this creature was burning mana or stamina to accelerate like this - Archevore wrapped tail wrapped around one brachyceratops while it sunk its talons into the other. The two dinosaurs let out bellows of pain. The one attacked by the front end had it worse - the drake was able to clamp its mandibles down on the creature’s back, sinking into its spine. Archevore started to thrash, tearing chunks free from the bracheceratop’s back.
Thago moved, slamming his feet into the ground. A line of spikes erupted from the impact. Wrapped around both of the brachyceratops, Archevore couldn’t detangle in time to evade. The spines sliced into his hide, drawing a furious hiss from the monstrous drake, but it didn’t release its prey. It seemed more annoyed than injured. Archevore thrashed one more time, killing the brachyceratops in its jaw, then a flick of its tail threw the other one across the boss room. If the impact with the wall didn’t kill it, the fall to the floor finished the job.
The two dactyls and one remaining microraptor dove for Archevore’s eyes. The drake opened its mandible and let loose a beam of light, sweeping it across the fliers. Only one of the dactyls survived, barely pulling in its wings in time to descend on the drake. It managed to impale one of the three eyes on the right side.
Archevore slapped at its face, like a human swatting a fly, and the dactyl was gone.
Already Tira-2 was down one raptor, two brachyceratops and all four of the fliers. A flick of Archevore’s tail reduced the number of raptors by one. The drake lunged forward, mandibles flashing, and caught an arco by the throat. Archevore reared up and tossed the arco into the air, catching it in its mouth on the descent.
That was when Tira-2 noticed the scutos. They had been there the entire time, lashing the drake with their tails to no visible effect. It didn’t even bother to fight them, although one of them had - at some point - been crushed under Archevore’s bulk.
Of the remaining mobs on her first floor, only the raptors, Zeke, and Thago could do anything to the Archevore. Tira absorbed the remaining scutos to refund some mana - at some point one of the other Tira’s had cast a spell. Probably drain life, based on the amount of mana reduction. The arcos were at least serving to keep the drake distracted. It lunged forward, catching a charging arco on the skull and lifting it up into the air.
Then the Falxraptor moved in.
Tira-2 had nearly forgotten her first mutant, but the Falxraptor latched onto Archevore with all four of its sickle claws, digging in tightly. Archevore hissed in pain and went to slam the Falxraptor into the ground, but a row of spikes from Thago made sure that wasn’t much of an option. Zeke, seeing how effective his packmate was, switched to Falxraptor form and lunged in, grabbing onto the drake with sickle claws. He activated the power of his magma heart, and all of his claws flared to brilliant white.
The drake began to thrash in earnest. The sheer force of his motion sent both the Falxraptor and Zeke flying. Zeke switched to microraptor form, flaring his wings to prevent an impact with the wall, but the drake struck the Falxraptor like a serpent, catching it mid-flight between those powerful mandibles. The Falxraptor struck for the drake’s eyes, and managed to put out another before it was crushed.
But the Falxraptor served as a reminder. Tira-2 had gotten notifications. Several mutations, spurred by the explosion of mana earlier. She flicked a quick Heal on Zeke.
Four mutants awaited her. She’d had a Pachy, an Allosaurus, a Carnotaurus, and an Iguanodon in here. Now she had mutants of all three.
The Pachy had grown an armored back, somewhere between the scutos and ankylosaurus in terms of strength, and his domed skull had risen out into a single thick point like a rhino’s horn. Tira quickly dubbed that a Hornhead. The Carnotaurus had undergone a more extreme mutation, its legs shrinking to the size of its arms, and it had gained a more serpentine form. The opposite of what she’d hoped for, but perfect for this fight. Serpentaurus. The Iguanodon’s mutation was bizarre. It had spines along its back now - not like Thago or Amarga, but thick and dense spines more like a porcupine. That got dubbed a Quillodon.
The Allosaurus must have been the result of that last error message, the most corrupted one. It had the overall build it had before, but with a single eye in the center of its head and two additional ones on each side. It had grown a second pair of foreclaws. When it opened its mouth, Tira could see rows of teeth lining the top of its jaw. Most dramatically, however, were the pair of immensely long tentacles that sprouted from its back. Each ended in a bulbous protrusion that was ringed in claws, a boneless approximation of a hand. Cirrasaurus, then. Tentacled lizard.
Tira-2 threw open the door of the Arena to send all four charging into the fray.
In the brief time she’d been assessing the new combatants, Archevore had finished off the remaining arcos and reduced the raptors to only one aside from Zeke. Thago had a deep burn on his flank from the drake’s breath weapon, but was still up and functional. If Tira-2 had thought of the mutants any later, it would have been too late.
The Quillodon was the quickest, charging in and rolling into a ball just as Archevore went for another bite on Thago. The drake’s mandibles were long enough to scratch the dinosaur mutant through the spines, but not without it taking a couple quills to the face. The Archevore reared back from the unexpected injury and began to thrum with power, readying a breath weapon.
The Cirrasaurus’s tentacles wrapped around its neck, pulling the drake’s head back before it could fire. The breath weapon tore into the ceiling above the boss room instead of shredding the quillodon. The quillodon reacted quickly, unfurling and giving the drake two spike-thumbs straight into its abdomen.
The drake reached up to grab the Cirrasaurus’s tentacles with its talons, which gave an opening for the serpentaurus. Flailing its tiny limbs like they were helping - even though none of them even touched the ground - the bull-horned snake dinosaur could still move with surprising speed, bringing its jaws down on one of Archevore’s arms. For a moment, Tira swore she saw a flash of fear on the drake’s face. Hornhead was the slowest of the lot, but it had immense mass. When it slammed into Archevore’s side, the horn sunk deep into the Archevore’s side.
The sudden reinforcements gave Thago, Zeke, and the remaining raptor the opening they needed. The raptor and Zeke leapt onto the hypermagic drake, claws flashing and digging into dragonscale. Thago stomped rapidly, sending wave upon wave of spines at the Archevore.
Tira-2 felt a surge of elation. This was it. She even added a magma orb of her own to the bevy of attacks, striking Archevore on the side of the face. They had it on the ropes.
Then she noticed the light in the Archevore’s eye, and realized she’d mistaken the hisses. They weren’t pain.
It was laughing.
Archevore brought its free talon down on the serpentaurus’s hide, digging deep into the dinosaur serpent’s side. The talon emerged red, with the serpentaurus’s mob heart speared on the tip. Archevore swallowed it in a single bite, and its body began to thrum with power. The dinosaur’s attack became increasingly frantic, but Archevore moved with preternatural speed, sliding under the quillodon before it could see the threat. The cirrasaurus’s neck tentacles tore into the Archevore’s scales, but it was healing at incredible speeds. The mandibles sliced through quillodon scales like they weren’t even present, and the drake emerged with a second heart that it immediately swallowed.
Zeke and the last remaining raptor leapt away. Archevore caught the raptor in its talons, although Zeke was able to evade with another quick shapeshift to throw off the drake’s aim. The raptor it had caught went into that all-consuming maw.
Archevore slipped under another attempted charge by the hornhead and the tentacles of the cirrasaurus, then wove between a line of Thago’s spikes. It fell back to the second room and then whirled to face the doorway, sending a new beam of mana directly for Thago. The beam caught the boss unaware and did what the earlier attacks couldn’t, finally penetrating his resistance and fracturing his skull. Thago collapsed in a heap.
There was a momentary lull, but Tira-2 had just lost her boss mob. Now, what Tira-2 had thought would be a certain victory had turned against her in an instant.
She could only hope the other instances of herself were faring better in their fight.
Chapter 67
Chaos was the only force in control of the battlefield on the surface. After Regnovore’s breath weapon annihilated anyone below Bronze tier, the Copper, Tin, and many of the Bronze adventurers had turned and run. Tira-1 couldn’t blame them. If she’d had the option of moving to fight the hypermagic hydra at a later date, she would have been sorely tempted.
But to be a dungeon was to be a sort of spirit of a place, a genus loci. Which meant that instead of running, she had no choice but to stand her ground, since the ground was - quite literally - her.
At least they’d gotten Prince Herkane out of immediate danger. Regnovore’s charge had been interrupted, the Carnotaurus slamming into its side and grabbing onto its leg, tearing with its jaws. It had given the Gold-Tier noble a chance to get some distance as Regnovore turned to tear into Tira’s dinosaurs, devouring their mob hearts as it worked. With each heart it consumed, the few wounds they'd managed to inflict had healed, and the hydra grew more powerful.
There was a reason Tira-1 was waiting to send the other dinosaurs in.
The remaining adventurers used the time Tira-1 gave them to set up a defense. Tanking classes were on the front line, interlocking their defensive spells to protect against the next attack from the monstrosity. To her surprise, the Prince was there amidst the defensive wall, his shield held high, shouting encouragement to the other tanks. Not just encouragement - he had some kind of aura that was stretching out throughout the tank link, bolstering their resistances. Two other paladins had activated auras of their own, one providing constant low-grade healing, the other granting protection against being knocked back.
Behind them, the ranged classes were setting up under Caer’s watchful eye. Tira-1 could get a sense of why the Silver ranked archmage had been chosen to lead the adventurers. He had a knack for command, although he lacked Prince Herkane’s friendly demeanor. Herkane’s speeches went along the lines of “We’ve got this, lads!” and “Stand your ground, men!”
Caer was much more in the vein of “Listen up, that thing is going to kill every one of us if you don’t get your heads together.” Nowhere near as gentle, but effective in its own right.
