To their credit, the other members of the party formed up on Jay much quicker than expected. The whole party gathered in front of the merchant’s wagon, updating their stats while eyeing their new challenge.
Jay dumped all of his free statistic points into his Strength. He knew this boss was going to require more than running in circles. In front of the party, a half dozen boars were gathered around the big boss.
“Can you handle the extra boars if I keep the big guy’s attention?” Jay asked the group.
“Probably,” Ken said in nonchalant agreement. “He looks nasty. I can take him for you if you want.”
“Really?” Jay asked, incredulous.
“Absolutely not.” Ken sprinted off to get the attention of the adds, short for additional monsters, while Jay loaded up his crossbow. The boars seemed content to allow Ken to sidle behind them as he took up an advantageous position and waited for Jay to initiate the combat. Strange game logic was bound to work in the party’s favor from time to time. The whole singular of boars just stared at the party, waiting to be provoked.
Jay lowered his crossbow, setting the sights on the boss, and fired an Aimed Shot straight for the head. The Big Bad Boar took the bolt straight on the chin. Actually, on the chin. The attack landed right in the center, taking a far smaller chunk of health than Jay would prefer, and the blow initiated combat. The boss charged, along with the other boars at his side, straight for Jay.
Jay tried to follow up by activating Analyze on the boss creature, but the ability failed for the first time. He was not pleased to be flying blind against his first boss. Fortunately, Ken was able to successfully pull the attention of the Adds through a few well-placed stab attacks.
As the boss charged, Jay possessed no desire to meet it head on, remembering his last failed stand. He dove to the side, hoping the merchant would ditch the wagon. Jenny and Taylor Lynn also scattered out of the way, but he was surprised to see the merchant was already heading off into the distance, making his escape with wagon in tow. He had completely abandoned the party to their battle. Obviously, they wouldn’t be turning the quest in to him.
Jay tried to reload his crossbow, but the boss wasn’t going to let him catch his breath. The giant-sized boar spun, trampling a wide semicircle to whip its tusks down at Jay. The speed of the attack caught him off guard, so he swung his crossbow up like a shield to block. Not a smart move.
The crossbow shattered under the force of the blow. Thanks to the immersion, he could feel the splinters and cuts erupt all over his hand as he was sent sailing ten feet backwards. He landed on his rear but scrambled to his feet as quickly as possible. He drew the dagger, quickly learning that holding it was going to be tricky for awhile with his wounds. His HP dipped, but he felt one of Jenny’s tags activate. As he glanced at his status bar, the health slowly began to tick back up.
Taylor Lynn was pelting the Big Bad Boar with alternating fire and icicle blasts from the edge of her range. It seemed completely unfazed by her, despite her dealing all the damage so far. The creature was deeply angry with Jay, for reasons he couldn’t fathom. Anger or stupidity, maybe. The two mages would make for easier hunting, but life wasn’t fair.
He took in a deep breath, instantly regretting it as a nauseating scent wafted off the boar and invaded his nostrils. He saw a message flash to inform him of the debuff his character was under.
System Message: You are under the effects of the Rancid Meat debuff. All physical statistics have been decreased by 2 points for the remainder of the battle.
Jay was starting to think the deep immersion of full diving was more trouble than it was worth. The creature took advantage of his being distracted to kick one of its meaty legs out at him. He tried to shuffle out of the way, but even with his speed, the kick connected with his left shoulder. He felt the shoulder pop out of his socket as his health plummeted.
Thanking his stars he was right-handed, he braced against the pain and decided it was time to put his dagger to good use. He felt another of Jenny’s tags land on him and could sense a surge of strength flood his muscles. Leaping back into the fight, Jay began to dance around the large boar’s legs, dodging and weaving between strikes. It was difficult for the giant monster to get momentum to hit him when he was so close.
He left slash after slash on the meat of the boar’s legs, but the attacks weren’t dealing much damage. Taylor Lynn was having the same problem. All of their attacks were landing against the hide, which was heavily reducing the damage.
Jay tried leveling an attack higher up the shoulder. The attack suffered from two problems: first, the act of jumping gave the boar much more time to react. Jay was faster, but the extra time spent gaining height almost earned him a tusk in the love handles. Not something he was interested in. Second, the shoulder area was even tougher than the normal hide. He nearly lost his dagger trying to cut through.
At a loss, he dropped down to whirl around the giant boar’s legs. As he found the rhythm to stay out of danger, he began to concoct another plan. The party wasn’t dealing much damage and Jay wasn’t sure they could win a war of attrition. He was on the edge of another deadly mistake.
He caught a glimpse of Taylor Lynn, her face twisted in rage as she whispered spell after spell to little effect. Neither fire or ice were working. She tried to call upon an ice spell and a fire spell at the same time, but it didn’t have the power she hoped for; multiple spells at the same time, apparently, did not work. She searched for another plan, but this was supposed to be a low level boss, and only a quest boss at that. Everything she knew implied the party should be able to just beat it to death.
Jenny, on the other hand, was focused on the efforts of her brother against the horde of Adds. She hoped against hope she would not need to intervene, but she was ready to.
Ken was in the midst of a vicious dance among the extra boars. The steps were a little easier with a little more room on the dance floor. Two boars had already fallen, but easier did not mean easy.
His strategy revolved around allowing the boars to charge him, dodging away from the line of fire, and landing a few blows on the boars as they flew past. It took the beasts a moment to re-orient to try again. His enemies were thankfully not that smart, which was a saving grace for Ken. He could tell Jenny was watching after him, so he called out to her as he fought.
“Wish they could have given us a little more challenge,” he quipped between gasps for breath, his momentum never slowing.
Jenny shot him a skeptical look through the throng of boars. “I’ve got my eyes on you. The monsters still have a couple levels on us, even if we are working together.”
“The higher level is the only thing keeping it interesting.”
They left it there as the battle continued. Jenny started sending blasts from her staff to join Taylor Lynn and Jay’s attacks, but the energy strikes were just as ineffectual as the others. She made a game out of trying to strike the boss in the eye to keep herself amused as the fight dragged on.
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Taylor Lynn smacked her palm into her face so hard it left a mark. “Jay, we’re going about this wrong. It’s not a quest boss, it’s a real boss.”
Jay shot a look over at her as he caught another stomp of the hooves on his small dagger. The blow dealt damage to his health, even blocked. He grit his teeth at the impact, letting her words rattle through his mind as he caught up with her train of thought. Finally, he nodded decisively as he dodged out of the way of the boar dropping its full bulk to the ground, anticipating the new plan. “Help Ken; I’ll hold.”
Jenny looked at the other woman in confusion. She did not possess the ability to intuit her friend’s plan borne out through hundreds of hours of cooperation. She needed it spelled out.
Sensing her confusion, Taylor Lynn rushed to explain: “We gotta kill the Adds, so our focus isn’t split.”
“Duh, the Adds!” Everything clicked into place for Jenny as Taylor Lynn found a better angle and started blasting spells past the Boss into the three remaining boars Ken fought. Jenny immediately started to fire blasts from her staff, as well. Working together with one common goal, they were able to quickly eliminate the remaining enemies. Only the boss remained.
Jay abandoned his deadly game, resorting to running around in circles. This was, ironically, the thing he had not thought would be required. The Boss looked enraged at the destruction of his singular, even worse than when he had been attacked. Taylor Lynn and Jenny returned their efforts to the Big Bad Boar as Ken dashed over to involve himself in the fight.
As Ken waded into the melee, the Boss seemed uncertain about which of the men striking it with metal weapons to focus attention on. The boss spun, slowing its attacks, as it delivered individual attacks to Ken and Jay in turn. The Mages continued blasting the boss, but the loss of its horde hadn’t made its hide any more susceptible to attack. Watching the large animal spin was comical but deadly.
“I’m running low on MP,” Taylor Lynn called out.
“Me too,” Jenny hollered in agreement.
The boss was still healthy, holding onto over half of its HP. Each member of the party struggled to keep pace with the battle while trying to think up a plan. There was no way the front line would last to the end without healing and their current pace spelled doom with a tapped out Rune Cleric.
When the Boss went to strike Ken again, Jay noticed something alight on his screen.
“Taylee,” he called out. Taylor Lynn bore a hole in the back of his head with a glower he could not see. “When I say ‘go,’ throw as powerful a spell as you can into the boar’s belly.”
He turned slightly as he dodged and made eye contact with Ken. “Ken, likewise, jump on him with everything you’ve got.” The man offered no acknowledgment, but Jay was forced to trust he would act.
Jay charged the Wild Strike skill, waited for the Big Bad Boar to attack Ken, and then yelled out, “GO!”
As Ken jumped into the air, the giant boar twisted in the middle of an attack to strike out with tusks, instead of hooves. At the same moment a small pellet hit the snout, distracting it just enough for Ken to get away clean. At a glance, Jay could see a simple slingshot in Jenny’s hand, a grim look of determination on her usually cheerful face. The healer continued pelting the giant boar with small rocks.
Taylor Lynn’s oversized icicle blast struck the boss in the soft underbelly, dealing heavy damage. It wasn’t enough to fell it, so Jay executed his part of the plan. He dove forward, slicing deeply into the already wounded underbelly with his dagger as he rolled underneath the animal. He was relying heavily on his high speed to carry him through without being crushed. It almost worked.
Jay howled in pain as the boss collapsed to the ground, defeated. The whole party rushed over to him as everyone feared something terrible. He appeared to have plenty of HP, but no one had experienced the effects of a critical injury yet. Even if being sent to respawn would fix everything, losing a full level was a high cost.
System Message: Strained Shipments quest updated! Defeat the Big Bad Boar and his singular to receive increased rewards. Boars Killed: 18/20. Big Bad Boar: 1/1.
“Ohmigosh. What happened, Jay?” Jenny said, instinctively grabbing him by the arm, her other hand frantically searching for another healing tag in her belt. “I can’t heal. Few more. Seconds.”
“I—I stubbed my toe diving through like that,” Jay grimaced as he forced the words out through teeth gritted in pain.
The somber atmosphere popped like a bubble, as the rest of the party howled with laughter at his predicament. He glared at each of them in turn. Even Ken couldn’t help but laugh.
“It’s realistic toe pain!” Jay declared in indignation, which served only to send the rest of the group back into a fresh fit of chuckles. When everything finally died down, Taylor Lynn brought everyone back to task.
“We should loot, now the boss is gone.”
“Go for it,” Jay answered with a distracted nod. “I’m going to catalog the creature.”
Jay activated the power, which he still didn’t understand properly, on the defeated Boss. The power traced the Boss, as it had with every other monster Jay activated it on, but the effect was much more pronounced this time.
Title gained: Hunter of Bosses! This title grants the player a ten percent damage bonus when attacking Boss Monsters and two points in every statistic.
As the ability finished, Jay tuned into the conversation the others were having about loot. The Boss had dropped a crafting item, called the Big Bad Tusk, which could be used to craft weaponry. Ken offered to hold onto it, since he had expressed interest in crafting arms and armor previously. Jay didn’t speak up, so as not to build any ill will. He wasn’t particularly interested in crafting, anyway.
The boar dropped a total of twenty gold Prints, which meant five coins to each party member. The amount was not much for Taylor Lynn or Jay, but the twins assured them it was a fair drop. The rest of the loot turned out to be useless junk and basic crafting items. If all went well, there would be enough for Ken to craft something, so he held onto those basic pieces, too.
“You never shared your quest with us,” Taylor Lynn pointed out. “But if you do, I’m sure we can find another two boars to put down along the way.”
Jenny nodded, opening her windows promptly, “Here it is.”
System Message: My Friend’s Hut quest shared! The enigmatic old lady, Bertha Longshadow, has lost her wedding ring at her friend’s hut in the woods outside Ilra. Make your way to the hut and find her ring. Wedding Ring Returned: 0/1.
“That’s a weird one alright,” Taylor Lynn said.
“Should be lots of fun,” Jenny agreed, missing the hesitation in her friend’s voice.
The party made their way towards the quest location deep in the woods.
“I still don’t understand why you’re the one who gets a squirrel with death ray powers,” Ken said, breaking into the polite chatter as they traveled. He sounded sullen.
“Where’s Strogia on the world map, anyway?” Jay asked, opening the map so he could try and follow the explanation. He didn’t want to linger on Ken and his jealousy and risk further straining his relationship with the man. At least, not until the favor of completing their quest was returned.
“It’s not,” Ken said blankly, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Very funny, Ken. I’m honestly curious. Should we go there?” Jay pressed, wanting to know more about his pet.
“He’s not lying,” Jenny said. “It’s part of the game’s lore. Strogia was a country in the human empire, embroiled in constant war with another unnamed country lost to the histories. The governor who oversaw Strogia was losing too many men, so he called upon a friend of his who practiced magic. The wizard performed experiments to create animal soldiers, but he preferred darker forms of magic. This dark mage created the original ‘Strogian Death squirrel.’ Both countries were destroyed, leaving behind only the record books and one dark wizard.”
“You really know a lot of lore,” Taylor Lynn said adoringly. Jenny might know even more about the game than she did, which was precisely the type of thing Taylor Lynn respected.
“Cuddles is still very cute, though, even if he is a destroyer of nations,” Jenny answered, beaming at Taylor Lynn. She scratched the black-as-night squirrel behind his ears, seemingly unafraid. Jay could have sworn he heard his weird pet purr.