“Funny. I thought we would get at least one more round of lightning out of it. Maybe we triggered a change when we killed enough of its mobs. Or maybe it resets after we beat the Hell out of it.”

  The metal tree was twisting into a human-ish shape, but you would never mistake it for anything remotely human. If the Tree of Woe had been cast from metal and then turned into an Ent but still wanted to be in the crucifixion game, I guess it would look like this. Thirty feet of metallic violence, first parodying a tree, then a human. No idea what its reach is. A lot. Plus if it’s still got the tree monster traits, it can stretch, make whip and slam attacks, and/or launch roots up at us. Plus the lightning. Can’t ever forget that.

  “Tower Master?” Versai asked.

  “Don’t worry, I expected something like this. ALL RANGED UNITS EXCEPT MIYUKI, CONCENTRATE YOUR FIRE ON THE METAL MONSTER OUT THERE. EVERYONE ELSE, KEEP THE MONSTERS OFF OUR WALLS!”

  Now… would it let me bombard it, or would it-

  “Pomoroi, by Imperial Decree!” Two cannonballs flew out, with dreadful accuracy. One smashed into the evil ent, smashing its shoulder. The other… the other it parried.

  The monster whipped its good arm up and across as it slapped the ball of light off to one side. It couldn’t completely redirect it, but it could shove it out of the way enough to make it miss.

  It glared up at me as it’s arm slowly healed. I got the sense that it was mocking me.

  “Radz raining death.”

  Go on. Laugh at me some more. Do it all day, if you like.

  “I’m seeing metal type damage resistance, fast healing that could be from the plant archetype or this thing is on some T-1000 crap. Which would be bad. Also, just because it’s pretending to have joints doesn’t mean that it really has them- that arm looked like a striking tentacle.”

  “Tower Master… what are you talking about?” Oh Versai really looked worried now. Eh. I guess I do sound crazy to her. Funny. A boss battle is… kind of calming, somehow. I know where I am, here. I know how to deal.

  “I’m analyzing the boss based on the archetypes it is showing, and using that to figure out how it’s likely to attack, and what special characteristics it might have. For example, I would assume it’s essentially impossible to scare or backstab.”

  The tree started lurching towards us, but quickly stopped again. The mortar had traveled almost straight up, resulting in a long hang. The monster had barely sensed it, but it reacted fast enough to make me frown.

  The tree monster flung it’s arms up over it’s head, more sprouting around it like new branches in spring, all coming together in a dome over the monster’s head. I stared hard, hoping to see some red flashing light or other obvious weak spot. I didn’t see one.

  “Miyuki, shoot it in the head!”

  I timed it just about perfectly, this time. The mortar went off a fraction of a second after my order, air bursting ten feet over the monster’s head. I saw the dome flex and shiver under the blast, but it held. Then Miyuki’s yard-long arrow caught it in the face.

  I braced for an ear shattering whistle, and got a half-hearted shriek instead. Then a roar from the tree monster. It didn’t like the arrow at all. It didn’t look like it did a whole lot of damage. Most of it was just sticking out of the monster’s forehead. The monster reached up to rip the arrow out and gave it a hard pull.

  And nothing happened.

  I’m not sure who was more surprised, me or the monster.

  I slowly grinned. It was the rules. Miyuki’s arrows pinned things in place, and they couldn’t be removed. The monsters could tear themselves free in theory, but I’ve yet to see one manage it. I would have thought the liquid metal would-

  The tree slowly contorted, its head running like wax as the arrow tumbled loose.

  Smart bastard.

  “Pomoroi, by Imperial Decree!”

  But the monster was done passively taking a beating. It brought its arms up to defend itself and charged forward. It was fast enough to smack the cannon balls out of the way, but not strong enough to deflect them completely. I saw the arms deform and the sides of the chest were crushed. A fatal injury to a human. The tree-beast barely broke stride. It would reach us soon

  “Miyuki, aim for the feet. Othai, would you be more effective fighting this with the other Six Stars, or should I deploy you with the Six Stars and the Pikes.”

  “With the Pikes, Sir. Well supported by the Crossbow Squad.”

  “You will have all of us behind you. Yoko enhance everyone here. Mrs. Hungry, Versai, get ready to deploy. Carousel, do you think Final Revel would work on this thing?

  “I think it would do something to stop me if I tried to cast it.”

  Me too. Hmm. Could incidental friendly fire happen? I wonder.

  “Carousel, what happens to Awakened that happen to be standing in the area of effect of Final Revel?”

  “Mmm? Nothing?”

  She was giving me an innocently puzzled look from under her big floppy hat, but I wasn’t buying it. There was a question mark at the end of her reply, not a period.

  “Never tested it, huh?”

  “Not since joining your service, no.”

  Not going to test it the hard way, then. “Everybody buffed? Othai, lead your pikes and pin down that monster. Do what damage you can. Mrs. Hungry and Versai are on damage dealing- focus on burning it down as much as you can. If any smaller monsters turn up, Versai, you clean ‘em up. Carousel, Glass Arrow only. Radz, cease fire. Pomoroi, you can fire until the melee attackers engage. Rikka… did you leave any alive in the woods?”

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  “As per your orders, my Lord.”

  “Go check on ‘em. Stand by in case we need to kill them in a hurry. Don’t engage any enemies and don’t bother marking them unless it is extremely urgent or there are a lot of them. Maximum effort to keep yourself safe.”

  “Yes, my Lord.”

  The Ent had reached the edge of the moat, under the heavy bombardment of the Mikas, Miyuki, Rakkim and Carousel. The shots were landing. I could see little sparks of damage popping up, or the metal skin rippling, but we were just shaving the health bar.

  The one thing that seemed to give it fits was Miyuki’s arrow. It always came to a full stop to melt a bit, yank out the arrow, and reform. “Hello exploitable weakness. How are you doing today?” Miyuki had been aiming for the thing’s feet, pinning it to the ground. “Melee fighters, deploy. Remember, we can always find more ways to kill it, but we can’t replace you.”

  Versai looked like she wanted to say something.

  “Don’t argue- kill!”

  They turned to march off. The Ent-Thing didn’t wait around. It whipped its arms up and around it’s head in a whirling double helix of stretching metal.

  “MIYUKI- SHOOT THE ARMS! EITHER ARM! MELEE UNITS TO THE WALL! RUN RUN RUN!”

  The arms lashed out stretching towards the parapet. The ends formed sharp hooks, slamming down onto the stone and cement, spiderweb cracks and flying masonry spreading crazily.

  Miyuki got her shot off, and maybe it was because everything was happening too fast or the monster was just too close, but she missed. Her arrow barely stuck into the very top of the right arm.

  The melee units were still fifty steps away. Might as well have been on the moon. The monster would slaughter my ranged units in that time. I saw the arms contract. The monster was jumping and pulling itself over. It shot over faster than my eyes could follow.

  My eyes couldn’t follow it. But Pomoroi was an artist with the cannon. She didn’t need dynamic vision if she knew where something would be.

  “Pomoroi, by Imperial Decree! The Army shall fall back in good order!” Two strong voices carrying over the sound of roaring cannons- and a roaring monster. The two cannons hit it center mass from either side. She had anticipated where the monster had to go once the hooks were set, and timed her shot just right.

  There was sound… a scrinching? A krring but with crumpled aluminum foil overtones and the sound of something expensive being dropped on kitchen tiles. Something happened at high speed, and there was an incredible THUD against the wall. Then a softer, but still heavy, thud as the monster hit the bottom of the moat.

  It took a moment for my brain to catch up with my eyes. What I think happened was that the arrow had its usual stiffening effect, but only on a small part of the arm. The monster could have worked around that, even as it was contracting it’s limbs again, but it didn’t get the chance. At the moment where it was pulling hardest to get to the wall, it was suddenly met by the oncoming force of two cannon balls. Which caused… several things to break, not least of which was it’s arm. Causing it to whip to one side, slam into the wall, and fall into the dry moat.

  Muddy moat now. The rain was still coming down. I tried to look down into the moat, but I didn’t have a good angle from the balcony. “Report! What’s the monster’s condition?”

  Miyuki took a careful peek over the wall. “Badly damaged, My Lord. It seems to have lost a limb and is… confused?”

  I sniggered. It’s the only word for it, a laugh but mean.

  “This is why knowing the archetypes matters. Four mooks running in around the boss? They are going to merge or buff. Tree archetype? Stretchy. Because that’s a trait I associate with wood, the ability to stretch like a rubber band. ALL RANGED EXCEPT ARTILLERY- KEEP SHOOTING IT. CAROUSEL, FINAL REVEL BUT DON’T HIT OUR PEOPLE!”

  I paused and thought through the archetype a bit more. “Is it eating or absorbing any of the monsters down there? Or are its limbs glowing or anything?”

  There was a burning, crackling noise and a harsh blue-white light. It slammed into the Mikas and smashed up against their shields. I could see them taking damage, but not as much as I might have expected.

  Those shields weren’t just for show. It seemed the monster agreed with me, because the lightning stopped after a few seconds.

  “Maria to the wall! Crawl on the ground and throw your plasters at the wounded.” That ought to keep her out of the line of fire. Wait- “MIYUKI, DROP FLAT NOW!”

  She still caught a piece of the blast. It knocked her flying across the battlement, shredding her clothes. I’d seen her in a worse state, but not a lot worse. “STAY DOWN! Pammy, crawl along the battlements and heal Miyuki. Use your special ability.”

  I was about to tell Carousel to step back, but she was way ahead of me. She was standing on the edge of the wall closest to the Tower, with the Blue Roses on the ground behind her. Their twisting, wailing chant seemed to burn in the air, as the gasoline shimmer cloud of magic fell on the monster below.

  Fingers crossed.

  There was a brutal roar, and two metal limbs hooked over the parapet.

  “Not that lucky! Damn! Resistance to debuffs, mental immunity. Okay, fantastic. I’m not mad. VERSAI! OTHAI! PIKES! Get that damn thing off my wall!”

  They rushed over. Versai got their first, her long sword raising a shower of sparks as it hacked down on the metallic limbs. Othai was only a few steps behind- her halberd rising and falling with a brutal authority.

  And then the Monster was there. One sharp contraction was all it took. It was looking mangled. There was a limit, it seemed, to how much it could regenerate or how much metallic flesh it could shift around. It raised its too-long limbs to strike down… and got a face full of pikes for its ambition.

  The Pikes moved in perfect unison. They all tilted their long spears at the same angle, and ran them right into the beast. They didn’t seem to puncture the metal, but what I hadn't thought of was that Pikes push. Once they made contact, they planted their feet and kept marching forward. Othai helped. She whipped the spike end of her halberd around and hooked one of the monster’s legs.

  They knocked it clean off the wall!

  “Mission accomplished, my Lord.” Othai reported.

  “Damn right.” Then I frowned. The direct damage just weren’t doing enough. Carousel had quit casting Final Revel when the monster moved into melee and was back on Glass Arrow. Rakim was putting round after round on the monster, and the Mikas were back up and in the mix too. They were definitely doing damage. But enough damage? Meaningful damage? I didn’t think so.

  It would be down to my melee fighters, and really, the Six Stars. I still didn’t have a good feel for how Mrs. Hungry moved, but Versai with her high speed bladework was a DPS monster, and I had a strong feeling that Othai was a lower speed higher damage type. Not slow, but slower.

  So we needed to get them down in the dirt with the big fella. And boy do I not like the sound of that.

  I looked around. My medics had gotten everyone back on their feet so I sent them back to their bunker at the foot of the wall. The Monster wasn’t wasting time either. Seeing as there were no easy targets to electrocute, it launched its arms up again. Determined to kill its way in.

  I glanced over at Miyuki. Her ult was really intended for multiple targets, but it didn’t have to be. And she just got an armor buff from Pammy’s special. So… A worthwhile risk.

  “Pikes, work with Othai and Versai to knock the monster off the wall when it pops back up. Miyuki, you have my complete trust. Please use your ultimate technique to pin the monster to the ground when it hits the bottom of the moat. Versai, Mrs. Hungry, Othai, once it’s pinned, get down into the trench and pile on the damage as fast and hard as you can! Slide down on the ropes! Maximum damage output! Yoko, enhance them with your incense before they go.”

  The monster was on the wall again, moving brutally fast. It got a swing off this time, barely blocked by Versai’s shield and the haft of Othai’s halberd. It still knocked them tumbling back. The Pikes didn’t wait for support and pressed straight in. Any other monster, they would have the reach advantage. But this stretchy horror was different.

  Mrs. Hungry sure thought so. She planted her hooks into the Tree’s shoulders and jumped backwards off the wall. There was a long moment where she was dangling over a sixty foot drop, the monster teetering backwards but still balanced by his long arms. Then Othai ran up and jabbed her halberd in.

  Both the monster and Mrs. Hungry fell. But Mrs. Hungry was an old hunter of Hidden Moon Mountain. Cliffs were nothing new to her. She kicked off the monster and lept for the other side of the moat. She missed by feet, but she still stretched out with her hooks, burying them in the dirt. Her weight ripped them right out, but they dragged along the wall, slowing her as she fell.

  The monster hit the dirt before her. I couldn’t see down there, but I saw the light gathering around Miyuki’s bow. A fraction of a second after the dull thud of the landing- she released it!

  It must have worked. There was the most hellish screeching noise I have ever heard. It wasn’t the fear effect, it was the monster.

  “Versai, Othai, Mrs. Hungry- get in there and finish that thing off! Ranged, fire when you have a clear shot. I don't care if you only hit it’s feet or hands, just keep pouring on the damage.”

  They got on it. I got the audiobook version of the fight- first crashes and yells, and the clang of metal on metal. There was one particular clang that was happening faster than the others. And faster. And even faster. Then it sounded like a metronome broke into a meth lab and completely freaked out. The monster was roaring furiously. Then there was a brilliant flash of light.

  “Anyone injured?”

  “No, my Lord.”

  “Retreat to the medics if you are injured, don’t try to tough it out.”

  Then it was all down to the waiting. The Mikas, lead by the vengeful Corporal Mika, maneuvered to a bastion with an angle on the fight. They then played a fun parlor game called “where can I shoot?” Their rate of fire was way down, but they were adding to the hurt. Miyuki needed some attention from the medics after using her Ult, but was on her feet soon enough and stiffening limbs as best she could.

  I had gotten on the Boss’ neck before it touched the ground, and I hadn’t let up since. Unless there was another scripted outside intervention, it was all over but for the dying.

  The monster took a long time to die. Long enough that I wondered if there wasn’t something we were missing. Could the Ghost Touch potions help here? But if the whole monster is metal, it’s not exactly bypassing armor, is it?

  Then it went quiet. And I smiled.

  “It’s dead, Tower Master. I think it’s just the captives out in the forest left alive.”

  “Thank you Versai. Thank you… everyone. A real team effort there. Just… very well done.”

  I took a deep breath. Lots to do. “Sweep the battlefield, kill all but one of the wounded, make sure there are no hidden or straggler monsters, then let’s get to building. Lots to do. So, so much to do.” I exhaled and smiled. “But lots of time to do it in.”