029 Dire Situation 003 (Finale)

"That isn't what I expect to hear from someone who is called Reaper to say." teased James while he turned to look around.

He surveyed the scene in front of them. "There seems to be two places with a fair amount of space to move around. Interested in hearing them?"

Mercury teased James right back, "Naturally, tell me what your big brain came up with."

"The water and the boss." he cryptically stated.

Mercury embedded her axe's blade into the ground and leaned on the handle. She intentionally leaned forward enough to tempt James. "Don't keep a girl waiting now." she said in a sultry voice.

James pretended not to notice what she was doing, "What I mean is that apart from some of the shore the rest of the lake is free of Vines. Then there is the area around the boss; it appears to be just enough room for the Whipping Vines to attack but not accidently hit it's main body. If we can manage to get there I reckon that will be the safest place to fight at.

Before the duo could finalize their plan the Vines started their attack!

The Water Vines were not shooting water balls anymore. Instead they were acting like hoses; they were shooting streams of water at them!

They had to constantly move in order to avoid the streams of water. Fortunately, the Water Vines had to stop periodically. It seemed like they were recharging their stock of water.

The water streams eroded the earth where it landed. The only thing James and Mercury knew was that they absolutely wanted to avoid getting hit by that water stream.

On top of the newly introduced water streams. The Thorn Vines also changed, instead of shooting one thorn at a time they were not shooting several! It was as if they changed from a pistol to a shotgun! Small walls of thorns appeared when the Thorn Vines attacked.

The Whipping Vines didn't show any changes but they knew to keep an eye out.

"Blaise, any thoughts on how to handle this? It is getting worse by the minute."

James had noticed something earlier in the fight, "I got a hunch but I need to test something out first."

When the Water Vines first appeared his Magical Eyes activated for a split second before he turned them off. At the time he did not want any surprises. But now, he wanted to see why they activated.

Once he activated his Eyes he was astounded. There were mana flows all over. Each and every Vine had its own flow of mana that sourced from the Devil's Ivy. He noticed as each Vine attacked the amount of mana in the vine increased.

As for the Waver Vines, there were two mana flows. One was like all the rest; its mana would increase when it was attacking. The other was filling up as if it was a status bar.

When it reached the top of the Vine the flower shot another stream at the duo. He also saw a spell matrix and runes as the stream was fired.

What happened next freaked Mercury out. Without thinking, James brought out his Magic Notebook and started copying down the spell matrix and the runes. He would need them for later!

"Hey! Is this really the time to be doing that!" Mercury huffed while he was running around avoiding the streams of water.

"Yes! I won't have the time to do this when the boss is dead. Besides, the fight just got easier. Ignore the Water Vines for now. I will tell you when to run around." James said with an authoritative voice.

Just when Mercury was going to complain she noticed James's eyes. They were ocean teal again. [Isn't that his magic eye thing?] She wondered.

James directed Mercury to start fighting the Vines near the shore. He determined that it would be the safest place to move towards the Devil's Ivy.

As they moved James kept tabs on the Water Vines; when they were not ready to attack he ignored them and focused on defending against incoming thorns and thrashing vines.

"Kill the Thorn Vine directly in front! After that, be ready to run around, the Water Vines are almost ready to fire again." James directed.

Mercury listened to James and began attacking the Thorn Vine that he directed her to. She noticed that James started to fire his fireballs later and later. Now the thorns were almost about to hit her.

Right before she was about to move out of the way of the incoming thorns a fireball shot past her. It missed the Thorn Vine but hit one of the incoming thorns; the explosion destroyed the remaining thorns. She noticed that the explosion damage hit the Vine he was attacking!

She looked over her shoulder and saw a cool and confident look on James's face. To him it was not surprising in the slightest. It was obvious that he planned it that way.

Rather than complaining that he did not share his plan with her, she increased the rate she was attacking the Vine. She lost the words that were on her tongue when she saw how focused he was in the fight. She had blushed a bit thinking how serious he was being while defending her. He even found a way to multi-task!

The first Thorn Vine withered away and the Devil's Ivy screeched in pain.

"Run around, watch your flank, don't let any thorns hit you!" James practically started sprinting.

She followed suit while wondering why he was running so fast, then it dawned on her. They were basically right under the Water Vines! They had to run quicker due to the shorter distance between them and the plants!

The Water Vines stopped shooting water at them when there was a sudden change in the Whipping Vines. They all went underground at once.

"Don't tell me that the roots are going to spawn right now?!" cried Mercury.

James was intently watching the Vine's activity under the ground. He fired a fireball at a spot on the ground fairly close to the boss. "Quick! Attack that spot with your Assault skill!"

At this point she knew not to question James's randomness. However, she did wonder what was going on in his head.

She ignored all the incoming thorns as she dashed to the spot James told her to attack.

Several explosions range out behind her as she ran past various Thorn Vines. James had used his fireballs not only to block the incoming thorns but to deal damage to their source Vines.

[Crushing Assault!]

Her exe glowed purple as she slammed it into the ground.

* HISS *

A Whipping Vine barely appeared as the axe made contact with the ground. It landed a direct hit on the Vine as soon as it had appeared.

As if she knew what to do, she quickly approached the Ivy and waited for the roots to appear. James had also moved into range to help her out.

* Whoosh *

The sounds of fireballs flying through the air rang out just before the Ivy's roots spawned. His timing was much better now due to being able to see exactly where and when they would appear. He had also commanded mercury to attack the very instant the roots were appearing.

They finished off the roots with extreme efficiency. James was able to take out two roots all by himself by standing close enough to the boss for his Aura to do its job. He did not get so close in the past due to the fear that he would accidentally kill more Whipping Vines.

His fears disappear due to his Magical Eyes. He was toggling his Aura on and off when needed. Thanks to their speed the Ivy only healed a messy 50 HP.

"Run around the Ivy's body!"

It was that time of the fight where the Water Vines were ready to shoot their streams once again. This time they ran to the other side of Ivy to avoid the water streams. It appeared like the boss did not want to damage itself so the water streams landed just shy of its body.

Since they were now safe from the Water Vines they decided to focus on the new biggest threat, the Thorn Vines.

James, thanks to his eyes, got into a rhythm that allowed him to defend and attack simultaneously. Each time a nearby Vine was fed mana from the main body he would fire at the newly shot thorns or defend against the next attack or focus on damaging the Vine's main body.

Mercury was in awe about the change in James. He was always on top of his game since she started forcing him to follow her around. He barely made mistakes and was able to insure that she did not need to fear incoming thorns. All she had to do was either manage her distance from the Whipping Vines or defend against them while he was targeting the Thorn Vines.

But now James was taking it to an all new level. He was able to protect her from both the thorns and the occasional swipes of nearby Whipping Vines. When he could he would attack and defend at the same time. By timing his shots he could get the fireball's explosion to harm the Vines. She felt less and less pressure and the Vines were going down faster.

That was until something changed.

* Pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter *

"Huh?" They were both confused. Was it raining?

They both looked up into the sky but saw no clouds. They did however see large water balls falling down from the sky! The sound of water drops hitting the ground came from access water falling off the water ball.

"Run!" Mercury shouted.

James turned around to look at the Water Vines. The flowers on top of the Vines were now facing the sky instead of looking directly at the duo.

"They changed their attack styles! They are catapulting their water into the sky!"

"Great!" Mercury said sarcastically. "Can you track them like you did the water streams?"

"Protect me for a second!" James then focused on the Water Vines. He could see the 'recharge' mana flowing into the Vines. There was a problem though. It was not uniform like the water streams! They refilled at different speeds!

"I can but they are recharging at different speeds. The damn thing is learning!" James hissed.

He was annoyed, they still had all 6 Water Vines left, 29 Whipping Vines, and 8 Thorn Vines left. If the water Vines can change their attack style, who is to say the others cant!

"Keep on your toes! The fight might keep changing on us!" James warned.

As if the Ivy could understand James, the Thorn Vines stopped firing thorns like a shotgun and started to fire them in a full circle around them! Each one of them shot 9 thorns at once and it covered a full 360 degrees around the plant!

The two had to frantically dodge around. They completely stopped their offense and were forced into defensive play! They had to watch out for water balls from the sky and carpets of thorns near the ground.

James knew they could not keep this up for long, he needed to find a way to take the pressure off of them.

He slowed down his defense and was watching the thorns with a keen eye. Mercury noticed that she felt more pressure on defense. She was worried about James. [Is this too much for him?]

She looked his way for a second and saw that he was focused on something. [He must be looking for something to cope with this situation.]

"Mercury, you normally fight in an unorthodox way right?" he asked.

"Yeah, my pvp battles are easier that way. Why?"

"Why have you not fought the same way here?" he asked in a confused voice.

"Isn't pve battles more straight forward? The monster's AI is predictable unlike human decisions." she comments.

"Does this look predictable? Yes, they are doing roughly the same thing but the results of the Vines actions are not. Fight like you always do and I will have your back!" retorted James.

Mercury spaced out for a split second then her eyes shined as if something dawned on her.

* Smash! *

She swung her axe down at the ground in front of her, the incoming thorns were blocked by the debris that flew up from the ground. She used her axe's long handle to launch herself off the ground and started to kick the rocks towards the Vines.

Each rock impacted the Vines with a high level of precision. She then plucked her axe from the ground and changed it into a polearm and swung it like a bat. The wave of thorns that were flying towards her were smashed into smithereens.

She had a devilish grin, "This is about to get a whole lot more fun." She started a rampage.

James lived up to what he promised her; he covered her back to make sure nothing that she could not handle got by.

She got so engrossed in her onslaught that she forgot about the side effect of killing the Whipping Vines.

[Crushing Assault!]

Her axed was once more covered in a purple aura after she used her ability. Instead of cleaving or smashing into a single Vine, she hurled her axe through the air! It flew in a straight line and crashed through several Vines that lied in its path.

Just like that she killed off 4 Whipping Vines and 2 Thorn Vines. The problem? The healing roots would now spawn. The good? The axe was impaled in the Devil's Ivy's base!

Mercury followed up by smashing the ground with a fist then kicked three more rocks towards Vines that were between her and her axe. She wanted to create a safe passage and she dashed to the boss.

James also ran back over to the boss so that his aura would be able to hit the roots. Since they both were late the roots were already spawned and healing the boss. James tried to quickly kill the first root while Mercury pried her axe from the body of the Ivy plant.

She was holding on to the axe while standing sideways in the air with her feet planted on the Ivy's body. She was using her whole strength to slowly free her axe. She thought to herself that she went a little overboard…

The roots went down quickly once her axe was freed. The Ivy had healed 1,200 HP due to Mercury's blunder.

James saw the look of guilt on her face and quickly consoled her, "Don't fret, it was a small oversight."

She nodded her head, since he did not take it to heart neither will she.

The Devil's Ivy's body started shaking so they both examined the Ivy to see what it would do next.

The ground shook and every single one of the roots retreated into the ground and the Ivy started to visually change.

Four thick vines formed on its body and grew large green leaves on them. One of the large vines started moving backwards as it was an arm. Once it stopped moving backwards it swiftly moved forward. It looked as if a professional pitcher was throwing a baseball!

Rather than a baseball several of the large leaves detached from the vine and flew right at them! It changed up its attack pattern once again!

Mercury grabbed James by his waist and dashed to the side.

* Thunk, Thunk, Thunk *

The tree leaves hit the ground with so much force they cut through the ground as if they were throwing knives!

They both looked at each other then back to the Ivy. This time all four of the thick vines started moving at the same time! It did not take long for dozens of huge leaves to start flying their way over to them!

"Blaise!"

"I'm on it!" James started firing fireballs as quickly as he could. One by one he targeted leaves that were on a direct course to hit them. He had successfully destroyed every leaf that would have crashed directly into them. They looked at the other leaves, there were some close calls. Mercury looked at the closest leaf and saw it had a strain of black thread attached to it; she then looked down at her dress and saw there was a clean cut through it. She started to sweat.

James noticed where she was looking and was also terrified.

* Rumble *

The duo stood on edge when they heard the sound of ground shaking. They were confused, it was not coming from the ground below their feat. James confirmed that there was no movement from below.

"Where is it coming from?" questioned Mercury.

James looked around, "I don't know."

* Hiss *

The Ivy screaked. It felt threatened. A massive wall of vines so thick that the duo could not see through covered the entrance to the nearby cave. The Ivy did not stop with a single layer of vines, they lost track at how many vines barricaded the cave entrance.

"I don't like the look of that." James stated the obvious.

Mercury agreed, "Whatever can make a level 40 boss so fearful I want nothing to do with."

The two had to grab on to one another to stabilize themselves as the ground started shaking violently. James looked down to the ground and saw that the vines had disappeared. What replaced them was a pool of mana directly below the Devil's Ivy.

The Ivy slowly started to raise out of the ground, inch by inch it got taller and taller. The ground below it started to break and crumble as massive limb-like vines grew out of it's bulb.

It now looked like a spider made from leaves and vines. Eight large vines supported its body as it started walking towards the duo.

"That is disgusting! I hate spiders!" said Mercury with absolute disgust.

James didn't even bother replying, he too disliked spiders. He started hurling fireballs at the spider-like Ivy.

* HISS *

The Ivy was not happy, thorns started to grow out of its front legs and started to fire at the duo. Mercury waved her axe in front of them and destroyed the incoming thorns.

"Mercury, I have an idea."

"Finally something good. What is it?" she had an excited look on her face.

"Do you remember the design of that rune I had you draw earlier?"

"I think so, why?"

"The underside of the Ivy, the bulb, it looks quite flat. If we can get a rune on it we might be able to kill it before whatever is in that cave gets out."

"Can you show me the rune once more? I doubt an incorrect rune will do the job, right?"

"Yeah, the only way this will work is if the rune is perfect." James quickly weaved the rune into the air.

"Got it! Cover me!" Mercury stormed off. She dashed under the spider-like plant; the closer she got the more fierce the Ivy attacked. Several vines-legs grew thorns, but James was not far behind. He was not going to leave Mercury alone; he needed to defend her while he drew.

Thorns and fire collided in the air time after time. Mercury had to slow down as she carved the rune into the bulb as the spider was constantly moving.

The Ivy started to grow Whipping Vines that lashed out at Mercury; it was as if it felt increasing danger as she carved line after line.

James fought hard to keep Mercury safe. He used his Magical Eyes to predict and intercept the Ivy's attacks. He had to drink mana potion after mana potion to keep up with the Ivy's attack rate. He started to get worried; he was almost out of potions.

The intense fight under the spider-like plant raged on for 20 minutes before Mercury was done. "I'm finished, your turn!"

She knew that James had to do the finishing touches just like he did before. She switched from offense to defense to take over for James. As soon as she was in position James went to work. It did not take him long to finish up.

"Let's move! If this doesn't work we are done for; I am out of mana potions!"

Both Mercury and himself sprinted out from under the Ivy's and it tried to follow behind them. It managed to keep up with the duo; that was until James finally used [Leech Agility]. Until now the plant was immobile so there was no previous need to steal its movement speed. But now that it was chasing them it was the perfect time to do so.

Since the Devil's Ivy slowed down and they sped up James was finally able to start feeding the rune mana. The rune started glowing brighter and brighter as mana flowed into it.

The Ivy could tell something was not right and started to frantically shoot thorns and even deadly leaves at James, but it was too late.

* BOOOM *

Another massive explosion rang out. It blew up dust and sand from the ground. Several small and medium sized rocks and boulders were blown away. The ground under the Ivy collapsed.

The Devil's Ivy was blown to pieces. Green globs of goo were launched everywhere. Pieces of vines littered the ground. The massive walls of vines withered away. The battle was finally over.

To avoid the explosion the duo had jumped into the lake and dove under its surface.

They stayed under the water until they saw a global announcement.

**** ( Announcement ) ****

A party has killed the first ever Field Boss, Devil's Ivy (Bronze Grade, Level 40)!

Party Members:

Blaise

Reaper

Due to the historic event both members have been given 5 skill points, 20 gold coins, 1000 nation fame, and unique titles!

Adventures all over shall receive 20% more experience for the next 48 hours!

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