Chương 78: How To Make Everyone Mad

Meno had never led a raid before, but common sense still counted for something. They had tanks, healers, ranged players who could throw damage from the slope, and melee who could run at the thing with sharp objects while yelling. As long as the wyvern did not suddenly trigger real raid mechanics, they could probably handle it. If a meteor shower opened over their heads, Meno was writing a very angry forum post. Fighting on Ashfang Volcano's slope was going to be awful either way.

Meno started descending from the crater rim, boots sliding over black stone as the wyvern cut through ash smoke toward the shelf where his raid waited.

"Tanks to the right. Melee split left. Ranged stay middle and hold fire until me or a tank has aggro." The raid scrambled below.

"If you die, stay at the respawn," Meno shouted.

"Do not wander around this zone." The wyvern was getting close. Its wings beat hot air across the mountain, and its long neck dipped as it picked a target among the players below. The creature looked less like a random patrol and more like the zone had thrown a knife with wings at his raid. Meno prepared himself for a stunt that might work, might fail, or might become the main clip of the next hour.

"Wait until I take it down," Meno shouted.

"Then tanks and melee engage." Nobody had tried to drown a bird in the sky before. Meno sprinted down the slope, then jumped as hard as he could toward the wyvern. False Wings kicked once behind him, adding speed. He tucked his legs, pushed them forward, and started a sideways spin to stabilize his path as the wyvern opened its mouth, flame gathering between its teeth. Meno hit Panic Pump and Preypool at the same time his shoulder crossed under the wyvern's wing, and a globe of water erupted around them in midair.

The wyvern thrashed, wings striking against suspended water with useless heavy beats. Its flame died in bubbles before leaving its mouth. Meno kicked through the water and grabbed the base of its neck, pressing himself against its back as the Preypool began falling with both of them inside. NOWAY that's crazy Bloodwake OP help me unlock this 6k for subclass The wyvern's confusion was immediate and satisfying. Being drowned in the sky had clearly missed its training schedule. They crashed into the volcano slope.

Water burst outward over hot stone. The wyvern took most of the impact, its body skidding down several yards while Meno clung to its back hard enough to feel scale ridges under his gloves. His legs buzzed from the hit, but the shield held. Almos and Sabra slid down the slope toward the downed monster with more skill than Meno had expected. Almos raised his shield. Sabra came in low with hers angled toward the wing. Both reached the wyvern before it fully recovered.

Meno inspected the prompt as the creature thrashed and knocked him off its back. [Elite Hostile: Ashwake Crown-Wyvern | Type: Volcanic Draconid | Threat: High | Ability: Furnace Cyclone]"High threat at forty-six," Meno said.

"Elite matters." He used False Wings to kick behind the wyvern as it rolled. His Chain had broken in the crash, so he triggered Panic Pump again and activated Chain Madness. [Compound Swing | Chain: 100 | Damage: +1000%] The Great Axe appeared, its weight snapping into his hands. Self-Control kept the opener stable, and he started cutting into the wyvern's rear leg before it could launch. The ranged players opened fire from higher up the slope.

Lightning bolts from VeeVeeZap, arrows from Pip, dark crimson fireballs from Ruinelle, frost shards, holy spears, and several spells Meno could not identify streaked down from the ridge. The melee group drifted along the slope toward the wyvern's side, trying to keep their footing while closing in. The wyvern slammed both wings outward. A cyclone burst around it, and Sabra lost her footing first. She slid off the mountain shelf, spinning as the wind shoved her sideways.

Meno cursed, jumped after her, kicked once with False Wings, caught the back of her armor, and threw her toward Almos before using the second kick to return behind the boss. Sabra hit the slope near Almos and rolled into a crouch.

"Thanks!" she shouted.

"Stop falling," Meno shouted back. The wyvern twisted toward Almos and began forming a fireball. Almos did not freeze. He stepped back, planted his feet, and struck the incoming fireball with his shield. The shield lit gold and black, a tank skill flaring across its rim. The fireball burst sideways, still burning him hard enough to chunk his HP, but Orlaqt and Morfoos immediately pushed healing into him.

"Nice," Meno said despite himself. Almos shouted something brave that got drowned out by the wyvern roaring. Sabra tried to take aggro, but the wyvern whipped its head toward Meno instead. Damage had consequences. Meno was doing too much of it. As Chain Madness ran out of hits, Meno used Hundredfold Cleave to dump a controlled arc into the wyvern's side and break the sequence on purpose.

[Hundredfold Cleave] [Break Surplus Activated] Because they were in a raid, the AoE ignored friendly targets and carved into the wyvern, throwing ash across the slope. Meno triggered Panic Pump again into a second Chain Madness sequence, stacking the opener at a much higher chain count. [Panic Pump] [Compound Swing | Chain: 310 | Damage: +3100%] [Chain Madness] The wyvern swiped with one claw.

Meno jumped off the mountain face, kicked away with False Wings, then kicked back in and landed behind its knee with the axe already moving. Nix and Latch took the chance to climb onto the wyvern. Both rogues moved fast, digging daggers into scales and pulling themselves onto its back while Junebug and the rest of the melee attacked the wings from the side. The plan was ugly, dangerous, and exactly the kind of thing rogue players did when a giant monster was busy being hit by everybody at once.

The wyvern dropped to thirty percent. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Sabra finally pulled aggro. The boss turned hard, and Latch lost his grip.

"Again?" Meno snapped, already jumping. He caught Latch before the rogue slid past a broken lava ridge, threw him back toward the wyvern, and used a False Wings kick to return to position. After a few more clean hits at ten attacks per second, Chain Madness expired, snapping him back to daggers, but his hands kept moving when he landed. The Leviathan Fang Dagger cut faster than the old blade ever had. At ten percent, the slope lit up.

VeeVeeZap's lightning struck the wyvern's wing joint, Pip's arrows hammered into one eye ridge, and Ruinelle sent an unnecessarily large crimson fireball into its ribs. The rest of the ranged players added enough bolts and sparks to turn the air above the boss into fireworks. The Ashwake Crown-Wyvern died under Meno and nineteen other people hitting it at once. [Elite Kill Confirmed: Ashwake Crown-Wyvern] Chat celebrated like they had not begged him to buy a worm as a joke.

WYVERN DOWN SKY DROWN RAID LEADER MENO elite cooked nice save"That was sick!" Almos shouted from behind him. Sabra walked back to Meno, still breathing hard.

"Thanks for the catch." Meno checked his XP bar instead of responding like a normal person. [Level 46: 1. 0%] One percent. With the fifty percent XP bonus. Morfoos shouted from higher up, "Ten percent XP at level thirty-five. Not bad!" Meno disagreed in silence. That thing had been a question-mark elite in a boosted claimed zone for the level thirty-fives, and Morfoos had only gained ten percent because the XP split across twenty people. The raid had done better than expected.

Other than climbing on the wyvern, falling off the wyvern, getting blasted by a cyclone, and treating a volcano slope like a playground, they were functional. When Latch looted the corpse, a new window appeared in front of Meno. [Raid Loot Roll] [Rare III Ashwake Talon Greaves] Type: Leather Boots Durability: Maximum Defense: Medium Leather Bonus: +2% Action Speed. Cinderflow III: Combo attacks deal 10% additional damage as Fire. Flameward III: Ice and Nature damage taken is reduced by 15%.

"Awesome rogue item," Meno said. He rolled Need. Chat exploded immediately. NOT YOURS you are not rogue NINJA LOOT streamer loot rules oh no Nix's voice cut through the noise.

"What are the loot rules, Meno? Are you planning to take everything?" Meno froze because bad PR had arrived in boot form. He had acted on reflex because Rare III leather with action speed and combo damage was worth a painful amount of gold. Also, he used leather pieces sometimes. Also, he wanted everything because poverty had trained him poorly. The raid could turn on him over this, and they would be right enough for the clip to stick.

"Uhm," Meno said.

"Everyone with combo attacks should roll Need. Everyone else Pass." Almos looked confused.

"But you do not have combo attacks and already rolled."

"It was reflex," Meno said.

"Don't worry. If I win, we roll again." Chat enjoyed that too much. The rogues rolled Need. Everyone else passed. Meno watched the dice with the dread of knowing his luck only appeared when it could embarrass him. [PrayerBeadGod rolls: 74] Meno won. Of course he won. He held the boots and felt greed tap at the inside of his skull. The item was worth real gold. Maybe a lot of real gold once players understood combo builds.

He could sell it, trade it, maybe use it later if the system counted some future tech as combo attacks. Meno exhaled through his nose and forced the window closed.

"Okay, calm down. Rogues roll again in raid chat. I give it to the winner."

"How generous," Nix said dryly. Latch rolled an eighty-one. Others rolled lower. Meno handed the boots to Latch with great difficulty and a meaningful amount of internal damage. [Trade Complete: Rare III Ashwake Talon Greaves] Latch equipped them and immediately did a standing somersault on the slope.

"Settle down before you roll into lava," Nix snapped. Meno looked away from the boots before regret became visible. They had not come for loot. They had come for PvP, Karma, XP disruption, and the question of whether the Grave Crown Banner could turn his viewer raid into a weapon. Meno summoned the Gravewurm and waved everyone back up. His phone rang, and the saved name appeared: Clownfall. Meno took the call for content, not because he wanted Kestrel in his ear. Kestrel's voice hit fast and angry.

"What are you doing?" Meno climbed into the saddle.

"Driving."

"Vulcanic Breach is a major spot. You have ruined the dungeon route and turned the entire zone into a mess."

"Ruined what?" Meno asked.

"Flag's up. Come take it, cowards." He hung up. Chat went bonkers. VILLAIN ARC COME TAKE IT Grave Crown menace Kestrel malding total war inc Meno opened GlassRook's stream. GlassRook and his party stood inside a half-cleared Vulcanic Breach instance, staring in disbelief at the XP penalty debuff icon. Their comms seemed tense even muted. Meno closed the stream, satisfied.

"That was… um. Quite hostile, actually," Orlaqt said from the back.

"Where are we going?" Almos asked, ignoring her.

"Shouldn't we defend the flag?"

"No way," Meno said.

"That is a waste of time. If they can reach it and capture it at the top, we take it back." He tightened his grip on the reins.

"In the meantime, we circle the zone, hunt elites, and run down any player we encounter for Karma and XP." wurm express WURM EXPRESS PvP bus roadkill raid Karma farm"I like the sound of that," Nix said. Meno commanded the Gravewurm down from the volcano shelf, and they jumped off the slope the same way as before. Everyone screamed again, because repetition did not make a bus-sized worm falling through volcanic air feel normal.

Before impact, Meno triggered Panic Pump and Preypool, catching the mount in suspended water and slowing the fall enough to splat onto the black ground in a wet mess instead of a fatal crater. Several passengers still ended up tangled together.

"We need to practice that landing," Meno said.

"Maybe warn us more," Pip muttered.

"I did warn you. I said we were going." Meno aimed for the far ridge line and marked a route in his head: circle around the volcano, avoid normal packs, hit elites, intercept players, never sit still long enough for guilds to assemble. In the distance, a larger-than-normal fire elemental moved near a cracked ridge, its body burning white at the joints.

"That thing," Meno said.

"Next elite." He looked back.

"When we catch players and I shout off, jump before I dismiss the mount. Do not wait for the ground to make decisions for you." Affirmatives came from behind him. The Gravewurm slid around normal monster packs. They were a waste of time. Even with the bonus, normal mobs split twenty ways was like dividing by zero. The elite and player kills were the experiment. Before they reached the ridge, Meno spotted three players near a magma channel and read their names fast: CinderLark, Velmora, BrackHarbor.

All level forty-three. Two mages and one warrior DPS. Their names glowed hostile inside the claimed zone, and Meno angled toward them at full force. The three players stared at the Gravewurm like a raid boss had spawned out of nowhere.

"OFF!" Meno dismissed the mount. [Mountstone Recalled] The raid fell in heaps. Players hit the ground, rolled, collided, cursed, and scrambled to stand. Meno landed in a crouch, kicked forward, and immediately chased Velmora as the mage teleported away in a burst of frost. Behind him, bolts and arrows started flying at the warrior and fire mage. The engage needed refinement. A lot of refinement. Velmora threw up an ice wall as Meno closed.

He kicked off the wall, recharged False Wings from the contact, and launched forward again. Panic Pump into Chain Madness carried him through the gap, and when the mage tried to retreat a second time, Meno activated Preypool. The water globe swallowed them both. Velmora panicked immediately, trying to swim upward and away, mouth opening and closing as the sudden water cut off speech and breath. Meno moved with Bloodwake speed, circling her like the spell had been cast for his benefit.

Velmora lasted thirteen seconds. what is this how is this allowed nerf nerf nerf drowning in VR is rly bad poor mage [Player Slain: Velmora] [Gold Awarded: 5g] [Karma +10] [XP Awarded]"Disgusting," Meno said. Preypool against non-Bloodwake players was not a slow. It was panic in a sphere. Velmora had barely fought after the water appeared, focusing on escape and breath while Meno turned the area into his domain. Meno turned back toward the raid.

The warrior died under numbers a moment later, buried by crowd control, arrows, and melee pressure. CinderLark stood stunned by Nix long enough for Pip, VeeVeeZap, and Ruinelle to erase the last third of her HP. [Player Slain: BrackHarbor] [Gold Awarded: 5g] [Karma +10] [Player Slain: CinderLark] [Gold Awarded: 5g] [Karma +10] The 100 gold that should have dropped from each kill was split twenty ways instead, reducing it to a pathetic 5 gold per person. Meno checked his XP bar.

Each kill had given him zero point one percent, which meant ten level-forty-plus players for one percent. Terrible on paper. Maybe not terrible in practice. The raid was bad for pure XP, but it made kills much faster, and speed had a way of making ugly math less ugly. Meno looked at the raid. They were lower level, badly coordinated, and had fallen off a recalled worm like laundry dumped from a basket. It had still worked. Against twenty people, the three targets never got to play.

Stuns, slows, pressure, and confusion stacked too quickly. Zerging was a strategy for a reason.

"Okay," Meno said.

"That was good, but the engage needs refinement. We cannot land on each other. Next time, jump off before I get rid of the mount."

"Yep. That is the way," Pip said. A group of non-elite fire elementals wandered too close and aggroed. Almos and Sabra reacted first, taking aggro before the ranged even settled. The raid killed the elementals fast. Someone picked up a few trash items. Meno did not even bother attacking because the XP gain was too small to deserve math. He summoned the Gravewurm again.

"Okay," Meno said.

"That was the warm-up. Now we kill elites until guilds finally show up." The worm rose from green light, huge, ugly, and practical, and Meno climbed into the saddle. guild panic no faction yet no mounts cant take buff without faction not coming Viewers: 182, 669"They will come," he said.

"The flag is an annoyance, but it is also an opportunity. Fifty percent XP is too much to ignore." He aimed the Wurm Express toward the white-burning fire elemental by the ridge.

"Time to see what they are made of," Meno said.

"First, another elite dies."