Haru: Acolyte, Level 10/20

Optifex: Initiate, Level 10/20

ErcuEmu: Legionnaire, Level 10/20

Alara: Apprentice, Level 10/20

Tacito: Footpad, Level 10/20

Haru jolted at the sight of Emu suddenly hurling himself into the void. Instinctually, she targeted the legionnaire and opened distance between them, to maximum spell casting range. Red orbs ignited in the dark dead end. Before she could create enough of a gap, Emu’s health fell to 40% and he careened toward her.

The legionnaire soared through the air, landing flat on his back. He was inflicted with stun.

The boss’s snout emerged from the darkness first. Its blue and green speckled hide shimmered in the faint glow of its two antennae with small glowing orbs dangling from each. It had charged Emu and launched him back to the point from where he used Line Breaker.

Haru stopped moving and started casting Mend on the legionnaire.

As the monster drew closer, each of its steps shook the ground. The DPS line hesitated upon spotting the toad-like creature, Fulmen Rana. It inched forward toward the intersection in which they stood. Without a tank to hold its attention, it seemed the damage dealers were too timid to make a move on the giant frog.

Haru’s heal went off, and aside from the pleasant sound of rain and chimes, a faint chorus called out for just a second. The spell’s anti-stun ability procced, ending Emu’s status effect early.

As he stood up, the legionnaire grumbled. “That’s new. Usually, he doesn’t stun when he does his charge.” Without hesitation, Emu used Line Breaker again. He hurled himself and slammed into the beast’s snout. His ability’s stun procced, but the frog was immune. He scoffed. “Why are mobs immune to stun so early in the game for no reason?” The beast was down to 90%.

Haru knew the answer. The demon must have meddled with the dynamics of this fight, made it more frustrating for the same reason as it tampered with other parts of the early game: for the sake of feeding on the anger of players.

The moment Emu collided with the boss, Alara casted ice bolt. As it landed, the spell turned into a spiked sphere, indicating weakness. The frog was down to 80%. But after the damage was dealt, the orbs on the creature’s antennae scintillated for just a moment.

The mage sighed. “Don’t tell me it has mana absorption.” She knelt to recover.

Opti rushed forward and positioned himself on the creature’s flank. He wasted no time and used Pummel. Between the ability and his follow-up auto-attack, he brought the boss down to 70%.

Taci got himself into optimal shot range and landed an auto-attack which brought the creature down to 65%.

Then the frog started to vibrate. A deep rumble emanated from its belly. Red orbs appeared, then dissipated. It leaped into the air and belly-flopped down hard. The impact dealt damage to Opti and Emu, sending them sliding back. It put the initiate at 40% HP, and the legionnaire at 55% health.

“Ow! It has melee AoE too?” Opti stumbled forward and positioned himself back on the creature’s flank.

“Bellyflop is only supposed to be single target.” Emu called out. “That’s a new effect too.”

Before the round could continue, the boss auto-attacked Emu and brought him down to 30% HP.

“It’s… so strong…” The legionnaire stepped forward to keep himself in front of the creature.

Haru started casting a heal on Emu once again.

The round continued, and the physical DPS brought the creature down to 50%. Haru healed Emu and Opti to full.

Then Alara stood up and cast ice bolt again. The boss’s antennae arced with wild electrical power. The attack brought it down to 30%. She then followed up with another ice bolt immediately and brought the boss down to 10%. Just after, a flash of light illuminated the cave. Individual bolts of lightning hit each party member.

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Emu was down to 30% HP. Opti was down to 40% HP. Taci was down to 20% HP. Alara was down to 15% HP. Haru was down to 65% HP.

The acolyte panicked, seeing the entire party nearly dead. She again started to heal Emu, not wanting him to go down from the creature’s auto-attacks.

“Burn it.” Emu called out to the mage.

Without hesitation, Alara started to cast again.

Red orbs appeared around the giant frog. It started to rumble.

“Not today, I want my rest state you unripe bell pepper!” She finished casting. The ice bolt smacked into the boss.

Just as the frog leaped into the air, it flipped over and fell harmlessly to the ground on its back. The party defeated Fulmen Rana.

Haru’s heal finished and brought Emu back up to full. She took a knee to recover.

“I wish there was a level up ready to heal me.” Taci entered recovery mode.

As the group’s tension faded after beating the boss, Haru sensed it was replaced by raw anger. And the group’s sudden negativity spurred her chest to burn in agony once more. The party won the battle, but Haru felt like she was losing the war, and horribly so.

“We all made it out alive, that’s a good thing, right?” Haru hoped to cheer everyone up a little.

“Difficulty isn’t the issue I have with this place.” Alara grumbled. “Why did this fight have to be so wonky? The other ones before it were difficult but not nightmarish like this one. I’d rather get clobbered in end game repeatedly than have to deal with this fight ever again.”

Emu chuckled. “If you level yet another job, you’ll have to do this dungeon again.”

“Don’t remind me. I’m going solo next time, enough of this early game party stuff.” The mage said.

Haru felt hurt at the idea that Alara wasn’t having fun grouping with everyone. Wasn’t that the whole point in playing the game—to make friends and have fun together?

Opti looked over at Alara. “What, an end game raider is too good for us newbies?”

Alara scoffed. “I should have been done leveling this job. It’s just going to be used for promotion to get a second-tier job anyways.” She stood, fully healed. “It doesn’t need to be geared, and I don’t need every one of its skills maxed. All of this frustration could have been avoided.”

Emu looked over his shoulder at her. “You didn’t have to tag along, you know.”

The mage threw up her arms. “Of course I did. I made you join this server, why would I just leave you to fend for yourself?”

Haru suddenly realized how badly she was losing to the demon. An overwhelming sense of impending doom threatened to crush her spirit.

“There’s no sense in arguing.” Taci piped up. “We’re done partying soon. Just suck it up.”

Emu nodded, and both the footpad along with the legionnaire stood up.

“It’s a straight shot from here to the last boss.” Emu looked farther into the cave. “Remember, it’s solo, so make sure you’re fully recovered before we move on. I’ll go get the key.”

Emu, Taci, and Alara disappeared farther down the path which progressed toward the opposite end of the underground tunnel.

Haru remained in recovery mode, staring at the ground. Up until this point, she grew confident that taking down Irae was possible. But seeing how everyone felt made it seem like the idea was nothing more than a delusion of grandeur.

Opti stood up and walked over to the acolyte. He squatted down. “Hey.”

Haru couldn’t muster the strength to respond.

“I think,” Opti started, “that everyone’s just overwhelmed by the dungeon right now. Don’t take it too personally.”

Haru wondered why the initiate was telling her this. She never really told him about how she felt about the game and her role in it, how could he possibly know such things?

Opti clapped his hands together awkwardly. “We’re almost out of here, then we can go to town, and everyone can go their separate ways. Give them a chance to cool off.”

Haru nodded and stood up without a word. Her vision of everyone in the group together merrily taking out the demon was going down in flames.

Opti departed, following the same path the three took to progress. The mage followed close behind and they all regrouped outside a locked mine shaft.

Emu pointed at the barred metal double door. “Here’s where we needed the keys. Three locks to open and we can move onto the boss.”

With a click, the three locks opened, and the gateway parted. Inside was a staircase that descended deeper. The party went down and at the bottom of the stairwell was another clear portal. On the other side was Haru’s encounter.

“How this fight should go,” Emu started, “and I don’t know what it will be like now, is that we’re all going to have to fight the boss individually. I don’t know why they designed the fight this way, but weirdly it works.”

Haru pepped up at hearing Emu’s compliment.

The legionnaire continued. “The fight has three phases and works a little differently depending on what job you have. Really the goal is to deal as much damage as you can as fast as possible.” He looked at Haru. “You just need to make sure to time your heals right. Don’t panic, only heal yourself at the last minute, and you should be fine.”

Haru nodded, hoping that the consideration she put into each encounter to make sure each job could succeed was still something being done.

“So,” Emu clapped his hands. “there’s nothing we can do now but try. Good luck.”

Everyone nodded and Emu, in tank-like fashion, departed into the portal first. Then Alara just after. Taci next.

Opti moved toward the portal, then stopped and turned towards Haru. “Everything will be alright. I’ll see you on the other side.”

Haru forced a smile. “Yeah, I’ll see you there.”

The initiate dashed through the portal.

Haru stood and stared for a long while. The unknown was what scared her the most about the coming encounter. If there was any hint at what was going to happen, she wouldn’t be so afraid. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath hoping to calm herself.

Then Haru dashed into the portal to her own encounter.