Dungeon Core Online 184 Chapter 184

MercerEffect's entrance into the fight, along with his stopping of The Candied King's attack, turned the tide of the Avatar battle in the blink of an eye. Or more so… the dozen or so shots he took, judging by how quickly he unloaded both his revolvers, into the Candied Queen's eyes, caused her eyes to 'blink' shut for quite a while. James had almost cheered the moment it had occurred, especially as the 'blinded' status appeared over the Avatar's information bar. However, The Candied Queen had taken down Rue, so he knew she wouldn't be brought down that easily.

Case in point, James wasn't surprised when he saw her weapon glow, and the translucent, ghostlike visages of the Spartan like forces appeared around her. At the same time, a massive, glowing shield appeared in her hand, and even more ghostlike Spartans appeared. The ones associated with her sword were wielding deadly spears, while the ones that appeared with her shield, held massive, rounded shields of their own. She had just used not one, but two different cooldowns.

"You know. If you're just going to stand and watch, I can get you some popcorn." Rue's voice pulled James from his momentary stupor that had occurred as he watched the fight. He hadn't seen when The Candied Queen had activated her cooldown against Rue, he had just seen how deadly it was once activated.

Now though, he realized he had been starring, mouth slightly agape, at the female Avatar, even as the fight continued all around him. And, considering he was mentally controlling his Siege Snake, their movement had stopped. Oops. James shook his head, shooting a quick look towards Rue. The pixie was currently eating popcorn. James still had yet to actually eat anything in game with his Avatar, and he felt a slight hint of hunger rise up from within, his mouth watering slightly. He was really curious how good the food in game was…

"I'll give you something to watch." James responded to his pixie. Of course, he was the only one who could actually see her, so to all 60 plus players on the Siege Snake, he was talking to thin air. Which was fine, since they were supposed to think he was mad anyways.

"Who here wants to help commit regicide?" James commanded his siege snake forward, moving in a diagonal pattern to crisscross the battlefield. Originally he had planned to use the Siege Snake to just… well, serve as a siege weapon. It was meant to launch long range attacks, supporting the battlefield and causing havoc and destruction in BLANK's back ranks. However, he knew he needed to dispose of the Candied King if he wanted to ensure victory. With the King dead, James had no doubt the Candied Queen would fall as well. Besides, if she defeated Voltron, James would just have to use Monty Python and his Struggle Snuggles on her. And considering she just blew her extremely deadly cooldowns, James was pretty confident his Giant Plaython could win that fight.

"Pain train, coming through." Rue chuckled as the Siege Snake blasted through the enemy forces. Players from both sides leapt out of the way of the massive snake, which also had wooden wall pieces placed on the front of it, creating a plow of sorts. Da Breakers weren't fast enough to move aside, so they were pushed apart and crushed, which unfortunately resulted in various explosions alongside the Siege Snake. The wooden wall sections held up against a lot of the explosions, and James mentally active a HoT effect onto Monty Python, to help soak any additional damage.

The crazy, reckless, chaotic move of James's was having a positive effect on the battlefield at least. Even as Monty Python weaved its way through the masses, James's adventurers rained deadly barrages down upon any and all forces they could see. While the cannons were deadly from a distance, up close they packed an even greater punch. Cannonballs ripped through player and mob alike, leaving a trail of candy dust and player orbs in their wake.

Zaku's, players, mobs, any and all friendly things within range of James also rallied on him as they blasted into the back portion of BLANKs army. James saw batches of BLANK's players fall after getting pounced on by Snuggle Woofs. A split second later, a group cried out as a flock of dickens rushed over them, pecking them to death. It was glorious, and utterly ridiculous.

"You dare challenge the King?" The Candied King bellowed as James's siege snake rushed towards him. The massive avatar stood up straighter, his massive shield glowing with a golden light. James knew that skill too, it was a Paladin one, which activated a temporary damage mitigation effect on the shield, from all ranged attacks. In essence, it was really hard to hurt Paladins from a distance.

"I'm here to kill the King. I'll save your head for my Mad Beast." James called back, losing himself to the RP of the moment. It was extremely hard not to lose yourself to the moment, when thousands of players on both sides were currently engaged in a life or death free for all. Sure, dying wasn't permanent to anyone, well, at least not to the players. James figured the mobs deaths probably seemed permanent to them, but he doubted they had ai that could process that. After all, advanced AI was only saved for actual…intelligent creations, and even then, those AI knew they would come back, and that death was temporary for them as well in this game.

Still, in that moment, in that instance, James was certain not only he, but probably everyone out there, felt like they were fighting for their life. This was a game, yet in that moment, it was taking on a realism. All that mattered was defeating BLANK, and seizing victory for him and his players. And the quicker they killed the duo's avatars, the more of his players he could save.

"I'll teach you proper respect mage." BLANK's Avatar's eyes glowed as he focused on James. The siege snake had pulled up short of The Candied King, and James had been in the process of ordering the snake to encircle The Candied King, before the Avatar's eyes had started to glow. "You have made yourself an enemy of the Inquisition." Light flared from his eyes, and James knew BLANK was activating a cooldown. Still, he couldn't pull his eyes away. Which, he figured, was probably part of the cooldown.

"Your death has been decreed by The High Inquisitor, The Candied King." The golden light rushed out from The Candied King, enveloping James. A moment later, he was no longer Monty Python. Instead, he found himself hanging upside down, his legs tied to a piece of wood that seemed to be set in a Y structure. Beneath him, logs were piled, and seemed primed to be lit. Alright, James was not a fan of this. Well shit.

"You may live in chaos, Mage." The Candied King said from above. Around them, a golden field of light extended, BLANK was using a Paladin Cooldown to create a damage mitigating area. Essentially, BLANK had probably burned through a good amount of skills and cooldowns, to enable this situation. If James had to guess, the ability that had placed James in his current predicament, was meant as an extremely powerful, single target skill. Which, James had to admit, seemed to be doing quite well. "However, I doubt, even in your chaos, you could have expected to fall prey to the Inquisition." And with that, the logs underneath James sprang to life, and he suddenly found himself being burned alive.

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