Chapter 359

Raiding the Star of Hegon (III)

The day had come--eighty souls had gathered in front of a massive entrance of a silver-hung spire piercing toward the clear sky. Entrance to the room of the Guardian of the 20th floor, U’nul. Everyone’s nerves seemed a bit stretched, even Emma’s; it has been a few weeks since their last run, and quite a few things have changed. Outside of adding far more members and upgrading their gear, they’d also slowly began remembering just how difficult the fight truly was, moment-to-moment.

As such, even if they didn’t expect to defeat the boss--as that wasn’t even the plan--and even if Cain was right there with them, though not in a fighting spirit, it was still difficult to calm their nerves.

“There isn’t much left to say, what with our throats burning over the last week,” Emma joked as she glanced back at the group, trying to ease the atmosphere. “All I’ll say is... don’t die. Let’s go.”

The group slowly shuffled through the arched entrance and found themselves inside a massive room at the center of which was the Heart of Fire--a suspended, pure-white bubble of flames that seemed to hold the weight of the world. U’nul was kneeling at the altar, praying toward it, her frame despondently beautiful. As soon as the group entered and landed at the edge of the circular room, she stood up and glanced back, her features marred in expressionlessness.

“You have grown,” she spoke softly, lifting her left arm and opening the palm toward the sky, whereupon a silver-dyed blade with fiery guard appeared floating above it. “Though... not enough.”

“EVERYONE, FAN OUT INTO THE FORMATION!!” Emma hollered the orders as they got the notification that the battle had started. Kramer and her quickly sprinted to the front while the rest of the raid began moving toward one of the places where the Pylon would spawn.

“Let the fires consume you,” U’nul said as she swung the blade toward Emma. The woman was some fourteen feet tall altogether, her shadow imposingly large. Just the sheer pressure of her presence was enough to stifle those who were having their first baptism of the fight. But they couldn’t falter.

Rather than taking the strike head-on, Emma slid sideways and guided the behemoth of a blade with her own sword toward the ground, lashing out quickly with a strike while circling the tall woman as to face her away from the group. At the same time, Kramer circled from the other end, though didn’t walk to the front and instead stayed on the side.

It was when U’nul was completely turned, facing away from the raid, that the melee attackers rushed in, and the first barrage of spells arrived. Though they had no means of knowing it ultimately, with Luther’s estimates, the group had planned out their cooldowns to some degree. They’d naturally need deeper runs at the boss and more optimization in the long run, but at least they were starting someplace.

The first barrage was unleashed as the colors of all spectrum awashed the arena, alighting it in a spectacular fashion. At the same time, the boss’ health began to degrade. It was slow, painfully so--even more slow than when they’d faced her with fewer people--but it was moving down.

“Be touched by the Fire!” U’nul echoed as Emma quickly used a defensive. Even still, her health dropped below 30% for an instant before she sliced and healed herself. At the same time, Kramer roared and slammed U’nul with all his might, drawing aggro. It was a simple, tank-swap mechanic, but if they screwed it up, it would become deadly. One time, due to inexperience, Emma didn’t lower her damage output and stole aggro from Kramer, and experienced the 800% increased damage on the strike. It had instantly activated one of her precious life-saving measures, and nearly killed her twice over, even through all her cooldowns.

“These flames... are beautiful!” U’nul exclaimed.

“PREPARE TO MOVE TO THE DESIGNATED SPOTS!” clicking her tongue, she noticed that of the 12 marked people, 7 were actually newcomers. She worried for a moment before she saw them all suddenly float up in the air and race over to their designated positions.

Senna, having been told that she barely did any damage, appeared calm--but Emma knew her daughter well. She was beyond angry; if there was one thing she hated, it was the feeling of uselessness. As such, Emma had seen her go over the fight strategy countless times--it had appeared she had memorized each and every Aluni sign, since she didn’t need to even think for a moment where they were supposed to go.

Luckily, everyone arrived at their designated spots in time. The unfortunate part of it was that only Jamal and Ethan were burst classes; of the other 10, 3 were healers, and the remaining seven were either Buffers or classes specialized in long-term damage. This meant that they’d have trouble dealing with Pylons.

Base calculations by Luther suggested that, at minimum, they’d have to destroy 8 Pylons. 10, however, was the optimal number. In fact, Luther had even suggested leaving 3 Pylons active for absolute safety during the 2nd phase, but outhealing 20,000 damage per second to everyone in raid, even with all the raid-wide defensives, was simply too much. As such, for the time being at least, Emma elected to stick with the 2. Still...

“Don’t worry,” Jamal spoke to her. “With Senna’s help, we should be able to do it quickly enough.”

“Alright,” Emma nodded. She trusted them, naturally.

“Be loved by the Fire!” hearing her cue, Emma waited for the debuff to land on Kramer, shaving off over 60% of the man’s health, before she took the aggro. The debuff on her had already fallen off, and she was finally allowed to once again lash out with damage.

The unfortunate part was that, due to the debuff, her cooldowns often were wasted. She didn’t have any long, 3 minutes and up cooldowns that she depended on. Most of hers were in the range of 1 minute and below, meaning that she didn’t have as much downtime. But, because Kramer’s tanking was entirely different to hers, he couldn’t keep up with aggro if she used her damage.

It wasn’t a knack against him--it was just a difference in their Awakened Classes. While Emma’s Blood Paladin offered her tremendous leech and persistent damage, her defensives were on the weaker end. In fact, the way she played her class was dancing with death--the less health she had, the more leech she had, and the more damage she dealt overall. That was why she was comfortable often sitting on 50%~ of her Health and hated when the healers healed her. Kramer, however, was different. He had no passive leech, he had no massive damage.

What he had, however, as ‘Titan’, were unparalleled defensives--in fact, their current, embryonic strategy for the 2nd phase of the boss relied entirely on the fact that Kramer was insanely difficult to kill. In fact, Jamal and Daniel combined still needed over 1 minute of combined struggle to defeat the man. That was to say that Kramer lived through ALL their burst and then some.

Because of the nature of the class, when it came to taking hits, he was the one taking them. The reason the boss shaved 60% of his health wasn’t because the boss dealt that much damage--it was because Kramer hadn’t actually used a defensive. He relied entirely on the passive protection and lived steadily. If Emma took that hit without a defensive, she would either die or come close to it.

In the meantime, from the rear, Cain observed everything. He was disguised as one of the Buffers, though he was doing nothing--literally. He was simply standing and observing. He was impressed--extremely impressed. Their growth was... quite amazing. It wasn’t just the individual growth of strength, but more the coordination and maturity they displayed.

Emma’s leadership, especially, had long since eclipsed his. While he ‘inspired’ people by simply going apeshit and giving them a good show, she used her words and mannerisms. They followed her without hesitation, no matter who.

Senna, similarly, would have likely lost her cap off if she was told she was useless just a few years ago. And yet, today, he saw her swallowing that bitterness and simply helping however she could, even if it was just carrying the stationary turrets about.

While it wasn’t optimal still, the reason wasn’t their lack of coordination--but the fact that there were 80--or, well, 79--people present, and it was their first raid together. Then again, for their first attempt, it was insane. Even the newcomers didn’t commit any cardinal mistakes, largely because everyone was aware that a single mistake in this fight wouldn’t result in merely taking some damage, but outright dying.

They’re almost there, Cain concluded. As it was right now, they, naturally, wouldn’t kill U’nul. But... they were there, on the tip of the tongue. 10? No, maybe 20 attempts, Cain gave his prediction inwardly.

They were growing, and their growth made him smile. It was all pointless if he alone stood at the summit of the mountain, fighting the ungodly war with the wind in his back. The reason he staggered his growth was because he waited for them to work out the kinks. Their beliefs still held that he was far more talented than them... but they were wrong.

He’d naturally gotten strong to the point that they’d likely never match him, but that had nothing to do with talent. Growth in the Tower was the exponential kind--the hardest were the first steps, while everyone was adjusting to the entirely new phenomenon. However, as they slowly would begin to blossom, they’ll soon realize that their talents... were simply bounds ahead of his.

It was around 35th floor, wasn’t it? The mankind saw a shift around 35th floor in his past life. While, up until then, there were still the ‘superstars’ and such, the rifts weren’t as large. However, after that point, there was a chasm--a clear, spectacular chasm that could not be crossed with items or hard work. The ungodly few would come to stand at the top and look down at the rest. It was the start of a new era.

“ENOUGH!” U’nul exclaimed suddenly as she retreated toward her altar. “You have angered the Flames! And the Fires shall purge you!”

“Senna, Jamal and Daniel on individual Pylons, the other damage dealers together on one! Everyone else, stack around the marked Pylon! Healers, burn cooldowns as we practiced! Classes with low HP, use your defensives! Survive, everyone!” Emma hollered the commands while the 12 pillars of fire erupted at the previously activated Aluni, summoning 12, crimson-dyed Pylons in their place. Fire began to radiate like the wind, and countless, red ‘-’ appeared above everyone’s head. It was a race, and they had to come out on top.