Ashes of the Fallen

"Huh?" I said immediately. I was at a loss as to what creative mixing was supposed to mean, and didn't quite follow. My best guess was that he meant we needed to change strategy. If that was the case, it didn't seem like a big deal.

I really couldn't understand the sudden loss of confidence they shared.

The dwarf looked over at me and sighed slightly. "Been 'ere twice, killed the boss once," said the dwarf. "The way we got it to work last time, was the archer pulled goblins off me and they killed them as quickly as they could. Peel fast enough, and we're good. Too slow, and I die, we lose."

"Eh I think we can do better than that," I stated clearly and without hesitation. "I figure us two mages can get a good jump on the group and then we'll fall back and pull the goblins to the room we were just in. I'll immobilize one and pick another off you to off-tank when I can. As long as we rotate quickly enough, I can hold my own without heals against one or two without issue."

The dwarf just stared at me silently as he mulled it over in his head. I didn't have much reason to brag or to overstate my ability, so I felt my reply was perfectly within reason. Though to be fair, I did have a few relatively strong spells.

They just had to put a little faith in me, was all.

"Ye going to use that lightning tether thing ye used on the last guard?" he asked, ending his momentary silence. "It seemed to stun it fer a few seconds last time."

A smile broke out on my face before I realized it.

This little dwarf picked up on everything.

He was right after all, the way my [Arc Lightning] worked was as a single-target channel that applied a constant one-second stun every second. Unless the target had a high resistance, they would simply die in place… or be immobilized until I ran out of mana, the latter of which being more likely in most situations.

"Yeah, I can't use it for long but I can interrupt a guard for a short while," I answered. I briefly tried it on the last mini-boss and found that the stun didn't apply more than three times; it seems bosses were given resistances in-case a player tried to do that. You couldn't really fault the developers for that.

It was a necessary handicap for the sake of game balance.

"Right, do that then," he said with a bit of enthusiasm. "This fight is already hard enough but if ye can get them low and take one off of me every few seconds… I think we can manage."

Having figured out our plan of attack, we fell back to the far edge of the previous room and settled into our positions for the upcoming fight. With everything ready to go, I had the frost mage follow me back down the narrow passageway that led to the mini-boss of the second floor. Turning the corner and gauging the distance between us, the five goblins continued to munch on cooked rodent as they appeared oblivious to our presence.

Nodding at the mage, I began the process.

As I started to harness the power of electricity between my hands, I whispered my chant in order to increase the power of the spell. "Through power, darkness turns to light, render all to ash," I said softly, holding at the end as I waited for the mage to finish his chant. The mage to my left had started to whisper his own three verse version as he gathered a small amount of cold light-blue frost and formed it into a compact ball. With white gas floating about as if it were dry ice, the subliming effect of the frost was an interesting touch that distracted me for a moment.

Though the instant he finished his chant, I recaptured my focus and aimed at the goblin closest to my position. Without any further hesitation, I thrust my arms out with open palms and yelled out, "Chain Lightning!"

As the four lightning bolts left my hands and entwined into a larger bolt, the air cackled and cracked as the room was engulfed in light. Simultaneously, the mage mirrored my move and called out, "Frost Bolt!" as the bolt of ice flew through the air at a slower pace. With its trail of frost fluttering in its wake, the flakes of ice reflected the lightning with a beautiful crystalline light display.

The entwined lightning bolts hit their singular target and nearly instantly split off and bounced onto the other four hapless goblins that stood nearby. Writhing in pain, the goblins clutched their heads in desperation as some fell to their knees, but I didn't see any of it. I had already turned around and started my hasty retreat the second the spell left my fingertips.

As I ran, I just imagined it all in my head.

It was more fun that way, anyway.