With Jet's declaration, we had believed this was our moment to end the battle. Fueled by determination, we unleashed as a collective force, holding nothing back. Whether Jet's knowledge was lacking or he had underestimated the boss monster, our chance was met with a ruthless counterattack.

The remaining eyestalks tried to cast a barrage of spells to intercept; arrows of fire, darts of acid, balls of water, blades of wind, and shards of rock attempted to make an unrelenting barrage against us. Meanwhile, the tentacles with added appendages tried to stab, cut, shred, pincer, or even just body block if all else failed.

Despite the mounting wounds, Ian remained an unstoppable force. His resilience was awe-inspiring as he shrugged off the repeated blows with seemingly little care. His toughness must have been off the charts, and he clearly had only one objective: to plant his shiny axe into the giant eyeball.

'Then again, he does have the utmost confidence in Eliza to keep him breathing.'

Pelopi, due to her choice of attack, was also forced to engage in melee, and unlike Ian, she couldn't just barrel through. Instead, she started dodging and weaving while pouncing forward, even using some of the tendrils to vault herself further forward. The way her body contorted and flexed was shockingly impressive.

'She's supposed to be a human, yet here she's impressing me with her body control, and I'm a slime!'

With ample energy being siphoned from Ian, Eliza threw out black bolts like there was no tomorrow. It would have been funny if it manifested as her own black tentacles, but it seemed that if the damage source was too varied, that was the default fallback. Rather than trying to strike the central eye, she targeted the limbs that had abandoned any idea of self-preservation to stop the incoming adventurers.

Jet was the luckiest of the bunch; being entirely ranged, he didn't need to charge forward to deal damage. As I wondered what he would do while not holding back, it was answered as his own shadow lifted itself off the ground, and he casually tossed one of his spare crossbows. It nodded silently as if receiving an order and began its covering fire.

The eyeball was desperate, throwing out illusions to stop the group. Lousy illusions. Who would honestly believe a flawless wall would suddenly appear in front of them without any source at all. The Eyedra was certainly no Fey with its attempted trickery. Pelopi and Ian charged through the illusions without hesitation, and neither Jet nor his shadow failed to hit their mark.

That left me. Since its defenses were supposedly lowered and it was already debuffed, I began throwing out afflictions before the melee began. It would have been amazing if I could have sealed the deal with [Mana Burn], but the Eyedra had such vast quantities of mana that it was not a viable option. Still, every little bit of damage would help.

Since I knew Pelopi would be engaging in melee and she was still armed with one [Frostclaw], I decided I'd use [Icicle] on the Eyedra since it would avoid collateral damage on the rest of the party. Perhaps we could build up enough freeze ailment together. But first, I opened up with a trusty [Fireball] spell so I could brag to Dewi the next time I saw him. The spell detonated in a spectacular explosion of blue flame that thankfully dispersed before Ian or Pelopi arrived.

Sadly, its high magic resistance was clearly showing, and I couldn't help but be a little disappointed in the lack of damage. This was further emphasized when I threw out a [Lightning Bolt] to see it almost disperse against a membrane of protective skin tightly covering the Eyedra. [Icicle] was more effective due to its more physical nature, but even that was quite disappointing.

When Ian finally reached it and swung his axe, causing a huge bloody gash into the eye, easily outdoing all the cumulative damage I dealt to the central eye in a single hit, I couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

Pelopi also began slashing into it with unbridled feral ferocity. She even started growling and looking a lot more bestial with each swing of her claws.

'Guess this is their chance to shine. Oh well, I'll start on tentacle cleanup duty then.'

I shifted most of my cores over to Lightning and ordered them to start casting [Conductive] on all tentacles in sight. Integrating it with [Lightning Rod] was still one of my proudest magical achievements, and I was going to have some fun.

Swapping over to [Electro-Magnetic Sense], I looked for the largest cluster of now brightly glowing tentacles and began casting and firing an empowered [Chain Lightning] spell with glee.

It. Was. Glorious!

The bolt of lightning struck the tentacle, sparkling and crackling with overwhelming energy. It was fried into a charred husk before the spell bounced to the next nearest target. Between all the sparks and crackling thunder, it was like a miniature fireworks display was going off as the spell bounced around the room. When I spotted another juicy cluster, I wasted no time hurling out another spell to chain between the tentacles and wipe them out.

The eyeball was covered in horrific wounds when it suddenly surged with arcane energy and released a shockwave, knocking everyone back. It began slowly floating upwards as interlocking hexagonal barriers started to form and surround it. Any remaining tentacles, even stumps, it had was retracted to within the safety of the barrier while it stared menacingly at us.

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"Damn, guess we don't have enough damage to kill it in one go." Jet grumbled in his still distorted voice. His shadow was trying to regain itself, but it looked far less substantial now.

"My legs!" Ian began yelling in panic.

We all stared at him as he tried to crawl away further away from the Eyedra. His legs looked roughed up but perfectly fine, yet he was yelling as if he was amputated.

"Ian!" Eliza yelled at him. "Get a grip, it's an illusion!"

He blinked a few times, then reached down, sighing in relief as he touched them. "That was a cruel joke," Ian muttered.

"Its illusions are terrible! I can't believe you fell for that," Eliza commented in disbelief.

Pelopi meanwhile charged back in and started slamming against the barrier, while the Eyedra kept consolidating its power and reinforcing its defenses. She let out a ferocious roar and then abruptly began to shift more and more. She swelled in size, her joints creaked and snapped, and her mouth twisted into a muzzle. It happened in mere moments, and her clothes ripped and tore away, and suddenly, she was replaced entirely with a massive brown bear. The only thing that remained beyond some torn scraps was the magical belt of strength, which had conveniently resized and strapped around the bear's waist, and the slowfall cloak, which, against all belief, was somehow attached to her back.

"Did she just turn into a bear?" I asked as I hurled another [Lightning Bolt] at the Eyedra, crashing against the barrier and barely destroying one hexagon, which was replaced by another.

"Yes, it's a thing she can do a limited amount of times per day," Eliza answered. "Focus, guys! We are so close to killing the thing!"

Ian picked himself up and charged in again, slamming his axe against the barrier rather ineffectually. He rapidly swapped to the other enchanted side, but it couldn't penetrate the barrier.

Jet's arrows also couldn't damage the Eyedra now that it had bunkered down, as the bolt's shadow failed to reach deep enough into the barrier.

One of the few intact tentacles lashed out against Pelopi, who was raging and roaring against the barrier, but it squashed against the barrier and failed to go outward.

Ian must have also noticed it, as he notified the rest of the party before me. "I think it's trapped in its own barrier! We can't get it, but it can't get us."

Jet stopped shooting, I couldn't see his facial features, but I was pretty sure he was frowning. "So we have to wait it out until it runs out of Mana?"

"The thing has barely touched its Mana; we might be here forever," I commented.

"Ideas, people! We need ideas!" Eliza urged.

"What's the rush?" Ian commented. "It's not like it can harm us while it's being a coward."

As if to directly disprove Ian's words, a spell construct of pitch black death mana formed rapidly into a scythe. Instinctually, I reached out and seized it, tearing it to shreds with the full might of my eleven cores. The Eyedra could not hide its shock and pain from the resulting backlash.

"What the hell was that!?" Eliza shouted, having clearly witnessed the spell forming.

"Looks like it can cast spells outside the barrier," I answered. "I tore the spell to shreds."

"Could you cast spells inside the barrier?" Jet immediately asked.

"I can certainly try..." I replied.

I knew it was risky since its mana aura was no doubt fully encompassing the barrier, but at worst, I would get some magical backlash. I attempted to cast [Ball Lightning] inside the barrier, but the Eyedra immediately focused on it, seized it, and tore it apart without even a second of hesitation. I thought it might have tried to tussle with me for a more detrimental outcome, but it seemed it was not confident in an extended [Counter Magic] battle against me. I winced at the magical backlash, and Eliza quickly threw out a healing spell on me.

"When did you get so damaged?" Eliza asked with concern.

"Some Death spell and then magical backlash," I answered.

Eliza frowned and sighed. "Guess Death spells are another form of damage I can't siphon... Wonderful."

"Guess we are back to our stalemate," Ian grimaced.

"On the plus side, if it tries to cast outside of its barrier, I'll make it pay," I said.

"We need a way to dispel through that damn barrier," Eliza said, chewing on her thumbnail with frustration.

"Oh," I responded in shock. "I'll try [Dispel]."

"I thought you didn't have it?" Eliza asked with an accusatory tone.

"I actually got it after the cat boss..." I admitted. "It kind of slipped my mind with everything else going on."

"Great!" Jet replied. "Everyone, get ready!"

I began preparing to cast [Dispel], dumping a considerable dose of mana into it as I wasn't entirely sure how much I would need. I had not used the spell and figured more would likely lead to a more favorable outcome.

The Eyedra must have known what I was doing as it risked casting another spell behind me, the black scythe of death mana forming before my [Sub-Cores] grabbed it for me and shredded it with ruthless efficiency. Perhaps truly frantic, it attempted to cast two spells simultaneously, but again, my [Sub-Cores] jumped into action and ripped them apart.

'Haha! Thanks for the free level!' I taunted in my head. 'Even without my help, it's ten against one; you got no chance, you bloated eyeball.'

Finalizing the spell, I informed everyone; they all readied attacks, waiting for it to go off. Well, except for Pelopi, who was still mindlessly smashing against the barrier in her hulking bear form. The spell went off, and the barrier briefly dropped; everyone barely landed a single attack before being shunted backward, and the barrier returned.

"Well... That kinda worked?" Ian said, rubbing his head.

Pelopi roared in agreement. Or maybe in complaint? I had no idea; I wasn't fluent in bear.

'Unless [Nature Commune] works? Does Pelopi count as a non-magical animal?' I wondered.

My curiosity couldn't be contained, and so I tried it out. No response. I doubted Pelopi was dumber than that wolf I tried to speak to, so unfortunately, she must not have been a viable target.

"So, do we just keep trying to kill it one hit at a time?" Eliza asked.

"I'm surprised it reformed so quickly..." Ian grumbled.

"It wasn't fully destroyed." Jet answered.

"What do you mean?" Ian asked. "I thought that was the point of [Dispel]? It destroys magic, right?"

"If you totally overwhelm the spell, it does. Otherwise, it can briefly turn it off." Eliza answered. "That barrier is absolutely crazy, so I kind of doubt Syl can completely overpower it."

"Hey..." I complained, feeling a tiny bit insulted.

"No offense!" Eliza apologized.

"So..." Ian said awkwardly. "Strategy session?"

Everyone else agreed. I grumbled out mine, still feeling a little soured.