World Boss: Break the Narrative

Killing the second White Shadow wasn’t exactly difficult. It was Blood Frenzied and relied heavily on its stealth. This meant that Brand, Angelica, and I could dogpile it and kill it in seconds. That said, it devoted all of that time to mauling the shit out of me. It attacked me relentlessly and tore my stomach open. Moving on.

“You ready?” Angelica asked. She reached to touch my shoulder but stopped. I was still Gore Soaked.

I had fully regenerated about a minute ago. “Let’s do this”

Warning! You have entered the domain of Grond, the God of Beasts.

Your Scale is suppressed in this area

Heroic Boss Megaleo spawned!

Fight well!

Another domain, this one was more oppressive than Adora’s. It was subtle, but I felt slight pressure on my skin and minor weight on my limbs.

That was a disheartenedly large cat, roughly the size of a truck. When it roared it was like being struck by a wall of sound. It was also clad in massive metal plates. What kind of asshole dressed a giant cat for war? It charged me because of course it did. I shouldn’t be surprised. I actively wanted this. Not now, but in the past.

I tried to seek refuge in my shed. The Megaleo crashed into the structure, sending both it and me flying. I pulled the shed into my inventory as I tumbled through the air. Meanwhile, Angelica crashed into the heavy metal cat. She bounced off of it with a ringing gong note. It looked no worse for wear. Brand peppered it with a few bursts from his rifle. The bullets pinged off the armor and flew wild. One hit me. I am not bitter.

I hit the ground and rolled. Just as I got to my feet. The Megaleo crashed into me again.

Attack from Megaleo successful

You take 39 points of damage

Titanic Regeneration plus 12 hit points

HP: 213/240

The impact knocked the wind out of me. It also flung me across the room. The momentum this jumbo cat had was not to be overstated. I hit the ice and bounced, then slid. I rolled to my feet just before colliding with the wall.

It bore down on me again. I ran. If you wanted to be technical, I used the Sprint skill. Turns out I have acceleration comparable to a muscle car. Unfortunately, I didn’t corner well. While I avoided the charge of the Megaleo, I slipped on the ice and face planted into a rock. That stung but no tweeting birds or dancing stars so I must be okay.

The Megaleo still got the worse of the exchange. It crashed into the wall so hard the entire arena shook. The ceiling also started to rain down on us. Sharp but still crushing stalactites crashed down temporarily burying the Megaleo but also making our lives more difficult. The first few that hit me did a bit more than chip damage. After a half dozen more hurt me, I forced myself to use the block and dodge skills. I tried to invoke Deflection but despite the skill being successful the damage kept getting through. 3% is only impressive with compound interest.

As the Megaleo dislodged itself, we tried some science. Angelica flung a bowling ball sized rock at the thing. It hit with a good amount of force but didn't cause any visible damage. I tried harsh language. Brand’s shotgun was just as ineffective. Both a blast of shot and the following slug from the next cartridge bounced off the Megaleo’s metal plate armor. “It has Structural Armor!”

Angelica had swapped her spear with a sledge hammer. She charged, planted her feet, and swung the hammer down. It connected with the top of the Megaleo’s armored head. An explosion of force radiated from the impact, shattered rocks and ice flew everywhere. The lion was still completely unharmed. “It’s Blessed!” She roared, running clear of its claws.

The Megaleo shook its head, more upset with the sound than the impact, and charged me. Of course it did. I had slathered myself in ‘attack-me goo’. Instinct took hold. I ran… okay, again I used the Sprint skill. Unfortunately this time I didn't hit the bricks in time to avoid the attack. Several tons of ferocious feline and iron slammed into me…

Deflection check… successful

Damage Negated!

… and bounce off me like a wad of paper. We stood there for a good two seconds, blinking at each other. Then I came to my senses and sprinted away. The Megaleo did take a swing at me. I must have been out of reach, because the paw swiped behind me and collided with a large stalactite stuck in the ice. It flew across the arena and crashed through the door to the hallway.

Taking my moment to use a Hop, a Skip, and a Jump check followed by a Climb check, I had bounded up a pile of stones and was now hanging from a stalactite. The Megaleo jumped and barely cleared two feet vertically. The heft of the armor apparently meant it was not vertically mobile.

“Doug! We need to lure it out into the hallway! Inside this arena we can’t break the armor!” Angelica shouted to me. Waving toward the door. “Jump down and run for the safe room! I will hit it to give you some time!”

“No!” I bellowed over the Megaleo’s roars. I adjusted my grip on the stalactite. “You and Brand set a trap for it. I think it is supposed to break the safe room!”

Angelica visibly did not like this idea. She hefted the hammer but didn’t charge.

Brand backed his way toward the door, “Can you hold on?”

The Megaleo tried to jump up to me again. It was not destined for a career in basketball.

“Yeah I’m good,” I called back.

Angelica and Brand left the room leaving me alone with the Megaleo. After about ten minutes the Megaleo tried standing on its back legs to try and grab me. This brought it nowhere near me. I was just beginning to feel confident when-

Perception check… successful

I saw the gleam of a new intelligence fade into the eyes of the Megaleo. It glared at me with contempt. Then, despite the Vitae, it stopped attacking me and shoulder checked the wall. The stalactite I was on broke free.

“Shit!” I screamed as I fell.

Acrobatics check… successful

I landed on my feet. I threw the remains of the stalactite into the Megaleo’s face. It bounced off, doing no damage whatsoever. It did force the extremely big cat to blink. Which gave me the opportunity to Sprint away.

Blend In check… successful

Move Silently check… successful

The Megaleo charged passed me and circled the room. Then it did it again. For a brief, psychotic moment I considered trying to Ambush the Megaleo. Then I came to my senses. Something had changed. The cat was thinking. I was pretty sure something was piloting it. That was suboptimal. I needed to stall for time.

After about another five minutes I wondered why whoever was running this beast didn’t just try and sniff me out. I certainly wasn’t going to tell them. I was taking the the stance of fuck snow lions in general and this one in particular.

I crept closer to the door.

Blend In check… Failed

The Megaleo roared and charged.

“Doug! Run!” Brand shouted from outside the arena. There was a loud ‘Thump!’ and a grenade exploded against the Megaleo’s face. That stalled it long enough for me to bug out. Or it would have, but I tripped on a rock. It sounds simple to keep mentally using skills, but in the heat of the moment things slip.

Attack from Megaleo successful

You take 42 points of damage

Titanic Regeneration plus 12 hit points

HP: 210/240

That could have been bad but whoever was driving the Megaleo was a dumbass. The hit launched me out of the arena. A quick Acrobatics check and I hit the ground running. I hauled ass past Brand. He grabbed me as I surged by and trailed behind me Buster Keaton style. The Megaleo burst through the area gateway. I mean the doorway was too small to accommodate it and it crashed through three feet of solid rock to get to us. It released another basso roar and gave chase.

Two things became immediately apparent. First, I had better acceleration and with Acrobatics I had better handling. Trouble was the second thing. The Megaleo had a greater top speed . This meant the Megaleo was going to catch us if nothing changed. I could hear its breath chuffing behind us. I could feel the pounding of its paws hitting the ground immediately behind me.

A third Variable entered the equation. Brand pulled some sort of harness out of his inventory. I think it was a tandem parachute harness. I hope that’s what it was. Stranger still he managed to equip me with it. This resulted in me carrying Brand in some sort of papoose with him facing backwards. He pulled something out of his inventory and lobbed it at the Megaleo. He then blasted it with his shotgun.

Turns out that was some dynamite. The explosions hit surprisingly hard. I heard a lot of people describe it like getting hit with a giant pillow. That is sort of correct. Except think of it more like being hit by a mattress, on the front of a truck going at least ten miles an hour. The blast lifted me slightly into the air.

It caused me to jump forward, but I kept my feet. I was now deafened, and took seven points of damage from the air and noise. The Megaleo was still coming, but its armor now had authentic battle damage. Brand peppered it with several slugs, but the damage seemed minimal.

Then we entered the big room. “Jump!” Brand shouted.

I did. So it turns out I can get serious distance while Sprinting. The Megaleo didn’t try to leap after us. It hit a suspicious part of the ice. Turns out that was several blankets soaked in water to make a stiff plank over a massive drop. The drop led to a solid boulder. The boulder met the Megaleo face to cliff face. To my slight horror the boulder lost that encounter. It shattered as the bulk and force of the lion pushed through. That said the miniboss certainly didn’t win that exchange. The plating on the front legs had shattered, so did the face plating. The armor on the torso was still intact.

It glared at us. “Keep running,” Brand instructed, elbowing me.

He didn’t have to tell me twice. We ducked into the next tunnel sequence. I spotted the dynamite on the walls. Once the Megaleo entered the hall after us, Brand set them off. My ears rang, but it didn’t cause any significant damage to me. Brand did look worse for the wear his health had dipped into the yellow. The miniboss was still hale and hearty. The armor looked to have seen better days. A few near misses in the tunnels and we found ourselves in the second big room. Brand kicked a pipe as we exited the tunnel. That dropped several big damn rocks on the Megaleo.now when I say big rocks, I am describing rocks that were bigger than me. Each probably weighed a ton. It shrugged off the hits disrespectfully.

Brand cursed.

I kept running and ducked out of the room. We entered the hall. I rounded the corner to find Angelica with… yep, that was a heavily-modified fucking M3. You know, the M3 Anti-Tank Gun. That thing that was an artillery piece, or mounted on vehicles in WW2. It was modified to be a hero-portable rifle.

I dodged.

The second I was out of her line of fire she pulled the trigger. A 37mm shell erupted from the barrel. Angelica handled the recoil and slid slightly. The high explosive shell crashed into the Megaleo. What happened next happened extremely fast. The beast’s head flattened, and then the body ruptured. I was reminded of seeing a video of a water balloon being popped. The skin rips free. That leaves a relatively intact blob floating for a brief moment. Then the liquid moves. In this case it all exploded outward. The last of the armor turned to shrapnel. Several pieces embedded in me.

You gain no experience for Snow lion type enemies

I sighed. While this was not as close of a call as the first fight with the White Shadows, this was a hell of a strain. Each of the Megaleo’s hits had all the agony of that accidental crit from Angelica. It also seemed custom built to respond to my strategy with the barricades. Was this the spectacle creep Brand mentioned?

Brand had unhooked himself from the harness and me, “Mate, Are you alright?”

I hadn’t been breathing correctly. It turns out sprinting at max speed while not breathing perfectly caused problems.

You have the Exhausted Condition.

You are immune to all effects of this condition

You have the Hypoxia Condition

You are Immune to all effect of this condition

These conditions caused tiny dots to appear in the periphery of my vision, my skin to tint blue, and unless I focused to regulate my breathing my lungs reflexively spasmed. Technically I had a few other conditions, Perforated for one from the shrapnel, but that faded as my regen forced the metal shards out of my body.

“Yeah…I…am…fine…” I managed between gasps. I took three purposeful deep breaths. Forcing the rhythm to appear normal, “Why didn’t you tell us you had a fucking cannon?”

“What?” Brand demanded from me. After pausing for a moment he said, “She had that!”

“Yeah, this is my tank hunting rifle,” Angelica replied nonchalantly, hefting it on her shoulder.

“Why do you have that?” I asked, still wheezing.

“For hunting tanks,” Angelica said matter of factly as she pulled the weapon into her inventory. “I only got two shots left. Also, this thing is hard to reload, and aiming is… well there is a reason I was set up at the narrowest part of the hallway.

I nodded as I took the Titan Brew out of my inventory. One swig later and I was no longer Exhausted. This let me breathe normally and allowed me to remove the Hypoxia condition. This, in turn, let my mind focus on things other than the unpleasant sensations, “Wait, can we still loot this miniboss?”

“...probably,” Brand said, examining the slurry that was the Megaleo. “It is just a matter of finding a piece of the body.” He found a leg and gestured us over.

We all looted the boss. I let Angelica and Brand go before me. I don’t know what they got but I got some new things

You have acquired:

Juggernaut’s Bangle

Megaleo Corpse

God Blessed Iron Fragment x 14

The gore and slurry sort of vanished as I tossed the body into my inventory after Angelica and Brand looted the miniboss. This revealed hundreds of the metal fragments. We spent some more time collecting the rest of them. We then had to trek back to the minibosses room for the key.

Warning! You have entered the domain of Grond, the God of Beasts.

Your Scale is suppressed in this area

Yep, that was still a thing. Now that I had time to actually look at things, some details became more apparent. Dozens of goblin bodies were scattered around a large circle etched in blood. The circle held a strange sigil in it. It was a three fingered clawed hand. I think. It may have been a really shitty letter ‘G”.

Brand looked at it also, “That is a ritual circle. That must be how the Megaleo ended up with blessed armor.”

“I don’t understand. Keep explaining,” I prompted, looking closer at the body of a goblin.

“Grond is a God of Beasts. He has significant control over animal mobs. His followers can tame some of them. One of them must have used goblins to power a blood ritual. They must have had several ticklish moments getting the lion in the armor.” Angelica explained picking up the second key. It looked just like the first

“What makes you say that?” I asked genuinely curious.

“It’s a cat,” Brand said, letting the statement stand on its own.

“Let’s get back to the safe room guys,” Angelica said, before she kicked the circle and broke the pattern.

“You know all said and done today was a good day,” I said.

That was when the third White Shadow came out of nowhere and bit me on the ass.