Chapter 392

Rue’s earthquake had done a damned good job at destroying the canyon. Rubble and large boulders blocked the path, and the cliffs that had been destroyed actually created a wider path for James and his adventurers to pass over. While it was difficult going for some of the casters, the agile dexterity based ranged classes were actually seeming to have fun jumping about all the crumbled stones and rocks.

James, meanwhile, just stepped casually over it. Being a 35-foot Avatar definitely had its perks. His twenty foot or so scapegoat was moving before him, the goat doing as goats do, and climbing easily over the rocks. Further down the canyon, James saw the cracked and damaged area where Rue had impacted the ground with her Leviathan axe. That was all that remained of that clash. And mysteriously, James didn’t see any sign of players just yet. Meaning they were either all dealing with James’s other force, or they’d retreated even further back into their territory.

“Keep your eyes out for ambushes.” James called out as he continued moving. “We will see who can summon up once we reach the mark the White Beast of Chaos left behind.” And by summon up, James meant taunt. There was a good reason he’d summoned a Scapegoat.

Explosions in the sky caused him to glance up. While one of the massive Dragon World bosses was barely visible in the distance, in the direction of Vinnie and his forces, the three headed on had turned around to take on James’s Ghostly Dreadnaught. It’s three mouths were launching blasts of energy at the ghostly ship, erupting all around it with concussive force.

Normally, James might have been worried for the ship. Those attacks were definitely powerful, and a third-floor world boss would arguably be stronger than a fourth-floor mob. But this was an Avatar summoned mob, and even more importantly, there was the perfect tank for this situation on that ship.

And sure enough, if one could look past the ghostly ship hard enough, they could see a massive, golden form of power and lightning standing at the bow of the ship, singlehandedly taking on the attacks as they came. With the damage mitigating skills of the Indra class line, and the further mitigation courtesy of being linked to the Dreadnaught, Oak was the strongest tank to ever walk in DCO. Of that, James was certain.

“Nothing to see here.” James commented, pulling the focus back to their task at hand. As much as he wanted to see what probably looked like an anime battle in the air, between an Adventurer laden ghost dreadnaught and a three headed, blue eyes white dragon, they had come here with a job in mind. They were here, to put an end to the skirmish. They were here to cut the head from the dragon, so to speak.

“You sure about that?” One of the players commented. “Like, my stream is going crazy right now about wanting me to focus on that.” Sure enough, the player, a mage by the looks of it, was showcasing the floating orb that indicated they were recording. James sighed. They were here to win the skirmish…not gain views. Then again, he was livestreaming the whole fight as well, so did that make him a hypocrite?

Either way, he needed to focus. “Tell your stream we’ve got bigger fish to fry.” James said with a huff. “What fun is a World Boss, anyways, when we can massacre the enemies Avatars.”

That was his plan. Get to the center, take stock of everything, and utilize his Scapegoat’s taunt ability to try and reel in some tasty fish, er targets. If it didn’t work, they’d move in deeper, and try again. If they took long enough, he had no doubt the Blue Eyes would fall, and the Ghost Dreadnaught would be able to continue fighting alongside them.

Falling World Boss was a very real concern for James and his players though, as the size of that creature would surely cause some damage if it fell atop of you. His squishy mages, most defiantly, wouldn’t survive such a misfortune. Which was another reason why, they needed to keep moving.

“Whatever you say Mad Mage.” The mage grunted, and kept going, though he was struggling against the uneven terrain. “Though,” the mage had paused, his eyes sparkling. “Would there be any chance you could put me on your shoulder while we walk? That way I can turn my stream to the battle above, and I can prepare any spells-“

“Keep it up and I’ll throw you up there.” James said with a chuckle. He was the Mad Mage. That was definitely something he’d say, right? The others around him laughed, though it seemed a mixture of uncertain laughing, and actual laughing. Being mad, meant he was unstable. And unstable, at times, was dangerous.

“I mean,” the mage shrugged. “It’d probably still work.”

James shook his head and grabbed the insistent mage, placing him on James’s shoulder. The mage’s hands glowed, and he used a low-level snare spell to actually root himself in place. Which was actually pretty creative.

“Thanks man.” The mage sighed. “Seriously this beats walking any day.”

James focused on the man just enough to see his name, level, and class.

PurpleHazd

Plasma Channeler

Level 51

He had no idea what a plasma channeler was, but it sounded pretty cool. And his level wasn’t anything to scoff at either. Meaning, and James hoped his thoughts were true, the mage could actually prove useful. Considering he was live streaming everything, the mage likely, at the very least, would be willing to do cool and crazy things in order to impress his viewers. Even if he did have a very pushy, whiney, and annoying personality from the little James had interacted with him.

“You better do something to pay for the trip, PurpleHazd.” James said to him.

“You know my name?” The man’s eyes were wide with surprise as they looked into James’s. “Dude, guys,” he suddenly got excited, “the freaking Avatar knows my name. I’ve been validated. Someone give me a blue checkmark.”

James’s eye twitched as he resisted swatting the mage off of his shoulder like a bug. The only reason he didn’t, was because they’d reached their destination. And, surprisingly as the Fog of War drifted away further down the canyon, past Rue’s destruction, a figure was waiting for him. There, spread out before them, like lambs to slaughter, was an Avatar, along with a mass of players and mobs. They’d come to great James and his players, even as the massive forms in the air fought.

James could barely control his grin as he called out something he’d been saving up for a long, long time. Rue, and Vinnie, had definitely gotten to him. “It’s goat time.”