The party entered the dungeon, as their vision darkened a notification could be seen in the darkness.
< You have entered dungeon: Departed Warriors >
The black vision faded and the party saw themselves in an old castle, the stones were cracked and crumbling. Will turned to the party and asked, "Apart from Stale, have any of you participated in this dungeon?"
Proven Remedy, Akiol, and Wrock shook their heads. Will sighed and continued, "I have only gotten to the first boss but let me explain how it works."
Will cleared his throat, "As far as we know this dungeon has three bosses for three different parts. The first section is medieval warfare knights and such, the next is the Japanese samurai, with the last being Chinese warriors. This dungeon is relatively simple. We fight the lower ranked enemies until we find the higher ranked opponents. Repeat that process three times and the dungeon is done. Any questions?"
Akiol spoke up, "Since you said you only saw the first boss what is that boss like?"
Will answered, "It was like your typical fairytale knight, the armor and such. Had a claymore as their weapon though."
Remedy asked, "I assume the battle goes like typical ones?"
Will asked, "I need you to clarify. What do you mean like 'typical ones'?"
Remedy sighed and answered, "Tank grabs aggro, damage dealers damage, the archer over there does archery things."
Stale murmured, "Archery things..?"
Will nodded, "Only at the boss however, the low ranked soldiers aren't too big of an issue. Just don't get surrounded."
After making sure everyone was set, Will lead the march. Going through the rotten wood doors Akiol saw a battlefield of old. Fires were spotted around the place, soldiers fallen everywhere. He had flashbacks to a war that happened in his world. The cause of the war was pointless, he had personally slapped the king because of it. He was exiled from the empire of course. He never regretted the decision however.
As the party followed a beaten path dark shadows with blue and white, rose from the fallen soldiers.
Will shouted, "It's starting! Keep your guard up!"
Akiol immediately dispelled his sword taking a stance. The shadows had fully separated from their bodies, and the name status finally showed itself.
It was a decent level, Akiol would get some experience but he was blocked by his promotion quest.
The Shadow Soldiers then stumbled towards the party. Akiol noticed that with every step they took the soldiers seemed to get better at walking.
Will shouted, "Stale protect the healer! The rest need to eliminate these guys as fast as possible!"
With a collective shout of agreement Akiol and Wrock lead the charge. Wrock dodged and weaved striking the soldiers with his fists. Akiol parried and sliced through the enemies.
Out of the corner of Akiol's eye he could see Will blocking attacks and stabbing in retaliation. Something seemed off about how Will fought, but Akiol ignored it. He assumed it was probably that Will didn't have much fighting experience, so their movements were all wrong.
In a short time all the shadow soldiers were defeated, they dissipated into a black mist.
As Will took the lead again Akiol fell back to Remedy.
Taking a risk he asked, "You wouldn't be someone named Yielya would you?"
Remedy was silent for a while. Then they replied, "You wouldn't be someone named Akiol would you?"
"That doesn't work, my username is Akiol. I greeted myself as such, you can't just try to use my sentence like that."
Remedy then said, "Then you wouldn't be the hero from another world would you?"
Akiol sighed, Yielya was always like this. It was almost as if she enjoyed messing with people. Quite twisted for a healer.
Yielya smirked she responded to Akiol's first question, "Yes indeed I am."
"It's good to see you Yielya."
"Mmhmm, have you found the rest?"
"Their not collectables, but no besides Wrock I haven't."
Yielya eyed Akiol after he made the slight joke but shrugged and said, "A shame really, you best find them. It would make my job easier if the people I have to heal are familiar with how I heal."
The way Yielya liked to heal was different from typical healers in rpgs. She never fully heal your health, keeping you in top notch shape. Instead she kept you alive, making sure you never fell during the dance with death.
This was more efficient in the long run anyway. Since the battles from the past world kept getting longer, she had to find a way to keep her energy up. The only time you would be put back to top shape was when the battle was over, if she had the energy for it.
Akiol chuckled, "I bet you made a lot of people angry."
Yielya sighed, "More than you think, please hurry up and find the rest."
"You better help too, I am just one person."
Akiol then caught up to Wrock, "Remedy is Yielya, just confirmed."
Wrock pumped his fist, "Yeah! That's plus one, we're halfway there!"
Akiol shared Wrock's enthusiasm, once the rest were found the whole party would be back together. Akiol looked forward to the moment.
They continued to walk for a bit more. Shortly later more Shadow Soldiers have arisen, with some effortless moves the party quickly dispatched them.
This repeated another two times. They had cleared the beginning bit incredibly fast. Even Will commented, "Fastest I've ever seen the beginning done."
The party soon saw a small clearing, about the size of a child's park. The edges surrounded with broken siege weapons.
In the middle sat a shadow of a knight, without the shining armor, resting their hands on the pommel of their weapon. Which was stabbed into the ground.
As soon as the party stepped into the clearing, the knight pulled out the claymore. It was stabbed pretty deep into the ground.
Will lifted his shield and commanded, "Stand back until I have a solid hold on the aggro!" With that he charged towards the knight.
After using what looked like a bunch of taunting moves. Will then let the party know they were clear to engage.
Stale stood back with Yielya firing off shots at the boss.
As Akiol charged towards the knight he glanced at the name status.
It was good that the level was what Akiol needed, however the strength of the Shadow Knight wasn't to be underestimated.
The speed of the claymore wasn't something Akiol would have expected of such a big weapon.
Will was struggling to block the Shadow Knight's attacks. Will disliked this part as it was a pain trying to hold the Shadow Knight off. He didn't have to hold on for long, as Akiol and Wrock were in attacking range.
The problem with shadow versions of the soldiers was that they had no weak spots, except for maybe holy magic. This meant Akiol wouldn't be able to disable them at all. In return the shadow soldiers had no defense. Meaning Akiol did the full amount of damage he was supposed to do.
Wrock made a signal towards Akiol, which Akiol responded with a nod. Due to the high amount of fighting they did together. Understanding each others intention with small signs wasn't hard.
The two stopped, Wrock put his hands together and crouched. Akiol stepped on Wrock's hands and was thrown into the air. Akiol also used [Leap] at the last moment to gain a bit more height.
Wrock charged towards the Shadow Knight kicking its limbs to stop the attack. While momentarily stunned Akiol came crashing down on the Shadow Knight's head. Stabbing his sword into it.
The knight let out a ghostly wail and threw Akiol into the broken siege equipment.
Akiol got up quickly and went to continue the fight, but strangely the Shadow Knight was focused on him!
Will shouted, "You idiot! Your damage surpasses my aggro!"
Akiol shouted back, "How?! I only hit him once!"
"It doesn't matter how many times you hit him!"
Akiol hurriedly dodged the Shadow Knight's attack. How this happened didn't matter, staying alive did.
Wrock yelled, "Hurry and stabilize the aggro!"
Will snorted and used what looked like several different taunt skills. The Shadow Knight turned its attention towards Will and proceeded to attack ferociously.
Akiol clicked his tongue, he missed his party. Worrying about strangers not keeping with the flow was tiring and distracting.
He swore that he would find the rest of them.