Fires and Scales

Blessing of Fires, passive: 30 ft. aura radiating from the Eye of Blood. All Flamescale breath attacks within its effect deal +100% damage, which becomes unaspected.

Blessing of Scales, passive: 30 ft. aura radiating from the Eye of Flesh. All Flamescales holding an Eye gain Regeneration 40 and halve all damage suffered.

Unaspected? Then it'll bypass most of my resists, as well as those of-

"Quickly!" Moira cried out.

"Wait, Moira-!" John called out, but the Warden had already stepped forward... and both of the massive horrors opened their mouths to let loose massive gouts of white flame. They would consume John's whole party, and he didn't even know what the damage looked like yet.

John cursed as he dumped mana into a twenty-foot tunnel, catching both gouts and ensuring neither Moira nor the rest of them were caught in the pale blasts. The two leaders watched as their enchanted flames poured out from their generous maws... and washed over the knot of Flamescales hundreds of feet behind them. Both cut their breaths off with howls of panic, but they were too late.

Polushan's augmented dragon's breath deals 1,360 unaspected damage to Killa!
Gurkruel's augmented dragon's breath deals 560 unaspected damage to Othel!
Polushan's ...

The fountain of damage ticks came as Fairy watched, barely above the waves of destruction, with wide, glittering eyes. Nearly all the remaining Failures were consumed by the portaled breath attacks, and Fairy cackled over the heinous barbeque. John's reaction was far less ecstatic. Even if the damage wasn't doubled, these numbers are huge! How is this a level 15 Complex?! Even as the combat continued, the back of his mind whispered a possibility: it simply wasn't. What if he had missed something again? Some exception to his control? We haven't even seen the boss yet... but maybe these optional bosses are like the Ruby and Emerald Weapons of-

The two monstrous serpent-men howled in fury as they watched their faithful perish. "Guys, be careful! Their orbs double their attack and defense-!" The two creatures split away from one another to slither around the flanks of the massive tunnel. The orbs brightened, as did the new flames trickling from their mouths; their chests surged with the next salvo. No cooldowns?! John had more time now, however. Closing the giant tunnel, John summoned one more over Polushan's mouth while quickcasting rapidly-stabbing hands into tiny portals.

Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 253 damage to Gurkruel the Blue!
Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 253 damage to Gurkruel the Blue!
Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 253 damage to Gurkruel the Blue!
Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 253 damage to Gurkruel the Blue!
Gurkruel the Blue has been slain!

The flames spewing from between the Blue's lips faded, vanished, and lost all glow along with the lizard's eyes. Polushan's mouth vomited another blast of white... only to have it tunneled from right before his face to right over his head, the two ends of the tunnel touching edges to blind all attempts to look up or forward. His breath turned to screams as he felt his own power; his snout lashed about violently, but each end of the tunnel remained anchored to his head as the reference.

Polushan's augmented dragon's breath deals 680 damage to himself!

The double-damage orb, held by the now twitching corpse of Gurkruel the Blue, fell from his spasming fingers to bounce harmlessly against the cracked road.

With Moira's path opened, she hopped towards the remaining foe with her hammer glimmering gold. "In the name of the Lady!" came her cry... but Polushan turned his head and saw the short charge. Despite his human-shaped torso, it managed to compress and bend away from the blow with an inhuman flexibility, giving the holy strike a path to whiff through the air. "Damn it-!"

John hustled towards the fallen staff as Tricia struggled to open her Eyes of Hate. A single one slowly cracked open and, with the last of her mana, barely put a dent in the champion.

Tricia's Eye of Hate deals 79 unaspected damage to Polushan!
Polushan: 1,141/1,890

Polushan caught sight of John's dash towards the staff and forsook all defense to overrun a surprised Moira to beat the Gamer to it. She held her shield high only to be overrun and trampled by the biting scales of the huge enemy, dealing 50 points of crushing damage. Polushan held his head at profile to glower at John and to try and be the first to grab hold of that sacred relic. Far off, the only three survivors of John's trick focused on the sporadic movements of their hallowed lights and began to charge to reinforce. Fairy, still tapped out of mana, followed with strings of insults.

Shit, he's going to get to it before I do-! Cursing at his low mana, John forsook the economic path.

Your acquisition of the Eye of Fires was successful.
Your quickcasted acquisition of the Eye of Scales failed; target is too aware of you and of the object held.

The green lump of muscles and scales howled in anguish; the Eye had vanished... and in his lizard heart, he knew the Eye had closed.

"Yes!" John cried out... and the world grew dim. The rain of ash had ceased, though the gray haze remained in all directions, pierced only by the twin suns above... and then there was only one. John looked up in wide-eyed surprise as one of the stars above suddenly turned into a black disc in the ash-stained sky. An eclipse... Hell, a double eclipse. What's more ominous than that? The charging remainder of the ambush slowed its slithering approach to stare up at the sky. Their panicked howls seemed to agree. Polushan's grip on his staff audibly tightened as his rage grew, and his other hand stretched out as a longsword, longer than John by half, manifested to fall into that open hand.

Sovereignty: Eye of the King neutralizes the Sword of Life's Flame.

The blade vanished before it fully formed. "Hell no," John breathed, his left eye glowing a malignant green. The champion, still partially blinded by the tunnel aligned to his face, screamed his fury as its turned at profile to glower at John. "... R-Right, I guess you could still just pummel whatever you can't-" The regenerating beast charged at John as the remaining Failures continued their march. The Almiraj and Vok, still heavily injured, counter-charged past Moira to meet the interference. With joined roars of exhausted anger, halberds met spears, knives, and a traitor halberd to dance the rest of the battle away.

The Warden slowly rose to her feet with a humiliated curse. Tricia stared at the continuing combat with helpless fear. She had only her healing drone, and it was fed by her mana, the last of which her Eye of Hate had eaten; it would be minutes before she could help again. She had no weapon. She was... useless, and her frustration bubbled inside her as the Eye of the First Truth cycled its eyelids to calm her.

-101hp

Moira and Tricia both gasped. John was sent skidding across asphalt by the **** of Polushan's broad, sweeping clothesline. The Flamescale's sheer might was absurd; with all of John's resists against such a blunt ****, he had only resisted a third of the damage. If I let him fight Moira, or Tricia... I can't! "That all you got?!" John yelled, trying to taunt the creature to focus on him instead. John waved at himself, egging Polushan on. The hulk of green seemed furious; it was working. Unfortunately, Moira was unwilling to back down. She charged anew, her hammer still glowing with the last enchantment. "Moira, back off-"

"Like Hell I will!" Her hammer reared back as she charged at Polushan's flank... only to have the creature lean forward. John couldn't be sure why until he realized that the weight had been taken off most of the monster's tail-half; the tail, now freed, reared back and cracked like a whip against the Warden.

Polushan's tail attack deals 140 damage to Moira! Polushan has grappled Moira!

The Moira yelped in surprise as the tail bashed her knees together before scooping her up by the legs and, with another savage shake, launched her into a burning house.

Moira's fall deals 23 damage to her! The fire deals 98 damage to her!

"MOIRA!" John screamed. Tricia, terrified by the beast's might, backed away... and earned the creature's attention. "You son of a bitch-!" John's left eye shined as he denied the Eye of Scales, opening Polushan to feel every vengeful blow. The serpent man's body twisted as John quickcasted every lunge he could, stabbing into the body and head with merciless intent.

Sovereignty: Eye of the King neutralizes the Eye of Scales.

Your serpent's lunge deals 506 damage to Polushan the Green!
Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 506 damage to Polushan the Green!
Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 506 damage to Polushan the Green!
Polushan the Green uses Last Stand!
Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 506 damage to Polushan the Green!
Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 506 damage to Polushan the Green!

Polushan remained upright, even as John put him over a thousand into the negative. His beautiful, emerald hide exploded in three places John had dug visible dents into the flesh. Organs had been ruptured. Blood bubbled out from the lizard's mouth, and the glow of his eyes dimmed. The creature bore the mutilation... and remained upright upon the base of his tail.

Last Stand: passive. Upon achieving negative HP, this creature will continue to fight for one round per five levels it has or until its body is so physically handicapped as to make combat impossible, whichever comes first. During this time, the creature becomes a berserk killing machine who attacks any and all enemies, with all attacks being critical hits, as long as he can attack. At the end of Last Stand, if the creature has not been brought back up to positive HP, it will die immediately.

The remaining sun dimmed once John snuffed out the remaining orb; believing they'd be stuck in the dark with this horrible beast, John focused to switch the target of his Eye of the King onto the passive itself. I have to cut him off-!

But Polushan was already a green blur, shifting forward rapidly as his bones grinded and his organs bled into his intestines. The Eye of Scales, once his sole focus, clanged to the ground like so much rubbish. Polushan was not a priest anymore. His bloodlust had been focused on that single, pitiful, blonde intruder when he arrived to his current state; she would be the first to die. Everything seemed to move in slow motion for John as he tried to outpace the creature; he couldn't.

Tricia watched as the beast approached its clawed hands outstretched to rake her body.

NU-LEVEL ATTACK DETECTED. WARNING! DEFENSE MATRIX REDUCED TO 13%-
NU-LEVEL ATTACK DETECTED. WARNING! DEFENSE MATRIX FAILING!

The commands had been background noise to Tricia as the first claw sheared most of what remained of her defenses, and the second consumed the last of her suppression suit. Blood exploded onto the creature's chest as he raked thick gashes through the sundered armor and deep into her belly.

Polushan CRITS, dealing 0 damage to Tricia!
Polushan CRITS, dealing 202 damage to Tricia!

Tricia's eyes went wide as her flesh was torn apart. Her body rapidly lost pressure, and her eyes unfocused as she went into shock. John screamed something he couldn't remember, and his Eye stole from Polushan the right to live. The dim light in the Flamescale's eyes vanished, and the beast finally collapsed onto himself.

Nearby, the Almiraj finished the last surviving enemy that Vok had pinned down. Moira coughed, out of view, as she rose from rolling around on burnt grass to put out her flames. The Eye of Scales, discarded and without any worshipers remaining, slowly dimmed. The Complex objective chart blinked at the corner of John's vision with new notifications about their progress.

John noticed none of these things as he rushed at Tricia. No... no, c'mon, this isn't... no...! John's heart sank as her body twitched and her health ticked down rapidly. The blood clotted on the ash that encircled her; the red stain spread rapidly. John tried to work faster.

You used equilibrium, turning 600hp into 600mp!
Your quickcast heal restored 60hp to Tricia.
Your quickcast heal restored 60hp to Tricia.
Your quickcast heal restored 60hp to Tricia.
Your quickcast heal restored 60hp to Tricia.

He never had to heal such grievous wounds before; he could see bone through the gashes in her body, and the blood stained his hands as he desperately channeled into her body. He didn't have enough mana for a good restore; he couldn't dare to gamble on her life with those paragon spells, not like this. She wasn't breathing. He held his own breath, refusing to release it as he waited for something, anything... and exhaled with a sob as Tricia's body arched with her **** gasp for air. As her body continued to mend, her eyes slowly came to focus on the Gamer. "John..."

"It's alright, you're alright," John whispered, kissing her desperately before helping her up. She had been left naked after the attack, but she was alive... and the damage ticks for Moira had stopped. John checked his status window and confirmed she was still kicking, though he was eager to heal Moira if she couldn't manage it herself.

Scions of the Flamescales (Complex)

Main Objectives:
(2) Bring about the portent of doom to the scalekin -- 0/1
(3) Slay at least 80% of the Complex population -- 98%
(5) Slay Yunikal the Red -- 0/1

Bonus Objectives:
(4) Slay Gurkruel the Blue -- 1/1
(4) Slay Polushan the Green -- 1/1
(2) Slay Yunikal within two hours of entering the dungeon -- 01:22:54

With a frustrated sigh, John released the effect of his Eye; Polushan did not stir. He was finally too dead for even the passive to reanimate him. "So now we just have to find the boss..."

Tricia remained shaken by her encounter. Quietly, she let the Eye on her forehead soothe her with its usual cycle. Calm as she was, however, she couldn't hide her disbelief. "We're... are we not done? Can we not leave?"

John contemplated the timer: more than an hour left, and they could just as well leave the barrier up, recover at Tricia's, and return. John brought the Eye of Flames out from his inventory, holding it aloft and watching as its glow dimmed along with that of its equal. The second sun returned, but with the same darkened shade of red the first had taken on. Somehow, the orbs were tied to the suns; for some reason, their light was waning.

"Impossible..." Vok had almost whispered as he picked up the discarded staff. He stared up at it with both reverence and fear, his mouth slightly open as he lost his words, and gently reached up to stroke the blessed artifact.

Tricia looked at the floating objective list to her right as the ash finally ceased raining... and then caught the eye of the Almiraj as they approached. Leafdie stared back... and down at the naked form. His nose flared, and something stirred against his loincloth. Suddenly aware of her nudity, Tricia quickly covered her bits with a blush.

John's gaze remained fixed on the dying suns. "Alright, let's head back to the entrance, recover, and then we'll come back and find the Red one."

"B-Based on the data the barrier is providing," Tricia added, a slight blush rising in her cheeks as Leafdie continued to stare, "it would appear this Yunikal is the last 2% that exists in this space. If I'm able to collect a replacement sensory drone, I'm sure we can track it down quickly."

"Whatever it is, it isn't here." All turned to look at Moira who, despite the soot and Flamescale blood covering her mostly-ruined armor, was proudly marching around the corner of the house she had just been launched into. She had exhausted the last of her mana healing most of the damage, but she held her hammer as ready as ever. Slowly, the golden light shining from it dimmed into nothing. "Without that damnable fog of ash, I can finally feel the presences in this place... and aside from your minions," she added, motioning to the four as Fairy floated near, "it appears we've destroyed the enemy."

"Wrong again, ginger," Fairy sighed. "The boss just hasn't shown up yet... and if we're wise, we'll get the Hell out before it does." She glared at John, and continued through their mental link. <I've got no idea who these losers are, but if monsters this strong worshipped the boss as a god? I'm betting we're in no state to fight it.>

As much as retreating hurt John's pride, he was **** to agree: looking around, his party was exhausted. If this were a JRPG, he'd have checked into an inn long ago. "Alright, I'll tunnel us back to the entrance." John opened the way large enough for even Vok to fit through; it would take too long to dismiss them all one by one, here. I'll dismiss them once we're in the house... though is Vok really OK to operate in-?

The fallen crystal orbs, whose sparks continued to dwindle, suddenly cracked. Everyone turned in time to see the two lights wink out of existence. As if those were the only things holding the orbs together, the containers swiftly shattered, fell apart, and disintegrated to mix with the ash of the realm. The party was silent... and suns began to dim into a deep, unsettling purple. The ruins that had burned so eternal with magical fire now fell to smoldering.

(2) Bring about the portent of doom to the scalekin -- 1/1

"We're out of time, let's go!" Fairy yelled, shooting over John's head to slam into the doorway back to the real world. Her fingers wrapped around the handle as John waved people towards the gate, starting with Tricia. One by one the party went through; John stood by it, waving people in, even as Fairy called out from the other side. "This fucking... thing won't... budge!"

As if to taunt them, a warning pop-up manifested for John, Tricia, and Moira.

The boss has arrived. Defeat it to earn your freedom. Otherwise, the exit will unlock in five minutes.

John swallowed hard and looked up as the suns finally winked out of existence. The stink of sulfur increased tenfold. The flames of the ruined houses roared as the only illumination remaining. As darkness slowly overtook the world, the skies properly vanished; blackness replaced them, and a physical darkness seemed to hang just overhead that was only broken when the spark of the twin suns suddenly came alive again.

The suns blinked.

The last Flamescale descended, and John's Eye read its terror to him through the darkness.

Yunikal the Red
Level 59 Flamescale Dragon
HP: 27,890/27,890
MP: 8,401/8,401
Stats: Str 120, Agi 14, End 158, Int 76, Wis 88, Cha 56, Lib 100
Status Effects: Majesty
Qualities: Dragon; Hate of Ryūjin; Immune to Control; Immune to Fire; King of Plurakai, the Burning Wastes; Pureblood
The Scholar of Ten Suns, the Tyrant Apparent, Murderer of Henrick the Plain, and the sole survivor of her untainted lineage. The mother of a dying bloodline of shriveled, misshapen children, her mate perished before they could ever breed true and past the curse they brought upon themselves. The last of a kind, Yunikal lets her children, shameful and misshapen, nonetheless thrive as the last hope of the Flamescales ever returning. She has known and loved them all for over a thousand years. Recently, someone has murdered every single one of her children while she slept. The mother's sorrow and fury cannot be aptly summarized here.

Only Vok remained to get through the door, and John forcefully commanded him through as the sight above had given the Failure pause. When at last he passed his master, tears streamed from the summon's eyes. John would be the last one through, and the approaching eyes were joined by the silhouttes of a fanged maw full of white-hot fire. Shit, but if the door doesn't open... John readied to keep the creature distracted, though his mind raced to think how he could even begin to do so. <Fairy, the door isn't going to open. Get everyone as well-hidden as you can!> John stood there, ready to blink through the tunnel and close it behind him the moment the flames drew too close.

The burning eyes and mouth slowed their descent. Leathery wings with the span of a jetliner flapped once to stop her dive, and most of the ash was blown away from the area. The flames in the buildings that once waned were renewed, exploding into raging conflagrations.

Out of the living shadow above, onto the flattened remains of a knot of suburban homes, a hill landed softly.

The wood disintegrated under her weight. The beast was some three stories tall, and the full top third of her was sheathed in the dark above. With most of her body, and her massive, folding wings, in view, John could take a shocking stock of his enemy. The scales of Failures glittered like garnets; hers shimmered like plates of steel. No trace of humanity could be found in her underbelly, which consisted of even larger plates of a pale pink, nor in her four-legged build. Her feet settled into what ashes remained on the road before John; that pitiful soot suddenly burst into embers and floated into the air around her planted feet, disintegrating completely whenever they drifted too close to her body. Her claws, curved and huge like scimitars, carved tiny lines into the asphalt as she shifted her weight. Her tail wagged furiously behind her otherwise calm, steady pose, and the destruction she was wreaking on the homes behind her didn't seem worth her attention. Instead, her eyes, two globes of molten steel, and the fire-cast silhouettes of her man-lengthed teeth hung in the darkness above and seemed fixated on no one or no thing but John. If she peered through his tunnel, her height meant she couldn't see the others. Maybe she missed them-

Her mouth moved, and flames trickled out in gouts as she spoke. The words were dull roars, barely distinguishable from each other; John had no hope of transmitting them to Vok remotely, much less understanding them himself. Five minutes. If I can keep her distracted for five minutes, the door can open, and everyone can get safe... John swallowed hard. Could they survive without him to jump around? No, don't think about it. Stay... calm. John steadied his breathing and swallowed the lump in his throat. "Greetings-"

The massive head ducked low and charged at John and his portal, the flames streaming from her maw as it neared. Now near enough the light to be seen, hers was nothing but a car-sized exaggeration of every feature he saw in Polushan the Green: the long snout, nostrils flaring large enough to shove one's head into, and smoke and flames trickling from every apparent hole in her black-horned head. Whether she intended to bite or cook him was a question that came after John blinked his body through the tunnel. Panicked, John closed the tunnel and ducked as she chose to try and cook him; even as the portal closed, a thin gout of her white-flame blasted through and shot a neat hole through a nearby, half-collapsed wall. By some fortune, it had missed everyone who had been peering through the tunnel at him.

He blinked as he looked around. Fairy's features were panicked. Moira seemed incredulous; Tricia was terrified. "T-They wouldn't listen to me!" Fairy quickly stammered.

"You intend for us to hide from that?" Moira hissed.

"Are you fucking- what, you want to go slay that?!" John snapped, causing Moira to flinch away. "It's even stronger than Yarrick, it's twice your level and then some, I- oh Christ, we need to stay alive for five minutes..." John looked to his summons. Bait. No. He poured through his spells. He could tunnel them to the other end of the Complex, give her a run-around as they dashed about... assuming she followed them, and assuming she couldn't figure out that there was no other exit for them than right here. A booming, terrible roar cut through the air, and the ground began to tremble. "We just need to jump around and avoid her..."

"Do you intend to avoid fighting her, after everything we've done here?" John stared at Moira, mouth agape. She returned his glare. "We can run around if you like... but once we've caught our breath, I say we finish what we started. Besides... we will not be able to hide from that."

Moira motioned with her hammer, and John followed it to the source of the trembling beneath his feet: far and away, visible only thanks to her colossal size, Yunikal ran through houses, cars, and trees like so much wheat, sending up waves of ash and debris in her wake as she seemed set to close the gap between her and her prey. It had taken them half an hour to get to that battlefield; Yunikal would trample her way to them within the minute.

Moira was right. They had to do more than avoid her; they needed a distraction. He poured over his list, tried to think of what tricks could stop her breath, her body, or her senses at that level. Her qualities stated she was "immune to control"; he didn't need to click it to figure out that such meant many of his options were out.

"If we're going to do something," Tricia whispered urgently, "we should accomplish it in approximately 14... no, 11 seconds...!"

John was short on tricks that could work here, and had seconds to consider his entire retinue of powers, of what he could cast with just over 400 mana to his name...

... and came upon his one untested, non-Paragon spell; the one Moira had given him, ironically enough. How much time would it buy them? Was it appropriate to use it that way? John couldn't be sure, but he hoped longer than it took to get everyone through a tunnel. If it didn't work... he would have to make some uglier decisions. Besides, if I've ever needed saving... this is it. "Alright... I've got one more trick to try before we start moving..."

"It better be a good one," Moira muttered, spitting a wad of blood to the ground before raising her hammer to fight.

Jesus, this girl... "I'm going to summon my guardian angel."

"Another monster? If you think another rabbit or demon will be able to slow a dragon-"

"No, I mean literally my guardian angel," John declared. Willing a fourth of his remaining mana into it, he cast the new spell.

Moira's face remained still for a heartbeat. "Wait, you can't mean-!"

The Seventh Revelation for the Wandering Prophet, Sung to 777 Virgins Before the Day of Judgement, of the Seraphim Radiant of the Eighth Choir has been summoned.