1??????????????Soul Bound


    1.1????????????Finding her Feet


    1.1.5??????????An Inscrutable Mastermind


    1.1.5.23???????...in the sky


    Two predictions popped up in the queue, both linked to appropriate action plans for each player.  Option A, the troll would charge the group at high speed for an initial high damage attack, with added stun.  Option B, the troll would burst out of the rocks doing area of effect damage.


    Instead, nothing happened.


    ChocolateTrain: {Do we even know it is in there?}


    Bulgaria: {This game has a lot of smart NPCs.   If it was watching the bridges, it knows how strong you are.   We should have concealed our abilities better.   In that scenario it is afraid and hopes we’ll go away or, failing that, it wants to lure us into a pre-prepared ambush inside the cave.}


    Nastya: {Alderney, your call.   Want to go scout?}


    Wellington: {Don’t pussyfoot around, Nastya.   Politeness is for tea parties.   You’re in charge and she’s a resource.   Don’t ask her.   Tell her what to do, just like she was one of yours.   If she dies, she dies.}


    Nastya: {Alderney, scout the cave.}


    Alderney: {On it.}


    Kafana used stealth performance to maintain the buffs.   It took a while, but with Wellington and Bulgaria still supporting her, there was plenty left over.   While Alderney scouted, she thought about anti-regen debuffs and Wellington tried a couple of sound amplification designs.   She added a learning buff on him, and hoped he wouldn’t explode.


    A few minutes later, Alderney reported back: {There’s at least one troll in there.   I can hear the snoring.   No visual confirmation - the snoring is coming from a high ledge overlooking the entrance.   If you fight in there, melee will be useless, and it will have the advantage of gravity when throwing massive rocks down on top of you.}


    Nastya: {Can we collapse the cave, or at least seal it?}


    Alderney: {Sealing it won’t get you the kill.   Collapsing it isn’t going to happen.   There is a tunnel between the entrance and the cave chamber.   You’ve got several hundred meters of solid rock above that roof.}


    Nastya: {Ok, Alderney, mark it on the raid’s shared map and get out of there.   Bungo, go get your goat.   Bring the troll out any way you can, and Crimson will take it from you once you’re out.}


    The members of Fra Gamal were remarkably calm during all this, staying in position and keeping their focus.   They were obviously used to being the first group through a raid when nobody knew quite what would happen.   Kafana, on the other hand, found the tension getting to her.   She did some stretches.   Trying to cast the spell directly on the troll didn’t feel like the right approach.   It would be 20 levels higher than her, wouldn’t it be able to resist?   And she couldn’t safely cast any more on the players.   So what was left?   The ground, the air?   No, that would poison them too.   Think, think.


    Bungo shot out of the cave entrance, carrying the bleating goat, an outraged bellowing behind him rapidly getting closer.    He ran all the way down to the river and behind the bank, so when the troll appeared its focus was on CrimsonMoon.


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    The melee team looked like a kitchen food blender, blades spinning so fast they could hardly be seen.   Tomsk’s hammer occasionally smashed down and Kafana could see areas of the troll lighting up gold as he marked the vulnerable spots.    Blades.   Blades.   She sent a message to Wellington in private:


    {Put runes on the party’s weapons.   Light, water, earth and shadow probably.   The intent is to add poison over time to the damage they do.}


    Now for some Denice Franke.  She didn''t need to alter the lyrics of "Little Bit of Poison" much - she could their meaning just by putting a cruel twist into her voice.   As she started singing, Kafana felt a channel created by the Group Performance skill touch something inside Bulgaria - a dark pool of mana and emotion being offered to her.   Yes!   It tasted rich, heady with potential, and she drew hungrily upon it, letting it shape her mindset even as the resources merged with her own.


    Identical predatory grins emerged upon both their faces;


    Alderney, who was recording the combat for later broadcast, felt every hair on her body stiffen.   It wasn''t the change in Kafana''s expression, voice or posture that caused the horripilation.   It was something primal, alien and unexplained.  A creepy moment of doubt about who was looking out through her best friend''s eyes; a moment of absolute terror that was followed by a wash of relief as Alderney remembered it was a game, and then by a flood of utter embarrassment as she also realised that as it was the game''s first boss fight she wouldn''t be able to avoid posting the complete recording.


    This troll was smarter than the smaller ones.   It was 8 meters tall and made full use of its height to keep vulnerable areas away from the fighters, but the arrows from Nastya’s legacy bow were like machine gun fire that never missed.   The troll’s hit points dropped steadily, now the poison was inhibiting its regen.    At 80% it used its telephone pole sized club to do a spinning sweep that hit everyone in the melee group, including Tomsk and Mary-Lynn, stunning them and knocking them backwards.   Bungo threw a tetsumari in its eye and kited it across the slope for a minute while Mary-Lynn showed her healing method.   She had talismans made of silken cloth with runes of light sewn into them.   She healed people by sticking a talisman on them then pouring mana into it which burnt the talisman to ashes.   It was fast, and produced a massive healing effect.   The only drawback, other than going through consumables, was that it required touch range to apply.


    Within seconds of the attack,  Nastya had a plan in the queue for passing the aggro back to CrimsonMoon and was detailing new precautions for the 60% mark.   Things went smoothly, Tomsk used his meteor hammer to entangle the club to the troll’s own leg, just before it could swing, and everyone except Crimson retreated beyond club range until the troll was down to 59%.   The same worked at 40%, routine now.


    Nastya: {20% approaching.   It is probably going to enrage, so everyone get ready to pour on the damage.   Tomsk, switch to your longsword.   Kafana, switch to stun.   Crimson you’ll know when the time is right to use the once a day skills that you’ve been saving up.}


    Kafana cast maintenance on the buffs, in case she’d be busy later, and got ready to dodge.


    Wellington sent her a private message: {Thanks to your learning buff, I think I’ve managed to work out the amplification runes, so you might want to think up something to resonate with rocks about landslides, just in case.    It has also helped me learn a great deal about raid management from Nastya.   This has been really good for us.}


    At 20% health, the troll let out a wounded moan of agony, that seemed to carry for miles.   Probably trying to summon its children back home to defend it.   That would be a nasty surprise for any group that had skipped straight to the cave without checking under the bridges.   Fra Gamal released a succession of legacy skills, amplifying all damage received by the troll over a 10 second period, and timing things to perfection, so several combination attacks landed criticals during that period.   The troll didn’t stand a chance.   The final blow went to Nastya, who’d spent nearly a minute building up focus behind one single silver arrow, that turned into lightning while in the air.   It struck with a peal of thunder, and set off a small landslide.   Bungo jumped on the corpse of the dead troll, and rode it a little way as a surfboard.


    CrimsonMoon: “Good job Nastya, everyone.   Well Wombles, that’s how it’s done.”   she smiled cockily.   These moments when a boss fell were meat and drink to her.   It was what it was all about.


    But there was no quest completed notification.    No ‘ding’ of global reputation being gained.   They’d missed something.


    What they’d missed they discovered 7 seconds later, when Nastya was ripped in two, her head bitten off, by the emerging mother troll.    Enormous didn’t begin to describe it.   It was easily twice the height of her mate, and three times the height of her dead children.   And the red light in her eyes said she wanted revenge.


    CrimsonMoon: {Level 50?   Oh shit, we’re dead.}