Trying Again

After making sure everyone is okay, both mentally and physically, we get ready to go back in and try again. Ivy healing everybody isn’t as much of a hold up as it usually is, this time around, because we weren’t in the dungeon long enough for her to use much of her mana.

Paige and Mia are both a little shaken by the ease those things wiped us out of the dungeon. By pure level, the duo of enemies is somewhat comparable to Max and Mathias (though Mathias is more powerful than the Knight, and The Enforcer is less powerful than the Boar).

This is the other reason I wanted to practice against raids. Every other dungeon up until this point is made to be tough but fair. It’s made to be mostly beatable, as long as we have the skill.

As has been confirmed by our first test run, Raids aren’t made like that. These are challenging, and unfair by definition. We have to improve our teamwork, strategy, and coordination to even hope to have a chance at beating these enemies.

The next few hours are a series of trial and error failures. We learn more about the typical moves of the knight and boar duo, learning how to kite them away from each other and better anticipate what they’re going to do. Each wipe costs us a little under half an hour.

Ivy’s percentage healing skill is really carrying us here. The percentage scaling means it currently takes her at maximum 400MP to heal us from 0HP. She also has to regenerate all the mana she uses to heal us though, which is the main thing that keeps us from jumping straight back in every time.

The breaks are useful too though, as they allow us to rest between attempts and to not push ourselves too hard. I check in with Emma and Lena occasionally through the morning.

Emma’s getting more of a hold on her new magic, to the point where I’m considering seeing if I can take the two of them inside some lower level dungeons.

Mia chats with Elsa a lot during our downtime, who really doesn’t have much to do throughout this time. She’s not a fighter and she doesn’t really have much to practice, being skilled in her craft already. Instead, she’s passing the time by painting.

She finished a piece only yesterday, depicting the castle and some of the surrounding landscapes. We all thought it was beautiful, and she gave us permission to hang it in the living room.

The new piece she’s working on is of Emma and Lena. The more time she spent around them and watching them train, the more she wanted to paint the scene. Upon hearing that Elsa felt inspired by them, Mia encouraged her to use the inspiration.

Emma and Lena thought it was a great idea, and were very happy to pose for a few pictures for reference. I saw the quick sketches Elsa made of the idea, and it looks really cool.

She has this idea of Lena raising a tidal wave of water, standing over and looking down on Emma, who’s holding her shield at the ready. I can’t wait to see the final piece, and Emma and Lena are pretty excited about it too.

They joked about it being the most lesbian thing ever, being painted fighting each other.

And of course, Olivia’s standing close by to make sure the couple doesn’t accidentally ruin Elsa’s work while they train.

Speaking of Olivia, she’s been acting off today. Belle followed us once when we were checking in with the others, and she tried to make conversation with Olivia. I couldn’t make out what was said, but it looked like Olivia’s responses were extremely curt, even for her.

When Belle walked away, looking upset, I went up to her and asked her if she was okay. Her face reddened, and she scowled. “Fuck off, I’m fine.” She said, turning and walking briskly away from me.

Well, whatever. With how stubborn the two of them are, trying to help them solve it would probably just make it worse.

At lunch, Olivia deliberately sits away from Belle, sitting next to Skylar instead. I have to continuously remind myself that I can’t solve this for them, especially since I don’t really even know what *this* is.

After lunch, Paige decides she’s had enough of sitting back to protect Ivy, and wants to join the frontlines again. She knows she’ll be more useful there, and it’s what I was counting on. Shadow magic is much better suited to sharp constructs and piercing damage, so Skylar has a tougher time damaging the knight.

Earth magic is more suited for blunt **** damage, making the shy girl the better choice for this fight. Paige’s stat spread is also more geared towards strength and endurance, making her a much better and more suitable frontline fighter in general.

The first couple of tries are fails, as Paige finds her footing up the front. She keeps trying, under lots of encouragement, praise and headpats, and slowly, she improves, relearning her coordination with us. Our attempts start lasting longer and longer as she survives longer and fights better. I’m hoping we’ll be able to beat this segment by the end of the day.

We decide to do one final attempt before calling it quits for the day. We haven’t managed to defeat even one of the duo yet, but when we do, the cascading numbers advantage will be a massive help in defeating the other.

“Everybody ready?” I ask, to determined nods all round. I lead us forward, stepping through the white light gate. I don’t need to give the orders, everybody already knows what their role is.

Belle, Mia, Paige, and I, immediately surge forward, intent on engaging and separating the two enemies.

Mia learnt quickly after the first time through this Raid, where she got knocked out of the fight because she got too close. She’s a glass cannon, so she needs to keep her distance and let Belle do the up close fighting.

Mia and Belle draw away the boar so Paige and I can more effectively focus on the knight. Despite Paige being stronger than me, I have more health and agility, so I’m the one upfront with the knight, while she hangs back and uses her magic to help, only getting in close when I create an opening.

With that strategy in mind, I rush forward, blasting the knight with as much freezing magic as I can, knowing that slowing him down the best bet we have. It’s the only way we’ll even be able to get close to doing enough damage to him under all that armour, which I’m amazed at the durability of.

His armour takes on a blue hue, and I pour mana into the magic, depleting a quarter of my mana bar before I even properly engage him. The black knight slows down somewhat as he draws back his sword, ready to strike, the forming ice crystals barely visible on his armour.

Instead of bothering to try and block the insanely powerful blow, I get ready for the opening, reinforcing my fists with ice magic, and dodging out of the way as he swings. His significant speed advantage has been somewhat nullified, and I can at least keep up with his movements enough to not die.

I step in close and let loose a straight punch, feeling the satisfying CLANG as I hit him square in the face. I step backwards immediately, managing to narrowly avoid his fist flying at my face. I channel ice magic through my foot, step forward and kick as hard as I can, square at his chest.

The black knight grabs my foot and pulls me closer, his fist flying towards my face yet again. Instead of fighting, I go with the movement, diving forward and past him, allowing me to avoid the attack prepared by Paige and Skylar that slams into the knight a moment later, the combination of earth and shadow magic barely seeming to scratch him.

Vines snake up from the ground and wrap themselves around both the knights ankles and wrists. I blast him with as much frost as I can conjure, rapidly draining my mana bar in a bid to slow him down.

My efforts are working, ice crystallising on his armour more by the second. Unfortunately, it’s not working fast enough. The black knight rips himself out of Ivy’s grip, barely seeming to struggle in the process.

I back away from the knight, but that turns out to be a mistake as his hand shoots out and grabs Paige by the throat. The poor girl isn’t fast enough to avoid it, as he lifts her up into the air.

Gasping for air, the earth mage slams her arms against the black knights grip as hard as she can, once, twice, and finally manages to break his hold the third time, tumbling to the ground. I see my opportunity and sprint in, tackling the black knight as hard as I can.

The move is mostly wasted, he barely budges, but at least he takes his attention away from Paige for the moment. She scrambles out of the way as the black knight slams his fist down on my back, sending me sprawling.

Paige retreats rapidly and I roll away, narrowly managing to avoid the huge sword slash onto the ground. Standing up as soon as I can, I pour more mana into frost magic, but the black knight barrels into me, knocking me flat on my back again.

Instead of finishing me off, he advances towards Paige, having identified her as the easier target at this point. I clamber to my feet as quickly as I can. Paige nods to me with a determined look on her face, readying herself for the ****.

Instead of trying to focus the knights attention on me, I continue to empty my mana bar into frost, as the knight slashes at Paige. Thanks to my magic, he lacks the necessary speed to take full advantage of his strength, but even so, the huge sword smashes her hastily raised defences and bites deep into her stomach.

Paige cries out in pain and collapses, and the knight kicks her away. Immediately, healing plants sprout up around her as Ivy starts to work her magic, stemming the flow of blood within mere moments. The black knight hefts his sword over his head, and brings it down on Paige one last time.

She disappears from the raid, to both my relief and panic. She won’t be hurt anymore now that she’s wiped from the attempt, but my support to take on the knight is also gone.

To make matters worse, a quick glance over at the boar tells me that Belle is the one fighting it. Mia’s already been wiped too.

The saving factor is that Paige’s sacrifice allowed me to finish the job, as ice fully crystallises on the black knight’s armour, his movement speed is significantly slowed. It took most of my mana bar to achieve, but it means I can finally keep up with his movement speed.

And that makes him a sitting duck.

A heavy mace of ice finds its way into my hands, and I heft the weapon above my shoulders, sprinting forward and slamming it into the side of the knight’s helmet. The resounding CLANG!, reverberates up my arm and gives me a deep feeling of satisfaction.

The knight raises his sword, but he’s way too slow. Quick as lightning, I hit him again, swinging as hard as I can. Just as fast, I retreat, out of the way of that deadly sword slash.

The sword whistles by my head in slow motion, and I refresh the debuff with another wave of frost. Switching tactics, I rapidly fire off mana bolts, with the Black Knight helpless to dodge, thanks to almost my entire mana bar being emptied into ice magic.

With every arcane hit, it builds up a stack of Torrent. The knight advances, stepping menacingly towards me to try and stop me, but there’s nothing he can do at this point. His reliance on melee combat works completely against him here.

The tenth mana bolt lands, and I activate the skill. Purple energy forms and encases the knight, dealing a massive amount of arcane damage. The knight keeps trying to reach for me, but is rooted to the spot by the effects of the spell.

My health ticks upwards, courtesy of Ivy, as I wait patiently for the spell to run it’s course. I’m extremely mindful of the fact that though I was able to effectively slow down the black knight, it took most of my mana to do it. My mana bar slowly regenerates, as the seconds count down.

The spell ends, and the knight still, somehow, is still standing. Without hesitation, I step forward and swing the mace again, and again, and again, every hit ringing out around the area.

“Just - die - already - PLEASE!” I yell in frustration, as he gets ready to swing again.

But finally, gloriously, the black knight staggers backwards, drops to his knees, and falls over onto the ground, dissolving into golden dust. My body heaves with exhaustion from the fight.

I look around to Belle, who’s fighting the boar with Skylar and Ivy providing backup from a distance. With a scant few seconds of standing there resting, Gamer’s Body fixes my exhaustion, leaving me feeling as if I hadn’t fought at all. I love my magic.

Instead of savouring my rest, I sprint forward to assist Belle, who’s clearly getting tired herself. A spear of ice materialises in my hand as I approach the boar from behind. My spear takes on a dark hue as Skylar adds her magic to mine, seeing what I’m about to do.

Belle spots me, and goes in harder, making sure to keep the boar’s attention on her by smacking it in the face. The Fang Boar scrapes its hooves against the ground, the telltale sign that it’s about to charge. Coming up behind it, I ram the spear as hard as I can through the gap in it’s armour, right near it’s tail.

The boar rears it’s head back, and before it can react, I thrust again, and the boar dissolves into dust. Belle collapses, looking exhausted and beaten up. I sink onto the ground next to her, as she laughs tiredly, a grin plastered on her face.