System Message: A Conflict in the quest “Something Cool” has been discovered. Resolving…

With barely enough time to register that there was a lag time, the second message came in.

System Message: Olar the Rambunctious has fallen during an assault on the alligator Dissimu village. You have investigated the area but cannot bring him a trophy. Partial Completion, resolving.

Jay noticed a chunk of experience come in but couldn’t tear his focus away from the current conflict. Igno and Svelt did not stop for Olar, leaping over him into the next conflict. The party joined them, slowly clearing the way to the Elder with a dozen more bodies of crocodiles wearing their Battle Forms.

When reinforcements finally dashed into the Elder’s sanctuary, without permission this time, the area had been thoroughly trashed. The Elder’s plants were torn up, claw marks marring every surface. Several of the trees were split in half. The only thing that remained untouched was the pool.

Pami the Elder stood in the pool’s center, entirely at peace with the chaos surrounding her. She appeared uninjured. Although the area around the pool was destroyed and slick with blood, the pool remained completely clear.

With backs to the reinforcements, staring down Pami, stood what Jay assumed were two crocodiles wearing the War Form of the Dissimu. The evil-looking creatures no longer stood on two legs. Instead, other limbs came down to the ground. Standing on all fours, the creatures looked like overly muscular dragons or some steroid-induced dinosaur. They had no wings but were plated with green scales thicker than Sarah’s plated armor.

Low rumbling noises escaped the maws of the War Form creatures. Pami didn’t seem in immediate danger, making it the perfect time to develop a strategy. Igno and Svelt were interested in no such thing, throwing themselves into combat with the War Forms. They let loose roars of fury, taking deep offense to the presence of the other creatures. As Jay understood it, the mere sight of these War Forms unleashed the Rage inside the alligator warriors.

Dissimu Crocodile (War Form), Level: 40 [Elite] [Boss]. Health: 20,700/20,700.

The creature’s health pools were something out of a nightmare, even worse than their image. As Jay watched, Pami transformed into her Battle Form and stepped up to join the warriors in fighting one of the War Form crocodiles. It was pretty clear what the scenario expected from the party, but Jay wasn’t sure they were up to it.

Sarah charged to the front of the party, activating her taunt ability to get the second War Form’s attention without being told what to do. Her ability successfully got the enemy’s attention, which promptly swung one of its forelegs in an arc, starting to turn as it did. The monster’s bulk prevented it from turning quickly, so to Jay’s senses, the movement was snail-levels of slow.

When the giant foreleg slammed into Sarah’s prepared shield, the blow sent her sailing backward, completely knocking her off her feet. She wasn’t tossed clear to the wall but landed three feet from the creature on her back. Activating a buff, she kicked herself back to her feet; the beast was already following up on its first attack.

The War Form pushed her back to the wall of the sanctuary. Jay feared she’d be crushed to death against the creature’s bulk. Still, she used the cavern wall to support herself, pushing with all the muscles in her body against the monster.

Taylor Lynn and Casey landed vicious magic attacks wherever they could, which proved highly effective against the creature. The thick-plated scales didn’t protect it from magic. Jenny’s buffs began fluttering around the party in the form of her small tags. They brought healing and defensive boosts and even increased the effectiveness of magical attacks.

Jay and Ken ran to the monster’s sides, with Jay being faster than his companion. Their blades slashed out viciously into the plates of the monster, but the armor was much more effective at protecting from Jay’s physical weapon.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

On the other hand, Ken’s blade, composed of magic power, slashed straight through the plated armor. The damage was effective.

Jay continued slashing into the War Form as fast as he could. His damage was negligent in the grand scheme of the party, but he sought out the blindness trigger from his weapon. He wasn’t sure whether or not strikes that landed on the metal plates would count.

He was confident that the usage of his traps would be wholly ineffective. The trap bolts hadn’t worked on the Battle Form, so they would surely fail against the War Form. Using his magical ammunition, he tried blasting the creature at point-blank range. Typically, shots fired so close from his crossbow were highly powerful. The magic ammunition dispersed uselessly against the creature’s metal plates.

Sarah was able to break away from being trapped against the wall but ended up causing her to drag the creature’s mouth straight toward Ken. The War Form lashed out at him, connecting with the side of his body and sending him hurtling toward the other War Form creature battling against the alligator warriors and Pami.

The mass of bodies blocked Jenny from getting too close, but her tag was already slowly healing Ken. His health soared, stopping to drink a potion, and he was right back in the fight.

“Sorry!” Sarah called as he returned. “I didn’t want that thing to crush me to death against the wall.”

Ken made a very slick move, sliding underneath the creature’s body and slashing at its underbelly.

Jay activated his vital points ability, hoping that the underbelly would be a weak point of the creature. The massive monster had almost no weak points from head to toe. Even the bottoms of its feet were protected by a thick hide. The only weakness was the creature’s eyes. Jay couldn’t find the right angle to target them appropriately in the small sanctuary. He deactivated it to avoid wasting his mp.

Jay was seriously missing Carlos and his ability to directly heal a target. Sarah was cycling through all her different abilities, trying to mitigate as much damage as possible. The creature likely had high Strength, or whatever the monster equivalent was, because it dealt heavy damage. The attacks were slow, but Sarah barely had time to recover between strikes. Her health slowly spiked toward zero, but she recovered with a healing potion whenever it dipped too low.

During the fight, Taylor Lynn briefly pulled the creature’s aggression. The timing was great since Sarah was rocking ten percent health at the time, even though it was purely unintentional.

Taylor Lynn chained together several powerful spells, culminating in dropping several cooldowns into one strike. The boosted spell was cast instantly, chaining all meteors directly at the single target. The single magical attack took down twenty-five percent of the War Form’s health and sent it charging for Taylor Lynn.

Jay grabbed her, air dodging out of the path of the monster. The monster slammed into the stone wall, taking negligible damage and shaking the whole sanctuary. Sarah immediately called the creature back to her with another taunt. Before she could drink a potion, the beast charged again.

This time Ken came to the rescue, switching battle positioning with Sarah with a well-timed ability. He pushed her out of the way, ending directly in the path of the monster’s charge. Just in time, he used two steps along the wall to clear out of the charge’s way.

The heavy investment of damage from Taylor Lynn had sent the creature to half its health, but no threshold ability was triggered. The War Forms were vicious and amassed loads of damage but were ultimately predictable foes.

Sarah went through so many potions that the party had to find a plan for Jay to pass more to her. Ultimately, they had picked a meeting point, and Ken confused the creature with a smoke bomb. Jay had quickly passed the potions to his sister, taking only two seconds in a trade window, and she had returned to her position as the tank.

It was ludicrous, but the process worked.

There were several more close calls during the fight with the War Form, but everyone in the party survived through the liberal use of potions. A considerable chunk of ten thousand experience rolled in when the creature finally fell. Jay finally had a moment to check on the status of the other War Form crocodile.

The monster slammed into Igno and Svelt in turn, sending them sprawling. Over their nameplate hung the same debuff Kamala had received, placing them out of the fight. The creature then charged Pami, who held it off with her Battle Form.

Her enemy pushed forward to trample her, but she ducked underneath the creature, tearing at its throat. The monster fell limp, landing the bulk of its head onto the Elder. She fell underneath the weight. The size crushed her, sending her health dropping to a single point. The whole thing was obviously arranged as part of the current assault scenario.

Pami began to call for Jay, her voice raspy. “Monster Hunter... Come closer.”