New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 263 The Last Stretch

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Everyone slowed down, attacking less and less. Phoenix started recharging Aether slowly, while maintaining her Avatar of Flames' form.

Astaroth Melded with Morpheus, immediately applying his debuff combo, making sure he always stood in Leon's way. Gulnur made sure he took as many hits as possible, charging up the damage scale for a Retribution Strike.

Violette stopped freezing the boss' path, as a massive cloud of icicles started forming overhead. Silent bent down to his knees, clasping his hands in a praying position.

Everyone was getting ready in their own fashion. Athena had no heavy-hitting skill yet, so she was tasked with dealing continuous damage at a slowed-down rate.

I'die was in a similar position, so while Silent was praying for god knows what, his job was to keep everyone alive. It was tougher on him, since he wasn't a pure healing class.

Morticia stood back, drinking mana potions every time they came off cooldown. Her task would be to pin the boss down when everyone was ready to attack.

The beast-man's health was trickling down, teetering ever closer to the twenty-five percent mark. Everyone knew that when that happened, either they defeated it, or they died.

Nods and messages started coming in from each player, signalling they were ready for the next phase. Astaroth was the last one that needed to get ready.

He knew he would dump the pressure on his allies for the next two minutes. Astaroth wasn't ready and wouldn't be for a while, but there was no more time to wait.

He signalled to go and morphed Ad Astra into a war axe. He used a Severing Strike, aiming it at Leon's neck.

The latter's senses alerted him to danger, and his head snapped toward the incoming Astaroth. Seeing the blade on a course for his throat, Leon reflexively raised his arms, trying to block the blow.

The axe blade lodged itself deeply into the boss' arms, digging a deep gash and doing more damage. No part was severed, much to Astaroth's consternation.

But his primary aim hadn't been that. With this hit, Leon's health dropped under twenty-five percent.

???d?---n??a| ?om The boss jumped back, looking at every player and growling in a low, menacing fashion.

"I'll admit you are worthy foes," Leon said, bleeding from cuts all over his body.

"But this farce ends now."

Leon's body started ballooning immensely. It was growing in size at a swift pace, and the party knew this was their time to act.

Morticia was the first to act.

"Kruphix Curse: Mind Lock!"

Tendrils of purple energy shot forth from her hands, hitting Leon, who was now looking like a giant lion, and seeping into his head. A veil of purple covered the latter's eyes, as his body seemed to relax.

But Morticia knew this wasn't a permanent effect. It would only last as long as she had mana, and the higher the resistance of the opponent, the faster the drain.

Her mana reserves had already started draining rapidly.

"Quickly! I can't hold this very long!"

I'die was the next to act. He created a marsh under the boss, keeping it as localized as possible. Leon's legs slowly sunk into the ground, as vines already sprouted around him to entangle his body.

I'die also doubted his vines could hold the boss in place once it snapped out of Morticia's spell, but he would keep conjuring more and more, for as long as needed, to keep Leon from wiping them out.

Violette's rain of icicles then started piercing Leon's back, the needles of ice seeming never-ending, as sweat trickled down the sides of her face.

Since Leon was getting hit on the back by almost all the icicles, the damage rapidly started piling up. Violette was dealing almost the same damage alone as the party had done together previously.

Besides that, every icicle that didn't hit the boss landed in the marsh water. A layer of ice was already forming on the surface, as the cold transferred from one spell to the other.

Gulnur darted forward, reaching the legs of the gigantic lion in a few steps. His accumulated damage over the last minutes was extremely high, and now he intended to get a bit of payback.

"Retribution Strike!" he shouted, lifting his hammer swiftly.

The leg he struck with the hammer snapped back violently, an audible cracking noise coming from it. Unfortunately for Gulnur, doing this broke Morticia's spell.

The intense pain of a limb breaking brought Leon back to reality. The beast rapidly gauged his situation and knew he had very little time to react.

Leon started rocking his massive body, biting at the never-ending vines that appeared, trying to break free. The ice forming around his legs was also quickly becoming problematic.

The icicles battering against his back, together with the hammer strike to the leg, the bullets from the small gunner, the incessant arrows aimed at his eyes and wounds, along with the small deer and wolf attacking from his sides, were all draining his health.

Leon knew something had to change fast. But something else caught his attention.

The one that had damaged him the most up to now was still nowhere to be seen. But he couldn't divert his attention to searching for him for now.

Phoenix had finally taken action, too. She had been gathering Aether for a while now, and she had reached the threshold she wanted.

She whispered to herself; her face still a mask of flames.

"Avatar of Flames; Regulus Supernova."

As soon as the words left her lips, the Aether inside her hand rushed up her arms. The sheer amount of it she had compressed from the raw flames was searing her insides, eliciting a scream of pain from her.

But the results were worth her self-torture. When the Aether reached her mana lobe, and fused with the rest of it, her flame-covered body erupted violently.

The fire covering her burst outward, changing from a bright orange to a vivid blue. The ground under her feet was melting, becoming a pool of magma.

Once the fire stabilized, Phoenix felt as if she could burn the world to cinders. The rush of power was exhilarating.

But she knew she had to act fast since she wouldn't be able to hold this form for long. She stepped forward, crossing the distance between her and Leon instantly.

She punched at the lion's chest, a jet of flames erupting from her fist.

"Flashfire Fist; Supernova!"

*Fwoom!*