LS 123

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: T_T these guys are so annoying

[Raid] PrettyHealerHyung: Kinda wishing we had a Dark Assassin right now… T_T

— Ugh, all my attacks are single-target. How the hell am I supposed to hit the boss like this?

Noodle’s frustrated voice followed. With monsters cluttering the screen and blocking vision, it was hard to even land hits on the boss. Yeojin, RiceCake , and Oreckthat were trying to clear them out using AoE skills, but the mobs were so tanky that it was draining both time and health.

At PrettyHealerHyung’s comment about missing a Dark Assassin, Dohee found himself nodding without realizing it.

‘That’s true. One awakening from a Dark Assassin would clean this all up in a flash.’

Funny how the moment things got tough, he missed AssaGo this much. While everyone scrambled around trying to clear the mobs, Yeojin’s character suddenly jumped into the center of them.

— I’ve been saving my awakening skill just for this moment.

Dohee couldn’t help but let out a quiet “Ah!” of admiration.

Each class’s awakening skill, earned at max level, varied wildly in effect, and he’d completely forgotten that Dark Age’s awakening was just as powerful an AoE as the Dark Assassin’s.

[Raid] Oreckthat: In times of crisis, awakening skills shine…! (∩｀-´)⊃━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

[Raid] Oreckthat: Go, Max-Level Age!! (ㆆᴗㆆ)

Right after Oreckthat’s message, Yeo Jin activated his awakening.

[System][General] ‘YeojinHae’ has used the awakening skill ‘Dark Lightning.’

From Yeojin’s character, a massive AoE skill radiated out, almost covering the entire map. Countless streaks of light poured from the sky, sweeping up the mobs in an instant. The cooldown was so long that it was unlikely she’d be able to use it again in this phase, but right then, Yeojin was the brightest star in the raid. Although, that “brightness” probably came from the lightning bolts.

— You guys saw that, right? Don’t you wanna play Dark Age now?

“So bright.”

— I thought my monitor broke. I hate Dark Age awakenings.

Dohee joked, and Yeohoo added his own dry comment. Dark Lightning – the awakening skill of Dark Age – was amazing, sure, but it left behind blinding afterimages, and that was its biggest issue.

— Still, thanks to YeojinHae, the mobs are all gone. Let’s keep hitting the boss until the next mechanic shows up.

Following Tando’s words, the team blinked away the light from their eyes and started attacking the Demon Hunter again.

whysosweet: Wow, Dark Age awakening is badass, that was sick

SunshineIsMakeup: Cool, now that I’ve seen Dark Lightning, I’m off to raise a Dragon Knight ^^7

BitterBitter: LOL this is hilarious. Still not buying it?

BitterBitter: Nope, not buying it~

StarStarLittleStar: LMAO I told you, Dark Age is amazing if played well

7781-23: People who play trash-tier classes be like > “It’s good if you play it right”

lliilllllililiilllil: fr lol

YAMAMMA: Who the hell says Dark Age is trash when it looks that cool

SoGodBulkOrderNow: Yeah and what good is cool when the controls are a nightmare lol

Hatapachakaraa: Damn, it’s been forever since I’ve seen a Dark Age awakening

Operator: Well duh, no one plays Dark Age so of course you never see it

lliilllllililiilllil: fr lol

BaBobBba: T_T it’s hard, yeah, but the damage output is insane

hedhead00: LOL sure, but you gotta suffer through hell to get there

soppymin: Only someone like YeojinHae can make that work. Not everyone’s got awakenings like that…

tivnTivn: Okay~ but Dark Age is still 5th from the bottom in population~

DarkAgeYoohoo: You damn monsters

Peeking at the chat, Dohee suddenly felt like something was caught in his throat and his eyes were stinging. Don’t call it trash, you bastards. You never even played it and you’re running your mouths. There’s always a reason why low-pop classes stay low, and only those who also play in the population abyss truly understand the struggle. Dohee sent Yeojin a message from the heart.

“You looked pretty cool just now, honestly.”

— Perish the thought.

Whatever the case, thanks to Yeojin, they had a moment to breathe. The mobs were cleaned up, and as Dohee resumed attacking the Demon Hunter, he noticed something had changed about its appearance.

“Wait, didn’t its lower half turn kinda white?”

Moonhyuk chimed in beside him.

“Yeah, the lower body definitely turned a bit white.”

“What is that? The damage is still going in fine?”

Since damage was still landing normally, it didn’t seem like a new debuff or buff had been triggered… Dohee tilted his head, puzzled.

“Still, just in case something’s up, I’ll keep an eye on it.”

— Okay.

The boss’s HP dropped from 150 bars to 140 much faster. And when it hit 140, a new system alert appeared.

[System] ‘Demon Hunter’s’ defense has decreased by 10%.

“That was sudden…”

The words slipped out before Dohee could stop himself, caught off guard. Nothing seemed to have changed, but now a defense reduction alert had popped up. The rest of the raid team was just as confused, but no one was about to complain about a free debuff. Thanks to the 10% defense reduction, the Human raid team gleefully ramped up their DPS.

In no time, the boss’s HP dropped to 130 bars. Fortunately, no one had died yet. Then, as if announcing a new mechanic, a jade-colored aura began to swirl around the boss.

“Looks like a new mechanic’s coming.”

Before Dohee even finished speaking, Yeohoo’s urgent voice cut in.

— Uh, I’m locked up!

A ping quickly appeared on the map. Yeohoo was marking his location to alert the raid.

— What the, why is this box here?

Dohee rushed over to where Yeohoo’s character was. There, Yeohoo was trapped inside a suddenly spawned box.

“What… Why is this showing up here?”

Everyone was equally baffled. The jade box, something they’d grown sick of carrying around during the story quest, had now grown massive and was imprisoning a raid member? It made no sense.

Oreckthat, the nearest DPS to Yeohoo, ran over and started spamming skills on the box, but it didn’t break, and the confinement didn’t lift.

[Raid] Oreckthat: What do we do with this??ː̗̀(☉.☉)ː̖́

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: Huh? Something popped above my head

“What popped up?”

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: Looks like… a broken orb? T_T

SoftRiceCake quickly ran toward Yeohoo. Floating above her head was a half-shattered jade-colored orb. She tried hitting the box with normal attacks and skills, but Yeohoo’s imprisonment still didn’t lift. Dohee spoke up quickly.

“Did you get any kind of alert?”

Before RiceCake could respond, a small circular zone appeared around the box, and then, with a loud explosion, everything outside that circle on the map detonated.

Dohee tried to pop a shield just before the explosion, but it was useless. All raid members outside the circle, everyone except RiceCake and Yeohoo, took massive damage. Yeojin and Oreckthat, who had low defense, instantly died. And before anyone could even chug a potion, Moonhyuk’s character dropped dead too.

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: ????

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: Wait, are we supposed to go inside that circle??

[Raid] SoftRiceCake: But it went off so fast…

Before RiceCake’s confused messages had time to sink in, the jade box imprisoning Yeohoo also exploded, and the alert popped up saying Yeohoo had died. In the blink of an eye, four raid members were down.

“Four dead? Should we restart?”

— How about we keep going just a bit more and see what else the mechanic does?

In response to Dohee’s question, Yeohoo gave his opinion. It wasn’t a bad idea, and the others agreed. The survivors continued shaving down the boss’s HP. About a minute and a half after Yeohoo’s death, the imprisonment pattern triggered again.

— Shit, it’s me this time.

This time, Noodle got trapped. And the orb spawned above Tando’s head. More experienced than RiceCake, Tando ran toward Noodle and spoke up.

— Ah, there’s an alert that pops up as soon as the orb spawns.

“What does it say?”

— It says: ‘Collect the scattered energy of the orb. Only the power of a complete orb can disable the imprisonment device.’

“Scattered energy?”

Dohee quickly turned his eyes to the minimap to check for clues. But before he could find anything, the entire map – except the area around the box – exploded once again, and this time PrettyHealerHyung and 4Evil died. Moments later, Noodle was also killed inside the exploding box.

With that, the team had no choice but to hit the restart button.

Back at the safe zone, everyone was silent. Dohee checked the time. It was almost 5 PM. Fatigue was catching up. Even the great Baek Dohee’s shoulders were starting to ache. But just because they were tired didn’t mean they could give up.

Dohee slowly rewound the recorded stream and tried to encourage the team.

“Everyone, do some stretching. Let’s go back and review that mechanic again.”