Chapter 160

Army of the Dead (VI)

The fuse was lit and the time was ticking; every member of the party save for Belric who stayed behind to keep the corpses at bay poured toward boss with everything they had. Mana pools began to drain at the visible speed as arcs of elements and weapons began to fly toward the boss. At the forefront was Jamal who immediately absorbed the tear next to the boss, coating himself in a sheen of silver energy and gaining an incredible 400% boost to his damage.

What were usually half-a-foot-wide arrays of starlight nearly quadrupled in size, lending credence to the enormous bout of explosions that each of his attacks inflicted. Within the damage charts everyone had access to, Jamal quickly shot upward; while Daniel, Senna, and he were in a slight competition up until that point, the competition ended immediately as he began dealing more damage than both of the others combined.

Surges of milky-white starlight completely overwhelmed other effects, appearing almost like a sun amidst the sea of very distant stars. Lek’s health quickly began to plummet, reaching 30% within less than five seconds and forcing another member of Kramer’s group to step into a circle, becoming Entombed.

Though their DPS slowed down somewhat, it wasn’t overly notable; by now, most people have begun to finally complete their combos for the maximum outpour of damage; Daniel managed to fully stack the ‘Bleeds’ onto the boss, ticking every second for nearly 600 damage alone; similarly, Senna’s ‘Weapon of Divine’ had begun to give her stacks of ‘Attack Speed’ with each successful strike, ramping up to the point where the massive, crystallized sword almost became a blur as it whirled around the boss and repeatedly slashed and stabbed at him.

In the midst of it all, Sigmund was frowning as he continued to violently slash with his broadsword; unlike Jamal, who opted into a thinner but faster variant of a Blademaster's fighting style, Sigmund settled on the full-out-brawn style and was beginning to slightly regret it at the moment. Seeing Jamal's numbers, a burst of envy trickled into his heart; even if he knew that the Tear was responsible for most of it, even beforehand, he was nowhere near the other man. Roaring as to inspire himself, he continued to vent his frustrations on the poor, defenseless boy as though he were a pinata.

Anton and Ryu, who always prided themselves on topping the DPS charts in their groups, also felt their moods dampen; now that everyone was going all out, the gap between the two adjoined parties became even more obvious. Neglecting Jamal, Senna and Daniel were well above everyone else in terms of DPS, and an even more depressing factor than that might have been that Emma was genuinely wrestling with them for the 5th spot, behind Sigmund -- a tank... was fighting with them for a good placement in the DPS charts.

The two glanced at the woman clad in now-bloodied armor, swinging about her weapon like a madman, her attack speed already stacked to the maximum, blood gushing out of the weapon repeatedly, healing and shielding her in addition to dealing considerable damage. The more they fought together, the more Kramer’s group realized just how both woefully under-geared and generally underprepared they were in comparison.

In the midst of their drifting thoughts, Lek's health dropped down further to 20%, forcing yet another person to step into the circle. By now, just shy of 10 seconds had passed, giving the party a sense of hope; however, it was short-lived. After all, that was the initial burst, a combined effort of over ten people using the strongest skills at their disposal. The longer into the 30 seconds count they got, the less overall damage they would deal.

“Alright, second rotation of cooldowns, we can’t slow down!!” Emma’s words caused members of Kramer’s party to nearly break out in tears. What do you mean by second rotation?!!! How many rotations do you have?!!

Seeing the numbers spike back up as Emma took over everyone except Sigmund, and was even fast approaching him, left others feeling somewhat desolate. Were they even needed at this point, they wondered. Three people carried the entire weight of the party in terms of damage, and, from the appearances, Emma and Lukas could have easily divided the ads among themselves while Diya could have supported them all collectively from behind. And there was also perhaps the most important factor -- the strongest member of their party... wasn’t even here. What would the damage charts look if Cain had the Tear? Would others even be on the table or would the system just let him hoard all the spots?

“KEEP AT IT!! IT WILL BE CLOSE, BUT WE’LL MAKE IT IN TIME!!” Emma’s roar breached past the thunderous sounds of the explosions that echoed out with each strike. By now, the entire hall was shaking under the weight of a relentless onslaught, debris falling about like rain.

Lek’s health dipped below 10% with 7 seconds remaining on the invincibility, prompting the group to focus even harder as another member walked into the circle. By now, everyone was running low on Mana and practically had no significant cooldowns outside their standard rotation.

Though there were some worries over dealing with the third phase, unless they got to it, there would be nothing to worry about. With the seconds fast-ticking, and Lek’s health seemingly suddenly dropping at the speed of an average snail, the party go anxious -- all the way until someone realized something.

“Wait,” Diya mumbled. “Shouldn’t... shouldn’t have 3rd phase began at 10%?” she spoke to herself, not wanting to derail others, trying to understand what was happening.

Just as the last second ticked off, Lek’s health dropped down to 5%, prompting a low cry to escape the boy as everyone found themselves flying back through the air, feeling happy. They were yet to realize that the third phase didn’t begin at 5%, making them believe that they had just barely made it. However, a sudden outpour of notifications that flooded their screen quickly cleared up their confusion.

//Congratulations on defeating Lek, Usher of the Dead!

You have accomplished a Feat -- ‘Pertinent Slayer’ -- defeat a raid-level monster by completely skipping one of their phases due to the sheer amount of damage dealt. Your achievement will forever be engraved in the ‘Divine Halls of Records’!

Every member of the party gains a new, Legendary-tier Title: Timely Assassin -- for the first 30 seconds of non-boss combat, and 3 minutes of boss combat, gain a 40% bonus to direct damage, healing, and damage reduction, depending on your role; additionally, gain the reduced version of the buff only when fighting a boss-level creature, totaling at 25% when boss falls below 20% Health.

Every member of the party will gain 1 Level!

Lek’s defeat is imminent, but there is still a choice to be made:

Slay Lek; every member of the party will gain 2 new items and a random Classless Skill based on how they fought the battle. Spare Lek; by sparing him, you will undo the binding chains and, due to the boy’s gratitude, he will join you as a Companion. His Level and Stats will reset back to 1, but his potential will go from ‘C-’ to ‘B+’.

Note: Companions can both fight alongside you as members of the party or be sent on their own missions.

You have 5 minutes to make your choice!

Good luck, Conquerors!//

Everyone went numbly silent for a few moments, not quite sure what had just happened; even if they had the visual confirmation that they’ve defeated the boss... they still couldn’t quite believe it.

“That’s... possible?” Kramer mumbled as every previously ‘Entombed’ member of the party appeared on the surface abruptly, similarly confused for a moment before they exploded in a short-lived bout of joy as they realized others weren’t sharing-in with their happiness.

“... uh, yeah, I guess.” Emma shrugged, relenting and accepting new reality. “All else aside, we need to quickly discuss the choice.”

“Just kill ‘im,” Senna shrugged. “We’ll need items for the next boss, anyway.”

“He’s just a boy, though,” Diya said. “I mean... just a boy.”

"I mean, think about it," Jamal said. "Whatever items we get, we'll likely replace them with the next massive boss fight, right? However, if we get him as a companion... sheesh. Plus, if this is what he can do with ‘C-’ potential or whatever the hell it was, imagine the possibilities of ‘B+’.”

“Yeah, that’s true, but he won’t be any help for the next fight,” Senna said. “And, we really need to win the next fight if we wanna raise him.”

“... I say we risk it,” Emma shared her own thoughts. “We can’t be too tunnel-focused on just the next fight. Yes, sure, I’ve no doubt it will be beyond difficult, as will the last fight of this raid. But... what about the raids in the future? They’ll only gonna get more and more complex and more and more difficult. With him, however, we might not need to chase items like starving men in the future just to barely scrape by. Imagine if we had someone like him this fight -- do you think it would have been as difficult?”

“She has a point,” Kramer nodded, sighing. “Besides, the lack of items will be compensated by the new title we got. While two new items would likely increase our overall DPS a bit more than that, it wouldn’t be that big of a difference.”

“I agree.”

“Yeah, let’s save him. He’s really cute.”

“Who said that?!”

“I didn’t say that.”

While others quickly turned to chaos now that they could relax, Emma rolled her eyes and walked over to the boy, standing in front of him. She only now realized just how... fragile the boy looked. He was thin, so much so that there was practically nothing but flesh and bones on him. He was sitting still and silent on top of a rock, innocently ‘looking’ around as though he could see. As soon as Emma clicked on the second option, to save the boy, his motions stopped for a moment before his ‘eyes’ veered over to her and his thin lips curled up into the faintest of smiles.

“Thank you, big sis.” Ah, whatever, Emma melted slightly inside, her maternal instincts kicking in. Cain’s already adopted 2-3, I get to adopt a few as well, no?

“Hello, Lek,” she said. “My name is Emma.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

“Thank you. So is yours. Are you hurt?”

“No,” Lek shook his head. “Other big sis makes sure I never get hurt. Or... well.. made sure.”

“Other big sis?” Emma quizzed.

“... I don’t know who she is,” the boy said, lowering her head. “She appears in my dreams... and tells me funny stories. And keeps me protected.”

“Don’t worry; we’ll keep you protected now.”

“Really?!”

“Yes.”

“Yaay!” as the boy jumped into her arms and hugged her tightly, she noted an extra new frame that appeared in their party -- Lek. Going through it, she was able to bring up Lek’s status window which made her nearly drop the boy and herself to the ground.

//Name: Lek (???) Age: 14(?) Race: Necro Human

Class: Necromancer (all future sub-classes are chosen automatically and cannot be interfered with)

Level: 1

Strength: 1 Vitality: 1 Agility: 1 Stamina: 1

Intelligence: 623 Wisdom: 591 Health: 10 Mana: 12460

Traits: Intelligent(SSS+), Multi-tasking(SSS), Analysis(SS+), Potential(B+), Naive(SS-), Physical Weakness(SS+)

Note: Lek cannot gain bonus stats to Strength, Vitality, Agility, or Stamina nor acquire any Skills, Traits, or Talents related to them. He has a fixed notion of dying if struck by 5 direct strikes in a row, regardless of their damage.

Skills: Raise Dead(B), Empower the Army(C+), Golem Summoning(D+), Bone Spear(D), Weep of the Scryer(E), Penultimate Sacrifice(?)

Items: Scepter of the Undying(SSS+) -- growth type item; cannot be switched.

Titles: The Eternal Boy, Survivor of Ge’tal, Friend of the Fallen, The Perisher, Denizen of the Underworld, Usher of the Dead

Feats: One Who Survived Divine’s Fury(Cosmic)//