Liam and his friends threw their bodies to the floor, waiting for the rocks to pass above their heads. A strong storm tore on their clothes, carrying a sulfuric smell of destruction.
A few seconds later the scene calmed down. The friends stood up and stared at the cloud of void energy. As it dissipated slowly, a strange monster was revealed.
It had a long head with two faces. Each face consisted of two slit-like eyes, no nose, and a large, grotesque mouth in the form of a half-moon. On top of its scalp grew sharp spikes instead of hair.
The head sat on an upper body which barely appeared humanoid. At its shoulders grew two thick arms which ended in blades looking like the great sword of a warrior.
The monster's waist was made from constantly flowing void energy in gas form, vaguely revealing a solid, spherical core at its centre, which allowed the monster to move its upper body by 360 degrees. The waist was attached to its lower body which had a circular segment where its hips should be, from which four legs spread in four directions. The legs ended in extremely sharp tips which cut deeply into the rocks just from carrying the monster's weight.
The entire body of the monster was covered in dark violet, almost black carapace, looking like an incredibly solid armor. Violet skin peeked through at some spots.
Standing at more than five metres tall the monster scanned its surroundings with a difficult to read expression.
"Cruna…"
An otherworldly, monstrous voice came from the beings mouth. But the party didn't listen, staring at the monster in shock.
"What the f*ck is this?!", exclaimed Cyclone.
"It is obviously related to the void."
"Hmm, is this the result of some monster getting fully corrupted?"
"Those legs… I feel like we've seen something like that before."
Hearing her bodyguard's words, Silver Blade narrowed her eyes, staring closely. A moment later she remembered something:
"Right! When we fought the first world boss! Didn't Mirage take away an object looking like that? I think it was that object which corrupted a monster, turning it into a world boss. What did he call it back then?"
"Ohhh, of course. I recently rewatched some old footage I recorded. How did I not think of it? I even listened to the exact words. Mirage told us that the object was the leg of a void dweller. So, that monster, it has to be a void dweller!"
"Ahh!"
All the friends felt the fog in their minds clear up. Only Cyclone glanced at Fortune with a curious expression:
"You rewatch your old footage?"
"Of course. I have to see if there is something I couldn't publish previously, which has since become common knowledge. Or if I can add some throwbacks to newer videos."
"Hey, that sounds found! Can I join you some time?"
"Of course."
"Girls, do you think this is the right time to discuss that?"
"Sorry… mom!"
Silver Blade stared at Cyclone, who tried to remain serious but was unable to suppress her laughter. But suddenly the friends were interrupted when the void dweller began to make its move. The island shook faintly when the monster took a few steps forward, leaving the cloud of void energy. Its face stared at the party.
"Destroy Cruna… small beings. You here stop me?!"
As the void dweller spoke, its speech improved with each word. The players solemnly stared at the monster. A few gazes also went to the portal of swirling void energy where the void dweller came out from, afraid that more enemies might be on their way.
"You join void or destruction! Choose!"
"Ugly thing! Of course we will cut you down!", shouted Cyclone.
"You chose destruction…"
With those words the void dweller took a step forward, signalling the start of the fight. Radiant Shield and Silver Blade instantly took the lead while checking the monster's status.
[Void dweller Oran'kra'vetr
Rank: Boss
Level: 52
HP: 67.000/67.000]
"Damn, level 52!"
"This time we won't hide behind an NPC!", said Quickstep confidently.
"But what is up with this name?"
"Let's just call it Oran."
"Agreed."
After a short discussion it was time for the tanks to clash with the void dweller. Radiant Shield made the first move, ramming his shield into the monster's legs while simultaneously activating [A paladin's challenge], firmly securing the aggro.
Before anyone else could react, Oran retaliated instantly. Its upper body turned extremely quickly, and it cut towards Radiant Shield with its blade-like arms. The tank only managed to protect himself at the last second.
[Stance -28]
[Stance -9]
Radiant Shield's body shook as he received two hits. The second came from a blast of void energy which accompanied every attack of the void dweller.
From this one move the party understood the difficulty of fighting the void dweller. The void gave it an increased damage potential. Luckily Liam and his friends were not entirely unprepared as some of their set items provided advantages against the void for their four-piece set effects.
After the rapid opener it was time for everyone to attack. Cyclone, Fortune, and Silent Acacia were the first to reach the boss with some probing attacks.
[-120!]
[-161!]
[-35!]
Silent Acacia sighed. It was obvious at a glance that the boss's physical resistance was higher than the magical resistance. Considering this, he decided to summon Zorn, allowing the white alligator to join the fight. As soon as she appeared Zorn fired her own magical water attack at the enemy.
[-114!]
The others also rushed towards the boss. Liam arrived next to Oran's tall leg, swinging his sharp blades. Small sparks erupted as the metal hit the carapace. There was no sign of damage to the void dweller's natural armor but the numbers indicated otherwise.
[-381!]
[-180!]
Noticing the damage Liam dealt, everyone drew sharp breaths. With his unique weapons and upgraded chest plate, he was two steps ahead of the others. Quickstep also had to painfully realize that as she struck the enemy.
[-107!]
[-53!]
Suddenly Quickstep caught something out of the corner of her eye. It was the attack of Watchful Eye. Surprisingly it dealt a damage of 257 points. However, this was rational. After all, the monk's damage would decrease as he spent more of his Qi during the fight.
The first wave of attacks hit the void dweller, who remained completely unimpressed. But it didn't stop there. Liam swiftly started his combo, sending out a swift [Cross Slash]. His swords slammed into Oran's leg. Multiple damage numbers popped up as the effects of his swords triggered, dealing an additional 3% of his damage as holy and dark damage respectively.
This single move dealt more than 1000 points of damage in total. For the first time Oran seemed to feel something, its leg faintly shaking. Oran instantly used one of its skills. Its upped body swirled around, turning 360 degrees in a flash. Stretching its arms to the side it resembled a terrifying sawblade. All the melee players scrambled to dodge quickly.
Meanwhile Silent Acacia took his opportunity. [Mark of the Death] was applied on the void dweller as his hands skilfully handled his bow. Three arrows shot at Oran as [Flurry] was followed by a normal attack.
[-43!]
[-94!!!]
[-77!!!]
To the young man's own surprise, he landed two critical hits in a row, which dealt an increased damage of 10% thanks to his set effect. Additionally, his critical hit chance rose by 5% for five seconds after landing a critical hit. He couldn't immediately use this to his advantage, though, as he hadn't accumulated enough Fury for another skill yet.
For a moment no one could attack Oran. Cyclone and Fortune were casting their skills and the melee fighters needed to close the distance again. But a second later Bleary Mirage, Quickstep, Watchful Eye, and Bloody Edge reached the boss at the same time, unleashing a wave of skills. In a blink Oran lost two thousand HP.
The void dweller groaned angrily. He struck Radiant Shield with another normal attack before repeating the earlier skill, swirling his upper body again. But this time the melee players were smarter. After attacking, they immediately retreated. Thus, they were out of the area of the skill before it even began, which saved them some stance.
An amusing scene ensued. The party's melee players would always approach Oran, dish out a few attacks, and retreat again. Sometimes Oran didn't use his skill but usually he would spin his upper body, targeting the players with his sharp blades.
This went on for a couple of seconds until Cyclone and Fortune finally finished their casts.
Cyclone waved her wand, eyeing it unhappily. After seeing what Liam's new weapons could do, she was somewhat dissatisfied with her legendary wooden stick. But for now, there was nothing she could do. Finishing her cast the blond mage pointed at the ground.
"Zappy! Go!"
A small lightning spirit appeared floating in the air. It swayed happily and didn't hesitate to point its hands to the front, shooting a bolt of lightning at Oran.
[-300!]