Chapter 227 Problematic Situation
Making their way through the forest once more, Shiro couldn't help but notice the clear decrease in monsters around the area.
'Perhaps it's due to the boss?' She wondered to herself but wasn't too bothered.
As they approached what seemed to be the spot for the third boss, they saw a giant cavity in the ground with what seemed to be a staircase.
"Seems like we've got the right place." Isaac said as his voice was serious.
From what they've learnt from all the intel, once they take the staircase down, they'll be greeted with a wall of eyes.
The eyes will be closed and one would need to shoot the eyes that open and force them to close. However, the most dangerous part of this boss was that it would take a percentage of health rather than health points.
This meant that they couldn't rely on tanks to forcefully clear this stage.
"Miss Nytri, it's up to you now." Isaac turned to Shiro and gestured for her to go down the stairs.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Shiro walked down the stairs calmly. Once they reached the bottom, the stone wall full of eyes greeted them from the opposite side.
Flexing her fingers, light and lightning converged at her fingers.
This caused some of the party members to tilt their heads in confusion since she had never done this in the practices. She had always just launched her swords and hadn't used magic like she did now.
*PCH!
One of the eyes snapped open as the pupil started to glow with an ominous red.
*BANG!
Firing a small needle of energy towards the eye, Shiro pierced it with ease.
*PCH PCH PCH!
As the first eye was destroyed, several more opened up and glared towards her in anger.
"Mages, help me cover the left and right side and I'll focus on the middle." Shiro said while glancing back at the party.
"Understood!" Two mages replied instantly. They didn't know why, but the moment she made eye contact with them, they suddenly felt like were staring at a monster that could kill them in a single hit.
Quickly standing beside her, they created a few orbs that would fire elemental spears at the eyes.
While the three of them continued to shoot at the boss, the tankers stood by the side, ready to take a hit just in case. Even though the damage the boss did was percentage-based, they would rather take the hit since the mages might miss a target in the moment where they were recovering.
As time passed, the number of eyes that opened started to increase. Not only that, but the surface area of the boss spread to the other walls like an infection. When they reached the 15-minute mark, most of the walls were covered with eyes and they needed to get all the mages to help out.
For those that weren't proficient in accuracy, they had to sit aside or else they would make more trouble rather than help relieve it.
"We're almost at the final wave! Keep it up!" Isaac shouted out while he also helped out with hitting the eyes.
On the guide, it said that the last wave was one when each eye would only need a second to charge up their attacks. With the entire wall as a target that they needed to hit, it required everyone to pull their weight.
*PCHI!
"Fire!"
As the final batch of eyes opened all over the walls, countless skills shot out and pierced the eyes. Naturally, there were some that missed but they gritted their teeth and endured the pain.
*Kiiiii!!!!!
An ear rupturing screech rang out as the eyes started to dry out and crumble to dust.
"Fu… We've done i- GET DOWN!!!" Isaac shouted out as he flared his aura.
Quickly raising his sword, he slashed upwards.
*BANG!!!!!!
An explosion rang out as everyone was pushed back.
"ARG!"
The force of the explosion had even slammed a few members into the wall as they fractured their ribs.
Flipping her body in mid-air, Shiro frowned and looked towards what Isaac had attacked.
[Ancient Chimera – LVL 60 BOSS]
HP: 79,500,000/80,000,000
MP: 100,000,00/100,000,000
"The fourth boss?! Why is it here so soon? Shouldn't we need to go past a maze first?" She muttered in confusion.
"Those whose health is above 60% come help me occupy the boss! Healers, get everyone else to at least 50% health! Make sure your return stones are ready! Don't die a pointless death!" Isaac shouted out.
Checking up on Yin and Lisandra to make sure that they were fine, Shiro looked around the arena and saw that most of the members had decided to give up on this run. Their hands were clenched around the return stone, ready to leave at any moment.
'Tch, cowards. They'll be no use to the run now that their spirit has given up.' Shiro frowned.
"You two, you can show off a little, but make sure that you save some trump cards. The monster may very well attack at any moment during this raid." She whispered before summoning Ataraxia.
"Got it." Both Yin and Lisandra nodded their heads seriously as they prepared themselves. Lisandra summoned her weapon while Yin had three orbs of Dark Star Element floating around her.
Now that they had a better look at the boss, they couldn't help but frown a little.
Shaped like a furry t rex but with three pairs of arms and three tails, the monster could cause lots of collateral damage by just moving around. Plus, they were in a small area right now so it made the situation even more dangerous for the party.
"Yin, keep the tails busy. Use your dark star to restrain them. Lisa, make wounds around the shoulder joints for all six arms. With your mobility, I believe that you'll make it out of there relatively unharmed."
"No problem."
"Of course."
Jumping up into the air, Yin changed the orbs into wh.i.p.s. Lashing them towards the tails, she left scorch marks on the fur but failed to burn further, much to their surprise.
As for Lisandra, she activated her mana cloak and exploded a small pocket of mana under her foot to give herself some extra lift.
Summoning a second sword so that she could dual wield, she plunged them both into the shoulder blades and attempted to pry them up.
*URAHHH!!!!!!!
Thrashing his body around, the boss tried to shake Lisandra off.
However, its rampage was soon cut short as Shiro flickered in front of its eyes.
Twitching her body, she slashed Ataraxia horizontally but had failed in removing the boss's eye due to it closing its eyes in time.
*URAH!
Crying out in rage, a pulse of mana erupted out from its body as it raised all six of its arms. Muscles bulged while mana covered at the fists.
"Earthquake type skill! Everyone watch out!" Shiro shouted out. But just as she looked back at the party, she saw that most of them had crushed the return stone.
"Tch, f*ck!" She clicked her tongue. While she did expect this from them, it didn't make the situation any less frustrating.
Good news was that two tankers, a healer, Alura and Isaac had decided to stay for now.
Pinging her fingers together, she created a tiny shield that had the skill of absorption and threw it towards the tankers and healers. The shield was disguised as a talisman so that they wouldn't be suspicious.
As for the skill itself, it would absorb damage at the cost of durability. This was a skill that she had recycled from a rather low-level shield as the damage taken per point of durability was percentage-based rather than point-based. This was because the skill wouldn't work against a monster that was 5 levels higher than the equipment.
But since her Nanomancer class allowed her to recycle skills, this was especially helpful for her because she could bypass this flaw by applying this skill to a high-level piece of equipment. Not only that, but she could constantly repair the shield's durability since she had installed a mana coil on the edges of the 'talisman'. This would have the item actively gather mana to repair itself and thus balancing out the drain of the skill. Of course, there was still an upper limit to the damage threshold but it wasn't too much of a worry.
*BANG!!!!
As the boss slammed its fists into the ground, the entire arena started to collapse.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue, Shiro activated her flight skill and dashed towards the other party members. While the shield could absorb damage, it couldn't stop the environment from collapsing.
*BOOM!!!!!!
Unbeknown to them, underneath the arena, was a giant cavern that was dimly lit by soft blue rocks.
Landing safely with both tankers and the healer, Shiro looked up to see Lisandra holding Alura while Yin was ho- No wait, she just let go of Isaac and he was now falling head first.
Quickly adjusting himself in mid air, Isaac managed to land without harm.
"Tch." Yin, Shiro and Lisandra clicked their tongues at the same time.
However, just as she was about to back up, Shiro heard a low growl behind her.
Turning around slowly, she saw the monstrous being that could be the 5th boss.
[Demonic Hell Hound – LVL 60 BOSS]
HP: 100,000,000/100,000,000
MP: 100,000,000/100,000,000
"For f*ck sake." She couldn't help but mutter.