The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 877: Let Them Cook

The next few pulls went smoothly, with [Hellstorm] gathering all the Spiderlings into one spot for elimination.

They were mostly a nuisance to most groups, but eliminating them from the equation freed up the whole group to deal with the Elves, and prevented the Priests from buffing the Spiderlings so they could do real damage to the adventurers.

Not that Rae let them live that long.

That was the great thing about Dungeons. You could use the same trick over and over because the next group never learned them, as long as you ended the fight before you drew their attention.

It might not be the most realistic situation in the real world, where groups would communicate. But if the Dungeon mobs did communicate, and they had a whole city of Dark Elves coming at them the moment they entered, not many groups would survive a dungeon run.

Rae naturally thought it would be fun to try, and Cara was sure that it would be hilarious to herd them all into an elaborate trap. But the rest of the group would definitely not agree with their ideas of ʼfunʼ.

”Alright, this next group is a nightmare. As soon as you pull the first one, it triggers the others, and they will keep coming until everything is dead. Itʼs a Guard Garrison, so mostly Dark Elven warriors, no Spiderlings.

Then as soon as that ends, the boss will appear in the middle of that courtyard.

Normally, we pull them here, so we have a chance to take a break before the boss. But you all look like youʼre in good shape today, so I say that we fight in the middle of the courtyard, and use area damage to deal with the waves of warriors.

The final boss is a Spider Priestess. So, expect self-healing, unholy spell attacks if Cara canʼt block them all, and under no circumstances should anyone without a shield try to take a blow from her staff.

The damage is incredible, and it has a petrification effect.

It doesnʼt trigger through a shield, but if your armour gets touched, even a barrier effect wonʼt stop it.

Everyone got it?” Thomas asked.

The group nodded in the affirmative, and took a short drink before following him forward.

”I will apologize for the lack of visibility in advance. I have an area attack spell, but itʼs hard to see through.” Karl warned.

They got into position, and Thomas used [Taunt] to grab a group of warriors, starting the battle.

Then Karl activated [Apocalypse], filling the air with a flaming blizzard as Hellstorm vortexes formed at random around the group. Then, meteors began to fall from the sky, and Thomas cursed.

”Are you insane?” He shouted.

Hawk began calling even more vortexes as he added his own flaming blizzard to the mix, making it impossible to see more than ten metres.

Then Karl used Thorʼs [Consecrated Ground] buff to guard the group. It would reduce damage, and increase Holy attacks, if anyone had them. But most importantly, it would deal area Holy Damage to any enemies that made it past the Apocalypse.

Karl took a knee and focused on regenerating mana as he pushed the spell output upwards and Elves began to flood the training grounds.

The spellʼs radius was too large, and they had grabbed everything, but the Dark Elves couldnʼt see where they were. They were running blindly into the storm, while the adventurers did their best to attack.

Even Rae was waiting with the group, so she didnʼt catch friendly fire.

It was a good time to practice rapidly deploying [Blood Destruction], which did even more area damage and confused the dungeon residents as to the direction they were under attack from.

”Theyʼve figured it out.” Thomas warned as the first few warriors made it past the ring of Hellstorm Vortexes.

They were in terrible shape, and under attack by the mages, but charging into combat.

Fortunately, the storm and the meteor impacts were so loud that the remaining enemies couldnʼt clearly hear the calls for assistance. Or, they could hear them, but couldnʼt determine how to get to them.

Karl could feel the number of enemies in the storm rapidly reducing after a few minutes, so either they had retreated to their spots after being unable to engage, or they were all dead.

Either one would be fine by him, and the remaining force was manageable enough, so he let the spell naturally fade as he recovered his mana and prepared for the boss fight.

”Youʼre insane.” Thomas noted as he moved to engage the last few burned and battered warriors of the Dark Elven Guard.

”It worked, didnʼt it? There are bodies everywhere, so we must have gotten most of them.”

The group looked around at the scorched ground, craters and blood. It looked like the dungeon had seen the end of the world firsthand. But more than that, they would have to watch where they stepped, as some of those craters were deep.

Deep enough that they could hide in them during the upcoming boss fight if necessary.

Normally, you were caught out in the middle of the courtyard, and had to build any defensive fortifications you might want. But this time, there was a whole series of craters to work with.

The Shaman began setting up small stone walls around the battlefield, and Karl got the idea.

[Blockade] made clear ice walls that you could hide behind, and still keep track of the boss. So, Karl scattered them around as well, further back from the stone walls that the Shaman had created.

Now, they could move around the battlefield, and remain out of the direct line of fire.

”When it erupts with its area attack, get behind a pillar. Cara, weʼre counting on you for this one.” Thomas insisted.

Cara gave him a thumbs up gesture with both paws, and the Dwarf smiled.

Nachtia leaned over to whisper to Karl.

”So, thatʼs why everyone fears the Void Badgers. They have opposable thumbs.”

The boss suddenly appeared, and the fight was on before Thomas could even react. Karl and Raeʼs golems all grabbed a limb and attempted, but failed, to pin the Priestess to the ground, while Rae channelled Blood Destruction on it and Cara used the Totem Ranked [Void Blast] to disintegrate chunks of its body.

The golems were replaced every few seconds as they were destroyed by even a glancing blow from the boss Clericʼs staff, but it appeared completely overwhelmed.

”Uh...”

Karl shrugged. ”Just let them do it. If they need help, theyʼll tell us. Besides, it has something that Rae wants.”

”Something Rae wants?” The Paladin asked as he watched the fight with his shield up.

”Some sort of Life Steal spell exclusive to the Spider God. Sheʼs been trying to learn it from the Priestesses all day.”

The boss blasted everything away with black Unholy Light, and the groupʼs melee team charged in.

It had shattered [Eternal Lightning] and even did severe damage to Rae and Cara after the reductions from [Void Body] that the Epic Guard shared.

But Rae got what she wanted.

{New Spell Learned} [Essence Transfer] Passive Skill. Steals life force from a targetʼs blood. Regenerates the user and reverses the effects of hostile {Time Element} skills.

Karl didnʼt know of too many Time Element skills, but [Slow] was one, he assumed.

The [Essence Transfer] was a very familiar skill, now that he saw it in action on Rae. It was very likely the same skill that the Blade of Champions used to empower its bearer.