CooperTheSly and her packs of raccoons slinked through the open terrain, taking cover amongst gravel and broken stumps. The area had been hit hard, all tall vegetation wiped out, leaving them exposed to whatever dangers lurked ahead.
Coop and her band of shaggy brigands spotted Lord OhZone creeping up as well, his bumbling force of gleaming steel clanging as they advanced. They might as well have been rolling a bag of pots and pans to the fight.
She held up a paw to get his attention, chittering and clucking softly for emphasis. When he finally noticed her, which took worryingly long in Coops opinion, she called his party to a halt with an authoritative squeak. Coop then carefully sketched out an elaborate plan in the air with her fingers, adding explanatory chirps as she went along. She pointed to the raid boss, tapped her nose twice, quickly made a few cryptic signs in mid-air while chirping and squeaking, and then finally waved her paw toward the Circles encampment.
Lord OhZone stared at her, the picture of a royal commander. His second, the new Taco Knights Officer BowsGoBrrrr, bluntly stated, "We have no idea what you just said."
Coop snapped, "Be quiet! Didn't any of you learn the chittering skill? We had a whole month!"
Bows and Lord OhZone exchanged glances. The former clearly never heard of chittering, before the latter softly suggested, "Maybe it's class-specific?"
"Forget it, we don't have time for this. My scouts found two paths. You and your parade of drums circle around the boss's left flank and stay below the hill until you're almost on top of them, then move up. Me and my gang will cut off the boss's escape route between them and the Circle camp."
Lord OhZone swallowed his retort but still couldn't hide his contempt as Bows directed the party down a slope to remain hidden from sound.
***
As Coop's group approached their target, the air felt heavy and still. They moved in near-silence, barely making a sound as they got into position.
"We're finished stalling," Nekomata snapped.
Before Coop could even think to protest, Demon Lord Velexeristixis had already seen her, standing out in the open with no cover. Coop's heart dropped into her stomach as every member of her party went rigid in shock -- she dearly wished they'd kept stalling for a couple more minutes.
"Demons?!" Lord Velexeristixis seemed just as stunned, if not more, than Coop and her gang.
"That's rude." Coop said, clearly offended, "You're one foul mouthed raccoon."
"What the hell is a raccoon?" he asked.
Nekomata lunged at Velexeristixis, the force of their collision creating a sonic boom that sent the Demon Lord flying. Howling in rage, Velexeristixis unleashed an oversoul of raw energy, flooding the area with dazzling blue and purple hues. Neko was thrown back, limbs trailing behind, as snaking arcane tendrils spun out from the Demon Lord, some forming barriers against damage while others coalesced into deadly blades and spikes.
Coop acted quickly, directing healing magics towards Neko's direction and a spell to soften the landing, as he flew away. She knew that Neko was tough enough to take hits, that had looked nasty.
In a glance, she took in her opponent: the Demon Lord's purple oversoul pulsing periodically with power, corporeal tendrils flailing around -- it looked like they were looking at unavoidable raid damage paired with some nasty spot-healing mechanics.
Spells and arrows flew through the air in a disorganized frenzy of assaults, illuminating the battlefield with explosions of red and orange light. Fireballs, ice arcs and shadow bolts weaved around as they targeted the Raccoon Demon Lord, creating an impressive display of elemental magic. Sparks and shockwaves shook the air each time an attack connected, forming a chaotic dance of destruction.
The impressive display of attacks fell harmlessly around the raid boss.
"Hold cooldowns!" shouted Lord OhZone, "He's in an immune phase!"
Coop barked out orders to her raccoons.
"Masked marauders, go and hold down those writhing tendrils!" She chittered. "Don't worry about the details, just find a way to keep them from moving."
"Nighttime Ninjas, take any shots you can get!" the stealthy critters disappeared from sight, some already taking careful swipes at Lord Velexeristixis, testing his defenses, others stabbing at the flailing tendrils.
"Garbage Gang, look around," She gestured at the destroyed machinery from the portal device and shattered ship all around, much of it in good enough condition for their purposes. "Get to work."
"Divers," the last group held baited breath, as they waited for order, "do your thing!" Coop had no idea what exactly the Dumpster Divers would do, but she was ready to find out. They grinned at her, obviously thrilled to be off the leash. She just hoped she didn't come to regret it.
Neko and Velexeristixis clashed with blinding speed, a flurry of blows and blasts reverberating through the clearing. Neko darted in and out of the Demon Lord's storm of arcane energies, sparks showering them both as he tried to heal himself between strikes. Claw met claw in clanging clashes as Nekomata fought valiantly. Velexeristixis unleashed dark tendrils that whipped around them, but Neko stayed on his feet and fought back - every swing leaving his divine-devil core searing with arcane power.
Coop purged the stacking arcane debuff on cooldown, pumped heals and stacked damage reduction buffs on Neko, not even sure how much it helped.
Neko narrowly dodged the dark tendrils lashing through the clearing. Velexeristixis’ oversoul kept up a relentless defense, warding off fireballs, icy blasts, and arrows with ease as Neko fought for his life in the chaos.
Coop couldn't help but feel the scene was as impressive as it was utterly unsustainable. Not even Neko could keep this up, and even if he could, Coop was burning mana. They had to play perfectly to stay in the game, while the raid boss was untouchable.
Velexeristixis thrust Neko into the air with a ferocity that shook everyone's screens, chunking the tank's health and debuffs stacking up from the immense damage. Coop cycled through all her panic buttons to keep him up. She used all of them but the one, hoping that she didn't just wipe the raid by keeping it in reserve.
Velexeristixis' aura surged like a tidal wave as his oversoul snapped and crackedled, tendrils unlacing themselves and going on the offensive. With a deafening boom, they surged out at the raiders, thrashing and lashing at them. He was no longer invulnerable, his domed defense had been split in two, but now the raiders were to occupied to attack.
Neko's cold golden eyes shimmered like stars as his core and Coops healing fought though the damage he was taking. Velexeristixis chuckled wickedly, and held a paw out in front pointed towards Neko, unfathomable energy charging for an attack "I am going to savor this."
"Coop, I could use some help right now." Neko pleaded desperately. While his claws and teeth crackled with blue and red electricity, Neko was till down and vulnerable. This would be it. Coop reached for her-
Brenda hurled herself into the Demon Lord with a roar, and her shoulder smashed into his side like an avalanche. Their clash triggered an explosion of magical energy - a wild and chaotic torrent that lashed around them both, rebounding Velexeristixis’ own spell back onto him. Brenda was suddenly thrown backward, feeling the violent force of their collision as every fiber of her being trembled in its wake.
Brenda and Neko staggered to their feet, both of them looking a bit worse for wear.
"Lesson number one," Brenda lectured, "if you can't handle a fight alone, don't start it alone. Next time, wait until the whole party is ready before pulling the boss."
Brenda had taken a beating, but Coop was keeping her afloat while Neko was slowly ticking up to nearly half health.
"I'm sorry, I can't hear tanks that have less than a 3.3k rating..." Neko gave the divine-devil core a few taps, trying to get it going again. Lord Velexeristixis was still lying flat on his back a few feet away, engulfed by tendrils that still whipped around him.
"That's a shame, because I only give advice to tanks that get thrown half way across the raid. It's a very exclusive group; You. The group consists of just you."
"Still trying to figure out if I like you or not," Neko eyed her suspiciously.
A wide smile spread across Brenda's face, "Oh honey, it didn't take me long at all to decide I don't like you."
"Quit flirting you two, he's getting back up."
Lord Velexeristixis clambered to his feet. The last shred of reason evaporated from his eyes, replaced only by a zealous fury.
Coop double checked her mana reserves and the healing metrics of the others. Survival was always going to be a slim thing in a raid where they didn't know any of the mechanics, but up until now they'd been able to hang in the fight. The boss still had around three quarters of its health, while the healers had been whittled down to less than half their pool in mana. If nothing changed, they would be wiped out within five minutes.
She looked to Lord OhZone, he would either get this fight back on track, or they'd lose their shot at clearing the raid on only the first boss.