Floor 38
October 8
Bladescape dove out of the way of a pincer. It was pathetic as she slammed into the ground with a slight slide. It was hard for her to get up. But it kept her alive.
The 38th Floor Boss, Scorpia Queen of the Arthropods, was a logistical nightmare. Despite having a full raid party, she was barely touched. Her 3 Health Bars were all still in the green after 30 minutes. The problem resided in her hoard, the Arthropod Deviants. She kept laying clutches of eggs that would soon hatch and grow into the Deviants who then mercilessly charged the invaders. The Deviants had a short paralyzing effect if it’s stinger pierced your armor.
Heavy Army could deflect it, but all of the players in light armor or leather gear had already tasted the paralyzing effect. Bladescape hated it. It gave her a headache too, mostly from the strain of trying to fight it while the arthropods descended at her frozen body.
Their three Tanks could keep them off their guildmates. Each tank was paired with a damage dealer. Backbreaker and Bladescape were together as usual. Her shield looked horrible compared to the rest of her shining armor and beautiful cape. Bladescape knew the full origin of it. Backbreaker had shared it with the seven of them shortly after she got it. It was amazing information about the game to Bladescape and Knightstar who were actively trying to piece it all together. Besides, soon enough Backbreaker would be known for that shield and her skill and the other players would be in awe of her and her signature shield.
Diemond was paired with Astro. They were making an effective pair and the skill Armor Pierce that Astro had was making easy work of their tough carapaces. It was poking enough holes in them to do some real damage over time. They didn’t like her spear.
Joltron and Thunderborne were their last pair. They needed Thunderborne’s speed and rapier. Slash weapons were not the most effective against their shells. It was a game of crush and pierce.
But it was a game where they were going nowhere with. Currently none of the 8 parties were near the Queen. She was laying another clutch of eggs to counter her minions being slain.
“Wondercolts!” Bladescape ordered. “Regroup!”
They were not spread out, but it took a few minutes for them to finish off the Deviants assaulting them and to retreat a bit. They downed potions quickly.
“Backbreaker, you and Thunderborne are teaming up. I’ll go with Joltron for a bit. The two of you need to bash, stab and hack your way through to the Queen. Don’t go after her though, the target is the eggs. All I want you to do is break the eggs. If we can keep them from hatching, the other groups can finish off their Deviants and assault her.”
“Good luck keeping up, BB,” Thunderborne poked. “I’m going to give it my all to vault, somersault, and flip to the back.”
“One last thing!” Bladescape said before the two of them got in a friendly verbal sparring match. “Remember, the Queen has a highly toxic stinger. It will pierce heavy armor too.”
They nodded and the six of them formed up. Backbreaker and Thunderborne were in the center of their V formation. They were going to ram them as far forward as they could.
With a cry, they charged as one. Backbreaker tossed the lead Arthropod Deviant on it’s back from the weight of her shield. Thunderborne hopped out and landed on it’s exposed stomach. She drove a killer 4 stab combo, Quadruple Pain, into the softer underside. It had the chance to immobilize the target, but exposed as the scorpion was, it burst as it’s HP ran out from the critical strikes.
The two of them charged forward, abandoning all strategy but going forward. They broke through and Scorpia Queen of the Arthropods attacked. Backbreaker raised her shield.
THUD! THUD! CLANG!
The pincers and stinger only found a stalwart shield. Meanwhile Thunderborne had rolled out and drove her rapier into the clutch of 12 eggs. Each one left a sticky substance on her rapier. There were two more clutches to finish off. She destroyed the second but the last hatched right as she got to it. She killed three of the small Deviants before they grew too big, but nine had grown to their full size.
Backbreaker was still fending off the Queen. She got a few clean hits in on the pincers, between the attacks. She backed up and moved to the wall to avoid getting flanked by the Deviants. Thunderborne hopped back and got a running start. She ran along the wall for a short bit, a credit to the agility skill, and jumped over the Deviants. She used the momentum to do a few front flips and land beside Backbreaker. Her Rapier was immediately up and ready for a fight.
“Nice work,” Backbreaker praised.
“Right back at you AJ!”
With the two of the three clutches of eggs destroyed, a group of Knights of the Blood Oath were able to clear their way to the Scorpia. Backbreaker took more risks when it came to the Deviants assaulting them and they cleared them quickly.
Beset on both sides, Scorpia was unable to lay any more eggs. Her HP dropped quickly as the raiders moved in. Several got too bold and took strikes by her stinger. Three had compromised Hit Points and they burst into polygons before and anti-poison measures could be applied.
The deaths of the three players froze half of the raiding party, but Thunderborne wasn’t deterred in the slightest. If a player was able to connect the Sword Skills, before the movement penalty set in, you could chain together several attacks. You had to end the previous attack in the position to start the next one. It took immense control and forward planning. Thunderborne had been working hard on it in and effort to offset the fact that she didn’t have weapon defense or parry. She could only strike preemptively instead of blocking. It was a dangerous tactic.
Thunderborne unleashed Shooting Star to leap across the distance she had between her and the rear of Scorpia. Before the delay she was set and unleashed Quadruple Pain. Thunderborne had only ever connected 2 Sword Skills, but she got the third, Linear, to connect. The first Rapier Sword Skill learned, it didn’t do much. But it did set her in place to strike once last time. She triggered Oblique, another basic thrust. But Oblique’s specialty wasn’t in the thrust, it was in the fact that the skill put the players weight into it.
Thunderborne put all her weight into it without a second thought. She didn’t quite understand what happened when the resistance stopped. As expected, the movement penalty was longer, but it wasn’t that long.
Thunderborne finally registered the polygons floating in the air. The movement penalty was canceled out by the death of Scorpia Queen of the Arthropods. Thunderborne looked around. Everyone was staring at her.
One of the Knights of the Blood Oath started clapping. He was tall, toned to the point he had significant muscles, and his gray hair was long. He was wearing red metal armor with a white shield that bore the red cross of the Knights of the Blood Oath.
“Well done,” He said in a smooth, scholarly voice. “That was exquisite. Even I haven’t been able to connect more than 3 Sword Skills together, yet. Your unrelenting resolve won the day. We need more fearless players like yourself at these raids. Everyone here performed admirably, but you certainly deserve that Last Attack Bonus.”
Thunderborne looked down at the screen in front of her. There was another one on top of the usual reward screen it had ‘Bonus Item’ on the top of it.
“Yeah,” Thunderborne said, flipping her sticky rapier up onto her shoulder. Her voice was extra raspy and cocky. “I do, don’t I. I seriously am very awesome. You literally have no idea how awesome I am I.R.L.. But I am just part of a team, of this whole raiding party. All of you made this happen.
“We might have lost three in this fight, but we are not going to let this game beat us! We have now taken out 38 Floor Bosses and cleared a ton of Field Bosses. We have expert gamers in this room and even more out there, ready to fight for our survival. And by now, anyone on the front lines is an expert.”
Thunderborne lifted her rapier high in victory. She continued her declaration speech.
“Together, we can win this. Together, we will win this! That Kayaba dude is a jackass, but we will whoop his butt. We wont grovel! United, we will never bow! And I know, at the end of the day, it is we who survive! The time has finally arrived. Because we are Canterlot Wondercolts!”
Thunderborne giggled. “Sorry. That last bit was out of habit. I did a lot of pep rallies at our school. I could throw down a really good pep rally song in my sleep. I was the captain of all our sports teams for a reason.
“But enough about me. We have a teleport gate to trigger and a few soldiers to mourn. Their sacrifice will not be forgotten!”
Thunderborne walked off to the stairs, leaving what she said to settle upon the others. The tradition was that the one who got the Last Attack Bonus also got to go to the next floor first and trigger the teleport gate. The rest of the Wondercolts met up with Thunderborne and she led them up to the next floor. They looked spectacular as they walked away in their matching Blue and Yellow uniforms.
Sunset Shimmer had to try and break the pang of jealousy she was feeling. Rainbow Dash had earned that Last Attack Bonus. She was her friend in the game and real life. She was a very skilled player and had put in a tremendous amount of effort. She did deserve it. That was clear. She had even put four Sword Skills together.
But She was the first Wondercolt to score and LAB. Sunset Shimmer had been fighting to get one for over 30 floors. She had been close multiple times. Now Rainbow Dash came out of nowhere and scored one. And off of Bladescape’s plan too.
They triggered the gate in the nearest town on the next Floor and got a pub to celebrate, like they always did. Bladescape sighed into her ale as Thunderborne recanted the boss battle to the rest of the others. It was already being exaggerated at certain parts.
“So, what exactly did you get?” Diemond pressed. She had been dying to find out.
“Oh, nothing much,” Thunderborne said, building suspense by playing it off. “Just this!”
A blue rapier materialized onto the table. It’s guard was round, like the bulb that held Scorpia’s Tail Stinger. The handle had several of the bumps like on a scorpion’s tail. All of it was varying shades of blue, creating a beautiful look that downplayed it’s association with an arthropod.
“It’s the Azure Aculeus,” Thunderborne declared.
“Aculeus,” Knightstar said, both correcting the pronunciation and preparing to give a lecture. “Latin root of acus, or needle. Its first documented use was in 1702. In other words, blue stinging needle.”
“Whatever,” Thunderborne said, waving off the egghead portions. “What matters is that it’s awesome. Its got 30 enhancement slots and is lighter, stronger, and significantly more powerful than my previous blade!”
No one noticed that Bladescape was downtrodden. They were focused on the blade. But her enthusiasm lifted a bit with the rest of the news.
Backbreaker and Joltron both leveled up. Astro, Thunderborne, and Diemond did as well, but to level 50. The three of them got a new skill slot. Diemond did Heavy Metal Armor Forging, as expected. Astro and Thunderborne both decided that their best move was to finally pick up Weapon Defense. They had learned that lesson hard over the past dozen floors.
Bladescape (SS): Lvl 55– Two-Handed Sword – Search – Weapon Defense – Leather Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Sprint – Acrobatics
Knightstar (TS): Lvl 49 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Equipment Appraisal – Parry – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor
Thunderborne (RBD): Lvl 50 – Rapier – Sprint – Acrobatics – Armor Pierce – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Leather Armor – Weapon Defense
Backbreaker (AJ): Lvl 53 – Heavy Shield – One-Handed War Hammer – Extended Weight Carry – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Fishing – Search
AFCK (PP): Lvl 49 – Two-Handed Axe – Parry – Cooking – Weapon Defense – Martial Arts – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor
Diemond (R): Lvl 50 – Shield – Mace – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Heavy Metal Armor – Tailoring – Light Metal Armor Forging – Heavy Metal Armor Forging
Doombunny (FS): Lvl 49 – One-Handed Dagger – First Aid – Hide – Search – Listening – Battle Regeneration – Fighting Spirit – Familiar Communication (Colorra)
Astro (PS): Lvl 50 – Two-Handed Spear - Purchase Negotiation – Armor Pierce – Acrobatics – First Aid – Light Metal Armor – Battle Regeneration – Weapon Defense
Kiefer: Lvl 46 – One-Handed Curved Blade – Parry – Weapon Defense – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Slash Weapon Forging
Lessa: Lvl 46 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Light Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Equipment Repair – Metal Equipment Repairing
Joltron: Lvl 47 – One handed Axe – Shield – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Metal Refining – Blunt Weapon Forging