Virtualization - 15. Climactic Instance

It takes some time for everyone to get their inventories straight, but fortunately, the safe room connects to a hallway without any spawns that leads to the boss. So they don’t have to worry about clearing out enemies before the fight. Once that’s complete, Collin, Ardine, Wake, Luke, Brandon, the guy who offered to cast the teleportation circle and a group of tanks and healers approach the door.

The door is large and has an ornate looking frame, but does not otherwise stand out. A moment after they open it, a large room with sky blue walls that blend with a white floor spawns. The room’s look makes it feel like fighting on a cloud, which is strange considering the boss is a large spiky beaked pill bug.

“Let’s go!” Ardine says, “We need to get it’s attention so that it won’t go after the support. Remember to lure it towards the far side of the room if you can, that way even if it bowls you over, it still won’t end up near the setup area.”

The small group of tanks enter the room through the one way door and moves around the edge of the map as far as they can before the boss lets out a screech, rolls into a spiked ball and charges them.

“Brandon! Go!” Ardine yells.

Brandon casts his shield and moves out to get the boss’ attention. That proves to be easy, unfortunately, as they predicted, it bowls straight through him knocking him out of the way. The first potential hitch in the plan rears its head immediately. The roll has some effect that either breaks magic shields, or perhaps even dispels buff altogether.

“Okay! We have to know how that works. Someone cast an Ice Armor and try and get hit by it. Following that we’ll do the same thing with a stat enchant. Be durable, because you’ll have to take the full brunt of the assault for us to truly know what it can do!” Ardine says.

Meanwhile the boss charges at someone who attempts to block it with their tower shield, but it deals some damage to them and knocks them out of the way. Ardine smiles when Wake is already casting a small healing spell on him.

The guy with Ice Armor steps forward, attempting to get it to target him. Fortunately, it does, unfortunately, the Ice Armor breaks just like the shield when he’s knocked down. Since it’s still targeting him, he jumps out of the way before casting a quick defense up buff before intentionally letting himself get hit again.

“It doesn’t stop stat enchants! Just constructs.” He announces as he retreats to the healers.

Ardine nods, “Good! Tower Shielders, Go!”

While this is going on, Luke annexes a small area near the entrance for Collin and their staging area. The guy casts a teleportation circle right next to the wall. Once that’s done, Kwame teleports in, as does Asa, Jerome and a number of other people with more support oriented builds.

“How are they doing?” Asa asks.

“Not so good.” Collin says. “Its rolls seem to break constructs.”

Asa sighs, “That’s unfortunate, but not a deal breaker.” Collin nods in response.

As this is happening, the tanks with tower shields move forward to block the boss one by one. But it’s not until Stephan that they make some headway with their plan. He steps forward with his rare shield, holding it in both hands. He braces himself for the impact, but feels nothing. The attack stops at the shield doing no damage at all and causing no impact either.

“It’s a secondary effect!” He yells as the pill bug unrolls and growls at him before changing direction and trying to bowl over someone else.

“Damn!” Ardine says, “It’s good that we know it can be stopped with parries now, but it seems to swap targets if its roll is completely blocked.”

“We only need to stop it once though right?” Stephan notes.

Ardine looks at him, “You mean, for the blindsiders?”

Stephan nods, “Did you see it stop and growl? That should be plenty of time to get blindsides off, shouldn’t it?”

“It also might not redirect from a parry. After all, it still would deal damage.” Wake adds.

Ardine nods, “That’s a good point.” She turns and yells at everyone, “Someone needs to parry it.”

A girl wielding a long spear steps forward, “I’ll try.”

She gets knocked over a couple of times, but she succeeds on her third attempt. And not only does it stop, but it also rolls into her again immediately. Gabriel is on top of healing and she ends up no worse for wear when it moves on to charge another tank after he taunts it away from her.

“So parries are an option.” Ardine announces. “But the timing is tight.” She yells over towards Collin. “We should retreat and regroup!”

Collin nods, “That’s a good idea! Everyone. We’re going to retreat. The boss room may despawn, but don’t worry about it. We’ve done a negligible amount of damage regardless.”

He turns to the guy who cast the teleportation circle, “Don’t worry about MP or cooldowns. Just make sure you wait until everyone else has left before you go.”

“I’ll make sure everyone gets out.” Luke says. Collin nods and then takes the teleporter.

Escaping the boss room with everyone intact proves easy and soon they are standing in the safe zone again. “As we suspected. The boss despawned as soon as there was no one left in the room.” Ardine says.

Collin nods, “So, what do we know?”

Stephan raises his hand, “Can I speak?”

Ardine nods at him, “Go ahead.”

Stephan smiles, “We know for certain now that its using a knockdown effect. Its attacks have no actual impact. I can block it and take no damage, but then it immediately retargets a different person.”

The girl who parried it stands up, “Yeah. And you can parry it to stop it too, but it’s tight and it will keep attacking you. Which is good right?”

Ardine nods, “Yes. That’s the long and the short of it so far. We also know that it stops and screeches whenever its roll is blocked or parried, which leaves it open to attack for a few seconds. That’s likely our window.”

Collin thinks for a moment, “Is there anything else that might be significant?”

Tyrone steps forward, “I had a thought. The pill bugs could be knocked out of their rolling with enough impact. Such as from a bomb or a trap. Do you think we should try that?”

“That is a good point. We ought to try, though I don’t know how easy it would be to get it to stop in a good position by using a trap.” Ardine muses.

“Since it resists magic and breaks ice armor, my build it not especially useful.” Jacklyn says. “Should I sit this one out?”

Ardine looks at her, “It’s your call, but I’d feel better with you at least by Collin in case your skill set becomes relevant.”

Jacklyn nods, “That’s fair.”

Collin looks at everyone else, “So the first thing we’ll do when we get back in is see if we can’t use a bomb to knock it out of rolling. Then we’ll try traps.” He turns to Tyrone, “I believe you are the best person here for traps. Do you mind being in charge of that?”

Tyrone shakes his head, “Nope. I’ll do it.”

Collin smiles, “Good.” He then looks around at everyone else, “Does anyone else have any ideas?”

Nina raises her hand, “It targets someone different after the roll is blocked right?”

Ardine nods, “That appears to be the case.”

“But how does that work?” Nina continues, “Does it just pick a random target? Or does it like, change around aggro? Do you think we could use taunts to get it back targeting the same person with the next roll by taunting it while it’s choosing a new target?”

Ardine thinks for a moment, “That sounds plausible.”

“But?” Nina asks hesitantly.

Collin smiles at her, “But it would require the person to have extremely good timing to pull it off. So it might work, and could actually be quite useful, but we’d need a tank with exceptional skill with their menu. Not necessarily a spiral master, but that would be preferable.” He sighs, “And the truth is, spiral masters rarely take non DPS roles, since spiral mastery generally isn’t as pertinent to them.”

Nina sighs, “Oh. I just thought that could be helpful.”

Ardine nods, “Don’t think badly of yourself. That is actually very important information to have. Even if it does not pan out, we need people to make suggestions like that. If anything, I feel a bit silly for not thinking of that myself. I’m sure Collin feels the same way.”

Collin nods, “It’s true. It’s something we should have thought of.”

Nina smiles, “Oh.”

Sean shakes his head, “Are you telling me we’re working with an incomplete plan?”

“We always were.” Asa says, “There was no way to gather enough information to have a complete plan without a boss run. But as we’d have to do the boss anyway to collect the info, we should be at least prepared enough for a potential victory.”

Sean grumbles, “So why didn’t you guys do a run first? You are the top players.”

Gabriel rolls his eyes, “You do realize that’s a stupid idea, right? Basically, what that means is that either the top players go in and beat the boss themselves, meaning no one else gets any practice on the fight, or things go horribly wrong and they all die, leaving us without any top players. The top players aren’t going to go into the fight half cocked, and in any case, they have a lopsided set of mostly DPS builds which wouldn’t work on this boss anyway.”

Sean looks down, “I just want some kind of reassurance that this isn’t a dead end plan.”

Ardine shakes her head, “Unfortunately, we can’t give you any. What we can say is that all the top players, and plenty of others as well, agreed that this is the best plan we could think of for the fight as we know it.”

Sean looks at Luke, who nods. He then looks at Jacklyn, who also nods. Jerome is the first to speak, “We thought a lot about it. Hours even. That’s the best reassurance we can give.”

Sean sighs again, “Okay. I’m still here. I just felt… maybe I spoke out of turn.”

Collin shakes his head, “No. What you said is true. And I’d rather have everything get brought up than miss something because someone didn’t say what they thought.”

Sean looks at him, “After earlier...”

Luke walks over and puts a supportive hand on his shoulder, “Earlier, you were speaking about yourself and about giving up. That’s different from being cautious.”

Sean nods, “Thank you.”

Collin stands up, “With that in mind, after we know whether or not we can use bombs and traps, we should then retreat again, so we can create a final plan. How does that sound?” A series of different acquiesces come from the crowd.

After the meeting the group gets ready to go. Asa walks over to Collin, “Is there anything I can do while we’re waiting? Cause if we’re just going to retreat anyway, wouldn’t it be best for me to just wait here?”

Collin shakes his head, “I agree with Ardine. You should be there, in case we need you. If you have nothing to do, that’s good. It just means everything is going well.” He puts a hand on Asa’s shoulder, “I get that you are feeling a bit antsy right now.”

Asa sighs, “I’m beginning to see the limitations to my build.”

Collin nods, “I understand. And if you want to change your build later, I support that, but this entire plan hinges on you doing what you currently do.”

Asa nods, “I know. And maybe that’s part of it. I’ve only really ever played with Luke. I’ve been on Temple raids before, but I was never crucial before.”

Collin shakes his head, “I remember one time when you were. Absolutely crucial. It was the Minotaur Siblings, back when the labyrinth Temple was first created. You and Luke took down the most dangerous of the brothers, by yourselves. And while Luke could keep it at bay, it was your huge damage spikes that allowed him to survive. It was incredible to watch, but also a bit harrowing.”

“Why?” Asa asked.

Collin sighed, “I dunno. I guess it was when I realized that the stories about BunnyAce and Tall&Zxy were true.”

Asa tilts his head to the side, “What do you mean?”

Collin laughs a little, “You were more social than Luke, but you still only really played with him. There were snippets of your skill when you went on Temple raids or partied with other people, but a lot of people didn’t believe you were that skilled, since you didn’t show off that much.”

Asa laughs, “Oh. Yeah. I meant what were the stories?”

Collin nods, “The rumors were that you were one of the best spiral masters in the game. But the people who partied with you said they must be exaggerated. I believed that to until I saw that boss fight. It was kind of humbling.”

“Collin. Why are you so down on yourself?” Asa asks.

Collin looks at him, “Anyone can use my build. It’s nothing special.”

“Maybe anyone can use it. But not just anyone would think of it, would they? I’ve honestly always been envious of you, if you’ll believe that. You’ve taken things everyone thought were useless and masterfully built around them. In fact, I never told anyone else this, but my original flash step build? Was yours. It was before you were big, back when you were just a kid, a little older than me, who was theorycrafting this game you really loved. And no one took you seriously cause no one knew who you were and a lot of what you were talking about involved stuff everyone wrote off as useless. But I saw your flash step build and fell in love with it.” Asa responds.

Collin laughs, “That old thing? That build was barely adequate.”

Asa nods, “Yeah. But it was what got me to love the mechanic.” Asa laughs, “You know, if I’d met you? I’d have been totally smitten. You’d have been the hot sixteen year old red head and I’d have been the short awkward fourteen year old nerd. And now that I’ve met you, I’m sure you’d have been cool to me.”

Collin shakes his head, “Maybe. I could be a real dick too.”

Asa elbows him, “You forget. I’d also have been sucking you off.”

Collin lets out a huge guffaw, “I suppose that might change things.” He puts a hand on Asa’s shoulder. “But don’t kid yourself. I might have been a jerk sometimes, but I’d never have used you like that. I’d have been sucking you off too, if that happened at all.”

Asa looks at the rest of them, “You know they’re counting on us right? Not just me. You too.”

Collin nods, “I know. But my main job is done. I’m moral support now.”

Asa thinks for a moment, “But even that’s important. You even make me feel better. I know you trust me to execute your plan and that gives me confidence.”

Collin smiles at that, “I’m glad. That makes me feel a lot better.”

“Collin. Don’t forget this okay? A lot of people see you as a leader, or as a master of the game, and that’s fine, but aren’t we friends?” Asa asks.

Collin nods, “Definitely. We’re definitely friends.”

Asa stands up and reaches over to Collin, “Then let’s kick this giant pill bug’s ass.”

Collin grins as Asa pulls him to his feet. “Yes.” He says. “You know? You’re sounding a lot more like Brandon and Wake.”

Asa nods, “It’s funny that the real grade A members of the A team are the ones whose names don’t actually start with A.”

Collin shakes his head, “I’d like to make a joke about Ardine, but I think she’d agree with you.”

“I absolutely do.” Ardine says from behind them, “But a big part of that is that they’ve been given a chance we didn’t. The chance to find their own place. The top players could be nothing but top players.”

Asa stands up, “You came here to get us?”

Ardine nods, “Yes. But I heard what you were talking about, and it seemed like both of you needed to hash it out, so I waited.”

Collin shakes his head, “Eavesdropped you mean.”

Ardine lets out something between a snicker and a chuckle, “That was incidental. I couldn’t very well know when a good place to interrupt would be otherwise, now could I?”

Asa laughs and rolls his eyes, “Yes. Because that’s the only reason you’d listen to our conversation.”

Ardine grins back, “Life has fringe benefits at times.”

Collin laughs and shakes his head again, “I think it’s time for us to go.” He then walks back to where everyone else is milling about.

Asa nods, “I think so to.” He follows.

Ardine follows behind them, but when she speaks, her tone is more serious. “I hope you two got whatever you needed out of that, because we can’t afford to lose either of you. And I don’t just mean to death. Regardless of what happens, I’m sure we’ll need you both by the end of the day.”

As they approach the door Ardine turns to Tyrone, “You’re the trap master, I’m going to leave it to you how we should proceed.”

Tyrone raises an eyebrow at him, “But your build uses traps.”

She nods, “It does, but in a very subsidiary way. I’ve never actually used traps for their intended function.”

Tyrone raises an eyebrow, “Okay. I guess I’ll ask about that later.” He turns to the small group of trappers and the few tanks that can completely block the boss, “Okay. This is a short in out. We just want to see if trap explosions can knock it out of its charges, and then to see if explosives can do the same.”

He turns to the tanks, “We’ll need to keep it as contained as possible, otherwise setting up traps will be tricky.”

Stephan raises his hand, “In order to do that, we’ll all have to be in close quarters. I think each trapper should be paired with a tank. That way the tank can keep the trapper protected and simply move out of the way when its time for the trap to trigger.” He looks at everyone, “Does that seem good?”

Ardine nods, “That seems like a solid plan to me.”

Tyrone nods, “Agreed.”

Luke looks at Collin, “Should I take a partner? With how the fight went before it should be easy for us to ensure it goes nowhere near you.”

Collin thinks for a moment, “I agree. But be careful. If you feel yourself in any danger, retreat.”

Luke nods, “Okay.”

It takes a moment for the small group to pair up and then Ardine makes one final statement, “Remember. You’re going to have to be able to hoof it to the teleporter once we’re done. And if it looks like it’s taking too much damage, we retreat. We do not want to find out if it has any threshold pattern changes with such a small group.” With that, the group charges into the room.

Tyrone and Stephan take point, with Tyrone casting a low damage, but high impact concussion trap. The boss chooses to go after another pair however, but Stephan takes the opportunity to try a taunt as it turns away from them, causing it to turn around again and go after him. Stephan jumps backwards over the tap where Tyrone catches him. The boss hits it and the resulting explosion knocks it up into the air, causing it to unroll.

“It works!” Ardine yells, “Stephan, Tyrone, retreat! Gail, Nash, you’re up!”

Gail and a tank named Nash step forward. Since it doesn’t need to be near Gail for her explosives to work, Nash is mostly there as insurance in case the bomb garners enough aggro to get it to target her.

When it turns towards Tyrone and Stephan, Luke intervenes, parrying it to stop it from rolling. Gail takes that time to throw a bomb, whose impact knocks it into the air. “We’re not done.” Ardine says, “We still need to know if we can blow it up in motion.”

“How do we do that?” Nash asks.

“With this!” Gail grins as she equips a homing rocket launcher.

Nash stares, “What is that doing in a fantasy game!?”

Gail’s grin widens, “Rule of cool!”

Luke runs around the thing to get it to turn towards him, “You’re only going to have a tiny firing window.”

Gail nods, “I got this. Just don’t get yourself killed.”

Luke turns around just in time to face it as its facing him. Gail pulls the trigger a fraction of a second before it starts rolling. Luke prepares for a parry, but it turns out to be unnecessary. The impact from the explosion has the same effect as the trap, and it unrolls.

“That’s it!” Ardine yells, “Everyone get out of here!”

Everyone but Luke, Gabriel, Collin and the teleport circle caster run towards the teleportation circle. The boss is still targeting Luke.

“Ugh! This is annoying.” Luke yells.

Stephan stops by the teleporter, rather than going through, “Luke! Lead it over here! I’ll taunt it, then you take the teleporter. I’ll block it and it’ll retarget. Then the last of us jump into the teleporter.”

Collin nods, “Good plan.”

“Go! We’ll be fine.” Luke says to Collin, who nods and then leaves.

“What should I do?” The guy asks.

“Stand behind me.” Stephan says to him, “After I block it, it’ll target you, since you’ll be the only one it can. Take off your weapons so you can lift me up and then carry me into the teleporter.”

“Carry you?” He asks incredulously.

“Yes.” Luke says as he parries the thing again, “This is getting close here guys.”

Stephan nods, “Get ready.”

It happens in an instant. Luke parries the boss one more time and then Stephan taunts it, causing it to turn to face him. Luke sprints into the teleporter while the boss starts to roll at Stephan. Stephan blocks it and it turns towards him again as it target the guy standing behind him. Then he’s pulled through the teleporter and they are standing in the safe room again. The boss room despawns as the screen in the safe room turns black.

“Very nice.” Gabriel says.

Ardine nods, “That was quite good.”

Stephan nods, “So, what do you think? Do you think we have enough intel to go for a kill?”

Collin nods, “I think we do.” He turns to Ardine, “Shall we?”

Ardine nods, “Gladly.”

Asa walks over to Luke as they wait for Collin and Ardine to finalize the plan, “So, how does it feel?”

Luke smiles down at Asa, “What feel?”

“Being part of a bigger group.” Asa answers.

Luke shakes his head and snickers, “It’s not as if I haven’t done Temple raids before.”

Asa nods, “True. But, isn’t this different?”

Luke ponders this, “I guess it is.”

“But you can’t explain exactly what it feels like?” Asa surmises.

Luke nods, “And I can’t figure out if it’s that I’m part of a bigger group?” He looks down, “Or that I’m not with you.”

Asa puts a hand on his shoulder, “Either way, it’s a difference worth experiencing.”

Luke smiles at him, “You think?”

Asa nods, “I’m here aren’t I? Which means if you are feeling like you’re not with me, then doesn’t that mean you’ve moved on at least a little?”

Luke looks down, “I guess it does. But I’m not sure it’s a good feeling.”

Asa nods, “I didn’t think it would be Luke. I’ve missed you too, but I still think this is for the best. And I think when it’s time for this to end. When we’re both ready to be together again? We’ll know.”

“Yeah. Because you’re right. Even though I miss you, I don’t feel a need to return things to how they were. Maybe I just need to feel some pain now.” Luke responds.

Asa sighs, “Luke. Don’t you think its time for you to stop thinking in terms of what you don’t have and start thinking in terms of what you do?”

Luke looks over at Kwame, “The thing is Asa. I don’t know what I have.”

Asa shakes his head and snickers, “Of course you don’t. That’s my entire point. You’ve been so focused on what you’ve lost that you haven’t even bothered to look.”

Luke ponders this, “Out of curiosity, what do you think I have?”

Asa shrugs, “To be perfectly honest? I have no idea. I’ve missed you, but when I think about you I think about what we had, not who you are now. And then I try to put that out of my head because it’ll never be like that again. Don’t take it the wrong way, but I try to think about you as little as possible.”

Luke smiles wistfully, “I’m glad actually. I don’t want you pining over me.”

“I haven’t done that in a long time Luke.” Asa responds.

Luke looks down, “I’m sorry that you ever did that at all.”

Asa shrugs, “I’m not. You were my best friend and I’m gay. How could I not pine over you a bit? You’d have to be the biggest jerk, and then I’d just have to wonder how we became best friends in the first place.”

Luke laughs, “I never thought about it that way. That does make me feel better.”

Asa slaps a hand on Luke’s back and looks over at Wake, “And now I’ve stopped pining.”

“You two deserve each other.” Luke says, then he laughs, “Either that or you are the luckiest fuck and don’t deserve a guy as awesome as him.”

Asa snorts, “It’s the latter. Definitely the latter.”

Luke snickers, “Still, I’m glad you’re happy.”

Asa motions towards Collin and Ardine, “Should we go help?”

Luke tilts his head to the side, “I think they’ve got this, but sure, why not?” The two of them walk over to where Collin and Ardine are talking.

Some Time Later

Collin and Ardine have finished the plan and explained everyone their roles and the group is going through the last finishing touches before going into the fight.

Collin addresses the group one last time while Theo and Ben do one final check to make sure everyone has what they need before heading off to the boss room, “This is it. This time we’re going for the kill. That means that we’re going to push harder, take more risks. While we don’t want to take unnecessary risks, we also can’t just retreat and respawn the room whenever something little goes wrong either. In short, this is our last chance to bow out.” He smiles at them, “So far this raid has gone great. If you don’t feel comfortable with our plan or want to sit out for any reason, you’ve already contributed more than anyone could have asked.” He smiles when he receives cheers. Even Sean gives him a grin and a thumbs up.

Ben stands next to Collin and addresses the group, “Um… I just wanted to say that we’ll be rooting for you. And, to thank you all, for being here for us. I know you say you’re getting more out of it, but… I still want to thank you all and to say. You got this.” Theo smiles at Ben while Collin puts a supportive hand on his shoulder as another group of cheers fills the room before the group heads off towards the boss.

Collin addresses the group one last time as they stand in front of the boss room, “Everyone ready?” A series of positive responses follow. “Then let’s do this.”

Ardine charges towards the boss as soon as they enter the room, trying to get it to target her with its roll. She sighs when it goes right past her. She turns around to see it slam through two people with shields before Luke parries it.

“Someone get that thing off him!” She yells.

“I’m fine.” Luke says, and then he maneuvers himself so it’ll go where Ardine had intended to lead it anyway, and lets it knock him out of the way. He then waits for it to target someone else so he can retreat to where Nash has taken his previous position guarding Collin as he annexes their staging area.

“Block team, get into position.” Ardine says, now that it’s in the target vicinity for their plan. Once again a hitch in the plan occurs as the boss goes after Luke again, but this time Gail is ready. She shoots it with the rocket launcher as it charges knocking it into the air and giving Stephan’s team of tanks who can block it with shields to get between it and Luke. With them in position, Luke runs over to trade places with Nash.

“That could have gone better.” Luke says.

“Still within acceptable parameters.” Collin responds.

Kwame heals him. “I gotcha.” He says before he salutes and then moves to support the team engaging the boss.

While this is going on Ardine continues with the plan. “Are you ready?” She yells at the blocker team. They all give various accedences. “Then trap team go.”

While the blocking team tries to keep it in the same place, Tyrone and the small number of other trap casters begin casting a wide circle of traps to keep it from getting away from the tanks. Hitch two happens now as a critical hit causes it to bowl over Stephan at an unfortunate angle where it ends up leaving the circle.

“What now?” One of the trappers asks.

“This can still work! We just need to encircle it such that it can’t reach our staging area.” Tyrone yells.

“Absolutely! Parry team, try to keep it in check so that the shield team can get back to it. And… never mind. Gabriel has it.” Ardine grins as she cuts herself off, seeing Gabriel is already healing Stephan.

Tyrone goes himself to set up the traps between it and the staging area. He’s about done when a missed parry causes the boss to almost hit him and set off the traps. “It’s getting too close to Luke and Collin.” He yells.

“On it!” Stephan yells as he has manages to get into a reasonable position again, “Can’t we do it here?” He asks as he taunts the boss to target him.

“If we can contain it here, is that acceptable?” Ardine yells towards Asa.

“That’s fine!” Asa yells back. Jerome, Brent and the rest of the backstabbers give thumps up emojis.

“And you?” Ardine asks Luke.

“Doesn’t matter where it is.” Luke responds, “It won’t get past me.”

Ardine nods, “Then let’s do this!”

Tyrone’s team has been casting trap circles as the shield tanks manage to keep it in place much better this time.

Stephan sends Asa a PM.

[ Rhymes Even: Asa, since it can bowl me over with a critical hit, we’re gonna have to alter the plan slightly.

BunnyAce: Already on it. I should still be able to get into its blindside before it rolls again even if I wait to see whether the block succeeds. ]

Asa turns to Jerome, “We can’t go until we know it didn’t crit. There isn’t time for you to see the effects of my blindside and get yours in is there?”

Jerome shakes his head, “I might be able to do it, but the others.”

“I know I can’t.” Brent says, “It was gonna be tight enough waiting for you anyway.” The others give similar responses.

“We’ll just go for it then.” Jerome says, “Remember if you can’t get an escape hatch or someone between it and you, don’t go for the blindside. That includes you Brent. Asa can get him and me out of there, but he can’t take everyone. Better to not have him have to decide who to save.”

Brent nods, “I got flash escape specifically for that.”

Jerome smiles, “Good man.”

“Are we ready to start the buffing?” Asa yells towards the containment team.

“Stephan?” Ardine asks.

“Do it!” Stephan yells.

Asa turns to Collin, “We need the buff team.”

Collin nods, “We should bring in the crowd clearing team too, in case of a surprise. As well as anyone else who wants to risk it for the spoils.” Collin sends his prepped message to the safe room for the remaining combatants.

The buff team enters the boss room via the teleportation circle while the various other people enter through the boss door. Asa, Jerome, Brent and the other backstabbers get ready to receive buffs.

“Buffers in place!” Asa yells.

Ardine nods, “Stephan, are you ready to taunt?”

Stephan nods, “I can taunt when ready.”

Asa turns to the buff team, “You can go now.”

While the blindsiders receive their buffs, Stephan watches the boss as it charges one of his compatriots. He has to get himself into a position where he can stop the boss within range of the blindside team. Fortunately, barring critical hits, the boss is doing no damage to any of the shielders, so the biggest time constraint buff durations. Of larger concern is the fact that they get one shot at this, meaning he has to get it right the first time. “Ardine, am I close enough?” He asks.

“Asa! Is Stephan in place?” Ardine asks.

“I can reach it.” Asa says.

Jerome shakes his head, “It depends on the angle for me, since I’m coming from above.”

Brent shakes his head, “I’m not even sure what I’m looking at.”

“I can move you into position when I go, if you trust me. But you’ll have to attack as soon as I drop you otherwise you might not get the attack in.” Asa says.

Brent takes a breath and nods, “Okay.”

Jerome takes a look, “Stephan, I’m PMing you a position that’ll be better for those of us who aren’t flash stepping.” Jerome yells.

Asa looks at it, “That’s better for us too.”

“Got it.” Stephan says and he’s about to run into position when it rolls at him again. He’s barely able to get the shield in place, but he’s crit again and it rolls past him into a trap. One of the other blockers taunts it, but Stephan can’t get out of the way, nor block it since it’s no longer in the middle of the blocker circle. “Hold on!”

“We don’t have infinite buff time!” Asa yells.

Stephan lets himself get bowled over, and the yellow border indicating he’s below half health appears. He stands up and moves into position, “I can’t do this without a heal.”

“Which healer still has MP!” Ardine calls out.

“I got it.” Wake moves to cast a heal on Stephan.

Gabriel also moves forward, “We gotta get him to full.” He casts a spell that temporarily negates the refractory period so the other healers can burst heal him.

Stephan moves into position, “I’m ready.”

“Are everyone’s buffs still up?” Asa asks. The blindside team nods.

Stephan points to one of the other blockers, “Taunt if you can!” She nods in response.

As the boss is blocked once again, she taunts it as it turns and it rolls towards her. Her shield blocks the attack entirely causing it to predictably unroll and growl. Stephan taunts it. It turns towards him and rolls. He holds it up and this time it does not get a critical hit.

Asa grabs Brent as it unrolls and flash steps into position dropping him. Jerome drops from above aiming for where its blindside should be. Asa activates his skill just as it finishes unrolling and slashes into its blindside. Brent and Jerome connect at nearly the exact same time.

Asa’s eyes widen when he sees the Damage Normalization skill trigger three times, negating all the bonus blindside damage. The other blindsiders hit shortly after that, also dealing the base damage for their skills. By the end of the chain, the boss has lost just over twenty-five percent of its life. Asa swears. From the damage it had taken compared to its life gauge, they’d have easily killed it if it didn’t have damage normalization. But now they have used up their one time offense buffs and he’s certain the boss pattern is about to get ugly. He’s not wrong.

The boss launches a huge number of small spiked balls in every direction, which unroll when they hit the ground into what looks like smaller versions of the boss. It then starts charging again, scattering more of them as it initiates the skill for each charge, before a parry could potentially negate it. To make matters worse, its doing more damage, so none of the shield tanks can consistently block it anymore.

“Retreat?” Asa asks.

Ardine nods, “That seems prudent.” But when they look they see that for many people retreat is not going to be a simple task. The majority of the mooks have landed near the edge of the room, a fact that both of them are certain was intentional given that that would be the place safest from the boss itself. That includes the area with the teleporter. “We need to clear some of these out before we find out what they do!” Ardine says moving to one that is nearby and on its own. It dies instantly when she hits it. “That was too easy. That can’t be good.”

Asa nods, “We gotta be fast.”

Collin, Luke and the guy who cast the teleporter find themselves totally surrounded by bugs. “Luke. Can we do this alone?” Collin asks.

Luke shakes his head, “Not forever.”

The guy looks at them, “I’ll be careful.”

Collin nods, “Yeah. I’d say let us handle it, but I don’t think that’s possible.”

He nods, “I know.”

Collin moves towards the three of them that are slowly moving towards him. The fact that they aren’t very mobile after they land is good at least. He casts chain lighting and all three of them die instantly. He thins is eyes, that was too easy. Then his eyes widen. “Wait!” He yells, but he turns around to see he’s too late.

The guy who cast their teleporter has already engaged one of the three that landed near him. And his attack did a lot. More than seventy percent of its life. But it wasn’t enough. The thing uses a Reaction skill that causes it to roll into a ball and then explode in a whirl of spikes, destroying itself in the process. The spikes flinch him and deal a moderate amount of damage. In fact, if that’s all it did, the fight would easily be containable. But it isn’t.

One of the other two is in the area of the explosion, which hits it, and it responds by doing the same thing. But it doesn’t just explode, the explosion is fast enough to chain with the first one and Collin’s eyes widen in horror when the 100% Chain Area Boost and 100% Chain Damage Boost skills trigger, causing the explosion to double in size and double its base damage and flinch him again. The third one then explodes in kind, triggering 100% Chain Cap Boost in addition to the previous two skills, dealing triple base damage and killing him.

The teleportation circle disappears with its caster, removing their escape hatch as Collin realizes the true terrifying nature of the fight. The boss is generating more of them as it rolls around. They have to be killed instantly or nearly instantly or they explode, meaning only main DPS can safely clear them out. While one explosion is more annoying than anything, the way they chain will get deadly very fast, which means that the fight now has a soft time limit. Eventually, if they can’t end the fight, there will be enough of them in the room that one explosion will cause a chain reaction wiping the entire raid.

He watches one of the bugs explode on its own, sealing their fate. Even if they don’t attack them at all, they’ll explode eventually. And that still leaves them with the problem of how to actually defeat the boss! While three more blindside chains would end the fight, that chain had taken way longer to execute then they realistically had.

Looking around, Collin realizes there’s no realistic way anyone can cast a teleportation circle. The teleportation circle spell takes a minute to cast, and they’d already learned, unfortunately, that Brandon’s roulette skill doesn’t affect it regardless of its casting time. The time limit was easy for them to do when they could contain the boss, but the adds don’t just explode, they also bite and are clearly scattered starting from the edges to corral everyone to the center of the room where the boss is. Escape is no longer an option. If they can’t win this, they’re all doomed.

He panics for a moment, his mind blank of any solution to their situation. He begins scanning his skills, stats, inventory, everything looking for something, anything that might help them. That’s when he sees his spear, and everything falls into place.

Lloyd had been right all along. The other top players had executed the plan he made, despite the setbacks, but it wasn’t his plan. He’d overlooked what seems to have been the most important factor: himself. But now he knows what has to be done.

“Anyone who can one shot the adds, kill them. Everyone else try to stay clear or contain the boss.” He yells. “Asa! Luke! I need you.”

Luke turns to face him and Asa is next to him via flash step in a moment. The expressions on their faces are firm but determined and Collin realizes what he should have realized all along: whatever anyone might have felt about him before, now everyone, even the top players, trust him with their lives. “Luke. I need you to parry it. And I mean, forever. You have to keep it locked down. I don’t think it can even roll into a ball. You are the only person who has the skill and durability to do this.” He nods and then charges towards it without hesitation. Collin’s eyes widen as people clear a path for Luke without anymore having to be said.

He turns to Asa, “Asa, I need to get behind it. Far enough that I can throw, but close enough that there’s no chance I’ll miss its blindside.”

Asa nods and then grabs him and from there it’s like clockwork. Collin has heard about how in tune Luke and Asa are, but to be a part of it is another thing entirely. Luke has already parried it twice at this point, and upon the third parry, Asa is already moving. Collin is behind it as Luke readies his fourth parry.

He equips his javelin and then readies his throw. It’s all in the hands of fate now. Time seems to slow for him as he rears back and makes his throw. His tension rises as the javelin hits its mark. And then he sees the fateful words: Lodge Skill – Lightning Rod appear above where his lance strikes home.

Collin doesn’t even have to do anything. Before he can react Asa has already flash stepped to a non-blindside angle and cast Bolt, doing normal damage. “Everyone! Use Lightning!” Collin screams, and then the room explodes.

He watches as people he knows don’t have any lightning at all access their menus and then start casting Bolt. He casts it himself and it watches as the bosses life gauge decreases at a steady rate, all the while Luke doing his part to make sure it never unlodges the javelin.

That’s when Collin’s eyes widen. There is still one problem. Even with people healing him, Luke’s life is still going down faster than the boss's. And if Luke goes down, the entire plan falls apart.

He’s about to panic when Luke’s life hits the red when suddenly Jacklyn swoops out of nowhere, shoves Luke out of the way and perfectly parries it with her wand. It makes a large dent in her hit points, but its enough. The two of them glance at each other and then Collin knows they’ve done it. They’ve won. Jacklyn parries every third roll and on the third cycle the rainbow glow of the temple raid boss explosion fills the room as not just the boss, but all the adds it summoned also go with it in a massive explosion of fireworks.

A giant “Congratulations!” appears and a large amount of spiritual energy and a long list of drops appears across the room. A moment later the room fills with elated cheers.

Collin sighs in relief and then laughs at their success, “We did it!”

The elation only lasts a few moments however. “Tyrone!” Kwame yells frantically. “Where is my cousin!”

Collin’s eyes widen in horror. He checks his friend list. Tyrone isn’t on it anymore. Neither is Gabriel. He sighs in relief when he sees Lloyd and Tracy are still there.

“Gail!” Jerome yells then he clicks a few things and his eyes also widen in horror.

“Shirley! Shirley’s gone!” Nina yells.

Collin shakes, unable to contain his emotion. The elation he felt is replaced with guilt as more people catalog their casualties. By the end, seventeen people have been confirmed lost, and Collin knows there could be more. With those numbers, the victory seems hollow. Pyrrhic even.

“What do we do now?” Collin asks no one in particular.

Kwame stands up, a harsh look on his face. “We knew this was a fools errand, but we did it anyway.” Collin is about to apologize when Kwame continues. “But if we stop now! If we give in! All these deaths will be in fucking vain! No! We’re doing this. We’re gonna fucking own this game! In the name of all those fallen. I swear it.”

Collin shivers again. Kwame’s speech may be noble seeming, but his tone is cold. The once happy, optimistic guy is no more and Collin wonders if he’ll ever see him again. Luke walks over to him. “Kwame’s right.” His tone is harsh. “And even if he isn’t, we both know we’re not stopping now. We’re going to continue if it kills all of us.”

Ardine walks over to them, “It may sound harsh, but this was a victory. It could have gone far worse, especially after how hard the plan failed.” Ardine puts a hand on Collin’s shoulder. “You saved us Collin. Everyone who survived is still here because of you.”

Collin sighs at that. He can’t deny the truth of their words. Despite the tragedy, they’ve done it. They’ve won. Even if they stop for a while, at some point this will fade into the past and become a memory and they will venture out anew.

“This can’t happen again.” Collin says. He looks Luke in the eyes, feeling a determination he hasn’t felt since he got here. Luke’s expression mirrors his own. When he looks at Ardine, her expression is the same. “We will not let this happen again.”