The three guilds and Tuechou fought back and forth, overturning the ancient city. Almost an entire hour passed when the world boss's HP crossed the halfway mark. Encouraging shouts could be heard all around.
"Hold on! Half HP, we got this!"
"Be careful of the magma! Don't lose your focus!"
"Good job tank group B! Let us take over now!"
The atmosphere was great. The guild alliance still had 990 players remaining. The others slipped up, losing focus due to exhaustion. They mostly got eliminated by meteors. Those who stepped into a magma pond could still be saved by the healers. Although those life-spending support players also needed to be careful with the efficient use of their mana or they were in danger of running out.
On the other side Tuechou was still in high spirits. He revelled in the feeling of utilising the power of his precious artifact to its fullest. His eyes had a crazed look as he punched the insects in front of him. But as his HP dropped below half, he decided that it was time to end this farce.
"Vermin! Fell honoured, for you got to taste the power of the sun! However, do you think this is the limit of my might? Hahaha! Let me show you what happens when my magic accompanies the sun!"
Suddenly Tuechou stopped attacking. He raised both his hands towards the ceiling. On his chest the symbol of the sun burned brightly. But now it was not only the symbol. Even the Sun of Lumor itself appeared on the surface of his chest, radiating endless power. An immense magic circle formed in the air, covering the entire space. The players looked up and couldn't help but gulp, imagining all kinds of massive spells raining down on them.
Yet no one guessed correctly. The magic circle absorbed a frightening amount of mana. Suddenly an invisible pulse went through the entire ancient city. The players shivered, feeling that something had changed yet not able to put their finger on it. That was until the first players realized something.
"I… I'm floating! What's magic is that?!"
"We can't get back to the ground!"
"Damn it's so difficult to control my body."
"Yo, why am I upside down?!"
All the players slowly began to float into the sky without the ability to resist. There were some like Radiant Shield who could barely suppress their curses. Others were contemplating the plan of the boss. And some like Cyclone and Balm were enjoying the freedom, doing somersaults in the sky. However, the majority didn't forget where they were and kept attacking the enemy. Yet as their magic bolts, their arrows, their bombs got close, they were swiftly incinerated by the power of the sun with nothing left.
Tuechou's rock face had a mocking look as he pressed his hands on the sun in his chest and drew more sparks. With a wave of his hand new flames scattered through the city, creating magma ponds. But the power of the sun protecting Tuechou also dimmed lightly.
At that moment the players reached the ceiling. Some landed on their bellies or butts while others were quick to adjust and stood on their feet. The sensation was quite unusual but everyone here was a veteran of a hundred battles and quickly got used to it. Even Radiant Shield's fear of heights didn't affect him. After all he stood on 'solid ground'.
"Quick! Destroy all those flames!"
"Focus the sun artifact!"
Two orders rang out simultaneously. The players were confused for a moment. Should they listen to Earthquake or Bleary Mirage? The members of Force of Nature and Dream Avenue quickly came to a decision why those from Nest of Flames tended to listen to Liam.
The expert frowned as he saw their firepower splitting up. He shouted again:
"Not the flames! Target the sun! It's the only way to stop him!"
Earthquake glanced over, clearly unhappy. However, he knew that two contradictory orders might be even worse than a single wrong order. Thus, he didn't stop Liam. But if this strategy turned out to be wrong Earthquake would definitely complain afterwards.
For a while the melee players could only watch while the ranged players rained down their attacks. Since Earthquake didn't give further orders, about a third of Force of Nature's members also switched their targets to the sun artifact. Of course, Force of Nature had comparatively less ranged players, but every bit of damage was important right now.
In everyone's view the magma spreading flames were snuffed out one by one. Yet, as about half of them were still remaining Tuechou only snorted and scattered another batch. The players who had been attacking the flames stopped, showing wry smiles. Liam could only sigh inwardly and turned his eyes towards the Sun of Lumor.
Countless attacks also fell on Tuechou. At thirst the power of the sun could still defend but after a few seconds it began to flicker. It dimmed. Tuechou was shocked realizing that his control over the artifact was weaker than when he was at his peak. Before he could think about shielding the artifact with his hands it was already too late. The sun's protection shattered in a brilliant explosion. Tuechou groaned, tumbling backwards, losing 25.000HP. The flames all over the room disappeared and the sun sunk back into the giant's chest.
"Ha! Take that!"
"Nice job!"
The players were celebrating. But only for a moment as they suddenly felt gravity tearing at their bodies.
"Oh no…"
Only chaotic shouts could be heard as the players fell to the floor. Some had the presence of mind to turn their bodies in the air. Those with impressive strength or agility even managed to weaken the impact. But more than half of the players helplessly flayed their arms, unceremoniously crashing into the ground. Especially the mages were making sorry figures. Damage numbers plopped up all over, with players losing up to 1000HP.
"Ah, who thought of that?! C!!"
"My back. I think I broke something…"
The players groaned and complained. Although their bodies were strong it was still more than unpleasant to fall form such a height. Also, now that even more of the area was covered in magma it was basically impossible to avoid the boiling liquid. Many players landed in the magma, suffering even more damage. The leaders like Liam and Earthquake hastily reminded everyone to stand up and escape from the magma. The fight had to continue!
Cyclone looked around with her chin held high. Shortly before falling to the ground, she had a genius idea and used flash step to escape the impact. Although it was questionable if spending the stance was worth it to escape a few hundred points of damage, but at least she could now immediately resume her attacks. She swung her wand and sent a magical sphere towards the still dazed world boss.
[-1470!]
Instantly Cyclone's eyes threatened to pop out.
"So much damage… the boss is weakened!"
A few others made the same discovery. The information spread swiftly. Everyone shook off their daze from the fall and focused back on the boss. Tuechou only took three seconds to recover but during that time he received more than seventy thousand points of damage. Suddenly he only had a little more than 300.000HP remaining. The players all felt that victory was close.
"Give it your all!"
"Attack!"
"The boss has recovered! Tanks!"
After experiencing the reversed gravity just now many players were indeed greatly exhausted. But they scraped together their last bit of strength to attack with all they had. Tuechou's HP reduced bit by bit. But the world boss wouldn't fall without retaliation. Soon, he summoned more meteors, causing the players a great deal of trouble. More than a fourth of the ground was covered in magma. It was extremely difficult to escape the damage now. And the healers were also running low on resources. The casualties began to rise. Twenty, fifty, one hundred.
When Tuechou was left with 250.000HP the number of players reduced to 800. But everyone was confident that this was still more than enough. They attacked fervently although many were running low on mana, with their strongest skills on cooldown.
Cherry Blossom looked around among her fellow mages. She addressed a few of those who wielded elemental damage which was not highly effective against the boss, like fire or lightning. After a brief discussion they agreed to cooperate with her. Cyclone was among the group. She was somewhat unhappy, but she also knew that this was the smartest move. Cherry Blossom activated her skill, borrowing mana from the group of mages to create ten towering frost giants.
Although they were called giants, they only reached Tuechou's chest. However, size was not everything. The giants trampled through the ancient city and faced the boss. They could relieve the burden of the tanks for a while and dealt decent damage thanks to their nature as ice beings. Unfortunately, eight out of ten frost giants died under the next meteor shower but the help they provided the three guilds would never be forgotten!