"Elara!" Jacob shouted as the elf was swept under by the dark sludge.
The Solar Flare spell flickered and died. She emerged a moment later, coughing violently as the black slime coated her face.
She reached for her staff, but the necrotic miasma had already reached her lungs. She collapsed to her knees, retching as the darkness took hold of her senses.
"She's down!" Tamsin yelled. "The mage is down!"
"I can't hold it!" Grimmand yelled.
The Behemoth slammed its head into the dwarf again. With his strength halved by the miasma, Grimmand was unable to brace.
He was launched backward and splashed into a deep pool of muck, saved by his new skill.
The Boss turned its gaze to Carlos.
He stood alone in the mud. His armor was holding, but his body was failing. The miasma swirled around him and choked off his air.
"Jacob!" Carlos wheezed without looking back. "Run! Get Tamsin and get out!"
Jacob stood on a dry patch of land near the entrance as he watched the disaster unfolding.
He didn't see a heroic sacrifice so much as he saw a failing machine. Without the mage to filter the air, the warriors were useless.
If the warriors fell, the beast would eventually reach the entrance, and he was not confident in being able to handle such a monstrosity.
He dropped his bag and ran into the bog, his boots sliding through the oily sludge as he aimed for the fallen mage.
Elara began to convulse as soon as he reached her side. Her hands were locked onto her staff in a death grip, and the crystal at the tip pulsed with a frantic, dying light.
It was trying to release the stored energy, but the command was stuck in her throat.
The conduit is jammed, Jacob thought. The pressure has nowhere to go.
He lacked the words for a prayer or the training of a wizard, but he understood the mechanics of a pressurized system.
He jammed the tip of his mithril tool against the dark wood of the staff. He did not try to learn the spell, but he treated the weapon like a pipe.
He visualized the mana trapped inside as a chaotic, spinning knot.
"Sorry," Jacob whispered.
He jammed the tip of his mithril tool against the dark wood of the staff.
Jacob closed his eyes and pushed a pulse of his own dense magic into the wood. He ignored the safety protocols of the enchantment and carved a brutal bypass directly into the mana field.
"Release!"
The staff did not wait for a chant. It dumped its entire reserve in a single microsecond.
Click.
WOOM.
There was no sound of thunder. There was only light.
A sphere of blinding, white-hot radiance exploded from the crystal. It was not the gentle cleansing light of a controlled spell.
It was a flashbang, and it expanded outward in a shockwave of pure holiness.
The black miasma did not just dissipate. It incinerated.
The fog hissed and vanished as the light scoured the air clean. The wave of mud that had buried Elara was blasted back by the sheer pressure of the mana discharge.
"GAAH!"
The Swamp Behemoth screamed. It was a sound of pure agony.
Accustomed to the gloom of the bog, the sudden flash of light seared its eyes. It thrashed blindly, stumbling sideways into a skeletal tree.
Carlos fell to his knees as the rot vanished from his system. He gasped, pulling in the clean air as the status icons in his vision shattered.
Strength flooded back into his muscles, and the leaden weight in his chest disappeared.
[Status Effect Removed: Necrotic Rot]
"Grimmand!" Carlos roared, seizing the moment. "Take the legs!"
The dwarf emerged from the muck, spitting out black slime with a feral grin. "I'm going to turn this lizard into a pair of boots!"
Grimmand charged without regard for defense. He activated his Mithril Weave to harden his skin and slid beneath the creature's belly.
He swung his axe with every ounce of his restored power, the blade biting deep into the soft scales of the undergrowth.
SCHLICK.
Black blood sprayed across his face as he hacked at the rear tendons.
The beast's right leg collapsed as it tried to stomp, its support severed.
"Heads up!" Tamsin yelled.
The rogue dropped from the branches of a dead tree above them, landing squarely on the creature's back. He scrambled up the spine to avoid the thrashing tail and reached the base of the skull.
"This is for the smell!" Tamsin shouted.
He drove his daggers into the gap between the head plate and the neck after activating Critical Eye. He found the spinal cord and pushed the blades into the hilt while twisting.
The Behemoth stiffened, let out a final, gurgling breath, and slammed into the mud with a splash that sent a wave across the entire arena.
After a brief silence, born out of shock, Carlos leaned against his sword and wiped the slime from his visor. He looked over to the dry patch of land where Elara was coughing up the last of the black bile.
Jacob sat beside her, holding the smoking staff. The crystal at the tip was now cracked down the center.
"You," Carlos breathed, his heavy boots squelching in the mud as he approached. "What did you do?"
Jacob looked up, looking genuinely terrified. "I broke it. I'm sorry. I just tried to force the light out, and I think I burned out the core."
Elara wiped her mouth and looked at the ruined crystal, then at the dead boss.
She let out a wet, raspy laugh. "You broke my staff and saved our lives, Jacob. That crystal cost twenty gold, but I would have paid a thousand for it to work like that." She reached out and patted his head, leaving a smear of mud in his hair.
"Good work." She whispered.
Combat Insight Triggered
Analysis: External mana forced through a passive conduit.
Improvisation level: Extreme.
Result: Boss neutralized. Party survival confirmed.
Note: Asset demonstrates ability to override magical safety protocols. Danger level upgraded.
Carlos dismissed the notification as he knelt down in the mud next to Jacob. He didn't check the boy for injuries. He checked the boy's eyes.
"You ran into the danger," Carlos said quietly. "I told you to run away."
"That would have been a waste of resources," Jacob said in a small voice. "If the party died, I would have been trapped anyway. I just opened the valve."
Carlos stared at him for a long moment. Then he sighed and rested his forehead against his gauntlet.
"Opened the valve," Carlos muttered. "Right."
He stood up and offered a hand to Elara.
"Time to get you up," Carlos ordered gently. "Let's loot this thing and get out of the mud. I think we are done for the day."
Tamsin waved from atop the carcass. He was holding something that glowed with a sickly, powerful green light.
"Uh, guys?" Tamsin called out. "You might want to see this drop. I don't think this is on the standard loot table."