Chapter 61: 61 – Rocks and Vines and Hardship

Megan gasped, stepping back. "Wow, it's bigger than the Rotted Cedarlyon. I haven't fought a monster that big before."

I looked around. No one's going to pick the low-hanging fruit?

"Hmm, they're both kinda the same height," Nitana observed. "But its long horse bottom half makes it look bulkier than it is."

"Mardukryons are half bulls," Megan corrected her. "A bucentaur. We've talked about this before."

Nitana shrugged. "Horse, cow, goat, it's all the same. Four legs and hooves."

"If we're talking about sizes," Kezo said, "we'll meet far bigger monsters during the Great Hunt."

My forehead wrinkled as I thought, Even bigger than this?

I missed playing with a computer screen where I could zoom out or rotate the camera. Given I was actually here, inside the game world, fighting gigantic monsters presented a novel challenge. For one, I had to look up to see what they were doing, like when I fought the Cedarlyons. And they also obstructed my view of pretty much everything. It was already hard enough to coordinate with my party without the bird's eye view of the games of old.

"So what's the plan?" I said.

Kezo grinned at us, an incredibly unnerving expression for a Mardukryon. "Got to be honest here, I don't know that much about Zoar Elab," he admitted. "It has crappy loots, so my party just skipped it in the past. But not knowing the mechanics of the Living Statue is one of the reasons I picked this boss to fight.

"Having done the Great Hunt several times, I'm more than familiar with the usual event monsters. However, to avoid players getting bored, the devs would add a couple of new mobs exclusively for each Hunt. Another thing is we don't know which bosses, mini-bosses, and Elites will show up. Probably less this time around because many high-level Mardukryons had quit, but there’s no fixed list of them."

"And we're simulating not knowing the skills of our targets by fighting the Living Statue?" I said.

"In a way, yes." Kezo scratched his horn. "It's not like it's impossible to memorize the skills and mechanics of the monsters that might appear in the event. Jensen, the leader of my previous party—Luds mentioned his name—knew by heart the stats of all the discovered bosses and Elites on this mountain. He probably paid SpartanDonkey for the data. But I don't think we should try something crazy like memorizing all of those things."

"I suck at memorizing," Nitana said. "And so does Megan."

"Wha—?" Megan's eyes went wide. "Is this about your dog's birthday? I was just off by one day!"

"You were still wrong," Nitana pouted.

"It is hard to do that," I mumbled in agreement with Kezo as I mulled over our options. They probably didn't hear me with the bickering of Megan and Nitana.

While it was too much, and probably too late, to try to follow what this Jensen person did, we shouldn't join the event blind either. Actually, we didn't need to memorize the stats of each and every boss and Elite—only the ones we could kill. Not only that—they should also be worth the effort.

All others we ignore. All others were a waste of time. It was going to be a short list.

Kezo loudly said over Megan and Nitana's voices, "Anyway, I only know two things about this boss. First, it has a strong homing attack that it uses at regular intervals. I think Jensen had mentioned it targets the highest DPS in the party. That's me even if I'm using my hybrid semi-tanky DPS build. But to make things safer, Nitana, don't buff Megan while we charge at the boss."

"Copy that."

"Second, this boss grows stronger the longer the fight goes on."

"Like the Rotted Cedarlyon?" Megan said.

"Not really," answered Nitana. "With that weird tree, it's only the mobs that increase."

"In this case, it's the boss itself that becomes stronger," I said, turning to Kezo for confirmation. He gave me a thumbs up. I continued, "Against the Rotted Cedarlyon, we can last a long time, probably forever, because all of you can wipe the mobs it calls no matter how many they were. But we were focusing only on the Rotted Cedarlyon because we wanted to improve our boss-hunting speed. Fighting the Living Statue, we're on an actual timer."

"That's right," Kezo said. "Depending on how fast its damage increases, I don't think I'll be able to tank it for long. This is the other reason I chose this boss. In the Great Hunt, speed, and also luck, are needed to secure the kills. Fighting the Living Statue will force us to improve our speed because we don't have any other choice. Are you guys ready?"

"Ready," we all answered him.

"Foods and buffs first, and then we'll start the fight."

 

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Zoar Elab, the Living Statue, turned to face us as we walked past the perimeter of broken pillars that bordered an ancient plaza. The golden crystals jutting out of its body began to glow. It raised its hands above its sculpted head.

Between its palms, fierce lightning crackled and branched out, reminding me of the plasma ball experiment that was a fad during science fairs in high school. The collection of energy bathed the boss area in bright yellow light like a mini-sun.

"Is that the homing attack?" I asked.

"I think so," said Kezo, hastening his pace, leaving us behind him. "I'll go ahead to attract its aggro."

"It's going to throw it!" Megan shouted.

"Don't get too close to me!" Kezo charged forward. "It might have AoE damage!"

We trailed a few meters behind. Nitana sent her barrier spirit to envelope our party leader; I cast my almost negligible [Healing Touch] to show I was part of the group too. The Living Statue swung his arms downwards with so much force that we heard the wind whistle, hurling the energy ball at us.

"It's coming!" yelled Kezo.

The energy ball was indeed coming.

But not to Kezo. To me.

You are reading story Getting Hard (Rise of a Tank) at novel35.com

"What's happening?" I exclaimed as I instinctively veered left to check if I was indeed the target, and to save my teammates from possible splash damage. The energy ball zoomed past Kezo and curved to follow me.

And then it caught up.

Boom!

 

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"The Chief's Lodge?" I said, staring at the building in front of me. "Hmm…highest DPS was it?" Either Kezo got the wrong information, or we inadvertently made an unknown mistake.

Could it be that the boss targeted the squishiest member, which was—and I hated to admit this—me? Or it might be that there was no 'highest DPS' at that time because we still hadn't attacked, and it chose a random target?

I suspected that the Living Statue wasn't going after the player with the highest Attack and Magic Power on his stat page but the one who'd deal the most damage to it. Kezo might have misunderstood the information his friend gave him.

There are going to be a whole lot more deaths to come, I thought as I walked to the entrance of the Chief's Lodge. Answering emails was a good way to pass the time while waiting for my party to fail the boss hunt and fetch me for the next try.

A bright burst of light made me stop.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw that Megan teleported behind me. "Oh, you're here?" I said. "I thought you'll continue fighting the boss. I was going to wait inside."

"Kezo decided we should get you first," she explained. "Something about striving to do everything as a party. We don't have someone with a resurrection skill in our party, so I guess we should practice not dying."

Resurrection? Was there an Ocadule Shard like that? If there was, it was going to be very expensive, but likewise extremely useful. "What will happen if someone died during the Great Hunt?"

"I think you'll spawn back at the camp of the Hunter-Warriors? They do move their camp as we progress through the mountain, but it's going to be a huge hassle trying to find your party again. Plus, you’ll miss out on a lot of action."

"I see, I understand why Kezo wants us all together." Maybe I could convince him to sponsor me with a Shard of a resurrection skill.

"Yeah,” she agreed with a grin. "That reminds me, I'm going to give you a few Sigil Totems. If you use them, you'll get transported to that weird statue of a sitting Nixigaunt, and you can just head to the boss area."

"It's like I'm a child with someone coming to fetch me." We both laughed and teleported away from Kurghal Village.

 

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After Megan and I rejoined the party, I told Kezo about my suspicions. But because we weren't sure of it, our new plan was for him to charge alone while the rest of us waited outside the boss area—that way, he was the only target.

Once the energy ball headed for him, then the rest of us would enter. Kezo would taunt the boss and then we'd proceed as usual.

We'd confirm in subsequent energy balls if it would target the player who’d deal the highest damage to the boss. If the targeting was random and Kezo couldn't interrupt it with an [Enraging Taunt], our backup plan was for Nitana to save whoever was the target with her barrier sprite.

Our next attempt was off to a good start with the energy ball flying towards Kezo. He came out of the lightning-laced explosion unscathed because Nitana's barrier sprite ate the damage.

Kezo waved his sword, beckoning for us. "Let's fight this thing!"

The Zoar Elab roared like a broken washing machine. Considering it was a statue, it must be the plant that was making the sound—which didn't explain much. It charged forward, tremendously heavy stone hooves beating the ground like a drum.

Kezo blocked its path and cast [Enraging Taunt]. The Living Statue reared up on its hind legs as it faced Kezo.

"Don't come too close," I cautioned Megan and Nitana.

The boss brought its colossal hooves on Kezo, blowing away the new barrier sprite protecting him. And then the damage continued as the ground trembled. It was a continuous AoE skill, and I was right outside its area!

"Huh? It's widening!" I warned the others as the AoE continued to grow with each pulse of the earth. I scrambled to retreat to safety.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Megan's health bar dropping fast. She was caught inside the area riddled with tremors.

"Help!" She cried out.

I cast [Healing Touch] on her, and it expectedly didn't help in staving off the damage. A slow negative status hampered her efforts to run out of the AoE.

Nitana rushed to help her friend. Megan told her to stay away. There was nothing she could do; her barrier sprite disappeared in a second. And in the next second, Megan was also gone.

"Aw, fucking hell!" Nitana exclaimed. That was the first time I heard her curse and the first I had seen her show strong emotion.

"Watch out!" Kezo called, still oblivious to Megan's death. He was focused on the boss, furiously attacking to continuously lifesteal from it. "It's doing something weird!"

The tendrils of the plant monster inhabiting the statue lashed in the air. Then they shot downwards. Some vines hit Kezo, most punctured the ground.

I felt the earth shifting beneath me. It was a sign I should move. But Megan already died anyway. "Ah, never mind." I sighed. "Let's just reset the fight." Vines jutted upwards, skewering me and sending me to where Megan was.