Facing The Boss

Walking inside the temple is nerve-racking. I have no idea exactly what I’ll find. The stone walls are lined with intricate paintings of what look like different enemies from the Legend Of Zelda series. The hall I walk through is lit with flames sitting atop small stone pillars. I can see a door up ahead and I’m a little anxious to see what’s coming.

As I reach the door, it stays closed before me, which is a little odd to me. None of the dungeons I’ve been in have really required me to interact with the dungeon environment itself to progress. I turn to the very obvious switch beside the door and try to pry it open. It doesn’t budge and the door stays closed.

I notice arcane sigils engraved on the handle. I don’t know what any of them mean but I can recognise them as from the school of arcane. I know the Zelda games have puzzles in them too, so I assume this is one of them, albeit a simple one. I try the first thing that comes to mind, and grip the handle, releasing mana into the object.

The switch starts to glow a bright purple colour, the colour spreading to the door itself. I try the switch again and this time the door opens into what looks like a puzzle chamber. I sigh, slightly disappointed. I did not want to do puzzles today, I wanted to fight something!

In the chamber before me, there is a door on the opposite side, a circular altar in the centre of the room, and three evenly spaced grooves in the floor, in a circle around the altar. One of them has a purple glowing boulder sitting in it, and the floor leading to the altar is lit up. The puzzle is clear: find the other two purple boulder things.

There aren’t many hiding spaces in the room, so my next thought is to check the walls. And as soon as I do, I notice two wall panels that look different. Walking up to one of them, I conjure a mace of ice and swing it as hard as I can at the wall. It shatters, revealing a boulder just like the one sitting in the circle.

I get behind it and roll it to the proper position inside the circle (a surprisingly easy task for how heavy it looks), then repeat the process with the other wall panel. The third boulder rolls into place just as easily, but neither of them light up. Remembering the switch in the other room, I put my hand on one of them and let my mana flow through it.

It lights up purple, and I quickly move to the last one, activating that one as well. The altar glows purple and the door begins to open, allowing me access to the next part of the temple. I walk through it, emerging into another hallway. It’s not a long hallway, and as I come to the end of it, I come to the very obviously last chamber of the temple.

It’s a huge arena-like chamber, leaving me a lot of space for the upcoming fight. In the centre is what I can only assume is the boss. It looks almost like a centaur, except it has an extremely muscular upper body, one that’s too big to be human. It has the head of a lion, with a large mane of black hair surrounding it. It’s body is a silvery colour, with purple markings along its sides. I use observe to figure out what that thing even is.

Jesus, I better be careful of that thing. True to the word of the description, it hasn’t attacked me at all yet. It’s been watching me eerily, silently, but hasn’t made a move toward me. It wields a sword and shield, which I assume are the legendary drops. I double check that my mana bar is full, take a deep breath and leap down the small drop from the end of the hallway into the arena.

Still the Lynel doesn’t attack. I advance towards it cautiously, manifesting a sword and shield of my own. It cocks its head to the side, as if giving me a final chance to decide that this is a bad idea. I keep advancing, and it roars suddenly, charging towards me.

Ready for such an attack, I leap backwards as it swipes it’s sword at me, the massive thing moving in a deadly lateral arc. I retaliate with a blast of ice magic directly at the creature’s face. To my horror, it simply shrugs off the attack, my magic having absolutely no effect on it whatsoever.

Great. Another enemy immune to ice magic. First the ice-breath lizalfos, now this thing. Having no time at all to think, the Silver Lynel bears down on me with a two handed overhead swing, coming straight for me. I dive to the side, making the split second decision to see if it might have a weakness to fire. My fireball spell is weak anyway, but it’s still disappointing to see that it has no effect.

My only magic type left is arcane. If arcane doesn’t work, I have to entirely rely on melee combat, which is not a nice thought for me. I’m not helpless, but my specialty is still magic. Keeping up my swift movement, I stand up deftly from my dive and make my way in a circle around the creature. It swings its sword in another arc, turning around to aim for me once more, but I’ve already moved out of its reach.

Seizing the moment, I fire a Mana Bolt. The spell hits its mark and the Lynel actually falters slightly, burn marks left on the creature’s face. Smiling, I move back and fire another one. This time, it raises its shield to block the spell. Still, with its vulnerability to arcane damage confirmed, I have a path to victory.

Arcane Torrent, the skill I’ve not been able to test yet, might finally have a chance to shine here. With me being effectively limited to arcane spells and only one target, this is a definite opportunity to test how good the skill is. That in mind, I fire another spell as soon as the Lynel starts to lower its shield. It’s too slow and the spell impacts the same area, in it’s face.

Instead of charging towards me like I expect however, instead it puts away its sword and shield and takes out a gigantic bow. Shit. I start running as it fires and I look back to see five arrows coming towards me at once. Oh come on, that thing only fired once! I complain mentally, putting a small wall of ice in front of me in an effort to block the projectiles.

My magic stops two of the arrows, the third penetrates most of the way through, and the fourth and fifth shatter part of my magic and whistle towards me. I’ve already dived out of the way, but even so I’m still too slow, with the arrows both finding their mark on mana shield, one on my torso, one on my leg.

Mana shield stops them from doing any damage, but 200MP is evaporated from my mana bar as the arrows reveal their secondary function: they explode in a fiery eruption. A stark reminder that I really need to increase my endurance sometime soon. With every arrow doing 100 damage, that single volley would have just about killed me. It’s almost enough to make me want to switch my focus. Something to consider.

For now, I keep my focus on the battle in front of me. Acting on intuition, I run to the side of my broken construct, just as the Lynel charges through the remains of my construct, once again swiping with its massive sword. I avoid the strike and fire another mana bolt as the boss is off balance. The spell finds its mark, and I think I have a strategy for now.

With the information I’ve gleaned from its attack patterns so far, I stay close enough that it doesn’t pull out its bow again, but far enough away that I can dodge the swings of its sword without too much trouble. It has a massive advantage over me in strength, size and reach, but that advantage comes with the drawback that it makes me a much harder target to hit, especially with my high agility.

Avoiding its deadly sword strikes, I pepper it with arcane spells, slowly building up stacks of Torrent. I’m thoroughly anticipating the moment I get to use the skill and see it in action for the first time. Some of the spells find their mark, others are blocked by that massive shield. Very rarely do they miss. My aim is too good for that.

Finally, the stack of Torrent hits the maximum number of 10. The Silver Lynel has large arcane scorch marks all over its face, a third of its black mane singed off by the magical burning. Arcane damage doesn’t burn the same as regular fire, but it does still burn. In my eagerness to activate the skill, I’m a split second too late in my dodge, and 600MP is obliterated from my bar as I’m sent flying backwards by a sword swing.