While Liam delivered a solid round of damage to the boss, the rest of the guild members were struggling. Most of the players were one or two levels behind Liam and his friends and none of them were tier two characters.
Some players could count themselves lucky if their damage made it past the single digit range. Only through buffing each other and landing strong skills or elemental damage could the regular guild members contribute more.
Then there were also special cases like the Zen brothers. Their passive skills granted special effects based on the type of damage which had last afflicted the target. In such a chaotic battle any of their attacks triggered effects like additional damage or causing the enemy to freeze.
Unfortunately, Mehphre proved close to immune to immobilizing effects. He scoffed at the attacks coming from all sides as he reached out with his arms. Mana surged towards him and condensed into two menacing black spears which he grasped tightly in his hands.
The spears were shorter than Mehphre, but they were still taller than two players standing on top of each other. They had a black shaft decorated with a winding red dragon. Their ends had three sharp tips resembling dancing flames.
"I am not the same I was a while ago! Feel my might, vermin!"
With those words Mehphre took on an arrogant posture as he swung his spears at the rows of tanks.
Radiant Shield felt an enormous pressure falling on his shoulders. As the spear enlarged in his vision it was as if a mountain was falling on his face.
Hastily rising his shield the tank braced himself for impact.
Boom!
[Stance -47!]
Radiant Shield felt an immense force surge through his body. His chest tightened dangerously. His basilisk, Tilla, was pressured backwards to offset the momentum. Radiant Shield felt dizzy, and his arm pulsed painfully.
Yet the attack wasn't over. Mehphre had two spears, and he intended to make use of them. His second weapon moved seemingly slowly but the force it contained was enormous as it aimed at one of the other tanks.
The petite woman called Swirling Waves trembled as she faced the attack. She hastily hid behind her shield dreading the impact.
"Ah!"
With a low shout she was flung backwards. Luckily her gorgeous feline mount managed to quickly get one claw onto the floor to break the momentum.
[Stance -56]
The stance cost increased as Swirling Wave's stats naturally were worse than Radiant Shield's. Furthermore, her mount was not of unique rank. If she received another six blows her stance would run out.
With this strength, however, Swirling Waves could already be considered a strong player, her power level slightly above average among Dream Avenue's members.
Yet against a world boss of Mehphre's caliber no single individual could contend on their own. Killing the draconian would be a laborious group effort. Everyone could see this after the first few exchanges.
Attacks and skills rained down on Mehphre, shattering on his sturdy scales and precious armor.
Meanwhile the draconian wielded his two spears to put pressure on the tanks.
Suddenly though he changed his movements. Raising one of his spears high he produced a violent dark magic which engulfed the weapon.
Liam immediately reminded Silver Blade as soon as he saw the boss's movements. The young woman had anticipated this moment. She quickly led other tanks specialized in magical damage to stand in front of the physical tanks.
The switch happened just in time as Mehphre swung his gigantic spear.
"Feel the power of my magic!"
The spear swished through the air. An arc of dark magic was unleashed barreling down on Silver Blade. The tanks gritted their teeth as they blocked the damage.
[Stance -46]
Silver Blade felt apprehensive as well as she took down her shield again. She was just in time to see Mehphre switch back to physical attacks.
"Oh no, rotate!"
The tanks moved frantically as Mehphre attacked with swift strikes of his spear. Unfortunately, it was too late for some of them. Silver Blade shouted loudly as the spear was about to stab one of their tanks in the back:
"Gnetic, behind you!"
A young man playing as a red-skinned orc heard the voice of his superior and reacted decisively. He stopped his retreat, turning around as far as possible on his hippo-like mount.
He was just in time to barely deflect the gleaming spear tip.
[Stance -63]
"Damn, so much?!"
The tank was shaken by the high cost, but this was the consequence of rotating too slowly.
While the tanks struggled, the ranged fighters were able to attack freely. Braag unleashed multiple bombs in quick succession. However, he was left somewhat unsatisfied as the explosions barely seemed to tickle the boss.
Silent Acacia, who stood not far away from Braag, noticed the dwarf's expression, murmuring:
"If it weren't for the numbers popping up, I would be doubting if we are even dealing damage to the boss."
"At least you are dealing some damage. Mine is really too pitiful."
Just then both of their attacks reached the enemy at the same time.
[-23!]
[-134!]
Braag smiled bitterly. Silent Acacia looked at him and tried to encourage the dwarf somehow.
"Don't worry, old man. Your damage is already quite alright. You just need to level up and become a tier 2 character."
"I'm trying, but it is really too difficult. I don't have a suitable weapon at home…"
Braag sighed, appearing somewhat dejected. On Cyclone's request the secret of rank 2 characters was only shared with the most trustworthy guild members. She wanted to keep this advantage for their guild. Especially before the big tournament.
One of the people in the know was Braag. But even though he knew the secret he found it difficult to increase his skills.
In the federation hot weapons were simply not a thing. The federation's technology developed in an incredibly short time thanks to unearthing the ancient ruins.
But be it due to luck or something else, no one found the blueprints for hot weapons so far. Or perhaps some blueprints were found but the weapons were not suitable for mass production, letting the blueprints rot in the hands of their discoverers.
No matter the reason, it made training skills difficult for Braag. When he learned about it, the poor man was distressed for quite a while and even considered starting from the beginning with a different class.
Luckily, he received timely advice from Liam. The veteran explained that it wasn't about the weapon but about the sensation of mana running through one's body, which was a communality of all skills.
If Braag trained the movement of mana with the console's assistance he would soon improve his skills.
Braag was glad to finally find the correct way. Following the advice he already managed to rank up his favorite skill [Big Berta].
Unfortunately, the skill's massive explosion which also damaged his teammates was too impractical in the fight against the world boss. Thus, the older dwarf continued with his pitiful attacks.
However, the other guild members didn't deal much more damage than Braag. Only by working together did they slowly whittle away at Mehphre's HP.
Suddenly a commotion broke out on one side of the battlefield.
"Careful! A new hailstorm!"
"Dodge!"
"Guys, move!"
"Damn, I got hit."
For a few seconds it was quite chaotic until the players made it out of the hailstorm. Those hit by the golf ball-sized ice projectiles received around two hundred points of damage per second, which was quite dreadful, causing more work for the healers.
Luckily the hailstorm didn't move too fast. After the players realized it was coming, they made a wide path for it.
"Hey, look, it's travelling towards the center!"
"That might be quite bad for our tank."
The guild members watched in apprehension as the storm cloud neared the center of the battlefield where the melee players were fighting against Mehphre.
The tanks cursed inwardly as they now had to pay attention to both the boss and the hailstorm. They retreated slowly, attempting to escape the magical anomaly.
However, after moving a certain distance Laim suddenly shouted in a commanding tone:
"Stop!"
"What? Why?"
Everyone froze but their faces showed their confusion. A spear arrived, drawing their attention.
Right then the hailstorm reached the center of the battlefield. Balls of ice slammed into the solid floor producing chilling 'tuck, tuck, tuck' sounds.
"Damn you!"
Suddenly Mehphre shouted angrily as the hailstorm passed over his body. The ice shattered against his scales, enveloping him in a freezing cold.
[-10!]x3
[-10!]x3
[-10!]x3
"Rooaaar!"
Mehphre let out a roar as the hailstorm engulfed his head for a moment.
"Hey, look! He's hurt by the ice!"
"Damn, that's more damage than I dealt since we arrived."
The guild members watched happily as the hailstorm helped them out. For a few seconds Mehphre lost HP at a steady pace.
Cyclone showed a thumbs-up to Liam:
"Now I get why you have chosen this place, expert!"