RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 160

The other dwarves who were watching the platform immediately started running towards them as they shouted furiously. With a higher ceiling, the team players were finally able to move better, and they ran into the cave to escape the group of dwarves.

It was hard to fight a number that was more than four times their own in a frontal attack. So, it was best split apart and attack them while running off. With the dwarves’ slower speed, it wasn’t a hard task to do that. The split off into four groups with such that each group had one tank at the very least. With such large numbers, the mages were in most danger and their magic attacks caused the most damage and gained most aggro. However much they ran and attack from such a large number would sooner or later land on the player who could use strong long-distance magical attacks. So, they definitely needed protection.

Merlin needed to control three shamans so, he had the priest, Little White feet and two physical attack based players along with him. Healers had it the hardest as apart from the attackers, the main healer who cast most heals would gain the most aggro. Mob and Tetsujin were protecting them. Merlin also took the two dwarves on their side with him.

Bitter Beast teamed up with Grenadier, Tang with Quiet Fire and finally Shadow and Sultan fought separately. They were both well versed in fighting in their real-life and didn’t have much issue in running away while whittling down their opponent’s health.

Unlike their previous boss fight, they didn’t have any strong companion like the chrome who could support keep the mobs at bay. So, they resorted to doing the the same manner all other teams attempting the fight would do and had to keep moving around the cave. Luckily, they had a lot of space to do so.

Merlin who had three shamans along with him had the highest firepower. He had them concentrate their attacks on the dwarfs one at a time to enable killing them faster. It was when the dwarfs accompanying them shouted out.

“Don’t kill our brothers. They are just under a spell. Kill Hadbufar. I am sure that lord Bungar will reward you if you save our brothers,” shouted the dwarves looking pleading at Merlin.

“That is going to be terrifyingly hard,” thought Merlin as he messaged the information to others. He needed the others to cooperate with him on this. Else, it would be of no use if his group alone tries to save them while the others go on killing the other dwarves.

“That is ridiculous. It is going to be extremely hard. We are hardly able to run around with these dwarves on our tail. I don’t want the main boss after me too,” said Bitter Beast.

Shadow also felt that this new idea would be extremely hard to implement. In his past life, they always reduced the number of dwarves before engaging Nakshak, who would try to attack them once half the numbers were killed. He had never even tried it this way as the dwarves that he rescued would usually be killed at the second-floor boss stage. He had only tried to keep them safe for this run as he heard a rumor about them receive better rewards if they saved these two. Now, he realized that there would be a chance to improve these rewards further.

“It would be extremely difficult, but I am ready to try it out,” said Shadow. “If the dwarf is right, it would allow us to save a lot on potions and avoid unnecessary killing. Once, the boss starts fighting, we still need to cope with other dwarves. It can be done, but the fastest will probably have to handle the boss and have his aggro while the rest should keep the others occupied. It will be a lot of work for all of us and we can’t be stingy on the dynamites,” explained Shadow.

“Had that in mind. Shadow, Sultan, Quiet Fire and Grenadier will engage the boss. The rest will handle the dwarves,” said Merlin. “There is no point in think much about this. It is best if we start as early as possible,” he continued. Shadow and Sultan immediately joined up with the other two before making their way towards Hadbufar.

“You start with cloak of fire that you use. I will use the time to use a cheap shot on him. Let us deal some damage and see how it reacts,” said Shadow. Even he didn’t know about what the result would be as no one in his past life tried to attack the boss when they were having their hands full with the dwarfs.

He only wanted to try it out now as he had three shamans and two dwarfs helping them which more or less compensated for their numbers. Merlin also had the shamans outfitted with decent equipment and he needn’t say much about dwarfs who kept upgrading their equipment from the dwarves that they before they reached the boss. So, Shadow believed that it is not a bad time to test it out as there is a good chance for the others to technically managed the dwarves with their numbers.

As they came about 4 metres close to the platform at the center, Quiet Fire let a cloak of fire on Hadbufar who was whipping up Bungar. He let out a loud roar in pain which Shadow took to be the cue to go and use cheap shot on the boss, while the others retreated while casting their spells on the boss. After the experience with the previous bosses, they didn’t want to underestimate the last boss’s strength though he was much smaller compared to the previous two.

Once, the blind and the stun wore off, which took about 4 seconds, Hadbufar left the platform took out a pair of one-handed axes and came running towards them. He threw one of them at Grenadier, but Sultan took the attack as he could block it. The attack didn’t deal much damage, but axe went flying back into the boss’s hand after it struck Sultan’s shield.

“He can attack like that!” shouted Grenadier in shock. He was pretty sure that he would have lost a quarter of his health if Sultan didn’t block for him. Even, Balthazar was surprised as that was a move only used by the boss after it lost half its health. The closer a player is to the boss, the more damage he suffers with this attack.

“Ya, that was crazy. We need to see how far he can do that thing,” said Shadow.

“You want to experiment with that,” said Grenadier appalled at the suggestion.

“That is the whole point, right?” asked Quiet Fire as she fired a few more fire balls at the boss. She was quite ready with the concept of trying to see all that the boss could do. But after the attack the boss didn’t throw it again and started running after them while commanding a few other dwarves to stop them. Luckily, Sultan was very adept at knocking off the dwarves off their feet. Even Shadow was not sure that he could use a shield as well as Sultan. It also helped that the others were trying their best to attract the attention of the dwarves by attacking them.

“You played football or something,” asked Shadow surprised at his skill.

“College,” said Sultan as they continued to run away from the boss while firing at him. It was still following them. Though it didn’t throw the axe again immediately as Balthazar had expected, its speed did increase intermittently. It once, even managed to come quite close to them and attack them at close proximity by using the other dwarves to block their path, but Sultan took the blow and Balthazar used dynamite and firecrackers to stun and allow the four of them to escape.

If it were only the two elementalists and shadow, they would have definitely gone farther, but the group depended on Sultan to tank other dwarves the most and also any attacks used by the boss. His movement speed became their limiting factor. The worst thing was that he was also the healer for their group.

“Anyone has a skill to tether him?” asked Shadow aloud. It was getting harder to continue this run and gun strategy. Tethering skills are quite rare in the game. Close combat classes would rarely have such skills. The ones they could possibly have are traps that they have to set up.

Apart from that, some specific tools like arrows that could be fitted with harpoon could be used for this. Mages and Archers also had some specific skills that could be used for the purpose of tethering. Tethering skill always required to be cast from a distance, and it is best if they were cast without the notice of the target. Else, the target will surely try to evade.

“I have one, but it needs channeling for two seconds and we need the boss at the same place. It would pin him down for about 15 seconds,” said Quiet Fire. The other three looked at she just walked out of the mentally challenged ward of a hospital. If they could actually hold back the boss for such a couple of seconds, they wouldn’t have needed a tethering skill to begin with.

“Merlin some help?” asked Shadow out of options.

“No. Not planning to sacrifice my servants.”

“Anyone else?”

“Just stop attacking him and run away for some time,” suggested Tetsujin.

“That seems like the best option,” said Quiet Fire. “Help clearing the mobs Grenadier,” she asked as she started firing her attacks at the mobs instead. Till now, they had only been attacking the dwarfs lightly only with the intention of scattering them. Half their attacks were aimed to slightly miss the dwarves to make them evade and thus providing themselves more time, since the dwarf had suggested that the don’t kill all the possessed dwarves.

With the two mages no longer focusing on the boss and trying to clear the other dwarves that were trying to block them for the boss, they were soon able to get away from the boss. The boss actually started to go back to the platform where Bungar was tied at a very fast pace.

“Shit! He is going back. Attack him again,” shouted Merlin directing the attention of Shadow and the other three in the group to the boss.

“Oh! Damn! I will attract his attention,” said Shadow as he ran away from the other three towards the boss as he was the fastest and used the crossbow to attack the boss. He could always deal damage to the boss from a distance using crossbow, but it was a waste and damage dealt by arrows to a dwarf would be much less than that of a magical attack. So, he let the others use fire balls and other magical attacks to attack till now. He pulled out his crossbow equipping it in one hand and an axe in the other only because he needed to get back his aggro urgently. He wasn’t sure what the boss would do to Bungar after he reached the platform and didn’t want to risk it. Luckily, the boss responded to the slightest damage and followed after Shadow again.

“Issue partly handled, keep your distance, I will join you,” shouted Shadow as he ran towards the remaining three of the group.

This scenario continued for a some more time and they slowly were reducing the boss’s health. In about 30 minutes of this running, they managed to reduce his health to 50%. It was the slowest boss fight that they had in this dungeon.

During this time, even though they tried the best to not kill the other dwarves, about a quarter of them died due to their attacks. The possessed dwarves were attacking them, and they preferred to retaliate than being injured by them leading to these casualties.

After the boss lost 50% of its health, it changed its tactics again. This was what Shadow dreaded the most. The boss started throwing the axes from the start which it was supposed to do at this point. Shadow was afraid that it might use the moves of its berserk state now.

At berserk state, the boss actually tries to throw the other dwarves at the players. Though the boss didn’t do that now, it did something new that even Shadow didn’t see before. It took out a spear and threw it at Merlin at a very high speed. He didn’t even get a chance to completely evade. Luckily, he always had all his three shamans in front of him protecting from the dwarves’ attacks. One of the three got impaled by the spear and the shaman immediately died of the attack.

Luckily that was only one attack and it didn’t continue after that. It started to throw and recall it’s axes like it did before, but it was not focusing on Shadow’s group of four. It was after Merlin’s group. It was clear that its aggro had reseted.

Merlin was the person most afraid of the boss currently. He had just lost one of his servants as he didn’t think that the boss would have such a terrifying skill. The boss attacked his group with axes after that but didn’t use a spear again. Soon, Shadow’s group got back it’s aggro and continued as before, but everyone was on alert against the new skill that the boss showed. Even Balthazar had no way to handle that attack currently apart from trying their best to evade skill when used.

Once, the boss’s health reached the 40% mark, the new skill made its appearance again. This time the target was Tang and Spicy. She had blocked the attack with her shield but ended up being knocked back into the cave wall in a stunned and crippled state. It could be clearly seen that her hand was broken. If not for the quick interference of Mob, Merlin and Little White Feet, she would have been definitely killed at the spot.

“High chance that the skill would be used for every loss of 10% of its health,” said Merlin in the team chat. “If so, only 3 more times. Be careful and stay at full health during these times,” he warned.

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