Heroes

Your mother, Ethiria hears them as well, the approaching "heroes" and moves into position.

"Well," you think, "Maybe today won't be too boring."

When the adventurers enter the Boss Zone, you can finally see them. It's a party of five. You can make out a pair of Barbarians: one Dwarf man and one Human woman. Behind them, a Halfling Ranger, and a Female Wizard. At the very back, you can see a someone dressed in the trappings typical of a Cleric of Helia. Oddly enough, it seems to be a male Cleric, a rather rare occurrence as far as you have seen.

All of them had good equipment from what you could tell. On average it was better than the stuff most people brought with them to fight her. You even saw one of the Barbarian's wielding a greatsword you had seen your mother fall to once before.

After a brief introductory scene of Ethiria blasting lightning into the sky with a mighty roar, she turns to glare at the heroes and you watch as the fight begins.

The Barbarians are the first to charge in, as you have come to expect. Your mother ignores them and looses another lightning blast, this one on the party members at the back. The wizard raises her hands and a shield you recognize as Mordenkainen's Mystical Wall appears to intercept the bolt. As the blast ripples harmlessly off the wall, the Barbarians begin their **** and begin slicing away at Ethiria's leg. With a growl, she swipes at them with her claws, sending them back. You can see that the Cleric is already casting Helia's Light to restore his comrades Hit Points. While he does, the Ranger draws his Epic Level Bow and fires, nailing your mother directly in the eye. Your mother lets out a pained roar and fires yet another lightning blast in his direction.

Luckily, this time the wizard was a bit too slow on the intercept and you cheered as the bolt hit the Ranger full on. While the party obviously specced for this fight, choosing equipment with resistance to lightning, they had forgotten to take into account the paralysis effect of Ethiria's lightning. Granted, the effect chance was low, only 0.5% in fact, but it had been the doom of many a hero in the past.

As the Ranger falls to the ground, alive but unmoving, the Dwarf Barbarian runs back into the fray with unnatural speed, no doubt due to a Valorous Charge.

"What are you waiting for?!" he shouts at the wizard, "Let's kill this thing already!"

"I know!" you hear the wizard shout.

As she began to chant, your mother reengages the Barbarian. At the same time, she activates one of her other abilities: Storm Calling.

Slowly at first, rain begins to pour from the sky. As it grows thicker, the debuff's it brings come as well. Penalty to Hit Chance, a movement speed penalty, weakness to lightning, all of those wash over the heroes. As the other Barbarian rejoins the fight, you see Wizard finish her spell, a vicious little thing called Hyne's Shifting Cloak, a spell that gives its target a random elemental weakness.

"What are we looking at?!" the wizard asks.

"Hang on! Almost done!" The Cleric shouts as he heals the Ranger's paralysis.

The halfling springs to his feet.

"Ice!" he shouts, having used his time paralyzed to Study her.

"Got it!" The wizard replies as she raises her hands once again.

At that moment, the second effect of Storm Calling kicked in: Random AOE Lightning damage. As a bolt falls from the sky, it strikes the ground right next to the Ranger, hitting both him and the Cleric. Unfortunately for the heroes, the Cleric hadn't had time to heal the Ranger's HP and the Halfling died instantly.

"Dammit!" the female Barbarian shouts, "I said we should get a Priestess of Amari, but nooooo, someone didn't want to deal with some phoned in prejudice!"

"Shut up! At least Alvar did his job and told us her weakness!" the Dwarf told her angrily, "Let's just kill this bitch already!"

At the back, you see the Cleric frustratingly try and heal both of them. At the same time, the Wizard casts an enchantment you recognize but forget the name of as you see ice crystals begin to form on the Barbarians weapons.

As the wizard follows up with a various array of Ice Spells, you watch as the small bits of damage the party was doing grow noticeably larger. Soon, as the heroes begin to wear down, you watch as your mother, her own Hit Points now in the red, activates her strongest ability: Storm's End.

"Here it comes!" the Cleric shouts as the rain begins to lessen.

"On it!" the wizard replies, downing a large mana potion.

Ethiria roars again, much longer than normally. If you had eyes, they would be widening, as it's been a long time since someone pushed her far enough to make her use this ability. One massive bolt of lightning emerges from the clouds and strikes Ethiria directly. It arcs over her body, charging her with its power called directly from Ethriana, the Goddess of Storms she was named after.

Her eyes brighten as she becomes one with the storm. Her scales darken and a dark mist begins to seep from her. Lightning still arcs over her body as she looks at the heroes one more time. She didn't bother to roar, letting her appearance speak for her as she became the storm. As your mother lets loose another blast of lightning, this one nearly twice as large as the others, the wizard once again raises Mordenkainen's Mystical Wall to block it.

This time, however, the wall doesn't hold. The bolt, while weakened, breaks through the shimmering wall of light and strikes the Cleric. When the blast fades, the only thing left of him is a scorch mark on the mountaintop.

"Shit!" the female Barbarian shouts.

"Okay, maybe a Priestess of Amari wasn't a bad idea," the Dwarf says.

"Gee, ya think?!"

"Oh my god, will you two please get back to fighting the Boss and not each other?!" The Wizard asks as she continues on with her Ice spells.

As an Ice Spike flies into her, Ethiria shows a fang-filled grin as her misty body simply parts around the incoming attack. A risky move to be sure, and one she can only do a few times, but worth it. She swipes at the Dwarf again, slashing across his entire body.

"Grh!" he groans as he is flung into the Zone Boundry.

"Shit!" the Female Barbarian shouts.

She grips her Greatsword even tighter, as the red aura of Ancient's Rage surrounds her. Her speed increases as she barrels straight into the fray, not caring about the passive electricity damage she was taking from being near the Dragon. The Wizard keeps up, throwing massive spells one after another. The two of them raise their damage output as high as they possibly can, doing their best to mitigate the damage they're taking.

Finally, you sigh internally as the Wizard casts one final spell: Blizzard Spire. A single spear of Ice easily just as tall as Ethiria erupts from the ground, and you know it's over. The spear punctures her abdomen and her power falls away as her Hit Points fall to zero.