Nyxfall 7: The Veilbreakers-Chapter 69: Second Try At Grimhorn Den 5
Kai could join them with his sword, but the shamans would become much more annoying and damaging than the Sentinels. They had to persevere. Working together with others—that was not something he could teach his teammates in a few words. He himself had struggled to do that for the better part of his life in the last timeline.
Kai shot arrow after arrow nonstop. The second all nearby shamans died, Kai changed his focus to the Sentinels—the ones his team was fighting. Xterminate07, along with his guildmate and Jor, usually fought one Sentinel, while Bella, Prince, Mimi, and Sherry handled the second one whenever multiple monsters appeared. Zayden was busy handling the spirit creepers.
Silentmaw, after finishing off the shamans, helped her guild leader finish the Sentinel faster, just as Kai helped Mimi and the others. But still, the skills of the Sentinel—with its body covered in stone plates—made it close to ineffective to hit anything other than its head. The head was much smaller than the rest of its body, and the intelligence of the monster was weirdly high—it even covered that one weak spot by dodging or simply blocking the arrows with its giant claws.
The Sentinel, when it wasn’t busy using its enormous hands with sharp claws to attack, stomped the ground with a powerful strike, dealing AoE damage. It was a slow wave and could be easily dodged, but it messed up the players’ formation, forcing them to close the distance again after each dodge. Its other attack was a sweeping horn strike in a cone that knocked back enemies. And then there was the roar of the beast, which boosted the creepers’ and shamans’ defense.
For every three arrows Kai shot, the Sentinel only took damage from one that hit its head—and even that was a measly 100 damage or less.
They somehow dealt with the first wave since everyone had high HP. Then the second wave came, and they started struggling—they couldn’t keep their HP up before the third one arrived. The first to die was Mimi. She was the only player in the frontline, which probably wasn’t the best role for her. She didn’t have any ranged attacks, though—maybe he should suggest she try a bow later.
Bella could feel something was off about their attacks, but being a new player, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She tried to make everyone work together, giving out orders she thought were right, since her damage seemed to be doing most of the work. But it wouldn’t work for everyone. The chaos of the fight was so hectic, everything happening at once, that Kai had no time to tell anyone what to do. Any extra moment he had, he used to shoot more arrows to make the frontline players’ jobs easier.
Only when Xterminate07 helped them after finishing their own Sentinel did they manage to kill it each time. Xterminate07 and his guildmate weren’t perfect either—Jor tried his best to keep up with them—but they couldn’t kill their Sentinel early every time.
Zayden, overwhelmed by the spirit creepers, was fighting alone and died next. Bella and Prince’s group, now one player short, had to handle the Sentinel and also look out for the creepers. Kai and Silentmaw switched their targets to the creepers to kill them off before returning to the Sentinels, but that made fighting each wave even harder.
After each wave, they had lower and lower health. At last, Prince died trying to parry the Sentinel with her purple arm-sword—but she missed slightly, and the huge hand landed straight on her face, shattering her into red particles. Kai quickly shot an arrow and got beside Bella. He had been trying to do so for a while, but the spirit creepers were too many. He lost Prince, but by switching to his sword and slashing alongside Bella, he at least saved her.
Still not getting enough support from Silentmaw or even Kai himself, Xterminate07’s group started to struggle. Jor took an attack and tried to heal mid-battle, but the distraction messed up the whole rhythm—killing Jor completely, as Xterminate07 and his guildmate dodged the heavy stomp and Jor, too busy healing, failed to do so.
With Kai and even Silentmaw coming to the frontline, they somehow killed the Sentinels—but the next wave was only a few meters away. Kai, decisively, shot an arrow high, landing behind the Sentinels and shamans. Everyone understood his intentions and quickly grabbed onto him as he used Godstep, and they skipped the monsters. They started running as the monsters followed behind them.
Another wave was waiting ahead and got triggered upon seeing them approach. Kai, however, shot another arrow and skipped those monsters too. They had already crossed about one-third of the way through by fighting—they could run the rest. Kai used his skill whenever the monsters cornered them. His MP didn’t last for long, though, and sometimes they had to fight their way through.
With no formation or plan, launching attacks as best fit their individual skills, they fought without any cohesion and lost the guy who had the demon transformation skill. Silentmaw had a hard time fighting in close quarters, being an archer, but she still used a dagger to deal as much damage as she could. Unfortunately, she didn’t last long either. And neither did Sherry—they couldn’t protect her all the time.
When the massive wooden gate of the final boss appeared, only Kai, Bella, and Xterminate07 had survived. They couldn’t possibly stop to heal, as over twenty Sentinels were charging after them at a bit of a distance. Without a teleportation skill, Kai doubted anyone could manage to escape even two or three waves, with the shamans blowing everything up every few seconds using their red magic circles.
So, without any hesitation, Kai grabbed the final boss’s door and opened it—entering inside. There was no way they could win this, but any information on the final boss of this dungeon—one no one had even seen before—would be welcomed with open arms.
