Chapter Seven
Disclaimer
I don't own Mabinogi nor any NPC's connected. Either Devcat or Nexon does.
A/N
So how does one fight in Mabinogi when they are on the other side of screen from where they normally stand? I poised that question in the last chapter's notes. However, as my stories sometimes does, the chapter wrote itself were the question was not answered. Let's see if it gets answered this question.
I followed Dan into the first room of what I affectionally call the "Spider Shadow Mission." I call it that for the amount spiders you fight in the central hall in these catacombs of Castle Rath.
I switched to my glades. Everyone can do a basic attack. Reason I do not know how to fight is special attacks like smash have to be loaded. Suddenly I am aware I have loaded up smash. 'How in the world? I just thought about smash and it loaded? I thought about it earlier but it did not load. Maybe I have to be in a combat environment first. Have to test this out in the SM.'
And tested I did, I found out very quickly all I have to do is think of the move I wish to make in order to make it happen. However, I have to remember the name of the moves first. Wish there was an easier method. In our world martial artist have trained reflexes that move on instinct so the martial artist does not have to think as much. Maybe I can train those reflexes here since I am in this body and all. Have to try it out later but now have to concentrate.
Dan is amazing. He said he can solo this dungeon at this difficulty and I am inclined to believe him. I wonder how he handles them spiders since they like to attack in huge groups and in waves. Have to wait and see. I am mostly keeping out of Dan's way and handle only those that agro on me. After this is over, I know I have some major training ahead of me.
When we reached the central room where the spiders attack, I learned how Dan handles these waves of spiders. First off he done this so many times he know which direction they are coming from and when so he lays ice mines in between wave. Secondly, he calls his pets that lay waste to fomors upon entrance like his dragons. Then there is his superb ability to fight. It seems Dan mastered all the fighting forms Mabinogi has to offer and uses the best of the best. In short, he makes quick work of each wave and has spare time in between waves to rest.
Suddenly we see it. The reason I could not leave this difficult dungeon. The glitched fomor was a spider but this was no ordinary spider. This spider was the size of a mountain and it had a rather eerie yellowish glow. How the hell am I supposed to take down this thing? Thankfully, one of Dan's ice mines caught it thus giving me time to prepare.
First, I switch to my Mace and shield. I called the spirit up, "That's the beast I am to fight isn't?"
"Yes Master it is. Have you discovered how to use some of your abilities yet?"
"I have, Juni."
"I am not that person anymore," she said sadly.
"To me you will always be Juni." She smiled warmly at Jack. "Now Juni, we have work to do. How do I use you?"
"Just fight with me as you normally would fight. It will be apparent all too quickly how we can defeat this thing. Oh and if you use me in conjunction with you trans form I can extend the time limit of being transed till after the battle and that includes your transed pet as well. However, I can only do this during a fight with a glitched battle. Also the added power you will see during this fight is only with a glitched battle as well."
Transed form? Oh, she means the Paladin transformation. And my transed pet, could she be referring to Staton. Yes, of course she is referring to him. I quickly call him up. He is still looking at me strangely. I never recalled seeing any of my pets doing that when this was still a game to me.
"Quickly Jack! That thing will break out any second," warned Dan who was fighting off the minor spiders. Minor spiders in this situation is laughable considering those thing can kill me rather quickly normally.
I thought about the Paladin Skill and poofed, both Staton and I transformed into Holy Knights. Nice!
"It is a pleasure to be working with you again, Jack. I am pleased you were able to heal our bond," said Staton.
"YOU CAN TALK!" I exclaimed in total shock.
"I always could while transed but you were unable to hear me. Now you can and I sensed something changed about you? Do I sense Junipers on you as well? How can this be when I know you and her was the same person? "
"Well you might say we've been thru some changes. Now she is the spirit of the spirit weapon. As for myself, well let's just say I became more of a militant that the other militants here."
Juni popped up in astral form taking on a form closer to her old avatar self, "Hello Staton. It is a pleasure to see you again. As I explained to Jack, I contain all the memories of the experiences he had playing as Juni. I remember working with you countless times bringing down some rather high-level fomors. It's a pleasure to be working again with you even if it is in this form."
The glitched spider broke out of the ice. "Time for talk is over. I see you can move freely too Staton. We can work on fighting maneuvers later. For now you hit him low and I hit him high!"
Staton cried, "ROGER!"
Dan at that point had finished his job of decimating the last of the group of spiders in the room. That only left the one big glitched spider. He decided to play dead and leave that fight to me. He later described the battle and what he described astounded me. As he told me the events, I remembered each of them and thought nothing of it at the time.
I moved very freely during the battle. He even saw me duck a few blows, which no one was able to do in normal battle, you use a special skill to counter the blows, or you get hit. I was fighting freelancing using special skills to boost my rather unorthodox fighting style. Sure, I still countered his special skill attacks with my own skills but I have the added bonus be able to freely flowing during this fight. He remembers the best part was when I duck a blow and used windmill followed by assault slash.
My mace was impressive to. He never had seen a spirit weapon that crackled with that much power. The glitched fomor seemed to its own kind of power shield, which the mace easily smashed thru. Poor Staton was having a very difficult time in the battle, as his attacked was not effective at all in the battle.
"Jack, recall me and call Airohk," requested Staton.
"Why?" I had to ask.
"Because you need a pet stronger than me and besides I am willing to wager he will get a power boost like I am getting from Juni."
"Power Boost?"
"I can boost the power of your pets but only during a glitched fomor battle. Staton's boost was not enough for this particular fomor. The more powerful the pet - the higher the boost. Airohk, being your dragon, would get an incredible boost."
Since I was not making headway in this battle I did as Staton requested. When Airohk popped up, his fire backlash knocked the hell of the glitched spider. It was incredible how more powerful he was. I immediately did an assault slash, which caused the beast shield to burst apart; there was no more shield then.
The creature landed near Dan so Airohk jumped over and grabbed two of the spider's legs and flung it to the other end of the hall where I used charge to knock the heck out of it again. Airohk flew over and said, "Hop on!"
At this point, I was over being surprised that Airohk had suddenly gained the ability to talk to me, of course he could. We flew to a point over Dan and turn back to the creature. Airohk then let out the fiercest fire breath I have ever seen in any kind of media. Airohk then said, "Now Jack."
I understood what he meant for I had assault slash loaded up. I flew thru the air and my mace filled the air with crackling energy. As the attack made contact, the spider erupted into a zillion pieces and its guts splattered everywhere. I hope this messy ending to the battle is not the norm for all the other glitched battles to come.
After we completed the rest of the SM, Dan and I went up to his homestead. I relished it for it was the first time I have been up in his homestead with him there. Yes, I visited it without him a number of times but this is with him as an invited guest. I felt honored.
After we recalled and retold the battle to each other, we rejoiced. "Jack. That was one intense battle. I have never seen anyone fight with such intensity before. I was indeed honored to see it."
"I know what you mean, Dan. I don't think I will be saying 'I don't know how to fight yet' ever again."
We both laugh hysterically at that joke. "No. I don't suppose you will. I now know who to call if the situation ever gets sticky."
I looked at Dan speculatively, "The way you fight and your level? I hate to see the situations you call sticky."
"That glitched monster would be sticky to me."
I built a fire and sat down watching the flames. Surprising it was nighttime and it was dark. I must be the reason for this. With my presence, the flow time at the homestead flowed freely instead of being stuck on daylight hours. Even that depressed me. Dan noticed very quickly, "What got you down buddy?"
"I am just homesick I guess."
"I know what you mean Jack but you are missing the bigger picture."
"What bigger picture, Dan?"
"Remember we talked about this a while back. You are inside the game my friend. You are living the dream for real. How cool is that?"
I had to smile. He was right. It was pretty cool that I was in the game I so loved to play for hours at a time each day. I would get home from a very hectic day at work and turn on Mabinogi and I would forget my day's worries as I cleared a dungeon or two.
Suddenly the warning signal of an impending maintenance was about happen. "I have to log out for maintenance," stated Dan. "Umm how are you going to ride this out safely?"
"The Goddess, Morrighan, said I will be safe on my own homestead. So I guess I better go too. Later Dan!"
Dan evidently signed off. As for me I quickly left his homestead and entered mine own and none too soon for the maintenance just started as I saw the portal to my homestead disappear. I was wondering how that would work. I bet when the portal reappears the maintenance would be over. Yippie! I tried to settle in but there is just nothing to do on my homestead right now besides being bored to tears.
A/N
I hope you liked the battle sequence as much as I liked writing it. An explanation of what each of the combat skills does can be found in mabinogi wiki or you can simply google them. That and YouTube should be more than enough to get acquainted with them enough to understand this chapter. And no, dragons cannot fly in dungeons normally. They can only do so in specified zones and dungeons are not one of them.
Don't forget to leave me comment, please. Thanks and later!
