Blighttown (Day 16/21)

I balance easily on the rickety wooden bridge that threatens to send me tumbling into the murky poison goop below.

The infested ghoul charges towards me, it’s fish-man hybrid appearance something I’ve long gotten used to over the past few days.

With a simple wave of my hand, a small block of ice appears to block the monster’s charge and send it tumbling down into the toxic muck in one swift motion.

Thank Gaia they’re low level enough that they’re easy to deal with, or we’d have a much tougher time with this segment. And it’s annoying enough as it is.

I look behind me to make sure the rest of my guild is still balancing okay. A fall from this height wouldn’t be a pleasant experience, especially with what’s waiting below us.

As the person with the winning combo of the sturdiest defences and the quickest manipulation of magical solids, I’ve been placed at the front to deal with any of the infested things that try to derail our progress.

After a check behind me, I’m satisfied that everyone is okay, and we push on.

There’s six of us in this segment. The usual raiding party of Mia, Skylar, Ivy, Paige, Olivia, Belle and I. Paige and Mia almost didn’t come this runthrough, they’re both so sick of it.

I honestly can’t blame them. Blighttown is famously unpleasant, and the raid segment isn’t much better than the game.

We press on ahead, taking the now familiar path through the high wooden structures and descending slowly into the inky darkness of the poisonous town.

I continue pushing infested ghouls off the cliff where I can, and where I can’t, Skylar and Mia are right behind me, cutting them down with ruthless efficiency.

Belle, Mia and I, being somewhat lighter on our feet than the others, do our best to help them stay balanced, as some of the bridges between structures are prone to swaying dangerously.

As we near the series of ladders that will take us into the swamp proper, we start to face another one of Blighttown’s many annoyances: giant mosquitos.

Mia, being the one who can fly the easiest, is tasked with slicing them out of the air, a job she despises. Her understandable disgust at the mutated insects makes her get through it quicker, and we thankfully are spared a shower of poisonous blood.

Our surroundings are lit by precarious looking torches, the fire burning perilously close to the wooden structures holding the entirety of our guild up.

Everybody’s on high alert as we make our way down the ladders, one by one. The Cragspiders are almost a secondary concern to the Blowdart Snipers.

It’s a viciously effective combination. The giant hovering Cragspiders wielding flaming breath, keep people distracted while a Blowdart Sniper attacks with simple toxic darts from afar.

They don’t feel like much, but once enough of the toxin has built up, the rapid health loss becomes unmissable. And of course, in trying to avoid one of the enemies, you run straight into the other.

Luckily, we’re prepared. Skylar hurls spears of shadow at a seemingly random spot in the darkness, and a moment later, the dying growl of a blowdart sniper is heard.

Allowing herself a small smile of satisfaction, she resumes her search for any of them that we don’t know the location of.

We approach one of the many ambush points in Blighttown (and one of the only unavoidable ones), where enemies are set to rush us from all sides.

Following the predetermined order, Skylar, Olivia and I get into position just behind the choke point. The others stay right behind us.

Olivia morphs into her Petradon form with a flash of green light, and together with Skylar and I, the three of us raise magical barriers in front of the three paths that yet another different enemy will emerge from.

At my countdown, we move forward to trigger the ambush. Right on cue, the snarling and howling of the Flaming Attack Dogs fills our ears as they charge towards us.

We wait a beat, and in unison, shove our magic backwards and outwards, towards the edges of the platforms.

Behind me, Paige launches a boulder down the path I’m guarding against as my magic fades, checking for any stragglers that didn’t get pushed off by our initial defence.

Mia and Belle do the same for Skylar and Olivia, with a BOOM of rushing air and a flash of writhing red mana.

And just as quickly as our magic lit up the air with colourful flashes and violent impacts, everything falls silent. None of them survived.

Satisfied that we handled the ambush properly, I motion for us to keep moving down the ladders and into the swamp.

After dispatching a couple more Cragspiders blocking our path, and Skylar managing to take out the remaining Blowdart Snipers in our way, we hit the ground floor, and the last of the raised platforms.

As previously agreed, Belle and Olivia take the lead for the narrow walkway leading down to the swamp itself, with Belle morphing into her bulky Tetramand form to act as a tank for this small section.

The place is crawling with Cragspiders and it doesn’t take long for them to notice us, floating towards us in an eerily quiet manner.

Belle launches powerful arcane magic towards them, charging up a twisting chaotic ball of mana and unleashing it towards the oncoming pack.

The magic impacts with devastating force, throwing the group of mutated spiders backward. The rest of us pepper the spiders with magic, as Olivia shoves aside the two that managed to sidestep Belle’s attack.

Under the onslaught of magic, the spiders soon go down, and we’re left with a mostly clear area at the base of the wooden towers and catwalks (aside from the occasional mosquitos that seem to constantly respawn).

With the first part of the Blighttown segment done, the others are free to sit down and have a small rest. I offer water to anybody who needs it, and Skylar and Belle gratefully accept.

Ivy and I get to work with our job in the meantime. The swamp in Blighttown is incredibly poisonous and hard to move through, and it’s just too much of a challenge to fight the two Infested Barbarians blocking the way to the next boss while in the swamp.

The poison eats through our armour and damages our health, which made our first few attempts frustrating and take a lot to recover from. Our impatience in getting through this area set us back a lot.

The Barbarians aren’t hard by themselves, but like a lot of things in this segment, they need to be dealt with in ideal circumstances, or they quickly overwhelm us.

Staying on the small patches of ground above the swamp is a difficult challenge in the heat of battle, and any slipup means we’re vulnerable.

So instead, we came up with the idea we’re using now: Ivy and I working together to terraform the swamp into a vaguely walkable surface.

It’s a mana intensive process, and it makes each attempt a slog, since it takes a while to do it properly and we need to regenerate our mana after.

But on our last attempt, our first with this strategy, we got a lot closer to beating this segment than we did before.

Here’s hoping it works this time.

After a full half hour of terraforming the swamp, and resting to regain our mana, we have the area in a much more walkable state than it was before (and full mana bars).

My ice magic provides a solid foundation that Ivy grew her plants over the top of, the simple wooden roots and vines a far better surface to walk over than the muddy swamp.

Stepping out onto the newly constructed network of roots and vines, I lead the way towards the (hopefully) final enemies of the segment: the Infested Barbarians.

At level 200, they aren’t the highest level enemies we’ve faced. The combination of everything else is what makes them difficult.

Belle and I sprint forward as one, time slowing down ever so slightly as the sheer speed of our movement blurs things for us. I scream in exhileration, using my new Battle Cry skill to give myself a boost in Agility, enjoying the rush of speed.

Olivia isn’t far behind us, a green flash signifying her transformation into her Petradon form.

The barbarians see us at the same time, and let out a characteristic roar. The club wielding one runs towards us to meet us head on.

Mia whooshes overhead, drawing the aggro of the one holding a massive boulder, ready to throw it at Belle and I. Instead, it throws the huge piece of earth at Mia, who dodges it easily.

As it digs up another one from the surrounding ground (a surprisingly quick process), Mia bombards it with magic, with spears of shadows rising up from behind it.

I don’t get time to see what happens next, as the one with the club launches itself towards Belle and I, swinging the large hunk of wood with surprising speed.

Belle and I react as one, using a patch of ice to help us slide underneath the horizontal swing, slicing at its legs as we go past.

Olivia follows up, charging towards the off balance barbarian and smacking it right in the face with a crystal reinforced punch.

Belle charges up an attack, her glowing red mana twisting and writhing, as though yearning to destroy.

I conjure a sword of ice, slicing at its back while Olivia pummels it from the front, the two of us not giving it a chance to recover from the onslaught of attacks.

“Get clear!” Belle shouts, not being able to contain the energy building up for much longer.

Olivia and I scramble out of the way as Belle unleashes the torrent of chaotic mana at the creature, sending it crashing backwards with devastating force.

I risk a glance behind me at the barbarian hurling boulders, but this time it’s properly distracted by Mia, Skylar and Paige.

With the other one distracted, Belle, Olivia and I finish off the grounded barbarian, Olivia taking great pleasure in wrenching the club from it’s grasp and smacking it over the head.

“Fuck you!” Belle shouts as it disappears into golden dust, with Olivia nodding in agreement.

After the first one is down, it’s a fairly trivial affair to kill the other infested barbarian, finally ending our time slogging through Blighttown after having figured out how to deal with the numerous hazards in the area.

“Oh thank Gaia.” I say, throwing my arms up and falling backwards in relief. Ivy catches me gently with one of her plants, kissing me on the forehead as she walks past. I giggle happily at the gesture.

“YES!” Mia screams, relieved to never have to deal with this area again. I honestly can’t blame her.

It doesn’t help that none of the loot is useful in the slightest. None of us are going to be wearing rags for extra poison resistance. I quickly discard and destroy it all, especially the grosser items.

At least the next boss fight should be cool. The thought crosses my head as I look into the opening towards Quelaag’s Domain.

My statpoints go into strength, and Ivy’s go into Wisdom. And with that, we unanimously decide that we’re done for the day, and deserve a rest after getting through this hellhole.