Instantly, the sense of calm vanished.
Dee and VonB took the lead, clanging their shields and axes together to intimidate the shadows moving through the tunnels, while Lohan acted quickly to ensure everyone’s safety.
He quickly used Partial Division and created a clone for each guild member, learning from his past mistake and this time intending to leave those clones with everyone, unless an emergency demanded otherwise.
Seeing the group of Players beneath him get hurt because he had made that wrong decision had weighed heavily on his mind, so he would remember that for future battles.
The players felt the cold, blue gel coat their armor, reforming into the black obsidian plates that made them visibly more dangerous and better protected.
The infusion of vitality and mana began to flow slowly, replenishing each player’s resource bars.
"This time, I won’t be directly involved in the attack," Lohan warned, keeping his main body anchored behind Lisa. "I want you to use these common Level 14 and 15 monsters to test the synergy between Alice’s and Dylan’s teams and explore the full potential you can bring together, so that in the next battle against an Elite, you’ll be able to make better use of your abilities and be even more helpful. I’ll act solely as your support and armor."
The group nodded excitedly.
They understood the Vice President’s reasoning. Although Halon could clear the room on his own with his new explosions and webs, Astralis’s growth depended on how strong the individual players would become. If they became too dependent on the raw power of their leaders, when those leaders couldn’t intervene and they had to fend for themselves, tragedies could occur.
The creatures began to emerge from the darkness.
What emerged from the cracks in the walls and the fossilized wooden floor were twisted constructs of black branches and roots that seemed to possess a life of their own, an evil one.
Beings seemingly made of dense wood, whose joints cracked with the dry sound of snapping twigs, clearly relatives of the monster they had dealt with just moments ago.
Among the monsters, three figures stood out as nearly identical versions of the Sentinel of Rot that Alice had previously defeated. They were Level 15 monsters, but without Elite status, which meant that while they were possibly weaker versions of the Elite, they still possessed the same repertoire of dangerous attacks.
Lohan, firmly anchored to Lisa’s back and operating through her Parallel Processing Core, realized that the group was about to descend into disorganized combat, where each member would try to fight the monster closest to them, completely forgetting what they had trained for over the past few days.
"Guys, calm down! Don’t let chaos take over, remember what we’ve been training for these past few days! Let’s use the concept I taught you: ’Role Management.’ Dee and VonB, remember, you’re our shield. Your job right now isn’t to deal damage and have fun killing as many monsters as possible, but to draw the attention of these wooden creatures so they can’t hurt the other members."
"I want you to strike the shields and the ground, use the weight of my obsidian armor to become the most annoying targets for the constructs. Richard and Samantha, fall back into the shadows and don’t attack what’s in front of you. Your target is the rear; remember to lurk like Alice and look for the perfect opportunity during the battle."
The players were confused for a second, realizing they were reverting to their previous tactic where everyone just attacked and dealt as much damage as possible.
Lohan noticed their hesitation and subtly guided the gelatinous fragment attached to Dee’s arm, causing the warrior to block an attack from a Level 15 monster in such a way that its chest was left exposed.
"Justin and WyrmWood, look at that thinner monster in the back. It’s using its roots to buff the others. Don’t waste your damage attacking their tanks first, focus on attacking the support. Ignore the tougher ones and focus all your firepower on that specific target. Once we’ve dealt with it, we can team up and take out the tank."
Following Lohan’s innovative instruction, Justin fired a barrage of mana-infused arrows, filling the cave with smoke, while WyrmWood caused pure roots to sprout from the ground to immobilize the monster acting as a healer.
Within seconds, the enemy support, who hadn’t expected to be targeted so easily, was taken out of action.
The players immediately noticed that, without the constant healing, the Level 15 monsters on the front lines became much easier to handle.
The battle continued, and Lohan began to introduce another concept: "Control Chain."
This was a concept he frequently used while playing League of Legends in the other world.
He noticed that Tunder was about to fire a random electric bolt and intervened mentally.
"Tunder, wait for WyrmWood to bind his legs first. The moment the roots touch the wood, you fire the lightning bolt. The moisture in WyrmWood’s roots will amplify the conductivity of your electricity. If you do this in sync, the monster will be paralyzed for twice as long. Don’t use your abilities just because they’re available, use them to complement the attack of the ally next to you."
The result was magnificent.
One of the Level 15 constructs was caught in a trap of electrified roots that left it immobilized, allowing Ascalon, the berserker, to unleash a flurry of axe blows without suffering any counterattacks. Ascalon laughed telepathically, savoring the ease of fighting a high-level monster that simply couldn’t move.
Lohan then turned his attention to Palana and Grant. He noticed that Palana was wasting too much mana trying to hit distant, already incapacitated monsters instead of using her firepower to deal maximum damage to other, more useful enemies.
"Palana, stop trying to destroy the entire room. Focus your Mana on concentrated attacks. Focus on dealing what I call ’Constant Damage Per Second.’ Don’t go for the finishing blow; focus on wearing down the enemy and let our assassins finish off the already incapacitated monster. Grant, keep an eye on our party’s injuries. Although I’m providing a protective shield for everyone, I’m not healing anyone, but take advantage of the fact that I’m making everyone more resilient, so don’t heal those with full health just out of fear; save your energy for the critical moments that Dee and VonB can’t absorb or for moments of crisis."
To the guild members, these ideas, though simple after Halon’s explanation, seemed incredible to their ears when taken together.
The concept of not attacking everything that moves, but rather following an order of priority and conserving resources for critical moments, was something that transformed combat from a desperate struggle into something far more efficient and controlled.
As the battle raged, Lohan kept Lisa constantly on the move, ensuring she didn’t stand still in any single spot in the chamber.
He used his 360-degree vision and the clones’ vision to alert Samantha and Richard to monsters trying to camouflage themselves on the wooden walls.
"Richard, to your right! Don’t dodge completely, just lean your body. The clone on your shoulder will brace itself and deflect the blow into the wall. Samantha, take advantage of the ricochet and strike his knee joint. If we take away these creatures’ mobility, they’ll be nothing more than firewood waiting to be burned."
The synergy between the two assassins had improved dramatically. They began moving like a pair of scissors, cutting through the defenses of the smaller constructs with a precision they’d never had before.
Lisa leaped among the larger monsters, using her white flames to create walls of fire that isolated the enemies, allowing the group to deal with fewer Level 15 monsters at a time.
Even if she didn’t attack directly, controlling the battlefield in this way was extremely helpful for the group of players to handle these monsters.
In Elysium, for players with more common Bases, it was standard practice to join a large group to handle monsters of the same level.
Duos or players who could handle monsters on their own were the exception.
Alice, moving with the agility of her Rare Class, was on the front lines attacking monsters with explosive punches. She listened to Halon’s instructions and smiled to herself, realizing that his perspective on combat was surprisingly superior to what she had learned in her family’s training.
The training she’d undergone was designed so that she, as a human, would primarily deal with other humans, or perhaps some of the more common alien races, whereas Halon, in her view, seemed to have been fighting monsters with unique abilities like these for years!
This piqued the girl’s curiosity about him even more...
Suddenly, one of the Level 15 monsters, in a last-ditch effort, tried to perform a vacuum detonation similar to the one the Boss had used earlier. It began compressing the acidic Mana at the center of its wooden chest.