With Rena’s efficient healing, Hazel was back at full health in seconds. The pressure on the front line vanished, allowing Kael and Lila to finally unleash their full damage potential. They split up, positioning themselves on opposite sides of the Mawflower to avoid being caught in the same AoE.

  Lila initiated with [Earthshatter Leap], crashing down on the far side of the boss. She immediately followed up with [Dragon Slash], sending three searing arcs of raw force at the creature. Incredibly, each of the three slashes inherited the 150% damage bonus from her opening leap.

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  She transitioned smoothly into [Flurry Strikes], a rapid combo that landed three blows in two seconds, each hit dealing 20% more damage than the last. The skill also had a chance to apply an armor-shredding debuff, but it was wasted on a boss that had zero armor to begin with.

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  As she was still new to the Phantom Blade Dance combat style, many of her abilities were either low-level or not yet unlocked, so her damage output wasn’t as high as it could be. With an attack speed of 1.5 seconds, her DPS hovered around seven or eight thousand—roughly 400,000 damage per minute. Against a boss with ten million health, it was a drop in the ocean.

  With Hazel’s [Guardian Possession] buff on a three-minute timer, the real burden of DPS fell squarely on Kael’s shoulders.

  And against a zero-defense target, Kael’s damage was simply staggering.

  -17925 (Kael - Normal Attack)

  -12957 (Clone - Normal Attack)

  -38741 (Clone - Critical Hit)

  -52156 (Kael - Critical Hit)

  ...

  His personal DPS averaged over 40,000, while each of his clones added another 28,000. With his three clones and Ghostly Form active, Kael’s total damage output was a blistering one hundred and sixty thousand per second. If the Mawflower didn’t have any other tricks up its sleeve, they could burn it down in just over a minute.

  But this was an Elite. Of course it had more tricks.

  When the Mawflower’s health dropped to eight million, the ground beneath them froze solid once more as meteors began to form in the sky. The range on these skills was ridiculous; even though the four of them were spread out, they were all targeted. It seemed the ability simply auto-locked onto any player in the vicinity.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  After their first encounter, they handled it with practiced ease. Kael and Lila dodged the impacts, while Hazel and Rena tanked the hits.

  The pattern repeated every two million health the boss lost. But as its health bar approached the four-million mark, Rena’s voice cut through the chaos, laced with panic.

  “I’m almost out of mana!”

  With just over 2000 Intelligence, Rena’s total mana pool was 20,000. Her high Spirit stat gave her incredible mana regeneration, enough to make her healing sustainable under normal circumstances. But the massive damage her mana shield took from [Starfall] was converted directly into mana loss, and it was draining her dry.

  After healing Hazel back to full from the last volley, her mana bar hit zero, and her potions were on cooldown. Without her shield, the next [Starfall] would kill her instantly.

  Kael eased up on his attack rotation. “Rena, get out of range! We’ll handle the rest!”

  “Okay!” she replied, immediately turning and sprinting until she was a hundred yards away from the fight.

  With their healer gone, it was now or never. Hazel was forced to rely on her own health potions, but their long cooldowns couldn't possibly keep up with the boss’s constant damage. Her nearly 40,000 HP was the only buffer she had.

  At two million health, the boss unleashed its final [Field of Frost] and [Starfall]. The attack left Hazel with just over 20,000 HP.

  Just then, the Elite Mawflower began to change. Its vibrant, rainbow-colored petals turned a sickly, necrotic black. Two new flowers sprouted from its twisting vines—one an emerald green, the other a deathly gray.

  At the same time, a wall of massive thorns erupted from the ground, boxing them in and cutting them off from Rena. A black, viscous fluid dripped from the thorns, practically screaming poison.

  Kael knew they had reached the final phase. There was no room for error. He had to kill it before it could unleash whatever nightmare it was preparing.

  Suddenly, all three of the Mawflower's blooms swiveled to face Hazel.

  The green flower pulsed, and a sharpened vine shot forward like an arrow.

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  Simultaneously, the ground at her feet froze as a single, targeted meteor screamed down from above.

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  Her health bar was now a sliver of red. But it wasn't over.

  The gray flower whipped forward, launching a boulder-sized nut.

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  Swoosh—

  In a sickeningly familiar scene, Hazel was blasted off her feet, sent flying sixty yards into the poisoned Thorn Wall.

  -7621 (Impact)

  -2000 (Poison DoT)

  -2000 (Poison DoT)

  ...

  She died long before the poison's duration ended.

  Lila was next. She managed to dodge the meteor but was caught by the nut, which sent her careening into the wall as well.

  Lila was dead.

  Kael’s expression was cold as ice. He knew this was the final, desperate burn. Ignoring the deaths of his teammates, he focused entirely on his damage, his arrows flying in a ceaseless blur.

  The boss’s health melted away: 1.4 million… 1.2 million…

  Moments after Lila fell, the ice formed at Kael’s feet. The meteor appeared overhead. Just as before, he blinked to safety.

  But the Mawflower seemed to have predicted his destination. A dark shape was already hurtling through the air toward his new position—another giant nut.

  Getting hit was not an option. He was dead if it connected.

  There was no time to dodge, but that didn't mean he had to be hit. Just as the nut was about to pulverize him, Kael’s form shimmered and grew indistinct.

  Whoosh!

  He vanished. The nut flew through the empty space where he'd been and exploded against the Thorn Wall.

  Half a second later, Kael and his three clones reappeared in the same spot. Without a single wasted motion, they resumed their barrage, the clones simultaneously fanning out to different positions.

  Barely a second passed before the ice crept across the floor again.

  Kael was out of options. No more blinks, no more dodges. The meteor slammed into him, and the final nut strike sealed his fate.

  Kael was dead.

  Was this how their journey into the Land of the Behemoth’s Hidden Realm was to end?