Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds (36 page)

He gave them a nod. Amos lifted his chin as Toby joined them. “Welcome to beat down town.”

“Not going to lie, that… sounds pretty rad.”

“It really is. You don’t wanna be in finger wiggler-ville.”

“That does sound lame in comparison, yes.”

“Word.”

The man closest to the door waved his hands over his head. There was a large sword on his back. He didn’t have a shield. “Okay people, form up. Most of you have been through here, so I’ll keep this brief.”

D’oh.

“We need to keep pace with the other group. Either side gets too far ahead and we get adds. So just be mindful and stop if they are still fighting. They should do the same for us. Once we get there we’ll talk boss. No big deal, a pretty standard tank and spank. I’ll keep him against the wall, everyone stay behind him to avoid swipes. Got it? Good.” He nodded a few times. “I’m Mark, your main tank, and Kelly over there,” he pointed to a young woman with a thick wooden shield on her arm, “is our off tank just in case things get dicey. But things wont get dicey because you’re professionals, isn’t that right?”

There was some chuckling from the group.

Mark kept his eyes on the other group. His name was on the left side of Toby’s vision, so he was the tank he would follow.

With a nod from Paul across to them, Mark turned and pulled at the handle of the giant door. This whole place was built for beings far larger than humans. Then again, that last lizard boss would have had to duck to make it through this door. Maybe it got better from here.

Then again, there
was
a dragon at the end. It must have its own door. Maybe its door had a little cat door style door in it for its lizard people to use. The thought was amusing and Toby grinned.

Mark nodded to him. “Enthusiasm. Good. You’re going to need that.”

He pushed the door open with his shoulder as he drew the large sword from his back.

Faces turned to them in the hallway ahead. They looked human enough, aside from having black spots where their eyes should be. Bright points of yellow light appeared in those crevices as the faces fixed on them. Their mouths opened in wordless cries, showing more glowing lights within. Their skin was cracked and glowing in places, as if fire had only recently played over their skin.

Huh. Toby drew his sword as they moved into the hallway.

He could see the other hallway across a wide pit. Paul, Claire, and Jesse were the first ones crossing into the other hallway. The mobs there looked similar but were ghostly and lacked legs. Just floating torsos he could see through, but with the same yellow lights for eyes and bright burn spots.

Not the nicest place to hang out.

Mark charged ahead with his sword raised. A dark haired man followed him holding a large hammer. He looked like a cleric. An unhappy cleric.

Toby followed them into the fray.

The mobs didn’t fight like the other human mobs Toby had faced. They seemed a bit less… smart? The AI was simpler. They grouped up like zombies or skeletons instead of trying to keep their distance or flank like the bandits had. Then again, they didn’t look to be the most logical people, what with fire between their ears and all.

Then again, they hit a
lot
harder if the cleric’s attention to Mark’s wellbeing was any indicator. They also took a considerable beating. Toby was wailing on them without much progress. They would flinch when hit, sometimes bleeding a quick gout of flame, but they didn’t seem overly concerned with dying.

They reminded Toby of undead more and more. Perhaps they were. It would sort of make sense.

The one Toby was fixated on started to glow, the burning wounds in its skin growing brighter as the rest of its skin seemed to catch.

Mark kicked it away from the group. It lurched back a few steps before bursting into flame as it died. The explosion hurt a few of the others.

Toby blinked. “Damn.”

Mark nodded. “This place might be
slightly
over tuned.”

An explosion sounded from across the gap. Toby turned to see a similar situation over there. He looked back at the hallway ahead. There are at least thirty more of these things. Three presently pressing towards them.

This was going to take awhile.

They fought onward, focusing on one burned up former dragon slayer at a time. They would use knock backs, stuns, blinds, anything they had to crowd control the others away while they all focus fired one down at a time. Then they would back off to let it explode and start on the next.

Toby spent entirely too much time concerned with what was happening on the other side of the pit. He knew it, but that didn’t help much. He’d glance that way between fights. Between pulls… between swings.

Kelly, the off tank, waved her hand in front of his face. They were nearing the end now, only another five or six to go.

He shook his head and looked aside at her. “What?”

“They’re fine.” She glanced over. “No problems on their end. In fact, with you so distracted, they’re doing better than us.”

He shrugged. “We’re supposed to be keeping pace.”

“And we are. What we’re not supposed to be doing is fixating. We have our own problems.”

“Just… making sure.”

“She’ll be fine.”

“What? Who told you about…” His voice trailed off as she raised an eyebrow.

“Nobody. Educated guess, which you confirmed.”

He rubbed at the back of his neck. “I guess I kinda did.”

“Look, nobody is here without cause. But we only make it if we’re dedicated. So let them do their part and you do yours. It will all be over faster that way anyway.”

He nodded. “Right, right.”

She gave a curt nod and moved on ahead. The next of the fiery undead guys was charging.

He adjusted his grip on Soulbreaker. He didn’t have time to be distracted. Besides, even if something bad did happen over there… he couldn’t get there to help them. The people on this side needed him at his best. He was supposed to be making up for any gear gap. If his mind kept being elsewhere his side might be the one in need of help.

Soulbreaker impaled the fiery undead guy in the chest. He fell backwards and gave an actual cry of pain as the sword reappeared in Toby’s outstretched hand.

Mark raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s handy.”

“It really is.”

“And that isn’t magical?”

“The sword is pretty special, yeah. But it hurts things by hitting them with sharpened metal, so no. Not magic damage. As far as I know. Seems to work?”

“Huh. Neat.”

Toby nodded as he swung at the undead thing just getting back to its feet. “I bet we can beat the other team to the doors. Not by a lot. Not a lead so great as to cause a problem… but just enough… to say we won.”

Mark stared at him a moment before his face broke into a grin. “Sounds like a plan.”

Kelly rolled her eyes, but the corners of her mouth were turned up as she charged in with them.

The last of the fiery undead fell at a greater pace and with fewer problems. Toby lead the damage efforts against them, though Mark had to call him off twice to wait for the other side to catch up.

Toby smiled as he watched them fighting on the other side. His side was much faster when they put their minds to it.

“So much for magic being so great.” Amos stepped up beside Toby. There was only one more fiery undead dragon slayer left, and he hadn’t been pulled yet. He just milled around near the final door.

Toby nodded. “Strength and a good sword are all a man has ever needed.”

Mark glanced across the gap. “I concur.”

Amos hefted his bow. “Looks like they’re onto the last one.”

“Oh, we can’t have them winning.” Mark lifted his sword and pointed ahead. “Give him hell, people!”

Arrows flew overhead to strike him as they charged. The poor bastard’s fiery eyes turned to them but there was no understanding there. His purpose was to stand around and eventually die.

They laid into it with blades and maces. It didn’t take long with everyone focused. A final kick from Mark saw the undead thing tumbling down into the pit between the two bridges. It exploded before it hit the ground.

Toby glanced aside to see the last fiery ghost die as well.

The side of his mouth turned up. Strength and steel had won out over magic.

The two paths wound their way closer together, but never met. Both had their own door at the end, but the gap was narrow enough here that they could speak across it.

Paul gave a nod. “Good work.”

Mark shrugged. “Of course.”

“For those of you not in the known, it only gets worse from here. The bosses follow the same concept, but they are in the same room. We need to be careful to keep them apart and to ensure they die as close together as possible. When one drops, the other will enrage. More damage, damage resistance, and both of those climb the longer the effect lasts, so be on your toes. If your boss is getting low, check on the other one and slack off if needs be.”

Mark nodded. “This one isn’t a race. I’ve seen raids get wrecked by one of these with five percent of its health left.”

Toby frowned. Their side had an advantage with his damage. He would need to be mindful.

“Watch the void zones. These guys use a lot of them. It’s a gout of flame that shoots straight up. You see a circle, get out of it. I don’t care about your DPS.”

Jesse nodded her head vigorously. “Don’t stand in the fire. Literally this time.”

Paul glance aside at her. “Yes, thank you. Other than that, when you dodge the circles be sure not to move close to the other group. Stay on your own side of the room, no matter what. The physical boss will wreck everyone on the magic side and vice versa. Lets avoid that, yeah?”

Everyone nodded.

“When they both get to 50% their vulnerabilities and immunities swap, so we’ll have to trade bosses, because it’s easier than trading sides of the room. Mark and I will handle that, everyone else stop damaging your boss when it gets to that point. You’ll just be wasting resources. Okay, ten minute enrage timer again. We’ve got this.”

30

Mark nodded at Paul as he pulled open his door and Paul opened his own.

Toby tapped the timer hanging in the air before him. Nine minutes, fifty nine seconds. He followed Mark inside.

The pair of bosses stood at the center of the room facing each others. In every visible way they were identical, aside from the one on the right being ghostly, his lower extremities fading away before hitting the ground.

Both were easily twice as tall as Toby.

Mark lead them around the side of the room following the left side wall while Paul lead his own groups around hugging the right.

The bosses seemed to pay them no mind. Either their aggro radius hadn’t been scaled up with them or they really didn’t care that anyone else was present.

Mark moved away from the group while waving for the others to stay back against the wall. Paul was doing likewise. They marched across the open space toward each other and toward the motionless bosses.

They both raised their weapons and glanced at each other. Mark raised three fingers and Paul gave a nod. He counted down and after “one” both of them swung. The landing blows seemed to wake the bosses from their stupor.

Mark hightailed it back toward the wall and his group. His arms pumped as he ran. Not exactly coolheaded or dignified. Toby couldn’t see what was happening on the other side with the giant chasing Mark.

The boss stomped along in his wake. It looked like the mobs on the way in had, aside from being much larger and bearing more fire scars. It also seemed to be wearing a lot more armor.

The groups made a path for Mark as he ran, ending up with his back against the wall. The groups spread out, the two healers and Kelly, the spare tank, moving into position while all of the DPS spread out in a circle behind the boss as it closed and started laying into Mark.

Toby wasn’t entirely sure if proximity to other characters made circles of badness more likely to show up… but it did make it harder to get out of them in time as the players bumped into each other and wasted time.

They had barely started the fight when the first set of three circles appeared. Toby was in one, of course, but near the edge of it, so he simply stepped out and started swinging again.

Even if he could soak up the damage, he didn’t need Jesse badgering him about it later.

The typical result followed. People moving out of circles meant people moving closer together into given areas. The second set of circles appeared in those areas like clockwork. Toby stepped out again, trying to keep his attention on the boss’s knee.

A dastardly knee… in need of some chopping. For great justice.

Large bosses made sense from an “I need to see it” standpoint, but they always seemed kind of silly when it was supposed to be a human or something similarly sized. Or hell, even something smaller. Just ridiculous. Not that he would voice a complaint. It wouldn’t change anything, and it would be hard to pack this many players around a human sized foe. He understood that. It still seemed silly.

The boss’s health drained at a steady pace. The DPS were doing their job well. Lots of shooting, stabbing, burning, and so forth. Almost as much dancing.

It was down to 75% in a matter of minutes. Toby spared a glance to see the other boss closer to 80%. He slacked off his attacks a bit, swinging slower than his best.

Toby had never been a big time raider. He had been to plenty, to be sure, but it had never really been his idea of a great time. He understood the desire to work and progress as a group, he could get behind large threats and given time limits and special mechanics… but he just hated hitting giants in the shin. Especially for so long. How much punishment could one shin take?

He preferred fights where he was facing mobs toe to toe, face to face, man to man, mono a mono.

Maybe he should roll a tank when he actually got to play the game for enjoyment after all this.

He wasn’t entirely sure he would… but he was leaning toward playing. Not with Tobin Ironblood, of course. That name was ruined in this game. He’d have to come up with something else. Be someone else.