Battle Master Online (The Tales Of The Shield Knight)51.35%

37***Man With A Plan (Part 2)

Nylon

*BOOM* *SCREECH!!!*

I moved slightly out of the way as Angus came flying in for a two hit strike at Phinral's stomach again! The Boss Monster's life was down to past 3/4 and going down nicely! All in all, this is the best scenario I could have ever hoped... no, ever wished for! The Recoil Damage he's receiving, was high, he lost the whole wing so his Agility went to crap, thus his Accuracy was even worse, and because he went Berserk, he's not using any range attacks! Also, I'm still holding the agro on them, despite the amount of damage Angus is dealing! This is the picture perfect scenario!!!

Now if only that crazy girl would just stop using so much Essence!!!

'Angus! Take it easy why don't ya!' I whispered to her exasperatedly as Phinral took another swing at me, missed, and I jumped, tucked, and rolled to dodge the rubble.

'Huh, why? These Glide Worms aren't just going to sit there and wait for us to kill the thing! And I'm keeping pace of my Essence!' She replied as she stepped on a worm, changing it's trajectory, and launching herself high into the air! She then dropped into Phinral with both her daggers, ripping a screech out of him! A good bit of life got chopped of with that attack!

'Idiot!!! Don't you know a thing about Named Boss Monsters?!' I shouted at her with whisper, before ducking as rubble flew at be as Phinral crashed at my feet!

*CRASH* *SCREECH!!!*

'Huh? What do you mean?' She asked, attacking his tail with another powerful sweeping attack, lopping it off!

'I mean that he likely has a unique Second Mode that he'd enter if his life fell low enough!!!' I responded, but it was too late! Her attack brought his life right below the half mark, and as soon as that happened, he stopped thrashing about and instead, started emitting this reddish aura and was practically rippling!

He then doubled in size, turned a dark purple, and sprouted two large wings out of his back! Mouths popped out on his head like acne, about as small as a usual Glide Worm and just as toothy, but there were a lot! Six mini Glide Worms spawned to finish the set!

Phinral The Leech Has Entered Rage Mode!!!

*CRACK!!!**CRACK!!!*

Angus was trying to get in another strike when Phinral got Raged, and both her daggers surprisingly broke against his skin!!!

"Keep your distance!" I shouted at Angus, and not a moment too soon!

*ACID RAIN!!!!*

*spit**spit**spit**spit**spit**spit**spit**spit*

All of the mouths spat practically in unison, and a shower of spit befell us!!! I equipped my Stone Shield on my right hand, and my Carapace Shield on my left, and held them up against the onslaught!!!

*splat*

You Are Corroding!

The notification went off, and my life started dropping rapidly! On of the projectiles only hit my shoulder and I'm already down to 2/3 hp. within seconds! My Tunic and Stone Shield also suffered the effects but my Carapace Shield was relatively okay! I guess that's why they run at the scent of a beetle. The shells are Corrosion proof!

I've gotta say though, I have no plan for this...

Don't get me wrong, I had a few thoughts on what I could do and ran some scenarios, but all of them had a less than 3% chance of success with most being at zero! It was then that I realized; I have no information, little resources, little strength, and only years of gaming experience on my side, which is useless here because no one has ever played - or at least, played and videoed - this dungeon! Trying to make a path for a certain scenario will only guaranty death and no chances of escape should s*** not pan out as expec... damn you Angus!!!

Anyway, that got me to do this plan, a plan that, even though it was through pure educated guess work, exploited the golden ratios and clichés that most games follow in making their Boss Monsters, as well as the game system and usual patterns, such that the minimum of resources could be used to bring out the Rage Mode, and set the field in our favor, thus giving us the best possible position to make a chance happen! And I'll be taking that chance, thank you! I can only hope Angus can keep up...!

'Angus. How're you holding up?' I whispered, to her.

'*huff* *huff* *huff* I'm doing fine brat. What, you gonna die or something?' Angus asked as she barely dodged an incoming mini worm! Those guys are crazy fast!!!

'Do you think you can hold agro for a bit?' I asked her as I dodge one of the first Glide Worms. Phinral rippled again and shot out more Acid Rain, sending us ducking for cover!

'... I'll see what I can do!' Angus replied, and soon after, her speed doubled! She practically flew around Phinral stepping on the worms and slicing at his mouths any chance that she got!

'Dragonfly Step huh.' I thought to myself as she stepped actual circles around him!

...Or at least, I was... up until he started spinning so fast, he looked like a plane propeller!!

*ROTATING FANG!!!*

"Aaaah!!!" Angus screamed as she lost her footing after stepping on one of the worms for too long, causing her to fall, narrowly missing the spinning torpedo!

He collided into the wall, ripping a 20 feet wide, 40 feet deep hole into the wall!!!

That got me to run Improvisation essence through my head immediately!!!!

Inventory

Resources

Lizard Skin (3)

Sticks (32)

Bones (6)

Beetle Legs (10)

Hacked Stones (2)

Glide Worm Corpse (18)

Glide Worm Wings (4)

Vines (6)

Hmm, not much stuff here!!! We used up quite a bit even though we've managed to get resources down here! This might be bad...

*BOOM!!!*

*RIP!**RIP!**RIP!**RIP!**RIP!**RIP!**RIP!**RIP!**RIP!**RIP!**RIP!*

I looked up and saw Angus, still desperately fighting against Phinral!!! Her moves were getting lagged and sloppy, sweat visibly streaming down her face, and an arm was missing! Yet she was still fighting to buy me time!!!

'I don't have time to be getting defeated even for half a second!!!!' I thought to myself to psych myself up!

'Think, think, think!!! There must be something in there!!!!!' yelled to myself as I filed through every single memory in my mind! Every move, every gameplay, every strategy since the begin, no, since before that!!! I need to drag up gameplays from even when the game just came out!!! from even before the game!!!!!!!

I filed through all of them, slapping plans together at rapid pace, each plan getting more and more elaborate and ridiculous, and me feeling more and more hopeless...

... till finally ...

when my Essence was about to go dry and my stamina was close by....

... I found it!

I was thinking about a certain play I saw in a game that was probably decades old, and how I could do it too...

and I almost laughed at how crazy this will be!

()