Published: December 14th 2024, 12:00:03 pm
How... how are they supposed to beat this thing?
Rias watches as a few dozen people are hurled through the air, bodies glowing as they let out screams. Winking out of existence before they even hit the ground.
She can see the menacing red name at the top of her vision, a red bar underneath it.
It has barely moved even a sliver. The number inside of it showing just how much damage they have done.
Abyssal Wyvern Level 20 {World Boss}
Hp: 99.6%
Over a tenth of the people here have died.
All for just half a percent.
Of course, there's so many people here it's kind of hard to dodge, but regardless.
No.
Let's think for a moment.
The respawn time is five minutes. There's realistically no way for all three thousand people to die in JUST five minutes...
They are going to be getting a near endless influx of reinforcement.
When you respawn you have maximum health, stamina, and mana.
Rias eyes quickly snap to the nearby white haired girl.
"Sona! We need to Kamikaze it! Deal as much damage as possible! It doesn't matter if we die!"
"Wh- Don't say my name!" 'Grandmaster shouts back. "But okay! I get it!"
"Go for the eyes!" Rias decides.
"But- But how do we get through all these people?!" Sona questions.
"The Key!" Rias gasps suddenly.
The two girls had pooled their money together for this moment. After grabbing as much as they could during the hours or so they used to prepare
They bought one singular item for two hundred thousand Jewel.
"Open! Gate of the Balloon! Globus!"
In an instant about forty percent of Rias' mana is taken away, but a hot air balloon appears which Sona and the girl quickly climb inside.
"Quickly Globus! Take us up higher." Rias calls out.
Before anyone else can get any bright ideas to hop on, the air balloon surges upwards, carrying them up above the battlefield.
From their bird's eye view they can see a large, black, reptilian beast on the ground, longer than a bus, with a wingspan almost just as large, folded into powerful looking forelimbs which allow it to drag itself across the battlefield.
People have given the beast some distance as it crawls forwards, it's parting the group like moses parted the red sea, people shrieking in horror as it rushes towards their line.
People looking to capitalize rush towards its open back as it continues to move forwards, but a lashing tail takes out most of these 'brave' warriors.
"Start charging... I've only got two minutes of Globus per attempt." Rias whispers.
"Alright." Sona nods slowly. "I- wait a minute- do you see that?!"
The two heiress peer down at the wyvern, spying an angular object sticking out of its back.
"Is that-" Rias whispers.
Looking over the wyvern, it's clearly taken some damage, regardless of whatever its health bar says.
Old scars litter the scales of the beast, arrows stick out of is thick hide, the edges of its wings are tattered and frayed, one of its eyes are lightly scarred as broken spears and swords stick out of its body.
But...
On its back...
A sword stabs between its shoulder blades.
It's kind of hard to see from the ground as it is hidden within a series of dorsal spines, but a seemingly usable blade has been impaled into the beast.
"The guide left us a way." Rias breathes.
"We need to grab Artoria... or Kirito." Sona plots. "Neither of us are built for using a melee weapon."
"But we are built for blastin! Come on Sona! Hit it! I've got... maybe forty seconds left!"
"Alright. Let's try this!"
Sona holds out a hand, a fireball forming above her hand roughly the size of an orange.
It begins growing larger and larger as she narrows her eyes.
"It's not taking a lot of damage from smaller attacks..." She begins quietly. "But it looked mildly hurt when someone hit it with that Warhammer."
"It must be armored. So we just need to hit it REALLY hard!" Rias grins.
The orb eclipses the size of a dodge ball causing Sona to nod.
"I'm out of mana. Let's go!" Sona calls out.
"Globus!"
The balloon swoops down. Rias raises her gun.
Sona smashes the ball of fire directly into the eye of the wyvern, causing it to let out a shriek as Rias' bullet of magic strikes its flesh and ricochets off, mildly displacing one of the scales.
Critical hit!
"SCRAAAAAAH!" The wyvern shrieks
Abyssal Wyvern Level 20 {World Boss}
Hp: 99.3%
"It can bleed. We can kill it." Rias whispers as it whips its head around... and promptly kills both of them in one shot.
[Split]
Well. I'll be damned.
It's been about an hour
Abyssal Wyvern Level 20 {World Boss}
Hp: 71.3%
They're doing quite well. Rias and Sona's Kamikaze runs are chipping off more and more heath.
An interesting strategy. Abusing the beta's short respawn times.
You respawn with maximum health, mana, and stamina so what they are doing is using a Globus the Balloon key to rapidly close in then have Sona charge up an attack to spike into the beast's eye.
It looks like they've both leveled up their item magic passive skills to the point where they can 'overcharge' them.
It's definitely not efficient, but it does add up.
I think at the lowest level it's a fifty percent increase for every two-fold they overcharge it? So fifty percent for times two. One hundred percent for times four, one hundred and fifty percent for times eight and so on.
Each of these attacks Sona has been doing is charged up to around a times sixteen. Then she's striking a weak point, thus she's ignoring the beast's armor and getting a critical hit to double her damage.
People eventually figured out that ranged was the best option and are now running with it.
I watch the full listed health of the wyvern tick downwards rapidly as explosions ripple across its body.
Numerous balls of elemental power are hurled at the beast, some miss and crash into the floor, others overshoot and hit people on the other side, but most slowly but surely deal minor damage to the wyvern.
its armor is quite thick so most of these attacks are only dealing single didgits worth of damage to its ridiculous one hundred and thirty thousand health pool.
Looking at the rankings, the current number one is Sona by a landslide thanks to her damage.
After her is Rias, who is getting a lot of 'assists' thanks to transporting Sona to opportune locations.
Next would be Serafall who has only died thrice. Repeatedly spiking a ball of ice into the draconic creature's mouth every time it tried to attack her.
I'm recording the whole battle getting many angles as possible. I'm going to make a KICK ASS gameplay trailer later.
The number ticks down further and further, a grin appearing on my lips as I wait for what's about to happen next.
Its health strikes seventy percent.
BOOM
It flaps its wings, a cascade of explosions echoing out in the air as a wave of wind washes outwards detonating the hurled spells before they can make contact.
The grass ignites as the lizard's eyes glow, sickly- by that I mean 'FUCKIN SIIIIICK'- black and purple flames spew from its nose.
A new bar has appeared.
Abyssal Wyvern Level 20 {World Boss}
Hp: 70.0%
Rage: 21.1%
The 'rage' bar rapidly empties as the wyvern lunges forwards, moving at speeds far surpassing anything it had displayed before.
Oh look. Serafall was Bisected.
Heh.
Oh...
It's also has fire resistance now.
Fire resistance in dungeons and dragon sense, where you could have '30' resistance to fire and someone would need to deal 31 to even do a single point of damage to you.
Soooo
Fire immunity.
Against these players.
With their gear and levels?
It might as well have fire immunity as I don't see them doing over a thousand damage in a single hit.
That resistance will increase at fifty percent, twenty five percent, and ten percent will gain a mild resistance to all elements.
I wonder when someone will find the sword, though.
I watch as its brief empowerment ends the rage bar begins to fill once more.
The way it's working currently is that the higher the rage bar fills, the more of a chance it has to use it. That chance grows depending on if the rage meter surpasses its current lost health.
Quite difficult to code, but some world bosses have similar mechanics.
Well, I mean, I didn't code it.
Mittelt did. I just nodded sagely along with her.
Some of the wyvern's moves are 'rage mode' where its physical statistics improve, wind barrier which is what it did a few seconds ago with its wings.
Technically speaking it does some AOE damage, but it's so low I don't see it really killing anyone even if it puts its fully capacity of rage into it.
Hrm...
Maybe it'd get some with a falling tree or two?
The only real things these people need to worry about is the fireballs it'll spew every now and then... and the giga death laser attack.
The giga death laser attack might split this entire field in half...
Hell, being so close to a city, it might split magnolia in half... or at least a small portion of it.
I suppose all I can do now is wait and see.
[Split]
Ah. It adapted to Rias. Interesting.
Things in this world are intelligent.
It would make sense that something would eventually realize 'hey, wait, I keep getting punched in the eye by a redhead in a hot air balloon' and keep an eye on the sky.
It even wastes some of its 'rage' to spew a fireball at them.
Clearly the redhead has angered the lizard.
Her scream of terror the first time it shot at them- the first time it displayed ANY form of ranged capabilities- was genuinely hilarious.
Like. It's SUPPOSED to waste all of its rage at once, but Rias somehow gaslit this lizard into only spending a percent or two at every attempt to blow her up.
Its eyes are darting to the sky frantically.
'Actually...'
I peer around.
'Where is Rias?'
She's still online...
It's been about ten minutes.
Normally she'd be back by now.
Hang on someone's calling my name.
With a flash I teleport, seeing Rias stood around a bunch of people.
I cancel my invisibility. "You rang?"
"If we pool our money to buy an item, would its damage give us all contribution? Oh! And is my flying being contributed to my ranking?"
"Yes and yes." I answer instantly. "Depending on the money contributed, of course. Someone who gave a single jewel would get nothing compared to a person who offered up a million."
She turns back to the group. "See! I told you!"
Someone in the group shouts at me. "How did you expect us to beat this thing?!"
"Oh. Beta respawn times, mostly. You're also kind of under leveled for a world boss. You typically want to match or surpass it."
Roughly fifty percent of the people have just stopped participating.
Being mauled by a wyvern- even if you can't feel it- must strain them mentally.
"Y-You bastard!"
"I am, aren't I?" I smile. "But at least I'm not a toad!'
With a poof the man turning into a human-sized frog... only to turn back a moment later.
"Buh bye~" I wave. "Good luck! You haven't seen anything yet, just let me warn you."
"W-Wait!" Rias turns. "Can't you give us any hint? A-a warning maybe?"
"Hmm... alright. I'll give you one word about a capability you haven't seen yet." I shrug a smug smile on my lips. "Godzilla."
"YOU GAVE IT ATOMIC BREATH?!" Rias shrieks.
"Byeeeee!" With that I turn invisible.
"We need a plan." Sona begins. "It's gained some form of fire resistance. Plus engaging it in melee is just a death sentence. Our attack has been slowed considerably. If we don't do something now, I predict that most of us will be booted out after sixteen hours have passed. We need to pool our resources to get some form of weapon to allow us to strike at range. I propose that we pick something that takes nearly every bit of our energy to use, then simply hand it off to someone else before drawing the wyvern's attention... the goal is to die so your mana is refilled, at which point you would return, be handed the item, then use it while someone else distracts the wyvern."
I'll just leave these people here. I want to be surprised. I just wonder what I could use to segue into this when I'm making the trailer.
'While the wyvern is destroying the countryside, the players are plotting a counteroffensive!' Or something like that.
[Split]
I watch a bolt of magic smash into the side of the wyvern's head. Its eye clenches shut as it shakes its head back and forth, seemingly jolted by the attack.
"Oh?"
A distant boom echoes out as another cylindrical bolt of spiraling magical energy crashes into it, this time hitting its mark and piercing the eye.
A deafening shriek echoes out as it staggers to the side.
I look into the distance, spying a few stray figures running down a hill. A crowd has seemingly gathered atop it.
Boom
Someone is laying down, then then get up, hand over the gun, and rush down the hill towards the wyvern.
Soooo
They're doing the plan.
Interesting.
Abyssal Wyvern Level 20 {World Boss}
Hp: 60.4%
Rage: 28.8%
I watch the rage increase all the way to thirty five.
Then drop to twenty five.
The wyvern tilts its head back, opening its mouth, fire crackles in its jaws.
It swings its head downwards, spitting out a large orb of fire the size of a car that careens towards the group on the hill.
BOOM
It exploded prematurely. Painting the sky black and purple for a moment.
"Badass." I whisper.
Someone shot the fireball before it could reach them.
The Abyssal Wyvern shoots numerous balls of fire towards the hill, one after the other, none reach the size of the first, but when they detonate it'll still probably take out quite a few people.
The horde of players counter attack, not with their 'big' weapon, a magical rifle which uses wind magic to shoot a spiraling blast of magical energy like a bullet, but the weapons they already had.
Fiery Fastballs, magic flintlocks, and more.
Due to the sheer horde of projectiles, most of the wyvern's attacks are shot out of the sky, but a few manage to slip through, but they didn't really hit close to the group.
And now... the wyvern's rage is back to zero
BOOM
It gets struck in the face by another bolt of magic.
It snarls, and begins running. Clawed forelimbs stomping, tail swiping.
Those who had gotten close, scoring a few blows while it was distracted by a larger threat are knocked back, some dying.
the draconic beast begins running, flapping its wings slowly as it picks up speed.
Eventually it lifts off the ground entirely.
It flies higher and higher, quickly approaching the hill in the distance.
A hot air balloon rapidly ascends causing its gaze to snap upwards to follow it.
"Heh. They gave the lizard PTSD."
It speeds up, jaws snapping at the basket that holds two people. The first? Rias, but the second? Oh. She found Saber... otherwise known as Artoria Pendragon. Arthur Pendragon's younger sibling and Le Fay's older sister.
The ones named after the legends. Not THE Athur Pendragon.
Just another surprise left by God.
Kind of surprised I haven't seen a Tatsumaki yet... though after checking who got the beta systems I didn't see a 'Tatsumaki' anywhere.
If I remember correctly, that's one of the people he mentioned he added... alongside the Scarlet Devil Mansion troupe.
The wyvern circles around shooting a blast of fire which the celestial spirt swerves to avoid.
Unluckily it swings right into the path of the wyvern's jaws. Its mouth opening wide as it approaches the basket.
Artoria steps up onto the edge of the balloon and leaps.
"CLOSE GATE!" Rias screams as the hot air balloon turns into motes of light, causing her to fall through the floor of the basket.
They both narrowly avoid the killing blow of the draconic creature, Artoria leaping over the attack just barely. Her feet thud on the top of its head as she runs down its neck, grabbing onto its back spines.
Her eyes lock onto a blade that has been stabbed into its back and grabs it with both hands.
That. Was. SO fucking COOL! That's DEFINITELY going into the gameplay trailer.
Maybe toss in some slow motion? I recorded it at all angles so I might even do a sweeping camera as she runs down the back in slow motion?
My eyes flick downwards 'maybe add in a few clips of Rias free-falling?'
She tightly clutches a copper key, seemingly screaming out the summoning chant.
She crashes into the soft top of the hot air balloon, bouncing off and tumbling into the basket as it swoops over to catch her.
Up above, Artoria pulls the blade free, beginning to fall against gravity as she is lifted off the wyvern's back.
It had begun to barrel roll, in an attempt to throw her off, as a result she's about to be hit by one of its wings, but she slashes out with her weapon, carving into the thin webbed membrane, the dragon letting out a shriek of pain as it begins to fall.
Before Artoria can become a red smear on the ground, she crashes into the balloon of Globus, bouncing slightly and being caught in the basket as well.
The air balloon quickly falls to the ground below as the abyssal wyvern crashes head first into the earth.
Abyssal Wyvern Level 20 {World Boss}
Hp: 46.9%
Rage: 55.8%
Well.
That did a lot of damage.
Pulling it free did about five percent, slashing the wing a further one percent and smacking into the ground from several hundred feet at terminal velocity did the rest.
Globus disappears as Artoria and Rias slowly walk forwards.
The descendant of King Arthur points her new blade at the dragon. "Our new offensive begins now."
Rias' magical flintlock slowly raises as she grins. "Now that's some damage."
With that, Rias surpassed Sona in the rankings.
But Artoria has quickly climbed as well.
But, sorry Rias, before long, I believe that we'll have a new number one.
[Split]
Abyssal Wyvern Level 20 {World Boss}
Hp: 5.1%
Rage: 97.1%
Ohohoh here it comes!
The Abyssal creature's on its last legs.
It lashes out, knocking a horde of people aside.
It's injured. Tired. And definitely about to die.
One hundred percent.
I roll my eyes 'Cue 'Who WIll Know?'.'
In the background an orchestral theme begins to play, causing a beat of hesitation to pass throughout the attacking players.
A near feral grin crosses my lips 'I stole this from Shin Godzilla, bitch.'
Its head lowers, mouth opening wide.
Ninty nine.
Ninty five.
The spikes at the tip of its tail begins to glow a bright purple light.
Ninty.
The glow begins slowly ascending the beast, traveling down its back towards its head.
Eighty.
The glow has reached the head, the abyssal wyvern's horns shining brightly.
A wave of purple and black flames crash into the floor under it, washing outwards, quickly obscuring it from view as the fire rolls across the surface of the ground.
Everyone who had begun to gang up on it are killed instantly.
It slowly lifts its head, the bellowing gout of flame thinning into a small laser beam that lets out a shrill, high pitched ringing sound.
A line of molten rock is carved in the earth leading up to the hill in the distance.
The beam grows, the face of the hill being melted away.
Everyone atop it are blown away as the entire mound of earth begins to melt and fall away.
"HAAAAH!" Falling from the sky like a meteor is Artoria, wielding her dragon-slaying sword she plunges it into the top of the wyvern's head.
Its jaws clamp shut from the fall, inadvertently cutting off its own attack.
BOOM
All of that energy is suddenly contained within the beast's closed mouth. Thus, it blows up, killing both it, and Artoria.
With a wave of my hand, the blonde is revived. Before the smoke can clear.
She looks around in surprise, gazing down at the blade in her hand.
In front of her, the prone body of the wyvern sits, the top part of its head is completely gone.
With a snap of my fingers, a message is sent out across the server.
The Abyssal Wyvern has fallen.
I snap my fingers and ten people are suddenly stood in the rapidly cooling battlefield.
'HATSUNE MIKU?!'
I shake off my surprise.
"Congratulations on defeating the Abyssal Wyvern." I call as I appear in the air above the group.
I slowly float down, landing in front of the small group.
"You ten... are the ones who contributed the most to the defeat of this boss... and by a considerable portion at that." I begin, causing the gathered players to share a look with each other.
"Allow me to distribute rewards." I smile before snapping my fingers causing all ten of the players to glow brightly.
Rias opens her stat window.
"I-I just gained fifteen levels?!"
"Beta experience is increased." I point out. "And you did kind of beat a super boss ten levels higher than you. Everyone who participated gained at least five levels."
A light brightly shines from the wyvern's corpse, then shoots off into the distance in numerous multicolored streams.
One of them pauses in front of Rias, causing her eyes to widen as a pair of leather gloves floats there.
"Oh... lucky lucky. You got a random drop." I note with a small hum.
"Now. Onto your guaranteed rewards... the person who placed first in the contribution ranking... is Saber here."
A large window opens behind me showing the ten player's score.
"Second, would be Ruin Princess. Next? Grandmaster followed by it."
"HEY! WHY AM I AN IT?!" Serafall growls.
"Weird girl."
"Hehe." Milim giggles quietly.
I look to a short, scythe wielding girl in a hood. "Next, Benny."
After that group of six there's like a twenty thousand point difference in their ratings.
I gesture to a short black haired girl. "Akatsuki, then Kirito..."
My eyes stray to a short blue haired girl with red eyes, she has her arms crossed over her chest and looks VERY irritated at being placed so low.
"Remilia Scarlet Von Tepes Dracule... kind of a mouthful, there."
Her eyes narrow at me.
"And finally, Miku-dayo."
"Saber, you get first pick, and it will proceed in that order." I point to the blonde girl.
She looks down as a screen appears in front of her.
"I'll take the sword." She decides, reaching out and tapping the screen.
Nothing happens.
"..."
"Congratulations. You can keep that sword. Next?"
Rias' eyes widen as she picks something.
A staff appears in my hand before it toss it underhanded to her.
The screen appears in front of Sona next.
"I'll take the book." She decides.
The Hellfire Spellbook appears in my hand, I briefly slap a sticky note on its cover then lazily toss it over to her.
She seems to read the sticky note, her eyes widening.
"Ri- Ruin! Let's go!" She exclaims as she grabs her friend's wrist and quickly pulls her away.
"Wh- but I wanted to see what Saber was gonna ask foooor!"
"This is more important!"
Serafall crosses her arms. "Hmph. You're so mean, creator-tan. I know where you live."
"Mhm." I roll my eyes. "And you'll keep that to yourself unless you want to catch a perma-ban Levi-tan..."
She gets some boots.
"Ooh! These are nice! Comfy!"
Milim got a leather chest plate, Benny got a new hooded cloak, Akatsuki got a knife, Kirito got a ring, the fuming Remilia got the gloves Rias received, and Miku got a leather helmet."
"Now. Saber. What would you like? You can ask for pretty much anything. Do you want to give people more beta-time? Sure. Want me to level you up to like level one hundred? Alright. Want a cool magic item? That's also fine."
She ponders for a long moment, cupping her chin. "Can... you add the sword Excalibur to the full game?"
"..."
"Huh..." I cock my head to the side. "I know I said that thinks you ask for can't transfer to the real game but..."
"You'll have no advantage in getting it, I hope you know." I point out. "I'll add it to the game, hell, make an entire quest around it, but someone else could find it first."
"That's fine." The girl states. "I'd still like for it to be here."
"Alright. Done. I'll work on a quest for it. I hope all of you have a good day!"