As the Ouroboros was devouring its own tail, patches of light green areas started to appear all over its scales. At the same time, Broken Fists charged forward and swung his fist at the Ouroboros.
"Why are you all sitting back like you're brain dead?! Useless!" Broken Fists roared as he launched his attack.
"Wait! That fool..!" Two Tons tried to call out and warn him, however, it was too late. Charging in without first accessing the situation was one of the fastest ways to die against a boss monster. Not to mention, if Broken Fists were actually paying attention, he would have realized that the Ouroboros was already immune to damage while in that state. This was not uncommon for rare bosses who, more often than not, experienced a boost in power or unlocked some kind of special skill after approaching a certain HP threshold.
Bang!
The moment Broken Fists' attack struck one of the light green areas on the body of the Ouroboros, a light green mist appeared around his hand. When he looked down at his hand, it looked as if his fist was melting off from his wrist. Broken Fists had an expression filled with horror on his face as he witnessed what was happening to his fist. He immediately retreated and did not dare to attack the Ouroboros again.
"Argh! My fist! Heal me! We're in the same party, aren't we?!" Broken Fists yelled at Phoenix. He felt as if his entire body had just gone numb.
"It's a good thing we decided to fall back when we did, otherwise, we would have paid a heavy price just now. Is this due to the change in the Ouroboros' tail?" Two Tons said to himself as he furrowed his brows when he observed what had just taken place.
"Heal you? Same party? Hah! Now you want to pretend like we're in the same party after this mess you've dragged us into?! Is your skin honestly so thick?!" Phoenix scoffed. There was nothing she hated more than someone who believed that the entire world revolved around them. If it were up to her, she would have already kicked that useless guy from the party!
"Heal him." Two Tons said which caught Phoenix by surprise.
"Two Tons!" Phoenix was in disbelief. Even after everything Broken Fists had done, he still wanted her to heal that shameless fellow? She could not understand why he still tolerated that overblown headache! Not to mention, she had a limited amount of mana and they were already in a tough situation. She would rather cast her heals on someone more useful.
"Just think of it as showing me some face." Two Tons stated. He understood how Phoenix felt, however, now was not the time to deal with that matter. It would have to wait until this fight was over. Also, there was something he needed to confirm.
Phoenix grumbled, but in the end, she healed Broken Fists as Two Tons had requested she do. Although she was still against the idea, she simply considered it to be a favor to Two Tons.
"It's good to see that you still have some sense! Hmph, if you lose my damage when it's already a struggle, then you'll all die anyway." Broken Fists said with a smug expression after Phoenix finished healing him.
"You-!" Phoenix nearly coughed up blood from anger. What was with this guy's attitude?! She wanted to strangle him to death!
"Heh, now that my fist is- healed? Why isn't my fist back?! What's going on?!" Broken Fists was shocked. Even though his HP had been restored to full and there were no debuffs on him, the damage he suffered from his fist still remained. In other words, Broken Fists was quite literally living up to his name with a pair of broken fists.
Two Tons took in a breath of cold air as he said, "Whatever you do, don't touch the area of scales on the Ouroboros' body that are light green! Try to target the surrounding areas of its body that aren't affected by it! Otherwise, you may end up like Broken Fists!"
"What a frightening skill..!" Hidden Pulse exclaimed.
"We lack ranged players. This kind of situation was to be expected at some point." Shuyi stated.
"This is troublesome considering our party has four... No, five close range members." Two Tons thought to himself.
After a couple of seconds passed, the Ouroboros finally stopped swallowing its own tail. It stopped after devouring half of its own body! At the same time, the Ouroboros slowly floated into midair and emitted a brilliant green light.
Hsssst...! Hsssst...!
All of a sudden, small snakes that were no larger than one to two meters in size, began to fall down from the Ouroboros. These snakes were like miniature versions of the Ouroboros itself, however, they were not devouring their own tails. Instead, they began to slither in multiple directions, targeting the closest person to them.
"Nooooo! It's raining snakes! I had enough! I want to leave this place! I want to leave!" Phoenix could somewhat tolerate the larger snakes since she kept reminding herself that it was just a game, however, dealing with the numerous smaller snakes had made her approach her limit.
"What the heck is wrong with her...?" Shuyi muttered to himself. Was there any reason to be so afraid of a bunch of little snakes like this?
Name: Ouroboros Spirit Snake(Rare)
Level: 35
HP: 300 (100%)
Although the snakes were numerous and there seemed to be no apparent end in sight to their increase in number, they were extremely weak and fragile having only 300 HP. This meant that even their weakest attacks would be able to one-hit them without much issue. However, everyone had a feeling that these snakes were not so simple.
Two Tons used a taunting skill that allowed him to pull most of the snakes' focus to himself, however, there were just too many to taunt and keep track of. Therefore, the most he could do was position himself closest to the spawn point of the snakes and hold onto as much aggro as he possibly could.
"For now, just focus on dealing with the snakes! I'll handle as many as I can, but you all will have to take care of the ones that slip past me!" Two Tons said as he swept his sword out before him, cleaving away the incoming wave of snakes.
As for everyone else, they also jumped in and helped to eliminate the snakes. As for Phoenix, she maintained her distance and saved her mana strictly for healing.
One of the snakes leaped up and bit Broken Fists on his arm. Since he was already at a disadvantage with missing his dominant hand, it was challenging for him to get used to attacking using his other hand. This caused a lot of mistakes to occur and it was only a matter of time before he was attacked.
-50
"You expect to hurt me with such weak damage? Dream on!" Broken Fists roared as he slammed his fists onto the snake that bit him and immediately killed it in the process. What he did not notice, however, was that he had received one stack of something called Venom Bite. These stacks increased by one every time he was bitten by one of the snakes. This was the same for anyone else who happened to slip up on their guard and be bitten.
Reilei, on the other hand, had no trouble avoiding and attacking the snakes since they were moving slowly in her eyes. She even had room to cover for any of the snakes that were headed towards Phoenix. Although it was not enough to repay Phoenix for her kindness, she believed that it was the least she could do.
But, in the end, Reilei was still concerned about Xiao Liang who was inside of the Ouroboros. No matter how much she attacked, it seemed as if the Ouroboros did not cough him up. Would she have to wait until it was defeated? However, she did not care how many times she had to attack, she would not stop until Xiao Liang was returned to her.
A few moments later, the snakes finally stopped raining down from the Ouroboros. In total, the stacks of Venom Bites received was 15 stacks for Two Tons who was at the very front of things, 5 for Hidden Pulse, 2 for Shuyi, 0 for both Reilei and Phoenix, and then a massive 35 stacks for Broken Fists! Since the damage amount was so small, he became careless and allowed too many attacks to slip through.
"It's over... It's finally over... Why couldn't it just be a dungeon full of kittens...? Yeah, let's do that next. A dungeon of kittens..." Phoenix continuously muttered to herself as her face had lost all color as if she had just been scarred by her recent experience.
The Ouroboros' body returned to the ground as it began to regurgitate its own tail. But, all of a sudden, the eyes of the Ouroboros widened as though something was wrong.
Gruuuuah!
The Ouroboros seemed rushed as it quickly finished regurgitating its tail. It appeared to have been furious over something as its large body flailed and slithered around.
Hsssst!!
Everyone was surprised by the Ouroboros' sudden outburst in anger. It should not have been time for it to enter into an enraged state just yet. However, everyone soon calmed down when they realized that it had not actually gone into its enraged state. Instead, it looked as if it were bothered by something.
"Hm? Why does its tail look so strange?" Two Tons questioned as he saw that something was off with the Ouroboros' tail.
"Look! Something is attached to its tail!" Hidden Pulse pointed out as the Ouroboros' tail waved around in an unpredictable manner as if it were trying to shake something off.
Nyu!
Ayanellia suddenly cried out the instant the Ouroboros started to throw a fit.
"Isn't that-" Before Shuyi could finish his sentence, Reilei had already charged forward without hesitation.
Reilei used all her might to smash her Orb of Creations into the body of the Ouroboros. This time, the stagger effect worked and temporarily rendered the Ouroboros immobile for a split second.
Right when the tail of the Ouroboros stopped swinging wildly, a purple flash bolted towards Reilei.
"Realistic, look out!" Phoenix quickly cried out when she noticed that something was headed towards Reilei. However, to her surprise, Reilei did not dodge. In fact, there was a smile on her face as she had her arms spread open.
Plop!
"You little thing- Do you know that you've had me worried? Do you know your wrongs?" Reilei said as she gently placed her hands near the center of her chests.
Mew!
Xiao Liang squirmed its little head up from under Reilei's palms with an excited and innocent look on his face as if he had done nothing wrong.
"Did it just come from out of the Ouroboros just now? But when-" Two Tons was shocked by the appearance of Reilei's summon. He noticed that it was not around earlier and then he remembered when the Ouroboros launched its attack towards her. Could it be that the Ouroboros actually ate her summon during that moment?
Given how close Reilei appeared to be with her summons, it would certainly make sense and explain why she froze up at that moment. But, since when was a summon so smart? It was able to use the Ouroboros' own tail to escape from its body. He had come across a few summoners but never had he met one whose summons were capable of a feat like that.
Reilei lightly flicked Xiao Liang's forehead with a visible pout on her face.
Mew...
Xiao Liang looked up at Reilei as if he had just been wronged.
"Next time you run off like that, I won't let you off so easy." Reilei stated as her pout turned into a smile of relief. In the end, she was just happy that Xiao Liang was unharmed.
Mew...
"Good, as long as you understand. Still... I can't sit back and allow someone who hurt you to do as they wish." Reilei said as she moved Xiao Liang to her shoulder before turning her attention towards the Ouroboros.