Chapter 26- Challenging the Spawn Room Part 2

Everyone in the party panics as we weren't expecting a monster of that size to vanish. I look around the room, fearing that it may have just teleported, but only see the frogmen just stumbling around.

Activating Mana Heeding, my mana spreads out the room until it makes contact with a huge mana signature slowly heading towards the group. It's status appears before my eyes,

Hippocampus Kaleo LVL 55

Health: 1350/1500

Mana: 1850/2000

I know now, it's Invisible and I have the issue with bringing this up to the rest of my party as I don't want to reveal too many skills to them. As I can't come up with a good excuse or reason, I open my mouth to reveal it's location, Orihana shouts out, " It's 25 meters in front of us. Eric you'll have to attack it to bring it out of Invisibility."

Stunned as to how she found it, I glance at her to which she goes, " I have Mana Sense."

I summon another clone and since I already know it's location, I charge at it. As I approach the monster, it makes no attempt to dodge as I stab my dagger towards its side.

My dagger bounces off its thick hide, bringing it out of Invisibility, which makes the monster growl, turning to face me.

The monsters' cheeks begin to swell, a gurgling noise coming from its throat. I get anxious and recast Invisibility, fading from its sight.

It turns towards the party, unleashing a glob of green goop. It lands on the shield defense, sliding down to the floor below.

I retch as I'm meters away from the group but can still smell it. Fartumal steps back from it, careful to not get any on his feet. "It's not acid like I thought it was, but I have no idea what it does."

We notice every frogman in the room lift their head and screech, making us recoil from the noise. I backup slowly toward the group, nervous about what's happening.

About 35 frogmen all turn to face Fartumal's shield that still had the goop and leap forward. Orihana begins to chant, and I summon another clone, Nerriwyn repeatedly fires arrows because at this point, it's impossible to miss. Fartumal slowly backs up to the door we entered from, while I stand my ground on the right to protect flanks.

The frogmen ram themselves against his shield, stabbing at it with their tridents in a frenzy.

Nerriwyn was letting loose arrow after arrow, but for every frogman she took down, another took its place quickly after. Knowing that if his shield goes down, our party will get wiped, I run in cutting down any frogmen I come across, my clone alongside me.

As they seem to prioritize where the goop landed, me and my clone take down 3 each before we face resistance. As I engage my fourth frogman two tridents stab at my face, making me step back. I notice that the onslaught of frogmen finally pays off as cracks begin to appear on Fartumal's shield.

Not seeing much many more options, I cast Curse of the Snail on all frogmen in front of me and at his shield.

My mana takes a hit as I used my own mana to target at least 15 different targets at once.

I follow up with Blessing of the Hare on myself, increasing the speed difference between the myself and the frogmen even more. I dash through a line of frogmen, killing 3, as 5 more come to face me.

The first reaches me but I attack first, slashing his stomach then move to the next target. Two frogmen came at me stabbing their tridents at my head and chest.

Using my left dagger, I deflect the trident coming at my face further right, then use the same dagger to stab back at his stomach.

I also use my right dagger to block the trident by jamming my blade in between the points of the trident.

I then slash his throat with my left dagger now free, the move on to the next. The frogman comes at me jumping in the air bringing his trident down on me, and I use my dash cutting through him while he's in the air.

On my side of the fight, not many frogmen remain, but a great deal is still pressuring Fartumal, and we still have the Hippocampus to deal with.

My clone finishes the frogman he's on, and I send him toward one of the few remaining I'll have to handle.

He runs towards to frogman, who throws his trident, dispersing the clone. Not giving the frogman a chance to recover his weapon, I slash his exposed stomach.

The frogman behind him stabs at my head, which I easily deflect away and stab him with my other dagger.

Noticing another frogman running up, I dash forward but end up behind him, which I use to my advantage and stab him in the back.

As his shield is slowly winding down, Orihana finishes her chant and Fartumal glows blue, the cracks slowly reversing. Curious as to what's happening, I pull up his status,

Race: Half- Elf

Class: Guardian LVL 10

Health: 500

Mana: 75/300

Active Blessings/Curses:

•Blessing of Etymus- Heal for 75 per second

• Etymus' Flow- Recover 5 mana per second

Things were looking better for us because as long as Fartumal had mana, he could maintain his shield, because there was no way the frogmen could do enough damage to fully break it before he could recover it.

With the majority of them not focusing on anyone else, I could pick them off, then we could all focus our attention on the Hippocampus.

With a newfound confidence, we prepare for the next wave of frogmen. I hear a humming, and turn to the Hippocampus, whose lights are now traveling on the reverse.

As the lights travel from its tail to its neck, the monsters' cheeks once again swell, and we prepare for more goop. The monster cocks it's head back and whips it towards Fartumal letting loose a giant ball of water.

The water ball makes contact with his shield exploding, shattering his shield and evaporating any frogmen near it, knocking everyone to the ground.

I jump back to my feet, knowing that all hope might be lost for us with his shield gone.

Nerriwyn recovers as well and see the frogmen charging at us and begins to chant, grabbing her bow. I run past Fartumal, who actually never got knocked down but is stunned, and help Orihana to her feet.

Before the frogmen reach us, Nerriwyn aims her bow at them and fires an arrow at them, a large net coming out and wrapping itself around them.

"Fartumal you have to move or do something, or we all die here." I shout trying to snap him out of his trance. "I knew we couldn't do this, we shouldn't have done this. I had a dream we could do this but what was I thinking. Especially when we have the Goddess of Accuracy, taking her sweet damn time while I risk my life holding a shield for her." I turn towards him, realizing he's lost his mind.

Nerriwyn turns to him angry at what was just said," Oh you're saying all of this is my fault. Well I'm sorry. Sorry that we started a party with Princess Don't Hit Me too Hard with a sword that collects dust on your side."

Astonished they chose now of all times for this, I rush in between them. "We don't have time for this right now. If you guys want to fucking argue, survive this, then bicker all you want. There's still a chance we can make it, but we need to work together more now than ever. Fartumal, draw the frogmen's focus to you with your skill, and deal with the remaining 15 frogmen and I'll distract the summoning monster until you guys finish so we can deal with it together."

The frogmen struggle to break free from the net and the Hippocampus clicks three times vanishing again.

Fartumal turns towards me, "What's even the point? The monster is too strong anyway, well just be delaying the inevitable. We're all going to..." I don't let him finish as he's pissing me off with all this stupid talk and I slap him.

His eyes grow wide with surprise, and I continue, "Get your shit together man. Where's that guy who was so excited about having an actual party a couple of days ago? Where's that guy who was excited about our improvement and was the first one to suggest challenging the same room? Where's that guy who held his shield up against 10 frogmen and didn't budge? We need that guy, not this whining bitch right now."

He continues to stand there, and the frogmen break free of the net, continuing their charge. Me and Nerriwyn prepare for the wave of frogmen, but he just continues to stand there.

Right before the frogmen reach him, Fartumal draws his sword swinging as he turns, chopping down 3 frogmen. Other frogmen stab at him but he raises his am to protect his exposed head, their tridents bouncing off his armor. "You guys just going to stand there or help?"

I activate Mana Heeding to locate the Hippocampus and see that it's slowly hovering towards us about 15 meters away. Summoning a clone, I charge towards it, as Nerriwyn raises her bow in the air and begins chanting. Orihana raises her staff and also begins chanting.

I reach the Hippocampus who reaches out it's charred tail to strike at me. I jump back then run around it, leading it away from the party back towards the seagrass.

I see that Nerriwyn finish her chant and shoots an arrow into the air which comes back down as a rain of arrows, showering the many frogmen in front of Fartumal with arrows. Orihana finishes her chant, and green gusts of wind swirl around Fartumal's arms as he swings through frogmen.

I activate Mana Sponge to use its mana to activate all my curses on the Hippocampus, Harrowing Curse taking effect. The Hippocampus growls, its sides lighting up to its head and its cheeks swell, and I activate Magic Divert, hoping that it was the water ball spell it was casting.

The monster spits a water ball at me, which I use the daggers to deflect back towards its face, which explodes on impact, pissing the monster off more. It shakes its head, blinded by its spell hitting it in the face. I rush towards it and strike at its fins, my blades tearing through the fabric and jump back as its tail lashes out where I once was. A notification pops up.

[You have inflicted a random curse, reducing the target attack speed for 30 seconds.]

With all my curse and this random one, I can now try my Ultimate on this creature and finally get the upper hand in the fight. The Hippocampus finally clears his vision, focusing it's angry gaze at me once again.

Learning from it's previous mistakes, it tried a new attack, floating slowly into the air, then bringing it's body down towards me.

Under the effects of Curse of the Snail and the random attack speed curse, I have more than enough time to move out of the way. As it slams it body into the ground, I activate my Ultimate, my blades begin to glow an unnatural red and black and I plunge both blades into one of the lights in it's side.

Half of my mana depletes, as the Hippocampus screams, and a blast launches the monster into the coral with a crash. I fall to the floor momentarily exhausted and notice all curses are removed and the ultimate is on an hour cool down.

I check on my teammates and see that they are distracted by the monster slamming into the wall and a frogman flanks them towards Orihana.

She notices it too late, falling to the ground in fear as the frogman raises its trident to stab down at her.

I jump to my feet, sprinting like I've never before, casting Curse of the Snail on the frogman with the hopes to buy myself any time to come to her aid. But to my horror, the frog man stabs down towards Orihana and I cry out in pain.