Getting Hard (Journey of a Tank)

All of their skills combined into a barrier of flames. The thick sheets of snow hit it. There was a permeating hiss that swallowed all other sounds. The snow melted and turned it into steam in an instant, more like an explosion. Mist rolled through the Frost Imp camp, engulfing us. Everywhere was white. I couldn’t see my teammates other than their health bars.

The grumble of the avalanche and the hissing subsided, giving way to the chatters of the Frost Imps and bellows of Cragodons. They were out there, closing in, but still weren’t near enough for their life bars to emerge.

“Why are Cragodons here?” Megan asked. “We’re far from the Great Hunt, aren’t we?” In the mist, I could make out two glowing orbs frantically dancing in the air. That must be Megan and her wands.

“Something story-related, probably,” I said. “I must’ve triggered this to happen—which seems to be possible only during the Great Hunt—because I haven’t been to the Frost Imp Camps before. Speaking of Frost Imps, where’s their leader? Can anyone clear all of this? An explosion could do it.”

“Wait, it might make more mist,” said Kezo. “Let me try this.”

A strong woosh. The white parted like curtains being drawn. Kezo must’ve used a wind skill to disperse it. We were met with a surprising sight.

“That’s a lot of Cragodons!” Melonomi exclaimed.

It was like a wall was erected around us during the whiteout. Mighty horned behemoths, around twenty of them, formed a semi-circle around us, lining the lip of the small valley we were in. With a call from the Alpha Cragodon that seemed to buff the herd, all the Cragodons lumbered over the crest, destroying trees as they descended. They chased and stomped the fleeing Frost Imps.

I honed in on the Frost Imp Chief’s previous location—it wasn’t there anymore. I stilled my gaze, waiting for something to move like a predator hunting. Something stirred in my peripheral vision. A streak in the white background. I whipped my head to face its direction.

“There!” I pointed as I cast [Horde Stampede]. Two shields in front of me, my hooves hammered the hard earth exposed after the snow was burned away. “Velthur’s running away!”

The Frost Imps streamed after their leader, away from their camp and us, heading to the Rotten Cedarlyon area. The Cragodons veered left too, our right, after the Frost Imp Chief. They had beef with each other for some reason. Did the Frost Imps try to hunt a Cragodon, angering the rest of the herd?

Whatever the reason was, this was a prime two-bird-one-stone moment. But we might not get any birds if we didn’t act fast.

If our prey stayed their course, they might meet players doing the Great Hunt. The Ichor and these Cragodons were supposed to be all ours!

“After the chief!” shouted Kezo. The rest of my party was right behind me.

“All of you go for the Cragodons!” I held out my arms and shields so they couldn’t run past me. “The Alpha first. The Frost Imp Chief is mine. Don’t waste the opportunity to farm Hunting Tokens.” I sounded like a hero saying that, masking my selfish intent.

“Are you going to be—” Kezo began to say.

“I’ll be fine. Go!”

“See you later, Herald. Good luck!” Kezo and the others sharply turned right, cutting through the back of the Frost Imp horde and blocking the Cragodons. Explosions followed as they clashed.

As for me, I continued galloping parallel to the Frost Imps, looking for an opening. Their chief was out of range of a taunting Totem, and it kept disappearing among the snow-dusted foliage above. I just had to follow the rest of the tribe to know where their leader was going. The Frost Imps fired at me with arrows and spears. Some even threw axes. Most projectiles hit my wide shield covering my flank.

When I first met the Frost Imps, two shots from an archer could almost kill me. Now, they couldn’t penetrate my double barrier. This was enough to gauge whether I could survive taking on all of them. Going to be embarrassing as a defaulted debt if I died after telling my party I could handle this on my own.

I need to dive in soon, I thought. The path ahead narrowed into a pass between two towering boulders. The perfect place for my entrance.

Three seconds until I reached it.

I used [Poison Bottle Cast] to create a poison cloud in front of the mouth of the pass. Purple puffs blossomed but the bottle of [Morabodry] stayed in my hand. The first effect of [Proficient Battle Brewer] activated. The small amount of Artas saved gave me more joy than the tens of thousands of warblers I received in dividends from my stock portfolio.

I used [Horde Stampede] as it came off cooldown and charged into the stream of Frost Imps, [Unselfish Blighted Decay] turned on. Together with [Blight Cloud], the health bars of the Frost Imps began to shorten like that thing that gets shorter in the cold—the mercury receding in a thermometer.

Most Frost Imps abandoned chasing their leader in favor of attacking me. They clubbed and stabbed, bit and punched, I was covered in annoying little bastards as I pressed through the [Morabodry] cloud and took my position between the boulders. Retribution did its part too, not only shredding my attackers but also poisoning those who got past the [Morabodry] cloud unscathed.

“Killing time!” I roared. Perfect timing, my [Greater Pyro Shell] exploded, making me look cooler than the falling snow.

I recast my shell and stood my ground, hoping my theory would work. There was no way I could catch the [Lvl 44 Frost Imp Chief: Velthur]. I wasn’t fast enough or had ranged attacks to reach it. But I remembered what Megan and the others said—it appeared when all the Frost Imp camps were wiped out.

That wasn’t the scenario right now, but what if I killed all the Frost Imps here? The Cragodons were nowhere in sight. I couldn’t even hear the sounds of their bottle. Maybe, just maybe, Chief Velthur would come back and I could kill it.

If I was wrong, I’d just tell my teammates that I killed it and got its Ichor. No one should know of Herald Stone’s failures!

The Frost Imps packed around me, piling over each other three bodies high, and replacing those who died. And there was a good amount of dying. I cast [Compelled Frenzy], stirring the noisy critters into a fury. There was no need to taunt, with me as the only target, but [Compelled Frenzy] also made them hit faster while weakening them. The jittery Frost Imps tore themselves apart on my retribution. Adding to my debuff skills, [Cloak of the Plaguespreader] shared the debuffs they inflicted on me back to them.

Next, I unleashed [Heaping Infections], spreading Arcane Blighted spores the whole width of the pass, lowering their Attack and Magic Power. The secondary effect of [Heaping Infections] stripped away the Frost Imps’ defenses the more debuffs they had. And they had a lot.

Tanking the Frost Imps was not a problem. I didn’t even need to funnel them into this narrow space. The second effect of [Proficient Battle Brewer] reduced the damage dealt by poisoned enemies to me. My many sources of hit—weak they might be—sustained me with Health on Hit. And that wasn’t counting my health regeneration. No need to heal or put up my barriers.

My humongous armor stat, dwarfing even my health, worked wonders on rapid but small attacks like what the Frost Imps did. Dozens of tiny scratches were easily mitigated by my sustain. My only real weakness was huge attacks.

It didn’t take long for all the Frost Imps to die. They were many, but far from beefy. And they had naturally high attack speeds that they raced to their deaths. Though I couldn’t burst them down—the explosion of [Greater Pyro Shell] was my only burst damage, and it wasn’t good—I had many sources of damage, and they did a decent enough job. I wasn’t a DPSer so I wasn’t agonizing over my speed in clearing mobs.

As predicted by Herald Stone, the Virtual Farseer, the Frost Imp Chief returned. It announced its presence by raining down ice spears. The spears came down so fast that I didn’t have time to raise my shields to block them.

“That… moderately hurt, I’ll give you that,” I told Velthur hiding somewhere in the treetops. I regenerated the damage in a couple of seconds. Nothing worrying, but I still wore [Greater Pyro Shell] again and cast [Healing Touch] for the added healing over time. The Frost Imp Chief might have a powerful skill, and it’d be humiliating for me if I failed this at the last moment.

It continued to hide in the branches and tree trunks, firing all sorts of ice magic, often Freezing me. As the others had said, it was annoying to fight. But a tank with heals and some form of counter damage was an even more annoying match.

I saw hints of purple. Velthur was poisoned somewhere up there from hitting me. Retribution was also surely doing a number on its health bar. Slowly but surely—and that was very slowly because it had a long health bar by being a boss—the Frost Imp Chief died.

[ Loot: 3,250 Artas, (1) Frost Imp Chief Crown, (5) Golden Ore, (1) Kruos Ichor Sliver ]

“Herald Stone wins!” I said, checking my inventory to make sure I now had three Ichors.

Too bad the others didn’t get to see my badassery, but I was returning triumphantly to them with my prize. Were they still fighting the Cragodons?

I hurried back to the Frost Imp’s camp, hoping the battle wasn’t over. I didn’t have the chance to show off my—wait a minute.

Opening my inventory again, I realized I didn’t have any Hunting Tokens. Of course, the Frost Imps didn’t give any—they weren’t part of the Great Hunt. But this meant I didn’t get the Hunting Tokens from the Cragodons my party was killing!

“My just rewards for trying to show off,” I grumbled. The Hunting Tokens weren’t tradeable, so I couldn’t get my share that was divided among my party mates. Sometimes I got too focused on showing off.

The camp of the Frost Imps was emptier than before with only me standing in it. It was more flattened, with only a few tents remaining, after the Cragodon stampede. The details about my party showed their resource bars going up and down. The battle still raged somewhere out there. My party must’ve dragged the Cragodons deeper into the forest to avoid kill-stealers. A good idea, but not good for me because I was missing out on the loot!

I was about to message Kezo for directions when a crash made me stop. A tree had fallen. A couple of Cragodons that missed the party like me were heading there, pointing where I should go.