DD 203 Ch 4

My back slid down a limestone pillar as the group took a breather before we went after the second boss. After the first, we'd been clearing trash for about an hour and a half.

 Much of that time, I had spent at accelerated speeds with Liminal Speed. My thighs ached as I massaged them with one hand while fishing through my CID for a sandwich with the other.

Felin plopped into my lap, making me wince from my sore thighs. She wiggled in my lap, a giddy laugh on her lips, and her tail batting at my nose.

"Having fun?" I asked her, grabbing her hips and trying to hold her still to save my sore legs and my growing erection.

"A lot of fun," Felin said, snatching the sandwich out of my hand and taking a nibble from it before handing it back to me. "I'd never been in a raid before." She was excited to explore the raid with the class.

"Well, I'm glad to have you along. Between you and Elysara, you're helping make the 25 party member raid full."

Felin grinned and leaned back at me, thankfully stopping wiggling in my lap. My body couldn't decide between enjoying it and the pain of my sore thighs. I wasn't a masochist, and frankly, my body was confused.

"Lots of fun," Felin repeated. "If only we didn't have so many of these stupid crocodiles." Most of the raid agreed with her assessment.

The further we'd gone from the first boss towards the second, the more the raid shifted. While the first half had all been ruins and sand, the closer we got to the second boss, the more plants had taken root amid the cracks.

Even several streams had cut their way through the limestone. Life had managed to take root, even amongst the hard stone. It had continued to get greener and at this point, the second boss's room was nearly a lush tropical paradise.

Amid the tropical paradise and the rivers that cut through it there were crocodiles. Lots and lots of crocodiles. Bushes that were far too small to hold the scaly bastards were somehow filled with them.

They would spawn out of the smallest bushes. Crocodiles the size of a tiger would rush the party from every shrub. Unlike the giant scarabs that were largely single mob fights, the crocodiles came in large packs, sometimes as large as 20. They were giving our tanks a run for their money, trying to defend from so many beasts at once.

More than once a ranged dps or healer fled from an ambush only to trigger a second.

Felin was rubbing her tail, reminding me of the time earlier where one had managed to chomp down on it. She had yowled and screamed like an upset cat before she utterly obliterated the crocodile with a strike of her spear filled with magic.

I held on to her while I continued to nibble at my sandwich. She pulled some jerky out of her pouch, and let out a sigh of contentment as she relaxed against me.

"Are you at least comfortable raiding with us. Do you miss your people?" I asked, curious how Felin was doing. She had been away from other Nekorians now for long enough that I was worried she would start to grow homesick. But instead she just shrugged.

"It's all the same to me. Adventure with humans, with Nekorians." She dipped her head back and forth, causing the white and blue ears on top of her head to bounce. "It's different, but not bad."

She seemed rather flexible, which was certainly true in more ways than one.

I rubbed a hand along her thigh, covered in thin leather pants.

"Well, let me know if there's anything we can do. Last thing I want to do is inconvenience a Nekorian shaman, given how you are helping us with so much."

She twisted in my lap and planted a kiss on my cheek. "Not a problem," she winked, only for Charlotte to sit down next to me, plopping Bun-Bun in her lap.

"Phew!" The green-haired druid let out an explosive breath. "I don't know how this is so much more exhausting than everything else we've done," Charlotte said.

The answer was on the tip of my tongue, but Des beat me to it as she sat down with the rest of our group. Fayeth and Elysara joined us as well.

"It's the focus," Des said. "Being so intensely focused for so long is draining in its own unique way."

"Yeah, but we've had to focus plenty when we were doing the vampire event or training," Charlotte argued.

I shook my head in agreement with Des. "The raid is different, especially with how many times we've died." That brought a somber expression to many of their faces. We'd only died once to the first boss, but especially with the crocodiles, most people in the raid had died at least once when a swarm spawned unexpectedly. They could quickly chew through the health of one of the raid members if they were the target of the ambush.

I think Felin was the only one that hadn't actually died yet this raid. Then again, the Nekorian was incredibly quick on her feet for a support and tended to stay back and out of range most of the time.

The rabbit in Charlotte's lap huffed and started nudging her hands around, causing the druid to roll her eyes and pull out a large bed of lettuce for him. The rabbit quickly started munching. Everyone took that as a cue and pulled out a light snack and something to drink as we relaxed for a minute before we returned to the raid and its second boss.

"What do we know about this boss?" Elysara asked as we were all eating.

"Well," I said gesturing through the bronze gate ahead of us, "it's a giant fucking crocodile." Everyone looked into the boss room that had a river running down the center and a very obvious giant crocodile swimming in it. "And from what I understand in raids, most of the time the mobs leading up to the boss give you a hint as to some of the boss mechanics. I'm guessing we're going to get swarmed by crocodiles," I said flatly, not enjoying the idea any more than the rest of my group.

"That's gonna suck," Elysara said.

"Yeah, it will," Des agreed. "Which is why we have to figure out how it works. And we're gonna go in the first time, assuming we're going to die horrible, crocodile-horror-fueled deaths." Her words trailed off towards the end.

It was an adjustment, knowing that we were walking to our deaths every time we walked past those bronze doors.

Especially going into the fight with the idea that we were going to learn rather than defeat it on the first try. Dying went against every human instinct we had. But I also knew this was something that adventurers had to get over. That went double those who would eventually be on the forefront of exploring the depths of the dungeon.

Deaths happened. The trick was making sure that you would come back from them each time.

After a moment of quiet amongst the group, I smiled and tried to bring everyone's mood up. "It's a good thing our healers are so cute," I squeezed Charlotte next to me and Felin in my lap, giving them both a peck on the cheek.

Charlotte blushed as red as a rose and Felin turned to get more of a kiss from me. Her greedy lips sucking on mine.

Des chuckled beside me, her eyes shining. "That's what we have to do. We have to remind ourselves that it's all worth it in the end."

"Yeah," I agreed. "This is how we get rich."

"And powerful," Charlotte added on.

"It's how we maintain order," Elysara wasn’t one to be left out.

"Order,” Des echoed with a frown before winking at me. “It's how you get the good ones."

Felin laughed at that and I glanced at the woman in my lap, curiously raising an eyebrow to see why she wanted more. She just shrugged. "Life under the Great One is all I've ever known."

I frowned at that, still not having a clear picture of Felin's upbringing. Obviously, we all knew that Nekorians worshiped the dungeon as a not-so-benevolent god.

However, Felin rarely spoke of her childhood, if she had one. Every time she spoke of her past, she was always in the dungeon.

"And what about you, Fayeth?" I asked the last member of her group, who had remained quiet.

She shrugged with a small smile. "I'm just here to protect all of you. To make sure we can live a happy life."

I pulled Felin off my lap to move Fayeth into it, wanting to snuggle the petite tan elf for her words. There was a collective coo of awe from the rest of my ladies. I cleared my throat to clear the air.

"I hope you all know that I am not walking out of this dungeon without all of you in tow." My heart thumped in my chest with those words.

Charlotte put a hand on my thigh. "I think it goes without saying, but all of us feel the same." They all nodded along.

I held Fayeth tighter in my lap, a feeling of warmth in my heart.

My grandparents had once pushed me to be more open to harems, saying that they were good for adventurers. Only after knowing the affection between me and these five women did I really understand what grandpa meant.

Even then, most of these relationships were still fairly short, considering the lengths of our lives. And so far, our affection and bonds together had only grown stronger.

"Time's up." Candice was standing, tapping at her CID, speaking loud enough to get everyone's attention and people back on their feet.

The class grumbled and groaned as they all pushed off walls and pillars, getting their feet underneath them, and preparing for the boss to come.

I was still on the ground, Fayeth in my lap. "Candice, why don't you run us through what we know."

This blonde tugged her clothes that never needed straightening. "This boss is a giant crocodile," she pointed through the doors. "We have to be very careful. The river runs through the very center of the room and we can’t stay in the water. One entire side of the room is going to be flooded. If you're on the flooded side, crocodiles will spawn rapidly and endlessly until you get to the other."

Taylor raised her hand. "How does that work? Physically? Shouldn’t it just run back into the river?"

Candice shrugged. "We're going to have to find that out. Because from here, everything looks flat to me."

The rest of the raid agreed, and decided we would just have to learn on the fly.

"The other concern," Candice said, "is the boss will occasionally grab one of the tanks and drag them into the water, thrashing and dealing a large amount of damage."

I could feel Fayeth twitch in my lap.

Helen raised her hand. "That means we're rotating tanks." It was more of a statement than a question.

"I think that will be part of the plan," Candice nodded. "That way you guys can use cooldowns, if nothing else, to reduce the pain you feel."

All of the tanks nodded at that.

"Finally," Candice said, "every now and then someone will be marked."

There was an immediate interruption. "What's the mark look like?"

Candice shrugged. "I'm sure it will be fairly obvious. The marked person, after several seconds, will become the focus of every crocodile in the room, including the boss."

"Please tell me that only affects tanks." One of the healers raised their hand.

Candice sighed. "It does not."

The way some of the ranged DPS turned absolutely green told me we were going to have a little bit of a panic problem when this ability first triggered.

I pulled Fayeth off my lap and got to my feet. "Well then, we will just have to go in and see this first hand."

Candice nodded, as did many of the girls. Sometimes the best thing you could do was experience it for yourself. That and continuing to dwell on it wasn’t going to do anyone any good.

"We'll go in, spread out as much as we can in the room, and Myrtle, are you okay taking the first round?" I asked.

The big girl, with a bowl cut, nodded her head, her voice coming out whisper soft. "Sure."

"Alright everyone," I dusted off my pants. "Let's get to it."

We were all spread out in the boss room in short order. When Myrtle charged right up to the water to get the boss's attention, everyone was staring at her.

I paused, waiting for the tank to get aggro before I began. However, the boss fight did not start as we expected.

Myrtle got the boss's attention by getting close enough, and she smacked it once on the snout with her mace. In the blink of an eye, it rushed her, closing its jaws around her waist and slipping back into the water, thrashing and spinning with Myrtle in its jaws. The response from the healers was immediate. They began to throw spell after spell at the tank, trying to keep her alive.

The other tanks rushed up and tried to get aggro on the boss. Every person whose feet touched the water started to spawn alligators that rushed one after the other out of the water to them. Of course, then the healers spamming their spells to keep Myrtle alive attracted the attention of the adds.

"Out of the water, everyone, out of the water!" I shouted over the chaos that quickly ensued. The tanks staggered back, taking measured steps as they tried to get the attention of the adds with wide sweeping attacks. Myrtle, still in the water, continued to spawn adds.

However, unlike the beetles we'd experienced in the last fight, these crocodiles went down quickly with a little help from the ranged DPS.

The crocodile released Myrtle, and I rushed up to grab her hands, pulling her from the water. She looked dizzy and disoriented, her eyes unable to focus on me.

The healers were still slinging spells onto her, making her glow like some sort of valiant angel.

Penny had picked up the boss's aggro and was slowly pulling it out of the water while walking backwards and defending herself. Myrtle got herself under control and pushed me off.

"We should probably start dealing damage," She said.

I gave her a quick nod and jumped back into the fight, my blade scoring along the boss's side, leaving scratches in its thick hide as I worked to deal as much damage as possible.

"Holy fuck, that was rough," Taylor chuckled beside me as she glanced over at Myrtle. "Talk about a heavy start."

I watched as the tank got herself back under control and rejoined the fight. I shook my head at Taylor. "This is why I'm glad I'm not a tank."

"Me too," she replied, looking a little extra relieved that she’d shed her shield for the raid group.

The fight continued for another minute before the boss opened its mouth and began spewing a giant column of water as it swept from side to side.

"Other side of the river," I shouted, guessing this is how one of the sides flooded. The water gushing out of the boss quickly pooled on this side of the river, washing away loose soil. Strangely, it seemed like the other side slightly rose up. The dungeon once again defied physics as one side filled with water and land rose on the other.

As soon as I waded into the water, a crocodile materialized behind me, starting to snap at my hips. I smiled at the easy target to keep up my [Liminal Speed] stacks and slashed at it with my daggers as I moved. Before I finished the first, a second was already on me, both of the crocodile attacks nipping away at my health.

"Gather up on me!" I called.

Harley was one of the first to reach the other side, playing her flute as she waded through the river. Sparkles of magic, most likely her haste ability, danced off her as she played.

No one argued. Everyone quickly gathered around Harley and began unleashing their AOE abilities one after the other.

The crocodiles were quickly dying. As soon as someone brought theirs to the group, it expired in just a few seconds.

However, as this continued, the boss swam through the water much faster than it had moved on land. It emerged to grab Penny when she was only a few feet out of the water. Its jaws snapped around her and pulled her into the river, spiraling in a death roll just as it had done to Myrtle.

The healers, already caught up in trying to heal the group, were now strained trying to heal Penny as well.

Meanwhile, an alligator snout-shaped arrow began to flash over Meredith. "Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Not me. Not me," Meredith began to panic.

Harley turned to her girlfriend and played the flute at her, giving her haste.

"Run," Des said, shoving the healer. I saw Felin whip her spear around, and a gust of wind blew Meredith away from the group just in time. Alligators surged out of the water and the boss with them, abandoning Penny, as all of the monsters in the room rushed after Meredith.

I had never seen a priest run so fast in her life.

She sprinted as if there was an entire pack of crocodiles nipping at her heels, which there was, including one that could swallow her whole.

She ran, unfortunately, to the corner of the room, suddenly backed against it, realizing she had run out of space to maneuver.

The boss reached her as well as all of the little crocodiles.

The healer's layered on spells, Felin cast her bubble of ice that had protected our party on multiple occasions.

Though it all shattered just as quickly as it came, the wounds piling up on Meredith faster than the healers could mend them.

Meredith screamed something unintelligible before she collapsed on the ground and the red arrow above her head faded. We all stood there stupidly for a moment as one of our raid died.

"Shit," Taylor cursed next to me. "How the heck are we supposed to dodge that?"

I glanced at the room and realized that when we crossed the water, it probably would have been best for us to go to one of the sides, giving whoever got marked a longer runway. I stowed that away for the next time, seeing as we were now faced with the boss and several dozen smaller crocodiles.

Helen was the first to get the boss's attention back on her. The paladin, more than happy to take a beating, was hit by the large crocodile before searing light poured off of her shield into the boss and the rest of them.

I was already there, just behind the crocodile's jaw cleaving into its shoulder, trying to deal as much damage as possible.

DPS picked up back on the boss, the small crocodiles quickly dying as soon as they came, until the boss squatted low and water began to pour out of its mouth again.

"Everyone, follow me!" I shouted, using shadow ambush on the person furthest through the water and then activating sprint. I hurried ahead, getting two crocodiles on me as I ran and using them to keep up [Liminal Speed]. Unfortunately for me, I killed both of them too quickly. By the time I got to the other side, the land was rising and I had nothing to attack.

The others were hurrying to gather on me. I had chosen to hug one side of the room. Others had gone towards the center again and were having to correct themselves, rushing down the strip of land towards me while crocodiles nipped away at their health.

Things weren’t going terrible, but it was plain to see that chaos was seeping into every moment of the fight already.