Chapter 34
[Aquarak: You insolent humans, daring to set foot in this sacred place! Do you not fear my wrath? You will pay the price!]
With Aquarak’s massive roar—disguised as a raid-wide AoE—the final boss fight finally began. The screen-shaking effect from the AoE made his fury feel palpable, even through the monitor.
[Party] Jangyeong: Back when I was a newbie, Aquarak used to smack me around so hard I was terrified every time I got him in random dungeons^^… Now he’s just a cute little baby^^~~!
[Party] Hwansung: Hyung, I think there’s something wrong with your eyes.
[Party] Jangyeong: It’s just a figure of speech… tch!!
I was a little surprised reading that. Jangyeong, who could DPS well, dodge AoEs, and even clear raids, had once struggled with Aquarak just like I was now.
I’d always sort of assumed our guild members were all good from the start, but apparently Jangyeong wasn’t naturally skilled—he was the hard-working type who got better by playing every day.
Of course, if there are the hard-working types, there are also the naturals.
[Party] Kim Sookyi: Even when I was a newbie, Aquarak looked like lunch to meㅋㅋ
[Party] Jangyeong: Says the dual-blader who lost DPS to Pung in Eregos 1-death runs^^ㅋ
[Party] Kim Sookyi: Ah, I’m not talking anymore ♡♡
[Party] Jangyeong: Aww, is our Sookyi sulking^^??
[Party] Kim Sookyi: Oh, stop ♡♡
[Party] Jangyeong: Thought you said you weren’t talking~~^^?! Do you have two mouths? Let’s get you to a doctor;;
[Party] Kim Sookyi: ♡♡
As expected, Sookyi was one of those people who’d been good from the very start. I couldn’t even imagine her sweating over Aquarak as a newbie.
And there was someone even harder to imagine struggling—
“How about you, Hwansung? What was it like your first time fighting Aquarak?”
“Me? I dunno, I was fine.”
Yep… just as I thought. He was a natural too. They say healing is the hardest role after tanking, and I bet even if he’d played tank, he’d have been godlike from day one.
[Aquarak: Feel the weight of stone and be swept away by the flow of water…!]
Aquarak spoke another dramatic line, as if prepping a huge mechanic, and slammed the ground with a mighty thud.
“Babe, if you see a rock appear on the ground, run as far from it as you can. The closer you are, the more damage you take, and if you’re inside the radius, you get a debuff.”
I nodded slightly and zoomed my camera out as far as it would go to get the widest view possible.
Before long, just as he said, a rock spawned on the ground. If it had spawned at 5 o’clock or 7 o’clock, I could’ve stayed near my position at 12 o’clock, but of course—it appeared at 11.
That meant I had to run a long way, so I sprinted quickly. As I moved, the boss—locked on to me—followed.
Determined not to get hit by this unfamiliar mechanic, I pushed forward… and then—
“Huh?”
Suddenly, blue straight-line AoE markers began appearing across the map. One of them was right in front of me.
Unsure what to dodge first, I froze in the middle of the arena.
[Party] Kim Sookyi: Go
[Party] Kim Sookyi: GO ALREADY!!1111
Hwansung and Jangyeong, both ranged DPS, had already moved safely to 5 o’clock and were attacking.
But Sookyi—melee DPS—was stuck because the boss had stopped with me, unable to reach melee range. She began jumping like crazy, as if begging me to move, her desperation palpable.
I finally started moving again—but it was the wrong decision…
The moment I stepped forward, the rock that had spawned earlier exploded. I must’ve still been within its range, because I immediately got 1 stack of the Deep Wound debuff. And because I took another step straight into the line AoE, I picked up a second stack.
So instead of just 1 stack, I now had 2.
I survived somehow, but for Sookyi…
[Party] Hwansung: Kim Sookyi, rez when it’s safe.
[Party] Kim Sookyi: ♡♡…….
Right beside me, Sookyi dropped both her swords to the ground and collapsed like a lifeless corpse, revived moments later by Hwansung.
“Oh no… what do I do…”
Even though she hadn’t been standing on the line AoE, the rock damage alone was enough to one-shot her.
[Guild] Jangyeong: Guys, what do you think of our veteran dual-blader dying to the Newbie’s Lament mechanic^^;;??
[Guild] HeavenlyDemonOverlord: Is she even human?
[Guild] Hoe: Maybe all her raid clears were carries?
[Guild] Hoe: Suspicious… The so-called “Heaven-tier DPS” Kim Sookyi!
[Guild] Hoe: How do you die in Eregos and Blue Canyon?
Our guildmates, who’d already been enjoying teasing her, went absolutely wild now that she’d died.
[Guild] Kim Sookyi: The tank stopped moving, that’s why ♡♡ ㅡㅡ;;
[Guild] HeavenlyDemonOverlord: Now, now!! Sunnyah is new here!
[Guild] Sunnyah: Sookyi, I’m really sorry… oh no… ㅠㅠ…
[Guild] Kim Sookyi: Haa… ♡♡… ㅡㅡ
Just like with Eregos, she now had the brutal 50% DPS reduction debuff, and her damage plummeted. Her tight race with Jangyeong was now overwhelmingly in Jangyeong’s favor.
Last time, her death had been her own mistake. This time, it was clearly my fault. If I’d ignored the line AoEs and just kept running, she’d have lived…
Feeling awful, I said, “What should I do…? I tanked her DPS…”
“Babe, you’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”
Hwansung’s voice was calm, but his fingers began angrily hammering the keyboard.
[Guild] Hwansung: If you’d dropped DPS and run sooner, you’d have lived. But no—had to keep hitting for a few more seconds. Great job.
[Guild] Jangyeong: Exactly^^ㅋㅋ Plant your feet like that, what’s the point^^ㅋㅋㅋ
Hwansung and Jangyeong were actually blaming her.
[Guild] Kim Sookyi: No, melee DPS—
[Guild] Jangyeong: Yeah~~ I’m sure every hit counts for youㅋ But ranged like me wouldn’t know~~~!!
[Guild] Hoe: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋHe says this so often I’ve memorized it now
Hwansung leaned over and told me again not to feel guilty, insisting that Sookyi just had a nasty personality—emphasizing nasty like he meant it. Or maybe I was imagining things.
The fight’s one-for-one rock-and-line mechanic kept coming. Hwansung patiently explained each dodge like a personal tutor, but with my guilty heart and stiff hands, I kept failing and eating every single one.
Before I knew it… I’d stacked the Deep Wound debuff up to 8.
[Party] Kim Sookyi: Never in my life have I seen 8 stacks. I’m taking a screenshot.
[Party] Hwansung: Could happen. You died, after all.
[Party] Kim Sookyi: ♡♡♡ya
At 8 stacks, even the boss’s auto-attacks hurt like hell.
Not even Hwansung could out-heal that. He gave up DPS entirely and poured every heal into me. I could see the priest’s basic heal, Grace, constantly appearing beside his name in the party list, along with every off-cooldown instant heal he could throw.
[Party] Jangyeong: Healer, can we survive the next AoE?
[Party] Hwansung: Yeah.
Jangyeong was probably worried since all the heals were going into me. But the real problem was—
[Party] Kim Sookyi: If autos hurt this bad, how are you gonna survive the tank-buster coming up?
Exactly. If the autos were this bad, how could I survive the tank-buster?
“Babe, let’s try to tank it anyway.”
“You think I can?”
Hwansung, who always told me “You can,” frowned slightly for once, unsure.
“Use every defensive you’ve got. I’ll stack every mitigation I can on you too.”
“Okay…”
Not long after, Aquarak began casting the tank-buster. I popped every defensive cooldown I had; Hwansung layered on all his damage-reduction buffs too.
My HP bar swelled to nearly two or three times its normal size.
[Party] Jangyeong: Wow, it’s like you got an extra life^^?
The tank-buster finished casting, and the incoming hit looked painful just to watch.
“….”
“….”
And then… silence fell over the “couple’s seat” where Hwansung and I stood.
My character, like Sookyi earlier, dropped her sword to the ground and crumpled, snuffed out like the last leaf of autumn.
