“Well, hopefully you didn’t just waste your best cooldowns when you really didn’t need to.” Kieran snarked.
“If it comes down to a three second invuln being the make or break deciding factor, we didn’t deserve to win.” Evan said, proudly. “And it felt badass, so there.”
Kieran laughed in response as Evan acted like a child and blew a raspberry.
“Stay focused, guys.” Ash said. “We’re not exactly safe at the moment.”
“Right.”
“Yeah.”
[Rruk] was taking solid damage now. While the party’s outgoing damage was nothing to sneeze at, the ticks from the [Burning] status were starting to add up, too. Marissa smiled to herself as she watched the boss’s HP fall to 34%.
Maybe they really would be able to manage this fight in two pulls.
[Rruk] didn’t seem as happy about their progress as she was, though. The oversized Hyena roared, his voice still distorted. In fact, it was getting to a point where it sounded almost unnatural and disturbing. The voice sounded almost wet. Marissa shivered, and tried to ignore it as she focused on moving forward.
She was hesitant to start her burst phase, despite [Snipe] and [Critical Eye] being available, given that it was around this point in a fight that she felt like something new should happen. But everything was going very well for the moment.
“Shit.” She muttered to herself quietly, unsure her mic would even pick it up. “Mello, hit me with some crit boosters. I’m going into a burst phase.”
“On it.” Ash responded, and suddenly [Critical Muse] and [Hero’s Inspiration] were both on her status bar. “We’ll try to buy you as much safety as we can.”
“That’s not much, mind you.” Nyx laughed.
“Just spread out and away a bit.” Firo snickered, as he ran away to make some space.
Hibiscus took her [Snipe] stance and then just cycled through all of her high damage abilities in a row. [Critical Eye] into [Master’s Shot] of course, then [Viper’s Fang] and [Fae’s Bane]. [Silver Arrow] was next, followed by [Perfect Shot] and [Easy Target]. Not everything fell under the [Critical Eye] effect, but Mellody’s buffs did last all the way through.
Marissa just started piling on everything she had that wasn’t already on cooldown, just to try to squeeze out all the damage she could while in [Snipe]. [Heartstopper] went, despite not getting the bonus damage. As did [Wingclipper] and [Quick Barrage]. Then she charged up another [Master’s Shot].
In the same instance she let that go, [Rruk] began a new animation they had seen yet.
“Something is happening.” Kieran said.
“Yeah, no shit.” Jazz shot back.
And they were right. [Rruk’s] movements were strange. They looked uncoordinated and labored. More obviously, however, the burning effect on his body seemed to be encompassing almost his entire body.
“I will not burn alone!” He shouted, and slammed his staff on the ground at Fiona’s feet, dropping another puddle of flames. As the melee half of the party scrambled to get out of the way, [Rruk] laughed, the sound sickly and garbled.
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Unlike the previous times that he had made the puddles, he didn’t immediately follow after the tank. Instead, he stood inside the puddle, staring dumbly at Fiona as if waiting for something to happen. Or, perhaps, for the melee characters to re-engage him inside the flaming AoE.
There was a momentary break in the action that lasted just a fraction of a moment as the party all stared at the boss as he eyed them back.
And then Hibiscus and Firo both landed attacks on him. His attention abruptly changed to focus on them, his head swinging back and forth for a moment before he reared back and screamed again.
“I. Will. Not. Burn. Alone!” [Rruk] screeched. And then he began to swing his staff in wide circles in the air, holding it by the base. It looked more concerning than anything else so far, as it clearly wasn’t building up a cast or other spell like previous movements. It looked like it was just for intimidation purposes.
And then the top of the staff flared with a massive plume of flame and [Rruk] jumped into the air. Marissa had to scramble backwards from her position on the far side of the fountain, as it looked like the boss was coming straight to her.
Luckily, [Rruk] landed just in front of the fountain, and not next to her.
Unluckily, when he fell to the ground again, he slammed his staff butt first into the ground and flames licked across the ground like wildfire, quickly covering the entire town square.
“Oh, that’s bad.” Ash said, immediately moving Mellody to focus entirely on healing. “Oh, that’s bad. That’s bad.” He repeated again, when he saw everyone’s [Burning] count tick up.
“We’re on a hard timer now, kids.” Evie said, sounding remarkably calm against Ash’s stressed voice. “Focus up and just do damage. Ash, get out as many damage buffs as you can right now, and I’ll keep us alive until you can swap back to healing.”
“Right, on it.” Ash responded, and immediately began throwing out his damage buff skills onto Caoimhe, Firo, and Nyx. Marissa had just spent all her big burst abilities, so she wasn’t able to help much at the minute.
“On the plus side,” She said, only able to pepper the enemy with regular arrows, “he’s under 25% now. And has a bunch of burning stacks.”
“Well, we’re all roasting alive right now. Including him.” Kieran said, popping [Bloodthirsty], a defensive skill that allowed Caoimhe to heal based on how much damage she dealt. It would help keep her alive during her burst phase, at least. Nyx, likewise, used her [Quick Draught], which was essentially just a regen ability flavored as the [Shroud] drinking a potion.
“Push the DPS.” Jazz said. “We’ve got this.”
[Rruk] wasn’t taking the fight lying down, either. He was pounding away at Fiona, who was gaining [Burning] stacks at an alarming rate. Even with several mitigation skills active, and focusing on perfect defensive play, the fire was eating her alive.
“Bet Final Vigil would be real nice right about now.” Kieran chuckled.
“Shut up, you ass. I’m managing fine.” Evan shot back as Fiona flowed through another [Perfect Block] and [Counter].
“No you’re not.” Evie said. “We’re holding you together with duct tape and dreams, Fiona.”
“I know, but you don’t need to tell him that!” Evan said, as he hit 30 stacks of [Burning]. The boss was under 10% now, and Marissa honestly wasn’t sure if they would make it. Even if they did, it would be cutting it close.
“I’m running dry.” Ash said. “In a few seconds here, I’ll have nothing but my Musick and spammable spells.”
“I can hold for a bit yet. The regens are doing work right now.” Evie said. “But uh…Fiona, you’re gonna drop. 36 stacks is too many.”
“Yeah?” Evan said. “Right then. I’m gonna dump everything I have and play this more risky. If I’m gonna die anyway…”
The sudden burst of particle effects around Fiona was rather impressive. Evan must have hit several buttons that he had been saving for some reason, because there were more than a couple clashing effects happening.
Fiona still battled valiantly, blocking wherever possible and using every available counterattack she had - most of which were her strongest offensive options. With whatever boosts she had used, Marissa hoped they would be enough to help get them over the hill.
It wasn’t very long, however, before the [Burning] status took Fiona down. The DoT was simply too much damage to out-heal, and she dropped. Marissa glanced at her own status, and the 14 stacks of burning she had were concerning. She - and the rest of the party, at that - were all taking just under half their max HP with each tick.
Aleister did a great job of slipping in when Fiona went down, and picked up [Threat] cleanly. Unfortunately, Aleister was already starting with 15 stacks of [Burning], so he wouldn’t last as long as Fiona had.
“Keep pushing!” Firo called. “I’ve got my big burst in 30 seconds. If we can make it till then -”
[Rruk] made some sort of indecipherable noise that Marissa guessed was either a growl or howl. It was simply too distorted to tell. When he raised his staff and a firestorm gathered overhead, Marissa’s stomach dropped. There was no way they survived this again.
“I still have Shed Shadow.” Jazz said. “This isn’t a death sentence yet.” [Shed Shadow] was an [Ebon] skill that removed all buffs and debuffs on the user. It would remove everything indiscriminately, which wasn’t well liked by support players, so it was a skill that wasn’t used often. And almost never with communication.
There was little that a healer hated more than casting a bunch of regen spells on someone just to have them all removed.
“I have splinter up, too.” Firo said. [Soul Splinter] was a similar skill for [Mages] that allowed them to cleanse themselves of a single, random damaging effect. “And the boss is at 8%. We can do this.”
“Okay.” Ash said, with a deep breath.”Aleister, Firo. It’s up to the two of you. Everyone else gather around the boss.”
The strategy clicked with everyone pretty quickly. It was a group sacrifice to bet everything on Aleister surviving long enough to allow Firo to blow up the boss after they both reset their [Burning] counts.
“Good luck.” Nyx said aloud, as everyone except Aleister and Firo ran to surround the boss.
[Fiona Woods {NTEA}] : o7
[Caoimhe Phadraig {NTEA}] : o7
[Hibiscus Jade {NTEA}] : o7
[Mellody Softsong {NTEA}] : o7
[Nyx Alaion {NTEA}] : o7
[Evie Lucian {NTEA}] : o7
Everyone laughed when they saw the salutes fill the chat moments before everyone exploded around [Rruk]. Aleister slammed the [Shed Shadow] button to rid himself of every buff and debuff on him, leaving him clean for the last portion of the fight. Firo followed suit with [Soul Splinter] which removed the only damaging effect on him - [Burning] - before [Kindling] triggered, which fell off on it’s own when he was no longer on fire.
“Go!”
“You two got this!”
“I believe!”
“Trust.”
The cheers that flooded the voice chat for a moment were just distracting enough that Firo had to ask everyone to quiet down while he concentrated. Aleister, too, went all in on damage skills, using just enough [Threat] generating abilities to keep [Rruk] focused on him.
And [Rruk] was now actively burning. The additional stacks from the party’s sacrifice had been enough for the DoT to be noticeable on his HP, with the percentage dropping by 0.5% noticeably each couple seconds.
The combined assault from Aleister and Firo was also working, but not fast enough to counteract the [Burning] effect they were picking up from the flaming field.
And then Firo hit his burst phase that he had announced earlier. It had started with the appearance of [Arcane Seal], a floating, vertical magic circle that appeared floating a bit in front of Firo. Any attacks that he launched through it would be buffed. And a whole slew of attacks went flying through it.
First was something with a short [Stun] duration attached, which allowed Firo to land [Soul Shatter], then more attacks followed. [Arcane Barrage], [Arcane Detonation], [Magic Lance], and [Energy Cannon] were the ones that Marissa recognized, but there were others that she couldn’t remember the names of.
By the time [Arcane Seal] vanished, [Rruk] had fallen to under 1%, and cheers were erupting through the party. Firo had been reduced to throwing basic [Staff] attacks from a distance while Aleister played as safe as he could manage to stay alive.
The party counted down the last few percentages of the boss’s HP as the fight ended. [Rruk’s] altered, distorted scream resounded and then cut off abruptly as his brightly burning body fell forward and slammed on the ground before Aleister. In a beautiful bit of animation, the gust that spread out from his body hitting the ground simply swept away the fire that had covered the ground, leaving the destroyed town square still in terrible shape, but at least no longer actively on fire.
“Y’all, hurry up and respawn.” Firo said, his worry cutting through the celebration. “I’m still burning, and we have no healers.”
“Same.” Jazz said. “I think I’ll live though. Maybe.”
“We’re on it.” Ash said.
And thankfully, having beaten the first boss, the instance had set their respawn point to the center of the town square, next to the fountain. And now that they were no longer in combat, the free respawn brought them back at full fighting strength - which meant that Mellody and Evie had no issues keeping Aleister and Firo alive for thirty seconds of [Burning] until the DoT fell off on its own, naturally.
Once the party felt like they were no longer in danger, everyone approached [Rruk’s] smouldering body. It was shimmering with the effect of unclaimed loot.
“Who wants to do the honors?” Marissa asked.
“Firo?”
“Firo.”
“Firo.”
“I guess it’s me.” Firo said, as he stepped up to the body and clicked on it.
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