Megan gasped, stepping back. "Wow, it's bigger than the Rotted Cedarlyon. I haven't fought a monster that big before."

I looked around. No one's going to pick the low-hanging fruit?

"Hmm, they're both kinda the same height," Nitana observed. "But its long horse bottom half makes it look bulkier."

"Mardukryons are half bulls," Megan corrected her. "A bucentaur. We've talked about this before."

Nitana shrugged. "Horse, cow, goat, it's all the same. Four legs and hooves."

"If we're talking about sizes," Kezo said, "we'll meet far bigger monsters during the Great Hunt."

My forehead wrinkled as I thought, Even bigger than this?

I missed playing with a computer screen where I could zoom out or rotate the camera. Given I was actually here, inside the game world, fighting gigantic monsters presented a novel challenge. For one, I had to look up to see what they were doing, like when I fought the Cedarlyons. And they also obstructed my view of pretty much everything. It was hard to coordinate with my party without the bird's eye view of the games of old.

"What's the plan?" I said.

Kezo grinned at us, an incredibly unnerving expression for a Mardukryon. "Got to be honest here, I don't know much about Zoar Elab," he admitted. "It has crappy loots, so my party just skipped it in the past. But not knowing the mechanics of the Living Statue is one of the reasons I picked this boss to fight. We don't know which monsters will appear during the Great Hunt."

"And we're simulating not knowing the skills of our targets by fighting the Living Statue?" I said.

"In a way, yes." Kezo scratched his horn. "It's not impossible to memorize the skills and mechanics of all the monsters that might appear in the event. Jensen, the leader of my previous party—Luds mentioned his name—knew by heart the stats of all the discovered bosses, mini-bosses, and Elites on this mountain. He probably paid SpartanDonkey for the data. But I think it's too crazy to follow him."

"I suck at memorizing," Nitana said. "And so does Megan."

"Wha—?" Megan's eyes went wide. "Is this about your dog's birthday? I was just off by one day!"

"You were still wrong," Nitana pouted.

While it was difficult, and probably too late, to try what this Jensen person did, we shouldn't join the event blind either. We didn't need to memorize information about all monsters—only the ones we could hunt and were worth the effort.

All others we ignore. It should be a much shorter list.

Kezo said, "I know only two things about this boss. First, it has a strong homing attack that it uses at regular intervals. Jensen had mentioned it targets the highest DPS in the party. That's me, even if I'm using my hybrid semi-tanky DPS build. But to make things safer, Nitana, don't buff Megan while we charge at the boss."

"Copy that."

"Second, this boss grows stronger the longer the fight goes on."

"Like the Rotted Cedarlyon?" Megan said.

"Not really," answered Nitana. "With that weird tree, only the mobs increase."

"In this case, it's the boss itself that becomes stronger," I said, turning to Kezo for confirmation. He gave me a thumbs up. I continued, "Against the Rotted Cedarlyon, we can last a long time, probably forever, because all of you can wipe the mobs it calls no matter how many they were. But we focused only on the Rotted Cedarlyon because we wanted to improve our boss-hunting speed. Fighting the Living Statue, we're on an actual timer."

"That's right," Kezo said. "Depending on how fast its damage increases, I won't be able to tank it for long. This is the other reason I chose this boss. In the Great Hunt, speed is essential to secure the kills. Fighting the Living Statue will force us to improve our speed because we don't have any other choice. Are you guys ready?"

"Ready," we all answered him.

"Foods and buffs first, and then we'll start the fight."

Zoar Elab, the Living Statue, turned to face us as we walked past the perimeter of broken pillars that bordered an ancient plaza. The golden crystals jutting out of its body began to glow. It raised its hands above its sculpted head.

Between its palms, fierce lightning crackled and branched out, reminding me of the plasma ball experiment that was a fad during science fairs in high school. The collection of energy bathed the boss area in bright yellow light like a mini sun.

"Is that the homing attack?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think so," said Kezo, hastening his pace and leaving us behind him. "I'll move ahead so it'll aim at me."

"It's going to throw it!" Megan shouted.

"Don't get too close!" Kezo charged forward. "It might be AoE!"

We trailed a few meters behind. Nitana sent her barrier spirit to envelope our party leader. I cast my almost negligible [Healing Touch] to show I was part of the group too. The Living Statue swung his arms downwards with so much force that we heard the wind whistle as it hurled the energy ball at us.

"It's coming!" yelled Kezo.

The energy ball was indeed coming.

But not to Kezo. To me!

"What's happening?" I instinctively veered left to check if I was indeed the target and to save my teammates from possible splash damage. The energy ball zoomed past Kezo and curved to follow me.

And then it caught up.

Boom!

"The Chief's Lodge?" I said, staring at the building in front of me. "Hmm…highest DPS was it?" Either Kezo got the wrong information, or we inadvertently made a mistake.

Could it be that the boss targeted the squishiest member, which was—and I hated to admit this—me? Or it might be that it chose a random target because there was no 'highest DPS' at that time, as we hadn't attacked yet? I surmised that the Living Statue wasn't going after the player with the highest Attack and Magic Power on his stat page but the one who'd deal the most damage to it.

There are going to be a whole lot more deaths to come, I thought as I walked to the entrance of the Chief's Lodge. Answering emails was a good way to pass the time while waiting for my party to fail the boss hunt and fetch me for the next try.

A bright burst of light made me stop.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw that Megan teleported behind me. "You're here? I thought you'll continue fighting the boss. I was going to wait inside."

"Kezo decided we should get you first," she explained. "Something about striving to do everything as a party. We don't have someone with a resurrection skill in our party, so I guess we should practice not dying."

Resurrection? Was there an Ocadule Shard like that? If there was, it would be costly but likewise extremely useful. "What will happen if someone dies during the Great Hunt?"

"I think you'll spawn back at the camp of the Hunter-Warriors? They move their camp as we progress through the mountain, but it will be a huge hassle trying to find your party again. Plus, you’ll miss out on a lot of action."

"I understand why Kezo wants us all together." Maybe I could convince him to sponsor me with a Shard of a resurrection skill.

"Yeah,” she agreed with a grin. "That reminds me, I'm going to give you a few Sigil Totems. If you use them, you'll get transported to that weird statue of a sitting Nixigaunt, and you can just head to the boss area."

"It's like I'm a child with someone coming to fetch me." We both laughed and teleported away from Kurghal Village.

After Megan and I rejoined the party, I told Kezo about my suspicions. Because we weren't sure about my hunch, our new plan was for him to charge alone while the rest of us waited outside the boss area—that way, he was the only target.

Once the energy ball headed for him, the rest of us would enter. Kezo would taunt the boss, and we'd proceed as usual. We'd confirm in subsequent energy balls how it worked. If the targeting was random and Kezo couldn't interrupt it with an [Enraging Call], our backup plan was for Nitana to save whoever was the target with her barrier sprite.

Our next attempt was off to a good start, with the energy ball flying toward Kezo. He emerged unscathed out of the lightning-laced explosion because Nitana's barrier sprite ate the damage.

Kezo waved his sword, beckoning for us. "Let's fight this thing!"

The Zoar Elab roared like a broken washing machine. Considering it was a statue, it must be the plant making the sound—which also didn't make sense.

It charged forward, tremendously heavy stone hooves beating the ground like a drum.

Kezo blocked its path and cast [Enraging Call]. The Living Statue reared up on its hind legs as it faced him.

"Don't come too close," I cautioned Megan and Nitana.

The boss brought its colossal hooves on Kezo, blowing away the new barrier sprite protecting him. And then the damage continued as the ground trembled. It was a continuous Area of Effect skill, and I was right outside its perimeter.

"Huh? It's widening!" I warned the others as the AoE continued to grow with each pulse of the earth. I scrambled to safety.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Megan's health bar dropping fast. She was by the tremors.

"Help!"

"Nitana got caught!"

I cast [Healing Touch] on her, which expectedly didn't help to stave off the damage. A slow negative status hampered her efforts to run out of the AoE.

Nitana rushed to help her friend. Megan told her to stay away. There was nothing she could do; her barrier sprite disappeared in a second. In the next second, Megan was also gone.

"Aw, fucking hell!" Nitana exclaimed. That was the first time I had seen her show intense emotion.

"Watch out!" Kezo called, still oblivious to Megan's death. He was focused on the boss, furiously attacking to continuously lifesteal from it. "It's doing something!"

The tendrils of the plant monster inhabiting the statue lashed in the air. Then they shot downwards. Some vines hit Kezo; most punctured the ground.

I felt the earth shifting beneath me. It was a sign I should move. But Megan had already died. "Ah, never mind." I sighed. "Let's just reset the fight."

Vines jutted upwards, skewering me and sending me to where Megan was.