As soon as the light from the teleport disappears, I prepare for the dungeon exploration. I examine my surroundings. Is he here today?
My muscles don’t twitch. I’m sure he isn’t watching me.
“Huh, huh, huh! I’ve outsmarted you this time, Evil Mastermind!” I heartily laugh. “You never expected me to come so soon, only two days later. Much less on a day I usually don’t come! Today, I will be able to dive into your dungeon without interference! Huh, huh, huh!”
It feels so good not having to deal with him! He makes me feel impotent and I hate it.
From my experience, every time he makes me fight his new monsters, they appear in the dungeon soon after. I’m sure I’ll find them today.
What did he call them? Was it subjects… or abominations… toys? Like usual? Ugh, I’m sure he gave them a special name but I was too furious to pay attention. Ah, wardens. I’m sure he called them wardens.
“As if your security forces will be able to stop me! Now that I know how they act and what skills they have, I won’t be defeated!”
This time I’ll take revenge for sure. I pump myself up by flexing and kissing my biceps.
“Today’s the day I’ll humiliate you by easily clearing your damn dungeon! Huh, huh, huh!”
I’m sure there won’t be anything else new. The only new stuff should be the wardens. There have been a few exceptions, but generally, after one of his ‘new creation’ shows, there are a few days where no new stuff shows up in the dungeon.
But not today! He was too proud. I’m sure he only added those two monsters.
Evil Mastermind… You’re so annoying…
Usually, I don’t come so soon after my defeat. I have other stuff to do other than playing DMA. But not today! I made an exception today so I can beat the crap out of your monsters and show off to you after the other day’s humiliation!
“Huh, huh, huh!” I laugh for a while. Then, after calming down, I turn to my orcs and goblins to give the start signal. “Let’s go, brothers! Let’s crush some skulls!”
My glorious epic tale starts now! I won’t be defeated! I’ll recover my lost orc pride and show off to everyone!
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I clench and unclench my fist, watching as the red skin gives way to my usual green tone.
“Haah… I’m finally starting to get used to this. The effect is so strong, that not even I can easily adapt to it. But I’m getting close, huh, huh, huh!”
The beam turtle that gave me so much trouble a few weeks ago fell to my attacks pretty quickly. It’s all thanks to this skill that makes me turn red. The Frenzy skill, a skill unique to the Savage Horde. It solidifies the image of brutal combat and drives the user mad for combat. It’s one of the most powerful skills in the whole game, and I’ll soon be able to wield its true power!
Frenzy (Active skill) Cost: 20 EP, 2 EP per second Increase your SPD by 2 and double your attack speed and damage. You can’t activate any other skills while active. If this skill lasts more than 10 seconds, your Max HP starts reducing by 1% each second. This skill has a 5-minute cooldown.
Behold! It’s the mighty Frenzy!
Once you turn red, your attacks get stronger and faster. You can move faster too. The change is so huge that it’s hard to get used to it. The problem isn’t in the accelerated attacks and movements in itself but in the difference between the normal and frenzied state: getting used to one or the other is easy, the problem is getting used to swapping between them.
The players who master Frenzy, are considered the best of the best! And I’m close to reaching that point!
“Huh, huh, huh! I’m awesome, ain’t I?”
I had to train a lot to get to this point. It was worth it.
When I turn around, I find my mobs slaughtering another turtle. They won’t be defeated as long as they avoid the light beam. But we don’t have time to waste.
“Hit harder! Attack with more emphasis! Imagine the turtle is the head of the player you want to kill!” We can’t waste time or the other turtles will come. “...I’ll help them.”
The standard method to clear this huge cave is to avoid unnecessary confrontations. The turtles are slow and easy to avoid as long as you take cover and avoid being spotted. Once they fire their beam, the other turtles will be attracted, and being surrounded by them is bad. So if it comes to combat, it’s best to run away unless you can kill them fast.
I’m not running away! NEVER! So I must kill them fast.
“Tsk! The cooldown is too long… I’ll have to upgrade it when I have the chance.”
The exhilaration I feel when frenzied is addictive. I want more! But the skill is designed in a way that it can’t be abused, like all ultimate skills.
But, right when I start running towards the giant turtle, something hits me on my back.
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“FUCKING GOBLIMPS! I’m going to EXTERMINATE all of you! I’ll kill, and kill, and KILL, until you never appear in front of me again! Aaaahhh!” I shout, running in the direction of the attack.
The fight will take longer than I wanted, but I MUST do this or I’ll EXPLODE.
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The first sign of the monster’s presence is a barrage of purple projectiles falling on our group.
Startled, I look around.
There was never a monster with Magic Missiles in this damned dungeon. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!? Are you kidding me? Shouldn’t the only new monsters be the two wardens?
I’m not scared at the attack or angry at the fact one of my goblins died. I’m scared and angry because I fell for another one of the Evil Mastermind’s plans!
“What did you do this time? Why can you leave me ALONE!?”
I wait for an answer. A maddening laughter. A provocative monologue. A dramatic entrance.
But nothing happens.
“What’s going on? Was it all an illusion…?” Is he playing mental tricks on me now? “...no, but I saw the empty HP bar, so my goblin is truly dead…”
As if to interrupt my thoughts, another purple barrage falls on us. This time I put myself in front of my goblins so that they don’t die.
“Show yourself! Are you a coward!?”
From one tunnel, a familiar figure appears. A humanoid with goat horns, way too long arms, and a white snake tail. It’s the second monster the Evil Mastermind displayed the other day.
This one is dangerous when the combat drags on, but only against a single target. It wasn’t that good against my group of goblins. It didn’t have ranged attacks either, so it makes sense if the Evil Mastermind gave it Magic Missiles, a good option for ranged attacks.
The monster runs in our direction. I don’t remember it being so fast the other day. It might be because the room was too cluttered.
“Huh, huh, huh! Come, let’s dance! Let’s dance the dance of death!”
I enthusiastically raise my battleaxe and prepare for combat, running in its direction.
This is it! This is what I like! What I crave! A straight fight without traps or tricky skills! A fight or pure skill and strength!
We clash in the middle. I swing my weapon, predicting the monster’s path. But, contrary to what I expected, the monster avoids my attack and passes by my left side. It uses its spider fangs to bite at me, but I parry it with the flat part of my axe. But instead of following it with another try, the monster continues moving forward and attacks the orc behind me.
Wow. Never expected a simple monster to avoid my attack like that.
“This is exciting! Finally, a monster worthy of making me go serious!” How long has it been since I found a new monster who could evade or resist my attacks? It’s been forever!
I chase after the white tail, swinging my axe as if to chop it. This time, the monster takes the hit and glares at me. Then, it changes its direction and lunges at me with its fangs.
“Huh, huh, huh! Yes! This is it! Bring it on!”
We exchange blows. Then, like it did before, the monster leaves me behind to attack one of my minions. The contrast between the white tail and the dark ground gives me the impression the monster leaves a trail behind it. An undulating, smooth trail.
“Hey, come back and fight me!”
The monster is faster. But I as the player have superior skill. Plus my minions help me by standing in the path, making it easy for me to catch up.
As the fight continues, my desire for battle grows.
This is so exciting!
But all my excitement disappears when I notice something’s wrong with my monsters. As if snapping out of a dream, my senses return to normal and the corpses of my minions fill up my vision.
“W-what…!? But I was keeping the monster in check…”
Is it the FUCKING, STUPID, WEAK, AND ANNOYING GOBLIMPS!? Is it them AGAIN!? I’m so tired of them sneaking behind and massacring my poor support mobs!
From a side tunnel, another purple barrage comes at me. It comes from the same direction as the first two attacks and not from the snake-like bastard.
“Ugh…!”
After taking the attack, I squint and notice a small, tree-like humanoid almost hidden behind a mushroom.
“It’s the other one! The one that returns the damage when attacked!”
Fuck! Fuck my luck! Now that I finally got a decent fight, and it turns out it was all a trap! A trap designed to make me feel comfortable so they could strike when I least expected it!
“Aah, shit. Now that most of my minions are dead, the dungeon invasion is certain to fail…” I scratch my head in thought. “I’ll have to start another one if I want to clear it to show my amazingness…” The snake bastard takes this chance to bite me. “Can’t you give me time to think abou–”
A swarm of purple projectiles flies in my direction. I try to avoid them, but they turn around and hit me anyway.
“FUUUUUUUUUCK! Fuck this shit! I’m going to KILL you all! I’ll turn your skulls into cups and pour wine in them! Dieeee!”
I rush at the perpetrator of my minion’s massacre, the tree-like bastard.
“Eat this! And this! AND THIS!”
My battleaxe strikes again and again. The monster has no intention to run away or avoid my strikes at all. I activate Frenzy to make sure this bastard dies. But, even with the doubled damage and attack speed, it doesn’t die easily.
My Bloodlust skill triggers and my attacks become even faster and quicker. It must be because of this bastard’s damage return, as I didn’t take much damage when fighting the other one.
The snake-like bastard soon joins the melee, forcing me into a 2vs1. But it’s just two monsters! What could go wrong?
I avoid a punch from the tree and slam my battleaxe in its head. Then, I jump away to avoid a flying bubble of acid, deactivate Frenzy because the first ten seconds have passed, and throw my Phantasmal Weapon. Thanks to my prediction, the axe passes through the tree-like bastard and hits the snake-like bastard standing behind it.
“Huh, huh, huh! Now that the Evil Mastermind isn’t around, this is so easy.” I grin and lower my guard.
Taking this chance, vines sprout from the ground and grab me. I can’t move.
The snake takes this chance to bite and poison me. This is bad, but I’ll break from the vines soon as I have higher stats than them thanks to the Champion’s buff. Also, a little bit of poison won’t kill me. When I break free I’ll–
You have died!
“N-no… Why? HOW!?”
I quickly check the combat log to see what happened, a basic procedure in this damned dungeon.
“H-how? How did the poison deal so much damage…?” I drop to the floor, exhausted from always failing. “I, ugh… I died again… my orc pride, shattered. When will I be able to recover my orc pride…?”
I stand up after some time. I won’t allow this to end like it did today.
“Fuck you, Evil Mastermind! One day, I’m going to make you pay!” I raise my fists in anger. “One day for sure, I’ll make you pay for everything you’ve made me suffer! Just wait and see! Huh, huh, huh!”
image [https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
“You know when you act confident, and end up having to eat your own words and actions? Yeah… I hate it when it happens to me too.”