“Alright, listen up! It’s going to launch a massive attack in the next few seconds, start running in opposite directions! I’ll recall you when it fires! BREAK!”
…And they just run. You know what? It feels really good for them to just listen. Also a little weird, but hey-NO TIME FOR THAT!
The telltale sign of the Bushling ready to unleash its power played out before my eyes. Sparks of blue flitted about, but I didn’t need that to know the attack was coming. Despite my order, I wasn’t actually sure if it would shoot at me or Jasper, but I’m confident in my ability to avoid that same attack from this distance if I know it’s coming. So, any moment now…!
NOW!
[Recall]!
Blipping away, the trail that Jasper had left behind was quickly and utterly anhilated by a single beam… a… single beam? Why only one?
[Summon]!
“There’s something odd going on with the Boss’s attacks. Stay on guard and be ready for something sudden, but at the moment it's been repeatedly firing off the same two attacks. Every 2.5 seconds it unleashes the-” wave, which we both jumped over again. “wave! And every seven seconds, it fires off that same beam you just avoided! But like I said, something weird is happening, when it last fired at me six different beams were fired instead of one, but I’m not sure if it was only targeted against me or if it was a counter passive for taking damage! So, for now, circle the boss and observe!”
“Mmm.”
Of course, neither of us had stopped running in the few seconds that the mental conversation had taken place in, but now that the urgency of the situation was on Jasper’s mind, or at least I assumed it was, they sped up just a little bit, keeping pace evenly with me.
Another few seconds pass, and like clockwork, another projectile is fired. But, curiously… it’s a single beam yet again. The gears in my head continue to turn as we complete another loop around the boss, now having reduced the entirety of the nearby forest into a clearing from the repeated beam fire. But, as the boss, nothing about it has changed, it still seems to be in the same phase, if not slightly more agitated than it was before…
“Jasper, we’re going to go in for an attack the next time it fires its own attack. There’s a theory I need to test.”
“Grhhmm.”
“Oh yeah, two actually. Be ready to attack when I next summon you, alright?”
[Recall].
Jasper is rebelling!
Wh-hah????????
“Hm.”
Staring bug eyed at the confounding cat, I jump over yet another wave as she leaps counterclockwise, hissing as loudly as she can manage at the same time as she touched down.
She… wants to draw agro? I mean, alright, but she’s the one who dies permanently! She does know that, right? Ah, whatever! I’ll make sure to react in time for a [Recall] even if she doesn’t just dodge it herself-
Oop! Speak of the devil, [Recall]!
I’m not sure if that attack would’ve landed or not without my intervention, but either way it doesn’t matter. They’re fine. But, just like I thought, only a single beam this time. So, now it’s time to test my second theory!
Pivoting again, I leaped over the omnipresent waves once, then twice, as I made my way centerward, to the source of it all. With five seconds to spare before the next attack, I [Summon] thee!
I can’t help but break out into an even wider grin as Jasper appears in the middle of the air above the Bushling. Spot on, the skills description hadn’t mentioned any particular restriction on where a monster could be summoned after all. Just that it costs one MP. You know… I’m actually kind of starting to like this class.
Landing claws first on top of the Bushling-26!-once again its lack of mobility proves to be a serious detriment to its ability to be a threatening opponent. It’s confined to its station in all circumstances, and because of its limited skill set, it can barely even fight back when something gets close. It relies on its aoe coverage for that, but in a one on one fight, or… in this case, a two on one fight, if something just gets on top of it, then its ability is worthless without the ability to force an enemy into its range!
“Turn it into salad!”
[Hunter’s Mark]!
96!
With the four seconds remaining until the boss unleashed its attack, I still had enough time to get in a hit or two of my own. Sprinting forward at full speed I leapt into the air in a similar manner to what I’d done before, up and over the aoe attack as it screeched in pain from Jasper’s unrelenting assault-
51!
4!
52!
8!
55!
12!
49!
14!
60!
21!
…Puts my damage output to shame, but I can’t just let them whale on it all alone! Whipping my sword through the air, I carve a decent chunk through the boss this time around, dealing…!
38 damage!
…Man. That five level gap hittin.
Whatever! Looks like Jasper counts as my damage anyways! Now, as I catch myself landing on the ground, I bounce up and over yet another incoming wave, counting down still, and there’s only one second till the bombs get dropped.
“Move!”
Immediately my monster's head snapped to attention, leaping off of their prey at my behest. Though, it was far too late for her to avoid the attack. I could feel the concentration of magic in the air for this attack. It was denser than all the others, given I could actually FEEL the hairs on my back rising for this one.
An innumerable amount of beams were launched in an instant, I, you know, couldn’t count them, they were innumerable. At the least there were two dozen, each of them holding a fraction of the concentrated beam's power, yet still surely being extremely deadly with each shot. Surely enough to one shot me with a direct hit, but it didn’t matter. It was aiming at Jasper. Of course it was, she’d dealt… what… 400 damage in the span of a few seconds?
BOOM
[Recall]!
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
And you know what…? She didn’t take any damage. Not a point of it, not a single graze.
Aaaaaaaand [Summon]! …Right back to where they were.
49!
10!
53!
15!
62!
22!
45!
16!
—
You know… This boss is really exploitable. LIke, criminally so, it’s ridiculous. But… there is one annoying part about it.
It’s… SO… TANKY!
We’ve been at this for well over five minutes now! Jasper’s had to have dealt at least five thousand damage at this point, but it still looks no worse for wear! This BEGINNER boss has fifty times my max health are you SERIOUS? I’ve already gone through two thirds of my mana! And while it does seem to recover slowly over time, that’s definitely not going to outpace the speed at which I spend it! The most consistent way for me to get damage is by constantly [Recalling] and [Summoning] Jasper again and again to avoid damage and keep them on the offense, but hell even my stamina is starting to run out at this point!
Stamina 45/106
I know Jasper has a lot in the tank still even without looking at her stats, she had more than my max stamina and she’s been fighting for less time, but I’m literally going to burn out soon enough. There’s also a max range limit to summoning as I figured out about three minutes ago, so it’s not like I can just climb up a tree and hide out as Jasper runs circles around it and wait for my mana to recover… but what the hell do I even do?
No matter how much we hit it, it doesn’t seem to matter. It was all well and good while Jasper had Hunter’s Mark ready to use, but she ran out of MP way before I even came close to running out of it myself… Well, it’s not all doom and gloom I guess. I mean… at long last the boss’s model is kind of starting to change, I think? They’re a little scratched up, but otherwise…
“HEY, YOU!”
…Eh?
“HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN FIGHTING THE BOSS FOR!?”
Oh yeah… kind of forgot this was a multiplayer game. Uh, sidebar, anybody know some good chiropractors? Cause my back HURTS! Eh whatever, help is better late than never.
“SEVEN MINUTES!” I shouted back as I ran through another [Recall]-[summon] loop, spending another point of MP when I was already so dangerously low on it.
“IT’S EASY ENOUGH REALLY!” I continue to call out as I take a quick look around my surroundings, before spotting somebody in… armor a bit heavier than mine sprinting towards me, with a few other players behind them. “THE GREEN AOE ATTACK COMES OUT EVERY TWO AND A HALF SECONDS, AND WATCH OUT FOR THE GIANT BEAM ATTACK THAT IT SHOOTS OUT EVERY SEVEN! IT FIRES MORE-” [Recall] BOOM [Summon] “-THE MORE DAMAGE IT’S TAKEN INBETWEEN SHOTS! I’M NOT SURE IF IT CAN DO ANYTHING ELSE!”
“THANKS!” He continues to shout, despite not really being that far away anymore. Eventually though, he makes it all the way as I run yet another loop of my skills.
“Alright, thanks for getting the boss’s patterns.” He grinned widely, lightly bumping my arm like we were friends or something. “We’ll take it from here if you need a moment.” He offered nonchalantly, and uh, yeah, I kinda need a moment to be frank. And while he’s not in the wrong for offering it, it does feel a little… kill steal-y? I’m sure it’s from a good place though?
Eh, whatever, boss isn’t even close to dead yet (probably) and I’m pretty sure I can outmatch any amount of dps from a single person at this stage in the game. Well, probably not EVERYBODY. If I found this cheat of a monster, I’d have to imagine there’s similar, better, even, to be found out in the wide world. I’m probably up there, but nowhere close to the top.
“Sure, I’ll leave it to you guys for a minute or two.”
You seem to recover a point of MP about once every twenty seconds. So giving myself the time to recover from… how much do I have right now?
MP 5/51
…Yikes! From that, is good. Very good, one would say!
[Recall]!
I can communicate with a monster while they’re not summoned, right? Like that’d make perfect sense right?
“Testing, testing…”
“...Mmm?”
“Ah, great.”
Yes, that’d be a yes.
“You did great Jasper. Seriously, above and beyond my expectations. I almost… uh, nevermind! The important thing, is that you are a very good girl. For now, we’re going to be taking a break while others fight the boss, alright?”
“MmmmM?”
“Good girl? Oh, sorry, is that rude? No offense.”
“Mmm.”
“Anyyyyywayyyyys-” I drawl as I make my way up a nearby tree, latching onto the solid bark and propelling myself upwards with respectable agility. Not the stat mind you, this is honed gamer skill. The stat alone wouldn’t be able to carry me right now with the little I have of it. “-would you rather stay in… whatever pocket dimension you’re in? Or hang out on a branch with me?”
“Mmm!”
“Alright, outside it is.”
My previously mentioned honed gamer instincts scream out as I waste another precious point of MP on a summon that… technically didn’t need to happen, but hey, no need to be rude, right? Even if Jasper’s not actually alive or anything, her ai has the capacity to be upset with me and make things worse so… no real reason to not get along, right? It’s only an extra few seconds or so of being on the sideline, no big deal.
Jasper isn’t too big, so she just sort of flops down onto a branch that I picked out in eyeshot, scrambling for a moment but quickly locking herself in place with her claws shortly afterwards.
“We’re not done here yet, but preferably we can wait until half our MP is back. For now…”
I adjust a little bit in my wooden seat, inching closer to the tree itself.
“We’ve got front row seats.”