Garath continued stacking QE debuffs as the boss sprinted back toward the Party. Sharon cast Roots again in a futile attempt to slow him down, but S'thys charged straight through them.
A wicked grin spread over S'thys Zor's face even as his HP bar dipped below a quarter and his left arm hung limp at his side - his second trident left on the ground, discarded and forgotten. Even with his own death looming, the dungeon boss would fight with everything he had until the very end - ideally dragging one or all of the humans that had attacked his home with him on his way to hell.
“Athios, help?” Garath called over the Party channel as S'thys Zor towered over him, weapon raised.
The massive Naga wasn't about to wait around for Garath to elude him again, though - and Athios had not been standing by, idly waiting for Garath to get himself into trouble (again). The Dimensionalist was firing little blue bolts from the tip of her gold staff, something the Necrologist made a mental note to ask her about later if he wasn't skewered.
S'thys Zor swung his limp arm to grasp his remaining trident, wielding it now as a two-hander, and spun into a deadly whirl with his weapon outstretched. Sharon cast Roots for about the ninety-fifth time that fight, but the thorned Roots were sent flying away in small chunks as they attempted to entangle the whirling monster. Garath decided to exercise the better part of valor. He ran.
The whirling death spin was spectacular. S'thys Zor madly spun out of control as he gained on the Necrologist. All three of the reanimated Naga were cut to ribbons by the wild attack, falling to rest - eternally this time - in several pieces on the central platform.
Garath screamed as his lower back was lacerated from behind and he fell to the ground, landing hard on his stomach. He rolled quickly and reached back to push himself up, but his hands slipped into a white disk and he fell through. The Necrologist emerged from a second white disk milliseconds later back at the cave-side of the center platform, ten-meters from the dungeon boss and his likely demise.
The searing pain in his lower back lessened with a sip from his Endless Potion of Healing and his heart filled with hope. S'thys Zor wasn't long for this world, his HP bar blinking red, below five percent, and dropping fast from the myriad of damage over time and bleed debuffs. Warrion continued to back away from the dangerous whirlwind of blue skin and sharp objects.
Finally, S'thys Zor's spinning attack slowed, teetering like a top losing speed, then it stopped and he fell to the ground, lifeless. The fight was won.
Chapter 33
Loot
"What a rush!" exclaimed Sharon, sitting atop the slick gazebo rooftop with her feet dangling off the side. "In my seventy-eight years, that was the single most exciting and stupid thing I have ever done."
Garath smiled fondly at the Naturist. He had to remind himself that despite her stellar performance, Aquawood Depths was the first time Sharon had experienced a dungeon run in any capacity. He couldn't even remember his first dungeon at that point in his life, but imagined it must have been a similar experience - albeit a bit less life threatening - because he became addicted and had cleared hundreds, if not thousands of dungeons since.
The Party recovered there beside the gazebo on the center platform of the now Naga-free cerulean cove. Warrion and Sharon's wounds recovered completely with a little help from their Potions and Sharon's healing magic. Before long, all four of them were in perfect Health and Mana. Everything was going well, that was when Athios demanded an explanation regarding Garath's awkward jump at S'thys Zor that resulted in flailing arms and needing to be sucked through space-time to safety.
"I was supposed to turn into a crow," he explained. "I was flapping my wings."
"I see," Athios frowned, "but forgot a step? Like, the step where you turn into a crow?"
Garath explained the inopportune prompt he had received informing him that thirteen times was the maximum allowed shape shifts per twenty-four hours.
"That bites," said Warrion. "How you gonna get back to base camp?"
“We can worry about that after we figure out how to get out of this dungeon," Athios suggested. "How long until you can shape shift again?"
Garath attempted to shape shift again to trigger the prompt, then shared the information. "A little over five hours."
"Shit," said Warrion. The Assassin got to his feet. "I'm going to go back to the cave we started in and see if there's an exit there now."
Without another word, Warrion shimmered into crow form and took to the air, soaring easily over the flowing blue water and out of sight into the cave. Garath was the only one of them even close to the daily shifting limit. Athios and Sharon also shifted into crow form and flew over to investigate the statues lined up on the track leading to the far side waterfalls, leaving Garath alone on the central platform with his Flayer and Fel Hound.
The Necrologist didn't just sit idly though. Garath sent his Fel Hound tearing around throughout the corpse laden cove to gather every weapon and piece of armor, then drop them into a pile beneath the gazebo. The Flayer followed the Necrologist
