CHAPTER XXVI: NOT TODAY SATAN
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{22:54 LOCAL TIME 21TH MAY 1ME}
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DUNGEON CORE ROOM
THRALL ALDO
Aldo’s smug satisfaction at seeing Lisette figuratively kill two birds with one stone was quelled by the literal stone that hit her. Her hit points dropped by half with one hit. The stupid bane of their kind made her shields worthless much to his surprise, and there wasn’t anything more surprising than getting hit by a rock moving at the speed of sound when you were in the mid-air jumping away from your flaming doom.
Aldo shook his head clearing his mind. “ATTACK YOU FOOLS! They are distracted. Greater ghoul one help your maker.” He ordered yelling at the screens.
His panic turned to anger as he sent everything at them. That fighter classer just became a major problem, but he didn’t have any mages in Dungeon. He did have the ones outside of the entrance of the Dungeon, but with the time dilation, they wouldn’t make it in time.
[Lisette are you okay?] He asked concerned, even though he wasn’t the same Aldo the remnants of his character were still a part of him.
[I am going to rip them limb from fucking limb Aldo.] She said with rage.
[They can’t last long with the all-out assault I am sending at them. They no longer have the Mana regen to defend themselves. You should use the Greater ghouls attacking to retreat.] Aldo warned.
[Not until I kill that gods’ damn fighter!] She screamed through her pain.
Aldo winced, he saw a blinking red debuff above Lisette’s head and he brought it up to the screen in front of him.
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< DEBUFF ADDED >
{DEBUFF NAME: Taunt
DEBUFF TYPE: Mental
DEBUFF DURATION: 30 seconds or 3000 damage from another source.
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Aldo groaned at the prompt, there was nothing that could be done, she wouldn’t listen to reason while she was taunted. Being more monster than sentient she had to follow the rules of the game.
“FOCUS SHOT!”
The good news was that the ranger class was going to reach three thousand damage before ten seconds. The bad news was by then she’d probably try to kill him next, and wouldn’t retreat anyway.
He sighed in frustration, she was too vulnerable.
“FIRE BOLT. Bitch!”
Aldo refocused on the screens, the Mage was back in the fight. That was way too soon. He saw two empty blue potion bottles on the ground next to her. “Fuck!” He cursed their luck, “How did she get those were they loot drops?
Aldo calmed himself and looked at the board. They had one move to make, but the GREEK FIRE was still a problem on the other three sides. “Everyone attack the northern wall.” In the fighter’s haste to take out Lisette, he destroyed part of the northern wall and put two GREEK FIRE cannons out of commission, the free NPCs were trying to get the two gunners free from the rubble. Aldo was going to take advantage of that. He smirked, maybe, just maybe the raid party was playing chess as well. He loved a good challenge.
***
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{22:54 LOCAL TIME 21TH MAY 1ME}
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LONG BEACH
PRIME
Soto wasn’t missing any shots, but also wasn’t doing much damage, the dark mana resistance made the damage negligible, but he had time to use his strongest attack.
“FOCUS SHOT!” He yelled while holding the black and silver pulsing arrow that looked like it wanted to jump off of his ethereal bowstring. Soto was pretty sure that this boss wasn’t going to go down easy, but he was going to give it to old South Bronx try. “Eat a dick bitch! This is for killing my friend!” He released the arrow. It streaks across the fort almost invisible in the shadows.
Much to Soto surprise, however, Lisette turned at the last second and looked like she was going to knock it aside with her one remaining hand. Unfortunately for her, Sugar was pissed.
“FIRE BOLT. Bitch!” Sugar yelled from just behind her.
While the fire bolt was the ghoul’s bane, the spell wasn’t that strong, but still strong enough to move her arm enough so that Soto’s arrow could hit her good shoulder ripping it off.
The high ghoul screamed more in frustration than pain, but with both arms missing, and a part of a leg under rubble, she was just a target now. Her frustration, anger, and the taunt made her thinking slow, or she probably would have broken free with her ridiculous strength.
The old Sergeant Major wasted no time “Everyone move south now.” He ordered the homeless civilians while pointing to the south. The ones that could move happily did. The others Soto couldn’t help at the moment, so he didn’t worry about it. A sergeant major’s job was to compartmentalize priorities. The boss monster was the biggest priority.
[CONTACT North!] Colonel yelled in team chat.
[Greek Fire prioritize your targets, we only have a limited amount of Mana all enemies are moving to the north, you are about to have a lot of company, Soto.] Colonel said in party chat.
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Soto looked up to see the Massive Greater Ghoul barreling down on his location. “Shit! Sugar get back.”
But Sugar wasn’t blind, deaf, or stupid, she was moving already. As soon as she had heard Colonel, she started booking it. Soto was a little caught off guard. “That girl sure can run huh?” That stray thought almost got him killed.
[SOTO!] Colonel yelled in the command chat.
Soto ducked under a thrown feral ghoul barely dodging it, his insight. “Was that a ghoul? Did that asshole throw a ghoul at me?” He asked as he got back to his feet only to dodge again. “God damnit! Will you stop that!” Then another ghoul flew over him.
[Get moving 4, Cannon team let them burn] Colonel commanded in party chat.
Soto rolled away and moved south scooping up a civilian who was too scared to move. “I got you, let's go.” He smiled at how much stronger he felt carrying the smelly homeless man. He had to stop himself from gagging though. It would seem that all his senses have been improved.
Flame from the closest cannons covered Lisette and the northern hole in the wall. But because of the two missing cannons, none of them was engulfing her, but the closest ones were still doing a massive amount of damage to her.
Colonel hadn’t been idle as he was falling he saw everything. He kind of regretted destroying the north wall, but he wasn’t going to cry about it now, he made his spell choices and took aim at the biggest threats outside of Lisette.
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< BRANCHING PATH PREVIOUSLY CHOSEN >
{Class SPELLS have been upgraded}
{CLASS G-SPELL NAME: Increased Accuracy (Passive)
SPELL LEVEL: Student 0
SPELL EFFECT: Whenever a player uses any ranged weapon they get a 1% bonus to dexterity per level of spell.
STUDENT EFFECT: Any throwable is considered a range weapon.}
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{CLASS G-SPELL NAME: Ice Shard (Active)
SPELL LEVEL: Student 0
SPELL EFFECT: Create a solid shard of ice.
Cast Time: 10 seconds. Cost:20 mana. Damage: 10 for every level of the spell and 1% chance of slow per level of the spell. Range: 10 meters per level of the spell. Cool down: None. Requirements: Chant and range weapon.
STUDENT EFFECT: Use extra mana to enlarge the shard causing proportional damage.}
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{CLASS G-SPELL NAME: Lesser Meteorite strike (Active)
SPELL LEVEL: Student 0
SPELL EFFECT: The Legacy can spend mana to propel any solid turning it into a flaming projectile.
Damage: Base damage 50 per level of the spell/Variable(Depending on the material of the projectile.) + burn damage. Cost: 50 mana. Cast time: 10 seconds. Cool down: 10 minutes. Range: Variable based on projectile. Requirements: Any throwable, and chant.
STUDENT EFFECT: The higher the Legacy the more damage the meteorite does. (Try throwing from space)}
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Colonel’s ranger choice was simple he didn’t have a range weapon and had planned to be the tank, he had no doubt that in the future he would get one, but he wasn’t the best shot on his team. So Zoom wasn’t going to work.
Sneak on the other hand was tempting, but it was useless for him being the tank, it was much better to stand out. If he was planning on soloing the game, it may have come in handy, but for now, he needed to be seen by the enemy so that his teammates could do maximum damage.
Increase accuracy giving him a flat boost to an attribute was not something he could turn down even if it didn’t work without a range weapon in hand it was a passive skill so it cost him nothing to use. He was pleasantly surprised that throwables were included as range weaponry. That made the next two choices even easier.
The Mage choice was all about balance. First, he eliminated Regeneration right away he had ways to heal his teammates already through his WAR HERO+ rare bonus. That was why they all even had mana now. The kills he had made had slowly refilled his HP, MP, and DR pools. His attack on Lisette even removed Sugar’s debuff.
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< TOOL TIP >
{RARE BONUS: Defensive Bonus; On enemy kills you replenish a Slight amount of all pools and a 3% plus Class level chance remove a debuff. + Now includes allies.
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With a 12% chance to remove a debuff, he was confident that he could keep his teammates alive by just killing enemies. Especially in a horde situation like this one. With Regeneration out of the way, the two attack spells were his two choices. He had seen what Sugar’s Fire Bolt could do against these ghouls, but Colonel knew that ghouls were not going to be the only enemies they would have to face in the future.
The sheer penetrating power of Ice Shard would be far more useful against tougher opponents, the added slow will also help him, and his teammates since he would be technically using it as a throwable killing two birds with one shard, and never running out of ammo... well as long as he had Mana. He would be getting faster, and his enemy would be getting slower at the same time making follow-up attacks more devastating. A true win-win.
Then following the balance mindset Colonel eliminated feather fall purely because he needed to be near his teammates so that his bonus effects would work at maximum efficiency. Him slowly drifting to the ground sounded cool, but being a slow target while helpful wasn’t going to help them much. Besides he had RALLY HERE, he could see himself being teleported to Soto’s location swapping places with him only to have his Sergeant Major jelly up the ground, after falling from a height that Colonel had the constitution to survive, but Soto surely didn’t. He had to chuckle at that visual. ‘Boy would he be mad at me.’
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< TOOL TIP >
{PLATINUM BONUS: Defensive bonus; Rally here: Any ally within 4m per level of the veteran can request your help and you will either be transported to them or take all of their damage as your own. Damage will still have to overcome the Player's DR before it can do damage to either player involved.}
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No, the only real choices were between Meteorite strike or Comet strike, they were basically the same skill. Essentially, one just had to decide if they wanted burning damage, or cold damage. Colonel instinctually knew through his world-first bonus of his Legendary+ title that he could use ice and fire in tandem. There was even a chance he could get a random bonus
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< TOOL TIP >
{WORLD FIRST BONUS: Utility+; Non Negative combination: No negative effects for bad combinations. Chance of random positive effect added.}
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“So Meteorite strike was the winner.” The narrator began as Colonel’s focus went back on the battle.
“Colonel had gone through all of those thoughts in seconds he didn’t know if it was his higher intelligence or his dexterity, it might even be his luck, but he hadn’t even fallen a few meters when he cocked his hand back creating a two-foot long shard of ice.”
“Ice shard!” Colonel chanted, there was a longer incantation for all the spells he had, but the only requirement was the name and Mana.
Just as the shard formed he yelled “Meteorite strike!” The ice shard erupted into bluish-red flames forming cracks down its side, the fire built as Colonel fell to the ground, the cast time enough that he hit the ground and jumped again before it was even ready. This time his jump was much higher, he could look at his map to check his elevation, but he was too focused on the Greater Ghouls going to the north side. Not to mention controlling two spells at the same time. It was much more difficult than he thought.
“Colonel had seen their moves and was trying to counter them with sheer force. The GREEK FIRE was keeping Lisette busy. Her screams could be heard even up here, over all of the panicked civilians. Soto and Sugar had switched their target to the nearest Greater ghoul who was only a few meters from the northern Lisette size hole in the fort. It was throwing lesser ghouls at Soto who was dodging and returning fire.” The narrator continued.
Colonel ignored the voice concentrating on the other two Greater ghouls, they would definitely shift the battle in the attacker's favor. Especially since the Greek fire operators would soon run out of Mana. ‘Not today Satan!’ Colonel thought releasing his attack on the second closest Greater Ghoul just as he hit the apex of his jump.
The ice shard broke the sound barrier as he released it the share force pushing Colonel back into an uncontrollable flipping fall.
What happened to the Greater Ghoul? He didn’t see. But the sound.
BOOM!
Left everyone shocked and motionless. The only thing that Colonel saw remaining of the Greater ghoul was a massive crater where it used to be, and a Loot globe floating in the middle of said crater. He unfortunately had taken out another part of the northeastern wall as well, the shockwave tossing a few gunners into the fort. Sugar and everyone on her side were knocked over. Barely hanging on to their hearing.
The silence stretched on until Colonel hit the ground with a massive...
THUD!
Right outside the south side of the fort.
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< ALERT >
{You fail to dodge the ground. You have lost 75% of your hit points. You are STUNNED! Duration 1 min. Nice shot though. +10 to LUCK}
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Colonel didn’t like his now snarky HUD messages, but he also knew that he was proper fucked. One minute was a lifetime in battle, or in his case... death. All he could think about was failing the quest and becoming a damn zombie. ‘I wonder what that play style is like?’ Was his last thought as blackness took him.