I could walk under the boss.

Not to leave out that the fat part of the barb on the tails was as big as my fist. I took one look in Brute’s direction and knew that he wasn’t okay with tanking this. There was the small problem that we were locked in once we walked in. The room didn’t unlock until either the boss died or all of us did. I’d heard that if you were strong enough, you could smash your way into a boss room. Supposedly teachers were shown how to do it in case their students messed up a fight in the lower levels, but that was also supposed to create a Surge and enhance the boss somehow. I wasn’t sure on the details, but the main thing was that if you were strong enough to punch your way out, you should be more than strong enough to beat the boss.

Confirmation was when the boss had fully walked out of the cave and Brute stayed frozen in place.

“I’VE GOT THIS!” I darted forward. In theory, a damage dealer could hold aggro if they kept constant damage applied to the monster that was higher than anyone else’s damage. There was a little more forgiveness in that ratio based on proximity, but that basically meant that while I wasn’t attacking, no one else could either. Since I was going to have to dodge, this fight just got a LOT longer.

It wasn’t that I was trying to help Gall stay hidden. It was the subtext that Nyssa had said. If her father had to reveal his true power, then we couldn’t let the other three leave that room. Since killing them would break our seal, whoever did the PKing was going to have to leave. Before anyone else got here. Since I was the most expendable to their plan, I was going to have to do it.

I did NOT want to be pulled out. It wasn’t the best backup plan, but it was the one that left me in play.

I ran between its legs, slashing as I went. It wasn’t too fast, but if I was going to stay under it, I was going to have to stand directly under it. One kick wouldn’t kill me, but it would knock me down and then if it sat on me…

I realized what it was doing midthought and activated Shadowstep to get suspended in the air almost eight feet above it as it did a belly flop. I landed on its back and rolled off of it as the tails snapped through the space where I’d just been. I recognized the chain that lashed over it, but the cat monster broke it like it was string as it stood back up.

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Hisssss

The noise level echoed all over the room. The terrain of the room was similar to the ones we’d been fighting in, but the scale was so much larger. My mind started thinking about how much that noise would have hurt if we were in a regular boss room.

I didn’t have long to contemplate as the massive front right paw swiped at me. I made sure to cut the back side of it, then do a quick backstep as the tails snapped at me. I was getting to hit it a lot less than I’d thought I’d be able to. It was definitely slower than me, but that only meant that I was able to dodge it.

I rolled to the side as it tried to bite me and slashed the side of its face as I stood back up. Its left paw swiped at me as it twisted to the left, then tried to get me with its right.

Each time I was able to make a cut, but only one. And that wasn’t helping any of the others damage it.

An airblast the size of a cantaloupe hit it in the side, then two more followed. The Boss turned its head to look at Gall and I used that moment where it switched targets to cut six hand sized chunks out of its hard shell on its right leg.

The boss turned back at me and bared its teeth.

I knew what Gall was doing and it was a very dangerous game. He was trying to aggro swap. Each one of us would burst on the boss, drawing aggro away from the last person who had it. Once we had aggro, we’d kite the boss around while someone else burst the boss, then we’d go back to doing damage while they ran. It worked well, until after a few times of passing aggro around, the boss would become immune to taunting. NOTHING would cause aggro and it would attack at will. Usually it prioritized the Healers or Buffers, and since we didn’t have a Buffer, that meant Cass would be the first one it went after.

This time it was Nyssa who unleashed a flurry of attacks, clearing away a lot of the armor on the back left leg before it turned to her.

We weren’t going to get it pushed into the second phase before it went wild. I really should have redone my skills, because I had a few of them that were useless against monsters. Now wasn’t the time to think about what I could have done better, it was the time to think about what I had right now. I had an idea, but I really didn’t like it.

I gritted my teeth as I took aggro back.