Try to fight the Earth Elemental

“What’s going on?” Jas shouts the question on your mind as the ground starts shaking around you. Something brushes against your leg, so you look down and see lots of fist-sized or smaller rocks rolling past you towards the altar. Then, as the ground continues to shake, you hear a sound off to your left and watch as a boulder as tall and big around as you are is wrenched out of the earth and comes flying in your direction. You just barely dive out of the way and end up rolling halfway down the hill. Blythe appears next to you, still brandishing her rapier towards Jas as the bunnykin follows you both. “What have you done? What…” Jas turns back to get another look at the top of the hill. All of the rocks that have collected there have formed into a hulking, ten-foot-tall form with thick arms and legs. It reminds you of the person-shaped rock piles you saw walking around in the monster village, only much, much bulkier. Its main body is made up of larger boulders for the most part, which makes you wonder where all of the smaller rocks went.

“I’m sorry, Jas, but there’s no time to explain,” you say. The Earth Elemental is testing its limbs, poking and slapping the ground around it with its arms while taking careful steps this way and that around the top of the hill. Who knows when this thing will turn hostile, you think. We need a game plan to —

“Bullshit!” You hear the familiar sound of metal on metal as Blythe blocks another strike from Jas. “You think I’m just going to sit back and let you get away with whatever you’re planning? Think again, bastard!” The elf and bunnykin start dueling in earnest now, trading blows with a degree of skill that is absolutely beyond your amateur understanding. “It was all lies, wasn’t it? Everything, from the day you came to town. I bet you’re in league with those bandits that sacked the carriage yesterday. Well, I took out all your friends. Now, I’ll do the same to you!” Jas lands a nasty {if@ sword = true}slice{elseif mace = true}blow{elseif spear = true}jab{endif} to Blythe’s thigh, eliciting a cry from the elven duelist. The pain in her leg slows Blythe down, and she starts losing more and more ground to Jas as the fight drags on. You don’t know what to do: Blythe is the strongest fighter in your party, so if she’s losing, there’s no way you can stand a chance.

But you have to take that chance. As Blythe falls to her knees and Jas moves to deliver a finishing blow, you step between them.

Jas only hesitates for a second, but that’s long enough for you to slam into her and send you both tumbling further down the hill. By some miracle, you end up on top by the end, and Jas seems to have lost her {if@ sword = true}sword{elseif mace = true}mace{elseif spear = true}spear{endif} along the way. You press your palm against the visor of her helmet before she can throw you off. “Don’t move or I’ll fry your face with a fireball,” you say. Your words have an instant effect, halting the bunnykin’s limbs that were already in motion to do painful things to you. Without looking up, you hear Lia shouting and the earth-shaking crunches of the Elemental slamming its arms around. “We’re not with the bandits,” you say. “All we’re here for is to kill that thing up there. The gems just happened to be what we needed to summon it. I’m sorry I upset you, but I only did what I had to.” Jas’s arms, suspended a few inches off the ground while you spoke, drop back to the grass now. “Now, my friends are up there fighting without me. I have to go help them.” You take a chance and get off of Jas without knocking her out or restraining her at all. As you pull your hand away from her visor, you catch a glimpse of the confusion in the blue eyes underneath the helmet.

Your gamble pays off as, in her confusion, Jas does nothing to stop you from walking away. Blythe is trying to **** herself up the hill to help Lia, despite her injured leg, so you stop and use a healing spell on her first. All it does is {if@ sword = true}seal the wound{elseif mace = true}reduce the swelling{elseif spear = true}seal the wound{endif} and bring down the pain, but it’s enough for her to move normally again. She refuses additional healing, insisting instead that you preserve your mana for the fight, and the two of you make your way to the top of the hill.

Lia is dancing around the rock giant, showcasing excellent flexibility as she dodges the heavy blows and ducks inside its range to try and find a weak point. Blythe joins her in the effort, and they start taking turns drawing the Elemental’s attention. The mass of magically connected rocks lashes out wildly at whichever opponent appears to be closest at the time, swinging its arms around in slow, yet powerful attacks that take chunks out of the dirt wherever they land. It doesn’t seem very smart, and both of the girls appear to be learning its attack patterns fairly quickly. Still, you can tell by their movements that the frustration of not finding any ways to damage the thing is starting to wear on them. There has to be something we’re missing, you think. You scan the area again, but come up empty-handed; the whole hilltop is nothing but grass and divots where the Elemental has torn up earth.

Wait, there’s nothing? Where did the altar go? And the gems?

“Haaaaaaaaaaah!” You hear a shout as a gust of wind blows past you from behind. Your eyes turn back to the battle in time to see the armored Jas Evergreen leap through the air and land a kick against the large boulder serving as the Elemental’s torso. The blow is so powerful that the stone cracks, and Jas ends up launching herself through the air and landing in front of you. She tries to land gracefully, but fails and ends up stumbling into your arms. This time she quickly separates herself from you, then says, “I still don’t really understand what’s happening, but that thing looks like a threat to my home. You summoned it, but if you’re really trying to kill it, then I guess your enemy is my enemy.” She then picks up her silver {if@ sword = true}sword{elseif mace = true}mace{elseif spear = true}spear{endif} from the ground nearby, and holds it out to you. “You look like you could use a weapon.”