The moment that they stepped into what had once been a grand hall, lined with statues of various beasts, the Manticore attacked.
Poison gas filled the room, obscuring their vision, and the Manticore launched an attack on what it thought was the most vulnerable of them.
Remi.
She was not a large Naga, and the Forest Lord was being protected by the Dryad Queens. So, it had hoped to get the advantage and launch a sneak attack.
Only, it wasn't the one doing the ambushing.
The moment that it struck, Remi twisted and coiled around its midsection, then bit it on the back of the shoulder, injecting it with Naga Venom.
Remi quickly realized that the Manticore was just as immune to poison as she was, and changed her tactics, using four daggers to do her best Rae imitation and stab holes in the target, which was hopelessly unable to dislodge her with her serpentine body wrapped around its midsection.
Normally, it would have simply clawed her body apart, but the vines from the Dryad Queens were restraining its limbs, and its whole body was being bombarded with attacks.
If anything, the Naga was actually protecting it by being wrapped around its midsection.
Every few seconds, Remi switched potions on her daggers, testing what actually worked against the Manticore, and what was counted as "poison" for [Poison Immunity]. That was valuable research data for the New Home Merchant Clan's Alchemy labs.
Tian decided that his usual skills, [Inspiration] and [Vicious Mockery] were not quite right for this fight. Instead, he decided to go for something to plement Opal's work.
The Forest Trickster had set an [Illusionary Domain] with [Reality Warp] to buff her version of reality, and add damage to the Earth Golem Archers she had designed with the hope that the Manticore would think that the other boss had turned on it.
So, Tian went for [Dissonant Whispers], his mental damage bard ability.
[Dissonant Whispers] {Causes mental damage to the target, 10 Percent chance to cause [Insanity]}
That was a beautiful buff, and the more that he played, the less effective the struggle was being, as the boss began to fight visions in its own mind, as well as the ones that were materialized outside.
Remi quickly realized that she was not highly effective in close bat.
She lacked the strength to easily punch through the creature's hide, so she released the boss and retreated to the far side of the room, where she could pelt the boss with ice shards.
She was directly opposite Hawk, and the two siblings were peting for who could hurl more of their chosen element at the creature, going for smaller [Firebolts], and a storm of ice shards, while avoiding the sort of area spells that might damage the dungeon and the loot within it.
Cara had created a [Spatial Quake] under each of the Manticore's four feet, linked to the position of the foot itself, so no amount of dancing about could relieve the pain.
Skadi watched the battle in wonder.
This was diabolical. The Manticore was insane, corrupted by this place to an extent that not even her own magic could undo. But the way that they were dealing with the unfortunate creature was basically torture.
At least they could have used something with big damage to cut it down faster, right?
Cara laughed as she sensed her new sister's thoughts. Karl had a steady stream of [Chaos Vortex] spells flying at the boss, and she was using four [Spatial Quake] effects at the same time.
Even Hawk's fire was not as powerful as those spells were, it just didn't look like it because the order aligned fawn couldn't see the chaos element spells.
She could sense them well enough, but not see them.
"Relax, it's not as bad as it looks. Dungeon bosses are way tougher than their real-world counterparts. Even your mom would struggle to beat this guy up in a timely manner. We're doing it as fast as we can, while keeping it from attacking us properly and hurting anyone.
That makes the fight easier for everyone," Cara explained, her accent a bit heavy in badger form, but the words understandable.
Skadi nodded, and refreshed the barriers over everyone, including Rae and the spiders, who were nearly out of her casting range. She needed to get Karl to teach her that spell he used that let him cast a spell on anything that he could sense.
[Dominion] Increases Maximum Casting Range to Maximum Sensory Range. Increase Area of Effect Spells Radius at a cost of 100 mana per meter.
It was a skill from the skill tree of the Ancient Pet Sitter Class, and Karl wasn't sure who all could use it. But they could explain the situation to Skadi later. Once she fully understood that Karl's skills were her skills, as long as she was patible with them, she would naturally begin to use them as her own.
She just hadn't had time to adapt yet.
Plus, she had just realized that she was missing some essential skills. She didn't know the vine attack that the Dryads used. She had only ever used her nature magic to make plants grow, or to create new ones that would help the forest.
Attacking things simply wasn't in the nature of the Forest Lords, any more than it was in the nature of the Spirit Bears.
They could learn it. But normally, they wouldn't have any need to do it.
The Manticore was beginning to look haggard when Rae's joyful cheer filled their minds.
"HA! I win. Beat my old time by nearly four minutes, with the same number of spiders helping me. Now who is further behind?"
That was a close call. The Earth Golem was super durable, though.
[Head to assist Dana. We will be finished here in just a few minutes.] Karl instructed.
[Got it, boss. We'll gather on that side and prepare to start mining the moment that all the bosses are down. Opal's all prepared, right?]
Opal sent her the mental equivalent of flipping her off, and Rae laughed.
[I'll take that as a yes. Karl, you can signal the start of the mining by changing the spiders to something that digs better, if you want. They're not made for digging stone.]
[BADGERS!] Cara cheered.
Technically, that wasn't the [Army of Badgers] spell, right? It was just a bunch of summoned badgers to help them dig. They wouldn't even be Chaos Badgers, who were flying creatures, and less adapted to digging holes.
Instead, he would conjure an immortal version of the Dragon Badgers from the Golden Dragon Nation. Named for their temper, not for any draconic aspects of their physiology.
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