[Ilyana: Done here. Coming.]
[Avia: Okay. Jump in after he cast the Earth Spike.]
Both Vi and Ilya had successfully finished the Fire Salamander. As the one Avia told them, Ilya came closer to the giant salamander's location while drinking potions.
For some reasons, Ilya kept blocking almost all the attack came from the Fire Salamander. While on the other hand, Vi and his Spirit Wolf were as healthy as ever.
Usually, Vi ordered the wolf to maintained a safe distance between him and the enemy but, the previous battle with Ilya almost gave him and his wolf free hit attack all the time.
Ilya focused herself only on blocking and dealing damage with her shield. She maintained the defensive stance while her free hand was busy with party chat and potions.
[Ilyana: How long till the next attack? I need to feed my shield.]
[Avia: Oh? Okay. 3 seconds.]
[Avia: Now. Glacial Spike.]
Followed by Av's chat, Vi cast his skill.
"Ice Spike!"
The instant when the ground between Av and the salamander tremble, a chunk of ice formed out of thin air flew towards the salamander.
At this time, Av ran away to the side as fast as he could. Following that movement, the ground below formed a spike that pierced towards the sky. It hit nothing.
Simultaneously, the ice attack did a full hit towards the earth's caster and gave it hostility. It showed the side of its eyes to Vi's direction.
"Oh, wait. I sense danger."
Right after Vi said it, a boulder came from the salamander's mouth and flew towards his direction.
[Avia: Oh, it also has that attack.]
Ilya cut between the line and interrupted the attack with her shield. With another hand on her ear, she talked in the party chat.
[Ilyana: What do you mean?]
[Avia: It never did it to me before. Anyway, it's stronger and has a lower cooldown compared to the other.]
With a nod, the three continued to have a new focus on this one. Av re-group with the two while also equipped his spear again.
"You will join the attack?" Ilya asked him.
"Some circumstances happened after you gave the buffs. I am not in the state of a 'weak civilian' right now."
"Okay, it should be far easier then."
[Roivicc: Okay, we don't need other people that much, then. Take your time, brother.]
[Arceede: Sure, then.]
Following the easy-going answer, Vi took his time to watch another area. His eyes fixated on his brother's direction.
The one caught in his eyes was his brother only tried to dodge the upcoming attack without fighting back at all.
"Vi!"
A shout from Ilya broke his idleness. He looked around and found the sight of his summoned spirit lied down on the ground. It was about to get another pounce.
"Recall! En!"
To maintained the summoning monster, the caster needed to use some portions of their energy, which in this matter was his [Mana], to restore the monster's HP and EP.
He recalled it meant that he would not be able to summon it again for the period of the cooldown time.
[Arceede: Hey, focus.]
'Ugh!' Vi grumbled on his thought and stomping his feet.
"You lose this time," Ilya said with a grin.
"Haha. I guess we can't finish it faster now." Scratching the back of his head, Vi was concerned with the situation.
Though they were losing another attacker, Vi was actually saving them from the worst-case scenario. The penalty he would get from his monster killed would severe him more as he would lose more than half of his current [Mana], and all skill cooldown increased.
Recalling it saved them since it meant that Vi still was able to join the fight, although without his summon.
As time passed by, the fight against the Giant Salamander still went so well. The only thing needed was to maintain the focus and steadily exchange the hit and miss.
The battle was so calm and steady without any message popping on.
At the very least, better described as the calm before the storm.
[Avia: 2%]
[Arceede: Got it. Wanna kill it, Vi?]
The smaller version of the Salamander that Ar fight head-on all this time was about to die. He gave the opportunity of killing it to his little brother since it was their main purpose from the start.
[Vi: Okay. Coming.]
Ar brought it to the crowd while Vi coming his way while dealing damage with his basic attack. The basic attack of the [Mystic] class was a projectile attack from the staff they wield. Sound like the same attack as Ar's crossbow shot, but it had lower and slower damage.
"Ice Spike!"
As the cooldown went off, he cast his ice attack and dealt a full mark on the target.
"Yahoo!" An exclaim came from his voice as the last hit successfully confirmed.
Drrr Drrr Drrr Drrr
Following his exclamation was a sound below them. The ground tremored and shook their footing.
[Ilyana: What is this now?]
Ilya held into her shield while stabilized her footing on one of her knees.
The giant salamander in front of her did not move an inch either. Though, it looked like it did not affect by the tremor that much.
[Avia: It's dangerous. The area of attack covered so much. Run away from it.]
That was the message popped out from Av after he focused on the surrounding area with his eyes.
All of them start to scatter from the current location.
Few seconds after that, a moment of flash blind the area. Followed after it was a big skill coming from the giant salamander. Hundreds of Earth Spikes erupt from the area.
A doom of dust covered the whole area after the skill reached the farthest area it could reach.
[Arceede: What is it now? Are we succeed or Nah? It looks like it's self destruct.]
Ar and the others had safely left the area and tried to assess the situation.
Ding
Ding
Ding
..
..
..
A lot of notification appeared to all of them and answering their doubt.
[Avia: Guess, it's a success. But now, I hope you guys can spare me with some trouble.]
[Roivicc: Oh, don't worry. Honestly, I also have something to discuss.]
[Avia: Let's loot the drop first, then. Let's gather at the center.]
Avia suggested them to regroup on the center of the 'storm'. With his 'enchanted' eyes, he able to saw some material dropped on it. He guessed it as a reward from the monster earlier.
[Ilyana: Ah, I also have some trouble. I think you guys can endure it, but I can't. Please help me.]
With that 'SOS' message popped out, Avia that walked into the loot with the help of his 'black eyes' suddenly lose his footing and also all the vision from earlier.
His eyes now reverted back to normal. The same happened to his field of vision.
His visions before this were like another dimension. He saw the area around with a lot of assisted pattern.
Ranker's Quest itself was considered a Hardcore Games. Even with the assisted feature such as the party's and monster's health bar.
This new series was even worse. That thing was gone and made his class, 'Appraiser' somehow valuable. But, even that couldn't compare to what he saw earlier. All of the detail was shown in his field of vision.
He could predict the monster's movement and some sort with it. In addition to his judgment and footwork, he could keep up with the information and made the optimal play.
"Hey! Ilya!? What happened!?"
Among his condition to regained the composure of losing such valuable stuff, he heard Vi's scream not that far away.
He saw Ilya fainted on the ground while Vi beside her was flustered with the situation.
[Avia: What happened?]
Av used the party chat to talk while steadily walking to them.
[Roivicc: I don't know. But, pretty sure she said that she need help.]
Av used his appraisal skill. His only skill that he did not need it at all since earlier.
"Oh! her health and energy are on '1'. Ah! the same goes to us too apparently."
Both of them took out potions and drank one bottle of each color before giving the rest to Ilya.
"I guess her 'bar' is the cause. HP and EP are basically her lifespans." Av gave rational deduction.
"I see.. Wait!"
[Roivicc: Hey. hey. Brother? Are you there?]
Since earlier, Vi recalled that something was off. Based on the chat log, his brother was not replying at all.
"At least if he died, a notification will tell us," Av reassured him.
"It's just that we have died once and claimed the first died tolerance from the dawn earlier. The penalty would be troublesome since he was pretty much with 1 HP like the rest of us."
Fortunately, a party message answered that worry.
[Arceede: Sorry, I have some big notification and stuff. I think we need to go to VPS right away. I will invite you.]