37 – (season 1) Lessor Demon Ajax
The second group recovered and looked weary. Once they were in stable condition, the group leader spoke.
“It was horrendous. We were not prepared for the harsh desert environment. We lost a quarter of our group due to a water shortage. Once we reached the boss, a fierce battle ensued and we lost another quarter of the group. It was a hellish 4 day trip”
No one mentioned Jake's strategy and techniques that breezed them through the raid. Slowly, all of the groups came out of their respective portals. Even the groups which had church members suffered equally as they all look weary. All of the healers worked on getting everyone back to full health. Although everyone was healed, fatigue was written all over everyone's faces. Since they had 2 days left to complete the task, everyone decided to rest and recover their mental health. While everyone was recovering, all of the church members and group leaders of the remaining groups held a secret huddle.
Jake was present at the meeting as the church revealed the same information about the true mission and the rumored rank 985 item. Some of the group leaders displayed hints of greed even though there are restrictions on the item as a church exclusive item. Unfortunately, no one had any insight into the boss fight and strategized a standard tank line with long range casters in the back. No one had any exceptions. As Jake scanned the group, other than the three church members, only 3 other group leaders had high mana levels. The solo berserker who could grow in size was one of the members who Jake could depend on. The other two leaders consisted of a swordsman and mage. Jake did not have any recollections of their names in the future, however, they did belong to large guilds. Jake did not bother to memorize their names as they didn't look as strong as the berserker Giant Axe. After the brief meeting, everyone went their seperate ways to rest and prepare for battle.
The next morning.
Everyone gathered at the center with all of their preparations in hand. Everyone crossed the final gate. Suddenly, the air crackled with demonic energy. A monstrous figure, cloaked in shadows, emerged from a shadowy alcove. Its eyes burned with an infernal glow, and its jagged teeth glistened with malice. This was Ajax, a lesser demon with 30 health bars. Everyone took their positions as they got ready to fight. The tanks performed their part well as all of the aggro was focused on them while the melee and ranged players all attacked the boss. As the boss started to retaliate with its dark claws, the healers and jake jumped into action as they started praying and healing all of the tanks. As the boss's health slowly chipped to 20 health bars left, he prepared a large scale demonic spell. Everyone was caught of guard and fear started to trickle into the players mindset. 80% of the players started running away from the boss. It was too late for the fleaing player as a demon swiped its demonic claw, five light waves were released from each claw which headed towards the players. Anyone who was fleaing was instantly caught by the claw light and died instantly. Only the church members and the 3 group leaders survived by blocking with their weapons and shields. The healers instantly started to heal everyone with Jake's help. The claw blew off a part of a boulder which revealed an injured angel. As soon as the angel appeared, everyone's gaze shifted to a higher life form. Unfortunately, everyone could tell it was not as strong as the demon. Despite the difference in power, the angel was recovering faster and faster every second. Jake activated supersight and the angel was not drawing in mana but drawing in the soul power. Jake traced the sources of soul power and it was coming from trees, plant animals. A system notification suddenly popped up.
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System notification: you have learned unique trait “Angel soul”
By observing an angel true recovery through their soul, you have obtained an inferior legenedary technique :Soul collection. You can ask to take the soul power of living beings that have souls.
Warning: The angels do not permit a lower being to wield the angel soul technique. It was been restricted to request borrow soul power instead of forcefully taking it. The angels deem this to be an appropriate restriction for a unique trait.
Jake was astounded that he was able to learn a soul recovery technique. This is different from just healing as healing does not relieve mental stress and damages to the soul. This was a pleasant bonus for him. Animals started moving closer to the angel to offer their souls. The demon was not a fool and saw through its recovery. Ajax started summoning lower demonic skeletons to distract the players while it heads toward the angel. Jake told everyone to focus on the demon as he can take care of the thousand demon skeletons. Jake summoned his golden and started crushing the skeletons to the floor. Ajax felt a threat to his power and needed to take care of this monk first. Before Ajax could finish this thought, all of the adventures started attacking the demon. Coordination improved as everyone started using their strongest attacks. Giant Axe grew 5 times its size and started attacking the boss. Spellcasters started chanting their strongest tier 1 spells. A mix of Fire and thunder spells started to unleash their power on the boss. Slowly the boss's health fell to 10 bars of health.
Ajax abandoned its skeleton army and summoned a a hell knight which was much stronger. Although it was only 1 hell knight, its power could decimate that skeleton army from before 5 times over. Jake assured everyone that it can take care of the hell knight and that everyone should continue to focus on the demon Ajax.
Hell Knight Juno started charging at Jake. At this points, Jake had no choice but to bring out all of his cards against such a strong opponent. Jake summoned a golden palm to slam the hell knight ot the ground. He failed as the hell knight pulled out its sword to slice the golden palm while moving forward. Jake changed its approach and made compact golden fists. As the first golden fist made contact the hell knight couldnt push forward as it was slicing the golden fists. Jake was deciding if he should test his new technique even thought it was perfected yet. Instead of fists, Jake shot golden fingers at the hell knight. The reduced area of impact was overcome through the sheer impact. The force was almost comparable to a modern day bullet. The hell knight was starting to get pushed back. However, the hell knight started to get accustomed to the living world and recovered enough mana to create hell mana blade. The golden finger bullets stopped working on the hell knight as it was being slashed apart by the hell mana blade. Jake asked for Jim's support and he agreed. Jim took over Jakes body as he was the better swordsman.
Jim created a mana blade which stopped the hell knight in its track. It was rare to find a skilled opponent for the hell knight to fight against. It spoke for the first time. What is your name? Jim introduced himself. The hell knight would remember this name as he killed Jim.