CHAPTER 24: THE FORGE MASTER
979 Words
The hammer struck the ground with enough force to create a shockwave.
Klein activated his wings and took flight, barely avoiding the impact that left a crater where he'd been standing.
Marcus planted his shield, activating Titan's Rampart. A barrier of golden energy formed in front of the team, absorbing the shockwave's remnants.
"Spread out!" Seris ordered. "Don't give it clustered targets for those missiles!"
The team scattered as the Forge Master's shoulder launchers activated.
Missiles streaked through the air, tracking their targets with mechanical precision.
Klein twisted mid-flight, dodging three missiles that exploded behind him. The heat washed over his back, but his Archfiend scales absorbed most of it.
Finn appeared on the Forge Master's back, driving his daggers into a joint between armor plates.
The boss didn't even seem to notice.
"These plates are too thick!" Finn called out, dodging a backhand swing from one of the Forge Master's four arms.
Lyssa launched a lightning bolt at the boss's chest. It struck true, and Klein saw electrical discharge run across the metal frame. The Forge Master paused, systems briefly disrupted.
"Lightning works!" Klein shouted. "Keep hitting it!"
But the pause only lasted seconds. The Forge Master's body began to glow, and Klein watched in horror as the damage from Finn's daggers sealed itself, molten metal flowing through those transparent tubes to repair the injury.
"It's self-repairing!" Raze fired explosive arrows, but they barely dented the armor.
Seris's eyes narrowed. "The tubes. It's using that molten metal to regenerate. We need to target the tubes and the core simultaneously."
Klein dove toward the Forge Master, claws extended.
One of its arms swung to intercept, but Klein used Void Step, teleporting past the guard and raking his talons across a tube cluster.
Molten metal sprayed out, burning hot enough to make Klein's scales steam. The Forge Master roared...a mechanical screech that hurt Klein's ears.
Good. It could be hurt.
The boss retaliated with all four arms at once, creating a cage of attacks that Klein barely escaped.
He Void Stepped again, appearing twenty feet away, his mana pool draining from repeated use of the skill.
"We need to expose its core!" Seris created void spheres around the Forge Master's chest, trying to tear away armor plating.
The Forge Master swung its hammer at her.
Marcus intercepted, shield raised. The impact drove him to his knees, but he held.
"I can't... hold much longer!" Marcus's voice strained.
Klein made a decision. He activated Essence Harvest on one of the destroyed guardian corpses scattered around the chamber.
Energy flowed into him, and suddenly Klein understood mechanical weak points with enhanced clarity...stress fractures, power routing, critical system nodes.
He could see the Forge Master's vulnerabilities now.
"There!" Klein pointed to a spot on the boss's back, between shoulder blades.
"That's where the power core is! The tubes all route through there!"
"Can you reach it?" Seris asked.
"I can try."
Klein shot upward, gaining altitude. The Forge Master tracked him with its missiles, but Lyssa intercepted them with a lightning barrier.
From this height, Klein could see the entire battlefield. His team was giving everything, but they were being worn down.
Marcus's shield was cracking. Raze was running low on arrows. Finn had taken a glancing blow and was favoring his left side.
They needed to end this now.
Klein folded his wings and dove, building speed. The Forge Master raised all four arms to defend its back, but Klein had anticipated this.
"Chaos Disruption!" He released the skill early, destabilizing the space around the Forge Master's arms.
The mechanical limbs spasmed, control systems thrown into chaos. It created an opening...just a second, but Klein only needed a second.
He crashed into the Forge Master's back, claws extended, and drove both hands into the spot he'd identified.
His claws punched through armor, through tubes, through layers of machinery, until they reached something solid and pulsing with energy.
The core.
Klein channeled Storm's Breath directly into the core, golden and black flames flooding the Forge Master's interior.
The boss froze.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the Forge Master's entire body began to glow from within. Molten metal in the tubes boiled and burst.
The mechanical giant took one step forward, then collapsed.
Klein rode the falling boss down, jumping clear just before it crashed into the factory floor with a sound like thunder.
Silence fell over the chamber.
Then came the notification:
FORGE MASTER DEFEATED
Experience Gained: 8,000
Level Up!
You are now Level 15
Klein landed beside the smoking wreckage, breathing hard. His mana was nearly depleted, his body ached, but they'd won.
The rest of his team gathered around, all looking exhausted but alive.
"Everyone okay?" Seris asked.
"Bruised but breathing," Marcus said, his shield finally dissipating.
"That was intense," Finn muttered, pressing a hand to his ribs.
Lyssa leaned on her staff, sweat dripping down her face. "Mechanical bosses are always rough."
The Forge Master's body began to dissolve into light particles, forming loot orbs that floated toward each team member.
Klein caught his:
LOOT ACQUIRED: FORGE CORE FRAGMENT
LOOT ACQUIRED: REINFORCED PLATING (RARE)
CURRENCY GAINED: 15,000 Credits
Not as impressive as the dragon loot, but still valuable.
More importantly, Klein was now Level 15. Only one level below Drake Winters.
The gap was closing.
"Let's get out of here," Seris said. "We've been at this gate for six hours. I need a shower and about twelve hours of sleep."
As they walked back through the factory toward the exit portal, Klein checked his status screen.
STATUS:
Name: Klein Slash
System: Divine Archfiend System
System Level: 15
System Grade: S
Mana: 2,500
Attributes: Chaos
Title: Storm's Inheritor
One level in a single mission. The mechanical enemies' organized nature had made them vulnerable to his chaos attribute.
Klein smiled slightly. Maybe he actually had a chance against Drake Winters.
Maybe.
- Writer
