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Both ‘king’ and ‘queen’ had no facial features or other body to define them as such. They both wore armor, but their ornamentation and styles were what distinguished them. The king had a heavier crown, with a few larger gemstones inlaid compared to the more delicate version the queen had. He also carried a large blue shield and an arming sword. The queen didn’t have a shield, instead wielding a dagger made out of marble- clearly not something suited for weaponry, but yet also clearly highly enchanted.
Though there were only two enemies compared to the six royal guards they had just defeated, none of the party was incautious in their approach. They had come into the fight expecting the two enemies to join immediately, but since they hadn’t their task was actually easier. Larr angled towards the king, and Luth went to face off against the queen.
Before they reached each other, Yuri took his opportunity to attack. His spear flew towards the queen, but she dodged out of the way. Normally that would have been the end of it, but he knew Return Weapon. The spear flipped and flew back towards him- with less power, but it was still dangerous. Surprisingly the attack was also dodge- though not quite perfectly, with the spear scraping against the side of the armor as it was deflected past. Then again, it wasn’t as if they had eyes on the front of their heads, so why would something behind them be any different?
The king reached Larr, who tried to stab beneath his shield. His sword struck the edge of the shield, the sound of which revealed it was not steel but stone. In response, the king’s own sword swung at Larr. He held his shield to protect him, but the sword bit into the edge of his shield, cutting into it a full inch before it stopped. As the king pulled back to swing again, Arara projected force at his arm to slow his attack, allowing Larr to pull back out of reach. While he could continue to deflect attacks, if each one left a gouge in his shield it wouldn’t last long.
Drawing the queen away from him was Luth, using the better reach of his staff to swing at the queen as he darted about, making her unable to stab him with her dagger. He wasn’t certain of the exact enchantments it might have, but he didn’t want to find out. His quarterstaff ricocheted off her armor, unable to crush it like he had done with that of the royal guards. Perhaps a more powerful attack would do, but that could leave him open to a counterattack.
There weren’t many opportunities for Yuri to attack when all the opponents were engaged, since he couldn’t significantly change the trajectory of his attacks after he released them. However, that gave him time to observe the enemies for weaknesses. The first was that their heads were unarmored- which would have been more significant if they had been real people not made of stone. Only crowns rested on their heads, which weren’t particularly good armor. They were magical, so they had to have some effect that would make up for the lack of protection… at least the sort of protection that was relevant when the crowns had been worn by people.
He had smaller throwing daggers. If he found an opening… no matter what, it wouldn’t interfere with his companions. Larr left more room open than Luth did, so Yuri focused on the king first. When the king once again moved his shield to deflect Larr’s attack, Yuri aimed for his head. Unfortunately his attack struck the forehead just below the crown, and even though the dagger should have pierced granite with his skills, it ricocheted off with little visible damage. His second throw was slightly more where he intended, but the king ducked. Perhaps he could circle around behind… they might still be able to track his attacks and it would leave him vulnerable to a charge, but he could defend himself well enough.
Arara saw what Yuri was doing and prepared himself. He wasn’t powerful enough in fire or lightning to cause significant damage to the normal rock monsters, and more powerful ones… he didn’t even bother thinking about it. His best option was to continue to disrupt their movements. As Luth impacted the queen’s side with his staff, he created a layer of ice. It didn’t topple the queen over like he wanted, but the moment she required to catch her balance allowed Luth to come around from the other side, his enhanced staff sending her sliding away with some damage to her armor.
Yuri flicked his arm around underhand, sending a throwing dagger towards the crown of the king. However, the king ducked underneath the attack once more. Larr took the chance to stab upwards towards his head, and the king wasn’t ready for the dagger held in Yuri’s other hand which followed directly after it but with less fanfare. The crown went spinning up in the air, and Arara wasted no time shoving it further away into the corner of the room. It was too risky to touch something with unknown magic directly in battle, so he didn’t even try to bring it to him to catch.
Larr was forced to endure more attacks to hold his ground, since he was unable to retreat continuously. His attack had struck squarely in the middle of the king’s face, gouging out a chunk of stone but not causing enough damage to stop the rock creature. He focused most of his magic on his own shield to keep it somewhat whole, but he wasn’t able to block every attack. Thin ribbons were cut out of his armor- and into him, but fortunately not deep into him. Yet.
The druid Luth had received his own share of wounds from the queen’s dagger, as she was emboldened by his inability to overcome her defenses. He had to switch to a more defensive stance, deflecting her dagger by indirectly moving her wrist or arm with his staff- direct confrontation resulted in damage to his staff, even reinforced as it was with enchantments and his own active magic.
Yuri had to worry about his opponents dodging his attacks if he did anything strong enough to break through their armor or seriously wound them. If that happened, he might hit a companion… but there was one thing he wasn’t worried about. As long as he aimed at the upper torso of the king, it didn’t matter if the king completely avoided the attack- Larr would never be in the line of fire, since he only went up to about the waist. Since he wasn’t under pressure he could take the time to build up a bit more power for an attack… then he just needed an opening.
That moment came when the king’s sword was stabbed at Larr, piercing straight through the shield- Yuri couldn’t see more than that, but the king was overextended. He called upon all his training in Piercing Spear, imagining his weapon going through the enemy and not just into them. It didn’t matter that the king had armor and that probably wouldn’t happen, he needed the right confidence to draw out full power. His throwing spear pierced right into the back of the king, solidly impacting the armor and piercing through it and deep into the stone body beneath. If there had been a heart in there, it would have been damaged.
Larr pulled himself away, feeling the cut on the top of his shoulder. He’d just barely managed to deflect it enough for it not to go straight through him, but the cut was still pretty deep. Fortunately, the king was suddenly distracted by a problem, swinging his arm back to try to cut at the spear in his back. Larr dashed forward, using his low center of gravity to topple the king onto the spear- and a simultaneous push from Arara’s magic sealed the deal. The king lost his grip on his sword as he impacted the ground, but Larr felt him still moving. After an instant of hesitation, he threw himself towards where the sword had skidded away, abandoning his own weapon. The king leaped after him, but Larr held his ground and pointed the sword straight into the king’s outstretched arm. It pierced through the gauntlet’s palm and the stone of the body like it was merely a straw dummy, slicing even more as the king pulled away. Larr stabbed into one of the king’s legs, and then the other- taking advantage of the amazing sharpness of ‘his’ weapon. Though there weren’t any tendons or muscles to cut, once a certain level of damage was reached stone legs wouldn’t support a body anymore. The king fell, and Larr stabbed through the head into the floor of the dungeon, slicing to the side then swinging back in towards the neck to take off the whole head. Even as he dodged an outstretched arm grabbing for him, he saw the movement slow and then stop.
With one of the two down and a new weapon that could easily damage the enemies, the party was able to swiftly take down the queen- though Luth came out with some holes that needed immediate healing. The group patched themselves up, gathered up the remaining equipment to carry out with them, and began hurrying away, wary of the bosses summoning more opponents- though somehow there hadn’t been any. They were completely unaware what changes they would be bringing upon the dungeon in the future.
same as 281
Whoops! Fixed now.