Before any of the melee combatants could make their move, it was Silent Acacia's time to shine. With a wave of his hand both Zorn and Korn appeared on the battlefield, calling out excitedly.
With his new class [Master of Beasts] Silent Acacia had a total of four slots for pets. He could only summon a single pet indefinitely. All others counted as a special summon, only able to remain on the battlefield for two minutes, with a cooldown of four minutes. However, these special summons now played a big role in Silent Acacia's fighting style. Unfortunately, he couldn't show off immediately as he still needed to gather Fury for his skills. The only thing he could do was to shoot a normal attack, directing his two pets to do the same.
As Korn turned into a black blur, a sharp arrow and a dense water sphere flashed by him, targeting one of the beetles rushing towards Radiant Shield.
[-3345!]
[-3992!]
However, the beetles were not interrupted. Except for the two monsters paralyzed by Cyclone the others valiantly body slammed the two tanks.
Radiant Shield held his towering shield in front of his body, enduring the hits stable as a mountain. There was a faint halo behind his head, with a number below it. The number increased each time Radiant Shield received a hit. This was his new passive, gathering 'Faith' stacks. Faith increased Radiant Shield's STR up to a maximum of 5%, which in turn improved his armour and damage.
[Stance -11]x4
Seated on his valiant basilisk, Radiant Shield was not under pressure from the four enemies. Especially since he knew that his friends were about to arrive.
The first to reach the enemy was Watchful Eye. Not for any other reason than simply because he stood close to the wall to begin with. He narrowed his eyes, focusing on the same beetle Silent Acacia had attacked earlier. With a thought, one of his new skills called [Elemental Mastery] activated. This skill had a different effect based on which of the five elements he selected.
Behind Watchful Eye appeared an illusionary feng shui diagram. With a thought the symbol for metal lit up, causing the other symbols to fade away. The metal symbol flashed and imprinted itself on Watchful Eye's staff, boosting his damage by 15% for 5 seconds.
Watchful Eye skilfully rotated the weighty staff in his hand, slamming its end into the beetle's head, causing the ground below to crack slightly.
[-3753!]
But he was not done yet. The upgraded version of [Purple Earthly Flame], [Heavenly Purple Flame] was activated. Flames roared to life, engulfing his staff, scorching the surroundings. Another hit landed on the beetle, who screeched as the flames attempted to melt its armour. These heavenly flames were extremely fierce, their might able to affect even time. Over the next three minutes the skill will randomly repeat twice, striking the same enemy.
[-2992!]
[-3463!]
Watchful Eye was pleasantly surprised by his damage. The first instance was the physical damage, which was more or less as expected. But the fire damage, benefitting from his set effect and the enemy's weakness to fire, was not too shabby.
"Nice one. But now it's my turn!"
A moment later the cave's ceiling turned dark. Watchful Eye was taken aback as he glanced up. Before he could react a black star fell from the ceiling, crossing the short ceiling in an instant, slamming into one of the beetles. Everyone stared at the scene and saw Liam amidst the billowing black magic.
"Damn, quite the entrance, Mirage!"
"No matter how much damage you can deal, but with such an appearance your class is already top-notch."
Hearing the laughter of his friends Liam only smiled and placed his attention on the battle. His attack wasn't just for show. The enemies were standing so closely together that he was able to apply Dark Marks to all of them and Devil's Curse gathered its maximum of five stacks in an instant.
There was a brief delay before Devil's Curse could erupt. Liam targeted the beetle in front of him. Five cackling ghost heads appeared above it before suddenly plunging down, biting the beetle. Unfortunately, Liam suffered the same fate.
[-493!]
[-1399!]
Next to Liam's spectacular entrance Quickstep was completely inconspicuous. Before she could fully unleash her attacks, she still had to move around in order to gather her second resource, Storm.
With the melee classes entering the fray, the fight completely erupted. Only Fortune stood back, still casting her first skill. Mana gathered around her, giving her an ethereal glow, worthy of a master of magic. Since getting her new class [Dominator of Arcane Magic] Fortune was amazed be her heightened sensitivity to mana. She perceived the ubiquitous energy with a newfound appreciation. With such a sensitivity to magic she could go beyond blindly casting skills, deeply studying magic, designing her own spells like the NPC mages. Of course she wouldn't do so, as a single spell could take years of hard work, but the feeling was amazing, nonetheless.
Fortunately, this sensitivity to mana came with a practical effect. It made it easier for Fortune to move or even use flash step during her casts. This was something clearly stated in her new passive.
Beyond that, all her skills took 50% longer to cast and dealt 20% more damage. Should someone else, ally or enemy, use magic while she was in the process of casting a skill, her cast would be shortened slightly, and the skill's damage would be increased.
Now, after a full five seconds of casting, Fortune was ready to reveal her might to the world. A vast amount of mana gathered at the tip of her staff, dousing the tunnel in a mysterious azure light. She swung her staff, and everyone could only see a flash of light before one of the beetles tumbled backwards with a hole in its armour. This was Fortune's bread and butter skill [Arcane Bolts]. It hadn't changed much other than the fact that it now started with three bolts, adding one per second of casting. On top of that it became much easier to control, which Fortune impressively demonstrated.
The female mage swung her staff left and right and with each move a magic bolt would shoot out like a bullet. Six bolts landed on the same beetle and two on another, but none missed entirely.
[-5710!]x8
Fortune's incredible damage left everyone speechless.
However, during the time she spent casting, others might be able to use four or five skills, so it was barely acceptable. Furthermore, [Arcane Bolt] offered no utility. And it had a high mana cost. And high cooldown. See, it wasn't that great, right? Those were the arguments Cyclone told herself to suppress the jealousy in her heart, but it only proved marginally effective. No, she quickly had to paralyse more enemies to make herself feel better!
It was not only Cyclone, but Bloody Edge also felt challenged by Fortune's fierceness. With [Blood Shadow], the thief had finally found a class he was really satisfied with. He was ready to prove to his friends and himself that he had made the right decision. Yet, just as he wanted to punce on the enemy, it died under Fortune's fierce bombardment.
Luckily there were more enemies around. Bloody Edge sneaked up on one of the beetles, cloaked in stealth. Due to his new passive, he lost up to a maximum of 40% of his HP while in stealth but after he revealed himself, his physical damage would be strengthened based on his missing health.
Moreover, even his [Stealth] skill was altered slightly. [Stealth] as a skill was quite unique, with no cooldown or cost, skill-based, and possessed by many different classes. It would not change much. In Bloody Edge's case [Stealth] now increased his movement speed slightly, made his body lighter, and allowed him to glide short distances.
Unfortunately, those effects couldn't be displayed in the cramped cave. Bloody Edge could only sneak behind the enemy like always and suddenly erupt with fearsome attacks. His body appeared out of nowhere, his daggers inconspicuous, blending into the shadows, yet extremely terrifying.
[-3308!]
[-1654!]
After a normal attack [Deadly Bite], a side-graded version of [Cut Throat], immediately followed. Bloody Edge's daggers glowed in a blood red light, like the fangs of a vampire thirsting for blood, as they found the gaps between the beetle's carapaces.
[-11.117!!!]
Multiple conditions came together to produce a devastating blow. The skill's high base damage and critical strike chance overlapped with the damage bonus of Bloody Edge's passive due to his 10% missing health. With a single attack Bloody Edge already felt exhilarated. A stream of crimson energy flowed from the beetle's body towards Bloody Edge as [Deathly Bite]'s additional effect was triggered due to the critical hit, healing him for 30% of his missing HP.
[+574!]
Of course, Bloody Edge was not done yet. A sinister curse mark appeared on his forehead. Flashing once it instantly entered his daggers, seemingly not causing any change yet giving off an extremely uncomfortable aura. Bloody Edge immediately struck the beetle again. This time his daggers were imbued with the [Boiling Blood] skill. The same curse mark appeared on the beetle's head as its body became itchy, its eyes taking a black colour. All its stats increased by 5% but it lost its mind, randomly striking in all directions, even hitting its companions.
[-4211!]