Quickstep stood on top of her flying mount, surrounded by a fierce wind which tore on her hair. The light reflected from her armor and sharp windblades sparkled in her surroundings, constantly striking the enemy. With her shining eyes she was like a goddess, the wind heeding her call. Silent Acacia found it difficult to pull his eyes away, drawing chuckles from Fortune.

At this moment Quickstep pointed with her blade. Instantly three speres of raging wind, flashing white and silver, formed a triangle above Loro’s head. This was Quickstep’s ultimate skill [Raging Hurricane]. The spheres suddenly fell, crashing right into the boss and exploding. Three enormous, raging hurricanes formed, vaguely fusing into one, unleashing terrifying damage upon the enemy.

[-517!]x3

[-723!]x3

[-628!]x3

It was a pity that the boss boasted such high resistance against elemental damage. Quickstep’s [Raging Hurricane] primarily dealt wind and water damage. Otherwise, it would be even more powerful.

However, the skill was already strong enough to shock the friends. Even Loro appeared enraged this time as he let out a shout and tried to escape the hurricane. Yet it wasn’t that easy as the skill reduced his movement speed and continuously dealt around 130 points of damage per second.

Loro struggled for about four seconds before he managed to break out of those fierce hurricanes. His armour as well as the stone dragon showed white marks from the slicing windblades. Yet just as he escaped from one attack, the rest of the party were upon him again.

A dagger came at Loro’s back. His mount flicked its tail, and they swerved to the right, avoiding the attack. Yet, another dagger followed instantly, slashing his waist. A staff aimed for the dragon’s head. It tried to duck below the blow but the staff moved as if it anticipated the move, squarely hitting the dragon’s cheek. Two swords flashed seemingly out of nowhere. Loro took a step backward but strangely this only made him run straight into the blades. A single magical sphere arrived from the front, and an arrow came from the back. Loro flashed to the side and managed to evade both.

“Is that guy improving as we fight?”

Cyclone voiced everyone’s doubts. It was only a feeling but somehow the friends found it more difficult to land their attacks. Loro made them work for it. But it was not only his ability to avoid. Even the speed of his attack seemed to improve. Radiant Shield got pushed around trying to defend against the lance.

“Hey! What did we train so much for? Don’t slack off guys! Remember all those hours in the gym!”

It was Quickstep who tried to hype her friends up as the duration of her own [Hurricane Mode] ended. Everyone nodded, their eyes becoming fierce. The boss had dropped below 70.000HP and everyone’s skills became available again. Instantly the fierce attacks struck Loro from all sides. But they didn’t come far when Loro suddenly took out something resembling a mythical turtle’s shell. It emitted an earthly yellow light which covered Loro, making him inviolable to attacks.

“He’s healing himself!”, stated Silver Blade solemnly. The others nodded, watching Loro’s HP recover, slowly but steadily.

Balm’s eyes lit up as she realised it was her time to act. She waved her wand and threw a simple attack at Loro. Even if the boss wasn’t shielded, Balm wouldn’t deal more than a single point of damage. However, a symbol of a pierced heart appeared above Loro’s head as Balm’s wand revealed its might.

[The great Healer 3000

...

Effect 2: Whenever you deal damage to an enemy, apply a stack of Anti-heal to them. All stacks will be removed if the enemy is attacked by anyone other than you. Anti-heal reduces all healing received by 3% per stack. (capped at 50%)

…

...We got your back! Come to Riggor’s Rites in Great Pyramid City and get your personalized wand today!]

Although this wand didn’t quite suit Balm’s current taste anymore since its full power could only be brought out by dealing damage, but right now it came in handy.

“Nicely done, Balm! But we need to find a way to break that shield. What should we do?”

Silver Blade voiced her doubts staring at the boss. Right then two dragon roars echoed through the hall. Two of the dragon soul came down, their bodies turning a red colour, staring at the party with fierce eyes.

“So this is the answer… Remember my friends, don’t get stunned!”

Radiant Shield shouted a brief reminder as he engaged the two dragon souls. Everyone remained vigilant. As soon as the dragons showed signs of using a skill the friends escaped like rats during the rain. They fought steadily and managed to defeat the two dragon souls at minimal cost. Their only cause of worry was Radiant Shield’s stance. The tank had already used up a lot to defend against Loro and now the two dragons almost forced out what little he had left. As the two souls returned to the ceiling Radiant Shield only had a dozen points of stance left. It wasn’t even enough to take a single hit from Loro.

“Let me take over for a while.”, suggested Silver Blade. So far, the boss didn’t show many magical attacks, thus it was quite ineffective for Silver Blade to take Radiant Shield’s place. Considering this, the male tank shook his head and decided to continue for now.

“Adventurers! You didn’t use the opportunity to escape? You are too arrogant!”

Loro growled as the effect of the turtle shell disappeared. His HP had recovered to about seventy thousand. Without Balm it wouldn’t have been impossible for him to recover another ten thousand more. The boss charged his attack and in a flash, he appeared in front of Radiant Shield. There was a sound like breaking glass as Radiant Shield was pushed back, his stance depleted, some damage spilling over.

[-2812!]

Everyone felt urgency in their hearts. Bloody Edge again appeared behind the boss. But with half his skills on cooldown his damage potential was slightly diminished. Cyclone used [Overbearing Bindings of Lightning] to tie the boss to herself. Loro suddenly froze. It was the first time during this fight that Cyclone managed to paralyze the boss. Unfortunately, it only lasted a single second. It didn’t provide any great advantage for the group.

The fierce battle continued for a while. The friends adjusted to Loro’s tempo and managed to dodge the next lance-shadow-skill. The only one continuously suffering damage was Radiant Shield. Although Balm had his back, this caused a situation where the healer constantly had a couple of skills on cooldown. If the party were to be met with a dangerous situation now…

“Daring to disturb the rest of dragons! Deserving of death!”

Loro became increasingly agitated. He whistled and the dragons floating above once again started to spew fire. Silent Acacia glanced upwards. He had already gotten used to this skill earlier. There was no need to panic. With measured moves he could… suddenly the young man felt the heat hit his face. He was shocked to realize that one of the fireballs had already reached him.

“Watch out! Their speed has increased!”

Silent Acacia could warn his friends but for himself it was already too late. The fireball squarely hit his face. Silver Blade noticed what was happening. She had two skills left originating from her mount which might help Silent Acacia. Activating one of them she suddenly turned into a silver spear, shooting across the battlefield. In the nick of time, she pierced the fireball about to hit Silent Acacia, causing it to explode.

“Thanks!”

Silent Acacia took a deep breath. But right then a scream reached his ears. He looked over and saw that Quickstep had been hit! The female warrior attempted to evade a fireball by circling one of the pillars, not knowing that another fireball was falling on the other side of the pillar right outside her vision. She suffered a terrible blow, her HP depleting quickly.

[-17.492!]

With more than half of her HP gone in an instant Quickstep felt a tremor run through her body. She hastily downed an intermediate health potion. However, the potion only granted 10.000HP over time. It was slowly becoming too weak for the friends.

After Silent Acacia and Quickstep, others were also getting into trouble. The speed at which the small meteors approached the ground had increased considerably. Everyone had to focus on dodging, unable to attack the boss. Only Liam struck once or twice to prevent the duration of his ultimate skill from running out. He skilfully weaved between the meteor shower yet even he experienced a close shave.

Loro watched with narrowed eyes. After Liam struck him, the boss seemed to retaliate in rage, striking with blood-red lance shadows. The additional skill made the situation even more difficult for the players, assuring multiple hits. The damage continued to ramp up.

One of Balm’s skills came off cooldown. She activated [Vital Light of Stars], formerly known as [Pillars of Life]. Twelve brilliant stars appeared below the hall’s ceiling, creating a dazzling background for the dragon souls. These stars each had a certain chance to send down their light, creating areas of healing energy. However, this only served to somewhat alleviate the pressure as in order to receive the healing one had to remain within these areas which made one an easy target.