RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 194

“Can I go ahead and start the attack if I am confident of gathering the beasts aggro, but I feel that other beasts might join it if we wait for the two berserkers to reach it?” asked Balthazar.

Puba would have usually reprimanded a player for asking that question as it would tend to piss off the attackers. Assassins considering other players slow and unable to attack a beast at the most vulnerable time was a cause for common conflicts in many games and he didn’t want the members of his group to get into such a dispute now.

But he was warned by scouts in both Ardent Ronin and Kiriti, that Balthazar had a very high offence and also that he had a crossbow which he is quite adept at using. One of the archers told him that Balthazar was almost as precise and accurate as him despite being an archer. He also told that being an archer would give him better firing speed and that it was a waste that the player chose to be an assassin instead of archer with that skill. Little did he know that Balthazar was that good because he had practice in his past life and he chose a crossbow as it was similar to a gun and he couldn’t actually use a bow with much ease.

Before he could respond one of the berserkers from the group who was an independent player already flared up. “Just because you are fast and have stealth. Don’t think that you could get its aggro and come back safely in time. You will also need to land a few attacks on it to gain sufficient aggro before you lack any strength. If you were in an actual situation that you described, you would bring its friends along with it by the time you gain aggro,” said the berserker angrily.

“Ya ya, then we would have to protect your sorry self,” said the paladin who was also pissed off by the Balthazar’s attitude. “Don’t expected us to help you in that situation,” she added folding her hands. Balthazar who hadn’t thought of all this and had just asked it because his true level was higher, the same as the beasts and it would make his work easy if he was given the freedom to attack the beasts on his own.

“That is true, fleet-footed. Though you have a high speed and a crossbow that allows you to attack from a certain distance despite being an assassin, it wouldn’t be easy to get aggro of a beast without sufficient damage and we wouldn’t be ready to hold off more beasts if they attack you. You might die, in that case,” said Puba trying to convince that the others made a valid point. As the others had already started to talk against Balthazar and had given a valid argument, he just repeated their words while including the information about Balthazar so that they would underestimate the assassin too much.

“I am pretty confident of being able to gather their aggro even though they have a higher level. I have been scouting all this time and I know their weak points which when attacked generate a lot of aggro,” said Balthazar. “If it looks like I am getting overwhelmed, I would just suggest that you go back and inform that I got caught by a beast’s sudden attack and you guys weren’t able to save me,” he added.

“Damn! This guy is harder to control than what Kiriti told me,” thought Puba as he heard Balthazar. “And he is very rude. Can’t he realize the situation. Does he really think that he doesn’t need a team when fighting multiple higher level beasts.”

“Let it be that way, then,” said the elementalist Frozen bullet suddenly. He was also a member of the raiders and had been warned about Balthazar. “We shall do as he says. If he isn’t capable to handle himself in a situation of his own making, it is clear that he is not a team player and would only hamper our efforts and might even make our situation worse, later. If he is actually capable of what he told us, it is a waste to prevent him from using his best skills,” he added looking at the others.

“So, we really will move away if he wants us to get back. That is ridiculous,” started berserker again.

“Yes, in forward team, we have the chance to kill beasts more than the others. It would affect our pay, we don’t want this guy. Can’t we have a change of personnel. We can get some other player from the scouts, right?” asked the paladin.

“The teams are fixed. Can’t change that. If any loss of players happens, we are supposed to go back and join the others. That is all,” said Puba seriously. “Only thing that we can do is to accept his idea. It can’t hurt to try. There won’t be any rearrangement of groups as it would disturb other groups too. Took a lot of planning to set these. They have no intention to indulge in such requests.”

Puba was actually angry at the elementalist the most. He felt like he would be able to get through to Balthazar and convince him, but the guy had to go and provoke Balthazar. Hearing those words, he was sure that any assassin would try his best to prove himself let alone the crazy guy who started this conflict.

“Cool, I will move ahead in that case,” said Balthazar as he went into the area. He had good reason to want to be ahead of the others. In a team made of a players who don’t know one another, the experience distribution would be set to do according to the effort put by the individual in attacking, defending and healing. Else, no one would be willing to put in their best for people they didn’t know.

The bipod serpents and gharials which had high magical and physical resistances respectively weren’t his focus. The bipod serpents were like serpents with to legs just beneath their heads. They squirted bursts of water as their attacks along with bite attacks which could poison the players. They were weak towards physical attacks. The gharials which attacked physically with their tails or tried bite the players were very immune to physical attacks, but susceptible to fire.

Though he could get their aggro, he didn’t want their aggro, he wanted experience the most. So, the horned toads were his focus as he could kill them alone. These were poisonous, faster and smaller. It was extremely hard to take down such a small target moving at high speed. Long-distance fighters had it very hard to hit such a small target and close combat players had it worse. They had to take special care to avoid them, blocking wasn’t an option without a shield. Trying to block with a weapon wouldn’t be effective as the skin was also poisonous to touch. The only thing they could do was to evade and cut at it which was very hard in the marsh area due to lower mobility. The horned toads were also slightly intelligent and tended to attack at the joints and bare and thinner areas of their armor with their horns. Their horns could actually get through cloth armor and poison players.

The players have already begun removing parts of their armor to lessen their weight to counter their loss of stamina due to the water. This was necessary, else the tired player would be easily killed by a couple of ambushes. Due to this there were in much more danger of being poisoned by the toads, but it was unavoidable.

If they were poisoned, the players would lose health at a fast rate along with a slight paralysis which was very dangerous in that environment. So, within a few minutes, the nature of these toads was determined and everyone in the battalion were made aware of them and were advised to avoid physical confrontation with them or provoking them.

Balthazar had previously kept his speed in control and didn’t work to the best of his capabilities all this time as he didn’t want to let anyone know of his attributes. He chose this time to attack these horned toads. The best part was that unlike the gharials and the serpents which spent most of the time underwater, these toads lie on top of floating plants or grass. They even float on the top of the water for most time as they can’t spend long duration underwater and this allowed him to attack them with his arrows.

Though the toads are fast, they would escape or attack only when they notice players which was not possible with Balthazar in stealth. So, he could easily gain aggro and kill the toads. He had equipped a buckler on his left hand to be on the safe side and began to attack. Once, he got their aggro, he didn’t have to worry much. A few hits with his weapon were enough to put it in dire straits.

He had specifically asked to be allowed to engage monsters alone only for the opportunity to kill these smaller toads alone without having to share the experience. As the toads were fast and none of the berserkers wanted to play with them either. So, they didn’t complain or criticize him for killing the toads on his own. Moreover, the toads were already marked most dangerous due to lack of an intermediate antidote and Balthazar had already asked permission to handle beasts alone if he could. So, even the ones who felt that he was rude let it go whenever the heard notification of one of their team killing a horned toad.

He also lured back serpents and gharials alone occasionally, so that his teammates wouldn’t have any complains, but made sure to kill the toads on his own before coming towards his team. He also made sure to carefully collect the remains using gloves so that he could extract poison for research of an antidote. He planned to return to the place again on his own. So, he was already making the required preparations. He was able to get through now as the animals had their focus divided among many players, but he doubted it would be the same in his next trip. So, gather antivenom was most important to him. He also planned to gather the gall bladders and the similar organs of the other beasts. As they were living beside the toads it was clear that they are resistant to its venom and their organs would most probably be crucial for making antidotes based on the game design.

After a couple of hours of toiling in the marsh, they finally managed to move ahead enough to see the advanced party. The advanced party were in an orange colored force field which kept the monsters at bay. There were langstonia, gharials, toads around them, just beside the orange force field. Being the scout in forward team, Balthazar was one of the first among them to notice the advance party through his scope.

“They seem to be stuck. They are surrounded by monsters and are only alive due to an orange colored field around them which is keeping the monsters at bay,” he said to the others in his team. “Have come here to save them?” he asked Puba.

“That is a part of the mission, but we need to move further ahead. If we have come close to the advance party, we need to discuss with Kiriti about the next part,” said Puba as he led them towards the direction of Kiriti who had been behind them.

“You have noticed them too?” asked Kiriti as he saw Puba coming towards him to which Puba nodded in agreement. “OK. Join the main group. It will be a defense oriented fight now. There are too many packed near them and I hear they haven’t budged yet. We will need all guardians to hold them at bay.”

“You know why we are changing tactics?” asked Zoras who also joined them back. Balthazar just shrugged his shoulders and redirected it to Puba. He had a certain expectation but wasn’t sure if the Valhalla Raider were actually doing it as it would cause certain amount of damage and losses to them too.

Soon, his doubts proved to be true. He felt that these guys were crazy for attempting it. They pulled out barrels about 2 feet tall which had a fuse at their end. Using this was a crude way to disrupt beasts in aquatic environments. Soon, six of the barrels were ready. The players were arranged in a formation so that berserkers could run and lob these barrels into the distance after lighting the fuse. This was a very risky and a costly way to clear beasts in water-logged places. He had been avoiding damage all this time to keep his disguise intact, but he knew that this attack would inflict some damage onto him too. Still, he pulled out a large level 10 shield to cover himself and was ready to get away in case he was found out.

As the lit bombs were thrown, the players were all instructed to move back and prepare for the beasts’ attack in a semi-ellipse like fashion. This time, the outer layer was completely covered with players with big shields while assassins, swordsmen, martial artists and berserker stood right behind them to put in attacks. Behind them stood a crowd of healers, archers and mages ready to attack. There were a few melee players even among the long-distance attackers and healer as there was always a chance that few beasts might get near to them. So, these were supposed to be as guards for the others. This was a standard formation for wars in games as they were expecting a charge of the beasts after the explosions.

Balthazar had specifically requested to be placed among the long-distance attackers and healers. It was a very small job and most of the players expected those wouldn’t see any action. So, he was despised by the others in his team for requesting it. Puba felt it was odd but he didn’t care as many others were asking to not be put along with the mages as they wanted to participate and get more experience and pay. So, he was sent to his requested position without issue. He had even suggested the three friends that he made while scouting to join him, but only Zoras took it seriously and followed him. Balthazar had no intention to participate in the fight. He asked for that position so that he could stay away from the explosion and go into stealth and escape. Any damage would remove his disguise which he didn’t want to happen, and he knew no way to avoid damage for the upcoming excercise other than running away.

They were risking a lot for the well-being of the advanced team. As the barrels burst, most of the monsters close to the barrels have suffered serious injuries. All the players stayed behind the guardians and their shields to avoid environmental damage due to the explosions, but still something that they didn’t expect happened that through them into panic.

The beasts that had the least weight were the poisonous horned toad. These were pulled off the water and into the air and fell on the players in pieces. They had already been warned of water falling on them along with some debris causing a visibility problem, but they had overlooked the horned toads whose skin was also poisonous causing a number of players to be suddenly poisoned.

Within ten seconds of the blasts, over 30% of the members were already notified to be poisoned. The majority of these were from the line of berserker, assassins, swordsmen and martial artist. The first line made of guardians and others with shields cowered behind their shields and hence the number of poisoned among them were low less than 10%. The ones behind them weren’t so lucky. The mages, archers and healers got lucky as they were too far for the poisonous pieces of toad flesh to fall on them.

It was during that time, the majority of them realized the folly of their actions. The poison rain caused by the death of the toads paralysed a good amount of the physical attacker among them. Though a majority of tank players were fine, they alone could continuously keep a monster charge at bay. They could block the attacks, but while they were focused on blocking others need to make attacks on the monsters to lower their number. Else, the tanks would be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. Due to the poison rain, the formation in which almost all the players were confident wasn’t effective any longer.

As expected, the casualties spiked when the gharials and bipod serpents attacked. The bipod serpent by virtue of their magic and the two legs could jump distances and they landed behind the tanks. They were physically weak and could be routed quickly by close-combat attackers, but due to the paralysis from the poison most of them ended up being cover for the serpents against the other players like archers who were still in action while some even attacked the tanks from behind.

The gharials were stopped by the tanks at the front, but they couldn’t always block their attacks. Their tail attacks are particularly fierce robbing the health of guardians by chunks of 10% or more. Without attackers like berserkers and martial artist who had high strength to support them, they were also in a losing fight.

The worst part was that the tanks realized that floating pieces of toad flesh would still be poisonous. These floating pieces were blocked by their shields and fell to their sides. They didn’t consider these a danger as their focus was on the beasts that were attacking them, but any tank whose skin or thinner part of armor came into contact with these dead toads were also poisoned.