Chapter 420 The Grueling Battle For Survival That Lies Ahead!
Although he had fought single-handedly against individuals like Roudin or Sage during the second team selection, Izroth understood that he could not compare them to the likes of Ooudamu.
In the end, the current Ooudamu was a raid boss and existed inside a special zone known as a raid. Therefore, Ooudamu was bound by the rules of the raid. However, this also meant that their overall power was much greater than NPCs or monsters of the same level.
But, the main difference was not in combat power, but in two things—the environment and HP. Raid bosses were almost always placed in environments that gave them a natural advantage over their challengers.
As for their HP, not much needed to be said considering Ooudamu alone possessed more than 23,000,000 points of health.
With such a massive amount of HP, it was practically impossible for any player to single-handedly defeat a raid boss—and this was not counting the enraged state they would automatically enter into after being in combat for a specific amount of time. It was this particular point that Izroth found to be a headache.
Even if he could shave down Ooudamu's HP and had the assistance of the Blue Oasis members present, there was still no way he could defeat her before the enraged state was active. This left Izroth with few options at his disposal, however...
'The system would not give players an impossible task. Am I overlooking something important?'
Woosh! Ding!
The tip of Izroth's Sword of The Storm landed a solid blow! But, the sound of the hit was off and mimicked that of metal striking against metal. When he looked closer, Izroth noticed that his sword had stopped a hair's breadth away from Ooudamu's face. This caused a serious expression to appear on Izroth's face.
'This will be more troublesome than I thought.'
Just before Izroth's strike could land, he heard the word "Solidify" come from Ooudamu's mouth. What surprised him was not the word itself, but the word's target. In the past, every time Luna used her voice magic, it was affecting a specific individual or multiple targets. Even when she used the word "Repel", it was not the sword itself Ooudamu was repelling, but instead, it was Izroth's attack.
However, the word Ooudamu had just spoken affected the very air before her itself! In other words, she was able to use Luna's voice magic to influence her surroundings! This added an entirely new dimension to the applications for the voice magic and made it at least ten times more difficult to handle.
'But, it's not invincible. There has to be a limit or some type of restriction on what can and cannot be influenced by it, as well as, the power of the spoken word.'
Why not simply use her voice magic and order him to die? She could even use it to turn his Sword of The Storm into something soft so that it was incapable of harming her. The answer was simple—Luna's voice magic was not omnipotent.
Another thought that crossed Izroth's mind was that even with a surprise attack using Enhanced Instantaneous Movement and the cloud of white sand as a cover, he was unable to reach her. It was almost as if Ooudamu knew what move Izroth was going to make beforehand and prepared a method to counter it. This is what bothered Izroth the most.
'Her Soul Sense should not at such a high level. Is it a different ability that belongs to Ooudamu? Or...'
After his attack failed to connect, instead of following up with a second attack, he instantly retreated. Not even a second after he moved from his previous position, a sphere of water approximately three meters in diameter appeared. If he had stayed there even a moment longer, he would have been trapped inside that water sphere. Fortunately, Izroth was able to avoid the danger with the warning from his Soul Sense ability.
"Hehehe, where are you going? Since you have lifted your blade at me, then you should be prepared for the consequences, right? Oversider." At first, Ooudamu's voice had a hint of playfulness to it, however, the more she spoke the colder her voice grew as if she could not hide her disdain.
'Can she use all of Luna's abilities? Or, is it only capable of using voice magic? In the end, a raid boss that can freely cast high-tier healing magic would be a bit unreasonable—even for a hardcore raid.'
Woosh! Woosh!
All of a sudden, the glass-like area that Izroth entered through earlier rippled as two new figures appeared in the room. Those two figures were soon followed by three others making for a total of five. This group was, of course, Vanaheim and the other members of Blue Oasis that Izroth had gone ahead of.
"It's Captain Vanaheim..! She has others with her too." Tagz said in an excited tone. However, as soon as he remembered their current predicament, a gloomy expression once again found its way onto his face.
"What is this place?" Emberheart questioned in a tone of curiosity.
"It looks like-" Right when False Summit was about to speak, his gaze landed on the five players at the center of the room. The second he saw those players, he almost coughed up blood from shock!
"I-Is that Captain Abstract?!" False Summit said in a tone of disbelief.
The effects of the voice magic had not yet worn off, and so, Vanaheim and the others caught sight of Abstract and the rest of the Blue Oasis members dancing. To make matters worse, Izroth seemed to be engaged in combat against a raid monster! What were they thinking fooling around during such an important raid?!
Vanaheim's facial expression darkened. She was not at all amused by the behavior of Abstract and his group. Mostly, she was disappointed in Abstract's behavior as he was one of the last people she expected to fool around. Did he have no shame?! Was he not worried about the face of their Blue Oasis?!
Those were the first thoughts that crossed Vanaheim's mind. However, a frown suddenly appeared on her face. She briefly closed her eyes and when she reopened them, it looked as if numerous magic symbols that contained boundless information were flowing throughout her eyes. She was actually using the Eyes of Magic, the same skill that Valentine frequently used!
While the Eyes of Magic was not necessarily a unique skill, acquiring it was incredibly difficult for any magic caster regardless of level. But, not all Eyes of Magic were on the same level as one another. Depending on the specific player's understanding of magic, the skill could be weaker or stronger.
Vanaheim quickly scanned the room with her eyes of magic and uncovered quite a few anomalies—the first being that Abstract and his group were encircled in a bizarre coat of mana. However, when Vanaheim tried to analyze it further, she was suddenly overcome with an unbearable headache that caused her to deactivate her eyes of magic.
"What kind of magic is that? If I kept trying to analyze it with my Eyes of Magic, then..." Vanaheim thought to herself as she furrowed her brows.
But, what she did not know was that the coat of mana around Abstract and the others was powerful voice magic. Given that it was created by the ancient Trephasia Zelfyrion that Izroth and his party had met during their time in the Chaotic Dogma Realm, it was of no surprise that she was unable to analyze it.
However, with that, Vanaheim grasped that something odd was taking place. She had a strong feeling that Abstract's group was somehow being made to act against their will and it was most likely due to whatever creature Izroth was fighting against!
After having some type of grasp on the situation, Vanaheim ordered False Summit and Emberheart to go check on Abstract's group. As for herself, Sacred Blade, and Ace of Saint—they would head over to join Izroth.
"You all have your orders, go!" Vanaheim commanded.
"Yes!" Everyone replied in unison as they did as Vanaheim instructed.
Ace of Saint and Emberheart swiftly made their way over to Abstract and the other members of Blue Oasis. Not too long after doing so, the effects of the voice magic had finally worn off. Thanks to Izroth keeping Ooudamu busy, she did not have the chance to recast the voice magic on them.
"Mending Ricochet." Emberheart held the staff in her hands forward as an orb of light shot out from the tip of her staff. The orb of light shot towards Abstract and ricocheted off him before shooting in the direction of Feint. This orb continued to ricochet off Abstract's group until everyone was touched by twice by the orb of light.
At the same time, the HP that Abstract and the others lost from enduring Ooudamu's whims was restored.
Emberheart was a part of the off-tank supporters and since their only supporter had been possessed by the raid boss, she was the only player present that was capable of healing magic!
"Captain Abstract, Captain Vanaheim has asked us to join them as soon as we've assured the recovery of your group." False Summit stated respectfully.
"It's impossible with just the few of us. You all should have never entered this room alone." Abstract replied in a grave tone.
"Captain?" False Summit was confused by Abstract's words. What was impossible with just the few of them? Even if it was an elite monster, as long as they worked together properly, it was well within their current group's capability to defeat it. To make matters even more confusing, the rest of Abstract's group had darkened facial expressions.
"Is that monster that tough, captain?" Emberheart questioned.
Tough? That was a gross understatement. If only it were just an elite monster.
"That's not just any monster. It's the first boss of this raid, Ooudamu." Abstract stated.
When those words left his mouth, Emberheart and False Summit were taken aback. You mean, the monster that Izroth was fighting against was a raid boss?! No, more importantly, Vanaheim and the others were in danger since they were too far away to observe the information of the monster up close. They had to be warned!
However, what Emberheart and False Summit did not know was that it was already too late.
"This isn't good." Vanaheim thought to herself with a cold gaze as her eyes locked onto Ooudamu. She had finally reached close enough to see the information of the creature Izroth was fighting against, however, she never expected it to be the first raid boss, Ooudamu!
Without the rest of the raid party, their chances of victory were infinitely close to zero chance! This was bad—really bad.
"Is this boss a parasitic type?" Vanaheim pondered. After seeing the player host displayed as Luna, a member of the raid party, that was the first thought that entered her mind. But, were there even such a thing as parasitic type water sprites?
"No, I do not have time to let my thoughts wander. Right now, I need to come up with a plan that maximizes our chances of survival. After that, we can only hope that the rest of the raid group reaches this place in time. Otherwise... Our raid will end here in disaster." Vanaheim thought to herself.
Abstract and the other members of Blue Oasis moved to join the rest of the group in the battle against Ooudamu. Now, there were currently 11 players present—excluding Luna who was not the host of Ooudamu.
"No tank, one supporter, and there's less than half of us here. When it comes to buying us time... Perhaps that will work." Vanaheim muttered quietly to herself.
"Members of Blue Oasis, our main goal is to survive until the rest of the raid group arrives! Therefore, none of you are allowed to die, understood?!" Vanaheim spoke in an elevated tone.
"Yes!" The members of Blue Oasis roared in response.
The grueling battle for survival against the first raid boss was about to start!