Chapter 158 - The Last Stand (VII)

The sky is becoming darker the farther we move away from the castle. The ground is also swarming with monsters. The other players were looking at the ground and were not sure whether to be terrified or to be excited.

"Careful looking down there, remember that if you fall to the ground, I will not rescue you."

Hearing my cautionary warning, they retreated from the edge of Leona even though they want to see the situation below. With all the noises coming below, anyone who is curious enough would be tempted to look at the edge.

"I never knew that the person who helped us defeat the boss we are tasked to kill and also helped us defeat Serbal. We never suspected Queen Tanya to be a real queen and is currently the ruler of Sandurk! How come you managed to have her help out in the battle?" Harmless Sparrow asked.

"Oh, I also want to know that! You seemed very close with her even though she was an NPC! I never knew you can do that with NPCs and befriend them like people!" Dolly added.

"You guys didn't care much about the friendship levels whenever you interact on an NPC, aren't you?"

"I notice that feature but I don't usually care about it. So does that mean it has something to do with that feature to have at least this kind of friendship to an NPC?" Harmless Sparrow opened her menu and started to tinker on something.

"That is the one. It is the main reason for the NPCs attitude to you. If it is the negative numbers on them, that means they are hostile and don't want to do anything to you. If it is zero, they are in a neutral state and will interact with you like how you two just met before, and the more it rises, the more the NPC will be familiar with you and will talk casually too."

"So that is how you did it and you did many quests from her which raised her favorability with you. Damn, I wish I knew that sooner!" Dolly said.

Players always tend to just ignore the favorability meter. They always thought it was just a meter to raise to a certain degree so that they get a quest or get discounts in shops whenever they buy but it is a meter of how your friendship is going in with the NPCs. If you have no friends in real life, then at least you got some friends in the game.

While the Pioneers accepted me as the leader, some don't think of me as one and they are still stealing glances at me with resentment look in their eyes. But who cares about that, this game has plenty of those players and it would be weird if you don't see crybabies and whining players for not being able to get whatever they want.

I look up at the sky and the swirling darkness we have just seen in the distance is now right in front of us. The dragon is also slowly marching towards the capital along with the monsters and demons walking beside the gargantuan beast.

"Sh*t! That is too big! Are we sure that we can take down that dragon with just these numbers?!" one of the tank players said.

"Believe that we can get this done without dying! We have to show the queen that we are strong enough!" a warrior said.

The others just went silent and just continue to stare at the situation below. After all, it is a boss, and treating it like a normal boss in the game is just not applicable as the normal bosses are very clear that they are quite weak. Raid bosses, on the other hand, has a very large amount of chunky health bars and a very chunky amount of defense that even I shouldn't scoff it off.

"Leona, drop a bit lower on the ground, we will be attacking here on out."

Leona lowered her flight height until it was almost near the dragon's head.

"The warriors who can deal quick high damage will have to go down by either jumping or wait until Leona lands on the ground. The rest will have to just go down once Leona already settled down to the ground."

"Huh? Why are we going to jump? Isn't that's just asking to dive to the dragon's mouth and die?!" the warrior from earlier retorted.

"Idiot, he means to jump up in the air and do an aerial strike. I have done this once in a battle and I must say that it is a very good damage-dealing attack. It also inflicts AOE damage so if we are in a high elevation like this and the enemy is not suspecting anything from below, dealing damage immediately is a good thing," the sole berserker in the pioneers said. He is a famous berserker during the past timeline and he has done some significant feats by himself too. He is known in the past timeline as the Wandering Berserker, Bloodaxe.

"You think I would just randomly believe you? What if you are one of the people here who wants to reduce the numbers of the people just to get the loot of the boss once it is dead?!"

I shook my head on his reasons and decided to make my move.

"Since some of you are reluctant, then I will be the one who will perform it. Those who also know how to do it should follow suit too. I know some are paranoid but I am not going to let anyone die here meaninglessly just like what you mentioned. After all, we need our strength together to take down the dragon as my strength alone is not enough. This is a raid battle and that means this is going to be a group battle, doing selfish things will not be tolerated!"

I pulled out my sword and enchant it to flames before jumping off Leona's back. With a quick maneuver, I spin twice before landing on the dragon with my flame attack.

-You have dealt 10,541 damage!

After the quick maneuver, I landed on the ground after hitting the boss. I look up and the other warriors also jumped down with their weapons. Due to the continuous attacks, the dragon of darkness roared in pain as it tries to evade the new attacks.

"Good, it's working!" the other warriors said.

"Don't let your guards down! We have yet to reach its final phase yet! Get ready to deal more damage to the dragon's body!" Bloodaxe shouted.

Leona landed and the remaining players also jumped down and joined the fray. Now that everyone is on the battlefield, I recall Leona once more since Leona is still unsuited to fight against a dragon.

"Tank rolled players, come forward and take the brunt force of the attack! Make sure everyone has taken defensive maneuvers already and do not block the attack with just a shield without any buffs from your skills! That will be suicide!"

The tanks quickly swing their shields and drop them to the ground and cast their defensive skills.

"Magic-oriented classes and range classes like the Hunters! Stay on the third row of the battlefield! If possible, just use the final range that your skills can reach and stay there! Cast your spells and help each other in case things don't go well! Make sure to deal lots of damage!"

The magicians stood their ground and started chanting their own spells one by one. The range units like the gunslingers and hunters also did their job and shoot the boss. The magicians then raise their staffs and pointed to the boss which then started to glow with different colors before it fires off and started hitting the Dragon of Darkness.

"Healers! Provide healing spells on everyone! [Recovery] and [Heal] will be good too! Don't let the tanks get their health to 50%! Maintain them always in 60% or higher numbers! If there are also alchemists, be sure to throw your buff potions to the warriors and magic enhancement potions to the magicians! Be the secondary healer if the healers are still in cooldown!"

Everyone did what I just told them and performed well. Even though it was a clusterf*ck during the meeting with Queen Tanya, I guess some of these nutjobs have actually good coordination with players too and knows how to follow instructions.

"Alright, warrior classes! We are the DPS of this group! Since we are only a few people who are fighters, do not hold back and waste your mana in skills! Go all out and deal with this dragon as soon as possible!"

Our sudden attacks caused the Dragon of Darkness to roar in pain and radiate black flames from its body. It started to stomp on the ground and tried to squish as to pieces.

"Do not bother to take the hit from their legs! Dodge and get away from them!"

If I did everything right and the team doesn't f*ck everything up, then the last stand against the dragon who brings forth calamity won't be that bad.