Ohing saved Liz from a serious maiming that eveh potions would have struggled to heal. [Joined]. One of the two abilities tied to Liz’s wand, that she and Natalie had activated the night prior and which had remained active through the day. An effect that liheir health and mana pools, so that they could each draw on them as necessary.

  A giant crystal jaw cmped down around Liz, shook viciously, then tossed the girl aside—and Natalie dropped to her knees, crumpling in agony. Her hammer cttered from her, and she gasped as she barely mao stay on her knees and hands. Liz’s body went flying, but—in a shog dispy—she scrambled to her feet, not looking worse for wear.

  She and Liz hadn’t had the opportunity to test [Joined], and it seemed Liz had instinctively diverted all the damage doo her to Natalie—or at least the huge majority. Natalie’s vision swam as she desperately fought away unsciousness. She wasn’t the most durable of tanks, with no skills that boosted tenacity, only gear and whatever natural fortitude came with her css. So a direct blow from a boss was something everuggled with. Maybe even the damage lified si lied to Liz, then transferred to her—so what defenses Natalie did have might not even have applied.

  Energy suffused her, and Natalie gasped as Liz’s first healing spell coursed through her. It staved off the immediate threat of passing out, but far from cured her.

  The team, at least, acted as professionals ought to; they knew of [Joined] and [Link], and so despite being surprised at seeing their healer effortlessly shake off a direct boss attack, immediately returo the fight. Sofia acted as the intermediary tank as Natalie dragged herself to her feet—nearly falling ain—and scooped up her hammer.

  The party of four tackled the wolf themselves, and as Liz’s healing spell settled—and a regeion effect joi—Natalie slowly worked her way into fighting order. She would be feeling that phantom bite for a while. Heals could only do so much; she would be waking up bruised tomorrow. Or, at least, should be. She didn’t know how attacks given through [Joined] worked. Did they leave physical marks?

  Finally ba fighting order, Natalie re-ehe frenzy. The brawl tinued. Her blows weren’t quite as powerful, fgging from the damage she had taken, but still plenty enough to draw the wolf’s attention. The beast was quickly weakening. The wolf itself wasn’t all that strong; its difficulty came from the mirrors. Against most teams, the ambush attack would have crippled their healer e. [Joined] had saved them, making the fight much easier than it would have been for most teams.

  The wolf soared through the telep mirrors several more times, but the team naturally positiohemselves to mitigate the advahe wolf could cim. A good delving team preferably made mistakes zero times, but he same one more than once.

  Natalie had the pleasure of nding the finishing blow, and it was a satisfying bit of retribution. The huge block of her war hammer caught the beast straight on the side of the head, and with its health whittled dowhe past several mihe blow was actually lethal this time. Prismatic gss shattered, and the life of the beast went out all at once as its head exploded. Its sleek, crystalline body slumped down, skidded several feet, then started evaporating into strands of bck smoke.

  “Sorry!” Liz yelped immediately, rushing to Natalie. “I meant to split it more, but I gave it all to you. It’s weird to use.”

  “Probably should've tested it before we o use it,” Natalie grunted. “Don’t worry about it. I'm fine. Better me than you.” That was the point of a tank—to take hits for her team. She rubbed her ribcage, where a set of phantom fangs burned.

  Sofia walked up to the two of them. "It pletely mitigated the attack? So our healer is invulnerable as long as our tank is alive?”

  “Not invulnerable,” Liz said. “I felt the bond loosen. I couldn’t draw on Nat's health that much again. We’d have to—um, refresh the spell. And I’ve got the feeling we ’t, not for a bit. It has a cooldown. Though that’s just a guess. It really needs more testing."

  Though they didn't have proof, Natalie assumed Liz was right. The wand’s effect couldn’t be that strong—turning Liz invulnerable as long as Natalie was standing. Likely, [Joined] could only be refreshed once a day, or even less, and had a maximum amount of health that could be shared between them.

  “Either way, I’m gd you’re fine," Natalie said. "You patch me up easier than you could yourself.” If Natalie had been knocked unscious, Liz could heal her, but the reverse was obviously not true. Natalie looked Liz up and down, seeing that she really was almost unscratched. “Crazy to see you get shaken around like that, then just get up, though.”

  “You say that again,” Jordan said. “I thought that fight was about to go a lot worse than it did.”

  “Yeah. It's a useful on,” Liz joked, waving her wand around—though still sending ed goward Natalie. Natalie really was mostly fihough again, a hit of that magnitude would be leaving bruises in the m. But it was a boss. That was about all that could be expected. Even with their huge upgrades, they couldn't effortlessly handle su enter. For that matter, having e out with only Natalie ag, they had ha nearly trivially.

  “So,” Natalie said. “Boss loot. Any guesses where it is?” She looked around. The room was empty besides the rge arena and the mirrors the wolf had been jumping through.

  “Maybe it’s hidden somewhere," Sofia said. "Under a panel or tile, or some such.” She looked at Natalie. “You’re sure you're fine?”

  "Yeah."

  Sofia nodded, willing to take Natalie at her word. She set off to start looking for the boss chest. The rest of the party did the same, though Ana stopped by the boss’s corpse to pluck up the monster core.

  Rubbing her ag ribs, Natalie joihem in the search.