Supreme Lord of Soulnight

Hidden Boss: Cassiopeia

That night when Liwan logged in, he was greeted by multiple friend requests in his message inbox. He accepted all of them, not leaving a single request out. Who knows, they might come in handy in the future. No one can predict what will happen in the furute. And he believes it would do him a lot more good than harm to plan ahead.

His knowledge of the game and the events he knew of from the future could only do so much for him. But building a strong guild and leading it into a direction he wants are two very different things. Though there are numerous events happening now that he knew already happened then, there are some things hidden to him and that he has no knowledge of. Not everything will play by his hands.

He gathered his team at the town center of Leeven, the land of the Invokers. There is a temple built for the deity that Invokers worship and the founder of their people—Hasharoth, the eight-winged deity. And Invokers strongly believes they continue to thrive by the grace of the deity and the first Invoker.

“What’s the agenda for today?” RagingInferno asked.

The character has been lounging on a long wooden bench inside the temple when Blade walked in. Everyone was already there, not a minute late.

“We’re making plans for the next quest, this time for Valeria’s armor parts,” Blade replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Can we hunt for my weapon next? Valeria’s getting spoiled,” RagingInferno fake-complained.

“Of course, I am. As I should. Ladies’ first,” Valeria playfully bantered.

“Yes, your weapon is up next. Then Shadowstrikes, mine and B-CHamp’s.” Blade turned to B-Champ behind the chair Valeria was sitting on. “Do you mind if you come last?”

B-Champ shook his head.

“No. After all, I’m way higher in level than you guys.”

“Right. So that’s settled.”

“What’s the next target?” Shadowstrikes asked.

“The hidden boss, Cassiopeia.”

Blade’s team mates looked at each other.

“How are we going to find her if she’s hidden?” Valeria asked.

“Cassiopeia lives in the wilderness of Leeven. All we need to do is kill her twin sister, come back to Leeven and then she’ll show herself to the culprits to get her revenge. Her story is interconnected with her sister so it makes sense. Slaying her sister and attacking Cassiopeia has to be done in the same day or else she won’t appear,” Blade answered.

“Who is her twin sister?” everyone chorused.

“The Dark Sidhe. We slay her again and then come back here to deal with her twin sister Cassiopeia.”

They did just that. This time around, it did not take them that long to deal with the Boss. Liwan wondered if there would be changes in the leader boards. He pushed the thought out of his mind and concentrated in the now.

With the last dying note of the Dark Sidhe’s enraged scream, it dropped somethings which surprised his the team but not Liwan. He calmly picked up the dropped items and asked Valeria to trade.

“Vambraces? And boots? Wow!” Valeria exclaimed when she received the items from Blade.

“We’re quite lucky this time. I hope the Dark Sidhe’s twin sister Cassiopeia would give us if not the same at least an equal yield tonight. Do not upgrade it yet, we won’t waste resources for things that are temporary.”

“You mean there is an armor a lot better than this?”

“Yes. The customized ones,” Blade confirmed. “My

“Something’s happening. My inbox is getting messages like crazy!” RagingInferno exclaimed.

“Me too!”

“Same.”

“I read one, the guy is asking me if we have a guild. They want to join,” Valeria informed them.

“Melvin sent me a message, too. Apparently, we broke our own record,” Liwan announced in a steady voice.

“Ah, that explains the piling messages.”

“Yes. For now, block incoming messages except the members of our team. It won’t last though. In two to three days time, people would find another thing to latch their attention on.”

“Yes, captain!” Everyone complied.

One after the other, they warped back to the land of Leeven. As usual, they maintained the same formation while running towards the wilderness. After running for more than five minutes, Blade came to a stop beneath a big tree. An open space were in front of them, a field of miles and miles of blue wildflowers. The ground rolled and dipped in a mixture of blue and green carpet, complimenting the vast azure sky above. Clouds drifted lazily, white fluffs hanging way above them with no care in the world.

“Is this the spot?” Valeria stopped beside Blade, their shoulders a palm apart.

Blade extended his arm and pointed beyond.

“Look.”

Everyone followed Blade’s finger. A mass of blue billowed around a figure as it floated above the flowers, approaching them.

“They’re identical twins!” Valeria gasped.

“Yes. Cassiopeia and the Dark Sidhe are identical twins. There is not much difference between the two, they’re identical down to the last stitch in their clothing. Except the Dark Sidhe prefers white while Cassiopeia loves blue,” Blade explained, hand gripping his twin swords a little tighter. “Remember your positions! She’s getting near.”

“Since they’re twins, are we using the same tactics?” RagingInfero asked.

“Yes. Fighting Cassiopeia is like fighting the Dark Sidhe. It’s just that she’s much stronger than her twin sister. Expect damage twice as much as the Dark Sidhe. Jay, you go take the aggro. We need her to focus on you. Val, it’s time to put your bow to use.”

“But my damage is—”

“You’ll be surprised,” Blade interrupted her. “Trust me.”

“Okay.”

The moment RagingInferno entered Cassiopeia’s attack radius, the Sidhe draw her arrow and quickly launched it’s ultimate attack. Arrows rained down from above RagingInferno, intent on impaling and finishing him right there and then. But RagingInferno was ready for a long time. Before the arrows struck, he leapt away and raised his broadsword in a jumping cleave.

Bam!

Cassiopeia staggered as she took on RagingInferno’s blow. He leapt back again, just as B-Champ and Valeria took over. Barrage of punches assaulted Cassiopeia, losing her chance to retaliate.

“Val, now’s the time to use rapid arrows while Cassiopeia is busy with B-Champ,” Blade commandeered from the back.

A whooshing sound came when Valeria pulled the bow’s string. And when she let go, the arrow turned into a streak of black light, slicing through the air and speeding to wards Cassiopeia. It hit the boss squarely in the chest. Cassiopeia stopped moving, as if bewildered. Her eyes widened as she stared at the embedded black arrow on her chest. Then her face crumpled, turning into a shade of white.

“Let’s go, Shadow!”

Shadowstrikes moved at the same time with Blade. His spinning knives hit Cassiopeia first before he drew back to make way for Blade. As soon as Blade wielded his swords for a flurry strike, RagingInferno came forward. By the time Blade has withdrawn his weapon, RagingInferno has successfully leapt and came down with another jumping cleave. And the sequence of attacks from the members kept on and on.

“She’s down to forty five!” Valeria called out.

“Switch attack, now! This time, all together. Remember to watch out for her aggro state,” Blade instructed. “It’s always at twenty.”

“Okay!”

Liwan kept his eyes on the monster’s health bar. His fingers almost flew over the keyboard, punching keys in seamless succession, creating a smooth flow of movements for his character Blade. The shift from each attack, jump, duck and more movements appeared fluid. Liwan smiled. He could feel an unexplainable satisfaction as he watched Blade “danced” with his sword, delivering blow after blow to the monster boss.

Yes. This is how Blade should be. This is the Blade I envisioned and wished to be.

“Twenty!” He heard Valeria call out again in their communication channel.

For the first time they became team mates, their retreat turned to be synchronized, as if following a choreograph dance number. They all exclaimed in surprise, not believing their own eyes. Then laughter erupted over the channel.

“Wow! We did that,” RagingInferno remarked.

“How cool is that?” B-Champ chimed in.

“Hey, everyone focus. We need to finish this fast. I’m getting hungry,” Liwan said.

As soon as Cassiopeia’s agrro wave was done, the five leapt into action in unison. They bombarded Cassiopeia with attacks until her health bar dropped to zero. Valeria cheered. The hidden boss finally dropped one item—an armor.

Liwan reached out inside his drawer to find his notebook. A second item was immediately crossed out of the list. He tapped on the next item, almost absent-minded as he stared into his computer screen.