The river current starts dragging both of us towards the underground lake inside the big cave. During this time, we continue fighting, this time in extremely close range. By the time we reach the underground lake, I'm already a corpse. He still has almost half of his HP remaining, but after the chase his EP, MP and also Stamina and Soul are very low. His battle capability is severely reduced. He is making an incredibly angry face right now.
"Serves you right! You stupid player! Haha!" Since I'm dead, he can't hear me anymore. But I still continue to mock him. It's for my own satisfaction.
Now he can only do one of two things: abandon the dungeon invasion and receive reduced rewards, or risk it in a do-or-die bet. He doesn't hesitate too much and chooses to continue the invasion.
I continue to watch the invasion out of spite. I want to see him die! And I don't get disappointed, because he does.
The shortened version goes like this. He roams through the tunnels and continues to take some poison damage. Once he reaches the place where I threw both of us into the river, he spits and insults me. "Oh, so you can actually talk! What a surprise!" Then he reaches the laboratory and starts a fight with the Lab Assistant.
The fight looks even at the start. But the enemy invader has very low EP and MP, so he can't display all his might. The turning point is when the Assistant's HP is reduced under half and the triggered skill activates. The huge amount of damage from the trigger plus the immobilization, followed by an unavoidable Fireball settle the match.
"Hahahaha! Serves you right!" I can't stop laughing after seeing his face just before the Fireball hit him. He was like 'Oh, no, fuck this damned player (me)!' I even received extra cp and xp for defeating him. "Thanks for the extra bonus, you jerk! Hahaha!"
After rolling on the floor laughing for some time, I decide it's time to continue with the original objective. I look at the current invasions. There are two again. The first one, which was already ongoing when I entered the game, is almost finished. I spent too much time with the jerk. But in the second one, the player is just reaching the tunnel zone.
"This time's an orc! I hope he knows how to properly behave and isn't a stupid player like the last one." I say as I enter the dungeon instance.
This time I'm not going to make the same mistake as before. I'm going to appear from a place where the enemy cannot reach, plus I'm going to bring the Lab Assistant with me. It goes where I tell him to go, so the plan should work properly.
"Fufufu, Hahaha!" I slowly move towards the orc while releasing a high-pitched laugh. Then I appear from a higher place, very difficult to reach unless the enemy can fly. "Welcome! Welcome to my lair!"
The orc looks in my direction and says. "Bufu! Your lair? This is little more than a few rocks and mushrooms!"
Oho? It actually answered! But is he insulting my dungeon? This offense shall not be pardoned! (in a serious and haughty tone) But I'm going to take this chance to practice. "Yes, my lair! And you came at the perfect moment. Hahaha! I was waiting for a guinea pig to appear! You'll have the honor to test my newest creation! Fufufu!"
"Huhuhu! Guinea pig? Newest creation? Bwahaha! So you are the mastermind behind this diabolical dungeon!? Bring it on! I'm always itching for a real challenge!" He says while opening its arms wide.
Diabolical dungeon? Mastermind? What the hell is he talking about? I'm just a normal player with a somewhat unpredictable dungeon. That's all, I swear! Police, please don't take me away! Also, what are you? A musclebrain?
"Hahaha! You'll regret your decision! But it's nice to have the guinea pig collaborate with the testing! Fufufu!" I answer. At the same time, the Lab Assistant appears from the nearest tunnel and it immediately casts a Fireball towards the enemy. The fire explosion kills two of the enemy champion's support units: two goblins.
"How cowardly! A sneak attack! Heh, what was I expecting from someone who stays far away and only looks while we fight…" Says the orc.
"Cowardly? I took the trouble to warn you! So don't complain. Hahaha!" I stay where I am, watching the fight that's happening below.
There's one fun thing, though, and it is that the enemy orc didn't properly look around. It's currently standing very close to some poison mushrooms. So if the combat actually takes place in this tunnel, he's going to receive large amounts of damage from the poison.
The fight earnestly starts when the enemy Champion and the remaining mob, another orc, engage in melee combat with the Lab Assistant.
And sure, they do start fighting surrounded by the poisonous mushrooms, which make them all, lab assistant included, start taking poison damage. And the poison stacks start to accumulate. You can only accumulate up to 10 stacks, since they last 10 seconds and only one per second can be obtained. But still, 10 HP per second is a lot.
The second Fireball that the Lab Assistant throws only hits the support orc. And its innate skill activates. Wow, even with the dwarf's high defenses and the innate skill that reduces damage taken, the assistant is taking quite a lot of damage from simple basic attacks. Orcs are true brutes!
When the assistant's HP goes below half, the Frosty Retribution activates and immobilizes both of the orcs. The enemy champion still has a decent amount of HP left, but the support orc gets killed with the following Fireball.
Now only the enemy champion remains but its attacks are even stronger than before, since the innate passive has activated. When he manages to kill the lab assistant, he has very little HP remaining. Only a few more seconds inside the poison cloud released by the mushrooms and he is going to die.
*Clap! Clap!* "Fufufu! To think you could beat my greatest creation… I underestimated your strength!" I say, mockingly. I don't forget to clap for the 'champion'. Haha, you understand the joke, right!?
"Bwahaha! You call this a fight? This was only a warmup!" The orc responds, making a flexing pose. His muscular arm makes me envious. My arms are sticks in comparison.
"Well… If you say so… Fufufu! But I recommend that you look at your current status! See you again! Hahaha!" I say. Then, I wave him goodbye while laughing maniacally and walking away. I didn't even need to personally fight this time. Why do I go back, you ask? I made him waste enough time with this short talk.
"Wait! Don't run away you coward!" Shouts the orc. Then, I suppose he actually looks at his status screen, because the next thing I hear is him shouting out of despair. "Noooo! Not this again! Am I really going to die only because of the fucking poison!? Fuck! My HP is going to reach 0 before the poison runs out!"
Then he starts spouting nonsense. "Hahaha! So this was all again planned, huh? I couldn't do anything again… I'll return another day, and beat all your evil machinations! Just wait and see!"
And he dies. What was he talking about? I don't understand what he was talking about at the end… Evil machinations? Everything planned? It was you who didn't look around and started the fight inside a poison cloud. I just appeared here to try and roleplay my persona. Well, whatever.
It did go quite well this time. At least I think so. Thanks to the orc, I could start acting my role in an actual conversation, unlike with the human jerk. It still feels weird to interpret the Mad Rat's persona, but I hope I'll get better and more used to it in the future.
"Pffft! Hahaha! But how could he be so blind to not see the poison cloud? If only he moved a few meters away he could have survived!"