Clearing the Dungeon

It was obviously my fault.

Stealing aggro just by hitting a monster—who does that? Aggro management is the tank's job, sure, but ripping it away with a sudden burst of damage is on the DPS. After we finished the first stretch of monsters, I walked over to Kang Hangil.

"I'm sorry. I just dumped damage without thinking."

"Not at all. I'm the one who underestimated you, Arang, after you solo-cleared the Orc Chieftain. I never imagined I'd lose aggro on a Greatsword Warrior."

"No! I'll be more careful!"

"Ah—Arang."

"Yes?"

"Would it be all right if I turned on the party meter? At the damage you're putting out, I think you'd place on the rankings."

"Huh? Mine's already on. Wait, you weren't supposed to just switch it on?"

"Ah. If everyone in the party agrees, each person's DPS becomes visible. Right now you only see your own, don't you?"

"Oh, you're right! Agreed, agreed."

I tapped the meter-consent prompt that had popped up on the menu window, and the whole party's meter appeared in front of me.

"Oh, I'm first!"

Seeing my DPS sit above Mozzawapper's—a Mage—put me in a very good mood. Meters have their good points and their bad ones, but I love them. Watching myself grow, right there in the numbers, makes the game that much more fun.

"Whoa... and Mozzawapper isn't even a bad Mage..."

He stared at the meter, dropped a sobbing emoticon, and followed it with a fighting one.

"All right. Shall we keep going?"

"Yes!"

Maybe because it was the first dungeon, we pushed straight through without much trouble. I'd been sure there would be a mid-boss, but more than fifteen minutes passed and none appeared. The problem was that the deeper we went, the more revolting the monsters became. The giant spiders were the worst—eight eyes, each one spinning on its own, and goosebumps raced over my whole body.

We cut down every creepy mob and made it to the boss.

"Ugh."

A massive maggot filled half the arena ahead of us. Worse than the size was the mouth: bugs seething in it, packed and writhing. We didn't pull right away. Skill cooldowns, buffs, and combat consumables all needed a reset before we started.

"Hoo... Arang, you've actually lost your mind."

Kang Hangil watched her butcher the monster whose aggro he was holding.

Lee Arang's damage was running so wild that the slightest lapse would have dropped aggro. And there was something even scarier than that.

A Greatsword Warrior usually has worse defense than other tanks and makes up for it with higher damage. The HP he was losing now, though, was so slight it could stand beside a paladin—the tank with the best defense of all. The reason was simple.

Clang!

Whenever the opening came, Lee Arang parried the heavy blows of the mobs crashing into Kang Hangil. Cutting those painful hits apart with Parry kept the tank's health steady, and because of that Pinkberry could heal less, weave in attack skills, and the dungeon flew by.

They reached the boss room and took a short rest.

"There's still the boss room left, but Mozzawapper got completely owned."

Arang's meter was higher than Mozzawapper's by a margin anyone could see. Mage is a pure DPS, even among the caster jobs. A pure DPS does nothing but attack—no utility, no party buffs—and pays the party back with overwhelming damage instead. Mage, in particular, is one of the handful of best pure DPS classes in all of Legacy of Raid.

Sword Master is the opposite: a sustained dealer with a little synergy. Simply having one in the party raises everyone's stats, and the damage itself sits in the middle of the Legacy pack. And yet that kind of dealer was burying a Mage.

It happens in dungeons and raids, sometimes. It happens when the pure DPS hasn't grown into their gear, or simply isn't any good. Mozzawapper, though, was near endgame—solid enough to be running raids. Even with item level synced on entry, he received the best stats the dungeon could give, and he was no slouch besides. Top ten percent among Mages. His DPS was landing just fine.

Lee Arang's was simply, absurdly high.

"How does DPS like that even happen? The parries? Ah—the parry skill, Revenge?"

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was the one who had to call it and kill the boss. In this party, I was the only one on a first clear, so we'd agreed the briefing and the shot-calling were both mine. I stared hard at the dungeon's last boss, the Abyss Maggot.

It occupied half the arena. I couldn't even tell where a weak point might be, and inside that mouth the bugs were plain to see. One look and I knew they'd come pouring out as a mechanic. How were the boss patterns going to land, and the tank busters...? Hmm. No matter how many RPGs I'd played, guessing a fight from the way a boss looked was still hard.

"Let's move!"

I called it to the party.

"Let's do this!"

Kang Hangil answered with real force. He and I drew our swords in the same breath, while Pinkberry and Mozzawapper brought out their staves. The moment we crossed into the boss zone, he opened with Roar, the tank's aggro skill, and the fight began with the maggot locked onto him.

I set my stance, lifted the sword, and dropped my body just a little. Purple light—the mark of Pentagon—poured off the blade.

The boss, dragged onto Kang Hangil, swung that enormous body at him—and in that instant I kicked off the ground with everything I had.

"KWOOOOR!"

First I drove Pentagon into the belly, the part that looked softest. The boss heaved, roared, and hunched in on itself, winding up to swing its whole bulk. I wanted Chain Slash at ten stacks immediately, but the attack coming in made the timing a mess. I needed to dodge. I shouted anyway.

"Parry!"

Kang Hangil understood at once. He appeared on my left with that person-sized greatsword raised. One look at the boss's size told me a solo parry was impossible, no matter how I figured it. So—two of us.

"I'll give the signal! One, two... three!!!"

The moment it swung, on my count, his greatsword and my Heartstrike Sword slammed into the body together. A clean, ringing impact rolled through the arena.

Bang!

"Whoa!?"

The blow was heavier than I'd pictured, and it rattled me—but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠parrying it together with Kang Hangil had been the right call. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠The instant the boss lost its strength and sagged, the spell Mozzawapper had been casting from behind detonated across it. Kang Hangil poured skills into the groggy body as well.

I took the Revenge the parry had given me and cut the belly with Annihilation Blow, the Sword Master's strongest skill.

A heavy slash tore the air—krgggk!—and the exchange rolled on from there until the boss's HP bar sank to 50%.

Then it suddenly burrowed. The huge body vanished into the earth in a blink, and a great red circle bloomed out from the center of the map.

"Dodge!"

All of us cleared the circle, and a moment later the boss's mouth erupted from the middle. The ground boomed. The vibration ran through my whole body. Out of that mouth spilled the same monsters we'd been cutting down on the way in—but the boss itself didn't attack alongside them. Being the first dungeon, it wasn't the worst case I'd been bracing for.

We cleared the swarm quickly, and the rest of the body hauled itself up out of the floor. A normal fight resumed. Then black light burst from its mouth.

"Tank buster!"

At my call, Pinkberry snapped a shield and a damage-reduction skill onto Kang Hangil, and he raised the greatsword into a guard. The boss charged him. The moment its aggro was locked on him for certain, Mozzawapper and I dumped everything we had, recovery lag be damned.

Every time those consecutive bites crashed into his greatsword, a boom and a block effect exploded outward. Kang Hangil did not go down. Perfect defense skills, perfect healing—he endured it without taking any real loss.

I had just enough time to think that before the boss eased back and blasted black light again.

A second one!?

The defensive skills and the heals were already spent. A second tank buster would be dangerous. I leapt to Kang Hangil's side at once.

Parrying the entire string was still impossible. So we would parry only what we could.

The tank buster arrived, and I took the first hit.

Clang!

Half my HP vanished in a flash. The shock locked my body where it stood.

"Ngh...!"

The next blow would have killed me. Kang Hangil stepped in and took it instead. On the strike after that, my recovery lag broke; I slipped out in front of him and parried again.

Clang!

The one after that was his. We swapped places at speed, trading the hits, and passed the tank buster between us.

Clang!

Every ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠parry shaved my HP, and every blow Kang Hangil ate, Pinkberry covered perfectly. I yelled, "Nice!"—and then dumped my skills into the boss, stuck in recovery after two tank busters in a row.

And then—

BOOOOM!

The boss blew apart in a huge effect and a storm of particles, and it was gone.