Omnipresent Domination
The instant Bella unleashed her ability, the encompassing inferno incinerated every Nightshade Feline in its path!
Even newly spawned felines were consumed by the blazing flames.
[You have acquired sufficient experience: Level increased to 8]
With the latest wave of felines eliminated, the party's levels were propelled to level 8, drawing close to level 9.
"Fireball charge. Seek opportunities to cast it. Recharge Earthfire and change to recharge Earthfire."
Lucas swiftly delivered command directives.
Bella promptly commenced a Fireball charge in place.
"Hideous, dwarfish felines! Behold me!"
Lucas repeated the taunt, and the refreshed felines immediately focused on him.
Lucas's decision to bide his time during the second wave was intended to synchronize with the taunt's cooldown duration.
In the event that a third wave were spawned while Bella's abilities remained unavailable, the resulting window of vulnerability could lead to Dauntless being instantly slain if the felines were to attack him.
Bella's Earthfire had not entirely decimated all felines in the third wave.
The Earthfire ability had a substantial 30-second cooldown.
Despite its considerable potency, its long cooldown was rather excessive.
At the present juncture of level 5, a 30-second cooldown was somewhat impractical. When lacking supplementary skills, the mage confronted a 30-second period of vulnerability following the discharge of this ability.
Moreover, Bella had not yet optimized for cooldown reduction attributes.
Dauntless appeared to have found his rhythm, setting aside his fear and proactively engaging in combat.
With the knowledge that he would not be targeted by the felines, Dauntless lent his efforts to clearing out nearby foes.
Mighty Five-Stage Slash was delivered, one after the other!
Horizontal Slash, Vertical Slash, Oblique Slash, Oblique Slash, Vertical Slash!
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The swirling strikes and resulting gusts of air were undeniably impressive. However, the damage inflicted was insufficient to eliminate every foe, and inadvertently served to draw their ire.
The aggrieved felines promptly set about chasing after Dauntless.
Upon noticing that several felines were turning their attention toward him, Dauntless, gripped by terror, began to flee.
Boom!
However, a fireball erupted,
And a spherical conflagration blossomed directly behind Dauntless.
The remaining felines, on the verge of collapse, were dispatched.
Bella was already chanting a new Fireball.
While lamenting that, "The Felines only had a sliver of health left! Why don't you finish them off with a single sword strike?"
"But they chased after me!"
"Exactly. So you turn around and finish them off!"
"What if they attack me?"
"You won't die being touched with 1500 blood!"
"How do you know I have 1500 health?"
"It's written on your health bar!"
After reaching level 7, Dauntless's health had increased to 1500, which was a lot compared to Lucas who only had 300 health points.
"Dauntless, wait for me at the marked spot."
Lucas disdained to participate in their argument. With a casual gesture, an arrow appeared on the ground as a marker.
It was a common means of command. While Dauntless was still a novice, he was by no means foolish.
Upon seeing the marker, he immediately headed towards it.
Lucas proceeded to draw a circle of felines, assuming all enmity upon himself. He employed clever positioning to herd them together.
Lucas did not proceed directly toward Dauntless to clear the area,
Instead, he decided to bide his time while he waited for Bella's skill cooldown.
After about ten seconds, Lucas made a wide turn and headed towards Dauntless.
This action caused the other two members of the party to break out in cold sweat.
A direct hit from the mob could spell disaster for Lucas.
Such bold maneuvering was indicative of Lucas's skill, and no other player would dare attempt to do so for fear of losing their life.
Not even professional players could boast of being able to command so many felines at once.
Lucas wasn't just running in front of the monsters, but deftly weaving between the felines by jumping on trees and using the monster's heads as stepping stones.
His ability to stay in the air while dodging to avoid touching the ground was crucial, for being touched meant to be swarmed with hundreds of felines.
"Ground Shattering Collapse to clear this wave."
Lucas landed and hundreds of felines flying right after!
Despite having his scalp crawling, Dauntless immediately delivered a strike!
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Boom!
As the greatsword crashed down, a shockwave engulfed the felines, annihilating them with one blow!
[You have acquired sufficient experience: Level increased to 9]
With the third wave of felines decimated, experience had reached the limit, and the party was successfully elevated to level 9.
It was then that the Feline King finally emerged upon one of the trees.
Accompanying the Feline King were [Nightshade Feline Elite Guards].
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[Nightshade Feline King]
[Level: 10]
[HP: 12,000]
[Skills: Pounce, Maul, Gnaw, Swift Dash, Claw Flash]
[Description: A resilient feline with exceptional agility and high damage output. Exercise caution to avoid being ensnared.]
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"Finally, here it is."
"Bella, cast Earthfire."
Boom!
Earthfire erupted instantaneously!
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A sweeping inferno engulfed a significant portion of the dungeon!
The Nightshade Feline King was enveloped in the fiery blast, roaring its fury.
Amidst the searing flames, Lucas utilized Arcane Flash and Sky Step to soar through the air and appear before the Nightshade Feline King.
[Eternal Overseer – Omnipresent Domination – Target: Dauntless]
In an instant, Lucas activated his talent, replicating all of Dauntless's abilities.
Including the +30 strength sword he wielded.
Omnipresent Domination enables the replication of any ability or equipment belonging to a member of the guild, for a duration of two minutes.
The cooldown time is also 2 minutes.
It also has its limitation because the skills he had originally could not be used when it's activated.
After obtaining [Dauntless's] abilities, Lucas immediately activated the [Mighty Five-Stage Slash].
Instantly, he moved with a Horizontal Slash follow by an A, then turning around to do a oblique Slash and another A.
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Lucas moved back and forth through the Feline King with his Verticle Slash, Oblique Slash, and Verticle Slash.
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With speed so great that it was imperceptible to the naked eye, Lucas had completed all five strikes with accompanying AAs in less than a second.
Additionally, each strike was aimed at the King's vulnerable points.
Attacking different body parts also inflict various damages to the target depending on the attack, which also gives a reason on why despite the same attribute, each strike deals different values.
Under Lucas's direction, each damage was optimized to its highest amount possible.
If Dauntless were to be wielding such a talent, it would come down to raw power with nothing to think about.
But to Lucas, the talent becomes a perfect combination of strength and coordination.
Bang!
As the sequence concluded, Lucas didn't forget to unleash a 15x multiplier Earth Shattering Collapse on the Feline King's head.
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In just one second, Lucas had delivered a sequence of attacks that resulted in an output of over 9000 damage.
Damage output optimized to the point of perfection!
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[Ashwood Forest – Nightmare Difficulty]
"What the heck, there is a second wave?"
"I was suspicious of the number of felines in the first wave."
Presently, the members of the Stargate guild had banded together.
It was virtually impossible to eliminate these monsters with their base stats.
Each member had an average stat of 40. It was only with the various white-tier equipment pieced together with much difficulty by the Stargate guild that they were able to achieve such a stat.
When aiming for a first clear, there was no time to acquire equipment.
Clearing monsters mainly relied on the team's ability to collaborate and manipulate mechanics.
The most expedient way to secure a victory was to leverage the interaction of various mechanisms and buffs to achieve damage multipliers.
When reliably utilized, the power of an S-tier talent was capable of dealing damage that was several dozen times their attributes.
Through the talent of [Starshine], they managed to clear the first wave of the mobs in just two minutes.
But the challenge that they were presented with was the second wave.
"Damn it... Starshine, do you have another burst?"
"It needs to charge for 5 minutes."
The tank on the team, [Stargazer] was taken aback when almost a hundred felines spawned.
"Give me heals, Starlight. I'll pull the aggression first."
Starlight nodded at Stargazer, "Okay, try not to die. If you die, we're done for."
"Damn it, I'll try my best… it's impossible to dodge all of them, especially… when I'm a shield guardian."
Starshine raised his wand, "If it comes to it, we will fight through this wave first and think about how to handle this.
"And if a third wave were to spawn, then I'll save my burst and beat the boss slowly. But if there's only two waves, then I'll eliminate the boss instantly."
Stargazer nodded. "That's all we can do. But this is messing up the flow. I wonder if we'll make it to the first clear."
"With a third wave of monsters, the first clear this time will take at least 15 minutes."
Sweat was emerging from Starshine's brow, as the Epochal World was very realistic in its recreation of physical sensations.
"It's okay. If it's this hard for us, it's probably hard for other guilds too."
"The modifications in Epochal World are often fair. If our dungeon has new mechanics, other regions will too…"
"Right now, the other guilds are probably sweating buckets as they adapt to the new dungeon mechanics."
The Stargate guild originally expected a first clear in just over 10 minutes, but it will take until 15 minutes, which had caused great dismay.
The Star Gate's team readied themselves and started pushing on the felines.
While fighting, StarLight who was in charge of the healing, did not forget to ask, "How much of a chance do you think that trio has on clearing the dungeon?"
Hearing Starlight's question, Starshine couldn't help but burst out laughing, "Starlight, don't make me laugh right now of all times, okay? We are already going through so much trouble for this dungeon, what makes you think that the group of scrubs can do it?"
Starlight frowned and showed a pensive look. Despite not having much time to ponder, he knew to immediately heal Stargazer who was losing HP. The scenario had been practiced hundreds of times.
With the low attributes, the team had to make up for that with their skills.
"What if the girl wasn't someone who has an S-tier talent? Would that be why he took it so easily?"
With a flick of Starshine's wrist, ten magical circles appeared and surrounded Starshine. Each circle automatically fired Star Stream projectiles.
Pew pew pew pew—
Projectiles rained down, each one colliding onto the cats with force.
"I don't care what she is, as long as this agreement has no downsides to us."
Starlight followed up. "Speaking of which, why did you not reach an agreement with them?"
"Do I have the time for it? The first clear is a second-by-second contest! Besides, the agreement is in our favor! To press the other party to an agreement when you are already at an advantage is to simply bully the other party!"
"What if they back out?"
"So what if they do? You can't possibly think that some verbal agreement can get someone to steal someone's little sister, right?
"All that matters is that this benefits our discussion. I am not enslaving anyone. If you try to coerce them in a legal agreement, you'll scare them off. Is that clear?" Starshine retorted as he wielded his staff.
"I'm over here pulling aggro, and you're over there just chatting with each other?!" Stargazer, who felt aggrieved and slighted when he heard the two mages chatting and slinging out spells.
"If you don't get to work soon, then the first clear is going to be snatched by another guild!"
"Stargazer, you're overreacting. The first clear isn't that easy to snatch."
[Congratulations to player: Azure, Dauntless, and Bella for clearing the level 5 Nightmare Dungeon – Ashwood Forest]
[The Mythslayer Guild has achieved the server's first dungeon clear!]