The Alchemist at Hell's Gates

16

^^ Elder Darkling ^^

With the dragon successfully blinded, the others took their antidote potions and dove into the water, spreading out swiftly. The boss had a regeneration skill, but Jack used the Muisak Staff I'd made to deal necrotic damage every ten seconds, halting the regeneration and driving down the health quickly.

At 8%, we stopped and let the dragon recover a bit, and she gave birth to two more eggs; this apparently maxed out the pile of eggs at 10, as she slowly stood up, then instantly regained 80% of her HP as her Level jumped to 15.

"Wait... WHAT?!?" I screeched, shooting her eyes again to level the playing field. As soon as she was properly blinded again, I swam around the back of the island, hiding under the squat Oak tree she'd been using for 'Shade', (despite the fact we were surrounded by Glow-Stone, so there wasn't a huge amount of light,) while she spread her previously-shredded wings and took flight.

'Matriarchs can't have more than 10 Eggs, so when they get there, they go Mama Bear, essentially. Her damage went up and she regained the ability to fly, but it's alright, we can handle it with a little team-work...' -Ureka!. He stopped talking as the dragon smacked into the cliff from flying blind, and tumbled into the water.

"Well that's embarrassing." I murmured, sneaking over to the nest and placing an egg into my Inventory. It took up 12 slots, irritatingly enough, so I left the others there with a sad sigh. The dragon surfaced again, staring directly at me with its blind eyes, and then slowly hissed like a gas-relief valve. "Welp, mama knows I stole an egg, guys!!!" I called out, and shot the creature's teeth with a Catalytic Dart just after Jack unleashed a fireball against her face.

The burst of flame appeared around the impact, followed by an immediate endothermic reaction, freezing the teeth shut in a layer of green ice, and I watched as the dragon's health finally dropped back below 50% from the combined attack. "She doesn't have much health, does she?" I asked Uric, confused.

"If we'd come in after she'd already birthed all ten eggs, then the Increase would have been much more profound!!! Thank your Luck Stat for our timing!!!" He called back, and shot an armor-piercing arrow at her chest, cracking some of her scales off and revealing crystalline muscles. "Everyone out of the water!!!" He shouted, climbing onto the island with me.

The dragon took flight again, scraping loudly against the walls as she flew in a circle, and I shot one of her wing joints with another acid dart, watching her flail and slam into the wall and then the water again, as all nine of my comrades made it onto the island.

"Now what?" Kenny asked.

"Now we shock her to death." I shrugged, and shot a catalytic dart at the same time as Uric used his Catalytic Volt Arrow, and both Mages immediately followed suit with electrical attacks. The clerics added in some holy damage, and the Warriors stood there awkwardly, waiting for their turn again, though they didn't have to wait long. The creature surged towards us out of the water, 3% health left, and I grinned happily, slapping a hand against its snout and activating the Servant Contract.

Boss Monster: Immune. Auto-Fail.

"Oh, Poo." I grumbled, shooting the creature in the eyes again and dealing the remaining damage along with Kenny's rather enthusiastic Warhammer.

25,500 XP Gained by Party: 2,550 XP Gained!
1,000 XP Gained from Lvl 10 Boss (Gemstone Dragon Matriarch-Laboring)
1,500 XP Gained from Lvl 15 Boss, (Gemstone Dragon Matriarch-Enraged)
50 XP Gained from Elder Poison Slime Lvl 10
(Progress Lvl 12: 17,160/18K-> Lvl 13!)

"Huh... more than double XP... alright, well, let's get to Looting, Eh?" I grinned and sent my slimes and Minotaur to devour the corpse while I cut off its Head.