Vol. 13 - Ch. 728 - A Wandering Threat - Unexpected Battle Against Two Bosses!

"The 40th floor boss is «Intermediate Spirit of Light»."

"Hm, spirit? It's not fairy?"

A quizzical reaction from Lana flew in at my words.

Yep, it was indeed so. What's spirits business in the 'fairies' dungeon which is literally in the name? Technically, it's only in the name, which didn't mean there wouldn't be other types of monster. 

Their appearance would argue otherwise, and certainly so, but the game had different identifications for each. Fairies were living creatures, while spirits were aspects of nature. To be specific, spirits were manifestations of nature. Confronting spirits meant facing the very mother nature itself, so spirits were stronger in comparison.

Spirits made their appearance past the initial 40's floor. The name was Four "Season" Fairies, so this was the explanation. I mean, the nature aspect in these types of dungeons were intense.

I gave the members a brief explanation of these reasons.

"So fairies and spirits are different. I never knew that!" 

"To know that they're fundamentally different is a bit hard to comprehend. Still, spirits are the strongest among these two categories, huh."

Lana and Ester uttered their response respectively.

"Alright, let's get back on track and discuss the boss."

"You said Intermediate Spirit, right?"

"Is it like a mini version of Celia's Great Spirit?"

"Surprisingly, Karua, you've hit the nail on the head."

We already had spirit user among us, so it apparently helped in getting everyone up to speed quickly. It also made it actually easier for me to explain by drawing a parallel to Celia.

"It's pretty much a smaller version of «Lux», the Great Spirit of Light that Celia uses. However, the Great Spirit Sheria uses has its true power restricted. The Intermediate Spirit we're about to fight has no such restrictions. So, if you're wondering which one is stronger, the Intermediate

Spirit takes the cake."

"Really?"

After all, if the Great Spirit were stronger than a boss, then a «Spiritualist» would essentially be summoning a boss job. Spirits were just like summoning disc; you could summon bosses, but only weakened versions. Well, and since the summons were made without usage of any item, Great Spirit technically were far weaker than summoned boss. 

In a one-on-one fight, the summoned boss would normally win. That's the gist of it.

"So, the boss moves are going to be pretty much the same as Great Spirit; the usual magic attack, self-buff, and self-healing."

"I see. I think I understood."

With our plan in hand, we challenged the 40th-floor boss. But unknown to us, an unexpected turn of events was about to unfold.

Initially, things went smoothly. We started with our usual style, with Sierra drawing aggro.

"«Shield Force»! «Aura Point»!"

"————!"

"Sierra, defense, up!"

"«Material Shield»!"

Basking in luminous glow, emitted by an angel's halo-like object over its head, a two-meter-tall woman in a glowing robe swung her arm down. A pillar of light descended from the heavens, engulfing Sierra and the surrounding area in light. It was similar to Lana's 'Pillar of Light'—an area-of-effect attack. Sierra activated her magic defense skill and raised her shield to block it.

Sierra was a slight distance from the boss «Intermediate Light Spirit». It was a precaution to make sure even if the boss targeted her with an AoE attack, the vanguard wouldn't be rolled into it.

And then, as usual, our attacks began.

"Alright, let's start attacking! Prepare your big skills! «Brave Slash»!"

"Prepare for buffs! «Blessing of Guardian Dog»! «Anti-Magic Protection»! «Blessing of Agility»!"

"Here I go—«Raging Spear War Dance»!"

"Attack, «64 Force»!"

We started with our best skills, aiming to deal a lot of damage quickly. There was a reason for using them immediately: as I mentioned, the Light Intermediate Spirit uses buffs. It would eventually buff itself, so beginning was the best window to deal the significant damage.

"————!"

"It buffed itself. And cleared our debuffs in the process."

The defense debuff icon from my «Brave Slash» disappeared. The boss had cast a «Clear» spell on itself, removing the debuff. But, just because it could remove debuffs didn't mean debuffs were useless.

"Karua, your turn!"

"Yah! «Scale Down»!"

Karua's «Scale Down» was also a defense-debuffing skill. The defense debuff icon reappeared on the boss.

You wouldn't want to have your boss remain in a buffed condition. It was much better to apply debuffs, even if they're going to be removed, to keep the boss's stats in check. 

Plus, the opponent takes a moment to clear the debuff, which creates a clear opening. We could deal damage during that window, so for this reason alone, applying debuff would always be correct.

"————!"

"Don't get too close to Sierra! You'll get caught in the area attack! Karua, move a bit closer here!"

Sierra was steadily drawing the aggro, keeping the boss's target on herself. She could handle herself, but completely blocking area attacks for everyone was impossible. The area attack's scale was large enough to easily trouble the vanguards.

I made sure to warn everyone, maintaining a consistent distance from Sierra as we closely eyed the positioning. Sometimes the boss could close the distance with Sierra and fall into her own AoE attacks, which would mean vanguard nearby would get affected as well.

Then, why shouldn't Sierra open more distance? Well, that would be harmful. Because, the boss had the mechanism where it would immediately target anyone closer if there was no target nearby. Though, well, that was not specific to this boss as well. Tanks would continue to lose aggro if they weren't within specific range. 

To summarise, you could have an evasion tank, but not an escaping tank. Of course, there were some bosses who were designed to chase after targets, but Intermediate Light Spirit wasn't one of them. Simply, the tank should neither be too close, or too far.

That's why Shiera had to constantly advance and retreat in sync with the Light Intermediate Spirit's movements, maintaining the ideal distance. 

The other challenge was the boss's increased efficiency on offence and defence through its self-buff capability. As advanced job holders, our defense was sufficiently amped too. An attack or two would certainly not incapacitate us.

And even if we end up in range of area attacks, Lana would follow up with prompt healing. And with our stats, we were chipping away at the boss's HP quite nicely with debuffs. 

The problem was the increased attack and defense due to its self-buffs, but we were advanced classes, and our defense was high. One or two attacks wouldn't reduce our HP to zero. Even when area attacks occasionally hit, Lana would heal

us, so it wasn't an issue. Our damage output was also decent because Kalua and I continuously applied debuffs to the opponent's defense.

In other words, the battle was completely in our bag. It's just a matter of time. I thought, feeling quite content, when the unexpected occurred.

—Another boss popped up.

No one saw it coming. It appeared suddenly, slipping through the gate to the 41st floor, which the Light Intermediate Spirit was guarding.

"Huh?"

Ester, who was nearby, let out a stunned gasp and froze. The newly arrived boss immediately raised a pitch-black staff towards Ester and Karua, who were close by, and unleashed a sphere of dark energy.

"————!"

"! Agh!?"

"Greow!?"

"!? Ester! Karua!"

Caught off guard, Ester and Karua were a step late in dodging, and the attack struck them squarely, which was followed by another attack.

Ester and Kalua, caught off guard, tried to dodge but were too late and took a direct hit, followed by another.

"Damn! Now of all times!? This is bad! I'll cover them! «Sonic Sword»!"

"Wait, Zephyr!? And what is that thing!?"

"Princess, heal Ester and Karua!"

"! Got it! «All-Heal Prayer»!"

I put off explaining and rushed to shield Ester and Karua, who had taken heavy damage, putting myself between them and the new boss, the Intermediate Dark Spirit, to take the attack. Just then, Lana's party-wide recovery hit us. What a lifesaver!

"«Guard Rush»!"

"————!"

I dashed in, accepting some hits, then activated a defensive skill, «Guard Rush,» which allowed me to defend while slashing the opponent three times, buying us a little time. In that window, I informed everyone.

"Listen up, everyone! This is the «Intermediate Dark Spirit», the wandering boss of this dungeon!"

"A wandering type!?" 

Lana's surprised voice reached my ears.

Indeed, abruptly jumping into the fray as if it was out on some morning walk was a certified mark of a wandering boss. The players, and that includes me as well, had fallen prey to this mechanism countless times. It's honestly a scary attack. Among them, some patterns were particularly troublesome.

We'd just fallen victim to one out of those pattern—a sudden collaboration with another boss during fight, a.k.a «Wandering Boss Jumping Phenomenon». Could you imagine another boss suddenly coming into picture while already fighting one of them? Unfortunately, it does happen, albeit the probability was thin as paper in the intermediate dungeon.

Such encounters had more often than not wiped out the entire party, something that I knew and experienced in the game. Among the statistics of the party wipe out scenario against the wandering bosses, this was in the top.

Regardless, we're stuck in the situation now, and now we're pitted against two bosses—«Intermediate Spirit of Light», and «Intermediate Spirit of Darkness».