"You dare return to my domain?" the being shouted.
William blinked away the searing pain in his eyes as he got to his feet.
"Do you not understand the meaning of that idol?" she shrieked, ramming her fists onto the sides of her hovering stone throne. "I was practically a goddess! Beloved by all! And you disturbed it with absolute indifference!"
"I didn't even know what that was!" William shouted. "Or what you are!" He knew this being was a Brimstone Elemental according to her label, but as usual, that was just a name.
"Ever since that witch came and slaughtered all my followers, all that once worshipped me, it just proved one thing to me – all of humanity is not worthy of existence!"
Witch? "You mean Calamitas?" he asked.
"You dare utter her name to me? This witch committed unholy crimes of the highest order. Butchering and twisting the souls of my followers, reducing them to nothing but abominations that haunt this pile of slag!"
I guess that explains the ghosts we ran into earlier. Just like Amidias and Permafrost before, here was another victim of Yharim's tyranny. After the Archmage's refusal to share with Yharim the magic he needed to conquer this place, he'd just sent his servant Calamitas instead.
"We don't want to fight you!" William shouted. "The witch is an enemy to us too, as is her master."
"You lie! You only seek to take my power once and for all, bring it into the hands of those who have no care for the natural order! For that, you shall suffer a horrific, fiery death!"
With that the Elemental flew forward, her eye beginning to glow brighter, red particles beginning to spew around her.
William went to swing his Darklight Greatsword at her but she vanished before his blade made contact. He glanced to Robyn, who had an arrow notched in her Effluvium Bow, and then quickly around the area, just in time spotting her reappearing amidst a spray of brimstone flames.
She flew slowly forward again, a second, smaller boulder flying alongside her. This boulder contained a smaller red one-eyed creature named a Brimling, that accelerated straight towards William, but he hit it out of the air with his sword.
The Brimstone Elemental shrieked and disappeared again in another flurry of flames. William spotted her reappearing over the lava ocean, and that she was now firing a spray of red fireballs at them. He jumped to avoid the middle, largest one, which exploded beneath his feet. He swung his sword, sending forth magical spinning Darklight blades that slammed into her for damage, while Robyn's icy arrows lent lots of damage from the side. He lunged to get a closer attack, but at that same moment her boulder seat closed around itself, sealing her up like a cocoon, only leaving her eye exposed through a single slit in the rock.
He was then hit by a wave of red brimstone bolts that emanated out from the cocoon, which was followed up by a volley of flaming red skulls that he was thankfully able to dodge, but he was already feeling boiling hot red flames dancing across his armour, feeling his life rapidly depleting.
This boss boasted over 78,000 life, and already looked like she packed quite a lot of power.
She soon opened up her cocoon and charged towards him again, firing more and more red blasts at him, seemingly having a death wish for him as the one who had found her idol. Fortunately, he began to hear the rapid clicking of a gun being fired followed by some explosions blasting themselves against her body – Tony and Durim had arrived!
"You and your friends will all burn!" the Brimstone Elemental shrieked, closing up her cocoon again. This time William was anticipating what would happen and had made sure to stay a safe distance away, dodging in-between the wave of red blasts that shot out in all directions from the cocoon along with the volley of red skulls.
They kept on firing, William kept on his toes by the Elemental as they moved around the Brimstone Crags. Her life at least soon dropped below half, so he began to feel confident they could defeat her. She closed her cocoon, unleashing more waves of red blasts, then upon opening William saw her orange eye glowing brighter and brighter.
A faint red beam began to shine out of it, aimed directly at his chestplate, and he deftly dodged to the side as the laser fired in complete intensity. He ran to the right, swinging his sword-beams at the Elemental as she began to point another beam, this time to his right where he was running. He stopped moving right as she fired – if he had kept moving, he would have run right into the beam.
At that moment though, he got hit by an exploding hellblast that she had fired, taking advantage of his stopping movement. He was launched back by the blast, his whole body raked with hellfire, and fell on his back.
Only 84 life left – not good! He watched as the Brimstone Elemental hovered over him.
"You may die when ready," she spoke.
He would have died right then, had someone not thrown themselves in front of him.
It was Robyn.
She fell to the ashy ground, internally screaming from the fire raking across her body. That fire, which felt so much like Calamitas's touch. But she didn't want to betray fear. She needed to fight. For William.
She rolled over and back to her feet in one fluid motion, launching more arrows from her Effluvium Bow. The cold bit at the Brimstone Elemental, and she turned, her orange eye staring down at her.
"What are you, his love interest?" the Elemental screamed.
"That's exactly what I am," Robyn said, finding herself grinning.
"Then he will get to suffer the pain of watching you die!"
Another laser fired from her eye, but she had been expecting it. She flew directly upward, firing arrow after arrow down, feeling that strange spike of adrenaline again. Like the spike that had gotten her to completely bring down the Crimulan Slime God against all odds.
Now, it was tearing through the Brimstone Elemental's health. She went from 30,000 remaining to less than 20,000 in seconds. The Elemental roared and charged straight forward, suddenly seeming to get desperate, but Robyn found it in her to sling out her grappling hook to the left, latching it onto a ruined pillar and pulling her out of the way of the Elemental's charge. From there she unlatched it and spread her wings, the momentum sending her high into the air and away from the Brimstone Elemental. She poured more and more arrows into the creature, who remained completely unable to hit her at this distance.
Almost there!
The Brimstone Elemental shot forward, teleporting straight forward in a flurry of red particles and closing up her cocoon to unleash her waves and volleys of red blasts. Robyn kept shooting, weaving between all the shots that were fired, but her damage had tapered off.
No! We're so close!
For a second all those familiar emotions rushed straight back into her – anxiety, doubt, fear, desperation. But she fought them, pinned them down, keeping her resolve to see this fight through to the end.
To win against the Brimstone Elemental.
And win, she did.
The cocoon opening again, Robyn was able to sink all the arrows she needed into the Elemental's skin, completely exhausting her health. On this happening she began to gasp, then scream, her mouth pitching itself open wide as flames shout out from within. Her boulder seat began to compress in on itself, like the cocoon but pitching itself tighter, completely enveloping her body and shrinking itself down to smaller than the size of Robyn.
Then, it dropped harmlessly to the ground.
Robyn stepped forward, and was surprised when the stone rushed into her inventory like an item. Checking it, she saw on the other side of the stone was a bright red circle, like a ruby, embedded inside it. The item was named the Rose Stone, labelled as an ancient relic containing the energy of the Elemental within.
She wiped some sweat off her forehead, then turned and walked over to where William had fallen. Durim and Tony were standing over him as he got to his feet.
"Are you okay?" Robyn asked.
"I'm fine," he said. "What you did then... taking that hit for me... I don't even know what to say... I just –"
He was interrupted when she wrapped her arms around his armoured form and kissed him on the lips.
"I know you'd do the same for me," Robyn said. "I've been spending too much time too inward on myself, too caught in the past. But now, you give me something to keep fighting for. Something that will get me up whenever I get knocked down."
She began to feel warm, in a different way to the heat of the Brimstone Crags, as she watched a smile stretch across his face.
"That was quite insane, wasn't it?" Tony exclaimed, giving Durim a high-five.
"How about we call that one a draw, eh?" the Demolitionist suggested. "Nil to nil."
"No, it's Robyn who's the winner here. Let's give her a cheer. Rob-yn! Rob-yn!"
"Rob-yn! Rob-yn!"
She looked to them with a smile and a slight blush forming on her face. She never could have imagined that triumph could feel so good.
"I wonder how Sid and Meg are going?" William said.
If I had to guess, Sid and Meg might be voting to show support for William and Robyn's fight against the Brimstone Elemental.