Chapter 123 Setting up the Raid

[Flame Throw]

The crusted pot glowed slightly as green flames licked at the insides. Nix picked up the scraper and continued cleaning. "Can't leave a pot on the fire all night and expect things are just going to wash off." He rinsed it off and grabbed for the next one.

The pot cleaner kept working diligently, after finishing off the last one he moved on to the much easier stack of dishes.

"I do like a man in suds." Hyai's voice spoke from the entryway. She was dressed in her work uniform, even though it was still very early.

Nix glanced up from his work at the sink. "Hmm, food for thought."

Hyai moved beside him, pausing long enough to kiss the back of his neck, a clear exception to her strict rule about public displays of affection. "I'll rinse hun."

Between the two of them, they finished the rest of the party clean-up in a relatively short amount of time. Hyai made them both breakfast and they enjoyed some quiet conversation at the small table in the kitchen.

When Nix left the Kindled Spirit a short while later, the sun was just starting to rise. Hyai sent him off with the promise that there would be some nice 'payback' coming his way.

Derva was the only Acolyte present when Nix entered the Palace of Fire and Air. She bowed deeply when she saw him. "Good morning Champion,"

Nix returned the courtesy, "no need for such formalities Derva."

The slender woman offered him a smile. "Going to see Shae?"

Nix shook his head. "I've some important business with Rhy."

As if hearing her name, the Air Nemesis appeared before them an instant later. "Impressive Nix, I thought for sure that last night's activities would have kept you in bed for a few more hours."

Nix bowed slightly. He was beginning to understand Rhy. Although her coal-black eyes seemed cold, her personality was much different. She would laugh and frolic with the other air creatures for hours on end. Unexpectedly, she had grown very close to Shae. "I could use your help Rhy, an Ice Spirit friend of mine is seeking to become a Lord of Ice."

"You seem to have a fairly wide variety of elemental friends." She lay a hand on his shoulder and extended a wing enough to pull him closer.

"Hmm. I do seem to know my share." He pushed back the feathers that were grazing his ear.

"I will help. Is this where you received your 'Ice Blessing' ?"

Nix had shown Rhy his stats before, so of course, she would have seen it. "Yes, the Ice Spirit from Cyphix. Her name is Shi."

"A Fire Lord with an Ice Blessing." She nodded her acceptance. "You are definitely a unique person Nix. Let's do the raid first, then I will assist your friend."

A short while later, 20 of Inferno's finest were gathered in the holding area of the 69th floor. The raid had a limit of 20, so Jun Li and Semmi had carefully considered what was needed.

[Raid Sheet: 69th Floor]

Healers: Tess, Gypsy, Pinkie, Wylie, Saji

Tanks: Sharl, Banz, Jun Li

Crowd Control: Sila, Fajii, Nix, Rhylia

DPS: Chael, Ronnie, Wind, Semmi, Pon, Shae, Milat, Mina

/Inferno: Nix: Semmi will give us a brief. After the raid starts, and we leave the prep area, I want everyone to summon all of their Spirit Companions. With the Vilas and our Aquarion friends, it should give us enough firepower.

/Inferno: Semmi: With just our Aquarion Spirit Companions, we'll gain twelve more fighters. I think we can shock Resolute.

/Inferno: Semmi: I'm sending everyone the Raid brief, I had to pay some serious credits to get one of the members of Resolute to give us the set-up. Please read and then we'll discuss strategy.

[Raid Brief]

The 69th-floor raid takes place in a large valley nestled nicely inside of a dense jungle. It's about an hour hike through the jungle to arrive at the river basin. We can expect to be attacked several times by random creatures of different strengths. In fact, Resolute was wiped on the hike during their last attempt. This part is no joke.

There are two very large white primates on separate sides of the valley. These are the two bosses that must be killed for us to win this raid. They will remain docile until we attack either one of them. They are very strong and hit hard enough to kill a tank if our healing rotation is off. The is a straight-up fight until 90 percent. At that time the two apes will start moving toward each other. As they get closer, they will start to regenerate and their power will increase. If it gets to the point where they are within 50 meters, they will be reset to 100 percent and we are best off restarting the raid.

At 90 percent, if you successfully keep the bosses from advancing, there will be 8 spawns of lesser mobs. From the time of spawn, you have 2 minutes to deal with all of them. Failure to do so will result in 8 more mobs. If you don't deal with all remaining lesser spawns in the next two minutes, both bosses will rage and the raid will wipe.

If the lesser spawns are all dealt with inside of the time limit, the raid will be able to work on the bosses again. After ninety percent, the two bosses' health must stay within two percent of each other. If the difference becomes more than that, the boss with the most health will rage.

Beat the bosses down to 80 percent health while keeping them within two percent of each other. Once the second boss is down to 80 percent, he will Rage for 1 minute while the other Boss becomes dormant. The dormant boss cannot damage nor be damaged at this time. You must survive this rage. After the Rage is done he will become dormant while the first boss rages. This will be accompanied by another spawn of eight. You don't have to kill these lesser spawns, they will despawn when the first boss stops his rage.

Keep attacking the bosses and bring their health down to 70 percent, same rule as before, they must stay within 2 percent. At seventy percent they will once again advance toward each other. You must be able to contain them. If you manage to do so, eight mobs will spawn again. This time you have 1 minute to kill them all if this doesn't happen both bosses will rage.

This is all the information we have at this point. Resolute has wiped at this point the last two times they've attempted it.

/inferno: Jun Li: Questions?

/Inferno: Nix: Pretty sure that Morti can hold one of them. What about the other? I assume CC won't work on the bosses.

/Inferno: Semmi: Correct, the bosses are immune to all control effects. We'll have to hold them physically. Our Aquarion friends and Nix will be tasked with that.

/Inferno: Mina: The Vila should be able to handle the spawns until their health runs low.

/Inferno: Semmi: The lesser spawns aren't particularly strong, but they have a lot of health. I'd recommend using CC on four of them, and assigning the Vila to the other four.

/Inferno: Pon: What will the rest of us be doing at that time?

/Inferno: Semmi: We can continue to whittle the boss's health down, even while they are being held.

/Inferno: Nix: I'd rather have us get rid of the spawns as soon as possible. There's no hurry with the bosses as long as they are contained.

/Inferno: Semmi: We can do that. The hold teams will stay on the bosses, while the rest of the raid helps with the lesser spawns. Do not attack anything that's being Controlled.

/Inferno: Jun Li: What do you want to do about the healer rotation Tess?

/Inferno: Tess: Sharl will be the tank on boss one, with Banz backing her up. Wylie and I will be their healers.

/Inferno: Gypsy: Morti will tank boss two. Saji and I will be healing.

/Inferno: Tess: Pinkie that leaves you as the roving healer. Your priorities if everything is going well is to keep the Vila alive. Fajii will be able to BR any of the dps that get slain. (BR=Battle Rez) If one of the clerics is killed, drop what you are doing and replace them.

/Inferno: Sajana: I got it.

/Inferno: Semmi: If one of the Tanks is slain, the back-up will jump in while Fajii hits the primary tank with a BR.

/Inferno: Fajii: What if I'm killed?

/Inferno: Semmi: You will stay in the middle with Shae and Rhy. They will ensure that you aren't harmed. Stay safe unless someone dies, if that happens BR them and then return immediately.

/Inferno: Shae: What do you want me and Rhy to do?

/Inferno: Semmi: Stay in the middle and rotate your attacks between the two bosses. Make sure you keep their health within two. Since you are monitoring both, you can keep tabs on them and adjust the raid dps accordingly.

/Inferno: Jun Li: Questions?

/Inferno: Nix: No one has made it past 70 percent. If we get lower than that we'll have to play it by ear. We should be able to guess either way.

/Inferno: Semmi: Correct. If the bosses start moving, then hold them. If we get lesser spawns, kill them immediately.

/Inferno: Nix: Take 10 minutes and prepare. After that we'll start the raid.