Under the ruthless attacks of the party Mecii found it difficult to retaliate. Silent Acacia alone was already enough to pressure the holy priest. It only took little time to reduce his HP below 20.000. However, as a proud merfolk priest he wasn't entirely without means.
"Insolent adventurers! Do you think we merfolk are weaklings?!"
"No one said anything along those lines…", commented Silver Blade.
"Well, but we all thought it, didn't we?", chuckled Cyclone. Immediately she received a fierce gaze from Mecii sending shivers down her spine. She even averted her eyes a little. But this subtle movement actually saved her from what happened next.
Mecii raised his hand high, muttering something incomprehensible. The gem inlaid at the top of his sceptre let out a blue light. Simultaneously the eyes of the serpent statue behind him also lit up. Liam hastily averted his eyes, but the others were caught off guard. Everyone who looked at the statue was suddenly inflicted with a profound stun as they had the illusion of a towering serpent looking down on their minuscule selves.
A moment later Cyclone raised her head again and looked at her immobile friends acting confused.
"Guys, could you stop sleeping? We need to attack the boss!"
The mage dramatically rolled her eyes. Of course, she understood that her friends had been hit by a stun.
"Is it only Mirage and I who have not been affected? Ha, I can't really say I am surprised. Superior skill just can't be hidden. Well, you all can relax. Let the pros finish the fight."
Listening to Cyclone the others trembled so much they almost managed to free themselves from the stun. However, they felt that Cyclone was not entirely wrong. It was actually quite embarrassing that six people had been caught off guard by the boss. Even Liam was somewhat unhappy. Apparently, his friends underestimated the boss and were now paying for it. It was quite unexpected that Cyclone was the only one who escaped the skill.
Feeling Liam's appreciative gaze on her Cyclone felt somewhat embarrassed. She was just about to explain when the boss made his next move. Simply stunning his enemies naturally was not enough. It created an opportunity that he surely wouldn't miss.
"Benragdil, Divine Serpent, let these heretics feel your might!"
Upon the Holy Priest's call, the serpent statue's eyes lit up again. Suddenly a ghostly spirit rose from the statue. It was a demonic serpent, its body raising to the sky, staring at its surroundings with piercing, icy-blue eyes. An immense power gathered towards it. A torrent of water formed in its maw.
Feeling the power forming above her head, Silver Blade suddenly made her move. With a thought she activated [Vanguard's Will]. The stun was violently broken, and the tank regained her movement. Instantly [Aura of ranged protection] spread with her as the centre and the image of a mighty shield appeared behind her back. Her ultimate skill enveloped her friends, protecting them against the boss's move.
Silver Blade was not a second too late as the serpent abruptly lowered his head and began to bombard the ground with large water bombs. The first bomb came for Bleary Mirage, who dodged with a simple flash step. He appeared next to Mecii and leisurely continued his attacks.
The serpent showed no change in its expression. Instantly another bomb left its mouth, aiming for Quickstep. The woman cursed inwardly but there was nothing she could do.
[-9049!]
The imaginary sacred shield behind Silver Blade's back trembled heavily as it barely withstood the damage. Quickstep felt a huge relief. The enemy's damage was not weak. At level 57 Quickstep had 25.104HP. This might sound like a lot, but it was only enough to endure two of the serpent's attacks. She was no Silver Blade who could play with the boss for days as long as there was a healer standing behind her. Most of her attributes were geared towards damage.
The others naturally saw what had happened at Quickstep's side. Everyone prayed inwardly that they wouldn't be the ones targeted by the serpent. The latter moved its icy eyes over the players before spitting out another attack.
"I knew it, you big, stupid snake!"
Cyclone exclaimed loudly noticing the ball of water coming towards her. After the boss used its skill, she didn't begin to cast a spell of her own and instead used a few normal attacks just in case she would be targeted. And indeed, the snake didn't have much intelligence. Instead of focusing the stunned players it unleashed its attack on Cyclone. Already prepared, the mage dodged quite leisurely with a flash step.
With another miss Mecii appeared to become restless. He was still being attacked by Liam, and his HP were getting dangerously low. He waved his sceptre, increasing the firing rate of the serpent. Another water bomb was spit out and it finally had some effect. It precisely hit Fortune's chest. The shield behind Silver Blade trembled but it didn't have enough power stored and couldn't fully block the blow. It broke apart and Fortune still suffered close to 4000 points of damage.
The serpent didn't rest after its success. But before it could attack again, the friends finally managed to free themselves from the stun. Under normal circumstances the serpent should have still been able to attack once or twice, but with the resistance of original nephilim against mental stuns they managed to regain their mobility early.
"Die!"
The friends were quite annoyed. Before the serpent could attack again Mecii was met with a rain of skills. With only a sliver of HP left there was nothing he could do. His HP zeroed out and the merfolk priest breathed his last breath.
"Adventurers… merfolk will… be victorious."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
Everyone appeared dismissive as the holy priest created quite the drama. He dropped his sceptre and clutched his chest with his hands. Blood trickled down from his mouth. His eyes were on the dissipating ghostly serpent. He fell to his knees, spoke his last words, and finally fell silent.
"Drama queen…"
Cyclone noticed that the atmosphere was rather strange. She tried to lift everyone's mood with a joke, but it only earned her a few smiles. Quickstep shook her head, swiping her eyes over her friends.
"We were careless. This shouldn't happen."
"Mhm. It can't be that the entire party gets stunned just because Mirage didn't warn us.", agreed Silent Acacia.
"We underestimated the enemy…"
Silver Blade also took a deep breath before speaking:
"Nothing bad happened this time. But we should keep this lesson in mind. Didn't we train not to be too dependent on Mirage at the beginning? Let's not repeat old mistakes."
The others nodded solemnly. Of course, they could just let Liam carry them through fights and only go into battle with him present. But everyone had their pride! If they were only reliant on Liam, could they even call themselves pro players? Could they look their fans in the eyes? Could they win future tournaments? After all, others were improving constantly. The federation's top players became increasingly more skilled as they became more familiar with the game. If Hotpot remained on the spot they might eventually be overtaken. Wouldn't it be a joke if, during a future tournament, Liam took first place, but the others couldn't even enter the top ten?
Of course, the situation was not that dire. This was only a small wake-up call. But especially Quickstep and Silent Acacia were somewhat disappointed in themselves. They really had the ambition of one day fighting for the top spot with Liam. But they seemingly still had much to learn.
While the couple remained lost in thoughts, the others recovered quickly. Cyclone noticed the mood improving and approached the boss with a grin. Her favourite time of the day had come. It was time to loot the boss!
"Please, please, please, legendary wand!"
Cyclone rubbed her hands and shouted loudly before touching the body of the boss. A blinding light erupted. Cyclone's eyes went wide. Secretly she didn't have that much expectation. After all, the boss was too weak. But could it be that Mecii actually dropped something good?
The light attracted everyone's attention. They stared at Cyclone's hand and found a beautiful silver hammer appear there.
Cyclone could only let out a sigh. Since Radiant Shield was not here no one was overly excited about the hammer. But when they checked its information out of curiosity, they could only comment:
"Radiant Shield will be jumping in joy!"
[Egoriz' hammer of a raider
Category: Unique, Set
Level requirement: 52
Attack Damage: 37-42
Attack Speed: 0,7
Strength: +6
Effect 1: Every other time you or your allies are attacked by an enemy, increase your physical weapon damage by 1 up to a limit of 10. The effect will wear off after 200 seconds. (cooldown: 300 seconds)
Effect 2: Every time you block an enemy attack, you have a low chance of 10% to reset your own attack.
Two-piece Set effect: Whenever you meet an enemy's attack with Egoriz' Hammer instead of Egoriz' Shield, you have a to certain chance to stun them depending on your STR attribute. (cooldown 100 seconds)
Restriction: Bound upon wearing
The orcish raider Egoriz gathered materials throughout Crunaboul before finally asking the famous dwarven blacksmith Hodougar to forge the hammer and shield of his dreams. Despite having participated in raids against dwarven settlements before Egoriz was able to move Hodougar, who accepted and created items of excellent quality. However, other dwarves didn't agree with the orc wielding such items forged by one of their blacksmiths and eventually hunted Egoriz down many years later.]