10.5 Sandria's Gaming Life

“Guys! I need backup!” Sandria shouted, the distress imminent in her voice.

It was a critical situation. Three minutes left until the boss of the dungeon would spawn. Three minutes until their lives turned upside down. In these three minutes, the squad, consisting of Sandria, Noct, Ailee, and Fergus, had to slay the remaining enemies. Unfortunately, the waves would keep coming until either they all fell, or the boss spawned. These were no ordinary enemies.

With wings of steel that shredded armour and claws that did insane damage, harpies were not to be taken lightly. One of them lunged for Sandria feet first, ready to take her apart. Cursing softly, she dodged to the left, only to come across another one.

It screeched in her face and dived. She had no choice but to hold her ground. Her dodge was on cooldown for another five seconds. Flinging a poisoned dagger at its face, she activated a defensive skill that created a protective bubble around her.

Screeeee!

The harpy didn’t look happy at not being able to penetrate her shield. With her health at twenty percent and only one life remaining, Sandria was incredibly lucky. It was vital that she saved her final life for the boss fight. It had a crazy attack that would no doubt kill her.

But first, she had to deal with the beasts in front of her. Out of nowhere, a silver mace smashed the harpy to the ground, and it disappeared in a show of red sparkles. Experience points in the form of yellow orbs floated up to her and the person beside her.

“I got your back, Genius.” He called, darting out of the way to avoid a spray of acid.

Noct. A skilled player who worked both as a tank and a damage dealer. Someone who she’d raided dungeons with countless times.

But no matter how good he was, there were too many enemies for him to take down alone. Pointing her staff at the sky, Sandria used a powerful skill that caused meteors to rain down on the battlefield, causing carnage to the rest of the harpies. Thankfully, there was no friendly fire, so her teammates were safe.

An alert flashed across her screen, notifying her that they’d completed the forty fourth wave. It was time for the boss battle.

All of a sudden, a rumbling noise emerged from the floor, and a massive creature burst out of a podium in the centre of the arena. Steel wings unfurled, glinting in the moonlight. It had rippling muscles and a hairy chest, with a beak that looked bigger than her head.

The name ‘Talon’ appeared over its head, glowing in bright red. Everyone stood still for a moment, shocked at its ridiculous size. The tallest of them, Ailee, a healer, didn’t even come close to a quarter of its height.

“Noct! Get its aggro!” Sandria shouted, springing into action. “Ailee! Support! Fergus, I’ll try to keep it off you!”

“Got it, Genius.” The three replied in sync. This wasn’t the first time they’d done this, and nor would it be their last.

Sandria glanced at her stats. That last spell had taken the majority of her mana, and now she was resting on barely thirty percent. Looking over her available spells, she decided on a quick, yet efficient one called ‘lightning zap’. This spell wasn’t powerful enough to actually hurt the boss, but it had a forty percent chance of stunning it. It didn’t take much mana and had a fast cooldown.

Meanwhile, Ailee was performing a chant that would lower the boss’ defence and increase the health regeneration rate for her party members. Fergus dashed forward, dagger in one hand and a chain in the other. He was a rogue, and fought to poison the enemy for an easy kill. However, this time, the poison didn’t seem to be effective.

“Genius! It’s not working! Do you have another plan?” He called, desperately dodging the beast’s winged attack.

Sandria bit her lip and glanced around, looking for any sort of opening. There was none. And there would be none, until…

ROOOOAAAAARRRRR!

The beast’s overpowered attack. The attack that she’d been saving her last life for.

“Noct! Ailee! Fergus! Get behind me! I’ll take all of this attack’s damage. Attack during its cooldown.” She called.

Before they could respond, a wave of acid splurged out from Talon’s mouth, heading directly for the party. Damn it, Sandria thought. This spell better work. She looked out from the corner of her eye, watching her mana slowly creep back up. Just one more point to a hundred, then she could use it.

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Ding!

A bell sounded, notifying her that she had reached that hundred mark. And without any further hesitation, she waved her hands, activating the spell. The ground trembled and cracked under enormous pressure as six totems burst out of the floor, surrounding the squad. A fluorescent ball surrounded them, sizzling as the acid landed on it. But it wasn’t enough to stop the entire flow. The acid just kept coming and coming, and the ball continuously shrunk, until it surrounded only Sandria.

“Go!” At the command, the three darted out from the circle and sprinted towards the boss, weapons raised.

Sandria exhaled and cracked her knuckles as the words ‘you have died’ appeared on screen. It would be another thirty seconds before she was allowed to respawn. In that time, she spectated her other three squad members. They seemed to be doing ok, and had already drained the boss’s health halfway.

However, now came the difficult part. At half health, the boss would summon more harpies into the battlefield and fly up above. For this period of time, it was invincible, and would rain acid periodically. The only way to damage it during this time was to kill the harpies, which in turn were strong and fast.

Watching from above, Sandria nodded in approval as Ailee shot one of the creatures down. She was a healer, but had some ranged combat skills that came in handy during times like this. Noct was covering for the others, taunting the beasts, creating openings for attacks. They were doing well, but their health was slowly dropping.

“Genius! I’m low! How long until you respawn?” Noct asked?

“Three… two… one…” She counted down. “I’m in!” Upon respawning, Sandria immediately fired off three separate skills and knocked down four harpies out of the sky. Since her mana bar was back to full, she was able to use multiple spells at once.

Noct taunted one down and smashed it with his mace, Aliee shot two more and Fergus had resorted to using poison magic. That left only one, which was directly in front of her. She activated an explosion spell, killing it midair.

Now that all of them were gone, Talon flew back down to the ground, landing with a loud boom. Its health bar had turned red, and acid dripped from its wings.

“Don’t get close!” Sandria warned, barely avoiding a splatter of it herself. “Everyone fall back! Ranged attacks only!”

In its final stage, the boss unfurled a massive long sword with an inverted triangular tip. An odachi. The weapon’s reach was incredibly big and every sweep kicked up masses of dust.

It was all going well, the squad was draining the boss quickly, when it happened. Fergus got a little too close when throwing a dagger, and was sliced in two by the enormous sword. Sandria didn’t even see it happen until she received the notification that a party member had died.

“Fergus!” She called out in alarm and surprise.

“Sorry, g, I got a bit too carried away. It was so low and I wanted that final hit.” He said, ashamed.

Sandria shook her head ruefully. “Always the thief, eh? Don’t worry. We’ve got this.”

Just as she said it, Talon flicked out its wings and shot out several sharpened feathers, directly at Ailee. “No!” Sandria cried out, helpless to do anything other than watch.

Ailee gave her an apologetic smile before shattering into blue particles.

“Don’t tell me… You guys didn’t save your final life?” She asked incredulously.

“Sorry, Genius. It was a lot harder than we thought it was going to be. We ended up using them up, one by one to cover you.” Ailee said sheepishly.

The boss roared intimidatingly once more and sent a fleet of feathers thudding into Noct’s shield. “I can’t hold it much longer. It’s up to you.” As he said it, a feather escaped his blockade and flew by, scratching his cheek. He smiled reassuringly at Sandria. “Don’t worry, you got this.”

She checked her mana. Forty percent and climbing. Three skills were on cooldown. Two skills available. One which she had gotten only yesterday, and had yet to test it out. But it was her only hope.

Their only hope.

With the voice of her teammates echoing in her ears, she ran directly at the boss, hand splayed, ready to use her spell. It swung its odachi wildly at her and she ducked, sliding underneath it. It was now, or never.

“Energy beam!”

A pulsing beam of light shot straight through the creature, splitting its body in two. Sandria heaved a sigh of relief as the victory screen appeared. She had done it. Alone, with no one to back her up, she had done the final blow and cleared the dungeon for her team.

“Way to go, Genius!” Noct called out, virtually patting her on the back.

The three had spawned back in, and greeted her with open arms. A massive treasure chest was now in the place where the boss once stood. Fergus was drooling over it.

But Sandria didn’t mind. She didn’t tell him off, like she normally would. It was time for a celebration.

“Sandria! Dinner’s ready!” Pat called from the dining room.

Taking off an earphone, she groaned and leaned back in her chair. “C’mon dad! I just finished the dungeon!”

“And that’s why it’s the perfect time to stop, right?” Pat chuckled.

Sandria sighed and slipped the earphone back in. “Sorry guys,” she addressed her party. “It was fun, but I’ve got to go. Save some stuff for me!”

With that, she shut down her computer, hearing the chorus of goodbyes slowly fade away. She was a little disappointed at not being able to celebrate with her friends, but that couldn’t take away the joy she felt at completing the dungeon. It would’ve leveled her up, and the new loot would help with future raids.

I wonder… she thought. What if I could actually play this game in real life?

But that was an immature question. Of course she couldn’t. Life was life, and it was definitely not a game.Now what was for dinner? It smells like macaroni and cheese...