GH - 236

The moment I got added to the NPC party—a congregation was probably a more apt term—tons of notifications filled my screens, way more than when Mr. Inuus buffed me. Rows of icons appeared and ended, probably reaching a limit. The buffs made me a god! A low-level god, I must admit, which was why I stayed in the backrow of the formation. An egg coated in metal could still break. I didn’t want to test if these NPCs had resurrection spells or whether they’d use them on me if they did.

Mardukryons with tank builds—I assumed that because they looked the part—moved forward, ready to meet the incoming horde of the Blighted. There were around ten tanks, and they were soon swallowed by dozens of monsters. I knew that our tanks were still alive because I could see their health bars going up and down. Our Healers worked hard to sustain them. The Blighted horde tried to move past our first line, but the tanks taunted them back and held them in place.

“Let loose your fury!” Methuselah roared.

Spears wrapped in the colors of the rainbow trailed energies as they soared. Landing on the clumps of the Blighted, the spears exploded, bringing various AoE effects such as cyclones, swirling fire, and explosions of icicles. With monster density lessening, our tanks had room to maneuver. They dragged the remaining enemies into the lingering AoE effects like the burning ground.

Once the surviving monsters were clumped up, Methuselah called for the next volley. Just like that, the first wave, Blighted monsters in the level fifties, were obliterated.

But there were more to come.

“Bulwarks, handle the large abominations!” Methuselah ordered the tanks. “Everyone else, engage the rest of these critters. Clean them up with haste so we can aid the bulwarks.”

Hunter-Warriors with the longest ranged spells cleared the way for the tanks to quickly get to the level seventy Blighted monsters. The tanks taunted only those big guys and let the rest of the Blighted stream towards us; they must’ve gauged they couldn’t tank all of them at once. The tanks had to survive on their own while we dealt with the weaker ones because the Healers would be busy.

By ‘we’, I meant the Hunter-Warriors. I did throw poison bottles, but those barely did against these monsters twice my level. Nonetheless, the Mardukryons should be thankful for my presence. My aura of awesomeness permeates the battlefield. And by ‘weaker ones’, I meant the Blighted in the level sixties. Just relatively weak compared to the Blighted behemoths. Still very strong and very many.

Methuselah strode forward. “Healers to the front!”

Healers followed his orders. They began casting heals on themselves as they were attacked by the Blighted. In a way, the Healers acted as a secondary tank, filtering the incoming wave of enemies. They focused on only themselves, not bothering to help the tanks further ahead or even each other. Hunter-Warriors with melee fighter builds charged into the fray. The monsters attacking the Healers quickly died before they could change targets. Only a few of the Blighted moved past the second line and continued to our last where I was.

Ranged Hunter-Warriors focused on the enemies approaching, quickly dispatching them with focused fire, and worked their way to help the second line of Healers and melee fighters. It was a neatly executed strategy. Very different from the NPCs of Kurghal Village who used simple battle tactics.

“Bulwarks, fall back!” came the order from Methuselah. “Merge with our second line!”

Why that call? Everything was starting to get wrapped up nicely. Odd to change plans.

Shouldn’t the Hunter-Warriors deal first with the Blighted fighting the second line before moving on to the strongest monsters? The tanks seemed to be doing fine holding the towering Blighted. They could be running out of health potions, and I just wasn’t aware. But then the correct answer appeared—the flying Blighted monsters were swooping down!

The tanks joined up with the Healers to hold the level-seventy Blighted monsters and what remained of those in the level-sixties. Their DPSers were the melee build Hunter-Warriors.

The ranged Mardukryons focused on the flying monsters that formed the second group. Problem was, we didn’t have Healers or tanks. We did have the Bigger M, Methuselah. He might have something up his very big sleeves.

“Form a circle!” Methuselah directed, waving his spear to rally the ranged Mardukryons around him.

I joined them, making sure I was in the middle. No way I was going to die here.

The flying monsters came from every direction. While in a circle, the Mardukryons could blanket the approaching enemy with cross-fire. The issue was the monsters already high above us, casting down all sorts of skills.

“We’re just going to bathe in their AoE?” I wondered aloud as gigantic blobs of purple slime dropped on as, exploding into fumes upon contact.

My [Greater Pyro Shell] shattered, and so did the many other barriers and protections cast on me. My health started to go down from the damage over time of this acid or whatever it was, and I scrambled to heal myself with [Healing Touch] and potions. But the damage was too much! Is this the end of my divine self?

My health stopped falling at about five percent remaining. The DoTs were still on me and more attacks kept pummeling us from above. What was stopping me from dying? Other than my awesomeness, of course.

“Don’t worry, young lad,” Methuselah said, patting my shoulder with a hand so large that it could grip my entire upper body. “I won’t let you perish.”

A golden cord connected us. My health bar remained steady with a sliver left, not moving despite the healing and the damage I took. On the other hand, Methuselah’s health bar went up and down. My guess was that Methuselah took my damage for himself. And not only my damage. He connected with the other ranged DPSers, who were probably on the squishier side. We may not have a Healer with us, but we wouldn’t die with Methuselah around.

The fighting continued and the Mardukryons thinned the attacking Blighted. The flying monsters, much diminished in their numbers, decided to retreat, leaving their mutated siblings on land behind.

“It’s now time, we push!” Methuselah rushed forward. Five flying spears zipped ahead, skewering a [Lvl 73 Arcane Blighted Morgleen] and finishing it off. The gigantic abominable snowman burst into Essence and Gli. The Morgleen was already near death, so the Bigger M was a kill-stealing old fart.

Our forces overcame the level-seventy Blighted. With no mobs to spread the damage, they easily fell. Our large party continued to push over the hills. Fighting in the forest was hard because we couldn’t form lines because of the trees. Difficult to coordinate too because we couldn’t see each other like if we were on an open field.  

But that also applied to the enemies. The trees broke the waves of monsters into smaller, more manageable groups. The thick canopy above also interfered with the flying Blighted trying to attack us.

Methuselah flattened young trees and pushed larger ones out of the way. His spears snaked through the maze of thick trunks, destroying the Blighted who didn’t even know what hit them.  “Onward, ever onward, my brothers!”

This guy was an absolute unit despite being centuries old. He led us out of the forest and into a small valley. We hurried on to avoid getting surrounded. We reached a fork in the road and stopped. Only a few of the Blighted attacked us but more should be coming. The ground continued to tremble and monstrous noises bounced around the peaks hemming us in.

Methuselah raised a spear. “Luvarci, to me.”

“Five Spears, I am at your disposal,” said the Three Spears. “Are we going to part ways?”

“That is so.” Methuselah pointed his spear straight ahead. “We will go to Mezhu Nue while you and your squad, along with this young lad, will head to Sajilis.”

Luvarci thumped his chest. “Without fail!”

“Guys…” I gazed up. Flying Blighted were starting to gather again. “What if there’s a possibility of failure?”

“May our ancestors guide your path and ours,” Methuselah told Luvarci. They crossed their spears and thumped them together. “Fate might not be so kind to us when we reach Mezhu Nue if we even succeed in doing so. Your group is the only way to bring word of this terrible disaster to our people. You must succeed.”

“What if our path to Sajilis is blocked?” I asked. “We don’t know how far the Arcane Blight has spread or where the infected monsters of Mezhu Nue have gone.”

“That is a challenge we will tackle when we face it,” Luvarci replied.

“Not a very reassuring plan,” I said. “Don’t any of you have Sigil Totems we can use to teleport back to Sajilis? Or even just somewhere near that we could bypass the Blighted?”

“We are too far from any warping Totems, young lad,” Methuselah explained. “We have Sigil Totems with us, but we have headed far out for the Great Hunt.”

“I didn’t know there were connectivity issues with Sigil Totems,” I said. That explained why Hunter-Warriors had to set up supply lines as the Great Hunt became more distant from Kurghal Village.  

“We have tried what you suggest, young lad,” continued Methuselah. “That was our first thought as well. Alas, we were already surrounded by monsters infected by this evil plague. And the warping Totems nearest us might have been destroyed by these Blighted. Our Sigil Totems leading to those no longer work though I was sure we have sufficiently closed the distance.”

“Do you have Sigil Totems?” I asked Luvarci, to which he nodded. I shrugged. “Our best bet is reaching far enough to warp. We’ll be on our way, Five Spears. Have a happy spearing time in Mezhu Nue. May we meet again.”

Several minutes after we separated from Methuselah’s party, our party led by Luvarci started to encounter the Blighted.

“Don’t fight them!” I yelled, casting [Horde Stamped]. The movement speed bonus was massive because I was in a full party of six. Too bad that I didn’t try it when I was with Methuselah’s party. “Just run past. We can’t waste time.”

More and more monsters came. We’d just crowd-control them and move on. My taunting Totems were especially helpful buying us a couple of seconds to get away.

What was worrying though was that monsters came not only from the direction of Mezhu Nue but also from Sajilis.

I spotted a row of spiked fences in the distance. Getting nearer, I realized those were horns. And the owners of the horns came into view—dozens of Kankaratops. But we shouldn’t expect ambivalence from these monsters. They were decaying, large patches of their scales cracked open like dried soil to reveal the purplish muscles underneath. It was a whole herd of Arcane Blighted Kankaratops!