"Boss Monster? What the hell are you talking ab…out?"
Pangu spoke with annoyance as he turned around to look at his party member. However, his voice died down in his throat as he saw the hulking figure covered in a dark cloak approaching the Fortune Guild members.
The figure of the Dark Gnoll struck fear into the hearts of ordinary party members but the eyes of the leaders lit up with greed. They could already imagine the rich rewards they would get after killing this monster.
This was the first Boss Monster in the Village #89 after all!
Pangu quickly recovered his composure and began to organize teams into formation.
"Yepig and Woping! Your teams will lead the assault on the Boss with my team. TrueWord and GreenTea, your teams will keep the Grandeur Guild in check. Don't let them interfere with our fight. Smexy, keep an eye on situations on both sides. Help out if any of the teams are in danger."
As soon as Pangu finished his instructions, the teams had already begun to act on it. Three teams had surrounded the Dark Gnoll while two teams formed a blockade in front of us.
These people were worthy to be called the Elites of the Fortune Guild. Still, these preparations were far from enough to stop the Dark Gnoll.
In the next minute, my judgment was proven correct. The Slave of Darkness let out a loud and grating roar.
"Arghwwooo!"
Just the sound of it was enough to intimidate the Fortune Guild players and make them retreat a few steps.
Even I, who had heard the roar before, felt goosebumps on my arms while Stivi and others shook a little. However, they recovered quickly, much quicker than the members of Fortune Guild who only came to their senses when the Boss was right in front of them.
Pangu immediately took control of the situation and yelled,
"Melee players, Charge with me!"
Four players followed behind the huge ax wielding man to attract the Boss's aggro. They smashed and slashed their weapons on the Dark Gnoll and a string of red numbers popped up above the Gnoll's head.
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The damage was within the expected range but it was merely a tickle for the boss whose HP was 15,000. Pangu did not lose heart upon seeing the damage numbers. He calmly commanded the other two teams to join in the attack.
Arrows and spells began to fly towards the boss. The physical arrows dealt nearly 25-30 damage per hit while the spells were much less effective dealing only 15-20 damage per spell.
Even though this wave was not as damaging as the melee attacks, the boss lost nearly 500 of his health in the next 10 seconds.
Now the Dark Gnoll was thoroughly enraged. It raised its scepter high and roared before slamming its butt on the ground. In the next moment a dark circle expanded like a shockwave from the point where the scepter touched the ground.
It quickly reached the players surrounding the boss and sent them flying back a few meters. The melee players wearing armor were relatively fine as they had only lost about 80 points in health.
The unlucky ones were the ranged DPS. They had low HP and even lower defense. Hence, they suffered the most casualties.
Magic class players of the Fortune Guild still managed to survive thanks to their higher resistance to magical attacks but the Archers were not so sturdy.
All four archers in the attacking teams died in this AOE attack.
Seeing this result, Pangu's face turned ugly. He realized that he had grossly underestimated the boss but now retreat was not an option.
He asked the Healers to focus on Melee players and sent Magic Class players out of the range of Dark Wave. Then he resumed the raid.
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The higher damage numbers surprised everyone. It seemed like unleashing the Dark Wave had taken a toll on the Dark Gnoll. Its defenses were lowered and players dealt more damage compared to their previous attacks.
The Fortune Guild members rejoiced and they attacked with even more ferocity. Sadly for them, the Dark Gnoll's recovery speed was not slow. Its defenses returned to normal just after 60 seconds had passed and the damage numbers fell again.
Still, the Fortune Guild had managed to inflict around 700 points of damage within that time.
The Dark Gnoll did not execute any other big moves after unleashing the Dark Wave. It would occasionally charge at a player and swat it with its scepter but these single target attacks were not very threatening. Even if a melee player endured the attack head on, he would lose at most 40% of his total health.
Thus the Fortune Guild steadily managed to lower the health of the boss by another 5%.
As soon as the health bar reached 85%, the boss roared. It was a precursor to Dark Wave.
"Damn it! Everyone, move out of the range!"
Pangu cursed as he readied himself to withstand the impact of the attack. Other melee players also took a defensive position to minimize the damage taken while mages and healers ran to the edge of attack range.
Despite their haste, many ranged players were too late. The Dark Wave collided with their bodies, emptying their meager remaining health. They turned into gray light and vanished from the Cavern.
After this Dark Wave, even the Melee players were on their last foot. Their HP bars flashed red as many had less than 20% health left.
Pangu was now left in a pinch. He could not recall the two teams keeping us in check but only Smexy's team was not enough to change the tide of the battle. He looked at us.
Noticing his gaze I quickly motioned to Stivi and others. We showed an expression of horror and fear towards the Boss and tried to make ourselves look as harmless as possible.
Seeing us shrinking in the corner, Pangu was sure that our party did not dare to cause trouble. Finally he gritted his teeth and made a call.
"All melee players retreat and recover your wounds. Smexy and GreenTea, replace us. TrueWord, make sure that the Grandeur Guild cannot interfere."
After this order, the frontline melee players retreated while the other teams took their spots. And the battle continued…
Just a few minutes later, the Dark Gnoll's health bar hit 75%. Dorukh raised its scepter and executed another Dark Wave, killing two ranged damage dealers and one melee attacker.
After this attack, I was able to confirm the intervals between each execution of the Dark Wave. Not just me, even Stivi could tell that Dorukh executed the Dark Wave after losing 10% of Health each time.
If Stivi could tell, so could Pangu as he had the same amount of experience in games as her.
Thus, when the Dark Gnoll's health neared 65%, Pangu ordered his team to retreat from the range of attack. This time, only the melee players lost some health while all the ranged attackers were unscathed.
This made the players of Fortune Guild cheer with joy while the faces of Grandeur Guild's members fell.
"Should we attack now?" Stivi asked me impatiently. Taking out the single team guarding in front of us was no big deal for our current team. Even taking down the weakened Fortune Guild teams and the boss was possible. However, I had other plans.
I shook my head in response to her question while messaging Zamir.
"Are you done rescuing?"
This boss was smart enough to hold Sangma's son and grandson hostage. Who knew if it would decide to kill the father and son pair when it was about to die?
Wouldn't that mean I would lose my only clue to the Shard of Myth?
Hence, I had Zamir take advantage of Fortune Guild's battle to rescue them and bring them to a safe place.
"Done. Be back in 2 minutes."
Just as I received the message, I heard a loud growl from the Boss. Its health had fallen to 60% and it waved its scepter towards the cages in the back.
Click! Thunk! Click! Thunk! Click! Thunk!
Three loud sounds of the iron locks on the cages opening reverberated in the cavern. While the Fortune Guild Players were confused by the Dark Gnoll's actions, a cold shiver ran down my spine.
I had an inkling of what was to come and my fears were confirmed by the loud threatening growls resounding from the depths of Cavern. Three huge dogs with glowing blue eyes emerged from the darkness while leading a horde of dogs behind them.
Yes. These were the same dogs that were locked up in the cages. However, their levels were completely different from before.
Previously, The average levels of all 100 Wild Dogs was Lv4 while the Dog Leaders were Lv5. Now, the numbers were less than 40 but all the Wild Dogs were at Lv5.
The levels of the Pack Leaders were even higher at Lv7 and they had doubled in size. Their health bar had also increased by three times and reached 1500 points.
Basically, the Pack Leaders had become Mini-Bosses!
Seeing this scene, the players from both the Guilds had only one thought in mind -
"We are screwed…"