Zoey was pissed.

My fucking spine! It broke my god damn spine!

Typically, having your spine snapped like a dry twig would have been cause for more than simple anger, but Zoey wasn't worried about long-term effects.

Our fault. We should have suspected it could do a sudden attribute boost.

She had nearly missed it, barely a hair's breadth before it lunged at Rory; it was as if it were momentarily distracted. It was only because of how unusual a tier eight getting distracted against foes that weren't much of a threat that tipped her off to something being wrong. It had been a good thing they were on dry land, or that sudden explosive speed would have been too much even for her inverted attributes to match.

In the end, she had saved Rory's dumbass from instant death, but she had nearly died herself. She wasn't so prideful as to believe that she would have survived without his armor that prevented its tail swipe from splitting her in two.

Alright, fuck it, no time like the present to go for it.

She had spent years with Rory, years watching him and even learning from him, as much as she hated to admit. It was from seeing him constantly working on one thing or another, always trying new things, that she'd pushed herself to work on something, a secret project of her own. She'd kept it hidden, primarily out of the fact that it hadn't been ready, but now was as good a time as any.

Breathe in.

Inhaling a painful breath, broken spine and all that, Zoey focused on imagining the breath within her very center.

Refine it.

She imagined the wispy breath spinning like sugar in a cotton-candy machine, taking form.

Nourish it.

Rather than use her durability to hasten her healing, she fed that excess vital energy into the spider-web energy in her center, ignoring the pain.

Breathe in.

Again, a deep, painful breath.

Refine it.

More spider-web wisps began to solidify within her.

Nourish it.

Focusing almost the entirety of her focus on the task, Zoey managed to spool off a fragment of her mind into a feeble secondary mental thread. Rory had mentioned how it worked in the past. While she wasn't anywhere close to that, an extra mental thread that was meant to do nothing more than watch a fight play out was manageable.

Rory was… struggling.

The oblivion chain had clearly worked; the fact that he wasn't instantly dead made that clear, but that didn't make things easy. Rory wasn't just punching up as he struggled against the Queen; he was punching out of his tier. While from a pure number standpoint they were actually relatively close to the Queen, level seventy-eights against a level eighty, the gulf between tiers alone was probably worth half a dozen levels.

Rory wasn't technically alone; his golems were fighting alongside him, but of the original six, one had been destroyed so far. The damage they'd suffered from the Queen before the Oblivion chain weakened her was immense, and even reduced as the Queen was, she was still a tier eight. Without her in the fray to be the Vanguard, the golems were forced to play the central meat shield, and unlike her, they couldn't recover; the damage they suffered continued to accrue.

As much as she wanted to rush the process, what she was doing was entirely untested, something that not even Rory had ever done on the fly.

Not like he could, given he was prevented from gaining combat skills.

She watched as Rory, pushed into a rough spot, opted to aim both fingers forward as he unleashed a salvo of pneuma bullets, hammering away at the monster, his face taut in concentration.

Oh, c'mon, Rory, think! When has one of those indiscriminate attacks ever worked?

Rory was a clever guy, but sometimes the truth of how he wasn't an actual combat type showed through, like when he did things like that.

Not that she was much better, Zoey was well aware. When all you had to do was take a beating for everyone else to do their thing, she didn't have many opportunities to do wasteful, flashy attacks.

If she were in his boots, she probably would have as well; it was always easier to be a commentator, after all.

As she feared, the pneuma bullet salvo did nothing as the Queen used one of her fins to shield herself, before swiping it out and launching six vortex lances at Rory at once. Five of the six lances were blocked by his golems, leaping into the way, cracks and flakes chipping and shattering from their bodies. Several crystal-looking shields blocked the final lance, as Rory manifested the projections.

Watching, Zoey noticed something interesting: the veins of magma that had cracked through its body as it used its instant boost skill were deepening and widening, like a volcano slowly waking up.

That's probably not a good sign.

Zoey really wanted to speed up the process, but she could still only watch, gritting her teeth and focusing on the process.

Breath. Refine. Nourish.

Rory flicked his hand forward, chains erupting from the ground and attempting to snare the Queen. Yet, the minute they circled her body and fins, Zoey could sense something she could only describe as immense, like watching a glacier gliding or a mountain forming. It was just a feeling, and yet it was enough to disrupt the chains, destroying them as she saw Rory scowl.

Drawing his hand back, arrows began to fly toward the monster, most bouncing off its hide without purchase.

Most being the keyword. Intermixed within the regular arrows, there was an occasional arrow that seemed to bite deeper, lodging into its body and drawing fiery blood.

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The Queen clearly wasn't pleased, opening its mouth and spewing that same sticky lava everywhere. Having taken that same napalm breath head-on herself, she was relieved to see Rory put everything toward simply avoiding the attack; without her level of durability, that sticky lava would cause immense damage to him.

The remaining golems saw the breath attack as an attack opportunity, charging through the wave of lava and slamming into the Queen with a synchronized shoulder check. The force of five golems tackling the monster was enough to push it onto its side, revealing its softer underbelly. Rory, never one to miss an opportunity, instantly swapped from bow to staff as a stone spear launched forward, half projection, half direct manipulation of actual earth elements in the vicinity.

The earth spear stabbed into its softer underbelly, a burst of fiery blood spewing out from the inflicted wound. Yet, as if the damage had only increased its speed, its tail swept out, catching one of the retreating golems and flinging it toward its mouth. The Queen, quick as lightning, slammed it onto the ground. Keeping the golem pinned, the Queen righted itself before several vortex lances fused into a single larger conjuration, directed at the pinned golem and shearing its head from its body.

Four golems left.

Zoey wasn't the only one aware of what that meant, as she saw Rory wince, golden circles appearing all around him as a barrage of projected spears shot forward. The Queen wasn't fazed as it swept its mouth across the battlefield, its napalm breath intercepting the attacks and exploding them prematurely before it returned fire with its vortex lances.

Again, the golems took the brunt of the attack, yet, reduced in number, one or two managed to bypass the golems and fly straight toward Rory, who again attempted to block the attacks with his projected shield.

Unfortunately, it didn't go well for Rory as the two lances smashed through his defenses. While one of the lances was destabilized in the process, the second one shot forward as Rory's eyes widened, smashing straight into his gut and launching him backward from the force of the hit. His armor, even more impressive than the armor he had made for her, took the majority of the damage. Even still, when Zoey saw Rory rise unsteadily to his feet, blood was dribbling from the corners of his mouth.

Internal damage.

For as much as Rory was doing his best, it was amounting to flesh wounds compared to the damage he took upon being hit by even a single one of its attacks.

Hold on, Rory. Just a little longer.

Rory wasn't having fun.

Probably because being beaten up by a tier eight wasn't exactly fun.

He was lucky that its speed was somewhat curtailed upon dry land. The problem was that he couldn't seem to slow it down. Every attempt at ensnaring it with chains or other similar tactics was met by an oppressive feeling, like the unstoppable force of a planet's mantle.

Popping an ossified essence gem into his mouth, Rory felt his internal wounds stitching back together. He'd already chewed through six of the gems, and with each one, they lost potency.

His golems were doing as well a job as could be expected, but they had a limit, and they weren't as intelligent as Zoey. What that meant was, they took more damage than they needed to at times.

I really need her back. I can't finish this fight on my own.

Every time he attempted to give himself more space to prepare an attack that could inflict real damage, such as Nathair, the Queen hounded him, putting him on the back foot. While Rory had quite a bag of tricks, it didn't matter if the individual 'tricks' were ineffective. Did he have dozens of weapons stored in his inventory? Sure. Did it matter if the Queen would eat him alive if he attempted to use them up close? Not at all.

Instead, Rory found himself peppering the Queen from afar using either his bow or staff. The attribute differential was too significant, and the more damage he inflicted, the faster it seemed to move. It was slight, but even a tenth of a percent mattered when he was already outclassed.

Without the ability to slow it or deliver any big attacks, he was in a losing battle.

In other circumstances, Rory might have felt compelled to desperately search for a new avenue to pursue, a way to break the deadlock.

Instead, Rory kept to the status quo even if he wasn't a fan of the losing pace he was in.

Because he wasn't alone.

Zoey wasn't always the most serious, and she loved to get on his nerves purposely. Yet, there wasn't anyone else alive he trusted as much to have his back.

Alright, there was Apostolos, but Rory hadn't seen Apostolos in-

Whoa, focus!

Barely intercepting a vortex lance with a storm of projected knives, Rory turned his full attention back onto the battle, all three mental threads purely dedicated to keeping up with the monster as much as he could.

Alright, but that all said, she could hurry up a little bit.

Rory had no idea what she was up to, aside from recovering her strength. The look in her eyes tipped Rory off to something, but whatever it was, it was something Rory wasn't privy to.

Sweeping his staff outward, rocks, dust, and all sorts of earth elements floated upward, fusing into a barrage of stone needles that Rory launched at the Queen's face. The Queen didn't even bother closing her eyes; a secondary transparent film shunted down, a protective layering that withstood the small stone needles.

Frowning, Rory twirled the staff before sweeping it upward like a golf swing as a large stone spike speared upward from the ground, possible only with the use of Earth Soul. The strike stabbed into the gut of the monster, but its tough, tier eight flesh prevented it from entering more than a foot. Against small monsters that would have been a significant injury, but against a beast the size of the Queen, it was yet another flesh wound.

Any day now, Zoey.

Glaring at Rory for his offense in damaging it, the Queen opened her mouth, the standard sign that its lava breath was coming.

Except, rather than the regular lava breath, Rory's instincts screamed at him. Rows upon rows of projected crystalline shields and stone walls sprang up, and even two of the golems moved to intercept, which should have been overkill.

When the lava breath was spewed, it was significantly different from any prior attack —a swirling drill head vortex, a combination attack of its vortex lances and magma breath.

Combined, the attack punched through his numerous stone walls and crystal shields, barely slowing before striking the two golems shielding him. While the golems were damn close to immune to heat, they weren't truly immune, and condensed into a spiral wave beam, the magma breath was both hot enough and powerful enough that the first golem went down, speared through.

Its loss wasn't in total vain as it diffused enough of the energy that the second golem was able to withstand the spiral magma beam, holding out until the Queen dropped her attack.

Three left.

At the very least, the Queen seemed at least somewhat exhausted by the attack, the number of vortex lances it was constantly firing off reduced by nearly half, his own projections now capable of actually overwhelming them, if only a little.

Taking advantage of the momentary lull, Rory held his hands in front of him, a looping circuit of electricity arcing between his palms before Rory twisted the loop, turning it into a pseudo-physical object, a burning lightning whip.

Having tested the lightning whip numerous times since its very conception years ago on the trash planet, Rory lashed out without fear of backlash as the lightning smote the Queen. Individually, each lash of the lightning whip was less damaging than even a basic electrical blast. Where it differed was that Rory could repeatedly strike with the whip faster than he could discharge the lightning strikes.

Lightning, an element particularly well matched for bypassing durability, left smoking black marks on the monster as it howled out in anger, its magma veins widening further.

That's been happening for a while now, and I'm not excited about whatever it means.

Whatever cooldown-induced weakness it suffered from its combination attack seemed to have ended as the vortex lances returned to their usual volume, appearing and firing off like an endless missile barrage.

Zoey? Hello? Need you about now.

With only three remaining golems and the Queen still steadily increasing in speed, Rory was beginning to falter past what he considered tolerable levels, constantly on the back foot as he gave up retaliating in any fashion and switched entirely to defense.

"Zoey?" Rory finally shouted out, pressed. "I need to know, do we try to run or fight?"

If she weren't able to rejoin the fight soon, he would switch tactics entirely, sacrificing his golems completely in an attempt to scoop up Zoey and escape anywhere with the use of the Scepter of Terawa and the Horizon Mirror, risks be damned.

"Oh, stop blubbering, you baby."

Relief filled Rory as finally Zoey spoke up, her voice closing in as she rejoined the fight. Eyes flicking briefly to his left from where he heard Zoey approaching, his eyebrows jumped up an inch.

Well, that's new.

If Rory hadn't paid attention, he might have mistaken her for one of the golems.

I'll grill her on the details later.

For now, all that mattered was that she had rejoined the fray.

But the fact that she was now made of metal didn't hurt either.

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