Now that the focus of the Manticore was fully on Astaroth, it set a strange ballet into motion. The monster chased Astaroth around, as he dipped and dodged as much as possible, delivering occasional strikes of his own.
With this method of fighting, Astaroth's aggro should never be able to stay first, but since he was defying the beast's supremacy, it stayed fully focused on him.
This would go on for five minutes, lasting the full transformation of Astaroth, with their overall damage being temporarily reduced. But they met the effect Phoenix wanted to attain.
Gulnur went back to full health slowly, with the help of his natural health regeneration and a minor spell from I'die. He also cast the same spell on Astaroth, to help with his own health regen.
With his passive skill already doing most of the heavy lifting, Astaroth dodging as many hits as he could, and blocking the rest with his small shield, his health never went into a dangerous range.
Seeing his melding timer was almost out, Astaroth yelled out.
"Switch!"
And with a nod, Gulnur taunted the Manticore back, smacking his hammer on his shield. The same wave of transparent energy boomed out, with the shield at its center.
The Manticore roared, its instincts telling it to keep hitting the wolf-like man in front of it, but its mind locked onto Gulnur, anyway. And with the swap in targets. Astaroth's melding wore off.
As his hair went back to its black colour, and the fur disappeared from his body, Astaroth grinned manically. It was time for him to hit back for real.
He had been running around the whole cave, canvassing it as he went. It was all hoping to take advantage of his surroundings in the fight.
There were some stalagmites strewn around sparsely that he could use to cover from the spikes that the Manticore occasionally shot out from its tail.
They had learnt, at I'die's expense, that the spikes applied poison when they had a direct hit. He had been concentrating on a spell and couldn't dodge one entirely, as it nicked his arm.
The poison's damage was not incredibly high, but the duration lasted quite long, and the number over the icon left interpretation that it could stack.
So after cleansing himself from the poison and healing himself, he had called it out to the others, making sure they didn't let themselves get hit by those.
Healing was already difficult with the insane damage numbers the Manticore was dealing, poisoned allies would make it exponentially worse.
Another thing that Astaroth noticed from canvassing this cavern was that there was a side of the cavern that had a slight incline to it. One that could be used as a ramp of sorts.
And he formed a plan for it.
"Gulnur! Turn the beasts towards the western wall!" He shouted.
Gulnur looked confused at the request for a second, but with a nod from Phoenix, he agreed to it. He ran toward the western wall, keeping the Manticore's attention on him.
He also made sure to always keep his shield in the monster's direction, giving him at least some cover, if it were to attack while he wasn't looking.
After reaching his destination, Gulnur turned back to face the Manticore. Just in time too, as the beast unleashed another series of strikes with its paws, in a cross-motion.
Gulnur instantly activated a high defence skill, mitigating most of the damage from the hit, but was still knocked backwards from the force of the blow.
He flew backwards for a short distance before a soft wind caught his body and brought his feet back to the ground. He nodded in I'die's direction, knowing it was his doing.
The air cushion had caught him before he smacked into a wall again, saving him from another massive dose of damage, but also saving him from the disorientation of the blow.
Gulnur immediately lowered his stance again, guarding against the incoming tail stabs of the manticore. He knocked them away with his tower shield, parrying the blows entirely.
They had learned that parrying blows negated the damage completely, and those that were in melee with the beast had used it more and more. The more damage they could negate, the better their fighting chances.
Gulnur was wondering what Astaroth was doing, since he hadn't been hitting the Manticore since he asked him to turn the darn thing. He could see Astaroth on the map, circling the cave wall, but couldn't see him with his eyes.
That's when Astaroth's dot on the map abruptly lunged from the wall to the manticore. Athena was the first one to see what Astaroth was doing and understood his intention.
She swiftly nocked another arrow on her bow and aimed for the monster's eyes. Immediately after, they heard a loud clunk in the cavern, followed by a roar and a dull thud.
Astaroth had jumped from his improvised ramp and violently swung his war axe at the Manticore's tail, just before the spiked tip, severing it from the beast, rendering its ranged attacks impossible.
The Manticore had roared in pain, its head lifting to the ceiling. That is when Athena loosed her arrow.
The arrow was accompanied by swirling winds, as it spun on itself rapidly and penetrated the beast's now-exposed throat.
With a gurgle, the roar was interrupted, as a massive damage number appeared before everyone's eyes.
*3'800!!*
*-6'188!!*
The damage number from that alone was astounding. The double exclamation points meant she and Astaroth had both landed super critical hits.
Astaroth's hit alone had almost taken a full percent off the Manticore's health, and that was without counting the other insane damage Athena had done simultaneously.
The beast wanted to cry out in rage, but all that came out were wet gurgles, as it now had a gaping hole in its throat. An icon with blood drops appeared under its health bar.
It was now bleeding, and from the looks of it, it was a severe bleed, as it started losing one percent health per second. No one in their party knew how long it would last, but they didn't care.
pαпdα-ňᴏνêι·сóМ This was their time to pile the pain. They all started using their high cooldown, high damage skills, bursting damage on the Manticore as much as they could.
Astaroth noticed that the penalty timer had been flashing for a while. But nothing was happening yet. It all changed a few minutes later, though.
And now, they all looked astounded.
'What have we done?!' They all thought.
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