Book 3, Chapter 36

It turned out that the biggest issue with the fight wasn’t the lightning doll itself; it was the amount of interference the jungle itself provided. Everything started off well. Sorin released a constant stream of lightning rods to soak up all the electrical power the portal guardian was throwing his way. His allies had claimed a position overlooking the arena and were peppering the guardian with attacks, which resulted in more lightning trying to follow the trail back to the source.

That was an expected complication, though, and Sorin’s own magic deflected the retaliatory strikes and kept them grounded out. He had to work a bit harder to stay ahead of the spell output the guardian was unleashing, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle.

The attacks from his team tapered off in under a minute, though, and that was entirely due to the number of monsters attracted to the sound of battle. It quickly shifted from a six-against-one fight where they ganged up on the lightning doll to six individual battles where they were all fighting to keep from being devoured by a tide of monsters so thick, it was like the floor itself was fighting them.

It’s fine. They’ve all gotten some good shots in. I just need to finish the guardian off and we can retreat through the Antechamber portal.

But it wasn’t fine. Despite remaining immobile, the corona of lightning surrounding the statue was so potent that Sorin’s magic struggled to draw it away. Victory was going to come at the price of some pain; there wasn’t any way around it that Sorin could see. Chipping away at the guardian with long-ranged attacks had been viable when all six of them were focusing on one monster. It didn’t work now that it was just him.

The sole saving grace was that the lightning doll killed indiscriminately. Anything that made its way into the arena was fried, and some clever positioning of new lightning rods kept his team safe while allowing the guardian to kill the majority of the invading monsters. It was too bad he couldn’t redirect the lightning well enough to fry the enemies that had closed in on his team, but they’d handle that issue themselves.

Then disaster struck. It wasn’t a monster that did it. It wasn’t even the guardian’s ferocious lightning storm. No, it was simple gravity and weight. The branch his team was perched on was thick, but in the end, it was only wood. It snapped under the pressure of holding up to prolonged combat, sending a thirty-foot piece careening into the arena and bringing Rue along for the ride.

Lightning struck the branch three times before it even hit the stone. Without his defenses properly lined up at ground level, there was nothing Sorin could do to stop that, which meant Rue also took the shocks as near-full strength.

She hit the stone, insensate, and Sorin heard the distinct snapping sound of bones breaking. So out of it was she that Rue didn’t even cry out. Right arm. A few ribs. Collarbone, maybe. Shit.

For the first time, the lightning doll opened its eyes. Unlike the stone statue facade of the rest of its body, the orbs were alive with white and electric blue, and in less time than it took to blink, it had moved across the bowl to Rue’s side.

Just as quickly, Sorin was there to meet it. His blade intercepted the doll’s outstretched hand, digging deep into the stone palm. Unperturbed, the doll squeezed its fingers down on the metal and sent an arc of lightning coursing up the sword. Sorin’s muscles popped and jumped, but he’d expected the retaliatory bolt and was already summoning a fresh lightning rod right next to him.

The attack only had a fraction of a second to fry him before it leaped away into the grounding magic. That was more than enough time to leave Sorin’s skin smoking and his hair standing on end. A rush of healing magic swept through him as Counter Heal mitigated the injury, but it wasn’t nearly enough to bring him back to perfect condition.

Then the doll moved again. Observer tracked its rush around the bowl as it swung about in a wide arc, every bit as fast as the lightning that raced after it. Power built up in its wake, and when the doll came to a stop at Sorin’s back, it thrust both hands forward to direct the surging electric magic directly into him.

That was the plan, at least. The doll hadn’t accounted for Sorin’s instant recovery, nor had it realized he’d traced its route. Twin spikes of stone grew out of the ground so quickly that they seemed to have appeared in place rather than rise up. The doll slammed into them at full speed, shattering both spikes and ricocheting as it failed to control its own momentum. Instead of placing its hands on Sorin’s back, it flailed wildly in a futile attempt to keep its balance.

That did not stop the lightning chasing after it, though it diverted enough of it that Sorin was able to shield Rue with his own body. “Come on, kid,” he grunted through gritted teeth. “Open your eyes and move. This is no time to be lying down.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Rue groaned in response, but something had gotten through. She tried to push herself upright, discovered the broken bones, and flopped into a roll in response. That put the pressure on her good side, which was apparently enough for her to make it upright and on her feet. In the second it took her to do that, Sorin had already carried the fight halfway across the bowl.

He sparred with the lightning doll, throwing out magic so fast that he was seriously in danger of running his reserves dry. It was necessary, though, else he’d have nothing to contain the powerful arcs of magic rolling off the doll’s body. At the same time, Force Weaver and Still Winter were working constantly to hamper its movements while his sword struck home repeatedly.

Cracks appeared in the doll’s child-like face. Then they spread down its neck to its chest, where they spiderwebbed from a solid hammer of force Sorin snuck in while simultaneously sweeping the guardian’s feet out from under it. The monster tumbled backward, rolling several times before it regained control of its body.

Sorin struck it with no less than twenty different force strikes in that one moment, and when it retaliated, its lightning no longer seemed so powerful. Flecks of stone fell loose to tink against the bowl. One arm was only just barely still attached. Half its face was gone. And if the lightning doll felt or even noticed any of that, it paid it no mind.

If you’re not worried about it, I won’t worry about getting too rough with you either.

Sorin pulled hard on Lesser Aspect of Grace. It didn’t work quite the same as his old Speed Boost soulprint had, but he could still push to move faster than the new baseline it had raised him to if he wanted to burn the anima to make it happen. With Rue barely clinging to consciousness in the arena itself and everyone else fighting against a tide of monsters at the edge, they needed a quick, decisive victory against the portal guardian.

Lightning danced across his body, stinging him a thousand times as it leaped from point to point before being pulled away into a new lightning rod. Sorin ignored the pain. Counter Heal took care of most of it, anyway, and the only thing flinching would accomplish was inviting the monster to hurt him more.

More chunks of stone broke away, only this time they weren’t fingernail-sized chips. An entire arm fell off, the final connecting piece shattering from a force hammer that struck it at just the right angle. The doll’s face was completely obliterated, though its white-and-blue eyes remained wholly intact even as the stone housing them crumbled.

Those look important, Sorin thought as he savagely jabbed two force darts into them. The orbs absorbed the magic without so much as a twitch, but that wasn’t enough to deter Sorin.

Suddenly, lightning surged up through the child-sized statue and erupted out in a column that raked the clouds overhead. It quickly spread, engulfing half the bowl in one smooth motion. There was a moment’s hesitation where it seemed like the energy would die out or at least stabilize, then it started to swell again.

Sorin barreled into Rue and scooped her up. He ignored the gasp of pain coming from her—there’d been no time to favor her left side when he’d all but tackled her—and leaped beyond the radius of the arena. Only Trackless Wanderer let him slip through the wall of vegetation so smoothly, and it wasn’t a moment too soon.

Lightning filled the entire arena, leaving nowhere safe for anyone to stand. Worse, long, thin tendrils of it whipped out to strike at nearby trees, monsters, and unlucky climbers. This wasn’t in the notes! Sorin thought frantically as he cast more lightning rods into the air in a desperate attempt to minimize the destruction around him.

Three seconds might not have seemed like a long time, but it was an eternity when it came to lightning. That was a force that appeared and vanished in less time than it took to blink, so seeing it channeled for hundreds of times longer than normal was an awe-inspiring sight to behold. It also firmly convinced Sorin that the guardian was well beyond what he could reasonably expect on Floor 22.

Hopefully, that means there are some damn good rewards waiting for us in the Antechamber once we finish demolishing this thing.

He very carefully didn’t phrase that as ‘if we finish demolishing this thing’ in his head, but the thought lingered in the background anyway. He’d relied heavily on his experience and extra six ranks to carry him through this fight, and that was why he was still alive. The rest of his team wasn’t even fully through rank 22, however. They were in serious danger already, and it would only get worse if things went on this way.

Then the lightning ended, and the child statue was nowhere to be seen. In its place was a being of pure white energy, surrounded by a halo of blue that crackled ominously. What the hell. That’s not a lightning doll. It’s straight up a pure elemental!

“Hold off on attacking it!” Sorin yelled out. The last thing they needed was the guardian deciding to go after someone else right now.

He wasn’t sure if this made the fight easier or harder. He could use Elemental Anchor and Lightning Rod in conjunction, and Veins of the World would provide the perfect weapon for destroying the target once he neutralized all its abilities, but portal guardians didn’t follow the rules in a lot of ways.

Sorin smelled a trap, and he eyed the arena warily as he tried to figure out what it was. Unfortunately, he wasn’t given a lot of time to think. In fact, it took bare seconds for the elemental to recover from its dramatic transformation, and the instant it did, it split itself into five copies. Each one seemed, if not as powerful as the original, more than strong enough to kill an unconscious climber. At least that was what Observer was telling him.

“Oh shit,” Sorin breathed out. He was already casting, but he knew it wasn’t going to be enough.

The first lightning rods went out, and he managed to drop Elemental Anchor in place, but that was as far as he got before he felt himself hurled backward through a few dozen thorn-covered branches to slam into the trunk of a tree wider than a house. He could only pray that he’d done enough to deflect the guardians’ attacks from everyone else.

He was still recovering when the screaming started, accompanied by the unmistakable scent of burnt flesh.