It was harder to fight it.

Before, we could kind of know who almost all of the attacks were going to be aimed at. The tails would strike at the same place, one after another. The paws would only swipe at what was in front of it, and it would look at you before it attacked.

Now, the attacks were coming without warning. The tails were striking at two different places at the same time, and the only time it was looking at one of us was while it was trying to bite us.

But, our concentrated efforts were slowing it down enough that it looked like we would push it into the last phase before it reached Brute. It wouldn’t stop it from attacking the frozen Tank. It would however allow us to start disabling the boss.

Garlin wasn’t able to get out of the way of a swipe as the feline boss twisted on its back left leg and swiped with its front right paw. The Anubis rolled for a few feet, before coming up in a crouch. Nyssa took the opportunity to stab the red gem with her daggers, then get out of the way as it tried to bite her, then hit her with its tails.

I was free to hack at the back leg until the tails snapped at me. I dodged the first one, but as the second one redirected, it fell off, turning to dust that washed over me. I coughed as the dust got in my lungs, but I was able to back up as the last tail snapped at me again.

Nyssa had swapped her attacks from anywhere to the inside of the joints. The monster was twisting with her as she spun, chaining attack after attack as she did a mana dump. It was an effective way to do a lot of damage fast, but if you didn’t know when to stop, then you’d zero out your mana and trigger mana exhaustion, which would basically leave you unconscious until you’d regained about ten percent of your mana back.

It was reckless, but it was holding the boss’s attention, which was saving the Tank. I started tapping my foot to get the rhythm of her attacks, then began slashing and stabbing when I had an opportunity. The back right leg of the monster buckled at the knee and the monster fell over. As it tried to get up, I stabbed it in the throat, then backed up as the tail tried to hit me. Gall switched to using air blades, which were cutting into the monster’s side. Garlin was attacking then backing away to give Nyssa more space to work.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The monster wasn’t able to get us with everyone hitting it. I saw Nyssa stumble the same time I saw a stream of fire race towards the boss. I used Shadowstep to get behind her and pulled her out of the way of the fire. The golden woman sagged in my arms, so I moved back even further.

The monster roared defiantly, then vanished in a cloud of smoke.

There was a notification on my CB that I’d received an item. That was one of the perks of doing a raid, everyone in the room got an item sent directly to them, and whoever got the killing blow got an extra item. I had a feeling that was part of why Cass had joined the fight when she did, and it probably didn’t hurt that she might have been able to ‘accidentally’ PK Nyssa. There were parties that did raids, and some of them would even overfill the room to turn it into an Elite monster to have a chance for better loot. The only downside to a raid, besides the amount of time it took to do one, was that it would only give you loot once in a seven week period. You could still participate in the fight, but you’d get no loot or experience if you were still in the lockout period. The boss crystal on the other hand, was on the ground where the monster had been.

I laid Nyssa down now that she was safe. Gall ran over to check on her and while he was doing that I looked at the loot I’d gotten.

Lv 40 Ring of Harden

Aura +16

Active Skill: Harden

I looked at the purple ring in my inventory. Aura was one of my worst stats to put points in because it was a stat that I didn’t use. The skill wasn’t bad, but it would use my mana to cast the spell, which was low compared to a mana based class. I’d probably be better off selling it the next time I was in a town.

I looked over at Gall who was pouring a mana potion into his daughter’s mouth.

“How is she?”

“She’ll be fine once I get her mana back up.” The bald man nodded at where Cass was yelling at Brute. “I think we’re done for the day.”

The monsters until the forty-ninth floor wouldn’t be a problem as long as our tank didn’t freeze up again. I was curious how long it was going to take him to get to forty. Because it might be worth it to waste a day bringing Brute up to Tier Four to help our run to the fiftieth floor go faster. Even with Gall, I wasn’t sure how we were going to be ready to take on the next raid boss. Maybe after a lot of farming on the forty-ninth floor. But that was a problem for later.