What they saw in front of them was an ice sphere. Its surface glistened. No crack was seen on the almost perfect sphere. The sphere abruptly broke into tiny particles that dropped to the ground, forming a pile of ice dust. The Ice Demon Fiend which was inside the sphere was now standing. It was facing the incoming intruders. The large mouth on its stomach was grimacing menacingly.
Jack felt something building up inside that mouth.
"Move to the side! Move to the side!" He shouted. He used Roll at the same time.
Balo, Jason, and John who were more adept at mana sensing also hurriedly ran to the side. The others were more clueless but seeing the urgent warning, they didn't dilly dally. All their summons did the same.
The ice demon's large mouth opened and a large beam of ice shot forth. It went in a straight line. Everything it touched got frozen. By the time the beam ended, there was a tall jagged ice wall along the path the beam had touched, separating the basin into two.
Everyone was flabbergasted by the display of power. It was fortunate that everyone had taken evasive maneuvers early. One of Olddemon's hellhounds was hit by this ice beam though. It was currently trapped inside the jagged ice wall.
They saw the hellhound's HP bar was below half already, and the HP was still going down rapidly while the hellhound was helpless inside the ice. When the hellhound's HP reached zero, the ice wall broke apart into ice dust.
The Ice Demon, after making the initial assault, took a crouching position before dashing forward. Jack was taken aback by the speed. It was indeed not lacking in speed, but it was more than Jack expected.
When it almost ram into the nearest player, something fast with a blazing trail crashed into the charging ice demon. It was Jack's Therras. This pet didn't appear intimidated by the ice demon despite being fourteen levels lower.
Jack felt pride seeing his pet. But after that initial clash, it was pretty obvious that his Therras was at a disadvantage. The Ice Demon Fiend's every swipe of claws created a strong gush of icy wind. The skeletal half-wings behind it were also not just decorations. Their sharp ends stabbed and caused damages in addition to the demon's claws.
The demon made a forceful grab and caught Therras' neck, it then slammed the pet hard onto the ground.
Jack cast Mana Beam. The pillar of energy knocked the arm that was grabbing Therras, allowing the beast to break free.
Flame's Savage Wind Wolf came from the back leading Jack's wolf pack and the remaining two of Olddemon's hellhounds, they swarmed the ice demon, clawing and biting with hit and run tactic.
John's avatar, dirt golems, and giant lizard also came surrounding the ice demon in a nine gate formation. John planned to trap the demon inside the formation and wore it down while they sent ranged attacks.
The demon's body suddenly glowed and a ring of light radiated out. All the summons were knocked away. Some were frozen while the rest slowed.
"That's… Ice ring!" Jack said, recognizing his own spell. But of course, the ice demon fiend's ice ring was more deadly and powerful, considering it had a higher level.
The Ice Demon Fiend made a throwing motion. An orb of ice appeared in his hand halfway through that motion, it was then thrown out at the end of the motion. As if a stone being thrown from a catapult, the icy orb left a blue trail as it flew in a curve towards the players at the backline. Those players had been sending the ice demon ranged attacks non-stop.
Everyone hurriedly tried to run away from the point of impact. But their slow status made their movements very slow. The orb hit the ground and a shockwave of ice energy spread out, hitting everyone, causing high ice damage and further slowing them.
The Ice Demon Fiend attempted another throwing motion. Before it did, a crimson whip shot out from behind and caught the ice demon's arm mid-motion, canceling its throwing attempt. It looked back and saw Olddemon behind, holding his Hell Whip which was entangling the demon's arm. The old veteran had intentionally separated from the others and sneaked to the ice demon's back.
The ice demon made a hard pull. Its strength completely eclipsed Olddemon's. Olddemon was yanked into the air towards the demon. The ice demon readied its claw to receive the incoming outworlder.
Olddemon didn't panic. He released his hell whip and rapidly cast another spell mid-air. His two hands turned into giant demon claws. The two claws clashed with the ice demon's one. Shockwave erupted as Olddemon shot away from the impact, crashing onto the ground and sliding some distance away.
Jack, Giant Steve, and Balo came before the ice demon before it sent another ranged attack at the backline players again. Giant Steve activated Protection Field to reduce the damage to Jack and Balo.
Giant Steve also used Shield Stance, Sentinel's level 40 skill. It increased his defense by 200%, reduced all damage received by 30%. This skill had no duration, he could keep it active indefinitely, but his movement during this stance was slowed by 80% and his attack speed slowed by 40%. He could deactivate this stance by choice, but once deactivated, he had to wait for a cooldown of twenty seconds before he could go into the stance again.
Giant Steve used Shield Bash. His large tower shield rammed the ice demon and drew its agro. Jack and Balo went to its flanks and started dishing out damage.
The backline players who had been scattered by the ice catapult now resumed their range assaults.
Jeanny didn't have any ranged capability. She waited until the Ice Demon Fiend's attention was fully drawn by the three melees before executing Jump Attack, striking from above before jumping to the demon's back. She kept herself at its back while delivering her stabs.
The summons also came back and joined the attacks again. Jason cast Hallowed Ground, level 35 Inquisitor's skill. The spell marked an area around the Ice Demon Fiend. Every ally in the area received a small regenerative effect, increased defense, and increased resistance. This spell was inferior to Peniel's Healing Field in terms of healing effect, but the increased defense and increased resistances made up for it.
While things seemed to go their way, both Balo and Giant Steve informed that they had been afflicted by the Slow status. Jeanny also felt that her movement was getting slower.
"As I said, this ice demon has a passive cold aura. The elemental buildup will be accelerated if you continue staying close to it," Peniel told them.
But leaving would be disastrous. The four of them with their summons were currently employing multi-layered Nine Star Formation around the Ice Demon Fiend, controlling its assaults and preventing it from moving away at the same time, while the ranged players bombarded it with attacks. Unless the demon used another Ice Ring or Ice Beam skill, they should be able to wear this boss to death in this way. If they moved away, the demon could go at them one by one.
"Oh no!" They heard a shout.
Those that could spare to look, found that Bowler had turned into ice. The elemental buildup had finally completed its course in his body and he was frozen. This was a huge blow since Bowler's healing had been great at reducing the pressures on those meleeing the ice demon. Now their healers were down to Jason and Peniel.
"I… I don't think I can last longer…," Jeanny uttered. Her movement had been getting slower and slower.
Not long after, she became rigid amid her stabbing motion. Ice then coated her entire body, turning her into an ice block. She was not the second person that got the Slow status but because of her vicinity to the Ice Demon Fiend, her elemental buildup had been accelerated.
Her stopping had caused a gap in their formation. The Ice Demon Fiend, who had lost more than half its HP, noticed this gap. It turned around and in a powerful motion shattered frozen Jeanny into pieces. It then ran through there.
The wolf pack and dirt golems tried to block the demon, but they were smacked aside easily.
It ran with speed in a curve and headed towards the ranged players.
Jack used Shooting Dash and came before it. John had predicted the demon movement and had his avatar blocked the demon's path as well. Both John's avatar and Jack executed Formless Flowing Sword Style, showering the demon with sword lights.
Jack felt the mana gathering inside the demon. "Back!" He shouted. But the ice ring had been fast. Both he and the avatar were still hit.
The demon then jumped very high and made a grabbing motion towards the sky. The ice spears around the basin were sucked up into the sky simultaneously.
"Already?" Jack said dismayingly.
Even though Jack had informed everyone, countless ice spears raining from the sky were not something that could be avoided despite knowing. Jack cast Magic Wall and had it facing upward. It was like he was holding a huge rectangle umbrella above himself. Therras and his wolf pack came to take cover under the umbrella.
The ice spears hit the magic wall repeatedly, finally breaking it. While the magic wall was blocking the spears, Jack cast Barrier. After his magic wall broke, he used the same trick as before. He activated Dragon Eye's slow-motion vision and used forty-eight burst slashes to deflect the spears. His barrier protected him from any spears that were still falling after his burst slash ended.
His barrier and burst slashes didn't cover his summons. Most of his wolves died after all the ice spears fell. His Therras was still fine since it had a very high HP pool.
When he looked back. He was dismayed that most of his teammates were gone already. There were only Giant Steve, Balo, and Jason. The others had perished from the ice spear move.
At this time, Jack heard a notification, "You have been afflicted with Slow."
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