An enormous pressure began to spread from the newcomer. The two large green wings on his back fluttered slightly. Cyclone however, standing behind the man, squinted her eyes. She felt like there was something off about these wings. Right, they didn’t stick out of the armour! Were they… attached? Glued?

Cyclone was just about to make some joke about the strange guardian, but Silver Blade was faster. She told the NPC that there was no way the party would leave.

“Then you leave me with no choice!”

A faint green light shone from the NPC’s eyes as his expression turned incredibly solemn. His pressure caused air currents to surge around him, tearing on his long beard. With a flick of his wrist a necklace appeared in his hand. He caressed the green scale attacked to the necklace before putting it around his neck.

“Whooo?”

A deep voice echoed through the hall. The friends turned around in surprise, staring at the dragon statue which was about to come to life. The stone cracked as the dragon uncoiled its body. With a length of almost ten meters, it wasn’t as big as a real dragon, but its intimidating aura was quite potent. The stone dragon’s eyes shone with a green light. Its body was not the familiar lizard-like figure but rather snake-like, with four large wings and pronounced dragon whiskers on its face.

The stone dragon moved elegantly through the air and came to a stop in front of the NPC. He jumped onto the dragon’s back, rising to the air together. Those dragon souls swarming below the ceiling also increased their pressure again and blocked the hole, preventing the adventurers from escaping.

“A fight it is then…”

Silver Blade took a deep breath. As she regained her movement, she realised that the battle had already started. As always, they had to check the enemy first.

[Cult of Nexkra’nar, Guardian Loro

Rank: Boss

Level: 67

HP: 122.000/122.000]

“Shield, let’s go!”

Radiant Shield nodded and rushed towards the cultist together with his fellow tank. At this point most bosses had magical and physical means of attack. Thus, the two tanks would both prepare themselves.

Guardian Loro stared at the incoming enemies without a hint of nervousness. His movements were dignified as he held some kind of sharp bone in his hand. He placed it in front of his body and a green light fell on the bone, causing it to suddenly grow in size. After it stopped it had transformed into a massive weapon with a weight of tons and a length almost rivalling the dragon Loro was standing on. And yet the guardian wielded the weapon easily. It had a dangerous, sharp tip but a slim handle, resembling a lance. Standing on the dragon and with his bone weapon in hand the guardian suddenly appeared quite majestic like a middle-aged knight but riding a dragon instead of a horse.

Seeing the enemy’s choice of weapon Radiant Shield surmised that the cultist would primarily use physical attacks and thus took the lead. A majestic, tall shield appeared behind his back and shot at the enemy, crashing right into him. Loro didn’t bother dodging. His eyes narrowed, focusing on Radiant Shield. He pulled his lance back, charging energy and suddenly stabbed forward. The stone dragon moved together with its master. In a flash they appeared in front of Radiant Shield, the tip of the bone lance almost piercing the tank’s chest.

Radiant Shield was startled, reacting purely on instinct. At the last moment he managed to raise his shield and barely defend himself.

[Stance -32!]

Silver Blade reached out with her hand to catch Radiant Shield who was uncontrollably flying backwards.

“Thanks.”

Silver Blade only nodded and kept her eyes on the boss. The speed he just displayed was quite frightening. If he could keep this up, the party would be facing a difficult fight.

“Our turn!”

Cyclone shouted to encourage her friends as she threw the first attack. A magical sphere drew an arc through the sky. It aimed at Loro’s lower back, making it difficult to evade. The boss didn’t even try. He snorted as he endured the light blow.

[-464!]

Fortune and Silent Acacia followed right after.

[-586!]

[-519!]

The friends immediately spread the information that the boss had a higher magical resistance than physical. Everyone kept this in mind as they rushed at the boss. However, before they could reach Loro, the latter already revealed his first skill. He retrieved a vial from somewhere and poured a drop of sparkling blood on his lance. Instantly the white bone was dyed red and an incredibly pressure spread from the boss. Loro gritted his teeth, his muscles bulging. His skill needed one or two seconds to unleash, just enough time for the players to prepare.

“Stay back! Careful!”

Liam’s voice was serious as he warned his friends. Everyone stopped in their tracks and changed direction, trying to win some distance.

“Intruders! You brought this upon yourselves!”

With a heavy yell Loro finally stabbed his lance forward. The movement was slow and there was no target. But blood-red lance shadows suddenly erupted from the weapon. There were ten shadows, one for each player and their speeds were insane.

“Ah!”

“Dodge!”

The friends let out shouts as they did their best to get away. Radiant Shield and Silver Blade, despite being closest to the boss, had it rather easy. They raised their shields and waited for the impact, preparing their flying mounts as well. However, when the resounding crash came, they were still pushed backwards, losing considerable stance.

[Stance -31!]

Everyone else did their best to dodge. Watchful Eye was in great danger. He and Quickstep were already close to the boss, but his movement speed was a level lower. He tried to dive downwards but to his shock the shadowy weapon followed his movements. Before he could try another method, it was already too late and the lance crashed into his head, sending him flying. Nearly a third of his HP were gone in an instant.

[-11.168!]

Quickstep was lucky in comparison. In order to build up Storm she was constantly moving. Her peng tilted to the right and they managed to evade the dreadful attack. Her heart skipped a beat as she noticed how much damage Watchful Eye took.

Bloody Edge sighed in relief as he watched from some distance. Because of his new passive he wouldn’t attack instantly and instead wait until Stealth caused him to lose some HP, which in turn boosted his damage. Thus, he was still some distance away from the boss and managed to dodge in time.

The others also managed to escape the damage, more or less elegantly. The hastier the dodge, the more stance they had to pay. Fortune was just about to start casting a skill and was thus somewhat flustered as she used a flash step. She had to pay 38 points of stance. At this rate she could evade twelve more attacks before she would run out of stance. It remained to be seen if this number was enough to keep her out of danger.

“Another attack?”

Fortune focused again as she heard Cyclone’s weary question. Looking at the boss, he was indeed charging again. However, the red colour had faded. What followed was a normal attack targeting Radiant Shield, which the tank blocked expectedly.

“Let’s go! We can’t let that guy be the only one attacking!”

Ironically it was Balm who said this, encouraging her friends. She waved her wand and presented one of her new skills [Guidance]. A bright star appeared above Loro’s head. Its gentle light was reminiscent of the morning star guiding lost ships out on the ocean. However, when its light fell on Loro it dealt dreadful damage amounting to 50% of Balm’s magical damage per second.

[-1!]

Unfortunately, as a healer Balms magical damage was simply negligible. However, this was not of priority. As every time [Guidance] dealt damage, it would spread a wave of healing energy according to the damage dealt. Although the amount was low it served to trigger Balm’s passive effects.

“Nice one, Balm! I feel much stronger!”

“Thank you!”

“What a powerful effect.”

While Quickstep and Radiant Shield saw their main attribute strengthened by 10%, Bloody Edge was lucky enough to receive the strongest buff Balm could give. The next skill he used would instantly have its cooldown refreshed. With this in mind he didn’t wait any longer. The blood stalker he was riding flapped its leathery wings and silently appeared behind the boss. Its mouth opened, revealing sharp fangs.

At this moment the fluffy guardian dog belonging to Silent Acacia shone with a white light which washed over all allies, increasing their critical strike chance by 10%. Bloody Edge’s daggers flashed with a bright red, piercing the stone dragon’s tails like a vampire’s fangs. Almost simultaneously his blood stalker also bit the tail’s tip. An angry roar came from the stone dragon as it turned its head to the pesky rats daring to sneak up on it.

[-1164!]

[-1811!!!]

[-2329!!!]