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Flash was the initial spell of Mystical Magic, which dazzled the eyes of an enemy and served to attract aggro. As the bright flash of light distracted the monster, a soft green glow enveloped everyone.

“”Mist Step!””

The moment Sorleon and Lueger’s HP began to regenerate, they used a blink ability to quickly close in to the boss again, holding their shields ready.

“…Nacht Angriff!”
“…Rin!”

Barely a moment later Crim and Hinagiku also followed them, moving closer as well. Sometimes a large scale attack could reset a boss’ aggro, so they delayed their movement by a little bit so the boss would focus on the tanks first.

The monster had not moved from its location when using that attack though, so Lueger had an easy time regaining aggro. The way he charged back in right away showed how reliable he was, even in the wildest battlefields.

“Sorleon, leave the rest to me!”
“…Got it!”

Crim had a plan now, and she communicated that to Sorleon, who let her through to attack the boss. It seemed like the Fallen Monster’s true form was only unleashed after its HP was brought down below 75%.

A black trailing effect followed all of its movements now, which everyone carefully dodged while piling up damage whenever there was an opening.

I see, so it’s like some sort of vengeful curse revived it after I killed it that time, and that gave it new powers too. It’s almost like it was turned into a Tatari Gami.

Crim thought to herself as she watched the monstrous bear, which had gained a rather demonic aspect.

Its eyes looked completely devoid of sanity, showing its mind had been thoroughly corrupted. And that dark crimson thing was also the secret behind the magic from earlier.

But exactly what is that thing?

There was little to be gained from worrying about that now, so Crim shook her head to focus on the task at hand again. The monster had just taken a stance to cast another magic spell.

“Stun Bullet!!” Shaping her hand like a gun, with her index and middle fingers straight, Crim shot a dark bullet. That was Stun Bullet, the starting spell of Abyss Magic.

It had no chant and was activated nearly instantly, but in exchange it had a rather long cooldown of 30 seconds. If it hit a target, it would inhibit any movements from it momentarily.

The chances of it working were also really high, and even a large boss that would build up resistances against crowd control over time could be stunned for at least three times with it.

And as the effect was applied, the monster’s magic was interrupted.

Good, it stopped!

There were some rare cases in which certain enemies could resist the stun, but the bear was not one of them.

“I can stop its AoE spell two more times, everyone!”
“Good, focus on attacking while dodging its physical attacks then!”

Hearing both Crim’s announcement and Sorleon’s orders, everyone attacked with more ferocity. By now, they had seen most of the boss’ attacks already. The most troublesome one was a long range attack it could unleash by swinging its claws down, which sent slashes through the air and could reach the rear guard.

That attack was also used rather frequently, so it was constantly interrupting the rear guard from attacking, until they discovered that the slashes would stop after meeting an enemy, so now Freya and Ernesta would jump into it to block.

Continuing like that, and after the AoE attack was interrupted a second time, the boss’ HP bar had finally decreased to the red zone.

“Grrrrrhhhhh..!!”

Letting out a distinctively guttural roar that made the air tremble, the bear joined its front paws and raised them high above its head.

At the same time, an indicator with four arrows pointing at Lueger appeared.

“It’s a stack marker! All frontliners huddle around him! And the rest of you keep attacking!!”

A stack marker indicated a special type of attack that would deal a certain amount of damage, which would be shared evenly across everyone hit. As soon as Sorleon shouted that, everyone gathered around Lueger who was the main target, and held their weapons ready.

At the same time Freya casted Sacred Wall, a spell that decreased the damage taken within a certain area and was obtained with 80 Points in Mystical Magic, while Reinhard was already preparing a healing spell that would activate the moment the attack would strike.

On top of that, since all the frontliners were gathered in a single spot, Frey was able to use his most powerful spells without having to worry about friendly fire, while Lycoris and Cheval also increased the frequency of their shots.

All of that increased the pace at which the boss’ HP bar was decreasing, but it was not quite enough to defeat it yet.

“Grhhaaaaaaahhhhhh!!”

Letting out an enraged growl, the boss unleashed all the strength it had gathered into an explosive attack on Lueger and everyone around him.

THUMP!!

The entire cave shook violently with the hit.

“Ghuh..!”
“Woah?!”
“Kyah?!”

The hit was so violent everyone hit let out surprised yelps while all their HP bars shrunk rapidly.

Usually such attacks were meant to be tanked by everyone in a party, but since they had chosen to leave some out to keep attacking, it had dealt a lot more damage. That made it especially bad for those like Hinagiku who did not have much health, as her HP rapidly went down to the yellow zone and then kept going into the red, but it stopped there.

“…Resurrection!!”

The dazzling light of Reinhard’s Resurrection, a powerful healing spell obtained with 90 Points in Healing Magic, quickly covered everyone and their HP bars recovered to a safe level.

The boss remained still as it recovered from the attack too, creating a perfect opening.

“Crim!!”
“Way ahead of you!!”

Crim and Sorleon would never waste such an opportunity, so both of them ran up the large bear’s limbs, dashing towards its head. Shortly after them, Hinagiku also reaffirmed her footing while lowering her hips for a quick draw.

“…Guillotine!!”
“…Smash Blade!!”

Crim and Sorleon jumped high to gain more momentum with gravity, their scythe and twin swords gleaming, while on the ground…

“…Retsu!!”

Hinagiku swiftly unsheathed her katana and began to spin rapidly like a top. All three attacks combined in assaulting a single target, the monster’s neck.

“Grah..?!”

They quickly cut through the thick fur and resilient muscles of its neck, nearly tearing off its head.

The beast expired before it could fully understand what had happened, its enormous body falling limp and creating a loud thud which echoed through the cave, before vanishing as light particles.

«The Boss ‘Fallen Monster’ of the area ‘Schwarzwald’ has been defeated for the first time.»

Afterword:

Imagining this as FFXIV in first person makes it feel really difficult.

Editor’s Note:

I tried playing FFXIV in first person view once and yea, it was difficult. I ate all the AoE attacks.