“Everything burns.”- Delwin “Boom” dershnomish Pyromancer.

  Aliandra

  Ali stood on the ramp in the endless furhat was the Emberfe Mines with her friends, staring down into a giant crater. Pools of va dotted the ndscape, and she couldn’t shake the image of the ehing being one giant, unnaturally hot amphitheater or arena fdiatorial bat. Behind them, the ramps and ledges of the broad mining cavern had been stripped bare of every elemental or va slime. No matter how long it took, had insisted on wiping out everything hostile within the cavernous, scalding space. All that remained were the occasional fire wisp, or fme butterflies that flitted around feeding on the dense fire-affinity mana.

  A t monster of white and yellow fme domihe ter of the arena, bzing shtly that Ali had to squint to any time her eyes rested on it for more than a few moments.

  Inferno [The ing Fme] – Elemental – level ?? (Fire)

  Ali gulped. It was enormous, at least four times taller than the Living Fmes they had been fighting, and even from this far, she could feel the excessive heat radiating out of its body – if an ambiguously solid being of pure fme could be said to even have ohe air iween shimmered, dist the image of the rocks on the far side of the cavern. Like the Living Fmes they had fought before, this monster resembled an upside-down pear of r fme with a dense core at the ter of the thickest part. A pair of heavy arm-like appendages hung from the sides, a cursory nod in the dire of a vaguely headless humanoid outli hovered a little above a puddle of molten rock. Even the rivers of mana flowing through it were staggering.

  “That looks like bad news,” Malika said.

  “Yes,” said, and his shared notifications popped up as rows of brilliant white shini in Ali’s mind.

  Inferno [The ing Fme] – Elemental – level 73

  [Explorer]Category: Dungeon BossThreat Level: RaidMoype: Elemental, UniqueDamage: Fire, Physical

  “How e you see its level?” Ali asked.

  “Explorer is level twe now,” answered. Ali did a quick bit of math to add his skill to his css level to satisfy her curiosity.

  “Unique? What’s that?” Mato asked.

  “I believe it is special enough that Identify shows its name instead of css type,” said.

  Ali studied it for a moment. A monster unique enough to be reized by the Identify skill – how would that affect their fights? “Maybe it has something to do with it having a title?” she asked.

  shrugged, and then said, “Everyone, please check that you have a potion of recall. That is definitely a raid boss, and probably much harder thahing we have fought so far.”

  Ali knew where she had stashed her recall potions, but she checked anyway. The reminder was smart. She summoned one of the potions to her hand, bck viscous liquid swirling within the vial, and showed it to him before pg it ba her ste entment. She had them all pced in an easy-to-find row in there so that there would be o hunt for one in an emergency.

  “I have some too,” Mato said. “But I usually ’t use them in bat.”

  “I’ll get you out if it es to that,” said.

  “I’m usually closer to his furriness,” Malika said.

  “Or that,” said, making a face.

  In a sed, Mato snorted as he realized what she had said and Malika gasped, “Not like that! You men… minds iter!”

  The Beastkin shrugged, “I’m the i party here.”

  “Maybe you both do it,” Ali said, chug at their iion. “Wasting a potion is a cheap price for peaind.” She still stared down at the monster in the arena. She had no idea what it was capable of, and the versation about the recall potions served as a pointed reminder of the very real possibility they would o flee under dangerous circumstances, effectively paying for any information they could learn with a high risk to their lives ah. Yes, potions are trivial pared to that.

  “Remember, anyone call a retreat for any reason,” Malika said, her voice betraying quite a bit of nervousness. It was a strategy they had decided on earlier. Without any information about the boss, the moment anyone learned of anything critically dangerous, there would be no time to expin it to the others. It was smarter, they had decided, to flee and e back ter with a better pn.

  With all the discussion and reminders of how little they actually knew, Ali found herself pag and forced herself to stop.

  “Enough talk, are we going to hit that thing or what?” Mato said. “We won’t know anything until we go down there and ask it with a polite punch.”

  Ali nodded, and the reed, and Mato transformed to lead the way down into the arena, with everyone flying, running, or floating down behind him. They carefully picked their way across the floor, avoiding pools and puddles of va, some bubbling and sending spshes of molten rock flying in all dires. Halfway across the arena, the moirred.

  “What manner of puny creatures interrupt my ption?”

  Ali yelped, g her hands over her ears as the rumbling roar of Inferno’s voice shook the cavern, dislodging sizeable ks of rock from the ceiling. The fact that it spoke at all shocked her, let alohat it used the a nguage of Dal’mohra.

  It’s a good thing we cleared the whole room, she thought as she stared aghast at the boulders smming into the ground throughout the atrium. had insisted on it, and she had been vinced he was being paranoid, but if there had been anythi alive iire mine cavern, it had definitely heard that shout.

  It turo face them as they advanced. Even this far from the massive elemental, the fmes of its powerful aura were already dang about her and all her minions. Flickers of holy mana sparkled across their group as the Acolytes reacted to the area damage caused by nothing more than its presence.

  Mato roared a challenge and charged towards the elemental. While it seemed reckless, the act of a bat juhrowing caution to the wind, Ali noticed he never once exceeded the range of her Acolyte healers.

  Inferned forward to meet them.

  “DIE, WEAKLINGS!”

  The roar of its voice hit Ali like a palpable wave of sound, far more deafening up close. Huge arm-like appendages of pure fme crashed down on Mato, setting him alight. Nearby pools of va erupted, geysers of molten rock shooting into the air as the shockwave of the massive strike rippled outward through the stone. Rock buckled and sheared, leaving jagged boulders and sbs of stone protruding from the ground haphazardly. Several of her minions stumbled, knocked off their feet.

  Ali ig all, studying the raid elemental’s mana. Her job was to gather as muformation as possible. Dealing damage early on was not a priority for her. Her minions would take care of that. She trated on her skill and the plex array of information p into her mind, all the while keeping an eye on Mato’s health through her Acolyte’s vision.

  A surge of fire-affinity mana swept through the enormous elemental, a spell formation she reized instantly.

  “Explosion!” she yelled.

  A powerful spherical shockwave of fme exploded out from Inferno. It was like the spell the Living Fmes had used – if one sidered the Living Fmes’ versions to be cheap knockoffs of this spell. The ultra-dense, yellow-white pressed wall of fme smashed into her body, shattering her hastily summoned barrier instantly, searing her face, and snapping her arms like twigs. Everything iire arena was bsted into the air. Boulders from the tround were unched in every dire. Ali struggled to hang onto her wits, barely remaining scious as she hit her apex. As her mind recovered, she used her Minion Teleport to arrest her momentum and her barriers to desd. Her minions spttered to the ground all around her, some nding in the va and some on the roearby. One of her rogues spshed down in a big va pool and perished. A falling Kobold Bone Mage bounced a meter into the air before falling to a crumpled heap.

  Ali ted her Acolytes, finding all of them sprinting back, having survived by healing themselves in midair. Holy spells flickered rapidly as they ran. Even she had lost more than two-thirds of her health from the explosion, and the Restoration magic was taking a while to fully heal her.

  Mato roared, reengaging, but the group that gathered behind him was noticeably smaller. “Attack,” Ali said. Lightning Bolts crackled as they flickered across fme and va. Bone Spears sizzled through the air, trailing smoke as they ignited. Arrows flew from twanging bows. Through it all, Ali kept her focus on her mana sight and the perception of her Acolytes, searg for any warning signs of something dangerous.

  “Explosion!”

  Once again, she was tossed into the air like a helpless ragdoll, this time not as far as her barrier absorbed some of the power before shattering. A shaman died in midair to the crushing impact of a flying boulder. Her group of archers bounced and cartwheeled inte pool of bubbling va, most of their health stripped from the explosion. They perished in seds to the intense heat of molten rock.

  Suddenly, Are Insight prickled with the searing formation of a spell. Summoning magibsp;Ali had an instant fshback to the Skeletal Wyvern they had defeated in the library, but this ability seemed broader, aensive in a way she had not yet entered.

  “Summons ining!” she yelled. Sure enough, at the feet of the Inferno, two dozeals appeared, immediately surging outwards to ehem. They were yellow-white just like the Inferno, only quite a bit smaller.

  Shard of Inferno – Elemental – level 60 (Fire) x24

  Even the minions are sixty! Chaos erupted in an instant. Elementals shot about in every direowing down Ali’s minions like wheat. Overpping auras zipped about following each Shard, and with even two or three of them ganging up on an acolyte or shaman, her creatures stood no ce, erupting into instant pyres of yellow fme. Mato roared, struggling to gather them up, but colleg them proved impossible as they rushed about tearing into everything in sight.

  “Run!” shouted from high above. His shout was followed by an accurately lobbed potion from the air which shattered on Mato’s back, causing him to vanish in a puff of bck smoke. ’s wings fred as he took off toward the distant doorway.

  Ali shot after him, hanging onto her barrier with one hand. She retrieved her recall potion just in case she couldn’t escape in time. Below her, she could see Malika sprinting at full speed, outpag both her and as she danced across the va and ramps and various obstacles using her powerful movement skill.

  The Inferno stopped chasing them as soon as they passed through the doorway into the Landing, and its miniourned, many of the smaller elementals vanishing in puffs of fme as the giant monster unsummohem.

  “Let’s go back to the library and find Mato,” Ali suggested, indig the teleportation locus she had prepared. “We probably o talk before we try that again.”

  Only oion this time. Cheap escape.

  ***

  “So, what do you think, Ali?” asked, gng in her dire.

  “It seems to be simir to the Living Fme,” Ali said. They all sat on the couches in the library discussing the fight, with already taking copious notes on their discussion. Inferno ecialized variant of a Living Fme – stronger, and with a more potent soure. Perhaps that’s what it means for a moo be unique?

  “That explosio simir,” Malika agreed.

  Mato nodded. “Bigger.”

  Ali had experience creating two raid bosses herself, so she was much more familiar with the meics of how their skills and csses might work than her friends. At least she had an idea of how the powerful domain magic worked, and what sorts of things might be possible. What she had learned in their brief enter with the Inferno had her very worried.

  “The summoning skill it used is one of its domain-enhanced skills,” Ali said. There was no room for doubt in her mind – the mana formation had been drawn directly from the surrounding domain mana, and even if that wasn’t a dead giveaway, the raw power of the skill would have been a clear sign. “What I’m most worried about is that both my raid bosses have three skills. The Skeletal Wyvern and the Twin Wights did too. We have only seen one from this Inferno so far.”

  “That explosion wasn’t one of the domain abilities?” asked.

  “hat looked like one of its regur skills. Which is why I think it’s reted to the Living Fme. It already showed us the explosive bst wave and the aura of fmes. I think we should expect the fire shield and the tornadeion. Or at least, something simir. There should be awo domain abilities, whatever those might be.”

  “Is it possible it has something like an enhatribute?” asked.

  “I suppose so, but it’s probably safer to assume it has something to surprise us,” Ali answered.

  ’s point was valid. Her Kobold warrior boss had minions, endurance, and strength enhas. Both raid bosses they had entered in the Ruins of Dal’mohra had had oribute enhanced. If one or both of the Inferno’s remaining domain magic abilities were enhatributes, they would likely never be visible to her Are Insight.

  “That seems like the prudent approach,” Malika agreed. “So, I should attack its mana then? I mean, I was already, I just want to firm that’s a good strategy.”

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Ali answered. As soon as they had stumbled upon that strategy the Living Fmes had suddenly bee a lot easier. The explosions were severely disruptive and dangerous, and if they could lower their frequency, they would stand a better ce. “I think I get my Acolytes to give everyone a Restoration before the explosions, so my minions stop dying on impact, I just don’t knoe’re going to hahe summoned elementals.”

  “They’re difficult to tank,” Mato said. “Squirrely.”

  “We should try area damage,” said. “Ali, you try to corral them with your barriers? Maybe like the funnel you used on the fire spiders? Then we use your shamans to fire Lightning Bolts through the entire pack. I use my explosive shot to help clear them.”

  “Hopefully they don’t heal from each other’s fme auras like the Shards of Fme,” Ali pointed out.

  “If they do, we should give up,” Malika said soberly, “at least until we’re a lot stronger.”

  Round two. shifted unfortably in the heat as he gazed at the huge elemental. It was going to be a rough battle. Even though they all had the best resistahey could buy, and they had a partial strategy hammered out, there were still far too many unknowns. Ali had mentiohat there was likely to be at least one more powerful ability they hadn’t seehat worried him – more than he had let on in their pnning. Hopefully, at worst, it was an ability they could still escape from. Not to mention their analysis assumed that this dungeon used simir rules to Ali’s. If it did not, or had more advanced abilities, there was likely no way to prediany surprises it had in store for them. The uainty bothered him, gnawing away inside – he khere was no way to be sure before engaging again, and likely they would o get quite far itle before they learned something new.

  That knowledge could e at a lethal price.

  o obsess about what I ’t know, he told himself. He would sider it a successful battle if they ran away with new informatioheless, worry still lurked within his heart, refusing to let go. This elemental was way more powerful than anything he had ever seen, except for Lyeneru and the Death Knight. But this time he and his friends were on their own.

  “We got this,” Mato said, giving him a light pun the shoulder. “Don’t fet your elixir.” As he said it, he downed one himself and made the empty vial vanish. Morwynne offered a small silver as a deposit for vials returned intact.

  summoned one of his own.

  Elixir of Fire Resistance – level 41e: +20% to resistance against fire damage. Duration: 1 hour.Created by Morwynne Fizzlebang – “A little less burn.”Potion

  He examihe potion in his hand. These had beeremely expeo make, even with most of the ingredients provided by Ali’s new fire affinity garden. A, he was certain they wouldn’t be standing here without them.

  Everyone seems ready.

  “Let’s try to learn something new,” he said, downing his potion.

  “Safety first,” Malika answered, drinking her potion too.

  Ali’s minions shuffled around, anizing their formation, many of them drinking lower-level versions of the same elixir, and grimaced momentarily at the amount of mohat had just been ed, but it was a necessary cost.

  “I’m getting the boss,” Mato said, waiting a moment in case anyone objected before switg to his Bear Form.

  The Inferno roared, its words shaking the chamber as they attacked. Ali had expi spoke in the aongue of Dal’mohra, but it seemed ued in actually versing with creatures it deemed to be so far beh it. Or it just wasn’t that intelligent in the first pce. What do elementals think about anyway?

  drew his bow and fired as soon as Mato’s cws struck fme. He hovered at the maximum range, even though that was still well withi wave radius. His arrows fleidly, ented with extra damage. He was using only the one entment to serve his mana, settling in for a long fight. He had beeing on a strained resource budget for so long now, that he was still getting used to the adjustments for his new adva. Even though he couldn’t be wasteful, it still felt that he had excess stamina to py with now. Every shot took some stamina, and the cost redu really paid off in the long run.

  His arrows fleidly, several chasing each other in the air on the way to the elemental.

  “Explosion!” Ali’s voice rang out through the arena.

  He braced himself as the shockwave washed over him, smashing against his body and knog him head over heels, cartwheeling through the air. He groaned from the instant bruise and creaking ribs, but he immediately felt the soft pulse of holy magic healing him as he flew back.

  How did she do that? Ali had somehanized her Acolytes to leave a heal over time on most of their group and she had pulled it off before the explosion had hit. He would have to ask her after the fight.

  He fred his wings and trolled his dest aiming for closer to the ground. Knowing that he would be fag many explosions, he chose to leave his wings active, retrieved a mana potion from his ring’s ste entment, and dow.

  The first of many.

  “Summons!” Ali yelled almost a mier. Somehow, the sed explosion hadn’t e, which meant a ge in the boss’s strategy, or Malika was having an effect already.

  The two dozen Shards of Inferno appeared in a bright surge of yellow fme, scattered around the giant boss that towered over all of them. Immediately, they surged towards where Ali’s healers stood.

  A g, grinding sound echoed in the amphitheater as several substantial walls of bone appeared. Rib bones of uifiable monsters jutted out in all dires, barring the way to prevent the elementals from spreading out. Still, Ali had left a narrow passage for them to funnel into. It was not quite the shape he would have picked, but it looked like it would work. Large pnes of Ali’s golden barrier magic sprung up creating further impediments to slow the creatures down.

  flew higher into the air, pulsing mana into his wings for ara boost of speed – for this, he would need a little more elevation to angle his shots down without w about the walls. Within the cluster of elementals, three steel totems began pulsing lightning novas and Ali’s shamans unleashed arm-thick bolts of lightning that tore through the entire pack.

  Perfebsp;Ali’s skillful arra of her barriers and walls had bottlehe elementals such that all of them were taking heavy lightning damage, and the Shards of Inferno were penned up instead of spreading chaos through their group.

  My turn, he thought, summoning four simultaneous arrows of light magic to his bow and enting them with his brand-new Explosive Shot. He had just reached level thirty with Radiant Archery and the extra arrow was going to e in very handy. Briefly, he sidered using his Righteous Fury, but with its long recharge, he was loath to spend it if he didn’t o. Probably one of the fme shields will be a better choice.

  He loosed the flight of arrows and immediately summoned another four, repeating the process, ign the steep mana cost he aying. He mao get three flights of arrows in the air before the first oruck. A roar rose from the ground as his arrows detonated unevenly on impact. The bright group of elementals vanished iensity of the quadruple explosions of his light magic. squinted his eyes without missing a shot. The sed flight nded before the detonations had even faded, followed by the third and fourth. Around the fifth, Ali’s mages refreshed the bone walls because they were shedding rge ks of shattered bone. Ali’s golden barriers appeared, flickering in spots, blog holes, and preventing any of the elementals from esg the kill zone. He unleashed volley after volley, a brilliant arc of arrows from above while he watched the tinuous explosion ripping through the monsters below.

  He was almost down to ten pert of his mana when his notifications exploded with chiming sounds. He released one more volley to make sure, and when the light faded, all that was left were the pulverized remains of the bone walls and the corpses of the elementals.

  “Explosion!”

  The shockwave smmed into the side of his body while he was still in midair, tossing him like a leaf in a storm and knog the air from his lungs. He gasped as he struggled tht himself with his wings. As he desded, he felt the holy magic flowing into his body once again, healing the impact of the bst wave. He retrieved a mana potion and dow, beginning to shoot once again, using regur arrows for now to serve mana.

  Ugh, I’m going to o recover before it summons more.

  ----------

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