“Heal!” the tank yelled to Oliver as the Frost Giant’s sword slammed against his shield, shards of cold ice splintering off.

Oliver cringed. The warrior’s Health bar dropped another fraction, and Oliver worked hard to prepare a heal spell. They were taking a beating. The Frost Giant was hitting hard—harder than Oliver had ever seen before. He’d done this encounter a dozen times, with different parties each time. He’d never had this much trouble providing healing.

It was a straightforward encounter. A simple loot and quest run. Get some gold, Experience, and finish off a couple quests. A Frost Giant boss with a few special abilities but nothing major. Just an endless salvo of blows from Grovar the Glacier’s massive sword made of solid ice, the sides reflecting the torchlight from sconces lining the walls. It was a two-handed weapon, ideal for warriors, if and when it dropped. The win shouldn’t have been difficult. Attack, activate an ability—attack, ability, attack, ability—and so on until either the boss was dead or the five-member party was.

There weren’t even any adds to have to worry about—no summoned enemies, nothing erupting from burrows or ejecting from cave mouths. Nothing. Sure, Grovar the Glacier had a ton of Health and high-resistance frost armor, but nothing too tricky to deal with. The encounter, Glacier’s Deep, was considered a learning dungeon, a place to go for a party to work on their tactics. That’s all it took to defeat Grovar—tactics, a half-decent tank, and a good healer. Along with a DPS (damage per second) class that knew when to go full nuclear and when to hold back.

Which this party seemed to have been doing. They’d all done this dungeon multiple times.

Should have been easy.

But it wasn’t.

“I’m trying!” Oliver shouted back.

Your Healing Aura restores 100 Health to Septmo.

Septmo takes 90 damage from Grovar the Glacier’s Frozen Fury attack.

“Try harder, dammit,” Septmo growled.

Septmo was a half-ogre, and he looked puny as his sword pressed against Grovar’s icy blade. The force of the attack forced Septmo down to his knees. He growled in both pain and frustration.

Oliver guessed it was more frustration, and he couldn’t blame him. He felt it too.

“I’m sorry, man,” he told Septmo. “I’m doing all I can do.”

And it was true.

“This isn’t the time for performance issues,” Septmo groaned.

This was worse than the very first time he’d run this dungeon. He just didn’t know what was wrong. He was the right level, higher even. He had all the Cleric skills and abilities maxed out.

“Something’s wrong,” he said.

“No crap!” Septmo answered.

“Do something!” Charlemagne, the ranger, shouted, knowing that if Septmo went down, she was next.

The casting timer hit zero, and Oliver cast Healing Aura again. He let out a relieved sigh as Septmo’s Health rose. Not much, but some. Enough for the tank to keep tanking.

Your Healing Aura restores 120 Health to Septmo.

Septmo takes 130 damage from Grovar the Glacier’s Icy Slash attack.

“Crap!” he shouted.

Oliver readied the heal spell again.

The timer finished, and Oliver went through the motions of the spell. A couple seconds later, much quicker than the default setting, thanks to his skill and gear bonuses, the spell was cast.

And didn’t work.

A glowing purple energy cloud streaked from his hands, growing as he completed the casting. Then it sailed across the open space between him and Septmo, surrounded the warrior, but ultimately, had no effect.

Septmo takes 30 damage from Grovar the Glacier’s slashing attack.

“What the heck?” Oliver exclaimed, studying the spell icon on the lower right side of his vision. The spell had been cast, of that, there was no doubt. The cool-down timer ticked.

Those next fifteen seconds were agonizing, helplessly watching his party take hit after devastating hit.

When it reached zero, Oliver cast the spell again.

Once again, nothing happened.

“Mother…”

Septmo takes 20 damage from Grovar the Glacier’s piercing attack.

Charlemagne takes 20 damage from Grovar the Glacier’s slashing attack.

DraggieBoo takes 20 damage from Grovar the Glacier’s slashing attack.

ColourfulCane22 takes 20 damage from Grovar the Glacier’s slashing attack.

Now the rest of the party was starting to take damage. Without healing, Septmo could no longer spam his aggro-holding abilities. His ability to deal damage was weakening.

“What the hell, Oliver!” Charlemagne yelled. “Get some heals out.”

“I’m trying!” Oliver yelled. “It’s not working.”

The cool-down hit zero, and he cast the spell.

Again. Poof. Dud.

With a forceful swing of its frozen sword, Grovar knocked Septmo to the ground. The tank stayed down, and it was Oliver’s fault.

Septmo takes 100 damage from Grovar the Glacier’s Frozen Fury attack.

Septmo has died.

“You suck,” Septmo said before he hit the corpse release, and his avatar faded.

Oliver was pissed. Not at himself. He’d done nothing wrong. And now, the tank would smear his name. He could deal with that, though. Septmo had been a jerk, anyway.

No, Oliver was angry at the game. There had to be some kind of bug.

He was in the middle of opening up the interface to start a GM ticket when he remembered the angry Frost Giant, which had turned its attention to him, ignoring the other party members completely. All Oliver saw was his reflection, distorted in the shining icy blade.

“Crap.”

You take 120 damage from Grovar the Glacier’s Icy Slash attack.

Critical hit!

You take 360 damage from Grovar the Glacier’s Icy Slash attack.