I raised my shields as the [Lvl 57 Arcane Blighted Crackal] swiped at me with a table-sized clawed paw—the decaying feline aimed for my head, trying to get a Decisive Strike. A grating screech echoed as its frosty saber-like claws sliced across the surface of my shields. Debuffs latched onto me, but nothing worrying—it made me harder, courtesy of [Cleansing Flames].

The Crackal lunged down to bite. I grinned under the shade of my shields, scimitar fangs falling from above. My new debuffs are working great!

[Greater Pyro Shell] had sustained a few hits from this giant cat boss more than twice my level but was still intact. I was tempted to make a celebratory jig, but more attacks came. My shell finally exploded. It was off cooldown by then, so I recast it, followed by [Compelled Frenzy] to keep the Crackal debuffed and on me.

“Say the word,” Paritor shouted from behind the boss’ swishing tail, “and I’ll take the aggro!” His fire hounds didn’t have their aura taunt turned on. This was our arrangement if I couldn’t hold the boss for long—a sort of Totem Juggling between us.

“I can also switch in,” said Kezo, madly slashing away at the Crackal’s flank.

“No worries here.” Just as I spoke, the Crackal’s eyes glowed, and its icicle-lined exposed spine sparked with purple energy. This looked like something to worry about. “Nitana!”

“On it!” She enveloped me with a barrier sprite. Panes of orange glass pieced themselves together to protect me. Though usually wearing a disinterested façade, I’d say Nitana was the most reliable of us all. Excluding me, of course.

“This’ll help too!” came Melonomi’s voice.

Something clinked across the ground and hit my left hind leg. I spared a glance behind me—a circular glass bottle. Bursting open, it spewed blue smoke that smelled of overbaked bread.

Brzzzt! A flash of light.

The barrier sprite shattered, and static tickled my body. Electricity had zapped me. And it was just the beginning.

Lashes of lightning whipped around the Crackal like a giant plasma ball at the science fair. I got hit again and again. My shell popped. Another was immediately up. I followed it with [Healing Touch] to patch the health cost of [Greater Pyro Shell.]

Is Paritor okay?

The Crackal blocked my view of Paritor, but his health bar was taking quite a beating. I then spotted him galloping left out of the lightning shower. His summons remained inside. Whatever Melonomi’s burnt toast-smelling potion did, it was quite something if I could stay here while Paritor couldn’t. He was level fifty-seven, the same as the Blighted boss, and built semi-tanky.

Paritor continued to support his summons from afar but struggled to keep them alive.

The Asipu spirits died one by one. First to go were the spry goblins, then the rabid hounds, and last was a summon I hadn’t seen before—a monkey-like spirit draped with chains. The giant toad was quite beefy and survived. But with nothing to buff and support, Paritor ordered it to hop away.

“Careful, Herald!” Melonomi called. “Its duration is short!”

That’s what she said, I automatically quipped in my head before processing her words. Duration of what? In answer to my question, the blue cloud dissipated, and the smokey scent faded.

Brr-bzzzt! [Greater Pyro Shell] gone.

I recast. The fresh shell got instantly destroyed. With Paritor out of range and his small army deleted, the unceasing lightning bolts were split between Kezo and me.

Divine Bovine! Lightning strikes the same spot so many times! My health bar was fully bare. No barrier sprite. I tried to hang on with [Healing Touch] and Megan’s potions, but the Crackal wasn’t stopping its science fair display. My health pool was too small—a huge risk I’d croak if lightning consecutively hit fast, almost like a one-hit knockout.

I legged it out of there. “Kezo, I’m leaving!” It pained me to say it. I checked over my shoulder. “We should retreat for—” I stopped. Kezo was in no danger at all.

The Arcane Blighted boss turned its attention to Kezo, clawing and biting, the lightning arcing from its back drawn solely to him. At level seventy-two and wearing top-of-the-line equipment, Kezo was considerably tankier than me, even though he was a full DPS build. His lifesteal allowed him to bathe in electricity without batting an eye. The Crackal even cast a buff, causing it to attack faster, critting and lifestealing as well, but Kezo was unfazed.

I shrugged. “Looks like I’m out of a job.”

“You and me both.” Melonomi shook a potion bottle by its long neck. “I spent the whole night making a bunch of potions, thinking I should make a good impression. Then this happens.”

“That blue one is great,” I said. “And you’re doing well as our healer.”

“But I can’t heal if there’s nothing to heal.” She pointed with the bottle at Kezo, who was lifestealing as if his life depended on it—which it did.

“How about we tell Kezo to stop doing that?” Megan said. “Give himself a challenge, yeah?” She trotted over, eager to join the chat with a new friend. She left behind her [Spell Bond Totem] that retched swirling flames at the Crackal.

“No, no,” I said, laughing. “We’re just starting low—” not low relative to me, I added in my head “—and work our way up. I’m sure we’ll need Melonomi’s healing soon enough. Me, especially.” And for my plan, I added in my head.

Melonomi shook her head. “Because you’re only level twenty-six.” My left cheek stiffened. She didn’t notice and continued to mope. “If you’re, say, level fifty-five, same as me, you wouldn’t think much of what I do. You’ll say I should stick to brewing and selling potions.”

“Don’t be like that,” Megan said. “Your potions look really cute, like the pink cloud and… I’m excited to see your potions doing, uh, stuff when we’re fighting stronger bosses.”

“It’ll be a game-changer having you in the party, then,” I said. And I meant it. She had a significant role to play in my strategy.

“Oh yeah, and you have way high HealRec.” Melonomi wagged the potion bottle she held at me, refusing to be consoled. “Not everyone has that. I’m probably over-healing you by a ton.”

“Yes, not everyone,” I said. “But I’m a tank. I’m supposed to have that, and it’s working well with your potions. We’re a team.”

“With your small health pool is small—no offense on this, by the way—my mediocre healing looks big in comparison.”

I was sure there was a sexual joke there somewhere. “Wait till the next boss,” I said. “You’ll see that we need your healing.”

“If that’s meant to make me feel better, thank you, but—”

“Excuse me, people over there!” Nitana shouted at us. With a wave of her staff, fiery fairies zoomed into the Crackal and exploded. “Thank you for not standing around to chat.”

“I’m doing my part!” Megan protested. “Look at my—” Checking behind her, she saw that her [Spell Bonded Totem] had expired. “Oopsies. Let’s talk later!”

Melonomi sighed. “Guess I’ll just stick to debuff pots.” She took out a few test tubes filled with different-colored liquids. “But they suck ‘cause I haven’t worked on them. I focused more on health potions, thinking I could match real healers. Yeah, business too, I guess.”

“You are a real healer.” I nudge my head at the Blighted boss. “The annoying lightning has stopped. I’m going back in. Support me, okay?”

As the Crackal banged on my shell, I thought of Melonomi’s words.

Yes, my health is… low.

Not for my level. But compared to a health-stacking tank, it was way low because I focused on armor, healing, and retribution; my health stat was left on the back burner. Melonomi was right that her healing overspilled, particularly if they piled on my own.

The simple solution was to raise my health. I’d avoid getting one-hit killed by particularly powerful attacks—there was no healing or regenerating that—and not waste heals. Or I could go all in with barriers and have a different form of sustain. Need to focus on one or the other. Building both health and barriers early wouldn’t be economical—I couldn’t afford to invest heavily in different defensive layers.

But whatever I was going to do, I wasn’t going to raise my health pool now.

“Eh, we’re done?” The [Lvl 57 Arcane Blighted Crackal] burst into sparkling Essence and Gli. I thought the fight would be longer with the Crackal lifestealing. It didn’t even get to cast its lightning skill again.

Our party looked way different from when we started. Kezo’s DPS was even more insane. Add to that Paritor—he wasn’t lying about his fully buffed summons matching meta DPSers. Megan and Nitana, both at level fifty-one, worked hard to strengthen themselves. And Melonomi, with her debuffs, though weak, increased party DPS.

Lastly, yours truly. My poison DoT ticks were respectable enough, especially coming from a tank.

“Good job, everyone!” Kezo threw his swords in the air. They disappeared into his inventory. He gave us raised high thumbs-ups wrapped in motivational energy. “A good start to our new team. But I’m sure you guys haven’t warmed up yet—this was easy. On to the next challenge!”

If a Fengharl Cub was as large as the average Mardukryon, its mommy, the [Lvl 64 Arcane Blighted Fengharl], was around the size of a standard Mardukryon dome-house. Its fur was a cloak of icicles, making it look like a colossal crystalline porcupine. Like the baby version, the adult had golden crystals for its fangs and claws, the same ones Mardukryons used for energy.

“Burn-immune enemies are such a hassle,” Kezo said to my right. Instead of the usual black flames coating him, he swung swords trailing shimmering orange threads at the giant bear’s cheek as it bent down to chomp me. “My DPS drops so much if I can’t Burn.”

“Probably applies to all of us,” I said, recasting [Greater Pyro Shell]. This frozen fur rug could pop my barrier in two attacks. “The Burn-immune part being a hassle, not the DPS part.”

But even without [Mantle of Kindling] replenishing AS whenever I Head-On Blocked Burned enemies, my AS regeneration could cover the costs of [Heaping Infection] and [Healing Touch]. [Greater Pyro Shell] now dipped from my health pool—with Melonomi around, this was never a problem.

The Fengharl destroyed my shell again. At this level, everyone and their grandmother could trivialize it. The next swipe came. I whipped out a strategy stowed away in ancient scrolls in the catacombs—I planted a [Superior Replicant Totem] by the Fengharl’s left. Its paw slammed the Totem instead of me. I plopped a [Lesser Replicant Totem] to its right. The new Totem cast [Enraging Call] and drew the Fengharl to it.

Lvl. 1 Superior Replicant Totem (Link): A hefty payment of blood establishes a contract with the world beyond for the aid of a spectral totem (limit 1). The totem will have 15% of the Offense and Defense attributes of its contractor, and it will continuously cast all linked Skill Shards that do not deal damage. The contractor will pay for its costs.

(Can only be Linked to Skill Shards that have cooldowns of ten seconds or less)

Cost: 25% of Maximum Health

Duration: 45 Seconds

Cooldown: 1 Second

Lvl. 1 Lesser Replicant Totem (Link): A payment of blood contracts the aid of a lesser spectral totem from another plane (limit 1). The totem will have 10% of the Offense and Defense attributes of its contractor, and it will continuously cast all linked Skill Shards that do not deal damage. The contractor will pay for its costs.

(Can only be Linked to Skill Shards that have cooldowns of ten seconds or less)

Cost: 15% of Max Health

Duration: 30 Seconds

Cooldown: 1 Second

Once [Greater Pyro Shell] was available, I stopped Totem Juggling and taunted the Fengharl. I chipped in with some more DPS and debuffs whenever I could.

“Melonomi, don’t let me die!” I laughed as the Fengharl headbutted my shields. The health costs of Totem Juggling plus [Greater Pyro Shell] were insane. But, Melonomi was there to heal me. With both of us, my health bar was refilled in a snap.

“You can count on me,” she said, clearly satisfied she was needed.

Totem Juggling two-point-oh was unveiled to the world! It worked so well that I didn’t need to ask for help from Paritor or Kezo. This was the strategy I’d bring to the Great Hunt.