DD 203 Ch 13

It had been about three weeks since we had started raiding.

At first, progress came swiftly. We managed to take out six bosses the second week on our second and third trips in. Next we managed seven, then finally eight.

However, this is where we started to get stuck. We had spent several weeks grinding the bosses that we could defeat, with only minimal time left to push into the newest challenge.

Finally, now on our seventh trip into the raid, we ignored the two wings that we had been able to clear completely and pushed straight to the boss that had been giving us trouble. We spent the whole day fighting that boss, wiping repeatedly, but we were prepared to go again.

"Damn, this one is tough," I muttered.

Charlotte sat down next to me, handing me a water from her CID.

"If only I could stay on him," I said, "the DPS check would be a piece of cake."

Since we had changed some of our strategies to focus less on supporting the healers and more on supporting the DPS, many of the fights had become shorter and easier for the raid as a whole.

"Why don't we try just that?" Des suggested. "Maybe we could get Felin on full-time shielding you during some of the blasts."

This fight frequently had the boss throwing down large stone tablets that the raid had to hide behind as it pulsed three times, which would kill anyone but a tank if they stood out in it.

The other problem we were facing was that the boss was essentially a DPS check. Its other abilities grew stronger the longer the fight went on, until the tanks couldn't take it anymore.

"I could do that," Felin said, leaning against her spear. "Operation keep Ken alive."

"And I can put healing over time on him before each," Charlotte added.

There was already a decent number of people in the raid that were supporting me, including Candice and occasionally Kendra. On some of these bosses, I had proved to be absolutely invaluable by focusing the support on my damage.

The first beetle boss, we were able to kill it now before the third wave. We hadn't brought down an official DPS meter yet. I was fairly sure I might compare to the rest of the damage dealers combined on that fight, which wasn't entirely fair to give myself the full credit for. Of course, with multiple support helping me out, I was really the combined efforts of several members of the raid.

"So, are we going to give it another go?" I asked the ladies around me.

The rest of the raid had taken a quick break, enjoying snacks. Tish was off to the side, having come in to get the princess's attention.

Her sensors were still checking and clearing the raid every time before we went in, and then stationing up at the entrance, the only entrance and exit, to prevent others from coming in. It had turned out that they recruited my grandparents for assistance on analyzing their protection.

Miriam was even frequently going to the nearby safe zones and establishing a small network of informants to ensure they weren't caught unaware of any plans.

So far, Prince Albar and SJS Financials had been relatively quiet, but I knew that she had done enough damage that they would eventually find a way to retaliate.

Tish moved to leave the raid, and Elysara walked back over to us. "Anything we need to know?" I asked my Adrel.

"It seems they've caught wind of some high-level players moving towards us," Elysara scowled. "Tish and Miriam are going to go intercept."

"And Neldra is staying here?" I asked.

"That's the goal as I understand it. All of them would be much more comfortable if Crimson decided to stick around. She's still running all those errands for the UG."

I shrugged. Crimson hadn't told me much about what was actually bothering her, yet it seemed that she was being kept quite busy.

The tremors that had been occurring in the dungeon had been growing more frequent and more common, though so far nothing so extreme that it had caused difficulty. A few adventurers claimed getting injured because they lost their footing while fighting. Other than that, the dungeon just seemed to be rumbling for some unknown reason.

"Elves have never seen something like this?" I asked Elysara.

"Supposedly not," she said. And I glanced over towards Felin.

She shrugged. "The Great One does what he wants. We are at its mercy," she said.

The Nekorian Shaman didn't seem to be any help, so I wondered if we could use her to ask the dungeon someday.

Candice stood up and clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "If you're done, let's get back in the boss room."

I nodded at her and my ladies. This was my cue to get back at it. Tapping Candice on the shoulder, I said, "Felin and Charlotte want to play a game of Operation Keep Ken Alive. They want me to try and tank the blasts. I just wanted to keep you informed in case you had anything for that."

Candice shook her head. "I could try and time it," she squinted, "but those pulses are about two seconds apart. And even if I put a temporary enchantment on you and timed it perfectly, I could only reduce two of the blasts." She then waffled her head side to side, "but that might be worth it."

"I'll take it if you can do it," I told her and got into the room and into position ready to start this.

Everyone was taking this boss quite seriously. Several of the casters churned spells in their hands before the tank had even started. Given that this had become an extreme damage check, we weren't even waiting for the tanks to have solid aggro. Instead, forcing them to manage aggro as quickly as they could.

"Everyone ready?" Fayeth asked and put her hand in the air. People put thumbs up. Many of the spell casters hands were backlit by the spell churning in their hand.

"All right, on three, two, one," Fayeth dropped her hand.

Myrtle and Helen hurtled into the boss. The two of them being the faster of the tanks. Immediately spells lobbed from behind me.

I ignored everything else as I stepped into range of the boss with a [Shadow Ambush] coming up the side of it.

I had quickly figured out that while it was important to watch the raid and learn as much as I could to help make decisions, at the same time after a few attempts, it was on me to give my combat my full focus. I started off with a barrage of skills, triple breach, shadow strike, and more came out one after the other. As I quickly built up stacks of [Liminal Speed], [Dark Blade] was not on my weapons at present.

This boss used shadow damage and I had found that my [Static Swords] ability was doing more. It paired with a frosty chill that came over my blades before Candice's pulsing haste hit me and I felt myself grow faster.

The initial part of the boss was incredibly simple. For the first 10 percent, all I had to do was stand behind it and slam my daggers into it as fast as I could, my muscles ached with the incredible effort that I had applied to my form.

The boss's health dropped rapidly. It was a humanoid that stood about 10 feet tall carrying a wicked bone staff and wearing nothing more than a pair of linen pants. Its body was so heavily tattooed, it might as well have been clothed.

The boss hit 90% and slammed its staff into the ground, teleporting to a side of the room. I activated [Sprint], rushing after it. Between [Sprint] and [Liminal Speed], I was the first one to reach the boss and resuming my damage.

It slammed its staff on the ground again, darkening a cone of the room. The healers and ranged DPS scattered, while I sidestepped out of the cone, maintaining my damage.

 In between these abilities, it swung its staff at the tank.

Helen's shield sparked, absorbing the strike and driving her back several feet. I knew, from experience, that a smack from that staff struck far harder than it looked.

The boss continued to chant, swinging its staff over its head.

I activated [Absorb], holding my hand out, and a blob of dark energy was sucked into my ability. I immediately spat the spell back out at the boss with [Spell Mirror] and continued my damage.

Everyone in the raid started to glow, including myself, as healers threw out Wide Effect Healing. The boss smacked its staff, creating another one of those. It teleported across the room before creating another cone area of effect. The tanks and I were already rushing to get back on it.

"Interrupt that," Helen said, joining me on the boss.

It started to spin up a large bolt of darkness, and I stomped down with Earth Stomp, the ripple of ground interrupting the boss's cast. My weapons blurred in front of me, striking against the humanoid target's tough skin. My attacks failed to find purchase. It was like striking steel. It didn't matter, though. Slowly, we were whittling down the boss's health. This cycle repeated until the boss hit 50%.

This time, when the boss raised its staff, the energy it produced was a different color. Instead of the previous purple, it turned an eerie green as it teleported to the very center of the room.

Three large stone tablets fell from the air. The raid members threw themselves out of the way. I, however, rushed straight to the boss, completely alone. My blades found him, continuing to build up stacks.

Someone unaware of Operation Keep Ken Alive shouted at me to get behind the pillar, but I ignored them. The downtime of rushing behind the pillars and waiting for the blasts was long enough that my stacks would fall off.

Instead, a bubble of ice wrapped around me, and I could see green vines of magic wrap up and down my arms.

Charlotte and Felin were going to do their best to keep me alive.

Just before the boss pulsed, I suddenly felt denser, like I could run through a brick wall. The first pulse hit me like a punch to the gut.

The magic ripped something from me, only for two heals to land on me and bring it back.

I gritted my teeth and let the second wave hit me. It almost brought me to my knees before more heals piled on and Felin's ice shield reappeared for the third blast.

This one hit me hard enough to make me cough up blood, which splashed on the boss before my daggers carved designs into my own liquid life.

Felin landed beside me, her mace slamming into the boss. She didn't utter a word about me sticking around, though she shot me a sharp glare. The boss continued, and my blades danced along its hips.

"Are you sticking on the boss?" Taylor arrived a moment later and asked me. I dodged to the side as the boss sent out two cone areas on each side.

"That's the plan. Otherwise, I lose too many stacks when I have to go hide behind the pillars," I told her.

She nodded, attacking with two very shiny looking maces, having gotten new weapons. In the weeks leading up to this, everyone's gear was looking a little shinier.

At this point, we had killed 40 to 50 bosses, each dropping three pieces of gear, which meant everyone was looking fairly epically equipped.

Which was good because random magical explosions started to dot the room and the healers were struggling to keep everyone alive.

My attack grew faster until I was blurring to the side every time the boss attacked. I knew now that he had hit 25% because the color of his magic changed once again. It was now blue as he threw himself into the center of the room and stone tablets dropped from the ceiling.

Everyone else threw themselves behind the stone tablets.

I rushed to the boss using [Shadow Phase] to protect myself just in time as the first wave of blue magic hit me. With Shadow Phase and Felin's Ice Shield, the blasts barely fazed me and I kept up my damage through all three.

At this point, [Liminal Speed] had reached ridiculous quantities. I was moving around the boss like a phantom.

The second and third waves ripped out, but with the healing and the buffs on me, I weathered through it. My blades continued to churn against the boss.

I watched as he almost immediately dropped into the 15% mark, where he started teleporting right back into the spot he had been. More tablets dropped from the ceiling. I didn't pause, I didn't think. Instead, I kept my damage up on the boss, letting the support and healers hit me with their best cooldowns.

However, the transition from the last one to this one may have been too soon.

I felt Felin's Shield, but I failed to receive Candice's damage reduction, [Shadow Phase] was still on cooldown as well. The first blast knocked me off my feet. Yet, I was back up even before the second.

I drew a potion from my CID and slammed it back, with one hand while the other continued to attack. I didn't think that I would survive this round without the cooldowns. I activated the second phase of [Liminal Speed], stopping time.

Using all of my abilities, I continued to hammer the boss. I thought about retreating to safety with this frozen time. However, my stacks of [Liminal Speed] were high enough, I had nearly a minute of uninterrupted time to damage the boss.

Watching as his health slowly chipped away, that steel-like skin had begun to crack. The boss was looking far worse for wear.

My stacks of [Liminal Speed] hit zero, and the second blast ripped me off my feet, tossing me in the air, only to land with a hard crunch before everything went dark.

***

I gasped as Charlotte brought me back to life, and people were oohing and aahing over the loot.

"Did we get it?" I asked her, sitting up.

"We got it. He went down about five seconds after you." Charlotte held a hand out, and I used it to pull myself up.

"Damn, really?" I perked up, knowing that those blasts should have triggered when he was at 15%, meaning I nearly took him down in that frozen time. “Just a little more gear and stats, and I won't have to die for it next time.” I smirked at her.

The rest of the raid group was talking about the loot, and I walked over to join them.

"There's Ken," Harley said. "It looks like Operation Keep Kin Alive was at least a partial success," she laughed. "To reward you and maybe help you next time, why don't you take this?" Harley picked up a dagger from the pile of loot and tossed it my way.

I snatched it out of the air. The blade was a dark, umbral color with little dots of twilight inside the metal. I turned it over in my hands, checking out the stats, as a giant grin spread across my face.

[Umbraheart Sigil - Agility - 55, Strength - 15, Stamina - 20]

"We have to follow the normal rules," I told Harley.

Candace heard that and asked the group, "Raise your hand if you want the dagger." The whole classroom looked around with big smiles as no one raised their hand.

Chuckling good-naturedly, I held up my hand.

"Congratulations," Harley said, before Candace got a chance. "You get the dagger." She took my hand with the weapon and pushed it gently towards me, as if to say she was right all along.

"Well, thank you. This will certainly make things better." I took the dagger that had been in my left hand and put it away in my CID before moving my right-handed dagger over and replacing it with the brand new one.

This even beat out the box of weapons that the Harem Queen had given me before. Every melee DPS loved getting a new weapon.

"Well then, this just leaves the final three bosses, doesn't it?" I said as Candace started to give away the other pieces of loot.

"Before you know it, we'll have it done.” Des leaned on my shoulder, “and you'll secure Crimson.

I rolled my eyes. The bet with Prince Albar was public knowledge by now among the class, and Des had no issue with teasing me about it.

But before I could utter a response, the dungeon shook. It was a low rumble that I could feel in the soles of my feet, before it picked up and people were grabbing onto each other to keep themselves on their feet. That only lasted a few seconds before everyone was falling on their asses as it became a full-blown earthquake.

The earthquake in the dungeon only intensified.

People's eyes were wide as they looked around, wondering what the hell was happening. If these were the disturbances that Crimson was looking into, I completely understood why the UG was worried.

This wasn't just rumblings of the dungeon, this felt like something far more.

After what felt like forever, the earthquake slowed down to a dull rumble. I could still feel it in the soles of my feet as I got up.

"There might be aftershocks," Taylor said quickly.

"I don't know if there are tectonic plates in the dungeon," Candice shot back. "There could be anything."

"Should we stop the raid for today?" I asked the group, looking around. Everyone was filled with worry, and I could tell that we weren't in the best mood to continue anyway. If another one like that hit us during a boss fight it would be an instant wipe anyway.

"Come on," I tilted my head to the side, urging the ladies to come with me. There was no point in continuing this raid. We needed to get out and find out what the hell happened.