"I have reached <Battle Maid Lv20>"
"Ditto-desu! I have reached <Female Shinobi Lv20>-desu!"
"Okay! Let me quickly give you guys a head up for the strongest guide!"
6 battles after I proposed my countermeasure, Shizu and Pamela have finally reached Lv20.
Including them, They all have finally unlocked their 2nd order tree! I feel bad for them but the level of a fair fight with <Battle Wolf> is quite high, so I just want them to quickly get used to everything.
It's disheartening to see their excitement slightly died down, sorry guys!
5 boss rounds more after their level up.
Now that Pamela and Shizu have grasped the feeling of their new skills, it's finally time for a new group fair fight with <Battle Wolf>!
Like earlier, I was watching over them from the shadow equipped with <(Guest) bracelet>.
Ester has temporarily repatriated using transfer formation. Apparently, there's something she needs to do.
"Do your best everyone~"
"Lulu will! For Lulu is an invincible hero!"
"The way Zephyr-dono said as if implying something kind of dreads me. Does a fair fight really make so much of a difference?"
"I have got the hang of it-desu! I will surely not miss <Giant Shuriken Arts> this time for sure-desu!"
"Pamela, Have you already forgotten what Zephyr-sama has told you? Please practice first. It's still too early for you to use it in actual combat"
"Zephyr-sama, then we will be heading off to start our battle"
I waved my hand and saw them off in order of Lulu, Celia, Pamela, Shizu and Celestine, full of enthusiasm.
I'm glad to see they are still motivated enough even after going through 12 rounds of boss fights.
I left my back to the wall and looked over their boss' battle.
"Groowl!"
"Howl!"
The first one to dash over was its subordinates, <Wolf> and <Leader Wolf>.
Their strategy until a while ago was for Pamela or Celestine to gather thier aggro and in the meanwhile, Lulu leaped and slashed at <Battle Wolf> to divide them.
However they are to fight 5 opponents at once this time, so the divide strategy is no good this time.
Therefore, Lulu took action first by jumping in between the <Wolves> deliberately to become their target.
"Hiyo! <The Hero is here>!"
Fwoosh
Lulu took a pose of raising her sword overhead, her taunt skill, and attracted their attention. They then moved to surround and attack Lulu.
"<Rapid Spin>! Gooo!"
"Yip!?"
"Gauu!?"
Just when they had surrounded her, Lulu activated her large area spinning attack and cut off the <Wolves>. Not only courageous, she is also becoming more and more accustomed with her skills. This scene was completely filled with her heroism.
"<Spirit Summoning>! <Elemental boost>! <Elemental arrow>!"
"<Rapid Fire>! <Grenada>!"
Celia on the other hand began with <Elemental Summoning>, activated her self buff skill <Elemental Boost> to increase power and aimed at <Leader Wolf> with <Arrows> attacks.
While the other <Leader Wolf> received the attacks from Shizu's gunsman skill <Rapid fire> and <Grenade>, new skills she has gained after unlocking her 2nd order tree.
However,
"Rooaar"
" "Howl!" "
"Wha!"
"So fast!"
<Leader Wolf> evaded both of their skills with speed even more quicker than before.
The skill <Leadership Lv4> activated Immediately just from a single roar of <Battle Wolf> which has strengthened <Leader Wolf>.
" " Howl!" "
" " Roar Roar!" "
"Wha, I don't think it's a good sign"
It didn't end with just that as just like <Battle Wolf>, <Leader Wolf> strengthened <Wolves> with <leadership Lv 1>.
The <Wolves> now are under the combined buff of <Leadership Lv4> and <Leadership Lv1>.
Dividing the enemies in the beginning in the optimized tactic is precisely to prevent them from activating <Leadership> skill. Let alone the time it would take to defeat them when they used it, it would be unknown if they can still defeat them.
They become a nasty opponent to deal with when this happens. Now it's time to see how they are going to break through this hurdle.
"<Heart charm>! And err, <Charm sword>!"
Lulu's range debuff attack <Heart charm> neutralised a part of the strengthening effect and after a moment of confusion, she slashed at <Leader Wolf> with <Charm sword> l, further stripping away from its offensive ability.
Her first move was great but the follow up attack wasn't. As for why,
"So, so fast"
Her move <Charm sword> was evaded. Receiving the <Leadership> skill buff has increased offensive power and agility of subordinates, which makes them more prone to avoid attacks easier. This is the most annoying part in fighting without the tactic. Not only did it take time to defeat them, stamina consumption increased.
"Uwaah. The damage, my HP is in a pinch!"
Lulu shouted for help. She suffered from the counterattack of the <Wolves> in a situation debuff hasn't been applied properly. As a consequence, she began to lose a huge chunk of HP at each attack.
The main point to note is <Lolita Hero> is a debuff attacker job which can play the role of a tank but not the tank itself. It's easy to fall in such a condition when debuffs aren't applied but to play the role of tank for Lulu, such important things are absolutely necessary.
Hence, the reason for why Lulu is in a pinch, however our reliable Butler has rushed to save the day.
"Let's deal it together with me and pamela-san. <Straight punch>! <Taunt>!"
"Woof!?"
"Leave it to me-desu! <Ninja arts • Shadow stitch>! <Ninja arts • Decoy shadow>!"
Celestine plunged between Lulu and <Wolves> and hit straight the right. Further using taunt skill to switch the role of tank.
Pamela put a agility debuff on <Leader Wolf> using <Ninja arts • Shadow stitch> and used another skill <Ninja arts • Decoy clone>, which transfers one's hate to their ally, and has Celestine gathered even more hate.
"Lulu, please come here! Retreat and heal yourself!"
"Ugh, Celia Onee-chan~"
Lulu retreats from the battle and recovers her HP through potion after receiving the instruction from Celia.
"Hmm, Lulu is so cute...... I mean not. I see, so that's what Zephyr-dono meant by it wouldn't be a smooth sailing. Nevertheless, I didn't expect the gap to be so big. They are so quick that it's just difficult to target them...... "
"Keep the <Battle Wolf> busy first, Celia-san! We can't let the boss participate in the fight of Celestine and others or the vanguard would collapse! <Rapid fire>!"
"Roger! <Elemental arrow>! Lulu, shall we also game up?"
"Aye-aye, recovery complete!"
"Let's begin with Lulu dealing with <Wolves> with her rapid attac一一, no scrap it, please use the agility debuff to rob it of it's speed"
"Got it!"
Both rearguards, Shizu and Celia belong to brain cliche. As it seems they are gradually catching up with the situation and coming up with countermeasures.
As Shizu has already begun to restrain <Battle Wolf> and also requested the same from Celia. Although the <Battle Wolf> can avoid the attacks of those, it couldn't divert its attention to look at other battles ongoing under the siege of Shizu and Celia.
In the meanwhile, Lulu has recovered completely.
Celia seemingly first wanted her to attack the <Wolves> directly but catching up with the situation, she immediately asked her to use debuff and suppress their speed.
Way to go, Celia! Bingo.
The most dangerous aspect when <Leadership> is activated is the monsters speed and their dodge-rate. That's it was a bingo for her to choose Lulu when she can take away her opponent's advantage with her debuffs. They can take the rest at their own pace as they like and it would be all right.
"The debuff master Lulu online! <Cute eyes>!"
"How!?
<Cute eyes> is an AoE agility debuff. The rapids effect version of <Heart Charm>. The pain-free, cuteness overloaded charm reduced their speed. (Even I don't know!)
"A breakthrough! Pamela, help in restraining <Battle wolf>! We will deal with its subordinates in the meantime, <Grenada>!"
"I, will try my best-desu! <Notice Me>! <Acrobatics>!"
Under the precise instructions of Shizu, Pamela attracts the aim of <Battle Wolf>.
Meanwhile, the rear guard sweeps away the boss's subordinates.
It was no longer impossible to attack the slowed <Wolves> with long range attacks and with the cooperation of evasive tank Celestine and Lulu who kept lowering their agility, the rear guard successfully accomplished the task of taking down the <Wolves>.
With this, the <Battle Wolf MK I> wasn't any big deal to be dealt with.
Lulu strips the boss of its offensive power just like previous flights, and the rest in their own pace, finally defeated the boss.
Although the situation takes a dangerous turn at one point, either way, they manage to snatch away the victory.
Result wise, they still ended up splitting away the <Battle Wolf> and its subordinates, however it was their first fair battle so I opted to turn a blind eye to this.
Anyway, it was now the evaluation meeting time.