How were we going to defeat this monstrosity? My unlikely teammates were about as forthcoming as a locked treasure chest when it came to their skill cooldowns—SmileyX, especially. Even if I could miraculously cobble together a plan, would these two lunatics actually get on board with it? And speaking of lunatics, why was SmileyX focusing on me rather than the actual Beholder? He even thought my skill was "Foresight"—oh quack, was he profiling me like those FBI TV shows I watched back home? But why? It dawned on me, cold and clear as a winter morning: he was probably trying to figure out my skills, movements, and thought patterns to take me out. What else could I deduce from this unhinged assassin? Oh, you sly fox, you, I thought, a shiver running down my spine.
"Now!" screamed SmileyX, snapping me out of my internal monologue.
Billabong, miraculously one-armed and recently re-limbed, barreled towards the swarming floating eyes. "Indestructible Faith!" he roared, and his armor began to glow in a flickering, shifting light-yellow aura. "Taunt!" he bellowed next. Ooh, I love it when he does that.
He launched into a battle rap, his voice booming like an enchanted megaphone:
Beholder in the building, floatin' like you proud,
Three eyes wide open but still lost in the crowd.
Tryna stare me down? Bro, your vision's confused—
One eye's focused, the other two already hit snooze.
A palpable wave of taunt magic radiated from Billabong, washing over the floating eyes. They instantly shifted their focus, now targeting Billabong with the collective hatred of a thousand irritated eyeballs, but the main Beholder remained oddly unaffected. SmileyX, meanwhile, was a blur. He ran and leaped over Billabong just as the Paladin stopped, raising his shield vertically. SmileyX stepped onto the shield, and Billabong, with a powerful shove, pushed him upward, propelling him towards the Ancient Labyrinth Beholder, who was now holding his usual gladius and mace combo.
Heightened Awareness:
Name: SmileyX
Attack: Flurry of the Grand Gladiator
Attack Direction: Marked with red line.
His target wasn't just any floating eye—it was the mother ship, the Beholder itself. Explosions, one after another, bloomed (or rather, imploded) in his wake, like a string of silent, devastating firecrackers. The Beholder's eyes glowed a furious red. "Come to daddyyyyyyy!" screamed SmileyX as he transformed into a whirlwind of spinning blades and maces.
With a sound like a snapping rubber band, the Beholder teleported. It vanished from its current position, reappearing near Billabong, and in its place was a poor, unfortunate floating eye, confettied into a million pieces by SmileyX. The shredded eye then imploded, scattering smaller implosions like a dying star.
Heightened Awareness:
Ancient Labyrinth Beholder:
Skill: Swap
Billabong, still glowing with Indestructible Faith, dropped his tower shield to his left and pulled out his Warhammer. He dashed forward, floating eyes kamikazeing at him with no effect, nada. So that's what his Indestructible Faith skill does, I realized. His Warhammer shimmered with a blue light aura, which my Heightened Awareness promptly tagged as a "Charged Power Attack." He leaped, letting out a primal, guttural "GRAAAAAA!"
Back up! He needs back up! My gamer instincts screamed, pushing me to dash towards the fray, my trusty knife-sword clutched tightly at my side.
The Beholder immediately inflated at an amazing speed, sucking Billabong in faster than he intended to accelerate, its tentacles wrapping around him like pythons. He tried to smash it, but it was too late; his attack was rendered useless, with no time to commence.
"No!" shouted SmileyX, who was now hanging precariously from his sword, which he'd embedded into the colossal tree trunk.
I forced a dash mid-jump, barely evading a cluster of detonating floating eyes, zipping past them as they imploded behind me. I swung my sword at the Beholder's constricting tentacles, cutting two of them clean off. They fell to the ground, twitching like severed garden hoses.
Billabong seized the opportunity, trying to execute an arc swing skill. But the Beholder, still inflated, blew a gust of air from its distended maw, blasting Billabong away. Its iris turned a furious red, charging an attack which my Heightened Awareness instantly pinged as "Laser Blast."
Billabong did a backflip mid-air, landing in a skidding crouch, using his Warhammer to slow his slide. The glow flickered out as his Indestructible Faith wore off. Pew pew! The Beholder's eyes shot two laser beams directly at him.
I pivoted as I landed, ran, and then executed another Force Dash, colliding with Billabong. We both tumbled with an "oof!" to the right, narrowly avoiding the laser beams, which then exploded on the ground just meters away from us, leaving smoking craters.
Popping sounds erupted, one after another. The Beholder's creating more minions, I thought, as Billabong and I staggered, scrambling to stand up, still groggy from the collision.
Force Dash:
Charges: 1
Cooldown: 8 seconds
In Cooldown: 3 sec (2nd charge); 8 sec (3rd charge; once second charge is finished)
BLAM! A shot rang out. SmileyX was now standing atop his sword, which was still embedded in the tree trunk, his back resting against it. The bullet, moving in slow motion like a cinematic missile, propelled itself towards its target—the Beholder. But the Beholder didn't bother to move. In a split second, it Swapped locations with a floating eye hovering at its back. The bullet pierced the hapless floating eye, splashing its juices onto the ground. "Uwuhhh," hissed the Beholder, a sound that clearly meant, "Nice try!"
My Heightened Awareness pinged:
Attack: Arc Swing
A red arc, marking the attack direction, stretched towards me from Billabong's location. No time to react! I dropped to my back, and his Warhammer swooshed centimeters from my nose. I executed a hasty back roll, and once on my feet, dashed away.
"Hey, bad Fallen One, stay put!" he complained, sounding like he was commanding a disobedient dog, and dashed into another attack. He smashed his hammer down from above, which I easily dodged thanks to my Heightened Awareness.
"Hey, what're you doing!?" I yelled, my weapon at the ready.
"Whoo! Get 'em, Billa!" shouted SmileyX from the tree, cheering him on.
"Be a good boy and die already," Billabong said in a calm but intimidating manner, his eyes locked on me. He held his Warhammer with both hands, slowly walking leftward, herding me.
Then, something utterly unexpected happened. The Beholder, abandoning its attacking routine, seemed genuinely intrigued by the spectacle. It turned to the side calmly, hovering to a nearby slab of rock, and continued popping more eyes. It slowly rested onto the rock, its floating head-eyes propped up on its tentacles. Its "Enraged" status pinged to "Relaxed" mode. Its eyes settled on us. "Uwaaaaawu," it calmly bellowed. The floating eyes began to swarm it like a team having an impromptu meeting. They glanced at us, then went back to staring at each other, conversing via eye contact.
"Heh, would you look at that," scoffed SmileyX as he landed with a soft thud. He stood and walked towards me and Billabong.
Out of nowhere, a laser beam scraped the ground and slammed into the wall directly in front of SmileyX, stopping him mid-step. "Whoa," he said, startled.
The Beholder and its minions glared at him in unison.
"Okay, okay," SmileyX raised his hands, taking a step backward.
The Beholder then gave him a stink eye, before returning to its "team meeting" with its floating eyes, which squiggled their tentacles while staring intently at each other.
"Weird," came out of my mouth.
Billabong smiled, showing his pearly whites, though missing a canine. "Well, well, well, looks like you're mine!" he said, tightening his grip on his Warhammer.