The next step in taking down the boss was to start practicing through repeated battles.
Even if they did not defeat her the first attempt it would still lead to them growing stronger as each skeleton they killed gave them experience.
They would hopefully reach a point where they could outdamage her defenses.
~
The first run ended just as before when the giant skeleton arrived, they were beaten down by the end of it.
The group was able to gain a few levels with each run but they didn't get a lot of progress in defeating the boss.
The next attempt at the dungeon was more successful.
~
In their battle against Diana they took time to watch her, War God would do everything she could to learn the skeleton's strike patterns.
Ezekiel would watch how Diana chose her targets.
Shade would take opportunities to strike the skeleton in weak points.
The first opportunity that they had was when Shade successfully landed what he said was an assassin skill.
"Death Mark, it causes a delayed strike that will activate when the enemy is hopefully not guarded."
"Can you show me how it works?"
Ezekiel allowed Shade to strike him with the skill, the result of which was a powerful burst of mana left within his body.
When he saw it and felt the mana inside of him burst after three seconds he lost almost half of his hp.
"I think you just gave me an idea."
While Hope was healing him he explained the possibility of a delayed strike being infused with his own damage.
The combination of the dagger skill causing significant damage as well as the mana of a mage would probably do significant damage.
Their target was a sturdy tree.
He first tried to give his mana to Shade when using the skill but that did not work.
Since giving him the mana didn't work he tried to let Shade take his mana instead.
The problem was Shade hadn't been working with mana long enough to feel the mana of another person.
He had to help Shade learn to find the mana of another person which had... interesting results.
"Whats with your arms dude? Why do you have mana in your blood?"
This question made Ezekiel laugh as he remembered his own reaction to mana veins.
He told Shade to focus so that he could accept the mana being pushed out by the mage.
This time when the skill was used the mana was far denser.
Instead of the mana coming from Shade's mana core the mana was coming from Ezekiel.
The result was the combined power of Shade's skill and Ezekiel's mana.
The tree was toppled.
With this new strategy they tried another run.
~
War God as the vanguard kept the skeleton back.
Shade as the assassin looked for opportunities to strike.
Hope kept them at maximum health and helped guard from spells.
Ezekiel kept near Shade to fuel his skills.
The first Death Mark on the giant skeleton took away 10% of the skeleton's hp, this kept it from striking at someone for a moment as it stumbled.
Ezekiel tried to guide it to potential weak points like the spine and joints, that first strike crippled its shield bearing arm but did not remove it.
The second strike brought it down to a knee as the leg was bown off by the explosion of mana.
The third strike was a critical point which nearly blew the skeleton's head from its spine.
This was the first time they had brought this enemy to half health and it did something new.
While they were preparing another strike the shield on its crippled arm began to glow and shrink.
The life mana on its shield flowed into the bones of it's body which began to mend themselves.
Shade and Ezekiel continued to strike it as it healed and by the time it was done it only had 10% hp remaining.
The healing it had kept it from being slain but forcing it down so far had interesting results.
The boss seemed to enter a frenzy as it cast its spells twice as fast which forced them to return to being defensive and while they were struggling to hold back the mana blade barrage Ezekiel was able to land a powerful shadowfire arrow right at the base of its neck.
He had tried to replicate what the Death Mark did and it was clumsy.
He condensed so much mana into his arrow that it began to tremble and fall apart but the strike still penetrated.
He then forced it to release its form causing an explosion of mana similar to the assassin skill.
This was enough to send the skeleton's head across the room.