Chapter 837 – Progress Raiding 11 – 1%

Chapter 837 – Progress Raiding 11 – 1%

The Titanturtle Heartgolem smashed Siena’s head into the wall and let out a satisfied grunt when that made the moonshade elemental disappear. Turning around, it faced what remained of the party and prepared to go after them as quickly as it could. Both the boss and the group were on their last leg.

Glowing dimly and having lost an arm, the Heartgolem was covered in scratches and other marks. On the other hand, Aclysia was currently missing both arms, Metra was too low on health to risk any manoeuvres before she got either healed or had regenerated naturally, Salamander was currently getting healed, Undine was scraping together the last mana she had and Rave was breathing heavily, trying to not succumb to a series of broken ribs. In that situation, Jack himself had to stand in front, buying time for as long as he could.

The Heartgolem charged at him. Even though he was way slower, the swipe of a single arm was predictable and possible to dodge. The knee strike that followed right thereafter wasn’t. The metal plates under the magical skin bent and shattered. ‘Great, now I’ll have to listen to Scarlett after this is done,’ rushed through his head, while he used his ability to fly to prevent himself from being catapulted across the room. Instead, he flew back only one metre and then assaulted again. The boss was confused for a moment.

“Sally, one move,” he heard Rave groan past her broken ribs.

There was no time to ask if she had enough mana in the air. They just had to trust that it was going to work. Copernicus manifested, jumping away from her wrist, where he had rested as a copper band.

“You got it,” the endflame elemental responded. Energy flickered over from her to the Lightbearer, settling as harmless, grey and gold flames around Rave’s right fist. Salamander’s unleash was a simple but powerful buff. The next attack would have to end it.

The Heartgolem managed to hit Jack in the side with a random flail. This time, there was too much force for him to remain in place. The Gamer’s double was catapulted into a nearby wall, his skin flickering over the broken plates of the Mandala Sphere.

Flickers of mana across the room drifted towards Copernicus.

____________________________________________________________________________

There was a moment of bliss, for John. A feeling of triumph, even if he hadn’t quite won yet. The windows hadn’t rolled in, and distantly, he was aware that Jack was still struggling with the remaining girls against the Heartgolem. For his part, however, it seemed he had won. Something should have hit him if he hadn’t. The purple energy that still hung around him must have done the job. 11’000 mana charging for over fifteen minutes was bound to give some good results.

Yet, the Gamer was paranoid, refusing to sit down until the arcane veil settled and he knew, for sure, that there was nothing threatening around.

With good reason.

Two spider-like limbs cut through the energy fog, closely followed by two massive fangs. The Sicklebrood Matriarch descended on him, ready to finish him off right that second, ending this attempt at that moment. She could have succeeded as well. She would have secured her grip on John with her mantis claws and rammed her fangs into his soft neck. Had it not been for the wire, the last, risky action Lydia had taken, and the thunderstorm elemental who John’s paranoia had forced to remain on alert.

John wasn’t strong enough to escape such a grasp or quick enough to even avoid the incomplete version of it, but a combination of all their strength allowed Sylph to blast in at her top speed and ram into his side. The Matriarch only tasted air and John immediately teleported further away and ran. Sylph tried to back away herself, but couldn’t turn around fast enough. Already hurt, the thunderstorm elemental fell from a slash across her torso.

John would not let her death be in vain. Raising Purgatory, he used his last lifeline, Arcane Ascension, to blast a series of Arc Lances at the boss. He confirmed that three of them hit, one of them in the head, before the repeated impact pushed the body of the boss deeper into the purple veil and hid her from view. Still not relaxed, even as the torrent of blasts came to an end, John was once more confirmed in his paranoia when he heard pained, hateful hissing in the mist. He was now all alone with the Matriarch.

As the arcane mist cleared, it dawned on John that this wasn’t as bad as it first sounded.

Copernicus jumped forwards, resolved to create the last few seconds necessary. Facing a vastly weakened boss, the sun tiger went into full aggression, wanting to maximize the chance for his summoner to deliver the final blow. In large part, this was successful. Claws completely ruined the Heartgolem’s face, teeth ripped chunks out of the shoulder and swipes kept the boss off balance.

Now blind and cornered, the boss was simultaneously at its weakest and the most dangerous. The single arm flew around in wild flailing motions. One of the strikes slammed into Copernicus’ side and tossed him across the room. Growling, the sun tiger visibly held himself back from going at the boss again. As much damage as he could have done, Rave would lose her chance to deliver the actual finishing blow if he died there.

“...let our worlds collide!”

The chant ended and Rave jumped forwards. Jumped forwards and, between torment and random chance, right into the path of the flailing arm. Her punch may have been instant, but the path to it was not.

Salamander rammed into the boss’ side, twisting the one-legged boss around. Instead of being in the trajectory of the random flailing, Rave was now presented with the undefended left of the boss. Her fist was suddenly deep inside the boss and the room was consumed by light.

_____________________________________________________________________

John was about to die.

There was no denying it.

In raw desperation, he had run right up to the boss and was now faced by the creature looming over him like an upright millipede. The Talons of the Ravenlord and Purgatory both only scratched the exoskeleton and he didn’t have the time to prepare an Arc Lance that was meaningful. The skittering drew closer, but it didn’t matter. The two remaining limbs of the Sicklebrood Matriarch came down on him, penetrating the space between neck and shoulder on either side. His HP was still maxed out, so this didn’t kill him outright. Whatever she did next would.

The single fanged, half-destroyed face came closer to bite.

“YOU ARE NOT FUCKING THIS UP NOW!” a female voice suddenly screamed from behind John. A black-plated fist rammed into the Matriarch’s exposed throat. Red lines on metal and black lines on red skin, both changed colour to a fiery gold as Salamander poured her endflame into the innards of the boss.

John had no idea what was happening, but he fed his fire spirit with all of the mana he had. Every second, he regenerated over 100 mana and every drop of it was completely at Salamander’s disposal. They doubtlessly went overkill. Fire leaked out of gaps in the carapace, exploded out of the holes in the monster’s abdomen and turned the insides of the weakened creature into coal.

An absolute flood of windows opened as the boss dispersed into ash. The skittering vibrations vanished as they, too, were all transformed into nothing.

Not paying attention to any of the pop-ups, John raised both fists into the air and screamed. It was the nerd scream of the century. As his elemental, Salamander knew what this was about and joined in. It was only the two of them, but it was beyond satisfying. A several day journey and one messy, lucky, skilful attempt, an attempt almost wiping at the figurative 1% HP mark, came to a successful end. When his lungs had no more to give, John collapsed onto a rock. He needed to sit down for a moment. He leaned his head back. He wanted to look at the sky. Instead, he rested the back of his head on her boobs. That was even better.

“Were you talking about the boss or me?” John asked, wondering about Salamander’s scream.



“Yes.” The endflame elemental grinned.