...

The Shadahi were different from other monsters and beast within RML due to one major thing; the way they increased their power. Most demonic existences do not evolve like the Shadahi, which is why long ago the divine beings beyond the firmament split the mortal plane and Shadahi plane into two separate parts. The all-seeing goddess Helilatiaa along with Mazi the god of craft and many other divine beings, worked together to imprison "him". However, since "he" was too powerful to kill or banish from the mortal plane, they could only use the «Chains of Mazi». The «Chains of Mazi» was crafted from a divine material that could seal anything including divine beings, but even with such a formidable force suppressing "him", the seal would not last for an eternity as it was supposed to. ​​

What made the Shadahi unique was the fact that they were all given life by the same existence. As long as that existence remains sealed, the source of their power would be severely limited. However, there was one item that if its energy was harnessed correctly, could remove a Shadahi's weakened state and bypass the seal placed upon "him" in order to directly draw strength from the source.

Syxirius drew his strength directly from "him". Ekquilore, however, received his power from Syxirius and this dilution of power continued all the way down to the bottom of the Shadahi food chain. The reason Syxirius wanted the «Boundary Sealing Sphere» was so that he and every Shadahi under him would be restored to full power and if that happened then the seal placed upon "him" within the mortal plane would also naturally weaken.

Syxirius was sitting upon his throne, locked in place by a weaker version of the «Chains of Mazi». He was growing impatient and felt that he would soon be freed from his imprisonment. He thought to himself, "If the «Boundary Sealing Sphere» is here, then that means the «Relic of Power» has been unleashed..." an evil grin formed on his face. "That terrifying thing carries the blood of the great one within it, so those polluted by its power will have only one task... Ha... Muwahahaha! MUWHAHAHA!" the entire palace began to violently shake as if it were going to collapse from the pressure. Syxirius calmed down trying not to get too excited, "They shall be the one who will free the great one!"

...

As Halls charged forward, Luna cast «Healing Essence» once and «Cure» twice to bring his HP back to a safe point. She used a total of 150 MP within just 2-3 seconds and so quickly removed a «Lesser Mana Potion» from her inventory and drank it to regain some MP back.

«+75 HP» [Healing Essence]

«+225 HP» [Cure]

«+225 HP» [Cure]

«975/1,500 HP Remaining» [Halls]

«+100 MP» [Lesser Mana Potion]

«415/625 MP Remaining» [Luna]

Just as Izroth's «Nameless Blade» was about to pass by the neck of Commander Ekquilore, the whole palace began to shake violently throwing everyone off balance, even the huge Shadahi before them. Izroth's sword just missed Commander Ekquilore's vital point as he sliced into their chest area. However, Izroth adjusted himself midair and quickly used «Phantom Strike» to accurately strike the neck of Commander Ekquilore, making his sword slash out twice in quick succession.

«85 Damage» [Basic Attack]

«Critical Hit: 255 Damage» [Phantom Strike]

«Critical Hit: 425 Damage» [Phantom Strike]

«96% HP Remaining» [Commander Ekquilore]

〈Battle Alert: Commander Ekquilore is no longer «Paralyzed»〉

As the «Paralyzed» effect ended on Commander Ekquilore, Halls was back within fighting range and used «Taunting Aura» to pull the focus of attacks onto him. The same time that took place, a blazing ball of fire soared through the air and crashed into the body of Commander Ekquilore. Scarlet shot off a «Fireball» and was getting ready to instantly follow it with her «Ignite» skill, however, just before she was about to cast it she felt an unbearable pressure fall upon her.

"Weak mortals!" Commander Ekquilore unleashed a deadly aura of suppression from his body as it engulfed Scarlet and locked her into place.

〈Battle Alert: Player Scarlet is «Stunned» for 2 seconds〉

Afterward, the temperature within the atmosphere seemed to skyrocket and everyone felt as though they were being boiled alive.

Scarlet was already cursing her bad luck to be the first one hit by that stun ability, but she did not even have time to finish doing so before another unfortunate event took place.

Izroth could sense that something was about to happen and instantly retreated. Soon after, the hallway was covered in pitch black flames that raged about. Luna was smart enough to retreat a few meters back. Judging from the heat filling the atmosphere this was definitely the «Demonic Hellfire» skill. Luna was not too far away from the limit of its range and so only had to retreat a few meters back. Scarlet, however, was unlucky enough to be the target of Commander Ekquilore's «Demonic Suppression». She was unable to retreat to a safe distance since her «Fireball» skill required her to be within 20 meters of the target in order to cast it.

«249 Damage» [Fireball]

«95% HP Remaining» [Commander Ekquilore]

Halls understood that he did not have the agility to escape in time, so he could only make the best of it and use one of his emergency skills. After all, this boss hit way too hard for him to leave anything to chance. His body became cloaked in a soft light blue energy, but even though it appeared to be soft it was actually a sturdy defensive aura. This was one of the new abilities he learned after reaching Amaharpe, «Shielding Guardna». With this skill stacked on top of Luna's «Healing Essence», the damage from the «Demonic Hellfire» was almost completely negligible.

Skill Name: Shielding Guardna

Skill Level: MAXED

Skill Rank: C

Requirements: Level 13 Warrior, 'Shield' Equipped

Active: Reduces all incoming damage by 35% for 10 seconds.

Cooldown: 3 minutes

Description: Do not let its soft appearance fool you, this defensive skill is extremely sturdy and difficult to penetrate.

«98 Damage» [Demonic Hellfire]

«+75 HP» [Healing Essence]

«952/1,500 HP Remaining» [Halls]

«150 Damage» [Demonic Hellfire]

«510/660 HP Remaining» [Scarlet]

Halls and Scarlet were struck by the flames. However, Izroth and Luna were successful in retreating out of range in time. Luckily the skill was not instant and possessed a small time window in order to retreat for those close enough to the edge of the skill range, or fast enough to sprint out of it like Izroth.

〈Battle Alert: Player Scarlet is no longer «Stunned»〉

The «Stunned» effect finally ended on Scarlet and she immediately cast «Mana Shield» to protect herself from further damage. It was too late to move out of the attack range for her and so she could only take the remaining damage and launch a counterattack.

Skill Name: Mana Shield

Skill Level: 2/4

Skill Rank: C

Requirements: Level 13 Mage

Mana Cost: 75

Cast Time: Instant

Active: Creates a shield of mana around the caster equal to 150% of the user's magic that absorbs incoming damage for up to 15 seconds.

Cooldown: 45 seconds

Thanks to her «Mana Shield» skill, Scarlet receive no loss of HP from the final two ticks of the «Demonic Hellfire» damage.

After the 6 seconds passed, Commander Ekquilore became motionless as the fire within the hallway began to vanish.

〈Battle Alert: Commander Ekquilore has been affected by «Power of the Seal» for 6 seconds〉

When the party received the battle alert, all of their eyes instantly turned fierce. This was the exact moment they were waiting for.

Izroth was the first to act using «Flickering Steps» to get back into attack range instantly. His «Nameless Blade» was already covered in a light milky blue aura with an oppressive aura following behind its slash. How could he let this opportunity slip away? He aimed for the head of Commander Ekquilore showing no mercy in his assault, using «First Baneful Sword: Destruction» and «Sword Aura» in a combination attack.

At the same time, Scarlet was furious at the monster for choosing her as a target. She would use this chance to take her revenge. A flaming spear took form in front of her and a few moments later streaked across the sky, piercing into the body of Commander Ekquilore. She then tapped her staff against the floor as his body was engulfed in a blaze of fire. Scarlet used the skills «Flaming Spear» and «Ignite» during its increased damage state.

Halls also took the opportunity to use the skill «Shadow Pressure» attached to his «Shadow Fang Sword». The HP of Commander Ekquilore fell rapidly from the barrage of attacks. The most ridiculous amount of damage was dealt by Izroth.

«Critical Hit: 5,600 Damage» [First Baneful Sword: Destruction/Sword Aura]

«1,073 Damage» [Flaming Spear]

«156 Damage» [Ignite]

«140 Damage» [Shadow Pressure]

«67% HP Remaining» [Commander Ekquilore]

6 seconds later...

〈Battle Alert: Commander Ekquilore is no longer affected by «Power of the Seal»〉

By the time Commander Ekquilore's «Power of the Seal» state ended, its HP had dropped all the way down to 55%! The fact that it's HP fell by such a large chunk within only 6 seconds... Everyone had the same exact thought on their minds at that moment and couldn't help but to frown inwardly.

Isn't this boss fight a little too easy?

Izroth frowned while continuing his assault using «Flickering Steps», he could not help but think to himself, "Something feels really off about this fight..." this boss was much tougher and stronger than any of the previous monsters he fought. He had a feeling that this fight would be a challenge, yet that was not the case at all. Izroth trusted his intuition when it came to things like this because it was nearly always right.

Even though they all had this bad premonition, none of them stopped attacking. They were shaving away at the HP of Commander Ekquilore.

50%...

40%...

30%...

25%...

When the Commander Ekquilore's HP reached the 25% mark, something happened that made everyone's facial expression slightly change.

Approaching from down the hall were a total of eight Shadahi. It was not the Lesser Shadahi Patroller that they were used to fighting against, but rather a different type of creature.

Name: Shadahi Crawler(Normal)

Level: 16

HP: 350/350

ATK: 0

DEF: 0

AGI: 130

MAG: 0

Skills:

???

When the group saw the stats of the Shadahi Crawler they all relaxed. If it were a group of eight Lesser Shadahi Patroller's then they would be in a difficult situation, however, those creatures could be totally ignored because they possessed no attack or magic. The only notable thing about them was their high agility stat, but what was the use of that if they could not even deal any damage? However, this was still a boss fight after all so they would not completely let their guard down.

The only person weary was Izroth. He believed that these creatures did not just happen to come across them by chance. Although he did not move to attack them immediately, he still paid close attention to them so that if anything unexpected occurred he would be able to react properly.

Just as Halls was moving to intercept the Shadahi Crawlers so that their focus would fall onto him, they ran right past him without attacking and instead jumped at Commander Ekquilore.

Everyone was shocked, but something happened next that made all their faces turn dark. As soon as the eight Shadahi Crawlers latched onto the body of Commander Ekquilore, they dissipated into nothingness as though he was absorbing them.

«+5,000 HP»

«+5,000 HP»

«+5,0...

In only an instant, Commander Ekquilore's HP was restored to full.

Izroth let out a small sigh, he had been careless. He expected them to explode when they moved in closer or maybe even try to do something that would hinder them in some way, such as in his previous battle against the 'Goblin Foreman Rthuja' when it called for those goblins mid-battle. He was fully prepared for that, however, his lack of experience in the gaming world revealed itself in moments like these. Although he possessed the memories of a hardcore gamer, he had to manually access them and even then only the general information was useful. For example, there would be no memories of Commander Ekquilore because the original owner of this body never played RML before.

"Weak insects, I shall show you the power bestowed upon me by my lord!" Commander Ekquilore spoke in a scornful way.

When Commander Ekquilore finished speaking, the party received two battle alerts from the system.

〈Battle Alert: Commander Ekquilore begins to draw in a greater power!〉

〈Battle Alert: Commander Ekquilore has entered his second phase!〉