When Dan was out grinding, Leena hadn’t been sitting around slacking. She had pushed herself and kept pushing herself.
Chet thought he caught up to her, maybe passed her for good, but while Dan was taking all those days to level up and ascend, she had attained a 5-Star soul and did some ascending of her own.
This Class and her 4-Star Class were direct upgrades of Shade, her original Epic Class. The new Slot Bonus allowed her to envelop her party in her Shade Stealth.
A partywide stealth effect wasn’t the greatest Slot Bonus, but with a 5-Star Epic Class, she had four Slot Bonuses instead of the three she’d have with a Rare Class. She had hoped to be offered a Legendary Class, but hope wasn’t enough. She had to earn it.
That was life. She had little choice but to roll with the punches. The only other option was to give up, and she had fought far too hard to get where she was to ever do that. She was no longer the same woman who had first entered the Game.
No matter how hard she worked at it, or tried different ways to utilize it, her moon mana-type just wasn’t great for causing damage. Its ability to somewhat manipulate gravity and mass was a better use of it.
Surprisingly, the more she attempted to apply scientific principles of gravity and mass to her mana-type, the worse her results became. Her mana-type seemed to function more on instinct rather than factual knowledge. When she stopped overthinking and simply reacted, she could do much more with it, but it was fickle.
Since her mana-type wasn’t great for damaging, she had to put a lot more effort into learning how to fight well in melee combat. Her preferred weapons were the strange but extremely durable swords from the Beelzebub boss in the Trial of the Shining One.
The swords were more like very long daggers than true swords, but she was decent with them now. If she got the jump on an opponent, that opponent almost always died from her opening strikes. Well, as long as she hit a critical area.
Most bosses and some of the tougher creatures were exceptions, but that was to be expected. And Nick or Dotty could usually steal the boss’ attention quickly, so she could drink a stealth potion and do massive damage all over again.
Chet wanted to be what he called a pure Artillery Mage, an invoker that only slotted massively damaging power Orbments.
After the incident with Hector, when Chet got his 3-Star Class, he was fine slotting Heal.
When Becky attained her 3-Star Class, she slotted Regeneration. She used the Orbment Foundation that dropped from Austin’s corpse to create it. She did so to honor the boy and to carry a piece of him with her.
Chet now had STRIKE, Meteorites, Heal, and Missiles slotted, so he was mostly keeping to the idea of an Artillery Mage.
Leena had tried to catch up with and talk to Dan before he entered the Boss area alone, but she and Chet arrived too late.
She talked Bill, Quiet, Jun Huang, and Valentin into joining a party with her and Chet, the purpose of which was to enter the Boss area, check things out, and, if possible, help Dan.
In some ways Dan was a terrible friend to have. The man considered hanging out and shooting the breeze to be torture.
But where it really counted, Dan was the best friend to have. There’s nothing the man wouldn’t do to help, nothing he wouldn’t give.
She wished she could say she knew Dan better. She didn’t know him all that well. Even Nick claimed Dan was a completely different person since the Game started, and one he didn’t know all that well now either.
She believed she understood Dan about as well as he could be known. She knew he admired her dedication to gaining strength, advancing, and winning the Game.
And she knew he was currently hurting badly. He was put in an impossible position and forced to make a terrible decision – a decision she was very glad she wasn’t forced to make herself.
This was her and Chet’s chance to show their support and appreciation. To let Dan know they understood his answer to the decision he was forced to make, and that he still had friends that stood with him and were willing to risk themselves for him.
And risk themselves if it meant winning this Game, saving Earth, and returning to their planet, just as he was. Nothing else was more important. No individual came close to being nearly as important – not herself, not Chet, not even her dearest friend’s child.
Only winning mattered. At any cost.
Getting a party together was easy. Everyone wanted to help. She didn’t want to party with people she didn’t know well, but Dan had previously vouched for Jun Huang and Valentin. Both had been offered patronage and the opportunity to turn traitor, and both had refused. And both were about as tough as they came.
The succubi that spawned upon entering the Boss area weren’t easy to deal with but killing them proved the members of this party could hold their own, that they could help.
She saw some crazy stuff as the party quickly sneaked its way towards the battle. Seeing all the corpses of the dead Sortilege creatures made her second guess if this party could really help.
Once she could finally see the battle with their own eyes, she knew this fight was beyond her and her party.
She could barely see Dan moving. He was mostly a blur. She could see the traitors he was fighting a lot better, but not all that well. Some of the remaining Sortilege creatures and Ashen Ruin weren’t moving all that quickly though.
As she got closer and closer, she slowed her pace, as did those with her, as if an unspoken agreement was made. As if they all had the same thought at the same moment – we can’t help here.
No one wanted to admit it, so the party kept creeping closer.
The Stealth Orbment worked a certain way. Once activated, when Leena looked at her hand, she saw a glowing outline around it, but the hand itself was mostly invisible, not so different than the aliens in those stupid Predator movies her husband loved but she had always hated. Ex-husband, I mean.
And her party-wide stealth effect did the same to each member of her party. As she glanced back at those she was grouped with, their outlines glowed, letting her know where they were.
Leena watched the fight carefully. This was her eventual goal.
As Chet was chasing her, she was chasing Dan. And she would catch him. She would stand by his side and fight alongside him as this Game was won. She would go back to her family and her ex-husband with her head held high.
She had made terrible mistakes, but her ex-husband was a good and honorable man. When he knew all that she had done for humanity, that he and their children were alive because of her, or partly because of her, he would take her back, and she and her life would be whole again. He will.
Once more, as if with an unspoken agreement, the party stopped moving forward when they were nearer the battle and watched in amazement.
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Dan was like a god of war as he silently rushed around battling traitors and the newly arrived Sortilege monsters. She felt kind of bad. She knew her party was responsible for those monsters spawning.
Since they rushed up there as quickly as stealth allowed, they hadn’t been watching for long, but she envied not just Dan’s skill and ability but his complete lack of emotions. She wished she could control her emotions better in a fight, but it was always nerve-racking.
Then she saw Hector. Very strong emotions flooded her. Emotions she’d never be able to control or purge herself of.
Hector was standing back away from the fight, laughing, invoking from safety.
She turned to her companions, a fire in her eyes. She whispered, “I’m going after Hector.” She expected some to complain or say no. Instead, they all looked resolved, especially Chet.
Leena waited for someone to talk some sense into her, but since no one did, she nodded and began to creep west and around, getting in position to sneak up on a man she truly and deeply hated and wanted to make suffer terribly before killing him.
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Then only eight participants working for us remained. And that was the last Sortilege creature too. But one more spawned. Then seven more soon after that. I wondered why those techs had held back.
Two of the Sortileges spawned a group of three hewstors, so six were those creatures. One was another vrock, and the last was something I’ve never seen before. It looked like a small and nerdy dragon. It was still kind of big, but small if you compare it to the image I have of a true dragon.
Have you ever seen a true dragon?
[No.]
I wonder if they’re real.
Anyway, since Dan was near the summoning circle, those creatures all spawned pretty close to him. Seven of the eight mortals working for us were keeping their distance.
Hector was standing way off towards the side. Whatever his mana-type was, it had a really great range. He was using the blood-pull on Dan, and it was working. The blood leaking from Dan’s head orifices would turn into steam as soon as it exited whatever face-holes it came out of.
So far, Dan had completely ignored Hector. And he continued to do so as he blinked behind the vrock and punched through its back. He used that thing as a temporary shield as he turned and stomped his foot at both groups of hewsters and the dorky dragon-thing.
Two hewsters weren’t in the area of effect, and two others lived, as well as the dragon. They all got lava sprayed on them as Dan waved the vrock around, catching invocations on it. The dragon still lived, so Dan charged forward and cut its head off with a lava sword. That certainly killed it.
Then Dan sprinted towards another one of our guys. That guy ended what he was invoking, turned, and started sprinting away for all he was worth.
Dan was much faster. He had to turn and catch some missiles on a hastily formed lava-shield, but he still caught up quickly. That mortal got a lava cord around the neck.
Dan yanked and the guy flew in front of a bunch of needles headed towards him.
The range of the Needles Orbment isn’t very good. Dan blinked closer to the lady that invoked Needles and peppered her with magma pellets, turning her into Swiss cheese. Then he sprinted off again.
Ashen Ruin was battered up like crazy. Practically falling apart. I had no idea how it survived this long. Probably because everyone was mostly ignoring it and focusing on Dan. But once its Incinerate was off cooldown, another one of our guys went down.
Now Dan and his summon were only facing five. We were praying to the Shining One for a miracle. We still hadn’t seen any of Hector’s Orbments, so maybe he had some tricks up his sleeve.
Dan was handling Hector’s blood power pretty well. It didn’t look like it was slowing Dan down. If he considered it a bigger threat, I assume he’d target Hector. He didn’t. He was sprinting at another guy, the fifth mortal I saw surrounded by that green fire.
But we got a big surprise right then. Bob, Az’ga, and I were so engrossed in this fight, we weren’t paying attention to my other team members at all. Two had entered the Boss area with four other participants.
It was Leena, Chet, Valentin, Jun Huang, Bill, and Quiet. That’s where those extra Sortileges came from, those other participants’ techs.
They had managed to sneak their way behind Hector. Leena crept forward the final 10 or 15 meters alone while Bill and Jun Huang snuck around the side.
And this time, Hector didn’t notice Leena sneaking up on him. She jumped up with both swords targeting a different side of Hector’s neck.
Even though both sword attacks targeted weak points and had the same stealth-effects applied such as Sneak Attack, extra void damage, and the bonuses given by the Back Stab Orbment, only one penetrated Hector’s neck and did any real damage.
It looked like Leena put everything she had into that attack. I think she was supposed to quickly move away so the others could safely target Hector.
She landed and tried moving away but tripped on her own feet and kind of fell towards Hector’s side.
As she quickly turned around and scurried onto her back, she lost one sword. She invoked an advanced mana technique to force both of Hector’s hands to stick together.
Then Chet, Quiet, and Valentin, those in the party with decent ranged attacks, opened up on Hector’s back. Both Chet and Valentin invoked STRIKE. Quiet invoked Beam.
After Leena finished invoking, she gave Hector a decent cut on his right calf and started to gain her feet.
Jun Huang and Bill were off to the side. Bill invoked Charge and Jun Huang blinked in as soon as Hector started to turn around.
But as Hector turned, he forced his hands apart. He grabbed the standing Leena by the hair with his left hand and threw her at the charging Bill, tangling them both up and knocking them to the ground. With the same hand he threw Leena with, he grabbed Jun Huang by the face as soon as he appeared in front of him.
With the Asmodon’s Gauntlet on his right hand and Jun Huang struggling to free himself from his left, Hector deftly deflected the incoming missiles from both STRIKE invocations.
He couldn’t block all of Beam though. It made a smoking and very interesting new orifice on his chest.
Then we saw Hector’s first Orbment. BLIZZARD. Or we think that’s what it was, but it was part of a Crown Orbment or was heavily modified by a Slot Bonus. Either way, it tore up Chet, Valentin, and Quiet but good.
What saved those three was Valentin invoking BUBBLE just in time to prevent most of the damage from landing.
As Chet was casting Heal, Hector laughed and threw Jun Huang’s corpse at Valentin.
Bill had managed to untangle himself from Leena and reach Hector, swinging his massive two-handed sword. Hector took one quick step closer to Bill and backhanded the man so hard it crushed his head in. The giant sword clanked off the ground next to Bill’s body.
While Hector laughed, a much smaller sword appeared in his eye. Leena appeared in the air a moment after. As the momentum of her jump ended and she was returned to the ground, her sword slid out of Hector’s eye.
Her Stealth Orbment was effectively Rank Eight with her Orbment Bonus, with a cooldown of about a minute and a half, but she always had a ton of stealth potions on her.
She jumped again, and with two hands holding her blade now, stuck Hector in the neck again.
Hector’s laugh turned into a painful yell. As his arms flailed about, his right arm wacked into Leena. The hit would’ve sent her flying back, but she grabbed the arm and held on for dear life as her blade was ripped free of Hector’s neck.
As Hector went to punch Leena with his left hand, she let go of his arm and stuck her sword in his chest where the beam attack had left a hole.
The sword slid in deep. Deep enough that when her feet were back on the ground, she was able to use the sword as leverage to force Hector around a little, and he tumbled to the ground.
Then she went mad stabbing him.
Chet’s backup weapon was a mace. Instead of healing up, he got the mace off his back as he limped over as quickly as he could manage.
As Leena stabbed Hector over and over, his wounds were set alight with green flame. It looked like some fell power was rallying him to stay alive.
Just as Hector began to lift himself off the ground, Chet’s mace smacked into Hector’s face, knocking the man back down. Then it landed again. And again.
While those two finished off Hector, Valentin and Quiet checked on Jun Huang and Bill’s corpses. I assume to see if there was anything they could do. There wasn’t, so they silently watched the two psychos pulverize the shit out of Hector’s corpse.
Leena was yelling out and crying as she madly stabbed the corpse over and over. At least Chet had the decency to smash his mace down over and over in silence.
A short time later, we noticed Dan and a very battered Ashen Ruin off in the distance watching the two psychos go to work. We kept thinking they’d stop, but they just kept going. At some point, Leena curled up into a little ball while crying, and Chet stopped attacking to go and hold her.
What a crazy bitch, huh? Still, crazy or not, she did great against Hector. She also managed to get a 5-Star Class way ahead of the curve, even with that inverted bargain Trait.
I’m sure you now understand why I said I’ll have no choice but to upgrade her to a full person if she keeps going as she has been.
While Chet was holding Leena, Dan walked over. Leena got up and dragged Chet along with her to latch onto Dan like a parasite, and the three held each other as Leena continued to cry.
Dan looked surprised. And a little relieved. I think he thought Leena and Chet hated him for my Bonnie masterstroke.
After a minute or so, Dan looked at Valentin and Quiet and said, “I’m sorry about Bill and Jun Huang. Y’all should’ve listened and stayed away. It didn’t have to work out this way. We needed them for the champion.”
Then he looked down at Leena and Chet. Another moment passed and he said, “I reckon things worked out how they’re supposed to. Besides Bill and Jun Huang dying. They were both good men. The best of us.”
Valentin and Quiet both nodded. I’m pretty certain Valentin couldn’t understand English, so he had no idea what Dan was saying anyway.
Shortly after, everyone got to looting. They did so quietly. Not much was said.
And that was that. We blew our last load and Dan survived.
I just hope no one noticed I didn’t have enough Veil to use my Sortilege. How embarrassing is that?