CHAPTER 23: BLOOD GUNNER YAGG — PART 2
Blood Gunner Yagg's targeting system locked onto Lord Grim the moment I entered engagement range.
The boss's artillery platform rotated, mechanical limbs adjusting to track the new threat. At full health, this thing would have shredded a four-person party in seconds. At 65% health with a scrambled aggro table and half the server fighting each other around it, the calculation was different.
Still dangerous.
But manageable.
If my hands cooperate.
"INCOMING FIRE!" Steamed Bun typed, somehow making text feel like a battle cry.
The first AOE volley screamed toward our position—explosive shells designed to punish clustered formations. I swapped to shield form and planted Lord Grim in front of the party, catching the blast on reinforced steel.
[Lord Grim HP: 100% → 78%. Shield durability: 84%.]
The damage is manageable.
Now let the DPS work.
Tang Rou's Soft Mist was already in motion—Dragon Breaks the Ranks into Sky Strike, the combo chain we'd drilled during training sessions. Her execution was clean, professional, the kind of play that would have impressed any pro scout watching.
And there are probably scouts watching right now.
Half the server is here.
Half the server is about to see exactly what Lord Grim can do.
The weapon cycle started at the thirty-second mark.
Blood Gunner Yagg's second phase triggered at 50% HP—a defensive protocol that increased its attack speed and added homing missiles to the artillery barrage. Most parties handled this by kiting, spreading formation to reduce AOE overlap.
I handled it by demonstrating why Unspecialized was supposed to be unplayable.
Shield form to block the initial missile volley. Weapon swap—spear form, Battle Mage combos that matched Tang Rou's damage output on the flank. The Desync caught me on the third combo, dropping two inputs, but the damage still landed.
Gun form.
The Umbrella shifted to Launcher configuration, ranged burst fire that combined with Cleansing Mist's artillery. Double Launcher pressure forced the boss to cycle its defensive protocols faster than intended.
Tonfas.
Close-range stagger, interrupting Blood Gunner's reload animation. The boss's attack pattern broke, creating a window that Steamed Bun's Brawler immediately exploited with a Brick to the targeting array.
Back to spear.
The finisher.
[Blood Gunner Yagg HP: 50% → 37%.]
Five weapon forms in thirty seconds. Techniques from five different class specializations, executed through a single character using a weapon that shouldn't exist on a server this young.
And dozens of players had stopped fighting each other to watch.
[PRD Alert: Observer data spike detected. 47 players currently tracking Lord Grim's combat patterns.]
They're watching.
The entire server is watching an Unspecialized cycle through weapon forms like it's nothing.
Good.
Let them see.
The boss fight became a race against attention.
Blood Gunner Yagg dropped to 25% health, then 15%, then 10%. My party's DPS was focused, coordinated, the product of record attempts and team chemistry the SRM had been quietly quantifying for weeks.
The guild combat around us was slowing down. Players who had been fighting each other were now turning to watch the spectacle—a four-person party dismantling a Wild Boss that eighty players hadn't managed to kill in twelve hours.
Tyrannical Ambition is staring.
Excellent Dynasty is staring.
Even Herb Garden stopped retreating to watch.
They're going to realize what happened. They're going to figure out the messages came from me.
Let them.
The point was never to keep the manipulation secret.
The point was to get the boss.
Blood Gunner Yagg's HP hit 5%.
My hands ached. Three combos had failed during the weapon cycling—the Desync eating into my execution at the worst moments. But the team had compensated. Tang Rou's damage output covered my gaps. Steamed Bun's chaos drew aggro when I needed breathing room. Cleansing Mist's professional positioning kept the ranged pressure constant.
This is what a team looks like.
Not individual skill. Collective adaptation.
The SRM was measuring something real.
The final blow landed.
[BLOOD GUNNER YAGG DEFEATED!]
[Party Leader: Lord Grim]
[Loot distributed to party inventory.]
The server notification went world-wide.
The aftermath was everything I expected and nothing I was prepared for.
World chat exploded within seconds.
[What the hell was that?!]
[Did Lord Grim just cycle through FIVE weapon forms?!]
[That's... that's Unspecialized. Nobody plays Unspecialized.]
[How does a new server account have an Unspecialized build that WORKS?!]
[The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella. That's the only weapon that makes Unspecialized viable. That's YE XIU'S WEAPON.]
The name hit world chat like a bomb.
Ye Xiu.
They're connecting the dots.
Faster than I expected.
The guild leaders were comparing messages. I could see it in the sudden silence from Tyrannical Ambition's force, the way Excellent Dynasty's players had stopped moving entirely. Someone was sharing screenshots. Someone was realizing that all three messages had come from Lord Grim.
[RageBlade (Tyrannical Ambition): He played us. All of us.]
[ColdArrow (Blue Brook): The Herb Garden deal was fake?!]
[HealingRain (Herb Garden): We got manipulated into breaking formation.]
Yes.
You did.
And you would have done the same thing to me if you'd thought of it first.
Chen Yehui's message arrived in my private inbox three minutes after the boss died.
[Chen Yehui (Excellent Dynasty): You think this changes anything? You just showed the entire server who you really are. A manipulator. A cheat. Someone who wins through deception instead of skill. Enjoy the material. It's the last boss drop you'll ever get on this server.]
I didn't respond.
There was nothing to say that the loot in my inventory didn't already prove.
The party regrouped at the zone's edge.
Steamed Bun was typing celebration messages in all caps. Tang Rou's Soft Mist stood motionless, processing. Cleansing Mist had already logged off—Su Mucheng minimizing her alt's exposure.
[Steamed Bun Invasion: WE DID IT! WE KILLED THE BIG GUN THING! LORD GRIM YOU ARE A TACTICAL GENIUS!]
[Soft Mist: The messages you sent. They worked.]
"Yes."
[Soft Mist: The guilds are going to hate you even more now.]
"Also yes."
[Soft Mist: Was it worth it?]
I opened my inventory and looked at the rare material sitting in Lord Grim's storage. Blood Gunner Yagg's core processor—a component that matched the Umbrella's upgrade requirements perfectly.
The USB drive in my pocket contained Su Muqiu's design specifications. The weapon he'd created before he died. The weapon his best friend had carried for a decade. The weapon I was now one step closer to completing.
"Ask me again when the Umbrella is finished."
Tang Rou didn't respond.
But her Soft Mist stood beside Lord Grim as the guild armies reorganized in the distance, and she didn't log off.
That's something.
That's more than something.
[SRM Update: Soft Mist (Tang Rou) — 58% → 59%. Steamed Bun Invasion — 60% → 61%.]
The numbers climbed despite the friction. The manipulation tactics created discomfort, but fighting together—winning together—built something stronger.
Chemistry.
The thing the SRM measures.
The thing that makes teams work even when they disagree about methods.
I opened the Umbrella's equipment editor and began cataloguing the new material.
Su Muqiu's design, one step closer to completion.
To supporting Me in Pateron.
with exclusive access to more chapters (based on tiers more chapters for each tiers) on my Patreon, you get more chapters if you ask for more (in few days), plus new fanfic every week! Your support starting at just $6/month helps me keep crafting the stories you love across epic universes.
By joining, you're not just getting more chapters—you're helping me bring new worlds, twists, and adventures to life. Every pledge makes a huge difference!
Join now at patreon.com/TheFinex5 and start reading today!