“You sure?” Sasha asked Liliana as she slid off Lelantos back. Daniel had just informed them there was a patrol of Goblins and higher leveled Hobgoblins coming their way. They’d finally gotten deep enough in the dungeon to warrant the Hobgoblins, which excited all of them. It meant they were getting close to the boss chamber. Liliana hadn’t had a chance to use her new ultimate skill yet, and she was itching to.

“Yea, just stand back so I can gage its power,” Liliana ordered, and everyone took a few steps back. Lelantos stayed behind her, a protective presence always close to her. The sounds of goblins chittering filled her ears and Liliana’s nose wrinkled. They weren’t using an actual language, but still her boon could pick out some words from them. Something she knew no one else could do, and she’d kept herself silent about her ability to understand the goblin language. If anything, she wished she didn’t hear what they were saying. It ruined any bit of empathy she had for the creatures.

“Smell human. Eat.” One voice spoke, eliciting chittering laughter from the other goblins.

“Good taste!” Another agreed.

“Screams pretty!” a third chime in and Liliana’s grip on her naginata tightened.

“Quiet,” a deeper voice ordered, and Liliana grinned. They were close now. Readying the skill in her mind, she waited until they saw her. A war cry erupted from the goblins and they charged, led by a sword wielding hobgoblin. Liliana held off on activating the skill until they were within range of her own weapon.

“[Radiant Revelry],” Liliana spoke as the skill activated. Light burst above her head, as if she had summoned a miniature sun to hover above her. Light flooded the tunnel, and it was as if the goblins had run into a wall. Their forward momentum entirely halted as soon as the light washed over them. Immediately, Liliana could feel a tenuous connection to the goblins under her sway, like her bond, but many times weaker. If her connection to Lelantos was a titanium chord, her connection to the goblins was like silk threads.

“Turn on your brethren and cut them down,” Liliana ordered, and immediately, the goblins turned on one another. Liliana motioned for the rest of the team to step up. The goblins would start breaking out before they died unless they were immediately killed. Her team watched with morbid fascination as the goblins slashed, clawed, and bit at one another. The hobgoblin was the uncontested strongest, slashing his underlings apart with his sword as easily as a farmer cut down wheat.

Slowly the goblins broke free of her skill, but they too turned on their fellows who still attacked them. By the time the majority had broken free, their numbers had severely decreased. Where there had been around ten goblins and a hobgoblin, there were now five goblins and a single hobgoblin, all of them injured to some degree. The remaining force turned hate-filled eyes on the group, focusing on Liliana who scrambled atop Lelantos.

“I’ve got aggro! Alistair, try to get the hobgoblin to redirect to you!” Liliana barked out orders as the team fell into their normal routine.

Alistair activated some threat generating skill as Liliana readied her own new skills and spells. She activated [Solar Samba] and [Dancer’s Domain] letting her effects wash over her allies. Immediately it was obvious it increased their Speed as weapons swung through the air so fast they practically sung, contrasted by the dying screams of the goblins. Liliana swung her naginata and sliced into the goblins who were surrounding a bored Lelantos. He was still banned from fighting, as he’d instantly kill anything at this level and steal all the experience if he did.

With the goblins already weakened from fighting their own kind, their team cleared out the rest of the patrol in short order. Liliana grinned widely at the others, getting a few impressed looks. It wasn’t often one got to see an ultimate skill used, as they typically had either astronomical costs or some ridiculous cooldown.

“That’s a damn good skill girlie, imagine what it could do in a proper war,” Sasha congratulated her and Liliana beamed happily. The skill was rather useful, and definitely deserving of the cost and title of ultimate skill. Being able to mass control an entire group of creatures, or people, at a time could turn the tides in any battle.

“Looked kind of like a crown,” Sam commented.

“Kind of. It had a big star at the front and smaller ones around her head,” Charles elaborated, and Liliana raised an eyebrow. She had assumed an enormous ball of light had just hovered over her head. She hadn’t realized it had an actual shape.

Could be worse, it could’ve given me something cliche like angel wings or something, Liliana thought with a shudder. She’d like to avoid getting a pair of fluffy white wings, thank you very much. Imagine the hassle of cleaning something like that.

After grabbing the cores from the goblins, their group set off again, wandering deeper into the dungeon. As exciting as the actual fights were, just walking was rather monotonous. They’d found some interesting things on their way. Liliana locating several underground plants that were of varying rarities. They'd even found a few small nodes of ores, packed with Mana. The only one of them with any mining skills was Sasha, though, so the group had to wait around while she freed the valuable nuggets from the rocky confines of the wall.

“Is that a chest?” Liliana asked as they entered a cave off the main path of the dungeon. They’d been exploring all routes, which was part of why it was taking them so much time. They needed a full map of the dungeon if they wanted to come back into it.

“It’s the only thing in the room,” Daniel responded, appearing near the front of their group as he returned from scouting out the room for traps.

“Should we open it?” Sam asked as the group circled the strange chest. Liliana identified it, and the description gave her pause.

Treasure Chest

A totally normal treasure chest that does not appear to be odd in any way. Who knows what mysteries are hidden inside of it?

The system was usually rather dry with its description of objects, giving the facts and little else. With skills, spells and classes it would sometimes be a bit more flowery, but usually it gave you facts. This description felt a bit odd, in that it had a bit of… snark in it.

What are those weird things that appear in that game… what was it called? Ah… something with lizards and… dungeons? Ah, whatever they were like… monsters? But not? Liliana wracked her memory for the information, because she’d never seen a monster like it in the game. But something about this chest rattled memories from Earth and raised her hackles.

“It’s a treasure chest! Of course we should open it!” Charles said, walking towards the chest confidently. A burst of light passed him, drawing him up short as it collided with the chest and burst.

“Why would y-“ Charles shouted, turning to her when a shriek drew them all up short. Charles scrambled back as the treasure chest shifted, becoming a monster that held some resemblance to the chest it had been pretending to be. Liliana used [Identify] on it and frowned at the different result.

Mimic

Level 75

Using its skill for Illusion a Mimic disguises itself as inanimate objects, commonly treasure chests, to lull its prey into a false sense of security before it strikes. Once a Mimic grabs onto prey, it does not let go, its jaws clamping like a vice grip. It also has tentacles it uses to draw prey into its waiting maw. Its tongue and tentacles are coated in a strong sticky substance that holds prey captive as the Mimic consumes its uselessly struggling prey.

Rank 7

Drool dripped from its fang filled mouth and tentacles writhed around it. Liliana blanched, mentally ordering Lelantos to draw back. She could find something endearing with most monsters, but this Mimic was beyond even her ability to find something cute about it. The unholy screeching it was still treating them all to as well lowered her opinion of the beast. A long tongue snaked out of its mouth and whipped towards Liliana and she shrieked back at it, throwing an entire [Light Barrage] at it.

“Kill it! Kill it with fire! Charles, light it up!” Liliana ordered, and Charles, snapping out of his shock, grinned, cackling madly as fireballs grew in his hands before flying at the Mimic.

“I can’t get close to this thing with its glue secretion!” Sasha informed them as she backed up, Alistair taking point as he activated several skills and spells at once. Shadows writhed around the Mimic as Emyr joined the fight. Arrows whizzed through the air, followed by fireballs and bursts of light as Liliana and Charles sent everything they had at the creature.

“Keep your fucking tentacles away from me!” Liliana hissed as she urged Lelantos to dodge another set of grasping tendrils sent by the Mimic. The thing had most of its attention on Alistair, who was somehow stopping its sticky secretion from ensnaring him with some skill or another. The rest of them had less luck, and Liliana’s [Barrier] would only hold off a few hits of the tentacles before breaking.

They couldn’t use physical weapons on the tentacles or they’d risk their weapons getting snatched and eaten. However, Daniel figured out a loophole when he popped up behind the Mimic and sank two daggers into the beast’s back. It screeched, and its tentacles rushed to ensnare the scout, but he was already gone, weapons still in hand.

Liliana channeled [War Maiden’s Waltz], pulling Charles onto Lelantos behind her and enabling the two of them to travel around the room and pick the tentacles off as they both poured all of their Mana into drowning the Mimic in a torrent of Light and Fire.

“Die already, you mother fu-“ Charles cut off his sentence with a jolt when he seemed to remember he was sitting behind a noble lady on her giant tiger. Liliana rolled her eyes as she released another [Light Barrage] on the Mimic. It was a costly spell and forced her to either wait out the regeneration or send out individual [Light Burst] to cover the empty time until she’d gotten enough Mana to send it out, but it was dealing damage.

The Mimic seemed to suddenly lose interest in Alistair, turning his attention, and all his tentacles, on the two circling ranged mages. Liliana yelped as a wave of slimy tentacles rushed towards them, only for the disgusting appendages to get tangled in a countering wave of shadows. Several tentacles burst through the blockade, and Liliana winced as she dismissed her weapon. She felt naked without the comforting weight in her hands, but it wouldn’t serve her any good right now.

The tentacles would be too close to use [Light Burst]. She’d hit Charles in the AOE, and his fire wasn’t useful in close combat. She activated [Borrow] and took Lelantos’ [Light Claws] spell. Claws of light appeared around her hands as she quickly activated the spell. As the tentacles approached, she slashed out, the long claws made of light passing through the tentacles and unable to get stuck.

“Alistair! Keep the aggro you dunce!” Liliana snapped as Lelantos turned and ran away from the rest of the tentacles, Liliana and Charles going back to tossing spells at the Mimic.

“You want to be a tank instead? Huh?” Alistair called back before he let out a bellow, redirecting the Mimic’s attention onto him.

“I’m good! I don’t enjoy getting beat on by monsters!” Liliana snarked in response.

“How much health does this infernal thing have?” Sam asked. His hand was a blur as it grabbed and shot arrows at incredible speeds. Every arrow found a home in either the Mimic or one of its tentacles.

“Probably has as much health as it has creepy tentacles,” Liliana muttered as she blasted it once more, giving special attention to the tentacles.

With another screech, the Mimic seemed to grow more enraged, its body increasing in size and more tentacles appearing. Liliana groaned as she realized the damn creature must be some kind of mini-boss, and had health activated skills. It had probably dropped below 50% or 25% Health and had some kind of [Berserk] skill.

“You got any major spells?” Liliana asked Charles, who tossed away an empty Mana potion he’d been downing.

“Got one, but it takes two minutes to set up,” Charles warned her and Liliana nodded. Pulling Lelantos back, she slid off the tiger’s back.

“Lelantos, keep him out of harm’s way. I’ll try to grab its attention with pure damage output,” Liliana informed the team. To their credit, they didn’t try to tell her it was stupid. Monsters under the effects of a [Berserk] or [Enrage] skill would regularly ignore aggro generating abilities and focus on whatever dealt the highest amount of damage. It’s part of what made bosses and mini-bosses so dangerous to face, since damage dealers usually had awful Health or defense.

“Hey ugly!” Liliana called out at the Mimic as she shot off another [Light Barrage], downing a Mana potion as she activated [Dance of The Windsong], [Solar Samba] and [Dancer’s Domain] simultaneously. She winced as she felt her Health, Stamina and Mana plunge as the three abilities took their due.

Her movements sped considerably as she dodged around the tentacles shooting her way, [Light Burst]s flying from her as she retaliated each attack. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she ducked and weaved through the attacks. She could tell her teammates were pitching in, could hear Alistair activating taunt after taunt to try and grab attention from her, could see the arrows that rained down between her and the Mimic like falling stars.

Yet she couldn’t pay them much heed, everything but the blood pounding in her ears, the faint ghostly tempo being set by her skills, and the writhing tentacles fell away for her. She could only focus on the next dodge, the next jump, the next strike of magic empower light. She traced a frantic ballet through the cave as she worked to keep the beast’s attention solely on her, to give Charles the time he needed to finish his spell and end this cursed fight. Her Stamina drained as she ducked and wove through the maze of flesh surrounding her.

Finally, after what felt like days of playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with the Mimic, heat burst before her, a violent conflagration forming with the Mimic at its epicenter. Liliana had to jump back, the heat stinging her skin even though she wasn’t the target of the attack. The Mimic screamed as its tentacles writhed around it, trying to rip the fire off, yet still the pillar of flames roared on, consuming the screeching Mimic in its unforgiving depths.

When the Mimic stopped screeching and finally died, the flames vanished, gone as fast as they had appeared. The team looked on at the burnt corpse of the Mimic in stunned silence.

“So who wants barbecue?” Charles asked from Lelantos back, panting and rubbing sweat off his brow.