"What? What happened with my damage?!"
"Mine as well!"
"Look! My spell just now dealt 190 points!"
Many of the players were confused. With so many people continuously attacking, it was difficult to figure out the reason why the enemy's defence had been so drastically reduced. However, did it matter? All the players needed to know was that it was time to attack with all their might!
Somewhere in the rows of the mages stood Melodious Edelweiss, constantly playing her lute to buff those around her. Yet, earlier during the spell combo, when many of her allies were injured, she saw a chance to activate her ultimate skill [Song of Vengeance]. As her voice spread through the battlefield, wisps of red light only she could see rose from every wounded ally and gathered on her lute.
Finally, after accumulating power for a few seconds Melodious Edelweiss was ready to unleash her skill, bringing vengeance. Right at that moment, she heard the exclamations of those around her. The enemy's defence was low! A perfect chance!
Melodious Edelweiss's eyes lit up, her voice ending in a rising crescendo like an unstoppable tide:
"Mabavr!"
Immediately the soundwaves focused on Tuechou. In the rock giant's vision an unstoppable army appeared, reeking of blood, roaring for vengeance. They stormed towards the world boss, fearlessly crashing into the rock giant.
[-11371!]
As the enormous damage number appeared it caught the attention of many players. Cyclone almost had her eyes pop out. Cherry Blossom smiled wryly, thinking that their magic spirit couldn't match this single-attack damage. Earthquake let out a snort as he was remembered of the trouble Melodious Edelweiss caused his guild during the first guild war.
However, the worst affected was the giant world boss. He took a few steps back, looking down on the sea of enemies with rage in his eyes. Three seconds had passed since Liam afflicted him with Devil's Curse. During those three seconds he had lost more than 40.000 HP. Now, one stack of Devil's Curse dissipated. The effect changed from 12% armor reduction to 9% but this was still a great boon for the players and a threat to the boss.
Tuechou threw another punch, but it wasn't enough to suppress the fervour of the players who were eager to deal as much damage as possible.
"Vermin! Do you think this is all I can do? Haha, has it been too long since my name rang through Crunaboul? Witness the might of the great mage Tuechou!"
With those words Tuechou stretched both his hands to the side. Suddenly magic circles lit up all over the giant's body. In a flash a spell was perfectly cast. Rocks loosened from all over the walls and shot towards Tuechou. But instead of shattering against his skin, they stuck to it, forming a second protective layer of thick rocks. A second later the spell ended, and the giant looked even bulkier, resembling a round boulder himself. Only the head remained unaffected.
A crazed grin formed on Tuechou's mouth as he took a step forward. The ground shook and cracked. Players in his way were simply ignored as they were forced to escape. His hand swung at the tanks. The movements were slow, but everyone felt a pressure as if a mountain was bearing down on them.
"HOOLD!"
Boom!
A shockwave spread. The tanks couldn't stop the boss and tumbled backwards, two of them running out of stance. Radiant Shield observed from the side wearing a deep frown. He was one of the tanks who had already used up his stance and was now slowly recovering while coordinating the other tanks. He knew that they were about to run out of tanks with stance remaining. And the boss's improved attack would only hasten the process.
[Radiant Shield: Mirage. Is there a way to destroy this additional layer around the boss?]
[Bleary Mirage: Yes. Dealing enough damage…]
Liam was frowning as well. Voices reached his ears from all sides.
"Damn, there goes my damage! That's like a fifty percent reduction…"
"The boss got himself a turtle shell, so annoying!"
"Even his weakness to ice got reduced!"
This was indeed troublesome. The way to break the turtle shell was by dealing damage, but the shell also reduced all damage by 50%. Once again, this skill proved more troublesome than in Liam's previous life where the reduction was only 40%. It wasn't as if he didn't expect it. But now the question was if it was worth using some big cooldowns to buy time?
Yes. Liam decided it was worth it. He signalled Bloody Edge and the thief immediately understood.
During the fight against the world boss, thieves, assassins, and co couldn't play an outstanding role. Their attacks mostly relied on physical damage, sometimes accompanied by poison or bleed, which weren't highly effective against the boss. In contrary, Bloody Edge, who incorporated a lot of holy damage into his attacks, was one of the more relevant thieves. And now it was finally his time to shine.
Bloody Edge sneaked around in stealth, avoiding the magma ponds. Honestly, in this chaotic fight whether the thieves were in stealth or not didn't make much of a difference. But there were many skills which could only be used when in stealth. One of those was Bloody Edge's ultimate skill [Light's Will]. In no time at all Bloody Edge reached the world boss's back. He stared at the boss's massive, rock-covered foot. If this wasn't a game, there was no way that his flimsy dagger could deal any damage to the solid shell. The existence of skills was indeed a blessing.
Bloody Edge didn't hesitate. His ultimate skill was activated and a shining light erupted from his daggers. He tightly gripped his weapons and stabbed forward. Under the bright light the rock armor suddenly turned soft, melting away. His daggers pierced deep into the rocks.
[-409!]
[-204!]
Bloody Edge was quite satisfied with his damage. More than 600 points was a lot under the condition that the boss's turtle shell reduced all incoming damage by half. But with the effect from [Light's Will] the world boss's armour was reduced by 15%. The reduction was even stronger than the one caused by the Devil's Curse earlier. Making use of the momentum Bloody Edge immediately followed up with a full combo of skills, ending in a beautiful [Cut Throat] critical hit which by itself dealt more than 1100 points of damage.
"Annoying vermin!"
Tuechou let out a deep shout. With rage in his eyes, he continued pummelling the tanks. He finally managed to reduce all their stance to zero.
However, before the world boss could follow up on his success, a conspicuous cracking sound rang in his ears. Thanks to Bloody Edge's ultimate skill it only took a few seconds to reduce the boss's HP by another 30.000. This was enough to break through his additional shell. The rocks creaked and spell broke. The cohesion disappeared. But instead of simply falling off, the rocks exploded around Tuechou, dealing another 10.000 points of damage.
Suddenly the boss's HP were reduced to 730.000 points.
"Keep it going guys! Don't hold back!"
"Attack, attack, attack!"
The players felt greatly motivated by the progress. They threw their bodies forward or waved their wands, shaving off more and more HP. Tuechou was dazed for a few seconds from the backlash before regaining his wits. He grumbled something inaudible. Some observant players could tell that the boss's attitude changed slightly, fighting more seriously.
The rock giant's fists bore down on the tanks. With no stance left they could only honestly endure the damage or negate it with skills. However, the damage couldn't be shared with multiple people. The tanks had to face the boss one by one, their HP quickly approaching zero with just a few hits. Additionally, the boss would often use his magma-fingers skill, forcing the tanks to seamlessly switch places. Thus, the tanks were working quite laboriously while the rest could attack without worries.
"Damn, that's quite unfair. Why are we the only ones working our asses off?"
One tank complained between deep breaths, earning him a few strange glances.
"If you are complaining now then you should think about changing classes mate."
"I'm just saying…"
The tank didn't continue to grumble. But perhaps Tuechou had heard his complaints as the boss repeated his earlier skill at this moment. Meteors rained from the sky, forcing everyone to dodge wildly. And the magma ponds never disappeared, still posing a great threat to the players. They dodged left and right, weaving between meteors and magma, looking for any kind of safe spot. Fortunately, everyone was already quite used to the skill by now. Their movements were less frantic. Furthermore, there was some more space to dodge due to the earlier deaths. And yet despite those two factors there were still around twenty casualties.
The damage potential decreased again. Skills were on cooldown. The mages were running low on mana and had to use their spells more carefully without getting interrupted. The strength of the players gradually reduced while the boss didn't show any signs of weakness. But the players also got used to Tuechou's attacks. Subsequent waves of meteors posed an ever-decreasing threat. Over time the boss's HP were reduced below 550.000 while no more players were lost.