Chapter 150

The Unshackled (I)

The group of fifteen sat in a full circle, munching on some food and guzzling it down with some light beer, some more so nonchalantly than others. Despite the reassurances, Kramer’s group still had difficulty finding stability within themselves. They were to be thrust into a battle for their life within 40 minutes, and what only felt like a few paragraphs they had to memorize in the time had turned into a whole, thousand-pages-long novel.

“Think of it as literally a game,” Emma said. “Y’know, just the one in which you can die.”

“Not helping,” Kramer chuckled bitterly.

“During the first phase,” Emma continued. “You and I will just keep switching onto the boss and dragging her in front of whatever chain lights up. Diya will be in charge of swiftly shielding and topping-up whoever gets the storm of them, but we have to be careful with managing the Cage since it is likely possible the chain that spawns can be on the other side of the room. If we get two or three of our supports locked up, we’re fucked.”

“Yeah, cage honestly looks like it’s gonna be the most annoying part,” Jamal sighed. “Why can’t it be broken by us? Bleh.”

"We swap at each 'Ripped Asunder'," Emma told to Kramer. "Whoever is getting hit will have 3 others to soak the strike with; the moment either one of them is hit, the other one needs to immediately pick her up. That's why, if we see her charging and she's close to dropping at a 10% incremental, we stop damaging her immediately. During the second phase, we have to watch out for the 'Weeping' whatever -- we can’t let it build up to 15 stacks because nobody except us would survive it, even with Diya’s supercharged shields.”

“I have a feeling we’ll be able to somehow dodge her attacks to sort of control the number of stacks she’s getting, otherwise, it would be far too much up to the luck.”

“Yup,” Emma nodded. “We’ll play it by the ear, but don’t panic if we miss either the first or the second window. We’ll prio dispelling her buff over getting supports out of the cages during the second phase, while we’ll prio supports over damage to her during the second phase. So, it’s really important that each support is always standing within one of the chains’ path.”

“For ‘Sweep’, we just turn her away from the others, right?” Kramer asked. “Plus, only one of us has to get hit by it.”

“Yup,” Emma nodded. “It’s a simple debuff, but I think it’s gonna be timed so that one of the chains charges up right after, so only one of us can be hit by it otherwise we might not be able to kite her back to the chain in time.”

“I think... uh, you’re misunderstanding chains a bit,” Diya suddenly voiced out, drawing attention to her. “It said that the chains will target one of us -- not that they’ll just slam in a, uh, straight path. I... I propose we keep the boss in place, near the wall of the chains, at their center, and whoever is targeted... moves so that the boss will be in the path between them and the chain. Same with the cages. Each time we drop her health by 10%, we slow down on DPS and wait until the next chain so that the healer is broken out of the cage. During the second phase, we only have to make sure one of the supports is always up. For the last phase, we all just group right behind her and go all out.”

“O, yeah, you’re right,” Kramer and Emma nodded at the same time. “Everyone just stacks some few yards behind the boss and just move a few yards left or right every time the chain pops out.”

“... did the fight suddenly lose all the excitement it held?” Senna quizzed.

“We solved one mechanic,” Emma sighed. “We still have to be really careful. One wrong move... and somebody dies. Or everyone, if we let that buff of hers stack to 15.”

A short period of silence was interrupted rather quickly as everyone went back to discussing various tricks and tips on how to best optimize the battle and lessen the risk of anyone dying.

Time, however, didn’t wait for them to stabilize their nerves and mentally prepare; the countdown ticked down to 0 soon after, prompting the nerves to spike back up as they felt the pull of something beyond drag them from the floor and through a tunnel of spacetime, spitting them out some few seconds later.

They found themselves ejected on top of a terrace-like platform, crescent in design, behind them a set of windows peering into the castle, and in front of them a half-open world. A set of eight pillars on each side held up the half-roof above them, shading a few spots of the stone-paved platform. Standing in front of them, on the other end, was the same woman they met downstairs, juxtaposed inside the wide opening of the terrace overlooking the misty world beyond.

The terrace itself was quite wide, good sixty-seventy yards across, and it genuinely looked like a designed boss arena more so than it having any actual, practical purpose.

The group recovered and began standing up, one by one, with Emma and Kramer quickly charging to the front, though not engaging the boss. Everyone else spread behind them and waited with bated breaths, their hearts pumping like the rhythm of the drums.

“There is an old saying that my Father used to whisper to me a lot,” the woman broke the silence abruptly, snapping her eyes open. “’Little whore,’ he’d say, ‘if you tell anyone about this, I will slaughter your brothers.’ That’s how I learned what the fear is,” she crackled momentarily. “And... I grew to love it. It’s orgasmic, if you ask me, watching the feeble and atrocious attempts of the tiny Conquerors to put on a brave front. So weak-minded... it astounds me that the old Keeper sent you here. Perchance this is his vain attempt to curry favor with the Master, feeding him more souls...”

“... man, the bitch’s got a mouthful on her,” Senna groaned. “Oi, can you stop with the chatter and let us kill you? It would save us a lot of time!”

“... he he,” Myeala chuckled as she spread her arms out. “Welcome to my Domain, tiny Conquerors. May you never leave.”

Eight chains suddenly shot out of her and latched themselves onto eight of the sixteen pillars, at random. Everyone in the party quickly took note of which pillars would be shooting the chains as Emma roared atop of her lungs, dragging Myeala off from the front and positioning her perfectly at the center, between the sixteen pillars.

Everyone else quickly jumbled back behind her as Emma faced her toward the castle, upon which the fight commenced. Not even a few seconds later, Diya noted the first chain alighting.

“Ryu--”

“RYU, ON YOU!!” Senna yelled out as she shuffled a sword beneath her and sped sideways. “ON ME, NOW!!”

Ryu Blinked in panic and landed beside Senna; a few seconds later, the chain shot out of the pillar, cleanly piercing Myeala as she cried out. Blood sprayed out of her, pooling beneath, as her eyes shimmered dangerously. Roaring, she summoned a single, crimson orb that immediately shot backward, locking onto Amelia and reaching her within a second, exploding into a boned cage that surrounded her. She couldn't move or cast anything for the next minute.

“Prioritize the cage!” Diya cried out. “Remember, move behind it if you get tagged with a chain!”

Myeala was currently sitting at 89% of her Vitality, the 10% shaved off by her own chain. Her defense was surprisingly good as everyone noticed that their damage was much lower than usual, especially Emma’s group. She quickly noticed the bottling frustrations and called them out to calm them.

“Don’t get dragged into the frustration!” she warned. “Save the big skills for later! If I see any one of you blowing stuff preemptively, we’ll have a chat afterward!”

“Aagh! Puny maggots!” Myeala cried out. “Become the food of the Storm!!”

She raised her right arm and summoned a rotating, red halo that spat out a single chain, lurching it toward Senna, landing squarely against her shoulder. She bit her tongue to contain her scream; just as she was about to warn others ‘Storm’ skill was on her, she found her wounds restored and a glimmering, golden shield surrounding her, absorbing the next two chains, and barely feeling the impact of the last one. She glanced at Diya and nodded before resuming her attacks.

Shortly after, Diya noticed a chain lodged into one of the pillars alight, locking onto her. Methodically, she moved back at a cut angle and behind the cage. Noticing that one of the members of Kramer’s party was close to the chain’s path, she quickly cried out.

“The guy with a tomahawk, move back!!” her cheeks flushed red as she forgot the man’s name, prompting the latter to smile bitterly as he took a step back. Just a second later, a massive, ebony-black chain whizzed past him and struck the cage, destroying it and releasing Amelia from the bonds.

Myeala’s Vitality was dropping, but it was at a really low pace -- barely 1% a minute. The group realized that they’ll have to prioritize chains on her as, otherwise, it would likely take them a whole day to kill her.

“Aargh!!” Myeala roared out once again as she took a deep breath, heaving her right arm back and summoning a chain. “A pointless struggle! Succumb to the Master!!”

“She’s channeling!” Emma realized as she swallowed a mouthful of saliva; even if ready, the sheer amount of Mana that poured into that chain... was scary. Lukas, Kramer, Jamal, and Belric quickly scurried over next to Emma and stiffened their hearts as they watch the chain descend after three seconds.

The impact knocked everyone up as Emma saw her health plummet like never before; Kramer, mid-flight still, quickly taunted the woman off of Emma who received a burst of heals from Amelia and Diya, topping her back off. The chain's impact passed the terrace and opened up a hole in the wall behind them; Shit, if I soaked it alone... I’d have died 100%. Wiping the sweat off of her forehead, she moved forward only to notice the chain in one of the pillars alight, aiming at her.

“EVERYONE, PREPARE FOR THE CAGE!!” she warned as she hurriedly moved to the other side of the boss, angling herself so that the chain would hit Myeala directly. Everyone else got out of the way, and the chain launched shortly after, the strike shaving off a layer of Myeala’s skin on her back, causing her to cry out again.

“Meddlers!! I shall have your soul!!” a crimson-red orb once again spawned above her, aiming at the second healer of the Kramer’s party, Tae.

“I shall give you my cock instead of my soul, you bitch!!” Sigmund roared out as he noticed the woman locked inside the cage in the distance. “How dare you do that to our little Tae?!! I’ll blow you so full of holes nobody would have to be on a stand-by during the gangbanging session!!” Emma nearly slipped and fell, oddly glancing at the fire-charged man who blew through all of his cooldowns immediately, nearly stealing Myeala’s attention from Kramer. The latter smiled bitterly and glanced at Emma apologetically, shrugging as though to say ‘You just have to accept it...’

The battle was going well, and the longer it went on as such, the more did Kramer's group relax, slowly realizing that they were indeed a bit too panicky beforehand. However, this was hardly the challenge of the boss, Emma knew. Thus far, they largely took each of her mechanics one by one; the true problems, and the actual battle at that, would begin once her skills began to overlap. And, looking at the 76% of the boss' health, Emma imagined... it would be quite soon.