Kaldalis had to think fast. Two new adds to the fight could be a complication, or a death sentence.

Part of it was in Monsoon’s hands; if the adds had high damage output, they were hosed no matter what. Same if the boss spawned more at any point during the fight.

And without any DPS players in the fight, they were hosed if there was a DPS check, even if the DPS check was something as simple as adds to burn.

“We’re fine!” Kaldalis yelled. “We’re fine! We’ve got this! Just focus down the adds.”

Kaldalis didn’t know what he would say if Dalgaard questioned his confidence, but he didn’t really have another option but to lean into it. He stepped up to put himself between the charging adds and the healer, and just kind of hoped everything would work out in his favor.

He did have one trick up his sleeve, though.

Kaldalis mentally reached for his newest ability, hoping it would be enough to keep things under control.

Activating Sweeping Strikes felt like electricity running down his arms. He suddenly felt powerful, and more that that, there was a sense of competence that felt completely unearned. Kaldalis knew that it would make his attacks cleave for the next five seconds, and that it increased his damage output by ten percent, but he didn’t know it would have such a dramatic effect on how he perceived the world.

Unbidden, his feet moved and adjusted his stance, and his arms shifted their grip on his spear. His body knew what his next attack would look like as he made the conscious choice of target.

“Whoa,” he said. “I know kung fu.”

He swept his spear around in a broad sweeping attack. A part of him lamented that he wasn’t still using a glaive. He’d have to ask around if there was a way to apply physical styles of his older weapons to newer ones without affecting their stats.

The edge of the weapon hit the boss monster squarely in the side of its neck, dealing fifteen physical damage and four wind damage. It was only little bonus damage, but increasing by two damage from a ten percent increase was a weird anomaly. Damage rounding in this game was weird. But it was weird in his favor, so he wasn’t going to argue with it.

As soon as his weapon met resistance on the blow, he felt his trailing hand ease up on the haft of the spear, letting the edged head slide past the boss. As soon as it was clear, his arms snapped to attention again, swinging the weapon with alarming speed. He was hardly even aware of the shifting of his feet until he spun with the attack all the way around. The adds were almost on top of him, though one of them was looking past him at Dalgaard. Kaldalis’s spear caught that one along the flank in a long slash, dealing eighty-nine physical damage and twenty-four wind damage.

The damage was a good sign. It meant that these didn’t also have boss level stats.

As soon as the head of his spear was free of that attack, his grip shifted again, and he smashed the weapon into the second add, dealing the same one hundred and thirteen damage to the feathered monster.

The impact of the blow made it stagger slightly.

Now that he’d struck them both, the adds turned their attention on him, letting him know that he’d succeeded in keeping aggro off of Dalgaard.

He was doing his job, at least. Even if it was probably going to get him killed.

Before he could get in - or cause - any more trouble than he was already in, he hopped back into place between the boss and the nearest wall of the room. All three enemies attacked him in tandem, and his quick hop got him clear of the shitstorm of flailing ivory claws. He wanted all three enemies in front of him, and so he stayed his hand for a second, waiting for the adds to step into position.

As soon as they lunged in, his spear flashed out in a diagonal slash, cutting across the face of the add farthest to the left, the front of the chest of the add in the middle, and he leaned forward to ensure the end of the strike landed across the tops of the boss’s arms. The strikes did the same damage as his previous spinning strike, dealing one hundred and thirteen to both of the adds and nineteen to the boss.

For their part, Dalgaard rotated around the back of the boss monster, lashing out with twin daggers at the nearest add. They let out a decidedly Myrin-like cackle as the attacks carved into its tail. Kaldalis figured they were happy to see big damage numbers again.

“Don’t hold back,” Kaldalis called. “Cleave is giving me aggro to spare! Clean them up and then back to the boss.”

The trio of mobs around him lashed out again, and he was forced to make a split-second decision. The boss was lunging with its fanged maw again, while both adds were reaching for him with ivory claws. The spread of attacks meant he couldn’t dodge them all, and so he made the conscious choice to take the hit from the adds rather than the boss. He wasn’t sure if two hits were better than one, but he wasn’t going to be sure until he tanked through it.

Jaws snapped shut a few inches to his right, while claws raked at him. Both adds hit him, dealing eighty-six physical damage and twenty-nine dark damage. The accountant within him quickly added that to one-fifteen total per add, so two-thirty total.

It was the right choice. Both together was less damage than one blow from the boss.

His counterattack ripped back across the trio again, and Kaldalis was surprised when his spear struck the middle creature. The cleave caught it across the neck, and instead of just slashing for damage, there was a spray of red and it flailed its way to the floor.

“One down,” Dalgaard said, jumping over the corpse to attack the other add.

The system informed Kaldalis that it was called a juvenile daemonraptor, and was worth thirty experience.

Kaldalis wondered what title the boss had.

He supposed he’d figure it out in a few minutes. Or hours.

Whichever.

He felt the brief duration of the Sweeping Strikes cooldown ticking away, and he swept his spear through both targets one more time. After those two hits, the effect ended and the cooldown started to tick away. It was pretty short - only fifty seconds - and so he anticipated that it would be available before more adds appeared.

He focused his next attack at the add, dealing now eighty-one physical damage and twenty-two wind damage. It felt bad to have his damage reduced now that the cooldown had passed, but if the damage-obsessed Myrin could deal with it after hitting something for a smaller number for literally any reason, he could stomach doing eleven less damage with his hit. He imagined that the difference was even greater for her, since she was working with much larger base numbers than he was.

Dalgaard got a rapid Gust proc on the add, and Kaldalis had to throw himself out of the way to avoid being bowled over by the creature as it was launched forward by the blast of wind. The healer pounced, following up on the downed beast to rush to finish it off, even though it put them in front of the larger boss monster. At the same moment, the creature puffed out its chest, inhaling to ready for a sneeze attack.

Kaldalis didn’t think.

He just acted.

Tossing his spear to the ground, he grabbed Dalgaard by the shoulders. His grip found more robe than anything else, but he yanked back as hard as he could, getting them both out from in front of the attack just in time. The room filled with the cacophonous explosion and the blast of dark red light splattered the wall with steaming blackness.

“Sorry,” Dalgaard said quickly.

“Don’t be sorry,” Kaldalis said, “be better. A little situational awareness goes a long way.”

Kaldalis retrieved his spear quickly and readied to continue the fight. The boss’s sneeze had bought the add the time to find its feet again, and Kaldalis was going to be forced to reposition the fight again away from the dark damage “fire” on the ground.

He started by thrusting his spear into the ribs of the add to make sure he had its attention in the face of Dalgaard’s Gust proc, but instead of just getting another one hundred and three damage, the creature let out a catlike hissing sound, spraying blood across the floor as it collapsed to the ground.

“Adds down,” Kaldalis said. “Back on the boss! Repositioning now!”

He kited the boss across the room, poking it when he could, but focusing on keeping ahead of its attacks as he dragged it towards the far wall. He hoped it was useful to be positioning it to minimize the area that would be rendered impassable by the sneeze. He could see from here that the corner of the room that had been hit first was still blackened and steaming, so it seemed his assumptions had been correct.

Fortunately - or unfortunately - the boss didn’t summon adds again. Even though the fight went on for what felt like forty minutes (and was probably more like twenty) it didn’t make that same shrieking sound again, even when Dalgaard got subsequent Gust procs.

It was fortunate because it meant that they could keep all their damage on the big feathered beast.

But it was also unfortunate because Kaldalis held onto his Sweeping Strikes cooldown for the rest of the fight. He knew, in his heart of hearts, that the instant he used it, the adds would come back as soon as it wore off.

Dalgaard needed a bit of managing for the fight, but they listened well and learned fast. After calling for healing after about how long he knew the cooldown should be, his health bar got the support it needed. It also only took a few prompts to get them to attack from the side so that their Gust procs didn’t send the boss teeth-first directly into his face.

At the end of the fight, he learned that the boss was called a daemonraptor marquis, which he didn’t know how to pronounce, and so was going to just call it a daemonraptor boss if he had to say it out loud. It was worth sixty-five experience points, and given the amount of time it had taken them, it wasn’t a good investment.

“Come on you stingy fuck,” Kaldalis said, kicking the feathered corpse a few times. “No loot?”

“We got some feathers and fangs,” Dalgaard said, half-collapsed against one of the few sections of walls that wasn’t still blackened and steaming. “Isn’t that enough?”

“I just wanted some fucking gear!” Kaldalis said. “A charm or two? Maybe crafting materials?” He shrugged. “Wishful thinking, I guess.”

“Well, we can put this all behind us now, though,” Dalgaard said, struggling for a moment to get back up on their feet. “Don’t you have a quest to chase?”

“Fuck,” Kaldalis looked up through the cracked gaps in the ceiling. It was definitely fully night now. He couldn’t see the moon yet, but the sky was full dark but for the stars. “Shit, you’re right. Are you okay to get moving?”

“Yeah,” Dalgaard said, “I’m fine. You took all the damage. Are you fine?”

“Yeah.” He checked his HP bar up in the top left of his vision. It was full. “Let’s get out of here before something respawns. We can’t be too far now.”