Minus believed that he had already given enough face to the group before him. In fact, the only reason he did so was due to Niflheim and Asgard's interest in the player called Izroth. However, he had been publicly humiliated in front of so many players by some nobody.
Minus' facial expression became extremely cold as he glared at Guan Yu. The vulgar words that left out of Guan Yu's mouth made him the number one target to deal with. He wanted to see just how arrogant that player could remain.
Although Minus wanted to take care of Guan Yu right then and there, he had other plans. As he said before, accidents happened all the time on the battlefield. In his eyes, it was impossible for Izroth and his party to even dream of contesting a top guild for a rare event boss.
Minus had a calm look on his face as he glanced in the direction of some of his subordinates and gave them a meaningful look. It did not take long for his subordinates to nod in understanding. They knew exactly what their captain wanted to do.
"Very well, since you do not wish to heed my generous advice, then do not blame me for what happens. I have more important things to attend to at the present moment." Minus held up his hand and gave the order to engage the boss. He himself also took action and dashed right into the fight.
To everyone's surprise, Minus did not attack Guan Yu for his blatant disrespect, but rather he went straight for the Brooding Behemoth Basbus. But after thinking about it for a while it made sense to them.
Minus could deal with those players at any given time. However, this rare event boss was not something that casually appeared and had to be prioritized. In fact, most of the players secretly praised Minus for putting his guild's interest over his own personal feeling.
Maybe they misunderstood his intentions as he was not really threatening them and was truly warning the players out of pure consideration. If so, that would make the player who insulted him be in the wrong.
Izroth, however, could sense and even clearly see signs of a few players observing Guan Yu. Even though they had already engaged the Brooding Behemoth Basbus, their attacks were half-baked at best as if their attention was someplace else. Those few players were clearly looking for an opening to exploit.
Izroth did not turn his attention away from the Brooding Behemoth Basbus, however, he still maintained a lock on those who held ill intentions towards his party. If they decided to make a move, then he would not bother being polite.
At the moment, Izroth's main focus was on completing the first trial. He understood that if they stopped in the middle of the fight and was the first to make a move against Minus, then it would not end there. Hundreds, if not thousands of Blue Oasis members were nearby. Although they were busy facing the monsters of the wave, that may all change if Izroth and his party were the ones to engage the fight.
If they got caught up in fighting Blue Oasis and some other top guild or random party snatched the Brooding Behemoth Basbus from right under their noses, then that would only be the start of their problems. If Izroth and his party failed to find the Returning Shard and make it back to the Endless Pandemonium Tower, then they would be trapped there forever! It was no better than an existence wipe.
Izroth was not worried about offending Blue Oasis or anyone else for that matter, however, he also had the means to take care of himself even if hundreds of players rushed at him. With his Shadow Movement and Flickering Steps, there was no one who could even think about stopping him from leaving.
However, his other party members did not have such methods. It would be their certain doom if they were surrounded by hundreds of other players. Therefore, Izroth would only make a move if Minus took action against them first.
'I'm still quite far away.'
Izroth felt that he was still lacking in overall strength. He believed that a couple of hundred of players or even a thousand should not be an issue. If there was any class that could make such a thing possible, it was the Combat Master class! If his party members could hear what he was thinking, they would look at Izroth as if they were looking at a madman.
"What should we do?" Zi Yi asked when she saw that Minus and the members of Blue Oasis had positioned themselves to fight the boss.
"Why not let them lend a hand?" Izroth said with a carefree expression on his face.
"Lend a hand? But what if they get the last-" Zi Yi was promptly interrupted by Izroth.
"You will just have to trust me." Izroth responded as if he knew what Zi Yi was going to ask.
"Heh, you underestimate my brother too much. If he says it'll be fine, then it'll be fine." Halls said as he actually dodged one of the blows of the Brooding Behemoth Basbus. It was actually so slow that Halls, a plate wearing tank, was able to dodge its physical attacks with ease.
Zi Yi did not understand why Izroth was so sure that he would be able to get the last hit. She had seen how hard he could hit, but that was still nothing compared to the combined attack of 20+ skilled players. Also, there would most likely be more groups joining them as the boss weakened.
However, Zi Yi was unaware of the fact that Izroth had yet to use his strongest attack during their time together. Luna and Halls were the only two who presently knew that Izroth had a devastating attack which he used to cut down that rare boss within the Shadahi Realm. They would never forget the overwhelming presence of that attack as it sliced through its target with ease.
Uwoooooooo!
The Brooding Behemoth Basbus let out a war cry as its large gorilla-like arms crashed into the ground beneath it.
Woosh! Woosh!
Within the surrounding fifty meters of the Brooding Behemoth Basbus, the earth began to shake. A few seconds later, a powerful energy erupted from the earth as numerous boulders the size of a small house started to materialize in midair. There were more than thirty of them floating above the battlefield. This was something visible from the sectors of the neighboring guilds as well.
The first boulder fell from the sky and made a whistling sound as it traveled down. The most surprising thing was that this boulder was not targeting the groups currently near the rare event boss, but rather it seemed to fall into a random area of the battlefield.
"What-" One of the players who was located directly underneath the falling boulder had no chance of escaping before the boulder made contact with the ground.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
When the boulder struck the ground, it caused a large cloud of dust to rise up as the sound of a powerful explosion rang into the ears of all of those present.
-5,409
-3,152
-2,385
-1,088
...
The range of impact was approximately thirty meters. The players located at the very center of the impact took the most amount of damage. As for the players situated closer to the limit of the boulder's impact range, they were fortunate and although they received a good portion of damage, their survival rate was exceedingly high.
'What a merciless attack.'
Izroth had watched as the boulder fell and those players beneath it scrambled to escape. There were some who were fortunate enough to make it out on time, but those at the very center who was too focused on fighting the waves of monsters did not stand a chance. Unless they were a strong tank or had some kind of lifesaving ability, their elimination was almost certain.
There was something that a few of the more observant players managed to discover about the boulders, however, it was not information they were willing to share freely and only with those in their party or guild.
However, most players had a fearful look in their eyes as they stared at the numerous boulders still floating in midair. What would happen if all of those boulders crashed down at the same time? They would have nowhere to run.
Some of the guilds and casual players that were unwilling to take such a huge risk made their way to a safe distance away from the Brooding Behemoth Basbus. But, there were still many players who believed that the risk was worth it and stayed behind.
Ten seconds later, one of the boulders floating in midair dropped down at a completely different area of the battlefield crushing yet another group of players. However, this time there were fewer casualties since everyone was better prepared for the impact.
The previous group of players who rushed over towards the Brooding Behemoth Basbus began to grow somewhat impatient as the boulders continued to fall from the sky. When the third boulder crashed down, one of the guild leaders of a small guild who formed alliances with others, decided that they could no longer just sit back and watch as players are massacred.
"We have to put an end to this boss before it brings about even more destruction! If it did not affect all of us, then we could just sit back and watch. But, it is causing too much damage for us to ignore! We have to finish it off as fast as possible for the safety of all players present!" A player named Knightly said.
Knightly figured that now they were justified in joining in the battle. Of course, he had been waiting for an opportunity such as this to present itself. Now even if this was the Blue Oasis sector, they could not hold it against them for defending themselves.
Minus glared at the player who spoke, but when he scanned the surrounding players with his eyes, he already knew that it was too late. Before he could even speak, the players began to swarm towards the Brooding Behemoth Basbus while shouting all kind of lines about justice.
"How long until our reinforcements arrive?!" Minus yelled towards one of the nearby scouts in the vicinity.
"They should be arriving within the next two minutes." The scout responded.
"Two minutes? Alright, go deliver a message to the sub-party on standby. Tell them to be ready." Minus ordered.
"Understood." The scout then left in a hastened manner to deliver the message.
Meanwhile, Halls who held the most aggro on the Brooding Behemoth Basbus had a more difficult time maneuvering with the crowd of players rushing forward. Now, he had to resort to blocking the incoming physical attacks.
«Blocked»
-2,598
+759
Even while relying on his defenses and blocking the attack successfully, Halls still received almost 3,000 damage with a single attack! That wasn't all, most of the players who had charged in head first suffered a swift elimination.
Luna cast Cure in a timely manner and restored some of Halls' lost HP after she saw the amount of damage the Brooding Behemoth Basbus did with its physical attack alone. She also used a few points of her Essence to increase its effectiveness.
Valentine frowned as he witnessed the scene of everyone scrambling towards the rare event boss. "This is becoming too chaotic." It was as if the casual players were so blinded by the greed of a rare event boss that they momentarily had forgotten their own limits of strength.
Izroth, however, was not too worried about the other players assault against the boss. To him, they were simply lending a helping hand in the end. But, what did catch his attention were four players who were moving in towards Guan Yu during the chaos. Although they went about it in a very discreet manner, it did not escape Izroth's sense of perception.
At the moment, Guan Yu was fiercely attacking the Brooding Behemoth Basbus. He did not let the wave of players racing towards them hinder him in the slightest. However, he suddenly felt a very faint warning bell go off in his mind which caused him to have this strange feeling of danger approaching.