Chapter Four
Boss
Boss monsters. As the name suggested, they are the monsters at the top of the food chain. They are the toughest of the tough in any given area. But depending on levels, it is possible to take one down alone.
"Don't just stand there explaining things like a narrator doing a cartoon episode recap! HELP!" my cousin seemed to scream. It was impossible to make out what she was really saying because she was, of course gagged, so the only sounds she could make was something along the lines of: "Mmh mmh mmmh mmh mmh-mmh-mmh mmh! MMMH!"
As a veteran player, I could easily take on ten of the Basic Forest's boss by myself. However, the giant spider before me was not the boss of this forest. I could still take it given our level difference, but I was confused.
Why was it here? I wondered. It shouldn't be here!
I was puzzled to see it outside its territory. Monsters, especially boss monsters don't usually wander outside of their own areas, except during special events. Wait, was there a special event going on?
"Who cares?" my cousin seemed to scream. "Don't just stand there, monologuing and do something!"
Again, she was gagged, so all I heard was "Mmh mmmh? Mmh mmh mmmh mmh mmmh-mmh-mmh-mmmh! MMMH MMMH-MMMH!"
Distracted by my confusion, I nearly let myself get hit by its poison haze attack, which paralyzes as well as poisons its victims.
"Whoa!" I cried as I jumped away. I scooped Lotus into my arms and took her with me to a safe distance.
"Don't worry," I said to her. "I'll take care of this guy."
With no time to free my cousin, I put her down behind me and drew my weapons to attack, resolved to fight it alone. Although I was superior level-wise, a boss monster was still a boss monster. I couldn't allow myself to be distracted.
"Skill On! Gatling End!"
Bolts of light rapidly fired from my blasters and peppered the monster into Swiss cheese. That attack took out a noticeable amount of its life, but the fight was far from over. Once the barrage timed out, I ran towards the spider and jumped to my right, firing a series of basic blaster attacks at it to keep its attention on me. I wanted it to stay focused on me so it wouldn't attack Lotus.
"Equipment change! Dual Ruby Spell Blades!"
Thinking that a closed-range fight would be better to keep the monster away from my cousin, I switched from having two blasters to two red laser swords and ran at it. And it took less time for my sword skills to recharge than my shooter skills.
In a fluid dance, I struck the beast numerous times. Damage numbers appeared above in rapid succession as a result. And with a mighty roar, I attacked again, executing my skill, "Critical wave!" Two bursts of energy were unleashed from my swords. The red, slanted strips of light-like shockwaves cut through the monster, reducing its health points some more.
What followed was a deadly tango between the two of us that lasted roughly two to three minutes. Within that time period, I struck at it, and it struck at me. I was more successful than it in landing hits and dodging attacks, but it did manage to do some damage to me. By the time its health bar was reduced to nothing, I had lost maybe three-tenths of my health.
"Phew!" I went, wiping imaginary sweat from my brow. The monster disintegrated into particles of light in front of me. "Well that wasn't so bad."
I turned around to help my cousin to her feet. By now, the webs should have expired, disappearing into particles of light like its creator.
"You okay?" I asked.
She nodded without looking me in the eye.
"Thanks," she whispered.
"Sure, no problem," I said, scratching the back of my head sheepishly.
Things suddenly got awkward between us as we fell quiet. But thankfully, the bushes to the right rustled which cut that awkwardness pretty short.
Thinking it was the others, I turned around, and said, "Well, it's about time you guys showed . . . up?"
But it wasn't the others, as I had initially thought. Instead of some a couple of teens in fancy, fantasy gear and costumes, what emerged from the bushes was another Arachno Lord. No, make that two Arachno Lords. No, make that three Arachno Lords! No, four Arachno Lords!
LotusStar and I gaped as the crowd of boss copies grew. Each one was as strong as the original I faced a long time ago, same stats and everything.
Seriously, I thought, what in the world was going on? This was supposed to be the Basic Forest, where the weakest of the weakest monsters lurked! So what was with all these Arachno Lords?
As if Fate had shown up to answer my question, a musical chime played overhead and a woman's voice came through form the sky. It echoed throughout the forest and, probably, the entire world.
"This is an announcement to all players about the event, Invasion of the Boss Copies. In this event, copies of the bosses of the first five areas will be coming to invade the Federation Capital. Every single copy will be as powerful as the originals. Please be advised that the recommended level for solo players is seventy and above."
LotusStar was level fifteen, it jumped up since she was technically part of the fight with that first Arachno Lord earlier. My level was sixty-two. And we were surrounded by level thirty boss monsters, each capable of taking out a huge chunk of my health in a one-on-one fight. Each one could take LotusStar down in two hits.
After careful consideration of the facts, I came to a decision while looking down thoughtfully as I stood with my arms crossed. It was time to make a tactical retreat.
I grabbed LotusStar by the hand and ran with all my might.
"Tell us these things sooner!" I screamed angrily to the sky. But it was futile. There was no way any game administrator or developer would hear me right now.
Together with my cousin, we fled down a dirt road in the direction of the town. Right at our tails was an army of giant spiders.
"Wha-!? Why are they chasing us?" I cried out. Neither me or Lotus made any moves against them. Nor did we use any skills that would have triggered their aggro, aggression.
As I wondered this, another musical chime played in the sky and the woman's voice returned.
"This is an announcement for all players, the monsters of the event, Invasion of the Boss Copies will automatically attack players if they get too close to them. Please keep this in mind as you make your way into the forest to defend the Federation Capital from the invaders."
It figures that was what happened. I already knew that having enemies come to you instead of you coming to them was normal for RPG games, so I shouldn't have been surprised. But I couldn't help but feel frustrated.
I ended up screaming again, "Seriously, tell us these things sooner!"
No matter how fast or far we ran, we couldn't shake them off. And we were putting every ounce of energy into running. You could tell by how our arms swung up and down, and how our knees rose and sank as we kicked forward. It was weird that they hadn't given up yet.
And then came another announcement from the sky.
"This is an update on the event, Invasion of the Boss Copies," spoke an echoing woman's voice. "In this event, it is impossible to escape from the boss monster copies. If you try to run away, they will not stop chasing after you, unless you either defeat them, are defeated, or exit the area. Thank you, and good luck."
"Seriously, WHAT PART OF 'TELL US THESE THINGS SOONER' DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?" I screamed. And for the third time, it was a waste of my breath because there was no way that anyone in charge of the game would be able to hear me as I was running through the forest.
"Wei! They're catching up! They're catching up!" my cousin screamed.
"I know!" I screamed back. "I can hear them just fine!"
As I shouted, I heard a low growl come from in front of me and turned my head to see a huge, pot-bellied ogre standing in front of me. The giant gray-skinned monster, going about fifteen feet tall and ten feet wide in frame was, obviously another boss monster.
"Say, Lotus," I said while looking at the beast. The corner of my mouth twitched as my eyes locked with the beady black ones of that monster.
"Yeah, Dragon?" my cousin replied. She was just as blue in the face as I was, and had the same twitch at the corner of her mouth. When you get down to it, we really were related.
"That announcer lady said something about bosses from the first FIVE areas, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then no wonder there's a Savage Ogre Chief here."
The Savage Ogre Chief was the boss of the fifth main area of the game. Even though it was level fifty, it took me and the others reviving each other at least twice before we could beat it. That's right. Just one Savage Ogre Chief managed to K.O. each of us two or three times in one fight.
And wouldn't you know it? Five more of those Savage Ogre Chiefs showed up from behind the first.
I'm jut putting it out there, but whoever came up with this event was pure evil. Just. Pure. Evil.
"So that's its name," Lotus said as she crossed her arms and nodded thoughtfully. And then she turned to me and shouted, "LIKE THAT EVEN MATTERS NOW! WHAT DO WE DO?"
So we had a squadron of giant spider monarchs coming for us from behind, and a gang of club-wielding alpha ogres standing in our way. Things were just not looking good for us.
"Well, look on the bright side," I said to my cousin.
"What bright side?" she asked. Her voice was hoarse from all the screaming she did.
"Not many people can say that they took on an army of bosses in their very first day as a player."
"That doesn't make me happy one bit!"
The Ogre Chiefs looking down on us let out a symphony of mighty roars while waving their clubs above their heads.
"Eeeek!" LotusStar definitely shrieked and not me.
We were both nearly thrown off our feet from the warm gusts of wind that followed the ogres mighty bellowing. There was no escape for us now.
With a sigh, I readied my magical laser swords.
"Well," I said, "there's nothing we can do now except go down fighting. We may as well try to get as much experience points as we can before we respawn back at town."
I know since this was a game, dying really isn't a really big deal since we just return back to town without any penalty. But it's still not something anyone would enjoy. And it'd be a big pain in the rear to have to walk all the way back to where we were last. But there was no helping it now that we were well and truly doomed.
"Ready?" I asked my cousin as the mighty monsters closed in.
She shook her head and replied, "Nope. Any chance I can log off now?"
I didn't answer. She wouldn't have had time to log off anyway.
The monsters were upon us with fangs bared and clubs raised. I raised my swords in response and then -
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