Chapter 426: That Stupid Sphinx

The sphinx, who Adrian was counting on to keep its sibling in check, suddenly got caught in a trap in a short span of time. Adrian would have used Rewind if the temporal fluctuations in the area were not chaotic. 

Cristobal receded to the floor with his captured sphinxes and Adrian was in utter shock. He brought the sphinx with him because he thought that it could fight with its sibling if the other becomes an enemy. He did not know that having wills would make an inanimate object emotional. At the end of the day, the sphinx is still a relic.

Cristobal is nowhere to be found and an emergency quest I suddenly issued to the raid party. 

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EMERGENCY QUEST NOTIFICATION

Kill the Minions (Chain Quest)

Cristobal managed to lure you into the labyrinth and succeeded in capturing the other sphinx. Follow him and retrieve the sphinxes from captivity. The entrance to the next stage will appear after defeating the minions. You have 10 hours to reach Cristobal's location.

Condition: Kill 0 / 20 minions

Reward: Temporary Status Buff of 10% until the end of the dungeon, Additional 20 minutes in the countdown timer

Failure: Minus 30 minutes on the countdown timer

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Adrian has noticed that emergency quests happen because of two reasons. One reason is that someone triggers them and the other is that the AI of the game judges that your current power is not enough to combat the boss of the dungeon. Nevertheless, Adrian is thankful because he knew that they will not be able to beat Cristobal without some form of assistance.

"If I could become level 170 then my sealed skill would unlock." Adrian stated as he hoped that he would level up faster.

"He mentioned minions but there are no signs of enemies." Alder stated and everyone looked at him because he is basically jinxing their group.

From the muscle wall, numerous humanoid forms started to emerge. These humanoids were so grotesque looking because it looked like they are a mixture of a plant and a human. It is grotesque looking because the plant part is made of human flesh.

Monster: Greater Earth Elemental Abomination

Level: 185

Tier: Epic

Description: Earth elementals that became abominations after being tortured and experimented on for hundreds of years. Their green skin made of plants adapted to their new environment. They are now made from the dead skin cells of the dark god's fallen body.

"Gross!" Peridot exclaimed but she still took out ten stones that were rare tier.

The vanguard went into position and circled the party with the healers at the center. The enemies numbered to twenty. Mariposa immediately ordered her beetle summon to use a defensive skill that gave shields to all the tanks and warriors.

"Amphoria, spread your Enhancing Dust." Mariposa commanded.

Her butterfly then flapped its enormous wings, and each member of the party got a random buff. The buff that Adrian got was 10% increase in damage while the others differed. Adrian immediately took out his Primordial Armament: Bow. 

He and Alder started shooting at the abominations so that the warriors and scouts could deal large chunks of damage when the enemies come near. Cersei immediately chanted two debuffs at a time it sounded like she was speaking with two mouths.

Each step of the abominations made them grow weaker, and their health dropped. The only problem is their large health pool. Adrian immediately ordered Sirius to use Phantom Rush. The abominations might have been elementals before but now they can bleed due to their transformations.

Soleil and Kanlaon joined forces and enhanced each other's ability. It seems that Soleil has a title that increases the damage of the fire element whenever she is around. Vayu started weaving across the battlefield like the wind.

Creepysoo started to also use debuffs in order to weaken the abominations. The tanks did their jobs and held the enemies at bay. Since there are only five tanks, each tank can only hold one opponent at a time. This is where Kabrakan shined as he could knock back enemies to a distance of ten meters depending on his stored damage.

The group could easily kill off one abomination at a time, but the tanks' stamina would be the cost. The cost of fending one abomination took a great reduction in stamina. The abominations that they are facing might be slow, but their health and attack damage is great.

Alder got a 30% decrease in health when one managed to slip through and attacked him. The healers could not use their specialized skills just yet because this was only the first wave. They needed to save some skills for fighting the boss as well, so their skill pool got even shorter.

The difficulty in a small raid party is not dealing enough damage but the coordination and judgement of using skills. Thankfully, the soulbounds could ease their suffering as Charon could use Life Siphon without worry.

The abominations deal magical damage with a small mixture of physical damage. When Adrian found this out, he immediately let Charon tank the remaining abominations that the tankers cannot handle. Creepysoo even buffed Charon just by being in the same party as its stats got increased by 20%.

The twelve abominations are simultaneously attacking Charon and all they could do is decrease his health by 3% per second. His Life Siphon would heal him 1% per second which meant that he could only get damaged by 2%.

Adrian also found a good way to utilize Charon's magical tank qualities and Dodu's ability. Every time that Dodu's Damage transfer ability is off cooldown, he would choose Charon as the target. When Charon's health decreased below 90%, he would activate Damage Transfer on him.

The physical damage that Charon received all transferred to Dodu for the duration of ten seconds. With Charon's Magic Nullification and Dodu's Physical Nullification, the two are basically invincible for the ten second duration. Charon would then go back to full health within ten seconds.

Adrian could not help but chuckle a little because he managed to find a great mechanic for team fights. The others though could only think that the boy with them is hacking. They just hoped that is not the case.