"Get ready!"
Liam's shout prompted all his friends to perk up. Especially Cyclone and Fortune. They directly started casting skills.
As the red dragon rampaged, the sky above it suddenly turned pitch black. A moment later a figure emerged from it, engulfed in threads of darkness, the appearance extremely fierce. Liam dropped from the sky, landing on the dragon's back. The faint protective layer all over the dragon's body lit up, negating the damage.
Yet Liam was not disappointed. He had already put away his swords. In their stead, a small red scale was held in his hands. He gathered momentum and suddenly stepped downwards with all his strength.
[-10.000!]
"AHHH!"
The dragon roared in pain, its voice as if multiple dragons overlapped, echoing through the trial space. A sound akin to glass breaking could be heard. The magical protection appeared for a moment before shattering spectacularly, filling the world with specks of light caused by mana gathering densely.
"Now!"
The friends instantly realized that their chance had come. Silent Acacia's arrow was already in the air. It was the first attack to reach the boss.
[-357!]
The damage had increased slightly. However, this was already a pleasant surprise. Even more important was the fact that their mages were able to attack as well.
A bolt of lightning crossed the air, crashing into the dragon's tall body. It came from Cyclone's conjured lightning spirit named Zappy. With her hands freed, Cyclone directly followed with a normal attack and Fortune, too, finished her spell, casting [Arcane Bolts]
[-20!]
[-37!]
[-110!]
"Our damage is still so low…"
"Dragons are really the darlings of mana. It is difficult to hurt them with magic."
The two mages had to resign themselves to their fates. Even combined they didn't deal as much damage as a single arrow from Silent Acacia. At least they weren't entirely alone in their suffering as elemental damage proved quite ineffective as well.
Quickstep's eyes were blazing with a sharp silver as she swung her sword at the dragon's leg. Wind and water followed her movements, cutting at the enemy, seeking a way through the red scales.
[-206!]
[-24!]
[-83!]
The water damage was still alright, but the wind damage was reduced by a lot. Quickstep showed a moment of annoyance, but her attacks never ceased.
Perceiving the outcome over at the female warrior's side, Watchful Eye didn't even bother using skills. Actually, the situation was not entirely terrible for him. By putting aside his skills he saved his Qi, which in turn maximised the potential of his physical attacks. The monk twirled his heavy staff, aiming at the joints in of the dragon's legs, delivering a powerful blow.
[-650!]
"Nice one!"
"Since when is Watchful Eye so fierce?"
The exclamations of his friends didn't leave Watchful Eye cold. A smile almost emerged on his face as he swung his staff with vigour. Suddenly his expression faltered, disbelief flashing in his eyes. Flames kindled on his staff, engulfing the wood, altering its damage type. This was the effect of his armour, converting his attack to a random elemental type. What would usually bring delight, now caused Watchful Eye's eye to twitch from annoyance.
[-1!]
"Why would he…"
Cyclone started to speak before stopping herself. She also understood that Watchful Eye hadn't done that on purpose. Suppressing the chuckles threatening to come from her mouth she focused on the dragon and threw more attacks.
Five seconds passed since Liam shattered the dragon's barrier. Its painful roars finally ceased and its physical defence recovered. However, its magical protection still took more time to form.
During this time the friends struck fiercely, accumulating quite some damage. The main contribution came from Watchful Eye and Bloody Edge. All in all, the dragon suffered another 7500 points of damage. The friends were satisfied but looking at the boss's long HP bar, they knew that there was still a lot of work ahead.
Liam swung his sword for one last time before nimbly jumping from the dragon's back. He glanced at the boss and couldn't help but frown. Even after breaking the magical protection, he didn't manage to apply a single Holy or Dark Mark. He quickly figured out the reason.
He knew that this boss had an absolute resistance against abilities affecting its status, the only exception being aggro. This also included effects like Cyclone's paralysation or Bloody Edge's [Boiling Blood], even Silent Acacia's [Mark of Death]. According to Liam's knowledge, this resistance would disappear together with the magical protection breaking. But apparently this had changed compared to his past life. Now it remained to be seen if this resistance could be destroyed at all.
While Liam informed his friends of the observation, the dragon recovered. It raised its head high and roared at the sky. The scale stuck in its back was pushed out by its muscles. A magical impact hit it, throwing it directly off the mountain.
"You will pay for this!"
Steam erupted from the dragon's body and the temperature of the entire battlefield increased. Sparks played around its mouth.
"Hide behind it! Hurry!"
It was Silver Blade who shouted, inferring the dragon's next move. No one questioned her. The friends rushed as fast as possible. Of course, the ranged attackers, standing at a distance, had it more difficult. Their stomachs dropped. Balm was the first to decisively use a flash step. Cyclone and Fortune copied her quickly.
"Acacia! Come on!"
Quickstep's voice was tinged with worry. She watched her boyfriend, afraid that he wouldn't make it. But suddenly the beast master disappeared. A laugh came from behind Quickstep.
"No need to worry, babe!"
Seeing that Korn appeared at the spot where Silent Acacia had been, Quickstep understood what had happened. She rolled her eyes and hacked at the dragon's leg with her sword.
The roar of flames abruptly drowned out all other sounds. Temperature as well as illumination rose by several levels. Rolling flames erupted from the dragon's maw, covering more than half the battlefield, producing a dreadful sight. Everyone caught in the dragon fire would most likely be burned to a crisp.
"Korn made it!"
Balm let out a sigh of relief as she saw Korn hovering in the air above the flames. She was fully ready to use everything to keep the pet alive. Although after Silent Acacia's upgraded his class, the pets wouldn't drop to level zero upon death, they would still suffer a penalty of five percent of their total EXP, probably dropping by three to four levels.
Although Korn avoided the worst of the flames, he still was not safe. Hovering above the flames he constantly kept taking damage. The winged tiger sped up, leaving the area, and finally made it to safety. Silent Acacia looked at the pet's belly. Noticing the tips of the fur burned off he couldn't help but feel a little guilty.
Meanwhile everyone kept attacking the dragon from behind. It shook its body in irritation. Closing its maw it stopped spewing flames and turned around, sending a vicious glare the way of the players.
"Keep it up! Get as much damage in as possible before it flies again!"
The boss's HP was shrinking slowly but consistently. Another five hundred points, another five hundred…
Snorting unhappily the dragon retaliated with a flaming spear aimed at Silver Blade. The tank calmly stood her ground. Flames latched onto her armour, passing right and left of her head as the spear burst against her barrier.
[-5847!]
The exchange lasted for a while. Luckily the dragon's attacks had rather big intervals between them. But even so Silver Blade realized that it wouldn't be easy to endure the dragon's attacks throughout the fight. Should she get caught in one of the boss's skills the situation might quickly turn dire.
Finally, Silver Blade's [Luring Barrier] shattered. The dragon let out a triumphant snarl. But the party wasn't dissatisfied. During that time, they managed to deal quite some damage to the oversized lizard. Its HP had been reduced to 150.000 points.
"Haha, don't get your hopes up! This trial isn't so easy to beat!"
The dragon's voice rang in everyone's ears. It flapped its wings, the ensuing wind prompting everyone to avert their eyes. With a few strong pushes the dragon was back in the air, circling above everyone's heads.
"So damn annoying…"
"Yeah! Why can't we summon our flying mounts?"
Among the party those without ranged attacks were understandably frustrated. They could only watch as Cyclone, Fortune, and Silent Acacia continued their assault on the boss.
However, even they had to stop when the dragon attacked again. Flames surged from its maw, producing another flaming wall to separate the battlefield, leaving nothing but destruction. The dragon repeated the move another two times, leaving less and less space for the players. Finally, it seemed satisfied and rose high into the air. Sparks played around its maw. Everyone realised what was about to come.
"Get to the centre! Quick!"
"Why are these flames still burning?!"
"What should we do?"
"Rush through! Balm, prepare to heal!"