Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Thaden was able to boost the damage mitigation on everyone by many millions of points by the time the 5-minute countdown before Wave 9 ended, and his confidence that they could wipe out the Boss of the dungeon in short order. 

“Everyone ready?” he asked them all, even as they assembled at three different chutes, where – from experience – was where the monsters from the next Wave would come from.  A shout of acknowledgement was the only response he received, which was good enough for him and Sadia to preemptively begin casting Rejuvenation on everyone as the last few seconds ticked away.   

As soon as the wooden doors that would send the monsters rushing out started rising into the ceiling, however, he heard Corinna start to swear.  “Thaden!  We’ve got a variation!”

A variation?

“Sometimes these Intermediate dungeons can have variations of the final Dungeon Boss,” Sadia explained, despite the fact that he didn’t ask the question out loud.  “It’s rare, but they always give better rewards.”

He wondered for a moment how the Lieutenant knew it was one of these variations, but the wooden doors answered that question by themselves.  Based on what he’d been told of the Assault Waves, the information of which had been 100% accurate up until now, only three doors would open in the ninth Wave, with two of them opposite the main door, where the Harvester Boss would appear.  But when all of the doors opened, that was more than enough evidence to know that something was wrong.

Despite the change, he still wasn’t worried.  Even if they threw out three or four times the number of monsters it was supposed to be, or even multiple copies of the Harvester Boss, they could handle it. 

“Defensive positions on all doors!  Block them from coming through and I’ll stop the Boss!” he shouted, and everyone started moving immediately to where they had been during the first 5 waves, where they were being attacked on all sides.  None of them appeared worried, either; if anything, they looked like they were excited.  Thaden could only assume that they knew about the extra rewards for variations, and were looking forward to it.

It didn’t take long to identify where the Boss was coming from, as there were no other monsters coming from the doorway; as he focused on it, he saw that the remainder of the Raid Party were facing a large number of opponents, one of the largest groups they’d had to face throughout all of the Waves, but they were still handling it just fine.  When the Boss appeared, he was momentarily stunned when it wasn’t at all what he had been expecting, which should’ve been a 50-foot-tall mechanical harvesting golem that had six different arms with scythes attached to them. 

This was no Harvester.  Unless a 30-foot-tall, blood-red-furred fox with a spiky tail and sizzling saliva dripping out of its horrendously oversized jaws and jagged teeth could be mistaken for a harvesting golem, of course.

Vixenite Ranch Raider (Boss) – Intermediate Minimal

Stage 1

Level 180 (Perceived Level: 234)

Oh, crap.  This could be bad.

Not only was the Boss 15 Levels higher than the Wyvern in the Crestline Gorge had been, but he suspected that his Dominate Spirit spell might not be very effective.  He cast it anyway, hoping that it would work at least for a little bit, and he was relieved to feel the battle of spiritual will succeed – though the strain was a lot more evident than it had been with the other Mini Bosses.

Before he could celebrate, however, he felt his control over the massive fox pull and flex as it fought him, and like a rubber band stretched too far, it suddenly snapped.  He physically rocked backward as the connection between them was broken; thankfully, a quick check at his stats showed that there wasn’t a stat reduction from the backlash like there would be if he failed to dominate it in the first place.  He could only assume that it was simply powerful enough that it reduced the base duration of 10 minutes of domination down to a few seconds.

So much for that.  Let’s see what else I can—

In the middle of swapping out Dominate Spirit for something else, the Vixenite Boss attacked.  Instead of pouncing on the nearest Raid Party members, like he halfway expected it to, it began to yip, the volume of its voice starting loud and getting louder as it continued.  In seconds, it was so loud that it was disorienting, and Thaden started spamming Cure Physical Affliction, as he began to feel dizzy; he wasn’t sure if it actually worked, given that it exceeded the source Level it could usually affected, but it still felt like it cleared his head a little bit. 

The dizziness effect wasn’t the point of the attack, though, as the Raid Leader discovered when the yipping reached a crescendo.  There was a final piercing yip that was stronger than the others, and it pierced into every single Raid Party member.  More accurately, it shot into and through every single protection spell and effect on everyone, including Thaden, Sadia, his Vigil, and his Incarnation.  The latter two were destroyed instantly while every source of damage mitigation was shattered and disappeared among everyone in the Raid, exposing them to the dangers of the monsters they were fighting.

Shit.

Thinking fast, it seemed like time slowed down as Thaden looked around and took in the state of his Raid Party; apparently, the yipping from the Vixen had affected the monsters as well, as they appeared stunned along with the rest of the Contenders, so it was only a matter of time before they recovered and fell upon the relatively defenseless Raid members. 

Speaking fast enough that it probably sounded like a squeak to anyone else, but trusting that Sadia would know what he was saying, he was already switching out his Access Slots as he told her, “Replace Damage Shields, Buffers, and Dampeners while I work on healing!”  As the giant squirrel immediately got to work, instinctively targeting the tanks out in the front of the defensive lines with the protective spells, Thaden was doing something else.

Switching in Aura of Life, a Reserved spell he hadn’t used in a while, he felt the radius of the constant healing extend to all of his Raid Party, as well as a few of the monsters, but that couldn’t be helped.  He also cast Mass Regeneration, which added a Regeneration effect on everyone, as he’d let the single-cast version lapse on them – which was a mistake he wouldn’t make again.  After that, with a rapid fire targeting and casting, he used Superior Equality – the first time he’d ever considered using it before this.  What the spell did was have an equal portion of any healing done to a first target copied to a second target, so he targeted all of the Mages as well as himself and Sadia as a first target, with the second being the tanks and the DPS actively engaged in battle on the front lines.  The link between them had a far range, at least compared to some of his healing spells, and he’d rather be able to heal someone near his location and simultaneously heal someone else who really needed it.

After that was done, he switched in Superior Recharge and spam cast it on those nearest him, as it didn’t have a far range.  Normally, the spell restored 10% of maximum Health and Mana every second, but this would end up being more than 100% based on his bonuses; he didn’t do the math right then and there, but he suspected it would be about 150% or more.  That healing would transfer to those he’d set up as links with the Equality spell, so they were being healed every second, on top of the gradual healing from Regeneration. 

As time seemed to resume at a normal speed after his frantic casting, he started helping Sadia with completing the coverage of new protection spells amongst the Raid, as she had only gotten approximately halfway through everyone.  A few seconds went by as everyone seemed to recover, including the monsters, and they began to attack immediately.  Despite the sudden loss of their incredible protection, which they all thankfully seemed to recognize without having to be told, the Party recovered quickly and weren’t overwhelmed like he worried would happen.

As the DPS fell back into their safer routines of cautiousness, instinctively knowing that this had suddenly become a tougher fight, Thaden focused most of his healing toward those in front of the Boss.  The Vixenite had paused for a few seconds after it finished its yipping, seemingly drained from the process, but it was soon back on the attack.  Thankfully, it didn’t seem to have another protection-busting yippage in its back pocket, so it instead physically attacked the singular tank that had stayed there, along with the two DPS keeping them company.  It was only when he was starting to heal the defensive Fighter that he realized it was Corinna, along with Steven and another man holding an oversized sword that looked like it weighed just as much as he did. 

Corinna was immediately knocked back when the Vixenite launched itself at her, but she managed to mitigate all of the damage through the use of her own abilities and leaning heavily on the Damage Shield on her.  The Boss was quick, however, as two bites dripping in acidic saliva fell down on her like a sledgehammer; the first was deflected with an adjustment of the shield she carried, but the second caught her before she could reset, sending her straight to her back.

As Superior Dampeners went into effect as her damage mitigation was exhausted, she began accumulating a little bit more mitigation, but he could see that she had already taken damage to take off about 10% of her maximum Health. 

“Sadia!  Maintain the Health of everyone else – I’m maintaining a watch on Corinna and the Boss!” he told her, as he needed to focus on this particular situation.  He set off a Mass Healing that ended up healing everyone around him back to full, which fortunately didn’t affect all targets including monsters, and then rotated between casting Full Heal, Damage Shield, and Healing Burst as the Vixenite pounced on the downed Lieutenant, attempting to tear through her armor as she picked her up, before shaking her like a dog with a chew toy.  Her screams of pain were relieved when she was constantly healed and had some of the intense damage mitigated, giving her the opportunity to use her own abilities.

Eventually, there was a flash of light as Corinna did something that made the Boss drop her – or, more accurately, fling her aside.  It didn’t hurt the Boss since it still had the invulnerability shield on, but it apparently affected it enough that it couldn’t hold onto the Lieutenant.  As soon as Corinna hit the ground, her armor appearing to have multiple rents in it that would take a little bit to repair itself, she was back up and rushing the Vixenite, intent to keep its attention off of everyone else.

And Thaden helped her do just that, as Sadia worked to keep everyone else healthy enough to finish off the rest of the monster.  The Raid Leader kept an eye on them just in case, but it wasn’t needed all that much, as those fighting were handling it just fine even without millions of points of damage mitigation.  They were still hurt every once in a while, but the damage they dished out, as well as the damage they took only added to the mitigation they received, and they were still being periodically healed by the spells that were already in place.  A few of the DPS had their Health yo-yo back-and-forth from nearly dead to full, and one person unfortunately “died”, but was saved as Death Ward took effect and brought them back.

It took over 2 minutes for them to finally finish off the rest of the monsters, which finally broke the shield on the Boss.

Without having to worry about any additional monsters, everyone could concentrate on the Vixenite, who seemed to sense the change as it redoubled its efforts to get through Corinna’s defense and kill the woman.  Unfortunately for the Boss, she wasn’t going down that easily, and now Thaden could start to move in and take a more direct hand in things.  Once he was close enough, he let Sadia take over the healing and defensive spells on Corinna, as he began casting Secure Bulwark and Focused Cover to start blocking attacks and to give her a slight reprieve, for long enough that everyone else was able to gather around the Boss.

That was when the pain the Vixenite had put the Lieutenant through was returned in full as hell rained down on it from everyone in the Raid Party.  It’s health fell quickly, and within 20 seconds of sending everything they had at it and not sparing any Mana, it suddenly collapsed even as it was surrounded by another impenetrable shield.  Under the shield, Thaden could see it beginning to transform; while it underwent that process, he and Sadia threw down some Guardian Totems, which would give everyone just a little bit more damage mitigation for when the Boss was ready.

Vixenite Ranch Raider (Boss) – Intermediate Minimal

Final Stage

Level 185 (Perceived Level: 241)

The Final Stage of the Vixenite rose up from where it had been protected, having grown larger by at least 5 feet in height, and it now had tentacles similar to the ones seen on the Tuffagons extending from its mouth.  It was an even higher Level than it was before, which started to have an effect on all but Thaden, Sadia, and Corinna as Level Compression began to affect them – even with their boosts to their Perceived Levels.  The difference in Level was nearly too great to overcome, but they managed to at least keep their feet.

“Everyone, back away and head to the opposite side of The Slaughterhouse!  I’ve got this!” he shouted, and while the Party hesitated for a few seconds, not wanting to retreat, they started to move.  When they could barely stumble away, with the stronger individuals picking up and helping those who were slower, it was obvious that they wouldn’t be able to fight very well and would only get killed if they stuck around.

“I’m staying until they’re safe!” Corinna said, already back on the defense as she shield-bashed the Boss, capturing its complete attention.  She was mauled again a few seconds later, and it was only through some more heals that she was able to survive, but she was determined to hold on as long as possible. 

It took nearly 30 seconds, which was an eternity in a battle, before everyone but the three of them and the Boss were on the opposite side of The Slaughterhouse.  It was going to be tight, but he was fairly certain it would be far enough for them to avoid the effects of his Leach combination. 

“Get out of here, Corinna!” he finally shouted, and after blocking another attack by a tentacle that knocked her backward into a roll, she took off running.  Thaden and Sadia then began a game of dodge-the-tentacles as he created another Incarnation of Protection because the cooldown expired, and his glowing buddy blocked quite a few of them as he threw out a Bulwark and multiple Focused Covers.  Thankfully, it only took Corinna a few seconds to cover the distance to the others huddling along the opposite side of The Slaughterhouse, and then it was time.  With a shouted, “Now!” toward Sadia, he set up his Wild Health Leach and Absorb Health combination along with the giant squirrel.  A second later, as the both of them healed themselves with a Full Heal, the Vixenite collapsed in a boneless heap.  He wasn’t sure which one of them had actually killed it, as he was fairly sure it was another one-shot kill, but it really didn’t matter. 

The Vixenite Ranch Raider from The Slaughterhouse Assault Waves variation was dead.