“Hit him again!” Kaiden shouted, ducking a hammer strike and backing out of Moran’s range.
“You’re annoyingly slippery, you know that?” Moran growled and pointed his hammer at Kaiden’s face, but he was well out of arm’s reach.
Ability: Improved Scatter Shot
The end of Moran’s hammer opened with a faint click and Kaiden found himself staring down the barrel of a hammer-gun. A flash of light, and then a shotgun blast of lasers burst out. Kaiden lunged backwards but there was no avoiding the flurry. The individual lasers exploded on impact and he was left reeling, vision blinding bright.
“That was a blast warden attack!” Kaiden shouted as his health fell to seventy-two percent. He retreated, trying to avoid any follow-up attacks. “He has abilities from all of the classes. The Hierarch is every warden class combined.” His stomach fell through his feet as he said it. How do we beat that? How do we compete with every warden ability at once?
“Every class at once?” Thorne asked. There was doubt in her voice. “How is that possible?”
“He’ll die just like anyone else will. We just have to hit him enough,” Zelda said through gritted teeth.
Moran advanced on Kaiden, then reared back to attack again, but an Improved Burst Arrow from Zelda caught him in the back. The laser exploded against his torso in a spray of blue sparks. Zelda charged up another shot but Moran swung his hammer in her direction.
Ability: Energy Grip
A lasso of energy whipped from the end of his hammer and, before she could move, had wrapped around her leg. Moran gave a yank and Zelda was ripped out of Sniper Mode and dragged across the floor toward him.
“Gah!” Titus shouted as he charged to protect Zelda.
Moran met him with a hammer strike, raising his weapon high then bringing it down in a blur. Titus caught the blow on his shield – finally gaining some charge – and a shockwave burst out at the impact.
Ability: Hammer Smash
The big man slammed his hammer into the floor, creating a mini-crater and sending a rolling burst of energy out in all directions. It washed over Moran and set his health bar to flashing. Titus followed up with a Shield Slam, smashing his shield into the already formed mini-crater and stunning all enemies in a ten-foot radius.
But Moran wasn’t within ten feet of him. He’d used Kickback, dealing base damage to Titus and launching himself fifteen feet away.
He landed with a smirk. Titus looked up with a frown but Moran was already in motion again.
Ability: Earth Shatter
His hammer had grown in size again; it was now as large as a power warden’s as he launched forward, then came down right in front of Titus. The mini-crater was obliterated as Moran hit the ground with enough force to completely shatter the floor. Stone and tile whipped through the air, carried in a shockwave that washed over Titus and dumped him to the floor.
Zelda was on her feet now. She spun, leveling her hammer-gun at Moran.
Ability: Improved Scatter Shot
From so close, Zelda’s attack should have dealt a fair amount of damage, but Moran had been ready.
Ability: Karmic Reprisal
Your shield glows brightly, infused with charge. You may expend X% of max charge to reduce damage from a single attack by that percentage. Additionally, your next attack deals base damage plus additional damage equal to the amount this ability negated.
Cooldown: 3 minutes.
He’d abandoned Dual Wielding and his hammer had reformed into a shield now. But not just a regular shield. It’d grown and stretched so it was large as a shield warden’s. Its glow swelled and brightened and Zelda’s eyes went wide as it absorbed her attack. All of one percent damage trickled through to Moran’s health.
“Ooh. I almost felt that,” he said then struck back with a hammer strike. The additional damage from Karmic Reprisal exploded against her chest, cracking her armor and dealing a massive hit. Her health plummeted to fifty-eight percent and she wheeled backward, teeth gritted against the damage flowing through her.
“Does this guy ever run out of charge?” she growled through comms.
“He’s using Slayer, so every critical hit is restoring five charge for him. Plus his armor buffs that by another ten percent,” Kaiden said, recalling what his visor had shown him.
“And he has Improved Atmospheric Charge generating seven charge per second and Improved Aggressive Mindset giving him charge equal to fifteen percent of all the damage he deals,” Thorne added, pulling herself from where Moran had flung her.
“And he’s building charge the normal way, through blocking attacks with his shield,” Titus said, sounding none too happy about it.
“So no, then.” Zelda scowled. “He’s not going to run out of charge.”
Kaiden’s Dual Wielding had fizzled out now and his energy hammer shifted back into his shield. As it did, he took a half second to glance at everyone’s health.
Zelda’s at fifty-eight. Titus, forty-six. Thorne, forty-nine. And I’m down to fifty-four already. Meanwhile, Moran… He turned his focus on the hierarch. Moran is sitting pretty at eighty-two percent.
“We’ve put a grand total of twenty percent damage on this guy between all of us,” he told the others. “This isn’t working.”
“We still have the numbers advantage,” Zelda said. “Attack as one. He can’t stop all of us at the sa—”
Moran darted in and swung a hammer strike at her head. Her voice cut off as she flung herself away from it.
“I’m not going to let you sit there and conspire,” Moran said, shaking his head. “This is a fight, you know.” And then he was in motion again, charging Zelda.
Thorne charged in, hammer raised high and ready to bring down on Moran’s head. He stepped calmly forward and spun under her strike, then activated an ability.
Ability: Gravity Sledge
His energy hammer bashed into Thorne’s rib cage and flung her into the air. Her health flashed from the blow, then again as she slammed into the floor
