The Butcher of Gadobhra

Grinder, Sausage Beast of the Pit, Monstrous Level 20 Butcher Boss

(Minions, Monstrously Strong, Extra Health, Physical Resistance to punctures and bludgeoning.)

Grinder didn't waste time talking after his opening shout. He stalked toward Ozzy, throwing a right haymaker at him. Ozzy didn't try to dodge. He swung hard at the oncoming fist, bringing both cleavers forward in a double, overhanded chop. They hit the fist, with the combined force of both Butchers, separating the fist and forearm into thirds, but didn't stop the force of the blow. Grinder howled, and Ozzy took the separated mass of the punch to his chest, knocking him backwards into a wall. The stones cracked and shattered behind Ozzy, telling everyone how hard this new incarnation could hit. The blow would have knocked the wind out of anyone, except someone who had a furnace inside of them. Smoke and flames belched out of the stunned Ozzy, hitting Grinder as he came in with a follow-up punch.

The heat drove the sausage beast back two steps, giving Ben a chance to heal Ozzy with Triage, and Suzette did the same. Rolly and Squirmie attacked from the flanks, cutting into Grinder with slicing talons. They hit him three times each, doing thousands of points of damage and slicing off chunks of cured and raw sausages. Grinder's reaction was to swing his arms down simultaneously at both of them, but both the Shepherd and Bug had been expecting the attack and dodged most of the force, knocked back but barely hurt.

Minions darted forth, grabbing the hunks of sausage cut from their boss and throwing them back at him. Grinder absorbed the pieces back into him as soon as they hit, healing his wounds. Overhead in the chains, now devoid of curing meat, more minions ran a bucket brigade, swinging from the chains and dumping piles of guts onto Grinder's head. One unlucky minion felt his greasy hand slip on the chain he was hanging from. Minion and bucket of offal hit the boss, sinking immediately into him.

Ben saw that some chunks of sausage fell off when thrown at the boss. He darted forward, grabbed the chunk, and stabbed Grinder in the ankle with his sword, setting him on fire. Having an estoc run through his ankle didn't seem to bother Grinder at all.

"He's not taking much damage from weapons, but fire is working! He can't reabsorb the cooked parts. Light him up, and peel off the outer layer. Then we repeat and peel him like an onion. Squirmie is on minion killing, we need to stop them from healing the boss. Rolly can carve off chunks."

As he was yelling this, Ben used his whip to start small fires on Grinder, dodging in and out of range. At one point, he came near Riccardo, still trying to recover from his near-death by sausagification. Ben pulled him up and pushed him towards the flock of minions by the sausage grinder. "Kill minions, get revenge, feel better, get phat loot!"

Riccardo nodded, pulled a pair of daggers, and ran at the minions, cursing. Rolly bounded by Ben, having just carved off a fifty-pound chunk of cooked meat from Grinder's shoulder. "You always did know what would motivate other players." Then he was away again, distracting Grinder as the boss kept hammering away at Ozzy.

Suzette had shifted to casting Frostblaze, the blue flames of the small blaze at Grinder's feet were steadily cooking his legs, and Rolly was doing his best to carve away the cooked meat. Ben was striking as fast as he could with his whip and casting Flaming Brand, watching Ozzy's health as it went lower. The minions were gone, either dead or they'd had enough of the fight. Grinder noticed what had happened, but seemed unconcerned.

"It won't be long now, Baby Butcher. You're almost dead, and then I'll start on the crunchier people. They can't take the hits and don't have your fire! If you weren't so selfish, you'd tell them to run, and save them all the pain."

Ozzy managed a small laugh as he rolled with the next punch."You'd be surprised at how tough they are." He looked over to Ben, "Could use some extra healing, if you don't mind."

The Courier agreed. Ben had been watching Ozzy's health as it crept downward. When he was at a third of his total, Ben began casting Flame Strike, calling forth a burst of Phoenix Fire. Ben had 10,000 mana and twice that much stamina. As long as he didn't double-cast the spell, he could pull it off nine times, healing everyone as he burned Grinder.

"Incoming! Be ready to slice and dice!" Ben brought down his first Flamestrike, doing two thousand points of damage to Grinder, and healing his teammates for 500, plus his bonus of 500 from Healing Aura. Like the Gristle Daemons, a lot of Grinder was made from unholy bits and pieces, causing him to take double the normal damage.

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The mass of flame took the boss off guard, as did the group healing effect. Enraged he reared back and brought down both fists on Ozzy. This time, Ozzy Shielded, burning stamina and mana. He surged forward, knocking Grinder off balance. Rolly and Squirmie attacked, not trying to dodge. Sharks and hounds joined in, ripping off cooked meat. Ozzy became a whirling dervish with his cleavers, striking as fast as he could. Suzette appeared behind him, slashing with a Silver Scimitar made from pure mana. All of their strikes hit true, and meat flew off grinding with each slice.

Grinder knew something was wrong immediately and became truly furious. "You stinking, slimey, little shit! They're all Butchers! I can feel it with every slice and cut. You trained a new Butcher's Brigade!!"

Grinder was made out of meat, and despite his resistance to other physical attacks, his protection didn't affect cleavers and other edged weapons. Trained for hundreds of hours in the stockyards of Gadobhra, all of the group could do a huge amount of damage to him. It hadn't mattered when he could regenerate, but deserted by minions and being continuously cooked in flames, he was being whittled away at a steady pace.

Heavy blows hit Ozzy, and Rolly completely dodged the fist meant for him. The next one hit him, but he rebounded off the wall and back into the fight. Squirmie had found a good spot on Grinder's back where he couldn't reach. She peeled off layers of cooked meat as fast as Ben cast Flamestrike.

Ben was standing on the other side of the room, he'd just finished his fourth spell when Grinder changed tactics, spinning and kicking Ozzy aside, and swatting Squirmie into the rafters. Ben saw him coming but didn't move, bringing down his fifth Flamestrike. As Grinder got close, he dove between the boss's pillar-like legs, sliding across the greased floor, taking advantage of his Natural Acrobat and Rather Dashing perks to turn the slide into a roll and then come to his feet on the other side of the room with his hat still on his head.

Ozzy slammed into Grinder from behind and Shielded again as the boss turned, holding him in place. Ben cast his sixth Flamestrike, followed by Suzette renewing Frostblaze. Ozzy breathed fire onto Grinder with every breath.

"Pour it on!"

"Damn you, you little pissants! You don't have enough left to pour!"

Ben brought down his seventh spell. The Boss was slimming down, layer after layer getting peeled away or falling off as the sinews holding him together were cut. Agony spread across his nether regions as Suzette planted two hair sticks deep inside of him. Grinder tried to grab her, but her image wavered and disappeared. She waved from across the room and brought out her staff.

Squirmie transformed into a nightmare creature with six cleavers moving like small buzzsaws. Ben cast his eighth and ninth spells, draining his mana. Suzette was doing the same, casting spells with her staff at double effect. Even Riccardo managed to help, carving off bits of cooked sausage from a leg, terrified of what was going on around him. He knew his group was insane to have come into this part of the dungeon.

Grinder managed to hit Ozzy hard and knock him away like a rag doll. He landed hard, dropping his cleavers. Then, with desperate speed, the Boss Butcher caught Rolly and Riccardo by their necks, smothering their heads with his hands and ignoring Rolly's slashes.

"Stupid minions are slacking. If they can't bring me something to eat, fine, I'll make my own sausage then." He walked to the giant hopper across the room.

Ozzy pushed himself up, feeling something cold and hard under his hand. He picked up Grinder's heavy weapon and charged across the floor, bringing it down on Grinder's head in a clumsy two-handed swing. There was no resistance at all as the Hog-Splitter sliced the dying boss from crown to crotch. Each half fell to one side, and his two victims crawled away. The revealed sausages on the interior tried to knit themselves together. That stopped when Ozzy breathed out the last of his heat in a long stream of fire, taking himself dangerously low on heat and smoke. Ben followed up with a last Flame Strike.

There was silence in the room, with only the sound of cooking sausage and exhausted adventurers panting.

Ben was counting in his head, waiting. "Maybe it would be a good idea to head to the exit? If this guy has a final form, I don't want to find out what it is."

"Ozzy looked at the sausage grinder and piles of meat. "I'm tempted to grind him up into sausages, but I doubt anyone wants to eat any part of him."

Suzette agreed, "Hard pass." Ricardo looked sick at the thought.

Rolly was looking at Squirmie, "What do you think?"

Doesn't everyone? I hear they are becoming very popular all over the northern duchy!

Congratulations! You managed to grind down Grinder, Sausage Beast of the Pit!

We have some lovely prizes waiting for you at the entrance for your fights with Grinder and Hungry Dog, along with 25 Enhancement points and 3000 Boss Points. Even little Ricky.

(Hopefully, that helps him get over his PTSD from almost becoming pepperoni. Not everyone is as resilient as a Contract Worker.)

Ben slumped against the wall in relief. "Thank the goddess."

Ricky looked around at them, wondering who the hell these people were. But he had a more pressing need: "Can we leave? Please?"

Rolly put a now normal arm around him, his armor disappearing. "Can't wait to get to the loot chest? Me too. Come on, Squirmie, it's the best part of a fight!"

Ozzy tucked his cleavers into his belt and hefted the Hog Splitter. It was heavy and bulky, and he could barely swing it, but he'd be damned if he wasn't taking a souvenir. "Yeah, let's roll. We have to get cleaned up and some food in us before we head to work."