FB: Chapter 108 – Dogpiling

“Ready to get spanked again, Foxy?” Whiterose Everbloom asked imperiously as she towered above me on the battlefield on a large root. Explosions occurred as monsters were blown apart by the artillery mages. Support personnel were boosting our long range fire teams so they could hit above their level.

Anti-spawn flares shot up into the sky above the battlefield. That would help limit the number of variables my army was forced to deal with. I watched as the high level NPC teleported away as three cannon shots targeted her position.

“Blink!”

I teleported right behind her, swinging my mega blade as I appeared in my new location. She teleported away again. Probably some type of support item, but twice in rapid succession would be the limit. That was when a team of players activated their teleport consumables. Each cost 20 platinum and made me want to cry at the cost.

Five players appeared around Whiterose and stabbed at her with thorn spears. They did very little damage, but stopped teleportation skills once a target was impaled.

“Aura Of Bloom!”

The players screamed as they all died as an area of effect attack spread outwards from Whiterose. Plants broke out of their flesh, rapidly consuming them. The absolute level difference ensuring the skill would work at maximum effect on them. The thorn spears fell to the ground, before she could be stabbed. But that was never expected to work.

If people thought, I was over the top with my consumable use they hadn’t seen what dog piling truly was. That was when the second team teleported in and stabbed at Whiterose with their thorn spears. This time she was unable to block since all her critical skills were on cool down. She still spun with her whip, cutting through all the players. One managed to stab her with a thorn spear.

That was 200 platinum in teleportation costs alone used up in less than seven seconds. Then there was the 200 platinum we had spent on one round of training. Thankfully the people who had done the dog piling were ex-military and knew how to coordinate. I didn’t want to think about how much actual money that was. And all that money being used to kill one NPC. Well not kill them, just immobilize them.

I didn’t hesitate as Whiterose spun about with her whip. I teleported behind her, swinging my mega blade once again, right at her neck.

“Slice!” I shouted, activating the skill from the mega blade of the same name. The skill burst into sparks as hit her neck. But that initial attack increased my chances of a critical hit as my mega blade followed right behind it. It was complicated and not something that would have worked on the Unmentionable Horror.

A failed critical attack on a critical weak point like a neck due to the absolute level difference, increased the chance of a critical attack on the same spot. For something that didn’t have a humanoid shape, it was a massive pain to find such a location. But even those couple percentage points would be useful in this attack. It was to give players a chance against the absolute level difference, but it was rare that such a thing made a difference. Little details like this, were key to winning decisively in these fights. I had to make sure she went down and stayed down quickly before the other high level NPCs intervened.

My mega blade hit her neck. She tried to move out of the way but was too slow. For a single moment, I thought the absolute level difference would completely stop me. Then my mega blade went through her neck like a hot knife through butter. That was the true danger of critical hits, if you got hit with one at a high level, then the damage was most likely going to be large enough to make it a super critical attack.

Whiterose’s head went flying from her body as I followed through on my swing. The nearby rain was blown back from my massive weapon. Her body stumbled back a step with a single thorn spear sticking out of it. Her head landed in the mud with a plop as the battlefield had gone silent as everyone looked on in shock. Monsters were designed to receive a shock and go still if their commander was killed on the battlefield in a dramatic fashion. QAI really liked to ham things up in Exponential.

Her corpse and head sharded, since the attack had reached the level of super critical. A decapitation would do that. That almost always was a super critical attack except against creatures with special bodies like the Unmentionable Horror.

Left behind was a white rose and an amulet. I didn’t hesitate to rush to the items and put them in my inventory quickly. As boss drops, they weren’t automatically picked up.

“Chain Lightning!”

“Giant Stone Golem!”

“Curse Of Hexes!”

I spun as I finished putting the white rose into my inventory. My past baton practice came to mind as I spun the mega blade with one hand and slammed it into the ground. I ducked behind as a torrent of lightning turned the wet mud around me into baked and steaming blackened dirt. I quickly pulled out a 10 platinum health potion and used it without hesitation, my health ping ponging up and down from the Chain Lightning’s splash damage.

If I had my support team buff me, then I would have exploded instantly from the Curse Of Hexes. That was a skill designed to target buff spells. That would have been an epic disaster. But I was expecting that kind of response after getting buffed previously. The NPCs weren’t idiots. They would use observation skills and then adjust their builds to counter me.

A massive stone golem towered over me as three high level NPCs stood on its massive head. I freed my blade my from the mud, it was undamaged as ever. Being unbreakable really was a cheat in so many ways. Blocking magic with weapons was normally a great way to need a new weapon and decrease its durability.

Three cannon blasts struck the massive stone golem in the chest just as it was bringing up an arm to smash down upon me. It stumbled backwards. While it only took minor damage, it was enough to buy me time. Time to spend even more money. Seeing that their attempted ambush had not worked out, they had revealed themselves.

Maybe there was still an assassin NPC in hiding, but it was unlikely. That would happen on the next encounter, taking advantage of my poor Perception stat. Also losing a party member, even if they weren’t friends, tended to draw out the entire NPC party in force.

Five players teleported up towards the enemy NPCs. Each one carrying a 50 platinum bomb. That was another 350 platinum as I drank a feather fall potion.

“Blink.” I teleported above the explosions as high as I could.

“Vomitatis.” The classics were classics for a reason. This was a really annoying attack to block. Since they had a support caster, they would shield against such an attack. You don’t take up a position on top of a golem, unless you plan to use it as a mobile battle tank. I had seen such things in the past and we already knew there was a golem creating NPC.

Such a skill would have a long cooldown and wouldn’t be abandoned easily. Even if it was tactically the better choice, strategically it would be a disaster. The enemy NPCs weren’t from the same faction. There was trust, but they would struggle in battle coordination if faced with a surprise attack. Instead of adapting, they would hunker down.

It was a narrative choice, which influenced combat. If one NPC ran away, leaving the other two, it would lead to a fracturing among the NPCs from the various factions. In the face of suicide bombers, they would survive, but they wouldn’t move for that moment.

“Vomitatis.” I used the skill once more without hesitation. I was already pulling out an ass fruit to consume the moment I stopped raining down poison and acid on the NPCs. My poison critical chance was quite high. Also, with the NPCs together they had to watch out for friendly fire.

That was why grouping up like they were was highly risky. It made you a very easy target. “Lightning Cutter!” I used another four Null Shields in rapid succession as a massive blade of lightning shot up from one of the NPC’s hand towards me while I waited for Blink to come off cooldown.

“Spatial Chains.” The support caster was annoying as I pulled out a 500 platinum Spatial Key to counter the effect. Goodbye money, but I couldn’t afford to die here. I really was the most shameless pay to win player in Exponential. The payout of this entire contract was just under 1,500 platinum. But the money was going for a good cause.

This one use item used at this specific point of time evaporated a third of the entire contract value just like that. But it was necessary to buy myself enough time to get away. Dying would be much worse. This was why high level battles were won with money and how super guilds looked at the situation.

“Vomitatis. Blink.”

Before teleporting away, I left them another present of poison dealing critical damage. I touched down on the ground and began running away.

“Fire!” the cry went up across the entire battle lines as more anti-spawn flares were shot into the air. While magical guns were garbage in one on one combat, in large massed numbers, fired rapidly, they could quickly stack up damage with the occasional critical hit on a higher level target.

Countless beams of light surged across the battlefield striking the three NPCs and the high level golem. I was busy using recovery items while I waited for another opportunity to act. The NPCs were rushing forward as the large golem began to break apart from the sheer number of ranged attacks.

I didn’t act, since now wasn’t the right time. While it might seem like the NPCs were on the back foot, they had recovery items of their own, which they had used. The antidotes and healing potions easily negated all the damage I had done. But I had their measure now. Information on their skills was critical in a battle like this.

One was a male lightning mage. He was their DPS, or damage per second. He unleashed hundreds of small bolts like a mini-gun across the battlefield, striking several gunners and sharding them. The absolute level difference was brutal, especially with a spam like attack like that.

The male golem mage was responsible for drawing aggression and handling swarm tactics. While the large golem had crumpled, countless smaller golems had risen up to shield their group from the overwhelming barrage being sent in their direction.

The last female mage was a shield and support caster. They were responsible for dealing with troublesome opponents and attacks. Whiterose would have acted as the flanking and kiting for the group. While they lacked a strong melee fighter like the Dark Saint Gamabuturon they were quite balanced in terms of abilities.

A shame they were trying to beat me. Everything up to this point had been a diversion. One big misdirection, including my use of high level items. Forcing me to use such an expensive item to escape would make the NPCs think they had an advantage. Whatever QAI was doing to program their actions made them quite realistic.

Real players that were competent would know that I was dangerous, but I was spending like a mad woman to keep up with all of them. I was also the only real threat and as long as they covered for each other they would be fine. While it would have been nice to beat them in direct combat, it was impossible with me alone.

As they advanced with confidence, I kept retreating, luring them deeper into a trap.