Taking on a dungeon boss was always a tricky thing. They were stronger, tougher, and smarter than your average monster. Of course, the fact that the monsters they fought earlier on this floor were all dumb as rocks was not a good indication of intelligence. After all, the jenglot were dangerous and smart; and they were only on the first floor.
No, the giant Roc that hovered over the battlefield was more than just smart and tough; it also had the advantage of being able to fly. Fighting it would require them to shower it with long-range attacks until it fell upon them, at which point the melee fighters could at last contribute to the battle.
However, the thing was massive and their slings weren't going to do much to it. After all, it might suck to get hit by a stone, but when you were the size of a house, it mattered a lot less than when you were the size of, say, an elephant. Which meant they were mostly going to be relying heavily on teammates with ranged techniques that could actually do real damage.
"Add in to that, we're going to have to deal with those," Arthur growled, waving at the stand of grasping vines. It was clear, now that they had crept in closer, that that the damn Roc was being protected by the Tower. They'd attempted to lure it out by firing upon it, but all they had done was waste the energy from Casey's bow and their time setting up a trap.
"So, the plan?" Mel asked, curiously.
He hesitated, glanced at his seniors for confirmation. Leia shook her head, refusing to answer and Eric clamped his own mouth shut when he saw her not speaking. Realising they were going to make him do the talking, Arthur slowly spoke.
"We need to get in, close." Arthur looked around the group, assessing them, and sighed. "We split into three groups. Ranged group to take the Mama Roc. Another group to take the vines. Lastly, a baby Roc group. The vine group will be our fast and heavy hitters. Their job is to clear out the environmental hazards so we can fight without worrying about being randomly eaten. That group is going to be me, Uswah, Yao Jing, and Jan."
Arthur made himself not look enquiring or worried.
"For ranged, we have Rick and Casey. I'll join ranged group the moment I'm done." He hesitated, then added, "Leia and Eric, you have the baby Rocs. I know there are three Rocs to your two, but I'm going to assume you can snare one. If not, Uswah . . ." She nodded, understanding his point. "Lam, you're free-floating. You hit whoever or whatever needs dealing with, but I want your focus mostly on the Mama Roc." He grimaced. "When it comes winging down, smash it."
Arthur hesitated, then continued, "While it'd be nice to ground the damn Mama Roc, the Tower might not allow us to. Or, more likely, it'll fade out the skill faster than ever, so Uswah and Leia?" They perked up, looking at him. "Try to snare it when you're both free. Do it together."
"The Tower don’t allow?" Jan asked. “What, you read about this?”
"I did, but it's been a while. Also, the sixth floor boss varies, and not just in what's up here but the skills it has. Previous bosses included a giant vine trap; a portal in the middle of a village filled with, well, gremlins; and a mushroom area that had poisonous spore clouds." He made a face at that because that last boss had spiked the kill rate for a bit before the Tower had chosen to get rid of the mushroom field. "The Roc has been popular for the last two years, with it rotating in every . . . three? Three bosses. But it's not always there."
Then, Arthur shrugged. "I worked out that I was better off sneaking past it than actually trying to fight it, if I was going alone. And if I wasn't . . ." He sighed. "I thought I'd be with people who actually would have spent time memorising shit too."
"Nerd!" Eric taunted, good-naturedly.
"Still beat you at spears." Arthur grinned at the dual-wielding fighter before he waved the distraction away. "Any other questions?"
Of course there were. Since they had nothing better to do, they talked it over until everyone was settled in their positions.
After all, they had some time to waste. And no one wanted to face the Roc's special attack, not if they had a choice.
***
Arthur was trying something new, and it was not going well. Not in the “oh god, oh god, we're all going to die” way, but in the “this is going to suck a lot till it's over” way. In this case, what Arthur was doing was testing out creating two different forms of the same technique.
In this case, the pair of Refined Exploding Energy Darts were held in either hand as they crept close to where the ivies were. They knew that the boundary of whatever was keeping the Roc from pulling out was almost certainly going to be crossed before they neared the thrashing, grasping vine monsters. It made no sense otherwise, or else they'd just cheese the level and blow all the vines out.
They could have tested exactly where the range was, but it made more sense to just get into range and when the Roc decided to start it up, that was when they'd rush the rest of the way in. Presumably, by that point, the thrashing vines and the creepgrass that they'd finally spotted, now that they were closer, would be close enough that they'd have to deal with them.
Now, it was possible they could attack and run away. And that had been plan A, but no one was particularly surprised that the same barrier that stopped the Roc from venturing far sprung into existence, blocking them from running away.
All in all, it meant they were committed. It was just a prolonged staring game right now, as the group slowly drew closer. Whoever was the first to blink . . .
Or soar, in this case. The beating of the Roc's massive wings blew up sand and grit, causing the group to squint. The smell of something dry and musky filled the air, a little bit rotten as well. It was not the humid, musky smell of a horse or other mammal, but something cleaner and yet alien. The creature let out a loud squawk as it pulled upwards, the predatory, streamlined face with its sharp, curved beak reminiscent of a falcon or hawk.
Or maybe Arthur really had no idea what he was talking about. Because, really, you didn't get those kind of large birds of prey in Malaysia; instead you had plenty of crows. So many crows, lining the streets around hospitals or hanging around open dumpsters. They were even more ubiquitous than pigeons, who mostly didn't stand a chance in Malaysia.
More to the point, now that the Roc was making its move, so did the group. Releasing the pair of Refined Exploding Energy Darts one after the other, he watched them shoot away faster than an arrow but certainly not as fast as a bullet. Releasing the Darts relieved him immediately of a mental burden, causing him to move and breathe easier. Holding the pair, even if he had formed them one after the other, had been more difficult than running two disparate techniques.
No idea why, but something to consider and train in the future. He'd probably figure it out soon enough, but it felt like it might have to do with the way the techniques burdened his mind and meridians.
By the time he finished contemplating all that—which is another way of saying within seconds—his attacks arrived. The first didn't manage to make its way completely through the lazily waving vines, instead exploding and shredding a vine it had impacted and just a couple more nearby. But they opened the way for his next Dart, coming in hot from behind to explode against the body of the vine monster. Wood and bark greenery showered the surroundings while sap began to dribble out. Enough of that lost, and the creature would die.
It wasn’t enough to kill a vine monster right away, but Arthur was already forming another Refined Exploding Energy Dart as he ran forward. Once he was done, he'd hold it in reserve while he chopped his way in and begin engaging Heavenly Sage's Mischief. He knew he'd need the strength, though right now, reaching the thrashing vines was his first priority.
Not that he was the vanguard of the charge. That was Jan and Yao Jing. The big man was just wading in, grabbing at vines and tearing them apart with his hands, coating his Wood Body with his greater strength so that he could do damage that way. Meanwhile, Jan's aura of flame actually pushed the vines back. Even the vines that came in contact with her started having trouble, control being lost within seconds. It meant that the deeper she went in, the worse it got for the vines.
Eventually, they'd probably die just from her presence—if she didn't fall first.
The only one not charging in on the vine party was Uswah. She was just hunched down near where Arthur had been, eyes narrowed in concentration. Near his own target, a series of shadow vines had erupted from the ground, slamming and spearing into the vine creature itself. Against a captive, unmoving audience, she was the first to manage an actual kill, the sudden spiky death from within more than sufficient to put the vine monster down.
Which meant the rest of the teams could rush in, to finish the battle on the other adds.
And before the incoming Mama Roc could mess with their day.