Raid Boss Battle!

Tensei led us up a path toward the mountain the raid boss had split in two. All the way up we were very careful to avoid running into monsters, but my stealth skill was so bad that I actually started attracting them.

Luckily we lost them at the top, but that sprint had me huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf. It was made infinitely worse because we had to make our way up a hill.

-Sorry about this, Ray (ಥ﹏ಥ) I know you can’t run, but we kinda didn’t have much choice here.-

Once I finally caught my breath, I had the strength to respond to her.

“This is…nothing…” I wheezed. “I needed…the…cardio,”

Has my quality of life gotten this terrible? Rose and I used to hike all the time together and a quick sprint like that used to be fun.

“Hey, Rose. Remember when…” I took a deep breath and got myself together. “Remember when we got lost in Angel Creek Forest?”

-Yuck! Don’t remind me! XD I was eaten alive by mosquitoes and it was like 1000 degrees!-

“No. That was me, hon. Everyone thought I had chicken pocks when we got back home that night. They practically didn’t touch you.”

-Mmm… No. I’m pretty sure it was me, Ray.-

She was totally wrong about that, but she had her mind made up that it was her who got eaten alive by mosquitoes, so it was her.

“Sorry, dear. I forgot…” I said in a sarcastic tone. “Remember how much energy we had back then? I could have hiked there for hours.”

It wasn’t that long ago, but it felt like eons since we were teens. I wanted that body back. Rose did a pretty good job shaping me up in this game, but it couldn’t hide my horribly weak vitality.

-To think. It all started because we wanted to make out under that random cherry blossom tree like a real couple. ( ʃƪ˘ﻬ˘)(˘ ε˘ʃƪ)-

“Oh my!” Tensei blushed.

I blushed too, because Rose was so off the mark there and it was embarrassing!

“Rose, we weren’t there to make out, and it wasn’t a cherry blossom tree.”

-Maybe that’s what I wanted to do that day. Have you ever thought about that? ʘ‿ʘ-

Did… Did I miss something that day? I was so miserable and worried we wouldn’t get home that maybe there was a hint or two that flew right over my head…

💻⚔️💻

We made it to the raid boss arena between the split mountain chunks. The monster was sleeping on a circular platform surrounded by rivers of lava. That thing had two heads. One like a lion, and the other of a goat.

“A level 100 chimera...” I commented.

This was one of the first raid bosses we designed. It was meant to be fought by players halfway through the game and plenty comfortable with the core mechanics. Needless to say, this was going to be tricky.

-He’s sleeping. Can we sneak attack him and get this over with quick?-

“No, it doesn’t work like that,” I said. “Once we enter the boss arena, he’ll wake up and attack us.”

That was assuming that nothing was changed by The Virus. These bosses were supposed to stay idle until a player showed up. But I had no idea how things had been messed up.

“Are we ready to go in, then?” Tensei whispered. “Once we enter the arena, there’s no going back.”

“Do I have to do this?” I grumbled hopelessly. “Is it too late to go home?”

At this point I wasn’t going to turn around and leave, but I needed to let that out of my system.

-Don’t worry. I’ll make sure we all make it through this. So stay strong, hon! (＾-＾)-

This was the most nervous I’d ever been in my life. But I had to trust in Rose’s skills to pull us through.

“Alright. Let’s do this,” I said, and Rose strutted me forward.

“Good luck, you two!” Tensei said with a worried, but hopeful glint in her eyes.

Rose moved me into the arena and an ominous musical tone played. The sound woke up the lion monster thing and his two heads raised to look down on me.

His eyes were full of strange and lifeless static. Even without proper pupils it was clear he was curious about me. The fur of his body was mangled and matty, like he’d been in more than his fair share of scraps. He had sickly green flesh that constantly rippled with strange distortions, like an undead creature. A truly terrible sight, especially since I knew the raid bosses weren’t meant to be this ugly.

“Uh…” I uttered in the silence of staring down the lion goat thing boss. “I-I’ve come to challenge you for the sake of this world!” Rose drew out my sword and I held it up as a clear threat.

But the monster just tilted its head and did nothing.

-Why isn’t he attacking?-

It probably didn’t think I was much of a threat, if I had to guess.

My thoughts were confirmed when the lion monster yawned and rested its heads back down.

-HEY! You’ll regret sleeping in front of the enemy, lion goat head! I’m going to attack!-

Rose charged me in and prepared my sword for a heavy swing.

I made a move to slice down on its body, but it rolled out of the way!

-You missed, Ray!-

“So, when it's an attack, it's you. But when it's a miss, it’s me? Got it.”

The big lion still didn’t look like it had much energy to spare for the fight. We came at it for a few more swings, but all of them were misses.

-Ray, stop missing!-

“Do you really think I’m doing it on purpose?”

Either the raid boss probably had a very good evasion skill, or my accuracy sucked. Maybe both. Coupled with the fact that I was such a measly low level, and there was almost zero chance we’d actually do damage.

As much as it was frustrating, it really wasn’t Rose’s fault that we kept missing. She probably had great timing, but the game just wouldn't let her connect.

“You can do this!” Tensei cheered on in the background. “Fight on!”

Fortunately the monster hadn’t fought back yet, but how long would that last?

-THAT”S IT! MAMA”S PISSED!-

Rose had me swipe at the monster, which forced it to dodge. But as it moved she activated my jump attack.

I leaped into the air and struck down hard where the monster was rolling. Its eyes went wide and it rolled just in time to evade again.

*CRASH!*

My attack struck down on the arena floor and sent a massive shockwave outward that blasted away a huge chunk of earth from the already devastated mountain.

-DANG IT MAN! HOW DID THAT MISSSSSSSSS!?!-

The monster looked more alert now. Both its heads were trained on me and it growled fiercely.

I must have let out an indiscernible string of swears as its lion head reeled back for a breath, then blasted out a hot stream of fire.

Rose rolled me out of the way just in time, but that breath left a nasty scorch decal across the arena.

“I know it's a game, but that… It was very hot.”

It felt like my hair got singed. If this had been real life, I probably would have been on fire even though it didn’t hit me directly.

Just when I thought I was out of the fryer there, the goat head of the chimera came down and rammed into the ground next to me, barely missing by a hair.

“Crap!” Rose rushed me to the edge of the arena. “I’m going to die! I’m so dead!”

-What do I do? You made this guy, right Ray? Give me a hint here! How do I beat it?-

“I’m so dead!”

-Ray! Stay with me!-

I slapped my own face and snapped back to myself. I didn’t know that was an emote, but it came in handy here.

-What’s its weakness? How do we beat it?-

Lucky for us, I did design this boss's mechanics. The biggest problem was that it had few blind spots and its speed. We couldn’t hit it directly no matter how much we tried at this level.

“We need to distract it and hit it from behind!” I said. “That’ll give us the best shot!”

Melee damage from the back had a higher chance of hitting across the board.

-How do we turn this big guy around?-

“I’ve got it!” Tensei flew in and started throwing shiny stones at the chimera, which made it turn its attention toward her. “Big stupid dummy monster! Eat shiny things!”

She was really annoying it. The Chimera made a few bites at her, but she was too speedy for it to catch in its jaws.

That was our chance. Rose threw me back into the fight and prepared my power attack. I jumped into the air to slam down my sword for a fatal hit!

But a serpent head slithered into view and lifted up high above me, then it came down and grabbed my sword mid air! I forgot this thing had a snake tail!

“Woah!” I uttered as it dragged me higher until it slammed me down hard on the ground. “Ouch!”

-RAY!-

When I hit the ground I felt a lot of pain shot through my body. Everything hurt all at once. By all accounts that should have killed me, but it didn’t.

-Thank goodness you survived!-

Rose got me back to my feet. I had one hit point left to my name and that was it.

“Yup…” I grunted through the terrible pain. “Thank goodness we didn’t go to level 5, because then I wouldn’t have that newbie protection.”

I survived once again thanks to being under level 5 near the spawn area. So luckily no matter how much damage this guy did, and he did a lot of damage, I wasn’t going to die.

But that was a two way street, because he wasn’t the only one that could deal that much damage!

Rose had me raise up my sword again and charge in. This time we weren’t caught off guard by the chimera’s snake tail.

At the cost of a bite to my shoulder, she swiped my sword hard across its neck and cut it clean off!

-* * *!-

-* * *!-

I had no idea what she was typing, but she was very enthusiastic about it!

The sword raised up high and I heavy attacked that monster's butt. The hole I sliced open was shining with rays of light and its entire body pixelated until it vanished into a pixel haze. A one billion damage marker appeared over its head and that was the end of the raid boss!

“Yeah!” I cheered.

-RAY WE DID IT OMG I CAN”T BELIEVE IT! ⊹⋛⋋( ՞ਊ ՞)⋌⋚⊹-

I couldn't believe it either. It was such an unrealistic feeling to think we’d just defeated such a powerful enemy. The only thing that soured the moment was the thought that I’d have to do it again, and the next time probably wasn’t going to be as easy…

My level’s shot up from LVL 3 to 10. That meant my invincibility was gone. And because the monster raid boss was finished, that billion damage bug was gone too.

“Mr. Roberts, you don’t look so good!” Tensei announced in fear.

I didn’t feel so good either. Aside from the pain all over, I also felt very dizzy and sick. My hands had turned purple too… What was this?

Then I fell to the ground and everything went black. Did I just die? What the heck just happened? Looks like I wasn’t going to celebrate this victory for long.

“Please, hurry! You have to help before the pois...” Tensei's voice faded away.