To the left, the dwarf swallowed the lump in his throat as he tensed his shoulders, waiting for the right moment to charge forth. Past him, far off from the group, the frost mage's hands were aglow with a cool white-blue luminance as slushed ice flowed between them, creating a sublimating effect as white gas began to permeate outwards.
"Chain Lightning!"
"Flame Wave!"
"Frost Bolt!"
We all yelled, completely in sync.
As the intertwined bolts of lightning surged out and cracked the air, a literal wave of flame rolled directly over the goblins, intermixing with the bolt of frost as if it were some pyroclastic flow with a raging thunderstorm spread throughout. The devastating scene unfolding before our very eyes was a sight to behold, but we couldn't admire our greatness. Without even a second to consider the effectiveness, I ran forward with the dwarf at my side as we raised our shields and barreled through the minor goblins at the forefront, bashing our shields and knocking the smaller goblins back, we went straight into the heart of the swarm.
Barik shot forward, diving behind the chief and picking him up as the guards and minors clustered around me. The priests were already healing the guards as I shouted out a [Call to Challenge], enraging and taunting the goblins into a frenzy and forcing them to pile on top of me.
Arms flailed randomly as seven swords were swung in my direction with two spears thrust towards my torso. The sound of two arrows as they whizzed past my head nearly broke my concentration but I couldn't afford a break. I was on the wrong end of an onslaught that I could barely hope to repel, but I threw out my shield and raised my axe in an attempt.
Swords cut deep into my legs and arms as I focused on deflecting the spears as an arrow hit me in the neck. Suddenly struggling to breathe as blood started to flow, I curled up and began to shake as rain started to fall and freeze on contact with my skin. A single beam of pure flame shot out across the mass of goblins in front of me as they screamed in reaction. The smell of burnt flesh and singed hair flooded my nostrils while electricity had begun to envelop me, ready to burst at any moment.
Only a second had passed and with a thrust of my arms outwards while expanding my chest, I discharged the built up electricity in a perfect circle around me, creating an explosion that rocked every goblin within five feet. Minor goblins flew through the air in every direction as the guards were knocked back a step, but they recovered far too quickly and with my haggard breathing I was quickly losing my stamina.
The first heavy thrust came without hesitation as I blocked it with my shield but then the second heavy thrust came and with my weakened state, a partial deflection was all I could muster.
Piercing straight through my biceps and out the triceps, my right arm was rendered completely useless as I started to choke on the blood that had been draining into my lungs. My stamina entirely depleted, I collapsed to the floor as another arrow found its mark in my chest. Swords pierced through me as I could barely make out a spear shaft curiously sticking out of my stomach.
Eyes hazy, I stared at the shaft as I fell forward.
Then everything went black.
By the time the color had returned, there were only two true shades.
Blue and gray… the world had turned dark again.
I was dead.
"Damn," I muttered to myself as the spirit form of Barik appeared next to me.
Ethan, Alan, and the frost mage showed up a few seconds later, as we all looked at each other in our ghost versions. The first attempt was a complete failure.
We wiped.
Entering the dungeon after a short run from the graveyard, there were a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. The fight ended too quickly to be of real use, but I did realize one thing, at least.
"What happened?" asked Alan immediately. "You just dropped, Sigurd."
"Took an arrow to the throat, crippled me from the start."
"Ah, shit," said Barik with a curious expression on his face.
"Well even if that didn’t happen, those priests were healing all the damage we did," stated Ethan with a shrug. "We need to kill them somehow, only the minors died."
Without the ability to see much of anything with all of the pyrotechnics going on, I was woefully short of information. All I knew, was that the archers were deadly. Too deadly to be left alone again, less I wanted an arrow to the knee or throat again.
This fight was rough.
"I couldn't really see anything, how many died?" I asked after gathering my thoughts. "And were any others close, or what?"
Silence filled the room as we continued to walk back, with everyone thinking over the fight from their perspective. Barik and I couldn't watch all of the goblins, what with being stuck in melee and concentrating on swords and spears flying towards us.
That left the mages, to be our eyes.
"Most of the minor goblins were about dead," said Ethan after some time. "The guards were near full health at the end thanks to the priests though."
"The priests and archers were basically at full health," echoed the frost mage.
Ah, so our Area of Effect strategy wasn't good enough.
Not with the priests still up, but that was expected.
"How about you, Alan?" I questioned sincerely. "See anything?"
"Nope, too busy healing you," he replied.
By the time we made it back to the fifth floor and entered the boss's room, all fourteen goblins were standing pretty in the same position as before. They had been reset and spawned at full health and with full numbers.
Yeah, we wouldn't get the easy way out.
It would be too convenient for the minions not to respawn.
"So, what do we do?" asked Barik as he checked the condition of his shield.
"I don't think freezing rain will work here," I bluntly stated. "May have worked alright for some of the earlier fights, but we need to burn targets here not outlast them."
"Can't kite the boss either, it'll just leash," Barik explained.
"Yeah, we need some changes."
Strategy was almost always left to me, but it was a group discussion and all input was valued. Unfortunately some of the guys weren't very vocal, which kind of hurt the process. Racking my brain trying to think of a way to fix our issues, the only thing that came to mind was having a mage solo the minor goblins or splitting into two groups.
Friendly fire was a real issue.
We needed the priests and archers taken care of before we could worry about the guards or the boss. From there, I wasn't sure what should be focused first. Generally, if the guards could fall quickly you took them out, but if the boss did the most damage, then it needed to go. From our five second sample size, there wasn't enough information to plan around. I was at a loss on what to do.
This sucked.
"Positioning, let's start there," I exclaimed with some confidence.
"Yeah?" asked Ethan curiously.
"Need to ensure the priests die first, then the archers," I started to explain. "I think I can manage the minor goblins with my discharge to buy time for you guys to rotate after, but I can't do much to defend against arrows I can't see."
"Aye, this fucking ash and smoke has me fighting nearly blind," complained Barik, to everyone's surprise. "I can't see shit with my eyes watering, hard enough as it is."
That was the truth.
The environment was terrible, and the lousy conditions only increased the difficulty of the fight… we were already at a serious disadvantage before the fight even began. Toss in the huge number discrepancy and I was starting to wonder at what level were the developers expecting us to clear the damn place.
Ridiculous scenario, is ridiculous.
"Okay, how about this," I said with some enthusiasm as an idea hit me. "Ethan get up on the far right side, so you can easily and quickly flame spike in a straight line. Use flame wave first, of course, focusing on the secondary line. Follow up with a fire blast on the priest, if it happens to still be alive."