Chapter 387

James wasn’t sure if it was the Dragon Dungeon’s Core at work, or if the players were just that devoted or crazy. Either way, what they were doing, terrified him. They’d used the terrain provided to them by their dungeon in the best possible way, creating a gauntlet of pain for anyone that would want to approach their side of the FoB.

That wasn’t the big problem though. Because as James had already assessed, his players were the stronger of the two. And they weren’t stupid. They wouldn’t just rush through an obvious trap and expose themselves to a bunch of pointless attacks and such.

Normally.

The players of the Dragon Dungeon had opted to present a situation that made James’s players have to choose though. Risk something tragic, or charge into the obvious death trap. Because, deep within the area, far out of range of any of the forces Rue had with her, they could make out the forms of the Cultists. And as before, they were in the middle of a summoning ritual. Only, it wasn’t just the five previously. There was a much, much larger mass of them, and it was apparent whatever they were doing was extremely complex. Considering how strong that Tiamat summon had been when just five had worked together to call it forward, James worried about what this would entail.

“Send word to the others.” Rue said gruffly to one of the players by her side. The player, a mid-level 40 assassin class, nodded and disappeared, quickly rushing back towards the Armada. Rue then looked at all the players around her. All the melee forces who’d followed her to glory.

“Down this valley of doom,” she started, “lies an enemy I’ve marked for death.” She pointed her lightning staff towards the distant shapes of the cultist. “This foe has humiliated me and attempted to shame our dungeon. This foe, through some blasphemous force, has once before struck a mighty blow to us.” Lightning crackled as she blasted a bolt of energy, decimating a rocky area and taking a dragon mob down with it.

“I don’t expect you all to follow me into a blatant trap.” She growled. “But, I, The White Beast of Chaos, cannot overlook the insult they threw my way.” Another blast of lightning as she straightened her back, flexing all of her muscles. “But know, if you do follow me, I’ll forever be grateful. Let us show these fools what it means to challenge the forces of the Random Dungeon.”

Cheers broke out all around her as the players rallied themselves. The Cultists were far away, but James had a feeling the 35-foot Avatar of Rue had projected her statement loud enough they could here her. If they did, they didn’t react, continuing to simply chant and do whatever it was they were doing deep, deep in the protection of their Dungeon’s terrain on the FoB. However, the players they could see, and James had to guess they ones they couldn’t, were preparing themselves for Rue’s charge.

If James had to guess, all the remaining players of the Dragon Dungeon, were lined up and prepared for this. James didn’t know how many mobs they had summoned, or what types of traps and surprises existed, but he figured it was going to hurt. At the very least, even if Rue’s army wasn’t wiped out, there would be extremely heavy casualties.

However, it wasn’t a threat they could ignore. That Tiamat summon, whatever it was, was way too dangerous. James had researched it, and knew it was a special summon that required extremely rare drops from the Dragon Dungeon. From what he could tell, it also was a cultist specific summon, with the number of cultists involved in the summon, called a ritual summon, effecting the duration and power of the summon. The items used for the summon could be mitigated if they had enough cultists, and there were other aspects of the ritual summon that James had found, which weren’t terribly important at this moment.

All that mattered was the fact if that many cultists summoned Tiamat, it would be game over for James’s dungeon. Maybe, maybe if his side had him, Voltron, and M.I.N.E. Craft’s anti-air, they could take that ritual summon down. Or perhaps Exodia, if it was linked to enough high level players and had its stats boosted. However, with that many cultists, and if they were burning more of those high level, special drop items, Tiamat would be on a power level equal to, if James had to guess, his Megalodonie. Or, even stronger. And, if the Dragon Dungeon had a way to empower it, or it gave out buffs to all the dragons that the players had summoned, it would become a bloodbath. James’s ocean would metaphorically run red with his players.

This was not a threat Rue could avoid. This was not a threat his players could willingly choose to ignore. This was a threat James’s players were going to remember, and he made a quick mental note to ensure the next time they faced this Dragon Dungeon, he was perfectly prepared for such a tactic. The Dragon God may have its worshippers, but James’s Random Dungeon had its own tricks, and methods. The next time, he knew his players would have a much more efficient answer to this tactic.

For now, his players went with the obvious one.

A loud battle cry flowed over Rue and the roughly 200 players, as Trogdor, Alex’s little brother, burned a cooldown. When he’d been in his 20s, he’d been a Barbarian Warlord. Now, in the high low 50s, he had continued down the Barbarian Warlord path, and was labeled as a Goth King. His cooldown, which caused a shimmering, red energy to cover everyone around him, and a buff appeared on the players, ‘Barbarian Might’. Another battle cry echoed from Trogdor, and another buff appeared. ‘Barbarian Resolve.” These two massive cooldowns, combined, made the forces, for at least a minute, gained increases to their physical traits, percent life steal on hit, and the ability to survive an attack that would bring them down to 0hp, once, and return them to 20%hp.

With those buffs applied, and other shouts, chants, and such going up from tank classes, and Paladin’s and such, the 200 plus players surged forward, Rue leading the charge, into the ravine. It didn’t matter if they won or lost this battle, James knew that. What mattered, was they did so in a glorious manner. And that, he had no doubt, would happen.