Draconia Offline vol. 1

2.1 VRMMORPG - Part 1

I fly higher to have a better view of the battlefield. The Forgotten Cave ends in a huge boss chamber so I can manoeuvre without problems.

The Skeleton King, a huge bone figure in rusty armour, is eyeing me menacingly. He throws his axe at me but I expect it at this stage. I evade it easily and use those few seconds the enemy needs to pull his weapon back to finally release Meteor Superior I was casting for more than three minutes now. It's difficult to be preparing such a complex spell and keep evading at the same time but I've mastered it over the years.

The explosion is so overwhelming that even I have to quickly fly away to safety. In Draconia, there's no such thing as protecting the caster or the rest of the party against friendly misfire. Everything that's supposed to do damage does so to whoever stands in the way.

BOOOOOM!

The ground shakes with a deafening sound and a shockwave almost knocks me down but I manage to balance my fall and fly back up almost immediately because I've been training exactly for such situations.

"Yes!" I exclaim.

It's a clear hit and the boss's HP drops to 25%. The impact leaves a black crater.

Too early to celebrate, though, the Skeleton King enters the last stage and his behaviour pattern radically changes again. I've never been that close before so I have to improvise. I studied stage 4 from the videos of others and my own runs with a party but it's very different when I don't have any back-up and the boss focuses entirely on me.

I had all kinds of energy shields in place in the beginning but I've lost most of them during stages 2 and 3. Now I have only one shield left which means that two more mistakes and I'm dead. Celestial magic is amazing but my race can't take any direct hits.

"COME FORTH MY SERVANTS!"

The Skeleton King rages and calls his minions. They're numerous but these lesser skeletal knights can't really hurt me when I'm in the air so I don't worry about them.

Suddenly, something bashes into my energy shield from behind.

"What the...?!"

Shit, skeletal bats at this stage? Why? They don't spawn during party raids. Skeletal bats aren't particularly strong, more of pests really, but they can distract you, especially a magic caster who has to focus.

The boss starts throwing boulders at me which is another unexpected turn of events. He never did that in previously recorded battles. Is it because I'm the only opponent and in the air so the algorithm altered his behaviour accordingly? Did the developers take this scenario into consideration? I guess they could have anticipated that the best Celestial players will definitely try to solo it.

I evade another boulder and this time only by a few inches because skeletal bats keep hindering me. I start flapping my wings wildly and releasing mana to create an air current which sweeps the bats away. I'm pretty exhausted at this point, even virtual limbs tire to make the game more realistic, but I successfully get rid of those pesky critters.

Then I notice the boss is taking two boulders at once. I widen my eyes in horror and I manage to escape one stone but the other hits my last shield and shatters it. As I try to balance the shock wave, the Skeleton King jumps and grabs me.

I gasp for air when he starts clutching me. Some reflexes are hard to ignore. I know that my real body is safe in my bed and breathing normally but Draconia is a hardcore game with pain receptors switched on and my virtual avatar is being squeezed to death right now.

My HP is dropping at astronomical speed and when it reaches 10%, the Skeleton King, as if programmed with malice to be even scarier, tosses me into the mud on the ground. I feel the bones in my wings breaking and it's excruciating, even though the pain is mostly dulled on purpose.