The ogre charged the group of three

{Rooooaaaarrrrg}

Swinging its club the size of a small truck. James had noticed the swing went off its trajectory at the last moment [SPLASH] the ogre spun around to see Soren popping his head out of the water after falling off the side of the stairs. The ogre galloped over, jumped 30 feet in the air with its club raised overhead, "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't of believed an ogre could jump that high, " Greg said amazed. Soren rolled over at the last second still trying to get oriented. {Splash}..{tunk} as the club came down onto the spot where Soren just was.

-Fatal blow dodge by monster of much higher tier than host points awarded

'What the HELL is that?!,' though Soren as he scrambled to his feet trying to put as much distance between himself and the ogre as possible. Greg, James, and Evan were quietly trying to back away from the ogre who, counting themselves blessed, was focused on Soren. Evan with a devilish grin, 'Hopefully the ogre just kills that useless kid, saves us the trouble.' Scanning around the three of them started to sweat Greg appearing to be the most nervous as a close combatant, 'shit shit shit, I don't see another exit here.' James theorized, "Maybe we have to kill it in order for the next space to open up?"

He was thinking along the same lines as everyone else. Evan could be seen rotating his hands in the air as if he was trying to cup water to his center started to focus his mind while chanting. Greg shouted, "James let's give him time!" James then took off at a sprint brandishing his rapier closing in on the ogre chasing Soren. Greg unbuckled the large shield from his back and unhooked the morning star from his belt. Greg let out a war cry as a small red outline appeared on both him and the ogre Greg and the beast locked eyes during this internal war. The ogre stopped chasing Soren, and slowly rotated to face Greg.

Greg facing off against the ogre blocking a particularly heavy blow, "THE TAUNT WAS SUCCESSFUL KILL HIM NOW!" Greg was a guard class fighter, he possessed skills that focused attacks on himself while mitigating damage, taunting being one of those skills. James was a melee damage dealer with quick footwork and damaging attacks he could deal lots of damage quickly without giving the enemy time to return attacks his class called the dueler specialized in 1 on 1 fights like this one. He maneuvered himself behind the ogre to stab him right into the kidney as he shouted a battle cry of his own, "DIE!" He thrust with all his might pinpointing his lethal strike, but something appeared to go wrong, 'Huh? Ummm..' His rapier bent at a greater angle than a rainbow, a small trickle of blood started to roll down the ogres back, with a quick spin and a horizontal strike the ogre went to smash James in the ribs, but James easily retreated outside the range of the strike, 'How thick is that things skin,' James complained, the ogres eyes flashed red as it began to register that it had felt a little pain and stomped towards James {splash} {splash} {splash} it raised its club high shifting itself to take full advantage of its weight [whoosh] a giant fireball came crashing into the ogre from the right side {ROOOOAAAARRRRG} the enraged ogre wildly started to swing his club splashing water everywhere. The fire quickly went out and Evan, who had taken the time to throw such a massive fireball, stood there flabbergasted. James enraged shouted at Evan, "YOU DIDNT EVEN GIVE THE BASTARD A SUNBURN LET ALONE DID DAMAGE!" Sure enough not even a red blemish was seen on the ogre. Greg did a lot more fighting than the other two so he knew some monsters carried some unique traits, "Damn that things magic resistance is super high, it must be a variant!"

Monster evolve after reaching certain strength, and by fulfilling unknown conditions variants are born. They possess traits and/or abilities that a non variant would be incapable of learning or acquiring, in this case the monster had evolved into an ogre with high magic resistance. {Twang!} The echo rang out at an arrow flew into the ogres eye partially blinding it. 'Damnit I should've just left it alone,' Soren thought immediately regretting his decision. Even though those guys were assholes he innately didn't want anyone to die, which is now why he's in his current predicament.

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-Critical hit on much stronger opponent points awarded

He loosed another arrow but unfortunately he wasn't so lucky, the arrow just broke on the ogres thick skin. He didn't possess a class or skills like the others, those aren't granted till your coming of age ceremony where a God bestows gift unto you, because of this his attacks lacked significant power. The other three saw that the ogre had taken an arrow to the eye and felt a bit emboldened, Evan started to gather mana and chant, icicles started to fuse together between his hands. 'Maybe another element will do more damage,' Evan thought to himself as he began weaving another set of intricate hand signs.

Evan chose an elemental mage class for versatility and he can use other basic spells. Each element he conjures gets a power boost, but the boost is less significant than a class like pyromancer, who would have much more powerful fire magic. The other two surrounded the ogre and took turns poking and smashing at it with their respective weapons. Upon releasing the ice spear, which had shattered upon impact, the others used their skills simultaneously. James with power thrust and Greg his whirlwind smash where he gathered momentum by spinning and smashing his weapon into the knee of the ogre. The three of them were now drenched in sweat, breathing hard as Greg continued to analyze their situation, "I think this thing has 90% of its health left, we have barely chipped away at this thing."

"There's an exit! It's too small for the ogre to fit through too," Soren shouted while pointing in the direction. He immediately began shooting arrows at the ogre to draw his attention which didn't seem to work

-the Owner of the artifact is inspired by your strife points awarded

Soren just barely dodged a devastating swing from the ogre, 'That damn thing is so distracting its going to get me killed,' Soren only had one more arrow so he needed to make it count, {foosh} he slowly exhaled calming his breath, took aim ... and let the arrow fly. His aim had proven true and the arrow caught the ogres ear, it did not pierce the ear but the force from the arrow ripped the ear off the ogre.

{Rooooaaaarrrrg}

-WARNING: You've enraged the ogre

-Points Awarded

Greg, James, and Evan ran to the area Soren pointed out as quickly as they could, and once they were close enough, they were able to notice the small opening with an ascending staircase. The three of them entered, scanned the room and saw a heavy stone door at the mouth of the entrance. They looked at each other and smiled. Having used his last arrow Soren was now having to run from the ogre looking for any means to break away for even a second.

Think think think

Scanning around quickly while dodging incoming blows he pulled out his dagger in a futile attempt to feel more protected. He rolled out of the way of the most recent attack and that's when he saw it, a pothole created by the ogres club when he had jumped up and used a two-handed downward swing when he had fallen off the shrine. He sprinted for it, the ogre trapezing through the water towards him, Soren timed his footing just right so during the time is leg was up it was over the pot hole and came down right after the pot hole. The ogre not remembering he had broken the floor there, tripped and fell face first into the water.

-the Owner of the artifact praises your luck and cleverness points awarded

Soren dashed from his location and makes a break directly to the room with the stairs lungs burning, as he sees a huge stone door closing with Greg smiling and waving at him, "NOOOOOOO YOU BASTARDS," shouted Soren enraged. "I have to thank you for getting the attention of the ogre so we could get away, enjoy yourself," smiled Greg who laughed as the door shut firmly.

-the Owner of the artifact oozes with contempt points awarded

Soren crashes into the door and pushes with all his might unable to feel it budge even a little bit. Soren slowly turned and stared as the ogre slowly got to its feet...