Liam appeared behind the left concubine's back, his swords moving swiftly like the knives of a chef. [Double Slash] followed on [Cross Slash], [Holy Wave], and a normal attack, completing Liam's routine rotation for five holy marks.
But his new swords also showed their power. During the cross slash the white blade in his right hand flashed with a holy light, dealing additional holy damage.
Blinding light exploded, illuminating the entire temple, irritating the demons greatly. It was the beautiful finisher to Liam's combo, which shockingly took away more than 9000 of the female demon's HP.
Everyone drew a sharp breath as they admired Liam's power. Yet they forgot about Kreinon's ongoing skill. Suddenly another illusionary maw appeared out of thin air, threatening to bite Fortune's head off.
The mage was caught off guard. Still in the process of casting she knew she wouldn't be fast enough to escape. Gritting her teeth she only focused on the cast while enduring the damage.
[-5540!]
[-863!]
Fortune's heart skipped a beat. Hit with the terrifying mix of magical and dark damage, she suffered greatly. Her HP were only a little over seven thousand, so this single hit was almost enough to kill her.
Noticing Fortune's HP bar dropping drastically, the entire group was shaken. Lenn immediately apologized:
"Sorry, I didn't think it would deal so much damage. Next time I will shield you!"
"Don't underestimate our enemies, guys!", warned Liam gravely.
Everyone nodded as Melodious Edelweiss sent a heal towards Fortune, alleviating the injury, helping the mage to recover more than 2000 HP.
At that moment Fortune's cast was finally finished. She swung her staff, staring dangerously at the left concubine.
"Taste my revenge!"
An arcane bolt erupted from the wand. The dense mana shot through the room, violently piercing the demon's shoulder. Her set effect triggered, adding an explosion to the bolt.
[-1760!]
[-528!]
Fortune also had months of training now. Her skill, inherently difficult to control, became more accurate in her hands. The second bolt followed the first, beautifully striking the demon as well.
While Fortune was unleashing her power, Quickstep attacked the same target, her swords striking freely. She had already activated her newest skill [Storm's Aid] which served as the reward for becoming the tournament champion with Hotpot.
[Storm's Aid (rank 1)
Cost: 30 Storm
Effect: A storm fills a large area, coming to your aid. Within its range, each time you deal damage to an enemy you have a chance to trigger an additional blade of wind to randomly strike one enemy. These blades deal 2,5% (PDMG) wind damage and give you a short boost in movement speed should they hit. Lasts for 15 seconds.
Cooldown: 65 seconds]
Quickstep was greatly satisfied with the skill, especially paired with her other skills. Saving up some storm she quickly unleashed [Whirlwind Slash]. A small whirlwind engulfed both female demons, carrying flashing, tiny wind blades.
[Whirlwind Slash] on rank 2 dealt 13% damage per second. And each tick had a chance to trigger [Storm's Aid]. Additional blades would strike at the demons, giving Quickstep a temporary boost in movement speed, which in return would make it easier to build up storm.
The combo was a virtuous cycle. Quickstep's movement speed was continuously high, making her resemble a real storm. And her movement speed was increased even further by the effect of her set equipment.
However, there were some smaller disadvantages as well. On one hand the target selection of [Storm's Aid] was random and its damage was not high. On the other, her movement speed didn't impress the NPC enemies much as long as they were focusing on Lenn.
However, with the skill Quickstep's danger in single player PvP had increased by a whole level. If she could join another tournament the young woman would be confident to take at least second place even if matched against Apollo.
Maybe... just maybe... she could even stand a chance against Bleary Mirage.
A confident grin formed on Quickstep's face as she glanced over towards Liam. She was quite curious to see what the expert's new skill was, but he hadn't revealed it yet.
Liam fought rather leisurely. Another sword strike found the left concubine, taking her below half health. But just then the situation changed.
The duration of Lenn's decoy had run out and the metallic sphere delivered a part of the damage it endured to the tank, taking away more than 4000HP. Simultaneously the two concubines hissed angrily and retreated with a jump.
They glared angrily at the group, shouting:
"Daring mortals! You are defying Lord Paradynim's will! Suffer!"
A dark mist appeared out of nowhere, engulfing the two demons. It churned and turned, growing in size. As it gradually dissipated the two demons had become one.
Standing at more than double the height of a normal human, the two demons were only separated from the waist upwards. Their lower bodies were one but instead of legs they had a thick, scaled snake tail, which was powerful enough to support them standing upright.
Lenn's thoughts moved quickly watching the transformation. He had a bad premonition.
"Don't you dare fuse your HP!"
The dwarf quickly used [Inspect] and sighed in relief, seeing that their HP were still separated between the heavily injured left concubine and the healthy right concubine.
Quickstep scanned the enemy and couldn't stop herself from letting out a snarky comment:
"Hm, they are quite ugly..."
Instantly two pairs of piercing eyes focused on the female warrior.
"You dare call us ugly? Have you looked into a mirror recently?!"
Quickstep was shocked for a moment but quickly broke out into laughter. She simply found it absurd that a demon NPC retaliated against her like that. But the fused concubines were not amused at all. Suddenly their eyes turned red as they used a skill.
A cone-shaped red light came out of their eyes, instantly falling on Quickstep without giving her any chance to react.
The young woman shivered, realizing she was in trouble. But after a moment there was no note of any damage or irregular status. Confused, she sought for an explanation when C kindly sent her a notification.
[Petrification prevented by title 'Initial Devilslayer']
Quickstep was pleasantly surprised. She looked towards Liam, who stood close to her, also within the skill's range. She noticed that he was still able to move as well.
"Must be our lucky day!"
Liam nodded, just about to answer when he noticed the enemy beginning to move. The demon's head jerked around and Liam hastily alerted Lenn:
"Block it!"
The tank was already prepared. He placed his shield on the ground, the metal on its surface rearranging. A strange steam was released by gaps in the shield.
When the fused demons moved their eyes towards the steam, the expected effect did not occur. Instead, the red light was reflected by the steam and fell back on the demons.
"What?!"
The concubines let out shocked cries as their body gained a grey hue and they became unable to move. Their status showed an additional petrification effect.
"Haha, nice one Lenn.", laughed Braag. But he was swiftly reprimanded by Liam:
"Less talking, more attacking!"
"Can we even attack it?"
"The petrified demon is immune to physical damage but takes increased magical. Everyone but Fortune attack Kreinon!"
"Got it!"
The group swiftly rearranged themselves. Fortune still had three bolts left of her [Arcane Bolt] skill. She had to fire the rest randomly as holding unto them became more difficult with every passing second.
But now that the demons were done with their transformation and petrified by the reflection of their own skill, they offered the perfect target.
Fortune narrowed her eyes, focusing everything on the enemy. She was determined not to miss her last three arcane bolts.
She flicked her wrist and unleased them nearly at the same time. Three bolts raced through the air. Fortune wore a wide grin as two slammed into the left concubine and one into the right. Additionally her set effect added an explosion to the first bolt, increasing her damage even further.
[-2640!]
[-792!]
[-2640!]
[-2640!]
Sadly, the rest of the group didn't pay much attention to her success as they rushed towards Kreinon. But the lord tier enemy was determined not to let them get close. He raised his head arrogantly, swiping his claw through the air.
Instantly a wall made of dark magic spread in a half-circle from the demon. Seeing this, Liam and Quickstep could only halt their steps and hide behind Lenn. The dwarf stabilized his shield as the thick wall of magic smashed into him.
[Stance -27]
With 166 points of stance Lenn could still hold on for a while. This was thanks to his rather powerful decoy skill, which was one of the reasons why he had become popular.
The decoy was extremely good at buying time. And even though it delivered part of the damage it endured to Lenn after its duration ended, this had already been healed by Melodious Edelweiss.
Thus, the tank had no trouble blocking a few more attacks. Liam, Lenn and Quickstep were forced to advance slowly as Kreinon continuously summoned new attacks. But finally, after making it through three more walls of black magic the trio arrived in front of the demon.