We scattered immediately, running for the edges of the orange damage pad, and I noted a ripple heading outward, "Proximity damage!"

The ripple of darker color was an indicator, letting players know that damage lessened by distance. Okay, so there's the cone slam, the spinning slam, and the jump attack. Umbaar and Khargol were the closest when he'd leaped, and Tanks were not known for speed. While Shelara and Denise were also close, they were markedly faster on foot and cleared it. Our two Tanks though, weren't going to. Khargol knew it and swiveled, bringing his shield to bear, "Dig in!"

Umbaar hesitated, and it cost him. Uk hit the ground with incredible force, and even outside the radius, we felt it. Khargol had fired off his mitigation, and even far from the center, we watched as he lost ten percent of his HP even with his mitigation and shield up. For Umbaar, he went from full health to around thirty percent left. He screamed from the hit even as Velgres and Layala popped off their healing. Even with that, I saw the resistance debuff next to his name. He'd need to avoid getting hit by any further mechanics or this would get bad. Khargol's distance combined with damage mitigation had kept him from getting the debuff.

Umbaar was not the only casualty. The buildings themselves got slammed, breaking down from the force of the hit, now nothing more than wreckage. We'd never seen the fight this way, since the testers had cheesed the encounter previously. They'd used the buildings as cover, the alleys too small for Uk's massive frame, and now that avenue was gone for all of us. Umbaar continued fleeing, while Khargol, Shalera, and Denise pushed back in. The ladies ran for the flanks, while Khargol moved straight in and around, enmity on. For the rest of us on ranged, we fanned out around, keeping our distance to limit how bad the AoEs could suck for us.

Looking back, Umbaar had fully panicked, rushing into the room of the Barbican. Sigh... he wasn't ready for this, and I got it. The dracon Page Umbaar was strong and tough... and being operated by a terrified teenage boy who was trying hard to be a lot bigger than he was. There just wasn't time at the moment to deal with it now. I turned back to the action and got to work, firing arrow after arrow into Uk's back while calling down spot hits from Yndress. Khargol had done his job as Tank, turning the boss away from the rest of the party. Shalera and Denise were on opposite sides, getting their positional attacks in, while Layala dropped debuffs and Velgres gave Khargol regen to slow down how much time she had to spend on actual healing. I was Double-Nocking every shot, with Temur off to the side, cycling through his different elemental bolts, noting the reactions of each. I knew what he was doing, searching for which elements worked best and worst against him. He finally settled on a rhythm, shooting a fire bolt then a poison bolt. Damage Over Time, or DOT, versus raw technical damage. They didn't do as much direct damage, but constantly kept ticking minor bits of damage until their effect period ran out.

His health was whittling down, but he was far from done despite the concentrated damage. Some of it was the lack of Umbaar, but ultimately this was a boss. They were giant damage sponges, with just a ton of HP to spare. I noted the pattern, as he did the same roar he'd started off the combat with, "Cone!"

On cue, Uk raised his maul to slam it down, and Khargol rolled out of the damage pad just before it rained down. It was called greeding in MMO parlance, staying in the damage pad until the last possible instant to get as much damage in as possible before bailing. Do it right, and you maximize your DPS; do it wrong, and... well, here comes the pain. Khargol greeded every time.

Everyone shifted just a few steps to keep formation, and Uk began his regular attacks again, going after Khargol swing after swing. We were ready now, but it was worrying me that we were down damage. It was too early for a timed party-wipe mechanic like other MMOs had, but it was hard to put the thought aside. For a lot of MMO bosses, if you didn't win the battle within a certain amount of time, the boss would simply wipe the entire party in one massive move that was called Enrage. If the boss had ten-thousand hit points, and you only managed nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine before it went off, you just died, period. HP is irrelevant, and damage mitigations are irrelevant.

Thankfully, it didn't seem to be coming up. More hits rained in, and I counted them out, "Circle Slam!"

Shalera and Khargol dropped back, but Denise hadn't understood the call and got clipped. Half her life went down as she grunted in pain, and got the resistance down debuff as well as a stunned condition. Layala and Velgres did what they could to aid, and the dance continued. The problem was more Khargol. He was burning through resources with no off-Tank to swap with. He could keep pushing, but with how slow the HP bar was depleting on Uk, I couldn't take the chance, "Khargol, switch!"

I moved in, changed to Warrior, equipped my shield, and flipped my own enmity on. Khargol belatedly nodded, killed his enmity, and fell back to take over as off-Tank. Now it was on me, and laid in with my ax as I felt the blows coming in. Even blocking with the shield, I was taking damage I could feel through my whole arm. I gritted my teeth and did the work. There was no constructive use in complaining about the predicament we were in, but that didn't make it feel any better. I fired off Resolve, my most basic damage mitigator, and went blow for blow with Uk. Denise was still stunned when Uk leaped back up, and the giant puddle formed. I charged through her position, yanking her off the ground and running for the edge. I wouldn't make it, and with her already sitting with a debuff, she couldn't afford the hit. The stack-up of debuffs would be the death of her. I did the only thing I could think of: I threw her out of the ring. She slammed into the ground outside the orange, and I felt surge power hit me square in the back, no shield or damage mitigator up. I almost passed out, dropping to a negligible three hit points. If Uk sneezed in my general direction before I could get healing, I was done.

The brute was waiting there in the center of the field, not even the debris left of the buildings. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Someone got ready to say something, but I didn't wait. I charged back in. Khargol's cooldowns wouldn't be replenished yet, and we couldn't let him choose a different target now. I felt healing washing over me, but whether it would be enough or not remained to be seen. I changed tactics a bit this time. As Uk swung on me, I spun, attacking the maul with my axe to throw it off, bringing my shield around into a bash. I die or find a new way to fight, something the game wasn't ready for.

The maul's swing went off, slamming into the ground next to me, and the bash connected, but didn't create an opening on this one. He swung again, and I rolled out, swinging out his ankle. I stopped fighting him like a boss, fighting now like it was just a real guy. He didn't grunt beyond the normal, continuing to try and crush me while his own abilities re-upped. I stopped trying to block and maintain, the debuff meaning that any swing would be my last. I knew what was coming, I had the pattern of his attacks, and now I needed to use it. I got my hits in as I could, waiting for my moment. Shield bashes didn't stun him, but that was fine. Like Temur, I was testing, and I had a plan now.

As he planted his feet for the cone slam, I shot up, hopping off the ground then his knee, and slammed my axe into his head instead of simply rolling out. He finally staggered from a blow, and the cone disappeared. There was a cancel, "Head's the weak point!"

Shalera came back into position, an incredulous look on her face as she glanced in my direction, but she went for the head as well. Uk wore a horned helmet, and being armored, we'd stayed away from it, aiming more sure body shots. Now, however, we had a target, and magical shots flew in, striking the helmet from Temur, Layala, and Velgres. Denise shook off her stun, and came back in, going low instead of high. At first, it didn't make a ton of sense given the call, but I saw it soon enough. Uk stood very firmly in position, digging in where he stood. She was testing now, too, looking for a low weakness. It made sense since only ranged folks would have a regular attack option for the head. Swings kept coming in and I kept turning out. I'd canceled the cone attack and that left time for the spinning slam. This time, Khargol weighed in as we started to hop out, abandoning his sword and shield to grab Uk's back as the monster of a man leaned back to start his spin. He dropped full weight, and after a quick moment, Uk came off balance and hit the ground. I was breathing heavily now, fatigue starting to set in, but Uk was down, and we all laid in damage except for Temur, who instead fired off a spider web of force that entrapped the fallen warrior.

Prone and held in place for at least a moment, hits all turned into critical damage. We all started slamming in attacks, barely even aiming anymore. The HP bar began shooting down, and we finally had our path to victory. We got a full thirty seconds of insane damage before Uk ripped clear of the webbing, bellowing out as he got to his feet. Denise's experiment finally hit pay dirt, attacking both of his heels as he prepared for the leap, and dropped him to his knees. We had him now, and it was over. The final blows hit, and the big man choked out blood as he fell to the ground for the last time.

For a while we all just sort of collapsed, sitting on the ground looking at Uk's body. Denise had this shell-shocked expression on her face, "That... was the... first boss?!"

I looked up at the night sky, "Failure of thinking... on our part. Testers cheesed the encounter... we didn't know the attack patterns. Then we lost a Tank, and we didn't think about how to fight him. We just went at him like he was any normal MMO boss. Wasn't 'til it got desperate that I decided to try something."

Khargol walked over and crashed next to me, "Speaking of our Tank..."

I nodded and forced myself to stand, "Yeah, I'll take this one."

Over inside the Barbican, I could hear Umbaar crying, and when I entered, he was on the ground in the corner, "Hey, kid."

He started at the words, then buried his head, "Just go away."

I walked over and took a seat next to him instead, and laid a hand on his shoulder, "It's fine. Everyone's still here."

He shifted his shoulder at the touch, but didn't pull away, "I just wanna go home."

"Me too, kid."

Umbaar looked up at that, "But you're so much better at this."

I laughed, "Oh, don't get it twisted. I barely made it out of that out there, and frankly, I've just been at this longer than you. I used to run away. Hell, video games were where I ran away to."

"You were scared?" His voice was plaintive, but not willing to fully believe.

I pursed my lips, looking at the floor in front of me, "I got beat up a lot when I was little. I was kind of pudgy, I didn't like sports, was math-obsessed, and things weren't really that much better for me at home. There was actually a time when I used to get sick to my stomach when my bullies would break off for over a week, cause I knew it was coming, I just didn't know when, and I knew that when it arrived, it would make up for the lost time. At home, my parents weren't mean to me, but I was... I was like one of those collectible figures like they gave out with the limited edition of the game."

His head rose, and he was looking at me, "What do you mean?"

I know he asked the question, but really, I was just continuing, lost in the thoughts and memories, "To them, to how they treated me and Denise... we were there to look cool, to show off so others could tell them how awesome they were for 'owning' us. We got the best clothes, the best toys, all the best things. We know, because they reminded us of that constantly. Our 'old' toys, which is to say 'no longer trendy', would be thrown away, or given off to Goodwill so they could talk about how they donated so much 'for the less fortunate'. It took me a long time to realize that it was for their own egos.

"And that doesn't even begin to touch the travesty of parenting that is Khargol's mother and father. My parents loved us after a fashion, they were just obsessed with the social status of it. Khargol didn't get that lucky."

We sat quietly for a minute, until I broke the silence, "We all screw up, kid. Kids, teenagers, adults, it's all the same. I was scared out there. I'm fuckin' terrified of losing Chrysta, my friends, and that includes you. You screwed up, and I screwed it up, and Denise screwed it up. And I only pray we'll keep living to screw this up some more in the future. It's the Gamer's Ethos 'We fail 'til we win'," I came up off the floor and offered him my hand, "Now come on, let's get moving. You probably would've been one of the kids beating me up in junior high."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

His face screwed up as he took my hand and rose, "What? No!"

I turned and walked out, calling over my shoulder, "Oh yeah, all the cool kids were doing it."

"I- you think I'm cool?!"

Coming back out, the rest of the party had divvied up the spoils. A ton of vendor trash from the rabble, Khargol was grinning devilishly behind the orcish tusks, proudly laying the haft of the maul across his shoulders, "So, how do I look? Badass, right? It's okay to be impressed by me."

I nodded a single time, "You're very pretty. Everyone back up to full?"

Thumbs up all around, we looked down to the Floating Bridge, our next leg of the journey, "Alright, let's get this moveable feast underway."

We closed on the rise, what Temur had called the Scarp. The Floating Bridge was right in the middle, with no visual blocks, and the archers on the wall were clearly aware of us, firing down even at max range, "Denise, it's showtime!"

We moved around either side of the bridge, and the structure of wooden planks leading up to a drawbridge and barbican, fishing out our grapples and rope as we moved along the side of the structure. We couldn't attack from this angle, but we were also under a degree of cover ourselves from the closest archers. The ones farther away were firing, but their aim wasn't spectacular. When we got to the other side of where the barbican was, we slung up our grapples and nodding across the framework to one another, we began the climb, calling in our dragons to keep the archers nearest our hooks occupied. I stuck to my Warrior job for this, to keep my shield for when we were up top and under more direct fire. We finished off the two archers our dragons were fighting as we came over the side, and I popped my enmity, "Get the release on the drawbridge!"

I didn't bother fighting, instead taking a knee and letting the arrows pile into the shield. Denise hit the release, and the drawbridge dropped, but it was only part of the equation. We dropped down into the murder trench that was our path to the next gate, with me continuing to receive the incoming fire while Denise worked quickly to open the gates. Our party poured into the opening, and I went back to Falconer as we proceeded down the line, returning some arrows to the archers up top. It was slow going, with most changing out to shields to create a protective wall for those of us who had ranged damage to spare. It wasn't particularly difficult, just tedious. We'd come through Uk now, and we knew what we were doing. Shalera and Denise went up top by literally using the shields for a boost and charged down the sides as we kept up fire.

Up ahead, the gates opened, and bandits came pouring into the trench. We wouldn't be able to maintain our shield and fight them, and so abandoned it, letting our melees take care of what remained of the archers while we laid into the ground forces. Getting a boost from Khargol's back, I got up onto the wall, Temur across from me, and we both knelt as took our shots. Staying low, the other archers outside our trench couldn't take aim at us, and with no ladders, we were able to finish off the archers, giving Shalera and Denise a free pass to secure the next barbican as Temur dumped in a ton of AoE damage below. The girls disappeared over the wall into the next section, and we pressed through.

No attacks came from within the barbican this time, taken care of by our melees ahead of time. That just left all the archers and fighters in the Motte. The keep itself was indeed built like a multi-story house, and some shots did come from inside. We mostly ignored those, hidden behind narrow windows. It was a target-rich environment out here, and our healers were working overtime now. We finished out the kills, and I checked my ammo. I'd burned through half my loadout of flaming arrows, but had been able to replace them with bandit arrows, which weren't great, but it was still ammo.

One of the bandit captains had dropped the key for the keep, and we made ready to enter, Tanks at the front. Immediate fire erupted, but the groups were more restrained now, with not as much space for people in the hall. We took down the lot and looked around. Some loot to be had, but outside of a couple of gems and runestones, it was just more vendor trash. We proceeded up to the second, then to the third floor. The remaining enemies weren't too draining, just more bandit fodder, until finally, we were just outside the throne room. I called a halt before heading inside, "Alright, how'd the testers take her down?"

Temur took a quick breath before responding, "They trapped her in one of her trap locations, so we can be sure that's not going to work. Either she'll be immune to the damage, or she'll keep herself out of the areas. The silver lining is she doesn't have backup, so this is 8-v-1."

I nodded, "Okay, gang. Keep an eye out for anything we can do to mess up her plans. It's like with Uk, we were taking the slow way cause we tried to fight him like this was a normal MMO. The attacks you really have to worry about are gonna have a telegraph and cool down, just like ours do. Shalera, you're taking point for trap-searching."

Everyone checked gear, the Tanks repairing their shields as others made ready for the next step in their own ways, "Okay, let's get on it, folks."

We opened the double doors to the throne room and stepped inside. The room was lined with hanging braziers along pillars with a crimson carpet leading up to a raised dais, where sat a throne made of antlers and bones with leather used for the back and seat. Shalera moved in first and led us through without running into any traps yet, until we got to the middle of the chamber, and the doors behind us closed. Not good.

A bright light flashed from the dais, and a woman appeared. She was imposing in height like Uk had been, but her eyes glowed with blue arcane energy as she summoned up power into her hand, "You have come far, adventurers, but this is where the journey ends for you all."

We also started attacking at first, but suddenly everyone went diving away as a dozen orange shapes appeared on the floor. Moments later they exploded, choking the room in smoke, cutting visibility to almost zero, "Guys! Center on me! Keep the healers in the middle! Follow my voice!"

This wasn't good. Our ranged targeting was being foiled by the smoke, unable to get a proper target, and no one could see past a few feet, so we wouldn't see the damage puddles if they appeared out of sight. The party followed instructions, though, and we formed around Layala and Velgres. I called for silence, listening. I could hear footsteps, her moving around... and then another set of footsteps... and another, "Shit!"

The smoke fell away to reveal three Rawennas as opposed to the one we'd come into the room for. All three began chanting as I fired a shot at the one to my left. Umbaar and Khargol charged up the front, while Shalera and Denise broke for the side Rawennas. My shot hit, and I saw her damage bar start dropping. Too much. It was a clone, but that didn't mean it wasn't still a threat. Denise laid into it as well, dropping it further, and everyone began going after whichever one they felt like as layered orange damage puddles covered the floor. There was no escaping at least some damage here, but getting all three was probably a party wipe. I began Double Nocking into the one Denise was fighting, Temur unleashing into the Shalera was in combat with. They didn't seem to notice the hits, continuing their chants, "Move to the sides! Get behind the pillars!"

Everyone sped off, clearing to the sides as we focused on ranged damage. We we rewarded when the one Denise and I had been working on dissipated, cutting one layer down of the puddles. The chants were nearing their ends, and we were forced to hide behind a specific pillar, forming a line that was protected from the damage about to hit. The room erupted in purple energy, and for a moment we thought we were safe until the floor beneath us lit up. Perfect timing on the trap, catching on right before the prior effect had finished, "MOVE!"

We barely got out of it before giant shards of ice exploded out of the floor. The ice creations stayed, meaning we couldn't move back through the previously safe area, "We need to take out the other clone!"

Khargol called out, "They're both clones!"

"Damn it!"

Okay, let's take it by the numbers. Rawenna had to be somewhere in the room controlling all of this, so where would she be? "Temur! DoT AoEs!"

He nodded and began firing around the outer ring of the room in concentric circles to maximize area. The point wasn't the explosions themselves necessarily, it was to hopefully catch her with something a bit harder to dodge if she was invisible, the DoT particle effects hopefully giving away her position, "Everyone else! Focus down the clone closer to my position!"

More damage zones began lighting up around the map in circles, and many of us were forced to reposition in order to avoid blasts of a poison gas explosion. On the one hand, we were avoiding the damage, but it was screwing us on damage. Melees and Tanks had to keep changing up, going out of range, and ranged attacks were generally slower than melee attacks. High damage per hit, sure, but the rate was being thrown off as we had to keep dumping out of shots, Temur especially. As a Sorcerer, he was trapped in position until the last moments before his spells went off, either having to waste the mana to move out or risk punishing hits on a job that wasn't known for its HP and damage reduction. We weren't losing, but we weren't precisely winning either. It couldn't keep up as it was. Temur was already burning a lot of mana on locating Rawenna's main, and the clones were dropping magic into us as well.

I kept observing the floor as we fought, moved, and fought again. There had to be a trick somewhere... got it. There was a single point of the floor that wasn't under threat, but it was only large enough for a single character to stand without being in the danger zone. I ran for it, and called back, "Temur! Switch to my position!"

One of the few things operating in my favor was that I could shoot on the run, if at a penalty to accuracy. Keep enough arrows moving while you do it, and you can mitigate a lot of the damage lost. Temur got over to me, and I took off through one of the puddles, clearing just before it disappeared, and the section exploded with Acid. Both Acid and Poison damage were ticking damage. You took the hit initially, then started taking slight damage every second for a metered amount of time. On instinct honed from years of various games, I ran out of the main area as the rest of the party aside from Temur and myself downed the second clone. The final clone started the larger chant that marked the beginning of the larger AoE. I kept it moving, dropping snares in all the sections of the floor that Temur's explosion rings were missing. The object was to cut the battlefield down for Rawenna. The fight was getting expensive, though, and we still hadn't done any damage to the actual boss.

Mana reserves were becoming a problem. Temur was spamming AoEs around the arena, Supports were dealing with the constant bombardment of both direct attacks, and people getting caught in traps and other AoEs. Even my stock of arrows was going quickly. I still had room to spare, but I had to switch off of the flaming arrows for bandit arrows if I wanted to have enough for Kyron after this. The group was working well together, but even with that, this was a tough fight.

Khargol called time on the room-wide AoE, and I dropped into position behind a pillar, ready to roll out when the ice crystals formed. Temur dropped in next to me, panting, "Geez, man... they were really not playing with this on- dodge!"

We rolled out away from each other as ice crystals exploded out of the ground. He was right, this encounter was kind of crazy for an opening dungeon. Thoughts for later. In the here and now, we had to- Yndress suddenly swiveled toward nothing and screeched, giving me my only warning, barely throwing myself to the ground as a magical bolt flew out of nowhere, "Temur! Boss, light her up!"

She was still invisible, but Temur burned a limited-use of speedcasting to fling a fireball, and this time it found its mark. Damage exploded, almost catching me. Temur had targeted it perfectly, just stopping in front of me. Rawenna didn't appear, but there was a burning silhouette now where she stood. I started Double Nocking one after the other, dropping as much damage as I could, and watching the health bar, this was her. The bar wasn't going down nearly as fast as the clones had. I dropped snares as she cast, relying on dodging out as I dropped them on all sides. She had the same flaw that Temur had: She couldn't really move while casting unless she gave up her spell, and since I wasn't putting her in the damage, she elected to keep up her barrage. It was clear, I was the target, and something niggled at the back of my mind... she was ignoring aggro.

Laying traps didn't increase enmity, and she was even ignoring Temur who'd done actual damage to her, as well as the rest of the party taking down her clones. I was the sole offender in her eyes, which didn't track by how MMOs generally... ah, shit! Of course. I'd been calling out orders, directing everyone's attacks. Her tactics had adapted, just like I'd admonished everyone about multiple times. It was one thing to point out things logically, and another altogether to keep them in your mind in the heat of the moment. She wasn't bothering with them, because they weren't the leader. I was and she needed me off the field.

She stayed right where she was, firing off spell after spell, and I was only getting off single shots now. Double Nock was great as an ability, but between the penalty for shooting on the run, and the penalty for the ability, my accuracy wasn't worth the trade-off anymore. I could do nothing but dodge now and hoped that the party at large managed to finish this up. For his part, Temur was laying in damage on Rawenna, now avoiding the AoEs for the more direct damage, hopefully, either downing her or at least taking the heat off of me. There had to be a way to alert him, "Temur! Go right, slantways!"

It was a ridiculous order, and Temur well-knew it. That was the point, a reference from a Forgotten Realms novel we'd both read years ago. It was one of a million small tricks we could use, and you would need the frame of reference to know what we were talking about. The dracon sorcerer nodded curtly, getting to the task. Temur took over order calling, bringing around Layala to debuff Rawenna as much as she could while the party finished off the final clone. The boss was trapped now, not in a trap, but surrounded by them. With debuff stacks lined up, we laid in damage while everyone moved through the trap zones to get to us. I called out almost pure nonsense orders to people around the field, things no one could accomplish to keep her pinned on me as leader while Temur issued actual orders.

Rawenna did try to move, but with snares on all sides, her understanding of the mechanics meant she was almost fully pinned in position. It took a bit, but we were finally able to take her down. Her staff went to Temur, her robes went to Layala, and we all took a very well-earned rest after spending the majority of time in the fight running. Khargol was laughing heartily as we sat there, "Alright! Who's ready for the real boss?"

Denise walked up and slapped him as hard as she was physically capable of.