“Dungeon Bosses, the ultimate defender of a dungeon’s treasure, can generally be found at the dungeon’s very heart. It is not just their general higher average level and superior health and resistances that make them a formidable opponent, but they very often possess a higher level of intellect, allowing them to strategize on their own against an attacking party.”— Annwyn Online Player’s Guide
Firestone Mine Dungeon, Territories of Rielle. Day 02.
Not every room of the seven Saiph and his party cleared held monsters, but those that did almost always had at least ten dreygur and ten wraiths. With the addition of Slaine as an off tank, the two managed to split the incoming damage, reducing the amount of resources they had to devote to each skirmish. Likewise, Cassi’s magical traps, buffs, and debuffs made the room clear much faster. She even had a debuff that made the wraiths susceptible to other damage types.
The dungeon was a lot smaller than a raid dungeon would have been and they made it to the boss lair. Saiph finally understood Cassi’s hesitance to come down this way. The distant wailing sounds they’d heard from the safe room were louder now. They were the cries of a woman sobbing with grief and pain and they echoed throughout this section of the mine.
Rose went ahead to scout the lair while everyone else stayed back. The first run through a dungeon boss was always the hardest as you went in against them without any information. When Saiph regularly led his guild on raids, they usually performed a scouting run where one person would trigger the boss and the healers would keep them alive as long as possible. The objective was to bait out as many of the boss’ attack patterns as they could before resetting for the first real attempt.
Their party didn’t have the resources to devote to a scouting run. They would need all the information Rose could get them and hope they had enough information and resources available to kill the boss on a single try.
A tall ask, but not impossible. Saiph smiled to himself as he let the anticipatory thrill of fighting a dungeon boss in the flesh come over him.
Rose returned, ending her stealth skill beside Nix, making the Summoner jump.
“Would you stop doing that!” Nix protested.
Rose just giggled to herself.
“What’ve you got?” Saiph asked, hiding a smirk of his own at Nix’s expense.
“Boss is in the center of the room with a bunch of adds surrounding her. I think you’ll actually want to see for yourself. There’s a spot you can get to that doesn’t have any mobs near it,” Rose said.
Saiph nodded and unequipped his armor to reduce his noisy movements. He and Nix moved forward behind Rose as she guided them to the spot. They hid behind a set of pillars just past the door and Saiph glanced ahead of them.
The wraiths were little more than barely discernible shadows hovering above the zombie-like dreygur. They were evenly mixed around the room, most standing still, but a few of the dreygur shambled about without any purpose to their movements as far as Saiph could tell.
Saiph’s eyes fell on the woman sitting in the center of the room with her knees to her chest.
Name: Corrupted Miner Samira
Race: Human, Female (Dungeon Boss)
Class: Caer Spawn, Level 70
Disposition: Suffering
Health Points: 93,500/93,500
Mana Points: 31,220/31,220
Stamina Points: 34,955/34,955
She was large, easily twenty feet tall, with a muscular frame that matched her miner namesake. The pickaxe by her side, equally matching her proportions and coated with blood, made Saiph feel small.
Her skin was torn and rotted, showing exposed muscle and bone underneath. Purple crystals stuck out of her body at every angle. Her eyes were sunken deep into her sockets and no pupils or irises showed in the sea of bloodshot white.
Was she really the monster who had taken over the mine? Saiph had expected to find a mage boss to explain the reanimation of the dreygur. The dungeon called her the boss, so there must be some other explanation.
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Saiph didn’t think too long about that as he, Rose, and Nix retreated back to where Cassi, Slaine, and Gwydion were waiting.
Chills were running down Saiph’s spine, though not from Samira, as creepy as she was, but from the plan that was forming in his head.
“I’m assuming we’re going to draw Samira’s attention the moment we enter the room,” Saiph began, “Slaine, you’re faster than me, so it’ll be your job to kite the dreygur. I’ll keep Samira busy as I should be able to tank whatever she throws at me. DPS will focus on the wraiths, Cassi will provide assistance to whoever needs it. Once the adds are clear, then we focus on the boss.”
Slaine gave Saiph a questioning look. “Kite?”
“Basically you run around like someone lit you on fire. Use your taunt spells to keep the dreygur on you, but do not let them corner you or it’ll hurt.” Nix answered.
Saiph nodded in agreement. “You can take swings with your sword where you can, but your primary job isn’t to deal damage, but to keep the dreygur off Rose and Nix while they clean the room.”
Nix tapped Rose on the shoulder. “Let me see your bow.”
Rose handed Nix her bow and he promptly made a copy of it appear in his other hand.
“Whoa! That’s awesome!” Rose gasped.
“I think I could get used to my new subclass,” Nix said with a grin. “Mind if I get an arrow, too?”
“Keep this one, I got plenty left,” Rose answered.
“I’m all set then,” Nix said to Saiph.
“Me too,” Rose said.
Slaine and Cassi simply nodded while Gwydion began casting buffs.
Saiph nodded and turned to Cassi, “Don’t overexert yourself. Place traps or cast speed buffs if you think Slaine is going to get surrounded, but you need to keep enough mana in reserve in case we need to make sudden changes to the plan. Flexibility will be our greatest strength here.”
“Understood,” Cassi said.
Saiph threw his Steadfast Champion spell on Slaine. As long as they were near each other, they both got defensive bonuses and a portion of the damage Slaine took would be magically transferred to Saiph. Since Saiph had the higher health pool and resistance stats, it would make Slaine a little more durable. Slaine must have read the spell description because he smiled at Saiph.
Nix summoned a pair of skeletons and evolved them into Dreadknights with one of his runic tattoos. Fortunately, they only counted towards one summoning slot as they were summoned by a single spell. This allowed Nix to follow up by summoning a light wisp, which would augment everyone’s damage with light magic.
Slaine entered the room. His roar echoed around the chamber and all the dreygur and wraiths began to follow him as he moved to the far side. He trailed the monsters in a wide arc, giving Samira plenty of distance. He doubled back, looping the train of wraiths and dreygur behind him.
The giant Samira hadn’t gotten up to chase after Slaine, but she did stop crying. Her head followed him around the room.
Saiph had readied himself to cast his Chains of Prometheus the moment she got up, but since she didn’t, he decided it might make more sense to slightly alter the plan.
“I’ll pull the wraiths off Slaine with my taunts and we’ll whittle them down. If Samira suddenly starts attacking, then I’ll pull her.” It would make it easier for Nix and Rose to attack at will if they didn’t have to worry about hitting Slaine’s mob or Samira.
Saiph waited for Slaine to pass him and he pounded his hammer on his shield in a taunt that drew five of the slower wraiths away from Slaine.
The ghostly figures raked their claws along Saiph’s armor. He could begin to hear their taunts and the painful memories they dredged up from his past, but Saiph forced himself to remember they were just taking cheap, low blows at him. Gwydion was quick in his spellcasting and kept the fear debuff from building and giving the wraiths more power over Saiph’s psyche.
As the last wraith fell, Lueur Rose cried out, “Samira’s getting up! Watch out!”
The giant woman stood and screamed in rage. She picked up her pickaxe and charged straight for Cassi and Gwydion.
She was fast. Far faster than Saiph was. With so many dreygur still remaining, there was no way Saiph would be able to keep her focus.
Cassi acted quickly and cast a spell which sent a tangling mass of vines grabbing at the dungeon boss’ legs, pitching her forward to land on her stomach.
“Slaine, you’ve got Samira! I’ve got the dreygur!” Saiph slammed Mil’s Judgement into the ground, sending out electrified golden chains in towards the shambling dreygur.
Slaine roared as he ran past Saiph and the dreygur towards Samira.
Samira rolled and tore the vines free from her legs. She stood and met Slaine’s taunting roar with a challenge of her own, giving chase to him as soon as she freed herself.
Slaine kept Samira after him, constantly reapplying his taunts on her, but his stamina bar was beginning to fall. He would need to be relieved soon.
Suddenly Samira stopped, skidding to a stop. Slaine stopped, too. Thinking she’d given up chasing him, he turned to cast his taunt again. He had been wrong.
Very wrong.
Samira took advantage of Slaine’s pause and lunged forward, swinging her pickaxe in a wide arc that caught him in the chest. Slaine’s health bar flashed and shook violently on Saiph’s HUD as the bright red was instantly reduced to a tiny sliver.
Saiph clutched at his own chest as he felt the pain himself thanks to his Steadfast Champion spell magically transferring some of that damage to him.
The pointed edge of the pickaxe that stuck through Slaine’s body dripped with blood down his chest and back. Slaine shuddered, spewing blood from his mouth. Samira raised her pickaxe with Slaine’s limp form dangling from it and threw them both into a wall.
Samira turned to Saiph and he readied himself as she dashed after him. She had just taken two steps forward when a loud roar stilled everyone in the cavern.
Even Samira and a few of the dreygur turned in the direction of the sound.
Slaine stood, his body a blackened silhouette and his eyes nothing but glowing red dots. He took a step forward and pulled Samira’s pickaxe from his chest.