"Before anything else, we should decide on a leader. We can't have everyone make their own decision after all. Even though miss Shiro here is under levelled, it doesn't stop us from demonstrating our individual prowess.
"It depends on how well we work together even with a weak link. That being said, we must know that going off by ourselves and showing off is not what the factions want. They want teamwork even amongst strangers." A man called out as everyone gathered.
He had black hair and black eyes. In his hands was a crimson spear that Shiro recognised to be higher than a purple grade.
[Julius – Grim Spearman – LVL 50]
'Heh~ He has either a unique class or a hidden class.' Shiro thought, seeing the Grim Spearman class.
"Since we've only known each other for a short moment, we'll need a decent commander to order everyone so we can make a good impression on the factions. Understand?" He asked.
The others nodded as the main question on their mind was, "Who's going to be the leader?"
"I propose that I be the leader of the current party. I have previous experiences and my track record includes several level 50 raids where we barely lost anyone." Julius suggested.
"I propose to be the second in command should your order's fail during the fight." A woman with long brown hair and glasses said.
[Trisha – Fire Witch – LVL 50]
'Fire Witch? So she uses witchcraft spells instead of mage tier spells. Interesting… They say that a witch is a higher form of the mage. While magic is an imitation, witchcraft can be classified as the real deal. They are much more attuned with nature when compared to normal magic.'
However, while their powers are stronger than normal mages, they don't have the diversity of a mage's tier magic. All of their spells are specific spells learnt from a black grimoire. As for what type of spell, it depends on their comprehension of the hidden language of their grimoire. Each grimoire holds a different type of language system and it's up to the witch to discover what it means.
Naturally, the grimoire is different from the skill grimoires that Shiro found.
'I wonder how they even decided on which skills she could pick since her grimoire would be a huge database of skills. The most plausible outcome with be to compare her with warriors since her skills are specific skills..' She concluded.
"I have no problems with that." Julius nodded as he understood the fact that this was necessary. No one could command constantly without fail. The tactics they knew may collapse the moment the fight started so they needed at least three leaders to give out orders if one failed.
"Do we have a third who can give orders if both me and miss Trisha fail?" He asked.
Seeing as no one volunteered, a man sighed and stepped up.
"I'll do it. I do have previous experience with leading a party but not much."
[Nathan – Mage – LVL 50]
There were signs of age on his face, giving Shiro the impression that he has been stuck on this class for quite some time now.
"It is better than no experience." Julius said with a smile.
With the three leaders selected, they needed to form an understanding of the current party.
"So with the current top 10, we have 6 magic-based classes and 4 melee type classes. Unfortunately, since we don't have a proper tank and support, we'll have to try to make do with HP and MP potions." Julius said.
"We should first assign the tanks. The metal mage, Axe Warrior and Earth Mage should be a good substitute. If you guys don't mind that is." Trisha said as the three nodded.
"Then let's give all our healing items to them and keep only a few to keep ourselves going." Nathan suggested.
"I second that."
Julius pulled out all of his potions, saving 2 HP and 2 MP potions for himself.
Trisha saved 3 MP and 1 HP potion for herself while Nathan did the same.
Pulling out her stock of potions, Shiro saved 2 MP potions since she was just going to be the support. Her item usage would be the smallest in the group.
Gathering up all of the items that everyone donated, that left them with 10 HP and 8 MP potions for each of the pseudo tanks.
"With the tankers set up, we need a general understanding of our damage per second. Seeing that miss Shiro is just level 34, you'll be mostly supporting with your ice is that ok?" Julius asked, turning to Shiro.
She naturally agreed since that was her intention to start with.
Unfortunately, they couldn't plan everything out since the time was going to run out.
"We'll adapt as we go through the fight! Let's win this!" Julius called out.
However, a deafening silence ensued, making it awkward for him. He forgot that they hardly knew each other so this kind of reaction was normal.
*RRAAWRRRRR!!!
Thankfully, the behemoth dispelled the awkward atmosphere with his battle cry.
*PING PING PING!
The chains shattered one by one as it was soon free from his restraints.
"Tankers! Try to grab as much aggro as you can!" Julius shouted out.
Jumping into action, the three pseudo tankers dashed towards the behemoth.
*Flip flip flip flip~
The sound of paper flipping could be heard. Flicking her wrist, a golden aura buffed around the three tankers.
"This will increase their speed, power and defence." Trisha said with a smile.
Nodding in gratitude, the Axe warrior jumped up towards the behemoth's head. His axe glowed with radiant energy while he twisted his body to increase the amount of force behind his attack.
*BOOM!!!!
The axe slammed into the horn of the behemoth and caused it to recoil back slightly.
He had aimed for the horns in order to create a gap, allowing the two mage tanks to grab more aggro.
Not wasting the gap in defence, both mages attacked.
The metal mage created a giant greatsword and a metal platform to propel him upwards.
Slashing the sword at the horn, the mage cursed seeing that he was just a little late since the behemoth recovered.
The Earth Mage, on the other hand, slammed his palms down and created a giant earthen gate to slam down onto the behemoth's back.
"HA!" Shouting out with force, the gates hardened up into a strange type of material. It was coloured black with hints of purple shining through the gaps. When the behemoth tried to escape his cage, the rock would stretch out for a moment before contracting again with the purple energy acting like rubber.
While the tankers were attacking to hold aggro, Shiro looked around before parkouring up to one of the ledges in the room.
Pulling out her bow, she nocked an arrow and waited for the rest of them to start attacking.
The three leaders were only slightly surprised at Shiro's agility since they could do it too.
"Warriors follow me, when I give the signal, I want the mages to rain fire on the behemoth."
Running towards the behemoth, Julius's spear lit up with a chilling blue flame.
"HA!"
A burning slash mark could be seen stretch from the behemoth's wrist to forearm.
Pulsing for a slight moment, the muscles clamped the wound shut.
"The f*ck?!" Julius called out in surprise. He had never seen such outrageous regeneration speed in his life.
Shiro, on the other hand, wasn't phased since she had seen a monster regenerate everything in an instant.
His pause allowed the behemoth to see a gap in his defence and swipe on of his arms towards him.
Snapping out of his daze, he vaulted over the swipe with his spear.
*BOOM!
The arm slammed into the ground and left a slight crater.
*BOOM BOOM!
The other warriors weren't idle either as their respective weapons slammed into the arm. While the wound regenerated, the HP taken off was still there so they could sigh in relief.
Opening its jaw, the behemoth looked towards the tankers with rage.
"MAGES GO!" Julius shouted out.
A giant fireball erupted into existence as Trisha buffed the fireball for more power.
*BZZ!!!
Lightning sparked around the fireball due to another mage combining his spell with the fireball.
*BOOOMM!!!!
As the fireball crashed into the mouth of the behemoth, Shiro waved her hand and made an ice wall to help the tankers stay within range of the behemoth. Once they left a certain range, the aggro would decrease and that wasn't something they wanted.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Slamming its arms into the ground, the behemoth struggled to get out of its bindings.
"RETREAT! The gate is going to break!" The earth mage shouted out.
'My time to shine.' Shiro thought.
Pulling out 3 other arrows, she had four arrows nocked while ice formed on the tips.
*PHEW!
The arrows shot out, targeting the weakening joints of the gate.
*CRRR!
Exploding into a chunk of ice, Shiro made sure their structure was the best they could be so their overall sturdiness increased by a few folds.
Thankfully, that seemed to be just within the needed threshold as the behemoth failed to escape.
"Attack it!" Julius shouted out while praising Shiro in his mind. The little girl was able to help them more than he thought. Just the strength of that ice told him volumes of her capabilities.
Nathan aimed his palms forward, causing 5 elemental orbs to float around his arm.
"Reduce to ash, convergence of the five elements." He chanted. As annoying as it was, some spells needed to be chanted to increase their overall effectiveness.
The orbs gathered together into a multicoloured orb. Pulling back his arms, Nathan swung the orb towards the boss with increased momentum.
*BOOM!!!!
The orb exploded out into beams of energy just before hitting the behemoth.
Scorched marks could be seen on his muscular body.
*PSH PSH
While the regeneration wasn't as fast, it was still healing at a visible pace.
"Tsk. Tenacious b*stard." Nathan cursed while preparing his next spell.
When Shiro saw the skill he just used, she felt slight pity for those who died to it. Just being brushed by that skill would leave you dead.
Gathering mana into his hands, Nathan slammed his palms onto the ground.
Semi-translucent arms crawled out from under the behemoth and wrapped around its body. Shiro could see the skin of the behemoth corroding from the arms.
However, the behemoth wasn't fazed since its body lit up in a deep red aura, blasting away the arms. Yet it was still just short of breaking the gate locking him in place.
Gritting its teeth, the behemoth arched his back upwards as the spikes on his back quivered for a slight moment.
This didn't escape Shiro's observation as she knew the general attack pattern of monsters like the behemoth.
Nocking three arrows, she estimated the trajectory before shooting the arrows.
Nocking another 3, she shot them as well.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The arrows smashed against the spikes the moment they shot out from the behemoth's back, knocking them off course.
*BANG!
The spikes smashed against the walls and caused fissures to run across the surface. The tankers paled slightly when they imagined themselves being impaled by the spikes.
"Thanks!" The metal mage shouted out in gratitude. Shiro only nodded.
If she had missed the timing even by a little, her explosive ice arrows would have not been able to knock the spikes off target.
Nocking another arrow in her bow, she frowned when she saw the number of arrows she had left.
'She must be running low on arrows.' Julius guessed, seeing her expression.
"Someone throw miss Shiro your arrows!" He shouted out. Since he had a lot of experience in leading parties, he knew the general expression one would have such as running low on arrows.
"Tsk! She shoulda said something sooner!" One of the warriors shouted out. Reaching to his bag, he threw the stack of arrows to her.
Catching the arrows effortlessly, Shiro shot an arrow to the arm that was about to hit the warrior.
*BOOM!
Knocking the arm out of the way, she repaid him for his arrows.
"Warriors retreat! Mages bomb it! Shiro! If you can, secure the gate again! He's about to break out!" Julius shouted out a chain on instructions quickly.
However, Shiro was way ahead of him as her arrows had already left her bow.
*CRRR!!!
The ice wrapped around the gate once more, securing it in place.
"Nice!" Nathan praised while his spell was ready again.
"Reduce to ash, convergence of the five elements."
The orb shot beams towards the behemoth but this time a change happened.
Opening its mouth, a second mouth shout outwards like a worm and ate the orb.
"!!!!!"
"HOLY F*CK!! WHAT THE HELL!!!" One of the mages shouted out in shock. The revolting sight of a second mouth along with the fact that it ate a spell shocked the party.
After eating the orb, a multi-coloured pulse travelled through the behemoth's arteries and lit up his body.
'Why the hell would they give the Berserk Mana Charge skill to a low ranked monster?! That's not realistic at all!!!' Shiro cursed.
Berserk Mana Charge was a skill found most often in raid bosses around level 150. The reason being that any lower in level and the monsters would kill themselves the moment they used the skill.
The basic function of the skill was for the monster to consume a mana based attack and multiply their status for a short moment. Depending on how strong the attack was, the more powerful they get and the longer the effects last.
For a monster in this simulation to have this wasn't realistic at all.
The way to stop this would be to cut off the circulation before the charge up finished. Naturally, she could already pinpoint the main arteries that needed to be cut.
However, if she did, she'll be revealing too much as it would be unusual for a level 34 to know how to stop Berserk Mana Charge.
In this situation, Shiro could only think of one line to summarise her current thoughts.
'Welp guess we die.'