Chapter 40: Reaping Dumbasses (1/2)

When Kane dies, I maintain it's not my fault.

No, but seriously, I told him one hit tops against the Boss, and only when he was sure he had an opening.

He's the dumbass who tries to pull off a series of attacks right before Ankou drops below the 10% HP mark. Trying to score the Contribution Bonus for knocking the Boss into the Red Zone, no doubt.

Can't say I blame him; I was planning on doing that myself.

Difference is, I'm a total badass, and Kane is scraping adequate.

In our dearly departed Party Leader's defense, he might have pulled it off if it had been a different Boss, or if my Fickle Fortune hadn't nerfed my ranged attack ability.

(AGI, STR, and personal skill are the major factors behind whether or not a ranged attack lands, but technically, Luck factors in, too. It's only supposed to factor in when an attack is aimed at the very edge of the weapon's or skill's range, but my Fickle Fortune is clearly overriding that limitation. I'm missing one in four shots with my throwing dart, which is beyond ridiculous; but at the same time, no matter how I aim, the other three shots always end up headshots.)

Unfortunately for Kane, he pays a steep price for the meager Contribution Bonus.

Turns out Nightfury remembered almost right when he mentioned the Boss might randomly aggro switch. But it's not totally random; whoever lands the damage that sends Ankou into the Red Zone automatically pulls the Boss's aggro.

Whoops.

To add insult to injury, it's not even Ankou's attack that kills poor Kane. In a rare show of skill, Nightfury lands a triple head-shot on the Boss that interrupts his combo attack, and Kane manages to roll away in the opening...

Right into one of the trash mobs he'd ignored in favor of attacking the Boss.

Kane only has enough time to look pitifully mortified before he's stabbed by a ghost wearing a kilt.

Ganked by a ghoul mob.

That stings, bro.

I'd seen the end coming and hurled Whistling Starfall at the ghoul before Kane died, but the throwing dart misses by a mile.

Then I'm penalized with the 5-second delay; by the time I can try again, Kane is already so much stardust.

Sucks to be him, but I gots me a Boss to kill, and his noble-yet-embarrassing sacrifice left me a glorious opening.

For the first time the entire fight, I don't hold Ankou's aggro, so he's not looking at me. He's actually gliding towards Nightfury since the Draegkyn's triple-arrow skill was the last attack that landed after the aggro-switch. I wait for the perfect moment; right as the Boss raises his skinny grim reaper-style scythe to let loose on Nightfury, I wall-run up his lanky body, then leap off to Fangbite both sides of his skinny bone-wrist.

Another wind-ghost-dinosaur scream fills the chamber, followed by the beautiful clatter of a Boss scythe falling to the stone floor.

Mission: Disarm, complete!

”Distract him!” I yell as I dive to the floor. I grab the scythe and Sprint to the opposite side of the crypt at maximum speed.

I open my Weapons tab and scroll to Zen'aku's Upgrade option.

[Upgrade Material Detected: Weapon of an Enemy Disarmed in Combat. Do you wish to store {Ankou Soul Scythe} as an Upgrade Material? Warning: Once stored as Upgrade Material, items and weapons can no longer be used as anything but raw materials.]

I hurriedly click [YES] and sigh in relief when the scythe disappears from my hands and reappears as a tiny image in the Upgrade Checklist.

”Erebus! He's coming!” Lialas warns me as the Boss comes shrieking in my direction.

Without looking, I toss Whistling Starfall in the Ankou's general direction and head back toward my party. I hear the distinctive explosion from a headshot Comet Burst and grin. When I'm close enough, I whirl around to face the Boss. I yell at Shadeslayer to finish dicing up the Adds, wait for the ranged attackers to snag me an opening, and when a hit from Lialas stuns Ankou for a second, I make short work of the Soul Collector's final HP.

The victory chime makes me cheer, and I turn to send props to the ranged fighters, only to find a snarling Nightfury all up in my face.

”You did that on purpose didn't you?” he growls.

”Of course,” I answer automatically. I have no idea what he's talking about, but it's clear answering in the affirmative will further upset Nightfury, and at this point, it's instinctual.

The way his nose flares as he dramatically gasps is as hilarious as I could have hoped. ”You admit it!”

”Was it a secret?”

”You douche!”

He gears up to punch me, but the PvP zones haven't opened in the game yet, and if he actually lands a hit, the system might chuck him from the dungeon.

I jump back, flapping my wings and raising my hands in the universal gesture of 'Calm the fuck down, bro.'

With the voice I use on Alopix when he's scared of a thunderstorm, I say, ”Find your calm, NightZzz! We're already down to four, and don't know if you've noticed, but this dungeon is a bitch and a half. We're going to need everybody we have left to clear this run.”

If anything, this only makes him look crazier. ”Whose fault is that?”

I blink. ”Huh?”

”Don't play dumb, asshole! You just admitted you let Kane die on purpose!”

Ohhhh.

He runs at me, and I easily sidestep. ”Dude, seriously, chill. I was messing with you. I didn't let the idiot die on purpose.”

Nightfury scoffs, disbelieving. ”I've seen you land a perfect headshot while facing another direction, and yet, when Kane needed you, you miraculously miss that badly? Right.”

”Hate to break it to you, but yes.” I sigh. I don't want to explain the whole Fickle Fortune thing, since that could leave me vulnerable and I have trust issues. But I can kinda see where Nightfury's coming from, so I clue him in a little. ”I'm under a curse-ish thing at the moment. Affects ranged attacks...among other things,” I mumble the last bit under my breath.

”Yeah, right.” Nightfury rolls his eyes. ”Like I believe that! You just wanted Kane to die!”

Now I'm annoyed. ”Why would I want that?”

”Because you wanted to be Party Leader! Kane was getting bonus EXP for being party leader, no matter how much you contributed, and he'd selected the option for him to receive all the Boss's Spoils of War. You just wanted to steal our loot!”

”Wait, what?” I ask, majorly confused.

”So you're saying you didn't know that when a Party Leader dies during a dungeon raid, the person with the highest Contribution Rating becomes de facto Party Leader.”

Nope, did not know that.

Something about my dumbfounded expression must make an impression, because Lialas busts out laughing. ”I don't think he knew.”

Now it's Nightfury's turn to look confused. ”How could he not know?”

I give him a flat stare. ”Do I strike you as a team player, NightcalmZzz?”

Nightfury takes a deep breath. ”Point taken.”

”So you were never a Party Leader during the beta?” Shadeslayer asks, surprised.

I frown. ”What makes you think I was in the beta?”

The other three shoot me with identical ”Seriously?” expressions.

”Contrary to your obvious opinion of us, we aren't utter morons,” Nightfury says.

I am legitimately surprised by this news.