Chapter 3:
Halloween—Boss Battle
WE ARRIVE AT THE SITE of the ritual a bit early.
The climax will probably begin if we charge in as one giant group, so we circle the perimeter and observe until it’s time to begin.
“Enemy submarine spotted!”
“Negative!” the group calls out in unison.
“Lol, I think there’s a few too many players on the Japanese soldier side.”
“Hang on, they’re dead!”
“And they’ll probably die for good,” I remark.
“Well, they’re the ones who tried to get a head start, so let’s just leave ’em alone.”
“But we let them get a bigger supply of blood. Did these players make things a lot harder for us?”
“How dare they?!” the group rages.
The frontliners were captured and are sprawled on the ground. The fanatics could only capture six children from town, but since this small group of outsiders volunteered to show up at their camp, they were more than happy to capture them.
Lady Margaret mentioned that seven children were missing, but I still only see six. None of the figures in black robes look small enough to be children, so perhaps the seventh really did depart to the spirit realm. Sadly, a journey like that is a one-way ticket.
“It looks like it’s just under six meters tall. That thing’s huge!”
“What a great model. It really looks like a baby goat. It’s super creepy, but better than the Shoggoth, at least.”
“Yeah, that thing was awful.”
“Should I put on the cute Shoggoth costume?”
“Don’t you dare. Did you actually exchange tickets for that thing?”
“You never know when you might use it.”
“That’s what gamers say when they refuse to manage their storage properly.”
A Dark Young and Blessed of Shub-Niggurath are sitting in a small clearing in the woods before us. A few robed fanatics are with them, along with the resident captives and the frontliners sprawled at their feet.
The ritual is about to begin.
As rain pours from above, the sky begins to crackle and light up. It’s lovely weather, just as Ms. Clementia described it—from a plant’s perspective, of course.
“Look at that. They’re really setting the mood.”
“Yep!”
“But all that is left for us is to exchange blows with them, my lieges.”
“I’m sure they’ll do more than just scream and run around.”
“Us fighters will be the ones letting out war cries and running in to strike at them!”
“We sound like a frightening group.”
The other fanatics seem to have arrived from deep in the woods, now carrying the prey they hunted. They must be gathering at the ritual site now that it’s almost time to begin.
“All right, time to clean ’em up.”
“Now, omniscience shall be mine!”
“If you’re the kinda guy who gets a laugh just by showing up on screen, now’s the time for you to leave.”
We chat as we begin to move. The best thing to do is surround the ritual site as best we can. We form a half circle around them. They can’t escape in one direction, since that’s where the mountain is, but we can’t surround it either.
It looks like they’re starting to move. The Blessed and the fanatics separate from the Dark Young to carry out the main part of the ritual.
Calculating ritual difficulty…
The ritual will now begin.
“The BGM changed!” everyone shouts.
Ah, this feels a lot more like a boss fight all of a sudden.
“Don’t let the fanatics get away!”
The summoning ritual has finally begun.
You don’t know what they might do if they escape. Don’t let a single one of these fanatics out of your sight.
Oh, I just lost control over my body. This happens when they show a cutscene before a boss fight.
“Kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi.”
“Hey, keep saying it!”
“Kabaddi, kabaddi, kaba… I can’t!”
“You lose. Guess that makes you the sacrifice!”
“That’s too harsh a penalty!”
Incidentally, this game does have an oxygen gauge, and you die if you run out.
I wonder how this fight is going to progress.
“Meeeeeeeh!”
“Its voice is so deep!”
Yes, that’s certainly a very nice bleat from the Dark Young…not that it’s a good thing, since it just put up its tentacles in a fighting stance!
“The game says it’s too agitated to hear us out!”
Fight the Dark Young until it calms down.
Before the ritual is scheduled to finish, any amount of players may participate in battle.
By deciphering the documents, you learned the Dark Young’s methods of attack. All players will see danger zones displayed regardless of what skills they possess.
Red: Avoid at all costs.
Orange: Attack is blockable with a group.
Yellow: High chance of survival, even on your own.
I see. In other words, if we can’t easily take it out, we have to stay calm and use our heads for a while. It’s like a test of endurance, but with extra conditions.
I bet stomps, charges, and binds will show up as red. Strikes are probably orange and sweeps are yellow, I’d imagine.
We regain control of our bodies and are given a brief time to set up our starting positions.
“That thing is trying to intimidate us, isn’t it?”
“Wight you are.”
“Shouldn’t a skeleton player be the one to say that?”
“Exactly! Ain’t it lich coming from me?”
“Aha! I didn’t realize Mr. Skelly was behind me!”
The Dark Young wriggles its many tentacles to threaten us. I thought the Blessed of Shub-Niggurath and the fanatics would be too busy with the ritual to move, but that doesn’t seem to be true of the Blessed. Four of the six of them spread out to protect the ceremony. From our perspective, the Dark Young is in the very center with the ritual occurring behind it, and a Blessed stands at both its left and right sides. It’s the perfect defensive positioning.
Most parties split up completely to take their positions. Long-range weapons will be used most of all, of course. Up front are the tanks, followed by close-range attackers, projectile users, short bow users, magic users, long bow users, and yumi users in that order. Players capable of high-angle fire stay at the very back.
As for magic, different spells have different ranges, but ball, arrow, and lance spells will be our main firepower, all of which have the same range as long bows. Anyone who wants to use explosion, pillar, or mine spells should stand next to short bow users. Priest-style players who want to cast support spells like heal and enchant should stay behind the yumi users.
You have more spells at your disposal the closer you get to the front, but of course, you’re more likely to take damage that way. It all comes down to each player’s stats, skills, and how they like to play. In my position, I intended to go to the front to cast spells.
Mr. Skelly stands beside me and summons a living armor in front of him. This expands the amount of spells at his disposal and allows his servant to block incoming attacks. It really shows how each player’s skills determine their role in the fight.
I recall Unit One and summon Lizzy. I’ll have her swing that axe of hers against the Dark Young’s tentacles.
“It’s not gonna charge us yet, right?” Mr. Skelly asks me.
“I think it’s quite unlikely. But I suppose it depends on how much speed it picks up.”
“I don’t want that thing running at us with its tentacles outstretched like that!”
We only learned the bare minimum of what spells the Dark Young is capable of. That probably means each Dark Young can have different abilities.
The time left until the end of the ritual is displayed with another countdown—probably how long it will take for the Dark Young to calm down. We’re also shown the remaining number of fanatics and children along with the Blesseds’ HP bars in the secondary target section of the UI. As for the Dark Young, our main target…
“Hey, it’s got ten bars of health!” everyone wails.
“That’s quite a lot,” I remark.
“Well, our objective is to catch the fanatics, not defeat the Dark Young. Let’s go with that assumption, since the quest doesn’t mention killing anything either,” Mr. Skelly suggests.
I certainly hope this fight isn’t too difficult to figure out.
The Dark Young’s thinner tentacles are slapping the tanks in the very front lines. These seem to be its weapon for normal attacks, as its four thick tentacles are still wriggling up in the air.
“Meeeeeeeh!”
“Holy crap! Aaaaah! I jumped away just in time!”
Part of the ground turns orange when it raises its four thick tentacles before slamming them down. Those who are able to run flee from the attack’s range, but the remaining players bear down and guard against it.
“Yikes! Those guys must not meet a stat requirement or something. The tentacles crushed them!” Mr. Skelly cries.
“Perhaps strength is the deciding factor you need to push back with.”
“But it could be more than just strength.”
Since the attack didn’t come our direction, Mr. Skelly and I have the time to observe while we fire spells at the Dark Young.
It appears the Dark Young used its thin tentacles to block an attack aimed at the fanatics. So it does protect them after all. Attacks coming from the right are also blocked by the Blessed on that side. There must be some specific timing when we have to get our attacks in.
“The goat barely takes any damage!”
“Gyah ha ha ha! That goat’s as hard as a rock!”
“Mohawk! There’s kids around!”
“Hee hee hee! That problem’s already been solved.”
“For real?”
“Yeah, I’m prayin’ they’ll imitate Princess instead!”
“That’s your solution?!” the group shouts back at him.
I remember him saying that during the camping event. It certainly takes the solution out of his hands, at least.
The Dark Young swings its tentacles around wildly, meaning we really have to focus. Whoa, here it comes! The area turns yellow, and judging by the tentacles’ motions, they’re coming in for a sweep.
“Time to play a little jump rope!”
“Come on, boys! Do it right for once!”
“That pisses me off! Don’t say that!”
As everyone hops to avoid the surprisingly fast tentacles surging in like a wave, I float into the air to dodge the sweep.
“I’m jealous of the flying players. I bet they’ve got it easy this time.”
“But it sounds like they’re not allowed to pass through to the ritual site.”