The Last Experience Point-Chapter 177: Doomed

Chapter 177: Doomed

Moaning, groaning, cries of anguish, and every other sound of pain imaginable came from all directions around Jimmy as the raiders tried to pick themselves up in the aftermath of the Mare of the Primordial Void’s crushingly harsh ice attack. With his arm extended, Jimmy cast his heal on a moderately wounded adventurer wielding a scythe. Jimmy watched as the gashes all over his back sealed over with fresh, new skin. He’d be fine—but it was still too soon to say the same of everyone, and that was just the truth of the matter. It was impossible to sugarcoat things: the raid was in bad shape. Right now, the sounds of hurt and discomfort came from not just those who were still struggling to return to their feet, but also from those who were only first returning to consciousness as well.

“Oh, Gods, what just hit me?” moaned a confused-sounding adventurer in a starry robe who Jimmy did not recognize. He, like numerous others, was lying on the barren ground drenched in a combination of blood and cold water from the melted shards of the icy prisons that had exploded after briefly capturing all of them. The man, a spellcaster from Group 3S, was shivering. He clutched himself as a howling, icy breeze rolled over the raid. “What’s going on? Where am I? Isn’t it supposed to be summer? Why’s it so cold?”

“Relax,” one of the healers whispered soothingly to the man. “You’re fine.”

This is bad, Jimmy thought, nervously checking every face in his vicinity to ensure that signs of life remained in each of them. I hope nobody died. Please, Jesus, please don’t let anybody be dead.

The raid had taken a devastating hit, and this was true even though only about half the raid had taken any real damage. From what Jimmy could tell, the other half made out with only minor injuries or, in the case of the tanks, no injuries at all. But there were a number of people like Zach, Kalana, Donovan, and several others who had suffered, at worst, a few scratches here or there and would likely heal from passive HP regeneration within another minute or two. But that was all just in the physical sense of the word “damage.” Mentally—psychologically—every single one of them had suffered a hit. The sheer level of shock and surprise evident in many of their expressions was proof enough of that alone. It was like they couldn’t believe what’d just happened.

Did anyone die? he wondered, swiveling his head around. Is everyone still alive?

“You’re gonna be okay, Li,” Rian said with a pain in his voice that drew Jimmy’s attention. He was off to Jimmy’s left and on his hands and knees next to his sister. There was a tenderness to him that seemed out of place compared to his usual, shit-stirring self. Placing his hand on his sister’s shoulder, he gave her a nervous shake. “Right? Tell me you’re okay. Please, Li.”

She made several low groans. “Hurts. Hurts a lot.”

“I know it does, but tell me you’re okay. Please!”

“I’m…okay.”

Her steeple hat had fallen off her face, but at least her eyes were once again fully locked into place in her skull instead of bulging out as they’d been only a few minutes prior. Jimmy steeled himself as he took in her condition. He knew that her pain was on him. It was his fault she’d been in that state. And while she’d make a full, quick recovery thanks to the stones, it wouldn’t change how hurt she’d gotten. The mental trauma inflicted upon her was real. But it was also something that he’d tried his best to prevent. Without a doubt, she’d be dead if not for the ice-resistance buff.

I think…I think we’re all alive, Jimmy thought, flooding with relief. Everywhere he looked, he saw signs of life and none of death. A few moments prior, there were a few adventurers who were neither moving nor breathing, but now all were conscious. Everyone…everyone was still alive. And that meant they could continue. Right?

“I know everybody’s a bit shook,” he said, hoping to divert their attention away from their shock and pain, “but we gotta pull it together. Group 3S, start buffing.”

Jimmy looked in their direction. They were completely ignoring him as though they couldn’t hear a word he was saying or were simply too distraught to bother paying him any notice. This frustrated Jimmy and also worried him. Given the hit the raid had taken, there would be a whole lot of people wanting to quit. And now, he knew that his only chance of finishing off this boss was in getting everybody to just trudge onwards before Donovan and Zephyr were able to call it off, which they were almost definitely going to do as soon as they finished tending to the wounded and reorganizing the badly confused and fearful tanks. “Group 3S,” he repeated. “I get it. Ya’ll are rattled. But we gotta pull it together. I need you to…” Jimmy paused. “Wait, can you guys even hear me? Actually, can anybody hear me at all?”

He lifted his hand to the side of his head and removed the small Comm device from his ear. The device, which had been tiny to begin with, was now only a fraction of its normal size, and he realized that what he held was a mere piece of it. It had been destroyed.

The attack probably knocked out all our Comms, he thought.

He inhaled—then gasped as a freezing-cold breeze made him wrap his arms around himself. It was hella cold out here. Shivering, he raised his voice. “Group 3S!” he shouted. “Start buffing!” This, they heard. The whole lot of them—including the addled man in the starry robe who was now back on his feet—all turned to look at him as though he were insane. “Well? Let’s get going,” he said. “Get your shit together and—”

“Jimmy, are you crazy?” Kalana shouted, her voice ringing out from somewhere ahead. Jimmy shifted his gaze and noticed that the Elvish girl was storming over to him. “This is done! Lots of people almost died. That was like the scariest thing ever! We gotta get everybody up to their feet, and then, um, we need to retreat before anybody else gets hurt.”

Jimmy frowned at her. “But we don’t, actually.”

She frowned right back. “Of course we do!”

“Nah,” he insisted, standing his ground. “We’re still good. Trust me.”

“W-what?” she shouted again. “You’re, like, going super crazy. This isn’t the time for you to be stubborn, Jimmy. We need to get everybody up, and then we gotta de-aggro the boss.”

Jimmy ignored her. “Group 3S!” he shouted again. “I told you to—”

His words ended in a high-pitched, shouted combination of “yikes” and “yow” as Kalana grabbed and squeezed his wrist, hard. “Jimmy, stop,” she said, threat in her eyes. “You’re gonna get people killed. Don’t you get that?”

She squeezed so tightly that it was too painful for him to reply. He made an agonized yelp and dropped his staff. This caused Kalana to raise her eyebrows, and then she promptly released him and apologized. He then spent several valuable moments shaking his wrist, which she thankfully hadn’t broken. “Sorry,” she squeaked again. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “And I know what I’m doing. We’re almost there. Just look at the thing’s HP, Kalana.” He bent down, picked up his staff, extended his arm, and then gestured at the mare with his weapon.

HP

6,994,941/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

Kalana folded her arms. “I don’t care if it’s 10HP! You can’t just put everybody’s lives at risk, Jimmy. This isn’t one of your simulations. If we die, it’s forever. Don’t you get that? It’s forever!” Her ears twitched in sync with her emphasis on the word forever. “Swallow your pride. It’s done.”

Jimmy didn’t want to give this up, but what the hell could he do? Though they were saying nothing, he could see her two fellow Elves slowly coming closer as if to shadow Kalana and remind him of what the consequences would be if he went against her. Not that she even needed Trelvor and Seiley. If it came down to PVP, Kalana could probably one-shot him right there on the spot. She alone was like a raid boss.

“Jimmy?” she asked expectantly. “Well?” Seiley and Trelvor drew nearer, and Jimmy didn’t think they would hesitate to punish him—or do far worse—if he disregarded their princess. Desperately, he looked over to Zach for help. And Zach merely shrugged as if to suggest that this was out of his hands and he was neutral, which was bullshit, because Jimmy could tell he wanted to withdraw from the raid just as much as many of the other adventurers did.

But like…why even bother to hide it? Did he think Jimmy couldn’t handle it if he picked a side and said what he really believed? Did he think he was being slick? He obviously didn’t want to be here anymore, and it would’ve been nice if he could just say it rather than try to pretend that he was indifferent.

“Ri, I want to leave,” Lienne moaned as Rian assisted her back to her feet. She was shivering, and she looked badly disoriented.

“Me too,” he replied. “We’re gonna leave. Don’t worry.”

“Jimmy,” Tena whispered, surprising Jimmy by abruptly appearing behind him. He quickly looked over his shoulder at her. She had apparently left group 5S to come speak with him. “Maybe we should just go and come back another time.”

Fuck, Jimmy thought as he saw her drenched hair, which contained several un-melted pieces of ice. It was only now that he realized he’d barely spared her a thought during all of this. And there was no way she wasn’t well aware of it. During the boss’s attack, Zach and Kalana had reached for one another as though it might be the final thing they’d ever do, whereas he had almost forgotten that the girl he was supposed to have fallen for was even on the raid to begin with. Once again, she’d become an afterthought to him, and it just wasn’t right.

“Tena,” he said to her, dropping his voice to speak more softly. “I was so worried about you. I was just about to come over and—”

She held out her palm. “It’s fine,” she said. “You’re running a raid. I don’t expect you to be thinking about me.”

She’s lying, he thought. I fucked up.

He struggled to come up with something to say to her, but all he could do was wet his lips and stammer out a few incoherent mutters as he was once again prodded by Kalana, who was continuing to insist that he order a retreat while dual glares from her Elvish subjects were trained his way. The only exception was from Trelvor, who looked away from Jimmy for a brief instant every few seconds to check up on Lienne.

“Call it off,” Kalana said, her tone implying that her words were not a suggestion.

Jimmy clenched his teeth. He had to make a decision—or did he? Was there even a decision to be made? Kalana and her Elves were basically forcing him. Even if he wanted to go against them, they would physically prevent him from doing so. Really, the way things looked, it was like his only two options were to either call off the raid immediately or resist—and then end up calling it off anyway after the Elves slapped him around or did worse. And so, if that was the way shit was, and if he had no other choice but to quit either way, then Jimmy realized he might as well do it now before someone else got hurt or possibly died. Especially since the boss had powered itself up and was giving the tanks a real hard time of things.

Jimmy briefly observed the way Ophelia Graven swung her small shield around and deftly blocked a fair number of raining icicles while a burly tank beside her batted away flaming swords. Then the both of them began to bleed as the Mare of the Primordial Void’s periodic, AOE blast of snow and ice expanded outwards in every direction around the boss, causing all the tanks to sustain a painful-looking hit. Every one of them now needed regular healing, as simply being within a certain proximity of the boss meant having to take a hit from each and every pulse of the T9 boss’s ice-based PBAOE.

“Jimmy,” Kalana said. Though her voice was just loud enough to make out over the sounds of fighting, groaning, and panic, it was no less firm or serious. “Nobody thinks you’re a coward. You proved how brave you are, okay? So please: just call this off. I’m gonna be really sad if I have to make you do it.”

Jimmy, still clenching his teeth, at last loosened up, and he sighed. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll call it off.”

This wasn’t what he wanted. He was being forced. And yet, for the sake of sparing the tanks any more pain, he would go through with Kalana’s demands. And then? Then he really would quit adventuring—or at least adventuring with these people—because this was straight-up bullshit. These so-called “adventurers” were never going to be able to clear real bosses if they bitched out every time a raid boss wasn’t your standard tank-and-spank fare. Mean thing to say? Yeah, probably, but you know what? It was honest. Because that really was just the truth of it. The adventurers were never going to advance as a raiding community if they refused to trust in their raid leaders, especially those like Jimmy, who knew what they were doing. But did they care? Nah, they didn’t. So you know what? Fuck it. If they were going to quit on him, he would quit on them right back.

And so, with bitterness in his veins, he sucked as much air into his lungs as he could as he prepared to yell out the order to begin a retreat. Yet before he could utter his first word, a different voice cut across the raid and drew the attention of every one of them including Donovan and Zephyr.

“Group 3S!” Lord Alex Oren shouted, his back straight, his summoned sword in his hand. Despite temporarily having exchanged his blood-soaked, military-general-like guild attire—complete with badges and medals across the chest area—for a lab coat and a goofy pair of cat-eye glasses, the man nevertheless came across as no less intimidating or commanding as he yelled, “Jimmy gave you an order! Get to it! Now!”

The jaws of Rian and Lienne both dropped at the same time, and Kalana made a surprised frown. Zach also frowned, and a short distance across the barren expanse, which had until recently been the opposite end of the street, Donovan and Zephyr were glancing at one another as though they were outraged and uncertain.

“Alex,” Kalana whispered, though she seemed to be speaking to herself, as he was too far away to hear her. “What are you…?”

Even as Kalana’s words trailed off, a cloud of dust was already surrounding Jimmy before quickly vanishing. This same dust then surrounded Zach, Kalana, Rian, Lienne, and all of those nearby. Looking around, Jimmy could see the same happening across the entire raid, and many confused faces were dotting the scene as if unable to understand why they were being given an Earth-resistance buff. Clearly, the members of the raid were expecting Jimmy—or more likely Donovan and Zephyr—to give the order to retreat. Even the tanks, who were preoccupied contending with the boss’s multiple new ice-based attacks, were worryingly looking behind themselves as if taken by the same doubt and unease that Jimmy could see gripping everybody else on the raid.

“Jimmy?” Lord Oren called to him, his voice stern and unflinching. “We’re all buffed. Now what?”

Lord Oren was staring intently at him, and rather than intimidate Jimmy, it emboldened him. He finally felt like he had a powerful, really important ally on his side—one that the others on the raid would actually listen to. This, despite their clear disdain for him. That was actually the craziest part of all. None of the adventurers seemed to like Lord Oren. Shit, they seemed to outright hate him, which Jimmy could understand since the dude had slit Donovan’s throat a few hours earlier and had almost killed him. But in a universe where fear and respect were inextricably linked together, Jimmy supposed he shouldn’t be so surprised that Lord Oren’s earlier antics now caused numerous adventurers to feel compelled to listen to him—or at least not to cross him. And thanks to that, Jimmy was in the clear to continue.

We can still do this after all, he thought excitedly. They’re actually listening!

Very briefly, Jimmy and Kalana exchanged glances, and somehow, just by looking at his face, she knew exactly what he was planning to do next. “Jimmy!” she hissed at him threateningly. “Don’t you do it! Don’t you even think about—”

“Sorry, Kalana,” he whispered to her before tuning her out. “Group 3!” he shouted, his attention refocused. “Attack!”

And they did. Even as they made no effort to hide their reluctance, they nevertheless started to cast, and they did so within just a few seconds of Jimmy giving the order.

Now, the ground began to shake, and it did so unevenly and in a way that was disorienting and made him queasy. Then, from beneath the barren landscape, a host of various, earth-based attacks all manifested at once as the ground split and terrors from below rose up to confront the boss. Much like the ice-based attacks, there were numerous spikes that stabbed through the boss, though these were made of an iron-like metal and dealt between 2- and 4-thousand damage, but there were also big chunks of stone that popped up into the air before slamming down on top of the mare, shattering over its head and causing it to hiss with pain.

“Wait, are we seriously doing this?” Maric called out in alarm as he jumped back and out of the way of one of the mare’s vicious stomps. Its flaming hoof crushed the ground where he had been standing.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” exclaimed Ophelia Graven. Given that she was the leader of the adventuring guild, Boss Rush, Jimmy would’ve thought she’d be more inclined to see this through to the end.

I guess not.

The attacks continued. Several of the mages in Group 3 were holding out their hand, palms flat, and shooting a constant stream of rock-like projectiles, all of which struck for less than a thousand damage but hit fast enough to make up the DPS by sheer speed. There were also fractures in the landscape—sections of split ground that actually seemed to “move” as though some animal just below the surface was ripping its way across the world and towards the boss. Several adventurers had to leap out of the way as these splits in the ground nearly consumed them on their way to the Mare of the Primordial Void, and upon reaching the boss, they caused massive pillars of stone to blast up from the ground and pierce cleanly through the boss. Had it been an actual, living creature and not a mob, any one of these would have been instantly or near-instantly fatal. In all, the result was a few decent damage numbers followed by a streak of fast, but smaller ones.

3,221

868, 862, 951

4,433

657, 400, 906

3,994

The damage, clearly, was not as impressive as the last volley with ice had been, but it was still substantial considering that they were not currently exploiting an elemental weakness—that would come next with Group 4: lightning. But even then, things were finally ramping up as, at last, the slower, but even more powerful earth attacks joined in with the initial flurry. Now, Jimmy grinned as he watched a massive, fist-shaped rock attached to a dirt arm spring up from the ground and sock the equestrian menace in the face for 5,211 while putting it off balance and half knocking it over.

“Group 4S!” Jimmy shouted out. He now had to practically scream to be heard over the rumbling of the terrain and the angry neigh-roars of the T9 boss. “Start buffing! I wanna get a head-start and keep things moving!”

Jimmy’s words were true but they weren’t the entire truth. While he did want to accelerate the buffing for the purpose of staying ahead of the game, the truth was that, in larger part, he wanted to steamroll forward before the sense of disorientation and shock gave way to more resistance among the raid members. Right now, many still seemed too addled to question what was happening, which in this case served Jimmy’s purposes. It was a bit manipulative, but it had to be done.

There they go.

Diverting his attention from the boss, Jimmy was glad to see that Group 4S, unlike Group 3S, got to work immediately—though they looked surprised to be doing so. It was like they couldn’t believe they were obeying even as they began casting their round of lightning-resistance buffs. And honestly? Jimmy himself didn’t even know why they were doing this. Maybe it was because they felt like they were already in too deep, or maybe they were just intimidated by Lord Oren. Hell, maybe they were still so dazed and shaken from the ice attack that they were acting on autopilot. It could’ve been any of these reasons or several of them combined. But in any and all cases, Jimmy was glad to see them cooperating, because from the way Donovan and Zephyr kept eying one another, they were clearly looking to call a stop to this raid and still very well might.

They’re talking to each other, Jimmy noticed. The two looked plainly displeased, and their eyes kept flicking Jimmy’s way. They wanna stop this.

Jimmy needed to end this fast. Because the closer the boss came to death, the more the raiders would be willing to see this through to the end. Nobody was going to want to quit once this thing got under 30% HP. Every point of damage they did served as an additional argument for why the raid should continue.

So they needed to keep things going.

As another granite fist erupted from the depths and uppercut the boss for 6,002 damage, Jimmy felt a strange sensation on the back of his neck, where he realized the hairs were now standing on end. In front of him, a blueish orb made of pure electricity was circling around him, moving faster and faster until it seemed to form a solid ring, which became fainter and fainter before disappearing completely.

Name

Anti Shock II

Effect

Increases user’s resistance to lightning and electricity by 34% and reduces the duration of all stuns by 25%

Duration

14:59

Jimmy nodded with satisfaction. Group 4S was working fast. The entire raid was buffed in under a minute while the Earth magic continued to assault the boss, resulting in a persistent, thundering rumble that coincided with a shaking, unstable terrain. Jimmy instinctively reached out to grab onto something and, finding nothing, had to awkwardly shift his stance to prevent from falling over.

“Keep it up!” he shouted.

5,555

611, 571, 602, 789

4,221

“Just like that!” he called out, hoping to encourage the raid and lift morale. “We’re all gonna feel better about ourselves for seeing this shit through after we kill the boss, so don’t stop!”

As the boss’s HP declined at a slower, but steady rate, Jimmy looked over to Kalana and Zach who were still nearby, and he gave them a reassuring smile. The smile was not returned. Kalana was back to folding her arms across her chest and grumpily frowning at him, and Zach looked awkward and like he was uncomfortable to be caught in the middle of their dispute.

“Relax,” he told them. “We already got this far, so what’s a bit more? I’m telling you guys: this raid isn’t even that hard. It’s actually just real annoying. But everybody is gonna be glad we did it when we finally get through it.”

“Nah-uh!” Kalana retorted. She then began an explanation as to why Jimmy was wrong, and the Elvish girl seemed to have plenty to say. But Jimmy couldn’t tell whether or not he agreed with her criticisms, and this was for one very simple reason: he didn’t listen to so much as a word of it—he paid attention to absolutely none of it. Because while she unfolded her arms to shake her finger at him, something unexpected was happening off behind her. Something that made absolutely no sense at all. Something that forced him to fight off self-doubt and an immediate sense of gloom. It was something that caused Jimmy’s smile to vanish off his face even while she was still speaking.

“…who got really hurt are not gonna forget it, either. And I’m not even gonna get started on how reckless it is to ignore everybody’s wishes. You’re basically forcing people to…” She glared at him. “Jimmy, are you listening to me?”

“Sorry, no,” he whispered.

She studied his face a moment, and then the worry he felt seemed to spread her way. “What’s wrong?” she asked, her overall volume dropping suddenly.

He pointed at the boss with his staff, and Kalana spun around. Then her mood changed from anger to surprise. “Already?”

0

0

0

0

0

The entire raid paused, and dread became the most common sight in all the faces around Jimmy—but there was also a fair deal of confusion. Jimmy felt this confusion as well. How could he not? This made no sense, as despite having only really just begun their attack, the Mare of the Primordial Void had already somehow gained immunity to Earth. But why? And how? What the hell happened? Jimmy was so roiled by the sight that he nearly forgot to breathe, and he started to pant in agitation.

Had he been wrong about this boss? Was he mistaken about how things worked?

No, you idiot, he scolded himself as his brain worked overtime to make sense of things. Getting over his brief moment of shock, the answer quickly became obvious to him. It was those three mages up front!

Jimmy turned his head to look at Group 3. Each and every member of the group looked just as surprised—if not more so—than Jimmy felt. Up front, and centrally positioned, three mages were still extending their arms, palms flat. Mere seconds ago, they had been shooting rock-based projectiles at the boss at machine-gun-like speeds. Now, they slowly lowered their arms and looked over to Jimmy fearfully.

“Those attacks you guys were using,” Jimmy said to them as he found his nerve. “How many of those rocks shoot out with each cast?”

“How many…huh?” one of them replied.

“You know, like, each time you cast it, how many individual rocks do you shoot at the boss?”

“One,” all three answered simultaneously.

Of all things, Jimmy felt relief at their response, because their unified answer implied that Jimmy had made a simple error as opposed to a grave miscalculation. “Ahh, all right. I should’ve been more careful about that. I thought it was like all the other attacks.”

“The other attacks?” the mage in the middle asked.

“Yeah, like, you cast it and it has a number of hits. But it sounds like you’re saying it’s one cast, one hit.”

“Yes. Does that matter?”

“Yeah, actually,” Jimmy said with a chuckle. “This mob gets immunity based on the number of skills used against it, not the number of hits. If one cast shoots, I dunno, let’s say ten rocks, then that’s still all part of one attack. But ya’ll are saying the three of you alone used up, like, three quarters of Group 3’s potential all by yourselves.”

They looked at him as though confused and not understanding what he was saying, and Jimmy didn’t think it was because they were stupid. Right now, the mages were so flushed with fear that they likely couldn’t really process anything in this moment. Jimmy tried to exude calm and confidence to prevent the situation from worsening.

“What’s the exertion cost on something like that?” he asked, speaking conversationally. It wasn’t that he was actually curious but more that he wanted to take immediate action to prevent a panic from beginning, and hopefully, by presenting himself as unworried and calm, it would send a signal to the others that everything was still okay. “I mean, if you guys are firing off ability after ability like that, I’m surprised none of you passed out.”

Their faces went blank. All three were, like, “locking up” emotionally. Jimmy had no idea if it was due solely to fear over what would come next or if they were blaming themselves for the paltry damage done to the raid boss via the earth magic group.

“How much exertion per cast?” he asked again calmly, trying to snap them out of their stupor.

“The exertion cost of Rock Gun is Very Low,” a voice answered in their stead. Jimmy craned his neck to see Lord Alex Oren approaching, having left the melee DPS group. “So, that’s what happened.”

“Yeah, my bad,” Jimmy said. Then he shouted it even louder so the entire raid could hear. “My bad! Minor mistake!”

Jimmy knew it was important he take responsibility for the blunder so as not to demoralize the participants. And honestly, it really was his fault for not asking more questions at the start before they’d begun. His words, however, failed to reassure a single person, and now, the silence was so intense that it was actually uncomfortable. Not that he would have it any other way. Without the Comms, things were now more perilous than ever, as communication was much more difficult, and even just a handful of rowdy adventurers would make it impossible for anyone else to hear him.

“Jimmy, what just happened?” Donovan asked in a way that combined a grunt and growl. “We barely hurt the fucker!”

Jimmy waved at Donovan. “Nothing, it’s seriously nothing.” He considered shouting out the explanation to the rest of the raid, but there was no time for that.

“Does this mean we’re all gonna take another hit?” a petrified-looking raid member asked. “Gods, please, don’t put me through that again!”

“Wait, are we?” another asked.

Jimmy raised his hands in a gesture of calm. “Guys, chill.”

The silence crashed like a wave against rocks, and many of them now began shouting at him, demanding to know if they were about to experience another terrifying attack. “What’s it going to do to us, Jimmy?” Ishina, the 15-year-old adventurer—and youngest member of the raid—asked him, a nervous quality to her voice.

“I don’t know yet,” he replied honestly, realizing soon after that he’d given the wrong response. The sheer extent of the terror that spread from person to person was proof enough of that. It was a miracle that all their shouting didn’t completely drown out his words.

“Just hang tight. I promise we’re gonna be fine.”

Rian and Lienne both backed away and pointed at the T9 raid boss. “It’s changing!” Lienne cried.

This caused numerous adventurers to stir. Jimmy looked over to the boss as, once again, it shifted its element.

With another loud neigh-roar, it began to grow, becoming even larger than its already massive size. Its skin, for the third time, changed completely in color, becoming a dusty, dirt-like brown. Spikes made of metal began to pop up and grow all along its back, though they were uneven and jagged. Its hooves, however, remained on fire, and a frosty combination of ice and snow began to radiate off it—proof of its two other lasting, elemental immunities.

As the T9 Mare of the Primordial Void changed to become a more earthly-looking beast, the howling winds that had been numbing Jimmy’s skin seemed to abate without warning. Visibility, which had been poor since the boss shifted to ice, began clearing up immediately, and the clouds above vanished into nothingness, which caused a return of the beautiful, summer-blue sky. The cold went away very quickly as well, and as a result, Jimmy went from shivering to wiping sweat off his brow in such short order that it gave him whiplash.

“Gods, it’s even bigger now,” Zach said. Having shuffled around a bit, he now stood directly to Jimmy’s right while Kalana was proportionally to his left. Both of them were out of formation, as he’d put the two of them in Group 0: the melee DPS group.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“But at least it’s not as cold anymore,” Kalana replied.

“True, but…I actually think now it might be too hot.”

Summer returned to the raiding area as though it had never left, and any last or lingering pieces of un-melted ice turned quickly into shallow puddles of water. In less than ten seconds, it went from feeling like winter to feeling like spring, and in another ten after that, the punishing heat once again embraced them. Staring at the boss, Jimmy did his best to stave off the disappointment he felt in Group 3’s overall impact. By this point, Group 3’s attacks had all fallen off, and overall, the damage they’d done was really quite low relative to their potential.

HP

6,122,091/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

“I think it’s done changing!” Kalana said sharply. “Zach, get ready!”

He nodded. “I know.”

With the boss having shifted, there was a shift in the raid as well: a sense of gloom and trepidation that couldn’t be ignored. Everyone knew something was coming, and everybody was on edge as they wondered what it might be. And now, as the single-greatest look of “what the hell are we doing and what the hell did we just do” popped onto almost every face, many of the raiders seemed to take on a sickly appearance, particularly those with lighter skin, where the color visibly drained from many of their cheeks.

“What’s it gonna do to us this time around?” Spider asked, snarling. Jimmy could only just make out the smooth, yet deep quality of his voice from where he stood halfway between Jimmy and Donovan. He was closer to the tanks than to anyone else.

“Whatever it is, at least it’ll only happen once,” Alixa replied, though she spoke the words in a way that came across as more self-reassuring than anything else. “Jimmy told us it’ll only do its post-shifting attack once each time.”

“Yeah, true, but…once might just be enough to get the job done.” Following those words, the large, towering, scarred-up adventurer—and second-in-command of the God Slayers Guild—set his gaze on Jimmy. “Do we have enough time to get out of the way, son?"

Much like Kalana, Spider seemed far more worried for the other raiders than he did for himself. Given that Spider had been a mobster and a gang member before becoming an adventurer—at least according to rumors—the fact that he lacked a fear of death wasn’t a surprise to Jimmy. What was a surprise was to see him so eager to retreat just like the others rather than stay and fight.

Jimmy opened his mouth to reply but ultimately ended up saying nothing. He wasn’t sure how to answer the question in a way that wouldn’t upset the others. Yet even if he had been able to think of something to say, he wouldn’t have had time to utter it—because the Mare of the Primordial Void made its move, and it did so quickly.

Very, very quickly.

Things happened so fast that Jimmy didn’t even have the time to utter a word to the raid before the next attack had already come through; even worse, he didn’t have time to figure out what the attack actually even was until it was already over and done with.

Moving with a speed too great to allow his thoughts to match, the Mare of the Primordial Void released an angry neigh and then lifted up onto its hind legs and slammed both its front feet down, cracking its hooves through the land and sinking them several inches into the dirt. And this, it did with a single flowing, fluid motion—one too fast for Jimmy to contemplate in the moment. In total, the lifting and slamming movement probably transpired in under a quarter of a second if even that long. But rather than cause any kind of rumbling or tremor as a result of having such a massively gigantic horse slam the ground, there was instead a sudden shroud of pure dust and dirt that rose up from the area directly beneath Jimmy’s feet.

What’s it doing? Jimmy wondered. It was the only thought he had the time to think before he discovered the answer for himself.

Straight away, he observed that the plume of dust rising from beneath his feet was not unique to him alone. Much like the last post-shift attack, it seemed to be a raid-wide AOE, as every single raid member had their own personal cloud of dust and dirt surrounding them, one which was thickening at a rapid pace and eventually obscuring the rest of the raid from his vision. But before he lost sight of the others, Jimmy had just enough time to glimpse the way most of them froze with a mixture of easily read emotions—fear being the most predominant of them all—and many could be seen bracing themselves, their entire bodies tightening in anticipation of the pain or worse that was to come—Jimmy included.

Yet, there was no pain, and there was no “worse.” The dust, which was so thick and so all-encompassing it blocked out his view of the entire world around him, was gone as quickly as it had arrived. It simply drifted upwards and thinned until it vanished out of existence, and in its absence, an incredibly strange feeling came over Jimmy: one that was so weird it was actually difficult for him to place. It was a feeling sort of like…being “exposed” or “unprotected” in a sense. And because the attack had happened over such a small number of seconds, Jimmy’s confusion turned very quickly from “how much is this going to hurt” into “what did it even just do?”

And he was not alone in this pondering this question.

“Did we just get hit?” Reni Sarwin asked. “Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah, is everyone all right?” Donovan barked out. “If you’re all right, then look around you and make sure your buddies are okay, too. Check your surroundings to see if anyone’s not on their feet!”

Heads began turning and eyes began scanning the empty landscape that had once been a busy shopping district. But even as the other adventurers—and several political guild members—seemed to be taking stock of the situation, Jimmy could already tell that no one was truly harmed. But if not, then what just happened? What did the boss do? He tried to think, but he was drawing a blank even as many eyes focused in on him for an answer. Yet it was Maric, the very old, muscular, and bulky adventurer, who somehow figured things out before Jimmy could, which he found impressive.

“Check your buffs and debuffs!” he said. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing!”

Jimmy quickly lowered his eyes to where he kept his—chest-level height—and saw right away what Maric was referring to as he noticed the red icon of a broken shield that had appended itself to the end of the blueish icons that made up all the beneficial buffs and resistances the raid had given him. As fast as he was able to do so without losing comprehension, he read over what appeared to be a DEF-down debuff.

Name

Curse of the Void

Effect

-30% def

-30% magic resist

User is cursed. This curse cannot be removed via spells, items, or abilities.

Duration

Life

Everyone seemed to finish reading the debuff at more or less the same time, and the raid’s reaction was exactly—and unfortunately—what Jimmy expected it to be: immediate, intense, and insane. He wasn’t sure whose voice cried out in shock first, but an eruption occurred immediately, and it was one that, if not quelled, could easily prove to be a bigger threat than the boss itself.

“Ah, shit!” Zach shouted, a look of aghast disbelief peppering his features. “Life? We’re cursed for life?”

“No way,” Rian croaked. “I’m a tank. I’m…I’m a tank! This means I’m screwed! Zach, I’m screwed! I’m a fucking tank! At least you can DPS. I’m useless now!”

“You were already useless, Rian. This changes nothing.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

The two chuckled. It was an incredibly surprising yet isolated display of humor amid what quickly proved itself to be a much larger, wider-scale panic that was causing everyone to lose their shit.

“No!” another of the raiders bellowed. “My life is over!”

“Why does it say the duration is life?” Alixa asked. “Does this mean the curse is forever? As in, we’ll be debuffed until the day we die?”

“I think so,” someone answered. “I didn’t know this could even happen. I…I won’t be able to raid anymore if this is permanent.”

Jimmy shouted at them to be quiet. “Guys, relax! You’re making a big deal out of—”

It was no use. His words were completely drowned out as dozens upon dozens of adventurers let their displeasure and agony be known. The crybaby-bullshit went off all at once with the loudness of an M-80 firecracker.

“How can it be for life?” someone shouted. “And there’s no way to cure it? Jimmy!”

“Jimmy,” another voice added, calling to him. “We can never get rid of this? Is that correct?”

“Jimmy!” called a third.

“Wait, so it’s confirmed that this is forever? What did Jimmy say? Jimmy!”

“Jimmy! Jimmy! Jimmy!”

“If you would all let me explain,” Jimmy said. “This isn’t actually what you—”

“Jimmy!”

“Jimmy!”

He cleared his throat. “Guys, if you would please give me a chance to—”

“Jimmy!”

“Jimmy!”

“Jimmy, are we actually gonna be debuffed for life? Does this mean we can never remove the—”

“SHUT YOUR ASSES UP!” Jimmy roared, shouting more loudly than he’d even known he was capable. Until now, he had no idea his lungs and vocal cords could even produce this level of sound. It was to the extent that he needed to stop and take four full breaths before he could continue. “It’s not what you think. This’s not gonna be permanent, fools!”

Nearly every eye in the raid became fixed onto him—including those that should’ve been paying attention to the T9 raid boss, which was about to attack the tanks with an even larger arsenal of abilities now.

These people are getting to me, he thought. They’re really starting to get to me.

“Listen!” he called out, seizing the moment of silence. “When we kill this thing, the debuff is either gonna go away on its own, or, if it doesn’t, it’s gonna drop something that cures it for all of us—or if nothing else, it’ll give us an easy quest to get rid of it. That’s on God. I’m not gonna stand here and argue about it, either. You can believe me or not, but that’s how it’s gonna be.” Before an adventurer across from him with a bow and a red feather cap could voice a question that Jimmy spotted forming on the man’s lips, he pointed his staff at the archer and cut him off. “Shh! Don’t ask me how I know that. We’re not doing that anymore. I do know that, and that’s all you need to know.”

The man closed his mouth. And then it was Donovan who spoke next. “So, what you’re saying is we can’t run, huh? We gotta fight it out now no matter what?”

“Nah-uh!” Kalana said, plainly disagreeing with his take. “The debuff’s really bad and all, but umm, at least if we quit now, we’ll all still be alive. We need to end this raid or a lot of people might die. It’s not worth the risk. Life is worth more than a debuff.”

Her words, which had fallen on far more sympathetic ears just a few moments ago, now found very little support among the other raiders—even the political guild members. Jimmy could actually see it in their eyes. With this debuff now permanently attached to them all, they were far more willing to let this play out.

Good, he thought, suppressing a grin. Maybe this actually works out to my advantage.

Of course, the level of challenge had definitely just ramped up. With the T9 Mare of the Primordial Void having weakened the entire raid, Jimmy worried the tanks were going to have a much, much more difficult time keeping things under control.

And he was right.

As the boss’s flaming swords materialized in the air and swung down at Maric, it now required four grunting, shield-bearing tanks to step in front of the man and shout out with the sound of exertion as they guarded against the attack in a way that looked like it required a substantial effort. At the same time, the boss’s PBAOE ice attack did another pulse, and this one nearly took out every tank on the raid. Pieces of their armor flew off their body, chipped their helmets, and caused blood to ooze from numerous cracks in their skin. Jimmy winced, genuinely uncertain as to how they managed to keep upright. Soon after, the boss made one of its stomping attacks. Maric jumped backwards and out of the way—but unlike before, he was not in the clear. Now, upon stomping down on the ground, the land began to shake, and an entire column of dirt-colored spikes rose up from the ground beneath his feet. Had Maric been any less experienced, he would have been run through. Instead, he threw himself backwards a second time and avoided the attack.

“Gods!” several of the tanks battling the flaming swords called out. As the fiery weapons swung around the air, Jimmy realized the tanks were faring poorly. Their defenses lowered, the boss was overpowering them. Jimmy watched as one of them lost his shield, whereas another was cut badly enough that he’d likely need a red rejuvenation stone—and maybe a yellow, too—and the others were barely hanging on.

We need to change things up. All right. I got this.

Though precarious, Jimmy knew how to handle this situation. With his dignity and the fate of the raid on the line, he took off at a run, moving quickly in the boss’s direction. With his staff gripped in just one hand, he pumped his other arm as he sprinted as fast as he could. To his surprise, Zach was still by his right side and Kalana by his left, and both were moving alongside him as though to have his back. He appreciated it.

“I hope you’ve got a plan,” Zach said to him as they ran.

“I do!”

Halting once he was within range, Jimmy lifted his staff and then raised it above himself, casting Crippling Mist. Now, a sizzling, crackling cloud of thick, dense smoke briefly blanketed the boss, which like before, was not immune to its effects. It was only thanks to his passive, Scourge of Giants, that he was even able to pull off a slow on a T9 boss, something that shouldn’t have been possible at his level. Hell, none of them should’ve been able to do it.

“The boss is slowed!” he shouted, waving his staff yet again, but this time in a gesture directed at the tanks. “Donovan, have them kite it!”

“You got it!” Donovan roared back at him.

Jimmy had no idea what the man was thinking or feeling in this moment, and he certainly had no idea what the black-plate-armor-wearing GSG leader would say to him when all this was over. All Jimmy knew was that, right now, he really appreciated Donovan being here with him, because with the poise of a leader, he was able to very quickly put Jimmy’s request into action as he began barking orders at the tanks. Following another close call from another ice-based PBAOE, the tanks began carefully pulling off. Having done so, they formed something of a line of with their shields raised, backpedaling away from the boss while focusing most of their efforts on blocking its renewed use of eye lasers and other ranged attacks.

“Fuck!” one of them groaned as his shield was literally blasted out of his hands. “My Bank and Storage is on CD!” Ophelia Graven, who stood beside him, summoned a spare shield from her own storage and gave it to him. He nodded his head in thanks. Together, they continued their defensive kiting.

“Group 4!” Jimmy shouted, half turning around to face them. He was glad to see he had their undivided attention as they all turned their heads his way. “We gotta end this shit now before our tanks collapse.” He switched his staff from his left hand to his right and then pointed at an empty area of barren landscape in the direction opposite the one the boss was moving. “Get over there and reposition. Start DPS’ing the moment you all have clear shots.”

“Got it!” they shouted back at him.

Jimmy watched impatiently as the entire group moved as fast as they could. All in all, it only took around twenty seconds for them to sprint behind the boss, but in that short time, the boss, which was pursuing the tanks, sent out four more beams of dual eye lasers, and one managed to blast a hole right through Maric’s shoulder blade. He was lucky it missed his heart.

“Get going!” Jimmy said, waving his staff, though this time as an expression of his impatience. “Attack!”

Having arrived unevenly, they attacked unevenly, but at least they attacked. It all began with a jolt from a woman leading the pack. Both the top and bottom of her staff began to spark and flicker, and then, from the sunny, hot summer sky above, a massive, blinding bolt of lightning crashed down onto the boss, dealing 8,115 damage and confirming to Jimmy that they were again striking an elemental weakness.

This spurred the others on. More lightning rained down from above, some bolts being different colors, but all hitting for an impressive amount of damage. “Watch out!” one of the mages called. A few members of support hurried to reposition themselves as tendrils of electricity traveled across the ground from a very powerful attack, one which caused sparks to shoot up in a line that led from where the spell-sword-wielding caster was standing all the way to the boss. Upon reaching the mare, its entire body lit up like a Christmas tree, and it began to shake and twitch. It even became rooted in place for three seconds, which Jimmy found interesting, as in all the games he’d played in his life, he’d never before seen electricity used to root, only stun.

9,652

The boss neighed loudly once the root was broken, and it continued to move slowly after the backpedaling tanks, who in turn were flanked by the overworked healers. The boss paused only to fire off more of its eye lasers or conjure massive, flying boulders that it would then send hurtling at the tanks. It had a few other nasty ranged attacks it hadn’t been able to use when it was within melee distance, but this was still for the better, as its constant PBAOE ice attack had been dealing just too much damage to sustain.

“Almost lost an arm,” Spider growled. “I need a heal!”

“Got’cha,” replied a weary-looking healer.

Jimmy suppressed his guilt over how banged up and hurt the tanks had become. They were really taking a beating. This…this needed to end soon. But things were at least progressing well on that front. Returning his attention to Group 4, he watched as they were forced to pursue the mob from behind so as to keep in range of their own lightning attacks, all of which were starting to come in regularly. It was safe to say that Group 4 was finally beginning a full-on assault.

8,211

9,151

7,529

7,000

7,771

Nonstop, blinding flashes from above and beneath the boss made staring at it difficult. But Jimmy found it hard to look away as its HP at last began to plummet. This was going well. Really well. As long as the tanks held on, Jimmy could easily see Group 4 putting in two, maybe even three million points of damage, as through sheer coincidence, the group was made up mostly of “heavy hitters” as opposed to those whose DPS came from faster, lesser-damaging attacks. In other words, they would do more with less.

“Nice start, Group 4!” Jimmy called to them. “If anybody needs stamina regen, let me know. We gotta keep this up! I’m feeling really good about th—”

Instead of a word, Jimmy’s sentence ended in an unintentional shout. Startled, he raised his arms to shield his face as a sudden, painfully strong blast of light briefly caused him to lose sight of the boss. It was accompanied by a very strange sound: one that was like a combination of a bang and a crunch. It was a sound unlike anything he’d ever before heard, and it was so loud that he could not question the source of it until after it had faded.

“Who just did that?” he asked, his ears ringing. “What attack was—”

His words fell off a second time as he spotted blurry streaks of movement in several directions: in the corner of his vision as well as just in front of him. It looked like miniature comets were flying through the air and out of sight. But it was what lay ahead that most gripped him. It was there, sandwiched between the tanks and Group 4, that the Mare of the Primordial Void was now wobbling on its hooves before stumbling and falling down onto its belly, making pained-sounding neighs as though in the throes of death. At the same time, something bizarre and inexplicable was taking place with the lightning attacks striking it.

HP

6,000,000/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

At first—and for only about a second or two—a chain of 0s came in, beginning the exact moment in time that the boss hit an even 6-million of HP. Jimmy could hear those around him gasp as they must have been wondering the very same question that he himself was wondering: was it already shifting yet again?

Thankfully, the answer was no.

Rather than signal the start of another elemental shift, the 0s lasted only until the T9 superboss fully collapsed onto the ground, and now, on its belly, the boss’s entire body began to flash with a dark, shadowless light, flickering on and off again and again. And that was when things became really intriguing, because the moment this flashing began, the damage numbers not only returned, but they returned at double, or in some cases, triple, their earlier values. The damage numbers were red, too: something he hadn’t seen before on Galterra.

21,406

16,188

12,000

19,531

Red damage numbers? Jimmy wondered. Must be critical hits. I didn’t know we had those here.

“How are you guys critting?” he called out to Group 4.

“How are we doing what?” a mage replied to Jimmy. As he spoke, he was repeatedly lifting his staff with both hands and then slamming it into the ground, causing a bolt of lightning to strike the Mare of the Primordial Void with each movement.

“Can you repeat that, Jimmy?” Lord Oren asked, hurrying over to him. “Do you understand what’s going on? Do you know why those damage numbers are so inflated and red in color?”

“Yeah…I mean probably. I’m guessing that means it’s a critical hit. Or a crit.”

“A crit?”

“I’ll explain it later. It’s too much for right now.”

“Very well,” he replied with a curt nod. “More importantly, then, do you know why this is happening?” Jimmy felt like he was under a microscope; it was the way the high-ranking, cat-eye-glasses-wearing guild officer studied him with such a fierce gaze. freewebnøvel.coɱ

“I…I don’t. I’m not sure just yet what mechanic we triggered, but it looks like it’s to our advantage.” He raised his voice. “In the meantime, Group 4, keep attacking! Don’t stop!”

Confused, stunned, and trying to piece together what was happening, Jimmy watched as the other raiders cycled through mostly the same emotions, though to a much greater degree. The terror on their faces when the damage had cut off contrasted with a now cautious yet hopeful optimism that saw their frowns inverting into grins as the boss’s HP really started to nose dive.

HP

5,994,152/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

HP

5,104,010/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

HP

4,888,277/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

Something isn’t right, Jimmy thought.

He recalled the blurred movement he’d seen in the corner of his vision. Having been less important than what was happening in front of him, he’d put it out of mind. But exactly what were those objects moving in the air? Quickly scanning the landscape, he searched around for wherever it was they might have landed. And now, he saw something that sent a wave of alarm right into his chest: something he should have caught right away. It was something beyond urgent—something potentially catastrophic if not dealt with immediately.

“Group 4, stop!” he shouted. “Stop attacking the boss now!”

To his surprise—and relief—Group 4 complied immediately, though they did so with a clear sense of agitation and worry. “What’s wrong?” Zach asked from where he was standing beside Jimmy. “Why’d you tell them to stop? We’re crushing it!”

“Because of that!” Jimmy said, swinging his staff around in a semi-circle and pointing out the four corners of the raid.

“Huh?”

“Look, Zach!” He used his finger this time and shook it. “That!”

He could hear Zach inhale. “What are those?”

In the distance, located at four separate locations, there were now four normal-sized, differently-colored mares that were slowly moving inwards and to the center of the raid’s formation where the boss itself awaited. They were almost impossible to miss, with two of them close enough to several of the raid members to spit on. One of them may well have even brushed against a woman with loose-fitting mage robes. If not for every eyeball having been trained on the T9, they would have been spotted immediately. Now, glancing around, there were more cries of concern followed by mages and healers jumping out of the way as a red mare, a blue mare, a brown mare, and a yellow mare—all the size of an ordinary, regular horse—were moving at something just below a trot to the prone, whimpering boss. As the rest of the raid became aware of their presence, another bout of confusion threatened to erupt.

Oh, I know what this is! I know exactly what this is!

“Donovan!” Jimmy yelled, his voice approaching a scream.

“Yeah, kiddo?” he grunted, his face deadly serious. “What’s going on? What are those?”

He again swung his staff at all four of the mares. “Do not let those things reach the boss! I’ve seen this shit a billion times before in boss fights. If they get to the boss, something bad is gonna happen.”

“Like what?” Zephyr asked.

Jimmy flipped over his free hand. “No idea. It could be almost anything. It could be the boss absorbs them and gets a huge heal, or buffed, or…or it could charge a new super attack that insta-kills all our asses. I got no idea what’ll happen, I just know that when you see this shit in a raid, you stop it immediately. Trust me, if they reach the boss, something really bad is gonna—”

“Say no more!” Donovan interrupted. “I got this, kiddo!” He cupped his hands over his mouth. “All battlegroups, prepare to attack the adds! Support groups, switch to offense! Aux group, now’s your chance to earn your roll! Zach, Kalana, get on the fire one with Group 0! Move it! Alixa, lead your group to the ice one! Group 1 and Group 2, get to the rear and…”

Donovan’s voice continued to bark out orders, and so too did Zephyr’s, and the entire raid sprang into action. Incredibly, in just a matter of seconds, the two were able to put together an organized, sensible attack force. This was something Jimmy knew he could never do—at least not this quickly—and so he thanked God that Donovan and Zephyr were up to the task.

Oh, shit, this might be close, he thought as he began laying poison mines down in the path of all four mares.

As he watched the four mares approach the boss, Jimmy was positive he’d made the right call. He’d seen this in a huge number of games: bosses that would summon adds after taking a certain amount of damage or after a certain amount of time went by. What separated these adds from the typical ones a boss might spawn was that they were, by themselves, no threat to the player. But if the player decided to ignore them and instead chose to keep burning down the boss, there were a very wide range of consequences that spanned everything from mere inconvenience to death.

We better not find out.

Beside him, Jimmy heard feet stomping down on the dirt as Rian moved past him with Kalana and Zach while Lienne, Trelvor, and Seiley unleashed attacks of their own. Lord Oren also joined in with this group, and together, they began putting out impressive damage numbers on the fire mare. Zach in particular was really letting the creature have it.

First, he sliced off its tail and struck for 4,240 damage, which given its HP, wasn’t all that much. But his attack seemed to proc the ability on his sword, which caused dozens of star-shaped emblems made of pure light to pop up all around the crimson-colored, flaming creature before converging and detonating in an explosion of light, which did 29,152.

HP

414,124/670,000

Name

Mare of Primordial Flame

Level

85

The blueish ice one was also taking a decent thrashing from Zephyr’s elemental blade and Alixa’s summoned tornadoes—along with dozens of others piling into it.

HP

444,846/670,000

Name

Mare of Primordial Ice

Level

85

Although four mobs with 670k HP apiece did not exactly constitute a genuine challenge for a raid of their size, the fact that these were much tinier targets combined with the initial element of surprise meant that the four elemental horses had already been able to close more than half the distance, and it was only now, in the final moments, they’d really begun getting a handle on things.

“Don’t try grabbing its hooves, you morons!” Donovan yelled as numerous adventurers were sliding along the ground and leaving imprint-trails in the shape of their bodies as they clung to the horses as if to slow them down. “Get your asses up and attack!”

Kalana, airborne, twirled several times, flipping over and over while swinging her arms around, delivering a mind-numbing number of high-damaging slices with her daggers before landing on both feet and stabbing a second time. This, as Zach unleashed what looked like pent-up agitation as he furiously butchered the fire mare with crisscrossing slashes, each of which drew blood. Rian and Lienne were doing significantly less damage, but at least they were contributing what they could, as every little point of HP counted. Panting, Rian slashed his axe against the mare over and over. Tena was also a big help, offering strength buffs to Zach and Kalana before moving on to the rest of the raid and doing the same to those who needed it most urgently to make the largest impact.

“Pick up the pace, you sorry fucks!” Donovan demanded as his large axe sent a bloody spray out of the earth mare’s neck. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

Jimmy held his breath as he watched the mares get closer and closer to the boss. But he released it when he realized that the speed at which the raid was adjusting was faster than the speed at which the horses were trotting. The result was a ramp up of damage that began steadily then accelerated into overwhelming force. Now, the biggest risk to the raid was friendly fire as explosions, flashes of lightning, plumes of fire, and every element imaginable scarred up the barren soil while arrows and crossbow bolts flew, swords were swung, and maces were bashed.

I think we got this.

HP

51,255/670,000

Name

Mare of Lightning

Level

85

With a little time to spare, all four mares eventually dropped dead, where they then rolled over onto their backs and actually sank into the terrain as though absorbed by it. And then, just like that, the big one, the T9 boss, immediately stopped flashing, ceased its whimpering, and simply got back up onto its hooves in an almost casual way, resuming the fight like nothing had happened.

It was a trap, Jimmy realized. If I had tunnel-visioned on it during its weakened state, that could’ve ended so much worse.

Reorienting himself, Jimmy re-cast his slow on the boss and then, with Donovan’s help, got everyone back into their previous formation. With that, the blast of electrical magic from Group 4 continued, only now, the boss was much more wounded than Jimmy had ever expected it to be at this point. The hammering it had taken during its vulnerable state, combined with the renewed assault, meant he felt more pride than dread when the 0s finally came in.

0

0

0

0

HP

3,001,707/13,225,000

Name

(T9) Mare of the Primordial Void

Level

85

“Cut attacks!” Jimmy ordered Group 4. But they’d already begun tapering off.

The sky ceased flashing, the lightning abated, and now, the same nervousness as earlier settled in on the raid as they awaited the boss’s next elemental shift. But this time, however, Jimmy could feel an overall sense of impending victory, and he knew the other raiders were feeling it, too. Even though no one was saying it aloud—likely not wanting to test fate—Jimmy could tell their minds were very, very slowly starting to turn towards thoughts of loot and celebration.

But they weren’t there yet.

“Everyone, get ready!” Jimmy said to them all. He knew his voice would be completely gone after today, but at least it was holding up for now. He likely wouldn’t be able to speak for several days after this.

“You heard him!” Donovan roared. “Get ready for whatever this bastard throws at us next!”

Though worry was present in just about everyone, Jimmy included, there was at long last an eagerness that had been entirely absent until now. But it was here, finally, and Jimmy was glad to see it. Backs were straighter, swords were at the ready, and Group 5S—wind—was already buffing. Jimmy would’ve ordered them to start sooner, but they’d been too busy helping kill the adds.

I can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if they reached the boss, he thought. Probably would’ve screwed us bad.

After a brief delay, the shifting at last began, but by this point, it was expected. The brown washed away as though it were dirt beneath rain, and much like it had done during the shift to ice, the sky above changed along with the element. Once more, clouds blocked out the sun, but in this case, the temperature did not drop; if anything, it became even hotter as the level of humidity rose dramatically. Rain then began to fall, though it was more of a summer-like shower than a downfall, and all this took place while lightning flashed across the sky.

The boss, for its part, kept its flaming hooves, its coat of ice, and its earthen spikes along its back. And now, in addition to shedding the color of dirt and taking upon a dual-colored skin of spiraling purple and yellow, the boss grew horns like a unicorn, both jutting out of the top of its head and above its ears, and these horns flashed constantly and gave off sparks.

“All right, here it comes,” Jimmy said. “Everyone, brace yourselves for whatever it does!”

“We got this!” Zach shouted out. Jimmy smiled at him. He was glad for the support. Even Kalana was nodding. Just as Jimmy had predicted, now that the mare’s HP was really low, the attitude and mood of the raid had shifted—just like the boss.

“It’s moving,” Kalana said. She grabbed Zach’s hand. “I hate this part!”

The mare lifted its front hooves and stomped down in almost the exact same way that it had after its last shift, but the effect this time was entirely different. Abruptly, more than a hundred individual flashes from the sky preceded more than a hundred individual yelps as a legion of lightning bolts streaked down from the clouds and struck every single last one of them dead center on the top of their head before they could so much as blink. Reflexively—and nervously—Jimmy dropped his staff, hopping several times on his feet. He then clutched his scalp as he felt a strong, but not quite painful flick.

“I’m hit!” he shouted as he waited for the pain—which like before, did not come.

“Gahh!” Lienne yelled as she too was struck.

“Wh-what did it do this time?” Kalana asked nervously. “Zach, baby, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “Kal, are you hurt?”

“Nope. I didn’t even feel it. You?”

“Me neither.”

“I didn’t either,” Lienne whispered, speaking barely loud enough to hear.

Zach looked around. “So, is that it? Are we done? Jimmy?”

Jimmy wet his lips. Something was starting to form atop everyone’s heads. Something slowly taking form and shape. Yet even before it formed, Jimmy knew exactly what it was.

Oh no. Oh shit.

“Jimmy?” Zach asked again. “Are we okay?”

Jimmy lifted his eyes, seeing the faint outline of something misty above his face and floating above his head. It was something he couldn’t quite see above his own self, but he could easily see it above the heads of everyone else.

Oh boy. They not gonna like this.

Now, all across the raid, above everyone’s head and large enough to be unmistakable, there was the number 10 written in a bubbly, sketchy font. And this did not seem to bother anybody—anybody but Jimmy, who peeled back his lips in alarm as he tried to consider what this meant for the raid and whether or not they could deal with it. Not that they had a choice. They had to deal with it.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” Kalana said, shrugging. “Just another weird debuff. Umm, what’s it do? Do you know, Jimmy?”

Rather than answer her, Jimmy turned to face Donovan and Zephyr, but first he picked up his staff. Then he pointed it at them. “Goddammit, dude! You suck, you know that? You suck!”

Donovan crooked a finger at himself. “Huh? The hell you yapping about, kiddo?”

Of all things, it was anger that burned inside Jimmy. “You…none of ya’ll bitches told me you guys had doom in this game. I hate this curse, man. Why can’t you people know a goddamn thing?”

“D-doom?” Kalana exclaimed. “What’s that?”

“And why don’t I see any debuffs on my bar?” Zephyr asked.

“Jimmy, what is this?” Lord Oren inquired. “What do you know? Please, tell us.”

Jimmy extended his arm and turned his wrist so that his staff now pointed towards his own head. “This is about to turn into a 9,” he said. “Watch.”

9

“W-what does that mean?” Kalana asked, sounding terrified.

“It means,” Jimmy explained, “that when it hits 0, we die.”

“WHAT?” shouted a multitude of voices.

“Yeah, it’s bullshit. We better move fast. No more talking or questions. Group 5, attack. Now! In fact, Group 6 attack too. Zach, go into your phase mode. Like, now. When you do, Group 0 attack. We don’t have time to wait out anymore shifts. Gotta kill it now. We’ve got like a minute, tops.”

“Wait, what?” Zach shouted back at him. “You want me to activate Unleashed Phase? I can’t do that, Jimmy. You know this.”

“If you don’t, Kalana dies.”

Zach’s face hardened, and his eyes narrowed. “Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“He can’t!” she snapped. “Zach will die!”

Jimmy sighed. “Nobody’s gonna die. I swear it. Now stop arguing and do it.”

This was going to be a painful finish.

*****

Eilea dropped her tea, spilling it all over poor Jascaila. But the human woman didn’t seem to mind. Eilea could tell she was just as concerned. “Are you sure?” she asked. “Eilea, how do you know?”

Eilea began to shake. “They’re all going to die,” she whimpered. “My husband was right. I overestimated them. They’ve just been doomed.”

“Doomed?”

“It’s a…it’s a type of curse you usually don’t see until Tier 2 worlds. I shouldn’t even be telling you that. I’m out of sorts. Everything was going so well, and then it all just fell apart.”

Her heart ached, and Eilea felt nauseous. She was struggling not to vomit. She’d forgotten all about this. Bosses had never been her area of knowledge or specialty. “They can’t finish the raid in time. It’s over for them. It’s over…”

Jascaila frowned. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. They’ve been doomed, Jascaila. They won’t be able to kill the boss in time. My wretched husband was right. Curse him!”

Eilea didn’t know what stung more. The thought of poor Zach and Jimmy dying, or knowing that her wrinkly old bastard of a husband, Adamus, got to be right as he tended to be. As usual, Eilea was wrong.

Yet again.

******

“Really?” Prila asked, beaming far too much. This, despite Adamus instructing the dear girl not to be so emotionally invested. Still, he had grown attached to her, and if she was happy, then so be it.

“Yes, my child,” he said. “I have seen enough.”

With that, he turned his mind’s eye back towards Shadowfall Coast, where his real efforts were needed. All in all, this whole raid had been nothing more than a distraction: an illuminating one, of course, but a distraction nevertheless.

“What percentage?” Prila asked, giggling. “I just want to hear you say it.”

Adamus rubbed his eyes as they struggled to focus back on the real world. “A hundred,” he said. “Jimmy has succeeded. My wife was right, and I was wrong. I suppose there’s a first for everything.”

Truly, it was an astounding turn of events. For the first time in more than a thousand years, his impulsive, emotional wife had ultimately turned out to be correct.

And he had been wrong.

*****

With the 9 above his head turning into an 8, Zach scowled at Jimmy and then at the entire bullshit situation itself.

“You want me to do what?” he asked.

“Use your ability,” his new friend said, speaking it casually as though it wasn’t a death sentence. “You won’t die. I swear it. But if you don’t do it right now, everybody else will die including you. So uh, no pressure or nothing, dude. But for real. You better get your ass in there and kill that thing while there’s still time.”

Kalana was immediately opposed to the idea, and Rian didn’t seem to have an opinion either way. In fact, he used this opportunity to be an asshole rather than say anything constructive. Zach couldn’t blame him without being a hypocrite. Though he was trying to change, he’d spent much of his life with the same quirk of becoming facetious whenever things became too serious or hard to handle. But man, Rian was really letting Jimmy have it.

“Hey, great job on the raid, Jimmy,” he said. “You’ve doomed us.” He waved his flappy arms around. “I can’t believe it, you guys. Jimmy doomed us. Literally! He literally doomed us. We're doomed. Better hope I don’t leave a review for this raid.” He paused a moment then added, “The title of my review is gonna be: racist raid leader used hate speech against Orcs and then doomed us all.”

Zach felt an elbow ram into his ribs. “Don’t laugh,” Kalana whispered into his ear, sounding annoying.

“I wasn’t.”

“Yeah you were.”

Lienne, for her part, was becoming frantic, and so were many of the other raiders. Otherwise, order was at least holding up for the moment, but Zach knew it could break down in an instant. What was he supposed to do? With a Phase Level of 3, how could he possibly survive?

I should’ve just stayed in school.