Ana was finally level 60. You’d think that hitting the cap was the end of the grind, but no. In Warcraft, that’s when things really start to get interesting. Enter: raiding. Forty people banding together to face bosses so big, they make the world bosses look like house pets.
The queen of all those terrifying bosses back in the day? Onyxia. A dragon the size of a small city. But before you even got to meet her fiery face-to-face, you had to survive the infamous questline, a saga in its own right. You had to run all over Azeroth, piecing together key fragments, sneaking into high-level dungeons, and surviving some of the toughest encounters just to get access to her lair. The reward? A chance to get flame-broiled by a dragon.
Onyxia wasn’t just some random boss hiding in a cave, though. She was pulling the strings in Stormwind as Lady Katrana Prestor, manipulating the king and sowing chaos. Only after hours of quests, betrayal, and fighting through endless waves of enemies did you finally uncover the truth and earn the right to challenge her in her den.
So there we were when Tworff, ever the opportunist, decided to invite everyone online. “Let’s do Onyxia!” he said, as if he was asking us to go grab coffee.
“I guess…” I whispered to Aramai, already starting to freak out a little. I had never raided before, and all I knew was that Onyxia was huge. Like, terrifyingly huge. We gathered in front of the cave, my heart racing.
“Bloody hell, Aramai, she is fudging huuuuge!” I whispered, eyes wide as I caught sight of her in the distance.
Aramai just chuckled, calm as ever. “Relax. Just focus on your pet and stay out of her breath.”
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There were all these tactics, mechanics, and talk of positioning. But once we got started, it all became a blur of fire, panic, and raid leaders shouting about dots. So many dots. “More dots! Come on, people! MORE DOTS!” echoed in my ears, and I couldn’t stop laughing. It was like the stress of the fight mixed with the insanity of 40 people running in circles, screaming in terror.
Onyxia had phases. Phase one? She was on the ground, and we all piled in, hitting her with everything we had. Phase two? She took to the skies, raining down fire on anyone who didn’t know how to dodge (and trust me, a lot of people didn’t). I saw bodies flying from her tail swipes like they were ragdolls. “Uh, yeah, stay behind her,” someone mumbled in chat.
The real madness hit in phase three when Onyxia landed again, and the raid began to crumble. One by one, people started dropping. “We’re not going to make it,” someone wailed over voice chat.
But somehow, miraculously, three of us were still standing: me, Aramai, and Tworff. Onyxia was down to her last 1%, and we were all that was left. Aramai and I exchanged panicked glances. It was now or never.
Tworff was hanging on by a thread as the main tank, his health bar blinking like a dying Christmas light. Aramai and I, in a moment of sheer desperation, started taking turns bandaging him like some kind of makeshift hunter-healer duo. It was like the game forgot we weren’t actual healers, and yet, there we were, keeping him alive with nothing but bandages and sheer willpower.
Meanwhile, our pets—bless their loyal, furry hearts—were still biting at Onyxia’s ankles, doing whatever they could to help finish the job. The rest of the raid, dead on the floor, was cheering us on in chat like it was the last stand of some heroic war movie.
“Come on, you got this!”
“Just a little more!”
“GO GO GO!”
With one final roar, Onyxia collapsed. The three of us stood there, stunned, barely believing what just happened.
“Boom. Dragon down,” Aramai whispered, cool as ever.
And me? I was shaking, sweating, and grinning like an idiot.
We had done it. We took down Onyxia, not with a full raid, but with two frantic hunters, a tank, and some bandages. Honestly, it was the most ridiculous, exhilarating moment I’d ever had in the game. And I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.