36***Man With A Plan

'Angus…' I whispered.

'Yes, Nylon…' She answered.

'We're screwed, aren't we…' I stated more than asked.

'Yup, this is it this time…' She replied anyway, cold sweat appearing on her face profusely as we looked back on our notification and glanced around the corner to a large, spacious room, holding a giant Glide Worm-looking steloette!

Floor 5!

First Boss Found! (1/5)

PHINRAL THE LEECH!!! LVL25

We both gulped in unison!

Now, you might be wondering, 'you faced Dorgon the Burier, a level 35 Boss Monster! That 10 levels higher!!! What are you so afraid of?!' and I have two things to say to that. One, we had no intention of fighting Dorgon, and we didn't! We just ran as fast as possible from him, and almost died in the process! Second, we're not so much worried about Phinral. What we are worried about is the four, evidently much stronger monsters that are ahead!!! Even the best strategy I could think of would barely grant us a pass through this way!!!

'Any plans Deus Ex Machina?' Angus asked in frozen shock.

'Really? Deus Ex Machina?! What's with that one?!!!' I whispered back indignantly! Of all the nicknames!!!

'So, should I assume that you don't have one?' She whispered back in a half cocky, half nervous tone.

'I…. ah…. No comment…' I replied, blushing a little.

'Well then, out with it already!!!'

'Fine, fine! Just give me a moment to iron the kinks out!' I whispered back, sitting on the floor to focus on running a small about of Essence through my head. To be honest, we don't really have any experience with fighting Boss Monsters. We - … well, I – died pretty fast against the X-Gremlin, and we've ignored fighting the bosses here like the plague, so big monsters like Phinral here will be a problem! And even though we killed the Wild Cat and Sub-Urban Wolf Boss Monsters a few times, it was when all our good gears were intact, and we had resources to bleed through. Also, they were rather low levelled, so it was relatively easy to kill them, albeit harder than the regular mobs, and none were named! So, we're out of our league with this guy!!!

'Geeze! If only we had one more person!!!' I though to myself as this plan has only one true window to success, with only a few chances to make opportunities to make another one, so its gonna be close! But, considering what we did to get here, this is as good a chance as any! It depends on a few assumed factors that may or may not apply, but assuming they do, all that's left is….

'Angus! How many Paralyse Shots can you multi-wield?' I asked her.

'Eh? Hmm, about two, I think. Three if I push it probably…'

'Three, huh…' I thought to myself, 'It's close, but it'll probably do the trick.' 'And what about the effect time?' I whispered to her again.

'Mmm… about one or two seconds if I tried that, I think.' She answered

'Hmm… could you push it up to 3 seconds?' I asked, palms getting clammy as I started seeing the plan failing.

'Yeah, I might. So, what do you have in mind?' She asked, taking deep breaths as if she was preparing for something bad. Oi, just what the heck do you think of me!!!

I took a deep breath to calm down my nerves and my nervous-induced anger, and then started,

'Sit and start recovering essence. You'll need it.' I answered.

*

Angus

'Are you sure this is going to work, brat?' I asked Nylon, three of my five remaining daggers in my right hand. I asked him that to make sure he didn't have any suicidal thoughts and was thinking of dying to make a chance for me, but I was thoroughly surprised at the answer,

'Isn't it a bit too late to be asking that? Like I said, don't worry! I'll make it work!' His words spoke it all to me. He intends on coming out alive this time!

Fine then! Don't think I'll let you outshine be brat!!!

'Multi-Wield Series!!!' I activated my Series and jumped out to the entrance, playing out the plan back in my head.

***

'Alright, here's the plan.' Nylon started as I was building up essence. 'The Boss Monster is going to have at least three mobs at its front, equidistance apart, usually at a 40-45 degree angle to either end of you for the end mobs, and one right in front of you at around 90 degrees.'

'Hwa. Its creepy that you know that! You know that, right? Little Creep!' I teased him. My efforts were rewarded with a slight blush, but nothing more as he ignored me and continued.

'I need you to hit them all at the same time!'

***

*PARALYSIS SHOT, 3-FOLD!!!*

*splick*

*splick*

*splick*

*screech!!!*

*screech!!!*

*screech!!!*

'Nailed it!'

***

'I'll run in right before you full force with a Shield Bash with my Stone Shield. With the mobs occupied for a few seconds, I'll have the perfect chance to meet him in the middle, and then, if I'm lucky, I might be able to stun him for a while.'

***

*SREECH!!!*

*SHIELD RUSH!!!*

*CLANK!!!*

*GARGG!!!*

Phinral The Leech Has Been Stunned

'Holy s*** that worked!'

***

'Hmm… On the off chance that crazy idea of yours actually works… what comes after that?' I asked, a bit sceptical at his sanity by know. 'Assuming you stun him, it'd only be for, like, a second at best!'

'Hehehe! It won't matter if it's a second, or even a half second, for that's all I need to use… this!' He said before making his grand reveal… a Gliding Worm Skin!!!

***

"HMPH!!!"

*throw*

'He pulled it out! Quick! Gotta fall into position!'

***

'What are you?! Crazy?!!!' I asked in alarm as I grabbed the item and quickly hid it in my inventory before the sent travelled! 'You. Dumb. Bastard!!! Wasn't it established that Glide Worms go get Raged when they smell the corpse one of their own?!!' I shot at him in shock!

'Yes! And they go Beserk if they smell the burning skin of their own, don't they?' he asked with a half crazed smile on his face!!!

'W-what are you going to do with it?' I asked, half expecting the answer.

'I'm making it into a Time Bomb!'

***

*TIME BOMB!!!*

*boom!!!*

*SCREECH!!!*

Phinral The Leech Has Gone Berserk!!!

Glide Worm lvl15 Has Gone Berserk!!!

Glide Worm lvl16 Has Gone Berserk!!!

Glide Worm lvl15 Has Gone Berserk!!!

***

Oh my god! He is trying to kill himself, isn't he?!!

'What the f*** are you trying to do?! Get his attention on you?!! Newsflash, you'll die you little death s***!!!' I nearly scream out at him! He has hell to pay if he's trying to make himself sacrificial bait again!!!

'Again with death s*…' he said looking dejected at first, before he stopped himself short and started staring bullets into my back, to which I promptly ignored!

'Don't worry. While I will be acting as bait, I have no intention of actually dying.'

'Eh, and what makes you so confident death s***?' I asked in my most flat-**s sceptical tone possible.

'*smirk* Cause I'm aiming for his wing!'

***

Phinral Lost An Appendage!

Agility (- 20)!

Speed (-20)!

'Yes! The crazy b**** actually did it! Now it's my turn! First, a drink of Berry Shake. *gulp* Then, Dragonfly Step, 0.5-Fold!'

***

'His wing?!' I asked in surprised confusion.

'Yes. If it resembles any of its mini counterparts, the wings would be its most lethal weapon, and also its most volatile weakness. I'll turn most of my Essence into Explosive essence and pump it into the skin and throw it at his wing. I don't know how damaging it'll be, but I do know that, if I'm right, it'll cut his speed by a lot! His Agility will drop too, making flight control difficult. Which means…'

***

*jump* *dodge*

*SCREECH!!!*

*leap*

*CRASH!!!*

*SCREECH*

'It's crashing into the floor and walls, just like he predicted! And just like the other mobs, he's getting inflicted with Recoil Damage! He's also under Berserk, so he'll always charge full thrust and receive maximum Recoil! Now, little worms, I'll be taking those back!'

***

'So that takes care of Phinral, but what about the others? They'll be annoying. Should I kill them?' I asked.

'NO!!! WHAT ARE YOU CRAZY!!!!!' Nylon freaked out at me! What the heck did I say?

'*ahem* Sorry about that. No, if you kill them before we kill Phinral, he'll just spawn more to his aid.' He tried again after calming down, 'if we start killing them, we'd waist valuable resources, and also, a very good chance!'

'Chance? What do you mean?' I asked, confusion being my friend right now.

'Remember, when we were fighting outside, and I gave you a Berry to initiate an Adrenaline Spike? Did any stats seem… weaker to you?' he asked.

'No, why'd you… no wait, thinking about it now, my attacks were significantly weaker.' I replied.

'I read once somewhere, that in the 21.30.16 version, the one two years back, if you used certain items and/or methods to get rid of a stat effect, one of the stats of the player would get nerfed for the time duration. That was as true for mobs as it was for players…'

'You want to use the Berserk to nerf their speed don't you?' I said as I realized were this was going, 'If I replenish my Essence, use a low levelled speed technique along with Air Flow, and keep the worms alive while I use them as launch pads to keep them off of you then…'

'You'd be able to deal tons of damage while I tank Phinral.' Nylon finished for me. I almost blushed when I realized I was swept into his pace, but I stopped myself in time and berated myself for such a near folly.

'… Hey Nylon… what do our chances look like?' I asked after calming down.

'We're looking at the best plan for the best scenario possible; but considering the chances that would take even if the timing was impeccable, I'd say at most 10%.'

'Of course. You're still a death s*** after all.' I shot at him to lighten up the mood a bit.

'… but��� If by any chance things pan out like I planned… then…'

***

'We're doing it!!!'

*step* *slash*

*SCREECH!!!*

'We're actually doing it!!!'

*boom!!!*

*step* *step* *slash* *slash*

*splick* *splick*

*SCREECH!!!*

'WE'RE ACTUALLY DEFEATING A BOSS MONSTER!!!!!!'