The [Lvl 63 Blighted Sentient Splotch]—a squat humanoid blob, a head shorter than the Mud Golem but much wider—stopped slapping Kezo with palms as broad as the village gates. Standing straight, it looked up at the ceiling of the cavern. It opened its mouth, hooking its fat fingers at the edges of its droopy lips, pulling its gaping maw wider like a snake loosening its jaws.

“Sludge waterfall incoming!” Kezo shouted.

The belly of the Sentient Splotch stretched far out in front of it, skin growing thin, revealing the glowing liquid bubbling inside. Its stomach rumbled like thunder.

I cast [Horde Stampede]. “Spread out!”

“Ugh! I really hate this part!” Megan exclaimed, running straight for the exit.

“You don’t have to leave,” Nitana said, following her friend. “Such a big baby—”

I didn’t hear the rest of Nitana’s words as the Blighted Sentient Splotch vomited its guts into the air. The volcano of disgustingness exploded with foul liquid that’d make anyone wish it was lava instead. Fountains of green goo arced everywhere like a fountain show, covering almost the entire cave floor except near the edges.

Megan left the cave. Nitana was by the opening, probably teasing her while avoiding the acid rain. Kezo and I had fled to the opposite end of the area, hugging the walls. We didn’t want to leave, or the boss would reset, and the damage we had dealt, already a quarter of its health, would regenerate.

“It’s safe now!” Kezo waved his sword at Nitana and Megan to get their attention. We didn’t know if they heard him from over there, though Nitana was pulling Megan back inside the cave.

The Sentient Splotch closed its mouth and collapsed in a heap, a child tired after playing for hours, causing a small quake as its butt hit the ground. The green slime covering the floor—scientifically also classified as tuddles—seeped into the earth and disappeared.

It breathed heavily, sounding like a giant vacuum cleaner, rubbing its much-deflated tummy. In this state, it cleansed all negative status it had and rapidly healed the damage dealt by both the players and Blight. If left alone, it’d heal back to full, but it also had reduced defenses.

“For the ancestors!” I said, using [Poison Bottle Cast] and [Gnawing Rot] at the unresponsive giant. Then to Kezo, I explained, “I’m trying out battle cries like the NPCs do when fighting.”

He laughed as black flames covered him. “It’s amusing when they do that. For the ancestors! Courage!”

“What are you guys shouting?” Nitana asked.

After explaining it to them, Megan said, “Ancestors? I want to try that too! For Gramps and Glamma!”

“For my dog…” Nitana mumbled unenthusiastically.

The four of us let loose hell on the Blighted Sentient Splotch, keeping its massive regeneration at bay and stopping it from erasing our earlier progress.

Nitana cast new spells—multi-colored fireballs and fairies I hadn’t seen before. Surprisingly, she found the time to overhaul her build despite being on vacation. Megan’s expensive [Spell Bonded Totem] was by her side, copying the spells she used. What was new about Megan was her outfit. Instead of the mismatched pieces she wore, she now had a complete set of bright pink robes accented with silver lines, matched by similarly-colored accessories and wands. Not sure if those were powerful items or if she simply liked the design.

Kezo was the most fearsome, dedicating the last few days to becoming stronger. I wouldn’t be surprised if he played Mother Core Online while sitting cross-legged beneath a waterfall in the mountain. His attacks were black blurs, almost looking like a spinning top. Each slice was a noticeable notch on the monster’s health bar, despite all the damage it received.

And, of course, there was me, the Great Herald Stone… throwing stones at the wall of pale flesh.

I wasn’t fooling around. I was making sure, using both the poison-coated [Mehubanarath’s Old Sling] and [Poison Bottle Cast], that the Sentient Splotch stayed poisoned. [Morabodry] chipping away at its life couldn’t be ignored—it took a percent of this bloated guy’s maximum health every second. Perhaps not to the level of Kezo, but my damage wasn’t something to be scoffed at.

[Gnawing Rot] also increased the DPS of the party. The benefit of debuffers wasn’t usually evident because the more they helped, the more the DPSers looked good, shadowing the formers’ actual contribution. But Herald Stone didn’t need praise from others to validate my efforts—it was enough that I acknowledge myself. I’d try to find more potent debuffs for Great Hunt.

The Sentient Splotch stirred; it thrashed its stubby legs and excessively long arms as if a cockroach had climbed up its back—something I could relate to. Opening its lopsided mouth wide, it bawled like a baby with a tantrum. The mighty cry dealt some damage and impaired our vision.

[ Status|Minor Diplopia: Double Vision for 30 Seconds ]

“Why can’t my battle cries have an effect like that?” I complained, rubbing my eyes.

Memories of the celebration of Dolly’s first branch opening came to mind when I drank so much that I swore the building became two. I got so happy we were opening two branches at the same time! The hangover the next day was like casting Totems—paying with a chunk of my life. I had only drank casually since then, mostly for social purposes.

Casting [Cleansing Flames], I removed the pesky status, and the whole world stabilized. The Blighted Sentient Splotch was back to one. Too bad I couldn’t do anything to help my teammates.

“I hate this so much!” Megan said, waving her wand in front of her eyes as if that’d fix her vision. This was a powerful debuff, affecting the actual senses of the player, not just raw numbers like lowering Accuracy points, for example. “I’m seeing two of them!”

“Have your Totem attack one, and you go for the other,” Nitana said, laughing. She switched to her AoE spells, sending her exploding suicide fairies in the enemy’s general direction to carpet bomb the area.

“I don’t think that works,” Megan replied. “I should aim down the middle.”

“I was kidding,” Nitana said. “Just attack. It’s so freaking big. You won’t miss it.”

The Sentient Splotch stopped crying. It struggled to stand up, groaning as it pushed its weighty body off the ground.

“Great job, everyone!” Kezo said, retreating backward from the boss while sending waves of black flames toward it. “Our DPS is high, but it’ll take a few more cycles like this before we defeat the boss. Next up is the stomping.”

“My turn!” I raised my hand, galloping forward. “I promise it won’t get close to you.”

The [Lvl 63 Blighted Sentient Splotch] growled in rage. With its hands on its knees, it alternately stamped its feet hard on the ground like a sumo wrestler before a fight. Then the Sentient Splotch surged forward while doing its bizarre walk, sending ripples of green energy across the earth. If I didn’t try to interrupt the boss, it’d gradually accelerate and would soon be a berserking roller compactor leveling this area along with us.

[Withering Brand] slowed it down, allowing me to easily position Totems in front of it. I went in and out of the stomps’ AoE, dropping Totems before the next foot hit the ground. High movement speed was the key. The Totems cast [Enraging Call] before dying to the AoE damage of the foot stomps, halting the movements of the boss for a couple of seconds as it gets confused with its targets.

“Awesome work, Herald!” Kezo said. “Tag out with me when it calms down.” He switched to a shield and sword setup to tank the boss.

Although I couldn’t hold this big guy with Totem Juggling—it had plenty of AoE skills countering that strategy, and I hadn’t worked on my health sustain yet to return to spamming Totems—we could kite it. But if we ran around, Kezo couldn’t effectively DPS since he was mainly a melee fighter. He used his semi-tank loadout to keep the Sentient Splotch in place when it wasn’t stomping.

It also benefited Megan and Nitana if the giant blob wasn’t chasing us so they could focus on attacking. More importantly, the boss would be poisoned if Kezo kept it inside the [Morabodry] cloud.

Our party fell into the rhythm of battle, the sweet spot where we didn’t need to do callouts or discuss strategies. Everyone knew what they were supposed to do. We chatted about Megan and Nitana’s vacation to southern Eroban while fighting flawlessly. I didn’t need to heal anyone except myself for the Totem costs. If teamwork was an actual attribute, we were smashing the plus button, constantly raising it.

A couple more vomit eruptions later, and the boss was down to a fifth of its health. It had stopped stomping, and Kezo tanked it. Our conversations turned from real-world topics back to the game.

“Your poison is doing great, Herald,” Kezo said. If he weren’t busy hacking away at the thick hide of the boss, he would give me a thumbs up. “Adds a lot to the party DPS.”

“Probably not that much…” I started to say when an intriguing prospect occurred to me. “Kezo, do Elites have high poison resistance like open-world bosses?”

“Not like them, no. They’re just stronger normal mobs. Why?”

“What about the event monsters during the Great Hunt like the Fulgurian Mammoth?”

“And Cragodons, Fengharls, many others,” Kezo ticked off, understanding where I was going with it. “They have some resistances, but not like open-world bosses that are almost immune to poison.”

“That means Herald can kill Elites and event monsters,” Nitana said.

“I saw him kill a bunch of Saurians in a cave over there,” Megan chimed in. “Just poisoning them and running away.”

Well, it’s more complicated than that. It sounded dishonorable if worded that way. But then again, Herald Stone was honor personified, so everything was fine. “That’s what I was thinking. I can do that in addition to debuffing enemies and tanking with Totems.”

Pushing my health regeneration and healing for Totem Juggling would be challenging because I wouldn’t dare participate in the Great Hunt with low health. But by working on my Plaguetank build, I was also working on my Totem Juggling problem—health potions could be the solution. I could barely wait for the morrow to start working on Healer Gula’s Ocadule. I’m killing so many birds with only a few stones with my unboxlike thinking!

“Don’t forget ress,” Kezo said.

Once I had [Embers of Rebirth], I’d be the most important member of the party. I’d be a god, deciding who’d live and stay banished in the land of the dead. Just kidding, I was going to resurrect everyone because I’d be a benevolent god.

“Yes, I’ll work on that after finishing Bawu’s quests,” I said. “Who knows what we’ll find out from her?”

“I want to meet Bawu!” Megan said.

“Then let’s quickly finish up the quest.”