Guild Wars_ Edge of Destiny - J. Robert King [90]
Snaff gazed around at the carnage. His golem was delivering on his promise and more—perhaps a hundred destroyers were down, and the corridor to the island was open.
He was doing his job. Now it was up to the others to do theirs.
With twin axes, Eir smashed back destroyers. Blue powerstones embedded in the axe heads froze the monsters with one blow. A follow-up stroke shattered them like ice.
Garm meanwhile crashed into more of the magma monsters. The powerstones on his battle armor flashed blue as well, and he toppled the creatures like statues.
Rytlock wore powerstone gauntlets that ripped through the beasts, and Logan’s hammer and Caithe’s stiletto had likewise been enchanted.
Zojja, who had cast all these spells, brought up the rear, water spraying from her fingertips to hiss across any destroyers that rose behind them.
At the front, Rytlock roared, “Are we in range? Do you see it yet?”
“There!” shouted Caithe, pointing to the rim of the volcano high above.
The others looked to see a massive figure climb from the caldera and stand silhouetted against the vault of stone. The huge destroyer, covered in rocklike hide and steaming from magma joints, was amorphous and horrible, its body only just solidified from the lava sea where it lived. It seemed a gigantic mantis of stone.
Eir glanced at the molten lake all around them, at the shapeless figures swimming through it, heading for shore.
This was their general. This was a dragon champion, right arm to ancient Primordus.
And it was watching them.
“I’m going after the Destroyer of Life,” Eir announced. “Guard me!”
Rytlock and Logan surged up before her, smashing destroyers.
Eir stepped back and slung her axes at her waist and lifted her bow. She pulled from her quiver an arrow with a blue powerstone head. Cold light gleamed from it, and frost drifted down in a glittering cascade. Eir nocked the shaft, aimed for the massive figure, and released.
The arrow soared like a comet, trailing ice crystals. It arced across the ceiling of the magma chamber and plunged to strike the Destroyer of Life in the chest.
The powerstone exploded, hurling a storm of ice off the massive figure. It did not fall, though, did not even flinch. In moments, the flurry ceased, and the blue stone went dark.
The Destroyer of Life batted the shaft away.
Gritting her teeth, Eir nocked three more blue-headed arrows and shot them into the superheated sky. They shrieked as they went and smashed side by side into the huge figure. More explosions, more spewing ice, but the Destroyer of Life yet again knocked the shafts away.
“Now what?” Rytlock roared, head-butting a destroyer.
Eir stepped back, gazing in dread at the dragon champion. Despite the searing heat, her face went white. “I don’t know.”
THE DESTROYER OF LIFE
At the edge of the caldera towered the Destroyer of Life—a massive primordial mantis of stone. Fire blazed from its eyes and joints and roared through its thorax. At its feet lay four burned-out arrows, and at its back boiled a white-hot caldera—the source of its power. The Destroyer of Life gazed down at the lake of fire, where more of its minions emerged, oozing rock. They were infinite, his destroyers. No puny band could stand against the tide of them.
The Destroyer of Life pulled a magma bow from its back and fitted a white-hot shaft to it. The arrow burned with primordial fire. Once woken, it could never be quenched. The champion of Primordus drew back on the metal string, sited the red-haired woman below, and released.
Eir and her comrades watched as the white-hot shaft curved downward, smoking through the air, and came straight for them. They leaped aside. The arrow drilled into the volcanic rock nearby, and flame awoke within the hole.
“He’s going to be a challenge,” Caithe noted.
Above, the Destroyer of Life lifted his arms