Chapter 60: Raiding an E+ Rank Dungeon Part 7
The second group under the command of Alex positioned themselves to face the incoming army of the Ice Dread Queen.
Over the distance, they could see the tall figure of the five Liches that Alex had mentioned, and in front of them were a hundred undead carrying swords in their hands.
"Mages!" Alex called out.
The Mages immediately readied themselves with different areas of effect types of Magic spells.
"Fire!"
Whooooosh!
Dozens of Magic spells started raining toward the approaching Undead army.
Booom!
Numerous explosions echoed throughout the surroundings as the Magic spells landed one after the other.
Bodies of the unlucky Undead splattered all over the place, tainting the snowy ground with some sort of gooey substance that was mixed with red and green and smelled horribly bad.
Before the cloud of snow could settle down, Alex exclaimed loudly, "Charge!"
In the next moment, the melee combatants of the second ground started running towards the army of Undead under the lead of Alex.
Bang!
Boom!
Alex started smashing all the Undeads that come his way into a pulp to pave a road for everyone to follow.
The road slowly expanded bigger and bigger as the melee combatants started paving the path along with him.
Simultaneously, the Mages followed behind them.
In this way, the second group was finally separated completely from the first group. Not only that, they are also far from the reach of the Ice Dread Queen, thus making sure that they won't have to deal with two sides.
Seeing this, Kayn admired the Black Panda team even more. It was quite clear to him that not only have they executed this plan many times, but they have also found ways to counter its weaknesses, one being the fact that their rear would be left unguarded if they charge on ahead.
With the second group out of the picture, Victor could finally focus on the Ice Dread Queen with no worries.
"Mages, keep on firing at its arm!" Victor commanded. The reason why he opted for the Mages to attack the arm is so that the Ice Dread Queen can't summon any Liches. Mages or any Magic users use their arms to gather mana from their surroundings and cast a Magic spell. Although there are exceptions, but in the case of the Ice Dread Queen, that is one of its weaknesses. As long as they keep her arm distracted, she would have trouble summoning more Liches. Moreover, the Ice Dread Queen also attacks using her arm. So, by attacking her arm, she would also find it difficult to attack.
Everyone understood the meaning behind Victor's order. So, everyone simply complied.
Boom!
The Ice Dread Queen's arm received an onslaught of different Magic spells, which prevented her from doing any offensive counterattack toward Victor and the other melee combatants attacking her. Because of that, she was left with no other choice but to defend herself and keep on bellowing to her soldiers, hoping for them to come to her aid.
Unfortunately, no matter how loud and how many times the Ice Dread Queen calls out, her soldiers could still not break through the blockage of Alex and the second group.
No! The word blocking them is not the right phrase to describe the situation, rather it is more like they are destroying them like a spear striking its opponent.
The five Liches are also being rendered helpless with Alex and the Mages preventing them from summoning more soldiers using the same strategy that Alex is making use of right now. It's even more effective in their case as the Liches are much weaker compared to the Ice Dread Queen.
However, even though the situation was like that, no one from the Black Panda team celebrated. Their guard was still on full alert, never wavering regardless of what.
The reason for that is that they are all aware of just how dangerous an Ice Dread Queen is. They might have her in a disadvantageous situation right now, but that's only because she still hasn't broken their formation and strategy yet. To make sure that doesn't happen, they cannot lower their guard or even release a bit of tension. Once they do, there's no telling what will possibly happen next.
Honestly, the majority of the boss raids in the dungeon, especially those that are done by guilds, would follow a similar fashion to what is happening right now.
The team fighting against the boss will exert tremendous effort to prevent the boss from attacking. In some cases, they'll force the boss to remain defensive until it is finally killed. While the majority of the time, it will depend on the stages of the boss and their movement pattern.
Just like in popular MMORPG games, every living being has their own predetermined set of health points, or HP for short. Even though this is not a game, some parts of it still follow that same rule and logic.
Once certain damage is dealt to the boss, they will explode in strength, marking the next stage. In every stage, the boss will either become stronger or execute something unexpected in hopes of changing the status quo.
On the other hand, the so-called movement pattern simply describes the way a boss initiates a move when he or she is about to use a certain skill. For example, in a sword, they will show that they are about to swing. In an axe, they'll show signs that they are going to cut something. So, whenever a boss shows signs of doing so and there's no way to block it, that's the only time when they'll allow it to attack.
Regardless, a team will still try their best to make the boss remain in a defensive state. Because once they don't, it would be very difficult to fight against them, even if they have the numerical advantage and are Heroes.
That's just how the dungeons and anything inside the 'Tower' works.
That's why a few chosen minorities are treated special and are given certain privileges, like Admiral Robert, Mercenary King Grey, Mayor Sebastian, and World President Nicholas because these people can do something that the majority of the Heroes can't do.
Speaking about stages and movement patterns, the Ice Dread Queen is finally showing signs of doing one of those two.
Whooosh!
A powerful freezing wind pushed Victor and the melee combatants a few tens of meters away from the Ice Dread Queen.
"Everyone, use your defensive equipment!" Victor warned.
Without wasting any time, Victor and the rest of the melee combatants took out a shield to block their front.
The Mages also concocted a barrier to protect themselves. Even though they are far away from the Ice Dread Queen, it is still much better to be safe than to be sorry.
As expected, the Ice Dread Queen crossed both of her hands together and a shining blue light appeared on a small ring on her ring finger. The ring started gathering mana from the surrounding, and in the next moment, with a wave of both of her hands, a powerful freezing current swooshed throughout the nearby surroundings.
Despite having a shield in front of them, Victor and the rest of the melee combatants were still slowly being pushed away farther and farther from the Ice Dread Queen.
Victor immediately understood what is about to happen next. Most likely, the Ice Dread Queen is pushing them as far away as possible so they won't be able to disturb her from summoning more Liches to assist her in the fight. So, as a means to try and prevent it from happening, he tried to push against the strong freezing wind before it is too late.
Seeing Victor's action, some of the melee combatants who are strong enough also followed him with the intention of assisting their Captain.
Echo, who chooses to remain in one place and observe the ongoing fight until now finally decided to make a move.
"Oh, what's he going to do?" Kayn was intrigued. Echo was one of the main members of the Black Panda team that he is very interested in. The reason being is that he feels a strangely familiar aura with the latter. He just doesn't know where exactly he felt it. But one thing for certain is it isn't the same as those he felt from his new companions.
Echo is the main scout, or to be more precise, the only scout in the Black Panda team. He moves sneakily and precisely, thus it is very clear that he is an assassin. In addition, he dresses in a very mysterious and secretive fashion, further adding more support to that assumption.
In a very inconspicuous manner, Echo sneaked behind the Ice Dread Queen. Strangely, the powerful force that everyone is feeling right now seems to not affect him even a bit as he is still able to move smoothly.
Suddenly, Echo stops in his tracks just a few tens of meters away from the Ice Dread Queen and turns his head to look in Victor's direction. Looking at his hand, he could be seen sending signals to Victor about what he is planning on doing.
Understanding Echo's plan, Victor proceeded vigorously toward the Ice Dread Queen. The melee combatants who are following him also did the same. Obviously, they understood the plan as well.
Meanwhile, those that are having difficulty moving, started moving together in a straight line so they can get close to the Ice Dread Queen by pushing each other from the back.
"They should have done that a long time ago," Kayn said as a remark.
After saying that, Kayn can't help but notice in his peripheral vision that there are a few people who are secretly sneaking away from the first group using the cover of the snow.
"Oh, they are starting to move," Kayn muttered under his breath as he also looks in the direction of the second group. As expected, two people left the group secretly and started sneaking away to meet up with the others that sneaked away from the first group.
"Did you say anything?" Alice asked as she vaguely heard Kayn saying something.
"I said I am curious as to what Echo is planning to do next," Kayn lied. There is no reason for him to snitch on Frank's plan. In addition to that, he also wants to know what item they are trying to secretly steal. Perhaps it's something that is useful to him. In that case, they are doing him a favor as he can just go and steal it from them.