“I! Will not! Play!”
“Oh, don’t be like that,” the deep voice said with a chuckle. “It’ll be fun!”
“I’m! Not! Playing!”
“Could we not be screaming in voice chat? Baby’s asleep, so give me some peace and quiet for a moment, kids,” said another deep voice — one that sounded like he hadn’t slept for a week.
He probably hadn’t.
“Sorry.”
“We’re playing the Cairn Raid, right? Gituda’s online on Discord. Tamers can act as healers,” the exhausted one said.
“That won’t do,” the first one said with another light laugh. “We’re running nightmare.”
“Oh. Nightmare Cairn. Okay, then Gituda’s no good.”
You are now logged in.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: I’m telling you.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: That’s NOT it.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Lynxes DO have fluff on their ears. It’s NORMAL.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: You protest too much, leader. I’m starting to doubt you are actually a lynx.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Et tu, Teenam?
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: Et ego.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: ¿Por qué no en español? Mi latín es malo.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: ENGLISH ONLY.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: You started it.
Hoedi Kodokki had just returned to Merteis, standing at the square at the centre of the teleportation portal. The human was dressed in full black assassin gear for a moment before the Job Rune lit up and her outfit changed. She now wore a blouse with a corset, and shorts with thigh-high boots.
And most importantly, she was equipped with a historical-styled rifle.
Hoedi ran in a circle before jumping and dodging. She repeated this in the square a few times for no particular reason.
Then she went straight for the marketplace.
“Hoedi got weirdly quiet.”
“Feni to Hoedi. I can see you’re online already. Weren’t we gonna play? I’ll get bored if I need to wait too long. Did your machine lag or something?”
“No… Teenam is harassing the chat. Can I turn off the visibility of my online status somehow? I can’t do Teenam today.”
Feni snorted. “I mean, I would think Teenam would be the one to do you, but okay.”
Hoedi made a sharp turn left. “I didn’t mean it like that!”
“Don’t shout. Are we playing Nightmare Cairn or not? If not, I’m—”
A chime in Hoedi’s ear indicated someone else joined the Discord voice call.
“—off to a dungeon run before baby wakes up.”
“Listen to Papa now,” Feni said. “We are busy people over here. And neither of us is as young as you.”
“Just the other day, you said we were the same age. Now you’ve changed your mind, old man? Or is pushing forty only convenient when you’re trying to stress out youngsters?”
Hoedi startled at the newcomer’s voice even if she had noted there was someone more in their call.
“What the—?” Feni sputtered. “Why are you suddenly in our voice chat, Dad?”
Vice Cap calmly replied, “Nightmare mode Cairn, right? I haven’t run it with my tank alt yet.”
Hoedi began to look over the guides and take notes to accommodate for Vice Cap’s alt.
“How did you know, Gituda?”
“Let me just switch avatars real quick. I just finished a dungeon run with an old friend over at Fafnir.”
“I didn’t know you have a character on Fafnir, Dad.” Feni was quiet for a beat. “Isn’t that a roleplay server?”
“Is it?” Vice Cap asked calmly. “I had no idea.”
“I asked, how did you know?”
“Hm?”
“That we’re playing Cairn today.”
“My sweet little Dee-Dee—”
Hoedi tossed the pen onto the notebook. “I’m not your ‘Dee-Dee’!”
“—I’m the vice captain. I know everything that happens in this guild—”
“Hey, Gituda. Hurry up and log in. Teenam is writing in Spanish in the guild chat.”
“—except if it relates to T.” Vice Cap paused. “What did you say? Spanish? What? Woohra, what did Odyja do this time to make Teenam pull out the barely passable middle school Spanish? I know more Spanish than T does and I don’t even teach a romance language.”
“Et tu, Brute,” Woohra replied.
“Ah… Makes sense,” Vice Cap said in understanding. “Anyway, you posted the link to a guide for Nightmare modeCairn, so it wasn’t difficult to figure out, my adorable baby Dee-Dee.”
“Still not your ‘Dee-Dee’. Or your baby. I’m taking you to PvP!”
Vice Cap was entirely unbothered by the threat and just finished saying, “That’s a full party raid. You’ll fit another tank. The old man can DPS as a backup tank in case we lose both tanks.”
“We still don’t—”
“No, back up, Dad. Do you even teach a language? I thought you teach physics?” Feni asked in confusion.
“Physics uses the most universal language of them all,” Vice Cap replied.
Woohra chuckled.
“Which is… what?” Feni asked. “English?”
“Mathematics.” Hoedi rolled her eyes. “He’s talking about mathematics.”
She went back into the marketplace to put up some items for sale before looking over the quality accessories available to musketeers.
“Are you looking for a healer through raid finder or world chat?” Vice Cap asked.
“We’re trying to convince your Hoedi to let T join, Dad.”
“I don’t think Teenam can join, actually. Said something about having a really tight deadline andbeing swamped by the client’s demands. Since the last large-scale raid, T’s only been online in the game, but mostly just idling for an hour or two before logging off.”
Hoedi exhaled.
“So who are we gonna ask?” Woohra asked.
Hoedi toggled the chat window back up. “Let me decide what to do.”
[Guild] Hoedi Kodokki: Which high-level healers are online?
[Guild] Hoedi Kodokki: Teenam excluded.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: I feel targeted.
[Private] Teenam Mortana: I’m online. What do you need?
[Private] Hoedi Kodokki: NOT YOU.
[Guild] Hoedi Kodokki: We’re doing Cairn. Nightmare. Anyone up for it? Me, Feni, Woohra, VC tank alt. VC and Woohra are tanking. We just need a healer.
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Can I join?
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: And since when are you a healer?
[Guild] Odyja Sorbanja: Blood knights don’t need healing.
[Guild] Teenam Mortana: LMAO You as bld kght need healing the most, leader.
[Guild] Hoedi Kodokki: No Blood Knights on this run. We’re not running full party. and we already have two true tanks.
[Private] Odyja Sorbanja: Come on. I can DPS. I’ll play Enchanter. Astromancer. Dark Mage.
[Private] Teenam Mortana: Cairn is pretty quick even with a small party. I’ll Bard and won’t heal enemies. We’ll be out in less than two hours.
[Guild] Hoedi Kodokki: No one? We got an elf warrior tank, a fox lancer DPS, a human musketeer and wolf knight today.
“Do you really need to specify the species of each character?” Woohra asked, amusement in his voice.
“Consider it a suggestion to have canines or the elfine races,” Hoedi replied. “No cats.”
“Teenam is a fox,” Vice Cap pointed out.
[Private] Teenam Mortana: I’m serious. I’ll keep a 495 stock of mp potions and a 999 hp potion stock.
“Teenam is a cat in canine costume,” Hoedi complained.
Vice Cap replied. “That’s true for all foxes. They all act like cats.”
“Can confirm,” Feni said. “I’m actually two cats in a fox pelt.”
[Guild] Guura Monggaar: Shaman/Druid. Can run Cairn.
[Guild] Woohra Guorah: Wife.
[Guild] Guura Monggaar: Idiot.
“We got our party,” Woohra said. “But stock up on potions. Guura’s support heal build isn’t as strong as Teenam’s dedicated healer build.”
“Give me a sec. Invite Guura into the call and also Cap. He’ll be mage,” Hoedi commanded. “I’ll check Bear Shaman and Druid real quick.”
“What mage is Ya-nya playing?” Feni asked. “I need to know if I have to deal with random debuffs or not.”
“Enchanter, Astromancer or Dark.”
“So literally any debuff class I hate. Cool,” Feni replied unenthusiastically.
“At least you’re not tanking today,” Vice Cap said. A chime indicated there was another person who just entered the call.
Vice Cap continued, “Me and Woohra are more likely to get an accidental hits from a poorly placed AoE debuff. At least he’s not playing Tactician. His placement of traps is horrible.”
“True. Ya-nya’s an anti-tactician,” Feni agreed.
“I’m right here,” came Odyja Sorbanja’s voice.
“We know,” Vice Cap told him voice steady. “Hello, leader.”
Odyja coughed softly. “Hello to you too, Gituda.”
“Hello leader,” Woohra and Feni both said over each other.
“Hi y’all. Hoedi doing strategy, but who’s gonna lead this raid? Woohra?”
“Wifey is sleeping so she can go to work tomorrow. If the baby wakes up, I need to be Papa, so I’m off leading.”
“Okay, so not the main tank. Me?”
“Stop trying to get yourself into a tank spot, I’m already second tank and Feni is backup. We don’t need four tanks.” Vice Cap told Odyja. “My sweet baby Dee-Dee is the raid leader. Don’t make it complicated. We’ve all run Cairn before.”
“I can lead,” Hoedi confirmed.
“You’ve claimed Hoedi?” Odyja asked.
“She’s my Dee-Dee, yep.”
“Since when?”
“Since forever. I’m an elf, she’s a human. I’m a veteran, she’s not. We’re perfect for each other. We’re elfine species among all of you beastfolks.”
There was another chime.
The silence as everyone else said a greeting made it clear it was Guura Monggaar.
“We’re all here. I’ll make a party and while we load into the raid, let me just run down how we’ll play this,” Hoedi said.
The party arrived at the entrance, all battle-ready.
The Bearfolk Shaman cast Velkrinni’s Blessing and Velkrinni’s Embrace as soon as everyone had fully loaded into the instance. It really looked like a ragtag kind of team.
A shamanic bear holding a staff and dressed in a dragonskin cloth armour and scales. This was the largest member in the room they started at.
Second largest was the Wolfkin Knight in black plate armour, tail wagging, equipped with a shield and a sword.
A Warrior Wood Elf wearing leather and fur was next to him, standing to his shoulder. This menace of a vice captain had opted to equip a halberd for the occasion. Why warrior, or why wood elf, or why halberd — she couldn’t decide which to ask. Once the shaman had cast the skill Ancestor Guardian one by one on them, Vice Cap cast a Fighter class spell on himself to absorb aggro. The Knight did the same.
The Lynxkin of the party had opted for the cloak of the Astromancer. He was already casting multiple small buff spells, such as Speed and poison resistance. Although they ended up with a bunch of other buffs, before the stars were willing to give the Astromancer the Scorpion spell.
The human musketeer had nothing to contribute for now. Hoedi just cast sharpshooter on herself, and left her mana alone.
About the same height was the bright white moontail foxkin with the white and silver armour. It was glamoured to hell and back, but the lancer was a lancer none the less, the armour leaning heavy but within the constraints of foxkin’s delicate builds. Her tail swished calmly while idling at the entrance.
Next to her was a larger, slightly off-white and cool-toned, moon fox that seemed to shimmer like gentle light on water in the dim light of the cairn opening. The cloak fluttered a little while the fox wore simple clothing and remained weaponless.
“Wait.”
One, two, three, fourfivesix… seven.
Already knowing what she’d see, she still opened up the party list with a sinking feeling.
[T] Fukaari Tuuk
[T] Woohra Guorah
[D] Feni Kunas
[D] Hoedi Kodokki
[D] Odyja Sorbanja
[H] Guura Monggaar
[H] Teenam Mortana
[Party] Hoedi Kodokki: WHO INVITED TEENAM?!
[Party] Fukaari Tuuk: Leader?
[Party] Odyja Sorbanja: IT WASN’T ME I PROMISE
[Party] Guura Monggaar: Not me.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: I took the liberty of inviting myself into the party.
[Party] Hoedi Kodokki: HOW
[Party] Fukaari Tuuk: Giving our raid leader a heart attack. What a cleric we got in here.
[Party] Feni Kunas: LMAO
[Private] Teenam Mortana: Don’t be mad. I do listen to instructions, you know.
[Private] Teenam Mortana: Except when I’m being expressly excluded. That’s just mean.
[Party] Woohra Guorah: So, are we playing like this, or…?
[Private] Teenam Mortana: Don’t kick me. I’m in a slump. I’m not getting anything done. Let me play.
[Party] Fukaari Tuuk: Let Hoedi decide.
[Private] Teenam Mortana: i can’t join a raid that takes longer. I have to be done with my work tomorrow.
[Private] Teenam Mortana: I’ve done this raid on nightmare like 15 times. Guura’s not familiar with it. I’ll be support.
[Private] Teenam Mortana: I’ll give you the next expansion.
Hoedi paused before clicking [Kick] in the party leader menu. She hovered over it, really wanting to press down to rid herself of this person. She really had no points in her Teenam tolerance bar today.
She didn’t.
She absolutely didn’t.
She…
…screenshotted the chat and sent it to Teenam in DMs out of the game.
Hoedi Kodokki
I got proof right here. I want the collector’s edition. I’m pinning this to our convo. I will hold you to your promise in 1-2 years. You owe me.
Teenam
ily
A moment later, there was a chime.
“Teenam’s joining as the support healer,” she told the party. “Support. No main character energy.”
“Got it, boss. I’ll stand on the side and look pretty~”
“How on earth did you blackmail Hoedi to let you in,” Feni asked. “Her Teenam metre is in the negatives.”
“I wouldn’t blackmail someone,” Teenam replied lightly. “Most of the time.”
Hoedi already regretted giving in.
“Anyway. I’m muting myself now,” Teenam said. “Doing this with just one party is gonna be difficult. You all better shut the fuck up, too. Focus everyone. Especially you, leader. If you debuff someone in the party and make it harder for Guura, I will make sure you know what pain feels like.”
[Party] Teenam Mortana: LET’S GO
The shimmering fox was doing a dance emote when Hoedi paid attention to him again.
Before she could say anything, she saw him abruptly stop and there was a short tune as the Bard cast Prayer on the party. The morale went up for all of them, meaning they would all lose less hit points and have higher evasion while accuracy was up significantly.
Only very specific types of Bards would keep upgrading the Cleric’s Prayer spell into a morale buff. Hoedi had read it was a useless endeavour. Very fitting for this dumb moon fox.
[Party] Feni Kunas: You’re playing without any weapon??
[Party] Feni Kunas: As a BARD?
[Party] Teenam Mortana: Voice is an instrument. Bards don’t need a Lute, Lyre or Flute. I have the {Rune of Commands} equipped instead.
[Party] Fukaari Tuuk: That’s the most useless thing I’ve ever heard and I’ve heard you say a bunch of bsover the years.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: I’m kidding. I have a {Moon Shield} equipped ik my main hand.
[Party] Woohra Guorah: That’s a Paladin equipment.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: And Paladins follows the spirituality of a Cleric.
[Party] Fukaari Tuuk: More bs. Your armor can only be Cloth-level. You can’t carry shields.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: Let’s not chatter! Let’s go!
“I need to adjust my plans…”
[Private] Teenam Mortana: Don’t worry about it.
[Private] Teenam Mortana: I’ll back our shaman up whenever he’s not healing enough. Focus on what everyone else does and just account for one more body for the mechanics.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: I won’t die.
[Party] Feni Kunas: Promise.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: You have my solemn word, my oath to Velkrinni, the Mother Tree. that I will be the last one standing to ensure all of you are resurrected if need be.
“…Fine. Let’s go.”
Hoedi watched as the wolf knight began to run and the others began to move. The elf took a moment longer, but was soon also moving.
[Party] Fukaari Tuuk: I, the warrior, cannot accept this oath, Wanderer, for I will be the last one standing. A warrior never falls.
[Party] Feni Kunas: Say that again when you’re being resurrected, dad.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: I, the one who relays the World Tree’s songs, her prayers and blessings to tunes offered to me by her, will simply disregard you, Wanderer of War and Blood, for you do not hold up the sentiment that our Mother offers us.
[Party] Fukaari Tuuk: …
[Party] Fukaari Tuuk: Don’t ignore me in a pinch, T.
[Party] Fukaari Tuuk: We’ve been friends for nearly a decade.
“Knight, target the zombie from the left. Vice Cap, and Lancer wait twenty-seven seconds after Knight engages.”
“Geez, I need to get the fucking timer out? Dad, you keep time for me.”
“Sure, son.”
“Leader, cast Starburst when I tell you to. Don’t you dare cast anything else. Shaman, don’t heal anyone for one-hundred and two seconds. Bard…”
Hoedi crouched at a distant backline, the animation loading the firearm. The Lynxkin Astromancer was standing a few steps ahead, just enough to reach the Genganger.
“…Play some music, I guess.”
Teenam did not disappoint. The male moon fox immediately ran up to the midline to cast the cleric’s Hymn. It cast an AoE spell, that according to lore was singing to the World Tree, about how the Mother ought to protect her children beneath her canopy of leaves. It rooted Teenam in place for as long as the bard was engaged in the spell. Hoedi didn’t know exactly which effect Teenam’s Hymn had, however. It could have been strengthened into any path available.
“Son, now,” Vice Cap said, and the Lancer immediately launched to attack. The Warrior followed with a Slam. Which felt somewhat ridiculous to do while holding a polearm. The Wolf Knight Howled.
Hoedi began to shoot, keeping track of how many shots she had fired, as well as the buff stats of the Genganger. The Lynxkin had began to run around anxiously.
“Leader. Prepare for Starburst in 15… 10… 5…”
Teenam’s character stopped casting Hymn. Hoedi assumed he ran out of mana. It was a very mana consuming spell, after all.
“3—”
The fox cast another spell. Seemingly on the fox itself. What Hoedi couldn’t tell. Teenam’s bar was already so stacked by buffs, the raid leader couldn’t see the newest buff in the list without hovering the pointer over Teenam’s name, and she was currently busy aiming.
“—2—”
Runes appeared around Teenam as another spell was cast. The glowing sigil glowed from green to blue to purple to red and finally settled on orange before they rushed toward the monster. A Rune Poem with fire. That wouldn’t do much on the Genganger.
“—1.”
The green of a healing spell appeared around Teenam’s shimmering form. Hoedi changed from the sniping skill to Killshot at the same time as the Astromancer cast Starburst. They hit one after another.
Teenam’s skill landed on the Wolf Knight. That was such a useless choice. The Knight hadn’t lost any life or have any debuffs.
But shockingly the Genganger was down to only 87% after just one coordinated Starburst and Killshot and the small contribution from the tanks.
“Leader, debuff the corpse. It’s immune to poison, so don’t waste a poison debuff on it.” Hoedi paused. “Teenam, what the hell are you doing?”
The moon fox kept casting spells on the tanks as if Teenam were trying to taunt the large undead, baiting it to attack the bard instead.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: {Cleanse} {Song of Charm} {Rally} {Song of Legend} {Mother’s Breath} Needed
[Party] Guura Monggaar: ???????????????
“Stop that. You’re wasting mana. Don’t do anything to waste mana.”
The fox interrupted the next spell and then just started to run a looping dance emote at the midline. Hoedi felt she might just get a headache before they kill the Genganger of the first stage of this raid. The summoned ghosts hadn’t even appeared yet.
“Just sing or beat your stupid shield or something.”
The Bard cast a second mana-sucking Hymn.
Hoedi gave up right then.
“Old man, stop pulling the ghosts over here. Deal with them yourself. You’re playing DPS with medium armour. That’s just a bunch of baby ghosts.”
“On nightmare.”
“Feni, shut up. You know the rules. Only the Raid Leader can talk mid-fight,” Odyja said.
“That applies to you too, leader,” Vice Cap pointed out. “Dee-Dee, tell that idiot to go elsewhere.”
“…”
Hoedi looked at the white Lancer who was pulling ghosts to the tanks dealing with the half-animated skeleton of a dragon.
“To the west corner, Lancer. It’s your fault for pulling all of them. Leader, how many Starbursts do you have left?”
“None. I can only gain blessings of the stars.”
“Cast Blind on the ghosts within three attempts.”
“I need to get a specific spell out of twenty-four in three attempts??”
“Within three attempts.”
The Astromancer on the screen cast his RNG buff/debuff spell.
“Shaman, renew the Descendants of the Great One. Knight and Warrior try to turn the boss away from us.”
[Party] Teenam Mortana: can I main?
“Shut up, Teenam. You’re making it harder. Stop casting buffs on both enemies and allies. I’m—”
“Teenam is buffing enemies??” Feni asked.
“Mute yourself, old man,” Vice Cap said. “You can’t keep interrupting.”
[Party] Feni Kunas: muted
“I’m not letting you main heal. What are even your heal spells?” Hoedi ignored the dumb foxes. “Warrior, adds to your right. You aggro them before they reach Shaman. Shaman, cast a protective spell on yourself.”
[Party] Guura Monggaar: ok
[Party] Teenam Mortana: pure healing songs {Heal} 8, {Mother’s Aura} 3+, {Song of Rejuvenation} 4++, {Song of Bonds} 7
“Leader, stop whacking the add with your book. Cast dark magic on it. Tell me when you got 2 Astrobursts available. Lancer, once the adds on your side are down, support Knight, since you want to tank so much.”
Hoedi focussed on shooting down a ghost. She noticed a dark circle under them.
“Lancer move or get blindness.”
Feni scrambled to disengage and run away before the lynx’s dark magic hit.
Meanwhile Teenam was in a seated idle animation, doing absolutely nothing, as if the fox wasn’t in a nightmare raid without even a full party.
“…”
[Party] Teenam Mortana: svrl low-lvl regen buffs
[Party] Teenam Mortana: also all debuff removals, {Cleanse} X, {Sacred Roots} X, {Prayer} 9++, wind and other attack spells, {Root Whip} {Rune Poem}
[Party] Teenam Mortana: all Velkrinni spells available to Bard and cross-job
“Knight, what are you doing? Don’t turn the dragon this way. Why don’t we have a Paladin here? Shaman, remove debuffs from Knight.”
[Party] Teenam Mortana: {Hymn} 8++
“Lancer, do a special skill to finish the ghosts. Leader support Vice Cap.”
[Party] Teenam Mortana: can i main?
“No.”
“What? No? Did something happen?” Leader asked, confused.
“Teenam is happening.”
[Party] Teenam Mortana: OK
Hoedi felt suspicious about the reply, but had no time to care. They needed to beat this thing to get to the main boss to clear this raid. She began sniping at the ghosts swarming Vice Cap for now, while throwing an eye on her notes and the stopwatch she had next to her.
A little over two hours.
She could do this. She could control those three little goblins. Woohra and Guura would just listen to orders like good raid members.
Teenam, though…
As soon as the skeleton dragon was down, Teenam was casting something on Guura. Once, twice, thrice, four times.
Then, it was another cast, but the melody was different. That one Hoedi had heard before and recognised well. Velkrinni’s Whispers was fairly common as a spell often used to boost the main healer’s MP. Especially in high-level dungeons on hard mode as well as Legendary and Nightmare raids. It was another mana-costly spell, though.
[Party] Guura Monggaar: thx
Teenam cast it a second time, now on the Guild Leader. Then on the Woohra, increasing the AP instead, then Vice Cap and Feni. Everyone was already hurrying up to get in position, because the Cairn’s Lich was appearing. Teenam moved as well, clearly taking an MP potion while doing so. The fox then cast the spell on Hoedi too.
The environment shook as the first AoE attack hit the ground. They barely had space to even get away from it. Hoedinearly got hit, having underestimated just how much area that instant attack had.
“Knight, Warrior, let Leader take Death counter.”
“What?!” Guild Leader exclaimed. “I won’t survive that!”
“Exactly. Shaman will resurrect you. No more death counter. Also, you’re too weak.”
“That’s just mean.”
But as just as Hoedi was about to tell Woohra to focus on pulling adds, she saw that stupid fox cast Rune Poem and was first to attack the Lich. This time it was pink. Lightning.
“…”
Was Teenam unaware of how elemental immunity worked? That must be it. She’d teach that idiot later. Send guides. Give summaries. Hold quizzes, just to be sure.
She was so stunned by this erratic behaviour, she didn’t give any commands, and Teenam had time to cast more attack spells. They were weak, but that didn’t matter.
The elf charged, closely followed by the other dumb fox. Seeing them go, Leader began casting and Woohra went in as well.
Guura and Hoedi were the only ones not engaging in combat.
“You idiot!” she exclaimed just as the death counter hit their dumbass support healer.
Teenam was unbothered. Instead, the bard settled in at the midline and cast an AoE regen spell. It was followed by Bindto slow the lich down.
Well, she couldn’t account for Teenam’s actions. They made no sense.
If that fox died, let that fox lie. There was no way a bard was good enough to survive the death counter.
She issued several commands to get things back on track, pretending that the death countdown was somehow magically resolved because no one important was going to drop dead after about ten minutes.
It was even getting comfortable to know Teenam’s character would drop dead — as the blue-toned fox should.
The adds appeared right after Hoedi got hit by a random attack. She got healed to full HP the moment she heard Vice Cap said, “Adds. Feni, pull on left. I take right. Woohra, hold the Lich.”
Hoedi let it be. Vice Cap was tanking, after all, and the tanks coordinating was always good. The warrior elf likely knew how it felt different between Nightmare Cairn and Legendary Cairn.
“Thanks for the quick heal, Shaman,” she said. “Astromancer, cast—”
[Party] Guura Monggaar: ?
[Party] Guura Monggaar: not me.
Hoedi’s eyes immediately flew to the party list.
There at 0 MP and 3HP was Teenam. And what felt like at least more than 20 buffs.
How did Teenam survive?
And looking at the mini-map one figure was running erratically. Hoedi turned the camera to see Teenam running away from three adds frantically. Bard had essentially no fighting power, and Teenam most likely was equipped with the Rune of Commands as a weapon, because at least T could carry that. However, that took away attack power, rather than gave any.
It only made sense for Beast Tamers to use it. It could only be used to summon beasts after all.
As for the shield? Impossible bullshit. Paladin shields were only for Jobs that could carry Heavy Armour. Even a wooden shield was still light armour. Bards? Cloth armour, just like the Cleric class the Bard job evolved from. Bards were weak.
The moon fox was running at a very high speed. It would seem like the dumb fox had cast Speed and was using the additional sprint skill of foxes.
“Pull the adds chasing Teenam, Dad,” Feni said. “The only other moon fox of the guild somehow escaped death, so don’t let any undead take my kin.”
“On it,” Vice Cap confirms.
Hoedi was sniping at adds, while Guura was busy keeping three tanks alive. Leader was casting fire and lightning spells on the undead, which wasn’t all that effecting, but did some damage.
As Hoedi was sniping, she hovered over the small icons.
It was a wild mix of stack of buffs that increased stamina and physical damage, increasing CON, elemental resistance, poison resistance, Mother’s Breath which increased maximum recovery when standing still, CON buff from a meal, magical defence buff, WIS potion buff, Velkrinni’s Blessing, Velkrinni’s Embrace, Velkrinni’s Whispers, Hymn III buff with flavour text that was unclear what it did…
And a lot of FOC and INS related buffs, which meant the max MP was through the roof and the charisma must be as well.
What was this fox trying to do? Become a mage mid-raid? Charm the pants off the Lich? Both?
The Vice Captain taunted the adds until they finally gave up on the fleeing moon fox who could finally down MP and HP potions and go to max MP and HP.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: Thanks VC. Thought I was a goner for a sec.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: But I made a vow to be the last one standing, so unless you all wiped, I couldn’t let myself die just yet.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: lmao too close for comfort though, ngl.
“You were lucky,” Hoedi snorted as Teenam cast AP recover on Vice Cap.
The bard then cast Song of Charm on the Lich, successfully giving it a charmed debuff, causing it to stop attacking. It gave the entire party a few seconds to deal with some of the adds without new gengangers and ghosts being summoned.
Teenam then moved close to the tanks and cast the AoE skill Song of Blades, which was specifically to buff Fighter class-based Jobs, before immediately following that up by Rally and Prayer, stacking two different morale buffs on the tanks.
And then… Teenam went to the midline to sit down.
“Really, Teenam? Not even going to try attacking?”
Hoedi couldn’t help it. She was really getting frustrated by this idiot.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: I’m bored. Let me main heal.
“…”
Teenam Mortana was impossible.
They were mid-second wave of gengangers coming at them when everyone heard The Siren.
“Sorry, gotta go before wifey wakes up,” Woohra said and the Wolf Knight stopped moving. Right in front of the Lich.
Teenam had already cast Song of Charm again before the man had even finished talking. Hoedi had to recalibrate in her head.
“Warrior, you keep being second. Lancer, main tank. Get as much aggro as possible while Bard keeps the Lich charmed. Shaman make sure our Knight doesn’t die.”
Teenam ran back and forth for no reason while the Lich was charmed. The male moon fox also attacked the adds at random, casting those weak magic attack spells. Rune Poem was used as much as possible, it would seem. The Astromancer cast light magic. Hoedi tried to snipe as many as possible, but used every skill available to get them down faster.
The Lancer had taunted the Lich and tried to get as much aggro as the female moon fox could.
And then the AoE hit. They were so busy then didn’t notice.
Teenam had already run to the sidelines.
Feni got directly hit.
Odyja died on the spot a couple of step from safety.
Hoedi had already been out of reach.
Vice Cap swore in voice chat, but was only hit by the follow up.
Guura’s ability to resurrect automatically from one death every 18 hours, Soul’s Return, kicked in and the moment the bear hit 0HP, the class skill kept him alive.
[Party] Teenam Mortana: @Guura Monggaar switch?
[Party] Guura Monggaar: y
[Party] Teenam Mortana: u res i h
Teenam cast a maxed out Heal on Feni before casting Mother’s Breath on everyone to boost recovery of HP. Meanwhile, Guura began to resurrect Odyja.
Hoedi was too busy attacking the Lich tohether with the two tanks there to complain.
Let the male moon fox do whatever the fox wanted. Who could control him, anyway?