DD 203 Ch 20

Chapter 20

We had peeled through the trash, and while Candice had explained the boss, I had bounced from foot to foot, eager to take it down.

The boss was another large humanoid. This one was a man that was half skeleton. Parts of his body were peeled off, revealing the bones underneath. He raised a hand as if he was casting a perpetual spell in the middle of a large altar. All around him were four different portals. Nothing was coming out of them now, but I knew that would change as soon as the fight started.

Already, Fayeth held her thumb up, and I joined her, casting a glance at my small group. You see, the boss would force us to split into four groups, one to prevent each portal's monsters from reaching the boss.

Fayeth put her hand down and charged the boss, swinging at once and starting the fight.

The boss floated in the center, ignoring the tank, and its spell finished, causing all four portals to glow as they disgorged one monster after the other. At the same time magic peeled away from the portals and wrapped a shield around the boss that Fayeth’s glaive pinged off of with her next strike.

I rushed to my designated portal and started fighting the scarab beetle that walked out. This one held a thematic appearance with the boss. Part of its body was decrepit, as if it was half alive, half dead, as it ignored me and trundled towards the boss.

My daggers pinged off its hide as Penny stepped up next to me, creating a patch of frost for me to begin my damage. Candice's haste hit me, followed a moment later by Kendra's enchantment to put ice on my blades, and I began to build up stacks of [Liminal Speed].

The ranged DPSs around the room stood in the center, throwing their might behind whichever lane needed the most help. Shards of ice and bolts of dark magic slammed into my scarab, and I cursed, feeling like I was behind if the ranged damage dealers were turning to help me.

I glanced over at one of the other lanes, they were fighting much smaller monsters, and my scarab was just the largest thing present.

With the help of the ranged DPSs, we brought the scarab down shortly, and I turned to see a crocodile, my blades quickly finding purchase on the monster’s remaining flesh. It didn't even so much glance at me as I began to carve the crocodile up, my speed continuing to increase.

We couldn't let any of the monsters reach the boss, because if they did, it would empower the boss and make the next phase that much more difficult. So, I did my work, finishing up the crocodile, and moving on to a mass of skeletal creatures that came out next.

I swapped out one of my blades for a mace that had been spare loot, the mace doing far more damage against the hard skeletons than my daggers had been doing previously. I smashed through the skeletons, feeling my stacks build up further and further, the fight blurred past as I worked to clear out my lane.

A large monster came barreling out of my portal, this one was not the passive monsters walking towards the boss instead, Helen jumped into my lane and got its attention as it started to beat on her.

It wasn’t anything we’d seen so far in the raid, instead it had the skeletal head of a tiger with the body of a scarab and a pair of wings that weren’t nearly large enough to be effective for its body not to mention a few too many arms of various creatures.

Fire magic rained down on the undead amalgamation, and I tried to get the raid's attention, "Leave it alone, I want this one to stay alive," I said, hitting it several times before zipping back over to the slow trundle of monsters coming out of the portal, and clearing them out before returning.

Penny was waving her hands between the monster and the ranged DPS, and had successfully gotten to stop.

"Are you mad?" Helen spat, a mace just like the one I was using materializing in her hands as she smacked the large undead amalgamation. 

"No, I want to use it to keep my stacks climbing," I said, swapping out my nice weapons for a pair of training blades. The CID, had labeled them as junk, but they would do for what I needed right now. I used them to drum on the side of the monster and quickly build up stacks, before switching back to my high level weapons and clearing out the waves as they came out of my portal. 

As [Liminal Speed] picked up, I needed less and less help in my lane. I dismissed Penny until it was just me and Helen. I was using the large monster as a way to build my stacks.

A second one trundled out of another portal, and Helen cursed as she jumped. Golden wings that carried her across the space. She landed, punching the other large skeletal amalgamation. 

I quickly cleared the rest of my lane before moving impossibly fast over to where Helen was fighting the now two amalgamations. I didn’t switch out to my training blades this time, and instead cleaved through the first one in record time before stopping next to Helen and switching back to my crummy weapons. 

"Bring it over to my lane," I said, before zipping over and catching back up on the slow trundle of monsters heading towards the boss.

Helen walked her monster over backwards, but she hadn't even gotten to my lane before I finished clearing and came beside the monster.

My weapons continued to drum against the large monster as I lost count how many monsters I had destroyed from my portal, but Helen kept bringing over the amalgamations as they spawned and I kept them alive as best as I could to keep my stacks climbing.

"This phase is almost done," Fayeth shouted, and I switched to my blades, working to finish off this monster just in time for the boss to finish casting his spell. The portals exploded and the shield around the boss shattered as he continued to glow, magic pulsing off of him every two seconds. Runes lit up all over his body, but they were a dull glow, I had a feeling they’d get brighter if monsters reached him.

I finished the last amalgamation and rushed behind the boss where my DPS would begin in earnest. You see, the reason none of the other schools had been able to kill the boss is this final part was a massive DPS check. But for me, it was the perfect fight, unlike the last one where I wasn’t able to build up my stacks. This one I had been given the chance to build them up before the fight began in earnest.

Purple lightning practically exploded off of me as I whittled away at the boss's health so fast that I'm sure if anyone was watching with their CID they could see a steady drop of its health bar. 

When the boss got to 50%, it reactivated the portals around the room but continued to fight while pulsing.

The healers were shouting around the raid straining to keep everyone alive as the pulses grew stronger.

I ignored the mobs coming through and attacked the boss with reckless abandon. My abilities going off in quick succession as I raced to damage the boss. 

"All DPS except Ken focused on the monsters," Candice shouted, understanding where this was going.

My damage was ramping up at this point to insane values and I was likely doing more damage than the rest of the raid combined. My focus tunneled into running through my forms perfectly, doing as much damage as I could to the boss, working in my abilities as they came off cooldown.

"The monsters are coming faster," Penny warned me, "Could you clear out the lanes?" 

I glanced at her and then back at the boss, checking to see he was only at 25% and sprinting away, cleaving through one entire lane in what was probably only 5 seconds. But to me it felt like so much longer as I ducked, dodged, and wove through the monsters, my blades finding their mark time and time again.

Monsters were exploding into black smoke one after the other like some sort of pyrotechnic display only for me to shoot through the smoke causing it to blow away into a black mist that seemed to follow me as I rushed about.

I zipped through all four lanes, clearing the monsters back to the portal before sticking back to the boss and hammering its health down rapidly. 

"Ignore the monsters, focus on the boss," Candice shouted in what felt like just moments later as sweat was beating down the side of my head as I worked as fast as I could to kill the boss before it became unmanageable.

The pulses from the boss hit me one after the other, but heals came as soon as the damage hit. The room was alight with heals as healers threw spells left and right.

Even if the monsters hadn’t reached the boss, every time he pulsed it was taking a larger and larger chunk of everyone's health.

I pushed and pushed and finally the boss collapsed down on himself and a plume of black smoke puffed up in the air. 

I swung through the smoke blowing it away, not even realizing the boss had been about to die. Everything around me was in slow-mo with the number of stacks I had. I activated [Liminal Space] to dump my stacks as I pulled out a sandwich.

My stomach was grumbling, as if it was about to pitch a riot. The more I used [Liminal Speed] and as my stats increased, the more I was realizing I was having hunger issues when my stacks got too high.

As [Liminal Space] ended and I was four sandwiches later, Harley jumped on my back. "We did it! What loot did we get?" Her eyes shone over my shoulder as she stared at the center of the altar.

Lying there, instead of the usual three, were four pieces of loot. The ultimate boss of a raid tended to have both better loot and a little more. 

"Let's see." Candice walked up to the center with the rest of the raid, everyone was wearing giant smiles.

Taylor stood beside me and punched me in the shoulder. "We frickin' one-shot it!" 

I chuckled.

"You mean Ken one-shot it." Des spoke up. "Pretty sure the only reason that was remotely easy was because Ken went absolutely insane." 

I scratched the back of my head, feeling a little self-conscious with the attention everyone was paying to me. "I just happened to be uniquely suited to this fight." 

"Yeah, yeah. Quit being modest." Harley hopped off my back and got closer to the loot. 

Candice held up the first piece of loot. It was a huge, gnarly-looking sword. The kind of loot that when you saw an adventurer walking around, you knew they were high-level by the gear alone. 

"Penny, it looks like you got a new sword." Candice held it up. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Taylor held her hand up. "I can use two-handers." 

"Yeah, but when we're done with the raid, you go back to being a tank." Kendra shot the duelist down. 

"That's not fair at all." Taylor sunk in on herself. "Why do I have to be a tank?" 

The class laughed, and Candice held the sword out for Penny, who took it with a giant grin, swinging it around a few times. "Thanks, it's pretty incredible," she said. 

Checking it with her CID, I had to agree. Two-handers had twice the stats on my swords, and that thing was practically radiating magic. The soft purple glow from it, if we turned out the lights, would likely be enough to see by. 

"Well, let's see what's next." Candice held up a pair of green, tattered robes, but they were tattered in somewhat of a fashionable sense. There was one thing our party did not lack. It was casters. Half the raid's hands shot up in the air. 

"All right, calm down." Candice waved her hands and put her own hand up in the air, just to make sure everyone understood, before she did a head count and tapped on her CID. 

"Lucky number 13," she said, and held it out to Felicity, who snatched it up and equipped it instantly. The elemental summoner definitely acquired a new look. The shirt had a sheer layer from her throat to her chest. Meanwhile, the sinister green outfit had several tears along the side to strategically expose more skin. Finally, a long jagged rip down one of the legs, that drew the attention and probably made moving in it possible. 

There were some grumbles amongst the people in the party. Des slid up next to me. "I would look fantastic in that, wouldn't I?" She nudged me in the side. 

"Of course you would. You look good in everything. Also, that’s the lowest level one that we’ll get because the raid level keeps raising. We’ll get you something better." My answer must have been the right one, because she planted a kiss on my cheek before twirling away. 

And Candice held up a belt that was a string of skulls. "And we have more caster gear." The number of hands that went up was even more.

We really had too many spellcasters in this group. Between the healers, support and ranged casters like Des they made up over half our raid.

This one, however, went to Des, who happily strapped it along her waist. The skull belt fit Desmonda's demonic mage motif far better than the dress had fit Felicity's.

Then again, the raid was slowly all looking similar as we stacked up loot from this raid. 

And finally, Candice picked up another piece of loot. This was a sword somewhat awkwardly sized between a shortsword and a longsword. It was probably the length from my fingertips to my shoulder. She waffled it back and forth, looked at me and Taylor, as well as the tanks. 

"It's pretty balanced between strength and agility," she said. I checked it with my CID before my eyes nearly popped out of my head.

[Harbinger of the Endless - Agility 50, Strength 50, Stamina 30

Echoes of the Lost - For every enemy slain by the Harbringer, the weapon has a chance to consume the soul and force it to fight by the wielder’s side for a short duration.]

"Yeah, just give that to Ken," Taylor said, doing her best not to sound bitter. 

Everyone looked to Helen who grumbled under her breath.

"What was that?" Candice urged her.

"Give it to Ken," Helen said louder, absolutely sounding bitter about it. 

"Well, Ken, would you like it?" Candice turned back to me and I gave her a giant smile.

"I'll take it." 

"Going once, going twice, sold!" Candice handed me the weapon.

The unique effect on it was interesting to say the least. In a boss fight like this with all the ads, it would enhance my damage. The idea of a small army of those monsters joining me to fight the boss when I speed cleared the four portals made me smile.

"Well, you know what this means," Des said, causing me to peel my eyes off the weapon.

"What does it mean?" I asked.

"It means we need to haul Prince Albar in here and show him that we killed the boss." Several of the other people in the class perked up.

"You mean the one where he owes Ken billions?”

“Serves him right.” 

“That rat bastard better pay up." Several of the classmates added their own encouragement.

Prince Albar had been becoming increasingly disliked by the class, and not just ours, but Pendulum and Trusk were losing their taste for him. He had fought with everyone about trying to squeeze his tent into the raid room and ultimately had cannibalized several of his fellow classmates' tents for his own.

Anyone who had spent time adventuring looked on to that scene with nothing but disdain.

Not to mention, he had a penchant for taking even the most minor of upgrades over letting someone else in his raid. That information was leaked by a disgruntled Royal College student. He was their top damage dealer, however, people could only stand a diva for so long.

I had even seen several of his classmates glaring at him when his back was turned. Yet a good number of them were still sycophants for the prince. That type always seemed to cling to the wealthiest person in the room.

"I will go get him," Elysara perked up and motioned for Neldra to follow her.

The sensor had been our backup plan in case we needed to be revived. The professor was still pretending to be ‘dead’.

However, we had been operating well without needing her, someone always able to escape the boss room when needed.

Professor Sai, who was still holed up inside Penny's group's tent. The professor was adamant that she was going to remain hidden for now.

The ruby-haired elven princess was already long gone, rushing back to the entrance so she could collect what I assumed was going to be everyone and drag them down to show off.

I shook my head and met Neldra's eyes.

The elf was doing her best to pretend that she wasn't badly poisoned. So far, because she had not been healing herself or straining herself, the poison had not gotten worse. However, we both knew the amount she could help was quite limited.

"Wait, wait, let me get my camera," Harley said, pulling a nice camera out of her CID. "I want to get the prince's face when he comes and sees." She positioned herself up by the boss's doors where she would likely get a good shot of the prince's face when he walked in to see it was gone.

I rubbed my forehead; her antics were a little much. However, I would ask to see the photo once she was done. Maybe frame it and put it somewhere I could remember the moment for a good long time.

Des put a hand on my shoulder. "Do you feel better? Crimson never would have really gone with him. It was just her way of encouraging it.”

Of course I knew that. “A new goal had been growing in my mind, with the financial damage that Elysara has been doing to SJS financials, this might be another solid blow against them. With the addition of the disruption to the dungeon, who knows, maybe it could be a death blow.” 

“Wouldn't that be nice?" Des smirked. "Wait, don't kill the company," she leaned in and whispered something in my ear.

I laughed and put my hand over my eyes. "You can't be serious."

"Why not?”

“I don't think that's how it works," I said.

Des puffed out her lower lip. "It's how I want it to work."

"Yeah, how you want it to work is exactly how the law and corporate finances work, right?"

She rolled her eyes. "Point taken. So now that we're all done, do we get celebratory sex?" she asked.

I was about to say no and say we were tired, but we'd actually cleared this in decent time. “The other groups were all likely finished with the shorter wings, but we could have dinner and rest afterwards.”

"That wasn't a no," Des grinned and poked at my side.

"It wasn't a yes either." I was just being difficult because it was fun with her. "It's a solid maybe.”

"Well, you're one to love training and we could work on our stats tonight," she bobbed her eyebrows.

"I think finishing the raid is probably worth a celebration," I conceded.

In response, the sinfully curvy temptress wrapped herself around me and planted a smoldering kiss on my cheek.

"Have I mentioned that I love you?"

"Yes, at least twice today," I kissed her back. "Love you, too."