27
Everything was smooth sailing until the Broodmother.
She was big.
Real big.
“That gal’s really been eating her bikkies,” Tania said as they crouched behind a small wall overlooking the Broodmother’s perch.
The perch was on an island in the middle of a lake of lava.
The smell of sulfur and iron was thick.
There was no way across except via a wide bridge.
The Broodmother herself stood sniffing the air. She looked agitated as though she sensed the deaths of her mates. And her kobold army. Because other than Milo and arguably Tania, she was the only other living thing in the dungeon.
Tania had meticulously gone for a “clean sweep” as she’d put it.
Milo’s satchel was practically bursting with dungeon stones and some minor shiny things Tania had asked him to carry for herself.
The Broodmother had a range of attacks she’d perform. Mostly in stages.
To start, she’d breathe fire and swipe with her front paws.
Then, as she got more damaged, she’d start to take things seriously. She’d chomp with her massive jaws. Stomp the ground to start splitting the island into smaller ones. Forcing you to leap from island to island over churning molten rock.
Finally, she’d use her tail to sweep across the shattered expanse, sending unprepared students tumbling into the lava where a painful, but quick, death awaited.
There were tactics for each stage.
“I think I’m just gonna walk up and stab it in the neck,” Tania said at last. “It won’t even see me coming.”
“I’ve got a feeling that won’t work out so well.”
“Why not? It went real slick with all the others.”
“Because I think she’s waiting for you. Look how she’s smelling the air.” He pointed. “She’ll smell you before she sees you.”
“Are you saying I stink?”
“I’m saying she’s got a sensitive nose.”
“Oh,” Tania pouted. “That’s alright then, I suppose.”
They watched the Broodmother for a few more minutes. But she didn’t do anything different.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Milo said grimly. “We have to cross the bridge. That’ll trigger her first breath attack. See the rubble halfway up? We have to get behind that before she blows.”
“Ugh.” Tania scratched her head and her long ponytail bounced behind her. “I hate remembering all these things. Step here. Jump then. Do a little shimmy shimmy. Twirl around the pole. I weren’t ever a good dancer, Milo.”
“Me neither.”
“What we need is a Tank.”
“I’ll build one when we get back.”
“And I need some new clothes.”
He inadvertently glanced at her again. Naked. Body covered in dirt, blood, and dried egg yolk. She looked a mess.
But was still undeniably and ridiculously female.
“Made ya look.” She grinned.
“Stop that.”
“Ain’t my fault,” she giggled. “You’re a perv.”
“We’ll head out. Get to the rubble. Then when her breath fades, we should have just enough time to get onto the perch before she does it again.”
With no other plan proposed, they crept out from behind the wall.
Tania walked beside him. He’d considered sending her ahead, but if she triggered the Broodmother early, he wouldn’t have time to make it to the rubble.
And he didn’t want to get incinerated today.
As they approached, the giant drake hunched down and squinted at the bridge. Her eyesight wasn’t much better than those of her mates, but her sense of smell was better.
She suspected they weren’t kobolds.
And she huffed a deep breath as they reached the edge of the bridge.
“Run!” Milo hissed, sprinting ahead.
Tania swiftly overtook him, filling his vision with her bare butt cheeks and lithe-
He tore his gaze back to the drake, gripping his rifle tighter across his belly.
The Broodmother was rearing, her mouth opening. Huge teeth gleamed as something bright started to form like a star in the back of her throat.
“Move it, Milo!”
He panted, driving his body harder. “I’m trying!”
“Stop looking at my coochie and try harder!”
“Stop waving it in my face, then!”
He dove for the rubble as the Broodmother let out a long howl. His shoulder slammed into stone just as a wave of heat blasted overhead. For a moment, all he could see was light as a solid beam of fire exploded across the bridge.
The bridge shook under the impact. Pieces of it split away under the pressure of her flame to drop with a foamy splash into the molten lake below.
Milo shuddered.
“Whew!” Tania glanced at one of her fingers where some of the Golemskin was blackened to a crisp. “That’s a bit warm!”
The flame suddenly cut off and Milo blinked.
He glanced at Tania. She glanced back.
They nodded.
Then launched themselves over the rubble and across the blackened surface of the bridge towards the raised perch holding the Broodmother above the island.
She let out a reptilian hiss and reared back as Tania leapt up onto the perch.
Swipe!
Talons, longer than Milo was tall, slashed at the golem, who moved like smoke to avoid them. Gulping at the thought of that giant paw slashing through his own body, Milo rolled onto the perch and looked up.
“She’s so huuuuge!” Tania squeaked, avoiding another swipe.
“She’ll blast us again soon! We need to duck under the perch when she does!”
“I know!”
Tania leapt onto the Broodmother, looking like a flea on a large dog.
Her right arm raised, then slashed down. It cut through scales as easily as cutting butter.
Milo breathed a small sigh of relief at the sight. Dwarven bronze was still amazing.
Using her blades, Tania clawed her way up towards the Broodmother’s throat.
She was aiming to tear through the soft flesh beneath and slice through some arteries.
With a squeal, the Broodmother scrambled, tossing her head to try throwing Tania off. Tania snatched at the scales with one hand.
Punched her blade as deep as she could with the other.
Then started raking at the skin beneath. Almost like she was digging a hole.
Suddenly the Broodmother let out a hiss . Her mouth opened.
Milo roared up at Tania. “She’s gonna fire!”
“Get outta the way, then!”
“What about you?”
“She ain’t gonna burn herself!” The golem aimed him a querulous look. “Is she?”
“Blast!” Milo shuddered as the Broodmother’s massive orange eyes focused on him. A boiling star roared to life between her jaws.
Rolling off the perch, he squeezed under the tight lip between it and the rocky island beneath. Just as a beam of fire roared past to melt the stone ground only inches from his feet.
The heat was sharp against his face.
Groaning, he pushed himself as far back under the perch as he could.
Feeling the thick stone above starting to warm.
A loud crack made him glance down. The Broodmother’s beam had penetrated the island and was churning the lava beneath. The molten liquid hissed and sparked as it splashed near his thigh. A thick globule of glowing lava rolled back into the volcanic crater being formed.
And then, just when he thought the whole thing was going to explode in his face, the beam shut off.
“Damn it,” he growled, remembering to move. He rolled to his right, scrambling as a paw smashed down and talons clawed the space under the perch.
If he’d stayed, he’d have been shredded.
Rolling back onto the perch, he saw Tania still digging away at the Broodmother’s neck.
The Broodmother froze. Maybe she sensed how close Tania was to drilling into her veins.
But her gaze narrowed on Milo.
A dreadful terror filled him as those massive orbs glowed with hatred. Her jaws curled back as she let out a long draconic growl.
“Uh, Tania?”
“I’m nearly there!”
The Broodmother bared her teeth. Drool slavered down her chin. She opened her mouth slightly and her forked tongue flicked the air between them. The stink of her breath washed over him.
He gulped.
Lifted his rifle.
Aimed.
And blew a hole through one of her eyes.
Writhing like a cut snake, the Broodmother shrieked and flailed. Her claws slashed where Milo had been standing. He was already racing away, unsure where to go.
She couldn’t breathe her flame just yet.
But the damage to her eye was significant.
The giant drake lifted a heavy paw and brought it down. Hard.
The perch quaked, sending Milo sprawling.
“Milo!” Tania squealed, hanging off the scale and dangling precariously. Coochie on display as her legs drifted further apart to keep herself balanced. “What did you do?
“I shot it in the eye!”
“Why would you do that?”
“It was looking at me!”
“So? That’s no reason to shoot a girl in the eye!”
Milo staggered to his feet as the drake shook her head and lunged.
Diving to his side, he felt the force of her snout smash into the perch just behind him. The whole structure teetered as she let out an enraged roar. Sweeping her head towards him.
One eye had a hole in it. Thick green blood was pumping like tears down her face.
Her other eye glared at him.
She opened her mouth as if to scream.
He jerked the spent cartridge from the rifle and tossed it aside. Fumbled with a fresh one clipped to his belt.
A pinpoint of white light glinted in the back of the drake’s throat.
“Ah, blast.”
Gulping hard, he snapped the cartridge in place. Then he threw himself onto the ground as her claws raked overhead.
Sprawled on his back, Milo stared into the snarling face above.
Tania had regained her position and was punching frantically at the drake’s neck. Green blood fountained over her, covering her with thick gore.
Her cry was desperate as she drove her blade deep. “Milo!”
The drake trembled.
The light within its maw grew brighter.
It reminded him of raw mana. Which gave him a bad idea.
“Terrible idea,” he muttered. Then he shifted his aim from the drake’s other eye.
And pulled the trigger.
The bolt of raw mana blasted upward with a scream and exploded as it hit the growing ball of fire in the Broodmother’s maw.
Her jaws snapped shut.
Her remaining eye widened in shock. A thin beam of white light shot out through one side of its face. Then another.
And another.
Milo started scrambling away, heading for the edge of the perch.
“Tania! Jump!”
The Broodmother’s head exploded. The thunderous blast turned everything above her neck to mist and chunks of gore. Milo was thrown by the concussive force, yelping in pain as he landed on his rifle. The weapon snapped in two.
Miraculously, his arm didn’t.
He whipped around, his eyes searching for Tania as the corpse crashed to the ground. A wave of blood poured from the severed neck, forming a river which drained into the nearby lake of fire with an angry hiss.
“Tania!”
He limped, hunched and hurting, towards the Broodmother’s body. His boots splashed through its blood.
“Tania!”
He could see the hole she’d been digging through its neck. The veins, still intact, underneath. She’d been close. Close to killing it.
“Tania?”
Silence answered him.
He stood there. Staring. Clutching a bruised rib. Unable to believe she was gone.
When he heard a scratch. Then a groan.
And her leg, then her bare butt, lifted up from behind the drake’s sprawling arm.
“Ugh,” she moaned, pushing herself out of whatever hole she was in. Blood covered her from the top of her head to her toes. She lifted a hand and pulled off a long strip of flesh which she tossed away. “Gross. Why can’t ya all have gears like a normal person?”