The reward the guild had received, while useful, still came at a high cost to use, so they were reluctant to use it at random times.
So while looking for an opportunity to use it, Lisa prepared for the most dangerous maneuver they had ever attempted.
Lohan greatly expanded his own mass, forming an even heavier and more resilient symbiotic armor over the fox, with black spikes that exuded a golden mist of holy light across the surface.
"Now, Lisa! His left arm is his pivot point!" Halon’s mental voice roared.
Lisa activated Spectral Step at full power, becoming a meteor of black and white destruction, while Lohan materialized a colossal ice spike, compressed by his bodily density and imbued with the golden heat of the Sacred Light.
In midair, the fox spun with centrifugal force that built up kinetic energy in each obsidian plate, forming wheels of white flame around her, which also spun at high speed and high temperature, striking with precision the very spot Lohan was also aiming for.
BOOOOOM!!!!
The impact against the joint of the Boss’s gigantic arm was like a sonic boom.
Lisa’s spiritual fire melted the oozing sap, while Lohan’s ice and sacred light pierced the deepest layers of the monstrous wood.
The sound of petrified wood shattering echoed like an explosion throughout the dungeon.
With a roar of fury and agony, the Tree Guardian watched as his arm, the size of a century-old tree trunk, was completely torn off and fell heavily into the chamber’s mud, causing an intense thud from the sheer force of the impact alone.
This partial victory sent a surge of hope through Alice and Dylan, who seized the opportunity and continued to press against the monster’s base, but Lohan sensed a shift in the enemy’s aura through his instinctive perception.
Despite the injury, Guardian did not retreat. On the contrary, the distorted face on his torso suddenly turned pale, and Mana’s empty eyes glowed with a violent crimson light.
The Boss had entered the second stage! In a frantic, maniacal movement, he began to tear out the very roots that anchored him to the cave floor.
Lohan sensed the danger immediately through his perception skills, realizing that by severing its connection to the ground, the monster was giving up the regeneration and constant healing that the roots provided, channeling all its vitality toward a single goal: to kill everyone there.
The Tree Guardian no longer cared about surviving; he wanted to annihilate this group of annoying insects once and for all!
The torn-out roots transformed into black, spiny wooden whips that began attacking all the players in the room simultaneously.
The speed of the attacks rose to a level that no Level 14 or 15 player could keep up with.
"EVERYONE! FOCUS ENTIRELY ON YOUR OWN DEFENSE! FALL BACK TO THE WALLS!" Lohan shouted through the mental link, desperately trying to expel biomass to reinforce everyone’s armor.
But the attack was too fast.
Richard, the assassin on Dylan’s team, tried to use his camouflage to dodge a downward strike, but a root saturated with corrupted mana anticipated his movement and struck him squarely in the chest.
The impact shattered Lohan’s gelatinous resistance and split his body in half before he could even let out a scream.
On the opposite flank, VonB, who was busy trying to protect Grant, was caught in a pincer movement by two colossal roots.
The Uncommon-tier warrior, who until then had seemed invulnerable under Halon’s protection, had his metal armor and Lohan’s membrane shattered simultaneously.
His body was swallowed by the raging roots and brutally smashed against the rocky ground.
The silence that fell over the guild’s mental link was absolute and terrifying.
On Lohan and Lisa’s menus, the death notifications glowed dark red, indicating that Richard and VonB had been permanently eliminated from the raid.
Alice stopped mid-swing, her fists trembling as she stared at her companion’s remains scattered across the room.
Dylan froze with his spear clenched in his hand, a look of shock on his face mirroring the dread felt by all the survivors.
The Astralis Requiem team, which just minutes earlier had felt invincible and proud, was now frozen in a state of shock.
Even though they had already braced themselves for a loss, when it actually happened, no one knew how to react.
Although they knew this was just a game, witnessing the deaths of friends they had spent days or even weeks with was cruelly painful.
The Tree Guardian, now floating above a web of carnivorous roots, roared in the center of the chamber, exuding a murderous aura that promised the other ten would meet the same fate.
Lohan felt the weight of his and Lisa’s leadership begin to falter.
His biomass was low, Lisa’s Mana was low as well, and two of his best men had been slaughtered before his very eyes.
Their first real dungeon was taking its toll in blood, and the fate of Astralis Requiem now hung by a thread of magical silk amid the chaos of the elite monster’s Stage 2.
Terror threatened to overwhelm the remaining Players, with Justin and Samantha retreating, eyes wide, while Tunder and Palana let their spells falter for a millisecond.
But on Lisa’s back, Lohan’s blue gelatin began to pulsate with a sacred light he had never displayed before, a light charged with the rage and fury that refused to let the sacrifice of his subordinates be in vain.
"DAMN IT, PULL YOURSELVES TOGETHER!! THEY’RE NOT ACTUALLY DEAD, AND DON’T LET THEIR DEATH BE THE CAUSE OF YOUR OWN DEATH! HURRY, RETURN TO YOUR POSITIONS AND DO YOUR BEST TO AVOID THE ATTACK FROM THOSE SHITTY ROOTS, I’M ACTIVATING THE STARRY WEEP NOW!!"
Halon’s scream inside their minds quickly roused the group. Hearing that the Star Cry was about to be activated, they didn’t hesitate to fall back into formation, knowing this would be their last chance.
With this new guild ability activated, either they would manage to kill the boss in the next few minutes, or everyone there would die!