"Even if I'm going to die, I'm gonna take all of you with me! Hahaha!" I shout. They say morale is the most important in battles, right?
"Come to me and face my creations! If I like your performance, I might even add you to my ranks! Fufufu! Hahahah!" I shout again, this time while raising my hands, electricity running through them. I'm preparing to cast Chain Lightning.
The first goblin runs in my direction, but as soon as he reaches our range, both my staff and the Demonic Followers' attacks meet him and he dies.
"Poor goblin, couldn't manage to get a single hit! Hahaha!"
Ricard is moving around all the time. He only needs the enemies to enter his aura, and after taking damage they will target him automatically. It's a nice way to aggro most of the enemies so that they don't come my way.
But he is starting to get overwhelmed. Unlike Goblins and orc Hunters, the orc Warriors have better stats and deal more damage, so his HP is steadily getting lower. At this rate, we won't survive for five minutes.
I release the Chain Lightning in his direction, and it deals a decent amount of damage to the warriors. What's more, since it also strikes some goblins, the damage accumulates and I manage to stun one of the warriors.
"Thank you!" Says Ricard, relieved. "Nice timing!"
"Of course! I'm the spellcaster here! If you need damage, call me and I'll nuke them!" I must demonstrate my usefulness! Though in reality I can't nuke them… because I can't kill them with lightning damage…
Ricard keeps moving through the arena and I run towards the stunned orc warrior.
"Hahaha! You'll make a nice hybrid after I capture you!" As it gets close, the Kidnapper starts the capturing process. "Now, protect the Kidnapper with your lives! You must prevent the enemies from interrupting him!" I shout to the two siameses. Of course, they don't react in any way.
I'm worried if I'll manage to capture it or not. I don't want to waste this precious opportunity.
A few enemies jump at us, but with my incredible skill and perseverance, we manage to kill them and the Kidnapper properly finishes his job. (Non-embellished version: only three goblins reach us and are insta-killed.)
"Nice! A new body for my future experiments!" I say, rubbing my hands together.
"Hey, Mad Rat! A little bit more help would be appreciated!"
"Ok! I've already finished here!" I reply. "I'm coming to your rescue, BaldSage!"
"Who said I need you to save me? I just need you to do your job!"
"Hahaha! Don't be ashamed to ask for help!" After saying this, I cast another Chain Lightning and stun most of the enemies currently chasing Ricard.
"Huh… huh… I know this is a VR game but I got tired after so much running anyway!" Complains Ricard.
"What are you saying? I'm perfectly fine!"
"... because you haven't been running for the last five minutes!!!" He shouts, enraged.
"You haven't either! I've seen you stop a couple of times… here, and there too." I taunt him. I just want to pay him back for not stopping the jokes about him teaching me and about him being better.
"What!? How dare you…" Ricard starts to shout.
*Bwoooooooooooooo!* But he gets interrupted by another horn. This horn sounds a lot louder and lasts for a lot more time. After the horn sound stops, the ground starts to shake in a rhythmic way .
*Pooom! Poooom! Pooom! Poom!* Something huge appears from behind one of the wooden buildings.
"Oooh, shit! I forgot about this!"
"You forgot about this!? How can you forget about something this big!?" I shout at him.
He stammers, it seems he doesn't know what to say. "I-it's… it's my bad, ok? I-i didn't remember about it… because it's not important for me, that's it!"
*Pooom! Poooom!* It's a humanoid figure bulging with muscles. About three meters tall and wields a huge club. Well, more than a club, it looks like a tree trunk.
"Not important!? You fucking with me! THAT thing is enormous!"
"We-well… It's a troll… a troll Boss at that… and it's going to be very hard for us… because we have very little single target damage…"
"Weren't you the 'oh so great sage' who knew everything!? The 'oh so mighty pro player' that was calling me noob all the time!? How can you forget about this dungeon's Boss!"
"Ugh… I'm sorry, ok!" He meekly replies.
The meat hulk is coming towards us and I take this chance to inspect it. The fucking troll has a buff that increases all stats by 100%. It works exactly the same as with the champions, and it makes sense because it's the only way that the defending player can have a strong enough unit to defend the dungeon. Bosses have the same buff as Champions.
I almost have a heart attack after looking at the troll's stats and skills. It has more than a thousand HP, and the Regeneration trait… the two together, it recovers more than 50 HP each second!
Regeneration (Innate passive skill)
Cost: 3 EP per second (cannot be deactivated)
Recover 5% maximum HP per second. Automatically deactivated when it reaches 100% HP.
"Hahaha!" I can't stop myself from laughing. I laugh to avoid crying. "If we manage to beat it, we are going to be legends!"
"I don't think we are going to be legends. But we're going to have a hard time."
I can dream, ok? I can dream about being a legend for killing a troll, ok?
*Pooom! Poooom!* The troll has already entered the arena, and it immediately switches to attack mode.
"Don't come near me!" I shout. "You can have him as a snack! This undead has a lot more meat than me!"
"Hey, don't use me as bait!"
After Ricards says the word bait, I have a crazy idea. "Ooooh, wait! I have an idea! If we use the Kidnapper as bait, he will be able to hold the troll for five seconds! If we time it right, we can use this time to pummel the troll into oblivion!"
Ricard nods at my bait tactic. "Nice idea! Let's try it!"
I get close to the troll, but just before I'm inside its attack range, I run away. Now the troll is following me, but since the Kidnapper is a damned stitched and it moves abysmally slow, he soon is left behind. It's the first time I'm glad that the Stitched are so slow.
When the troll has the Kidnapper in melee range, it swings its huge… club?, trunk?. Anyway, it swings his weapon and smashes the poor Kidnapper.
"A one hit kill!" I shout. Or it would have been if not for the God's Intervention skill. A white film covers the stitched's body.
Everyone takes this chance to attack at the same time. Me and the two remaining Demonic Followers, and also Ricard and his four undead.
The fucking troll regenerates thrice more HP per second than the damage I can deal with the staff. But with the combined effort from everyone, its HP is slowly being reduced.
"This won't be enough! At this rate, we're only going to reduce it to half HP before the Kidnapper dies!" I warn Ricard after making an assumption about how much damage it will take.
"Then, let me do the tanking after it dies. You know I have a second life!"
"It won't work! If you die, after the 30 seconds it takes for you to revive, not a single one of us will be left standing!"
"Hmm… that's true. But still, it's better if I get the aggro. I should be able to tank at least a few of its attacks." Says Ricard. It's true that I might be crushed by only two or three of its attacks. Maybe one if the troll uses an attack skill.
And as predicted, when the troll's HP was below half, the white barrier from the Kidnapper disappears. With the next attack, the troll smashes the stitched. The tree trunk has so much force that, if this weren't a game, not even the corpse would remain.
The troll finds its next target and immediately swings again. This time, it strikes one of the specters. Even with the 50% damage reduction they have, the specter takes more than half its maximum HP as damage.
"Attack me, you dumbass!" Shouts Ricard. It must have activated a taunting skill, because the troll's next attack goes towards him.
I slowly walk away while continuously casting Cold Blast. It seems like Bosses have resistance to status effects, because after casting more than ten times, the immobilization hasn't activated a single time.
Every time the troll swings his club, a chunk of Ricard's HP bar vanishes. By the time that he is almost killed, the Cold Blast finally applies the immobilization and the troll stops attacking.
"Yes! It finally worked!"
During the immobilization, we focus everything on the troll again. But it lasts less than expected and the troll soon moves again. Maybe another resistance towards status effects?
"Almost there!" I shout. The troll currently has less than fifty HP, one big hit and it's going to die.
I cast Chain Lightning to finish the troll. But at the same time as the lightning leaves my hand, the troll strikes Ricard once again, killing him.
Then the lightning reaches the troll, and it is left stunned with 1 HP. Even as the regeneration keeps going, the mobs take this chance to kill it. Finally, the troll Boss is dead.
"That was close! A little later and we would all be dead!" I say.
"Yep, really close!" Answers Ricard in its phantom form. He now needs to wait for 30 seconds until he is resurrected by his skill.
"No more surprises after the troll, right? Because if there are, I'm gonna kill you again, this time in real life!"
"No, the troll was the last enemy… Hope so." Answers Ricard.
"Ok, then let's wait until you resurrect and leave the dungeon. And I'll NEVER call you 'master' or anything of the like. Especially after you forgot the most important part of the dungeon!"
Ricards feigns to be crying while saying. "Noooooo…. My title and reputation have disappeared because of a single mistake!"
"Title? Reputation? You never had any of those!"
"W-what! You demon!"
I had to leave things clear. And what moment could be better than after he made such a big mistake? You must capitalize on other's mistakes.