Stunner: Level 8

Fleeting Eqralne +

Strength: 0

Health: 100/100

(+10/min)

Psyche: 3

Mana: 310/310

(+10/min)

Spirit: 5

Stamina: 235/235

(+7/min)

Well, that was... interesting. The relatively low health total and zero strength points explained why it had gone down so easily, while its quite-high regen nicely explained why the more dangerous boss they'd faced previously had lasted so long. As long as it played hit-and-run, an eqralne could outlast most things between its physical damage resistance, health regen, and speed.

Once you pinned it down, especially if you had enough elemental damage output, it wouldn't be nearly so much of a threat. Its mobility and regen were its greatest defences.

"I wonder if you could ride it..." Gordon was contemplating the horse-like body of the semi-transparent eqralne.

"Go ahead and try, if you like." Levi was content enough with his own ability to run; he didn't need a lightning horse-dragon.

Gordon walked over to the eqralne, but hesitated before touching it. "It won't zap me, right?"

"You're allied. Its special properties shouldn't affect you." In theory. Lightning was known to be erratic.

Gordon nodded and pressed down on the eqralne's side, his hand sliding inside with slight resistance. He pulled it back at once, shaking it with a shudder. "Okay, that feels weird. I am not sitting on that thing. Also... Stunner?"

Levi shrugged. Stunner hissed in laughter, lightning flickering more brightly for a moment.

"Yeah, yeah." Gordon wrung his hand with a scowl. "It still feels all prickly. I don't think the power was turned down enough."

There was no good opportunity to test Stunner's abilities here, since most Lightning creatures were resistant to Lightning-based stuns. Still, even without his help, they cleared the remaining rooms of the first floor without anything giving them any trouble. An assortment of Storm Caterpillar and Thundermouse adversaries, and a few packs of Sparkhounds were no match for them.

Only one pack that gave them pause, a non-plus eqralne with a sparkhound complement, but Stunner, Lash, and Iris were able to lock it down long enough to clear out the others, after which it was a relatively simple matter to finish it off.

With the addition of a high speed stunning machine like Stunner, clearing out lower-level creatures in any low-resistance dungeon would be doubly simple. Cen's stun worked against Lightning types where Stunner's wouldn't, but with both of them working in concert they could take out just about anything a standard dungeon had to throw against them. Levi looked forward to seeing them in action together.

For now, they reached the boss room without any major difficulties. A boss room suspiciously empty of adversaries.

Levi, Gordon, and several minions crowded around the outside of the room's entrance, trying to get a hint as to what waited for them. Their entrance strategy would differ significantly depending on whether they would be fighting flying or crawling or running enemies.

"The room's pretty tall, maybe harpies?" Gordon posited, leaning down to look toward the ceiling. They'd been clearing it regularly enough, it shouldn't have an Essence, and the walls were smooth. Unlikely to hide sparkhounds or thundermice, and the caterpillars weren't the sort to hide. Subtlety was not Lightning's forte.

"It's square, so probably not another eqralne," Levi agreed. "And too small to provide a good hunting ground for sparkhounds, no place for thundermice to hide either. I think you're right. Harpies again."

If past experience was anything to go by, the boss would be a plus level, supported by four regular harpies. Steelfeather Harpies had high resistances and high health, making them hard to bring down even if it weren't for their proclivity toward hovering at the ceiling and slinging blade-sharp feathers at the invaders from a safe distance.

Lash and Iris could get up there to attack them, but the soul-seekers were not the most sturdy of creatures. They may be strongly resistant to magic attacks, but physical ones could stack up fast. And due to their smooth spherical bodies, there wasn't really any way to give them armor. Even if Cen and Centoo technically had less health, against a physical opponent they'd outlast the soul-seekers almost every time.

Same thing with Tink. While he was flight-capable he wasn't a physical combatant. And Stunner was hardly going to be any use against flying adversaries. His draconic head drooped in resignation.

"I think we can take them, but I'm not sure if we can tame them." Even with Lash and Iris, this would be a tough fight to control. Flying enemies were a particular weakness of their current team build. Especially ones like the harpies that didn't even rely on swooping down to attack, but fired from a safe distance.

He desperately wanted to tame them. Conveniently, they would fill in the biggest weak points; they flew, which could counter flying enemies, and they had ranged attack, which could counter ranged attackers. But the same things that made them the perfect allies to fill in their gaps, also made them very annoying enemies.

Very annoying enemies.

They'd barely won the fight last time, and that was without trying to tame anything. True, they were a bit stronger and more experienced now, but it was still going to be bad.

"I think our play is going to have to be... focus on bringing one down as soon as possible and have you tame it for the damage boost. If we can manage more than that, I want one too. If we can take the main boss, that would be even better, but it's more important to get out alive than to reach for the skies. We can always grab the plus another time."

"If we manage to get one at all, I’ll count that a win."

He wasn’t wrong. Even in their standard versions, the Steelfeather Harpies were a significant threat. It would be plenty challenging to pull this off at all.

"Will it have that charge-up power again?"

"Almost certainly. So if it starts to dive at anyone, split up. We don't want to be caught in the radius." The boss's special move was something like Stunning Wave, but since it was a lightning-based creature and immune to its own elemental stun, it could fire it off at full strength and then proceed to slice apart anyone caught in its radius.

"Lash, you'll focus on distracting the pack and try not to get killed. Cen, do your sparkling thing and lock up any that tries to focus on us. Iris, I need you to grab one and drag it down for us. Shadevine, you focus on her target too. We need to get it tamed as fast as we can so we can re-deploy it against the others. Everyone else, watch out for unexpected reinforcements and be ready to get on our target the moment it's down in range."

Frosty ran up the wall and dropped down on a thread to hover in Levi's face, waving a leg so forcefully she bounced back and forth in place.

"Yes, Frosty?"

She waved her legs around in some complicated pattern Levi couldn't discern.

"She says she can help ground it, lock up its wings in webbing so it falls faster."

"Good. Do it. Skarm, Two, I trust you. Help out wherever you can."

The gremlins saluted, squeakily conferring among themselves. Firelord growled something incomprehensible.

"You're more than welcome to help Cen and Lash distract the main swarm."

The kobold fire mage wouldn’t last long once the fighting started, Steelfeather Harpies did a notable amount of ranged area damage, and Firelord was pretty much the definition of a glass cannon. High fire output, very low health.

Firelord grunted what didn't quite sound like a concession, but ran over to take a stance on Cen's back. Unlike Skarm's strategy of using a centipede's head for a seat, Firelord used Cen more like a skateboard, standing crouched with his arms raised, fire beginning to flicker into sight.

"Ready?"

Frosty hastily climbed back up her thread, crouching on the top of the entranceway. Lash and Iris drifted lower, ready to slip inside.

"Go."

The entire team exploded into action, streaming into the boss room in a thunderous horde, Levi and Gordon hot on their heels.

A volley of blade-sharp metallic feathers greeted them from behind. Levi spun to face their opponents.

Five harpies stood lined up on a recessed shelf above the entrance, wings flashing silver as they fired down at full speed. But there was a second, higher shelf above them.

Their assumption that the fight would be the same was wrong.

Standing on the higher ledge, lightning crackling off metallic feathers, stood two bosses, one silvery bright, the other a deep grey that was almost black.

Level 9+

(Steelfeather Harpy)

Health 100%

Level 9+

(Steelfeather Harpy)

Health 100%

Two plus, and five standard.

If this were an open fight, Levi would have immediately ordered a retreat. If they'd barely survived five, they needed a much better plan to take on seven.

Unfortunately, the doorway had already sealed itself, as boss rooms tended to do. Things just got a lot more difficult.