Virtualization - 14. Inner Sanctum

“Incoming!” Zuri readies herself for an attack as she hears Gail announce another explosive. The explosion causes the pill bugs in front of her to scatter and, most importantly, unroll, giving Zuri another chance to attack. Two more of the annoying things disappear as both she and Kaja’s strikes land. Two more are taken out by a spread of arrows from Rika.

They’d just finished an encounter with one pill bug and some spiders in the first room of the inner sanctum and encountered more pill bugs in one of the three hallways leaving from it. The first encounter had had proved much less frustrating than the second.

“Ugh! These things are annoying!” Kaja complains as the last three roll up into a ball again.

“At least you guys can attack them.” Rika yelps. They’d found, quite to their annoyance, that the pill bugs have immense amounts of damage resistance, especially to ranged attacks, while rolled up into a ball. Large enough impacts are the only thing that seems to open them up.

“Someone should have brought a shield.” Gail reasons, “Or, parry them? Can anyone parry them? I don’t have an infinite supply of explosives!”

“Would that even work?” Kaja asks as she swings her staff at one of the pill bugs to little effect.

Zuri decides to try it out. She gets herself ready and when one rolls at her she swings at it and, misses the parry, but does score a hit before it rams her for some more damage. “I can’t do it if it does!” She says, “At least they are low damage.”

It takes them an excruciatingly long time to defeat the last three, and by the time they are done they are all very unhappy. “How is this remotely fun?” Kaja asks.

Zuri shakes her head, “Were we missing something?”

Rika sighs, “Gail’s probably right. A shield or parrying. Or a fire mage.”

Gail shakes her head, “Requiring such specific stuff is bad game design.”

“Right?” Kaja exclaims.

The A team approaches them from behind. “Are you guys okay?” Asa asks.

“Do you need healing?” Wake inquires.

Kaja sighs and shakes her head, “I got it. You guys need to save your resources.”

“Did the fight really take that long?” Rika asks exasperatedly.

Gail sighs, “Apparently.” She turns to the A team. “Is there a trick to the pill bugs?”

“A shield or parry, or impact.” Ardine answers.

“They’re so hard to parry!” Zuri exclaims.

Luke nods, “They are one of the tighter things to parry. But there is a trick you can use for impact. Kick it. Your damage will suck, unless you have unarmed skill, but kicks have a good amount of impact and, unlike most unarmed attacks, you don’t need a hand free to do them, so you can easily follow them up with a weapon attack.”

Kaja’s eyes widen, “Really? That works?”

Luke nods, “It’s what I did for stuff like this when I wasn’t as good at parrying.”

Asa nods, “Yeah. I can second that.”

“Axes also have enough natural impact to knock them out of it, so that’s another option.” Ardine adds.

“Thanks.” Zuri says.

“Think nothing of it.” Ardine answers.

Brandon steps forward, “Since we’re already here, do you want us to wait? Or should we just continue to explore together?”

Kaja looks at the rest of her guild, “What do you guys think?”

Zuri sighs in relief, “After that? I’ll be happy to have someone else around.”

Rika nods, “I think it’s a good idea.”

Gail nods, “I’m almost out of stuff! Soon I’ll be dead weight!”

“Then you should probably stand in the middle of the formation.” Luke says, “No use putting yourself in danger needlessly.”

“Whew! I’ll take it.” Gail says.

“So, what about the rest of you?” Ardine asks.

Rika nods, “No point in not.” She readies her bow, “I guess I’ll stick to the center too.”

“I should be in front.” Zuri says.

Kaja grins, “I’ll be on point too!”

Ardine looks at them, “You two seem to be low on MP. Are you sure you want to take point?”

Kaja frowns, “You guys think you’re better than us?”

Ardine shakes her head, “No. If I were in your place, I’d definitely one someone else to take point.”

Luke nods, “So would I.”

Asa rolls his eyes, “Don’t lie.”

Luke shakes his head, “I’m not lying. Before, I’d have taken point anyway out of, I dunno, obligation I guess? But that’s not really what I’d want to do.” He turns to them, “But that was then, this is now. Take point if you want, but there’s no shame in taking a breather when you need it.”

Gail steps on, “You should listen to them. They know their stuff.”

Zuri raises an eyebrow, “Are you sure? You guys need to conserve resources, don’t you?”

Asa shrugs, “Maybe. But conserving resources isn’t the same thing as not using them at all.”

Wake thinks for a moment, “We’re not conserving resources for the boss, not really. We’ll recharge everyone before we do that.”

Kaja blinks, “Ya think?”

Rika shakes her head, “That’s pretty obvious.”

Zuri nods, “It really is. I just hadn’t really thought about it.”

“Yeah yeah!” Kaja grumbles, “I’ll let you guys take point.”

Zuri sighs, “What’s wrong?”

Kaja sighs back, “I dunno. Just, what’s the point if they’re just gonna protect us anyway?”

Rika puts a hand on Kaja’s shoulder, “Isn’t this about us protecting each other?”

Gail grins, “Oh stop being a stick in the mud! So you stand behind someone for a bit! Some of us do that all the time.” She grins at the A team, “And, ya know, if you’re gonna stand behind someone, you could pick worse people.”

Kaja shakes her head, “It’s not about that.”

Ardine grins, “It’s about you wanting to fight not stand around right?”

Kaja blinks at her, “Yeah.”

Ardine nods, “Don’t worry. Just let your MP regen. We’ll be glad to let you take point again once you’re ready.”

Luke nods, “It’ll be a load off honestly.”

Kaja raises an eyebrow at him, “What do you mean?”

“He means the pill bugs are frustrating to fight.” Asa responds.

Kaja laughs, “So it’s not just us?”

Asa shakes his head, “No. It’s not. Our team is ideal for them, and they are still extremely annoying! I can only imagine what it must be like for people who don’t have impact, parrying or shields as a big part of their builds.”

Zuri grumbles, “It’s long and tedious.”

Kaja lets out an irritated groan, “Yes. That.”

Wake motions towards the next room, “We should go then. Otherwise they’ll respawn.”

Brandon nods, “We’ll be fighting enough of them on the way without having to deal with respawns.”

Kaja stands up, “Right! Let’s go.”

The Rear Guard

The guilds in the rear guard end up in the first room of the inner sanctum with a hefty respawn “We’ll take care of this!” Stephan says as he prepares to fight.

“We’ll cover you.” Guy says.

Jerome motions towards the three exits, “Everyone else! Go ahead.” The two guilds then set themselves upon the enemies in the room.

Stephan blocks the pill bug with his shield, watching as it unrolls and then Guy slams into it with his ax. Stephan bashes it with the shield as it tries to roll up again, then Guy crushes it.

Shirley grins with glee as she stabs at a spider. When it turns to her Brent, her guild’s resident backstabber, strikes out at a spider’s blindside with his knife, causing it to disappear.

Stephan looks over at Armon and Jerome, who are busy helping Nina with a super elite goblin. “What do I do!” Nina asks, clearly scared.

“You’re doing fine.” Armon yells, “Once we have it’s attention, all we have to do is keep it from throwing shockwaves at the others!”

“But how do we kill it!” She yells as she stabs forward with her spear then jumps back away from the swipe, only taking some damage from the shockwave. Stephan notes that, while her voice is high and she sounds scared, her movements are precise.

“We don’t have to.” Armon yells. “Just stay near my wolf so I can heal you.”

“Okay.” Nina responds shakily.

The goblin rears up to do its most powerful attack when it disappears before their eyes. Jerome’s form is revealed behind it.

“Yes!” Armon yells.

Nina grins at him, “Thank you.” She looks down and frowns, “That was scary.”

Jerome puts a hand on her head, “It’s okay to be scared. You handled yourself really well. If you can keep your cool like that? You’ll be a top player in no time.”

Her eyes widen, “Really?”

“Really.” Jerome says. He then turns to the rest of them, “The same goes for all of you. You may not realize, but this was a fight that could have wiped some parties. I knew you guys could handle it, that’s why I didn’t tell you all to stop.” He grins, “But you didn’t just handle it! You pwned it.”

Guy grins sheepishly, “We did?”

Jerome nods, “Absolutely.” He walks over to Brent, “Brent. I’d like to talk to you for a moment.”

Brent blinks up at him, “Why should I? You were out there with Tall&Zxy killing PKers.”

Jerome nods, “It’s true. I also was a PKer. I guess I could say what I have to say in front of the others, but you might not want me to.”

Brent frowns at him, “You’re gonna say it anyway aren’t you?”

Jerome nods, “I am. Because it’s something I wish someone had said to me when I was your age and first starting to play.”

“What.” Brent sounds mildly, but cautiously, curious now.

“Be angry. But choose what that means.” Jerome says.

Brent stares at him, “What?”

Jerome sighs, “You have reasons to be angry. But you can also choose what to do with that anger. It can be a good thing or a bad thing, only you can decide that. That’s all that I mean.”

Brent looks down, “But how?”

Jerome shakes his head, “I don’t know. But whatever you do, don’t do it alone, and try to think about what it means. The anger may be part of who you are, but that doesn’t mean it has to define who you become.”

Stephan looks over at Brent. He knows Brent’s brother was killed during the culling. His brother was killed too. The difference is, Brent’s brother was part of the problem. Stephan can’t help but resent the man, even though he has no idea who he was. His feelings around Brent are more complicated. Sure, Brent was a PKer, he admits it himself. But he also lost a brother he clearly cares deeply about. Stephan knows what that’s like.

“Come on.” Nina says, “Can’t we walk and talk?”

Jerome nods, “If that’s what you want.”

Brent looks at Jerome, “Uh… I’m not sure exactly what you’re saying but… thank you.”

Stephan walks over to him, “My brother died that night.” Brent looks at him, but says nothing. “He told me to run when we were ambushed by a group of PKers.” He looks at Brent whose eyes are a little wider, “Luke, Tall&Zxy, saved me.”

Brent’s expression hardens, “So what? You’re brother is a hero and mine is a monster?”

Stephan shakes his head, “I never met your brother. But I do know what it feels like to lose a brother. I just wanted to say, there are other people who’ve lost people, and who are grieving.”

“So what? You wanna be my friend?” Brent asks, a bit incredulously.

Stephan looks at him, “Honestly? No I don’t. You are a selfish brat. You act like the world is out to get you when really, your brother dug his own grave. You blame Luke? Well, let me ask you this. What should they have done?”

Brent looks down, “They had no right.”

Stephan shrugs, “No one said they did. But our choices were let PKers live and slowly watch the entire server die. Or take them out and protect everyone else. We had no justice system, and even if we had laws, we had no way of enforcing them. Getting rid of them before they got rid of us was the only solution. Unless you can think of a different one?”

Brent kicks the wall, “No! I can’t okay? I wish I’d told him that night that he should stop! But I didn’t!” He looks down, “Now I wish I’d never started PKing.”

The group entire group is silent. Stephan eventually looks up at him, “But do you really wish that? Or are you just afraid of what might happen if you did? Do you think that what you were doing was wrong? Or are you just pissed off that there were consequences for it?”

Brent looks down, and Stephan is surprised to see his anger deflate, “I don’t know.” He looks over at Stephan, “I don’t want anyone to feel like I do now. I don’t want to cause anyone that kind of pain. That’s the truth.”

Jerome puts an arm around Brent’s shoulder, “Then you do know. Maybe at one point it was about getting away with it, but that feeling you have now? That you don’t want other people to feel the way you do? That’s how you know.” He looks at Stephan whose looking down in shame. “Look at him Brent. There is a person who was made to feel like you, by someone who was like who you, and your brother,” he takes a breath, “and me used to be. How does that make you feel?”

“I want to cry.” Brent says.

Shirley puts her arms around him, “You aren’t gonna do anything bad. You’re good. You’re the best.”

Brent smiles a bit at her, “I’m not. But thanks.”

“Ugh! More pill bugs.” Nina says, as a respawn interrupts their conversation.

Stephan readies his shield. Jerome pushes Brent towards him, “Fight together. Learn to tolerate each other at least, or you’ll never survive the boss.” Stephan and Brent look at each other, then steel themselves and nod.

Stephan charges one of the pill bugs and bashes it with his shield. A moment later Brent flash steps through him to behind the pill bug and blindsides it. Stephan rushes forward yanking Brent behind him as he blocks a pill bug trying to blindside him. Brent steps out from behind the shield and throws a knife before stepping back. Stephan shield bashes the bug again and then sidles around it. It only takes Brent a moment to catch on and as soon as the pill bug’s blindside is in reach he stabs it.

Another bug slams into Brent’s side and he runs behind Stephan’s shield again. His eyes widen when Stephan gives him a potion. He looks into Stephan’s eyes and sees something he doesn’t expect. They are filled with something like disdain, but at the same time, there’s a sense of camaraderie too. His eyes say, ‘I don’t like you, but no comrade of mine is going to die.’

Brent can’t help but admire Stephan after this. Stephan had figured out what Jerome was trying to tell him all on his own. To use his anger to move forward, rather than turn it to hate.

His own feelings seem so petty now that he thinks about it. He isn’t even sure who he’s really mad at. Luke? His brother? He can’t help feeling anger when Luke enters his thoughts and he wonders if he’ll ever feel differently. Maybe not. He’ll probably never forget, but maybe he can forgive. And by forgiving, become a better man.

The Indecisive Ones

The room is a chest room with a trap that drops a bunch of pill bugs on them, something they initially find quite irritating, but Collin, Lloyd and Tracy are quickly amused as they watch Tracy’s bunnip rip pill bugs apart. It turns out that the bunnip’s head ram attack has enough impact and priority to cancel the pill bugs’ roll, and its regular attacks are powerful enough to kill them before they can roll again.

Lloyd throws a heal at the bunnip as Collin casts chain lightning at a group of four pill bugs to keep them at bay. Gabriel hits one of the pill bugs with his staff causing it to unroll. His damage as a healer may be small, but at least he can help with that. Collin finishes it off with a blast of lightning.

The bunnip defeats another while Tracy and Gabriel flank the last one, with Gabriel unrolling it with his staff before Tracy blindsides it with a sword.

“Do we have too much healing?” Gabriel asks.

Lloyd shrugs, “I dunno. Do we? I could respec after this.”

Collin thinks for a moment, “I’m not sure. It’s not as if we need our tank to DPS.”

“But we do need DPS.” Gabriel adds.

Tracy grins, “We’re doing fine aren’t we?”

Collin nods, “Better than I expected honestly.”

“So you do think we have too much healing?” Lloyd asks.

“I was never really worried about it, but it did occur to me that we might have excess healing and a little lower DPS when compared to most parties.” Collin responds.

“Seems like not a terrible thing in a game where we can die.” Gabriel says.

Collin nods, “That occurred to me too.”

“So does anyone find it strange that the vast majority of the enemies here are the pill bugs? We see spiders every so often, but most of the encounters are just pill bugs. More and more pill bugs!” Tracy’s tone is quite irritable.

Collin nods, “It is a bit strange to have so many fights with only one kind of monster in a Temple raid. But it is an early game dungeon, and there were different enemies in the first half.”

Lloyd raises an eyebrow, “You don’t sound convinced.”

Collin nods, “If they are testing new content, it may be that they aren’t putting a lot of effort into making it interesting for us.”

Gabriel sighs, “So we just have to roll with the punches?”

Collin shrugs, “In a manner of speaking.”

Lloyd shakes his head, “Not much else we can do.”

Tracy laughs, “I thought I was going to hate this. But this isn’t turning out that bad.”

Collin nods, “The run or being trapped in the game?”

“Both.” Tracy responds.

Lloyd walks over to the chest, “Should I open it?”

Collin nods, “Probably, You are the most durable of us.”

The chest has a large amount of soul energy in it, which Lloyd collects, “The chest just had soul energy.”

Collin stands up, “We should go.”

Tracy raises an eyebrow at him, “You’ve been less and less excited as we go further into the Temple.”

Collin nods, “I’m mentally preparing myself for the fight. I still have to make sure everyone knows what they are doing, and I may need to coordinate during the battle.” He looks over at Lloyd, “The top players will do what we need them to, but we’ll need other people for the plan to work.”

Gabriel shrugs, “I think we’ve got this.”

Lloyd sends Collin a PM.

[ Devoyd: Don’t get complacent. There are still a lot of unknowns.

GoldenrodBoy: I can’t worry about that, and I won’t speculate. We just have to trust that we know what we’re doing. ]

He responds to Gabriel as he types, “I’m glad you have confidence in me.”

Gabriel nods, “I have confidence in everyone. We have the best players on the server, and the boss is super simple. We just gotta make sure we do it right.”

Tracy smiles at him, “Have some confidence.” She motions to her bunnip, “I couldn’t have this without you. And there are a lot of other people in the raid that you made the builds for, including top players.”

Collin smiles at her, “Okay. Let’s go.”

The A Team and The Highlanders

When they enter the last room before the boss, they find it strangely empty. “This is ominous.” Luke says.

“Is that the safe room?” Rika asks.

Brandon nods, “It is, but be careful. Usually there’s a spawn here.”

Kwame looks up, “No spiders on the ceiling. What gives?”

“Everyone! Get into Brandon’s shield! Hurry!” Asa yells. “Luke, cover his blindside.”

Ardine and Luke think for a moment before their eyes widen and they run over. Soon all ten of them are crowded around Brandon, and Asa sighs in relief when there’s barely enough room. “What’s going on?” Brandon asks.

“It might be invisible stalkers, or some kind of stealth enemy that can hide in plain sight.” Ardine answers. “Anything with that much stealth has the potential to severely injure or kill one of us with a successful blindside.”

“Do either of you have a strong AOE?” Asa asks the other group.

Gail sighs, “I would if I hadn’t used all my bombs on the stupid pill bugs.”

“I could try using arrow storm.” Rika says, “But I don’t know where to center it.”

Ardine looks over at the side wall, “Perhaps we don’t center it. Nothing has attacked us yet, which leads me to believe that if there is something here, we haven’t entered it’s threat zone yet.”

“What are you thinking?” Luke asks.

“If one of us picks up Brandon, like Wake for example, then we can move over to the safe room as a group without risking anyone being left out of the shield. Then we can simply wait there until other people arrive.” Ardine says.

“But what about the other people? Will they be able to handle this?” Asa asks.

Ardine swears, “You’re right. But what do we do? We don’t even know that anything is in here.”

“Do we know no one cleared the room already?” Zuri asks.

“If they did, then they either doubled back or didn’t inform anyone they’d reached the safe zone like they were supposed to.” Wake says.

Luke growls, “There’s definitely something here. I can see a red dot on my mini map.”

“Where.” Asa asks. Luke responds by making his mini map visible to the rest of the party.

“I see it.” Asa says. “I think I can...” He steps out of the field and walks towards the dot.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Zuri asks.

“Yeah.” Luke responds.

Everyone but Luke’s eyes widen at what happens next, even Ardine. A giant goblin appears and teleports behind him, but as it appears Asa is already teleporting through it with such precision that he scores a blindside as its hit box appears before it’s completed the teleport, defeating it instantly.

“Well. I suppose I never really did see how good you are.” Ardine comments as they walk towards the safe zone.

“Yeah. That was incredible.” Kaja says. Zuri and Rika nod.

Luke shakes his head, “That was nothing. I’ve seem him chain flash steps before and then cap his own chain, all of them blindsides.”

Kwame lets out an impressed whistle, “Man. I’d love to see that.”

Brandon nods, “Yeah.”

Asa let’s out an amused laugh, “Maybe you will.”

Wake sighs, “You scared me Asa. You aren’t the most durable person, and we need your extra life for the boss fight.”

Asa moves over the Wake, “I wasn’t in any real danger. Had it fully materialized, I had a flash step back to the safety of the field ready.” He touches Wake’s face, “I used to fight with just Luke with no healer often, which was effectively soloing. In some ways that was more natural to me than fighting in a larger group is.”

Ardine looks at Luke, “You knew what he was going to do, didn’t you?”

Luke nods, “This sort of thing is what he excels at. His old build had as much perception as mine, and since he uses a large number of flash steps, he navigates almost entirely by mini map during a fight.”

“Oh. So he almost can’t be surprised.” Brandon says.

Luke nods, “Yep.”

Ardine smiles, “That I already knew. You may not know this, but that’s actually what Asa is more known for among top players. Not that his skill with flash stepping isn’t well known, but his awareness of combat is a skill that few other’s possess.”

Wake sighs when they enter the safe zone, “I’m sorry.”

Asa shakes his head, “I’m sorry for worrying you. I always took for granted that people know what I can do, so I never thought to mention it.” Wake smiles at him in response.

Gail produces a couch and sits on it, “I am so glad that they allow the use of furniture in the final safe zone.”

“You seem oddly unimpressed.” Rika says.

Gail shrugs, “Jerome does bullshitty stuff too. I’m sure Ardine and Luke are also capable of similar things. The top players rock, what can I say?”

Ardine laughs, “But you’re not surprised by us.”

Gail shakes her head, “In fact, if Asa had been hit, I’d have been a bit disappointed.”

Asa rolls hie eyes, “I’m not perfect you know.”

Gail grins at him, “Of course not. But that wasn’t even hard for you, was it?”

Asa smiles and shakes his head, “True.”

Rika shakes her head in response, “You’re saying that was easy?”

Asa thinks, “More like practiced. Get enough skill and you can make anything seem easy.”

She whistles, “I wanna get that good.”

Asa grins at her, “Then keep going. I’m sure most people in here will be incredible. After all, it’s our life now.”

Rika grins, “Thanks.”

Luke walks over to the window, currently just solid black, “I suppose we have to actually spawn the boss room to look through this?”

Kwame nods, “Yeah.”

“So what now?” Kaja asks.

Ardine shrugs, “I suppose we wait for everyone else to get here. Given that they intend to search the entire area, it could be a while.”

“Is there anything we can do?” Zuri asks.

“If you know any teleportation magic, we could start setting up the teleportation circles for the others, but if not, then the best thing you can do is relax and prepare for the boss.” Ardine says.

Zuri nods, “I’ll prepare then.”

The next group of people to enter is the PhalanxPhantoms and the MuckRack, who had convened together at some point while searching the rooms for treasure. The MuckRack members start working on teleporters, causing Ardine to smile.

It’s a bit later when the rear guard starts to fill in, starting with Jerome and a bunch of kids. Luke is surprised when one of them walks up to him, a kid he recognizes. “Um… You’re Tall&Zxy right?”

Luke looks down at him, “I know there’s nothing I can say to you.”

“You know who I am?” The kid’s eyes widen.

Luke nods, “I do. I wish things could have been different, but I won’t tell you I’m sorry, nor tell you not to hate me. I hate myself for what I did that night. I firmly believe it was the lesser evil, but evil it was, and I will not attempt to justify it. You were wronged, and there is nothing I can say or do that will change that.”

The boy sighs, “I don’t want to hate you.”

“I’m glad.” Luke says.

“I thought you’d be more self righteous.” The boy muses.

Luke sighs, “I was when I started. I was certain I was doing the right thing. The best thing. Maybe not the moral thing, but I felt it was justified. But the things I saw that night. The depths of depravity. Even the lengths I was willing to go.” He looks at the boy, “None of us came out of that unscathed. By the end, I just wanted it to be over.”

“I’m Brent.” He says.

“Luke.” Luke says.

Brent looks over at Asa, “I should go apologize to BunnyAce too.”

Luke nods, “If that’ll make you feel better.”

Brent shakes his head, “He doesn’t deserve what I said.” Luke simply nods in response.

When Brent walks up to Asa, Asa seems hesitant, “Hello?”

Brent sighs, “I’m here to apologize to you. For the things I said.”

Asa nods, “Are you okay? You don’t look okay.”

“I’m not okay.” Brent says.

Asa looks around for Wake, “See the big scary guy?”

Brent looks over at him, “What about him?”

“He’s the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. And he has a way of soothing even the darkest days.” Asa responds.

“He’s right.” Luke says.

Brent nods, “Thank you.”

Luke sighs as Brent walks away, “He shouldn’t take part in the fight.”

Asa ponders this, “I’m not so sure. He might need it. You don’t just cry and your anger goes away.”

Luke considers Asa’s words, “Yeah. I guess so.”

When Brent reaches Wake he looks up at the man. He’s large and tall and his expression looks, for lack of a better word, evil. And yet his body language is open. “Asa said you might be able to help me?”

Wake tilts his head to the side, “I will do what I can. Wait, I recognize you.” He sighs, “Are you still angry?”

Brent looks down, “I don’t know.”

Wake nods, “That’s good.”

Brent blinks, “How is me not knowing good?”

“I suppose if you want to be angry, that might be bad.” Wake reasons.

“I don’t.” Brent responds.

Wake smirks at him, “Then not knowing if you are angry or not is an improvement over definitive anger.”

Brent looks up at him, “Are you making a joke?”

Wake nods, “I wanted to see if I could make you smile. Just a tiny bit of joy can go a long way.”

“What if I have nothing to feel joy about?” Brent asks.

Wake looks at him, “Maybe you don’t. But sometimes the joy comes first, or even entirely on its own.”

“So… fake it?” Brent sounds confused.

Wake shrugs, “If that helps you. As long as your joy isn’t hurting anyone, it doesn’t really matter where it comes from.” Wake takes Brent over towards Brandon and Ardine.

Lloyd whispers to Collin from where they’ve been standing after quietly entering the safe zone, “There he goes.” Lloyd shakes his head, “I wish I could do that.”

Collin smiles, “You’re good at kicking me in the pants. That’s important too.”

Lloyd nods, “Don’t forget what I said.”

Collin shakes his head, “I won’t.” He then looks around as the rest of the teams enter the large communal safe zone. After searching the entire area, the original team entry order has largely been eradicated, with some of the advance team being among the last group of people reaching the safe zone. Of course, those people were the ones who scoured the area for loot, and thus have the best drops. Collin smiles when he realizes everyone is accounted for. So far, so good.

“So, the first thing we need to do is finish getting the non-combatants here so they can start to fill out our group.” He turns to Gabriel, “In the mean time, Gabriel has an inventory full of potions he can access at any time.”

He points to an open area in the center of the room. “If any of you have any loot you don’t need, drop it there in a pile. Ben and Theo will make sure it gets to someone who can use it. But if you got a drop that you feel is perfect for your build, feel free to keep it. We’re trying to all be the best that we can be. That means we don’t want anyone to sacrifice power for anyone else. It may take time, but we’ll get there.”

He produces a table and goes to stand on it, “So, will those of you who know you have specific roles in the upcoming boss fight please come stand up here. Those of you who haven’t been given a specific role but who are still taking part in the fight take heed, you are important. It may come down to you to make sure that everything goes to plan. There are a lot of unknowns still, and we may retreat if the fight seems unwinnable. But hopefully it won’t come down to that.

“I will give you the specific plan after the non-combatants arrive, so that we are all on the same page as the non-combatants have an important role in this fight. Just because you aren’t on the front lines doesn’t mean you aren’t contributing.

“Any of you who have any excess gear that you don’t want to lose, there is time for you to return to town and deposit it into your inventory, however, Ben and Theo have assigned a number of trustworthy non combatants to hold stuff if you’d rather stay here. They will return it to you once the fight is over. I highly recommend only keeping the stuff you absolutely need on you. That way, we won’t lose anything in an inventory to a death.” Everyone goes silent at that, “I know that sounds morbid, and our goal is still to keep everyone alive, but we are taking a risk. Likely a huge risk. I have given everything that I had that I don’t need to Ben and Theo for this. Because I want to ensure that if I don’t make it, that all of you still have the best chance.”

Asa steps forward, “I did the same thing.”

“You’re worried about dying?” A boy asks.

“It’s not a question of worry. Any of use could die. Even the best of us aren’t invulnerable. Collin or my death’s would be a huge blow to the server. I don’t want to take anything else with me.” Asa responds.

“All of the top players feel the same way.” Ardine says, “It’s not about expecting the worst, it’s about being prepared. If we didn’t think we could win, we wouldn’t be here.”

“I did the same.” Luke says.

Jerome raises an arm, “I did to.”

Brent looks up at Wake, “Did they really do that?”

Wake nods, “Yes. Brandon and I did as well.”

“Yeah. But you’re not top players.” Brent says.

Wake looks down at him, “That doesn’t really matter. Everyone here is taking a risk.”

Brent gulps nervously, “Oh.”

Soon enough the last teleporter is in place and Jacklyn appears with Ben and Theo in tow. The entourage of non-combatants and protectors appear shortly.

“So, what did we miss?’ Jacklyn asks.

“Just the preamble.” Collin responds, “We were waiting for you to explain the plan.”

Jacklyn nods, “First of all. Theo has something he wants to say. While people are talking, Ben will be going around so that you can store stuff you don’t need.” That causes some murmuring.

Theo steps forward, “So. We are officially ready to start our first Temple raid boss, and I have to say I’m glad to be a part of it. Before we start, there are too many items of great power that haven’t been claimed. While I’m happy to see people not hoarding things for themselves, we want them so we can get them to people who will use them, not to hoard them ourselves. So especially if you have had bad luck with drops, or are using a new build you didn’t have time to get equipment for, please come over to me!”

When people still seem hesitant, Collin claps to get everyone’s attention, “I highly recommend taking Theo up on this. Remember, you can always give the item back after the boss fight, so you don’t have to think of yourself as being selfish.” With that, more people, including Brent, go and get items.

While that’s going on Ben goes around and gathers items from people and then goes and picks up the pile of stuff that was dropped earlier in the middle of the room.

Once all of this is done, Collin addresses the group again, “So. Regarding the plan. Our current plan is centered around Asa. If you don’t know him, you probably know him by his old screen name, BunnyAce. Jerome, who you might know as Talyris.” Jerome sighs at his old SN. The only thing Talyris was ever known for was being a jerk. “Is our back up plan, and we hope that between the two of them we’ll be able to complete this quickly.”

Collin looks around, “Now the biggest obstacle to achieving this is how mobile the boss is. We’ll be needing whoever blindsides it to use their most powerful skill, which means they won’t be able to quickly maneuver into position and strike in one go. We’ll need someone to keep it at bay. That’s the first place where you all come in. While you are waylaying it, someone is going to cast a teleportation circle so we can connect back to the safe zone. Kwame can do that, but given that he has a good amount of healing, it would be better if someone who can stay out of the fight could do it.”

He sighs, “Unfortunately, this is using the version of the game where they addressed the teleportation circle exploit. While they haven’t prevented us from making them, anyone who exits the instance immediately loses any ongoing effects, including a teleportation circle. So the person who casts the circle will have to remain in the boss room. The ideal candidate would be someone durable, but can’t fill one of the main roles in the plan. So neither a backstabber, healer or blocker.”

“I can do it.” A young man says. “I have a pretty durable front liner build, but I have the teleportation circle spells. I’d like to help, but I don’t see my build being that useful here.”

Collin nods, “That sounds great.”

He then continues, “We know the boss bowls over people, but we don’t know precisely how it is doing so. If it’s impact, then we’ll need a character with the skills or passives that can resist impact. If it’s a skill effect however, then we’ll need someone who can block or parry the attack. Blocking would be ideal, since that involves taking no damage whatsoever, but if blocking doesn’t turn out to be viable, we may rely on parries instead. In short, the first thing we need to do is set up a series of tests so we can figure out exactly what we need to do. Since I may not be close to the boss, Ardine will be organizing that part of the plan.” He motions to her.

Ardine nods, “That is correct. First, Brandon is going to try and block it with his lightning shield. If that works then we’ll try to hold it in place by using lightning tanks. In the likely case that doesn’t work, we’ll start going through people with tower shields. If you are a blocker, then it would be best for you to use the shield two handed, even if you have the skill to hold it in one hand with a weapon. We’ll want the extra damage and impact resistance. We’ll go down the line based on who is closest to it at the time, until we find someone who can block it. If none of the tower shielders can block it, then we’ll move on to people who can parry.

“I should point out that, though I will try to do this in an organized fashion, if the boss comes close to you or at you and you have a shield or can parry it? Make the attempt. Knowing you are capable of stopping the boss is good information to have, and in any case, we want to avoid as much unnecessary damage as possible.”

She motions to Collin, who continues, “After that, we’ll know whether or not we can stop it. If we can’t, then we’ll have to retreat and try something else. If we can, however, then this is the part where all of you come in. You’ll need to keep it at bay at least, preferably contained, while we figure out what tank and healer combination we need to prevent it from moving while still keeping our tank alive. This is the place where the plan is most likely to go wrong. Both reaching the next step and keeping everyone alive.

“Once that’s done, Asa and Jerome, and anyone else who feels they can blindside and escape, should power themselves up as much as possible. But the escape part is crucial. Both Asa and Jerome are capable of dealing large amounts of damage and escaping. The boss takes almost no damage from non blindsides, meaning short of taunt skills and aggro maneuvering spells, we won’t be able to easily get the aggro off you if it survives.

“Our goal is to defeat it in a quick series of blindsides. If it survives that, it’ll hopefully be low enough that we won’t have to do much more damage. If not, then we’ll probably abandon the run, but we definitely need to be careful. There are a lot of unknowns, but that can’t be helped. Just remember that retreat is an option. Even if the run doesn’t end, if you feel you are in too much danger, retreat. If we lose the ability to complete the run as a result? So be it.”

He pauses for a moment, “Are there any questions?” No one speaks up. “Then let’s get ready for the fight of our lives.”