Idolotry

The idols who guarded Brightlord Temporix's temple didn't pose much of a challenge.

After all, the encounter had been designed as the first and easiest phase of a boss fight, one that would be exciting but wouldn't deplete too many resources from a full party of four players.

Ignatius and Ozyrus's weapons were, of course, much more powerful than the gear which they were expected to have at this point in the game. This, combined with the fact that they were able to lure one monster at a time, made the idols one of the easiest challenges they'd faced since meeting up again in the destroyed version of Stomrus.

The tiger idol went down without much hassle, leaving the bat, crocodile, and cobra to be reckoned with. Since Siegmund had immediately died to a swipe of the tiger's claws and they couldn't revive him in the Eternal Tower, he couldn't join them, but the Onion Knight was mostly past the point of usefulness, anyway.

The only tricky part of the fight was leaving the cobra idol unactivated, since this was the statue which the two players wanted Temporix to absorb once he spawned. Thankfully, this idol was the farthest from the entrance, so Ignatius simply stepped carefully into the dark, stale temple with its crumbling stone columns until he was barely within range to activate the bat and crocodile idols. Then he activated his [✯Trailblazer], turned, and fled back the way he came.

The bat flew over the trail of flames which Ignatius's skill left behind, but the crocodile waddled angrily through it and received a decent chunk of damage as he passed through the wide temple doors. Once the stony, red-eyed beast was outside, he rolled over like a dog and escaped the path of the flames, letting out an angry screech.

But Ozyrus was waiting for both idols, and he unleashed a massive prepared attack without another thought. A blast of celestial energy burst down from the sky and smashed the AoE zone he'd prepared beforehand, a zone wide enough to hit both enemies. However, since they were both near the outside of the zone, they received much less damage than if they'd been at the center.

Even so, the idols roared in pain and rage as they fled the column of energy that kept pelting them from some source far above the treetops. They both immediately locked their aggro onto Ozyrus and charged him.

Ignatius was waiting for this. He jumped in to intercept and smashed the crocodile idol in the head with a [✧Sacred Fist]. The idol finally crumbled into gravel, leaving only the bat.

This enemy screeched a sonic wave that struck Ozyrus squarely in the chest, knocking him down and lowering his damage resistances. "Now!" he shouted as he rolled to try to avoid another blast of force.

Ignatius turned, feeling annoyed. "I warned you it would try to knock you down!" he said as he approached. "Don't get bitten while you have that debuff, or you'll lose twice as much health and I might not be able to out-damage it's self-heal before you die!"

Indeed, this was the special ability of the vampire-like bat. It used an easy-to-dodge debuff that made its victims very vulnerable to its health drain bite attack. It was designed to punish players who hadn't mastered the very simple art of dodging.

Of course, Ozyrus was someone who scorned the combat focus of Path of the Immortal. He existed here for the sake of the Revenant Cult, but apparently had little interest in the game as a game. Therefore, he hadn't bothered to learn how to dodge like someone who was more invested would have by now. So, even though Ignatius had warned him about the debuff, he'd just not had the skill to dodge.

Ozyrus now tried to roll out of the way of the bat idol's swooping attack, but this was nearly impossible on the ground. The bat latched onto the Astrologer's arm with long, razor-sharp fangs, then began draining him of HP, restoring what it had lost from Ozyrus's own attack!

Ignatius swore under his breath. If only he'd been discovered by a more competent cultist! Though he was fully prepared to complete this last fight on his own, if he had to, it would be a huge loss of resources if Ozyrus died for such a stupid reason.

Thankfully, Ozyrus thought quickly. His own weapon, even as powerful as it was, could only use its full potential when casting spells. It was basically useless for auto-attacking the monster latched onto his arm. Moreover, all his Astrologer spells required long charging times and couldn't be cast while he was actively taking damage.

Instead, Ozyrus pulled out one of his precious remaining health-restoring items and consumed it, giving Ignatius just a few more seconds to attack.

And that was just barely enough, because Ignatius was casting [✧Sacred Fist] as fast as he possibly could. The bat idol was mostly ignoring him, managing to out-heal even such huge damage because it had landed the debuff on Ozyrus…

…But then the debuff expired.

The bat immediately let go of Ozyrus's arm and jumped into the air, turning and releasing one more screech at Ignatius!

But the Monk knew how to dodge, and he easily evaded the hit.

Then the bat came down, baring his fangs to attack the player who had hurt it to such a terrible degree.

Ignatius parried it out of the air and smashed it between the red eyes with one last [✧Sacred Fist].

Just like that, three idols were dead.

And then the sky cracked open above the temple and Brightlord Temporix himself finally appeared.