I met the enhanced and buffed Crota today for the 20th time with a long-time clan member and his crew. The beautiful, sequential ritual of killing a god's son would again be passively enacted by yours truly. At least, that was the initial state of mind, but this time was different. We had been at it for what seemed like hours. Some celestial being deemed us unworthy to receive the spoils of victory, and made us repeat the process over and over again. It wasn't that we didn't know what we were doing. It wasn't that we had a weak link. It wasn't stupid mistakes. The bane of our raid, the only thing keeping Crota alive, was glitches. Those unavoidable, untraceable glitches. And it wasn't the same one; every run was a different arrow shot from Crota's glitch-quiver. Our characters' bones ached and muscles groaned at the thought of yet again venturing beyond the shielded crystal room. But nevertheless, they conceded to our button-mashing and controller-throwing. "Alright guys, this is my last try. If he has another God-damn glitch, I'm out." Adam's friends followed the suit of his threat, and the pressure was on for everyone to perform at maximum capacity. Especially me- the swordbearer. Our 31 took his usual place under the boomers to provide for me a safe environment among Crota's platform, and as the swordbearer fell, I met his ashes with a swift foot and a sharp tongue; "Down him," I said. Every rocket convened at its mark to perform their common goal as Crota dropped to a kneel. I leaped, got my smashes in, jumped off, then we rinsed and repeated. No problems arose, no signs of glitches met our eyes, and a few more smashes and two ogres later, we were back in the crystal room, waiting for our third set of swipes to send Crota back up to the big green ball in the sky. It was then that Josh noticed something..out of the ordinary. "Guys, how long does Crota usually point at you?" We all averted our gaze from the idle swordbearer to the big glowing superknight standing right at the edge of his right-side platform. Sure enough, he was pointing. He was pointing directly at me. "It's usually for only about 3 seconds," said Adam, confident in his wealth of intel regarding this checkpoint he had completed so many times before. "He's still pointing at you, Cadence. Run around so he'll stop or something." I obeyed Josh's command. I sprinted from one side of the room to the other, jumped as high as I could, threw a grenade, sat down, danced, and pointed at him to perhaps reverse the effect. Not one of his three eyes even blinked. Adam: "Dude, I swear, if this is going to be another glitch-" Everyone else: "CROTA'S MOVING CROTA'S MOVING" Everyone ran outside and took their post. Everyone focused on killing that swordbearer. That is, everyone except the one running sword, who was quizzical of Crota, still staring and pointing directly at him. Out of the corner of my screen, a white icon appeared. "Sword's down, go get it Cadence." I followed my usual itinerary; activate my super, turn invisible, grab the sword, and call the down as I leap to the middle..rock, or whatever it is. "Down him." I saw the rockets soar above my head as my boost brought me to the belly of the beast. My sword met his head four times, leaving one or two more smashes to serve as the final blow. "Alright, whenever you're ready, down him again," I said as I jumped down out of Crota's sight. Adrenaline of a climactic excitement combined with fear as I heard Adam's voice become hoarse: "Mother of God." I cringed. I didn't even want to know. Was he not registering my hits? Was he lagging as to appear at an upright position, and me dead at his feet? Those questions died in my mind as I sat on that chalice-holding rock. I turned back to my team, only for my view to be suddenly cut off by a big, green, static, three-eyed head staring right at me. Crota had leaped from his throne and landed in front of my character, and stood face to face with me: the guy who had hit him seventeen times. And he was still pointing. Now, I consider myself to be a man of propriety and gentlemanliness. I always make it a point to keep any unmerited sayings or comments to myself, especially when a woman is within earshot. This philosophy was thrown out the window immediately. "Guys. Guys. GUYS. F**K. GUYS. F**K. GUYS. SHOOT HIM. F**K. GUYS." At that point I had ducked between the swordbearer's hidey hole and the chalice's perching point to avoid Crota's blade. I proceeded to run around, hopefully buying time for Adam and his team to land enough hits for Crota to take his final kneel. Little did I expect for Crota to be a persistent little Demi-god. He chased me around the rock and up the right stairs, then into the crystal room. My voice rose from a tenor's G to a perfect soprano's A-sharp. "SHOOOOOOOT HEEEEEEEEEEEEMMMAAAA" I didn't know what I expected them to do on the other side of that shield, but I didn't expect silence. Not a word was spoken save it was from my lips. The oversoul determined it had seen enough of my nonsense, and the darkness had consumed us one last time. We spawned back in the crystal room. A while went by where none of us had the strength to speak, let alone move our characters. "I think that's enough Crota for me today," Adam said. "Sooo....tomorrow?" My voice was hopeful. Perhaps it was too hopeful. I swiveled my character's head to see five ghosts all preparing to turn my raidmates into blue fairy dust. "Ahahalright guys, see you later." I guess you could say that Crota gave me and my crew a few...pointers. --- To see the rest of my stories, click this link: [url]https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/108243048/0/0[/url]