Mato

  Mato bit down hard on the boed tail and dragged the scorched and cracked Piercer Scorpion corpse off to the side, straining a little against the enormous dead weight of the elemental. He was certain Ali wouldn’t have time to dispose of all of them before he had to start tanking again, and he had grown quite partial to the glowing green of the restoration circle over the course of the battle. Having his spot cluttered with huge bone corpses would severely limit his options.

  When they had e up with the pn for this fight, Mato had been frustrated that he wouldn’t be able to ehe Skeletal Wyvern itself, however, he was having more than enough fun tanking four Piercer Scorpions at a time. Between his Survival Instinct, his brand-new armor, and the extra heals, he was able to tank far more of them than he would ever have imagined. Such a vast differenpared to his first experience, being impaled by the tail strike and tossed across the room like a ragdoll.

  He returo his spot, feeling the soothing pulse of the restoration circle topping up his st few points of health just as appeared, sprinting toward him with a freshly summoned Piercer Scorpion hot on his heels. Mato backed up a bit and judged the distance carefully before charging. He smmed his armored shoulder into the giant monster of boh a crash, stopping it dead with the momentum of his Charge – right in front of the circle. Inwardly he gri how well the maneuver went. He roared, attag with cws empowered by his Brutal Restoration. The monster responded with a vicious crisscross attack with both spear limbs. Survival Instinct gave him the vague perception that the attack would be high, so he opted to crouch low, blog with his Bestial bat skill and taking two shallow cuts across his bad shoulders. The attack had dotle in the way of serious damage, protected as he was by his dense hide and Eimuuran steel, and Mato could already feel the healing magic of the circle and his Brutal Restoration repairing the wounds.

  This circle’s amazing, he thought. Against these Piercer Scorpions he was rarely at full health, and, while the circle healed paratively slowly, it was a stant source of health throughout the etle that had to have added up to an enormous amount of life restored.

  Survival Instinct prickled in his awareness warning him of a savage ining attack. He immediately reized the characteristic brutal violence of the tail strike and shifted to one side, avoiding the most serious damage – a deep wound in his back leg was vastly better than being impaled through his back or head.

  Splinters of stone and a spray of his blood exploded from the impact of the tail strike before the wickedly serrated bde was withdrawn with equal ford violeearing further gashes on the way out. The soft warmth of the Kobold Acolyte’s holy magic pulsed through him. She had cast a short buff on him which progressively healed him over time. He he simirity to the way his Brutal Restoration worked. Except the specialized magic of the Acolyte was signifitly more powerful. He was not oo pay too much attention to the details of magic spells like Ali would, but it was impossible to ighe visceral rush of health beiored before it was brutally ripped away again by a bde or a spear.

  Malika appeared, sprinting into view, a light sheen of sweat beginning to make trails and streaks in the bone dust and soot ging to her skin. She seemed calm and intensely focused while her giant Piercer Scorpion shook the ground, trying to gain oo impale her athletic body. But she was always just oep ahead and dang out of reach, arriving in the perfect spot o him to line her catch up beside the elemental he was already tanking. She simply stood there, body blurring to the left and right as she dodged the high-speed flurry of spear attacks, waiting for him to secure the monster.

  Mato didn’t keep her waiting, r a challeo the monsters in front of him. His roar didn’t do much other thahem he was here, but it felt right to challehe monsters he was about to hit. He fed stamina to Swipe and mana to Brutal Restoration in a basibination attack that had already bee as automatic as breathing for him. His cws screeched against the hard boes, raking both monsters in front of him with a powerful horizontal attack, serving to deliver his nature magic to his enemies. His magic tore furrows and small cracks in the dense armor, fueling his restoration healing. Immediately, the new Piercer Scorpion switched its attention from Malika to him, unleashing a brutal bination strike that sent more of his blood spraying into the air. Malika’s healing magic tore through his body briefly before she vao tinue her job.

  He barely noticed her leaving, mustering his entire focus to tanking the two powerful elementals. He kept unleashing his Swipe, striking both simultaneously and relying on the healing to deal with the ial wounds he was tinually rag up, reserving his focus for Survival Instinct. It gave him a slight edge, but that was more than enough to avoid or mitigate many of the most devastating attacks.

  “Hide!” Ali yelled.

  With only two scorpions collected so far, Mato khey wouldn’t try and burn them down just yet. However, he weled the lightning totems dropped by the enthusiastic shamans. They pulsed brilliantly in the darkearing at the armor ah of the monsters and softening them up for his strikes. His sense of smell, now powerfully enhanced by Survival Instinct, caught the strong pu st of ozone, reminding him of a sudden summer thuorm, clouds dark and air charged, waiting for the big strike of lightning.

  Beyond the prote of the wall, the deafening sound of thousands of bone spears smashing into stone hammered relentlessly at his ears, while his friends waited it out, trying to recover what little mana and stamina they could. He simply hunkered down, fog on his foes, trying to e while he mitigated as much damage from their attacks as possible with his heavy armor and blog skills.

  He dodged one of the tail strikes, but he was uo avoid a nasty gash on his left fnk as the sed Piercer Scorpion’s tail shed out simultaneously. Warm holy magic flowed through his body healing the deep cut even before the tail withdrew. The pain began to ebb as the wound kself shut. He added a dose of self-healing by spending some maaliating with his Swipe and Brutal Restoration.

  The pain in his ears suddenly vanished as the deafening hail of spears ceased. Within moments, rinting toward him with the Piercer Scorpion in tow. He locked it up quickly, and with three scorpions furiously attag him, he shifted his focus to avoiding only the most dangerous attacks; the tail strikes and the occasional magical Bone Spears they could cast. The spears were the easiest to avoid, given the clearly telegraphed summoning for the skill, but he still had to be careful as the other scorpions would try to lock him down with furious attacks or synize them with the deadly tail strikes. Sometimes, it was all he could do to avoid getting hit in the head, relying on the hard-w Acolyte to restore life and fun to his grievously damaged muscles and ans.

  When Malika appeared luring in the fourth scorpion, it took him several moments before he could hit it, as he desperately avoided a series of tail strikes and spears that threateo end his life. She simply waited patiently, adding her healing to that of the Acolyte while dodging aly avoiding stray strikes in the dangerous zone in front of the scorpions. As soon as his Swipe nded, and he secured the attention of the new addition to his party, he began to prepare to ehe immi explosive fme bath.

  “He’s nding! The wyvern is nding!” Ali yelled; her voice filled with surprised urgency.

  What? It didn’t do that before.

  A spear stabbed deep into his shoulder through a gap in the armor, punishing his momentary pse of tration. He winced, more upset that he had been distracted thaual pain from the injury which was already closing from the abundance of healing magic.

  ’s calm voice called out, “Ali, fireballs, Mato, get ready to tank the wyver nds.”

  ge of pns, I guess.

  Surprise in the middle of battle roblem, but Mato felt his heart jump iement at the prospect of having to face the giant Skeletal Wyvern.

  Immediately, he spent some extra mana maximizing his Brutal Restoration heal – it would tio heal him for a while, helping him through the inferno, and even when he had to get the wyvern. With four scorpions in front of him, his Swipe damage would be multiplied by each hit and his Brutal Restoration would bee that much bigger.

  The enormous shockwave of intense heat and fme smmed into his body, as the first fireball exploded almost in his face, bursting his eardrums, and igniting his fur. The intense inferno of fire magic burnt through his tough hide, searing his flesh, and filling his nostrils with the sulfurous odor and the st of bur. A light tou his fnk was all the warning he had before Malika’s powerful magic tore through his body, reversing the damage.

  His visioo white as the triple Lightning Bolt tearing through his enemies blinded him with their brilliaill uo see, he dodged, entirely depe on Survival Instinct to avoid the vicious tail strike that shed out from the chaos of magical destru. A sed explosion rocked his brain and body, burning his just-restored flesh. For a sed time, he felt the surge of Malika’s magic c through him, adding to the healing from his restoration, and the runic circle. Malika was w hard now that they had lost an Acolyte. Mato hadn’t seen it go down, but he had deduced what had happened when Malika had dumped thues off on him.

  The third explosioonated even louder than the prior ones, and he felt the potent fmes ripping and burning at him with a kind of ravenous hunger.

  That must have been Ali’s highest-level mage, he thought. Having experieheir magiumerous times, he was beginning to learn to identify Ali’s minions by how much damage he experienced, and the feel of their fireballs detonating in his face. The inferno filled his vision until the world went bck, the fire destroying his eyesight. Blind and deaf, he was left with only the acrid sulfurous odor of fire magic, the st of his own burning flesh and fur, and the urgeo dodge from his Survival Instinct. He g to Survival Instinct, trusted it implicitly to save him, and dodged sideways, feeling the crushing impact of a tail strike ricocheting off the deeel proteg his shoulder. Sharp shards sprayed his legs as the dangerous on smashed into the ground.

  At least their aim is off too, he thought, happy that they were suffering from the fmes too.

  A warm surge of holy magic filled his body, repairing his flesh as it rapidly knit his hide together, and regrew muscle and tissue. The fourth Fireball synized with the Lightning Bolts and by the time he felt Malika’s heal, his entire body and mind were dazed and battered. Dimly, he realized that the Piercer Scorpions were no longer hitting him.

  “Mato!” yelled. “Wyvern! Over here!”

  Somehow, must have realized he was blinded and was trying to lead him to the wyvern by the sound of his voice. Mato ran toward the sound of his friend, blinking rapidly to try and clear his vision as the pulsing magi the Acolyte began to repair his seared eyes. In the darkness, he could barely make out the enormous mass of bone ah alighting on the nding before him.

  Trusting his instincts, and the healing magic of the Acolyte, he charged forward, smming into the monster with a roar of challenge and a swipe of his magically enhanced paw. His strike hit something reassuringly solid, and his nature magic pulsed at once, beginning to heal him.

  Over here, stupid skeleton! If there was one drawback to his awesome shapeshift skill it would be the ck of ability to hurl insults at monsters like this one. Somehow, doing it in his head was just not quite as satisfying. In his rapidly clearing vision, he saw the giaurn toward him and the glowing eyes transfixed him with their malevolence.

  The wyvern opes mouth and a spray of five bone spears shot out in rapid succession. The first one splintered upon an instant golden barrier while the others puhrough the sparkling golden debris and flying shards before striking him several times. He wrenched sideways to snap the impaling spears and attacked with his Brutal Restoration, relying on the dedicated Kobold to patch up the spear wounds to his legs and fnks. He was already missing his favorite runic circle.

  I o make sure it doesn’t move first. As soon as he was certain he had the wyvern’s undivided attention, he backed up, swiveling the creature so it was side-on to the atrium and the rest of their group. He backed up to a bookcase, careful not to expose himself to the yawning abyss of the atrium in case the wyvern tried to knock him over the edge.

  “Attack!” shouted, his clear voice ringing out above the crashing and r of bat.

  With the monster now securely positioned, his friends unleashed their best attacks. The fsh of lightning and glow of fmes were the most promi. Malika positioned herself along the fnk of the creature, pung up a storm, remaining reassuringly close while she danced in and out to heal him whenever one of the spears shattered Ali’s barrier magid impaled him.

  The Skeletal Wyvern lunged forward jaws wide, rows of huge fangs almost a foot long reag for him. He anticipated the attad ducked uhe cavernous mouth, striking upwards after it passed and throwing all his weight behind his Swipe. His paw ected solidly with the underside of the giant jaws, f them to snap shut with a huge crash, biting on air.

  it even feel pain? he wondered, watg it rear back, recoiling its head from the attack. It was basically a giant armored skeleton animated by pure magical energy. His musing was interrupted by a premonition of intense urgency, and he immediately reized his perception skill anticipating a heavily damaging attad attempted to sidestep. A stream of rapid-fire Bone Spears shot out from the wyvern’s mouth, the first two shattering on magically appearing golden barriers summoned in quick succession, while the remaining three puhrough the shards and smmed into his fnk.

  That would have been my head and nebsp;he thought soberly, thankful again for the skill that had repeatedly saved his life. Maybe I should ask Thuli for a helmet. His high endurance made the pain tolerable, allowing him to keep his focus while the healing magic coursed through his body repairing the extensive damage. Malika and that little Kobold are w hard, he thought, wishing again that he had the additional safety of the runic circle.

  Mato’s mind and awareness shifted into a zone of instinctive attad response, blod avoidance, entirely focused on the enormous Skeletal Wyvern that dwarfed even his bulky frame. He read its attacks, studied its movement, aloised for an opening, or ready to defend against the ued. More and more, he felt himself trusting Malika and the Kobold Acolyte with his health, needing his full attention and tration to simply avoid the most critical strikes. They had proven they could heal enormous damage, but if he allowed himself to be incapacitated, even briefly, he knew he would be instantly overwhelmed. Nobody could heal him if he took a spear through the skull.

  He mixed up his Swipes, fog oing through regurly enough to maintain his Brutal Restoration, trating only on keeping the Skeletal Wyvern’s attention fixed on him even uhe onsught of magid arrows that rained down on it from the side.

  The two bony wings unfurled and fpped downward, kig up a haze of dust and pebbles from the ground and buffeting him with a sudden gust of wind. Mato’s Survival Instinct went wild, screaming several simultaneous fusing signals. He moved instantly, based entirely on intuition. Two sets of wickedly taloned cws shed out to strike at his fad shoulders, gleaming in the shifting background of offensive magical spells. The attack tore at his hide, scraping at his armor, each cw wickedly sharp and almost as long as his arm.

  But it was not over, for cealed by the talon attack, the Skeletal Wyvern’s long, whiplike tail cracked through the space betweeearing up ks of the stone floor with a grinding ripping sound as the sharpened bone sliced through his fnk, smashing ribs and sending him rolling across the ground in a spray of blood. He crashed into the wall with a bone-shaking jolt as two more bone spears impaled him, ohrough the shoulder and one embedded in his hind leg.

  In that moment, he felt the chill of fear and the iability of his demise. His mind questioned his sanity for fag such a powerful foe. At that instant, Malika’s hand spped his shoulder filling his body with the burning rush of her healing magic.

  “I got you.”

  It was all he o chase the specter of fear away and he scrambled to his feet, brag himself against the uing ferocity of the Skeletal Wyvern’s attacks. The wyvern drew back its head and hissed, spreading its wings. Its talons crushed stone as it uself into the air and, fpping its bony wings, it soared up above them returning to its pce flying over the atrium.

  “Hide!”

  At Ali’s yell, they all turned and ran for the retive safety of the rge bone-covered wall that served as their hiding spot, urged on by the thunderous roar of the wyvern’s magic spears shattering oone walls close behind.

  Mato returo his spot feeling the reassurance of the soothing magic of the restoration circle once again.

  timewalk