I couldn’t level up the skill. Concentration wouldn’t come. After half an hour, I came back to the raid.
They were all ready, just waiting for me. Off to one side, Hellfish raised his head:
“How about that food, chef?”
“On the way, another couple of minutes,” Nobu called back.
The hobbit was bustling around a campfire, cooking a raid breakfast: Cursed Chasm Omelette. The dish couldn’t be made in advance — all demonic food went bad overnight.
Done with the cooking, Nobu came closer to me, offered me a bowl of the raid food and a cup of Hell Brew — something like coffee. It bubbled and spat fire.
“Eat up, boss.”
Niceguy the alchemist walked over and gave me a few battle potions:
“New ones, I only just invented them. They don’t stack with the old ones, so drink these.”
While I gulped down the potions, Bloomer read me some inspiring poetry, Michelle and Alison gave me a couple of regen buffs and Kara cast a Frost Shield on me.
I looked at their decisive faces:
“Are we all ready?”
“Yes!” the raid roared.
“Ready!” the girls shrieked.
“Let’s go and kick some demonic ass!” Meister the gray-haired gnome shouted, shaking his fists.
“Yeah!” Destiny said, catching the group’s mood. “Let’s end the Games as heroes!”
We headed downstairs on foot, laughing and hyping each other up. We stopped at floor 660. There was an invisible border there beyond which the final boss’s arms couldn’t reach.
“Alright, let’s run through the plan again!” Quetzal said.
He quickly repeated the strategy we’d come up with. My task was to distract Abaddon and take his aggro so that the others could drop down with Gnomish Parachutes created by Joker the engineer, and get inside. At the same time as them, I was supposed to fly into the demon’s lair, keeping the demonic limbs on me, and inside… Inside, we’d see how it went. We didn’t know the boss’s abilities — we had to expect anything. Although that was the last thing my allies would be worried about by then.
“Godspeed, Scyth,” Quetzal said.
“Nergal bless you!” Alison cried.
“May they never wake…” Hellfish said. Quietly, but I heard him.
Wishes of good luck poured in. The girls nearly broke down crying, hugged me as if sending me off to war, but really I was the one sending them to their deaths. I wanted to admit it all, to explain! But I held back.
Nodding, I took a deep breath as if about to dive into deep water, and jumped off the edge. Turning, I saw everyone else jumping behind me, their parachutes opening.
My conscience twisted in the depths of my soul, took hold of my throat with a death grip. To see my teammates heading into their final battle… People who had helped me when everyone else was against me, knowing they were headed straight for death…
I put aside my cowardly doubts, concentrated on the current moment.
The air whistled in my ears. The numbers of the final floors flashed by, blending into a blurry strip of fire. Abaddon’s arms shot up toward me. I went into Clarity to dodge, came out of it… Another fall, another speed-up and dodge…
A couple of yards before I hit the ground, I activated Flight and shot toward the gates. Abaddon struck right away with Weak Will, just like when everyone first went down to the Pitfall’s floor. I crashed down, losing control of my character and rolling away. As I tumbled, I still managed to bite into the demonic gold coin already clenched between my teeth, to get rid of the debuff. Then I took off again, darting for the gates.
I had hoped to deal some damage to the boss while invulnerable with Equanimity, but for some reason it didn’t activate, and then I entered Clarity. After taking a full Combo to his outstretched arms, the boss fell down in Surprise. Now that the demon’s hands weren’t reaching for me, I burst into the instance, threw down Spirit Shackles and attacked, noting with satisfaction that Abaddon’s limbs were shortening, which meant the raid would get in without issue.
After taking around thirty million health from the frozen, barely moving boss, I left Clarity.
“…Inferno!” Abaddon boomed, his voice now audible instead of slowed. “Finally!”
The demon jumped up sharply. His colossal figure blurred, and then he was in front of me. As he stretched out an arm to grab me, I sped up, dodged and darted to the other side of the vast cave.
Abaddon shot after me. I answered with attacks, dodged his grip, moving and keeping an eye on what was happening beyond the gates. Finally, I saw the outlines of my allies across the threshold — this was the moment of truth, the perfect time for the dirty trick I had planned.
I entered Clarity, fired toward them, leaving the raid as I went. That was it. Now I was alone, out for myself only.
I stopped for a moment at the threshold, and could clearly see my allies’ animated faces, their eyes gleaming with anticipation, their mouths open in battle cries. Quetzal was in the lead, with the meleers behind him and the mages and healers in the rear.
They were rushing to my aid, but they got stabbed in the back. Koba survived when Despot’s halberd arm cleaved into him, but burned up as soon as the demon began to swallow him.
I attacked Quetzal, who had already crossed the threshold of the dungeon — Despot wouldn’t have killed him in time. It took three hits to finish off the titan destroyer. Then I killed Anna, Meister and Bloomer. My ally should easily be able to deal with the others. He was far superior to them, around a hundred levels higher.
To speed up the slaughter, I exited Clarity, my eyes glued to the boss.
