Liam and his friends spread across the battlefield, staring at the boss floating in the sky. Not everyone managed to claim one of the numbers called out by Cyclone.
Radiant Shield and Fortune, for example, both tried to reach the same field. But the game wouldn't allow it. As soon as Fortune stepped onto the field, an invisible force pushed Radiant Shield away. The tank almost panicked and could only settle for the neighbouring field before the central area of the roulette table-like battlefield disappeared.
Misortnimn didn't hold back. The devil directly rolled six fateful dice and the battlefield was bombarded by three enormous, mountain-like dice. Shockingly, even one of the numbered fields declared safe by Cyclone was targeted. It turned out that the mage's luck was not almighty.
The skill repeated twice more, the damage dealt to the party once again reaching the tens of thousands. Balm swiped the non-existent sweat from her forehead. Usually, she complained about not having enough to do, but this time it was as if her friends worked hard so the healer wouldn't feel left out.
But as long as there were no casualties, everything was alright.
The battlefield was restored and Misortnimn returned to the ground. The battle could continue. All skills gradually came off cooldown. Liam attacked ferociously. With [Chaotic Tempest] activated, each of his attacks were guaranteed to apply a mark onto the enemy. Five Dark Marks were stacked in no time at all. After an explosion of dark magic, the boss's resistances were torn apart. The friends instantly made use of the chance.
Radiant Shield's eyes lit up. He felt a strong urge to activate his ultimate skill and blast the enemy with everything he got. However, he held himself back. He knew that he was still first and foremost a tank. His ultimate skill might still be needed later.
However, other than Radiant Shield no one else held back. Even Fortune casted her ultimate skill. A tall magical avatar appeared, its boulder-like fists roaring as they smashed into the devil.
The magical avatar was the nemesis of the boss. From its face lacking any details a terrifying ray of condensed magic erupted, its might throwing the mana in the surroundings into chaos. The death ray landed on the devil, dealing devastating amounts of damage.
[-3933!]
However, Fortune didn't become complacent. She knew that this was the resulting damage after Liam shredded the boss's resistances. Yet, her avatar also had its own speciality. It was immune to magical damage, even healing from it!
Fortune grinned as she coordinated with Silver Blade. The tank, having attracted the boss, hid behind the magical avatar, allowing the tall being to absorb the brunt of the attacks. Silver Blade felt like a lot of pressure was taken away. However, she didn't let down her guard. She had to make sure that the magical avatar remained between her and the boss. Otherwise, the devil's AOE attack would still damage Silver Blade.
It was like a dance. Silver Blade and Misortnimn circled around the magical avatar, who didn't stop attacking. Meanwhile the others were also forced to move so as to avoid standing within the area that the devil could attack. And during this short time the boss continued losing HP, falling below the 90.000 points mark.
"Keep it up! We got this!"
The friends were in a good mood, feeling that they were advancing quickly. They had already figured out the boss's tricks. Surely, they would emerge victorious if they only remained focused now.
Suddenly a surge of blinding golden light came from above the boss. Liam had managed to detonate five Holy Marks, just in time before the boss would recover his resistances. The massive holy damage delivered a dreadful blow to Misortnimn.
[-4722!]
"How? How can I be this unlucky? Why, just as I arrive, you adventurers are there to block my path?"
Misortnimn's saddened sigh evoked pity among the friends. They reduced the frequency of their attacks, even refraining from using skills.
Silver Blade shuddered. [Unbreakable Will] was activated. The status effect was broken and her mind returned to normal.
"What a weird feeling…"
The tank was truly surprised by the devil's ability. However, this didn't stop her from fulfilling her job.
Each time Silver Blade received or blocked magical damage, the energy was saved by her passive ability in the form of Bulwark Energy, which can then be used to empower abilities. During the fight so far, she had saved up quite a lot. Now it was time to spend some of it.
With a thought, Bulwark energy was used to enhance [Unbreakable Will]. One thousand points and Fortune, who was just about to voluntarily cancel her magical avatar, was freed from the mind-altering status effect. The mage shivered in horror. What an insidious skill!
Silver Blade nodded at the mage, but she didn't stop her actions yet. Another two thousand points and Bloody Edge, lurking behind the devil's back, was freed. Another four thousand and Cyclone's mind cleared up. Another eight thousand and Silent Acacia regained his vigour.
At this point Silver Blade stopped, though. Liam and Quickstep both didn't have their strongest means available at the moment. While Watchful Eye had to recover his Qi and wouldn't use skills anyways.
"Such a strange skill…"
"Yeah, feels terrible! Mirage? Mirage! Balm! Wake up guys!"
Cyclone attempted a few shouts, but her friends didn't feel that anything was wrong with them. They showed some sympathy for the boss. The Unlucky Jester was already struggling so much, it would feel wrong to attack him, wouldn't it?
This behaviour was definitely somewhat eerie. The others could only give up, focusing on themselves, dealing as much damage as possible.
For three minutes the group's damage was reduced by a considerable chunk. Cyclone's lightning stood out at that moment. A crackling light of criss-crossing purple lightning connected the mage and the boss, dealing continuous damage. A cage surrounded Misortnimn and a small lightning spirit floated next to Cyclone, tirelessly throwing attacks.
It had to be said that the devil's luck was really terrible. Cyclone's lightning managed to paralyze him multiple times. However, as a powerful boss. he wasn't affected too much. Often, he recovered within a fraction of a second, with barely any interruption to his attacks.
Everything returned to normal after a while. The eerie magic affecting the group dissipated and Fortune's magic avatar disappeared, the pure mana returning to the world. The fight continued without much surprise until Misortnimn again summoned his eight clones.
The friends were already prepared, taking positions. As one of the clones moved, the party instantly attacked the other seven. Having figured out how the skill worked, the friends easily turned the situation in their favour.
[Silent Acacia: I'm about to use my ultimate skill!]
Reading the message, everyone knew what to do. Quickstep took a deep breath, about to switch into [Hurricane Mode] again. Just then Silent Acacia narrowed his eyes. With a thought [Mark of Death] was activated. Surprisingly it was able to affect all the clones simultaneously. Red symbols of sharp and dangerous arrows appeared above the clones' heads. The chance to land a critical strike against the boss was greatly elevated.
Everyone hurried to make use of the opportunity. Quickstep was the most remarkable. Entering [Hurricane Mode] she unleashed all her skills again. With so many attacks, many were bound to be critical strikes. Overall, her damage was in the short term was again elevated by about 50%.
Others also profited greatly from the effect. Fortune unleashed her [Arcane Bolts], easily hitting all ten, three of them striking critically. Meanwhile Liam dealt as much holy damage as possible, some of it striking critically, causing damage in the thousands.
The boss's HP were declining faster and faster. An increasing urgency hit the devil. Suddenly he changed his moves slightly. Instead of one clone, three now attacked simultaneously.
The friends were caught off guard, suffering some hits. They were forced to temporarily seek safety, thus slowing their damage down somewhat. It wasn't too bad, though. Now Misortnimn only had 60.000 HP left. The friends were full of confidence. They would definitely emerge victorious!
"Everything… is so detestable!"
Misortnimn gritted his teeth. His eight clones vanished. But instead of facing the players head on, he directly appeared in the sky, repeating his dice-throwing skill. The friends had no choice but to play along, relying on Cyclone to navigate them through.
This time the mage's luck worked extraordinarily well. Everyone had more or less remembered the sequence of the numbered fields. Listening to Cyclone's instructions they were only hit once, and the target was Radiant Shield who still had more than enough vitality to survive the blow.
After a while the boss sighed, clearly unhappy with the outcome. He ended his skill and returned to the ground where he was kindly welcomed by the players' blades and magic. Misortnimn was attacked from all sides. However, he was also able to celebrate a small success as Silver Blade's stance, boosted by riding her basilisk, was finally used up.
A wave of weakness washed over the tank. When the next attack arrived, she finally lost some HP.
[-6906!]