If they wanted to take the city they needed to get down there quickly. “Get to the horses!”
He started to run, but their horses were only steps away. The battle was just starting, and he was already so excited he’d forgotten where the horses were. Tim climbed into the saddle and drew a couple of deep breaths to calm himself. He’d never had the chance to be part of a revolution. It was intense.
Viva la revolution!
This was the battle that would determine whether the people of Nar’ha would get to experience freedom. Tim was a big believer that everyone deserved a chance to choose their path in life. Each person should know that they could walk in the sunlight and know that tomorrow, with enough determination and hard work, they could become anything they wanted to be. He was willing to fight and die to give the people of Naroosh the chance to experience the same feeling he woke up with every day.
Tim looked over the battlefield, and a smile spread across his lips. “Let’s ride.”
They were about to make a difference.
“The goddess’ light shines upon you!” Khalid roared as they rode past. “Neema, take your men to the right!”
Tim felt some of the riders following them peel off and head toward the right flank. A small contingent carried on with their group. These men would reinforce the ones lost to the Juggernaut before their arrival. At least that was what he thought would happen. Instead, more and more of the warriors stopped to fill in gaps in the line as they rode. Soon it was only the five of them galloping madly across the open desert toward the boss.
The giant cloud of dust in front of them started to settle, and Tim pulled back on his reins, slowing their racing horses to a slow walk. The Juggernaut looked down at the battlefield with hunger in its eyes. It was as if the destruction of so many lives filled him with happiness, or maybe it was a desire to cause more devastation.
Now that Tim knew what they were facing he kind of liked being in the dark better.
Half of the Juggernaut’s head looked like someone had dipped it in molten metal. It was the kind of look that was scary as hell on a person, but when it happened on the head of a minotaur, it was a hundred percent shit-inducing.
He wasn’t wearing brown pants, so Tim found a way to control himself.
Seeing the burning red eyes looking out over the battlefield through a mask of steel indifference was terrifying, but what made the creature a Juggernaut? Melting a little metal on a monster didn’t make it special. It just gave the fucker a chrome dome. There had to be something that gave the boss that moniker. He couldn’t only be a minotaur with a shiny head.
The Juggernaut pulled something from his inventory with a grunt of effort. It looked like a single wheel with grips on the sides. What in the fuck was going on? Vitaria was one crazy bitch if she thought a minotaur on a unicycle would be enough to slow them down.
The Juggernaut gripped the bars on either side of the wheel and let out a war cry that froze everyone in the vicinity in place. Then he lowered his head over the wheel and ran forward, using his head as a battering ram. The wheel crushed anyone unlucky enough to be directly in its path, and the boss’ horns did the rest.
Men screamed as they were impaled and tossed aside like bowling pins.
When the devastating attack was over the Juggernaut stopped running, and Tim could see the moisture coming from the boss’ nose as he drew deep, bellowing breaths. He reached up, pulled a few bodies free from his horns, and tossed them to the side. A trail of bent and broken bodies lay behind the minotaur, but the monster was already scouting the field for his next target.
The resistance couldn’t suffer another blow like that without folding entirely.
“Cassie, you’re up.” Tim grinned at her while thanking Eternia for the millionth time that it wasn’t his job to run headfirst at that thing. “If you see him grab that wheel thing, get the fuck out of the way.”
The tank rode past him, taking the lead. “Don’t get ground into paste. You always have such helpful advice before the fighting starts.”
“I can heal a lot, but don’t think for a second that I can blow you back up like Judge Doom in Roger Rabbit.” Tim decided that wasn’t the right tactic and tried to be more encouraging. “Once you’re paste,” he failed to come up with something clever. “You’re paste.”
They were close enough now that Cassie leapt off her horse and approached on foot. “Hey, bull for brains, let’s fucking tango!”
Tim looked at JaKobi. “Not bad.”
“We’ve been working on it.” The fire mage’s robes burst into flames, and he ran to catch up with the others.
Tim scanned the field around them while trailing the group as usual, but it didn’t seem as if the battle raging around them would be a huge factor. Although the fighting was fierce, there was a very clear perimeter around them now that Cassie had engaged the boss. The game was setting the mood for them, but making sure the fight was fivo-e-mono.
Just the way they liked it.
The Juggernaut put his death wheel away and pulled a much more sinister-looking ax from his inventory. Now he looked like the mythical monster from all the games and shows Tim had ever seen, except much larger. He was pretty sure this massive mad cow fucker could have given Paul Bunyan a run for his money. The boss was easily twenty feet tall and had shoulders as wide as a VW bus.
He’d need them to swing that big-ass ax.
Tim wondered how Cassie felt. Splitter had been one hell of a weapon, but each head of this massive ax could have been one of Dracon’s swords. The Juggernaut seemed like an unstoppable force, but there had to be a way for them to win the fight. Cassie slammed into the boss with a shriek, and Tim went to work.
Curse of Giving was what he used to start the fight and quickly followed it with Behold My Power.
There was no reason to be shy.
He sent out a round of Healing Orb as the rest of the DPS got to work. From here on out, his only goal was to make sure Cassie had whatever she needed to survive tangling with the Juggernaut up close. As long as she was at full health and no one else made a major oopsie, he could keep his eyes on the boss and look for any openings or signs that something bad was coming their way.
In every fight, there was usually a trick. So far this battle seemed pretty straightforward. They were due for a more traditional tank and spank kind of encounter, or even a loot pinata. It had been a long time since they’d faced an easy battle, but this probably wouldn’t be it. Despite the fact the minotaur was alone, there were hundreds of men and women fighting around them. Almost any scenario was possible.
Cassie had her hands too full dodging the minotaur’s hooves and ducking under the ax to make any meaningful contribution to the DPS. Lorelei made some progress with her bow, and JaKobi was doing what he liked doing best, trying to light everything on fire. ShadowLily chose that moment to appear and landed a critical hit from behind that staggered the boss for an instant.
The Juggernaut flashed red.
“Get away!” Tim screamed as he cast Who Needs a Shield on the tank.
ShadowLily didn’t hesitate. After their fight in Dr. Zacharias’ lair, she wasn’t taking any chances. Having your friend fill you with arrows because you were too slow tended to have that kind of effect on someone.
A little extra DPS wasn’t worth dying for.
Meanwhile, Cassie was rooted in place. Tim was pretty sure from the look of panic on her face that she wasn’t trying to show off. Something was wrong, and he had to figure out what before they lost their tank. His user interface didn’t show a debuff on her that he could remove. It didn’t show a debuff at all. Was she really stuck there?
What in the fuck was going on?
Now that Tim had no idea what was going on, he got pissed. Now wasn’t the time to start playing games or showing off. If Cassie died, they all died. That was it. While he was impressed by the extra damage JaKobi and Lorelei were throwing down right now, risking her life wasn’t worth it.
If they died, the Juggernaut would roll through Khalid’s army like a wet paper towel.
Cassie must have had some sort of plan, but Tim had no idea what it was. He hit her with a Healing Orb and cast Healing Storm on the entire party to ensure everyone was topped off from the damage Behold My Power was doing.
Thankfully the powerful curse was about to flip from doing damage to dishing it out. Maybe Cassie counted on the boost from his spell to save her ass but that was risky business. Tim had already noticed in multiple fights that the bosses had skills that basically hit pause on all player abilities while they landed a devastating attack. If she was wrong and the boss paused his curse, this fight was over.
All they needed was one more second.
The double-headed ax hit Cassie so hard her feet sank into the ground a solid foot. The tank absorbed the blow, and somehow her staff didn’t crack. What did break was her health bar. Getting hit almost made Cassie look like she’d jumped off a tall building and shattered her legs completely.
Sitting at just under thirty percent health, Cassie struggled to move let alone defend herself.
JaKobi was screaming at the top of his lungs, casting spell after spell to distract the Juggernaut. Lorelei followed close to him, filling any gaps in his tanks with arrows, but the minotaur didn’t care. He knew that Cassie was injured and wanted to take her out of the fight completely.
Behold My Power hit, and Cassie’s health shot over sixty-five percent in a single blast of healing energy. A second later she was at seventy-five percent and back on the move. She had her chain out and launched herself back into the fray before he could top off the rest of her health. She hit the boss hard, keeping the minotaur's attention focused on her as Tim worked on casting another Healing Orb.
The closer she got to full health the better he felt, and it gave him the ability to slip into conservation mode. Once he’d recouped enough of his mana, he could rejoin the fight at full throttle.
“Let’s not do that again.” Tim ran to get back into position.
Cassie growled as she diverted one of the Juggernaut’s attacks. “Have to say he hit a little harder than I expected. Even with popping my cooldowns, it almost wasn’t enough.”
“New rule,” Lorelei shouted as she rotated to stay with the group. “Avoid all the mechanics.”
That was a good rule of thumb in every game Tim ever played. It was always better to survive than top the charts, especially early in the game's lifespan. Early on, players couldn’t count on superior gear to cover their mistakes, so taking things slow was usually the right course of action. They didn’t have the luxury of superior gear, and taking another hit like the last one would be enough to deplete his mana. Then they would be moments away from meeting their caseworkers.
It looked as though Cassie had the boss back under control. ShadowLily hacked at the Juggernaut with her daggers, only this time from the side instead of directly behind. Maybe she thought her assault from behind triggered the attack mechanic. Tim tucked that thought away for later.
Despite their little hiccup, the fight was going pretty well for them. The boss was at seventy-five percent health and going down at a steady rate. They’d learned what one of the boss’ mechanics was and how to survive it. From here it was rinse and repeat until the minotaur threw something new at them.
Cassie kept their group rotating in a small circle.
Tim assumed this was happening naturally since their tank had to dodge attacks instead of standing and eating the damage the way a more traditional tank would. The only person who couldn’t attack on the run was JaKobi. The fire mage would run forward to the point where he was just out of the frontal cleave and launch attacks until he was about to run into the rear cleave. Then he sprinted forward again and restarted the routine.
For the first time, it felt as though ShadowLily had a small advantage for DPSing. She was used to moving as she fought, so it was nothing new for her. The others had the luxury of standing back and firing without doing a lot of running in most fights, but not here. All of them were rotating, and it was the assassin’s time to shine.
Tim loved watching her reach her deadly dance as she slipped fully into attack mode.
When the Juggernaut's health hit sixty percent, he pulsed red again. Tim looked down and realized there was a circle of red mist at his feet. He couldn’t move. Why the fuck couldn’t he move? The rational part of his brain fought against the panic. This was nothing. He could handle it with Cleanse so he cast the spell.
Nothing fucking happened.
Tendrils spread out from the boss, each of them leading to one of the trapped players. As the black tendril coming in his direction connected with the red mist around his ankles, Tim started taking small amounts of incremental damage. He sent out a round of Healing Orb to counter the effect and tried casting Cleanse on someone else.
The spell still had no effect.
Maybe this was one of those unbreakable boss mechanics, and yet it felt like there was something they could do. He simply had no clue what it was.
The Juggernaut flashed red again, and it yanked all of them forward. This was getting out of hand. Everyone’s health was fine, but they all looked a little worried. If Cleanse wouldn’t get them out of this, he only had one option left.
Disturbance.
The boss didn’t have any beneficial icons on his status bar. Using his only buff remover now might waste it completely. What if after this attack there was something he needed to remove? Fuck. Why didn’t he spend more time working on his new skills? What was he going to do? Should he wait or cast the damn spell now?
The effect yanked Tim forward again, and his health took a hit.
There was probably only one more tug of the spell before all of them would be standing directly in front of the boss. Whatever mechanic the Juggernaut was going to employ would happen then. Tim could waste his time casting something that might not work, or he could get Healing Orb on everyone and hope for the best. He sent out the round of healing and waited to see if he made the right call.
The group jerked forward again, and now they were all just feet away from the Juggernaut. The minotaur laughed at them and blew out the most atrocious smelling fart. It was like something had crawled up in that giant cow ass of his and died. A smile spread on the beast's face as he jumped in the air and landed on his ass with a giant whomp.
The move threw all of them to the ground, and the cloud of putrid gas washed over them again.
It was worse than the time Xander ate nothing but ranch-style beans for a week. They hadn’t lived in that house for over a year, and he bet the landlord was still airing it out. Tim had always thought of that week of farts as a ten on the stink scale, until today.
At best, Xander was a four.
Tim looked at his feet and realized they were mist-free, and he could move again. “Someone please kill this fucker. If I have to eat another fart, I’m seriously going to lose my shit.”
He didn’t need to scream. The others had already realized they were free and felt as disgruntled as he did about what happened to them. No one liked being farted on.
Trust me fellas. Girls don’t think it’s cute.
The Juggernaut still looked dazed and in recovery from his deadly gas attack, but Tim was starting to get worried. Something that smelled that bad couldn’t be good for them. He sent out a round of Healing Orb, hoping the minor cleanse attached to the spell would be enough to remove any debuffs they might have suffered from the fart.
The Juggernaut climbed back to his feet, looking rather pleased with himself despite the fact his health had taken a severe beating. The boss was at forty-five percent health now but was also carrying a new buff.
Buff: He Who Dealt It, Made You Smell It
The Juggernaut knows being an immovable powerhouse doesn’t apply to his farts. For each person gassed, the Juggernaut receives a five percent reduction in damage taken.
The last half of this fight would take forever if the boss t
ook twenty-five percent less damage the entire time. Tim wasn’t going to have the mana to keep them alive long enough to live through repeated rounds of the gas cloud and ax attacks. If they couldn’t find a way to speed this up, they were going to get their asses kicked. Maybe this was the right time to cast his buff remover.
Tim cast Disturbance.
One of the five stacks of He Who Dealt it, Made You Smell It disappeared. Not the best news in the world, but a twenty percent reduction in damage was better than twenty-five. As soon as Disturbance was off cooldown, he could cast it again.
Cassie was back on the boss, and their slow rotation continued.
The tiny tank dodged and jumped but was taking a little more damage now. Tim got her back to full health, then the ax bounced off her shoulder plates, and she took a hoof to the gut. Tim kept his heals focused on the tank as they kept the boss’ health moving ever so slowly downward.
The boss flashed red again at thirty percent, but before he finished flashing, Cassie and ShadowLily were on the run.
When the Juggernaut's special attack failed to hit anyone, their entire group took a twenty percent blow to their health. Tim was kind of pissed off about it. Now he had to heal the entire party because they correctly avoided the mechanic. The real question for next time was, what was worse, Cassie at thirty percent or all of them at eighty percent health?
Tim knew the answer without having to think about it.
One cast of Healing Storm was enough to get everyone back up to full health, and now they were in the final stretch of the battle. Tim was able to cast Disturbance again, bringing the minotaur’s damage reduction down to fifteen percent. The boss didn’t look thrilled about the new development, and his eyes flashed briefly red as they locked onto Tim.
The Juggernaut slammed his ax into the ground and pulled his wheel free.
Tim knew that matadors didn’t fear the bull because they had a sword and a fancy red cape. Kind of made you wonder if the stories about bulls seeing red came from their times spent being slaughtered in the arena. He was pretty sure if someone stabbed him every time they showed him a swirling red cape, he’d have a pretty fucking adverse reaction to the damn thing as well, whether he could see the color or not.
Deserts Of Naroosh Page 42
