After Concetta recovers a little bit from casting too much alcohol magic, it becomes clear who the heavy hitters are going to be for the rest of their trip. Mijanou and Concetta. As they approach the quarry’s crane, they find Seloniel protecting it.

"We were about to get demolished against the first boss! What is it going to be like against the other three bosses?” Concetta trembles at the mere thought of fighting more bosses. “I may as well become an air superiority witch and marry into nobility!”

“OK, Concetta, because I had a hand in designing the second boss, I might want to explain to you all the mechanics of this boss!” Enno tries to alleviate his cook’s concerns. “Beyond not getting hit by the plows, or fire, what else should I be wary of?”

“You can’t damage the boss when the boss is bubbled. To break the bubble, you need to either bring the cart to the boss or have the boss grapple it, and an arrow will be visible from the boss to determine from which direction the boss will try grabbing the cart”

The question is: does the boss decide at random who to try grabbing? Saronium starts sweating, as everyone gets better gear from the first boss. And, of course, Bryzax wearing this lacquered black breastplate with yellow trim. Once he has finished putting it on:

“Pulling in three, two, one” Bryzax signals the party to get ready.

“Wizards only think of using magic to fight, but not me!” Seloniel’s lich self quips in a squeakily creepy tone of voice.

And the five realize, as soon as the boss is pulled, that the plowing mechanic has two random components: the number of plows and their initial positions. I might be wondering if the meteor shower is going to stop a plow in its tracks, Mijanou is left wondering because past experience of haunted parks might have led her to think otherwise. It seems like, for newer parks, you can deal with some mechanics by using other mechanics against them.

“Plow them through!” Seloniel shouts at the party as magical plows start moving.

As the party gets into position to dodge the plows moving in a straight line, the first wave of plows is followed by a second wave of plows. As much as the boss might be trying to evade them, Bryzax gets Seloniel into the path of a second-wave plow. And Mijanou gets right next to him because only then will she be safe from the incoming plow.

But just because Mijanou is safe from the plow doesn’t mean that she’s safe from the heated axe that the boss wields. As the boss is about to get hit by the plow, the pair shakes in place, worried about the mechanical implications of the impact.

Damn: Mijanou willingly takes swings of the boss’ axe so she can evade the plows! Saronium focuses on keeping both Bryzax and Mijanou up, while the other two DPS seem to be able to evade the plows just fine.

Plows that seemingly have the magical property to cause people hit by it to be hit with much greater force than a normal plow.

As Seloniel gets hit by the plow, she is thrown with the same force anyone else her weight would be thrown. She flies across the room. And the lich starts getting internal haemorrhages when she hits the room’s rock-solid floor.

The boss flying across the room makes it harder for Concetta and Enno to hit the lich. And prevents both Bryzax and Mijanou from hitting her entirely for a few seconds.

However, the fire lich getting internal haemorrhages triggers the second mechanic. Which, normally, would be triggered in some other damage or timer-based way…

“The firewall is now up!” Seloniel then puts up a magic bubble with an orange-red tint around herself.

Now, a phantom hand cart, with a keg of explosives, appears where the plow hit the lich to result in flying across the room.

“My attacks are ineffective against the boss!” Concetta, who still flings alcohol spells, finds her alcohol spells evaporating against the boss’ firewall.

“Concetta, stay away from the cart, and don’t hit the boss!” Enno yells at his cook.

“Mijanou! Watch out!” Bryzax sees an arrow on the ground pointing at Mijanou next to him.

“Get behind the cart! Now!” Enno yells at the saber dancer.

The saber dancer also realizes that her attacks are ineffective against the lich while the firewall is up. As much as she is trying to get behind the phantom cart, the cart is still out of harpoon range of the boss.

But since the cart moves more or less at the same speed as the ghost pulling it, it would be very tempting for either of the ranged DPS to just kill the cart as soon as it gets close enough to the boss. However, Bryzax taunts the ghost pulling the cart when he feels like Mijanou isn’t in the right position to have the boss pull the cart.

And yet, as the boss releases the harpoon in Mijanou’s direction, she was right next to the cart, and not quite behind it.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Idiot!” Seloniel taunts Mijanou as she’s about to be roped in by the chained harpoon.

As much as the saber dancer would try to break free of the magical harpoon, her impact on the boss’ firewall causes her to die by the firewall’s effects, by going up in flames.

“Mijanou’s dead… the cart is about to die!” Bryzax is more preoccupied by getting the cart into position, but Saronium knows it’s not wise to rez Mijanou until the cart dies.

All three of Saronium, Enno and Concetta move out of the cart’s way, while Bryzax makes the cart close in on Seloniel. Come on, Bryzax, how close does the cart need to be? Saronium starts sweating, while the other two start shooting at the cart’s phantom driver.

The cart’s driver dies quickly enough, and the cart has suffered enough damage as it is. So with the cart about to blow up, Bryzax runs like hell while making sure that Seloniel remains within the cart’s blast radius.

When the cart is destroyed, the barrel on it explodes and boom goes the lich’s firewall. As said firewall collapses…

“The firewall is breached, go take your showers!” Seloniel taunts the party. “Plow them through!”

Which is still not yet time for Saronium to get Mijanou back up since the meteor shower won’t result in any gain of DPS from her. As the meteorites start falling on the room, the plows are summoned by the lich once again. And they feel the time has come for them to maybe attempt to have a plow in the path of the meteorites. A very risky move since they need to place red circles close to plows. And also to move in oblique directions to both put more plows into the trajectory of the meteorites, which they kite, and to dodge the plows.

But Saronium is busy keeping Bryzax up because the cart’s explosion led him to take a big hit.

Yet, much to their chagrin, using meteorites to destroy plows leaves plow wrecks all over the room, only these wrecks don’t cause objects to fly across the room upon impact.

It’s only then that Mijanou gets rezzed, near a plow wreck, and is left wondering where she is. She sees plows coming and takes evasive action, while staying close to Bryzax.

And, of course, Bryzax desperately attempts to get Seloniel hit by one of the remaining plows, but this time around, they both get hit by a magic plow. They are both sent flying and both get internal haemorrhages.

Poor Bryzax! He’s almost dead, and the boss is about to activate the firewall! Would the boss activate the firewall in the absence of internal haemorrhages? Saronium is left wondering if she should rez Bryzax, but doing so would drain her mana. Which was mostly spent keeping Bryzax and Mijanou up.

But as the internal haemorrhages get the better of the herald, Concetta suddenly gets hit by fireballs.

“Help! What happened?” Concetta asks, confused about why she gets hit by fireballs.

“No time! Just get the boss to the cart!” Enno yells at Concetta, while he has an arrow pointed at him.

But as the internal haemorrhages make a number on the boss, Seloniel starts losing coordination. Which is made worse as the lich’s blood content mounts.

Especially when the alcohol witch kills the phantom cart driver, pinning the cart in place. And Enno along with it, which makes the boss grab the cart, laden with explosives, with a magical harpoon.

“Mijanou, Concetta, get out!”

“Incoming!” Seloniel screams in horror, as the barrel of explosives hits the firewall.

The explosion projects shrapnel all over the room and hits indiscriminately. And, now that the lich’s flesh is torn asunder, the full extent of the internal haemorrhages becomes clear when the boss leaves a trail of blood.

When Concetta causes the boss to move around to kite the meteor shower, more plows appear in the room. And they threaten to get everyone flying across the room.

And Enno keeps firing at the lich, while on the move, as he did so long as the boss’ firewall was down.

But the bleeding boss, having already suffered two internal haemorrhages, can only seemingly move on one leg now. Yet, even as Concetta fails to get the boss into a plow’s line of fire, as she dodges the plows herself, now some plows get wrecked by the meteorites the four remaining adventurers leave behind.

Especially Mijanou, who loses out on some DPS uptime by not being able to stay on Seloniel’s back as much as she would have liked. Yet, both female DPS are in for an unpleasant surprise once the meteor shower ends. Even when everyone else keeps attacking.

As one of the live plows rams into a plow wreck, the wrecked plow, which is even heavier than a fully armored Bryzax, is sent flying across the room. Upon hitting the invisible wall, the wrecked plow shatters into splinters, hurting both Concetta and Mijanou.

And the alcohol witch bleeds after receiving sharp shards, which causes Saronium to focus on her even more. Especially when it seems like Concetta and Seloniel are the two who took the most fragments.

Speaking of Seloniel, it seems like the next fireball flung in Concetta’s direction hit her in, and around, the shards, making them doubly painful. The searing pain causes Concetta to collapse, as her body burns, but at the same time provides an opening for Enno to shoot at the boss.

Yet, Concetta dying before Enno’s eyes fills him with rage, but also makes him realize that, while the mechanics might work properly, they might be a little too rough. And fatal-mode Seloniel is perhaps too hard for a lot of potential visitors to his park.

“I won’t let Bryzax’s and Concetta’s deaths be in vain!” Enno shouts in Seloniel’s direction, firing bursts at her.

Yet, not only the boss is bleeding profusely, but the boss’ blood content causes her coronary artery to burst. Which causes her to collapse on the floor, at which point she is physically unable to use magic. By this point, Mijanou hacks away at the boss’ back, while no other damage intake is expected.

It’s then that Saronium proceeds to rez Bryzax, using magic, but then she goes out of mana. The life witch then waits to recharge her mana as the lich’s body dies.

“Destroying me requires destroying my phylactery! Janick holds it!” a cryptic voice sounding exactly like Seloniel warns, because Seloniel herself just couldn’t speak anymore due to her stroke.

“If this was the second boss… I’m worried either the electricity-stealing dragon or Janick would be too much for us. We were getting demolished!” Enno points out to Mijanou.

Saronium drinks a mana potion, so that Concetta can then be rezzed. After the spell is finished, which took far longer to cast than the spells otherwise used as battle medicine, they discuss other aspects of the haunted park culture.

“The people running these parks in their highest difficulties, especially raids, often look down on adventurers of lesser experience and/or skill levels. Dungeons less so, but listening to some of these people, you would be made to feel like there are caveats to some they aren’t telling” Saronium explains to him.

“Is it normal for bosses to get sicknesses unrelated to getting hit by alcohol magic?” Concetta asks, bewildered by Seloniel’s health.

“The only haunted park bosses I remember getting sick as a mechanic are the Cyber-Tech Alligator in Operation Heathrow and the data-stealing dragon in the Sun Disk!” Saronium explains to the alcohol witch. “Not really”