The Mad Rat’s Lab

“Aaaaaagh!”

Releasing a loud roar, the Barbarian appears from the same passage as the Rogue and jumps into combat.

Literally, I mean.

She jumps over the water canal and lands on the other side, smashing one poor imp into oblivion. Then she attacks the remaining imps, killing them one by one while ignoring the zombies surrounding the Rogue.

Well, zombies don’t deal too much damage, they’re only resilient. It makes sense she prioritizes the damage dealers.

“Isn’t that… the Jumping Smash skill? The same one I gave to the Lab Assistants…?” I mutter to myself.

It’s going as Laura planned.

She suspected the other players must be close, or at least another one of them should be. Staying hidden was a good idea so we didn’t get counter-ambushed.

Just imagine: the Barbarian jumping at me because I was staying at a faraway place to safely attack, isolated, and forcing me into a melee fight. Yes, I have some ways to survive, if I’m lucky and the stun from Lightning Shield triggers I might do something, but… She’s a fucking beast! Unless I’m fortunate, there’s no way I can win! I would only be able to shiver in fear and hope that somebody would save me before it was too late…

Well, maybe I can if I use the Grand Finale I could defeat her, but it’s too risky because I might inflict more damage on our own team if I don’t plan it ahead.

I turn my head to the side. Laura’s watching the battle with a hand on her chin, thinking about something.

“Now what? Should we go and, I don’t know, kill them…?”

“Hmm… Yes. But only Baldy and Lemon will go, plus a few more imps. I’m not sure yet if the other two are still hiding, and I don’t want to take unnecessary risks.”

“...is that so? Well, you’re the one making the decisions today. Ok! I’ll tell them! You stay here and keep watching the battle and planning our next move.”

Not too far away, Ricard and Clara hide behind the laboratory equipment, watching the fight unfold.

By now, all the imps are dead and the zombies will soon follow.

“Hey!” I say to get their attention. “She says you two should go and fight them. Try to kill the Rogue first, he’s already taken quite some damage.”

“Yes! I’ll kill them all and bring you their corpses!”

Clara raises her, um… tentacle hands in enthusiasm and proudly declares. Why is she always so eager to do anything I say?

Oh, I got an idea! Maybe I should ask her to do my homework in the future! I know I’m older, and we’re not even studying the same thing, but still… she might actually do it! And then… I can spend more time playing the game! Hahaha!

Also… no, thanks. I don’t need their corpses. If you brought them alive, so I could capture them and turn them into my own units, it would be nice. But since you can’t capture a Champion, I don’t need them.

Not that it’s possible to do it in the middle of the tournament anyway.

“You can do whatever you want with their bodies, but their souls are mine! Hahaha!” Oh, no. Ooooooh, no! He’s going at it again! “...their sweet and tasty souls! I’ll feast on them!”

“Ok… Oh, and take a few imps with you to keep them busy and deal some extra damage.”

“Sure. But why imps? Can’t I take my skeletons?”

“Just do it. It must be part of her plan.”

“Ok, ok…”

They finally leave and enter the open area. Six imps are moving behind them, as Laura ordered.

“Hahaha! You dare come here, and destroy my undead legions? Blasphemy! I have no other choice than to take your own souls and turn you into my eternal minions!”

“Hah! You’re only bones! What are you talking about? What has died one time, can be killed again!”

“What!? We’ll see it! Come, let’s fight!”

“Sure, let’s fight!”

A very weird conversation happens between Ricard and the Barbarian as soon as he enters the area.

I… simply don’t know what to say.

Should I be worried? Or should I ignore the two fools? I knew Ricard was like this, but for Barbarian to be the same… Well, he at least managed to get the Barbarian’s focus. She’ll now fight against him and ignore Clara.

And talking about her… Clara is running toward the Rogue, clearly set on following my order of killing him first.

“Kill, kill… Kill! And then he’ll praise me! Hehehe!”

Uwaaaah! Scary!

I really don’t want to be in Rogue’s position right now! Agh, what am I saying!? I don’t want to be in my own position right now either! I don’t want anything to do with that… that, THING.

I shudder.

The poor Rogue, who’s still fighting against three zombies, soon finds himself grabbed by Clara. He’s unable to escape now. Poor Rogue, let’s pray for him…

A fun thing about this game is that combat actually works kind of similarly to real combat. Ranged attacks always have the advantage unless the enemy is at melee range, and being surrounded by multiple enemies, even if they are weaker, is a bad thing. A very bad thing.

This is why the Rogue couldn’t kill all the zombies yet. He chose to survive and focus on defense, avoiding all the attacks he could.

If he went on the offense, he would be dead by now. Focussing your attention on killing an enemy while being attacked from all sides means you take a lot of damage from attacks you could otherwise have avoided.

Like in real life, numbers mean power. Of course, stats also play a big role here, but numbers still trump them.

This is unless you have area-of-effect skills or are some nutjob. Like the Barbarian, who ignores everything else except her target. Or Ricard, who always plays aggressively because he heals from the damage dealt.

…or Clara, who only considers my orders and expectations and ignores the rest.

Now that I think about it… isn’t the only normal one in this combat the Rogue!? Why is everyone else so ‘special’!? Special as in the bad sense of the word.

“Haaaah…” I sigh.

Well, let’s leave it at this, everyone has their own quirks. Me? Nah, I’m perfectly normal…

“Let’s see how you defend against this! I’ll feed a human skewer to my minions today!”

“Hah!? You call this an attack!? THIS is an attack! Hyaaah!”

The Barbarian and Ricard are entangled in frenetic melee combat. She’s wielding her giant axe around, spinning and slashing in all directions. It’s like a metallic tornado. But he isn’t slacking either, he parries her blows and uses the shield to divert most of her attacks.

Sometimes, he receives an attack, and sometimes she does.

She should hold the advantage, after all, she’s a damage dealer and Ricard focuses more on defense… if not because the imps are pestering her with spell attacks. She has to divide her attention and thanks to it she misses more attacks and Ricard manages to sneak a few more in.

It’s a stalemate. The result of their fight will depend on what happens around them and not on their fight itself.

Am I also like them when I go into full roleplay mode…? Ugh… they look like kids playing around! It’s impossible for me to be like them, I’m a lot cooler. I’m sure of it.

“If the Wizardess is watching this, I’m sure they’re going to do something soon. They can’t allow us to freely kill the Rogue… And the Barbarian will fall soon after him.”

“Yep, you’re right.”

As the battle progresses, Laura and I continue to hide behind a cluttered rack. As she says, it’s about time they make their next move.

Clara continues to grab the Rogue with her tentacles, not allowing him to escape. It looks like he’s decided to get serious too, as he used some skills to kill the remaining zombies.

But now he must be out of EP/MP, and his HP bar is getting dangerously low too.

Yeah… it’s definitely a bad thing for whoever is grabbed by her… Even if you’re an ally, it isn’t something I would suggest you try. You won’t take physical damage, but will still take the psychological one.

“Hehehe! I’ll bring you with me to the abyss!”

“...”

He tries to keep his cool, but he’s clearly panicking there.

Just look at his expression! The bulging eyes, the furrowed brows! And the fact that he’s looking in the direction of the passage from where both he and the Barbarian came from!

“I’m sure they’re here.” I say.

“Yeah, I know.”

I said it just in case, but it seems she noticed the Rogue’s actions too.

“Get ready, and prepare the skeletons. It’s going to be our turn soon.”

“Sir, yes, sir!” She looks at me with a weird expression on her face. Let’s fix it. “I mean… yes, madam!” How weird… her expression doesn’t change at all…

“When I give the signal, I want you to attack their backline, assuming they have one. And stay close to them. You’re more dangerous than they are, if they ignore you, you can use our trump card.”

“YES!”

Destruction! Explosions! Lightning! I want some action! I want to blow something up!

As entertaining as it is to watch a group of people fighting and spouting nonsense, it isn’t the same as actively participating! I want to be part of it too! Fufufu! Hahaha!

Luckily, it seems my turn will come soon. There’s movement on their side.

 

 

“As I expected, they do have someone smart on their team…”

“W-we must save Rogue! He’s going to die very soon like this!”

“Calm down, let me think about it first.”

“B-but, Rogue…! He…”

I ignore Druid’s rambling and ponder about our current situation and future actions.

First of all, they’re good. They first forced us to bring Barbarian into the fight, and now they only used the minimum resources to secure their victory. If we don’t do anything, they’ll kill first Rogue and then Barbarian, no questions asked.

But they didn’t commit everything to the fight, so we can’t be sure about their remaining assets. I’m sure both Mad Rat and Lily are close, but I don’t know what monsters they have with them.

Then there’s our current situation. Me and Druid are doing fine. Barbarian should be ok for a while, but Rogue… if he doesn’t get help very soon, he’s dead.

If Druid goes out now, I’m sure they’ll also send a few more stuff too, and the situation will repeat once again. But we can’t afford to do it because I’m sure Rogue will be dead by then. This means both me and Druid need to come out now.

If we both come out, I’m sure they’ll also use everything they have at hand. They won’t have any reason to keep anything hidden, after all.

The last thing to consider is that we’re clearly in a bad position right now. We’re alone, without any support mob, inside their dungeon. So they hold both the numerical and home advantage. But this doesn’t mean anything, because if they react as I believe they’ll do, and my plan works as intended…

Yeah, it’s PRECISELY because we’re in a bad spot that my plan will work. They’ll use everything they can to kill us all and win the match. Then, I only need to time it right…

I grin. Yeah, I’m sure it’ll work!

“...hey, Wizardess, don’t ignore me! We have to do something or else…”

“Druid.” I raise my hand, interrupting him. “We’re going in. Don’t waste your MP unnecessarily, just keep everybody alive. It’s really important you’re ready to use Entangle when I tell you. We’re… going to win this!”

“Y-yes! Sure! Whatever you say! I believe in you, Wizardess! Your plans always work!”

“Yeah… my plans always work.”

Entangle (Active skill) Cost: 50 MP, 10 MP per second Immobilize every unit in a 10-meter radius for 5 seconds. The duration is reduced against units with higher average stats than you.

 

‘Wizardess’ plans always work.’

This was the general consensus among all viewers. Except this time, for the first time in the whole tournament, her plan didn’t go as she expected.

Announcement

Hello everyone!

As I'm sure everyone knows by now, the tournament (or tournament arc, if you prefer) will end soon, and Andreu will return to his daily life and other stuff.

This time there's no poll because it's an open answer and, in fact, I already have a few ideas in mind for it, but I still want to ask you a question:

What kind of monsters would you like Andreu to create next? Any specific race or combination? Or also, what new traps and areas do you imagine?

As I said, I already have stuff in mind, but if I like one idea, I might use it.