"Pre…prepare yourselves you low-lives, for your end...your end is near. But worry not and celebrate, for you shall die in the hands of the servant of god."
The mutated goblin spoke as it stared at the players. Unlike before, it seemed to make less errors in its speech as it was getting accustomed to the language.
"I wonder who the real low life is, the stammering goblin or the elite humans?" Fudo teased the boss with a chuckle.
The boss looked like it understood Fudo as he grimaced at his words, lifting a hand and aiming his palm at Fudo as a small magic circle took form around it. A pillar of green flames burst forth with vigor from the palm, ignoring the 100m distance between the two and rushing towards Fudo with the determination to burn him to ashes.
Once it was close to the players, about 7 metres away from them, they all felt the scorching heat from it. Without a doubt, the flames could easily vaporize a glass of water instantly and this includes the glass. No need to talk of the result on the players as they all doubted that they would survive it and even if they did, they would be left with but a string of their HP left.
"Griffin!" Chesces yelled to the only guardian class player in the group.
"On it." Griffin ran towards the fire pillar.
During the time they were waiting or rather looking for the boss, Griffin had recuperated a little bit of his stamina and health by using potions. In Infinite Realm, there were no stamina potions as the [Stamina] stat was a hidden secondary attribute affected by both [Endurance], [Willpower] and [Vitality]. Players could only recharge their [Stamina] through rest and breaks. But there was a simple hack or cheat to recover [Stamina]. This was by taking health potions.
Health potions had a subtle effect on players. Apart from recovering their HP, it could also recover their stamina point but at a very slow rate. However, as long as a large amount of health potions is available and your taste buds can bear the continuous intake of them, recovering one's [Stamina] would be as easy as drinking.
Griffin had taken a few vials of health potions with Kylian casting a few strength recovery type spells on him. With all of that taking effect, Griffin had rapidly recovered his HP and [Stamina].
Lifting his shield in front of his body while stabilizing his body and feet to the ground, Griffin prepared to welcome the green flame pillar that could kill him over and over if it were a direct shot.
"[Minor Bulwark]!" [1]
As the flaming pillar was about to hit his shield, Griffin yelled out and strengthened his hold on his shield. A faint yellow barrier took form on his shield, increasing his tanking abilities by a percentage.
*Fwoosh*
The attack finally hit but rather than blasting Griffin away, it was parted to the sides by the shield, with the faint barrier protecting it from the heat. The attack lasted for a while before it vaporized away. Griffin was left standing with only a bit of his HP shaved off by the heat of the attack.
Before he could take a breath, he saw the mutated goblin boss drawing some incantations in the air, as a massive flow of mana was directed towards him.
"What are you guys waiting for?" Griffin yelled in fright.
Meanwhile, Fudo was already casting a spell while Drunken Hog was one step ahead of him.
Old Jiro, who wore fiery vermilion colored mage gown, had already began casting a spell the very second the boss made his first move. While griffin had tanked the attack, he ran alongside his East Crow teammates from the left side of the boss with Swift Blade moving in front. They were trying to close the gap between them and the boss. Once he was about 40 metres away from the boss, Old Jiro released his spell that he had kept on hold.
"[Greater Fireball]" Old Jiro pushed the fireball, the size of a coffee table, towards the boss. Since he had been charging the spell for awhile, it was already bigger than normal.
"Weak."
The boss looked displeased at the attack as it was interrupting him. It used its free hand and waved at the fireball, sending a green wave towards it. The wave easily dispersed the fireball into swathes of flames, turning Old Jiro's attack into a pointless move.
However, Old Jiro never intended for the fireball to hit the boss. If it did, then there would be no need of them teaming up with the other players. The attack was meant to either interrupt the boss' casting or create a distraction for him. Though it didn't stop the boss' casting, it did succeed in creating a distraction as the swathe of flames worked well to temporary block the boss' view on them for at least 2 seconds. This might seem small but for a pro long-ranged expert, this was more than enough and luckily for them, they had one.
Using the window of opportunity that the flames had created, Dream Tiger placed an arrow on his bow, drew it and quickly released it at the boss' barely visible figure.
"[Drill Shot]"
Swift Blade, on the other hand, used [Sprint] to increase his movement speed and rushed over to the boss from another direction, making the boss focus on him while ignoring the others behind the flames.
"Impressive." Chesces was caught in awe at their fluent teamwork but he wasn't so shocked as he had seen better, both in his guild and in rival super guild. He was just impressed to see such a team tactic performed by a 2nd tier guild.
Emperor's Might wasn't slacking either. Chesces, alongside Griffin and Kylian where closing up the gap between them and the boss. Kylian cast [Entangling Vines] to hold the boss down and interrupt his casting.
Fudo fired a regular fireball when he was at the maximum casting range while Sato attacked from the right.
From a spectator view, their teamwork seemed flawless despite them not practicing together or even setting up a strategy. This was because they were all experts and as such, easily understood one another, though not perfectly. But that was enough as they had torn the boss' attention to 3 different positions; East Crow from the left, Emperor's Might from the centre and Sato and Fudo from the right. Each with their own position.
If they were battling an average boss or even an elite troll this setup would be more than enough to end it. But that was the problem they faced; they were not facing an ordinary boss.
"Great call of Old."