“Stop running away without warning, Lemon!”

Marta is trying to make me stop, but I ignore her. I can’t waste this chance to discover what secret Andreu has hidden behind the circular stone formations! I’m doing this because I’m curious, but I also want to brag about it later to him.

Maybe, if I’m the first one to discover whatever he planned, he’ll praise me and play with me a lot more…

How excited I am! Hehehe!

“I’m not going to stop you, ok? Just wait for me, please!”

If Marta says this, I can only wait for her to catch up. I did all the running away and fooling around stuff because I didn’t want her to stop me, but if she now says this…

“All right, I’ll wait for you!” I say.

Also, it’ll be safer if she’s close when whatever Andreu planned starts.

As I wait for Marta and our support mobs to catch up, I start reviewing my conclusions. I don’t want to mess this up, it’s very important!

To start, we’ve defeated a few more of those turtles by using the same strategy. We didn’t take any significant losses, but one of my cute little mobs was unlucky and died because of the light attacks.

Poor guy… I couldn’t do anything to save it!

But Marta was amazing, living up to Anthemia’s reputation. During our melee fights against the turtles, she didn’t take a single hit! She also protected me from taking any damage!

Now that I think about it… she played way worse the other time. Was it because Andreu was watching and she was nervous? Or maybe because she fell for his taunting?

Hehehe, in our first invasion, it was funny watching them argue as I was the one doing most of the work by guiding her through the dungeon. I’m sure she believed she was doing the heavy lifting, but if it weren’t for me, she would have needed a lot more effort and time to clear Andreu’s dungeon…

But let’s leave that behind, let’s return to my conclusions.

Later, we also found a third stone formation on an island, in the middle of the lake. There were two bridges connecting it to the main cave.

This cave system is so big, it even has an island inside it! I never expected something like this, even if it was a small island! I always enjoy discovering whatever my brother creates, but this time I was really surprised.

But I only needed a single glance to know that that stone formation was another fake. I’m sure Andreu wouldn’t put whatever he designed in such an obvious place.

In contrast, Marta was really worried I was about to blow myself up. She tried to stop me by any means, to protect me, but since I knew there was no danger, I rushed ahead anyway.

Hehehe! She can be so cute, sometimes!

“Why are you always like this? Can’t you understand it’s dangerous? As your teacher, I expect more from you…” As soon as she catches up to me, Marta starts criticizing my behavior.

“It’s alright. I was sure there was no danger!”

“But, even so… I won’t be able to protect you…”

I don’t have time for this, I must discover Andreu’s secret! So I leave her behind, furrowing, and start inspecting this fourth and last stone formation.

It’s clear as day this is the right place. This is the only one of the four stone formations that wasn’t right next to the main path and wasn’t visible from a long distance. I might not be the smartest, but I know my brother, and I’m sure this is where the secret is hidden.

I’m 100% sure this is where something will happen! But I have no idea how to trigger it…

Let’s see… nine stone pillars with weird shapes, over two meters tall. Then, a bigger but similar-looking rock in the middle of the nine.

As Marta said before, this does remind me of those prehistorical holy sites. But there’s no way Andreu would create something like that without it having a higher purpose other than decoration.

Since there are no monsters here, the secret must be in the stone pillars. I’m sure of it! But I didn’t find any clue in the previous stone formations…

Marta was against coming here. This is why I ran away, forcing her to follow me. But now that she’s here, she’s inspecting everything with a thoughtful look on her face. I’m sure she’s interested in knowing what’s hidden here too.

She walks to the central, enormous stone pillar. Something catches her attention and bends her knees to inspect it.

Isn’t that a slate with words? It must be the key, nice job, Marta!

“‘Who made the claw marks?’ Of course, it was you, you moron!”

Right as she insults our brother, the stone pillar in front of her starts moving. A giant claw appears from it and shoots in Marta’s direction.

“Be care–” I try to warn her, but I’m too late. The claw is about to hit her…

*Bang!*

After the metallic sound made by the stone claw hitting Marta’s sword, I can see the monster’s paw being pushed aside.

Marta deflected the attack away, even when she wasn’t looking at the monster because she was reading the slate.

“Tsk! Did you expect to get me with something as lame as this!? Hah, try harder the next time, jerk!” She then shouts at me. “Lemon, get ready for combat! I’ll take this guy, you take the others!”

The others? What others?

“What do you mean–” I want to ask, but stop in the middle when I notice movement all around us. “What’s this? The monsters were the stone pillars themselves!?”

“That’s right,” Adds Marta. “Don’t dawdle, all our support mobs might die if you leave them alone.”

“O-ok…” I watch the nine remaining pillars turning into some kind of liquid golems as they get closer. “But I’m not good against multiple opponents…”

“Then, do you want to switch? Do you think you can take this one by yourself?” Marta asks me as she parries another claw attack.

The monster she’s fighting is a colossal stone bear. It’s so big that a single one of its claws is the same size as my whole body. I don’t know if I can hold my ground against such a strong monster… I excel at killing resilient and strong monsters, but I’ve always had a tank to keep the monster from targeting me.

If I have to switch positions with her… *Gulp!*

“I don’t know…” I stutter.

“Then let’s see how you do against the others first. If you can’t, we’ll switch, ok? This’ll be a good chance to practice for you.”

“Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll suck the life out of all those stone-like bastards!”

Marta encourages me. “Well said, Lemon! Slay all those stone-like bastards!”

What am I going to do…?

I only have two arms, so I can, at most, stack my DoT skills on a maximum of two enemies. Will this be enough? I can only try.

Andreu, why did you have to create such a thing? I wanted this to be an instant death trap, or something similar, but not a combat.

I’m not very strong, I don’t excel at fighting. After Marta’s training I’m better, but still… I would have preferred something else…

Well, at least I’m sure nobody else has found these monsters yet. If they did, the forums would only be talking about this, so I’m sure we’re the first. I’m going to brag to Andreu after we go back! Hehehe!

I’ll try my best! Even if I die, I must protect my tentacled cute babies!

----------------------------------------

I watch as Clara engages the rest of the monsters, keeping an eye on the bear-like bastard.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

It isn’t as bad as I expected.

Sure, it’s a trap, and we’re now surrounded by monsters. But it’s a lot better than any other kind of trap Andreu could have designed.

As long as it’s a fight, there’s nothing that can stop me! You made a huge mistake there, Andreu! If you wanted to defeat me, you should have planned something else! Ha, ha, ha!

“Where do you think you’re going?” I say. “I won’t let you run away.”

Since the first attack, this giant bear-like monster has been trying to rush at our backline mobs. I’m the one who dealt the most damage to it so far, but it continues to try regardless of its previous failures.

It doesn’t matter. As long as I’m here, there isn’t a single chance it’ll succeed.

I open my wings to make a big leap, jumping over an Earth Wall the bear created to stop me, and appearing right in front of it with my sword held up high.

“Got you!” I shout, slashing at it.

The bear stops, abandoning its plan to attack one of my mobs, and attacks me instead. I’m forced to use Parry to block its attack, but then I slash at it, taking away some of its HP.

You did a good job with its AI, Andreu… It’s a shame it’s me who the bear is facing against.

It isn’t common to see monsters that do actually intelligent stuff in the game, and most of them can only be found in the top player’s dungeons. This is because you need some programming skills or lots of trial and error to do it properly.

For example, having the strong, boss-like monster target the backline while the adds swarm the frontline makes this fight very difficult for most new players. Even veterans will find this fight difficult. But as long as they don’t let the monsters do as they please, the players will win, and this is what I’m doing right now.

On the other side, though…

I take a look at Clara and our support mobs. They’re struggling against the onslaught of smaller monsters.

Wait, why are there more enemies than before!?

“Lemon, what are you doing?” I shout. “Why are there more enemies than before!?”

“I-I don’t know! They keep splitting and multiplying. I can’t do anything against them, there are too many of them… I’m so useless yet another time…”

I parry another claw attack and strike back, taking another chunk of HP with me.

I can’t allow Clara to be so depressed, I must do something… But if I leave the bear to her, I don’t think she can hold it back as well as I can… Also, I’ve already reduced it to less than half its HP…

Aaargh, you know what? She comes first! If the bear monster runs amock and we die, that’s it. As much as I hate being defeated by Andreu, she comes first.

…I will never repeat the same mistakes as before.

“Let’s switch,” I say to the disheartened Clara. “You take care of the bear and I’ll take care of this mess.”

“N-no, it’s fine… what if I make a mistake–”

“I don’t care!” I interrupt her. “Just do it, ok!? If you can, don’t allow the bear to reach our backline, but don’t overdo it. Prioritize your survival.”

“O-ok… Thanks, Anthemia.”

“...you’re welcome.”

I force the bear to step back one last time before running in Clara’s direction, switching places with her.

I couldn’t pay attention to this side of the fight, but I’m sure of one thing: if the enemies are multiplying, they must have the Split skill. This means they should be weaker after dividing, and I have the perfect skill for this.

I didn’t want to use it yet, I wanted to save my MP for the actual boss fight… but I have no choice. After they’ve multiplied so much, the only way to beat them is with an AoE skill.

“Regret your actions! For you’ve committed the gravest sin: you’ve made my sister cry. Now, face the Divine Wrath!”

A large, shining orb appears on top of me as I use the skill. I throw it to the ground, right next to where most enemies are, and it explodes in a burst of light.

“Oh, you’re more resilient than I expected,” I mutter.

It isn’t like I expected them all to die, I was sure the ones that didn’t split yet wouldn’t and would instead split. But I’m surprised half of the smaller ones survived too. In fact, between now and before I used Divine Wrath, the number of enemies is more or less the same.

I don’t want to waste any more MP until I know what’s going on, so I’ll have to do this the old way: getting up close and personal.

“Don’t let them swarm you,” I give orders to the support mobs. “Split up and continue moving around.”

Some players, especially the new ones, find it hard to control the support mobs in the middle of combat. But if you ever get to the top, it’s a skill that comes naturally.

It becomes as easy as breathing.

I was expecting Clara to take care of them while I focussed on the bear, but it seems she was overwhelmed by the enemy. Now, our current situation doesn’t look good: we have three dead mobs, and they’ll soon increase if I don’t intervene.

I jump into the enemies at the same time our mobs disengage. Soon, I find myself swarmed by them.

About twenty enemies, all attacking me at the same time.

This is one reason to hate slimes: they don’t have a fixed body shape, so they can squeeze themselves to focus on a single enemy. Instead of a maximum of five or six medium-sized slimes, a lot more can fit in the same space, overwhelming the enemy with numbers.

Even I can’t avoid so many simultaneous attacks, though only one or two every now and then manage to land.

At the same time, I keep a close eye on my surroundings. Thanks to this, I catch an important detail.

“I see… they have a stunning attack. This is why our mobs are struggling so much…”

I keep ordering our mobs to disengage, making the enemies swarm at me when I’m the closest target.

I too keep a close eye on my sister’s fight. She still has a lot to improve, but thanks to her tentacles and the innate skill that allows her to grab the enemy, the bear can’t shake her off.

From time to time, it still tries to kill our mobs if they get close enough, but Clara continues to deal continuous damage to it, forcing the bear to strike back or risk being killed. If this continues, it won’t take too long for her to emerge victorious.

I can’t let this happen! As the older sister, I must end this first! My pride is at stake here!

There are at least thirty slimes surrounding me right now. It’s like a wall. Not even slimes can squeeze that much, so some of them are waiting for their chance to come at me without doing anything.

“This is now better,” I exhale, relieved. “I can easily manage this. But we got two more deaths...”

There’s nothing I could do to prevent our mob’s deaths, but thanks to their sacrifices, I now know what’s going on.

First, they focus on the one who’s closest to them unless you use healing spells. The situation got a lot easier to control since I ordered my healers to stop using their skills.

Second, they have the Indomitable Will skill. This is what was giving Clara so much trouble, as well as the reason my Divine Wrath didn’t work as expected: the first time they should die, they instead split up!

Third, they have some kind of healing skill themselves. This is why they keep splitting all the time instead of dying.

And fourth, they also have a skill that gives them flat bonuses. I’m not sure which one, or if they have multiple, but at least their HP is increased for sure.

If only I could inspect them, this would have been so much easier…

Andreu, why the fuck did you have to create such monsters? They’re too hard to deal with unless you’re really good, or you already know how they work!

Dumbass! Jerk! Stupid! Idiot!

Though I’ll admit these monsters are well-designed, I’ll absolutely never say it out loud. I’d rather cut my tongue than praise my brother! Not as long as he keeps bothering me so much, mocking me every time we play together!

But now that I know how they work, and that I’m surrounded by almost all of them, it’s time to finish this. I don’t need to fear wasting MP by using Divine Wrath anymore.

It was hard to get to this point because the bear has some kind of fear skill, and the slimes like chasing after our running mobs; but it won’t happen anymore, I’m about to end this fight.

“You dare surround me? You made a foolish mistake. Eat this, you shitheads!”

After the light burst, there are quite a few monsters remaining, so I cast it yet again. There’s no need to save MP, I’m sure I won’t need to use MP until the actual Boss fight, and, most importantly: I must finish this fight before Clara does.

Only four enemies remain in close proximity. They must come from an enemy that hadn’t split up yet and was at full HP. Other than these, there are two more that weren’t inside my AoE.

I finish the remaining enemies with leisure with a few sword strikes and the help of the support mobs.

Now, the only remaining enemy is the bear. I’ll let Clara deal with it, she needs the experience.

Meanwhile, I check my current status.

Hmm… 20% of my HP is gone… Not bad. For having taken the full brunt of the attack with this weak Champion, it’s a reasonable amount.

I put on a serious expression and dust my clothes while saying. “I’m finished here. How are you doing? Do you need my help?”

The bear is still trying to get to our backline, but even if Clara makes a mistake, there’s no way I’ll allow such a thing now that I’m free.

“No, it’s fine,” She answers. “I’ll do this myself, it’s my job to take care of the strong enemies!”

“Well said, Lemon.” I praise her.

But really, this fight…

…this fight was a little bit too much. Andreu, are you crazy? Do you want to kill every invader, and make them complain about your dungeon!?

No, but they’re hidden… the monsters do nothing until you wake them up. They must be optional, so it should be ok…

Aaargh! Why do I worry so much for his sake!? Why should I care if he makes a blunder or not!?

As his older sister I want him to improve, but every time I remember his smug face after defeating me I have to stop myself from caving his face in…

My fists start trembling as rage fills me.

I hate him so much!

[https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]

“...

Overwhelming them with numbers can be more effective than you might expect. But if you decide to go for this, do it properly. Don’t try to overwhelm them with a few tens of monsters, do so with hundreds, even thousands! The more, the better!

No, really, I’m not kidding. A thousand dragons are too much, but if they’re very weak, a thousand monsters is a reasonable amount.

Just keep in mind that, when you use this tactic, the objective isn’t to kill them, but to make them cry. You want them to feel useless. Defenseless. Weak. You want to force them to use AoE skills, squeezing all their remaining EP and MP.

Make them feel they have no choice but to use all AoE skills they have or they’ll die. Then, bring some more monsters out, and they’ll surely cry! Even if they survive the new batch of monsters, they’re sure to have wasted most of their resources on them. Use this chance to beat them with something even nastier!

Fufufu! Hahaha!

…”

- Fragment from ‘Making them Cry’, one part of ‘The Dark Teachings’ series.