The earth elephant charges at us in a straight line.
I know this is a game and most stuff is determined by stats, but I still fear the moment we will collide. After all, it’s a huge monster, over three meters tall! It’s impossible to ignore something like that when it’s running towards you at full speed, ready to stomp you into oblivion!
“You, go and stop the elephant,” I order one of the Good Followers, pointing at the charging elephant.
I’ll play it safe. Safe for me, I mean.
I have no idea how this exchange will conclude, but I don’t want to be the one to stop that charge. If I were me, I surely would give such a monster some kind of charge skill, and I sure don’t want to be the one receiving it.
I feel something hitting my shoulder and turn to look at the aggressor.
The wind chicken – because that is a chicken, isn’t it? – is flying about ten meters over the ground. It’s funny because it doesn’t flap its wings, it just floats there with its wings open. This isn’t a problem because all wind elementals can fly regardless of their shape, but it does look weird.
The chicken is attacking me with what must be the Wind Blade spell, one of the basic spells. Instead of dealing a special damage type, like fire or lightning, Wind Blade deals physical damage.
Wind Blade (Active skill) Cost: 20 MP Deal (2 + 0,5 * SPI) physical damage to a single enemy. There is a 10% chance of inflicting bleeding on the target, causing it to lose (0,2 * SPI) HP in the next 5 seconds.
The problem with Wind Blade is that it’s easier to avoid compared to other spells like Cold Blast, which explodes right next to the target. But the drawback is covered with the chance it has to inflict bleed on the target.
From all damage over time effects, bleed can be considered the best – or worst, if you’re the one affected by it – because it’s the only one that can’t be reduced by resistances.
“Annoying… Cold Blast!”
The chicken is sending one blade after the other at me, and I do my best to avoid them as I counterattack.
Hmm…? Is it me, or it’s easy to avoid them, compared to what I remember? Maybe, and only maybe, is it thanks to my sister’s training? I could swear I wasn’t this good at evading attacks before…
Nah, that can’t be... I’m sure it’s only because I’m comparing them to Marta’s flying strikes.
*Bang!* I turn my head to the sound and see one of my Good Followers flying. It’s the result of the collision with the earth elephant.
“Oh, it’s good that isn’t me…” I mutter as I watch it fly. “I’ll give you 7,5 points for this jump!”
I was right to put somebody else in its path.
The remaining Good Follower soon starts attacking the earth elephant. It gets their aggro, and the poison will soon stack.
But now that the elephant has stopped, comes the hard part: keeping it moving so that its innate skill doesn’t work, while at the sime time preventing it to move enough to make the charge skill usable.
How annoying… why did this dungeon’s owner have to give both skills to the same monster!?
“Don’t stand still, keep moving!” I shout. But it’s obvious the Good Follower doesn’t understand complex commands. “Aaah, what a headache! This is going to be very difficult to micromanage…”
In the middle of complaining, I keep avoiding the Wind Blades the best I can.
*Roar!*
The fire lion takes this chance to pounce on the Good Follower that just landed… the one that was ‘gently tossed away’ by the elephant. Like a real predator, it waited for the best chance to strike.
“Oh, no!” I get closer to them and start attacking the lion. “I can’t let my loyal subject die like this! Cold Blast!”
As I get closer, I notice the Lion is surrounded by fire. Well, stronger fire than it should normally be. When I get closer, I start taking fire damage.
This must be the effect of some skill… If I’m not wrong, there’s a high chance it’s the In Flames skill, the same one I gave to my Fiery Flies, who also have the Fire Elemental innate skill.
“How dare you copy my combo!?” I complain. I know it’s one of the most common combos in the game, but I can complain, can’t I? “I’ll have you apologize, dungeon owner!”
The lion and the Good Follower are entangled in combat, rolling on the ground, but the lion clearly holds the advantage.
As I continue to spout bullshit, I cast a few more spells to try and get the lion’s attention. This time, from afar, so I don’t take unnecessary damage. Finally, the lion turns around in my direction, and the Good Follower can finally stand back up.
And this all happens while avoiding the Wind Blades! Aren’t I amazing?
“Go and help your brother defeat the elephant.”
I give the Good Follower a command before I start running. I must stay alive until they defeat the elephant. It’s the only way I can do this, after all, I’m about as fast as the lion, so I can keep running and I won’t take damage from the aura. But the Good Follower is slower.
Now I’ve got the attention of two of the bosses... I’m in trouble! But as long as the earth elephant dies, I think we can manage.
I peek at the earth elephant.
Its HP is steadily decreasing thanks to the accumulated poison stacks. Thanks to the Good Follower’s resilience, as long as the elemental doesn’t get the 50% damage reduction, it can handle it alone and achieve mutual destruction. So now that it’s a 2vs1, the battle shouldn’t last too long.
I only need to survive until then…
“Hahaha! We’ll win! As long as the earth elemental dies, we’ll win this fight! Hahaha!” I laugh as I continue running.
From time to time, I cast a Cold Blast, chipping away at the lion’s HP.
When the earth elemental dies, I’ll order the Good Followers to attack the lion, and I’ll take care of the chicken. This is going to end easily!
But, somehow, I have the feeling I’m forgetting about something. Hmm… what could it be…?
As I think so, I run over part of the terrain covered by water. Immediately after, the water rises, and it envelops me, restraining my movement and forcing me to stop.
“Oh, no! Fuck! I forgot about the water elemental!” I watch the lion, ready to pounce at me, and the chicken, that continues to cast spells. “Shit! I’m so screwed!”
How could I forget about the water elemental…!?
It disappeared as soon as the fight started, so I naturally forgot about it… but it’s a battle against the four elements! Until now, I was fighting only three! How can I be so stupid!?
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Agh, ugh… Let me go!” I shout and struggle, but I can’t get free. This must be some skill. “Don’t disgrace me anymore! Kill me!” Hehe, I’ve always wanted to shout this.
I take a look at the status screen, and it says I’m immobilized for three more seconds. But in less than that time, the lion will be here, and the spells will hit me.
“Am I going to die like this–”
I’m ready to accept defeat when an idea comes to me. Oh, this might work… I stop in the middle of the phrase, make sure the Good Followers are far enough for the plan to work, and start laughing.
“Fufufu! Hahaha! You fell for my amazing trap! Hahaha!”
Pretending to have a plan, I continue laughing as the lion jumps at me. I activate my last resort at this precise moment.
“Did you think you got me? You’re wrong! It’s me who got you!”
Both the lion and the Wind Blades hit me, but I take no damage. This is because I’m in ‘invulnerability time’.
I’m sure you know what I mean.
Both Good Followers and the earth elephant are outside the Grand Finale’s area of effect, so I don’t have to worry about their survival. In fact, from what I can see, the elephant won’t last more than five seconds.
And the fire lion and water elemental are clearly in the area of effect. With the huge damage of this spell, I’m almost sure they’ll die when the explosion happens.
The only one I’m not sure about is the wind chicken because it’s flying quite high… Depending on how far it is, the explosion might not affect it.
But I’ll think about it when the time comes.
I continue laughing. “Hahaha! Eat this, you stupid elementals! Grand Finale!”
*BOOOM!*
The light expands from me in all directions. The fire lion can only release a pitiful roar before dying. The water dolphin can’t even do this and dies before it can make any sound.
When the light disappears, I feel my stats dropping. I feel… sluggish.
I look around in a panic. Please, tell me the chicken died. Please, god! I’m screwed otherwise!
“Please, please… Be a good dead roasted chicken… Fuck!”
I finally spot the chicken, who’s circling above me and ready to launch a few more Wind Blades. I think I never hated a chicken so much in my life.
“Why didn’t you die!?” I complain. “Strategic retreat!”
I run (limp) toward the Good Followers while trying to avoid the chicken’s attacks. It’s a lot harder than before because of the reduced stats. The more noticeable ones are Speed and Agility.
I watch as the earth elephant’s HP drops below 10%. “Come on, just a little bit more…”
My own HP is at 62 right now. I knew I would survive the Grand Finale’s stat reduction, but I also knew I would be left with very little HP. And now, this is going to be a problem.
One Wind Blade hits my back. 47 HP left.
“Please, no bleed… Please, no bleed…” I pray to the god of games, the devil, or whoever might listen to me.
The earth elephant’s HP is now below 5%. But I have even less!
I dodge the following Wind Blade, but not the next one.
“32 HP… Fuck, the bleeding!”
I see the bleed debuff applied to me. 29 HP, 26 HP, 24 HP… The bleed reduces my HP to extremely dangerous levels.
I don’t dare counterattack the chicken.
With my reduced stats, I won’t be able to deal much damage… but this isn’t the important part. If I counterattack, it’ll be harder to dodge its attacks. I can’t risk it because a single more Wind Blade that applies bleeding, or two that don’t, will kill me!
Of course, I’ve already achieved my main objective: to capture some Geodis. But, if possible, I also want to leave this dungeon without dying and obtain the bonus cp from the clear.
After all, to create monsters I not only need bodies, but also lots of cp.
*Buooo!* The elephant cries as it falls to the ground.
Finally! I’m tempted to jump around to celebrate but stop myself. What if a Wind Blade kills me when I’m celebrating? I don’t want to die such a pathetic death…
“Quickly! Protect me!”
The two Good Followers surround me, and I end up sandwiched between them. Like this, the wind chicken can’t attack me directly. Right now, I’m so glad this is a game! No stuffy feeling, nor sweat…
The Wind Blades start hitting the Good Followers. The target is still me, but it doesn’t matter. Thank god this game’s combat system works with collisions and not with targeting.
Now that I’m safe, I spend all my remaining MP on Cold Blasts, but the chicken’s HP barely changes.
This won’t work… with my reduced stats, I won’t kill it before it kills us all, and the Good Followers don’t have any ranged attacks. I never thought they’d need ranged attacks because I would always be there to fill that role…!
The aerial assault continues, and my minion’s HP slowly but steadily decreases. Thank god they’re resilient because what we need now is time… Time, and a miracle.
“Cyam, you’re the only one who can save us! Our survival depends on you, my kidnapping buddy!”
There’s a very slim chance the petrification will work due to the stat difference, and it will only last a few seconds at most against a Boss. But this is all we need! As soon as the chicken falls to the ground, petrified, the Good Followers can jump at it and prevent it from flying away!
If the petrification works, we’re sure to win. Otherwise, we’re doomed.
“I think I’ve never relied on luck as much as right now…” I mutter. “Come on, gods of luck and chaos! I implore you for your assistance!”
40% HP remaining. This is uncomfortable. Being sandwiched between two muscular orc-dwarfs isn’t the best experience.
30% HP remaining. I start biting my nails.
20% HP remaining. There are no more nails, so I start biting my fingers instead. Oh, I’m tasty!
10% HP remaining. Come on! God’s of luck and chaos! Are you going to abandon your most devoted follower (since today)!?
What I’ve been waiting for finally happens, and I order my minions to attack. “Oooooh! Don’t let this opportunity go! All hands, ATTACK!” I shout.
I limp behind the two Good Followers too. Heck, I even make Cyam join the fight this time.
We pummel the petrified chicken from all sides. When the petrification wears off, I order Cyam to use the spider’s innate skill to immobilize it for some extra time. Even one or two seconds will do.
“Cyam, use Web Throw!” Hehe, I feel like a trainer from a certain game right now.
Web Thow has a very short range, so it couldn’t be used until now.
The wind chicken struggles, and gets free from the webs. But we won’t allow it to get away so easily.
“Come on everyone! Let’s kill this stupid chicken!”
We continue the assault, while not leaving space for the chicken to fly away. In the middle, it turns to me with the intention to fire some more Wind Blades, so I have to quickly hide behind a Good Follower... Again.
*Pokooo!* The wind elemental makes a stupid cry as it dies.
“Finally! We did it!” I jump around in glee. I hug Cyam. “You did it, my buddy! It’s thanks to you we beat this dungeon!”
Cyam stays still and ignores me. Well, what could you expect from a game’s AI…
I turn to the third door, the one that was always closed but is now open. There, I see the purple glow of the dungeon core.
“Oooh, nice! We beat this dungeon. We won’t have to go back to the entrance, and instead, I’ll get extra cp for reaching the end!”
I quickly go to the dungeon core and shatter it.
Dungeon Invasion Successful! Rewards Obtained ...
I check the rewards, and see there are the nine Geodis I captured this time.
“I got enough Geodis (humanoid) now! With this, I can–” I stop and take another look at the reward screen. “Geodis (humanoid), it says… humanoid… HUMANOID!? Aaaah, shit! I forgot how the elementals work when I capture them! Noooooo!”
I drop to my knees. This can’t be… somebody, please tell me this is a dream!
“Humanoid, they’re humanoid!” I hit my head against the wall a few times. “Of course they are! All Geodis are humanoid, similar to the Pyris, Hidris, and the others… And I can’t change their shape after capturing them…”
I want to cry. Anybody else wants to cry with me?
“Ahh… did I waste all this time? I didn’t want humanoids because I wanted to make chimeras with them…! What the hell am I going to do now!? I completely forgot about this!”
So the thing is, I got the elementals with the skill I needed. But they’re useless because I wanted to make chimeras with them, and I can’t use humanoid bodies to create chimeras…
“You know what? Screw this! I’m not going to spend any more time looking for earth elementals, the ‘shopping list’ is long enough as it is. So they’re humanoid? So what? I’ll have to create humanoids instead!”
I can always use them to create monstrous hybrids and give them the innate skill of the non-humanoid unit I planned to. They’ll be more expensive, but who cares?
“Yes, let’s do it like this. Fufufu! Hahaha! It went all according to the plan after all!” I try to delude myself.
“But I’ll still need to capture a non-humanoid earth elemental in the 400 cp range. This isn’t negotiable.” I stroke my chin in thought. “The problem is… where the hell can I find one such elemental and not die in the process of capturing it?”
[https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
“Usually, my greatest enemy is myself. I’m not proud of it.”