Drake and Loco ran around the corner and barely dodged a huge congealing ball of poison. Drake ran into the next area to try and find a better defensible spot, sweating profusely but for some reason enjoying every second of this life and death fight. Drake and Loco had already been in this dungeon for 34 hours and Drake was pretty sure they were getting close to the first mini-boss. As long as they could reach that first mini-boss and defeat it they would gain a 20 hour safe zone inside the dungeon to log off and rest. The game would send you repeated warnings anytime you were questing for too long, and it was already proven that gaming with the headset for too long of a period can have impacts on your mental well being. Drake and Loco were nowhere near that 72 hours threshold but Drake would rather not take any chances.
Drake and Loco got back into defensive positions just as the 14 alpaca and 6 baboons that had been chasing them finally caught up. Drake had the misfortune of stepping on a trap that collapsed a wall and revealed their location to 3 separate groups of monsters. The area they were in was really compact and not a good area for either of them so the immediately started running to get to better ground. Drake rushed towards the still approaching mob, trying to catch them off guard. It seemed to Drake that this tactic had worked and 5 baboons in the front of the mob tried to unsuccessfully stop their charge, tripping themselves and at least half of the monsters behind them.
Loco quickly caught up and together they slashed many times on the pack of tripped up animals. They unloaded stabs, strikes and deep cuts onto them while they struggled between themselves. Drake quickly took advantage of the confusion to chop down 3 more alpaca that weren't in the fallen pack. While Loco killed the rest of the struggling animals Drake killed the last 2 baboons with relative ease.
That was when Drake noticed it, a green door with black trim sitting on one of the walls of the cave. Drake knew this was the mini-boss room just beyond that door. He motioned to Loco and the pair walked up to the door, making sure there were no more traps or fights before the mini-boss. This was an epic class dungeon and neither player would put it past the developers to make an ambush area before the mini-boss.
Drake turned to Loco and said,"This green means the mini-boss is an uncommon boss monster. This mini-boss and the next one will probably be variants of the monsters we have already been facing, just extremely juiced up." Loco nodded his head in confirmation and didn't say much more. This was one of the things that Drake had noticed about Loco, he tended to stop talking when he was fighting and although he would shout to Drake if he needed help or was trying to give help, he remained totally focused on the fighting. Drake was a calm person that liked to focus as well, so they had really good chemistry when they fought the monsters in the dungeon together.
Drake opened the door to the mini boss room and saw a giant black ball sitting inside a spherical cave. This cave was very spacious with many choke points players could get caught in if they were not careful enough. Drake knew that he would not have a significant advantage in the mini-boss rooms as all mini boss areas are randomly generated. Only the Boss room will remain unchanged for every attempt.
[System Notification: You have entered Mini-Boss Room 1 of 2]
[System Notification: Starting Mini-Boss fight [Two-Headed Toxic Water Elemental Alpaca]
Suddenly the black ball in the middle of the room started to conform and contort into a grotesque animal. Drake could see it slowly morphing into a two headed alpaca and how it slowly started to gain colour on its body other than the pitch black of the ball. Just as its eyes fully formed, both of its heads swiveled and looked directly at the pair still standing defensively at the cave entrance.
Drake shouted to Loco,"Don't Let either the water or the poison hit you!"
Drake and Loco then both dodged an incoming ball of water from the alpaca boss. Drake sprinted to the left and Loco to the right. Drake ran towards the front foot of the giant alpaca boss and let loose a precise spear thrust into its ankle. The beast recoiled in pain and the toxic head spewed poison at Drake, which he just barely managed to dodge. Loco quickly rushes behind the giant beast and slashes down with both scimitars on its back leg. The giant alpacas leg is thoroughly cut and spewing blood, under the pressure of its massive frame it buckles under its own weight.
The giant alpaca was now unable to get up and walk, rendering it crippled for the rest of the fight, however drake knew this was not the time to relax. Now that they had effectively crippled it, the animal will most likely go into defensive maneuvers. Just as Drake was thinking this the giant alpaca backed up against the wall, not letting anyone get behind it again. The animal was still semi-intelligent after all and if it was so quickly rendered crippled it would naturally be put into an awkward position if it tried to attack again.
Drake inwardly cursed at this. He rushed up to the mini-boss and attacked the front leg again, trying to cripple the animal further. He swiftly cut from left to right and completely dissected the front leg of the animal. The animal roared in pain once more and backed further into the caves corner, constantly spewing out toxic poison and poison water that Loco and Drake had to dodge.
After about 20 minutes of continual attacks from the pair the alpaca started to have noticeably weaker attacks compared to the beginning. Drake noticed this and shouted,"It's weak! Hit it Loco!"
Loco ran to the adjacent wall and sprinted towards it, he jumped up the wall and then onto the ceiling of the cave. It looked like he was stuck to the ceiling for a second but eventually he pushed off the ceiling and down toward the toxic head of the mini-boss. Just before he arrived at the first head he yelled,"Blood Scythe!" and promptly sliced the toxic head off in one clean motion. He quickly reached the ground, but Loco then quickly turned around and said in a sinister tone,"Blood control!". The blood coming out of the screaming and angry alpaca all condensed into one point and then in a split second sliced the second head off.
Loco collapsed and was panting hard when Drake came running up and said,"Well that wasn't too hard huh?"
Loco stiffened and Drake thought he had made Loco mad but Loco suddenly said,"Oh my god! Haha! Not too hard? And people say I'm crazy!"
The two laughed at the joke made by Drake and it seemed the relationship of the two young men had grown into a friendship.
[System Notification: You have completed the Mini-Boss! Congratulations player(s)!]
[System Notification: You are the 40th group in the game to kill a mini-boss of uncommon quality! +1 Weapon Spin]
[System Notification: Battle Percentages are as follows: Loco 1st - 62% Drake 2nd -38%]
[System Notification: Player [Drake Silver] has received +1 Skill book spin]
Drake was thoroughly surprised that he did 38% to the monster. He was suspecting that it was only about 25%. Afterall most of the damage was done by Loco towards the end by cutting off both heads. However Drake didn't disclose this and simply opened up his first reward.
[Use 1 Weapon Spin?] [Y/N]
Drake clicked yes and suddenly in front of him was a wheel with hundreds of different colours on it. This was yet another part of the game he had no control over, weapon and skill book spins. These are what make or break new players, as skills and equipment are always the most valuable. Drake spun the Wheel and it spun for two rotations as Drake watched. It stopped on a pink colour of the wheel.
[System Notification: Player has received Uncommon TunnelWorks Spear]
Drake wasn't surprised at this as the roulette wheel rarely gives good equipment. Everyone will come to treat equipment spins as the most useless feature that only beginners would use. However for now, this spear was better than the worn out training spear he had been using. The spear had an additional function engraved on it that could make a spear thrust extremely effective, like making a tunnel. Drake paid this one no more attention and opened the true treasure.
[Use Skill Book Spin] [Y/N]
Drake clicked yes and held his breath as the wheel started fervently spinning away at his future fate. The wheel slowly stopped on a purple area of the wheel and Drake held his breath in anticipation.
[System Notification: Player has received Epic Skill Book "Battle Brain"]