Tower of Souls

Kawe Shaman(Boss) stabbed your summon(Big Bunni) for 40 damage.

Your summon(Big Bunni) was slain!

Cam grimaced, both at the notification and at the seeing his summon cut down so quickly by the Boss... And at the simple fact that, if the Boss can do damage like that consistently, that meant it could probably kill him in four or five good hits- assuming Cam didn’t use Iron Skin, which would only increase the number of hits needed to six or seven to kill him.

For a second, he didn’t understand why; While the normal mobs did decent damage, it was nowhere close to this level of threat. If anything, this Floor- and even the previous Floor, for the most part- hadn’t been much of a challenge. Now, he was faced with a Boss that was two-shotting his summons and had a good control Ability?

But suddenly it clicked.

Every Floor was different, and that wasn’t just meaning what sort of monsters were present, or the layout of the Floor... but also a number of other factors that weren’t always easily seen. Some Floors didn’t have a Boss, but all of the normal monsters would be a little stronger or smarter. Sometimes there were no normal monsters at all, just a sequence of Mini Bosses and a final Boss...

And sometimes the normal mobs were weak, with a stronger Boss at the end to make up for it.

To cap it off, he realized another important factor: this Floor had been a little different from the start. Facing a completely unknown, new- or at least new as far as the records of Foundation City were concerned- type of monster had made him think it could be an Anomalous Floor, and, while he was fairly certain now that it wasn’t, one thing he was sure of... was that this Floor really wasn’t normal.

Not Anomalous, but definitely a bit off from a regular Floor. How, exactly, he couldn’t say, but that was the feeling he had.

Seeing the Boss turn to look his way after finishing off the summoned Bunni, Cam’s time to consider the difficulty of his situation was done- or so he thought, as, shouting wordlessly, his clone came charging out from around the hut, throwing himself at the Boss.

Shield shifting to deflect the lightning fast thrust of the Boss’s spear, Eron drove in close to slam his Haunted Cudgel into the Bunni mount’s shoulder, barely missing its head; While the blunt weapon didn’t appear to do much damage with the hit, its extra necrotic damage left behind a patch of blacked, rotting fur... Which was something, even if it didn’t appear to hurt the mount all that much.

Which, considering this thing looked like an upgraded version of the Big Bunni, and even that mob’s fur acted as armor, Cam knew that the mount’s fur was likely even tougher; At a guess, he figured the cudgel probably barely took off a couple HP, even including the necrotic damage!

”Shit, the mount is a tank!”

”Damn fast to be a tank!” Eron grunted in response, already being pushed back by a combination of thrusts from the Boss, and the mount’s sharp horn darting out in repeated headbutts- before the pair of them suddenly bounded away.

Straight at the remaining summon that had been circling around to attack them from behind.

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With the mount’s horn leading, and the Boss’s spear following up in a well timed thrust, the Big Bunni didn’t stand a chance.

Bunnicorn Alpha Mount’s Horn Charge struck your clone’s summon(Big Bunni) for 40 damage.

Kawe Shaman(Boss) stabbed your clone’s summon(Big Bunni) for 60 damage(critical).

Your clone’s summon(Big Bunni) was slain!

”What the fuck is with this Boss!?” Eron exclaimed, already chasing after the mob. ”It hits like a striker, is tougher than a tank, casts like a control mage, and moves faster than an archer!”

Finally sawing through the clump of grass and freeing himself, Cam could only agree with his clone; The only slight weakness he could see in the Boss was the lack of a healing spell... though, after everything he had seen already in just the first few seconds of the fight, he wouldn’t actually be surprised if it did have one and just hadn’t needed to use it yet...

So how the hell was a normal group supposed to deal with a Boss like this? At Level 2, no less!

Maybe if they had a mage with a good control Ability to slow it down or pin it in place, but not every group even had a control mage! Hell, most groups didn’t, so how could they fight a Boss that the tank couldn’t catch up to, and that could quickly control and burst down their damage dealers?

Attrition was Cam’s only thought, simply hunkering down and enduring until it ran low on mana, then attacking... But even that had flaws, like running the risk of it picking off your weaker members one at a time.

Thankfully, at this low of a Floor, the Boss was extremely unlikely to flee- that level of intelligence in Tower monsters didn’t show up until later Floors. Usually.

But, with this weird Floor, Cam wasn’t going to take anything for granted right now.

”Keep it busy for a second!” He yelled, an idea occurring to him as he turned and rush for the Boss’s hut.

”What do think I’m trying to do!?”

Ignoring his clone’s snark, and the grunts of their clashing behind him once more- and the notifications of Eron activating Iron Skin yet still taking small amounts of damage from the Boss-, Cam’s first thought was to try moving the fight inside the Boss’s hut; The small space would limit the Boss’s mobility, and almost remove the mount from the fight entirely...

But, seeing the mostly transparent barrier that had appeared over the hut’s doorway after the Boss had walked out, he knew that plan was a bust; Odds were good that the Floor’s exit would appear inside the hut once the fight was over, so the Tower had blocked it off for now...

That did give him another idea, though.

Reaching the wood hut, he waved his hand, spewing fire out through his spell Fan the Flames... and nearly sighed in relief as his assumption proved true: cutting the grass from his ankles earlier had shown him that he could damage the grass in the clearing... and that the hut was integral to the Tower’s arrangements, and thus completely immune to his fire.

And, while the couple feet burned clear of grass didn’t look like much, he knew that the Root spell required living plants to work; No grass meant a safe place to stand... Well, safe from being bound, even if it wasn’t safe from the Boss.

But, with the hut at his back, and if he could clear a large enough area... it would at least be better than getting held in place and stabbed repeatedly.

Something flying past him to slam into the side of the hut alarmed Cam, and seeing that it was Eron only made it worse. And seeing the state Eron was in...

Bleeding from multiple places on his arms, legs, and chest, with burns across his legs- which Cam almost instantly realized were from Eron burning the grass off of his own legs to get free-, it was obvious that Eron ws low on HP and struggling to keep the boss busy.

”Ignore the mana cost and burn all the grass you can!” He barked at his clone, turning to keep eyes on the Boss. ”If it charges, we dodge and let it slam into the hut; Maybe that will slow it down enough-”

”Yeah, I know!” Eron grunted, sounding annoyed. ”Same person, remember?”