Vasilis

“Let’s go!” I yell, much happier to deal with the fire damage than poison. Belle and I storm forward, Mia close behind us, with Ivy standing by to heal whichever one of us takes damage first, and Skylar waiting until we’ve drawn his attention before starting her attack.

I fire a blast of ice at him as soon as I’m in range, hoping that he’s weaker to ice damage now that he’s using fire. It doesn’t seem to do anything more than usual, but I pour my mana into the barrage nonetheless, while Belle uses my distraction to cut at him viciously, her blade slicing open the boss’ skin.

Having grown somewhat accustomed to fighting together with Belle, the boss’ second phase is a lot easier than it was before. Working with Belle, Ivy doesn’t even need to do much healing. Belle, Mia, and I, are just so quick. Trading aggro from the boss before he gets much of a chance to focus on any one of us, we demolish his health, cutting him down bit by bit, until finally, a blow from Belle causes him to evaporate into golden dust.

“Yes!” I celebrate, and I high five the rest of my guild, including Belle. I’m happy to see that she actually seems to be enjoying herself, fighting alongside us. We don’t get much of a chance to celebrate amongst ourselves though before the next wave starts.

This time, because I’m not desperately fighting to progress in the dungeon, I can take a step back and absorb the info on what types of enemies we’re facing. Wave 6 starts off with five warriors and five mages, all of which are level 120. The warriors attempt to keep our attention focused on them, while the mages batter away at us with their spells.

It would be a sound strategy on their part, were it not that we could counter them. While the mages and warriors are focused on trying to get rid of Belle and I, the others can target the mages to ease the pressure. Skylar, Ivy and Mia work together to dismantle their numbers.

The mages fling fire spells, lightning spells, and even use some shadow magic, but Belle and I are both too quick for any of it to hit us. I suspect that won’t be the case for the remaining waves, as the enemies are getting stronger as we progress.

The seventh wave introduces a new difficulty: assassin types. Now with 15 enemies, the overall number hasn’t changed that much, but the added variety in enemies forces us to change up our strategy, especially as the assassins start targeting Ivy and Skylar. “Skylar, focus on protecting Ivy for now. Belle, we’ll deal with the mages first. Mia, focus on disruption. Go!” I shout orders quickly.

With Skylar being at level 91, she’s almost as fast as I am. And with her spellpower being as high as it is, I’m confident that she can protect Ivy. This dungeon is definitely a step up in difficulty from the previous ones we’ve faced. If we weren’t working together, we wouldn’t be able to win.

Belle and I rip through the mages as quickly as we can, using our superior speed and strength to dodge the fire, lightning and shadow magic they throw at us, and rip through their defences. Mia manages to keep the warriors occupied, throwing blasts of air magic at them and dodging just out of their reach to kite them away from the rest of the fight.

The assassins use shadow magic to cloak themselves, which makes Skylar the perfect person to sense when they’re close by and intercept them before they can reach our healer. We find out just how dangerous the assassins can be, when Skylar misses one of them, and he manages to land a hit on Ivy. A third of her health is decimated, but in the process, the assassin reveals himself and Skylar is able to take him out with a single spear of shadow.

As dangerous as the assassins are, they’re also glass cannons. As long as Skylar and Ivy can react quick enough, they’re fine. Ivy does a masterful job at splitting her attention between us all, growing plants around where needed to aid in her healing of us all. Between us, Belle and I manage to rip through the mages, and we turn our attention to the warriors.

Pressing our cascading advantage, we clear the seventh wave with minimal injuries, aside from Ivy getting stabbed that one time. The eighth wave is just a repeat of this with higher numbers of enemies, and we get through that too. The ninth wave introduces support mages, but Belle and I target them first while Ivy focuses on using her plant magic to occupy the offensive mages.

Near the end of the ninth wave, Belle is critically injured, and needs to stay back with Skylar and Ivy to heal up. Luckily, we’ve taken down enough of the enemies that Mia and I can manage the frontline mostly without her for the moment. Belle can still help us anyway, by using her magic from a distance.

Finally, we best the ninth wave of the gladiators dungeon, and thanks to our teamwork, we manage to do it without losing anybody to fateweaving. Following the pattern so far, I’m assuming there’ll be another boss for the tenth wave. The announcer proves me right a moment later.

“I’M BLOWN AWAY BY THE STRENGTH OF THESE CHALLENGERS! BUT CAN THEY OVERCOME THE FINAL CHALLENGE? INTRODUCING THE DESTROYER, THE KING OF THE ARENA, VASILIIIIIS!” He yells as the gates rumble open. We regroup, and get ready for the final fight of the dungeon, with Ivy finishing healing us all up to full health.

My eyes go wide at the observe sheet for multiple reasons. Level 170 is no joke, we’re going to have to pull out every trick we have to beat this guy. Being able to drop health potions means he’s almost certainly going to use them through the fight, meaning we’ll have to be aggressive. And the possible drop of XP potions could be extremely useful.

The huge figure steps out of the gate, wearing armour as distinctive as the observe sheet describes.

Making adjustments to our usual strategy rapidly in my head, I start giving orders. “Avoid getting hit at all costs. Belle, you and I are up front. Mia, Skylar, harass him from a distance. Ivy, be on standby to heal any of us. If you have the mana, try to interrupt his attacks. We cannot afford mistakes. Go!” I yell.

Belle and I surge forward as one, while the other three hang back. Damnit this would be so much easier if we had a tank. I lament internally. We’ll have to see about taking Olivia along; usually she’s in that role. Shoving that thought aside as we approach Vasilis, I conjure a shield in one hand, leaving my other hand free for magic.

The boss swings his strangely shaped flaming sword at us with absurd speed. Belle dodges easily, but I’m barely able to lurch to the side of the huge blade. A heavy thunk sound is heard as the boss’ weapon strikes the ground. Pouring mana into a huge blast of frost magic, I have to jump high over his next vicious slash, as he aims to take out my legs.

A pulse of air collides into him, but he’s barely phased, switching targets to Belle as she slashes at him. Nor does he seem hurt in the slightest by Skylar’s numerous spears, embedding themselves deep into his armour and skin. He shrugs off the stabs uncaringly, slashing his weapon at Belle. She leaps backwards to avoid the blow.

I follow up with another blast of ice magic while he’s distracted, but he turns to me and slams his shield into me. I barely manage to move my own shield of ice into place in time to absorb the damage, shattering my magic, the **** of the blow sending me careening backwards. Mia uses a blast of wind to slow me down enough that I can regain my footing and sprint back into battle.

Apparently deciding to use magic herself, Belle stows her weapons for the moment and instead aims a red blast of raw mana directly at his face. With wicked speed, he blocks the magic with his shield. Mia sends another pulse of air at him, at the same time as Skylar drops a heavy boulder of shadow directly on top of him.

The combined **** finally seems to leave an impact, stunning him for barely half a second. Belle grasps at the shield on his arm, pulling with all her might. Skylar uses her magic to help, but even with their combined might, the shield barely budges. Vasilis rips the shield back from Belle’s grasp and bashes it straight back into her.

The Scarlet Witch falls backwards, scrambling out of the way just in time of the follow up blow from his ikakalaka. Judging by her bleeding and broken nose, and the way she’s coughing and wheezing just from the shield strike, that second strike could have knocked her out of the fight. Retreating rapidly, a plant springs up behind Belle and Ivy’s healing magic flows through her, restoring her vitality.

Before Vasilis can press his advantage, I’m back on him, getting his attention through another blast of ice. His movement is starting to slow subtly, and it’s getting easier for me to keep up. I redouble my efforts, sending wave after wave of freezing magic towards him, slowing him little by little. Another slash of his sword that I’m too slow to avoid, cracks a part of my armour.

I’m lucky that my armour holds intact as it is. Skylar and Mia keep coordinating their attacks, as it seems only their combined magic can even really affect him. Belle rejoins the fight, announcing herself with a powerful blast of magic directly to the back of the boss’ head.

Switching tacts immediately, hoping I’ve slowed him down enough with my ice magic, I fire off mana bolts at him, hoping to build up enough stacks of Arcane Torrent to give us a breather. The ploy works as Vasilis ignores the less damaging arcane spells from me, focusing instead on Belle. With her incredible agility, she’s able to weave her way through his attacks, using her chain blade in one hand, and her magic in the other. She really is a **** of nature.

Keeping up the barrage of mana bolts, I breathe a sigh of relief when the stack hits 10. I activate the passive skill and Vasilis is encased in a layer of purple arcane energy, powerful magic burning away at his armour and skin. Belle and I fall back a little as he thrashes around. Ivy takes the opportunity to top off our health.

Panting slightly, Belle looks at me. “Fuck this guy is tough.” She says.

“Just keep going, we got this!” I urge her, and she grins savagely.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t having fun.” She replies, and I can’t help but return her expression. It’s been too long since I’ve had a proper challenge like this.

“3…2…1…go!” I shout, counting down the end of the spell.

At the end of my countdown, the layer of arcane disappears, revealing Vasilis, his bronze coloured armour scorched black and his skin burnt. “Together! Blast him!” I yell as I raise my hand. Thankfully, Belle catches my meaning. In sync, the four of us, Belle, Skylar, Mia, and I, unleash a powerful blast of magic towards him.

Vasilis staggers backwards under the combined power of the four of us. Recovering in a split second, he beats his sword against his shield, his entire body glowing with orange energy, before a ring of fire shoots out from his body. Reacting as quickly as we can, Skylar and I raise shields of our combined magic to absorb the elemental damage.

I take stock of our situation going into phase two, noting that Ivy and I both have around half our mana bars left, while all five of us are at full health. This might be a close one, but that much health and mana left over after a full nine waves of enemies is pretty good actually.