Chapter Four #3
The boss’s information popped up just as we exited the fog. On the other side was a large, rocky room with a pond of water in the middle of it that the boss was resting in. The boss itself was, as the name said, an olm, but a giant one that really emphasized its almost draconic appearance.
An incredibly long body covered in scars, four short legs, no eyes, with red frills on the back of its head.
It didn’t look too different from a real olm aside from the scars and the fact that its body was as long as a bus.
Its legs were short, but only relative to the rest of its body.
Each of its legs were still the size of me.
Well, there was one other part of its body that looked different from reality.
Its mouth.
As soon as it detected us, it rose out of the water and opened its mouth to reveal its two rows of sharp, jagged fangs, each one the size of a blade and ready to tear apart any flesh they could sink into.
It was the apex predator of the dungeon when not counting the secret paths that led to higher-level sections. Considering the main monsters around were stone-covered snails and scorpions, that meant those teeth were capable of biting through stone.
“I thought it looked kind of cute until I saw those teeth,” Rosie said. “I won’t feel so guilty about killing it now.”
“Remember, it’ll happily kill and devour you the second you let it,” I said.
“Right.” Rosie brought her shield in front of her and watched the boss, waiting to see what it would do.
I caught her paying attention to more than just the boss, too.
She observed the room to the best of her ability while never taking her eyes off the boss for too long. In particular, she was checking out the water while inching closer to it, making sure to stop before actually stepping into the pond.
Did she figure it out already?
The Scarred Olm preferred to stay in the water to find enemies since the water ripples made by movement gave away their position. As long as she stayed outside of the water, the boss would have a significantly harder time pinpointing—
Rosie stepped into the water.
She was probably just checking to see how deep it was. And now, she got to deal with the boss swinging its tail toward her.
Rosie positioned her shield to block the tail, but there was enough force in the attack to still hurt her and knock her away. A fifth of her health vanished from her bar in an instant, and that was with blocking.
She made sure to chug a health potion to top her health off as soon as she was safe to.
“It’s been thirty seconds, by the way,” I said.
“Give me—give me another thirty,” Rosie replied. “I’ve barely done anything yet.”
“I can see that.”
“I’m trying not to rush in and get myself killed, alright?!”
“I’m itching to fight, too, but I’ll give you another thirty. Don’t waste them.”
“I won’t.”
Rosie walked up to the edge of the pond again, almost looking like she was about to confidently make the same mistake as before, only to stop in front of it. Then, rather than step into it, she kicked a pebble on the ground into the water.
That was… it made perfect sense, but it was kind of shocking to see.
I never even thought of that.
Kicking a random rock wasn’t an option in a programmed game with limited possibilities.
Rosie just did it, though, and the boss lashed out by trying to bite the air above where the rock splashed.
Seeing Rosie do something as simple as kick a rock made me realize just how reliant I had been on game knowledge. I was still treating the dungeon like it was just a game instead of a real place with more options that were possible now.
I felt stupid.
But I also felt motivated.
I might have inherited the experience and reflexes of my characters, but I didn’t inherit any sort of…
to put it simply, common sense. I was probably better than everyone else in the world at the game elements of the world, but I was likely worse than everyone else at having common sense and thinking outside of the system’s mechanics.
Knowing there was still so much I could improve at made me excited to learn.
Rosie kicked another pebble into the pond, baiting another attack from the olm. And this time, it was close enough for her to jump forward and slam her mace down against the top of its head.
The boss let out a cry of pain, and then it proved itself as the boss of the dungeon.
With a rapid motion that put previous enemies to shame, the olm flipped around and swung its tail into Rosie again.
But this time, rather than knock her away, it partially curled its tail around her waist to grab onto her and slam her into the pond.
The thirty seconds were close enough to being up.
As the boss prepared to lift Rosie up and toss her away with its tail, I jumped in and sliced its tail with my sickle, leaving a gorier cut than I expected.
Bosses in the game always showed the damage they suffered more than other monsters, but this went beyond that.
“You good?” I asked.
Rosie struggled to stand up, but she nodded and readied her shield in front of her. “I—I can handle this.” She didn’t sound so confident.
“The pebble kicking was smart. I wouldn’t have thought of that.”
Her ears fluffy ears flapped and her tail did a little swish. Those were signs of her being happy in the game, and her expression confirmed they were still signs of her happiness. “I guess I’m not totally useless compared to you.”
“I’d never dream of calling you useless. Keep it busy for me, alright?”
“I can do that. I’ll tank it.”
“I know you can. If there’s anyone I’ll trust to pull through no matter what, it’s you.”
I gave her a nod and jumped out of the pond after that. The ripples caused by my jump were enough to prompt an attack, and Rosie dodged it, but the dodge itself gave away her new position which allowed a follow-up attack from the olm with its tail.
But she anticipated that.
Bracing for the attack, she took it with her shield but resisted getting knocked back and even retaliated by crushing the tail with her mace.
And while the boss was distracted by her, I jumped from the edge of the pond toward its head to slice it open along its side with my sickle after making sure to enchant it with poison.
The torch was useless here since the boss was in water which would prevent it from getting set on fire, but it was still vulnerable to poison. And, given that it had a soft hide with thin skin, that meant slashing was an effective damage type against it.
I was careful not to land in the water after my attack. Instead, I dug my sickle into the side of its head at the end of my attack and used it as a support to swing myself up onto its back.
The boss had no real way of attacking me while I was on its back, so—in a panic—it flipped over onto its back to knock me off it.
That was exactly what I knew it would do.
I had to jump into the water before I lost my balance, but flipping onto its back gave Rosie the opportunity to get close to the head and smash her mace into the underside of it. Then, as soon as it flipped itself upright, I got another attack in on its tail.
Rule number three of Custom Dungeon World: if an enemy has a long tail, it can be cut off.
I activated Strong Slash and aimed for the tail, striking it with enough power to finish the job and sever it. The tail squirmed on its own like a worm for a few seconds after landing in the water before falling still, leaving the boss in a significantly weakened state.
“Nice!” Rosie shouted.
“Not as nice as your tanking,” I said back. “Keep it up!”
Rosie nodded and prepared herself for the next attack. Her health was around seventy percent, so she could take another couple of hits before needing a potion. The boss, meanwhile, was down to 40% already.
My tank got into a good pattern quickly. She could dodge one attack but then knew she would be forced to block the follow up, and she had an opportunity to attack after that. Dodge, block, attack, repeat. That was the pattern I would use as well if I was in her position.
And it was thanks to her figuring out the pattern already that I could focus entirely on offense.
I reapplied the poison each time it wore off, left cuts all over the boss’s body with my sickle, and never spent long in the water so that it wouldn’t take its attention off Rosie.
Rosie got taken down to under half her health after another block, but a potion took her back to almost full, so we were fine.
Though, admittedly, part of me felt less like a man because I was letting the woman I loved take all the hits.
But I was going to have to get used to that since I didn’t want to be the tank. And it wasn’t because I was afraid of pain. I was more than used to being in pain. I just didn’t think tanking was that fun and already had a build in mind.
Besides, if I complained about her being the tank, I knew she was the type of girl who would be upset about that. Her sex didn’t matter; her tanking spirit mattered.
And the smile on her face every time she blocked an attack without getting budged was addictive to look at. No matter how cute and feminine she might have been outside of combat, she had the burning spirit of a tank within her.
“I’m going to bash it your way! Are you ready to finish it?” Rosie shouted at me.
I was happy to let us both do our own thing, but if she was ready to try cooperating and combo’ing moves, I was happy to play along. “Ready!”
Rosie used Shield Bash a few times during our grinding session, plus I knew she had it from the game, so I figured that was what she was about to use.
Shield Bash was a general skill meant for tanks that allowed them to interrupt an enemy and knock them back.
It didn’t do much damage on its own, but it increased the damage the target took from the next attack when perfectly timed.