Time Elapsed: 03:23:19

Severance stabbed both points of his closed war fans into the frosted metal of K-792's shoulder. It was like punching a knife through a tin can. Still difficult, but at least doable. He yanked them free, and little currents of electricity scattered up the Boss's frame.

Jack's suspicions had been correct: Sky Dance did mess with K-792's system. Depending on how much electric energy Severance pushed into the Boss, he could slow it down temporarily or even confuse it a little.

Now he snapped open his fans, murmuring, "Earth Dance." The volatile energy around him morphed into something softer and gentler. He kept an eye on the nearby Jack Coyote, mentally setting him as the focus target of his next skills.

"Restoring Step." The skill took over, prompting him to slice into the metal with uncanny precision. A surge of healing winds gathered around his weapons, which he then spun and threw off his fans towards Jack Coyote. It was a slightly weaker heal than Mend, but this way he still did some damage to the Boss.

"I will scatter your entrails across the earth, fleshbags." K-792 declared. This was followed by all its flamethrower barrels heating up. The metal glowed red in warning.

"Ward," Severance muttered, watching the two barrels facing Jack Coyote.

For his part, Jack Coyote didn't even blink an eye. He simply stated, "Endure," and then raised his shield. "Shield Block." He hunkered behind the slab of metal, brown light flowing around his feet.

Blue torrents of fire tore out of the barrels, completely engulfing the tank. Someone else took a small amount of damage in the party list, but Severance ignored them. Either Morning Glory or Softee's phoenix would look after them.

Icy winds abruptly howled up into the air from either side of the Boss. Mr Snowman and Valipn4ifw were taking advantage of the moment; while K-792 was spitting out fire, it wouldn't move as long as Jack Coyote didn't move.

Glancing up, Severance saw fog forming in the air above them. It sparkled as ice crystals grew within. The Cryomancers were going for a combo attack, then. He wordlessly dropped his gaze to the Boss. That meant it was up to him to stall for time.

The jets of fire started to thin.

"Restoring Step," he murmured. Jack's health jumped up to ¾ full. It was enough for now. Severance moved back a bit, then snapped a fan closed. "Sky Dance."

The second he felt the energy within change to something more turbulent, he narrowed his eyes on K-792. He was out of ice. Any further melee attacks would do very little.

He looked up again. The fog had expanded significantly, and it easily stretched out over all their heads. It was thick enough to block whatever small amount of daylight there was, casting them all in the deep shadow of the growing threat.

And it truly was a threat, if he'd learned anything about the AOE abilities of a Cryomancer. This was a combination he hadn't seen before, but he didn't dare underestimate it.

"Ten seconds," Valipn4ifw called out.

"You will fail," K-792 immediately stated. And as if to prove that, its optical lens began to swivel. "Targeting."

Oh no you don't. Severance smiled grimly. "Flare."

Instantly, thunder growled overhead. The fog turned blue in the center, lit by something falling from the sky. A bolt of pure energy pierced through, leaving little tendrils of electricity that scattered into the brewing storm.

K-792 trembled as the bolt smashed right onto its hatch. Its optical lens jerked, then abruptly froze in place as electrical energy rippled across the narrow stalk supporting the lens. "Error," came the calm statement. "Targeting interrupted."

That's the whole idea, you buckethead. Severance began to move back, getting away from the Boss and the weird cryomancer storm that brewed overhead.

"Three!" Shouted Valipn4ifw.

Instantly, the rest of the team vacated the area surrounding the Boss. Jack Coyote lingered for a second or two longer, ensuring that K-792 didn't move out of the impending attack. Then he too skedaddled, just as both cryomancers released their skills.

"Freeze Storm!"
"Haze!"

The howling winter winds and flurries of snow died. The fog sat quietly above them, and it truly was a thing of beauty. Pale and luminescent with an eerie white glow, it shimmered with countless crystals. As Severance watched, the weird fog seemed to curl into itself a bit, as if gathering in its edges. And then it floated down, gently and silently, to engulf K-792. It obscured the entire Boss from view.

The scariest part of the whole thing was the utter silence. It only lasted moments, for the fog quickly broke apart and dissipated. K-792 was revealed once more, but this time, its entire body was coated in a very thick layer of hoarfrost. It turned shiny gray to sparkling white, like it was a sculpture made of ice and snow.

Everyone stared. K-792 seemed to be as frozen as they were.

Then Ironhide shouted, "Go, go, go!"

His cry broke the moment and everyone burst into a flurry of motion. This frost wouldn't last forever, and they'd be absolute idiots to let the cryomancers' efforts go to waste.

Mr Softee slapped the ground, laying down a pattern of cracks. Yellow light spilled forth. "Attack Boost! Come get buffed!"

One by one, players darted over to step into the glowing series of cracks. It was a physical buff, one that benefited all but the mage classes. Severance made sure to grab it since half his skills were physical attacks, and it would make it a little easier for him to get through the Boss's armor.

"Flutterstep." Severance directed the skill towards the Boss's front wheel and let it move him there in an eerie flicker of movement. It left him standing practically nose-to-frosted metal, which was a little too close, but that was no matter. He lifted his fans, and found the damage he'd left earlier. "Skyfall."

Electricity rippled up his arms and cracked through frost as the teeth of his weapons tore through K-792's brittle skin with surprising ease.

+1 Intelligence

Valentin launched himself up into an aerobatic leap.

The Knightglaive flipped and came down head first, his glaive held close to his body. With the added force of gravity and his weight, he punched deep into K-792. There was an awful crunch and grinding sound. Bright sparks flew from the point of impact.

Valentin twisted and landed on his feet as light as a butterfly. His glaive was stuck inside K-792, so he grabbed hold of the shaft with one hand and jerked it free. Something cracked and joints supporting the rear wheel gave way. K-792's frame dropped in that corner, while the wheel itself just sort of tilted uselessly outwards.

A cheer rose from Morning Glory and Mr Softee, but no one lost focus. They were just getting started.

With a shudder, K-792 let out a hiss as if releasing pressure. "It is but a scratch, fleshbags."

Boom!

With a gasp, Severance staggered, then fell to a knee. He clutched his chest, which now was a mangled mess of flesh. Blood bubbled up into his mouth. His vision went gray, but he didn't fight it. He let the searing sensations sail through him, even as he focused on holding his war fans.

"Earth Dance," he whispered. The wave of warmth that rushed through him was so gentle and soothing that he briefly closed his eyes, welcoming it. "Mend."

One heal was enough to close the worst of the wounds. But everyone had taken damage with that last attack. "Counter Gale!"

While he spun in place, releasing a burst of healing wind, Morning Glory's bells rang out across the caldera. The sound settled over everyone like a gentle rain, applying a regenerative effect that would linger for a minute.

"Switch!" Valentin suddenly landed beside Severance. He spun his glaive once, its bladed tip angling towards the front wheel. The Knightglaive canted his head towards Severance, and crimson found lavender.

Severance nodded once and moved back to the ruined rear wheel. He couldn't see Jack Coyote anymore from this position, but he'd watch the party list and move closer if he had to.

An ice bolt smashed into the side of the Boss, startling Severance. He glanced back and saw Mr Snowman standing a safe distance behind him, with a flurry of snow spinning around his outstretched hand. The cryomancer's attack froze a wide area of K-792, renewing a portion of the frost.

Nice. He faced the nice new patch of frost, and got down to business. "Sky Dance. Skyfall!"

To his right, Valentin was already working at destroying the other wheel. And on the other side of the Boss, Severance could hear Awesome Dude's enthusiastic shouts. The Shade had some kind of competition going on with YellowThere, where the two tried to out-damage each other.

"Very well," K-792 stated. "I will reduce simple facts to a fleshbag-level of intelligence." And then he sent a single rocket straight up into the sky. "Behold: you will fail."

Eyes widening, Severance abruptly turned his back to the Boss. A single rocket... he knew what that meant! He spun away, raising an arm to shield his face. Just before he closed his eyes, he saw that Valentin was in the middle of a series of attacks, chaining one after another. Hadn't the Knightglaive seen the rocket?

The world shuddered with a thunderous ka-boom. Everything fuzzy around the edges. Severance felt something warm trickled down the sides of his face. All sound had evaporated; he couldn't hear a thing.

He lifted his head. His vision had gone blurry, and spots flew about, but that didn't stop him from seeing Valentin kneeling on the ground, bleeding from his ears with his eyes screwed shut.

Movement in his peripherals made Severance jerk his head back towards the Boss. He couldn't hear anything, but he saw three new rockets launch into the sky. His mouth went dry. Who had they targeted?

There wasn't any way to tell now, not with the rockets already in the air. He moved away from the Boss, switching to Earth Dance as he did so.

And then he saw YellowThere running out past the rear of K-792. He spun his Tempest chain overhead like a lasso, a wild grin on his face like he was having the absolute time of his life. That was when Severance realized the rockets were falling, and one of them was dropping straight for YellowThere.

He can't be... Horrified, Severance couldn't look away from what surely would be a horrible disaster. It was a disaster, but not in the way he expected. It unfolded in utter silence, because Severance still couldn't hear a thing.

The rocket fell and YellowThere unfurled his chain. It whipped out like a snake, its tip catching then wrapping twice around the rocket. With uncanny timing, YellowThere yanked the chain and threw his full weight into wide spin. Somehow, he managed to change the trajectory of the rocket; it made a full turn and slammed into the top of K-792.

Light flashed, followed by a terrible wave of concussive force. Severance staggered. The Tempest had just lassoed his rocket and sent it back to the Boss. Who even did that? And - oh.

Valentin was dead. Morning Glory was dead. And Ironhide, Softee and YellowThere were all injured significantly.

You've got to be kidding me.

Gritting his teeth, Severance got to his feet. He could feel the sting of burnt flesh upon his face, arms and torso, could feel the deep ache of abused and bruised muscles, but he used that to fuel himself to move. With his co-healer dead, keeping this train wreck alive was now his job.

Earth Dance. Some of his hearing had returned, but it was muted noise at this point. But that didn't matter, because he still could see. And he saw one of those horrible wheel spikes extend out of the front wheel of the Boss. (Valentin had tried, but he hadn't been able to destroy the wheel before he got killed.)

Dancing back, Severance glanced first at Valentin's body, then Morning Glory's. He wondered if he'd be able to safely Revive them if he chose a point far enough away...

The choice was taken away from him. Softee raised both arms, and a great bird of living flame descended before him. He pointed at Morning Glory's corpse. The Phoenix wheeled around and went to her, gently spreading its wings over her. It vanished, sacrificing itself to feed the Revive, while orange flames curled around her and lifted her up.

Okay fine, he'd Revive Valentin.

Something big and dark barreled towards Severance. He gasped, and turned on a dime, lunging to the side. The spinning top of death barely missed him before it jerked away. Its movement was very wobbly, with sparks flying from its broken wheel as it scraped against the rock.

Safe for the moment, Severance tried again, focusing on the knightglaive. But then the damaged wheel broke off of K-792's chassis. It skittered out like a crazed rabbit, rocketing across the arena and smacking right into Softee. The Evoker's name went dark instantly.

Severance nearly growled in frustration, and switched to YellowThere. The barely-alive player was the closest now, although Severance had to move closer to the edge of the arena to keep the Tempest in his sight as the Boss began to return to its central position.

He placed a Radiant Dome and began to cast Mend.

By now, Morning Glory was back on her feet. The second her eyes opened, she raised her bells. A single sonorous sound rang out, but the second was drowned out by a thunderous clap.

Boom!

Morning Glory went down again. And so did YellowThere, as Severance's healing attempt was aborted in an instant.

This time, Severance did growl. He'd fallen to all fours; his legs took the brunt of the attack this time. When he looked, he saw splintered bone amongst the wash of pink and red. But this time, he barely felt it. It was there, bleeding into sheer irritation and anger, and he'd had enough.

They were not failing now, not when they'd already done so much damage to the Boss.

Blood filled his mouth, seeped down his chin, its taste heavy and cloying. The war fans had never left his grip, so now he forced himself to sit back on ruined legs. Something snapped in one of them as his weight settled over them, but he didn't care.

His world was pain anyway. And it wasn't going to kill him, because he wouldn't let it.

"Mend," he gurgled. Warmth danced around him and through him, soothing and gentle.

K-792 limped to a corner, scattering the surviving players. Severance stared at it, even as he stumbled to his feet. The Boss turned in place to face him.

"Good-bye, fleshbags."

Lavender eyes narrowed to mere crescents. I don't think so.