Ultimate Level 1

“So what kind of magic does it cast?” Tanila asked after they all decided it would be worth attempting the boss.

“No clue. The book just said it casts magic.”

Fowl snickered at Max’s comment but said nothing.

“I’m assuming your skill is down till tomorrow?”

“Yup. Unless you three want to camp here for a day and wait for it to come back up, it’s on cooldown.”

Tanila grunted and nodded.

“We can still change our mind. I don’t want to risk this unless everyone is all in.”

Batrire started to laugh, howling as her voice echoed off the walls.

They turned and looked at her, watching her as she held up a hand and continued laughing.

Fowl shrugged when he saw Max looking at him for answers.

When she finally stopped laughing and caught her breath, she smiled at them.

“You three make me laugh. We’re adventurers. We fight for our gods and earn their favor by doing so. Now we are given a rare opportunity to do something no one has in ages, and suddenly, the risk is too great.” She stopped, and her smile vanished, narrowing her eyebrows at the other three. “We fought the undead horde, expecting we wouldn’t live. We faced a shade, knowing that people would die. Yet we walked away unscathed and rewarded. Now we have the chance to face a boss that presents the same risk as all those others, but…” She paused, taking a deep breath and then letting it out. “The chance for rare loot is within our grasp. For the first time in all the moments we risked death, we finally have a chance to be rewarded for it!”

“That’s my dwarf!” Fowl exclaimed, winking at Batrire, who rolled her eyes.

“Fine. How are we going to actually do this?” Tanila asked.

Fowl was as ready as he could be. Everyone saw the hard look in his eyes.

“Remember, it may see me, and my attack might fail,” Max said as he cast a fire enchant on his massive axe. “I’m going in big. I need to try to disable it, and we need to burn it down. If it charges our casters and we can’t stop it, run. No hesitating.”

“Wanting all the loot for you two, huh?” Tanila asked, winking at him.

Max nodded as he turned and gave Fowl a gentle pat on the shoulder. “It’s up to you bud. On your signal.”

Taking a deep breath, Fowl nodded as he let it out and then pointed his hammer at the boss. “Stealth now, I’m going in!”

Max vanished a second before Fowl crossed the faint yellow line on the ground.

The boss’s three heads focused on the dwarf warrior as Fowl entered the room. The boss took off running, crossing the checkered squares with a speed that let them know this fight was on a whole different level.

As it ran toward Fowl, the hand with no sword rose, and flames began to surround it.

“Fireball!” Tanila shouted, recognizing the patterns of flames coming off its massive hand.

Without hesitating, Fowl shifted to the left, moving away from the opening to protect Tanila and Batrire against the fireball that was about to come at him.

Moving as fast as stealth allowed, Max realized that the speed at which he was moving and the distance between him and the boss, combined with its magical ability, might not be worth a stealth attack.

The fireball from its hand was massive, easily larger than Fowl, who hunkered down behind his shield, preparing for the blast.

A stone wall rose from the ground a moment before flames impacted the dwarf, blocking the fireball but shattering against the force of the boss’s attack.

The middle and left heads snapped to look at Tanila, and it roared with its massive maws, turning its body toward the entrance.

Seeing the change in its trajectory, Fowl shouted at the boss as he ran toward it, trying to intercept it.

Max canceled stealth and saw the left head focus on him as he came out of it fifteen yards away with his axe pulled back.

The sword in the boss’s right hand came at him as it planted its feet, twisting its hips and swinging low.

Grateful for the sphere surrounding him and letting him detect its movements and attacks better, Max adjusted the axe handle, angling the blade as he planted his feet and prepared for the impact.

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The blades connected, and the boss’s sword bounced off with a clang, taking a chunk of Max’s axe blade along with it.

Fowl was still shouting, running at the boss with his shield and hammer and drawing the attention of its right head the entire time.

As the boss began to move its sword down at Max in another attack, an ice spear impaled the head on the left, sending the body slightly off balance for a second.

Using that shift, Max ran forward, swinging his axe and slicing into the boss’s right ankle. The axehead dug into the ankle five inches and then stopped. The broken blade wouldn’t cut all the way through.

Its sword came down as Max let go of the axe shaft and dashed between its feet.

Fowl arrived in time to see the tip of the boss’s sword rake across the stone and crystal floor. Sparks flew up and away as he dodged the strike, reaching its right foot where a massive six-foot axe was embedded from Max’s attack. He slammed down on the boss’s pinky toe with his hammer, popping it like a grape between his fingers.

Chaos erupted while Max pulled out his swords. He cast the area of effect ice spell, hoping to give him and Fowl some breathing room.

As the ice spell started to go off, his sphere of detection picked up the movement of the boss’s foot as it lifted and tried to step on him.

Dodging to its backside, he evaded the attack only to know what was about to happen.

“Fireball!”

The hand covered in flames wasn’t pointed at him or Fowl, and even though he was under the boss, Max realized the only head not focused on Fowl or him was the middle one that hadn’t taken its eyes off of Tanila.

A foot slammed to the ground next to him, and Max spun, using the momentum to slice its heel and score two massive slashes into its ankle.

“The middle head is the caster!” he shouted, moving toward the right leg, which was struggling from the injury and the axe's weight. Fowl delivered another strike to a toe before bringing his shield up and dealing with the sword coming for him.

The clang of metal on metal rang out as Max turned to see the fireball from the boss impact an invisible wall he knew was made of air and sent fire cascading around the room.

Even with his eyes on Tanila, Max saw what happened when the boss’s sword connected with Fowl’s shield. A massive gouge appeared in the shield, and their dwarven warrior's arm was crushed.

He saw Fowl pulling back, trying to free the shield wedged into his arm while trying to dodge the attack he knew was about to come.

Driving both swords into the boss’s right calf, Max pulled down and sliced the muscle and tendons.

The boss stumbled, its ankle weakened, and its lower leg not working, causing the attack that was about to connect with Fowl to miss, impacting the ground and making a horrible sound.

The vibrations of the sword's impact with the ground echoed in Max’s mind and made the world shift in his sphere for a moment.

Staggering backward, he pulled his swords free from the boss’s calf. The sphere returned in time to detect the left hand coming for him.

A fist was flying at Max’s face that he couldn’t dodge, so he decided to trade damage with the boss. Holding his swords out, the boss impaled its fist on them as it punched Max, sending him tumbling across the floor for half a dozen yards.

Not wasting the moment, Max stood up, hearing the boss roar as it opened its fists and sliced its palm apart, both swords still stuck through its knuckles.

Spitting blood, Max felt the pain from the damage the impact did. He could see Batrire casting and knew the healing would happen in moments, but he didn’t have time to waste. Every second counted.

Pushing through the pain, he pulled his spear out of storage, casting a fire enchant and draining the last of his mana.

He saw the boss holding its left hand to its mouth as it used the teeth in its left head to pull a sword free and spit it on the ground.

His shield came out of storage three steps before he drove his spear into the left ankle, piercing the same area he had slashed earlier. The spear punctured the wound, penetrating all the way to the bone.

The moment his spear impaled its ankle, the boss jerked its foot forward, sending it pitching to the right as its right leg gave out from its injuries.

His spear jerked free as the boss fell, allowing him to thrust again, aiming for its hip and hitting a bone as the boss fell to the ground.

Rolling backward, Max managed to dodge the arm coming for him, his spear still inside the boss’s hip.

Grunting, Max rose up, pulling another axe from storage, grateful for James having a massive dimensional storage item that allowed him to carry so many weapons. Swapping out the shield for the axe, he prepared to engage when he noticed the boss begin to glow green.

It only took a moment to realize what was happening as he saw wounds begin to close.

“It's healing!”

Realizing time was limited, Max moved toward the left head, not wasting a second, and swung the axe, cleaving into the head and slicing off a third of its skull.

Two roars that almost hurt his ears came from the boss as it tried to roll onto its right side.

Fowl was at the edge of Max’s sphere, and his backup shield was equipped. It was smaller, offering less protection, and that was why Fowl was staying back.

As the boss rose to its hands and knees, Max swung his axe again, catching the right head and almost severing it completely off.

The middle head roared, flames coming from its left and right hands.

Glancing at the ground, Max saw the boss’s sword just a few feet away.

“Fire nova!”

Ignoring Tanila’s shout, Max hefted the axe he was holding toward the middle head that was now glaring at him and roaring. The axe spun end over end through the air, and the boss shifted, trying to dodge the attack.

The blade’s rotation was off, so it missed, but the shaft smacked into the side of its head, causing the flames covering its hands to go out.

The second he had thrown the axe, Max moved to the massive sword and grabbed it in both hands. It was heavier than he had anticipated, yet with his current strength, still usable.

Lifting it up, he drove toward the boss, which had regained its focus and started summoning flames around its hands again.

Thrusting the sword, he aimed for its heart, driving the blade through its black skin and piercing the side through the ribs.

It was a race for who would finish first. Max pressed with everything he had, forcing the sword deeper into the chest as flames ignited around him, already burning his skin from the heat.

“Run Seth!”