The bulk of Kaldalis’s current plan was the same as every plan: just don’t die. It wasn’t the most sophisticated strategy, but there weren’t any glaring flaws. So long as he stayed alive, the floating collection of metal-plated cartilage couldn’t murder all his friends.

But it wasn’t exactly a plan that saved the day.

He needed to do better.

And maybe he could.

Kaldalis was nearly out of options. Jump, Slowfall, and Ignore Pain were still on cooldown. Endure would reduce damage he took, but not enough to survive another hit until he healed a lot more HP. He was pretty sure his Shield Block wasn’t going to stand up to much punishment, either, even if he could clumsily switch weapons before the next attack.

But he had other resources. Specifically, his friends.

“Myrin,” Kaldalis barked quickly, “Get to Ess. She can give you a lift and jump you up onto the monster’s back!”

“What part of it is the back?” Myrin called back, but she was already sprinting towards the gate, where the others were. It was like she wasn’t actually looking for an answer, but just had to give voice to the first thing that came to her mind.

Meanwhile, Kaldalis hurled himself to the left as the monster tried to blast him. After so much of the ground had been churned by its attacks, it no longer left a small crater after blasting through stone; it created a huge plume of loose dirt where it struck. Kaldalis no longer had to just dodge the attack, but he had to keep ahead of the debris so that he wouldn’t be left blinded and vulnerable.

One of the non-wounded arms came down, and Kaldalis leaped back from it instead of to the side, letting it cleave into the dirt in front of him. It gave him the time to step forward and stab the tip of his spear into the hooked appendage for another fifty damage. He wasn’t sure if it was a worthwhile contribution, but it made him feel a little better.

As he scrambled over the uneven ground of the battlefield to avoid the next strike, he saw a figure lunge out of the crowd near the gate. Ess leaped lightly and deftly up onto one of the circular rings in the creature’s center, carrying Myrin piggy-back on her back. As soon as they landed, Myrin just started smashing at the thing with her greatsword. To Kaldalis’s surprise, Ess stayed up their as well, jamming her own spear against the metal rings, striking and stabbing at the spots Myrin had hit to combine their efforts in an attempt to seriously maim the monster instead of just piling damage onto it.

Kaldalis darted out from under a hail of hooked arms as they came down on him. It lashed out physically several times in a row, no longer pelting him with energy blasts. But the fight was starting to turn the corner. Myrin and Ess hammering at the monster’s center were likely contributing a lot of damage, on top of the storm of arrows that continued unabated.

Meanwhile, Courbois and Reno opened the town gates, and the assembled adventurers pushed their way into the killbox with real fervor. Despite the size and physical strength difference of the monsters and the adventurers, they were forcing the monsters back, as if easily. It took Kaldalis a moment to realize that Reno was running around the ranks of adventurers emptying her inventory of potions into waiting hands.

It reminded Kaldalis of his own potions. He quickly downed a healing potion to supplement Balrim’s healing. The seven hundred and fifty hit points were enough that he might be able to tank another hit from the monster, if he found himself in a position where he couldn’t avoid it. But just barely.

It seemed to have been wasted, though. Atop the monster’s spherical center, there was a resounding crack. Myrin and Ess broke one of the central rings, and orange fluid splattered the two of them. The sudden slickness made them lose their footing, but Ess was able to catch a hold of Myrin and use the last few moments of her Jump ability to get them both down to the ground safely.

As soon as the break happened, the palpable rage radiating from the monster was gone. It whirled away from Kaldalis and started to fly out towards the jungle with startling speed. At the same time, the infernal horde at the gates broke and ran as well.

The siege quest ticked over to completion.

With no further objectives this time, the town was saved.

Just in time, Garyung jogged up onto the scene, trailed by the other adventurers from the beachside gate who either hadn’t had their movement abilities available, or whose movement skills weren’t useful to close the gap on the giant flying thing.

“Excellent,” Garyung said, clapping Kaldalis on the back. “Good work. We have some rebuilding to do now, but-”

“This isn’t over,” Kaldalis said suddenly, whirling on Garyung. “Remember what happened last time? If we let that thing leave alive, it’ll come back stronger. It could have flattened the whole town as it was. It was one lucky hit away from destroying us all.”

Garyung grimaced, but there wasn’t any hesitation. He was already nodding along with what Kaldalis said.

“Right. If it comes back with inflated stats and a new ability, we’re as good as dead,” Garyung said.

He turned away from Kaldalis and towards the celebrating crowd of adventurers at the gates.

“Hold your applause for the end!” Garyung shouted. “The best defense is a good offense. On my order, get out there and get that monster out of my airspace for good!”

Kaldalis blinked with disbelief when a quest manifested on the side of his vision. It was kind of surprising that Garyung could do that, but he was the town leader. Shouldn’t have been that shocking.

Maybe he was still rattled from so many blows to the head recently.

Can’t Take The Sky From Me

Hunt and Kill the Enemy Leader 0/1

Kaldalis wished it could have given them more information about the monster. But obviously, Garyung couldn’t tell them anything that he didn’t know. It would have been a problem if he could tease important details out of the system by assigning a quest.

Regardless, Garyung managed to get some important details through the quest anyway. As Kaldalis watched the monster fly into the jungle, it vanished into the dense forest canopy, the gaps in its floating form meaning that it didn’t even leave a coherent trail of broken branches. But even though it was no longer visible, Kaldalis’s mini-map still gave him a direction towards it. As it got farther away, the highlighted region on his minimap grew larger and more indistinct, but it was still a much smaller search area than “the entire island” for them to use to track it down no matter how far it fled.

Kaldalis started running for the gate. His Jump ability would be ready in another few seconds, so that he could start the chase in earnest. Until then, he needed to get everyone on the move in the right direction, so that when the time came, they could get the job done.

“With me,” he called to his friends, “and hurry. The longer we wait, the harder this gets!”

Balrim and Myrin quickly fell in beside him, with Reno, Ess, and Courbois bringing up the rear. The crowd at the gate parted briefly in confusion at the mood shift from celebration back to urgency, but as Kaldalis’s party charged out of the town, the message was clear to everyone pretty quickly.

This wasn’t a quest that people could pursue on their own time. It was now or never.

FOMO was a powerful force. Especially among MMO players.

In seconds, Kaldalis wasn’t just leading a party. Or even a raid group.

He had an army behind him.