“Where do you guys think this Raid Commander is?” Aurora asked, looking around the room and reeling at its wrongness.
“At the top, obviously.” Ema answered, as if it were common sense. The others looked at her. “I will literally bet all of you.”
“Well… I suppose there’s no harm in checking…” Gideon said, stepping away from the pillar of stone that had taken them into the building. The group exited the room they’d landed in and were immediately accosted by a small rumble.
“Uh… what was that?” Ema said, as it subsided.
“I don’t know, but we’ve got company!” Gideon answered, readying his weapons as a host of goblins and hobgoblins flooded from a stairway door.
Goblins of both varieties were the only monsters present that could fit comfortably on the higher floors of the Obelisk. Such a poor design choice wasn’t up to the Raid Commander that controlled it, but was rather because of the area he or she had chosen to set it up in. When Obelisks took the form of full buildings or bases, they would conform to the local to which they were attached to. While many wished they could change the conformation to what they desired instead, the System wouldn’t allow for such. Raiders already had a grand advantage over new initiates of the System, and allowing them fully outfitted military fortresses would be a step too far. Though the System facilitated and rewarded the slaughter of low-level individuals as a System Event, it would at least allow the inhabitants of the world a small chance.
The goblin-ilk attacked the party with all the fury that their species were famous for. They were currently located in the building’s hallway, which meant that the aggressors had only so many ways they could attack. Being goblins, however, they had no plan of attack, charging forward and squeezing as many through the hallway toward the group as they could.
Arthur stepped out in front and activated Challenging Moxie once again. Goblins, being a lesser form of monster, gave no resistance to the Enraged debuff as the flood directed their focus at Arthur. For his part, he didn’t even try to take his Aged Blade out of its sheath. He did, however, activate a skill he hadn’t used in a long time.
[Insurmountable Wall]: Expend 2 stacks of [Audacity] to become invincible for as long as the skill is active, for a maximum of 2 minutes. Unable to move for as long as [Insurmountable Wall] is active. Upon the skills deactivation, reduced damage reduction for as long as the skill was active.
Although Arthur only half filled the hallway they were currently in, it was enough. The press of enemies leveraged terrible attacks against him, landing savage lacerations and brutal stabs against his armor. The fact that it was doing nothing at all didn’t deter them. Less than nothing, in fact, as their weapons cracked and chipped at their thrashing. Taking the advantage of the situation, the other members of the party retaliated. Gideon wasn’t able to do much more than attack the goblins on either side of their bulwark, but Aurora was a different story.
Just because Arthur was unable to move didn’t mean he couldn’t still use skills. He demonstrated this by continuously using Challenging Moxie every time it came off of cooldown, ensuring that the enemies in front were always directing their attacks at him. While he considered using You and Me as well, he held off on it, as most of the monsters attacking him were hitting his body rather than his shield. Such were acceptable conditions, and he was content with continuing to abuse the terrain and his AOE Enraging skill.
Aurora’s class was most effective under the sky. Such was even its name, and being in any area indoors would cut her attack power considerably. She was cut off from using Lightning Bolt, her most powerful skill, but she wasn’t completely defenseless, especially against groups of enemies. As Gideon trimmed away at the chaff around the edges of their shield, she had been charging up a Lightning Weave to unleash against the horde.
She couldn’t levitate in the confines, but she still had sacrificed a good chunk of her MP to grant herself a large amount of Static stacks. She poured them all into her skill, then with hands trembling with power, she let it loose.
The first time Aurora and Arthur had met, she’d released a Lightning Bolt with earth shattering power thanks to his multitudinous buffs and Enraged synergies. While this was not as powerful, it was still extremely potent due to the amounts of enemies afflicted with Enraged. They each added to Aurora’s singular attack like force multipliers, stacking and building on each other like a tower of Jenga; the stacks of Static she added were simply an extra few layers of blocks. As the Lightning Weave left her outstretched fingers, that tower of blocks came crashing down upon her enemies.
Electricity raced through the horde of goblins, blackening the flesh of each one it touched. It continued to travel, not only unimpeded by the large numbers, but empowered by it as the strokes of lightning multiplied each time it struck. Because they were indoors, there was no Lightning Bolt to accompany the Weaves, but it was still massively effective. With half of the monsters dead with a single cast, she began charging up another.
Feat achieved!
Deal a huge amount of damage while disadvantaged. [Unlock one skill]-[Lighting Fetters]
New Skill!
[Lightning Fetters]: Connect yourself or an ally to one or more enemies with lightning. The fetter deals damage the further away the enemy is from the ally or yourself, eventually resulting in an automatic and mana costless [Lightning Bolt] if under the sky.
Another rumble halted the group as they made their way up the stairway that the horde they’d finished off had come from.
“Okay… seriously what is that?” Ema said.
“I don’t know, but I’ve got a bad feeling. We should hurry.” Arthur answered. They renewed their rush but was soon met with a single door at the top of the stairs.
“That didn’t take long…” Aurora said suspiciously. “This can’t be the top of the tower, right?”
“Only one way to find out…” Arthur replied. He pushed the door open, his shield at the ready.
The first thing the group noticed were the two figures inside the room. The room itself was large, likely taking up the entire floor. The room looked much like the rest of the building, but on the far side, there was a large elevator door. An elevator door that was behind two figures… that turned to look at the intruders.
Threshen Warrior
Level 25
Threshen Warrior
Level 26
The beings looked like humanoid praying mantis’, but instead of the bug arms, they had three fingered spiked hands that held weapons. One was dual-wielding axes, while the other sported a long scimitar styled like a beetle’s pincer. Their long faces chittered upon spotting the humans, eyes narrowing eerily like a human’s.
“Are those… monsters?” Aurora asked as the group entered the room.
“They’re… boss monsters,” Arthur answered. “I don’t think either of them are the Commander, but we still shouldn’t underestimate them.”
“There are boss monsters just standing around in here?!” Ema shrilled. She stayed distinctly behind Arthur. “That’s… cheating!”
“I don’t think they’re happy to see us!” Gideon said, raising his weapons once again.
“We don’t have a choice! It’s either them or us, and we have to get to that elevator!” Aurora said, floating into the air. Unlike the other rooms of the tower, this room was big enough for her to levitate in. “If the Commander is on the roof, that’s the only way up!”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The duo of boss tier monsters approached slowly. One cracked its neck, while the other lifted its scimitar to lick the blade with a prehensile tongue.
It wasn’t long after that before they pounced with blinding speed.
Fighting multiple enemies at once wasn’t new to Arthur. Even before he gained his Martial Miscellaneous Skill, he’d been fighting abominations by the dozens in the Undersea Redoubt. Even when there weren’t that many, the only time he’d encountered a singular one was the moment he’d unlocked his class and title. Even so, these enemies were not mindless abominations.
While they were boss tier monsters, their actual intelligence was only slightly higher than their far lower tiered work acquaintances, the goblins. While the same had been true of the Shartopus Horror, there had only been one of its kind. Although being two boss monsters didn’t help their overall intellect, they were still two very powerful monsters attacking in concert.
The duo’s main stats seemed to be dexterity, blitzing Arthur as he moved his shield just as quickly as they could attack. Individually, the monsters were lower leveled than the Audacity Knight. Even so, a boss tier monster had baseline stats that would dwarf a normal System user of the same level. If they were such, Arthur would have been able to out-speed them easily, but as it was, they were not only keeping up, but outpacing him repeatedly. While their attacks did little damage to his armor, the scratches and rents would eventually catch up to him and break through to deal real damage. That, however, was only if Arthur had been alone. He very much was not.
Aurora had already taken to the air and begun charging the only attack skill she had access to currently, Lightning Weave. While there were only two targets, the attack would still deal decent damage because there was more than one enemy for the lightning to bounce off of. Once she released it, it would travel between the two of them over and over, dealing damage each time it touched them.
Ema had been watching Arthur since their first battle together. Because he had been so dominating since the beginning, she had been unsure of how to handle supporting him. When she did so with Gideon, it was normally important to give him the buffs and debuffs any given situation had required. This would include all of the stats, barring intelligence. With Arthur, however, giving him a boost to his defense or vitality was tantamount to a waste. She’d never seen his health bar so much as drop a single smidge. He was a defensive powerhouse; a description he demonstrated as he continuously foiled two boss tier monsters. She tried to put the fact that he was fighting off such monstrous existences to the back of her mind and focus on the battle.
Giving Arthur a defense or vitality buff was useless. Giving him an intelligence buff would be even worse, which only left strength and dexterity.
Ema’s skill allowed her to give a maximum of 3 buffs at once, and they were allowed to all be on a single person. The only drawbacks were the mounting mana cost of course, and the diminishing returns of the buffs she could give. She could only give one that would grant 10%, and from there it would drop precipitously to 5%, then 3%. As every stat was useless except for strength and dex, she focused on those two when buffing him.
While he was stronger than either of the monsters individually, he was not fast enough when they were together. Whenever he made a move against one, the other would punish the gap in his defense as he did. Seeing this, Ema decided that the most important thing for him to do right now was to keep up. She gave him a 15% boost to dexterity, then a 3% boost to the same stat for Gideon as he flanked the monster on Arthur’s left.
Gideon had been looking for an opening to interject himself into the battle. That chance had come when Arthur, in all his absurdity, had temporarily overpowered the duo of boss monsters. After gaining Ema’s 15% dexterity buff, he was taking less pot shots than he had been previously. In the following moment, he stunned one with a shield jab, and followed up with a horizontal slash. The monster on the right was forced to defend its fellow, and they were both staggered by the huge blow. Though they kept their feet, they were set on the back foot for the first time since the battle began, and Gideon intended to make use of the opening.
Aurora wasn’t the only member of their party who was weakened by their surroundings. Gideon’s class made use of earth affinity magic, and he was currently in a building several floors above any stone he could use. While this was an impediment, Gideon was determined not to let it stand in his way.
[Comet Swing]: Mana infused attack with your weapon. Effects change depending on [Polarity].
- [North]: Heavy swing with a blunt weapon, striking with the force of a shooting star. When the attack lands, inflicts [Dazed] and [Concussion].
- [South]: Precise swing or stab with a finesse weapon, striking with the speed of a shooting star. When the attack lands, inflicts [Hemorrhaged] and [Hamstrung].
Although either option was good for the current situation, Gideon chose to use his South Polarity version of the skill.
[Hamstrung]: Inflicts a DEX debuff. Multiple stacks of this debuff may cause the recipient to become unable to move entirely.
Hemorrhaged was a debuff that he knew well, as Sherman had suffered from it for weeks, on the edge of death. It would drain the HP of whomever was afflicted by it, and in cases of prolonged exposure, would also cause disease. Sherman had to be looked after and taken care of nearly around the clock, only granting breaks when Ema came to heal him back to full.
Hamstrung, on the other hand, was not something that he’d encountered outside of his own skill set. It would sap the afflicted’s speed, and if struck enough times with the debuff, it would stop them entirely. He’d employed this a number of times before, and knew that the number of stacking debuffs required would rise with the quality of the monster he faced.
His dagger swung, leaving behind a deep blue streak dotted with shimmering sparkles. It sliced cleanly through the back of the Threshen’s knee, delivering its insidious effects. Though no blood sprayed, the monster’s knee buckled, opening it up to further attack.
For its part, the Threshen attempted a counterattack aimed at Gideon, but was thwarted by an unseen force.
[Seize]: Control objects or enemies with your mind. More effective on enemies inflicted with the [Greater Keeper] debuffs. Cannot control enemies beyond certain thresholds of force application. Mounting mana cost proportional to uptime and amount of enemies/objects controlled.
Both of the boss monsters were under the effects of Sasaki Ema’s debuffs, sharing them between each other. As the battle raged on, she would switch both the recipient of the more potent version as well as the stats they decreased, tailoring it to whatever was worst for their opponents at any given time. It didn’t end there, however, as random books and cabinet drawers would fly and randomly crash into the faces of the Threshens, distracting them further to grant Arthur much appreciated breathing room.
This time, however, thanks to the amounts of debuffs on them, they were susceptible to momentary control as well. Their entire body was out of the question, as they were still boss tier monsters and her debuffs were split between them, but seizing a single body part to arrest a swing was viable. She demonstrated this as when the Threshen attempted a counterattack, its arm suddenly halted and allowed for Gideon to retreat.
The accosted Threshen had other plans. As Gideon lept back, it gave chase, leaving the other boss monster to fight Arthur off alone. As Arthur was higher leveled than it, that would normally be a death sentence, but its speed was still greater that his own.
[Enfeeble]: Inflict a debuff to a stat of your choice on an enemy. Lasts up to 20 minutes, with mounting mana cost. Stackable debuff up to a maximum of 2 stacks, with mounting mana cost.
STR, VIT, DEF, DEX, and INT -3 or 5%
As the current holder of the lesser 3% debuff to its dexterity, it was the best choice for containing the juggernaut knight. Ema had moved the greater 5% to the axe dual-wielding Threshen, to combo with Gideon’s Hamstrung debuff and maximize its dexterity deterioration. As it pursued Gideon afterwards, she switched the buffs from Arthur to him, granting a 15% buff to dexterity and shrinking the net difference between the two combatants.
For his part, Arthur hardly noticed the difference in stats as he furiously dueled the scimitar wielding Threshen. As Ema was backing up Gideon while he wildly fended off the boss monster’s attacks, Aurora stayed with Arthur, releasing the Lightning Weave she’d charged up to this point. Neither monster was Enraged, so the damage was not world shattering, but as she dumped a fair portion of Static into the attack, it dealt decent damage as it bounced between the Threshens over and over.
“Go help Gideon!” Arthur yelled, blocking the monster’s attempt to get past him to lunge at Aurora. “I can handle this!”
“Arthur, that is a boss monster!” Aurora yelled, floating back from the gnashing jaws of the Threshen. “Are you gonna try telling me you can handle a boss tier being alone?!”
“Just trust me!” Arthur said in response. He ducked under a swipe and tackled the boss monster shield first. Instead of taking it to the ground, he kept running, activating a skill from his vaunted Aegis Arts.
Method 4: Charge with your shield out front. High chance to stagger any enemy struck. You are much harder to stop during this attack. Deals high blunt damage but requires a running start.
Practically lifting the monster up with his momentum, he charged with it glued to his shield from the pressure to the farthest side of the room he could reach. While he could likely handle the two boss monsters with Ema, Gideon and Aurora’s support eventually, it would be far too slow to ensure their safety. While he was stronger than them at least individually, they were still boss tier monsters, and were not easy for him to inflict with Enraged. He would likely get one eventually with You and Me, but not soon enough that he could guarantee they wouldn’t make it past him and attack his friends.
Splitting up the boss monsters was their best bet in terms of both his teammates safety and taking down their enemies for good. While it seemed contradictory, if Gideon had the support of Aurora and Ema, as well as Arthur’s True Heart of Devotion buffs, he would stand the best chance of not getting hurt fighting the monster one on one. At least, safer than looking for openings to land attacks on two enemies with vast dexterity stats. With Ema’s full attention, he would recieve all of her buffs, and his opponent would recieve all her debuffs. He would get her heals and shields, without her needing to worry about splitting her attention between two enemies. Such as he predicted came to pass, as both his and his opponents 3% buffs and debuffs both left them during his charge.
The two crashed through desks and file cabinets, sending blank papers flying about. Before he could finish his run and crush the Threshen against the wall like the bug it looked like, it pirouetted off of his shield with grace. Snapping out a kick that bypassed his stagger resistance, it sent him tumbling away, sending paper billowing into the air with his passage. Arthur turned the tumble into a roll, regaining his balance and immediately charging back towards the monster.
With a fierce grunt, he swung his Aged blade upwards to meet a descending scimitar.