Coated in gleaming blue scales and shaped like a kite, the head of Karnon was as wide as my shoulders. If this oversized snake could stretch its jaws like those in the real world, its mouth could probably open as big as this tunnel and swallow Mr. Inuus and me whole. Swirls of white vapors puffed out of pits lining the middle of its head as its red eyes shone even brighter. Frost coated the rocks on its side of the tunnel.

Guardian Serpent, huh? Did it have any connection with the Mountain Guardian? Could be one of its children that Mr. Inuus mentioned. Either that or it ate a [Kruos Ichor Sliver], a frozen blood droplet of the Mountain Guardian, making it stronger and granting it ice powers.

(Form a Contract of Binding with me!) Mr. Inuus blared in my head.

“How do I make a party with an NPC? I don’t—” The system automatically added me to Mr. Inuus’ party. “There we go.” Several barriers of various colors covered me. Magic circles spread where I stood. “What are we—? Holy cow! Or holy goat!” Numerous buff notifications popped up.

The numbers were mindboggling, adding thousands to my stats. Even my primary attributes were raised by a few hundred each. I felt myself getting stronger as if a gallon of steroids had been injected into my bloodstream. Not that I had experienced that to know. Doing that would probably kill me… if I was still killable with healing in the thousands of points ticking per second. I didn’t know what level eighty Healers were capable of, surely a lot, but the musical goat could probably match them.

“Are you playing several song spells at the same time?” I asked in amazement. “I heard about this. Though some of these effects might be your auras. That’s awesome synergy for—it’s coming!”

Karnon opened its mouth, displaying spears of ice in rows. The Guardian Serpent darted forward like an oncoming train, smashing against the many barriers of Mr. Inuus. Some broke, but most held strong. The fangs of Karnon were above us, struggling to pierce through the barriers and drop down on us like a castle’s portcullis.

Mr. Inuus played a melancholic song with flutes. Karnon’s bite weakened as its head slowly drifted left and right as if sleepy. Then the giant snake shook its head and retreated, staring at us warily.

“What did you do? Was that some sort of crowd-control song making enemies around you sleepy?”

(Indeed, it does… or it should. However, the foe we face is quite resilient.)

“Do you have other—?”

A great whoosh drowned my words.

Karnon blasted us with a blizzard from its mouth. All I could see was blindingly bright white, the magical snow glittering. I heard distinct cracks and pops. Barriers were shattering again, including those covering me; my defenses were getting peeled off like the skin of a banana. I may be buffed to high heavens, but I was still a low-level weakling. Without the barriers, I wouldn’t last long. The insane healing could slow down my death for only a few seconds.

I raised my shields despite knowing it wouldn’t help. Should I run? But I didn’t want to be separated from Mr. Inuus.

The last of the barriers Mr. Inuus cast on me were gone, signaled by my own [Greater Pyro Shell] exploding. I began to take direct damage. My health bar, which had lengthened to several times its original, began its descent to zero despite Mr. Inuus’ healing fighting back. I expected to die faster but the buffs made me tankier than I assumed. That, and Mr. Inuus was absorbing the bulk of the damage.

“I just hope you have a resurrection song spell… Wait. I’m not dying anymore?” My health bar stopped at about a quarter remaining, then zoomed back to full.

There was a rainbow of shimmers around me. Mr. Inuus was rebuilding the barriers as they were destroyed. Must be a way stronger version of [Carhoni’s Chorus] with the refreshing shield mechanic. I was out of danger though the destructive blizzard continued.

Mr. Inuus’s musical instruments glowed brighter, their light piercing the thick snow. The music played also became louder and fought back the shrieks of the blizzard. The snow subsided after several seconds, revealing a strange sight—Karnon’s mouth was bound shut by several magic circles around its snout. The Guardian Serpent thrashed about, smashing its head against the walls and ceiling to remove the muzzle.

The tunnel shook and chunks fell off the ceiling. Mr. Inuus used the song spell that saved me from RailGunLord to stop the tunnel from caving in, a blue barrier spread outward like a balloon to keep the sides of the tunnel in place.

(The restraints on the enemy won’t last long,) Mr. Inuus said. (We must defeat it, or at least drive it away!)

I threw poison bottles at Karnon. Our level gap may be huge, but poison, the great equalizer, dealt damage as a percentage of health. It didn’t matter if the target had a hundred health points or a million, poison would slowly chip it down just the same. The bottles broke and deadly gas mixed with the icy vapors.

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Or the gas might not be so deadly to the Guardian Serpent after all.

Purple bubbles danced on Karnon’s scales, indicating it was poisoned, but disappeared after a few seconds, not even leaving any hint of damage. Karnon’s Poison Resistance was an insurmountable wall; I lacked the means of bringing it down. And the short time it was poisoned didn’t do anything because it likely had insane health regeneration.

Karnon exhaled a blue fog, which descended to the ground and cleared my poison clouds.

“Okay… that’s just rubbing salt on my meat. That’s probably the wrong quote. I can’t do anything to it, Mr. Inuus.” It didn’t hurt my ego much to admit failure because I was a tank, not a DPSer. “Do you have any offensive spell songs?”

(I have, but I fear they are inadequate to cause significant harm to our foe.) Mr. Inuus threw back his head. (Nonetheless, let me try.)

Large snare drums appeared, sticks ending with golden skulls vigorously beating on them. Red spears materialized and shot forth at the Guardian Serpent. The attacks didn’t do much, impressive they may have looked. Karnon was more bothered by the muzzle, continuing to violently wriggle and destroy more of the tunnel. Mr. Inuus was built for support and defense; I’ve also heard that music magic was pretty mediocre when it came to DPS.

“Should we just run—no! We must get past this snake and reach whatever is behind it.” Surely, it was a coincidence that Karnon appeared now when we were traveling in this specific tunnel. I must be right that the wardcrafters’ cave was ahead. “Can we push it with your barriers, Mr. Inuus?”

(An impossible plan, Mardukryon friend. My most powerful barriers are stationary. Those that project forward would easily shatter from the Guardian Serpent’s might.)

“But we have to do something,” I said. “And by ‘we,’ I mean you.”

(Attacking is the key, though killing it is too lofty a goal. Ensemble magic might empower my strikes enough to deter the Guardian Serpent from thinking we are prey.)

“Ensemble what was that? Ensemble magic?”

(I will show you. Stand back!)

It was as if Ms. Inuus’ soul left his body, an ethereal clone separating from him. The spectral goat stood beside Mr. Inuus with a blue beam of light linking them. The clone also summoned his instruments; they were slightly transparent, ghost versions of the real ones.

I had an inkling of what was about to happen.

My mind returned to the concert at Kurghal Village. Eugenius and I were playing instruments, the crowd following along, making noises by banging their armors and shields and casting noisy spells. The crimson goat used his song spell to control all the sounds we made, bringing them to order and weaving them into one piece. There must be a reason why the crimson goat could do that. It was logical that those with music magic could play together.

Could it be that song spells grew stronger the more musicians joined in? Since it was impossible to always be with a party, much more a party of musicians, music magic was developed to make clones to shore up this weakness.

Both Mr. Inuus and his clone played the drums with the skull drumsticks. Once again, red spears appeared twice the number this time. The spears combine themselves into bigger ones glowing in gold. They quickly spun around, creating mini whirlwinds, before zooming to Karnon. Though not deep, they pierced the scales of the Guardian Serpent and then exploded.

More quakes. Through the dust, I saw Karnon’s health bar. The much-improved spears caused noticeable but not-so-significant damage which was simply regenerated. We were far from winning.

(Another is needed,) said Mr. Inuus as he summoned a second clone, also linked to him.

Instead of playing the drum song of red spears, the new clone called forth guitars and bells, an unusual combination. The second clone’s song spell was different than the layered drumming already playing, yet it meshed well with it.

Checking my stats, I found my Attack and Magic Power sharply increased. I also had a bunch of new stats I didn’t have before, like Physical Penetration and Ignore Armor. Music magic was pretty insane in the support department.

But why did it have to be the clone playing this buff song? It could be that he couldn’t play certain songs together. Or perhaps having clones out came with restrictions, which balanced being able to play upgraded versions of songs—this ensemble magic—without other musicians.

The huge golden spears appeared once more, this time laced with blue lightning. As they spun, electricity lashed out everywhere.

“Look out!”

Karnon broke free from the magic circles. I charged forward and planted Totems to taunt it in the hopes of buying time. Ms. Inuus’ healing quickly replenished the cost of the Totems. But what I did was useless because Karnon had some sort an AoE frost damage that instantly killed my Totems.

(Retreat, Mardukryon friend!)

I stuck to the walls, out of the way of the spears, and scrambled back. Karnon let loose another blizzard. The golden spears shot through the wall of snow, dispersing it with whirlwinds, and hit Karnon. The giant snake recoiled and hissed from pain. The damage was better than the previous, but I still couldn’t see us winning this.

A stalemate. Karnon couldn’t kill us, and we couldn’t kill it.

Or maybe it could kill us.

The holes on Karnon’s head became a fog machine; ice vapors spread. The rock walls of the tunnel, already damaged by the giant snake’s thrashings, crumbled when they became frozen. One touch of that cloud and I was dead, for sure. Karnon’s eyes turned violet and spat out ribbons of energy. Its scales lengthened into icicles, making it look like a porcupine.

(Behind me, Mardukryon friend!)