Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

Second floor's boss

From the tunnel leading to the cavern, Eldi reviewed his options.

First, he didn't think he could get to fight against that monster in the melee range, because even if he reached its position, it was floating three meters above the ground.

Nor did he see it feasible to use only Magic Mirror, since each of those attacks would damage him a lot, in addition to the fact that the spark boss had much more life than him. So, neither he wanted to face the pain nor believed that it was effective.

Earthen Wall had been proven totally ineffective and Mill wasn't suitable against magical attacks, unless he had a spear with magical defense, which be didn't.

Being large and not moving much, arrows with fire could be effective, but the test he had done showed that it would require a lot of time and mana. And since it had some regeneration, he would run out of arrows and mana before doing significant damage. In addition, the stunning from Electric Touch had proved ineffective.

Luckily, Magic against me? was useful, so he had a good defense alternative against its powerful attacks, although it was ineffective when the boss was attacking with less powerful bursts but with a larger number of impacts.

So, Eldi decided on the only alternative that seemed feasible. First of all, he wanted to leave a floor with enemies that were too annoying.

When he returned to the cave, two smaller sparks were near the boss, but that didn't change his plans. He ran to the protection of a stalagmite and let the little ones approach, killing them with a combination of Magic Mirror and arrows with fire. The height of the cave allowed them to approach without being in melee range, but close enough for Eldi not to fail.

He had wasted a lot of mana with those two unexpected visitors, but that didn't change his plan. He ran to another stalagmite, jumping to avoid the boss' attacks. At that distance, Eldi was able to dodge them, but it would be much harder when approaching.

He created some earthen walls to see if he could use them to cover himself or if it would attack them even without him behind, and the result was the latter. Unfortunately, he couldn't use Magic Mirror on the walls, because it is considered a blessing and can only be applied to living beings.

If Goldi or Gjaki were with him, it would have been much easier. Goldi could have easily attacked from a distance and cast wind magic, while Gjaki would have had no problem dodging the attacks, no doubt boasting that they were too slow. But he was alone, and he had to face that monster alone or go back the way he had come.

He created a new Earthen Wall to distract his enemy as he ran in the opposite direction, towards a nearby stalagmite, while the sparkle boss's attack crashed into it. The next one was very close, so he risked running to it, and was almost hit by one of the attacks.

He used the tactic of the wall again, but, being closer, only Magic against me? protected him from the attacks of the enormous spark, but it wasn't enough in the run towards the next stalagmite. He had received a burst of attacks, followed by a strong one which lowered his health by 20%. He needed to spend some time recovering his breath, mana and healing himself in the shadow of the now close floor boss.

And when he recovered, he moved on to the next part of his plan. First he created several earth walls and, while the boss attacked them, he ran towards the hole that led to the next floor, creating still more earth walls to distract it.

However, the boss focused on him when he appeared. But he was prepared and used Feline Response to dodge towards the hole. Eldi had calculated that he would need three to reach his destination, though he had not foreseen that the spark boss would descend to block the passage.

The first thing that crossed his mind was to retreat in the face of the unforeseen event, but it was also an opportunity. And while using Feline Response to dodge another blast, he cast a Lightning Wall over the boss and pulled out the axe, imbuing it with fire.

Magic against me? blocked the next attack, but the following burst hit him and Magical Mirror barely reflected a minor impact. However, the Lightning Wall and the two fire ones were damaging it, and it was even momentarily stunned.

Regenerate was healing him but it wasn't enough, so he had to resort to Basic Healing, because Vampiric Touch wasn't effective without physical damage. He hit it when he could with the axe, but the walls were the ones that did most of the damage, and he was concentrated on dodging and healing. He would have liked to hide, but the only time he did, the boss left the ground and the walls that were damaging it.

The man couldn't dodge a strong impact that made him roll over the floor, sore and bleeding, and he immediately went back to using Magic against me?, which stopped the next attack while taking a potion to heal himself. It was the second one he had drunk in that battle, where he had had to cast the walls a second time, and where his mana was running low despite having used a regeneration potion, and another for stamina.

He used Feline Response to dodge a new burst and Earthen Wall to disturb its aim for a moment, as he jumped out of the wall that practically exploded. And he was starting to feel tired.

He had found that encircling it didn't help, but moving one way and the other without a fixed pattern sometimes made it fail, so he did this without going too far, forcing it to maintain the defense of the passage to the next floor and being damaged by the magic walls.

Again a burst followed by a powerful shot, but this time he was lucky and the Lightning Wall stunned it, interrupting the shot, giving him two seconds of rest, and allowing him to cast again Magic against me?, which stopped the next impact, but hardly could do anything against the blast that followed. He couldn't use Feline Response often, so he kept trying to dodge with an agility that had increased a few levels ago, although it wasn't enough. And also, this time his foot found a hole and fell.

He was lucky, since the fall allowed him to dodge part of the blast, but it left him defenseless, and he wasn't fast enough to use Balance. He received a strong impact and, while casting Magic against me?, not in time to stop the next impact that would badly injure him, so he decided to use Impregnable, but the boss died before he needed it.

Kneeling, he was breathing heavily, quite bruised and his armor somewhat damaged. He waited for the walls to dissipate, for unlike the Touch, they could also harm him. And when that happened, he ignored a small spark that was approaching and went down to the third floor.