“Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow~! Goddamn cuntbags! Grah~! Die you fucking pieces of shit!” Michael was furiously beating back a dozen Warriors with his Demonic Siegeblade of Chaos, and being bombarded with volleys of ten arrows at a time. There were also at least six ‘Shadow Bolts’ being flung at his face, dealing almost no damage, but causing him to feel massive amounts of psychological pain.

Two extra arms and huge angelic wings burst from his body and he was able to block twice as many attacks, while also having four hands to hold the ridiculously heavy sword with. However, he couldn’t use ‘Lightening’, because reducing his weight to zero, would have been extremely counterproductive.

Fortunately, Talia and Sarah working together were able to swiftly eliminate the six healers; the enemies were definitely dying rather quickly. Between Alice’s ‘Stone Fist’ spells, Jasmine’s ‘Explosive Shots’ combined with her ‘Chilly Meow-Meow Exploder’, Elina’s ‘Solar Flares’ and Inari’s ‘Acid Bombs’, the ‘AoE’ damage was fairly ridiculous.

Michael’s basic attacks were hitting over a dozen targets every time as well, so there was no problem with holding aggro. Most of his mana was spent on one of his most useful Tanking and Support techniques: “Intermediate Illusory Shield Level 1: Creates a thin layer of condensed aura, which can be used to negate 10 mental attacks or 1 physical or magical attack. Can block up to 100 points of damage. Uses the Aura stat to temporarily reinforce the target’s Willpower and Defense Rating. Costs 10 mana-points if used on the caster, 20 when cast on a Companion.”

Since he was being hit so many times in quick succession, it didn’t really protect him very well. However, it was actually possible to stack the spell up to ten times, and it also required less than a second to cast.

Michael muttered “Hehehe~, I’m so glad I decided to pick Arcane Affinity… Seriously, wasn’t this just designed purely for Raiders and Dungeon-Divers?”

“Intermediate Arcane Affinity Level 5: Increases mana and health regeneration dramatically, inside of Dungeons and Raids by 100%. Reduces damage taken from Elites and Bosses by 25%.” They were effects that were actually pretty useless to most ‘normal’ adventurers, so it was unfortunately one of the most underrated Elements.

‘Telekinesis’ was much more general than the various ‘manipulation’ techniques, so it was also one of the weakest as well. It was difficult to train in, for most people, making it fairly unpopular.

After three minutes, Michael and Sarah were standing in a thick, purple, acidic mist, and the corpses of those lizard-people, along with their equipment had been almost completely dissolved. He panted loudly, with his giant sword stabbed into the ground, and groaned as he noticed that his Stamina bar had dropped down to half.

Alice sighed loudly, “So many materials… completely wasted. Ugh, well, at least we were able to get… Wow, one-hundred and fifty-three rank-D, level-twenty, Super-Elite mana-cores! Ah, we need to hurry up and get back home soon! There are so many potions, elixirs and pills I could make out of these!”

Michael turned to the levitating Huntress to his left, “What’s wrong? Link the target info…”

Talia frowned, “Unfortunately, I cannot… I am unable to utilize ‘Identification’ on that creature.” Unlike Dungeons, Raids were meant to be much more difficult and complicated.

The Nephilim groaned, before starting to shrink back to his normal size and sucking all of his extra limbs back into his body. He turned and began walking towards the entrance, grumbling “If we’re gonna fight a Boss, we need to be mentally and physically prepared, or we’re just gonna die… a lot. So~, time for a break~!”

“Hohohoho~, ye flogged me mateys, but ya still need ta face me! Captain Perseus!” The golden lizardman unsheathed the huge cutlass from his back, and wielded it with only his right hand. Then he sprinted directly towards Michael, who had already put away his giant sword and unequipped most of his armor.

He yelled “Oi, seriously?! Shitballs!” and was immediately struck in the chest by a blade of water. It pierced straight through his heart, lungs, and spine, before smashing into a dumbfounded angelic cat-girl and exploding.

Elina’s entire body had been turned into a golden statue, and Michael had died from the gaping hole in his torso, before being smacked off of the pier by the Boss’ tail. Inari howled and pounded towards the lizardman, but with a single slash of his cutlass, both herself and Jasmine were sliced in half. His blade then decapitated Alice, before his right foot kicked her giant corpse into the air; the Soulbound equipment obviously disappeared upon her death, but the Boss didn’t even seem fazed by the nude woman’s beautiful body.

After that, Sarah teleported to the entrance and used ‘Shadow Cloak’, leaving Talia to fend for herself. The Huntress quickly soared into the air, but then there was a loud squawking noise, and a massive gray parrot emerged from the water. That huge creature flapped its wings once and swiftly snatched the terrified woman out of the air, crushing her to death in its beak, before diving back down into the tides.

“Arg, ye be yearnin ta steal me skip wit so little power?! Hah~!” Captain Perseus waved his hands and two huge waves splashed down across the pier, completely clearing away all of the corpses and carnage.

A few minutes passed and Sarah was actually starting to get worried. She couldn’t ‘Whisper’ any of her Companions, and they were still registered as dead, so she had no idea how long it was going to take for them to resurrect.

After an hour went by, the little girl was still using her ‘Shadow Cloak’ and started to feel a strange dread welling up within her chest. Inky liquid began leaking out of her skeletal eye-sockets, and her tiny body was curled up on the bottom step.

“Michael… why aren’t you talking to me?! I know you’re out there somewhere, right?! You’re immortal! We all are! None of us can really die, so stop fucking with me! Grah~! You bastard! Michael~!” Once half a day passed, Sarah had finally started to remember how she felt when she helplessly watched her mother being executed. She felt truly powerless, but at the same time, she wasn’t willing to throw her life away, trying to fight against an enemy she couldn’t possibly defeat.

The moment that she finally turned off her ‘Shadow Cloak’ and became visible, all six of her Companions suddenly appeared before her bright-blue eyes. They were all completely naked and Talia unconsciously let out a shrill scream.

However, her shock and terror was immediately replaced by exuberance, as she read her new title: “Of the Endless Storm: You are one of Aeris’ descendants, but more than that, you are also devoted to the ruthlessness of nature. To live, everything must kill in one way or another, but death is merely part of the cycle of life and rebirth. However, you are a Player’s Companion, and are given the opportunity to keep your memories and restore your body, every time it has been destroyed. You know the consequences of your actions, yet you still wish to persist and continue growing, even if you need to kill hundreds, thousands, or millions of ‘enemies’ to stay alive. Aeris wishes for you to succeed where she failed, and never surrender to the erosion of time. Your stats have increased: +7 Aura, +7 Willpower, +7 Luck.”

“Nyah~, I think we died… Are we ghosts now? Is this heaven or hell?” Jasmine was confused and rubbing her tiny naked body against Talia’s left leg. The little cat-girl had also gained a new title, “Of the Infinite Chaos,” and even Inari finally received one: “Of the Ceaseless Regrowth.” They gave the same exact stat-increases and have very similar explanations, though one was written in meows and the other, only the fox would have been able to understand.

Alice muttered “Did we really die? Why didn’t I get a title? Hmm, is it because I don’t remember dying? Or maybe I just haven’t been killed enough times?”

Michael announced “Congratu-fucking-lations guys! You’ve officially experienced a wipe for the first time! Hahaha~! Apparently the Dungeon Master of this place isn’t nearly as accommodating as that Johnny guy… so we have ta be a bit~ more careful from now on!”

Sarah was wearing her equipment in their neutral state, so a shadowy veil was completely obscuring her face. However, her frigid and violent aura was roiling about uncontrollably; she screamed “Grah~! You bastard! I hate you so much!” while clenching her tiny fists and slamming her slimy tail into the ground.

The Nephilim turned around to look at her, and asked “Oh nice, you actually managed to survive the wipe! Hmmm~, why are you so pissed though? Ya know-”

“Shut up! Shut the fuck up! Damn it! I thought you were really dead, you asshole!” She only had a very small amount of Stamina remaining, so it wasn’t surprising that she fell onto her hands and knees.

Seeing and hearing the little girl sobbing, Elina quickly flew over to her side, and Michael briskly walked. The angelic woman kneeled down and pulled Sarah into her glowing bosom; the Nephilim sat down on the other side, hugging the two of them against his chest.

Jasmine also sprinted over and squeezed in between the two ‘normal’ sized people, “Nyah~, don’t cry Mahou Shoujo Kuro-chan~! Lookie~ lookie~, we’re all-”

“Grah~! Enough! If you bastards really wanna make me feel better, then fuck me and shut the hell up!” Sarah unequipped all of her gear and suddenly shoved her worm-like tail inside of the tiny cat-girl. Michael was already aroused, so he didn’t need any extra incentive to violently thrust into one of the little Dark-Goblin’s holes. Elina giggled, before pressing her mouth against those small and thin blue lips, forcing her golden tongue to wrestle with Sarah’s.

Meanwhile, Inari abruptly transformed into a teenage Human girl, with bright blue eyes and long, wavy green hair. Then she sat down on one of the steps and pulled out a tablet, starting to look for free information on the Mana-net about the various Bosses in the Forsaken Temple of Tiamat. Alice and Talia sat down next to her and the dragoness murmured “There aren’t enough guys in this group… Hmmm, but maybe I could make some? Heh~, clones or genderbending… I wonder which would be more interesting?”