Chapter 376: When the Star Fell (VI)

Chapter 376: When the Star Fell (VI)

Chapter 376

When the Star Fell (VI)

While Emma and others were being ushered back into the arena, confused as to what was going on, Cain was dodging several projected beams aimed at him, blinking left, right, and center. The fight was still in its probing phase, but the tensions were rising. There were fewer breaks, and more and more ships were firing off at him simultaneously.

Hed also noticed that, among the beams that nearly blinded him, a few smaller, though far more accurate spells were being fired off. At first, he didnt know where they were coming fromuntil having noticed the detached cabins of sorts on the sides of some of the ships, hanging in the blind spots, and firing off under the cover of the ships beams.

They were largely inconsequential as their spells were very slow and weak. Still, he had to pay attention to it as it could simply be them probing some more, from different angles and frameworks. There were thousands of things ripping through his mind every minute and he knew there would be thousands more to come for the duration of the battle.

In the meantime, Emma and others had resumed their battle against Unul. They had barely enough time to rebuff and collectively recover before they were tossed back into the fire yet again. Just like the attempt before, Unul opened the fight with major aggression, barely leaving any room to breathe to any of the tanks. However, having experienced it once before already, the trio adjusted much quicker than beforeat least to the level where they werent being consistently battered and abused

Similarly, aim of the most of those standing at range had improved to where one in every five skills actually landed on the boss. The fight was still extremely slow, though, Unuls health barely dipping, but the progress was visible. Under normal circumstances, Emma was confident that with some practice and some five-ten repeated attempt theyd have this part of the fight down-pat. But they were given a simple orderthey were not to leave the arena unless they defeat the boss.

Everyone realized that it had something to do with the flashes in the sky that they saw, though nobody could postulate as to what those flashes were. Even if Emma and Senna and others could imagine it likely had something to do with Cain, that was about as far as their theory went. For some reason, those flashes were linked with their fightand for some yet different reason, they would have to defeat Unul this attempt, no matter what.

Emma dashed forward and intercepted the spear, deflecting it slightly to the side and allowing Jamal to flash in with a milky-white streak of light bleeding off the edge of his blade, striking directly at Unuls chest, taking off over 1% of her health bar in the process. At the same time, a sword whizzed through the air and appeared beneath Jamals feet before he landed, dragging him backward and out of range of the retaliatory strike.

Alright, the two men nodded and positioned themselves center and left of Unul, preparing.

The boss rushed forward abruptly, leaving behind a delayed, screeching roar of fire. She wildly swung her blade toward Emma, but the latter simply dodged right, keeping close to Unuls left hand where she held the spear. In the meantime, Kramer, who stood at the center, positioned aggressively and attacked Unuls right side to divert her attention.

The battle began yet again, but the difference was much larger than Emma anticipatedUnul became what Cain called a free boss. Not entirelyactive, aggro-generating abilities still worked on her, but she would rid herself of them in just a few seconds, screeching for the backlines.

Without a spoken word, Emma, Kramer, and Chriss settled on a rotationshe had the fewest aggro-generating active abilities and, as such, she was once again reduced to the role of a cover. Chriss had the most and he became the primary tanker, while Kramer became the secondary, covering for the first one in the meantime.

Attacks continued to rain upon the bossbut most still missed. The ones with by far the most success were melee attackers, Jamal and Daniel standing out vastly from the rest. They also picked their poison carefully, however, attacking only when they were certain the boss had no means of attacking back. Those scenarios grew rarer, though, as Unul had fewer and fewer recovery postures, electing to use Mana to forcibly bend her body unnaturally.

Rather than being displaced by a deflection as before, she used the momentum to shuffle to the either side or, in some scenarios, even retreat, breaking the flow once more. Health bars all around continued to dance as while Emma, Kramer, and Chriss kept her occupied, fire rained elsewhere often. Most of her attacks had residual cones that fired off bolts of fire at the rear, and, every so often, pylons would turn on and churn out heatwaves that dealt persistent damage to everyone in the raid.

From time to time, too, she would break through the ranks of the tanks and attack othersSenna worked perhaps the hardest she ever had in her life to keep an army of wide blades at a ready just in case Unul broke through. She would immediately shuffle the blades toward those most at risk and, in case Unul attacked them, use the blades to move them out of the attacks trajectory. She was consuming inordinate amounts of Mana, but the alternative was for healers to consume it insteadand hers was far less valuable in the grand scheme of things.

At 70% of her health, Unul shouted loudly, knocking everyone back as she retreated to the center, soaking both the spearthat had seemingly run out of fire in the meantimeas well as the sword with the fire from the heart, seemingly baptizing her weapons. Fire began to burn in her eyes and her hair as the two weapons eerily melted into silver droplets that fell to the ground for a moment before they began to move on their own, coalescing into a new weapona double-edged scythe. It burned, much like the heart, and was over ten feet long, the size that seemed impossible to combat against. And yet fight they must, they knew.

Emma, Kramer, and Chriss once again shuffled to the front, their hearts pounding within their chests as they desperately begged the many cooldowns to move quicker. They would need all defensives, they knew, just to contend ever so slightly, not to mention survive what was likely to be a raw, brutal onslaught that knew neither method nor reason.