"The cave hall is just ahead," John told them. "Get ready. Those that have lost health in the fight just now, use your restorative items first."
"We are all fighters," The Man said. "We have Natural Body Recovery, a little rest and we are good to go."
Luckily none of the Rangers and Magicians were hurt, so they could save their recovery potions. After Men of Solidarity filled up their HP by resting, they proceeded into the cave hall.
Just as John described, the cave hall was decorated with stalagmites while the ceilings filled with stalactites. The hall was not dark as the other parts of the cave as its walls and stalactites emitted their own light. The light was probably from bioluminescent fungus and glowworms similar to that which could be found in the real world.
John and his other two comrades doused their torch and stored it. "Get into positions," he said to the rest.
The hall was quiet, there was no sign of activity or any monster inside. Could the boss not in the cave anymore? Everybody had this thought, except for Jack, who had seen a lone dark red dot at the other end of the hall. Despite the thoughts, the Magicians still proceeded to the aforementioned positions, and the melee teams broke up to four teams and spread out.
They moved out silently and carefully. Even though the cave hall appeared to be empty, they still did not let their guards down. Jack was a bit surprised by Men of Solidarity's vigilant advance, he thought this rowdy bunch would just charge through the hall. It seemed that this group was rather dependable as well when the needs arose.
As they got nearer to the far end of the cave hall, they heard a sound. It sounded like… snoring? Jack approached the sound and peek out from a stalagmite. There was a large humanoid beast, lying down by its side on the cave floor. The beast had dark grey skin and Jack measured it to be around five meters tall if standing up. There was a white cone-shaped horn at its forehead, and two large tusks were seen coming out from its mouth. The sound was indeed a snore from this beast, it was sleeping while holding onto a huge stone club as if it was a bolster.
Jack inspected it using his God-Eye monocle.
Horned Ogre (Elite boss, Humanoid)
Level: 20
HP: 16,000
It was an Elite, Jack exhaled a relieved sigh. He typed in the Party chat, "found the boss, it's sleeping."
He soon received a reply message from John, "sleeping? That's great, so the first strike will be on us. Storm Wind, you have the highest level, so team 2 will initiate the first strike. Lured it to position J, which will be our kill zone where us three Magicians can all attack from our positions. Team 1, 3, and 4 prepare to take over once team 2 is in a pinch."
Not long after, another message from John arrived, "all of you do know where position J is, right?"
Jack made a silent chuckle and replied, "yeah, I know. Don't worry, leader."
But then another message arrived, "uh, where exactly is that?" It was a message from The Man.
"The center of the cave hall!!!" John replied in chat. Jack could imagine him fuming.
"Going to engage in ten!" Jack said to the chat as he headed towards the sleeping Ogre.
He gave a signal for Flame and Trap so that they attacked together in the ambush to score as high damage as possible in their first strike. They were only five meters away from the Boss. He had a nagging worry that the system would alert the Boss once they came into its vicinity, so he was ready to jump back the instant it moved. But after they arrived in front of it, the Ogre was still soundly asleep.
With a relieved, he signaled Flame and Trap to aim for its head, to try to get critical damage while they had the chance.
Jack had been counting since he informed the group in the chat, his finger count was now down to two. His two companions took their position. When his last finger came down, the three of them made a simultaneous attack. The Ogre's head was big enough so they didn't have to cramp together when making the attack.
Jack used his Power Strike. Flame and Trap both performed Swift Strike. Three numbers floated out of the Boss' head at almost the same time.
Critical! 194!
Critical! 73!
32!
Trap made a mistake due to nervousness hence he missed hitting on the vital part. He was shocked thought to see one of the damages almost reached 200 damage. He looked at Jack in disbelief.
Jack at the time had already shouted to them, "Get back!"
The Ogre's eyes opened at the same time. Finding three tiny trespassers disturbing his sleep, it was furious!
It slammed his hand to the ground, creating a small earthquake while pushing himself up. It opens its mouth wide and roared towards the three trespassers who were now scampering away. Jack and his two partners stopped on their track and covered their ears, the roar was so loud that it felt like it was going to burst their eardrums.
They then heard a notification, "you have been afflicted with Disoriented condition."
"What the...!" Jack immediately checked the condition.
Disoriented (Negative Status Effect)
Reduce 50% to movement speed, and attacks have a 30% chance to miss.
Duration: 10 seconds
Crap! No wonder they were getting slower. The Ogre walked towards them. Its movement was slow but its steps were wide. In just a few steps he would have reached them.
"Go first!" Jack told Flame and Trap. Their movement speeds were greatly reduced thus they won't be able to outrun the Ogre. Jack stayed his ground to give the other two time to escape.
"But…" Trap was reluctant as he felt like he was abandoning his comrade.
Flame, on the other hand, was more accustomed to Jack. She was confident if there was anyone that could survive going toe to toe with the Boss, it was Jack. They should get away first in order to not get in his way. He yelled to Trap, "come!"
Seeing Flame's decisiveness and Jack's unflinching pose, the hesitant Trap finally left.
The Ogre had arrived in front of Jack, it lifted its huge stone club high and swung down. Jack received the blow with a Parry using his sword. The force of the blow was so high that Jack's knee was bent and he half-knelt on the ground. He lost 62 damage from it.
Shit! The damage was not too far from the Priest of Phobos who was five levels higher. It was a good thing the Boss' speed was much slower compared to the Priest. If not, there was no chance they would be able to contend with this monster.
It lifted its club and about to strike again, eager to turn this annoying trespasser into mincemeat.
Jack who had experienced the power of the Ogre's blow, did not wish to just receive another blow passively. He side-stepped to the side as the blow coming down. Because his movement was hindered by the Disoriented status, he almost didn't manage to dodge, luckily his Dexterity was also far higher than normal players.
The club landed on the ground and created a crack on the cave floor. Jack used the window where the Ogre paused after its attack to land a hit. But just before his hit struck, it suddenly swerved. His attack ended up just grazing the Ogre's skin. It caused a low 21 damages.
There were still around 3 seconds before the Disoriented status expired. Jack decided to contend with the Ogre in melee until it expired. Once his status was back to normal, he would immediately run to position J.
The Ogre had lifted his club again, ready to strike. At this moment, a loud yelling was heard from the back. The Man appeared with his entourage. He sent Power Strike to the monster's leg. It took out 46 points from the Boss' HP. The other two Men of Solidarity who were just about to attack, stopped short when the Boss made a large swing. They managed to avoid the swing as they were not yet in melee range. The Man, however, didn't have the time to jump back. He blocked with Parry and received 78 damage and got blown away.
As the Ogre turned to deal with The Man, Jack immediately sent several swift normal slashes. It infuriated the Ogre as it turned back again and whacked at Jack.
The Disoriented status had run out, so Jack's movement speed had gone back to normal. He immediately moved away, letting the Ogre's club hitting the ground again.
"Go!" Jack told The Man's team, who did not hesitate to run away from the Boss.