Interlude: Destination Part 3

“Looking back, I think I was smiling.”

One final time.

“Who is that weirdo?” a player muttered. Staring at a sharpshooter slinging duel pistols, explosions ringing all-around a practice dummy.

“What kind of combo does he think he’s doing? Fucking noob just going for the skills with the most particle effects.”

One more try.

A necromancer cleared the grime from his face. He was breathing heavily despite the lack of real physical exertion, the questline was more difficult than he remembered, but it was done.

In his hand, he held a book with a wheel. A wheel that ever spun and never stopped.

No matter what everyone says.

A woman smiles for the camera, speaking in a crafted and mastered tone. A voice that flaunted wit and sensuality in equal measure. Her audience was as supportive as usual, but there were many, and in the many, there would be doubters.

“Imagine still trying lolololololollll!”

The possibility of redemption.

In the real world, a wizened old figure shared a drink with a friend. Androgenous in appearance and bearing, they gave an appearance of seniority. They finished quickly, leaving behind a tip as they left.

“Why were they drinking with a picture?”

They would smash their head into a brick wall until that wall gave.

The boy woke up, eyes blurry, mind out of touch as he pushed away packages of fast food and candy. He stared blearily at a screen, seeing the final result.

0%

“And here we go again,” Mortimer uttered.

Only two hours until the boss gets its balance patch, only two hours till the deadline.

“Are all of you fine with skipping school?” Belle asked.

“It’s fine,” Matt began.

“I never enjoyed going there anyways,” Declan finished.

“Then let us begin.”

The same party, the same people, but with better gear, better practice, and a better plan.

There was no more time left, there was no more time to practice. It was their last chance. And so they battled against Vek’Na one final time, the spectral skeleton burning with green necrotic energy. They battled through his first phase, pushing through attack and attack, burning through mana and health, until finally, they stood where many have stood.

The wind blew across them, flapping their robes and forcing them to squint. The boss burned with particles and energy, with hatred and contempt, for many have brought Vek’Na to the brink.

But none have killed him.

The battle when Vek’Na entered his enrage could be measured in seconds.

“Heartbeat Healing!” Belle instantly yelled. The boss instantly turned its skeletal head towards her, but not before another spoke.

“MK7 Mechatron.”

Both deftly avoided the grates of necrotic energy that cancelled skill casts. Using their strongest abilities from the start, Alex slammed into the boss, clad in their mecha suit, they fought head to head with the skeleton.

“Health Drain Up,” Declan called, draining a small fraction of the bosses HP, barely dealing any damage but fulfilling another purpose. “Blood Letting, Transfusion, DPS Up.”

Matt alone received the buff, and he yelled out, “Emperor Time!” activating one of his ultimates, unleashing his damage, attacking with combos unfettered and uncaring of aggro.

20.8%

The first fifth, gone within moments of the fight. An explosive start, but this strategy was supposed to be unsustainable, for the simple reason their only tank was stuck in ending lag as the mech timed out. All the while Vek’Na turned to the next highest aggro target, Matt.

But they solved that.

As Alex was ejected, they positioned their landing so that they landed directly on one of the environmental effects. The necrotic grates that cancelled castings, that cancelled animation.

That unbeknownst to anyone cancelled ending animations.

The grate burst with green gas, enveloping Alex, in that moment, they were freed from the long end lag and charged back into the boss.

“And here’s the annoying part,” Mortimer muttered.

Declan raised a hand, pointing at Mort, and uttered, “Blood Letting.”

All but 5% of Mort’s HP disappeared in that instant, transformed into a bloody red ball in Declan’s hand.

And the boss paused its advance towards Matt and turned its glowing green eyes towards Mortimer.

Without the massive buff from MK7 Mechatron, Alex couldn’t actually steal aggro from Matt, no matter how much either of them wanted it.

So they sacrificed Mortimer, and the bosses own instakill aura would reset its aggro chart completely.

And in that half of second, all of them attacked.

18.03%

Even if Declan and Belle were both primarily healers, they still had damage abilities. The same thing went to Alex, whose half a dozen mechanical adds fired at the boss with wild abandon. In addition to the massive damage buff from Matt’s ultimate, they easily burned through 2% in half a second.

When Mortimer finally died, Alex was there to regain aggro. The edge was even thinner now, it was difficult keeping Alex alive while Vek’Na didn’t have the massive damage buff, it was nigh impossible now.

Three ultimates they burned. Declan’s Red Wedding, Belle’s Anthem of the Ancient and finally Alex’s Max Overclock, which temporarily buffed all their mechanical adds to deal heavily increased damage. It was enough for Alex to claw aggro away from the two healers, just in enough time for Mortimer’s body to twitch.

The necromancer’s body glowed with energy, as he slowly began rising. The Tome of Endless Night, a skill tree of abilities that gave the necromancer an automatic self resurrection so long as they had the mana. It was considered nigh useless since the skill point investment was so great the necromancer was effectively hobbled in every other area. And while the max levelled version of the skill was uninterruptible, the lower level version was not. It should’ve been unthinkable to bring this sort of skill here, where you had to dodge necrotic grates or they interrupted all skill casts.

But the highest level form was uninterruptible, and an interesting interaction occurred when the skill cast interacted with the necrotic grates. It cancelled the animation so that the long cast time of the skill was skipped entirely and Mortimer stood alive once more.

14.08%

Declan’s heart fastened, perhaps unconsciously as he surveyed the battlefield. They were nearing the 13% threshold, a threshold none have ever passed. And they went into it not the worse for wear. Almost everyone was topped up, the damage of Clarion Call was manageable, the boss was focused squarely on the tank. They had to respec to builds stacked with ultimate abilities, but it was doable!

And they watched, as the boss went down in health.

13%

12%

11%

10%

And then it all went wrong as the scythe disappeared from Vek’Na’s hand.

Instead, a staff adorned with an ancient skull appeared and the boss raised it high.

“Unknown phase!” Alex yelled.

None have brought Vek’Na to this point.

None have discovered the bug with the necrotic grates.

None have seen his final enrage.

Until now.

“Belle!” Declan yelled, turning to the other healer, but her hand was already up.

“Melody of the Mother!”

The shield came just in time, as blasts of green lighting struck all players. They barely managed to tank it.

“0 instant kills!” Declan yelled.

But the boss slowly turned towards Mortimer, its eyes glowing green.

The attack was enough to lower Mort to the execute threshold.

At that moment, almost everyone was still stuck in their last actions. At that moment, Matt saw the boss's animation, and though he didn’t register who it was directed at, he cast another ultimate, “FIM 92 Stinger!”

Eight missiles shot out of his pistols, striking the boss in the instant it killed Mortimer again. Miraculously, or perhaps in a moment of brilliant insight, Matt managed to time his positioning so that the necrotic grates cancelled the ending lag of that ultimate.

The moment Mortimer died, the boss turned towards Alex, the first character to have attacked it then. The lightning formed around its staff, crackling with power, and it struck.

Too fast, the first blow instantly slashed through half of Alex’s health. The double damage buff Vek’Na got from executing Mortimer twice in a row. Not to mention that it was now dealing Bludgeoning and Lightning damage as opposed to Slashing and Necrotic. The resistances Alex stacked weren't for this. Declan saw too late, the second blow coming in like a reaper’s scythe.

Everything was going wrong, and Declan was panicking, no, perhaps in mute shock was more accurate. He had calculated everything, from damage to health to the very pixels and seconds to which they would stand on to optimally kill Vek’Na.

When everything changed, he could not adapt. Still stuck in the paradigms of his plan when reality had long moved on.

It was Alex’s shout that shook him out of it.

“Drain me!”

Declan saw clear as day then, the second blow from Vek’Na’s staff coming towards Alex. Though his mind didn’t register the decision that caused those words, his body moved automatically.

“Blood Letting.”

Alex’s HP went from 50% to 5% in an instant, just as Vek’Na’s staff stopped mere centimetres from their head.

Declan only registered then, what was happening.

Alex saw they could not survive the boss for another blow, so they opted to have Declan drain all their HP, forcing it into its execute animation, to buy a single half second more.

And he saw then, the HP the boss was on.

8.6%

And he knew then, the path to victory, the path Alex showed him with their death.

“Belle take aggro!” Declan yelled.

“Huh?”

But he was already running away from her. At the moment, Belle still had Heartbeat Healing up to deal with Clarion Call, at that moment, when Vek’Na’s aggro chart had just reset, she was the one who first took aggro.

Matt realised this as well, running away in the opposite direction Declan was, creating distance between all remaining players.

For the moment, Belle saw the boss turn straight towards her and charge. She yelped before running away as fast as possible, creating more distance between the three players.

All the while both Declan and Matt were peppering Vek’Na with damage.

Vek’Na reached the shrieking Belle in two great steps, thunder and death calling from its staff as it swung at her.

Matt burned another ultimate, shooting at the boss while it was mid swing.

Declan activated Blood Letting, draining all of Belle’s HP, pausing the attack mid animation and causing Vek’Na’s eyes to glow green.

6.3%

Mort rose from the earth just as Belle fell. He was in no position to retake aggro, so Declan simply drained him.

“Oh are you fu-”

Any basic attack by Vek’Na will kill them, but there was still distance to consider. The boss hasn’t recasted the AOE which ruined the plan, it must’ve been on cooldown. Considering all of this, Declan was the first to strike Vek’Na once it had finished off Mort a third time.

And the boss turned to him.

In his hand, he held a ball of HP, drained from Alex, Belle and Mort. Declan’s class was often called the TPK Hemomancer, almost an instant kick no matter what party he joined. No matter what he said. No matter how skilled he was with the class. He simply did not fit.

But here, at this moment, he was king.

Vek’Na charged towards him, and he cast his abilities, kiting the boss from range as Matt peppered it from behind. He cannot simply run, for he cannot allow aggro to fall to Matt, he had to buy him a few more seconds.

A few more seconds to build his combo.

And when Vek’Na finally reached him, its skull leering at him from above, Declan smiled. The attack came, but he was used to it now, he would not make a mistake here.

The staff paused mere inches from his face as his HP dropped to 5%.

“Transfusion, DPS Up.”

Behind Vek’Na, Matt burned with red energy. The health and blood from Alex, Belle, Mortimer and finally Declan.

Declan died but Matt still stood.

When the boss turned to him, far away on the other side of the room, he used everything. Every skill, every ultimate, every single damage rotation he had. The boss tanked through all of them, charging inexorably towards him.

When finally, Matt exhausted all of his skills, all of his moves, left with nothing but basic attacks as the boss finally came.

And he laughed.

Visible only to him, was a combo counter.

9999 COMBO!

In his hand, were dual pistols, one of elegant silver, the other of burning gold.

And with the Mourning Moon, he shot the combo counter.

“Limit Break,” he raised the other pistol towards the sky, just as the staff of the boss descended.

“Setting Sun.”

He fired and hit the stars.

Then the sun fell from the sky.

There was once a boy who lived a normal life.

Yet as he lived, as he saw and experienced, he was disappointed. For life was just life, the world was just a world, things are as they are and nothing more. And so, as time went on, he forgot things, he forgot enjoyment, he forgot human warmth, he forgot how to live.

But as a single figure fell, as the boy looked on in the midst of respawning, he stared at the one who still stood, at the friends who stood around him screaming and roaring, the words running across his vision, immortalising them within the world they fought, he knew the impossible truth, he knew they had succeeded.

And there was a boy who cried and screamed because, for a brief, fleeting and forgotten moment, he remembered.

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Players:

Aban Twice Crowned

HitZaDecs

Mattmanfoo

Mortimer Memento

Silv3r_Belle