"Nitana! Megan! Watch your feet!" I warned them. Or hooves?

The Living Statue sent its vines burrowing downward. We zigzagged all over the expansive plaza to avoid them bursting out of the ground. The telltale sign we shouldn't step on a spot was the thin layer of snow shaking and the shifting stone blocks beneath it.

"Got it!" Megan shouted back.

"Here we go again," said Nitana.

Our third attempt was underway, and we were making progress...sort of.

So far, we had lasted about a minute longer than our previous run. Kezo hacked Zoar Elab enough times to make noticeable dent on its lengthy health bar. Megan and Nitana also helped but couldn't maintain their DPS because of the annoying vines. Megan's [Spell Echo Totem] came in handy as the vines apparently didn't target it. The Totem focused its fiery beam on the rampaging boss while Megan was busy trying to survive.

"Heads up, I'm going to run!" Kezo loudly told us. He turned away from Zoar Elab and galloped in the other direction. The boss followed him, wildly swinging the curved blades made of the vines that emerged from the side of its arms—its plant part could take on the form of several weapons.

"Megan, Nitana, the boss is moving," I repeated Kezo's warning in case they didn't hear it.

Kezo couldn't consistently facetank the boss. Zoar Elab's damage was levels above the Rotted Cedarlyon, and Kezo needed to have all his defensive skills active while facing it. If some were on cooldown, he'd die before he could lifesteal his full health back. To make matters worse, the Living Statue's tankiness lowered his damage by a ton, and thus, also his lifesteal.

"I got you," I called as I ran towards Kezo. I cast [Withering Brand] on the boss to slow it down before swerving away from its path.

"Thanks!" Kezo pointed at another location. "Cast your Gnawing Rot there." With [Enraging Call], he led the Living Statue to the location that I saturated with the green fog to tank it as his cooldowns finished.

Megan and Nitana joined in attacking while watching out for the vines—it was a mechanic of the boss, so Kezo couldn't direct the vines to him with [Enraging Call]. He'd probably instantly die if he could do it.

I also tried pelting the Living Statue with rocks. I dealt a pathetic '1' damage around a fifth of the time, with most of my attacks doing nothing. It might be that my accuracy stat was that abysmal—I had none whatsoever. Likelier, the boss was too damn tanky that I should already be happy that I could tickle with one damage once in a while.

"It's about to do something!" I yelled. "Watch out!" Since I was useless in attacking, I took it upon myself to do callouts.

The vine blades of the boss receded into its stone body. It stood still, head bowed, shoulders hunched, arms close to its chest. A guttural bellow reverberated. More tendrils than we had seen previously squirmed out of its body. They were thicker than others before and covered with numerous thorns.

Megan stepped a few steps back. "Uh-oh, what's going on?"

"Guys, I don't think we should be here," said Nitana.

"Nitana, refresh Kezo's barrier," I said. "Let's move retreat until we find out what—"

Before I could finish my sentence, the dozens upon dozens of wiggling vines extended into the ground.

A ring of lamppost-sized spikes that were the hardened vines erupted around the boss. A number hit Kezo at the same time, popping Nitana's barrier and ripping through his health bar. His protection spell saved him at the brink of death.

Another ring of spikes, slightly bigger than the initial one, shot upwards.

Followed by another, and another. It was a ripple of spikes with the boss as its center! The rest of us ran away.

Or tried to.

"Megan!" I exclaimed, seeing her health bar cut in half. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that the rings of spikes had stopped.

However, Megan couldn't move. She was entangled by a bunch of vines, rooting her to the ground. As I rushed to aid her, I noticed that the vines had separate health bars above them. I flung a couple of rocks but barely scratched the vines.

"Nitana, help—" I started to shout, but thunderous beating overcame my voice.

The Living Statue was charging toward us, armed with a massive lance made of plants. Behind the boss, Kezo was still alive but also trapped by vines.

"It's coming!" he cried out. "Move out of the way!"

"Herald, leave me!" Megan managed to say before she was trampled by the boss.

This might be too hard for us, was my last thought before the lance poked my fleeing ass. One tap and I was dead.

Armed with more knowledge, our fourth attempt got further than all the previous ones combined. We, including Kezo, focused on dodging the attacks and spells of the boss, prioritizing survival rather than dealing damage.

We successfully held on long enough that Zoar Elab powered up.

The plant parts of the boss pulsated as they were tinged with a golden hue, the crystals on its body glowing brightly. It reminded me of the trees inside the Golden Forest. The Living Statue's vine weapons grew larger and were coated with yellow electricity.

While I did mention 'successfully', reaching this stage of the boss was all the success we had. The empowered Zoar Elab made short work of Kezo and then expertly sliced the rest of us like we were a loaf of bread.

For our fifth and sixth attempts, Kezo tried using a tank set, switching one of his swords for a shield, and wearing heavy armor.

It seemed to work out well enough.

We were able to reach the strengthened phase of the Living Statue for both runs. However, even though we survived longer with a tankier Kezo, we dealt far less damage. Assuming we could eventually reach the next powerup of the boss, we'd still be far from killing it. Eventually, it would be strong enough to kill Kezo while we could barely damage it.

A dedicated tank is needed for our party. Not only for killing this boss but more so for the Great Hunt. Was there nothing I can do here?

Oh, Great Brain of Herald Stone! Use your wisdom and knowledge!

Stop thinking like a box and come up with a solution. I couldn't accept that our party had to make do with the weakest monsters during the event like we were at the bottom of the food chain.

Never!

"We're doing good," said Kezo, perhaps thinking it was Opposite Day because we certainly weren't 'doing good'. He went on with his pep talk, "With each failure, we're learning more and more about the boss. This is just part of the process; nothing to get stressed about. Are you guys ready to try again?"

Our tenth and latest try had just ended with a full party wipe. Kezo made a mistake while kiting the Living Statue, nearly dying with his health bar only a tiny pixel left. He judged that trying to lifesteal his health back was too risky, so he ran away to wait for the cooldown of his protective skills. After all, if he died, we were all next.

But he probably panicked—although he didn't admit it, and we didn't want to blame him—and ran a bit too far away from the boss. He might’ve also forgotten to taunt it before fleeing. The pressure of our repeated party wipes might be weighing on his mind.

Free from the annoying hold, the Living Statue rushed at Nitana and pierced her with a lance. It was like she was rammed by a car given the size of the lance and how fast it happened.

Next, the energy ball came.

During our fights, we did confirm that it would always go for Kezo because of how high he damaged the boss. Another thing we learned was that it was extremely powerful that Kezo could barely survive it unless he wore a full tanking set.

But he had switched back to his semi-tanky semi-DPS build so we’d have an actual chance of killing the boss, relying on Nitana’s barrier sprite to negate the energy ball. However, with Nitana dead, Kezo also died.

Then the boss made short work of me and Megan.

"Yes, we're good to go," Megan replied to Kezo. "And we're not stressed."

Nitana groaned, "Whatever, let's go die again."

A smidgen of apprehension crossed Kezo's enthusiastic face. "Okay, we agreed we're going to do this for another half an hour, but tell me if you guys want to rest or if you have some other things to do. We can continue trying again some other time."

I gleaned the reason behind his veiled concern and the overabundance of assurances. He assumed that we were more on the casual side instead of being hardcore players, and would get tired or bored with the repeated deaths.

Whether in a game or life, it was normal for people to get discouraged by constant failures. Kezo wasn't showing it, but I could tell how badly he wanted to join the Great Hunt despite his friends and old party mates leaving him. The last thing he wanted was for his ragtag band of new party members to leave him because of frustration.

An hour of dying again and again to a boss was nothing to me; this was normal fare during my Nornyr Online days. Instead of stress as Kezo feared, it was a pleasant surprise that this experience triggered a sense of nostalgia in me. But I couldn't say the same for Megan and Nitana.

"I think we're doing well," I said, lying through my teeth. "I'm sorry for being the most useless member here," I added. With self-deprecation, I planned to start an encouragement circle jerk, reinforcing a sense of camaraderie among us.

It would also head off any possible intention of Megan, or more possibly Nitana, of quitting our party. If I, a level twelve, was doing my best, then they'd be ashamed to complain.

"You're a big help with my kiting," Kezo said.

"And you boost our damage," added Megan.

Nitana simply grumbled, "Let's do this again already. Each time I die makes me want to kill the boss more."