"Grawwwwr!!"
The rare boss â¹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel⺠recovered from the down status and boy was its eyes smouldering with rage.
Though the target was still set at Rika. Rika was seriously amazing.
"Crumble"
"! Quick stop! It's the â¹Charge⺠skill! â¹Sonic Swordâº!"
The rare boss's whole body, who was howling facing the sky, began to shine and absorbed the light orb like things from all over. It was its self buff skill ä¸ä¸ â¹Chargeâº!
The self buff skill increases the rare boss ATK and AGI and gives a lightning attribute to all its attacks.
When in buff mode, its body crackled with lightning as if it was constantly clad in lightning stripes and there was also a low chance of inflicting us with DOT (damage over time) when attacking us.
But if you think it was already strong enough, then you're in for a surprise as what makes â¹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel⺠even more dangerous was it could stack the said buff multiple times.
The rare boss was capable of stacking â¹Charge⺠buff four times and each stack makes it further strong.
However it also has a demerit and that is the rare boss is defenceless during activating â¹Charge⺠so we could force our way to cancel its skill midway if we manage to do a certain damage.
As they said, opportunities lie within the difficulty.
And if we spell out moves right, we could also force it to enter into shutdown mode if we managed to cancel its skill.
The videos of forcing the rare boss into shutdown mode while low level and equipped with poor equipment was quite popular in the â¹Dungeon Activityâº's capture site.
Though there were also some videos where others would miss the chance and instead have tables turned on them which was hilarious.
Alas, it's not time to soak into the old memories.
It's only for several seconds that the rare boss stays in defenceless state due to â¹Charge⺠skill. We must pass a certain amount of damage in the span of said several seconds if we want to take it down.
It was a race against time.
"â¹Blessing of the guardian dogâº!"
"â¹Long Thrustâº! â¹Legion Thrustâº! â¹Legion Chargeâº!"
"â¹Scale Breakâº! â¹Vital Stabâº! â¹Slashâº!
"â¹Blade Tossâº! â¹Parallel Slashâº! â¹Cross Slashâº! â¹Blade Strikeâº! â¹Swallow Flipâº!"
"â¹Shine Lightningâº!"
Everyone follows up with the spare attacks they could do. They had just finished using their 3rd order skill when the rare boss was under down status and were still in cooldown. Thus, our attacks consisted mostly of first order and occasionally skills from 3rd order.
Damage wasn't just enough.
"How!l"
"Ku, we failed."
And soon, the rare boss finished invoking its skill.
Personifying its name, the rare boss's whole body was illuminating in âelectricityâ as it awakened.
We just have bad timing this time, it just happened to have right after we finished using our strong moves when the boss was in down status.
Well the other reason is also because everyone's level was still not that high. Lana, Ester and mine level is 56 while Rika and Karua level is 48 and 49 respectively.
On the other side, the recommendation level to take on the â¹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel⺠is 59, so we're a bit under-level to do enough damage in a short time.
"That's what it is. Everyone, be careful! I'm going to set-up a measure against my boss! So hold it until then!"
"Alright!"
"Roger!"
"Oh~!"
Lana, Ester and Karua replied respectively.
Rika was standing in the frontline with the blades in her hand ready. Boss's momentum was bound to rise from this point, this the part where the tank should be extremely cautious.
"I'm leaving it to you, Rika!"
"Leave it to me!"
I received a reliable answer. She might be the lowest level among the whole party, however she's the most reliable at the moment.
"*Howl grr-grr Howl"
"Haaa, â¹Take & Returnâº! â¹Begoneâº!ä¸ä¸"
Rika wasted no time in responding to the boss's agility âskillâ.
"Lana, blessing!"
"â¹Divine Protectionâº! â¹Blessing of the Everlasting Demonâº! â¹Healing Prayerâº!"
At my beckon, Lana followed up with the buffs and supported Rika.
Lana also has â¹Rapid Speed Up⺠skill that raises one's agility and it was the right time to use it here however Rika had declined from using it saying she might miss the timing for parry if her agility was buffed up.
"Ester and Karua too, just focus on supporting Rika!"
"Roger! â¹Long Thrustâº!"
"Hn"
Ester gallantly plunged to help out while Karua supported from the sideline, waiting for the cooldown to end.
In the meantime they're keeping their boss occupied, I also began my preparation and took out several items from the item bag.
"I had asked Hannah to make them and brought them to use in the scenario like this where we didn't manage to stop the boss from using charge, though time is of essence."
The item I was carrying myself with was materials that could be harvested from â¹Jurapaâº, and a trap item that was made using â¹Trap Making Toolâº, another gold chest item which Lulu and others had gotten at the same time as â¹Gentle Axe⺠using certain trap.
The maker is Hannah.
That's the greatest part about alchemy, anything can be made as long as there's a recipe.
Incidentally, it was an item made from a recipe from a silver chest â¹Cowboy Cactus⺠had dropped.
ä¸ä¸And it's name is â¹Poison Swamp Trapâº.
It was a trap item that could turn a designated place into a poison swamp which passed DOT continuously for a fixed interval by setting it up. It also has the function to hinder the movement of the boss's legs slightly if it gets into the swamp. Though it's not a strong enough of a trap to completely restrict a rare boss.
However I have a different use for it in respect to the current boss we're fighting.
"Alright, I'm done! Rika, Karua, do you think you can make the boss move to this side?"
"ä¸ä¸kuh! Dual blade Sweep!"
"Howwwwl"
"Kuh, I'm sorry but I'm already at my limits."
Rika's secret technique â¹Dual Blade Sweep⺠enraged the â¹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel⺠even more, it was hard to tell when the rare boss's fierce onslaught would stop.
Traps are useless if you can't lead the rare boss to them and Rika's hands were already full dealing with the boss.
However, a reliable partner showed up then.
"Hn. I will bring it."
"Karua!?"
"Leave it to me. Unique Skill â¹Number One ⢠Sonic Starâº!"
"Wohh!?"
"Howl!?"
Karua's â¹Starcat⺠unique skill was a super speed dodge skill.
The explanation may sound too simple but the speed bonus it granted was godly. The user can use this skill to break away from any situation and flee away with a speed no boss could ever catch up to.
Even if the boss's target is set towards the target, even if the user is in the range of a huge AoE attack, the user can easily escape from its range without breaking any sweat.
Boss can only follow a target to the set range and going outside of that range will reset the target head. So if a user escapes from the place, the boss will no longer target them.
Another convenient thing about this skill is that the user can also carry one of their comrades with themselves. Though it was an insurance in case the target is shifted to a member in rearguard so it didn't that much practical use.
Karua used it to carry Rika.
The effect of the unique skill activation blossomed momentarily and by the time I realised it, Karua was already beside me carrying Rika.
It was almost on the level of instantaneous teleportation.
And as proof, â¹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel⺠looked completely baffled at the disappearance of Rika who was just confronting it until a while ago.
"Hn, great success."
"Ugh, it's as dizzying as ever......"
Rika said so with a slight incoherent speech while being carried by Karua.
I guess they had done the same thing before.
"Howl!"
"Oh, did it finally notice?"
There wasn't much distance between the place my boss was and my location to begin with. That's why the target was still on the head of Rika and the rare boss who found Rika roared.
At the same time, along with it roar follows an effect.
"Hn, red effect..."
"Unique skill at this timing!?"
"What's our next action, Zephyr? Should we evade!?"
"No, defence skills are enough to deal with it. Though Karua, you stay a bit away from here."
"Hn."
â¹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel⺠unique skill was a charging type, it was called ---- «I'm the Tribulation Lightning».
I and Rika stood across from each other with the trap sandwich between us and prepared our defensive measure.
"Ester, Lana, I'm leaving the support to you!"
"! Understood!"
"Just leave it to me!"
"â¹Divine Protectionâº! â¹Sacred Devil's Blessingâº! â¹Blessing of Everlasting Demonâº!"
Boss's unique skill activated as soon as Lana finished putting buffs.
"Howwwwwwl (I'm the Wolf)!!"
"Engrave it in your mind, you're not a wolf or anything! â¹Defenseâº!"
"Howl!?"
I activated my defence skill while making a retort that I used to make while playing the â¹Dungeon Activity⺠as a game.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
I felt like I saw the boss making an astonished expression while charging at us.
"Get ready to be pushed! Secret Art â¹Repelâº!"
Crash and thus followed a loud sound.
Rika's and mine's defence skill versus â¹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrelâº's unique skill collided.
Eventually, we strike at the same time.
"Ack!"
"Kuä¸ä¸!"
"Hooowl!!"
I and Rika were pushed back behind and stiffened. We also received around 200 damage when I checked it out. Was this the best our defence skills could do? talk about power. (T/N : Zephyr's HP at level 50 was 340~ for more context)
That being said, the boss was also stiffened on the spot, though it wasn't knockbacked unlike us.
We may not have been able to win in terms of defence but we also managed to stop the boss ' unique skill with our double defensive skills.
And that was the desired result I wanted, because the place the rare boss had stopped was the same place I had set-up â¹Poison Swamp Trapâº.
Instantly, electricity on the back of the boss went berserk.
"Howwwww!!"
That's right, electric shock.
There's the thing called weak attribute in the â¹Dungeon Activityâº, i.e. all the monster's have an attribute that is their weak point.
Take â¹Water Attribute⺠for an example, it's extremely powerful against â¹Fire Attribute⺠or â¹Lightning Attributeâº, so forcing the â¹Lightning Attribute⺠boss into the â¹Poison Swamp Trap⺠which sort out as a â¹Water Trap⺠brought it's potential damage to a notch higher than normal.
And that hasn't changed in reality either.
â¹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel⺠was in the state where its body was covered in lightning stripes due to â¹Charge⺠skill. So by pushing it into the â¹Water Trap⺠can give it a weak â¹Paralysis - 15~20 sec⺠status debuff.
The original DOT effect of the â¹Poison Swamp⺠was also stacked alongside and made it take huge damage.
The longer it stayed in the trap, the lesser the trap effects became, though the electric shock had also resolved the boss's â¹Charge⺠skill and that was what I was anticipating..
"Right now is the time, Ester, Karua!"
"â¹Princess Knight Awakeningâº! ä¸ä¸â¹Long Thrustâº! â¹Quick Lightning Slashâº! â¹Triple Shootâº! â¹Long Thrustâº! â¹Precision Thrustâº! â¹Legion Chargeâº! â¹Long Thrustâº!"
"â¹Scale Breakâº! â¹32 Star Streamâº! â¹Delta Streamâº! â¹Starburst Tornadoâº! â¹StarBurst ⢠Rain Edgeâº! â¹Twin Cat Scratchesâº!"
"Don't forget I'm here too! â¹Shining Sabre of Sacred Lightâº! â¹Rise of the Divine Treeâº! â¹Light Bladeâº! â¹Divine Pillarâº!"
"Great, you guys caused a knockback effect! â¹Brave Heartâº! â¹Sonic Swordâº! â¹Brave Slashâº! â¹Lightning Slashâº! â¹Quick Strikeâº!"
"Late but here I'm, â¹Shogun's Burstâº! â¹Flame Slashâº! â¹Lightning Slashâº! â¹Ice Strikeâº! â¹Flash Pointâº! â¹Dark Swipeâº!"
"Howwwwl!!"
HP was guzzling down in the blink of an eye as everyone mounted their attacks one after another.
Not long after, â¹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel⺠finally freed itself out of the â¹Poison Swamp⺠and however by that time, its HP had already been reduced to 30% with the combination of our all-out onslaught and DOT.
Rika was once again back to her flawless tank role when there was no more â¹Charging⺠skill buff over the boss, and kept the battle in equilibrium. We also succeeded in cancelling the â¹Charge⺠skill that the boss tried to activate from the second time onwards.
We almost had a close encounter when the boss's HP had reached the red zone but Rika was somehow able to respond to the agile movements.
"Hn, and that's end, â¹StarBurst ⢠Rain Edgeâº!"
"Howw......ww... lll!"
And in the end, â¹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel⺠HP succumbed to zero under Karua's continuous slash attacks that fell down like the raindrops one after another.
A formidable enemy it was, it met it demise, sank into sea of effect and left behind ä¸ä¸ four gold chest in its place.