[Modern Family] Ch: 9 [The first Top 10 Video creation & the Final Boss] (Patreon)

AN: This chapter is really big lol. I was late due to work, so I hope this one was okay. Also, I didn't get the time to edit it properly. As usual, let me know if you find any mistakes.

Jason stared at the whiteboard while spinning a marker between his fingers. The entire thing looked like a war map created by a sleep-deprived conspiracy theorist. Sticky notes covered almost every visible inch of space, and half the game titles had already been circled three different times.

His monitor displayed an unfinished editing timeline while another screen showed gaming forums discussing difficult boss fights from recent releases. Empty coffee cups and soda cans surrounded the keyboard like trophies from a long battle against productivity.

Jason leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. "Alright," he muttered quietly. "Top ten hardest boss fights of 2008. And since it's only March 2009, I'll wait till June or July to create a boss fight video."

He opened another notebook page and started writing down the list properly.

1) Angelo Credo — Devil May Cry 4

2) The Hive Mind — Dead Space

3) Saren Arterius — Mass Effect PC release

4) Colonel Autumn / Final Enclave Push — Fallout 3

5) Heart of the Reich Finale — Call of Duty: World at War

6) The Black Goat of the Woods — Alone in the Dark

7) The T-Rex — Turok

8) Ahriman Final Encounter — Prince of Persia

9) The Beast / Endgame Boss — Legendary

10) Final Boss Gauntlet — NecroVisioN

Jason nodded slowly while tapping the pen against the notebook. "Yep. Looks good."

The next several days turned into complete chaos.

His schedule stopped resembling anything remotely healthy by normal human standards. Fortunately, Jason no longer seemed bound by normal human standards anymore. He streamed during the evenings, recorded gameplay footage during the mornings, edited videos late into the night, and somehow still woke up feeling completely refreshed every single day.

1: Devil May Cry 4 | Angelo Credo

Jason sat in front of his editing setup with a notebook open beside the keyboard while gameplay footage played across the monitor.

The footage switched to an arena where Angelo Credo stood waiting with his massive shield and spear. The moment the battle began, he launched forward with frightening speed.

Jason adjusted the microphone slightly before hitting record.

"Alright, everyone. Welcome to a new Grid video. Before we begin, I need to throw out a massive spoiler warning. This video contains major spoilers for every game on this list. If you haven't finished these games yet and want to experience them blind, now's your chance to leave."

He paused briefly while the footage continued playing.

"Still here? Good."

Jason leaned forward slightly.

"Starting off this list, we have Angelo Credo from Devil May Cry 4. Before anyone starts throwing chairs at their monitor, yes, I know there are bigger bosses in this game. There are bosses with more explosions, larger health bars, and far more dramatic entrances. Angelo Credo is here because he actually forces players to learn how the combat system works."

The footage showed Credo blocking a combo before counterattacking instantly.

"This guy is ridiculously aggressive. The arena isn't particularly large, which means you don't have much room to breathe once he starts attacking. His spear charges come out fast, his shield blocks most reckless attacks, and he constantly pressures the player from beginning to end."

Credo deflected another strike and immediately launched into a follow-up combo.

Jason continued.

"That right there is the biggest reason people struggle. Most action game bosses eventually let you mash buttons and recover. Credo punishes that habit immediately. If you attack carelessly, he blocks. If you panic, he punishes you. If your timing is bad, he reminds you very quickly."

The footage slowed slightly as Credo launched into one of his sword combos.

"The key to beating him is learning his rhythm. You need to recognize his attack patterns and get comfortable parrying his sword strikes. Once you start doing that, the entire fight changes."

The footage showed Nero successfully countering and using Buster.

"More importantly, Nero's Buster move becomes your best friend here. Whenever Credo finishes a combo or deflects one of your attacks, there is a brief opening. If your timing is good, you can grab him with Buster, stagger him, and finally deal meaningful damage."

Jason smiled slightly.

"The fight feels less like a boss battle and more like a duel between two skilled fighters. Every mistake will punish you, and if you miss certain openings, you're dead. That's why Angelo Credo earns a spot on this list."

--

2: Dead Space | The Hive Mind

The footage changed.

A massive creature towered over Isaac Clarke while ruined structures burned in the background.

Jason started background commentary.

"Next up is The Hive Mind from Dead Space. Once again, spoiler warning. If you somehow haven't played one of the greatest survival horror games ever made, you should definitely play it."

He watched the footage carefully.

"Dead Space spends the entire game building tension. The atmosphere is incredible. The sound design is eerie and awesome. Not to mention, everything wants you dead. Then the game throws this giant nightmare creature at you right before the finish line."

The Hive Mind roared across the screen.

"What makes it difficult is everything leading up to it. Resources are limited. Your nerves are already shot. You've spent hours dealing with necromorphs that apparently skipped every lesson about respecting personal space. Then this freak of nature appears, and if somehow it manages to grab you, you're dead. It's basically a one-hit-kill system."

The footage showed the one-hit-kill death scene.

"Oh, did I mention it also spits acids at you?"

The footage showed the nasty acid attack.

"How to beat it? Upgrade your Contact Beam or Line Gun. Shoot the glowing yellow sacs on its tentacles first, then aim for the interior ribs/yellow pustules in its mouth when it screams. Stay aware of your positioning to dodge the swipes."

After a few seconds of the footage...

"The boss itself feels like the final exam after an entire semester of suffering."

--

3: Mass Effect | Saren Arterius

The next recording session began immediately.

Saren appeared on the monitor.

Jason leaned toward the microphone.

"Coming in next is Saren Arterius from Mass Effect. This is one of the best RPGs released in recent years."

The final battle footage rolled.

"What makes Saren interesting isn't pure difficulty. The game spends dozens of hours building him up. By the time you reach this fight, you've heard his name everywhere."

Jason pointed toward the screen.

"When the confrontation finally happens, the pressure feels earned. The fight rewards preparation, character builds, squad management, and positioning. By the way, if you're going the paragon route, you can skip the first part. But if you want to get full villain experience, fight the guy, just for fun."

The footage showed Saren using biotic attacks.

"Also, biotics hurt. A lot. In phase one, Saren uses high-end Spectre weapons, biotics, and continuous shield boosts. In phase two, Sovereign reanimates him into a highly mobile husk that clings to ceilings and walls, making him difficult to track while he pummels you with projectiles. How to beat him? Burst him with Overload and Damping continuously to melt his shields before attacking to drain his health. Next, when Saren hits the ground in phase two, use biotic powers like Lift or Stasis to freeze him in place, then blast him off with everything you've got."

--

5: Call of Duty: World at War | Heart of the Reich

The footage loaded.

Explosions immediately filled the screen.

Jason laughed before even starting.

"Anyone who played this mission already knows why it's here."

He pressed record.

"Call of Duty: World at War. Heart of the Reich. Technically this isn't a boss fight, but this mission killed me more than most bosses, so it counts. Don't judge me. For a moment, I thought the game was glitched or something."

The footage showed grenades flying everywhere.

"Well, we don't have any giant aliens or monsters for this one. But we have unlimited enemies spawn, unlimited grenade spam, an open plaza design, and no checkpoints. What could be more fun than that?"

Three grenades landed simultaneously.

Jason shook his head.

"Use whatever little cover you have, don't stay at the same spot for too long unless you want a bunch of grenades to blow you apart, and run whenever you can. Let your AI teammates draw the fire while you focus on the objective."

Another explosion appeared.

"Well, this level traumatized an entire generation."

--

6: Alone in the Dark | The Black Goat of the Woods

Jason opened the next project file and immediately sighed when the boss footage appeared on the screen.

"Oh yeah. This thing. Next up is Alone in the Dark and we're talking about the final boss, The Black Goat of the Woods."

The giant tree monster rose from the ground while ghouls swarmed the area.

"This fight earns its spot because the difficulty spike is ridiculous. You're dealing with enemy waves, limited resources, instant-death attacks, and a boss that constantly pressures you from beginning to end."

Jason pointed toward the screen as the footage showed Edward running between enemies.

"The strategy itself isn't too complicated. Dodge the ghouls, save your shotgun shells for emergencies, shoot the glowing growths on the tree, and use flammable bullets whenever possible."

He paused briefly before shaking his head.

"The real problem is everything else."

The footage switched to several failed attempts.

"Clunky controls, awkward movement, questionable driving physics, camera angles that actively work against you, constant crashing, deaths because the game engine failed to load the assets, and enough glitches to make you wonder whether the game is fighting you harder than the boss is."

A ghoul hit Edward during a strange animation.

Jason laughed.

"Half the challenge comes from surviving the encounter. The other half comes from surviving the game itself."

The tree collapsed as the final weak point exploded.

"And somehow, after all that suffering, victory still feels pretty satisfying."

--

7: Turok | T-Rex Encounter

The giant dinosaur appeared immediately.

Jason began...

"There she is... Mama Scarface."

The footage showed the massive predator charging forward.

"Look at that thing. This boss terrified players for a very simple reason."

The T-Rex smashed through obstacles.

"It refuses to act like a normal video game enemy."

Jason shook his head.

"The speed, aggression, and size make you feel that rush. But it's also frustrating because the dinosaur's attacks are unpredictable and you need to lure it into traps and explosives."

The dinosaur roared.

"Oh, by the way, if you get caught, you're dead. It has one-hit kill mechanics and QTE at the very end. Miss that QTE and you've to start from the checkpoint again. Good luck with this one."

 --

8: Prince of Persia | Ahriman

The visuals shifted dramatically. Beautiful environments filled the monitor.

Jason sat back while watching the footage.

"This fight earns its place for completely different reasons. Ahriman from Prince of Persia isn't just a boss. It's the payoff for the entire journey."

The battle footage played.

"The visuals are gorgeous. The atmosphere is incredible. The scale feels massive."

He watched quietly for a moment. Then he started to pinpoint the different difficulties and the footage. It took some time to get the different footage and arrange them properly. 

The difficulty increases based on the specific mechanics of Ahriman's four Corrupted lieutenants:

The Hunter (Easy): A straightforward physical brawler. He relies heavily on basic sword combos and quick-time events (QTEs). He is simple to counter once you learn his rhythm.

The Alchemist (Medium): He uses defensive chemical shields. You must strategically navigate the arena and push him into specific environmental hazards to break his guard. The

Concubine (Medium-Hard): The most annoying boss for many players. She uses illusions to distort your vision, creates fake duplicate bosses, and reverses your controller inputs.

The Warrior (Hardest): Immune to all of your standard sword attacks and magic. You cannot damage him directly. The only way to defeat him is by carefully maneuvering and baiting him into falling off edges or trapping him against walls.

"So, you need to play it multiple times to get the full experience." 

--

9: Legendary | The Beast

Jason loaded another file.

A chaotic battlefield appeared.

"This game is absolute madness."

The footage began.

"Legendary throws players into increasingly ridiculous situations until reality basically gives up."

He pointed toward the screen.

"And then The Beast arrives."

The fight erupted into chaos.

"What makes this encounter difficult is understanding what's happening while everything explodes around you."

Jason laughed.

"The boss feels like somebody took every action movie idea they had and shoved it into one battle."

He explained the way to defeat the boss.

--

10: NecroVisioN | Mephisto

The final project file opened.

Hell itself filled the screen.

Jason settled comfortably into his chair.

"And finally, we arrive at Mephisto from NecroVisioN."

The footage rolled.

"If you've watched my recent playthrough, you already know this game tested my patience."

Fire covered the battlefield.

"Hard mode turns this fight into a genuine endurance test."

Jason shook his head while remembering the experience.

"The enemies hit hard. The chaos never stops. The game constantly pressures the player."

The boss fight played for a few seconds.

"After everything you've survived, Mephisto stands between you and the ending."

The cutscene started playing.

"And then the game reveals that Simon basically takes over Hell himself."

Jason laughed quietly.

"Honestly, I respect the ambition."

He leaned closer to the microphone for the final closing segment.

"So that's my list for the hardest boss fights of 2008. And before anyone starts typing angry essays, remember this is my list. And I'm pretty sure you have yours. Leave it in the comments."

--

The hardest part should have been over by now, right?

Jason had already played the games, recorded the footage, written the commentary, captured extra clips, organized everything into categories, and somehow kept his streaming schedule alive through the entire process.

Unfortunately, there was still one final boss left standing.

Editing.

Jason stared at the monitor while Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 slowly processed another section of the timeline. The project looked ridiculous. Video tracks stretched across the screen, audio layers overlapped one another, and dozens of small markers divided the timeline into different boss segments. It had taken days to gather everything and somehow even longer to arrange it into something watchable.

He took a sip of coffee and glanced at the progress bar.

It had moved...

...Barely.

Jason narrowed his eyes.

"You gotta be kidding me? C'mon, man."

The computer responded by continuing to render at the speed of continental drift.

Back in 2026, he could throw together a decent video and have it rendered before finishing dinner. In 2009, rendering felt like a test of faith. Every time the percentage increased by one, it felt less like progress and more like a miracle.

Oh, there's also the crashes... the bane of editing. There's no guarantee that the rendering file will reach 100% without crashing. It might crash in the mid or at 99%. So, all one can do is pray.

He checked the estimated completion time again.

Six hours.

Jason leaned back in his chair and laughed.

"Six hours to render a 17-minute video. Then I gotta split it into 10-minute and 7-minute parts and upload them separately thanks to their fucking 10-minute limit cap. And god knows how long that would take. Fuck!"

The GTX hummed faithfully beneath the desk while the i7 processor fought for its life. To be fair, both were considered top-tier hardware for the time. The problem was that "top-tier" in 2009 still felt prehistoric compared to what he remembered.

After saving the project three separate times out of pure paranoia, Jason finally accepted reality. The computer wasn't going to finish any faster just because he stared at it harder.

There was no point sitting there.

The rooftop pool suddenly sounded like a much better use of his afternoon.

A few minutes later, he stepped onto the rooftop wearing swim trunks and carrying a towel over one shoulder. Warm sunlight reflected across the water while a gentle breeze drifted through the neighborhood. From up here, everything looked peaceful. The distant sounds of lawnmowers, barking dogs, and passing cars blended together into background noise.

Jason walked to the edge of the pool and smiled.

"Oh, yeah. Time for some me time."

Then he jumped.

Cool water wrapped around him instantly, washing away several days' worth of accumulated stress. He surfaced a second later and floated onto his back while staring at the cloudless sky overhead.

For the first time all week, he wasn't thinking about content schedules, viewer retention, thumbnails, game footage, stream planning, or investment opportunities.

He was just floating.

It lasted almost ten minutes.

Then his eyes opened.

"...Shit."

Jason sat upright in the water.

A very specific memory had just punched him directly in the brain.

Alex.

He hadn't called her. 

Actually, now that he thought about it, he hadn't checked his phone in days.

His expression slowly changed.

"Oh no."

The realization hit harder with every passing second.

Between streaming, recording footage, editing, exercising, researching future content ideas, and generally trying to build an empire from scratch, his phone had quietly disappeared from existence.

Jason climbed out of the pool and grabbed the towel.

"This is bad."

By the time he wiped himself and changed into something not wet, he was already preparing excuses and none of them sounded convincing. His phone sat exactly where he remembered leaving it, buried beneath a notebook full of content ideas and surrounded by empty soda cans.

Jason picked it up.

The screen lit immediately.

"Oh, it still has 10% charge. Nice."

Notifications covered the screen: Messages, missed calls from Haley, and several texts from both Alex and Haley. 

"Okay. Let's take it slow and stay relaxed. Act cool."

He opened the conversation.

The first message had arrived only a day after they exchanged numbers.

Alex: Hey. How's the streaming thing going?

The second message arrived two days later.

Alex: Did the haunted murder house finally get you?

Jason winced.

The next one came after that.

Alex: Okay, now I'm genuinely curious if you're alive.

A laugh escaped him despite himself.

The fourth message was somehow worse.

Alex: If a ghost murdered you, please let me know. It would really help narrow down the possibilities.

Jason covered his face.

"Yeah, I deserve this."

The latest message had arrived earlier that morning.

Alex: Starting to think Haley scared you away. Or you're just ghosting me. Wait! Are you speaking to Haley by any chance? Is that why you're ignoring me?

Jason stared at the screen for a few seconds before sighing. 

There were also a bunch of messages from Haley. 

"There's no point overthinking it."

He opened the contacts, tapped on Alex's number and pressed call.

The phone started ringing while Jason leaned back in his chair and rubbed the back of his neck.

One ring.

Two rings.

Three rings.

By the fourth ring, he was starting to wonder if she would answer at all.

Then the line connected.

For a brief moment, neither of them said anything.

Jason smiled awkwardly despite the fact she couldn't see him.

"Hey, Alex."

A second passed.

Then her voice came through the speaker.

"So the ghosts finally returned your phone?"

--

Next: First date & a streamer's bane