He learned why when they stepped onto the meadow.

The earth beneath his feet began to tremble and Elijah gulped as the realization set in. A humongous snake that dwarved the other monsters crawled out of the ground in front of them and let out a deafening hiss.

“Fuck.” Kael muttered before they started running away.

Chapter Begin

They all ran for a few minutes straight before Elijah noticed something odd. He stopped as he called out. “Wait, guys! It’s not following us!”

They all looked behind them and stopped running as they realized that Elijah was right.

“What the hell was that?” Erik asked. “How are we supposed to beat that?”

“It’s the boss. There has to be a way.” Aric said as Root reached them.

“No way I’m fighting that.” Elijah shook his head. “It’s huge.”

“I agree. We should come back with reinforcements.” Kael took a step toward the direction the entrance was in.

“Can you guys chill out?” Aric stood between Elijah and Kael and put his hands on their shoulders. “We have three people at Tier 2 and me at Tier 3. This is a Tier 2 rift. Nobody has ever completed it.”

“I don’t care.” Elijah pushed the hand off his shoulder. “You saw that monster Aric. How would you beat that?”

“There are ways. I’m sure of it.” Aric spread his arms. “I have a few ideas.”

Kael questioningly pointed with two fingers at his own eyes as Aric’s eyes landed on him. “Exactly!” The archer snapped his fingers. “Its eyes could be its vulnerability. And the underbelly. It should have the same weak points as the other snakes.”

“I am not sure.” Kael still hesitated.

“We could try.” Erik rubbed his head. “What do you think?” He looked at Elijah.

“I agree with Kael but we could at least take a look at the boss again. I won’t get into melee range though.”

“It’s gone,” Erik said after they moved back to the edge of the forest and stared at the meadow.

Elijah threw nervous glances at the ground. The thought of it crawling out from beneath them put him in a state of anxiety.

“Maybe one of us can try to lure it out,” Aric suggested as his gaze landed on Root. “You are the fastest.” Elijah immediately replied but relented under the stares of the other two. “Fine.” He crossed his arms as he commanded Root to walk forward.

The minion took one step after another as the earth began trembling again. By simply moving, the boss caused the ground to shake. It crawled out of the earth again and let out the same deafening hiss as before. It took everything Elijah had to not run away. A short glance to his side told him that Kael didn’t feel any different.

They watched in horror as the ground rose like a wave and crashed against the minion before the huge serpent slithered forward and opened its huge maw to swallow Root whole. Elijah could feel the connection to his minion disappear within seconds.

“Root’s dead,” Elijah said as he put his hand on the trunk next to him and summoned a new minion while the other three focused on the boss.

“Getting swallowed means death. Its insides are covered in hundreds of teeth.” Aric pointed at darkened patches on the serpent’s scales. “I think it feels vibrations with those.”

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“It’s probably blind.” They all looked at the creature’s eyes after Erik’s comment. The eyes appeared cloudy and had a milky white coloration.

“We can test.” Aric said as he nocked an arrow and shot it more than ten feet to the boss’ right. The boss only reacted after the arrow landed on the ground. Its head jerked around and it seemed to wait for something. Another arrow landed next to the first before the beast lunged forward. It took a huge bite, leaving a giant hole in the meadow before it started to dig into the ground again.

They started to discuss the best approach while the ground continued to tremble for a few seconds more. Kael and Elijah agreed to try fighting it as they could simply climb either on a tree or float away with their [Weightless] skills.

A few minutes later Kael knocked his fist on his palm. “We can use our [Weightless] skill to move around! It won’t be able to locate us while we can hit it with everything we have.”

“I don’t have the skill but I can distract it with arrows if you want,” Elijah said as he thought back to his practice with the bow.

Everyone agreed before they prepared themselves. The monster was still above ground, slithering around. Elijah took his position on a higher branch which gave him a good view over the battlefield. He hadn’t kept the bow he took from one of the Cloud Raiders and had to create a new one with the help of Aric. It was a rather crude weapon but it would suffice as his only job was to shoot arrows at the ground.

Elijah held his breath as he saw the others step onto the meadow. As they had expected, the giant serpent didn’t react to the trio approaching it. The three grew more confident with each step as the serpent had no means to detect them and Erik started running forward. Idiot. Elijah thought as he saw the earth mage begin attacking their enemy and nocked an arrow.

The serpent threw itself at the spot where the arrow landed, thinking that an enemy arrived. Aric took the opportunity and shot an arrow powered by his new perk at the serpent. Even with the heightened penetration, Aric’s arrows only sunk an inch into the rift boss.

It hissed in annoyance as Kael and Erik joined the attack and peppered it with earth and fire. Elijah continued to shoot one arrow after another at the ground, trying to keep the serpent confused. While it did work to a certain extent, the boss eventually began ignoring the arrows and created waves of earth that flowed toward Aric.

The archer was taken by surprise and only Erik’s intervention saved him from taking damage. They both leaped high into the air while Kael covered his fists in fire and began hitting one of the darkened patches on its scales.

Elijah was surprised by the serpent’s reaction. It hissed in pain and curled around itself. Kael threw a few more punches before he jumped up and ran across the serpent’s body, leaving behind a trail of burning footprints before he got off the monster and distanced itself.

The serpent’s head jerked left and right as it was looking for the enemies. A few arrows rained down on its body from above but only two managed to impale the darkened patches which seemed to be its weak points. The other arrows got stuck on its’ tough scales while it kept moving. More waves of earth appeared as the beast tried to crush enemies it couldn’t sense. It also began tearing out pieces from the earth and shooting the individual chunks in different directions from which the arrows and other attacks came.

Elijah let himself fall off a branch he was standing on when the serpent reacted with an entire boulder to the arrow Elijah shot at the ground.

His whole back was covered in sweat as he locked eyes with Aric. It can determine my rough position based on the arrows. His thought was confirmed after he saw the serpent shooting earth projectiles at the other three.

From that point on the fight turned into a desperate struggle. Aric and Kael concentrated on attacking the weak points of the serpent while Erik limited himself to protecting his friends from the projectiles. Elijah also joined the others and stepped on the meadow to attack the serpent after he sent his minion in first. While the serpent could feel the vibrations Root and Elijah caused with each step, the entire ground shook so much that the vibrations were drowned out by the movement of the earth. Nevertheless, Elijah didn’t approach the monster too closely and limited himself to attacks from a distance

As the battle dragged on, the four accumulated more wounds. Each of them was covered in bruises which they got either from a direct hit with the beast’s tail or a stone projectile. Erik was hurt the most as he even tanked a few projectiles for his friends. Blood flew from several parts of his body.

Thanks to Sylph’s Grace Elijah managed to avoid the majority of the attacks while his wooden constitution protected him from the more serious blunt damage. Aric was able to avoid most attacks as well, due to his higher attributes as a new Tier 3. Kael was almost as bad off as Erik but even now the man was sending one attack after another at the snake’s weak points.

Finally, after a two-hour-long fight, the giant serpent let out its last cry of pain and anger before it fell, unable to get up again. It was still breathing shallowly but Aric took its life with a few well-aimed arrows into its eyes. The body of the boss was shuddering for a last time as an empowered arrow penetrated its brain.