-Alice-

  The others arrived just as the monster pulled itself to its feet. Why… why was Luca’s head attached to that thing? “Luca?” I muttered. It melted into black tar and sunk into the undead’s black flesh.

  Shadow gave me a squeeze. “It’s not her. It’s a trick by the demon.” Said Shadow getting to her feet. She was holding me like a small child. The smell of sweat was coming off of her making her smell like a stray cat.

  “Where is Izzy?” I asked while Squirming in an attempt to free myself from this crazy cat lady. Her claws were poking me a little. Had I become a cat toy? I was reminded of my mom’s old cat Nibbles, who used to play with the rats in our house like they were toys, instead of killing them.

  “Master is over by where the flames are. I’ve been trying to get over to her, but this monster has been kicking my butt.” She said.

  “Lets take care of it then! Put me down!” I demanded feeling very uncomfortable. I could go all spaghetti and droop out of her grip, but I refuse to resort to such childish methods. I’m an adult not a kid. I should be treated with respect. After all I’m probably older than this home wrecker.

  “Sorry, you’re just so cute.” She gushed, setting me on the ground. “I’m going to add you to the guild.” A screen appeared between us. She swiped away at it with lightning speed.

  I was surprised when a notification suddenly showed up telling me I’d joined The Raiders guild. “Whoa, that’s so many stat points and buffs!” I exclaimed.

  “Sorry, I should have done it sooner, but I had no idea it would get like this. Then we got separated too.” She said.

  I did my thing and gave Shadow an attack, speed, focus, and cloak buff. She fell into formation with the other assassin’s while I ran over to our mage, and cleric. The mage began dropping de-buffs while the tanks got its attention with war cry.

  The mob fired blasts of dark energy from what looked to be its mouth. Sir Boner and Mr. Thrud used their shields to block the magic and ended up taking damage. Our cleric began healing them and even gave them a boost to their maximum HP.

  I started to re-buff our fighters as Sapphire fired off shots at the undead. Her gun did a good amount of damage and was always on point.

  The archer pelted the boss with arrows, using skills like multi shot, charged arrow and stun shot to do extra damage and stagger the boss. Our berserker rushed in swinging his large sword and activating a skill. “timber!” his blade glowed a dark red, as both HP and focus were zapped away to power his attack.

  The monk however was a blur of speed landing several strategic lightning fast punches before the berserker could connect. The berserkers blade hit with a heavy clang, sending a cutting stream of blood red energy up the bosses body.

  His attack did good damage while the monk’s riddled the boss with defense de-buffs. Their team work was perfect. The two of them were in perfect harmony with each other, as if they had been fighting together for years.

  Shadow, Kyle, and the other assassin began to dismantle the boss by momentarily appearing and slashing at its back. That cat even used a powerful skill cutting deep into the Boss with giant violet blades.

  Sapphire kept blasting away at him. Each shot from her rifle ripped away a nice chunk of HP. The bosses health bar had dropped by 13%. It wouldn’t be long before the fight was over.

  That was when something unbelievable happened. The boss swung it’s weapon attacking Mr. Thrud. He lifted his shield to block, but the shadow-like blade went right through, cutting him in half.

  It was an Instant death. The armor and shield wasn’t even broken, but why? From behind me I heard. “It’s sword ignores defense! Don’t let it hit you!” yelled Sapphire in a panic.

  That was way to overpowered. It only took a single hit! This is so unfair! Thrud even had his health boosted. This was wrong. What was even the point of buffing him up? I gave Boner another refresh on his buffs, but I wasn’t sure if it would really help.

  A large dark magic circle appeared under the boss. Cold air rushed over the entire area. Everyone including me was suddenly hit with multiple de-buffs.

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  It was too fast and all at once. My body was so heavy and slow. I couldn’t see or even speak. Several of the spells in my hot bar were unavailable, but luckily holy light was. I activated it, coating everyone in a wave of golden energy.

  The curses were broken In an instant. Rank 2 Boss’s are way too strong. Being able to inflict so many de-buffs at once was ridiculous. The worst part was that the silence spell prevented skill usage.

  What was that thing Izzy said? That it was random, but each slot in your hot bar had a 50% chance of locking up. If Holy light had been sealed, we would have really been in trouble.

  What would Izzy do? That blade was the current problem. He would come up with a clever way to defend against it, but how. I remembered something from a while ago.

  Izzy and I were watching a show where a guy avoided a gun shot. I told him that was impossible, but he said it was just very unlikely. It turned into a debate and I remember what he said to try and justify it.

  “Its not about being faster than the bullet. Its about knowing where the shooter is aiming and watching their body language. Everyone always looks directly into the gun, but where you should really be looking is their eyes and fingers.”

  It was still pretty much impossible, unless you were powered like I am now, but still. He had a point. Instead of worrying about the sword I should focus on the guy.

  Boner avoided the Boss’s sword as best he could. It lifted its blade in the air for a downward strike. This was my chance! “Protect!” My spell went off forming a shield at the boss’s arm. It’s forearm slammed into the shield preventing the sword from striking down.

  Boner dashed forward activating an ability. “Slash!” the berserker and monk also threw skills at the boss while the assassin’s attacked the right leg. Attacking the leg caused it to fall to one knee. This made it harder for it to swing it's blade.

  It’s HP dropped dramatically. I wanted to help more, so I slotted out two of my spells and used my strongest attack. “Winter Frost!” a giant blue magic circle appeared under the boss. Followed by an explosion of swirling cold wind and ice.

  Frost began to cover its body in a white icy layer. I was a bit disappointed when my ice magic did little damage, but I was hoping for the de-buff that came with the spell.

  As soon as the ice covered it’s entire body the brittle de-buff took hold. With it, physical based attacks would do way more damage and the slowness effect would make avoiding it’s hits easier.

  This didn’t stop it from firing multiple shots of black energy at everyone. Boner couldn’t cover it all so I activated Protect to save the support team. It worked and the shield managed to take several blasts before cracking.

  I used the second spell I had equipped. “Iceball!” a blue magic circle appeared over my hand as a ball of water formed condensing into packed ice. I fired it off aiming for the monsters center. It hit cracking the frost on its body and doing massive blunt damage, thanks to the brittle effect.

  The mage dropped as many de-buffs as he could. While our cleric gave much needed healing to our front line. Everyone was chipping away at the boss’s HP when another wave of dark magic passed over us.

  I was hit with every de-buff known to shadowmancers. Smiling I slotted out Iceball for holy light and activated it. It washed over our entire party healing them while dealing damage to the Boss.

  Quickly, I swapped it back out before it could be locked. I wasn’t sure if it could cast silence right away, but it made more sense to switch it out. I couldn’t wait to tell Izzy how smart I was.

  I activated another Protect when it looked like Boner would be unable to avoid a strike. What followed was a volley of skills slamming into the boss.

  With so little HP, I swapped out a few skills and fired off lightning at the boss. It struck sending jolts electricity through its body. Shadow appeared in front of the mob. “Its over Gooca. Blade Weaver!”

  Her body became a violet light, as she weaved through the boss’s final attacks while delivering surgical cuts to it’s body butchering it bit by bit. Chunks of rotting flesh flew everywhere along with dark metal scraps. She was like the Tasmanian Devil from the old loony toons cartoon.

  It tried blasting her with magic. Everything from ‘Necrotic Burst’ to ‘Shadowbolt’ and even ‘Shadow Lance’ were swung through the air chasing after her electric pink form.

  They all missed. In shock I almost forget to set up a barrier. A simple protect was enough to block any stray magic that might hit us. The assassin’s and archers joined us behind the magic shield. This was a bit too much responsibility to put on my shield, but we would be fine.

  First the boss’s right arm fell causing it to lose it’s weapon. Then the left arm came apart at the shoulder going limp like a dead fish. Then the one good leg was completely decapitated.

  The body hit the ground unable to move while Shadow’s violet body tore up its torso. The ability ended after a 32 hit combo and it still had 1% health left.

  During that assault it’s HP had gone up a little. It must have been a healing spell of some kind. If it wasn’t for that, I think it would have died.

  Shadow now stood on the Boss’s back, both knifes held high in a reverse grip. “Assassinate!” her blades ignited with a red spark as they plunged into the boss’s back delivering the final blow. The energy left trails of red resembling dark flames. The impact was so heavy that I felt a shockwave hit me.

  Immediately after, the boss died. I was sure it was over. I even managed to relax, but then a ball of black goo flew out, and began bouncing away. Actually, It was coming right for me! “Don’t let it get away!” yelled Shadow holding a throwing knife.

  In fear I activated Winter Frost. That might have been a mistake because we were all in the blast zone. Cold frosty wind swirled around everyone in a tornado of ice. The ball of goo was the main target, so at most we all got a little frostbite. Even with my 10% resistance to ice, it was so cold!