Vol. 8 - Chapter 421 - And thus began Hero Time!

The two mouths of ‹Battle Wolf› aglow in red; it was the sign that it was about to use its unique skill. I immediately perceived that and shouted to everyone.

"Get your defensive stance ready, everyone—except Lulu! ‹Area Heal›! Celia and Karua, quick move here! Lulu, you are up to steal the boss's magic!"

"Understood!" (Celia)

"Nya—!" (Karua)

"Okie-dokie! ‹Lolita Song›! ――♪――♪"

Just as I had advised everyone, they all move in a premeditated fashion. They had just finished when ‹Battle Wolf (4th Form)› raised its two mouths toward the ceiling and spewed out dark and ice attribute breath.

Unique Skill: Dark-Ice Icicle Rain

It was a skill that caused dark and ice elements to rain down, encompassing the whole boss room in its wake.

The instant boss's breath struck the ceiling, something akin to clouds spread all over it and from there started raining ice lance. Though we were already ready to tackle the incoming attack by that time,.

Due to the nature of the unique skill of the ‹Battle Wolf (4th Form)›, it was designated as a consecutive attack. The accumulated damage at the end was a deal breaker, but just alone, the spears dealt much less damage, which gave the room to heal.

I intoned ‹Area Heal› and have Karua and Rika take the spot inside. They were 'recieving damage' and 'healing' at the same time. The key point was pseudo-damage negation. Of course, each tick of heal couldn't completely overpower or neutralize the damage since my ‹Area Heal› wasn’t that strong, but was enough to reduce the accumulation of damage.

I had set it up on the back side, with Karua making it in time using her Dash skill. I presume that should only take down half of their HP, so I need not to worry. However, I must say, the might of this attack was incredible. I mean, that much damage was when Lulu's singing debuff had currently covering its body, that reduced its overall attack.

Had there been any ordinary rearguard, with no countermeasure, they would have been shown the way out—oh wait, they wouldn't have even been able to move.

Either way, this terrifying might is why one couldn't belittle the unique skill of a rare boss.

I didn't even want to count how many times I had been bested by the unique skill, and that's when I could handle almost everything with an upper hand. I kid you not when I say only these unique skills had me fumbling really hard.

If you ask me, I would say, 'there's no such thing as too much measure or too much vigilance against it.'

'Ah,' I was almost walking down my memory lane when I noticed the rain had stopped. I swiftly checked out the condition of my party members; let's see. Anyone with down status? No one, yipee!

Rika and I weathered it with our katana and shield's defensive stance respectively. Lulu had her ‹What are you seeing-desu? I'm a hero-desu. Being calm is my second name-desu LV10› working at full throttle, making her immune to down or knock back, and apparently she had been chaining her attack at the ‹Battle Wolf (4th Form)› all this while it was unable to do anything from being locked in unique skill animation. Ho-oh, as expected of her. Ah, well. This had brought her HP to the red zone, hovering at 20%.

The other members had already taken action to heal themselves, however ‹Lolita Hero› was a special case. In fact, ‹Lolita Hero› precisely suited such a situation—with the HP tether in the red zone—to showcase their might.

"Lulu! Time for your hidden technique!”

"Yaaa! Take the hero's secret technique! ‹A Hero is Ever So Unyielding›!"

Hearing my instruction, Lulu immediately squealed in excitement and took a backstep to distance herself from ‹Battle Wolf›. She hoisted her sword straight, struck her pose, and intoned her skill.

‹A Hero Is Ever So Unyielding LV10›.

A super special skill. Activated only when the user's HP is no more than 20%, it grants a three-fold bonus to attack and reduces the damage taken by 80%.

Truly a hero special deluxe firepower, activating something-something just when the hero is in predicament. You know the drill, right? It's none other than—

—--Awaken now, Hero Lulu!

It had a huge cooldown, plus the skill automatically deactivated when HP was healed above 20%. But twisting the same logic, this means she could forever stay in the awakened hero mode by maintaining the ‹20%. Play your card right; you're the one man army!

The instant Lulu activated her skill, a yellow aura enveloped Lulu in itself. Just that alone made her super-duper cool. And from there began Lulu's fierce onslaught, crashing down on the boss like a tsunami!

After passing my instruction to Lulu, I immediately turned toward Rika.

"Rika! Use ‹Hex Thunder Blade - Beast Lock› and stop no more on your attack!"

"Haaa! ‹Lightning Slash›! ‹Shogun's Burst›!"

"Grrrooo!?"

‹Hexa Thunder Blade - Beast Lock›, one of the two swords Rika uses, comes with ‹Beast Killer LV6›. She could deal a good amount of damage as long as she utilized it. And hearing my word, Rika switched to two-handed mode using that sword and slashed at ‹Battle Wolf (4th Form)›.

Dealing huge damage while it was still recovering from the usage of unique skills was another shot for down status.

‹Battle Wolf (4th Form)› was already at the edge, receiving the rain of attack from Lulu, and with Rika following up, got once again locked into down status. Again, it was Lulu's time to shine.

"Blast it out, guys! Lulu, pull it!"

"Aye! ‹Justice Hero Sword›! ‹Hero Special Impact›! ‹Sacred Explosion›! ‹Lolita of Hero - Smash›!"

Wohooo! ‹Battle Wolf (4th Form)› HP was dropping like it was made of paper with each consecutive attack from Lulu! But not yet. I was not going to let her hog the limelight! My attack, further enhanced by 2.8 times using ‹Brave Heart›, continues to shave off the boss's HP like there is no tomorrow.

Along with Rika, Karua, and Celia's attack, we dealt a huge amount of damage this time.

"ROOOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!"

Oops, the down effect was over, it seems, as the boss got back on its feet.

Initially, its hatred had shifted to Lulu in confusion, but the timely intervention of Rika put things back on track.

I switched to the healer role and started giving them instruction while healing, gaining an upper hand over ‹Battle Wolf (4th Form)›. The ‹Battle Wolf (4th Form)› once launched its breath, an AoE skill as well, but Karua easily evaded the shot. Celia was already at a distance from being affected.

With our resistance, Rika, Lulu, and I were unperturbed even when taking the breath attack and simply used ‹Hi-Potion› to heal when skill alone wasn't enough. Though Lulu was taking her measure to not go over 20% HP. Like getting into the ‹Area Heal› zone and leaving as soon as HP was edging toward 20%, or using normal potions. Then she would return to the frontline.

We also drew in its rage mode in the end; however, Rika's unique skill, ‹Twin Swallow Flip›, saved the day, and everyone's all-out attack sealed the deal. With that, ‹Battle Wolf (4th Form)› dispersed into the sea of effect.

Conclusion wise, the boss was really formidable, truly standing up to its evaluation of ‹Rank 7›. But it was hardly a struggle against our max leveled members. At least, the joy ride was definitely better than ‹Cat-Dun› where we were lacking.

Hmm, I believe everyone is ready now. Once the exam ended and after a bit of relaxation, I decided to switch our expressway toward Int-high.

But before that, though, I had four gleaming ‹Silver Chest› in front of me to open. The boss had even dropped four chests. Striking at the exquisite timing, wee-ho ‹Beauty-four Phenomenon›!

T/N - There’s a bit change in Lulu’s skill name. I think this sounds more better and matches her character.