Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Karra———

“...Which floor are we on again? Ninety-one?” I muttered as I checked the floor count again after another somewhat quick clear. It was like a minute and a little bit… “Damn, I thought we’d be a bit faster after we agreed on giving up on pretenses and going quickly, no holds barred”

“I mean, three of you aren’t even really fighting at full strength most of the time anyway. That’s not really going all out, is it?” Edea suddenly chimed in. Don’t just snitch on us like that!

“Shush! Said the person who doesn’t even have to fight. Ever heard of being efficient?” I said with a threatening smile.

“Oooh, so scary. Just keep going, or else we’re not gonna hit the hundred floor marks before everyone goes home.” They smugly said and unfortunately they’re right about that. We don’t actually have a lot of time left. We need to actually go at it crazy style and blast through everything.

“Alright, fine. Have those potions ready because we’re actually going super duper all out, right everyone?” I said to the other three streamers, and they simply nodded without saying much else. Liss does look a bit concerned, but she had been like that for a while. She clearly didn’t expect having to exert herself so much beyond what she usually does. If it wasn’t for the fact that we have multiple resources to patch her up she would probably start to complain very loudly. I know she can get quite heated during an intense video game session, I have seen a few clips, we have all been there at some point. “Let’s do it like this. Each person is assigned to a floor, nuke it quickly, drink a potion or two and recover while another person rotates in. Sounds good? We’ll go with me, then Cry, Liss, Terry. In that order. If anyone is overwhelmed, either of those two will come in for the assist to make sure each floor is cleared in under one minute, we’re doing this until we cleared floor ninety-nine. Are we good on that? Good. Let’s move out.”

No one really said anything, probably due to how assertive I was and all of us quickly made our way down to floor ninety-two.

“Alright, me first.” I said before walking forward as I saw the small army before me, probably only almost a hundred, nothing I can’t handle if I just go all out at the beginning.

*BLAST* *BOOM*

I threw out all kinds of spells and essentially detonated the entire area in a few seconds before the monsters could even react, destroying a few layers of the dungeon floor as well.

“About fourteen seconds. Let’s keep going then.” Edea said and everyone moved to the next room while they handed me a mana potion.

We quickly got to the next floor and Cry walked forward.

*Shine* *BLAST* *BOOM*

She used the same shield attack that destroyed so many powerful monsters, blasting out a large burst of energy from the center of the shield and obliterating everything.

“Roughly twelve seconds. Let’s go.” Edea said, so a bit faster than me.

The next floor is full of plantlife which is very rare. Can’t even really see any clear sign of monsters. Must’ve been hiding.

*Sizz* *Singed* *Boom*

Liss walked forward and quickly incinerated everything, spewing out flames and burning everything in sight until it was all nothing but ashes.

“Thirty-four? Could’ve been better.” Edea remarked while giving her two potions instead of one as we quickly move to the next and ignoring the sign of fatigue she has. She has some time to recover and those potions work quickly. At least she doesn’t have to do the next floor which should be a boss floor. Technically it would be a mini-boss floor since they’re generally not quite as durable and have as much gimmick even compared to the previous boss, but it’s still a boss at the end of the day, and sometimes there aren’t even a mini-boss on the midway point, sometimes it’s just a big group with one slightly stronger one.

Anyway, the next floor is a-

*SLASH* *Thud*

Before I could even describe what the big boss was, Terry already ran past it with a single swing of her sword and it’s bisected cleanly in half vertically. I didn’t even get a good look at it before it was cut clean in half. Seems to be some sort of giant spider-like creature but with leathery skin instead of something fuzzy and armor-like. It’s pretty gross, actually. We probably would’ve killed it quickly even if we aren’t worried about time since we don’t want the viewers to see this gross thing for a long time. When you’re in the middle of a fight those kinds of details are usually way in the back of your mind so you don’t mind it, but the viewers obviously won’t have that kind of mindset since they’re only spectating.

Anyway, let’s move on quickly and not have the drones focus on the corpse. Everyone quickly moved on while Edea collected the rewards.

“Alright. A small breather before we go to floor one-hundred. Want to make sure no one is actually winded here.” I said while turning around to look at the others. “Fei, a status check.”

“Right on it, boss.” They said and the drones started scanning everyone. “Everyone is in pretty good shape, though Liss came dangerously close to needing another potion or two. Those aren’t cheap or something you should drink in large doses, you know?”

“Sorry…” She replied sheepishly. It’s all from Edea’s pocket, as far as I can tell, there’s nothing to really worry about. In the first place, Edea kinda comes out of nowhere and proposes to help with the entire operation, no strings attached outside of anonymity, and even if I were to slip up the name a few times, no one is gonna believe them to be the nepo baby of two dead  omnidisciplinary scientists.

“Enough of that. Let’s get down to business. We still wanna beat this thing quickly so we don’t waste more of our viewer’s time. A lot of them have been sticking around for as long as they did, so we need to give them some reprieve.” I said as I take the lead and everyone follows down to the last level we’re gonna do since we’re already stretching the runtime. “If they’re complaining about it being too quick. Well, they just gotta check the VODs for that.”

We finally reached the hundredth floor, and what stood before us was… a rather simple room. Flat ground, no pillars, smooth surface and walls. It’s just a really open room with only one thing in the middle. The floor is rather well-designed with patterns similar to that in a fancy mansion or castle from the olden days.

And fittingly enough, in the middle of the room, at the very center of this milestone, is a single person wearing a worn-down armor. I can’t tell if the armor is naturally dark, or simply worn down and lost its shine.

Of course, calling it a person would be a misnomer. This is the floor boss, and while it looks like a human wearing a suit of armor with torn cape and a massive sword, the fact that it’s already here, nothing else is around. It’s a monster. It’s like that brutal dungeon with a group of ‘knights’.

“Well, even if it looks human, we still gotta fight it, and kill it.” I said as I walked forward. “We’re not taking turns here, just jump it.”

“Four on one? Kinda unfair, ain’t it? It’d end in a flash with nothing to spectate afterward. I can take a step back if you want.” Terry suddenly said. She is probably the strongest of us four, considering everything that happened up to this point. Perhaps she is right, but I don’t want to make it sound like we’re actually dragging it out.

“Do whatever you want. Even the three of us are enough.” I said as I walked towards the knight in dark armor. It noticed me and quickly assumed a stance.

Liss and Cry accompany me while the others stay in the back. The drones are hovering high and away to make sure it’s not getting caught in the crossfire.

Now then, let’s get this done quickly!

*Dash* *Parry* *Clash* *Block*

I ran in first with my knife and started exchanging attacks. Its agility and dexterity is great enough to repel my normal attacks coming its way and start swinging its sword at me.

*Blast* *Boom* *Kick*

I took a step back once I felt something aiming our way, which was a magic blast from Liss that staggered it for just long enough for me to hit it with a quick kick that sent it flying.

*Bash* *Smash* *Crash*

Cry then ran up to the knight being launched away with a shield bash that quickly stopped the momentum then swung her shield down at it causing a large crater in the ground and the knight to be buried deep into it.

*ROAR*

It then roared loudly and sent a massive shockwave that no one was expecting and caused all of us to be sent flying away, not doing any damage, but it did stop the momentum we had against it as it quickly recovered and stood back up.

Its body is then covered in some sort of red mist and two red eyes glow from within the helmet.

*Dash* *Block*

It ran towards Cry at extremely high speed and swung its sword at her that she quickly raised her shield to block the incoming attack, with neither side letting up the offense and defense.

*Dash* *Swing* *Grab*

“Huh?” I ran at it in an attempt to stab it from behind while it was busy with her, but it managed to grabbed onto my arm as I swing down my knife

*Leap* *Throw* *Crash*

“Argh!” It jumped up high then threw me right into the ceiling, almost embedding me into it with how hard it was throwing!

*Launch* *Slash*

I kicked myself down from the ceiling and took a swing at that damn bastard, hitting it right in the head as it tried to continue attacking Cry. I managed to tear off a part of its helmet, but I can’t quite make out what is inside it, if there is anything inside.

*Swing* *Evade* *Bash*

It tried to swing its massive sword at me that I quickly took a step back to avoid and it was hit by Cry bashing her shield into it from behind while it was distracted. Despite being more aggressive its power output doesn’t seem to increase that much.

*Slash* *Bash*

Cry then followed up with a slash using the blades on her shield, then bashing it again with her shield and sent it flying.

“[Explosion]!” Liss yelled as she stretched her two arms out, sending a large concentration of energy right towards the giant knight being sent flying towards her location.

*BOOM*

A massive explosion occurred as the magic ball made contact with the knight, causing a massive explosion that obscured everything in smoke and other debris.

It’s not actually over though. Let’s run in with a finishing blow!

*Dash*

I ran past all the smoke and ran towards where I know that damn knight is, with mana concentrated into my left hand, and I can finally make it out.

Underneath the armor seems to be a skeleton, gray and hard to make out in the shadow of the dull armor. It turned around in an attempt to kill me despite parts of its body being destroyed and no longer having the same capability as it did only a few seconds ago.

*Crackle* *Freeze*

I put my left hand forward and covered it completely in a block of ice before it could react.

*Swing* *Smash*

With the knife in my right hand, I swing it down and smash the ice structure and its content into pieces. Ending the encounter.

“About a minute and thirty.” Edea remarked even if we don’t really need to worry about that anymore. “Congrats to everyone involved. We managed to clear a hundred floors of this very hard dungeon. You want me to show the audience where this is?”

“Nah. I think they already figured it out at this point. This isn’t exactly a secret dungeon.” I said while looking at the chunks of ice on the floor and playfully kicking them away. “Alright, let’s do the last break session, and get the hell outta here.”