Preparations for the Raid were manifold. To begin with, everyone had to sleep off the post-orgy exhaustion. This was useful twice over. First, it ant everyone was at the sa or at least similar state of rest, synchronizing the biological clocks. Second, it ant everyone was stress free. Sweaty, fully exhausting sex led to a group that was quite focused once they woke up.
The debaucheries did actually have a purpose, or at least side benefits that John was happy to exploit.
Past breakfast, the first day was filled with a number of side activities. The non-combat mbers of the harem had to get their workshop set up. While only John with his Ego Blades and Ehtra with her ammunition truly benefited from the gear that they could make at this ti, it was only a matter of increasing skill until the crafting crew could equip them with gear tailored to specific bosses.
Main weapons like Rex Magnar would always remain in the respective harette’s hands, but there was no reason why, for example, Nightingale couldn’t be strapped in acid resistant armour.
Many worn items didn’t work on Artificial Spirits and elentals, a trade-off for their various other advantages, so they were limited in that regard. The goddesses and humans could be equipped with specific items though, even if Rave was famously allergic to wearing more than a bodysuit. Plus, John might need specific Creator Puppets.
Putting aside whether they were actively useful yet, leaving the crafting crew without a workshop to tinker in was just cruel boredom.
Then, once breakfast had settled and everyone was ready, they could actually start the first day.
John took stock of his potential combatants, separating them into categories that they respectively excelled at.
Beatrice, Rave, Siena, Nia and Sylph were straightforward mbers of the Single Target DPS category. Each ca with their specific advantages. Beatrice could deal incredible damage if she was free to do her thing, Siena could take out the enemy backline thanks to invisibility, Sylph had aerial manoeuvrability and by far the highest damage potential, at the cost of being fragile, and Rave was just a good all-rounder. Nia was the most unusual in this list. Because of her pariah abilities, she could also be put into the Utility category, but most of the ti she just dealt damage so she was best placed there.
When it ca to Multi Target DPS, they had Lydia and Salamander. The forr was more of a hybrid between multiple and single target damage, courtesy of her usage of wires in addition to the rapier. Salamander was the true area threat, with her cones of fla and falling superheated rocks.
As for pure Tanks, they only had Aclysia. The ice aura made her unignorable in the long term, which was the base requirent for a tank in gas where reliable taunts weren’t a thing. All of her utility was in the service of being the one to take the hits, which was why she and Gno were separate.
As for pure Healers, they only had Undine. This was simultaneously a known issue with John’s harem and not an issue at all. The sli lady did her job wonderfully, and since she could split into people’s shadows, range wasn’t a huge issue.
In the Utility category, John had Momo, Nightingale and Claire. Momo was the most traditional support character of the three, with her abilities focused around buffing and shielding allies, raising their effectiveness at the cost of her own damage, as well as potential crowd control through the ntal Damage attacks she inflicted. Nightingale was more of an offensive utility build, focusing around crowd control on the enemy. Claire arguably did not belong in this category, but John did not know where else to put her. Her summons did not put her in any specific damage category and the primary Raid benefit she provided was Death Nail’s execute damage. That one ability was powerful enough to take her in against certain bosses, even if the rest of her abilities were rather so-so.
The sole Defensive Hybrid of the harem was Gno. The season elental was quite the powerful tank, but she lacked the ability to force aggro on her in the sa way that Aclysia had. Gno was more of a roadblock that the enemy had to manoeuvre around and keep track of if they didn’t want to get slugged in a spine-pulverizing way. Adding to that her decent ability to heal ant that Gno was less a true tank and more of her own thing.
Last category of the active Raid participants was the Offensive Hybrid, which included himself, tra and Ehtra. Because of his fairly wide arsenal of spells and ability to switch between his three bodies, the Gar was capable of dealing any kind of damage required by a situation. He wasn’t the master of anything, but he did get to be the jack of all trades. tra was a way more straightforward fusion of tank and single target DPS, trading in Gno’s ability to heal for her incredibly powerful situational upside. Ehtra was then a middle point between Gno and tra, making her potential upside more reliable in exchange for its power. What the two tracana also had in common was that their advantages were fairly ‘selfish’ from a design perspective.
Crafters were crafters, no explanation needed there. Hailey, Lee, Lorelei, Scarlett and Delicia would do their thing.
Too powerful to join were people too powerful to join. Nothing to explain there either.
In total, John had access to 17 combatants (19 if he counted each of his bodies separately) and, assuming Gaia kept the previous 10 people limit in place, that ant a lot of room for optimization and changing things out.
‘We have a bit too many people on the Single Target DPS front,’ John thought. ‘Not that that’s surprising, that’s the most useful category to be in in normal Abyssal combat.’ “Alright, let’s check if there’s a group limit in place again.”
The window popped up as soon as the party manifested. John took a look around, finding himself at a bleak beach. Bits of grey, volcanic rock jutted out of grey sands, created from ground down obsidian and seashells. The water that spilled over the slope of the shore was a depressing shade of washed-out blue, contrasting in the least interesting way with the cloudy sky. The ti of day was, like on the outside, just a few hours past midnight. Since it was the height of sumr, it was brighter than that ti may imply, but still dark.
The pieces of stone rising from the grey sand ford a clear ring around the slightly elevated piece of shoreline they spawned on. Sowhat out of place stood chairs, tables, and even a BBQ set that all had the aesthetic of being cobbled together from driftwood and other ship parts. It wasn’t aesthetic alone though, the furniture was comfortable, as Delicia was quick to test out by throwing herself into one of the chairs.
“Gaia learned that we’ll just put in our own stuff if she doesn’t provide the viewers seats,” the alchemist stated, squeezing the ample cushions stuffed under stretched sail cloth.
“That makes things a little easier on the set-up,” John said. “We’re limited to 8 for this one… that makes things a bit more restrictive…” He quickly ran through his choices again, then cobbled together a reliable starting party.
He went with his main body himself (because one of him had to be in the party), Aclysia, Undine, and Gno for the typical backbone of the party. The four additional slots went to Nia, because they wanted to test how her recent ability upgrade really worked in action; Lydia, because she wanted to test her new battle regalia in action; Nightingale, because they wanted to test how her abilities worked with the party; and Ehtra, because she wanted to… test him and herself.
Lots of testing going on this ti around.
That put their party in the balance of three proper frontliners (Aclysia, Gno and Ehtra), two lee DPS (Nia and Lydia), one ranged DPS (the Gar), one healer (Undine), and one utility caster (Nightingale). A bit lee heavy, but this was open terrain so that likely wouldn’t be an issue.
That the terrain would remain open, John felt confident about. In one direction, there was only a sheer cliffside, soon dropping into the ocean. The other, there was a path of brighter (albeit not actually bright) sand that andered towards so kind of war or refugee camp. Large tents made from all sorts of scavenged materials filled out a vast open space, the cloth swaying in the constant sea breeze.
To the left side, behind the camp, was a vast ship graveyard, way too large to exist in reality. Hundreds if not thousands of vessels were stranded there, so of them looking not just out of place but out of ti. Sails existed right next to the marine blue walls of a destroyer. A capsized freighter created a barrier past which John could not see.
To the right, overseeing the camp, atop another massive cliff, stood a derelict castle. Tattered banners adorned its ancient, salt-marked walls. Towers stood half-collapsed at the corners of the platform, seemingly inaccessible via any land route.
Between the graveyard of ships and the derelict castle was the ocean and a stone. A stone of deep crimson and black, the two colours in such balance that it was impossible to say which one was used to carve the flowing running patterns into its surface. Two large, curved columns extended horizontally from the roundish surface of the stone.
“Kinda looks like a boar,” Hailey spoke, with Oklahoman hatred.
John tilted his head. He could vaguely see the resemblance. His eyes zood out, Hailey lowered the smartphone she had used to help out her eyes. “Are you taking photos?” John wondered.
“Kinda thought it’s a waste we just give these places to mory lane, ya know?” the country gal answered.
John let out a deep hum. He could appreciate the sentint, even if his flawless mory made it difficult to share it. “Alright then, let’s see what this is about,” he said and took the first step forward with his chosen seven.
Of course, him taking the first step was swiftly replaced by the majority of the party pulling ahead of him. Gno took the lead, Aclysia the rear, and the rest of the party scattered themselves in between. They only stopped in their advance long enough to let Sylph take a test flight. The mont a supersonic ballista volley ca her way from the castle, she zapped back down. The fire-tipped projectiles slamd into the ocean a distance away.
“We’re dealing with a height limit of about twenty tres,” John inford Nightingale. “I think you can use the top of the cliffside the castle is on for reference on how high you are allowed to fly.”
“Noted,” Nightingale said, thankful for the test. It was always best to let the speed devil scout these things out, rather than the considerably slower harpy.
With that, Sylph remained where she was and the actual party began their march towards the camp. “Fire…” he heard Aclysia mumble.
“Potentially good for us,” John agreed with the thought going through her head.
“Alternatively, Gaia has a nasty surprise for us,” the first maid said.
John just nodded. All five of his non-tracana Artificial Spirits had full Fire Immunity. If there were any fire focused boss fights, he could cheese the hell out of it with Aclysia, Beatrice, Claire and Momo bypassing most of the dangerous area attacks. This was a design detail that Gaia either had to plan around or with, be it by making having people that were immune to fire damage mandatory or by making the factor an advantage that was notable but not decisive.
It did not seem like that would factor in for the ti being. The area before them seed to have been harassed by fire recently, rather than wield it. The closer they got, the more the unpleasant mixture of slls of burned and wet wood, hair, and flesh filled the air. The wind picked up, soon howling over the tents.
What few people John saw scurried into the tents, hiding away in the barely standing and yet indestructible shacks of canvas and wood. “Guess we’ll have to go through the tents,” the Gar announced when they ca across a barrier.
“Are you serious?” Ehtra asked, smoothly pulling her bolter out of the holster and pointing the weapon at the improvised wall of wooden ship bits. BLAM! BLAM! It echoed through the air. Wooden splinters flew everywhere. Mysteriously, the wall remained fully intact, though. “What the…?”
“Typical video ga logic, there’s nothing as indestructible as a piece of wood placed in your way,” John explained to her.
“We could fly over it,” Nightingale suggested.
“You could try that, and if I had to hazard a guess, you could actually succeed, but so kind of airborne enemy or ranged enemy would spawn to make your life a living hell before the rest of us can climb or jump over.” John scratched the back of his head. Ehtra was new to all of this and Nightingale hadn’t been this directly involved before. “Let’s do what the designer intended before we try to break it. See that tent?” He pointed towards one to their left that had its entrance flaps sway in the wind. “Pretty clear invitation.”
“First encounter, uhm, paraters? Instructions?” Gno asked. “Whatever the right word is.”
“First encounter, just do your best, all of you. I want to know the basics of the enemies before we do all the testing. I’ll let you know when we test what.” With a look at Ehtra specifically, he added, “I know I told you I value choice a lot, but the battlefield is not the place for that. You’ll follow the orders I give, even if you think you have a better idea at the mont.”
“At least you can think like a general,” Ehtra responded. It almost sounded like a complint. Almost.
They entered the first tent, leaving the whipping winds behind and replacing them with the cold draft that pressed through the thick sh of the cloth walls. Within it, sitting in the bare sand, they found over a dozen people, so of them lying on their back.
‘Corpses,’ John imdiately realized. The people on the floor had their eyes closed forever. So of them had obvious stab or burn wounds, others seed to have succumbed to malnutrition or thirst. The few people that were alive sat lethargically behind wooden market stalls. It was a bleak sight all around.
“Welco,” a young woman, no older than twenty, greeted them. She was a thin thing, any potential for attractiveness lost to split lips and starvation. Her voice was weak. “Do you… want to buy anything?”
“What do you offer?” John asked, giving Gno a sign to stay between him and the girl. The NPC was not programd to mind, only reaching under the stall to pull out an assortnt of pretty-ish rocks. There was nothing magical to any of them. “I can offer you this in return,” John said and pulled a sandwich out of his inventory.
It was a token gesture, but the unreal woman reacted to it anyhow. “That is too kind, sir,” she whispered, taking the food. John pocketed the pebbles in return, either as a keepsake or to see if there was a hidden chanic down the line. He doubted it, Observe had hinted at nothing of the sort. The Gar halfway turned away from her, thinking he had exhausted the dialogue, when she spoke up again, “You shouldn’t turn your back to anyone.”
“Why is that?” the Gar asked.
“Because there might be skulls that frown,” she said, then began to nibble on her sandwich. “When they co for you, don’t expect help… If they take us, they might do us a rcy… It’s either they get us or the Charred One does… It makes no difference… This is a marketplace of corpses and nothing else.”
John took the cryptic warning and stepped up to one of the other stalls. None of the other people had more than grunts to offer. The party stepped out of the tent, using an exit opposite of where they had entered.
They were once more in the heavy wind, standing in a corridor created by raw stone, crudely worked to serve as walls. John was three steps in when everyone heard the noise from behind them. It was a mixture of gargle and groan.
Its source stepped out of the tent they had just left a mont later. A tall, humanoid figure, its exposed bones bulky and fused to each other and the crab-like carapace that covered its midriff, legs, and forearms. Chitinous claws ended long limbs. Round shoulders were beset with spikes akin to a sea creature. A spiderweb of additional limbs stretched from its upper back. The skull was almost human, but the eternal grin of a bleached corpse was replaced with an unnerving, anguished frown.
(Author’s Note: I’m making monster images for this Raid with AI. Do let know if you like these)
A second gargle swiftly pulled John’s attention to the path ahead.
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