The friends bravely rushed at the demon. Blocked by the cultist Befra it was the perfect opportunity to get some initial damage in. Yet before the friends could reach Chratyo, screams suddenly echoed through the bath.
"Haha, little dragons! Come, come!"
"Dragon blood! I get to taste dragon blood!"
"This is the greatest time! Since the war, the fighting never stops!"
Liam and his friends turned solemn as twenty common demons came out of the portal, their boisterous voices sending chills down everyone's spines. The demons were surprised to face adventurers but to them it didn't matter who they would fight. They only longed to experience the thrill of battle.
"Hehe, order faction dogs. I will tear you apart!"
With burning eyes, the demon immediately rushed at the players.
"We need to take care of the small ones first! Don't let them attack us from the back!"
Everyone nodded as Silver Blade said this, and the two tanks instantly rushed at the enemies. A golden barrier appeared, and a giant shield crashed into the group.
"Three slipped through!"
It wasn't easy to secure the aggro of so many enemies. Three demons remained unimpressed, dashing towards the group. Liam, Quickstep, and Watchful Eye stepped forward to face them for now.
"We need to be quick! Focus on attacking! Don't save your ultimate skills!"
Liam shouted some warning towards his friends. Sieged by seventeen demons, Silver Blade and Radiant Shield would quickly run out of stance. It was important to help them as soon as possible. The friends understood this and didn't hold back. Cyclone and Fortune immediately started preparing their ultimate skills. Liam, Quickstep, and Watchful Eye exchanged blow for blow with their opponents, barely dodging. They relied on Balm to keep them healthy.
Silent Acacia observed the scene and came to a swift decision. He himself didn't have strong AOE skills. But if Quickstep could unleash her hurricanes, it would allow their party to control the battlefield. Thus, Silent Acacia decided to assist his girlfriend. His arrows fell like hail and Korn darted left and right, striking the demon with his sharp tiger claws. Meanwhile Quickstep was running circles around the enemy to swiftly gather her storm.
After a few seconds this led to a small mishap. The targeted demon suddenly pulled his attention away from Quickstep and rushed at Silent Acacia.
"Crap! I lost aggro! Let me…"
"No, wait! You go and help elsewhere! I will kite that big guy around!"
Quickstep only hesitated for a moment before nodding at her boyfriend and turning around. Her Storm was almost maxed out. Silent Acacia nodded with a light grin as the demon came towards him. He instantly used [Ensnaring Bite]. A heavy arrow shot at the demon, piercing its chest for some damage, leaving a mark looking like black vines.
Right then Korn swooped down, slashing the demon's head with his claw. The demon perceived the danger, squatting down. Silent Acacia noticed the opponent's movements in time and had Korn adjust his trajectory. With a tearing sound, Korn's claw met the demon's shoulder, tearing at the red leather armor. The mark left behind on the demon's chest suddenly flared up, binding the demon's body, immobilizing them.
"Ahhh!"
The demon screamed in anger, thrashing around but unable to free himself. Silent Acacia made use of the opportunity to shoot arrows like a machine gun. With some of his skills already on cooldown he even took out some spicy skewers prepared by Serena, which increased his attack speed.
Within three seconds the demon suffered four attacks from Silent Acacia and three from Korn, its HP reducing drastically by more than 15.000 points. Its eyes turned a blazing red as it vowed to tear the archer to pieces. Yet its plight didn't end there.
Suddenly Zorn appeared on the battlefield, called upon as a special summon under Silent Acacia's new and improved passive ability. Zorn quickly shot out a sphere of water which crashed into the demon's chest. The bindings flared up again, and the stun was prolonged by two additional seconds.
"Go!"
Silent Acacia was feeling great as he and his two pets pummelled the demon. Under their combined might it didn't take long for the enemy to fall, and it was the first one to do so!
"Nice one!"
Quickstep was just in time to witness her boyfriend's success, her eyes sparkling. Her gaze instantly turned sharp as she managed to gather enough Storm to enter [Hurricane Mode]. Dazzling silver light erupted form her eyes and she rushed at the large group of enemies, ready to unleash hell upon them.
Right now, a shower of lightning was falling from the ceiling, covering a large area. Cyclone felt exhilarated as she used her ultimate skill [Thunder's Might]. Compared to before her class change, the skill came with more lightning, a total of thirty-three bolts, and granted Cyclone stronger control over the lightning.
She didn't start the cast of a new skill in order to fully concentrate on her lightning, striking a demon with every attack. Under the violent assault seven demons were momentarily paralysed. Cyclone's new tome also showed its power, applying the Conduit effect to two demons. Lightning jumped wildly between the group of demons, making them feel as if caught in the midst of a thunder cloud, constantly numbing their bodies.
The demons roared and tried to leave the range of [Thunder's Might] but the others wouldn't go easy on them. Silver Blade spread her [Bulwark Aura of the Sloth], slowing the enemies down. After a while she had accumulated enough Bulwark Energy thanks to her passive and spent it to momentarily strengthen [Bulwark Aura of the Sloth], causing the skill to erupt with a strong pulling force which not only slowed enemies but also pulled them towards the tank.
However, Silver Blade couldn't uphold this effect for too long. After a while the demons still looked like they might escape the range of Cyclone's lightning. It was at that moment that Quickstep appeared with blazing eyes, conjuring a swirling hurricane which also had the power to pull enemies towards it. The demons roared indignantly but they had no power to free themselves. Their HP were dropping dangerously low and one of the demons focused by Cyclone soon met its end.
Silver Blade took a deep breath. Her [Luring Barrier] had already shattered and her stance was soon to be used up. The situation was similar on Radiant Shield's side. With his stance already broken he endured the attacks of those demons directly. Although their damage was not an immediate threat, a thousand ants could still bite an elephant to death. Luckily this particular elephant had a powerful healer behind it, who used a single [Light of Regeneration] to free Radiant Shield of possible worries.
Under the full power of the party, those flimsy demons were swiftly put into an unfavourable situation. Fortune watched everything with a content grin. She was just about to erupt with her ultimate skill when the sub-boss Chratyo let out an angered roar:
"You useless bunch! Can't even hold back a few adventurers! Do I have to do everything by myself?! Go DIE!"
Chratyo suddenly brought both his hands together. A magic circle instantly formed, devouring a large amount of mana. Everything happened too fast. The magic circle spat out a swell of dense, freezing air. The temperature in the room dropped. The steaming bathwater was frozen. The cold air engulfed the cultist Befra, throwing her back against the wall. At the last moment she managed to protect herself with a layer of light before the air around her froze, trapping her in a huge block of ice.
"No! Aunty!"
"Is she well?!"
"I will save you!"
The spectating cultists all cried out in shock. They overcame their timidness and tried to rush into the room to help Befra but were held back by a suddenly appearing barrier of green light. Even in her last moments Befra thought of her fellow cultists and prevented them from doing something stupid.
"Haha, now to you, order faction dogs!"
Chratyo didn't care for the cultist. He raised both his hands. Magical runes lit up along his arms. He bumped his fists together and instantly a raging blue fire ignited on one hand while terrifying orange ice engulfed the other. With a ruckus laugh the demon slammed his fists into the floor.
Orange and blue lines spread from the demon, criss-crossing along the ground. Liam and his friends were on guard, staying away from the fire and ice. However, this move wasn't that simple. Wherever the lines crossed they would react with each other, causing heavy explosions which shook their surroundings, dealing damage in a large area. They were too dense to escape all of them. Fortune, still in the process of casting, was the first to get hit, suffering more than eight thousand points of damage.
Balm reacted immediately. Dazzling stars appeared below the ceiling, creating areas of light with healing power. For a while the friends had no time to care for the enemy demons as they were caught between dodging and rushing towards the healing areas if they were unfortunately hit.
"No!"
"Boss, why?!"
Desperate cries rang out. Cyclone had retreated all the way to the wall, discovering a relatively safe spot and looking towards the origin of the cries only to find the common demons also caught up in the explosions, even suffering some casualties.