For the tl;dr combat tactics version, scroll to the end of the post.
Pan Flickeredflame, the human Legendary Fighter Axeman from Foldedbear wasn't very popular. He had just killed Orid Gemswords a vampire who had killed over 700 in his thirst for blood. Yet Mr. Gemswords was apparently very well liked by everyone he didn't kill, and now poor Pan was in need of some good PR to improve his reputation.
Pan is a people pleaser, with a fondness and talent for violence, so selecting his next kill was the obvious next step to winning the public's love. Since everyone talked constantly about mastering the forces of nature to glorify us in the eyes of the world by destroying Edri the mountain titan, the choice was obvious.
Pan enlisted the help of Hustra Questflew a strong but unremarkable Pikewoman who knew the way to The Sienna Beak in the Virginal Hills. For there was the home of the mountain titan Edri, which unbeknownst to Pan was on the other side of the planet.
The two traveled for many days and Pan tried to refrain from killing random animal people in the woods because it made Hustra cry and cry, despite her own dalliances with killing random animal people. Pan learned that giving her anything, even just rocks or leaves, seemed to sooth Hustra's pain and got her to back to continue the quest.
When the adventurers finally arrived at The Sienna Beak, they were fortunate that the gods above took note of their current position and Saved it for later. For Edri the mountain titan was a beast more powerful than the masters above have ever witnessed and they had guided many to greatness and fun.
Edri the mountain titan was a towering quadruped composed of native aluminum. It had large mandibles and it moved deliberately. Beware its webs! This aluminum monster was incredibly fast and powerful.
Pan saw flashes of at least 10 parallel universes where his head was kicked into gore with one swipe or bitten off instantly. From these deja vu experiences Pan new that the creature seemed to be able to see in all directions, based on its vision arc. Ambush did not seem possible. He knew that being trapped in webs or not, a beast like this was at least five times faster than him. Pan somehow knew that hiding behind a tree and waiting to ambush Edri, would only lead him to see Hustra's dead body shoot across the ground before the monster would ambush him resulting in immediate death. Never had Pan's divine controller seen an enemy so impossible to defeat even for an experienced adventurer like Pan with strong skills in dodging, armor and shield usage.
But the gods were persistent and this aluminum monster must die. In a world with jumping and climbing there must be a way. A combat strategy dreamed earlier, but not possible in a 0.34.11 version of existence, could now be employed. It would involve fire.
But Pan was not equipped with the tools needed for this grand plan. He and Hustra fled north before the creature had seen them in this timeline. They traveled for two days in the direction of the nearest civilization they believed existed. One night Pan found a happy go lucky goblin named Utes Hatewheeled wandering the wilds. Outside of Hustra's watchful eyes, Pan chopped his head open from behind without saying hello. Mr. Hatewheeled's 30 silver bolts were exactly what Pan needed to attempt the impossible kill.
The trip back to the The Sienna Beak was a perilous one. Pan and Hustra were attacked twice by large packs of dingos and then as dawn broke a pack of Giant Dingos. Hustra was bit in the neck from behind and her upper spine was bruised through her donkey leather cloak. She politely announced that she must withdraw! Pan finished the Giant Dingos confusing them with valiant Jumps over their surrounding attacks. Though still able to pike an unconscious Giant Dingo to death after twenty or so attempts, Hustra was not fit for battle even after healing. Pan told her to wait for him in an abandon goblin settlement near Edri's sanctuary.
Pan knew what to do, as he was bestowed with the hopeful combat strategies carefully white boarded out by the gods. As he slowly approached the aluminum monster he lit campfires to the north and south of him building an elongated C of fire. With every step closer he lit campfires leaving only the space in front of him open to attack. When he was as close as he dared to the monster (which was still rather far away) he closed the C creating a protective ring of fire.
From there he Jumped out of the ring and began to start another ring even closer to Edri. Pan was able to create a diagonal wall using fire, chalk pillars, and trees before he was spotted. Within only a few moves the beast had run around the diagonal firewall, and was close enough to start shooting webs, but Pan was able to take a few steps and Jump back into the safety of his ring of fire. Despite being webbed he was able to throw a silver bolt and embed it in the beast before it retreated to its favorite sitting spot out of sight.
Pan repeated this process many times luring the creature to the ring and throwing a bolt or two at it before it retreated seeing it had no chance to attack directly. Pan fractured Edri's upper body, lower body, its head, one of its two mandibles and all four of its legs. The abomination had nearly 20 silver bolts stuck in its body and yet was still as fast as ever. Pan was down to only a few more bolts before he finally cleaved off a leg of the monster. This brought hope and also many bolts that were left behind with the appendage. Pan even tried throwing the severed leg, but it just bounced off the beast despite its immense weight. Eventually Pan had cleaved off three of its legs and it seemed to be only slightly faster than he was. This gave him three to four throws of bolts before the monster would sulk away to its place by its favorite pillar of chalk.
It pays to be a Grand Master Thrower. Eventually Pan's flying silver bolt struck The Mountain Titan in the lower body and it became mostly cut away from the rest of the torso! The silver bolt became lodged firmly in the wound! The Mountain Titan was shot and killed.
Amidst the smoke and fire there were webs everywhere. Pan figured these would make great collectibles for his future adoring fans. He discovered that if he Jumped on the sitting webs, he could safely pick them up. Pan amassed many of Edri's mountain titan silk threads as priceless souvenirs from one of the worlds great battles.
Pan collected Hustra and the two traveled back to civilization, expecting a hero's welcome and maybe a parade or two. Children would sing his name in the streets and statues would be erected in his honor. Long gone would be the days of Pan Flickeredflame, the murderer of the popular vampire. From the middle of town Pan shouted his announcement to the world. "Several days ago I slew Edri in The Sienna Beak!" The crowds were filled with murmurs of... "It was inevitable." At least Pan wasn't spit upon.
tl;dr:
If you are faced with fighting an extremely fast, strong monster that shoots webs you can build a ring of campfires to protect yourself before engaging in combat. You can use the new Jump command to jump outside the ring of fire to lure the monster towards you. Then you can jump back into the ring for safety as you throw things at the monster to eventually kill it. If the monster is as fast as the one I faced you may need to build walls of campfires to force the monster to run around them to get to you, giving you more time to jump back into the protective ring of fire. You can also jump on webs and pick them up without getting caught in them, and giving some junk objects to crying companions seems to help get them moving again.
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Topic: Combat Tactics vs Aluminum Monster (Read 1496 times)