The Nixigaunt's spear of ice met Nitana's crystalline barrier that covered me at the last second.

The barrier instantly broke into several shards of orange glass that dissolved into the air. Nitana had cast her protective spell in time, but it was destroyed just as easily as my shell. Was it ultimately in vain?

I braced myself for the excess damage to finish off the small amount of health I had. The next time I opened my eyes, I expected to be looking at the entrance of the Chief's Lodge.

"Move, you idiot!" Nitana yelled at me.

Huh? I'm still alive? And I could move!

The spear had shattered the ice covering me, dispelling my frozen status. I hightailed it out of there, running towards Nitana. The other Nixigaunt slammed the ground once again, sending waves of ice that thankfully didn't reach my fleeing ass.

Blazing fairies zipped past me. Explosions shook the ground; I tried to maintain my balance.

"Hurry! Hurry!" Nitana ordered.

"I'm coming!" I shouted back. "That's what she said," I muttered under my breath. This one's for you, Mason.

This reminded me of the times when my friends and I would try newly released bosses in Nornyr Online, and things would go awry due to a lack of experience and knowledge of mechanics. We'd run around like headless chickens, shouting at each other to do this or that. Yelling is an essential part of the MMORPG experience.

The Nixigaunts were still alive. I could hear their angry bellows becoming louder.

A second batch of larger fairies, beating their numerous gossamer wings, quickly flew by.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw that the Nixigaunts were distracted by the fairies. They wildly swung their arms covered with ice blades at the tiny flying creatures. Each time they hit the fairies, explosions followed. The burning Nixigaunts poofed into sparkles of Essence and Gli that went to us.

I slowed down as I neared Nitana.

"Sorry, I left you," she said, giving me an embarrassed grin. "I was too focused on protecting Kezo and Megan. And to think I promised to also protect you but I dropped the ball so bad."

"You did save me, so it's fine." I gave her a thumbs-up, mimicking Kezo's favorite gesture. "And it was my fault for lagging behind." I didn't go with them toward the Rotted Cedarlyon because I didn't want to accidentally get its aggro given I had no experience with it, or any other boss and mini-boss. It turned out that I had stayed too far back.

"Also sorry for calling you an idiot."

Herald Stone accepts your apology and cleanses your sin of blasphemy. "Well, I was a bit of an idiot there, wasn't I?" I chuckled to show I wasn't offended.

It was on me to learn more about playing with a party in MCO. How could I stand at the top to look down on people if I couldn't climb up there because I had no clue about what I was supposed to do? Herald Stone, the Great Learner was a massive sponge, soaking in all the information to improve himself.

Perfection meant stagnation—that is not who I am.

Herald Stone was infinite, infinitely improving.

On a serious note, situational awareness and quick decision-making on the appropriate movement during a fight were essential for tanking. Even more so if a tank wasn't sufficiently geared to trivialize the threat of mobs or bosses.

Another thing I realized was how different playing with a first-person view was when it came to fighting as a party. The MMORPGs I used to play were third-person, usually with a top-down view. It was easy to see the whole battlefield looking from above, assessing the positioning of my partymates, the mobs, and especially the boss.

Now that I was actually 'inside' the body of my character, I found it very difficult to keep track of what was happening around me. Once the mobs came, I was focused on my own survival and inadvertently shut out everything else. I didn’t know where Nitana went even though I should’ve stuck with her for my safety.

"The shield spell you cast on me...what was it?" I asked Nitana. "It's strong." Similar to my [Greater Pyro Shell], it was destroyed after only one hit from the troll-like Nixigaunt. But unlike my shell, I didn’t receive the excess damage.

"Strong?" She snorted in disbelief. "You're kidding, right? My barrier sprite skill is just level one. Haven't touched that thing since it was unlocked in one of my Ocadules. It barely protected you, like it was gone just like that." She snapped her fingers.

"Yes, it was. But it also completely nullified the damage of that attack." I explained its difference with my [Greater Pyro Shell], and then told her, "That's why I think it's strong. Where did you get that Ocadule?" If it could negate the full damage of one hit, then it was a great tanking skill, especially for emergencies. I could tank the Rotted Cedarlyon even if I were only level twelve. Just one of its attacks...but still. It could be more like a panic button.

"Completely nullify...?" She frowned as she tried to comprehend what I told her. "I don't under—oh! I get it."

The roar of the Rotted Cedarlyon calling for reinforcements swallowed her words. Break time was over. We'd have to continue our discussion later.

Nitana put on a serious expression and nudged her head towards the next wave of monsters. I nodded. I swear I'm going to keep myself this time. She cast another barrier on me.

In return, I cast [Healing Touch] on her even though her life was full to show I was trying my best to help. We looked at each other, and then at the green number forty ticking per second to heal her.

"It's better than nothing," I said with a wide smile. She laughed before returning to her duty of clearing mobs.

While my heal barely amounted to anything, there was something I could do that might have more impact. I approached Kezo and the Rotted Cedarlyon locked in intense combat, stopping at the maximum range I could cast [Rusting Ground]. I placed it under the mini-boss. After five seconds, monsters standing on it would have the maximum stacks of armor decay and have ninety armor less—even if it was a tiny amount, it's better than nothing.

I immediately returned to Nitana in case the Rotted Cedarlyon would suddenly turn its attention to me because of the skill I cast.

Fortunately, Kezo kept it in check with [Enraging Taunt]. "Thanks for the help!" he shouted when he noticed the orange haze swirling around the Rotted Cedarlyon's feet.

Nitana sent her fairies against the mobs called by the Rotted Cedarlyon. I carefully observed how she fought. Then I analyzed the different types of monsters, assessing their movement speeds, their attack patterns, and their special abilities.

I noticed that Nitana couldn't make the most out of the AoE explosions of her fairies because the monsters came from all sides. She tried to aim for the densely packed groups, but there were many stragglers she couldn't kill in time before they reached Kezo and Megan. Our two boss killers had to turn their attention to these monsters instead of concentrating on the boss.

I might be able to do something here, I thought.

Out of the four mobs in this area—Cedarlyons, Laphisheres, Nixigaunts, and Ice Imps—only the Laphisheres and Cedarlyons could outspeed me even if I ran with all my might. The energy balls surrounded by rocks accelerated if they rolled in a straight line while the tree folk had very wide strides courtesy of their towering legs.

But I could simply run in circles or zigzags, and they wouldn't be able to catch me.

I had also noted all their dangerous moves that could incapacitate me like the Nixigaunts' AoE freeze and the weird slow caused by the Frost Imps' breath. This wave of monsters was thinning out; I was going to try my plan to help Nitana in the next one.

"As I was saying,” Nitana said after blowing up the last Frost Imp. “I get what you're talking about with that nullify thing. My barrier skill doesn't actually do that."

"It doesn't? But I the attack was—"

"You see," she interjected. "It's actually a summon—a sprite creature that forms a barrier around a target with its body. So, what happened was the Nixigaunt hit you, right? My summon took the hit for you and died instantly because it’s super squishy.

“It's not an actual shield skill—um, I guess it is. I'm explaining this badly. Once the barrier sprite is dead, that’s it. Just think of it like someone blocking a bullet meant for you with their body like in a cheesy action movie? Well…unless the bullet goes through their body and still hit you."

"I understand now," I said. "Thanks for the explanation." It was a variant of tanking with summons or minions, instead of a type of skill that adds another layer of health—that was why there was no spillover of excess damage like the case with [Greater Pyro Shell].

Personally, it wasn't my style of tanking because I wanted to be front and center. I am the hard one. Not others.

Nonetheless, this sort of mechanic could be useful while I was still putting together my tank build. No matter what I do, no matter how many millions of Artas I'd spent, I wouldn't be tanky enough to compete in the big leagues come the time for the Great Hunt around two weeks from now.

But if I could find a way to abuse this skill or others like it to help my party for the event, I'd do it.

"It's a skill from my Fire Sprite Ocadule," Nitana explained. "I bet you're thinking about getting it for protection?" I nodded. She shook her head. "Best not bother. It's mostly a DPS Ocadule. It has two survivability skills, barrier sprite is one and the other reduces damage. Both are garbage. You can ask Kezo if he has tips on better skills to get if you want to be tankier."

"I'll ask him after this," I said.

Kezo and Megan had gotten the health of the mini-boss down about halfway. There was still more work to be done. And it was going to get more difficult as the mobs increased. The Rotted Cedarlyon's roar reverberated through the forest. Rumbling, shaking, and growling answered it.

Between the trees were silhouettes of numerous monsters.

"This is going to get hard," Nitana said.

That's what she said...wait, she actually said it! Hooray! If only Mason was around for this historic moment. I kept my chuckles in check as I told Nitana, "I'm going to help you this time."

"Wha-? Just stay back. I'm already having trouble killing all of—"

"I'm going to herd them for you."

"Huh?"

"I'm going to use myself as bait for the mobs and try to bunch them up so your exploding fairies can kill more of them." This was also the job of a tank. And I didn't need to be tanky for this...so long as I didn't let the monsters catch me.

"I know I said sorry for this a while ago, but don't be an idiot and just stay here."

"Trust me on this."