The Mad Rat's Lab

Climbing the clockwork tower is hard. Climbing is hard, but at least finding and pressing the buttons in the correct order isn't.

My little sister found the first, and I found the second. Then it was Ricard's and finally Laura's turn, with the numbers 3 and 4 respectively, and after a complete round, it was my sister's turn once more. In that same order, we keep pressing the buttons, warning the others before doing it to avoid mishaps and deadly falls.

Now that we're close to the top, we have barely any time to avoid the gorilla's gears. We must keep an eye on the top at all times and find a hiding spot as soon as the golem's head pokes out of the platform's edge.

"Heeeey!" I shout. "I'm about to press the next one! It's number 22!"

I wait for a few seconds before pressing the button, and another shift occurs within the clockwork tower. Then I keep climbing.

Not long after, Ricard's voice reaches me. "I'm pressing the number 23! Taking into account the distance to the platform, we should be almost there. Just one more button, two or three at most!"

I know what you're thinking. 'Twenty-four buttons!? Who's crazy enough to design this shit!?' As I've said, the climb is the hardest part of this dungeon…

As Ricard predicted, after Laura presses the button with the number 24, the whole clockwork tower shakes and all the gears stop moving simultaneously. Now, the almost invisible film protecting the top platform must have disappeared, allowing us to step inside.

The sudden silence is unnerving, like the calm before the storm. Even the gorilla golem has stopped throwing gears at us.

"I have a bad feeling about this…"

There are at least five meters until the top. I resume the climb, taking advantage of the stopped gears to speed up my advance. The biggest advantage of the stopped gears is the fact that they opened extra paths that were unavailable or too dangerous until now.

But then, right as I lower my guard, it happens. The gorilla's giant head appears above me. We lock eyes, and the golem monster grins at me. I prepare to hide behind one of the protruding gears, but the gorilla's next action makes me freeze completely.

The gorilla grabs the tower's edge… and, as if unaffected by gravity, rushes at me, using the stopped gears to move freely on the vertical axis. The invisible film wasn't only stopping us from trespassing, it was also trapping the gorilla inside it!

"Fuck, fuck, fuuuuck!"

I scramble away, moving sideways, doing my best to avoid going down the tower while avoiding the gorilla's fists.

"Everyone! Run towards the top as fast as possible! The gorilla is now free and is targeting us! We can't fight it on the clockwork tower!"

From the contents of what I said, it's easy to understand I'm the one currently targeted by the gorilla. Laura quickly figures it out and asks.

"Is it going for you? Do you need–"

"Yes! Help meeeee!"

I answer before she can finish the question, ducking to avoid the gorilla's fist. There's no need to pretend; pride means nothing when you're dead.

In the middle of the punches, I somehow manage to slip through the golem's arms – not without almost falling off the tower more than one time –, and manage a somewhat stable position: running right in front of the giant gorilla, doing rounds around the tower.

With every few jumps I do, I go up a few centimeters. I can't overdo it, though, because the gorilla is way better than I am at climbing; the only thing that's preventing the monster from catching up is the fact that I'm moving sideways.

"Uaaaah! What are you doing!? Are you really going to let your dear leader die like t– U-ugh!"

Why does this sudden pull feel familiar? Ah, right, it's Ricard's…

"Dark Grab! Now, Lemon!"

My body moves in a straight line upwards until I stop right in front of Ricard's Champion. A weightless moment follows, and before gravity can take hold of me, dark tentacles grab my body, pulling me towards the flat top.

Clara and I roll on the ground. I try to get away as soon as possible, but her tentacles don't let go.

"Thanks for saving me. Now, let go so we can fight the gorilla…"

Clara shakes her head, "No, I don't want to. You're mine now, hehe!" I glare at her, forcing her to turn her head away in panic. "Fine, I'll let go..."

I quickly stand up and take some distance from her horrifying visage, approaching Ricard.

"Thank you, too. I was about to be crushed to a pulp–"

"Here it comes!" Ricard suddenly jumps back, pulling me with him.

Following his movement, a giant robotic arm swipes the platform's edge. If it wasn't for his quick reaction, both of us could have been sent to our deaths at the bottom of the tower.

That was too close for my comfort. Let's stop putting ourselves at risk. Starting now, I'll think first, act later… Haha, who am I trying to convince? It's evident I'm never going to think before acting, that's the true mad-scientist way!

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As we retreat towards the platform's center, the metallic gorilla emerges from the tower's edge with all its imposing glory. At more than two times my height, even if it were to stand completely still, I would hesitate to approach it, just in case. But, of course, this gorilla has no intention of standing still.

*Uh, uh, uh!* With a guttural and metallic growl, the gorilla pounds his chest before rushing at us.

The ground shakes at the gorilla's immense weight and strength.

If this were real life, I might have pissed my pants right now… After watching films and learning what a certain monster can do, when I find a similar monster in the game, I instinctively tense up way more than necessary.

We scatter, and Ricard uses Taunt to force the gorilla to attack him. Taking this opportunity, we quickly start our assault.

I lead the attack with a Chaotic Beam. Right after the beam hits the gorilla's upper torso – the damage it takes is insignificant compared to his large HP pool –, the golem joins his two hands and smashes down at Ricard. Due to the large size and unexpected attack, Ricard can't dodge in time.

*Baang!*

The speed and strength of that move are so high that it creates a shockwave upon impact. Thank god we split up in advance, or we'd all have been affected by it.

"Was Ricard flattened into a pancake…?" I know he has the undead skill that stops death, so it's unlikely. But taking that attack head-on would surely hurt him a lot. "...wait. He's fine?"

When the gorilla pulls his fist back, it reveals Ricard, unscathed, standing proudly with a smug grin on his face, with his sword in a parry position.

After Ricard's insistence, and possibly only because our older sister thought it was a good idea to improve our teammates' skills, Marta agreed to train Ricard so he could use Parry. Do you remember when I said Marta pulled him away, and when he came back, he looked as if his soul had abandoned his body? It was right then.

I wonder how hard she pushed Ricard during that 'training'... not that I actually want to know.

Timing Parry to block a huge fist like that isn't hard. Even so, missing the timing by even a tenth of a second means taking the hit head-on. Marta's training did pay off, after all.

Still, there's a huge difference between Ricard and Marta. Hitting an arrow mid-flight, or blocking simultaneous attacks from all directions, isn't something a normal person can do, after all.

Dark fire extends over the ground, burning the zone below the massive gorilla, and normal red fire starts spreading over its body. As the gorilla takes damage from the fire, his dark metallic body, almost black in color, starts glowing red.

This is the first time I've seen this combo in action. Those are Laura's spells, Ignite and Hellfire. But they don't cause the reddening; this is the effect of her newest skill: Piping Hot.

Like me, Laura has decided to semi-specialize in a single damage type. But unlike me, her skill doesn't help much against spreading damage over groups of enemies. Piping Hot is perfect for damage-over-time skills, synergizing perfectly well with Hellfire, her faction-exclusive skill, and the reason she picked Ignite, too. Furthermore, the burning effect allows her to farm Torture points, the demon's special resource, easily.

What do I have to say? Fire and demons go hand in hand, don't you agree? Hahaha!

Piping Hot's damage potential is limitless, which, hopefully, will help us tremendously when dealing with bosses. Until now, we had to rely on my little sister for this. There's, though, one problem with it: surviving long enough for the burn to stack.

I keep casting spells as the golem engages Ricard in a brutal and deadly melee. Using mostly Cold Blasts, with the occasional Chaotic Beam between them. I'm not trying to deal damage, but trying to apply debuffs to the gorilla. If I'm lucky and trigger a strong random debuff or apply the immobilization effect from Cold Blast, it'll help us a lot.

The gorilla suddenly stops and turns his head towards me. Oooh, shit. I might have taken its aggro… With another *Uh, uh!* cry, he charges at me.

"Do your damn job properly, Baldy!" I shout, running away. "Get his aggro back!"

Ricard's voice comes from far away, "What do you want me to do? Taunt's effect is gone. You shouldn't have used so many single-target spells! Burst damage is the enemy of controlled aggro!"

"Ugh…" This is so unfair… I wasn't trying to deal damage, I was just trying to apply debuffs…!

The golem's shadow grows larger, and his steps grow louder. The ground shakes as the angry golem gets close. Am I going to die like this? Do I really have to use Grand Finale yet again, just to buy some time?

"Brother, I'll save you!"

Just in time, Clara jumps to the rescue. Using her tentacles, she latches onto the golem's torso and climbs onto his enormous body. Using her skills and tactics learned from Marta, my little sister applies her skills to the golem, moving around like some kind of disgusting parasite.

Or, at least, that's what I imagine. I'm too scared of looking back to watch it happen… this applies to both the giant gorilla and Clara.

In case you're curious, no, she hasn't been slacking. After a certain encounter against a boss monster with skills that activated on touch, where she almost died, which in turn would have caused a total party wipeout, we changed tactics. Instead of having her engage at the start of the battle, she now watches and analyzes the monster's skills and behavior. Then, when she's ready to act, or if the situation takes a wrong turn like now, she quickly jumps into action.

Furthermore, delaying her action also helps Ricard keep the monster's aggro for a longer time without relying on Taunt, as the damage from all her damage-over-time skills, when applied to a single monster, quickly makes them perceive her as the most important target to eliminate.

*Uh, uh, ah, uh!* The gorilla roars. His shadow stops approaching, having changed targets, but I don't stop running. Better safe than sorry.

"Lemon, you can do it!" I cheer for her.

The gorilla thrashes around, trying to get the persistent creature off his body, but Clara is too fast and agile. Realizing it doesn't work, the gorilla starts banging and rolling his metallic body on the ground, trying to squash Clara.

"U-uaaah, I can't do thiiiiis!" With a pathetic yelp, Clara is forced to let go, flailing off the gorilla's body and rolling on the floor for a few meters.

Finally free, the gorilla grins towards Clara, who's still struggling to recover from the dizziness. His grin keeps growing until it splits his head into two, his mouth wide open, and light starts to accumulate.

I tilt my head. "What the fuck is going on now…?"