Blight Witch Haru: Minimum DPS to Defeat – 999,999

Haru stepped back from the gap in her slowly closing shield dome directly overhead, avoiding Irae’s swipes that were stymied by the narrow opening.

The demon retreated, avoiding the risk of losing his limbs to the sudden snapping of the final hexagonal pieces shuttering the dome closed, perfectly without any gap.

“Now what?” Opti’s shoulders sagged as he spoke, panting and sweating. His voice echoed within the confines of the shield. “We can’t stay here forever.”

Haru looked around hurriedly. “We just need to find a way for us all to escape.”

Opti passed a sorrowful glance to the sibyl before turning to Haru. “Running is how I got here in the first place. I can’t do that. I’m sorry.”

The sibyl’s white robe stopped waving in the tumult of the gales that swept across the infernal landscape with the closure of the dome. “This barrier can only stop wounds of the flesh.” She motioned toward the shield surrounding them.

Opti winced as she spoke.

“Then we’ll just have to take him down the hard way.” Haru brandished her staff at the demon.

From behind the sibyl emerged Oracle in her blue robes. She inched toward the witch, the rapping of her crook against the stone rang out with each impact. Without a word, she reached and with a gentle push, urged Haru to lower her staff. “Patience.” Oracle motioned toward Opti.

The legionnaire flicked away his shield with minimal force and pulled his bronze helm off, throwing it aside with the same amount of ennui.

Irae backed away a great distance and swiped his arm across his body, dissipating the storm upon which he floated. His lanky legs eased onto the ground. With the snap of his fingers, the tendrils on his back melted into a rounded plane that split in half and stuck to his arms like a cape. “We are going to have so much fun together.” He stared at Opti and grinned with a mouthful of mangled, spiney teeth. “For all eternity.”

“What are you doing?” Haru shouted at Opti pulling off and throwing away his armor. “We have to fight him.”

As the demon spread his arms, a darkness sprang from beneath him, engulfing the landscape in a lightless void.

As the darkness touched the dome, it carved away the land surrounding the shield, revealing that the barrier was one half of a sphere resting upon the terrain. The ground inside the sphere remained unscathed by the ever-expanding abyss. As the infernal landscape was consumed, the rusty sand swirling inside the sphere disappeared, replaced by a clear blue atmosphere.

A sudden shout startled Haru, spurring her to point her staff off to the right of the demon. Though she couldn’t make out the expression, she recognized it as Opti’s voice. Then another yell quickly followed up to fill the silence, off to the left and behind Irae. Again, Opti’s voice. The legionnaire himself remained entirely silent. It wasn’t him hollering.

The legionnaire, still sweating and panting and only wearing a linen tunic and tattered pants, closed his eyes and looked away with each shout of his own voice spurring forth from the abyss.

“Can you hear that beautiful song?” The demon’s voice filled the void.

One by one, a cacophony of angry voices grew to a crescendo from every direction. Each of them sounded exactly like Opti.

“I will play you a gorgeous symphony.” Irae made no effort to hide his delight. “My magnum opus, created just for your ears.”

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The shouts oppressed, rattling Haru’s bones from how loud and omnipresent they were. The ground vibrated as the sound grew endlessly louder.

“Can you hide from this?” Irae’s voice momentarily interrupted the chaos coming from every direction. “How will you drown me out now that everything you’ve done has come to this?” The demon brayed, letting off a cackling howl. “All of your hard work, just to build a prison so perfect, even I envy its construction. And not only that, but you’ve delivered yourself to me.”

Haru looked around and gasped, realizing that there was no way to move her shield. If they were to escape, it would expose them to Irae’s fury once more.

The sibyl slid into motion, toward Opti.

Haru was so distracted with trying to figure out how to free them from their predicament that she didn’t notice Opti standing there, hunched over, grasping his head and writhing. Without hesitation, she dismissed her staff and rushed to the legionnaire’s side. She opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong, but the strident shouting around them drowned out her voice.

The sibyl reached Opti. Towering over him, she produced her hand from under her robe and placed it delicately on his shoulder.

“No.” Irae stared down the sibyl. “This one is mine.” He bared his teeth.

With her hand still on his shoulder, the sibyl leaned forward to whisper in Opti’s ear while staring at Irae.

A startling cry burst forth from the demon, which silenced the shouting entirely, beckoning a bemusing quiet. Then another rumble filled the silence as Irae spread his arms, looking like a blighted bat with iridescent wing webbing. From the shimmering fabric, what was once his tendrils, dangling beneath his arms, a horde of silhouettes tumbled forth and charged the barrier.

As the crowd drew closer to the shield, the light gave form to the shadowy figures. They were each dressed up in various low-level attire, bronze breastplates, linen armor, mage’s robes. They all swarmed the sphere and began to beat on it with their swords, clubs, spears, even their fists.

“Are these the players Irae defeated?” Haru thought out loud.

“Not just defeated within the confines of the game.” Oracle stepped forward to stand next to the witch. “Those consumed by rage, for one reason or another.”

The miniscule pinging from each of the countless strikes echoed inside Haru’s shield. The number of players had grown so great that it nearly engulfed the sphere. There wasn’t anywhere that a feral player couldn’t be seen throwing themselves into attacking the barrier with wild cries.

Though Haru couldn’t hear what the sibyl said to Opti, it seemed to put him at ease. He stood, hands folded, near one side of the barrier which was within his arm’s reach. She couldn’t help but to wonder what he was doing, or why he suddenly decided to stand so close to the edge of the shield.

A harsh chirp in Haru’s ear snapped her attention away from her friend. The barrier had been taken down to 90% remaining durability.

“More!” Irae swiped his arms forward, beckoning yet more rabid players. “Bring it down, deliver them to me! Your reward will be great for their defeat!”

The noise from the impacting attacks grew louder as the players packed in to attack the barrier. Their incoherent shouting grew harsher as the horde thickened. It was almost impossible to see Irae now. He was barely visible through the tiny gaps in the growing density of the crowd.

Then, near Opti, a small portion of the group parted. From nothingness, a non-descript, feminine figure emerged through a plume of pearlescent smoke.

Though the figure was nothing more than a featureless mannequin, Haru immediately recognized it as the woman from the visions shown to her prior.

“Opti.” Haru called out and started to dash towards him.

But Oracle reached out and caught her by the forearm. “Have faith.” The sage leaned against her staff to stop herself from falling over.

The figure wasn’t feral like the rest of the crowd. She stepped forward calmly and stood on the other side of the barrier. Though the mannequin’s head had no facial features, it seemed as if she were staring at Opti.

Over the yelling, the familiar voice of Opti’s wife echoed out. “It’s over now. There’s still time to come home, before everything here falls apart.” She beckoned for him to leave the shield, to come by her side.

Opti took a deep breath and pinned his shoulders back. “I’m sorry.” He shook his head and looked at the ground.

A stifled snarl burst forth from the figure. “You were always selfish. You always wanted to leave me alone. Look at you. Even now, you can’t be a man and just do what you need to do.”

Opti winced for a moment and simply stood there, still staring at his feet.

Despite Haru’s overwhelming desire to rush to her friend’s side, she abided by Oracle’s wishes and watched from a distance. As the two talked, the sibyl retreated from the legionnaire and walked over to stand next to Haru.

The horde around the figure parted even more, and a glint caught Haru’s eye. The sparkle was produced by a set of fine wires attached to the mannequin’s limbs and head. These strands led up and over to Irae, who had his hands hovering in front of his chest, fingers wagging. Attached to his long, dagger-like fingernails were the fine lashes connected to the figure.

Irae smiled a devious grin while staring Opti down.