Haru: Acolyte 13/Apprentice 6
Optifex: Legionnaire 13/Initiate 6
Emu: Initiate 13/Legionnaire 6
Alara: Apprentice 13/Acolyte 6
Taci: Footpad 13/Initiate 6
Haru stood on top of the dune, able to see almost the entire length of the beach in both directions. To her right, northbound, led toward the Fairbank Undermoat, which was a drainage system for the city and a way to prevent the outer walls from flooding. To her left, southbound, was a mountain range that stretched from deep within the Plentiful Glade all the way down to the shore. A small cave was set into the face of the crag, not far from the water line of the high tide.
With Haru was the rest of the party, everyone was standing and looking at the party that just wiped beneath the palm tree near the entrance to the beach.
Emu looked around at the party. “We need to be careful. The crabs here have a huge link radius.”
Opti nodded. “It’s best to fight on the dune, plus the world boss spawns behind here.” He pointed toward a clearing of grassland on the other side of the sandbank, which separated the beach from the forest.
A couple of lone oaks split far apart were all there was in the clearing aside from foothills in the distance. But very far across the meadow, a few Gogo sauntered around the tree line.
“If we’re lucky, we can get a few more levels before it spawns.” Emu said.
“Hopefully it will be weak to what spells I have on hand.” Alara sighed.
“Ready to get started?” Taci took stock of the number of crabs lingering on the beach.
Opti nodded. “I suppose it would be best if we just jumped in. Go for it.”
Taci took off without hesitation and ran for the nearest blue crab. It was pacing back and forth, quite far away from any other crustacean mob. The footpad drew his bow, nocked an arrow, and took aim. Then as the arrow soared, he turned and bolted back toward the party.
The arrow smacked into the crab, dealing 2% HP, bringing it down to 98%. After a moment of hesitance, the mob turned and rushed for Taci, who was more than halfway back to the party already.
Opti drew his sword and walked down the dune, onto the flat surface of the beach. He targeted the incoming crab and waited for Taci to arrive.
Alongside the legionnaire, Emu drew his claws and followed suit, readying to attack the incoming mob.
Alara targeted the crab and adjusted her position slightly, inching toward Opti but remained only a few steps from the very peak of the dune.
From where Haru stood, she could reach everyone with a healing spell. She was tempted to cast elemental magic, but decided against it, considering how frail they would be because of being cast at half her level. Though she had a damage-over-time spell, Lumen, which didn’t cost too much and also reduced the enemy’s defenses slightly. That might be a good thing to use in order to support the team’s damage output.
The crab closed in on melee range of Opti, only a few steps outside the required distance. As it neared, the legionnaire used his Provoke ability. A red and blue sphere appeared in front of the crab’s eyes and spun little tendrils made from a length of evenly spaced stars. It disappeared after a few moments. As this orb appeared, a harsh buzzing tone rang out for the duration that it was in front of the crab’s face.
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In an instant, the crab stopped and pivoted to move toward Opti. He used Line Breaker to close, which didn’t proc a stun. Then his auto-attack triggered, dealing 3% damage to the crab, bringing it down to 95%.
“Nice opening. Very clean execution.” Emu called out. He also used Line Breaker to close on the crab, then positioned himself on the creature’s flank. The initiate followed up with Pummel. It procced an extra attack, dealing 5% HP, along with his auto attack, he brought the crab down to 90% total HP.
Alara started casting Wind Strike on the enemy.
Taci stopped behind Opti and turned around with his bow still drawn. Then he used the Footpad ability Trick Attack, which caused him to dash toward the crab. Then the footpad’s form disappeared and after a moment, he reappeared behind the creature. Retaining his momentum, he slid backwards and triggered another ability, Sneak Attack.
Then after turning around to face the mob, he fired a shot which landed critically because he used Sneak Attack from behind the crab. The entire assault dealt 10% total damage, bringing the beast down to 80% HP.
The added benefit of Trick Attack was that it also placed all the enmity generated from the follow up attack on who was in front of Taci when he triggered the ability. The entire action was as if Opti had done both the Trick Attack and Sneak Attack damage to the crab.
Alara’s casting of Wind Strike completed and slammed into the crab for 10% HP, bringing it down to 70% HP. “Not bad, but I wish I had Rock Crusher. Crabs are weak to Earth elemental magic.” She then started another cast as a rapid-fire.
Haru started charging Lumen to debuff the mob.
The crab struck Opti for 15% HP, bringing him down to 85% HP. Then the mob began to shimmer, and red orbs spun around it. The mob was readying the ability Big Guard.
Opti grumbled. “I wish I had Shield Bash. Two more levels.”
Haru’s cast of Lumen completed and an iridescent light descended on the crab. It dealt no damage, but the mob’s HP ticked down by 1 each second. The crab also received the debuff Physical Defense Down.
Then the crab’s Big Guard ability completed and canceled out its Physical Defense Down debuff.
“Good timing,” Emu called out, “at least it won’t have higher defense.”
Haru nodded in satisfaction and then knelt into recovery mode.
Another round of physical attacks brought the crab down to 60%.
Alara’s follow up Wind Strike finished and brought the crab down to 50% remaining HP. Then the crab disengaged from Opti and began charging Alara down, side-stepping the legionnaire.
“Oops. Got overambitious.” Alara knelt to enter recovery mode.
Opti turned and used Provoke on the crab. It stopped in its tracks, then turned around and rushed back down the dune to re-engage with the legionnaire. Before it could get into melee range, Opti ran forward and bypassed the mob to reorient it in the way it was originally facing before Alara drew enmity.
“There we go, back to normal.” Opti nodded.
Red orbs spun around the crab again, and it began to vibrate. It was going to use Bubble Hazard. After a few moments, the ability finished, and a huge sphere of water formed in front of the crab. Then it leaped forward and slammed into Opti. It hit him for 35% HP, bringing him down to 50% HP.
Then the crab followed up with an auto-attack. But just as it landed, Opti’s shield block procced and the mob only struck the legionnaire for 10% HP, bringing him down to 40% HP.
“Now I really wish I had Shield Bash.” Opti grumbled.
Haru stood up and started casting Mend on Opti.
After getting to 100% mana, Alara stood up and started casting Wind Strike on the crab.
The acolyte’s healing spell finished, bringing Opti back up to 90% HP.
Haru’s healing magic raised to 4!
“Wow you have a lot more HP now Opti.” Haru called out. Even with her enhanced healing magic and increased healing abilities, she could only hit him with a 50% heal.
“Yeah, Legionnaire is a blood tank, so it needs a lot of HP.” Opti called out.
Emu smiled. “If you want to be a more offensive healer, we’d need to get the Shadowguard job unlocked for Opti. That’s the best dodge tank right now.”
Opti remained quiet for a moment. “Perhaps for another day.”
Alara’s Wind Strike finished charging and hit the crab for 10%, bringing it down to 40% remaining health. This time, she took a knee to recover immediately.
“These things are tough.” Haru also took a knee to recover mana.
“It’s only going to get harder from here. We need to make sure we’re always geared up and know how to use all our skills from now on.” Opti called out.
Haru thought it was going to be just like the starter area, a linear progression from start to finish. But each step forward revealed that things were far more complicated than she initially anticipated.