Speed-Runs were so stressful−not only the time restraints, but also leaving behind the shiny pile of loot the first boss dropped! Flora stared at it for two entire seconds while Mia fetched the Roadblock. Her mana was another issue. She had too much of it after kicking the boss three-times. She had wasted her two best mana-reg skills, Pray and Refresh, too early. Although her mana pool was full, her Refresh was still running.
Before Flora could decide on what to use it on, Mia was already on the way back. She and the Tollies followed Mia into the next corridor.
Humanoid ice elementals awaited them.
After Mia barreled them over, the elementals retaliated. The ice bolts not only hurt but also slowed her. Now, Flora's Refresh came in handy. Her Divine Radiance spread its effect to the girl and lifted the cold debuff from her.
Flora pointed her Holy Rain at the three groups and roaming patrols.
The tunnel was shorter than the first one. In no time, they reached another cave where Mia plugged the exit with the Roadblock.
Flora and the Tollies rained hell on the elementals− or in their case, heaven because they used Holy Rain, and only she added a Fire Rain into the mix.
Suddenly, the cave floor under Flora bulged and threw her into the air.
Flora managed to land on her feet but lost control over her spells. She fared better than the Water Tolly, who landed on its butt.
"Burned toast! Is it the earth boss?" She glanced at her cooldown list. Transfer AoE was thankfully usable.
"Yes, Milady. The Dots will kill the rest of the elementals. Now, you can join Mia. I'll mark the estimated location of the Earth-Mole boss."
Mia stormed past Flora, following the trail of disturbed earth.
"Come on, Tollies! Let's flush out the mole!"
(Left Hand, Wavering Wave-Ring): <Transfer AoE> <Holy Rain>
As soon as Flora had cast the Rain on Aidan's mark, the earth broke, and a ball of muddy soil broke through.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Thorn Cannon>
Mia sailed through the air and buried her sword into the pile.
The shiny stone claws of the boss burrowed through the ground and took off in the direction of the Earth-Wood Tolly. Flora's Holy Rain followed it until it dove deeper into the ground.
When it vanished, Aidan's marker landed on the Earth-Wood golem.
That nasty mole wanted to eat Flora's cute Tolly!
"Dodge, Tolly!" Flora yelled while relocating her Rain above her companion.
Out of thin air, Mia appeared with her sword raised next to the retreating Tolly, just as the head of the mole broke the floor. She smashed her weapon into the boss.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Thorn Cannon>
The Bolts of Flora's Tollies hit true, as well.
The mole didn't go back into the earth this time but raked Mia's shield with its claws.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Toxic Beam>
The party pelted the boss with everything they had.
"Boss nearly at 50% Milady. Earth-Halo suggested. Re-Generate is off cooldown. Mana is under 30%. Mia's HP as well. Beware of the spikes!"
When the boss dove into the ground, Flora was ready to act.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Earth Halo>
When the floor rumbled, everybody jumped into the air.
(Right Leg, Multitool Scepter) : <Bless and Condemn>
Spikes shot out of the floor until they were as tall as a Tolly.
While the Tollies had jumped up like Flora, they didn't reach her height. The earth lances pierced their legs.
As the spikes lowered into the floor, Flora and Mia descended as well.
(Right Leg, Multitool Scepter) : <Bless and Condemn>
The Mole reappeared, and the Tollies picked themselves up.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Refresh>
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Toxic Beam>
"Incoming 25%, Milady. Hide and Seek part two." Aidan said just after Flora's beam hit the mole.
"So soon?"
"The Tollies were lucky, and their damage over time secondary effects stacked."
The mole retreated into the floor, and Flora used the time to hit Mia with a healing spell.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Healing Wood Bolt>: Mia.
When the ground under Flora's feet shook, she was prepared and sidestepped the Mole before kicking it.
(Right Leg, Multitool Scepter) : <Righteous Strike>
In passing, Mia stabbed at it. She ran to the tunnel entry and picked up the Roadblock.
The mole boss dived after her. On Mia's way, it came out of the ground.
Stomping her foot, the girl killed it. Or maybe the rest of the teams' Bolts ended it, but Flora thought the former was cooler.
"Next!" Mia yelled cheerfully and ran to the next corridor.
Flora used the opportunity with her entire party in front of her to cast a healing breath. She put her right hand behind her head to hit herself as well. Divine Radiance was too nice to waste.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Healing Wood Breath>
The Lightning elementals in the corridor stared angrily at Flora. However, when Mia barreled them, and the Auntie added her aggro transferring Holy Rain, they switched their ire to the girl.
Concerned, Flora watched Lightning Bolts pelting Mia. Although her Henchgirl glowed with protective magic, her HP sank under 30%.
Flora would love to heal her more, especially using Divine Radiance. "Aidan, find a heal over time spell with a different cooldown than Re-Generate."
When they reached the end of the tunnel, Flora couldn't stand it anymore.
(Right Leg, Multitool Scepter) : <Bless and Condemn>
(Right Leg, Multitool Scepter) : <Redeem>: Mia.
The healing spell was a drop in the ocean of Mia's massive HP pool, but Flora was happy that she reversed the steady fall.
After Mia had plugged the tunnel, Flora and the Tollies rained on the elementals.
"My summons will burn, drown, shred, poison and stone you!" A voice boomed behind Flora's back. She didn't turn around because Mia had warned her that the endboss would sprout some lines. Still, she felt challenged.
"My golems will holy toast you!" Flora declared. Immediately, she felt simultaneously ashamed of the lame comeback and vindicated that she didn't take the verbal abuse quietly.
As soon as Aidan declared the Lightning Elementals as good as dead, Flora faced the endboss.
The Summoner stood in the middle of the room with his arms raised, channeling something. Close to the cave wall, three elementals chased Mia. That guy had summoned quite the harem: a silver and a nearly transparent water elemental with exaggerated female curves and a woman made out of twines.
"Water Tolly on the Metal elemental, Earth-Wood Tolly attack the Water vixen!" Flora ordered her companions while moving the Holy Rain on the group. Although Mia had marked the former as priority target, Flora didn't want to waste the golem's secondary Wood effect on an immune target.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Holy Field>
The spell colored the cave golden.
Holy Field Description: Protects the faithful from and punishes the sinner with reduced/increased damage from all sources.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Water Beam>
With both Holy Rain and Water Beam firmly locked in her mind, Flora kicked the nearest elemental for a bit more mana.
(Right Leg, Multitool Scepter) : <Righteous Strike>
While Flora only had to follow Mia and kick as least awkwardly as possible, the girl had to defend against the three cunning elemental ladies. The green woman tried to ensnare the girl with her twines, the silver one shot her with metal bolts, and the water vixen showered her in acid. After Flora entered one of the acid puddles accidentally, she knew why Mia kept moving. The stuff left a nasty debuff behind.
As soon as the silver elemental fell, Flora cast a water spell on herself with the hope that Mia would profit from the debuff clearing. Refresh had still 12 seconds cooldown, so Flora went with a defensive skill.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Water Halo>
Next, Mia marked the Wood elemental.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Fire Beam>
When Flora was confident that her two channeled spells held, she kicked the woman shaped pile of greenery. That turned out to be a mistake.
(Right Leg, Multitool Scepter) : <Righteous Strike>
The Wood elemental's twines wrapped around her leg, although it was still chasing after Mia.
"I'm too old for this." Flora hopped on her one free leg after the crowd, still channeling Fire Beam and Holy Rain. She tried her best to free her leg. Pulling did nothing. Only when she directed the Fire Beam directly at her ensnared leg did the wood woman realize that she messed with the wrong granny and let her go.
Thankfully, Aidan had disabled friendly-fire well before the run, so none of Flora's toes were burned in the process.
The ladies, elemental or human, had completed a full circle around the cave when the Wood elemental finally died.
Flora ignored the glowing pile of loot behind the Roadblock and directed the Water-Tolly to cast Reconfirm on Mia. The Water secondary effect would help with all the Acid and Poison debuffs she had collected.
The Earth-Wood Tolly had already chipped at the health of the Water vixen, but it was tenuous.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Wood Beam>
Although Flora felt trepidation before kicking again, considering what happened the last time, she still did it. When nothing terrible happened, she took her revenge and the sweet mana by kicking the watery figure nonstop.
(Right Leg, Multitool Scepter) : <Righteous Strike>
When the Water Elemental perished with a splash, Flora's mana looked good. Only a bit of her health was missing because of the few debuffs she hadn't resisted. She blamed the Wood lady. Not only had that elemental poisoned her directly, but Flora couldn't avoid the acid puddles while hopping on one leg.
"Go, go, go!" Mia said, charging the Summoner. The guy looked like a mage should: Blue robe with arcane symbols, pointy head, white beard, glowing staff−basically Santa in the offseason.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Wood Beam>
Flora continued with the Holy Rain because Mia had warned her what would happen at the boss's 50% health mark.
Targeting the weak spot of all man, Flora kicked him where she assumed that the bad Santa kept his presents for the ladies.
(Right Leg) : <Power Strike>
"Ouchy!" Flora cried out when her foot hit something hard.
"Bosses have balls of steel," Mia said, grinning while striking with her sword. That evil girl had even made room for Flora's kick!
"50%, Milady."
"Children of the Elemental Plains, heed my call!" The Summoner chanted.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Refesh>
Five portals appeared, surrounding the Summoner, and a flood of elementals streamed out of them.
(Right hand, Toasted Bracelet): <Holy Rain>
While Mia jumped to the portal at 12 o'clock, Flora positioned herself between two of them, raining on both.
The elementals were only slightly taller than Smurfy and Jaggy and vanished after the rains hit them just one time. Although the portals were a bit more resistant, they went down fast as well. When Flora's two dissipated, Mia finished up her second, and they killed the last together.
Now, only the Summoner was left.
(Right hand, left hand): Double <Acid Beam>!
Flora funneled a torrent of acid water out of her hands. It was a wonder that the Summoner wasn't blasted across the room by the might of Auntie Firefighter!
Finally, the boss went down.
