“How long does it take?”
“I'm out of mana.”
“My arms are growing tired.”
Liam observed a worrying trend. While hphre turned fiercer the more he fought, the guild mbers began to grow fatigued.
The low mana began to beco a problem. The guild was forced to use their limited stock of mana potions.
Radiant Shield shook as he didn't have any stance left to defend against the black spear crashing into his chest.
[-2102!]
The guild's healers were adamant about using their spells with maximum efficiency. From ti to ti groups of players were asked to stand closer together to squeeze into the area of certain skills.
All of this gradually slowed the speed at which Dream Avenue advanced.
However, not everything beca worse as the fight went on. After getting used to the boss's skills and after so unfortunate sacrifices it beca easier to dodge the skills.
hphre circled above everyone’s heads, spewing flas. Liam showed no signs of fatigue, keeping his concentration at its peak as he called out the shapes.
The guild mbers reacted well, ford the practiced formations, and avoided the attacks with great familiarity.
Every ti the boss used his skill the guild lost at most three mbers, which, this far into the fight and with various low HP bars, was quite satisfactory.
Thus, the fight continued sluggishly with both parties slowly whittling away at their enemy.
However, Dream Avenue still had one inexhaustible alley. Hailstorms continued to form, attacking indiscriminately. Yet the guild found it much easier to dodge, especially as the number of players decreased. hphre however regarded the hailstorm with complete disregard even after suffering damage every ti.
The magical anomaly once again took a large part of his HP before moving on, pushing his HP close to the 100.000 mark.
hphre huffed angrily, his eyes growing darker by the second as a ferocious will boiled within him. His movents grew fiercer, but in exchange his aim weakened. With every breath scalding steam erupted from his nose.
“Dragons, humans, elves... You are all the sa. Vermin. Rats blocking my path...”
Cyclone rolled her eyes complaining to a mage next to her:
“Ouh, he's rambling again.”
“Is it just or is his voice becoming more animalistic?”
“No, I hear it as well.”
“Feels like he is losing his mind.”
Suddenly hphre let out a hair-rising roar.
“Dare not to take serious?! Suffer!”
The sound of a heartbeat echoed through the battlefield. Everyone felt their stomachs sink.
Suddenly the world distorted, and the players were once more standing on a black stone. A dragon head appeared in the sky, its world-ending roar freezing everyone in place.
Silver Blade's breath was stuck in her throat. Her ultimate skill was still on cooldown. There was nothing she could do to help the guild mbers.
[Bleary Mirage: Who has useful skill's left?]
[Radiant Shield: I can try sothing.]
[lodious Edelweiss: I just took a mana potion, I can help.]
The guild mbers communicated rapidly. Eventually they ca up with so options.
So of the healers had a skill which freed themselves and one ally from immobilizing effects, using them on Radiant Shield and lodious Edelweiss.
As soon as he was free to act Radiant Shield activated his mount's skill [Beastly War cry]. Sowhat similar to Balm earlier, his basilisk let out a fierce cry which echoed through the dark world, as if defying the intimidating dragon head.
The war cry had the effect of increasing everyone's STR, which indirectly increased their defence.
However, checking his stats after using the skill Radiant Shield felt sowhat embarrassed. While [Beastly War cry] raised his damage by about a hundred points, his magical defence increased by a asly 20 points, which was almost negligible compared to the 1472 points he had initially.
Surely it couldn't be much more for other players.
[Bleary Mirage: Don't worry, it's better than nothing. For a skill which can affect such a large group it's already quite good.]
Just as Radiant Shield felt reassured lodious Edelweiss's angelic voice spread through the air, similarly using a skill to boost defence.
Since it was percentage based, lodious Edelweiss's skill proved more potent. Radiant Shield smiled wryly as he watched his magical defence climb to 1716 points.
But Radiant Shield didn't have much ti to be embarrassed as the blanket of flas fell on the guild.
This ti, the skill finally unfolded its cruelty. More than sixty guild mbers lost their lives to the flas, leaving less than 200 survivors behind.
A mont later the black world cracked and returned the players their freedom.
“It's getting dangerous...”
“Yes. We have to hold on.”
“Less talking, more attacking! The boss is weakened!”
This ti the players didn’t need such a long ti to recover. They regained their spirits and took revenge against the weakened boss.
With every HP hphre lost, everyone's confidence continued to grow.
95.000... 93.000... 90.000...
“Ah! Die for ! My life won't end here! I am a mighty draconian! I...”
“When does he shut up?!”, exclaid Cyclone, her ears nearly bleeding from the boss's crazed complaints.
“I feel like he isn't right in his head.”
“How does he emit so much black air from his wings?”
The players mocked the boss as they continued their attacks. From this point on hphre beca increasingly fierce. He took to the sky, unleashing six rounds of fla attacks.
However, as the guild lost more mbers it ironically beca increasingly easy to coordinate and avoid the flas. Facing six attacks only four players were incinerated by the flas.
[Bleary Mirage: Keep it up, we've got this!]
With decreasing HP hphre gradually entered a crazed state. His speech grew widely incoherent. He wildly thrashed his spear in all directions, making life difficult for the tanks. Even the frequency of his attacks increased.
When the first tanks began to fall, everyone's hearts skipped a beat.
Eventually Liam sighed as the scenario he dreaded set in. The boss used his life-draining skill again. Spots of bloody light lit up along his skin, blood running down his black scales. Five spikes scattered in the surroundings.
The spikes were caught by Liam, Bloody Edge, Quickstep, Balm, and Silent Acacia.
[Quickstep: What should we do now? I used my last bit of stance to dash away from the flas!]
[Bloody Edge: My situation is similar.]
[Bleary Mirage: We need to climb his body!]
[Balm: Climb?!]
[Silent Acacia: I still have so stance.]
[Bleary Mirage: Use your flying dash if you still have stance left. I will go for the head!]
With no other options the friends listened to Liam.
hphre unleashed his cruel devouring force at the players. With little stance and mana left there was not much they could do to defend. Gradually the skill caused the first casualties.
anwhile the friends pushed their way through the crowd, closing in on the boss. Suddenly hphre turned his head. Everyone's hearts skipped a beat.
Cyclone watched in worry, praying for luck in her heart. And perhaps the goddess of luck listened as hphre didn't aim for the likes of Quickstep who were out of stance, instead looking in the direction from which Liam and Silent Acacia were approaching.
Liam let out a sigh of relief. He and Silent Acacia imdiately used their [Flying Dash] to get out of the skill's range.
While the veteran had enough stance left to directly fly towards hphre's head, Silent Acacia could only ensure his own safety.
Quickly Balm, Silent Acacia, Quickstep, and Bloody Edge, arrived next to the boss.
Balm had the easiest job. Still seated on her basilisk she dug her spike deeply into the boss's knee.
[-3000!]
“AH!”
Next it was Quickstep who used her basilisk as leverage to do a short jump. She managed to cling to so spike growing at the height of hphre's waist. Next to her was a spot of light. With a fierce stab she punctured it.
[-3000!]
hphre began to sway form the pain, which didn’t make the job easier for the others. Bloody Edge and Silent Acacia jumped onto the ten-ter-high body.
Holding onto scales and spikes they climbed like nimble monkeys.
“Wow, I didn't know you could climb that well!”, shouted Cyclone.
“You got this!”
“Hotpot! Hotpot!”
“Dream Avenue! Dream Avenue!”
Excited cheers ca from all sides. Everyone realized that this was their last hurdle. No one even cared as hphre continued his skill, claiming more lives.
After a short but exhilarating climb Silent Acacia and Bloody Edge pushed one last ti and managed to reach hphre's wings. Clinging to the left and right sides of the boss, they grinned at each other.
“Haha, well done, Edge!”
“You're not so bad yourself, Acacia!”
The friends laughed brightly as they finally stabbed with the two spikes which were the last nails to hphre's coffin.
[-3000!]
[-3000!]
“AAHHH!”
hphre let out a cry of agony. He shook his body violently.
“No!”
“Ow!”
Silent Acacia and Bloody Edge were shocked as they lost their grip. They were thrown off, about to slam into the floor.
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