OPSM Arc - Part 15

---- Battle Start! Squire's Party Versus AbyssalWolf Alpha! ----

--AbyssalWood Alpha howls! AbyssalWood Alpha harnesses the strength of the pack!

-Squire summons her inner strength! Attack has increased!

--Slave defends.

"Let slave take all of the hits. You, focus on keeping her healed up, and attack whenever you can. I'll focus on weakening him and inflicting damage." Vile says to me. I nod in agreement, deciding to trust her to take command of the battle.

--Vile casts Slow! AbyssallWood Alpha's movement speed has slowed!

"Heh, this little kitty actually thinks it can stop me?" the alpha chuckles. "This should be good for a laugh."

--AbyssalWood Alpha attacks! Slave suffers 11 point(s) of damage! AbyssalWood Alpha has broken a tooth and suffers 2 point(s) of damage!

"Huh?" the large wolf leaps back, spitting out a bit of tooth, staring at the barely damaged feline.

"Seriously? Is that all you've got?" The black cat purrs. "My mistress hits way harder than that."

There is a flash of fury in the eys of the muscular wolf, but it fades in an instant as it shakes his head and chuckles. "Looks like I underestimated you three. I guess it's time I started fighting seriously."

"Good." Vile says, leaning forward, her elbow rested on a bent knee as she stands near the back of my neck. "Because we're just getting started, too."

I say nothing, as trash talking has never exactly been my area of expertise. I must admit, I'm feeling much better about our prospects than I was the previous evening, however.

As tempting as it would be to go through the many, many combat rounds, as exciting as they were, it would take a very, very long time. I quickly learned a great deal about group combat, however, namely how downright broken healing powers are. I was hesitant to rely on my divine strike early, and that proved to be a wise decision. As impossibly tough as Slave was, I still needed to heal her very frequently, only occasionally finding myself free to land a sword strike of my own.

It is clear that my paladin powers work best in a group. In the past I had lamented that in order to heal, I would need to take a break from the fight to do so, which would result in my taking more damage, and thus undoing much, potentially all of said healing. When used on others, however, they could continue to attack and I remained undamaged.

Naturally, me and Vile were still somewhat vulnerable, at least in principle. In reality, the small, agile feline made an excellent defender, as I had experienced myself. As quick as the alpha wolf may have been, he was no match for the speed of the cat. I had been a little concerned that Slave would only focus on guarding Vile, but she protected me as well, either out of a desire to follow her mistress' wishes, or understanding the necessity of maintaining the proper combat formation.

Meanwhile, with me mostly spending my time healing, and Slave somewhat lacking in physical strength, it was up to Vile to do most of the work. The spells didn't hit the hardest, of course, but they were constant, usually in the form of barrages of magic missles, but regularly applying debuffs like slow and weakness whenever they happened to expire.

Even considering all of this, the wolf wasn't weak, however. Apparently, he had been going easy on me before, and even Slave with her abundant defense found herself taking a lot of hard hits, and early in the fight I found myself concerned with our apparent lack of progress.

A lack of progress does no equal no progress, of course. Every single round we slowly chipped away at his massive health pool, and as powerful as the wolf was, he didn't have a wide variety of techniques, thankfully. He could strengthen himself, but couldn't weaken any of us or utilize any manner of ranged attack, so he was basically stuck attacking Slave until he could defeat her, which, thanks to my paladin abilities, wasn't happening.

My newly earned "Holy Aegis" ability was quite helpful, too. Did you think I forgot about that? It wasn't like the others, which required some manner of resource. It worked all the time, affecting both me and my allies, boosting all of our defense and resistances. Another sign that these powers are designed to be used with allies, rather than fought with alone.

There were some frightening moments where Slave took a few devestating hits in a row, and my Spirit was exhausted, but the alpha wolf couldn't hit at his hardest all the time, and I found myself able to catch up on healing her. Vile also seemed to have some issues as the fight went on. At first I wondered why she wasn't using her big spells, but then I realized that she has a finite amount of mana. Even just using the small ones, she'd regularly need to rest for a turn to recuperate before attacking once again.

Vile really knew what she was going. Our party arrangement was practically invincible, and in the end there was nothing that our opponent could do. It was a long battle, but he just kept getting weaker while we remained at near full strength. The final result was an inevitable one.

---- AbyssalWood Alpha has been defeated! Squire has gained 13,200 Experience Point(s) and 950 Gold(s)! ----

Squire has reached level 20!

-Strength is now 72! (+12 point(s)!)

-Endurance is now 104! (+16 point(s)!)

-Agility is now 104! (+16 point(s)!)

-Intelligence is now 30! (+4 point(s)!)

-Faith is now 192! (+32 point(s)!)

-Charisma is now 158! (+28 point(s)!)

-Squire has gained 32 maximum HP!!

Vile has reached level 18!

-Strength is now 5! (+0 point(s)!)

-Endurance is now 4! (+0 point(s)!)

-Agility is now 66! (+27 point(s)!)

-Intelligence is now 560! (+270 point(s)!)

-Faith is now 61! (+27 point(s)!)

-Charisma is now 17! (+9 point(s)!)

-Squire has gained 9 maximum HP and 450 maximum mana!

Slave has reached level 17!

-Strength is now 22! (+11 point(s)!)

-Endurance is now 950! (+550 point(s)!)

-Agility is now 295! (+165 point(s)!)

-Intelligence is now 560! (+270 point(s)!)

-Faith is now 21! (+11 point(s)!)

-Charisma is now 105! (+55 point(s)!)

-Squire has gained 1100 maximum HP!