...…
Boom!
The battle within the outer region of the Starry Spears Mountain Forest was getting much more intense as time went by. Due to the repeated collisions of the forces between the Hand of Midas Trading Firm and the Black Market, most of the terrains in the outer region of the map were starting to change.
At the same time, the monsters within the area of their battles were also starting to get wiped out. These monsters that were giving most of the players a hard time fighting were slowly being cleared by the two forces. Due to their low spawn rate, the number of monsters could not keep up with the clearing time of the two groups, making the map as clean as possible.
Harmony, who was overseeing everything from the side of the Hand of Midas, stood at the peak of one of the stone mountains while watching the clash in the distance.
Moments later, Adept Hands suddenly appeared beside her and said. "Sister, everyone is ready. They are only waiting for your orders."
Harmony nodded his head and said. "Make sure to warn them not to approach the marked regions that Young Master Shin had given us. Those are obvious traps."
"Aside from the stealth units, who are responsible for triggering the conditions of waking up the sleeping monsters, no one is to enter those areas," she added as she squinted her eyes while watching the battle in the distance.
Adept Hands nodded her head. "I already informed them about it. We are to trap the people from the Black Market inside those regions and not let any of them escape."
Harmony slightly tilted her head to the side before asking. "What about the cave entrance where the most elite units of the opposing side had entered?"
"It has already been sealed by them. There is no need to worry about them since the young master is already marking them," responded Adept Hands immediately.
Harmony repeatedly nodded her head and said. "Then it is time to execute the plan. We have to finish this before the reinforcements of the Black Market arrive here."
"We need to control the strategic spots within the region before they arrive so that we can have the advantage of the terrain."
"I heard that Walsh and Tinker will be coming here too once they wrap up everything on their side. Securing this region will go without a hitch once we regroup when them. Walsh will take care of the mines while Tinker can install the necessary tools for security purposes."
After that, the two of them jumped down from the stone mountain peak, planning to personally join the battle.
********
In the meantime, the forces of the Black Market that entered the cave were already engaging in an intense battle against the Steelfist Ape and Ironhead Chimpanzee.
The battle was already in a chaotic state where the people from the Black Market had to repeatedly save their lives from the brink of death.
They knew that these two monsters were powerful, but they were not expecting that they were 'this' powerful. If not for them using their special tools repeatedly, then most of them have already been lying on the ground since the very start of the battle.
What was even more worrying was the fact that the two Overlord Rank Monsters seemed to be in an agitated state. It was as if those two were in a constant state of berserk mode.
Moreover, they were also refusing to get separated from each other as if they were afraid of something.
Due to this, the forces from the Black Market were having a hard time keeping themselves alive. Surviving this battle was already in question, much less killing these two overpowered monsters.
Fortunately, both Illumi and Izumi decided to join this operation, or else the state of their people would be in a much more desperate position.
This pair of brothers led their units to fight against the Ironhead Chimpanzee, who seemed to be a magic-type beast monster. It was sending rock boulders and earth spikes toward them as its main offensive measure. Though, it was also doing some powerful melee attacks from time to time.
There was also the time when this monster used a series of AOE (Area of Effect) skills while slamming its fists on the ground, taking down a significant number of the forces of the Black Markert.
However, after getting accustomed to its attack pattern, the people of the Black Market were able to quickly adjust themselves and able to have a steady footing during the battle.
With Illumi and Izumi taking the lead, their group was able to lock down the Ironhead Chimpanzee in place even though they were barely holding on.
On the other side of the battlefield, Arlott was leading his own team to keep the Steelfist Ape busy. And since his group had the greatest number of tanks and healers, they were doing relatively 'well' compared to the other team.
And since Arlott was a pretty strong player, he was able to save most of his subordinates at the most critical time. He was able to repeatedly cancel some of the skills of the overlord monsters with his perfect timing. However, it also required him to use most of his Tier 2 Skills in the process, which had a very long cooldown time.
Aside from this, the other reason why they were doing much better compared to the other team was because of the fact that the Steelfist Ape was a melee-type monster.
Fighting this type of monster was much easier than magic-type ones. As long as they kept a certain distance and held the monster in place, the rest of the team would be able to attack it freely.
And with the number of tanks on their team, holding the aggro of the monster was not a problem. They also did not have to worry about being one-shotted because of the number of healers behind them.
However, they still had to worry about the more powerful skills of the monster since those ones could still kill them within an instant.
Fortunately, Arlott was always on the lookout for those skills, so he would be able to cancel it in time or warn the others if he could not.
As for the AOE skills of the Steelfist Ape, their group was having it much easier compared to the other group since there was a significant sign when it was about to do a large move. The entire team had ample time to respond to it before the large-scale skill descended.
Just like that, the hunt for these two Overlord Rank Monsters continued.
But they were not lowering their guards since they were expecting another monster to appear out of nowhere.
The Stoneback Gorilla was still not making its appearance. This was their thought since they were unaware that this monster had already been hunted down by a certain someone.
…
Watching from the sidelines, Shin could not help but be impressed at the three leaders of this particular raid party. He must admit that he somewhat underestimated their capabilities due to them being much weaker than him.
At the same time, he also witnessed how a proper raid took place.
He was always fighting powerful monsters himself, after all. He did not have much experience commanding such a large party since he was mostly playing solo. And if ever he did work with the others, they were all powerful players themselves, so commanding them did not take much of an effort.
But after seeing Arlott, Izumi, and Illumi leading the 'above average' players to hunt down such a pair of powerful monsters, he came to realize the importance of sound and proper leadership.
Even though Arlott and Izumi were somewhat lagging behind compared to Illumi, who was perfectly leading his unit, those two were still able to cover their shortcomings by putting extra effort into canceling the skills of the monsters in front of them.
Shin found it interesting that he learned a thing or two from these enemies. He even chuckled to himself when he thought about that.
After a few more minutes, he discovered that the state of the battle was steadily being under control. The three leaders of the opposing side were able to familiarize themselves with the two monsters, making it much easier for them to fight.
Shin also saw that they were slowly gaining their confidence, especially when they saw the slow yet steady drop of the health bars above the heads of the two monsters.
Once they reached below fifty percent of the total HP Bar of the two overlord monsters, the morale of the raid team reached an unimaginable level.
They became more motivated and started unleashing their best performance.
Little did they know that the actual hell was just about to descend. The water of realization would wake them up from their fantasy and pay a hefty sum for it.
Shin sneered at the sight of the group increasing their pace as he kept an eye on the health bars of the pair of monsters. "So, the number of players also plays a role in triggering that particular state? If only I know, then I should have brought a few more people with me."
He could not help but shake his head as he remembered how much he suffered at the hands of the Stoneback Gorilla.
As he continued to watch the health bars of the two monsters drop at a steady pace, he suddenly grinned evilly. "That strange berserk mode is not a time-based one, so I guess I have to let them deal with it for the time being before I step in."
"I hope that they will be able to hold out at least until they lower the durability of those protective auras by half. Lower than that will be much better," he added as he sat on a rock boulder in a more comfortable position as if he was anticipating a blockbuster movie.
A bucket of popcorn and a huge cup of soft drinks was the only thing that he was lacking.
As if getting the cue, a pair of deafening roars quickly resounded in the entire cave and shook its walls.
Roar! Roar!
The people from the Black Market already noticed that there was something strange from the Steelfist Ape and Ironhead Chimpanzee. But they were already a step too late when the unexpected happened.
Boom! Boom!
A strong shockwave swept the nearby players away, dragging them in the distance. It even continued rolling outwards, trampling everything in its path.
Fortunately, the quick ones instantly used their lifesaving skills without any hesitation and saved their lives from getting killed by those shockwaves.
Their actions saved their team from getting wiped out but the damage from the unexpected attack almost crippled everyone altogether.
Arlott, Illumi, and Izumi – these three leaders – were able to distance themselves from the epicenter of the shockwaves, saving themselves from suffering the same fate as their fallen comrades.
They looked at the devastation that the two overlords had left and saw that almost half of their forces had been annihilated. This sight made them curse under their breaths.
The hard work that they did up until now to prevent this outcome from happening was all for naught. All of their efforts seemed to have been wasted after seeing the current state of their forces.
And when they directed their gazes at the two humongous figures standing in the stance, their already solemn expression immediately turned grim.
That scene that they were seeing left a sour and bitter taste in their mouths.
They saw the Steelfist Ape shrouded by a grey metallic aura that was constantly flowing upwards, giving it a heavy and dangerous feeling. A single glance at it was more than enough to tell them that this particular state was much more powerful than an ordinary berserk mode of a monster. Especially when they saw the glowing health bar that it had.
And to make it even worse, the other monster, the Ironhead Chimpanzee was giving out the same feeling.
Its entire body was giving out a metallic luster similar to the one that the Steelfist Ape had. But instead of having a grey color, its aura had a mixture of black and brown colors. A thin layer of aura was covering its body while a continuous flow of it was constantly moving upwards.
Seeing the sudden transformation of these two Overlord Rank Monsters, almost crushed all the hopes that the people from the Black Market had.
They all knew that the situation was already out of hand.
Meanwhile, on the darker side of the cave, a certain someone seemed to be enjoying the misfortune of these poor people.
...…
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