BXBX NOVEL Vol. 7 - Chapter 391 - Brave's Trump Card Time!
"‹Aura Heal›! Lulu, head in the direction of Rika and Karua and let them handle the lackeys! Once the target is set on them, come and help out in attacking the boss!"
"Understood!"
I healed Lulu and fired my instruction. The situation now required the formation change; Lulu, Celia and I would be handling the boss while Rika and Karua will deal with the cat duo now.
The cat duo were primarily physical attack based monsters, something Rika could handle so easily.
We could instead go with this formation from the beginning sure, but, only if there wasn\'t the problem of VIT. The crux of the matter was, Lulu was primarily an attacker ultimately. The best she could do was to act as a makeshift tank, but she couldn\'t replace the main tank.
A boss\'s subordinates weren\'t a big thing to leave to her, but the boss at the end of the deepest part was another ballpark. I was mainly playing the healer role, and I wanted to refrain from standing as a tank. Alas, not everything goes well according to plan.
After careful deliberation, I had chosen Rika for this role, who had both high VIT and excellent individual skills. However, the torrential attack of ‹Meownarch› turned out to more fierce in reality, which I really hadn\'t expected. The result ended up being half-baked. At this point, I had no choice but to step out myself. I concluded. Damn you ‹Meownarch›, I still ended up falling to your trick (chubby appearance).
"Celia! Cover me with unique skills!"
"Right away! ‹Advent of the Great Spirit› O\' great lord of the Ice Spirit, I beseech thee, grant me the power I seek! ‹Glacies›!"
I pulled in Celia, who had been helping out Lulu until now against the cat duo, to join the fray.
She had already summoned an ice spirit earlier, so this time, she summoned the Great Ice Spirit ‹Glacieus›.
In sync with Celia\'s summon, the ‹Ice Spirit› was gradually covered in a mystical golden radiance. The shadow flickering in the radiance expanded and eventually, ‹Glacieus› manifested as it scattered the golden light.
In contrast to the male-type Ignis, the Great Ice Spirit, Glacieus embodied a female form and were adorned in a dress crafted from ice, emanating a sublime aura. Her hair, done in an upward hairstyle and the color of her pupil, were pale blue in color, similar to her dress. In her hand, she was holding a long wand with a crescent moon motif at the tip.
‹————› (Glacieus)
The next instant, Glacieus hoist up the wand in air and almost at the same time, ‹Meownarch› was surrounded in the ice. ...No, correction. An ice pillar, just like Lana\'s ‹Light Pillar› had squarely struck ‹Meownarch›. Unlike the close-combat specialist Ignis, Glacieus was a spirit specialized in long-ranged attack.
"Purrreyaa-meow!"
However the attack didn\'t seem to hold ‹Meownarch› for long enough as it emerged from the ice pillars in a seemingly irresistible manner. The ‹Freeze› debuff wasn\'t applied it seemed. A pity.
‹Meownarch› hurriedly closes the distance and attempts to send me flying away with ‹Cat Sweep› move. I couldn\'t let it do it of course.
"Oops, ‹Sonic Sword›!"
I matched my timing with the opponent\'s attack, and delivered a slash while dodging and circling behind it. It was my special attack of sorts. Ever since the battle with ‹Emperor Goblin›, I\'ve been practicing this technique and now, it has become my absolute favorite to use.
There was no way it wasn\'t going to work!
"Guah-meow!?"
"All right, let me give you a taste of your medicine! ‹Swift Strike›! ‹Hate Slash›! ‹Lightning Strike›!"
It was a pity ‹Meownarch› was not pushed to knockdown status, but it was still knockbacked after taking my attack from behind. I took this opportunity to slam in my attack.
There was also Glaceius who was adding her attack in between, so we had dealt quite significant damage to it. I was juggling between dealing damage and keeping its aggro, lest it rushed at Celia.
"Meowrrr-meow!"
"Gah!! Damn you, ‹Aura Heal›!"
Whenever my HP drops, I swiftly use ‹Aura Heal› or ‹Area Healing›. I was performing both the healing and attacker role until Lulu\'s arrival.
"Lulu has arrived!"
"Great, I was just waiting for you, Lulu! Quickly lower its speed!"
"Roger! ‹Cute Eye›!"
At last, Lulu, the debuff attacker, had joined in to help out, She used her agility debuff still to lower the speed ‹Meownarch›.
If an enemy slows down on its attack, the need to use recovery also gets minimized. It was a technique mainly used when the team lacked any dedicated healer.
"I will keep its aggro entirely. Lulu, circle behind it and slam down your attacks."
"Lulu understood! ‹Lolita Mind›! ‹Charm Point Sword›! ‹Point Sword›!"
At my signal, Lulu started slamming down her attack one after another.
I guess it\'s about time for me to bring out the ‹Brave› trump card.
"Behold the ‹Brave› trump card!! ‹Charisma›!!"
I raised my sword high in the air — the same pose I take when using ‹Appeal› — and activated ‹Charisma›, the skill hailed as ‹Brave› trump card.
In fact, ‹Brave› possessed a multitude of strong skills which were on par with unique skills. These several skills were so broken it wouldn\'t be a wonder for anyone to shout \'Why the hell is it not already a unique skill!?\'.
For instance, ‹Body Strengthening› falls into this category. Typically, even the high-ranking jobs were capable of buffing only one type of status. For example, Karua\'s ‹Boost› only increases her AGI. But, on the other hand, ‹Body Strengthening› was capable of raising all six attributes, and that too, by 1.6 times, no exception.
To be frank, it was that skill that would just leave you dumbfounded. But, did you know? That this wasn\'t a unique skill.
In ‹Dungeon Activity›, such exceptional skills were usually referred to as a unique class. ‹Charisma› wasn’t the one, but it was also no less than any of them. Its effect was \'an AoE taunt skill as well as party-wide attack buff\'. Looked unremarkable, no? However, what makes it a ridiculous skill was that it only had 10 second cooldown. Yes, simple 10 seconds. And if that wasn’t enough, it was also possible to stack it up to three times. How does that matter, you ask. Well, of course, because——
"One more time, ‹Charisma›! ‹Area Healing›! ‹Defense›!"
Just as the 10 second mark ended, I swiftly re-activated ‹Charisma›.
‹Meownarch› target was fixated on me, and offensive capability of Lulu or Rika and Karua fighting the cat duo had also increased by large margin. Cat duo were outside the range of the skill so I shouldn\'t be inviting their aggro.
10 more seconds later.
"Not yer—! ‹Charisma›!"
My taunt effect further influenced ‹Meownarch›. At this point, I could safely say ‹Meownarch› target wasn\'t going to shift away from me. No, I will not let it move from me.
This was a treasured trump card of Brave. It was also called \'A boss\'s (Demon King) opponent should be Brave, right?!\', a skill centered on the Brave as they direct the battle.
Well, certainly, it would be harder to counter if someone proclaimed \'is it really the Brave if they only defeat the boss while the comrades are distracting it?\' Developers tackled this challenge head on and the outcome appeared in the form of these skills, as if shouting, \'Fools, It is the Brave that guided their comrades as they defeat the boss in a frontal clash!\'.
Therefore, it became a powerful skill with Unique Class strength. An immovable target on someone means the other could let all hell loose on the boss easily without fearing for the boss targeting them.
"Haaaa! ‹Lolita Tackle›!
"Guoah-meow!?......"
Lulu finally managed to put ‹Meownarch› into the down status. Lulu forehead squarely hit the belly of ‹Meownarch›, and under the effect of buff, it ended with a critical hit,
Even the ‹Meownarch› was astounded by the sudden happening as evident from its wide eyes. Hurray, it was huge opening!
"Yes, great Lulu! ‹Brave Heart›! ‹Brave Slash›! ‹Swift Strike‹! ‹Lightning Slash›!"
"Lulu did it! ‹Charm Point Sword›! ‹Justice Hero Sword›! ‹Hero Special Impact›! ‹Sacred Explode›!"
"Glaceius-sama, please! ‹Zone›!"
Our attack rains down on ‹Meownarch›. Holy crap! That damage with three stacks of ‹Charisma› and ‹Brave Heart› was so insane!
Lulu\'s attacks are also steadily dwindling down the HP of ‹Meownarch›.
I didn\'t know ‹Charisma› would have such a staggering result! The damage was accumulating at an unbelievable rate. Though, this also means——
"Meooowrrr!!"
"Oops, its HP has fallen to the red zone! Brace yourself!"
"‹Cute Eye›! Lulu has lowered its speed!"
The boss has entered the rage mode, raising its offensive and agility by 1.5 times.
It was easier for accidents to happen when bosses fell into such a state. Furthermore, the situation also gets worse since the target often switched to the person who had pushed it into down status.
However, we didn\'t need to worry about this. Its target was still settled on me.
"‹Charisma›!! ‹Guard Rush›! Take this! And that! ‹Area Healing›!"
I keep spamming the massive hate generator skill ‹Charisma› as soon as its cool down ends. To put it simply, no one needs to worry about the fear of target shifting. ‹Meownarch› had so become fixated on me it instead became immobile. Simply... broken, right?
It was something I heard later, but appeared, it was a ridiculous skill from their perspective, especially tanks, who find it hard to gain the aggro.
However, as someone said, great power comes with great price. The MP cost was hefty, and since it was definitely going to be spammed, it was bad in fuel-efficiency as well. I ended up using MP320 just from the four activations. This was also the reason why I didn\'t use it until now (Though it matter not much if you\'re filthy rich and guzzle down items like water).
Long story short, this was the trump card of ‹Brave›. The last bastion. Though, conversely speaking, it was hard to use it in otherwise case,
In the meanwhile I performed the role of tank & healer, Lulu and Celia continue to rain down their attack.
"Glaceius-sama, please attack it with a special attack!"
"Lulu is going to use her special attack! ‹Lolita of Hero Smash›!"
"Gahh-meo...w......"
When you don\'t have to worry about the danger of being targeted, it sure does feel refreshing to let out your attack to your heart\'s content, no? The mighty spells and skills rapidly shrunk the remaining silver of ‹Meownarch› HP, and lastly, it was felled.
On the side note, as it was gradually shrinking in the pool of effect, I had the urge to pat its round and chubby belly.
And replacing the light particle were two glimmering gold chests.