Avilien

Impossible

Glowing crimson red, the sword fell upon Lance's group with a heavy crunch and the sound of metal striking metal echoed. Luke had closed his eyes and upon opening them, he saw the word "parried" flash before him and Lance stood up with his shield raised. In a fraction of a second, he's moved to defend the group and had for the first time successfully mastered the technique Luke had suggested. He risked it all, including his life, to block the thunderous blow. It could have gone straight through the shield and straight through him.

Nargl staggered backward as his weapon bounced off the shield and flew into the air. It landed on the ground and dug deep into the tarmac, leaving him wide open and defenceless. Anna, Brit, Cissy, and Nagori wasted little time in seizing the opportunity Lance created as he breathed heavily. They attacked Nargl with everything they had from a wide array of attacks and brutal abilities.

Nagori spammed poison blasts at Nargl's exposed head and at his mouth, turning his white jagged teeth green and his breath purple as he panted. The parried attack caused him to be immobilised for fifteen seconds. The poison would affect him for a minute and did three-hundred damage every second. Every time Nagori re-cast the ability, it refreshed. Luke saw it as a waste of mana as she continually re-cast it. She could have used her mana much more efficiently and re-cast the damage over time—or DOT—as the minute came close to expiring.

Out of the entire group, she was the only one able to do damage to Nargl, as his armour prevented the others getting to his flesh and stone skin. Due to his goliath size, the other group members could only attack his feet and they had decided upon attacking his left foot. With all their efforts and strikes, they managed to break through clumps of armour as Nargl recovered and reached for his weapon. His rage bar had been reset to zero and now Luke understood the fight as Nargl charged up Downward Rust.

"All of you spread out now!" he shouted, "Let Lance take the bosses aggro. Get close to Nargl and chip at his armour to expose the skin underneath where you can do damage. Nagori, fall further back but within healing and attack range. Don't spam the poison blasts and use it when the DOT is about to fall off," shouted Luke. He shouted commands that fast and that loud, his chest thumping heavily. Commands which the group listened to.

In relative terms, Nargl was an easy boss. Predictable and weak with only three attacks. Luke didn't know if the others had figured it out yet, but he was willing to bet he was right. So far, Nargl had three attacks and all of them had timers. Two of them he would use to build up his rage bar, and when his rage bar hit one hundred, he could use his third attack. The third attack, when parried, left him vulnerable for fifteen seconds.

Unable to tell whether Nargl was weaker because he had modified himself to have "fun" with the group on his own terms or that he was just weak, Luke had the sense and feeling they could win against him. A level-fifteen invasion boss was going to be felled before they entered Avilien.

Lance listened to Luke and taking on Nargl, he positioned himself to the other side of the street near the destroyed set of traffic lights. Doing so caused Nargl to turn his back towards the rest of the group and show off the graveyard setting that clung to his shoulders and upper torso. Anna, Cissy, and Brit saw this as a chance to get in close and continue hacking at the foot they had started on. Doing so caused large red critical-strike numbers to appear, indicating Nargl was weak from behind. His armour also shredded quicker and when it clumped off onto the ground, the group could do some real damage.

Charging up his second attack, Nargl directed the roar at Lance only, allowing the others to continue bashing down his giant health bar. Before he could even hit the Punishing Strike Ultimate, he flopped forward onto all fours, dropping his sword as his health stopped at thirty-five thousand. An immune symbol appeared as Brit tried to strike him again. Nargl was now immune to physical attacks.