Forge of Eternity: Alpha Testing, page 22
Hostile terrain strikes you for 25 physical damage.
Didn’t think that through too well, but a little pain to save some time and move the fight was a fair trade. I pulled myself up on a fallen tree trunk and caught sight of the locust knight righting itself, beginning to turn in my direction. Good, the rest of the party can handle the drones and wade their way to the end of the path, but only so long as the big one stayed focused on me. Getting to less difficult terrain was vital to killing this thing. Fighting one in the tunnel made it pretty clear that maneuverability and proper use of terrain were the preferred way to handle them. I was not interested in repeating my last fight where I got trampled constantly.
We were still close enough that I was pretty sure the creature wouldn’t start spitting fire at me from range. Just as I’d hoped, the beast jumped toward me with explosive speed. I jumped as well, throwing myself over the fallen marble tree trunk. The impact of the knight slid the huge stone slab much further than I’d expected, pinning me against a dense grouping of bushes. None of the branches of the bush did any damage, but I felt thick stone digging into my chest and one leg. It took me a few seconds to free my arm and begin bashing at the larger branches with the pommel of my sword. I got my chest free just in time for the locust knight to pounce on top of me, the hit sending a wave of pain across my shoulders as I was pinned again.
Mountain Locust Knight attacks you with Crushing Jump for 71 points of damage.
While the pain was far from pleasant, I was happy to see that I didn’t get the dazed debuff this time. A small victory, considering I was going to be crushed or burned to death in short order. I could feel the heat from the creature’s maw on my face like I was standing too close to a campfire. A glance over at my health bar showed I was sitting at 144 out of 240, which was way lower than I’d like this early in the fight. There was a faint whistling noise and the intensity of the heat on my face increased rapidly. I activated Kinetic Capacitor, cursing under my breath at how quickly I was using up my emergency abilities.
The pressure on my chest disappeared in a flash of heat, accompanied by the sound of shattering stone. The knight was no longer pressing me into the ground and the bush holding me in place had been broken from whatever just happened. Standing, or at least getting my feet under me, was the first order of business. Figuring out exactly what happened can wait. The locust knight hadn’t gone far, its forelimbs slashing at me as soon as I stood. I jumped backward to avoid the strike on reflex, cursing myself as I tripped over the remains of a petrified tree trunk. Would have been smarter to take the hit, since I only had seven seconds of Kinetic Capacitor left. A bright line of fire flashed above me, striking the creature on the armored foreleg.
At least somebody was dealing damage to the beast. Phelyya grabbed me by the arm and tried to pull me to my feet. The yank had more force behind it than the slight elven frame should have been able to produce. I was up in an instant, taking stock of the field. Uri was still back where we started, standing in a small patch of cleared terrain. Gavin tapped me on the shoulder with his staff as he ran by.
Gavin Outbuffs heals you for 47 damage.
“Ignore Uri, he’s fine, follow me,” Phelyya said, putting my arm around her shoulder and half-dragging me back to the battle.
Amalie and Gavin were taunting the heavily armored locust knight from a medium distance, each circling the beast in opposite directions. It hadn’t decided which one to follow, and the circle-strafing proved to be an effective strategy against the cumbersome bear-sized creature. The nimble elf and halfling moved just fast enough to prevent it from lining up its crushing jump. Gavin veered in close, slamming his staff into a leg in a running strike.
The creature reacted with a molten projectile of metal slag and fiery bug spit. He stepped right through it, catching one boot on fire but he didn’t slow down. Goodwin stepped out of the stone trees in front of the locust knight, his slow, direct pace instantly hooking the creature’s attention. Phelyya led us past the fight, behind the enemy as it focused on the monk.
Deacon: Where are we going?
Phelyya: To the end of the path where you are less useless.
I bristled at that before realizing it was an accurate, if insulting, assessment of my performance in the fight so far. The debris cleared up only a couple yards ahead, the terrain feeling less disrupted to my senses even if I could barely see it in the dim light. There was a loud crash behind me and I felt the huge bug impact the ground near the side of the rubble path. While the fallen trees and stone were visible to my tremorsense, the standing ones weren’t for some reason. When a new stone tree trunk appeared near the bug I pieced together what they’d managed to do. I let out a small chuckle at the mental image of the locust hitting a tree-shaped slab of rock with enough force to dislodge it from the ground.
As soon as I stepped foot on the smooth stone floor at the end of the path I felt in control again. Without the terrain handicap, I was confident I could keep the locust knight’s attention in a valuable way, instead of just falling on my ass and getting crushed.
“Hey asshole, over here!” I yelled, seeing the bug searching for an opponent to target. It turned my way and I suddenly had the impression there was a spotlight on me.
“Oh shit! Move!” Phelyya pushed me to the side as she ran back into the destroyed section of the stone forest. Unwilling to follow Phelyya into the path of guaranteed broken ankles, I ran to the side and poured stamina into a sprint. A miniature sun descended on my previous location.
The orb of flaming liquid splashed outward when it landed, flaring up and leaving a small pond of fire burning steadily at the mouth of the path. I felt flames creeping up the back of one pant leg and swatted it out once I was clear of the splash zone. The party was making their way toward me and I didn’t feel the locus knight anywhere nearby.
Keeping my awareness focused on tremorsense, I turned toward the source of the most recent attempt to light me on fire. The glow dust on my gear was holding up admirably, but it was designed to light up mining tunnels, supplementing larger work lights. The far edge of my tremorsense picked up motion off to the left in front of me. An orange glow flickered to life from the darkness as I watched, casting long shadows across a hulking insectoid form.
It was hard to gauge size or get a clear image of the creature with the dim light, especially with some squarish obstacle blocking the bottom half of its body. Based purely on the size of that one attack, I knew this had to be the queen. Another white-hot globe of liquid fired from the beast, illuminating it briefly. While the overall shape could have been described as locust-like, many of the features felt distinctly different. The head and mandibles were oversized, even when compared to the scale of the creature itself. The chitin plates were similar to the knight, presenting a frightening visage to anyone in a head-on confrontation.
The queen’s fireball wasn’t coming my way, a simultaneously pleasant and inconvenient change of pace. I followed its path, confirming it was headed directly for the party. Amalie countered with a smaller ball of fire, striking the incoming projectile on the side. A feeble gesture, in my opinion, as the impact would only break it apart and turn it into a burning rain. The collision proved me wrong as a flash of blue flame occurred at the impact point, producing a visible shockwave and sending the projectile harmlessly into the forest. Interesting reaction, both attacks were thrown off course by an equal degree, despite the visible size difference in the attacks.
The party reached the mouth of the path and ground to a halt at the edge of the flames. Except for Phelyya, she just pulled away from supporting Uri and kept running.
“What the hell are you waiting for?” she asked, looking back at the group as she ran. “It’s just fire, don’t stand in it for too long and you’ll be fine.”
That sounded like bad advice, but there weren’t many better options. The rest of the party followed the demontouched elf’s example, sprinting through the shallow pool of magical fire. I watched the party icons and saw a small dip in everyone’s health as they made their way through the flames. Overall, we were in pretty good shape. I had the largest section of missing health. Kinetic Capacitor had long since expired, along with its buff. I cursed myself silently for failing to save it, hoping that I either wouldn’t need it or would be able to survive long enough to use it again.
“Now that the gang’s all here, and mostly in one piece, we all ready to go kill this boss?” I asked, trying to amp everyone up. I received a bit of skeptical enthusiasm, shrugs, and blank stares, from most of the party. Gavin issued a heartfelt “Huzzah!” and Amalie stifled a laugh. Lackluster battle cry aside, everyone got into position.
Our enemy was just under a hundred feet away, with partial cover, and only visible from this distance when casting. I made it a point to charge at a sustainable pace to reserve my stamina as much as possible. Being able to fight when we got to the boss was more important than closing the distance quickly. Our group’s collective glow showed a handful of eggs deposited on a raised dais with a rectangular stone back to it. As we began to pass it, I turned to get a quick look. The table was absolutely covered in twitching eggs, but the stone slab caught my attention. It had an elaborate carving on it and I made a mental note to circle back after the battle. In the brief couple seconds I was looking, a small globe of fire flew from our group and detonated in the center of the dais, ruining the eggs and violently painting their contents into the stone slab.
That was apparently a mistake. Immediately after the blast, the queen produced a rumbling chirping noise akin to a large motorcycle, then disappeared from my tremorsense. I looked up and caught the shadowy outline of it hurtling toward the party through the air.
“Scatter!” I shouted, veering off to the right in the direction of the dais. The party followed suit, with Amalie and Goodwin following me and the rest of the party bolting off to the left. The force of the queen’s landing was followed by a rippling wave through the floor, the hard, smooth stone deforming and rushing upward under us. I managed to anchor myself with Weight of the Mountain, and the others on my side used the momentum to hop onto the stone table, sliding a bit in the slime. I felt at least one member of the party on the far side of the queen hit the ground, probably Uri, and we all marveled at the sight of the beast
I had assumed it would be a little larger than the locust knight we had just killed, like maybe the size of a grizzly instead of a brown bear. No animal comparison was fair to describe the boss monster. It was roughly the size of a small bus, both in length and width, the top of the thorax sitting about six foot high in its current position. The forewings were slabs of thick, dull metal shielding the length of the queen’s massive form. The plates protecting the legs were similarly impressive, slightly thinner but spiked along the back. It turned my direction with more agility than the knight displayed, lining its head up with me, vicious barbed palps clacking around a cavernous maw. Focusing on the creature brought its information into view on my HUD.
Identified: Mountain Locust Queen, Quest Boss, Level 7.
Oh, that is completely unfair. I got this quest at level two, why is the boss at the end level seven? The boss’ icon in my vision showed 750 out of 750 health. My contributions to this fight were going to be entirely based around keeping its attention because with my starting weapon and character build I would be lucky to do 20 damage on a critical hit. I knew Amalie and Phelyya could put out some good numbers, but I honestly hadn’t been keeping track of the specifics. This was not the time to unfilter my combat logs and review their past performance, I just had to hope they could handle it.
The queen rushed me, barreling toward me with impressive speed for the size of the creature. That qualification was important since it wasn’t too fast for me to spend a couple of seconds planning. Not having a shield was going to be an issue in this fight since I’d been relying on it pretty heavily for protection and to create openings. The defense skill didn’t specify I needed a shield so, hopefully, I would still be effective at mitigating incoming attacks with just my longsword. I stood my ground as the creature closed in, refusing to respond too soon and leave myself open. When the beast was just outside of my own striking distance, I dodged to the side and attempted to strike at a joint as I passed. Instead, I received a slash across my shoulder blade from a jagged forelimb.
Mountain Locust Queen’s charge hits you for 35 damage.
Pain blossomed across my back and I cursed under my breath, rolling with the momentum to catch my footing and face the monster head-on. Another strike came my direction from the creature and I deflected it sloppily, barely getting my weapon up in time to knock the raking limb aside. Sloppy or not, it was still a block. A flash of orange light against the side of the creature’s head left afterimages in my vision and the boss monster turned its gaze toward Amalie. An orange light began emanating from its maw and it shifted position to take aim. I took the opportunity to step in and stab at its neck, connecting with strong armor that left my hand ringing from the impact.
You strike Mountain Locust Queen in a vulnerable location for 8 (12-4) points of damage.
Better than nothing, I guess, but I did not like seeing my already limited damage contributions reduced further by resistances. The creature pulled back a couple of feet to disengage and turned to face me directly. I had its attention again. Mission accomplished. Now, what do I do about the fireball it’s about to absolutely incinerate me with? Kinetic Capacitor still had about 45 seconds on cooldown, and the Instant Earthworks weren’t going to be ready for almost three more minutes.
Phelyya’s slight frame sprinted in from the side, stopping directly in front of the creature as its attack exploded outward. She held her hands out in front, daggers sheathed, and the queen’s fireball faltered as it came in contact with her. The flames flickered out where they touched the elf, deflecting off to the sides and sputtering out much quicker than what we’d seen from previous attacks. The emerald accents in her hair blazed with light. Not all of the fire was nullified, but the majority of it dissipated and the queen seemed particularly unhappy to see that we were still standing. She charged forward to ram us instead, Phelyya drew a blade and slashed at the creature’s side as she jumped aside.
Mountain Locust Queen strikes you with charge for 43 points of damage.
I jumped and grabbed onto an antenna with my free hand. This kept me from being completely trampled, at the small cost of taking an impact from the creature’s frontal armor. My legs were also in reach of the questing barbed palps around the maw. The antenna was hot to the touch and I released it, kicking an eye with both legs and propelling myself backward before any of the questing appendages could get purchase. I managed to roll backward and make it to my feet, skidding back a bit from the attack’s residual motion. A foreleg took a slice at me before I’d fully recovered, but the boss’s attention was abruptly redirected and the swing went wide.
One of Amalie’s large explosions detonated somewhere behind the creature and it spasmed in pain. The boss monster turned and unfurled its wings, the huge metallic sheets whirring with a noise like an industrial saw as it buffeted us with a surprisingly intense blast of wind. I could have stood my ground with some effort and my racial ability, but I let the draft slide me back a few more feet before locking into place. Being close with those metallic wings moving that quickly seemed like a bad idea. I took a moment to check the creature’s health, hoping that maybe we’d injured it and this was some second phase to the fight where it would take to the air or something. Much to my disappointment, its health showed 694 out of 750. I felt like our party should have managed more damage with the few hits we’d delivered, so I had to assume the damage reduction I’d experienced applied to all attacks.
Well, that just means we need to hit it more. Looking around, visually and using tremorsense, I found that most of the party had been sent back considerably further than I had. Amalie was pressed against the stone slab covered in egg slime and Goodwin was crouching with his back against the dais. Phelyya was off to my right, leaning forward against the wind about 30 feet away with visible effort. I could see Uri holding Gavin’s staff, the halfling completely horizontal and struggling to keep his grip. Sections of Gavin’s robes were inflating like a sail as he held onto his staff with both hands. The boss didn’t take off into the air like I’d expected, which was convenient since most of us were melee fighters. It did, however, begin to glow again.
The orange flames started under its head, then seemed to sprout from various spots along the insect’s body. After a couple of seconds, I saw what was happening, and released the ability keeping me affixed to the ground. The fire spread out in a wave from the creature, rushing out at hurricane speed and glowing brightly as whatever medium was fueling the effect mixed with more oxygen. I saw Gavin let go of his staff and Uri tumbled after, thrown off balance by the sudden lack of resistance and losing his footing. Goodwin pushed up above the dais and let the wind carry him back, but he only made it as far as the slab Amalie was pressed against before the flames were upon them. With the distance I’d managed, the heat was uncomfortable but not damaging. It felt like I was standing too close to an open oven, but there were no damage notifications or debuffs active on me at the moment.
The party icons were painful to look at. Amalie and Goodwin were barely alive, unable to move away from the epicenter of the attack. Uri must have struck something hard or also been unable to escape the blast radius, sitting at just under half health. Phelyya, Gavin, and I had fared the best, but none of us were above the three-quarters mark. The locust stopped beating its wings and turned toward Amalie and Goodwin. I started sprinting toward the creature, then found myself unintentionally slowing. My stamina dipped to 17 out of 180 and I felt everything in my body begin to ache. I stopped trying to run and stood there, panting uselessly as I waited for the gauge to fill back up. My stamina regen was high enough that I normally didn’t need to worry, but straining against the knockback had apparently not been an effortless task.
