Today was the day. I woke up, incredibly excited. “Hey Khaliss, got a second?” I asked as I placed my breakfast down next to him.
“Sure Angus, what’s up?”
“The first dungeon group today is going to be a challenge. Remember how that first dungeon they managed to bring in the high level character?” He nodded so I continued. “Well, we issued a challenge to him earlier. His group will challenge our dungeon, and the world will be watching.”
“Interesting. This should be fun, do you think they will make it down to challenge me?”
“Honestly? Yes. I’m sure they have a general knowledge of my traps, but I’ve kept a few things back. Depending on how many people they bring down here they might make it tough.”
“Very well. Any guess on how many they’ll bring?”
“Five. With three they will have more resurrections, but they run the risk of a wipe. Six or more and they don’t get resurrections, which would make it too easy to take out the healers.”
“Very well. We will be prepared, are you going to battle them with the twins?”
“Probably not. This will be a good thing for them, fighting a competent group.” Plan set, we ate our breakfasts in companionable silence.
“Well, good luck Angus. Try and kill enough that they can’t use any more resurrections.”
“Heh, I’ll try.” I said, heading out to start the dungeon run.
Grudge match starting!
Rycran and his party have entered the Shadow Outpost Dungeon to challenge the Drakelings! Head to the nearest tavern or arena to watch a live stream of this dive. Place your bets and cheer on our adventurers! Or cheer on the denizens of the dungeon!
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Rycran’s POV
“Everyone got their buffs up?” I asked, looking around at our group. Knowing how Angus liked to ambush people, we had decided on a redundant group.
“I’m good, but this added defense instead of mana regen is gonna come back to bite us I think.” Corrine, our healer said. She was the only person who didn’t have a hybrid class.
“Lookin’ forward to this. Think he’ll go toe to toe with us?” Garret asked. Wielding twin axes, our resident barbarian had a massive health pool to help with tanking should the need arise, but he was really here for the physical DPS.
“Unlikely. The guy likes to ambush. Why would you expect an assassin type attach scheme to go toe to toe with you ya brute?” Corrigan loved to nettle Garret, brothers in real life. His was one of our finest hidden classes. Not many people had the ability to pull off an arcane rogue, but he was one of the best. He got the drop on a lot of unprepared people with his ranged attacks, as most expected him to need a bow or massive amounts of throwing knives to do that.
“Leslie? You good?” I asked.
“I hate my healer build. Are you sure we even need an off healer? From what I’ve seen on the boards, there aren’t a lot of monsters in this dungeon.” Normally a master of crowd control, she had picked up a wide variety of low level heals early in her character build. The guild was more than happy to help her level them in between major raids, on the rare occasion where she would be needed.
“Trust me, we’ll probably need you. Remember, this is a player we will be facing. Sneak attacks from the shadows are his go to move, and he loves to take out the squishier members first. Alright, let’s get this thing on the road. And remember, we’re being broadcast so let’s give ‘em a good show.” Turning, I headed through the golden light into the dungeon proper.
“Hello old friend.” I said, noticing a pillar nobody had described before along with a long hole in the ceiling behind it. “Ok guys, first throwback is right here. The obvious one is the pillar, last dungeon he would be hiding in the ceiling ready to have a massive stone hammer swing down and obliterate people. Leslie, can you use [Detect life]? Corrigan, after she’s done I need you to take down that pillar from a distance.”
“Got one ping, distant enough I can only tell it comes from straight ahead somewhere.”
“Alright, my turn then. Magic energy, bend to my will. [Arcane missile].” Corrigan’s blue bolt flew forward and reduced a large chunk of the pillar to dust, but nothing swung down.
“No hammer? How disa [Intercept]!” I tried to shout as a bolt few past me. My skill activated, I was just a fraction of a second too slow. I turned to see the headless body of Corrine drop to the ground.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Angus POV
After the destruction of the pillar, I used the moment of the group’s distraction to strike. I had replaced the statue with myself, and one of the decapitator bolts made short work of the group’s healer. After firing, I made my escape. One death down, nine to go for complete victory. I headed to the secret hallway between the first and second stairs, and made a listening hole in each end for spying.
I heard them coming down what would have been their left hallway, and smiled. Knowing that the druid had life sense, I hid so that there was always going to be enough stone between us to stop the sense from detecting me.
“Still can’t believe he took her head off with one shot.”
“Pity we couldn’t recover the bolt. I’m going to have to have our smiths start researching to see if we can duplicate it somehow.”
“Think they’ll be useful? Let’s be honest here, we mostly fight monsters.”
“There are plenty of humanoid monsters out there Cor. Infuse ‘em with light and blast the undead to pieces.”
“Ugh, I hate undead. The skeletons are ok, but the zombies smell.”
As soon as I felt they were far enough away, I opened the wall and peeked out. Once they had started down the stairs, I took aim at the druid. One more decapitator bolt, and the group had one less resurrection to work with.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Corrigan’s POV
I was just getting ready to follow Garret down to the second floor when I felt something hit me in the back. “AAaah!” I yelled, surprised to see Leslie’s headless body leaning against me. Stunned for only a second, I recovered enough to look around, but the player had already disappeared without a trace. “Damned hit and run tactics.”
“What’s going on up there?” Rycran called from the stairwell.
“We got hit, Leslie needs a rez.” I replied.
“Serious?” He asked as they all trooped back up. “Corrine, can you do the honors? I want to save our scrolls as much as I can.”
“Sure.” She said with resignation, swiftly chanting the spell and bringing Leslie back to life.
“Anyone get the number of the truck that hit me?” She quipped, though we could all tell that it was bothering her to have died already. “Hey Rycran, you dwarves all have stone sense right? How come you can’t find out where he’s hiding?”
Sighing, Rycran took a moment to study the ceiling before answering. “When I became a Paladin of Moradin, I was given a choice for a blessing. I could obtain enhanced stone manipulation, or I could sacrifice my stone sense to gain something more focused. The options were metal and gems, and I went with metal.”
“So, can’t you detect his weapons then?” Leslie asked.
“Normally yes, but something is muddling his weapons. And before you ask, it isn’t just shadow. Paladins are able to sense that as well, but this entire dungeon is full of shadow mana. It’s like trying to find a dark stain on an already dark shirt. I could do it if I really concentrated, but then I would be worthless for other things.”
“Huh. Sorry for assuming.”
“No worries.” He said, waving off her apology. “Guess we are going to have to have a tank front and back. Garret, you got the rear detail, that ok with you?”
“Yeah. Go on Cor, you head down behind Rycran. Hopefully you can detect the traps before we have an issue.”
I followed Rycran down the stairs, all of us slightly morose for having two deaths without even sighting what had killed us. At the bottom, I asked, “So, left, right, or straight ahead?”
“Let’s get straight ahead out of the way first.” Following him, we entered a hallway that opened almost immediately into a round room. Straight across was a treasure chest, with a very obvious tripwire coming out of the pedestal.
“Alright Corrigan, you’re up. I’ve heard weird stuff about this trap, so let’s go with a remote trigger of it.”
“Sure thing.” I said, carefully checking the floor for any hidden tripwires or pressure plates. The wire itself was oddly inert to my [Detect trap], which confused the hell out of me. “Hey Rycran? The wire isn’t registering as a trap.”
“That’s fine, we still need to take care of it. I don’t trust anything down here.”
Shrugging my shoulders, I kneeled down and tied off the rope to the wire, careful not to jostle it too much. I was just standing back up, when a voice came out of the wall. “BOO!” Startled, I jumped a bit and gave the rope a tug. That was enough to dislodge the wire, which caused the floor to fall out from under my feet.
You have died.
Player Corrine is attempting to revive you. Your party has two revives left for this dungeon.
“AW DAMNIT!” I swore as soon as I came back. “Bastard was waiting for me, yelled at me through the wall. Startled me just enough that the rope triggered the wire trap.”
“Looks like he did one of those old time speaking tubes. I have no idea where this one leads.”
“You could just ask, ya’know?” The voice spoke from the wall.
“I’m gonna carve out your liver for that you bastard!” I swore at him, only to hear his laughter drifting away. “So, did someone get what was in the chest?”
“Just some coin and a rare quality greatsword.”
“Damn, hardly seems worth it.” Shaking my head, I headed out into the hallway and turned to the right, swearing when I saw what [Detect trap] was showing me. “Hey guys, almost all of these tiles are traps. This’ll take a while.” Kneeling down, I got to work disarming trap after trap. Even though I took breaks every ten minutes, my knees were aching at the hour and a half mark, and I had barely gone through a third of the traps.
“This is bullshit!” I swore, slamming the plate I had just disarmed on the ground. “Let’s just remote trigger the traps.” Pulling out a rope, I tied several of the stone tiles together. “Here we go!” Standing about ten feet away, I tossed the stone bundle onto the closest trap tile. A banner dropped from the ceiling, the only thing it said was “Bang.”
The scene repeated over and over. Bang. Death from Above. Duck. “I feel like a Looney Toon. That’s it, I’m just walking through.” Storming through, I didn’t pay any attention to the clicking beneath my feet, nor the group getting upset behind me. We got to the next room, and it was empty. There was a cache I detected across the way, but that was it.
“What’ve we got?” Rycran asked, hand on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me down.
“Nothing. There’s a cache over there, no traps detected.”
“I’ll check on it.” Garret said, starting to head over. “Hey, nice little statue.” He said, holding it up for us to see. Before I could figure out what it was, I heard the sound of stone grating.
“RUN!” I screamed, seeing a large stone ball descending from the ceiling. Turning and sprinting down the way, we all made it out easily save Garret.
“GARRET!” I screamed, suddenly petrified to lose my brother. It was irrational, I knew it was just a game, that nothing bad would actually happen. It didn’t matter, I started frantically pushing against the stone.
“Coriggan. Corrigan! CORRIGAN!” Rycran’s voice finally penetrated. “Take a deep breath man, I just got a message over the party chat from Garret. He’s fine, just took a minor crossbow bolt.”
“We gotta get him!” I was still on the edge of panic.
“We will, but we need you calm to do it. Blast the stone with arcane lances. We’ll get to him soon, just relax.”
Slapping my face a few times, I tried to get ahold of myself. I blasted away with several lances, and after three of them the stone split right down the middle. As the dust cleared, we walked in to see the dead body of my brother.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
“Just a minor bolt wound, huh?” I mocked Rycran, and got slapped upside the head.
“Corrine, if you would?”
“Guh.” Garret said, as he sat up. Was it me, or did he look gray?
“So what happened?” Leslie asked.
“Got shot with an arrow, and that was it. Between the shoulder blades, no matter what I couldn’t reach it. Next thing I know, I got a string of progressively worse debuffs. I took a cleanse potion, but I only had three on me. Eventually I died, and now I have this Corruption’s Touch to deal with.”
“Never heard of that one.” Leslie said.
“Lose ten percent of my stats for a day. Can’t be cleansed.” All our eyes widened at those implications.
“Damn. We’re down to one resurrection, and still not even halfway through this dungeon. I’m making the call, we head back up to the first floor and over to the stairs that will eventually lead to level three.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Angus POV
I had to stifle some mad cackling as I heard their plan. That poor rogue was cracking under the strain, and he was going to go absolutely nuts with the hallway on the first floor they were heading to. I had placed small stone needles beneath flimsy tiles, just enough that it would trigger his detect trap skill. The “safe” pathway had tripwires riddled throughout it, most of them at foot height that dropped more banners. The one at head height didn’t do anything, but would fluster him.
“Hey guys, you got some friends coming in a bit.” I told the twins.
“Really? You gonna stay and play with us?” Codo asked.
“No, I think you two will do just fine. I’m going to head a bit further in and set up another trap.
Leaving the disappointed twins, I headed down to the area with the statue alcoves. I had filled them all with replicas of me, but my favorite part was the hidden alcove behind the second one on each side. It bent around in a U shape so that the pesky druid wouldn’t find me with her life sense, and the shadowgheist was at the other end with a large mana infused stone. I knew it wouldn’t do anything, but I smiled when I realized Rycran wouldn’t know that. I made sure that there was a stone box with a lid to hide the telltale glow, and settled in to wait.
Half an hour later, and I heard them coming.
“Thank god that was a normal type of boss. I’m starting to hate this damn dungeon.” Poor rogue, if only he knew what was in store.
“Ok, this is unexplored area as far as we know. Corrigan, go ahead and scout ahead. We will wait here for you.” It was mostly silent as the rogue scouted ahead, and I was going to enjoy this next part immensely.
“Alright, seems simple enough. There’s a hallway of statues, followed by a room with three sets of enemies. Four spearmen and an archer with one of those arbalests.”
“Chances of bringing them one group at a time?”
“With melee? Zero. With ranged? Almost guaranteed.”
“Alright, here’s the plan. I’ll take one side of the doorway, Garret the other. Corrigan, you up for drawing them through?”
“Yeah.”
“Great. You bring them through, and stand back but in front of the doorway. You’ve got the best chance of dodging that arbalest. Leslie? Split their group with a bramblethorn in the doorway when two of those spearmen make it through, then you are my healer. Corrine is Garret’s.” Listening to the echoes of their feet on the ground, I let them make it to the door before I had my shadowgheist take the glowing stone out of his bock and come running around the statue right as Rycran started to speak.
“Everyone ready? GRENADE AT THE REAR!” He panicked, pointing a finger at the druid and casting a spell. “[Barrier of light]!” While they were panicking about took aim and used a decapitator bolt on Rycran. I didn’t get a full decapitation, but I did get a massive gash in his throat.
“[Major mending wounds]!” The healer managed to stop Rycran’s bleeding, but still had her back to me. At this point, Rycran looked confused as the shadowgheist bounced off the barrier, and the stone crumbled to dust instead of explodint.
“[Reaper’s edge].” I quietly spoke, slashing deep into the neck of the healer. Unluckily for me, the decapitation didn’t trigger, but the massive wound had to have been causing massive bleed damage. Since she had just used her only healing spell that would cure a wound like that to save Rycran I pulled out my weapon and smashed her with the hammer end to take her life down even more and let the bleed damage finish her off.
“[Holy smite]!” Rycran cried, smashing the shadowgheist that I had sent in a beeline towards him. The barbarian was headed towards me, but I was already too close to the druid for them to save.
“[Keen edge].” I slashed across her torso, followed that up with a punch to the face, then an uppercut with my scythe underneath her jaw. That last one must have been a critical, as she went down right as that barbarian got within range and punished me.
“[X strike]! [Cross slash]!” I arced my back in agony as his axes cut an X shape in my back to start with, and he used a double horizontal backslash across my lower back. Spinning, I was aiming a backhanded hammer blow towards his face.
“[Arcane lance]!” The blow took me right in the heart, and my time came to an end.
You have died.
As there are still players in the dungeon, you may follow along as a ghost entity to watch their progress if you wish.
Follow along? Yes/No
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Corrigan’s POV
We did it! We finally got that sneaky bastard and took him down! I breathed out a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, we had already lost Leslie and Corrine, and only had one resurrection to use. “What the hell Rycran? What were you talking about grenades for?”
“One of his tricks from the first dungeon. He would overload something with mana, and then throw it and the explosion would be devastating at low levels. I figured the devs had nerfed it when we hadn’t seen any of it so far, but panicked when I saw such a large stone glowing like that.”
“Bastard played us one last time.” Garret commented.
“Yeah, but we finally got his ass!”
“Yeah, but we lost both of our healers, and we can only resurrect one of them. Thank god you were just a little slow on drawing that group. We would have been toast.” Rycran pointed out
“So, what do we do now?”
“As much as I hate to say it, but we are going to have to rez Corrine. We’ll make it up to Leslie later, but we can’t finish this dungeon without a healer.”
As Rycran went over to resurrect Corrine, I placed a hand on the player to see what he dropped, freezing at what I saw.
Do you wish to loot Angus_MacG’s corpse?
Ring of Shadowgheist
Belt of the Shadow Blessed
Ring of Shadowgheist
Allows the wearer to summon a shadow copy of themselves once per hour. Ring must be worn for one hour before use.
Shadow has half the health and stats of the user, and can be remotely piloted if the user is still.
Belt of the Shadow Blessed
Crafted from the hide of an unknown creature of the Underdark, this belt has been further enhanced by being steeped in concentrated shadow mana.
Defense: 15
Durability: 125/125
50% harder to detect when in shadow
Shadow spells cost 30% less mana and do 15% more damage.
Critical hit damage from shadows increased by 50%
“Good God, this is amazing. A legendary ring and a unique belt. Doesn’t that sound a bit, over the top?” I asked.
“Depends. They said at the beginning of this entire tier two dungeon fiasco that there would be bonuses for the first team to kill a monster player and another one if they were on a large kill streak.” Rycran pointed out.
“You think he went two days of combat without dying?”
“Who cares about that, what classes for the ring and belt?” Garret interrupted.
“No restrictions. The belt is geared towards a rogue, but any scouting type class would love the ring.” I snapped at him.
“Oh?”
“It lets you do a copy like he did earlier.”
“Hmmm.” Rycran said, looking at the belt and ring. “The ring’s useless to me and Garret. We would need to pilot it. Let’s do this. Corrigan, which do you want more?”
“I really, really, want both, but you got that look like you have a crazy idea. I’ll take the belt?” I asked, hoping that I had guessed the right one for his crazy plan.
“Thanks.” He chuckled. “I was wondering if we gave the ring to Corrine, could the copy cast healing spells? We would essentially get a free healer even if it only has half her mana reserves.”
“That would be a handy thing to have for tough boss fights.” Corrine said, walking up and taking the ring. “Especially if it gets a lesser version of my own skills.”
“Alright, now that we have the loot settled, everyone ready to take out that room over there? We still have a dungeon to finish clearing.” Rycran said, getting down to business.
Heading forward, I checked to make sure everyone was in position. Rycran was standing to the left of the door, so that he could swing his dominant hand without worry of hitting a wall. Garret was on the opposite side, using two weapons added to his flexibility. Corrine was on Garret’s side, since the barbarian had far less armor than Rycran, and couldn’t heal himself. With a confident grin, I took a step into the room.
“Burning flames, bound by my will. Condense by my order, to unleash devastation upon my foes. [Orb of destruction].” Channeling the magic between my hands, I formed an orb of flames burning bright blue. With a flick of mental energy, it rocketed forward and exploded in the middle of the nearest group, catching two of them on fire. “Toodle loo!” I said, waving at their rage filled faces before turning and running out the door.
“One group incoming, slightly scorched.” I relayed as I passed, stopping halfway down the hall to turn and survey the fight I was already hearing. Rycran had stepped away from the wall a bit and used a shield bash to stun the first drakeling through while Garret rapidly reduced its life with critical hits from the back.
Stepping to the side of the body, Rycran and Garret were forced to act slightly defensively, as the second drakeling wouldn’t come through the door. Instead it was using the reach of its weapon to poke at the warriors. Looks like it was my turn again. “Pierce armor and rend flesh. [Arcane lance].” The bolt of magic energy took the creature high in the chest, and it screamed at me as it started to charge. Rycran went for a blow to the legs as it came through, but Garret ended it with a double axe chop to the chest.
“Incoming archer!” I yelled, seeing the one with the arbalest take aim. Garret and Rycran slipped out of view, and my sphincter tightened a bit as that massive bolt was pointed at me. As soon as that finger started tightening on the trigger, I was moving to the side, spinning to make a thinner target. Faster than I realized it would happen, there was a burning line of pain across my abdomen, but I had successfully dodged the bolt.
Standing back up after falling on my ass, I saw Rycran and Garrett dealing with the last of the remaining spearmen. I stood back up, and saw the archer had abandoned his weapon and was charging in with a dagger drawn. Right as he entered the doorway, I hit him in the stomach with an arcane lance, and Garret decapitated him as he bent over in pain.
“About damn time something went to plan in this dungeon”
“I hear that.” Garret said. “What’d’ya think Rycran? Keep the same plan?”
“Sure. Corrine didn’t even need to heal anyone, did she?”
“Not once. You guys make this job easy sometimes.” She said with a sad smile.
Corrine topped everyone off with her smaller heals, and we took care of the other two groups without any problems. We searched through the room, finding several stashes of mid-level gear and a lot of cash, but none of the gear was enchanted. That was fine though, as the guild enchanters could probably get some decent bonuses into it.
“Looks like the next room is another hallway with that Braille writing repeated over and over. Beyond that is an empty room with the stairs leading down.” I said, having returned from another scouting mission.
“Almost makes you wish that loremaster had made it down here, doesn’t it?” Garret chuckled. “I can imagine him freaking out at the repeated writings, paranoid they were going to unleash some ancient evil or the like.”
“Ha! I would almost pay money to see that.” Rycran chuckled. “Alright, let’s head on down.” Leading the way, we entered floor five of the dungeon.
The bottom of the stairs opened up into a widening room with two columns. Flames on torches high up gave the room a creepy feeling, as shadows danced along the floor. Looking up, a drakeling stood from behind the desk he was doing paperwork on to stare at us. Decked out in dark grey armor with spikes in places that would make them viable weapons, like his elbows, he cut an imposing figure. Two other heavily armored spearmen were waiting at attention at each side of the desk.
“It appears you managed to defeat Angus. Commendable.” He actually spoke while standing. “Though there is one less of you than he predicted. Could it be you have used all your resurrections?” I know my poker face was passable, and Rycran and Garret wouldn’t flinch when confronted like this, but Corrine wouldn’t be able to. “Ah, judging by the flinch of your healer, that was spot on.”
“Can we assume that you are the boss, since you are speaking to us?” Rycran asked.
“Indeed young paladin. Have you formulated your plans for battle? There is still time yet.”
“Garret, tank the guards. Corrine, Garret is your primary for now, but keep an eye on me just in case. Corrigan, waste the guards as fast as you can. Technique is up to you. I’ll hold the boss. GO!”
Garret used the barbarian’s [Into the fray] skill to rush between the guards at a speed that rivaled teleportation. “[Thunderclap]!” He roared, the shockwave just wide enough to hit both guards and draw their aggro.
“[Shield rush].” Rycran was always calmer in battle, angling his attack to separate the boss from his minions. Their fight rapidly devolved into a whirlwind of steel and sparks, their skills with their favored weapons nearly on par. The length of the boss’ spear was countered by the defense of Rycran’s shield, so I was free to stealth and sneak up on the guards.
Once I figured Garret had gained enough hatred from the guards, I unleashed one of my favorite combinations. “[Tempest blades].” Attacking from stealth with a six strike combination from each weapon would be devastating enough, even before you added in the bonus wind damage. The boosted damage from the belt I got from Angus pushed me into insane levels of damage, and I ended up slaughtering the drakeling before the skill even finished.
“Heh, looks like that belt agrees with ya!” Garret chuckled before turning and roaring at the remaining drakeling. Though he didn’t actually use any words, the sheer power of his [Intimidating shout] was enough to shake the bones in my chest. The drakeling was stunned and frightened, giving me the time to sneak around behind him.
“[Dirty tactics: Kidny rupture].” I didn’t use this much, only when tempest blades was on cooldown, but it was an older mainstay of the rogue tree. Plunging both daggers into the kidneys before savagely twisting them, the pain often lowered the attack speed of the opponent.
“[Vicious chops].” Garret gave a one, two overhand combo of his axes right into the chest of the drakeling as it arched its back in pain from my attack. That spelled the end of the second guard, and we both turned to help out Rycran.
“[Repelling wave]!” The boss cried, unleashing a wave of shadow energy that sent Rycran hurtling back near us. “Hrmph. You are strong, but it was a mistake to kill my underlings. Now, feel my true strength. [Shadow eruption]!” He sunk into the floor, only to surge upwards from within the triangle formed by myself, Garret and Rycran. His spear tip tore out Garret’s throat, and a swing of it as I was sent flying ripped through my stomach.
You have died.
As your party has no revives remaining, you have the option to watch the battle in ghost mode.
Watch? Yes/No
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Corrine’s POV
Things were going so well. Corrigan and Garret had wasted the guards so quickly I didn’t even need to heal them. Then the boss did some crazy move, and his attack had Garret bleeding out and Corrigan killed outright faster than I could cast a spell. I turned to see Rycran getting up from his knees, his life having dropped to a third. “[Grand healing]!” I hit him with the biggest heal I could, forgoing the boost from the chant for speed.
“Thanks Corrine.” He said, before turning back to the boss. I couldn’t see his face because of his helm, but from the sudden stiffness in his shoulders, he was shocked at having lost both of our companions. I smiled as I saw him reset his shoulders. No matter the odds, Rycran never gave up. Who wouldn’t love fighting alongside someone like that?
“Get ‘m Rycran, I’ll keep you alive.”
“Never doubted you, Corrine.” With that, he charged forward once again. “[Avenger’s aura]! [Holy smite]!” Pulling out all the stops, the battle resumed. Well, if he was going to burn his higher powered attacks, I should as well.
“My mana for comrades, I willingly sacrifice. [Boosted regeneration]. [Slow heal]. [Minor heal].” Rycran was hovering at three quarters life, but I couldn’t do more without drawing aggro.
“[Devastating blow]. [Light wave].” Rycran was hanging in there, though his life was starting to yo-yo a bit more than I was comfortable with. I hoped that their battle speed wouldn’t increase, as I was burning healing spells as soon as the cooldown ended as it was. When they disengaged for some reason, I took the time to down a few mana potions.
“I can see why Angus would consider you a rival. You do well with your sword, and your team is incredibly competent. Sorry to say though, this is your end. Farewell adventurer. [Dancing shadow steps].” The boss started teleporting around Rycran, stabbing and slashing from different angles.
“[Grand healing]!” I cried in desperation, but the onslaught was too much. Overwhelmed, Rycran fell swiftly, leaving me standing there shaking.
“You have no offensive capability, do you?” The boss asked as he walked towards me. I shook my head no, and he continued, “It brings me no joy to do this, and I hope you will forgive me for this young lady. [Triple thrust].” I only felt the first of the strikes hit my chest, before I got the popup.
You have died.
Your party has wiped in the dungeon. Respawning at your last spawn point in 5……4…..3….2….1….