World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  “Your fight is with me . . . psycho,” Rose taunted.

  “Not crazy, not psycho” Xanaiya mumbled as she got back to her feet with her head bowed. “Not crazy, not psycho,” she mumbled again, her head shooting up to glare at Rose.

  “Lady, you’re all kinds of crazy,” Rose said, attacking immediately. She had no interest in waiting to see what the psycho was going to do.

  “I will eat your eyes. Obviously, you cannot see clearly and therefore do not need them,” Xanaiya screeched, punching at Rose with one smoky arm then the other. Her punches hammered into Rose’s shields, knocking the tank back with each hit. Then Xanaiya’s arms shot forward and grabbed Rose’s shields, slowly prying them apart. “I see you,” she said with a giggle then spat something in Rose’s face.

  Rose stumbled back a few steps. She yelled out, “I’m blind. Rock, get her. Someone, fix this blindness problem.”

  Meanwhile Rock used the magic word in his own taunt, making him of prime interest. “Oh psycho lass, what do you say, you and I have a little chat?””

  Xanaiya screamed in rage, “Not crazy!” She switched targets just that quickly, swiping at Rock like a rage filled beast.

  “Easy there, lass,” Rock said, blocking a punch. “Keep acting like that and we’ll call the doctors for you.”

  Xanaiya suddenly stilled, looking around in fear. “Not the doctors, not the doctors. They put worms in your brain, and they crawl around. It is enough to make you go mad.” She froze again and cocked her head to the side. “Not!” And just like that, she was attacking Rock again.

  I heard Micaela nearby comment, “She’s nuttier than a fruit cake.”

  Xanaiya suddenly kicked Rock’s shield from the bottom, sending him slightly off-balance then punched with both smoky arms. When Rock couldn’t get his shield back down in time, he took two powerful hits to the stomach. “I got you! I got you! Mother, did you see? I got him!”

  Rock chuckled and brushed off his chest, then with his HP bar rapidly refilling, he asked. “Did you now?”

  “No, no, no, when I hit you, you die. That is how this game is played. You are breaking the rules. I do not like rule breakers,” Xanaiya complained, having a full-on meltdown. “Now, you go into time out,” she pouted, stomping the ground.

  At the same time Xanaiya’s foot hit the ground, a black bubble shot up surrounding Rock and freezing him in place. A debuff icon under his name confirmed it.

  Time Out – You are in a time out for the next 30-Second for breaking the rules of the game. What those rules are exactly, only Xanaiya knows.

  “Heavy, get in there,” Olaf ordered.

  I looked for Rose and she was fine. It looked like the blindness had been removed but she was being made to wait. This was always one of the worst parts of any boss fight, learning just what the boss could, and would, do. So far, she had been too unpredictable with all her incoherent rambling.

  Heavy met the woman just as Rock and Rose did, but he tried a different tactic with his taunt. “I like games. What game are we playing?”

  Xanaiya stopped and started hopping up and down, clapping her smoke made hands excitedly. “Ooh, it is the best game ever. It is called, ‘You die’. I can show you how to play.”

  “Only if you die first,” Heavy offered, making the woman pause again.

  Xanaiya seemed to be considering then pouted. She complained, “Aw, but I do not like dying first. It is so boring being dead. You must wait forever for mother to bring you back to life and then she always wants to run another experiment on you.” She seemed to consider it again before shaking her head and stomping her feet like a petulant child, “I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. You know what? I think I hate you. You are not a particularly good guest. A good guest would die first, that is the game. And since you are a bad guest. I am going to kill you anyway. Then you will see just how much fun this game can be.”

  Heavy moved suddenly, shifting back away from a double overhead strike from the smoky wings. He then shifted right back in and batted at Xanaiya with his shield.

  “I do not like you anymore, go play with someone else. Go play with that little bird girl,” Xanaiya ordered haughtily, her eyes glowing black.

  Heavy suddenly swayed then looked around. He blurred from view and suddenly Arch was sliding across the rocky surface.

  I cast my ‘Heavenly Blade’ pinning the tank and stopping his attack on Arch. I would apologize to Heavy later but losing Arch would have been much worse.

  “Tch,” Xanaiya clicked her tongue. “You are ruining my fun,” she said, now directing her glare at me. “But hey, you are kind of cute.”

  Rose suddenly appeared in front of Xanaiya, battering the ghastly woman with her shield. “He’s mine! Hands off!”

  I would owe Rose later for that. I didn’t want to know what that woman might have done to me.

  “You again,” Xanaiya hissed. “I ate your eyes. You are not supposed to be able to see again. You are breaking the rules of the game.”

  “No, I’m just playing a different game,” Rose said, blocking a smoky fist. “And the rules of my game say that all your rules are dumb and should be ignored.”

  Xanaiya teared up suddenly. “My rules are not dumb,” she cried, punching at Rose repeatedly. “You are dumb. Your game is dumb. I do not like you either.”

  Rose grinned and I wondered what she’d figured it out.

  “You should go play with someone else,” Xanaiya started. “Like-”

  Rose cut her off, “But I like playing with you more.”

  Xanaiya looked at Rose wide-eyed. “Really? Oh, you are going to be my best friend. We should work together,” she said, her eyes glowing black again.

  But Rose saw through it and ducked behind her shields. “Sorry, I already have a best friend. And I really don’t think you are friend material.”

  “What?” Xanaiya screeched. “But I am so friend material. I play the best games. Everyone says so.”

  “Your games are boring,” Rose countered, grinning.

  I found myself grinning. Rose had figured the woman out. Xanaiya was reacting to what you said. By talking to her, Rose kept her attention focused. By saying the right thing or something contrary, it interrupted whatever she was about to do.

  “Rose has got her,” I said.

  Olaf looked at me confused. He asked, “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure,” I said, leaping into the air and taking advantage of the open skies above me. I crashed down on the Daughter of Death and smiled at the -12,355-HP damage notification as it floated away from the undead things body.

  “Owee,” Xanaiya complained. “Why is everybody always picking on me? You should all die.”

  The smoky arms and wings suddenly exploded, knocking me off my feet and inflicting some heavy damage. Not enough to kill. A quick look at my party’s health bars showed the entire raid took the damage. So, maybe I was wrong, and the crazy woman did have one more trick up her sleeve. Either Rose would figure out how to counter it or we would just need to learn to live with it.

  Xanaiya cackled as new arms and wings started to form, “Ha-ha, did you see? Did you see? I got you. I got you all.” Again, her emotions quickly shifted into a pout, “But you did not die. None of you died. It is not fair. I will just hit you again.”

  Rose quickly spoke, “But if we die, then who will you play with?”

  “Mother can bring you back for me. I know she will,” Xanaiya said with certainty.

  Rose was on it again. “But you already told us how boring it is to be dead. And how it takes so long for mother to bring you back.”

  Xanaiya pouted again. “You speak true. It is boring, it is! Very well, I will kill you one at a time.”

  “Attack!” Olaf ordered, finally encouraging everyone to fight.

  I leaped into the air again. We needed to put as much damage as we could on Xanaiya. The sooner she died, the better.

  Rose kept talking. Kept the insane thing occupied. She wasn’t perfect tho
ugh. At about 50%, Xanaiya was able to mind control her into protecting her. I nearly killed Rose when she taunted me. Thankfully, Rock was ready and picked up the boss with ease while Rose was under Xanaiya’s control.

  At 20%, Xanaiya screamed, “Mother! Mother! My new friends are being mean! Stop them!”

  The lich scoffed. “Xane, help your sister,” she ordered.

  From the same tear in space, another person stepped through. A young boy stepped out. He wore shorts and a short sleeve button down shirt. Except for the wrinkled, aged, and dead skin and glowing green veins, he looked like any other schoolboy from the 50’s. whined in an equally aged voice, “Mother, why must I assist her?”

  “I said so,” Xan stated.

  The boy scoffed, “Fine. But I get to keep their entrails.”

  “What a disturbing family,” I commented.

  Olaf was already barking orders and adjusting, “Rock, get the old . . . young . . . thing. Rose, keep her attention. Damage dealers, finish her first!”

  I felt like Olaf was making a mistake, my gut was telling me that if we killed her immediately, the old boy thing would wipe us out. I leaped back, landing next to him. “Olaf, I don’t think we should kill her yet. What if Xane transforms or enrages when she dies? We should try to kill them at the same time.”

  Olaf growled and cursed, but it seemed like he agreed with me. He barked out, “Damage dealers, focus on Xane! We’re going to try to kill them at the same time!”

  I nodded once in gratitude then leapt into the air, aiming for Xane. I just hoped he was a little more of a straightforward fight than Xanaiya.

  “Rot,” Xane said, releasing a cloud of something around him.

  “Debuff,” Rock called out. “Damage over time effect.”

  “Can’t cleanse it,” Arch warned. “But it’s manageable so far.”

  I took the same debuff as did Basher. Heath was still at a distance, strumming on his guitar, playing some song or other to buff us or debuff the two bosses.

  Rot – Suffer -10-HP per second for 60-seconds

  It wasn’t much, it would add up with time but for now, it was survivable.

  I jumped again, there wasn’t anything I could do about the debuff. I could only focus on putting out the most damage I could, and trust that the healers would keep me and everyone else alive. I stabbed into Xane and leaped again. While I was in the air, I saw a second cloud of Rot burst from Xane. Being in the air, I got lucky as I was out of range.

  When I landed again, I asked, “Does it stack?”

  Rock grunted as he blocked a black bolt of energy cast by Xane. He countered back with a bolt of light energy, then answered, “Aye. Stay out of range if you can. Already sent Basher back to attack Xanaiya. Luckily, it doesn’t extend more than 10-yards.”

  I nodded and jumped again. The more time I spent in the air, meant the better the chance I could stay out of range of that Rot debuff. While I was in the air the cloud burst again, and I started counting.

  I struck again and leaped again, and again, midleap another cloud of the Rot debuff burst free as I counted to 10.

  I landed, stabbing into Xane again. Before leaping again, I warned, “10-second cooldown on the Rot gas.”

  “Got it,” Rock replied as I was leaping into the air.

  Rock stood his ground, building up stacks of the debuff. The healers seemed to be on top of it though. I would see his HP drain and then fill back up at a regular pace.

  When Rock reached 20 stacks, I heard Xane laugh excitedly. As I landed again, he pointed a finger at Rock and whispered, “Wither and rise, servant.” A ghastly green beam of light cast across the short distance, hitting Rock’s shield, then passing through to hit Rock directly.

  I could only watch as the Rot debuffs started ticking down, counting down. With each debuff that fell away, Rock withered. His skin emaciated, eyes sunk in, until all that was left was a husk. suddenly turned and charged at the nearest healer. It wasn’t a debuff at all. Rock had been fully transformed into one of the undead. I just hoped that when he died again, he would come back normal. Almost as one, the ranged damage dealers turned on Rock and eradicated him in short order. Being made undead apparently did nothing to increase his total HP.

  “Heavy, get in there,” Olaf ordered. “Rose, be ready to switch at 10 stacks. Heavy, I hope you’ve been paying attention to Rose.”

  Heavy charged in on Xane, hitting him with his shield and gaining the old-boy-thing’s attention. “I got it,” he replied.

  Xane was only at 82% of his total health. I thought the damage would have been more significant. But apparently, the old-boy-thing was a meat tank of sorts. Lots of HP, limited ability to inflict damage. That was why he had his sister with him in this fight. She seemed to be able to deal significant damage to a single target, and if she ever got loose from the tank, someone was sure to die.

  The effort to kill Xane increased, especially now that we were down a tank. We couldn’t afford to let this fight drag on.

  “More DOTs!” Olaf called out. DOT or Damage Over Time spells would allow the players to cast spells on the boss and forget about them. It was great for fights with a lot of movement. It was also an old player call out that basically meant ‘do more damage’.

  At 10-stacks of Rot, Heavy and Rose traded bosses. I just hoped Heavy was up to the challenge of keeping Xanaiya talking or this would be a really short fight.

  With time and patience and several tank swaps, we got Xane down to the 50% mark. We were lucky, he had no transition at the 50% mark. Unfortunately, even with just the tank and Basher fighting Xanaiya, she was almost dead.

  “Xanaiya is about to drop,” Heavy warned.

  Olaf cursed. “Rose, the girl is about to die. Be ready for anything.”

  Rose yelled back, “Got it!”

  A minute later, Xanaiya died and Xane freaked out.

  “Sister? Sister? No, no, no! Not good, not good, not good!” Xane ranted, putting his hands over his ears, rocking back and forth, muttering much like his sister did, “If mother finds out . . . if mother finds . . . if mother . . . oh mother, forgive.” And like his sister, his rambling grew louder to the point he was screaming, “Forgive, forgive, forgive!” That was when black smoke leaked from Xanaiya’s corpse and moved quickly across the rocky terrain where it shot into Xane’s eyes, mouth, and ears. The green glowing veins pulsed brightly and faded. They pulsed again, blindingly so, and they were accompanied by Xane screaming. His scream morphed into something thick and heavy.

  When the light cleared, Xane was held in the air by a bulky body made of smoke. He had a wide creepy smile on his face and his eyes were solidly black. “Now,” he started, his voice deep and booming. “You all die!”

  With almost no effort, Xane leaped into the air, similar to my own moves. And like me he came crashing down. When he landed, he sent a shockwave of earth and air hurtling in front of him, all the way to the edge of the tower. Elara Whisper and Eagle Eyepatch were knocked clear of the platform to plummet to their deaths.

  “Everyone, move in closer,” Olaf yelled, running to get closer to Xane. “Make sure you are a safe distance from that ledge. I don’t want anyone else dying unnecessarily. Healers, get the tanks up first, then the rest of the group.”

  Once again, I avoided the damage and the knockback thanks to being in the air. I landed again, but this time, I landed a short distance away. I wanted to make sure the aggro table hadn’t reset. I watched Rose slam one shield after the other into the smoke monster, chopping out small bits of damage. Then the big guy punched.

  The smoke fist hammered into Rose’s shield, resulting in her sliding a few feet back. More importantly, that one hit relieved her of over a quarter of her HP. And that was with the block. I hate to think how much damage she would have suffered if she hadn’t blocked. Worse, I could see she now had five stacks of Rot and she was blinded again.

  “Heavy, go!” Olaf roared. “Healers, help
Rose see again.”

  So not only did this new Xane hit harder, but he could also blind the tanks.

  Olaf looked around then yelled, “Damage dealers, don’t just stand there. Kill this guy!”

  And Olaf was right. I only had one job right then. Put the pointy end in the other guy and if it didn’t kill him, do it again.

  Thankfully, Xane didn’t have any complicated mechanics beyond his Dark Rot Punch. It forced Dawn to transform into her bear monster form and rotate through with the tanks. Due to the timing, the tanks needed to create a strange rotation to give one of them enough time to clear the debuff before switching in again.

  But as with all enemies, eventually they fall. Of course, Xane couldn’t go peacefully. No, he just had to self-destruct, reducing everyone’s HP to 1 and giving them one stack of Rot. Most of the raid died from that. Only those with an active heal over time already active or those who were fast with a healing potion survived. My ‘Holy Heal’ and ‘Spell Preparation’ were the only things that saved me. If I had the mana left, I would have used ‘Embrace of the Goddess’ to really heal myself.

  I had barely healed myself when the Lich grumbled, “If you want something done right, you must do it yourself.” She turned away from the half-ruined dragon, leaving it to her acolytes while she focused on us. “I tire of your presence,” she began, raising both skeletal arms above her head, creating a disk of sickly green energy. “Now, you all die!”

  Suddenly, someone impacted her chest, disrupting the spell and knocking her back. “I do not think so, foul creature!” Sergeant Butters of all people stated. The Sergeant had never looked so imposing as he did just then. He wore a full set of black and gold armor with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. He stood between the Lich and the rest of us, putting his life on the line to protect us.