LIGHTNOVELONLINE Team A—consisting of Karua, Rika, Lulu, Celia, and me—was set to be the first challenger to fight the rare boss.
The rare boss here acts alone, quite in contrast to the regular boss, despite holding a command skill. But just because it wasn't bringing its pack of wolves doesn't mean it was weak by any means. If anything, it was like it had traded the subordinates for a power up, now capable of using AoE skills and multi-hit skills. And multiple times to boot.
Appearance-wise, it exuded a presence clear enough to not be mistaken for its regular version. Boasting heightened abilities, the 4th form of ?Battle Wolf? was 5 meters tall, with fur, ominously shining red eyes, and two heads. Each head was capable of breathing out dark attribute and ice attribute breath, respectively, a far cry from the regular version, which hardly had much AoE skill.
It goes without saying that being cautious is a must, especially for the rearguard. Though the one thing to be extremely wary of was its unique skill—?Dark-Ice Icicle Rain?. A multi-hit attack where it combines both breath attacks and rained down on the entire room like hail. And the attacks from above were usually tougher to defend and evade in reality.
Karua and Celia boasted the lowest defense among team A. Especially Karua, who specialized in dodge. I was a bit worried, honestly, but her new armor was a saving grace. She should be able to weather it, I believe.
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Celia, on the other hand, at least had considerable stats in MD and HP. This would prevent her from getting one-shot, and following healing would solve the issue. I handed her most of the ?Hi-Potion?.
"I might not get time to heal you, so use them to heal yourself and others when you find your HP low. I didn't have a multi-heal after all. And Rika, I want you to keep ?Battle Wolf? in check when I use area healing."
My ?Area Heal? was a type of magic that creates a spot into a healing point. Any number of people could continue to heal once they're in the area I activated, but if the boss decided to enter the zone, we couldn't simply be the sitting duck.
While it wouldn't heal the enemy, taking priority in staying inside that zone would open up the gap for the boss to proceed with area attack, etc. One mis-step and you're out of the game. Any and all hesitation could be fatal; the best way was to immediately open the distance and target the boss. Though the obvious would be to prevent it from happening at all, which is where I want Rika to take the stage.
"Alright, time to blow it up. Who is going to use it this time—"
"Yes-yes! Lulu wants to blow it!"
"Nice spirit; then Lulu is it."
"Hurray!"
"Haa, what a soothing spectacle. Do you know how to blow it, Lulu? If you don't mind, I can teach you."
"Lulu has blown Ocarina before, so it's fine! Just watch me!"
"As you suggest! I will make sure to etch your cuteness in my memories!"
When I handed ?Flute? to Lulu, Celia kicked off a spree of indulgence immediately. I mean, it was familiar scenery at this point.
Having already experienced with ?Ocarina?, one of the rare monsters, Lulu puffed in her cheek and blew the ?Flute?.
"―――? ―――?"
Once Lulu started, the effect spread out of the ?Flute?, indicating it had started. The tune continues with the effect scattering around.
Celia was staring at Lulu with an enraptured expression that looked like bad news. It's not just in my mind, right?
Rika and Ester were sporting a mystified expression.
"It would be great to draw the rare boss on our first try."
"My, that's quite a funny thing to say. Who do you think is blowing the flute? It's Lulu, you know. I wager there's no way Rare Boss would be able to stand still and should be rushing to hear the enchanted tune."
"......I guess, yeah."
The probability of drawing a rare boss was 70%. I had absentmindedly muttered in sort of prayer when Celia fiercely rebutted it. Her infatuation with Lulu really knows no bounds, truly. Well, not that it's getting in the way.
We entered the boss room once Lulu was finished, and the boss was nowhere to be seen.
"We scored it."
"What had I said? Leave it to Lulu, and the rare boss would surely come biting the bait."
Celia nodded as if that was bound to happen, like the natural laws of the world. Seriously, where did she get such conviction...... What would have been her reaction if the rare boss hadn't appeared? Honestly, I really wanted to see it.
Oh. I was just distracted when the next corner of the boss room started shining. It was the special effect indicating a rare boss's advent.
I hurriedly switched my train of thoughts from Celia and had Rika take the frontline, closely followed by Lulu, Karua, and me. Just as we had finished taking our formation, a huge black wolf showed itself.
"Rooooooooaaaar!!"
?Battle Wolf (4th Form)? sported the very persona it had in the game; two heads and four glaring red eyes, which were now watching us. Battle...begins.
"Take it easy and be like usual. Rika, you know what to do."
"Leave it to me. ?Warrior Princess? Rika of ?Eden?, stepping out! ?Reveal Thy Name?!"
Rika started by attracting the target of the boss with her taunt skill. What we had to do was set, even if our opponent was formidable.
In the next moment, all four eyes of the boss zoomed in on Rika.
"Grrrrrrooo!"
"Hmm, it's fast. ?Upper Block?!"
?Battle Wolf? closed the distance in one breath as its two heads came targeting Rika in a consecutive biting motion, ?Cross Bite?. Rika calmly defended herself with ?Upper Block? and offset the damage.
?Battle Wolf (4th Form)? was fast; however, Rika, from her experience with another rare boss, already expected this as she was pretty cool as cucumber from beginning to end and easily fended off the attack.
Any ups and downs in timing of using skill would have led to her stance crumbling, which wasn't pretty normal, and I would have intervened as a sub-tank, but she handled everything. Even if I have to say so, she was really a prodigy in close-combat defense.
"Grrrooo! Groo, Grrrroo!"
"Haaa, ?Counterattack?! Fu! ?Sweep?! ?Upper Block?!"
The imposing body of ?Battle Wolf? barely struck a fear in Rika as she prevented each of the attacks, offset them, and gradually started generating hate.
It wasn't possible to completely negate the damage, but she had succeeded in negating at least 70% of it. Nonetheless, even the 30% damage was gradually taking a toll on her HP. Our opponent was truly strong. The silver lining was that she was still earning hate.
It was our turn to take the stage. I healed Rika and started giving orders to everyone.
"?Aura Heal?! Lulu, do you remember the battle with ?Battle Wolf (1st Form)?? Prioritize speed down debuff."
"Aye-aye! ?Cute Eye?!"
"Let's go, Karua! We're going to take the flank; you start from the right while I take the left! Haaaa! ?Brave Slash?!"
"Hn, got it. ?Scale Break?!"
"Roooaaar!"
The first node in my plan was to reduce ?Battle Wolf? defense and speed. Lulu slipped behind Rika as her eyes flashed a shine, activating ?Cute Eye?. Karua and Rika circle around its flank to follow without a debuff attack.
Good going! I captured the sight of the debuff icon on the boss.
"Fumu, it's attack has become weaker! Alright, secret technique, ?Twin-Blade Counter?!"
"Groooowrrrr!!"
The lowered speed of the boss gave Karua the room to breathe as she pursued with one of the strong defense skills, affixed with knockback effect, at the precise timing to push back the ?Battle Wolf?, opening a kinch in the boss's defense.
"Haa! ?Swallow Flip?!"
The knockback effect could be changed to knockdown by dealing huge damage before it could recover. With the ever so ripe opportunity present, Rika unleashed her counter skill, ?Swallow Flip? which could deal huge damage when timed with the knockback effect.
This two skill combo alone could push the boss to knockdown status depending on various factors like ?Warrior Princess? attack and the boss's defense. Well, of course, the rare boss of Int-high wasn't some average Joe monster. The boss was quite formidable, so the combo alone fell short.
If there was something that ?Eden? had learned in all these fights, then it was that knockback was the moment to pursue an all hell break lose mode attack; this fact had become their second nature.
True to our nature, the instant the boss was knocked back, we were already on our way to deliver the blow.
"?Sonic Sword?!"
"?Charm Point Sword?!"
"Hn, coup de grace. ?Vital Stab?!"
"RROOOOOAAAAAAR!?"
Lulu and I made our attack, followed by Karua in the end, who down with ?Vital Stab?, a skill that increases the likelihood of down status when pushed back, splendidly putting down the ?Battle Wolf?.
"You are on it, guys—!!"
"O' the great spirit of light, I beseech thee to decimate the opponent! ?Advent of the Great Spirit?! ?Lucas?!"
Celia, who had been making her preparation for the ?Spirit Summon?, ?Element Boost? and ?Ancient Spirit Art?, had made the light spirit appear as soon as my order echoed.
A woman, wearing a white luminescent robe and an angel's raiment, appeared before Celia, holding a ring of light or something. The great spirit of light, ?Lucas?, excelled in light magic attacks and some minor buffs to allies.
Honestly, with how the ?Battle Wolf? started as a white wolf in beginner dungeons, the nightshade body that stood before us was quite an impactful transformation, to say the least. As if slowly, it had been pulled into the realm of darkness. And to back that up, it was also capable of using dark elements. Of course, that also made its weakness a light element. The holy element was super effective, but light magic was also not behind by much. ?Lucas? was summoned precisely for that.
Just as we, the frontliners, were launching our buffet of one attack after another, encircling it from all sides, ?Lucas? turned that light ring in her hand toward the boss. Immediately after, a light spell flew out of it toward ?Battle Wolf?. It also took the title of highest damage dealer between us, as it should when the light was the boss's nemesis.
Appearance-wise, it was a beam attack that shaved off a good chunk of ?Battle Wolf? HP each time it struck square. Quite a powerful attack, I say.
"GRRRRRROOOOOOOOWWWLLL!!"
"Time's up, guys! Retreat to behind the Rika! Rika, the frontline!"
"Sure so!"
Down status was like a double edged sword; while it gives a window to deal huge damage, it also throws hate meter haywire, which brought in the frenzied attack. Make a slip and you're going to dip—the whole party, actually. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
The best bet was to switch to defensive formation once the boss was back on its feet and wait to ascertain at whom the hate meter was being pointed. ?Eden? members didn't fail in executing that. All were composed, as they should be. After all, we were almost always facing formidable opponents.
The possible targets were Karua, who had dealt the blow that pushed the boss to down status, or Celia, the main damage dealer. I had the two move behind Rika while Rika stepped forward to generate hate.
"?Decoy?!"
"Grrrrrroowwl!!"
And the target of ?Battle Wolf? was...Rika.
Full point. ?Warrior Princess? was one of the best when it came to drawing the opponent's hatred.
Honestly, everything was just as good—in fact, better than I expected. That said, the opponent had yet to use an AoE, or multi-hit attack. It was just the starter on the menu. I bet we are now in for the main course.
It happened then. Karua, Lulu, and I had just taken our stance to attack when the two mouths of ?Battle Wolf? aglow with a red effect.
Oh-ho, it was the prelude to a unique skill, AoE skill incoming!