26 Chapter 26 (2/2)
”What?” The leader was glaring at the dickens, who were all glaring back. The other three had nearly freed themselves, and their eyes were fixated on him. Above his head, a glowing feather showed he had their agro.
”Guess you do get to be a dodge tank.” The rest of the group broke out in laughter, as Z's face paled. Cursing, he broke out in a run, launching arrows blindly towards the dickens as the entire flock took flight, chasing after him. With their attention solely focused on Z, Faust and Elm were taking turns launching attacks into the flock. Wisely, they targeted the lead dicken first, as it was the most damaged. Once they brought it down, the other dickens lost their buff, and they became much easier to kill.
”Good job-” Z had paused to catch his breath, as he turned to watch the group picking off the dickens. Faust had landed another snare on the 2 foot poultry, making them even easier to take down. ”-baaaaa”.
”Seriously?” Z sighed as he turned in time to see the sacrificial lamb, which he had accidently agro'd head-butted him. The attack made him stumble back towards the snared dickens, who started pecking excitedly in his direction. They were just shy of being able to reach him.
The glowing sheep erupted, sending blood and wool flying everywhere. Z was drenched in blood, activating the dot, and absorbed the entire blast from the sacrificial lamb. Because the lamb was level 2, baa baa boom did 10 damage before defense was applied.
”God that hurt.” Z was standing slowly as he looked at his character sheet, paying no heed to the dickens that were fighting to get to him. He likely figured he was safe. He wasn't.
The wool that had been blasted into the sky, large clumps of it, were slowly raining down around him.
”Are these new drops?” Z held a hand out to a piece of wool as it was falling, his eyes looking at it with wonder. The moment his hand touched the wool, it detonated. The archer cursed just as the rest of the wool continued to fall around him. If James had to guess, at least 10 clumps of wool landed on the poor archer. At 3 x lvl damage, that meant the archer had just been blasted by over 60 points of damage. Needless to say, his form disappeared, mid curse, into an orb.
At the same time, the other clumps of wool landed on the three trapped dickens, activating tiny explosions, creating a cloud of feathers as the dickens all died.
”What the Cluck?” Oak's voice was laughing as he neared the group. The warrior was bleeding from multiple wounds, and obviously injured, yet he had somehow survived his encounter with the Mad Cow. The others were glancing down at their own screens, and if James had to guess, they had just gotten an achievement.
”What the Cluck. Defeat three or more dickens using another mob. Reward, 100xp.” The others started grinning as they all broke out in a cheer, before they glanced at Z's orb. ”Think he gets the experience, or did he lose it?” Faust's comment made the group wince, and James excitedly pulled up his character sheet. A moment later, he let out a sigh. It didn't seem like he had gotten a 100xp boost. He guessed since the dicken deaths came after Z's death, he didn't have the experience to lose when he died. Lame.
”Well, if he did lose the experience, he's going to be really mad at me.” Oak was grinning as the others turned at him. ”Check out my character.” Curious, James pulled up Oak's character sheet, scanning through the warriors stats. To his surprise, the warrior was now level 4. That was strange, they should have all been level three. Also, just before the warriors name, in glowing black letters, was the word ”Matador.”
”Matador?” Elm's words echoed James's question, and Oak broke into a grin.
”It was an achievement I got for soloing the Mad Cow.” James flipped quickly to Oak's achievement tab. Sure enough, Oak had three achievements unlocked. James scanned them quickly. Try hard and What the Cluck? He knew about already. The third achievement, made him laugh. Rodeo Clown- Defeat a Mad Cow or higher tiered demonic farm animal.
”It gave you 200 experience, and a title?” James's attention was pulled away from his laughter, and he glanced at Rue.
”Are titles in DCO beneficial?” He had come across both types of titles. Some gave benefits to players, whereas others were just a means to show off.
”Aren't you inquisitive?” Rue offered him a sly grin. ”Should I really share the information with you, or make you wait and see?” Wow she turned that around on him quickly. James was once again back at her mercy, or was he?
”Well, either you tell me now, or I'm sure Oak and the others will mention it in a second.” It was a gamble, but James figured his AI would rather be the one to tell him things, instead of learning from adventurers. That was after all part of purpose she served.
”Fiiinnnneee.” She crossed her arms as her face took on a pout. James knew it was fake, but it was still extremely cute. Even with her attitude, times like these made the 16 year old perfectly happy with his AI choice. Who didn't want to a cute pixie companion?
”Titles are beneficial in DCO, and can only be unlocked via certain achievements.” James's opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped by the pixie's hand. ”In Oak's instance, his 'Matador' title will give him a 10% increase in damage to Mad Cows and their evolutions, and a 10% decrease in damage from mad cows and their evolutions.” The pixie had once again read his mind, or at least predicted what he was going to ask. Was she psychic? Or was he just that predictable?
”And, one last question?” He glanced from Rue, the group of adventurers, who appeared to have decided to rest after looting the bodies, while they waited for Z to return. The guild leader had respawned at the entrance to the floor, but had his 5 minute cooldown to wait until he could rejoin his friends.
”What's that?” Rue cocked her head to the side a small grin playing across her face.
”Did you enjoy my rank up choices?” James couldn't hide the amusement from his voice, and Rue's grin spread as she let out a chuckle.
”They were eggcelent.”