LOG HORIZON
The Giant's club caused an enormous cracking sound as it swung through the trees; a flurry of snow flew from the branches, adding to the already considerable snowfall. Uprooted, the great pines collapsed.
Luckily, the Giant's actual target had leapt back a second prior.
"Oh, close but no cigar!"
Raising her bow once again, the slender Elf waited for the Giant's swinging rampage to cease, aiming for her bow's next target.
"Jesus Liz, watch what you're doing! You're no good to us if you're dead!" Kiyoko shouted in fury, as the groups Cleric and Healer, her anger was not unfounded.
"You worry too much, we've got this… Atrophy Shot!"
Atrophy Shot – an Assassin Exclusive Skill – was an attack aimed at the opponent's revealed nerves, which would momentarily paralyze the target and apply a movement speed debuff for a few seconds afterwards.
The now glowing arrow flew through the air faster than anyone but the caster could follow, striking the Giant directly in the neck, releasing a green shockwave over its entire body, and bringing it crashing to the ground. Clearly pleased with herself, Liz raised her bow in the air for a victory stance, flicking her blonde hair with the other hand.
"You're welcome!"
"A lovely shot as usual Liz … But can we celebrate later?" The third member of the party, Thomas, yelled. Aiming his left arm towards the now paralyzed Giant, and raising his staff with the other arm, activating one of his Summoner Skills. As a Summoner, Thomas was able to call forth monsters that would ordinarily attack adventurers, but instead would be under his control, making it an extremely versatile class.
"Summon Follower: Golem!"
In an instant, a large summoning circle, measuring 6 feet in diameter, and accompanied by the sound of a single, large bell toll, covered the ground in front of the now-recovering Giant. Rising from the glowing sigil, a Golem began to form, forging itself from the earth within the summoning circle, and within a few seconds the Golem stood at full height. At 10-feet tall, even the Giant's height was rivalled.
"Attack!"
Now recovered from the paralyzing effect, the beast charged towards the summoned creature, club raised in the air, and ready to kill.
"Not so fast, ugly!"
Jax, the parties Guardian, dashed through the outskirts of the clearing, stopping a few feet behind the enormous creature, his dark armour reflecting the light of the moon.
"Don't worry Kiyoko, I've got this!" craning his neck to give his teammate a wink.
"I don't need you to babysit me!"
Jax raised his greatsword with both hands, with a smirk rising on his face.
"Get a load of this you beautiful monstrosity - Anchor Howl!"
Often regarded as the Guardian's signature skill – Anchor Howl forces all enemies within a certain radius of the caster to attack them, and if the call is ignored, they would be struck with a powerful counterattack, making it an extremely effective ability to use in combat.
With his greatsword raised in the air, the Guardian was bathed a bright white light, shaking the ground around him. With the armoured warrior now a beacon in the dark, and the radius of Anchor Howl enveloping the Giant – Jax became impossible to ignore. Turning with an unusual agility, the Giant shifted his weight and charged towards him, only a few feet away, the giant roared with palpable fury, swinging its club wildly in the air.
"Oh crap."
The smirk on Jax's face quickly faded as the fast approaching monstrosity now only had eyes for him, raising his Dragonhorn Greatsword in a defensive posture, he prepared his body for the attack.
The club connected with the Guardian's weapon, releasing a large shockwave from the meeting of the two a temporary stalemate. However, the momentum behind the Giant's attack was far beyond that of Jax's stance, and the Guardian was catapulted backwards, connecting harshly with the ground – and losing 24% of his HP.
'Christ… can't take too many of those… ha…"
The giant leant back and roared, after delivering a powerful blow, before retraining his vision back to his newest victim, the Giant disregarding the substantial assault being delivered by the summoned Golem, throwing punch after punch of solid earth to the creature's back.
A robed healer dashed forward, positioning herself a few feet behind Jax, her robe and foxtail flowed behind her like water as she moved, staying light on her feet. Opening her leather-bound magical tome, Kiyoko swiftly raised her hand, pointing her fingers towards the unsettled Guardian, and channelled a great golden light from her book, activating one of her many Cleric skills.
"Healing Light!"
A great wave of golden wave connected her to Jax, exchanging her MP in order to increase his HP. Healing Light was a basic healing spell, but with a short casting time and low cooldown, it was extremely popular among Clerics.
"Naw, you really like me don't you?"
"If you say another word, I'll kill you myself."
Jax would slowly regain HP for the next 15 seconds, in which time his HP would be full once again. Standing up from his forced sitting position, he refocused his attention towards the clubbed beast.
"Give me a couple of seconds for this spell to work its stuff!" the Guardian yelled to his party members.
"Sure thing!"
"You got it!"
A basic party formation has three key elements in. For any party to be successful for a long period of time at least one Tank, one Healer, and One Damage-Deale are needed. All of which were accounted for. With two Damage-Dealers in the party, their damage output was high then the average 3-person party.
The summoned Golem was continuing to land solid punches onto the back of the Giant, each one making a cracking noise as Earth collided with bone.
Liz drew back her bow again, aiming directly for the back of the Giant's head, with Atrophy Shot still in cooldown, she chose to use another one of her many skills.
"Silent Sniper!"
– An Assassin Skill that allowed those equipped with a Bow and Arrows to silently mark an enemy, increasing the hit and critical rating, and the damage dealt to that target. However the skill can only be used while the caster is stationary, making a tactical choice of when to use this ability, key.
The Assassin's eyes adopted a fluorescent green glow as she focused on her target, filtering out everything else around her. With her bow fully drawn, and stern look on her face, she released her second ability in this combination, and fired the arrow.
"Rapid Shot…"
In the course of a second, barrages of highly trained arrows were fired towards the Giant, ensured to hit their target, and with significant force. Each arrow gave off a brief whistling sound as it whipped past Thomas, like bullets from a rifle. Each bolt connected with the force of a cannonball, hitting the unaware monster at the base of the neck, and knocking it off balance – bringing it to its knees. Screaming out in a cry of pain, surprise and anger.
"Yes! Nice shot!"
Giving a small clap to his party member, the Summoner turned his head back towards the weakened monster.
Thomas' chosen Subclass - "Scholar" - allowed him to access far more information about enemies than any other class from the User Interface, this included; type weaknesses and resistances, as well as current buffs and debuffs affecting the creature, and Anchor Howl would only remain in effect for a few more seconds.
With the Guardian at 85% HP and rising and the Giant at 51%, the battle was looking promising.
Raised his staff towards the recovering behemoth, the Golem now crumbling considerably, was only a few seconds away from destruction, making use of the few seconds he had for his plan to work, Thomas swiftly called for another ability.
"Guardian Fi-WHAAAA…!"
Thomas was sent flying through the air, taking away most of his HP, another Giant had entered the fight slapping the Summoner aside with its huge hand, hitting the ground a moment later - Thomas was down to 23% HP.
The previous Giant had once again stood up, swinging its club around wildly in rage, stirred up by the sudden appearance of another of his kind.
"Oh my god are you kidding me?!"
The whole group, all of whom couldn't believe how suddenly it had appeared, shared Kiyoko's shock.
The Giant rush towards Thomas again, raising its hand to deal the final blow.
The other members of the party stood in shock at the sudden drastic change of the situation.
"B-Black Curtain!"
Slamming his palm to the ground the Summoner called forth another spell - and a stone archway appeared beneath him on the ground, Thomas fell down through the hole, enveloped by a black curtain, and was gone.
Less than a second later, another archway appeared across the clearing, next to Liz, and in an upright position, from which Thomas ejected quickly– flying through with the momentum of his fall, and landing on his back. Raising his arm towards the archway, the magic archway faded, and the passage was gone. Where Thomas and the archway had been only a second ago, there was now a crater where the Giant's hand had connected with the Earth.
"Ughhhhhh… that hurt…"
Thomas exhaled as he spoke, standing himself back up, clearly winded from his unconventional fall. Brushing off his leather waistcoat from the dust, Thomas was verbally assaulted.
"Ugh you idiot! I thought you were going to die!"
Slapping the lucky mage over the back of the head, Liz gave him a brief glare before raising her bow again towards the first Giant.
"Sorry, it took me by surprise!"
"You three, focus on the first Giant, try and kill him before he kills you, I'll get the attention of this latest pain in the arse and keep him busy!"
Jax barked the orders and the four jolted into action, switching sides of the clearing, the Guardian dashed across towards the second Giant, attracting his attention with another Anchor Howl and luring him away from the other three members.
The remaining three rushed towards the first Giant spreading around him so there wasn't an easy target, at 51% HP, the Giant wouldn't pose much of a threat to the three of them together.
"Spark Shot!"
Liz, still moving along the clearing, cast another of her abilities. Spark Shot allowed an Assassin to apply an enchantment to their next arrow, dealing extra electrical damage to the enemy if the skills hits, and increasing the total damage output of the attack.
Releasing her bow as she leapt into the air, the arrow, coated in a blue electrical energy soared through the air and struck the Giant on the temple, dealing a large amount of damage, the Giant temporarily disoriented. Landing on a tree branch at the edge of the clearing, Liz checked her skill cooldown, in 30 more seconds she could cast Atrophy Shot, and in 30 more seconds they could do some considerable damage.
"Thomas, don't rush ahead you idiot, stand still for a second! – Heal!"
The simple healing spell allowed Kiyoko to quickly give her party member a small amount of HP instantly, however, due to the low HP level of the Summoner class, the healing received by Thomas was significant in relation.
With a nod to over this shoulder, Thomas ran to the other side of the Giant.
"Much better, thankyou Darling!"
"Don't call me that! … Martyr Spear!"
Waving one hand over her tome and into the air, Kiyoko sent one of the pages soaring above her head, and from the page emerged a beam of pure sunlight, shaped like a spear. Bringing her palm down to face towards the Giant – the spear charged down, striking from the sky with incredible speed and hitting the Giant directly in the spine. From the cry that erupted from the Giant, the pain must have been tremendous.
Lashing out in a fit of rage, the Giant quickly span with it's club, hoping to strike the cause of the pain, Kiyoko expected as much, however her prediction was not enough – while avoiding the brunt force of the club, she was stuck on the leg – sending her spiralling backwards, and landing hard on the ground. 70% HP.
"Kiyoko! Are you alright? Sure you don't want to sit this one out?'
"Oh shut it, I'm fine, that was nothing"
"Well if you're sure…"
Throwing a thumbs-up to her party member on the ground, Liz began firing a handful more arrows into the enemy, the Giant was now down to 30% HP now.
"Hey Jax! How would you like a little assistance?"
"Send me all the love you can!"
"You got it Guardian. Summon Follower: Harpy!"
Thomas held his staff in the air, holding his palm out towards Jax, and created a summoning circle on the ground between him and the Giant, bright blue in colour, this one was much smaller than the first. After a second, the sound of a single bell chime sounded, and a Harpy flew up with great speed from the ground and into the air – as a half bird, half woman, Harpies were extremely swift with their movements and attacks, and served as useful allies.
Soaring through the air, the Harpy began to fly between the two Giants, slashing them with her sharp talons, and distracting them from the ground attack, in combination with her screeching cries, she was a very difficult creature to pin down – especially to the Giants, who relied more on brute force than speed.
Jax was holding steady at 60% HP, using his own greatsword attacks as well as the Harpies attacks to slowly work down the second Giant's HP, now at 92%. Watching as the Giant brought its club around for another attack, the Guardian had anticipated the move, positioning his greatsword to the right of his body – the club approached from the right and was instantly halted by the large blade – activating a Guardian ability, the monster's attack would lead to its downfall.
"Ding ding ding, we have a winner! … Counter Break!"
Nullifying much of the damage received from the assault, the warrior shifted his weight, removing the stalemate between the two foes, angling his blade and causing the club to fly over his head, temporary putting the Giant of balance and opening a window for attack, and dealing increased damage to the Giant. With the creature leaning over to the right, a window of opportunity had opened for an attack, leaping into the air and striking the left side of the body, Jax's greatsword carved its way through the creature's shoulder – leaving it at 85% HP.
"Aha!"
Landing a few feet behind the Giant, Jax turned as he came to a halt, sliding across the snow-covered ground. Lifting his Greatsword to rest on his shoulder, the warrior took a small bow, adjusting his goggles as he did. Launching himself forward in one swift move, a wave of snow flakes lifted from where he stood, leaving a ripple effect as he moved – sliding underneath the Giants body, the Guardian slashed the legs as he travelled between them – before repositioning himself in front of the beast in one swift movement.
The sounds of battle echoed from the other side of the clearing, alongside the dwindling battle cries of the first Giant, now at only 10% HP, the monster would soon fall. The huge creature swung his weapon wildly, as if angrily swatting for a group of flies, the ground shaking with each missed attack – and leaving another small crater in the earth.
"Almost got it guys! Don't let up – Elemental Bolt!"
Firing an orb of powerful winds towards the Giant, Thomas cheered as their targets health continued to fall.
"Let's finish this, stand back!"
Liz leapt down from another tree - dashing straight towards the Giant before her. Gracefully evading the almighty club, and jumping right onto the huge arm holding the weapon, climbing up the monsters arm, up past the shoulder and the head. Crouching down, she sprung straight up into the night sky, climbing higher and higher before disappearing among the flurry of snow falling from the sky.
"Assassination!"
Like lightning from the heavens, a colossal bolt of blue energy pierced the night sky like the wrath of a God, and crashing directly down onto the Giant's head.
The monster froze; the rage drained from its eyes, leaving a cold, vacant expression. A huge crash was heard as the club was released from the Giant's grasp, barely missing Thomas as he leapt out of the way, into a nearby snow pile.
The behemoth collapsed to the ground as its HP hit 0.
The monster had no life left within its body, and what was left was merely a shell of what once was. With stunned silence, the Summoner and the Cleric stood with their mouths agape, they cast their eyes to each other, then back up to the sky as the Assassin fell back down through the snow, landing with cat-like grace on the Giants prominent stomach.
"It's rude to hold your mouth open – you both know that right? … Besides, Jax is getting is ass handed to him over there. Come on!"
Giving each other one final look of surprise, Thomas and Kiyoko shook themselves back to reality, gathering their thoughts; the two joined Liz and dashed across the clearing – with their next target in sight there was no stopping them now.
5 days ago, due to unknown reasons, 30,000 Japanese players and 1000's more worldwide woke up to find themselves in Theldesia – the fictional world of the MMORPG "Elder Tales" – occupying the bodies of their in-game avatars, with all of their skills and abilities, and with no way back home. This event, now referred to as "The Apocalypse" by the players transported here, had happened without warning, without reason, and it was all real, it was not a dream – and this, was their new reality.