Henna

Jomu Street, Meteo City

Running with swift steps, Henna pauses for a fraction of a second as her foot meets the ground, launching like a ballista bolt forward to impale a Pathetic Grasper through what passes for the creature's torso half-way down the blade's length where the heart of a normal man or woman would be sitting. Uncaring of the supposedly fatal blow, the arms of the Grasper splay open and reach to embrace the smith. Shocked, Henna immediately attempts to retreat but finds her blade stubbornly staying inside of the creature - no, the creature's bizarre flesh is clutching onto it with numerous half-melted fingertips, refusing to let go.

Abandoning the sword entirely, the demonic amalgamation of flesh encircles the sword with it's outstretched arms, but seems almost dissatisfied prior to it's evisceration by an ugly, heavier sword, "Don't lose focus, Henna. Stabbing isn't very effective against these things, focus on hacking them to pieces instead."

The calm voice of her friend and teacher in combat advises her without judging, bringing her back to her senses. Pulling out the zweihander from the creature's bifurcated torso, Henna observes the battle in the wide street. Identifying an Unstable Feathertearer slowly shambling out of an alleyway, she glances to Silver, and receives unspoken understanding, "Miss Leovoldt, you're up!"

"On it!" Tagging out with Henna and Silver, the Ravager leaps onto the stone wall of a house badly vandalised by looting demons, then launching off to gain increased momentum and distance toward the target, lashing out with a roundhouse kick. The flesh and bones of the fragile monster buckle under the force, slamming into an adjacent wall for a second impact, dying instantly. A second emerges from the alley, and barely has enough time to register the presence of a threat before a fist caves in it's ribcage. Both die before they can detonate.

Taking the advice into consideration, Henna carves a bloody swathe into the arriving Graspers after helping Silver deal with the pair keeping the Ravager occupied previously, observing his motions, actions and thought process whenever she could spare a glance his way. An explosion interrupts her train of thought, a gout of fire erupting ahead, centred on a larger, Elite variant of Pathetic Grasper - A Pitiful Grasper. Several of it's smaller kin caught in the blast collapse, thoroughly burned and smoking. While the Panoplast Beacon keeps a weather eye out for the entire battle, the other three members of the party are focused on keeping the brute occupied, it's vigour starting to flag after repeated attacks from the Wizard, Harrier and Vanguard.

Swiping at the Vanguard with an open palm, the Pitiful Grasper's attack is blocked by her shield, the following kick meets her blade's edge, and like it's lesser brethren, she struggles to pull her equipment free from it's strange body, it's free hand coming in with a mighty overhead hammer blow.

With blazing speed, Silver appears behind the creature, leaping 4 feet in the air and slamming the Terrorsteel Horrorblade into the raised arm, slicing it away from the rest of the body and landing heavily on one knee as he continues to skid across the cobblestones, "Got your back!"

"Thanks, boss!" Windy calls back, taking the creature's distraction as an opportunity to extricate herself, "Tanky sumbitch, this thing. Feels like I'm trying to slice through half-frozen butter with a rolling pin."

"Just try not to overcommit your attacks and blocks - minimise contact; It'll fall down if we keep hitting it," Silver encourages, "Go! We've not got long before more assholes show up!"

With a grunt of exertion, Henna makes a heavy cut at the creature's left calf, the edge biting deep into the unarmoured flesh, but meeting heavy resistance, and only with twice the original effort can she pull the sword free, pulling the sword back, avoiding the Pitiful Grasper's movement and taking a few breaths, Henna mumbles understanding of the Vanguard's complaint, "Flesh tougher than old boots."

Joining in with a swipe of her claws, the sharp tips glowing faintly with a grey-ish magical aura, Ingrid Leovoldt's attack cuts a series of deep gouges into the monster's back, "Only 160? What the fuck is this thing made of?"

"Hands," Angelus answers sarcastically, avoiding the swift kick of the creature as Windy dodges aside, "It should be on it's last...legs. Hands. Whatever."

Indeed, the grotesque creature's movements are increasingly sluggish as the melee combatants join the fray and tip the scales wildly against it. Though durable, against the power of numbers, the hulking brute has little recourse but to fall over dead, lacking any intelligence to consider tactics, or any trump cards to tip the scales back in it's favour in a pinch, only possessing a strong body.

The corpse collapses to the ground with a heavy thud, shaking the ground and causing dust to erupt from the ground beneath it. With all enemies slain, the group breathe a sigh of relief but maintain a degree of wariness all the same. Additional enemies can arrive to harass them at any time, and being caught unprepared could easily spell death.

"That was both harder and easier than expected," Windy observes, "Not what I'd call the most interesting fight, but it's like fighting The Beak on Normal all over again with how death retardant it was."

"It took more than twenty people at a lower Level than us to take down the one that attacked the barricade earlier," Angelus adds, "If anything, I set my expectations a little too high."

"Well, so long as we don't have to deal with multiple, we should be fine," Ingrid contemplates, rubbing her bloodied knuckles, "Can I get a quick heal?"

Angeles agrees, "Just the one."

Shouldering his sword Silver approaches Henna, evaluating, "How was your first proper fight?"

Taking a long, considering look at both her blood-flecked shirt and dampened sword, she smiles peacefully, "Feels alright. Aint quite perfect, but its gettin' there."

"No regrets?" He questions.

"Plenty," Henna laughs sadly, "But I'm working on it. After today, I 'spect I'll have a few less. Heh."

"If all goes well," Silver nods in understanding of the words left unsaid. Clearing his throat, he gestures for the group to continue on.

While the party proceeds, Henna's introspective evaluation is distracted intermittently by fantasies of what she'll do when she has Geronil at her mercy.

Glenn Street, Meteo City

The closer we get to Tridor Plaza, the fewer Graspers, Soulcagers and other random schmucks we run into, but conversely, the more Unstable Feathertearers and Subjugated Citizens we start to run into, with increasing group density as well. If we were looking to farm for contribution points, here, at the precipice of Tridor Plaza, would be one of the best places to do it just because of that fact.

If we had time to spare, I might have been tempted to do just that, since Subjugated Citizens are...well, exceptionally easy to kill as they're just random NPCs that ran afoul of The Brand with no combat training. Not to mention, most of them are carrying looted furniture and valuables instead of weapons.

But no, I need the city back in operation sooner rather than later.

"This place is a mess," Jupiter mutters loud enough for the group to hear.

Tridor Plaza has been turned into a dumping ground for anything and everything even mildly valuable contained within Meteo City - anything that the monsters and Subjugated Citizens can get their hands on at least. Breaking into City Hall and the City Bank with this level of strength, while possible, requires time and effort that Geronil isn't willing to spend. It's in his best interests to escape before word reaches back to the other cities in the north and reinforcements arrive. The Siege is just to buy himself enough time to circumvent the lockdown enforced by the uncorrupted City Guard.

Atop one of the central heaps sits The Scavenger, an inky black monstrosity struggling to maintain cohesion, shifting between dozens of different forms as we observe it, from an overweight middle-aged woman to a small boy, to a large hound and then a sickly old man. Finally, a cornucopia of different faces.

"What the fuck is that thing?" Miss Leovoldt asks, aghast.

"The Scavenger. Whenever it converts a Subjugated Citizen, it can take their form. After a fashion," I explain with what little I know of the subject, "It's also our target."

"Ok, so, how do we kill it Mr Know-it-all?" Jade gets to the point.

"We're not the first group to try, there's a Capsule Recording on VRTube I watched this morning involving all the people that were loitering here when the Event started - they did pretty well, actually, before they died," I lead in, actually telling the truth. I noticed it when I was checking the forums on the bus.

"I see," Angelus strokes his chin, "So we don't have a confirmed strategy?"

"We do and don't, depending on how you want to look at it. The teams loitering around here brought it to Phase 2 before they died," I explain, "So, I got a good look at all of the mechanics in play and what they were doing."

"Sure there's no phase 3?" Angelus asks cautiously.

"80%" I rattle off a made-up percentage since I'm completely confident there's not the third stage to the fight. No amount of butterfly effect-esque shenanigans I may be responsible for are going to change how the event plays out on paper. The most influence I can exert is the fact that the event started a month earlier than it was supposed to, which may end up turning a few heads amongst any other Inheritors out there.

Glancing back down the street to make sure that I'm not going to be interrupted by a fresh group of mobs coming to offload their loot, I clear my throat and start going through the plan.

"You, Henna and Windy will be whittling down The Scavenger as best you can, while the rest of us focus on keeping the Subjugated Citizens from getting anywhere near it. Any Subjugated Citizen that successfully reaches The Scavenger will be converted into an Unstable Feathertearer. Which will then most likely explode, killing Henna and Windy," I outline, taking a swig of tepid water, "I'll be guarding the West, Jupiter will guard the South, and Miss Leovoldt will be guarding the East. Due to the layout of the area, we won't be needing to worry about the North, but either way, it'll be down to Jade, to pick off any Subjugated Citizens that manage to break away from us. If it happens, make sure you call it out. Likewise, if any other mobs show up, call that out too. It's unlikely that we'll bump into anything besides Subjugated Citizens, but Menial Soulcagers don't give a flying fuck about territory and might show up anyway as an example. In which case, Jupiter and Jade will need to drop what they're doing to deal with them, and Henna will take over Jupiter's zone temporarily if he has to move to another area."

"This is just The Farmer's Secret 2," Jupiter complains, "Isn't it?"

"Not wrong," Windy agrees, "Unless the boss itself does something different?"

"That's just phase 1," I sigh, "The problem is that in Phase 2, The Scavenger decides 'fuck it', dramatically increases it's defences and starts summoning in Volatile Feathertearers around the plaza continuously, which detonate in much the same way as their kin, but a few seconds after death instead of suicide rushing a target. Intentionally detonating a Volatile Feathertearer next to The Scavenger will damage, stun and make it vulnerable to damage again, so whenever one spawns, whoever is closest will need to bring it within, say, 5 feet of it, kill it then run away. Furthermore, all the streets will be blocked off as well, which means we can't leave, but reinforcements can't get in. That's about as far as the small army of people hanging around here when The Scavenger showed up got before they were slaughtered."

Next, I address Windy directly, "It shouldn't hit very hard for our level and equipment, but it's amorphous body means it can attack from unexpected angles and shapeshift to different sizes and creatures with different weapons, so be on your toes. Phase 2 it'll be even less coherent."

"Weird attack patterns, got it," Windy internalises the information, "No grabs or anything?"

I shrug, not really certain, "I don't know. Possible, at least."

Thinking back, I don't recall it having that ability, "Once Phase 2 starts, we won't have long before the Volatile Feathertearer spawns start to overwhelm us. When the other group reached it, the rate at which they were summoned increased dramatically over time, and killed them. In other words, a soft enrage timer. Don't ask me for the rates, because I have no idea. Maybe less than 2 minutes before we start to struggle?"

The overall danger it poses is broadly dependant on how many people are engaging it in combat. The more players you pack into the plaza, the more health it will possess and the more damage it'll do, to a point. Most Public Event Bosses function on that logic to keep it from getting swarmed under. Likewise, they tend not to have complicated mechanics. For a small team like ours with five Farmer's Secret alumni, The Scavenger isn't a big deal as it will be spawning fewer Volatile Feathertearers in Phase 2 at the start.

"Any other questions?" I check.

"Is killing the...'Subjugated Citizens' really necessary?" Henna questions, reluctant to harm an innocent. Angelus perks up as well, interested in the answer.

"Yes," I respond, not really enthusiastic about it either, "They're little more than soulless automatons at that stage. Their minds were broken by The Brand, then their souls were taken and imprisoned by The Birdcage. If they fail the conversion process or die, their flesh is repurposed by Desperate Embrace into Graspers. We lack the ability to save them, if it's even possible."

Henna inhales deeply, setting her resolve, "I see."

The others look a little disappointed, so I console them, "We won't always be powerless. So long as you have the will to grow, your options for dealing with problems will increase and diversify."

Astral Reckoning's Official Forums

Thread: Event Miniboss Race!

Young Fists:

Silver Nosster and Rambling Rose just started a race to see who could get rid of a miniboss the quickest. Place your bets!

I've got 1 Stone Silver on Silver for great fortune.

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Old Skinner:

+1 bet on Silver

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Uristan Colourclone:

Why bother though? We get plenty of contribution points farming the mobs, why are they going after the bosses on day 1??

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Tran Sylvia:

@Uristan Colourclone Dickmeasuring contest obvs (૭ ◉༬◉)૭⁾⁾⁾⁾

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Uristan Colourclone:

Σ（￣□￣；）so dumb

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Wintry Valley:

isn't silvers team like three dungeons ahead of everyone else? lol

+1 bet on silv

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Cream Cheez:

bro there was over a hundred of us outside city hall when the boss showed up and dunked on us

vrtube.ni/156aG0-8Y/1132

silvers team is fucked yo

don't get me wrong tho, rambling rose don't stand a chance either. gonna have a lot of new people to talk to up here in the cathedral -.-)b

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Jotun Nutjob:

who is rambling rose?

ConfusedElf4.ahpg

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Tyrell Maxdong:

He's probably forgotten who they are by now lmao

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Old Skinner:

@Hadrian King Who are you?

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Hex Check:

@Hadrian King Who are you?

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Nancy Drow:

@Hadrian King Who are you?

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Loqua Bank:

@Hadrian King Who are you? (>w< ;)

IdleFancy

Reminder to self that too much caffeine obliterates my ability to focus. Also felt a need to retool the planned miniboss fights to be more unique while still being on-theme and 'early-game' enough to be plausible and just 'boring' enough to sell the game's lacklustre launch as more than just lipservice.