World Boss: Break the Narrative

The next day was a terrible experience. We had only made it three rooms into the second tunnel when everything went to shit. At first things really did seem to be going our way. Hell, room one started with Angelica getting all of them in one charge. She was showered in gore and somehow Brand was splattered in offal as well. I had to laugh because I was the only one still clean.

Room four was when things got rough. We had managed to clear the first wave of snow lions, no problems. I was looting the corpses when Angelica screamed in surprise, pain, and rage. A White Shadow had hit her from behind. Brand managed to pepper it with several shots, before it vanished into swirling snow, but it vanished all the same. We managed to group up but then we were more or less stuck waiting for it to strike again.

After a solid twenty minutes of nothing happening, we tried to press on. As we hit the next wave of lions the damn White Shadow pounced on Brand. I was chest deep in a storm of cats. Thankfully Angelica was open. She impaled the damned cat, and flung its corpse into the wall. This is where the second problem hit. Since both of our primary damage dealers were tied up that meant the swarm of lions were mostly free to do whatever they wanted. Which was attack and kill. I was only able to deal with about eight at a time, if they attacked me. The trouble was they were attacking Angelica and Brand.

This was basically a worst case scenario. I kept pulping big cats, but it was nightmarishly slow. I couldn’t keep my eyes off their health bars. Angelica’s was yellow and plunging to orange. Brand’s health was close to a sliver when I stomped down and found no more cats.

Brand was a tattered mess. He could barely stand. “I think we should turn back.” He managed before collapsing.

I hefted Brand and we ran. For some reason another wave of cats gave chase as we sprinted to the safe room. Two of the snow lions made it into the room. I blocked both of the attacks almost on reflex. This triggered the counter attacks, and I squished them on the cement floor.

I had grown numb to being covered in blood. That said, being covered in Brand’s blood was different. I could tell. The blood of the lion and even that bigfoot had a paint-like feel to them. It felt artificial, manufactured. Brand’s blood felt completely real. The heat of it caused my skin to crawl. The viscosity of rivulets dripping down my arms…It wasn’t the first time I had someone's blood on my hands. Marnie…

Boom! Angelica slammed the bar into place.

After barring the door, Angelica pushed two tables together. “Set him down!” she clipped out for a moment and was now dressed in what looked like scrubs. A bunch of medical equipment appeared on the table from her inventory, some tongs, assorted needles, thread, a mountain of bandages, and several scalpels.

I set Brand down, and Angelica set to work.

This caused a second odd realization to hit me. I had witnessed truly unreal examples of violence in this world. Hell I had perpetrated about forty percent of them and received just as much. Somehow it was seeing Angelica render meatball surgery on Brand, that made it all real. Me splattering lions across the world, didn’t matter. Seeing someone lying there visibly paling and obviously dying… both times it happened, I have never felt so small.

“Doug put your hand here!” Angelica shouted through my haze.

It was odd. Angelica staunched the bleeding, but didn’t seem so interested in stitching him up at least at first. After about twenty minutes Brand’s health ticked up. I even saw some of the injuries close slightly, others began to bleed anew. Angelica went back to stopping the bleeding, as Brand’s health ticked down again. I did my best to follow her instructions.

Emergency Medicine Check… Successful!

Subject’s Bleed condition resolved

Subject’s Collapsed Lung condition resolved

Subject’s Embolism condition resolved

Subject will heal at 2x times normal HP for next 3 healing cycles

Brand’s health jumped up about ten percent, still in the red but not almost zero. He gasped and tried to sit up. The gasp exited his lungs as an agonized shout of pain. No words, just suffering made into noise.

“Hold him down!” Angelica yelled. I did what I could but Brand was strong as hell. It took everything I had to keep him from tearing his wounds open. It felt like so much longer than twenty minutes before his health ticked up again.

“Fuck!” Brand roared. He kicked briefly. After a moment he calmed down, “God, that hurts.”

“You have health regen down to twenty minutes?” Angelica asked.

“I’m from the Eternal Kingdom Miss De Leon. We may not be European, but we still practice the austerity of war,” Brand managed.

“You would have to have started training your regen at, what, five?” Angelica pressed. She seemed horrified.

“Infancy,” Brand corrected. “For Queen and country we must all do our part.”

He said that last bit in an unmistakably rote way. I didn’t like it.

Brand pulled the package of cigarettes out of his inventory. He placed one between his lips. He pulled the lighter out of his pocket. He tried to ignite the flame, but his hands were shaking too much.

I took the lighter and ignited it, “You know those things are going to kill you?”

Brand leaned forward putting the tip of his cigarette into the flame, he puffed a few times, “I think I will take my chances.” He took a long drag from the coffin nail, “It would seem this is not just a dungeon, but an adaptive one. I suspect killing each of the minibosses will cause them to spawn in the dungeon.”

Angelica packed up the medical gear, and pulled it into her inventory, “Yeah, it does,” She agreed. She shook her head, “We need to figure out a better fighting style.”

“I have several guns I could loan out to you,” Brand offered.

“How much ammo?” Angelica asked.

“Three mags on each.” Brands admitted unhappily.

“I don’t think that will work,” She said. She started pacing, after a bit she offered, “I have some explosives.”

“What kind?” Brand asked, hope tinting his tone.

“Dynamite,” Angelica replied, slightly embarrassed.

We all paused to imagine us blowing ourselves up. “I vote no on that.” I added, visions of Looney Tunes-style violence flashing in my mind. That coyote knew what he was getting into… at least after the first time.

That was suboptimal. “I need to find a way to tank better.” I muttered to myself.

Brand and Angelica exchanged glances. After taking another puff Brand said, “Doug, you are literally the best tank I have ever seen. I am not sure you can take damage any more effectively or that it will help.”

“No, that aspect I have,” I explained, working through the issue aloud. “Tanking is based on two pillars. Damage mitigation and control of enemy action. I need to find some means of focusing enemy aggression or preventing them from getting access to locations.”

“That second pillar is a controller role. Mages normally fill that niche,” Brand replied.

Angelica clipped out of existence again and was back in her regular gear, “You have any ideas Doug?”

Holy shit! I think I did. “We need to apply principles found in the dog lover’s manifesto.”

“What?” Brand asked clearly lost.

“We need to build a shed,” I said, consulting my inventory.

Brand turned to Angelica, “Are you following this?”

“Nope,” She said, looking cautiously optimistic.

Brand sighed with relief, “Good, I was afraid the pain was making me hallucinate.”

I pulled all the epic Scale pelts out of my inventory. That was a lot. I also pulled all large epic Scale bones out as well. Look at all’a them bones. I pulled a tooth and a claw as well. The lions were uniformly big, each body about the same even with regard to minute details.

“Approach this like everything else," I muttered to myself. “First: material. Done.” I needed an awl, the fang would do. I also needed a knife. The claw needed some work. It was a good inch long, but after the point it was dull. More for tearing than cut. I ran my finger and thumb along the length of the curve. I wanted to feel the edge. It wouldn’t be great but if sharpened it could cut the skins. I pictured a short hooked blade in my mind ran my fingers along the claw, and thought to use the craft skill

Craft Check… Successful!

Epic Scale pocket billhook knife blade created

The curved claw sort of distorted in my hands. It flattened, lengthened, and a dangerously sharp edge formed on the inside of the curve. It was now about two inches long and still hooked. I lifted the tail of one of the pelts. Slicing it off neatly, I carried it over to the table. Carefully I ran the blade against the grain for the fur. It cut clean and even, removing the hair to the skin. I then cut the tail lengthwise. This produced a long thin cord of lion skin. I watched it subtly shift in my hand. Changing from a length of skin to a segment of heavy thread.

I nodded to myself. That didn’t make the most sense, but given this whole system seemed based more on spectacle rather than hard rules. Encouraged, I repeated this until I had a bundle. I then pulled a rib. Using the billhook I notched both ends. I wrapped the thread around the bone, and tied the ends together as I went. Again, the material shifted as I worked. The knots faded and formed a continuous line. It also seemed to increase in length as I spooled it. Let’s say I cut a hundred stips. That would mean I should have less than a hundred yards or so of thread. I certainly wasn’t an expert but the spools seemed to contain eight times as much.

Craft Check… Successful!

Epic Scale waxed thread produced (850 yards).

Okay, let’s pick up the pace. I picked up the fang and thought of it longer and sharper. it transformed into an Epic Scale Awl as I stretched it in my hands.. I also took a sliver of bone and basically rolled it between my fingers and it slowly shaped into an Epic Scale bone needle. I then took two of the pelts. Breaking the bodies down in my inventory had already left them split along the length of the torso on limbs like an animal skin rug. That's what I needed. I draped the pelts over one of the tables and went to work using the awl. I punched holes in the skin of the pelt, and stitched them together making a double wide lion pelt. No, lion centipede today. Not now. Not ever. Ignoring the limbs on the outside edges the double wide pelt was roughly ten feet wide and seven feet long. My handling of the pelt had almost merged the material together seamlessly.

Time to check this out, “Hey Angelica, Could you grab the other end and pull?”

She had been quietly watching me work the whole time, “Sure” it grabbed the front and rear legs.

I grabbed the other side. “Now pull. I want to see how strong this.” Angelica nodded and pulled. I planted my feet. The skin pulled drum tight. It didn’t tear. Eventually I slid forward as Angelica's incredible strength overcame whatever mechanism held me in place.

Angelica nodded, “that is pretty strong.” she frowned, “How does this translate into a shed?”

It is going to need some reinforcement. I started stringing the bones together using the thread to bind them. Thankfully, the material warped and fused impossibly to meet my will. This system was clearly asinine but it was biased toward allowing action. This created a big bone rectangle.

I held it vertical, “What do you think”

Angelica walked to the middle of the frame. She pulled on the top side and it bowed immediately. “Is this what you are going for?”

“No, this needs more structure,” I added more structure with some cross members with more bones.

Anglica repeated her first test. This time the structure did not bend. She even tried flexing some of the sub frames, “this is pretty strong. I would have to really try to break through something like this.”

“Cool,” I proceeded to drape the double wide pelt over the structure and began to sew it tight. The skin and frame became a flexible, yet solid barrier. I added four more supports so it could stand on its own almost like a lean-to wall.

“I see an issue,” Anglica spoke up after inspecting it for a moment.

“What?” I asked.

Angelica slapped the barrier. The light structure didn’t bow or break, but it did launch across the room and crash into the wall. It collided with the wall and bounced off like the flimsy mass it was. “It needs some heft.” she looked at the support, “I think a short stake at the end would be helpful too. Then it will bite into the ice when pushed from the outside.”

“Fair points well made,” I said, setting the barrier upright. “Any recommendations for weight?”

She thought, “yeah but you are not going to like it.” she paused before explaining, “We are going to need to get some rocks out of the dungeon.”

Yeah, I didn't like that answer. Brand did sit out this minor excursion. Fifteen minutes of fist fighting snow lions later we had four large and extremely heavy Rare Scale ferritic rocks. Back in our safe space and two craft checks later I had a bone hammer and chisel. A few good moments inspection and a couple of sharp taps later one of the rocks transformed into a half dozen flat round stone plates that were extremely heavy. Stitching them into the barrier caused

Construction Check… Successful!

Epic Scale Barricade has been created

Construction skill rather than Craft. Was This because I pictured something more building-like than a tool. I added that to the list of things to ask Denise about.

Angelica Shoulder checked the barricade and it barely budged. She stepped back and nodded. She took three more large steps back and charged it again. It rocked slightly and did slide along the concrete but Angelica bounced off of it. “Are you going to be able to carry this thing around?”

I gripped the handle on the back, I had to put my back into it but I could lift it and then pull it into my inventory. Two cycles of crafting and construction later I had three Barricades. Each was roughly seven feet wide, and with the angle stood about the same height. In the narrow corridors they would severely bottleneck the lions. They would be less useful in the bigger rooms but that was to be expected.

Okay that was area denial. Now to develop a means of controlling aggression. “Angelica, I need you to stab me.”