Marissa

  It didn’t take very long for the group to get themselves ready to tackle the defense of the wall again.

  They fully embraced Nyx’s ideas, and opted for a full ranged team. Hibiscus and Firo remained on their traditional [Paths], while Caoimhe planned to swap to [Ardent], the ranged caster variant of the holy magic focused [Astral]. Nyx ended up settling on [Hex], the ranged variant of the dark magic focused [Tenebrae].

  To fully change [Paths], they needed to return back to [Falias] and the [Path] trainers. Aleister also went with them as she needed to visit the teachers to alter several skills. Returning to [Ebon], the dark magic variant of the magic tank [War], gave Aleister access to a variety of close range magical skills by default. However, many of those skills could be [Altered] to make them ranged attacks for lower damage. In their current situation, this was decided upon as the group’s best option, given Fiona’s [Aegis] [Path] had no such options.

  The group discussed the plan at length while Jazz got Aleister’s skills settled. They decided that the change should be enough to carry them through the early sections of the [Scenario] without much issue. If everyone had built in ranged attacks, the firebombs became much less of a concern, and they could simply line up on the wall and launch attacks at the enemy below. They only needed to leave Fiona at the gate to hold it down. At least until they took out the battering ram enemies.

  It felt like a simple enough plan on the face of it, and they unanimously decided to let the [Scenario] unfold as they went.

  Once Aleister, Nyx, and Caoimhe were back and ready to go and the whole group was once again gathered at the staging zone in [Gorias], they moved off to a side street and did their typical pre-battle buffing. Aleister set up the kitchen for Mellody to prep the food, while Fiona dropped the armorer and blacksmith stations to get the [Honed] and [Polished] buffs ready to go.

  Each party member took it in turn to walk around their little circle to gather the buffs. And once that was done and everyone was ready to get into the fight, they moved off to the area that started the quest.

  “Everyone ready?” Marissa asked, her mouse hovering over the button to start the [Scenario].

  “Yep.” Nyx said, as her character started doing some stretching emotes.

  “Let’s get it.” Evan said, and several of the others cheered.

  Marissa hit the button and things immediately kicked off, as the NPCs around them sprung into motion.

  “Alright, y’all, to the wall!” Marissa said, and the group flowed off as one toward the stairs leading up to the wall. Fiona was the only one not to climb the stairs, but immediately moved to defend the massive gate doors.

  Everyone else ran up the stairs and spread out along the wall, taking up spots at the crenellations to get a good view over the enemies laid out before them.

  The massive Fomorian army looked the same as it had every attempt until now. Most of the enemies were lightly armored infantry with tiny HP pools. Once the party began launching attacks from their vantage point on the wall, even Aleister’s attacks were doing significant damage to the mobs, despite being tank damage, that was even further reduced. There was no doubt that his damage would be less useful against more notable targets, but as long as he helped thin out the horde, that was still progress.

  Marissa immediately noticed the impact of her swapped [Ring]. The distance gained from the [Invested Effect] was significant enough that she was able to target enemies well outside of everyone else’s range, especially with the added height from the city wall.

  “Bisky, that range is absurd.” Firo said, laughing.

  “I noticed.” Marissa responded with a slight grin. “I should have no issue at all hitting the mages when they start coming in.”

  “Don’t worry about them.” Kieran said. “Between the three of us, we should be more than capable of dealing with the mages as they pop up. Focus down the enemies beyond our reach.”

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  “There’s nothing out there worth targeting,” Marissa said. “At least not yet.”

  “True, but that should be your primary concern.” Nyx agreed. “We can blow up the mobs nearby and the mages. We need you to hit the ladder mobs as soon as you can. If we can kill them before they reach the wall…”

  “I’m aware.” Marissa said. “You guys have the battering ram mobs?”

  “Yeah. The AoE spells basically ignore their shieldbearer units, so we’ve got that covered.” Firo said, as they all were already launching attacks in that direction. Mellody and Evie were doing the same with their limited but still effective offensive healer skills.

  Marissa turned to focus on what she could see beyond the enemies she had spent the last several attempts focusing on. She saw a couple mages pop up and immediately get swarmed by magical attacks from her party members, which reassured her that she didn’t need to watch for them to pop up. They would be dealt with quickly.

  As she scanned the massive army arrayed before her, Marissa couldn’t find much of note. The overwhelming majority of enemies were the average light infantry mobs, which she continued to pepper with arrows while watching for important targets.

  Everything played out on the same time scale that they were used to, however. Once the battering ram enemies were focused down, the ladder bearers finally appeared. The enemy mob parted to allow them through, which helped Marissa get eyes on her targets.

  The four ladder crews were moving through the enemy’s army somewhat quickly, but not quickly enough to be a difficult target. Marissa immediately started lining up her targeting reticle on the ladder bearer in the lead and started working through her damaging skills.

  Thankfully, her worries about swapping out for the lower i-level [Ring] seemed to be unnecessary. Her attacks still did more than enough damage to make the swap for the increased range hugely worth it.

  She was able to completely remove one of the ladders from their list of concerns before it even entered everyone else’s range. Each ladder was carried by two enemies, and she had no issue putting both on the ground at the extended range. She was even able to kill a third before the ladders finally entered the rest of the party’s range.

  “Light ‘em up, boys and girls.” Kieran said, excitedly.

  And the party did.

  With everyone arrayed across the wall, they each picked their targets based upon where they stood in the line. Given that the focus so far had been mostly on AoE spells, only occasionally breaking to focus on a single target when an enemy mages popped their head up, everyone was sitting on some of their biggest single target damage skills - and those were the first things fired off at the ladder crews.

  The enemies were downed in record time. And once one of the two ladder bearers in each crew were killed, the forward movement of the ladder was slowed. Marissa quickly focused down two mages in the time it took the party to simply erase the ladder crews from existence.

  “Hell yeah!” Firo cheered, and was echoed by Kieran and Nyx.

  “What happened?” Evan asked, still positioned down by the gate, without any view of beyond the wall.

  “Ladders are dead and gone.” Ash said. “Now we just need to see how this alters the scenario.”

  “Given our last run, the expectation is that the rat and hedgehog show up soon, right?” Marissa asked.

  “Think so.” Ash agreed.

  “And the bear guys, too.” Jazz added. “But I don’t know what they’ll do, because they were just moving to assist the ladder crews last time.”

  “Right.” Nyx said. “But I honestly think with our range this run, we can probably take out the ones that try to approach. The tower shield ones may be a problem though.”

  “Keep an eye out for them, then.” Marissa said. “We’ll down them as soon as they get within range.”

  “Roger.”

  The group carried on for another minute or so of killing the regular mobs before they finally saw their real targets appear. [Spio], along with the small troupe of giant bear Fomorians and the standard bearer rat were slowly making their way through the mob, which parted for them to move through unobstructed.

  “What’s the call?” Marissa asked, now unsure what to do when actually faced with the chance to shoot. “The rat is in my range. Do I take ‘em out? Risk the enraging effect?”

  “Getting to this stage was easy this time.” Ash said. “I think you take the shot. If the enrage kills us after the fact, we just know not to bother next time.”

  “I’m in agreement.” Nyx said. “We wiped last time because we took out the damn rat while surrounded by the enemy army. That’s not so much a concern this time.”

  “Agreed.” Kieran added shortly.

  Marissa hesitated just a moment more before breathing out and clicking on [Critical Eye] and lining up a fully charged [Master’s Shot]. “Nyx, you said the rat didn’t have much HP?”

  “No, why?”

  Marissa let the shot fly. The 400% boosted damage was more than enough to immediately remove the rat from the field. The whole group of important enemies was still beyond the party’s general reach, but Marissa could hear the startled cry from the rat and its fellows as the thing died.

  When the banner it carried fell, a wave of shouts and anger passed through the Fomorians, and they immediately seemed to turn feral, and charge the wall with abandon.

  “Here we go everyone.” Evie said, sounding as though she was suddenly alert. And to be fair, the sudden charge did feel like a wake up call as the group needed to be alert.

  The charge coincided with the sound of horns blaring behind them in the city, as the reinforcements were starting to arrive.

  “Okay! We just need to hold them here. Keep them off the wall, and defend the gate!”

  “Easy for you to say, Mello.” Kieran joked. “But agreed. Hold them back.”

  The party, made up of mostly mages at this point, just let magic attacks fly to do their best to cull the horde. Marissa, meanwhile, tried to keep her focus on critical targets. She had gotten lucky that with her extended range, she was able to get a clean shot on the standard bearer before the tower shield bears had their guard up. It felt almost like cheating.

  But now, amidst the massive army charging, [Spio] and his bear-like compatriots were able to move forward while protected by the giant tower shields.

  “Guys, I need help with the shields!” Marissa called, as her attacks were simply being blocked. As a [Seeker], almost all of her attacks were physical, single target attacks, which left them entirely too vulnerable to a shield wall like this. She made a mental note to perhaps swap over to [Keeper] for its magical attacks if they had to do this again.

  “We’ve got ya.” Firo said, and launched a few big AoEs in their direction. The magical explosions were able to get damage past the physical shields, which was exactly what they needed. Caoimhe followed up with several lances of light that pierced right through the shields, while Nyx threw inky globs of dark magic that pooled on the ground, slowing and damaging the enemies that walked through it.

  Despite the enemies being enraged thanks to their standard bearer being killed, they didn’t seem to be as tough without it. Marissa figured, given their experience so far, the banner made the enemies both stronger and sturdier. In contrast, when enraged they dealt more damage and were faster, but were far less tanky.

  The party’s sustained magical assault took down the tower shield bears within a few seconds each, leaving [Spio] and the three other lumbering bear enemies charging toward the wall. They may have been slower than the rank and file infantry, but without the tower shields for defense, they began to pick up their pace.

  Marissa immediately focused her attacks on [Spio]. Nyx and Caoimhe were focusing on throwing AoE spells at the bears, while Firo and the healers tried to thin the horde.

  “Reinforcements are almost here.” Evan said, sounding excited. “I think -”

  “Shut up.” Nyx and Kieran said in unison. “I swear to god, Fiona,” Nyx continued, “if you jinx us, I’m gonna kill you.”

  Fiona said no more, as the rest of the party continued to do what they could to keep the enemy under control.

  [Spio’s] little troupe was within easy range of the gate by the time the party had gotten two of the bears down. And by the time the third fell, with a little assistance from Hibiscus, [Spio] was in the center of the path that led straight up to the gate. And he was beginning to trigger whatever magic let him do his spinning attack.

  “Fiona, get ready on that door.”

  “What?”

  “Bisky, bring him down!” Kieran shouted. “Kill him! Kill him!”

  Marissa didn’t need to be told twice to focus on the boss, but the entire party was already focusing on him. As [Spio] began to spin up like a cartoon wheel before flying forward, Marissa threw a stun and two roots at him, hoping something would stop the charge.

  As the boss launched forward at full speed, Nyx threw two spells at the ground in front of him. One appeared to make an area of glowing pitch, while the second looked like tar.

  “Nyx?”

  “I dunno, man. Felt like I should try something!” She said, as [Spio] flew through the two zones. The glowing pitch clung to [Spio] as he rolled through it, but didn’t have any other obvious visual effect. The tar, however, seemed to slow down [Spio’s] spin, similar to when he was clashing with Fiona’s block. “Hit him now!”

  They did. Everyone on the wall launched a volley of attacks with various components. Marissa had no idea whether it was a [Stun], [Root], or something else entirely that did it, but something set the boss wobbling. And when he crashed into the door, it barely budged.

  “Fuck yeah!” Nyx howled.

  “Reinforcements are actually here now.” Evan said. “And the door is basically undamaged.”

  “Hell. Yes.” Evie said. “Keep the boss pinned until the Tuatha archers get up here. I bet they can take it from here.”

  “Don’t need to tell me twice.” Marissa said aloud this time, and lined up another [Master’s Shot]. The boss had sprawled out when he crashed into the door, and Marissa smiled when she noticed that she had the perfect angle for a headshot right between the eyes.