Sora and his group continued further into the chasm, killing more corrupt soldiers and a new enemy that seemed like a Earth Elemental but the energy that held it together was a black miasma. The chasm seemed to go on for a long time and a thick black fog started to obscure their vision as they went forward. The fog impaired not only their vision but all of their senses, leading to the group aggroing a lot of enemies at once. Angel was finally able to show off her prowess as a healer when the group was surrounded by the corrupted enemies. She didn’t worry too much about Sora since he could hold his own against three of them by himself without any problem, her main focus was on Blossom and LeeLee since they were the other front liners.
During their travels Blossom, LeeLee, Drazi, and Angel had all hit level 40 from killing off the corrupted enemies. The group had noticed that the enemies here give more EXP than normal enemies of the same level, since they also had double EXP from being the first faction to conquer the demons territory they were able to level up quite swiftly. Everyone except Blossom and Sora had new gear to put on, boosting their efficiency and allowing them to push forward faster.
After what seemed like hours of roaming around in the black fog, they were finally able to see some sort of light through the fog. The fog slowly thinned and revealed a large cavern with what looked to be a purple crystal floating in the center, slowly rotating and shooting out a line of dark energy. Around the cavern were various pieces of black crystals that glowed very slightly but it was nearly impossible to tell. The group was a little on edge when they saw this cavern but couldn’t really turn back now.
As the group walked forward they heard a sudden explosive noise as the crystal in the middle of the room shook slightly and released a ring of black smoke that would expand as it headed towards the walls of the cavern. Sora didn’t have a good feeling about the smoke and immediately signaled for everyone to run out of the cavern. Luckily they were close enough to the entrance to outrun the smoke and made it out. The smoke collided with an invisible wall right in front of the group. Sora definitely felt like something was off about that ring of smoke, it was far too precise to just be nothing. The smoke only covered the cavern that the crystal was in and the black crystals would light up slightly and shake as the smoke passed over them.
“It’s obviously not good, but we are going to need to test it before we proceed, my guess is that our destination is that crystal… I’ll take a hit from the smoke to see what it does, Angel be ready to heal me just in case.”
Sora slowly stepped into the cavern and began heading towards the crystal, the crystal didn’t immediately activate and Sora counted for one minute and ten seconds before the crystal released the black smoke again. The timing only helped prove a theory that he had. The cooldown of the Orb of Purging was one minute, meaning it was quite possible that this was one of the times when he would need to use it. At first Sora wanted to test the damage of the smoke before using the orb but he decided to use the orb first to see what effects it would have. Sora pulled out the orb as the smoke approached and used it, creating a sparkling dome of translucent silver light around him. The smoke that was coming towards him suddenly started to break apart and go around the orb. Some of the smoke that collided with the silver barrier made a small screaming noise as it dispersed. Sora walked back to the group, each of them had been watching carefully and seemed to have a little sweat on their foreheads.
“I didn’t test to see if the smoke would do damage, but I think it’s safe to say that we don’t want to get hit by it. I’m almost certain that this is a time when we need to use the Orb of Purging.”
“I don’t doubt that, we should make a strategy right now for any point when we need to converge on your position for the barrier.”
Drazi certainly didn’t make a name for himself for no reason. He had thought ahead and wanted a system for things before he even knew they would happen. The orb was a key item so it was safe to assume that they would need it again in the future. Sora also felt this way, so it would be better to sort out a strategy now.
“Alright, when I say converge we will all meet at the middle of everyone. The barrier has a diameter of 5 meters so it shouldn’t be too hard to get everyone in.”
The group all agreed and continued into the cavern, this time bunched together a little more tightly. The smoke had once again released at one minute ten seconds. The group was already prepared for the smoke so when it started coming Sora didn’t even have to say converge for the group to crowd around him. Sora used the orb and the smoke once again dispersed with a small shrieking noise.
The cavern was extremely large, even the crystal which the group thought was smaller had become bigger than them. After negating the smoke over and over they were finally able to make it to the crystal. As the group got closer the crystal started to vibrate, causing a low humming noise. The closer the group got, the more heavily the crystal would shake and the louder the humming noise would get. The crystal surprisingly had a name badge above it, as soon as Sora saw the name badge he knew this would be a lot harder that he thought.
Level 50 -Decess, The Seed of Corruption-
The group was stunned as they looked at the level ahead of them. The highest level here was Sora and he was only level 41. The crystal let out one more ring of smoke before the black crystals that were scattered around the cavern came to life and flew towards the crystal. Sora activated the barrier and luckily everyone was already close enough, since the smoke had generated directly in front of them. The black crystals started to form what looked like a suit of armor that protected the crystal within. After all the crystals had converged it formed a knight that was made from the black crystals, wielding a sword, and had black smoke leaking from the joints of the armor. The group had been thrown into what they thought was an impossible fight. Even Blossom, who always wanted to fight, had known the severity of the situation and almost wanted to run. Sora had to pull the team back together quickly, even if they want to run they couldn’t at this point.
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“I’ll tank him from the front, Blossom you take right side, LeeLee you take left. Drazi will stand between me and Blossom except further back, Angel you stay directly behind me and make sure you're in range to heal everyone. Go!”
The team snapped out of it and started following orders. The boss was fairly big so the group had actually been split up by quite a bit when they started to go to their designated positions. The boss swung at Sora first and dealt a huge amount of damage to him.
-565
The sight of that huge number popping startled the team for a split second, nobody here could take more than two attacks from the boss except Sora. They haven’t even seen his skills yet and were already feeling the pressure weighing down on them. Luckily Sora could still somewhat parry the boss, the sheer weight behind the attack made it difficult but he was still able to parry a lot of the attacks. Sora had tried to use a [Concuss] but was met with the word ‘Immune’, meaning the group couldn’t disrupt his attacks.
Even after 5 minutes of attacking the boss only lost 5% health. His defense was incredibly high so it greatly reduced each hit that the team would throw out. At the five minute mark the boss suddenly opened his chest to reveal the crystal, Sora had a bad feeling and instinctively pulled out the Orb of Purging.
“Converge!”
The rest of the group also had a bad feeling and had started running as soon as they heard Sora. The crystal made an explosive noise as the dark smoke once again made an appearance. The group was able to safely make it into the barrier before the smoke arrived. After the smoke had passed by them Sora released the barrier, the boss still had his chest opened and Sora took the opportunity to strike the crystal.
-2,000
-2,000
Sora was only able to hit the crystal twice before the black smoke hit the edge of the cavern and his chest closed once again. Sora saw a glimmer of hope, if everyone was able to get two hit in on the crystal then they would be able to deal 20,000 damage. The rest of the team also had their morale raised as they saw the high damage numbers.
“New plan, after the smoke passes by everyone will head to the front of the boss to attack the crystal. Once the chest closes everyone return to your positions.”
Sora wasn’t blinded by hope and carefully watched as the boss dropped down to 90% health, getting ready for a skill to happen. Just as he had thought, the boss suddenly raised his sword, causing clouds of black smoke to slowly chase each player.
“Everyone kite your clouds to the converge point at the same time.”
The group stopped attacking to lead their clouds to the converge point, the only people who still had to actively fight the boss were Sora and Angel. Sora had to keep taking the hits from the boss while also running away from the black cloud. Angel needed to heal Sora while running or else he would fall and result in a party wipe. After a few seconds of maneuvering around everyone was able to pull their clouds of smoke in at the same time. Sora used the Orb of Purging and successfully dispersed everyone's clouds.
Luckily the clouds had come out in between when the boss would reveal his crystal, or else the Orb of Purging would be on cooldown and result in having to tank the black ring of smoke. Sora still wasn’t sure what the black smoke would do and wasn’t eager to find out. The boss once again revealed his crystal to let out the black smoke as the group converged into the silver barrier. Once the smoke passed by, everyone, even Angel, started to attack the crystal and dealt over 5% of the bosses health within that small time frame. The orb was still on cooldown when the boss fell to 81% health so he told the group to stop attacking. After waiting a few more seconds the orb was off of cooldown and the group brought the boss down to 80%, resulting in the black clouds coming out again. The group did the same thing they did last time and converged with their clouds, this time a little faster.
Sora had expected something to happen when the boss hit 75% health but luckily nothing happened. The group had found a good rhythm and managed to avoid any huge mistakes. Sora, LeeLee, and Blossom all had to drink one mana potion up til this point, while Drazi and Angel had to drink two. The boss was nearing 50% health so Sora didn’t let go of the tension he had been feeling. It was a good thing too since the boss did something new when it hit 50% health. The boss stabbed his sword into the ground, creating a wall of black smoke that spread outwards and separated Blossom and LeeLee from the rest of the group. Sora started to feel nervous, the walls would have to be purged by the orb but the next ring of smoke should happen within the next two minutes, leaving Sora with the choice to save one or the other. He kept thinking as he tanked the boss, until there was less than a minute left before the boss released the ring of smoke. He had an idea, but it was very risky.
“LeeLee, how much time until the next ring of smoke?”
“32 Seconds...31...30”
“LeeLee, come close to the wall on your side. Drazi and Angel, get close to LeeLee’s wall on this side. Blossom when LeeLee counts down to 5 I’m going to purge your wall. As soon as your wall is gone you need to use your Savage Pounce to group up with Drazi and Angel. Got it?!”
“Alright mister fisherman, I won’t let you down!”
“10...9...8”
Sora started going towards the wall that cut off Blossom, meaning that Angel would be out of range to heal him. He relied on parrying and a health potion to keep his health up as he pulled out the Orb of Purging.
“7...6...5…”
Sora used the orb to break Blossoms wall and release her, she immediately used [Savage Pounce] two times to regroup with Drazi and Angel. Sora had already used the last of his mana to use [Relentless Pursuit] on Blossom before she jumped out of range, giving him an extra 50% movement speed towards her. The orb still had it’s barrier up as Sora ran towards the group. Sora couldn’t parry while the orb was out and had to take a few hits, bringing Sora down to critical health, before Angel was able to heal him back up a little bit.
“3...2...1…”
The barrier barely cut through the bottom of the wall that separated LeeLee but she used that small gap to slide under and reunite with the rest of the group as Sora made it back to the group just in time for a black ring of smoke to disperse as it made contact with the silver barrier. The entire group collectively let out a breathe of relief once the team made it through the ordeal, not forgetting to attack the crystal.
After that incident the boss had repeated the same move sets he had already shown. He used the smoke walls at 25% health but Sora had already seen it coming and had Blossom and LeeLee fall in towards the front of the boss so they wouldn’t be separated again. The team had successfully pulled through and finally relaxed as the black crystals crumbled to the ground, leaving various items that shone in blue and a couple pieces that shone with a purple color.
[Level up]
[Level up]
Sora had leveled up twice to level 43 with a huge chunk of EXP filling up towards level 43. Even the rest of the group who had just leveled up received another two levels as the boss was killed.
-Server Announcement-
Player Ethereal has successfully killed the first Epic boss. +50 Gold, +250 Fame, +Enhanced Skill
Player Sister Blossom has successfully killed the first Epic boss. +50 Gold, +250 Fame, +Enhanced Skill
Player LeeLee has successfully killed the first Epic boss. +50 Gold, +250 Fame, +Enhanced Skill
Player Drazi has successfully killed the first Epic boss. +50 Gold, +250 Fame, +Enhanced Skill
Player Descending Angel has successfully killed the first Epic boss. +50 Gold, +250 Fame, +Enhanced Skill