[-1641!]
Silver Blade shook from the terrifying fire damage. 1600 points and yet this was what she, who had the highest resistance to elemental damage out of the entire guild, had to endure.
The blinding shield behind her back trembled intensely. Cracks formed on its surface until is quickly shattered into thousands of lights spots which dissipated in the black world like swift fireflies.
The effect of her ultimate skill was less than she would have hoped. Since the flames reached everyone simultaneously, the shield's protection was spread evenly among the guild members, blocking a pitiful amount of about 160 points per person.
Silver Blade smiled wryly before cheering herself up.
You never know it might be just enough to save one's life...
Just as this thought came to her mind the dark world disappeared and the players were sent back to the real battlefield, regaining their mobility.
"F*ck, that was terrifying!"
"We couldn't even fight back."
"The entire guild got injured. Poor healers."
Many were affected by the experience, their legs shaking. But the most exasperated were the healers who now had to spend a lot of resources to prop up the guild members.
With a thought Balm brought a list of all the HP bars in front of her eyes. The visual impact was quite heavy as the healer realized just how much damage Mehphre did to the guild.
She filtered out those who were hurt the most, which were unsurprisingly mostly ranged fighters. Next, she focused on an area where a lot of the badly hurt players clustered together.
Balm didn't even notice it herself but by now she showed great expertise, going through these steps within a single second, proving a great familiarity with the game's mechanics.
Next, she activated her newest spell called [Shared Pain], which was attached to the boots of her set equipment.
A gorgeous red ruby inlaid in her boots suddenly began to shine in a warm light. A special spell got triggered. Magical force travelled through Balm's body and surged into her wand, waiting to be unleashed.
Balm targeted the area she made out earlier. A red light suddenly originated from somewhere in the sky, falling on the players.
Wisps of black smoke began to rise from their heads. They coalesced and formed a large, black sphere hovering above everyone's heads. The sphere began to revolve at a quick speed.
Wisps of smoke escaped from the sphere. Every time this happened the sphere turned purer and purer, finally taking on a pristinely white colour. Suddenly it exploded in a gorgeous light, spreading sparks which floated back towards the players.
The players bathed in the light, feeling strongly rejuvenated as the sphere healed them based on a portion of the damage they received within the last five seconds.
[+1920!]
Simultaneously the discarded black wisps formed a small spear which swiftly shot at Mehphre, returning a small amount of the damage he dealt.
[-171!]
Simultaneously something else happened as the effect of Balm's set equipment triggered. Another small spear erupted from herself, engulfed in brilliant, holy light.
[-211]
A comfortable shudder ran down her back as she received additional feedback, healing her for a small amount while even her void resistance increased.
[+63!]
Even Balm was confused by everything that happened within a brief second. She only had the time to throw a brief glance at one of her items as she considered whether she could have somehow used the effects more effectively.
[Elora's broken diadem
Category: Rare, set
Level requirement: 37
Physical Defence: 18
Magical Defence: 20
Intelligence: +8
HP: +350
Effect 1: All your healing will be increased by 5%.
Effect 2: Increase your CON for 5% of your INT.
Two-piece Set effect: When you heal for more than 5000 points in 3 seconds, deal holy damage to enemy according to your level*25. (cooldown 60 seconds)
Three-piece Set effect: When you damage an enemy, heal yourself for 30% of the damage dealt. (cooldown 120 seconds]
Four-piece Set effect: When you receive healing from any source, increase your and one random alley's void resistance by 10% for 20 seconds (cooldown 80 seconds)
Restriction: Bound upon wearing, INT above 90 points
A shard of Elora's diadem. Elora was obsessed with eternal life, treading between order and chaos, seeking a way to become either a god or a devil. Eventually the first adjutant was personally dispatched and struck her down with divine blessing. In this fight Elora's weapons and equipment shattered, scattering throughout Crunaboul.]
The players receiving Balm's care were thankful as their HP bars stabilized. Now they didn't need to fear being eliminated should a single skill hit them.
"Thank you, Balm!"
"That's out guild leader!"
"Nice one."
But suddenly an urgent message in the guild chat caused everyone to shut up.
[Bleary Mirage: Attack!]
[Bleary Mirage. What are you waiting for?! The boss is in a weakened state!]
Those who were still digesting the boss's earlier skill were finally roused into action. They looked towards Mehphre and saw Liam and others already swing their weapons.
Finally, everyone woke up and commenced their attacks from all sides. Mehphre was instantly hit by a terrifying rain of skills.
Bloody Edge used the opportunity to activate his ultimate skill. And at the same time a billowing cloud formed on the edge of the battlefield, raining down fire.
The players avoided the burning cloud watching eagerly as it engulfed Mehphre. But to everyone's disappointment the boss proved completely immune to the cloud's fire.
Nevertheless, Dream Avenue managed to deal a huge amount of damage against the weakened boss.
It took Mehphre a while to shake off the exhaustion. He straightened his body, glaring at the ant-like players. His rage boiled unhindered.
Mehphre didn't even bother to swing his spears, instantly using his life-draining skill again. Spikes fell from his body, caught by Liam and his friends.
[Cyclone: I'm quite low on stance...]
[Fortune: Do what I did earlier.]
[Bleary Mirage: Forget it, hurry up.]
[Balm: Cyclone, you can go! I got you!]
The chat was somewhat frantic right now. Many of the guild members were still low on HP and Bleary Mirage wanted to avoid losing them, thus urging his friends.
Cyclone felt somewhat reluctant, but she moved anyways, trusting her friends.
Balm swept her eyes over the battlefield and saw that her friends were just about to use [Flying Dash]. She patted the beautiful rainbow feathers of her basilisk, whispering:
"Mel, resonance."
The basilisk understood. He raised his proud head and let out a cry which echoed through the battlefield. When the sound reached the mount of her allies, those suddenly felt compelled to cry out as well.
For a moment a cacophony of voices drowned out any other sound of the battlefield. Wolf howls, beast roars, and high-pitched chirps caused the world to shake.
"Balm, what is this?"
"Hey, what's going on?"
The players were all startled. Only Balm's friends recognized the skill.
"Thanks, Balm!"
Cyclone whispered to herself knowing that even if she shouted with all her might no one would be able to hear her. She recognized Balm's skill [Resonance] which reduced the stance cost for all mounted alleys to 0 for three seconds.
Well-used this skill was quite incredible. Cyclone used [Flying Dash] and rushed towards Mehphre's head. Despite the short distance this move would have cost her up to a hundred points of stance.
This was enough stance to dodge two of the enemy's attacks, which would deal at least 4000 points of damage.
Cyclone grinned as she reached eye level with the draconian.
"That's for talking too much.", chuckled the young woman as she rammed the spike into the brightly shining spot on the boss's forehead.
[-3000!]
Once again interrupted by the players, Mehphre's shoulders slumped, his wings lying listlessly on his back while the guild attacked with all their might.
Gradually the boss fell below 3000.000 HP. But the players finally showed signs of weakness.
One of the first who had to recover was Watchful Eye. Since his damage depended on his QI, it became unbearably low although he still had enough QI left to cast one or two skills.
Watchful Eye knew that it made no sense to waste his cooldowns for that little damage. He retreated to the edge of the battlefield and used [Meditation].
Instantly the monk's QI recovered at an unprecedented speed as he drew QI from multiple sources. Not only had his [Meditation] reached rank 2, but he also had his set equipment and his basilisk, who also had a skill to aid in QI recovery.
It didn't take excessively long until Watchful Eye could join the fight again, drawing the envy of the mages who had coincidentally observed him. Their mana was also on the brink of being used up.
But for now, the guild still had some fuel left. While Mehphre swung his spears at the tanks, everyone else worked together to lower his HP. Bit by bit until the boss's HP bar was reduced by half.