Mixing It Up (The World Book 2)

by Jason Cheek

  Through it all, I somehow remembered to continue releasing my Frost Nova spell as soon as I saw its cooldown pop up on my virtual action bar as the rest of the team battled the remaining Goblins. They’d managed to take out all the casters along with the four hunters and were now in a pitched battle against the remaining ten level 28 elite Goblin warriors. Sarka was tanking a small horde of four mobs like a hardened pro, while Unalia swore her head off at me as she kited another group of six around the room. In-between Frost Blasts, the team would focus their attacks on the lone warrior Sarka would pull from the group she was holding. It was a delicate dance of death, but the team was pulling it off without a hitch as I did my best to kite the enraged boss around the room.

  I don’t know if getting your ass beat while falling back in terror would really be considered true kiting, but whatever I was doing seemed to be working, at least somewhat. The team needed time to wear down the horde of Goblins before taking on the boss. The strategy I’d come up with was working like a charm with Yun’s Holy shield backing me up. My sole responsibility in the interim was keeping Vorgak the Brutal distracted which I was doing, albeit painfully. The Orc Boss was crazy strong. The only thing that was saving me was the training I’d received from Miya Faelwen before the start of the game, Yun’s sporadic heals and my high stats as I repeatedly deflected the overpowering blows as the Orc tirelessly raged after me.

  I didn’t dare get in close to the bastard. One solid hit from the Orc and I’d be down without the rest of the team backing me up. Instead, I used some of the techniques I’d learned from the Eskrima class I’d taken in High School. Eskrima was a Filipino martial art that focused on small blade weapons or sticks, but instead of attacking the core body like most martial arts were taught, Eskrima focused on the attacking the extremities. The goal was to take out the means for an enemy to continue attacking you. So, as I became accustomed to the heavy blows raining down on me, I began turning my parries into quick strikes at the Orc’s forearms and wrists.

  Unfortunately, the counterattacks did little to slow the enraged Death Knight down. Every ten seconds like clockwork the Orc two-handed blade would cleave through the air like an unstoppable wrecking ball blasting everything out of its path. Meaning, I’d end up taking a fast trip to the far side of the room if I didn’t catch the blow just right on my shield, which had already happened three separate times throughout the fight. The worst part of the Boss’ special attack was the five-second stun. The only thing that saved my ass from dying was Yun’s emergency cast of Holy Shield back-to-back with heals. Those spells would immediately pull the boss’ aggro onto Yun, but each time I was able to turn the Orc’s focus back onto me. Sneak Attack was a lifesaver.

  Surprisingly enough, I’d managed to get the Boss’ Hit Points down to 80% by the time Sarka and Tinyr were finishing up their last Goblin warrior of the first group. I didn’t dare take the Orc’s health down to 75% without the rest of the Goblins being taken out, but I was running out of options. If I didn’t keep dishing out some damage, the Boss would aggro to Yun from his use of shielding and healing spells, but if I didn’t do anything, we’d risk letting loose one of the Boss’ special attacks before we were ready. Grimacing, I tried to come up with a plan on the fly.

  Typically in most MMORG’s bosses had special attacks at 75, 50 and 25 percent health levels, with corresponding special attacks that became more powerful the lower the boss’ health dropped. Not that there was any set rule, since it was all depending on the game and its content designers but in general that was how the genre worked. The problem that created for the here and now was that if we got hit by a special attack while we were split up, we’d risk wiping for sure. Backing up towards the far wall, I watched Unalia race by as she dodged past the Goblins she’d been kiting for the last ten minutes. The mobs were partly spread out trying to trap her against the wall, but an arrow to the knees slowed their advance down enough for her to squeeze by. She still took a few hits, but nothing serious. Whipping around, Unalia began peppering the Goblins with her arrows once again as the enraged mobs hurriedly began limping after her, when a plan began taking shape in my head.

  “Unalia, I need you to kite your mobs into me!” I yelled out to the smaller hunter as she raced past, smiling like a fiend as her head whipped around to look at me like I was crazy.

  “Are you freaking kidding me? That Orc will take my head off with one hit!”

  “Don’t worry about that. He’s still focused on me. Worst case scenario is he’ll go after Yun again.” I said diving out of the way of another cleaving blow that whipped through the spot I’d just been standing. “Just make sure you keep away from that special attack, and you’ll be fine.”

  “God, I fucking hate you!” Unalia raged as she dived through the Goblins once again, taking another couple hits.

  “What the hell woman, you have the health of a thimble!” I yelled at her in surprise as her Hit Points dropped to thirty percent.

  “I swear I’m going to put my whole next level into Stamina,” Unalia grumbled as she got free of the Goblin warriors again.

  “Just make sure you wait for your Goblins to reach us before taking off again.” I snapped out as I parried the two-handed blade into the ground.

  “I swear, if I die again I’m going to kick your ass!” Unalia screamed diving past the two of us fighting as Yun hit her with another healing spell. Flattening herself against the wall behind the boss, Unalia tried to figure out what I was up to as the first pair of Goblins came up behind me. Counting down the time for the Orc’s special attack, I suddenly dropped in front of the first two Goblins as the two-handed sword cleaved through the air where I’d just been standing.

  “Holy shit!” Unalia exclaimed in shock as the two Goblin warriors were instantly sliced in half.

  “Yea, don’t get too close,” I yelled back in agreement as the pissed-off Orc raged after me even harder. “Now get out of here so we can try that again.”

  By the time we’d taken out two more Goblins using that same strategy, Sarka and Tinyr had pulled the last two warriors to them, when the boss suddenly stopped beating on me. Looking around the room with his beady red eyes, Vorgak the Brutal seemed to realize for the first time that his guards were all nearly dead. Slamming down his greatsword point first into the ground, I watched in apprehension as the Orc held out its meaty fist with a guttural shout.

  “Koma, bjonum minum!”

  Instantly a crawling dark magic cloud began billowing out from Vorgak’s hand like a living creature as goosebumps ran down my spine. I lunged with my blade piercing the Orc’s shoulder, but the boss just sneered at my attack, smashing me in the face with the hilt of its two-handed sword as it swept the blade up in the blink of an eye. The force of the blow ripped my sword free and threw me sprawling across the chamber with blood running down my face. Scrambling to my feet, I froze as the inky blackness reached its intended targets, which were five of the Goblin corpses in the middle of the chamber.

  For a second, I could only watch in horror as the broken corpses began rising to their feet. The gaping wounds were still clearly visible even though the Goblins’ Hit Point bars were once again full. These undead creatures weren’t like the zombies from the Walking Dead. No, they were more like the zombies from the Dawn of the Dead movies, only they could use weapons. Vorgak had raised all of the Archers and one warrior. Luckily the only thing that was left of the mages and shamans were icy slush, or we’d have been facing four Undead Casters and an Archer. It took about ten seconds for the zombies to become fully animated, but as soon as they did the arrows began raining down on the team as the warrior zombie wordlessly howled after Sarka.

  “What the hell?” Yun yelled, freaking out as arrows began piercing his back.

  “Oh my God, I think I’m going to be sick,” Sarka said, dry-heaving as she caught the charging zombie on her shield. The stench of miasma filled the air as she Shield Bashed the zombie away as Yun’s Frost Nova washed over the room. Unfortun
ately, all that it did was lock down the living Goblins. The zombies just took minimum spell damage and kept on fighting.

  Immediately, I began blasting the archers with my Flurry spell. In four seconds, I managed to turn one of the deadheads into ice cubes before Vorgak was on top of me again. I saw Yun guzzle down a Mana Potion and take out another two as Tinyr and Unalia took on the last Archer, while Sarka fought off the Zombie warrior slashing and clawing at her shield. A minute later I heard Tinyr’s freaked out yells.

  “WTF, this thing won’t die!”

  “Go for the head,” I yelled out dodging another cleaving blow.

  “Not helping,” Tinyr yelled back-stepping away from the Zombie Archer with both of his blades stuck through the Zombie’s head.

  “This isn’t the Walking Dead. Just chop off its head.” I yelled back Vorgak blasted me off my feet. Shaking off the blow, I jumped back to my feet yelling. “And hurry the fuck up!”

  “Ahhh, get this freaking thing off of me!” Sarka screamed, freaking out as she began chopping at the Zombie’s grasping hands that were clawing at her face. “Get it off of me!” Tinyr gave me the finger as Unalia began hacking at the Zombie’s neck with her sword. Ten seconds later the headless corpse collapsed to the ground as Tinyr recovered his swords and they both rushed off to give Sarka and Yun a hand.

  The battle settled down once the Zombies were taken out, allowing the rest of the team to focus on dropping the remaining two elite Goblin warriors. I was able to keep my Hit Points up by downing potions in-between the boss’ casts of the Blood Plague spell. Not that I had much of a choice since it had taken the team everything they had to take out the Zombies while holding back the remaining Goblins. By the time the team took out the last of the adds, I had managed to work the boss’ Hit Points down to sixty percent. As soon as I saw Sarka and Tinyr running towards me, I waved them back towards the pile of dead Goblins yelling.

  “Cut their heads off first.”

  “Cut there what off?” Tinyr asked in confusion as Sarka nodded in understanding. Pulling the rogue back towards the corpses strewn across the room, she pushed Tinyr towards the nearest unmoving body speaking loud enough for the rest of the team to hear as Unalia’s arrows began hammering into the boss’ back. “Cut their heads off, so we don’t get more Zombies.”

  I could see the disgust warring in Tinyr’s pinched face, but still, he got to work on the gruesome task even though his face had turned a deep shade of green. As soon as they finished, Tinyr and Sarka took up positions behind the Orc’s back as they got to work ripping his Hit Points down. Once the boss’ health hit fifty percent, a wave of force shot out from around him knocking everyone off their feet as he buried his blade into the ground to caste another Raise Zombie spell. This time when the black, inky cloud spread across the floor to slither over the corpses nothing happened. As the look of shock spread out over the Orc’s grizzled face, we laid into him once again as the stun dissipated. This time even Yun got some sword work in.

  The battle went pretty smoothly after that. Any time Vorgak managed to blast me off my feet, Sarka was right there to take over tanking. We worked together to keep the aggro off the rest of the team as the fight almost turned into a feat of ripping down the boss’ massive Hit Points. That is until the boss’ health hit the twenty-five percent mark. I knew something was wrong as soon as the Orc blew us off our feet again and a green, inky cloud of magic spread out from the Death Knight’s upraised hand. I was already calling out orders for the rest of the team to form up in a defensive stance as soon as the stun ended when seven Skeletons climbed to their bony feet around the chamber. Each Skeleton had red-glowing eyes and was still covered in its armor and armed with the weapons that it had wielded in life, but instead of having chopped off arms or a missing head, each Skeleton was completely whole. The only good thing was that their Hit Points seemed to be a third less than what their original health had been.

  Immediately after that, the fight turned into pure chaos. Nothing seemed to work well against the bony creatures. Frost Nova had zero effect on the Skeletons. Swords did half damage. Arrows were less than useless unless you hit one of them in the skull. Even then, it only seemed to weaken the bone without doing any true damage. Beating on their armor did nothing to take down the Skeletons’ Hit Points unless you were hitting bone and even then it wasn’t easy to cause any serious damage. If not for Unalia’s quick thinking at the beginning of the fight, the entire team would have been overrun in minutes.

  “How the fuck am I supposed to take out a Skeleton with a sword?” Tinyr swore as he flailed at the back of one of the Skeleton attacking Sarka.

  “Stop your bitching, unless you want to try hitting these things with an arrow while kiting the bastards around the room at a run.” Unalia shrieked back as she raced by kiting five of the Skeletons.

  I saw Yun pop his last Mana potion to give him the boost needed to burn down three more Skeletons with his Flurry blasts, but that still left seven for the rest of the team to take down. It wasn’t until Vorgak’s health had dropped to ten percent that things changed for the better. As soon as that happened, the Orc began making whirlwind attacks around the room with his massive two-handed sword.

  The special attacks weren’t exactly aimed since the boss would just spin like a top wobbling around the room in an uneven path. I’m sure it would have been very effective against a group of melee fighters trying to take the boss down, but for our group, it wasn’t a problem since I just fell back and tossed a Mana Potion to Yun before downing the last two in my belt. Just in time too, since one of the Skeletons Sarka had pulled off of Unalia had dropped its sword and was clawing its way on top of her shield to get at her with its bony hands as we blasted it to death from behind. Two shots from me and one from Yun took the Skeleton down to chunks of oozing sludge.

  It took some time but, between Yun and I, we were able to finish off the last six mobs with our Frost magic, before turning our attention to the spinning boss. Another shot brought the Death Knight’s health down to three percent as I stepped forward with ranged support from Unalia to finish the bastard off by hand. No sense in risking the loss of a good set of armor just because we turned the creature into icy goo for the last hit. A few quick jabs with my blade and the boss keeled over dead. As everyone collapsed to the floor in exhaustion, I looked around shaking my head in disappointment.

  “Kind of an anticlimactic ending, don’t you think?” I said in-between gulps from my water skin.

  “Really … I mean … really?” Sarka asked, looking at me incredulously. “Next time we can trade off. You take the nearly indestructible Skeletons, and I’ll tank the Boss.”

  “Naw, I get what he means,” Yun said thoughtfully looking around the room as he ripped off a chunk of dried beef. “After the Slave Driver and the escort quest, the rest of the bosses seem pretty tame.”

  “Eh, that’s because we were smart enough to chop off the corpses’ heads before they could be raised for phase two of the fight and icing those casters at the beginning of the fight saved us from having to face off against Skeleton mages at the end.” Unalia chipped in from where she was sprawled out on her back in the middle of the room. “If Vorgak had managed to raise all fourteen Zombies, especially those shamans and the mages, we’d have been screwed.”

  “Yea, I don’t know if the developers had planned for that or not, but I’ll take the win,” I said, tiredly climbing to my feet to loot the boss’ corpse.

  “Why, you think we won on a technicality?” Sarka asked in surprise.

  “Probably,” Tinyr said with a shrug. “But I’m not complaining.”

  “It’s not like we’ll get in trouble or anything,” I said, flashing her a grin. “It just means that once they figured out what we did to take down the boss, the developers might change it up so you can’t chop off the Goblins’ heads before they’re raised as Zombies.”

  “Ouch,” Sarka said in agreement. “We’d have lost half of the team at least if that
had happened.”

  “Naw, we’d have wiped for sure.” Yun disagreed. “By the time we’d have realized those casters were back in the fight, we’d have been blasted away as quickly as the first time we’d entered the room.”

  “Yea, it would have been game over.” I agreed as I began stripping the Orc of his gear: Ring of the Bull +15 to strength and +10 stamina, Ring of the Monkey +15 agility and +10 stamina, Ring of the Wolf +15 strength and +10 agility. Unbelievably, I started posting each piece in the team chat as the rest of the team excitedly gathered around, when I froze in shock at the swath of blue set pieces.

  “You’ve got to love this shit. I’m used to bosses only dropping a couple of items that may or may not be what they’re actually wearing. This loot drop is unreal…” Tinyr voice died away as his eyes took in the boss’ blue armor set in awe as he came to a stop behind me. “Holy shit dude!”

  I couldn’t have agreed more with Tinyr’s sentiment. Typically dungeon bosses dropped superior loot or higher, but this was unreal. I felt inner greedy loot-pig nearly have a heart attack as I began removing the boss’ gear:

  Bonereaver DarkCuirass

  Item Quality: Superior

  Item Type: Special

  Slot: Chest

  Defense: 350

  Armor Type: Medium

  Durability: 181/200

  Weight: 8 kg

  +5 Intelligence

  +1 Strength

  +1 Stamina

  -Summoned creature has a 30% chance of keeping one of its special skills.

  Bonereaver Savagooraps

  Item Quality: Superior

  Item Type: Special

  Slot: Legs

  Defense: 310

  Armor Type: Medium

  Durability: 199/200