Chapter 16: The Burning Boss

It turned out that level two dungeons were at least a third bigger than level one, so they weren’t as close to the boss as they thought.

No matter. They stuck to the path, and Zach had a ball going through the chipmunks. Every time one shot fire at him, he turned it back against them. He made it look easy.

Finally, they came to where the path ended at an open meadow bare of everything but ash. In the middle, sitting on a nest made of charred sticks, was…

“Is that a chicken?” Thomas asked Zach. “What is it with these dungeons and chickens?”

“No, bro,” Zach said, his voice filled with awe. “That’s a baby phoenix.”

Thomas did a double take, then squinted ahead. Christ, was he getting old enough that he needed glasses? But then the chicken-like thing shuffled in its nest and twisted its head around to groom its blackened feathers, and the shape of it became clearer. It was basically a fat bird about the size of a Labrador with dark, gritty ash feathers, which didn’t help him spot it against everything else that was burned. Except here and there, the feathers sparked as if with glowing coals.

Now that Zach pointed it out, Thomas saw that the proportions were juvenile. The body was rounded with a slightly oversized head and a beak that looked too large for its body. Its tail was short and stubby, with feathers that had not grown in yet.

But most importantly, Thomas was certain that he and Zach could scoot around the perimeter of the meadow to get to the exit door visible on the far side.

“It looks like this is an optional boss,” he said doubtfully.

“Yeah, but that’s a phoenix,” Zach said.

Thomas waited a second, wondering if he was going to elaborate. When he didn’t, Thomas said, “And?”

Zach turned to him, eyebrows raised. “You’re a healer, dude.”

Oh. Duh.

Phoenixes in mythology were all about rebirth and fire. And, if he remembered his Harry Potter lore correctly, they had healing aspects tied to them too.

Thomas turned back with narrowed eyes, looking over the phoenix again and wondering what would drop from it. Chances were good that Zach would be the one who dealt the killing blow, as he’d done so pretty much all the way here. That would nullify Thomas’s Gift of loot, but bosses typically dropped loot no matter what. If they got something healing-based, it might be just what he needed for Derek.

“All right,” he said. “How do you want to play this?”

Zach grinned. “I got a trick up my sleeve. Leave it to me.” He stood up from their hiding position, which had been just ducking behind a burnt fallen log, and strode confidently across the meadow straight for the phoenix.

“Wait, we should have a plan,” Thomas started to say, but then sighed and reluctantly followed.

But Zach turned and waved him back. “No, bro, I got this. Stay back about twenty feet. This could get hairy… or flamey.” He flashed a grin.

“This guy’s insane,” Thomas muttered to himself. They had no guide, no idea how this boss would fight, and his teammate wanted to solo the thing.

Nevertheless, because he was not fireproof, Thomas stood back, checked his dagger and penknife, and readjusted his grip on the maul. He’d rush in if things went bad.

The baby phoenix watched them approach carefully but made no move until Zach was about ten feet away. Then it slowly rose on stubby legs to let out a rattling hiss, shivering its head at the same time. Little flames danced off its feathers.

Thomas was disappointed to see that there were no more eggs in the nest with it. He liked the bosses where he could get additional rewards for ruining the boss’s setup.

His thoughts snapped back to the fight when the hiss turned out not to be a warning at all, but the sound of gas igniting because suddenly a gout of pure flame—blue at the tip and fading toward orange and red—shot right for Zach.

Zach turned, and in a movement so smooth that he almost certainly had dance classes, pirouetted and redirected the stream of fire back to the phoenix. He’d done the same move with the chipmunks, but the phoenix also had tricks. With a rattle of its wings, the flame curled around it and shot back at Zach, now with even more intensity.

Again, Zach redirected the fire around him and back at the boss, but it looked to Thomas like this had been harder than before. Like lifting a heavy weight.

And again, the phoenix only added more fire and turned the existing flames a brighter blue, almost white, with renewed heat. But then, with a yell, Zach shot it back, and the flame suddenly curved all the way around the phoenix, meeting up again in a circle—no, it was a vortex that grew and grew as the phoenix, now starting to panic, kept firing more and more fire out.

Zach was keeping it wrapped in its own flames, and even though it was a being of fire, there were limits.

Thomas could feel the heat from where he stood. He didn’t know how Zach could stand it. The phoenix certainly couldn’t. It let out a long, pained screech that only a baby animal being fried alive could make before it suddenly went silent.

Exhaling, Zach pushed down with his hands, and the circling vortex of fire puffed out into smoke. The bird had collapsed into a mound of glowing embers.

“Wow,” Thomas said, walking up and giving a golf clap.

“I guess you can fight fire with fire,” Zach said smugly. He started walking toward the mound, then winced, raising a hand to cover his face.

Thomas did the same. The heat was so intense that it was almost painful to get within five feet of the thing.

“Let’s let it cool down,” Thomas said.

Zach sighed and flopped down onto the ground. “Sounds good. There’s no rush.”

That’s just tempting the gods of irony, Thomas thought, the hair rising on the back of his neck and his arms as he looked around.

Sure enough, he heard… was that scuttling? Then, out of the burned-out forest came dozens of tiny chipmunks. They were all making a beeline straight for them.

“Incoming!” Thomas yelled, readying his maul.

Zach scrambled to his feet, and Thomas brought down his maul on the first of the chipmunks. It died with a terrible splatter, but the others were undeterred and kept coming in an oncoming wave.

Fortunately, they didn’t seem interested in Thomas and Zach at all. They all ran right past them as if called to the mound of embers.

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“What’s going on?” Zach asked.

Thomas shook his head. “I have a bad feeling about this. Let’s back up.”

They did, just in time, as the chipmunks surrounded the embers in a circle. Then, as one, they blasted their fire into the ember pile.

“They’re feeding it!” Zach yelled. “We’ve got to stop them!”

He started forward, but it was too late. The chipmunks had already completed their task and were running back to the burned-out forest, completely ignoring them.

Meanwhile, the ember mound flared to white-hot fire that made them both stagger back again. In a moment, a dark shape formed in that fire, and the baby phoenix was reborn with a screech of triumph. The fire died down, along with the temperature, and the phoenix turned one smug eye toward Thomas and Zach.

The men exchanged a glance.

“Round two?” Thomas asked.

Zach gripped his quarterstaff. He actually looked annoyed, which was the first time Thomas had seen that expression on him.

“Round two,” Zach agreed, and headed for the phoenix again.

This time, he used his quarterstaff to aid in his fire manipulation, passing the fire back and forth between himself and the phoenix. Although he made it look graceful and easy, by the time the phoenix fell back into embers again, Zach was panting with his hands on his knees.

“Good job,” Thomas said, slapping him on the shoulder as he passed. “I’ll take it from here.”

During the fight, he’d taken the opportunity to grab a long charred branch from the forest. Now, stretching out his arm as far as he could to keep away from the heat, he used it to poke into the embers. In the middle was a glowing red fire jewel about the size of the phoenix’s head.

The heat was incredible, and even though Thomas was a good seven feet back, it felt like his eyebrows might burn off. There was no way he could pick it up, not even with his minor healing.

Zach came over. “What is that?”

Thomas squinted and accessed his system—he had to remember that he could use that now. The tag popped up.