Smash’s stamina bar continued to go down – 30%. When it hit zero he would become Drak’s minion. He’d been outplayed again by his former friend. No doubt Drak would force him to turn on the rest of his friends as well.

Thinking about each of them and the danger they would be in burned in is consciousness. Every time his friends had relied on him he let them down. Getting them involved with this game where their lives were on the line, Shelly’s death, Kevin’s betrayal of the group, Emmy getting infected by the plague – all of it was his fault and there seemed to be nothing he could do about it. No matter what brilliant plans Tim or any of them came up with it was never enough.

He started feeling his mind crawling with the consequences of each failure. It sent his pulse racing and his body grew warm with the anger of all his suppressed emotions. It wasn’t a rage like he experienced when he activated his abilities but one born from pure anger and desperation. Smash could sense the darkness that was enveloping his mind, poisoning him. He pictured a wall at the center of his being and began to push with everything he had in him. As the darkness began to recede he received a notification: Congratulations! You have learned the General Ability: Mental Tanking.

Smash swiped away the notification absently. Drak’s face inches from his own, he managed to finally lash out and crushed his forehead into the bony monster in front of him. Drak’s jaw dropped seeing his opponent free from his paralysis; however, he wasn’t surprised enough to withdraw his bony hand from Smash’s sternum. “How did you break free?” he hissed angrily. “No matter. You will be mine,” he said, twisting his hand within Smash’s chest it felt like he was tearing out his heart.

“Agghhh,” Smash’s scream became a roar as the anger in his mind continued.

Suddenly the pressure in his chest diminished and the bony claw of Drak’s extended hand withdrew from his sternum. Smash was driven to his knees with nausea and sudden weakness. He dimly heard a yell and heard the sound of steel on steel. Glancing up he saw Rygor, sword against sword with Drak. Behind them he could see Kantala in the distance trying to line up a shot as the two fought in close quarters.

“It looks like you could use a hand,” the other guildleader said with a grin. Pivoting a full 180, he used the pressure of Drak’s blade against his own to pull his own sword down and brought it across Drak’s knees. If he’d had any tendons left they would undoubtedly been severed. Still, it brought Drak’s health bar down a little bit and Smash heard him yell out in pain.

Free of Drak’s hand in his chest, Smash saw his stamina bar start to move up again. By the time he was on his feet again, his opponent was already trying to cast something. Rushing forward Smash drove his shield into his enemy’s hands, preventing him from continuing the chant. However, the creature before him was no mortal and simply continued chanting where he left off as soon as he took a step back.

Suddenly Smash couldn’t see anything around him. He’d been engulfed in darkness. He heard Drak start a different chant this time that seemed terribly familiar. This was the same spell he’d heard before Deathberry had the Misfits hide behind an illusion. Terrified of the thought of being disintegrated, Smash ran straight forward, shield out and hoped he went in the right direction. A few seconds later he emerged from the globe of darkness and saw the rest of his guild, still frozen by Drak’s spell. A message popped up in his chat window:

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Kantala: I’ve got Drak pinned down for now. Can you free the other Misfits, Smash?

Smashit: I’m not sure how I freed myself but I can try.

Cheezus was right in front of him, still paralyzed. The debuff timer showed it had less than a minute, but a minute might be too long. Also, no one had a better chance of interrupting a spellcaster than a melee rogue. Here goes nothing, he thought.

Exploring a bit with his mind, Smash sought out the poisoned sensation he’d felt earlier when he was trapped. He hadn’t felt it earlier, but he could now sense that same effect on his guildmate in front of him. He tried pushing a wall out of his head towards Cheezus, mimicking what he’d done earlier for himself. Cheezus grabbed his arm a few seconds later. “Can’t believe that fucking worked,” Smash said, shaking his head in disbelief. “Can you interrupt Drak while I free the others? I think he’s on the other side of the darkness spell.” Cheezus nodded and started moving around to the other side of the pitch black sphere. With Cheezus, Kantala, and Rygor distracting Drak, he was able to quickly free the rest of the raiders.

When the orb of darkness dissipated, Drak grew in size, eventually dwarfing the raid and becoming gigantic. His voice boomed over the raid, “You will not defeat me. I have come back from death to claim vengeance.”

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Thag: Blah, blah, blah. Que the monologue.

Rygor: lolz

Seona: brilliant!

Deathberry: Where is my popcorn? Can I come back after the cut scene?

Cheezus: No u!

Smashit: Ok folks, cut the chit-chat. Time to get down to business.

The Misfits quickly got into formation around the new raid boss. Smash looked at Drak’s name tag and it read – Lord Drak Level 95.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Deathberry: Heads-up folks. It looks like a giant skeleton type boss. Probably has a stacking armor debuff for the tanks and some type of bone AOE attack. Knowing that Drak’s a spellcaster it might have some other tricks up its sleeve like a paralysis or dark spell or two. Oh yeah and it probably has spell resistance.

Smashit: Thanks. Thag you’re with me. Officer leads command your crews.

Smash led the charge and accelerated with his shield into the giant skeleton creature. From this perspective he could only see the giant’s tibia and foot bones. It must be like fifty feet tall, he mused. However, there was no time for distractions because he soon noticed that he was taking a lot of damage. Damn, Deathberry was right about that stacking debuff for sure. “Switch,” he said to Thag who in turn yelled up at Drak, “Looks like one bone is still missing.” Pulling out her shotgun she even shot at the offending location. Sick burn, indeed.

As Smash took a step back he could see Drak’s form pulsing red with rage and Thag’s health bar started to almost immediately decline.

He yelled back to Thag, “That’s one way to taunt the boss. But maybe next time you don’t want to piss him off that much.”

“You’re just jealous I tank this hard,” she said, smirking.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Smashit: Cheezus, your woman is getting her butt kicked by her ex. Is that enrage ability interruptible?

Cheezus: First, you’re a dick. Second, I’m on it.

Some bosses’ enrage abilities could be temporarily stopped by stunning them. Of course, this only worked on certain enemies that could be interrupted in the first place. However, since Drak was a caster and all casters were interruptible it should be possible to stop it. A second later, a well time slash from Cheezus’ daggers put an end to the pulsing red glow on the monstrously large skeleton.

Meanwhile the rest of the raid was bringing the pain. Smash could see Kantala leading the other archers. They’d all switched to an explosive type arrow he’d not seen used before. Rygor had switched to melee dps for this fight and was with Cheezus and the rest of the rogues tearing the shit out of Drak’s ankles. The group might need a subgroup name like The Ankle Biters after this fight.

Deathberry and Nicole led the remaining ranged casters. Blaster types like Deathberry were launching giant fireballs towards Drak. The occasional rain of bone and ash down on his position was testament to the power of those destructive spells. Meanwhile Nicole and Seona summoned fire and earth elementals. Massive archons of fire and stone began as motes of light that grew as the caster wove natural fire and earth with mana into a force of nature. Their attacks smashed and burned Drak with terrific force.

Linca had the ability to do massive holy damage to any undead creature; however, for this fight she had switched back healing in order to keep the rest of the Misfits standing. She and Tabitha stood side by side with the other healers, their hands entwined, voices raised in prayer. Smash could hear their sing-song chants over the clash of steel and screams of his comrades.

Back and forth Smash would taunt the boss, hold it for as long as he could, and then switch with Thag. The raid had to dodge the occasional darkness globe that Drak would cast out into the raid. “Look out,” one of the casters said behind him to Seona. She had been too focused on casting and hadn’t seen the small tornado of sand and bone that Drak had summoned into the raid. She was rapidly taking damage beyond even Linca’s ability to heal. Fortunately, one of her own elementals was able to pull her out of the storm. “That was too close,” Smash yelled. “Let’s stay sharp everyone.”

Eventually, the Misfits wore down Drak’s health to 70%. They all prepared themselves as best they could but they had no idea what other tricks the enemy had in store. A blast of ice tore through the raid and took down several of the ranged DPS in a single strike.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Nicole: What the hell was that? Nearly one shot me.

Her question was answered a second later as Smash saw the bone dragon swooping again towards the raid.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Deathberry: Ranged spread out but don’t get out of LOS of your healers.

Smashit: I’ve got the dragon first. Let’s be sure to tank switch often since those stacks are going to hurt more with all the extra damage.

Thag: kk

Sapphire the Mad lived up to its name. Fighting this thing was like trying to tackle a schizophrenic flying squirrel with extra teeth and an icy breath weapon. Stepping to the side, Smash made sure not to get too close to its breath. One hit from that and he’d be a goner. They’d lost several more ranged dps after that first attack that hadn’t been fast enough to get out of the way. If that weren’t enough to deal with, the creature had a ferocious bite that did a lot of damage.

Its blue eyes promised a return to the death it had once dealt Smash. The frosty wind that kicked up in its proximity froze his armor and made movement extremely difficult. He ducked under one of its claws and swung Reaver into its ribcage again where he’d managed to connect a bit earlier. Chips of bone flew in every direction, nearly indiscernible from the storm that threatened to freeze him into submission. Fighting skeletons with a bladed weapon was a pain in the ass. Fortunately, the ranged dps were finding Sapphire easier pickings – especially since it seemed to take extra damage from fire. Smash could hear the sizzle and pop of the fire elementals burning their way through the dragon’s flank. It was a battle of the elements and with the help from Deathberry’s fireballs; it seemed the area was beginning to get warmer.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Thag: Twelve stacks. Need to switch.

Smashit: kk

Roaring his defiance Smash charged away from the icy dragon. He felt his blood warm as he left the area of its effect and flew shield first toward his fated foe. “You deserved to be fired, you selfish bastard,” he yelled up at Drak. Clearly, his nemesis hadn’t forgotten about their previous life or the fact that Sean was supposedly at fault for him losing his job.

“Now you’ve done it,” Thag laughed. She quickly dashed away to pick up the dragon and keep it from crushing the ranged DPS. Sapphire was looking pretty beat up. Being used as a virtual wave board across the Australian desert probably hadn’t helped its health bar any. But the part that seemed to be affecting it the most was the continual heat pouring off the elementals that surrounded it. As the dragon continued to be burned apart it went ballistic. First it rose into the air and froze a dozen of the fire elementals and broke aggro.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Smashit: Nicole, you’re at the top of the aggro table. Fade!

She didn’t have time to respond to Smash’s command before the dragon found her. Swooping down on the enemy that had wounded it so badly its white fangs sunk themselves deep into her chest, staining the snowy ground below the dragon crimson. Her health bar greyed out as she died.

DPS continued to demolish the dracolich. Its health was at 2%. The dragon’s rampage continued as it fought against mortal wounds to its undead body. Kantala was at the top of the aggro list as the second highest DPS; however, she quickly ran away from the creature whenever it attempted to land. Her arrows exploding against the great wyrm’s face, blowing away the lower jaw. That wouldn’t necessarily stop its breath weapon though. 1% health.

“Kant, get out of there,” Rygor roared. He ran towards her and tackled her just as the great dragon breathed its final breath. Ice exploded around the entire front half of the dragon, blasting away earth elementals and raid members alike. Kantala was thrown to the ground a dozen feet from the dragon’s dying exhalation. Rygor was half frozen in ice. The dragon disintegrated to dust and Drak’s yell across the raid thundered in their ears.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Smashit: Raiders regroup. Linca get Rygor and the rest healed up stat. Drak’s gone over into a permanent enrage.

After that, Smash didn’t have much time to focus on anything else except absorbing the heavy blows of Drak’s sword. It was a massive hunk of steel as large as a giant surfboard. They had killed the dragon and Rygor and Kantala had survived. Nicole had not been so lucky. Being a mutant, she didn’t have a Gear and she wouldn’t be coming back. Smash was tired of pushing down the guilt of so many deaths on his conscience. Taking a que from Drak he let his own rage consume him and redoubled his attacks.

Smash raised his shield above his head, activating shield wall again. His anger had been expended with his last rage and now he just felt empty. The fight had gone on so long at this point that he couldn’t feel his fingers or toes in his armor, the heavy hammering that rained down on his armor had dented it in dozens of places, and he felt just absolutely weary. Still, there was a spark that kept him going. Although he had failed his friends over and over again, the Misfits still relied on him and it was down to him to complete the task through to the bitter end and to end his arch nemesis once and for all.

After his dragon’s death, Drak’s ferocity was renewed. His eyes pulsed red with hatred, bones glowed crimson, and every spell in his mighty arsenal was thrown at the guild that he had once called home. Where he pointed raiders, mutants, and dwarves died. Great tornadoes rose from the desert and swallowed adventurers whether they ran or foolishly tried to stand their ground.

Smash had been offtanking, letting the stacked armor debuff fade when Thag went down to her knees. Drak had been delivering a series of slashing blows with his sword and following that up with a whirlwind sword attack that left her temporarily stunned. Smash knew that normally Thag would have activated her cooldowns right then but she was a half-second too slow. The vicious spinning attack caught her midsection and tore viciously into her armor. Reversing the sword, Drak pummeled her helm with the pommel of his sword. Smash knew that this fight was wearing on his friends. He had seen the tears in Thag’s eyes after she’d lost Nicole to the dragon. She probably blamed herself for not being able to quickly regain aggro, but it wasn’t her fault. Some bosses’ reset the aggro table and there was nothing you could do about it if you were top of the list other than try to evade the enemy’s attacks. Still, Smash knew what it was like to take on the guilt of leadership and he respected Thag’s reverence for her fallen friend.

In slow motion and before Smash could do anything else, he saw the blow that took Thag’s life. She was just recovering from the pommel to the head when Drak reversed the blade again and tore it across her throat. Smash heard the strangled cry from Cheezus and saw his friend try to run to her but it was too late.

Smash knew he should be emotional seeing his friends’ deaths but instead a calm detachment settled over his mind. Enough was enough. He was tired of having his friends used as punching bags to get to him and he was tired of shouldering all the blame. First, he used his shield bash to get Drak’s attention. “No one ever wanted you in the guild. You shouldn’t even be here,” he shouted directly up at Drak’s skeletal mass. It wasn’t a great insult but it was the best he could come up with on the spot.

With the bosses’ complete attention on him and without really thinking he grabbed Thag’s shotgun. It had fallen to the sandy ground next to her maimed and broken body. Throwing his shield over his back and sheathing his sword he took the gun and started climbing the inside of the monster who had once been his friend.

In a normal game you couldn’t just walk inside a boss character but in ARO, the rules were somewhat mutable he’d come to realize. You made up your own rules to survive. Drak’s full attention was on Smash but now Smash was inside him. In blind rage Drak started tearing himself apart. As he climbed through its ribcage Smash felt bone fragments slice against his face as the creature pounded on its chest, breaking its own bones. He could barely make out Drak’s health bar but it looked pretty low.

At the top of the chest cavity he pointed the shot gun straight up and fired again and again. The heavy slugs bore through the bone and smashed into where Drak’s brain would be if he was a living thing.

His health bar barely moved. He was out of bullets. Drak finally broke through his rib cage and grabbed Smash and started squeezing him to a pulp. Fuck, is this it? In one last act of defiance, Smash pushed with his mind as he had before and expanded the fortress walls up and into where Drak’s brain should have been. He felt resistance like nothing he had encountered before and voice that yelled, ‘I will live forever, you cannot destroy me!’ before something broke like a wave and suddenly Smash was floating through space as Drak’s bones began to melt and then dissipate into the wind.

Smash lay on the ground stunned afterwards and saw the faces of the remaining Misfits as they looked down at him curiously. He was wounded but still alive and they were probably all wondering why he was just laying here. But the sun was warm on his face and somehow, they had won the day.