Rushing Pt3

The commander was obviously growing more and more frustrated because it continuously roared as it chased after Go, no longer even using his tails as Go and Ivana whittled its health down to half with little trouble at all.

Regardless of this, Go simply put his focus on evasion and danced in and out of reach, goading the commander into lashing out with its claws only for him to weave around its reach and hammer away at its arms with his axes. Since the commander's claws were bigger, meatier, and more important than its tails it started taking heavier damage with every hit.

On one side of the encircled allies the enemy demons had actually thinned down, providing our allies with the opportunity to throw caution to the wind and force their way out of the encirclement. However, they did not take this opportunity and simply held their ground as they were whittled down to less than a hundred players on the field. Considering there were two groups of fifty solid plus their elites that were in my party, they had lost around forty people overall just in this battle.

If not for the fact that players now received health and mana with every level, they may very well have been wiped out by now.

"Finish the boss already," I say while using mana to not only amplify my voice but also guide it away from our allies so they could not hear me.

Assuming his own second form, Go suddenly turns into a violent storm of blurry whirling wind about his body while electricity arcs all over him. The arcs and winds of his combined Self-Enchantment acted like a damaging buffer between himself and the commander, chipping away several percent at a time every time the boss so much as reached for him.

Unlike my own skill that could not combine the elements, Go's actual class allowed him to cross both of the speed-enhancing elements to literally blur circles around the boss while lashing out at the bases of his tails as well as its legs that were already damaged by Ivana. In just a few seconds the boss found itself shrieking as its health was sheered down to twenty percent.

However, as its health became critical, the commander suddenly hammers the ground with its claws and produces a massive shockwave that travels out for thirty yards around its body while rippling the ground like water. Caught by this shockwave, Go had no choice but to lose his footing while the ground undulates beneath him and sends him rolling and arcing away.

Seemingly entering a berserk state similar to what Orion had done, The boss suddenly seems to steam with dark gray venomous vapor and its speed doubles, allowing it to almost flash across the distance to reach Go as he climbed to his feet.

Even with the face mask of his helm, Go would have probably started soaking up damage and debuffs from the airborne venom if not for the cyclones about his body that allowed him to propel himself through the air. Thanks to these winds, he did not immediately take damage when the boss arrives. However, the boss easily snatched him up and threw him.

Go's highly visible arcing body started somersaulting through the air on its way toward the outpost, smashing into the outpost wall. His health bar finally made an appearance as it dropped straight to half. Instead of pursuing him, though, the commander immediately turned its attention toward the archer that had been harassing him.

My heart dropped to my feet when I saw this, leading me to release my control over the crystalline board and spread my wings so that I could flap into a dive. It would be one thing if the commander had tried to attack our allies and heal itself somehow by eating them like Orion did my arm. Going after my own teammate, though?

Oh hell nah.

Despite my fears and speed, though, I was further away from them than the boss was from Ivana and he soon appeared right before her as I was diving. What happened next, though, shocked me so greatly that I could not even pull up from my dive for landing. I simply watched with wide open eyes and crashed into the ground about ten yards away.

Meeting the commander fearlessly, Ivana simply drew handfuls of arrows from her large quiver and held them together before casting a giant Air Cannon while holding them out. As soon as the commander stopped in front of her to attack, several dozen arrows were launched with the strength of a mounted ballista while she herself was thrown ten yards back.

The commander became an ugly pincushion in an instant, losing all of its remaining health as its chest, neck, and canine-like face were suddenly covered in broken quills with enough force to knock it several feet backward. Just like that, the commander that could have crushed Ivana like a bug with a single attack was sent to a sudden grave with a head like Hellraiser.

Turning her attention away from the dead boss as experience was shared all the way around so that her and Go's levels jumped once in our party, she starts firing upon the enemy demons with a blind speed that made her accuracy quite questionable. Regardless, her arrows found marks all over the battlefield with an assortment of magic and effects.

Go collected himself faster than I did, having gotten up only a second or two after his crash into the rubble wall before walking at normal running speeds toward the remaining demons. The allies remaining were dying out slower with the demons being distracted and then shocked by the death of their commander but they were still down to around eighty people overall.

Simply standing there watching the others fight, I cannot help but wonder at the flaws in our allies methods and numbers.

Firstly, their party set-up was too straightforward to go up against these kinds of numbers by themselves. They were mostly healers and tanks with only a dozen or so ranged fighters in the middle protected by elites. Even though I myself monopolized knockback and damage modifying abilities, for the rest of them without my stats or diversity of abilities their skills simply did not have enough bulk effects.

The healers and some other classes could buff our side but only a handful of players with the paladin or summoner classes were able to debuff the enemy. Where I was a professional at making room in a crowd, these guys who relied on the compilation of their shared abilities did not actually have enough diversity.

Only a few dozens or a hundred enemies at a time could be debuffed by their skills while the rest of the thousand remained at full power. As well, there was not enough depth to their attacks. Sure, some of the advanced weapon and magic skills could splash through the front rows but all the demons behind them were untouched.

For only a hundred mana focused on range, I could send a Spirit Slash through fifty yards of demons. Only a handful of players in these big clans were even classless which meant they did not have the same output freedom that I did. I could empty my mana pool into a single spell for mass effect while they had to rely on tools and equipment for amplifications.

Based on their party set-ups as well, they only had so many tactic available to them. With such a dedication to tanks and healers, which was designed around the presence of my team to begin with, they could only go with frontal assaults and defensive strategies. More than likely, they started off in a basic line formation and eventually boxed up under swarming.

With Stonewall or myself in point positions, we could move in small-team V formations and drill into the enemies before unleashing skills to make room and reconvene or retreat under my protection. If our allies had brought classes that focused on group combat or debuffs, they would be in much better condition.

Even if they traded all their people for mass numbers of archers, they could kite masses of enemies with the relatively open terrain while constantly peppering them with damage and effects. They would lose less people and kill more enemies with such a cowardly tactic, bringing in more profits than losses.

With the addition of Go and Ivana fighting from the outside and focusing on different sides, the enemy numbers began thinning much faster than the players. However, even as I watched a pair of healers were snatched from among the players and trampled. There was little to be done about this, though.

[Why not help them? With you, the strongest, simply standing by the side and watching it will make them think you are looking down on them. Maybe even punishing them by letting them die]

"Help them, Melpomene, you're my only hope," is all I say in response, still remaining in my position.

[Allied forces have been blessed with +20 to all stats, skill refreshment, and +3% full recovery every other second]

"Thank you," I say softly, wondering if they will even know it was me who cast the blessing.

Twenty points in every stat was not all that much to most people, but the magic classes who gained more Strength and Agility probably found themselves feeling slightly less pressured as they fought back against the demons. As well, the extra increase to their physical stats was probably like half of a second wind for the tanks, increasing their stamina a little as well as lightening their equipment burden more than increasing their damages.

I did not see anybody else die for a while until one tank was swarmed by a trio of Taurians after their weapon skills pushed his comrades away. However, those Taurians and then some were soon blasted away as skills started coming off of cool. Within the following ten seconds after my blessing, the surrounded allies started wiping the enemy away with group barrages of their heaviest skills.

Fire filled the skies and rained down like lightning bolts, cyclones of air and rubble swept through the enemy with splashes of damage and disorganization, and the ground itself would open up in some place as lances of ice and lightning rose up to seek demonic targets.

Even the weapon skills of the tanks and elite fighters cleared out the front lines of demons, creating breathing room for the once claustrophobic allies. It was honestly something of a terrifying feeling that watching this produced. Not because of the overwhelming damage suddenly spurting out but because all it took was a few words to fully turn the tide of war.

In less than thirty seconds the fighting was finally over and most of the survivors soon found themselves collapsing tiredly on the ground without any thoughts or consideration for organizing bodies or anything at all besides catching their breath. Even the leaders and elites were barely remaining on their feet as they went around and checked the survivors or collected items dropped by their fallen comrades.

Knowing things would only go poorly if I got involved in the process, I simply walk out to retrieve my crystalline board and psychically fly myself back toward Outpost A to wait and see how things turned out. Even this alone would probably effect their mood and view of me negatively but there was little that I could do about that.

Most of them probably felt the same way that Thirteen did even after this eye-opening event. Instead of realizing their weakness or even just to ignore it, they would possibly find ways to blame me for how horribly things went. I did not convert enough of the enemies at this outpost, I did not do enough recon to begin with, or my arrival itself was a distraction.

People like that in times such as these would make up even the most outlandish excuses and convince themselves that they were not at fault. Of course, there would also be those who thought different and recognized the truth. Even if they had put in the effort to hunt myths and find their way to these raid locations it did not mean they were ready for them.

Up top, the trolls were at the levels of the actual region and simply a way to train up for the dungeon. Down here in the actual dungeon there was more than just a gateway between mortals and hell. This little underground world had become hell all on its own and these players were not quite ready for it yet.

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