The elemental barrage hammered the Twin Boulderback Behemoths. Water cannons blasted craters into their stone hides. Wind blades carved deep grooves across their crystalline spines. Yet the giants weathered the assault, their regenerative abilities already knitting the superficial damage back together.
The larger behemoth bent its massive legs and roared at the sky, challenging the raid to come down and face it in person, rather than at a safe distance. But it wasn't going to be safe for long.
The monster ripped a thirty-foot pine from the earth, roots and soil clinging to its base. It launched the tree like a javelin toward the circling crows.
"Scatter!" Reidar shouted.
The raid broke formation, but a crow swerved too late. The tree struck its wing, snapping bone and sending rider and mount spiraling toward the ground.
The smaller behemoth joined the assault, scooping up a boulder the size of a small car. It hurled the stone upward. The projectile clipped another crow's leg. The bird shrieked, tumbling from the sky as its rider clung desperately to it to avoid losing the foothold the crow was providing.
"Rescue teams, now!"
Three crows dove from the formation. Riders leaned out, grabbing the arms of their falling comrades mid-air, hauling them onto their own mounts just before they hit the ground. The injured crows dissolved into motes of mana upon impact.
Another volley of trees and boulders arced toward them. A boulder smashed directly into a crow's chest, obliterating it and its rider in an instant. The System notification flashed in Reidar's vision—a life lost.
"Pull back! Higher altitude!" Reidar said, his stomach tight. They had underestimated the behemoths' reach and accuracy. The open sky was no longer a safe haven. The giants had turned the raid's greatest advantage into a deadly shooting gallery. They needed a new plan, and fast.
The eight hundred summoned bears swarmed the behemoths once more. The colossal ursine crashed into the giants' legs.
Claws scraped against stone, finding little purchase, but their sheer weight and numbers disrupted the monsters' throwing motions.
The larger behemoth staggered as a dozen bears latched onto its thigh, their combined mass forcing it to drop the uprooted oak it had been preparing to launch.
Reidar banked his crow, scanning the chaotic battlefield below. The bears were buying the raid members precious seconds, but they were dying fast, smashed into pulp by sweeping stone tails or crushed underfoot by massive feet, so there was not much time to act. The raid needed to at least kill one of the two giants before it was too late.
"Mages, focus fire on the gouges we made! The smaller one's left flank!"
A concentrated volley of spells slammed into the designated area, widening the cracks. They couldn't win a war of attrition. They had to break through that armor, and they had to do it now, before the bears were wiped out.
The smaller Boulderback Behemoth reeled under the elemental onslaught.
A torrent of water crashed against its granite hide. The water carved deep into the stone, seeking the cracks and fissures within.
The wind attacks didn't do less damage. Blades of air slashed at the behemoth, seeking to sever the tendons of its legs.
The creature roared with the voice of an earthquake. It tried hurling a boulder, the size of a small house, at the attackers.
But was once again stopped by the bears.
The stone cracked, and the behemoth's blood, the molten rock of its heart, began to pour out upon the ground. The creature, in its agony, searched for a weapon, and finding none, uprooted a tree. Wielding it as a club, the monster swung it at the bears.
The raid's summons went flying, and their bones were shattered like porcelain. At the same time the molten rock spilled from the behemoth's wound, hissing as it hit the damp earth. The creature staggered but remained standing.
The larger behemoth lumbered forward in defense of its brother. It reached the fray and tried to get its brother free of the monsters.
Bears were sent careening through the air. The raid's summoned allies were being decimated.
"What do we do, Reidar?" Helga asked.
Reidar thought about the situation, but there was really not much they could do if not attack from a distance and hope the bear would give them enough time.
The problem was that despite the raid members being all at least at level 80 now, that wasn't enough to kill something that was in the 100s.
The Twin Boulderback Behemoths were too strong, and the bears were far too weak to be that effective, and the only reason they were still being useful was because of their numbers. But there was a limit to what the summoned creatures' S.H.I.E.L.D. could do against those two monsters.
What was worse was that Reidar could not even share his skills to summon the Rift-Sprites, because that now sat at a 0% proficiency, and the same was for the spectral knights.
If he intervened, the battle would be done in minutes, but he would have a severe decrease in his rewards, and his quest's goal was to empower the raid. Of course, he was going to act if things got too bad.
"We need to keep attacking," Reidar said. "If things get too difficult, I will summon something to keep the monsters at bay."
"Can't you simply kill it?" Aldric asked. "Now you want me to take care of it?" Reidar said.
"We didn't know your real intentions back then, Reidar," the man said.
"I'm not going to be taken advantage of, Aldric," Reidar said. "As per agreement, I'm here just for the sake of supporting you lot. If I simply kill this thing, what would be the point of the raid, anyway? The quest gave you an opportunity to get stronger fast, but we know well that if I kill those creatures, I would simply reap all the rewards, which will amount to nothing since I'm stronger than them. It would just be a loss of rewards, a loss of an opportunity."
Aldric knew Reidar was right, but… They had lost people already. It was the first time the raid was having so much trouble killing one of the monsters, and that very same monster killed many of his friends.
Had the fight taken place on land, they would have been completely destroyed.
The only reason they were still alive, and not just on this quest but on the entire raid, was because of Reidar.
If it weren't for his skills, the raid would have already ceased.
The exchange of words between Reidar and Aldric got suddenly halted when the smaller Boulderback Behemoth roared. It collapsed on the ground, dead.
In the end, it looked like Reidar's tactic was working.