I woke up to many voices loudly overlapping, a few I knew came to my focus as I opened and saw some members of my 'team' arguing. I heard some words about an evacuation, but there weren't enough details for me to really understand.
One of them, a mage called Quincy, noticed I was up and spoke up, silencing four other people who clearly didn't, "Are you okay?"
"Uh... mind explaining what's going on?" I asked back.
"You know how you were right? Turns out there's an A rank dungeon in that forest which had its entrance destroyed by the devils hiding there," the sole Assassin explained, Sam, spitting out sighs between her words.
"How the heck did a visitor like you know that anyway?" the other mage, Draco, demanded.
"Shouldn't we ask why he passed out first?" Grant, the party's sole pirate, tried to change the subject and asked.
I answered both in the most bitter way I could, since I was genuinely angry with all of the people in the room, "First, it was an unlucky guess since that was where you guys weren't. Second, you bastards made me do all the paperwork for the stuff you actively did without me, with him of all people... Seriously, I haven't slept in three days because of you lot."
They all responded by questioning it, with even our reserved tank Aria joining in. Then they seemed to have started thinking back, since they shut themselves up shortly afterwards. In the meantime, I looked around the room and found a window letting the sunlight in.
Checking in my inventory, I found the time to be about 10 am, so broke the silence with another question, "So, why are you here? Hell, why are you guys even up right now?"
"Shifts don't matter, since its kind of an emergency," the assassin stated, ignoring the first part.
Shaking his head, Draco sighed deeply then admitted begrudgingly, "There's a rush of monsters from the dungeon wrecking havoc over here... Screw it, we need you personally since your class seems perfect for this."
I got up from the bed I was somehow in, stating, "Fine, you good to start now then?" before stalling for a bit. This is because I saw some familiar pop-ups noting me that I levelled up three more times, and one new one.
You have defeated someone of an intelegent race.
Pick one item to steal from them.
(Say 'Open' to see their inventory)
"It's the south east gate, right? I need a second, so can you let me catch up?" I queried, surprised to hear the others accept this and leave. Once alone I whispered, "Open."
In the inventory, there were many items, from potions which actively said I couldn't use them with my class, to her battle axe and demolished armour. So, I picked the obvious choice and tried to take her Warhammer.
This won't fit in your inventory, or on your person. Please pick another item.
So, I ended up looking in my inventory, finding and dumping two pages random rotten items, and then grabbing the Warhammer. Then I sorted out my stats, given my new level-ups.
Name DokiDoki19 Class Succubus Level 24 Class skills ["Bind" = Mass_Leech.], ["Bolt" = Leech.], ["Heal" = Blood_Transfusion.], [passive = melody_of_screams], [passive = Life_Absorb.], [passive = Attraction_Resistance.], [passive = Attraction_Increase.] Sub-class skills <"What's that?" = Object_Examination.>, <"What's this?" = Mob_Examination.>, <"Possess" = Mob_Tame.>, <"Summon" = Summon_(Name)>, <"Kill" = Teleport_Home>, <"set home"= Set_Home_(Name)>, <"Reflect" = Reverse_trajectory>, . Weapon skills ("Have at me" = Power_Charge.), (passive = Staff_Hit.), (passive = Dual_Wield.), (passive = _Magic_Boost.) Additional skills /'Stop' = Skill_Cancellation.\ Achievement skills N/A Equipment [/td1]On-HandDemascus-steel one-handed swordOff-HandDemascus-steel one-handed swordHead-wearCloth_HoodInner-WearBlack_BoxersOuterwearHealer's_CapeFoor-Wear100%_Cow_BootsAccessories N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A.
[tr][td4] Stats
Level 56 AP 31000 Defense 66 Damage 202 HP 30/NA Speed 202 Stamina 140 Spare 0
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After clearing this up, I ran out of the room to follow the others, bumping into them waiting for me at the entrance.
-
From the Bank building in the city centre, we walked as the party through the now abandoned shopping district and headed south-east, past the ruined cafe where I made a 'home' point at and we made it to the gate.
Once we reached the gate, the reason for the chaos was immediately obvious. The gate itself was demolished, with parts of the wall and some of the farms surrounding it sharing the same fate. Other groups from our guards were already in the heat of combat, fighting the numerous golden slimes bouncing all over the place, giant wolves charging in packs to the front and a few trolls lobbing boulders from the background.
Upon checking their levels, the slimes and wolves ranged from level 50 to 60 and the trolls were level 60+. Both the first two also had insanely high speed stats which rivalled my own, making most of the volunteer fighters unable to even hit them, and the trolls decent damage and an absurd amount of hp, making them like sub-bosses.
"See the problem?" Sam asked rhetorically.
When I nodded in response, the rest of my party all unsheathed their weapons as I walked behind them with only my staff in my off-hand.
They reached a pair of battered tanks who were trying, and failing, to fight off ten or so slimes since the slime's bouncing speed was insane compared to Sam's, let alone my own.
"Bolt," I said, aiming at one of the slimes, doing the same with another one by the time the tentacles had grabbed the first and repeating this cycle even when they inevitably broke free.
Due to me doing this, the tanks, with Grant and Geoff, could actually connect their swings, whilst Sam darted to the slimes I couldn't bind, catching a few of them with pretty damn precise movements and the two mages who were with me in the back used their magic from range. With Draco using his most powerful wind spells on one of the slimes bound and Quincy spamming low-level water and ice spells on the slimes Sam was unable to chase.
However, since Draco, with his powerful spells, killed a few of them, the slimes started to ignore the front-liners and started directly attacking us. This made me have to draw my swords, which limited the amount I could bind, making the slimes even harder to hit for everyone apart from me and Sam.
Another problem also followed, with a larger party in the front falling back to us, bringing a Troll with them.
"Doki, start healing them dammit!" Grant ordered, taking over my position.
I put back my swords, put my staff back into my off-hand, and aimed my "heal" at the two tanks on after another, who were now fighting off the troll with far more ease than the slimes.
My health diminished rapidly, so I had to re-equip a sword on my offhand and started to spam out bind as I slashed, which was thankfully easy due to the weakened Slimes breaking the binds slower than before.
The other party was heavily wounded, so I found myself healing more people which soon went out of hand. Yet, it soon balanced out as I prioritised healing to those who needed it the most. And by using the same strategy over and over again, with backup from Grant and Sam, the three of us handily kept the slime's attention as the others gradually transitioned to fighting the troll instead.
We couldn't kill the slimes quickly enough though, because, as the last three slimes went into the red, more parties had moved back, bringing over another troll, seven more golden slimes and twelve wolves, which added more chaos to the fight when people started dying.
Starting with most of the other parties falling back further due to injuries, we soon had our party's first casualty, with Grant being smothered under one of the boulders thrown by the trolls before being able asking for help, with Aria swiftly following because of a wolf suddenly charging into her and critting, almost killing her outright, leading straight into another wolf which bit at her arm.
With those two pixilated away, we had to rely solely on the other parties to get aggro for us and I was forced into a full healing and binding role due to most of the assassins who were here all fleeing.
Gritting their teeth, more and more parties called to fall back, but since we knew that we were the last line between the monsters and the town, a few parties, including ours, forced ourselves to fight on regardless, with Sam and Draco barking rebuttals to the fallback calls made by other parties.
-
Gradually, even our endurance died down. Down to the last three parties, with six, five and three people left with our party having three due to Draco dying because he aggroed too much in desperation, though he did manage to kill more than ten monsters with his last major attack.
Only myself having the AP and health to continue fighting for our party, and only four or five able to actively help in from the others, our out-numbered, out-leveled force was looking 'slightly' bleak.
The battle was so focused that no one dared look back to see if another line had been formed yet. On my end, continuing my role of binding individual slimes or wolves was almost pointless in wake of the numbers that kept devastating our remaining people, so I ended up having to fight with swords only to keep up with my other role, healing. For which, I had to keep ten of the remaining people on life-support with my healing.
Puffing with exhaustion, more and more people were stating their doubts amidst blows. Even Quincy and later Sam admitting their wish to do the same.
Stopping my job for a moment, I spat out the skill "bind," which, at level 10, encircled the entire opened area, with the outward tentacles destroying other parts of the walls. I then demanded, "Who wants to leave!?"
Most of the people I was with were confused by what happened, and thankfully, so were the mobs. Eight people I was healing, and some I wasn't, raised their hands, so I teleported each of them back to the cafe with the command 'kill 9',
Then I explained in a shout to the panicking remainders, "I didn't kill them! I have the warp-smith Grimoire, which I used to send them somewhere behind us. Say now if you wish to join them, the rest, join me and continue!"
Two more said yes to this, and so two more left the area, leaving only me, two unknown assassins and an unknown mage fighting inside my tentacle-walls. The mage, who had multiple AP potions left, spammed medium level area of effect fire magic on the slimes and wolves attempting to break my walls, both of the remaining assassins defended him against the mobs he aggroed, with me, in a suicidal attack, charging straight into the last five trolls at the back in order to wipe out their ranged attacks.