Spiteful Healer

“You’re sure this is the right direction?” Leonard confirmed as he stood behind the stern of his Airship. The tiny fairy Bihi stood on his shoulder, with Trexon standing behind him with an unrolled map in his hands, eying it curiously.

“Yes.” Bihi nodded back at Leonard before fluttering her wings down off of Leonard’s shoulder towards Ren, who was holding her crafted pouch as he sat on the banister of the upper deck, swinging his legs back and forth and looking down over the lower portions of the deck in front of him, where Aegis and Herilon were engaged in a duel.

The sound of Herilon’s mithral greatsword clashing against Aegis’ mithral shield was loud and rang out repeatedly. Despite this, though, Leonard and Trexon paid it no mind.

Trexon glanced backwards to see the fading island of Kalmoore as it disappeared behind them, then reconfirmed their location on the map and held it out for Leonard to see.

“We’re sailing west, away from Kalmoore. The thing is…” Trexon began,

“There’s nothing on the world map west of Kalmoore.” Leonard finished for him, and Trexon nodded.

“Well, she did say we were going to the edge of the world, right?” Ren turned back to look at them with a shrug, which caused Leonard and Trexon to exchange nervous looks. It was only momentary, before they turned their attention onto the duel on the lower deck.

Despite Aegis having his shield up, Herilon repeatedly struck the shield with relentless heavy strikes, forcing Aegis back as he braced the hits and not giving him time to retaliate. Aegis made several attempts to cast heals on himself, but despite the short healing cast times, Herilon wove in strange blue attacks that interrupted his casts and prevented him from getting any heals off until eventually Aegis’ health hit 0, and he lost the duel.

“Damn.” Aegis shouted in frustration, dropping to his knees as Herilon backed off, the two heavily out of breath. “I can’t even get a single spell off.” He grumbled at himself.

“Don’t feel bad, I’ve got a lot more experience than you in PvP in games like these. This is your first MMORPG, right?” Herilon confirmed while extending a hand out to help Aegis back to his feet, which Aegos took while nodding back.

“Yeah… but, well.” He looked down at the floor of the deck as he pondered. “I can keep up with fast attacks. Just not the heavy strikes, like yours. It’s like your sword is following me when I try to dodge it.”

“Heh.” Herilon shook his head. “Just like you are predicting where rogue players will strike from, I have to predict how you will try to dodge or block my strikes. Strength-based classes, like battlemasters, generally fight like this. My goal is to overpower you and not let you freely cast.”

“So, it’s a strong counter to defensive glasses like my own?” Aegis asked as he raised his head.

“Kind of, but I wouldn’t look at it like that.” Herilon shrugged.

“How would you look at it?”

“Hm.” Herilon scratched his chin and began pacing. “Well, you’ve seen me fight a few times against battlemasters, right?” Herilon asked and Aegis nodded back. “Most of them, I could overpower pretty easily. But when it came to Joltblade and Seraxus, I didn’t stand a chance. It’s the same reason why even though you beat Emerill, Lina won against Cheryl. It’s not always as simple as rock paper scissors in an MMORPG.” Herilon explained as Aegis listened intently.

“When I beat Garrick and the black lion battlemasters, I did so by skill checking them. Even if their class beats mine on paper, that only matters at an equal skill level. I can force them to prove that they counter me by challenging their skill. Hell, even at equal skill levels, you are forcing them to execute their combat capabilities anytime you challenge them, despite disparities in your character class choices. If you play perfectly, and they can’t consistently answer, they will lose regardless of which class counters which.” Herilon put his hands on his waist after sheathing his sword.

“But in the case of you, or Seraxus, I can’t exactly count on you guys to make mistakes, right?” Aegis asked.

“Right, but in the rock paper scissors analogy, we’re both rocks.” Herilon shrugged. “Strength-based are favored against agility, agility favored against intelligence based, and intelligence based classes are what generally counter us. Tank type players generally fall into the same category as strength based, even with healing.”

“But I can’t even get a cast off when you come at me in full force.” Aegis sighed in frustration.

“Yep. Because if I let you cast, I’ll lose. My class lacks sustain, while yours does not. It’s important to identify your win condition in each match up.” Herilon shrugged. “For a berserker, it’s easy. Kill the enemy before he kills you. I picked it for its simplicity, after getting tired of overly complicated classes in previous games.” Herilon smirked.

“So what would you say mine is?” Aegis raised an eyebrow.

“Well…” Herilon looked up towards the sky as he pondered for a moment. “I could tell you what cleric players generally do - minor damage in between sustaining themselves to slowly whittle down their foes. But…” He looked towards Aegis’ open right hand and pointed at it. “You’re not a cleric. You’re not using a scepter for its added sustain and healing stats. Sure, you do use mainly cleric skills, but your playstyle has been so out there in how you incorporate other skills, it’s visibly thrown your opponents off such as your fight with Finley. I mean… drinking your own poison…” Herilon chuckled, which caused Aegis to grin slightly.

“My point is, I think you’re beyond the point of copying clerics and using them as an example in PvP. First, identify your opponents' win conditions and their weaknesses, then, discover what your own are. You’re the only Shattered Healer PvPing in this game, and you’re using unarmed claw weapons combined with crafted items from all professions. You’re also currently the only advanced shield mastery player.” Herilon said.

“Right…” Aegis stood up straight and pondered a moment himself, looking down at his shield, then at his claw weapon in his hands. “What about battlemasters, what are their weaknesses?”

“Self-sustain, like mine, but their floating weapons make them more versatile defensively and offensively. And, with Seraxus’ lifestealing weapon, he has no weakness.” Herilon pursed his lips to the side.

“Of course he doesn’t.” Aegis shook his head to himself.

“Good. I find the best way to figure things out is through practice, though. Theory crafting can only get you so far when it comes to PvP.” Herilon sent another duel challenge to Aegis which popped up in front of his eyes in his interface. “The more you get used to fighting, the easier it’ll be for you to react on the fly.”

“Right.” Aegis nodded as he hit accept and lifted his shield, preparing for another match as the others watched and listened intently from the upper deck, including Bihi who was now sitting on Ren’s shoulder.

A full day went by consisting of nothing but duels between Aegis and Herilon on the deck of the Sky Darling. Despite breakfast and lunch being served by Gregory, the pair opted to skip it in favor of their continued practice. Aegis tried multiple fighting styles that incorporated his skills into the mix, while Herilon remained consistent in his unrelenting aggressive attacking style. Slowly, Aegis was learning on how to manage the hits and get a few heals onto himself, but his damage output was still lacking and the heals served only to delay the inevitable losses.

Eventually, Herilon opted to take a break that evening and the pair went down to the dining hall of the ship to eat leftovers. Herilon had a satisfied look on his face as he munched down on Gregory's prepared meals, while Aegis was deep in thought as he reconstructed their duels in his head and tried to think of fighting styles he could incorporate.

After not managing to do much himself, he opted to open up his livestream viewer and peruse through streams of various popular PvPers, focusing mainly on battlemasters, clerics, and monks who utilized unarmed strikes very often. Despite watching for hours, nothing was jumping out at him as being effective enough to take on things like battlemasters, and he began to get frustrated with the prospects of what his class was capable of.

Having no role model to copy in the game was tough, but not an insurmountable challenge. He reminded himself that he had no one to follow when he’d found mithral and voidsilk, or discovered his class - but the daunting concept of trying to insert himself into a well established combative PvP scene was coming up in his mind as much more challenging than anything he’d attempted so far.

Long after Herilon had abandoned the dining hall and left Aegis on his own, he took out several blank parchments and began sketching out ideas with an ink quill, brainstorming styles of fighting that might work to free up casting to sustain himself, while simultaneously allowing him to put intense pressure on his opponents. It wasn’t until a loud yell from above deck reached his ears that he was taken out of focus.

“ALL HANDS ON DECK!” Leonard’s voice echoed through the ship, forcing Aegis to look up from his parchments. He quickly gathered up his parchment and rushed up out of the dining hall and climbed the stairs out onto the deck alongside Trexon who was holding a book in his hands.

When Aegis and Trexon got a view of the night sky around them, they too saw Ren and Herilon looking curiously over the side of the ship near its front, and turned back behind them to see Leonard and Gregory staring forward from behind the stern, looking nervous.

“What is it?” Trexon asked.

“There, on the horizon. Do you see it?” Leonard pointed forward anxiously. This prompted Trexon and Aegis to walk forward to the front of the ship where Ren and Herilon were standing, and squinted their eyes.

“I don’t see anything, but he said something about Bihi’s version of the end of the world being a bad joke.” Herilon explained as the four looked forward curiously. It took awhile for Aegis to spot it as well, as initially all he saw was an open sea of black mist before them. His viewership began to spike as his eyes went wide with disbelief.

He then glanced backwards to look at the mast and saw it more clearly now - the mast was at an angle.

“We’re descending, because the black mist is ending.” Aegis declared so that everyone was on the same page.

“Precisely.” Leonard called out in response.

“What? Why? The end of the abyss? How is that possible?” Ren exclaimed.

“Does the game world really have an end?” Trexon pondered out loud as tensions rose.

“Why’re we descending, exactly?” Herilon asked.

“The airships rely on the island stones crafted into the hull to float. The island stones float by rejecting the darkness of the abyss, generally, but also hover above land a certain distance. Meaning, when the mist goes down, so do we.” Leonard explained.

“But, that means, if the world ends, we’re just gonna fall off?” Ren asked with an anxious stare at the others.

“That’s what it’d mean, but, that’s not exactly what's happening…” Aegis mumbled back as he looked forward once more and squinted through the dark night sky to try to get a better view of the way in front of them. All the while, Bihi curiously woke up from her slumber within Aegis’ pouch house that Ren was carrying for him, and fluttered onto Aegis’ shoulder.

“What is it, what do you see?” Leonard asked him curiously as all eyes turned to Aegis. Aegis took a deep anxious breath, unable to confirm his theory using his eyes.

“Back in Arallia, the abysslings and reapers wouldn’t chase me into the river…” Aegis mumbled out quietly, prompting a tense silence amongst the group.

“Only the continent of Ramleia has succumbed to the darkness of the abyss. Thankfully the vast oceans of Lupei and Salmiyar, and their lack of intelligent life, have prevented its spread.” Bihi explained nonchalantly.

“Ho boy.” Herilon shook his head.

“I hope this airship can also be a ship ship.” Trexon called out.

“Can it? Can the sky darling be a ship ship?” Ren asked Leonard anxiously.

“How the hell should I know?!” Leonard shouted back nervously.

“Oh dear.” Gregory sighed.

“There it is, I see it!” Herilon declared excitedly, pointing forward at a reflective surface far off in the distance, well beyond the black misty abyss in front of them. Sure enough, the others squinted to see the light of the moon reflecting off of moving waves, as they crashed into the edge of the descending cloud of black mist.

“What do we do?” Trexon asked Leonard anxiously.

“I don’t know!” Leonard replied in a panic.

“Will the airship continue to hover above water, or does it only hover above solid land?!” Aegis asked him.

“I DON’T KNOW!” Leonard shouted back frantically. All the while, Bihi remained very calm atop Aegis’ shoulder, and even looked somewhat amused. The smile disappeared from her face rather quickly though when the sight of thousands of black wings shot up from the edge of the mist and began blackening out the light of the stairs in front of them.

“Reapers!” Aegis called it out as their swarms began to take over the skies all around them.

“Of course.” Trexon rolled his eyes while Herilon drew out his greatsword.

“Leonard, get us to the water. Trexon, use your magic to soften our landing in the ocean if needed. Everyone else, keep the reapers off of the sails.” Aegis gave out the orders quickly, and got several nods of understanding. The anxiety that Ren was displaying quickly turned to excitement as the swarms closed in on the ship. Aegis readied his claws and shield, and within seconds, the swarm was upon them.

Like in the past, the reappears were mainly of lower levels, ranging from 30 to 40. This meant that any attacks from his claws, Ren’s beastshifts, or Herilon’s sword would end in instant defeat for the reapers. The problem was their numbers, but the Reapers were not trying to attack the ship but seemed to be fleeing past them, swarming in the direction that the Sky Darling was flying from.

Aegis’ party focused only on ensuring that none of the reapers crashed through the sails of the airship as they fled, and it didn’t take long for Aegis and the others to pick up on this strange behavior.

“What’re they running from?” Leonard shouted out anxiously.

“Just focus on not letting us crash!” Aegis called out back to him. In between cutting down reapers and protecting the sails with shield projections, he did his best to look forward through the swarm at the ocean beyond the edge of the abyss.

“We’re getting closer to the water…” Trexon announced anxiously.

“See anything?” Herilon asked Aegis as he spotted him looking through the swarm in between his sword swings - waves of blue light shot off of Herilon’s greatsword and cut through the reapers with ease.

“Not yet…” Aegis mumbled back, scanning the surface of the vast ocean ahead of them as carefully and quickly as he could - it was difficult to notice anything out of the ordinary though due to the darkness of the night.

The descent of the Sky Darling hastened, now flying at a 30 degree angle downward as the black mist tapered off and ran up against the waves of the ocean that moved in and out towards the landmass that the mist was resting on. Eventually, the swarm broke and made it beyond their ship, clearing up their visibly so that all of them saw the gigantic ocean ahead of them.

“We’re nearing the edge!” Ren called out as he shifted back into his elven form and ran to the front of the ship. The others followed suit, including Gregory, and the group watched anxiously as the black mist beneath the airship transitioned into slow flowing waves of water. They all held their breath, but with ease, the ship continued to sail in the sky above the water.

“Of course, there’s still ground underneath the waves. As long as the ground continues at a steady decline, so should our descent continue slowly. Nothing to worry about.” Trexon explained logically, getting a sigh of relief from Gregory, Ren, and Herilon.

“As long as the ship is waterproof.” Aegis added.

“It should be. Right? I mean, aren’t airships air tight?” Trexon asked with a hint of nervousness, exchanging uncomfortable glances with Aegis, and then Leonard who shrugged back at them.

“What happens if the ground underneath the waves doesn’t decline steadily, and just suddenly drops off an underwater cliff?” Herilon asked.

“Well, then it’d be the same as if FU-” Trexon was interrupted as the airship suddenly went into a freefall, plummeting out of the sky several dozen meters until crashing into the ocean below, sending violent waves up all around them and jerking the ship around, knocking them all off of their feet and flinging both Aegis and Herilon overboard whilst Bihi fluttered up off of his shoulder as to not fall in.

Aegis tasted the salt water in his mouth as he desperately held his breath upon falling in, swimming against the waves created by the falling sky darling to reach the surface. It wasn’t hard, and within seconds both he and Herilon got back to the surface and grabbed onto the lower underside of the ship.

“PULL US UP! NOW!” Aegis shouted frantically.

“NOW, RIGHT NOW!” Herilon joined in, to which Gregory quickly complied. After regaining his footing, Gregory grabbed a rope ladder and threw it down off the side of the ship as it began to settle on the waves. Aegis desperately climbed up the ladder, followed by Herilon, and the two plopped down on the deck soaking wet as all but Leonard walked over to check on them.

“Good news, we aren’t sinking!” Leonard declared, his voice lacking confidence.

“You guys alright? Why are you panicking?” Ren asked as Aegis and Herilon exchanged looks of terror.

“Because… we saw under the waves what the reapers were fleeing from.” Aegis caught his breath quickly, standing upright.

“What difficulty did you say this quest was? Extreme II?!” Herilon exclaimed with wide eyes of disbelief as they both looked forward over the front of the ship, and the others followed their eyes. A gigantic, spike-covered tentacle protruded out of the surface of the ocean in front of their ship briefly before disappearing beneath the waves, the tentacle easily the size of the entire ship on its own.

“Not exactly…” Aegis smiled innocently.

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