Chapter 54 : In The Boss’ Lair

"So that's the boss..." Griffin stared in apprehension and awe at the figure in between the 4 huge creatures.

As an internal member of a super guild, Griffin was taught to not judge simply by looks. The boss [1] looked simple, radiating not even a single ounce of aura but that is just to a normal player.

As an expert player, Griffin was able to identify that it wasn't the boss not having any aura but rather its aura had perfectly blended with the environment causing one to believe it didn't have any. A creature or monster capable of doing such wouldn't be an ordinary one.

"Forget about him for now; focus on his bodyguards."

As the other member of the team said, Griffin focused on the 4 giants beside the boss.

'No, not giants. Trolls.'

Indeed, they were trolls but unlike those above, these trolls were clad in iron armor. The armor was barely at the mortal rank but even so, it boosted their defensive capabilities even more. The fact that they made use of metallic weapons increased their lethality and attacking prowess.

Apart from the fact that they wore iron armor, the trolls present here were also different from the ones above by looks. Despite looking pretty much the same with their kin above, the 4 guardians looked more boorish and civilized. Well, 'civilized' doesn't mean civilized like humans but 'civilized' in terms of comparison to other trolls.

"So how do we handle them?" The player asked Chesces.

"Now that the [Inspect] feature has been taken down, we don't know their levels and we don't know whether we can handle them. Even so, I doubt these 'bodyguards' would be low levelled. So if we want to win, we have to defeat them separately. Let's aim for the big guy at the left edge. We grab his attention towards a different position; at least 30 metres away from the rest."

The chamber was about 100m² in size so it was quite big. By the sides, there were two rows of pillars that held up the ceiling. The setting itself seemed to be an advantage to players as they can easily hold a battle in one area without being noticed. It was due to this very setting that despite the clamoring of the door, the monsters never discovered the players.

Moving towards one of the columns closest to the farthest troll, Chesces hid behind it and studied the troll's features.

From a distance, it didn't look so special but as he was now close to it, Chesces observed that the troll seemed to be meditating or possibly even sleeping.

Realising that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, he took out a discarded weapon he had left in his bag and threw it close to the troll before hiding behind the column.

*Clang*

The weapon, which was an axe, landed loudly on the ground, attracting the attention of the nearby troll. Whether the boss heard it or not wasn't known as it was still bowing head low and muttering inaudible sounds.

The troll that got captivated by the sound, walked over to the axe and picked it with its fingers.

Upon studying it for a while, it seemed to have realised that the weapon wasn't originally present before neither was it used by its lesser clansmen (AN : In other words the goblins.).

Getting suspicious, the troll walked away from the group and began patrolling the entire hall on its own. The other trolls, just like this one was previously, were also in a weird state of meditation and it didn't look like they heard the sound of the axe crashing down.

"Get ready."

As the troll walked farther away from its brothers and closer to the designated ambush spot, Chesces and co took their positions, raising their guards and alertness levels, and preparing to make their move.

"Now."

Following his command, Kylian, the only mage present in the group, took a scroll and cast a powerful spell that he had timed properly with the troll's arrival, directly at the troll's right eye.

"[Fire spear]"

"Arghh."

The attack perfectly landed on its eye, blinding the troll's right eye.

Normally, the scream might have alerted the others but at an unknown point in time, a weird semi-spherical barrier with continuous undulating waves took form around them.

[Ligas' Barrier]

It trapped any leftover sound or Mana and used it to strengthen itself. It also deflected external light in an inconceivable pattern that made it look invisible to the naked eye, as such, outsiders wouldn't be able to see anything inside of it. Apart from this ability, the barrier was totally useless but despite so, the barrier was ranked as a mid tier Mortal rank scroll. It couldn't be destroyed because it had no true physical form and recharges itself from the energy absorbed lasting up to 2-3 hours with 6 available usage spots.

This was one of the trump cards Emperor's Might had prepared for facing the main boss as it would allow them to do such in secret.

Since they couldn't do that anymore, Chesces decided to use it here as he didn't want to bet whether the other trolls would really not be able to hear the sound of their battle.

After the flaming spear had landed, Griffin followed up with a powerful sword slash, attracting the troll's aggro towards himself.

With a shield in hand and a sword in the other, he dodged the troll's counter attack as he didn't really want to bet whether he would be able to easily tank the monster's damage. Rather than spending his HP to find out, he would rather keep his senses on full alert and exert himself the utmost. But it was inevitable that he would be forced to block a few hence receiving damage due to the large difference in strength.

Chesces, on the other hand, ran towards the troll with a saber in hand. While Griffin held its attention, he sneaked up behind it and landed a blow behind its knee caps, hoping to destabilize the close to 4 metres tall troll.

"Arggggh." Releasing a hoarse scream which ended up absorbed by the barrier for recycling, the troll turned backwards to face Chesces.

Using this time, Kylian, the group's druid, healed Griffin for the HP he had lost when he blocked an attack, and at the same time, hurled a few spells at the troll.

The coordination and chemistry was really on point as they easily cut down the HP of the troll without suffering any losses.

During this time, Chesces had checked his system interface and noticed that the [Inspect] skill was active.

'As expected.' Chesces inwardly smirked.

Using it on the troll, he discovered that its level was actually Level 6! If not for its reckless movements and being outnumbered, having to face a pro team like theirs, the troll would have easily dealt with any other player or team.

"Arggggh."

When the troll's HP went below the 50% mark, it suddenly stopped and screamed at the top of its voice before stabbing itself in the arm with its machete.

Chesces, Griffin and Kylian were all stunned for a moment as their movements took a pause. As they began wondering why it did such, they began to feel the ground beneath them vibrating.

This vibration wasn't due to an explosive or the sorts, no. It was actually as a result of the joint running of the other 3 trolls towards them.

Yes! Somehow, the other trolls realised that their comrade was in trouble and quickly ran to assist him.

As they were stunned, hoping that the [Ligas' Barrier] would hide them from the other trolls, the one who caused all this suddenly smirked and rushed wildly towards the players, particularly Griffin, as if without fear of death.

Flabbergasted by its move, Griffin still managed to retain his senses and prepared to intercept the creature. During this time, the other trolls were still running towards them.

"Hold him back and prepare to retreat." Chesces yelled out to Griffin.

As they were about to make their moves, Kylian happened to hear something on the other side. Turning towards the source of the sound, he was surprised and as such exclaimed.

"Look over there."

Chesces turned to look at where his finger pointed at and he saw a stone door opening on the wall.

"Move !" Urging his teammates to retreat towards the newly formed door, Chesces canceled the [Ligas' Barrier] and took the scroll with him, running towards the door.

As they approached, they happened to see 2 silhouettes approaching. As the figures completely exited the entrance, the stone door quickly shut behind them.

"Shit!" Griffin cursed out loud.

"Are we really going to die here?" Kylian said with slight worry and disappointment in his voice.

'All the major trump cards are with Snow. Damn it!' Chesces cursed inwardly.

They all ignored the 2 silhouettes who had just arrived as they believed that just 2 people wouldn't be enough to save them from the 4 trolls and their boss.

That was until one of them spoke.

"Hey Sato, I think that we are in the wrong room."