Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The descriptions that Thaden had been given of what they termed “The Slaughterhouse” were fairly accurate, though unfortunately there hadn’t been any accurate dimensions of the area.  As a result, he wasn’t sure if it was going to be big enough that he could use his Leach method to complete the Assault Waves, or if he needed to rely on the rest of his Raid Party to do it for him – with the idea being their safety, of course.  It wasn’t like he wouldn’t be able to completely annihilate the Waves as they came, but he would likely end up annihilating his Party at the same time if the space was too small to spread out enough.

It turned out that The Slaughterhouse was just a tad too small to do it all himself, which was only slightly disappointing.  He was actually looking forward to seeing how he handled being the Support Class for an entire Raid Party; would it be too much for him to handle, or would he be able to actually fulfill the main purpose behind his original Class and not let anyone die?  His confidence was fairly high, but in case he accidentally sucked horribly at it, he was encouraged by the fact that he could Resurrect anyone who died.

While he was waiting for them to arrive after extracting all the loot from the piles of monsters in the corral-like section, he’d completely revamped his Access Slots for the Assault Waves.  He used some of those changes to protect his Party before they entered The Slaughterhouse, which included the same Superior Damage Shield, Superior Stacking Buffers, Overheal, and Superior Death Ward, but he also added Superior Dampeners and Superior Absorb Health.  The Dampeners would add a damage mitigation effect for each time they lost Health, while Absorb Health would help replenish that lost Health when they did damage.  Since everyone in the Raid Party were capable of dealing a lot of damage, that shouldn’t be too hard for them to achieve. 

There were a few other things he wanted to try once they got inside, which was why he didn’t take too long to lead them into the building.  Looking around, he couldn’t help but look at the interesting décor of The Slaughterhouse, which definitely lived up to its name.  The stone-constructed building was roughly circular in shape, with large wooden doors located around the perimeter; the general layout reminded him of the coliseum-type area that he’d seen inside the Crestline Gorge dungeon.  The biggest difference between them, however, were the rusty metal chains hanging from the 200-foot ceiling, the various cutting implements dangling off of those chains, and the blood channels carved into the stone underneath his feet, as if there was going to be so much blood that they were needed to keep the round, central fighting area from becoming a red swimming pool.  When he added in the severed heads of the various monsters they’d fought nailed to the stone walls, the whole scene was macabre – and really set the scene for what was about to happen.

“You know the plan, Sadia?” he asked as they walked toward the center of The Slaughterhouse.  Unlike the coliseum, the sides weren’t sloped downwards, but was instead flat, with stone walls leading from each of the doors toward the center, as if to funnel “livestock” in the form of monsters toward the Contenders.

“Probably better than you do,” the giant squirrel replied, bounding ahead and already preparing.  As she started casting, Thaden took his first step into the designated circle and obtained the notification he was expecting in his vision.

Warning!  Periodic waves of monsters are preparing to assault your location!  The Assault Waves will begin soon after your entire party is within the boundaries of the Assault Field!

It only took a few seconds for the rest of them to follow him into the center, but like Sadia, he was already casting before they arrived.

All party members accounted for!  Assault Waves commencing in 60 seconds!

As a reminder, your party may choose to leave at any time between waves, but you will be prevented from entering the Intermediate The Ranch Dungeon for 72 hours if you choose to do so. 

As the 60 seconds started to count down, he continued to cast Superior Guardian Totem every second joining the others that the Squirrel had already been casting.  Normally, the Totems provided an accumulation of 1% of a target’s maximum Health in damage mitigation every 5 seconds; with some rough calculations, taking all of his bonuses, his Defensive Sprite, and even the 50% reduction in effectiveness that spells cast on allies affected him, that 1% turned into around 8%.  With everyone having had Overheal cast upon them and healed to full maximum Health, which multiplied it by around 9X, this amounted to quite a bit.  For example, on average, each person in his Raid Party obtained an extra 150 Physicality because of his Emboldened Leadership Competency, so that added 1,500 to their maximum Health; at 9X, that equaled 13,500 Health, which would mean they would gain 1,080 points of damage mitigation that would continue to accumulate every 5 seconds. 

For a normal Contender on the front lines, 1,080 points damage mitigation wasn’t too bad.  The key here, however, was that they had 60 seconds in which to keep adding to that number every 5 seconds, which meant a single Totem might provide them with just under 12,000 points worth of damage mitigation, since it took 5 seconds for the first tick to go off. 

But both Thaden and Sadia were continually casting them, as the 10-second cooldown had been reduced by 95%, so a little faster than every second a new one was popping up.  By the time the 60 seconds were up and the first wave had begun, they had a few over 100 Totems clustered together in the center, affecting every single Contender.

1.2 million points in damage mitigation would go pretty far – and that was just for those with who started with just a single point in Physicality; the real number amount of damage mitigation was likely in  

Unfortunately, the range of the Totems – thanks to his bonuses to efficiency – was wide enough that they would start affecting the monsters as soon as the Waves started, so as soon as the counter hit 0:01, both Thaden and Sadia began canceling them all.  He had originally been worried that by canceling the Totems, the accumulated damage mitigation would disappear, but apparently it stuck around for the entire normal duration of the spell, which was approximately 25 minutes based on his different bonuses, as well as the Defensive Sprite, which automatically tripled the normal duration of 5 minutes.

In other words, they were as protected and ready for the Assault Waves as could be.  Still, just in case something unexpected happened, both he and Sadia were ready to jump in and help.  He was planning on these first Waves being a bit of training for him to better understand the dynamics of so many people working together; after that, he would start doing a bit more.

“How the fuck do I have 6 million points of damage mitigation?” Thaden heard Steven shouting as the last few seconds ticked down.   

Thaden grinned behind his mask.  That’s actually more than I expected.  “No time for that now – get ready!  Here they come!” Thaden shouted, even as the first Wave emerged from the wooden doors, which raised up with the squeal of rusty gears rubbing against chains.

Out of the open doorways streamed dozens of Chloratrex, Corn Cobblers, and Tuffagons, all aiming straight for the center and the Contenders assembled there.  It turned out that the rest of Raid Party already knew what they were doing, because in front of each “chute”, a group of them were ready for the assault, with the Fighters in defensive roles out front, prepared to stop the monsters as they reached them.  The DPS-based Fighters and the Scouts were arrayed along the sides, ready to jump in once the tanks had the attention of those attacking, while the Mages were behind them, largely near the center and out of melee range.

The Raid Leader was a little concerned about the Tuffagons essentially steam-rolling over the defensive formations they had set up, but it turned out that he was worried for nothing.  Those with shields were at the front and had braced themselves, using some sort of ability to prevent themselves from moving once the Tuffagons impacted them, bouncing backwards slightly and arresting their momentum completely.  Superior Lockdown activated at that point, keeping the monsters locked in place for a few seconds, even as Taunt-based abilities were used as the defensive Classes seemed to emit a red aura, forcing every monster nearby to focus on attacking them.

That was all the signal that the DPS needed in order to attack.

The Fighters and Scout-based Classes waded into the fight from the sides and even the back, tearing into the Chloratrex and Tuffagons as they were held up by the defensive tanks.  The Mages in the center also took part in a few spells that were aimed precisely at the front line of monsters, but most of them were focused on the Corn Cobblers that were still up near the doorway entrances, attempting to snipe the Contenders from a distance.

Destructive spells exploded, froze, shocked, cut, and burned the Corn Cobblers with abandon, as Armageddon rained down on them.  Thaden and Sadia had already started casting Superior Rejuvenation on the Mages and then the other Classes, which regenerated almost the entirety of their Mana every 5 seconds – so they could continue to cast as much as they wanted.  Those reliant on their Mana obviously saw this happening, as the initial barrage of spells – which had admittedly been fairly impressive to Thaden – suddenly grew in intensity as dozens of heavy-hitting, mana-intensive spells absolutely blasted through the Corn Cobblers, wiping them out in seconds. 

The rest of the monsters didn’t take much longer, especially when the DPS Contenders started to become a little reckless after they realized they had so much damage mitigation that they really couldn’t be hurt.  It wasn’t that they deliberately threw themselves into an attack or allowed themselves to be bit by a Tuffagon or stabbed by a Chloratrex tail; instead, where he could tell they would normally back up and retreat when it looked like they were doing too much damage, and therefore starting to shift the focus off the tanks and into them, they didn’t care.  They chained together their special abilities, the Mana they spent which was replenished by Rejuvenation, until there was a whirlwind of attacks and flashes of power that absolutely tore through the monsters like they were 50 Levels beneath them.   

Before any of them could believe it, the Wave was over.  It wasn’t as fast as it would’ve been if Thaden had been solo, but it wasn’t too far off – and was likely faster than any other Raid Party could pull off.

“Nice job, everyone!” he shouted, waving them all toward the center, where more Guardian Totems were already going out.  “Gather up for the next Wave!”

1:57

Wave 2/9

“Anyone hurt?  Need Mana?  Any concerns?” he continued once they moved closer to the glowing, cylindrical Totems.  It didn’t take them long to understand that the damage mitigation they were enjoying was coming from these objects.

“Are those the Guardian Totems mentioned on my active effects?” someone asked, and Thaden nodded in confirmation even as he continued to cast.

“Do you have anything else to help us fight?  Any other stat boosts?” another person asked, and Thaden had to think about it for a moment.

“I only have the Health and Mana Transformation spells that I cast on you while we were traveling.  Do you want that again?  Word of warning: reducing your maximum Health will lead to less damage mitigation accumulated from the Totems.”

Despite the warning, almost all of DPS asked for it, and Sadia took over adding Totems while Thaden cast Health Transformation on everyone who asked for it.  While he did that, he went over his other spells, thinking of anything that might help boost their stats even more, but there wasn’t really anything else.  “That’s about it.  I specialize in preventing damage and healing the damage that is done, and not necessarily boosting too many stats,” he explained.

It turned out that was more than enough for them, as they were able to gain more than twice the damage mitigation they had before by the time there was only about 20 seconds left on the clock.  As they spread out to their positions, they began to extract the loot from the dead from Wave 1, rushing up to the Corn Cobblers and back before time expired.

Even with Wave 2 introducing some of the Flandrin Pykes, Shadow Turkeys, and Scarpent Riders in addition to those they fought in the first Wave, they had absolutely no problem wiping them out.  If anything, it was even faster than before, which he put down to the fact that they now knew they were virtually unstoppable and could go all-out with impunity.  Their recklessness and taking risks probably wasn’t good for the next time they got into a fight without Thaden nearby, but for now, they took advantage of it without hesitation.  The smiles on all their faces was more than enough for him to know that they were enjoying themselves, and laughter rang out as they absolutely destroyed the monsters without fear.

Waves 3 through 5 were pretty much the same, if taking slightly longer because of the higher number of monsters, with the damage mitigation only climbing as the time in between them were spent with the Totems in play.  Despite how much the Raid Party was bitten, slashed, impaled, or shot by large pieces of corn, it barely made a dent in their protection, which was replenished and added to in between Waves.

On Wave 6, however, he made an announcement.  “For this one, if there is a Mini Boss, I’m going to control it while you handle the additional monsters.  Once they are down, feel free to kill the Mini Boss; if things work out, it won’t even attack you while you do that.”

A few of them started to look skeptical, but they eventually shrugged as if to say, “Why not?  He can already do all these other things, so why not control a Mini Boss so that it can’t attack?”

As he had expected, the Chloradrin Alpha Mini Boss appeared along with a bunch of smaller monsters.  He was momentarily worried that the invulnerability shield around the large monster would prevent him from affecting it, but apparently it didn’t prevent non-damaging spells from hitting it.  He supposed it made sense, as other Raid Parties would have to try and handle the Mini Boss while the other monsters were killed, and Control-like abilities and taunts had to work on it in order to do that successfully.

Therefore, there was nothing preventing his Superior Dominate Spirit from succeeding.  Normally, there was a battle of wills that he would have to fight to succeed in dominating a monster, but thanks to his Soul Mates Advancement for his Spiritual Spellcasting Competency, every battle of wills was automatically successful.  There was a slight strain on his will for a moment, indicating that the battle of wills would’ve likely been difficult – especially considering that it was a Mini Boss – but that had essentially been bypassed.

When the Alpha suddenly froze at a mental command by Thaden, he knew that it had worked.  A few Corn Cobblers were nearby and he had the massive monster start to use its ability to leach Health from the small monsters, and each leach attack was an automatic one-shot because it was dependent upon 10% of Thaden’s maximum Health – which was still quite high. 

Less than 20 seconds after the fight with the additional monsters began, the invulnerability shield around the Mini Boss shattered, freeing it to be attacked.  Thaden held it in place while his Raid Party attacked in conjunction with each other, inflicting incredible damage to it within seconds.

During this, Thaden also felt something for the first time.  The spiritual will of the Mini Boss fought him for control as it was forced to stand still and take the attacks.  Normally, his dominated monsters weren’t very powerful and fell quickly in battle, or at least in an actual fight against another monster, but this time, it couldn’t fight back – and it didn’t like that. 

He clamped down on its will with his own, maintaining control, but the strength of it was worrying enough that he thought that if it had been another 5 to 10 Levels higher, he might not have been able to control it while it was beat up.  That meant he couldn’t simply dominate every single Mini Boss and expect it to take the attacks; the preliminary battle for control was perfectly fine, as well as holding it in place while the rest of the monsters were killed, but he had a feeling that even if the other Mini Bosses didn’t break his control, then the Dungeon Boss certainly would.

But for now, the Alpha Mini Boss was helpless against he onslaught brought on by the Raid Party.  When it was dead, no more than 20 seconds later, the Contender celebrated while they regrouped, extracted loot, and accumulated more damage mitigation.  He warned them that he might not be able to maintain complete control with the next ones, and the celebratory attitudes sobered slightly as they realized they wouldn’t have a complete free ride, but he was sure they were up to the task. 

It turned out that Thaden’s spiritual will was still strong enough to hold on to his control during the next two waves, as they fought the Haystack Needler and the Tuffagon Stud Mini Bosses, though the latter was right on the edge of breaking free.  He now knew for a fact that the Boss would likely break free almost instantly once it was being attacked, but he would do his best to prevent it.

Thankfully, he was confident they could handle it even without his direct help by this point.