Ezzie said.

I took a deep breath, trying to tamp down the panic that was threatening to consume me.

Ezzie said,

Two enormous mobs towered over the battlefield, each easily twenty feet tall. But the creatures were knobby and disfigured, the proportions utterly, entirely wrong. I squinted, not understanding what I was seeing.

Ezzie said. a mob. And those are its knees. The damn thing is still forming.>

When the nanos had finished their work, the humanoid dragonkin stood the better part of fifty feet tall, and it held a massive warhammer over one shoulder—the head of which was pure ice—that was about the size of a small building.

The creature wore black, heavy plate lined with ice-blue scales that were the exact hue of those I’d found back in the Chainkeeper’s quarters.

{Dragonkin Behemoth} (Level 10 Dragonkin) (Raid Boss)

HP: 20,000/20,000

I said. thousand health?>

Ezzie said.

The huge creature took a long step forward, and the ground shook beneath the weight of its footfall.

Ezzie said.

that? How the hell do you tank something that large?>

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said.

I swallowed and headed down the stairs while Ezzie dropped the drawbridge. She raised it the moment I crossed the moat, which seemed a bit trivial given the size of the monstrosity lurking beyond.

If the creature got close enough, it’d have no problem stepping over the moat. And probably the walls, too.

Ezzie said,

I said, though a one shot seemed pretty likely to me. I jogged out to meet the gigantic creature. “Flarebright Aura,” I said, and the grass brightened in a disk beneath my feet.

The Behemoth glared down at me, its ice-blue lips curving into a cruel smile. It raised its hammer high into the air with both hands, then smashed it in my direction.

An icy shockwave ripped towards me, churning the earth and throwing up gigantic clods of soil and rock. I raised my shield high and activated Magic Reflect, fully expecting to be launched backward and into the moat, but the attack struck my shield with a thunderous crash, causing the grass to freeze around me for ten feet in every direction.

Then the attack rebounded, gouging through the same rutted, frozen path at even greater speed, as if the lack of friction had made it stronger.

The Behemoth’s huge eyes widened as the earth froze, split, then dropped out beneath it. The Behemoth fell into the earth, a thousand-and-two floating through the air where it had stood only moments earlier.

When the dust and soil cleared, I stood in front of a newly minted canyon, some ten feet across and eight feet deep, at the end of which was a giant, frozen sinkhole, maybe fifty feet wide.

I said, keeping my shield at the ready.

Ezzie said.

The Behemoth’s hammer flew up out of the pit and crashed into the earth. Then a blue hand emerged over the rim of the sinkhole, then a second, and before long the creature had hoisted itself free and was reclaiming its weapon. The earth shuddered, then slammed back into place.

Ezzie said.

I said, as I bolted parallel to the north wall.

The Behemoth roared and gave chase. I spared it a glance over my shoulder. Each stride the creature took easily cleared fifteen feet, and the grass was flying in its wake, the earth rippling and cracking beneath the weight of its footfalls.

Ezzie said.

I gasped as a hundred heal-over-time spells rained down on me at the same time. The Behemoth was still a few seconds out, so I spared the huge row of buffs a look:

{Weak Refresh I}

Effect: Provides 200 health over the next 20 seconds

Ezzie said.

I still had Mirror Block at the ready, so I held my ground as the creature drew closer. When it was about twenty feet away, it leapt high into the air, raising its warhammer above its head once again. Some kind of gap closer?

I said, as I raised my shield. It seemed utterly impossible that I’d be able to block the incoming attack.

The hammer seemed to fall in slow motion, the icy head perfectly positioned to drive me straight into the ground, as if I were no more than a nail waiting to be put in its place.

“Mirror Block!”

Light flared above me as the hit struck my shield dead center. There was a terrible moment where it didn’t feel like the block would be enough—like the weapon would just punch straight through because of course it would—but the pressure dispersed and flowed around me, ripping the surround grass free and throwing it into the air.

The Behemoth recoiled, growling, stepped back, and swung in a huge, horizontal arc. I threw myself flat and the weapon swept harmlessly above me. But the creature simply stepped into the strike and pivoted, adding the momentum it had created to another overhand strike.

Dozens of fireballs exploded off the mob’s chest, knocking it backward and causing it to throw up a hand to block the attacks. A mortar strike exploded just behind it, splattering its back with tar and debuffing it.

I charged forward as the creature reared back, dodging between its legs and slashing out as I went, getting in as many Refraction Strikes as I could manage, the highest of which sent a one-eighty floating up into the air.

Ezzie said.

Mirror Block was about to come off cooldown, and the words were in the back of my throat as the creature spun and swept its weapon low and sideways. The weapon was too tall for me to jump, and the strike was coming in too low for me to duck. I raised my shield and braced myself, grunting as the attack connected and I was knocked backward three steps.

Three steps. I said.

Ezzie said.

The Behemoth growled in frustration and pressed its attack in earnest. It unleashed a flurry of blows that drove me closer and closer to the moat, each of them knocking me backward, some of them knocking me clear off my feet, but I weathered the damage with the clerics’ help, even managing to get a Mirror Block in on a particularly nasty strike, and managed reposition myself along the wall when I needed to.

Ezzie said.

I nodded and dropped my shield as Behemoth connected with a sweeping strike that sent me flying thirty feet across the battlefield. I ragdolled across the ground but thankfully managed to keep hold of my weapon and shield.

Ezzie said.

I said, as I climbed to my feet, which hurt. So did breathing. So did everything.

I ran forward, and the titanic dragon leapt to meet me. I threw out another Mirror Block, nullifying its gap closer, then activated Mirror Bomb. A dome of prismatic light rippled out from me, washing over the Behemoth and causing it to shrink back, a hand covering its eyes.

Ezzie said.

I got in a few more quick attacks, as well as a pair of Refraction Strikes before the creature recovered and resumed its bludgeoning assault.

I kept up the pattern from there: Mirror Blocking on cooldown and throwing out a bomb whenever Mirrorburn got too high. The DoT seemed to level out at about twenty-five percent of my health per second, which made sense: part of it was always falling off even as the creature attacked, and I was inclined to dodge as much as possible.

With the help of the mages, clerics, and archers, I whittled the Behemoth down to twenty-five percent. Then the creature backed off, and the temperature plummeted to the point where my ragged breathing was misting out from between my lips.

The creature raised its hammer high into the air and began chanting in a guttural language.

Draconic Behemoth is praying for aid!

Ezzie said.

I circled around the creature and attacked with everything I had, though my damage paled in comparison to the rain of fire and arrows and mortars and cannon fire that was splashing across the creature’s wide frame.

A bolt of blue lightning leapt out of the clear sky and electrified the Behemoth’s hammer. The creature spun and swung, its hammer crackling through the air, and I threw up a Mirror Block just as the skill came off cooldown.

Electricity poured into my shield and ripped through me, until it felt like my bones were buzzing, and a new debuff popped up in the corner of my vision.

Ezzie said.

{Lightning Scars}

All healing received reduced by 5%.

I said, as I blocked another massive strike and was pushed a few paces backward, but kept my feet. Then a number two popped up on top of the debuff.

Ezzie said.

I tossed out another Mirror Bomb, landing a few more attacks as the creature recoiled. It still didn’t hit for much comparably—a little over a thousand—but the stagger it provided was priceless.

Another Mirror Block, more attacks, more getting battered around like a ragdoll, getting electrocuted all the while.

I took a deep breath and fought back with everything I had.

I turned tail and ran along the north wall. Tempting as it was, I knew I had to hold the skill for as long as possible; this fight wasn’t going to last long enough for it to come off cooldown again, and getting the additional damage reflect at the right time might be the difference between clearing the encounter and ending up at the estate like a dead man walking.

I kept the Behemoth in my peripheral as I ran, waiting for it to use its gap closer. It signaled the attack—its knees bending, muscles bunching—then leapt into the air.

I hung a hard right, zagging away from the impact zone, and the creature thundered harmlessly into the dirt where I’d stood only moments earlier.

More running, flat-out.

Ezzie said.

I skidded to a stop.

The creature caught up in no time, forcing me to block an uppercut that knocked me off balance. The follow up attack sent me skidding across the grass, burying myself six inches deep in the dirt.

I rolled over and found the warhammer descending at incredible speed, the head of the weapon seething with energy. The Behemoth roared, sensing blood.

“Mirror Block!”

The attack bounced harmlessly away, knocking the Behemoth back one long step. It swung again and I rolled out of the strike zone and went back to running for my life. I only had to last a few more seconds.

Ezzie said.

As soon as I was maybe twenty feet away, the Behemoth howled and smashed its weapon into the earth, using the same attack it had employed to begin the battle.

Which was exactly what I’d been hoping for.

This time, the shockwave was electric; a blast of white-hot lightning that surged outward, causing the grass beneath its passage to burst into flame.

“Magic Reflect!”

The wave of lightning struck me dead-on, and the resulting flash nearly blinded me, but I felt the pressure vanish as the bolt rebounded and struck the Behemoth right in its chest.

It jerked to a standstill, its huge eyes going dim as it reached down to touch the dark, smoldering hole in its sternum. The creature toppled backward, dead.