FB: Chapter 43 – Field Boss

The price at the inns had gone up to 3 silver per room due to the flood of people. Everyone and their mothers were rushing to kill monsters to earn more money. Today was the last day when the attacks were at their peak and the boss monster would show up. My wallet would be grateful once that happened.

Based on the number of monsters and the direction the majority of the waves were coming from it had been easy to predict where the boss monster would show up. I was on the wall of the town with Officer Kill Blade and his staff managing the deployment of Fanged Fox teams as well as Storm Sword and his team which I had held back for today.

I had to pay 50 platinum to hire 5 Vigilance Paladins for the duration of the quest. There was one stationed at each of the gates of the town and another in the main plaza. Already the Penitent Mine had received a couple hundred new workers from people trying to cause trouble. Thankfully the Vigilance Paladins were merciless in their duty of protecting human settlements against criminals.

“Report from team N7, massive horde sighted, extra large monster sighted. They are in retreat. Confirmation coming from other ‘N’ teams,” the staff member said while looking at his messages. Other staff members soon confirmed a massive horde approaching as well.

“Order all teams to gather at the base of the wall. Have ‘C’ teams deploy temporary fortifications at the base of the wall. We will let the other players weaken the horde first,” I ordered. I then turned to the town mayor, who was an NPC. “Please sound the alarm bell. All able bodied villagers are to defend their homes while any additional people who are not residents and not members of the Fanged Fox Guild are to be expelled from the town to face the threat. Also please issue the declaration that all members of the Fanged Fox guild are now acting in defense of the town.”

“Of course, Lady Foxy Blight,” the mayor said with a small bow and then hurried off to send out the alarm.

“Horde estimates at over 20,000 level 60 and higher monsters, over 100 level 80 and higher monsters, and one boss monster of indeterminate level, most likely over level 100,” one of the staff members reported. They had gotten a lot better at reporting information succinctly over the last several days as we worked out the kinks in our command and control system.

“What about other directions, are we clear?” I asked and got confirmation it was just the one monster horde at the moment. Already players were rushing out to fight the horde like mindless lemmings. My guild forces were pulling back. There had to be over 100,000 other players in the town. This was the event to be at, the first major monster attack on a town, led by Foxy Blight and her guild.

The problem was most of these idiots were around level 30. They might have done well in the smaller waves that had 1,000 monsters or so due to their sheer numbers. But in such a large wave that had sub-boss monsters with such a large absolute level difference, it would be a disaster. Already friendly fire was a huge concern, which was why I didn’t want my people caught up in the chaos. We would hold the last line of defense before the town itself.

After a few minutes I saw teams putting down building stones to build up small platforms to stand on in front of the wall. My guild members could also kill anyone bothering them without penalty, since they had been drafted into the town’s defense. I could have done this earlier, but I wanted to avoid this aspect of the quest being made public until the last moment. The few troublemakers were quickly eliminated by the people keeping watch for such things.

If anyone thought they could drag down my guild as well, they would be sorely mistaken. “Horde has breached the 5 kilometer perimeter and has encountered strong opposition from players. Players are being killed in large numbers,” the staff member said as I heard the distant sound of roars and explosions.

“Status on fortifications?” I asked while looking over the wall at the temporary fortifications. I didn’t want to use the main wall, since if it took too much damage, it would be costly to repair and hurt my chances at this quest.

“All teams reporting in, they are ready. Final teams are moving into position behind fortifications,” the staff member said while I observed it happening. Everything appeared to be in order.

“Unveil the siege equipment,” I said. The six ballista had cost 30 platinum and the ammunition had cost another 30 platinum. Siege equipment was brutally expensive. On the wall on either side of me, specifically trained teams unveiled the ballista out of their inventory and set them up on the prepared platforms on the wall. Ammunition was loaded as well. The rest of the wall only had NPC guards up on it. My guild members needed to get experience in large scale combat. No hiding in the back lines for the majority of the members. If you wanted to earn some bread you needed to fight.

The roaring got closer, and I could see people retreating from the monster horde. “The player lines have just shattered. They are in full retreat and panic,” a staff member reported.

“Deploy the fire wall. Panic will wreck our formation more than the monsters would. Kill everything and anything that bypasses the fire wall,” I ordered. Barrels set up in front of the town were set off into large explosions, chaining with other barrels, soon creating a massive line of fire. Hundreds of players were killed, becoming charred corpses. Some of the people managed to retreat off to the sides as the monsters kept rushing forward into the flames. The surviving players would be good cannon fodder to handle the flanks and pin in the monster tide if they managed to recover. I was sure the commentators would go nuts about how I had killed a large number of players without hesitation, but that would only add to my fame.

“Arrows fire at will. Ballista, target the larger sub-boss monsters at will,” I ordered, and my commands were quickly relayed. I watched as the leading edge of the horde was quickly cut down by the waves of physical ranged attacks. The rest of the officers of the guild were watching off to the side as part of the command staff and final line of defense.

“Woodland creatures is definitely the theme for this horde. Confirm to all teams that fire based attacks will work best on the monsters,” I ordered. That information was quickly relayed to all teams. Most of them were already using fire based attacks, but I wanted to confirm the final horde composition myself. Most of the sub-bosses were tree monsters, with a couple larger cats in the mix. They just reached the line of fire, which was dying down.

“Deploy all consumable fire bombs, don’t hold back. Melee to the front. Mages continue remain in reserve,” I ordered calmly. The plan of battle had already been discussed beforehand so there were no surprises as guild members shifted in position. Keeping the plan simple was important so people knew what to do.

“Second smaller horde spotted to the West, our left flank. Around 10,000 monsters approaching from that direction,” one of the staff members relayed with a bit of panic in their voice. I guess I had that thought too soon. But that was why I had a reserve force for a situation like this.

“Deploy our reserve force in that direction to the West wall. Assign local command to Champion Sunfold Illumination,” I ordered. He was a new hire. A fire and light focused caster, focused on precision high volume attacks. He wasn’t anything special compared to other Champions, but he was competent in terms of assessing a battle and being flashy which raised morale. I had personally spoken with him and had placed him in charge of our reserve forces.

That was why Champions were necessary, so they could take charge and prevent the situation from descending into chaos. Morale in a VR setting was a real concern unlike other games where people would fight to the death like idiots. Sure, it wasn’t as much as real life, since death was temporary, but it was hard to throw yourself into combat if you knew your end would be painful and pointless.

“The Cursed Crusaders are making a move. They are mobilizing a large portion of their guild and deploying into Havenbrook,” Joker Seven said.

“Moving to interfere at the very end like you suspected. Interception teams are ready?” I asked.

“Yes, they are,” Joker Seven confirmed and I nodded at that. I looked back at the battle happening beneath the walls. Large amounts of single use fire grenades were being used up. A large chunk of the guild treasury had been set aside for such items. Literally burning up vast amounts of money to win. Most of the mages were still holding back which was good. The melee line was only being lightly pressured while arrows, explosives, and large bolts continued to rain down on the monster horde, thinning out their numbers so our battle line wasn’t overwhelmed.

The sub-bosses were being savaged by the artillery as large chunks were ripped out of them. Still, they were making progress and I noted the giant cat boss in the back. It was a giant humanoid cat with bark armor and a giant thorn covered club. The monster stood as tall as the town wall, which was about ten meters, or two stories tall.

I glanced back at the town when an explosion went off. “Problem in town?” I asked. In took a couple of seconds before a staff member spoke up.

“Minor altercation that was quickly put down by a Vigilance Paladin,” the staff member reported. I nodded at that. That was why I had shelled out lots of coin for them, so that troublemakers would be quickly removed at this critical juncture and people would learn not to cause me trouble in the future. An ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure.

The fire grenades were quickly running out. “Order all mages to unleash their skills at will. Don’t hold back,” I ordered. New bursts of fire and explosions rippled across the battlefield as mages chanted and used hand signs to unleash magical attacks.

“Status of the West wall?” I asked calmly as everything was proceeding within my expectations. It was fun being in charge, after having seen countless battles like this in the past.

“Holding in good order for now,” a staff member reported. The boss monster was still being hit by the siege equipment, but the damage was minimal from what I could tell through the haze of battle.

“All ballista to focus on sub-bosses, ignore the main boss. Same order for all ranged units,” I said. That order was quickly passed along. They weren’t doing any real damage to it, which was a waste of attacks.

“Champion Storm Sword, you and your team are to deploy there, which is where the boss is headed. Seek to delay and slow it down,” I ordered while pointing out the desired location I wanted him to relocate to.

“Yes, Guild Leader,” he said and raced off with his teammates as I continued to watch the battle unfold.

“Kill Blade you have strategic command while I enter the field,” I ordered.

“Yes, Guild Leader,” he said confirming the handover of command while I began walking along the wall. I noticed a group of 100 flying monsters approaching. Thankfully Kill Blade had the archers focus fire on them to take them out. Flying monsters had to be taken down as quickly as possible before they wrecked our battle line. The horde had reached the fortifications that had been built and now melee combat was raging everywhere in earnest. Thankfully the fortifications provided a lot of additional protection to prevent the entire battle line from buckling instantly.

The boss was almost to the melee line and Storm Sword was there with his team. While most people might think I should Blink on top of the boss they would be morons who would die very quickly. High level monsters would respond to such an attack by using an area of effect or aura attack, killing everything next to them.

It was basically to prevent large bosses from being cheesed by clinging to them in a hard to reach spot. I popped a potion of feather fall and then used Blink to go as high up as possible above the boss monster. Once above it. I quickly reoriented my body to face head down and unleashed Murk Barf. This was the proper way to cheese a boss monster.

The boss quickly looked upwards when it was poisoned. There were loud cheers from my side as I floated above the boss. I also tossed out a lot of fire grenades from my inventory, attacking the boss and the monsters around it. The grenades didn’t do any damage to the boss unless they were critical hits, but I wanted to clear away any nearby monsters. Unfortunately, consumables were not impacted by my Luck stat. Money was the primary determining factor in regards to their power.

I popped an MP potion and then an antidote. The boss swung its club upwards and unleashed a barrage of thorns at me as I floated downwards. I used another item to create a force barrier to protect me from the attack and popped another MP potion. I didn’t regenerate my MP with Silent Casting and Gestureless Casting. So, the only way to get back MP was to consume MP potions that gave back a set amount and those potions had a cool down and they didn’t give back that much MP.

Thankfully I had enough MP for another Blink now. I looked back upwards and teleported back up into the air. Once up there, I rained down Murk Barf again, poisoning a large amount of monsters and the boss once more. Storm Sword took the chance to rush forward and stab the boss monster’s legs. There was some damage, but not much. The absolute level difference was brutal.

Storm Sword was kicked and went flying into the wall with a thud. The Pendant of Divine Intervention he was wearing was consumed. I tossed out more fire grenades and used another Murk Barf. The boss had already lost two thirds of its health based the visual damage it had taken.

It let out a roar which gave everything close by a minor stun effect and then began to move out from under me. Unfortunately, such a tactic was too late. The boss monster was hit with more skills to slow it down by Storm Sword’s team and the horde had thinned out enough that our lines weren’t in danger of breaking.

The boss finally died, just as I as I kept floating down into its range. Once the boss monster died, the remaining monsters lost all cohesion, with some of them retreating. I used Blink once more to go back on top of the wall.

“Status?” I asked Kill Balde.

“We lost about a fifth of our people in the final bit there, but there were no complete wipes or wall breaches. The West wall is still holding, and they are whittling down the sub boss monster over there,” Kill Blade said.

“Send everyone who is still capable of combat to the West wall,” I ordered.