As the ground breaks apart, big walls, red on the inside and green on the outside, grow from below, surrounding HippopotamusAlpha. By the time we can react, the monster has closed his mouth and devoured our party leader whole.
“Hehe, this is kind of funny.”
Trim glares at me. “Stop laughing, this isn’t funny.”
“Yes, it is.” I reaffirm my stance, “It is funny. What are the chances that, right after he unnecessarily killed all those harmless flowers, a monster appeared and devoured him? If this isn’t divine punishment, you can tell me what it is.”
He shuts up after my rebuttal, but his glare grows in intensity. Man, if stares could kill…
The ground rumbles as the monster’s head completely emerges from the ground. Dust, grass, and the soil sticking to it start to fall off, revealing the monster’s aspect. It’s some kind of giant flytrap as I suspected, but this one is unusual. It has real teeth instead of pointed leaves, and two eyes intensely glowing in orange light.
We observe the monster as it rises from the hole in the ground. Although, in general, you should try to save your teammates as soon as possible, we all have enough experience to know it isn’t the best move. You first need as much information about the enemy as possible; rushing ahead could make things harder instead of helping. Furthermore, we aren’t worried about HippopotamusAlpha’s survival. He’s our party’s tank, he won’t die that easily.
After the head completely emerges, what follows isn’t its body but a long and thin neck that stretches towards a dense patch of vegetation nearby. The body of the monster remains hidden.
“The body is over there… what a large monster.” Says Elivina.
“With such a large target, it’ll be easy to deal with,” I add. “Trim, do you want me to tank while Hippo is still inside the monster?”
Trim signals for me to stop. “...Wait. There’s something weird going on.”
“Something weird…?”
…ah! I know what he means. When it comes to large monsters, the HP bar is scaled in proportion to their size so it’s easy to see, and it rests above the monster, near the model’s center. But the HP bar of the flytrap is right on top of its head.
The monster is taking damage. HippopotamusAlpha must be doing his best to get out. Engulf and similar skills are hard to use but the damage they deal is extremely high to compensate.
We can’t waste any more time, regardless of what Trim says.
I step forward, ready to take the tank role temporarily. If you’re experienced and your build doesn’t stop you from doing it, any player can take the monster’s aggro in this game.
The monsters’ behavior changes from one to another, but they all make sense and aren’t governed by an ‘aggro’ number, nor can they simply walk through other units or players. Standing between them and the rest of the party is usually enough to force them to attack you. That’s unless the dungeon owner has messed up their AI, of course.
Monsters behave like you would expect if they were real. This is why I like DMA so much.
I must say that, so far, the monsters in this dungeon have surprised me with their unusual behaviors. From teleporting through walls, to hit-and-run ambush tactics, to more unexpected ones like the dancing flowers, who simply followed after us while hiding in plain sight when we watched them. Who knows how this monster will surprise us?
I slam my small buckler shield on the monster’s head with Shield Bash and follow it up with my mace.
“Hehe. I’m the agent of the gods. Feel my wrath!” Who says clerics can’t be powerful in melee?
The monster’s head shakes, receiving the impact of my attacks. HippopotamusAlpha, who’s inside its mouth, must feel it too. He must be having a hard time right now.
Hehe, eat this, HippopotamusAlpha. This is what you get for messing with the tiny fellas!
Large orange eyes glare at me. The monster doesn’t make any sound, possibly because HippopotamusAlpha is inside its mouth. Its neck bends back a short distance before lunging at me at maximum speed like a snake.
I feel like standing in front of a truck. There’s no way to evade it. “...Gugh!” The impact sends me flying a short distance back. The damage I take is significant.
Hmm… I should take this seriously and stop messing with HippopotamusAlpha inside the monster…
“Magno!”
Elivina’s shout comes a bit too late. Distracted by the monster, I didn’t see the build-up animation of Eruption. The ground below me bursts up, sending several molten projectiles into the air.
Eruption is a skill that has random targeting, which makes it relatively easy to avoid. The molten rock flies up in a parabola, falling on top of the unlucky victims. But since I’m standing right on top of the starting point, I take all the projectiles head-on.
*Thud, thud, thud!*
My body flies about two meters up before falling. As soon as I land, I stand up and check my status.
“I’m fine…?” I survived thanks to Elivina’s shield. “Thanks!” I wave at her and return my focus to the monster.
The monster doesn’t seem too kind in attacking me or my teammates. It looks like it wants to buy time to fully digest HippopotamusAlpha. How troublesome.
But before we go all-in, we must check if there’s anything else going on. Trim is right, something is off.
“Elivina, can you clear that patch of vegetation?” I say, pointing to where the monster’s body is hiding. “Wide area, low output,” I instruct her and she nods in understanding.
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From what we’ve seen so far, all the plants in this botanical garden are destructible. We can clear that area, and hopefully, we’ll understand what’s going on with this monster. There’s no need to use powerful spells for this, but the area should be as large as possible.
A large whirlwind appears, sending the plants flying. Those that are too heavy are shredded into bits instead. And what appears from the now cleared area is a large quadruped body covered in scales. Vibrant red mixes with green, creating a flower pattern. If I didn’t know it was a monster, I could easily mistake it for part of the decorations.
The neck extending from the flytrap head, which looks like a stem, connects to the body as expected. The problem is… there are two more such ‘stems’.
“There are two more!?” Exclaims Trim.
As if on cue, the ground starts shaking for the second time. And surely enough, two heads, identical to the one that ate HippopotamusAlpha, emerge from below.
It doesn’t matter if it’s because we damaged the main body or because we revealed the presence of the other two heads. What matters is that we aren’t against one single monster as we initially thought.
“U-uaah…!” Elivina jumps away in fright and hides behind me. One of the two heads came out right beside her. If she had moved slightly to the right, she would have been swallowed whole as our leader.
There’s an HP bar on top of each head, which means three HP bars. Three HP bars but one monster… furthermore, the two newcomers’ HP bars aren’t full, which means the damage is shared if we hit the main body…
We’ve fought a few monsters like this before. They’re a pain in the ass.
The head that ate our leader retreats, and the other two stand ready for battle. They’re trying to protect the more vulnerable and important head from us.
Trim walks closer, fiddling with his hand crossbow. “It’ll be harder than expected.”
“I know…” I nod.
“If you take care of the two newcomers, I can try to shut down the one that ate Hippo.”
“Yes, let’s do that. Elivina, focus on support. If you have spare time and mana, attack the first head or the main body. Ignore the other two.”
“Alright!”
The real battle is about to start. While the central head, the one that ate HippopotamusAlpha has taken considerable damage – mostly from him attacking from the inside – we must kill it before our leader dies. If we kill that head, assuming nobody else gets eaten, the fight will be significantly easier.
We have the experience to deal with this situation.
*Swiish!*
Trim’s bolt hitting the central head signals the start of the battle. The two free heads hiss at us. The left head spews a cloud of poison, filling the area with toxic gas. Elivina and Trim run away, taking as much distance as possible.
The right head rushes at me at full speed. This time, though, I’m ready and jump to the side on time.
The wind blows past me as the monster’s head passes where I was a second ago. “Hehe, it tickles.” I start healing myself to neutralize the damage from the poison. “Come to me!” I shout, slamming the mace onto the monster’s vulnerable neck.
My taunt seems to work, as the two heads start thrashing around, trying to bite me. They smash all the surrounding trees as they move. Maple, oak, pine, spruce, baobab… none of them can stand their strength.
The flytrap heads are so big they’re hard to avoid. Every time they hit me, a large amount of HP goes away. Furthermore, they apply poison and slow with their bites. But damage over time effects are weak against me. Anything that doesn’t outright kill me, I can heal.
“Magno!”
“I know!”
The central head, which doesn’t seem to want to join the melee, utilizes Eruption once more. Its orange eyes glow with high intensity for a moment. Shortly after, the ground below my feet starts to turn red.
“It won’t work a second time. Nice try, though!” I chuckle, jumping back.
The ground bursts open, and another wave of magma projectiles flies everywhere. They fall indiscriminately, regardless of ally or enemy. The monster doesn’t seem to care that it takes a few hits, though.
“This won’t do…” Every time Trim attacks the central head, the other two rush to protect it. They’re too smart. I scan the area, looking for something to give us a boost. “...ah, I know.” Standing proudly near the battle area, there’s a very large sequoia.
When a dungeon element is destructible, it doesn’t mean it disappears when destroyed. The fragments remain in the game and can impose a severe obstacle.
Destroying a wall creates rubble, smashing a bridge makes it fall to the ground below… and cutting a tree leaves a trunk behind. This means that a particularly large tree will leave an equally large trunk behind.
“Stop attacking for a moment,” I ask my teammates, “I need their aggro on me!”
I activate one of my skills and a large light pillar appears over the main body. The three heads turn mad, and the two free ones rush at me at maximum speed.
This is perfect. This is exactly what I was hoping for.
I run as if there’s no tomorrow. The closest head opens its mouth wide open, chasing from behind. I feel its breath on my neck. If I slow down even a tiny bit, I’m sure I’ll experience the same as HippopotamusAlpha.
The shadow of the monster grows bigger. It’s faster than me. But before it can eat me, I’ve reached the big tree.
I use blink to teleport away. And then…
*Crash!*
The monster’s head hits the sequoia’s trunk at full speed. The bark breaks and the large tree tilts to a side. Gravity does the rest, and the tree falls to the ground.
As I planned, the heavy trunk falls on top of the monsters. The other head, which followed us from not too far, is crushed under its weight. The trunk falls on the head and rolls over, pinching the neck, and immobilizing it.
“Hehe, nice! One head less to care abou–” The head immobilized by the tree trunk starts burrowing into the ground while I’m talking. This way, it’ll soon get free from it. “... never mind.”
Still, it’ll take a short time for it to get out. Furthermore, the head that tried to eat me seems disoriented. Suddenly losing its prey and instead crashing into the sequoia must have messed up its AI a bit.
I turn my head towards my teammate. “Trim! It’s now or never!”
“I know!” Trim is already preparing his strongest attack. A myriad of colors condense over the crossbow, creating a beautiful light spectacle and blinding the onlookers.
He pulls the trigger.
The multicolored arrow leaves a trail of light behind. It hits the central head’s eye, and an explosion follows. The light pouring out of the impact area makes it look like the monster is bleeding blood of all imaginable colors.
I observe the HP of the monster fall. It shouldn’t be able to withstand an attack like that. The HP bar depletes quickly until it reaches zero and disappears. The head then falls to the ground and the neck connecting it to the main body snaps.
Two heads remain.
“Cough, cough! Disgusting…” HippopotamusAlpha emerges from within the monster’s mouth, covered in a yellow liquid.
But we don’t have time to celebrate our small victory. The two remaining heads have recovered and are ready for the second assault.
I observe the two incoming heads. “Hehe. You couldn’t deal with us in a 3vs3. Let’s see how you fare in a 2vs4.”
I’m enjoying this Dungeon Invasion a lot. So many unexpected things! It’s a shame the tiny fellas aren’t here anymore, though.
image [https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
In DMA, players could give their dungeons a ‘recommended level’ tag if they wished to. This way, they could ensure the invaders knew how challenging the dungeon was.
This didn’t prevent players from ignoring it, though. Maximum-level players stomping on low-level dungeons simply for fun wasn’t an uncommon sight, nor was it an uncommon sight for players bringing lower-leveled Champions into a maximum difficulty dungeon and then bragging in the forums of their victory.