Lynian

"You know, that was a real good move back there Rukia." AD smiled as the raid party continued further into the dungeon. "You have the attention to detail that is crucial to teamwork."

Rukia chuckled and rubbed his head sheepishly. "Yea… Sure… Attention to detail… Have I ever mentioned all those times I've failed the tutorials to the Total War games… I honestly put it down to luck."

Jinx laughed at the memory. "Oh my god, I remember that. Either way, you noticing that was good, otherwise someone would've gotten impatient and either the plan would've fallen apart or something bad would've happened to Miyuki."

The tamer lifted her head at the mention of her name. The long corridor allowed her to split off from her group temporarily and speak with Hanzo. Meanwhile, the rest of her group was paying no heed to Miyuki or Hanzo.

Rukia turned back to Jinx before a PM popped up in his inbox. He saw it was from Miyuki. Quickly looking up at the girl, who was waving as Hanzo tried to keep her hand down.

Thanks for that back there. Rukia smiled at the message, he hadn't expected to get a message from the tamer girl at all… He hadn't even mentioned his name to the girl… How had she gotten his name?

The assassin quickly looked up to see Sachi sticking her tongue out at her guildmate. "I thought I might PM Miyuki and tell her your username. I don't see why not, you did help her out."

Naomi started speaking in a tone awfully like the Batman villain Harley Quinn. "Aww, I ship them so hard." She then began to skip over towards Monkey to speak to him, her hands clasped together behind her back.

"Oh come on, don't say that, you're going to embarrass someone Naomi." Jinx look at her with a disapproving glare as Rukia started typing a reply.

No problem, it was a total fluke :P Just a question, I'm sure you can see the name of the axe wielder in your group in the Party list, what's his name? Rukia sent the PM and started to toss his knife up in a spin, catching the handle after one spin.

After a short wait, he got a reply. Well, it was an awesome fluke. Anyway, the guy's name is Slaya. Rukia read the message as snickered, trying to make sure no one outside his guild heard him. He had always expected there would be people in this game who used the (not-so) "cool" sounding usernames, but he was yet to find one.

You totally sure it's not something like xX_ScrubReker69_Xx or something? Rukia thought it was probably a bit too stereotypical for someone to have a username like that, but he couldn't pass up the thought of asking.

Miyuki's reply was just an emoji this time. :D She seemed to have gotten the joke. He looked back and saw Miyuki sticking her tongue out in jest while Hanzo looked disappointed in her. Both of the two seeing that the final area was coming up, they got back into their groups before Gaol announced the strategy.

"Okay, this boss fight goes in three stages. The first the boss will be relatively docile, it acts like it's asleep, occasionally pawing away anyone who goes in for an attack. During this stage two Sparking Gnolls will spawn and every thirty seconds from this point onwards they will respawn if one has been slain."

"The second part occurs when the boss has lost one of three life bars. The boss will wake up and begin actively pursuing the people who have the most aggro on it. Its attacks have a small chance to paralyse you, so try to dodge. It mainly uses swipes at this point, but it may also use its jaws to bite you and counter with a fairly predictable electrical shock. All groups will attack at this point, and make sure you try to even out your DPS amoung all groups."

Gaol glared at Slaya, who pretended not to notice. During the previous fights he had shown off an absurdly high DPS, clearly higher level. However, it was a skill that his weapon could turn on and off, as sometimes his DPS was lower than the average. The axe wielder simply shrugged.

"From here the Gnolls will no longer respawn, so kill them off fast during this stage. Hanzo and Slaya, you two have the highest solo DPS, so you two kill them." Hanzo nodded silently, Slaya gave a toothy grin.

"The third part is the toughest. At this point his attack increases, as does his movespeed. His attack arsenal increases to have a tail swipe at the rear, a roar that flinches, and a pounce, as well as two specials. The first special occurs every 45 seconds, it's similar to his counter, but the move covers a slightly larger radius and it deal much, much heavier damage."

"The other is a move that causes telegraphed lightning bolts to strike random areas on the ground. This occurs every 100 seconds. We will need someone from Group C and the shield bearer from Group C to stand to one side and count." The shield bearer and his partner had both nodded in unison. "You can rejoin the fight during stage two, but as soon as you see his second health bar almost gone, go back to the side and start counting. Call out each timing, and when it's stage three one of you count one and the other count the second." The duo nodded again.

"One last thing, the boss doesn't actually spawn until all 24 players, or all players who entered the dungeon," Goal was clearly referencing if Miyuki had missed the raid, "enter the boss room.

There was a unanimous nod of understanding throughout all the other 23 players as they streamed into the room. One the last person entered, a large iron gate opened itself and a large lion-like creature with cyan colour fur appeared from behind the gate. As it entered, it looked around as if sizing up its foes before it grew seemingly bored and fell asleep.

"Well, that was an interesting way to start a boss fight." Rukia commented as it lifted one of its paws and two Sparking Gnolls appeared. The health bar of the raid boss also appeared. Lynian, the Thunder Beast.

Rukia murmured to himself and the rest of his group as duo from Group A went off to the side and started counting out loud. "It looks like a weird cross between the Zinogre and a Herdier. They couldn't think of anything more original than gold and teal fur?"

Lynian was a dog-like creature, similar to a heavily oversized Dachshund, with teal fur covering the top half of its body like a blanket, gold fur beneath, and a Kanji symbol over its face, also in teal fur. Its tail was the only thing that really differentiated it from a dog, with the long, flat tail almost three quarters the size of its body. It also had plates of what looked like a teal exoskeleton, shielding its shoulders, face and tail.

"Someone was clearly drunk while creating this monster" Slaya yelled out before rushing at the monster without a lead from his party.

"Wait up, didn't you hear what Gaol said?" Miyuki screamed out as Slaya jumped and landed right in the middle of a playful swat from the beast. The rest of his group started chuckled while Miyuki looked genuinely concerned about the Axe-wielder's well-being.

"Alright, we'll switch out each of our three groups every 30 seconds. Me and AD will go first, then Rukia and Sachi, and finally Monkey and Naomi. After 30 seconds the next group will call Switch and the first group fall back. If you see the current group struggling, switch with them and let them heal up. Everyone got that?"

The Crows of Saika nodded as Jinx as AD charged at almost matching speeds towards the beast, along with the other groups. Gaol's group was clearly doing the same as the Crows, while group C minus Hanzo and Group D minus Miyuki were attacking the monster.

Rukia and Naomi were both surprised to see that some of the members of Miyuki's group were actively getting buffs from her familiar Leila. Unsurprisingly, Slaya wasn't one of them. Hanzo had gone to fight solo, which seemed to work perfectly fine for him and his partner was working as a group of three.

"30, let's go Rukia." Sachi tapped on her partner's shoulder, then rushed. "Jinx, AD, switch!" As soon as she shouted the command, Jinx stood behind AD, who spread her axe-head across her body like a makeshift shield in case any attack came their way.

As soon as they were clear, Rukia lunged forward with frightening agility and slashed at Lynian's legs. Sachi pulled out her spear and started to jab it into the sleeping monster's torso, cursing that she couldn't do any slashing attacks.

They continued this pattern, surprised that they weren't targeted by any attacks until they heard Naomi yell out "Switch!" Sachi equipped her Sword and Shield and did a similar thing to AD and Jinx, walking backwards until they were out of harm's way.

Jinx sighed as soon as Rukia and Sachi returned. "30 seconds was way too short. I think we'll make it one minute intervals, there isn't enough DPS from out group because about 10 seconds is wasted switching. I've already told the other two."

Rukia could hear the disappointment in his friend's voice. "Hey, Jinx, come on. This raid isn't like other MMOs, you just didn't account for that… Ever if we've been in this game for almost a year now."

Jinx smirked. "You could've just left it with the first bit… But then again, that's never like you."

AD and Sachi left the two friends to spend some amount of time not fighting with each other while they watched Naomi and Monkey's synergy in their attacks. Naomi would swing her greatsword in a massive arc while Monkey vaulted out of the way just in time to not get hit, and land just after her attack ended while striking the monster with the upward force of the quarterstaff.

"Hey Sachi, you think you and Rukia would ever work that well together?" AD teased before she went back to counting.

Sachi glared at her at the idea. "Seriously… AD… Me and him… You're kidding, right?" AD smiled at the reaction.

"Twenty four, Tsundere, Twenty six." The blacksmith grinned again, seeing the annoyance in her guildmates' face. "Okay, I know it's never going to happen, I'm just playing around Sachi."

"Thirty one." Sachi had counted for AD just in case the blacksmith lost her place. AD smiled her thanks before going back to her counting. "Jinx, you sure me and AD can't swap places? I'm sure the two blacksmiths could pound this thing's face in with their hammers a lot easier." AD scowled at her before turning back to the main battle

"Guys, hostiles incoming." AD shouted, completely ignoring her counting. One of the Sparking Gnolls had targeted their group while Hanzo was dispatching the other one.

Jinx unsheathed his sword, spinning it to meet the oncoming opponent. "No you can't swap. I don't care what you think, you and Rukia work well together, and the two of you with slightly weaker weapons lowers our DPS when it gets too high." He deflected the Gnoll's attack before slashing it. "Monkey, Naomi, switch. Lower your DPS slightly next time, try to make sure that Group A and C have the most aggro."

The six guildmates continued their cycle, utilising the same battle strategies for about three minutes before the boss' health was low enough for the second phase to begin.

Lynian woke up and glared at everyone in the room, the beast's eyes annoyed but not enraged. It moved towards each group, appearing to study them before returning to the centre of the arena and growling a challenge at the raid party.

"Well, I have no idea what happened." Jinx just looked at the massive beast, who was just standing there and waiting.

Rukia grinned, attempting to mask a laugh. "I'm half expecting it to say something at the end like 'Look how far you've come Pit, I'm proud of you,' when we beat it." He got one or two looks of confusion from his guildmates, which by now he just shrugged off.

The duo from group C who had allocated themselves to counting returned to their group to help fight the raid boss as Slaya and Hanzo quickly finished off the Gnolls that still remained. Directly afterwards, Slaya ran at Lynian without a second thought.

Rukia, Sachi and Monkey all saw it, there was almost a grin over the raid boss' face as Slaya charged it. Electrical energy started to charge in its fur. It was going to counter. None of them were going to say anything though. The axe-wielder was probably able to take blows, they were usually kind of tanky players. Plus he was an ass.

As Slaya slammed his axe into the monster's fur, the electrical energy that it had been building up released. The axe-wielder was launched back into the black wall where he fell to the ground. He got up, rubbing his head in annoyance.

Lynian then roared again and ran straight at group D, ready to strike. It lifted its fur covered paw, ready to swing it. It came swinging at the group vertically. The first of the group noticed that the paw wasn't at any sort of angle.

"DUCK!" A saber wielder at the front of the group shouted, as all of the group instinctively crouched, including Miyuki who dodged with surprising grace.

The monster seemed pissed that its attack missed and now targeted a lone Hanzo, his sword unsheathed and ready to attack. Lynian lunged at Hanzo, who dodged out of the way to reveal his group running behind him, their shield bearer now out front.

Group C, Hanzo having rejoined them at the back, were up the closest to Lynian. Hanzo had built up the second highest aggro next to Slaya, causing him to be another of Lynian's targets. The longsword wielder had the backup of his group. At the same time, the rest of the groups began to rush down the boss. Groups A and C, both having a shield bearer, being at the front of the charge to eat up the boss' attacks.

Like Gaol had said, it was mainly attacking with its paws, occasionally coating itself with electricity and attempting to counter a blow from Hanzo, Slaya or Gaol. Slaya was the only person not in the group, instead fighting from the other side of the beast. The trigger happy axe wielder was laughing with each hit Lynian. His wild abandon with the axe was causing every one of Lynian's counters to hit him, but he didn't care. He just wailed away like a sadistic warrior until he eventually got paralysed by the monster.

Lynian had focused on Goal and Hanzo, seemingly ignoring the axe-crazy Slaya. As soon as the beast had paralysed Slaya though, it instantly turned around as if waiting for the ailment to take effect. It picked up Slaya in its mouth and shook him around like a ragdoll. Slaya wasn't taking as much damage as the average level player would have from the attack.

"I've heard that the AI in this game is built to adapt, but that was unexpected." Rukia shouted out watching, albeit with some glee at the display, Slaya get thrown around.

Gaol jumped behind his shield bearer before replying. "I don't know. Usually it wouldn't have ignored him like that, maybe these kind of bosses adapt after each kill." He had a hesitant tone in his vice. Gaol had faced Lynian before, so its pattern changing would have been a real shock to him.

After Lynian threw Slaya, he then turned around and bit on one of the shield bearers' shields sideways, ripping the metal from his grip and swiped him away. He went flying, but he was able to unequip and re-equip the shield fast enough in the air than he stopped himself from entirely crashing into the now electrically charged wall.

Just as Lynian was about to do the same to the other shield bearer, Hanzo jumped out in front of the shield and rammed his sword straight through Lynian's mouth and out the top of the beast's head. The attack did a large amount of damage to the boss, making it flinch back.

"Was… that a weak spot? I don't think anyone has ever struck him in the mouth before." Gaol was standing there in awe at the damage that Hanzo had just dealt. His stab had taken away over half of the beast's second health bar, leaving it with only a sliver of health left.

"Who cares, let's start taking this thing down!" Slaya yelled out with a menacing enthusiasm. He rushed the monster head first, who was unable to charge up a counter in time.

Gaol yelled quickly to Group C. "Alright, whoever was counting, remember, 45 and 100 are his specials. Call out two seconds early so the slower ones of the group can react." He shot a glance at Slaya, who didn't appear to notice.

As soon as Slaya's attack landed, Lynian roared with tremendous force, pushing back Slaya and anyone else in a close vicinity. Both Naomi and Monkey were in the roar's range, as were the majority of Group D, bar Miyuki. They were thrown back against the wall where Lynian shot a bolt of lightning, electrifying the conductive substance.

The group was electrified, a few people getting afflicted by the paralysis ailment. Naomi was one of the unlucky members who was unable to act.

"Leila, you help the paralysed ones. I'll fight for a bit." Miyuki said hesitantly. She clearly wasn't that skillful a fighter. She unsheathed her weapon, a fairly flimsy looking knife and charged.

Hanzo appeared displeased with his guildmate's actions, but continued fighting the beast. It was the most dangerous at lower health, so anything he could do to focus aggro onto himself would have been beneficial.

"Rukia, Sachi, AD, the three of you go in. I'll join you when Naomi and Monkey are ready." Jinx yelled out, heading towards his other two guildmates.

"Sachi, you go front, Rukia and I will be either side of you. Keep your shield up at all times." AD commanded as the three got into position. The other groups gathered their members who weren't temporarily out of commission and charged in in an attempt to finish off the monster as soon as possible.

Rukia and AD was trading blows against the monster while falling back behind their teammate whenever Lynian targeted them. Any attempt to grab hold of Sachi's shield from the beast was met with a quick slash to the face that deterred the beast.

"Counter in 2!" One of the timers shouted out, and everyone backed away quickly. Lynian's fur because coated in electricity which exploded in a small radius around him.

"How many are left to heal, Miyuki?" Gaol yelled out quickly. The tamer fell back to check on Leila's progress.

"Only Slaya left." She called as the familiar was hesitantly running towards him.

Gaol hesitated for a second before pulling out a paralysis curing potion. "Call Leila off." The raid leader threw Slaya the potion as Miyuki called her familiar back.

Rukia watched the conversation, hoping that it wouldn't be a mistake later. He understood Gaol's reasoning, Slaya would have probably taken the chance to attack Miyuki's familiar, but now he could blame the two of them if anything went wrong. And he wouldn't be wrong either.

After everyone was cured of their paralysis or just recovered from being slammed onto a wall, the raid party surrounded the monster. They had the two members on the side who were counting down so they knew when the stronger attacks would happen.

Lynian flipped over in the air, slamming its tail into Group A, their shield bearer unprepared for the attack. Four of the members were knocked aside, Gaol and a Pike-wielder were able to roll out of the way.

Almost instantly afterwards, a blue energy started coursing through Lynian's fur. Lightning bolts began to come down from the ceiling, striking telegraphed areas on the ground. "Counter, where was the warning. I thought I told yo-"

"It's only been 70 seconds. There were 30 seconds left." Gaol was glad that no one could see his face behind his thick black helmet.

"How! Every time we've faced this thing it's been 100 seconds. It can't have been patched right. That bastard can't have patched it now!" Gaol was shouting as Lynian swiped a tail at group B.

Jinx and AD were both tending to Rukia and Monkey, both of whom were hit by the bolts of electricity due to the lack of warning. Sachi had pushed Naomi out of the way and blocked the attack herself with her shield.

"Damn it you two. Are you gonna be alright?" Jinx looked at both of them, checking the HUD in the upper-right corner for their statuses. Rukia had taken a large amount of damage due to his assassin style stat distribution, and Monkey had taken less. Both their damage over the course of the raid had pushed the two of them below half health.

AD smiled at the two of them calmly. "I think Jinx'll agree with me when I say you two should sit out for the rest. Go help out the guys timing the attacks. We can't have you guys dying on us now." Her smile because slightly laboured at the thought. Jinx nodded his agreement with her sentiment.

"I think you guys should sit out until Naomi is half health. Once that happens, I'll send her over to you guys and you'll all take a health pot quickly. I thin you'll agree with me when I say you aren't as much help as some in this fight due to your styles, so we can let you rest up a bit." Rukia and Monkey both nodded begrudgingly at Jinx. The snuck over to the timers, doubling the count of one just in case.

It wasn't long before the next command came. "Counter in 2, back away now!" This time, everyone, including Slaya, backed away from the attack. The sadistic fighter was aware of how little health he had left and wasn't gonna waste it by charging in head first.

The fight continued with Rukia and Monkey sidelined, both surprised how long it was taking for Naomi to take a hit, and why they were thinking a selfishly sadistic thought like that. "Rukia, sometimes I get surprised at her agility. Seriously, that thing is heavy, I've actually tried lifting it once."

Rukia laughed before going back to doubling the lightning timer. He quickly went over the math in his head. It had been about 100 seconds after the third and final phase had started, given that two counters had gone off and both Monkey and the Group C fighter were on around 10. There had definitely been a patch to change the behaviour of this boss or something, because the boss wasn't using that same lightning bolt attack at this time.

The next thing that would happen was another counter at 135 seconds followed almost instantly by a lightning strike. Lynian's health was only down to about half, so there would still be a few more counters till it was finished.

"You think all of us will get outta here safely?" Rukia whispered to Monkey so that the two other people couldn't hear.

Monkey just shrugged without saying anything.

As the fight continued, Lynian did its counter once again, this time the group were all able to avoid the attack. As soon as the electricity left the beast's fur, the raid party went back to whittling down Lynian's HP as much as possible before the next major attack. Most of the group was starting to pick up on the quirks of the boss' movement. It's habit of picking up the two shield-bearers in it's maw, or anyone else who might've been a threat, was no longer an issue now that people found that it had a weak point in its mouth.

People were still getting damaged, no one's reaction times were perfect. A swipe from the beast's paw or tail would till catch people off guard. However, people we're losing health as quickly as they had been.

"Counter again in two." Electricity began charging around Lynian, everyone jumping out the way quickly.

It didn't seem like the person currently counting for the thunderstrike was going to begin at seventy. He seemed to be continuing, although Rukia couldn't be sure. "5 seconds to thunderstrike."

The person counting shot him an angry glare before seeing a light blue circle appear around his feet. He instantly jumped away, cursing as he did as a bolt of lightning struck the spot he was just standing on. However, the interesting part of the attack was what Lynian did with most of the lightning.

The beast had controlled the lightning to occur in the areas the group had jumped back into. The ones with faster reaction times were able to avoid the attack, as were the ones near shield bearers, but at least four of the members of the raid party were struck for devastating damage.

"Anyone who is below half health, stand out of the battle. Try to avoid being near Lynian at all times. He's close to being defeated, so you don't have to jump back into the battle." Gaol shouted a command to the entire group as six people, including the four who had been heavily damaged by the lightning, ran over to the same area as Rukia and Monkey.

"Good to see that the rest of our guild is still going strong, 'ey Monkey." Rukia grinned, praying that the sudden rise of people in their vicinity would lead to one person's aggro causing the entire group to be targeted.

Monkey chuckled and replied quick a quick nod.

Rukia grinned mischeviously at his friend. "Stop gawking at Naomi and speak for once." Monkey seemed a bit peeved until he say Rukia poke out his tongue.

"You stop gawking at AD and maybe I will." Rukia's jaw practically hit the floor at the retort, almost forgetting that they were in the middle of a raid battle.

Lynian's final health bar was in the red. It was getting just ready for a counter as the rest of the group stood their ground.

Except for Slaya.

Seeing Miyuki out in the open, not of his traitorous group anywhere near her, he thought of the perfect opportunity. He snuck up behind the tamer girl and grabbed her like a human shield before charging at Lynian. As the electricity of the counter coursed through the monster's fur, Slaya threw Miyuki at the monster before striking it with his axe. The electricity centralized on the tamer girl, striking her to red HP, while Slaya abused the diversion to swing multiple times furiously at Lynian.

It wasn't enough to take the beast down, but he was grinning in satisfaction.

The rest of the raid party could only watch in disbelief at what they almost hated to call a strategy. Slaya was almost basking in the dirty looks he was being given.

After they stopped trying to understand why Slaya had just pulled that dirty tactic, the group began to close back in on Lynian, Slaya included. The beast only had a sliver of its health left, one of two strikes would finish it.

As everyone seemingly clambered over each other to get the last hit bonus, a large number of swords, axes and other weapons plunged into the beast. It exploded into a violent flash of white light, no one quite knowing who had finished off the boss.

Everyone was checking the congratulations screens to see if they had been the one to finish it, while the Crows of Saika, Rukia and Monkey quickly rejoining them all laid back in exhaustion. It wasn't until a few seconds later that Jinx noticed Sachi's message looked different. He tapped on her shoulder and gestured at the message.

"Hey, guess who just got a now so worthless spear type after all." Sachi finally looked at her screen before screaming out 'Yes' louder than she had intended. She quickly equipped her new weapon to see how it looked.

Rukia smiled. "Gods that does look like Son Hak's naginata... glaive... whatever from Akatsuki no Yona. Imagine if Kayaba could be sued for copyright infringement and we'd all get out of here that way." The rest of his guild laughed along before Sachi took a few test swings of her new weapon.

"Oi, bitch! That weapon is mine!" Everyone's attention suddenly turned to Slaya, who was shouting at Sachi. "I know I got the last hit, not you!"

Gaol could sense something bad might happen soon. "Listen, you need to step out for a secon-"

Without warning, Slaya lunged forward and drove his massive axe into Gaol's shoulder. "That's what you get for leaving me to die you bastard. Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill you. Yet."

He walked towards the hallway that marked the exit. "You know, I never really thought about being a red player until just now. I've heard of some interesting rumours about some guilds that I might look into. Until then, watch your bloody backs." He teleported back to an unknown location, leaving a sour taste in the air of what should have been a celebration.

"I... have nothing to say. I apologize for that." Gaol looked at the massive gash in his shoulder then at his health bar. "I think it would be best to break up now before anyone gets too sour about what just happened."

A unanimous, silent nod was shared by all the participants as each teleported to various towns, in groups or alone.

"Teleport, Mechania!" The command echoed amoung the Crows of Saika as the transported themselves back home.

There was a frown on most of the guild member's faces, even though they were all happy for Sachi. It was likely that at some point, Sachi and Rukia might both have targets on their backs from Slaya, especially if he joined one of those rumoured PK guilds.

"Let's get some sleep guys, we'll train with Sachi's new weapon in the morning." It wasn't even sundown yet, but everyone was exhausted from the events and no one argued with Jinx's statement.

Heeeeey, Hiatus is finally over. Exams are finished so I don't need to worry about school work till next year. I plan to do another tie in with the show's storyline (the second half of Red-Nosed Reindeer) before a bit of a collab with someone. If you have anything to say, please write a review. Any criticisms you have I can try to implement into my story/writing.