Marissa

  After [Uathach] very nicely asked her mother not to kill the party and Evan vowed that the group would win on this attempt, Marissa found it hard not to get in the spirit of it all.

  Sure, she may typically consider herself a pessimist by most standards. Or at least she had heard something along the lines of “If you always expect things to go poorly, then when things go well you’ll always be happier,” and she had somewhat taken that statement to heart. It was so much easier to deal with disappointment when you were prepared for it.

  But that didn’t mean that she was immune to hype. And more than that, she could easily get carried away in excitement - hell, that sort of go-with-the-flow mentality coupled with her general disposition of wanting to be helpful was how she ended up all but owning a bakery.

  And as Evan shouted a charge in the voice chat while Fiona ran headlong at [Scathach], Marissa was caught up in it all.

  She wasn’t the only one either. Kieran and Nyx were both shouting with Evan as they charged just a step behind Fiona. There was a fun, laughing quality to their shouts that was simply infectious, and Marissa didn’t really feel much like staying grounded this time. She wanted to be lost in the moment, and one of the reasons she liked games so much was because of their ability to really bring the hype when it mattered.

  Marissa shouted with everyone else as she triggered [Critical Eye] and lined up a [Master’s Shot]. This was her opportunity to deal the most damage, she despite the shouting, she put most of her concentration on making sure the attack landed.

  “That’s the way!” [Scathach] shouted as she turned back toward the advancing party. “Give it your all! I will accept nothing less!”

  Fiona closed the distance to the boss with a [Shield Charge], a rushing attack that ended in a shield bash that would [Stun]. Of course, [Scathach] basically ignored the [Stun] effect thanks to her [Armor of Shadow], but it still allowed Caoimhe to [Driver] in and land a free [Punishment].

  [Scathach] held her spear up to gather shadows around it again, and Marissa took that moment to land her [Master’s Shot] perfectly. Firo took the short gap to land a [Soul Shatter] as well, while the boss was immobile. Nyx must have used one of her cooldowns to skip her combo, because Marissa also watched as she [Shadow Slipped] her way behind [Scathach] and immediately launched into [Dancing Ravens], one of her advanced combo enders that had its own cooldown in addition to being locked behind the full combo.

  Its damage was worth the extra downsides.

  [Scathach’s] charging animation didn’t last all that long before she transitioned into attacking Fiona again with her spear. Fiona was immediately on the back foot again, as the attack pattern was one they had not seen before.

  Fiona did a remarkable job of managing to [Perfect Block] and [Counter] the attacks, despite not having seen them before. Evie and Mellody needed to pour on the single target healing to keep Fiona alive thanks to the occasional missed block, but Fiona really had no choice but to risk it - if “impressing” [Scathach] was how a player generated [Threat] in this fight, [Counters] were the most important thing Fiona could do.

  The rest of the party continued to work through their normal attacks, despite them not really having much effect as [Scathach] moved through her newer attack string. Four attacks in, however, Fiona missed a block and froze.

  “Shit. Stunned,” Evan growled. “Get ready for something-”

  Evan was cut off as [Scathach] leapt into the air, holding her spear in a reverse grip and preparing to throw it. Once again, shadows seemed to hold her aloft while the spear gathered wisps of darkness and formed into the twisted looking drill-lance that she had thrown in the first pull.

  “Try this!” [Scathach] yelled as she launched the spear at the ground in the center of the arena. The group had seen this attack completely obliterate Aleister previously when he had intercepted the attack before it hit the ground.

  Marissa considered their known options, which wasn’t many. She assumed that the lance hitting the ground would probably cause a massive AoE that would likely wipe the party. She didn’t like the idea of sacrificing someone to survive, but at the minute, they didn’t really have any other options they knew of.

  Her quick thinking didn’t really matter either way, as Aleister was already positioned under the lance and ready to intercept it anyway.

  “Y’all better get me up quick,” Jazz said, as she took the attack. Just like the first time, the lance shot through Aleister and landed in the ground devoid of whatever power it had. Their tank was still dead though, lying on the ground.

  “Oh,” [Scathach] hissed. “Well, you’ll be fine. Probably.” She resummoned the lance to her, as the shadows around her lightly carried her to the ground. It wasn’t quite a long enough floating animation for Evie to get her whole [Resurrection] cast out, which left Mellody to handle the healing for a moment while the boss returned to laying into Fiona.

  “Alright! That was still an obscene amount of damage.” Jazz said as Aleister was returned to life. “The main thing is that it was over 100k, so we couldn’t split it as a party.”

  “That answers my question then,” Ash said. “I considered that it may have been a stack to share the damage but I guess not.”

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  “Could just be a timer type mechanic. If we allow her to get too many of those, we just wipe via lack of rezzes.” Firo offered.

  “Makes as much sense as anything else,” Jazz grumbled as she moved to re-engage with the boss.

  “Sorry, Hun,” Ash said, although he didn’t actually sound all that sorry, “Sacrificing you for the good of the party seems like the way to go here.”

  “Alright, jackass,” Jazz shot back, “But you all owe me when we’re done here.”

  “Sounds fair.” Marissa said with a shrug. She’d send Jazz a giftcard for a coffee or something as a joke.

  “Hey guys, focus up.” Evan said, trying to get everyone to mentally reset as he struggled to fight off the boss. Caoimhe and Nyx were still locked in, doing what they could as Fiona held [Scathach] in place with her blocks.

  “Sorry, sorry!” Marissa said, which was echoed by the others. She quickly readjusted and launched a few attacks before [Master’s Shot] came off cooldown again, allowing her to actually do some damage.

  [Scathach’s] HP read out said she was around 80%, which was far better than they had managed so far. Marissa still wasn’t sure exactly what they had to get her to for the fight to end, but she could only imagine that it wasn’t zero, or they would be here for far too long.

  As Fiona landed two more [Counters] in a row against [Scathach’s] basic attacks and cheered, the boss’ attack pattern changed. After trying to run Fiona through with her spear for a while, [Scathach] spun into a horizontal cut with her sword. The attack came out too fast for Fiona block, which immediately prepared everyone for the worst when Fiona’s HP dropped into the red of triple digits.

  But [Scathach] didn’t capitalize on the opening. Instead, the woman paused, and looked over the party as if inspecting everyone again. After a few seconds she nodded.

  “Very well. You’ve proven to me that you are all talented in your fields.”

  The party chat erupted in cheers for a moment, before [Scathach] continued. “But I’ve also taken it easy on you so far. You’ve proved to me that your ability to fight is sufficient. Now, prove to me that you can survive.”

  The chat went silent as [Scathach] hopped back from Fiona, gathering shadows around her weapons again. Both of them this time, which immediately set Marissa on edge.

  “Oh, great,” Jazz said. “So now what?”

  “Ten bucks says it’s a mechanical rush.” Kieran said.

  “Agreed.” Firo said. “Get ready for AoEs out the ass.”

  “Great.” Nyx said, and popped [Cloak], immediately entering [Stealth]. “I wish you all luck, I’m going to find a corner to hide in.”

  “Nyx,” Evie said, warning her friend against simply leaving the party high and dry.

  “No, let her do it.” Marissa said, thinking back to the group’s first fight with [Cu]. “We won the fight with [Cu] because I basically ran and hid. I’m not mad at it.”

  “If you do it, just make sure you survive.” Ash said.

  “Right,” Nyx agreed as she began to trot off toward the edge of the arena.

  “Oh, you silly little [Shroud]. I see you.” [Scathach] taunted as Nyx tried to slip away. There was almost no gap between the voice line and the boss’ spear being launched at Nyx.

  Luckily for the party, Nyx was able to [Shadow Slip] back to the group, appearing behind Caoimhe in an instant. Evidently, she didn’t trust her ability to get away safely.

  “What the actual fuck?” Nyx growled. “That’s some bullshit right there!”

  “Eh. It tracks with the fight so far. She’s too strong for us to cheese like that.” Kieran said.

  “I suppose,” Nyx sighed. “It looks like I bought us a bit more time, though.”

  She was right - [Scathach] had thrown her spear at Nyx, which had interrupted her ability to prepare for the next phase. She had to recall her spear and began the gathering shadows animation again.

  “Right then.” Ash said, taking charge, “everyone spread out, but not so far that we can’t stack if we have to. Otherwise…I dunno, man. Survive?” He laughed, and Marissa did too.

  There wasn’t much to be done in the face of an oncoming onslaught of mechanics. Assuming that was indeed what they got.

  When [Scathach’s] body burst with a huge flash of darkness, Marissa redoubled her focus. Her weapons looked like absolute monstrosities that probably wouldn’t be counted among their base weapon types any longer.

  The spear looked more like a bare tree, with sharp branches shooting off in various angles. It looked much more like [Cu’s] Gae Bulg, though made of ever shifting shadows rather than the bloody sharp edges of steel that [Cu] employed.

  The sword had morphed into something more akin to a massive slab of metal on a stick. It was still made of the oily, shifting shadows, but it clearly drew inspiration from many of the classic greatswords of pop culture, being far too large for [Scathach] to wield if not for being superhuman.

  “Here I come!” [Scathach] shouted, and then she vanished in a puff of smoke. It was far from the first time they had seen her teleport like that, so everyone’s focus immediately moved to scan the ground.

  “Bisky, behind you!” Kieran shouted, and Marissa reacted before she actually processed anything. She spun her camera around to face the boss who had appeared behind her, already mid-swing with her sword, and triggered [Backstep]. Hibiscus shot backward, narrowly avoiding the swing. Marissa imagined if this weren’t a game, the tip of the blade would’ve cut the tip of her nose with how close the timing was.

  [Scathach] wasn’t finished, though. Immediately following the slash, she lunged toward Evie who had been next in the circle with her spear. Thankfully, everyone was ready and had eyes on the boss after the near-miss with Bisky, and Evie was able to avoid the thrust.

  Almost immediately after the missed attack was confirmed, [Scathach] once again vanished in a puff of shadows. Marissa took the gamble that she wouldn’t be the target this time, and readied a [Master’s Shot], hoping to catch the boss when she reappeared.

  “Over here!” Jazz shouted, as she hurriedly used [Ebony Guard] to try to avoid as much damage from the attack as possible.

  The boss’ attack still took a chunk off of Aleister’s HP, despite the guard and mitigation skills, but it didn’t kill him outright. [Scathach] didn’t miss a beat as she immediately turned toward Nyx who was nearby and swung her massive sword toward her.

  “Gotcha, bitch.” Nyx grinned as she triggered [Shadow Slip], teleporting behind [Scathach] while she was swinging the massive sword. Nyx decided to go all in, triggering a combo-skipping skill again, and moving into [Death’s Dance], her basic single-target combo ender. Marissa also took the moment of animation lock to let her attack fly, landing it squarely on [Scathach’s] head.

  As Nyx let loose with a massive flurry of attacks against [Scathach’s] back, the boss seemed to barely care. As soon as her attack animation was finished, she puffed away again, leaving Nyx striking the air. Nyx cursed as [Scathach] reappeared behind Firo, already mid-swing.

  Without any warning, Firo [Blinked] away, sensing the danger. As soon as he reappeared, he turned and angled a [Soul Shatter] at the boss, knowing that she had attacked two targets in every assault. And sure enough, [Scathach] used the torque from the sword swing to pivot into a spear thrust aimed at Mellody. The distinct glass-shattering sound that indicated [Soul Shatter] landing perfectly rang out as Mellody used [Puddle Jumper] to escape the thrust.

  Caoimhe and Fiona were the last two targeted by the teleporting attack combo, and Fiona managed to land a [Perfect Block] and [Counter], having seen the attack several times before her turn.

  Caoimhe had perhaps made the most skillful play, using [Deflection] to [Parry] the attack. It required perfect timing, similar to a [Perfect Block], but also had an added requirement of aiming at the incoming attack. Caoimhe pulled it off flawlessly, and followed up with her [Counter], [Infliction], and flowed into a [Punishment] from there.

  When [Scathach] vanished after that, she reappeared in the center of the arena, hovering over the party’s heads. She held both of her weapons out to the side, and let them go. They floated there for a moment while the boss looked down on the party, and then the weapons began to fuzz at the edges.

  The sword morphed noticeably, into a figure more akin to a thin rapier or other thrusting sword. The spear followed suit, growing thinner and more needle-like. And then they both fuzzed again, and began to multiply, fanning out in the sky like a rain of arrows.

  “And now, your final test!” [Scathach] shouted. There was a seductive, laughing lilt to her voice that left Marissa thoroughly impressed by the voice actress. She had absolutely nailed the line. “Run.”

  And suddenly, areas of their pasture arena began to turn red. The bright red AoE markers were circles, and they were coming and going quickly, before a spear or sword landed in the spot, erupting in a shadowy explosion.

  “Everyone for themselves!” Evan said, laughing. The party had immediately begun running around in chaos, trying to avoid the sudden rain of AoEs.

  If Marissa were honest, she loved AoE dodging mechanics like this. A lot of their party - and MMO players at large, she was sure - did, too. It was fun, active, and exciting, as everyone ran around trying to avoid whatever nearest red circle appeared next. They didn’t even come in regulated waves at first, with the AoE eruptions being seemingly random.

  “Stay on your toes, I think we got this!” Ash shouted.

  And then [Scathach] flashed with darkness and the pattern changed. Rather than the random circles, suddenly there was a moving fan pattern on the ground that rotated with each new group of attacks, forcing the party to run around the arena in short bursts.

  There were two more groups of patterns, with phase changes triggered by [Scathach] flashing in the air as warning. On the fourth round, which consisted of two circles of AoEs - one expanding and the other shrinking - Nyx got clipped by one of the AoEs by accident, and the damage put her in the dirt immediately.

  “Oh, you’ve gotta be shitting me!” Nyx shouted, and the laughing among the group started up again, but it carried a sort of nervous edge. AoEs like this were expected, but ones powerful enough to one-shot PCs weren’t common. They had all expected a little bit of breathing room.

  Apparently [Scathach] wasn’t that nice.

  After that round of AoEs ran their course, [Scathach] floated down to hover just above the ground in the center of the arena, and there were still plenty of weapons floating above the party’s heads.

  “Not yet, not yet!” [Scathach] yelled, and then began throwing AoEs from her position. They started as line AoEs, each targeting a specific party member, but they were coming fast. If two people dodged in the same direction, they were liable to get each other killed.

  “Dodge clockwise! Clockwise!” Firo shouted, trying to get everyone uniform in their movement.

  But almost immediately after Firo shouted it, Mellody dodged counter-clockwise around the boss, and ended up getting a face full of Evie’s AoE.

  “Wait, what?”

  “Bro, that was counter-clockwise.” Kieran said, his laughter more genuine than before.

  “No, it wasn’t!” Ash said on instinct, then followed it a breath later with, “Wait, fuck, it was. Dammit!”

  [Scathach] went through four more patterns of AoEs. They included more targeted attacks, but also AoEs that moved away from her in sequences, and even a round of fully random ones again.

  When there were an actual countable amount of weapons remaining in the sky, Marissa was ready to breathe a sigh of relief. It seemed like the fight was finally just about over, but [Scathach] apparently had one final trick for them.

  The boss reached above her head, connecting to all of the remaining weapons above them with a wisp of shadow. “And now the curtain falls!”

  The entire floor turned red. There wasn’t a single safe spot remaining, as each weapon was ready to drop straight down.

  “I’ve got an idea!” Evie said, and immediately moved to [Skip Cast] [Resurrection], allowing her to immediately cast the spell on Nyx.

  “I gotcha.” Nyx said, knowing the plan immediately. It was a fairly common cheese strategy - if Nyx could time her [Resurrection] right, she could come upright as the others all died. If they only needed to survive this attack, that could conceivably claim them the victory.

  “Gather near me!” Marissa shouted, unwilling to risk the fight at this point without trying whatever she could. As everyone moved, trusting her, Marissa aimed up and unleashed a flurry of attacks against the weapon floating directly above her.

  As soon as Firo saw her strategy, he joined her, and together they were able to just barely destroy the weapon before they all fell. It left the group a tiny little safe zone to squeeze into, as the remaining AoEs all overlapped around them.

  Fiona stood several feet away from the party, and simply ate four of the various falling weapons, but had taken no damage thanks to [Final Vigil]. Evan scoffed as the rest of the party huddled together to avoid death.

  “That barely tickled.” He laughed.