Any surprise that Alex may have had about the fact that the three-headed snake monster being able to speak were quickly swallowed by the enormous wave of flame that exploded out from the Field Boss.
He could feel the heat even a dozen paces away from the monster — and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that, if the fire touched him, he would be burnt to a crisp within moments.
Princess lurched forward. She grabbed Claire with one hand and slammed the Dhampir down beside Alex. The Dredge squished the two of them together like they were toy dolls and wrapped her body around them.
The fire connected an instant later. Even through the heavy, sludgy flesh surrounding Alex, he felt the heat bearing down on him. Crackling fire roared and hissed. Princess' flesh bubbled. Energy drained away from her as she regenerated as quickly as she could, fighting to remain whole.
She unwrapped herself from Alex and Claire, her body sloughing away and reforming. The air smelled of sticky burnt rubber — and the ground in a twenty foot ring originating from the Nagagaga was burnt to a blackened crisp.
Twisting snakes of fire spun around the Field Boss, glowing with molten light and swimming effortlessly through the air. One of them streaked through a burning tree at the edge of the monster's domain, burning clean through it and leaving a smoking hole in its scorched trunk.
"That's fucking sick," Alex said.
"Focus," Claire snapped. "You can fangirl over the monster after its dead! And the damn thing can speak. You do not need to be complimenting the enemy."
The Nagagaga swept its staves down and several snakes shot out toward them. Princess grabbed the attacks before they could reach their targets. Her flesh bubbled and smoked, huge portions of her arms sloughing away, but she managed to smother the magic before it could burn through her.
Alex could feel the magic coming from her body fading at an alarming rate. She wouldn't be able to block many more attacks like that. One, maybe. Two if he was lucky.
They were going to have to find a way to end this fast.
Hissing laughter slipped from the Nagagaga's mouths. More burning snakes swam in the air around it, rising up from the ground at its feet like molten ghosts to join the growing reserves surrounding the Field Boss.
Is there a limit to those? If not, we have to end this even faster than I thought. We're going to get overwhelmed.
"I need to get close to it," Claire whispered. "I pulled a scale off. If I can drink its blood…"
"I'll buy you space. We won't have long. If you can make a good opening to let Spark and Glint get a strong attack in, that'll be the best chance we have to take this thing down." Alex made sure he spoke quietly enough that the monster couldn't overhear him. If it could speak, then it was smart enough to pick any plans it heard apart as well.
The Nagagaga sent four burning snakes twisting toward them, and another pair of fireballs started to form above its staves. Claire burst into a run, her wings snapping down and launching her forward.
She slipped past the burning snakes, which twisted to follow after her. They streaked through the air in pursuit, only slightly slower than Claire herself.
Alex couldn't afford to worry about her. Several other snakes shot toward him, and the Nagagaga's fireballs were nearly fully formed. He didn't have much Qi left. If he used it on another Funhouse, that would be one less trump card he had left to play.
He flexed his fingers and waited for the attacks to arrive, shifting from foot to foot as his heart slammed in his chest. The fire flashed through the air and was upon him no more than a second later.
Alex hurled himself forward at the last second. Unlike the fireballs, the snakes didn't explode when they impacted something — and that meant they could be dodged without wasting precious energy.
"Princess!" Alex yelled even as he hit the ground rolling with a grunt. He still hadn't gotten anywhere near mastering a perfect combat roll, so he ended up pulling off something more akin to a tactical flop.
The flop proved to be sufficient. Loud hisses from the dirt behind him told Alex that the Nagagaga's magic had missed. Princess' footsteps thundered past Alex as he shoved himself to his feet. Waves of heat beat against his face as if he were standing a few inches away from a roaring oven.
One dodge was nothing to get too smug about. In the time that it had taken him to rise again, the Field Boss had replaced the snakes it had lost with twice their number. Molten magic swirled around the monster like crimson ribbons, flowing up from the ground around it.
Fucking hell. I don't know how long this thing can keep its domain up, but if it keeps going , I think I can see why the domain's name is Burning World. We can't let it keep ramping its magic up.
If we don't shift the flow of the fight soon, it's going to cook every one of us alive. Claire can't even get close to the damn thing as it is now. I have to take its domain down somehow.
That wasn't as easily said as done. Alex didn't have the slightest idea how Partial Domains worked. They obviously drew magic to keep active, but it was impossible to tell just how much energy the Nagagaga had. It certainly didn't look tired.
That's fine. We'll just have to do things the old fashioned way.
Princess lumbered past Alex. She accelerated with each step, shaking the earth beneath her. Streaks of fire carved through the sky like claws, slamming into her body one after the other and leaving thick holes in the sludge that made her up.
Energy drained from Princess in waves, but the wounds pulled themselves shut. Her advance continued. The Dredge was a shambling force of nature. Alex could practically see the moment when uncertainty forced its way into the Nagagaga's features.
The monster's staves lowered as it took aim, finally readying the fireballs that it had been holding at bay. Princess had simply taken too many strikes to still be standing. It had registered her as the strongest opponent, which meant she had to be dealt with before she got any closer.
Fire tore from the tips of the wooden weapons and screamed through the air.
Alex's lips pulled apart into a smile as the magic struck Princess. A deafening explosion ripped through air and a wave of heat and force exploded out along with a brilliant flash of orange flame.
He staggered, throwing his hands up to cover his face. A loud snap echoed within the crackle of roaring fire. Energy rushed into Alex as he felt his connection to Princess sever. The Nagagaga had finally managed to take her down.
And, in the process, it had left itself open. The monster was still working to regenerate the fire snakes it had used trying to take Princess down. It would be at least a few seconds before it could summon another pair of fireballs.
There were still so many fire snakes around the Field Boss that not even an idiot would get close unless they wanted to get fried. Being slightly less defended didn't mean much when a single good strike from the Partial Domain would kill most people.
Fortunately for Alex, he didn't need to keep his monsters alive.
He could still feel the death energy from all the monsters that had died during the initial invasion of the camping ground. The dead Nagaga nearby held a considerable amount of strength himself.
And, as a flicker of relief passed over the Field Boss' serpentine features and it turned toward Alex to finish off the next threat, he cast his mind out to those scraps of death energy. He thrust a hand into the air and yanked every scrap of the waiting power to himself.
Then he snapped his fingers.
A burning snake streaked straight for his head.
The patch of black sludge on the ground where Princess had once stood bubbled. Then it erupted like a geyser, the pieces of her mask slamming back together as Alex ripped her free from the clutches of the grave.
Her power left his body and returned to the monster. She intercepted the fire from the Nagagaga's Partial Domain, swallowing the damage with her body and leaving Alex unharmed behind her.
The Field Boss' eyes widened in disbelief. Its tongues flicked into the air as it took a step back, hurriedly trying to gather fire at the tips of its staves. The monster let out a furious hiss. "How are you still alive?"
Alex didn't grace his opponent with a response — but Princess did. She lurched forward, tanking several more fire strikes before arriving mere feet away before the Nagagaga. The serpentine monster tried to retreat, but it was clearly used to using its wings more than its legs.
Princess' fist streaked through the air and slammed into one of its heads with a satisfying crunch.
The Field Boss staggered back, blood spraying from its lips. It whipped a wooden staff down into the Drudge. The stick drove deep into her body and sent sludge splattering all around her. Alex grimaced.
This might have been a mage, but it was still Adept 1. It hit like a truck. The blow had done nearly as much damage to Princess as a full on fireball.
Maybe she's just slightly flame resistant?
It certainly seemed like the Nagagaga planned to find out. The monster let out a furious hiss as it ripped fire up from the ground as if pulling it straight from the depths of hell. They slammed into Princess one after the other.
Others broke away to streak for Alex, forcing him to fling himself to safety and scramble to avoid getting cooked.
Princess was doing a remarkable job of keeping the monster's attention, but her energy was draining rapidly. She couldn't take many more hits, and it wouldn't be long until —
A loud crack echoed out.
The Nagagaga's staff shattered Princess' mask. Her body collapsed into a pool of sludge. Her weak point had been discovered. There wasn't enough death energy left from the fight to bring Princess back a second time, and he didn't have the energy to use Encore more than once. Cashing that in now would be overplaying his hand.
With a hissing laugh, the Field Boss turned toward Alex. It swept its staff down and a flash of fire streaked for him. He lunged for safety, but he wasn't quite fast enough to avoid the Field Boss' attacks when it was fully focused on him.
A searing pain ripped through his right leg. Alex let out something between an agonized scream and a curse. He couldn't tell what the extent of the damage was, but it felt bad. Alex hit the ground with a grunt.
He rolled to the side, teeth gritted.
The Nagagaga raised its staves.
It didn't have any flames left. Its fireballs were spent. And, even as more fire rose from the ground, even as a whine filled the air while the monster spun magic back to life above its staves, Alex locked eyes with it.
Claire slammed into the Nagagaga's side in a blur. Her claws dug into it for purchase; her head reared back and her fangs glistened in the light of the all-too-slow fire beneath the Field Boss. Directly before her was the spot where she'd ripped one of its scales off previously.
Panic flashed in the serpentine monster's eyes, but it was too late. She bit deep into the monster. She drank, gulping its blood down by the mouthful, and the Nagagaga screamed.
It discarded a staff and reached up to grab her.
"Claire!" Alex yelled.
Claire shoved away from the Field Boss, her wings snapping as she barely dodged out of the way in time. She dropped to the ground and leapt back, landing beside Alex.
The Nagagaga let out a rattling hiss. Strands of flame pushed free from beneath the ground to twist around it. Fury roiled in its eyes like the fire surrounding the monster.
"Oh, you're a simple one, aren't you?" Claire whispered. Her tongue ran along her lips and she closed her eyes, face creasing in concentration.
A fireball twisted to life above the Field Boss' remaining staff.
"Claire?" Alex whispered.
Her eyes snapped open. They'd gone as black as the deep night. The Dhampir extended an open hand toward the Nagagaga. Then she clenched it shut.
"You have no eyes," Claire said.
Six wet pops cut through the crackle of the flame.
The Nagagaga screamed in agony. The fire surrounding it sputtered out as it staggered, clawing at its thrashing heads, where six streams of blood traced down the sides of its face.
Alex's grin grew wider. He was under no delusion that they'd already won the fight. The Field Boss was far from dead — but the tides had shifted.
You know, I was planning on keeping the people here out of the fight… but there's no such thing as safe anymore. Safety today is danger tomorrow.
"Come on!" Alex roared to the townsfolk. "If you want to make something of yourselves, then show us what you've got! The snake is blind! This is your opportunity to get stronger!"
Now it's our turn. Time to finish this.