The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Marissa

The incoming new enemy's status display read as [Dire Wyvern], which immediately put Marissa hovering between two camps. Either they would be in trouble, because that was a generic name, and it could mean that many more of them would appear and completely turn the tide, or it was a generic enemy and still wouldn't actually be that difficult and was only visually larger.

She hoped it was the latter. Or that they had reinforcements coming that they couldn't see behind the wall of enemies in every direction.

"Plan?" Evan asked.

"Firo, with me," Marissa said, moving Hibiscus toward the new threat. "We'll take it out from a distance. Or at least see how much punishment it can take."

"Right behind you." Firo said, as they both moved toward the [Dire Wyvern] to get it within range. Marissa had a few attacks that had extended range as an [Arrow], but each had a fairly long cooldown. She opted to launch [Crow Flight], which was a mid-powered attack at 700 [Might], but had her longest possible range.

More than anything else, she wanted to use it as a test to see how dangerous the [Dire Wyvern] might be. When the skill landed for about 10% of the monster's HP, she wasn't quite sure where she fell between her two previous thoughts. It wouldn't be a boss or even an elite enemy, really, but enough of them and they could definitely overrun the party in the current situation.

"Okay, that doesn't seem too bad." Firo said aloud.

"What?" Evie asked, impatiently for the new information.

"One attack did around 10%." Marissa said, as Hibiscus and Firo got within normal range and burned the singular [Dire Wyvern] down. It only took a few attacks from each of them, especially now that they were in range for their higher damage single target skills.

"Just one or two won't be a problem." Firo said.

"If you continue any further down that line of thought, Firo, you and I are gonna have problems." Evan said.

"Okay…" Firo said, sulking. He and Marissa moved back into the positions among the party to try to thin out the horde once more. But it really was a losing battle. They needed some kind of assistance to actually win this fight.

Marissa felt like she was playing one of the bad mobile games she always saw ads for, trying to thin out the horde of enemies rushing at her without the necessary firepower to actually overcome the enemy.

"We need a plan." Evie reiterated, as the space between the two small parties condensed more and more. They were being pushed back to the point that the entire party would simply be back to back before long.

"None of us are really cut out for big AoE damage." Nyx said.

"You say that like there is a dedication that is." Kieran said. "Invoker is the closest thing in the game to an AoE focused dedication, and we have one of those."

"Sorry," Firo said, apologizing for nothing, really.

"You don't need to apologize for playing your best." Kieran said.

"You might need to apologize for jinxing us, though." Evan added.

"If we make it out of here alive." Evie joked.

Marissa rolled her eyes. "Let's just focus on -"

She was completely interrupted when she saw a break forming in the globe of enemies that surrounded them. At first, she was hopeful that something was about to break the slowly failing stalemate they were in. Ash, Jazz, and Evie even cheered on reflex before seeing what was actually appearing.

A whole group of [Dire Wyverns] were flying through the gap. The smaller wyverns that the party had been dealing with for the last several minutes were actively making space for what must have been their leaders.

And in the middle of the whole group of [Dire Wyverns] was a smaller, lithe form that was likely an actual dragon. Unfortunately, Marissa couldn't actually tell what it was, because the targetable status attached to it was related to the enemy riding on its back.

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[Firdraig, the Dragon Tooth]

As the group of enemies - and probably a boss enemy - approached, the active attacks on the party stopped. The smaller wyvern backed off, giving the party a minimal amount of space while maintaining the sphere around them as a potential battlefield.

"Oh hey, that guy's name looks like your last name, Caoimhe." Nyx said.

"Yup. Draig roughly means dragon." Kieran responded.

"So he's a dragon rider with 'dragon' in his name. How original." Nyx chuckled.

"Hey, at least we know what his deal is at a glance." Kieran said with the audible equivalent of a shrug. "It's a little hard to see from here, but I like his armor. Damn."

"I'm not sure I like that he doesn't appear to be armed, though." Ash said. "Every time a boss has shown up to a fight unarmed they've been one of the more difficult enemies."

"Huh. You know, I hadn't really thought about that, but you're kinda right." Evan said.

"Assuming you only count enemies that show up unarmed and then proceed to create a weapon. I feel like that's an important distinction." Firo said.

"That's what I meant, yeah." Ash nodded.

"In any case, do we just wait for the dude to approach us?" Jazz asked. "Because this is a little slow for my liking."

"BBEGs gotta monologue, yeah?" Firo said.

Ash snorted. "Floating on the back of a dragon menacingly moving toward us slowly is considered monologuing, now? My, how the mighty have fallen."

"You know what I meant." Firo said.

"I do understand what you meant, Firo, but I don't think this slow, menacing approach is supposed to make us sweat." Kieran said.

"If we weren't making jokes about him in chat, maybe it would?" Marissa offered. "But yeah…it's like how playing a horror game with friends makes it less scary."

"It's why you need to always play those multiplayer horror games through the in-game chat." Ash said. Marissa rolled her eyes - she had heard him go on this particular rant before. "All of the tension is gone when you're sitting in an out of game chat and joking around the whole time."

"I agree, but I still don't usually think those games are scary enough." Marissa said.

"I mean, if you approach them in the right way -"

Ash was interrupted by [Firdraig's] first voice line as a rather silky smooth masculine voice cut through the game's sounds, which thankfully were usually automatically balanced to make voice lines more audible.

"You know, I wasn't sure I should believe what I saw earlier, and yet here you are. Wingless flying about."

"Damn," Evie said, "I don't know what the people hiring the VAs for this patch were thinking, but every single voice actor sounds so hot."

Marissa, along with most of the party, laughed out loud at that, even though she absolutely agreed.

"I suppose that bitch [Áine] finally made her move, then. We'll have to do the same."

"He's dead." Evan said immediately. "How dare he speak about Áine like that!" Marissa rolled her eyes at the statement.

[Firdraig] shifted in his saddle a bit, which allowed him to stretch his wings out, displaying the beautiful pearlescent black coloring of them. Even with him fully covered in impressive armor, it was clear what the implications were with the wings.

"Unseelie Court." Kieran muttered. Marissa agreed, and was honestly excited to see another enemy Fae on the battlefield. That probably meant that the game wasn't just teasing a future problem, but that the [Unseelie Court] siding with the Fomorian army would probably be something relevant sooner rather than later.

When [Firdraig] reached out to the side and a large lance appeared in his hand amidst a silvery shimmer effect, Ash chuckled. "This isn't going to be an easy one."

"I guess this will put your theory to the test, Mello." Kieran joked.

"I mean, I can't think of many other enemies recently that have done this sort of thing beyond Scathach." Nyx said, sounding like she was really trying to think of another.

"So, what's your next move, then, hm?" [Firdraig] asked, his dragon slowly drifting closer to the party. He was still out of actual range, but Marissa wasn't sure if firing on him was the right move regardless.

"I mean…he's targetable. Not in range yet, but targetable." Firo said.

"Like you said earlier, I guess BBEGs gotta monologue." Ash shrugged.

"I don't like it." Marissa said. "If he really needed to monologue, it would've been in a cutscene."

"True…" Evan agreed.

"If you're just going to stand there, then shall come to you?" [Firdraig] asked. "My wyvern have done well to keep you lot isolated, and if only eight of you can fly, then perhaps I was worried for nothing."

The party, sensing the coming conflict, immediately cleaned up their ranks and prepared for the coming boss fight. The enemy wyverns had backed off enough to give the group and the new enemy plenty of room to fight in the large sphere of usable space.

As [Firdraig] suddenly started to speed forward, the party moved into boss-fight mode. Marissa took aim and readied to launch into her opener as soon as the Fae was in range. Firo was already mid cast of an opening attack that didn't require having a target selected beforehand, and Fiona was moving to the front of the party, shield ready to intercept the opening attack.

Just as Marissa let her opening [Master's Shot] fly, there was a flash of darkness that cut through the center of her screen in an upward diagonal. Whatever it was cut straight through the wyvern that made up the edges of the battlefield, culling large swaths of the not-quite-dragons on both sides of the sphere they made.

The sudden attack made [Firdraig] pull back on his charge, and look toward the lower side of the sphere where the surge of darkness came from.

And then came the laughter. It was slightly crazed, but it was still a voice that the party recognized. Another lance of shadow shot through the opening that the first attack had created, making the gap larger. A third attack followed, sheering more wyvern from the edges of the gap.

The party cheered as both [Scathach] and [Uathach] appeared, speeding through the gap they had created. [Scathach] looked about as intimidating as the party had ever seen, with a monstrous wingspan made of coalesced shadow at her back. The darkness had gathered in the shape of butterfly wings, with the edges fuzzing as they grew further away from her body. The effect left her looking immensely dangerous, especially with the massive shadowy spear in her hand.

[Uathach] may not have had the visual impact that her mother did, but she looked no less dangerous. She held a sword in one hand, encased in shadows that extended well beyond the reach of the metal blade. Rather than wings, [Uathach] looked as though she wore a cloak of darkness that emanated from her like mist. The effect was imposing and dangerous looking.

"I want all of that." Nyx said appreciatively. "Hear me now, DanuSoft, you add those effects to the store, and you can have my money."

Marissa snickered. "They do look badass."

"I want it too. Damn." Jazz added.

"No starting the fun without us, alright?" [Scathach] shouted, her dark laughter still audible in her tone.

"I don't think it'll be a problem, mother." [Uathach] said brightly. "It looks like they brought enough for all of us."

"All of us?" Firo said aloud, which prompted the party to laugh.

"Just can't help yourself, can you?" Evan asked.

"Hey, at least he's using his power for good this time." Nyx laughed.

[Scathach] laughed in response to her daughter and spun to launch a wide sweeping arc of darkness toward the direction they had broken in from. The attack dropped a huge swath of the swarming wyvern, leaving a large gap in the entrapment.

A large enough gap that the small waiting company of [Uathach's] riders could fly through unimpeded. The party cheered as a heroic version of the game's main orchestral theme played over the arrival of their allies.

"It's remarkable just how easy it is to fly now that we have the ability." [Uathach] said, leveling her sword toward the enemy Fae. "And I'm willing to bet that each of us on this side is worth more than a couple of the wyvern here."

[Uathach's] riders, fully arrayed behind her, cheered, raising their weapons and banging on shields.

"My riders and I will take care of the wyvern. I leave the winged one to you all and my mother." [Uathach] nodded gravely once and swept out her sword. Her riders, taking the signal, dispersed in every direction to push back the cloud of wyvern. [Uathach] herself charged toward [Firdraig] briefly before dipping at a ninety degree angle to engage with the wyvern as promised.

"Unfortunately, I suspect this particular enemy is beyond you." [Scathach] said to the party. "As much as I would love to let you prove yourselves once again, I think it would be wise to request you act as my support this time."

"No complaints here." Nyx said. But they were still not in a cutscene, and there was no real prompt for anyone to really respond to [Scathach's] request.

Instead, [Scathach] merely turned toward [Firdraig] and prepared to fight. The Fae laughed and tucked his lance under his arm, clearly preparing to charge the way a cavalry rider would. The tip of his lance, made of a dull silvery material began to spin, generating a small vortex of magic in front of him.

"Be careful," [Scathach] said. "I can't promise I'll be able to save you if any of you make any missteps, but don't think that means you can't affect this battle. You're strong. Trust that."

A small blue circle appeared by [Scathach], denoting where the party needed to be to start the fight. Marissa took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"This is gonna be a fun one, isn't it?" Evie asked.

"I don't know. It'll depend on how the devs decide to implement the fight. It could be really lame if we just fight off adds or something." Jazz said.

"May as well get in there and find out. We all ready?" Marissa asked, moving Hibiscus up into the circle. She reoriented herself to make the circle flat, rather than off kilter by about forty-five degrees.

As the others followed into the circle, Marissa snickered to herself.

"What?" Kieran asked.

"I realize this is the way that [Scathach] is oriented, but I wonder if we're actually upside down…" Marissa said.

Without another word, half the party flipped themselves 180 degrees to fly with their feet pointed to what was [Scathach's] 'up'.