An Age of Mysterious Memories

I don't know how much damage this meteor would do, but I'm guessing a whole lot. Actually, I can math it out, if it's based on that one system. Combine all four meteors into one, max out that damage, and then double the damage from his magical steroid. Oh crap. Two-forty damage per meteor, four of them up to nine-sixty, doubled up to nineteen-twenty. Fun year supposedly, but not a fun number of damage to take in a single blow.

Lil’s already taken some bad hits today, and back on Can’Z’aas, his last max hp value that I recall was around twenty-two-hundred or so. My estimates with his growth on Rayileklia through Retrocognition said his new max health was around three k. If the hits he’s suffered so far today have done over a third of his health in damage, Lil could die to this. I can’t let that happen. What’s this? Lil’s evolving. I—.

Wait. Why does that seem familiar? Well, this might give him more of a buffer. He must have been working on reaching out to Can’Z’aas for a while, since, well about eight minutes ago or so. Maybe that was why he’d disappeared for a bit? So that he could figure out how to start focusing on it and keep up his focus during battle? Sounds plausible.

Still, even if we assume that that doubles his max health, Lil’s new form still has his injuries. Best case scenario, his new form adds three thousand health, putting him at maybe close to five k. More likely, it proportionately raised his health, so he’s probably around four k. That’s all assuming that this stage evolution for Lil is double his max health, which I have no basis of information for, and it’s pure speculation. Even with best-case scenarios though, it’s well-over a third of his best projected current health, and Al’pa’ca seems like he can keep slinging more of these meteors.

Trying to glean any advantage I can, I study Al’pa’ca’s clothing and magical equipment, and his motions. He’s definitely got some kind of sash on, hidden in his scales, and at least one amulet. I’m not sure if the skull and feathers are part of the same amulet or not, the cord seems like it could be looped a couple of times. The main feather almost looks like a, how do I put it, a burnt phoenix feather? But phoenixes can’t burn, and that doesn’t describe it properly. A charred phoenix feather? It’s black as coal is what I’m trying to get at.

He’s also been fiddling with dials and gauges and valves along the walls as he moved about, picking up trinkets and potions to utilize against us. His hoard of magical equipment seems to virtually swim around his ankles, carried by sand. Which, yeah, it probably is, and does, based on his ability to animate his sand breath and so on. Handy that, when you’re nuking a whole room, to be able to keep your items from getting nuked along with your enemies in your little forcefield bubble. Well, it’s not even little, it’s pretty massive, all things considered.

Boasting cockily, the archmage calls out, “I am the ultimate storm lord, I need not even tap into my true potential to destroy you insects. Enjoy this astral tempest.”

Ugh, instead of calling it meteor swarm or meteor storm, he—. Yeah yeah, I get it. I even see the jerkwad archmage floating several more steroid potions towards himself. So he probably assumed that he’d either overpower my counterspells, or just run me out of power before he did, with his artificial leyline network. I think Te’s probably around six k health right now herself, but she can mitigate some of the damage with Shellcracker’s Iceflame Spark, due to how it works not being resistance or immunity, but a partial absorption with a temp HP buffer aura.

Then there’s me. I’m at, or was at, about fifty-two hundred health, before a couple of gut-wounds, in my lightning lycanthrope form. I don’t know the exact value of HP per second that this form can regenerate, but let’s just assume best case scenario, that I’m back to max HP. If he spams three of these back to back, even I’m toast. This one, it’s too late to do anything about. Each of us in the SAP is gonna have to take it on the chin.

Al’pa’ca has us cornered like rats in a maze I think is the phrase. Yes, I heard the rhyme, shut up me. I have no idea how Lil and Te are gonna be able to deal with this. But, I can tell he's got a bunch of his steroids or whatever on him, and he's just waiting for this one meteor to hit before he pops another one, and starts spamming 'em. He's trying to overwhelm our defenses. I'm not even sure that I can do anything to counteract this or prevent our annihilation. This one's going through, and it's going to punch a hole in us, period, nothing I can do about it now. But what can I do against the next one, or the one after that, without running me out of safe SP?

Cra-ap, what's he doing now!? Al'pa'ca's summoning an earthen golem. I can sense the vibrations from its approach, the earth shaking beneath my feet. It's huge, gargantuan, a behemoth even. He's got it forming up next to him, probably intending to have it protect him like an elite guard, standing at the ready. Just in case we do somehow weather all his meteors and whatever else he throws at us, until his barriers drop. Just friggin' lovely. At least it's taking time to form up and get its bearings. Maybe, if we could get in there, before it finished forming entirely, we could at least nip one problem in the bud.

Hm, two problems, one stone. Or rather, two problems, one coat, one red dragon buddy. As the roaring, scorching, astral tempest bears down on us pushed ahead of this mountain of rock about to cave in our skulls, I do a dumb. Yes, a dumb. I doff my psi-blocking aegis circlet, so that I can contact my SAP.

Reaching out to Lil, I plead, "Lil, buddy, shapeshift to your humanoid form. I'm going to get my Ravencoat over to you. Use it to teleport into the other side of the barriers with Al'pa'ca, and glass that sandy elemental before it can finish forming up. He'll probably back off, and form up new barriers with that cube. But the Ravencoat's got four charges in it. If you can either get him to burn out that cube, or get it away from him within four teleports, he'll probably stop spamming meteors. I doubt he wants to take them on the chin himself. Plus, you'll be inside his invulnerable barriers as the next meteors drop on me and Te."

Glancing my way, Lil frowns, and responds telepathically, "Okay Nilnil, if you're sure. It sounds like a big brain Reggie plan to me. You and Te'll be alright, won't you?"

My eyes watering at Lil's concern, and also a bit at the resistance-piercing heat of the blazing meteor about to crush me, I nod, hoping I'm telling the truth when I answer, "Sure we will big guy. I love you pal. Grab the coat, feel that full Shellcracker family essence to utilize it, get in there and kick his ass. Priority one, the golem before it finishes forming, so that you can focus on priority two, the cube. Smash it if ya gotta."

Before Lil can respond further, I have to don my psi-aegis circlet, because the meteor's hitting right n--. Ow. Ow ow ow ow. My bones ache. The meteor begins to dissipate after achieving its goal of landing atop us. My Honoris Causa flickers out, dissipating with it, winking out and, I think going on cooldown or something. I suppose it was too much to hope that it could weather that much damage, when most ancient dragons have under a thousand max health. It might have prevented some of the damage from making it through to me, but I'm not holding my breath, or going to count on it, when strategizing.

My skin's crisped, my muscles feel like they've been cooked in the microwave. The ground is scorched, and the floor of the vault has a smoking hole, a crater the size of, well, most of the room. Lil looks like he was rocked by a hurricane, and has felt the pain of fire for the first time in his life. He's looking rough as hell, and Te's looking more than a little pissed off, and winded. Shellcracker's Iceflame Spark, Iceyhot as she sometimes calls him, really helped her weather the blaze, but couldn't do much against the crushing impact.

A door from this storm vault into Al’pa’ca’s treasure chamber is completely blown off its hinges, and likely going to be destroyed in the next impact. My glacier somehow held up fairly well, if you count losing a vast number of cubic feet, without dissipating entirely, holding up well. Rattling my skull as I lift my weary, aching body off the floor, I LBBTKSL towards Lil, using a number one from my QCR to don the Ravencoat. Oh, hey, side-benefit, I can feel my regeneration increasing with it on, since it's got that strange rough Teuila had attached to it for me.

I guess it really does increase my max health, and therefore my percentage regen, in this form at least. Doffing and chucking it towards Lil, I'm holding my breath while wearing my Wyverium chestplate. I flip around in reverse in the air, to head back towards my post at the entrance, because I see sparks and sand beginning to make it through the glacier.

Lil does the coolest clothing donning transformation I have ever friggin' seen. He grabs the Ravencoat midair, and it kinda swallows him, as he spins midair while adopting his humanoid form. He slips his arms flawlessly into the sleeves while they're billowing from my toss, and he tugs down the coat into a perfect fit. It's almost like his limbs move through an extra dimension within the coat, and they're being shifted around to fit the form of the coat, not the other way around. His smirk tells me he can guess almost exactly what I'm thinking about as I gawk at him, grinning like a doofus.

The Worldstorm chunk, this one that's been on my arse for a while now, is starting to wear on me, and get on my nerves. Worse, exactly as expected, Al'pa'ca begins to put another meteor into play, quite pleased with himself, seeing how much devastation it wrought against us. Ugh, it sucks that his mnemonic is silent, and so good that his casting is way faster with meteor swarm than if I had to manually craft the runes. Kinda wish I could learn and utliize a mnemonic after seeing just how powerful they can be. I wouldn't have to be quickening and increasing the costs of my spells all the friggin' time, and some spells would be even faster than I can quicken 'em.

Oh, right, focus Reggie. Worldstorm about to melt my face off with acid cloud, and lightning strikes, and another meteor rocketing down towards me 'n' Te. The storm's fury is an unending tempest, and the thunder's roar is deafening. Teuila is doing her best to shield Lil from the worst of it as he figures out the mechanics of the ability of the coat, while I've gotta contend with the worst of everything. I mean, I'm trying to focus, and not just get swept up in the moment, but, it's hard not to get distracted, and swept up. I mean, did you see how friggin' cool Lil just was? Focus Reggie, more important things right now. Right, right. But seriously, did you? Shut up doofus.

Just before impact, Lil vanishes, and a trio of ravens appears atop the still-forming huge earthen elemental myrmidon guard. As the second meteor hits, the ground shakes, and the air burns, igniting in a pure O2 or ozone explosion. I'm fairly positive they don't make pancakes flatter than I feel right now. Crepes? Maybe. Pancakes? Nah. Plus the Worldstorm is unrelenting, an assault on the senses, a cacophonous roar and an explosion of acidic vapors that stings the nostrils, and causes my eyes to water painful streams of what I hope isn't my vitreous fluid. Humor? Humour? I forget what it's called. Not important at the moment.

This is painful. Te and I are about to die. Al'pa'ca's sending a third meteor in a row our way, max-power, resistance-piercing, damage-potential-boosted, and roided out the waz--huh? My spiritswarm is done consuming the magic from the items that'd be worthless outside Stormheart Keep. Phew, okay, that's about enough raw magic to convert into enough temp-SP, for one more counterspell. Well, what're ya waitin' for Reggie? No time like the present to y'know, not get yer arse killed. I can sense Scirocco grimacing somewhere out in the antechamber, invisibly perched up along the ceiling in a corner.

Yeah, thanks Roccy. Huff, huff. I kinda figured he wouldn't do much to help after he'd already accidentally showed his hand to Al'pa'ca aiding us against Quicksand. But at least he is one less ancient we fought before taking on Al'pa'ca. That alone is worth something. Heck, he's probably going to find some way to finish off Al'pa'ca while all of us are weakened, if we make it to that point, which might spare one or more of us from... dying. Yeah. That's almost definitely what happens right before or right after he stabs us in the back. That's what the prophecy about Teuila was about. That's why I had to stay true to myself, and not second guess myself. That's why the Sisters tossed me a further overwhelming prophecy that was confusing enough to get me to focus. So, there's that too.

A third meteor is bearing down, the roar of the Worldstorm and the crackle of flames, the rumbling of the ground and the shriek of the lightning, all intensify as Lil begins roasting Al'pa'ca and the huge earth elemental myrmidon guard simultaneously. It's weird to see him doing it in a humanoid form, wearing my coat. But also kinda... sexy? Heh, erm, anyway. I'd better counter this stupid meteor before Te and I friggin' die. Te's fairing a bit better than me, she's only taking like two thirds of the damage per hit due to Icey’s buffer, but still, she's sporting some bone fractures by the way she's wincing, and she's easily lost close to half of the health she had when she started the fight.

If I wait til the last second to counter this meteor, my regeneration might just be enough to barely scrape by and survive a third. Even if we survive that one, I doubt Teuila or I will survive a fourth.