Ember of Invention

Humphrey struggled against him slightly before he realized what was happening, but when he made eye contact with the mammoth, he quickly joined Lindle in gaining as much distance as possible.

They ran towards Thalia, who approached for a second with concern on her face before going wide-eyed.

“Do something!” Lindle shouted at her. They needed to take it down before it absorbed too much necromantic energy. If it regained all of its previous abilities combined with a zombie’s endless endurance they were in a lot of trouble, a peak apprentice undead wasn’t something they could beat without someone likely dying in the process.

Thalia pointed Lotus Thorn at it, but she hesitated, indecision crossing over her face. She eventually cast something, it was likely only two seconds, but it felt like an eternity before vines sprouted from the snow, wrapping around the mammoth’s legs and attempting to keep it from getting up, but the mammoth ripped the plants out from the ground as it stumbled to its feet.

Lindle cursed. Most spells a druid of Thalia’s level would be able to cast were less than effective on a zombie with that much power and strength. Fire magic would do it, but powerful fire spells were notoriously rare and difficult to learn without holy magic. Lindle and Humphrey both slid to a stop alongside Thalia.

“I don’t know what to cast,” Thalia said with an apologetic note in her voice.

Humphrey turned around, swiftly pulling out an arrow and shooting at the mammoth. A burst of holy flames impacted against its side, but it kept moving. The arrow itself fell into the snow, not impacting past the mammoth’s white and red blood-soaked fur. The holy flames were quickly snuffed out by the necrotic miasma it was emitting.

“I’m an idiot, I only coated my blunt arrows in that oil,” Humphrey grunted.

The mammoth trumpeted, an awful ragged version of the noise it had made in life, but still thunderous, and it charged through the snow at the trio. Lindle activated [Flow] as it started to eat up ground, looking around and trying to think of a plan.

“Into the trees!” Lindle called, the others following him as they ran into the densest part of the treeline. Lindle had seen how the skeletons tried to swarm and kite the mammoth, but it had far too many successful kills for him to feel comfortable mirroring that strategy.

Humphrey let loose another arrow as they ran, hitting its chest before it followed them. The mammoth veered to the side, charging into a tree and knocking it over, but at the very least slowing it down. Lindle threw a bottle of alchemist’s fire, the flames valiantly attempting to catch but getting snuffed out even faster than Humphreys.

Lindle glanced at his friends, alarm radiating off both of them. Lindle felt it too, but while [Flow] was active, it felt far away. He was aware of it, but it didn’t seem to be affecting his thoughts for now, so he took the extra seconds to think as quickly as he could. This thing wasn’t something they could kill normally. It had too many levels on them and was frankly a terrible match-up for their group, it was immune due to being undead or too bulky for most of their magic and ranged attacks, and no one would survive up close. It would outlast them too. Usually, hunters this outclassed would retreat safely until the monster lost interest, but an undead would never stop hunting their prey, and as a mammoth, it would be able to track them for miles. Trying to shake it would mean either abandoning the quest entirely or having to fight it anyway when they were exhausted and it being even stronger if they were unsuccessful.

No, what Lindle needed to do was think of solutions. They wouldn’t need to burn through its massive bulk or HP pool if they could burn the necromantic energy animating it before it was completely absorbed. The issue was they couldn’t create flames, holy or otherwise, strong enough to overpower the miasma so that it could start consuming. He still had the flask of Chips blessed oil, could he ignite it? It wasn’t in a breakable bottle like his bombs, so he wasn’t sure, he would have to somehow cover the mammoth in it. Was there any other way to give their flames enough power? Or fuel?

He looked at the tree the mammoth had knocked over. Wood was fuel. Setting the trees on fire? It would be difficult too due to the snow that covered them, and getting the undead close enough to a flaming tree would be next to impossible, it would have to be practically covering the undead for it to work.

The thought of the mammoth being covered tickled something in his memory, and he immediately drew on his Int stat to bring it forth. He remembered a particular spell he had seen members of the circle cast during the last migration, and he got an idea.

Lindle whirled to Thalia. “Do you know the Barkhide spell?”

“What?” She looked back at him in confusion. “Yeah, but it's not going to be any good if it hits us.”

Humphrey fired again, nailing the mammoth in the face right over one of its tusks with another holy burst, delaying it for another few seconds, but it started to build up speed to charge them again.

“I don’t want you to cast it on one of us,” Lindle pointed at the mammoth and pulled out another vial of alchemist's fire. “I want you to cast it on that.”

Thalia still seemed confused for another moment before understanding bloomed on her face. “The spell requires me to touch my target.”

“Crap. Okay.” Lindle looked at the mammoth again, at the tusk that Humphrey had shot the base of. “Then move back, and get ready to cast it when I say.”

Thalia nodded, and Lindle spoke to Humphrey. “We gotta make it ram straight into something!”

Humphrey nodded, holding his arrow. “Got it.”

They slowed down, and the mammoth bore down on them. At the last second, Lindle yelled “Scatter!”

Humphrey and Lindle ran one way, and Thalia transformed into her dire wolf form and leaped the other. Focusing on the two of them, they burned aura to keep the gap from closing, running towards the hardiest-looking trees they could see. Lindle looked back at the mammoth and focused on its tusk. He thought about how powerful of an artifact he could make from its ethos, as crafting material, and he activated [Hunter Gatherer].

Lindle felt a massive surge of strength, though not to the level he had gotten from Madam Holly, it was surprisingly close. He doubted that the mammoth had as close of a Str stat to her as that implied, but he didn’t have time to question it. Just as importantly though, the mammoth lost some of its ability to focus on Lindle, so when he used his newfound buff to Str to move to the side and run alongside the monster, its focus remained on Humphrey.

As Humphrey ran past the tree, the mammoth attempted to move around it, but Lindle didn’t let it, ramming his shoulder as hard he could against the mammoth's side to make it run headfirst into the tree. There was a loud pair of cracks that filled the air, as the tree splintered and burst into pieces, and the mammoth’s tusk that had caused that cracked at the base.

Taking the opportunity, Lindle cycled Aura for a [Power Strike] and hit the tusk as hard as he could. With a portion of the mammoth's own strength behind him, it snapped off and flew off into the snow. At the same time, Lindle yelled, “Thalia!”

Dashing in from the other side, Thalia left her dire wolf form mid-jump, her hand outstretched as she slapped the mammoth’s side, casting her spell. The mammoth shuddered as bark began to cover its body, the normally defensive spell now being used to give them an opening. Thalia and Lindle began to move away, but the mammoth lashed out. With his buffed stat, Lindle got clear in time, but Thalia wasn’t as lucky. The undead trunk hit her from the side and sent her flying through the air, sending her straight into a tree where she slumped down to the ground.

“No!” Lindle screamed. Even through [Flow], he felt some rage enter his mind, and he cycled aura for [Throw], launching the vial of alchemist's fire straight into the mammoth's head. At the same time, Humphrey’s arrow landed. As both flames ignited against its body, instead of being snuffed out, the flames caught onto Thalia’s spell, the miasma attempting to snuff them out, but the fires spread more and more. The mammoth trumped its awful call again as the fire spread across its body until eventually, the miasma itself caught fire. The flames jumped in intensity with a roar, the flames leaping up in the air.

Lindle didn’t bother to watch the mammoth struggle wildly, running around it and pulling out a healing potion as he sprinted to Thalia’s slumped form. She was unmoving and her eyes were closed. He slid to a stop next to her and immediately poured the healing potion all over her face, trying to get as much of the potion to her body as quickly as possible.

She didn’t move for a heartstopping moment before she started coughing, spluttering as she looked around wildly, stopping when she saw the slowly collapsing burning mammoth.

“Hey, hey,” Lindle got her attention. “Are you okay? How's your HP?”

“I… I think I’m good.” Her gaze unfocused as she checked on her Health Pool. “I’m missing a bit over half… but I think I’m fine.” She tried to move and winced. “Everything hurts though.”

“Hold on, don’t move.” Lindle pulled out another potion and handed it to her. She drank gingerly, and sighed in relief as new HP filled her body to take the burden off her injuries

Humphrey kept his bow trained on the mammoth, not shifting his gaze until it stopped moving, the flames lowering until it became evident the only thing still burning was the wood covering its body. Lindle felt the buff to his Str stat disappear and he called over to his friend. Once he was satisfied, the ranger lowered his bow and ran over to Lindle and Thalia.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah… I think I need a break though.”

They all looked at the burning corpse.

“Yeah,” Lindle agreed easily. “I could use one too.”