The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Marissa

The fight wasted no time getting started. Rather than what the party was more used to - pulling the boss when they were ready from their blue ring of safety - the fight started basically as soon as the last party member entered the circle.

There was barely any warning at all as [Scathach] zoomed forward to meet [Firdraig], who was flying at her on his dragon at full speed. The [Dire Wyvern] that had escorted [Firdraig] began to spread out, preparing to engage as well. The blue circle that denoted their usual safety before a major fight puffed away and the party was suddenly dropped into the fire of battle.

To their collective credit, no one took more than a moment to adjust to the sudden start. The real issue was deciding what they could or should do in this situation. Despite [Scathach] telling them to act as support and not die, that wasn't exactly strong direction.

Marissa didn't waste too much time considering what she should do. Based on the initial clash before they were dropped into the fight, [Scathach] and [Firdraig] would be roughly equally matched for the moment.

To her, that meant get the adds.

Marissa immediately moved forward, careful to avoid the clashing bosses, and began taking aim at the [Dire Wyvern] that were no doubt planning to harry [Scathach] while she fought. With Hibiscus' range what it was, she was able to strike them from afar and fairly quickly.

Firo fell in line with her, launching spells at the enemies within his reach.

"What should we do?" Jazz asked, as she sent Aleister jittering to and fro.

"What can we do?" Evan seconded the sentiment. "The wyvern enemies are getting too close to the fight so sending in the melee for them seems unwise." He added, as two of the [Dire Wyvern] were struck by lances of shadow that [Firdraig] had parried to the side.

"There's gotta be something. Otherwise this would be a bit of a shit game." Nyx said.

"I assume that something will change once we kill the wyvern." Firo said. "So pick up the pace, Bisky."

"Bitch, what do you think I'm doing over here?" Marissa snorted. "Besides, we've already got more than half of them dead."

"I guess it helps when Scathach and Firdraig are doing half your job." Kieran snarked.

Marissa rolled her eyes and shot back with a succint "Fuck you".

She was right, though. It was only another fifteen seconds or so before Hibiscus and Firo had removed all of the [Dire Wyvern] from the field. Almost immediately, [Scathach] shouted out a "Thank you!" and appeared to redouble her efforts against [Firdraig]. The explosions of shadows quickened as her spear and sword continually smashed into [Firdraig's] lance - which was holding up remarkably well against [Scathach's] assault.

The party was still hesitant to get too close. [Uathach] and her riders had the regular wyvern well in hand, and the encirclement that had trapped the party was falling apart. Marissa could even tell which way was up now, because she could see the ground again.

As the party looked for something they could do, Marissa's fingers were twitching over her keyboard, anxious to do something.

"Firdraig is so fast on that dragon," Evie said thoughtfully. "He's literally riding circles around Scathach."

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And she was right. Marissa had gotten distracted by the big flashy effects of [Scathach's] blows, but when she paid more attention to the fight itself, it was obvious that the shadow woman was at a disadvantage.

To say [Scathach] was losing wouldn't be correct. However, flight was new to her, and her maneuverability clearly left something to be desired, as did her lack of speed. [Firdraig], atop whatever his dragon was, sped by her at speed, went beyond her range, then turned for another pass. Again and again.

It was like watching a mounted knight try to run down a fighter on foot.

Or, she supposed, that was quite literally what was happening. Just in the air.

"Can we unseat him?" Evie asked after a moment. Marissa considered that. Given their earlier escapade with mounted combat, she figured there was probably precedent for it now, at least.

"Should we try?" Kieran asked, having Caoimhe draw her massive [Greatsword] once again. It had gotten put away automatically after not attacking for a few seconds.

"I don't have any better ideas." Ash said. "We didn't get a warning about this being a one shot deal, so we may as well throw things at the wall and see what sticks."

"What do you think, Aleister?" Evan asked. "Think we can tank a hit from the bastard?"

"With enough mit, I bet we can." Jazz said hungrily. "Shall we try it?"

Marissa shrugged. What else could they do, exactly? They needed to figure out how to proceed with this fight, and had no real direction to even start with. So trying stuff and wiping seemed like the plan.

Mellody threw out several buffs for the party and began playing the [Forward March] [Musick]. Maybe the 500 HP shield would come in clutch, who knew?

The party did their best to time their intrusion into the fight immediately after one of [Firdraig's] passes. [Scathach's] HP was at around 85% while [Firdraig's] was around 90%. So, Marissa figured, if they had simply let them fight it out, [Scathach] - and by extension, the party - would be the loser here.

"What?" [Scathach] said as the party gathered around her while [Firdraig] turned around for his next pass, well out of the group's reach.

"Just looking to all die together, then? That's acceptable!" [Firdraig] shouted as he sped in for the next pass.

[Scathach] seemed to have more trust in the party than Marissa had expected from the NPC, as she shouted "Eyes up!" as the enemy charged, rather than "Be careful" or some form of "Get away!".

The party naturally arranged themselves in the traditional pattern, putting the tanks up front. Fiona and Aleister were prepared to lay on multiple mitigation skills to ensure their survival, while everyone else prepared whatever skills they had that they thought might be able to know [Firdraig] off his dragon.

Based on what she had seen of the clashes so far, Marissa had a pretty decent idea of what they needed to do. And just in case, as no one else had spoken up so far, she said "The vortex at the tip of his lance blocks more than ranged attacks. It's bounced Scathach's physical strikes more than once. And the bastard seems to be good at parrying any attack from the front."

"Typical cavalry charge shit." Evan said.

"Try to slow him down, you two." Kieran said, clearly aimed at the tanks. "If you can hold him steady for just a second or two, we should be able to target his sides easily enough."

"We'll do what we can." Jazz said.

And then [Firdraig] and his dragon were upon them.

Fiona had brought up her shield and blocked the initial strike from the lance. Thanks to the strange vortex caused by the drill-like lance tip, the attack's area wasn't just the tip of the lance, and Aleister took the hit as well on his [Ebon Guard].

They both avoided instant death thanks to their multiple layers of mitigation. And in the same moment that they blocked the attack, they tried to do what they each thought would be most likely to trap the boss there, even momentarily.

Aleister had opted for [Dark Current], a skill that drew in enemies nearby and gathered them in front of the user. It was usually used to gather smaller groups of adds or mobs. Then also added [Spine Crack] on top, hoping to [Stun] the boss.

Fiona had utilized [Hold the Line], a skill that neutralized effects like forced movement, but was also designed to stop [Charging] type attacks when they clashed against the shield. It usually wasn't enough to stop bosses, but Evan felt it was worth a shot anyway. He also chose to use [Brutish Counter], one of the [Counter Attacks] that Fiona rarely ever used because it didn't do any damage. Instead, it could push the countered enemy back from Fiona.

While it was used in some niche strats in certain fights, [Brutish Counter] was generally viewed as pretty useless.

They weren't sure what skill did the job, but [Firdraig] was indeed briefly stopped by the tanks, which gave everyone else the openings they needed.

Mellody and Evie applied damage and status buffs to the party, hoping they could really jump on this chance and make something happen.

Caoimhe fell back on her old reliable skills, using [Wild Swing] and [Ring the Bell]. Nyx had opened with a quick [Debilitating Pierce], hoping to help the tanks survive whatever would happen in the following seconds, but followed that up with [Pommel Strike], a skill that [Dazed] the target, slowing their movement.

Hibiscus went for [Pin], checking to see if a [Root] would do anything, and [Wingclipper], hoping to stop any movement-related skills from triggering in the next few seconds.

Firo chose [Force Wall], which created an area that typically blocked projectiles and movement through the area, but movement skills could sometimes override the wall. His backup option was [Repulsar], which had a [Knockback] effect, the same as [Brutish Counter].

With so many effects in play at once, they really couldn't tell what did it.

[Firdraig] was definitely unseated. They could tell that much.

As he took attacks from all sides and his lance attack didn't kill his targets outright, the Fae was lifted from his seat and performed a rather graceful backflip, using his wings to steady himself in the air. He still held his drill-like lance under his right arm, but it was now pointing toward the ground while he floated in the air menacingly.

His dragon, which was functionally underneath all of the attacks aimed at the rider, sped past the group despite his rider being unseated. The dragon continued in the same pattern without his rider, flying well out of the party's range before turning around to face them. Only then did the dragon seem to notice the lack of rider, flapping its wings to hover in place there for a moment, looking toward [Firdraig].

"Holy shit." Firo said.

"I don't know what worked, but he's not on the dragon!" Kieran cheered.

"Garmiad, apparently." Nyx said, having turned to face the dragon itself. "It has a separate status now, and it's targetable."

"Great. Ten bucks says we fight the dragon." Evan said.

[Scathach] didn't say much of anything, but did let out a triumphant cheer as she sped past the group, slamming her spear against [Firdraig's] lance. The resulting clash sent her shadows arcing out like lightning behind [Firdraig].

"We're more even now, Fae." She snarled as their weapons were biting against one another. "It's time to turn this around," she said, as her currently free sword arm came around to strike at [Firdraig's] exposed side. The resulting shadowy explosion sent the Fae reeling back, but didn't actually take off much of his HP.

"We'll see. Something tells me that I can still fly circles around you, wingless." [Firdraig] said. And then he leveled his lance and charged at [Scathach]. The two began exchanging blows once again, clearly leaving the party to fend for themselves against the dragon.

Marissa took a breath and focused on what she had assumed would be their enemy from here.

[Garmiad, Bottled Lightning]

"Sick title," Firo said.

Marissa immediately rolled her eyes as a shining blue light gathered in the dragon's mouth.

"I think we're about to find out exactly how it got that "sick title"." Evan sighed, clearly too exasperated to even call Firo out that time.

There was a flash of red that blazed through the air in a cylinder through the middle of the group that most of the party was touched by, if not entirely engulfed in.

"Dodge." Ash said quickly, but most of the team was already moving out of the zone. Despite not being flat on the ground, or even being as vibrant a red as they were used to, it was easy enough to tell that the red flash was the AoE danger marker for in-air attacks.

Which made sense to Marissa, given they were now moving in a 3d place, the AoE should presumably be 3d as well.

As the party quickly tried to dash out of the way, [Garmiad] reared back and blasted a thick blast of lightning through the center of the group. Marissa quickly whipped her camera around to follow the blast as it traveled much further than she had expected it to. It missed [Scathach] and [Firdraig], and blasted straight through part of the wyvern barrier, frying several of the smaller dragon cousins.

"We need to make sure that doesn't hit Scathach at all." Evie said.

"Agreed." Marissa said. "Don't know if we can really keep an eye on two fights at once, but I suppose we'll have to."

"Hopefully their fight doesn't move around too much, I guess." Firo said.

"Guys, focus up." Kieran said, which prompted the party to turn back toward the front and the lightning dragon that was now bearing down on them.