Arina took a slow breath as her arm drew back the string with the arrow to reach a ready position. Once she was done she waited a few seconds before opening her fingers ever so slightly and let the arrow fly. The arrow flew across the desolate ground and struck the undead horror in the head, killing it. It burst into small bright sparkles before dissipating. His comrades were swiftly taken care of as well. She just needed to strike first. It was a wondrous day really. This day had been set aside for quite some time. About two or three guilds sent some of their best troops who were in the same level range as each other to take on this dungeon instance together. Arina belonged to one of those guilds, so naturally she was going to take pride in her Guild over the others. But she wanted to expand her friends list and meet new players. Players of other races and all that jazz. Arina had been quiet through almost the entire dungeon. That's not the thing to be thinking about though. This instance was among the first of many many more to come. This one was a journey down into a crypt that was said to only have two bosses and be relatively quick to do. Their group was in the right range for numbers and they had been going through rather quickly, seeing as how most of them were new to this dungeon. Arina was, and she was having the time of her life. They had already taken out one of the bosses and now they were making the final push to the final boss room. Arina had no idea what kind of loot would be rewarded to her for finishing this dungeon. She could barely contain her excitement. Or well..she could. She had been doing that for quite some time. The group pushed on, with the clacking of weapons against armor and armor against the stone floor ringing all throughout the halls. The most experienced players were at the front of the group, leading the others. After a few more minutes of walking the group came upon a very large door and they stopped. The three most experienced players in front signaled a halt and turned around to face the group. "Well, here we are. The Final Boss door." A few cheers were heard but since most of the players here were inexperienced to this dungeon they stood quietly and listened to the man speak. Arina was among that crowd. "This boss is relatively easy, with only a few varying attack patterns. He won't be anywhere near as easy as the first boss though, so prepare yourselves." Arina nodded in agreement with him and then put her bow on her back as she had been holding it this entire time. Now one of the other players in front raised a hand to signal the attention of the mass. He was a spriggon. "The best way to combat this boss is to split up into groups of about five or six and switch off and attack in patterns. Mages try to vary yourselves around a bit as you will most likely be stationary." Next the other player in front, a female Undine, raised her hand. "Healers party up with each other to stick together and focus your healing abilities. Your skills will be boosted in groups." Then after a few seconds of silence the man in the middle raised his hand again and a smile was on his face. "Does everyone know what to do?" There was silence. "Like I said earlier," He started again, "This boss is fairly simple. We should have no problems with this one. Now, party up with your respective players and once everyone is ready we will take this boss down!" This time a loud cheer came out of the mass, what followed was quick movements all around and chattering that grew in volume. Arina had no one approach her and she stood in silence. She didn't know who to party up with! She didn't see any other archers, though there had to be some! She was a pure DPS character, she would need some balance in a group. Preferebly with a tank or two. They already had healers...the partying was just for attack groups. But still, she didn't know what to do. So she decided to walk around and see if anything would happen. Her long hair moving with her body as she walked. "Come on Arina, find a group." She muttered to herself as she continued to walk.

With a quick slash of her sword, the undead enemy in front of her was no more. Shishirou had joined an expedition with some other guys, since it sounded like fun, though she had to join alone. She put her katana again in its sheath for the dramatic effect. If a kanji were to appear in the enemy she just slashed, it'd be the perfect badass scene, however it only disappeared into digital bits, and Shishirou sighed, before walking after the others in front of her. This was it. When Shiho, no, Shishirou, felt better, inside this game of ALO that let all of her worries slip away and makes her complex go away. She looked like a child, yes, but she was one damn happy child. She carried her katana around in her hand, and her violin in her back. It seemed odd, to see a little girl walking around wrapped in armor with a katana in her hand and with a violin strapped to her back. In fact, she changed one to the other constantly in battle, to apply buffs and whatnot with the music of her violin, and then approach and attack with her katana. Shishirou usually gathered with a group of friends in ALO, but today, they had decided to stay in that dreadful world they dare call the real life. "Blegh." She grunted. "Who needs a boyfriend anyway, when you can slay mobs." She said, in a mocking tone while she walked. Still, now that she was all left all alone without her usual group of misfits, she didn't have anyone to team up with. She was taken last time by a group who thought of her as a pet, but well, what could she say? Shishirou was a real veteran at these kinds of games, she even made more EXP than the other, and this time, they had left her out because of that. It mostly had something to do with the fact that they were colossal n00bs, but she didn't like to mock them. "Gah, they irritate me! Stupids! Who do they think they are! Grrrr!" Like a little beast, she started retorting around with irritation, until she finally gave up and sighed. "Fine, I'll just find someone else to team up with! Now, who'd be someone cool to partner up with? I don't really care 'bout balance, as long as they look cool. Uh, an Spriggan or a Cait Sith would be purrfect." She hoped to attract some interested guys with her pun, and she looked around for a reaction. Though, the only reaction she received was that of looks full of pity or that were yelling 'Who let a child into the group?' "Fine then. I hope the monster eats you aaaall up!" She said, with puffed cheeks before continuing with her search. It was going to be fruitless, so she decided to do something a bit more extreme. She found some guy, about the same height as her real self, and started climbing unto him without any warning whatsoever. "Just stay still for a moment, I'll be done right away." She said, while the guy grunted and complained. After finally arriving to his shoulders, she stood up on them. "Heeeey! Is anyone out there still looking for someone to party up with!? I'm pretty much free right now, so we can team up! Heeey! Hey!" She shouted, in an attempt to catch the attention of anyone who was still out there and without someone to party with, smiling all the while.

Alex was kind of bored. The dungeon had brought a little fun, but kill one mob of undead in a room, killed them all in every room. It was very much a pattern finding game, and there was only so much they could spice it up with. The first boss had brought some flavour, but whatever flavour it brought still faded. Well, it’s not like Alex had anything better to do. As the (rather large) party arrived at the final boss door, their leaders addressed them. “Well, here we are. The Final Boss door.” One of them said. “Yay.” Alex said cheerlessly. Alex didn’t really listen as they talked. He was kind of getting bored of the taming game. He seriously doubted he would find a dragon in Alfheim, and he was pretty sure that if he did find one, it’d be a boss, but that didn’t stop him from hoping. It was too bad, but his current familiars weren’t that amazing. The thing was, it was really hard to get something like a unicorn, because they were too high level. The thing was, his 3 familiars would probably kick the ass of a same levelled dire bear, but they didn’t look like that. A cat, a large turtle and a slightly-larger-than-normal crow. Yes, they would kick a bear’s ass any day of the week, assuming it was the same level, but it didn’t change the fact that a bear was a lot more impressive than a cat, unless the cat was a lion or something. Alex wasn’t really listening to the leader’s speech. Something about the boss’s attack patterns or something. Alex was more concerned about his own problems. He decided that after the boss fight, he’d try to tame a really good bear. Sure, it might be better to get a lion or a tiger, but he already had Steven for the cat department, and Steven would get jealous. And besides, bears were cool in their own right. Maybe he’d get a polar bear for the coolness. Alex drifted out of his trance and found that they were splitting off to make groups, for some reason. Alex looked around to find that he didn’t have anyone to go with. Yes, he was in a guild, but he was more of a ghost member, and the only reason the leader wanted him on this party was probably because he was tired of Alex’s antics. Just as he was wondering what to do, Alex heard a voice cry out. "Heeeey! Is anyone out there still looking for someone to party up with!? I'm pretty much free right now, so we can team up! Heeey! Hey!" The voice yelled. Alex turned around and almost fell over in surprise. A blond haired girl was riding the shoulders of a seemingly unwilling person, trying to get some group mates. This was certainly new. Alex reluctantly raised his hand, trying to get her attention. “Yeah, over here. I don’t have a group either.” He said.

Another day on ALO and another dungeon Kite thought as his group ventured through this dungeon. He had no idea why he was brought along. In all honesty Kite was not a trusting player so to avoid being PVPed in the field by his comrades he tends to not have comrades. That was probably his mind set when he chose to be a black winged Spriggan. Yeah, it does make him seem shy but he didn't really care. The only point to logging onto ALO was to hack and slash through ghouls and goblins. He only joined a guild because he was forced to. He was ganged up by a bunch of other Spriggans and pressured to play with their emblem on his armor. That was all his guild could make him do since he gave absolute protestation to teaming up with other Spriggans and hunting down monsters in his time killer. Besides who would want to wait until some other people actually take the time to log in so he could kill some. That thought brings him to today's issue: He was dragged along to this mass dungeon raid. Kite was one of the more skilled members of his guild so he was pulled in some multi-guild attack on this dungeon. Since he boycotted parties he tends to avoid the conflict unless he one-hitted a few weakened enemies. In fact he has avoided taking any damage this entire raid. Now that they were at the final boss room everyone here felt like they had to make a speech. They were saying something like everyone should join a party of five to six members. Kite didn't especially want to join up with anyone but I guess it couldn't hurt just for this room. Kite was confident in his abilities but he was nowhere near the strongest in this room. "If they need people to help them hack and slash then I guess I could use some too." He said as he continued to walk around the scattering and joining masses. Then he seemed to have walked into a person with a little blonde on their shoulders. "Sorry about that." He instinctively stated after bumping into a person.

Near the front of the raid stood two figures trading blows that hardly seemed to shake one another. The Undead Warrior would lunge at its enemy, only to see its strike deflected by a massive shield and suffer a counter attack that barely scraped its health bar. The tit for tat struggle would have lasted hours had a stray arrow not struck the monster from the side. Seeing her prey dissolve into glittering lights, the player gave a petulant sigh, disappointed that she hadn't scored a single kill so far. She was rather proud of how well she had held aggro, but with the sheer number of players in the raid it was near pointless; there were almost too many to kill. Deciding that even an assist was better than nothing, the girl slammed her overlarge shield into the ground to celebrate the kinda-victory before following the mass of bodies to the next room. She joined in the ragged cheer as the more experienced players outlined their plans, which were thankfully simple enough. These kind of dungeons didn't often have adds in the boss rooms though, so she was willing to admit to feeling a bit superfluous; even a fully specced tank couldn't hope to hold aggro against a raid boss alone. Perhaps that was the reasoning behind having many smaller groups though, to share the incoming damage between the highest number of targets..? Ah, the hell with it... Those in charge presumably knew what they were doing and she wasn't going to step on anyone's toes just yet, which led smoothly along to her next problem... finding a party. While she had been second-guessing people, half of the raid had organised itself. The diminutive tank wandered through the throng, trying to find a group lacking in heavy armour to attach herself to. Fortunately, opportunity called in the form of another tiny girl, this one hanging off some poor sod's shoulders... 'Hey midget! Sign me up.' She approached the girl and her unwilling steed with a game-winning grin. 'I like your style. Call me Da Loli... Or Fuyuko. Preferably Da Loli.' In spite of her bombastic introduction, Fuyuko paid close attention to the girl's equipment, determining that her build was most likely either DPS or off-tanking. In either case, she could be a good foil to Fuyuko's absolute tank style. She also noted a handful of others close by, including two males, one of whom looked suspiciously like he was trying to escape, and a lost looking girl. A two-hander, a one-hander and an archer; all DPS builds. Outstanding. 'And you three fine darlings, yaranaika?' Fuyuko gave them her best suggestive grin, fully aware that she had most likely scared them all off.

With a broad sweep of her flaming sword, Athena dealt the finishing blow to two Undead Warriors standing before her. As the monsters fell to their knees in defeat, they each gave a monstrous cry before falling to the ground and exploding into countless shards of light. The elegant longsword in Athena's grasp wavered slightly as she began feeling the mental fatigue from the fierce battle. Unlike most of the other players in the dungeon group, Athena was one of the only solo players who decided to come along. With nobody to fight alongside her, the mental strain of the battles was multiplied several times. If it had been Natsuki Kawaguchi of the real world, not Athena of ALfheim Online, who stood in her place at that moment, she was certain that she too would have fallen to her knees from the physical exhaustion. Returning her sword to its sheath by her side, Athena made her way to the front lines, where the other players were gathering to discuss tactics for the dungeon boss just ahead. Glancing at her HP meter in the corner of her sight, she saw that her HP had managed to drop to about 60%. As a solo player, Athena compensated for her lack of strength in numbers by using self-cast buff spells to increase her own strength. One of her favored buffs was Berserk, which greatly increased her attack power to allow her to fight against superior numbers, but it also cost much of her HP after each battle. Reaching into her potion pouch, Athena searched around its contents to look for a bottle of Healing Potion to recover her HP. To her annoyance, the pouch was emptier than she remembered it to be. All that remained inside the pouch was a bottle containing red liquid and a Mana Potion bottle. "Damn it! I forgot to restock on potions before I came here!" Athena muttered under her breath, as she opened the bottle in her hands and drank the red healing liquid inside. Even with her HP now recovering to its maximum amount, it was uncertain that she would be able to survive the upcoming battle with the dungeon boss. I can't turn back now, I've gone too far to just turn around and give up. Athena sighed to herself in defeat. It seemed like she had no choice but to find a group to party up with. Even though she had the Battle Healing skill to passively recover her HP, the healing rate wouldn't be able to help her survive a boss battle without backup. Evaluating her surroundings, it seemed that most of the players gathered around were already forming parties and were starting to discuss battle strategies. Her heart sank as she wandered through the crowd of players. Everyone had their backs turned to her, busy talking amongst themselves. Just was she was on the verge of giving up finding players to form a party with, Athena suddenly caught sight of a tiny Cait Sith player wandering the crowds. "Hey, you - wait!" Athena called out as she followed the Cait Sith, pushing through the players who were standing in her way, wishing the player who created the Cait Sith character hadn't made it so small and hard to find in a crowd. After much shoving and searching, Athena found herself standing in front of a group of five players: three of the players were Cait Siths, one Pooka, and a Spriggan. If there was a sixth player, it would have meant that this group was a full party as well, but Athena couldn't see a sixth person. "Sorry for the intrusion, but if the five of you are creating a party for the boss battle ahead, I don't suppose you have room for a solo player?" Athena asked, with a slight polite bow of her head.

As Arina continued to wander the crowd of people that was slowly becoming more and more segregated as everyone was finding their respective groups. Arina stood on her tip toes to look to the back of the crowd and saw many of the healers together just like the person at the front said. She always had a soft spot for the healers. Being of her build she loved being the one to cause massive damage to the mobs and adds and the bosses. But the players who play as healers, give that damage dealing power to solely heal their teammates and themselves. She would probably never play as a healer. That just wasn't her style. But this isn't anytime to be thinking about soft spots for other classes. As she came back to reality, or virtual reality, she bumped into a rather tall looking male who was of a tank build. When he saw her bow on her back he smiled to her. There were three other male standing next to him. "Hey guys, I found a-" But he was cut off by his buddy who was waving him at the end of the group as he brought up a mage to add to their group. His focus quickly shifted away and he seemed to forget about her. Arina gave a small huff and then turned away. Before she knew it she had locked her eyes on another Cait Sith that was sitting on top of another player who seemed to be rather annoyed by the situation he was in. Something about that player caught her eye, and now as she watched she saw a few solo players come up to each other around her and begin speaking. This was her chance, they had a tank! Who was...like..a midget. No way. 'And you three fine darlings, yaranaika?' Arina didn't even realize how close she had gotten to them. She was definitely talking to her. Well, looks like she found a group to run with. The archer shifted her shoulders a bit before smiling to all of them. "I'd love to party up with you all. And..." She pointed a finger to Fuyuko. "You are by far the smallest tank I have ever seen." She couldn't help but laugh. She meant no disrespect. Before she could say anything else another player approached them and asked to join up with them. Arina smiled to her. "I believe so. With that, that makes us a full party." she smiled to all of them yet again. Then she waved her hand a bit to each of them. "I'm Arina by the way. Nice to meet you all!" But before proper introductions could go underway the large collected, and now organized, mass was seemingly hushed by the three main leaders at the front as before. "I trust you all have found your respective groups? He cast his eye through the large crowd of players. When he was done a large smile crept up on his face. "In that case, let's get this over with." The three players turned around and all pushed on the boss's large door to open it and let every player through. Arina looked to her group and followed along with them. "This is it I suppose.." Once inside the air seemed to be filled with the stench of death and decay, as well as soot. The crackling of flames could be heard all around and the room seemed to stretch on for miles in the endless darkness. The only light came from the small sparks from the random fires littered around the ground. Players all filed into the room and everyone was readying their weapons for the coming fight. Once everyone was inside the door slowly came to close behind them. Once it did the room was almost pitch black if not for the small fire light. In this darkness no one said a word. Then came a noise. The sound of rhythmic beating, too loud to be coming from any player. Even though the sound was loud, it was also loud and caused the ground to shake beneath their feet. After a few seconds the beating seemed to speed up and then it came back down to its regular pace. Then the torches all around the room lit the room up all at once and there the boss stood, in all of its grotesque glory. The room was very large due to their large party size. The boss towered over the players and seemed to not even know that they were there. Every new player to this instance was anxiously waiting for what to do. Arina was among that group. The grotesque mass of chained bodies for a boss? What were the game developers thinking?! That was disgusting! But before she had time to react the boss reached his body covered arms up and then let a loud roar stumble a few players. "Tanks! Hold it's aggro while our DPS does their job! Healers! Keep an eye out and have your spells ready! This boss has a small move set for close range attacks and virtually no ranged attack except for one. But that's no threat to use if his aggro is held! Let's go!" With that said the player brought his large shield up and ran at the beast, a battle cry on his lips the entire time he ran. Tanks from all the groups followed suite, and the melee DPS players all started to move around the boss to start dealing damage and let the tanks hold him Arina knew she wasn't going to be getting close, but she liked this because she could keep an eye on her teammates. As she moved back she looked around and found the ones she teamed up with. All of them were close range... "Don't die..any of you."She muttered to herself as she started to pull back an arrow to start dealing damage to the Boss.

Surprisingly, her recruiting was a success. After being approached by another little girl, she got off the shoulders of the guy she was on until now and landed safely on the floor with a childish gesture. "Nice to meet you, Da loli! I am Shishirou, but you can just call me Shirou if you want. Or the other loli." She said, with a big grin on her face. With all the other newcomers, her grin soon turned into a big smile, going from ear to ear. After Arina's short self intro, she was about to proceed with her own, when the boss told them it was time to move. "No need to be so gloomy, Arina! It'll be okay, I'm sure of it! I bet we'll make the strongest party ever! Yosh! Moete kita zo!" She said, turning her voice deeper in the last bit. She followed into the boss room along with everyone else. Well, the other one wasn't so much of a pushover, but wasn't really difficult. It would be okay, probably. Not that you would die in real life if you died here... Okay, that was a gloomy thought. Shishirou slapped her cheeks to prepare herself for what was to come. When the room opened... Well, it would be an understatement to say that Shishirou was extremely creeped out by how the boss looked. Chained bodies? Who came up with that!? Definitely someone sick. All the other bosses and monsters were normal in comparison to this one. Well, nothing she could do right now, or in the near future, to be honest. This was really something really cool, and she got herself some pretty good teammates too, so she could only give it her best. The tiniest tank ever in existance, several cats, a Salamander and a Spriggan, along with a musician, herself, it really sounded funny if she put it like that. She giggled a bit. She took the violin hanging from her back and put the katana where the violin had been before. She took the violin in her left hand, her bow on the right hand, and she put her chin on the support it had, before taking a deep breath. "Don't worry. I won't die, so you don't go dying on us either, all right?" She slowly started playing the violin, and the first buff appeared next to everyone's life gauge. A defense boost. She changed the tune and started playing it a bit more aggresively, and another buff appeared, this time an attack one. She started going from one tune to another, adding all the buffs she knew to her partners. "That should be enough for us. Now, for that guy.... I wonder if debuffs work on that thing? Err, things? Whatever." She started playing it again, this time to debuff their enemy. Whatever debuff stuck to it was good enough. After that, she put her violin in her back again and took her katana again, spinning it around in her hand. "All ready! Let's do this!"

If you ask for help then it shall be given. That was what his parents had always told him but it didn't usually work that way. Kite felt that things will always work out to be the same exactly way because it was always meant to be. Especially since he seemed to be recruited into a party because of the particular beeline he took on his way to the boss room. It looked like he was stuck with a salamander, pooka, and three cait siths on his little team. Kite was going to protest being in a group but before he could ask them to move he was being loaded with buffs. He guessed that this couldn't be too bad. As he complained to himself he noticed that the leaders of their army had taken the liberty to opening up the giant door in their way. The boss looked like a bunch of zombies got lost in the dark and sort of ended up tangled into each other. It was too bad because Kite was looking forward to slicing up a fifty foot skeleton after he passed a bunch of smaller ones. Then again killing this giant zombie hybrid monster could be fun too. Well either way he was wasting time standing around here. "I'm going in. If you want to back me up then come right ahead." Kite said ignoring most of his team saying hi. It was not that he held any qualm to these new strangers but he was here to kill the monster. Kite pulled out his curved blade and embarked on his stroll to the boss. He wasn't really concerned about anything right now. He just wanted to see this zombie's fighting style and attack patterns. Knocking HP to zero was not Kite's way of winning. In Kites eyes winning meant being able to out do the other guy's fighting style. When Kite looked up he finally made his way to the boss.

-Le double post-

'And you three fine darlings, yaranaika?' Try as he might, Alex didn’t get the reference, and he doubted that he wanted to, judging by the tiny tank’s grin. Suggestive smiles aside, it seemed they were getting more people, which was good. It also reminded him that he had ‘people’ to add to the group as well. Alex activated <<Summon animal companion>> and a very familiar, very annoying bird was summoned. Alan the annoying joined the party. The first thing Alan did was fly onto Steven’s head (who was on Alex’s head) and started pecking at him. “Stop that.” Alex said, flicking the annoying crow’s forehead. Alan backed off, but only for a little bit. Out of all 3 of his companions, Alan was the most annoying to deal with. Sure, he followed orders, but when he didn’t have to follow them, he didn’t. Alan settled onto Steven’s head, thankfully refraining from assaulting the sleepy cat. Alex turned his attention to the spontaneously grown 6 person group, which he could’ve sworn was just 3 before he looked away. He quickly studmied their user names. The new additions included a cat archer called Arina, a solo salamander shield bearing swordswoman by the name of Athena, a small cat tank by the name of Fuyuko and a spriggan swordsman (Ugh, more S. Anymore alliteration might alter Alex’s understanding) by the name of Kite. And Alex, of course. And there was the girl who was still on the shoulders of another guy (who’s username was Shishirou). There was a good amount of variety, and there were few things he was concerned about. "Nice to meet you, Da loli! I am Shishirou, but you can just call me Shirou if you want. Or the other loli." "I'm Arina by the way. Nice to meet you all!" Members of his party started introducing themselves, so Alex followed the gesture. “Yeah, hi. My name’s Tim, but with a 1 instead of an i. Tim was taken, you see.” Alex shrugged. “This is Steven, by the way, and on his head is Alan.” He said, pointing out Steven on his head. His attention was drawn to the door as their leaders began speaking again. "This is it I suppose.." “You bet.” Came Alex’s unenthused reply. The cooldown on <<Summon Animal Companion>> had gone down, so Alex used it again, summoning his slightly-larger-than-usual turtle, Thomas the Tank Turtle. “Hey, Thomas.” Alex grunted. The turtle grunted back, happy to be summoned for a fight. The 3 leaders opened the way, and the party followed them as they walked in. The first thing that hit Alex was the stench. “Ueh” He said in surprise. Okay, sure, the dungeon had zombies in it, but he didn’t expect that. A hulking mass of rotting corpses held together by chains. A massive butcher’s knife in its hands, which were made of arms. His fingers were made of arms. Candles burst to light around the arena, showing off the boss in all of its grotesque glory, the monster letting off a monstrous roar. Well, this is something. Alex thought. "Tanks! Hold it's aggro while our DPS does their job! Healers! Keep an eye out and have your spells ready! This boss has a small move set for close range attacks and virtually no ranged attack except for one. But that's no threat to use if his aggro is held! Let's go!" The leaders said. The spriggan swordsman, Kite, ran off straight towards the rotten monstrosity. “Well, he's certainly got guts. Steven, wake up.” Alex said, flicking him in the forehead. Steven yawned and stretched on his head, Alan still pecking him. “Alan, you’ve got a new target.” He continued, grabbing the crow by the head and making him face the boss. He let go and the crow flew into action. “Thomas, on me. You’re tanking, as usual.” Alex told the turtle, drawing his sword. Steven jumped off his head and landed in a battle position. He felt himself being buffed, and turned to the source. The small blond girl, Shishirou. "That should be enough for us. Now, for that guy.... I wonder if debuffs work on that thing? Err, things? Whatever." She said. “You won’t know until you try.” Alex said, getting ready for battle. "Don't die. Any of you." Arina whispered to herself. “Don’t worry about it, we won’t die.” He told her reassuringly. With that, Alex leaped and his companions leaped into the fray.

'Shiro it is. A shame there aren't any more of us about... An entire party of lolis would be Godlike.' Shishirou was clearly her kind of person; a big dumb grin and the ability to quote obscure anime on the spot were all the qualifications she needed. The others Fuyuko had called out to had thankfully not run away, giving their new party a good combat balance and the numbers required; the high proportion of female avatars always a plus. 'Being small means I don't have to reach down to hit them in the bollocks.' Arina's build suggested pure DPS, although Fuyuko had met archers who focused on crowd control or interrupts; in any case she seemed alright, more than she could say for one of the male players, who declined to reply despite joining the party. Probably one of those solo players who thought that VRMMORPGs were all about one man's quest and all that shyte. Different strokes for different folks, she thought dryly. Any response she may have given the other two was cut off by the raid leaders calling the hall into order. Fuyuko had a brief moment to summon her familiar and only method of dealing any real damage before jogging after the rest of the party, her faithful pet lizard loping along behind. It wasn't long before the boss revealed itself in all its morbid glory. It wasn't the fact that is was made of corpses that repulsed her, nor even the stench; the way it moved was just so... wrong that Fuyuko found herself uncharacteristically lost for words. Luckily the raid leaders broke her out of reverie with a stream of orders and the diminutive tank struck her hammer and shield together a few times to psyche herself up. Any discomfort she may have felt was dispelled when Arina spoke up, replaced with a flush of bravado. 'Don't die? To Hell with that! Death or glory!' She took off at a full sprint, drawing level with the Spriggan just as they made contact. Her first glowing strike bounced ineffectively off the thing's metal frame, but succeed in drawing its attention. Pulling her shield across her small body, Fuyuko braced herself for the counter-attack, a wild grin snaking across her features. Moments like this made ALO's subscription worth ever Yen.

"My name is Athena. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your group. It is a pleasure to meet you all." Athena said, introducing herself to her new party members in the formal style of her ALO persona. While the other party members chattered on with small talk, Athena chose to keep silent instead, focusing her thoughts completely on the boss battle ahead, her mind already working methodically to form battle strategies. The party composition was fairly standard for a dungeon raid party, except the absence of a dedicated healer, which only made her own situation worse, with no healing potions left in her character's inventory. Athena had decided against asking her party members for potions. If they'd learned that she had neglected to prepare herself properly for a boss battle, she was sure that they would have refused to let her into their party. Remember why you're here, Athena. Let that be your strength for the upcoming battle. She thought to herself as she fought to hold back her own uncertainties brewing in her thoughts. Her reason for playing ALfheim Online, to become the persona known as Athena, was to become everything that she couldn't be as Natsuki Kawaguchi: bold, confident, fearless, and untouchable. What made ALO special compared to all other VRMMOs was the absence of the typical leveling system that only served as a barrier against new and experienced players. In other words, the world of ALfheim Online was fair to all. There were no elites or low classed individuals. Anyone who had the will and effort to become stronger had the potential to challenge even those who were considered the most powerful. Once the Salamander race was widely reputed to be the strongest race in all of ALO, but eventually the combined efforts of the Sylphs and the Cait Siths were enough to overcome what was thought to be an indisputably indomitable power. This meant only one thing to Athena - that she too had the potential to overcome everything that held her back in the "other" world. This was why she couldn't give up now. If I can't even overcome something that is designed for the sole purpose of being defeated by the hands of players, what is the reason for my existence as Athena? That is precisely why I can't fail now. Before long, Athena found herself and her party members standing within the great halls of the boss room. The other players in the dungeon were pouring through the entrance doors, the clacking sound of their body armors echoing throughout the halls of the dungeon. As all the players moved into position in preparation for the boss monster's appearance, Athena's sense of hearing picked up what seemed to be a faint thump... thump... thump... of a monstrously deep heartbeat within the darkness of the vast room. As the drum-like beats became more clear and distinct, it became impossible to determine the source of the sound as it echoed from every surface of the room. It was as if the entire room was a monstrous being's heart. Athena instinctively took a step back as she withdrew her longsword from its sheath, and raised her shield to a defensive stance, preparing herself for whatever was to appear. What first emerged from the blackness was a single arm on the stone floor, bloodied and pale, then another. The number of arms multiplied in numbers until what seemed to be a grotesque mass of bloodied corpses emerged into sight, towering above the players gathered before it. For a single moment, the thump emanating from the gruesome looking monster synchronized with her own heartbeat. "Don't die..any of you." Athena heard Arina speak in a low mutter beside her. "Dying is something I don't plan on doing today. Come, let us make this monster fear for its own life." Athena replied in encouragement, both to her party member and to herself. Turning to face the monstrosity, she raised her sword in spell-casting stance and closed her eyes briefly. "Ek heimta kraptr berserkr drengr." Athena spoke in a perfectly practiced and rhythmic pattern as she recited the Words of Power to the Berserk spell. With the completion of the incantation, a sudden burst of flame appeared from Athena's feet, enveloping her with the fiery aura of the Berserk visual effect. Athena opened her eyes once more, with all trace of fear and hesitation removed. In any other situation, the use of of the Berserk spell would have been an incredibly unwise action, especially in a boss battle situation without any healing support. However, the only thought running through Athena's mind was the unconditional defeat of the monster before her. If she was fated to be defeated by this monstrosity, she would do so while fighting at the peak of her ability. As the other parties shouted their battle cries and launched their assaults against the towering behemoth of flesh and arms, the monster began raising its massive bladed weapon in preparation to attack. With a sudden burst of speed, Athena launched herself into battle, throwing herself into a roll underneath the boss' cleaver weapon as it broadly swung horizontally at the players. Recovering from the roll, Athena unleashed a counter-assault of her own at the monster's exposed mass of flesh, viciously slashing into the monster's sides while it left itself vulnerable with all the strength her character had at its disposal. With her Berserk-enhanced strength, it was a matter of seconds before the monster's AI would suddenly shift its attention towards her attacks.

One by one every single tank in their large group charged up to the colossal beast. All of the players in her group, except for one, told her they were not going to die. She wasn't expecting responses...but they were appreciated. Arina watched from the not so far off distance. That was another class that she highly respected. The fact that some players will just throw themselves in front of an enemy and take and block every hit to the best of their abilities just so they can hold a boss on themselves to protect their teammates. Well..now she felt selfish for player as a DPS class. They were all about damage. Arina actually lightly slapped herself across her face to get herself back into the action. She needed to take pride in her class choice. So with that newfound pride coursing through her she drew another arrow and let it fly at the beast. It struck and the arrow stuck in his huge disembodied and chained face. She let another arrow fly, and then another. With all the arrows hitting relatively the same spot: The monster's face. She saw one of her arrows fly right over his head and she cursed herself as she missed. Arina then activated a skill of hers and her bow started to glow light. She didn't pull an arrow back but instead the skill put a bright purple arrow on the drawback for her. Once she released it the skill activated and she was able to release five more arrows just like the first one in rapid succession. The arrows and streamed over the heads of the many tanks and warrior DPS builds and hit their target. The hulking mass of bodies that were each emitting their own low groans let out a loud bellow that seemed to stagger a few of the weaker classes back. Arina almost fell back but she was able to catch herself. The boss moved back a bit and focused his attention down on the various tanks that were in front of him, like he had been doing. He had tank and DPS characters all around him The boss started to swing his cleaver anywhere at the ground as he was trying to hit whichever player was drawing his aggro. After a second or two the AI shifted its focus to what appeared to be the smallest tank on the battlefield. The mass of bodies raised his cleaver and swung it in an arc to not only hit the one drawing his aggro but the players around Fuyuko. Two tanks standing near Fuyuko were not anticipating the attack and were knocked back by the sheer force of the cleaver. One of those tanks couldn't take it and his health dropped to zero and he left behind his flame for a revival when it was ready. The other tank was knocked to her feet but almost immediately she was covered with a soothing green aura and her HP bar shot back up. The healers were certainly having their work cut out for them. With a player killed the boss seemed to let out a laugh as his AI recognized it had killed a player. The boss then had another player draw his aggro. A DPS character of all things. Arina saw this from a distance. That must have been impressive damage to draw the boss's aggro away from a tank. The disguting mass of deformed bodies solely turned his attention to this DPS player. She looked so insignificant to him. His AI kept repeating the program to kill this player, so he would do. In that moment he raised his cleaver for a direct downward swipe. With his cleaver raised Arina knew exactly what was going to happen. And the member he was going to attack was part of her group. She had one idea to try, she had no idea if it would work but she was going to try it. Time seemed to freeze as she drew her bowstring back with no arrow. She activated a skill and a light green arrow with a large front appeared in the vacant place. She took a deep breath and then let it fly. The arrow penetrated deep into the monster's arm, just like she planned. Then it exploded, causing a few of monster's body parts from his cleaver holding arm to fly off and burst into the sparkles. He stopped his attack as he was staggered slightly. How she had managed to do that she had no idea... Arina was sure all of her group members had done way more impressive things. That wasn't anything. The boss's health was dropping significantly. Just a few more moments and he would fall. Arina hoped. But..now. The boss brought his arm out and in a low groan he repaired his arm with more body parts. Just at that moment a tank around his many feet struck him and caused his aggro to switch. That DPS character did not go unnoticed. This monster then threw his cleaver all the way to the other side of the room away from the players and it collided with the wall with a loud bang. "Alright!" That same tank leader yelled so everyone could hear him. "We've got him down to his changing attack pattern, that means we-.." The tank stopped talking as he watched the boss bring his arms into his center and started to charge up a burst of dark magic. His eyes went wide and he started to two hand his shield. This attack was not supposed to happen yet! His HP wasn't low enough. "Tanks raise your shields! Go! Go! Raise them! DPS! Get away!" The word for tanks to raise their shields traveled all around the boss as every tank started to scream it as loud as they could. Arina had no idea what was going on. She had an arrow ready but the boss was just..charging something. The healers all had spells ready for whatever was coming. The Boss then finished charging his attack and let it loose. A large surging pulse of dark energy came from his core and covered a wide area. Effectively knocking back any player who wasn't prepared for the attack. His attack patterns were now going to be different as he had no cleaver. The two other leaders of the group were both watching in awe as they had never witnessed that attack that early.

Shishirou, now all buffed up, ran at the boss directly, her katana dragging around by the ground and sparks flying off the floor. She lifted it a bit. "I love the realism of this thing!" she continued running, with a smile wide in her face. She was a DPS kind of character, so sticking to Fuyuko would probably be the best course of action. She was already near it, and Shishirou grinned. "Stay just like that, Fuyuko-chan!" She ran over to where she was and used her as a stepping stone, before the boss was able to counter attack. "Die!" She shouted and slashed at the boss midair. She couldn't go over it, a bit too tall for someone her height, but she landed right next to it, which was both good and bad. For one, she could slash at it a couple of times, but on the other side... well, just looking at it squirm around was disgusting. "Well, I'll at least give him a good one before moving back." She took her sword over her shoulder to charge her sword skill, and when she felt it was ready, she spun around and then slashed upwards at the boss, her sword engulfed in fire and leaving a red trail behind it. "Hehe, how about that!" She was still near Fuyuko, relatively at least, so when she saw the boss about to bring it's cleaver down. "I'll be fine as long as I'm here, I think." She smiled and was about to charge up another attack. Until she was blown away by the force of the boss swinging its weapon. "Uwaah! If I hadn't buffed my defense, I'd be a little pretty flame now." Shishirou looked at her health bar. It was in the yellow zone. Luckily, the healers didn't discriminate those outside of their parties, or maybe there was a whole party of only healers? Oh, well. Her health bar slowly filled itself again, with the help of the healers. She turned around and nodded at them in way of thanks. She then turned around to the boss again, a bit more angry this time. "I'm gonna kill you a thousand times!" She took her katana with both of her hands and was about to dash into action yet again, but when she saw the cleaver flying about, well, she was sure it was something bad. "Take cover!" She said, running back to where Arina was. "Arina-chan! Help me!" She said, clinging to the girl's arm. When the shockwave went out of the boss, in search of them, she braced herself for it, clinging even tighter to Arina as if she were holding on for dear life. After that, she let go of Arina and took her katana in both of her hands, before looking again at her health bar. She still had the buffs from before. It was good, she didn't have to lose anytime in buffing everyone yet again. She smiled again. This was when things got real. The berserk of the very last moments when its health is down, the excitement of a boss struggling desperately to not be defeated... Yes, this was when things got really interesting. "Who the hell do you think we are!? You monster! We are gonna kick you back into whatever abyss you crawled out from!" She ran at it again, not before turning back to Arina. "Give it hell too, Arina-chan!"

Kite stood there impressed that the tiny girl on his party was able to rush up to the monster. Not that size really mattered in Alfheim Online but it was rather comical to see a miniature doll taking on the a grotesque goliath. Soon after about every tank here decided it was time to take action and get in there. "Geez and I thought I waited a while to get up here." Kite said sarcastically as he saw everyone try to get in some action while he waited back and analyzed the battle. Before Kite could even take the time to execute a single attack he was sent flying back. It wasn't that he really wasn't paying attention as much as he had no passion to fight this monster. Sure it was the final fight of the dungeon and winning seemed helpless but coming here was not Kite's choice. The moment that the boss's weapon struck at Kite direction he arrogantly pulled his blade out of the way so that his low armored body would take the full hit. "Bye, bye, for now." the Spriggan said with a grin on his face. With that his body dissolved into a flame before it slowly disappeared.

Alright, this is going well. Alex thought. The boss’s health was dropping steadily, even in the early stages of the fight. In fact, it was kind of more tedious than anything, because the boss was focused on the tanks who were using their hate skills. Alex liked to think that whenever someone used a hate skill, they were insulting the monster’s mother, and the monsters responded in rage. Alex stood practically in the same spot, jumping over the monster’s cleaves as he struck it again and again. His individual blows wouldn’t do much for a boss with multiple health bars, but he had nothing better to do anyway. Steven and Alan were doing just fine, and Thomas wasn’t really doing anything at all. As for the boss itself, its move set was fairly straightforward and rather boring, and this was getting tedious. Before he noticed it, the tiny tank from his own party was next to him. “Fancy meeting you here.” He said idly. The boss quickly reared back its arm for a powerful cleave. Alex prepared to dodge, but a sudden thought struck him. He started grinning crazily as he pictured what he needed to do, and how exactly to do it. As the arm swept around, targeting the tiny tank, Alex jumped forward and up, in the path of the boss’s arm, sword outstretched. As the cleaver hit the front line, Alex’s sword stabbed into the boss’s arm, digging into the mass of corpses as Alex held on for dear life. Success! Alex thought wildly, the boss’s arm still moving. The momentum from the swing almost threw Alex off balance, but he held on. The boss’s attack animation stopped and Alex leaped into action, climbing on top of the arm and running up towards the boss’s grotesque head, tearing a scar across its’ arm with his great sword, still embedded in the boss’s flesh. At his shoulder, Alex leaped, his sword cleanly cutting out of the corpses, and Alex landed on its head-cage. Alex began to rain blows onto the grotesque goliath’s head. The rotting monster brought its gargantuan fist down on Alex, but he dodged at the last minute and landed gracefully on the ground as the boss punched itself in the face, denting its cage. Alex jumped back, his grin practically splitting his face. That was the first time he’d done something like that, and he’d loved every second of it. Alex drank a health potion to get his health back to full, and to give him time for his heart to settle. As he glanced back up, he found that a massive cleaver was flying straight towards his face. Alex rolled away immediately, coming up on his feet to see to see it smack into a wall. Alex turned and saw that the boss was charging dark magic. Wasting no time, he called out to his familiars. “Alan! Steven! Thomas!” He said. Thankfully, they understood. Steven bolted over to Alex’s head and Alan flew overhead, Thomas in his claws. Alex stood up and jumped backwards, great sword poised to shield him from the force. The dark nova was released and Alex was pushed backwards a fair amount, breaking into a roll and coming to a stop several meters away from where he just was. The boss was now unarmed, and according to the panic ramblings of the leaders, it was too soon for it to do so. A quick check of its health bar showed that it was close to death, but they would need to rally to do some real damage… Basically, it wasn’t Alex’s problem. Alex looked behind him and saw the massive cleaver. A devilish smile penetrated his expression. Alex ran up to the cleaver stuck in the wall. He jumped up and grabbed the hilt, putting his weight into downing it. It budged as Alex jerked the hilt, until with a crash, it came free. Alex dragged it clear of the wall, marvelling at its weight. This thing is really heavy. He thought, hefting to his shoulder. But if he was right, this would be sooo worth it. Alex’s grin widened. Running as fast as he could with something almost twice his size, he jumped at the boss and swung downwards, dealing quite the chunk of damage. Now that’s damage. Alex thought, jumping out of reach with a grin that split his face. He was sure that he technically couldn't do this, and that the cleaver was technically a boss drop, but Alfheim wasn’t just any MMO. Alfheim online was a virtual reality MMO, so he could do stuff like this. That said, doing stuff was one thing and getting away with it was another, but Alex wanted to do mess around as much as possible before the fun police got in his way.

Empowered by the effects of the Berserk spell, Athena continued her unrelenting assault on the grotesque boss monster with reckless abandon, cutting through the monster's exposed flesh with series of fluidly-connected sweeping slashes, moving herself only by the minimum required distance to avoid the most obvious attack patterns of the enemy. Even though Berserk had no actual effect on the user's mind or thought processes and its enhancements were limited to the character's attack damage and movement speed statics, it was surprisingly successful in encouraging true "Berserker-like" behavior in its users purely by the nature of its design. The effects of Berserk were far more severe than the proverbial "double-edged sword", it would be more accurately described by the term "double-ended spear", that impaled both user and enemy. With the severe penalty to damage received set upon the user by the system in combination with the great increase in offensive power, the user is effectively forced to pour everything they have into pure offensive with absolutely regard for defense, in the hopes of defeating the enemy before they were defeated themselves. Several of the tanks and other close-range fighters from the other parties around Athena staggered back in panic at the giant monster's deep bellowing moans, but she pressed ahead with her attacks. "If you hesitate now, you will die and your party members will fall as well, that is for certain! You can rest when this beast has been slain, not a moment sooner!" Athena shouted to the other parties in encouragement. Her words seemed to have some effect as the other parties' tanks forced themselves to regain their composure. However, one of the tank players was suddenly caught by the massive monstrosity's sweeping cleaver attack, instantly wiping out his HP and leaving a Remain Light where he stood a moment earlier. That player... it could have been me in his place. I won't let that happen, I absolutely cannot let that happen! Athena shouted to herself in her mind. Drawing back her sword in preparation for her next attack, Athena suddenly thrust the blade of her sword forward, directly into the massive pile of bodies that was the monster before her. The blade pierced through the exposed flesh with a sickening slopping noise, embedding itself deeper and deeper into the massive monster until it reached the crossguard of her sword. In response to the sudden attack, the monster let loose a deep monstrous roar that shook the entire dungeon. Seeing the body mass of the monster suddenly shift upward, Athena lifted her head up to see the monster raising its cleaver above its head in preparation for a counterattack. The bladed edge of the cleaver was positioned directly above, but with her longsword still embedded within the monster's rotting flesh, immediate evasion was impossible. Just as the cleaver's blade was about to come slicing down upon her head, a bright-green light shot through the air, penetrating into the monster's outstretched arm, causing it to cease moving mid-swing. As the arrow exploded into shards of light, Athena stood still for an instant, not believing what had just happened. Tracing the arrow's path back to its source, Athena's eyes connected with the Cait Sith archer in her party, Arina. With the boss monster momentarily stunned by the arrow's impact, Athena knew that she had just been given a second chance to survive. With the boss temporarily unable to defend itself or counterattack, she knew she had only precious seconds to use until she would be under attack again. As the effects of the Berserk spell finally began to fade, she forced the blade of her sword out of the monster's hideous "flesh". Athena took in a deep breath as she prepared to start the incantation that she hoped would bring this boss encounter to its conclusion. A glowing circle of burning fire painted itself on the stone ground underneath her feet as she began the incantation. "Ek bjóða brenna móðr uphiminn eða fold undir vega hvatvetna at bella standa inn minn syn." Athena spoke in carefully measured tones as she recited the first half of the powerful Nova area-of-effect spell, each Word of Power recited with flawless precision, causing the growing ring of fire to roar with increasing intensity, even as the boss began to recover from its stunned state and began attacking again. In the continuing chaos of the battle around her, Athena barely heard one of the tank leaders shouting about the boss monster's sudden change in attack pattern. Deep in concentration to maintain her spell-casting, she was left oblivious to the events that unfolded around her. She only felt the sickening thud that shook the ground underneath her feet as the monster's cleaver dug itself into the far dungeon wall. "Hníga hverr helgrind eða frjáls hiti..." Athena continued, pausing only when she was suddenly aware of the boss monster's spell-casting stance as it was about to unleash its massive dark magic area spell. Before the monster could unleash the surge of dark energy, Athena instantly threw herself to the ground, leaving her just enough time to lift her shield to protect herself from the full force of the blast. From the corner of her vision, she watched her HP bar drop by about 20% as her character was damaged by the partial damage that her shield could not fully block. With her Nova spell interrupted mid-cast, the Spellword Fumble Effect sent out a second explosion where she stood moments earlier, sending out an expanding plume of black smoke. As soon as Athena came back to her senses, she leapt up to her feet with her shield already in position to defend herself. Her HP had suffered moderately as a result of the boss monster's magic area attack, but it was still enough offer her a chance of survival. However, due to her failed attempt at casting her most powerful magic spell, her Mana was now dangerously low, leaving her just enough for one more use of her lower-level spells.

With her limited field of vision behind the towering shield, Fuyuko couldn't see much of the battlefield around her, instead relying on hearing and gut instinct to judge her allies location. At least the boss itself was obvious enough, though even that was confusing with its convulsing form and unnatural movements. It was therefore with some degree of surprise that Fuyuko felt a boot plant itself firmly atop her head, launching her new teammate Shiro into the creature's face. She couldn't deny the logic of the action and was prepared to concede the point that she would have done the same given the chance; Hell, who wouldn't? As a tank, Fuyuko's role was surprisingly boring at times like this; her attacks would barely scratch it, making them useful for little more than aggro generation, and guarding against its counter attacks were a simple matter of hiding behind her oversized shield. If it wasn't for the sight of her iguanodon familiar Aoi bounding back and forward, ripping away at the bosses' legs, she would have felt useless. With a start she realised that three of her party had lined up with her, raining blows while the other tanks called its attention. Analysing the situation, she quickly saw that most of the other tanks were on the defensive, holding their shields up in pure defence rather than attacking; that meant that their aggro-building attacks were on cooldown. If no-one stepped up to draw the bosses' attention they ran the risk of taking casualties. She took a moment to collect herself, aware that letting her heartbeat climb too high would get her booted from the Amusphere; it didn't help that she actively trying to get the attention of something out of a horror film. Raising her shield up high, Fuyuko slammed it down into the ground with a grunt, sending a shockwave of blue energy arcing outward. Howl was a basic aggro-builder but good for starting a combo; she quickly spun into her first Sword Art, launching three spinning strikes in quick succession. As always the damage itself was negligible, but it got the bastard's attention. The blow came fast, almost too fast for Fuyuko to prepare herself. By crouching down behind her shield and digging in her heels she managed to avoid the worst of the blowback; damn thing stripped her HP by a third though. Good thing she had all the extra buffs, or else that might have been nasty. The others around her weren't so lucky. Two were cut down instantly, including the Spriggan in her party; either he had a glass cannon build or he simple hadn't been able to evade in time. Knowing that she needed to keep the bosses' aggro for as long as possible, Fuyuko launched into another three-hit combo and stood frozen for a few seconds afterwards, unable to move due to the post-motion effect. It gave her a chance to survey the field though, revealing that the battle was going fairly well so far; only a handful of casualties on the front lines and the healers were as yet untouched. The audacious acts of her party members drew an amused, if somewhat envious smile; she had always wondered what it would be like to play such an agile character. Perhaps I should roll an alt... By the time she could move again, the immediate area around the boss had emptied. Unsure of what was happening, Fuyuko cast a confused glance upward toward the growing mass of energy around the bosses' hands. '... Well, shit.' The tank threw herself to the floor, curling up under her shield like a turtle; somehow this worked, the majority of the magical energy washing over her without harm. It still hit hard though. Staggering back to her feet with barely a quarter of her HP remaining, Fuyuko looked around at her compatriots. Many of them had also taken serious damage, but their numbers were still high. Allowing her fellow tanks to hold aggro for a while, she jogged back a few metres and signalled the healers for aid. Within seconds the green aura of healing magic infused the air and Fuyuko leaned on her shield heavily as the HP bar slowly refilled. It was her first time in this dungeon but she was damn sure that the boss wasn't meant to do that. Not that the details really mattered to her; once her health recovered she intended to get stuck in once more and play her role in the raid. Worrying about attack patterns was someone else's problem.

As the boss started to unleash his attack Arina had an arrow drawn back and ready to go. Just before she went to release it Shishirou came out of nowhere and grabbed onto her arm, effectively knocking her out of her concentration which sent her arrow flying in some random direction. Missing its target. "Ack-what are you doing?!" She called out at first. The initial jolt from the sudden grab made Arina forget about the coming magic pulse. Time seemed to slow down again as she looked over to the Boss when he unleashed the magic blast. Arina wrapped her arms around Shishirou as well as she tried to cover both of them from the blast. Shishirou was holding on for dear life it felt like, it must have felt the same for her. She didn't even realize she was holding on that tight. Once the dark magic faded and they were safe and neither her nor Shishirou took much or any damage. Arina let out a soft sigh as she watched Shishirou prepare for another charge at the beast. She also looked past her and saw all of the tanks and DPS players who couldn't block the blast effectively stand back up. She didn't see any more dead players so that was a good sign. "Give it hell too, Arina-chan!" That comment made Arina's ear twitch slightly and she sent a smile to the back of Shishirou's head as she ran off to attack the boss. "You bet." She said to herself as she drew another arrow back and took aim to let it hit her mark. As she was doing this she noticed something else. Now, she was sure she wasn't the only player that noticed this either...but one player appeared to be wielding the boss weapon and using it against him? Either that or Arina was just dreaming. Seeing that sight made Arina stop and just watch as the player took the cleaver and carved out a rather large chunk of damage from its health. Wait a minute...that player was a part of the same party as she was! She couldn't help but smile at his creativity. She was sure that weapon was a drop from the boss, but he wasn't dead yet so whatever worked. Now that the mass of decaying bodies was weaponless he was now on a different attack pattern. While the tanks continued to attack the boss and cause small damage something happened. The boss slowly lifted his giant caged head from looked at the tanks and DPS players directly below him and he looked off towards the back of the dungeon. He was looking right their healers. As if his AI knew what was going on. The boss let out another angry bellow which stagger another few players before he used his chained left arm to sweep players away in an arc. If one was caught in that arc they were effectively knocked back. But he wasn't finished. Next one of the tanks he hit with that arc for some reason drew his aggro and he moved over to where he lay on the ground and brought his left arm down in one massive punch. The player died of course, the boss still had no aggro on the tanks near him and instead he swept his arm in another arc, sending those who were trying to recover flying back even more. This time three players were killed as their bodies were thrown back into the dungeon wall. The mage leader from before entering the boss room watched in horror as this was happening. She was angry now. Obviously she was going to take her anger out on the tanks. "What are you doing?!" She screamed in anger at the tanks by the boss. "Hold his aggro! This boss isn't hard at all!" While it was true this boss was rather easy, something was wrong. His AI was...not wanting him to die. That might sound odd, as all boss and enemy AI would be like that. But it was as if the Boss knew what was at stake if he died. But if what just happened wasn't bad enough, the Boss was still not finished. He then shifted a rather quick glance back at the small group of healers who weren't paying attention to the boss but instead the various red and yellow health bars they had to get into the green. The boss raised his left arm and that same dark magic started to form on his body fingers. After a few seconds he slammed his hand into the ground and a small portal of dark magic just big enough for his hand to fit through was carved into the dungeon floor. Even though the boss was still taking damage he was just simply ignoring the tanks trying to hold his aggro. Which was something he wasn't supposed to do. The tank leader knew what was going on. He was baffled at this whole thing. He had fought numerous bosses but nothing like this had ever happened. He heard the comments made by the other leader and simply put an agitated look on his face. "Something's wrong!" he shouted loud enough for any player to hear him. He hoped the mage who called his fellow tanks out would hear that and see what he was talking about. Now then, the attack. Just as one could guess that same dark portal formed right under where the healers were standing and not but seconds later the large grotesque hand burst from the portal with such force, knocking the majority of the healers flying. Only about two of them were killed by the initial blast, but that's two healers down. After the portal closed the remaining healers kept trying to stand but they couldn't. Now the boss shifted his aggro back to the various tanks at his numerous feet. Only about three healers were able to contribute to the team the others were stuck on the ground, holding their eyes in pain. They had that same dark energy seeping from their eyes and it was blinding them. A status ailment notice popped above the affected healers' heads as well as by their names. "We can't see!" Or "I can't see! Purify me!" Or simply "Purify me!" Were all that the healers were saying. The boss seemed to let out a low chuckle as his job was done well. The surviving mages now had to make a choice. They could either continue healing the tanks and DPS players or they could purify their fellow healers so they could get back into the battle. But purifying would take some time...and what if another..thing happened! The boss reached his arms back and let out another low bellow but this time his bellow was interrupted by a sort of..glitch sound. As if someone had taken his sound and skipped a segment of the audio. He repeated the bellow and it was fine that time. His moveset was unaffected however. Next he brought his hands down in front of him on whoever was holding his aggro. He seemed to be back on his regular AI pattern. Slow and stupid. His health was very low. They needed to end this quickly due to their low amount of healers. The three or four healers who were still up and running were all tirelessly spouting spell names over and over again as they tried their best to keep HP bars up. It was a noticeable difference in healing. Arina had no idea what just happened. She was near the back at this point with a few other archers and mages as well as the healers. She decided to move up somewhat, all the while she was shooting arrows into the boss. She had never fought this boss before but she had a feeling something was up. Either that or this boss was had a super peculiar AI. The archer activated another skill and drew back her arrowless string and then three bright pink arrows with very broad tips appeared. Her adrenaline was pumping as this was way more action packed than she was expecting. She was able to calm herself enough to focus her shot and let her arrows fly. These broad bolts penetrated deep into the flesh of the Boss, causing slight bleeding. His HP was very close to be depleted. They had to end this.