The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Marissa

After the first wipe, the group still had two full hours to figure out how the fight worked so no one was in any sort of actual rush to get it done. Nyx and Kieran ran off for their bathroom breaks while Evan started mumbling about testing dad jokes while playing. Marissa was honestly terrified that Evan would fixate on making terrible jokes the rest of the evening but secretly hoped once the next round of pulls were underway he would forget the whole thing.

"So, while we're waiting, what exactly is our plan here?" Marissa asked. "I imagine that unseating Firdraig is the right move, but that still leaves us mostly in the dark with how to deal with the dragon."

"I don't know if it will work, but the tell for that big electric discharge attack was pretty obvious." Ash said. "We should probably start by trying to stun him out of that."

"In agreement there." Jazz said. "It's hard to say if it will work, but it is 100% worth a try."

"We also need to be conscious of facing, clearly." Evan said. "Admittedly, that's mostly up to Aleister and I, but we need to keep the dragon faced away from Scathach's fight whenever we can."

"Of course."

"Beyond that, we didn't actually get to see much in the way of mechanics, did we?" Evie sighed.

Marissa snickered. "No, we didn't. For the most part, we got got pretty fast after we split the enemy."

"I suppose we're about to enter the grinder, then." Evie said, "Time to bash our heads against the wall."

"You know it," Firo chuckled. "We've got this though. Surely it can't be-"

"Firo. Shut your face." Evan said. "I have a pretty good idea of what you were about to say."

"Poor boy really can't help himself, can he?" Evie laughed.

"Okay, now y'all are just being mean." Firo said. "I realize what I was about to say could be taken a certain way, but it's something that any one of you might've said."

"Yeah, but you've jinxed us enough at this point that I pay extra attention to you." Evan chuckled. "Now that said…I do agree. It doesn't feel like a dragon should be as hard as my queen Áine."

Firo let out a hefty sigh. Marissa laughed, and could hear a few other voices joining her.

"What's so funny?" Nyx said, returning to the laughter.

"Just picking on Firo as usual."

"Ah, yes. What a wonderful pastime." Nyx grinned. "Poor guy can't catch a break. Sorry, bud."

"It's fine," Firo said, "maybe next time I'll jinx us entirely on purpose just to see what happens."

"Don't."

"I'm back. We ready?" Kieran asked. He must've put his headset back on before sitting down, because Marissa heard the groan as he plopped into his seat. She held back a laugh at the sound, but Evan didn't.

"Damn, Caoimhe. You're not that old yet, are you?"

Kieran snorted. "You would know, you little shit. We're not even a year apart."

"Sure, but I don't groan like that when I move."

"Yes you do." Kieran shot back.

"No, I don't."

"You do."

"I don't."

"Prove it, then." Kieran said, "Stand up and sit back down without making a sound. Oh, and turn off the chat's noise filtering."

"Alright, fine. How's that?" Evan asked. His question came through with a different audio quality, denoting the lack of noise cancellation. There were keyboard sounds and some other background noises included.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Alright, let's hear it then."

"You won't." Evan said. And then came the clear sounds of a chair moving and some rustling. Then a round of similar sounds as he presumably sat back down.

"See?"

"Mhm." Kieran muttered, but sounded distracted.

"What? Upset you lost?" Evan sounded smug as a second voice came over his mic.

"Hey, hun? Can you come help me really quick?"

The sound of Evan standing from his seat in response to his wife's call was accompanied by a very similar sound to Kieran's groan upon moving.

"And I rest my case." Kieran said. "Tell Nat I said thank you." Silence followed for a moment before Evan put what had happened together.

"Nat, Caoimhe says "Thank you"." Evan's voice came over the chat with the audio back to the clean and crisp version that came with the noise cancellation. "You little shit."

"What?" Kieran's grin was audible as the rest of the party was snickering quietly to themselves. "Of course you can get up and down quietly if you want to. So can I. It's when you're not thinking about it that it happens, dumbass."

Evan sighed. "Alright, are we ready to pull?" He asked, clearly changing the subject.

"Think so. Drop some "r"s, friends." Nyx said.

[Nyx Alaion] : r

[Aleister Demian] : R

[Firo Strix] : r

[Caoimhe Phadraig] : R.

[Fiona Woods] : R

[Hibiscus Jade] : r

[Mellody Softsong] : r

[Evie Lucian] : rrr

"Right then. Here we go." Evan said, and started a countdown for the pull.

As the fight got started, things proceeded much the same as they had the first time. The party rolled out and immediately focused down the [Dire Wyvern] adds that had spread out when the fight began. Like before, they had gone down quickly - they had more health than the base [Wyvern] enemies, but still weren't exactly actual threats.

This time, rather than taking the time to decide their next move like they had in the first attempt, Ash called for everyone to move against [Firdraig] quickly to unseat him from [Garmiad].

The party moved as a unit, closing in on the fight between the Fae and [Scathach]. As before, they needed to keep an eye on explosive AoEs that erupted from the pair on each pass.

The party positioned itself behind [Scathach] with [Firdraig] on the far side of the woman preparing to charge. He did so, and after the clash with [Scathach] passed right into the waiting trap set by the party. They quickly hit him with several [Knockdown], [Root], [Knockback], and [Stun] effects, still unsure which had successful removed him from his seat the last time.

The Fae popped up from his saddle as [Garmiad] continued by. [Firdraig] growled and lashed out at Aleister, the nearest target, before [Scathach] pounced on him to get him focused on her again.

Once again, that left the party facing off against the dragon on its own.

This time, with a general plan already in place, the party adjusted quickly. Fiona quickly spun [Garmiad] 90 degrees away from the other fight, positioning the boss so that Nyx and Caoimhe could still get attacks on the dragon's back without accidentally baiting attacks toward [Scathach]. The rest of the party filtered out and around in a semi-circle, spread out so if anyone was targeted with the dragon's beam AoE they wouldn't clip anyone else.

Marissa even grinned as she Firo offset themselves using verticality instead of spreading on a 2d plane. The flight ability made spreading out like this very easy.

The opening cone attack was aimed squarely at the tanks, who easily avoided it. Cones in melee range were always easy to avoid, given you were typically close to the point of origin, which left everyone with only a few steps in any direction to avoid it entirely.

After two quick swipes with its claws at Fiona, [Garmiad] turned to target Evie with the longer-range cylindrical blast. She avoided it easily enough, and the blast went by her and fried a few of the wyvern still closing everyone in.

"Good so far."

"Next is the discharge attack."

Sure enough, as [Garmiad] visibly tensed up as blue arcs of lightning traveled its body. Caoimhe and Nyx both jumped on the dragon with [Ring the Bell] and [Kidney Skewer], their respective [Stuns].

[Garmiad] locked up, the electricity dissipating in a jolt around it. All of the melee characters took a bit of damage from the arcing lightning, but it wasn't all that noteworthy as Evie and Mellody healed the damage away.

"Nice!"

"Okay, stun's the way to go."

"Yup."

"What's next?"

"Why're you asking me?"

"It's rhetorical."

"Guys, focus."

The dragon swung twice at Fiona with claw strike basic attacks again, which Fiona [Perfect Guarded] and [Countered] easily. The party continued laying into the enemy with their standard rotations, unsure of what to prepare for next.

When [Garmiad's] mouth began to glow again, Evan and Ash both called out danger, expecting some kind of AoE. Instead, the dragon's head dipped down at the last second and sprayed its breath on its claws. The claws, now bathed in crackling blue arcs of lightning, looked unfortunately similar to how [Firdraig's] weapon had when they wiped.

"Incoming stuns?" Evan said, clearly unsure. "Do I block or try to dodge?"

"Dunno. The call's yours." Ash said, and Evie made a few small noises of agreement.

When [Garmiad] clearly targeted Fiona again, the tank just eyed the dragon down, preparing to try to [Perfect Block] whatever came her way.

However, rather than the usually difficult to avoid basic attacks, the dragon reared back for a clearly telegraphed haymaker-like swing at the tank.

"Nah, that's a dodge tell." Evan said, moving Fiona out of the way of what he had assumed would be a wide sweep in front of the boss. When the haymaker was swung, the dragon missed everyone entirely, as predicted. There was a rather cool looking crackling trail of energy on the sweep that Marissa appreciated the particle effects of.

As melee players moved back in, [Garmiad] was apparently not finished as expected. The dragon continued rotating in a spin, catching Fiona square with a tail sweep. The attack wasn't empowered and didn't do all that much damage.

"Shit."

Nyx, however, ate the over-swung haymaker, which turned out to be a swipe attack at all, but rather a grab. The dragon held Nyx in one claw after finishing the full 360 degree spin. Nyx was taking DoT damage from the lightning arcing around the claw, but it wouldn't be enough damage to kill her outright. But as [Garmiad] moved his other claw up to grasp Nyx in both claws, she saw her death approaching.

"Tell my family I love them." She joked, adding as much drama to her voice as she could, "And…I'm sorry."

She managed to time everything perfectly as [Garmiad] triggered the final portion of the attack - an eruption of electricity from both claws that instantly ripped through Nyx's remaining HP.

"Nyx! No!" Evie screamed, following up Nyx's performance with one of her own. "I'll tell them, I promise!" She yelled, managing to make her voice crack perfectly for the scene.

Nyx laughed loudly into the chat as everyone scrambled to recover the fight. The lightning on the dragon's hands had discharged with the attack, leaving the follow-up basic attacks easily blockable by Fiona while Evie recessed Nyx.

When Nyx's character popped back into existence next to Evie, Nyx giggled, said, "Thanks, love," in an absolutely terrible British accent - which did not match her previous performance at all - and rushed back into the fight.

[Garmiad] tried blasting a conal AoE, then another cylindrical one at the party, but didn't actually catch anyone. And then it moved into the same tense stance that denoted the big discharge attack.

"Stun." Ash called.

The melee characters didn't slow down in their attacks.

"On cooldown." Kieran said.

"Same." Nyx said. "Tanks?"

"...Nope." Evan said.

"I used mine too…" Jazz said.

Marissa quickly threw out her [Dazing Shot] interrupt, but it didn't appear to have any effect. As the arcing effects around [Garmiad] grew more wild, she sighed, assuming they needed an actual [Stun] to stop this attack.

"Y'all. Please don't use four stuns all on one attack." Ash sighed.

The entire melee group responded with a simple "Kay," as [Garmiad's] big lightning attack ripped through the whole battlefield, no different than it had in their first pull. It damaged everyone around, uncaring about friend or foe, with the same singular exception.

[Firdraig] once again used the attack to coat his lance in lightning. During the brief pause, Marissa glanced at the HP bars for [Scathach] and [Firdraig]; it looked like the fight remained fairly even while they had dealt with the dragon. Of course, while Fiona continued to fight off basic attacks after the big discharge attack, Marissa stopped to watch [Scathach] get stunned a few times before [Firdraig] once again completely ran her through with his lance.

[Uathach's] guttural screams resounded around the battlefield once again as Marissa watched her screen fade to black only to deposit the party in the blue circle again.

She sighed.

"So, uh…stagger the stuns?"

"Yup." Kieran said.

"I think we all got a little too excited on that one." Evan said.

"Do we want to set up an order for stuns?" Nyx asked.

"Yeah, good call."

"I'm surprised you even used yours, Aleister. You're usually more patient and hold those skills back." Marissa said.

Jazz was quiet, and no one else spoke, expecting some kind of response.

"I…I didn't use it on purpose?" She said, sounding rather embarrassed. "I fat-fingered it when we had to dodge the big grab attack by accident…."

"Welp, we've all been there." Kieran said.

"Yeah. I guess you could say you were…shocked by the big swing." Evan said.

No one responded.