As Lord OhZone and his party reached the summit, a heated conversation became audible. His gaze met with Coop, who was of all things, embroiled in a quarrel with the Raid Boss. And she had had the audacity to suggest that Lord OhZone should work on his sneaking skills! This would be addressed later.

Neko tackled the Raid Boss, distracting it from its intended target. Unfortunately, Neko was thrown across the clearing by a purple energy emanating from the boss' body - such are the sacrifices made by a tank to protect their healer. It was an act of pure heroism.

Lord OhZone's eyes narrowed as he beheld the round, diminutive figure of Velexeristixis - a Demon Lord raccoon whose glowing nameplate smoldered with dread. As it moved, its dark presence seemed to be connected to an Oversoul, with arcane tendrils, leaving a trail of purple energy that filled the air with an aura of foreboding.

Powerful magical energies surged and intertwined with an ethereal purple fog. Lord OhZone stood tall, his commanding presence palpable in the clearing. Clad in plate armor and a regal cape, he scanned the area with hard eyes as his strong voice echoed through the air; "What are you waiting for? Boss is pulled, get at it!" His sword glowed in one hand, as he swung it towards the Demon Lord Raccoon, and his followers surged to obey.

The players were a frenzied blur of movement, leaping into battle and unleashing their weapons and spells in a dazzling array of colors. Flames, ice, and lightning sparked and swirled with magical energy as the players burned through their cooldowns in a clash against the Demon Lord's oversoul barrier.

Lord OhZone watched closely however, and quickly noticed that the Boss' HP bar was hardly ticking down. "Hold cooldowns!" he shouted harshly, "Boss is in an immune phase!" The attacks slid off of the purple oversoul or were swatted away by the tendrils.

The crackling of magical energies steadily faded to a low hum as the raiders settled into their accustomed roles. Lord OhZone felt the heavy weight of his mistake, but knew he couldn't make another rushed decision. Steeling himself, he charged forward and ushered his rag tag group into the fray.

That moment of foolishness had cost them dearly, some of those cooldowns would not recharge before the fight was over, win or loss. Lord OhZone tried to remain calm; this was merely a predicament that needed solving. The enemy was not unbeatable, he simply had to figure out a solution.

The healers were busily attempting to keep their allies alive, and while they were doing a commendable job, Their resources were being depleted quickly. Through low efficiency heals, healers targeting the same player at the same time, or players falling through the cracks. It was embarrassing to see as the raid leader.

Lord OhZone turned to Coop in hopes of having her marshal the healers into a more effective force, but Coop and Neko were stubbornly soloing the raid boss, leaving Lord OhZone alone with this mess.

He turned to BowsGoBrrrr, "I don't care if you damage the enemy or not," he growled. "Just learn as much as you can about the raid boss' tactics - that may be our only hope."

BowsGoBrrrr nodded in understanding and resumed her relentless assault on the enemy combatant, yet now also vigilantly monitored the battlefield. Once again Lord OhZone felt blessed to have found her.

Lord OhZone swooped through his chaotic throngs of subordinates, surveying the sprawling conflict. Over eighty players swarmed in four distinct clusters -- His own cohort, Coop's rabble of raccoon minions, Karl's small but experienced crew, and random recruits who had been summoned to join in this open raid.

The air was alive with energy, distracting Lord OhZone from his objective. The battlefield braced itself as Nekomata's health plummet in front of them. An array of tendrils burst forth from Lord Velexeristixis and lashed out at the tank and the raiders. The raid took massive damage, but Lord OhZone noticed that for the first time, the Boss took damage as well. They had finally reached the second phase of the battle.

With the fight progressing without him, Lord OhZone had no time for frivolities, he barked orders at his underlings, swiftly assembling the disparate forces of players into cohesive units and allocating healers to each one. He watched as the health bars stabilized, but it was barely enough.

He snapped his fingers and grabbed an officer standing nearby. "Add any new recruits into seven player parties, I do not care about synergy, just make sure each party has a healer assigned. Do not let any one under 2k rating into the raid, they will only get in the way."

The mage gave a reluctant nod before he strode away-- They both knew that above all else, damage dealers prized their parse. Lord OhZone cared not. Kills first, parse second.

Lord OhZone refocused his gaze on the looming fight ahead "Bows, what have you come up with for us?" LordOhZone asked in his commanding voice.

"The Bosses pulses every twenty seconds, and we take huge unavoidable damage," Bows replayed confidently.

LordOhZone barked orders to his crew. “Healer area of effect cooldowns: heheHeals first, MiracleMedic second, SoothingSoul third, and RestorativeRanger on standby.”

That had been the biggest risk to the raid. Even a half followed cooldown order would serve them well, especially with a reserve so all healers didn't use their skills on a panic push of a button.

“What else?” Lord OhZone growled, feeling a bit of relief that the hardest hurdle had been cleared.

"The Tendrils inflict an arcane damage-over-time effect on any character they hit. One lash is painful, two stacks are seriously damaging and at three stacks the player explodes, dealing area damage. Tendrils hone in on players in melee range. If no one is, they target anyone who already has an arcane lash stack."

"Healers," He addressed the raid, "focus heal anyone in your party with Arcane Lash on them. Burst heal anyone at two stacks, even if they're not in your party."

"Mobile damage dealers in front of each tendril, focus on dodging the lashes. Jump out at one stack of the debuff, or two if you have a damage reduction skill ready. If I see anyone not hopping in and leaving a tendril alone, I'm throwing you in with Neko and Coop."

"What's next?" The damage the fat little raccoon caused was mostly managed, and it was nearly time to mete out retribution.

"Some of Coop's raccoons are restraining the tentacles. They seemed effective at first, we burned down and destroyed a tendril—only it charged bright purple and then exploded in area damage that killed two players. The raccoons are still tying down the things, but they eventually break out."

“What happened to the one we destroyed?”

Bows' eyes sharpened as she scoured the battlefield before finally noticing the lifeless limb hanging from the raid boss' side. “It.. hasn't respawned.”

Aha! There it was - victory could be found by simply severing the monster's limbs and leaving it exposed and vulnerable.

Lord OhZonee glanced at Bows with a determined spark in his eye. “Take your party and a pack of whatever raccoons are tying the tendrils down. Have whoever is most mobile attract the tendril's attention, the racoons secure it, and then your damage dealers burn it down and get out before it detonates.”

She gave Karl a nod and charged off into battle. Lord OhZone couldn't help but think how nice it was to have at least one competent follower.

He watched as Bows' group assaulted a tendril with precision and speed, the raccoons worked together to tie it down quickly, and in no time the tendril was bursting. Two of Bows' damage dealers were caught in the blast, but with two healers prepared to buffer the blast, they emerged unscathed, their only lingering damage a minor scolding from Bows.

The next tendril was vanquished without incident.

Even with their rough start, the raid was going well. Though the Taco Knights had been behind initially, it seemed their success was within grasp. With fires doused, Lord OhZone surveyed the battlefield.

Nekomata and the Raccoon Lord continued to battle, the divine-devil engine of Neko’s humming with each blow he received. Brenda kept interfering and distracting the Raccoon Lord to allow Neko to recover. The pair worked quite well together, if you didn't pay too much attention to their constant bickering.

Karl's group had split into two packs for killing tendrils. The better equipped players were doing admirably on their own but Lord OhZone wasn't pleased about them splitting off during a raid without his direction. That was another situation that would need addressing.

Now that Bows was in play, observing the raid fell squarely on Lord OhZone. He noticed for the first time one of Coops packs of raccoons, the garbage gang, rummaging through broken bits of machinery, making a chaotic pile. He wasn't sure if they would cobble together something dangerous, useful, or if they were just playing with garbage.

Before Lord Ohzone had time to ponder further, a voice pierced the stale air: "The last tendril is about to go down!"

"Ready your spells casters! We may only have a small window to deal damage, healers keep your rotation in the new phase" bellowed Lord OhZone, bracing for retaliation from the Demon Lord Raccoon.

The tendril exploded, sending ripples of energy inward that shattered the Demon Lord's defensive oversoul. BigBadBrenda was sent flying back, her life bar dangerously depleted.

With the shattering if his oversoul, Lord Velexeristixis was surrounded by a whole new array of arane tenticles, but now his defenses were wholly down.

"Change in plans! Bows and Karl, mobilize your tendril packs! Everyone else, let's burn this boss!" Lord OhZone shouted.

Bows and Karl's parties moved with precision, taking out the newly formed tendrils with ease as they fell into their familiar pattern. The rest of the raid unleashed their spells with ample force, giving their all to bring an end to this battle.

The health of the monstrous boss gradually decreased - 99%, 95%, 85%. When Bows' and Karl's parties finished their work and added to the destruction Lord OhZone felt victory in his grasp.

When the Raccoon Lord reached 80% health, a massive eruption of arcane might thundered throughout the clearing, blasting everyone back and enveloping them in an ever-growing miasma of damaging debuffs.

The demon formed a singular massive tendril of Arcane energy. The behemoth lashed out in vengeance with immense power, Lord OhZone looking on in despair as his schemes were laid to waste.

A beam of golden light shone forth from Coop's Legendary Plunger The Unblockable Miracle, fueling a staggering display of healing. Its bright white radiance fought the Raccoon Lord’s wicked tendril, staunching its power and restoring hope in a single moment.

Coop was giving it her all, this single heal alone was restoring more health than the entirety of the fight before this point, but the damage was just too much, the raid as a whole was steadily ticking down.

"Raid wide warning! Use every defensive ability you have at your disposal!" Lord OhZone activated his Stalwart Defense ability, Second Wind. All abilities were exhausted so he searched for a way to survive. Then it came to him like an epiphany - he air guitared furiously for the 2% vitality buff.

Lord OhZone surveyed the raiders. Many glowed with an ethereal hue and stood in defensive stances, anything they could do to withstand the onslaught of damage. A few even copied Steven's frenzied air-guitar playing.

The tempest of destruction eventually ceased. Despite all their valiant efforts, four brave players perished.

But when Lord OhZone looked upon the fat little raccoon, he smiled. The little guy was all tuckered out.