ROARRRRRR!!!!
The abomination of flesh and metal charged at them with a relentless fury, the artificer hiding in the shadows of the large hall, realized his mind tactics had failed so he unleashed the beast right away.
"Lys, if he shows himself keep the artificer out of the fight! hold back for now to reserve your mana. Siarra, ignite my blade! Curt protect her!" Niss barked out his battle plan at the group while he stepped forward and took a strong stance facing the rushing bear.
"BRING IT ON!" He shouted down the hall at the face of this monster.
Siarra began casting her ignite magic on Niss and Lys prepped many ice spears, Curt focused his air magic to boost Niss whenever he jumped into action.
'Hold.....hold.... hold....'
Looking for an opening in the charging beast Niss held a defensive position while he strengthened his infusion and his chains to the maximum of his ability.
"Now!"
Just as Niss shouted he leapt forward with incredible speed, he was not only the strongest he had ever been right now, he was also boosted by Curt's aero launch spell.
SWISH!!!!
Niss left an afterimage in his starting position as he vanished. Reappearing in front of the right side of the beast he buried his kama deep into the upper thigh, just past where he saw the metal reinforcing.
With his momentum he left the blade deep in beast and grabbed the chain, swinging up on top of the beast to the other side, shortening the chain and yanking it as hard as he could.
RRRRIIIIPPPPP!!!
ROAR!!
The blade had no where to go but up and over the beast, being buried as deep as it was it tore through flesh and bone with ease, until it reached the backbone of the beast.
PING!
Coming dislodged after ricocheting off the metal reinforced spine the blade flew wildly up and over Niss crashing into the wall behind him.
Not missing a beat, Niss shortened the chains again to bring his kama back to his hand.
The beast however now had its eyes set on Niss, and just as his blade reached his hand it ignited in deep crimson flames.
"Ignite!"
Niss felt his power boost even further, and somehow, his chains began to burn as well. They lit up in the same crimson flames as his blade but they did not burn, they were strengthened.
Letting out slack on the chain, the flames continued onward covering it all.
'This combo is amazing, Siarra really nailed it with this one.'
With an almost evil smirk Niss flung himself forward with an air burst, before sliding underneath the beast he wrapped the chain around its front leg, extending it as he slid under he continued to the flank.
Niss saw something unexpected, the disturbingly messed up face of a goblin with its eyes forced open by metal clamps.
'Ew what the..'
BZZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!!!!
Niss was blown back away from the beast crashing through the wall of the hallway into a servant room.
"Uhhg, shit!"
From Siarra's perspective she witnessed a fast and bright red laser beam drill into Niss flinging him through the wall.
"Niss!" She yelped.
"Stay focused Siarra!" Lys barked at her.
Now that things had changed Lys was not willing to hold back to wait for suppressing the artificer, she unleashed five large spears of ice to pierce the beast.
ROAR!!
The beast lunged forward tanking the ice spears head on. two sunk into it's body while one shattered against metal and the other two were dodged mid charge.
"ICE WALL!!!"
Lys fell to her knees and erected a massive wall of super dense ice in front of them, her ice was so dense and strong they could see directly through it like glass.
THUDDD!
The whole castle shook, some walls caved in on themselves but Lysandra's ice wall held the beast back.
DINK DINK DINK!
The nasty creature was pecking at the ice with it's large beak trying to get through to devour them.
"Curt! find a way to get to Niss!" Lys shouted as she got up from the floor, sweat evident on her strained face, that was a massive amount of mana she had put out for the ice barrier.
"I will stay with her find a way around to him." Siarra said as she launched a glob of flames over top of the ice wall landing it on the beasts back.
"R-right!" Curt said as he pushed his glasses up ensuring they were nice and tight.
BOOM!
Curt heard the spells lobbing back and forth around the ice as he ducked into a side room that had its wall collapse, he had to go through here and come out another door to get further down the hall to Niss.
'Niss, focus, you got the wind knocked out of you but you aren't gonna die.'
"MMMmmm" he groaned in pain clutching his chest, as he pressed his hand against his skin.
'My skin? where is my armor? Ow.'
Niss managed to look at his hand and saw his bloody and bare chest, the entire upper half of his armor and clothes were shredded away and a dark red burn was left in a fist sized circle around his solar plexus. Blood slowly trickling from it and running down his stomach, staining his pants red.
Chunks of rubble fell around him in the room, the only light coming from the flames in the hallway.
'Fuck.'
Curt ran past the beast exiting from a doorway behind it after traveling through the broken up rooms. He had waited for a perfect moment when Siarra's fireball landed on the beast, creating a momentary blind spot for him to rush to the hole in the wall where Niss was.
"Niss! Where are you?" Curt stumbled into the room.
".....cough...cough.." Niss weakly coughed, he was still trying to catch his breath.
"I got you, I got you man hang on." Curt said as he knelt beside him shifting some of the rubble that had fallen on Niss to the side.
"...thhannkks Curttt.."
Curt ignored his weak thank you and began channeling his aura as best he could, guiding the magic to the nasty burn in his chest.
Siarra lobbed another ball of flame over the ice wall.
BOOM!
It struck the beast again, which was covered in burns now. Almost all its feathers burned away, revealing the multiple sheets of metal that had been drilled into its body to protect it.
'This poor monster, this is so messed up.' she thought.
Siarra was nearly out of mana from lobbing fire and she started to feel bad for the monster, she knew it was controlled by the artificer and even it was dead and reanimated she felt terrible seeing how disgusting the man had made the once beautiful beast.
BBBZZZZTTTTTT!!!!!
The beast had turned its back to the ice wall and the face of the goblin was twisted in pain as it fired dense laser beams of flame into the ice. It had carved about half way through when the goblins eyes exploded and the clamps on his face finally let go.
ROARRR!!!
The beast roared in pain.
"Now, now, eye can't have this now can eye." said the artificer as he came up closer to the beast and the ice wall. "Fade away." he pointed a long barbed tentacle out from the shadows.
Magic erupted from the tip and consumed the ice entirely, it simply faded from existence. The beast was thrilled it could reach it's cowardly prey and went to turn around again to bite them to death with its nasty beak but...
WHISSSSHHH!
PING!
"Niss! Curt!" Siarra shouted.
Niss and Curt had stumbled out of the room and Curt fired a wind blade to get the beasts attention.
"Eye suppose eye will deal with you while the beast finishes your friends then."
The creature finally came all the way out of the shadows of the hall, twelve long barbed tentacles floated down from a squishy and disgusting blue brain, in front of the massive brain that was about the size of Siarra's whole torso, there was a bird beak similar to the one the beast had.
Though, the most disturbing thing about this was the massive eyeball that had been bolted into the brain with thick bolts and metal casing surrounding it. The bits of brain where the bolts dug in to secure the eye were black and dead, while the eye itself was exceptionally stunning, a vertical slit darker than death itself was surrounded by arcing lines of gold spreading out into orange swirls that swam around the rest of the eye in fascinating patterns. It was truly a captivating eye, had it been anywhere else but bolted to a floating brain it would have been beautiful.