Alan and Richard were taut and ready to attack, but battle after battle had slowly honed them into experienced warriors. We all watched carefully, curious what was about to unfold. No one wanted to recklessly charge in without knowing what was happening.

Time seemed to pause for ten seconds, as both sides were stuck in a stalemate. The boss very well could be powering up, but without assurance, who could rush in blindly to check? What if the red aura was an ability that would make him explode? Richard and Alan would be history if that was the case.

A dozen more seconds passed before the boss finally moved. He held his giant mallet in one hand and extended it in front of him, holding it perfectly vertical. His next action was completely unexpected. He dropped the mace, handle facing towards the floor. The thud I expected in such an odd situation didn’t appear.

The mallet just disappeared into the earth, and a ripple spread out from its location. Dust raised just a few inches off the floor as the invisible wave passed below us, but did no damage. I had no idea what was happening. Attack or defend? My thoughts raced.

Stone creatures started to spawn all around us a moment later, and then the boss didn’t give us a choice. He rushed Alan and Richard with newfound fury. “Thomas, focus your attention on Richard and Alan! Everyone else assist in taking down the adds as soon as possible! Lucas use your best judgement!” I barked a quick series of orders.

My undead that had been surrounding the boss rushed away like insects and towards the earthen golems that had spawned. A quick glance showed six of them had appeared, one for every party member that wasn’t one of the two main tanks. I wasn’t sure if this was a coincidence or just the typical result of the weapon’s triggered effect.

The earth golems didn’t hold any weapon, but they didn’t need to, as they towered over two meters tall, each with fists raised. They were a head taller than my skeleton generals, and I could tell their defense was nothing to scoff at. “Thomas’ golem first!” I yelled. Everyone else could defend themselves somewhat, but Thomas was a healer with no physical or attacking abilities.

An earth golem had spawned dangerously close to him and was moving with conviction. While large, they weren’t slow or clumsy looking. Their joints, made of jagged rocks, were just for show and clearly had no restraining effect on their movement. A few seconds longer and Thomas would be badly mangled at the very least.

Anna was the fastest to react, shooting into the golem’s raised arm with an Ice Spear and freezing its attack for a brief moment. By the time the ice shattered, Lucas seemed to appear out of nowhere and kicked the back legs with so much force the golem toppled backwards. An Explosive Arrow struck the golem’s head just as it hit the floor.

The situation seemed to unfold perfectly; the golem’s head rested directly over a hole created by the explosion, as if waiting for the guillotine to fall from above. Fortunately, Spikey #1 and #2 were on both sides and swung directly down as hard as they could, cleaving the head clean off, which was only possible because there was no ground below to stop their falling weapons.

“Careful!” Jessica yelled out, “These aren’t alive.” She was reminding us that creatures like this might not die from having their head cut off.

Fortunately, the golem didn’t rise again. “It seems the core is in their head,” Lucas said, “aim for it.” He rushed to assist Richard and Alan for a moment, determining he wasn’t as much use for anyone else. I couldn’t help but gaze over to the boss fight, where the sound of scraping metal and the sparks that flew constantly gave me an ominous feeling. Still, our two tanks held up as best as they could. Lucas would be a big help to them.

The boss attacked with his hands and feet like a trained martial artist. Sharp claws extended from both, and looking at the scraping metal, they were as good as steel claws. Alan’s HP constantly bounced in the party window, even when blocking most attacks.

Thomas had been fully focused, keeping Alan’s HP in that sweet spot to abuse his passive as a knight which gave him damage reduction below a certain HP threshold. Richard was also in on it, and if Alan ever got too low in that window between heals, he had his instant cast as well as the ability to take blows.

Now with Lucas weaving blows on the boss when he could, the biggest worry – the safety of our two tanks – disappeared. My undead troops had also entangled the remaining golems. While strong, the golems weren’t intelligent at all, and definitely not being controlled. Once my soldiers blocked the paths they were taking to a party member, my summoned troops became the target of the golem’s aggro. With that, our ranged damage dealers quickly began dispatching them, all focusing on one at a time.

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Our second target was the golem fighting Mark and Glenn. Even though they weren’t combat classes, and Mark didn’t even have a class, I believed that their combat ability was good enough for this situation if they focused purely on defense.

Our strategy appeared quickly and spontaneously. Anna using Freezing Pulse or an Ice Bolt would freeze up the golem’s chest, and a hard, blunt attack from one of my warriors staggered it. Then Jessica’s arrow severed the head clean off. We quickly moved on to the next with the same tactics, Jessica and Maria competing for who would land the kill shot. In under a minute, we managed to dispatch the six golems.

Now though, with how dangerous the boss was in melee, Mark and Glenn’s ability to contribute disappeared completely. “Focus on our surroundings, watch the boss carefully for further tricks,” I said to them. It was important to not be complacent.

I cast Shallow Grave after issuing my orders and re-summoned skeletons to fill up a squad that had been badly depleted. While in theory I could control each summoned undead soldier individually, the difficulty was immense. Think about rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time, but then extend that control to a dozen troops. The most I could control at once was three, although it seemed as my WIS grew, that challenge became easier.

Because of the difficulty of managing each warrior, the golems had done a number on my melee types, on top of the three the boss had dispatched. I only had my two skeleton generals, my ranged caster skeletons, and one gnoll reincarnation. I attempted to reincarnate the earth golems, but as they were never living creatures, I simply received a message:

Skill has Failed

Tsk. It was expected, but nothing could be done about it.

With all our firepower now focused on the boss, and Glenn and Mark carefully assessing the boss and surrounding arena, we developed a sort of ‘flow’ of battle. Events moved smoothly as we whittled down the boss one blow at a time.

Alan shifted his shield at just the right angle to avoid the claws piercing his shield and severing his arm. Lucas retreated just a second faster than the boss could retaliate after his attacks. Jessica and Maria only took shots at the boss when he was mid-attack which provided those openings for Lucas, and reduced the chance their arrows were deflected. Even Anna, dressed head to toe in something only a royal would wear, sent her ice spells at the perfect timing, never allowing the boss any gaps to take advantage of.

Boss fights could never get too comfortable, though. “Thomas dodge!” Glenn suddenly yelled. Thomas hesitated for a moment, as Alan was under fifty-percent HP and needed a heal. That split second of hesitation sent Thomas flying six feet in the air sideways. The ground beneath his right foot exploded upwards.

Alan, feeling the pressure now, chugged a potion. Even at thirty-percent HP, a direct attack might have been enough to end his life. Richard could feel it too, casting an instant heal on Alan and slamming his mace and shield with even more fervor at the boss. The situation suddenly took a disastrous turn.

I sent six undead against the boss on a suicide mission as Jessica rushed to Thomas. The six skeletons jumped at the boss’s back like monkey’s and clung to its fur. If you looked at their thin frames and made a judgment, you’d be underestimating their strength. Their boney bodies latched around its arms and thighs from behind. Their vice-like grip stopped the bosses frenzied attacks and gave a moment of reprieve.

Jessica used that moment to pull a potion from her inventory and poured it into Thomas’s mouth. He wasn’t moving and didn’t seem conscious, but a moment later we heard a cackling and loud coughing. His HP was somewhere around forty-percent and steadily climbing from the potion. Jessica helped lean him up and then he cast a heal on Alan from a sitting position.

The six skeletons on the boss had been ripped off one at a time in quick succession. Their grip was so strong that their hands still held patches of fur from the boss. They had been tossed away, exploding like glass on the face of a nearby cliff. Still, they had done their job well.

But, as if things couldn’t get worse, the ground pulsed again and six more earth golems appeared. Jessica was the first to react, fully taking Thomas in her embrace and dashing away from the two golems that spawned near here.

“Follow Jessica! Everyone except Alan and Richard!”

The moment the golems appeared I had a new idea. With everyone rushing to where Jessica had put Thomas down, the six golems were chasing in one big group. Anna didn’t even need to be prompted, casting Blizzard above them and engulfing them in swirling icy death. The sound was a constant pattering that grated on my ears, like hail hitting concrete repeatedly. Chunks of stone and ice flew through the air.

Maria and Jessica both used their respective CC: Quagmire Trap and Entangling arrow. The golems, with no intelligence, fell into an impossible situation. The ice whittled away at them one chunk at a time, and when the golems were nearly approaching the end of Anna’s AoE spell, Lucas was waiting With wind Slash. The six had become brittle enough to lose their heads in one strike.

While this had seemed to be the best way to deal with them, there had also been great risks involved. I hadn’t paused to dwell on what might have gone wrong, as the situation was developing into something we were losing control of. With great risks came great rewards and I had taken a chance. Our grouping the spawns together had paid off: the golems were gone, and the boss hadn’t cast a ground AoE effect under our feet.

After that small victory, the fight fell into a rhythm like before. The boss was now as exhausted as we were. His attacks no longer as frenzied, which allowed Alan and Richard to gain the upper hand.