DD 203 Ch 19 (Patreon)

Chapter 19

The next week training ourselves in the raid flowed by smoothly. My class was currently working on our second attempt through the long branch of the dungeon that contained six bosses. Four were already down.

"I think we'll get it tonight," I mused aloud. We were taking yet another break, mid-dive.

Much of our time this past week was spent grinding mobs in the dungeon, which I was particularly good at given [Liminal Speed]. In the evenings, I would often take a small group and grind further. 

At this point, I had managed to stack on a level above the rest of my raid. "This one's hard," I said to Des. "I really can't get my [Liminal Speed] stacks up with these stupid mechanics."

The penultimate boss of the raid frequently became a gush of water and wove around the room, creating waves for us to dodge. Much to my own frustration, I was out of stacks every time she became targetable once again. 

"Well, we all have to have a boss that we can shine on," Des smirked.

The last few attempts in the dungeon, I had really started to dominate. With Candice and Kendra's assistance, my DPS had soared, and on the beetle boss that once gave us a challenge, we were obliterating it by the end of the second add wave. All of the gear we had acquired had really made a difference. 

I put a hand to the mottled blue armor that I wore and the pair of daggers that looked like a cutout of the starry sky. My boots were leather with bone plating over the front and they helped me be even faster along with a pair of magical rings on my hands.

One of the things about raids that helped get everyone gear, was the sheer variety of loot that dropped. Sure we ran the event to death and anyone who needed an upgrade on their staff or boots got what they needed, but there wasn’t the variety of the raid. Here there was something for everyone and every slot.

At this point, I was close to the max stats I could get from gear. If I put any more on, I would burn myself from the mana flowing through the equipment. The rest of the raid party were in similar situations, no one was lacking equipment to push themselves to their cap.

While the raid was going relatively smoothly, our concerns of the dungeon shuffling were proven true. All of the monsters had gone up a level. It appeared that we had gone deeper in the dungeon as we suspected, but at the very least, the levels were not growing at a significant rate. 

"I think we can kill this one," Elysara sat down next to us. "It's just taking a little practice to get to where people stop dying to the waves or those water spears."

Des and I looked at each other and nodded along. It was probably about time to get back at it. This was one of those fights that just required everyone do it for long enough that parts of it were muscle memory.

I stood up to get ready for the fight again, only for Felin to grab me before we got going.

The Nekorian was fidgeting, her tail lashing behind her. She had been out of sorts since the dungeon shuffling, and she took my hand, looking up into my eyes with her beautiful soulful blue ones. "I'm sorry," Felin growled, as if apologizing went against her very nature.

I put a hand on her shoulder. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Felin. If a disaster that separated my people reoccurred, I would be just as torn up as you are about it. You had no way to know it would happen again." 

She rubbed her cheek against my arm. "Yes, but you promised to help me, and I've still been out of sorts. I have not been a very good pride member." She took a deep breath and said to herself, "I will no longer be out of sorts." She nodded her head emphatically, willing the words into reality. "I will be Felin, the fierce member of your pride. And I will kick this boss' butt."

She’d not been the only one, but one of them that had died on this boss frequently. It was good to know that she was getting her head on right.

I smirked at her and ran a hand over her head. "Wonderful. Glad to have you back, Felin. And when this is all done, I will help you find your people. If they haven't already succeeded, I will help you find your people and reunite them." I smoothed out her hair and tickled at her ears.

The white ears with blue stripes flicked when I touched them before standing up rigid as if being asked to be touched again.

I didn’t mind spending a moment with her.

Felin took my hand off her shoulder and kissed the back of it. Her bright blue eyes looked up into mine. "Thank you," she said. "You have no idea how much it means to have a pride that might not be a Nekorian, but is so willing to help my people." 

I brought her close and kissed her forehead. "We have butt-kicking to do now. While you being a cute kitten is adorable, I want my ferocious Nekorian back." I slapped her ass, feeling the tight globe against my hand for a second made me want to squeeze her.

She growled at me and pawed at my shirt. "I am not a kitten." 

"Damn right you're not." I walked into the boss room with everyone else, once again preparing for the fight.

Felin lingered nearby for a moment before breaking off to get herself ready for the fight.

The penultimate boss of the raid was a large grotesque figure, brandishing what appeared to be a broken mast as her weapon. The theme, as this branch of the dungeon continued, turned out to be undeath. She had a zombie-like complexion and festering wounds over her body.

She was certainly not the prettiest sight. The boss was tough, certainly deserving of being the penultimate boss for the raid. She fought with water, and that was how she became untouchable, causing me headaches during the fight. 

As we all filed in, she glanced in our direction and slammed the broken mast on the ground as if daring us to challenge her.

The other three colleges had defeated her in their most recent tries, which meant the prince and the rest of the groups would be working towards the final boss after today.

Machen had talked to me briefly about the final boss, and it seemed to be a huge step up in difficulty. They were only able to see the first half of the boss, struggling to even get it past halfway. So, I had high hopes we could defeat this one and move on to the next.

The last thing I wanted was to fall behind. 

"Hopefully tonight we can at least get a good understanding of the final boss.” I said to the group. The last thing I wanted was for Prince Albert to win the bet.

“Don't worry, we got this," Des put a hand on my shoulder.

I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Of course we do. This one just takes practice.” I was a little concerned to be honest, but there wasn’t much I could individually do in this fight besides not die to all the various mechanics.

Fayeth stuck her thumb up in the air, and everyone lifted their hands in agreement before Myrtle hurtled herself at the boss. 

The giant sea hag swung the broken mast that sounded like a gong when it hit Myrtle's shield. Our tank’s mace with a ball of mud at the end had been replaced with one that was a skull attached to a spine. The spiky weapon matched the undeath theme that the raid seemed to fall into towards the end of each of the raid paths. 

I ignored what was happening with the rest of the raid party and got under the boss, slashing at her sides with two umbral daggers. I made quick work of her rotten flesh. Stacks of [Liminal Speed] built up, but I knew better than to get excited at this point. Soon this boss’ ability would render them useless.

The hag lifted the mast and slammed it down on Myrtle.

I quickly jumped over the wave of water that came from the strike.

Myrtle lay flat on the ground, stunned. She’d been flattened by the boss’ ability. Once again, I was happy I wasn’t a tank. The attack was unavoidable.

Fayeth picked up the boss's attention and began tanking as Helen and Penny helped Myrtle get back on her feet.

The wave of water rippled out, leaving random puddles in the room. Everyone moved around, giving them a wide berth. 

Having done this boss fight before, I kept my focus on the boss, using my abilities as soon as they were off cooldown and trying to deal as much damage as I could while I could.

We hadn't tested the raid on the damage meters, and we didn't have them for our actual group, but I figured even with my inability to raise [Liminal Speed] to incredible levels, I was still keeping up damage on par or at the top of the class. 

The boss knocked Fayeth down, just as the boss had done Myrtle earlier, and Penny moved to take the boss.

She only got several attacks before the boss exploded in a spray of water and began to swirl around the room.

I felt a little bitter as my stacks stalled and would soon start dropping.

"Everybody, it's the dance!" Des shouted. 

I kept my head up, looking around as the puddles of water became vicious columns spraying high up. I moved near one, keeping track of the boss as she swirled through the air for a moment before coming down to our level. When she touched down, she began swishing back and forth throughout the room and around the columns of water.

At the same time, there was a thump in the room followed by a wave from my column.

I hopped over it to prevent myself from being dragged away and slowed.

As soon as she passed by the column I was standing near, I moved to where she'd passed, knowing that that area would be safe as she wound around the room. Everyone was quickly moving behind the boss's path. 

"Good job, everyone!" Candice encouraged the class. 

As they successfully dodged the boss, the boss’ winding ended and she resettled in the center of the room, only to start pounding the broken mast. I moved towards her, hopping over each little wave that she created, trying to get back to the boss. At this point, my stacks of [Liminal Speed] were completely gone. 

I grunted in frustration as we got back to the boss. And once again, I picked up my damage rotation on her.

The fight continued as she smashed Penny and then Helen into the ground.

At that point, I used [Liminal Space] and froze time to dump all of my stacks on her and deal as much damage as I could before she began winding around the room again.

A few seconds after the ability ended and time resumed, she exploded into a torrent of water that started to whip around the room. 

This time, I found myself sharing a pillar with Penny and moving with her as we dodged the boss. Penny hooked her arm in mine, actually dancing with me as we dodged back and forth.

Small waves were rippling through the room and we jumped together, dodging them successfully. It was actually easier doing it with someone.

"Alright, I am up. Wish me luck," Penny called out as the boss reformed in the center and she took up tanking.

I slipped up beside Penny and began my damage rotations, using the patches of frost she made to try and increase my damage. Unlike the other fights, I wasn't getting as much support on this one, mostly because my damage wasn't scaling as well as it had in the past.

Rightfully so, Candice, and Kendra felt like they could do more for the raid by supplying their support elsewhere.

Still, I didn't let that keep me down. I did as much damage as I could to the boss in short order before we began our dances again.

I found myself paired up with Penny again. I took the initiative to loop my arm in hers, dancing as we dodged around a pillar of water and hopped together through the waves.

Penny giggled, "This isn't so bad. Once you get the rhythm to it, it really is like dancing." She tapped her foot in cue with the rhythm, not so much looking, but actually dancing around the boss mechanics. 

I laughed and shook my head, swinging her to the side as the boss came around again and squaring us up so we could jump together over the waves. "It looks like everyone is managing it well this time," I said. 

Penny grunted, "These are the easy ones." 

It wasn't long before we had gone through another round. This time, not only were we do-si-doing around the pillars and jumping over waves, but spears of water formed randomly on the four sides of the room before shooting across. 

"Right side," Penny announced. We twisted around the pillar so that it would block spears from the right, then moved back to our position to stay out of the way of the boss. The two of us had split the walls. She was checking the south and east walls while I kept my eye on the north and west walls. 

"This is really making it easier for us to pay attention to everything at once," I told Penny.

“Who knew having a dance partner would make it all better.” She blushed and reached up to play with her hair that had grown out since our first year but then realized she was holding her large sword.

I tried and failed to keep the smile off my face as I realized what she was doing. “Watch out.” I jumped over a wave, and pulled Penny with me.

“Sorry. Focus.” She said more to herself than to me and started paying attention again.

This was the most difficult part of this boss fight. Not only did you have to sidestep around the blast of water and jump over the waves, but then you had to pay attention to the spears as well. Like Penny said though, it had almost become a dance with how rhythmic the waves were now that we were getting more practiced.

The more we practiced, the more people got a good grasp of the timing and were able to keep their focus on the spears. There were just too many things to focus on until some of it became a habit.

Bonnie went down this time as the waves collapsed, and we all rejoined the boss fight. 

"This is pretty good," I said, checking my CID against the boss. It was at 25%, and we'd only lost one healer. This fight, amongst all the ones we had done, was not actually healing intensive if people were able to avoid the mechanics. 

"I know," Penny said, "I noticed even Charlotte had stopped healing and was just throwing spells." 

I glanced over my shoulder as my blades continued to hack away at the boss.

True to what Penny had said, Charlotte was throwing balls of storm, which was a fantastic sign that people weren't needing her healing. 

"I think we got it this time," I said, feeling that we had successfully gotten everyone skilled enough at the mechanic. Though without my incredible stacks of [Liminal Speed], our DPS may have fallen behind the other colleges. After all, they each had an ace damage dealer, and for this one, I was not very effective. 

I felt the boss was going to die and did my all to put DPS onto it. We blasted through the boss's final few percentages of health.

Sure enough, the sea hag collapsed in on herself in a splash of water before flooding out as she died. Black smoke rose from amid the giant puddle of water as loot splashed down into the area where the boss had been standing.

"We got it!" Harley shouted and jumped up and down. 

"Revive Bonnie before you celebrate," I said, chuckling at her enthusiasm. The whole class was getting into raiding and enjoying the challenge.

I let Candice handle the loot.

The excitement for loot had dimmed somewhat given that most people were reaching their max they could equip.

However, the penultimate and ultimate boss would provide slightly higher level loot. And the bosses had all gone up one level. Some people were looking forward to the slight upgrade.

I know I would be too, though I glanced over the pile and didn't see anything that caught my interest right away.