Path To Radiance; First Ascent

Chapter 10 - First Ascent: Part 4

Rina reaches over and closes Brick's mouth. She tilts her head and winks playfully. "Hurry and gather this stuff and let's get moving." She lets out a small giggle and heads toward the door.

We clear the few gathering nodes in the hall and move on.

The door slams shut and a stone slab covers it, as usual. This time, instead of a group of enemies in a similar room, we walk into another huge "field" room. It's at least three times as big as the first. We couldn't see the walls for all the trees this time.

Tamos steps closer to the center of the room and turns around with his arms held wide. "Nothing? There's nothing? This whole floor has been too easy."

A loud trotting sound comes from the trees. I am the last one through the door and am the furthest from Tamos. I start towards him in a dead run.

"Tamos! Move!" I begin to wave my arms as I run. Brick figures out what I had and follows me. Being in much better shape than I am, he easily out speeds me.

Tamos just looks confused. He shrugs as if to say "what"?

We are too late. A huge, male boar erupts from behind the closest tree. He's as big as a grizzly bear and has a maroon coat. The tusks protruding from his mouth are as long as my arm but thicker. It's a horrific sight to see one burst out of Tamos' stomach. The icon above its head reads:

Boar King, level 7

Tamos gurgles as blood trickles down his chin. He tries to pull himself off the tusk but the boar lifts him off his feet, rearing back. Just as I thought the boar was going to throw Tamos over his shoulder. Brick's shield slams into the boar's head with all of Brick's weight right behind it. The boar's head is forced down by the blow and Tamos slides off the tusk and onto his chest instead. A pool of blood forming around him.

Brick slices the boar's side and hops back. The boar turns his attention on him.  "Rina! Help Tamos!" He shouts as he yanks his shield up to intercept another short charge.

Rina follows the order. She sticks her arms out to her sides and intricate white lines form under her feet. She isn't chanting but she is focusing on Tamos pretty intensely. Under her name in my HUD, a small silver bar is filling up. She's casting a healing spell.

The white lines and Rina's casting draw the boar's attention. Brick doesn't let the boar charge though. He jumps in the way and swings his sword at the boar's face. The creature turns his head to put a tusk in the way of the strike.

Putting my blade in position, I ran at the boar's side while he's focused on Brick. I plunge my blade into the beast three times repeatedly.

Tella had faded away at the beginning of the fight. She reappears when I make my move and attacks from the other side. I don't know how many strikes she gets in before the boar reacts.

The giant pig begins to buck, kick, and lash out with his legs and tusks in multiple directions, trying to fend us off. We have no choice but to jump out of range. We all keep our weapons at the ready as the boar continues his crazy bucking.

The bright white light that came from Rina's spell fades behind us. After about three seconds, the boar has calmed down just in time for a ball of magic to hurdle over my shoulder and strike him in the snout. It looks like the base shot from Tamos's staff.

Tamos's cast bar is filling up on my HUD. I turn to see his hands glowing again. Lines glow beneath his feet. I realize I have never actually watched a spell be cast before now. When the bar in my HUD is full, the lines below Tamos are pulled back into him and run up his body to his right hand. The energy condenses itself, the ball forming. Tamos lets out an angry battle cry, then lets the Magic Bolt fly. Before the Mage spell splashes across the boar's head, Tamos pulls his staff back out and fires the base attack again over and over again.