“What are you doing just standing there?” Gerald shouted. “Bunch of retards!” This was why he didn’t want to babysit newbies. They were too much trouble for his liking.
However, they couldn’t do anything since that was their protocol.
“Second unit charge! Hammer those assholes’ heads while you’re on it so they would snap out of it!” Gerald shouted and ran to where the first unit was in an attempt to save them.
They needed their numbers to win this fight. They couldn’t afford for the first unit to get wiped out this early on.
The second unit was comprised of experienced players, so their coordination wasn’t an issue. Their DPS and Tank all charged with their weapons and clashed with the undead before the skeletons could reach the first unit. At the backlines their mages and healers provided support.
The Frost Skeletons were weak, and with one strike from the players’ sword, they broke like glass. The only problem was . . . after seconds, they picked up their broken bones, pieced them together, and they were back a new. Not to mention that their numbers weren’t dwindling one bit.
It only took seconds for a single DPS to be surrounded by dozens and dozens of skeletons. Their damage wasn’t much, but faced with multiple attacks from all sides, his HP decreased at a rapid rate that a healer didn’t even have the chance to heal him.
At this rate, their DPS and Tank would face annihilation. No . . . all of them would face annihilation if this was going to continue!.
They had to do something and fast!
Gerald gritted his teeth and ordered, “Mages, what are you doing?! Rain those damn spells on those freaking things!”
Some mages hesitated. None of them have any AoE damage yet. A single target was all they could do. And faced with hundreds of skeletons, their MP and Mana surely wouldn’t keep up.
But no matter how hopeless the situation was, they had to at least fight until the end. They had to know the Boss’s pattern of attacks and other information they should know so they could re-attempt the cave in the future.
There was no retreat and logging out from the Boss’s room. They could either defeat the Boss or get wiped out. It was just either of the two.
At Gerald’s order, a rain of fireballs came shooting down at the Skeletons. It was like a mortar, and upon hit, the skeleton melted and disappeared. And since the skeleton was like ants swarming in a single area, a single fireball sometimes hit two. And even just a graze from those blazing balls of Fire could melt the skeleton into nothingness.
Gerald and Ed’s faces brightened when they saw a ray of hope amidst their current predicament. But their hope was quickly smashed to pieces when the glowing veins under the lake shone even more. They even felt that the lake pulsated, and with it, the fog intensified.
For a moment, there was a burst of hazy white light that covered the area where the first and second units were situated. And after the fog settled came the resounding cries that made Gerald and Ed’s hearts tremble.
All of the second unit’s mages turned into an ice statue while their HP rapidly decreased.
“Goddamit!” Gerald was starting to panic now. He didn’t know what happened, but it wasn’t good for them. “Healers cast cure and heal them now!”
They couldn’t afford to lose their Mages! Not when they hadn’t even faced the Boss yet.
The healers were about to cast [Cure] on the mages that had turned into ice statutes when the veins under the lake glowed once more, and with it, the area was enveloped with thick fog.
“Stop casting, NOW!” Ed shouted. Something told him that the Freeze only happened when the veins glowed, and they only shone when someone in the group cast a spell.
But his warning came too late. When the fog settled, every healer in the second unit was turned into popsicles.
“Shit! Retreat! Regroup back in lands!” Ed shouted. “Don’t cast any spell or skill!”
Ed was having a headache. Without any skill or spells, they were sitting ducks for the skeleton to stab as they pleased.
How on earth were they going to defeat that Boss now?
[0)ᴠʟ This cave that was supposed to be an easy raid had turned into a Sadistic difficulty really fast.
“Don’t retreat!” Gerald shouted. He noticed that only spells from Mages and Healers were affected by the Freeze. The skills and spells of DPS were okay to use.
“Gerald you . . .” Ed couldn’t believe what he heard.
“There’s nothing for us but forward! What are we going to do if we retreat? Wait till forever for the Boss to open its eyes and hope that its HP reduced to half when its sleeping? We can’t log out, and there’s no way for us to escape but defeat the Boss!”
Defeat the Boss?! Ed didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. How could they defeat the Boss if they couldn’t use spells? Attack it with non-magical weapons? How much damage were they going to inflict it until the Colossus Frost Giant would wake up and stop freezing everyone?
By that time, all of them would turn into nothing but popsicles for the skeleton to stab.
However, as much as Ed wanted to shout back and reason with Gerald, the guy spoke the truth. There was no turning back from this.
Shit! Ed cursed and closed his eyes tight. With that little time, he thought of something . . . a strategy against the Boss. There was no way that there wasn’t. Every dungeon had one. Just like with Vulcan’s Cave.
There should be a way for them to approach the sleeping giant without clashing with the hundreds of skeletons.
When Ed’s eyes opened, he first saw the glistering lake before something clicked in his mind.
“Five mages! Cast fire on the lake!” Ed ordered.
The Mages all looked at each other. They were clearly hesitating because they knew what would happen to them. But under fire from Ed’s roar, they could do nothing but obey. Such was a life of a regular member in the guild.
The ice thawed and created a ten-meter radius gap in the water. However, the five mages that casted that spell was turned into ice statues.
Looking at the cold water, Ed took his chance, and he would not go down without a fight. He ordered, “Everyone dive into the water. Let’s swim towards the Boss!”
It was the only thing he thought they could do at the moment to reach the Frost Giant. Ed also wasn’t sure if his idea would work. And there was only one way to find out.
With his lead, Ed dived into the lake, and much to his surprise, he couldn’t breathe underwater, but it didn’t hurt. It’s just that his HP was continually decreasing, although not much.
Ed smiled in joy. The decreasing HP wasn’t a problem since it could be rectified with [Health Potions]. The important thing was to avoid the hundreds of skeletons and reach the Boss.
After that . . . Ed didn’t know what to do.
He’d cross the bridge after he was sure his plan would work. He thought.