Chapter 80: Erebus is Fake News

|[ VIDEO ]|

Erebus ruffles Taliesin's blonde hair affectionately. "All right, Little Dude, as thanks for that amazing loot you scored us by being a big softie, you get to call the shots for the next dungeon battle."

Taliesin grins, eyes sparkling with excitement. "Then I want you to solo the Boss's Antechamber!"

Erebus looks surprised. "You don't want to swoop in and take the DPS? Or coordinate our attacks as a Party?"

"Nope! I want you to forcefully shut up all the haters spewing crap online!" Taliesin sounds downright giddy by the idea.

"I get where you're coming from," Nanuk says, in the tone of someone who does not, in fact, get it at all, "but what you're asking for is suicide."

As one, Taliesin and Erebus tilt their heads in confusion.

Nightfury chuckles at their in-sync movement and Nanuk's alarmed expression, far too used to Erebus not understanding the concerns of mere mortals. "Not to worry," he reassures Nanuk, "Boss Antechamber in this dungeon is just the redcap minions who haven't been killed by us yet."

"Solo should be doable," Kara agrees. "I swear we've had close to 100% mob spawn rate so far, and we've killed every redcap mob we've seen. Theoretically, the Dungeon should adjust and there shouldn't be too many mobs left to fight."

Wrong.

Even though they killed a ton of the murderous little gremlins, the Boss's Antechamber is teeming with mobs.

The redcaps are short, but rippling with muscle and covered in scars. They wield scythes and aim for major arteries, causing critical hits and Bleed effects.

Blood is their sole desire.

They are driven by a bloodlust so intense, they celebrate victory by dipping their hats into the pools of their enemies' blood. In-game, the deeper the crimson hue of the hat, the stronger and more bloodthirsty the Redcap.

The redcaps in this Antechamber are all wearing hats so saturated in blood, they appear dark burgundy. Several of the darkest hats drip with fresh blood, as if they couldn't wait for the Chaos Party Intruders to arrive, so they went out on a killing spree before returning for this final battle.

Everyone turns to Erebus with varying expressions.

Taliesin's quivering with anticipation of the awesomeness of Erebus pulling this off.

Nanuk crosses his arms and seems even more convinced Erebus is definitely going to die.

Kara saunters over with a challenging gleam in her violet eyes, and loans Erebus a drop item they'd gotten earlier: a still-white Cap that increases Strength and/or Damage Output every time it turns a shade darker. The wearer must defeat enemies and touch the hat to their bleeding corpses, which is tricky to manage before the System disintegrates the dead mobs into blue dust.

"Bring it back bloody," she says in a sultry, low voice.

"It would be my pleasure," Erebus replies, tipping the hat to her with a slight bow. The heated look he gives her makes some viewers think blood-soaked gear is not the only pleasure he has on his mind.

Nightfury simply unequips his bow and pops a squat on a piece of rubble, content to watch Erebus kick ass and take names all on his lonesome.

"Not gonna wuss out, are ya?" he asks idly, playing with a dagger and not even looking up at the D'Raven.

"Fuck no," the D'Raven denies.

Then he rolls his neck and shoulders, unsheathes his twin daggers, and dashes off to prove it.

---

It's….amazing.

Viewers find themselves rewatching this battle sequence over and over in awe. Barely an hour after this video is released, there are already videos breaking down the moves and tactics second by second, as if this is a How To video for being fucking awesome in every way.

His swirling black tattoo moves to cover half his face, writhing and pulsing like inked battle fury, and his eyes—one silver, one inky black—match his gleaming blades. Raven feathers shine as he fights, hurtling and twisting through the air in a display of winged acrobatics shocking to the viewers.

He quickly determines the attack patterns of the redcaps and alternates between sliding underneath and leaping over scythe slashes, with a few Blocks and Parries thrown in, and several sweeping kicks to knock over his attackers. He even manages sideways leaps that pass him through two swinging blades with bare centimeters to spare on either side, landing low and stabbing out with his twin blades to attack both redcaps at the same time.

It becomes impossible to tell when he's using real sword Skills or simply flowing into faux combos using simple blade non-Skill moves, since he uses cool flashing Lux effects to coincide with his attacks and stir the redcaps into a frenzy (and confuse the viewers.)

Plus, he often uses hand-signs to auto-sheathe his daggers and draw his exploding dart and his crossbow, as if he's not satisfied with the insane amount of damage he causes with just his blades.

One of the fan videos of this battle has a useful Kill Streak Counter running on-screen, so it's later realized he hits a 30-kill streak in mere minutes. The Cap sitting jauntily on his head is already scarlet, and a single drip of blood streaks down his face, making him look even more terrifying.

At this point, there's finally some room to maneuver between the final 50 mobs, and he whispers some unknown spell that encases him in a shroud of darkness. His speed increased beyond comprehension, he zooms around the room still inside his shadow cloud, trailing slashes of shadow as he weaves between mobs.

He kills another ten redcaps and triggers the next stage of attack. As if he already knows what's coming, Erebus freezes in the center of the room and gazes up.

At this point, the redcaps are insane with rage, and they start using their stone magic to drop hunks of ceiling and the stone walls at the D'Raven. He grins, as if he's been waiting all along for this horrifying turn of events and yells out a Taunt that attracts every last mob.

Because, you know, falling boulders aren't enough of a challenge on their own.

He deftly Dodges the stones falling around him, but the redcaps are not so lucky. As they rush towards him in a battle-crazed horde, spurred on by his Taunt, they run into the shadow slashes around the room. The slashes don't Stun them for long, but it's long enough to ensure several mobs are crushed by falling rocks.

As the final redcaps converge on him, Erebus stalls for time by swapping out his blades for a large, two-handed scythe of his own, which he slams into the ground, releasing an AoE attack that knocks all the nearest redcaps back.

He swaps back to his blades and stops bothering to Dodge, activating a short-term Invincibility Skill that encases him in a protective glow. Scythe blades bounce off with a clang, and the boulders break upon impact.

Disregarding all of it, the D'Raven raises his brilliant silver-white blade and calls up a Skill many viewers recognize as the one he'd almost used against the Woman in White.

Then the camera zooms in on his smirking face as a giant, blinding white sword appears in the air directly above his own head. He turns to wink at his Party members, then the sword comes crashing down in a blaze of brilliance, and not even the advanced Vir-Tech recording system can filter through the light to reveal the attack.

The video makes up for it, though, when the light dissipates and the dust clears; the camera pans wide to highlight the full devastation wreaked by a single D'Raven.

Then the back wall rumbles, revealing the large, ominous Boss Door, and the D'Raven's face lights up in victory.

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• RELATED COMMENTS •

Thokk: WHAT THE HELL IS EVEN THAT?!? HOW IS THIS D'RAVEN DOING ANY OF THIS?

Karasu: how the fuck does he do this aerial combat shit? I tried to just WALK with my wings out yesterday and got so angry, I had to lay down and count to ten

--- Takeshi: ^i had the same reaction, but it was less a decision to lie down and more "oh fuck, i've faceplanted for the twentieth time, fuck this, i guess i'm just part of the ground now"

--- Karasu: whY DoEs tHe GRoUnd TaSTe LIkE reAl DiRT?!?

--- Takeshi: whYYYYYY?!?! n a s t y

--- UnDead Itachi: Seriously, does anyone playing D'Raven or Valkyrie (other than these crazy ass Chaos Party members) know how to use their wings yet? I literally cannot kill even a slime with my wings out.

--- Odin'sEyeball: Valkyrie here. And, uh, no.

Oh Ur Dead: I call BULLSHIT on all this! no way he soloed the antechamber

--- Hey!des: agreed! fake!

--- Kara Geir: I can assure you it absolutely happened. We didn't even edit it.

--- Taliesin: I don't post fake vids, bruhs

--- Nanuk: Are you disparaging my baby brother's talents, calling him a liar!? [(｀^´)]

--- Nightfury: i was there. it's real, all right. just look at the shit-eating smirk on that asshole's face? u can't fake that.

--- Erebus: ੧|¬‿¬|੭

--- Nightfury: | ￣ヘ￣|

--- MOD BOD: Hello, GM here! We can absolutely assure all viewers that there is no way to "fake" an official Viren's Refuge video. This video has been verified, as made clear by the official mark next to the title. Everything present in the video is 100% real!

--- Taliesin: :P

--- BallBreaker: whatever. OP weapons did all the work. no skill involved. luck and broken blades

--- Shadeslayer: *yawn* jealous losers lashing out, how boring

Here.For.It: omg tsundere nightfury *believing* in his man and giving him all the encouragement he needs #eury

--- MorticiaDamns: uhhh kara whispered a challenge directly into erebus's ear, gave him a present, and looked him up and down like she wanted to eat him alive #karebus

--- SoullessButHappy: if watching sexual tension could get people pregnant, we'd all be popping out triplets in 9 months #karebus

Kvasir: if erebus had sex with my girlfriend, I'd be jealous of her

--- gratuitousgigi: honestly, same. and i'm a lesbian

SummerHugs: Eeek! Erebus calling Taliesin "Little Dude" and that hair ruffle!? I'm dead.

--- lil stevo: i can't get over the fact Erebus gave Taliesin free rein to lead the next battle, and he's just "You do it! Yay!"

--- kittkatt: #friendgoals #brotha from anotha motha goals

Awesomesauce: @13:31 noob move, bruh

--- Bowjob: like you could fucking do that move

--- Awesomesauce: fuck no I don't even know what move that was

--- Kvasir: BIG MOOD