“Olaf dearie, revive your companions and restore your energies. We shall hold her. But do not tarry, even we will not be enough to slay this monster,” Trinico said. She moved so gracefully to stand behind her husband, casting blessings and healing spells with an ease I didn’t know was possible for any healer.
As if coming out of a trance, Olaf snapped to attention, “Yes, ma’am! You heard her, you lazy lot! Get everyone up! I don’t care if you eat or drink but do whatever you need to do. We’ve got another fight on our hands. And Pwn, not a word about the loot. It will be there when we kill this witch! Now, get to it!”
We were still going to be down two players, but hopefully, Mack, Trinico, and Butters would more than make up the difference. I was casting ‘Combat Blessing’, ‘Mental Fortification’ and ‘Holy Barrier’ on everyone I could, while drinking in MP just as fast. Within a couple minutes, we were all alive and as ready as we were going to get.
“Sergeant Butters, Mack, and Priestess Trinico bought us a little time,” Olaf began. “Let’s repay the favor. Charge!”
Chapter 35
“Charge!” Olaf bellowed, ordering all three tanks into the fight. Even Basher charged, blurring from view just as the tanks had. That left me to attack in my new favorite way. I leaped after them, intending to put a hurt on the Lich Xan.
My spear pierced into her shoulder, dealing -8,765-HP damage. It was less than I expected but still more than most could deal with a single hit.
Xan growled in frustration. “You will all die here!”
“You first,” Rose taunted, smashing one shield after the other.
Sergeant Butters cheered her on, “Well said. Let us show this evil creature what for!” He then proceeded to smash the lich with his shield, knocking away her arms and interrupting whatever spell she was about to cast. He followed up with a series of rapid slashes with his sword.
Somewhere in the mass of players I heard the familiar shout from Pwn, “Die in a fire!”
I heard a guitar playing somewhere nearby and knew Heath was hard at work either buffing or debuffing.
I saw the healers working hard based on the way all three of our tanks HP bars kept going down and then back up.
“Steam shot!” Icyhot yelled, or I assumed it was him as he was the only Steam Mage I knew of.
Spells, bullets, and blades crashed into the Lich, whittling her down. The damage was pouring out and her HP was dropping . . . then going back up. What the-?
I quickly looked around. One of the cultists had turned away from the Dragon and was healing her.
“Oh no, you don’t,” I said, quickly changing my trajectory. I crashed down hard on the
I took a second or two to look around for my next target when I was knocked off my feet without any warning or preamble. The cultist or the ruins under his body had detonated. I rolled a few times before coming to a stop. I needed to blink away the spots from the flash of light that accompanied the explosion. The arcane symbols where he had previously stood upon had burst leaving behind a small crater with sparks of energy popping from what remained of the damaged symbols.
“No, focus on the dragon, nothing else matters!” Xan yelled, urgency coming through in her voice in a way that made me smile.
I shouted, “Kill the cultists!” I leaped back into the air and bombed another cultist, only to be deflected by some kind of barrier causing me to crash into the ground, costing me a few HP from landing on my side and shoulder.
I shook my head and stood to look around. The cultists were all covered by a mostly translucent green barrier. I also saw several of the players who listened to me suddenly take damage after being similarly rebuffed.
“Stay focused on the Lich,” Olaf barked, basically ignoring me, his focus entirely on fighting Xan.
I knew I had made a mistake. I should have talked to him first before giving any kind of order. It wasn’t even my place to give orders.
I was about to leap into the air when I saw a cultist to my left turn away from the dragon. Her eyes focused intently on the lich. I glanced to the lich to see her HP going back up again. I looked back to the servant. I had a feeling that as soon as the servant began healing Xan, the servant made herself vulnerable. I ran over and stabbed at her with my spear. I only used a regular attack just in case I was wrong. And this time, I wasn’t wrong. The regular attack struck true, -1,534-HP damage.
I grinned and leaped into the air. I came down and killed her then leaped away before the ruins under her exploded. I heard the boom below me as I got clear of the blast radius. I smiled a little. The servants did need to be killed, but you could only do so if they started healing the lich. The barrier that protected them had something to do with the spell, or ritual, to resurrect the dragon. As soon as the cultists were no longer donating . . . mana? Life? Whatever it was they were donating to the dragon, as soon as they stopped, they were no longer protected by the barrier.
“Idiot servants! Finish the ritual!” Xan raged, a burst of black energy radiated out from her, knocking all the players to the ground, and damaging them. Only I was spared because I was in the air. Seeing everyone vulnerable, even temporarily, spurred me to act.
I redirected my attack toward Xan, hitting her with a sharp critical for -11,113-HP. I still didn’t have her attention, so I used my own ‘Order: Taunt’ skill, forcing her to direct her attacks at me. Before she could even send a bony hand in my direction, I launched back into the air. I was quickly pushing my ‘Zephyr of the Open Field’ as hard as I could to avoid the bolts of dark energy she was shooting into the air. It reminded me of those old war vids where guns tried to shoot down fighter planes. In case it wasn’t clear, I was the fighter plane in this scenario. A fighter plane that was quickly running out of fuel.
I was saved when Rose and the other tanks were back on their feet. They taunted her away from me as soon as the knockdown effect ended, which gave me a few seconds to regain some MP and SP.
I had barely regained half of my MP and SP before I saw Xan’s HP going up again. I immediately turned my attention to the cultists. I found the target on the far side of the dragon. How he was able to heal Xan from so far away, I didn’t know. What I did know, was that he needed to die.
I dropped the hammer . . . erm, spear on him, hitting a weak spot and ending his life in a single blow. I was gone again before he could detonate.
“Fools, you are all fools,” Xan screamed. “Do as you have been told. Raise the dragon as my minion!”
Like we were going to let that happen. By the time I got close enough to Xan to attack her, her HP was on the rise again. Apparently, her cultists weren’t particularly good at following orders. I wasn’t going to complain. I immediately redirected, intent on stopping her from being healed.
The fight was actually rather simple from my perspective. I would jump, get in an attack on the lich, then quickly turn my attention to whichever cultist was dumb enough to start healing her. If I weren’t able to travel across the area with such ease, I had no idea how anyone would have completed this fight. I doubted the fight was really that easy on Rose or the other tanks. And I was sure the healers had their work cut out for them. Heck, the damage dealers probably had all kinds of mechanics to learn to keep themselves from getting killed. But there I was. Killing cultists. Moving from one side of the plateau to the other. Making the boss angry.
Eventually, Olaf yelled out the warning, “75% incoming!” There hadn’t been a transition at the 90% or 80% mark, at least, not that I knew of. So, there was a good chance the 75% mark would invoke something strategy wrecking from the lich.
Xan screeched in anger as she rose into the air, her entire body glowing black. “One good thing will come from the deaths of my servants. Rise!”
The good news was, the
all spread out across the plateau.
Olaf was quick to issue orders. “Rock and Heavy, pick up the undead as best you can. Bye-bye, pick off any stragglers.”
“On it!” I yelled from somewhere above him, though I wasn’t sure if he heard me.
Heavy blurred from view, his charge skill taking him to the closest undead cultist. Nearby, Rock was crashing shield first, into another of the undead.
It left me looking for any outliers. It surprised me but most of the undead ran in an almost straight line toward the lich. Rock alone probably could have collected them all. Not long after, he might have been killed, but he could have done it.
Meanwhile, those still alive were back to their old tricks. I grumbled, “Oh no, you don’t,” then dropped in on one of them that decided to heal.
I leaped back into the air to look for more stragglers but found Rock and Heavy had done pretty well in gathering them all up. From there it was just a matter of time before the damage dealers took them out.
At 50% and 25% she repeated the process of raising any dead as her servants. By 10% all her cultists were dead. And not much later, so was she.
Landing next to Olaf, I cheerfully said, “Well, that was easy.”
Huffing and puffing, Olaf and several other players only had the energy to glare at me. I really should have looked at my UI before I spoke. Nearly everyone was completely out of MP and SP, most of them had taken damage at some point or another. A few even died.
Cringing as I realized my mistake, I was about to apologize when Pwn cried out excitedly, “Loot!”
Olaf’s hunched over form groaned. “Bye-bye, we’ll talk later. For now, I better go deal with this.”
Olaf walked over to deal with Pwn as he pawed through the loot drops. Yelling to halt Pwn’s nonsense and get everyone’s attention, he started, “First things first. Let’s start with Xanaiya and Xane. Then we can go over Xan. If you have a problem with this, too bad.”
Pwn looked sick at the idea of being made to wait for what was certain to be the better loot. Afterall, last boss equals best loot, right? His weak attempts to protest Olaf’s decision went ignored. With slumped shoulders, Pwn moved to join the crowd of players excited to gain whatever bit of treasure they could get their hands on.
“Before we start, the MVPs. For Xanaiya and Xane, Rose gets the MVP. She figured out how to deal with the insane woman. I doubt anyone would argue that she earned it,” Olaf announced.
Olaf started with the bag and coins that appeared where Xanaiya died. “First up, Xanaiya’s drops. We’ve got,” he paused to pull out the first item from the bag, “Shadow Robes,” he held up a robe that looked similar to the straitjacket Xanaiya wore but with the sleeves left free. “Dark magic, intellect, wisdom, and endurance. Any takers?”
Sin Full put her hand up immediately.
Olaf gave it a few seconds before offering it up for Sin to take, which she did, a little bounce in her step.
“Next,” Olaf started, pulling out a scroll. “Shadowy Embrace. Not sure what this one does. Anyone?”
Sin raised her hand a little tentatively and was the only one.
Olaf chuckled. “All yours, Sin. You’ll need to tell us what it does.”
“I will,” Sin promised, taking the scroll, and learning from it immediately. “Ooh, I can cover myself in shadows to hide. I think it’s an aggro dump spell.”
Pwn quickly cursed. I guessed he could use the skill but was holding out for something he saw dropped from Xan.
“Last up, we have a charm,” Olaf said, holding up a small black chain with a black skull attached to it. “Charm of Shadowy Limbs. Increases Strength and Dexterity and teaches Shadow Arms.”
“I can try it,” Basher offered. “I don’t have much mana but, that might be a good one to have.”
Olaf nodded and looked around, but no one seemed to have any interest. “All yours,” he said, tossing the charm to the large Barbarian.
Xane similarly had a pile of coins surrounding a small bag. Olaf collected the coins first as it would be distributed at the end of the raid. “First,” Olaf said, pulling out another charm. “Charm of the Indomitable. Endurance . . . a lot of Endurance. Holy mother of Bulls,” he said, his jaw dropping slightly.
“How much Endurance?” Rose asked.
“Plus 200,” Olaf answered.
“Mine!” Rose, Rock, and Heavy said at once.
Olaf tore his eyes from the charm. “Sorry, gents. Rose got the MVP. It’s hers if she wants it.”
Rose definitely wanted it. That was an extra 2,000-HP just from equipping it. And if she learned whatever the charm was able to teach her, she would get the Endurance permanently, plus a new skill. Rose took the charm without question and equipped it.
Rock and Heavy didn’t look happy about it but they didn’t really have room to complain. Besides, Rock had already gotten a charm from the raid on his MVP win.
Olaf moved on to the next item. He pulled out a pair of . . . shoes. They looked like the formal school shoes Xane had been wearing when he appeared. “Shoes of the Studious,” Olaf started reading the description aloud. “Increases Intellect, Wisdom, and . . . wow, spell experience gain.”
That would interest every spellcaster in the group. Every spellcaster put their name in for it except for Rodger, Jay, and Baby, the only members of the group that couldn’t wear shoes. In the end, Icyhot Jelloshot won the shoes. Jay then complained about how much the wingtip shoes didn’t go with his current outfit and how he would be spending days crafting the man something more appropriate to wear.
The last item to come out of the bag was a necklace. “Gemini Necklace,” he read then frowned. “Another caster neck . . . lace,” he trailed off, cocking his head to the side. “Or not. It does increase Intellect and Wisdom, but it also increases skill experience gain.”
Everyone wanted that. Everyone included me.
“Alright, alright!” Olaf shouted, trying to calm everyone down at once. “Look, I know this can be used by everyone, myself included. So, let’s make this easy. Who hasn’t gotten anything yet in this Raid?”
Micaela, Dixie, Jay, Pwn, Teak, Arch, and Hodge all raised their hands.
Olaf groaned. “That’s too many, still, make your cases.”
Hodge raised a nervous hand. “I am not a spellcaster. All my damage output relies solely on my skills. Raising my skills means I do more damage.”
Olaf nodded in understanding. Micaela didn’t have many skills, but her totems did . . . or were those actually spells? Still, I wondered what she would say about it.
Pwn looked like he wanted to say something but held his tongue. He must have seen something really special drop from Xan for him to not say anything here.
Jay cleared his throat. “I am a crafter. A Tailor to be specific. I will be providing the members of this order with my artfully crafted wears. The more I am able to level up my skill in the art, the better the clothes I can create will be.”
Jay also made a strong case, though I thought Hodge made the stronger case.
“Nah, brother. Give it to Hodge,” Teak said. “I do not have many skills, just my ‘Two-Handed Warhammer’ skill.”
No one else said anything though it looked like they all still wanted the necklace.
Olaf finally looked to his wife. “Mic, anything to add?”
Micaela frowned. “I’m kind of in the same boat as Teak. If it could help my totems level up their spells it would be great. Ooh,” Micaela said, suddenly perking up. “I just got a grand idea for a new totem. Give it to Hodge, I think I can make my own . . . sort of.”
“Alright, Hodge it is,” Olaf said, offering the necklace to the man.
Hodge nodded gratefully to the Minotaur as he took the necklace.
“At last,” Pwn said, seeing the bag that held the loot vanish. “On to the good stuff.”
Olaf rolled his eyes but didn’t dispute Pwn’s statement. He probably wasn’t wrong about the loot from Xan being the good stuff. “Alright,
Pwn, which piece has you drooling?”
“The Dark Crown,” Pwn said. “It’s got my name written all over it, and I haven’t gotten anything yet from the raid dungeon.”
Olaf grinned wickedly and winking at Dawn Rises, he showed her a crown made of some kind of dark metal that seemed to suck in light. He stated, “Great, now, before we deal with the loot. We need to name the MVP. Dawn Rises.” He then asked, “Dawn, are you interested in this Dark Crown?”
“Might be,” Dawn drawled, giving Pwn her own wicked grin. “What are the stats like?”
“Intellect, Wisdom, dark spell damage,” Olaf answered, not looking at Dawn but grinning at Pwn.
“You’re punishing me, aren’t you?” Pwn asked flatly. “Fine, whatever, give her something she can’t even use,” he said, clearly trying to gain some sympathy for his case.
Dawn giggled. “It’s fine, give it to him. If you don’t, we’ll never hear the end of it.”
“You’re probably right,” Olaf said with a laugh. “Alright, Pwn, here’s your crown,” he relented, tossing it to the Void Mage.
Pwn grinned, happily equipping the crown which sat crookedly on his head. He boasted, “It really just completes my look, in addition to just being awesome.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Olaf said dismissively, already moving on to the next piece of equipment. “Lich Vine Bracelet, Intellect, Wisdom, and Nature Magic of all things, unfortunately, it also reduces Endurance by 10.”
Here, Baby shot forward, her little wings carrying her with haste, she said, “Yes, please.”
“Any objections?” Olaf asked, looking slightly reluctant to give it to Baby. Her HP total was already rather low. Losing even a hundred HP would put her at greater risk.
After considering it a moment, Rodger had raised his hand as well. “I also want it.”
“As do I,” Bloomin volunteered, raising his hand into the air.
Of the three, it was probably best to go to Bloomin, he could afford to lose a hundred HP.
“Alright, going to Bloomin, sorry Baby and Rodger, you two can’t really afford to lose a hundred HP like he can,” Olaf said apologetically.
World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive Page 60