For a moment, Grave Mind was silent. Then his voice rose in anger.
"Shut your damn mouth! Who the hell is Raen? So what if he reached the city first? What difference does it make? He's still just an ant in front of the Underworld. No matter how much he jumps around, in the end he'll be squashed under their feet!"
His words were harsh, his tone sharp, but instead of reassurance, they brought only more discomfort. At this time, the lackey who had spoken looked even more unsettled, his face turning pale. His eyes widened as though he had just seen something terrifying.
Grave Mind caught that expression and frowned harder. Before he could question it, his body was suddenly struck with immense force. It felt as if he had been slammed by a heavy vehicle, his body flying uncontrollably through the air before crashing into the trunk of a tree far away.
The truth was simple Grave Mind had committed the greatest mistake one could make in the middle of battle. He had turned his back on his opponent.
The Iron Leather Scorpion had already shifted its attention to him earlier. Even though his arrow had missed, Grave Mind had dealt the most damage to the monster up until that point, because he was the leader of the Everhold Dominion team, his gear and skills were better than most, so it was natural that the damage he inflicted had been the highest. The monster's aggro was already locked on him.
When he turned his back, the Iron Leather Scorpion took it as an insult, as if its enemy was disregarding it. Enraged, the beast ignored the attacks from the other Dominion players and charged directly at Grave Mind. With a swift and powerful strike, it sent him flying into the distance.
Grave Mind's body hit the tree with a heavy thud. His health bar instantly dropped by half.
Groaning, he pushed himself up from the ground, rage burning in his eyes. His voice exploded across the battlefield.
"What are you all doing? Kill that monster for me!"
His fury was boiling over. The system announcement had already shaken him, making him feel humiliated. Now, to be struck down so easily by the monster he was supposed to be leading the team against it felt as though even the Iron Leather Scorpion was mocking him, trying to step on him as well.
Unable to bear the insult, Grave Mind transferred all his anger onto the monster. His face twisted in fury as he raised his weapon again, shouting commands at his team.
"Don't just stand there! Attack! Bring it down!"
The members of the Everhold Dominion quickly snapped out of their shock. Obeying his orders, they re-formed their positions and resumed the fight against the level 20 Iron Leather Scorpion. Weapons clashed, skills lit up, and the monster's shrill screeches filled the battlefield once more.
Grave Mind himself joined in with renewed determination. Each strike he made carried the weight of his anger, as though he could vent all his humiliation and frustration on the armored beast. For him, the Iron Leather Scorpion was no longer just an elite monster it had become the perfect target to release the storm of rage boiling inside him.
…
While GraveMind was leading the Everhold Dominion team against the level 20 Iron Leather Scorpion, in another part of the Solaris Kingdom, a different battle was taking place. Inside the Misty Palace Dungeon, within one of its subspaces, Mei Rin was leading twenty players from Genesis into the King-level difficulty raid. By this point, they had already reached the final section of the dungeon and were fighting the boss of this stage the Mist Queen.
And because Kaito had already completed the hidden mission of rescuing the Princess earlier, so just as he had predicted, the difficulty of the King-level Misty Palace Dungeon had been reduced. This had given Mei Rin and her team a much better chance at clearing the dungeon. The Mist Queen's health had already been cut in half, and Mei Rin was making full use of the same strategy that Kaito had used and later described in his guide.
Mei Rin had divided the team into two groups. Fifteen players were tasked with holding off the Mist Queen's Wraith Royal Guards, while the remaining five, including Mei Rin herself, focused on the Mist Queen directly.
The group of five including Mei Rin, was carefully balanced. One of them was a knight, skilled at both defense and controlled damage, taking the brunt of the Mist Queen's attacks. The remaining three were pure damage dealers, including one thief and two warriors. Their role was simple to keep the Mist Queen's health dropping steadily while the Knight absorbed most of her blows.
Mei Rin stood at the rear of this smaller group, focusing on her ranged attacks. Over time, after fighting so many battles alongside Kaito and being personally trained by him on several occasions, Mei Rin had perfected her own unique battle style.
She constantly used twisting arrow techniques, combining them with other arrow skills that Kaito had taught her. Instead of only practicing these moves outside in training sessions, she had deliberately chosen to refine them inside real battles in Glory. That decision now proved correct.
Her arrows continuously flew toward the Mist Queen, each one aimed with precision not only to deal damage but also to interrupt her spell casting. Whenever the Mist Queen tried to conjure a spell, Mei Rin's arrows would cut her short. Time after time, the Mist Queen's hands froze mid-chant, her spells falling apart before they could form. With the other four players hacking away at her defenses, the Mist Queen found herself pressed from every direction.
Before entering this fight, Mei Rin had given her team very clear instructions. "Do not, under any condition, stop attacking the Mist Queen. Don't give her even a single chance to cast."
Her teammates had followed that order faithfully. And also because of their nonstop pressure, the Mist Queen not only now had half of her health but also hadn't been able to perform her Demonification Ritual. Let alone that, She hadn't even managed to completely cast a single major spell since the fight began.
But even though weakened, the Mist Queen was still the final boss of the King-level difficulty of the Misty Palace Dungeon. Her power could not be underestimated.
Suddenly, she raised her staff, and before Mei Rin's arrows could reach her, a black, diamond-shaped transparent shield appeared in front of her. The barrier shimmered with a dark light, halting every attack that struck against it.
"You ants!" the Mist Queen's voice rang out sharply. "You dare disturb my peace and continue attacking me again and again?"
Her anger was clear, and her roar reflected it. The Genesis players attacked furiously, but no matter how hard they struck, the shield didn't even crack.
Behind that impenetrable defense, the Mist Queen began chanting again. This time, it was the beginning of her Demonification Ritual.
Mei Rin's eyes narrowed. She had already witnessed what happened when the Mist Queen successfully completed this ritual. If the boss was allowed to transform, the fight would become far harder possibly impossible for their current team. She knew she had only one chance to stop it.
Instantly, Mei Rin activated her most powerful skill, the one she had received from her class instructor after starting her hidden class storyline, which was something she had only acquired thanks to Kaito's earlier guidance. It was Ravenous shot, She then combined it with the twisting arrow technique, modifying it slightly so that it fit the nature of her skill.
Ravenous shot!
The arrow that left her bow was unlike any other. The twisting motion added to Ravenous shot skill increased its penetration power many times over.
As the glowing arrow flew forward, it slammed into the Mist Queen's shield.
A sharp cracking sound filled the air.
The black diamond shield that had seemed unbreakable suddenly shattered like fragile glass, falling apart in glowing fragments. The arrow itself, however, did not lose its force. It continued straight through, striking the Mist Queen squarely and interrupting her ritual completely.
And the impact was so strong that the Mist Queen's body was also thrown back across the chamber. At the same time, her health bar dropped sharply. From the half it had been at, it instantly plunged down to a quarter.
Mei Rin then didn't hesitate. She immediately activated her Wind Weaver form, closing the distance between herself and the boss. As she moved, arrows rained down on the Mist Queen without pause. Each shot kept the boss locked in place, unable to recover or start another spell.
Her team saw her charge forward and responded instantly. Using their own movement techniques, they closed in on the Mist Queen from all sides. Together, they surrounded her, leaving her no room to breathe, no room to chant, and no chance to fight back.
The Mist Queen screamed in frustration, her staff glowing faintly as she tried to channel her power. But it was too late. The barrage of attacks never let up. Every attempt was broken before it could begin.
The battle dragged on for another ten minutes, but the outcome was already sealed. The Mist Queen's health bar shrank steadily, bit by bit, until at last it reached zero.
With a final roar of rage, the Mist Queen collapsed. Her body crumbled into mist, fading away into nothingness.
The boss of the Misty Palace Dungeon's King-level difficulty was finally dead.