058 Wipe Mechanic?

They were still talking in the group chat while James and Mercury bounced the Seeds back and forth.

"What can we do? Is it really hopeless?" Totem questioned.

"We can either wipe or keep fighting, regardless we will need to change up our strategy some," replied James.

"What is the new plan?" asked Mercury. She felt that she could keep going but did worry about the next phase and the mini-boss.

James was blunt, "We need more damage, Talon and Dregg will need to join. Totem you will need to maintain the Earth Walls. Destiny and Karma, I would like you to patrol the walls in case they somehow make their way up and over it."

Dregg positioned himself next to Mercury since the pond was closest to that section of the trap. Talon joined James on the far end. Totem made the Earth Walls thicker and then joined the twins up top.

"Okay, each side's members will need to attack at the same time! We don't need to let them right nearly to the end before attacking. We will try to keep them around the center of the tunnel." James gave his commands.

While James's Aura of Pure Fire would not damage the Seeds, it would still boost his overall fire damage so he activated it. Seeing that James was ready Talon aimed and started firing his arrows at the nearest Seeds.

Sounds of repetitive attacks slowly rang out through the forest. The combination of James and Dregg caused interesting results. James's Flamethrower would ignite the Seeds and fire would spread and then Dregg would follow up with his water. The sizzling of fire being put out accompanied Dregg's attacks.

A combination of smoke and steam floated upwards from the trench. With the water quenching the fire; the area within the trench and on its walls started to get unbearably hot. The twins and Totem slowly started to sweat and would rotate up and down the wall to avoid the next attack's heat or hot steam.

Talon was firing off as many skills as possible during his and James's attack rotation. He was happy he came prepared with extra quivers of arrows; then though they were only basic arrows they would still help get the job done. He had switched from his best arrows to his basic ones when he saw they would be facing copious amounts of Adds during the fight. He needed to save them for the real battles.

Mercury was doing what she could. Due to the distance that the Seeds were keeping at she had to move up into the trench some. She needed to be very careful in how close she got. In the end, she was only comfortable with getting close enough to use her Crushing Assault to hit the tail end of the pack. When her attack was on cooldown she was hurling debris of earth at the closest Seed.

At first, she was able to be self-sufficient with generating the rocks she was launching but eventually Totem saw she was slowing down so he was creating earth walls for her to crush and launch towards the pack.

From an aerial point of view waves of bright red flame and blue water were crashing together at the center of the trench, every clash created more and more steam. Glowing arrows could be seen flying above the flames. Now and then a shockwave would cut through the air and ground and crash into the unfortunate Seeds at the end of the trench.

The ground on Mercury and Dregg's side was beginning to erode with all of their attacks. Every time Mercury used Crusting Assault a new cut would appear on the ground between her and the seeds. Dregg's water would not completely disappear when James's fire approached.

A new pond formed on their side due to the entrance of the tunnel and the funnel. It helped Dregg but limited Mercury's attacks. Totem had to create pathways and pillars of earth on their side of the trench so that Mercury could continue to attack.

The health point of the pack of Seeds was wearing down as time went on. The Seeds on either end of the pack were the first to drop to critical levels. Red health bars were slowly forming.

The fight was raging on and the supplies of the group dwindled. Their Anti-Venom potions supplies were very low. Even though the current phase was going well, what about the future ones? Will they even have enough Anti-Venom, health, and mana potions to make it through them? All they could do is push those thoughts to the back of their minds. They didn't want to get a party wipe without trying.

Red health bars were becoming more and more frequent, they felt like they were winning. Things were progressing smoothly from a certain standpoint.

Small cracks started appearing below Dregg and Mercury. Since they were on the offensive they had not noticed. A faint rumbling sound leaked from the ground but was masked by the sounds of fire and water.

The ground started to quiver and shake; by the time Mercury and Dregg noticed it was too late. The ground below them had collapsed; the expedited erosion and stress the ground sustained had finally led to destruction.

They both fell in the water and were swallowed by the torrent of water flowing into the newfound space. Rocks and small boulders sunk into the water making it harder for the two to surface!

"Mercury!" James called out. He was so distressed that he used her real character name. At the time no one noticed.

The Seeds advanced on James and Talon's position now that they were not being drawn back and forth! Totem started expanding the trench on their side as they retreated. James and Talon never stopped attacking as they moved backward. Even if they could kill one or two Seeds it would improve the current situation.

The twins advanced on Mercury and Dregg's position. They had to save the two from their watery deaths; it was well known that there was a drowning mechanic. The game mirrored the real work some bit after all.

Closer and closer the Seeds got to James. The closer they got the more the two started to worry. James couldn't use his Flamethrower so he had to switch to his Improved Fireballs. Every fireball was accompanied by an arrow or two.

After what felt like hours the two finally killed the leading Seed. James took the opportunity to use his Engulfing Vines in an attempt to flow the remaining Seeds down. Totem saw it and joined in; two types of Vines ensnared some Seeds.

The Seed that they had killed blew up and sprayed acid up into the air. A good-sized clump landed on the nearby Devil's Ivy. The sound of crackling was heard from there as the acid touched the Ivy.

* Screech!*

The Ivy's showed great pain! The Seeds all stopped moving the moment the Ivy cried out. Their grotesque faces show a hint of fear.

Karma and Destiny took the time to finish pulling Mercury and Dregg out of the water. Talon turned to look at James, who was staring at the Ivy.

Talon was thrown back at the look on James's face. He had an evil and toothy smile on his face. James let out a dark-sounding chuckle. "We've found it!" he said vaguely.

Talon was almost afraid to ask, "What have we found?"

James slowly turned to look at Totem. His eyes were ocean teal and wispy. His Magical Eyes were running on max; they were filled with mana so thick that strands of blue mana leaked from his eyes.

He had observed the acid's effect on the Devil's Ivy; he watched so closely that mana continuously flowed into his eyes. He saw the magic in the acid seep deeply into the Ivy's mana channels. The acid was slowly corroding the channels.

"The acid is the trick; it is like a deadly poison. Just that small bit ran ramped; it had such a strong effect that the Ivy's level is now 94," replied James

Now that Mercury and Dregg were safely back on dry land they were about to continue the attack but were stopped by James.

"Wait," he said.

"What's up?" asked Mercury.

"We figured out the right way to deal with the boss. The acid from the Seeds damages the Ivy," replied James.

James debated a few things quickly then continued, "Dregg you stay on that side, for now, Reaper you come over to us. We will need your Crushing Assault to speed things up. Karma and Destiny if you have some throwing knives help Dregg out."

Mercury rushed over to James and Talon, she was eager to help.

The group was setting up around the Ivy when the Seeds finally broke through the Vines that Totem and James set up. Dregg's side and Talon were alternating their attacks to keep the Seeds running back and forth while Totem worked with James to make things simpler.

"Okay, we're ready! Stop attacking and join us over here!" James called out.

Totem dropped a wall near the Ivy and Talon kited them into the new area. They had formed a large circular pen around the Devil's Ivy. They would use it as a killing chamber to maximize the acid that hits the Ivy.

"Okay lay into them with all you got. We are spread out enough that they should constantly shift around. Watch out for acid when they explode." said James.

Everyone started attacking in whatever way they could. The twins were the most limited, their only method of attack was throwing knives and they were running low.

More and more red bar enemies appeared. Everyone began focusing on any weakened enemy until it died. Seeds started exploding left and right as the group continued their assault.

Since everyone was in the splash range of the acid they had to dodge around. The most simple method was just drop down the other side of the wall and climb back up. The 120 Seeds slowly started dwindling, 100.. 90.. 80, so on and so forth. Now there were only two left.

The Devil's Ivy was wailing in pain the entire time. As more and more explosions went off and acid landed on it, the Ivy's was corroding away. The ugly appearance of the corrupted plan continued to get worse. More and more miasma was pouring out of the Ivy with every new hole in its exterior.

With only two seeds left they all felt comfortable and hopped off the wall. Mercury approached one of the seeds and finished it off. Totem summoned an Earth Wall between Mercury and the acid explosion.

There was a single Seed left but no one dealt any significant damage to it. They all felt exhausted from the battle. The twins took turns throwing rocks at the Seed so it would continue to run back and forth between them while the others reset.

"What could possibly happen next?" said Mercury. She was leaning against James when they were all sitting on the ground.

"What does the boss look like, Balise?" Talon asked.

James turned to look at the disturbing scene; it looked like the Ivy was on its last leg.

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Living Devil's Ivy (Corrupt)

Grade: Demi-Boss (Dungeon)

Level: 40 - 135 => 20 (Reached Minimal Level Cap)

Hp: 10,000 / 10,000

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"It dropped from 95 down to level 20. It appears that each Seed that damaged the Ivy lowered its level by one. There appears to be a level cap that keeps it from dropping down below level 20. It has 10,000 hp left." James explained the monster's current state.

* Boom *

Everyone looked in the direction of the explosion, they saw the twins just outside of a pool of acid.

"We didn't kill it, it went boom out of nowhere." Karma stated their case.

The miasma in the surrounding area started being sucked in towards the Devil's Ivy. More and more people gathered and the density increased. A purple ball of miasma started forming above the Ivy and everyone started taking damage.

"Last Stand! Kill it!" someone shouted.