Lohan’s cry was not merely a command to the Players; it was a thunderclap of authority that shattered the fog of dread that had begun to suffocate the Guild’s Players, who were lost and worried they might die as well.
In the center of the chamber, where the air reeked of burnt wood and fresh human blood, Lohan’s blue gelatin transformed.
The golden light of his Sacred Light Core, which had previously been an aura of calm purification, became an aggressive golden flame, pulsing with rage, knowing he would have to give his all in this battle after witnessing the deaths of two comrades.
Lisa, sensing Lohan’s energy behind her, straightened her posture.
Her silver eyes shone with resolve, knowing that Lohan was about to use the resource they had saved as the guild’s last line of defense.
Alice and Dylan, roused by Halon’s roar, gripped their weapons, swallowing their grief and shock, reminding themselves that although the situation was extremely sad and tragic, the two Players hadn’t actually died.
"Do it, Halon!" Lisa transmitted, her voice laden with an imperial coldness. "Let’s wipe that son of a bitch out of existence!"
Lohan didn’t even notice that Lisa was cursing, something completely out of character, and without hesitation, he accessed the guild’s control interface, a privilege held only by the President and Vice President. The very millisecond he confirmed the command, a magnificent, translucent notification appeared before the eyes of all members present in the dungeon, superimposed over the chaos of battle.
[Stellar Lament (Guild Sovereignty Skill)]
[Description: Where the stars rest, they also lament. When activated, this skill summons the glow of shooting stars to orbit the heads of members bound to Astralis Requiem, regardless of their location. For the next 5 minutes, all physical and magical stats, as well as Mana and Vitality regeneration rates, are boosted by 15%. However, the stellar lament comes at a high price: once the effect ends, astral exhaustion causes all members to suffer a 15% penalty to all their abilities for the next 15 minutes. Use only when twilight is the only remaining option.]
Upon activating this skill, the effect was immediate and overwhelming.
The dark ceiling of the cave seemed to open up to an invisible cosmos, and small bluish lights, swift as arrows of light, rained down upon the group.
Above the heads of Alice, Dylan, Dee, and every surviving player, a small shooting star began to orbit subtly, forming a stellar halo that exuded pure magical particles.
However, the greatest spectacle was upon Lisa.
Since Lohan’s main body was anchored to her back, instead of just one, two stellar halos, larger and brighter than those of the others, appeared above Lisa’s head, spinning in opposite directions.
The light they emitted was so intense that the shadows cast by the Boss’s roots were pushed to the edges of the room.
Lohan’s clones also received the 15% bonus, since they were part of Lohan, but there were no stars above the "heads" of these clones.
Lohan felt the surge in power as if his core had been injected with pure adrenaline.
His processing power skyrocketed, allowing him to see the Tree Guardian’s movements much more easily and clearly. The 15% increase in stats and abilities, on a Level 15 Double Mythic that had already absorbed so many traits from other monsters, was a terrifying force.
The Tree Guardian, sensing the strange energy hovering above the heads of those intruders, though he didn’t know exactly what it was, could feel the danger it exuded and the growing weight of the murderous intent they directed at him, so he let out a roar that caused the stalactites on the ceiling to crack.
The Boss was no longer holding back either. He had completely abandoned the passive regeneration provided by the roots in the ground, focusing every drop of his corrupted sap on increasing the density of his wooden whips.
"We only have five minutes, everyone! If he doesn’t go down now, we’ll be the ones to fall next!" Lohan shouted through the mental link as he launched the final offensive.
Lisa wasted no time and shot forward like a meteor.
With the Star Tear buff, the speed of her spectral stride reached a level that the ordinary human eye could no longer process individually.
She practically glided through the Mana-saturated air, leaving trails of white flames that now carried the bluish glow of shooting stars.
She leaped at the monster’s chest, unleashing a flurry of flame-covered kicks that tore colossal chunks from the hardened wood, while Lohan, acting as her biological armor, fired dozens of ice spikes, taking advantage of their proximity to try to restrict the monster’s movement.
With the increase in magical efficiency, each of Lohan’s spikes pierced the Boss’s shell much more easily, injecting poison, Holy Light, and even smaller clones directly into the enemy’s sap ducts.
These three injected elements were working at extremely high intensity inside the monster’s body, digesting and corroding everything they came into contact with, making the most of the buff.
It’s worth noting that Lohan’s digestion rate at this point was over 40,000 biomass per hour, and with the 15% buff, his small clone inside the Boss’s body cut through it like a hot knife through butter.
The support group had also transformed.
Alice, her fists now shrouded in a stellar aura, delivered punches that generated even more intense shockwaves with each impact. Wherever she struck, the monster’s wood cracked as if struck by a powerful sledgehammer.
Dylan led the left flank; his spear glowing with light, he pierced the joints of the roots trying to surround Lisa, ensuring the fox had a clear path.
At this point, the battle had become practically a bloodbath for both sides.
Despite the players’ buffs, the boss attacked with uncontrolled fury; its black wooden whips struck the ground with such force that the chamber’s floor was being ground to dust.
Tunder and Palana, in the rear, felt the 15% mana boost as if they had infinite reserves. They fired off electrical discharges and arcane spheres without a care, preventing the smaller beetles from getting close to the tanks.
However, the Stage 2 Arboral Guardian was still a true boss. Even with the stellar buff, the danger posed by the boss’s attacks hadn’t diminished much.
Dee, the warrior tank, let out a cry of pain when a spiny root pierced his shield, tore through the Slime clone’s defense that was covering him, and ripped through his arm.
Lohan reacted instantly, sending a healing pulse through the clone protecting Dee, but the wound was deep.
Grant, the cleric, worked nonstop, his halo spinning furiously as he channeled healing prayers that were now restoring the players’ health at a much faster rate, but even so, he couldn’t keep up with the pace at which everyone was getting injured.
Lohan realized that time was running out; they had only four minutes left.
The Boss’s vitality was dropping, but the density of its corrupted Mana was compressing, showing that the monster didn’t intend to rely solely on physical attacks.
"LISA, PREPARE THE APOGEE! ALICE, DYLAN, FOCUS ON THE LOWER CORE!" Lohan commanded, as he himself began to expand.
Lohan utilized mass super-expansion, but this time he didn’t just engulf Lisa.
He extended strands of Magical Weaving from his main body, connecting to every member of Astralis Requiem.
He was using the Weaving Mother’s ability to act as a stellar load distributor.
He sucked up excess Mana from the battlefield and pumped it directly into his allies’ cores, pushing their limits to the final stage.
The two halos on Lisa’s head shone with a blinding white light.
The fox sensed Lohan’s injection of power and prepared the attack that would decide the fate of the raid.
She opened her mouth, and instead of an ordinary fireball, she began to compress a sphere of spiritual plasma fused with Lohan’s Holy Light and the stellar energy from the guild’s buff.
The Tree Guardian, sensing the threat, lashed out with all its roots in a desperate pincer movement against the fox.
WOOOOAAAAAHHH!!!
Lohan, from behind Lisa, projected the obsidian shield at maximum density.
The impact of the roots against Lohan produced a sound like metal being crushed.
Lohan felt his membrane being torn and his biomass dropping to critical levels, but he did not back down. He stiffened every cell of his being, acting as the unbreakable barrier that allowed Lisa to finish her channeling.
Time seemed to have frozen during the last sixty seconds of the Star Cry ability.
The air in the Boss chamber was so saturated with stellar energy and corrupted mana that small static sparks danced between the Players and the cave walls.
Lohan felt the weight of the Star Cry in his core; the energy was magnificent, but he could sense astral fatigue beginning to seep into the fringes of his consciousness, a harbinger of the penalty that would soon leave them vulnerable.
"Now or never, everyone! Give it everything you’ve got!" Lohan’s command vibrated through the mental link with absolute urgency.