The Last Experience Point

The sound of four gigantic hooves slamming down against an already torn up street was far louder than a few thuds. To Zach's ears, they were more akin to miniature booms. Yet even still, he remained perfectly motionless and stayed right where he was as the Mare of the Primordial Void made straight for him. For this, Jimmy shot him a look of utter gratitude. Zach wasn't sure why. But he did recall Kalana saying something about the adventurer known as "Emala" fleeing after getting aggro from a dungeon boss last night, which had apparently been what had briefly derailed the entire raid. Zach supposed that was why Jimmy appeared so relieved that Zach knew better than to take off running.

Remaining still and letting the tanks peel aggro is the only way to deal with this, he thought to himself as he watched the aggroed horse come nearer.

As the boss closed in on him, Zach ignored the first signs of fear bubbling up within him and he continued to stand his ground. He didn't even bother to draw his weapon or enter a defensive stance. He simply kept his feet planted right there in the middle of the street while fifteen adventurers rushed by him fast enough to cause a small gust of wind to ruffle his robe.

"Taunting!" Maric cried over the Comm.

Now, the massive T9 boss, which had been galloping straight for Zach, came to an abrupt, unnaturally harsh stop. Swiveling around almost robotically, it turned its body and decided to attack Maric Ultdern instead. With a loud neigh, it attempted to stomp down on him; its hoof was then deflected by the man's large, crescent-shaped shield, though at the cost of a pained-sounding groan from the brawny old adventurer.

"Are you okay, son?" asked a voice beside him. Zach turned his head to see the scarred face of Spider, the second-in-command of the God Slayers Guild, staring back at him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Zach said. "I didn't take any hits or anything."

"All right. Good." Upon those words, Spider moved in with the other off-tanks, and Zach finally began to step back.

"Okay, everyone, it looks like the tanks got aggro," Jimmy said with an approving nod. "Who's ready to kill this thing?"

The adventurers released a cheer, but it definitely sounded deflated and unenthusiastic. Many of them looked rattled and uncertain, and several were muttering off-Comm that they should de-aggro and rethink attempting this raid today. Put simply, there was a whole lot of reluctance starting to build among the more than one-hundred people participating in this encounter, and in Zach's honest opinion, their hesitance was entirely justified after what all of them had just witnessed happening.

It insta-killed my pet, Zach thought, feeling a nervous chill travel down his back in opposition to the intense heat that was still causing sweat to glide down his forehead and sting his eyes.

Zach had never seen a damage number anywhere near that large, which was really saying something considering he'd once done over a billion damage to a Ziragoth add with Doomsday Slash I. The number had been so large that, even if Zach had been able to see it for a little longer, he still wouldn't know what it was, as he wasn't sure what came after a "quintillion" and the number had been far, far bigger than that. Several orders of magnitude larger, in fact. Jimmy had therefore been correct…and that wasn't really a good thing so far as raid morale was concerned. People were understandably worried. Something about this boss felt different.

Very different.

Zach glanced over to Jimmy, who was standing atop a DEHV truck with his hands over his forehead like a visor. Briefly, Zach met his eyes, and there wasn't even a trace of doubt or uncertainty in them. He looked like he had things well under control. Zach hoped that was the case. Because the boss was a T9 and it could kill them all if the situation got out of hand.

"This thing hits about as hard as Phase 1 Ziragoth," Maric grunted as the equine boss attempted to bite him but was warded off by the man's shield. "Which is very hard!"

"Just hang in there," Jimmy said. "Also, tanks: try to use as few melee attacks as possible. We really, really don't want that thing to get melee immunity before the melee DPS have had a chance to unload on it."

"So what do you want us to do for now?" asked a tank from the GSG who Zach didn't quite recognize.

"Just establish firm aggro and hit it as little as possible. We're gonna start our rotations now." He laughed. "Everybody, lighten up. Stop looking so damn nervous. Guys, take a deep breath and just relax. It's gonna be all right."

Despite his assurances, Zach had the sense that Jimmy's words did little to lessen the trepidation among the adventurers. Once again, Zach couldn't blame them. Unlike the dragon, which had been an existential crisis with the potential to end civilization, this boss was not quite on that level in terms of urgency, and so of course they weren't as motivated as they'd been during a fight for survival like the one against Ziragoth. If one tried to imagine the worst possible outcome of not killing this boss, it would be short- to mid-term economic disruption for the region of Faded Island as they ended up having to build new roads around it.

Continuing to back away, Zach observed as a group of eleven men and four women occupied most of the space in front of the boss. Although all of them had their shields raised and various weapons drawn, few were actually attacking it, and those who did were lashing out with very light attacks that only did a few-hundred damage. Zach suspected those were "taunting" strikes meant more to draw aggro than to inflict damage.

"I need a rest," Maric said over the Comm, sounding weary and strained.

"I'll grab it," replied Ophelia Graven, the leader of Boss Rush. Her buckler shield was the smallest of the bunch, yet it proved no less capable of absorbing the boss's repeated attempts to either stomp or bite her. She sliced the mare for 826 damage and then a flash of light came from her eyes, likely another form of a taunt. She now had full aggro.