"Kezo!" I cast [Rusting Ground] beneath the thrashing mini-boss he was fighting. "Can you switch to some of your DPS equips?"

Although Kezo bought only rudimentary tanking gears from the auction for our practice, he had a much higher level than this mini-boss, so he didn’t have a difficult time tanking it. I had been observing his health bar since the start of the fight, and I hadn't noticed it falling dangerously low.

He also had some form of lifesteal, if it was still called that nowadays. Each time he attacked, his health bar would correspondingly tick upwards—it wasn’t a Heal over Time skill, I was sure of it. This was another defensive layer. I surmised he wanted our first boss hunting session to be as safe as possible—it'd be embarrassing and a waste of time if he died—but I estimated he could sacrifice tankiness for more DPS and hasten our pace.

Kezo didn't look back at me since he was focused on blocking and slicing the Rotted Cedarlyon. "I can't! I'll become too squishy if—"

"We're here to help," I said. I gestured at Nitana, then pointed to Kezo as I healed him.

She understood and sent her barrier sprite to envelope him.

"You can go ahead and dual-wield your swords," I said to Kezo. His Head-On Block didn't reduce the Rotted Cedarlyon's attack by a significant amount. If he increased his DPS, it’d also increase his lifesteal—that should help with the greater damage he’d receive. "Let's finish this fight before the next wave," I energetically said as I launched a stone at the mini-boss with my sling, dealing…

…five damage.

It would've been a cooler moment if it was higher. By a thousand times.

"Yes! We can do it!" Megan cheered, salvaging my supposedly inspiring act that fell flat. "Right, Nitana? It's fun that we're fighting together."

"I suppose," Nitana said with a resigned shrug. She ordered her exploding fairies to swarm the Rotted Cedarlyon. Our enemy's health was noticeably dropping faster.

"One last spurt, Kezo," I said. Odd choice of words there. "Let's burst it down."

"Okay then, let's do this," Kezo said with firm determination. He stowed away his shield and unsheathed his other sword. Some parts of his bulky metal armor also changed into sleek layered leather with spikes, presumably his DPS gear.

Strengthened by [Heart of the Warrior], [Last Stand], and other skills I hadn't seen him use before, like [Endless Flurry], Kezo went on a rampage against the ailing tree monster.

Dual-wielding swords seemed to be a prerequisite for his strongest skills. He couldn't use them when he had a shield, similar to how my Unarmed State worked.

Unconstrained by blocking the frenzied blows of the Rotted Cedarlyon, he rained slash after slash on the mini-boss. He didn't evade its attacks, holding his ground so his DPS wouldn't decrease. But because he lowered his defensive stats, his life fluctuated up and down like a bouncing kangaroo.

"Continue spamming your barrier," I told Nitana. Unlike my heal, which only amounted to a hilarious conversation starter, her skill was plenty of help to Kezo, even if it only negated one attack each time.

As long as Kezo wasn't killed in one hit, his blazing attack speed and insane damage could fill his health with lifesteal within a few seconds. It was akin to a high-regeneration build. Although not my style, I had encountered lifesteal tank builds before.

Nitana's DPS fell when she focused on protecting our party leader—a small price to pay for ensuring Kezo could dish out the most damage he could. He was also sneaking in [Enraging Call] between his attacks to keep the boss on him. If we only had a dedicated tank, he could use his complete DPS build and melt this boss in a couple of mob waves.

This lit the tanking spirit within me. Perhaps I could devise an outlandish strategy to allow Kezo to fully unleash his monstrous damage during the Great Hunt. A worthy challenge for the brain of Herald Stone!

"HROAARGGH!" came the fearsome roar of the Rotted Cedarlyon.

The surrounding trees violently shivered, dusting snow off their crowns. Leaves and broken branches fell to the ground. The earth grumbled as a horde of monsters marched through the forest.

"Huh?" Megan said. "They’re already coming? It's too soon!" She was right. I was timing the calls of the mini-boss, and this was earlier than expected.

"When it's about to die," I surmised, "it probably calls for help one last time."

Nitana said, "Herald, time to do our job!"

"No! Stay here with Kezo and Megan." I galloped away from them. "I'll distract these guys. The boss is falling soon!"

I ran in a gradually widening spiral, circling the Rotted Cedarlyon while hurling stones at the approaching monsters. Most of them switched attention to me, but others continued to rush at my party mates. It was up to Nitana to handle those who got past.

Round and round I went, dodging ice blades, boulders, arrows, and living trees trying to flatten me. My practice blocking the Hermit Crabores using two shields helped me discern the myriad of incoming attacks. And my earlier experience herding these monsters gave me a better gauge of their range, movements, and especially how they changed targets.

Despite lacking a taunt skill like [Enraging Call], I managed to drag a few dozen of them. I was one mistake away from dying. And as the monsters kept increasing and closing in, I'd soon be overwhelmed with no space to run.

I only have a few seconds left. Glancing at the Rotted Cedarlyon, I thought, They're not done yet?

"It's dying! It's dying!" Megan shouted. Nixigaunts slashed at her back. She didn't turn her totem to kill them, committedly concentrating on the mini-boss.

"Fuck off, all of you!" Nitana did her best to kill the monsters surrounding them while protecting Kezo. But since they were coming from all sides, her AoE spells couldn't take them out wholesale.

"Yes! Yeees!" Kezo shouted. The Rotted Cedarlyon's health bar only had a sliver left. "Just a bit—Hell yeah!"

[Congratulations! Kezodilla's party killed: Rotted Cedarlyon]

[ Loot: 183 Artas, (2) Cursed Bark, (1) Withering Spirit Leaf ]

"Nice!" I raised my arms and reared up on my hind legs. "Woohoo!" Level twelve pseudo-tanking for the win! Too bad I only got a tiny fraction of the rewards.

"Herald, look out!" cried Megan. Behind her, I saw Nitana rushing toward me.

I looked over my shoulder. There was a tree trunk...

...and I was in front of the Chief's Lodge.

For a moment, I processed what had happened. Did a Cedarlyon kick me?

"What a careless and idiotic way to die," I groaned as I rapped my temple with my knuckle. "Right as we won."

After Kezo dealt the final blow to the Rotted Cedarlyon, I subconsciously expected all the monsters chasing me to also die, so I stopped to cheer with my party mates.

Kill the boss. Everybody checks their loot. That was how it was supposed to go. Maybe there was going to be some fighting over the loot afterward.

But no one dies after the boss is dead.

Except for Herald Stone. Because I'm just unique in all aspects of my life, I sarcastically thought.

I forgot that the Laphisheres, Cedarlyons, Nixigaunts, and Frost Imps weren't summons or minions of the mini-boss. They were the native monster population of the area. And they were aggressive around that part of the forest and would attack anyone—which was why they readily chased me even though I didn't have a taunt skill. The mini-boss was just calling them.

Even if the Rotted Cedarlyon was gone, the rest of them weren't going to poof away. This wasn't a movie where the credits rolled after the big bad enemy died.

"Now, what do I do? Wait here...?"

There was a flash of light. Three Mardukryons appeared next to me. My party mates used a Sigil Totem to return to the village.

"Herald, there you—" Megan began to say.

"I'm really, really sorry," Nitana cut in, showing more emotion than she had so far. "I couldn’t save you. It's my fault—"

"No, it's not," I said. "It's on me. I should've continued running. And you were protecting Kezo; I was too far away."

During my Nornyr Online days, it was second nature to blame literally anyone else if I died. I recalled accusing an imaginary cockroach of running over my foot, causing me to click the wrong skill in surprise. However, that was mostly clowning around with my friends—I wasn't close enough with these people for those antics.

When my friends weren't around, and I was constrained to join pub parties with random people, I'd rarely die—I was the tank, after all. If I did, it was undoubtedly mostly the fault of others. No surprises there. On the rare occasions that it was indeed my fault, I'd still blame other party members for sure, usually the healer. That was par for the course for pub parties, an ancient tradition of MMORPGs.

This time, Herald Stone, the Best Teammate Ever, was going to own up to his mistake. I was level twelve anyway—basically, a team mascot—but I contributed more than they expected during our practice.

"The important thing is we did it!" Kezo boomed with a hearty laugh. He placed his arm around my shoulder. Being much taller than I was, he had to lean down to do it. "Good job back there, Herald. I wouldn't ask you to do something crazy like drawing the aggro of the mobs with your squishy character." My ears prickled at that statement. He continued, "But you did it and helped Nitana big time. Now that's what I call teamwork!"

"Too bad I messed up at the end," I said with an apologetic grin if a Mardukryon's face could ever be apologetic. Just being humble here, guys.

"I was so surprised when you just ran out there, and all the monsters chased after you," Megan said.

"Me too," Nitana drawled, returning to her low energy levels. But I knew I had garnered her trust and cooperation.

"I want to be useful to our party despite my low level and weak equipment," said I, Herald Stone, the Best Teammate Ever. "Instead of hiding behind Nitana and watching all of you do the work, I decided to help her by herding the mobs."

"Really appreciate that," Kezo said, giving me two thumbs up. A Mardukryon with a broad smile was an uncanny sight. “It was very dangerous, but I can’t believe you pulled it off.”

I can’t believe it either. But that was the daily life of Herald Stone to do unbelievable things.

"I could have helped with much more, even if I’m only level twelve, if I had other Ocadule Shards," I muttered while scratching the bottom of my tusk, pretending to be wondering to myself, A trail of breadcrumbs. Someone, please pick them up.

“Other Shards?”

"Maybe if I had a taunt, I would've gathered more monsters for Nitana to kill easily. Or perhaps more debuffs would be great? My Rusting Grounds skill is only a Common Quality Shard, but I hope it helped, even if a bit."

"It surely did," Kezo enthusiastically replied. "And I agree that even at level twelve, you can help if you have the right Ocadule Shards. "I'll see if I have some items I can give you."