Chapter 506 Dungeon Quest
The second boss was much more difficult than the first one because there wasn't any shortcut strategy the group could follow but since Liam's damage output had considerably increased, the fight was progressing somewhat smoothly.
Several rings of fire burned brightly on the ground and every time the serpent crossed these spots, it received multiple dot damages.
And since the majority of mechanics of this boss relied on its fast movement and tunneling underground and popping out of nowhere, it easily got itself stuck in the numerous rings of fire.
The players also found it difficult to not get caught in these rings but since the vulcan serpent's speed was a lot faster, it received the most damage.
Before it could tunnel down for the 10th time, its health was already close to zero and Liam finished its last bits of health as well by using strong [Lightning Bolts].
Thud! The huge demon fell onto the ground lifelessly.
"It's dead?" Someone said, looking at the corpse in front of them. They couldn't believe that it was finally over.
The entire fight was completely chaotic and it felt as if all they did was run around. Yet no not a single player had died.
They had all heard that a good healer can carry a team but this was the first time they were witnessing it.
What a high level skill! If they all had that skill, perhaps the fight would have been over a lot sooner!
The person everyone was looking at, Mia, silently walked over and picked up the two items near her feet. She then went to Liam and gave him the two.
Luna dashed around and brought over the other two drops. This boss had actually given out 4 drops which were very generous.
Liam looked at the first two which were once again weirdly cut gems. They in fact looked similar to the previous one.
Seeing this, he immediately looked at Mia and asked, "What is your quest in these ruins? Is it progressing?"
Mia shook her head. "We need an item. Probably the last boss drops it."
"What item?"
"High-priestess staff." She then relayed the full description of the quest.
"Apparently one of the divine temple's students had stolen the high-priestess staff but because of the negative feelings became vulnerable to demonic possession."
"The quest is to retrieve that staff and kill the traitor."
Liam nodded. "It seems like a pretty straightforward quest. Were you only waiting because this was a high-level dungeon?"
Mia smiled. "Yes. For the dungeon. Also, this quest is an S-grade chain quest."
"Alright." Now Liam understood and surprisingly he also took out the three gems that had dropped so far from these two bosses. "You should take these. I am pretty sure you need them."
"Oh." Mia accepted it. When she held those gems, she could vaguely feel divine element within them so what Liam said made sense.
She glanced at the guy who was already busily inspecting the next two drops. With her SSS affinity even she had missed this obvious clue, how did he find out?
Mia softly sighed. When compared to others, she might be called talented but when compared to real monsters like him, she still had ways to go.
She silently retreated back replaying the fight just now to see how she could improve more.
The next two drops were both bracelets, nothing special, just items just gave a considerable stat bump.
But bracelets were always coveted drops because, with the right ones, a player would be able to stack five or even six bracelets on each hand.
Liam took the one that gave +10 intelligence for himself, giving the other one that gave +10 strength to Alex.
"Are you sure?" Alex didn't think that she would get any, but Liam shrugged.
They still had to get through the next boss and the last boss and it was important to bring up the group's level or at least key players' level so that things would go smoothly.
After taking a 5 minute breather, the group cleared the next few mobs of vulcans and headed further inside the ruins.
The third boss was waiting for them there and it was a winged vulcan demon with red eyes and ten horns.
Just seeing it from a distance was extremely scary. This had to be the ugliest but also the scariest boss they had seen!
"Everyone focus your attacks on the horns. We need to take out the horns before the health of the boss drops down to 50%." Liam nodded at Alex to start the fight.
She paused for a moment and considering what Liam had said, this time she used both [Shield Toss] and [Judgement Strike] together to start the fight, directly aiming for one of the horns.
The heavy item banged against the sturdy horn, producing a loud clanging sound, followed by what sounded like a crack.
"Good job! Everyone! Focus on that horn first." Liam shouted and started attacking. The others also followed his orders and not even a second later, the first horn was already down.
The group then started focusing on the remaining horns just as Liam mentioned.
As the fight progressed, they could see that this was not the most effective way to attack the vulcan because the horn for some reason had a higher defense than the rest of the demon's body.
However, Liam's lead had given them fast clears on both the bosses so they didn't question his tactics. Besides, no one had any alternative plans to suggest.
The boss health only slowly dropped while the group already hacked away the sixth horn. At this point, the vulcan seemed enraged and began jumping around in a frenzy.
"Everyone watch its eyes. If it is looking at you, move immediately!" Liam shouted.
Luckily his warning was on time and the group was able to narrowly escape the tantrums of the boss.
However, while moving around constantly, they were no longer able to focus and target only the horns and their attacks landed everywhere.
This brought down the demon's health even lower, almost close to 60%. However, there were still three more horns left.
"Everyone stop attacking," Liam shouted again. At this rate, they were not going to make it. It was best to wait for the boss to stop jumping around so much and then target the horns again.
However, that was easier said than done because the vulcan was not making it easy for them.
It had a huge club in its hand and using the gust of wind from its wings, it moved with incredible agility. Everyone was only barely escaping the fate of being crushed into a pop tart.
As if this was not enough, because they stopped attacking, the demon's health was once again going back up.
It looked like this fellow had a little bit of passive regeneration and his health was already back to 65%.
Chapter 507 Sizzling Tornado
"Damn it." Liam did not like what was going on. They needed to act fast. They only had three more horns left but they seemed impossible to remove.
"Everyone resume attacking! Don't hold back. Aim for the horn as best as you!" Liam decided to change the tactics a little bit.
It was better than letting the boss health go all the way back to 100%. That would not only negate all their hard work so far but it would also be a severe moral blow.
Everyone understood what was happening and immediately started attacking the boss again. The health that was stagnant as well started dropping.
Even Liam's aim was only passable because the damned vulcan was moving back and forth, only 95% of his attacks reached the horn.
Luna, Mia, and other dps tried their best, and finally when the health dropped down to 50%, they managed to take out two more horns. Only one was left now.
"Fuck." Liam immediately looked around. This was bad and he tried to see if there was something that could be done. However, there was simply no place to hide.
"Mia! Save all your cooldowns. In a second, you will have to use them." Liam shouted to warn her.
He then suddenly had an idea and shouted again, "Everyone else. Come and stand right behind me. Make a cone-like formation. Everyone including healers. Come fast. NOW!"
"Quick. Alex! Get over here as fast as you can." Giving out the instructions, Liam hurriedly dashed forward to stand in front of the other two tanks.
No one understand what was happening, but everyone quickly complied. As far as they were concerned, the instruction was simple and straightforward. They had to stand behind Liam.
As for the reason… they all understood it the next second.
As soon as the health dropped down to 50%, the vulcan started flapping its huge wings and generating gusts of winds.
The demon then unexpectedly lifted its head up and started summoning a giant bundle of lightning.
This lightning node combined with the gusts of wind to form a giant tornado which instantly started surging towards the players.
Or more specifically towards Liam who tossed out a giant fireball at the vulcan to grab the full aggro.
"Hey! You forgot the drops!" Alex dropped three items near Liam and then sat down beside him as well. "If you are thinking about the strategy to beat the last boss, I would like to help as well."
Liam nodded. "I am not too sure but there should be instances where you would have to heal the boss." His gaze went over to the loot and fell on the lone book lying amongst two gemstones.
"Another skill book dropped?" His eyes widened in shock and he quickly grabbed the book. "This is a [Sizzling Tornado] book!"
Of all the items, the boss could drop, it actually dropped the main item he was interested in!
"It looks like we are going to be able to clear this dungeon after all." Liam chuckled.
Chapter 508 Final Boss
[Sizzling Tornado: Consumes 5000 mana. Creates a wind tornado that shoots lightning bolts at random. Area of effect 5 feet. Cool down: 5 mins]
Liam looked at the skill description and was amazed. A 5 feet area of effect was too good! This skill could potentially be used both as a multi-target attack and as a single-target attack.
The 5 minute cooldown was indeed a bit punishing as that meant that he could only use it once in a fight but cooldowns can be brought down if he gains more insight into the battle.
Liam hurriedly pulled up the other related skills and took a look at them as well.
[Wind Blades]
[Lightning Bolt]
"Ok. I should now try these out a few times." He muttered to himself and stood up. Alex watched the guy run away like a kid who just got a new toy to try out.
Liam stood in a corner of the ruins and first activated the [Sizzling Tornado].
Almost instantly a huge wind picked up, not as big as the one the boss had summoned but something smaller in size.
The wind quickly gained speed and became a tornado, its entire body crackling with energy. The next instant a couple of lightning bolts shot out of this small tornado.
One hit a player on the side and the guy screamed in pain. "Boss! That took out 500 hp!"
Liam nodded in satisfaction. This was just the beginning. He was looking forward to the time when he mastered this spell. At that time, just how much could it do?
He grinned to himself and started practicing [Wind Blades] and [Lightning Bolt].
He practiced a bunch of these spells and when the cooldown refreshed he once again activate [Sizzling Tornado] and tried to get a feel for that spell.
Everyone couldn't help but look at the guy in admiration. Here they were all resting but the person who had done the maximum didn't bother to get any rest and was immediately training.
And even that training was completely unique. The three mages in the group moved closer and silently observed Liam to take notes.
Liam as well saw them and gave a few pointers.
"You have to visualize the skill and feel the flow of mana. Visualize everything from start to finish and soon you will also be able to cast instantly."
The others looked shocked to hear this as no one had ever thought about doing anything like this. Could this method really work?
Joining Liam in training, all three mages as well started practicing the few spells that they had. Alex, Mia, and the others watched this in envy and they as well tried doing what Liam suggested.
But how could it be so simple? Everyone could hardly feel anything. Only Alex and Mia were able to do it and they already knew about these things.
They had learned it after Liam had given them a few hints at the very beginning when they had all grouped up together for the beginner's dungeon run.
At that time Mia caught this point when Liam mentioned learning a skill simply based on its execution. Deriving from that, she had learned the execution of the skill.
And now she was able to execute almost all of her skills without the help of the system-activated spells.
Unlike her, Alex only had 60% proficiency in her skill set. There were still quite a few skills that she was not able to execute without the system's help.
And now looking at Liam she was completely shocked. She had always assumed that the guy was a born genius just like Mia but it looked like she had once again mistaken him.
It seemed like he worked hard for what he had.
Alex eyed the guy with a mixture of emotions when she saw Mia walking over to her. "I was looking there, not at him." She quickly explained.
"Hmmm?" Mia ignored the weird statement and asked. "Did Rey message you? How is he doing?"
"Ya. Ya." Alex immediately rolled her eyes. "That bitch is doing just fine. Do you know! He still won't tell me what quest he is working on! What an ungrateful little shit!"
Mia couldn't help but smile lightly. "It's fine. Let him enjoy." The duo silently continued watching everyone training like crazy. Were they even on a dungeon run anymore?
Thankfully, after a few minutes, Liam stopped and asked everyone to pack up for the next boss. It was time to finish this dungeon.
Everyone moved along the ruins and cleared the mobs of vulcans on their path, finally arriving at something that resembled a dome-shaped building.
It was somewhat a replica of the divine temple in the divine city. Liam could see how this would be a huge black mark on the priests and priestesses in the temple.
No wonder they gave out this quest." Liam waved his hand, signaling everyone to enter the place cautiously. There might be someone attacking them as soon as they enter.
In most closed structures in dungeons, this was the case.
And just like he expected, in this one as well, a bunch of vulcan demons immediately ambushed them near the entrance.
[Ring of Fire]
Liam did not hold back and cast a strong spell, scorching the bunch of vulcans together and taking a huge chunk of their health.
The remaining health was quickly chipped away by the rest of the group as they pounded down on the couple of mobs.
It almost seemed as if they were running a dungeon a few levels below them and not a few levels above them.
After clearing the mobs, the path inside the dome-shaped temple was finally freed up and the group moved closer to the interior.
They arrived at a huge prayer hall in the middle of which a half-human and a half-demon figure was chanting something loudly.
Everyone immediately stopped in shock. This was the final boss and he had a whopping 20 million health points!
Would they really be able to defeat this guy? They all stared dumbfoundedly at the sight in front of them.
Coincidentally, Liam also had a similar expression. Not because of the boss, but because of something else entirely. His gaze was locked onto the stone deity that the boss was praying to.
He felt familiar energy seeping out of that stone deity. It was nether!
Moreover, he didn't simply sense a small amount of nether. There was lots and lots of it. Everything was locked in a black sphere that hovered over the stone deity.
It looked like some sort of ritual perhaps had made this happen. Irrespectively of what was the reason behind it, Liam was still glad about this discovery.
Now he had another trump card to rely on!
"Let's go!" He gave Alex the signal and directly served the boss a hot sizzling tornado.