=== Our first dungeon – part 3

[Wait where is Jielby? Has that child perished with a trance? God have mercy on her soul. If only I was here faster, perhaps there is still something I can do. Consider this as my atonement I shall find her body and bring her back!]

[She is not dead, she is just missing! On top of that, we have to deal with the situation at hand here, which are those eggs. Can you see how they are starting to crack? This means we will be locked in combat, with or without Jielby. Be mindful okay?]

[If that is the will of the Lord, I shall abide and face the stairs one step at a time. We are not far from heavens here, thus my connection should be clearer. Oh your divine gloriousness, grants us decisive victory in this upcoming battle, amen.]

[Wow this sounded really invigorating Noctia, maybe I should get a gimmick like that? How about I would add piku at the end? Hey guys, we totally got this, piku! We just need to wipe this wave and we can reach the boss, piku! Let's aim high, piku!]

Stop that! Both of you stop being silly already! Every step forward is two steps backwards with them. I have my nerve, but I also have my patience. Still, this is not the time I should spend on babysitting them—I need keen focus during the battle here. Okay, so four of them are actually moving, the last one is not? That's quite lucky, but we are also missing a single member.

[Hey, come here Noctia, I'm going to need your spells too. Here is the plan. As soon as you see them out of the shell, we are going to put several circles beneath them. Just give me your best buffs and I should be fine, for a while. Corona, you and I are going to have burst damage them, so get your traps and other skills ready, okay? If anything, we are aiming to be the last standing. To extend our survival by not letting them play is top priority, understand?]

[Of course, that would be trap skills and Thunder bolts right? Should I also have Mark prey just in case, I presume?]

[Wait, there is no time to change your skills now! Just use what you have now. If you simply attack, you will be fine.]

[All right my children, it is time for us to fight. Forgive me my lord, I shall not falter and treat them as monsters.]

It was indeed as she said, the eggs hatched and beneath the crumbled pieces, something surfaced. A figure of chicks, with wide and hungry looking eyes that craved for a morning breakfast as soon as possible. It seems it was the time, and I felt really bad for them, just like Noctia did. Yet, I couldn't see those little birds as nothing but enemies. They clearly did something with Jielby, and didn’t want find out exactly what. We had to fight in order to survive.

Since we were united by a plan, I really hoped for the best. Together, using various skills just before they jumped out of the eggs, our battle was about to start. I used my Necrotic Pentagram to lower their magic defences and used my usual close range combo, which was Tremor Spike, Dancing Lights and Rain of Fire. I was hoping that my other two allies would grant me an opportunity to attack freely, without worrying about getting hit myself.

And I was pleasantly surprised to see that our teamwork somehow ended up being successful. Thanks to Corona, who used her Shock trap, she had a good start at keeping the monsters staggered. Using her Thunder bolt and Volley, she was able to extend the duration. She would then use Rain of Pain and Piercing Shot to continue damaging the monsters, which took a huge beating right away.

[Okay this is really good girls! Just keep at it, don't let them hit me or I die instantly!]

[A true character to her archetype. Oddie, you mustn't concern yourself with your frailty, I shall provide you with aid.]

Yes, indeed I did receive her aid. It was her Divine gift that increased my mana pool, just in case. I use a lot of skills, and special attacks, all of which drains me dry quite fast. Now I could worry less, but still that was not the only thing. Using her own weapon, she approached the birds and formed a small holy sphere around her, again and again, for extra damage. Furthermore, she has willing to use Pain Touch as well. And people say the Priests have to little attack options, now really...

The three of us found ourselves dealing with the monsters with little effort for now, since they kept being staggered. That would not last for long, I feared, as our initial strike will be met with their answer soon. Of course, I was not mistaken.

Within the next seconds, they activated their burst with their wings flapping. It was a sign for us to retreat and start kitting. We were each pushed back and barely avoided falling out of the nest. They also started glowing with gold light. Actually, I have only thought about the plan up until now, and have no idea what to actually do in this new situation.

[Okay, I say we just keep our distance until that thing disappears. It looks kinda dangerous, don't you think?]

[Wait, you don't know what it is? It's like a shield or something, so it’s best not to attack now.]

[Corona, that’s what I have just said! You have no idea either, right?]

[Wait, no...I was just trying to be nice. My goodness, forgive me for making you confused!]

That doesn't matter now! Get yourself together okay? When I will ever get a dependable team, please someone tell me. Anyway, unvoiced my complaints, I saw this as an opportunity to shine myself. Honestly I have a hazy memory about that...Burst skills and grab protection...yea that is something I know that exist in the game. You can stagger normal mobs, for bosses and special monsters you need to use a different tactic. So maybe, if I'm getting this right, we should...

[Okay, I got it! We need to try to grab one of them—they are immune to normal stagger now.]

[That's what you think? I see, I will trust your wisdom over mine on this.]

We ran in circles, trying to avoid the birds. It was as I thought—Corona couldn’t even stagger them with her Marksman skills. Unfortunately, I don’t think we could continue this forever, so we had to try something risky. I don’t think anyone of us wanted to end up as their dinner...Perhaps giving them a treat would be fine? That’s definitely not likely the solution here but still...Why I’m thinking about food?

[I'm going to try my Shadow Grasp, just follow up on that one okay?]

[Roger, just be careful, okay? I would feel responsible if anything would have happened to you too.]

[Hey thanks for the words of kindness...really I'm flattered.]

[May the God protect you my child, always.]

Hey, just because I'm going to do this, doesn't mean you two can slack off! I expect actual follow up with damage.

[Here goes nothing! Come forth, dark energy of the void!]

Oh yea, I shouldn't have tried that. I was a fool to think about heroism at a time like that. Well I can take magic damage...but I don't think I can survive through physical damage. Within seconds and without notice, my situation changed drastically. I used my spell and was stuck in place. That’s how grab skills work after all, they restrict movement but allow for disabling briefly the enemy. However, as I tried using Shadow Grasp, it was me who was made feel the most imparted, since I got trampled over and smacked on the head by their bills. Not the most pleasant experience.

What exactly I did accomplish was unknown to me, since my vision quickly become faded, overwhelmed by the intense pain. What then happened was that I fell to the ground, still inside of the nest. The floor was covered with bird's warm down. This is my bed now, I thought, and I guess I was tired a little too. A little nap would be that bad, right? But then again...

Oh yea, I remember, I was inside of the dungeon, with three other people, though one of them is missing. They can save me. Wait a second, I'm not all that dead, I can actually see again! Well, that was anti-climatic. All in all, I was still down, unable to move, but at least I saw what was happening. To think actually, this was my very first time I got knocked down.

[Hey this works! We can finish them using this strategy. You heard that Oddie? Hey, where are you hiding? Oh my goodness! She got hit by those birds! We have to save her Noctia! I'm going to distract them, okay?]

[Yes, this is a sound plan Corona. God haste, I shall use this opportunity to save her from certain death.]

Hey thanks guys, you can actually do something on your own. Anyway, what I think happened was that Corona shot them, got the Aggro back, and then Noctia quickly rushed towards me and placed her hand onto my back. It felt quite warm, so I calmed down as soon as it came into contact with me. It did take time for my body to be filled with vigorous energy, but as soon as I stood up again, she also granted me with her healing magic. I didn't have the time to thank her now.

[We need help Corona fast! They are gaining on her, and I have a plan.]

[I shall use my ears to hear it out. It is indeed as you say, that poor child is in need of our help.]

[Okay so we are going to do that again, but now I'm going to use Rune Prison to trap them inside. You don't need to worry, just use your grapple skill and they won't be able to reach you. If you do that and we only have two more remaining okay?]

[Yea that's a good plan *huff*Let’s do it quick guys *puff*]

Yea she appeared already worn out—too tired to fight. I could only watch her getting slower by the minute. On the other hand, Noctia had a skill ready to restore her mana, so I paid no attention and simply did my part. A circle emerged on the ground, and from the borders of it, a fence made out of the black energy of the void formed. It trapped the remaining chicks inside, as well as allowed for Corona to freely pass through. Now all we had to do was to finish one after the other, nice and easy.

With the remaining strength, the fairy girl threw her net onto one of the birds, but that alone wasn't enough. I teleported inside, using my usual close range combos, and disregarded any incoming damage. Meanwhile Noctia used her Mana Spring to aid our marksman. With all our abilities combined, we manage to fall another one of them. It was only a matter of time before we would finish this.

Of course, I had the fear that someone else could appear, but the fight was going nicely. That’s being said, when I teleported I was ready to meet with the floor again, but it seems the remaining chicks now lacked significant damage to down me again. I barely remained alive, thanks to the defensive cooldowns.

[Nice! I mean you managed to stay alive this time, it’s an improvement.]

[Wow you really did it, right? Stupid, there are still three left!]

[Do not be worried my child, as you are under his protection.]

[Thanks for the healing again but...]

Before I could finish, Noctia used her grapple on the next chick, and as the remaining one tried to reach her, she timely used her skill, Divide Aid, which teleported her close to Corona. Doing so, we suffered no new injuries and eventually dealt with the last one as well. I was really happy, but most of all felt like we were just lucky.

[Yes! We did it! This is really fun guys! It's even more fun that doing concerts!]

[Hey, all thanks to the teamwork I presume. I am glad you didn't do any stupid mistakes and just kept on running around. Always functional tactic in games, kitting. We have mastered it here, so I can't say I am disappointed, okay? Uwa...]

I mean the strategy we should have employed from the start was to use our individual grabs on each enemy separately. During the fight thanks to the nun girl we discovered that grapple moves indeed removed the gold light from them...but at the same time, before that became relevant, we just mashed our attacks and dealt enough damage to defeat them. The more you know...

Still, that doesn’t matter now. I was so tired from this fighting and almost dying that I fell on the ground in a wink, sitting down with my legs straitened and resting.

[You did really well Oddie *Yawn*, and you do deserve a nice rest. But not now, you can stand up from the ground, we still have this single egg remaining. It ought to bring the true boss to this location, so forgive my rudeness.]

[Yea don't worry, I'm not doing to plan on sleeping here, I'm not a birdbrain! Nevertheless, where is Jielby? I thought by now she would have shown up, but I guess just the three of us somehow managed do to this without her help.]

Alas, as I trying to ease the tension, an egg started to crack.