If you gazed over the battle you'd see a field set ablaze, and utter chaos. In the air, you could see players fizzling to respawn. Only the lucky ones were able to be respawned by a Priest class. But even those seemed to be targets of Risen's players. They seemed far more advanced in their tactics and more organized overall. Jeens began calling archers to them at the incoming waves, but it didn't matter. Vegans forces stampede the front lines and low and behold Julia was next to a Berserker 50 levels higher than her. The Berserker, ChuckDoors activated his skill, “Rage,” and swung at Julia. A strike like this would finish a level 10 character easily but out from behind came a shield.“ An Augustine Shield?” She said, She turned slightly to see a spear break through the Berserker. The character then took the same spear and threw it, defeating several enemies. Julia inspected the character. Aethera, a level 76 Spartan. “Young warrior you must stay vigilant. Their forces will be upon us.” Julia was simply amazed. Spartan was a class change at level 40 which meant Aethera had been leveling her Spartan class for a long time. Thirty-six levels as a Spartan must've been crucial to her skill now. It showed. Just then Ogre Berserker fired off a pile driver into the ground coming towards them. The most Julia could do was wedge her sword into the ground. She yelled out, “Saving Grace!” The attack was split between her on both sides while she took no damage. The Spartan was impressed as she was now behind her. “It seems I misjudged you!
Aethera vaulted into the sky and pounced down, striking the Ogre into a fizzle. Meanwhile, the boss continued to smash through allies and foes alike.
“Fire” Jeens called out. 30 archers rained arrows upon the Hillsbane. But it only laid a scratch. “2000 damage.” They looked at its health. “It has 1 million health!” Another soldier cried.
“How are we supposed to beat this thing with all our forces dwindling?”
When suddenly Jeens noticed several players on the beast. It was the rogues that came from the hills. From a distance, it was hard to see but each of them was landing critical strikes. Although they were only causing minor damage, the amount of units on the back of the creature caused them to do 1000 damage a second.
They were still damaging faster than the archers. This tactic caused the Hillsbane to constantly try to walk towards the archers and turn to grab the rogues, but each action caused the opposing to occur. Finally, in the sky, a meteor began to spawn. Vegan found himself flying in the sky facing the Hillsbane. “Take this” he yelled.
The meteor came crashing into the beast causing 200K damage, but Vegan seemed to back away when something was up. “Look at his mana pool.” One of the archers yelled. It was zero.
The Hillsbane then let out a roar and his armor began to change.
As the second stage would begin soon, Pencelot jumped off his caravan and unsheathed his blade. “Let's go, newb.”
Pencelot lunged straight at Jun, missing him by a sliver. In the second passing him he whispered, "You gotta' be better than that!”. Then he swung and sent Jun flying.
“Are you level 10?”
One true aspect was that Jun hadn't been in many battles. This would be.
“This is my third fight.”
“Ever?”
“Ever.”
He entered a stance with his one hand outwards. “Riposte stance.” He began sprinting towards Jun, lunging. His strike grazed Jun dealing damage. Then he poked him again with 3 stabs. “Humming Peck” and lastly swiped his feet, making him lose balance and fall. Jun saw the status on his Hud. “Stunned.” It was only for 1 second but it was enough time for Pencelot to jump into the air and come down for a strike. Luckily, Jun dodged and jumped back as far as he could.
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“Come on Mercantile there must be something in here that could help.”
As he looked at his level he saw that he'd put in stats but he never learned any skills. As a warrior alone there had to be some skills that he could use. He looked upon the skills and in a brief moment pumped all his skill points into it. “This better work.”
On his Hud, he saw a notification come up.
“Pack Mule” learned, Maxed Out. Passive: Whenever you are over-encumbered reduce damage by the percentage over.
Currently with just his armour on he was at 60% of his weight. As he looked upon the field, the plan he hated the most served as a way he could overcome this enemy. As he read the last part of the skill, he darted towards the battlefield.
“Coward, where are you going!”
Jun wasn't as fast as a rogue but he was fast enough to inspect the floor for loot. Finally, he saw it, Plainsfur. It appeared as a sparkling circle on the floor. He reached for it and it automatically entered his inventory. Each one though added 1 unit of weight. Without thinking he sprinted, picking up any that caught his eye. Not too far behind was Pencelot. “You coward come over here!” It was when He started feeling slower that he knew it was coming and suddenly he stopped completely upon picking up his final item. “Pack Mule complete!”
Although he couldn't move he was ready to try something. Pencelot was quick to make it into range and jousted at Jun but the attack barely scratched Jun.
“What.” He strikes him again. “He began hitting Jun with hundreds of attacks but none were doing damage. “What have you done?” Pencelot thought and when it came to he took a step back. “Wait you couldn't have…there's no way you leveled Pack Mule. Which means!”
A smirk came across Jun's face.
Jun began charging a skill and as he did his inventory began to empty until he was no longer over-encumbered. “Instant Drop”
Instant Drop was a feature of Pack Mule more than it wasn't an actual offensive attack. Pencelot had never seen the skill used like this, but it was a skill that could be used to instantly lose the over-encumbered status. Generally, you would use it on items you don't want but the skill did as much damage as the weight of items being dropped. As a warrior class, Jun had enough STR to carry out this task. Each point in Mercantile added to his max weight as well so the attack that was coming at Pencelot was like a dot to the sun. Jun hurled the ball of inventory junk at Pencelot and Pencelot was engulfed, sparking an explosion. As it hit him, Pencelot was instantly fizzled. While it rained Plainsfur fell back to the ground. Jun looked back to see the Hillsbane near the portal. “He's getting through!” Push him back!” It was too late. Hillsbane crept his way up towards Vegan and in an instant smashed him against what can only be described as thin air. He instantly fizzled.
The Risen Raid party without a leader looked up and lost all morals. Without their leadership, they all had no purpose and began to scatter. “Well that's unexpected…” Madder thought.
Madder looked at the beast and low and behold the shadow it was casting was a large one. To do what he was to do next he would have to unveil at least 1 layer. As soon as he did, everyone received a notification. Alert bounty for Red ??? 4 million gold. It flickered but as soon as he unveiled Madder entered the boss monster's shadow. “This should do.”
The Hillsbane was walking forward but it seemed to be pulled back until it was walking in place. None of the players understood what was going on but they noticed. Jeens got back up and pointed at the Voss monster. “Everyone, it is time we set aside our differences and end this together. Why fight over loot when we can all get a piece!” It looked like Jeens was looking at his menu and then a Raid Party invite emerged. The existing Risen members joined in and they began their onslaught on the Hillsbane. Although the Hillsbane still had around 50% of its HP it took 5 minutes with all characters attacking for it to drop. Finally, when it fell each player received a set amount of loot. The plainsfur on the floor became equally split amongst all players.
Jun checked his inventory. “One plainsfur,” he remembered when he had all of them but he felt accomplished finding out a strategy to defeat Pencelot.
As members of the raid party began to leave one member didn't leave. It was Madder-6 whose name is in bold red. Jeens received a whisper.
If you tell anyone I was here. I will find you in every corner you wake up and make sure every second you open your eyes in this game. You'll See my blade.
Jeens quit the raiding party. And exited the game.
Then Madder left the raid group and dived into Jun's shadow.
“Glad you're still here buddy!” Madder said to Jun.
“Where were you guys!” Julia yelled. “What a battle!” She waved her arms, stretching in relief.
Behind her was the Spartan warrior from before. When Jun saw her he couldn't help but be amazed. He inspected her. Aethera, Member of Semadi.
Samedi is one of the top 10 guilds in the game. They are led by a French player, Gaston-4.
“What’s with all these numbers in names?” Jun asked but Aethera continued over him. In the ninth, we have Dragonedge, led by Breadguy-3. In the 8th position we have Engine, Ghoul-3, In the 7th we have Wave, Rip-4, In the 6th we have Jungle, WildaBeast-5. Then from here, we have the big 4. In whose rankings are constantly competing for the top. Aluxan-6, leader of Golden Cross. Vice-5 leader of Mainland. Mandy-4 leader of Enigma, and lastly Ash-Nation, led by Diggy-5.”
Aethera was scrolling through the player leaderboards. “But this is due to the Outlaw clan - Borealis, Led by”
Before she could finish, Madder pushed a shadow out to make Jun’s character raise his hand, landing right into Aethera. “Um, I know this is a game but can you keep your hands to yourself.”
After a short awkward moment, Julia, “Well what now?”
Jun looked at his level. “Time to head to Elleon to get my class changed!”
As the group went along, they noticed Aethera standing shyly. “Just come already!”
An invitation may have not officially been sent to Aethera, but spiritually she was now part of the travelling crew.