Alara's First Dungeon Battle

Alara decided that it would probably be best for her and Yotaro to tag team the goblins first, before taking on the big guy. They were faster and sneakier than the cyclops, so it would be easier to safely fight the big one without having to worry about being stabbed in the back. It seemed like Yotaro got the message as he continued to lop off pieces of deformed flesh with his teeth and claws.

Since the battle began, several dozen more goblins had crawled out of the tar and they didn't appear to be stopping. The sheer volume of enemies was making it difficult to clear out the hoarde. Her blade wasn't going to be fast enough, so Alara decided she would just roast the entire battlefield instead.  The only problem, Yotaro. If she used widespread magic it would get caught in the crossfire. She already fucked up once with that and it got them stuck down here. Never again. 

She wasn't sure how much Yotaro would understand, but it was worth trying. Alara called out to the creature, “Yotaro, come here quick!” The creature who was running in the opposite direction skidded to a halt before sprinting towards Alara.  Yotaro's large paws and claws dug into the sludge and he jumped into the air before turning into his familiar weasel form, and diving into the hood of the robe. It was like the little critter could read Alara's mind, but what were the chances of that?

With Yotaro safely tucked in her hood, Alara raised her hand above head and began to draw mana into her outstretched arm. The air around them swelled with static, all of the princess's hair stood on end, the fabric from her surface clothes began to lift off her body, and some loose rocks were also lifted into the air. With a sharp exhale, Alara whispered, “Lightning storm”. When her arm lowered, the goblin closest to her suddenly went up in smoke. Then one by one, there were flashes that would leave behind smoking goblins who had been burnt to a crisp.

Within a minute the goblin horde had been nearly annihilated. The stragglers that remained were in a daze, probably recovering from shocks to areas outside of their hideous growths. Yotaro immediately went to work, returning to his big cat form and tearing off tumors with his massive K9’s. The mimic was a fine fighter and very intelligent. Alara was highly impressed. Now she could work on defeating the big guy. She looked around the chamber, confused. “Where the fuck was he?”

Before Alara spotted him, the rune on her neck started to burn and on instinct, she jumped back, narrowly missing a beam of fire that must have shot out of the cyclop's eye. In the spot where she stood just seconds earlier, there was a two-foot wide crater. Almost as if it teleported, the cyclops showed in front of her once again. Beads of sweat fell from the princess's brow as she let out an uneven sigh. Her lips and hands were trembling at her narrow escape from certain death.

The princess had heard stories about cyclops from story books and their ability to shoot magic from their eyes, but deep-down she had always thought that those were mere wive's tales that had no basis in reality. She regretted her naivety, and tried to come up with a plan for defeating the beast or at least disabling it long enough to lop off the tumor attached to its green skin. With the creature being over 8-feet tall, Alara was not convinced that she could use her flash skip since her speed would dramatically decrease when she went airborne. Similarly, the creature was carrying a giant wooden club that could easily block most attacks directed at it. She would have to get the beast to bend down right before her attack or topple over so she could move fast enough to slice off her pound of flesh.  She just wasn't sure how to do that. 

Since close range was likely to get her killed, Alara decided to try a long range attack. She didn't have enough mana for another lightning storm so she was going to have to use something different. “Golden bow,” Alara whispered as a bow the same size as her made entirely of electricity materialized in her hand, she drew back the string and released a single, fast moving arrow made of lightning shot right at the cyclop's side. It looked like it was for sure going to hit when the giant beast suddenly moved with shocking speed and knocked it away with its club. Alara activated her flash step but was barely managing to dodge the swings of the club. At this point Yotaro had even joined the fight, but his razor sharp teeth were unable to penetrate the cyclop's thick hide. The familiar lunged and narrowly avoided being hit by shifting into a small bird with long, sharp talons. In a valiant effort to harm the cyclops, Yotaro dived towards its eye, but the cyclops was too fast. The critter went flying into a rock. It tried to get up but stayed down.

Alara was now the sole focus of the monster, and after a few seconds, Alara realized that she had almost depleted her mana. She continued to narrowly dodge the cyclop's club and his beams struck the earth around her. She thought to herself, “This is it! I'm going to be killed here. I'm running out of magical energy and Yotaro is out of commission. Pretty soon it's going to catch me with its club or its laser. I just wish I could have righted my father's wrongs. I'd even just take one more chance to say thank you to Thalia.” The first blow just clipped Alara's arm, but it was enough to send her flying into the air. Time slowed down as the one-eyed beast shot a beam at the princess's head. She raised her arms in front of her face and braced for impact. 

She felt the heat from the beam race past her head, but did not feel the sting of the burning beam. Instead, she saw a flash of Thalia spinning into the cyclop's arm with both her legs extended, causing it to narrowly miss the princess. Alara was finally able  to get away from the hostile and angry brute. 

Thalia  landed on the sticky ground and dragged her hand across the floor as she skidded to a halt. She shook her hand back and forth with a disgusted look on her face before she realized Alara was looking right at her. She gave a shit-eating grin as she erected a wall of ice stopping the cyclops's oncoming attack in its place. 

While it struggled to free its club from the ice, Thalia with a tone drenched in sarcasm shouted, “Missed me didn't ya your highness? These weaklings gave you and Yotaro a run for your money didn't they? Relax, I shall teach you the ways to defeat this creature!”

Thalia thought the princess would be getting annoyed with her, but instead she looked over to see crocodile tears rolling out of her green eyes. This reaction caught her off guard and for a moment Thalia forgot about her opponent. The loud sound of the one-eyed crighton firing its beam at the ice snapped Thalia back into reality. “Oh shit! I actually hurt her feelings. Now I feel guilty,” Thalia thought to herself as her eyes glowed golden and she began to circle around her target at nauseatingly fast speeds. 

She needed to toy with it until it fired another beem from its eye. While she used her own version of flash step, she sent small bursts of electricity at the creature's gigantic bare feet. It wasn't enough to break the skin, but it was painful and the cyclops let out a howl as each zap landed. It was starting to get mad, swinging its club around wildly and hitting into the walls of the cave. Eventually, it stopped and began following Thalia with its eye. “Perfect!” Thalia thought to herself. As it charged its mana, she slid to a halt again. Her eyes changed to glowing blue. Simultaneously, as the cyclops fired its beam, Thalia whispered her incantation “Ice Palace”.

In the blink of an eye, ice clear as a polished mirror surrounded the cyclops in the shape of a castle tower, cutting off its magical beam. Inside the ice palace, the beam bounced off the reflective surface like a pinball, slicing through the creature countless times before dropping lifelessly to the ground, shattering one of the walls of the ice palace. Thalia curtsied dramatically, “And that is how you deal with a cyclops my liege.”