[ AILLN TRECHEND, SOUL BURNER ]
[Level 18 - HP 100,000/100,000]
Without taking his eyes from the Boss, Lialas tugs on my sleeve. "Um."
"Yes?" I ask lightly, as if I have no idea what he might want to discuss.
"Would you call that, a, um..."
"A dragon," I supply helpfully. "Yes, I would indeed."
"But it's got three heads? Doesn't that make it a hydra?" Shadeslayer asks, with the deanor of a man so beyond terror, he's settled into a scientific fascination with the object of his inevitable demise.
"Ah, but you see the mbrane wings?" I point out the maroon and black wings attached to its arms. "And how the middle head keeps spewing flas? Distinct dragon characteristics there."
"Mm, right." Shadeslayer nods, tapping his chin thoughtfully.
Lialas tugs on my sleeve again. "Is that giant three-headed dragon holding a...harp?"
"It would seem so, yes."
Lialas gulps. "How big would you say that, uh, dragon bard is?"
"Easily three giraffes tall," I say.
"Five or six giraffes wide," Shadeslayer adds.
"Huh," Lialas says, chewing on his lip.
There's a pause, as if we're all waiting for sothing.
Then Lialas swears. "Fucknuts, I forgot. Kane died. Was hoping for that in ters."
I bust out laughing.
I don't know if it's the reminder of Kane's bizarre knowledge or my surprise at Lialas' swearing, but once I start, I can't stop for several seconds. The others tear their eyes away from the monster taking up half the chamber to look at like I'm crazy. But then Lialas joins in with a mad chuckle of his own, and then Shadeslayer can't stop himself either, though it's even money whether he's laughing or crying.
"Everyone, we are royally screwed," I finally say, once we've all had our respective breakdowns.
"Hear hear." Lialas fistpumps.
As I'm about to prepare everyone for going out in a literal blaze of glory, Nightfury chis in:
"So what, you're going to give up NOW?" he accuses, crossing his arms.
"You're not?" I stare at him, disbelieving.
"It's not about . I'm not Mr. So Batshit Crazy I Bend the Universe to My Insane Will and Do Whatever the Fuck I Want."
I roll my eyes. "And what, I am?"
Three heads nod simultaneously. Shadeslayer nods so fervently I worry he's going to hurt himself.
I swear even the damn dragon nods.
"After all the crazy shite you've pulled on this thrice-cursed run, why wouldn't we expect you to pull one more logic-defying stunt out of your arse?"
I pointedly look back and forth between Nightfury and the Boss. "You know we can't kill that thing."
"Why not?" Shadeslayer asks.
I frown. "It's an Epic Beast. See how its na isn't written in red, but instead it's that Celestial-tier rainbow-y glow? That ans it's a monster so powerful it can shake the foundations of an entire Realm."
"Eek," Shadeslayer replies eloquently.
I gaze up at the ferocious monster. "Back in the beta, this guy was the Final Boss we had to beat to open up passage to Realm 2. It took 300 of us, fighting in teams of 100, to finally take him out."
Lialas slumps. "Then we have no chance, right?"
Nightfury harrumphs. "Except there is one major difference between that Realm battle and this. The Ailln Trechend we fought last ti was Level 40. This one's only Level 18."
"As if that matthuh," I cut myself off, frown deepening in thought.
As much as the devs hate right now, Zhao Jianyu's AI wouldn't create a truly unbeatable challenge just to be a dick. If we ca across an unbeatable mob randomly in the field, sure, that's our bad luck. But we're inside a beginner dungeon. We might die 99 tis out of a 100 against this guy, but there should be at least a tiny chance of success, or it wouldn't be fair.
"Grumpy Gus has a point," I say finally.
Nightfury's eyebrow twitches in annoyance, but then he smirks. "Poor Boxers Bro. Did admitting I was right get your pink panties in a twist?"
Unprepared for that low blow, I gasp.
Then I pull down my trousers and moon the bastard. "You tell . They twisted?"
"Fuck's sake, it says 'HERO' on your arse." Nightfury looks pained.
"It does indeed!" I say loudly as I whip my pants back up. "And now, this Hero is going to slay a goddamn dragon bard!"
"Huzzah!" Lialas cheers.
"Shitshitshitshitshit," Shadeslayer mumbles.
"I hate you so much it physically pains ," Nightfury groans.
"MOTHAFUCKING LEEROY JENKINS!" I yell.
------
The fight is a shitshow.
It largely consists of doing all of the damage while the others scream a lot.
(So, business as usual.)
Normally, I'd keep the Boss busy and have the others stay in a safe blind spot and attack freely.
Guess what? Not a lot of blind spots when the Boss has three fucking heads.
For ease of communication (by which I an screaming things like "Get the fuck back, dumbass! Flas incoming!"), I na each head so they're easy to reference no matter which way they're facing.
Left head = Mr. Bitey.
This head is all about physical attacks, all lunging neck and chomping fangs. It has the most limited range, but its attacks happen most frequently, so it's a lee nightmare.
Middle head = Mr. Burny.
Reptilian fla thrower, more or less. Luckily, the dragon's chest glows like a furnace when it's revving up to spew the next raging inferno, so as long as we're paying attention, it's not an attack we can't avoid.
After each fla breath, though, patches of floor remain ablaze, turning the dungeon chamber into a damn obstacle course and constantly shrinking our battlefield.
I pass out 50 Heat Resistance Fla Gum to everyone, which does jack all for protecting against the flas, but it keeps everyone from overheating as the room gets progressively warr.
Right head = Mr. Bardy
The most dangerous of the triple threat. Thankfully, his attacks are the least frequent, since they're the only ones we absolutely have to interrupt every single ti, or face a party wipe.
You heard . It's not the dragon fangs or the dragon breath that's mostly likely to kill us all.
It's the dragon's bard skills.
Mr. Bardy is the brains behind the harp playing, and the harp is this enchanted weapon that, according to myth, could put all of Tara to sleep every Samhain, giving Ailln full rein to wreck shit.
Needless to say, being put to sleep would make us unable to dodge teeth and flas, so that's the attack I'm most concerned with.
Unsurprisingly, though Lialas and Shadeslayer understand that concern on principle, the reality is razor sharp teeth and stone-lting flas tend to jump up the priority concern list when you're on the receiving end.
That leaves Nightfury and the only ones with enough presence of mind to interrupt the harp attacks. Iron arrows/bolts to the eye are a solid interrupt, but insanely difficult to pull off. We end up having Lialas use his Ice Runes to Freeze Mr. Bardy so we can shoot freely.
There's 100 seconds between harp attacks, so we spend the other ti focusing on the other heads.
I work alone, mostly dealing damage to Mr. Bitey and keeping him away from the others. While I'm dodging around looking for openings, I need my peak AGI, so I keep my The Natural title. When I'm attacking however, I quick-swap out for Indomitable David, for the 15% Attack and Defense against enemies more than 5 Levels higher than .
The other three work together to keep Mr. Burny busy. Lialas and Nightfury interrupt fla attacks with Runes flung into his mouth and well-tid headshots, while Shadeslayer takes advantage of the distraction when the attacks are aborted to land a few hits.
It kinda works. I land a seven-hit combo for 8000 Damage; Shadeslayer lands a two-hit strike for 180 Damage. I lunge at the Boss for 650 Damage; Shadeslayer hacks at the scaly hide for 15 Damage.
The cute part is when Shadeslayer worriedly asks if I'll be okay holding aggro, or if his attacks are going to cause an OT*.
Before I can reply, I land a faux-combo that sends the Boss down to 80% HP, and the music changes.
Nightfury and I lock eyes for a second, and together, we sigh.
You know when you're fighting a Boss and shit's going sideways fast, and you know it's going to take all your concentration and a week's worth of luck to possibly get out alive...
...And then a swarm of fucking Adds show up?
It's like, Really, devs? Necessary?
I think not.
So there we are, four puny demihumans fighting a colossal three-headed dragon...and a flock of flaming crows shows up to the party.
-----
*Author Reminder: I added two auxiliary chapters to the beginning of this work, one with specific in-ga reminders (like the breakdown of each demihuman race and the Celestial Tier system, etc), and the other with general video ga terminology (like OT) that you may be unfamiliar with. Feel free to check them out if you're ever confused.
Reviews
All reviews (0)