The Mad Rat’s Lab

“Hehehehe! Hey, brother! I know I told you I would protect you, but I don’t think I can protect you from THAT thing, so… good luck, ok? Hehehe!”

Clara keeps laughing uncontrollably. It seems she finds it very funny that the one who jinxed it the worst was Laura. Also, I’m sure she’s winking right now but, because she doesn’t have a face, we can’t see it. What we can see is her pink tentacle, the one that resembles a tongue, sticking out.

“I should have shut my mouth… I joked about getting a turn to jinx the situation, but I didn’t expect it to come back to me like this…”

“...hahaha…” I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.

“Hahaha! Look at this! Finally, finally, I got some souls!”

Ricard is still talking and laughing alone, on top of a pile of corpses from the factory workers, or whatever they are. I call him so that he reacts and helps us with the Boss.

“Hey! You stupid useless monk! Stop behaving like a fool and come here!”

“...Souls! My precious souls… W-what did you say!? Did I hear it wrong? You just called me ‘monk’, right!? How dare you call me with such a shitty name! I demand that you apologize and call me a ‘sage’! It’s the worst offense you could have committed…!”

“...uh, ok. You stupid useless ‘sage’! Stop behaving like a fool and come here!”

“I’m coming!”

I don’t know if I should be more worried about his antics, or about him taking more offense for being called a ‘monk’ instead of caring about the ‘stupid’, ‘useless’, and ‘fool’ parts. Well, even with the insults, he’s coming here… so who cares. All’s well that ends well.

“Wow, that’s one big golem! And it’s called… Prototype 3.” Ricards turns his head and looks at Laura. “Hmmm… it was you the one who talked about not wanting to fight a Prototype 3 before, right…?”

“Y-yes. It was me… But it’s not my fault, ok? I was just joking around! Also, you three also jinxed it, so you can’t complain!”

“Hahaha! ‘We can’t complain’! Hahaha! You were so haughty calling me a liar, but now you want us to forgive you!”

“Stop it already, Lemon! It’s time to focus on the Boss battle, or we’ll be killed!” I admonish my sister.

“...oooww, ok…”

She stops laughing but continues to stare in Laura’s direction with a grin on her face. At least this is what it feels like because her champion doesn’t have eyes or a mouth… So I can’t tell her to stop even if I ‘know’ she’s doing it.

*Sigh* What am I going to do with you…?

“Why don’t we do it this way? We can…”

Ricard starts to explain the plan for fighting the boss. Of course, the plan is full of holes because we still don’t know what skills the boss has.

“...and if it has the same spinning attack as the Prototype 2, just warn the others when you see it activate and run immediately away.”

 

The first thing Prototype 3 does when it fully awakens is look in our direction. Its red eyes start to shine a lot more than before.

“Avoid it!” Shouts Ricard.

We all immediately jump away, just in time to avoid the lasers that the golem shot through its eyes. Behind us, an unlucky skeleton gets struck by the lasers and is killed. Poor unlucky soul! It’s already its second time dying! Hahaha!

But more important! It’s the skill to shoot lasers through the eyes! The skill I’ve been looking for for so long! It’s a shame it’s a skill unique to the Magic Engineers, because otherwise…

“To think it would have this skill… It has a chance to instantly kill you, albeit very low. So avoid it at all costs if you see its eyes shining! Also, wait for a while until I get his aggro. Once it starts to focus on me, you can attack it from behind!”

Leaving these instructions, Ricard rushes towards the Prototype 3, his sword in one hand and a shield in the other. I don’t think that shield is going to help a lot, because the golem’s fists are bigger than his whole body… But it’s his problem, so who cares?

We need to be careful about the boss’ aggro because Taunt doesn’t work against Bosses. So we must control who it targets by controlling how much damage we deal.

“Now! Attack it now!”

Following his command, all of us, support units included, rush inside the room and join the ongoing combat.

Yeah, there are still a few support units alive. Though there are very few. Only one skeleton, two imps, one of my sister’s ‘things’, and my Kidnapper remain.

Remember when I was complaining about the troll having more than a thousand HP? Then let me say that it was a breeze compared to this Boss…

Golems tend to have a lot more HP than other units. And by a lot, I do mean A LOT. Prototype 1, the equivalent of a beginning unit, had more than 100 HP when most beginning units don’t have more than 60. Prototype 2 had about the same HP as me after receiving the Champion’s buff, so a little bit over a thousand. The problem with fighting it was getting close enough to attack while it was spinning.

Now, this fucking colossal Prototype 3 has… a whole whopping 4.000 HP. Yeah, it’s stupidly sturdy. It also has very high CON and WIL, so it takes less damage than it should! Luckily, it doesn’t have the Regeneration skill, because otherwise there’s no way we could defeat it!

During the fight, Ricard tries to avoid as many punches as he can. Though it's difficult because the golem is so damn huge.

As if its size and laser beams weren’t enough, it can also release telegraphed missiles that must be destroyed before they reach the target (luckily they aren’t too fast), and can also release lightning blasts that have a high chance to stun the affected units.

But the worst of all the golem’s skills is that if you attack it with ranged spells, there’s a small chance that the spell is reflected back. How scary is the thought of it returning a Chain Lightning and making me kill or stun my own team… I shudder just imagining it. I was lucky the first spell the golem reflected was Cold Blast. I stopped using Chain Lightning from that moment on.

But even with the stupidly high HP the golem has, thanks to all of us attacking it together, and in particular the continuous damage my sister deals when all her DoTs are stacked, we steadily reduce the golem’s HP.

When I’m thinking everything is going smoothly, Ricard is stunned by the lighting blast. 

Prototype 3 always shoots the lightning blasts randomly at one of us. As a result, Laura and I got stunned once, my sister twice, and it also killed one imp. But we aren’t targeted by the golem, so it’s ok as long as at least one of us can destroy the missiles before they explode.

But… While stunned, Ricard can’t avoid the golem’s punches, so it’s almost sure he’s going to die now that he’s been stunned. Luckily, Laura reacts on time and uses her Charming Eyes to buy him enough time to recover.

 “Nice save there!”  I say. “With your support, we can be at ease! Hahaha!”

“But now I can’t charm it again until a minute passes, so don’t expect me to save you anytime soon.”

“...I forgot about that limitation. Shit!”

 

The fight continues after the close party wipe that Laura avoided. And everything looks fine until Prototype 3’s HP drops under half.

*Clack!* *Clack!* Similar to what Prototype 2 does, a part of Prototype 3’s waist changes shape and its upper torso starts to rotate.

Ooooooh, it’s coming!!

“Ruuun! It’s going to make a spinning attack!”

We quickly stop attacking and move away as we scatter, like cockroaches. Clara uses the Abyss Grasp skill to detach her tentacle so that it clings to Prototype 3 and continues to deal damage for a while.

After its wind-up, the colossal golem starts chasing Ricard while rotating. He’s running away from the golem at full speed. The same scene of him running away from a giant enemy repeats yet again, only that this time the enemy is ten meters tall, and I can’t hold myself from chucking at what I see.

Because it’s very slow, the Kidnapper can’t run fast enough, it’s caught in the golem’s path, and is sent flying. I can see it getting away, until it’s veeeery far and looks veeeeery small. Then, it hits the room’s wall and leaves a bloody silhouette behind. Well, it doesn’t because it’s a game. But it has died in a single attack.

Until now it didn’t take damage because it doesn’t fight at all, but when you find yourself in the path of the golem’s spinning destruction, it doesn’t matter if you’re a pacifist or not, you’re going to know what hitting a wall at high speed feels like. You can say it’s the wall (golem’s fists) that hits you, though it doesn’t matter which one is the one that’s moving because the result is the same.

“Goodbye, you loyal soldier! I hope you have more luck in your next life!”

Luckily, I don’t expect to find any other unit to capture. We’re already fighting the last boss after all. So its job has already finished after capturing the factory workers. It got killed just after his retirement, what n unlucky fellow.

 

Remember what I said about having to manage the golem’s aggro? Because we can barely attack the golem now that it’s spinning, and even more difficult for Ricard, who uses everything it has to run away, the only one who’s dealing damage to Prototype 3 right now is Clara, my sister. With her detached tentacle.

So after a few seconds after it starts to rotate, the golem stops chasing Ricard and switches targets to my little sister. It’s going to be very bad if we don’t solve this situation somehow…

Something like this didn’t happen with the troll, because it was so stupid that it only attacked whatever was in front of it. That’s why the Kidnapper bait tactic worked that time. But the golems in this dungeon are more intelligent… Or should I say less stupid? Whatever. The important fact is that they change targets depending on who deals damage.

“Be careful, Lemon! You got its aggro and is now coming after you!” Ricard is the first one to notice and warns us about the situation.

“Aaaaahhh! Brother, save me!”

“Don’t run this way you fool! You’re only going to drag me too into the attack if you come this way!”

“Aaaaaaaahhh!”

She continues to run in my direction. So I’m forced to run too. I run in another direction, but when my sister sees I’m running away from her, she changes her path and starts to follow me.

“I told you to stop coming this way already!!!”

“Brother, come here! I need you to protect me! Don’t you feel bad for your cute little sister!?”

“I don’t! Especially not when it means I’m going to be hit by an arm as big as my whole room!”

Also, you’re not cute when playing with an Abyss champion! Though I’m not going to tell her. This way I’m immune to her charms, and I’m going to take as much advantage of this fact as I can, until she notices.

“Come on, brother! I’m going to chase you until you protect me! Aaaaaaah!”

“Aaaaaaaah! Don’t come! Stay away, you monster!” Monster in double meaning: because she looks like one, and because she’s behaving like one.

“Don’t worry, Lemon! I’ll save you! I’m the best sage ever in DMA’s history. The time has come to display my true power! Hahahaha! Regret your actions, Prototype 3! I’m going to crush you now! Eat this, Dark Grab!”

While running, we can hear Ricard’s rambling from behind. When he uses his skill, a completely dark hand extends from his right hand until it reaches the colossal golem. Then, the dark hand, which looks minuscule in comparison to the golem’s body, tries to pull it in Ricard’s direction.

But the golem doesn’t budge, not even a millimeter, so it keeps chasing after Clara, and Clara after me.

What would have you done if it actually worked!? It pulls the enemy until it gets next to you, so you would be hit by the spinning arms immediately after, you fool!

“Aaaaahh! What was that!? Did you really expect to move a golem as big as that one!? Come here, brother! I can only rely on you!”

“I already told you to stop chasing after me! At this rate, we both are going to be smashed by the golem!”

After his epic failure, Ricards drops to the ground in shame. “What have I done… After getting so pumped up, I didn’t achieve anything… I just lost my gentlemanly pride…” We continue to run, completely ignoring him.

Not that we can afford to cheer him up in our current situation, mind you. But even if we weren’t chased, we would still ignore him.

It’s Laura who saves us from the approaching golem. “Charming Eyes! Finally, it came out of cooldown! It’s annoying that it’s so hard to use against Bosses…”

“Thank you, Lily!”

“Don’t expect to give my thanks to you! Also, why did it take you so long!? I’m sure you waited until Mad Rat was dragged into it to help me!”

“You’re welcome. What are you saying, Lemon? Of course, I didn’t do it on purpose! Hahaha…!” She looks away in a clearly suspicious way. “Anyway, stand up already, Baldy! It’s time for us to counterattack now that the golem has stopped!” She says as she kicks Ricard, still despairing with his two hands and knees on the ground.

“...my gentlemanly pride…”

She kicks him a few more times. “I said stand up!”

“Ouch! Ok, ok! Just stop hitting me!”

 

Ricard takes the aggro again, and we proceed with our fight. The only thing Prototype 3 changes from his previous behavior is that now it sometimes activates the spinning attack in between the lasers, lightning bursts, and missiles. And every time it does, the spinning attack lasts less than the previous time.

I take a close look at its status and see that his EP is drained very fast when using it, so that must be why now it lasts less than the first time.

The most relevant difference is that now my sister has learned that it's best to release the golem instead of detaching her tentacle during those attacks, so we haven’t had any more aggro troubles.

And finally, FINALLY! After a very long fight, Prototype 3’s HP reaches 0 and it crumbles. This time it starts with its head falling to the ground, followed by a massive crack that appears on the golem’s torso before it falls apart.

I’m sure that my sister dealt the most damage during the fight. Even if she’s the one with the lower level and lowest stats.

“Hah, hah… See? We can do it when we all work together! Hahaha! I don’t know if we’re going to win the tournament, but at least we’re going to have an opportunity if we fight like this! I watched the previous tournament and most teams sucked compared to ours! Hahahaha! It’s all thanks to my party-building skills! Hahaha!”

I’m sure that his ‘party building’ skills are about choosing the appropriate skills for a good party. But even if he tries to put himself on top of everything, he only chose his own champion and skills.

I didn’t change a single thing, Laura only picked a healing skill at his demand, and Clara only left MP draining skills out because I asked her to pick skills that deal HP damage. Mostly because we all deal damage, so a single party member that does something else won’t fit as well as one that complements the party.

“Hehehe! Brother, praise me, praise me! Without me and my damage, you would have been killed! Hehehe!”

“It’s clearly me who made this possible! Without my charm, this battle would have ended in a party wipe!”

“Whaaaat!? It’s thanks to me! I was the one who dealt the most damage! Don’t try to put yourself on top because you only used your charm a few times! You were useless the rest of the time!”

“Haaaaaah!? Every time I used my Charming Eyes I saved at least one of you! I also saved you twice, so you should thank me!”

“Hey, hey! You’re forgetting about me! It’s thanks to my party building that we could do this! Hahaha!”

“Shut up!”

“Fuck off, Baldy! This is between us two!”

“Wow, ok, ok! I just wanted a little bit of recognition for my efforts… Also, I was the most active one, evading and running away all the time…”

Well, I don’t have too much to say, because it definitely wasn’t because of me that we beat the Boss this time. I excel against multiple enemies, not against a strong one. And also, I couldn’t cast Chain Lightning for fear of it being returned back… So my damage wasn’t that high.

Also, it’s true that the most active one in this fight was Ricard. But there’s no way I’m going to interrupt the two girls, I don’t want to be lynched. So… I shut up and ignore them.

“Let’s end this dungeon invasion, don’t you think?”

Talking alone, I leave them arguing and quickly move towards the dungeon core and break it. It was behind a door that opened when the Boss was defeated.

 

I didn’t expect too much of this party, mainly because Laura and Clara were arguing all the time since the flamethrower trap. If everything continued that way, there was no way we could properly compete in the tournament. And much less win it.