Chương 116: Body Bag Extra

JustrelaxPete's legacy had followed Meno into real life. He might have laughed if the pink-haired girl had looked even a little less severe. Instead, she stood with both hands on his table, bare feet planted on the lounge floor, staring at him like he had personally ruined her family, and Meno had no idea what to do with the situation. It was beyond ridiculous. That had been the first time he used a mount. Dying was part of Veyrath.

If her brother could not handle it, maybe VRMMOs were a poor choice, and Meno was not about to start sending apology letters to everyone who died in PvP. So he just stared back at her until she got the message.

"Tss." She returned to her table, sat down, and resumed sipping tea with her pink hair falling across one eye like a hostile status effect. Meno's food arrived not long after, and the staff member had not lied. The chef had changed the steak burger since Meno last ordered it: a new thick sauce soaked into the meat, with whole green peppers that popped under his teeth and made the burger taste twice as good. Meno finished it fast, downed the blueberry juice, and walked to the bar.

"Compliments to the chef," he said.

"I'll relay that, sir," the staff member said, looking far too pleased. Meno started back toward his room feeling good, minus the strange encounter. It could not be helped. A place full of gamers would produce petty grievances, and after the next global announcement, some of them might try to storm his suite. Hopefully The Pearl had doors sturdy enough to counter it. That was one downside of moving into a hotel: convenient, expensive, clean, and packed with people who came and went all day.

Meno checked the time and saw he had ten minutes left, which was enough for a quick shower, a change into capsule clothes, and one look at the stream he had left running. Viewership was already above seven million, and once the Titan Trial actually started, it would probably break ten million without effort. Peak content. He climbed into the XPro and logged back in. Veyrath returned him to the floating portal in Templefall Hollow.

Thorn stood there already, arms crossed, shield on his back, looking like someone had spent the whole break getting madder instead of drinking protein. He sent the party invite again. Meno accepted.

"Ready?"

"Let's do it," Thorn said. Meno stepped to the portal and selected the Titan Key from his inventory. The prompt appeared immediately. [Titan Trial] Inventory disabled. Exit impossible. Logout counts as abandonment. Attempt locked on entry. PrayerBeadGod death or abandonment: Trial failure. Thorn death or abandonment: Character deletion. Completion unlocks Titan Subclass. Enter? Both of them accepted. The world shifted, dropping them into the middle of a huge circular colosseum.

The arena floor was packed dirt, empty stands rose around them in silent tiers, and at the four main sides, grated doors waited, each large enough to let a colossus walk through without lowering its head. A timer appeared overhead. [Wave 1 begins in 5 minutes] Meno looked down and immediately knew something was wrong. Thorn's plate armor covered his arms, heavy tank gear dragged at his body, and the shield felt like someone had strapped a door to his hand. The sword at his side was not Vervenzal's Verdict.

His own gear was gone. Thorn's voice came from the side.

"This is a joke, right?" Meno looked over. Thorn was wearing his gear: bare feet wrapped in Dreamchain chains, Vervenzal's Verdict in hand. Then Meno checked his class. [War Anchor Dominion] His Swing Master kit was gone.

"Class swap," Meno said.

"This is bad. Should have known the body bag extra I had to invite wasn't cosmetic." Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"Body bag?" Thorn snapped.

"Get your head straight. We are in crisis mode. I haven't played DPS since forever, especially nothing like this dumb class." class swap LMAO amazing Swing Master Thorn Meno tank arc THORN IS SO DEAD Meno tried to move, and Thorn's armor dragged against him from every joint: full plate, shield. A permanent -35% Action Speed penalty from gear that made walking feel like moving through a swamp. He tried to remove the armor. [Inventory disabled]"Of course." Meno took a few steps, testing how the body turned.

"How do you even move with this? It's like I am stuck in mud." Thorn jumped forward, triggered a double-legged False Wings kick, lost balance instantly, and rocketed upside down into the side of the colosseum. The impact left a dust mark on the wall, and Thorn slid down enraged. Meno stared at him.

"Are you serious?"

"Shut up!" Thorn pushed himself up.

"It was my first time. This thing is harder than it looked. I am not used to the speed."

"You don't even have the action speed buff on."

"Quickly tell me how to play this thing. We don't have much time." Meno looked at the timer. Four minutes, twenty-eight seconds. Thorn flexed his fingers around Vervenzal's Verdict.

"If I get hit with this cardboard build, I am gone. Deleted." This was a proper disaster, which meant it was prime content. Meno's viewership had already passed eight million, and Thorn's was probably over one million by now. Millions of people were about to watch two streamers try to clear a permanent-death trial while piloting each other's classes with almost no prep. Meno forced himself into explanation mode, trying to download Swing Master Infernal into Thorn's brain in a few minutes.

He wasn't sure Thorn understood, but there was no time, and Thorn kept nodding with deadly seriousness. He had grasped the important part. If he got deleted while playing a class he had called broken, he was never going to live it down. At 2 minutes, Meno opened the War Anchor Dominion class panel. The main mechanic stared back at him. [War Anchor Dominion] While standing still, gain 25 Anchor per second, up to 100. Inside Dominion, gain 50 Anchor per second, up to 100. Each Anchor reduces damage taken by 0.

5% and increases damage dealt by 1%. Moving removes all Anchor. Movement inside your Dominion does not remove Anchor. At 100 Anchor, you are immune to status effects.

"That's it? That's your class?" Thorn turned.

"Don't move, take less damage, then deal more," Meno said.

"I assume Dominion is your medium-range cage thing."

"That's it?" Thorn said.

"My class is awesome, unlike your miss-one-attack-and-do-nothing swing bot." Classic tank brain anti-PBG class Swamp Master this is gonna be good rip Thorn"Speak fast," Meno said.

"How does it actually work? I do not have time to decode all your tooltips." Thorn started talking quick. Dominion was the medium-range circle that trapped anything inside but did not stop enemies from entering. It did not block projectiles from outside. The cooldown was 1 minute, it could not move once placed, and it could be canceled manually. Its real value was letting War Anchor move without losing Anchor. The diamond skin ability was called Anchorplate. Meno immediately renamed it Diamond in his head.

It had no cooldown, but it consumed 100 Anchor. It gave 90% damage reduction against the next large hit that would have dealt more than 25% of max HP. So the trade was simple: lose the constant 50% reduction and 100% damage bonus from full Anchor to survive one big damage instance better. Inside Dominion, it took 2 seconds to rebuild to 100. Outside, it took 4. All while standing still. Thorn tried to explain tank damage reduction math, and Meno regretted asking almost immediately.

Damage reduction from effects and gear capped at 75%, but the gear Defense stat applied separately before that. Tanks wanted HP over stacked reduction mods because reduction could hit cap while HP always mattered.

"Next," Meno said. The shield attack was easy. Meno called it Stun. Frontal cone, 2-second AOE status effect that disabled the targets, 10-second cooldown. The shockwave flag was medium-range AOE, 2000% weapon damage, high threat, and knocked airborne targets down. No cooldown, but it cost 100 Anchor, which meant every use stole his defensive bank. The full Anchor, 100% damage bonus made it hit like 40 normal weapon swings across the area. Solid. Thorn probably used it carefully because Diamond needed Anchor too.

The regeneration flag restored 50% max HP over 1 second for allies in short range, with a 30-second cooldown. Meno filed that away with irritation. He probably could have killed Thorn eventually. It would have taken patience, which explained why neither of them had enjoyed the duel. The last tools were simpler. A long-range single target Taunt with 10-second cooldown. Then the sacrifice flag thing, Thorn had just picked.

It pulsed 1000% weapon damage every second for 10 seconds in short range, gave allies 50% Movement Speed, redirected 50% of ally damage to Thorn, and had a 30-second cooldown. At max Anchor, it was sneaky good. Roughly 40000% weapon damage spread over 10 seconds before other scaling, almost a Chain Detonation stretched thin. The uptime was poor, but it also saved allies and repositioned melee. Thorn was still a brick, but now the brick had a damaging aura. Meno organized the class in his head.

Stay inside Dominion for Anchor sustain. Diamond for big hits. Stun for control. Shockwave for medium AOE at the cost of defense. Regen every 30 seconds. Sacrifice for short AOE, movement, and damage redirection every 30 seconds. Taunt if needed. That was enough. Probably.

"You get it, right?" Thorn asked.

"Block melee and projectile attacks. Never spells. Small hits get negated. Big ones seep through depending on hit size."

"Yeah," Meno said.

"And you maintain Break Infernal uptime. Don't miss. Use Pump on cooldown for either Cleave infernal marking or detonation storage. Release if things go bad. Keep False Wings minimal because you have no practice." Thorn gripped the sword.

"And absolutely do not get hit," Meno added.

"I can handle it." he cannot tank in giga speed class deleted soon cardboard Thorn big clip coming up The timer hit zero. [Wave 1: Eliminate all opponents] The four grated doors lifted at once, releasing a hulking stone golem from each gate with no level designation and no inspect popup.

They lumbered onto the packed dirt, each as tall as three cars stacked together, their heavy steps shaking the arena while low-hanging arms swung at their sides, fists broad enough to smash both players together if they lined up wrong. The Titan Trial had begun.