Alex was having quite a bit of fun. The huge butcher knife that the boss had used for a weapon was in his hands… For as long as the moderators didn’t find out about it. Alex probably wouldn’t be able to get out of the dungeon with it, but he could have a lot of fun with it for now.

Hacking at the boss with it was very slow, but he did several people’s worth of damage with it in one shot, which would normally switch the boss’s aggro to him, but he backed up every shot so that he was safe. But Alex soon realised it wasn’t exactly thrilling to be safe, and it was getting boring. The novelty of picking up the boss’s weapon was wearing off fast. [i]Eh, whatever. [/i]Alex said. [i]May as well throw self-preservation out of the window to make it more interesting… [/i]

Alex was about to charge the monstrous mass of corpses with the intention to deal as much damage as possible, but suddenly, the boss’s behaviour changed. The boss roared, knocking players back. Alex wisely stayed away, but the boss moved to a downed tank and slammed his fist down, killing the player. Alex watched as it killed several other players, stunned. It was showing completely different behaviour than before. The boss glanced at the healers in the back, and Alex sprang into action. It was obvious what the boss would do. He started hacking at it as hard as he could, trying to get its attention, but to no avail. The boss began to charge dark magic in one of its hands. It was ignoring the tanks and the DPS players.
“Shit!” Alex cursed.

Alex began whacking the boss unceremoniously, desperately trying to switch his attention, but to no avail. The boss continued targeting the healers, uncharacteristic of this particular boss. A dark portal opened close to Alex, in front of the boss’s fist. Alex glanced around, trying to find where it led, and saw another portal in front of the healers. Alex yanked the huge cleaver free of the boss’s unfeeling flesh. He had to do something. As the boss’s fist flew into the portal, Alex met its arm with the cleaver, skewing its trajectory slightly, but without enough force to cut it off. Alex was dragged forward with the force, but stopped just shy of the portal, cleaver embedded in the boss’s arm. 

For all of Alex’s effort, several people died and 3 healers were taken out of action with a strange debuff. Alex cursed again, dashing away as the boss roared. But Alex heard an odd glitch in his call, as if some part of it was removed. [i]A glitch?[/i] Alex thought. [i]No glitch could do this…[/i] The boss roared again, and this time, it was normal. Nevertheless, Alex stayed back cautiously. The boss was on very low health, but if they underestimated it, more people would die…

Instead of reengaging, Alex dashed towards the downed healers, opening his inventory screen as he went along. He had a random assortment of collected potions, some rare, and there should be at least one of what he needed. Fortunately, Alex had 2 purification potions, and he quickly took one, slinging the butcher knife over his shoulder with one hand and grabbing the potion with the other. He'd gotten some from an event and had just left it in his inventory, putting it down as yet another item he would never use. As he neared the downed healers, he dropped the cleaver and grabbed the head of the nearest one, forcing the drink down their throats. They were quite rare, but Alex wouldn’t miss them. He didn’t need it right now.

The liquid drained from the bottle, to Alex’s relief, and the darkness faded from the healer’s eyes. He let go and the healer spluttered, offering his thanks. Alex didn’t hear him as he had moved on to the next healer, forcing him to down the potion in a similar fashion. It was unfortunate that he only had 2, but he had to leave the last to the mercy of the other mages. Alex picked up the cleaver again and ran off to face the boss, stopping just out of range, lowering his cleaver in a ready position, ready to react to the unexpected.

The boss had gone back to his previous move set and AI, but Alex watched on. The boss was focusing on the aggroing tanks again, but what was that earlier? It was strange. It wasn’t like the boss AI had glitched, it was more like it had been replaced. In fact, it was something Alex would do himself, if he was in the boss’s position. A game breaking bug? The AI seemed fully developed, as if it was for a different boss altogether. But that dark portal attack… He hadn’t fought the boss before, but he wasn’t sure that the attack which took out their healers was one that the boss had. It was clearly for targeted attacks, which was uncharacteristic of a boss who was slow and stupid. It just didn’t add up. If Alex put the pieces together, he could almost see a malevolent hand behind it. Of course, that would be ridiculous. But Alex couldn’t help thinking.

Alex raised hoisted the cleaver over his shoulder and charged at the boss once again. It didn’t matter right now, it looked like the ‘glitch’ had passed. All he could do about it now was beat the boss and make a report about it later.

Alex hacked at the boss’s torso, taking another chunk out of its quickly dwindling health, but with less gusto than he had before. Somehow, he was having a lot less fun than he thought he would at this stage. The mounting excitement from nearly defeating the boss, who would get the last hit, what they would get when they defeat it. Alex felt all those feelings, but they were overshadowed by a seemingly ungrounded sense of impending doom. It was like he knew something big would happen soon, and try as he might, Alex couldn’t get it out of his head.