The Ogre Captain unexpectedly growls at us as he turns his head to spot everyone in the party. Magic that looks like purple and violet sharp slaps of lightning bounce between the oddly shaped large stones.

Suddenly after violent stabbing and slashing the Ogre Captain, his reaction and the reaction of this environment was not exactly how we had expected this fight to start. The magical energy that keeps bouncing back and forth between the stones and sometimes launching itself to and from the Ogre Captain is now continuously repeating this motion, as the Ogre Captain slowly stands up while violently shaking his body to keep us away from him.

Sprite: “Ward of Aetsior! The High God of Wind! Protect mine allies, Amulet and May!”

Krafty: “Spirit energy of the Divine! Enhance my body’s strength twofold!

WiseMaster667: “Why are you two saying that stuff out loud? There aren’t even any spells like that.”

Krafty: “Don’t question it Wise! If Sprite is doing it, then so will I! It’s aesthetic y’know?”

Sprite: “I am merely calling for aid from the energies of the Divine, and letting our companions hear what I cast on them!”

WiseMaster667: “As long as it’s useful, then do it. Otherwise, we can’t afford to goof around, Krafty.”

Krafty: “Huh? So it wasn’t just to sound cool?”

Cool? I don’t know if that sounds cool or not so I’m not going to question it.

As soon as we stabbed the feet of the Ogre Captain, Krafty has began shooting his arrows in steady successions as he takes the time to draw his bow for maximum arrow energy. His arrows are targeting the unprotected arms and upper torso of the Ogre Captain because a large, masked helmet and metal chest armor protects the largest body portions of the Ogre Captain.

Me and May are now skirmishing around the Ogre Captain, leaping in to deal melee damage and whenever we are farther away, we cast our elemental magic spells such as firebolts and iceshards the boss.

As expected, the Ogre begins to charge at Krafty, who has so far been doing the most damage per second… and without a weapon in his hand, the Ogre Captain attempted to headbutt Krafty but he managed to slip out just in time.

WiseMaster667: “Something is weird.”

MC: “What do you mean?”

WiseMaster667: “I believe that the boss is bound to this encircled area. From my angle it looked like he should have been able to continue charging at Krafty but he was pulled back for some reason…”

May: “So can’t we just run around the hill and deal skirmishing damage to him that way?”

WiseMaster667: “I’ve seen something like this before. We shouldn’t try it because the boss could regenerate back to a healthy state faster if we leave this place, but more importantly it might not matter, and he will continue to chase after us.”

While Krafty I continuing to circle around and shoot the Ogre Captain, Wise is summoning two spirit wolves to deal some direct damage to the boss and take his attention away from us. So far none of us have been damaged, so Sprite is holding back her mana and casting light spells to deal a little extra damage.

Sprite: “He’s stopped chasing after us!”

MC: “Should we leap in again into melee range?”

May: “Let’s do it!”

I use my axe, physically enhanced with flame salts that I had previously crafted, and continue slashing and hacking at his ankle and the area surrounding it. As a Dwelf it’s easier for me to move around a large figure such as this but May is taller so she-

She got kicked away! Flying into the flat side of a large stone object. Oh crap! How much health does she have?

May: “I never seen my game screen shake this much, it almost gave me a headache in real life!”

Krafty: “You alright?!”

May: “Yeah I lost about half of my health from just that one quick. It was slow so I should have been able to dodge it but it unexpectedly pelted me away”

Sprite: “Spear Maiden May! I shall heal you. I cast the spell “Mend Wound”, blessings unto you!”

May: “Cheers Spritey!”

I still continue to carefully slash at the Ogre Captain, but at a slower rate than before. It’s difficult to tell whether I’m dealing a lot of damage or not. My health bar and the health bars of all of my party members are in clear display on the side of my screen. Yet, the Ogre Captain’s health isn’t so clear. I can only view it being displayed floating above his head or if I take the time to tap to see his limited character information. It’s especially inconvenient for me because I’m right below him and since this boss is so tall it obscures my vision of his health bar. But taking the moment to tap my screen and look at his character information, however undetailed it is, is a risky move to make. Normally when you fight enemy mobs, you could easily see their health bar. Yet, because I am not able to see it easily now, it’s annoying me a fair bit!

MC: “How much health does he have remaining?”

WiseMaster667: “Approximately 90%”

MC: “Seriously?! I thought me and May already dealt a bunch of damage?”

WiseMsater667: “Perhaps your swings and stabs are top tier yet, or more likely is that this Ogre Captain is definitely as strong as Eseli warned us about!”

MC: “Hold on, Eseli? Where is she?”

May: “I forgot she was even here”

Sprite: “You refer to the slumbering Snowmel woman near me?”

WiseMaster667: “Yes that’s Eseli”

Krafty: “She’s sleep now?!”

MC: “I forgot to give her cake today!”

Sprite: “Is that encrypted information?”

MC: “What? No no, I literally mean cake!”

May: “Amulet’s AI companion is a sleepy head, Spritey, but she also ADORES cakes, so it wakes her up”

MC: “More like an addict who requires cakes to operate sometimes, but yeah basically that”

Sprite: “Oh no! If I had known this ahead of time I wouldn’t have eaten a piece of lemon cake just now!!!”

MC: “Don’t worry, I’ve got a cake in my inventory so-“

*The ground rumbles once more and it continues to shake even more frequently*

Ogre Boss: “How DARE insignificant pawns of decedent priests and may makers disrupt my CRUCIAL revelations?! I shall invoke the power of the damned to engulf you with the sorrows of the RISING NEW GODS of the OVERWORLD!”

*The Ogre Captain stomps his feet in earthquaking vibrations while swaying his fists like a primate in rage”

Ogre Boss: “Curse you for forcing my hands to squash your petty bodies earlier than required! Too bad you shall not live to see the day of my fulfilled awesome powers of the NEW GODS… Now scream in despair!”

The Ogre Captain’s voice is so loud that it almost made me want to take off my headphones. Maybe next time I’ll have it so the game’s audio will emit from my speakers instead, however, for now I’ll just need to quickly defeat this guy so he could shut up!

WiseMaster667: “Krafty, keep shooting while I finish summoning Hasgol, my warrior-monk!”

Krafty: “It’s easier said than done! I can’t aim straight while avoiding this dudes fists and the ground shaking all the time”

May: “Wise why didn’t you summon your butler earlier?”

WiseMaster667: “He’s not my butler, but a valid question, nonetheless. Hasgol is from another world so keeping him summoned in the Overworld drains a certain amount mana away from me constantly. I didn’t think we’d need him in this situation according to our original plan…”

May: “Eh? Of course, we’d need extra fighting power!”

WiseMaster667: “Not according to my original calculations!”

May: “Whatever man! Just summon your Hasgol dude and summon those Wolf Spirit things again because they already got tossed away by the Ogre’s kicks”

While the situation is pretty hectic, if we can keep it up then we should be able to defeat this guy in about 10 minutes. Hopefully we won’t be helped too much from our allies down below. I won’t even bother trying to check up how much progress they’ve made.

However, for someone I do have the time…to…uhh…think about the stuff the Ogre Captain said in this middle…of this fight…erghh…something about him using his awesome powers to get rid of us because we interrupted his ritual to the “rising” (evil) gods. What could this mean? Maybe we could use this information in the fight?

*The Ogre Captain jumps towards Amulet Pond*

ROLL AWAY!

Ouch the after shock of him landing where I was standing at already brought down my health from 100% to 60%...what the hell! Yup, I shouldn’t be multitasking while fighting a difficult enemy boss!

May: “Amulet get up, what are you doing? Shouldn’t you give some cake to Eseli?”

MC: “Crap! You’re right I already forgot about that. I’ll go now, hang on May”

Krafty: “What a weird thing to say in a middle of a fight!”

Oh no I’ve been circling around the top of this mound area, and I forgot which direction we came from…let’s see, okay there’s the town below!

WiseMaster667: “Yes now would be a good time to revive Eseli, I’ve just finished summoning Hasgol so he should take care of the boss’s attention”

But where’s Eseli? She’s supposed to be near Sprite…

MC: “Sprite where did you say Eseli was sleeping at again?”

Sprite: “I believe she should be right behind me next to the Stone object on the outside?”

Nope, she isn’t there either… I can’t believe that in the middle of this lucky, difficult, and important fight, I am searching for where a damn cat lady could be sleeping at! How could you even sleep when the earth is rumbling like this…actually, that must be it! She flippin rolled off somewhere off this hill…ah I see here! I suppose I need to roll down the hill myself to quickly get down to her.

Okay I’ve reached down next to her, I’ll tap her character to see if I could wake her up normally…Nope I can’t, she barely responds aside from her usual “...nnn…let me sleep…”

Let’s see…in my inventory there are iceberries, a wooden wand, a banner, 50 bone fragments, a pound of oregano herb, some sandwiches, magician’s pants, magician’s gloves, book about Graypine…Ah I found some kafe cake!

Pulling out an item from your inventory and it suddenly magically appearing at the palms of your hands in a virtual reality game is always going to feel interesting to me. Like, it’s a little shocking but also oddly satisfying…anyways… hopefully this kafe cake slice will satisfy your stupid addiction Eseli.

Eseli: “Oh pleased to see your face Amulet Pond, how has your day been?”

Never mind that Eseli…quickly before the party wipes!

MC: “It has been exciting. I need your assistance in combat”

Eseli: “Combat? You finally require my expertise?! I thought you’d never ask.”

MC: “Well let me see it then, let’s go.”

While I’m down here…let’s see what’s going around the fort? Waaah! it’s on fire! The fort is burning, and I am now seeing a lot of zipping and zapping, slashing and dodging, bashing and running going around the whole battle here. Even Duke Alan’s soldiers are up here in the distance near the other end of the town. If they’re already far up here, then that means the Players have already started going around the town trying to search for the Ogre Captain and looting the buildings for treasure. I don’t see where the Nomads of the Griffin are at, but I’m not going to stick around to find out and draw their attention or anyone else’s. Come on let’s go Eseli before other Players catch up to us!

*As Amulet and Eseli climb the hill again…*

Eseli: “Amulet, are you sure you want to continue this direction? The foe up ahead is dangerously tough”

MC: “Yes I’m sure, we’re going to fight it”

Eseli: “If you say so…just do not perish!”

MC: “I wouldn’t worry about that dear Eseli, for I’m a Divine Spirit after all. You take care of yourself!”

Eseli: “Someone seems to have become a lot bolder recently!”

I’m finally back on top of the hill, and the fight between the Ogre Captain and our party is progressing at the same rate as before. Krafty is still running around in a circle, shooting the Ogre Captain whenever he gets. However, now he is rapidly shooting the boss without carefully aiming or shooting with maximum draw power because he can’t afford to be exposed to the Ogre Captain’s charge attacks. We’ve already seen how much damage simple attacks from the Ogre Captain can cause when he kicked May, the most armored party member here was brought down to around half her health. Meanwhile farther in the backside, Wise has been coordinating or controlling his AI minions to tactically outmaneuver and irritate the Ogre Captain. And Sprite has continued to do a good job of staying just enough out of reach from the enemy’s attacks while immediately healing any of us whenever necessary. If she hasn’t been healing, then she recasts protective spells out loud to let us know if we have bonus armor or HP to perform riskier attacks.

But now, with Eseli awake and on our side, we should have an easier time. It does feel a little bit of cheating, but I may as well not have come this far without already partnering up with her since the beginning.

Eseli is a master at Enhancement magic, so she can alter the state of a character’s body for better or for worse. But that does not mean that she isn’t able to caste devastating elemental spells to simply deal damage against an opponent. Being a master at anything in the Overworld does not consolidate to only that specialization, because that would not make sense. A character with high attributes will have high attributes regardless. It is merely the experience in having and using certain abilities which matters the most when describing a character’s strongside or specializations, whether a Player or non-Player. Eseli happens to be the most skilled in her Enhancement magic, and because of that someone at her level can dynamically operate other styles of magic such as mending, enchantment, etc. as long as they have the knowledge of it and access to those abilities.

So, am I still concerned that Eseli might die…very much so! But am I worried about her ability? Not at all. I still cannot see what level she is exactly, but I know for certain is that she out levels me and my other party members at least by 20 levels. And even if levels do not correspond directly to skill, her actions right now certainly will once again show the great range between my magical abilities and her’s-

Eseli: “Erhm…Amulet, may you please give me another cake slice? The previous one was too little…”

And therefore… this is why you SHOULD NOT EVER completely rely on addicts like the Ogre Captain with his powers from the evil gods or Eseli with her sugary cravings!!!