Shining Dragon Showdown

The pocket dimension which was Brightlord Temporix's own domain within the Eternal Tower tore open as the skeletal dragon was called forth from wherever he'd been scheming a few moments before.

He seemed thinner and less gloriously bright than he'd been in the tutorial level. This version of Temporix was supposed to be his form from hundreds of years in the future from the tutorial, at a point where he'd gained and lost much power during his battles with the Immortal players.

Many of the spikes and protrusions on his crystalline skeleton had been broken away, and some of the mass of his skull, spine, and claws had been dissolved, giving him a more lithe appearance. The light which filled these bones was much dimmer, though it shone like the glory of the full moon from cracks and pits all over the surface of the skeleton.

A halo of shimmering rainbow runes hung above Temporix's head, a sign of the Immortal energy he'd stolen from many of those who had awoken in the centuries since the Immortals first began to return at the beginning of the game. An aurora spread across the sky like a flag, emanating from this halo, and the faint sound of a lovely choir filled the air.

All of this was supposed to inspire awe and wonder in the hearts of the players who beheld it for the first time. Of course, Ignatius didn't fall into that category… and it took far more than this to inspire wonder in the heart of Ozyrus.

Instead, the Astrologer turned to Ignatius and nodded. "Here we go, then."

Ignatius raised his fists. "Yep. Very simple from here on out. Just keep blasting and I'll do my best to keep aggro."

As he said these last few words, Brightlord Temporix's voice came screaming toward them from up above, sounding like shattering glass and tearing metal overlaid on one another.

"You fools! For centuries, since I broke free of my prison, you've pathetically chased after me, failing to stop me from achieving my goals! Well, no matter! I have already laid waste to your precious City of Stomrus! Soon I will unveil the great dungeon beneath Stomrus, the lock for which the Eternal Tower is the key, and will combine them both! And then the world will be free of the tyranny of the gods forever, and all mortals will worship me as their savior!"

Brightlord Temporix dove downward, smashing through the roof of his temple. Through the main entrance which was in front of them, the players saw Temporix seize the remaining idol—the cobra—in his claws and crush it into gravel. Rainbow energy burst from the idol and sunk into Temporix.

"I reclaim the power which I previously invested!" he roared. At the same moment, the spikes and protrusions on his long spine regenerated, spreading from the base of his crystalline skull all the way to his tail, which also thickened and grew longer. The temple itself exploded as Temporix released a shock wave of energy, and blocks of stone smashed trees and shattered against boulders in the forest.

Both players managed to avoid taking more than a bit of damage from flying debris. Ignatius put himself in front of Ozyrus, taking almost all the force so that there would be no risk of the Astrologer being broken out of the spell he'd been charging the entire time Temporix was having his cutscene-like monologue.

And then the skeletal dragon was towering over the ruins of his temple, staring at the players with his burning eyes and with a radiant flame growing in his mouth. "Now die!" he roared, then blasted a jet of radiation at their location.

The fight had begun.

Ignatius sprinted forward as fast as he could. Temporix tilted his head downward, aiming the breath attack at his charging enemy instead of the player who was still just standing still. At the last moment, Ignatius threw himself to the side, narrowly avoiding the breath attack.

However, where the radiation-filled breath weapon touched the ground, it created a sickly white glow that gave off a mild AoE of radiant damage to anyone standing nearby. It was one of the most physically painful effects in the whole game, though it dealt little actual HP damage: a psychological hazard more than a mechanical one.

Ignatius felt searing pain on one half of his body from his place lying on the ground next to this AoE. He gritted his teeth, got to his feet, and tried to ignore the pain as he continued to run toward Temporix.

The crystalline dragon swept his now-huge tail in a swift arc, trying to smash Ignatius in the side. It carried all the force of a speeding train, and would take out at least half of Ignatius's HP if he got hit.

But Ignatius forced himself to remain calm and counted down carefully as the tail hurtled toward him.

Three… Two… One…

Now!

He jumped as high as he could, and the tail just barely passed below his feet. The trail of flames from his [✯Trailblazer] skimmed the dragon's bones, dealing a small amount of fire damage!

"How dare you lay a finger on me!?" Temporix roared. He'd been turning back toward Ozyrus to attack him also, but the fact that Ignatius had just dealt the first damage of the fight transferred all his aggro onto the Monk! He raked a huge claw through the air, which Ignatius frantically parried.

However, unlike many other enemies, huge enemies didn't usually open themselves up to counter-attacks when their normal attacks were parried, and parries which weren't performed with perfect timing often let damage through, anyway. In this case, Ignatius's attempt was just a bit less than perfect, and he took a worrying chunk of damage.

"How's that spell coming?" he shouted at his companion. If he'd been soloing this encounter, Ignatius would be kiting the boss with much better effectiveness, trying to stay outside the attack range of that claw attack as best as he could.

But every second the boss thought he was running away would lower his aggro, making it more likely that Ozyrus would be the next one to take a direct hit and lose all his skill-charging progress. For the moment, Ignatius needed to keep aggro even if it meant spending precious HP.

"Done!" Ozyrus grunted at last. He raised his staff to the sky and used that same skill which had blasted two of the idols during the previous stage of the fight. A new dimensional rift opened below the one which Temporix had traveled through, and a barrage of heavenly power slammed into the boss!

Brightlord Temporix howled in pain as the newly regenerated spikes on his body snapped off again. His halo of rainbow energy shone brightly, expanding into a dome which protected him against the ongoing barrage, but he'd still taken a huge chunk of damage. Since he was such a massive creature, he'd taken damage from several zones of the spell at once… and the super-powerful weapon of Sarexia which Ozyrus wielded multiplied the damage of each of those instances.

Ignatius was quite impressed. He hadn't expected the attack to be quite so potent. The skill which Ozyrus was using was a very basic Astrologer skill, after all. The Sarexia weapon exploit certainly was incredible.

That attack had "only" taken out about 25% of Temporix's HP, but depleting all the boss's HP wasn't the main way the fight was supposed to be completed. Instead, the players were supposed to break the body part which Temporix had strengthened by absorbing the last idol.

In this case, his spine and tail.

And based on how all the spikes had broken in that blast of celestial energy, they were most of the way there.

Temporix made several more claw and tail attacks. Ignatius did a much better job avoiding these than the last claw attack, falling once more into the familiar rhythm of a fight he'd performed many, many times in the past. Whenever he had an opening, he darted in and smashed a [✧Sacred Fist] into Temporix's tail.

He tried to lure the boss into facing the opposite direction from Ozyrus, allowing the Astrologer to use a very weak ranged spell skill to pelt the tail with little amounts of damage that made the fight just a bit faster.

But then Ozyrus's voice came to Ignatius from across the battlefield. "Hold on, my Hunger Clock's low. I'm going to eat something…"

"No!" Ignatius shouted. "The aggro's too close to even right now!"

He'd forgotten to warn Ozyrus that using a potion or food item while in a fight added a huge amount of aggro, and…

He was too late. Temporix, who had been just about to claw Ignatius, turned around and instead began slashing through the air toward the player who was neither expecting the attack nor had the skill to dodge or parry it.

That amount of unmitigated damage would kill Ozyrus… which would give the boss a huge power buff that would make Ignatius almost certainly unable to win.

So with every bit of effort he could muster, Ignatius leaped forward and landed with both feet on the end of Temporix's tail. He was seared by an aura of radiation that blasted out of the bones, but he was dealing fire damage in return. Ignatius choked back a scream at the simulated pain and threw himself forward onto the tail, smashing the crystalline bones with one, two, three [✧Sacred Fists].

The bones shattered, and he went flying.

"No!" Temporix roared. "I will not accept defeat! I will not be destroyed by pathetic mortals who have tasted only a hint of power! I will not—"

And then, with Temporix's idols having all been destroyed and there being no other anchor keeping the time-space construct in place, the pocket dimension imploded.