Chapter 835 – Progress Raiding 9 – Valley of Stone and Thunder

Chapter 835 – Progress Raiding 9 – Valley of Stone and Thunder

‘About time!’ Salamander enthusiastically declared, as several thousand points of John’s mana poured into her. None of that energy pooled inside her; instead, all was channelled through her raised arms. Just past her palm, the energy was still invisible, then it rapidly developed into the grey and gold fire that was unique to her status as an endflame elemental. A ball of fire swelled from a little flicker to several metres across. “Bigger!” she gleefully exclaimed. “BIGGER!” The fire ball went to over ten metres across, then the mana source ebbed away. “It’ll do!” she shouted and launched the attack at the Titanturtle’s back.

She flew right after it, indulging in the inferno that consumed a vast bit of symbiotic forest. Cackling, her pyromania itch scratched, Salamander stomped the floor with her armoured boots a few times. The giant creature she was standing on wouldn’t feel the red-skinned menace on its back, but it gave its attention anyway, for the predictable reason that part of its friendly flora had just been annihilated.

Flying ever closer, John watched as the turtle first aimed at its back and then followed Salamander up into the air. While the Titanturtle would only start preparing its laser once something threatened its back, it wouldn’t stop preparing it unless they sought cover in the foliage. Two very important mechanical notes to have, when wanting the two bosses to attack each other.

Salamander flew as quick as she could, both to angle the shot correctly and to dodge it herself. Light intensified in the depths of the granite maw of the boss, focused inside a crystal where the back of the throat normally would be, and was then unleashed as a powerful laser. Just barely, it missed the flying elemental, continued to cut through the space between the other party members and finally hit the Ravenstorm directly in the chest.

‘Perfect shot!’ John complimented through their mental connection. Even a grazing hit would have done, but a perfect hit was more damage and more damage was better.

The first few attempts, they had relied on one of the many area attacks of the Ravenstorm to hit the turtle. Until either one hit the other, the bosses had no interests in one another. This had caused a large variation of encounter successes, based on how quickly they succeeded. By having the Titanturtle ‘accidentally’ hit the Ravenstorm, they bridged this issue entirely.

Being hit by its supposed ally had the Ravenstorm angry. John wasn’t sure if these bosses retained memories between encounters like Lady Presta had. Even if they did, they were bound to their programming, just like she had been, and behaved the same now as they had in every past encounter.

Choosing his new priority target, the Ravenstorm dived down on the Titanturtle’s neck. Its feathers had long since recharged their former glow, part of which was unloaded in a retaliatory energy wave that burst out along with the impact of its talons. Massive arcs of lightning rolled over the back of the turtle, cutting trenches into the forest and obliterating one of the spires outright.

Vast amounts of greenery were already destroyed when the group landed on the Titanturtle’s back. This led to less wolves, penguins and parrots coming their way than usual, all while going ignored by the turtle’s laser attacks, now aimed at the Ravenstorm. It wasn’t all sunshine though.

“Central spire first!” John announced and led the way, as they cut their way through the unbuffed adds. They had to hurry. Although the destruction of the forest was useful in the moment, once all of it was gone, the Titanturtle would start to sink. Much like it wouldn’t use the laser unless it wouldn’t harm its symbionts, it also wouldn’t drown them. When there was nothing left to drown except its enemies, the boss would stop caring and effectively despawn. They lacked the tools to defeat it under the waves.

Aside from that, there were other issues.

There were distant quakes. One source was the fighting of the two giants, but that ceased when the Ravenstorm took off to once more use distant lightning over melee attacks. The second was quickly closing in, each rumbling step stronger than the last.

Practically sprinting, the golem created by the annihilation of the first pillar chased after them. Blue electricity crackled between its crystallized surfaces. While the Ravenstorm took care of some of the spires for them, every time it did so the resulting golem was charged. It increased the damage they did but, more crucially, they were faster. Fast enough to catch up to the group.

The two obeyed and waited. Jack looked at the Ravenstorm. The boss gained height through a couple of flaps, then tilted forwards. When it pulled in its wings and started to drop, the Gamer gave the signal. The spire fell moments thereafter.

Aiming at the TItanturtle’s neck, the Ravenstorm had to find out that there suddenly was no more neck. The last segment crumbled away, the head of the seaborne boss was magically joined with the shell and the open jaw was now the direct destination of the Ravenstorm’s movements. Already committed to the attack, the electricity raven only managed to slow its descent, but not stop it before it was caught in the titanic turtle jaws.

Jack imagined he heard massive bones crunching, but it was probably just the massive force of the snapping causing stone to grind against stone as the lighting creature was chomped in half. Even the energy creature wasn’t immune to being grabbed and stuck between the massive jaw; it was subsequently slammed into the water. The entire island shook one, two, three times as the pissed off Titanturtle thrashed around. Golems and party alike found it impossible to move as the ground kept quaking.

Likely thinking it had stunned its enemy, the Titanturtle opened its jaw to finish it with one more laser attack. At that moment, the Ravenstorm was suddenly reinvigorated. A cry echoed through the air and a massive shockwave forced the entire sentient island to drift a hundred metres back. Hovering upwards, wings and talons stretched out, the Ravenstorm was incandescent white, blinding lightning crackling around it. A second shockwave burst out when a second pair of wings appeared on the creature’s body, stronger even than the last one. The white was consumed in the process, leaving the boss with the previous blue and yellow colouration.

The first shockwave had already swept their footing away. This second one had them tumble around like helpless seeds in the wind. Most of them managed to hold onto something. Jack worriedly looked at the bending trees. A mistake on his part. Whether or not the trees fell over was out of his hands and him knowing it would change nothing. Had he looked at Beatrice, however, he would have been able to warn her.

The three golems that were after her, particularly the two charged ones, were practically unfazed by the shockwave. Lean design and high weight combined to allow them to continue in their charging once the ground was stable again. Not yet recovered, Beatrice wasn’t able to regain her awareness of all three golems’ positions before they were upon her. She dodged the swipe of one by jumping backwards, only to dodge into the kick of another one. In a display of absolutely cruel combo ability, the kick delivered her into a downwards slam that made her crack the granite floor. One more stomp and she was out for the count.

The trees remained standing, but the lack of additional eyes on her situation had caused Beatrice to be unable to react. A small mistake with big consequences.

Jack couldn’t dwell on it. Both bosses were now in phase two. All of the golems around were only important because they could be in the way of their next objective. Analysing the current position of the golems and his party members, he made the call. “We use the neck entrance!” ‘Sylph, start kiting the Ravenstorm towards the Sicklebrood. Do it at a medium pace.’

‘Roger, roger!’ the thunderstorm elemental responded and darted off.

The second phase of the Ravenstorm wouldn’t be an issue for the ultra-fast air spirit to handle. That was to say, much like Salamander with the Granite Titanturtle, she could dance around it for a long while, but also never be able to deliver threatening damage to it. As impressive as the transition scene had been, the four-winged Ravenstorm was essentially the same as the two-winged one. Magical attacks got more powerful and more frequent, with recharge times shortened. Those were the differences. It was difficult, yes, John was quite certain they couldn’t have dealt with it in under 150 tries, if at all at their current level, but it didn’t require any new learning. Sylph was still the ideal candidate for kiting, and it was urgent the Ravenstorm to now be removed from the area.

Not only did they need it at the location of the third boss for the last bit of the plan, but they couldn’t have the stronger lightning attacks threaten the last few trees. Not while they headed into the second (or third, if the skipped approach phase could be counted) phase of the Titanturtle boss.

When all spires were destroyed, a series of caves became accessible all over the boss’ back, all of them connected to the same system. Those caves allowed them to completely ignore the golems, as they were too large to follow inside. The Granite Titanturtle was undefeatable from the outside, at least at their current power level, but from the inside was very much possible.



They just had to find the heart chamber.