The moment Levi released Lash, the soul-seeker rushed forward at his fastest speed. Skarm took off at a dead sprint, easily outpacing the slower hovering eyeball, but not fast enough. Lash immediately recognized the opportunity and grabbed on, letting the gremlin's momentum pull him forward. Unlike the larger minions, where Lash's minimal weight didn't slow them at all, Skarm's charge was significantly hindered by the sudden addition.

Levi suppressed the urge to sigh as Frosty stabbed at Lash's tendril with a shooing motion, and the soul-seeker tried his best to slingshot himself forward to get ahead of the others.

Unlike the minions, their adversary wasn't fooling around.

With a screech like the wind tearing through a mountain pass, the roc-lobster launched itself upward. Wings spread wide, talons extended, claws raised above itself like an angel of death, the creature flew straight up into the air before they even got close. Pivoting impossibly tight, it twisted and dove at the oncoming minions at the same incredible speed.

Just before it reached them it pulled up into an abrupt hover and gave an almighty flap. Wind slammed down with a heavy thrum that thundered in the air and shook the ground, sending up a sphere of dust. It hurling Lash flat against the ground before he could reorient and blew Skarm away in a tumbling tangle of legs and arms and fluffy spider.

Firelord took advantage of the momentary opening to fire a pair of fire bolts into the roc-lobster's chest while it hovered. One hit, the other flew past harmlessly as the miniboss swooped away.

Lash picked himself up and flew upward as fast as he could. The lobsteroc swooped down at him, beak open in a shriek, but it made the mistake of meeting Lash's eye.

Levi's breath caught. The moment of truth, would its resistance make it immune or--

It did not. It stopped flying, tumbling from the air and falling toward the ground. Firelord fired twice more as the creature fell.

Unfortunately, the boss's falling broke Lash's eye contact, allowing the lobsteroc to escape his mental attack. It recovered quickly, reaching out with one too-fast claw to snag Lash by the tendrils before he could escape.

Lash immediately started slashing at it with his free tendrils.

Seeming untroubled by the attacks, the lobsteroc twisted and threw Lash away, right into the path of Firelord's attacks. The twin firebolts hit the soul-seeker's back and his health dropped. Then dropped a second time as the lobsteroc brought its second claw to bear, slashing into Lash's vulnerable sphere of a body with enough force Levi half expected him to pop on the spot.

But the soul-seeker wasn't fragile. Though it took a decent chunk out of his health, Lash had more to spare than any of the others in the team.

Lash took full advantage of the proximity and retaliated before the attack was even completed, refusing to give the lobsteroc an inch without a fight. Slashing as he did, he twisted himself around to lock their gazes once more.

A second time they began to fall.

Behind him, Levi's mount made a quick screech, then jumped into the air before he could stop it. Even as the boss was reorienting from its tumble - it had fallen out of Lash's eye again - Levi's roc-lobster rushed in and grappled its claws with its own, flapping furiously to stay in place.

Lash immediately took full advantage of this, swooping up between the battling crustaceans, to reclaim his mental control, this time wrapping his tendrils around the boss's neck first to hold them in place. It lunged forward, pecking at his eye, then raised its wings blasted out with another gust of wind.

This one was less effective. Lash's hold was firm, and the presence of Levi's lobsteroc with a tight grip provided a barrier to prevent Lash being blown away entirely.

But the opening did give the enemy a chance to take control in the grappling contest. It was significantly larger and stronger than Levi's non-plus variety. With a resounding crack it clamped down hard with its lobster claws, crushing those of its adversary, then kicked out with its bird claws to detangle the two of them.

Levi's lobsteroc put up a good fight, but it was dramatically overmatched. Before Lash could reorient, another crack sounded out.

In a blur of motion the boss drove itself downward, ramming Levi's roc-lobster into the ground, then crushing Lash between their bodies. Light refracted from sharp-tipped amber crystals that glinted across its wings and chest in place of half the feathers. Levi hadn't seen them before, but they performed with devastating efficiency. Lash had a very high health pool for a creature of his level, but the combined impacts dropped his health from over 500 to a bit under 300.

Levi's roc-lobster had fared slightly better, being protected from the stabbing crystals by Lash's overlarge eyeball body between them, but its health had still dropped by almost a hundred. And, unlike Lash's 600+ pool, the fragile flyer had barely over 200. Combined with its previous injuries, that left it with well under half its health.

The only positive outcome of the move was landing put it in range of Skarm. The gremlin wasted no time, springing onto the creature's massive wing and getting to work, biting and clawing with all his strength, tearing out feathers and crystals by bloody handfuls and hurling them away.

The damage only moved the boss's health bar by a percent or two at a time, but Levi took that as a good thing. The whole point of finding a tougher mount would be nullified if it turned out to be flimsy. Even if it made the challenge of capturing it more difficult.

Lash didn't take his squished and stabbed status without retaliation. His tendrils thinned into blades and flailed, slicing at the lobsteroc's head, chest, and wings, dealing almost as much damage as Skarm was despite his much weaker attacks by sheer volume.

His mana continued to fall as he loaded the target with his debuffs.

Levi's resolve to stay out of the fight faltered. As much as he wanted to stop throwing himself into deadly danger, it looked like his minions had its most dangerous appendages tied up, and his swords could significantly improve their speed of damage. Faster damage meant less injuries on their side, which meant everything would be faster. Really, it was premature to start taking himself out of the game. He could try standing by and watching when the stakes were less severe. Yep. Next time.

The boss had just raised its beak to peck down at Lash again. Levi dove in between them, surging stamina to leap over Lash and drive both swords down into the lobsteroc's crystal-feathered chest.

It didn't take kindly to being stabbed. Even as Levi pulsed Destruction down the sword, it raised its wings and set off its wind blast to throw him back.

But by rearing back, it gave Lash room to move. Just enough of an opening, and no falling to save the lobsteroc from his gaze.

Levi clung on as the gust tried to throw him back, then grinned as the tension in the enemy's body shifted, falling still.

They had three minutes to bring its health down. With the monster stilled and inattentive, Levi, Firelord, and Skarm did their best to chip down its health, while Frosty thoroughly covered its feet and wings in webbing, layering it again and again.

They'd brought it down to under a third of its health by the time Lash's mana ran out. The moment his mental effect ended the giant feathered crustacean began screeching and flailing in all directions, lingering fear from whatever Lash had shown it leaving it disoriented and furious.

Frosty's webs held, preventing its wings from opening and binding it to the ground, holding the pincers shut. Three minutes of layering bought them another minute before it finally tore itself free, by which time they had it down to 10%.

"Lash?"

Most of the team was doing well for health, but mainly through avoiding taking any hits. The few that had landed had done enough damage that Levi knew they'd be in trouble if the monster were given any openings.

Lash, taking full advantage of his every-two-seconds mana regen slapped several more mental debuffs onto the lobsteroc. The lobsteroc finished freeing its wings and spread them, blasting out wind and hurling itself upward at a rate too fast to catch before the tumbling minions could recover.

Levi's mount spread its own wings to pursue, then paused and swiveled its eyestalks to look at him in silent question.

Levi's heartbeat raced, the familiar mix of anticipation and fear that came with making this sort of call. He couldn't get himself stranded here. But they were so close.

"Go."