The Shepherds Are Dense

Chapter 12: Dirty Sorceress Veronica

### Chapter 12: Dirty Sorceress VeronicaAs soon as Aiwass remembered the Sinful Bartender's name, the specifics of this episode came back to her:

The first elite mob, "Sinful Bartender," was a level 15 Demonkin. His primary mechanic was a strong, unblockable attack every fifteen seconds that would be dodgeable but knock players back. It wasn't strictly aggro-bound, so if players were too close—on top of each other—they'd get hit no matter what. If the tank got knocked back, it could lead to the backline taking damage, colliding into furniture, walls, or teammates, resulting in secondary damage and stuns.

When his health fell below 30%, he'd go into a demonic mode, with doubled attack speed, movement speed, and ability frequency.

This was his sole significant mechanic. Counter it with knockback resistance abilities, dodging, or melee DPS laning from the back to take the hit so the tank can recover aggro. This made him a basic standing boss.

The second boss, "Hellhound" Shell, was a hellhound made by an advanced demonologist. It had high-frequency attacks with burning, armor-piercing, and poison damage. Its aggro reset every 10% loss of health, but with simple coordination, it wasn't too hard.

In the real world, however, bosses would not come in a courteous manner one at a time like in a video game. If the Bartender and Hellhound both came, the battle would be considerably more difficult.

…But then the Hellhound had vanished.

The instant the bald woman's face appeared in Aiwass's vision, it all clicked into place.

This Hellhound must have been bred by the bald man he'd murdered that evening!

—This woman was the "apprentice" from that same meeting!

Bits of information pieced together in his brain, creating a fresh set of clues:

In the original timeline, players intervened on the couple, rescuing Aiwass from ritual altar and forestalling the summoning of shadow demon. Subsequently, the man escaped and created Hellhound to protect this clandestine outpost.

The "Pelican Bar" was associated with the "Noble Red" society.

Or rather, one of their outposts in Avalon.

It was an outpost in that, although Aiwass had fuzzy memories of the plot, he was aware that "Noble Red" was a cover for Star Antimony Kingdom spies!

Leadership of the society were clandestine agents, helping repressed demonologists in Avalon by providing demonology books and illicit ritual paraphernalia.

The two who reached out to Aiwass probably were not high enough to realize this secret.

He remembered too why this episode included an Avalon minister.

Because Aiwass killed the man, the Hellhound never appeared here.

—Though minor, he’d already altered history slightly!

The apprentice who escaped that night was the Vile Sorceress Veronica, a level 19 Demonologist, one step from the third tier.

Players called her “Big Purple” or “Bald Lady.”

As the lowest-tier boss who dropped the red robe, she was quite farmed. The robe wasn't stat or fashion-heavy but opened the "Noble Red" event line, which gave four books and a good staff, giving a lot of skill experience to Demonologist players.

With respect to the first two bosses, Veronica's mechanics were much more complicated.

—She came in with a charged spell orb like now.

Fifteen seconds into combat, she'd level the highest-aggro character with a quick, slightly homing "Cursed Infant" spell. If it landed, it was an automatic kill.

Without damage reduction or invulnerability skills at this level, surviving it wasn't possible. Only a tank past level 30, after the restriction was lifted, could survive it. Dodging was the only choice.

These players were instantly sacrificed to call a small demon. The demon was simple enough to kill—three shots of concentrated firepower—but the body of the sacrificed player couldn't be restored, lowering the team's numbers.

In a four-player game, the failure of the opening mechanic resulted in a loss of a quarter of the team, usually the tank.

The remaining wasn't so difficult: she issued periodic, growing group-wide damage that slowed down players' movement speed and attack speed as stacks mounted. The stacks only reset when a player was killed.

If nobody got killed in the initial mechanic, concentrated DPS could phase her damage. Otherwise, the healer had to get suicided in order to reset stacks when health bars could no longer be held. Doing it again resulted in a wipe.

Unlike the first two bosses, who could be brute-fitted without guides, Veronica's first encounter usually resulted in a wipe without preparing.

She was an intelligent boss.

She set up a large spell with a ritual before fighting, hoping to kill a player immediately from the start—something unlike other game bosses that reserved their ultimates for the end. Her burst-oriented playstyle was a mirror to that of a player.

As a healer, Aiwass always looked at guides.

If the tank or DPS messed up on the mechanic, he'd need to sacrifice himself. After so many runs, he became extremely familiar.

—But since it's a starter instance boss, players eventually got lazy. Content orıginally comes from N0velFire.ɴet

They came up with a cheese tactic for Veronica.

And it was easy.

Aiwass's preparations were for this very moment—

His left hand under his cloak opened a little, shadow energy quietly accumulating between his fingers. The "Enchantment Card: Shadow Blade" he had made yesterday appeared in the distorted void, tucked between his index and middle fingers.

Aiwass spoke reassuringly to distract Veronica, "You left too many flaws—countless, really.".

“I was even a bit slow to piece it together. If it were the famous Mr. Sherlock, he’d have figured it out instantly.”

As he spoke, his right hand, holding the pistol, subtly neared the “Moon” tarot card.

The moment the gun touched the card, now rewritten as “Enchantment Card: Shadow Blade,” Aiwass willed it to activate.

The card dissolved into a mass of shadow, merging into his lady’s pistol.

He openly pulled the gun, taking aim at Veronica.

She knew him now.

She'd wanted to know how he managed to get out of that night.

When the shadow demon lost its mind and murdered her mentor, she ran immediately, believing the contract failed, not knowing Aiwass had manipulated it.

But looking at his silly move, her caution and curiosity turned to contempt.

She sneered and made no attempt to dodge.

"You think that toy will hurt me?

"Elven-crafted, Lady's Clutch, five-shot capacity—correct? You think you can use it on me?

"I won't budge. Shoot away."