Eric caught up to his allies who were at the edge of the barrier that shimmered an iridescent purple. “Peter, what’s your Sigil count looking like?”
The man glanced down at his left hand. “Not great. If we can, I’d rather not use my bubble barrier, and just redirect harm.” He looked back at Eric. “You can basically infinitely heal, since you can suck up mana now, and have a healing Rote, right?”
“Yeah, but we should still all sprint together and try to clear the path as quickly as we can.” Eric stood at the edge of the barrier. “Everyone ready?”
Shannon let out a little laugh and took up a pose as if she was at the starting blocks of an official athletic event. “Just try to keep up.”
Eric couldn’t help but crack a smile at that. “Oh? You think you can beat me there?”
“A little friendly competition to reduce damage taken?” Naomi offered up as she joined the two. “I’m game.”
Peter took up a spot next to the other three. “Try to dodge incoming ice, if you would. I don’t like the idea of being hit by giant spears—or getting the damage transfer.”
Naomi shouted, “Go!”
The sprint from the safety bubble wasn’t just a little competitive race for any sense of fun or excitement, it was purposeful. The Summoned were trying to take as little damage as possible for Peter’s sake.
The moment Eric cleared the barrier, he started to take the lead. Given his enormous mana reservoir, which naturally grew far faster than everyone else thanks to the sub-classification of Mage for his starting Class, and how Mana Muscles directly benefited from that in regard to physical strength, he outstripped them in speed. Perhaps if Peter wasn’t heavily armored and encumbered, he could keep up. But Eric was in lighter gear, comparatively. Not to mention the Tarrasque Nervous System, which let him take off the split-second Naomi had signaled the start.
Lances of ice and shards came sailing down from mist-covered skies above, and Eric sensed them coming thanks to the new Body Enhancement. He was able to dodge them as they got close, and the enormous spears shattered on the ground around him, forcing him to move aside.
Shannon blitzed past him. She was like a living shadow of black and purple darkness, a manifestation of stealth that bent and wove around every incoming projectile with a preternatural awareness that made Eric realize just how incredible the pinnacle of the Scout-type of Combat Class truly was. She cleared the distance to the next chamber before he had reached the three-quarter-of-the-way-there point.
Risking a quick glance back, Eric saw that Naomi was having a bit rougher go of things. Ice shards were plunging down at her, seemingly targeting the slower and easier to hit, less evasive target. Her MAB was shooting a few down as if under the control of an autonomous targeting system, yet some of the spears hit her and then bounced off of her armor.
Behind her, Peter stumbled, got up, kept running, and then would receive another impact. Silver, crimson, and shimmering bronze sparks flared from him as he kept moving, and blood trailed his steps. The man was doggedly moving forward, a juggernaut in every sense of the word, as he inexorably moved toward the safety of the next chamber’s entrance.
Eric threw out a mana-intensive Blacksteel Mending Rote, expending half of his current reservoir, and then turned back to the front, dodged another icicle-spear, and made it into the safety bubble of the next chamber. The moment he passed the threshold, the acrid scent of something caustic seared his nostrils, and he reflexively sneezed.
“Bless you,” Shannon said in between puffs of breath.
Eric nodded to her then activated Mana Channel, sucking in ambient mana to refill to full while their two remaining allies closed the distance and reached the safety of the barrier.
Naomi cleared it first, and she put hands on knees and began panting, which made a hollow noise thanks to her armor. “Jeesh,” she said. “We need . . . to practice . . . windsprints.”
Peter came through a few moments later, and some blood was running down his body from gaps in his armor. He was sucking in air as well, but sounded more collected. “I’m good, thanks for asking.”
Eric used another Blacksteel Mending, ensuring Peter was fully healed, and then looked at their next challenge. Waterfalls consisting of bright hues of acid churned from hidden alcoves far up a rock wall, cascading down rivulets and channels as the streams exploded onto rocks and sent sprays up. There were some safe areas to stand between the torrents, and Eric could make out a path that seemed like an intended route up the cliffs. But, from where they were standing, there was no way to the wall itself. They would have to cross a river, then head to the falls.
“What are we thinking?” Shannon asked. “Climb up?”
Eric nodded. “Seems like the right way to go about it.”
There was a huge pool of liquid where the trail ended before them, where all of the colors intermingled and churned together, becoming a brown slurry that then flowed to the left and went down another cascade into some unknown place. “Looks like we have to cross this first,” Naomi observed. “Then we can use the paths going up.”
“Or,” Eric said as he used all of his reservoir’s mana and activated Mana Conversion, restoring a Sigil—as he had just upgraded the Skill and unlocked another use of it for the current six-hour period—putting him at ten total. “I could use a Flashstep, we can skip this first pool, and go right up to one of the mid-points on the wall. I can throw down a rope, and we can each come up that way. That’ll put me at nine Sigils.”
“We don’t know how many chambers are beyond this one,” Peter said. “But, I don’t see any way across this part. There’s no rocks or anything to jump off of. Just brown acid runoff. Is it meant to be an endurance test?” He clicked his tongue. “I don’t know anyone who can jump fifty-feet.”
Naomi moved forward, touched something on her bracer, and came up with an Uncommon Component. Her hands sparked light-blue, and a moment later she held a glass test tube attached to a longer glass rod. She dipped it into the acid and pulled up a sample. “Hmm . . . it’s like the Piranha Solution, which is a nasty compound.” She dumped the vial and then turned back to the group. “It’ll eat your flesh. If that’s what all of these different compounds combined turns into, then I bet each different compound on its own does something equally nasty. Going through this is a bad idea.”
Eric looked to the cascading waterfalls on his right, then at the acid pool in front of them. “Well . . . a barrier will hold it back.” He looked at Peter. “I know you don’t want to burn resources, but I don’t see any other way.”
Shannon moved to the edge next to Naomi, then stood up, grabbed her crossbow, cycled to the mana-bolt chamber, and fired off the spectral rounds. They impacted something a fraction of an inch under the running, brown caustic flow. “There is a platform of some type, but we’ll burn our feet.”
“Unless we build up a base to negate it,” Naomi replied. “I can burn some Components and make a solution that could cake on top of the stones. Shannon, can you figure out where they are exactly?” She then looked back at Eric and Peter. “You boys just need to sit back and let the ladies work.”
Eric crossed his arms and kept his mouth shut. Burning through Components wasn’t ideal, but he couldn’t fault the logic of keeping Sigils in reserve. They didn’t know how many chambers were left once they got atop the acidic falls, as from their starting point back before the glass-grass fields, they could only see the far-off pedestal with the Dungeon Core. For all he knew, there were more challenges that awaited them.
And, he added mentally as the two ladies worked, there could be some primal force resource challenges that stretch our Sigils even more. Not to mention, having a few on hand when we exit the Twilight Depths would be handy. We don’t have as hefty of a guard presence, and while the former Steward has been stopped, he might still have a few underlings trying to enact his will that could try and attack us.
That sent his heart racing for a few moments. The thought that his new wife, Misty, could be threatened by hostels, caused a flicker of panic. But, he knew she was protected by a queen’s guard—Heavy Knight Rickard—and the man was a Vanguard, who Eric had already spoken to in regard to his duties.
Eric watched as Shannon shot several mana-formed bolts to discern the shape of the rocks hidden closest to the shoreline, and then Naomi’s left-shoulder-mounted, odd cannon-shaped device shot out some goop that covered the rock, rose up, firmed, and then stood up to the acid flow.
“Got it,” Naomi said. “The base is strong enough to counteract the acid, and it stiffens up. It’ll take me a total of . . . probably twenty of the Rare Components.”
Eric winced. That was crafting supplies for Tier three Gear she was going to be burning through.
Peter said, “Alright, I think that’s fine.”
Eric chose to keep his mouth shut. He was on good terms with his allies despite the short duration of their stay in Elyndor thus far, and the deeds he had committed which could have sunk his relationship with them. Any extra risk that he could avoid to ensure he didn’t sour tensions, he would have to make sure he steered clear of.
Naomi and Shannon kept moving, and once they were a few rocks deep into the acid river, Peter followed. Eric stayed on the shoreline, and scanned the waterfalls. He was looking for any sign of activity aside from the falling liquid. Based upon the prior chamber, where they were attacked by those boring worms on a seemingly-simple glacier climb, he expected more fighting. Nothing stood out, though.
“Hey!” Shannon shouted, drawing his attention. She was across. “You coming?”
Eric hopped from concrete-grey stone to stone and cleared the acid river, then followed the group up a trail and to the falls proper. A series of stones jutted out between the falls, and angled upward, creating a hazardous advance that would take them to the top eventually. “Wait a second,” Eric muttered. “Don’t we have a grappling hook?” He looked at Naomi. “In one of the diving kits from way back when we first started the Twilight Depths. They were on your carryall.”
Naomi looked at her bracer, tapped a few buttons, and then reached her hand out to her left. It vanished, and then reappeared, and she was holding a long, coiled, thin rope with a grappling hook on one end. “Yeah, I have your and my kit in my Storage Dimension.”
Eric looked at Shannon. “You could probably fire one up there,” he said, pointing up and at an acute angle, at one of the platforms jutting out above them. “Then we don’t have to cross. We can just go up.”
Peter looked up, then back at Eric. “Are you sure trying to outsmart a chamber like that will work?”
“It did when you pushed through the rat-pit on the first floor of the Twilight Depths,” Eric replied. “You straight up bypassed the main mechanics of the trap room by tanking the devouring swarm.”
Shannon moved over to Naomi, grabbed the grappling hook, handed the woman a bolt, and after a sparking jolt of light-blue electricity, Shannon had a grapple-bolt. She loaded it onto her crossbow, took aim, and fired. The round shot skyward, slammed into the rock face, and then something extended with a snickt noise. “Alright, should I climb up first?”
Eric shook his head. “Let me. I have Flashstep in case it loses its grip, or something, and I fall.” He moved over, grabbed the rope, wound his foot through the length, and began climbing. Once he put some weight onto it, he swung toward the acid falls, and he could smell the blistering, acrid smell assault his nostrils once more. Wrinkling his nose as best he could and breathing through his mouth, he scrunched his body and moved up, until he had ascended and got to the rock.
Climbing on top of it, he grabbed the rope, unhooked the grapple—which retracted into the head of the projectile—and planted it into a more secure position atop the rock platform, where it protracted and held firm. “Okay! Next person!”
He looked over and watched as Shannon climbed up. She quickly got to the platform, and then Naomi came up, with Peter coming last.
“Easy,” Naomi said. “One problem.” She pointed up. “No platform above us.” Then she pointed to their right. “We have to cross to go up again and cheat our way more vertical.”
She was right, of course, and as Eric turned to look at the path before them, a spray of acid spurted out toward him. His reflexes kicked in, and he dodged, but the spray still hit Shannon, and she panic-swiped at it. “Oh,” Shannon said.
Peter hissed in pain. “Damn, that stings.”
Eric looked at him and used Blacksteel Mending. “You okay?”
Peter frowned. “The pain is still there. Is there something like unhealable wounds?”
“There are,” Eric replied as his mouth tightened into a grimace. “But things that apply those afflictions are rare.”
Naomi moved her glass vial on its glass rod past Eric, and acquired a sample of the falling acid. She pulled it back, and ran her bracer near it. “It’s flesh-eating.”
Eric grabbed Peter’s armor and began removing it. “We need to get this off, now!”
“What’s the rush?” Peter asked.
“Now,” Eric said, his voice going to its cold, clinical, doctor-mode tone. “If we don’t remove the flesh, this acid will keep eating away until we have to amputate the whole limb.”
“Fuck that!” Peter said as he scrambled to remove the armor.
Shannon backed away to the edge of the platform away from the spraying falls. “Okay, yikes. Naomi, can you make something to stop that?”
Naomi shook her head. “No.”
Eric got the armor off and saw that the acid injury that should have applied to Shannon, been taken by her armor, and then applied to Peter, had somehow gone straight to the flesh and was eating away at it. He looked at Peter. “This is going to suck.” Eric then flicked out one of the claws on his Cinderscale Shroud’s armored form, and used it to cut away all of the decaying tissue, throwing it aside. Thanks to Blackflame pouring from his body, and only burning what he willed it to, the flesh-eating acid couldn’t get purchase on him.
Peter hissed in pain, but once Eric had cleared the acid fully, he used another Blacksteel Mending and cured the Paladin right up. “Done and done,” Eric said.
Naomi, who must have been investigating her sample further while Eric was working, said, “So, bad news. The acid looks like it bypasses any non-organic substances. Shannon’s leather armor would’ve taken the hit, but since Peter redirected it, the hit went to his armor—bypassed the metal shell and went right through the underpadding onto the flesh.”
Eric looked at the falls. “Blackflame can’t be eaten away by it. I have an idea, but you all have to back up to the edge to let me test.” He glanced back, and his allies scooted to join Shannon on the edge of the platform. Peter was working on putting his vambrace back on.
Eric then looked back at the falls, and envisioned his Blackflame Breath’s area of effect being a line that shot out above them, along the wall, and opened his mouth as he activated the Rote. With a powerful fwoosh the flames surged forward, instantly vaporizing the acid falling from above, and completely clearing the pathway to make for hopping from rock-to-rock an easy task. Stopping the flow and taking a few steps back, the acid resumed its downpour.
“That’ll get us across,” Naomi said. “What about you?”
Eric looked back at her. “Well, I can just do another breath, but make it into a blooming shape above me or something like that while I move. Not a biggie. You all ready? I’ll do it again, and you all can jump across.”
“Ready!” Shannon said as she re-shouldered her crossbow and grabbed the rope with its grappling bolt. She coiled that and slung it around her other shoulder.
Eric turned back to the front and repeated his feat, clearing a path. He felt the brush of wind as his allies moved past him, jumping from rock to rock on the now-cleared stepping stones through the acid falls, and as he ran out of breath, Naomi cleared the last few stones and shouted, “All clear!”
Eric stopped the flow and took a few steps back, sucking in deep breaths, as he used Mana Channel to lock himself in place to refill his substantially drained reservoir.
Peter shouted across the roaring falls, “Awesome! There’s another straight-up vertical cheat we can do here!”
Once Eric was no-longer locked up, he replied, “Get started! I’ll be right over!” He took a few deep breaths, fired off another Blackflame Breath, this time focusing on creating a cone overhead, and focused the spray on the walls the waterfall ran down. The torrent of fire hit the rocks, incinerated and burned away the acid, then bloomed upward and out, protecting him from above. He had to use his peripheral vision to judge distances of each jump, but Eric managed to get across.
The rope was dangling to his right, and as he reached out to grab it, he heard a curse from up above, then a shout from Peter. “Eric! Get ready!”
“Ready for what—”
The acid falls now on Eric’s left surged down with renewed fury, and thanks to his Tarrasque Nervous System, he was able to throw himself to the right, holding onto the rope as he went flying off the platform. The place he had been standing on was completely washed in the acid, and the rocks were now missing. He was able to plant his foot-claws onto the cliff wall and thanks to the rope was able to keep from falling down.
“What happened?!” Eric shouted up.
Naomi appeared up above, head peering over the platform. “Looks like whatever you did with the whole ‘stymie the flow’ caused the chamber to . . . do something. Can you get up?”
Eric was able to loop his foot through the rope and ascend easily enough, and when he got to the top, he felt some dismay, as there was no other grapple point further up, and the path ahead was completely gone—all of the stone paths that might have once been there had been obliterated by the wash of acid. “Core-cracked,” he whispered.
“That’s the equivalent of ‘we’re fucked’, right?” Peter asked.
Eric nodded. “Fifty feet across to the other side.”
Shannon had her crossbow out and was firing mana bolts, perhaps trying to find rocks now submerged in the acidic flow, but she seemed to be coming up empty. “I’ve got nothing.”
Peter sighed. “Well, what’s the game plan?”
Naomi looked at Eric. “You can always use that Skill to get across, but then we still have to get the rest of us across.”
“It’s rapid transit,” Eric replied. “And I am strong enough to at least hold you and Shannon under my arms. If Peter can piggyback, we should be good to get across.” He braced himself and bent over slightly. “Let’s get it over with.”
Shannon slung her crossbow and moved over. “Just like when we got the Princess—whoops, now Queen, I guess—out of that brothel.”
Eric nodded and when everyone was situated he took a deep breath, spent a Sigil, and activated Flashstep. In the blink of an eye, the group was across the surging torrent of waterfalls, on the other side’s platform, and at a set of carved-in stairs that led up to the top of the cliff. Peter slid off his back, and Eric set the two ladies down. “I’m at nine Sigils left,” Eric said.
Peter took the lead as he grabbed his shield and hammer, and headed up the steps. Shannon followed right behind, with Naomi next and Eric bringing up the rear. Eric grabbed his grimoire and held the mana for a Rote at the ready, not knowing what might come next. But, judging from Peter saying, “Fuck me,” it wasn’t good.
Eric reached the top of the cliffs and saw the reason for Peter’s words. The trail they needed to reach, leading to the continuing icy storm, and the end of the protective purple film, was across a massive swamp. But, the swamp was not water, rather bubbling, hissing acid. The different colors were all swirling around each other, not blending, but forming pools and eddies, flowing in various directions before making their way to the falls. Islands stood out as safe areas, with fallen trunks of ancient trees long-since turned white from calcification standing as bridges.
That wasn’t the source of Peter’s language, though. The reason for that utterance was that the group was faced with monsters on each of those islands, and they were monsters that came from the worst nightmares dreamt up on Earth, but which Eric was intimately familiar with, given that he had encountered them before in his traveling with Darius.
“Wh-what are they?” Shannon whispered.
“Shambling Mouthers,” Eric said.
The monsters on each of the islands were masses of flesh, covered in pustules that looked to be filled with the same color of acid as that which swirled in the swamps. Their whole forms were covered with gaping, open mouths that were screaming, whispering, and sighing; a cacophony of voices that were in desperate pain. Eric knew these foes were hard to put down permanently, because they had incredible regeneration abilities.
But, as he looked at the Sigil of Blackflame on the back of his left hand, he knew that they didn’t stand a chance. Their wellspring of healing was not infinite, they could not endlessly regenerate, and Eric was able to provided he could afflict them. “Shannon, we’ve got work to do. They are dumb brutes, they won’t attack unless provoked. We can hit them, lure them over—they aren’t hurt by caustic substances—and take them one at a time.” Eric then looked at Peter. “Your hammer won’t do shit. Blades are needed here.”
Peter smiled and turned the base of his hammer, which caused the whole center of it to open up, and then elongate as the thing seemed to flip inside out and become a sword without a tip, but it had two chopping edges. “Naomi gave me a little upgrade. I’ve got sword and hammer mode.”
Eric looked at Naomi, who seemed to be intently studying the monsters. “Good call on the upgrade.”
Naomi waved away the compliment. “These things . . . they remind me of monsters in a Dungeons and Dragons rulebook. Do they have mental effects?”
“No,” Eric replied as he prepared to fire off a Blackflame Evocation. “They just fucking suck to fight. This is going to be a slog.” He fired off the Rote at the nearest Mouther, and the damaging ability struck, ignited a Blackflame Blaze, and the grey nimbus of Final Reaping coated its form as all of the damage was replicated as a healing buffer and began to negate the regeneration the monster tried to automatically apply.
The hostile turned toward Eric and began to move off the island, into the acid swamp, and head toward the group. He kept firing off his Rote, building up more applications as his Trait stacked its buff higher and higher. Shannon’s mana-based bolts slammed into it as well, spreading her DOT, and setting off their infinite damage combo.
Then the thing vanished entirely into the pool of acid. Eric couldn’t even see it with his Reaper’s Flamesight, not that he could see any vital parts anyways, as the mass of flesh didn’t have any.
“Where did it go?” Peter asked.
Eric watched as the Mouthers—all of them—across every other island, went into the acid swamp and vanished. “I . . . I have a bad feeling,” he said. His stacks were still ramping up, so the creature he had afflicted was still somewhere, but he had no clue where. “Naomi, make sure you’re at the stairs leading down—the most sheltered spot nearby. Shannon, get to our back-left. Peter, up front near the edge. I’ll spread right.”
The group listened to Eric’s coordination tactics, and they spread. Everyone waited for something to happen, for some movement, or some indication of danger heading their way—but nothing happened.
What is going on? Eric thought.
The swamp’s level began to lower, inch by inch, and Eric finally realized what was happening. This wasn’t a Shambling Mouther like the horrible mishap abominations that were produced in the flesh pits underneath the Empire of Pwish’s laboratories. This was something far worse, able to take in not just body parts to create its twisted, grotesque form, but also aspects of the environment. And, apparently, merge with others of its same composition.
The swamp drained in mere moments, and the still-ignited, now-monumental mass of flesh, with razor-lined mouths, rose up from the basin where the swamp once was. The islands, the trunks acting as bridges—those were still there, but the mud that comprised the bottom of the swamp was now completely revealed as the towering shape took full form. It was the height of a five-story building, and a city-block wide.
“The fuck?!” Peter shouted.
Eric immediately spent a Sigil—down to eight—and used Blackflame Meteor, dropping it on top of the amalgamation’s crown. A portal opened far up above in the skies, and the black ring with the white center, blazing with its monochromatic wrath, expelled a chunk of burning rock that began to slowly descend.
Shannon fired off bolt after bolt at the thing—three real bolts in rapid succession, which she then used to activate her AOE ability which caused a series of deep, purple auras to slow and spread her poison to the monstrosity. Naomi’s lightning blasts shot out at the hostile target, and Peter, to his credit, was able to swing his sword and some type of silvery projectile was emitted from the edge of his blade to hit the abomination.
Yet all of those smaller impacts seemed to do nothing. Eric knew that they needed raw, overwhelming damage. “Meteor incoming!” he shouted. “Five seconds!” He kept firing off his Blackflame Evocations, and the monster shuffled closer. The mouths were opening and closer, letting out wails and screams, sighs and laughs, manic cries and yelps. The whole scene would be unsettling if Eric wasn’t already very familiar with horrors far greater than what he was currently facing.
Its acidic pustules burst, and a series of globules shot out towards the top-of-the-cliff platform that the Summoned were spread out across. Eric dodged, moving backward, and made it outside of the splash zone. The acid hit the ground and then melted it away, leaving behind a pool that remained.
He risked a glance at his allies, and saw that all of them had dodged as well. Then, he shot his gaze skyward as the meteor accelerated to full speed and the aperture shut.
Crack! Boom!
The flaming rock of Eric’s most damaging Skill slammed into the monster’s head, amplified by his Mana Burn and all of the stockpiled extra mana he had available—which thanks to his Rote spam wasn’t all that much—and yet the monster was still rocked. Immediately, two more pustules exploded, and Eric dodged backward once more.
Naomi shouted, “It’s like a raid boss! At certain health percentages, pustules burst, and coat the platform! If we run out of space, we’ll start taking damage!”
Peter, up front, now at the monster’s base as it had kept moving forward, had several puddles to his left and one to his right. He was surrounded by a silver bubble that the sludge-monster slammed its bulk onto, and the barrier fractured little by little. “Got it! Drop the pools, get to the edge, keep them clustered!”
Eric recognized the mechanic they were describing, and knew that he could be riskier about it. “Peter! Drop the redirect on me!”
“Got it!”
The silvery light faded from Eric, and he chose to stand in the first puddle that had been dropped on his location. His feet immediately began to burn away, but he had enough regeneration from his multitudinous applications that he healed at an equally fast rate.
I can just swap back and forth between impact spots and save on platform space, Eric thought as he gritted his teeth. I’ve dealt with my whole body dipped into acid—this is nothing compared to that.
He kept firing off his Rote, putting on more and more applications, and thanks to the re-applications, he kept fueling his power to greater heights. That is, until he reached his artificially imposed cap. Two-hundred percent outgoing damage, one-hundred percent incoming damage—halved because of his Cinderscale Shroud—twenty percent maximum mana regeneration per second, two-hundred percent increased movement speed, two-hundred percent improved reaction time, and two-hundred percent accelerated processing speed. That, along with his [Surging] Mana Muscles increased his strength and speed by a further one-hundred percent, given his over one-hundred stacks of the DOT at this point.
Eric was practically invincible in a long-term, drawn-out engagement, provided he didn’t get hit in vital organs.
More pustules popped, one after another, speeding up faster and faster as the DOTs kept flaring up with each new application. The rest of the Summoned moved once the globules spat out, waited for the impact, then moved to the edge of the acidic pool left behind, slowly covering the platform. Eric moved back and forth between two already impacted areas, and thankfully it seemed that the acid did not stack.
But, risking a glance, Eric saw the platform was starting to run out. They would have to think of a different strategy. “I’ve got an idea!” Eric shouted. “Next pustule, everyone has to run to the puddle right in front of me, so they all hit the same space, then get away. We can drop them all on the same place! It’ll hurt a bit, but I can pause doing damage to fire off some heals!”
Everyone else answered in the affirmative, save for Peter, who at this point was on the far left side. “I can’t get there fast enough,” he shouted back. “I’ll just keep doing my thing.”
The next pustule popped, and the acidic meteors began to fly out. Shannon and Naomi rushed over to Eric, both running up next to him, and at Eric’s command of, “now!” jumped back with him, depositing the projectiles in the same location. Then, the two ladies dispersed to open land.
Peter shouted, “Getting hurt! I’ll take that heal now!” Eric tossed out the Blacksteel Mending he had promised, and a rejuvenated Peter added, “Thanks! I’ve got a ton of reprisal damage stacked. Want me to burn it?”
“Do it!” Shannon shouted.
“No!” Eric shouted back, but it was too late. He knew they needed to gradually wear down this thing’s health, to slowly spread out the acid explosions. If they dealt too much injury, too quickly, then they would all burst at once—and that’s exactly what Peter’s strike would do.
Peter’s next attack hit with a peal of thunder, and a bronze colored explosion arced out, obliterating the entire rest of the shambling mass—which also popped another ten of the pustules that were remaining, and all went sailing towards the Summoned.
Eric cursed under his breath and knew that they were in for a world of hurt. He had no more endless wellspring of mana restoration and healing, and he only had enough Sigils and Sigil reduction for two uses of Nothing’s Certain if people perished. “Peter! Big shield! Everyone group!” Eric ran over to Peter as the acidic meteors came flying in.
Shannon and Naomi ran over to join them, and Peter’s silver sphere appeared overhead. The acid meteors slammed down, the entire sphere cracked, then shattered, and caustic acid covered the whole party.