Chapter 103 – Raid Progress, Thrush’ven Alir
Chapter 103 - Raid Progress, Thrush'ven Alir
”Raids can last anywhere from weeks, up to years. There was that one in the Southern Fissures they even called the Decade Battlefield. Well, as far as I know, Thrush’ven Alir won’t last that long.” ~Maxims Ya YoboreEven if it was her first time participating in the Thrush’ven Alir Raid, Yoshelle was able to keep up with everyone. She thanked the members of her father’s raid. They were being considerate enough to the other newbies of this raid, including her.
The succeeding floors were challenging, and they were testing the guild’s perseverance. There were barely any changes or mix ups in the second floor, for example, but it still took them a total of three days to clear.
All they needed was to hunt for the raid pillars, from three to six this time, and then to kill the raid boss for the floor. But even just doing that had caused ten of their Hero class holders to be forced out of the raid, along with two single Favored class holders. Their injuries had caught up with them, and their mana and stamina weren’t recovering normally. They had built up so much healing fatigue that it would use up a healer’s entire mana just to help them recover.
At the same time, Damascus sent out a report regarding the abnormalities of the sub-raid, asking for able adventurers who couldn’t continue the main raid to reinforce them. Out of the twelve, however, only two Hero class holders would be able to answer the request, and even then only as backup.
Fortunately, Vice Guildmaster Coraline had brought with her the rest of the guild. Twenty double Hero class holders, and nine single Favored Class holders. This made the Gaiamaxims Guild sixty double Hero class holders, thirteen single Favored class holders, and two double Favored class holders strong. Including the three seraphim and Shallies, the entire raid consisted of seventy-nine people of different species fighting to conquer the Thrush’ven Alir Raid.
Then came the third floor. It was brutal, to say the least. Just scouting took out a Hero class adventurer. He fell unconscious from an impossibly imperceptible trap. The gas-based contraption that had rendered him unable to use mana for the rest of the week, and since his loss of control immediately made him susceptible to Thrush’ven Alir’s pressure, he was sent out of the raid as quickly as possible.
Two lieutenant monsters guided each raid pillar—there were eight this time—which forced the entire raid group to tackle both bosses at the same time. And when Yoshelle noticed a storm dragon guarding the second pillar, she realized that they were just as strong as the raid boss had been during the first floor.
What really impressed the Guild Princess was how Shallies was able to keep up. Of course, Yoshelle already expected it, given how the Chef had been the Godkiller’s apprentice. Not to mention she was also accompanied by three seraphim, one of which was an Acting Deity, who had experience from multiple Divine Wars. But the fact that the Guiding Star was a single Hero class holder, made it difficult to believe all her accolades would hold water in such a tough environment.
Yoshelle shook her head. She had seen what Shallies could do. Thinking in such simple terms was such an old mindset, stemming from her grandparents who thought that halfsies would never amount to much. She had evidence to disprove that now.
Five days had passed, by the time they had cleared all the raid pillars for the third floor. The raid group was suffering from the constant fatigue of fighting. Seventy-nine people were shaved off back to fifty. Thirty-one Hero class holders, thirteen Favored class, two double Favored class, the three seraphim, and Shallies.
After a good night’s rest, it was time to fight the raid boss. A storm giant.
Giants were familiar to Yoshelle. Most of them lived in the mountains, forests, deserts, and snow fields, away from what they called “the little folk civilizations”. She had visited those places, made her neck sore from craning too much, and befriended a few young giants along the way. She even met a few giantkin, who were not as huge but just as rowdy.
Just like all the newbies who had also interacted with these giants, facing the raid boss became a problem. Consciousness was gripping them in place.
“It’s not a real giant,” Maxims said. “It’s a manifestation of the memories of this place. You may as well treat it the same as any other raid boss monster. Hesitating will only be to your detriment. Remember, if we fail to end this raid, if we’re all forced to leave, every monster will respawn. Not only will those monsters not give us any rewards or experience, they’ll also be just as tough to deal with next time, if not worse. And it’ll be more troublesome for the sub-raid. We need to finish this, no matter the cost!”
It wasn’t exactly hard to believe that the storm giant was just a manifestation. Raids and dungeons did it all the time through various means, mixing those monsters with real creatures. Those monsters dispersing into motes of mana was proof of that.
The issue now however was something else.
What in the world is a storm giant?
Yoshelle only knew its name from one of the veteran scouts that accompanied them. But no one had spent the time to explain such a creature. As she raised her hand to ask, many more hands followed her way, and the unanimous question arose from the crowd.
“Err… it’s a big dude with lightning, water, and wind properties,” Phey’lan answered, tilting her head in confusion. “Remember the dragon? It’s like that, but with a giant’s body.”
“It creates floods, akin to tsunamis,” Valor’el added. “And it’ll most likely electrocute you as well.”
“They amplify the mana pressure when they enrage,” Shallies followed up, which caught most of the crowd by surprise, especially those that assumed she was only able to join the group because of the seraphim. “There’s the coat of lightning you need to deal with as always, but the spike in mana pressure is usually exceptionally strong when they’re a raid boss. Even after we’ve dealt with all the raid pillars, I don’t think it has weakened enough that we can just ignore it.”
“How do you propose we deal with it?” one of the raiders asked. She looked smug, as if she expected that Shallies didn’t have an answer for it.
Yoshelle blinked and a sudden premonition itched in the back of her head. She couldn’t push away the sense of trepidation creeping into her.
As for the Guiding Star, she simply folded her arms and smiled. “You have to deal with it on your own. If the Guildmaster allows it, Valor’el can test you all by emitting his own mana pressure.”
Maxims simply nodded. “We have time. It’s better to test it now before we leave the settlement.”
Everyone shuffled around. People wanted to be in their ideal positions to deal with the sudden spike in mana pressure. Yoshelle noticed Phey’lan beckoning her over. She didn’t mind humoring the seraph.
“Stay here,” Phey’lan whispered.
Yoshelle blinked again, suddenly understanding the situation. She looked at Shallies, who was standing quite a few steps away behind Valor’el. “She’s not going to do what I think she’s about to do, isn’t she?”
This time, Phey’lan smiled. The twist of her wrist was subtle enough that no one, other than Yoshelle, could see the discrete veil that surrounded them.
“Valor’el can’t really match the mana pressure that a storm giant raid boss would emit. Well, he can, but it’ll be a significant drain in his reserves, which we can’t afford right now. So Shallies will be standing in, while he acts it out.”
“Wait. If our members pass out before the actual fight, that’ll dampen their morale.”
“It’ll be fine,” the seraph said, dismissing the argument with a handwave. “Shallies won’t do it the same way she did for you guys. She knows what’s at stake.” Another flick of her wrist dismissed the veil. “Oh, but you’re on your own on this one. Goodluck!”
“Everyone ready?” Valor’el asked, his voice carrying through the group. “Technically, we won’t have time to prepare when the storm giant becomes enraged, but this is a test anyway, so I’m counting down from five.”
“Wait, five?” one of the guild members complained. “That’s barely enough time!”
“It is what it is,” said the seraph. “Five.”
A great shift happened within the guild. Everyone focused, tapping or engaging their Constitution, or Mana-Affinity or both, whichever they could. Yoshelle engaged the latter, ready to tap the former as soon as the countdown finished.
“Four!”
Nobody complained anymore, though a few were clearly struggling from the sudden count. Yoshelle silently hoped they would make it.
“Three!”
The Guild Princess took a breath, staring at Valor’el who had a hand up. She was ready to—
“Zero!”
Shallies was grateful that Guildmaster Maxims took the bait. Not only would they be able to ascertain the sturdiness, and thus analyze the survival rate, of the guild, she would also be able to take advantage of the situation to map out the rest of the raid. Not that she was planning to leave the raid as soon as she saw what she and the seraphim were looking for, but she preferred having that information handy.
As soon as she sent the subtle ping to Valor’el, the seraph skipped his countdown and unleashed his mana pressure. At the same time, Shallies did the same, powering down the amount of pressure she released in order not to pull the spotlight toward herself.
This action gave her enough distraction to send out her Stellar mana-empowered Scan.
Something deflected her.
Or rather, something stopped her Scan in a rather creative way. It didn’t outright overpower her. It couldn’t, after all. Instead, it gave enough pushback so that Shallies had to increase her power to insist on her skill to observe the area. Doing so would make the entire point of hiding moot. She would be pulling all the attention to herself. By then, she would be lucky enough if people assumed she was just an Avanity.
Shallies smiled and pulled back. Even without successfully Scanning the entire raid, she had already gathered enough clues to get a gist of what and where their objective was.
“It’s on the fifth floor,” she whispered, implying to Valor’el that he should stop releasing his mana pressure. “We have a big case on our hands.”
She made her way to Phey’lan, who was comforting Yoshelle. The Guild Princess had failed to defend against the sudden mana pressure, but she was conscious at the very least. In fact, everyone had managed to keep their wits about them, with an exceptional few, mainly all the Favored class holders, who were able to successfully protect themselves.
“Did you manage to Scan?” the seraph asked after they excused themselves from the raid group under the guise of preparing for departure.
“Just the next floor,” Shallies replied. She then shared her discoveries to Phey’lan, after making sure they had a veil. “Even without using my full strength, those that can deflect my Scan are few and far between.”
“We’re not dealing with a god, are we?” Phey’lan ventured a question.
“I doubt it,” the Godkiller said, folding her arms. “The reaction lacked any pride. A god would’ve at least tried to probe back.”
“So what could it be?” Arun’dul asked this time. He had been quietly accompanying them the entire time. Fending off against the mana pressure had been a struggle for him, but he recovered faster than most.
“There are probably four possibilities,” Shallies started. “A rogue Avanity, a Concept, a Gone Old, and as much as I think it would be unlikely, a god turning mad.”
“A god turning mad?” Phey’lan repeated. “Not a resurrected mad god, or maybe, Fello’resh?”
“I’ve been keeping tabs using the Fate Weave Archive,” Shallies explained. “If there is a mad god resurrecting or reincarnating soon, I would know without all this fanfare. That’s not to say that we can ignore that possibility. There had been a lot of that actual incident way back in the past when my ability to sever a god’s Destiny wasn’t as effective now. I expect you all to adapt accordingly, should that possibility occur.”
“Noted.” Phey’lan nodded.
“Yes, ma’am.” Arun’dul did the same.
“Alright. We should go back out there. We still have that storm giant to deal with.”
“Wait,” Phey’lan interrupted. “Aren’t you going to share what’s on the fourth floor?”
Shallies scratched her head. “It’s a headache. I think I’ll just have Maxims deal with it.”
“But I want to know what it looks like!”
“No.”
Yoshelle thought it was unfair.
No, she wasn’t kicked out of the raid. In fact, it was revealed that Valor’el—Shallies in this case—had used more mana pressure than the raid boss storm giant could, and that everyone staying conscious was a good sign that they would survive the real deal.
The unfair part was the fight itself.
The giant was too fast for its size. They should’ve anticipated it when it had with it the properties of lightning and wind. And it didn’t even hesitate to kick the lot of them.
Never mind the mana pressure, they could barely survive its initial attacks.
In a single strike, ten Hero class holders were thrown in the air, and only half of them managed to land safely without at least breaking a bone or two.
Orders shot across the air. The guild adapted. They always did. Switching formations in order to counter the heavy hits managed to make the storm giant hesitate.
But rather than take it as a good sign, Yoshelle and the other members of the raid did the opposite.
Monsters never knew when a situation was bad for them. That was why formations and strategies countering a variety of monster behaviors became solid foundations of a good raid group.
But giants were intelligent species.
The moment they switched up to a defensive formation, they had given up their mobility and offense. And the giant knew that right away.
Suddenly, there were three storm giants with their arms stretched out towards the raid group. Mana quickly spiked at their finger tips.
There were three straight beams made out of lightning. Each was wide enough to blow up a mountain range. And they engulfed the entire Gaiamaxims Guild.