When a plan comes together

'Let's bring it here,' Nimbus suggested as he stared the hippo down, even if it couldn't see him properly. Then again, they were currently under the Elemental Poison Storm, which made them look as if they were constantly being splashed by paint in this black-and-white world.

"I think that one is smart enough not to do that. There is something in its eyes," Hera saw a mix of a weasel with a raccoon coming at her with a jump. She dodged to the side, but the monster propelled itself after her and made a series of quills appear on its back, stabbing the Empress repeatedly, "Ouch, you prick!" Hera gasped as Ooze and Frost cut the monster in half in anger for hurting Hera.

'Are you ok?' Frost asked.

"Yeah, but this armor is not cutting anymore," Hera sighed, noticing the small puncture marks in what remained of her leather armor. She already had to remove the arms, which reduced some of the attributes of the armor itself, and the entire thing was battered and full of weak spots.

'Hera to the left!' Scythe yelled

'Incoming on your right!' Armory said at the same time. That confused the Empress, and instead, she decided to go up. Jumping in the air, she quickly shifted to a Fire Elemental Armor and pushed the flames down as if she was a rocket.

That made the wolf with vines around its legs miss the target and get burned by the fire. It howled and tried to run away, but that only worked to spread the flames. Even the orange puddles that were created because of the Elemental Poison Storm ignited, causing the flames to spread.

Hera worried that this could hurt her court, but even Lurize and Nimbus, who were right by the fire, didn't seem too bothered by it.

"That doesn't hurt?" Hera asked.

"The flames themselves do, But the heat is not that much of an issue, maybe because of the elemental armor," Nimbus added.

"Right, and we don't have much time for the storm to stay up. Let's go after the hippo. We need to finish the spell circle," Hera said as she landed and started running toward the monster in her path. Every creature moving under the poison storm struggled to cross, and the few who managed to get past that area were killed by the Xandari warriors behind the group.

"I'm with you!" Lurize said as Armory landed back on Hera's head.

'Scythe, let me take over. We can't be both giving commands.'

'Yeah. Ok. That was going to my head,' the earrings replied and returned to what they usually did, scanning the area for threats and anything that could help the rest of the group while fighting.

It wasn't long before Hera reached the hippo, which looked like a giant bull with two horns sticking out from the top of its head. The creature seemed to notice them approaching, but there was nothing that could stop the Empress now. She ran forward without hesitation until she felt the first blow land. It was an attack using the Bloody Claw skill and followed that up with a Grasping Strike to bind the monster with the attack. Hera had to be a bit careful with her mana since the Elemental Poison Storm was still active.

Nimbus was right behind her, activating the Frozen Ash aura and the Griffon's Call, which caused his tonfas to scream like a bird before getting a 30% buff to their scaling. Right behind him was the Royal Tutor, brandishing his zweihander and activating the Venom Blade and his golden beetle form. However, Lurize wasn't going to maximize the skill for a single blow. Instead, he was going for the longest duration possible.

He slashed the hippo's two front legs, but there were still four more to go. Another thing that none of them realized before starting the attack was the three scorpion tails that came out of the monster's back. Each tail lashed out at one of them. Nimbus easily evaded while Hera dodged it by a hair, causing the Sentinel to use a mana barrier to help her block an attack that never came. Unfortunately, Lurize couldn't escape the attack, and the stinger pierced his chest armor. There was a brief pause where the Empress and the entire court got worried as they saw the Royal Tutor stop moving, but then he started laughing.

"You think... You think you can poizon me!?" he pulled his sword to the side and increased the size of the Venom Blade before bringing it down on the back of the hippo. As fearsome as the attack looked, it still wasn't enough to kill the monster, but it opened a large gash on its side.

A moment later, another scorpion tail struck the ground, sending a wave of sand everywhere. This time, Lurize barely avoided it thanks to the protective barrier Nimbus used. He moved back, just in case, but the other two attacks hit him again, this time with more force and focusing on blunt damage, not the poison.

'Hera, go!' Lurize yelled in her mind. Killing the hippo wasn't as important as completing the spell circle.

'I got him. Go,' Nimbus added.

'Ok, Daskka. Stay with me,' Hera called her snake back, who was by the side having a blast. Since she was so much bigger than most monsters and almost invisible to them, she could take her time to find the best point to strike, and just her presence was already making the creatures freak out. But hearing the Empress call her made her stop and rush to her side.

The hippo didn't seem to mind that one of its assailants was running away. After all, it was still dealing with two very annoying enemies. Hera quickly moved to the end of the spell circle that Nimbus created and quickly accessed what she would need to do to complete it. Thanks to Armory, she placed a couple of stone walls to finish the connection before jumping on top of one of the walls.

"Ok, now for the hard part," Hera took a deep breath and pulled up her map with the overlay of the spell circle that she had already set up. This spell was something she had created a while back, but it would be the first time she had made something that big. Taking the mana out of the core with a 2% chance of losing the unused mana, she started covering the entire barrier with mana. It took her a few moments, but it was easy to weave the energy together thanks to Nimbus putting small markers on each of the seeds he planted. About two minutes after she started, the mana circle closed, and then she started working on what would happen in the middle. The fight was still going on. Nimbus and Lurize had killed the hippo, and the court was now protecting her since the Elemental Poison Storm was no longer active.

The next step of the spell would be following the markers that Nimbus and her court placed around the field. She would have to change some details by hand, but considering the situation, this was the best option. Another three minutes passed, making the entire process take just a bit over five minutes when she completed the circuit and triggered the spell.

The Empress had named this Pool of Styx, taking inspiration from some of the old mythology. When the spell activated, she would have to specify a group. It had to be something simple and not too detailed. Something like human, elf, snake, or monster, a classification that was accepted not just by her but by the system. When that was set up, anything that was not a part of that group and was inside of the Pool would have their attributes reduced by the difference between their attributes and the casters. Meaning that if a monster had 80 strength and Hera had 93, the monster would effectively be only at 67 strength when inside that field. The problem was that this only worked on creatures that were lower level than her, and their attributes had to be lower than her at the moment she cast the spell. If the endurance of one of the monsters were above 93, that attribute wouldn't be affected. Aside from that, anything affected by that debuff would also have their mana and stamina sapped.

The true value of this spell, and the reason why she was sure this would allow them to win, was for the last part of the effect. Every 10 points in an attribute that were taken from anyone affected by the spell would be converted into a flat 1-point buff to a single person who was a part of the group who could be inside the Pool of Styx. The mana and stamina that was sapped also would be shared amongst those who could be inside the spell. In a fight like this, where they were against hundreds of monsters, that increase would be massive. So, she picked the only group she could think of to affect everyone in her party and hoped the Xandari would also be a part of it. People.

As soon as the spell was triggered, a flow of green, purple, and orange energy started to move through the entire field, and just like the Elemental Poison Rain, these colors still appeared even with Helena's spell. Everyone could see that, but it was something that would just cover the ground as a thin layer of fog. Hera instantly felt energized, and her mana started to recover quickly. A loud noise echoed through the field, and she could see the two spiders who were being held by Blue all this time were smashed on the ground.

"Holy shit. Hera, is that your thing?" Blue gasped through the communicator.

"Yep. I had no idea it would be so strong," Hera smiled.

"How long does it last?" Shane asked as a loud explosion created a crater in the middle of the field, "Holy crap."

"Five minutes, ten, three? I honestly don't know. It shouldn't last long. The spell is very finicky, and I never made one this size," Hera replied as she tossed an Elemental Poison Storm to cover the entire flank. Looking up, she saw that the Xandari warriors were also affected by the spell, but not in a good way. Their energy was also being sapped, which meant that all the extra points would go directly to Hera and her friends.

"Ok, let's not waste any time then," Helena said and clapped her hands, dismissing the spell in a way that still flash banged the monsters affected by it. Following that, she made an army of shadowgrabbers wielding bows that began firing nonstop at the monsters.

An odd effect of Heras Pool of Styx was that she would be the only one affected in her court. However, by default, that also affected Nimbus and Lurize since they would grow together with the Empress, and this buff wasn't a percentage thing but a flat increase.

Now that everyone could participate in the battle properly, it didn't take long for the remaining monsters to be killed. The only one that posed a small threat was a winged lion with dragon scales, but the moment he appeared, the entire party flung spells at the creature, and it was killed before anything happened.

Just two minutes later, the Pool of Styx was no longer working, but now only a few beasts remained, and the Xandari recovered some of their strength. Knowing that things would soon end, Mylo, Blue, and Adriel focused on searching for the remaining monster while Hera and the others picked up all of the loot they got from the fight. There were no weapons or armor, but a few pelts and other materials could help them make new pieces of gear even if no one amongst them was very proficient in armor making. However, the most common drop wasn't gold. Instead, it was small coin-sized pieces of honey. According to the description, the honey would cover the item when placed on top of something, and mana passed through it. Each honey pebble could cover something that was up to 1m x 1m x 1m. When whoever was touching the honey stopped putting mana on it, it would harden to a stone-like consistency, and to deactivate that, all you had to do was pass mana on the hardened surface, making the honey melt away. Unfortunately, those were a one-time use. Once the honey melted, it would be gone forever.

About ten minutes after they started collecting the loot, a notification appeared in front of all of them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You have completed the dungeon quest.

Go back to the throne room to receive your reward.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~