CH 290

"Grawwwwr!!"

The rare boss ‹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel› recovered from the down status and boy was its eyes smouldering with rage.

Though the target was still set at Rika. Rika was seriously amazing.

"Crumble"

"! Quick stop! It's the ‹Charge› skill! ‹Sonic Sword›!"

The rare boss's whole body, who was howling facing the sky, began to shine and absorbed the light orb like things from all over. It was its self buff skill 一一 ‹Charge›!

The self buff skill increases the rare boss ATK and AGI and gives a lightning attribute to all its attacks.

When in buff mode, its body crackled with lightning as if it was constantly clad in lightning stripes and there was also a low chance of inflicting us with DOT (damage over time) when attacking us.

But if you think it was already strong enough, then you're in for a surprise as what makes ‹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel› even more dangerous was it could stack the said buff multiple times.

The rare boss was capable of stacking ‹Charge› buff four times and each stack makes it further strong.

However it also has a demerit and that is the rare boss is defenceless during activating ‹Charge› so we could force our way to cancel its skill midway if we manage to do a certain damage.

As they said, opportunities lie within the difficulty.

And if we spell out moves right, we could also force it to enter into shutdown mode if we managed to cancel its skill.

The videos of forcing the rare boss into shutdown mode while low level and equipped with poor equipment was quite popular in the ‹Dungeon Activity›'s capture site.

Though there were also some videos where others would miss the chance and instead have tables turned on them which was hilarious.

Alas, it's not time to soak into the old memories.

It's only for several seconds that the rare boss stays in defenceless state due to ‹Charge› skill. We must pass a certain amount of damage in the span of said several seconds if we want to take it down.

It was a race against time.

"‹Blessing of the guardian dog›!"

"‹Long Thrust›! ‹Legion Thrust›! ‹Legion Charge›!"

"‹Scale Break›! ‹Vital Stab›! ‹Slash›!

"‹Blade Toss›! ‹Parallel Slash›! ‹Cross Slash›! ‹Blade Strike›! ‹Swallow Flip›!"

"‹Shine Lightning›!"

Everyone follows up with the spare attacks they could do. They had just finished using their 3rd order skill when the rare boss was under down status and were still in cooldown. Thus, our attacks consisted mostly of first order and occasionally skills from 3rd order.

Damage wasn't just enough.

"How!l"

"Ku, we failed."

And soon, the rare boss finished invoking its skill.

Personifying its name, the rare boss's whole body was illuminating in ‘electricity’ as it awakened.

We just have bad timing this time, it just happened to have right after we finished using our strong moves when the boss was in down status.

Well the other reason is also because everyone's level was still not that high. Lana, Ester and mine level is 56 while Rika and Karua level is 48 and 49 respectively.

On the other side, the recommendation level to take on the ‹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel› is 59, so we're a bit under-level to do enough damage in a short time.

"That's what it is. Everyone, be careful! I'm going to set-up a measure against my boss! So hold it until then!"

"Alright!"

"Roger!"

"Oh~!"

Lana, Ester and Karua replied respectively.

Rika was standing in the frontline with the blades in her hand ready. Boss's momentum was bound to rise from this point, this the part where the tank should be extremely cautious.

"I'm leaving it to you, Rika!"

"Leave it to me!"

I received a reliable answer. She might be the lowest level among the whole party, however she's the most reliable at the moment.

"*Howl grr-grr Howl"

"Haaa, ‹Take & Return›! ‹Begone›!一一"

Rika wasted no time in responding to the boss's agility ‘skill’.

"Lana, blessing!"

"‹Divine Protection›! ‹Blessing of the Everlasting Demon›! ‹Healing Prayer›!"

At my beckon, Lana followed up with the buffs and supported Rika.

Lana also has ‹Rapid Speed Up› skill that raises one's agility and it was the right time to use it here however Rika had declined from using it saying she might miss the timing for parry if her agility was buffed up.

"Ester and Karua too, just focus on supporting Rika!"

"Roger! ‹Long Thrust›!"

"Hn"

Ester gallantly plunged to help out while Karua supported from the sideline, waiting for the cooldown to end.

In the meantime they're keeping their boss occupied, I also began my preparation and took out several items from the item bag.

"I had asked Hannah to make them and brought them to use in the scenario like this where we didn't manage to stop the boss from using charge, though time is of essence."

The item I was carrying myself with was materials that could be harvested from ‹Jurapa›, and a trap item that was made using ‹Trap Making Tool›, another gold chest item which Lulu and others had gotten at the same time as ‹Gentle Axe› using certain trap.

The maker is Hannah.

That's the greatest part about alchemy, anything can be made as long as there's a recipe.

Incidentally, it was an item made from a recipe from a silver chest ‹Cowboy Cactus› had dropped.

一一And it's name is ‹Poison Swamp Trap›.

It was a trap item that could turn a designated place into a poison swamp which passed DOT continuously for a fixed interval by setting it up. It also has the function to hinder the movement of the boss's legs slightly if it gets into the swamp. Though it's not a strong enough of a trap to completely restrict a rare boss.

However I have a different use for it in respect to the current boss we're fighting.

"Alright, I'm done! Rika, Karua, do you think you can make the boss move to this side?"

"一一kuh! Dual blade Sweep!"

"Howwwwl"

"Kuh, I'm sorry but I'm already at my limits."

Rika's secret technique ‹Dual Blade Sweep› enraged the ‹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel› even more, it was hard to tell when the rare boss's fierce onslaught would stop.

Traps are useless if you can't lead the rare boss to them and Rika's hands were already full dealing with the boss.

However, a reliable partner showed up then.

"Hn. I will bring it."

"Karua!?"

"Leave it to me. Unique Skill ‹Number One • Sonic Star›!"

"Wohh!?"

"Howl!?"

Karua's ‹Starcat› unique skill was a super speed dodge skill.

The explanation may sound too simple but the speed bonus it granted was godly. The user can use this skill to break away from any situation and flee away with a speed no boss could ever catch up to.

Even if the boss's target is set towards the target, even if the user is in the range of a huge AoE attack, the user can easily escape from its range without breaking any sweat.

Boss can only follow a target to the set range and going outside of that range will reset the target head. So if a user escapes from the place, the boss will no longer target them.

Another convenient thing about this skill is that the user can also carry one of their comrades with themselves. Though it was an insurance in case the target is shifted to a member in rearguard so it didn't that much practical use.

Karua used it to carry Rika.

The effect of the unique skill activation blossomed momentarily and by the time I realised it, Karua was already beside me carrying Rika.

It was almost on the level of instantaneous teleportation.

And as proof, ‹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel› looked completely baffled at the disappearance of Rika who was just confronting it until a while ago.

"Hn, great success."

"Ugh, it's as dizzying as ever......"

Rika said so with a slight incoherent speech while being carried by Karua.

I guess they had done the same thing before.

"Howl!"

"Oh, did it finally notice?"

There wasn't much distance between the place my boss was and my location to begin with. That's why the target was still on the head of Rika and the rare boss who found Rika roared.

At the same time, along with it roar follows an effect.

"Hn, red effect..."

"Unique skill at this timing!?"

"What's our next action, Zephyr? Should we evade!?"

"No, defence skills are enough to deal with it. Though Karua, you stay a bit away from here."

"Hn."

‹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel› unique skill was a charging type, it was called ---- «I'm the Tribulation Lightning».

I and Rika stood across from each other with the trap sandwich between us and prepared our defensive measure.

"Ester, Lana, I'm leaving the support to you!"

"! Understood!"

"Just leave it to me!"

"‹Divine Protection›! ‹Sacred Devil's Blessing›! ‹Blessing of Everlasting Demon›!"

Boss's unique skill activated as soon as Lana finished putting buffs.

"Howwwwwwl (I'm the Wolf)!!"

"Engrave it in your mind, you're not a wolf or anything! ‹Defense›!"

"Howl!?"

I activated my defence skill while making a retort that I used to make while playing the ‹Dungeon Activity› as a game.

I felt like I saw the boss making an astonished expression while charging at us.

"Get ready to be pushed! Secret Art ‹Repel›!"

Crash and thus followed a loud sound.

Rika's and mine's defence skill versus ‹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel›'s unique skill collided.

Eventually, we strike at the same time.

"Ack!"

"Ku一一!"

"Hooowl!!"

I and Rika were pushed back behind and stiffened. We also received around 200 damage when I checked it out. Was this the best our defence skills could do? talk about power. (T/N : Zephyr's HP at level 50 was 340~ for more context)

That being said, the boss was also stiffened on the spot, though it wasn't knockbacked unlike us.

We may not have been able to win in terms of defence but we also managed to stop the boss ' unique skill with our double defensive skills.

And that was the desired result I wanted, because the place the rare boss had stopped was the same place I had set-up ‹Poison Swamp Trap›.

Instantly, electricity on the back of the boss went berserk.

"Howwwww!!"

That's right, electric shock.

There's the thing called weak attribute in the ‹Dungeon Activity›, i.e. all the monster's have an attribute that is their weak point.

Take ‹Water Attribute› for an example, it's extremely powerful against ‹Fire Attribute› or ‹Lightning Attribute›, so forcing the ‹Lightning Attribute› boss into the ‹Poison Swamp Trap› which sort out as a ‹Water Trap› brought it's potential damage to a notch higher than normal.

And that hasn't changed in reality either.

‹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel› was in the state where its body was covered in lightning stripes due to ‹Charge› skill. So by pushing it into the ‹Water Trap› can give it a weak ‹Paralysis - 15~20 sec› status debuff.

The original DOT effect of the ‹Poison Swamp› was also stacked alongside and made it take huge damage.

The longer it stayed in the trap, the lesser the trap effects became, though the electric shock had also resolved the boss's ‹Charge› skill and that was what I was anticipating..

"Right now is the time, Ester, Karua!"

"‹Princess Knight Awakening›! 一一‹Long Thrust›! ‹Quick Lightning Slash›! ‹Triple Shoot›! ‹Long Thrust›! ‹Precision Thrust›! ‹Legion Charge›! ‹Long Thrust›!"

"‹Scale Break›! ‹32 Star Stream›! ‹Delta Stream›! ‹Starburst Tornado›! ‹StarBurst • Rain Edge›! ‹Twin Cat Scratches›!"

"Don't forget I'm here too! ‹Shining Sabre of Sacred Light›! ‹Rise of the Divine Tree›! ‹Light Blade›! ‹Divine Pillar›!"

"Great, you guys caused a knockback effect! ‹Brave Heart›! ‹Sonic Sword›! ‹Brave Slash›! ‹Lightning Slash›! ‹Quick Strike›!"

"Late but here I'm, ‹Shogun's Burst›! ‹Flame Slash›! ‹Lightning Slash›! ‹Ice Strike›! ‹Flash Point›! ‹Dark Swipe›!"

"Howwwwl!!"

HP was guzzling down in the blink of an eye as everyone mounted their attacks one after another.

Not long after, ‹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel› finally freed itself out of the ‹Poison Swamp› and however by that time, its HP had already been reduced to 30% with the combination of our all-out onslaught and DOT.

Rika was once again back to her flawless tank role when there was no more ‹Charging› skill buff over the boss, and kept the battle in equilibrium. We also succeeded in cancelling the ‹Charge› skill that the boss tried to activate from the second time onwards.

We almost had a close encounter when the boss's HP had reached the red zone but Rika was somehow able to respond to the agile movements.

"Hn, and that's end, ‹StarBurst • Rain Edge›!"

"Howw......ww... lll!"

And in the end, ‹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel› HP succumbed to zero under Karua's continuous slash attacks that fell down like the raindrops one after another.

A formidable enemy it was, it met it demise, sank into sea of effect and left behind 一一 four gold chest in its place.